The State of the Union

I watched President Obama's press conference with dismay last night. His response to a question about the trillions planned to be spent was that he inherited a large deficit from Bush. That was a somewhat accurate statement,but he forgot to mention Congress, both parties included. I cannot believe that one can solve a deficit problem with massive new spending. Blaming Bush for what the new administration is undertaking is incredulous.



When a business borrows money, it is investing in projects that will pay the cost of the borrowed amount as well as the principal. It weighs the risks and rewards and then usually goes to a bank who takes a second look at the purpose and signs off. Most often, the bank has the customer sign a document that insures the monies are properly spent and lays out a method of repayment.



If the above concept makes sense, then the spending that is on going and proposed should be prudent, have a positive cost benefit outcome, and safeguards to make sure the money is spent properly.



Lets review what has happened in the past 6 months spanning 2 administrations. The original "bailout" money had few safeguards or stipulations. I will give the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt, because, at the time, we were facing the risk of total financial meltdown. With that in mind, they agreed to only spend half and let Congress and the new Admin come up with a follow up plan that was supposed to be more specific and include more safeguards to insure compliance.



Even before the AIG got additional monies, there were complaints about sponsoring golf tournaments, baseball stadiums, etc. Many pundits are certain that in conference, the bonus exclusions were pulled from the document by the White House. President Obama was a recipient of PAC money from AIG while a Senator. What happened to this "new beginning and new way of doing business in Washington."



In the paper this morning, GAO reported that billions were lent to non existant or non qualified businesses over the past few years. SBA is going to be a recipient of stimulus dollars. In the new propsal, Detroit schools are going to get a new slug of money to improve their schools. The Detroit school system has had numerous issues with missing or misspent monies. Much of the state funds have few strings attached and there are new articles almost daily regarding some of the follies or questionable spending the states are going to undertake.



What we have hear is: To the tax paying public of the U.S.A., " We have a problem. We are going to throw a lot of money at it as well as simultaneously launch aggressive programs to change healthcare and energy consumption as we know it. Don't worry that we are going to double the deficit in around 3 to 5 years. Down the road the economy is going to grow at such a rate, we will actually bring down the deficit. Oh, by the way, the healthcare plan and the energy plan are going to be so successful, they will also cause the deficit to go down."



Wow, they are going to do all that yet offer NO SOLUTION to the Social Security deficit that is here now, and that threatens to undermine all citizens who are forced to be in this governement sanctioned Ponzi scheme. This doesn't give me a lot of confidence in them solving healthcare or energy consumption.

The irony is that these persons who are representing us in Washington as well as the bureaucrats have a gold plated benefits plan for retirement and healthcare. Most figure they will out of office or retiredwhen the problems come to roost. If they are still around, they will just blame the other party as the reason for the problem. I wonder how long they can blame Bush for all the problems in Washington.



The new argument is that the Republicans have no alternative. They slapped their plan together rather hastily. In fact, the stimulus package was so important that they didn't have time to let anyone look at it. What happened to transparency. Oh, it was too important and needed to be done NOW so we skipped the review process. Doesn't that remind you of the time that one of your children kept dogging you about wanting to do this or that or needing some purchase or they would just die. Most parents use patience and good sense to know that their "child" will eventually move on. Somebody in Washington has to be the parent.

Our Vanishing Coast

Just the other day, I was visiting with Milton Kidd, a lifelong friend, fraternity brother, couzan, and my eye doctor. We were discussing the repairs to his mother's house on Bayou Teche across from downtown Franklin, LA. She wants to move back and Milton commented that is he is fixing it up witht the idea that it will flood everytime a hurricane comes their way. I have been totally depressed with our situation in Houma and know that my friends and neighbors in Lafourche, St. Charles, Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemine,and St. Tammany are just as vulnerable. I would have never guessed that Franklin would be. The rest of the country, as I hear it, says, "well, we have given ya'll a bunch of money after Katrina and that should be enough. They don't get it that the Corp cut the wetlands off when they levied the Mississippi. Worse, they allowed inferior levees to be built so unsuspecting people built on slabs inside the levee systems. Lower Lafourche basks in pride that they have built a levee system and consequently many people have built on slabs inside the levee system. This is a ninth ward event that will happen. When people want to try a leaky levee system that has a chance of feeding the wetlands, they want to study it to death. Government tries to consider all possibilities and never can get it to work. When business innovates or tries a new idea, they go ahead and adjust as they see how it performs. IF THE LEAKY LEVEES DO NOT LEAK ENOUGH TO FEED THE MARSH--MAKE MORE LEAKS BUT BUILD THE DAMN LEVEE NOW. The Corps approach will be such that they will still be studying the problem when New Orleans is a quasi island surrounded by elevated highways connecting it to mainland Louisiana around Gonzales or Baton Rouge. WE NEED THE RIVER TO FLOW. Nourish our wetlands, rebuild our barrier islands. If we must, let us elevate our homes but GET THE RIVER BACK. We talk about genocide in Africa, in the Balkans, etc. The federal government is en effect causing the genocide of the cajun culture and the rest of us who happened to end up down here to provide energy and seafood for the rest of the country. It is a sad commentary to write this piece because it is hard to fathom that your own country does not care enough to say, we caused the problem, we must fix the problem. Maybe we have to say: "Hey you are going to lose blue crabs, white shrimp, brown shrimp, brown pelicans, egrets, tupelo gums, and bald cypress. Maybe then, just maybe, they will wake up and realize what is at stake here. There was a wonderful book written by a gay man about how AIDS started and how everyone ignored the problem unitl it was too late. I think it was called, And the Beat Goes On. Great book, great movie. They will have ti import actors to play the Cajuns and have to shoot in Savannah or Charleston to replicate New Orleans when they make the movie, And the Coast Vanished. Too bad, mon amis.

Vanishing BayouCulture

The towns along the bayous of South Louisiana are slowly washing away into the Gulf of Mexico. After the great flood of 1927, (read Rising Tide), the Corps of Engineers sealed off the Mississippi from feeding our marshlands and estuaries. As each new hurricane chews up more of our lands, we are at a critical point of no return. Bayou Farewell tells the story of the vanishing landscape of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous highlights the landscape in St. Bernard during and after Katrina. Ken Wells, the author, of The Good Pirates, speaks in the Times Picayune today (10/9/08) of the risks of losing one of America's most unique cultures. He asks that the youth of South Louisiana to shed their apathy and join in the fight. I only wish that people outside our area would listen to the calls to action. I would hate to see South Louisiana succumb to indifference.