Over the last week, many Louisianans have been watching another part of our country flood. We've been there, as some of y'all might remember. Images like the one to the right are all too familiar to Louisianans ...
Bloggers up and down the MississippiRiver basin have been wondering just when the BSM would come to the realization that all that water has to go somewhere ... called the Mississippi River.
FEMA finally admitted that they are concerned about downriver sites, like Quincy, IL and St. Louis, MO today. That link will bring you to a press release that FEMA sent out highlighting all the things they are doing to get ready to help the folks deal with the flooding. Woulda been nice to see that kinda preparation 3 years ago. Must be something about an election coming up in 5 months, I guess.
I wonder when they'll tell us to start getting ready. The day before, perhaps? Let's not wait for them, Louisiana. Hopefully, the flooding won't be as bad it was in the Upper Midwest when it gets down here, and the Corps will open up the Bonnet Carre Spillway and the Atchafalaya Basin Spillway prior to any flooding, however minimal, occurs. But it doesn't hurt to be prepared. So, if y'all don't have a plan, go to the FEMA Red Cross site to come up with one. Better yet, follow these common sense recommendations from a disaster preparedness/homeland security consultant who diaried over at Daily Kos under the user name Deep Harm:
Plan Ahead
For anyone living along the Mississippi, this is a good time to test the family emergency plan. Don't have one, yet? Then, prepare one now. There's plenty of guidance on the Internet, from FEMA, the Red Cross and others, and I won't duplicate all of it here. However, I would plan to have on hand a week's worth of food and water, not just the three days some sources recommend. Even those not threatened by floodwaters may find their utilities interrupted and shipments to stores may be affected by closed transportation routes.
Make contingency arrangements for shelter for yourselves and your animal friends. Ensure that each household member has a copy of the addresses and telephone numbers for the places where you can meet up if separated. If possible, include one location that is out of state.
If you may need to go to a public shelter, find out where you will go, how to get there, and what you can take along. Very likely, pets will have to stay at a facility designated just for them. Bringing along the pet's favorite food and toy (and any medicine) available will make the temporary separation easier.
If a member of your family is in a local nursing home, hospital or other full-time care facility, ask about the facility's evacuation plans. Knowing that loved ones are safe will make it easier for you to concentrate on other emergency tasks.
Shop Now
Many supplies will disappear when a disaster threat is imminent, so shop now for any items missing from your emergency kit. Buy that battery powered NOAA weather alert radio, lantern and flashlight you know you need. (I like the kind that include a hand-crank, as well.) And, don't forget the batteries! (Tip: get stuff that uses the same-size battery.)
Refill that prescription and the first-aid kit you've been depleting for everyday hurts. Gather critical papers, such as birth certificate, passport, citizenship or residency papers, insurance, photo IDs, deeds, car title, and documentation of local residency. Keep the car's gas tank about 3/4 full, make sure to keep some cash handy, and get a carrier for the cat or dog if you don't already have one.
Pack the Pics
Now's a great time to get out those family photos and take steps to keep them safe. If the photos are digital or you have a scanner, upload them to one of the free Internet photo sharing sites, like Picasa and PhotoBucket. Burn them to a disk that you can put with your critical papers. If that isn't possible, consider taking the pics down to a one-hour photo shop. Make copies of the best and mail the copies to family or friends who live out of the area. Whether or not you are able to take any of these precautions, you will still want to tuck some of your favorite photos next to the critical papers, and
keep them close at hand for the next few days.
Stow It
Some sources recommend plastic tubs, duffle bags, back packs, and other items for storying emergency supplies. But, a plastic cooler with a tight lid may be a better choice, because it will float if somehow it gets away from you. The waterproof, floatable bags designed for use by kayakers are good, too, and are available at many sporting goods stores. Where you stow the critical items depends on where you might be when an evacuation becomes necessary. Two options are the coat closet near the front door or the car trunk (or both).
If your home has an upper story, now would be a good time to move that heirloom bureau and other treasures upstairs until the threat has passed.
Reach Out
If you are disabled, have no transportation at hand for evacuation, or for other reasons cannot make the necessary preparations, now is the time to contact your neighbors, church members, local emergency management agency or social service agency to see what help can be provided. If you know someone who might need help, consider offering it, in case they are shy about asking.
Tune In
Begin following weather updates and listening for alerts on NOAA Weather Radio. If possible, check out NOAA's web page where you will find a map of current flood conditions and the areas where flooding is expected over the next 48 hours. The latter will give you a valuable heads up on what's coming your way. (Note: clicking on the maps will take you to a map with more detail.) [Especially, go to this link provided in the comments by billlaurelMD.)
As you all know, the Daily Kingfish has been blogging about Governor Jindal for over a year now, and Oyster, Jeffrey, Suspect Device, and CenLamar have been doing it far longer than DKF, and, yet it always amazed me that the local Louisiana press always gave their "Bobby" a free ride.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is on a path to finish the job Hurricane Katrina started, destroying the public infrastructure that served, however imperfectly, poor and working-class New Orleans residents.
Jindal, the wunderkind who is being touted as conservatism's rising new star and an at-least-half-serious contender for being John McCain's running mate, has openly embraced some of the most extreme components of the right's agenda, from tax cuts for the wealthy to public funding of private and religious schools. The New Orleans area can least afford to be the staging ground for a bankrupt conservative ideology, but Jindal is zealously leading the state into the void nonetheless, even to the point of criticizing President Bush for not being right-wing enough.
The impact of the ideological decisions coming out of the governor's office for many of the people of New Orleans, as they approach the third anniversary of the hurricane that devastated their city, is that to the extent that the city is being rebuilt, it is not being rebuilt for them. "We're getting the message that he is not open to us," Beth Butler, lead Louisiana organizer for ACORN, told me in an interview this week.
Seriously, click on the FireDogLake link just for the photo of Jindal they've got up there! And the other national news site ... Talking Points Memo:
Bobby Jindal, the 36-year old governor of Louisiana, is being taken seriously by the national press as a candidate on the shortlist to be John McCain's Vice President. No one doubts that he's a political prodigy -- his impressive resume includes stints as president of the state university system, a Congressman and now governor.
But one of Jindal's job titles hasn't gotten much attention -- and it just might prompt a few questions if his Veep candidacy gains steam: Exorcist.
Wow. Baton Rouge's CBS affiliate, WAFB-TV has pulled one of Freedom Watch's ads off the air due to the outright lies they packed into the ad, which ironically, was called "In God We Trust."
The ad alleged that Don Cazayoux wanted to make it easier to allow illegal aliens to get public health care benefits, when the truth is that Cazayoux is against amnesty for illegal immigrants and believes in cracking down on illegal immigrants and the employers that hire them. Freedoms Watch didn't even attempt to back up the claim with text to some statement, news article, or vote, mainly because they knew they were lying and figured they could get away with it.
Doesn't that sound like someone else we know? Perhaps a Republican candidate running for Congress? Named Woody Jenkins?
Send a strong message to these fools on Saturday and elect Don Cazayoux. He's the only candidate in the race with the decency to tell you the truth.
I wasn't going to drop these Blast from the Past articles that I found on Woody from his 1996 Senate race. Then I saw the absolutely despicable ads that are being put out there by Freedoms Watch falsely stating that Don is in favor of illegal aliens having an easier time getting health care; and the NRCC using Barack Obama in an ad designed to ramp up people's fears about a black man being President and Nancy Pelosi being described as a San Francisco Democrat, which is a code word for believing in gay rights. I am sick and tired of being divided by assholes like Freedoms Watch and the NRCC for political gain.
So, for the next few days, in the run-up to the election, we're going to take a look at who they want to elect - Louis "Woody" Jenkins. The articles are no longer online, but are from The Times-Picayune's coverage of the 1996 Senate race. I have saved the articles in .pdf format, and will include a link to them in each post.
Back in 1996, Woody made abolishing the IRS a centerpiece of his Senate campaign. Well, we all know by now that Woody did that because he has been late paying taxes for Great Oaks Broadcasting, the TV company that he owns, 9 times. Not once. NINE. Let that percolate around your head for a minute. 9 times being late. NINE.
And it's not chump change ... the liens placed on Jenkins' company totaled $219,964. That's enough to buy a college education at an Ivy League school these days. Hell, you can pay the tuition for about 8 students at LSU on that. And that's for all four years.
Jenkins tried to explain it all away:
Jenkins said the delays are not unusual for a small business.
"This is a transaction-oriented business," Jenkins said. "Sometimes it's a feast-or-famine type of situation."
But the writer, in a piece of investigative journalism you rarely see from the BSM these days, wrote:
But figures indicate that liens filed by the IRS are relatively rare. Of the more than 1.8 million businesses and individuals who filed tax returns in Louisiana last year, liens were placed in slightly more than half of 1 percent of the cases>
Hmmm ... feast or famine type situations? Woody filed a joint return showing income of $723,549 in 1995. That's truly in the top 1% of wage earners, especially back in 1995. By the way, that $723, 549? That includes $172,200 in rent paid to Jenkins by broadcasting operations headquartered on the grounds of his home.
Perhaps he could have forsaken the rents, and just used that money to pay his taxes. That's what responsible people would do.
I've been posting quite a bit about the LA-06 race, as well as the LA-01 race (although not as much), and many folks have commented to me that they get more analysis and more information on the both races than they get from our local newspapers - The Advocate and the Times-Picayune. I've wondered why this was, and another blogger who goes by the name poligirl posted a great piece riffing off Elizabeth Edwards Op-Ed in the NYTimes today. A commenter over at Daily Kos, I think, hits the nail on the head ... we don't have a mainstream media (MSM). The problem is we have a Corporate Owned Media (COM), or more specifically, a Bull@#$% Media (BSM).
In today's Op-Ed section of The New York Times, Elizabeth Edwards delivers a very well expressed and unfortunately, very necessary, critique of today's press regarding the picking of a president.
Opening with a mention of the media's (lack of serious) coverage of the Pennsylvania primary, Elizabeth hits the nail on the head and calls the press out for what it has become: shallow. She also notes that she is not alone in this observation:
I'm not the only one who noticed this shallow news coverage. A report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy found that during the early months of the 2008 presidential campaign, 63 percent of the campaign stories focused on political strategy while only 15 percent discussed the candidates' ideas and proposals.
The picking of our president is too important a task to approach without good, solid analysis of a candidate's policies and positions.
Over the last week, many Louisianans have been watching another part of our country flood. 
