WOW, THAT WAS QUICK!

The polls in Mississippi close at 7 p.m. The Hattiesburg American ran this headline on their website:

"8:35 p.m.: Barbour wins re-election"
















That's some mighty quick vote-counting.

Pandering

But whatever...there was never any doubt that Barbour would win. Friends of mine complained that Eaves was simply pandering with his whole "bring prayer back into schools" gambit. I saw many forum posts echoing that complaint.

To which I say, yeah, okay. It was pandering. But at least it was pandering to the people, which is the complete opposite of what Barbour did. He pandered to the corporatocracy, constantly espousing what a great thing tort "reform" has been for the state.

So given the choice between a millionaire attorney that panders to the people and a millionaire lobbyist that panders to the corporations, the brilliant people of Mississippi chose the interests of corporations over themselves. Let us never again wonder why Mississippi is last or near it on lists of good things and first or near it on lists of bad things.

Race, Big Fat Haley, and Big Fat Cats (and little skinny, hungry, poor ones)

For fuck's sake, let me give an example of how fucked up things are here. This may sound made up, but I swear it's true. One of my wife's co-worker's has "cut off" her daughter because she's dating a black guy. I should point out that the daughter and her parents are white, of course. Is this frigging 2007 or 1957? Or 1927?

And this same co-worker has proudly announced a total submission to the Republican Party, forsaking all others. Don'tcha think Haley "Keep The Flag, Change The Governor" Barbour-y Pirate knows that? I mean, he knows that there are a lot of people who swear allegiance to the Republican party that don't like black people. Or at least don't like interracial couples--same diff.

So it's really easy for Whaley and others like him to lead people to their own destruction economically by doing some subtle (or not-so-subtle) race-baiting, i.e., "keep the flag, change the governor." That was a slogan from the 2003 election, but no matter--no one's forgotten it, especially not the people who support such a statement.

So Barbour can push tort deform on the state, stripping average people of their right to sue for damages. He can kick people off Medicaid. He can refuse to raise the tax on cigarettes despite overwhelming support for such a measure. And so forth and so on, ad astra, ad infinitum.

All because of a bunch of creeps who don't like black people.

Well what can you say, really, except that unfortunately it has been ever thus. Oh, and Nazi punks--FUCK OFF!

ANYBODY ELSE GET THIS PATHETIC BARBOUR PROPAGANDA?













Haley must not have worked too hard to save "our" military bases. Naval Station Pascagoula was closed on Barbour's watch. The base officially closed November 15, 2006.

Of course, what would Republican propaganda be without the ol' ellipsis gambit. One Barbour quote on the mailer is printed this way:

"...to take the lead role, we'll relish it and take it on with dogged determination." Clarion-Ledger 1/19/04

Now, Barbour said this not quite a week after his inauguration (on January 13, 2004). Well he didn't quite say it like that. Here's the full quote, according to the Clarion-Ledger:

"If the Legislature sees fit for us to take the lead role, we'll relish it and take it on with dogged determination," Barbour said last week.

See anything different in the two quotes? Barbour acknowledges that saving "our" military bases is not something he can do by himself--he must work with the legislature. So apparently Barbour, unlike Dumbya, realizes he's not "The Decider."

So Barbour not only is "weak" according to Republican principles, he couldn't save Naval Station Pascagoula. Yet he's trying to turn this weakness into a strength, another classic Rove-ian Republican gambit.

He seems to think that a picture of himself hauling his fat ass onto a military Jeep in front of a few hundred assembled soldiers will make the public forget that we actually lost a military base--and the jobs that go along with it--during his time in office.

Unfortunately, he's probably right...

Ever heard of Vieques?

I had not, until I got this mailer from Whaley. I'll let Wikipedia give us the background:

From 1941 to May 1, 2003, the United States used Vieques, Puerto Rico, for naval training and testing. Some current studies show drastic increases in health problems which may or may not be related to toxic materials left on Vieques from the Navy’s occupation. The people of Vieques demand the U.S. clean up the toxic materials they left behind; but the Navy argues that residents of Vieques have not been negatively affected by the 60-year occupation, and that data showing high cancer rates, high infant mortality, vibroacoustic disease, and radiation contamination is misguided [1]. Whether or not the U.S. should be forced to further clean up the island still remains an issue.

Sounds like pretty nasty business, and unfortunately, pretty standard operating procedure.

Here's how the Barbour campaign frames the same facts surrounding Eaves' involvement in Vieques:













Haley's mailer has had the complete opposite effect on me of what he surely intended. I learned that John Arthur Eaves stands up for the little guy against the military-industrial complex. That probably means that Eaves will stand up for the little guy in Mississippi, which is exactly the opposite of what Whaley and his corporate, lobbyist buddies want.

Read what Eaves had to say about Vieques:

“Simply put,” adds Eaves, “everything that our military has used—with the exception of the nuclear bomb—has been first tested on Vieques.”

A researcher quoted in the same article describes the horrors visited upon Vieques this way:

“They started bombing the island in 1941, so the weapons they’ve used have evolved over time,” says Browning. “They’ve used everything from [small] bombs—50 pounds to 100 pounds—up to 3,000 and 5,000-pound bombs. Just the sheer size of the bombs would do damage to the island and shake it and damage the structure of the house and cause a lot of nervous problems in the children.” He compares the effects of the largest bombs to earthquakes.

From the 1950s through the 70s, Browning says, Vieques was also the main chemical weapons testing ground.

“We know by the navy’s admission that they’ve used depleted uranium here. They’ve used napalm. They’ve done all kinds of electronic and radiological testing. They’ve have dispersed chemical sprays [and] defoliants, possibly Agent Orange. This island for 60-plus years has been in a state of war.”

Puerto Ricans are Americans!

Now keep in mind that Puerto Ricans are American citizens. So Barbour is trying to take Eaves to task for defending American citizens! Is there anything more outrageous? Why should Barbour try to use Eaves' defense of American citizens against him?

Clearly, it's because Barbour doesn't want American citizens to be defended. He wants them to be servile, sick, and poor. Do us all a favor and vote his fat ass out of office. Please--for the sake of all Mississippians, who, after all--are also American citizens.

THE "DISADVANTAGED MINORITY" ROSEMARY BARBOUR...I MEAN, RAMIREZ...IS NEITHER

So my local paper has been following a story on the FBI investigation into Alcatec, a company owned by the wife of one of Haley Barbour's nephews and they had this update today:

"Alcatec began in 2000 as a laundry service for students at the University of Mississippi. In 2004, it was awarded two General Services Administration (GSA) contracts - totaling $675,750 - to provide and maintain washers, dryers and showers at Camp Shelby.

After Hurricane Katrina, Barbour was awarded another set of GSA contracts, worth $6.4 million - much of it no-bid - to take her shower services to the Coast.

Alcatec qualified as a minority-owned firm during the bid process. Barbour, an American citizen and active in Republican politics, was born in Guatemala. She said she used her maiden name, Ramirez, when she made the bids, so that federal officials would not know of her family ties."

Actually, that's not an update, it's the background--but it's brand new to me, as I haven't been following the story at all. I just found that last paragraph oddly interesting--that she would admit using her maiden name instead of her presumably legal name on an application for a federal contract. Isn't that misrepresentation of some sort? Or falsifying documents?

She sure doesn't look like a minority in the one picture I've seen of her.




















And for a poor, humble Guatemalan girl, she was able to afford some pretty top-notch schooling--she graduated from Westover, a private girl's school in Connecticut, and then from Goucher, a private college in Maryland. Seems to me she wanted to (and did) pass for mestizo when she is more likely a peninsular or criollo...I mean, sometimes being rich and well-connected just isn't enough to get the contract...

Although this New York Times story makes note of how well Mrs. Barbour/Ramirez/Barbour's? company was doing with the federal contracts after Katrina:

"PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss., Dec. 6 - Rosemary Barbour happens to be married to a nephew of Mississippi's governor, Haley Barbour. Since the Reagan administration, when Mrs. Barbour worked as a White House volunteer as a college student, she has been active in the Republican Party.

She also happens to be one of the biggest Mississippi-based winners of federal contracts for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.

To some contract watchdogs, this could be an example of how the federal government responsibly reached out to give a piece of the billions of dollars in federal hurricane-recovery work to a small Mississippi-based company owned by a Latina. Mrs. Barbour, 39, who was born in Guatemala but now lives in Jackson, Miss., is certified by the United States Small Business Administration as a disadvantaged small-business owner."

Say what?! When a "disadvantaged minority" is neither

How can a graduate of Westover and Goucher who worked in the Bush 41 administration and married into a powerful political family at age 24 be legitimately certified as "disadvantaged?" Even if she was born in Guatemala?

The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that her story about using her maiden name might be just that--a story, to try to throw us rubes off the nepotism/cronyism trail. I'm sure she probably is registered with the SBA as a disadvantaged minority and actually did fill out the paperwork with her maiden name, but that's likely only because one of Haley's or her own old Washington buddies or friends of friends helped her cook up that cover story...when they found out that she was born in Guatemala and her maiden name is Ramirez, a Latina/minority/disadvantaged-sounding name if there ever was one...

But this seems like an abuse of "disadvantaged minority" status by both Barbour/Ramirez and the SBA. Because the "disadvantaged minority" Rosemary Barbour is neither...

MISSISSIPPI GAS VS. CIGARETTE TAX

My local paper printed a great column today regarding the debate going on over raising cigarette taxes here in Mississippi:

Therefore, the priority of Mississippi government - Gov. Haley Barbour the lead dog and his lapdogs in the state Senate chief among them - is that we keep the 4-out-of-4 Mississippians who must purchase gasoline to get to work, school and church paying within 7 percent of the national average gasoline tax so that we can protect the apparent divine right of the 1-in-4 Mississippians who smoke to pay 72 percent less in tobacco taxes than other Americans.

If Mississippi's gasoline excise tax rate was equalized with the state's cigarette excise tax rate at 72 percent less than the national average, this state's gasoline excise tax rate would drop from the current 18.4 cents a gallon to 3.56 cents per gallon - or a drop of almost 15 cents per gallon at the pumps.

If there is any logic or fiscal responsibility a state artificially keeping cigarette taxes almost 10 times lower than gasoline taxes, it's lost on this writer.

I wrote a post about it on the Hattiesburg American forum, which I reproduce below.

GAYS, TAXES, MINIMUM WAGE, and the "great" LOTT & COCHRAN

Of course Salter's got a great point. The "anti-tax" sentiment of the people that run this state has no rational defense or basis in reality. It's simply a ploy to seem "fiscally conservative" which is supposed to translate in voter's minds to "I hate gays and love Jesus."

Meanwhile, large parts of the public convince themselves that as long as gays can't get married, somehow this country is still great and fair even though there are all types of the kinds of things Salter's talking about going on that are not common knowledge.

Like the fact that recently, our great Senators Lott and Cochran joioned 26 other "pro-family" Republicans and voted in favor of an amendment to the minimum wage bill passed by the House that would have effectively cancelled the minimum wage.


Did the Hattiesburg American write about that? If they did, I didn't read it.
Seems like a pretty big story to me when the state with the LOWEST median household income, LOWEST median family income, and the LARGEST percentage of people below the poverty level has senators who claim to be "pro-family" and yet vote for an amendment to kill the minimum wage despite the fact that they know the amendment has no chance of passing!


Lott and Cochran wanted to put themselves on the record as being in favor of big business, not in favor of the little guy. Just like Barbour. Please, let's not continue to fool ourselves--these guys are no good for this state.