Mississippi

John McCain is getting his ass to Grand Ole after all. Tonight's debate is on as scheduled. After all, this little stunt of his was a huge mistake.

Obama better wipe the floor with this ass rag.

I have already discussed at some length the dismal and DELIBERATE Republican failures to maintain America's infrastructure. The Republican Party has a stated policy of "Drowning American in a Bathtub," essentially reducing government to nothing. This is how Republican guru Grover Norquist put it:

"Cutting the government in half in one generation is both an ambitious and reasonable goal," Norquist stated in May 2000. "If we work hard we will accomplish this and more by 2025. Then the conservative movement can set a new goal. I have a recommendation: To cut government in half again by 2050"

We saw the direct and tragic result of that Republican "Drown America" policy in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, in closed and collapsed bridges in Minnesota, and now...floods in Iowa this month (June 7th).

Photo Credit : Lost Albatross @ Flickr.com

Obama may have won Mississippi but I have a feeling the junior senator from New York may have enjoyed seeing most of her supporters wouldn't vote for the Senator of Illinois. CNN has the 411 on exit polls :

Of those who voted for Obama, 42 percent said they would be satisfied if Clinton was the nominee, according to the exit polls.

Among Clinton voters, only 16 percent said they would be satisfied if Obama wins the party's top spot.

The exit polls are based on surveys of 925 voters in Mississippi's Democratic primary.

What's interesting to me is that even with a third of the white vote, Obama beat her. Let's look at the actual exit poll numbers to see how it happened.

73% of white voters went to Clinton whereas 90% of African Americans went to Obama. When asked about the candidates' race, Obama's blackness was important to 62% of respondents. Of course, that number could be interpreted as important to vote for Obama or important to vote against him. Either way, race was a big decider in this state.

If progressives want a solid voice in American politics they sure as hell better vote, vote carefully and, ideally, get out the vote for the best candidates. And off-year, low voter turnout elections like what is coming up TUESDAY NOVEMBER 6TH are the best chances for progressives to affect the outcome. So from now until Tuesday, get busy to prove progressives are a force in American politics.

Some time ago I wrote about a progressive, Gary Anderson, running for Mississippi state insurance commissioner against an incumbent who favored insurance companies over average Americans. This left many victims of Katrina without recourse if their insurance companies tried to refuse to pay out what the victims deserved. My friend from Mississippi who knows many Katrina victims sent me this report:

Most of the people who DID receive money from the insurance companies received only a fraction of what it would cost to replace what they lost. There was the on going battle of wind vs water issue. That even Trent Lott had to deal with. He sued state farm and they settle out of court kind of quietly... However, when Bush visited the coast he promised Trent that he would rebuild his waterfront house. I think it would be interesting to look into what really happened in that case. No one I talked to was happy with the insurance settlements that they received. Now premiums are so high that many people can only afford the basic coverage. Insurance companies were boasting at how much money the gained last year, mainly because they didn't pay the proper amount of money to the people who lost their homes in the disaster. Also, many people have not had the money to fix or rebuild their house and today is the 2 year anniversary.

Some time ago I wrote about a progressive, Gary Anderson, running for Mississippi state insurance commissioner against an incumbent who favored insurance companies over average Americans. This left many victims of Katrina without recourse if their insurance companies tried to refuse to pay out what the victims deserved. My friend from Mississippi, who knows many Katrina victims, sent me this report on the 2nd anniversary of Katrina's landfall:

Most of the people who DID receive money from the insurance companies received only a fraction of what it would cost to replace what they lost. There was the on going battle of wind vs water issue. That even Trent Lott had to deal with. He sued state farm and they settle out of court kind of quietly... However, when Bush visited the coast he promised Trent that he would rebuild his waterfront house. I think it would be interesting to look into what really happened in that case. No one I talked to was happy with the insurance settlements that they received. Now premiums are so high that many people can only afford the basic coverage. Insurance companies were boasting at how much money they gained last year, mainly because they didn't pay the proper amount of money to the people who lost their homes in the disaster. Also, many people have not had the money to fix or rebuild their house and today is the 2 year anniversary.

Bush and the current Mississippi Insurance Commissioner are trying to tell America that all is well with the victims of hurricane Katrina...our wonderful insurance companies have taken care of all that, right?

Wrong. Most victims of Katrina have still received little help and Insurance Companies are doing their best to keep from paying. Their lives can't get back to normal because many still don't have homes. They are losing what little they have left while hotels and casinos are buying land that used to be homes.

Change may be on the way, but we need to help. Last week was the Democratic Party primary for Mississippi Insurance Commissioner. In this primary there were two candidates. One was heavily funded by the insurance companies while the other, Gary Anderson, is pro-consumer and was funded by people like you and me with the help of Democracy for America.

Gary Anderson won the primary. He now goes on to the general election in November. If he wins, he will try to help Katrina victims recover rather than protecting insurance companies.

Here is a statement from Gary Anderson:

Jackson, Mississippi - Democratic Insurance Commissioner Candidate Gary Anderson responded to George Dale's lies today at the State's Capitol Building. Anderson referenced Dale's latest TV ad in which he claims that 99% of all insurance claims have been settled.

"George Dale is either lying or in denial about the percent of Katrina claims settled. Ask Mississippians in the south if 99% of lives are back to normal, ask Mississippians across the state if they feel they have been treated fairly - they will tell you they have not. Dale is making a desperate attempt to link me to different groups but the truth is he knows Gary Anderson is on the side of Mississippi's insurance ratepayers", said Anderson at the press conference.

When Katrina hit, we all watched the Bush Administration celebrate McCain's birthday party, Condaleeza Rice shop for shoes in NYC, and, of course, New Orleans flood in a comlpetely avoidable disaster that happened as a direct result of Republican "Drown Government in a Bathtub" policy.

But what most people missed is that Mississippi got hard hit as well. Back then, one of my coworkers had grown up in Mississippi and her family is still in rural Mississippi. She didn't talk about Katrina much, but once I asked her and the devastation to her family, financially, emotionally and psychologically, had been enormous. And the insurance companies were dicking everyone around, refusing payouts if people had gotten a single cent of help from the government.

Americans died needlessly and the survivors are now being screwed by the same right wing extremist policies that let the disaster happen in the first place.

Democracy for America, one of the more effective progressive organizations around, is eyeing the election for Mississippi Insurance Commissioner to get someone on the ground in Mississippi who might actually HELP people rather than hurt them. From DFA:

The fight to bring health care to every American is not just a national issue. It is a local one too. Governors, state legislators, and insurance commissioners are taking the lead on health care, often making a difference when no one else will.

Many months after Katrina hit America's Gulf Coast, exposing the racist incompetence of the Bush Administration as they left thousands of poor, black American citizens to die, I talked to a former co-worker of mine from Mississippi whose parents lost a great deal in Katrina. She talked of her mother's post-traumatic syndrome and the way inadequate insurance payments were made and inadequate help came from the government and many people simply couldn't afford recovery and so had to sell cheap to real estate developers who were aiming to build luxury hotels. Her story, which I cannot do justice, was a pretty damned good summary of much of what is wrong with America under Bush and the extreme right wing branch of the Republican Party...the one that promised to reduce government until it could be drowned in a bathtub. Seemingly they didn't care that thousands of Americans would drown in the process.

Even as Katrina refugees are being faced with eviction from their trailers by a government that STILL doesn't give a shit about them, one tiny hopeful milestone has been reached...and we can help expand that tiny glimmer of hope. From Habitat for Humanity:

Habitat for Humanity reaches a milestone in the hurricane-recovery effort with the construction of its 500th hurricane-recovery home along the Gulf Coast.

Just months ago, Habitat for Humanity and the Operation Home Delivery program marked the anniversaries of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a commemoration that acknowledged the historic storms’ destruction and looked ahead with hope to continued progress along the Gulf Coast. Now, Habitat has reached a significant construction milestone in that recovery effort: This week, the walls were raised on Habitat’s 500th hurricane-recovery home, just outside Mobile, Ala.