A.M. in the Morning!: Not Buying Bush's Buyout Plan

Man kayaking with dog on Flagler Avenue by the Salvation Army store: Key West, Florida (2005) The flood waters were the result of Hurricane Wilma. Original photo here.

[Photo is part of an] "exhibit contain[ing] selected images from over 5,000 slides and photographs in the Dale M. McDonald Collection which document art exhibits, businesses, boating events, attractions, community events, landscapes, residences, and street scenes in Key West." Firefighter and photographer Dale McDonald was born in Key West, Florida on October 2, 1949.

by Ana Maria

Yesterday’s news carried story after story—many posted here in my blog—of the continuing drumbeat about Bush’s government apparatus stating that federal buyouts of homes along the Mississippi Gulf Coast is the agenda on the table. Some reported that the plan is now extending into Louisiana. All this unnecessary upset for a regional area that has already been through hell and back.

I loved Congressman Gene Taylor’s response,

"Five words: 'It ain't going to happen,' " says Rep. Gene Taylor (D) of Mississippi, who's in the midst of rebuilding his Bay St. Louis home. "There's no money for it, there's no will for it, and there's no public support for it. That's 0 for 3."

Can it be merely coincidental that Bush’s buyout plan is targeting the hometown of the man spearheading the effort to ensure that whenever an American family or business owner purchases insurance for both wind and flood, that they actually get paid on their wind policy for the damages wind causes? In a word, no.

Libby Garcia, one of the few residents to rebuild . . ., wonders why the Corps is singling out the Gulf Coast for buyouts when so many other coastal areas face the same flood risks.

"Why don't they go buy Key West?" she asked.

Good idea. Let Bush attempt his buyout plan in a state with 25 electoral votes in play for the upcoming presidential election. Key West is a great place to start. Like the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Key West was battered in a 2005 hurricane. Her name was Wilma.

Here’s a YouTube video on Wilma's impact on that fabulous city. Only video, no sound.

Here’s another before and after video of Wilma hitting Key West. The first part is humorous. The second, well, it isn’t.

Notice that there were plenty of winds long before the storm surge came ashore. Be sure to read the text that the creator embedded in the video. Six storms through Key West in two years.

Personally, I think the discussion of the buyouts is politically motivated, political revenge because Gulf Coast Congressman Taylor (D-MS)—a man whom the Bush Administration could count on to vote with the White House on its Iraq and social conservative policies—had demonstrated clearly that his moral values included using the government levers of power to help the American people of every political, economic, and religious stripe and size.

You see, once Taylor’s ground breaking multiple peril insurance legislation is signed into law, the Big Insurance Scam days are O-V-E-R. Immediately, REAL competition for REAL insurance enters the market.

At present, Big Insurance pretends to offer folks wind coverage be it for hurricane or tornado winds. But when those winds whip up a shore and cause substantial damages to or destroys homes and businesses, the gig is up and its time to pay AND to shut up. However, after Katrina, Big Insurance companies talked with each other and all of a sudden we had an industry wide response to Katrina’s wind damages: not gonna pay. Any other industry would be in violation of the U.S. anti-trust laws were their companies to be in cahoots, in collusion with each other. That is the other ground breaking legislation that has been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives with bi-partisan support—eliminating the accidental, though fiscally lethal, loophole that has permitted the insurance industry’s corporations to collude with one another.

George W. Bush has raked in tons o’ cash from the insurance industry that has been unfairly raking in profits at the expense of paying its policyholders on legitimate wind claims.

Vicious political revenge has long been the modus operandi of the Bush Administration. Need proof? Two words: Karl Rove.

I think it is useful to put this buyout propaganda into proper perspective. First, the Democratically-controlled Congress has committed itself time and again to the rebuilding of the Katrina-ravaged area. Last year when she was Majority Leader and then this year as Speaker of the House, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) led a delegation of congressional representatives to the area and held town meetings in Bay St. Louis, Miss., the very town Bush’s Buyout has targeted.

When Bush’s Corps of Engineers first unveiled its proposed buyout plan to the residents of Bay St. Louis, I was in the room and just as ticked off at it as the rest of my townspeople neighbors in the room. If Bush feels that this is such a great idea, he should convince his little brother to sell the buyout plan to Key West. Let’s see how well that goes over. Yeah, right. Like a lead balloon.

"There will be no mandatory buyouts at the federal level," Taylor said in an e-mail. "As you may be aware, the State of Mississippi has previously been given federal funding for Katrina-related recovery efforts. What the state chooses to do with funds already given to it is a decision for state officials. However, I assure you that there will be no federal funds for mandatory buyouts."

I believe Congressman Taylor when I read the news article conveying his statement on this pathetic propaganda veiling that the White House has put out to mess around with Taylor’s home district. Heck, who am I kidding? This is Taylor’s hometown.

So long as the Democrats are in power in Congress, I don’t see this Bush’s BS of a buyout plan going anywhere. But it may not have a thing to do with actually making it happen. It will, however, generate a ton of anxiety, stop development, and pour a ton of unnecessary phone calls into Taylor’s offices. You see, part of the impact of this would be to pull from Taylor and his staff some of the time and energy that they spend on pushing through the Multiple Peril Policy through the U.S. Senate. Part of the impact is to serve as a political warning for others who join the fight for the financial security for America’s families and businesses.

“What political warning?” you ask. How’s this. You mess with our friends—i.e. Bush’s buddies in the insurance industry, and we’ll mess with you . . . at home.

On August 13, 2007, when Speaker Pelosi spoke with the standing room only crowd at Congressman Taylor’s Town Hall Meeting on Insurance Reform that he held at the Our Lady of the Gulf Community Center, she told us that she knew we were a deeply religious people, a deeply patriotic people. Speaker Pelosi is, indeed, accurate in her description of the people in this area—myself included.

Though Bush and his Corps of Engineers are attempting to run over us in a tyrannical-like fashion not experienced by any other community in these United States, we will remain steadfast in our faith that we will prevail, that our congressman will lead the way, and that others will join with us to make life better for us and for the nation. We're not buying Bush's buyout plan. Our county and city officials have come out against it.

"People are just backing off and it's leading to a panic," said [Hancock County Supervisor Jim] Thriffiley. "The buyout situation is worse than a stock market crash for our community."

Bush's cruelty will be remembered. Here in Bay St. Louis specifically, I know us to be a humble group of folks with backbones of steel, hearts of gold, and memories better than any elephant.

“Remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS.”

Mahatma Ghandi