Inane Ramblings

18 September 2005

Something for the locals - Fair Districts in Massachusetts!

Fair Districts for Fair Elections

Understanding the Fair Districts Issue


Why is Common Cause Massachusetts Campaigning for Redistricting Reform?


The legislature has too much power over redistricting, the process of drawing electoral district maps every ten years following the census. Time and time again, those in power draw the lines to protect themselves and to eliminate meaningful electoral competition along the way. The voters, therefore, don't really choose their politicians. The politicians choose us. This is nothing short of democracy on its head. We need to restore democracy to our elections by transferring the power to draw districts from self-interested politicians to an independent commission with strict standards for fairness.


This fall Common Cause is embarking on a large-scale signature collection drive to get the Fair Districts Constitutional Amendment on the ballot. Signing the petition will bring us one step closer to this important reform.


A Slew of Bad Examples in the Bay State

Massachusetts has long been a leading practitioner of drawing funny shaped districts for political gain which is known as "Gerrymandering." After all, it started here almost 200 years ago when Governor Elbridge Gerry pushed to create one district with such wiggly borders that it reminded people of a salamander. At the time, this was seen as such an egregious abuse of power that the people voted Gerry out of office the next year!

But the original gerrymander (as seen on the right) was far from the last in Massachusetts or the rest of the country. The practice continues to this day. Some, like Gerry's, are only one town wide in many places and zigzag from north to south. Others cut towns slice communities into tiny pieces. Today, the ability of legislators to ensure their easy re-election gets more sophisticated with each census. Software has reached the stage where a powerful few can enter the attributes of their ideal districts and get the desired results- down to the last house- in a few seconds. These districts don't always look like salamanders, but they're just as gerrymandered.

Take a look at the Gerrymandering Hall of Fame for some of the worst current districts in Massachusetts.

The 2001 map that the House of Representatives drew for Boston's districts demonstrated racial bias and gerymandered districts. While communities of color had grown to the point that they now represent a majority of the capital's population, the House's plan decreased the number of districts with Boston's minority communities losing one Representative district instead of gaining one. It accomplished this by concentrating minority voters in some districts and grabbing parts of the suburbs and placing them into several others. For this violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a federal 3-judge panel threw the plan out and ordered the House to comply with the law. In the court's words, the House, "sacrificed racial fairness to the voters on the altar of incumbency protection." In the end, the judges also cast serious doubt on then-Speaker Thomas Finneran's assertions that he had nothing to do with it. Now Boston has new districts, the former Speaker is at the center of a federal perjury probe, and five million Massachusetts taxpayer dollars were spent to defending this indefensible plan.

A Major Blow to Competition

When legislators are busy shifting lines to eliminate potential competitors, electoral competition suffers. And the last thing Massachusetts needs is less electoral competition. Our state is almost dead last in the Union in terms of how often voters have more than one choice of candidates to send to Beacon Hill. Once in office, nearly seven in ten House members don't even face a challenge in the next election. No state Senator has been defeated in 4 consecutive election cycles. Combined with the problem of big money in politics, bad redistricting practices are knocking the wind out of healthy democracy. Read more about the loss of competition in Massachusetts elections.


CC/MA Proposes a Better System

Today, several states have successfully adopted reforms that make the process fairer and more transparent. Cutting politics and partisanship away as much as possible, these states have turned to independent redistricting commissions to draw their electoral districts. Iowa's commission draws the district lines and then the legislature votes up or down on the commission's plans. Arizona's commission controls the process from start to finish. While some states have better commissions than others, the results are clear: States that conduct redistricting through independent commissions end up with fewer gerrymanders and greater electoral competition.

Eleven states drew new districts in the last census cycle with a commission rather than the legislature, and in the 2002 elections their average rate of contested districts was over 70 per cent. In the other states, maps drawn by the state legislature generated a paltry 50 per cent competition rate. Here in Massachusetts our competition rate is closer to 30%. Little Iowa, with only five seats in the U.S. House, had more closely contested Congressional elections than California, New York, and Illinois combined!

In Massachusetts, an independent redistricting commission would be guided by strict requirements to:

  • Keep towns and city neighborhoods together.

  • Practice non-partisan redistricting.

  • Prevent redistricting from intentionally protecting or harming any candidate.

  • Foster competition by treating incumbents like any other candidate and creating opportunities for local elected officials to "move up".

  • Protect the voting rights of minority communities.

  • Require a public process and public input.


I'm a registered voter in this Commonwealth, and despite our stellar record nationally, local elections often leave a lot to be desired, with many candidates for office running unopposed! Our Big-D Democratic machine is as ponderous and invincible as the Big-R Republican machine is in other states and nationally. If you vote in Massachusetts too, you owe it to yourself to check out this website and sign the petition.

Request and sign an official Fair Districts initiative petition.

10 September 2005

For Enforced Migration of African-Americans

Katrina: Relocation or Ethnic Cleansing?

FEMA has been entirely reshaped under the Bush Administration. It's no longer designed to meet the needs of a natural disaster but, rather, to advance the political agenda of the current regime. This is clear by the way that FEMA employees did everything in their power to undermine relief operations for the people stranded by Hurricane Katrina. Their orders simply corresponded with Washington's intention to put the city under federal control and to forcefully-evacuate the victims to locations around the Southwest.

Most of us have already heard the damning accusations of Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parrish, LA, who said on Meet the Press that FEMA had cut off supplies of water, food and fuel to hurricane victims, as well as, cutting "all of our emergency communications lines."

Since, Broussard's nationally broadcast testimonial, there's been a torrent of charges leveled at FEMA. The National Guard was prevented from attending to the sick and wounded, desperately needed busses were unexplainably returned to Baton Rouge, assistance was rejected from Chicago and other cities, helicopter rescue teams were reprimanded for rescuing people trapped on there roofs, and checkpoints were set up to prevent poor, black people from leaving the city.

Information clearinghouse has put together an impressive list of articles that detail the FEMA obstructions.

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/84aa35cc-1da8-11da-b40b-00000e..

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/5/105538/7048

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec..

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec..

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15147862&BRD=...

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/171718/0826

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509..

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050902dale..

FEMA turns away generators
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

These articles will help to convince the reader that blocking of aid to hurricane victims was not a "failure of leadership" or "bureaucratic bungling" as the media has suggested, but was the intentional policy of the Bush administration. The administration was executing a strategy to annex local police and National Guard and put them under direct federal authority. The plan was temporarily subverted when both the Mayor and the Governor refused to relinquish their power. The White House then threatened to take-over regardless; invoking little-known presidential orders that allow sweeping executive powers in a national emergency.

Currently there are executive orders on the books that permit the president to seize all modes of transportation, control the media, take over all energy sources, control all aircraft and airports, relocate entire communities and operate penal and correctional facilities in the event of a national emergency.

Under the provisions of Executive Order 11921 "It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for 6 months...General Frank Salzedo, chief of FEMA's Civil Security Division said in 1983 conference that he saw FEMA's role as 'a new frontier in the protection of individual and governmental leaders from assassination, and from civil and military installations from sabotage and attack, AS WELL AS PREVENTION OF DISSIDENT GROUPS FROM GAINING ACCESS TO US OPINION OR A GLOBAL AUDIENCE IN TIMES OF CRISIS.' "(Friends of Liberty.com)

FEMA's role has changed from one of public assistance in a natural catastrophe to defense of the political establishment and its economic-military power base.
New Orleans represents a fundamental transformation in the way the administration plans to conduct domestic affairs. The democratic model has been abandoned for a top-down managerial-style with all the familiar trappings of a dictatorship. The results are plain to see; the city is now under martial law with armored vehicles and 70,000 military personnel on 24 hour patrol. At present, the last occupants of the poorer areas are being forcefully-removed from their homes and evacuated while legally-registered firearms are being confiscated by police.

The city remains under strict "shoot to kill" orders aimed at anyone either looting or out-of-doors beyond the 6 o'clock curfew.
Although white, middle-class Americans seem to be in denial over what has taken place in New Orleans; many black Americans seem to fully grasp its meaning. Glen Ford of "Black Commentator" notes that "Displacement based on race is a form of genocide, as recognized under the Geneva Conventions. Destruction of a people's culture, by official action, or depraved inaction, is an offense against humanity, under international law."

Ford recognizes that what transpired in New Orleans is just the latest manifestation of ethnic cleansing papered-over by the diversionary braying of the media.
There was no "bureaucratic bungling" or "failure of leadership" in New Orleans. It was a perfectly choreographed strategy to purge the city of poor blacks and to pave the way for lavish reconstruction projects for the wealthy constituents of the Bush administration.

Now, as Glenn Ford says, "the right to return" for the people of New Orleans will be blocked by "facts on the ground" that will preclude any future homecoming. It's likely that the measly $2000 stipend that Bush has offered the relocated residents will be the only reparation they see from Washington.

Courtesy and Copyright © Mike Whitney

09 September 2005

Fascism, USA

Didn't stuff like this happen in Warsaw in 1939?

The Nazi Jackboot is here, people. Only this time it's wearing a suit and tie.

God damn this administration. God damn George Bush. God damn every idiot in this country that voted for him.

YOU DON'T DESERVE TO CALL YOURSELVES AMERICANS!!!


As the situation grew steadily worse in New Orleans last week, you might have wondered why people didn't just leave on foot. The Louisiana Superdome is less than two miles from a bridge that leads over the Mississippi River out of the city.

The answer: Any crowd that tried to do so was met by suburban police, some of whom fired guns to disperse the group and seized their water.

Around 500 people stuck in downtown New Orleans after the storm banded together for self-preservation, making sure the oldest and youngest among them were taken care of before looking after their own needs.

Two San Francisco paramedics who were staying in the French Quarter for a convention have written a first-hand account that describes their appalling treatment at the hands of Louisiana police, a story confirmed today by the San Francisco Chronicle, UPI, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

When buses charted by the group to escape New Orleans never showed up, they camped out beside a police command center on Canal Street, believing it was the best place to get aid, protection, and information. They were told they could not stay there and should leave the city on foot over Highway 90, which crosses the Mississippi River from New Orleans to the suburb of Gretna, a city of 17,500 people.

Running out of food and water, they walked to the bridge, growing in number to around 800 people as word spread of a safe way out:

As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City.

In an interview with UPI, Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson confirmed that his department shut down the bridge to pedestrians: "If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."

The increasingly desperate group set up camp on the New Orleans side of the bridge, where they were seen by several media outlets, until they were chased off at gunpoint by Gretna police:

Reduced to a small group of 8 people, in the dark, we sought refuge in an abandoned school bus, under the freeway on Cilo Street. We were hiding from possible criminal elements but equally and definitely, we were hiding from the police and sheriffs with their martial law, curfew and shoot-to-kill policies.

The paramedics believe that race played a factor in the decision to block evacuees on foot. Gretna's population is 56 percent white and 36 percent black, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.



There's even more outrage to be had here:

Get off the fucking freeway!

Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the fucking freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water.

Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced off the freeway. All the law enforcement agencies appeared threatened when we congregated or congealed into groups of 20 or more. In every congregation of "victims" they saw "mob" or "riot". We felt safety in numbers. Our "we must stay together" was impossible because the agencies would force us into small atomized groups.

In the pandemonium of having our camp raided and destroyed, we scattered
once again. Reduced to a small group of 8 people, in the dark, we sought refuge in an abandoned school bus, under the freeway on Cilo Street. We were hiding from possible criminal elements but equally and definitely, we were hiding from the police and sheriffs with their martial law, curfew and shoot-to-kill policies.

07 September 2005

I'm no longer flying my flag

There. I've done it.

With a heavy heart, I have taken down Old Glory, made the neatest, tightest triangle fold I ever have, and placed my flag reverently downstairs among my collection of other flags.

This is no longer the United States, and I am no longer flying the symbol of such a flawed, debased society.

I had a really nice setup, suspended horizontally and nicely backlit, my flag used to fly 24/7 except in bad weather.

Strange, what true patriotic symbolism means to me. I'm deeply, bitterly, angry at the incompetent, lying, bastard that has driven me to such dire actions.



But all hope is not lost. Rather than fly no flag at all, I've commandeered the nearby branch of a tree and hoisted an ancient symbol of rebellion, the flag of the Culpeper Minutemen, which itself is a variation of the Gadsden Flag. You know it better as the "Don't Tread on Me" flag.

Since colonial days, the rattlesnake has been used to portray the spirit of Americans. In 1751, Benjamin Franklin published a political essay describing the 13 American colonies as a snake divided reminding us of the danger of disunity.

In 1774, Colonel Gadsden of the Revolutionary Army emphasized this by printing the legend "DONT TREAD ON ME" on his flag.

The words swept the nation. The Culpeper Minutemen chose the coiled snake ready to strike and the words from Gadsden's flag, but then raised another defiant fist at the enemy by adding "LIBERTY OR DEATH"

The coiled snake might seem a strange symbol today, but it is effective. NO PERSON WHO EVER SEES IT FORGETS - AND THAT'S JUST THE KIND OF MESSAGE THE REVOLUTIONARIES WANTED TO SEND....


02 September 2005

An interview with the mayor of New Orleans

Listen to it if you can. Otherwise, here's the transcript:

The following is a transcript of WWL correspondent Garland Robinette's interview with Mayor Ray Nagin on Thursday night. Robinette asked the mayor about his conversation with President Bush:

NAGIN: I told him we had an incredible crisis here and that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice. And that I have been all around this city, and I am very frustrated because we are not able to marshal resources and we're outmanned in just about every respect.

You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people that were stuck in attics, man, old ladies. ... You pull off the doggone ventilator vent and you look down there and they're standing in there in water up to their freaking necks.

And they don't have a clue what's going on down here. They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of goddamn -- excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed.

WWL: Did you say to the president of the United States, "I need the military in here"?

NAGIN: I said, "I need everything."

Now, I will tell you this -- and I give the president some credit on this -- he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is [Lt.] Gen. [Russel] Honore.

And he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving. And he's getting some stuff done.

They ought to give that guy -- if they don't want to give it to me, give him full authority to get the job done, and we can save some people.

WWL: What do you need right now to get control of this situation?

NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.

I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.

I've got 15,000 to 20,000 people over at the convention center. It's bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish. ... We don't have anything, and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish.

It's awful down here, man.

WWL: Do you believe that the president is seeing this, holding a news conference on it but can't do anything until [Louisiana Gov.] Kathleen Blanco requested him to do it? And do you know whether or not she has made that request?

NAGIN: I have no idea what they're doing. But I will tell you this: You know, God is looking down on all this, and if they are not doing everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay the price. Because every day that we delay, people are dying and they're dying by the hundreds, I'm willing to bet you.

We're getting reports and calls that are breaking my heart, from people saying, "I've been in my attic. I can't take it anymore. The water is up to my neck. I don't think I can hold out." And that's happening as we speak.

You know what really upsets me, Garland? We told everybody the importance of the 17th Street Canal issue. We said, "Please, please take care of this. We don't care what you do. Figure it out."

WWL: Who'd you say that to?

NAGIN: Everybody: the governor, Homeland Security, FEMA. You name it, we said it.

And they allowed that pumping station next to Pumping Station 6 to go under water. Our sewage and water board people ... stayed there and endangered their lives.

And what happened when that pumping station went down, the water started flowing again in the city, and it starting getting to levels that probably killed more people.

In addition to that, we had water flowing through the pipes in the city. That's a power station over there.

So there's no water flowing anywhere on the east bank of Orleans Parish. So our critical water supply was destroyed because of lack of action.

WWL: Why couldn't they drop the 3,000-pound sandbags or the containers that they were talking about earlier? Was it an engineering feat that just couldn't be done?

NAGIN: They said it was some pulleys that they had to manufacture. But, you know, in a state of emergency, man, you are creative, you figure out ways to get stuff done.

Then they told me that they went overnight, and they built 17 concrete structures and they had the pulleys on them and they were going to drop them.

I flew over that thing yesterday, and it's in the same shape that it was after the storm hit. There is nothing happening. And they're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning, and people are dying down here.

WWL: If some of the public called and they're right, that there's a law that the president, that the federal government can't do anything without local or state requests, would you request martial law?

NAGIN: I've already called for martial law in the city of New Orleans. We did that a few days ago.

WWL: Did the governor do that, too?

NAGIN: I don't know. I don't think so.

But we called for martial law when we realized that the looting was getting out of control. And we redirected all of our police officers back to patrolling the streets. They were dead-tired from saving people, but they worked all night because we thought this thing was going to blow wide open last night. And so we redirected all of our resources, and we hold it under check.

I'm not sure if we can do that another night with the current resources.

And I am telling you right now: They're showing all these reports of people looting and doing all that weird stuff, and they are doing that, but people are desperate and they're trying to find food and water, the majority of them.

Now you got some knuckleheads out there, and they are taking advantage of this lawless -- this situation where, you know, we can't really control it, and they're doing some awful, awful things. But that's a small majority of the people. Most people are looking to try and survive.

And one of the things people -- nobody's talked about this. Drugs flowed in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area so freely it was scary to me, and that's why we were having the escalation in murders. People don't want to talk about this, but I'm going to talk about it.

You have drug addicts that are now walking around this city looking for a fix, and that's the reason why they were breaking in hospitals and drugstores. They're looking for something to take the edge off of their jones, if you will.

And right now, they don't have anything to take the edge off. And they've probably found guns. So what you're seeing is drug-starving crazy addicts, drug addicts, that are wrecking havoc. And we don't have the manpower to adequately deal with it. We can only target certain sections of the city and form a perimeter around them and hope to God that we're not overrun.

WWL: Well, you and I must be in the minority. Because apparently there's a section of our citizenry out there that thinks because of a law that says the federal government can't come in unless requested by the proper people, that everything that's going on to this point has been done as good as it can possibly be.

NAGIN: Really?

WWL: I know you don't feel that way.

NAGIN: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did it go through a formal process to request?

You know, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? What is more important?

And I'll tell you, man, I'm probably going get in a whole bunch of trouble. I'm probably going to get in so much trouble it ain't even funny. You probably won't even want to deal with me after this interview is over.

WWL: You and I will be in the funny place together.

NAGIN: But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.

Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.

You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly.

And I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know whether it's the governor's problem. I don't know whether it's the president's problem, but somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now.

WWL: What can we do here?

NAGIN: Keep talking about it.

WWL: We'll do that. What else can we do?

NAGIN: Organize people to write letters and make calls to their congressmen, to the president, to the governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous.

I don't want to see anybody do anymore goddamn press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another press conference until the resources are in this city. And then come down to this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that we can't even count.

Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.

WWL: I'll say it right now, you're the only politician that's called and called for arms like this. And if -- whatever it takes, the governor, president -- whatever law precedent it takes, whatever it takes, I bet that the people listening to you are on your side.

NAGIN: Well, I hope so, Garland. I am just -- I'm at the point now where it don't matter. People are dying. They don't have homes. They don't have jobs. The city of New Orleans will never be the same in this time.

WWL: We're both pretty speechless here.

NAGIN: Yeah, I don't know what to say. I got to go.

WWL: OK. Keep in touch. Keep in touch.