Posted on 08/23/2006 7:45:37 AM PDT by econjack
America : How Much is a Billion?
A Billion!!!!! Here's some thought provoking information -
The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending your tax money . A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases . . .
A billion seconds ago it was 1959... A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive... A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet... A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.
While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans - It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division:
Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans . Interesting number...what does it mean?
(a) If you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516, 528
(b) Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787
(c) Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.
I guess I should have put the word built in quotes :-)
So, why are people ENTITLED to live in a place that is below sea level and further entitled to have the government aleviate the consequences of such a choice?
A frog indeed would not bump his @ss on every rock if it had wings. What it does not have is to right to demand that it be supplied with wings at someone else's expense because it wants to hop amongst the rocks.
There is a solution...
Blow all the levees..
Allow the water to return to "natural levels".
Eliminate the low lying areas, where the "lowlifes" thrived.
Semper Fi
I saw an interesting report yesterday on how the construction industry is BOOMing in Mississippi - how they are busy building and rebuilding making their coastal cities even better than before. Funny how it's the democrat conrolled LA and New Orleans officials who spend all their time complaining instead of coming up with viable plans for their city.
You mean give money to a government like this?..
FBI investigating donated cars (Louisiana)
nola.com ^ | 07/07/06 | Gordon Russell
FBI starts probe of donated autos :
When carmaker DaimlerChrysler AG donated 40 trucks and sport utility vehicles to Katrina-crushed governments in southeastern Louisiana last September, company officials never imagined some of them would wind up in the hands of private nonprofits.
In fact, the company said Thursday that it made clear to the cities and parishes that received the gifts -- collectively valued at more than $1 million -- that they were for the exclusive use of public agencies or government units, such as police and fire departments. Dave Elshoff, a DaimlerChrysler spokesman, said those instructions were delivered, both verbally and in writing, to then New Orleans City Councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt, who signed for 20 of the cars when they were delivered to Baton Rouge.
Yet eight months later, Gill Pratt would arrange for the donation of four cars to two nonprofits to which she has close ties -- donations that on Thursday, four days after they were disclosed, led City Council members to call for the cars to be returned to the city and the local head of the FBI to announce a criminal probe of the matter.
In the case of Gill Pratt's donations, the city attorney's office prepared cooperative endeavor agreements with Care Unlimited and Orleans Metropolitan Housing. The president of the second group is Mose Jefferson, brother of Bill Jefferson. The agreements were all signed by Mayor Ray Nagin.
and this?..
WILSON ASKS U.S. ATTORNEY TO INVESTIGATE JUNK CAR DEAL
thedeadpelican ^ | March 22, 2006
The Times Picayune reported today that seeking a contract to remove thousands of flooded and wrecked cars from New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin's administration recommended that the city go with the highest quoted price for the job, a review of the 14 proposals submitted last year shows (see entire article here) .
The Times Picayune reported that the chosen proposal, a $1,000-per-car bid from Colorado-based CH2M Hill, was nearly triple the cost of at least three other bids, records showed.
The New Orleans paper read that the gap between CH2M Hill and the other companies cannot be precisely ascertained, because not every proposal included a price, and some of those that did listed tasks that others did not.
In a statement issued today by her press office, Mayoral candidate Peggy Wilson had some harsh words for Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco.
“It has become quite apparent that neither the Mayor nor the Governor is willing to issue an executive order to put an end to this insane idea of paying $1000 per car, $23 million to remove the abandoned vehicles from our streets," Wilson Said.
"I issued a news release on Monday calling upon these two to stop this deal," said Wilson.
"No response brought another article today," said Wilson.
"Due to this lack of response, I call upon the office of the U.S. Attorney today to thoroughly investigate this deal to determine if the issue suggests corruption and immediately move to stop the contract."
"Something is drastically wrong here in New Orleans; dumb and/or corrupt government is killing our city. The nation is watching, congress is watching, we have got to get it right and get it right now.”
One year later they are busy organizing and raising funds, also asking for more government money. 9th Ward, per C-Spam yesterday.
I don't think that people are entitled to free houses or anything like that. I just feel that the government has a duty to protect those that already live there. Especially since the previous level of protection did not work as advertised.
Is it your position that there should be no man made barriers or protections against nature anywhere? No seawalls on the coast? No dams to hold back water? No barriers or walls of any kind to hold back landslides or rockslides? Just blow em all and let nature take it's course?
that's what we call "naturally nawlins" lol
So what did the Levee Boards do with all that money the Federal Taxpayers gave to them to fix the levees?
Over the years, it's the local NOLA politicos that squandered levy money - which had indeed flowed to the area. Once again, the blame needs to be placed where it belongs: Locally
I have no idea. My home was flooded by Mr. Go, not the New Orleans levees. People have been trying to get that thing closed for years. I'm proud to say that I've never voted in an Orleans Parish election. Needless to say I didn't vote for Bank-oh either. Though my local rep is a democrat (Charlie Melancon) he's done a very good job prior to and since the storm. Although you could say a Chalmette democrat is more conservative than most northern republicans lol
Agreed. Hopefully people will keep paying attention once the levees are fixed. I think going so many years without a big storm, people stopped paying attention to the levee board corruption.
Do you have a citation for the Landrieu aid request?
Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans .
To even consider this is outrageous. To even consider rebuilding New Orleans is outrageous. The area has always been a catastrophy waiting to happen, it is now and it will be in the future. To throw money at that area is utterly ridiculous. For government to insure what insurance companies won't touch is outrageous. At some point someone has to hold people accountable for their decisions to live in areas that are dangerous and likely to be wiped out sooner or later.
Now they need to fix what they broke.
Why?
Other countries are able to protect their cities from water, we can do it too.
We can but it's foolish to do so. Why should taxpayers bail out an area like New Orleans knowing the dangers involved. If private citizens and private investors want to do it, fine. But don't expect me to bail reckless people out for building in areas even insurance companies won't touch. If private industry won't bail them out why should we be expected to?
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