If you want a glimpse of the near future of America, look no further than Samson, Alabama.
Last March, Michael McLendon, a disgruntled worker from Pilgrim's Pride, a chicken processing company, went on a killing rampage that left 11 people dead. While a horrible tragedy in itself, the event was marked by something more unusual - federal Army troops from nearby Fort Rucker were brought into Samson and other surrounding areas to patrol the streets. This fact was largely ignored by the major media.
The reason why the troops were manning traffic stops in the small Alabama town, in clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, was because the local sheriff asked for support from the military. The reason he couldn't handle the situation? Budget cuts in police enforcement.
What has this got to do with Michael McLendon and Pilgrim's Pride? In 2006, the giant chicken processor teamed up with Wall Street and borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars to acquire a rival company. To pay for the buyout, and the executive bonuses that came with it, it cut the wages of its workers. Soon after it found it couldn't pay for the debt and declared bankruptcy. This led to massive layoffs and devastation of the tax base of the community.
So who put together the deal that bankrupted Pilgrim's Pride? Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. The Merrill banker who made the deal was recently hired by JP Morgan Chase. JP Morgan was behind the financial derivatives that has bankrupted Jefferson County, Alabama over a sewer project.
Because of the financial disaster regarding the sewer project, sewer charges were raised to more than double the national average. Poor, working residents are being forced to chose between water and heat. Cuts in the sheriff's office are so severe that plans are being made to call in the National Guard for any breakout in civil order.
If this sounds suspiciously like the scenario of a 3rd world nation in Latin America, it only means that you are paying attention.
"For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance."
— George Orwell
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Posse Comitatus
The Posse Comitatus Act is alaw that does not allow the US military to act like police force in dealings with civilians. It is, in my opinion a very good thing. Enforcing laws is a very complicated specialized task and even though I suppose one might view a cop armed with a gun, dressed in a uniform, as only oen small step removed from a soldier, the two tasks entrusted to the two government employees are very different. Which makes this story I read on the Daily Kos rather interesting. It's by an author posting as gjohnsit and is available on their website in it's full length version. I just excerpted a couple of paragraphs for some food for thought:
Botany Class
Cheyenne likes to share the office with me when I am at the computer and some days I am of a mind to let sleeping dogs lie. 
But then where would she be without a daily off leash ramble? Bored is the answer to that, so off we go, on this occasion to Big Pine Key on the island's southern shore.
The addition called Cactus Hammock is located between a trailer park and a collection of shore front homes and the long stretch between them is covered by a delightful shady footpath winding through the bushes. To get there we had to park the kennel and cross some flooded land:
One unusual aspect of this particular trail is that much of the plant life has been labelled:
Some of it has been labelled by vandals rather than botanists:
I got it into my head it might be amusing to record these labels and have them to refer to when writing about other walks I might take. 
The trouble is, there is no way in hell I am going to remember all these names:
The walk itself is quite delightful on top of a sandy ridge next to the water. 
It forms much of the hedgerow along the path: 
Then there's something called a coral bean. That one's new to me:
This next one is a familiar piece of history, if not botany: 
And these are everywhere and native: 
These were beach combers from, I suspect, the adjacent trailer park: 
Black mangroves are easy enough to identify because they have little stubby roots that grow out of the mud surrounding their trunks. 
It's the white mangroves that I have trouble identifying. I think their leaves look rather similar to these black mangrove leaves:
The other problem with this splendid botanical idea is that leave sin pictures tend to look pretty much the same to my eye:
The tourist tree is an easy one:
And as you all must know by now the gumbo limbo gets that nickname because it's bark turns red and peels, just like a tourist: 
I've got some gumbo limbos around my home and I am very fond of them and their bright green leaves. I also have a cactus that looks something like this:
And the trash can is a sign that human interference is never too far away:
And my other favorites, the date palms:
This one vaguely resembles the poisonwood tree, known in the Caribbean as the manchineel:
The poisonwood tree has nasty black splotches on it's bark, the dogwood doesn't:
There were more bushes and trees and labels than you could shake a stick at. Why they call this the "Spanish Stopper" I couldn't rightly say. Perhaps it was impenetrable to early explorers:
The batteries in my camera went dead before I got a picture of the purple flowers produced by this bush but by then we were both a bit exhausted by this...exhaustive labelling and we called it a day.
My assistant and I:
I wonder if I will pluck up the courage to try to document the other labels I left behind this trip.
But then where would she be without a daily off leash ramble? Bored is the answer to that, so off we go, on this occasion to Big Pine Key on the island's southern shore.The addition called Cactus Hammock is located between a trailer park and a collection of shore front homes and the long stretch between them is covered by a delightful shady footpath winding through the bushes. To get there we had to park the kennel and cross some flooded land:
One unusual aspect of this particular trail is that much of the plant life has been labelled:
Some of it has been labelled by vandals rather than botanists:I got it into my head it might be amusing to record these labels and have them to refer to when writing about other walks I might take. 
The trouble is, there is no way in hell I am going to remember all these names:
The walk itself is quite delightful on top of a sandy ridge next to the water. 
It forms much of the hedgerow along the path: 
Then there's something called a coral bean. That one's new to me:
This next one is a familiar piece of history, if not botany: 
And these are everywhere and native: 
These were beach combers from, I suspect, the adjacent trailer park: 
Black mangroves are easy enough to identify because they have little stubby roots that grow out of the mud surrounding their trunks. 
It's the white mangroves that I have trouble identifying. I think their leaves look rather similar to these black mangrove leaves:
The other problem with this splendid botanical idea is that leave sin pictures tend to look pretty much the same to my eye:
The tourist tree is an easy one:And as you all must know by now the gumbo limbo gets that nickname because it's bark turns red and peels, just like a tourist: 
I've got some gumbo limbos around my home and I am very fond of them and their bright green leaves. I also have a cactus that looks something like this:And the trash can is a sign that human interference is never too far away:And my other favorites, the date palms:This one vaguely resembles the poisonwood tree, known in the Caribbean as the manchineel:
The poisonwood tree has nasty black splotches on it's bark, the dogwood doesn't:
There were more bushes and trees and labels than you could shake a stick at. Why they call this the "Spanish Stopper" I couldn't rightly say. Perhaps it was impenetrable to early explorers:The batteries in my camera went dead before I got a picture of the purple flowers produced by this bush but by then we were both a bit exhausted by this...exhaustive labelling and we called it a day.
My assistant and I:I wonder if I will pluck up the courage to try to document the other labels I left behind this trip.Monday, February 22, 2010
School District Blues
It doesn't seem like the Monroe County School District is out of the scandal riddled woods, this despite the rather visible changes and forced marches and felony convictions meted out. The Hartford Insurance Company, the one that underwrote Joe Lieberman's single handed death stroke against the health insurance public option, is supposed to cover the school district's losses from theft. However would you believe it these crooks are now refusing to pay up for the monies stolen by the as yet not convicted Monique Acevedo. Their defense isn't that she has yet to be found guilty, their defense is so ludicrous it makes one wonder why we have insurance companies at all. They say that because the district didn't notify the Hartford of the theft they are released form their obligation to pay. If the district had known the theft was taking place it wouldn't have been a theft. Theft is by definition taking without knowledge and consent of the owner. I expect they will lose in the end but I'm sure they will be delighted to cause delay and expense to the district. Oh and now there has been a claim they are planning on dropping the district. For all those who think we don't need a strong public option in our health insurance system consider this little issue.
Furthermore an audit by the state of Florida has thus year shown up a whole load of historical irregularities that never showed up previously in audits of the school district. It would seem a scandal sharpens everyone's senses. Luckily for the school board in charge of this district they have lots of scape goats to fling mud at to deflect the rather negative news headlined in yesterday's Citizen. However it's not at all clear why the Board allowed the freshly discovered "irregularities" to proceed unchallenged. Why the state audit never turned them up is a bit a of a question that might cause some embarrassment but not so far. This hot potato has instead been shovelled off to the State Attorney post haste to deal with as he sees fit. Happily we seem able to rely on Dennis Ward these days to monitor public morals which attitude seems to be shocking public officials a bit.
Indeed recently the county's top law enforcer warned county Commissioners that meeting well heeled constituents at a lavish free lunch at Ocean Reef Resort might violate Florida's Sunshine Law which forbids officials from discussing issues on which they might vote outside of the public eye. Ocean Reef is an exclusive gated community at the north end of Key Largo and you'd think they'd not have any issues that needed commissioners' attention but they have their own detachment of Monroe County Sheriff's deputies, at an annual public cost of a million bucks to protect them and their private security guards from the depredations of we the people outside the gates. So what do the commissioners do? They have lunch with the rich people of Ocean Reef, the majority of three with the county administrator. Heather Carruthers and Kim Wigington, my favorite members of the board had the good sense to stay away though why George Neugent lost his head and went I couldn't say. The State Attorney's office is now investigating them for possible violations. That lunch had better have been the best lunch ever served in the Keys because Dennis Ward is proving to be a relentless giant in a world populated by legal wimps and pygmies.
I read about the terrible budget problems plaguing communities across the country and wonder how our modest little budgets will be doing down here. In the Great Depression (the 20th century one) the city of Key West went bust and the Feds considered evacuating the Keys altogether as one way to save a bundle of money. In fact the Works Progress Administration advertised Key West as the ideal vacation destination and Saved the city (thank you Big Government!). Our future in the Keys now seems assured until the seas rise up as the ice caps melt, but it seems to me our raison d'etre needs to be made much more clear to us. We are here in these islands on sufferance, to do our jobs, to tug our forelocks and to make sure not a ripple ruffles the lives of the wealthy oligarchs and their families that choose to make their vacation homes here. Our lives will be those of captive gardeners inside the compound, but not of the compound as it were.We will get jobs, stability a modest standard of living in exchange for our service, just like 19th century peasants. I can hardly imagine what our future might be like. Better down here than out there I suppose, though I never imagined my old age as a vassal in a feudal island.
I read about the terrible budget problems plaguing communities across the country and wonder how our modest little budgets will be doing down here. In the Great Depression (the 20th century one) the city of Key West went bust and the Feds considered evacuating the Keys altogether as one way to save a bundle of money. In fact the Works Progress Administration advertised Key West as the ideal vacation destination and Saved the city (thank you Big Government!). Our future in the Keys now seems assured until the seas rise up as the ice caps melt, but it seems to me our raison d'etre needs to be made much more clear to us. We are here in these islands on sufferance, to do our jobs, to tug our forelocks and to make sure not a ripple ruffles the lives of the wealthy oligarchs and their families that choose to make their vacation homes here. Our lives will be those of captive gardeners inside the compound, but not of the compound as it were.We will get jobs, stability a modest standard of living in exchange for our service, just like 19th century peasants. I can hardly imagine what our future might be like. Better down here than out there I suppose, though I never imagined my old age as a vassal in a feudal island.
Eden Meadow
I was out on Big Pine Key wandering through the palmettos and pine trees and reminded that no matter how remote one sometimes feels in this wilderness, civilization is never too far away:
It was not a very satisfactory walk for Cheyenne, stumbling through underbrush, so she consoled herself with a puddle.
We made our way back to the kennel and regrouped. I turned off Key Deer Boulevard and headed towards Eden Pines subdivision with a vague idea to look for a trail headed west through the mangroves toward the nearest saltwater channel. Instead we ended up plunging once more into the pine forests on a wildlife refuge trail, one of the many on this island.
Eden Pines is one of several rural subdivisions scattered about on Big Pine Key, which is the second largest island (behind Key Largo) in the Florida Keys. Eden Pines has something of a reputation for putting on and informal Christmas Light decorating extravaganza each winter and one of these years I will follow through on my promise to myself to go out after dark and check out the houses. As it was Cheyenne and i found ourselves a small Garden of Eden among the pines next to the subdivision.
It was nothing more than a tiny meadow, a rectangle of grass modest enough that I almost walked by without noticing. Cheyenne immediately got her nose down so I knew we had to stop.
I met a neighbor recently who told me she doesn't like to let her dog off it's leash else it will start to smell things. I tried to contain my astonishment at such a statement, limiting myself to remarking that sniffing things is what dogs are designed to do (why else would they have that sense of smell?), but that encounter reminded me why Cheyenne should count herself lucky.She sure found something worth sniffing in the long grass:
I have no idea what she found in the grass but it was fighting back as she peered down to inspect it. I got all botanical with my camera.
I have, as usual, no idea what they are called these flowery things. The fuzzy white blob in the background is Cheyenne minding her own business, nose down, being a dog. No apparent harm came to her from her exploration. I have no idea why this patch of grass found the energy to grow in this spot and nowhere else.
Surrounded by decent sized pine trees:
And some very interesting bracken: 
I want to come back with a chair, a thermos of tea and a book.
And perhaps walk deeper into the pine forests around here:
As it was we were timed out for the afternoon and I steered the Labrador back towards the car by a slightly different route through the trees. Whereupon we came across another mystery in the woods: 
Human made for sure, some sort of drain or cistern or some such thing:
And with no possible solution to the mystery we pressed on back to the paved road. Cheyenne wasn't quite ready to get back in the kennel and as we strolled a little further we came across another minor mystery, this time an almost self explanatory shrine:
Jim, the amateur detective in me reasoned, must have been a well-liked diver who died fairly recently. Possibly a native of San Francisco fond of the ocean.
And with a nod to the dead diver we tip toed back to the car.
The truck in the background has just driven up Key Deer Boulevard from the direction of Highway One to the south.
It was not a very satisfactory walk for Cheyenne, stumbling through underbrush, so she consoled herself with a puddle.We made our way back to the kennel and regrouped. I turned off Key Deer Boulevard and headed towards Eden Pines subdivision with a vague idea to look for a trail headed west through the mangroves toward the nearest saltwater channel. Instead we ended up plunging once more into the pine forests on a wildlife refuge trail, one of the many on this island.Eden Pines is one of several rural subdivisions scattered about on Big Pine Key, which is the second largest island (behind Key Largo) in the Florida Keys. Eden Pines has something of a reputation for putting on and informal Christmas Light decorating extravaganza each winter and one of these years I will follow through on my promise to myself to go out after dark and check out the houses. As it was Cheyenne and i found ourselves a small Garden of Eden among the pines next to the subdivision.It was nothing more than a tiny meadow, a rectangle of grass modest enough that I almost walked by without noticing. Cheyenne immediately got her nose down so I knew we had to stop.I met a neighbor recently who told me she doesn't like to let her dog off it's leash else it will start to smell things. I tried to contain my astonishment at such a statement, limiting myself to remarking that sniffing things is what dogs are designed to do (why else would they have that sense of smell?), but that encounter reminded me why Cheyenne should count herself lucky.She sure found something worth sniffing in the long grass:
I have no idea what she found in the grass but it was fighting back as she peered down to inspect it. I got all botanical with my camera.
I have, as usual, no idea what they are called these flowery things. The fuzzy white blob in the background is Cheyenne minding her own business, nose down, being a dog. No apparent harm came to her from her exploration. I have no idea why this patch of grass found the energy to grow in this spot and nowhere else.Surrounded by decent sized pine trees:
And some very interesting bracken: 
I want to come back with a chair, a thermos of tea and a book.
And perhaps walk deeper into the pine forests around here:As it was we were timed out for the afternoon and I steered the Labrador back towards the car by a slightly different route through the trees. Whereupon we came across another mystery in the woods: 
Human made for sure, some sort of drain or cistern or some such thing:And with no possible solution to the mystery we pressed on back to the paved road. Cheyenne wasn't quite ready to get back in the kennel and as we strolled a little further we came across another minor mystery, this time an almost self explanatory shrine:Jim, the amateur detective in me reasoned, must have been a well-liked diver who died fairly recently. Possibly a native of San Francisco fond of the ocean.And with a nod to the dead diver we tip toed back to the car.The truck in the background has just driven up Key Deer Boulevard from the direction of Highway One to the south.
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