Blithe Spirit, the Blog

Some possible sense about Katrina

August 29, 2006 · 1 Comment

. . . that takes us beyond the standard blame-Bush, blame-city and/or state officials position:
 
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
Keeping you up-to-date on the latest by Manhattan Institute Scholars August 29, 2006

Articles

 

Katrina’s Real Lesson

Nicole Gelinas, RealClearPolitics.com, August 29, 2006
(This originally appeared on City-Journal.org, 08-28-06)
Though President Bush declared on Saturday that Hurricane Katrina exposed “deep-seated poverty” in America, the disaster isn’t ultimately a story of poverty or of race, but of the greatest failure of civil engineering in American history. Luckily, while the nation has never been able to solve poverty, it can solve the engineering problem at the heart of southern Louisiana’s potential recovery. . .

And something new about asbestos:

Asbestos double-dipping
Posted by Ted Frank
Must-read coverage of how asbestos plaintiffs “double-dip” into billions of dollars of asbestos bankruptcy trusts run by plaintiffs’ lawyers (like Baron & Budd, the namesake of John Edwards’s money man, Fred Baron) through making boldly inconsistent claims of exposure. (Daniel Fisher, “Double-Dippers”, Forbes, Sep. 4). Courts are cracking down for the first time, though the only people suffering consequences so far are clients, rather than the unethical attorneys-the shareholders who lost their money and the workers who lost their jobs in the fraud are out of luck. . .
 

 

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L’Affaire Stroger, Part CDXXXVII

August 29, 2006 · No Comments

The saga marches on, you might say.  Bobbie Steele, veteran county board commissioner named temporary replacement for the incapacitated president, John Stroger, is “uncomfortable,” she said — make it all past tense when reporting this business — with the hiring-freeze hiring of 1,300 employees, as we presume she was uncomfortable with the Stroger patronage chief, whom she bumped laterally.  But not uncomfortable in either case to fire anyone.  It is encouraging, however, that a few weeks in the job has gotten the party grin off her puss in newsp pix.
 
In addition, she’s knocking John Stroger now: his administration was “insulated.”  But she didn’t fire the patronage man, who is able to sing or hum the old favorite:
I’m bidin’ my time/
“Cause that’s the kinda guy I’m
Actually ’cause Baby Stroger has all that patronage army working the precincts for him.  It’s the confidence that led Ald. Beavers tell reporters when the stricken Stroger was still president, “We can do anything we want.”
 
Steve Patterson is all over this story in Sun-Times, offering us nothing cute and keeping stories down to 500 or so well chosen words, which is how they all should be written for daily newspapers.

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Wal-Mart coverage

August 29, 2006 · No Comments

Sandra Guy story, Sun-Times 8/28/06 says Wal-Mart is big in ‘burbs, where it’s considered to do great things.  Good Jobs First man in Wash DC, however, wants govt to decide the issue, not believing in The Power of the People, and I’m only half kidding here.  Rather, let them vote — with their pocketbooks — on what’s good for The Community.  Note especially the Forest Park info, where the Wal-Mart on Roosevelt Rd. has contributed to improvements galore by its taxes, which are contributed by The People when they buy things that They Want.  Give the lady (and gentleman) what she wants, as Marshall Field used to say.

Categories: Uncategorized