And it is raining pretty hard here this morning during this soaking spring.
"With crop prices soaring, farmers along the lower Mississippi had been expecting a big year. But now many are facing ruin, with floodwaters swallowing up corn, cotton, rice, and soybean fields.... the “green gold,’’ was lost"
And you thought food prices were high now.
"Hundreds flee as flood fills poverty-stricken Miss. Delta" May 12, 2011|By Sheila Byrd and Holbrook Mohr, Associated Press
RENA LARA, Miss. — Flood waters from the bloated Mississippi River and its tributaries spilled across farm fields, cut off churches, washed over roads, and forced people from their homes yesterday in the Mississippi Delta, a poverty-stricken region only a generation or two removed from sharecropping days.
People used boats to navigate flooded streets as the crest rolled slowly downstream, bringing misery to poor, low-lying communities. Hundreds have left their homes in the Delta in the past several days as the water rose toward some of the highest levels on record.
Gee, that's weird.
See: Sunday Globe Special: South is Safe
What up -- other than the water -- newspaper?
The flood crest is expected to push all the way through the Delta by late next week....
The Mississippi Delta, with a population of about 465,000, is a leaf-shaped expanse of rich soil between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers, extending about 200 miles from Memphis, Tenn., to Vicksburg, Miss. Along the way are towns whose names are familiar to Civil War buffs, aficionados of the blues, and scholars of the civil rights era: Clarksdale, Greenwood, Greenville, and Yazoo City.
While some farms in the cotton-, rice- and corn-growing Delta are prosperous, there is also grinding poverty....
How can that be in an AmeriKa where banks, oil companies, and corporate CEOs are doing so well?
--more--"
"New tough choice for raging Mississippi; Opening spillway would help cities, flood Cajun area" May 13, 2011|By Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press
BUTTE LaROSE, La. — In the latest agonizing decision along the swollen Mississippi River, federal engineers are close to opening a massive spillway that would protect Baton Rouge and New Orleans but flood hundreds of thousands of acres in Louisiana Cajun country.
With that threat looming, some 25,000 people in an area known for small farms, fish camps, crawfish, and a drawling French dialect are hurriedly packing their things and worrying that their homes and way of life might soon be drowned.
Another wave of Katrina refugees likely never to return.
People in this riverfront community gathered at their volunteer fire station to hear a man dressed in Army fatigues deliver an ominous flood forecast....
Your FASCIST FUTURE is HERE, AmeriKa!!
For the people of this region, floods from rain-swollen rivers and hurricanes are a familiar hazard...
Yeah, NOTHING SPECIAL about a RECORD-SETTING FLOOD!!
Yup, they are USED TO IT -- or at least some OLD FOLK MIGHT BE if they could REMEMBER back to 1927 -- in which case THEY would not be FAMILIAR with it, either!
I don't know about you, dear readers, but I HAVE HAD it with the INSULTING SHINOLA from AmeriKa's media!
Yeah, don't worry about oil in the Gulf, radiation in the air and water, or the floods consuming communities and farmland. It's all situation normal!
--more--"
I'm feeling flooded with you-know-what, dear readers.
"Floodgate opened to spare Louisiana cities; River diversion swamps farms and rural homes" by Mary Foster, Associated Press / May 15, 2011
MORGANZA, La. — Water from the inflated Mississippi River gushed through a floodgate yesterday for the first time in nearly four decades and headed toward thousands of homes and farmland in the Cajun countryside, threatening to slowly submerge the land under water up to 25 feet deep....
But they are familiar with it.
Opening the Morganza spillway diverted water from Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and the numerous oil refineries and chemical plants along the lower reaches of the Mississippi. Shifting the water away from the cities eased the strain on levees and thwarted flooding that could have been much worse than Hurricane Katrina....
Yup, government took care of you again, Amurkn!
Related: United States Nuclear Power Plants Threatened By Spillway Flooding
All so they can SAVE SOME RICH HOMES!!
The Morganza spillway is part of a system of locks and levees built after the great flood of 1927, which killed hundreds and left many more without homes. When the Morganza opened yesterday, it was the first time three flood-control systems have been unlocked at the same time along the Mississippi River, a sign of just how historic the current flooding has been....
Which we all know, they are familiar with.
Then I hit a wall, and who cares?
I've been flooded with enough lies and obfuscations for a lifetime.
Maybe you would like to keep swimming?
--more--"
As opposed to the floods, I am finding the AmeriKan media QUITE SHALLOW these days.
And about that aid:
"Report highlights ongoing farm aid bias; Department of Agriculture still faces rights issues" May 12, 2011|By Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Despite acknowledging a legacy of discrimination, the Department of Agriculture is still plagued by civil rights problems that have in the past led to unequal treatment of minorities seeking loans and other help, according to a government-commissioned report yesterday.
Most of the employees interviewed by a private consulting firm did not believe the department, sued over the years by blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, and women, had a civil rights problem. Research by the Jackson Lewis LLP Corporate Diversity Counseling Group “substantiated in part the anecdotal claims of neglect, at best, and widespread discrimination, at worst’’ at the department.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack arranged for the $8 million review as part of his effort to address long-running problems, many involving minorities denied loans by department field offices staffed mostly by white men....
In the past two years, the Obama administration has settled a class-action suit brought by Indian farmers, offered payments to Hispanic and female farmers who alleged discrimination, and pushed for additional money for black farmers who were denied earlier payments because they missed deadlines for filing. The settlements will cost the government several billion dollars.
That's the U.S. BROKEN-and-BUSTED U.S. TAXPAYER in this CASE!
Vilsack said he learned from the study that the rural field offices must do more to connect with minorities who may be reluctant to ask for loans because of the department’s history of discrimination.
Who would want to borrow money in this day and age?
While those people who apply for loans in the offices may be treated fairly, he said, many do not even apply.
He suggested that USDA may have to find a way to increase minority representation on the committees that make loan decisions.
Just wondering why this was edited out of the web version:
"Because of the past, folks aren't anxious to go into the office," he said. "They think they are going to be turned away.... We have to break that barrier, make people feel more comfortable."
Vilsack ordered the report before a controversy involving a rural development administrator who was shown in an edited online video making what appeared to be racist remarks.
I guess you do not want the good government that cares looking too bad, huh?
And I love the edited crack dished out by the hypocritical Globe. That part was edited out of the web version. Isn't that a laugh riot hoot?
--more--"
Related:
USDA asks Sherrod for outreach help
ATLANTA — The US Department of Agriculture wants help with minority outreach from a former official in Georgia who was ousted in a racial flap and later received an apology from President Obama, a department spokesman said yesterday. The administration has been in talks with Shirley Sherrod, who resigned last year as Georgia’s director of rural development. The department is discussing whether Sherrod and her nonprofit organization are willing to conduct outreach under a government contract."
Also see: Slow Saturday Special: U.S. Senate is Racist
Matters of Black and White
That's strange because I thought we were all in this together, especially on ending the wars, ending corporate welfare, and for a decent national healthcare system.
Instead the press and government have to continue to divide us by any means necessary over stuff that happened decades ago.
