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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (264391)	12/13/2005 7:13:34 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1578158

re: "You have not shown that it is necessary or economically beneficial to the common good to re-build NO as it was." ///// I don't think anyone has made that argument at all. It is possible to raise the lowest areas. Given they did that in Galveston starting over a century ago, we should be able to swing that these days. It seems to me, and I am in no way qualified to have an technical opinion, that you could take an area like the 9th ward and raise much of the land. Turn the rest into low lying green space (parks) that could handle flooding without a lot of economic damage. You would need a genius of a land planner, but it could be his masterpiece, and a wonderful place to live. The social part, I think, is tougher. I don't think anyone wants to replicate the old 9th, but I don't think many want a lily white gentrified 9th either. Diversity and integration is the answer, but that is easier said than managed. But it has been effectively managed before, with great results. We probably can't afford any of this... we would have to trade off our wonderful Iraq adventure to save one of America's great cities. Rebuild Iraq or rebuild New Orleans? That would make a great national referendum for the '06 elections. John

To: combjelly who wrote (264391)	12/13/2005 2:24:32 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1578158

"Many advocates of clemency for Stanley 'Tookie' Williams note that he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize in literature for his anti-gang work, which includes writing children's books. How could a convicted murderer and co-founder of the Crips ... be nominated for such prizes? "According to Nobel Prize nominating rules, any 'professor of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology' and any judge or national legislator in any country, among others, can nominate anyone for a Nobel Peace Prize. Past nominees have included Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Benito Mussolini and Fidel Castro. Any 'professor of literature [or] of linguistics,' among others, can nominate anyone for a Nobel Prize in literature. "Naturally, many nominees have real merit. But being nominated by one or a few of the hundreds of thousands of eligible nominators is little evidence of such merit. ... "It would surely be helpful to readers if news stories mentioning Williams' nominations ... stressed how unselective the nomination process is." -- Eugene Volokh, writing on "Who doesn't have a Nobel nomination?" Thursday in the Los Angeles Times

To: combjelly who wrote (264391)	12/14/2005 7:16:17 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1578158

Redistricting Tom DeLay The Supreme Court agreed this week to review Texas' 2003 Congressional redistricting, which added five Republicans to the state's delegation. The plan, engineered by the former House majority leader Tom DeLay, is rightly being challenged as partisan and discriminatory against minority voters. It is encouraging that the court has decided to step in. Mr. DeLay's 2003 redrawing of Texas' Congressional district lines threw aside the longstanding tradition that new lines are drawn only every 10 years, after the census. The purpose of this heavy-handed line-drawing was purely to increase the number of Republican districts. It worked. The number of Republicans in the delegation went to 21 from 16, helping to entrench Mr. DeLay as majority leader. The Supreme Court expressed reluctance last year, in a case challenging Pennsylvania's Congressional district boundaries, to second-guess partisan redistricting. But Justice Anthony Kennedy, who provided the crucial fifth vote against allowing the case to proceed, wrote separately to say that the court might act differently in a future redistricting case if "workable standards" could be found. The extraordinarily bare-knuckled Texas redistricting provides another chance to develop such standards. The vote of Chief Justice John Roberts, whose views on partisan redistricting are not known, could also be pivotal. The Texas case also raises unusually strong claims that the voting strength of minority voters was illegally diluted. According to a recently uncovered memo, the eight career Justice Department employees assigned to review the plan in 2003 unanimously concluded that it violated the Voting Rights Act. But political appointees at Justice overruled their objections and approved it anyway. This case's impact is likely to be felt far beyond Texas. If Texas' district lines are upheld, legislators in other states will have a green light to ignore voters, and the Voting Rights Act, and draw lines for partisan advantage. The founding fathers intended the House of Representatives to be the body of government closest to the people. But the House has become increasingly insulated from the voters because of gerrymandering that protects incumbents, reserves seats for particular parties and makes contested elections a rarity. The Supreme Court now has a chance to reverse this trend and uphold the right to cast ballots where they can make a difference.

To: combjelly who wrote (264391)	12/15/2005 8:46:31 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578158

Before the hurricane Galveston had more people than Houston. Eventually it did pass its old peak but the city never became what it probably would have. New Orleans is a larger city that wasn't booming at the time of the hurricane. I imagine it won't reach its old population for the foreseeable future. Despite all the work on Galveston it is still very vulnerable to Hurricanes. Also the work had to be done on a smaller area then NO. You could move some of New Orleans up, but it wouldn't be easy or cheap. I don't think moving the whole city up by 7 or 8 feet is something that can reasonably be achieved. Tim