melsjumpsite.com » mississippi

Tenn-Tom to get “preferential” Fed Funding

melt — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:34:20 +0000

“As a part of the Marine Highway Program, federal transportation officials selected eight projects that will receive preferential treatment for future federal assistance.
Included is the Tenn-Tom Freight Project, a proposed container-on-barge service between Mobile and the Port of Itawamba in northeast Mississippi.”

“…the Port Authority is interested in a water-based route between Mobile and the furniture factories and paper mills in northeast Mississippi.”
“That corner of Mississippi is a pretty busy spot,”.

Here’s the Jump: ‘Marine highways’ could boost Mobile-Mississippi water route

Gulf Oil Spill Creating “Dust Bowl” of the 21st Century

melt — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:21:55 +0000

… and with an economy that has been teetering on the brink, might just send the U.S. into the troughs of another depression. The environmentalists of that time tried to warn the farmers, but “hog wash” was their reply. The tractor had just been invented and they were all too busy “makin them big bucks” to care about their own land. The environmentalists of our time have warned us of the dangers of deep water drilling for oil and the reply has always been “hog wash” and of course, the now infamous “drill baby drill”. Deep-water drilling had just been invented and they were all too busy “makin them big bucks” to care for their our own environment.

I always like to remind my republican friends of the last time the republican party controlled the whitehouse, senate and house simultaneously, and how the great depression ensued shortly thereafter. The only difference between then and now was the part-natural, but mostly man-made, disaster known as the dust bowl. Now we have the BP oil leak that is creating another “dust bowl” of sorts. It is different in that you won’t see blowing dust in the air, but the outcome will be just the same, the natural base to sustain the population is being destroyed. Millions of people that live and work on the coast will soon be packing all their belongings into the family SUV and heading to points north. Some of them much sooner than they are apparently aware

Imagine yourself living in a condo right on the coast and waking up one morning in late August, temperature 98 degrees, and the beach has a few inches of black tar oil. Your eyes are stinging and your lips and tongue burn. You’ll get the picture pretty quick. I wonder what these people will become known as, “Lu-cies”, maybe or perhaps, “Lu-zers” maybe something like “BP-ers” is more appropriate. Those that can’t or won’t leave will experience the same fate as the “Okies” who tried to ride out the big dust storms in hopes of a brighter day tomorrow: poverty, sickness, and death.

We are only learning of the magnitude of the spill in the last few hours and I tell you now, much worse news is soon to come. The most credible source I see has the spill rate at about 80-100 thousand barrels-a-day. In any case, I truly believe that enough oil has already leaked out to lay waste to the entire coasts of several states. And it is a short bet indeed, to say that the Gulf fishery, as we knew it, is already gone….. for generations. Would you sit your family down to a nice diner of fresh Gulf coast shrimp and oysters tonight, next week, next month?

Good Mother Earth has been cut to the bone, stabbed to the very core and is this moment oozing out her life’s blood in an effort to expel the offending source, mankind. I sure hope that man can make a better showing in this fight than against the great dust bowl, if that’s even possible at this point.

Spill Baby Spill

melt — Fri, 07 May 2010 04:59:17 +0000

Drill Baby, Drill

melt — Wed, 05 May 2010 04:00:35 +0000

Welcome to Mississippi. Enjoy the scenery.

Oil Leak likely to Continue for Months

melt — Sun, 02 May 2010 02:02:48 +0000

It could be three months before a relief well could be drilled to stop or mitigate the leaking oil. Contingency plans call for some sort of a dome contraption to be place over the leaking well, but here again, this requires a month long construction project. So it’s fairly plain to see that the coast is in for the curse of our time.

If you’re looking for people to blame, be sure to include me, and yourself, for we are all the engine that drives this insane and reckless regard we have taken towards the planet we inhabit. As far as the actual people and companies responsible, see this jump: Companies involved in the Gulf rig accident.

Efforts to clean any of this up truly looks like elephant-hunting with a flyswatter. And British Petroleum has said they will pay all costs to clean it up, I don’t see that they have that much worth. Anyway, here’s the jump to illustrate the size of the problem and the laughable and tiny efforts under way to “contain” the damage: Via Reuters – Oil spill in Gulf of Mexico: in maps and graphics

Here’s Good News for someone’s Economy

melt — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:22:48 +0000

But it sure as heck ain’t mine. Seems big oil is back at the profit game, big time, with Shell reporting profits up 50% for 1st Q 2010, and rival British Petroleum saw their profits double during the same period.

By the way that’s a BP well that caught fire, exploded, and is now spewing thousands of gallons of crude oil into our beloved Gulf of Mexico every minute. Yep a British Petroleum well, drilled and operated by a Swiss Company.

Well, maybe some ole Mississippi boys can make a buck or two cleaning up all the mess…

Here’s the jump: The Independent – Shell profits surge by 49%

Toxic Chinese Drywall: Update

melt — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:39:40 +0000

It appears as if toxic Chinese drywall products were sold here in the southeast for a much longer period of time than was originally thought.
Why does it not surprise me to learn that this toxic junk first appeared on our shores shortly after the arrival of this toxic junk:

I would bet, someone with the time and inclination, could find a cozy connection between these facts and the fact that one of GWB’s top campaign contributors was CEO of a national building supply.

Anyways; here’s the jump to the drywall story over at PRWeb: Drywall Complaint Center Expands Its Knauf Chinese Drywall Investigation

And for all you conspiracy conjurers, I invite you to browse this: Google Search

Mississippi Appliance Rebate Program Starts April 22

melt — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 06:49:47 +0000

Time to throw out that old clunker and get one of them thar new fangled ice box thingy’s. Thanks to a 2.8 million dollar grant from the American Recovery Act the program encourages folks to replace their old appliances with more efficient ones.

”The State of Mississippi will implement a mail-in rebate program to help residents replace old, inefficient appliances with new, ENERGY STAR® qualified appliances. The program is scheduled to begin April 22, 2010 and will continue until funds are depleted.”

Here’s the scoop on all you need to know, complete with local participating retailers:

Mississippi Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program

Director of MS Dept. Transportation Highest paid Official in State?

melt — Thu, 07 May 2009 00:49:24 +0000

Having read this story which states that the Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation will be receiving $144,354-a-year for a job he was once so bad at as to get fired, I got to thinking how this sounded pretty high for the poorest state in the union. After doing a little net investigating this is what I’ve found.

Governor Haley Barbour $122,160	Lieutenant Governor $60,000 Phil Bryant	Secretary of State $90,000 Delbert Hosemann	Attorney General $108,960 Jim Hood
Chief Justice $115,390 William Waller	Associate Justice $112,530 Jim Kitchens		Data from Sunshine Review and are based on year 2007.

I can’t speculate as to the accuracy of these figures. I can, however, point you to this credible story about Gov. Barbour’s salary. I also point you to this site showing the salaries of the people who actually do the real work for the above listed, Mississippi State Personnel Board …promoting a quality workforce.

So it does indeed appear as if the Executive Director of the Mississippi State Department of Transportation is the highest paid official in the state, about $577 a day.

Chinese Drywall Horrors Hitting Mississippi

melt — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:35:44 +0000

Many homes rebuilt on the coast after hurricane Katrina used imported Chinese drywall. Now the stuff is making the occupants sick and forcing them, once again, to pick up and move out, fast.

Mississippi attorney Steve Mullins has joined the cadre of court actions.

"Bloody noses, headaches, respiratory infections," Mullins said, ticking off the list of health problems reported by his clients. "Over and over like a broken record."

Besides being extremely unhealthy for humans, the stuff is literally eating away at most metals contained in modern homes, even metals like copper and stainless steel that are corrosion resistant. Some people are even reporting that it is eating there silverware.

Chinese manufacturers flooded the U.S. market with more than 500 million pounds of drywall around the same time Katrina was flooding New Orleans, an Associated Press review of shipping records has found.

That year, enough wallboard was imported from China to build some 34,000 homes of roughly 2,000 square feet each, according to the AP’s analysis and estimates supplied by the nationwide drywall supplier United States Gypsum. But experts and advocates say many homes may have been built with a mixture of Chinese and domestic drywall — which could push the number of affected homes to 100,000 or more, by some estimates.

Jump to: Tainted Chinese drywall shows up in Katrina homes