Hate To Say I Told You So!

I have been saying for YEARS how the corruption and dysfunction in New Orleans city government was unlike anything you would ever see in your life. To that I would normally get the response of "Well, so does Chicago and Detroit..." I normally have to say no, this is STILL unlike any of their politics. And now, it has finally come to light, well sort of. If you go to Nola.com in the politics section, the link to this article is WAY at the bottom of the page. I guess they wanted to put it out there but not make it too blaringly obvious. Or maybe they just didn't want to distract from the articles on Mardi Gras festivities. I'm sure they'll hoping this article will just fade away but at the same time say that they did in fact report it and that it wasn't their fault if no one was paying attention.

I admit I'm extremely hypercritical of my hometown, but for good reason. Sometimes it needs it. The same way I sing its praises, people need to be aware of how incredibly dysfunctional it is. This has been going on for generations, and I mean generations, to the point where it's the lifestyle.

There is the constant cycle of those voicing their discontent with the system yet they are very ones who perpetuate it (re-elect Nagin, are you kidding me?) I'll give credit and say that things have picked up after Katrina but it's at a glacial pace. Just go about an hour east to Gulfport and Biloxi and you'll see what I mean. There are cries for growth and progress in New Orleans but just about everyone in that city is a saboteur. Many are not willing to make the necessary sacrifices to really improve things. You may have to go without, things may need to be realigned, departments may need to be closed, and YOU MAY HAVE TO EXERCISE MORE PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY and BE MORE PROACTIVE.

As the article states, everything is mired in red tape. They complain that businesses are leaving or not coming at all, it's because it's too difficult to get started and/or too hard to maintain. In my recent visits I've noticed that the vast majority of people who are even remotely well off own their own business. But for those who are not at luxury of starting their own business and need to go and work for someone else, they're all but SOL.

The minimum requirements for almost all the jobs are almost impossible for the average resident to obtain. They want the maximum amount of education and experience for the minimum pay. It's either you have a bachelor's or masters and may just get a job that's mediocre at best, or you don't have a degree and have to basically resign yourself to waiting tables in the French Quarter forever. Civil service gigs may be the next best thing around to owning your own business, but even those are difficult to come by. The test alone serves as a huge roadblock if you're not able to drive to Baton Rouge by 7:30 AM to take the test, seeing as though the dates are floating and pretty much quite rare in parishes like Orleans. There are very few civil service jobs you can even apply for without it. And if you're an out-of-towner trying to apply for a civil service position yet can't make the crap shoot to fly down for one of the tests, forget about it. You may be turned away because the testing center is full. It makes absolutely no sense that someone like myself should have such a difficult time finding meaningful employment (yes, I'm taking this quite personally).

Instead of actively cutting taxes, they decide over and over again to RAISE them. Tell me what sense does it make for people to be making average salaries in the $20-35k range to be paying combined state and parish taxes of 9% ALONE? And WHERE on earth does the money go? Certainly not towards the potholes, I can tell you that!

They say admitting it is the first step to recovery, and I am certainly hoping that Landrieu makes good on his promises and at least brings New Orleans to maybe 15 years behind the times instead of about 30.

Cuba coming to rely on PRIVATE sector to fuel its economy.

Here is a story that should set the lefty Communist Cuba lovers on edge. Cuba has decided that in order to generate revenue to help the struggling nation that they will in fact, you ready?, TAX business owners in the PRIVATE sector! That's right, people who will be working and earning money for personal gain will be the very ones who will keep the island afloat. Read here.

The Cuban government can call it whatever they like, but by doing this, they have completely acknowledged the fact that their system as it has been for the past 50 years HAS NOT worked. You CANNOT stifle entrepreneurship and have the majority of your workers working for the government. So, the remedy to this will be to tax the private business owners, most of whom I'm sure have been terminated from the public sector between 25 and 50% of their income to keep the country going. I can only imagine what that's going to turn into! Give enough people the ability to make it on their own and they WON'T suffer this for long! Once they have the taste of freedom that comes with being able to work and accrue their own personal wealth, they won't be so willing to hand it over. Let's just see how this all pans out!

My BRIEF experience with the public assistance system.

I am of the belief that experience is the best teacher, and one of the goals of this blog is to share of my experiences with anyone who is willing to read the words. I feel that things are much easier to articulate to others when you've gone through them yourself and made it out the other side.

It is oftentimes very easy for someone to dismiss your beliefs based on the notion that you have never lived through something and therefore have no right to comment. This is compounded by the fact that on such media as Twitter and Facebook, your thoughts and feelings are reduced to mere characters.

Well, a little bit of background for me here...

A couple years ago, just a few months after I had my son, I decided to move to Texas in order to be closer to my mother and other family members. I was having a hard time adjusting to new motherhood and figured that being close to my family would give me a good support base. A few months prior to moving my husband and I began applying for jobs in Texas, but got no call backs. I was apprehensive about this but decided to move anyway, confident that we would find a job soon after arrival. Well, that did not happen.

About three weeks into living in Texas, I still got no callbacks. By me not working we were losing thousands of dollars and things got hard to manage. My husband managed to land a job but it paid virtually nothing compared to what we had been making before the move. With a 4 month old baby you can imagine the stress. My mother helped as much as possible, but I really didn't want to place that burden on her.

My mother suggested that I apply for assistance. That suggestion left a very bad taste in my mouth, but convinced me to apply by reminding me that I'd been paying into this system since I was about 16 and that it was there for this reason.

One day my husband, my son and myself went to the public assistance office to apply for assistance. There were a few men filling out forms but it was mostly women. In the hour we sat waiting to be seen, I filled out forms. We were sitting next to a Latina who looked like she couldn't be more than 33 years old with about four children around her, the oldest couldn't have been more than about 8. I noticed that just about all of them had silver capped teeth, yet about two of them were running to the vending machine to buy junk. I was willing to bet that she'd get a whole hell of a lot more in assistance than we would despite never having worked nearly as much and contributed to society nearly as much as I had. I looked at my husband, burning with anger and embarrassment, and said, "NEVER AGAIN".

When we were finally seen by the case worker, she reviewed our paperwork and asked us some questions. I explained our prior financial situation and our current issues. I explained to her that I was the primary breadwinner in the family, and that by me not working, we were losing about $60,000 a year. To my surprise, I found that that actually worked against our favor, because we were denied TANF, citing that too much money had been earned. I kept saying, I made that amount BEFORE, but I don't have that NOW. I need help NOW. To add even further insult to injury, I was essentially penalized for being married and having a man in the family. We were only given food stamps and medical coverage for myself and the baby. My husband was left out of EVERYTHING. We were given $435 a month in food stamps, which was barely enough to feed all of us. I'm thanking my lucky stars that I was still breast feeding, which helped stretched the formula and baby food for longer.

Every day I burned with shame, wondering how I'd gotten to this point, and wondering why someone with my military and work history could not find a job. I am convinced that the hiring managers were too lazy to see how my skills could be used to their advantage. I refused to believe that I couldn't even qualify for a secretary position. Perhaps they rejected my resume because they felt I was overqualified and they couldn't afford me. Even if such was the case, it wasn't helping me much at all.

I attended all the ridiculous instructional seminars for public assistance and how to apply for jobs. I was required to apply for so many jobs a week. I attended one job fair when I first got to Texas, but almost ALL of the recruiters asked if I was willing to move to Arizona or BACK to DC. I declined, stating that I had only just moved to Texas and was looking to give it a go here. The only call back I got for a job in Texas for for an insurance company with an office very close to where I lived. However, when they offered the interview, the location was switched from that office to clear across the city, which would have been nearly impossible since we only had one car at the time and my husband needed it to get to work.

Needless to say this arrangement only lasted for about four months, as the lifestyle became unbearable. We had to make the decision to move back to DC so we could have a chance at living again. Our credit had already completely tanked due to being unable to pay all our previous bills due to the huge decrease in income. And ironically enough, around the same time we'd left was the time my son had gotten full medical coverage.

Upon returning to DC, I refused to ever apply for any more benefits. I vowed I'd dance on tables for money before I allowed myself to be in that position again. I felt angry and betrayed. A system I'd paid into for at least a good 12 years couldn't give me more than $435 a month to care for 3 people, yet I see people making a lifestyle of it, and hard working people like myself who want nothing more than to earn their keep and keep what they are not even able to get a miniscule portion of the pot into which we paid.

So, when I speak out about some things, it's not because I'm on the outside looking in and can't even begin to understand what it's like. I may not have lived long on this earth compared to some, but I've had a heck of a lot of experiences in that short period of time.

Regime Drops Mother, Sentences Her To Death

Trust me, there's more where this came from too! There is no depths to which this administration will stoop to save a quick buck and rub out as many citizens as possible. It happens all the time with the VA.