In California's delta, that approach translates into $20 million this year to improve the levees that protect Sacramento, the state capital, at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers, and to strengthen the Folsom Dam, upstream from the city. But virtually no federal money is earmarked for other nearby levees that protect smaller communities, cropland and the conduits that bring drinking water to Southern California.
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Not Spending as Much

California's state government struggles with that issue. The Schwarzenegger administration has proposed more spending on the levees than the Legislature has been willing to approve. Katrina raised awareness of the benefits to be reaped, but even before Katrina, a 1997 flood damaged or destroyed more than 30,000 homes and businesses, and a rupture in a levee last year resulted in $100 million worth of damage and repairs.

This isn't just about levees and infrastructure spending. It's rampant, and it's completely the fault of the current administration and the Republican's taking power of the legislature in 1996. The aim of the Republican party has been to dismantle the "social" side of the Federal government and replace it with capital expenditures that are farmed out to corporations (think Halliburton). The strategy has been to choke off money that's going to states, which is typically social-type programs (Medicaid, DHS, Special Ed, etc), sending that money to Federal programs where it can be outsourced (highway construction, drilling for oil, etc) or create new/bloated bureacracy (Homeland security, FCC, etc).

This starvation on the part of the states is what is currently creating the problems we're seeing. With eroding tax revenues and no help from the Feds, most states are on the brink of fiscal disaster. One look at the energy crisis in CA, the unemployment in MI, TennCare in TN, and the entire southeast region in fiscal junk bond status, and you can see that the plan is working. And it's not just levees. Healthcare, education, public works, and economic development have pretty much all been abandoned by the Feds so they can go off and fight unwinable wars and fatten their friend's corporate profits.

So when you read about how the Bush administration is incompetent and not intouch with reality, think again. They know exactly what they are doing and are executing with aplumb! This is essentially a scorch the earth strategy, which will transfer wealth from every sector of our society into the most wealth Americans who can afford to invest or be shareholders in major corporations who are reaping the benefits of this strategy. This will leave irrepable damage to our society and our community, as it will takes decades to undue the damage, if at all.

Disasters Waiting to Happen

"I told him not to come to St. Louis from Los Angeles and that (Blues coach Mike) Keenan was an idiot. He said (Keenan) wouldn't be an idiot once he got there. I said, 'He'll never change.'

I'm gonna miss Brett when he finally does retire.

Classic Brett Hull

Detroit has surpassed Cleveland as the nation's most impoverished big city, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

Survey figures released Tuesday show 33.6 percent - or more than one-third - of Detroit's residents lived at or below the federal poverty line in 2004, the largest percentage of any U.S. city of 250,000 or more people.

Sweet.

Detroit Most Impoverished City

Was Granato among the top 10 forwards on the team? Yes, and it wasn't even close. When she is on the ice, you know something smart and creative is going to happen. But, even if it were close, you wouldn't do this to an icon, especially when this person represents the Olympics ideal; especially when that person is so selfless and classy, not to mention a marketer's dream.

As Bailey said, Granato is "the glue to the team."

How can you cut Cammi? Insane.

Buccigross: Team USA's 'disgusting' decision

The Alter Ego display shows what kind of virtual characters people choose to be in online games and 3D worlds.

This is an article about an exhibit which juxtaposed pictures of "real-life" people, next to images of the characters that they played in MMORPGs. Click on the picture in the article, to be taken to more side-by-side images. I found it very interesting to observe how some people were very different from their avatars, and others were very similar. Though of course the editors seemed to concentrate on the images that provided the most dramatic differences.

BBC NEWS : Virtual gamers reveal themselves

Apple Computer is coming to the rescue of Detroit's schoolchildren and, in doing so, may finally push Michigan to nuke its failed public high school system and start over.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm will announce Tuesday that the California computer maker and master of the red-hot iPod will help finance, equip and advise a small top-quality high school for Detroit students at most risk of being left behind.

Where was this when I was growing up? I had to settle for a seminar at Inacomp for the release of the Apple ][. Favorite moment? Playing Apple Panic.

Apple brings hope to Detroit

In a little over a year the amount of traffic flowing across Linx has risen from approximately 30 gigabits per second to more than 67 Gbit/s. In 2000 it was barely hitting 5 Gbit/s, the equivalent of a DVD film every 10 seconds.

It was bound to happen, but still, when you dig out the projections of net traffic growth from 1997 and compare them to today's numbers, we're spot on. No one was really smoking that much crack.

Maturing net growing more slowly

This dude jumped the Great Wall on his skateboard. Next stop, Springfield Gorge!

The Official Site of Danny Way | Photos

"Christopher Paolini is 21 now, and he's had his Letterman gig and his Time magazine interviews and the thrill of seeing his fantasy novel, "Eragon," ride the best-seller lists for 100 weeks, in one version or another. There's even a Hollywood film in the works.
...He has an avuncular, precociously adult manner of speaking -- like a tweedy professor with elbow patches. The effect is startling but ultimately charming, because Paolini is so genuine, with a matter-of-fact self-confidence that's rare for his age. For that, he thanks mom and dad, who homeschooled him and his younger sister, Angela.

"I certainly give credit to my parents," Paolini said, "because they taught us never to be afraid -- to stand up and speak our mind, to talk to people as equals even if they are quite a bit older.

"My sister and I have never been in public schools. We never had the experience of being put down, of being told not to stand out. We were who we were." "

Homeschooled boy's books score big - movie deal for next year

Mike the Usurper wrote:
Okay, it's wrong, but so what.

RE: Kitten Cannon - Presented by Addicting Games