by James Glaser
August 31, 2005

I drove a lot of miles to get to the Southland, and I had high hopes of having a good time in Louisiana. Hurricane "Katrina," came alone, and it looks like any dancing there will have to wait until the place dries out. The people all along the Gulf Coast are going to need a lot of help over the coming months, but tourists won't be needed until much later.

I noticed something was wrong, when I was driving into Alabama. Traffic going north kept getting heavier and heavier the farther south I went. At a motel on Hwy.231, way in the south of the State, almost everyone staying there was fleeing the storm. Saturday morning, when I got to Interstate 10 in Florida, the traffic from the west was almost bumper-to-bumper. So, I am now holed up with a friend in Tallahassee. This hurricane seems to be the topic of conversation with everyone.

Last time down this way I wrote about finding cardboard cutouts of George Bush in gas stations, and that the cutouts were props to help sell George's book. I explained that I had never heard of the book, and that I didn't buy one. Well I stopped at one of those same stations, one that I had quite a conversation about George, with the owner. This time there was no President Bush, standing tall, with a big grin on his face, and I asked why? Well, it seems that the owner has lost his enthusiasm for George, and he said, "That book wasn't all that good anyways."

I asked if I could use his name, and he told me that might be bad for business, as many of the "Sunday people" are still backing the President. He said it was fine for him to back the President, and that even those against the war would still trade with him, however if he suddenly switched sides, well the Bush backers, would stop trading at his place of business. I asked if that told him anything. He said that is the way it has always been down here, those on the right are "clannish," and those who were anti-war, just bought where ever it was habit or cheapest.

Something else he said I thought was pretty interesting, and that was that the religious community in middle Alabama was never solidly behind Bush. That this war in Iraq has caused a lot of very Conservative Christians to think again about the support they gave him in the last election. This war is why this business owner has had second thoughts about President Bush. This man would never have voted for John Kerry, for many reasons, but he would have given serious thought to the Constitution Party candidate, if he knew what he knows now about George Bush, and how he has handled being Commander-in-Chief.

As long as I am down here, I will continue to report what I find out about the attitudes Americans in this part of the country have.

One Way Washington Is Being Taken Over By One Party

Do you remember when we were first told that Halliburton was receiving contracts to do work in Iraq, and that they didn't have to bid against anyone? Well it was an Army contracting official who blew the whistle on that 'sweet heart deal,' and now she, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, has been demoted for "poor job performance."

This woman has twenty years on the job, and rose to the position of Chief overseer of contracts at the Army Corps of Engineers. That is the agency that has managed the reconstruction of Iraq.

Now everyone in Washington knows, if you rock the boat and expose corruption, it will cost you. According to the New York Times, in an article written by Erik Eckholm, "Ms. Greenhouse's lawyer Michael Kohn, called the action an "obvious reprisal" for the strong objections she raised in 2003 to a series of corps decisions involving the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, which has garnered more than $10 billion for work in Iraq."

Halliburton, was led by Dick Cheney, before he became Vice-president. Dick and the Bush administration play hardball, and when $10 billion is on the line, they don't want anyone saying anything. In the future, it will take a lot of thought by any government employee, before they will speak out about what they think is wrong.

It is a shame when the people we pay to protect us are punished for doing their job, but that is how the game works. I'm sure the Democrats have done the same in the past, when they were in power. Those in Washington, who are their for Power and Money, do not want Civil Servants stepping on any toes, so they will take this women down a peg or two, as a warning to everyone else to stay in line.

We shouldn't be surprised by, this woman getting punished or the fact that the Bush Administration gave away $10 billion in tax money to a company that is still paying money to the Vice-president. That is how Washington works today, and the way it has worked for decades. War is a great cover, and it has been used time and time again to transfer money from Washington to those who back the party in power.