The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 111, Ed. 1 Friday, June 4, 2010 Page: 4 of 16
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Friday. June 4.2010
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The Galveston County Daily News
MISS YOLR PAPER?
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sunnews@baytownsun.com
WRITE TO L S
Doyle Barlow
Managing Editor
Jay Eshbach
Community member
Dave Rogers
Sports Editor
the better chance we have to ensure that
people are truly "made whole" or com-
pensated for their losses, as has been
DONNA
BRAZILE
FRED HARTMAN
Publisher Emeritus
I950-I7M
IBaptoton &un
1301 Memorial Drive, P.O. Box 90
Baytown, Texas 77522
Main: (281)422-8302
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E-mail: swwews9baytownsun.com
Web site: wwwbaytownsun.com
The Baytown Sun, 46180 is pubished
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1301 Memorial Drive. PO Box 90,
Baytown Texas 77522. Periodicals
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RO. Box 90, Baytown, IX 77522;
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a
A
■ 2010 -left Stabler/ Gist By UFS. Inc
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NEWSROOM
STATE
Rick Perry.
Gaemor
800843-5789
800-252-9600
Fax. 50 463849
fed Poe
DSnct2Rep
8664256565
866-447-0242
wwwhouse.
gwpoe
Ron Pau.
OsraMRep
2022252831
979-2850231
wwwhouse.
gtMBJ
Gene Green
(jure 29 Rep
202225888
7133300761
2884200602
Mwvhouse
DMrwn
Indicting
the First
Amendment
impact of this disaster.
The information will
come from everyone
affected: the fishermen,
the charter boat cap-
tains, the seafood
processors, the restau-
rants, hotels and cab
drivers — every busi-
ness and wage earner
that has been or will be
harmed by the largest oil
been through a hurricane, you need to
learn how to secure you property. Do you
have the tools and skills to board up the
windows, or will you need to hire some
one for that? Do you know how and where
to shut off the water and natural gas?
If you rent, you need to know whether
your landlord will secure the place or
whether that's up to you.
The point is. there's a lot to consider; a
lot to know.
Sometimes you have days to watch a
hurricane move from the Atlantic to the
Gulf and days to think about what to do.
You can't count on that, however. Some
pretty nasty storms can form very close to
the coast and be on you before you know
it.
Other times, you'll think for days you
arc safe, and then find very late you are
not.
you rectify the damage of an estimated
■mo r\r\r\ ____ii ... . _ a' .: i . i ... ......____
the delicate but vital ecosystem that is dure. This procedure should prevent any
Viewpoints
4A I — — BAYTOWN SUN
The Sun welcomes letters of
up to 250 words and guest
columns of up to 500 words. We
publish only original material
addressed to The Baytown Sun submission.
EDITORIAL BOARD
JANIE HALTER
EdKor/Pubisher
Jim Finley
Former Managing Editor
M.A. Bengtson
Community member
FEDERAL
Barack Obama
Presdert
202-456-m
Fax:202-4562461
presdentta
wheriousego.
Joe Biden.
VcePresden
202-4562324
Fax: 202 4562161
xcepreadentra
writehouse#*
Kay Baley
Hutchison
Senator
202 224-5822
713653 3456
Fax. 202-224-0776
Fax. 713209 3459
Wcutsenaie
govb-maitir
John Cornyn
Senator
i rnw'sn
7W2M
Fax 202 228286
(ax 713672 5777
'jonywanafe
iMZnrtau
lOsttn
| 6/4
Ready for a
hurricane?
Tuesday was the official start of the
Atlantic hurricane season.
If you have not prepared a plan for what
your family will do if a hurricane threat-
ens this area, you already are behind the
curve.
Forecasters are predicting an active sea-
son. They typically do. It’s better to be
guilty of overestimating than underesti-
mating, we suppose.
The fact is, predictions are more useful
as distractions than planning tools.
The only rational bet is that a hurricane
will happen, and it will be the worst the
world has ever seen. You need to plan
accordingly.
You need to decide what you will do if
local authorities call for an evacuation.
You need to consider whether you have
the means to evacuate, or whether you
will need help doing that. Most cities in
the area offer some sort assistance for .
people who can’t get themselves out of
harm's way.
You need to know what you’ll do with
pets or other animals in your care.
Don't plan to leave them behind. Far too
many people did that during Hurricane
Ike. A lot of animals died alone arid terri-
fied because of it.
Those that survived created one more
problem for emergency responders to deal
with.
Some cities will evacuate you and your
pets, some will not. Now is the time to
determine the case where you live.
If you own property and never have « lining — without letting them perform
bearing the writer's signature.
An address and phone num-
ber not for publication should
be included. All letters and
guest columns are subject to
editing, and The Sun reserves
the right to refuse to publish any
fe
BPC CEO Tony Hayward recently
complained he wanted his life back. As
my family and friends back home in
Louisiana put it, that’s a gobsmack. He
wants his life back? The 11 people need-
lessly killed in the BP oil spill would like
their lives back. Mr. Hayward. In the
sense you mean, so would those injured,
and so would the millions in the Gulf
region whose health is threatened and
livelihood crippled by your company's
negligence.
We want our lives back. sir. How will spill in American history.
■ ' ‘ ' 1 GNO has also promised to engage a
'798.000 gallons of oil's day spewing into third party to create an assessment proce-
the delicate but vital ecosystem that is dure. This procedure should prevent any
the Gulf of Mexico? And don't you dare responsible party, be it BP or the federal
call the explosion an accident when, as government, from denying economic
In a recent press release, GNO
President and CEO Michael Hecht made
important observations that bear repeat-
the strongest inghere:
• For slow-moving events like an oil
leak, “it is important to start measuring
early, when the impacts and evidence are
to gather empirical as opposed to
just theoretical data."
• It is important to consider not Only
losses to date but also the net present
value of future losses; for example,
future tourism losses due to damage to
the New Orleans brand.
• Data is important in grounding
requests for assistMCe, (As a counter
required sohd.'s’ta'ti.st?cal infbr- example. Louisiana's request for $200
• • • - ■ • ■ billion in post-Katrina federal aid was
big on ideas but lacked financial under-
irganized. This lack of information, pinning).
....r.btr.cd with the erowin- “Katrina * Estimating loss is complex. For the
fatigue” inside the Washington beltway °*' 'eak. challenges include understand-
,—l -» j: i— 4i----ing the exact amount of oil leaked, the
toxicity and effects of oil dispersants,
and the persistence of the oil and oil
residues in the marshes and on the
beaches, which may not be known for
years.
None of us will ever forget the devas-
tation, the horror and the humiliation of
hurricane Katrina. We all Want our lives
to return to normal. As a first step, BP
can help ensure we can foot the bills for
the losses we have suffered.
Donna Brazile is a political commen-
tator on CNN. ABC and NPR; contribut-
ing columnist to Roll Call, the newspa-
per of Capitol Hill: and former cam-
This is a story that should be a warning
to Americans, regardless of political
party, because it dramatically illustrates
what pre-eminent civil liberties attorney
Harvey Silverglate documents in his cur-
rent book. “Three Felonies A Day: How
the Feds Target the Innocent"
(Encounter Books) by means of the
ever-increasing broad and vague federal
laws that allow prosecutors to “pin
arguable federal crimes
"n any °ne ot us- c'cn
for the most seenunglv
innocuous bchax lor"
Consider what hap-
| pened to an unem-
ployed American.
Bruce Shore, because
NAT of e-mails he sent to the
HENTOFF website of Kentucky
Sen. Jim Bunntng
(Republican). I suggest you keep in mind
what Irving Brant wrote in my bible.
"The Bill of Rights: Its Origin and
Meaning” (Mentor. New American
Library):
"Men (and women) are truly free only
when they do not have to ask themselves
whether they are free.”
As reported by Arthur Delaney
(“Bruce Shore. Unemployed
Philadelphia Man. Indicted For
‘Harassing Email to Jim Bunning" (huff-
ingtonpost.com. May 25), Shore, watch-
ing the Senate in inaction on C-Span.
. was angered when Bunning complained
that. gosh, he has missed the Kentucky-
South Carolina basketball game because
he had to be in Congress to debate an
unemployment benefits bill. (Bunning's
contribution by being there was to delay
the bill from being voted on.)
“I was livid, 1 was just livid.” recalled
the 51-year-old jobless Shore. “I'm on
unemployment, so it affects me.")
Here is part of his Feb. 26 messages to
Bunning staffers: “Are you’all insane.
No checks equal no food for me. IX)
YOU GET IT?"
The next month. FBI agents came call-
ing to Shore’s home in Philadelphia.
They read him excerpts from his citizen's
complaints and asked whether he was the
author, which Shore readily admitted.
Apparently these agents had heard
something about the First Amendment,
and told this indignant American. "All
right, we just wanted to make sure it was-
n't anything to worry about."
But the ever-vigilant Obama adminis-
tration’s executive branch was not satis-
fied. On May 13, Delaney writes, U.S.
Marshals appeared at Shore's door and
handed him a grand jury indictment.
(James Madison, the father of the First
Amendment, had insisted that “the great
right” of freedom of speech must be
placed beyond the reach of any branch of
government. But that was then.)
This is the indictment that forced
Shore into federal court. The language is
that of Communications Act of 1934
(FDR's time) as amended and updated to
include electronic messages in the
Telecommunications Act of 1996
(including the Communications Decency
Act) sighed into law by President Bill
Clinton.
Bruce Shore, unemployed for the past
two years and recently the recipient of
his final unemployment check, is
accused thusly by his government:
Shore "did utilize a telecommunica-
tions device, that is a computer, whether
or not communication ensued, without
disclosing his identity and with the intent
to annoy, abuse, threaten, and harass any
person who received the communica-
tion."
Any person. Even if Bruce had chosen
to be anonymous, the Feds, as I shall
show in a future column, could have
tracked him. So this case should also be
a constitutional test of anonymous First
Amendment speech. This dragnet federal
statute, without protest from Obama and
Attorney General Eric Holder, states that
if you intend to "annoy” or "harass any
person" by exercising speech, you will
be hauled into court.
If found guilty. Shore could be impris-
oned for up to two years in prison and a
maximum fine of $250,000.
This has largely been a passive citizen-
ry as the Constitution is being razed dur-
ing these last 9-. years. But maybe
Citizen Shore. Harvey Silverglate. and
another crucial book. “In the Name of
Justice", can arouse more Americans in
self-defense — to ask themselves — as
Judge Alex Kozmski does in one of the
sections, whether they arc also federal
criminals Not yet indicted
Actually, says this unusually straight-
forward judge, “most Americans are
criminals and don't know it"
Nat Hcntotf is a nationally renowned
authority on the hnd Amendment and the
Bill of Rights
(truth No. 2), disheartened those whose
livelihoods had been destroyed or placed
on hold.
Many Gulf residents believe BP will
do what Washington did immediately
after Katrina stop writing checks or.
worse, write one big one and skip town.
As a former member of the Louisiana
Recovery Authority — the state's agency
responsible for the recovery and rebuild-
ing plans post Katrina, I saw it happen.
Trust me. their fears arc justified.
This time, though, the Greater New
Orleans Foundation (GNO. Inc.) has
already started gathering the empirical
data needed to provide a comprehensive. .
functional overview of the full economic paign manager for Al Gore.
" ‘ _ Z government, from denying economic
The Times-Picayune reported, hours damages, regardless of how long it takes
before your company sent home a team f°r the impact to fully play out.
of experts hired to test the well’s cement The more we can avoid anecdote and
L: l..c 2„... r_.L...1 broad economic modeling in favor of
the test that would have prevented the hard data acquired as the impact unfolds,
spill.
Of the many lessons Hurricane Katrina
taught me. two stand out. First, while .
infrastructure damage can be quickly promised by BP officials,
and easily measured, measuring the true “ “ “~—
economic impact of a disaster is a com-
plex, often years-long process.
Second, in time even tu“
entity (be it the federal government, non-
profit agencies, or. in this case. BP) wea-
ries of its responsibility for a disaster and early,
begins to shift blame arid minimize dam- fresh,
ages.
Taken in combination, these two truths
delivered a knockout punch to business-
es in Gulf coastal areas. When. post-
Katrina. Congress considered legislation
that would compensate for business and
other losses the “soft cost” of a catas-
trophe — it gave people hope. But
Congress j- --1 —■-
mation. and the information gathered
Was always anecdotal, piecemeal and
unor_ ‘
combined with the growing “Katrina
Hurricane Katrina’s
big picture lessons
for President Obama
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Halter, Janie. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 111, Ed. 1 Friday, June 4, 2010, newspaper, June 4, 2010; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1193060/m1/4/: accessed July 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.