The Times-Picayune reports that more than three years after Hurricane Katrina, nearly 6,500 privately owned, federally-subsidized apartments sit unrepaired in the state of Louisiana. Most -- about 4,000 -- are in the New Orleans area.

In New Orleans, many of these apartments were built during the 1960s and 1970s, and were subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in a federal effort to create more low-income housing by giving private developers low-interest, federally insured loans. According to The Times-Picayune:

Before the storm, the apartments made up nearly 5 percent of the city's total rental stock and about 40 percent of the subsidized housing affordable to extremely low-income residents, according to PolicyLink, a nonprofit housing research organization.

HUD did not provide detailed data on the number or status of all the subsidized rental properties, but information the agency gave politicians, researchers and housing advocacy groups suggests that about 800 of the apartments have reopened while 4,000 remain closed.
…
But it's difficult to be exact, because the information coming from HUD is incomplete and hard to get.

“It's like it's the biggest secret in the universe,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu, whose office has tried, unsuccessfully, to get detailed data from HUD about these properties.

Housing advocates are demanding that HUD take a more active role in reopening the affordable apartments, half of which were occupied by senior citizens, reports The Times-Picayune. Since HUD has yet to release a definitive plan that outlines which properties will reopen and which will not, and why, and since the properties are owned by a long list of private owners, it’s difficult to determine who's doing what, reports the Times-Picayune.

Facing South has reported on the affordable housing crisis facing many New Orleans residents. Hurricane Katrina damaged or destroyed nearly 52,000 rental units in the city and the homeless population has doubled to about 12,000 since the hurricane. The bureaucratic delays and the lack of progress on these private, federally-subsidized properties represent yet another a major barrier to rebuilding and providing housing for thousands of people in need.

Housing advocates underscore that instead of supplying affordable housing, some of the large apartment complexes now present a massive blight issue. Before Katrina, the subsidized apartments were a key strategy for housing the poor -- but without these rentals thousands of working poor, disabled and elderly people still live with relatives or struggle to pay steep post-Katrina rent.

Moreover, thousands of low-income households have been unable to return to HUD-assisted properties in New Orleans as many low-income tenants continue to face bureaucratic nightmares and delays. As The Times-Picayune reports:

Unlike residents of public housing complexes, renters in the HUD-subsidized apartment complexes dealt only with private landlords, and have had trouble figuring out where to get help within the FEMA-HUD bureaucracies, said Laura Tuggle from New Orleans Legal Assistance. As a result, about one-third of the HUD-subsidized renters she sees have no housing aid. And it's now too late for them to seek disaster-related rental help, she said. “Every day that passes is another day that a former HUD-assisted family sits on pins and needles, not knowing when their housing assistance may end,” she wrote to HUD in July.

Labels: affordable housing, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, HUD, louisiana, new orleans, public housing, section 8

A new report from the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank, shows that fewer working-age Americans are being covered under employer-sponsored health plans. In the briefing paper, The Erosion of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance, EPI explains that employer coverage for workers and their families dropped for the seventh consecutive year.

“Public programs like Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program help children and low-income adults,” Eric Griego, executive director at New Mexico Voices for Children, told the Associated Press, “but there’s little out there for middle-income workers who can't get or afford coverage through work.”

About 62.9 % of Americans under the age of 65 were covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2007, over 3 million fewer than in 2000, according to the report. Since 2000, the number of uninsured workers has grown by 4.1 million workers. In total, about 45 million Americans under 65 are without health insurance coverage. Because of the large declines in employer-provided health insurance, workers and their families are becoming uninsured at alarming rates.

Some other findings from the briefing:

• The lowest coverage rates were found in New Mexico (50.7%), Texas (53.5%), and Mississippi (53.7%).
• Forty-one states experienced significant losses in coverage.
• South Carolina had the biggest drop in coverage at 7.6 percent. Missouri, North Carolina, and Maryland also experienced losses in excess of 7 percentage points.
• Some 217,000 fewer children are receiving employer-based health care in Texas, a drop of 7.4 percent.
• Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana covered less than half their children with employer-provided health insurance.
• Disparities exist in employer-provided health coverage based on race. Employer-sponsored coverage for Hispanics was much lower than for whites. In 2007, 41.4 percent of Hispanics under age 65 had health insurance through their employers, compared with nearly 71 percent of whites.
  

The EPI report explains that many Americans are falling through the growing gulf between employer-sponsored health insurance coverage and government-run health programs.

Report author and economist Elise Gould told the AP that the decline of employer health care is likely to continue in 2008, due to the economic downturn and health care cost increases that continue to drive up insurance rates and affect small businesses. “The health care problem has reached a critical level,” Gould said. “Bold new solutions need to be considered to address the growing crisis.” She underscores that “a universal system, one that provides a minimum standard of care to everyone, would provide Americans with access to the type of health care appropriate for the most prosperous nation in the world.”

Labels: arkansas, health care, health disparities, louisiana, mississippi, South Carolina, texas

The debate over the use of Social Security matches by states to verify new voters is still roiling.

As Facing South reported, last week the Social Security Administration issued a high-profile letter to six states -- including Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina -- questioning the "extraordinarily high" number of requests to match newly-registered voters with Social Security information. The New York Times followed with a widely-circulated story describing the match process as "illegal."

But state elections officials fired back, saying the high number of checks are entirely understandable given the explosion of new registrations that states are legally required to quickly verify. On Friday, the National Association of Secretaries of State weighed in with a statement [MS Word] arguing that the Social Security matches were legally required by the Help America Vote Act:

This is not a last-resort option, as some reports have claimed. For eligible voters who do not have a valid state driver’s license or who choose to provide only the last four digits of their Social Security number, election officials are required to try and match their data against Social Security records.

The NASS also pointed out that no voters are purged from the rolls from a bad match -- it's a check run before new names are added to the rolls when information is missing or wrongly filled out by the voter. When that happens, "election officials try to reach out to the applicant and correct the problem."

Gary Bartlett of the North Carolina State Board of Elections pointed out that, at least in NC, a bad match also doesn't stop voters from casting a ballot:

Those whose numbers were flagged can still vote if they provide identification either before the election, at the polls, or within 10 days after the election ... [Social Security match problems are] "not going to disenfranchise anyone."

Due to the controversy, however, Bartlett did announce that NC would be stopping the checks except in the case of those who couldn't provide a valid driver's license .

Officials got some backup from Bob Hall of the voting rights group Democracy North Carolina. In a statement last week, he noted that most registration problems come from improperly filled-out registration forms:

Forms are submitted that are incomplete or partly illegible; they are submitted without the person’s signature or without any identification number. In our experience, Social Security numbers are often provided, rather than the driver’s license number, so it is not surprising that out of 700,000 new registrations in the past year in North Carolina, the Social Security administration’s computers would receive a large volume to match.

In at least a couple instances, the Social Security Administration does seem to have a point. For example, according to their data Georgia has made nearly 2 million match requests since October 1, 2007. Yet the state has only registered 406,000 new voters this year -- suggesting that some of those matches weren't only for new voters, as federal law instructs. Georgia's Deputy Secretary of State responded that "I would dispute those figures."

The upshot? The Georgia numbers, if correct, would suggest there can be problems with the over-zealous or improper use of Social Security voter checks. The New York Times also describes other ways the matches may be improperly applied.

But it's also clear that the Social Security checks -- especially after the public outcry -- are unlikely to bar any sizable number of legitimate new voters from participating. As state election officials have noted, it also points to the need for greater clarification and refinement of our country's ever-evolving election system, especially on the hot issues of registering and verifying new voters.

Labels: democracy north carolina, Election 2008, new york times, social security administration, voter registration

Our in-depth report on Wachovia's curious $8 million bailout loan to the National Republican Congressional Committee -- while the bank is denying credit and loans to thousands of other regular customers -- is starting to make waves.

Facing South got more than 10,500 page views yesterday and the story was a #1 recommended diary for hours at DailyKos. We are now getting calls from major media about the story.

It's a complex story with lots of pieces -- but to recap, the main findings of our investigation were:

* That nearly-failed Wachovia was extending an $8 million bailout loan to the cash-strapped National Republican Congressional Committee to finance last-minute election activities to help GOP House candidates.

* That Wachovia was giving this bailout to the NRCC even as it was denying credit and freezing assets to thousands of small businesses, individuals and institutions including nearly 1,000 colleges who urgently need the money for salaries and other costs.

* What's more, the loan was made while Wachovia was in the middle of a buyout deal backed by U.S. taxpayers. The FDIC had promised to absorb all losses over $42 billion from Wachovia's takeover by Citigroup; their likely buyout by Wells Fargo now was only possible because of the promise of federal backing.

* Wachovia's decision was especially suspect given that the NRCC has a history as a bad client for Wachovia -- the NRCC had just gone through one of the biggest political financial scandals in history, hadn't done an audit since 2003 and didn't pay back their 2006 Wachovia loan until this spring.

* Given all these factors, charges of favoritism are fueled by Wachovia's political leanings: Wachovia's main PAC has given 62% of its contributions to Republicans this year. Wachovia's new President and CEO, Robert Steel, is a former Republican appointee who has given 95% of his nearly $100,000 in political donations to Republicans over the last three election cycles.

Here are some quick updates to the story:

* One item we didn't draw out in the piece: The NRCC was an especially odd choice for a Wachovia loan given that they only have $14 million in the bank, which they plan to spend ASAP. That means their loan for $8 million was more than half their entire cash on hand, and their cash on hand is shrinking fast.

* The financial press gets it : We're not the only ones who think it's a little odd that a nearly-failed bank that's denying credit to most customers would give a loan to the NRCC. CFO.com, a leading online business website, reports on Wachovia's loan to the NRCC in a piece titled "What Funding Freeze? Some Firms Get Theirs."

* The NRCC is still having to pull back on ads: More evidence of their shaky financial position. As Politico reports:

The National Republican Congressional Committee, after reserving advertising time in 26 Congressional districts, has begun to cancel or dramatically scale back some of its ad reservations across the country. Many of the hardest-hit candidates are among the GOP’s leading challengers.

Affected races include GOP candidates in Florida, Minnesota, Nevada and New Mexico.

Labels: bailout, Election 2008, facing south, financial crisis, investigative reporting, national republican congressional committee, nrcc, wachovia

America Betrayed, directed by Leslie Cardé, currently in limited U.S. theatrical release

Academy Award winning actor Richard Dreyfuss narrates America Betrayed, the feature documentary written, directed, and produced by filmmaker Leslie Cardé. This film places the spotlight front and center on the specific ways in which the U.S. government contributes to, and profits from disasters both here and abroad. From 9/11, to the war in Iraq, to the levee failures in Hurricane Katrina, America Betrayed follows the money, and the path leads straight back to the hallowed halls of Congress the profits straight into the pockets of those with ties to the government.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer review:

Three years after the levee failures in New Orleans, five years after we entered into a war in Iraq, and seven years post- 9/11, there are some disturbing parallels to be drawn between the government's post-disaster responses. With a new regime slated to descend upon Washington in the next few months, will the growing rise of disaster capitalism, in which private enterprise benefits from public disasters, continue to spread its ugly tentacles? Or can we expect a sea change in policy? Will the backroom insider dealing abate, or will it be business as usual?

At first glance, there may seem to be little in the way of common denominators between the aforementioned catastrophes that caused so much structural damage here and abroad. But, scratch the surface, and the post-disaster profiteering becomes readily apparent.

In the wake of the drowning of New Orleans, at the hands of the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. government handed out no-bid contracts for everything from reconstruction of levees to post-Katrina security largely to its corporate friends. While many in the Corps have been busy patting themselves on the back for the reengineered levees that survived Hurricane Gustav, to date, only one-eighth of the failing floodwalls have been rebuilt. Chalk up the survival of New Orleans this time around more to good fortune than to a timely and well-engineered flood-protection plan in place.

In point of fact, that city's reconstruction of levees and pumps, to date, has been riddled with waste, fraud and abuse, and the buck stops with the feds, and their wingmen . . . the Army Corps. The shameless manner in which lucrative contracts are handed out has benefited only a privileged few, and in many cases those special-interest groups have been the culprits in substandard manufacturing. Unpainted outflow pipes were delivered to the city, and they quickly rusted. Blue-roof tarps, put in place to keep rainwater out of people's homes temporarily, became one big boondoggle, perpetrated by corporate America, as contractor after contractor subbed the jobs out, collecting monies over and over again from FEMA. And who's minding the store when it comes to oversight on the spending of reconstruction dollars?

Both John McCain and Barack Obama have charged that $2 billion of funds given to contractors post-Katrina is missing. And while both candidates feel that the neglect of New Orleans at the federal level has been "shameful," there has been no disagreement that many Bush insiders have profited from that city's unraveling.
But this, sadly, is nothing new. The same companies leading the charge of disaster-capitalism post-Katrina, were very familiar with the scenario - they were already rebuilding the infrastructure in Iraq.

Corporate America has cashed in to the tune of tens of billions of dollars with no-bid contracts, post-Katrina, post-9/11, and with the rebuilding of Iraq. And, it seems, the only real losers here are the American people. Missing cleanup cash in New Orleans pales in comparison with the $8 billion the Government Accounting Office has deemed missing in Iraq.

For more information visit the website here. To contact writer and director Leslie Cardé, email americabetrayed@gmail.com.

Labels: cinema fridays, disaster capitalism, documentary, iraq war, new orleans

Indigenous communities across areas of Louisiana hit hardest by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike still remain in dire need of services. In United Houma Nation Principal Chief Brenda Dardar Robichaux' latest dispatch, she recounts the continuing problems plaguing coastal tribal communities and how the federal response has not been sufficient. As Chief Robichaux explains:

Each week of our recovery period brings new problems and new challenges. One month after hurricanes Gustav and Ike has had an impact on our communities, our current dilemma is to find adequate housing for our people. Although FEMA has offered vouchers for temporary emergency housing, this does little good. With no available rentals and hotel rooms taken up by representatives of the oil and gas industry, people have no where to turn. Our families cannot leave the area because of their jobs and because of their children’s need to return to school. Thus, we have tribal citizens living in storage containers, tents, homes with a considerable amount of wind damage and most frequently in small homes with multiple families. FEMA needs to do more!

Many families along the bayou communities earn their living in the traditional lifestyle of fisherman. Where most people live check to check, fishermen live catch to catch. With the high cost of fuel, ice and supplies, along with the extremely low price they are being paid for their catch and the influx of imported seafood, it is very difficult for our fisherman families to earn a living. It will be quite sometime before they will be able to recover from the damaging effects of hurricane Gustav and Ike.
…
In some cases, the flooding and wind damage was worse that it was from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; for others this year's storms have made their ongoing struggle to recover since 2005 even more brutal. Before Gustav, some people were still living in FEMA trailers. Others, over the past three years, had waded through state and federal bureaucracy to try to apply for funding to rebuild or elevate their homes, only to be turned away and left to confront the wrath of another storm.

(Photo from United Houma Nation website)

Labels: coastal communities, hurricane gustav, hurricane ike, indigenous cultures, United Houma Nation

Public Policy Polling has an interesting new study out that bucks the media storyline about why Barack Obama is making gains in Southern states like Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.

Obama has galvanized African-American and young voters. But what has put those states within striking distance for the Democrats is that Obama is also gaining among whites:

The conventional wisdom is that Barack Obama is doing so well this year due to the likelihood of increased turnout and support from black voters and young voters. Those things are certainly important, but a strong majority of Obama’s gains relative to Democratic performance in 2004, even in the South, can be attributed to increased support from white voters.

The evidence is compelling. For example, PPP looks at Obama's strong showing in North Carolina polls. Part of that can be attributed to a boost in African-American voters, which PPP estimates will increase from 19% of the total NC electorate to 21% this year (which agrees with our analysis).

But that can only account for about 5 points of Obama's gain in NC over John Kerry's performance in 2004. The rest has come from non-black voters [pdf]:

That means Obama has picked up roughly five points based on increased black turnout and support for the Democratic candidate compared to 2004. But he’s polling right now 18 points better in the state than John Kerry did. Where’s all that extra support coming from? [...]

[There's a] 13 point reduction of the deficit for the Democrat among white voters compared to 2004. So while Obama’s 5% increase from black voters is important, 2/3rds of his improved standing can be attributed to shifts in voting preferences among whites in North Carolina at this point.

PPP finds the same pattern in Virginia. In VA, PPP estimates [pdf] Obama has gained 16 points among whites over Kerry in 2004, and just 2 points with African-American voters.

Florida, a state with much different demographics, is a little different. Obama has gained 3 points among whites, 2 among Latinos and 2 among blacks -- according to PPP, "meaning his increased standing in Florida relative to 2004 is pretty well dispersed across racial lines in the state’s electorate."

So what's pushing Southern white voters to say they might vote for Obama? PPP's analysis [pdf]:

Economy, Economy, Economy. Among white voters in North Carolina who list it as their top issue Obama is actually up 48-46. In Florida Obama has the same 48-46 lead with whites most concerned about the economy. In Virginia it’s a 49-46 advantage.

Labels: african-american voters, barack obama, economy, Election 2008, Florida, john mccain, north carolina, polls, virginia, white voters

UPDATE: A version of this story is now the top-ranked diary at DailyKos -- go visit for more information and discussion

Wachovia Corp., a once-thriving financial giant now teetering on the brink of collapse, confirmed today that it was extending an $8 million loan to the cash-strapped National Republican Congressional Committee for last-minute activities to support GOP House candidates.

Wachovia's decision to lend money to the NRCC -- itself reeling from a damaging financial scandal earlier this year -- is sure to draw charges of favoritism, as Wachovia denies credit and freezes assets for thousands of other customers.

Allegations of favoritism are especially delicate for Wachovia, given the disproportionate support of Republican campaigns and organizations by the company's leadership.

What's more, Wachovia's loan to the NRCC comes as Wachovia awaits the outcome of precarious buyout negotiations which have relied on federal backing -- inviting questions over the political activities of companies whose survival depend on public support.

WACHOVIA'S BIG FALL

In a year of spectacular finance industry failures, the fall of Wachovia Corp. -- the 4th-biggest bank in the country -- was one of the biggest. This past July, Wachovia announced staggering 2nd-quarter losses totaling over $9 billion -- the second-largest bank losses in history. The crisis forced the financial giant to slash over 11,000 jobs and cut $2 billion in expenses.

Wachovia's economic tailspin this year also caused them to drastically cut back on making loans. By July 2008, Wachovia branches were turning down most loan requests that came across their desk, as The New York Times reported:

Banks struggling to recover from multibillion-dollar losses on real estate are curtailing loans to American businesses, depriving even healthy companies of money for expansion and hiring. [...]

Drew Greenblatt, president of Marlin Steel Wire Products, figured it would be easy to get a $300,000 bank loan to finance a new robot for his factory in Baltimore. His company, which makes parts for makers of home appliances, is growing and profitable, he said. His expansion would add three new jobs to an economy hungry for work.

But when Greenblatt called the local branch of Wachovia -- the same bank that had been aggressively marketing loans to him for years -- he was distressed by the response.

"The exact words were, 'We're saying no to almost everybody,'" Greenblatt recalled. [emphasis added]

But Wachovia hadn't hit bottom yet. For the next three months, stock prices kept falling and losses mounted. By the time Washington Mutual failed on September 25, investors had lost all faith in Wachovia, too. Wachovia faced a "silent run" as businesses and institutions began pulling out vast sums of money.

The possibility of total collapse was so real that the FDIC, for the first time ever, used its authority to prevent a failure that could pose a "systemic risk" to the financial system by forcing Wachovia into a rescue buyout by Citigroup.

Wachovia's dramatic fall -- and uncertainty around the Citi buyout -- has forced it to further slash access to capital and credit. In a widely-publicized move, Wachovia announced days later that it was freezing the short-term accounts of nearly 1,000 colleges who invested in the Commonfund -- generating panic at campuses nation-wide, as the Chronicle of Higher Education reported:

The move has left 900 institutions unable to get access to billions of dollars they depend on for salaries, campus construction, and debt payments.

Making matters worse, Wachovia's situation has grown even more precarious over the last week, as the FDIC-engineered buyout by Citi fell apart amid a storm of lawsuits after rival Wells Fargo made a counter-offer for Wachovia's takeover.

BAILING OUT THE NRCC

It was in this context that yesterday, in a little-noticed item in Roll Call (and noted by Chris Bowers at OpenLeft), that it was announced that the National Republican Congressional Committee had obtained an $8 million loan from Wachovia to help out House Republican candidates in the final weeks of the 2008 elections:

The National Republican Congressional Committee, trailing its Democratic counterpart considerably in cash on hand, has secured an $8 million loan to spend on House races during the last few weeks of the campaign, according to sources.

The NRCC reported $14.4 million in cash on hand as of Aug. 31, compared to $54 million in the bank for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. As it did last cycle, the NRCC is procuring its loan from Wachovia Bank, sources confirmed.

The announcement that Wachovia is throwing a lifeline to the RNCC for the home stretch of the 2008 elections is remarkable for several reasons.

First, the timing -- shortly after Wachovia had cut off credit to nearly 1,000 colleges and in the middle of precarious and bitterly-contested buyout negotiations -- is a PR problem and financially risky for a company that is still on financial life support.

Wachovia's loan also raises questions about the political involvements of businesses that get the support of the federal government.

In the Citigroup buyout arrangement, the FDIC has agreed to absorb any losses Citi may incur beyond $42 billion -- and therefore ensuring Wachovia's ability to operate and make loans. Financial analyst Karen Petrou described the federal government's central role on the radio show MarketPlace:

[The FDIC-arranged Citigroup buyout of Wachovia] is not a private sector transaction. This is a government rescue.

In order to get Citi to buy Wachovia, the FDIC promised to shoulder most of the potential losses. There are a lot of them. Wachovia purchased a California lender in 2006, which was riddled with bad mortgages. That's added to what is now $312 billion in loans on Wachovia's balance sheet.

Citi is at risk for only $42 billion of that portfolio. The rest of the $312 [billion] goes to the FDIC. [emphasis added]

Since the FDIC first pushed the Citigroup buyout, rival Wells Fargo stepped forward with an alternative proposal that doesn't include federal backing. Citi and Wells Fargo are still trying to iron out a compromise.

But the Citi deal is still one the table. And most importantly, it's only due to the FDIC's promise of support that Wachovia is alive at all, as New York Times business writer Steven Davidoff observes:

According to an affidavit of Wachovia’s chief executive, Robert K. Steel, Wachovia would have filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 29 without some kind of government assistance. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation arranged to support the Citi transaction on an open bank assistance basis. [...]

It is uncertain whether Citi would have stepped up to the plate to acquire Wachovia without this assistance. From the affidavit of Mr. Steel filed with the federal court over the weekend, it appears that Wells Fargo initially stated that it would not.

By providing this assistance, the F.D.I.C. allowed Wachovia to survive as a whole entity outside bankruptcy.

In other words, Wachovia is only able to operate and make loans today because the federal government has its back. That Wachovia would turn around and use its financial position to bolster the NRCC at a critical moment in the 2008 elections raises the specter of public resources and influence being used to serve partisan ends.

A TROUBLED CLIENT

Finally, Wachovia's extraordinary move to help the NRCC now is especially interesting given that the NRCC has been a troubling client for Wachovia in the past.

Wachovia also gave the RNCC a loan for $9 million in 2006 (which it didn't pay back until March 2008). But shortly after receiving the loan, the NRCC was wracked by an embarrassing and widely-publicized financial scandal.

In what The Washington Post would describe as "the biggest campaign swindle ever recorded," evidence emerged of widespread financial improprieties. The FBI was brought in to investigate.

It was eventually revealed that the NRCC's Treasurer, Christopher Ward, had embezzled as much as $725,000. Among other misdeeds, to cover up his tracks Ward and the NRCC submitted forged audit reports to Wachovia in 2006 to obtain their loan.

But it wasn't just one bad apple: As Politico reported in February, the problem stemmed from years of financial mismanagement at the NRCC:

The accounting scandal now haunting the National Republican Congressional Committee was preceded by a series of decisions over the past decade to relax internal financial controls at the committee, according to numerous Republican sources familiar with the NRCC’s operations during those years.

As of this spring, the NRCC had failed to conduct an independent audit since 2003.

The NRCC says it has since reorganized and cleaned up its financial systems. But others seeking loans from Wachovia – including those now being denied credit or see their assets frozen – may wonder if they’d be given a similar second chance.

REPUBLICAN CONNECTIONS

The possibility that the NRCC may have benefited from favoritism at Wachovia, especially given the precarious position of both parties, is particularly relevant given the political leanings of Wachovia's leadership.

Like most financial companies, Wachovia spreads its political giving to both parties. But in 2008, Wachovia's PAC contributions to Republicans have been nearly double that given to Democrats. According to campaign finance reports at OpenSecrets.org, 62% of contributions in 2008 from Wachovia's biggest PAC went to Republican candidates and 38% to Democrats.

Wachovia's newly-installed CEO, Robert K. Steel, is also a major supporter of the Republican Party. A North Carolina native, Steel in 2006 was appointed by President Bush to serve as Under Secretary of Domestic Finance in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he served from October 2006 to July 2008. In July 2008, Steel resigned from the Treasury and was named President and CEO of Wachovia.

According to OpenSecrets.org, Steel has contributed $99,600 to candidates and parties in the 2004, 2006 and 2008 election cycles. Of those contributions, $94,600 -- 95% -- have gone to Republicans and only 5% to Democrats, and that includes a $1,000 donation to Democrat John Edwards that was returned.

Steel's contributions to Republicans include a $25,000 gift to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a $10,000 donation to John McCain's Straight Talk America PAC in 2006. All of Steel's 2008 donations have been to GOP candidates.

None of these facts prove that Wachovia's loan to the NRCC was politically motivated. But given the grim financial circumstances facing both parties -- and the central role of the federal government in Wachovia's fragile future -- it certainly raises lots of questions.

Labels: campaign finance, Election 2008, financial crisis, loans, national republican congressional committee, robert steel, wachovia

According to observers, Greenville, S.C. today looks like a ghost town. The Associated Pres reports that when federal agents swooped into the local meat processing plant earlier this week, arresting 330 suspected illegal immigrants, six of them juveniles, they effectively shut down the factory and tore apart the close-knit community. While families wait to hear from loved ones at detention centers, businesses and streets were vacant because those not rounded up stayed home, afraid agents would return.

The climate of fear is a story shared by many towns coming under the recent onslaught of immigration raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in states throughout the South. There have been several mass arrests of suspected illegal immigrants in the South in recent months. In August, the largest raid in U.S. history occurred in a manufacturing plant in Mississippi, in which almost 600 workers were detained on suspicion of violations of immigration laws.

In other immigration news, the Texas Border Coalition, a coalition of cities, counties, chambers of commerce, and economic development corporations representing some 2 million border residents, has released an analysis of the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that shows the number of immigrants illegally crossing the Rio Grande in Texas has declined by more than half over the past four years. They point out that the 56 percent decline has occurred even though very little of the Texas border has a fence.

“The Texas Border Coalition has consistently said that border walls and fences won’t work. Illegal crossers go over, under, through and around them. The results demonstrate, again, the facts of our analysis,” said TBC Chairman and Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster in a press release. “In San Diego, where the Border Patrol has erected double fences and walls, the number of illegal crossing has consistently gone up. In Texas, where there is hardly any fence, the number of illegal crossings has gone down significantly.”

The TBC argues that the $50 billion that the border wall and fence will cost America is a waste – to stop the remaining illegal crossings Congress needs to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

Indeed, current U.S. immigration policy – one of heightened immigration raids and border walls – is doing more to create a climate of fear and little to help immigrant workers. In reality, the costly raids end up separating families and tearing up communities, and as we previously reported, border walls result in environmental damage and endanger Texas communities during hurricane seasons.

Labels: border wall, ICE raids, immigration, South Carolina, texas, Texas Border Coalition

USA Today reports that polling places in six battleground states, including many with large minority populations, could be overwhelmed on Nov. 4. That’s according to a new study released by The Advancement Project, a civil rights group based in Washington, D.C. The group found that precincts with large minority populations in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Florida and Michigan need more machines, voting stations and poll workers. Without more resources, thousands of voters could be faced with long waits, give up and go home.

According to USA Today:

Most state and local election officials try to take registration trends into account as well as past turnout, says Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center, which represents those officials. But most machines are purchased far in advance, and only the wealthiest counties can afford to buy or rent more.

The Advancement Project cites Virginia as the potential worst-case scenario. It says, for example, Richmond precincts with large minority populations have 20% more voters per machine than precincts with fewer minorities, and 26% in Alexandria. It has written to Virginia's chief elections officer requesting changes before Election Day.

Allegations of racial disparities were made in this year's primaries and in the 2004 fall election:

• In Virginia's Chesterfield County in February, nine precincts ran short of Democratic ballots, causing long lines. Nearly 300 voters were given scrap paper to cast their ballots, but the state refused to count them.

Labels: Election 2008, virginia, voting rights

More than 2 million Gulf Coast residents were evacuated from their homes as Hurricane Gustav barreled toward Louisiana and Texas. According to the US Human Rights Network, a coalition of more than 250 human rights groups, in the days following the hurricane, tens of thousands of those residents were subjected to violations of their basic human rights, including disparate and discriminatory treatment; inadequate provision of food, water and shelter; and failure to provide for a safe and timely return. 

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, human rights, hurricane gustav, Hurricane Katrina

This week’s large-scale immigration raid at Columbia Farms, a chicken processing plant near Greenville, S.C, where more than 300 were arrested, is just the latest in a stepped-up federal enforcement effort that has resulted in the deportation of thousands of illegal workers in recent months, reports the L.A. Times.

The disruption to families and communities remains a huge issue. Alternet reports this week that Northern Virginia is one of the places where the immigration debate has been the most heated. With aggressive local policies such as ones requiring law enforcement to inquire about the immigration status of people who are arrested, the Latino population in the city of Manassas and Prince William County has plummeted. 

Labels: ICE raids, immigration, virginia

Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic today notes a crucial development in the presidential campaign:

The Obama campaign's top two field generals have decamped to Florida, a sign of its confidence that the state, with 27 electoral votes, is tilting toward the Democratic candidate.

Steve Hildebrand, the deputy campaign manager, will oversee operations from Miami, and Paul Tewes, the chief general election strategist, will help supervise the get-out-the-vote program from the campaign's state headquarters in Tampa. [...]

Both will work with Obama state director Steve Schale, who has put together the biggest field team ever field by a party, Republican or Democratic. There are more than 50 open field offices and more than 10,000 active volunteers. In addition, the Obama campaign is outspending McCain on television in the expensive state by a factor of five to one, records show.

Polls show that out of the three big Southern swing states -- Florida, North Carolina and Virginia -- Florida is the one that has most decisively turned in Obama's favor in the last three weeks. The state's 27 Electoral College votes also make it an especially coveted prize.

But chronic problems with Florida's election system add risk to this strategy for the Obama camp. As of earlier this week, some 5,000 newly-registered voters had their registrations thrown out due to the state's controversial "no-match" rule.

The state's massive disenfranchisement of ex-felons -- a key factor in Gore's loss in 2000 -- was eased with new rules by Gov. Crist that allowed 112,000 ex-felons to vote, but as of late September only 9,000 ex-felons had registered because the changes were poorly publicized.

And then there are the ongoing snafus like the 3,500 missing ballots in Palm Beach County last month which reversed a judicial election and led citizens to call for the removal of the county elections supervisor.

As Ambinder notes, Florida "holds mythic attraction for some Obama staffers" -- a state that seems just within grasp, but after 2000 a state where others fear Democratic dreams could just as easily die.

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, Florida, john mccain, marc ambinder, the atlantic

The McCain and Obama presidential campaigns continue to spend massively in the three Southern swing states, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.

The Wisconsin Advertising Project reports that the two campaigns spent $28 million on TV ads over the last week -- $17.5 million for Obama, $11 million for McCain.

The numbers show the Obama campaign banking heavily on turning at least one of the Southern states: Florida, Virginia and North Carolina were the 2nd-, 4th- and 6th-biggest recipients, respectively, of Obama's TV ad dollars.

McCain, on the other hand, is investing more in the Midwest and Colorado -- although the McCain camp recently admitted it was pulling out of Michigan, the state that ranked 3rd for McCain's TV dollars last week.

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, Florida, john mccain, north carolina, tv advertising, virginia, wisconsin advertising project

In the rush to help new voters register this year, it seems that the McCain and Obama campaigns, as well as at least one other group aimed at young voters -- Rock the Vote -- have been giving out the wrong voter registration information.

What's more, the bad instructions came from the United States Election Commission website -- and voters in 37 states could be affected.

Liz Scott Monaghan at the Huffington Post reports:

Barack Obama's and John McCain's Web sites, as well as Rock the Vote, help users fill out forms which can be printed out and mailed.

They are conveniently addressed to the potential voter's secretary of state, or an equivalent state office. All the potential voter has to do is add a stamp and mail it off.

Problem is, for at least 37 states, it's the wrong address.

In those states, potential voters are required to send their forms to different locations, usually county registrars.

But the US Election Commission website, on which the others are based, gives the state secretary of state's office or equivalent -- at odds with the proper instructions in 37 states.

According to the HuffPost, states with the wrong information include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. Voter registration has ended in 19 of those states.

For an example of what could happen, there's Louisiana:

In Louisiana, the Secretary of State's Web site and literature specifically warns against sending the forms there, in underlined letters. It directs that they be sent to the parish (county) registrar.

A Louisiana Secretary of State employee said the forms addressed there would be forwarded to the proper registrar, but there was no guarantee they would get there in time to be processed for the presidential election.

But Obama campaign representatives in Louisiana, who realized the error this week, said they planned to contact the office, hoping to assure that incorrectly addressed forms were released to the proper registrar's offices in time.

As the HuffPost also notes, this error will disproportionately affect young, first-time voters -- who heavily favor Obama.

What to do? Check the status of your registration.

Labels: Alabama, louisiana, mississippi, north carolina, Tennessee, texas, virginia, voter registration, voting rights, west virginia

The Associated Press reports today that federal officials are concerned that "extraordinarily high levels" of voter identification checks have been submitted to the Social Security Administration in six states: Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio.

Four are battleground states for the presidential election.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue sent a letter to the states last Friday out of worries that the states were improperly and over-zealously running the indentification requests, potentially disenfranchising voters:

"Such a volume appears to be much greater than one would expect, given that states of comparable or larger populations have a significantly lower number of verification requests," Astrue wrote in his letter to Georgia officials.

With nearly two million requests since Oct. 1, 2007, Georgia has made far more social security number verification requests than any other state, according to the Social Security Administration. Alabama was second with about one million requests.

North Carolina's lead election official, Gary Bartlett, said it shouldn't be cause for concern. The Social Security checks were needed because, due to a large number of out-of-state voters at military bases and college campuses, North Carolina couldn't use driver's licenses and is relying on Social Security matches instead.

But the Social Security Administration wants to make sure this doesn't reflect an overuse of ID checks that could block voters from casting ballots:

Astrue wants the six states that received the letters to make sure their officials are verifying only those new voters who don't have acceptable state-issued identification, in line with their agreements with the agency.

Labels: Alabama, Georgia, north carolina, voting rights

When Hurricane Ike hit the U.S. Gulf Coast last month, it unleashed an environmental disaster, details of which are only now beginning to emerge. The ecological damage gives some indication of what the tropical storm-prone Southeast could face with the expansion of the offshore oil industry.

At least a half-million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the wetlands, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas, according to an Associated Press examination of federal data:

The AP's analysis found that, by far, the most common contaminant left in Ike's wake was crude oil -- the lifeblood and main industry of both Texas and Louisiana. In the week of reports analyzed, enough crude oil was spilled nearly to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and more could be released, officials said, as platforms and pipelines were turned back on.

About half of the crude oil known to be spilled so far came from one facility operated by St. Mary Land and Exploration Co. on Goat Island, Texas, near hard-hit Bolivar Peninsula, the AP reports. Ike's surge flooded the plant and broke the pipes connecting its eight storage tanks, which held oil produced from two wells in Galveston Bay. Most of that oil is believed to have ended up in the Gulf of Mexico, which is already suffering from a massive Dead Zone caused by agrichemical pollution runoff.

Studies on marine species have found that the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons contained in petroleum can remain toxic for many years following an oil spill. Crude oil also contains toxic heavy metals.

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, hurricane ike, offshore drilling, oil industry, oil spills

In the last week, Kay Hagan -- Democratic challenger to Sen. Elizabeth Dole for North Carolina's U.S. Senate seat -- has been hammered by critical robo-calls from two operations: Freedom's Watch, a non-profit founded by GOP operatives in 2007, and the Free Enterprise Alliance, an offshoot of the Associated Builders and Contractors, whose PAC is the third-biggest contributor to Republicans in the country.

But instead of calling North Carolina voters, maybe the anti-Hagan robo-callers need to get on the phone and talk to each other. Because on at least one of the key issues Hagan is being attacked over -- immigration -- the two groups are sending voters a mixed message.

Last week, Freedom's Watch -- which, as a tax-exempt, non-profit 501(c)(4) organization is not legally allowed to coordinate its efforts with a Senate campaign -- started the robo-surge with a call that attacked Hagan for being soft on immigration:

"We all know illegal immigration is a serious problem across America, and in North Carolina, we're playing host to as many as 500,000 illegal aliens," a male voice says. "So what does Kay Hagan think about that? She opposes a program to find, track and deport criminal illegal aliens."

The robo-call ends by telling the listener to call Kay Hagan and tell her "you want her fighting for North Carolinians, not illegal aliens."

But don't pick up the phone just yet -- Hagan's other robo-callers, the Associated Builders and Contractors, probably wouldn't like it.

The ABC has backed a slew of calls that attack Hagan on unions and oil drilling. But with an estimated one out of four construction workers in the country being an immigrant, the ABC has been a fierce opponent of legislation to get tough on immigration.

Indeed, the ABC's official position paper on immigration starts by warning of severe labor shortages thanks to immigrant workers "who face extreme difficulty in becoming citizens or obtaining the necessary work permits."

The ABC goes on to say that:

There are approximately twelve million undocumented [NOTE: A word hated by anti-immigrant groups -- they prefer "illegal"] workers currently employed in the United States, many of whom are performing jobs that most Americans would find undesirable.

The ABC calls for a loosening of "tedious, time-consuming, expensive and largely unsuccessful" H2 visa rules and pushes for a fast path to citizenship for immigrant workers "for the benefit of our members and the industry."

To push this pro-immigrant agenda nationally, the ABC is a leader in the Essential Worker Immigrant Coalition -- a corporate lobbying group that includes the American Nursery and Landscape Association, Golf Course Superintendents Association, National Council of Chain Restaurants and other business groups representing industries highly dependent on immigrants.

The EWIC website is full of pro-immigrant resources, including polls showing that the public thinks "immigration is a good thing," as well as helpful studies with titles like "Underestimating the Value of Less-Educated Workers" and "The Illegal Immigration Effect: The economic impact of unauthorized migrants isn’t as big as you might think."

So if North Carolina voters do call Hagan about immigration, like the first robo-call suggests, whose talking points should they use -- Freedom's Watch or the ABC?

Photo: Kay Hagan

Labels: associated builders and contractors, Election 2008, Elizabeth Dole, essential worker immigrant coalition, freedom's watch, immigration, kay hagan, north carolina, robo-calls

The Christian Science Monitor poses the question this week: could microloans work to revitalize the Gulf Coast in the same way they have worked for poor areas of Africa and Asia?

Three years after Katrina, one-quarter of New Orleans small businesses remain closed. But the return or recovery of small businesses “is essential to the long-term stability of these neighborhoods,” Christy Wallace Slater of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation (LDRF) told the CS Monitor.

In the Institute for Southern Studies recent report, Faith in the Gulf, we reported on the vital work of Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ) and other faith-based groups and funders in community-centered redevelopment work along the Gulf Coast. This latest project by JFSJ is the first person-to-person microloan program in the country, and it will be partnering with contributors nationwide to provide loans to struggling small businesses along the Gulf Coast.

The campaign, called the 8th Degree, will give microloans ranging from $5,000 to $15,000, which will be distributed through the ASI Federal Credit Union (ASI). The JFSJ campaign is modeled on Kiva.org, which enables individuals to give a loan of any size directly to entrepreneurs in the developing world, the campaign aims to enlist individual Americans to do the same for hurricane-ravaged businesses, reports the CS Monitor.

Labels: faith groups, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, jewish funds for justice

The Birmingham News is reporting that less than a month shy of a historic election expected to bring record turnout, there still is confusion which over ex-felons can be excluded from voting in Alabama. State officials have given boards of registrars conflicting lists of felony convictions that bar a person from voting.

According to the Birmingham News:

A statewide computer system for the past 11 months has been noting convictions for more than 400 crimes that Gov. Bob Riley's administration deemed to be felonies of “moral turpitude” - even though officials with the Administrative Office of Courts said they were assured by Riley's office only a shorter list of 70 felonies developed by the attorney general's office were being checked.

Now voting rights advocates are voicing concerns that the computer system is flagging people who should be able to vote and that people have been improperly purged from the voter rolls.

The problem still remains with the extremely murky definition of a crime of “moral turpitude.” Facing South reported that the ACLU sued Alabama elections officials earlier this summer over this overly expansive policy of disenfranchising felons. According to the Alabama State Constitution, people convicted of felony crimes of “moral turpitude” cannot vote until they get their rights restored, but it does not define the term. Alabama Attorney General Troy King in a 2005 opinion named 28 felonies that have by statute or appellate decision been defined as crimes of moral turpitude, but Governor Riley created a list of more than 400 disbarring felonies and gave it to Election Systems & Software, the company hired to create a voter registration database for the state. The Riley list includes crimes ranging from terrorism and homicide to starting a brush fire and drug possession.

The Birmingham News reports that AOC Legal Director Griffin Sikes Jr. said the governor had no legal authority to classify so many crimes as crimes of moral turpitude. Sikes said that, for months, the governor's office had assured the AOC that only the shorter list was being used, but Sikes found out last month those assurances were given “in error.” As of now, crimes on both lists are being flagged by the computer system.

The controversy over the felony lists isn’t the only one of Alabama’s voting procedures being challenged this week, as Facing South noted yesterday. According to the Birmingham News, in Alabama:

One lawsuit also has been filed on the behalf of three former inmates who weren't allowed to register to vote, and another has been filed on behalf of Glasgow's efforts to register inmates to vote absentee. The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law also said last week that it wants to seek records about voter roll purges in Alabama and another dozen states.

Labels: Alabama, felon disenfranchisement, voting rights

Wall Street may be getting a bailout -- but not state unemployment relief funds, which according to Stateline.org are running dry across the country:

Laid off from your job in Tennessee? Good luck getting unemployment checks right away. So many people have been calling the state lately to apply for benefits that callers often can’t get through. “We’re sorry. We’re unable to take your call at the present time due to extremely high call volume,” says a recording.

In North Carolina, where more people are out of jobs than ever, state employees are working overtime and on weekends to reduce a backlog of requests to verify unemployment benefits that has been as high as 17,000, compared to only a few cases a day a year ago.

Unemployment is shooting up across the country, and Mississippi, South Carolina and North Carolina are among the 10 states with the highest number of workers who can't find a job.

But state unemployment insurance funds -- which are collected from employers through payroll taxes -- are running out:

South Carolina has only enough money in its unemployment fund to pay benefits through the middle of January. The state has been hit by a wave of layoffs in manufacturing and construction.

The problem isn't going away -- there is a structural recession underway, which has so far been neglected thanks to the focus on the finance sector. As one expert notes:

“I can’t see the bailout short-circuiting processes that were already under way,” said Michael Bordo, a Rutgers University economist. “To the extent we’re already going into a recession, unemployment will probably keep rising.”

Labels: bailout, economy, north carolina, recession,