Time to Evict Congress

Again the blame for a lack of legislation on the stimulus goes to the U.S. Senate and that dipshit Mitch McConnell.  Even if there is a deal reached on the stimulus bill today or the next few days, some 20 to 30 GOP assholes supposedly will not back it no matter what.  They don't give a shit at all about people.

Meanwhile, millions and millions of people are not just facing financial ruin, they are facing homelessness.  Members of Congress, however, have more pressing concerns like making sure their vacation plans can be fulfilled on time.  Total idiots.

Up to 40 million Americans could be evicted by the end of this year, according to a new report published Friday by the Aspen Institute.

The report warns that the United States may be facing the most severe housing crisis in history if conditions do not change, with up to 43% of renter households facing eviction this year.

"As the data demonstrates, the gravity of this situation cannot be overstressed," said Emily Benfer, law professor at Wake Forest University School of Law and a co-author of the report. "Unless the federal government invests in eviction prevention, we are not only risking widespread eviction and homelessness, we are guaranteeing negative health outcomes, greater unemployment, educational decline, and long-term harm for renters, property owners and communities."

Congress doesn't care, though. They don't even care enough to put through the aspects of the stimulus bill they agree on as stand-alone legislation. No, they have to fuck it up every single time.

Now they might shock me and actually come to an agreement today, but I am not holding my breath.

Update:  Negotiations have come completely apart.

The New American Dream

If you find yourself up the creek financially, there is always your car to live out of--assuming you even have a car.

This situation is a lot more common than people think:

About one in five area homeless people lives in a vehicle, said Kristine Schwarz, the executive director of the New Beginnings Counseling Center, the nonprofit behind the $246,000-a-year program.

“What started as a program serving a couple people in one or two lots has now mushroomed into serving 112 people or more per night in 20 lots,” said Schwarz, who added that the program combined with another effort to get people back into traditional housing serve 800 to 900 people a year.

But the efforts go well beyond trying to give people a better night's sleep..The group meets with their clients every 30 days – the length of time a permit is good for.

I could have been in that situation if it hadn't been for my brother's place.

Shanty Town

To read this sort of thing just burns my ass to a crisp.

Of course the well-to-do think glorified outhouses are the answer to "homelessness," but cynic that I am I KNOW this is the first step in forcing everybody except the very richest people into little one-room shacks that they would not own. It's an attempt to lower our expectations on what livable space really is while trying to use cover arguments like "helping the homeless" or "helping the environment" or "scaling back your lifestyle." This shit is going to be forced upon us so we can have the same "living standards" as those in third world countries.

The real problems here are the lack of jobs for everybody who wants a job and the outrageous cost of housing. It is NOT mentally healthy to live in a 100- or 200-square-foot space on a permanent basis. Just wait until entire families are forced into these.

I am reminded of this old ditty:




The rich will still have their palatial estates while they charge the rest of us a fortune to "live" in these shacks.

News, Etc.

The Medford (Oregon) School District is in major legal hot water because it decided not to have the life skills high school students be in with the general student population at the new high school. The excuse the administrators are making will not wash when in fact it is federal law which states students need to be in the "least-restrictive" environment. Putting these students in the same school building with kids with behavior problems and not having any contact with the general student population is NOT complying with the law. Having the life skills class at the new school with students being able to take electives with the general school population while still having their own self-contained class IS complying with federal law.

The parents are correct in being upset with the district; a major lawsuit is appropriate.
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Next Friday an American television institution, As the World Turns, will air its final episode.

The sad news is no more episodes will be made, but the good news is thanks to YouTube and the internet, the show will live on.
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The number of homeless families has gone up, thanks to this depression.

Teachers Are Being Held "Accountable"

by teaching to the test while kids' performance in the classroom is largely based on matters out of teachers' control. Case in point is the fact there are over a MILLION homeless children in this country.

This is an outrage, but it is a sign of the times with rising unemployment, foreclosures, and so forth. All of it by design, so one should not expect our government to do one damned thing about it.

The report is here.

News, Etc.

Longtime Rogue Valley resident Kim Novak, retired from films since 1966, reflects on her career.

A new boxed set of her films is now available on DVD.
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A freelance writer on disability faces homelessness thanks to the economy tanking.

Most of the comments following the article are unbelievably cruel.
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Of course Hunger and Homeless is Up

thanks to the worsening economy, but don't count on anybody to do much about it.

After all, the more unemployed and desperate people there are, the better it is for employers.

And Of Course

the numbers of homeless is going up rather sharply.

It is the worst it has ever been in NYC.

But who cares about those bums, right?

The Education Wars

Just tell me how school districts around the country are supposed to make "adequate yearly progress" and the like when there are vast numbers of children who are homeless or are otherwise transient?

Naturally "reformers" haven't got a clue because they don't have to deal with the problem.

Miscellaneous News

This s.o.b. should get what is coming to him.

Killing a tiny dog is beyond despicable.
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Considering how corrupt the Italian judicial system is, one has to take this "expert" in the Amanda Knox case with a huge grain of salt.

Given the widespread corruption, Knox probably doesn't have a chance in hell.

Italy is a great place to visit, but I am damned glad I don't live there.
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We need to work on providing more low-income housing, not be charging rent to working people who are homeless.

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The Economy

While people who can are leaving Reno in droves, those who are homeless are finding it attractive for some damned reason.

Speaking of homelessness, "Hoovervilles" are making a comeback:

But the Hoovervilles are back.

A front-page article in Thursday's New York Times ("Cities Deal With a Surge in Shantytowns") describes the reemergence of itinerant encampments on the American cityscape. The most widely reported of these lies near Sacramento, California. About 125 people now reside in this Hooverville, in the capital city of America's richest and most populous state.

Yet the Hooverville is far more widespread than the media attention on the tent city near Sacramento implies. It has reemerged in Phoenix, Arizona; Olympia and Seattle, Washington; Reno, Nevada; Portland, Oregon; Nashville, Tennessee; St. Petersburg, Florida; and Fresno, California; among others.

People in these encampments live in tents, or else shacks built of old wood, scrap metal, cardboard and other waste. They live without running water, electricity, plumbing, or garbage removal.

Cities are trying to deal with the "problem," when in fact the "problem" could be fixed by drastically changing economic policies in this country. Unlike times of yore, more and more people in these shantytowns are not alcoholics or the mentally ill:

While encampments and street living have always been a part of the landscape in big cities like Los Angeles and New York, these new tent cities have taken root — or grown from smaller enclaves of the homeless as more people lose jobs and housing — in such disparate places as Nashville, Olympia, Wash., and St. Petersburg, Fla.

In Seattle, homeless residents in the city’s 100-person encampment call it Nickelsville, an unflattering reference to the mayor, Greg Nickels. A tent city in Sacramento prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to announce a plan Wednesday to shift the entire 125-person encampment to a nearby fairground. That came after a recent visit by “The Oprah Winfrey Show” set off such a news media stampede that some fed-up homeless people complained of overexposure and said they just wanted to be left alone.

The problem in Fresno is different in that it is both chronic and largely outside the national limelight. Homelessness here has long been fed by the ups and downs in seasonal and subsistence jobs in agriculture, but now the recession has cast a wider net and drawn in hundreds of the newly homeless — from hitchhikers to truck drivers to electricians.

“These are able-bodied folks that did day labor, at minimum wage or better, who were previously able to house themselves based on their income,” said Michael Stoops, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group based in Washington.

And in my neighborhood, people are leaving in droves because of no jobs. Many of these are from Mexico, and lots of them are returning there, while others are moving out of state because of no opportunities. Vacancies abound in rentals, but of course my landlord, who never paid into Social Security for the entire time he had the guesthouse (37 years), continues to charge ridiculous rent here. He won't be able to charge it if one or both of us tenants moves out.

Miscellaneous and Weird News Notes

Just why does the so-called "Phantom Ship" at Oregon's Crater Lake exist?
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Northern Nevada has seen numbers of people moving into motels and the like for years, but now other cities are seeing it as well.
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The Booming Economy

One possible solution to the homeless problem, which locals here haven't thought of simply doing nothing and letting them die. That certainly would have appeal to those of a libertarian slant, which is still quite common in this state.
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Miscellaneous

A tumor found in infant Sam Esquibel's brain turned out to be something far more complex than just a tumor:

Dr. Paul Grabb peered into the microscope at Sam Esquibel's 3-day-old brain, set on removing a tumor that threatened the infant's life.

What the pediatric neurosurgeon saw made him spring back in shock.

A foot!

As he surgically removed it, Grabb also found other partially formed appendages and what appeared to be ropes of an intestine tucked within the folds.

Sam survived the Oct. 3 brain surgery at Memorial Hospital for Children and is home with his parents and doing well. But his introduction to the world marks one of the strangest moments in medical history.

"It looked like the breach delivery of a baby," the pediatric neurosurgeon said last week, "coming out of the brain."

A picture of the foot is at the link.
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Local homeless shelters are experiencing overflow thanks to the cold weather. That doesn't stop self-righteous assholes (are there any other kind?) from bitching about "bums" as noted in the comments to the article.
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For the Nation's Homeless,

things are worse than ever.