Quote:As you watch those pictures of houses under assault from Hurricane Isabel, doesn't it make you wonder: Why do people build their homes so close to the water? They must have known a hurricane might do this. Why would they take such a foolish risk?

Well, people take the risk, because our government encourages us to take it. I know all about this, because I did it myself.

In 1980, I bought some beachfront property on Long Island, N.Y., and built a house there. It was a big investment for me. The down payment took just about all of my savings, and I knew what can happen to people who build on the edges of oceans. But I took the risk because the government made me a promise.


An Offer Too Good to Refuse

The promise was national flood insurance. It made my house and my neighbors' homes possible. After all, no bank will give you a mortgage unless you have insurance.

Private insurance companies were reluctant to sell insurance to those of us who build on the edges of oceans, and were they to offer it, they'd charge an arm and a leg to cover the risk. But this wasn't a problem for me, because you offered to insure my house. I know you didn't do it personally, but you, as a taxpayer, are the guarantee behind federal flood insurance. Should a big storm wipe out half the coast, you'll cover our losses — up to a quarter-million dollars. Thanks — we appreciate it — but what a dumb policy.

The subsidized insurance goes to affluent homeowners on both coasts — from Malibu Beach, where movie stars live, to Kennebunkport where the Bush family has a vacation home, to Hyannisport, where the Kennedy family has a summer home, to the Hamptons, where I bought my house.

The insurance premiums were a bargain. The most I ever paid was a few hundred dollars. Federal actuaries say if the insurance were realistically priced, it would cost thousands of dollars. Why should the government guarantee water's-edge insurance? Why should the government be in this business at all?

A decade ago I spoke with James Lee Witt, who ran FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for President Clinton. FEMA's current director is busy with this week's hurricane, but his agency's policy hasn't changed much, so let's look again at the discussion I had with Witt.

Witt told me he thinks the flood insurance saves federal tax dollars. "If this insurance wasn't there, OK, then people would be building in those areas anyway, OK? Then it would cost the American taxpayers more dollars if a disaster hit that community and destroyed it," he said.

He said it's cheaper than offering additional disaster relief.


Should We Subsidize Insurance for Drunk Drivers?

That's government logic for you. Since we always spent huge amounts of taxpayer money bailing out people with disaster relief, politicians 35 years ago said, why don't we try to recover some of that money by selling flood insurance?

As so often happens, the program had unintended consequences. The cheap insurance encouraged more people to build on the beach, so the insurance risk is now huge. Today, $645 billion in property is guaranteed by Uncle Sam.

Geologist Orrin Pilkey at Duke University says this policy is simply "stupid." Pilkey has been one of the most persistent critics of the government's policies. He says both disaster relief and federal flood insurance just encourage people to stay in harm's way.

"We've got to get around this 'sympathy at all costs' for people who are suffering from natural disasters," Pilkey said.

Witt disagreed. He said, "Should we just walk away and say, 'We're not going to help you'?"

If I were a drunken driver who kept wrecking my car, should there be federal car insurance to make sure I have cheap car insurance?


Washed Away

Witt pointed out that the government did require me to put my house on stilts. That was a good thing because 16 years ago, most of my beach just washed away. It wasn't even a hurricane, just three days of big surf and suddenly I didn't have waterfront property. I was over the water. Still, the house survived because of the stilts, and what a view I had then.

Uncle Sam didn't even raise my insurance premiums. In fact, he spent millions more of your tax dollars to rebuild my beach. Up and down the coast, the Army Corps of Engineers dumped sand on hundreds of beaches.

This seems like a dumb policy too, since a study of replenishment projects found the new sand usually washes away within five years. But the government does it anyway — and you pay for it.

I asked Professor Pilkey what he thought of people like me who build houses on beaches? "I think you're a vandal and extremely costly to our society," he said.

A few years ago, I got a call from a friend. 'Happy New Year,' he said, 'your house is gone.' And it was. During a fairly ordinary storm, the ocean just dug up the sand under the pilings and took the whole house away.

There it was the next day on the front page of the newspaper. I'd always wanted to make front page news, but not like this. It was an upsetting loss for me, but financially, I made out fine. National flood insurance paid for the house and its contents. I could rebuild my house, and the government would insure me again — and again. I didn't rebuild. I'd learned my lesson; I sold what was left of my land. But the outrage is that federal flood insurance exists at all. There is a quarter-million-dollar limit on each payment, and as long as I build my house in accordance with zoning laws and ordinances, there is no limit on how many times the government will pay if a house keeps washing away.

Give Me a Break.

Quote:Air America Will Displace Black Talk On WLIB



By Karen Juanita Carrillo | SACOBSERVER.COM WIRE SERVICES

NEW YORK (NNPA) - New York's radio station WLIB-1190 AM has been loyally "serving New York's Black community" - as its logo states - for decades now. In the early '90s WLIB was lauded as a resource for "Afrocentric" programming and became known for featuring Imhotep Gary Byrd's "Global Black Experience" show.


By the end of March, New York's WLIB-1190 AM will taken over by "Air America Radio," a predominantly White, liberal talk-radio network.

The station was in many ways a Black activist outlet.

But by the end of this month, WLIB will be taking on a different hue, as it joins the launch of Progress Media's "Air America Radio," the new, predominately White, liberal talk-radio network. Air America has reportedly partnered with Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC), which owns WLIB.

"We are excited about the diverse and important voices Air America Radio is bringing to the airwaves, both on our own WLIB signal and others," said ICBC Chairman Pierre Sutton. "This strategic partnership allows both companies to combine our resources and deliver relevant messages to a broad and diverse audience."

Sutton added, "That's what you call 'high-class B.S.!'" one former WLIB staffer said when told that Sutton said the station's changes were necessary because African Americans had just stopped listening to WLIB. The former staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted that if WLIB's talk shows were promoted the way conservative talk shows are - and the way Air America's shows will be - the station would have made money.

Air America Radio plans on using what it terms a roundup of "progressive activists" and "celebrities" as part of the activist left's efforts to counter the national popularity of White, Right-wing conservative talk shows and radio personalities. The network will begin broadcasting shows from across the country on March 31 over WLIB and radio stations WNTD in Chicago and Los Angeles' KBLA.

"I don't get it. I mean, I do not get it," local activist Elombe Brath said about Air America Radio's takeover at WLIB. Reports are that WLIB's 40th floor station has been remodeled for Air America, and that the 30th and 39th floors are also being re-built to suit the needs of the new network.

Brath, who hosts and produces the show "Afrikaleidoscope" on WBAI-FM, and who played a part in the Afrocentric reorganization of WLIB's programming back in the early 1980s, complained that if listenership was down at WLIB, the station should have restructured from within as it did in the 1980s.

"All of the talk should be organic, from within the Black community," Brath insisted. "How can they think about coming into New York with a package program like this? We have people here already who know radio, who can do shows. And they want to come in with a program from other people trying to talk to Black people in New York City? (WLIB) is just a station that has been stripped of what it's supposed to be!"

In its heyday, WLIB and shows like "Night Talk with Bob Law" on WWRL-AM, Samori Marksman's "Worldview" on WBAI-FM, Bob Slade's "Open Line" on WKRS-FM, and WWRL's "Drive Time Dialogue" formed part of its own advocacy radio network. They highlighted Black community health concerns, cultural awareness and political activities. Many have even claimed that WLIB's efforts helped to get out the vote for David Dinkins as he ran to become New York City's first Black mayor.

But now as WLIB joins with Air America Radio, plans are to keep only a few of the station's leading Black radio personalities. Mark Riley will be a co-host on "Uprising," Air America's 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. show, while Dahved Levy, Ann Tripp and news director Wayne Gilman will also remain with the station.

Air America Radio's featured on-air personality will be Al Franken, a comedian who helped create NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and who recently wrote the book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," a scathing anti-FOX News, anti-Bill O'Reilly book that became a best-seller.

Alongside Franken, Air America Radio will feature comedienne Janeane Garofalo; environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; author and activist Laura Flanders; Lizz Winstead, a co-creator of "The Daily Show"; radio personalities Mark Riley and Randi Rhodes; and political humorist Sam Seder. Chuck D, lead rapper for the group Public Enemy, was initially announced as part of the Air America Radio staff, but sources now say that the hip-hop icon is backing away from that commitment.

"I don't know how Air America is going to broaden the reaches of 'LIB," said one radio personality who chose to speak anonymously about the situation. "How is this going to impact the Black community? As far as I've heard, they've got a couple of Whites who just really want to go after Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and all the others. You can't convince me that that's going to be something good for Black and Hispanic people."

Brath agreed with that analysis: "You've got people here in New York who believe in Black culture, so I don't see why they're ... they're like outsourcing in a sense. In reality what the station needs is to have some people who know the community and can speak to its needs."

GonzoStyle Wrote:I agree with sleeper, I don't consider myself on the left, right, conservative, liberal, communist, marxist, buddhist, etc. I just have my own values and opinions, I don't even know what they are talking about half the time when they describe some of these categories.

Middle of the plain leftist conservative with right wing tendancies to the 4th power.

Keyser Soze Wrote:like niggers actually listen to political radio.