Analyst Charlie Cook has an updated list of the key House races to watch. The overview: nationally, Democrats currently hold 7 seats that are close -- they either "lean" one way or are a pure toss-up. Republicans hold 54 seats that are "lean" or "toss-up" contests.

14 of these tight House races are in the South:

LEAN DEMOCRATIC
FL-13 OPEN (Harris)
GA-8 Jim Marshall
GA-12 John Barrow
LA-03 Charlie Melancon
TX-17 Chet Edwards
TX-22 OPEN (DeLay)

TOSS-UP (CURRENTLY REPUBLICAN)
FL-16 OPEN (Foley)
FL-22 Clay Shaw
KY-04 Geoff Davis
NC-11 Charles Taylor
VA-02 Thelma Drake

LEAN REPUBLICAN
KY-02 Ron Lewis
KY-03 Ann Northrup
TX-23 Henry Bonilla

See a PDF of all the close races here.

Chris Kromm's extensive backgrounder Friday on Scott Howell, Karl Rove protégé, mastermind behind the Kerry swift boat ads and attacks on Max Cleland in Georgia, and now vicious attack ads against Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee, was quite revealing. Since then, the web of trickery and deceit in Tennessee has widened and become even more entangled.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Terry Nelson was hired by the Republican National Committee to oversee "independent expenditures" and that Nelson hired Howell to produce the Ford attack ad:

No Republicans wanted to take credit. When the identity of the producer, Scott Howell, emerged, Democrats quickly pounced on his history of bare-knuckled tactics and close relationship with Karl Rove as evidence of a familiar Republican approach.

And the incident quickly set off a wave of denials and denunciations from Republican officials, including the national party chairman and Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has hired Terry Nelson, another consultant affiliated with the spot.

[..]

Mr. Howell, who once worked for Mr. Rove’s direct-mail business in Texas, was hired by Mr. Nelson, who was political director of the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004. Mr. Nelson was in turn hired by Ken Mehlman, the former Bush-Cheney campaign manager and White House political director who is now chairman of the Republican National Committee, to oversee the so-called independent expenditure operations.

Late Friday afternoon, the Huffington Post reported:

Huffington Post has learned that Terry Nelson, a second producer of the racist Corker ad and a consultant to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Wal-Mart, is to be fired by Wal-Mart for his role in producing the ad. Developing...

Both Wal-Mart and Nelson denied it, but late Friday evening the reports were confirmed, and on Saturday the New York Times reported:

Under pressure from black leaders and union groups, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, said last night that it had cut ties with a prominent Republican strategist who helped create the provocative advertisement.

The strategist, Terry Nelson, was hired by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in 2005 to help burnish its image after a wave of attacks from organized labor and liberal groups.

Nelson has also been linked to the DeLay money laundering scandal, and was named in the indictment but not charged. Nelson is also involved in the New Hampshire phone-jamming incident, for which one GOP operative has already been convicted. Nelson is set to testify in a civil case involving the matter:

One of Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain's top political strategists is likely to be among those who will face grilling soon from lawyers for New Hampshire Democrats, thanks to a judge's ruling Thursday in a civil case involving a Republican plot in that state to jam Democrats' get-out-the-vote phone lines on Nov. 5, 2002.

Terry Nelson, a senior adviser to McCain's Straight Talk America political action committee, was the national political director for the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign.

But before that, Nelson served as deputy chief of staff and executive director of political operations at the National Republican Committee, a role in which he helped craft the GOP takeover of the Senate in 2002. That included a narrow victory in the 2002 race for a senate seat from New Hampshire by then-Republican House member John Sununu over then-Gov. Jean Shaheen, a Democrat.

In that job, Nelson was a supervisor to GOP official James Tobin. In December, Tobin was convicted of felony telephone-harassment charges related to his involvement in the New Hampshire phone jamming.

Although they write the checks to fund them, Ken Mehlman and the Republican National Committee continue to deny that they have any control over these ads while at the same time they continue to defend them. In response, the DNC asks:

“Why is it that Republican leaders continue to defend the tactics of the GOP's southern strategy?” asked DNC Communications Director Karen Finney. “Today Ken Mehlman not only refused to take responsibility for this despicable RNC ad, he continued to defend it. The truth is there is no reason Mehlman couldn't have called Terry Nelson, and no reason he couldn't have immediately denounced the ad publicly. Even Wal-mart fired Terry Nelson for his role in making this ad.

But big-time political consultants hired by the Republican National Committee are not the only players in the Southern Strategy.

Over the weekend, reports were popping up on a few Tennessee blogs that a wave of "push poll" calls was making its way across the state. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports today:

Several people receiving the calls characterized them as "push polling," a tactic in which a call begins as if a poll is being conducted and then shifts mostly to providing negative information about a candidate.

Among those getting the call was Georgiana Vines, News Sentinel political columnist.

The recorded call suggests to people who indicate they favor Ford or are undecided that the Democratic candidate favors higher takes and "foreign terrorists having the same rights as American citizens."

According to the article, the calls directed voters to a website run by Common Sense Tennessee. The News Sentinel was not able to find much information on the group, but believes it is linked to a similar group in Ohio. The article notes:

No one with either the Tennessee or Ohio organization could be reached for comment. Ohio media outlets have reported controversies over the Ohio organization concealing the identity of those donating $1.5 million to the group, which is headed by Procter & Gamble executive Nathan Estruth of Cincinnati.

The Ohio group used the money to run attack ads against Democratic candidate for governor Ted Strickland, who is opposing Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell, the controversial Secretary of State who runs Ohio elections.

The Common Sense Tennessee website lists "John Lind" as the "treasurer." If it is the same John Lind, he's the founder of the Presidential Prayer Team, which is running a "Pray the Vote" campaign for the 2006 elections. The campaign talks about "wicked leaders" and says:

Which type of leaders will we have here in America? The righteous kind we hope, but that’s only going to be realized if God’s people pray for the upcoming elections. This is not a political effort, but rather a spiritual one, as we encourage prayer for Godly leaders to be elected.

The group is also selling an exclusive $60 "Pray the Vote Prayer Package":

As we near Election Day on November 7, 2006, you have the opportunity from your pulpit on November 5th, or with your group to encourage your people to pray for the elections, then to vote in them. Present your churchgoers or group members with the message that it's critical we pray for righteous leaders to be elected, even as we perform our civic duty to vote for them. Use one of our two Pray the Vote Sermons plus our inspirational Pray The Vote Video along with the numerous other resources available to you in our church Group Prayer Package.

But wait there's more. There are unconfirmed reports making the Tennessee blog rounds that voters are getting mailers and phone calls saying things like "only property owners are allowed to vote," "if you voted in the primary you don't need to vote again because your vote will carry over," and "if you have any outstanding traffic tickets you can be arrested on the spot if you show up to vote." It's not clear who is behind this if it is even happening. But at this point nothing would come as a surprise.

This is as nasty a campaign as we can remember in recent Tennessee history and we still have a week to go. Everyone agrees it has no place in politics but nobody seems to know what to do about it. McCain-Feingold does not seem to have made things much better, and with all the exceptions, exclusions, and loopholes may have even made things worse. The real concern is that voters will be turned off by all of this and stay home. Regardless of which party you support and who wins or loses, that would be the worst outcome.

Everyone knows that the South could be the lynchpin region this election season, with control of the Senate hinging on races in Tennessee and Virginia, and at least seven House races in the South among the most bitterly contested in the country.

But here's another reason to keep an eye on the South, specifically Tennessee: it's one of 11 states where control of the state legislature will be decided this November.

As the New York Times reports today, 6,000 legislative seats are up for grabs in 46 states this year. Republicans control both chambers in 20 states; the Democrats, in 19 states.

The states to watch in 2006: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin, where Republicans have narrow majorities in the lower house or senate. Democrats have narrow majorities in Colorado, Maine and Montana.

The Times notes that -- contrary to the notion of "red states" or "blue states" -- most state legislatures are bitterly contested territory:

What makes the races even more suspenseful is that the parties have not been so even in decades, if ever. Of the 7,382 statehouse legislative seats across the country, Democrats hold 21 more than the Republicans, a margin of less than half a percent.

In 17 of the 46 states that will elect some or all of their state senators, a shift of only three seats would alter party control in the senate, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In 12 state houses, a shift of five or fewer seats would tip the balance.

The political parties realize the importance of these battles:

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee plans to spend $9 million to $10 million on legislative races, up from $6 million to $7 million in 2004. Its counterpart, the Republican State Leadership Committee, has nearly doubled spending on state races, including for legislators, to $20 million.

This is what makes the work of groups like the Progressive States Network so important.

UPDATE: Stateline notes that two other Southern states, Kentucky and North Carolina, have slim Democratic majorities in their state legislatures, which will be contested next week.

A federal plan unveiled last week would "mothball" the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge and shutter dozens of others across the Southeast, while cutting scores of wildlife refuge personnel, according to an announcement from the Wilderness Society.

Florida's Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, the nation's first national wildlife refuge, will lose the staff assigned to working with visitors, according to the new Workforce Management Plan of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Southeast Region.

The 128 national wildlife refuges in the Southeast support 11 million visitors annually -- more than those in any other region.

Wilderness Society President Bill Meadows blasted the planned cuts:

"Pelican Island is symbolic of our nation's commitment to protect our most critical bird and wildlife habitat. Sadly, Pelican Island is now a stark example of how Congress and the Administration have failed to provide the funding and attention needed to sustain our wildlife legacy."

Among the other cuts outlined in the plan:

* Cross Creeks National Wildlife Refuge in Tennessee would lose its public-use staff, leading to a 90 percent reduction in environmental education programs.

* J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Florida would lose two park rangers, forcing the closure of its visitor center for two days a week and significantly reducing environmental education for 55,000 school children.

* Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia would lose two park rangers, resulting in the close of one entrance two days a week and reducing annual visits by about 50,000.

* Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuge Complex will eliminate surveys for sea turtles and other marine resources on more than 400,000 acres within Great White Heron and Key West refuges.

* Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama would lose its entire biological program, which supports three national wildlife refuges and affects over 15 threatened and endangered species.

The agency's planned cuts in the Southeast come in the wake of a similar proposal to cut staff and services in Northeast wildlife refuges.

Outspoken pop country artists the Dixie Chicks continue to stir up political controversy, with two TV networks refusing to air a commercial for a new film documenting the uproar that ensued after singer Natalie Maines spoke critically of President Bush during an overseas concert.

NBC on Friday said it rejected the commercial for "Shut Up and Sing," which debuted last week in New York and Los Angeles and opens nationwide Nov. 10. The network cited a policy against ads dealing with "public controversy." The rejected spot features footage of Maines declaring during a performance in London in March 2003 that the band was "ashamed" to come from the same state as Texan George W. Bush.

The CW network also turned down the ad, telling the Drudge Report that it does "not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot." However, local affiliates of both NBC and CW ran promotional spots for the film, according to Reuters.

The documentary's distributor, the Weinstein Co., called the networks' decision evidence of political censorship and said it was considering legal action. The studio gave reporters copies of reports from NBC's standards and practices department wit handwritten notes stating the ads were unacceptable because "they are disparaging of President Bush."

Harvey Weinstein, co-chair of the Weinstein Co., released a statement pointing out the irony of the networks' rejection of the ad:

"It's a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America. The idea that anyone should be penalized for criticizing the president is sad and profoundly un-American."

CBS and Fox said they had approved the ads for broadcast, but ABC, which is owned by the Walt Disney Co., said it has not made a decision yet.

NBC is a subsidiary of General Electric Co., while CW is a joint venture of CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. studio.

Directed by Cecilia Peck and Oscar winner Barbara Kopple, "Shut Up and Sing" examines the sometimes vicious backlash that resulted from Maines' comment. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, Cumulus Broadcasting, the Atlanta-based owner of 262 radio stations nationwide, ordered all of its 42 country outlets to stop playing Dixie Chicks music. At a Cumulus-sponsored pro-war rally in Shreveport, La., a bulldozer crushed a pile of the band's CDs. Many of the 1,225 radio stations owned by San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications also banned the group's songs.

Some country stations even refused to run ads for the Dixie Chicks' current tour, leading the band to cancel some dates in the South and Midwest.

If there's one issue in this country that seems to enjoy bi-partisan support, it's the idea that young people should have access to opportunities for a better life, such as going to college. But a new report by the American Council on Education finds that, despite impressive gains over the last decade, color and class barriers still stand in the way of those seeking higher education.

The Minorities in Higher Education Twenty-second Annual Status Report finds that enrollment of African-American, Latino, Asian-American, and American Indian students has risen dramatically, with students of color now making up 27.8% of students on college campuses, compared to 21.8% in 1993. But white enrollment has risen, too, and a significant color gap remains:

Although students of color made significant gains in college enrollment, African American and Hispanic students still lag behind their white peers in the rate at which they enroll in college. In 2002-04, 47.3 percent of white high school graduates age 18 to 24 attended college compared with 41.1 percent of African Americans and 35.2 percent of Hispanics. [...]

“As I look at this report I am pleased to see people of color making gains in college enrollment and degree attainment over the 10 years covered in the report, but I am more struck by the gaps that still persist and believe they only hold our nation back politically and economically,” said ACE President David Ward.

The study hints at a range of factors that influence who goes to college. Undoubtedly one of the major culprits is the skyrocketing cost of higher education. According to the Lumina Foundation, the cost of tuition and fees have increased almost 50% over the last decade. Among other findings of the Foundation:

*** Over 400,000 students who were eligible for college in 2002 didn't go because they couldn't afford it.

*** As college assistance has shifted from grants to loans, the average debt load of a four-year public college graduate was approximately $17,000 in 2000 — more than double the level in 1991.

*** Government support for students to go to college has been rapidly declining. In 1986, an average Pell Grant covered 98% of tuition costs at a public 4-year school. Today, it only covers 23% of tuition and fees.

Over the last few days, the 2006 elections have taken a dramatic turn. Debates about Iraq and the big policy issues of the day have been swept off the headlines, which are now dominated by charges of nasty campaign tactics by Republicans in Missouri (stems cells and Michael J. Fox) and Tennessee (race and Harold Ford).

Pundits like MSNBC's Chris Matthews are expressing shock and outrage at the GOP's "racist" ads. But shouldn't these seasoned politicos know better than to think it's anything new?

For example, CBS/AP notes that the mastermind behind the ads attacking Democratic Sen. candidate Harold Ford is none other than Scott Howell, a protege of Karl Rove and the late Lee Atwater. Some highlights from his campaign portfolio:

Howell is no stranger to controversy. He was media consultant for Sen. Saxby Chambliss when his campaign ran an ad showing a picture of then-Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who lost his legs in the Vietnam War, alongside Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

He also produced an ad for Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn that accused Democrat Brad Carson of being soft on welfare while showing two black hands counting cash.

Howell also worked for Republican Jerry Kilgore in last year's Virginia gubernatorial race when Kilgore ran an ad saying that Gov. Tim Kaine wouldn't have used the death penalty against Hitler.

Howell's firm was also the mastermind behind the Swiftboat Veteran ads which cast a decorated war veteran, Sen. John Kerry, as unpatriotic.

To understand Scott Howell, you have to understand where he learned politics. He was molded in the far-right culture of the South Carolina Republican Party. Hastings Wyman, the former Republican Party activist in South Carolina and now editor of the fine Southern Political Report, describes the basics of GOP strategy in South Carolina while Howell was coming up through the ranks (as quoted in Alexander Lamis' book, Southern Politics in the 1990s):

"[A] major component of the Republican resurgence in the Old Confederacy was a racist reaction to the civil rights changes that were coming to the South. Not just a racist reaction that Republicans, in the right place at the right time, could take advantage of, but often a reaction consciously encouraged -- no, fanned -- by the GOP itself.

Racism, often purposely inflamed by many southern Republicans, either because we believed it or because we thought it would win votes, was a major tool in the building of the new Republican party in the South."

And the king of this racist strategy was, of course, Lee Atwater -- the man that recruited Scott Howell from being a losing local SC politico to working at the Republican National Committee. For this South Carolina powerhouse, no false allegation or innuendo was beyond the pale -- from attacking a candidate for having depression in his teens, to the infamous Willie Horton ads that helped torpedo Michael Dukakis in 1988.

On his deathbed, Atwater had a conversion and expressed remorse for the ugly tactics he used to win. He also became more candid about the role of racism in his campaigns. As he remarked in an interview:

Atwater: As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry Dent and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. Now [the new Southern Strategy of Ronald Reagan] doesn’t have to do that. All you have to do to keep the South is for Reagan to run in place on the issues he’s campaigned on since 1964… and that’s fiscal conservatism, balancing the budget, cut taxes, you know, the whole cluster…

Questioner: But the fact is, isn’t it, that Reagan does get to the [George] Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps…?

Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger.' By 1968 you can't say 'nigger' - that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me - because obviously sitting around saying, 'We want to cut this,' is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than 'Nigger, nigger.'

Scott Howell isn't skipping a step in following in Atwater's shoes (he also went on to work for Karl Rove, which is another post). But he has yet to express any regret for his equally dubious campaign history. As Howell remarked in an interview, he thinks the only reason people criticize him is because he wins: "They don't like anyone who beats them."

As long as there are such operatives unburdened by conscience and willing to carry out the Southern Strategy, the TV pundits shouldn't be surprised when racism and other nasty tactics rear their heads when elections get tight.

Betcha goin' fishin' all of your time, baby's goin' fishin', too
Bet your life, your sweet life, catch more fish than you
Many fish bites if ya got good bait
Here's a little tip I would like to relate

Big fish bites if ya got a good bait
I 'a goin fishin'
Yes, I'm goin fishin'
And my baby's goin' fishin', too.

--"Fishing Blues" by Taj Mahal

Wild about fishing? Can't get enough of the blues?

Here's a chance to combine two great pastimes -- for a good cause.

For the fifth year in a row, legendary musician Taj Mahal will bring together his two great loves -- angling and the blues -- to create a unique event benefitting the Music Maker Relief Foundation. Based in Durham, N.C., MMRF provides grants and services to older artists rooted in Southern musical traditions, and it also operates the New Orleans Musicians Fund to help artists displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

The Taj Mahal Fishin' Blues Tournament will take place from Feb. 4-10, 2007 at Roy's Zancudo Lodge, a world-renowned fishing resort in southern Costa Rica. Participants will travels to Playa Zancudo for three days of offshore fishing targeting some of the world's fastest swimmers: sailfish and marlin. The tournament is catch-and-release, with anglers using circle hooks to ensure no billfish are harmed (though other species such as wahoo and tuna may end up on the grill).

After days spent fishing, participants return to the lodge for dinner followed by all-star jam sessions. Fishin' Blues' musical alumni include Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers, Jimmy Herring from the Dead, slide-guitar genius Derek Trucks, Lee Gates, Cool John Ferguson, Mudcat and Adolphus Bell. Taj and his band are also on hand. The event closes with a free concert for the residents of Zancudo.

The tournament is limited to 30 participants, so interested folks should reserve a spot early. The entry fee of $5,500 -- $2,200 of which is tax-deductible -- includes airfare from Miami or Atlanta; luxury accommodations; all meals, drinks and alcohol; three days of fishing, including bait, tackle, ice and fuel; and transfers within Costa Rica. MMRF is also selling 110 raffle tickets for two spots in the tournament, with those tickets costing $100.

For more information about the event, call Denise or Tim Duffy at 919-643-2456 anytime or e-mail fishin@musicmaker.org.

Put 'em in the pot baby, put 'em in the pan
Honey, cook 'em 'til they're nice and brown
Make a batch of buttermilk coal cakes, mama
And you chew them things
And you chomp 'em on down.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, writes in her blog about the importance of the Institute's recent poll about Southern attitudes towards the Iraq war.

She also points out that the Institute's findings echo other polls, which show sections of the Southern electorate becoming increasingly disenchanted with leadership in Washington, and the war is a leading cause:

[The Institute] survey comes on the heels of an Associated Press-Ipsos poll that reveals a similar shift among southern women: only thirty-two percent approve of President Bush's handling of the war, compared to twenty-eight percent nationally.

It will also have an impact on the upcoming elections. As vanden Heuvel notes, "three out of five southern women plan to vote Democratic in the midterm elections."

Chuck Todd, a political editor at National Journal and editor-in-chief of The Hotline, singles out his picks for the top races to watch in November:

My "Elite Eight" picks are: Missouri Senate, Tennessee Senate, Virginia Senate, Fla.-22, Ky.-03, Ohio-01, Conn.-02 and N.C.-11.

Read the whole piece for his rationale. Note that five are in the South, with border state Missouri on the list, too. Who said a Southern Strategy wasn't important?

The investigation team led by the Army Corps of Engineers is crawfishing from parts of its report on levee failures during Hurricane Katrina after a crack science and engineering panel released a critical review of its work this week. Among other things, the review charges the corps with worrying too much about protecting itself from blame rather than getting at the root causes of the levee failures that devastated New Orleans and other parts of coastal Louisiana.

A committee of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council blasted the corps-led Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) for saying in a 6,000-page draft report released in June that there was "no evidence of government or contractor negligence or malfeasance":

A determination of whether there were mistakes in structural design and systems performance constitute "negligence or malfeasance" was not addressed in the IPET report and is beyond this committee's charge. "Negligence" and "malfeasance" are terms with strong legal overtones; the IPET studies were designed as technical investigations of structural performance and storm surge risks, not as a legal investigation.

The panel also raises concerns about IPET's rush to produce its report, and it disputes IPET's claim that the identified cause of the protection system's failure -- the formation of a gap between concrete floodwalls and the levees they're anchored in -- wasn't considered because the problem was unknown. The panel points out that the corps researched just such a problem as early as 1988.

Ivor van Heerden, co-director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center and a leader of a separate Team Louisiana probe into the levee failures, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that his group had reached the same conclusions about the IPET report:

Van Heerden said the executive summary in the IPET draft "unfortunately seems to try to get into a case of, 'It's not our fault,' rather than really laying out the science. And, as the National Academies report points out, that's not what the research was supposed to do. It was supposed to be giving scientific and engineering data and results and conclusions. . . . Well, to have credibility, the IPET needs to point out where mistakes were made. And it's obvious mistakes were made."

IPET member and engineer Ed Link with the University of Maryland told the paper that the corps was not disputing the review's findings and had already begun rewriting portions of its draft report.

The National Academy's findings come a week after the corps' dropped what MSNBC News described as a "bombshell" on environmentalists with a "little-publicized proposal to relax restrictions on filling in certain wetlands along the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast to speed recovery from Hurricane Katrina":

The Corps' proposal would allow property owners and developers to skirt the conventional "regional general permit" process for any projects that fill up to 5 acres of "low-quality" wetlands in the six southernmost Mississippi counties. Especially galling to environmentalists: The new process would also eliminate the requirement for public notice of such projects.

In other words, the corps would make it more difficult for concerned citizens to track the impact of such development.

Not only was the flooding from Katrina worsened by the extensive loss of wetlands due to development, but the storm itself destroyed thousands of acres of the region's remaining wetlands. You'd think the corps would be taking action to preserve these critical natural resources rather than making it easier to destroy them.

All this makes us wonder: Who exactly is the corps working to protect?

According to this AP report, white homeowners whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Katrina were three times more likely to seek help resolving disputes with insurance companies:

A year later, Louisiana residents living in white neighborhoods have been three times as likely as those in black neighborhoods to seek and get help from the state agency in their disputes with insurers, an Associated Press computer analysis shows.

The analysis of Louisiana's insurance complaints settled in the first year after Katrina highlights a cold, hard truth exposed by the hurricane's winds and waters: People of color and modest means are often disconnected from the government institutions that can provide it, or distrustful of those in power.

Although the insurance department sent their representatives to the city's nearly all-black Lower Ninth Ward, Roy and Doretha Kitchens were hundreds of miles away, having fled to higher ground.

"The blacks didn't complain 'cause they got tired," explained Doretha Kitchens, 58, who along with her husband accepted a $34,000 insurance settlement for their destroyed home, well below their $120,000 in actual damages. They say they eventually threw up their hands in despair, accepting what they considered an unfair offer, never realizing they could appeal to the state for help.

The article says that state and local officials tried to reach all homeowners to let them know they could get free assistance with their insurance claims. But their traveling vans could not reach those who had evacuated, their TV and radio ads and websites could not reach people without electricity or computers, and people without cellphones could not respond.

But even sadder is the despair and feeling of helplessness expressed by some who just gave up and took what they could get. On the other hand, the "blame the victims" crowd is likely quite pleased that the working poor have learned their lesson about depending on the government so they will be less of a burden on society in the future.

Here's an interesting report on the value of a college degree:

How much is a bachelor's degree worth? About $23,000 a year, the government said in a report released Thursday.

That is the average gap in earnings between adults with bachelor's degrees and those with high school diplomas, according to data from the Census Bureau.

The report also talks about high school graduation rates...

Minnesota, Utah, Montana, New Hampshire and Alaska had the highest proportions of adults with at least a high school diploma — all at about 92 percent.

Texas had the lowest proportion of adults with at least a high school diploma, about 78 percent. It was followed closely by Kentucky and Mississippi.

and states with the highest percentage of college graduates:

Connecticut was the state with the highest proportion of adults with at least a bachelor's degree, nearly 37 percent. It was followed closely by Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey.

Nearly 47 percent of adults in Washington, D.C., had at least a bachelor's degree.

West Virginia had the lowest proportion of college graduates, at 15 percent. It was followed at the bottom by Arkansas, Kentucky and Louisiana.

The article also notes:

Chester Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington, said too many high school graduates are unprepared to succeed in college.

"If you don't emerge from high school having done at least the equivalent of advanced algebra, you are not going to be ready for college math," Finn said. "You can make similar points about English."

But even for families who are motivated to get their kids into college, rising tuition costs are an obstacle. According to this report, the cost of college is rising faster than the rate of inflation:

The cost of tuition and fees at four-year public universities rose 6.3 percent from 2005 to 2006, capping an increase of 35 percent over five years, the nonprofit board reported. At the same time, the amount of federal financial aid available through Pell Grants hit a new low, the organization said.

"If we want to maintain a strong middle class in this country and remain competitive with other leading economies, we've got to make it possible for more young people to benefit from our excellent higher education system," said College Board President Gaston Caperton.

The study also found that "the continuing high cost of getting an education prevents many qualified low-income candidates from obtaining a college degree" and that "Talented low-income kids are less likely to go to college than high-income students of equal talent." The report also says that nearly two-thirds of students "rely on some form of financial assistance," yet at the same time the government has reduced funding for Pell Grants.

There is a correlation between lack of education and poverty, but as these reports suggest, poverty can preclude the opportunity for a better education. These reports are also a reminder that there is much work to be done here in the South. It starts with getting voters and taxpayers to place a higher value on education, especially public K-12 education.

Hurricane Katrina has blown off the media radar, the one-year anniversary having passed and other issues -- Iraq, the upcoming elections -- seizing media time. Of course, there are many reasons Katrina should be at the top of today's political debates. That Hattiesburg American gives 92,000 reasons in Mississippi alone:

There are about 92,000 reasons why Gov. Haley Barbour needs to be concerned about when it comes to Hurricane Katrina and the response of the government.

They're called FEMA trailers. Nearly 14 months have passed since Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, and there are still too many Mississippians living in the trailers, elaborate tin cans that have proven to be more of a headache than a cure for the housing needs of Gulf Coast residents displaced by Katrina.

The governor's office last week held a series of meetings to pick the brains of trailer residents on what the government can do to improve emergency housing.

Here's a better idea. Stop picking brains. Instead, start using the brainpower the state has at its avail. Use those brains to get FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency that has dropped the ball on the emergency and management components of its title) to be more responsive to the needs of those 92,000 Mississippians who have had to live with this incompetence for too long.

According to rules and regulations, trailer residents have 18 months before they have to give up the trailers. Most would gladly comply, given the myriad problems they've had to absorb. But for now, it would help greatly if the governor would use his ties to Washington to remind the administration and Congress that people are still hurting.

North Carolina communities with significant numbers of people of color are more than twice as likely to be located near landfills and other solid waste facilities, according to new research from UNC-Chapel Hill. It was the first study of its kind to be conducted in the state, where controversy has been building recently over the siting of such facilities.

Epidemiologist Dr. Steve Wing with UNC's School of Public Health presented the findings earlier this week to the N.C. Joint Select Committee on Environmental Justice. The legislature established the committee earlier this year with the passage of Senate Bill 353, which imposed a yearlong moratorium on new landfills so the state could study their impact and related policy issues.

"This legislation will give us time to ensure that any policy on landfills balances environmental concerns with any economic benefits and protects the public health," Gov. Mike Easley (D) said in a statement released when he signed the bill.

The signing took place in Wilmington, N.C., across the Cape Fear River from the predominantly African-American town of Navassa, proposed site of an enormous landfill for European auto shredder waste to be built by the Australia-based Sims-Hugo Neu Corp. Finding a place to dump such waste is becoming harder in Europe, where it's generally treated as hazardous. In the United States, however, the material is still commonly dumped in ordinary municipal landfills.

Angered over the plan, residents from the surrounding county organized Brunswick Citizens for a Safe Environment to fight the proposal, winning the support of many environmental and neighborhood groups and local governments. Their work -- along with the efforts of citizens in several other eastern North Carolina communities facing so-called "megadumps" -- eventually led to the moratorium and UNC study.

Based on dissertation research by UNC doctoral student Jennifer Norton, the study examined records for all solid waste facilities present in North Carolina as of 2003 to determine whether they were disproportionately located near minority and poor communities. It also looked at facilities permitted between 1990 and 2003 to determine whether communities' race and wealth changed after the dumps arrived, measuring wealth by average home value.

According to a summary presented to the joint committee, the study found that by the end of 2003, the state had issued operating permits to 419 solid waste facilities, with almost half of those being municipal facilities. Adjusting for population density, the odds of a solid waste facility were 2.1 times higher in communities with more than 10 percent people of color compared to communities with less than that, and 1.4 times higher in communities with average home values under $100,000.

It also examined the 207 new solid waste facilities permitted by the state between 1990 and 2003. Among communities that did not previously have one, new facilities were permitted 2.2 times more often in communities with more than 10 percent people of color. The study found no excess of facilities permitted in areas with lower home values during that period, however.

The research also considered public vs. private facilities, finding an excess of private facilities in communities that are poorer or have significant minority populations. Between 1990 and 2003, for example, privately owned or operated solid waste facilities were permitted 2.4 times more often in communities with more than 10 percent people of color.

The summary concludes:

Solid waste is a public health issue. Waste generated every day must be disposed of somewhere. Communities that host solid waste facilities face concerns about their health and well being because of truck traffic, odor, noise, air and water pollution. Waste sites may attract other waste facilities, affect property values, and make communities less desirable locations for resources such as schools, medical facilities and clean industry. Urban areas and wealthy people who are disproportionately white consume more and create more waste. They tend to avoid impacts of waste disposal in their communities when waste goes disproportionately to low income communities of color.

People of color and poor communities may be especially vulnerable to the impacts of solid waste facilities because they have fewer community resources, and people in these communities already have more health problems.

Attention to environmental injustice could help motivate development of strategies to reduce the unfair share of waste sites borne by people of color and poor communities in North Carolina. White, wealthier communities would be more motivated to support waste reduction, reuse and recycling if they had to take care of more of their own waste.

The committee is expected to recommend early next year how to ensure that human health and equity are protected when landfills are considered, the Charlotte Observer reports. A separate legislative commission is considering how to improve rules on permitting landfills.

Over 100 U.S. military personnel have organized a petition drive calling on Congress to bring troops home from Iraq.

Marine Sergeant Liam Madden, who has had reservations about the war since his unit was sent to Iraq in late 2004, will reportedly unveil the petition today, which is featured on the website Appeal to Redress.

Those organizing the effort -- Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans for Peace -- say the wording of the appeal is "short and simple ... [i]t is patriotic and respectful in tone:"

As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.

Visit here for more information.

UPDATE: It's actually 219 military personnel submitting the petition, 98 of them active duty.

Are there still Democrats who think the party doesn't need a "Southern Strategy"? If so, the 2006 mid-term elections will likely cause them to think again, with control of Congress in the balance and key contests likely to be decided in the South.

The South's central role is clearest in the battle for the Senate, which Hotline nicely summed up yesterday: "If GOPers keep TN and VA, they could keep control of the Senate." Out of the four Senate races Hotline called "the four purest toss-ups" last week -- Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee and Virginia -- it's the two Southern states (and the border state of Missouri) where Democrats are facing the toughest battles.

Here's a snapshot of where these races stand, according to a Bloomberg/LA Times poll released today:

TENNESSEE
Corker (R): 49%
Ford (D): 44%
10% of the electorate is undecided.

VIRGINIA
Webb (D): 47%
Allen (R): 44%
13% of the electorate is undecided.

MISSOURI
Talent (R): 48%
McCaskill (D): 45%
10% of the electorate is undecided.

The Republicans clearly view Tennessee as one of the most critical races, judging from the blistering attack ads unleashed this week that center on African-American Democratic candidate Harold Ford's supposed affinity for white women, which former Republican Senator Bill Cohen called "a very serious appeal to racist sentiment" and similar to Jesse Helms' infamous campaigns in North Carolina.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has been following the Tennessee fallout; even Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman has insisted he'd like to take down the anti-Ford ads but can't, claiming that -- despite the RNC logo appearing on the spots -- they are "independent" and the RNC has no control. This morning, Mark Schmitt at TPM Cafe takes it one step further, noting that the "independent" RNC ads are remarkably similar to GOP candidate Bob Corker's own ads, suggesting a higher level of "coordination."

As for the lower chamber, the 10 House races in the South we pointed to on Monday continue to be among the most closely-followed in the country. For example, a new Survey USA poll shows that Kentucky District 4, which "leans Republican," is still a nail-biter, with Rep. Geoff Davis (R) leading Ken Lucas (D) by only two points, 46% to 44%.

What's causing the South to come into play for Democrats, and will it carry through to election day? There are lots of factors, but two of the biggest appear to be Iraq and the disenchantment of conservative "values voters," especially in the wake of the Foley/page scandal.

The bad news from Iraq is unlikely to let up over the next two weeks. With the Foley scandal moving off the front pages, the impact on "value voter" turnout is less certain and could turn around. Although, as the Los Angeles Times noted last week, new events have kept the war within Christian conservative circles at a high pitch:

A recent incident that upset social conservatives involved remarks by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week. With First Lady Laura Bush looking on, Rice swore in Mark R. Dybul as U.S. global AIDS coordinator while his partner, Jason Claire, held the Bible. Claire's mother was in the audience, and Rice referred to her as Dybul's "mother-in-law."

"The Republican Party is taking pro-family conservatives for granted," said Mike Mears, executive director of the political action committee of Concerned Women for America, which promotes biblical values. "What Secretary Rice did just the other day is going to anger quite a few people."

Action for Children North Carolina, a Raleigh-based non-profit advocacy group, and the North Carolina Institute for Medicine have released a new "Child Health Report Card" (PDF format).

The purpose of the report is "to heighten awareness—among policymakers, practitioners, the media and the general public—of the health of children and youth across our state. All of the leading child health indicators are summarized in this one easy-to-read publication." This is the group's 12th annual report card. It looks at several measures and compares findings to a 2000 baseline to identify trends.

In general, the findings are similar to the recent "Kids Count" surveys for states across the South. (Action for Children is the North Carolina agency for Kids Count.) And again, poverty is an overriding theme.

There are some encouraging signs of progress in the report. The number of children aged zero to three enrolled in "early intervention services to reduce effects of developmental delay, emotional disturbance and/or chronic illness" has increased by 47.5%. Infant mortality has shown only a slight increase since 2000, and immunization rates are more than 99% by the time of school entry.

But report notes other disturbing trends. The percentage of uninsured children has increased by 17.8%. The rate of infant mortality among minorities is more than twice that of whites. The number of confirmed deaths due to child abuse increased by 28%.

Another troubling statistic is poverty. More than 21% of children in North Carolina are now living in poverty, a 12% increase since 2000. In addition, nearly 12% of children are uninsured, an 18% increase since 2000.

The report gives an 'A' for improvement in the number of children covered by public health insurance (either Medicaid or North Carolina's Health Choice program), which increased by 45% since 2000.

While it's good that more children have access to health care, it's troubling that more children need access to public health care because of poverty and rising health care costs. And despite best efforts to get children enrolled in public health insurance programs, the number of uninsured children continues to climb.

With the mid-term elections upon us and both major parties fighting for control of Congress, one would think these issues would be front and center in every campaign. Sadly, partisan politics and negative campaigning are in high gear, and candidates are talking more about their opponents than they are the issues.

Action for Children North Carolina has a call to action ("Who's for Kids and Who's Just Kidding") with facts about the health and safety of North Carolina's children, and specific questions for candidates about their policies and what solutions they propose.

McDonald's has cooked up a deal with Hummer, and public health and environmental advocates aren't "lovin' it." Here's how a new parody website launched by the Environmental Working Group starts:

McDonald's often emphasizes its "long-standing global commitment to environmental protection and leadership."

So why did they give away 42 million toy Hummers in Happy Meals? The fast-food chain that helped make our kids the fattest on Earth cut a deal with General Motors to sell future car buyers on the fun of driving a supersized, smog-spewing, gas-guzzling SUV originally built for the military.

The website gives Five Reasons McDonald's Should Dump the Hummer:

1. Hummers pollute high levels of smog-forming chemicals that cause or worsen asthma, which hits hardest among children.

2. Hummers are the worst example of the lack of commitment to cleaner and more efficient vehicles by General Motors and other American automakers.

3. Hummers spew the pollution that causes global warming, contributing to killer heat waves and hurricanes.

4. Hummers are gas guzzlers, helping keep America dependent on oil from the Middle East and threatened by the region's extremist politics.

5. At current gas prices, filling up a Hummer H2 costs almost $100 — money parents could spend on healthier food for their kids.

The site also links to the useful Auto Asthma Index, which provides a chart of the smoggiest cities in the U.S., as ranked by the American Lung Association. Of the top 20 smoggy metro areas, six are in the South: Houston (#6 on the list); Dallas (8); the Virginia and West Virginia outreaches of D.C. (12); Knoxville (14); Charlotte (15); and Raleigh (16).

The EWG site has a form for readers to contact McDonald's headquarters with their concerns. Readers can also use the "Ronald McHummer Sign-O-Matic™ to say what you think of this misguided marketing marriage," which will project your thoughts onto the image of a real Golden Arches sign.

Go here to read previous entries and vote; according to the website here are the top three:

"Destroying the Planet, One Burger at a Time"

"No, In Fact We Don't Care about the Planet. Give Us Your Money."

"Would You Like a War With That?"

Congressional Quarterly is featuring their list of Congressional races that are up for grabs in the upcoming election. CQ's list shows that a good number of Southern seats, especially those currently held by Republicans, will be hotly contested to the finish.

Here's how the House races are breaking down according to CQ:

SEATS CURRENTLY HELD BY DEMOCRATS

Of the House seats currently held by Democrats, CQ rates the Democratic candidate to be "safe" or "favored" in all of them, except in eight races where the race "leans" Democrat, including three in the South (bold):

Colo. 3 -- Salazar
Ga. 8 -- Marshall
Ga. 12 -- Barrow
Iowa 3 -- Boswell
Ill. 8 -- Bean
Ill. 17 -- Evans*
La. 3 -- Melancon
Vt. AL -- Sanders*

SEATS CURRENTLY HELD BY REPUBLICANS

More striking is the Republican side, where fully 71 seats currently held by the GOP are facing competative Democratic challenges.

Democrat Favored

Ariz. 8 -- Kolbe*

Leans Democratic

Fla. 16 -- vacant*
Ind. 8 -- Hostettler
N.Y. 26 -- Reynolds
Pa. 7 -- Weldon
Texas 22 -- vacant*

No Clear Favorite

Colo. 7 -- Beauprez*
Conn. 4 -- Shays
Fla. 22 -- Shaw
Ill. 6 -- Hyde*
Iowa 1 -- Nussle*
Ind. 2 -- Chocola
Ind. 9 -- Sodrel
Minn. 6 -- Kennedy*
N.C. 11 -- Taylor
N.M. 1 -- Wilson
N.Y. 20 -- Sweeney
N.Y. 24 -- Boehlert*
Ohio 15 -- Pryce
Ohio 18 -- Ney*
Pa. 6 -- Gerlach
Pa. 8 -- Fitzpatrick
Pa. 10 -- Sherwood
Wash. 8 -- Reichert
Wis. 8 -- Green*

Leans Republican

Ariz. 1 -- Renzi
Ariz. 5 -- Hayworth
Calif. 11 -- Pombo
Colo. 4 -- Musgrave
Conn. 2 -- Simmons
Conn. 5 -- Johnson
Fla. 13 -- Harris*
Ky. 4 -- Davis
Minn. 1 -- Gutknecht
Nev. 2 -- Gibbons*
N.H. 2 -- Bass
N.J. 7 -- Ferguson
N.Y. 19 -- Kelly
N.Y. 29 -- Kuhl
Ohio 1 -- Chabot
Ohio 2 -- Schmidt
Pa. 4 -- Hart
Va. 2 -- Drake
Wyo. AL -- Cubin

That makes seven Southern House seats that Democrats have a fighting shot of moving into their column. It's not as much as elsewhere in the country, but I don't think anyone could have anticipated such a prospect even a few months ago.

UPDATE: Seven of Hotline's "Top 30 Races" are unfolding in the South. Those races, with their ranking on Hotline:

2. Texas-22 -- Open Seat (R)
6. Florida-16 -- Open Seat (R)
12. North Carolina-11 -- Charles Taylor (R)
18. Florida-22 -- Clay Shaw (R)
28. Virginia-02 -- Thelma Drake (R)
29. Florida-13 -- Open Sear (R)
30. Kentucky-04 -- Geoff Davis (R)

As Facing South contributor R. Neal noted earlier this week, politicians have been slow in bringing Hurricane Katrina reconstruction matters into the debate over next month's elections.

Better late than never, I suppose.

Democrats on the House Katrina Task Force yesterday released a report summarizing their recommendations for improving the sluggish-at-best recovery effort along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Titled "Response, Relief, and Recovery: Katrina and Beyond," the report offers legislative proposals that task force members intend to champion once Congress returns to work after the Nov. 7 election, when Democrats need to pick up 15 seats to regain control of the House and set the agenda for Gulf recovery.

"This report is a detailed plan of action for how we in Congress can better help Louisiana and the entire Gulf Coast recover from Katrina and Rita," said U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.), who spearheaded the effort along with Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.). "Better levees, reforming FEMA, and fast-tracking coastal restoration and comprehensive hurricane protection projects are all included. This report is also a blueprint for how we can better respond to disasters in the future, wherever they may strike."

The report is based on months of research by the task force that culminated in a four-day trip to the Gulf Coast in August. During the visit, Melancon held a Hurricane Recovery Policy Forum to connect members of Congress with almost 100 local experts and leaders, whose suggestions formed the basis for the report.

One of the biggest items on the list would be building levee protection for the New Orleans metro area that could withstand a Category 5 hurricane. Cost estimates for that work run into the tens of billions of dollars. That's much different than what the Republicans have planned for the area's protection, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports:

Despite a promise to rebuild the area higher and safer, the Bush administration has avoided committing to hurricane protection much beyond what was in place when Katrina, a Category 3 storm, shredded New Orleans' levees and floodwalls. But Democrats say the substantial investment would be worth it to avoid a replay of what turned out to be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

"The cost is far outweighed by the maybe $300 billion in losses from Hurricane Katrina," Melancon said.

Other items on the Democrats' wish list include taking responsibility for disaster recovery away from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, preventing the agency from awarding no-bid contracts and allowing flood victims to sue the Army Corps of Engineers over failed levees.

The Democrats also call for investigating the claims practices of companies that contract with the National Flood Insurance Program. Observes the report:

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) allows insurance companies to sell flood policies and adjust flood claims that are financially backed by federal taxpayer dollars. Insurance company adjusters have an obvious conflict of interest when deciding whether claims should be billed to the federal flood insurance program or to the insurance companies that employ them, train them, and advise them on the interpretation of their policies.

State Farm, Nationwide, Allstate, and other insurers paid hundreds of thousands of wind claims inland, where they could not possibly blame the storm surge, but denied wind claims near the coastline, where winds were stronger and water also was present.

Cori and Kerri Rigsby, who adjusted claims under a contract with State Farm, have revealed that they were instructed to pay NFIP claims as quickly as possible, while refusing to acknowledge any evidence of wind damage. The sisters also claim that State Farm and its contractors revised engineering reports and coerced engineering firms to assign all damages to flooding, despite hours of hurricane winds before the storm surge.

The Democrats also want to eliminate the antitrust exemption enjoyed by the insurance industry; require insurers to sell policies that cover all hazards, including floods; and create federal oversight of the industry, which is now regulated by the states.

Not surprisingly, the insurance industry is less than happy with the report, with Eric Goldberg, assistant general counsel to the American Insurance Association, telling the Times-Picayune that it found some aspects of the report "troubling":

Goldberg said that if insurers could afford to cover all hazards and consumers were able to afford the premiums, "We would be doing it." He said Taylor is "misconstruing" the industry's antitrust exemption and took issue with the suggestion that companies huddled after the storm and decided to limit their exposure by covering only wind-damage claims.

"That is absolutely prohibited by state and federal law," he said.

The Times-Picayune points out that the industry contributed $36 million to politicians during the last election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Of that amount, the paper reports, 68 percent went to Republicans.

Back in August, we pointed to an internal Pentagon study (highlighed by the Center for Responsible Lending) which found that pay-day lending and other schemes finance institutions use to prey on men and women in the armed services "undermines military readiness, harms the morale of troops and their families, and adds to the cost of fielding an all volunteer fighting force."

A report from the Associated Press today keeps the spotlight on the issue, looking at one particular consequence of predatory finance practices on our troops:

Thousands of U.S. troops are being barred from overseas duty because they are so deep in debt they are considered security risks, according to an Associated Press review of military records. [...]

Data supplied to the AP by the Navy, Marines and Air Force show that the number of clearances revoked for financial reasons rose every year between 2002 and 2005, climbing ninefold from 284 at the start of the period to 2,654 last year. Partial numbers from this year suggest the trend continues.

More than 6,300 troops in the three branches lost their clearances during that four-year period.

How are the country's staunch defenders of the troops responding to this shocking information? The website of talk show host Bill O'Reilly -- who said in 2005 that peace vigils "border on treasonous" -- has no references to the news that predatory finance corporations are undermining the military.

The issue -- especially important in the South, where the most U.S. troops are based -- could come up on the campaign trail. Last month, the Kentucky Enquirer savaged Rep. Geoff Davis, a GOP incumbent fighting for his political life, for putting the interest of his campaign contributors over those of U.S. troops:

U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis of Kentucky's 4th District has strayed into a nasty firefight over legislation to protect military service members from predatory payday lenders.

Payday loans for many young, inexperienced military families can be a "debt trap." The loans average about $350. They are due in full on the next payday, typically in 14 days, and come with an annual interest rate from 390 to 780 percent. [...]

Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., proposed a Pentagon-backed amendment to cap interest rates on payday loans at 36 percent, but Davis, a former attack helicopter commander, insists a flat cap would let installment lenders and other financial predators off the hook...Consumer groups accuse him of trying to kill the 36 percent cap, and cite more than $11,000 in contributions to his re-election campaign by such national payday lenders as Mason, Ohio-based CNG Financial, owner of Check 'n Go. [...]

These debts among service personnel undermine military readiness, hurt morale and jack up costs for the all-volunteer force. Our defense forces deserve added protection from predatory debt traps.

Speaking of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, a new report looks at the state of New Orleans' public education since last year's disaster -- and raises serious concerns about efforts to privatize the system in the storm's wake.

New Orleans' public schools were already in serious disrepair before Katrina devastated the city last August. Lacking resources and poorly managed, the system was undoubtedly one of the worst in the nation.

But rather than use the disaster that destroyed over half of the city's school buildings as an opportunity to build a first-class education system, the Bush administration and allied privatization advocates used the storm as a chance for social experimentation on a grand scale.

"Dismantling a Community" by the Center for Community Change in Washington documents the consequences:

Over the past twelve months, buoyed by the support of the federal government, a network of conservative anti-government activists have moved with singular intensity to patch together a new vision for K–12 education that they hope will become a national model.

It is a vision that disdains the public sector and those who work within it. It is a vision based on competition and economic markets. It is a vision of private hands spending public funds.

Most disturbing, it is a vision that casts families and students as "customers," who shop for schools in isolation from -- and even in competition with -- their neighbors. It is a vision that, like the game of musical chairs, requires someone to be left without a seat.

Besides analyzing the politics behind what's happening to New Orleans' schools, the report includes personal essays by students and teachers who were involved with Students at the Center, a writing program based in those schools that teaches students to express themselves and to engage in their communities.

To download the report, click here.

The one year anniversary of Katrina came and went. America had our memorials and retrospectives and there were a few speeches and more empty promises from politicians. It gave the cable news outlets something to talk about for a couple of news cycles.

A few short weeks later, America is in the midst of the most heated mid-term election since 1994, with one party trying desperately to retain control of Congress and the other party smelling blood in the water. Central to the debate is the current administration's handling of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

As the recent Institute for Southern Studies survey shows, there is increasing opposition to the war, and Americans, and particularly Southerners, are questioning our goals and continued involvement. Or, to put it bluntly, they are fed up. The opposition party is making the election a referendum on the current administration's foreign policy and its handling of the war.

People are rightly concerned about the war and foreign policy. But it's puzzling that the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina have fallen off the political radar in this election. Because it's a year later and we have thankfully not had any major hurricanes this season, Katrina seems to be a long forgotten unpleasantness for most voters, and every candidate it would seem.

Katrina surfaces from time to time in the debate. A few pundits have brought it up, perhaps none more forcefully than former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe in this interview:

MCAULIFFE: I've been predicting we'd win the House and Senate since before the Foley scandal. I think the end of the Bush administration was Hurricane Katrina.

Others mention Katrina as one of many reasons voters are disenchanted with the current political leadership. Here's National Journal's Charlie Cook with a laundry list of complaints that includes Katrina:

While many attribute the Republican freefall to the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley and his e-mails to congressional pages, it really was no more than the straw that broke the camel's back. The seeds of Republicans' problems were planted long before publication of the congressman's e-mails to pages. The war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, other congressional scandals, federal budget spending and deficits, stem-cell research, Terri Schiavo and a multitude of other factors had been feeding the creation of an undertow for the GOP that goes back over a year. The "time for a change" dynamic that worked against Democrats in 1994 gradually came into place, fueled by all those factors mentioned above, and now it would probably take some huge event to alter its course.

Of course Katrina is on the minds of voters along the Gulf Coast. But as this Louisiana Weekly column notes, it's having the opposite effect for Democrats there:

Democrats counting on a strong base of black voters in Louisiana to bring victory in the Nov. 7 elections are facing frustrations from the Katrina fallout, coupled with dissatisfaction with their handling of the crisis that has reshaped the state demographics and its political landscape.

[..]

The levee breaks that followed Katrina flooded New Orleans and scattered thousands of residents from New Orleans, normally a Democratic stronghold. "Welcome to post-Katrina electoral politics," said Silas Lee, a New Orleans-based political analyst. "Displacement is going to be a factor. How important that will be remains a big question."

Vincent Sylvain, who has worked for months with the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation to register voters, said the displacement and the frustration may be factors.

"There was a time when we'd approach people about registering to vote, and they would just politely brush you off if they didn't want to do it. Now they ask why, and they are often hostile when they ask the question," Sylvain told BlackAmericaweb.com. A majority of black voters in New Orleans are less concerned about this election than they are about rebuilding their homes and getting their lives back to normal."

While a few pundits believe that Katrina is, or at least should be, an issue with voters, it does not appear to be an issue with the candidates. In the closely watched Tennessee Senate race, neither candidate has mentioned Katrina in their campaign speeches or debates.

In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, Congressman and now Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Harold Ford Jr. demanded that the Bush administration fix the federal response and get the needed resources into the region. Earlier this year, he asked the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to make sure there was an emergency plan in place for an earthquake along the New Madrid Fault in his 9th District, citing concerns about FEMA's performance during Katrina.

Last spring, Governor Bredesen, a Democrat who is up for reelection, spoke with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld about the state's National Guard equipment being left in Iraq, expressing concerns that it would affect his ability to mount an emergency response to a major earthquake or other disaster.

But since then, neither party's candidates for the U.S. Senate or the governor's office have mentioned Katrina as a campaign issue. What about in your state? Are candidates talking about the Katrina response? Should they be? Tell us what you think in comments.

The latest issue of Time magazine features an interview with country star Tim McGraw. The interview starts with McGraw's likable guy credentials:

He's a country-music megastar whose tour with wife Faith Hill was one of 2006's biggest moneymakers. He's also a doting husband and dad who has vowed never to spend more than two nights away from Hill and their three young girls. Now, with this week's opening of his family-friendly movie Flicka, Tim McGraw can add "lead actor" to his titles.

A few questions in, the conversation turns to politics, and McGraw doesn't attempt to hide his point of view:

TIME: You've said that you might like to run for Governor of Tennessee--or maybe Senator. Is that still the plan?

MCGRAW: One of these days, if the opportunity's there, that's something I'd love to do. It's a high calling to serve the community, and if you can do it, I think you should.

TIME: The country-music world seems pretty conservative and Republican, but you've bucked that trend.

MCGRAW: It's innate in me to be a Democrat -- a true Southern populist kind of Democrat. There's not a lot of those anymore. I'm not saying I'm right or wrong. That's just the way I feel. The issues that matter to me are the social safety nets for people, health care, middle-class concerns. We need to take care of the middle
class and the poor in our country. The chasm is getting larger between haves and have-nots, and that's something we need to close down a little bit.

Spoken like a true Southern populist -- although McGraw is right that not too many identify as such anymore, even though polls show it's one of the most promising ways for Democrats to make inroads in the region.