New Beginnings. Welcome 109th Congress

Remember Derek Fisher's 0.4 second game winner in game 5 of the 03-04 Western Conference Semifinals? Fisher caught an inbound pass, turned 180 and made the clencher. Immediately, he ran off the court in celebration followed by ecstatic teammates. "I just wanted to get out of there and not give them an opportunity to think that we didn't believe it went in," Fisher said. Just as a boxer raises his hands in victory at the end of 12 rounds the victorious show confidence in the outcome even before it's called.Last night, McCaskill raised her arm in victory at the end of the 12th hour even though the votes were not finalized.

This is the new democrat. They are sure of victory despite Rove's "fuzzy math", Bush's baseless rhetoric and having to fight the party of corruption and scandal. McCaskill, Clinton, Kerry, Gore, Dean and Pelosi are leading America in a new direction.

p.s. Nah-nah, nah nah nah nah . Hey-ey-ey. Goo-ood bye.
Say it with me now
Nah-nah, nah nah nah nah . Hey-ey-ey. Goo-ood bye.

Media Uncritically Reports Baseless Charge that Dems are Behind Foley Scandal

more here at Media Matters

Did anyone hear Clark say "treasure"?

Who coined this phrase treasure? I thought it was weird when I was listening to the radio and heard General Clark say it.
http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=414
http://securingamerica.com/node/1436
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_08_17.php

Foley-O loves boys, loves boys

Congressman Mark Foley resigned in disgrace last Friday after his sexually charged IMs with a 16 year old page were exposed by investigative journalist Brian Ross of ABC News.

The 52 year old former Congressman of Florida ironically co-chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children and helped write the laws he may be prosecuted by. E-mails and IM's (gag, I haven't read all of them. I'm not sure I want to continue reading his tripe. Must... think of good thoughts... not 52 year old men preying on children) sent by Foley were inappopriate at the least and didn't raise an alarm despite a page seing them as "sick" and forwarding them to an aid in Rep. Rodney Alexander's (R-LA) (thanks media matters) office. No one in the page program had the foresight to pin Foley as the indecent man he is.

The man needs to be sent to Singapore and caned. I don't know of any punishment that will set him straight. We already know he is a liar. He's used the following excuses:
1. I'm gay
2. I was molested by a clergyman
3. I was drunk
4. It's the Democrats fault
and we know 2 out of 4 of these are a lie. We're still waiting for confirmation on him being straight and the name of the mysterious non-existent cleryman. He is no good.

George Allen had to respectfully decline the Thurgood Marshall award because the committee was threatening to withhold funds. Still editing
JCLH

Even though our president said it would be a lot easier if he was a dictator he sure doesn't know how to pronounce 'totalitarian'.
JCLH

Blogger Made It Easier

I'm at work right now and sending a blog
JCLH

Did I miss something?

http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/09/chertoff_blames.php Says Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security chief at the time made this remark on September 1, 2005 during the Katrina catastrophe:
"The critical thing was to get people out of there before the disaster," he said on NBC's Today program. "Some people chose not to obey that order. That was a mistake on their part."

He siad this disregarding people who were UNABLE to leave due to illness or lack of transportation. However, we already know there were a bunch of unsympathetic a-holes back then (including george Shrub's mom")

What weirds me out is that I went to the article where Jesse Berney of the Democratic party had cited that quote and I could not find the quote anywhere. I had linked to this article a year ago so I could find it and I remember his quote being there (don't I?). I'm wondering if the Washington Post changed any of their story around for posterity.

GooseBump City

There's a comic with my own name in it. GooseBump City. OK, so maybe I have something to do with it. Anyway I just decided to hype my own self up.

Northwest to Employees: Dig in the trash.

I'm back after exactly 2 months away from not posting. I'll warn everyone next time I decide to split.

I was listening to Air America a second ago and I heard Ed Shultz (ok maybe he's not Air America) say Northwest Airlines was passing a pamphlet around telling their employees to dig in the trash and take their significant others out to the beach in order to save money (Hopefully not in that order). I decided I had to see that pamphlet so I went to Northwest's website and I couldn't even find a page for employees. Even my college job had a page for their employees, sheesh.
Figuring it must be hidden under muck I went to Technorati and lo and behold, The Consumerist had a link to the pamphlet here.

The guy who found the pamphlet on The Consumerist, Triteon, tries to give Northwest a little leeway saying it's actually NEAS who distributes pamphlets to it's clients (i.e. NorthWest) to get its "future former employees ready. I'll save that for future reference. I contract someone and the fault goes to the guy under me. That's gotta be the easiest way to remove responsibility, right? *cough* Gitmo *cough*

Still, I like the irony in certain individuals getting fired and being rewarded with $40 million dollars and a golden umbrella and others being given a pamplet telling them to go eat trash.

I put a copy here because I like backups.

P.S. Happy 100th Post to Me!

Illegal Voting Machines Used in Busby/Bilbray Election

Voting Integrity

I just needed to store the article somewhere.

Who's got the real handicap?

You think you're bad?
Are you bad enough to tell off a blind man?





From Think Progress:

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Peter. Are you going to ask that question with shades on?

Q I can take them off.

THE PRESIDENT: Im interested in the shade look, seriously.

Q All right, Ill keep it, then.

THE PRESIDENT: For the viewers, theres no sun. (Laughter.)

Q I guess it depends on your perspective. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Touche. (Laughter.)

Q Following up on the other Peters question about Karl Rove, you said that you were relieved with what happened yesterday. But the American public, over the course of this investigation, has learned a lot about what was going on in your White House that they didnt know before, during that time, the way some people were trying to go after Joe Wilson, in some ways. Im wondering if, over the course of this investigation, that you have learned anything that you didnt know before about what was going on in your administration. And do you have any work to do to rebuild credibility that might have been lost?

THE PRESIDENT: I think that first of all, the decision by the prosecutor speaks for itself. He had a full investigation. Karl Rove went in front of the grand jury like I dont a lot of times. More times than they took a hard look at his role.

Secondly, as I told the other Peter, Im going to tell you, that theres an ongoing trial, its a serious business. And Ive made the comments Im going to make about this incident, and Im going to put this part of the situation behind us and move forward.

21st Century Lynching

I posted this on a Myspace blog of mine a few days ago and then thought "why neglect this blog"?

I couldn't help but scorn myself for missing a screen shot of the front page that lie before me at 6 o'clock in the morning. At washingtonpost.com there was the image of James Cameron founder of America's Black Holocaust Museum, dedicated to educating the general public of the injustices suffered by people of African Heritage in America. Under this image was an article of appreciation and below that his obituary. James Cameron died at the age of 92 and is the only known survivor of a lynching attempt, which occurred when he was 16 years old. As amazing a feat it was, being one of thousands to escape such a fate, a greater spectacle lie in the headlines beside it.

I didn't care that George Bush made a "surprise" visit to Iraq (much like all the surprise sound bites he gives us each morning trying to raise his polls from the 30 percent monster) or that there was another shocking car bombing in Iraq. What I did take note of is
U.S. Officials Detail Zarqawi's Last Hour. Was it sheer irony the Washington post was trying to convey or a mere coincidence the articles lie side by side. A man who survived a lynching decades earlier died only two days after the public lynching of the "the new people of color"'s representative.

Here, at the Washington Post's website, they feed America's bloodlust and decrepit justice by flaunting the body of this dead man. They flaunt this dead man's body and then assure us he isn't human. "Look at what he's done! He's an animal!" Then in the same breath you kill dismiss four others. "They were collateral damage." Followed by a mask of humanity. "We let him die peacefully. Look at this picture of the man. He practically died of natural causes. The bomb didn't kill him and neither did our soldiers" as if it isn't the fall that kills the man but the sudden stop at the end. And they assure us it was necessary. "But it's going to help a lot," (and they dropped the bomb on Hiroshima) "Zarqawi was a loose cannon who gave al-Qaeda in Iraq a bad name with gruesome beheadings..." (and they drove the Native American off their land) "as it is the people's resistance and every youth can become al-Zarqawi" (and they enslaved the African children).

Fortunately for us, we do not have ropes anymore. We do not have museums where bodies have been quartered and genitals displayed of this strange humanoid animal. We no longer have lynched people sold on postcards for a few cents. No, now we have "tolerable" pictures, autopsies, and the mystique in whether or not they shot the man after they bombed him.

The lynching doesn't end there. Just as the lynching didn't stop with James Cameron, as it continued through Emmett Till, as it continues with Zarqawi and as they target Abdel Rahman al-Iraqi and Abu Masari... then Iran then some other non western civilization (because we all know North Korea is bad) who I suppose are only names to us, they'll find someone else. They might be people to some. They might be the next blood stained flag for others.

I am blogging from my phone for the first time

Ok, so this wasn't entirely political. I just never access my own blog on my cell phone and I finally got enough interest to try. My strange behavior will no doubt alert the NSA. I'm not sure if I already poked fun about this but that thousand pounds of explosives didn't kill Zarqowi, maybe the bullets of the soldiers that followed did (just saying). Why use the bombs in the first place other than to give a reason to make more of them if you can't take the man out. I guess that doesn't matter. The war on terror is over. Mission accomplished. Get er done. Now watch this drive.

Gay Marriage Shmay Marriage

Please don't be stupid enough to rally behind bush on something like this.

Extra! Extra! Supreme Court Nixes Free Speech!

Did I even mention the Supreme Court took away the power for government employees to speak out against their employer when they see something wrong? So much for free speech.

Let's all jump on the guy who says his superior officer has never done a legal search and seizure in his life :P or better yet let's all jump on the public hospital employee who saw the potential hazard in having a fire extinguisher near the MRI system.

The way America is headed is toward limited liability for the government and corporations and then when they are liable they don't have to give people squat. Forget of, for, and by the people. Let's get this country back to it's grass roots of property owning elitists who'll try to squeeze blood from stone as well as people.

Who needs their laws when you can write your own

Bush Co. ignoring the constitution

Firedoglake cite's a Boston Globe article which dissects the presidential signing statements bush uses to enhance his executive powers. Apparently bush has used this power 750 tmies where it was used 600 times by preceding presidents. George bush never uses his veto power because he never wants to give Congress the opportunity to shoot him down. Instead he writes in these little official notes that say how he interprets the power (even if that interpretation contradicts the law).
So he gets to run around like a maniac practically creating his own laws. Forget seperation of powers. He's got the military, congress and judicial system jumping hoops for the executive office.

Reality Check: Washington News or Important Gossip

I was reading Escatchon and saw this article from the New York Observer.

I'm just going to put the same excerpt Atrios did.

Ultimately, this episode reveals less about the Clintons than about the decaying culture of Washington journalism. Like the Bourbons, the Washington press corps forgets nothing, forgives nothing and learns nothing. They remain utterly oblivious to their own mean-spirited hypocrisy.

Is there a reason why the enduring, 30-year bond of the Clintons merits more withering scrutiny than the multiple unhappy marriages of ambitious politicians such as Senator John McCain and Rudolph Giuliani? Is there a reason why the marital privacy of elected officials should be violated, while media moguls like Rupert Murdoch can discard their wives with impunity?

Meanwhile, it is reassuring to know that Mr. Healy, at least, is a high-minded professional searching for significance. As the Times reporter told the American Society of Newspaper Editors a few years ago: "The media's future depends on journalists exercising this responsibility in a way that earns them the public's trust and confidence …. The most meaningful part of being a journalist, and the reason I chose that path, is the reward of telling stories about real-life, high-stakes matters of consequence, stories that will have an impact on real people."

That says it all.

If only a negative number of people existed

(CBS/AP)

You know what sucks? Unless Bush is impeached and removed before his term ends we’re eventually going to see an article that says “Bush’s polls bounce back". If it doesn’t happen because of some October surprise he has waiting for us (Though I would think America has become desensitized after watching 9/11, two “wars” and a vice president shooting a man in the face) it will happen because the man’s polls can only go as low as zero. Eventually, he will datamine his way back to 19 or 17 or 20 or whatever it is unpopular presidents of his caliber do.

Kill More Humans to Kill More People

Explosions Kill Two in Iraq

Mission Accomplished

The death of the U.S. soldier came as the United States marked Memorial Day. It brought to 2,467 the number of U.S. military members who have died since the war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Illegal Data Mining by the NSA

The NSA has secretly been collecting billions of phone call records with the aid of Verizon, AT&T and Bell South.

This man has taken advantage of the lives of thousands of people to push a program that is illegal, immoral and goes against centuries of what America has stood for. We are allowing this man to take away rights under the falsehood of protecting us.

If you allow this man to say he has inherent powers as president during this time of war (which is actually an occupation, "authorized use of aggressive force") then there is no limit to what he can do.

H

e is already allowed to hold people without trying them and wiretap your phone without a warrant for making a call outside of the United States and now the NSA has amassed a database unprecedented in size that keeps track of every call you make. What is being done with this information? Who has it? How do we know the people who have it are not corrupted?

Nixon left office because he broke the law. He broke into records unlawfully. Are we going to allow this president to do the same thing just because people don't have to physically open files to get the information they want? They have access to YOUR information.

On top of that, how far has this gone? All of these programs in the NSA are private. The NSA itself was private from the 50's till 1975 when it was forced into regulation under FISA in 1978. We found out Bush ordered the NSA to go behind FISA's back and wiretap U.S. citizens without a warrant last year. Now we find the NSA is dealing in shady business by collecting our phone records. What they have done is obviously questionable because Qwest's lawyers didn't give up their phone records even after being pressured by the treat of losing government contracts. Bechtel protected it's customers records from the 30's onward because there could be heavy fines for giving up phone records without warrant.

I'm repeating the article, just read it.

Old Wine, New Bottle

Yes, straw man voting has started for the Republican party. Straw man voting for the straw man party. But what does it really matter? They are the same party they've always been. So some of them didn't support the Dubai Ports World deal, so what. The only reason they didn't go along with King bush is because the public didn't go along with it. They are all trying to save face for the '06 and '08 elections.

bush couldn't give a damn because he's already gotten everything he wants. He can go party with the UAE and get more millions with his shady business partners after his dead duck presidency is finished. The Republican Party on the other hand will be around a bit longer than bush will. They need to get away from the imploding President bush.

Unfortunately Frist can't distance himself from bush. People thought this cat slicer might have been bush's Vice President if not for the fact that Cheney has been shooting people in the face and sucking their soul to keep his heart beating. So Frist made his one move in teaming with Schumer and he thinks that sucking up will be enough to pull his party out of the dumps. It's too late though.

We have already seen these "through the looking glass" party antics. It's a party that helps the rich 1% and leaves the poor drowning. It attacks countries that have nothing to do with 9/11 while their executive's administration let's facilitators of the attacks do business with us. It's a party that equates women's choice with pro-death. Frist, bush. bush, Frist. It's all the same. Romney and McCain are all the same.

Just bush: Part 2

So bush has made his way into the White House. Luckily for him my memory grows a bit foggy. I remember him beginning his fight for ANWR. This land was originally a wild life refuge in the 60

(draft cut short and finally posted on 1/31/08 just for the sake of it)

Just bush: Part 1

Ever since George Bush got into office I was against him. Let me correct that. Ever since I learned he was running for president I was against him. I remember being in the politics chat in Yahoo telling people George Bush's state had the 2nd highest number of state sanctioned capital punishments in the world followed by CHINA. Back then I didn't add these fancy links that back up what I say.

Back then the president was arrogant enough to say "I'm confident, that every person that has been put to death in Texas under my watch has been guilty of the crime charged, and has had full access to the courts." Even when gross inadequacies in the trials of those convicted were shown to the man he replied "We've adequately answered innocence or guilt". (Answers like these would foreshadow his attitude in the future when he believed he had done everything adequately before wiretapping U.S. citizens, torturing prisoners in Abu Graib and attacking a country under false assumptions.) Yes, this president deals with inadequacies in the same way an absent-minded teenager deals with a minimum wage job.

But most of America doesn't appear to care about the murders occurring in the industrial prison complex. Americans manage to shrug off the the possibility of innocence and continue supporting the death penalty. So at the time I thought I could use shock value.

George Bush has never really been an "environment man". He truly does look out for the interests of large companies (or the friends that own them). For at least a decade during Bush's reign as governor of Texas there were babies being born without brains in the Rio Grande Valley. Along the U.S. Mexican border the rate of babies born with anencephaly can be anywhere from 2 to 8 times the nation-wide rate each year and tends to be higher than rates in many third world countries. The $3-$4 million dollars spent on researching this phenomena makes you wonder how much the businesses Bush supported in Texas are getting. Just as the Bush administration argues global warming doesn't exist he argued the increase in businesses (businesses that were largely not held accountable for the toxic waste they exported) would help environmental conditions. You increase industrial activity and population and pollution decreases. Go figure.

So no one listened to that. Then I remember personally talking to someone from Florida. (I didn't know it would be the problem it turned out to be at the time. I thought it would be close at the time I was talking about it but I didn't think they'd be subtracting votes and acting like the state was theirs from the get-go) This person from Florida personally told me their vote would not count. This person was not a convicted felon, didn't err in registering and probably could have made it to the booth (all three things that disenfranchised thousands of voters). This was a democrat who just said "I'm not voting", a youth. I'm a youth too and it pains me to speak to another who doesn't care. No, I can't say it truly pains me. It angers me that I can't be empathetic with their position. If not for ethical reasons I'd bust someone upside the head when they tell me they're not voting when they are able.

So I had my dose of pre-election fire. I remember printing out "Vote Gore" several times on sheets of paper and placing those pieces of paper across the country during a road trip. Fun times. Alas, Gore did not win. My first time being more than superficially involved with the upcoming election turned out to be a bust. I actually couldn't believe it. My family had been watching the television until we saw Gore win Florida. Then we went to the voting booth (this was in California). After we came back home (which didn't take more than 15 minute) Gore had some how lost control of the state. Talk about surreal.

Confessing Their Sins

by mcjoan [at Daily Kos]

Wed Mar 01, 2006 at 01:32:02 PM PDT

"We have to address the fact that the president has broken the law." -- Senator Russ Feingold

In a letter to the Senate Judiciary committee yesterday, Attorney General Gonzales provided a "clarification" of his previous testimony in which he admitted that, from the very beginning, the President as King theory upon which this administration operates has guided the President's actions. He confirmed that the President has been acting as though the Constitution allows him to break the law.

In his letter, Gonzales revisited earlier testimony, during which he said the administration immediately viewed a congressional vote in September 2001 to authorize the use of military force against al-Qaeda as justification for the NSA surveillance program. Bush secretly began the program in October 2001, Gonzales's letter said.

On Feb. 6, Gonzales testified that the Justice Department considered the use-of-force vote as a legal green light for the wiretapping "before the program actually commenced."

But in yesterday's letter, he wrote, "these statements may give the misimpression that the Department's legal analysis has been static over time."

Fein said the letter seems to suggest that the Justice Department actually embraced the use-of-force argument some time later, prompting Gonzales to write that the legal justification "has evolved over time."

One government source who has been briefed on the issue confirmed yesterday that the administration believed from the beginning that the president had the constitutional authority to order the eavesdropping, and only more recently added the force resolution argument as a legal justification. [emphasis mine]

Let me repeat. The administration believed from the beginning that the president had the constitutional authority to violate FISA. The administration believed from the beginning that it was above the law and because they believed the President was above the law, the President BROKE the law. All of these "evolving" legal justifications for the illegal warrantless wiretapping of American citizens have been nothing more than diversions, window-dressing to make us think that the administration FELT like it had to provide justification for it's illegal actions. Whether he intended it or not, Gonzales just admitted that, from the very beginning, the President has operated as King.

Before the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees even consider revising FISA, they need to address the fact that the President of the United States is an admitted criminal.

-Taken from DailyKos

A Conversation with Ismail Haniyeh - The New Hamas Prime Minister

Since Hamas won control of parliament in the recent Palestinian elections, policymakers in Washington and Jerusalem have been faced with a dilemma: how to deal with a democratically elected government that is also on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. Last week, Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth interviewed Hamas's new prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, by phone in his home in the refugee camp where he lives with his wife and 12 children in Gaza.

OK, this is the last one for today. I don't want to overload you or anything :p I haven't even gone past the first page on this one anyway.

I just put this one up as a reminder that we didn't get the puppet government we wanted. I mean how far do we have to go? Why not just wipe out the rest of the Iraqi's and put United States citizens in? That country has been as fair as it possibly could be. They let us call them liars, occupy their land, kill thousands of innocent people, force our own little interem government on them and they've even let us make conditions if they're to be delt with.
I'm surprised they haven't authorized Haniyeh to use force to get rid of the American insurgents.

Port Deal - Boxing a slow bush's Ears from the Left AND Right

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, an outspoken liberal Democrat from New York, two weeks ago began publicly denouncing a deal to let a Middle Eastern firm take over terminal operations at six U.S. seaports. From the other end of the political spectrum, even more outspoken conservative radio host Michael Savage was doing the same -- and recruiting Republican lawmakers to his cause.

It was on Feb. 13 that the Dubai Ports World deal -- after simmering unnoticed for months in the federal bureaucracy and the transportation trade press -- started to boil, as a result of Savage's blustery on-air alarms and an event by Schumer at the New York harbor with families who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001.

It was not until Feb. 16 that Bush was informed by aides of the controversy -- and that his own administration had approved the port deal a month earlier. It was not until five days after that, on Feb. 21, that Bush spoke up in support of the port deal. By then, dozens of prominent lawmakers in both parties had joined Savage and Schumer in questioning the president's commitment to national security.

You can read the whole article here. It is analyzing the port deal and how bush reacted slowly and some might say inappropriately when the uprising began.
So he was tardy in responding to us getting attacked on 9/11, he was tardy on Katrina and he was tardy with our security in the port deal. He used to own the Texas Rangers right? Has he ever heard of three strikes?

Then again maybe we should let him go with two since he was nowhere near tardy when he said "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. He might be a good 10 or 15 years early for all we know.

Five Words: The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

I wanted to get a transcript of the "State of the Black Union 2006: Economic Empowerment" so I could get the words of Minister Farrakhan. I see I will have to purchase the DVD from C-Span :p I searched for a news article that might give you a glimpse into the words of Farrakhan but I could only find watered down, misdirecting, out-of-context versions of the event here, here and here.

These versions of the event aside, Farrakhan's words are of major importance. I'm going to make an attempt to paraphrase it, We have attempted to work "inside the box" with this country. We have played by the rules of this country. We have also been burned by this country while playing by the rules.

Harry Belafonte was at this event and the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan recalled a moment Belafonte had with Reverend Martin Luther King, a few weeks before his assassination, in which Mr. Belafonte had asked why King looked so "melancholy". King answered that he feared he was integrating his people into a burning house.

His fear was not unjustified. This house has been burning for 400 years. We can tell it is still burning because, as Barbara Jordan had said, we want "an America as good as its promise", but America's promise is worth very little.

America made promises to Native American’s and the only promise they kept was taking their land. They promised African-American’s 40 acre’s and a mule and they never gave us our land. They promised us the vote and yet they still held a million voters back in Florida in 2000 because former felons who have already repaid their debt to society are not allowed to vote. So this has been the land of unfulfilled promises.

An oppressed people have never been freed by their oppressors. The oppressed can only free themselves by reforming the system that oppresses them, or by destroying that system. We have already tried to reform the system and the system has failed us. The only choice we have is to remove this president, remove this government and replace it with something that works.

So that is as best as I can take from memory. I only give my rendition about 60 or 70% Mine is missing the religious overtone also. But I'm sure you understand what he's saying. The media will be afraid to say what's going on. Some will say it was a bush bashing rally, some will say it was an attempt for economic justice and some will say it was a black symposium.

It's more than that though.

It's a call to justice.
It's a call for movement
It's an enlightenment of what the leadership in this country is thinking
and doing
It's a call to tell others about what's going on
It's a call to uproot a tyrant

Then there is more than I can think of at the moment that I am sure others got out of it. Like Smiley said. You didn't get that even if you think you got it. It might be days, weeks and even months until some people understand what's was said.

Old School - '02-'03 - Bush for Oil, Cheney for Everything Else

Now this is just a little bit of easy reading for a friend of mine (you know who you are). The question came up, and I paraphrase, Why would we attack Iraq and leave all these other countries that had their hand in 9/11 alone? It has become so cliché to say "He did it for the oil". It rolls off my tongue so easily I forget what it means sometimes.

The pipeline through Afghanistan.

Halliburton dips it’s hands in Iraq uncontested. (You may want a little bit more time to absorb this one)

So that’s just a taste. This day's for you LD

Ha Ha Ha Ha. Are the enemies the Arabs or the Old White People

Funny. The bush administration has forgotten who the enemies are.

Nepotism At It's Finest

Look what Atrios found,

Washington - The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House.

One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose agency heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale of an English company to government-owned Dubai Ports World - giving it control of Manhattan's cruise ship terminal and Newark's container port.

Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet.

The other connection is David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations and was tapped by Bush last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration.

The article goes on to say "The ties raised more concerns about the decision to give port control to a company owned by a nation linked to the 9/11 hijackers." [link added by me for emphasis]

So cronyism comes into play. The bush administration is more concerned with lining their pockets than with the security of our nation.

Abu Ghraib Images: II

While you wait to see Whittington's face (if that's ever going to happen) here's the second installment of pictures from Abu Ghraib: "Homicide, Torture and Sexual Humiliation"

Coming to Theaters

Dead, But Stable

Only nurses, doctors and hospitals should be allowed to use the term stable. Politicians and reporters abuse of the word "stable" in describing someone's conditions allows for deceptive reporting. A person can nearly be dead and still be "stable". Sharon has been in a coma for 38 days but at least he is stable. Dick Cheney sent Harry Whittington to the intensive care unit but Whittington was stable. Heck, Terri Shiavo had a liquefied cerebral cortex but she was still stable.

Politicians and reporters should be required to give a mandatory description of the injured condition ranging from excellent (only needed a band-aid) to critical (life hangs in the balance). Maybe the republicans need a color coded system. They seem to understand color.

Our state can't possibly make sense to half the country.

Our state can't possibly make sense to half the country.

Why does a president need extraordinary wartime powers when we are not in wartime? If this is a war why have we not made a declaration? Why have we gotten "Authorized use of force" instead of war? This is not palatable. We are not fighting a threat. If Iraq is such a threat why are we not at full scale war? Why are we not being supported by a league of nations (the coalition is/was/and forever will be a joke)

I don't have the energy. I don't know what common sense is anymore.

If terrorists are such a threat to our country why are we still eating butter? Why are 30,000 people being laid off at Ford instead of being kicked into high gear in order to build more military supplies? Why are people walking around without being taxed feeling like there is nothing going wrong? Can't you just taste something is wrong. Why am I able to type this down without any worries? Where is the draft? I don't even see people riding around with flags any more. Is it possible that 9/11 was a fluke?

Maybe we aren't destined to not be attacked ever. Maybe, just maybe, 1775, 1812, 1865, 1917, 1941...maybe the Cold War and Vietnam, Maybe something is going to happen to us. We are not invincible. We do not live in a bubble. We are part of the world. if we are struck every 40 years it is not because we are not focusing on the "terrorists". It is because as a citizen of the world we must interact with others. Sometimes others will be mad at us. I don't know one person who is friends with everybody. Someone will be mad at you because you're friends with everybody. But in this country's case we're just jerks.

It is completely understandable that 9/11 occurred. I'm not going to belittle any of the people's lives or anything but get over it. You can do everything you can possibly do outside of putting tags on ever citizen and non citizen in the U.S. (and I mean tagging their brain so you can press a button and off us) and there is still the possibility of getting hit. Put that on top of our mentality to put others down in order to stay ahead and you will always have an enemy. Iran is going to hate us for stopping their nuclear energy program. Russia already warned us about messing with Iran and China has got it's hands in Iran's pockets (much like they have their hands in the rest of the worlds pockets). You can't account for all this. it's a complex system that can lead to trouble whether or not you soft step everything. If it wasn't 9/11/2001 it may have been 2/26/2015.

Impeach bush. he broke the law.
This is the "Authorized use of force on Iraq" not the "War on Iraq"
Gonzales is one weak puppet.

Maybe FISA doesn't need changing. Maybe Bush should just not break laws.

FISA never stopped anyone from stopping 9/11. There are many out there that would have you believe 9/11 is the fault of FISA. This is absolutely not the case. The real matter is a bunch of dumbells hired around a dumbell organization ran by a dumbell at the top didn't know how to go about doing their job.

Just like Iraq has nothing to do with....had nothing to do with Al Quaeda, just like Iran isn't building nukes, just like Iraq couldn't have attacked us if their lives depended on it, FISA statutes in no way shape or form interfered with gathering intelligence that could have stopped 9/11.


If anyone says FISA is responsible for 9/11 they are lying. Now, watch this drive

By the Way. Bush broke the law.

President Bush broke the law. Thousands of Americans have been eavesdropped on by the President without warrents and nearly all of them have been dismissed as potential suspects. That means there are thousands of people out there who have been secretly wire-tapped and they will have no idea what was taken by the government. As Senator Leahy asked "what is done" with this information? Are they going to throw it away? Are thousands of Americans now part of this new White House archive?

Come to think of it, what's to stop another Watergate from occurring right now? Speedy Gonzales is allowing the Executive Branch to go on without any checks or balances. We currently have the police policing the police. NSA officials who work under the president will watch their own organization and report to the president. What is it called when the governed are not governed. Are we under a tyranny or an anarchy right now? I think Mr. bush is being tyrannical. Yes, bush is causing a tyrannical problem right now.

You know, the bush crew is saying they cannot get everything done that needs to be done to stop another 9/11 from occurring under current FISA statutes. But no one is saying those statutes are static. The senate had a virtual 100 percent agreement on passing the Patriot act. Why would President Bush and his lawyers be afraid to go to Congress and fix the statutes? Is it possible that they have something to hide? When I have something to hide I generally try to step around the people who I'm hiding something from. Does that make sense?

The justice department did reject the bush administration's notion that they should be able to do NSA surveillance under "a reasonable basis" isntead of "probable cause" as standard of the Fourth Amendment. Perhaps bush Co. realizes some of the "Terrorist Surveillance" (oh screw that, it's unwarranted surveillance, the country is breaking the law and tapping your phones without a court order) did not come up to par with the court's idea of what is necessary to have a warrant issued.

Personally I think we should get democrats for '06 so we can uncover what's going on. If we can have the House back for one session let it be when we can find out what illegal procedures Bush and his cronies are doing.

I have finally found out what to call the American-Iraq Conflict

During Speedy Gonzalez's NSA questioning, (that involved a lot of question dodging and boiling it down to either we thought "we were doing it right" or "if we had done it the other way you might have squealed on our program") a Republican senator had implied that we declared war on Iraq. Gonzales was quick to rebut at the end of this senator's question that we had not declared war on Iraq. We had just given an authorization to use force on them.

OK. From now on it's called the "Authorization of force against Iraq" or the "Authorized use of force on Iraq". Let's get away from this whole "WAR" thing because I'm tired of hearing the chickenhawks say "in time of war", in "war of this widespread yada yada fuck you America such and such".

"Authorized use of force against Iraq" - you heard it here first.

Gonzales Aid's President in Illegal Surveillance

If you've been following CSPAN you're aware of Alberto Gonzales' smug interpretation of the law.

And while I was going to analyze everything Gonzales said wrong I saw this bomb at CrooksandLiars. I thought I watched the NSA questioning at least twice but apparently this slipped my mind.

Gonzalez is practically kicking us in the face and secretly laughing at us ( I say secretly because he is sort of holding the grin back).

Yes it is sick that the other side will sit there and pretend like everything is fine and dandy when you have scum puddles like this pushing the limits of their sick game and toying with the people of this country.

But once again I say it was damn funny. I cannot stop watching it. Yes they have us hypnotized I sat there listening when it was live. I heard it yet I did not hear it. Only now so many hours later do I realize I have been made a fool of. Kind of sad but they say so much shit it just flows through your brain.

Did Dorgan get money from Abramoff Apolitically?

Senator Dorgan appeared on the Ed Schultz show today on air America. At around 12:50 PM he said that he hadn't politically received any money from Abramoff. I wonder why did he have to put the qualifier "politically" on it? That makes it sound as if he has personally or shall we say "non-politically" received money from Abramoff. If I were a politician I would say I never got one red cent from Abramoff.

How can Dorgan sit up there and have the nerve to say he was a whistle blower along with McCain? I don't know if I can trust the guy. I want to hear him say he hasn't received money in any way. I want to hear someone else ask him the question again to see if he consciously qualifies his answer.

p.s. I never scientifically published this entry.

Heave Ho, to the left they go

Bush told the crowd at the annual "Let Freedom Ring" performance that Congress must renew provisions of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act that are set to expire next year. The president had previously declined to support the renewal until last month, and the crowd erupted in applause when Bush insisted that it be renewed.
I don't think I understand how people can't see this is a political gimmick. It's timing. I mean could he have said he was going to renew it 5 years ago or so? I wonder why he would support the renewal now? Could it be because there are election in '06 and this would be a nice talking point?

I guess it isn't as bad as Ah-nold's blatent swing toward the left recently. Is anyone going to push the fact that this man who has been riding a motorcycle for two decades does not have an M1 license? Is anyone going to point out this is the same man who says we have to "drive sensible and defensively" in the Calfiornia Drivers Handbook? I wish Ah-nold would pass a law that allowed every person who voted for the Goobernator to be slapped. I'd like every one of those voters to get one hard slap to the face for putting in the one-liner king.

So yeah, go ahead and vote for those left leaning Republicans...left leaning Republicans...left leaning Republicans. Jeez, it's almost as bad as that commercial where they call Democrats "RATS".

Those Republicans are oxymorons...oxyMORONS...oxyMORONS...

Wal-Mart Moves On, Gunman or No Gunman

[Insert Wal-Mart here]

A couple days ago, December 28, 2005 to be exact, there was allegedly a gunman in Wal-Mart at the Long Beach Tone Center at (where else?) Long Beach, California. My family and I went to Wal-Mart to get Alka-Seltzer (if I add a link can you pay me Bayer?) and we were not allowed to enter because a gunman was supposedly inside. Somehow they did not know who the gunman was but one woman who had been turned away earlier said there was supposed to be a black man who had been waving a gun around inside the store...(no description...just a black gunman...I'm sure he was going to be ok...) "Everyone" (black males) was checked when they left the store. I had been there 30 minutes watching officers (I saw at least 6 black and whites) wander around lackadaisically. SWAT was not called in and Wal-Mat ade sure that, while no one was allowed to enter, customers who were already inside at the time would be ushered through the checkout lanes as they finished shopping.

[insert shopping cart picture here]

Isn't that a trip though? A gunman is supposed to be inside, no one is allowed to enter, but you can finish shopping. Wal-Mart needs to make a new ad... "Wal-Mart, not even a gunman will stop you from shopping here."

They Recovered Enough Bodies Anyway...

After 4 months of searching for bodies of Katrina victims in New Orleans, I hear searches have stopped. These searches have ended despite still missing people and unsearched rubble. I was recently watching CNN where I heard a New Orleans resident say (and I paraphrase) police, the state, the country is ending their search and the police say it is not their responsibility. Perhaps it was just easier looking through rubble in New York in 2001.

I guess it's that paradoxical situation where you can stop looking for your dead yet you can't pull out of Iraq. Maybe I'm sleepy and that's not the same thing.

The irony. It takes Dick Cheney to make me come out of Hiding...

I also know how to use the term liar. Apparently Cheney has lost his knack for the English language.

At least I know how to spell "liar"

We know Liberals are lyres, their sole purpose is to discredit conservatives what ever it takes.
~Conservative Voice

I'll be back later to rip on his article. I like how he throws thoughts around carelessly. God Bless You Ken Hughes.

Notice How She Always Has to Keep an Eye On Republicans

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers meets with Sen. Jeff Sessions,
R-Ala., in his office Tuesday in Washington. Confirmation hearings for Miers,
Bush's White House counsel, could begin as early as Nov. 7. (Kevin Wolf / AP)

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, right, meets with Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in the Hart Senate Office Building on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2005 in Washington. President Bush nominated White House counsel Harriet Miers to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) (Kevin Wolf - AP)

Supreme Court Nominee Harriet Miers meets with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah.) on Tuesday.

Next with a Liberal

Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, meets with White House Counsel Harriet Miers on Capitol Hill
Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2005, to discuss her nomination to the Suprme Court. (AP
Photo/Dennis Cook) (Dennis Cook - AP)

I think she's more comfortable around Democrats to tell you the truth. Who wouldn't be!

"I picked her, didn't I?

President Bush announces his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers,
left, to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, in
the Oval Office of the White House in Washington Monday, Oct. 3, 2005. (AP
Photo/Ron Edmonds)

Other possible captions:
1. "I just know the b------d wants me to croak so he can put another man on office"
2. President Bush announces his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers, left, to replace deceased William Rehnquist on the Supreme Court. When you think about it the real caption is a little more morbid isn't it? I mean was Bush planning on putting another woman on the bench or not? Does it take a second judge being removed by death before you'll put a woman on the bench or were you planning on this happening? (AP Photo/Somebody who gives a d---)
3. President Bush realized he was going the opposite way of Compassionate Conservatism.
4. President Bush thinks to himself "I did it- I put a woman on- are you happy now Jesus?" (AP Photo/Somebody who gives a d---)

From Eschaton -

Bush II on Brownie Miers:

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, of all the people in the United States you had to choose from, is Harriet Miers the most qualified to serve on the Supreme Court?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Otherwise I wouldn't have put her on

Or would you have....

Polls Rise Despite Incompetence

What is with the last poll done on this guy? Why is he allowed to resurface? Is the American attention span so short that one trip down to the gulf makes him a better person. He was just doing his job if anything.

It's like congratulating someone for dodging the second kick of a mule. If five hurricanes came up in the next 3 months and he showed up to every one of them does he get a 70 percent approval rating? What has to happen in Iraq for people to get mad? Do we have to lose another couple thousand soldiers? I just don't get it.

Bush's Domestic Story Shadows His Broad International War

Harriet Miers's Supporters Cite Her Evangelical Christian Faith...

While a couple dozen worshippers at at Shiite Mosque are blown up in Iraq (you know, that country Bush wanted to have a quick little war in)

Look at the nonsense he spews after the attack.

"We fully understand they intend to disrupt the constitutional process, or will
try to do so, as well as stop the process of democracy," Bush said from the Rose
Garden, standing with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs Chairman
Gen. Peter Pace and Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the former commander of the effort
to train and equip Iraqi soldiers.
"We're seeing progress on the ground," Bush said. "And we're also seeing political progress on the ground."

The attack happened at a mosque in the Shiite region. Could religion have anything to do with it? You have allowed them to adopt some religious principles in the constitution have you not? Are you forgetting that factor or what? The political process you see is the constitution you're trying to force down the throats of a very complicated eople. There are going to be years of struggle ahead. We shouldn't use phrases that marginalize the situation or make it seem "all better" for the American public.

Bill O'Reilly - Lies from the Right

O'Reilly "complains he couldn't get any guests for the segment." after turning a guest away. How can a man lie like that and garner so much support, even if it is coming from liars on the same side as him.

Sorry I haven't been updating much. Education and Work have been piling on (two things George Bush should try to do more often)

I got it from Escatchon

edit ~10:24AM Oct 5, 2005: I can't believe I didn't notice this picture.

Cutting the Fat to Pay for Katrina

I accidently posted this to another blog of mine so here it is a little late.

When we went to "war" with Iraq no one ever said we would have to cut any budgets to pay for it. To say we would have to take away from the people of the United States to pay for the war would have put even more controversy into it. So emergency acts were put into place and money was hurled over the Atlantic ocean.

Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any care of controversy over aiding Katrina. Already there are people reading through the constitution saying federal help is not obligatory. It doesn't help that everyone is talking about cutting programs nation wide to pay for Katrina. That only fuels the flames of all the "Article 1. Section 8ers". There are suggetions that Lousiana should pay for the damage from the natural disaster by themselves despite their being unable to generate income with most of the city shut down.

Taxpayers for Common Sense Vice President Keith Ashdown (requires Real Media Player) points out that it would be great for the people in Louisiana to help shoulder the burden of paying for the disaster if not for the fact that only 4 of the 34 who've been given contracts for reconstruction were out of state. Two of the largest are those who are getting contracts in Iraq without public bids. It's unfair to think the citizens of New Orleans should have to shoulder a burden that they are unable to bear.

Since the country is rolling the way of the offset, I guess we have to find places to "cut the fat".
Instapundit in conjunction with www.truthlaidbear.com has been finding some places where the budget has gotten a little porky.

Along the way I've seen these articles.

The Gavina Access Project: A Bridge to Nowhere

"The Porn Police"

Also TCS has made their own fiscal offsetting budget.

Let's see if Congress wants to follow the lead of the people finding ways to cut costs so everyone can stop trying to make tragically jobless, homeless and impovershed people pay for a natural accident.

Only Now Am I Starting To Grasp The Meaning Of Institutional Racism

President Bush may not be racist. Dick Cheney may not be racist. Former FEMA head Brown, "Condi" and those photographers Chris Graythen and Dave Martin may not be racist at all.

There is no need for anyone to be actively or extrovertly racist today. Institutions from schools to government to corporations were originally designed over the course of centuries to hold back people of color. Since Jamestown, Africans and then African-Americans were not allowed to read, write, speak their native tongue and were debased of their cultural background. After the Civil War slavery turned into share-cropping and share-cropping has turned into bad credit and inadequate jobs. It took a hundred years after "slavery ended" before the Black person was allowed into the boiling stew that is America and it is only this last couple of generations that has started easing up on racial divisions. Still, the slack recent peoples have given to the color line has not been enough to lift the racial cloak that has covered this country. Only an active change can abolish the racist institutions left standing since the beginning of America.

It is not enough for the recent generations to be tolerant, color-blind or neutral in opinion. Neutrality will only allow racism's continued existence. Active destruction of racial barriers is the only way to create a level playign field.

http://pkarchive.org/column/091905.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1139640
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091900543.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-091905katrina_lat,0,7596816.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/050912/12simon.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1136969
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/19/134911/458

Peter Daou and His Blog Analysis

Everyone else was doing it so I figured I'd do it to. It looks like a good report anyway.
Peter Daou talks about the blog-politician-media triangle needed to create victory.

It makes sense. The way the Daou triangle works you can get rid of those pesky judges who decide who runs the country.

Stealing from the Poor to Feed the Rich

As New Orleans is reopened to its population, residents trickle back into the city. Mayor Nagin invited New Orleans back into the city and

(Drafted and unfinished in 2005, posted on 1/31/08)

Bush: 59 years old and going on 35

President Bush still fails to do well in the polls. Even after a recent speech of his he fails to rally even his base. A 35% rating of of good or excellent for his response to Katrina doesn't say much for him.

I do like the fact that for the first time in Bush's Administration African-Americans are in support of his proposals for rebuilding New Orleans. It really shows where this country's heart is at. You have a city that is one of the cultural bases of the nation and white people are opposed to rebuilding it. That's rich.

Maybe we need a hurricane in Beverly Hills, no? That wouldn't help. They would have some reason for Beverly Hills being more important than New Orleans. Somehow they would put a spin on it as if it had nothing to do with money. Sort of like how Cheney pretends he doesn't care about where the money is going down in the Katrina aftermath.

G.O.P. officials say Cheney opposed a czar largely out of his affection for standard operating procedure. [yeah right] But a presidential adviser tells TIME that Cheney was also concerned that the new office would invite more meddling by Congress and create another power center. "If you appoint a czar and he doesn't get what he wants, like if you start to tamp down the spending, all he has to do is go to the press and create sympathy for his viewpoint and make it difficult for the President," the adviser says. Bush and his inner circle agreed, with little debate, top aides said.

So you go Bush administration. Keep pretending like you aren't running a money game under the public.

America is starting to wise up to you. It's taken everyone long enough. I just hope another "9/11" doesn't occur so ratings can be bolstered before '06 and '08.

p.s. Please excuse my absense. School and work find time to take time from me.
Might I recommend looking at the other blogs on the sidebar when I get a little slow.

May I acknowledge DailyDissent

The Buck stops where?

For the first time in his presidency Bush decided to personally shoulder the blame.

President Bush took responsibility Tuesday for breakdowns in the
federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, saying the massive storm
had "exposed serious problems in our response capability."

But President Bush still says flaws occurred "at all levels of government".

At the same time

(Drafted in 2005 but posted on 1/31/08)

Barbara Bush, George W Bush, Racist?

Something that strikes me as amazing is that racism exists but some people refuse to believe it does.

There must be an incredible number of people who are either racist, sexist, apethetic or at least prejudiced to a degree that it hurts others in some way. It is hard to get an accurate number because you can't just send out a questionnaire expecting everyone to be forthrite.

I imagine if I walked up to Barbara Bush and asked "Do you care about all people," she'd give a resounding "Yes!" Unfortunately for her it is statements like this that show where her heart is at. Then we are supposed to believe George W. Bush's apple hasn't fallen far from that tree?

I originally saw the link to the article at Beautiful Horizons

(Drafted in 2005 and posted on 1/31/2008)

Booooo!!!!

Court Rules U.S. Can Indefinitely Detain Citizens

By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 9, 2005; 12:27 PM

A federal appeals court ruled today that the president can indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil in the absence of criminal charges, holding that such authority is vital to protect the nation from terrorist attacks.

Read on...

Hooray!!

FEMA Chief Relieved of Katrina Duties

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
The Associated PressFriday,
September 9, 2005; 1:35 PM

WASHINGTON -- Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, where he was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the disaster, according to two federal officials who declined to be identified before the announcement.

Brown will be replaced by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad w. Allen, who was overseeing New Orleans relief and rescue efforts.

Read on

It's a start. Still, he's probably going to be used as the scapegoat. I doubt they'll throw too much fire at anyone else. You'd think Bush would have let him stay seeing as we're not supposed to play the "blame game" or use "politics" during a time of need.

Turns Out the Federal Government Cares Less About Louisiana than I thought

What Little I Thought the Government Cared About Louisiana I Found this morning is a facade.

An article in the Washington Post shows much of the $1.9 billion in funding to the Army Corp during Bush's 5 year administration has funded projects that may have been unnecessary.

"Before Hurricane Katrina breached a levee on the New Orleans Industrial Canal, the Army Corps of Engineers had already launched a $748 million construction project at that very location. But the project had nothing to do with flood control. The Corps was building a huge new lock for the canal, an effort to accommodate steadily increasing barge traffic.

Except that barge traffic on the canal has been steadily decreasing"

Often inaccurate reports were used to get projects approved despite a series of independent investigations "criticizing the Army Corps construction projects as wasteful pork-barrel spending".

For all those who think Bush has done all he possibly can, when money was actually requested for projects to reduce flooding and shoring up the levees around Lake Pontchartrain not even one fifth of the original request was given. "Louisiana's delegation requested $27.1 million for shoring up levees around Lake Pontchartrain, the full amount the Corps had declared as its "project capability." Bush suggested $3.9 million, and Congress agreed to spend $5.7 million". $14 billion dollar plans were scaled back to $2 billion by administration officials limiting the amount that could be done in restoring coastal marshes, Louisiana's natural barrier against hurricanes.

I think the best thing that can be said is even if these projects were completed Katrina still would have torn the levees down. Still, Bush and his administration did nothing to help relieve the flooding before Katrina, they took days to start aid in Louisiana and it will take time to see if their efforts are reflecting what they have actually been capable of.

Ammendment 4:24 AM Sep 8, 2005
"you give it directly to state officials, you can kiss a good amount of it goodbye." from Ripclawe
I just noticed this blogger talking about the same subject and figured I would link it.

FEMA "Detention Camps"

Valhall from abovetopsecret.com describes temporary housing under the watch of FEMA as a concentration camp.

One of the most ludacris statements made by a FEMA "host" was "The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and "a sum of money" and they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months. "

FEMA seems to like turning away help be it from Wal-Mart, Red Cross, Churches or family who has taken time and resources out of their busy life to help those in need. Maybe FEMA needs a concious overhaul.

kudos for the find on Escaton tavella

Uggabuga encapsulates the nonsense in one of his timelines.

Uggabuga has a nice timeline being made in reference to Katrina. There are also links to several other timelines across the net.

Uggabuga encapsulates the nonsense in one of his timelines.

Credit to dd because I saw his comment first.

Failure by FEMA

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#077574

This article mentions some of the failure in response the federal government, FEMA and even local LA leaders had to Katrina.

With gas prices soaring above $3 a gallon and threatening the U.S. economy, Bush met with Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his economic advisers about Katrina's economic impact.
Bush said they all agreed the storm's damage to the gas supply was a "temporary disruption" and urged Americans to use prudence in filling up over the next few weeks.
"Don't buy gas if you don't need it," he said in Oval Office remarks with his father and Clinton at his side.
Gasoline sellers have been fast to raise prices, to more than $3 a gallon and in some places far higher, because of a sudden drop in supplies, prompting accusations they are artificially setting high prices to profit from the disaster.
Asked in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" if U.S. oil companies should forfeit profits during the crisis, Bush said instead American corporations should contribute cash to hurricane relief funds.
Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, seized on that comment. He said that while Bush was "asking ordinary Americans to do more, he ought to show some real leadership, and call on his friends in Big Oil to join in the sacrifice and stop gouging American families at the gas pump."
In the ABC interview, Bush drew no line between those looting stores for survival supplies like food and water and those stealing television sets that are of no use with electricity out in New Orleans.
"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting, or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving, or insurance fraud," Bush said.
Looting has run rampant in New Orleans as stranded victims of Hurricane Katrina await emergency assistance.
...Bush temporarily waived the Jones Act, which will allow foreign tankers to deliver oil to U.S. ports to ease disruptions in oil supplies. He said the government was working with energy companies to repair and reactivate major refineries and pipelines.
Bush acknowledged these steps would not solve the problem of getting enough gasoline to market.
Bush also said he expected Saudi Arabia to do "everything they can" to provide more oil, although he noted the Saudis had "limited capacity" to do so.
...
In the interview, Bush defended his own decision to wait until Wednesday to return to Washington and cut short by a couple of days a monthlong working vacation at his Texas ranch. Now is not a time to play politics, he said to Democratic critics.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html
Let’s be clear: Officials in New Orleans and elsewhere in Louisiana are hardly blameless in this tragedy. Official preparations for the storm centered on an evacuation plan designed to hasten the flow of private vehicles out of the city. This system worked well, and many more lives would have been lost without it. But as is now obvious, the plan did not take sufficient account of those who would not or could not evacuate on their own.
No federal presence was evident as the storm in the Gulf gathered strength and chugged toward us. If Blanco and Mayor Ray Nagin thought in the days before landfall that the federal government wasn’t pulling its weight, they should have said so loudly and frankly.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#077560
Bush resisted demands for an inquiry into what went wrong in federal relief in first few days after Katrina hit. He said it was more important to focus on human rescue for now.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#077558
Nagin also remained defiant, rebuffing recent criticism from federal authorities and media representatives who have tried to shift the blame for the slow response for support to the local and state levels.
"I welcome that," he said. "I welcome the criticism. My question to them is, 'Where were you? Where the hell were you?' "
Nagin said he witnessed the storm's devastation firsthand and toured the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and Superdome, where people were living in what he called "subhuman" conditions.
"I saw babies dying and old people so bad off they screamed, 'Just let me lay down and die.'
"(The critics) can talk that. Bring it on. I'm ready for it."
"I think one of the things people want us to do is play the blame game," he said.
He said it is important to understand what went wrong to improve federal, state and local coordination in the event of a terrorist attack
Bush said Vice President Dick Cheney would visit the disaster area Thursday to assess relief efforts and cut any red tape keeping rescuers from survivors.[one such red tape would be having the national guard keep RedCross away. Or what about the red tape that said zero tolerance. Who were the looters you were referring to?]
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#077553
WASHINGTON - President Bush and congressional leaders promised Tuesday to investigate why the initial federal response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina was, by wide agreement, slow and inadequate.
Bush, who is readying a $40 billion aid package to supplement the $10.5 billion approved by Congress last week, also met with Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to discuss ways to help school districts around the country that are taking in thousands of students displaced from their own schools by the hurricane.
"We must try to restore some sense of structure and normalcy to their lives as quickly as possible," Spellings said. "And that includes helping schools accommodate these new students, who will need books, clothes and other supplies."
Bush said now is not the time "for the blame game," but at some future date, he would personally oversee an investigation into how Katrina rescue efforts were handled by federal, state and local officials.
Bush said he is working with his Cabinet to develop a comprehensive plan for both immediate and long-term housing for the estimated 1 million people displaced by Katrina and to ensure that people can collect their Social Security checks and other benefits no matter where they are living.
He is sending Vice President Dick Cheney to the Gulf Coast region Thursday to evaluate recovery efforts.

Kanye West Speaks Out Against the Treatment of Black People

I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!

NBC has quickly distanced itself from West, while some American commentators attacked his comments.

So Kanye West says the President is slow to help, the war in Iraq is taking resources that could be used in New Orleans and permission has been given to shoot black people in New Orleans.

Vacation is Over... an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com

P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.

People Getting Necessities Are Not Looting

I just want to clarify that the negative connotation behind the word looting is a great disservice to the people of New Orleans.

But Now That It Has Happened, Still Not Enough Was Being Done

With school, work and no bots or workers to help me, it is completely impossible to keep up with all the garbage the administration is throwing at American... or should I say New Orleans. Is America too dense to see someone force fed Bush the word "stabilize" so the National Guard could go gun slinging before anyone is allowed to help in the city?

Stephanie from thinkprogress.org
Apparently in Jefferson Parish, according to Parish President Aaron Broussard:
“Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need them. This was a week ago. FEMA–we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, “Come get the fuel right away.” When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. “FEMA says don’t give you the fuel.” Yesterday–yesterday–FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, “No one is getting near these lines.” Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America–American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn’t be in this crisis. ”
This is from Meet the Press with Tim Russert, from Sept 4, 2005.

At the same time not even Red Cross was allowed to give aid in New Orleans. The National Guard was ordered to keep everyone out until the situation was stabalized. Bush started asking for people to donate to Red Cross.

Maybe this is it. Maybe his response time is just slow. I seriously can't continue writing on this. Just donate to Red Cross

Drug Cartels?

Wanna play a game of six degrees of seperation? I recently heard from a friend that his father near New Orleans has heard there are cartel drug dealers taking advantage of the disaster by using the are to funnel drugs into the United States. Apparently

(Unfinished draft from 2005 posted on 1/31/08)

A Lot of the Destruction from Katrina Could Have Been Prevented

I know everyone has already seen the National Geographic article but I'm going to link to it anyway. There are so many threats out there that the elite already know about yet they refuse to remove them.

In the October 2004 edition of National Geographic Magazine there is an eerily accurate description of a figurative hurricane much like Katrina.

Excerpt from the article:

It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.

"The killer for Louisiana is a Category Three storm at 72 hours before landfall that becomes a Category Four at 48 hours and a Category Five at 24 hours—coming from the worst direction," says Joe Suhayda, a retired coastal engineer at Louisiana State University who has spent 30 years studying the coast...

A prediction by climatologists of more frequent powerful storms, an immenent danger according to Shea Penland, a geologist of the University of New Orleans and one of the top three threats in the United States according to FEMA were not enough to goad our government into an effictive response.

Alfred Naomi, project manager for the Army Corp of Engineers "had warned for years of the need to shore up the levees." The Bush Administration and Republican Congress constantly cut back on funding for projects that would build and improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations. He had drawn up plans to build a Category 5 protection system that would have cost $2.5 billion dollars, a meager amount in comparison to the tens of billions of dollars and thousands of lives that have been and will be lost to this catastrophe.

At the same time natural defensive barriers were being destroyed. Louisana marshes were disappearing at the rate of 1 acre every 33 minutes despite nearly half a billion dollars spent over the last decade to preserve it.

Even without the $2.5 billion dollar plan the Bush Administration interfered with a decade long $430 million plan from the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project (SELA). Funds were diverted to Iraq in 2003. Couple that with the Tax-Cuts from 2001-2003 and you can see the burden engineers in New Orleans had to endure. After 2004, the worst hurricane season in decades, the government still made large cuts in the budget forcing Louisiana to raise regional taxes.

There were several cases where the federal government hampered the development of the project. The Louisiana Congressional delegation recieved $10.4 million after requesting over $70 million in recent years. A project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain for $15 million was denied. After a request for $4 million over the next four years the Bush Administration agreed to give $300,000 that the state agreed to match and they were then asked to do no study so the funds could be used for the Iraq war this year. It doesn't help further to know the Louisiana National Guard had many of their troops sent to Iraq further hampering the ability to rescue victims in the immediate stages.

There is much more to see in the articles below.

Why is it Mr. Bush is allowed to ignore the threats that are real and visible at our homeland? He chased imaginary threats going after Iraq. He speaks about the welfare of the United States when we have a disaster that may be 15 times more deadly than 9/11 and has caused more destruction than any other disaster. Where it took him several minutes to respond to America being attacked it has taken him several days to respond to Katrina. This isn't a plane that was diverted from a 5 hour course. This is a hurricane that took several days for it's damage to materialize.

Perhaps I am wrong to judge him. Maybe he is slow. Maybe he honestly doesn't care about New Orleans and he wants us to accept that. Maybe he just believes Iraq is the most important thing in the world rihgt now. The priorities are not straight in this mans mind.

Credits:
Common Dreams
Editor&Publisher.com
National Geographic
TPM Cafe

New Orleans Injustice

George has ordered the ground forces in New Orleans to draw no distinction between looting food and water and nonessential items...

Bush drew no line between those looting stores for survival supplies like food and water and those stealing television sets that are of no use with electricity out in New Orleans. "I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting, or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving, or insurance fraud," Bush said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America." Looting has run rampant in New Orleans as stranded victims of Hurricane Katrina await emergency assistance. "If people need water and food, we're going to do everything we can to get them water and food. But it's very important for the citizens in all affected areas to take personal responsibility and assume kind of a civic sense of responsibility so the situation doesn't get out of hand, so people don't exploit the vulnerable," Bush said.

No one seems to realize that President

(drafted, unfinished, in 2005 and posted in 1/31/08)