A Controversial and/or Informative Site [Archive] - Page 5

Saundra Hummer

July 12th, 2005, 10:01 PM

..........................MR. ROVE AND TEH ACCESS OF EVIL
Tell Us Your "Source," Judy

Not published in the New York Times
Tuesday, July 12, 2005

By Greg Palast

The only thing more evil, small-minded and treacherous than the Bush Administration's jailing Judith Miller for a crime the Bush Administration committed, is Judith Miller covering up her Bush Administration "source."

Judy, Karl Rove ain't no "source." A confidential source -- and I've worked with many - is an insider ready to put himself on the line to blow the whistle on an official lie or hidden danger. I would protect a source's name with my life and fortune as would any journalist who's not a craven jerk (the Managing Editor of Time Magazine comes to mind).

But the weasel who whispered "Valerie Plame" in Miller's ear was no source. Whether it was Karl Rove or some other Rove-tron inside the Bush regime (and no one outside Bush's hand would have had this information), this was an official using his official info to commit a crime for the sole purpose of punishing a REAL whistleblower, Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband, for questioning our President's mythological premise for war in Iraq.

New York Times reporter Miller and her paper would rather she go to prison for four months than identify their "source." Why?

Part of her oddball defense is that The Times never ran the story about Wilson's wife. They got no points for that. The times SHOULD have run the story with the headline BUSH OPERATIVE COMMITS FELONY TO PUNISH WHISTLEBLOWER. The lead paragraph should have been, "Today, MR. K----R-- [or other slime ball as appropriate] attempted to plant sensitive intelligence information on The New York Times, a felony offense, in an attempt to harm former Ambassador Joseph Wilson who challenged the President's claim regarding Iraq's nuclear program."

A Karl Rove or Rove-like creature peddling a back-door smear doesn't make him a source. Millers real crime is not concealing a source, but burying the story. A reporter should never, ever give notes to a grand jury, but this information is something The Times owes the PUBLIC, not the prosecutors.

Why didn't The Times run this story? Why not now? Who are they covering for and why?

Maybe the problem for the Times is that this is the same "source" that used Miller to promote, as fact, her ersatz report before the invasion of Iraq that Saddam truly had nukes and bugs and chemicals he could launch at Los Angeles. That "source" too needs publication, Judy.

Every rule has an exception. My mama always told me to "compliment the chef" at dinner. But that doesn't apply when the chef pees in your soup. Likewise, there's an excepton to the rule of source protection. When officialdom uses "you-can't-use-my-name" to cover a lie, the official is not a source, but a disinformation propagandist - and Miller and The Times have been all too willing to play izvestia to Bush's Kremkinesque prevarications.

And that is what Miller is protecting: the evil called "access."

The great poison in the corpus of American journaism is the lust for tidbits of supposedly "inside" information which is more often than not inside misinformation parading as hot news.

And thus we have Miller sucking on the steaming sewage pipe of White House lies about Iraq and spitting it out in the pages of The Times as "investigative reporting," for which The Times has apologized. Likewise, we had the embarrassment of Bob Woodward's special access to the Oval Office after the September 11 attacks when Woodward reported the exclusive news that the President was a flawless commander in chief in the war on terror - - for which Woodward has yet to apologize.

While reporting from the Potemkin village of decision making set up for him at the White House, Woodward missed the real story that, in the words of the Downing Street Memo, our leaders were losing track of Osama while they spent their time "fixing the intelliegence" on Iraq. Even as Woodward learned of it, would he have reported it at the risk of losing his access to evil?

As Karl Rove chuckles and Judy does time, we are left to ask, what are Miller and The New York Times doing protecting the name of a source or covering up their conduit to the Bush gang's machinery of deception?

One can only be sympathetic to Miller for choosing jail over bending to the power of the State. But as T.S. Elliot said,

"The last temptation is the greatest treason,
to do the right deed for the wrong reason."

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

Sign up for his news letter by going to this address, just click on the following link to access his site.

http://www.GregPalast.com

Saundra Hummer

July 13th, 2005, 05:36 PM

....."Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our Fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthow the men who pervert the Constitution.": Abraham Lincoln

Saundra Hummer

July 13th, 2005, 05:53 PM

...A REAL AUDIO REPORT:

...LEAKED UK MEMO WARNED IRAQ WAR A KEY CAUSE FOR GROWTH OF 'EXTREMISM' IN BRITAIN.

W go to Britain to speak with author and activist Milan Rai about how a leaked British government study concluded that British foreign policy, and the Iraq war in particular, was a key cause of young Britons turning to terrorism.

Real Audio

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9461.htm

httep://snipurl.com/g8hk

==

Go on site and find this article as well:

A WAR BETWEEN NORMAL HUMAN PEOPLE AND SAVAGES?

by Abid Ullah Jan

The corporate terrorist of the Multinationals have invisibly joined hands with the religious zealots who have a mission to transform the Muslim world in their own image.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9463.htm

http://snipurl.com/g8hl

==

The Label of Catholic terror was never used about the IRA

Fundamentaism is often a form of nationalism in religious disguise

Karen Armstrong

We cannot hope to convert Osama bin Laden from his vicious ideology, our priority must be to stem the flow of young people into organizations such as al-Qaida, instead of alienating them by routinely coupling theur religion with immoral violence. Incorrect statements about Islam have covincecd too many in the Muslim world that the west is an implacale enemy.

http://www.informatinclearinghouse.info/article9465.htm

http://snipurl.com/g8hm

Seems to me I remember Catholics being portrayed as the ones to blame in that conflict.

==

Saundra Hummer

July 14th, 2005, 05:34 PM

........THIS ISSUE STILL HAS LEGS, IT HASN'T DIED ON US YET :angel

ELECTION FRAUD: TEAM BUSH PAID $8 MILLION FOR DIRTY TRICKS TO SUPPRESS VOTES -- AND TRIED TO HIDE IT.

BY MARK CRISPIN MILLER AND JARED IRMAS
THE BALTIMORE CHRONICLE

WEDNESDAY 13 JULY 2005

.....In the months before the 2004 presidential election, a firm called Sproul & Associates launched voter registratin drives in at least eight states, most of them swing states. The group - run by Nathan Sproul, former head of the Arizona Christian Coalition and the Arizona Republican Party - had been hired by the Republican National Committee.

Sproul got into a bit of trouble last fall when in certain states, it came out that the firm was playing dirty tricks in order to suppress the Democratic vote, concealing their partisan agenda, tricking Democrats into registering as Republicans, surreptitiously re-registering Democrats and Independents as Republicans and shredding Democratic registration forms.

The scandal got a moderate amount of local coverage in some states - and then the election was over. Now anyone who brought up Nathan Sproul, or any of the other massive crimes and improprieties commited on or prior to Election Day, was shrugged off as a dealer in "conspiracy theory."

It seems that Sproul did quite a lot of work for the Republicans. Exactly how much did he do? More specifically, how much did the RNC pay Sproul & Associates?

If you went online last week to look up how much meoney Sproul received from the Republicans in 2004, you would have found that according to the party (whose figures had been posted by the Center for Responsive Politics), the firm was paid $485,957.

In fact, the RNC paid Sproul a great deal more than that. From an independent study of the original data filed by the Republicans with the Federal Electrion Commission, it is clear that Sproul was paid a staggering $8.3 million for its work against the Democrats. How the true figures came to be revealed. On Dec. 3, 2004, the Republican National Committee filed their Post-General Report with the FEC, accounting for all expenditures between Oct. 14, and Nov. 22.

Among the Itemized Disbursements, there were listed six expenditures to Sproul and Associates, amounting to a total sum of $4.5 million. Three of them were for "Political Consulting," and the other three were for "Voter Registratin Costs." The RNC paid Sproul the biggest amount on the day before the electrion. $1,668,733.

On Jan. 7, 2005 and again on May 3, 2005, the RNC sent in revised reports. Those items were unchanged in all of them.

After they received the RNC's second revised report, the FEC expressed dissatisfaction with the vague phrase "Voter Registratin Costs." In a May 18 letter to Michael Retzer, Treasurer of the RNC, the FEC requested that itemized disbursements labeled thus be further clarified.

On June 17, the RNC submitted a (third) revised report. In it, those three suspicious Sproul expenditures labeled "Voter Registration Costs" had been changed to "Political Consulting." As a "clarificatin," it was as vague as possible. Although it only raised more question, there seems to be no letter in the FEC database concerning that unedifying correction.

Moreover, there are some big surprises buried in the paperwork. It turned out that the RNC paid Sproul not only for their pre-election work, but also paid them for work after the election. According to their Year-End Report, filed on Jan 28, 2005, the RNC paid Sproul for "Political Consulting" in December - long after all the voter registration drives had ended.

And two months later when the RNC filed heir amended Year-End Report o May 3, the dates of those December expenditures mysteriously changed. A payment of $210,176, once made on Dec. 20, was changed to Dec. 22. A payment of $344,214, initially recorded on Dec. 22, was changed to Dec. 9.

As to why Sproul was being paid in December, and why the dates were changed, one can only speculate. But it may be worth noting that the Ohio recount took place from Dec. 13, through Dec. 28.

Because these amendments were made in 2005, the Center for Responsive Politics' website mistakenly allocated that money to the 2006 cycle. When we informed them of these missing numbers yesterday, CRP was quick to adjust them. They also included two more expenditures: a $323,907 payment for more "Political Consulting" (10/12/04) and $450,257 for "Mailing Costs" (10/04/04)

There was more -- much more. Fuzzy math. The documents also suggest that the RNC may have changed the dates of nine payments to suggest expenditures in 2005, thereby shifting focus from the 2004 election.

In going through the documents, CRP located nine expenditures from the future. Sproul somehow received a total of $1,323,154 between Sept. 2 and Sept. 29, 2005. Another $472,642 is hidden in 2005. Four of those prospectrive items were (or will be) for "Generic Media Buys" or "Lodging, Transportation." The other four are (or will be) for "Voter Registration Efforts" - surely an expense incurred in September of last year, not this year.,

Larry Noble, executive director of CRP, considers such future expenditures for , say "Lodging, Transportation" rather odd, but the gives the RNC the benefit of the doubt. "My guess is that it's an error," he suggests. "It's possible that they're cleaning up voter registration lists in September, but it's also possible they made a mistake."

Even if that mistaken date is just a typo, it is to say the least, not likely that they made the same mistake in nine uniquely dated items for 2004.

In any case, all the payments by the RNC to Sproul add up to a whopping $8,359,161 - making it the RNC's eighth biggest expenditure of the 2004 campaign.

Sproul is currently under investigation by the Oregon Attorney General's office, for altering the voter registration forms of several thousand students in that state. Whether the new numbers are in part mistaken, they represent a huge expense for the Republicans. Given Sproul's history of serious electoral mischief, affecting countless Democratic voters in the last election, it is important that we ask some sober questions: Where did all that money come from? Why did the RNC suppress their real expenditures? And what exactly did Sproul do for all the pay? If we're going to get some reasonable answers, the FEC must undertake a very thorough audit of the books.

=
Mark Crispin Miller, a professor of culture and communication of New York University, is author of several books, including Boxed In. The Culture of TV, Mad Scientists: The Secret History of Modern Propaganda, the Bush Dyslexicon and Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order

Jared Irmas is a junior at New York University.

Go to the following link and click on it to access this story and much more:

http://www.truthout.org

Saundra Hummer

July 14th, 2005, 08:03 PM

....BUSH AIMS TO WOO BLACKS AT INDIANAPOLIS

Bush hasn't spoken to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people since he first ran for president in 2000 and the NAACP National Voter Fund ran an ad that portrayed him as unsympathetic to the dragging death of a black man in Texas.

Instead he has reached out to minority audiences less critical of his policies. This year, he accepted an invitation to speak to the Indiana Black Expo, which presented him with a lifetime achievement award for his efforts to help former prisoners become productive members of society and other programs benefiting minoorities. The NAACP convention was underway 250 miles away in Wisconsin. (Go to Yahoo.com News to see this article in it's complete form.)

http://news.yahoo.com

What in the Sam Hill is going on? Has he come to the conclusion he's found their stupid button like so many of us seem to have when it comes to this man, his policies and his actions? Don't you think we couldnt' have been any more stupid than we've already been? Surely the blacks won't be falling for it like the Hispanics just because he utters what they want to hear in their language?

But actions speak louder than words, so with GW, hand him that bull horn, and put up a sign behind him saying "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" and we go hopping and skipping down the path to our own demise, singing his praises.

Come-on, we all need to know how to read between the lines and listen to the words coming out the other side of his mouth. SRH

Saundra Hummer

July 15th, 2005, 02:03 PM

...........KARL ROVE'S AMERICA

BY PAUL KRUGMAN
THE NEW YORK TIMES

FRIDAY 15, JULY 2005

John Gibson of Fox News says that Karl Rove should be given a medal from the American Political Science Association for his pioneering discoveries about modern American politics. The medal can, if necessary, be delivered to his prison cell. (Sounds fitting to me. SRH)

What Mr. Rove understood, long befoe the rest of us, is that we're not living in the America of the past, where even partisans sometimes changed their views when faced with the facts. Instead, we're living in a country in which there is no longer such a thing as nonpolitical truth. In particular, there are now few, if any, limits to what conservative politicians can get away with: the faithful will follow the twists abd turns of the party line with a loyalty that would have pleased the Comintern.

I first realized we were living in Karl Rove's America during the 2000 presidential campaign, when George W. Bush began saying things about Social Security privatization and tax cuts that were simply false. At first, I thought the Bush campaign was making a big mistake -- that these blatant falsehoods would be condemned by prominent Republican politicians and Republicans economists, especially those who had spent years building reputations as advocates of fiscal responsibility. In fact, with hardly any exceptons they lined up to praise Mr. Bush's proposals.

But the real demonstration that Mr. Rove understands American politics better than any pundit came after 9/11.

Every time I read a lament for the post 9/11 era of national unity, I wonder what peole are talking about. On the issues I was watching, the Republicans exploitation of the atrocity began while ground zero was still smoldering.

Mr. Rove has been much criticized for saying that liberals responded to the attack by wanting to offer the terrorists therapy - but what he said about conservatives, that they "saw the savagery of 9/11 before using it to cast the Democrats as weak on national security. After all, there were no facts to support that accusation.

But Mr Rove understood that the facts were irrelevant. For one thing, he knew he could count on the administration supporters to obediently accept a changing story line. Read the before and after columns by pro_administratin pundits about Iraq: before the war they castigated the CIA for understating the threat posed by Saddam's W.M.D., after the war they castigated the CIA for exaggerating the same threat.

Mr Rove also understands, better than anyone else in American politics, the power of smear tactics. Attacks on someone who contradicts the offical line don't have to be true, or even plausible, to undermine that person's effectiveness. All they have to do is get a lot of media play, and they'll create the sense that there must be something wrong with the guy.

And now we know just how far he was willing to go with these smear tactics, as part of the effort to discredit Joseph Wilson 1V, Mr. Rove leaked the fact that Mr. Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. I don't know whether Mr. Rove can be convicted of a crime, but there's no question that he damaged national security for partisan advantage. If a Democrat had done that, (like Noj here on AAJ has pointed out. SRH), Republicans would call it treason.

But what we're getting, instead, is yet another impressive demonstration that these days, truth is political. One after another, prominent Republicans and conservative pundits have declared ther allegiance to the party line. They haven't just gone along with the diversionary tactics, like the irrelevant questions about wheter Mr. Rove used Valerie Wilson's name in identifying her (Robert Novak later identivfied her by her maiden name, Valerie Plame). or the false, easily refuted claim that Mr. Wilson lied about who sent him to Niger. They're now a chorus, praising Mr. Rove as a patriotic whistle-blower.

Ultimately, this isnt' just about Mr Rove. It's also about Mr Bush, who has always known that his trusted politiacal adviser - a disciple fo the late Lee Atwater, whose smear tactics helped Presidnet Bush' father win the 1988 election - is a thug, and obviously made no attempt to find out if he was the leaker.

Most of all, it's about what has happened to America. How did our political system get to this point?

===

Then there is this, a story which conincides with the previous article.

====IT'S CLEAR THE LEAKERS KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING

BY JOSH MARSHAL
THE HILL

FRIDAY 15 JULY 2005

Strip away all the stress and the fury on both sides of the aisle this week and you'll find one key question at the heart of both the legal and political storm surrounding the president's top politiacl adviser.

That is, did Karl Rove and other top administraion officials, for whatever reason , knowingly reveal the identity of a covert CIA agent or were they unaware of her covert status? As prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald would no doubt tell us if here were at liberty to speak, divining, let alone proving, knowledge and intent in such a case is a very tricky businness. But there's a good bit of circumstantial evidence pointing to the conclusion that Rove and others knew exactly what they were doing.

Allow me to explain.

The best evidence for the "they knew" version of events has always been the column that started it all - Robert Novak's July 14 column in which he named Valerie Plame as "an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."

In intelligence jargon, "operative" has a very specific meaning. It means a covert or clandestine officer. Novak's been a journalist for 50 years. So clearly he used that term because he knew Plame was covert. And if he knew, the logical assumption is that he knew because his sources, - "two senior administration officials" - told him.

That much seemed clear. But not long after the Plame case stormed onto the front pages almost two years ago, Novak changed his story. He said that he made a mistake when he used the word "operative" He didn't know she was covert, and neither did his sources.

Here's what he told Tim Russert in October 2003.

"The one thing I regret I wrote, I used the word 'operative,' and I think Mr [David] Broder ['Meet the Press' panelist] will agree that I use the word too much. I use it about hat politicians. I use it about people on the Hill. And if somebody did a Nexis search of my columns, they'd find an overuse of 'operative.' I did not mean it. I don't know what she did. But the indication given to me by this senior official I checked with was not that she was deep undercover."

Is this really true? Was it just Novak's laziness or sloppiness that started this whole train running down the tracks? Quite a lot depends on the answer.

There's a good deal of circumstantial evidence - thus far largely ignored - that points storngly to the conclusion that Novak is being much less than honest.

First consider timing. What Novak told Russert was not only after the story had caught fire in the media but, probably even more important, after it had spawned a Justice Department criminal investigation.

What about what he said earlier? It turns out we have some good evidence for that.

The first newspaper article written about Novak's role in exposing a covert agent was a July 22, 2003, Newsday article by Timothy Phelps and Newt Royce. That's about a week after Novak's comumn ran and well before the story caught fire in Washington. The article focuses squarely on the controversy over and damage caused by the exposure of a covert agent. Phelps and Royce interviewd Novak for the column, too. And he said nothing about any misunderstanding about Plame's status.

What he told them was this: "I didnt' dig it out. It was given to me. They thought it was significant. They gave me the name and I used it."

If Novak then thought he or his sources didn't know Plame was covert, he didn't think to mention it. And it was the whole point of the article he was being interviewed for.

Then there's another clue. Novak's story has always relied on the belief that he committed a monumental act of sloppiness or carelessness - a claim hard to credit about a reporter who's been doing this as long as Novak.

As I said above, "operative" has a very specific meaning in intelligence argo. So how does Novak usually use the word?

Not long after Novak's appearance on Russert's show, I used the Nexis database to find all the examples I could in which Novak used the word "operative" in the context of intelligence work or the CIA. Not surprisingly, in every example I found the used the term "operative" to refer to clandestine CIA officers. And that makes sense, since the term has a specific meaning in the context, and he's a veteran reporter.

Novak wants us to believe that on this one occasion he lapsed into the colloquial meaning of the word and used it to mean no more than you might if you were referring to a Democratic or Republican "operative." With all due respect to Novak and his decades as a Washington reporter - indeed, precisely because of them - that's just not credible.

There's no way to get inside someone else's mind. But all the available evidence points to the conclusin that Novak's claims on Russert and elsewhere are an after-the-fact attempt to get himself and his sources out of a very uncomfortable bind.

Josh Marshall is editor of:

talkingpointsmemo.com

His column appears in The Hill each week

http://www.truthout.com

Saundra Hummer

July 15th, 2005, 03:57 PM

........CHINA HASN'T REACHED THE PINACLE OF IT'S TALKED ABOUT STATUS AS A WORLD POWER, (WHICH IS ON THE MARCH), AND ALREADY THEY ARE THREATENING ATOMIC RETALIATION IF WE WERE TO HELP TAIWAN. THIS FROM GENERAL ZHU WHO IS CONSIDERED A HAWK.
===

CHINESE GENERAL THREATENS USE OF A-BOMB IF US INTRUDES

BY JOSEPH KAHN
THE NEW YORK TIMES

FRIDAY 15 JULY 2005

General Zhu, considered a hawk, stressed that his comments relected his personal views and not official policy. Beijing has long insisted that it wll not initiate the use of nuclear weapons in any conflict.

But in extensive comments to a visiting delegation of correspondents based in Hong Kong, General Zhu said he believed that the Chinese government was under internal pressure to change its "no first use" policy and to make clear that it would employ the most powerful weapons at its disposal to defend its claim over Taiwan.

"War logic" dictates that a weaker power needs to use maximum efforts to defeat a stronger rival, he said, speaking in fluent English. "We have no capability to fight a conventional war against the United States," General Zhu said "We can't win this kind of war."

Whether or not the comments signal a shift in Chinese policy, they come at a sensitive time in relations between China and the United States.

The Pentagon is preparing the release of a long -delayed report on the Chinese military that some experts say will warn that China could emerge as a strategic rival to the United States. National security concerns have also been a major issue in the $18.5 billion bid by Cnooc Ltd., a major Chinese oil and gas company, to purchase the Unocal Corporation, the American energy concern.

China has had atomic bombs since 1964 and currently has a small arsenal of land-and sea-based nuclear-tipped missiles fhat can reach the United States, according to most Western intelligence estimates. Some Pentagon officials have argued that China has been expanding the size and sophistication of its nuclear bombs and delivery systems, while others argure that Bejing has done little more than maintain a minimal but credible deterrent against a nuclear attack.

Bejing has said repeatedly that it would use military force to prevent Taiwan from becoming a formally independent country. President Bush has made clear that the United States woud defend Taiwan.

Many militray analysts have assumed that any battle over Taiwan would be localized with both China and the United States taking care to ensure that it would not expand into a general war between the two powers.

But the comments by General Zhu suggest that at least some elements of the military are prepared to widen the conflict, perhaps to persuade the United States that it could no more successfully fight a limited war against China that it could against the former Soviet Union.

"If the Americans are determined to interfere, then we will be determined to respond," he said. "We Chinese will prepare ourselves for the destructin of all the cities east of Xian. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese."

General Zhu's threat is not the first of its kind from a senior Chinese military official. In 1995, Xiong, Guangkai, who is now the deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, told Chas W. Freeman, a former Pentagon official, that China would consider using nuclear weapons in a Taiwan conflict. Mr. Freeman quoted Mr. Xiong as saying that Americans should worry more about Los Angeles than 'Taipei.

Foreign Minstry officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Generaal Zhu's remarks.

General Zhu said he had recently expressed his views to former American officials, including Mr. Feeman and Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the former commander in chief of the United States Pacific Command.

http://www.truthout.org

=====

General Zhu has given us a clear picture as to how China is preparing to conduct the business of state. Generals in any army, (unless they want to be fired or worse, like has happned to generals in the past, and famous ones at that), don't voice their personal military beliefs and so we have to believe that this is just a message crafted to back us off, a message which is only a scare tactic, or it's real enough for us to give this more serious thought.

Lets be careful out there.

Remember we are in Afghanistan, & Iraq, and the idea is being bandied about by Bush/Cheney/Rumsfed & Rice that we might go into Iran and other countries in the area, oh, and let's not forget Venezuela & Korea! Now the saber rattling is being carried out by China? Will they all band together and cause ou grief? Not a plesant thought. It seems we're stirring up hornets nests eveywhere we turn, and China with the bomb? Nothing more needs to be said. Not a plesant thought, not a plesant reality. SRH

Saundra Hummer

July 15th, 2005, 06:05 PM

................MOLLY IVINS
Creators Syndicate
07/15/05

ENOUGH TO MAKE YOUR HEAD SPIN

TRUTH FLIES OUT THE WINDOW AS GOP SPRINGS TO THE DEFENSE OF KARL ROVE.

AUSTIN, Texas -- As the judge in the Judith Miller -Matt Cooper case said, it just gets "curiouser and curiouser."

For starters, Judy Miller of The New York Times, who never wrote a word about Valerie Plame, is in prison, while Robert Novak, who broke the story and printed the name, may be weekending at his posh house on Fenwick Island, Del.

Meanwhile, a truly phenomenal case study in the art of spin has been launched on behalf of Karl Rove, aka Bush's brain, (...I call him "MR. PINK" from Reservoir Dogs, as he is everybit as low down, dirty, and devious in my opinion, SRH), now that we know he was Cooper's source on the Plame affair. We have long known that Rove made the repulsive statement to a reporter that Plame, a former CIA udercover operative, was "fair game." Rove was out to smear her husband, Joseph Wilson, who told the truth about Busn's phony claim that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium in Niger. What. A. Mess.

According to The Washington Post: "Republicans mounted an aggressive and coordinated defense of Karl Rove Tuesday, contending that the White House's top political adviser did nothing improper or illegal when he discussed a covert CIA offical with a reporter. ... The emerging GOP strategy---devised by (Ken) Mehlman (chair of the Republican National Committee ) and other Rove loyalists outside the White House -- is to try to undermine those Democrats calling for Rove's ouster, play down Rove's role and wait for President Bush's forthcoming Supreme Court selecton to drown out the controversy, according to several high-level Republicans."

Actually, Rove and the White House got into trouble in the first place by trying to discredit a critic of the administration. They might want to rethink this strategy. For one thing the spin is so factually challenged it makes your head hurt. For example, Wednesday's Wall Street Jouranl editorial on the subject consists of one stunning misstatement after another. And these are the people who have been given their own program on PBS?

A consistent theme of the spin is that "no crime was committed," that outing Plame as a CIA agent meant nothing since she was then working as an analyst in Langley.

Unfortunately, Plame spent years overseas for the CIA working for a civilian firm without benefit of a diplomatic passport, meanng that she was especially vulnerable, could have been executed if caught and showed special courage. True, she was not working undercover when Novak named her in his column. However, as many CIA officers have pointed out, the outing left her former company and colleagues vulnerable. That this was done for petty political revenge is unforgivable. It is a result of being so focused on your political opponents that you take them more serously than you do the country's real enemies

Frankly it reeks of Rove -- and it is what's wrong with much of politics today. If the prosecutor cannot prove a crime, Rove should still be fired, not just because Bush said he would fire anyone involved in the leak, but also because what Rove did is ethically disgusting. (Isn't it though? SRH)

Many of my colleagues in the media are having trouble getting a grip on all this. Some have abandoned Judith Miller because she did so much bad reporting on WMD before the war. As the Times itself later admitted, much of the pre-war coverage consisted of "breathless stories built on unsubstantiated 'revelations' that, in many instances were the anonymity-cloaked assertions of peole with vested interests." But that, friends, is a different case.

Of course a reporter does not have an absolute right to shield a source -- even lawyers don't have such a right. But many other professionals have limited rights to confidentaality, including preachers, psychiatrists and councelors. A journalist's limited right to protect confidentiality is recognized by 31 states and the District of Columbia.

Look, reporters come armed with a notebook and a pencil! They do not carry guns, they do not have the power to arrest people, they do not have subpoena power, they cannot force people to talk by holding them as material witnesses, they cannot sneak into their homes and read their computers. Generally speaking, if the law can't make a case without help for a reporter, they're incompetent.

Milelr is not protecting a noble whistleblower who dared to go to the press because his sense of integrity had been outraged by official misconduct and he had no other option. That woud be your basic Deep Throat. She is, we can assume, protecting some politically motivated hatchet-man who was part of the smear campaign against Plame's husband for telling the truth. And that, too, is irrelevant to the principle involved.

The larger point is that journalists have a constitutionally protected responsibility to find and publish the truth (as dubious as many of our efforts are). Particularly in covering government and politics, that purpose is often served by protecting slimeballs, or at least people whith questionable motives. Just becase Karl Rove has forgotten about the public interest is not reason for Judy Miller to do so.

http://www.workingforchange.com

Check out their other articles and their political cartoons, lots of interesting articles new today and archieved..

CHECK OUT:
..BuzzFlash interview: James Moore....Texas journalist, or favorite specialist on Karl Rove.

Will Durst: Roving target, Scott McClellan ponders how to address the Rove investigatin.

Greg Palast: Mr. Rove and the access of evil. Tell us your source, " Judy

Robert Scheer: The real Rove scandal. If you can't shoot the messanger, take aim at his wife.

WHILE ON-SITE, check out this story and brace yourself for winter:
There goes the electrical grid. Repeal of the PUHCA could let big oil jack up electric rates. (Will they never quit? With the sealing of presidential and vice presidential papers and their meetings which were recorded, will we ever know the extent of how really crooked this administration really is. We have a pretty good idea, but shouldn't these papers and minutes be made available to us, the public, after all they are our property, we paid for it all, andl we deserve to know the truth behind all of the rumors and our somewhat educated guesses, which it seems are based more on fact than imagination. SRH)

Saundra Hummer

July 16th, 2005, 02:56 PM

......CLUES TO WHO MIGHT BE AT/NEAR THE SOURCE OF THE ROVE LEAK SCANDAL

SIROTABLOG
REAL WORLD WISDOM FROM OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY

....7/15/05

I'm not one who likes to engage in a lot of speculation, but the Karl Rove/leak scandal has really gotten me thiking: why won't they just fire Rove? The answer is not that Rove is innocent, or even that they can't because he's too powerful - I'm starting to think the reasonis because while Rove was definately involved and definitely deserves to face legal consequences, he wasn't the root. Somebody else was the root of this leak and that somebody is likely person the Bush administration can't just cut loose like they could even Rove, who is afer all, a staffer, It must be somebody even higher up on the food chain.

Before I tell you who I think it might be, lets just go through what we know. Rove now admits he learned of the classified information from a journalist (link provided on site), (which of course does not excuse him from going and confirming that information to another "journalist" like Bob Novak). It's very possible that person was Judith Miller, but that's not realy important - what is important is that the journalist got the information from someone else ...someone higher up.

Novak has given us a clue about who this higher-up is. He says "no partisan gunslinger." (link provided) Not that Novak's description should be taken as 100 percent credible. he is a partisan hack after all. But still, the question is who would someone like Bob Novak make that description of?

I'd like to think it was Vice President Cheney, but even Novak wouldn't describe him in those terms, and I do believe Cheney is too smart and too keen to his own self-preservation to get himself directly involved in something like this. So again, who is an official who is up in the White House stratisphere that can't just be fixed, that isn't a "partisan gunslinger?"

I'm thinking we need to start asking Condoleezza Rice some questions. Now I say that having no proof at all that she was involved. I'm just saying to read what we do know. And if you think about it, Rice really should be on the hot seat. Here is a person who came out of academia and who might not have the appreciation for how quickly you can get burnt down for leaking classified info, and who might think that's all part of "how it's done" in Washingron's partisan battles.

Furthermore, Rice is not well known as a "partisan gunslinger" (even though she is). Also, she was the face of the Bush administration in the lead up to war - she was the front person in defending all the administration's WMD claims, she was talking to all sorts of reporters trying to make the WMD threat seem as menacing as possible. She was the one she allowed Bush's reference to Iraq supposedly buying uranium from Niger to get into the State of the Union address, and then denied it by laughably pretending she never read the intelligence reports (link provided) debunking the claim - as if we are expected to believe that.

Then suddenly, Joe Wilson comes along and debunks the whole thing. That means Rice would have had not only a broad motive to defend the White House, but for a personal motive to defend her own competence: Wilson's proof that the Iraq uranium Niger thing was bogus was a direct indictment against Rice, because she was personally supposed to vet the State of the Union address and the specific claims in quetion before they were aired. And, as we know, the leak of Wilson's wife's name came as a means to discredit Wilson's debunking of the Iraq claim.

Again - this is all speculation. I'm trying to use the skills I acquired as child player of the board game Clue to try to figure out what's going on - and I have no proof that Rice was involved. But someone with her profile and position raises questions: she is someone who isn't known as a "partisan gunslinger," she is someone that, because she is now Secretary of State they can't just fire easily; and she had not only a broad ideological motive, but a very personal one. And now, at the end of the day, we find out that Rice's number two, Stephen Hadley, may be implicated in the scandal.

So the real question at the end of all of this is simple: Has anyone asked Condi Rice about her involvement in the scandal?

http://www.workingforchange.com

Saundra Hummer

July 16th, 2005, 04:21 PM

.....LOVE ME TENDER

by Chris Floyd

07/15/05 "Moscow Times" (link provided on site) - - They were still scraping body parts out of the blasted carriages in the London Underground last week when the terrorist brazenly announced a harvest of blood fruits from their murderouos campaign. The declaration - - bone chillng in it's moral nullity, its brutal cynicism -- was made in the fearsome name of Jihad, That would be Asim Jihad, of course, spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Yes, and just one day after London's agony, the state terrorists who perpertrated the ongoing mass atrocity of aggressive war in Iraq celebrated an important victory in their campaign of violence and fear: 11 juicy oil fieds are geing u up for tender to international investors, AdnKronos International reports.(Part in parcel of "The PLAN" All devised before 9/11? SRH )

The corporate cornucopia of these fertile fields in oil-laden southern Iraq - 3 million barrels per day, said Jihad -- will surpass the nation's entire current output of 2.2 million bpd: rich pickings for the oil barons whose branch office in the White House has done such outstanding advance work for them. With oil prices soaring past $60 per barrel - - on their way to the $100 mark in the near future, some experts say -- the $25 billion ante that the Iraqis are seeking will be a small price to pay for a seat at this game.

But goodness gracious me -- as Pentagon pump-jockey Don Rumsfeld would say, in that prim spinster patois he likes to affect when wiping blood off his hands -- nobody in their right mind believes all that money will actually go to the OIl Ministry, which will maintain ostensile control of the sold-off fields for the alleged benefit of the Iraqi peole. Heavens to Betsy, no!

Some of the loot will be skimmed by Bushiest-favored bagmen in the new Baghdad regime. Some will be siphoned off to fund the death-dealing, torture-happy goon squads now operating on behalf of various factions in the government. Some will be kicked back to the oil barons. And some will be smuggled into slush funds for covert ops, mrecanaries, campaign hijinks in the Homeland and "retirement packages" for good and faithful servants of the Bush war machine.

How do we know this will happen? because it has already happened to Iraqi oil money that fell into the hands of the profiteer-in-chief, President George W. Bush. According to detailed audits and investigations by Congress, the Pentagon, the General accountability Office, the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, and the Specail Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, more than $8.8 billion in Iraqi money under Bush's control simeply went walking between October 2003 and July 2004, the London Review of Books reports. These were revenues supposedly earmarked for the Iraqi government -- but no one knows where they actually went, except for a few dollops that investigators found were bankrolling many of the worthy endeavors outlined above.

And this epic rapine -- looting on a scale not seen since the days of the Mongol Horde -- is just a single rivulet in the vast delta of corrupiton draining the conquered land. Christian aid estimates that an additional $4 billion in unmetered oil export revenue was sold off under the counter, Saddam-style, to coalition cronies. Then there were the planeloads of cold cash spread around by Bush's "Provisional Authority" -- off the books, natch -- to "couriers," brokers, Western contractors, tribal leaders, "intellighence assets" and anyone else who had the moxie to put their hands out at the right time.

All of this money was stolen from the Iraqi people. In fact, everybit of Iraq's oil money was seized by Bush and transferred to New York's Federal reserve Bank in May 2003. Perhaps this was the oepration Bush was referring to in his ballyhooed "Mission Accomplished" declaration that same month. (He certainly couldn't have been talking about the military mission -- not with "major combat operations" still being launched even as we speak." And oil revenues kept fowing to Bush's bank account after the conquest. all told, by the time Bush's personal viceroy, Jerry Bremer, did his "last days of Saigon"bug-out from Baghdad last year, the Crawford Caligula had run through $20 billion of Iraq's oil money.

No one has been brought to justice for their monstrous -- indeed murderous -- thievery. And the oil barons preparing to feast on the new leaders needn't worry aobut such "quaint" notions as legality either. That's because Bush -- hugger-mugger as usual -- recently renewed his infamous Executive Order 13303, the blanket immunity for all U.S. corporate interst involved in any way with Iraq's oil, the Deep Blade web log reports. The original edict was issued in that fateful, fruitful month of May 2003.

Bush's ukase applies to all traffickers in Iraqi oil -- as long as their loot finds its way, by hook or crook, into the coffers of "United States persons or entities." Bush declares flatly that any "judicial process" launched against these protected entities -- not excluding criminal proceedings for, say, fraud, corruption, extortion, even murder -- "shall be deemed null and void." But what if some rogure nation still clinging to the outmoded principle of law and order tries to take Bush's cronies to court? Not to worry: one of fhe many agencies authorized to "employ all powers" to "carry out the purposes of this order" is none ther than Spinster Rumsfeld's own little parlor -- the Pentagon.

Money and power grabbed through violence and deceit: that's the real point -- the only point -- of bush's "war on terror." It is in fact a war of terror, where both sides use senseless murder and mass slaughter to advance their degraded ambitions. No doubt the innocent victims of the London bombing are happy to have died in the service of such a noble cause.

===

Check out the following site for this story and for Annotaitions, there are eight of them. Just click on it:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Check their archives for many more stories about Iraq and other areas of interst.

Saundra Hummer

July 17th, 2005, 07:35 PM

Store owners in Sacramento County, California will face criminal charges if they sell booze to known homeless alcoholics. Store owners will be given binders containing photos of habitual drinkers. If they're caught selling alcohol to someone pictured they face a $1,000 fine or a year in jail.

I wonder how succesful this will be, and how belligerent the habitual drunk will become? Better have a cage around the clerks station.

Saundra Hummer

July 17th, 2005, 07:55 PM

Clear and Present Danger

U.S. Army Lt. Greg Miller received a Purple Heart after he was shot in the jaw while in Afghanistan. Doctors wired his jaw shout to let it heal. They gave him a small pair of wire cutters and told him to always keep them with him. They would be used to cut the wires in case he was choking. But security guards at San Francisco International Airport confiscated the tool when Miller tried to board a plane.

==

Another odd bit of news, probably quite old, but still in the scheme of things - new.

Bible beaters,

A Saudi court sentenced Danilo de Guzman and Benjamin Diaz to a month in prison. A higher court later added 150 lashes to their sentances. What crime did the two Filipino workers commit? They were found to have a Bible and some Christain CDs. The tow were denied a lawyer during their hearings. They were never lashed, but after serving their sentence, they were fined and deported.

==
......We hear horrendous stories from foreign workers in Arab countries. It seems they are thought of as property, and treated more like slaves than hired domestics. They are subjected to any number of abuses, emotional, physical, and sexual.

When the Saudi's, were buying so much lumber from a mill in Bend Oregon, they would arrive with high priced hookers on each arm and eunichs, can you imagine? The price of the hookers were astronomical and they would brag up that fact and talk of their "Eunch" which I could only imagine was a slave. I wonder if these sorts of goings on will ever be looked upon as backward by them, well, forget the thing about the hookers, as that's here to stay, but a bit of humanity? That needs lots of work. SRH

Saundra Hummer

July 18th, 2005, 02:42 PM

......."A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves." Edward R. Murrow

"The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded." C.I. De Montesquieu - [Montesquieu, Charles Lousi de Secondat} (1689-1755) Baron de Montesquieu - Source. The Spirit of the laws, VIII, 1752 (Our country was founded on many of the writings of this man. SRH)

"I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave." H. L. Mencken

"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government." Thomas Jefferson

Saundra Hummer

July 18th, 2005, 03:46 PM

Now it is surfacing (where one would have thought it all came from in the first place and that is Dick Cheney and Karl Rove) that Rove and Cheney chief of staff were intent on discrediting CIA agent's husband prosecutors have been told.

[It has been so very obvious from the start, how could have anyone been surprised at this turn of events? Even Nixon says it was the cover up which did him in, more than the facts of the matter. Well people could have been killed over this one and a method of operation has dried up. Intelligence has dried up with the actions of fhese vindictive mean little men. How not to raise your children to be if you want to feel a deep pride in them. SRH]

===

=Top Aides Reportably Set Sights on Wilson=
Rove and Cheney chief of staff were intent on discredition CIA agents husband, prosecutors have been told.

By Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten

Top aides to President Bush and Vice Presidnet Dick Cheney were intensely focused on discrediting former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV in the days after he wrote an op-ed article for the New York Times suggesting the administration manipulated intelligence to justify going to war in Iraq, federal investigators have been told.

Prosecutors investigating whether administration officials illegally leaked the identity of Wjilson's wife, a CIA officer who had worked undercover, have been told that Bush's top political strategist, Karl Rove, and Cheney's chief of staff, L. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, were especially intent on undercutting Wilson's credibility, according to people .

Althought lower-level White House staffers typically handle most contacts with the media, Rove and Libby began personally communicating with reporters about Wilson, prosecutors were told.

A source directly familiar with information provided to prosecutors said Rove's interesat was so strong that it prompted questions in the White House. When asked at one point why he was pursuing the diplomat so aggressively, Rove reportedly responded: "He's a Democrat." Rove then cited Wilson's campaign donations, which leaned toward Democrats, the person familiar with the case said.

The disclosures about the officials' roles illustrate White House concern about Wilson's July 6, 2003, article, which challenged the administrations's assertion that Iraq had sought to purchase nuclear materials. Wilson's article appeared as Rove and other Bush aides were preparing the 2004 reelection campaign strategy, which was built largely around the presidents response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

It is not surprising that White House officials would be upset by an attack like Wilson's or seek to respond aggressively. But special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgearald is examining whether they or others crossed the legal line by improperly disclosing classified information, or where they perjured themselves in testifying later about their actins. Both Rove and Libby have testified.

News of the high-level interesat in discrediting Wilson comes as White House defenders, notabaly officials at the Republican National Committee, argue that Rove has been vindicated of suspicion that he was a primary source of the leak. Knowingly revealing the identity of a covert operative is a federal crime.

Regardless of Rove's legal liability, the description of his roll runs contrary to earleir White House statements that Rove and Libby were not involved in the unmasking of Wilson's wife, and it suggests they were part of a campaign to discredit Wilson.

Wilson, a career Foreign Service officer who served in Iraq and several African nations, was sent by the CIA in 2002 to investigate whether Iraq had attempted to purchase nuclear materials from Niger. His New York Times article declaring that he had found no credible evidence of such an attempt despite the administration's continued claims that there had been one unleashed charged from White Hoiuse officials that he was a partisan.

White House officials contended that he had wrongly indicated that he was sent on his mission by Cheney. In fact, Wilson had said in the article that the trip was inspired by questions raised by Cheney's office.

Eight days after Wilson's article was published, a syndicated column by Robert Novak questioned the credibility of Wilson's trip, suggesting that it had been arranged with the help of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, at the CIA.

Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, has cited recent news reports that Rove heard about Wilson's wife from reporters and the he was not an origianal source. Those reports said that Rove in fact sought to dissuade Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper --- one of the journalists with whom he discussed Wilson's wife --- from writing a piece about Wilson's charge.

"Based on the information that has come out over the last several days, the one thing that's absolutely clear is that Karl was not the source for the leak, and there's no basis for any additional speculation," Luskin said.

A White House spokesman, David Almacy, declined to comment Sunday. "This is an ongoing investigation, and we will be happy to talk about this once it is completed, but not till then," he said.

Prosecutors' intense questioning of witnesses about Rove and Libby casts doubt on assertions that the president's longtime political guru was not --- at least at some pint --- in Fitzgerald's sights.

Fitzgerald is expected to conclude his investigation this year with a detailed report.

Bush siad he would fire anyone for any illegal leaks. Democrats have called on Bush to fire Rove, now a deputy White House chief of staff, or at least to revoke Rove's security clearance.

Republican Natrional Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said Sunday on NBS's "Meet the PRess" that Rove and the White House deserved credit for cooperating with Fitzgerald. "Cooperate, cooperate, cooperate" was the policy, said Mehlman, who once was Rove's deputy at the White House.

Cooper, who testified last week before Fitzgerald's grand jury concerning his conversations with White House officials about Wilson, confirmed Sunday that prosecutors showed intense interest in the roles played by Rove and Libby in discussing Wilsons's wife.

In an article in the latest issue of Time magazine titled "What I Told The Grand Jury," Cooper writes that the grand jurors investigated his interactions with Rove in "microscopic, excruciating detail."

He says he called Rove after Wilson's article appeared and asked about it. "I recall saying something like, 'I'm writing abut Wilson,' before he interjected, " Cooper writes, "Don't get too far out on Wilson,' he told me."

Cooper writes that his frist knowledge of Wilsons wife came when Rove disclosed on "deep background" that she worked for the CIA, but that he did not learn her name until he read it in Novak's column several days later.

Novak was the first journalist to identify Plame by name, along with her role as "an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction." He wrote that two senior administration officials told him Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger.

"As for Wilsn's wife, I told the grand jury I was certain that Rove never used her name that, indeed, I did not learn her name until the following week, when I either saw it in Robert Novak's column or Googled her, I can't recall which, " Cooper writes. "Rove did, however, clearly indicate that she worked at the 'agency' --- by that, I told the grand jury, I inferred that he obviously meant the CIA and not, say, the Environmental Protection Agency. Rove added that she worked on "WMD' (the abbreviation for weapons of mass destructrion) issues and that she was responsible for sending Wilson. this was the first time I had heard anything about Wilson's wife."

In his article, Cooper also recalls that Rove ended their conversatin with a cryptic caution: "I've already said too much."

"This could have meant he was worried about being indiscreet, or it coulld have meant he was late for a meeting or something else," Cooper writes.

To see the rest of this article go to the following site just by clicking on it:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Forgive any typo's.

Saundra Hummer

July 19th, 2005, 12:02 PM

We're forever hearing about criminals with "genius", yet they are caught, and why is this? Because of their own perceived idea of themselves, this being they're so much smarter than anyone else, they believe this with such intensity,they just do stupid things, as they are all caught up in thier perceived infallibility. After all - they are smarter than the rest of us.

Don't you just get this drift from so many in this administration? I sure do. And to my way of thinking, Cheney, along with Karl Rove, head this list, so the very idea that they are too bright to have tried something as stupid as outing a CIA agent doens't hold water with me.

I believe that those who think they are smarter and more clever than anyone else, open themselves up for mistakes, they fall into the trap of their own making, that so many of "genius" do, they just never realize there are others out here who have as many smarts and perhaps even more than they. So to say that Cheney (or Karl Rove) is too smart to have pulled such an illegal act, well, we've seen foolish -- even stupid things -- coming from men who are every bit as smart as he.

Saundra Hummer

July 19th, 2005, 01:20 PM

JIM HIGHTOWER: On Air or read these articles:

A BATTLE OVER A BATTLEFIELD READ IT ] HEAR
.....A casino is proposed down the road from Gettysburg.

A CONGRFESS CRITTERS STINKY DEAL
....San Diego congressman, a former top gun is in the hot seat.

MAD COW AGAIN
....Do we dare trust the government on this, and we are affiliated with the cattle business and were in it hot and heavy at one time, and imports need not be brought in at this time. Besides did you know that our own cattlemen are in the back of the bus when it comes to the processing plants, our own cattlemen have to wait untill the Canadians have processed their beef here in the states at our own facilities before we are able to use them, hurting prices for US cattlemen. Or so we've read and have been told. It may have changed, but at one time, this is how it was, and how I imagine it still is. Makes no sense to us or our freinds in the business.

BUSH'S WAR, NOT OURS

ROVE GETS LOOPY

IRAQ: IS IT WORTH IT?

DEANS DEMOCRATIC REVIVAL

CORPORATE MONEY GRAB

TSA SECRETLY SNOOP'S ON PASSENGERS
.....This is just ridiculous and why is there such a need to have files on all of us, expecially when it is illegal. They aren't followiong the guidelines Congress has set forth for them. How terrible a policy this is and a continued invasion of our rights by this administration.

NEUROMARKETING: AN ORWELLIAN NIGHTMARE

THE ENRONIZATION OF THE SEC

.........There are more requests on this group of articles than I've even see on Jims writings and broadcasts, in fact I don't recall his having done this beore so he must have some pretty deep feelings about these issues to ask for our backing with action. He is asking you to support organizations who are trying to make changes and protect us as citizens, also he is wanting us to protect historical Gettysburg.

Click on the following link to access Jim Hightower's site:

http://www.jimhightower.com/air/archive.asp

Saundra Hummer

July 19th, 2005, 02:15 PM

............MOLLY IVIN'S (AIN'T SHE A DANDY?)

YOU CAN'T NOT CARE

PLAMEGATE ISSUSTRATES PATERN OF DECEPTION IN BUSH ADMINISTRATION

AUSTIN -- Now it's getting funnier and funnier. There is an elephant in the living room and we're sitting around having a conversation about whether there's an elephant in the iving room.

"I think there's an elephant in the living room."

"Well, there's a lot of elephant poop around, but that doesn't prove there's an elephant in the living room."

The entire Republican Party is shocked (!) anyone would think that Karl Rove (!!) would leak a story to damage a political opponent. Oh, the horror. And Karl has always been such a sweet guy. Just to give you and idea, one time Rove was displeased with the job done by a political advance man and said, "We will f.... him. Do you hear me? We will f.... him. Well ruin him. Like no one has ever f...ed him!" (From an article by Ron Suskind). And that was a guy who was on his side.

Attacking an opponent's wife is standard operation procedure for Rove. Have Republicans actually convinced themselves that he wouldn't do such a thing? People, sometimes party loyalty asks too much.

Actually, we are missing the point here. The point being that Joseph Wilson is merely one of the many people who provided one of the by now innumerable pieces of evidence that this administration lied about why we went to war in Iraq. When former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill wrote that Bush planned to invade Iraq from the day he took office, the administration went after O'Neill. When Richard Clarke disclosed that the Bushies wanted to use Sept. 11 to go after Saddam Hussein from Sept. 12 on, they went after Clarke. They went after Gen. Zinni, they went after Gen. Shinseki and everyone else who opposed the folly or told the truth about it. Afer they got done lying about weapons of mass destruction and about connections to Al Qaeda, they switched to the stomach churning pretense that we had doen it all for democracy. Urp.

We suffer the worst attack on the country since Pearl Harbor, and the Bush administration sends the FBI after the American Civil Liberties Union, The ACLU exists to protect every citizens rights as defined in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the United States. The ACLU works solely through the legal system: It does not advocate violence, terrorism or any other damn thing except the Bill of Rights. Since when is that extremist? Why in the name of heaven are we wasting the FBI's time on this idiocy? I don't pretend to be an expert on counter-terrorism, but if it were up to me, I wouldn't start looking for violence-prone in pacifist groups either. Your pacifists, you see -- oh, just look it up.

I know that the sludge-for brains like Bill O'Reilly attack the ACLU for being un-American," but when Bill O'Reilly's constituitional rights are violated, the ACLU will stand up for him, just like they did for Oliver North, Communists, the KKK, atheists, movement conservatives and everyone else they've defended over the years. The premise is easily understood. If the government can take away one persons rights, it can take away everyone's

We are living in a time when our government is investigating an organization that stands for the highest and best American ideals. And claiming the mantle of patriotism while they are about it. This is cuckoo -- and such an idiotic waste of the FBI's time and the taxpayer's money that whoever thought up this idiocy should be fired yesterday.

((((....I'll finish this in a bit and forgive any typo's......)))))

In the meantime, go to this address to look up the rest of Molly Ivans article. The saying "Ain't she a dandy" came from an old horsetrader we knew, and he was saying it about a friend of ours, Jack Plumley, that's another funny story in it's self.

http://www.workingforchange.com

Just click on the link, and while there check out other articles about Karl Rove and this administration,

Saundra Hummer

July 20th, 2005, 02:54 PM

.............."I'm not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong." Abraham Lincoln

Saundra Hummer

July 20th, 2005, 08:37 PM

Why is it that "Hope Springs Eternal" in the hearts and minds of the vengeful. I'm talking about the Jews and the Muslims. Don't and can't they see the way they are going is no better now that it's ever been? A lost cause is a lost cause. So deal with it. Make a better life for yourselves, bury the hatred and distrust, get rid of it. Admit your foolish and backwards ways and better yours, your childrens and everyone's lives by adopting a new way, the old just doesn't get it. Your hopes and wishes to do away with one another isn't ever going to happen, so get real.

Saundra Hummer

July 21st, 2005, 01:17 PM

.............A LETTER FROM MOVE ON.ORG

Dear MoveOn member,

Congress is voting today on renewal of the USA Patriot Act. After September 11th, the PATRIOT Act was passed in a rush and a lot of mistakes were made. The Act allows the government to do some things--like snooping into private medical records--that are (is? SRh) outrageous and most Americans don't like. The most dangerous and intrusive sections of the PATRIOT Act were originallly made to be temporary but now some Republicans are trying to make them permanent.

Your representative will vote today on what to do about the PATRIOT Act. They need to hear an outpouring of concern from citizens right now while they're making their final decisions. Please call Rep. Walden today. (Call your own Congressman)
Congressman Greg Walden (Your Congressman)
Phone: 202-225-6730 (Your Own Congressman's Telephone Number)

When you call, say something like"
"I am a constitueint and I am concerned about the vote on the PATRIOT Act today. Parts of the USA PATRIOT Act threaten the civil liberties of ordinary Americans. Congress should set an end-date for the PATRIOT Act and fix the worst parts right now. There is something un-American about laws that take away civil liberties. I would appreciate a letter explaining Rep. Waldens's position on the PATRIOT Act."

Then please report your call by clicking here:

http://political.moveon.org/call?tg=FHOR_id=5839-4054703-HHngy78pnk6yKHVHOpOKhw&t=1

The USA PATRIOT Act was passed without meaningful debate in the weeks following the September 11th attacks. Since its passage, hundreds of cities, towns and several states, including "red states" like Alaska, Colorado, Idaho and Montana have passed resolutions against the PATRIOT Act. (1) Conservatives activists like Grover Norquist and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich have even come out against it. (2)

Some of our most basic liberties are threatened by the worst parts of the PATRIOT Act. Under the PATRIOT Act, the government can: (3)

.....*Search your home and not even tell you. (Sec. 213)
.....*Collect Information about what you read, what you buy, your hotel visits
.......(Sec 213)
.....*Seize business and financial records (Sec. 505)
.....*Track your e-mail activity and web usage. (Sec. 216)

Many Americans don't know that these things are in the PATRIOT Act Congress needs to do thier duty and fix the PATRIOT Act. Will you make a call?

There hasn't been a lot of debate in congress about the PATRIOT Act. Just last month, Democrats in the House attempted to hold a hearing on the USA PATRIOT Act in order to voice some of their concerns, but Republicans would not hear any of it--literally Republican Chairman Sim Sensenbrenner abruptly ended the hearing and when Democrats continued to speak their mics were cut off. (4)

Your call could make a big difference today,

Thanks for all you do,

-Tom, Nita, Jennifer, Matt, Eli and the MoveOn.org Political action Team
Thursday, June 21, 2005

P.S. Here are some of the resources we used to research about what is going on.

1 Bill of Rights Denfense Committee: Resolutions Passed and Efforts Underway Against the USA PATRIOT Act.
http://www.bordc.org/list.php

2. Conservative Voices against the PATRIOT Act.
http://www.aclu.org/SaleandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?c=206

3. Reform the PATRIOT Act, A primer
http://action.acluorg/reformthepatriot act/primer.pdf

4. Roll Call (Subscription Required): Democrats Slam Sensenbrenner
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/50_129/news/9630-1.html

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG.POLITICAL.ACTION
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

http://moveon.org
================================================== =

I would like to add, when it is your home that has been entered and checked out, not due to anything you have ever done in your life - but because of a neighbor - a casual aquaintance - that is a scary thing and I hope none of you ever have to feel the uneasiness and even fear that comes with entering your own home realizing someone has been in it. When you find two of your dogs in a stupor from having been tranqualized, having been shot at such close range with two shots each which bruised terribly and became infected, one dog getting cancer of the bone in that exact area later on and having to be put to sleep from it. When you find appliances dangling off of your outside telephone wire where they have cut into your line to attach thier listening device, when you find footprints in your newly cultivated flowerbeds where the telephone apparatus was attached, killing your new expensive plants by standing on them, breaking off the crowns below ground, then perhaps, all of you will want to do all in your power to stop the Patriot Act. We had these problems before the PATRIOT Act was even ever thought of, so now with it, what could they do? We would be really impositioned and pehaps fearful. All of this could be happening to you if anyone in your neighborhood or work were being thought of as a threat, even if you should happen to say hello to a suspect at your neighborhood convenience store, restaurant or at your neighborhod watering hole. Think about it. If you were to even rub elbows with a suspect - you yourself could end up the target of an investigation not letting you to know if you are having prowlers, or if you are being stalked or "just investigated", you wouldn't know -- it can be frightening if you start noticing things aren't as they should be. We went through it because of a fellow Rich worked with and his frendship with our neighbor, and then there was the thing with her sons and the Columbians, so needless to say, with Columbians at our place asking for directions to our neighbors, with our dogs being tranqualized, with footprints in our flower beds and the bugging devices on our telephone line, and so much more, it was a frightening time, as we didn't (in the beginning) know who was prowling about. Once we realized we felt better, but still, it was a humongous waste of time and money investigating us with our uninterseting lives. This was well before 9/11.

I am so against the PATRIOT Act. There are enough laws on the books, and were before 9/11 and it's implementation, we don't need more and I would love to see the PATRIOT Act cleaned up, if not totally done away with. SRH

Saundra Hummer

July 21st, 2005, 04:21 PM

....."Whenever a people... entrust the defence of their country to a regular, standing army, composed of mercenaries, the power of that country will remain under the direction of the most wealthy citizens." : A Framer- Anonymous 'framer' of the US Constitution Source: Independent Gazetteer, January 29, 1791

=

"War would end if the dead could return". Stanley Baldwin

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

July 21st, 2005, 04:50 PM

...Information Clearing House.info Has Several Interesting Articles For Us Today.

Here's a brief rundown:

Jihad without borders:

A line connects the resistance strategy of Iraq's Ba'athists and Afghanistan's Taliban militias as they draw on the same blueprint in their struggle against US-led forces in their respective countries.

The organizations include Kurds, Arabs, Pakistanis and Afghans committed to fighting against the US and its allies all over the world by any means.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9535.htm

http://snipurl.com/geww

==

Iraq: The War We Are Not Being Shown

By Arianna Huffington

It's like a pair of blinders have been removed and I'm suddenly seeing for myself what I've long known to be the case: just how sanitized a verson of the war the American mainstream media are delivering, and how little of even this clearned-up coverage we get.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9537.htm

===

Judge Dread

John Roberts and Enemy Combatants

by Chris Floyd

Four days after he affirmed Busn's autocratic powers, Roberts was duly awarded with a nomination to the Supreme Court. Now he will be sitting in final judgment on this case - and any other challenges to Bush's preemptory commands. This is what is known, in the tyrant trade, as a safe pair of hands."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9527.htm

===

UK Bombs meant as a carbon-copy, may be the same group.

http://snipurl.com/gewk

There is a lot about London and the bombers identity today on Information Clearing House.info, and lots about Iraq and Afghanistan. Among these articles is one where London Mayor says: "If, at the end of the First World War, we had done what we promised the Arabs, which was to let them be free and have their own governments, and kept of of Arab Affairs, and just bought thier oil, rather than feeling we had to control the flow of oil, I suspect this wouldn't have arisen."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9533.htm

http://snipurl.com/gewm

===

The Link to London: The True, Terrible State of Iraq

President Bush is able to deflect criticism of his catastrophic misjudgements by suggesting his critics are soft on terrorism. Now the same thing is happening in Britain with Tony Blair and Jack Straw denouncing Chatham House for suggesting that events in Iraq boosted terrorism. :shrug:

http://informationclearinghouse.info

http://snipurl.com/gewn

===

Much much more on ICH, lots and lots of information.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

While there check out thier archives.

Saundra Hummer

July 21st, 2005, 09:18 PM

...........BIG TIME TROUBLE....AN ARTICLE BY MOLLY IVINS

CREATORS SYNDICATE
07.21.05

.....AMERICA CONTINUES TO WEAKEN, BUT WHY WORRY?

AUSTIN -- If you had done a poll in November 2000, or in November 2004, I don't think you would have gotten out of single digits with this proposition: "George W. Bush wants to radically revise American law, including complete repeal of the New Deal, and take us back to the economic legal system that prevailed at the turn of the 19th century -- Robber Barons Redux."

During the past five yers, both media and political circles have devoted an enormous amount of attention to social issues and culture wars -- rise of the Christain Right, anti-abortion groups, our debates over moral decline and moral relativism, prayer in the schools, school vouchers, displaying the Ten Commandments, sex and violence in entertainment, bias in the news media, gay marriage and all the rest of it. I sometimes think all of it amounts to a bunch of people saying, "The world would be a much better place if everybody else thought exactly the same way I do." Reminds me of Dr. Henry Higgins in his famous philosophical disquisition, "Why Can't A Woman Be More Like A Man?" Higgins finally discovers the ultimate problem: "Why can't a woman be more like ME?"

Then of necessity, we have spent huge amounts of time on Sept. 11, terrorism, Iraq, and related and ancillary problems. It is not necessary to review the bidding here, but Iraq is becoming as divisive as the Vietnam War.

While we have been absorbed in the silly circus of cultural issues and the riveting questions of the war, we've also been getting our pockets picked. Big time. I am impressed that cartoonist Lloyd Dangle in the strip "Troubletown" managed to get the whole problem into 12 panels, each announcing some piece of economic news accompanied by an american saying essentially, "What, me worry?" The U.S. is over $7 trillion in debt (no problem); China buys $1 billion worth of U.S. treasurey bills a day (thanks for floating us); Americans love the prices at Wal-Mart (made in China, cute!); the Chinese save 50 percent of their domestic product; the average American has $9,000 on his credit cards; our economy is fueled by a fragile housing bubble; the minimum wage is $5.15 per hour ... ; taxpayers who earn over $1 billion saved $30K under Bush tax cuts; the war in Iraq costs $9 billion a month; by 2040, our kids will be unable to do more than pay the interest on the national debt lll ; bankruptcy reform makes it impossible to escape your debts, in Darfur [Sudan], people earn $1.25 a day.

For those who prefer to get their economic news for a more respectable source than a cartoon, I recomment Bill Greider's op-ed article in the July 18 New York Times, "American's Truth Deficit." He begins with the startling thesis that we face structural economic problems as serious as those that destroyed the late Soviet Union and that, like the USSR before its breakup, our leaders cannot talk about these problems honestly. "[Our] weakening position in the global trading system is obvious and ominous, yet leaders in politics, business, finance and the news media are not willing to discuss candidly what is happening and why. Instead they recycle the usual bromides about the benefits of free trade and assurances that everything will work out for the best."

It is a curious thing that as the disadvantages and, indeed, perils of globalization become clearer and the subject of ever more worried books by respected economists, the mainstream media keep treating the whole problem as though it were about a bunch of protesters in turtle costumes at the G8 summit. If it were not for Lou Dobbs on CNN, one would never even hear it mentioned on television.

Forget what the Supreme Court thinks about teaching creationism in the schools: Think about what it will contribute to the spiraling disasters of globalization by dismantling the entire economic regulatory system built up over the past 100 years. As Greider notes, "Washington defines 'national interest primarily in terms of advancing the global reach of our multinational enterprises." Problem is, our multinational corporations increasingly work against the interests of Amerians themselves. In addition to outsourcing jobs, the companies locate sham headquarters in off-shore tax havens to avoid paying taxes. The only restraints we have ever had on multinational corporations are government regulation and the right to sue the bastards for the various kinds of harm they cause. It is precisely those two forms of control that are being not just undermined but tossed out entirely by an increasingly activist right-wing judiciary. :gavel:

Recommended reading: Greider's "One World, Ready Or Not"; David Korten's "When Corporations Rule the World"; and Paul Krugman's "The Great Unraveling." ===

http://www.workingforchange.com

Saundra Hummer

July 22nd, 2005, 08:45 PM

..........WAXMAN: 11 SECURITY BREACHES IN PLAME CASE
BY REP. HENRY WAXMAN
YUBANET

FRIDAY 22 JULY 2005

The disclosure of the covert identity of Valerie Plame Wilson in a July 14, 2003 column by Robert Novak has triggered a criminal investigation and led to calls for congressional investigations. The Novak column, however, appears to be only one of multiple leaks of Ms. Wilson's identity. A new fact sheet released today by Rep. Waxman documents that there appear to be at least 11 separate instances in which Administration officials disclosed information about Ms. Wilson's identity and association with the CIA.

NEW FACT SHEET DETAILS MULTIPLE ADMINISTRATION SECURITY BREACHES INVOLVING VALERIE PLAME WILSON

On July 14, 2003, columnist Robert Novak revealed that the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame Wilson, was a covert CIA agent. This disclosure of classified information has triggered a criminal investigatin by a Special Counsel and led to calls for congressional investigations.

The Novak column, however, appears to be only one of multiple leaks of Ms. Wilson's identity. As this fact sheet documents, there appear to be at least 11 separate instances in which Administration officials disclosed information about Ms. Wilsons identitiy and association with the CIA.

Under Executive Order 12958, the White House is required to investigate any reports of security breaches and take "prompt corrective action," such as suspending the security clearances of those involved. Unlike prosecutions for criminal violations, which require "knowing" and "intentional" disclosures, the executive order covers a wider range of unauthorized breaches, including the "negligent" release of classified information. There is no evidence that the White House has complied with its obligation to investigate any of the 11 reported instances of security breaches relating to Ms. Wilson or to apply administrative sanctions to those involved.

THE DISCLOSURES OF VALERIE WILSON'S IDENTY

1. THE DISCLOSURE BY KARL ROVE TO COLUMNIST ROBERT NOVAK
In a column dated July 14,2003, Robert Novak first reported that Valerie Plame Wilson was "an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction." [1] Mr. Novak cited "two senior administration officials" as his sources. [2] According to multiple news reports, one of these two sources was Karl Rove, the Deputy White House Chief of Staff and the President's top political advisor. [3] During a phone call on July 8, 2003, Mr. Rove confirmed for Mr. Novak that Ms. Wilson worked at the CIA. During this conversation, Mr. Novak referred to Ms. Wilson "by her maiden name, Valerie Plame," and said he had heard she was involved in "the circumstances in which her husband ... traveled to Africa." [4] Mr. Rove responded, "I heard that, too." [5] Mr. Novak's name also appeared "on a White House call log as having telephoned Mr. Rove in the week before the publication of the July 2003 column." [6]

2. THE DISCLOSURE BY A "SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL" TO COLUMNIST ROBERT NOVAK.
In addition to his communications with Mr. Rove, Mr. Novak learned about Ms. Wilson's identity through communications with a second" senior administration official." [7] Mr Novak's second source has not yet been publicly identified. Mr. Novak has stated, however, that the source provided him with Ms. Wilson's identity. As he stated, "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me." [8] He added: "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it." [9]

4. THE DISCLOSURE BY KARL ROVE TO "TIME" REPORTER MATT COOPER
During a phone call on July 11, 2003, Mr. Rove revealed to TIME reporter Matt Cooper that Ms. Wilson worked at the CIA on weapons of mass destruction. [10] Mr. Cooper reported that this "was the first time I had heard anything about Wilson's wife." [11] Mr. Rove provided this informaton on "deep background," said that "thingswould be declassified soon," and stated, "I've already said too much." [12]

4. THE DISCLOSURE BY SCOOTER LIBBY TO "TIME" REPORTER MATT COOPER
During a phone call on July 12, 2003, TIME reporter Matt Cooper asked the Vice President's chief of staff, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby" if he had heard anything about Wilson's wife sending her husband to NIger." [13] Mr. Libby replied, "yeah, I've heard that too," or words to that effect. [14] Mr. Libby provided this informaton "on background." [15]

5. THE DISCLOSURE BY AN "ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL" TO WASHINGTON POST REPORTER WALTER PINCUS
On July 12, 2003, and "administration official" told Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus that "Wilson's trip to Niger was set up as a boondoggle by his CIA-employed wife." [16] Mr. Pincus has not publicly identified his source, but has stated that it "was not Libby." [17]

6. THE DISCLOSURE BY A "TOP WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL' TO AN UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER.
In addition making disclosures to Mr. Novak, Mr. Cooper, and Mr. Pincus, White House officials may have had conversations about Ms. Wilson with three other reporters aboutr Ms. Wilson's identity. According to the Washington Post, a "senior administration official" confirmed that "before Novak's column ran on July 14, 2003, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife." [18] According to this official, "Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge." [19] Press reports suggest that one of these unidentified reporter may be NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell. [20]

7. THE DISCLOSURE BY A "TOP WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL" TO AN UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER
In addition making disclsures to Mr. Novak, Mr. Cooper, and Mr Pincus, White House officials may have had conversations about Ms. Wilson with three other reporters about Ms. Wilson's identitiy. According to the Washington Post, a "senior administration official" confirmed that "before Novak's column ran on July 14, 2003, two top White HOuse officials called at least six Washington Journalists and disclosed the identity and occupaton of Wilson's wife." [21] According to this official, "Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge." [22] Press reports suggest that one of these unidentified reporters may be NBC Meet the Press host Tim Russert. [23}

8 THE DISCLOSURE BY A "TOP WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL" TO AN UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER
In addition making disclsures to Mr. Novak, Mr. Cooper, and Mr Pincus, White House officials may have had conversations about Ms. Wilson with three other reporters about Ms. Wilsons identity. Accoridng to the Washington Post, a "senior administration official" confirmed that "before Novak's column ran on July 14, 2003, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identiy and occupation of Wilson's wife." [24] According to this official, "Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge." [25] Press reports suggest than one of these unidentified reporters may be MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews. [26]

9 THE DISCLOSURE BY AND UNIDENTIFED SOURCE TO WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTER DAVID CLOUD
On October 17, 2003, Wall Street Journal reporter David Cloud reported that an internal State Department memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personned "details a meeting in early 2002 where CIA officer Valerie Plame and other intelligence officials gathered to brainstorm about how to verify reports that Iraq had sought uranium yellowcake from Niger." [27] 'this "classified" document had "limited circulation." according to "two people familiar with the memo." [28]

10. THE DISCLOSURE BY AN UNIDENTIFIED SOURCE TO JAMES GUCKERT OF TALON NEWS
On October 28, 2003, Talon News posted on its website an interview with Ambassador Joseph Wilson in which the questioner asked "An internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel details a meeting in early 2002 where your wife, a member of the agency or clandestine service working on Iraqi weapons issues, suggested that you could be sent to investigate the reports. Do you dispute that?" [29] Talon News is tied to a group called GOP USA [30] and is operated by Texas Republican Robert Eberle. [31] Its only reporter, James Guckert (also known as Jeff Gannon), resigned when it was revealed that he gained access to the White House using a false name after his press credentials were rejected by House and Senate press galleries. [32] In a March 2004 interview with his own news service, Mr. Guckert stated that the classified document was "easily accessible." [33] In a February 11, 2005, interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN, Mr. Guckert said the FBI interviewed him about "how I knew or received a copy of a confidential CIA memo." but he refused to answer FBI questions because of his status as a "journalist." [34] A week later, Mr. Guckert changed his account, claiming he "was given no special information by the White House or by anybody else." [35]

11. THE DISCLOSURE BY A "SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL" TO WASHINGTON POST REPORTERS MIKE ALLEN AND DANA MILBANK
On December 26, 2003, Washington Post reporters Mike Allen and Dana Milbank reported on details about the classified State Department memo, writing that it was authored by "a State Department official who works for its Bureau of Intelligence and Research." [36] The Post story was attributed to "a senior administration official who has seen" the memo. [37] The Post also reported that the CIA was "angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets" and that the CIA "believes that people in the administration continue to release classified information to damage the figures at the center of the controversy, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson iv and his wife, Valerie Plame." [38]

NOTES (available on site)

Just click on the following link:

http://www.truthout.org

Saundra Hummer

July 23rd, 2005, 03:51 PM

.....

.....WHITE HOUSE AIMS TO BLOCK LEGISLATION ON DETAINEES
BY JOSH WHITE AND R. JEFFREY SMITH
THE WASHINGTON POST

SATURDAY 23 JULY 2005

The Bush administration in recent days has been lobbying to block legislation supported by Republican senators that would bar US military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degreding treatment" of detainees, from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and from using interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual.

Vice President Cheney met Thursday evening with three senior Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committeee to press the administration's case that legislation on thiese matters would usurp the president's authority and-in the worlds of a White House official - interfere with this ability "to protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack ." ...... (This report doesn't address the FACT that there are more out there now who would like to destroy us than ever before, it is this administrations own policies which have wrought this. We are more likely to be attacked whereever we are, whereever we go than ever before. SRH)

It was the second time that Cheney has met with Senate members to tamp down what the White House views as an incipient Republican rebellion. The lawmakers have publicly expressed frustration about what they consider to be the administration's failure to hold any senior military officials responsible for notorious detainee abuse in Iraq and the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Cuba.

This week's session was attended by Armed Services Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) and committee members John McCain (R-Ariz) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). Warner and Graham last week chaired hearings that explored detainee abuse and interrogation tactics at Guantanamo Bay and the concerns of senior military lawyers that vague administration policies have left the door open to abuse.

Neither Cheney's office nor the lawmakers would say what was discussed at the meeting, citing a routine pledge of confidentiality. But Cheney has long been the administration's chief defender of presidential prerogatives, and at the meeting he reiterated opposition to congressional intervention on the topic of detainee interrogations, according to a source privy to what happened.

The White House, in a further indication ot its storng feelings, bluntly warned in a statement sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday that President Bush's advisers would urge him to veto the $442 billion defense bill "if legislation is presented that would restrict the president's authority to protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack and bring terrorists to justice."

The threat was a veiled reference to legislation drafted by McCain and being circulated among at least 10 Republican senators, Senate aids said. No effort has been made by McCain to cultivate Democratic support, although his aides predict he could get it easily. John Ullyot, a Warner spokesman, said that the senator has been working with McCain and Graham on detainee legislation and that "the matter continues to be studied."

A spokeswoman for McCain, Andrea Jones, said yesterday that McCain plans to introduce the legislation next week. McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, has criticized the way detainees have been treated by US forces and is said by aides to want to cut off further abuse by requiring that the military adhere to its own interrogation rules in all cases.

One McCain amendment would set uniform standards for interrogating anyone detained by the Defense Department and would limit interrogation techniques to those listed in the Army field manual on interrogation, now being revised. Any changes to procedures would require the defense secretary to appear before Congress.

It would further require that all foreign nationals in the custody or effective control of the US military must be registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross - a provision specifically meant to block the holding of "ghost detainees" in Iraq, in Afghanistan or elsewhere. The provision would not apply to detainees in CIA custody at nonmilitary faciilites.

Military investigations into the abuse in 2003 of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad disclosed that dozens were held without being registered at numerous prisons, the administration has said it needed to do so to conduct interrogations in isolation and to hide the identity of prisoners from other terrorists.

Another McCain amendment prohibits the "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" of anyone in the custody of the US government. This provision, modeled after wording in the UN Convention Against Torture - which the United States has already ratified - is meant to overturn an administration position that the convention does not apply to foreigners outside the United States.

Graham, who has been outspoken on the need for Congress to get involved in the issue of detainee treatment, said in an interview that he intends to pursue additional amendments that would define the term "enemy combtant" for purposes of detention and regulate the military trials of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.

Graham said he believes that his amendment would strengthen the president's ability to pursue the war on terror because it would give congressional suppport to the process of prosecuting detainees after they are transferred to Cuba, an issue that has been hotly contested in federal courts. "Every administration is reluctant to not have as much authority as possible," Graham said, adding that he has gotten mixed signals from the White House. "But we need congressional buy-in-to Guantanamo."

The Republican effort is intended partly to cut off an effort by Senate Democrats to attach more stringent demands to the defense bill regarding detainees. One group, led by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D_Mich), has proposed an amendment calling for an independent commission - similar to the Sept. 11 commission - to look into administration policies on interrogation and detainee abuse

Click on the following link to find this story and others. Since a lot of us are paying for these acts we should learn of them.

http://www.truthout.org

Saundra Hummer

July 23rd, 2005, 04:44 PM

KERRY SEEKS RELEASE OF ROBERT'S DOCUMENTS

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FRIDAY 22 JULY 2005

WASHINGTON -Democratic Sen. John Kerry urged the White House on Friday to release "in their entirety" all documents and memos from Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' tenure in two Republican administrations.

"We cannot do our duty if either Judge Roberts or the Bush administration hides elements of his professional record, said the Massachusetts senator who was his party's presidential candidate last year.

Opening what is expected to be a broader attempt by Democrats to pry loose documents, Kerry issued his statement as Roberts made his latest in a series of courtesy calls on senators in advance of confirmation hearings.

Democratic officials also said Friday they want access to all material regarding Roberts at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. Roberts served in the White House counsel's office from 1982-1986. He was principal deputy solicitor general in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

The Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif, holds an unknown number of documents relating to Roberts, arranged by subject matter. While material in some subjects are designated on the library's Web site as available to the public, most is not.

Among the publicly unavailable material is an entry marked "Specter, Senator." Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa, is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will hold hearings on Roberts' nomination, beginning either in late August or early September.

The Democratic officials said Democrats also are eager to learn details of Roberts' activities in Florida in 2000, at the time the state's contested presidential recount. They spoke on condiditon of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to provide details.

An attorney in privte practice at the time flew to the state at his own expense to offer advice to Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, as the governor's older brother tried to cinch the election over then-Vice President Al Gore.

The democratic officials described the search for information as routine in the case of any nominee to the Supreme Court.

Trecy Schmaler, a spokeswoman for Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, declined to confirm the disclosure he said that in general, Democrats intend to seek material relating to Robert's career.

Kerry is not a member of the committee. But he nonetheless injected himself into the debate at the end of a week in which Bush appeared to catch Democrats off guard by picking a court candidate with conservative credentials, yet one with little judicial experience, and thus, little public paper trail. Roberts would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who often provided the decisive vote in split decisions, sometimes siding with conservative justices and sometimes with the liberals.

"The American people who should know whether John Roberts will protect their constitutional rights if confirmed as a justice to the court," Kerry said in a statement.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, asked on ABC earlier this week about providing documents to the Senate, said "I'm not going to prejudge ... at this juncture what the Senate may request and what information that the executive branch is ultimately going to provide to the Senate."

Roberts sat down with senators in their offices for a third day Friday, making the rounds of those who will sit in judgment of his nomination. He has additional visits scheduled for next week.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's no. 2 Democrat, said he voted against Roberts in committee for his appeals court seat two years ago partly because he didn't feel the nominee fully answered senators' questions.

"I urged Judge Roberts, as far as he can legally with the canons of ethics, to be forthcoming and honest with his answers." Durbin said after their meeting. "If he is open and honest, I think it will go a long way."

There was upbeat Republican talk after Roberts' meetings with Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, and GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

Sessions, whose own nomination to the federal bench was scuttled by Democrats before his election to the Senate, said Roberts "had the very natural qualities to make a superior judge."

==

Read this article and the follow up: "Democrats Prepare Ground to Challenge Judge Roberts", by David D. Kirkpatrick, of "The New York Times, Saturday 23 July 2005

Just click on the following link:

http://www.truthout.org

Saundra Hummer

July 24th, 2005, 03:47 PM

TAKE TWO ANCHOS AND CALL ME IN THE MORNING

THE MEDICINAL POWER OF CHILES

By Lenora Danneike

This article in in a magazine, and it's main function is recipes, foods to cook using chili's and then there is a site to order raspberry/chili jam (or was it salsa???), and does that sound good, all sorts of salsa sites and recipes, and it isn't just Mexican, it goes into ethnic foods all over the globe which use chili's. Good soundng foods.

To see the complete article click on the following link, as I have only typed up a portion of the article, there are more interesting things in this article than the liitle bit I've shown..

http://www.chilepepper.com/articles/view.php?articleID=52

You've always know that peppers were good for your soul, but medical science may convince you that cayenne has as much a place in your medicine cabinet as in your spice rack. Current research is discovering a wealth of potential healing properties in the substance capsaicin, the alkaloid element that gives peppers their distinctive burn. Applications for capsicum-based treatements from arthritis to cluster headaches.

Capsicum has long been a staple in the pharmacology of folk medicine, Western herbal medicine, and traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Indian Ayurvedic medicines. Evidence indicates that cayenne pepper, commonly referred to by its Aztec name, chili, was used as both food and medicine by Native Americans 9,000 years ago.

Huncreds of scientific studies and clinical trials, including those conducted at such respected facilities as Yale and the National Cancer Institute, have resulted in some ambiguous and contradictory findings, though there seems to be a consensus on the proven efficacy of capsaican as a painkiller. Discomfort caused by osteoarthritis, rhematoid arthritis, bursitis, diabetic neuropathy, neuralgia, lupis, shingles, and the post-surgical pain experienced by cancer patients may be alleviated by the topical application of non-prescription creams containing capsaicin. The pain-deadening facility of capsaicin is thought to be derivied from its ability to depelete substance P, a neurotransmitter then sends "messages" of pain through the nerve cells. A reduced amount of substance P means the brain receives fewer pain signals, causing the perception of pain to diminish. Because this effect takes place gradually treatments must be applied at regular intervals to achieve long term relief. An article in Prevention magazine recommends three or four daily appplications for two to three weeks to ensure maximum results. The Penn State Sports Medicine Newsletter reports that the only side effect of using topical capsaicin preparations is an initial burning sensation when applied to the skin-a-temporary discomfort when compared with chronic pain. Topical preparations should not be applied to open sores, and the same precautions that apply to handling fresh peppers should be followed. Avoid contact with eyes, and wash hands thoroughly after use.

==

A contiuation, there is much which I've left out, and you might find it more intersting and what I've included, there's more before this last bit, which you will find on site.

The celebrated endorphin "rush" that comes from ingesting hot peppers is largely unsubstantiated by science. Endorphins are mood-elevation psychoactive peptides that act at the same sites as opiates, and chileheads have traditionally prized the supposed ability of peppers to create a feeling of euphoric happiness. "The effect is essentially a peripheral one," Ted Nason, Ph.D., webmaster of Pharmacalogy Central ( www.pharmcentral.com ), explains, "The compunds in the brain are not affected very much and you now this because pepper is not illegal. If the DEA ever found out it got you high, off the shelves it would go."

A final claim in the pantheon of peppers' capabilities is its aphrodisiac properties. Hot and spicey foods have long been thought to be sexual stimulants. Considering the physiological responses-increased heart rate and metabolism, even sweating-that result from eating capsicum-rich foods are similar to the physical reactions experienced during sex, this belief may have some merit. Remember that the power of suggestion can be as strong as the power of peppers, so don't be afraid to heat up your health and your love life by throwing a few extra jalapenos into your next romantic dinner.

At the very least, they'll make sure no one gets a headache.

One odd thing (and there are several strange uses for chili's which I've left out of this post) is this one, an old remedy for cold feet, when winter hits put a bit of cayenne in your socks or shoes and it will help to keep your feet warm. A folk use for Cayenne which undoubtedly must work. Ouch????

Saundra Hummer

July 24th, 2005, 04:40 PM

......AN ENGLISH PLEA FOR PEACE WITH THE AMERICAN COLONIES

"My Lords, this ruinous and iignominious situation, we cannot act with success, or suffer with honour, calls upon us to remonstrate in the strongest and loudest language of truth, to rescue the ear of Magesty from the delusions which surround it. You cannot, I venture to say, you CANNOT conquer America.

What is your present situration there? We do not know the worst, but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothng and suffered much. You may swell every expense, and strain every effort, still more extravegantly; accumulate every assisitance you can beg or borrow, traffic and barter with every pitiful German Prince, that sells and sends his subjects to the shambles of a foreign country; your efforts are forever vain and impotent-doubly so from this mercenary aid on which you rely; for it irritates to an incurable resentment the minds of your enemies, to overrun them with the sordid sons of rapine and of plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms!-Never! Never! Never!" Willim Pitt - - November 18 1777

Saundra Hummer

July 24th, 2005, 05:15 PM

IRAQ: THIS IS NOW AN UNINNABLE CONFLICT :

As he now completes another tour of duty in the chaos of Iraq, award winning reporter Patrick Cockburn charts how Bush and Blair's 'winnable war' turned into a mess that is inspiring a worldwide insurgancy

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9558.htm

http://snipurl.com/gh0h

===

'THERE IS ALWAYS ANOTHER INSURGENT'

Despite months of assurances that the forces were on the wane, the guerrillas and terrorists battling the U.S. backed enterprise in Iraq appear to be growing more violent, more resilient and more sophisticated.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1762/5522634.html

http://tinyurl.com/8sa68

==

BE PREPARED FOR THE DRAFT TO BE IMPLEMENTED ONCE AGAIN, IT'S BOUND TO HAPPEN IF THIS WAR GOES ON, OR IF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE REALIZE THAT WAR IS HELL AND THEY DON'T WANT TO LEAVE THEIR EYESIGHT, LIMBS OR LIFES BLOOD IN THE SANDS AND STREETS OFTHE MIDDLE EAST, OR WHICH EVER AREA THIS ADMINISTRATION DECIDES TO SPREAD THEIR BRAND OF DEMOCRACY IN NEXT. SRH. ...................

Army may not meet recruiting quotas:

The Army's top personnel officer acknowledged last week that the service would probably miss its recruiting goal this year, the first public admission by a senior Army official and a stark reminder of the Iraq war's effect on enlistments.

http://www.kentucky.com/mid/heraldleader/news/world/12209662.htm

http://tinyurl.com/7hhsn

=

If any of these links give you trouble just go to the site by clicking on the following link

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

====

POLL; SIX IN TEN AMERICANS EXPECT NEW WORLD WAR

Some question whether that war has arrived, with fighting dragging on in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the U.S. campaign against terrorism.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8681159/

http://tinyurl.com/cgm28

( I have believed that the war on terrorism took a backseat because of the perceived threat of growing power in the near and far regions surrounding Iraq. Iraq is in such a terrific strategic position as regards every nation in the region - that to control the Gulf and Iraq is to control the Soviets and the Chinese access, and then there's that pesky Iran. It just goes to reason that we wouldn't want those other countries holding Iraq, and the gulf states close and dear, we want them, and we're trying to make sure we secure them, but the methods, well, they are just the craziest and poorest planned imaginable. How to win hearts and influence people they must not know, but the propaganda war as far as what we have been told here in this country, it's as though they read every word the German's the Nazi's ever wrote about how to win over their own countrymen. As far as how we've been with the Iraqi's? ..... Torture and abuse ..... and letting the infrastructre go on as it has ..... not fixed - sewage in the streets, etc., well, we just won't see them wanting our company now will we?

Thank goodness there are military operatives over there who do treat the people decently, as our official policy is losing the battle for Iraqi minds, but surely our men and women who have shown kindness will be remembered with good will, and I just hope those men and women who have put their best feet forward - make it home safely - without too much trauma to haunt them the rest of their lives. Both sides are suffering and I hope it ends, and soon. SRH)

Saundra Hummer

July 24th, 2005, 06:32 PM

I just stumbled across this site while reading about young fellow from Brazil who died in London after being mistaken as being a possible terrorist suspect. By all indictions he wasn't he was just a young Brazillian who had gone to Britain for a better life. An electrician by trade, a legal immigrant who had been there 5 years according to reports.

Before finding this site, (probably found it on ICH) there is a report I saw about the Police who shot him were trained by Israelis and that they are considered as a "death squad," whose sole intent is to prevent terrorism by killing; questions can be asked later, as with a triggering devices for bombs can be set off in a nano second, so they don't have time, they are saying, to discuss or look too closely at someone they believe is behaving suspiciously. It seems snap non-thinking decisions are what's called for in certain times and in certain situations, like those which have been going on in London. To save lives they take lives and aren't being afforded the luxury of being right 100% of the time. Pity. But surely some sort of descetion has to be out there. Like I've said before, What if a person can't hear well or what if they can't hear at all? What then?

Any way in reading about that tragedy, I found this site and I don't know if it is a respected one, or off the wall. If it's subversive, I've not a clue, but the quote from Rumsfeld caught my eye:

American Revolution, now! Eliminate the One Party with Two Faces
In America, the dollar valiue of people is what matters. "People are fungible," said Don Rumsfeld.

by John Stanton

July 21, 2005

GlobalResearch.ca

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=STA20050721&articleId=716

A lot of this sounds pretty wild, but these are some of the thoughts going on around here.

An open air minimum security labor camp called the United States? Bizarre! If we're that, what does he call the labor force working in our out sourced jobs? Anyway, it's an interesting read, & no one says we have to agree. SRH

Saundra Hummer

July 26th, 2005, 01:09 AM

DECODING TOM FRIEDMAN

"We fight because we are free men who don't sleep under oppression. We want to restore freedom to our nation, just as you lay waste to our nation. So shall we lay waste to yours.. Your security is in your own hands. And every state that doesn't play with our security has automatically guaranteed its own security." Osama Bin Laden, Al Jazeera 11-01-04

"The root cause of suicide terrorism is occupation, not Islam." Robert Pape," Al Qaeda's Smart Bombs"
New York Times 7-9-05

By Mike Whitney

07/25/05 "ICH" -- -- Tom Friedman is the undeclared spokesman of the American establishment. His articles represent a distillation of the current thinking among a broad range of American mandarin, particularly members of the powerful CFR; (Council on Foreign Relations) the driving force behind much of America's policy. He is the imperial chronicler; the man responsible for promoting the narrow interests of elites and transfering the crimes of the empire in to a narrative of generosity and goodwill. If one can decode Friedman's bi-weekly hieroglyphic, they can also understand how elites use the media to manage public perceptions.

In his latest article, "Giving the Hate-mongers no place to Hide", Friedman offers his views on both terrorism and free speech. He argues that we should pay greater attention to "hate speech" and try to grasp its relationship to terrorism. Friedman sees this overheated rhetoric as such an imminent threat that he thinks the State Department should identify the top 10 hate-mongers (link on site) and provide their names to the public.

Apart from the McCarthy-like overtones of Friedman's proposal, it's hard to believe that his contemporaries in talk-radio would be very enthusiastic about this new idea. After all, sectarian and racial hatred have become staples on the country's airwaves, with many of the nations's top broadcasters savaging gays and Muslims on a routine basis. As Friedman knows, the issue of hate speech is normally a question of "whose ox is being gored".

But, Friedman's intention is not to take aim at the 'accepted" institutions of discrimination and racism within the body politic, but to single-out Muslims who vent their rage at American foreign policy and subject them to pubic intimidation. This can be accomplished by developing a State Dept. "blacklist" of anyone who utters a word against the Fatherland and presumably, its junior partner, Israel.

"Words matter," Friedman opines, "We need to shine a spotlight on hate speech wherever it appears. When their words are spotlighted, they often feel pressure to retract, defend or explain them".

Friedman's comments echoe the Stalinesque directive from Donald Rumsfeld in May of 2005, "People need to be very careful about what they say as well as very careful about what they do."

Indeed, they do, but is that the function of government; to silence those with an unpopular point of view? Or, are Friedman and Rumsfeld's remarks simply intended to have a chllling effect on free speech? More importantly, does "hate speech" really generate terrorism or is there a more identifiable source?

While Friedman may be concerned with "shutting people up", he's much less concerned with the real origins of terror. His own paper the New York Times ran a very scholarly article just 3 weeks ago by Robert Pape, "Al Aqaeda's Smart Bombs" (7-9-05) [link on site] that dismissed many of the commonly held illusions about terrorism. Pape, who documented every case of suicide bombing between 1980 and 2004, says that the "core motivating factor behind suicide terrorism" is a "a national response to occupation"; "The root cause of terrorism is occuupation, not Islam."

Wow.

Pape's "fact-based" analysis directly challenges Friedmans's "hate-mongering' theory of terror. The distinction between the two hypothesis is colossal. If Friedman is correct then the West is justified in invading Musim countries to rid them of, what Tony Blair called, "an evil ideology whose roots lie in a perverted and poisonous misinterpretation of Islam". This is the rationale that supports the US occupatoin of Iraq; presenting the conflict as "the central battlefield in the war on terror".

However, if Pape's analysis is right then the real catalyst for terrorism is the American occupation itself; a permanent recruiting sergeant for Muslim extremeists and jihadiis. If that is the case, the only reasonable solution would be a quick transfer of power and a complete withdrawal of American forces.

This is not a debate that Friedman or his colleagues in the corporate establishment can afford to lose. Pape threatens to derail the Iraqi master plan by simply presenting the facts of his investigation and changing the hearts and minds of the American public. That explains why every media bullhorn is feverishly broadcasting some variant of Friedman's "hate mongering" theory; trying to keep alive the fading belief that America is fighting "Islamo-fascism" in an apocalyptic battle between good and evil. It is a story line that grows more threadbare by the day.

The UK Independent's Patrick Cockburn delivered a stunning blow to Friedmans's theory just yesterday in his aptly named article, "This War is no longer Winnable". Cockburn states:

"The findings of an investigation, to be published soon, into 300 young Saudis, caught and interrogated by Saudi intelligence on their way to Iraq to fight or blow themselves up, shows that very few had any previous contact with al-Qaida or any other terrorist organization previous to 2003. It was the invasion of Iraq which prompted their decision to die.

Some 36 Saudis who did blow themselves up in Iraq did so for similar reasons, according to the same study, commissioned by the Saudi government and carried out by a US-trained Saudi researcher, Nawaf Obaid, who was given permission to speak to Saudi intelligence officers. A separate Israeli study of 154 foreign fighters in Iraq, carried out by the Global Research in Internaional Affairs Center in Israel, also concluded that almost all had been radicalized by Iraq alone."

"No contact with Al Qaida"?... "All had been radicalized by Iraq alone"?

Do we need more proof that this or can we put to rest Friedman's musty ideas about Muslim "evil-does". The source of the problem is not in the heart of Islam but in the santuaries of the American plutocracy, where fantasists who never held a rifle dreamt of leading the nation to war. Their muddled vision has now produced the greatest wave of terror the world has ever seen.

Friedman scrupulously tip-toes around the facts so he can shift the blame onto his favorite whipping-boy: radical Islam, But the problem is not the "cancer in their midst", as Friedman claims, but the cancer in ours. "Hate mongers' were not responsible for the unprovoked invasion of Iraq. That was the cynical calculation of American mandarins and their policical operatives in the White House. The war has reaped a firestorm of terror and Friendman's fabrication just keep fanning the flames.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

[ I have to say, I'm not in the thick of things like these journalists, however, having said this, I do believe there are factions within Islam who fan the flames as well. I don't happen to believe that the attacks on our country by Al Qaeda here in the states, on our US Navy ship, & the embassy's in Africa was warranted; none of this to my way of thinking's warranted. .... Iraq .... our being there is just misdirected aggession, and our policies regarding rebuildng, and establishing a good place for Iraqi's have all been a sham. Those who would have been our friends have joined the ranks of our enemies. According to an article in ICH which I haven't read yet, it tells how a woman doctor In Iraq feels about us after or troops killed her husband. She had been happy to see us come, she was elated to have Saddam removed from power, she liked us, she now, since losing her husband to our violence there, wants us blown to kingdom come. I would hope that something will arise to change her way of thinking about us, but ?????

Saundra Hummer

July 26th, 2005, 12:52 PM

Anyone seen "The Aristocrats? if so, what are your thoughts, one joke told in several different ways.

It's 100 comics telling the same dirty joke. One punchline., but the way the joke is told, is "so filthy" filled wiht scatological and sexual references __ that AMC threaters, the U.S. No. 2 movie chain has chosen to excued it from its theaters.

Provenza and Jillette the film's makers have said, "We have no desire to sucker-punch people...We're letting people know what they are going to see." Jilletter told Reuters. "We have a movie that has no nudity, no violence, and unspeakable obscenity.

Provenza has also said, "There is a joy and lovei n this movie that belies the notion that it's filthy and vulgar."

I haven't seen it but have heard the moans and groans, or heard of them, I should say, reading about the controversy the film has kicked up. Som esay it is told in such a filthy and disgusting way that it is not being shown by some theaters.

"It's just a joke." say the film makers.

Provenza has said, "The process of creating comedy is no different than the process Picasso went throught or Mozart went through. "That was the sort of undercurrent for me in making theis movie. I said, "You know what maybe I can get people to understand and respect what artists people in comedy are."

Jillette llikens the improvising done by the comedians to improvising jazz music. "there's really not much of a difference between Gilbert Gottfried and
Coltrane in terms of what goes on in their heads, " he said.(Say what??? SRH)

The pair didn't expect the film would become a "ligtning rod" for controversy.

"People in comedy most of us, we were the one's that got in trouble in high school," Provenza said. "We have the same defense we had when we were getting thrown out. It's just a joke."

[I just believe that all of this controversy will only have more people wanting to view the movie, if not in theaters, then at home. A plus, it seems to me, all this attention will have people wondering and wanting to see what all the fuss is about. Controversy acts as a plus. If no one had complained, would we have heard so much about it, causing us to wonder what all the fuss is about, leaving us wanting to know more? SRH]

Saundra Hummer

July 26th, 2005, 01:27 PM

WITNESS: DOGS BIT ABU GHARIB DETAINEE'S
.....To see the article go to the following link after my take on the events.
=====

What is it about the need to torture that is so disturbing? I believe it turns the ones doing the torturing into deviants and low-grade misfits, with a crimanal cruel bent. If they didn't already have this in them, it was developed by being in an environment that is condusive to becoming a monster. They aren't anyone we would want to know, or associate with. I wouldn't want to live near anyone capable of what has gone on in Abu Ghraib and other jails and prisons around the world, and I'm not just talking about our military.

It is said that in the trial of our military men who were at Abu Ghraib, the ones who had charge of the dogs, that the men were competing, using their dogs to see how many detainees they could frighten into urinating on themselves. Detainees were bitten one report tells of one detainee needing stitches on his thigh's to close up the wounds.

This is the thing, we send these men into situations where it is known that torture is an official policy and where do we expect them to stop? How can they stop before they are themselves are scarred mentaly for life? Are we turning these men into permanant monsters? How can they live peacefully with the things we have had them do in Iraq? If they aren't sociopaths, I don't feel they can. Did they have to carry much of what they were doing to the extremes they did?

What kind of person could take joy in such acts? How is it that they can turn anothers suffering into a game? It must make it easier somehow, easier to be cruel than to have compassion. How can they want to do such sick acts? Live next door to me? I don't think so, I would be looking over my shoulder, forever wondering about these men who commit such savage debauched acts. Degrading, and sickening, and they are someone I could never ever trust. Now, look at the administration. They have, and they are, promoting much of what has happened, and much of what is still going on. I can never trust them again either. The shame I feel for much of what has occured makes me feel this way, and it in itself, it isn't a good feeling. I never in my life thought that our government would sanction torture,on such a scale, at least not in a country we are saying we are gifting with "Democracy." That it would become more than just a few bad men acting without authority doing such as has been going on ever since this war on terror began. Naive, and that's putting it mildly.

I want to believe as I used to believe, that we are above such acts, but that childish view of our country has been shattered. I've known about bad things going on since the "Banana Republics" and the problems with our government policies in the islands and in Central America, Dole Pineapple was king and that wasn't a good time either, much like that went on, but I needed to believe we had cleaned up that act and that we were following up on our promises to the world and to our country, Again dumb and childish to believe like that. Hopefuness is more like it. I keep hoping to see the best we have in us, come to the fore, and this craziness, meaness and greed would just go away! Yeah, right! Like in what light year?

These feelings I have against the abuse and torture of another human being are felt just as strongly against the terrorist acts of Al Qaeda and others who kill like they do. The 9/11 attacks were horrible. It was the saddest and morst horrific thing to have learned of and to have seen. Somehow so surreal it were as if it would just go away once we turned off the teleivision. We know however how very real it was. I believe it was the most outraged I've felt in my lifetime, but lets not turn into what we are against; lets not become our own enemy. We can't afford to. We have to fight against becoming so cruel and crass. We have to keep our own national pride as well as our pride in our own beings, we just can't become so hardened and wrong.

We can't completely control what others do, what governments do, but we can let it be known that we are against such acts with everything in our being. We just can't let ourselves become part and parcel of this type of government policy, part and parcel of numerous inhumane acts, and policies. Govenment sanctioned acts.

We are living in different times and we need to make a difference all right, we need for the whole wide world to clean up it's act. and we also need to clean up ours. It's like the snowball barreling down the hill, it may look like an impossible task to try to stop or divert it, but surely there's a way? a better way of doing things as well as a better way of being? We would all like this. SRH (my take)

Go to the following link for a complete story on these events. Check out the other stories and archives as well.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072605Y.shtml

Saundra Hummer

July 26th, 2005, 05:28 PM

CHOICE ACTION NETWORK (CAN)

IT'S OFFICIAL: Americans can no longer take prescription birth control for granted. Yesterday, Monday, July 25, anti-choice represenatives in the U.S. House made it clear that they support pharmacies that refuse to fill birth-control prescriptions - and that women have no right to birth control.

THE RADICAL RIGHT'S CAMPAIGN TO STOP BIRTH CONTROL
The House Small Business Committee held a hearing on whether pharmacies should be allowed to refuse to fill women's prescriptions. Anti-choice Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a witness, who had been denied birth control and emergency contraception by her pharmacist, that she had no "right" to her prescriptions - she only believed she did. Anti-choice Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) told a witness whose prescription had also been rejected by a hostile pharmacist, that her "minor inconvenience" - that is, risking an unintended pregnancy - was nothing compared to the "conscience" of a pharmacist.

The right's anti-birth control campaign doesn't stop in Washington DC. Across the country, the radical right has engaged pharmacies in its campaign to block women's access to birth control. Women like Julee Lacey, a 32-year-old married mother of two and first-grade teacher from Texas, are being turned away by vigilante pharmacists who think it's their job to dispense morals instead of medicine.

Now, as many as 20 states officially protect pharmacists like Karen Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life, who says she'd lecture women customers to get off the pill. Other states are pursuing an even more aggressive strategy. Just last month Wisconsin passed a bill to block state universities from filling birth control prescriptions.

WHAT YOU CAN DO.
Tell your member of Congress that you expect him or her to stand up for you. - not right-wing pharmacies that oppose birth control. >>>> Take Action Today>>>>

http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/house_alpha_072605/wikwnkkki2f5e6b6j?

If this link doesn't work, do a Google search, typing in this information: ----- NARAL Pro-Choice America.

There are other issues about which you may receive a request to sign onto, as the: Supreme Court Rapid Responder, or perhaps you might be interested in the Student Organizer Newsletter, and so forth.

Go to this link and get involved, and if you aren't in agreement, then how about donating some of your time at local daycare centers for the needy? How about donating your time at any of the numerous childrens hospitals or hospital wings across the country.

You have no idea how lonely, and how very sad it is for hospitalized children. There are children who spend most of their lives in hospital rooms, and they are so in need of some loving and caring, some laughter; they really are. Improvements have been made, but there is always room for more caring people in their lives, they really do need it. How about giving them some time? How about giving the children in them the attention nurses and struggling parents haven't time for. If you want these children in the world, contribute your time and effort to give them better lives, donate clothing, funds and most important of all, your time to local hospitals, shelters and programs to help those in need either financially or emotionally. If you are one of the fortunate few and can do it all, that would be terrific.

Saundra Hummer

July 27th, 2005, 02:06 PM

NOW STREAMING LIVE: PACIFIC WALRUSES

BY TIMOTH INKLEBARGER, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

JULY 26, 2005

JUNEAU, Alaska, Wallowing and snorting as they jockey for position on the rocks, the 2-ton walruses aren't the prettiest reality show stars.

But two cameras installed at the Walrus Islands State Game Sanctuary off Alaska's southwest coast are giving scientists and Web surfers alike the chance to watch the mammals rest and play in their natural environment.

Joe Meehan, a Fish & Game lands and refuge coordinator, said the "walrus cams" on Round island in the Bering Sea provide an essential research tool for wildlife biologists and entertainment for wildlife enthusiasts.

"Montoring walrus populations is a difficult and expensive task that requires observers at each remote location," Meehan said. "Web cameras may ultimately allow for more accurate and economical walrus counts."

The department has staff on the island counting walruses every day.

Web users see a live stream from the cameras set a quarter of a mile apart above the shore. the cameras look down on the rocky beach and catch the action of half-dozen or more Pacific walruses in their everyday lives.

In North America, the Pacific walrus inhabits only remote areas of the Bering and Chukchi seas, according to the Alaska SeaLife Center Web page. Therefore, only the few people who live in or visit the region can observe the walruses in their natural habitat firsthand.

Walrus counts on the islands vary significantly from year to year, Meehan said. In 2000, about 8,500 were counted. This year the highest count so far is 2,300.

The lower numbers are probably not a sign of a declining pobulation but many have likely relocated to abandoned haulouts in Bristol Bay that were used through the mid-1900 until commericial harvesting drove the walruses away, he said.

The main focus of the $40,000 project is to educate and promote conservatin, Meehan said. Along with the walruses, the islands are home to sea lions and about a quarter of a million sea birds.

On the Net: (just click on the following link) You might have to jockey around, my first attempt didn't pull it up, so will check on it later.

http://www.alaskasealife.org/New?research/roundisland.php

This article is on Yahoo news.

Saundra Hummer

July 27th, 2005, 02:28 PM

FOUL MOUTHED BRITISH PARROT BANISHED BY EMBARRASSED KEEPERS

It's all about the animal kingdom once again!

LONDON (AFP)- A foul-mouthed parrot previously owned by a lorry driver has been banished from public areas in a British animal sanctuary after repeatedly embarrassing his keepers, they said.

Barney, a five-year-old-Macaw, is now kept indoors at Warwickshire Animal Sanctuary in Nuneaton, central England when outsiders visit after abusing dignitaries with swearword-littered insults.

"He's told a lady mayoress to f..(expeltrive) off and he told a lady vicar 'And you can f...off as well'," sanctuary worker Stacey Clark said.

Nor did the forces of law and order escape, she added.

"Two policeman cme to have a look at the centre. He told them: 'And you can fll of you two wankers'."

Clark said santuary workers believed Barney either picked up the phrases from televison or was taught them by his previous owner, a lorry driver who emigrated to Spain.

"He does say 'Hello, big boy' and 'Thank you' when you give him a biscuit," she added.

"But it's mainly naughty words and always to the wrong people. We're trying to teach him not to swear. Macaws are very intelligent birds."

Again this is from Yahoo News.com

Saundra Hummer

July 27th, 2005, 03:20 PM

FROM BIRDS TO TURDS: TRUDEAU DEFENDS "TURD BLOSSOM' REFERENCE, SAYS EDITING STRIP IS NOT 'ACCEPTABLE'

BY DAVE ASTOR
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
TUESDAY JULY 26, 2005

NEW YORK -- Why did gary Trudeau use Karl Rove's "Turd Blossom" nickname in Tuseday and Wednesday's "Doonesbury" strips?

"Given that I'm writing for a general audience, I try not to use crude or vulgar language gratuitously," repleed Trudeau, after E&P e-mailed him several questions this afternoon. "But in this case, I felt that [president]Bush's nickname for Rove was illuminating. 'Turd blossom' has so many connotations, none of them flattering. It's a small masterpiece of nastiness."

About 10 to 12 newspapers pulled or edited the "Turd Blossom" strips, according to an Associated Press story. Turdeau is OK with the pulling part, but not the editing part.

"Editors obviously have a responsibility to determine what's appropriate for inclusion in their papers," said the Universal Press Syndicate cartoonist. "The syndicate and I accept that from time to time individual editors may object to particular strips and decide to drop them. What's not acceptable to us, however, is for editors to alter the content of a strip and represent it as what I sent them. In most cases, changing the dialogue compromises the meaning or the rhythm or humor. Sometimes, the strip no longer even makes sense. Who benefits from that? We'd prefer than an offending strip be dropped altogether."

In today's "Doonesbury" comic (which can be viewed here) l[link provided on site}, and aide tells Bush "Sir, we're still getting pretty beat up on the Rove revelations.

We can't get traction on any other issue. It's just the leak thing 24/7!"

Bush responds: "Yeah, I know. Karl's sure been earnin' his nickname lately."

Aide "Boy Genius? I'm not so sure, sir."

Bush then calls out to Rove, "Hey, Turd Blossum! Get in here!"

Does Trudeau think many newspaper editors and readers are aware that "Turd Blossom" is a real nickname for Bush's close advisor, not one made up by the cartoonist?

"My assumption was two fold -- that many people already knew it, and that most others would infer it was real from the way I feed it up" said Trudeau. I also felt that those in the later group would be as tickled to learn of it as I was."

The cartoonist did say he was careful to limit himself to a couple of "Turd Blossom mentions. Twice seems enough for readers to enjoy." he observed. "I don't want to push my luck."

Trudeau, whose "Doonesbury" strip appears in about 1,400 newspapers, acknowledged that it can be difficult for editors to decide what language their comics readers will tolerate. He noted that "public mores" are in a constant (? a constant is repeated twice) flux.

Another story from:

http://www.truthout.org

Saundra Hummer

July 27th, 2005, 07:36 PM

Where is this ever going to end? And please do tell me where these men with all the bucks are going to live once they flush our country and all it stands for down the toilet? On some mountain top in Switzerland taking the tram down the hill each day to count their hoard? Really this seems to be one up-man-ship taken to the nth degree. It is a mess they are draging us into, and it needs to stop. How are those who think this administration is the best thing to come along since the tired old saying "White Bread?" going to ever learn and realize that these men in this administration haven't the country or our welfare at heart, they aren't there for us, or the country, they are for for the corporations who's pockets they have been in for most of their political lives, and we are paying the price, and we need relief, we really do, and it is no where in sight.

How much do we see or hear of Henry Waxman on mainstream news? Very seldom is he ever given air time. Perhaps we need to tie he and John McCain together at the waist and send them out on some sort of information trail and then just perhaps someone will take notice of Representative Herny Waxman.

Here is a letter he has written to the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, and here is what it is all about, (boy is it hard not to let loose with a bunch of expletives and I'm not one to swear, but this it seems calls for it. SRH)":.............. $1.5 BILLION GIVEAWAY SECRETLY SLIPPED INTO ENERGY BILL, WAXMAN SAYS

BY REP. HENRY WAXMAN
YUBANET.COM

WEDNESDAY 27 JULY, 2005

.....In a letter to Speaker Hastert, Rep.Waxman writes that after the energy legislation was closed to further amendment in the recently concluded conference, a $1.5 billion provision benefitting oil and gas companies, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas, was mysteriously inserted in the text.

The text of the letter is below:

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert
Speaker
US House of Representatives
H232 Capitol
Washingtron, DC 20515-6501

Dear Mr. Speaker

I am writing to draw to your attention a provision in the Energy Conference Report that raises serious procedural and substantive concern. At its essence, this provision is a $1.5 billion giveaway to the oil industry. Halliburton and Sugar Land, Texas. The provision was inserted into the energy legislation after the conference was closed, so members of the conference committee had no opportunity to consider or reject this measure. Before the final energy legislation is brought to the House floor, this provision should be deleted.

The provision at issue is a 30-page subtitle called "Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Resources." This subtitle, which was taken from the House passed energy bill, was mysterously inserted in the final energy legislation after the legislation was closed to further amendment. The conferees wer told that they would have the opportunity to consider and vote on the provisions in the conference report. But the subtitle was not included in the base text circulated to conferees, and it was never offered as an amendment.

Instead, the new subtritle first appeared in the text of the energy legislation only after Chairman Barton had gaveled the conference over. Obviously, it would be a serious abuse to secretly slip such a costly and controversial provision into the energy legislation.

On the merits, the subtitle is an indefensible giveaway to one of the most profitable industires in America. The provision establishes a $1.5 billion fund, up to $550 million of which woud be dedicated direct spending, which is not subject to the normal congressional appropriations process. Although the name of the subtitle refers to "ultra-deepwater and unconventional natural gas," it appears that the $1.5 billion fund created by the subtitle can in fact be used for many oil and gas projects. According to the language of the subtitle, oil and gas companies can apply for funds for a wide variety of activiities, including activities involving "innovative exploration and production techniques" or "enhanced recovery techniques." While oil and gas companies could be required to contribute to the costs of their projects, the subtitle expressly provides that the Department has discretion to reduce or eliminate any such contribution.

The subtitle appears to steer the administration of 75% of the $1.5 billon fund to a private consortioum located in the district of Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Ordinarily, a large fund like this would be administered directly by the government. The subtitle, however, diredts the Department to contact with a corporation that is constructed as a consortium." The leading contender for this contract appears to be the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) consortium house in the Texas Energy Center in Sugar Land, Texas. Halliburton is a member of RPSEA and sits on the board, as does Marathon Oil Company. The subtitle provides that the consortium, such as Halliburton and Marathon Oil, can receive awards from that over $1 billion fund administered by the consortium

In short, the subtitle provides that taxpayers will hire a private consortium controlled by the oil and gas industry to hand out over $1 billion to oil and gas companies. There is not conceivable rationale for this extraordinary largess. The oil and gas industry is reporting record income and profits. according to one analyst, the net income of the top oil companies will total $230 billion in 2005. If Congress has an extra $1.5 billion to give away, the money should be used to help families struggling to pay for soaring gasoline prices - not to further enrich oil and gas companies that are rolling in profits.

In recent years, Congress has been repeatedly embarrassed by the mysteruous insertion of provision in omnibus legislation. Last year, for example, we learned only after House action that the 3,000 page, $388 billion omnibus spending bill allowed members and staff of the Appropriations Committee to examine the tax returns of ordinary Americans. We should not allow this to happen again. The Energy Conference Report should not be brought to the House floor until this objectionable provision is deleted and there is ample opportunity for members to read the legislation and delete any other problematic provisions.

Thank you for your attention to this problem.

Sincerely,
Henry A Waxman
Ranking Minority Member

CC: The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

====

Again, from this site, just click on the following link:

http://www.truthout.org

==

Boy or boy do some changes ever need to be made. This is, it seems, old hat up on Capital Hill, and it has been going on for some time according to Mr. Waxman. We need campaign reform, full disclossure, and on and on. We need to revamp government it seems, as it isn't the voter who matters any longer. We are only important election day then it's back to the old routine after the ballots have been counted - and we've seen how that can be manipulated. We need to know all about our elected and appointed officals. If you're going to run for office of accept an appointment, then you are fair game. Full disclosure should be the rule. They can, it seems, find out all about us, but we, or some in government can't find out much about them or they about oneanother. How aggravating is this? It tends to make us the voting public, we who only matter in November and during state elections, believe most of the men on Capitor Hill need to be knocked off of it, they it seems, for the most part, are crooks. :rant2: Prove me wrong please, it would be nice fo learn differently.

Do any of you believe John Roberts will hand over his papers that have been asked for? This shouldn't be his option if he is representing us. The White House knows of his records, why can't we? How much was he into the Reagan administrations pockets for? GHW Bush's pockets for? Do you remember how he rushed to Florida to help GW take the Presidency? So what is there that he doen't want us to know? What is there that the White House doens't want us to know? Do you think we will ever learn these things? What did he do, help Neil Bush out of his messes involving Silverado? Sure is a compelling curiosity to find out! :confused2

Saundra Hummer

July 28th, 2005, 06:35 PM

....."At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of political idols." Aldous Huxley.

=

....."A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, "Universe," a part limitied in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical defusion of his consciousness. The delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." : Albert Einstein - (1879-1955). Physicist and Professor , Nobel Prize 1921

Saundra Hummer

July 28th, 2005, 07:20 PM

THE GLOBALIZATION OF STATE TERROR

BY MIKE WHITNEY
07/28/05

This is not an isolated criminal act we are dealing with;, it is an extreme and evil ideology whose roots lie in a perverted and poisonous misinterpretation of the religion of Islam." Prime Minister Tony Blair

The "evil ideology" that underscores the war on terror is predicated on two basic theories; preemption and enemy combatants. Both of these run counter to fundamental principles of human rights and democratic governance. Both must be met head-on and defeated. There is no wiggle-room for equivocating or appeasement; this ideology is the greatest manifestation of fanaticism in the world since the rise of Nazism in the 1930's and must be collectively challenged. As Tony Blair says, "This is not an isolated criminal act" but "an extreme and evil ideology" thrusting us towards global war and ever-increasing human rights abuse.

The preemptive doctrine overturns the conclusons of the Nuremburg Tribunals that "War is the Supreme Crime" from which all the lesser crimes naturally flow. It elevates war to a viable form of foreign policy and acceptable means of establishing one state's superiority over another. In the case of of Iraq, where the theory was applied with the most appalling results: it has been exposed as a cruel facsimile of unprovoked aggression against a defenseless enemy. The horrific after -effects have been the destruction of Iraqi society, the death of over 100,000 civilians and an enduring conflict with no end in sight. These are the predictable consequences of a pernicious theory that glorifies force above all else.

The principle at the heart of "enemy combatants" is no less sinister than that of preemption. The theory presuposes that there is a category of men that are intrinsically undeserving of any human rights whatsoever. "Enemy combatants" is not intended to selectively deprive people of particular rights: it is a blanket indictment of anyone the president arbitrarily choses to name; stripping them of their civil liberties without any legal recourse. It overturns every meaningful precedent of International law and American jurisprudence. Due process, habeas corpus and the presumption of innocence are all rescinded by executive edit. "Enemy combatants" is the language of tyrants: it represents the denouemant of the rule of law and the
birth of the imperial presidency.

We have no choice but to categorically reject both these theories as a direct assault on the constituional sysem, representative government and the inalienable rights of man.

It is clear now that the neocons, in their rise to power, developed a strategy to eliminate the obstacles in their path. They wisely narrowed their focus to three main areas where they anticipated the most resistance; civil liberties, congressional approval of war and the checks on presidential power. The monikers of "enemy combatant" and preemption, minted in neo-fascist think-tanks, have concealed the real objectives of their creators behind modern-sounding jargon. The goals, however, remain the same;' declaration of a permanent state of war and the supremacy of the president.

That's where we are now; the world tilting further and further to the right and the litany of horrors growing by the day. Torture and indefinite detention have become staples of the new foreign policy regime; compromising America's prestige in the world and eroding the nation's moral authority. "Usable nukes" are now an integral part of the Pentagon's forward-defense strategy making the Bush administration the first country to claim a "first-strike" policy if US national interests are at stake. This makes the US the most dangerous nation in the world; brandishing its high-tech weaponry at third world countries and threatening to attack if they fail to comply with Washington's directives.

The expression of Bush's maligned vision is now evident everywhere; from the gun-towers over Guantanamo, to the concertina wire surrounding Falluja, to the cement abutments enclosing the White House. The rising wave of militarism has been accompanied by an equal and opposite retreat in civil liberties and personal freedom. The full -force of the economic-political-military establishment is bearing down on the institutions that preserved the peace for the last 60 years. The old order is crumbling and being replaced by a system that accepts no rule except the absolute authority of the executive.

Ideas are the fuel that power the engine of history. The radical idiology that animates the Bush regime is a force as real as the laser-guided munitions that pumeled Baghdad. They may be obscured by the vile fictions of the media, but their deadly meaning is not hard to grasp. They represent the greatest danger the world has ever seen: the globalization of state terror.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state, he can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com

Go to this site for other article which are often times not reported in mainstream news, and check out their archives and main stories. Lots of Iraq news as well.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

A favorite site for topical and informative news.

Saundra Hummer

July 28th, 2005, 10:19 PM

My good friend "Jack" from my highschool days sent this to me, and he says it's just plain wierd, so take a look!

http://people.freenet.de/crossroads/tetka.swf

Enjoy!

Saundra Hummer

July 29th, 2005, 02:13 PM

Wolf Blitzer Reports on the capture: "All four would be bombers who attempted to carry out suicide attacks on London's transit system last Thursday are now in custody, according to British officials." He will be reporting this as well as the break of top Republican Senator Bill Frist. He will look at the medical implications, as well as the political.

==
In Wolf Blitzers report will be this concern:

[We've been discussing how it is with our troops not receiving the equipemnt and supplies they are in need of in Iraq and now it seems our canine counterparts aren't recieving all they need either]. "Fighting insurgents in the harsh conditions of Iraq and Afghanistan is tough on U.S. troops -- even the ones that aren't human. Military dogs, sniffing for bombs and going on patrol are suffering the effects of long hours, hot weather and whipping sand. We'll tell you about a special fund raiser held to help canines on the front lines." WB. reports.

==

Why is it that "special fund raisers" need to be held in the first place? Who's missing in this picture? Why is it that this has to be done for these dogs in the first place, and why is it there had to be the same thing done for their human counterparts?

Remember the drives to send our men and women in the military the bare neccessities? People caring and being charitable added to what was needed so badly, sending cameras, cell phones, writing tablets, and any number of things to make their lives more comfortable. They, the supplier (Haliburton) hadn't even given enough toothpaste and other personal hygiend articles. What a mess.

Now it's the dogs we are working to insure have what it is they might need. This administration and it's self-absorbed ways are a disgrace, they need to look round and take care of business instead they are greasing palms and are benefitting from much of the same themselves it seems. Not a pretty picture. SRH

Saundra Hummer

July 29th, 2005, 03:39 PM

...ARE STUPID WHITE MEN REALLY STUPID?

(OH GOD DON'T ASK ME THAT QUESTION, HA! SRH.)

"We have been children long enough. We must now unshackle our minds and begin acting as independent beings." - Noah Webster, First American Dictionary

By Dom Stasi

07/27/05 "ICH" -- Two framed pictures hang on my office wall. Each is accompanied by a timely message.

The frame atop holds a portrait of colonial patriot Samuel Adams. (Yes the beer guy. My hero on so many levels.) Below the picture are his words, written at America's birth. "The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation - enlightened as it is - if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men."

When I look at the framed document and I see the idealized portrait - Sam Adams of the set jaw and steely eyes - I feel as though he is reaching across the centuries and speaking directly to me, admonishing me to beware the artifices of designing men.

Then I lower my eyes. What I see lowers my spirits as well. For immediately below the Sam Adams quote hangs another frame, This one contains a front page for the London Daily Mirror. Above the newpaper's headline floats another picture, this one of a befuddled looking newly "reelected" George W. Bush. The headline reads "HOW CAN 59,054,087, PEOPLE BE SO DUMB?"

Now, while I've asked myself the same question innumerable times since November 4th, I'm not so sure the answer is as simple as the British tabloid would have us think. But think we must. So it is this lower frame, and the many messages and subtexts its simple words convey, on which I cannot help but concentrate my attention and this article.

If we're not dumb, then how can 59,054,087 people -- Americans all - appears so dumb?

===

To see the rest of this article go on site at the following link, just click on it:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9573.htm

Here's a quote from the article and I just love it:

"To understand the Mirror's headline one must understand it's readers. The headline is not an indictment of American intellect by jealous Europeans as xenophobic propagandists like Bill O'Reilly or Rush LImbaugh would have us think (Forgive the writer's indulgence. i've always wanted to use the words Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Think in the same sentence, if only to prove it could be done.) [...a man after my own heart, with a senxe of humor no less, Yea! Way to go! SRH....]

Just feel the need to keep adding to this in case you don't follow up and read the whole article:

To not accept the glaring reality of what has happened to our beloved representative democracy is to put self above country. To do that, yet live under her sky is patently un-American. Like the rest of us, the new growing majority of us, these peple too must put pride behind them and do what is right -- what is right for America. Their mindless flag waving makes me sick. If they don't get what America means, then it is not their flag!

Add to this dissonance the realization that we've been raised and educated to expect "good government." Everything we've been taught about America since childhood is that it is the beacon of good government. How then can one accept that at the moment, ours is the most dangerously corrupt government in the world, run by a gaggle of universally failed incompetents? Has adding high treason to the crimes of this White House futher cemented
their base of adamant intractables?

===
===

[...We have been raised to trust and believe in our elected officials, our government and it is so hard to see and hear of what they are doing in our name. It's so discouraging, and it is very hard to know the inhumane and immoral acts that are being ordered and commitited, as sanctioned policy by those who run this country. I can't stress enough how very hard it is to learn these things about my country; our country and these men who are doing these things in OUR names. Things I abhor and am in total disagreement with, having never believed in my lifetime I would know what I am hearing is factual, a fact. We have become what we have hated in others. SRH...]

Hot Ptah

July 29th, 2005, 03:46 PM

My good friend "Jack" from my highschool days sent this to me, and he says it's just plain wierd, so take a look!

http://people.freenet.de/crossroads/tetka.swf

Enjoy!

It is very weird indeed.

Saundra Hummer

July 30th, 2005, 04:15 PM

It seems to me that to counter the trend away from all that our Bill of Rights and our Constitution stands for we need to jump into pop culture with both feet to grab our kids attention and have them learn the importance of what it is these writings are guaranteeing us.

Jay Leno's "Jay Walking" shows us that even students in college oftentimes don't know a thing about this country, much less the hard times, our ancestors went through to build it. Most of us have lost relatives in the quest for a free country, one based on the most enlightened principles which have ever been set to paper and into practice. These documents are brilliant, this Constitution of ours, and so is the Bill or Rights and while there take a look at the Declaration of Independence as well. A Triumph -- they really are, as they worked, and are still working. It is the people of this country and the laws which were drawn up, which have made us a strong and good country to live in . They have made us what we are.

Look around. Because of most of us not understanding the importance of what our ancestors have worked and died for, why it was they felt it so important as to chance losing all -- life, limb and property for their dreams of a fair and just country, one where freedoms were guaranteed to us by our laws which our constitution embodies, we are now in danger of losing it all. Erosion isn't just happening along our riverbanks, our guarantees given to us by the Constitution are being erroded as well and it is a scary thing to even think about, much less witness it happening.

Where have we gone wrong? How is it that there are teachers in our schools who have no interest in teaching what it is these documents mean to us. Not teaching how to understand what they embody? We had teachers in grade school who perhaps because of the two World Wars, and how close they thoght we came to being under foreign rule, stressed what it was that our Bill of Rights and our Constitution means to us in guarantees for a good and safe life. Many did this on their own iniatiatve, in their spare time as it were. Some teachers would even have us bring special lunches and asked us to plan on spending our lunch hour in the class room (which we voted for or against, majority rule), going over the Bill or Rights or the Constitution and the benefits we see because of them. Is there this type of dedication out there today? Not very often I would imagine. Some even had their own framed copies of these documents they would bring in to show to us and over the course of the school year would discuss even the signers and tell us a bit about them as well. It was often times fascinating. Who knows of any teachers like this now? I hope there are lots of them so dedicated. Surely there are people like Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Gertzel, and there was even a terrific math teacher who taught us these things as well in special lunchtime gab sessions, such terrific teachers, I can't begin to tell you how very good they were.

What I would like to see is a series made up by someone using all the skills Hollywood has at it's disposal to make a filmed presentation of these documents and present it in such a way as to grab school age children and teenagers attention, and show it to them all through school, from grade school on and make it good, make it dramatic, show the hardships and even how it was that the signers had to live, eat and sleep to accomplish such an amazing feat. These were tough men to ride through snow storms on horseback, for miles and miles, sleep in inns, in less than desirable conditions, combat the heat, the bugs and being away from their own homes and family for exteneded periods of time. It could be a horrible existance, and how very dangerous for all of them.

Then there was the war. There were men who not only fought in it, but furnished and donated, their own horses and wagons, helping the war effort tremendously. Young and old, and believe it or not, more French speaking soldiers than there were English speaking ones, which did make it hard to communicate at times, yet they still managed to win, and here we are, Americans, free and on our own, not ruled by a European power.

Are we going to lose all of this due to our not understanding these three documents? Are we going to focus on issues like flag burners instead? Prayer in school? We have the freedom to pray anywhere we like if not in schools, or other government buildings. What a waste of time and effort these issues are, and as far as the flag burning goes, all we think of flag burners is "look at the fools", don't they know we can make millions more? It isn't the piece of cloth - it is what that piece of cloth stands for, and we are strong enough to furnish their flame millions more, so lets concentrate on what is important .... our rights, our freedoms. Lets educate these kids -- who in a survey thought that the press should present their stories to the goverment before publishing them. Can you even imagine such a thought? Someone somewhere fell down on the job when they were teaching them, and badly, it is a dangerous thought. Where are we headed with this attitude? George Orwell would be appalled, he has given us lots of warning as to where we're headed and we need to take stock and reset some priorities, and get on the right path once again, and hope that our government isn't a deterrent.

So lets hope something can be done with cartoons, fleshed out history assignments, there are some great historical books out there, telling much in a more interesting fashion than class room books. Then there are movies, or series which can be made to be shown in schools, quality like Ron Howard or Steven Speilburg is capable of making, and any other terrific film maker who could present an interesting and lively account of our history. Let them start teaching these kids with their special skills, and then if the no child left behind group want to to test their learning skills, let them test on these things to see how much they have absorbed about the most important papers ever written in this country.

If they can send in the JROTC to teach in schools, as told about in the following article, they should be teaching what this country is all about, and how it came to be, and what it will take to preserve it. There are things much more important to preserving this country and I think one of the most important is an enlightened public, a knowing public. Not just how to wage war.

I'm grasping at straws here, as our education system is lagging and failing when the most mundane questions can't be answered by so many people who are walking down the street. It seems the kids today spend hours studying how to pass their math and the S.A.T.s, however, they aren't learning about what it takes to preserve our country. It's a fact that something is drastically wrong, and in deperate need of fixing. I just feel that so many ill educated people are out and about, they're everywhere, and that they are so easily led, oftentimes by the wrong people, and it could get worse, so look out, we will be in an even bigger mess than is happening now and it's already pretty bad.

++

Military Classes are Off Course

by Danny Westneat
The Seattle Times

Friday 29, July 2005

http://www.truthout.org

See how the military are teaching classes in our schools, (the JROTC)

Saundra Hummer

August 1st, 2005, 01:43 PM

From Mother Jones.....: STOP, THIEF?

COMMENTARY : Why can't John G. Roberts remember what he was doing down in Florida during the 2000 election?

by Tom Engelhardt

July 28, 2005

"AT A BLACK-TIE DINNER FOR THE VISITING PRIME MNISTER OF INDIA IN THE WHITE HOUSE STATE DINING ROOM THAT NIGHT [WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAF ANDREW ] CARD RAN INTO JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS,. "YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE WHO THE PRESIDENT PICKS," CARD ASSURED HIM." (PETER BAKER, "UNRAVELING THE TWISTS AND TURNS OF THE PATH TO A NOMINEE," THE WASHINGTON POST)

When I was young, one of the Philadelphia papers used to run ads for itself in which some poor-sap would be hanging from, say, a window ledge over a street and no one in the crowd below would notice because all of them were absorbed in reading the paper. It was an image that came back to me this week as I waited patiently for the outrage to build on the Roberts nomination -- and for the Democrats to act. When it was first reported soon after George Bush nominated John Roberts for the Supreme Court that, in Novermber 2000, with the presidentail vote in Florida up for grabs, Roberts had flown to that state on his own dollar to "volunteer advice" to its governor -- and presidential brother -- Jeb Bush, I just assumed that howls of outrage would follow from the Democratic camp and that this nominee's hopes would sink beneath the horizon.

But I forgot, of course, that I was still in George Bush's America. The information about Robert's sojourn in the sunshine state was first reported - or more accurately slipped in like a thief in the night onto the inside pages of our newspapers - on July 21st. Now here we are, over a week later, with the story quietly widening, amid a remarkable hush on the subject. It's as if, when it comes to this nomination, we're in a house of worship where it's distinctly impolite for anyone to raise his or her voice. Yes, there are all the front-page pieces on what Roberts may think (or his wife may have done) about abortion, on whether the Bush administration will release variious papers on his services to two Republican administrations (including his time as chief deputy to Solicitor Gen. Kenneth W. Starr during the Elder Bush years), on how his career was built and his first million made or the way the Democrats plan to grill him at his nomination hearings but are exceedingly unlikely to emply a filibuster against him -- and then there was that piece by Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times, "Armies Ready for Court Battle but are Unable to find a Fight." ("It was clear that much-anticipated mother of all Supreme Court battles had yet to be joined and that Judge Roberts had not sparked the kind of partisan uproar that others might have, which would have turned the Capital upside down for the summer.") Nothing to fight over? Hmmm...

Let's consider that for a moment. But first , a little basic information as it has emerged:.............

To see the rest of this article click on the following link:

http://www.motherjones.com/index.html

Saundra Hummer

August 1st, 2005, 08:08 PM

"Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder... And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars, the subject class has always fought the battles." Eugene Victor Debs

=

"The most shocking fact about war is that it's victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own." Aldous Huxley-English novelist and critic, 1894-1963.

=

"The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity" George Bernard Shaw

Saundra Hummer

August 1st, 2005, 08:43 PM

What has been the most thoughtful and unusual gift someone has ever given to you, excluding your immediate family?

Mine was so special that I can recall almost every minute of it and that is not an exaggaration? I really can, a first for me, and a surprise that to to this day I can't get over how thoughtful and caring a gift it was.

Upon graduating from Mira Cost High School my good friend Bobby Sedillo for my graduation present, gave me a trip, a sailing trip on a 37 foot sailboat to Catalina Island for a few days, and it was amazing that he chose me to go and not a girl he dated or one he wished to date. Now that's a friend. He could have picked anyone to go along but he chose me. I have to say, no one could have appreciated it more, or enjoyed it more.

It was an unusual trip to say the least, the water was as still as glass going over, so pretty, there were even a few flying fish, and then there were the seagulls. We tacked and tacked just to make it, not a hint of a breeze, finally having to use the motor for a bit, but avoiding using it if we absolutely didnt' have to, the trip of only 27 miles taking us several hours, we left at dawn and didn't get in till it was turning dark.

We had a terrific time on the island while there, and when it was time to return to the mainland, we really hated to leave. I just thought I could live the rest of my life on a sailboat and be perfectly happy. Everything had just been perfect, saw some old friends while there, we just had an enjoyable time. On the way back we had no sooner cleared the bay when the wind came up with a fury, it was gale force winds, and they shut down the channel to all shipping and there we were out in it, in the worst storm of the season, we were close enough to see the flags go up, and in a sailboat not made for speed, we made it back in about 3 hours which was phenominal, the owner of the boat, a woman, can't recall her name, well she was panicking, and I mean big time, she was crying and swearing off and on. She thought we all would die and slapped the fellow from Boston who was sailing it, Lee, not sure of his last name after so many years, but she knocked his glasses overboard so I had to sit and read the compass and the map for him. Thank goodness he realy did know the ocean and boats, even in the blur she had put him in. I believe if anyone else had been at the wheel and trying to direct a bunch of know nothings we would have capsized, the ocean would have swamped us. I truly believe it, but he pulled us all through and it was an unequalled feat I believe. I just thought it exciting, not knowing enough to be scared, (I take that statement back, I knew the situation we were in, but knew it would only hurt to become over-wrought with fear as she was, so just enjoy was my motto), but the swells which looked to be taller than telephone poles, which they really were, looked as though they would break-over onto us, the white caps on them telling me, here they come!, but it never happened, and once I believed they wouldn't - I just enjoyed the excitement of it all. Those swells, well, they were unbelievable, and we were running the gunnels deep in the water to try to make it to land before nightfall. Once we felt the heat coming off the mainland we were relieved and knew we were almost home free. It was dark as we entered the breakwater to the Los Angeles harbor and poor Lee sighed a sigh of relief, and we couldn't praise him enough. That trip was best present I ever received. This from the fellow who taught me to drive a little shift car, a Renault, on steep hills so I could always be safe, a terrific friend Bobby Sedillo. Where are you Bobby? I really do wonder where he is today???

Noj

August 1st, 2005, 11:59 PM

My neighbor Dorothy is a very kind lady who is in her 80s. She and her late husband Fred both graduated from the same art school as I did. She and Fred were both professional designers who had lucrative careers and retired long before I knew a thing about art. Fred's flawless architectural paintings adorn her walls. They are complex, beautifully executed designs.

Dorothy no longer paints or designs, so she gave me all sorts of design equipment which belonged to she and Fred. She also gave me a beautiful drafting table where I do most of my own paintings. She doesn't really know me but for me growing up next door, and she had no reason to do such a nice thing for me other than to be nice. I have always been very thankful for these marvelous art tools, the most thoughtful gifts ever given to me.

I still hope to succeed somehow with art and prove to Dorothy that I am worthy of her generosity. :cool:

Saundra Hummer

August 2nd, 2005, 04:38 PM

"The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishements of the dominant political mythology." Michael Parenti political scientist, author.

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"The modern susceptibility to conformity and obedience to authority indicates that the truth endorsed by authority is likely to be accepted as such by a majority of the people." David Edwards - Brithish columnist - Source - Burning All Illusions, 1996

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"A slave is he who cannot speak his thoughts." Euripedes

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"Search for the truth in the noblest occupation of man, its publication is a duty." Anne Louise Germaine de stael (1766-1867) French author

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Powerful words and hold as true today.

To read this newsletter click on the following link (the bottom link is for Europe):

http://www.informationcleaiinghouse.info/

or

htp://snipurl.com/ayzc

Saundra Hummer

August 2nd, 2005, 05:04 PM

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

THE UNFEELING PRESIDENT:

This president does not know what death is. - He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solumn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9648.htm

http://snipurl.com/go8z

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IN CaSE YOU MISSED IT:

Video: Hijacking Catastrophe : 9/11, Fear, and the Selling of American Empire:

In a single meticulously organized hour of evidence, and analysis, views are treated to a throughtful explanation of modern American empire, neo-conservatism as a driving force for the current Bush administration.

This is a must watch video

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6895.htm

http://snipurl.com/awgc

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Polish PM: Iraq Nation Building "Failed".

"It failed totally," Belka said at a panel discussion on nation building at an international forum in Sweden. "Many mistakes, major mistakes, have been committed."

http://snipurl.com/go90

Much more just check out the archives on the home page and other stories of the times.

Saundra Hummer

August 3rd, 2005, 12:52 PM

A newsletter I receive has this item in it today and it is:

80'S MUSIC ALBUM COVER QUIZ (HAVEN'T TAKEN IT, NOR SEEN WHAT IT COVERS, BUT IT MUST BE POP OR DISCO?)

THE INTRO GOES LIKE THIS

"Welcome to the 80's Music Album Cover Quiz? Besides the totally awesome music of the 80's, there were also really cool album covers that have stood the test of time and have become part of the popular culture of the 80's Muxic. What you wiell see in the pages ahead is a variety of album covers from the decade and a possible four different answers. If you answer incorrectly you will be allowed to rethink your answer. Can you remember the names of all these albums?"

"This game is just for fun, there are no prizes. Let's Go!"

(They also say there are more fun games.)

http://80music.about.com/library/weekly/aa112900.htm

Saundra Hummer

August 3rd, 2005, 02:58 PM

"If a baseball player slides into home plate and, right before the umpire rules if he is safe or out, the player says to the umpire --- "Here is $1,000." What would we call that? We would call that a bribe. If a lawyer was arguing a case before a judge and said, "Your Honor, before you decide on the guilt or inocence of my client, here is $1,000." What would we call that? We would call that a bribe.

"But if an industry lobbyist walks into the office of a key legislator and hands her or him a check for $1,000, we call that a campaign contribution. We should call it a bribe." : Janice Fine - Dollars and Sense magazine

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"A great industrial Nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the Nation and our activites are in the hands of a few men.

We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the wrold --- no longer a Government of free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a Government by the "opinion of duress of small groups of dominant men." : Woodrow Wilson - From his Campaign Speeches, 1912.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

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While there check out this article/video:

"This is A Must Watch Interview"

FORMER CIA WORKER ANALYSES BIN LADEN THREAT

MICHAEL SCHEUER worked for the CIA for 22 years, eight of them as chief of the bin Laden unit, which he set up in 1996. He resigned from the CIA late last year after becoming frustrated with political and bureaucratic inaction on intelligence indicating that bin Laden was going to kill thousands of Americans if he was not stopped

Click here to watch:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9657.htm

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WHERE THE HECK IS OUR SENSE OF EMPATHY?

Why can't we see ourselves in the faces of those kids firing RPGs at convoys of Haliburton trucks stealing Iraqi oil?

By Ted Rall.

Cheering for the underdog is as American as fatty food. In the movies we love heroes who simply want to be left alone-but are willing, like Charles Bronson in "Death Wish," to dish out double-sized portions of blazing revenge when the baddies cross the line. Why, then, dont' we pull for the Iraqi insurgents?

(I haven't read this but the topic is so in your face it deserves a look-see. I don't always agree with articles I post, but they do open up ones thoughts as to what is going on in our name, and the name Halliburton, as usual, makes one wonder about just how legitimate and rightous the goings on are by them anywhere around the globe, much less in the unstable country of Iraq. SRH)

Saundra Hummer

August 3rd, 2005, 04:36 PM

On the site Working For Change. com, there's an article about sweatshops:

A welcome return to enforcing labor laws/
Schwarzenegger brings back sweatshop raiders.

This story goes into a bit of history, telling about the raid in El Monte, California where Thai workers were held within razor wire compounds and were held as slaves, imprisoned, not able to leave and the conditions were just terrible.

Anyway towards the end of this story they tell of raids on these types of establishments. Saying "This week, they will conduct about 100 workplace raids throughout the state, again treating oppressed employees, whether documented or not, as the victims of a crime rather than as perpetrators."

(Isn't this warning the "perpertrators" of their plans? - giving them time to move the ("slaves") workers to locations which the State won't know of? How is it that they are announcing they are going to be conducting raids? Foolish don't you believe, if not just downright fishy sounding? SRH)

http://www.workingforchange.com

Saundra Hummer

August 3rd, 2005, 04:38 PM

Saundra Hummer

August 4th, 2005, 04:54 PM

CNN NEWSNIGHT, airs 10-11 p.m. ET Monday-Friday

Aaron Brown's show sounds interesting tonight and I would like to hear it. He used to be a local anchor man on a Portland tv news show and I have always liked him, however that isn't the point, the point being is what his show is about this week.

He will go into the vidoetaped message which came in with Osama bin Laden's No. 2 man warnig the U.S. and Britain of more attacks and said the U.S. must withdraw its forces from Iraq. Ayman Al-Zawahiri did not say Al Qaeda was behind the recent London bombings. But his words give reason for worry. How much worry? .....He'll look at that and another questions on the table: Should we be profiling terror suspects? Is political correctness a barrier to security?

(There will be a story about the insanity law in murder cases, and how doctors are sying that one murderer is cured. Controversial to say the least.---There there is this article and it is one which has us all in a snit, the Supreme Court ruling regarding the seizure of property by government. SRH)

"Backlash is a bit of a theme tonight. Alabama yesterday passed a law to prevent the federal government from seizing homeowners' property. The legislation is a slap at the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently ruled that the government can seize homes for a broad array of reasons, including commercial development. More than a dozen other states are following Alabama's lead." They "will talk to the homeowner who's been at the center of this battle."

there are stories about Iraq, and then this one which sounds fascinating. "Finally, lost and found. This is a wonderful piece by Nissen. It's about a guy who's made a magazine out of the scraps of paper we lose. Scraps that speak volumes about who we are and how we live our lives."

Saundra Hummer

August 4th, 2005, 10:49 PM

AN OPEN LETTER TO STEVEN SPIELBERG:

TELL THE STORY OF TODAYS WEST

BY DEBORAH AND FRANK POPPER
PRAIRIE WRITERS CIRCLE
08/04/05

Dear Steven Spielberg:

Have we got a deal for you -- today's West!

To see the rest of the article click on the following link:

http://www.workingforchange.com

Much like I am wanting him to do, put a real face on our political leaders and historical documents which have made our country what it is. He has the skills and the interest I believe. He or Ron Howard, or any number of talents in the country, we need someone with the skills our teachers don't seem to have, at least not in large enough numbers to grab our kids imaginations so they will know how to preserve our country, not let it be destroyed by a bunch of know nothings, and a bunch of deep pocketed corporations, as now it is just too easy for politicians to crawl in and feast. To sated to care about us. SRH

Saundra Hummer

August 5th, 2005, 08:05 PM

....."If the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes, corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men, and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded." Noah Webster - (1758-1843) American patriot and scholar, author of the 1806 edition of the dictionary that bears his name, the first dictionary of American English usage.

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....."He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man"..... Samuel Adams (1722-1803, was known as the "Father of the American Revolution."

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....."We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure. Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life, it matters not how brilliant his capacity." Theordore Roosevelt - (1858-1919) 26th US President

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Bush's Dirty War
by Sidney Blumenthal

Bush's dirty war is having a counterproductive effect, just as dirty wars did in Vietnam, Algeria and Argentina. For every militant abused or killed, a community of like-minded militants is inspired. Hatred, resentment and vengeance are the natural outcomes. There has never been a victory through a dirty war over these forces.

See the complete article by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page

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.....Blood and Gravy

The war on Iraq is "largely a matter of loot"

by Chris Floyd

.....Although Halliburton has already entered the American lexicon as a byword for rampant cronyism, the true extent of its dense and deadly web of graft is only now emerging, most recently in a remarkable public hearing that revealed some of the corporation's standard business practices in Iraq: fraud, extortion, brutality, pilferage, theft -- even serving rotten food to US soldiers in the battle zone. (EVEN ROTTEN FOOD? SRH???)

Click on link at bottom of page to access this site.
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VIDEO: IRAQI RESISTANCE ATTACKS AND KILLS U.S. MARINES

This video is purported to have been taken 08/01/05 by a section of the Iraqi resistance and shows an attack in which 6 U.S. marines are killed.

--WARNING -

.....This video shows the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience. I haven't watched it yet and not so sure that I will. Not right now at least.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9668.htm

http://snipurl.com/gqtv

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HOME PAGE:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

August 5th, 2005, 10:04 PM

I receive a news letter from a pre-published book club and the letter is a few paragraphs for several days from a pre-published book and it gives you a good idea as to whether or not it will hold your interest or not, I think it is much better tban other book clubs and there aren't any requirements as to how many books, if any, that you must purchase to receieve these letters.

This weeks book is:

MELVILLE

Hailed by "Time" as "America's best social critic," Andrew Delbanco now gives us-with unparalleled historical and critical perspective-a commanding biography and a riveting portrait of a nation.

The grandson of Revolutionary War hero's, Herman Melville was born into a family that in the fledging republic had lost both money and status. Toughened at sea as a young man and quintessentially American-half New Yorker, half New Englander-he returned home to chronicle the deepest crises of his time while forever shaping our literature with "Moby-Dick," "Bartleby, the Scrivener, " "Benito Cereno," and "Billy Budd."

Delbanco traces Melvile's growth from the bawdy story telling of "Typee" through the spiritual preoccupations building up to "Moby-Dick," and the profound disillusionment of later works, even as he charts a life that left little evidence in it's wake and was, long before Melville's death, consigned to obscurity. He uncovers autobiographical traces throughout Melville's writing, shows the relentless financial pressure and declinng critical and popular esteem that plagues his career, and above all, illuminates the stunning achievements of his oeuvre. Finally we understand how Melville, more than any other American writer, has captured the popular imagination, and how Ahab and the White Whale have becomre resounding symbols no only here but around the world.

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This news letter goes on and on about the book with lengthy excerpts, and reasons for going to school, an interesting newsletter to subscribe to with all sorts of categories, mysteries, fiction, science, science fiction, teens, romance, finance, etc, and it just goes on and on and you will receive about 5 letters regarding just one book letting you have a really good idea as to what the book is all about and whether you might or might not like it. I get about 4 news letters or more a day, each with excerpts from each book, there will be about five installments. You can sellect all genres to receive letters about or however many subjects you might be interested in. SRH

http://www.emailbookclub.com/talk.html

A chat room about the book (and other books people have written in about). There is one review which caught my eye as we've been discussing addiction and abuses on other threads and it is a book called Smashed. Seems it hits home with those in the know. Not something I'm interested in reading, preferring history or historical novels. I enjoy a good work of fiction, even a good mystery if it isn't too ghoolish, but if it is, then it's not for me. Autobiographies and biographies are something I really do enjoy and an old one, a biography, which I still think is terrific is Jennie a two part book about Winston Churchills mother, who was an American, with American Indian in her heritage. It was a wild life she led after learning about her husbands lifesyle and his disease. A fascinating look at that time in history and of how the royals and upper-crust carried on. Pretty sorted. Another one is Freida, and it is like a work of fiction written by someone with a more than fertile imagination. Her life is hard to believe is real, it is so out there. From the Rockefellers to Tolstoy to Diego Riveria, and everything else all over the map. Another amazing life. I read the book several years ago and have yet to see the movie, but from what I've seen, it looks as though they might have been dedicated to not stretching the facts. Really there is no need to, as it will be hard enough to get in deep enough as it is, as it really happened. An amazing tale, a true one. SRH

I don't see how this book review news letter won't be liked by all of you, it is a good one to my way of thinking. The chats, I can do without most of what is being said, but there are always some whose take is interesting.

http://www.DearReader.com/

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To sign up go to the following link by clicking on it:

http://www.dearreader.com/join_a_club.html

Saundra Hummer

August 6th, 2005, 09:09 PM

.....EX-EMPLOYEES FAULTED HALLIBURTON ROLE IN IRAQ

BY DEBORAH HASTINGS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUGUST 6, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP)
Others besides Bunnatine Greenhouse have testified that Halliburton, the biggest holder of American rebuilding contracts in Iraq, has deceived the government and cheated taxpayers.

The company denies the claims.

Rory Mayberry, who worked for Halliburton subsidiary KBR from February through April, 2004, testified from Iraq, via videotape, to the Democratic Policy Committee in June.

As a food manager at a U.S. military camp, Mayberry said he witnessed KBR employees serving spoiled food to American troops, including items whose expiration date was more than a year old, and food from trucks that had been bombed and shot at "We were told to go in to the trucks and remove the food items and use them after removing the bullets and any sharapnel," Mayberry said. (What ill effects will food contaminated with materials from munitions have on our soldiers health later in life? SRH)

Halliburton also charged the U.S. government for hundreds of specailty meals prepared for foreign workers form Turkey and the Philippines, Mayberry said. The foreign workers were actually given leftovers from troop meals, Mayberry said.

KBR managers told employees not to speak with government auditors who arrived at the camp, Mayberry said, saying he ignored those orders. As punishment, he said, he was sent to Fallujah for three weeks, where there was heavy fighting. "The employees that talked to the auditors were moved to the other bases that were under fire," Mayberry told the committee.

Its members expressed outrage.

"There obviously is no honor by a company that would serve outdated food to American troops in Iraq, serving their country," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. "The more I learn, the more I shake my head and wonder. Who on Earth is minding the store here?"

Halliburton spokeswoman Melissa Norcross said the claims were a "gross mischaracterization." KBR does not interfere with government auditors, she said Food service is monitored by employees and invoices are not padded.

"The only thing that has been inflated is the political rhetoric," Norcross said.

In July 2004, former KBR logistics and subcontract planner Marie DeYoung testified before the House Committee on Government Reform. While working in Kuwait, she said she was told by KBR managers to pay invoices to subcontractors without verifying their accuracy-because government auditors were only scrutinizing unpaid bills.

DeYoung said she also witnessed "significant waste and overpricing "for laundry and other services provided to troops. That included paying $100 per 15-poundbag of laundry in Iraq, a cost which was passed on to the government.

"Every dollar that is squandered because of waste, fraud, or abuse is a dollar we do not have for critical equipment and supplies for our troops," said DeYoung, who served more than ten years in the military as a commander, a chaplain and an operations officer.

See this story and more by clicking on the following link:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.com

We do remember how it was with troops not having enough water (and numerous other critical supplies such as bandages and aspirin) so Halliburton could come in under a certain billing price, as they knew how to get their million (actually in the millions) dollar bonuses, so our soldiers suffered from dehydradation and heat exhaustion, and then there was the lack of tourniquets and men died for the lack of those $4.00+ items, and it just goes on and on, and how about running out of ammo in the middle of fire fights? What is going on over there? It sure isn't a pretty picture, but then that side of the war is rarely reported and when it is, who's listening? SRH

Saundra Hummer

August 6th, 2005, 11:52 PM

Here'a site which the discussion of the day is about the ever so wrong Rush Limbaugh, finally with the web, we have a way to counter this boobs diatribes against all that is good. Finally we can let him know how it really is out here in the real world.:welcome: Well did some more reading and it has the rank childish banter that is on so many sites, but there are some interesting posts as well. Having said this, I remember Rush being so rank about Anita Hill, and that was enough for me, never listened to him again, and had never listened to him much to begin with, but after the Thomas-Hill hearings, the rankness against Rush just sounds like how he himself might be thinking and talking if the shoe were on the other foot.

Haven't looked into a lot of what this site is all about, but so far some of it seems to be right on (have now and it loses me), so here's the address, just click on the following link:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/2/15914/52380

Saundra Hummer

August 7th, 2005, 04:42 PM

NEWSWEEK PERISCOPE

EXCLUSIVE: CIA COMMANDER: WE LET BIN LADEN SLIP AWAY

NEWSWEEK

AUG 15, 2005 ISSUE - During the 2004 presidential campaign, George W. Bush and John Kerry battled about whether Osama bin Laden had escaped from Tora Bora in the final days of the war in Afghanistan. Bush, Kerry charged, "didn't choose to use American forces to hunt down and kill" the leader of Al Qaeda. The president called his opponent's allegation "the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking." Bush asserted that U.S. commanders on the ground did not know if bin Laden was at the mountain hideaway along the Afghan border.

But in a forthcoming book, the CIA field commander for the agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members. Bernstsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora-intelligence operatives had tracked him- and could have been caught. "He was there," Berntsen tells NEWSWEEK. Asked to comment on Berntsens remarks, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones passed on 2004 statements from former CENTCOM commander Gen. Tommy Franks. "We don't know to this day whether Mr bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001," Franks wrote in an Oct. 19 New York Times op-ed. "Bin Laden was never within our grasp." Berntsen says Franks is "a great American. But he was not on the ground out there. I was."

In his book--titled "Jawbreaker"--the decorated career CIA officer criticizes Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Departmen for not providing enough support to the CIA and the Pentagon's own Special Forces teams in the final hours of Tora Bora, says Berntsen's lawyer, Roy Kneger, (Berntsen would not divulge the book's specifics, saying he's waaiting CIA clearance.) That backs up other recent accounts, including that of military author Sean Naylor, who calls Tora Boara a "strategic disaster." because the Pentagon refused to deploy a cordon of conventional forces to cut off escping Qaeda and Taliban members. Maj Todd Vician, a Defense Department spokesman, says the problem at Tora Bora "was not necessarily just the number of troops."

Berntsen's book gives, by contrast, a heroic portrayal of CIA activities at Tora Bora and in the war on terror. Ironically, he has sued the agency over what he calls unacceptable delays in approving his book--a standard process for ex-agency employees describing classified matters. "They're just holding the book," which is scheduled for October release, he says. "CIA officers Special Forces and U.S. air power drove the Taliban out in 70 days. The CIA has taken roughly 80 days to clear my book." Jennifer Millerwise, a CIA spokeswoman, says Berntsen's "timeine is not accurate," adding the he submitted his book tas an ex-employee only in mid-June. "We take seriously our goal of responding quickly."

Michael Hirsh.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

August 7th, 2005, 04:43 PM

NEWSWEEK PERISCOPE

EXCLUSIVE: CIA COMMANDER: WE LET BIN LADEN SLIP AWAY

NEWSWEEK

AUG 15, 2005 ISSUE - During the 2004 presidential campaign, George W. Bush and John Kerry battled about whether Osama bin Laden had escaped from Tora Bora in the final days of the war in Afghanistan. Bush, Kerry charged, "didn't choose to use American forces to hunt down and kill" the leader of Al Qaeda. The president called his opponent's allegation "the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking." Bush asserted that U.S. commanders on the ground did not know if bin Laden was at the mountain hideaway along the Afghan border.

But in a forthcoming book, the CIA field commander for the agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members. Bernstsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora-intelligence operatives had tracked him- and could have been caught. "He was there," Berntsen tells NEWSWEEK. Asked to comment on Berntsens remarks, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones passed on 2004 statements from former CENTCOM commander Gen. Tommy Franks. "We don't know to this day whether Mr bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001," Franks wrote in an Oct. 19 New York Times op-ed. "Bin Laden was never within our grasp." Berntsen says Franks is "a great American. But he was not on the ground out there. I was."

In his book--titled "Jawbreaker"--the decorated career CIA officer criticizes Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Departmen for not providing enough support to the CIA and the Pentagon's own Special Forces teams in the final hours of Tora Bora, says Berntsen's lawyer, Roy Kneger, (Berntsen would not divulge the book's specifics, saying he's waaiting CIA clearance.) That backs up other recent accounts, including that of military author Sean Naylor, who calls Tora Boara a "strategic disaster." because the Pentagon refused to deploy a cordon of conventional forces to cut off escping Qaeda and Taliban members. Maj Todd Vician, a Defense Department spokesman, says the problem at Tora Bora "was not necessarily just the number of troops."

Berntsen's book gives, by contrast, a heroic portrayal of CIA activities at Tora Bora and in the war on terror. Ironically, he has sued the agency over what he calls unacceptable delays in approving his book--a standard process for ex-agency employees describing classified matters. "They're just holding the book," which is scheduled for October release, he says. "CIA officers Special Forces and U.S. air power drove the Taliban out in 70 days. The CIA has taken roughly 80 days to clear my book." Jennifer Millerwise, a CIA spokeswoman, says Berntsen's "timeline is not accurate," adding that he submitted his book as an ex-employee only in mid-June. "We take seriously our goal of responding quickly."

Michael Hirsh.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

August 7th, 2005, 10:03 PM

Peter Jennings. "longtime anchor of ABC's 'World News Tonight', has died, he was 67. Sunday August 7, 2005."

Amazing that as a high school drop out he self educated and went on to suceed in a tough, competetive business, broadcast journalism.

I always enjoyed him.

Saundra Hummer

August 8th, 2005, 01:54 PM

There's a winner in te poster contest MoveOn.org has held and we must have been tapping in on each others minds, as this is the winning poster by Mary Thomquist of Catonsville, Maryland. There is a free download of the poster.

The slogan goes like this:

...............LOOSE LIPS
...............PINK SLIPS
............FIRE KARL ROVE

TO TO THIS SITE TO GET THE DOWNLOAD:

http://political.moveon.org/firerove/poster.html?id-5876-4054703-hO0goO0jr40sg25GUc_log&t=6

They ask you to do this: "After you've prominently hung up your photo send us a digital photo of where you've displayed it or a photo of you or your friends holding the poster. Just e-mail it as an attachment to

rovephoto@moveon.org

Use the subject line to give your photo a title, and the body of the email to give it a description. Please include the location (venue, city, state) in the description."

There is a letter from Mary telling about her thoughts on Karl Rove. Her take is interesting and mirrors what many of us believe as well.

Saundra Hummer

August 8th, 2005, 04:35 PM

.."If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." Anatole France - (Jacques Anatole Thibault (1844-1924)

=

..."Those who are convinced they have a monopoly on the truth always feel that they are only saving the world when they slaughter the heretics." Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr -- (1888-1965)

Saundra Hummer

August 8th, 2005, 05:36 PM

.....PETRODOLLAR WARFARE: DOLLARS, EUROS AND THE UPCOMING IRANIAN OIL BOURSE

'This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous...Having said that, all options are on the table."
--President George W. Bush, February 2005

By William R. Clark

08/08/05 "MM" -- -- Contemporary warfare has traditionally involved underlying conflicts regarding economics and resources. Today these intertwined conflicts also involve international currencies, and thus increased complexity. Current geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran extend beyond the publicly stated concerns regarding Iran's unclear intentions, and likely include a proposed Iranian "petroeuro" system for oil trade. Similar to the Iraq war, military operations against Iran relate to the macroeconomics of 'petrodollar recycling' and the unpublicized but real challange to U.S. dollar supremacy from the euro as a alternative oil trnasaction currency.

It is now obvious the invasion of Iraq had less to do with any threat from Saddam's long-gone WMD program and certainly less to do to do with fighting International terrorism than it has to do with gaining strategic control over Iraq's hydrocarbon reserves aind in doing so maintain the U.S. dollar as the monopol;y currency for the critical internaional oil market. Throughout 2004 information provided by former administration insiders revealed the Bush/Cheney administration entered into office with the intention of toppling Saddam [I - 2] Candidly stated "Operation Iraqi Freedom' was a war designed to install a pro-U.S. government in Iraq, establish multiple U.S. military bases before the onset of global Peak Oil .....(See this report "Peak Oil" by doing a google search, or by looking in this sites archives, SRH),..... and to reconvert Iraq back to petrodollars while hoping to thwart further OPEC momentum towards the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency (i.e. "petroeuro"). [3] However, subsequent geopolitical events have exposed neoconservative strategy as fundamentally flawed , with Iran moving towards a petroeuro system for international oil trades, while Russia evaluates this option with the European Union.

====

......(It's been reported that if Iran does go euro with it's petro dollars, we will go to war to prevent it and to gain control of their oil fields, and treasury, just as we have done with Saddams. What will China, Russia and Korea do if we do this?

I believe Russia and China will want Korea as a partner in any war effort.

Which other countries will join in against us?

Will nuclear be our only option? Or will it be the only option of anyone we go up against?.

We had better be letting this administration know that we think they are quite mad. A world conflagration is approaching and they are in the back room counting their stash. All common sense and rationale has flown the coop, and they are so caught up in their own self importance; so all caught up in thier power game - they are blind to it. It's either that, or they in their puffed up state, are believing there is no way they can come out losers. Well look at how competently they are handling Iraq! Doesn't this tell you something? A whole heck of a lot is out in the open for us to view, thanks to some curious minds and brave reporting, and again, it isn't a pretty picture. SRH)

===

[This is more, much more to this article and with a bit of googleing you will find more on this issue and it isn't anything new, it has been reported on before. It's just so doomsdayish, and like Mad Max there's a struggle on to control the oil.
=
Go to the site to see this story and more. There's the stories about:

"Why Iran Will Lead To World War 3 by Mike Whitney "Bush, Sharon and the western media will exploit the details in a way that condemns Iran and paves the way for a preemptive attack. The drive to war will not be derailed by mere facts, (continued.)
=
...Pentagon Likely to Raise Iraq Troops.
=
...Slain Soldiers Mother keeps protest vigil at Bush's private country estate.
=
A Soldier Speaks.
=
...Ex_POW Jessica Lynch says US used her as Iraq war symbol.
=
...Report: Bin Laden To Enter Iraq During Ramadan.
=
...Terrorism 'radiating' from Iraq According to German spy chief.
=
...UK says Saudi Attacks in "Final Stages of Planning. (Britain warned on Monday)
=
...Eric Margolis: U.S., Saudis play same old game.
=
...French Report Warned of al Qaeda attack on Britain.
=
...Why I cannot be part of this divisive war: This is an extract from Robin Cook's resignation speech to the House of Commons, 17 March 2003. It electrifed Parliment and will be remembered as one of the most important addresses in modern Westminster history
=
...What Are Moral Values?" Don't be affraid to speak out. Don't back down when your friends begfin to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be wrapped around ...... (continued on site.)
=
...Anglo-American Absolutism: Myths and slogans are preferred over explanation and analysis. "Sentiment" for our way of life, "inspiration" from the myths of an imaginary enemy, "passion" for combating evil, "intuition" as a justification for going to war, "force" as the only solution.
=

[There are a slew of articles which sound interesting and are controversial as well.]

Access the site and see thise articles and many many more. Many dealing wtih the carnage in Iraq; there is a new article from a soldiers perspective.
Just click on the following link:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

August 8th, 2005, 07:07 PM

......."Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded becsuse it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes...known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few...No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
----James Madison, Political Observations, 1795

Saundra Hummer

August 9th, 2005, 08:58 PM

It seems I'm forever missing most of a television program, one I would have liked to see, and the tribute to Peter Jennings was no exception. It heartened me to see Clark Terry playing for Peter Jennings, as he is such a caring man, one who I'm sure was doing it with love and compassion. That's the type of man Clark is, there couldn't have been a better choice to play for Peter, a man of deep emotion, and caring, one known for his humor, but I also know the side of thim that makes him perfect for such an emotional tribute.

Saundra Hummer

August 10th, 2005, 03:04 PM

.......ACT FOR CHANGE

GEORGE AND LAURA BUSH -- MEET WITH CINDY SHEEHAN, DON'T ARREST HER.

CONTRIBUTED BY WORKING ASSETS (THERE IS A LINK PROVIDED TO SEND A LETTER ASKING FOR THIS TO BE DONE.)

President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush are spending their five week vacation this summer at the ranch in Texas. Meanwhile, Cindy Sheehan's son Casey won't be spending a five week vacation anywhere this summer -- he was killed in April of 2004 outside Baghdad.

Cindy Sheehan recently traveled to Crawford, Texas to ask for a meeting with the President. She was stopped by the Secret Service about two miles away from the ranch and has set up camp there to wait for some free time in the President's schedule. She's hoping that the President can find 15 minutes to meet with the mom of a soldier who gave his life in service to our country.

Cindy is asking that the President explain how sacrificing more troops in the Iraq quagmire will "honor the sacrifices of the fallen." She's also asking that the President explain just what is this "noble cause" he keeps saying we're fighting for in Iraq, and if it's so noble -- why aren't his daughters enlisted in the fight?

Unfortunately, the President has not yet agreed to meet with Cindy. It's also been reported that when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrive at the ranch on Thursday, Cindy will be arrested as "threat to national security." The President and First Lady should meet with Cindy Sheehan -- not have her arrested.

Deadline: ongoing: (letter following for you to sign onto, and a link for you to send out to friends to ask for their participation as well should you feel comfortable doing so.)

http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=19459

While on site, look up Gold Star Families for Peace

http://www.gsfp.org

Saundra Hummer

August 10th, 2005, 04:17 PM

.......WHY NO TEA AND SYMPATHY?

BY MAUREEN DOWD
THE NEW YORK TIMES

WEDNESDAY 10 AUGUST 2005

W. can't get no satisfaction on Iraq.

.....There's an angry mother of a dead soldier camping outside his Crawford ranch demanding to see a president who prefers his sympathy to be carefully choreographed.

.....A new CNN-USA Today Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans now think that going to war was a mistake and that the war has made the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorism. So fighting them there means it's more likely we'll have to fight them here?

Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged yesterday that sophisticated bombs were streaming over the border from Iran to Iraq.

And the Rolling Stones have taken a rare break from sex odes to record an antiwar song callled "Sweet Neo Con," chiding Condi Rice and Mr. Bush. "You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite." Mick Jagger sings.

The N.F.L. put out a press release on Monday announcing that it's teaming up with the Stones and ABC to promote "Monday Night Football." The flag-waring N.F.L. could still back out if there's pressure, but the mood seems to have shifted since Madonna chickened out of showing an antiwar music video in 2003. The White House used to be able to tamp down criticism by saying it hurt our troops, but more people are asking the White House to explain how it plans to stop our troops from getting hurt.

Cindy Sheehan, a 48-year-old Californian with a knack for P.R., says she will camp out int he dusty heat near the ranch until she gets to tell Mr. Bush to his face that he must pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq. Her son, Casey, a 24 year old Army specialist, was killed in a Sadr City ambush last year.

The president met with her family two months after Casey's death. Capturing W.'s awkwardness in traversing the line between somber and joking, and his love of generic labels, Ms. Sheehan said that W. had referred to her as "Mom" (I find this insulting, calling her mom reminding her of how she no longer has a son, everytime she heard him call her that. It was terribly insulting and heartless, and patronizing in the extreme. SRH) throughout the meeting, and given her the sense tha he didn't now who her son was.

The Bush team tried to discredit "Mom" by pointing reporters to an old article in which she sounded kinder to W. if only her husband were an undercover C.I.A. operative, the Bushies could out him. But even if they send out a squad of Swift Baoat Moms for Truth, there will be a countering Falluja Moms for Truth.

It's amazing that the White House does not have the elementary shrewdness to have Mr. Bush simply walk down the driveway and hear the woman out, or invite her in for a cup of tea. But W. who has spent nearly 20 percent of his presidency at his ranch is burrowed into his five-week vacation and two-hour daily workouts. He may be in great shape, but Iraq sure isn't.

It's hard to think of another president who lived insuch meta-insulation. His rigidly controlled environment allows no chance encounters with anyone who disagrees. He never has to defend himself to anyone, and that is cognitively injurious. He's a populist who never meets people - an ordinary guy who clears brush, and brush is the only thing he talks to. [(I think this is just a photo op, as anyone familiar with a chain saw and brush knows not to stand down hill of a large log while cutting it, nor allow anyone else to do the same which was what he was doing we were seeing a really dangerous way of doing things but then this is nothing new with W. --- look at how he conducts policy, not a lick of common sense. SRH)]

Mr Bush hails Texas as a place where he can return to his roots. But is he mixing it up there with anyone besides Vulcans, Pioneers and Rangers?

W's idea of consolation was to dispatch Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, to talk to Ms. Sheehan, underscoring the inhumane humanitarisnism of his foreign policy. Mr Hadley is just a suit, one of the hard-line Unsweet Neo Cons who helped hype America into this war.

It's getting harder for the president to hide from the human consequences of his actions, and to control human sentiment about the war by pulling a curtain over the 1,835 troops killed in Iraq, the more than 13,000 wounded, many shorn of limbs, and the number of slain Iraqi civilians - perhaps 25,000 or perhaps double or triple that. More people with impeccable credentiaols are coming forward to serve as a countervailing moral authority to challenge Mr. Bush.

Paul Hackett, a Marine major who served in Iraq and criticized the president on his conduct of the war, narrowly lost last week when he ran for Congress as a Democrat in a Republican stronghold in Cincinnati. Newt Gingrich warned that the race should "serve as a wake-up call to Republicans" about 2006.

Selectively humane, Mr Bush justified his Iraq war by stressing the 9/11 losses. He emphasized the humanity of the Iraqis who desire freedom when his W.M.D. rationale vaporized.

But his humanitarianism will remain inhumane as long as he fails to understand that the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute.

======

Go to the following link to see this and other current stories and articles concerning Iraq and other issues. Just click on it to access the site.

http://www.truthout.org

This is about "Peak Oil" you know, this war.

We want what's left of the Middle East's oil, and the locations to control it from. Look it up ("Peak Oil"),and then look up the PNAC (Plan For A New American Century),and "The Plan" and it becomes crystal clear. Will other nations allow us this pipe dream? Hardly. We are in for the fight of our lives. Lets hope we survive it.

Saundra Hummer

August 10th, 2005, 09:56 PM

...Where's Munch?

Anyone know???

Saundra Hummer

August 12th, 2005, 01:57 PM

.....FRANK MULLEN HAS POSTED A TERRIFIC EYE-OPENING ARTICLE IN THE ...."OUTRAGE OF THE DAY" ....THREAD, ONE EVERYONE SHOULD READ AND KNOW ABOUT --- ONE YOU SHOULD SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS.

The world has become a more dangerous place due to this bill. Frank is up on thise things, and if he is so vocally concerned, there is reason for the rest of us to be as well.

Here in the Current Events thread, look up "Outrage of the Day."

Saundra Hummer

August 13th, 2005, 12:56 PM

Check out how cartoonists "Slam Bush" while backing Cindy Sheehan. It's in Truth Out's focus for the day.

http;//www.truthout.org

On the link there is this: "Follow TO's up-to-the-minute coverage direct from 'CAMP CASEY'."

Saundra Hummer

August 13th, 2005, 08:41 PM

Check out the Media thread I posted over on the thread for that, about the SIRIUS broadcast of newly found Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall before it is released to the public and check out the article about the new Jazz program on PBS which is hosted by Ramsey Lewis. I caught a few minutes of it last night and thought Renee Olstead was terrific, loved her way with a tune. Such a surprise.

There's an article there and a movie tralier for the newly re-released Louis Malle film 'Lift to the Scaffold', with music by Miles Davis.

There are several articles on the site which I provided links to, really pretty intersting plus a link to see which songs have been named to the National Registry. There is just so much to see and check out. :smokin:

Saundra Hummer

August 14th, 2005, 01:26 PM

A thousand white crosses on the road to Bush's ranch in Crawford, the Western White House, A soldiers mother living in a tent as the black armored SUV's whiz by, headed for a moneyed fund raiser for more GOP boondoggles - this as of yesterday, while today the headlines tell us of six (6) more US soldiers killed in Irag; "Bush Suggests Force Against Iran." Robert Fisk noticing the Bush/Cheney administrations drop in the polls is jumping ship on many issues, (better late than never, but what took him so long? We know the answer, he's another opportunist.), he is wanting stem cell research, and has asked - How Can the US Ever Win, When Iraqi Children Die Like This? .... DOJ Shake up Clouds Plame Probe, Media "Lined up for White House LIes" in Plame Scandal, What Rove Told Bush Starting to Matter; Gop Paying Bills of Alleged Vote Tamperer, Major Push to Reform Ohio Voting; 9/11 Panel Ignored Facts on Hijacker; Venezuela Warns Against US Invasion --- and here seems to be what troubles most of us the most, and it is this: "Oil Climbs above $66 for Fifth Record This Week."

A platefull of less than desirable information about this administration and what they are doing and what they are planning to do in the future; the consequenses of their actions, which are being felt, and how things might be if they, this wacked out administration, "hold the course." Another buzz phrase which might sound good, but the ramifications are never thought of or told to us by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice. and let's not forget Rove, Baker, and who knows who else are the major players behind the scenes.

Thank our lucky stars for a free press, lets hope they excercise this freedom in a more vigerous manner and not feel beholden to any other entity other than the American public. We have the need and the right to know what it is that governments around the world are doing and what it is our own goverment is doing and planning. SRH

Go to this site for the articles on these issues outlines above by clicking on the following link:

http://www.truthout.org

Saundra Hummer

August 14th, 2005, 01:44 PM

DON'T FORGET, GO TO THE JAZZ MEDIA THREAD TO SEE HOW TO HEAR THE JOHN COLTRANE AND THELONIOUS MONK 1ST EVER BROADCAST OF THEIR PERFORMANCE AT CARNIGIE HALL IN 1957.

IT WILL BE AIRED ON SIRIUS RADIO.

JUST FOUND IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THE PUBLIC WILL HAVE EVER HEARD IT. POORLY LABELED AND STORED AWAY, LOST ACTUALLY, NO ONE EVEN KNOWING OF IT.

GREAT THAT IT'S BEING AIRED FOR THE PUBIC TO HEAR.

IT WILL BE RELEASED LATER FOR PURCHASE, BUT THIS IS IT'S FIRST OUTING.

THEY SAY THE SOUND IS EXCEPTIONAL, AND THAT IT IS A MARVELOUS PERFORMANCE BY BOTH OF THESE MORE THAN TALENTED MUSICIANS.

ENJOY!

Saundra Hummer

August 15th, 2005, 03:39 PM

...Elizabeth de la Vega article concerning the Fitzgerald investigation into the Rove, Plame affair.

Elizabeth has recently retired after serving more than 20 years as a federal prosecutor in Minneapolis and San Jose. During her tenure, she was a member of the Organized Crime Strike Force and Cbief of the San Jose Branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California.

This piece first appeared on TomDispatch.com

PLAME IN THE COURTROOM

COMMENTARY : IS THE INTELLIGENCE IDENTITIES PROTECTION ACT REALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE?

BY ELIZABETH de la VEGA
AUGUST 12, 2005

INTROCUCTION BY TOM ENGELHARDT.

Rumors and leaks continue to swirl around the case of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame and the various journalists and Bush "senior administration officials" believed to be involved in some fashion in her outing. Whole forests have undoubtedly been pujlped for the endless flood of summer stories about the Plame case and yet something has been missing. The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, the law against outing a CIA operative under which Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald was, in essence, called into existence, is rarely discussed in any serous way -- and then at best only in a passing paragraph or two deep in any story. And yet a media/punditry consensus has formed that it is a law so specifically, even quirkily, written as to be almost impossible to use in a prosecution (hopeless, in fact, against a figure like Karl Rove or Vice President Cheney's right-hand man I. Lewis "Scooter" LIbby); and that Special Counsel Fitzgerald has already turned away for the law, moving on to more conceivable avenues of prosecution -- like obstruction of justice.

=

Elizabeth de la Vega, former federal prosecutor and Chief of the San Jose Branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, has no more inside information than the rest of us on an investigation that has seemed remarkably leak-less; but calling on her prosecutorial experience, she begs to differ on the question of whether the 1982 law is difficult to use in a prosecution. Alone among a sea of pundits, she suggests that the 1982 law is a perfectly usable one under which, based on what we know at present, a case could indeed be brought against a "senior official" and perhaps prosecuted successfully indeed. This is news.

....PLAME IN THE COURTROOM
... IS THE INTELLIGENCE IDENTITIES
....PROTECTION ACT REALLY I;MPOSSIBLE TO
....PROVE
By Eliazbeth de la Vega (A short excerpt, the first two paragraphs of her article.)

Pundits right, left, and center have reached a rare unanimous verdict about one aspect of the grand jury investigation into the Valerie Plame leak: They've decided that no charges can be brought under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, because it imposes an impossibly high standard for proof of intent. Typically, writing for Slate on July 19th, Christopher Hitchens described the 1982 Act as a "silly law" that requires that "you knowingly wish to expose the cover of a CIA officer who you understand may be harmed as a result." Similarly, columnist Richard Cohen, in the July 14 Washington Post, said he thought Rove was a "political opportunist, not a traitor" and that he didn't think Rove "specifically intended to blow the cover of a CIA agent." Such examples could be multiplied many times over.

Shocking as it may seem, however, the pundits are wrong; and their casual summaries of the requirements of the 1982 statute betray a fundamental misunderstanding regarding proof of criminal intent.

(to see the rest of this informative article visit the following address just by clicking on the following link:

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2005/08/plame_prosecution.html

Saundra Hummer

August 16th, 2005, 03:39 PM

...."So let us regard this as settled: What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even if it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious." Marcus Tillius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

[...Seems to me this type of belief needs to be taught in our schools, starting with thouse who are young enough to have it become part of ones being. 'Ethics', where have they gone? It seems that these thoughts are not realized much any longer. Parents aren't even teaching their children basic ethics in too many instances. Witness the bulling of children in our schools and the theft of personal property and the violence ingulfing us all. SRH...]

=

...."A man who has in mind an apparent advantage and promptly proceeds to dissociate this from the question of what is right shows himself to be mistaken and immoral. Such a standpoint is the parent of assassinations, poisonings, forged wills, thefts, malversations of public money, and the nuinous exploitation of provencials and Roman citizens alike. Another result is passionate desire --- desire for excessive wealth, for unendurable tyranny, and ultimately for the despotic seizure of free states. These desires are the most horrible and repulsive things imaginable. The perverted intelligences of men who are animated by such feelings are competent to understand the material rewards, but not the penalties. I do not mean penalties established by law, for these they often escape. I mean the most terrible of all punishements, their own degraduation." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

=

....."Find out just what people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." Frederick Douglass, African-American slave, and later abolitionist.

Coolguy

August 17th, 2005, 08:02 PM

A Message to the Crawford Memorial Vandal

On Monday night, a vandal in a pickup truck ran over hundreds of small white
crosses <http://news.baou.com/main.php?action=recent&rid=20426> that had
been installed in Crawford, Texas as a simple memorial to the Troops killed
in Iraq. The vandal, who police say is Waco resident Larry Northern, was
soon arrested, and OpTruth's Perry Jefferies managed to find his e-mail
address. Here's what he had to say:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Northern:

I am a Veteran of the Iraq war, having served with the 4th Infantry Division
on the initial invasion with Force Package One.

While I was in Iraq, a very good friend of mine, Christopher Cutchall, was
killed in an unarmored HMMWV outside of Baghdad. He was a cavalry scout
serving with the 3d ID.Once he had declined the award of a medal because
Soldiers assigned to him did not receive similar awards for which he had
been recommended. He left two sons and a wonderful wife. On Monday night,
August 16, you ran down the memorial cross erected for him by Arlington
West.

One of my Soldiers in Iraq was Roger Turner. We gave him a hard time because
he always wore all of his protective equipment, including three pairs of
glasses or goggles. He did this because he wanted to make sure that he
returned home to his family. He rode a bicycle to work every day to make
sure that he was able to save enough money on his Army salary to send his
son to college. At Camp Anaconda, where the squadron briefly stayed, a
rocket landed inside a tent, sending a piece of debris or fragment into him;
it killed him. On Monday night, August 16, you ran down the memorial cross
erected for him by Arlington West.

One of my Soldiers was Henry Bacon. He was one of the finest men I ever met.
He was in perfect shape for a man over forty, working hard at night. He told
me that he did that because he didn't have much money to buy nice things for
his wife, who he loved so much, so he had to be in good shape for her. He
was like a father to many young men in his section of maintenance mechanics.
They fixed our vehicles with almost no support and fabricated parts and made
repairs that kept our squadron rolling on the longest, fastest armor advance
ever made under fire. He was so very proud of his son-in-law that married
the beautiful daughter so well raised by Henry. His son-in-law was a
helicopter pilot with the 1st Cavalry Division, who died last year. Henry
stopped to rescue a vehicle belonging to another unit on what was to be his
last day in Iraq. He could have kept rolling - he was headed to Kuwait after
a year's tour. But he stopped. He could have sent others to do the work, but
he was on the ground, leading by example, when he was killed. On Monday
night, August 16, you took it upon yourself to go out in the country, where
a peaceful group was exercising their constitutional rights, and harming no
one, and you ran down the memorial cross erected for Henry and for his
son-in-law by Arlington West.

Mr. Northern - I know little about Cindy Sheehan except that she is a
grieving mother, a gentle soul, and wants to bring harm to no one. I know
little about you except that you found your way to Crawford on Monday night
in August with chains and a pipe attached to your truck for the sole purpose
of dishonoring a memorial erected for my friends and lost Soldiers and
hundreds of others that served this nation when they were called. I find it
disheartening that good men like these have died so that people like you can
threaten a mother who lost a child with your actions. I hope that you are
ashamed of yourself.
>
> Perry Jefferies, First Sergeant, USA (retired)

Saundra Hummer

August 21st, 2005, 04:56 PM

They're holding a march you know! Isn't it to be called the "Freedom March"? Seems that is what GW wants it to be called, or something similar.
==

.....["Where are the pro-war people?" Will they be out in force for this war. Sorry everyone, but we are in a mess and one which is hard to extricate ourselves from. Remember Korea, we are still there, we lost in Vietnam, so we are no longer there. We are still in the Balkans and for how much longer? We are still in Japan, we won that one as well. We have our bases in Germany and in other areas of Europe. Our welcome is being worn out as it was in the Philippines, so what will be happening in Iraq? Hard to say as there are as many options as there are arguments it seems. SRH]
=====

..."Hypocrites and Liars"

Where are the pro-war people

By Cindy Sheehan

If you fall on the side that is pro-George and pro-war, you get your ass over to Iraq, and take the place of somebody who wants to come home. And if you fall on the side that is against the war and against George Bush, stand up and speak out.

http:.//www.informationclearinghouse.info/article/9894.htm

http://snipurl.com/h41w

Check these stories out and go to the home link and see several other topical articles.

Saundra Hummer

August 21st, 2005, 05:10 PM

....."[America] goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under others banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom."

John Quincy Adams - (1767-1848) 6th US President - Source. Speech before the House of Representatives, July 4, 1821, quoted in William Bonner and Pierre Lemieux (Editors), The Idea of America (Les Belle's Letters, 2003, p. 347

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

or http://snipurl.com/ayzc

Saundra Hummer

August 23rd, 2005, 12:28 PM

Do you get Pat Robertson? I just can't fathom the man, the minister, the politician, the nut case? Take your pick, he is "out there" in all of these things.

I was clicking through the t.v. stations and came across his station and for some reason I stopped to hear what he had to say, and this is what I was hearing, mid presentation, wish I hadn't missed the begining and the end of what it was he was saying, but I did, but the gist of what he was talking about is this: We have people in place to kill Venezuela's leader, Chavez, and we should take him out, we should kill him, not wait to send in troops.as for one thing he is a haven for Communism, (his ties to Castro). A war and troops, well, that would cost billions of dollars. A few bullets are cheap. He went on a bit as to how and why it should be done. I really couldn't believe my ears, and then I went about doing other things, and again a few minutes later I was surfing again and there he was urging us to pray about the Supreme Court saying how it is running, and ruining our lives and how it's also ruining the country. He was telling us we should pray to have it changed. The most amazing few minutes of air time I've seen in several years. Killing in one breath --- prayer in the next, and this about very important issues.

To think that there are those of us who are out there who hang on every word he and others like him utter, well the thought is frightening. How is it that men like these come to power? How is it we follow them like so many sheep? How is it we never take the time or effort to think for ourselves? We need to be figuring out the pros and cons of everything that these men suggest we should be doing, keeping ourselves open to thought. I've heard him and others have good ideas and ways of doing things, but not everything they say or do should be condidered gospel. We need to keep our mind open, yet cautious, think before we leap.

Men like Pat Robertson are involving themselves is so much of our lives, it is an intrusion of our basic rights -- yet there are those of us who seem to like to be led, not taking the time or effort to learn things and think on their own. Frightening situations. This just floors me. Where has common sense run off to?

rollhead

August 23rd, 2005, 01:21 PM

www.whitehouse.org

Mr. Rollhead is shocked, SHOCKED at this site. So disrespectful.

Saundra Hummer

August 23rd, 2005, 01:51 PM

www.whitehouse.org

Mr. Rollhead is shocked, SHOCKED at this site. So disrespectful.

Shocked at Porno? Seems like a bit of a game with you, a bit of shock value going on.

Meridith Vierra on "The View" wanted to show her children something so she typed in that address on her tool bar and it is porno and she couldn't shut it down, she had to turn off her set from the back to get it off her set, and I don't recall what all, so you have to type in ".gov" not .org.

Saundra Hummer

August 23rd, 2005, 05:31 PM

"Hold the Course"; "Go the distance", and any other slogan which has been used to incourage and justify this war is being used & has been used. Many mothers, fathers and wives of slain military men and women are in agreement with this rhetoric, telling the politicians responsible for their loved ones deaths to not "let their deaths to have been in vain". "Keep holding the course". "Win this war." They are doing the only thing open to them to protect their emotions and their sons, daughters and other loved ones memory by not letting their deaths be in vain. They see no other way evidently.

I can fully understand how it is they are believing like this, but how is it that they believe other mothers children, or husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, just good friends, and their children need to end up having the same exact thoughts next week, next month and in the years to come?

OK, We have all heard for years now how Vietnam was a useless war. We now know it to be oh so true. Is it any better to know now - here in the present - or is it better to find out later. Is it that they know but don't want to? So are they ignoring all that has happened, and what is being reported on now (which is factual as to the real reasons for this war) So....are they in their hearts wanting to believe differently at this time? Preferring to wait several years down the road to admit to themselves how things really are? Easing their own pain, while others are qued up waiting for theirs to be handed out? This is how I see it: There is no compassion for others as their own grief is so overwhelming that reason flees. They have an overwhelming need for this war to be a good war and a won war. How can this be on one hand and on the other how can this be without tremedous losses?

How will they feel later on when it has been proven over and over again that this war which their loved ones are serving in, or have died or been injured in, isn't what they had once thought? Will they then come to the realization that they aren't alone in their grief? They will have been joined by thousands upon thousands more who will have suffered as they are and have. Will this fact console them?

When they come to the realization that this war wasn't what they thought, 5, 7, 10, or 20 years from now, when they realize it wasn't to protect us, no it was to control parts of the Middle East and their resources, to build bases to better protect the oil fields, will they feel better then? Is it going to help them? Will it be better for them to learn all of this later or to know of it now - will it be better after more and more will have died and been injured and maimed? Each and every day more and more are being left; left without fathers, mothers, children, wives and husbands? More will have died spilling their blood in a foreign land, precious time spent away from loved ones -- and for what? More will have been injured. More will come home to sell poppies on Memorial Day as they will find it difficult to find work in a society that has little tolarance for those with disabilities. Or will it be hard to find work as the physical and mental strains will be too difficult for them? We know the sad answers to all of this. Perhaps those who have been left behind need to busy themselves helping the most in need from this war, making their loved ones deaths not be in vain by doing all they themselves can to help those who are most in need because of this war they want and need to believe in.

Once they learn - down the road, say in seven years, will it then be easier for them to realize that it wasn't a righteous war? As was the case in the reasons for the Vietnam war. That it was a foolish war, one fought for all the wrong reasons, and that it was fought stupidly, as has been the case in the war in Iraq? Will the pain be less 5, 7, 10 or 20 years from now for triple the casualties (if we are lucky)? Because too many think like they do, not letting the powers that be know and understandthat we are not for this war; that we believe it is wrong? We'd probably still be in Vietnam if public outrage hadn't stopped it. I know that these parents and other loved ones have a desperate need to cope; to protect their feelings. Their grief is raw, their emotions are raw, and in control. I truly believe this, so it seems that because of their grief there are some who are experiencing a willingness to let others die and die, and die. Blame isn't on them, it is on those who exploit them.

I've heard it said, "the dead, are the lucky ones" oftentimes. We've only to look at the limbless, the sightless, those with brain damage, quadrapalegics, some with such horrible multiple injures for which most of them don't even get enough medical care from those who sent them into harms way, then look at those who will suffer endless pain - physical and emotional - all of their days.

Wouldn't they rather say, my loved one was noble and he, or she, paid the ultimate price? It needn't be thought of as a noble cause, but as a noble sacrifice.

Let's not let any more good and young die for this dream of conquest and empire and oil. Is there truly a need for this? I would hope those in so much despair from their loss, that they could find solice in helping others not to suffer the same fate. Because of them wanting to believe their loved ones losing their lives weren't in vain they are suffering terribly, more than if they could think otherwise. This isn't WWII with a real and threatening enemy. We started this fiasco and for reasons which have not been told to us, to them, or to the troops fighting in this war.

This administration has put us in a dangerous situation, and we are in a damned if we do, and damed if we don't position in the Middle East. All-because of ill advice and poor planning, policy, and strategy. Strategy? Where is it? Policy? What is it? Then there is the torture and abuse scandals all over the area, we export it you know. It's horrific and so inhumane as to be sickening. We have turned the world against us. We had capital after 9/11 and we put it in abusers and corporate raiders pockets and the world hates us for it. We have no one's sympathy or backing like we might have had.

We were fools, vain and cruel. Fools to the max. :frown2:

stillpres

August 23rd, 2005, 09:52 PM

Saundra Hummer

August 23rd, 2005, 10:35 PM

"Stay the course?" Another way of saying, "Never admit the possibility you might have made a mistake." If you do that, maybe it will turn out not to have been a mistake after all. Other people, however, call this kind of thing, "throwing good money after bad."

And what's up with this Pat Robertson thing? He digs Mobutu Sese Seko, and keeps plugging him on the show, but he has problems with Sr Chavez that are worth committing murder?

"And he sent messengers before him, who came into a Samaritan village, to make all in readiness. But the Samaritans refused to recieve him, because his journey was in the direction of Jerusalem. When they found this, two of his disciples, James and John, asked him, Lord, wouldst thou have us bid fire come down from heaven and consume then? But he turned and rebuked them, You do not understand, he said, what spirit it is you share. The Son Of Man has come to save men's lives, not to destroy them. And so they passed on to another village." (Luke 9:52-56)

Mr. Robertson seems to have figured out, at last, whose spirit he shares.
I don't know what is up with him, but he never ceases to amaze. Just when I think he made sense on one thing he will come up with something so inane as what he is saying about Chavez and the Supreme Court. It is just nuts.

I've heard it said that they all (the administration) should be lined up on the White House lawn and shot. Of course it was said in jest, just a figure of speech, by a fellow who is no fan of GW, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice. Therein lies the difference. Pat Robertson was dead serious. Can you believe that? Has he lost it? Has his age caught up with him, is senility creeping in? They say that when it does, some people begin to think mean thoughts and lash out, even physically. He was meaning every word. He wasn't saying this light heartedly. Not that Chavez is a good guy, he isn't. He is just another self seeking no good, or so it seems, bleeding his country, much like Mr Robertson bleeds his flock. Much like the administration is bleeding us. But to promote this, is just not right. There are those out there who would rush to do it if the right person were to plant that idea, so Mr. Chavez might be extra cautious for quite some time, as who knows how many Rudolphs are lurking about?

This is the first time in my life I have heard a public person advocate such, and for it to be a political person, a man of faith, one who tells us all how to live, well it's a black comedy isn't it?

stillpres

August 23rd, 2005, 11:01 PM

It doesn't even rate as dark comedy. If you are a Christian, and I will cop to being one, you have to remember that The Nazz told his followers that a lot of cats would come along later, preaching total jive for money and claiming it came from him . . .

This is just nationalism and economics getting sold as faith. It happens. It will go away. But it is creepy while it lasts, and you have to hope no one will take it up as a political programme.

Saundra Hummer

August 24th, 2005, 04:32 PM

CIA SENDS FINISHED 9/11 REPORT TO PANELS

CIA Director Porter Goss personally delivered to Congress the findings of the agency's inspector general report on the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, opening a debate about how much of the higly classified and critical document shoujld be made public.

http://www.trughout.org/docs_2005/082405C.shtml

==

Maureen Dowd [My Private Idaho

http://www.truthout.ort/docs_2005082405D.shtml

Gas is guzzling toward $3 a gallon. US troop casualities in Iraq are at their highest levels since the invasion. Afghanistan's getting more dangerous, too. The defense secretary says he's raising toop levels in both places for coming elections. So our overextended troops must prepare for more forced rotations, while the president hangs loose. Dowd Asks.

==

Ex-Halliburton Worker Pleads Guilty to Bribes

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/082405G.shtml

A former Halliburton Co. worker pleaded guilty late last week to taking more than $110,00 in bribes from an Iraqi company in 2004 and defrauding the United States, court documents showed.

[this is chump change as compared to the other things which went on as planned operations, not some rogue employee scooping up a mere $110 K. Much more has been gained by hook and by crook we have been told, by Haliburton's established workings, it's by design rape of our finances and the Iraqi's. SRH]

==

Are we beginning to see and realize our worst fears???? SRH

CHINA AND RUSSIA COMPLETE UNPRECEDENTED MILITARY MANEUVERS
http://www.trughout.org/docs-2005/082405H.shtml

According to Alexander Duguin, the "pope" of the Eurasian movement in Russia, it's the "differnet colored revolutions of 2003 and 2004 in the past Soviet territories" that push Moscow and Beijing to reinforce thier military partnership.

==

GARY HART [ WHO WILL SAY "NO MORE?"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/082405K.shtml

Former Senator gary Hart says he wants a leader who is willing now to say. "I made a mistake and for my mistake I am going to Iraq and accompaning the next planeload of flag-draped coffins back to Dover Air Force Base. And I am going to ask forgiveness for my mistake form every parent who will talk to me."

==

MARJORIE COHN [ ABU GHRAIB GENERAL LAMBASTES BUSH ADMINISTRATION

http;//www.truthout.org/docs-2005/082405Z.shtml

For the first time since she was made the scapegoat for the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib, Maj. Gen. Janis Karpinski lambastes the Bush administratin for its entire Iraq policy. In Marjorie Chon's exclusive interview with her, Karpinski implicates the White HOuse in setting the torture policy. She describes the cover up by the administration after the photographs came out, and says that Rumsfeld knowingly prosecuted the Iraq war with less than half the troops he needed.

[Sis should be an intereting report. I always felt in her earlier interviews she wasn't leveling with reporters. Dummy! Couldn't she see the handwriting on the wall? Couldn't she see that Rumsfeld and the White House occupants would paint her into a corner and that is exactely what they did, making her look, if not guilty, then as a dunce, a total know nothing who was so out of the loop as to be stupid. SRH]

While I'm on this vein, I have always believed by bringing in Collen Powell and
carefully planning his demise, having him be so very ineffectual, sending others to handle affairs of State, sending him on the far less missions (until one day they actually wanted him to pull them out of some messes they had inserted themselves into, or found themselves in, and knowing he was higly respected with the poeple of the countries involved, where no one else was, they had to call on him, but beforehand and afterwards, they knew how to make him seem and to make him appear to look the dupe. They were having him say and do such ludricous things that they would remove any hope he might possibly have of attaining higher office or influence. :rant2: God forbid he would end up more popular than he already was. To my way of thinking they accomplished just that, he is not so highly thought of, not like in the past, and there is no putting Humpty Dumpty back togerher again. I began thinking this very early on, especially when he was kept so out of the loop while others were taking his place in very improtant discussions. Then when their ship was sinking they needed him and quick, but the damage is done don't you think?

Saundra Hummer

August 24th, 2005, 04:37 PM

CIA SENDS FINISHED 9/11 REPORT TO PANELS

CIA Director Porter Goss personally delivered to Congress the findings of the agency's inspector general report on the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, opening a debate about how much of the higly classified and critical document should be made public.

http://www.trughout.org/docs_2005/082405C.shtml

==

Maureen Dowd [ My Private Idaho

http://www.truthout.ort/docs_2005082405D.shtml

Gas is guzzling toward $3 a gallon. US troop casualities in Iraq are at their highest levels since the invasion. Afghanistan's getting more dangerous, too. The defense secretary says he's raising toop levels in both places for coming elections. So our overextended troops must prepare for more forced rotations, while the president hangs loose. Dowd Asks.

==

Ex-Halliburton Worker Pleads Guilty to Bribes

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/082405G.shtml

A former Halliburton Co. worker pleaded guilty late last week to taking more than $110,00 in bribes from an Iraqi company in 2004 and defrauding the United States, court documents showed.

[this is chump change as compared to the other things which went on as planned operations, not some rogue employee scooping up a mere $110 K. Much more has been gained by hook and by crook we have been told, by Haliburton's established workings, it's by design rape of our finances and the Iraqi's. SRH]

==

Are we beginning to see and realize our worst fears???? SRH

CHINA AND RUSSIA COMPLETE UNPRECEDENTED MILITARY MANEUVERS
http://www.trughout.org/docs-2005/082405H.shtml

According to Alexander Duguin, the "pope" of the Eurasian movement in Russia, it's the "differnet colored revolutions of 2003 and 2004 in the past Soviet territories" that push Moscow and Beijing to reinforce thier military partnership.

==

GARY HART [ WHO WILL SAY "NO MORE?"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/082405K.shtml

Former Senator gary Hart says he wants a leader who is willing now to say. "I made a mistake and for my mistake I am going to Iraq and accompaning the next planeload of flag-draped coffins back to Dover Air Force Base. And I am going to ask forgiveness for my mistake from every parent who will talk to me."

==

MARJORIE COHN [ ABU GHRAIB GENERAL LAMBASTES BUSH ADMINISTRATION

http;//www.truthout.org/docs-2005/082405Z.shtml

For the first time since she was made the scapegoat for the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib, Maj. Gen. Janis Karpinski lambastes the Bush administration for its entire Iraq policy. In Marjorie Chon's exclusive interview with her, Karpinski implicates the White House in setting the torture policy. She describes the cover up by the administration after the photographs came out, and says that Rumsfeld knowingly prosecuted the Iraq war with less than half the troops he needed.

(Thiis should be an intereting report. I always felt, in her earlier interviews, she wasn't leveling with reporters. Dummy! Couldn't she see the handwriting on the wall? Couldn't she see that Rumsfeld and the White House occupants would paint her into a corner and that is exactely what they did, making her look, if not guilty, then as a dunce, a total know nothing who was so out of the loop as to be stupid. SRH]

While I'm on this vein, I have always believed by bringing in Colin Powell and
carefully planning his demise, having him be so very ineffectual, sending others to handle affairs of State, sending him on the far less important missions (until one day they actually wanted him to pull them out of some messes they had inserted themselves into, or found themselves in) and knowing he was higly respected with the poeple of the countries involved, where no one else was, they had to call on him, but beforehand and afterwards, they knew how to make him seem and to how to make him appear to look the dupe. They were having him say and do such ludricous things that they would remove any hope he might possibly have of attaining higher office or influence. :rant2: God forbid he would end up more popular than he already was. To my way of thinking they accomplished just that, he is not so highly thought of now, not like in the past, and there is no putting Humpty Dumpty back togerher again. I began thinking this very early on, especially when he was kept so out of the loop while others were taking his place in very important discussions. Then when the administrations ship was sinking they needed him, and quickly, but the damage is done don't you think?

Saundra Hummer

August 24th, 2005, 05:33 PM

On Aaron Brown tonight, there's a report about "a man U.S. customs agents stopped from entering te coutnry back in 2003 has blown himself up in Iraq, Something to think about there."

"And it seems seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong can't escape accusations of performance inhancing drugs. This time they are coming from the director of the Tour de France, Jean-Marie Leblanc. He claims Armstrong has 'fooled' the sports world. We'll look at the evidence he's using to support his claim and whether or not there's any truth to it."

"Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson tried to do some damage control today and in the process looked, to our eye at least, oore than a bit silly. Monday he suggested tha United States government should assassinate the President of Venezuela. Today he said he didnt' say that. (Huh??? I watched him say it, right on television, he said it lound and clear, ten minutes later he was saying to pray to change the Supreme Court and then I gues she went on later to talk about Islam in pretty insulting ways, insulting to a Muslim. SRH)
Then later he said he did say that and shouldn't have. We can't resist stories where smart people say dumb things and then try to wiggle out. So, we'[ll listen to the good reverend tonight -agian. Conservative talk radio host Michael Graham was fired from his job because of comments he made about Islam. He said it was a terrorist organization. Not just some of Islam-all of it. He refused to apologize so his bosses fired him. We'll talk with him tonight."

(I would love to hear that broadcast, however, I can't, but others of you probably can. It is on at 10:00 Pm Pacific Time. Newsnight With Aaron Brown Wednesday August 24, 2005, on CNN.

Don't forget the broadcast of Monk and Coltrane a premier broadcast of recently discovered music, all on Sirius Radio, check it out on line, I posted links to it on AAJ.

Saundra Hummer

August 25th, 2005, 02:55 PM

A new article is out by Abid Ullah Jan

08/25/05 "ICH"

To Hell with Muslim Terrorism

This is a controversial story in that it tells of the new Popes new words to Muslim clerics, and some basic history of this old, old conflict, and the splinter groups which have created such havoc.

Click on the following link to read the story, it is full of controversy. For instance one of the thoughts in it is this:

Let us agree that occupation of Palestine is not one of the root causes. (of the war and the war against non Muslims.) Let us agree that occupation of Iraq and Afghan came after 9/11, so this could not be causes of grievances, either. Let us agree that the indirect occupation of Saudia Arabia and supporting other dictators in Muslim countries are also mere excuses of Muslim fanatics.

However, let us not forget that so far no evidence has been provided to establish without a reasonable doubt that Muslims are solely responsible for 0/11 (well, what do we call them Jack-Muslims? It seems to me that they at least have their roots in fanatical Muslim indoctrination, not main stream Islam those of Muslim faith are telling us, much like the Neo Nazi's, they claim Christianity as their own belief system, much like terrorists lay claim to Islam. SRH) and other terrorist attacks. When Pope speaks of the "new Barbarism" he must keep in mind that there has been no bull issued by a higest authority in Islam, exhorting Muslim hordes to descend on Europe and America. Still, let's assume that Muslims are the terrorists. No person in his right senses, however, would agree that there is no other cause and it is simply 'poionous interpretation" of Islam that is driving Muslims to become terrorists.

If we keep in mind the background of Pope and others' courage at directly holding Muslims responsible for the global mess, we may noticie that the basis for thier allegations hardly goes beyond 9/11. Therefore, we have to compare the turmoil of the last four years with all that has been happening for the past five centuries. It will help us see if the world just turned upside down after 9/11 and now it is muslims' responsibility to bring an order to it, or the mess is far deeper and far older than we actually recognize.

Those who are lecturing Muslims today, totally ignore that the state of the world today is the result of a history of colonial atrocities and resultant exploitative systems and structures erected. The story goes back to the 15the centry, when the colorialists launched their bloody campaign under the grand auspices of Vatican Church.

(This is politics in the guise of religion or so appears to be.)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9965.htm

Saundra Hummer

August 25th, 2005, 03:48 PM

BUSH REGIME ROTTEN TO THE CORE

BY BILL GALLAGHER

08/24/05 "Niagra Falls Reporter" -- -- DETROIT -- A storm of anti-war protests and sentiment is sweeping across the nation. Finally, reality and truth are trumping Presidnet George W. Bush's lies. Even the perpetual propaganda machine of the corporate media can no longer manufacture consent for Bush's monstrously bad policies and decisions.

A storm of anti -war protests and sentiment is sweeping. While most Americans work and struggle with lower wages, a sputtering economy and rising gas prices, Bush still basks in the Texas sun in his long summer of content. He prefers isolation and deliberate disconnection form the grim evidence of his wholesale failures.

Cindy Sheehan has left the vigil outside Bush's ranch to care for her ailing mother. But others are in her place, reminding the world that Bush will never admit his responsibility for the war in Iraq, its failure and the death of Sheehans's son Casey and more than 1,800 other Americans.

The Busheviks consider Sheehan's witness to the tragedy of the senseless war as an irritant, a PR problem that will fade in time. They've used the usual suspects of right-wing indecency -- Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity -- to do theri dirty work. Those who question the war must be silenced at best, or at least discredited and vilified.

The war in Iraq is unwinnable and futile. We can never undo Bush's madness in starting the war and his sheer incompetence in not planning for its aftermath. Nor can we stop the insurgency, the spawning of more terrorists and the instability U.S. military presence has created simply by "staying the course." No matter how and when we exit Iraq, more chaos and bloodshed will follow. The country will fragment and Bush's insane experiment in nation-building will prove a catastrophic failure.

The reasonable move now is to cut our losses, save lives and get the hell out of Iraq in a hurry.; Polls show nearly 60 percent of the American people now oppose the war and 63 percent want the troops home by next year.

Bush and his war council will never admit error or acknowledge miscalculations. they will continue to send Americans and Iraqis to their deaths as they desperately try to cobble together a political cover plan they'll camouflage as a successful military mission.

Since no one named Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld or Rove will die in Iraq, (Nor will their children or those close to them. SRH) they figure they can continue the carnage until about this time next summer, when they'll shift the focus to Iran just in time for the mid-term elections.

Bogged down in Iraq? Just create a new war with a new enemy and our "war president" will use the occasion to keep the GOP in control of both houses of Congress.

Iran, a charter member of the "axis of evil," is perfect for the enemy role. Iran is seeking to develop nuclear materials for power plants, which could conveivably be used for weapons. The Europeans are wroking diligently to forge a diplomatic solution and get Iran to accept international inspections.

But Bush deplores diplomacy, preferring bullying rhetoric and the threat of force. He horrified the Europeans in his recent remarks about Iran, declaring "all options are on the table" and saying that "we've used force in the recent past to secure our country." Bush's reckless rhetoric damages any hope that moderate Iranians will have any influence at all.

(Hey, don't you think we all know that he knew this? We can see right through him, which is odd, as transparancey in politics isn't his strong suite. So much is hidden from view, but in his actions, the way he works the spin and the way he wants other countries to react fo us is all apparant.. He want's a belligerant Iran, Korea, & Venezuela, he wants a fragmented Iraq, that way we can stay and build more bases, this way they don't have to abandon their dreams of empire. This way he feels the American public will be fooled into going along with him, our protector, what a joke, our war mongering president is more like it, but he wants us in his pocket while he stirs up the hornets nest, and when that's accomplished where will we be then? It is a spooky thought. At least Cindy Sheehan is cooking up a remedy, and we are all adding to the broth, and we appreciate your efforts Cindy, and all of those lending you their support, we really do. SRH)

But Karl Rove wants a new war to bolster Republican fortunes. The president's "brain" would like to concentrate on the next election, but Rove's spending much of his time trying to avoid federal prison.

If there is nay justice left in our nation, Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, will soon be indicted on felony charges for their roles in leaking the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.

These scum should be charged with treason, but my best guess is that they will face counts of obstruction of Justice and lying to FBI agents. The trial will expose the pervasive corruption and ruthlessness of the Bush-Cheney gang, and spur talk of impeachment

Sworn testimony will show the Busheviks would do anything to protect the lies that led to the war in Iraq. We can only hope the grand jury will look deeply at the motives for outing Valierie Plame and the central roles Bush and Cheney played in the scheme. They should ben amed as unindicted co-conspirators.

Two prominent figures in the scandal merit far more public attention than they have received so far. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Attorney General John Ashcroft played critical roles in the despicable plot, and the grand jury ought to be reviewing all their actions.

Ashcroft took a deep personal interst in the investigation of Rove, his friend and one-time campaign consultant when he was a senator from Missouri. :rolleyes:

There is much much more to this article -- to see it click on the following link:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

August 26th, 2005, 01:40 PM

ETHANOL?

I've always heard it said that this fuel is no good and that to promote it's development is just political hay making.

What is it with this? It is as silly an idea as they are saying, or isn't it?

One time we were traveling over to Portland up over the mountain pass, about a four hour drive to go to a dentist in Portland, and on the way home we stopped to gas up in Sandy, and after filling up I noticed that we had filled up with a gas I had never used. (no self-service in Oregon), I was so upset with myself; I was really worried; afraid I would have problems from it on the mountain roads, us in a large crew cab, I was afraid it would hurt our power, and no telling what else, damage etc, but to my surprise, our truck ran so quietly, and the snap from the extra power was amazing. There was a huge difference, not just a little one, but a huge one. The next time we went over the pass, we were on our way to pick up my nieces at the airport who were flying in from Guam and I was telling my Dad and Rich about it my first experience with it and so I gassed up there to let them see how it would be on the trip home. We had a muffler which was going out, so the difference this time was phenominal, the noise decreased significantly, literally by about half, and the power and snap once again was noticibly better. Rich and my dad couln't believe it. Later I heard it destroyed certain types of motors, and that it was terrible as a fossil fuel gas replacement. Couldn't prove it my me! My three to four times using it made me think it was terrific, and I had to question why the big to-do over increasing production. Everyone was saying it was a ripoff of the public. A pork barrel issue for the states which produce corn and other farm crops which can be converted into ethanol.

What's the deal on this, do any of you know?

Saundra Hummer

August 26th, 2005, 03:31 PM

After finding a site with a recording of Art Pepper with Don Joham, I went on another search to see if i could ever find (once again) the album I had seen on the web with the two of them playing together and came across this quote once again and I believe this somewhat explains Art and Don's relationship, just a bit. It's a piece of Laurie Peppers story about Art, his thoughts and a story about Lee Konitz follows.

==== From Straight Life: "Art was an old-fashioned gentleman at heart, despite his history and occasional desperado posturing. He loathed loud talk, vulgarity, and loved good manners. In Straight Life Art speaks of manners and music" :

".......Once you become proficient mechanically, so you can be a jazz musician, then a lot of other things enter into it. Then it becomes a way of life, and how you relate musically is really involved. ....The selfish or shallow person might be a great musician technically, but he'll be so involved with himself that his playing will lack warmth, intensity, beauty and won't be deeply felt by the listener. He'll arbitrarily play the first solo every time. If he's backing a singer he'll play anything he wants or he'll be practicing scales. A person that lets the other guy take the first solo, and when he plays behind a soloist plays only to enhance him, that's the guy that will care about his wife and children and wil be courteous in his everyday contact with people." From Laurie Peppers story about Art. Quotes from Art.

http://home.ica.net/-blooms/hollywood.htm

Saundra Hummer

August 29th, 2005, 11:13 AM

It seems that the GOP faithful are feeling the brunt of Cindy Sheehans vigil and position in regards to George W. Bush and his starting of this war for reasons not given to us in a truthful manner; in this farcical Iraq war. The complaints are flooding in and one of the complaints is that MoveOn.org is now backing her, this grieving mother with a political agenda, one which many feel she has no right to. Heaven forbid Move On.org should be involved. Heaven forbid that she have a political agenda.

How great is this: We now a voice with the power to make a difference. MoveOn.org has given this to us and it is helping us make a difference with these ivory tower politicians, they are now having to be more open; they, these politicians who have run roughshod over us and all we believe in, they now (oftentimes) have to be transparent with their policies, as we now have a way to conteract what it is they are doing that isn't good for the country, what they're doing that isn't good for all of us. Thank goodnedss for the internet, we can now get the word out, messages that our mainstream press oftentimes fail to report for whatever reason. No longer can a politician pick up the ball and run with it unless it's a clean play, not unless he want's the scrutiny MoveOn.org affords us, not unless he or she can stand the heat, as that is what will rain down on he or she, with all we can bring to bear on them with the clout we are giving to MoveOn.org. It itself, like Cindy Sheehans movement is gaining strength, and that is a terrific reality.

We keep hearing that the American people need to get involved, those in Crawford are. With MoveOn.org many more of us are as well, giving us a concentrated voice which is not easy to ignore as we have been as individuals. Cindy Sheehans movement is being looked on as contrived by the powers that be. Our movement with MoveOn.org is worrisom to them, but Cindy has developed a voice and we have with MoveOn.org as well. We now have a way to counteract the Ann's the Rush's the O"Rilley's and Bret Humes and it is making the powers that be squirm. Their wiggle room is shrinking. Great, this feels good! Hope you're smiling Molly Ivins!

Where were, and where are the complaints when hate radio hosts and pundits spew, and spewed their brand of politics? Not a word from mainstream politicians, not unless they were in their sights. Not unless they themselves are in the crosshairs. So give me a break --- that a grieving mother with a political agenda is not to be tolerated? She's not to be considered viable because of her political beliefs? She is viable and the "swiftboating of Cindy Sheehan" won't change the fact that this war was started on falsehoods of such a magnitude that it's shameful. Never have I seen so many stand up after the truth is known and just keep living the lie." They are still trying to keep their hooks in those who have a need to believe them, and in them. A lot of us don't have these needs and we never did. It has been obvious from the start that this is and, has been, a war of opportunity; opportunities which the administration and corporate America are benefitting from while we will and are, paying the price. Too large of one don't you think?

Forgive typo's sun too bright.

Saundra Hummer

August 29th, 2005, 11:42 AM

From Truthout.org

HALLIBURTON CONTRACT CRITIC LOSES HER JOB
BY GRIFF WITTE
THE WASHINGTON POST

MONDAY 29, AUGUST 2005

......PERFORMANCE REVIEW CITED IN REMOVAL.

.....A high-level contracting official who has been a vocal critic of the Pentagon's decision to give Halliburton Co. a multibillion dollar, no bid contract for work in Iraq, was removed from her job by the Army corps of Engineers, effective Saturday.

.....Lt. Gen. Carl A Strock, commander of the Army Corps. told Bunnatine H. Greenhouse last month that she was being removed form the senior executrive service, the top rank of civilian government employees, because of poor performance reviews. Greenhouse's attorney, Michael D. Kohn, appealed the decision Friday in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, saying it broke an earlier commitment to susupend the demotion until a "sufficient record" was available to address her allegations.

.....The Army said last October that it would refer her complaints to the Defense Department's Inspector General. The failure to abide by the agreement and the circumstances of the removal "are the hallmark of illegal retaliation," Kohn wrote to Rumsfeld. He said the review Strock cited to justify his action "was conducted by the very subjects" of Greenhouse's allegations including the general. :rant2: [it seems this is Halliburtons war, they are the ones gaining, while we pay and pay. SRH :rant2: ]

[There's more to this article I've only shown the first half or so. Log on to the following site by just clicking on the link provided, and while on their home page, look up the article, the sun is too bright in here to see the complete address but the following link will take you to the article]

http://www.truthout.org

Saundra Hummer

August 29th, 2005, 02:57 PM

We had a friend who was an American Indian, Piute and he moved from California to Nevada so he could get the medical benefits he needed to help with his worsening diabetes. Shortly after arriving there he was asked to run for office, which he did and was elected treasurer for the tribe.

It was no time at all that he discovered so many abuses, so much missing money, that he was floored by them, and how much was missing, and he only had time to just delve a tiny bit, and when he broght this up in meetings, death threats started coming in, and they were so extreme and so severe that he and his wife were convinced they were real and there was really reason to be very concerned, so much so they moved back to California. Needless to say their families were relieved.

We also had some friends from the Rosebud, and Pine Ridge, and they had stories of corruption as well, but theirs formed mainly around government agencies, although they also were telling of tribal corruption.

Here is a story from Mother Jones:

ACCOUNTING COUP

By Julia Whitty

ALONG HIGHWAY 89, south of Two Medicine River on the slope of Glacier National Park, at a place Elouise Pepion Cobell passes every day on her way from her ranch to her office in Browning, stands a historical marker erected by the state of Montana:

.......Old Agency: The Starvation Winter of 1883-1884 took the lives of about 500 Blackfeet Indians who had been camping in the vicinity of Old Agency. This tragic event was the result of an inadequate supply of government rations during an exceptionally hard winter.

The story of that winter that came down to Cobell from her parents and grandparents is a darker one: of Indians effectively imprisoned by what locals called the Indian Agency (now the Bureau of Indian Affairs or BIA) on land that had been their staples, and with their promised government provisions lost to pervasive corruption." All the Blackfeet know," says Cobell, "that the Agency man was black marketing the Indians' rations, and that the reservation was enclosed in barbed wire."

In the winter of 1883, as the cattle of white settlers grazed illegally on Indian lands, the Blackfeet began to die of starvation and a streptococcal epidemic. In the spring, they ate their last government provided seed potatoes, by June they were stripping cottonwood trees to chew the inner bark; and by the time BIA officials in Washington, D.C. finally responded with extra rations, a Blackfeet man called Almost-A-Dog was said to have cut 555 notches in a willow stick, one for every Indian who had died - one in every four Blackfeet in the state of Montana.

Just west of the Old Agency historical marker, in what is now the Blackfeet Nation, lies an unmarked, wind scoured rise of hills the Indians call Ghost Ridge, where the dead from the Starvation Winter, which actually lasted 18 unrelenting months, were burried in mass graves. When Cobell was a child, an uncle lived nearby, and every time they visited him, her parents repeated the story of Ghost Ridge, Cobell says it's those dead who give her the courage to fight on "Fighting for them," she says. "Fighting the same government that tried to get rid of this entire race of people."

= News: When Elouise Cobell added up the Indian trust money lost, looted and mismanaged by the U.S. government, the tab came to $176 billion. Now she's here to collect.

For 118 years, the U.S. government has been ripping off Indians whose private lands it holds in trust. Now Eloise Cobell wants the money back.

...[Sure --- right. .....Who in thier right minds believes they will ever see this money? ..... Until they have some sort of political clout, it won't happen. Even if they had the clout of, say California, look at what this administration allowed to happen to it during the energy crisis. (Didn't vote for them did they?) Other administrations will more than likely turn away from this issue as well, as the Indians have nothing to offer in return. Then there's the courts. Any Indians sitting on it? Any justices sympathetic to their cause? Nope, we've already gotten most of what we wanted from the American Indian. They have nothing much left to give --- for us to take. We can give enormous gifts to kings in Saudia Arabia. Remember the helicopter given to the Saudi King back in the 70's? Millions of dollars worth of machinery, and did it stop there? A long time ago you say? Well it all started over t00 years ago with the Indians. Had policies been different, perhaps the abject poverty and poor health suffered by our Native Americans wouldn't be such an issue for the numerous sick and poor and their children. What a pity, a crime really. SRH.]

Here's the link to the site the story is on, just click on it.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/09/accounting_coup.html

Saundra Hummer

August 29th, 2005, 06:03 PM

...."We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men." George Orwell

=

....."They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening." George Orwell

=

Policical language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." George Orwell

=

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." George Orwell.

=

The Lords of War

GEORGE BUSH "ONE DEAD AMERICAN FOR EVERY DAY IN OFFICE."

BY Mike Whiteny

President Bush's latest milestone in the war on terror has been predictably ignored in the mainstream media. Bush, who is now in the fifth year of his presidency, has served 1727 days in office. With the death toll in Iraq currently at 1873 servicemen, Bush can now boast that at least one American has died for every day he's been in office, a sobering tribute to a man who wants to be remembered "a war president."

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article 10026.htm

http://snipurl.com/hap0

=

The Crucifixion of Chraist, American Style

by Jerry Ghinelli

"To suggest that God, would ever be on the side of an America-or any country, for that matter-which attacks poor, defenseless, impoverished people out of revenge, fear, ignorance or greed, contradicts everything I stand for today and, more importantly, died for two thousand years ago.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article10025.htm

http://snipurl.com/haoz

=

FINDING CLOSURE

By J.D. ENGELHARDT

While in Iraq, I never once saw a terrorist with extreme inclinations for senseless bloodshed, but only angry farmers and shop keepers who for one reason or another wish to end our emperical domination over their homeland. What I saw was an honest insurrection fought by average citizens.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article10011.htm

http://snipurl.com/hap1

....[I feel it is a good thing he never saw a terrorist, because where there were none, they're there now, and there are now those in traning, as well as there are those who are hardened to that scene; in residence; all around the country of Iraq and elsewere around the globe. All of this as we sit in our comfortable homes, hoping we never see another bound prisoner on his knees in front of his murderous captors. They are there, and just like our former generals and military men are telling us, they are on the rise, they are in their camps or in ordinary neighborhoods training, as we hope against hope that we will never hear of another death.

He is right on so much of this, but there are terrorists out there who he should be thankful they never crossed his path, or he theirs.

Check out the complete articles by clicking on each address following the little stories.

Saundra Hummer

August 29th, 2005, 10:15 PM

.......POLL: INFO SHRINKS PATRIOT ACT SUPPORT

BY WILL LESTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON - Fewer than half of Americans know the purpose of the Patriot Act, and the more they know about it the less they like it, according to a poll released Monday.

Fewer than half of those polled, 42 percent, are able to correctly identify the law's main purpose of enhancing surveillance procedures for federal law enforcement agencies, according to the poll conducted by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut.

Almost two-thirds of all Americans, 64 percent, said they support the Patriot Act. But support dropped to 57 percent among those who could accurately identify the intent of the legislation.

The survey was intended to take a closer look a the high levels of public support the Patriot Act has gotten in various polls, said Samuel Best, the center's director.

"The Patriot Act has been a very visible priece of legislation," Best said. "We wanted to see if people had an understanding of the act that differentiated it from the war on terrorism generally."

"Most peole don't distinguish the Patriot Act from the war on terror in general." Best said.

The House and Senate have voted to extend provisions of the Patriot Act that were set to expire at the end of this year, making many of those provisions permanent. A confernce committee is scheduled to try this fall to work out differences in the House and Senate versions of the legislation.

Some provisions of the Patriot Act are supported by a solid majority, while others got far less support.

The provision that permitted federal agents

_To use information collected in foreign intelligence investigations for domestic crime investigations was supported by 81 percent.

_To monitor names and addresses of Internet communications in criminal investigations was supported by 69 percent.

_To tap any telephone line a terrorist suspect might use rather then specifying particular phone lines was supported by 62 percent.

_To require libraries to turn over records in terrorism investigations unbeknownst to the patrons was supported by 53 percent.

_To require banks to turn over records to the goveernment without judicial approval was supported by 43 percent.

_To conduct secret searches of American's homes without informing the occupants for an unspecified period of time was supported by 23 percetn.

The popularity of the law seems to dwindle for measures that intrude into Americans' personal lives.

"Once people see these things hit increasingly close to home, they become more and more troubled." Best said.

Three-fourths said they think that law enforcement will frequently or occasionally use the law to investigate crimes other than terrorism. Almost as many, 72 percent, said they expect it will be used to investigate legitimate political and social groups. People are evenly divided on whether the law has prevented terrorist attacks.

While numerous polls have indicated widespread support for the Patriot Act, Best said his research suggests "people are pretty torn on where they stand."

The results are based on polling of 800 adults from Aug. 4-22 and have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

==

On the Net:

Center for survey research and Analysis: http://csra.stamford.uconn.edu/

Go to Yahoo News online for this story.

Saundra Hummer

August 30th, 2005, 01:32 PM

August Wilson's cancer is discussed in another thread here on the board and it is said his cancer involves his liver.

My father died of liver cancer, and here is something I believe everyone should know: My father had cancer of his colon, for which he was treated successfully. He made a full recovery from it with no ill effects from the treatments. He was in his eary 80's at the time, and his strength fighting this was amazing, it was like he never missed a beat, in and out of the hospital and one would have never known he had ever been so sick..... As a follow up he would go in for doctor appointments, during which they kept telling him there was something going on with his liver, but they could work on that later, nothing to worry about at the time they would tell him, and so they would just send him home. There was something going on allright. The cancer had spread to his liver, which is the usual outcome of cancer of the colon and all doctors know this, however at that time, we didn't. He ended up dying from this latest cancer and we believe that because of his age, 86, the doctors, nor his HMO wanted to have the trouble or expense of treating this latest cancer, so he was just left to die. Doctors in Bend Oregon and doctors in Arizona, and this is what led us to suspect that his HMO was dictating how his case should be handled. So if you know of anyone with cancer of the colon, know that it spreading to ones liver is expected and it does happen, it's a given. That is how it progresses.

There's more to learn about this from web searches, but this is just a warning to those out there with this problem, learn about it and know your options. We had no idea at the time, we had faith in his doctors and that was a mistake. A big mistake. It should have been up to him whether or not he wanted to undergo the needed treatments, but HMO's had the say evidently and it led to his death. I've always said, children and the elderly hAve no voice. Pity but it proves to be true over and over.

Saundra Hummer

August 30th, 2005, 07:49 PM

.......DEMOCRATS STILL BACKING SENSELESS WAR

by Helen Thomas
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Tuesday 30 August 2005

Washington - It's time for the Democratic party to take a courageous stand and call for the withdrawal of troops from the senseless war in Iraq.

.....Its human cost and the billion-dollars-a-week tab in Iraq should give all Americans pause.

Would the Republicans have hesitated to challenge the Democrats if the shoe were on the other foot? Did the opposition party give Presidnet Clinton any slack while he was in office?

What is the logic of Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, Joseph Biden D-Del, and other so-called moderate Democrats still backing the unprovoked war in Iraq when they know they were sold a bill of goods?

Furthermore, they are urging that more troops be sent to Iraq. And they are doing so at a time when the generals in Iraq are giving mixed signals. Some are talking about a draw-down of troops in a year, others in four years.

Are the Democratic leaders afraid to admit they were wrong? Does the credibility of the administration - and, therefore, the country - mean anything to them?

Both Clinton and Biden are presumed presidential contenders in 2008. That leaves Democratic voters - many of whom are anti-war - with no choice if either wins the party nomination.

Can Biden and Clinton give yourg men and women any valid reason why they should lay down their lives in a war that we didn't have to fight in the first place?

The fallback position apparently runs like this: "We're there and we have to stay there now. We can't cut and run."

I heard the same refrain during the dying days of the Vietnam War. And so did the moderate Democrats.

Whether viewed as a "mistake" or as a "noble cause," the fact is that Vietnam survived and thrived after we departed. It is a participant in the global economy and farily friendly to us.

I always thought the debacle in Vietnam and its aftermath had taught us a lesson. But apparently not.

Not all Democrats are so clueless. In an opinion article on Wednesday in the Washington Post, former Sen. Gary Hart, D-Col., wrote that "history will deal with George W. Bush and the neoconservatives who misled a mighty nation into a flawed war that is draining the finest military in the world. . . diverting Guard and Reserve forces that should be on the front line of homeland defense, shredding international alliances that prevailed in two world wars and the Cold War. . . and weakening America's national security."

But he is also tough oh his own party and asks: "What will history say about an opposition party that stands silent while all this goes on?"

Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., is proposing a total pullout of US troops by Dec., 31, 2006. Why wait a year?

Some Democrats think the party should simply take a back seat, bide it's time and watch the administration defensively, struggle for answers to Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who lost her son, Casey, in Iraq. Her vigil continues adjacent the presidnets Texas ranch.

Bush told the Veterans of Foreign War the United States will accept nothing less than "total victory over the terrorists and their hateful ideology."

His new argument is that anti-war protestors who want the troops brought home quickly "are advocating policy that would weaken the United States."

Bush himself acknowledged there were not ties between the deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks. The 9/11 commission concluded that there was no evidence of "a collaborative operational relationship" betweeen Saddam and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.

The US invasion of Iraq has changed that equation. The Iraqi resistance is beig helped by outsiders - whether terrorists or sympathizers - who were not in Iraq before we attacked.

Did Bush think that at least some Iraqis would not stand and defend their country? Is patriotism simply a US phenomenon?

White House reporters have noted that in addressing military families, Bush is citing statistics on Americans killed in Iraq - a figure now approaching the 2,000 mark. But the candid test will be when he notes the numbers of Iraqis who have been killed since the United States invaded their country.

Democrats have gone about their lives after giving the president a blank check to do anything he thought was necessary. They think they have absolved themselves of responsibility. It's somebody else's war.

But they might find that if they don't get some backbone and take a stand soon, the voters might not be that forgiving.

Saundra Hummer

August 31st, 2005, 03:49 PM

..."Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive." Henry Steele Commager - (1902-1990) Historian and author

=

There are no boundaries in this struggle to the death. We cannot be indifferent to what happens anywhere in the world, for a victory by any county over imperialism is our victory. Ernesto Che Guevara ...........(I didn't agree with their revolution, not once I saw it's direction, it's ideology, it's end result, however, I agree with this thought. I knew men who had been in Castro's prison, and where they once believed in Castro and his war, by the time they had ended up in his jails, their thoughts had turned around, and they were against him with all that was in them.)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

=

....."Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder . . . the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the superior sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish their corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invaribly does both. They alone declare war and they alone make peace. . . They are continually talking about their patriotic duty. It is not their but your patriotic duty that they are concerned about. There is a decided difference. Their patriotic duty never takes them to the firing line, or checks them into the trenches." Eugene V. Debs

.......[[Does Debs ever have this right! Bush just stands there and tells us He's holding the course, well from up on high he is. These ivory tower politicians have no clue how it it is to be losing thier loved ones in this war, and for the most part, they never will know. 9/11 scared the hell out of them as it hit home, for the first time in a lot of these mens lives, this time it was they who, along with us, were facing the line of fire and they didin't like it one bit and so the Patriot Act and other ways of taking away our freedoms have been launched because they themselves were in harms way/. And for a change, they themselves were facing danger, and they lost their heads over it. So it is our young men and women who go off to die to make them feel safe and to reap the benefits of the oil fields and of the other economic gains being in Iraq can give them. It seem capital gains ended up being the more important issue to them, but they can use our troops as a diversion, let them get killed over there while they sit back and line thier pockets here at home, seems to be the thought of the day. Homeland security and the need to stop terrorism, letting al-Qaida take a back seat to plunder. What men will do for money is never a surprise any more is it? SRH.

Bush stands and says "preciate your dying for the cause." How damned noble of him, and how easy for him to say.

Did anyone catch the promo on t.v. of the GW and Matt Louer interview? Bush was saying he truly believes it is the US's duty to lead the world. . . his duty? Anyway some such thing, but the look on Matt's face is worth a thosand words, I hope I can catch that one and see what other nonsenseical statements will come out of his mouth. It seems that even with a lot of prep time and those in the know writing it all down for him, he still manages to drop some sort of bomb.

Had not so many civilians and so many men, women and children been so abused and tortured by us, then we might want to believe our politicans "noble" rhetoric, but they are only degenerates in my mind to have implemented such policies and for any politician to sanction them is criminal in my mind. Anyone who woud mandate such is a criminal. We grew up being taught this in school and by our parents, in our publications and in our churches and here we are in this day and age condoning this in our leaders all because of the fear 9/11 has planted in our hearts and minds. Do we deserve a safe and sanely goverened country any longer? Are there any leaders out there who have the spine as Helen Thomas stated, to lead us in a rightious manner? Would we even believe in he or she? What a mess weve gotten ourselves into, in how we've allowed our goverenment to function during our lifetimes. It's downright shameful. SRH.]]

I receiived the quotes from a newsletter, sent out by Information Clearing House.info

To see their articles for the day and to access their archives, visit this site by just clicking on it:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Again, forgive my typo's as it is brighter than ever in here today.

Saundra Hummer

August 31st, 2005, 04:21 PM

.....THE NATIONAL GUARD BELONGS IN NEW ORLEANS AND BILOXI-NOT BAGHDAD
By Norman Solomon

trughout [ Perspective

Sednesday 31 August 2005

.....The men and women of the National Gurad shouldn't be killing in Iraq. They should be helping in New Orleans and Biloxi/

.....The catastrophic hurricane was an acto of God. But this US war effort in Iraq is a continuing act of the president. And now, that effort is hampering thie capacity of the National Gurad to save lives at home. (This was my initial reaction. SRH)

Before the flooding of New Orleans drastically escalated on Tuesday, the White House tried to disarm questions that could be politically explosive. "To those of ou who are concerned about whether or not we're prepared to help, don't be, we are."

Presidnet Bush said. "We.re in place, we've got equipement in place supplies in place, and once the . once we're able to assess the damage, we'll be able to move in and help those good folks in te affected areas."

Echoing the official assurances, CBS News reported "Even though more tan a third of Mississippi's and Louisiana's National Gurad troops are eitehr in Iraq or supporting the war effort, the National guard says there are more than enough at home to do the job."

But after New Orleans levees collapsed and te scope of the catastrophe became more clear, such reassuring claims lost credibilithy. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. "With thousands of thier citizen soldiers awahy fighting in Iraq, stares hit hard by Hurricane Katrina scrambled to muster forces for rescue and securithy missions yesterday - calling up Army bands and water purification teams, among other units and requestin help from distant states and the active-duty military."

The back-page Post story added. "National Guard officials in the states acknowledged taht the scale of the destruction is stretching the limits of available manpower while placing another extraordianry demand on their troops- most of whom have already served tours in Iraq or Afghanistan or in homeland defense missions since 2001."

Speaking for the Mississippi National Gurad, Lt. Andy Thaggard said, "Missing the personnel is the big thing in this particular event. We need our people." According to the Washington Post, the Mississippi National Gurad "has a brigade of more than 4,000 troops in central Iraq" while "Louisiana also has about 3,000 Guard troops in Baghdad."

National Guard troops don't belong in Iraq. The shoujld be rescuing and protectin in Lousiana and Mississippi, not patrolling and killing in a country that was invaded on teh basis of presidential deception. .....(Now Bush is saying that the reason for this war is to protect the oil fields from falling into terrorists control. How gullible does he believe us to be??? SRH.)......They should be fighting the effects of flood waters at home - helping people in the communities they know best - not battling Iraqi people who want them to go away.

.....Let's use the Internet today to forward and post this demand so widely that the politiciansi n Washington can no longer ignore it.

...........Bring the National Guard home. Immediately.

Norman Solomon is the author of the new book War Made Easy How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. For information, go to:

WarMadeEasy.com

or to:

http://www.warmadeeasy.com

or to see this story on site go here and then you can access his link:

http://www.truthout.com

You know, we live in a state which has enormous forest fires, one which is bordered by states which themselves and their neighboring state have severe forest fires as well, and on down the line it goes, I guess all of our states are not imune to them, and already we've been hearing that with the shortage of National Guardsmen and their equipment we are in for a lot of problems and that some have already occurred. How many more homes will be lost due to this administrations folly? How many lives and livelyhoods threatened? Did they ever think straight about any of the things which are effecting so many of us? Or did they only have Haliburton and thier ilk in mind when they started this craziness?

Forgive typo's too bright I'll try to fix later, If I remember to.

Saundra Hummer

August 31st, 2005, 11:36 PM

Too much to hear and not become so heartsick, as to drag you down in the doldrums, into despair. One man said something along this vein, not an exact quote perhaps, but close enough. He was saying that for lack of $40.00 to fill their gas tanks, whole groups of people died. People who wanted to leave, but didn't have a way out, as they didn't have the means. How sick is this, how wrong is this?

So GW, how is it you are saying "We're with you"? There is no way you were with those people when they were being blown away, crushed and drowned. How can you even begin to say such as that? Where were the military transport trucks, planes and boats when there was a window of oportunity out there? There was time to aid those desperate people and you let them down, you and the states governors, and the National Guard. All of the dead who wished to leave and weren't able to were let down by all of them and by your administration and by you yourself GW. This will hang over your head throughout our history, another blunder, another thing you did so very wrong. Again there is blame to go around but the buck ultimately stops with you.

We'll all remember this and so will historians around the globe, so it seems you have your work cut out for you if you want to undo even a smidgen of the damage to your legacy, this farce of a presidency - which you so seem to enjoy. Well look around -- we are hurting out here -- what are you doing to change all of this? Not much I'd venture to say --- a bandaid after the fact? A bit of cosmetics? All of this so you can keep on traveling your much traveled path. Nothing will have changed so I'm not optimistic as to how you'll handle this situation either. Where's the good you've accomplished so far? Curious minds would like to know! I'd like to say (just like in the movie), "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!" But how unrealistic is this? We're over the proverbial barrel and we all know it. You or your administration aren't about to change and we know that, sure as hell.

What a mess.

Saundra Hummer

September 1st, 2005, 11:12 AM

According to a "Breaking News" email, FEMA is not allowing private individuals to continue with boat rescues, saying it's too dangerous. I would just like to know, are there any government rescues going on, in the numbers that are happening with private boat owners? I somehow dobut it.

We've had dealings with governemnt officials and it seems that often times they are clueless. How many more will die if these people follow the rules set down by FEMA? Sure there's dangers, but most of the people down there who own boats know that area and they know how to handle boats and conditions on the water better than most. They grew up with boats.

There's more chance of death, actually many more deaths, if those in need are left in trees, on rooftops just anywhere where there's no food or potable water. Then there are those in need of insulin, oxygen, and any number of medical treatments and medicines.

How many days has it been since the storm was over? And rescues by the feds aren't even in full swing? Why is this? How is this? This isn't just a percieved emergency, it is real, and this is the fastest they can move? Something is terribly wrong, if this is all the better they can do. Something needs to change don't you think? A quick response commission needs to be set up and waYs to implement better reaction times needs to be found. There are ways and I'm sure there are those out there who know how to handle just these sorts of situations. I even have ideas as to how a quicker response could be implemented myself, and if I can think of ways, there are those who understand more and know just how to do this. The minute the storm was over, there should have been people at the ready with all of the items needed - already assembled, with planes flying out immediately, as well as trucks and any other means of delivery, even landing in a state that is not effected and trucking from there, then that should have already been happening. So much could be done better don't you think?

If the individuals who are searching for and rescuing all sorts of people and their pets with thier boats aren't allowed to continue with their selfless efforts, how will this hurt those out there in such desperate need? I hate to even think about it. I somehow doubt that this will be a rule which those who are so wanting to help so desperately will follow. This is one time I would be one for civil disobedience, I would continue to do all I could to save those poor, poor people.

jonesy

September 1st, 2005, 11:28 AM

So GW, how is it you are saying "We're with you"? ..... Again there is blame to go around but the buck ultimately stops with you.

No kidding, Sandi...

Thought you might like to readthis (http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105L.shtml)

Saundra Hummer

September 1st, 2005, 01:15 PM

Go to the following link to see the information regarding this ingregient in many medicines, medicines which most of us take or have taken in our lifetimes..

It has been associated with brain hemmorages in women......the FDA is taking steps to remove it from all drug products and has requested that all drug companies discontinue marketing products containing PPA. In addition, FDA has issued a public health advisory concerning this ingredient.

From cold remedies to weight loss tablets, this is a common ingredient.

Scientists at Yale University School of Medicine recently issued a report entitled "Phanylpropanolamine & Risk of Hemorrhagic Stroke: Final Report of the Hemorrhagic Stroke Project." This study reports that taking PPA increases the risk of hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding into the brain or into tissue surrounding teh brain) in women. Men may also be at rist. Although the risk of hemorrhagic stroke is very low, FDA recommends that consumers not use any products that contain PPA.

Go to the following link to see more on this ingredient and its dangers.

http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/ppa/

Saundra Hummer

September 1st, 2005, 02:48 PM

No kidding, Sandi...

Thought you might like to readthis (http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105L.shtml)

Did you catch his briefing from the Oval Office? HW and Bill Clinton standing with him like they're a cure-all for all that has already happened, or I should say a cure-all for his non participation? Notice his stressing faith-based rememdies? How many times does he think they'll be able to save his bacon?

I think he should lower his head in shame and walk right out of the White House door, leaving it to someone else to extricate our country out of the mess he and his have put us in, his followers as well as his cabinet. What a fisaso these court appointed and stolen presidencies have been. Will we ever be able to pull out of this mess? The messes abroad as well as at home?

The storm season isn't even over, and they say global warming is bringing in more and stronger ones, but GW and his say we are doomsday naysayers, and now geologists are thinking New Madrid is getting ready to buckle and where will this country be then? Hurricanes, earthquakes, forest fires, and who knows what other tragedies are out there. Where's the National Gurard to help us in these massive endeavors, they are in Iraq, not saving lives, but taking them.

I don't feel I'm being a pessimist, but things do happen. . . Look, they have happened. . . . We have no faith in what it is this administration does in such situations, as they just don't have a clue as to how to handle much of anything now do they? So with them, how is it we can feel reassured, feel we are in good hands. We can't becasue we aren't and we know it. Time for Bush and his cabinet to go. They are of no use to us other than to wreck havoc.

Saundra Hummer

September 2nd, 2005, 01:30 PM

BUSH STRAFES NEW ORLEANS
WHERE IS OUR HUEY LONG?
by Greg Palast

Friday, September 2, 2005

The National Public Radio news anchor was so excited I thought she'd piss on herself: the President of the United (States?) had flown his plane down to 1700 feet to get a better look at the flood damage! And there was a photo of our Commander in Chief taken looking out the window. He looked very serious and concerned.

That was yesterday. Today he played golf. No kidding.

I'm sure the people of New Orleans would have liked to show thier appreciation for the official Presidential photo strafing, but their surface-to-air missiles were wet.

There is nothing new under the sun. In 1927, a Republican President had his photo taken as the Mississippi rolled over New Orleans. Calvin Coolidge, "a little fat man with a notebook in his hand," promised to rebuild the state. He didn't. Instead he left to play golf with Ken Lay or the Ken Lay railroad barron equivalent of his day.

In 1927, the Democratic Party had died and was awaiting burial. As depression approached, the coma-Dems, like Franklin Roosevelt, called for balancing the budget.

Then, as the waters rose, one politician finally said, roughly, "Screw that. They're lying! The president's lying! The rich fat cats that are drowing you will do it again and again and again. They lead you into imperialist wars for profit, they take away your schools and your hope and when you complain, they blame Blacks and Jews and immigrants. Then they push your kids under. I say. Kick'm in the ass and take your rightful share."

Huey Long laid out a plan, a progressive income tax, real money for education, public works to rebuild Lousisiana in 1928.

At the time, Louisiana schools were free, but not the textbooks Governor Long taxed Big Oil to pay for the books. Rockefeller's oil companies refused pay the textbook tax, so Long ordered the National Guard to seize Standard Oil's fields in the Delta.

Huey Long was called a "demagogue" and a "dictator". Of course. Because it was Huey Long who established the concept that a governemnt of the people must protect the people, school, house and feed them and give every man or woman a job who needs one.

Government, he said, "We The People," not plutocrats nor Halliburtons, must build bridges and levies to keep the waters from rising over our heads. All we had to do was share the nation's wealth we created as a nation. But that meant facing down what he called the "concentrations of monopoly power" In finance the needs of the public.

In other words, Huey Long founded the modern Democratic Party. Franklin Roosevelt and the party establishment, scared senseless of Long's ineluctable march to the White House adopted his program, called it the New Deal, and later The New Frontier and the Great Society.

America and the party prospered.

America could use a Democratic Party again and there's a rumor it's alive - somewhere.

And now is the moment, as it was in 27. As the bodies float in the streets of New Orleans, now is not the time for the Democrats to shirk and slink away, bleating they can't "politicize" theis avoidable disaster.

Seventy-six years ago this week, Huey Long was shot down, assassinated at the age of 43. But the legacy of his combat remains, from Social Security to verterans' mortgage loans.

There is no such theing as a "natural" disaster. Hurricanes happen, but death comes from official neglect, from tax cuts for the rich that cut the heart out of putlic protection. The corpses in the street are victims of a class war in which only one side has a general.

Where is our Huey Long? America needs just one Kingfish to stand up and say that our nation must rid itself of this scarecrow with the idiot chuckle, who has left America broken and in danger while he plays tinker toy Napoleaon on other continents.

I realize that the rmiddle of rising flood is a hell of a bad time to give Democrats swimming lessons, but it's act up now or we all go under.

***********

A pedagogical note: As I travel around the USA, I'm just horrified at America's stubborn historical amnesia. Americans, as Sam Cooke said, don't know squat about history. We don't learn the names of a nations capitol untill the 82d Airborne lands there. And it doesn't count if you've watched a Ken Burns documentary on PBS.

I suggest starting with this: read "Huey Long" by he late historian Harry T. Williams. If you want to ease into it, get the Randy Newman album based on it. (Good Old Boys) with the song, "Louisiana 1927." Listen to part of the song at www.GregPalast.com. Do not watch the crappy right wing agit-prop film. "Huey Long," by Ken Burns

+

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times best seller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Subscribe to his commentaries or view his investigative reports for BBC Television at: www.GregPalast.com

Saundra Hummer

September 2nd, 2005, 01:48 PM

.......Out of gas at a station in central California!

How is this as the hurricane isn't over a week old? How is it that one storm can shut down a nation with it's gas supply? It seems to have started, so is this just one station, or aret there others ot there doing the same? It this happening where all of you live or is it just an isolated incicent? A reality thing or is it only another way to raise prices even more.

Back in the 70's when the gas shortage shut the country down, a ship loaded with fuel sat out in the Columbia 'River until prices were where they wanted them, it sat out there for weeks, and then wehn prices were sky high, it came to shore and unloaded it. This according to a friends father how lived overlooking the river and the event. A contrived and false shortage. True? I believe it was as this wasn't the only place we heard of this same ship.

We haven't been into town today so I do hope this is an isolated incident, as we depend on gasoline to get to work, drivng over 100 miles or more a day and so we would have no way to survive if gasoline were not in supply, we live miles and miles from our employment and out emploment takes driving all over two counties as well, so without gas, we will have had it. :eek2:

Saundra Hummer

September 2nd, 2005, 03:05 PM

....Talk about a tin ear, this will show just how out of touch this administration and it's handlers are. SRH

....."HURRICANE PARTY" TAKES ON NEW MEANING

Though we are experiencing one of the worst hurricanes in the nation's history, this waterfront scene (link on site) looks peaceful, elegent, and intact. That is because the Hotel del Coronado is in San Diego, far away from Katrina's devastating winds.(link on site) It is also where George W. Bush spent last night, while thousands of people in Lousiana, Mississippi and Alabama fled in snail-like traffic, searched for loved ones, swam through the streets, or hung out of attic windows, yelling for help. ....... (Don't you know this trip to California took a lot fo planning? How aboutthe expense as well? Why is it that the same all-out eforts couldn't have been make on behalf of the victims of Katrina?)

While levees burst, a major New Orleans bridge came apart, buildings were swallowed by floodwaters, and looters took over the city, the National Guard was nowhere to be seen. To patch one of the levees, 3,000 sandbages were to have been dropped by Blackhawk helicopters, but they never arrived. .......(I did see film of one helicopter doing this, just one. however having said this, isn't it cheaper to fix and improve levee's with other means building them up to heights which will withstand storm surges, cheaper to build than to repair - repairing damage using one of the most expensive pieces of machinery the US military employs?)

Though reading The Pet Goat while thie country was under attack may have made Bush look inept, partying at an oceanside resort while Americans are losing their homes, (continuing his long vacation in another state, SRH,), their sources of income, and their lives, at the very least, an example of shockingly poor taste, not to mention an abandonment of leadership, New Orleans isin a state of absolute chaos, despite the presence of a competent mayor and a competent governor, Hurricane Katrina has created a national disaster. Bush has done everything in his power to prevent the restoration of Louisiana's coast, and he has severely cut funding for hurricane protection. It is no surprise that he doesn't want to look Governor Blanco in the eye. But whoopint it up at a resort while Gulf Coast states endure a living hell is a new low.

Posted by Dinae E. Dees on 08/30/05 at 08:36 PM

Go to this site to see the links and the posted article, and while there check ot their home page and archives. Just click on the following address.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2005/08/hurricane_party.html

.....[ Even more reason for him to resign, and If I were in a position of power myself, I would organize marches on the capitol, and in every state capitol in the nation, and in every county - - demanding this whole administration resign. Then, just maybe, we could get back on track, and restore our faith in government, our confidence, our dignaty and our hope. This administration? They're destroying us. Just fate I hear people say. "Destiny and we can't change it." I don't accept that reasoning, that belief. There has to be a way to counter their ill advised policies, their ineptitude. I believe it's in our hands. I believe this is the way open to us, this would focus attention where it needs to be, getting these men and women out of Washington. SRH......]

Saundra Hummer

September 2nd, 2005, 03:34 PM

......"I assume the president's going to say he got bad intelligence. . . I think that whenever you see poverty, whether it is in the white rural community or in the black urban community, you see that the resources have ben sucked up into the war and tax cuts for the rich." Congressman Charles B. Rangel -- 09/02/05

Check out this story:

World stunned as U.S. struggles with Katrina

By Andrew Gray.'

The world has watched amazed as the planet's only superpower struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with some saying the chaos has exposed flaws and deep devisions in American society.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article100082.htm

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Here's another one to keep in mind as we watch the chaos in New Orleans and elsewhere in Mississippi and Alabama:

The Smirk of a Killer

Ending the inpurity of the Bush White House.
By Norman Solomon

"They can go into Iraq and do this and do that." Martha Madden, former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said Thursday, "but they can't drop some food on Canal Street in New orleans, Lousiana, right now? It's just mind boggling."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10081.htm

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The humbling of a superpower

By The Daily Mail

Here is a superpower that can crush at will a tinpot dictatorship - but then becomes so bogged down in the grisly aftermath of war that it finds itself unable to respond anything like adequately to the plight of tens of thousands of its own citizens engulfed by a national claamity.
http://www.informationclearinghosue.info/article10074.htm

Saundra Hummer

September 2nd, 2005, 06:50 PM

....From Truthout.org

BARBARA LEE BLAMES WAR FOR SLOW RESPONESE TO KATRINA
truthout ] press release

Friday 02, September 2005

Oakland CA -- in a statement issued Friday September 2nd, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), lambasted the administration's slow response and lack of action to help the Gulf Coast communities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

"The slow response to the needs of the people in the areas hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina is inexcusable. We had several days advance notice that the hurricane was coming, but where was the preparedness? Why weren't the hospitals, schools and seniors evacuated immediately? Is this an example of the Administrations idea of homeland security? If so we are in trouble.

"If ever anyone doubted that there were two Americas, this disaster has made this division clear. The victims have largely been poor and black. The devastation from Hurricane Katrina only underscores the disastrous consequences of the Administrations failure to take even the most basic steps to alleviate poverty in the United States. The Administration can not ignore this reality.

"Furthermore, has the Administration shortchanged homeland preparedness, in favor of funding in a misguided war in Iraq and tax cuts for the wealthy? What other critical services, such as funding for levees, have been cut from the budget to fund this war? Now is the time for Congress to agressively pursue oversight hearings. We need answers. .....(She needs to ask the American public, or at least a lot of us for them, as we truly believe we know the answers, we know what it is they've done and not done and we believe we need them out of Washington with their political powers and their powers of persuasion stripped; removed from their grasp. Only then will we have a chance of reclaiming our country, SRH.).....

"I have been in close contact with the congressional members from the states affected by Hurricane Katrina and have heard from the American Red Cross. We all agree that it is time for our country to work together and help those how have so little and have lost so much.

"I call on President Bush and FEMA Director Michael Brown to follow through on their promises and deploy immediate emergency aid. Furthermore, I challenge the President to address this national catastrophe with the same resolve as he did in leading America into the war in Iraq.

"I am working wth private citizens, business leaders and places of worship within my district as well as fellow congressional members to deliver immediate assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. For example, I am working with the California State University, the University of California, the Peralta Colleges and local universities to find space for displaced students.

"On Wednesday, September 7, 2005 at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Bulding at 1301 Clay Street in Downtown Oakland, from 8am -8pm, we will be collecting supplies and accepting donations for the relief."

http://www.truthout.org,

Just click on the above line and go to their home page and scroll down to the story.

Saundra Hummer

September 2nd, 2005, 07:23 PM

.....NEW ORLEANS MAYOR LASHES OUT AT FEDS

CNN

Friday o2, September 2005

.....NAGIN: "THEY ARE SPINNING AND PEOPLE ARE DYING"

New Orleans - As his city skidded deeper into chaos, New Orleans' embattled mayor accused federal officials of dragging their feet while people are dying in deplorable conditions.

Mayor Ray Nagin's voice cracked with anger and anguish Thursday night in an interview with New Orleans radio station WWL-AM.

"We're getting reports and calls that [are] breaking my heart from people saying "I've been in my attic. I can't take it any more. The water is up to my neck. I dont' think I can hold out." and that's happening as we speak."

Nagin said the time has long past for federal authorities to act on their promises.

"You mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on man," he said.

"I need reinforcements," he pleaded. "I need troops, man. I need 500 buses man. This is a national disaster."

"Ive talked directly with the president," he said. "I've talked to the head of the Homeland securty. I've talked to everybody under the sun."

After scheduled visits to devastated areas in Alabama and Mississippi, President bush was expected to fly over the hurricane-ravaged city on Friday.

As he left the White House, Bush said, "The results are not acceptable. I'm headed down there right now."

He said he was "looking forward" to thanking people involved in disaster relief efforts and assuring victims that short-term and long-term help is on the way.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday that he thinks the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal agencies have done a magnificent job" under difficult circumstances, citing their courage and ingenuity."

Insisting that aid is coming as fast as possible,Chertoff said, "You can't fly helicopters in a hurricane. you can't drive trucks in a hurricane."

FEMA Director Micahel Brown told CNN on Friday, "My heart breaks. What we're doing, we're ramping up."

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said she hoped the amount of needed aid would begin arriving Friday.

"I'm not going to stand here and play the blame game, "Blanco said "We have aproblem. Let's get to the problem."

The tempers of those waiting for food, water and relief from relentless heat continued to boil Friday as they waited for help to arrive, some in shocking conditions that were only getting worse. At least one large explosion rocked the city early Friday.

In the radio interview, Nagin's frustration was palpable.

"Ive been out there man. I flew in these helicopters, been in the crowds talking to people crying, don't know where their relatives are. I've done it all man, and I'll tell you man, I keep hearing it's coming. This is coming, that is coming. And my answer to that today is BS, where is the beef? Because there isn't no beef in this city."

Nagin called for a moratorium on press conferences. "until the resources are in this city."

Nagin said, "Get every Greyhound bus in the countr and get them moving." .....(he must not know that Halliburton doesn't own them, or for a no bid contract they would be hauling people out right and left and profit would be the game. Srh)

"They're feeding the people a line of bull, and they are spinning and people are dying." he said.

I don't know whether it's the governor's problem, or it's the president's problem, but somebody needs to get... on a plane and sit down, the two of them and figure this out right now." Nagin said.

"They thinking small, man, and this is a major, major deal." he said.

"Get off your asses and let's do something."

The mayor said except for a few"knuckleheads," the looting is the result of desperate people just trying to find food and water to survive. ... (remember Bush's terse comment to Diane Sawyer, the sanctimonious ass, -- "Zero Tolerance! SRH)

Nagin blamed the outbreak of crime and violence on drug addicts who are cut off from their drug supplies and wandering the city "looking to take the edge off their jones."

Nagin is in his first term as mayor. He ws sworn in May 2002. A Democrat, he was a popular reform candidate who promised to clean up the city's political corruption. He's a former cable company executive.

Go to this link by clicking on it to find this story and the following one, and many others of interest as well

http://www.truthout.org

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FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WASN'T READY FOR KATRINA, DISASTER EXPERTS SAY
By Seth Borenstein
Knight Rider Newspapers

Wednesday 31, August 2005

.....Washington - The federal government so far has bungled the job of quickly helping the multitudes of hungry, thirsty and desperate victims of Hurricane Katrina, former top federal, state and local disaster chiefs said Wednesday.

The experts, including a former Bush administration disaster response manager, told Knight Ridder that the government wasn't prepared, scrimped on storm spending and shifted its attention from dealing with natural disasters to fighting the global war on terrorism.

== "What you're seeing is revealing weaknesses in the state, local and federal levels." said Eric Tolbert, who until February was FEMA's disaster response chief "All three levels have been weakended. They've been weakend by diversion into terrorism."

Go to the previous link to look up the article in its complete form. All on: truthout.org

A revealng story. More to it than many want to believe. More of us are dying here at home due to this war against Irag, all for position and oil.

Saundra Hummer

September 2nd, 2005, 08:49 PM

Friday, Sept. 2, 2005, 11:00 a.m. EDT.

..........With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.comStaff the story behind the story.

FORMER CIA DIRECTOR TENET THREATENS DISCLOSURES?

Former CIA director George Tenet, said to be the target of what the Washington Times called "a scathing report by Inspector General John Helgerson" - may go public wth embarrassing disclosures about the Bush administrtation and its actions leading up to Sept. 11, 2001.

The CIA report, prepared as the result of a 17 month investigation by a team of 11 CIA officials, blames Tenet and several top CIA officials for it's failure pre-9/11 to deal with al-Qaida.

But former Reagan White House aide and intelligence expert John B. Roberts II, quoting an anonymous source close to Tenet, wrote in Thursdays Washington Times that the former chief spook has no intention of taking it lying down.

The report delivered to Congress this week, recommends punitive sanctions aganst Tenet., former Deputy Director of Operations James L. Pavitt and former counter-terrorist center head J. Cofer Black.

Roberts writes, "George Tenet is not going to let himself become the fall guy for the September 11th intelligence failures, according to a former intelligence officer and a source friendly to Mr. Tenet.

In retaliation, Roberts says that Tenet may turn the tables and put the blame on President Bush.

Tenet, he claims, has already written a firery 20 page, "tightly knitted rebuttal" to the Inspector General's report. But Tenet's response has been marked "classified," in contrast to usual CIA practice. Also unavailable to the public is the report itself.

Roberts says Tenet's decision to strike back could be very bad news for the president.

Wrote Roberts. "Mr. Tenet's decision to defend himself against the charges in the report poses a potential crisis for the White House.

"According to a former clandestine services officer, the former CIA director turned down a publisher's $4.5 million book offer because he didn't want to embarrass the White House by rehashing the failure to prevent September 11 and the flawed intellignece on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction."

Quoting a "knowledgeable source." Roberts wrote that Tenet "had a "wink and a nod' understanding with the White House that he wouldn't be scapegoated for intelligence failings."

Roberts claims a "deal" was made between Tenet and Bush, one that was sealed with the President's award of the Presidential Fredom Medal to the former CIA head.

In his rebuttal, Tenet, Roberts warns, "treads periously close to affirming the account of Richard Clarke, the former NSC terrorism official who claimed the Bush administration's had delayed adopting a strategy against al-Qaida."

Current CIA Director Porter Goss is between a rock and a hard place according to Roberts, who explains that Goss will be criticized for covering up if he does nothing. But if he follows the IG's recommendaton to convene formal earings as a prelude to sanctions, Tenet himself may go public to defend his reputation by damaging the President, and his administration.

Roberts concludes: "The $4.5 million book offer may soon be back on the table, and this time Mr. Tenet might take it."

To see other articles on this site and links to more on this subject, go to this web site:

http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/2/110832.shtml

from this sites: Editors note: Get the Picture that Made America Proud on 9/11

* New book details al-Qaida's plans for nuclear terror - Get it FREE - Click here:

Saundra Hummer

September 3rd, 2005, 01:33 PM

...truthout editorial

........................DANGEROUS INCOMPETENCE

BY CINDY SHEEHAN

SATURDAY O3 SEPTEMBER 2005

.....George Bush has been an imcompetent failure his entire life. Fortunately for humanity, he ws just partying his way through school, riunning companies into the ground and being an alcoholic and cocaine abuser for most of that time - and his incompetence was limited to hurting the people who worked for him and his own family. The people in his life who were hurt by it's incompetence probably have been able to get on with thier lives. Now though, his incompetence affects the world and is responsible for so many deaths and so much destruction. How many of us did not forsee the mess he would make of the world when he was selected the first time? We saw what he had done to Texas. How many of us marveled and were so discouraged and amazed when he was "re-elected" the second time? We saw what he had done to the world. Dangerous incompetence should never be rewarded, let alone be rewarded so handsomely as in George's case.

.....The Camp Casey movement has been struggling with how best we can help the government ravaged people of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. We sent a busload of supplies into Covington, LA, which is a poor, African American town across Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans. I had the privelege of visiting Covington with my friends, Buddy and Annie Spell last July. It was a community filled with love and laughter.

The Bring Them Home Now Tour bus that went into Covington is the Veterans For Peace Impeachment Tour bus that I rode in and out of Crawford on. They took about 10,000 pounds of leftover Camp Casey supplies and we had 2 trucks filled to the brim with left over water from the camp to Covington. The tour bus also has satellite, so it is the only communications that Covington has with the outside world now.

This is an email that our tour received form Gordon, who is one of the bus drivers who bravely drove to Covington. I left it intact without editing.

....I can't recommend coming here but, if you must, we do need help! During the day we are going out into the community wiht watera and baby supplies and lunch foods. But, there has been an attack on the Armory and the cops are scared. We have moved into Covington middle school, and we are giving the red cross our assistance with medical supplies and food services. Until we arrived they only had MRE's. They just brought in 5 new born babies from the hospital as they are expecting more casualities. We brought in a generator and solar powered lights, no power, no phone services here, our satellite link is the only connection to the outside. The Marshal Law enforcement that will be coming to New Orleans with the Army, could create mass panic. That will lead to more refugees, we have twenty right now and room for 100. Don't come here unless you're prepared to work!

I should say, stay out on the road and raise money for the relief effort. But make up your own minds.

We need to keep the public aware of what is going on here and all over SOLA.

If you want to help go to an established refugee camp and provide your internet access to document who is there and what they plan to do on the website. Use your satellites access to maximize the story of the relief effort!

Gordon

There it is.

I think we should finish the tour so we can talk about what an abject failure this administration is. The unnecessary tragedy in New Orleans is directly related to the unnecessary tragedy in Iraq. Unnecessary being the operative word.

Innocent peole are dying daily in this world. In the crush of the hurricane story, the fact that 950 peole (mostly women and children) wer trampled to death in Iraq were burried in the back sections. Those are 950 peole who would still be alive if George Bush were not president. 950 peole in Iraq and how many thougsands in the Gulf States died while the emperor strummed a guitar and knocked a golf ball around? Additionally, eight of our brave and wonderful soldiers have been needlessly killed in Iraq since Monday.

I really beieve that George and his band of incompetent and dangerous thugs need to resign it would be the only honorable and competent thing to do. But wait.......

http://www.truthout.org

There are online discussions going on at this site, just click in the link to hear and join in.

[ Wow! It seems that Cindy and me are thinking along the same line! Resign, Resign, Resign. The whole darned administration needs to leave. :banana: SRH]

Saundra Hummer

September 3rd, 2005, 04:55 PM

....."IT REMINDS ME OF BAGHDAD IN THE WORST OF TIMES.

Julian Borger in New Orleans
Saturday September 3, 2005

The Guardian

The sprawling convention centre in New Orleans was no doubt once a source of civic pride, but yesterday the concrete and glass edifice was a symbol of national shame, giving out a stench that could be smelt two blocks away.

A dense mass of people - perhaps 20,000, almost all of them black - packed the cavernous building and filled the surrounding pavement, sitting amid debris left by Hurricane Katrina and the rubbish accumulated in four days of waiting for help.

A knot of police officers, mostly white, watched the throng warily from a small side road, armed with rifles and pump-action shotguns. More police watched from the Greater New Orleans Bridge high above.

They were the only sign that the official world was aware of the plight of the crowd below - and that was as close as they got. The previous day, some military rations and water had been dropped by relief workers from the bridge onto the car park. It was as if being poor and black was a contagious disease.

If so, it was becoming a self-fulfilling dread. Inside the building, the toilets had becme blocked after the first day and by yesterday the air wafting from them was so noxious it felt like a blow to the face.

A policewoman near the centre brandishing a shotgun said she had no news of the promised help from the army and the National Guard. "They've been saying they're going to send in troops since day one. We haven't seen anything yet."

Walking from her informal checkpoint to the crowd across the road was like crossing a boundary between the first and third world. On the other side many people were clearly too ill to walk and several seemed close to starving.

Inside the centre, no one coudl understand why they were being treated in this way. "If you can drive in like that , ;how come they can't come and get us ?" Henry Carr a 38-year-old furniture salesman, said.

Everyone was frantic to know whether the buses would turn up. For days, they had been told to stay in the centre so they could be picked up, but the promised transport had failed to materialise. Buses had arrived for the people trapped at the Louisiana Superdome stadium, a mile to the north, but it seemed the convention centre, a lesser landmark, had been forgotten. The latest rumour was that the buses would come later that afternoon, but that would already be too late for up to a dozen peole who had died waiting.

Two of the bodies had been dumped by an employee's entrance. They were both old and frail women. One had died in her wheelchair, a blanket had been thrown over her face. The other woman had been wrapped in a sheet.

A man walked past the bodies dragging a pallet loaded with big bottles of ginger ale, some plates and a frying pan. To the rest of America watching the tragedy unfold on thier televisions, he was one of the looters, Denounced by President Bush.

But to the people inside the convention centre, he was one of a band of heroes keeping them alive. "The people who were going into the stores would give us water and food, said Edna Harris, Henry Carr's aunt. "There would be ladies with babies and they had no milk, and these guys would break in and bring them milk."

Kyle Turner, a 28 yearl-old dishwasher, was looking for some clean water. "My son is six months old and we got no milk. I just got two cans of powdered milk, and I need some water for it," he said.

In addition to the constant squalor, the thousands left in the centre had to contend with the fear of gangs of young men. Everybody talked about it. One woman said she held her children's hands tight all night because there were stories circulating of thugs who took young girls and boys to the upper stories of the centre and raped them. It was impossible to confirm the rumours but there was no mistaking the fear they inspired.

By late morining a possible sign of hope had arrived. One soldier stood by the side of a red civilian pick-up holding a rifle and talking to some of the stranded civilians. He would not give his name, but the patch on is shioulder indicated he was frm the 101st Airborn, and elite division which has spent much of the past two years in Iraq. "Kind of reminds me of Baghdad in the worst of times," he said shaking his head. Then he got into his pick-up and drove off.

William Schaefer, one of the few white men in the crowd, looked on in disgust. "We're dying one, two a day here, Why don't' they come for us?"

.**** Musician Fats Domino, 77, thought to have been missing after refusing to evacuate, was yesterday reported to be safe after being picked up by a boat with his wife and at least one of his daughters near his home in New Orleans.

From the Guardian

Go to this site to locate this story and other shocking and revealatory articles abut the Hurricane victims and the Iraqi war. Now more than ever it is connected to us here, and it's killing us here at home as well as over there.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

September 3rd, 2005, 06:29 PM

....."True compassion, is more than flinging a coin to a beggar, it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring." Martin Luther King Jr.

=

"This is a must listen:

Interview with Mayor of New Orleans.

"They are feeding the public a line of bull - and people are dying down here."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10093.htm

=

Here's a list of new stories on ICC:

'They died right here, in America, waiting for food."
by Mark Egan

Leroy Fouchea, offered to how reporters the dead bodies of a man in a wheelchair, a young man who he said he had dragged inside just hours earlier, and the limp forms of two infants, one just four months old, the other six months old.
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Police On The Rampage in New Orleans
"Stop the car right now', reporter told. 'Back up, or I'll shoot"
By Tim Harper

The last of more than 30 images shot by Oleniuck depicted officers delivering a fierce beating to the two suspects, an assault so fearsone one of the suspects defecated.
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New Orleans police begin to show signs of stress
by Jack Douglas Jr.

One officer has already been shot in the face, others have ducked bullets while conducting rescue missions and the entire 1,700-officer department has been forced to work in the dark, without emergency radio communications since Hurricane Katrina struck this city of 600,000 residents on Monday.
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Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans
by Joseph R. Chenelly

"We're going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get his city under control."
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I escaped from New Orleans: Notes From Inside The CIty:

In the refugee camp I just left, on the 1- 10 freeway near Causeway, thousands of people (at Least 90% black and poor) stood and squated in the mud and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily armed soldeirs standing guard over them
=

Class Conflict at Superdome: Guardsmen Halt Evacuation.

(this is crazy!!! SRH)
The evacuation was interrupted briefly as some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line - much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the stinking Superdome since last Sunday.
http://snipurl.com/bf4x
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Criticism of Bush Mounts as more than 10,000 feared dead

Having spent thier fourth day waiting to be rescued, the city fell deeper in to chaos, with gangs roaming the city and corpses rotting in the sun.
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Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?

Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard, and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.
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Did you know?

Marsha J. Evan, President and Ceo of the American Red Cross Salary for year ending 06/30/03 was $651,957
http://snipurl.com/hf5a
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Did you know?

The Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Basset receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this this $2 Billion dollar organization. By comparison, Brian Gallagher Presidnet of the United Way receives a $375,000 base salary (plus numerous expensive benefits)
= Maurine Down United States of Shame :

America is once more plunged into a snake pit of anarchy, death, looting, raping , marauding thugs, suffering innocents, a shattered infrastructure, a gutted poice force, insufficient troop levels and crimainally negligent government planning. but this time it's happening in America.=
=
[Here's another shocker....SRH]

Daley 'shocked' as feds reject aid :

A visibly angry Mayor Daley said the city had offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people
in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things
the fed said they wanted was a single tank truck
http://www.suntimes.com/output/hurricanes/cst-new-daley03.html
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Arianna Huffington : Bill Clinton, Suck-Up-in-Chief
What the hell was Bill Clinton thinking, standing there next to President Bush and providing verbal cover for the administratins ludicrous claims that the problems plaguing New Oreans were unforeseeable? ....(exactly!...Scientists
and engineers have been telling the WORLD that this was going to happen.
It was inevitable, that it was bound to happen and some have even said it would be this year due to the warmer than usual waters in the Gulf o Mexico.)
=
=
MY GRAND FINALE :

HALLIBURTON GETS KATRINA CONTRACT (ANOTHER NO BID? SRH)

The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina the Houston Chronicle reported today.
http://snipurl.com/hf53

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

...For these stories in their entirety just click on the above link.

Saundra Hummer

September 3rd, 2005, 11:56 PM

On the previous post, I questioned whether or not this was a No Bid Contract with Halliburton, but there is a contract, and now here comes my cynacism concerning Halliburton and its subsidiaries.
=
KBR, Halliburtons's Subsidiary is under the Navy's $500 million CONCAP (link provide on site.) contract awarded to KBR in 2001 and renewed in 2004. The repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi.

KBR hs not been asked to repair the levees destroyed in New Orleans which became the primary cause of most ot the damage.

Since 1999, governments worldwide have awarded $3 billion (Link Provided on site) in contracts to KBR's Government and Infrastructure Division to clean up damage caused by natural and man made disasters.

Earlier this year, the Navy awarded $350 million in contracts to KBR and three other companies to repair naval facilities (link provided) in northwest Florida damaged by Hurricane Ivan, which struck in September 2004. The ongoing repair work involves aircraft support facilities, medium industrial buildings, marine construction, mechanical and electrical improvements, civil construction, and family housing renovation.

In March, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is tasked with responding to hurricane disasters, became a lobbyist for KBR Joe Allbaugh (link) was director of FEMA during the first two years of the Bush administration.

Today FEMA is widely criticized for it's slow responses to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Allbaugh managed Bush's campaign for Texas Governor in 1994, served as Gov. Bush's chief of staff and was the national campaign manager for the Bush campaign in 2000. Along with Karen Hughes and Karl Rove. Allbaugh was one of Bush's closest advisers.

There is a perfect example of someone cashing in on a cozy poltical relationship." said Scot Amey, general counsel of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington watchdog group. "Allbaugh's former placement as a senior government official and his new lobbying position with KBR strenthens the company's already tight ties to the administration, and I hope that contractor accountability is not lost as a result.

=

This article is from HALLIBURTON WATCH

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/hurricane_katrina.html

....[How odd it is that each and every warning concerning the leeves in New Orleans were ingnored? That each plea to protect the natural barriers from development were ignored? That disaster was invited in by not listening to those in the know.

Each year now, cuts in funding, which would have helped Louisiania, were made, cut after cut, and request after request were ignored or denied. Look who gains from this? Halliburton. It seems this conglomorate has cost us more than we will ever figure out with any certainly, but we can be certain of this, it isn't a company with our best interests at heart, and how can this be? How much of their "loot" are these old men with one foot in the grave going to line thier coffins with?

With so many having died in the poorer neighborhoods, how much will this save welfare and medicare? Will this free up more for the Iraq war? I didn't believe it was a race issue as much as I believed it to be a class issue, "them that have it, and them that don't." No way can I now think so clearly about this. I have so many doubts which are leaving me to believe that this administration is just about capable of anything under the sun. They never cease to amaze me with their heartlessness and crooked corrupt ways with thier finger in every pie while they're baking more. And another amazing thing is how so many men and women leave their moral center and hop on the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton/Radical Bandwagon. What worries me the most is: I'm afraid we haven't seen the last, or the worst of it......SRH]

Saundra Hummer

September 4th, 2005, 11:45 AM

This was sent to me in a newsletter from Rene Laanen the fellow with the terrific site primarily dedicated to the Trombone and the men who played or play this fascinating instrument.

http:www.trombone-usa.com
(Netherlands - USA)
http.www.Trombone-USA.com
On this sight there are searchable biographies and www.TrombonesOnline.com a leading onliine provider of trombones, equipmen,t and trombone related products.

It's a series of NEW ORLEANS FLOODS photos

http://www.wwltv.com/sharedcontent/breakingnews/slideshow/083005_dmnkatrina/1.html

The last link is for the slide show.

l

128Bit_Encryption

September 4th, 2005, 12:16 PM

Wow! Seems as if you have your own news blog at the AAJ site. Not complaining but have you considered moving it to a site that is your own? Just curious. :wink2:

Saundra Hummer

September 4th, 2005, 01:27 PM

Wow! Seems as if you have your own news blog at the AAJ site. Not complaining but have you considered moving it to a site that is your own? Just curious. :wink2:

Not really. ;) I think it's fun, for one thing, to see how we jazz fans respond to the world around us. It seems so many people out there, not only jazz fans, are oblivious to what goes on around them, oblivious to what happens in their lives; what is happening all around the world; that is, until they buy their weekly supply of coffee, and it's jumped in price, and then when they try to fill their gas tanks and the price has jumped out of sight or the pumps run drr. Then we/they take notice, for a while at least. Or when medicines aren't available or when they kill.

This thread seems to generate some interest and some controversy, and when things happen such as this tragedy in the south, I try to post as much as I can that will let people know what is going on, so I post several stories & links to the few sites which carry them. I'ts my way of countering the Rush's and the Coulters and others who bombard us with their slant.

I don't even know how much it wouild cost to do as you suggest, but know I couldn't fund it even if I did, regardless.

I just hope that word of mouth spreads and that some of what I consider injustices are learned of and that more and more of us out here will find out what is going on and work to make things better. Getting word out to the community en masse is oftentimes a good thing.

I remember one time starting a word of mouth campaign in Southern California regarding health issues. It concerned the lack of facilites for those who picked our fruits and vegetables in central California where I was living at the time. I had to go down for surgery and so told the doctors and nurses at UCLA about this problem, they in turn said they would make this known, as they had never thought of it. It seems that I told every single person who I was in contact with, that, if they would take notice at how illnesses would take off every summer and spring that they needed to think of how it is these people who followed the crops had to go to the bathroom - no porta pots were furnished, no TB or Hepatitis screenings are taken, and so they just went in the orchards and fields, endangering our health. There was not one place to wash their hands either. I asked everyone of them to tell thier friends and to start asking for these facilities to be provided, which thankfully. it finally happened. I like to feel that this was in part helped along by my persistance. Mine and the field workers themselves, some of whom I talked to, asking them to do the same. Caeser Chavez and others changed a lot as to how things are done. Thankfully we no longer have to eat fruits and vegetables which have been contaminated by human feces and urine.

I hope, somehow, that AAJ in being here will enable a lot of us to make a difference. On my own I don't believe my influence would be more than a whisper, but here I have my hopes. Just read the other posts in "Current Events." There's lots of information in this thread we all can benefit from.

I do know my posts oftentimes provoke and irritate, however, I know a lot of viewers thank me for these posts as well. I only hope that somehow they make a difference and open up views to problems which oftentimes aren't being covered by mainstream press in large enough numbers for all of us to see and hear, thereby opening up avenues to solve the most severe problems which plague government and us. At least we can, here on AAJ, open up issues which we members consider crucilal. Open them to debate and qustions in members and guests minds. I think that this can only be a good thing, a good outcome, regardless of our positions.

There are so many things which do change how we live and how we will be living that just isn't being reported enough by the popular press and media. So like the Rush's and the Coulters, I've bombarded this site. I just hope that these posts open up questionss. and discussions everywhere, not just here on AAJ.

Saundra Hummer

September 4th, 2005, 04:46 PM

....."We need food and water and they sent us men with guns." - Katrina survivor.

=

....."How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these things. Goerge Washington Carver.

=

To care for anyone else to make their problems one's own, is over the beginning of one's real ethical development." Felix Adler

=

.....".....when we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings." Sogyal Rinpoche

==

The care of human life and happiness, and not thier destruction, is the first and only object of good government." Thomas Jefferson

Visit this site to see numerous stories, actually many more than usual, all about Katrina and it's effects and the reasons behind much of the controversy. Also view a video taken at sites of Katrina's damage , and one at Wal Mart.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info
=
=
Here are some titles:

Bodies Are Strewn 'Like Roadkill'
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We Have Been Abandoned By Our Own Country: A video
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Failing at War, Peace and Dignity
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Two Americas
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An open letter to the little boy in the red shirt.
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Eyewitness: My friend was shot and killed for his car.
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A Death In New Orleans
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Guardsmen 'played cards' amid New Orleans chaos, police official : (A top New Orleans police officer said.)
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New Orleans crisis shames Americans
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Met by Despair, Not Violence
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Bush visit halts food delivery :secret
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Bush Visit Grounded Helicopter Rescue. :secret
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New Orleans Police. Overwhelmed, Are Quitting the Force
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At least 200 New Orleans police officers have walked away from thier jobs and two have committed suicide.
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VIDEO: Police Looters in WalMart
Http://snipurl.com/hfoe
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Delusions Under Siege
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Warnings went ignored as Bush slashed flood defence budget to pay for wars.
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Navy ship nearby underused
.....The Bataan's hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patiens, are empty. (What is the Govn't thinking? This is just terrible.)
http://snipurl.com/hfof
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Amanda Lang: Left Behind
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New Orleans is a bad place to be poor.
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How the Free Market Killed New Orleans
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Brown pushed from last job: FEMA chief had to be'asked to resign' (Overseeing Horse Shows??? How would this qualify him in any way for this type of disaster???))
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Ex-officials say weakened FEMA botched response.
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Tell Bush & Congress Accept Cuba's offer to send doctors to the hurricane victims! (THIS LOOKS INTERESTING, and STRANGE DON"T YOU THINK?)
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Drenched in profits : Drenched in Blood.
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Daniel Patrick Welch: Only in America
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Impeach Bush Now, Before More Die
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Insurers face $40bn claims after Katrina
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Stratfor Repor : New Orleans: A Geopolitical prize
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[Today, there are so many other articles in the newsletter that you will just have to go to the site to see if the ones I didn't list on this long post might interest you. ...So much more, however I think that this last one deserves a special mention, as we've all seen it happen, or at least heard of it from friends, relatives and in our media, and in the press.] This is it:

Killing Americans By Health Care Policy:

Lack of health insurance kills Americans. More Amerians die for political decisions concerning health care policy on a weekly or monthly basis than died in the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10109.htm
=

.....I'm letting in one more, as they say this is a colosal waste and it's this:

:secret Report: Gov't Secrecy Grows, Costs More : :secret
Overall, the government spent $7.2 billion in 2004 stamping 15.6 million documents "Top Secret," "secret" or "Confidential."

Saundra Hummer

September 4th, 2005, 06:50 PM

Katrina victims are being offered some pretty nice digs here in Oregon, in Multnomah County by the Sheriff. There is a new never been used jail sitting empty, and you know, they just showed it on televison and it's pretty nice. The doors, of course, will not be locked the people in it will be free to come and go, and if the people who it is being offered to, can look beyond the fact that it is an actual jail, the facilities there will be better than shelters of other types unless they are in a private home. There's a kitchen and laundry. There's television, game rooms, computer access and on and on, there is also medical facilities, and I do believe I heard them say access to dentists, and it just gets better and better. The sheriff says that they will be able to take in 500 people, each with thier own bed and more privacy than other shelters offer. If I were anywhere out on a birdge or rooftop or in the converntion certers or the Super Dome, I would take them up on it in a second. It is spotless, new and comfortable, and it will afford some much needed privacy and relief from thie conditions they've been in for so long. The Red Cross representitive who contacted the news station said that after seeing the report, and pictures of the facilities they are going to float the question to survivors. I would jump at the chance, that's for sure. Really, tt's nicer than a lot of motels. (EDIT: I forgot to say that there are no bars in sight, evidently there are none, the sheriff said "Look around, do you see any bars?" He said that's because there are none. I hope the Red Cross finds takers.)

Saundra Hummer

September 5th, 2005, 10:36 AM

Gw Bush is once again in New Orleans on "Damage Control".

According to news articles, (one of which is in one of the posts above [a link] from ICH); all rescue and relief operations were halted for George Bush's foray into the disaster struck real world of we mere mortals. Can you imagine stopping food, and water distribution operations while he was there day before yesterday? The people were in a desperate state, and they stopped efforts which had just started. How terrible. This time I do hope he has given the order to carry on with these crucial operations - as it can mean life or death. We know this and surely he knows it as well. Do you think? Surely he won't allow the relief efforts to once again be stopped. Surely he won't allow it to happen? To happen again! But hey, photo ops are photo ops! He knows how well these have worked for him in the past. Think we'll fall for it again?

Why doesn't he hop aboard a hospital ship and order it into a pick up zone and help carry the sick on board? An act such as this might demonstrate some empathy. & some decision making. But for me any effort he displays at this late date, would just look like he is only trying to save his own bacon. To late for me to believe he has it in his heart and mind to save these people for all the right reasons. He has let too many die, then there's this, how about areas which aren't under water, they have had no relief efforts directed their way, dry as a bone where they are, and no relief in sight.

Again will he allow operations to be put on hold once again? Surely not, Will we allow ourselves to be so easily fooled by his posturing and posing in front of the media? Photo ops are just that, photo ops. They accomplish little, and cost us big bucks, enough to build a few homes for those whose homes have been washed or blown away, enough to feed and clothe several people as well, but it is image which is all important, so off flys Airfoce One and off flys Airforce One Helicopter. At what expense? For most of us it isn't the picture of a desperate man doing image control and repair, repair to his own image which gets into our heads. Oh, we'll remember his ploy, but it's the suffering people whose images and words are burned into our memories. No, it isn't important to us as to how GW struts out to meet dignitaries and a handful of carefully chosen displaced suffering people, It's the dying and starving we will always have images of in our hearts and minds.

There is one image from Nightline and seeing it was the only time I had to smile and enjoy seeing and hearing someone in such dire straights as he was showing so much humor and fortitude. Not that the situation was enjoyable, but the way he told of it was just the cutest. He was the little black boy wearing a Sponge Bob T-shirt telling us what he thought of the situation in New Orleans at one of the shelters, how we should look at how it was for them, and how they needed help. Talk about a smart, cute acting little boy. He made me want to drive down there, pick him up and bring him home with me. He needs to study to be a newscast broadcaster, he was terrific. Bet he gets offers to go to Disneyworld, he's a winner. I do hope he is still o.k.

We can only hope that relief efforts will continue without interuptions, this time. That he will be getting his photo ops and sound bites from areas where he won't cause any more harm; any delay in any relief efforts..

We need to learn not to be so easily taken in.

Saundra Hummer

September 5th, 2005, 03:40 PM

There are numerous stories in mainstream news today and these are stories coming down on how the president has handled this terrible tragedy named Katrina. Go to the AOL news site to be surprised, This has been somewhat like Fox and USA Today in how they cover the news, I call them the good news stations, that is until a Democrat is on the block. Perhaps I'm looking in widows the wrong way, but this is how I see it. Not always, but often enough.

Anyway there's a wealth of information; stories about this Administration and those who are on it's case. Just click on the following link:

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050905091809990022&ncid=NWS00010000001
=

Hope this is the right address, if not just go to

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/

Saundra Hummer

September 6th, 2005, 12:05 AM

After Katrina, and after seeing who is out there trying to make a difference, I don't believe that the people in the beltway, the politicians need ever complain about Hollywood and other entertainers again. Where are the politicians and where are their families in this effort?

Let me know I'm wrong. I would like to be surprised in a good way once again.

Saundra Hummer

September 6th, 2005, 02:52 PM

I posted this on another thread, but I feel it needs to be seem by as many as I can put it out in front of, not that information about this bill hasn't been written about here on this site before now, it has been, but this time tehre are things which have been put in place to do something about it, and it is this:

According to our friends at Working Assets, buried deep within the No Child Left Behind Act is a provision that reaquires public high schools to hand over private student information to military recruiters. If a school does not comply, it risks losing vital federal education funds. But you CAN opt out. Learn more below.

Check out the information and the links in the Bush/Cheney?Rumsfeld/Rich etc: Time to Resign thread. Post #4

I can't even see the links to copy them again. Just too bright in here.

Check into this sites home page and subscribe if the mood hits you. They don't bombard you with emails, but a couple of times a month one might come in.

Saundra Hummer

September 7th, 2005, 11:07 AM

........."In the struggle of Good against Evil, it's always the people who get killed." Eduardo Galeano

=

"Don't be taken in when they paternally pat you on the shoulder and say that there's no inequality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they'll send you out to protect their gold in wars whose weapons, rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can with a flick of the finger tear a million of you to pieces. Jean-Paul Marat (May 24, 1743 - July 13, 1790), was a Swiss-born scientist and physician.

Saundra Hummer

September 7th, 2005, 11:12 AM

.....We Have Been Abandoned by Our Own Country.

You have to watch this video to fully understand, how little regard our government has for the welfare of its own citizens.

Click here to view. Windows Media

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10121.htm

Saundra Hummer

September 7th, 2005, 12:46 PM

....The Real Costs of a Culture of Greed
By Robert Scheer
The Los Angeles Times,

Tuesday 06, September 2005

(from Truthout.org)

What the world has witnessed this past week is an image of poverty and social disarray that tears away the affluent mask of the United States.

Instead of the much-celebrated American can-do machine that promises to bring freedom and prosperity to less fortunate people abroad, we have seen a callous official imcompetence that puts even Third World rulers to shame. The well -reported litany of mistakes by the Bush administration in failing to prevent and respond to Katrina's destruction grew longer with each hour's grim revelation from the streets of an apocalyptic New Orleans.

Yet the problem is much deeper. For half a century, free-market purists have to great effect denigrated the essential role that modern government performs as some terrible liberal plot. Thus, the symbolism of New Orleans' flooding is tragically apt. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and Louisiana Gov. Huey Long's ambitious populist reforms in the 1930's eased Louisiana out of feudalism and toward modernity, the Reagan Revolution and the callousness of both Bush administrations have sent them back toward the abyss.

Now we have a president who wastes tax revenues in Iraq instead of protecting us at home. Levee improvements were deferred in recent years even after congressional approval, reportedly prompting EPA staffers to dub flooded New Orleans "Lake George."

None of this is an oversight, or simple incompetence. It is the result of a campaign by most Reputlicans and too many Democrats to systematically vilify the role of government in American life. Manipulative politicans have convinced lower-and middle-class whites that their own economic pains were caused by "quasi-socialist" government policies that aid only poor brown and black people - even as corporate profits and CEO salaries soared.

For decades we have seen social services that benefit everyone - education, community policing, public health, enviornmental protections and infrastructure repair, emergency services - in steady, steep decline in the face of tax cuts and rising military spending. But it is a false savings, it will certainly cost exponentially more to save New Orleans than it would have to protect it in the first place. (Exactly! And this was well known by the corporate entity, Cheney's baby, Halliburton, therefore the skepticism! SRH)

And although the wealthy can soften the blow of this national decline by sending their kids to private school, building walls around their communities (Chief Justice Rehnquist purchased a home in a gated community with a covenant which disallowed Jews from buying a home there.), and checkng into distant hotels in the face of approaching calamities, others, like the 150,000 people living below the poverty line in the Katrina damage area - one third of whom are elderly - are left exposed. ......[...How many, has it been determined, have died in their wheelchairs, "drowned in their wheel chairs" because Brown at FEMA didn't ask for assistance until after Katrina had come ashore? Looks like Harry Conick Jr. should have been in charge, he has shown more common sense and compassion than just about anyone. This being from Brown on up. He is putting his life on the line working out in that toxic stew - this "Lake George." He is being an example to all of us. What a guy! I can't begin to praise him enough. It has to be terribly hard on anyones emotions and their health to do as he's doing each and every day. Sure, the cameras are there for his good deeds, but with him it's really more than just a photo op, this is a man who truly cares. He is making a difference, if not in rescuing large numbers, but he is showing those he finds that there is someone out here that cares, and in doing this he is rebuilding our faith in the goodness of man, while the administration and it's flunkies, are just tearing our faith apart. You'll be remembered for your good deeds Harry Conick, we will never forget your selflessness, your heartfelt dedication to the people and the town you love! SRH)

Watching on television the stark vulnerability of a permanent underclass of African Americans living in New Orleans ghettos is terrifying. It should be remembered, however, that even when hurricanes are not threatening their lives, and sanity, they live in rotting housing complexes, attend embarrassingly ill-equipped public schools and lacking adequate police protection, are frequently terrorized by unemployed, uneducated young men.

In fact, rather than an anomaly, the public suffering of these desperate Americans is a symbol for a nation that is becoming progressively poorer under the leadership of the party of Big Busihness. (We don't vote for this party, but both sides of the aisle are in it, the GOP are in it in droves, however too many Democrats are members as well. SRH). As Katrina was making its devastating landfall, the U.S. Census Bureau released new figures that show that since 1999, the income of the poorest fifth of Americans has dropped 8.7 % in inflation adjusted dollars. Last year alone, 1.1 million were added to the 36 million already on the poverty rolls. .....[How about a much needed cost of living increase in federal benefits? They are much needed. With the increases in costs everywhere we turn since Katrina, they are warranted.]

For those who have trouble with statistics, here's the shorthand. The rich have been getting richer and the poor have been getting, in the ripe populist language of Louisiana's legendary Long, the shaft.

These are the people who have long since been abandoned to their fate. Despite the deep religiosity of the Gulf States and the United States in general, it is the gods of greed that seem to rule. Case in point. The crucial New Orleans marshland that absorbs excess water during storms has been greatly denuded by rampant commercial development allowed by a deregulation - crazy culture that favors a quick buck over long-term community benefits.

Given all this, it is no surprise that leaders, from the White House on down, haven't done right by the people of New ORleans and the rest of the region, before and after what insurance companies insultingly call and "act of God."

Fact is, most of them, and especially our president, just don't care about the people who can't afford to attend political fundraisers or pay for high-priced lobbyists. No, these folks are supposed to be cruising on the rising tide of a booming unregulated economy that "floats all boats."

They're left floating all right.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090705K.shtml

Saundra Hummer

September 7th, 2005, 01:12 PM

...............Iraq Redux: FEMA Blocks Photo's of Katrina Dead

By Deborah Charles
Reuters

Tuesday o6 September 2005

New Orleans - The US government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as htey are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane , rejected requests form journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims.

An agency spokeswoman said space was needed on the rescure boats and ththat "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect."

"We have requested that no photgraphs of the deceased be made by the media." the spokeswoman said in an e-mailed response to a Reuters inquiry.

The Bush administrtation also has prevented the news media from photographing flag-draped caskets of US soldiers killed in Iraq, which has sparked criticism that the government is trying to block images that put the war in a bad light.

The White House is under fire for its handling of the relief effort, which many officials have charged was slow and bureacratic, contributing tothe death and mayhem in New Orleans after the storm struck on Aug. 29.

http://www.truthout.org

I can see some merit in not wanting certain photo's being seen, if you are a relative, but if my mother had died in her wheelchair, I would want the world to see it and know there was no attempt at all to evacuate her rest home, her hospital or home by FEMA, by Bush or Cheney. I would want the world to see the end result of their callous neglect, this going through the years of their terms in office with blinkers on, ignoring our plight, I believe all because they had nothing to gain by helping us. Well it's backfired and it 'is' time for you to go, GW Bush and Dick Cheney. We would like for your to pack your bags and vacate the scene, and you know, this is more of a chance than those in poverty or in resthomes, and hospitials ever had the chance to do. They were left to die. You at least can leave alive. :embarass:

Saundra Hummer

September 7th, 2005, 01:43 PM

From National Geographic News

Hurricane Katrina: Complete Coverage,

National Geographic News
Updated September 7, 2005

Hurricane Katrina may rank among the costliest natural disasters in lost human lives and destroyed property in U.S. history. See our latest news stories and photo galleries from the affected Gulf Coast region and learn what you can do to aid the relief effort:

PHOTOS

Photo Gallery: Katrina's Aftermath, Week Two
Rescue operations are transitioning to relief efforts in New Orleans, as other Gulf Coast residents pick through the wreckage of shattered homes and lives.

Photo Gallery: Agony Reigns in Katrina's Aftermath
Amid bodies and tsunami-like-destruction, hundereds of thousands of surviviors of this week's Hurricane Katrina await a helping hand. These images portray some of the suffering.

Photo Gallery: New Orleans People, Pets Flee Flood.
Goaded by rising floodwaters and the Louisiana governor's evacuation order, residents-including cats in a plastic tub-- are escaping in boats and helicopters.

Many more photo galleries of this tragedy, and news stories such as :
Eye on the Storm: Hurricane Katrina Fast Facts
Fast facts about the incredible power of Hurricane Katrina and the tragic destruction wrought by the storm.

Lots to see and read about.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/0902_050902_Katrina_coverage.html

Saundra Hummer

September 7th, 2005, 04:49 PM

Warning - Disturbing images: Pictures from New Orleans:

http://snipurl.com/hihp

Here is something else involving the Katrina fiasco that will cause us shame. Hey why not ask corporations such as Halliburton and other corporate giants which we have propped up with massive over the top tax breaks for this assistance? This is amazing and makes me detest this administration even more than I ever dreamed I could. This is bad!

Sure we've helped other countries much the same as we are asking for now. but remember who strummed a guitar while the Gulf Coast was blown and flooded into oblivion. It sure wasn't ther European Union who was part and parcel of this loss of life; this tragedy. It was this adminstration, so don't you think they should go to the money pit that we have given the tax breaks to, Halliburton and all of the others? Are they asking for these relief items to help defray costs away from Iraq, leaving yet more money for their dirty little billion dollar a week war? Should they (the EU) not give it to us to force the adminstration into paying for it themselves? Making them feel the heat? By not giving it to them, will it cause the adminstration to phase out this unnecessary dirty little war?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10170.htm

Eu cities snags in getting Katrina aid to victims

A Swedish plane laden with aid was waiting to take off but had not got U.S. approval to enter the United States.

http://snipurl.com/hih7

When you see some of the poorest of countries such as Mexico and Bangledesh offering and sending aid due to the criminal neglect of this administration, well, it's just deplorable.

Just hit the website and see all of the stores out there . There's just isn't enough time to let you know all of them, it's astonishing. The things that are happening are amazing, and need to be revealed.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

September 7th, 2005, 05:21 PM

....Here's How You Can Make an Immediate Difference in Louisiana ... a message from Micahel Moore

Friends,

There is much to be said and done about the manmade annihilation of New Orleans, caused NOT by a hurricane,but by the very specific decisions made by the Bush administration in the past four and a half years. Do not listen to anyone who says we can discuss all this later. No, we can't. Our country is in an immediate state of vulnerabilty. More hurricanes and other disasters are on the way, and a lazy bunch of self-satisfied lunatics are still running the show.

So, in the next few days, I will write to you about what must be done about Bush and Co.

But today I want you to join with me in bypassing the colossally inept and incompetent Bush administration and get help DIRECTLY to the People of New Orleans area -- right now.

A lot of ou have written me to ask what you can do. Many don't know who to trust. Many want to do more than write a check. You are right to think that writing checks to relief agencies will not get water and aid to people in the next 48 hours. Checks will be needed later and can be written later.

I have a way though, for each and every one of us to do something that can affect peoples lives TODAY.

For the past few days I've been working with a group that I guarantee you will get direct aid to the people who need it most.

Cindy Sheehan, the brave woman who dared to challenge Mr. Bush at his summer home, has now sent her Camp Casey from in front of Bush's ranch to the outskirts of New Orleans. The Veterans for Peace have taken all the equipement and staff of volunteers and set up camp in Covington, Lousiiana, on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. They are accepting materials and personally distributing them to those in need and have been going into New Orleans on a daily basis.

This is where we come in. We need to ship supplies to them immediately. Today they need the following.

.................Bottled Water (and lots of it!), baby diapers, baby wipes, baby formula, Pedialyte, baby items in general, powder, lotion, handy wipes, sterile gloves, electrolytes, LARGE cans of veggies, school supplies, paper plates, paper towels, toilet paper, and anything else to lift peoples spirits.

You can ship these items by following the instructions on VFPRoadTrips.org. Or you can deliver them there in person. The roads to Covington are open. Their address is:

Volunteer Kitchen, Food Bank and Distributioon
Center
PineView Middle School
1115 West 28th Avenue Covington, LA 70434

Here's how to get there. You can drop them off or you can stay and participate (if you stay, you'll be camping so bring your own tent and gear and mosquito spray).
If you can't ship these items or go there in person to VFPRoadTrips.org and make an immediate donation through PayPal. Camp Casey Covington will have immediate access to this cash and can buy the items themselves from stores that arer open in Louisiania (all donations to Vererans for Peace, are tax deductible).

Each day I will post up-to-the minute information as to what is needed and the progress Camp Casey is making. Please visit MichaelMoore.com often and do what you can to help.

Many other groups are also doing good work. MoveOn.org has set up a system for people to offer rooms in their homes to the survivors.

There is not time to waste. People are suffering and dying. Each of us can do something. There is no other alternative.

Thank you in advance for your help. Tomorrow, we will take care of the other work we need to do about the idologically hamstrung incompetents in charge.

Yours,
Michael Moore
Mike@MichaelMoore.com
www.MichaelMoore.com

Good luck in in this effort Michael!

Saundra Hummer

September 7th, 2005, 08:26 PM

Will there be suits brought against the federal government en masse? Class action lawsuits with participants in the thousands? This brought one all because of their untruthfulness concerning the Governors request for disaster assistance, and it's havng told her or/and others help was on the way? How about their having turned away water trucks? How about the fact that FEMA didn't request assistance until after Katrina was over? How about the fact that there were no boats in place to try to rescue those trapped in their homes, some in attics and others on roof tops. How about the fact that there was a hospital ship which was never deployed, and other ships which could have helped people? And I don't for a mnute believe it would have been a bad thing to put those in the most need on these ships regardless of how the feds are saying it would have scared them. I would rather be on a ship than in the filth and lawlessness that the convention center and the Super Dome were experiencing, it was said to be macabre. People in freezers, dead, a child with it's throat cut. This is a horrid vision and surely the ships would have been a welcome relief. How was this allowed to happen. The local police and governments were only able to do so much. They were counting on the feds and they never showed. Promises, promises, promises, that is all that ever came from them and by the time they realized the fury this has stirred up, and they began to send in the cavalry, it was too late for so many. Someone is culpable and we know who, and I'm not reticent about the blame game as some are saying we should be. No'; it's obvious whose to blame.

If it ends up in court, Scallia, Thomas and any other Bush family Supreme Court appointee should recuse themselves, and go of quacking like a duck, like Scallia once had so much fun doing over a Cheney ruling.

The Bush/Cheney administration is in hot water politically like they couldn't have imagined a few weeks back, and they will probably have the Supreme Court and the most talented lobbyists doing their thing like we've never imagined, all to save their goose that layed the golden egg. However, "Lake George" is political poison. This might be the end of this rampage they've been on. We can only hope. We just know we will never forget the damage they have done. the sadness they've created. They are criminal in their neglect.

Saundra Hummer

September 7th, 2005, 10:18 PM

.........New Orleans: It's about us
Iraq war didn't cause the hurricane, just drained resources from flooded city.

By Molly Ivins
Working For Change.com

Austin, Texas -- Like many of you who love New Orleans, I find myself taking short mental walks there today, turning a familiar corner, glimpsing a favorite scene, square or vista. And worrying about the beloved friends and the city, and how they are now.

To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in peoples' lives.

This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics," or, "There's noting I can do about it," or, "Eh, they're all crooks anyway."

Nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I can do about any of it. Look around you this morning. I suppose the NRA would argue, "Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill people." Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people."

One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular administration attached to it. No one wants to play, "The Democrats did it," or, "It's all Reagans's fault." Many environmentalists will tell you more than a century's interference with the narural flow of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem, cutting off the movement of alluvial soil to the river's great delta.

But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term policies like letting the Corp of Engineers try to build a better river than God, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush administration repealed those policies -- ordering federal agencies to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands.

Last year, four environmental groups cooperated on a joint report showing the Bush administrations's policies had allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands.

Does this mean we should blame Bush for the fact that New Orleans is underwater? No, but it means we can blame Bush when a Class 3 or Class2 hurricane puts New Orleans under. At this point, it is a matter of making a bad situation worse,, of failing to observe the First Rule of Holes (when you're in one, stop digging).

Had a storm the size of Katrina just had the grace to hold off for a while, it's quite likely ho one would even remember what the Bush administration did two months ago. The national press corps has the attention span of a gnat, and trying to get anyone in Washington to remember longer than a year ago is like asking them what happened in Iznik, Turkey, in A.D. 321.

Just plain political bad luck that, in June Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corp of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that remant "major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now."

The commander of the Corps' New Orleans district also immediately instituted a hiring freeze and cancelled the annual Corps picnic.

Our friends at the Center for American Progress note the Office of Technology Assessment used to produce forward-thinking plans such as "Floods: A National Policy Concern" and "A "Framework for Flood Hazards Management." Unfortunately, the office was targed by Newt Gingrich and the Republican right, and gutted years ago.

In fact, there is now a government-wide movement away from basing policy on science, expertise and professionalism, and in favor of choices based on ideology. If you're wondering what the ideological position on flood management might be, look at the pictures of New Orleans -- it seems to consist of gutting the programs that do anything.

Unfortunately, the war in Iraq is directly related to the devastation left by the hurricane. About 35 percent of Louisiana's National Guard is now serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen. Recruiting for the Guard is also down significantly because people are afraid of being sent to Iraq if they join, leaving the Guard even more short-handed.

The Louisiana National Guard also notes that dozens of it's high-water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators have also been sent abroad. (I hate to be picky, but why do they need high-water vehicles in Iraq?)

This in turn, goes back to the original policy decision to go into Iraq without enough soldiers and the subsequent failure to admit that mistake and to rectify it by instituting a draft.

The levees of New Orleans, two of which are now broken and flooding the city, were also victims of Iraq war spending. Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, said on June 8, 2004, "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq."

This friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives. :clap: :clap: :clap: (Bravo Molly, right on! :clap: :clap: :clap: )

http://www.workingforchAnge.com

Check out the other articles on this interesting site and check out their cartoon archives, editorials, etc.

Saundra Hummer

September 8th, 2005, 11:43 AM

.....Journalist Groups Protest FEMA Ban on Photos of Dead

"It's impossible for me to imagine how you report a story whose subject is death without allowing the public to see images of the subject of the story." Lary Siems of the Pen American Center told Reuters......... See this in it's complete form by accessing the link at the bottom of this post.

==

Barbara Bush: It's Good Enough for the Poor

On the tape of the interview, Mrs. Bush chuckles audibly as she observes,just how things are going for families that are separated from loved ones, people who have been forced to abandon their homes and the only community where they have ever lived, and parents who are explaining to children that their pets, their toys, and in some cases thier friends may be lost forever. Perhaps the former first lady was amusing herself with the notion that evacuees without bread could eat cake.

==

.....Max J. Castro [ Katrina Exposes Ugly Aspects of Bush and America

It is not merely and emotional outburst when a top rap singer says on national television that George Bush doesn't care about black people; Max J Castro says it's a solid argument backed not just by the evidence of the past few days, but also by the policies of the last five and a half years. ..... (I believe it is every-bit as much a policy that is about class, not just race, it's about the ever widening gap of "them that have and them that don't", and the disdain for those out there who many call "trailer trash". SRH)

==

Dean: Race Played a Role in Katrina Deaths

Race was a factor in the death toll from Hurricane Katrina, Howard Dean told members of the National Baptist Convention of America on Wednesday at the group's annual meeting.

==

Click on the link below to access the site:

http://www.truthout.org

Much more, articles by Sidney Blumenthal about "What Didn't Go Right?"
=
UN Repirt: Parts of America Are as Poor as Third World
=
Cindy Sheehan [ What Kind of Extremist Will You Be?
=
Democrats Seek Roberts Papers, but Administration Balks.
=
Edwards, Pelosi, Kennedy, Kerry, Dean, Step Up Criticism of White House
=
Mayday Mississippi Delta
Truthout begins round-the-clock information support for Everyone impacted by Katrina. We will privide the best sources available for the most up-to-date and expansive coverage possible.
=
To directly to our coverage of Cindy Sheehan's courageous stand in Crawford, Texas.

These are the articles covered in todays issue: Increasing criticism of White House, UN Compares US poor to Third World, journalists protest FEMA ban on photographs, Dems push for Roberts papers, and more....Browse our continually updating front page at:

Http://www.truthout.org

Saundra Hummer

September 8th, 2005, 12:59 PM

.....New Orleans Populaton has the Right of Return.

Listen Now.... (or read)

The people of New Orleans have a right to return. It is not too early to say so. In fact, it is imperative that we demand the Right of Return now, before the circumstances of the displacement of this population create facts on the ground that cannot be reversed. We have seen, elsewhere in the world, how those who have been displaced are effectively shut out from returning to their origins, and how quickly the public says, well that's just water under the bridge -- or over the levee. Others, newcomers, will benefit from the tragedy of the previous populations's displacement. this cannot be allowed to occur in New Orleans.

Not only does the Black two-thirds of the city have the right to return but the federal government has an obligation to direct every resource to making it possible and practical for them to return, and to live productive lives in the city from which they were driven.

The circumstances of displacement are clear. The Bush regime set New Orleans up for a fall, cutting back on funding for the levees in every year of George Bush's administration. The scenario for precisely the catastrophe that Hurricane Katrina wrought was played out in a regional and federal computerized hurricane war game, just last year, involving a hypothetical Hurricane called"Pam." The Bush men chose to ignore the data. In legal terms, they showed a depraved indifference to human life-or worse.

After the deluge, this official depravity was compunded by the Bush men's indifference - or worse - to the plight of those who had no choice but to stay in New Orleans. The facts of federal depravity are so manifest, there is no need to elaborate in this commentary. But the New Orleans diaspora is spreading, uncharted, with no paper trail, and only an ad hoc, improvised charitable money trail. The displaced persons of New Orleans, like the Blanche DuBois character in the Tennessee Williams play, "Streetcar Named Desire," are now largely dependent on "the kindness of strangers." That is nothing to celebrate about.

The people of New Orleans have the right to be made whole, again. They are citizens, wounded by our own government. The rights of citizens cannot be privatized, or churched-out, or Salvation-Armyed out. All help is appreciated, but we must also focus on rights - the right to not be permanently displaced by depraved government policies or the corporate greed that will certainly try to swallow New Orleans whole - just as whole as did the waters of Lake Pontchartrain.

Displacement based on race is a form of genocide, as recognized under the Geneva Conventions. Destruction of a people's culture by official action or depraved inaction, is an offense against humanity, under international law. New Orleans- the whole city and its people - is an indispensable component of African American culture and history. It is clear that the displaced people of New Orleans are being outsourced - to everywhere, and nowhere. They are not nowhere people. They are citizens of the United States, which is obligated to right the wrongs of the Bush regime, and it's unnatural disaster. Charity is fine. Rights are better. The people of New Orleans have the Right to Return - on Uncle Sam's tab. For Radio BC, I'm Glen Ford.

.....You can visit the Radio BC page to listen to any of our audio commentaries voiced by bc Co-Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Glen Ford. We publish the text of the radio commentary each week along with the audio program.

To access this site for a unique perspective, to learn how many in community of black concerned citizens are feeling and thinking, just click on the link below:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/radio_bc090805/ono805_radio_bc_text.html

Saundra Hummer

September 8th, 2005, 03:57 PM

:clap: .....MUST SEE VIDEO

"Go "uck Yourself, Mr. Cheney!'

Vice president Dick Cheney, in Gulfport, Mississippi on a tour of the Katrina hurricane zone, was todl to "go "uck yourself, Mr. Cheney" twice on live television.

Click here to watch:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10196.htm

==

Listen to Your Neighbors Die

"I heard her die," Williams said. "She cried for two nights. 'Help. Someone help me please!" The the last time I heard her call it turned into a gurgle. That was her last cry."

http://www.informationclearinghose.info/article10194.htm

===

Warnings were loud and clear- but still city drowned.

This is must read report

By Giles Whittell

If THERE is a smoking gun in the Gulf Coast Wreckage, it is the hurricane warning issued by the New Orleans office of the US national Weather Service soon after 10am on August 28, the eve of katrina's arrival

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10193.htm

===

Katrina + Oil = Profits for OUr Kings

By John Perkins

It is time, my fellow Americans, to listen to the words of our Founding Fathers
Profiteering without representation must go. The destruction of our world, for this short term benefit of a new type of royalty, is unacceptable.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10180.htm

==

FEMA Packed With Presidential Pals

Campaign pros get top jobs.

By Kenneth R. Bazinet

The Tree top jobs at the Federal emergency management Agency under President Bush went to political cronies with no apparent experience coping with catastrophes.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10183.

==

More than 100 (I've heard many more) died in a warehouse, waiting form rescue

A Louisiana Congressman says more than 100 people died at a warehousealong a New Orleans dock. Congressman Charles Melancon (muh-LAWN'-suhn) says they died as they waited for rescuers to take them to safety.

http://www.informationclearinghoue.info/article 10189.htm

==

In Nursing Home, a Fight Lost to Rising Waters:

St. bernard Parish officials say the 32 of the homes roughly 60 residents died on augh 29, more than a week ago.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10188.htm

==

Canadians beat U.S. to New Orleans suburb:

A Canadian search and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days before the U.S. military, a Louisiania state senator said on Wednesday

Http://snipurl.com/hjau

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!. It makes one believe there is a conspiriacy to let people die, that they weren't there before the Canadians is a crime. Can you believe this? I really do believe that the federal governemnt's officials who allowed this all to happen need to be prosecuted to the max, and heads should roll all the way down the Washington DC Mall. Letting us know they are out of there. :clap: We can't afford to let them people spend any more time in control of our lives; any more time doing a number on us whether it is financially or physically. They have to go. Tbey need to be packing, we want them gone!

Saundra Hummer

September 8th, 2005, 04:32 PM

:clap: .....MUST SEE VIDEO

"Go "uck Yourself, Mr. Cheney!'

Vice president Dick Cheney, in Gulfport, Mississippi on a tour of the Katrina hurricane zone, was told to "go "uck yourself, Mr. Cheney" twice on live television.

Click here to watch:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10196.htm

==

Listen to Your Neighbors Die

"I heard her die," Williams said. "She cried for two nights. 'Help. Someone help me please!" The the last time I heard her call it turned into a gurgle. That was her last cry."

http://www.informationclearinghose.info/article10194.htm

===

Warnings were loud and clear- but still city drowned.

This is must read report

By Giles Whittell

If THERE is a smoking gun in the Gulf Coast Wreckage, it is the hurricane warning issued by the New Orleans office of the US national Weather Service soon after 10am on August 28, the eve of katrina's arrival

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10193.htm

===

Katrina + Oil = Profits for Our Kings

By John Perkins

It is time, my fellow Americans, to listen to the words of our Founding Fathers
Profiteering without representation must go. The destruction of our world, for this short term benefit of a new type of royalty, is unacceptable.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10180.htm

==

FEMA Packed With Presidential Pals

Campaign pros get top jobs.

By Kenneth R. Bazinet

The Three top jobs at the Federal emergency management Agency under President Bush went to political cronies with no apparent experience coping with catastrophes.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10183.

==

More than 100 (I've heard many more, 40 I've heard. SRH) died in a warehouse, waiting form rescue

A Louisiana Congressman says more than 100 people died at a warehouse along a New Orleans dock. Congressman Charles Melancon (muh-LAWN'-suhn) says they died as they waited for rescuers to take them to safety.

http://www.informationclearinghoue.info/article 10189.htm

==

In Nursing Home, a Fight Lost to Rising Waters:

St. Bernard Parish officials say the 32 of the homes roughly 60 residents died on Aug., 29, more than a week ago.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10188.htm

==

Canadians beat U.S. to New Orleans suburb:

A Canadian search and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days before the U.S. military, a Louisiania state senator said on Wednesday

(This is unacceptable. It makes us believe it was a full blown conspiracy to let these people die as some have been telling us. ....... Canadians rescuing us, our own troops nowhere in site for five more days after the Canadians arrived? How very suspicious looking. How could anyone be so inept? Do you think they truly are this stupid? It's like a neighbor or ours, shooting at least eight of our livestock and most right through the heart. Accident? Doesn't seem like it. It all ads up and all together it looks like a plan. SRH)

Http://snipurl.com/hjau

=

FEMA Blocking Relief Efforts _ An Amazing List

FEMA blocks 500 boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid - FEMA "First Responders Urged Not to Respond" (Ca-Ching! another addition. Keep a count! SRH)

http://www.informatinclearinghouse.info/article10195.htm
=

HERE's ANOTHER DOOZIE!

Two Bush 2000 Florida recount aides were rewarded with top FEMA posts.

Reversing an eight-year crusade to rid the now-embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency of political patronage, a newly elected George W. Bush named two key players in his Florida recount fight to important FEMA posts.

http://snipurl.com/hjaw

THIS SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED TO THE MAX, DON'T YOU THINK????

==

There is just so much more. A White House excuse for Barbara Bush's
making "a personal observation" when she said poor people in the relocation center in Houston were faring better than before Hurricane Katrina. We knew all along it was a "personal observation", one made by a hard person, did we need that explanation? How insensitive a remark, made about these unfortuante poor people, who in all likelyhood lost friends, and relatives; their mementos; their loved ones. How could she begin to believe like this? it was an uncaring, insensitive and stupid thing to have said. Mean.

I remember George Herbert Walker Bush talking about how he didn't like shaking strangers hands, holding or touching other peoples babies, how he detested it, and so I just had to laugh at how quickly he extracted his hand away form a child and stuffed his other one in his pants pocket as fast as he could to make sure no one could touch it. How unreal. How opportunist of him, all to make his son look the carring person he only is when right in front of a situation.. We are't buying it.

===

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!. It makes one believe as is being told to us, that there is a conspiriacy to let people diel That our own military wasn't there before the Canadians is a crime. Can you believe this? I really do believe that the federal governemnt's officials who allowed this all to happen need to be prosecuted to the max, and heads should roll all the way down the Washington DC Mall. Letting us know they are out of there. :clap: We can't afford to let these "thugs" spend any more time in control of our lives; any more time doing a number on us whether it is financially or physically. They have to go. Tbey need to be packing, we want them gone!

Saundra Hummer

September 8th, 2005, 04:52 PM

Anarchy. It seems to have been the rule of the day with the military and the Sheriff Department

(Read this and see if you can make sense of it. What were the military and FEMA out to accomplish? Why weren't these individuals left to their own devises, or if not that, helped along the way? It sounds as though they were much better at planning than the military,as they certainly sensed the urgency and weren't sitting back on their hands as was FEMA. SRH)

Hurrican Katrina - Our Experiences

By Parmedics Larry Bradsahw and Lorrie Beth Stonsky
EMSNetwork News

Tuesday 06 September 2005
This is an interesting article an eyeopener.

http://www.truthout.com/docs_2005/090805A.shtml

Saundra Hummer

September 10th, 2005, 04:04 PM

.....BLAME GAME, RACE CARD

By Molly Ivins
The Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)

Friday 09, September 2005

George W. Bush has come up with his worst idea since he decided to have the military investigate torture by the military at Abu Ghraib prison. He, George W. :clown: personally plans to investigate to "find out what went right and what went wrong" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

It's hard to guess where Bush will look first, but maybe he should start with the appointment of "Brownie" to head FEMA, the Federal Disaster Relief Agency. "Brownie" is Michael Brown, who was appointed by some president.

At the time, Brownie was deputy director of the agency under Joe Allbaugh - because he was Joe Allbaugh's college roomate, you see, and Allbaugh was Bush's campaign manager in 2000, you see, which made both of them qualified to manage disasters.

The FEMA press release announcing Brownie's appontment started wit his other obvious qualification. "From 1991 to 2001, Brown was the commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association." It's unclear whether "Brownie" was fired or resigned from the organization in the wake of financial mismanagement and lawsuits.

Hours after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Brown worte his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Micael Chertoff, to ask permissiom to send 1,000 FEMA employees to the scene to suport rescuers and to "comvey a positive image" about the governments response. Brownie siad he expected the workers to be there two days later. This apparently inspired Busn's government, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."

FEMA was once considered one of our better federal agencies (those in the government-is-the-enemy-camp may not believe this, but some government agencies are actually known for effective performance). Exactly why the right-wing Republicans chose to make FEMA a political football was never clear - but at any rate, going back to the Reagan administration, conservatives have been hacking away at FEMA. They mostly just under funded it, one of thier favorite tactics, unless a hurricane hit Florioda just before an election. Sorry to sound boringly partisan, but that is the record, and the Clinton administration did work hard at rebuilding the agency.

So now those on the liberal side are saying, "See, that's what happens when you starve government in order to give rich folks tax cuts. Government agencies can't do the jobs they were set up to do."

Silly liberals see this as vindication that they have been right all along. But the Bush administration officials are in full blame shifting mode: First, they announce repeatedly they don't want to "play the blame game." Then they start blaming everybody else.

According to The New York Times, Karl Rove and Dan Bartlett, White House communications director, began a campaign this weekend to blame local and state officials. The "woefully inadequate response," said "sources close to the White House," was the fault of "bureaucratic obstacles from state and local officials."

The bottom line is they're playing the race card. As many of you have noted, it IS a racial issue that poor people suffer most in any natural or economic disaster. Because Katrina hit the Deep South, a great many of the poor people affected are black, especially in New Orleans - both hit hardest and (the) majority (are) black to begin with.

I'm not sure what to say about a cable news station that plays a "loop" of black looters over and over - about 20 seconds of actual footage, replayed for four minutes, while the voiceover dwells on the looting problem. Obviously, there were some looters in New Orleans and elsewhere, and equally obviously, there are lots of people who were without food or water for days.

The exhausted and desperate black mayor of New Orleans begged for help in an interview late last week. "They are feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinnning, and people are dying down here." Mayor Ray Nagin said, talking about the feds. It's politics, man, and they' are playing games."

"Don't tell me 40,000 peole are coming here! They're not here! It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the iggest goddamned crisis in the history of this country. People are dying."

The mayor was in tears. I heard two nice, white American "ladies" deploring this interview. "Well! He should remember there might be children listening!" Children without food and water. What happens to people when they talk about race? Of course, most of us don't actuially talk about race any more, we refer to it only indirectly, we talk "those people."

Watch carefully, listen carefully - minority groups have always been blamed after natural disasters, since the days when the Hungarians were supposed to have cut the fingers off bodies to get the gold rings in the wake of the Johnstown Flood. Dirty Bohunks

http://www.truthout.org

Saundra Hummer

September 10th, 2005, 05:52 PM

........Gore Helped Airlift Katrina Refugees

Former Vice President Criticizes Administration's Response
By Duncan Mansfield. AP

KNOXVILLE, Tenn,. (Sept.9) - Al Gore helped airlift some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans, acting at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of the former vice president's son.

However, Dr. Anderson Spickard, who is Gore's personal physician and accompanied him on the flights, said: "Gore told me he wanted to do this because like all of us he wanted to seize the opportunity to do what one guy can do, given the asssets that he has."

In the speech, Gore urged that the Bush administration be held accountable for the government's inadequate relief response, patricularly "when the corpses of American citizens are floating in toxic floodwaters five days after a hurricane struck."

Bush administration officials have said Katrina's damage could not have been anticipated, but Gore rejected that.

"What happened was not only knowable, it was known in advance, in great and painstaking detail," Gore told the Sierra Club's national convention. "They did table top planning exercises. They identified exactly what the scientific evidence showed would take place."

An account of the flights was posted this week on a Democratic Party Web page. It was written by Greg Simon, president of the Washington-based activist group FasterCures, Simon, who helped put together the mission, also declined an interview.

On Sept. 1, three days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, Simon leaned that DR. David Kline, a neurosurgeon who operated on Gore's son, Albert, after a life-threatening auto accident in 1989, was trying to get in touch with Gore. Kline was stranded with patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.

"The situation was dire and becoming worse by the minute - food and water running out, no power, 4 feet of weater surrounding the hospital and ... corpses outside." Simon wrote.

Gore responded immediately, telephoning Kline and agreeing to underwrite the $50,000 each for the two flights, although Larry Flax, founder of California Pizza Kitchens, later pledged to pay for one of them.

"None of the airlines involved required a contract or any written guarantee of payment before sending their planes and volunteer crews," Simon wrote of the American Airlines flights. "One official said if Gore promised to pay, that was good enough for them."

He also recruited two doctors, Spickard and Gore's cousin retired Col. Daf LaFon, a specialist in internal medicine who once ran the military hospital in Baghdad.

Most critically, Gore worked to cut through government red tape, personally calling Gov. Phil Bredesen to get Tennessee's support and U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta to secure landing rights in New Orleans.

About 140 people, many of them sick, landed in Knoxville on Sept 3. The second flight, with 130 evacuees, landed the next day in Chantanooga.

Associated Press writer Terence Chea in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Access it and photos just go to AOL News:

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news

Saundra Hummer

September 11th, 2005, 08:58 PM

Looking through the links posted in the "Europeans Raped and Massacred in New Orleans" thread is so disturbing, I didn't even check out the complete articles. Unacceptable criminal acts, and don't you believe that there will be those in the Super Dome who will have recognized these people and could point them out sometime in the future? Horrific and sickening events. Innocents abused and killed, by people who more than likely have a rap sheet a mile long, or by people who are well known by the community as being no good whatsoever. Hopefully some will will have recognized some of them or at least one would hope.

I think that there are laws which need to be changed as it seems there are vilolent criminals in our midst way to often and for way too long. We need stiffer laws to keep such people locked up forever. Not a slap on the wrist and a scornfull look from some judge, this just doesn't get it.

We knew of a fellow here in Central Oregon who was giving the date rape drug to women he knew and to ones he struck up conversations with in a bar inviting a group of them out to his car for a drink of tequilla, plying them with the drug laden booze, and then raping them. He was tried, convicted & sentenced to life in prison. He also invited other friends of his out for drinks as well and just gave them a couple of drinks and did nothing like that. Hard to figure fellow. Perhaps this is what's needed by anyone who commits rape; a violent act. So severe a sentence that perhaps they'll think twice about doing such as this, having more fears for themselves, maybe chemical castration is an option for those who are so violent. Cruel and unusual? I don't think so if there is no doubt whatsoever. Anyone who ever molests a child, I believe should be imprisioned for life, and have the same thing happen, as more than likely they will recommit and become more dangerous as time goes by.

It's too bad there wasn't a way to know for certain who was in the refuge centers, but other than those there who might know of these criminals, there's really no way to seek them out and punish them, to remove them from the community to make it a safer place. For gods sake what a mess.

For all it's great atmosphere, great music, & fun places to go - it's wonderful and world wide famous restaurants and chefs, it can be a very dangerous place for the unknowing tourist, even without it being traumatized by a hurricane. It can be one of them most dangerous places as far as crime goes. Black on black crime is more rampant than black on white. at least in most cities I know of. But this is just the worst I've heard of.

clave

September 11th, 2005, 09:32 PM

Saundra Hummer

September 11th, 2005, 10:21 PM

Whoever made that post lifted a lot of quotes from tabloids; also carefully excerpted certain quotes in order to put a spin on the stories. I find many of the assertions dubious and in incredibly poor taste, to put it politely.

There were instances like this being reported here where we live on mainstream news. but they did qualify it as being unsubstantiated, that at this time they had no way to confirm or deny the stories.

There was some thought that it might have been a way for parents to keep their children near. Or that it was just a sick rumor. But there were more than likely shootings, as there have been interviews of health care and restaurant workers saying they were scared for their lives, of people hiding under buses and anywhere else the roving gangs and nut cases wouldn't see them, and one fellow said in neighborhoods which weren't deep under water, there were roving groups of young fellows roaming about stealing and raping as well. He said he witnessed girls being grabbed off streets and being taken into empty homes and he was running for his life, terrified all the while. Nothing anyone could have done he said.

This is a lesson learned I would imagine: to try to never have huge groups of scared, angry, thirsty and hungry people in one concentrated area ever again. Lesson learned. But what is the solution? As had they not gone there, what would the outcome have been? How many more would have died. Not much one can do to remedy that, other than early and effective evacuation dispersing people to less congested crowded facilities, as far as they can quickly move evacuees away from the disaster areas.

There needs to be staging depot all across the country filled with disaster relief supplies, supplies which can be rotated out to keep certain items which have expiration dates used up by other individuals, the military, the prisons, the jails, or foreign relief supplies. How about the needy the elderly those who depend on meals on wheels, etc.

There are so many things we could implement to stop this from ever happening again, our lack of coordinaration and response. Lots and lots of things to work on, and learn, all to prevent such as this, this tragedy Katrina caused and that which the responders caused by never responding. We need to prevent our governments lack of response from ever happening again.

If new Madrid goes, what then? How will supplies get to them, and over what distances? I think depots should be in place to take care of the massive needs this would cause; an idea to look into. Then there's the West Coast impending disaster "The Big One." I would feel more assured if there were depots containing all manner of survival equipment and supplies. No more starving and dirty babies please. It would cost a lot, but it has the potential to save even more. It could certainly save a lot of lives, and we sure don't want to go through the terrible experiences of New Orleans, and its surrounding areas.

We are going to have disaster after disaster, it is just the nature of the blue marble we live on. We are going to experience all manner of the earth acting up and showing us a few things. It happens, it's always going to happen. We need a system in place to handle it all - regardless of who is in office. :gavel:

Saundra Hummer

September 12th, 2005, 04:27 PM

.....WE HAD TO KILL OUR OWN PATIENTS

BY CAROLINE GRAHAM AND JO KNOWSLEYH

O9/11/05 "Mail On Sunday" -- Doctors working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically iill patients rather then leaving them to die in agony as they evacuated hospitals. The Mail on Sunday can reveal

With gangs of rapists and looters rampaging through wards in the flooded city, senior doctors took the harrowing decision to give massive overdoses of morphine to those they believed could not make it out alive.

In an extraordinary interview with The Mail on Sunday, one New Orleans doctor told how she 'prayed for God to have mercy on her soul' after she ignored evry tenet of medical ethics and ended the lives of patients she had earlier fought to save.

Her heart-rending account has been corroborated by a hospital orderly and by local government officials. One emergency official, William 'Forest' McQueen, said: "Those who had no chance of making it were given a lot of morphine and lain down in a dark place to die."

Euthanasia is illegal in Louisiana, and the Mail on Sunday is protecting the identies of the medical staff concerned to prevent them from being made scapegoats for the events of last week.

Their families believe their confessions are an indictment of the appalling failure of American authorities to help those in desparate need after Hurricane Katrina flooded the city, claiming thousands of lives and making 500,00 homeless. {Continued}
===
To see the complete article go to the following link by just clicking on it and the story is there on thier front page.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10249.htm

On site you can link up to The Mail if you would like

......

Saundra Hummer

September 12th, 2005, 08:47 PM

.....THE STORM NEXT TIME

BY NICHOLAS D. kRISTOF
THE NEW YORK TIMES

SUNDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2005

.....If the White House wants to move the debate about Hurricane Katrina beyond what it calls the 'blame game' for bodies decomposing in the streets of New Orleans, then here's a constructive step that President Bush could take to protect people in the future. Tackle global warming.

.....True, we don't know whether Katrina was linked to global warming. but there are indications that global warming will produce more Category 5 hurricanes. Now that we've all seen what a Katrina can do - and Katrina was only Category 4 when it hit Louisiana - it would be crazy for President Bush to contine to refuse to develop a national policy on greenhouse gases.

"The available scientific, evidence indicates that it is likely that global warming will make - and possibly already is making - those hurricanes that form more destructive than they otherwise would have been." declares an analysis by five climate scientists at:
www.realclimate.org

Hurricanes derive their power in part from warm water, and so forecasting models show future hurricanes becoming more severe as sea surface temperatrures rise. One summary of 1,200 simulations published in the Journal of Climate last year showed that rising levels of greenhouse gases could triple the number of Category 5 hurricanes. (A link to this study and others appear below this column.)

Moreover, there's empirical evidence that hurricanes have already become more intense (but not more frequent). Nature magazines this summer reported a new study by Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane guru at M.I.T., indicating that by one measure hurricanes have almost doubled in intensity over the last 30 years.

That reflects natural cycles as well. But Professor Emanuel writes: "The large upswing in the last past decade is unprecedented, and probably reflects the effect of global warming."

.....He adds: "My results suggest that future warming may lead to ... a substantial increase in hurricane-related losses in the 21st century."

Global warming also makes hurricanes more destructive by raising the sea level. One Environmental Protection Agency study forsees a one-foot rise in sea levels on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts by 2050 and a two-foot [and possibly four-foot] rise by 2100

A two-foot rise would swallow a chunk of the United States bigger then Massachusetts, according to the EPA, and would also result in much more coastal flooding. One study by FEMA found that just one a one-foot rise in sea levels would increase flood damage by 36 to 58 percent - underscoring that we need to bolster coastal protections as well as curb emissions.

.....So far, Mr. Bush has resisted serious action on global warming on the basis that strong measures "would have wrecked our economy."

Tell that to Portland, Ore. In early July, I wrote a column from Portland about its pioneering efforts to cut greenhouse gases. New calculation had indicated that it had cut total emissions below the level of 1990 - the benchmark for the Kyoto accord - even as nationally, emmissions have increased 13 percent. And Portland has been booming economically.

Since then, Portland has discovered a small error in its calculations. In fact, total emmissions were reduced to a hair over 1990 levels, not to a hair under. In any case, while the numbers aren't perfect, the trend is clear.

So Portland remains a model for what the Bush administration could do if it wanted to get serious about climate change. The steps Portland took included encouraging walking and bicycle commuting, telling local companies, that if they give employees free parking they shojuld also subsidize bus passes, and replacing bulbs in traffic lights with light -emitting diodes that cut electrical use by 80 percent. That last move saved the city almost $500,000 a year in electrical costs. I can't figure out why Mr. Bush is so reluctant to embrace such steps.

Portland has also put teeth into it's environmentalism by joining the Chicago Climate Exchange and making a legally binding commitment to reduce emissions. the Chicago Climate Exchange also counts as members cities like Chicago and Oakland, as well as universities like Tufts and the University of Minnesota. Those members are leading the way in addressing climate change - a contrast with the paralysis in Washington.

With corpses on the streets of New Orleans, we may have seen a glimpse of the future of climate change. Let's hope it shakes Mr. Bush out of his complacency.

--

..........RESOURCES:

A startling place to learn abjut the linkage between hurricane intensity and global warming is:

www.realclimate.org

The essay at the top of that page is very useful, as is the thread of discussion among meteorologists below it. There is also some discussion there of another essay to be published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, available for viewing here:

http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resourse-1766-2005.36.pdf That essay is more skeptical, agreeing that global warming will make hurricanes more sever but suggesting that hte impact will be more modest, perhaps adding only 1 to 10 miles per hojure to a hurricane's wind speed.

In contrast see Kerry Emanuel's "increasing Destructiveness of Tropical Cyclones Over the Past 30 Years." Nature magazine, 4 August 2005:
http://texmex.mit.edu/pub/emanuel/PAPERS/NATURE03906.pdf
The journal of Climate article I mention, about simulations suggesting that warming temperatures lead to more Category 5 hurricanes, is here:
http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/reference/bibliography/2004/k0401.pdf.
See especially figure 6

Note that there are various charts of hurricanes striking the US, pointedly showing no increase in the number lately. That proves nothing, since nobody argues that global warming increases the infequency of hurricanes, only the intensity. And in any case, since relatively few serious hurricanes actually strike the US, it's hard to draw conclusions from annual fluctuations.

For more information on Portland's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, see:

httpj://www.sustanableportland.org/osd_pubs_global_warming_report_6-2005.pdf
====
If any links are missing or to see the story from where I got it, click on the following link.

http://www.truthout.org

Saundra Hummer

September 13th, 2005, 10:55 AM

Just received a "Breaking News" email saying GW Bush has aassumed responsibility for his poor handling of the Katrina disaster.

The CNN Breaking News email says: "-President Bush says he takes responsibility for the federal governments failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina."

How much praise will he receive for this late attempt to save his reputation? His place in history is assured. Iraq, and now Katrina, two of the worst legacies a president could have.

Had he put as much thought, effort and resources into warding off disaster as he and his handlers and spinners do when pumping up his image to the American public, had he handled the emergency efforts with the same speed and efficiency. perhaps those in New Orleans and elsewhere in the path of Katrina would still be here today. One thing for sure, the depths of suffering would have been less. Too little too late GW. We'll watch the funerals of those being burried and wonder why.

Saundra Hummer

September 13th, 2005, 01:15 PM

...."The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to "create" rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting." Justice William J. Brennan, 1902

=

....."When shall it be said in any country of the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance or distress is to be found among them, my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars, the aged are not in want, the taxes not oppressive, the rational world is my friend because I am friend of it's happiness. When these things can be said, then may that country boast of its constitution and government." Thomas Paine

Saundra Hummer

September 13th, 2005, 02:50 PM

Notice in the wording of GW's having accepted responsibility, he is still shifting blame towards other goverments. City, county and state by implication. He still doesn't get it.

The old saying fits this situation he has failed to prevent, well, almost: "A Day Late and a Dollar Short, more like 13 days late and millions of dollars short.

He is more than willing to send up to $2 billion a day to the war effort in Iraq, while our fellow citizens suffer such agonizing loss and deaths right here at home. We will be paying forever for his massive blunders. Forever - Socially, politically, and financially. And the dead?, they're still dead. A result of policies and blunders in Iraq and here at home.

We will have images of the drowned, of the dead in their wheel chairs for all our days. Images and memories which will never leave us, and for what? Explain this to parents of dead babies, dead brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, and dear friends. .....Saying you're to blame GW Bush, doesn't undo the harm, the damage, the grief. What good do these words accomplish? ..... Perhaps, or, more than likely, he will be forgiven in the minds of the most gullible. .....There he'll be forgiven and thought of as brave and selfless. ..... How many will fall for this? .... His spin doctors latest ploy? Too many I fear.

These words don't obliterate the fact that he screwed up royally - there is no denying of this fact to any of us and he saw that. ..... How fast will he scramble, and how far will he go to try & recoop his image? This time, as with Iraq, his foul-ups are not forgivable. Not to me. I will still feel the same way, and again, here it is: this administration should resign "en masse".

Rehnquist lived to see all of this, however, ....I wonder if he was cognizant of the fact that this presidency is the most inept in our memories, and that this administration, with all it's crony's, are tearing our country apart. What a huge mistake his court made when it put Bush/Cheney in office. What a huge mistake that we, in this country, made when we tolarated it. ..... Just look where we are now..... Will we ever get back on our feet? Will we ever overcome the damage they have and are inflicting?

Saundra Hummer

September 13th, 2005, 04:00 PM

....End of the Bush Era

By E.J. Dionne. Jr
The Washington Post

Tuesday 13, September 2005

The Bush Era is over. The sooner politicians in both parties realize that, the better for them - and the country.

Recent months, and especially the past two weeks, have brought home to a steadily growing majority of Americans the truth that President Bush's government doesn't work. His policies are failing, his approach to leadership is detached and self-indulgent, his way of politics has produced a divided, angry and dysfunctional public square. We dare not go on like this.

The Bush Era did not begin when he took office, or even with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It began on Sept. 14, 2001 when Bush declared at the World Trade Center site, "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked those buildings down will hear all of us soon." Bush was, indeed, skilled in identifying enemies and rallying a nation already disposed to action. He failed to realize after Sept. 11 that it was not we who were luckhy to have him as a leader, but he who was lucky to be president of a great country that understood the importance of standing together in the face of a grave foreign threat. Very nearly all of us rallied behind him.

If Bush had understood that his central task was to forge national unity, as he seemed to shortly after Sept 11, the country would never have become so polarized. Instead, Bush put patriotism to the service of narrowly ideological policies and an eptreme partisanship. He pushed for more tax cuts for his wealthiest supporters and shamelessly used relatively modest details in the bill creating a Department of Homeland Securithy and as partisan cudgels in the 2002 elections.

He invoked our national anger over terrorism to win support for a war in Iraq. But he failed to pay heed to those who worried that the Untied states would need many more troops and careful planning to see the job through. The president assumed things would turn out fine, on the basis of weekly optimistic assumptions. Careful policymaking and thinking through potential flaws in yoir approach are not his administrations strong suits.

And so the Bush Era ended definatively on Sept 2, the day Bush first toured the Gulf Coast States after Hurricane Katrina. There was no magic moment with a bullhorn. The utter failure of federal relief efforts had by then penetrated the country's consciousness. Yesterday's resignation of FEMA Director Michael Brown put an exclamation point on the failure.

The source of Bush's political success was is claim that he could protect Americans. Leadership, strength and security were Busn's calling cards. Over the past two weeks, they were lost in the surging waters of New Orleans.

But the first intimations of the end of the Bush Era came months ago. The presidents post-election fixation on privatizing part of Social Security showed how out of touch he was. The more Bush discussed this boutique idea cooked up in conservative think tanks and Wall Street imaginations, the less the public liked it. The situation in Iraq deteriorated. The glorious economy Bush kept touting turned out not to be glorious for many Americans. The Census Bureau's annual economic report, released in the midst of the Gulf disaster, found that an additional 4.1 million Americans had slipped into poverty betwen 2001 and 2004.

The breaking of the Bush spell opens the way for leaders of both parties to declare their independence from the recent past. It gives forces outside the White House the opportunity to shape a more appropriate national agenda - for competence and innovation in rebuilding the Katrina region and for new approaches to the problems created over the past 4 1/2 years.

The federal budget, already a mess before Katrina is now a laughable document. Those who call for yet more tax cuts risk soundng like robots, droning automated talking points programmed inside them long ago. Katrina has forced the issue of deep poverty back onto the national agenda after a long absence. Finding a way forwerd in - and eventuallyo out of - Iraq will require creativity from those not implicated in the administrations mistakes. And if ever the phrase "reinventing government" had relevance, it is now that we have observed the performers of a govenment that allows political hacks to push aside the professionals.

And what of Bush, who has more than three years left in his term? Paradoxically, his best hope lies in his recognizing that the Bush Era, as he and we have known it, really is gone. He can decide to help us in the transition to what comes next. Or he can cling stobbornly to his past and thereby doom himself to frustration irrelevance.

http://www.truthout.org

Saundra Hummer

September 13th, 2005, 07:07 PM

Curioser and Curioser! (SRH)

New FEMA boss is 'Duct Tape Man' (Keith Olberman)

SECAUCUS -- If Michael Brown's resignation this afternoon as the head of FEMA was supposed to end the political controversy over the administrations response to Hurricane Katrina, it probably won't.

In another gesture symbolizing the continued confusion of the federal response, the man President Bush immediately named to succed "Brownie," proves to have been the same FEMA official who, two-and-a-half years ago, suggested taht Americans stock up oin duct tape to protect against a biological or chemical terrorist attack. .....(I'm going to give him the benefit of the times on this one, as most who were in DC were terified themselves and were expecting another wave of terrorism. Perhaps they were trying to give the illusion to the public that they would have means to be safe. We didn't buy any tape, but we know thousands did. I wonder if anyone in goverment bought any for their own homes? Remember they were more scared than we were in most of the country. SRH)

David Paulison, then the government's Fire Administrator, joined with the then-head of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, on February 10th, 2003, to say that duct tape and plastic sheeting should be part of any home's 'survival kit" in preparation for a terrorist attack. That set off a run on duct tape, and widespread criticism of the administration. It might have been the first time after 9/11 that a large number of Americans wondered if the government really knew what it was talking about when it came to disaster preparedness.

And the man behind that politically explosive proposal, has just been named to succeed the man who had been the face of the politically explosive response to Hurricane Katrina.

Paulison brings an extensive resume to te post. He ran fire operations for Miami-Dade County in Florida, and was past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. But in light of the response to this hurricane, another comment he made at the time of the Duct Tape announcements rings especially loudly. Paulison said in February, 2003, that in the first 48 to 72 houres of an emergency, many americans woujld likely have to look after themselves. (This may not be unreasonalbe, look around there is no way there can be quick responses for eveyone who will be in need, for all large numbers who would be in need, and this scenario needs to be worked on by cities, counties and states in coordiantion with the Federal Goverment's agencies and the military. SRH)

As to the exit of Mr. Brown, who kinows how many of the millions of Americans directly or indirectly touched by Hurricane Katrina probably had the indentical thought when he quit his post this afternoon: Namely, that he was no doubt already updating his padded resume.

And his departure was not even unattended by confusion. In Brown's statement, he wrote, "As I told the President , it is important that I leave now." But when first asked about it during his tour of Mississippi, Mr. Bush said he had no details, hadn't talked to Brown or Homeland Security chief Chertoff, and, "maybe you know something I don't know." Later, press secretary Scott McClellan said that the President had already known about the resignation -- he just hadn't known that it had been made public.

And he was already just minutes awy from naming Brown's successor: Duct Tape Man.

Go to this site for ling and involved story of what all of this traged entails and stories about how it was predicted that Chicago would return to prarie brush after the fire.

On SECAUCUS it goes into this: If you have not yet seen the desperate pleas from people at the New Orleans Convention center to NBC cameraman Tony Zumbado, they will run in full on Countdown tonight at 8 p.m. ET, and Tony is scheduled to join us.

We don't often 'pitch' you on specific items in the program but what Tony captured constitute transcendant images and comments from Americans who followed the rules and saw the system break down around them.
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There are even questions to Lance Armstrong about the doping charges. I sure like to believe his is just a stong special athlete. One who bucked the odds and with all of the tremdous setbacks and won out, over all the health issues which said he couldn't.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

or:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8514671/#05o912a

Saundra Hummer

September 14th, 2005, 05:05 PM

...Chertoff Delayed Federal Response, Memo Shows

By Jonathan S. Landay, Alison Young and Shannon McCaffrey

Knight Ridder

Tuesday 13, September 2005

Washington - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earler this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show.

Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff designated him as the "principle federal official" in charge of the storm.

As thousands of hurricane victims went without food, water and shelter in the days after Katrina's early morning August 29 landfall, critics assailed Brown for letting respoinsible for delays that might have cost hundreds of lives.

But Chertoff, - not Brown - was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government's blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disaters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by President Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director.

But according to a mamo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn't shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on August 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department.

"As you know, this President has established the 'White House Task Force on Hurricane Katrina Response.' He will meet with us tomorrow to launch this effort. The Department of Homeland Security, along with other Departments, will be part of the task force and will assist the Administration with its response to Hurricane Katrina," Chertoff said in the memo to the secretaries of defense, health and human services and other key federal agencies.

On the day that Chertoff wrote the memo, Bush was in San Diego presiding over a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II

Chertoff's August 30 memo for the first time declared Katrina an "Incident of National Significance." A key designation that triggers swift federal coordination. The following afternoon, Bush met with his Cabinet, then appeared before TV cameras in the White House Rose Garden to announce the government's planned action.

That same day, August 31, the Department of Defense, whose troops and equipment are crucial in such large disasters activated its Task Force Katrina. But active-duty troops didn't begin to arrive in large numbers along the Gulf Coast until Saturday.

White House and homeland security officials wouldn't explain why Chertoff waited some 36 hours to declare Katrina an incident of national significance and why he didn't immediately begin to direct the federal response from the moment on August 27 when the National Hurricane Center predicted that Katrina would strike the Gulf Coast with catastrophic force in 48 hours. Nor would they explain why Bush felt the need to appoint a separate task force. .....(Perhaps he was trying to understand a new directive with all of it's mumbo jumbo legalise talk???? Could be? SRH.)

Chertoffs hesitation and Bush's creation of a task force both appear to contradict the National Response Plan and previous presidential directives that specify what the secretary of homeland security is assigned to do without further presidentail orders. The goal of the National Response Plan is to provide a streamlined framework for swiftly delivering federal assistance when a disaster - caused by terrorists or Mother Nature - is too big for local officials to handle.

Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, referred most inquiries about the memo and Chertoff's actions to the Department of Homeland Security.

"There will be an after-action report" on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Perino said. She added that "Chertoff had the authority to invoke the Incident of National Significance, and he did it on Tuesday."

Perino said the creation of the White Hiouse task force didn't add another bureaucratic layer or delay the response to the devastating hurricane, "Absolutelly not." she said. "I think it helped move things along." When asked wheher the delay in issuing the incident of National Significance was to allow Bush time to return to Washington, Perino replied "Not that I'm aware of."

There is much more to this article, to read it go to the following link, just click on it:

http://www.truthout.org