Please Sign Petition:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/840979272

"The Administration yesterday said that no one anticipated the breach of the levees. Did the Administration not see or care about the 2001 FEMA warning about the risk of a devastating hurricane hitting the people of New Orleans?" Dennis Kucinich asks, "Did it not know or care that civil and army engineers were warning for years about the consequences of failure to strengthen the flood control system? Was it aware or did it care that the very same Administration which decries the plight of the people today, cut from the budget tens of millions needed for Gulf-area flood control projects?"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090705O.shtml

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina has created a vast toxic soup that stretches across south-eastern Louisiana and Mississippi, and portends the arrival of an environmental disaster to rival the awe-inspiring destruction of property and human life over the past week.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090705N.shtml

Ideologically opposed to a strong federal role in disaster relief and obsessed with terrorism, the Bush administration let a once-admired agency fall apart.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090705L.shtml

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 incompetence that puts even Third World rulers to shame. Robert Scheer states that 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.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090705K.shtml

http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=346534


Informant: Iris Atzmon

Enclosed latest info from Dr John Walker:
http://www.omega-news.info/is_there_any_effect_of_mobile_telephone.doc


From: Eileen O'Connor
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 3:38 PM


Informant: Iris Atzmon

From: Meria Heller
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 7:53 AM Subject: Fw: "Declaration of New Orleans" - I like this forwarded this am - Meria

Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 8:20 PM Subject: "Declaration of New Orleans"

EVERY PATRIOT SHOULD BE PUTTING A HUGE PART OF HIS/HER EFFORTS TOWARD A CALL FOR RESIGNATION OF ALL BUSH ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS.

AND IF THEY DON'T RESIGN, THEY SHOULD BE IMPEACHED, TRIED, and SENTENCED FOR THEIR CRIMES AGAINST THIS AND OTHER COUNTRIES.

Please see the "Declaration Of New Orleans" below:

Declaration of New Orleans

by Charles Montesquieu Saturday, Sep. 03, 2005 at 3:24 AM charliemontesquieu@yahoo.com


A Declaration of The People of the United States of America Concerning the Present Crisis In The City Of New Orleans.

In The Name Of The People Of The United States Of America, We Declare:

That for the last four and a half years the President and his administration have served the interests of a few wealthy citizens and not the interests of the American People.

That he has acted with contempt for the People and for the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

That an edict of the Supreme Court made him President in 2000 and fraud made him President again in 2004.

That the President has pursued an unprecedented expansion of Executive powers that are a grave threat to the rights and liberties of the American People.

That he has made war on sovereign nations that are no threat to the American People.

That his "War on Terror" has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives without bringing those responsible for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 to justice.

That the failure of his leadership in the present crisis in the City of New Orleans has resulted in the deaths of thousands more.

That he is derelict in every duty of his office.

Therefore, we resolve:

That President George W. Bush and his administration are illegitimate.

That he should resign from office and new elections should be held immediately.

That if he does not resign, the Congress of the United States should act to remove him from office.

That if the Congress should fail to act, the People will exercise their right to abolish this state and will establish a new government that will better secure their rights and liberties.


COPY AND DISTRIBUTE

Kimberly Hughes

SOCIAL ACTION BROOKLYN HEIGHTS
NEW YORK CITY


Informant: Friends

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=20027


Informant: Hopedance

Recent pics

What´s with the perfect circle dead-center?
http://cyberspaceorbit.com/hurr_nt1.jpg


http://cyberspaceorbit.com/hurr_nt1trop1602.jpg

Source:
http://vortex.plymouth.edu/hur_dir/hurr_nt1.gif

Note from Scott Stevens:

"What we witnessing is the manufactured development of Ophelia. Watch it closely as this will become the next shot across the state Florida in this continuing war in the skies."

http://cyberspaceorbit.com/scottoph.html

Weatherman Scott Stevens audio: "The global weather has been digitized!"

http://www.radiorbit.com/audio/062005scottstevens.m3u
http://www.radiorbit.com/audio/010905scottstevens.wma
http://www.radiorbit.com/audio/121204kentscottstevens.wma

Tropical Storm Ophelia strengthens off Florida

07 Sep 2005 13:12:37 GMT

Source: Reuters

MIAMI, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Ophelia strengthened slightly off Florida´s Atlantic Coast on Wednesday and seemed likely to turn away from land but its path was too uncertain to rule out a strike on Florida or Georgia, forecasters said.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for a 120-mile (190 km) stretch of shoreline from Sebastian Inlet to Flagler Beach in Florida, alerting residents to expect the storm within 24 hours.

Ophelia coalesced overnight from a loose swirling mass of thunderstorms and had top winds of 45 mph (72 kph). Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said it could dump 3 to 8 inches (8 to 20 cm) of rain on parts of central and north Florida and southeastern Georgia.

At 8 a.m. (1200 GMT), Ophelia was centered about 80 miles (130 km) east of Cape Canaveral, Florida, and moving north-northwest.

It was expected to slowly strengthen into a hurricane, with winds of at least 74 mph (118 kph) and loop to the northeast away from the U.S. coast by Monday.

However, the hurricane center said its forecasting models differed greatly on Ophelia´s potential path and, "Given the uncertainty in the longer time periods, possible landfall across northern Florida or Georgia during the next five days can not be ruled out at this time."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N97478826.htm Soon to be a hurricane...

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/FLOAT/IR4/20.jpg ! Where are the people that wait on the NHC to predict and that they are so right and blah blah! And everything is predictable huh?

Have you guys ever seen them say this?

MODELS ARE IN GREAT DISAGREEMENT MAKING THE FORECAST HIGHLY UNCERTAIN.

Whats up with this????????


Informant: Dani Djinn


‘Operation Ophelia’ Begins In The United States
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=90770;show_parent=1

Tropical Storm Ophelia strengthens off Florida
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=90811;show_parent=1

--------

Ophelia Update

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Tropical Storm Ophelia strengthened into a hurricane as it stalled 70 miles off the northeast Florida coast Thursday, churning up waves that caused beach erosion and drenching Kennedy Space Center with rain.

Thursday night, Ophelia had top sustained winds of 75 mph, just over the threshold to be classified as a hurricane, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said.

But forecasters said it was still unclear where Ophelia was headed.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050909/D8CGFL500.html



Ophelia on course for FL

OPHELIA live radar link
http://radar.weather.gov/radar/loop/DS.p20-r/si.kmlb.shtml


Informant: Dani Djinn

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050907/hurricane_katrina_hall_of_shame.php

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" is just one example.

Add yours now!

http://tompaine.com/uncommonsense/index.php#6078

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090601363_pf.html

by Harold Meyerson, The Washington Post

The Republicans profess belief in trickle-down, but what they've given us is the Flood.

http://www.tompaine.com/

by Bill McKibben, TomPaine.com

New Orleans doesn't look like the America we've lived in. But it resembles the planet we will inhabit the rest of our lives.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050907/not_our_america.php

by Kate Michelman, TomPaine.com

For Democrats evaluating the Roberts nomination, there is a middle ground between all-out battle and collective surrender. It is called principled opposition.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050907/after_rehnquist.php

HURRICANE ARMAGEDDON - EYEWITNESS' ACCT -20,000 DEAD- GOV'T MISMANAGEMENT - SABOTAGE

From: Walter Buller Tuesday, September 06, 2005 11:48 AM Katrin in USA

We live about 85 miles north of New Orleans. The eye of the storm passed right over Washington Parish, which is a neighboring parish of ours to the east a little ways. All the media attention has been on New Orleans because of the size of the city and it's notoriety, but cities like Bogalusa in Washington Parish were hit by even higher winds than New Orleans was, consequently it is hard to recognize them anymore. Worse yet, there was no official federal response to the plight of the people there. A number of private convoys enroute to Washington Parish with very badly needed supplies of water, food, and medical stuff were stopped by FEMA personnel and had all their supplies confiscated, ostensibly for the people in New Orleans. I have been listening to the radio ever since the storm came through. Caller after caller who has been in New Orleans lately has painted a mental picture of conditions there that is impossible to describe, except maybe with the word "hell". Human waste floating in the same water the people are standing in waiting to be rescued. Alligators eating the bodies of dead babies. Sharks seen swimming down Canal Street. Estimates of approximately 20,000 dead. Policemen committing suicide from the stress and fear caused from being outgunned on the streets by the black gangs who now have AK-47's and such looted from sporting goods stores. Darkness everywhere. A number of National Guard troops are there now so some semblence of order is being restored. The sheriff of St.Bernard Parish hired 100 additional deputies, issued assault rifles to them, and gave them orders to shoot looters on sight. About 10 of them have been killed the past few days. Experts predict a timetable of 30 to 80 days before the water can be pumped back out into Lake Ponchatrain. By that time the houses and businesses there will hardly be worth trying to save. Those who have been allowed back in to retrieve some personnel items were saying on the radio this morning that the stench is unbearable. Nobody knows yet how many people drowned in their attics trying to get above the rising water. The smart ones brought axes or something with them which they used to chop a hole in the roof big enough to crawl through so they could stand on their rooftops and hope to be rescued. Lots of people have been critical of the poor performance of FEMA in responding quickly enough to the needs of the people in the area, so I called the main radio station, got on the air, and explained to the listeners that FEMA is not what they think it is. It is not so much a disaster relief agency as a quasi-military arm of the Federal Government, equivalent to having martial law declared when they are present. Of course the self-serving talk from all the politicians is that they will rebuild New Orleans. But the wise thing to do, which is not politically correct, is to realize that with New Orleans already 15 feet below sea-level and sinking more and more every year, and the chances good that another hurricane will wipe it out again in the future, we ought to abandon the cesspool of crime, corruption, sin and degradation that New Orleans has become, relocate the people or build the city on higher ground someplace. But meanwhile the population of Baton Rouge has doubled overnight from all the refugees from New Orleans, with the resultant strain on police personnel, city services, charities, and roadways. This is the worst disaster in our nations history and I fear that my cousins prophecy about the worst being yet to come will turn out to be true, just as did her vision of a huge storm hitting New Orleans and flooding the whole city before the end of August. She had this vision several weeks before there even was a hurricane Katrina. We are still without power, but my generator gets us by. We have become an electricity dependent society, It was only about 80 years ago that almost nobody in this country even knew what electricity was, and got along quite well without it. We need to once again develop that kind of self reliance.



Informant: Be Kind Whenever Possible

http://www.etherzone.com/2006/stang112406.shtml


Informant: ranger116



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Kissinger

by Brandy Baker

The shock of seeing non-violent Black students being beaten in Birmingham for non-violent action resembles the shock of Americans today who see thousands of poor, majority Black, New Orleans residents waiting days for help that keeps promising to arrive. The only crime of most of these residents: not having the means to leave or not having anywhere to go. The horrific images of those at the Superdome and the Convention Center (and now at the Louis Armstrong airport) are not the New Orleans that America envisioned before this hurricane. Jazz music, big mansions, and Mardi Gras were synonymous with this famous city. Like the Easter marches of Birmingham, Americans now see the regard that our "leaders" truly have for Black people in the South. Millions of Americans of all political persuasions are horrified at the very slow response of the federal government, so it would seem that no would feel like partying after seeing the aftermath of Katrina. Well, a few did....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept05/Baker0907.htm

by Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky

Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky are emergency medical services (EMS) workers from San Francisco and contributors to Socialist Worker. They were attending an EMS conference in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck. They spent most of the next week trapped by the flooding -- and the martial law cordon around the city. Their story is incredible in so many ways, but most of all because they show how people went out of their way, often risking a lot, to help each other. A total contrast to the media's looter/animals/uncomprehending victim stereotype. Here, they tell their story....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept05/Bradshaw-Slonsky0907.htm

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/septmobe

Dear Friends and Supporters of Peace,

On August 31st, we closed down Camp Casey on the outskirts of President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. In the three and a half weeks that we were in Crawford, thousands of people passed through - some for just a few hours and some for days or weeks. Throughout the country, hundreds of thousands of people responded to my vigil, calling on the President to meet with me and, just as importantly, adding their voices to the growing cry for an end to the war in Iraq.

The horrific events that have unfolded in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, in the wake of the deadly hurricane Katrina are stark reminders of just how lop-sided our nation's priorities are. Resources that could have been used to save lives are instead tied up in a war that continues to kill Iraqis and U.S. servicepeople. Our nation is at a crossroads: will we continue to squander resources and take lives in a war that never should have happened, or will we commit ourselves to the re-building of the Gulf Coast and the lives torn asunder by Katrina? It is clear that both cannot happen at the same time, and in this context our urgent call to end the war in Iraq must be as clear and strong as ever.

The same day Camp Casey closed two important initiatives were launched. Gold Star Families for Peace kicked off a campaign to hold Congress accountable for taking us into war, and also for ending this war. I sent a letter to every member of Congress - all 435 representatives and 100 senators - asking the same questions I've been asking President Bush. At the same time, three buses left Camp Casey to head North, East and South carrying members of Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace to dozens of cities. The buses will converge on Washington, DC September 21, just days before the national anti-war protest being organized for the weekend of September 24-26. In addition to community forums and other events, on the road we will visit members of Congress asking for a meeting and answers to my questions. You can join this campaign as the buses pass through your community, or become a part of a delegation being organized in your Congressional district.

In case you have not already made plans to be there, I want to encourage you to join me in Washington, DC that weekend. I'll be marching on Saturday, September 24 with United for Peace and Justice, and later that same day will be speaking at the "Operation Ceasefire" free concert at the Washington Monument.

You know as well as I do that the majority of the people of this country oppose the war. As we talk to people from every part of the country, it is clear that the time is right for this demonstration in the nation's capital. You do not want to miss this crucial event - it's looking like the September 24-26 weekend will be the largest gathering so far of the movement to end the war in Iraq. It will also be the first opportunity since Katrina hit our shores to raise our voices in a call for new priorities.

Most importantly, I urge you to come to Washington on September 24, to tell President Bush and Congress in the strongest possible way that it's time to bring the troops home. But don't come alone - bring your friends and family, bring your co-workers, your classmates, your neighbors. Visit the United for Peace and Justice website for details about the day's events, and for information about the interfaith service, grassroots lobby day, and nonviolent civil disobedience action at the White House being planned for September 25 and 26.

And your help is needed in another way. To reach the potential of what will be a history-making event, United for Peace and Justice needs your financial support. Please take a moment right now to make the largest donation possible. I know that many of you have given and will continue to give to Katrina relief efforts, and it's important that we each do what we can to help out. But hopefully you also understand how important it is to lend your financial support to the Sept. 24-26 Mobilization.

I want to thank all of you who gave so much to support my efforts while I was in Texas. Now, as we all move into the next phase of our efforts to end the war in Iraq, I look forward to seeing you in Washington, DC on September 24.

Your friend, Cindy Sheehan


END THE WAR ON IRAQ! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
3 Days of Peace & Justice Actions in Washington, D.C. September 24-26, 2005 Visit our website today to download leaflets, endorse the mobilization, and learn more about the plans for this powerful weekend of action.

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/septmobe

ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545


Informant: Mofmars3



Cindy Sheehan
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan

http://www.newshounds.us/2005/09/02/condoleezza_rice_cuts_nyc_vacation_short_to_do_her_job.php
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/342712p-292600c.html


Informant: beefree

Dr. Zogby points out that Hurricane Katrina forced President George W. Bush to do what Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, could not. Four days into the worst natural disaster to hit the US, the President cancelled his month-long vacation and returned to Washington.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505G.shtml

Trying to force authorities to open an Air Force base as a shelter, Jesse Jackson and other black leaders picked up 150 evacuees at the squalid New Orleans Airport and headed into the night.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505E.shtml

James Ridgeway: The very first thing George W. Bush did in response to Hurricane Katrina was to offer a helping hand - not to the people stranded on rooftops in New Orleans, but to his friends in the oil industry. These were the same people who gave him $52 million in his last campaign.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505D.shtml

President Bush has evaded Cindy Sheehan's question, "What was the noble cause that my son died for?" But he provided a partial answer on the day that the New Orleans levees gave way.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505B.shtml



Cindy Sheehan
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=action.SS&item=050721_commongood


Informant: Bigraccoon

by Gene C. Gerard

Last month was the fortieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. This was one of the most significant pieces of civil rights legislation in American history. It finally made it possible for African-Americans to exercise their right to vote in the South. The act did what a constitutional amendment could not. Following the Civil War, co-called “Radical Republicans” (ironically enough) in Congress attempted to extend to former slaves the same rights that whites enjoyed. This included vigorous lobbying for ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, which extended the right to vote to black men. But for nearly the next 100 years, the amendment had little effect on the South. Most African-Americans found it all but impossible to vote....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept05/Gerard0905.htm

Just Another Day in the Life of a US Worker.

by Rosemarie Jackowski

A Top 10 list of things many of us laboring Janes and Joes hear from the boss every day in the capitalist paradise that is America . . . "love it or leave it!"....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept05/Jackowski0905.htm

(The Anti-Empire Report)

Empire is Harmful to Your Health
by William Blum

William Blum ruminates on New Orleans and "zero tolerance," Pat Robertson's fatwah on Hugo Chavez, the myopia of liberal anti-war protestors, "conspiracy theories" and the PanAm 103 bombing, saving Japan from pacifism, and the dangers of pot and water....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept05/Blum0905.htm

The All-Too American Tragedy of New Orleans:

Empire, Inequality, Race and Oil

by Paul Street

“This is not the America that I grew up in.” “This is not the America I know and love.” “I can’t believe this is happening in America; it seems more like something from the Third World, like Baghdad or Bangladesh.” Such is the incredulous commentary of three corporate media talking heads I’ve heard reflecting on the terrible events occurring in New Orleans in the tragic wake of tropical storm Katrina. The talking heads are off base. The historic events unfolding in New Orleans are very much about what the (to be a little more specific) United States of America has become. They are the predictable outcome of steep societal disparities and related perverse political and policy priorities that reflect the interrelated and petroleum-soaked imperatives of “American” Empire and Inequality....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept05/Street0905.htm

The imminent effects of the flooding of New Orleans upon America's economy and lifestyle are horrendous.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10138.htm

In this article we look at how just because developed economies are not suffering like they did during the 1970s that the oil crisis has not already begun. The final oil crisis has begun, silent to us, but dangerously there.

http://www.countercurrents.org/po-howard050905.htm


From Information Clearing House

Video:

The documentary argues that dialogue is vital to a healthy democracy. "Amy Goodman, makes a compelling argument that the commercial news media have failed to represent the "true face of war."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10133.htm

U.S. influence in the process of drafting a constitution for Iraq is excessive and "highly inappropriate", a United Nations official says.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30141


From Information Clearing House

The dispossessed of New Orleans tell of their medieval nightmare:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article310194.ece


From Information Clearing House

Perhaps now, following the disaster on the Gulf coast, the people of the US will wake up to the fact the current administration is not and never has been primarily concerned with the welfare of its citizens.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,1562655,00.html


From Information Clearing House

Without a commitment by our government and all employers to the dignity and worth of all workers, and to the basic human rights that promote social progress and better standards of life for all, the American dream is at risk of going down in history as an experiment that couldn't last. And with it, democracy itself.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10137.htm

The lessons of hurricane Katrina and its terrible aftermath are not about disaster management but about exposing the falsehoods at the very heart of modern America.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10126.htm

Video:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10131.htm

"We're living like dogs," Lee said. "And we're being left to die like dogs."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10125.htm

By Mike Whitney

Americans have been patting themselves on the back for years about the great strides that have been made in civil rights and social justice. It's all rubbish. Just take a look at the faces of the people who were left to drown in the noxious soup of a force-4 hurricane. We all know who these people are; they are the "other America".

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10128.htm

By Jerry Ghinelli

George Bush has it right. We Iraqis hate America because it is “free” and because it is a "perfect" society, just ask the people of New Orleans.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10135.htm

Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 16:17:40 -0700
From: Zepp
Subject: # The Potemkin Photo Op

The Potemkin Photo Op Saturday, September 03 2005 @ 09:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time Contributed by: Stranger
http://www.blah3.com/users.php?mode=profile&uid=2

Initally spotted at Bartcop.com

I was tuning in and out of Bush's massive photo op on the Gulf Coast yesterday, and everything at the time seemed just a little too pat for me.

From the 'briefing' that went on in a hangar full of helicopters to his walking down a street in Biloxi and having three regular citizens walk up to him for comforting to the last press availiability of the day when he announced that the Convention Center was secure and the levees were being repaired, it was clear that the game plan from the White House was for Bush to go to the region, look decisive, comfort a few citizens, and announce at the end of the day that all was well.

It was a full-on effort to change the subject of discussion from the utter failure of the Bush administration to handle the crisis with even a hint of competency, and in true Bush fashion, he wrapped it up at 5:00 PM and announced that he was 'Flyin' out of (t)here.'

But from beginning to end, the entire exercise was a series of lies - a Potemkin photo op designed to fool those Americans who were not bothering to look closely at what was going on.

Let's look at key aspects of Bush's trip that were covered by television.

*The Briefing:*

There were a lot of questions asked yesterday morning about the phony briefing that Bush got in that hangar, featuring a backdrop of Coast Guard helicopters.

People were wondering why those choppers were not out picking up flood victims or delivering supplies.

The reason why is simple - Bush had the majority of helcopter traffic stopped while Marine One was in the Gulf Coast region. The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported this Via AmericaBlog
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/breaking-bush-visit-to-new-orleans.html
Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush's visit to New Orleans, officials said.

The provisions, secured by U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, and state Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom, baked in the afternoon sun as Bush surveyed damage across southeast Louisiana five days after Katrina made landfall as a Category 4 storm, said Melancon's chief of staff, Casey O'Shea.

"We had arrangements to airlift food by helicopter to these folks, and now the food is sitting in trucks because they won't let helicopters fly," O'Shea said Friday afternoon.

The food was expected to be in the hands of storm survivors after the president left the devastated region Friday night, he said.

This leaves me wondering how many people died while Bush was playing Decisive Leader.

*The First 'Comforting Session':*

Then it was off to Biloxi, MS to survey the damage.

As Bush, Haley Barbour and others walked down a street,
2 women appeared seemingly out of nowhere for Bush to 'comfort' them.

But it turns out that the two women didn't even/ live/ in Biloxi, and had just come down for the day to try to 'salvage' clothes from the area for one of the women's son (were they looters?).

But they were apparently reasonably telegenic and happened to be in the area, so they were recruited to represent an area where they didn't even live.

A number of threads at Democratic Underground http://tinyurl.com/cp9eu discuss the weirdness of these women showing up in a disaster area.

And a trandcript of the conversation between Bush and the women reads like a bad comedy skit:

Bush to women:

"There's a Salvation Army center that I want to, that I'll tell you where it is, and they'll get you some help. I'm sorry.... They'll help you.....

Woman 1:

"I came here looking for clothes..."

Bush: "They'll get you some clothes, at the Salvation Army center..."

Woman 1: "We don't have anything..."

Bush: "I understand.... Do you know where the center is, that I'm talking to you about?"

Guy with shades: "There's no center there, sir, it's a truck."

Bush: "There's trucks?"

Guy: "There's a school, a school about two miles away....."

Bush: "But isn't there a Salvation center down there?"

Guy: "No that's wiped out...."

Bush: "A temporary center? "

Guy: "No sir they've got a truck there, for food."

Bush: "That's what I'm saying, for food and water."

Bush turns to the sister who's been saying how she needs clothes.

Bush to sister: "You need food and water."

*The 'Recovery Efforts':*

Wherever Bush went yesterday, it seemed as though people were already hard at work rebuilding the affected areas.

Unfortunately for Bush, there were a few foreign journalists at his photo ops, and they pulled back the curtain on what we saw on TV to reveal that the 'work' was staged for the media.

Here's a translation from the German news show web site http://tinyurl.com/caz2g.

Christine Adelhardt live from Biloxi:

"Two minutes ago the President drove by with his convoy.

What happened here in Biloxi during the day is really unbelievable. All of a sudden the rescue troops finally showed up, the clean-up vehicles; we didn't see those over the last days here. In an area where it really isn't urgent, there is nobody around, all the remaining people went to the city center.

The President is traveling with a press convoy, so they get wonderful pictures saying the president was here and the help will follow. The amount of this catastrophe shocked me, but the amount of set-up that happened here today is at least equally shocking for me.

And there's more, this time on the 'recovery efforts' in New Orleans, from War And Piece http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002485.html

There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV.

ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event.

Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.

The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF.

*Levee Repairs in New Orleans:*

As Bush flew around the skies above New Orleans, CNN began showing footage of a bulldozer and dump trucks working on the 17th Street levee, which was the maqin source of the flood waters in New Orleans.

When Bush got ready to leave, he crowed that 'progress is flowing.'

But according to Sen. Mary Landrieu, the crew that was working so hard yesterday left and apparently never came back:

But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee.

Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe.*

Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment.*

The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast - black and white, rich and poor, young and old - deserve far better from their national government.

*Control of the Convention Center:*

Bush made a big deal of telling the nation
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/02/ldt.01.html that the icon for unrest and chaos in New Orleans this week - the New Orleans Convention Center - was secured by the time of his statement yesterday.

I'm pleased to report, thanks to the good work of the adjutant general from Louisiana and the troops that have been called in that the convention center is secure.

But as was pointed out this morning, a report by CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr directly contradicted Bush's statement
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

CNN's Barbara Starr reports that there is "no indication" the convention center in New Orleans is secure.

She reports there is still much unrest.

And the now-famous Fox News video
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/02.html#a4763

of Geraldo Rivera inside the Convention Center showed how Bush's idea of 'securing' the center was/ locking the people in/.

All of this information has turned up in one spot or another on the web since yesterday, but I wanted to put it all together in one spot for a reason.

Bit by bit, parts of Bush's trip were shown to be less truthful than we deserved.

But when you look at the entire trip - and all of the deceit that went into each part of it - it's an inescapable fact that from beginning to end the trip was a menu of lies and self-serving actions that didn't do the region any good.

In some instances, like the helicopter groundings halting rescue ops, the trip could conceivably actually/ killed more people/.

And that's the bottom line with this administration.

It always has been.

Bush, Rove, and the rest of them will go to any measures to get their version of the truth out and if a few of the little people happen to die in the process, it's no skin off their noses.

All of America should know what the true bottom line is.

*You are being lied to, and lives have been lost because of it.*


Informant: Friends

Part 2: http://www.omega-news.info/ending_regulation.htm

RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS #824 http://www.rachel.org August 18, 2005

Part 1: ENDING GOVERNMENT REGULATION BY MANUFACTURING DOUBT

By Peter Montague

Thirty years ago, scientists began reporting birth defects and unusual homosexual behavior in wildlife, which they couldn't explain. (See Rachel's #146 , #263 .) By the late 1980s, Theo Colborn -- an expert on the Great Lakes -- thought she saw a pattern, and she pulled together a scientific meeting in July 1991 to discuss it. The result was the "Wingspread Statement" on hormone-disrupting chemicals which began:

"We are certain of the following:

"A large number of man-made chemicals that have been released into the environment, as well as a few natural ones, have the potential to disrupt the endocrine [hormone] system of animals, including humans.... Many wildlife populations are already affected by these compounds." ( Rachel's #263 )

Five years later, Colborn, joined by biologist Pete Myers and journalist Dianne Dumanoski, popularized the idea that industrial chemicals at low levels can interfere with hormones in wildlife and quite possibly in humans. Their book, "Our Stolen Future," caused New York Times science writer Gina Kolata to go ballistic. Reviewing the book, Kolata scoffed at the main hypothesis, that industrial chemicals may be interfering with the hormones that control and regulate growth, health and behavior in wildlife and humans, leading to increases in birth defects, problems of sexual development, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and even mental problems like attention deficit disorder, reduced IQ, and violent behavior.

Kolata said "the factual basis of the book's alarms... have been refuted by careful studies," though she did not cite a single study as evidence. To be fair, Ms. Kolata was merely reflecting the views of the chemical industry on the question of hormone disruption. The industry had a great deal at stake. If the theory of hormone disruption were true, the chemical industry could only be viewed as a major menace to public health and the natural environment.

Now, almost 10 years later, the debate over hormone disruption seems to be over. The Wall Street Journal conceded this summer that low levels of industrial chemicals are linked to rising rates of childhood cancer and brain disorders, among other maladies.

Here's the opening paragraph of the Journal's front-page story July
25, 2005:

"For years, scientists have struggled to explain rising rates of some cancers and childhood brain disorders. Something about modern living has driven a steady rise of certain maladies, from breast and prostate cancer to autism and learning disabilities.

"One suspect now is drawing intense scrutiny: the prevalence in the environment of certain industrial chemicals at extremely low levels. A growing body of animal research suggests to some scientists that even minute traces of some chemicals, always assumed to be biologically insignificant, can affect such processes as gene activation and the brain development of newborns.

"An especially striking finding: It appears that some substances may have effects at the very lowest exposures that are absent at higher levels.... This challenges an axiom of toxicology stated by the Swiss chemist Paracelsus nearly 500 years ago: The dose makes the poison."[ 1 ] [See Rachel's #754 , #755 .]

The Journal went on to point out that many scientists are now convinced that insignificant levels of several individual chemicals can combine to produce significant effects.

The Journal explained: The harm from low-level exposure to a single hormone-disrupting chemical "will always be small," said Andreas Kortenkamp, who directs scientific research on hormone-disrupting chemicals for the European Union (EU). But exposure to low levels of many chemicals simultaneously will produce a cumulative effect on the human hormone system "that is likely to be very large," Kortenkamp told the Journal.

Given these facts, it seems safe to say that the chemical industry is now widely acknowledged as a major menace to public health and the natural environment. This presents the industry with an uncomfortable problem of financial liability.

Naturally, as a matter of self-preservation, the industry has developed a defensive response. Of course the industry has been studying these problems at least as long as Theo Colborn has been studying them. Industry scientists and lawyers knew the truth long before it made its way onto the front page of the Wall Street Journal -- just as the tobacco industry knew the truth about tobacco at least
50 years before they publicly acknowledged the problem of lung cancer.

The chemical industry response has been complex and exceedingly clever, intended to make it impossible for government to effectively regulate any industry. The strategy has succeeded in spades.

In the "old days" -- say, around 1975 -- a chemical like DDT could be banned because government scientists examined the scientific literature, balanced "the weight of the evidence," and concluded that DDT was probably causing serious harm to wildlife, such as the bald eagle, our national emblem.

Today it would be impossible to ban a chemical on such grounds because a series of laws and regulations passed during the past 20 years have changed the standards for scientific "proof" that government regulators must meet.

Industry's main strategy for ending government regulation is the manufacture of uncertainty and doubt. "If, for example, studies show that a company is exposing its workers to dangerous levels of a certain chemical, the business typically responds by hiring its own researchers to cast doubt on the studies," writes David Michaels in Scientific American.[ 2 ]

Increasingly, the U.S. regulatory system can be paralyzed by doubt. The system assumes that anyone can do anything they want to do (so long as it is legal), until harm can be proven. Until harm can be proven, anything goes. If I move into your town and set up a small shop and start belching bright blue smoke into the sky, it is up to you to prove that blue smoke causes harm before anyone can question my operation.

Once suspicion of harm is raised, the burden is still on the government and the public to prove harm. If one study shows that blue smoke causes asthma in children, the government may begin to examine all studies of blue smoke and eventually act on the weight of the evidence. (If government ever takes action to control blue smoke, we blue smoke producers can demand our day in court, but that's a later chapter in this story.)

Given the way the system works, as a blue smoke producer, it pays me to discredit previous blue smoke studies, to change "the weight of the evidence." With blue smoke studies in doubt, regulators will be paralyzed. "On the one hand we have studies showing harm from blue smoke, on the other hand those studies have been questioned by the Blue Smoke Association. Until this scientific dispute is resolved, we can't take action." This is how the regulatory system works.

"Doubt is our product."

It was the tobacco industry that discovered the power of doubt in a regulatory system that can be paralyzed by uncertainty. In 1969, an executive of Brown & Williamson (now owned by R.J. Reynolds) actually described the strategy in a memo: "Doubt is our product since it is the best means for competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the mind of the general public."[ 2 ]

It turns out that creating doubt is remarkably easy to do. Take the example of atrazine, the potent weed killer that has been used for nearly 50 years. An estimated 80 million pounds of atrazine are spread into the environment each year in the U.S. In some environments, it persists and retains its toxicity for decades.

The initial concern about atrazine was cancer. Atrazine clearly causes cancer in laboratory rats. And the workers in a Louisiana atrazine factory have unusually high rates of prostate cancer. But Syngenta -- the Swiss firm that makes hundreds of millions of dollars each year selling atrazine in the U.S. -- has successfully cast doubt on these facts, paralyzing regulators. Syngenta argues that atrazine affects rats via biological mechanisms that do not exist in humans, and they say their workers have high rates of prostate cancer only because the company is extra vigilant looking for cancers among its workers.

Meanwhile, for years evidence has been accumulating, showing that atrazine scrambles the sex hormones of frogs, turning males into hermaphrodites. A hermaphrodite has sex organs of both genders. To prove otherwise, Syngenta hired a biologist named Tyrone B. Hayes, a biology professor at University of California, Berkeley. But Professor Hayes's experiments came out wrong and showed unmistakably that atrazine "demasculinizes" male frogs. Compared to unexposed frogs, males frogs exposed to atrazine have smaller larynxes (voice boxes), male hormone (testosterone) levels that are one-tenth of normal, and a mix of male and female traits -- they are hermaphrodites. Syngenta would not give Professor Hayes permission to publish his studies, so he ran a series of his own experiments on a wider variety of frogs, and published his results in prestigious journals (Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). "We showed that these animals are chemically castrated," Professor Hayes said. Four other groups of independent researchers in three countries reached similar conclusions.[ 3 ]

Syngenta solved this problem by creating doubt about Professor Hayes's studies. They hired scientists to reproduce the studies, but those scientists did sloppy work and were not able to reach the same conclusions that Hayes reached. An EPA panel of outside experts found numerous flaws and mistakes in the Syngenta studies. In at least two of the studies, the "unexposed" group of frogs had actually been exposed to atrazine. Not surprisingly, those studies did not find a significant difference between the "exposed" and "unexposed" frogs. In another of the studies, no conclusion could be reached because 80-90% of the frogs died, apparently as a result of inadequate care. As Professor Hayes summarized the situation, what Syngenta scientists did "was produce a number of studies that were purposefully flawed and misleading, and that changed the weight of the evidence."[ 3 ]

So it is rather easy to cast doubt on a scientific study -- simply try to reproduce the study using methods that are sloppy enough to assure that the results will not be reproduced. "On the one hand we have a study showing harm, on the other hand some scientists have been unable to reproduce these results." So regulators are paralyzed.

As David Michaels told a Texas reporter, "corporations and others who manufacture dangerous products and pollutants have realized that by adding manufactured uncertainty to the equation, they can essentially stop the regulatory process from moving forward."[ 4 ]

[To be continued.]


[1] Peter Waldman, " Common Industrial Chemicals in Tiny Doses Raise Health Issue ," Wall Street Journal July 25, 2005, pg. 1.

[2] David Michaels, " Doubt is Their Product ," Scientific American Vol.
292, No. 6 (June 1, 2005), pgs. 96-101.

[3] Rick Weiss, " 'Data Quality' Law is Nemesis of Regulation ," Washington Post August 26, 2004.

[4] Jeff Nesmith, " New product for U.S. industry: 'manufactured doubt' ," Austin (Tex.) Statesman June 26, 2005.


RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS Environmental Research Foundation P.O. Box 160 New Brunswick, N.J. 08903 Fax (732) 791-4603; E-mail: erf@rachel.org


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Permission to reprint Rachel's is hereby granted to everyone, though we ask that you not change the contents and we ask that you provide proper attribution.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes.

Some of this material may be copyrighted by others. We believe we are making "fair use" of the material under Title 17, but if you choose to use it for your own purposes, you will need to consider "fair use" in your own case. --Peter Montague, editor

http://www.peoplespetition.org/peoplespetition/


Informant: Rory Winter

q/depesche 2005-09-07T13:57:46

Wenn man glaubt, noch durch/geknallt/er geht es nicht, dann findet sich ein Brite, der es versteht, noch einen draufzusetzen.


Vor dem Treffen der europäischen Innen- und Justizminister zur so genannten Vorratsdatenspeicherung von Telefon- und Internet-Verbindungen stellt der britische Innenminister Charles Clarke die Europäische Menschenrechtskonvention in Frage.

Die EU-Staaten müssten das zu Gunsten des Schutzes vor organisiertem Verbrechen und Terrorangriffen akzeptieren. Das Recht zu leben überwiege Bedenken zur Beschneidung von Datenschutzrechten, so Clarke.

Sowohl die englischen wie die Richter am EU-Gerichtshof müssten verstehen, dass die Europäer nicht mehr lange akzeptierten, dass gegen Menschen, die eine Bedrohung darstellen, wegen Menschenrechtsbedenken nichts unternommen werden dürfe, so Clarke weiter. Dabei geht es laut britischen Medien um die Abschiebung von Terrorverdächtigen.

"Ich sage, Zweifel an den Bürgerrechten einer Person, die von einer Überwachungskamera gefilmt wird [...], oder einer Person, die mit einer anderen telefoniert hat, sind klein im Vergleich zum übergreifenden Bürgerrecht, nicht in die Luft gesprengt zu werden", so Clarke, der zudem Überwachungskameras für die Behörden, international standardisierte biometrische Daten für Pässe und Visa und die Speicherung von Verbindungsdaten auf ein Jahr forderte.

Mehr dazu
http://futurezone.orf.at/futurezone.orf?read=detail&id=274187


relayed by

More about how vulnerable the New Orleans area is.

After Centuries of 'Controlling' Land, Gulf Learns Who's the Boss

By CORNELIA DEAN
and ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: August 30, 2005
The New York Times

The Gulf Coast has always been vulnerable to coastal storms, but over the years people have made things worse, particularly in Louisiana, where Hurricane Katrina struck yesterday. Since the 18th century, when French colonial administrators required land claimants to establish ownership by building levees along bayous, streams and rivers, people have been trying to dominate the region's landscape and the forces of its nature.

As long as people could control floods, they could do business. But, as people learned too late, the landscape of South Louisiana depends on floods: it is made of loose Mississippi River silt, and the ground subsides as this silt consolidates. Only regular floods of muddy water can replenish the sediment and keep the landscape above water. But flood control projects channel the river's nourishing sediment to the end of the birdfoot delta and out into the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico. [...] Read the rest at the New York Times web site: http://tinyurl.com/73at9

If you enjoy the occasional really good editorials in the New York Times, don't miss this one: Nature's Revenge , published August 30, 2005 http://tinyurl.com/8c9xt



Shrinking La. Coastline Contributes To Flooding

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; Page A07

Two months ago, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) told an audience of congressional staffers and scientific experts the federal government needs to spend billions of dollars over the next two decades to restore her state's wetlands. She warned that intentional rerouting of the Mississippi River over the past century, coupled with rising sea levels due to climate change, had eroded Louisiana's natural buffer against massive storms.

"This is not Disneyland. This is the real deal," Landrieu said, referring to New Orleans's vulnerability to hurricanes. "The French Quarter could be under 18 feet of water. It would be lost forever." [...] Read the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/b35zl

Be sure to check out TruthOut and Buzzflash, who are great publishers and re-publishers. There are so many other sites that have news on a continuing basis that it is impossible to list them. I mention those two because they have been around "for years" in computer time, and work feverishly to help keep people basically informed. http://truthout.org/ and http://buzzflash.com/ Two other great sites are Alternet ( http://www.alternet.org/ ) and http://www.Democrats.com


© Virginia Metze

By Eric Holdeman
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; Page A17
The Washington Post

SEATTLE -- In the days to come, as the nation and the people along the Gulf Coast work to cope with the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we will be reminded anew, how important it is to have a federal agency capable of dealing with natural catastrophes of this sort. This is an immense human tragedy, one that will work hardship on millions of people. It is beyond the capabilities of state and local government to deal with. It requires a national response.

Which makes it all the more difficult to understand why, at this moment, the country's premier agency for dealing with such events -- FEMA -- is being, in effect, systematically downgraded and all but dismantled by the Department of Homeland Security.

Apparently homeland security now consists almost entirely of protection against terrorist acts. How else to explain why the Federal Emergency Management Agency will no longer be responsible for disaster preparedness? Given our country's long record of natural disasters, how much sense does this make? [...] Read the rest at the Washington Post web site: http://tinyurl.com/as299


© Virginia Metze

Josh Marshall
September 03, 2005 -- 10:46 AM EDT

Earlier we asked who would track down the story about FEMA Chief Michael Brown's apparent firing from his last pre-FEMA employment.

The Boston Herald is on the case. The lede from this morning's piece by Brett Arends ...

The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows.

And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position.

The Oklahoman got the job through an old college friend who at the time was heading up FEMA.

The agency, run by Brown since 2003, is now at the center of a growing fury over the handling of the New Orleans disaster. Read the rest of the Boston Herald piece at http://tinyurl.com/9ro5p If you have the time, browse the rest of many articles about the hurricane on the Talking Points Memo site.


© Virginia Metze

I wish the present government of this country actually LOVED this country and didn't hate 99% of the people in it! We MUST IMPEACH BUSH ... and there are Republicans who will agree.

Bob Fertik's "action list:

Fix America Now

I couldn't seem to be able to cut and paste the introductory part of this post. See it at http://www.democrats.com/


© Virginia Metze



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

By ERIC LIPTON and SCOTT SHANE
The New York Times
Published: September 3, 2005

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 - On Thursday night, Michael D. Brown, the federal government's point man for managing the response to Hurricane Katrina, made a remarkable confession on live television.

Speaking of the thousands stranded at the convention center in New Orleans without food or water, Mr. Brown said that his agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, had just learned of their plight.

CNN's Paula Zahn was incredulous. "Sir," she said, "you aren't just telling me you just learned that the folks at the convention center didn't have food and water until today, are you? You had no idea they were completely cut off?"

"Paula," Mr. Brown replied unequivocally, "the federal government did not even know about the convention center people until today."

The comment symbolized what some have described as a deeply flawed federal response. President Bush praised Mr. Brown's performance on Friday, but Mr. Brown's remarks prompted Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi , the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security, to call on President Bush to fire Mr. Brown or Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. [...] Read the rest at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/national/nationalspecial/03fema.html


© Virginia Metze

Another oldie being dredged up to indicate that NO ONE should be surprised at this disaster: Scientific American, October, 2001

Drowning New Orleans

By Mark Fischetti
October 01, 2001
Scientific American.com

A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands. Human activities along the Mississippi River have dramatically increased the risk, and now only massive reengineering of southeastern Louisiana can save the city

The boxes are stacked eight feet high and line the walls of the large, windowless room. Inside them are new body bags, 10,000 in all. If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water. "As the water recedes," says Walter Maestri, a local emergency management director, "we expect to find a lot of dead bodies."

New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen. The city lies below sea level, in a bowl bordered by levees that fend off Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Mississippi River to the south and west. And because of a damning confluence of factors, the city is sinking further, putting it at increasing flood risk after even minor storms. The low-lying Mississippi Delta, which buffers the city from the gulf, is also rapidly disappearing. A year from now another 25 to 30 square miles of delta marsh--an area the size of Manhattan--will have vanished. [...] Read it all at the Scientific American web page and get a guilty conscience: http://tinyurl.com/8739v


© Virginia Metze

Tim Rutten
September 2, 2005
Los Angeles Times calendarlive.com

As commentators and public officials survey the morass of loss and desolation that once was a great American city called New Orleans, one of the words we hear and read over and over again is "unimaginable."

In fact, the tragedy that this week destroyed a vibrant metropolitan area that was home to 1.4 million people and the city proper that was a national cultural treasure was not simply imagined but foreseen with a prescience that now seems eerily precise.

[...]

Three years ago, New Orleans' leading local newspaper, the Times-Picayune, National Public Radio's signature nightly news program, "All Things Considered," and the New York Times each methodically and compellingly reported that the very existence of south Louisiana's leading city was at risk and hundreds of thousands of lives imperiled by exactly the sequence of events that occurred this week. All three news organizations also made clear that the danger was growing because of a series of public policy decisions and failure to allocate government funds to alleviate the danger.

[...] Read the rest at the Los Angeles Times' calendarlive.com: http://tinyurl.com/7pk6w

An October 2004 article in the National Geographic magazine, Gone with the Water, was among the many articles dredged up in order for environmentalists to say "I told you so." Well, they did, and they were right. Here's the URL to the article: http://tinyurl.com/7oarm


© Virginia Metze

Michael Albert
September 3, 2005
Znet

The growing outrage over the willful ignoring of warnings and overt cutting of local expenditures that paved the way for New Orleans' disaster is of course valid. The growing outrage over the unavailability of resources spent on immoral imperial violence is also valid. Corpses floating by warrant both tears and recrimination, but I want to address something slightly different.

[...] fast forward to the end:

Just to clarify the point, for those who take seriously the admonition to shoot the looters to kill - the main looters in our society are corporate owners who accrue the products of working people's labor. The shooting gallery, if fulfilling this instruction were to become popular, would be far more upscale than the swamp that is New Orleans.

Bush has bloody hands, but beyond Bush, the larger system of business as usual guaranteed a catastrophic response to this catastrophe. The accurate Katrina headline is: Storm Hits, Capitalism Preserves Profits, Humanity Drowns. [...] Read the rest at Znet: http://tinyurl.com/crqru


© Virginia Metze

The David Sirota blog is at http://www.davidsirota.com/ There is a very long column of comments on the New Orleans disaster. His most recent column is posted to Working for a Change blog. http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/

Olbermann on the 'city of Louisiana'

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann does a terrific job of summing up who's responsible for our government's colossal failure to respond to the tragedy on the Gulf Coast.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/


Posted by David Sirota at 7:10 PM September 5, 2005
Tomgram: Iraq in America
At the Front of Nowhere at All
The Perfect Storm and the Feral City
By Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch.com, a project of the Nation Institute

The headline was: "Direct hit in New Orleans could mean a modern Atlantis," and the first paragraph of the story read: "More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were warned to get out Tuesday as [the] 140-mph hurricane churned toward the Gulf Coast, threatening to submerge this below-sea-level city in what could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years." That was USA Today and the only catch was -- the piece had been written on September 14, 2004 as Hurricane Ivan seemed to be barreling toward New Orleans.

I commented at the time: " When ‘Ivan the Terrible' threatened New Orleans, correspondents there had a field day discussing whether the city might literally disappear beneath the waves -- this was referred to as the ‘Atlantis scenario.'" I was then trying to point out that we might indeed be entering a new, globally warmed world of Xtreme weather and no connections whatsoever were being made in the media. At the time, global warming, if discussed at all, was a captive of the far north (melting glaciers, unnerved Inuit, robins making miraculous appearances in Alaska), and "Atlantis scenarios" were the property of distant islands like the atolls that make up the tiny South Pacific nation of Tuvalu, threatened with abandonment due to rising ocean waters and ever fiercer, ever less seasonal storms And yet just short of a year ago, not only! was it well known that New Orleans' levees weren't fit for a class 5 hurricane or that the Bush administration was slashing the budget of the Army Corps of Engineers, but the "Atlantis scenario" was already somewhere on the collective mind. Now, it has been upon us for almost a week. [...] Read it all at TomDispatch.com http://www.tomdispatch.com/


© Virginia Metze

So President Bush has finally made it to the scene -- only four days after the storm. Unfortunately, there was no "bullhorn moment" a la his post-9/11 tour of Ground Zero -- no stirring rhetoric. Indeed, his staged briefing with the governors of Alabama and Mississippi did not inspire confidence or hope in anyone -- except maybe Trent Lott.

And Lott's realtor. "The good news," said the president, "is that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubble of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's gong to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." Yes, he actually said that. Way to look on the bright side, Mr. President. "Fantastic!"

The president's sunny-side-up take on the Gulf Coast's Extreme Makeover came after Alabama Governor Bob Riley announced that he was launching "Operation Golden Rule." Uh, Governor... given what the authorities have been "doing unto" the beleaguered victims of Katrina, do you really think that's such a good idea? [...] Read it all at http://tinyurl.com/amgax


© Virginia Metze

Iraq war didn't cause the hurricane, just drained resources from flooded city

Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
September 1, 2005

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 people's lives.

This is not "just politics" or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies. [...] Read the rest at the Working for Change web site: http://tinyurl.com/ajzcv


© Virginia Metze

http://rs.net-hh.de/archiv/22628.htm?PHPSESSID=181c8f8ac8f7f91455f19bb42fa8c8ec

Ein Bericht von Besuchern der Stadt, die vom Hurrican und seinen Folgen überrascht wurden, offenbart die Brutalität der Behörden im Umgang mit den Opfern, wenn diese arm oder schwarz waren: ihnen wurde vielfach nicht nur die Hilfe verweigert. Sie wurden darüberhinaus auch daran gehindert, sich selbst zu helfen und aus der Stadt zu entkommen.

http://links.net-hh.de?lid=22628

Marjorie Cohn's documentation of Roberts' record reveals a callous disregard for the rights of people very much like the tens of thousands who have died and been rendered homeless by Katrina. John Roberts' career has established his credentials as an uncompassionate conservative. A Roberts Court, Cohn warns, would threaten the rights of all but the rich and powerful. It is time for the Democrats to utter the "f" word: Filibuster.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090605Y.shtml

As the nation watches stunned by the images of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, an Indian tribe has opened its doors to shelter victims while individual Natives are heading to the damaged areas to help out.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090605Q.shtml

The US Congress session beginning September 6 is set to discuss legislative changes that the recent US-India nuclear deal will need. India will be watching the Congress proceedings in this connection with interest. The concern of some Indians, however, will be about whether the US lawmakers will consider at all the consequences of the deal for peace and stability in South Asia and in a larger part of Asia.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090605O.shtml

Tom Engelhardt comments that in the last week we've seen many of the black poor of New Orleans not only left behind in a new Atlantis, but thousands upon thousands of them - those who didn't die in their wheelchairs, or on highway overpasses, or in the ill-fated convention center, or unattended and forgotten in their homes - sent off on what looked very much like a new trail of tears.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090605M.shtml

The stakes are high: Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans must not waiver or compromise. They must warn Bush: They will not confirm an ideologue to the court or elevate a conservative activist - justices Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas - as chief justice.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090605L.shtml

Mr Bush's visit was his second to the disaster zone in four days, as more reports of government incompetence surfaced amid calls for the dismissal of top officials, particularly at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090605I.shtml

Resurrected from their patriotic torpor after the shocks of the September 11 attacks and their recruitment into the Army on the battlefield in Iraq, American television networks revealed the drama that unfolded in Louisiana, their journalists discovering and living the disaster of 200,000 people abandoned to their fate.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090605H.shtml

The wretchedness coming across our television screens from Louisiana has illuminated the way children sometimes pay with their lives, even in America, for being born to poor families. It has also underscored the Bush administration's ongoing reluctance or ineptitude in helping the poorest Americans, Kristof remarks. But Hurricane Katrina also underscores a much larger problem: the growing number of Americans trapped in a never-ending cyclone of poverty.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090605D.shtml

Pressed by constituents alarmed by skyrocketing gasoline prices in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) accused oil companies of manipulating energy markets to enhance profits and decried a lack of national leadership for a plan to free the country from dependence on foreign oil.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090605B.shtml

William Rivers Pitt argues that what we are seeing in New Orleans is the end result of what can be best described as extended Reaganomics. Small government, budget cuts across the board, tax cuts meant to financially strangle the ability of federal agencies to function, the diversion of billions of what is left in the budget into military spending: This has been the aim and desire of the conservative movement for decades now. The house of cards has fallen in. A generation of conservative thinking, combined with five years of neoconservative thrashing, has finally come to an unavoidable head.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090605A.shtml

(excerpt)

Why is FEMA so incompetent? It was turned into a political patronage agency by Bush for Bush's campaign.

Urgent International Appeal. U.S. troops in New Orleans are treating hurricane victims as members of "Al Qaeda."

"From Deep Inside the Washington Beltway"

RESIGN

Bush on the Gulf Coast in his role as Slim Witless.

When the recovery is over, we must make a list of these people and when "we the people" take over Congress next year, we must hound them out of media (you reading this Wolf Blitzer?) and the government, especially the Pentagon.

September 6, 2005 --


For communications technicians in New Orleans and Gulf Coast region. How to beat the communications jammers. (Thanks to "M").

Click here:
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/Jammers.htm


"Team Bush" still refusing international aid.

Russian rescue crews on four cargo planes with helicopters on board sit idle at an airport near Moscow waiting for green light, Cuba has 1500 doctors with 26 tons of medical supplies and Bush is refusing them entry to U.S., Venezuelan disaster rescue teams wait for a "go," Dominican Republic crews with hurricane recovery experience wait and wait and wait. It's the same scene at airports around the world. Meanwhile, FEMA turned back 8 buses from Washington, DC that were to bring 400 evacuees to the DC Armory which has been stockpiled with just about every need. The Bush regime has finally reached the crescendo of evil.

And why is FEMA so incompetent? It was turned into a political patronage agency by Bush. This from a disaster recovery specialist with inside contacts at FEMA:

Mike Brown was Joe Allbaugh's college roommate. (Allbaugh was Bush's first FEMA director). Allbaugh is now a consultant who makes tons of money for greasing the skids for companies to get business with the federal government in Iraq and with FEMA. Note to Federal law enforcement. You might want to investigate the relationship between Allbaugh and IEM, Dewberry, and URS -- the companies that took $500,000 to develop a "Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana," a plan they never delivered and a project for they fraudulently included James Lee Witt Associates as one of their team partners. The sleazy revolving door spewing out money spins very fast with the Bush administration.

Mike Brown had absolutely no experience in disaster management. When Allbaugh became director in January, 2001, he politically cleansed FEMA of anyone who was associated with outgoing director James Lee Witt, who had done an excellent during the Clinton administration. Allbaugh was charged with cleaning out of FEMA because of the neocon desire to rid the Federal bureaucracy of FEMA and replace it with charitable giving as a means of disaster relief.

So Allbaugh's first priority was to gut FEMA. This became an even greater priority after the Democrats (especially Joe Lieberman) forced Bush to create a Department of Homeland Security. FEMA was rolled into DHS. Allbaugh was caught by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) using the FEMA Boeing 737 aircraft for private purposes, including numerous personal trips to Florida and political trips around the country. The Republican National Committee reimbursed FEMA for the political junkets, but the embarrassing trips hit the pages of the New York Times and Allbaugh chose at that time to leave and set up his own consulting business. He left without any pressure from the White House.

In early 2001, The American Arabian Horse Association fired current FEMA director Mike Brown as its executive secretary after a non-productive period of employment. Admittedly, Mike Brown had spent a large part of 2000 campaigning for Bush rather than doing his job, but the bottom line for the horse association was that Brown neglected his duties and day to day responsibilities.

Brown was lucky. His old college roommate, Allbaugh, appointed Brown as his number 2 within days of his firing by the horse association. This cozy relationship was noted throughout the Allbaugh period. Upon Allbaugh's departure, Brown was designated by Bush to succeed him as FEMA director. He is called "Brownie" by Bush.

"Brownie" has few supporters in FEMA. In fact, the general commentary is that he lacks basic organizational and management skills, not a leader.

September 5, 2005 --


Urgent International Appeal. U.S. troops in New Orleans are treating hurricane victims as members of "Al Qaeda."

Reports coming to WMR report that the greater New Orleans area has been turned into a virtual military zone where troops threaten bewildered and hungry survivors who approach them for help.

One resident of the unflooded Algiers section of New Orleans on the west bank of the Mississippi River reports that the 65,000 population of the neighborhood has been reduced by forced evacuations to 2000 even though there are relatively undamaged schools, parks, and churches available to house the homeless. The remaining population of Algiers is in urgent need of medical supplies. The same situation exists in Jefferson Parish and other areas in the greater New Orleans area. U.S. troops are treating the remaining people in New Orleans and its suburbs as "suicide bombers," according to the Algiers resident. FEMA's operations are nothing more than a ruse to depopulate the poor African-American and whites from the metropolitan area. A natural disaster has now turned into a human rights catastrophe in the making. Our corporate news media is totally controlled by the Bush administration with an information embargo now in force from the Gulf coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi. Thecable news channels are now praising the White House's response. This is a blatant lie from a dictatorship that controls the media through financial control and intimidation. The web is our only way to get the news out to the rest of the world.

As a U.S. human rights activist who has reported on genocide in Rwanda, Sudan, West Papua and other parts of the world, I am appealing to my human rights and civil liberties contacts around the world -- Africa, Europe, Latin America, Australia, Canada, Asia and the Pacific -- to immediately bring this humanitarian crisis to the attention of your elected representatives, your governments, and international organizations. They must make immediate demarches to the American diplomatic embassies and offices in your countries. The United States is under the control of a despotic regime that is permitting American citizens and legal residents to die from starvation and disease. This is why the Bush regime refused offers of international assistance -- they are depopulating an entire city that before the storm was 70 percent African American, with the remaining 30 percent largely comprised of those of Creole, French Acadian, and American Indian descent. The United Nations must take this up as an urgent unfolding crisis that has an international impact. Please help our people.

Meanwhile, the communications jamming in the New Orleans area continues. it is now being reported by truck drivers on Interstate-10 as affecting the Citizens' Band (CB) frequencies.

September 5, 2005 -- President Bush has nominated John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Taking advantage of a nation reeling and preoccupied with an immediate task of saving hurricane victims and recovering thousands of bodies after its worst natural disaster, George W. Bush early this morning announced he was nominating controversial Judge John Roberts to be the next Chief Justice, replacing the late William Rehnquist for whom Roberts once clerked. The White House has withheld from Congress hundreds of documents regarding Roberts' role in the Iran-Contra scandal and other affairs while he was a counsel for President Reagan. Other documents on Roberts' role in President George H. W. Bush's pardon of Iran-contra felons while serving under Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr at the Justice Department have also been withheld from Congress. There are also questions about Roberts' view of civil rights. It has been revealed from released memos that he was an ardent supporter of South Africa's apartheid regime during the Reagan administration.

As reported on WMR yesterday, Sen. Orrin Hatch was tipping the hand on Bush's intentions when he said he wanted a quick confirmation of both Roberts and a Chief Justice. What he didn't say was that Bush would combine the two processes. Bush said that he expects Roberts to be sitting as Chief Justice when the Supreme Court meets publicly for its Fall session on October 3. Bush said he will announce a replacement for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor "in a timely manner." Bush only deals with things in a timely manner when its part and parcel of his plans to radically change the United States as a corporate fascist state. When its hurricane relief, timely manner is not in Bush's lexicon.

Nominated for Chief Justice -- John Roberts. The Bush coup continues: From two years on the Federal bench to the Chief Justice of the United States.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/


Informant: Our bill of rights

NPR has for quite a while, cornered the market on intellectual compassion. However as the charade of political duality in the media becomes more evident. They are further exposed as frauds, if not a fifth column for a neocon-corporate-media.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10148.htm

Much of New Orleans has become the Atlantis from hell, a toxic sludge pool of a looted former city, filled with dead bodies, burning in places, threatened with diseases like cholera and typhus that haven't visited the Big Easy since early in the last century.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=19806


From Information Clearing House

You know you have been lied to.

http://www.gratefulchild.org/projects/gcweb/gc/html/audio/


From Information Clearing House

If you’re not pissed off, you’re not paying attention.

Warning - Item contains language, which may offend some readers.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10154.htm

Well, all I can say is if a terrorist blows up Chicago or a major earthquake decimates Los Angeles, make sure you have batteries in your flashlights and learn to drink sewage with a smile because the Bush administration is otherwise distracted, dismissive and disinterested.

http://www.bettybowers.com/nl_090205.html


From Information Clearing House

U.S.President George Bush may have gone down in the American poll ratings because of his administrations lackadaisical approach and ineptitude in dealing with the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf States, but what has appalled most people, is Washington's decision to approach Third World countries for aid.

http://snipurl.com/hhgg


From Information Clearing House

The Red Cross is appealing for people overseas to contribute money to its Hurricane Katrina Appeal. But why does the world's richest nation need handouts?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4215336.stm


From Information Clearing House

What this tragedy has exposed is far more than the nature of the Bush regime, but the sick nature of the very "American Way of Life" of which they are all so self-righteously proud. Uncaring, class-divided, race-divided, prejudiced, exploitive, steal-from-the-poor-to-protect-the-rich focused, bureaucratic, and incompetent.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10150.htm

Bush announced today in Washington, according to the Wall Street Journal, that "he will personally lead an investigation into what went wrong with the response to Hurricane Katrina." What the heck! Does he think we are all stupid?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10158.htm

There are people dying and (the US government are) not putting the boats in the water, I think that's criminal negligence. I don't think anybody ever anticipated the criminal negligence of the Bush administration in this situation."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10149.htm

WARNING: Graphic Images

http://snipurl.com/hhgf


From Information Clearing House

"The choreographed events I've seen here today shocked me".

http://snipurl.com/hhgc


From Information Clearing House

Police officers had taken "souvenir" photographs of stranded people begging for help, he added.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10144.htm

"Mayfield said the strength of the storm and the potential disaster it could bring were made clear during both the briefings and in formal advisories".

http://snipurl.com/hhga


From Information Clearing House

pdf file

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10152.htm

"DMort is telling us to expect up to 40,000 bodies," Dan Buckner said, quoting officials with the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, a volunteer arm of Homeland Security.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10159.htm

An Iraqi alternative to US occupation

http://snipurl.com/hhg8


From Information Clearing House

A British soldier who shot dead an Iraqi civilian at a checkpoint will not face any charges, the office of Attorney General has confirmed.

http://snipurl.com/hhg5


From Information Clearing House

SEVEN British paratroops murdered an unarmed civilian in a “brutal and unprovoked” attack eleven days after the war in Iraq had been declared over, a court martial was told yesterday.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10142.htm

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

By Manuel Valenzuela

Americans have been slapped in the face by Katrina, forced to confront the vulnerability of our character and the impotence of our wealth, seeing the incompetence of our highest leaders and the ineptitude of our sacred government. - How can America fail when it is the greatest nation on Earth?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10147.htm

Everybody should be concerned about what we are seeing unfold before our eyes.

Look around you. Have you created the society you want for yourself and your children? Do you have the social support you need? Do you know where food and water would come from if a disaster would strike?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10146.htm

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=184


Informant: NHNE

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4216508.stm


Informant: NHNE

Study
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0906-07.htm

Each week, teens from Hillsborough and Pinellas join antiwar protesters at BayWalk. They tell why.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0906-03.htm

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread167902/pg1

--------

Eleven-year-old Trenace Tyler, who stands outside her Camp Dawson living quarters, is looking forward to getting back in school.

http://tinyurl.com/b6ra4

Tyler is among the refugees from Hurricane Katrina being sheltered at the West Virginia National Guard training center at Camp Dawson near Kingwood, W.Va. in Preston County, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005. Her family is among the first group of what could be 500 refugees from New Orleans who will be housed at the 4,177-acre camp along the Cheat River. (AP Photo/Dale Sparks)

Its on the list of FEMA camps for West Virginia.
http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1062

WEST VIRGINIA Beckley - Alderson - Lewisburg - Former WWII detention camps that are now converted into active federal prison complexes capable of holding several times their current populations. Alderson is presently a women´s federal reformatory. Morgantown - Federal prison camp located in northern WV; just north of Kingwood. Mill Creek - FEMA detention facility. Kingwood - Newly built detention camp at Camp Dawson Army Reservation. More data needed on Camp Dawson.


Informant: Dani Djinn



FEMA CONCENTRATION CAMPS: Locations and Executive Orders
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/386951/

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2005/060905femasabotaging.htm


ranger116

More on Politically Correct Speech
http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2003/0708.html

From The US Declaration of Independence
http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, It is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, Laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

The Government that Governs Least Governs Best !!

The Keyboard Is Mightier Than The Sword
©1999 tlb

Thomas Lee Buyea
Florida News Service


Informant: ranger116

http://www.sparkplugfoundation.org/katrinarelief.html

Informant: Amy Hendrickson

From ufpj-news

Bath Chronicle

11:00 - 06 September 2005

A Planning inquiry will now decide the fate of a controversial phone mast scheme in Bath. Earlier this year, Bath and North East Somerset Council delayed a decision on the mobile phone base station and antennae planned for a site at Wellsway.

Now operator Hutchinson 3G has appealed against the authority's failure to reach a verdict over the mast earmarked for the roof of the Smile store.

The Planning Inspectorate will now appoint an inspector to look at the case for and against the mast and recommend whether permission should be given.

Councillors had argued that inadequate research had been done into whether the mast could be located elsewhere, and said more time should be spent examining whether Hutchinson could share the same site as a rival phone company.

Campaigners opposed to the scheme have recently set up a new action group claiming the mast would be too close to homes.

They had celebrated when an application in the same area by phone company O2 was withdrawn and the company agreed to work on a plan for a mast site in nearby Alexandra Park.

But within months, Hutchinson 3G had submitted its application for the site at Wellsway.

The inspector will look at written submissions from each side and visit the site before making a recommendation for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Any comments sent by residents to B &NES will be forwarded to the inspectorate.

Anyone wanting to comment is asked to write to The Planning Inspectorate, 3/25 Hawk Wing, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, Bristol, BS1 6PN, sending three copies of their letter.

They should quote the reference number APP/F0114/A/05/1187757.

http://www.sirc.org/articles/birds_on_the_wire.shtml

From Karen Barratt

FYI Re: Bird on a Wire James Harkin - an Adam Burgess clone ! Maybe there is a mad scientist (in the pay of the telecoms) somewhere creating these "replicants."

The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments: Shortcut to: http://www.sirc.org/about/james.shtml

--------

Hear hear! Just sent him this:

Dear Mr Harkin,

It comes as no surprise to me that the aforementioned article does not mention the effect of masts on homing pigeons, who lose their sense of direction and fly to the wrong places, often going missing never to be seen again. Perhaps you have evidence that these pigeons are acting this way because they merely perceive masts to be dangerous?

What does surprise me is that Demos, (erroneously, obviously) referred to by some as a 'left wing think tank', should publish a misinformed article that serves the interests of the industry over the general population, when there is more than enough scientific evidence already available to anyone with a knowledge of scientific studies and research. The MOA use terms like 'review after review' when they are citing their 'reasssurances' about the safety of masts. Anyone with a Bsc knows that a review is exactly what it says, it is NOT based on new research. Someone looks at the research, picks out the bits that support their argument, compiles them into a group of studies, and viola! -they have a review of the literature! Someone else with the same interests comes along and does the same, and then there are two reviews, of the SAME literature, saying the same as the previous one. And so it goes.

Meanwhile, genuine research by independent scientists is starved of funding, and the studies identifying effects that the Industry and Government do not want us to know about are brushed aside. The usual strategy is to claim that science finding adverse effects is 'inconclusive' or unreplicated. Well, guess what! So is the 'science' the government use!

Do you not find it strange that the Government's 'science' is accepted without question, despite its flaws? Or that Professors of Sociology, such as Adam Burgess, are encouraged to put forward erroneous views on the subject as though he were an actual scientist with more knowledge than eminent scientists around the world? Or that the late Richard Doll, extolled by the Government and Industry as one of the scientists to be relied upon for information, was the same man who deemed x-rays safe for pregnant women?

Amanda Wesley (Bsc)

--------

Omega see "Pulsed microwave radiation and wildlife" under:
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/926007/

http://members.iinet.net.au/~holmgren/truth.html


Informant: Neo Mulder

http://cbs5.com/specialreports/local_story_249213006.html

CALIF. lawmakers worried that FEMA couldn't handle earthquake San Jose Mercury News - United States ... Katrina as California lawmakers wondered if the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency could handle the aftermath of a major California earthquake...
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/12575789.htm

From: Meria Heller
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 8:43 PM
Subject: Fw: Fw: Ion Beam Controlling Katrina] - interesting

WEATHER CONTROL AND WEATHER WARFARE http://www.weatherwars.info/

SCOTT STEVENS' SITE "WEATHER WARS"
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=78106

Lets see if we are so wrong so a picture is a million words...

-- Original Message Subject: Fw: Ion Beam Controlling Katrina Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 18:30:36 -0700
From: Godsmystery
To: David Monte*

Original Message - From: AvenueOfLight Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 4:57 PM Subject: Ion Beam Controlling Katrina

http://www.surfingtheapocalypse.net/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=97351

Bush's comment clearly points to the fact that he knows Katrina was a result of weather warfare - but by whom - our own Gov't ION BEAM CONTROLLING KATRINA *PIC*.

What the heck is this anomaly which appears to be targeting the exact center of hurricane Katrina's eye?

Was this truly an engineered hurricane? Or, is this apparent beam directing the hurricane to it's target?

Is this what Bush meant when he ascribed all the hurricane's damage to being like the result of "the most powerful weapon imaginable?"

It's hard for me to fathom, but then again, so was the H-Bomb hard to fathom to the ordinary citizen not all that long ago.

Kent at Cyberspaceorbit.com has some information as does the link below to RumorMillNews.com.

http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/


LINK TO MORE INFORMATION AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Indication of Scalar Weather Engineering?

Deconstructing Katrina: Scalar Signatures

Kent Steadman has found a remarkable photo of Katrina which shows a very strange anomaly which MAY be indication of weather engineering.

He suggests it is some kind of "ion beam."

Kent has always done excellent work in following the scalar weather wars. Here is the picture he uncovered:
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=78103

What IS that thing? It is time for us all to start educating ourselves on these matters because Tom Bearden says he imagines that EVERY major weather event from now on will probably be partially engineered.

In the case of Katrina he estimates a 70% chance it was "pumped up" to category 5 status with longitudinal wave interferometers ("Tesla howitzers").

The picture above is still at its souce site at NOAA:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2496.htm
(Rich - It's the 2nd picture on the right)

http://www.weatherwars.info/
Scott Stevens Weather Wars link


Informant: Friends

http://www.unknownnews.org/0509090906CampWilliams.html


Informant: Michael Novick

Los Angeles Times
by Peter G. Gosselin and Alan C. Miller

09/05/05

While the federal government has spent much of the last quarter-century trimming the safety nets it provides Americans, it has dramatically expanded its promise of protection in one area -- disaster. ... But the government's stumbling response to the storm that devastated the nation's Gulf Coast reveals that the federal agency singularly most responsible for making good on Washington's expanded promise has been hobbled by cutbacks and a bureaucratic downgrading. The Federal Emergency Management Agency once speedily delivered food, water, shelter and medical care to disaster areas, and paid to quickly rebuild damaged roads and schools and get businesses and people back on their feet. ... But in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, FEMA lost its Cabinet-level status as it was folded into the giant new Department of Homeland Security. And in recent years it has suffered budget cuts, the elimination or reduction of key programs and an exodus of experienced staffers... [editor's note: Excuses mostly, but also some explanation? - SAT]

http://tinyurl.com/7oqhg


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Sierra Times
by Al Benson Jr.

09/06/05

Katrina has come and gone, but the results she left with us will be here for some time to come. One thing this storm did was to reveal the 'Southern strategy' of George W., which basically to get the South to help him get re-elected and then tell that region to go and take a flying leap -- now that they had helped put him back into office he didn't need them anymore, and to make sure they didn't let the door hit them in the backside on the way out. ... [T]he South ... is, in Washington, really considered to be the bastard child of the rest of the country -- except during election years of course. Associated Press articles have noted that it was common knowledge that the levees contructed to prevent New Orleans from flooding wouldn't be able to withstand a major hurricane. Be that as it may, the movers and shakers in Washington, somehow, never quite got around to appropriating enough money to correct that little problem...

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/09/06/64_12_116_12_19165.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

America's Future Foundation
by James N. Markels

09/05/05

The old saying goes, 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' Such is the case if disaster strikes when you're unprepared. Now, with New Orleans damaged far worse than New York City after 9/11, Americans are left wondering exactly who has to be in charge in order to keep these disasters from happening. And they are looking, fairly or unfairly, at President Bush...)

http://www.affbrainwash.com/archives/020273.php


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The American Prospect
by Matthew Yglesias

09/06/05

Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath have focused public attention as never before (in my memory) on the twin scandals of George W. Bush's proclivity for incompetence laced with dishonesty and the persistence of mass poverty in America. The scandals are not unrelated. When on the campaign trail in 2000 Bush proclaimed himself a 'compassionate conservative' different from his predecessors, nobody quite knew what he meant. The idea seemed to be, however, that he was like a regular conservative, but also cared about poor people. Whether or not that's what the slogan was supposed to have meant, the reality turned out quite differently. Bush has become famous for his casual disregard of the basic elements of conservative philosophy ... Spending has gone up -- way up -- nearly across the board even while tax cuts have been lavished on the wealthy. Less noted is that one very small portion of the federal government's activities really has been curtailed: the spending of money on efforts to help poor people...

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=10216


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Competitive Enterprise Institute
by Richard Morrison

08/30/05

The disruption to oil and gas operations off the coast of Louisiana by Hurricane Katrina this week has raised concern that the oil processing facilities in the rest of the country may be unable to maintain supplies, leading to dramatically higher gas prices. The threat of those price increases emphasizes the need to throw off government restrictions and disincentives to investment in new energy infrastructure...

http://www.cei.org/gencon/003,04797.cfm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Frontiers of Freedom
by John T. Plecnik

09/06/05

The national debate on Supreme Court nominations is dominated by a larger debate over the most controversial social issues of our time. More specifically, the debate is dominated by a disagreement as to who has the final word on these issues. Who should decide whether abortion or gay marriage is legal in the United States? Congress or the courts? Generally speaking, strict constructionists say that congress or a state legislature should decide. The judicial philosophy of strict constructionism advocates for judicial restraint. Judges should strictly construe and apply the law as it is...

http://tinyurl.com/bxo2l


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CounterPunch
by Dan La Botz

09/06/05

Government failed utterly. Homeland Security secured nothing. FEMA -- the Federal Emergency Management Administration -- managed nothing. The President, finally tearing himself away from his vacation, first dawdled and then dithered while people died. Only after almost a week of tragedy, suffering and shame did government being [sic] to respond. But the people of New Orleans, poor African American people mostly, didn't fail. They gave us a model to live by. They helped each other. Ordinary men and women carried children and the elderly to high ground, built camps in the driest, most secure place, formed bands to forage for food and dry clothing. The strong helped the weak, as all helped each other. They also spoke out in righteous anger to the television cameras telling the world that the government had, after long neglecting them, now deserted them. They demanded to be treated with the dignity they deserved. Not all were steadfast it's true. Some behaved like our society taught them to behave: competed for resources, beggared their neighbors, hoarded their wealth. But most, the vast majority, stood together. The rejected competition and embraced cooperation and collective action...

http://www.counterpunch.org/labotz09062005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The Libertarian Enterprise
by Jack Duggan

09/05/05

Watching news coverage of the refugees trying to enter the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans for safety from the approaching force-five Hurricane Katrina, I was incredulous how the people attempting to enter the stadium were being treated by the national guard troops and local police. The people were made to stand for hours outside in the awful Louisiana climate while they were admitted one or two adults at a time so they could be searched 'for firearms and alcohol.' ... There were thousands of poor, mostly black citizens of the lower Louisiana area, many of them little children and sickly elderly, being forced to stand for hours while the government violated their civil rights with forced searches that were patently unconstitutional, unjust and unreasonable under the dire circumstances. 'Don't want to be searched? That's okay ... now turn around, go outside and die!' Big choice...

http://www.ncc-1776.com/tle2005/tle335-20050904-04.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Common Dreams
by Bill Davis

09/06/05

I read somewhere that real news is what they hide from us -- everything else is advertising. The advertising campaign is on -- real news slipped out for a few days and even the journalists who usually do most of the advertising, were stunned and emotional. They will be put back in place soon by the bombast of General Honore and the earnest level-headed drama of Clinton and the threat of Bush the Matriarch. But what the journalists saw in New Orleans was not just grisly images -- they saw the barbaric consequences of the policy drift of America -- a drift they must wonder if they had a hand in creating...

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0906-20.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

LewRockwell.Com
by Bill Barnwell

09/07/05

It's either a pure dishonesty or an illogical mind that says that a person can't support the troops without supporting the war. If by 'support' it means to keep them in harm's way forever fighting battles where they never needed to be in the first place, then I guess no, no anti-war person can 'support the troops.' But if by 'support' it means to actually care about the lives of these people, desire that they get out of harms way, be back with their families, and demand that they actually be used for national defense and not for politicians' imperialistic impulses, then yes, we can and do support them just fine. The fact is that 'The Troops' have become political footballs for individuals on both sides of the war debate, but more shamelessly so by hyper pro-war zealots. They use the troop card to silence and stifle debate. Since they can't debate the facts and surrounding circumstances of this war they resort to vilifying dissenters with scare tactics which seek to prevent them from speaking out unless they want their humanity and patriotism questioned...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnwell/barnwell51.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

09/07/05

The myths of American impregnability have been debunked, one by one, first by 9/11, then by the disastrous aftermath of our glorious 'victory' in Iraq, and now, with Katrina, by the very forces of Nature. It's as if, on the road to Benevolent Global Hegemony, a giant Invisible Hand had appeared on the horizon, commanding us to "Stop!" These failures, enumerated above, are all the failures of government -- and, in spite of a concerted effort by the liberal-left and the neocon right to cast these events as pointing to the need for more governmental authority, the observant empiricist will insist quite the contrary...

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=7173


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Reason
by Matt Welch

09/06/05

All along Hurricane Katrina's Evacuation Belt, in cities from Houston to Baton Rouge to Leesville, Louisiana, the exact same rumors are spreading faster than red ants at a picnic. The refugees from the United States' worst-ever natural disaster, it is repeatedly said, are bringing with them the worst of New Orleans' now-notorious lawlessness: looting, armed carjacking, and even the rape of children. 'By Thursday,' the Chicago Tribune's Howard Witt reported, 'local TV and radio stations in Baton Rouge ...were breezily passing along reports of cars being hijacked at gunpoint by New Orleans refugees, riots breaking out in the shelters set up in Baton Rouge to house the displaced, and guns and knives being seized.' The only problem -- none of the reports were true...

http://www.reason.com/links/links090605.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

WBIR-TV

09/06/05

Hurricane Katrina has become the Homeland Security Department's first big test. Since the department was created after the 9/11 attacks to prevent and respond to catastrophes, it has spent tens of billions of dollars, studied disaster scenarios of every imaginable kind and run some of the nation's biggest emergency response drills. It should have been ready for just about anything. But it wasn't ready for the power of Katrina. Today, as workers struggle to provide better relief for survivors, Congress will begin investigating why the government's response was so slow. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., leaders of the Senate Homeland Security committee, will discuss their committee's plan for an inquiry into the response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The agency is the disaster-response division of the Homeland Security Department. 'We intend to demand answers as to how this immense failure occurred,' the senators said in a statement...

http://www.wbir.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=28429&provider=rss


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CNN

09/05/05

Volunteer physicians are pouring in to care for the sick, but red tape is keeping hundreds of others from caring for Hurricane Katrina survivors while health problems rise. Among the doctors stymied from helping out are 100 surgeons and paramedics in a state-of-the-art mobile hospital, developed with millions of tax dollars for just such emergencies, marooned in rural Mississippi. 'The bell was rung, the e-mails were sent off. ...We all got off work and deployed,' said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston 'Chip' Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 'We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here,' he said. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away 'is just mind-boggling,' he said." [Editor's note: Reminds me of another story that I only saw on my local news, a team of medical personnel from the Medical College of Georgia, waiting since LAST Tuesday to be 'deployed' to the disaster area - MLS]

http://tinyurl.com/bamrk


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.weatherwars.info/

Katrina

"I'm not looking forward to this trip," Bush said as he toured Alabama and Mississippi and headed for Louisiana. "It's as if the entire Gulf Coast were obliterated by the worst kind of weapon you can imagine," he said.

Read it Now

August 2005 Video

A mixture of hand held video and time-lapse shot in and around Pocatello, Idaho this year.


Read Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5.

Find some pieces of the puzzle

"Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.

So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations.

It's real, and that's the reason why we have to intensify our efforts, and that's why this is so important."

-[Secretary of Defense William Cohen at an April 1997 counterterrorism conference sponsored by former Senator Sam Nunn. Quoted from DoD News Briefing, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, Q&A at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy, University of Georgia , Athens , Apr. 28, 1997].

A battle in the skies is waged daily. Some battles are won and others lost. We yet know not which.

For years this massive global project has been under way, but only now is it making it to the forefront of the consciousness of those with curious minds.

These open minds know that every belief system fails; and only fails, under the weight of new truthful information. This is how progress is made, slowly and often only with the passing of a generation of humankind.

The Truth

It would appear to be an indelible human trait that the 'truth' about most issues usually goes through three distinct phases known colloquially as "the three stages of truth".

During the first stage, the issue goes unnoticed and is ignored.

The second stage is characterized by a period of vehement denial.

The third stage witnesses the truth about the issue being recognized as self-evident.

The intent of my work here is to skip directly to this third stage of truth. Time does not allow for us to bicker over the obvious.

Visit the site of Tom Bearden. His work is pioneering in this field. His latest paper is absolutely essential in understanding how this scalar technology works, how long it has been active, who runs it and why and finally what it is immediately capable of.

He also discusses what kinds of events are planned for the U.S. in the coming two to three years. This man deserves the Prize for his research.

The following is a brief excerpt from his most recent paper dated October 13, 2004.

So in early 1990, the weather engineering operations over North America were assumed from the FSB/KGB by the Yakuza/Aum Shinrikyo teams, and operations continued with the Yakuza's leased giant scalar interferometers.

The weather engineering against the United States continues today under the rogue Japanese teams on site in Russia, with direct FSB/KGB supervision.

In 2004 we have entered the 2-year "final preparation phase". These operations have been intensified and will continue to be intense, wreaking great economic damage.

Hurricanes Charlie, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, etc. have been no exception to the Yakuza weather engineering, which included directly influencing and controlling each hurricane's power and behavior, as well as directing its course and speed so as to choose its targeting path. Indeed, Ivan did a 180 degree turn, and Jeanne did a 360 degree loop before reaching Florida, demonstrating the degree of control available.

Meteorologists do recognize periods of increased or decreased hurricane activity for various reasons, but they do not consider deliberate human induction of hurricanes or human control over their direction, power, and progress.

Indeed, in latter March of 2004, Hurricane Catarina -- the first-ever recorded hurricane in the South Atlantic-- formed and came ashore in Brazil on March 28 with 90 mph winds, doing substantial damage.

So while the conventional wisdom is that hurricanes cannot form (naturally) in the South Atlantic; this one did and "broke all the records".

It appears to have been a "deliberate probe" by the Yakuza:

Produce and drive ashore a hurricane where the textbooks state one is impossible, to test whether Western governments and scientists recognize the artificial weather engineering .

The answer, of course, is that -- as expected -- the West did not recognize its importance, or that it was a deliberate "stimulus."

Western meteorologists and governments simply shrugged off Hurricane Catarina as an interesting little phenomenon but of no great concern.

For conventional consideration of hurricane increases, see (a) Lennart Bengtsson, "Hurricane Threats," Science, Vol. 293, 20 July 2001 p. 440-441; (b) Stanley B. Goldenberg et al ., "The Recent Increase in Atlantic Hurricane Activity: Causes and Implications," Science, Vol. 293, 20 July 2001 p. 474-479.

This full 60 page paper is a MUST read! http://www.cheniere.org/articles/

As a television weatherman I first met this information with skepticism, who wouldn't?

Almost completely rejecting the concept that weather modification outside of cloud seeding possible.

Additional clues kept creeping in until I came across examples of scalar weather engineering on Tom Bearden's web site. Soon I began looking for my own examples in my own skies. Whoa! There they were! And not just occasionally, but all the time!

Examples in highs clouds were the easiest to spot, much less convective turbulence to round out the edges.

Mid level clouds. the alto cumulus are now frequently gridded and square. Odd, very odd I thought. Lower clouds, cumulus and stratus, especially in a marine layer environment seem to be the most difficult in which to see the active grid. But it is there. I must also admit living in the desert climate of the Northern Rockies, which does not afford me much opportunity to get practiced with that kind of marine air mass.

Spotting activity in clouds is but one aspect of this global war.

Evidence can be gleaned from satellite imagery; weather service doppler radars frequently give up these scalar secrets too.

Contrails and chemtrails, without question, are a big part of this game. There must be aspects as yet unknown; that some curious mind will share with us as this war game develops further and as more eyes are opened and see.

It must be understood by all that the entirety of this planet's atmospheric weather processes are now controlled. All of it, completely 24/7/365!

The paradigm shift for all weathermen is now trying to forecast some organization's intent, and not the natural meteorological processes of earth's atmosphere.

This adds yet another element of unknown to an already challenging field. The premise of this site is that you have a working understanding of basic meteorological processes.

My building this site was an inevitability.

I am just the first of a very bright group of individuals who have to look at information that is of varying reliability and quality on a day to day basis. draw conclusions from that data, then present those conclusions of that data to very large audiences.

The weather industry will convert quickly, very quickly.

Simply put this is a yes or no proposition; it is occurring or it is not. Even a cursory look at this site yields foundation-moving questions for weather guys, and moves the mind into this reality.

The end game has arrived, just as the powers that be knew it would.

My only question is whether it is later or earlier than their anticipation.

This planet's destiny is set. only the details have yet to occur.

Our branch of humanity has in its future the possibility of regaining our sovereignty; that issue yet remains to be determined.

If humanity only knew that this choice presently exists. The alarm bells are ringing, it is time to wake-up.


Informant: Friends