Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain** False Prophet Hal Lindsay Wants War on Iran http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=98&contentid=2642 contributing editor to   - Bill

by URI DOWBENKO
 

Pat Robertson isn’t the only Christian jihadist stirring up hatred and war mongering for the Bush Cabal. Now Hal Lindsay is calling for the invasion of Iran Besides false prophet Hal Lindsay wants to blow up your planet. In fact he's been counting on it ever since he wrote "The Late Great Planet Earth," which predicts the demise of Terra. Why? Because his Belief System (BS) tells him so. Faux Christian Hal Lindsay has been called the "Father of Apocalyptic Christian Zionism." His false prophecies have littered the landscape with failed doom and gloom scenarios for decades. Recently he has written a new pseudo-religious rant called "Iran could ignite catastrophe" on the extremist WorldNetDaily website. Lindsay wants Iran to be nuked or at least invaded by the Bush Cabal since he believes he won’t get "rapturized" until the end of the world.

Lindsay’s specious reasoning again brings up the boogeyman of a "threat of a nuclear Iran” as well as the idea that "Israel is virtually certain to be Tehran's prime target.

Then he writes about the ultimate evangelical wet dream complete "nukular" annihilation through the Israeli plan for World War III called the "samson Option."

"The 'Samson Option' is an operational plan that can be implemented on very short notice," writes Lindsay. "If Israel sees that it is about to be overrun or faces annihilation by weapons of mass destruction, the 'Samson Option' will immediately kick in. There would be very little left of the Muslim Middle East after that."

And that's the way Lindsay likes it, since his false prophecies would finally get some legs.

Then Lindsay's war and fear mongering really kicks in. "In the meantime, Israel has formed a bold military strike plan to take out Iran's nuclear facilities before they go online if necessary. Israel has no illusions. It knows this would be an extremely dangerous and difficult operation, given the wide dispersal of Iran's nuclear facilities…It would have to be a massive attack to assure that all facilities are destroyed...The stakes could not be higher. The entire Middle East, Russia, much of Asia and the United States could be drawn into a confrontation over this that could explode into nuclear war."

Hal Lindsay has a lot of false prophecies to run through. But with the Bush Cabal planning WWIII in the Middle East, anything is possible.

Then Hal Lindsay's Late Great Apocalyptic Christian Zionism and its deluded followers will finally get "rapturized."

Or at least blown to bits.

Then they can get reincarnated as Muslims -- and maybe finally learn their lesson...

* URI DOWBENKO is the author of "Bushwhacked: Inside Stories of True Conspiracy" and "Hoodwinked: Watching Movies with Eyes Wide Open." He can be reached at u.dowbenko@lycos.com His website is UriDowbenko.Com For more information on Dowbenko's articles and samples of chapters from his books Bushwhacked & Hoodwinked"
 
 

I N S I G H T Walmart Kills Houston Man for Shoplifting http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2005/08/42397.php contributing editor to   - Rodger

[While holding down this man, the agents acted like cops and without any evidence, they justified their actions by claiming the man was "high on something".  Naturally, they had NO idea of this.  The cops use this line, or something similar, which you the reader or observer can not verify, to justify their conduct.  It is wrong.  --  Tribble]

by Always low prices!

Wal-Mart LP's (loss prevention workers) Kill Suspected Shoplifter

Man held down on burning pavement until he died

Wal-Mart loss prevention workers tackled a man suspected of stealing diapers - a new father with a two month old child - holding him down with a choke hold and knee to the back while he was shirtless on the scalding pavement of a Wal-Mart parking lot in Texas.

The incident was witnessed by dozens of shoppers, including a prominent Texas attorney, Charles Portz:

Charles Portz said he was getting out of his car when he saw a heavy blonde haired man being chased by five people who appeared to be security or store employees. He said he saw them wrestling the man to the ground. "The blacktop was extremely hot," said Portz "He had no shirt on and they wouldn't let him up off the blacktop." He said one of the men had Driver in a chokehold and had his knee in the back of his neck as the men tried to subdue him. "He kept trying to get up and they kept pushing him back down," Portz said.

According to Portz, Driver began to plead with them men. "He's begging, 'Please call an ambulance, let me up, do something, I'm gonna die," said Portz. He said the loss prevention employees called the police more than once, but another bystander called for an ambulance after realizing Driver was in trouble. Portz said he eventually began to plead with the Walmart employees. "I told them, this guy doesn't look like he's breathing," Portz said, "They said, 'He's all right." He says he continued to plead with the men, pointing out that the man's fingernails were turning gray. "They said he's just high on something," adding, "They just kept him pinned down for twenty minutes or more until the ambulance came." He said he believed Driver was dead when the ambulance left with him, but he was not certain.

The store employees could not have known that the witness who was pleading with them to let Driver get up from the hot pavement was a high profile Houston attorney, from the Portz and Portz law firm. He said after the man was handcuffed he continued trying in vain to persuade the Walmart employees to allow him to get up, even pointing out that a second pair of cuffs could be used to attach the ones already on Driver to a nearby truck trailer. "The problem is they kept him down on the blistering concrete with no shirt on," Portz reiterated. He said law enforcement arrived at about the same time as the ambulance.

© 2000-2003 Houston Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Houston Independent Media Center. Running sf-active v0.9 Disclaimer | Privacy
 
 

I N S I G H T Failure contributing editor to   - Dan

If you have made mistakes...there is always another chance for you...you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down.  -- Mary Pickford
 
 

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain** Your Vote Has not Counted for Many Years http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2005/08/42397.php contributing editor to   - Jeanne

[Some of you still think your vote counts.  For over a decade there have many evidence supported reports revealing that voting in the uSA no longer counts.  This LARGE (87Mb) sized video show the manipulation of the voting process in the new world of electronics.  You should see this.  You need Quicktime for viewing it.  --  Tribble

You can get it from these sites

http://www.nogw.com/

http://www.votergate.tv/

http://www.votergate.tv/movie_links.html
 
 

the offices of Dewey, Cheetum & Howe United States Police contributing editor to   - Rodger

[There is something really wrong with this.  --  Tribble]
 

This seems to have been around since about since 2003  Here is what "Last Trumpet Ministries" had to say about it. Meanwhile, in America, the people continue to be terror-tested. Reports are out that Al Qaeda terrorists are soon to strike with an attack that would dwarf the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. (13) Such threats give the Gestapo outfit, known as the Department of Homeland Security, a reason to exist in the eyes of the American people. I am currently looking at two different arm patches for federal police, which was illegal under our constitution. One patch says “United States Police”, and the other says “Federal Protective Service Police.” (14) All other law enforcement agencies are subordinate to this federal fist of control. Most people have forgotten the new law that was passed in 1995, known to the 104th Congress as H.R. 666, which allows formerly illegal searches and seizures. (15) We are told that we must trust and obey the giant Department of Homeland Security with its 180,000 employees, and that this is for our own good. This department even has a pamphlet called “Get Ready Now”, which contains instructions on what to do in the event of a terrorist attack. The pamphlet contains the usual information about having a flashlight and some duct tape, but one thing caught my eye instantly. The Department of Homeland Security says, “If you have a car, keep a half tank of gas in it at all times.” (16) This directive reminds me of the order that was given just before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. All American vehicles and aircraft were ordered to have a half tank of gas. That is why every vehicle and airplane became its own bomb, because a full tank of gas will not explode, but a half tank has maximum explosive power because of the fumes inside. The American people are being continually tested and set up for takeover and control by the powers of antichrist.  -- http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/2003/October2003.html

 

H U M O R How to lose 75 pounds contributing editor to   - Rodger

A man was ordered by his doctor to lose 75 lb. due to very serious health risks.  As he wondered how in the heck he would ever do it, he ran across an ad in the newspaper for a GUARANTEED WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM.

"Guaranteed. Yeah right!" he thought to himself. But desperate, he calls them up and subscribes to the 3-day/10 pound weight loss program.

The next day there's a knock at his door, and when he answers, there stands before him a voluptuous, athletic, 19 year old young lady dressed in nothing but a pair of Nike running shoes and a sign round her neck. She introduces herself as a representative of the weight loss company. The sign reads, "If you can catch me, you can have me!" Without a second thought he takes off after her. A few miles later, huffing and puffing, he finally catches her and is too tired to have his way with her. After they are rested and she leaves, he thinks to himself, "I like the way this company does business!" The same girl shows up for the next two days and the same thing happens. The fourth day, he weighs himself and is delighted to find he has lost 10 lb. as promised.

He calls the company and orders their 5-day/20 pound program. The next day there's a knock at the door and there stands the most stunning, beautiful, sexy woman he has ever seen in his life, wearing nothing but Reebok running shoes and a sign around her neck that reads, "If you catch me, you can have me."  He's out the door after her like a shot. This girl is in excellent shape and it takes him a very long while to catch her, but when he does, he is cramping and wheezing. For the next four days, the same routine happens and much to his delight, on the fifth day he weighs himself and found he has lost another 20 lb as promised.

He decides to go for broke and calls the company to order the  7-day/50 pound program. "Are you sure?" asks the representative on the phone.

"This is our most rigorous program." "Absolutely," he replies, "I haven't felt this good in years.

"The next day there's a knock at the door and when he opens it he finds a muscular guy standing there wearing nothing but pink running shoes and a sign around his neck that reads,

"If I catch you, you're mine."
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y Diesel for Destruction contributing editor to   - Viv

Dear Family and Friends,

There has been a nation wide shortage of petrol and diesel in the country ever since the March elections which has now got so bad that it has bought almost everything to a complete standstill.   Petrol stations are either completely dry and deserted or they are places where rumours of deliveries are rife and unmoving queues of driverless vehicles snake away into the distance. There may not be fuel for the everyday things like commuter buses and delivery trucks but there is still diesel for destruction. Countrywide the bulldozers continue to growl and roar as they push down walls, flatten homes and reduce lives to rubble in the fourth week of the government's Operation Restore Order.

One day this week I met a man who is in his early eighties and was desperate for just 10 litres of petrol so that he could get his wife to a specialist for medical treatment. The man has worked all his life in Zimbabwe and had prepared well for his old age. He hadn't banked on hyper inflation and economic collapse though and now his entire monthly pension isn't enough to buy even one litre of petrol. The man sat, counting filthy hundred dollar notes into piles, trying to work out just how much money he had and how many notes he would need. It was almost irrelevant that there was no petrol to buy because the fact was that 10 litres of petrol represented a year's worth of pension cheques.

Later that same day I met another elderly man who stood waiting for me near my car and greeted me politely as I arrived. "Can you help me, please. I have nothing to sell and am just an old man." Once a farm worker until the government seized all the farms, the man had then got a job working in a garden in the town. Four months ago the government increased the minimum wage for garden workers by one thousand percent and this elderly man lost his job. He has become just another helpless, hopeless victim in Zimbabwe. I did not ask the man where he was living or if his home had been reduced to a pile of rubble as everywhere there are police, many police, watching and waiting to "restore order". I pressed a note into his hand and felt ashamed that an old man who has lost everything, has been reduced to this.

With love, Cathy. Copyright cathy buckle 25 June 2005

Lilla von Elling
P.O.Box 38728
Howick
Auckland
Tel: 0064-9-2684640
Fax: 0064-9-2682098
Mob: 021-1342110
 
 

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain** Bush Gives New Reason for Iraq War http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/31/bush_gives_new_reason_for_iraq_war/ contributing editor to  - Rodger

Says US must prevent oil fields from falling into hands of terrorists

By Jennifer Loven, Associated Press  |  August 31, 2005

CORONADO, Calif. -- President Bush answered growing antiwar protests yesterday with a fresh reason for US troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.

The president, standing against a backdrop of the USS Ronald Reagan, the newest aircraft carrier in the Navy's fleet, said terrorists would be denied their goal of making Iraq a base from which to recruit followers, train them, and finance attacks.

''We will defeat the terrorists," Bush said. ''We will build a free Iraq that will fight terrorists instead of giving them aid and sanctuary."

Appearing at Naval Air Station North Island to commemorate the anniversary of the Allies' World War II victory over Japan, Bush compared his resolve to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's in the 1940s and said America's mission in Iraq is to turn it into a democratic ally just as the United States did with Japan after its 1945 surrender. Bush's V-J Day ceremony did not fall on the actual anniversary. Japan announced its surrender on Aug. 15, 1945 -- Aug. 14 in the United States because of the time difference.

Democrats said Bush's leadership falls far short of Roosevelt's.

''Democratic Presidents Roosevelt and Truman led America to victory in World War II because they laid out a clear plan for success to the American people, America's allies, and America's troops," said Howard Dean, Democratic Party chairman. ''President Bush has failed to put together a plan, so despite the bravery and sacrifice of our troops, we are not making the progress that we should be in Iraq. The troops, our allies, and the American people deserve better leadership from our commander in chief."

The speech was Bush's third in just over a week defending his Iraq policies, as the White House scrambles to counter growing public concern about the war. But the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast drew attention away; the White House announced during the president's remarks that he was cutting his August vacation short to return to Washington, D.C., to oversee the federal effort.

After the speech, Bush hurried back to Texas ahead of schedule to prepare to fly back to the nation's capital today. He was to return to the White House on Friday, after spending more than four weeks operating from his ranch in Crawford.

Bush's August break has been marked by problems in Iraq.

It has been an especially deadly month there for US troops, with the number of those who have died since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 now nearing 1,900.

The growing death toll has become a regular feature of the slightly larger protests that Bush now encounters everywhere he goes -- a movement boosted by a vigil set up in a field down the road from the president's ranch by a mother grieving the loss of her soldier son in Iraq.

Cindy Sheehan arrived in Crawford only days after Bush did, asking for a meeting so he could explain why her son and others are dying in Iraq. The White House refused, and Sheehan's camp turned into a hub of activity for hundreds of activists around the country demanding that troops be brought home.

This week, the administration also had to defend the proposed constitution produced in Iraq at US urging. Critics fear the impact of its rejection by many Sunnis, and say it fails to protect religious freedom and women's rights.

At the naval base, Bush declared, ''We will not rest until victory is America's and our freedom is secure" from Al Qaeda and its forces in Iraq led by Abu Musab alZarqawi.

''If Zarqawi and [Osama] bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks," Bush said. ''They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions. They could recruit more terrorists by claiming a historic victory over the United States and our coalition."
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y The State and the Flood http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/flood.html contributing editor to   - Rodger

[Here are some things to keep in mind

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

"No one can escape the influence of a prevailing ideology," wrote Ludwig von Mises, and Gulf Coast residents know precisely what it means to be trapped—ostensibly by a flood but actually by statist policies and ideological commitments that put the government in charge of crisis management and public infrastructure. For what we are seeing in New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast region is the most egregious example of government failure in the United States since September 11, 2001.

Mother Nature can be cruel, but even at her worst, she is no match for government. It was the glorified public sector, the one we are always told is protecting us, that is responsible for this. And though our public servants and a sycophantic media will do their darn best to present this calamity as an act of nature, it was not and is not. Katrina came and went with far less damage than anyone expected. It was the failure of the public infrastructure and the response to it that brought down civilization.

The levees that failed and caused New Orleans to be flooded, bringing a humanitarian crisis not seen in our country in modern times, were owned and maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. The original levees surrounding this city below sea level were erected in 1718, and have been variously expanded since.

But who knew that a direct hit by a hurricane would cause them to break? Many people, it turns out. Ivor van Heerden of Louisiana State University, reports Newsday, "has developed flooding models for New Orleans, was among those issuing dire predictions as Katrina approached, warnings that turned out to be grimly accurate. He predicted that floodwaters would overcome the levee system, fill the low-lying areas of the city and then remain trapped there well after the storm passed – creating a giant, stagnant pool contaminated with debris, sewage and other hazardous materials."

Newsday goes on: "Van Heerden and other experts put some of the blame on the Mississippi River levees themselves, because they channel silt directly into the Gulf of Mexico that otherwise would stabilize land along the riverside and slow the sinking of the coastline."

He is hardly some lone nut. National Geographic ran a large article on the topic last year that begins with a war-of-the-worlds scenario that reads precisely like this week's news from New Orleans. It is the Army Corps of Engineers that has been responsible for the dwindling of the coastline that has required the levees to be constantly reinforced with higher walls. But one problem: no one bothered to do this since 1965. That's only the beginning of the problems created by the Corps' levee management, the history of which was documented by Mark Thornton following the last flood in 1999.

Only the public sector can preside over a situation this precarious and display utter and complete inertia. What do these people have to lose? They are not real owners. There are no profits or losses at stake. They do not have to answer to risk-obsessed insurance companies who insist on premiums matching even the most remote contingencies. So long as it seems to work, they are glad to go about their business in the soporific style famous to all public sectors everywhere.

And failure of one structure has highlighted the failures of other structures. The levees could not be repaired in a timely manner because roads and bridges built and maintained by government could not withstand the pressure from the flood. They broke down.

And again, it is critical to keep in mind that none of this was caused by Hurricane Katrina as such. It was the levee break that led to the calamity. As the New York Times points out: "it was not the water from the sky but the water that broke through the city's protective barriers that had changed everything for the worse…. When the levees gave way in some critical spots, streets that were essentially dry in the hours immediately after the hurricane passed were several feet deep in water on Tuesday morning."

Indeed, at 4pm on Monday, August 29, all seemed calm, and reports of possible calamity seemed overwrought. Two hours later the reports began to appear about the levee. A period of some twelve hours lapsed between when the hurricane passed through and when the water came rushing into the city. There is some dispute about precisely when the levees broke. Some say that they were broken long before anyone discovered it, which is another outrage. There was no warning system. There is no question that plenty of time was available between their breakage and the flooding to enable to people to make other arrangements—and perhaps for the levees to be repaired. People were relieved that the rain subsided and the effects of Katrina were far less egregious than anyone expected.

That's when the disaster struck. The municipal government itself relocated to Baton Rouge even as the city pumps failed as well. Meanwhile, the Army Corp of Engineers apparently had no viable plan even to make repairs. They couldn't bring in the massive barges and cranes needed because the bridges were down and broken, or couldn't be opened without electricity. For public relations purposes, they dumped tons of sand into one breach even as another levee was breaking. But even that PR move failed since most helicopters were being used to move people from spot to spot—another classic case of miscalculation. Many bloggers had the sense that the public sector essentially walked away.

But the police and their guns and nightsticks were out in full force, not arresting criminals but pushing around the innocent and giving mostly bad instructions. The 10,000 people who had been corralled into the Superdome were essentially under house arrest from the police who were keeping them there, preventing them even from getting fresh air. A day later the water and food were running out, people were dying, and the sanitary conditions becoming disastrous. Finally someone had the idea of shipping all these people Soviet-like to Houston to live in the Astrodome, as if they are not people with volition but cattle.

After evacuations, the looting began and created a despicable sight of criminal gangs stealing everything in sight as the police looked on (when they weren't joining in). Now, this scene offers its own lessons. Why don't looting and rampant criminality occur every day? The police are always there and so are the hoodlums and the criminals. What was missing that made the looting rampage possible was the bourgeoisie, that had either left by choice or had been kicked out. It is they who keep the peace. And had any stayed around to protect their property, we don't even have to speculate what the police would have done: Arrest them!

Now, in the coming weeks, as it becomes ever more obvious that the real problem was not the hurricane but the failure of the infrastructure to work properly, the political left is going to have a heyday (here too). They will point out that Bush cut spending for the Army Corp of Engineers, that money allocated to reinforcing the levees and fixing the pumps had been cut to pay for other things, that we are reaping what we sow from failing to support the public sector.

The ever-stupid right will come to the defense of Bush and the Iraq War that has completely absorbed this regime's attention, pointing out that Bush is actually a big and compassionate spender who cares about infrastructure, while demanding that people recognize his greatness, along with all the other pieties that have become staples of modern "conservatism."

But this is a superficial critique (and defense) that doesn't get to the root of the problem with public services. NASA spends and spends and still can't seem to make a reliable space shuttle. The public schools absorb many times more—thousands times more—in resources than private schools and still can't perform well. The federal government spends trillions over years to "protect" the country and can't fend off a handful of malcontents with an agenda. So too, Congress can allocate a trillion dollars to fix every levee, fully preventing the last catastrophe, but not the next one.

The problem here is public ownership itself. It has encouraged people to adopt a negligent attitude toward even such obvious risks. Private developers and owners, in contrast, demand to know every possible scenario as a way to protect their property. But public owners have no real stake in the outcome and lack the economic capacity to calibrate resource allocation to risk assessment. In other words, the government manages without responsibility or competence.

Can levees and pumps and disaster management really be privatized? Not only can they be; they must be if we want to avoid ever more apocalypses of this sort.  William Buckley used to poke fun at libertarians and their plans for privatizing garbage collection, but this disaster shows that much more than this ought to be in private hands. It is not a trivial issue; our survival may depend on it.

It is critically important that the management of the whole of the nation's infrastructure be turned over to private management and ownership. Only in private hands can there be a possibility of a match between expenditure and performance, between risk and responsibility, between the job that needs to be done and the means to accomplish it.

The list of public sector failures hardly stops there. The outrageous insistence that no one be permitted to "gouge" only creates shortages in critically important goods and services when they are needed the most. It is at times of extreme need that prices most need to be free to change so that consumers and producers can have an idea of what is needed and what is in demand. Absent those signals, people do not know what to conserve and what to produce.

Bush was on national television declaring that the feds would have zero tolerance towards gouging, which is another way of saying zero tolerance toward markets. If New Orleans stands any chance of coming back, it will only be because private enterprise does the rebuilding, one commercial venture at a time. Bush's kind of talk guarantees a future of mire and muck, the remote possibility of prosperity and peace sacrificed on the altar of interventionism.

Moreover, every American ought to be alarmed at the quickness of officials to declare martial law, invade people's rights, deny people the freedom of movement, and otherwise trample on all values that this country is supposed to hold dear. A crisis does not negate the existence of human rights. It is not a license for tyranny. It is not a signal that government may do anything it wants.

This crisis ought to underscore a point made on these pages again and again. Being a government official gives you no special insight into how to best manage a crisis. Indeed the public sector, with all its guns and mandates and arrogance, cannot and will not protect us from life's contingencies. It used to be said that infrastructure was too important to be left to the uncertainties of markets. But if it is certainty that we are after, there is a new certainty that has emerged in American life: in a crisis, the government will make matters worse and worse until it wrecks your life and all that makes it worth living.

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [send him mail] is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell.com and author of Speaking of Liberty.

Copyright © 2005 LewRockwell.com  - September 2, 2005
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y $4 a gallon http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8804.htm contributing editor to   - Rodger

BY MICHAEL VENTURA -  - 09/10/05 "Austin Chronicle"

America is over. America is like Wile E. Coyote after he's run out a few paces past the edge of the cliff – he'll take a few more steps in midair before he looks down. Then, when he sees that there's nothing under him, he'll fall. Many Americans suspect that they're running on thin air, but they haven't looked down yet. When they do ...

Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker, a pillar of the Establishment with access to economic information beyond our reach, wrote recently: "Circumstances seem to me as dangerous and intractable as any I can remember. ... What really concerns me is that there seems to be so little willingness or capacity to do anything about it" (quoted in The Economist, April 16, p.12). Volcker chooses words carefully: "dangerous and intractable," "willingness or capacity." He's saying: The situation is probably beyond our powers to remedy.

Gas prices can only go up. Oil production is at or near peak capacity. The U.S. must compete for oil with China, the fastest-growing colossus in history. But the U.S. also must borrow $2 billion a day to remain solvent, nearly half of that from China and her neighbors, while they supply most of our manufacturing ("Benson's Economic and Market Trends," quoted in Asia Times Online) – so we have no cards to play with China, even militarily. (You can't war with the bankers who finance your army and the factories that supply your stores.) China now determines oil demand, and the U.S. has no long-term way to influence prices. That means $4 a gallon by next spring, and rising – $5, then $6, probably $10 by 2010 or thereabouts. Their economy can afford it; ours can't. We may hobble along with more or less the same way of life for the next dollar or so of hikes, but at around $4 America changes. Drastically.

The "exburbs" and the rural poor will feel it first and hardest. Exburbians moved to the farthest reaches of suburbia for cheap real estate, willing to drive at least an hour each way to work. Many live marginally now. What happens when their commute becomes prohibitively expensive, just as interest rates and inflation rise, while their property values plummet? Urban real estate will go up, so they won't be able to live near their jobs – and there's nowhere else to go. In addition, thanks to Congress' recent shameless activity, bankruptcy is no longer an option for many. What happens to these people? Exburb refugees. A modern Dust Bowl.

For the rural poor it's even worse. They are the poorest among us, with no assets and few skills; they earn the lowest nonimmigrant wages in America, and they must drive. When gas hits $4, their already below-the-margin life will be unsustainable. They'll have no choice but to be refugees and join in the modern Dust Bowl migration. So, too, will people who live where people were never intended to live in such numbers – places like Phoenix and Vegas, unlivable without air conditioning and water transport (energy prices will rise across the board, regular brownouts, blackouts, and faucet-drips will be "the new normal" everywhere). In the desert cities, real estate will plunge, thousands will be ruined, most will leave – while all over the country folks will have to get used to "hot" and "cold" again.

But where will the new refugees go, and what will they do when they get there? They will migrate to the more livable cities, where rents are already unreasonable and social services are already strained, and where the new refugees will compete with immigrants for the lowest-level housing and jobs. Immigration issues will intensify to hysteria. Native-born Americans will clamor for work that only legal and illegal aliens do now. In a culture as prone to violence as ours, that will probably get ugly.

Meanwhile, suburbs and cities will be in various states of chaos, depending on their infrastructure. As inflation and interest rates rise, and the real estate bubble bursts, millions will see their assets plunge precipitously. In five years, many who are now well-off will live as the marginal live today, while the marginal will sink into poverty. With gas at $4-plus a gallon, real estate values will depend on nearness to working centers and access to transportation. As has already happened in Manhattan, the well-off will head for what are now slums, and the slum-dwellers will go God-knows-where. Places with decent rail service will be prime. Places without rail service will be in deep trouble.

One key to America's future will be: How quickly can we build or rebuild heavy and light rail? And where will we get the money to do it? Railroads are the cheapest transport, the easiest to sustain, and the only solution to a post-automobile America. (For reasons I haven't space to detail, hybrid cars and alternative energy won't cut it, if by "cut it" one means retaining anything like the present standard of living. See James Howard Kunstler's "The Long Emergency" on Rolling Stone's Web site. Also check Mike Ruppert's site www.fromthewilderness.com and the documentary The End of Suburbia.) A massive investment in railroad infrastructure could offer jobs to the unskilled and skilled alike, absorb much of the inevitable population displacement, and create a new social equilibrium 10 or 15 years down the line. Old RR cities like Grand Junction, Colo.; Amarillo, Texas; and Albuquerque, N.M., could become vital centers, offering new lives for the displaced. Railroads are key, but the question is: how to finance them?

There's only one section of our economy that has that kind of money: the military budget. The U.S. now spends more on its military than all other nations combined. A sane transit to a post-automobile America will require a massive shift from military to infrastructure spending. That shift would be supported by our bankers in China and Europe (that is, they would continue to finance our debt) because it's in their interests that we regain economic viability. What's not in their interests is that we remain a military superpower.

And that's where things get really interesting. The question becomes:

Can America face reality? If the government responds to the coming changes by attempting to remain a superpower no matter what, there is no way to underestimate the harm. The numbers speak for themselves. Soon we'll no longer have the resources to remain a military superpower and sustain a livable society that is anything like what we know today. It happened to England; it happened to Russia; it's about to happen to us. England sustained the transformation more or less gracefully; it lost its dominance while retaining its essential character. Russia is still in a period of transformation, but has remained a player thanks to its oil reserves. Europe in general – France, Germany, Italy, and Spain (all world powers in the fairly recent past) – is creating a post-national society, the most experimental form of governance since America's revolution. We have no appreciable oil, and we no longer have a manufacturing base. So what will the United States do? Sanely recognize its declining status and act accordingly, or make one last ignoble stab to retain its position by force?

Half a century ago James Baldwin wrote: "Confronted with the impossibility of remaining faithful to one's beliefs, and the equal impossibility of becoming free of them, one can be driven to the most inhuman excesses." Americans believe they're "No. 1," destined to lead the world. That is the America that's over. If we insist on that illusion, then this world is in for tough times. We will neither hold on to what we have nor create what we might have, but we will wreak untold harm (if we don't destroy the species altogether). Or we can face and embrace reality. And that reality is: There is no such thing as "No. 1" ... there is no such thing as an ideal destined country that is better than any other ... there is only us, doing the best we can, trying to live free and sanely, within limits that are about to become only too clear. Our glory days are done. What's next?

Remember, we're not talking about the far future. We're talking about the next decade.

No country gets two centuries anymore. The 21st will be China's century. That's what $4-plus a gallon means, and nothing can stop it. So: How will we change? But the question "How will we change?" is really the question "How will I change?" Because history isn't a spectator sport. It's you and me. Everything depends on whether we side with reality or illusion. Face reality, and we have a chance. Cling to illusion, and we are lost. The America we've known is over – very soon. The America we can create is up to us.

Michael Ventura will join Robert Bly, Joseph Chilton Pearce, Coleman Barks, and John Densmore, among others, at Bly's 31st annual Conference on the Great Mother and the New Father, May 28-June 5, in Wisconsin. For info e-mail greatmother@yelllowmoon.com

Copyright © 1995-2005 Austin Chronicle Corp
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y The Lies To Hike The Price Of Oil http://www.rense.com/general67/PRICE.HTM contributing editor to   - Rodger and Jeanne

From David Icke's

A more appropriate title for this piece would have been "Orchestrating Financial Collapse".

Admittedly the hardest part of observing the unfolding of a prearranged history is connecting the dots. More to the point, to be able to see how all things are connected and work in concert to achieve a desired goal.

So I'd like to throw some things out that the public at large doesn't know and never would. What I am about to tell is common knowledge in oil circles but the worker ants at the bottom of the pyramid never question what they see. I was an eye witness to what I am going to relate and there are a good many others who could come forward if only they will.

In 2000, I worked in the Gulf of Mexico for two different OSV companies that provided support services to the "oil patch". The two companies did very different work for the oil companies so I got to get an eye full.

The first thing that I'd like to expose is the fact that nearly all of the new wells in the gulf are immediately capped off and forgotten about. I saw well after well brought in only to see them capped off and left. Oil or natural gas it didn't matter. I asked a couple of petroleum engineers what exactly was going on and I was told by both (they worked for different companies) that there was no intention of bringing that oil to market until the "price was right".

That wasn't the only bogus thing that was happening. Seismic technology had developed to the point that they could not only tell the companies where the oil was but how much oil was there. All they had to do was go out and stick a straw in and suck it out. They didn't. Once again, the oil prices weren't right. When they are ready and want it they know right where to go get it.

Another lie I'd like to lay to rest is the one about all of the "terrible damage" done to the oil platforms and rigs in the gulf during hurricanes. This is how they justify the price spikes that occur because of lost production. If anyone cared to see this for themselves they could travel the entire Gulf of Mexico in search of destroyed oil rigs and they won't find any- not one. There is a damed good reason that this is so and that reason is that they are built so well that a hurricane can't touch them.

Think about it . If you're going to build something in an area where you are guaranteed to see 150-180 mph winds, storm swells up to 60-80 feet and it will happen year after year, how would you build them? Out of chicken wire and duct tape? Hell no and they don't. The platforms are designed to offer almost no wind resistance and the majority of platforms are at least 120 feet above the water level. They are built so well that several of them have suffered direct hits by watercraft of all sizes with little harm. They were damaged but they were far from destroyed.

The reason that I know how well they are constructed is because for awhile I worked with a company that salvaged derelict oil rigs. When the wells ran dry and the oil companies didn't need them any more the company that I worked for would buy them, take them apart, haul them back to land, refurbish and then resell them. It is an incredible process to take these things apart because they are constructed so
well.

I've worked on the boats that hauled explosives to the job sites to speed the disassembly process.

Another lie regards the "burp" in the supply line. Oil companies are as stingy as any on earth and one of the ways that they cut costs is to eliminate the number of people that they need on a rig to keep it running. Most active wells are totally automated and require almost no human intervention. The oil companies have guys that travel from rig to rig via helicopter to check on things periodically but most never see
a human on them unless something goes wrong or some maintenance is needed.

During a hurricane about the only rigs that need to be evacuated are the drill rigs that have workers on them. The active wells and pumping stations are controlled by remote control from the shore and if it weren't for the evacuation of land based personnel from areas where there is danger from the hurricanes these things could continue to pump right through the worst hurricane.

So, regarding a burp in the supply chain there shouldn't be one and that is because most of the oil from the Gulf of Mexico goes to the refinerys at Port Arthur or other points in Texas and the tankers from the middle east go to Galveston to offload.

When oil moves across the Atlantic during hurricane season the tanker traffic may have to kill some time to let a storm get ahead of them but once it does they haul ass right behind it. Anyone who has seen how fast an oil tanker can move in open water will tell you that they don't dawdle around. Most of them can move around 30-40 knots and for a ship that size that baby is moving on. The only reason they would have to
kill any more time would be if a hurricane suddenly changed course and was headed for Galveston. So far this year that hasn't happened. So why the "break" in supply?

Everything that we hear about oil from the oil companies is a big fat lie. Have we hit "peak oil" as a good many insist that we have? I'll make a wager with anyone who would care to take the bet. I bet that when oil hits $100 a barrel (I have a hunch that's the target price) there will be no shortage. Any takers?

One of the most astounding things to watch when the elite swing into action is what I call conservation of movement. If you had three events that you wanted to set into motion you could apply the necessary pressure separately to all three to get them moving. Or you could do what these guys do and wait patiently until you see the right opportunity to apply the pressure in only one spot that will move the other two with the momentum from the first. The difference is whether something is pushed or pulled along. It"s as graceful as a ballet to watch in motion. No wasted motion, no wasted energy, it would almost be a thing of beauty if it weren't for the rotten purposes behind it all.

So for all of the kiddies that are waiting for their draft notices I would say don't bother, I don't think that there will be a draft. They won't need one. Since the all volunteer military came into being recruitment has always had an inverse relationship to the economy. The better the economy the harder it is to get recruits. We're facing a winter season in North America that may see heating costs equal to a family's house payment. If our weather is being controlled expect it to be a bad one. With $100 dollar a barrel oil on the horizon and the ensuing loss of jobs because of energy costs the military will be one of the only places a young man or woman will be able to eat on a regular basis and keep a roof over their heads.

The beltway fascists have said all along that there would be no draft because they wouldn't need one. Don't you have to wonder how they knew this (what is it you say- just a coincidence nothing to worry about)? God does work in mysterious ways. The neocons need cannon fodder for their war machine and lo and behold mysterious market forces drop it on their doorstep.

For another coincidence take a look at Social Security here in the US.Amazing how the price of oil began a sudden rise when it became apparent that the American people weren't going to allow their retirement money to be "privatized". When the carrot didn't work the stick wasn't far behind.
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y Did the Government Cause Hurricane Katrina? http://www.radarmatrix.com/ contributing editor to   - Rodger and Jeanne

[If they don't have the ability to modify the weather, why do they need this bill passed?  --  Rodger]

109th Congress
S. 517: A bill to establish a Weather Modification Operations and Research Board, and for other purposes
Introduced: Mar 3, 2005
Sponsor: Sen. Kay Hutchison [R-TX]
Status: Introduced (By Sen. Kay Hutchison [R-TX])
Last Action: Mar 3, 2005: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (text of measure as introduced: CR S2025-2026)

 Download PDF    Full Text on THOMAS

 1        Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
 3   SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
 4        This Act may be cited as the ``Weather Modification
 5 Research and Technology Transfer Authorization Act of
 6 2005''.
 7   SEC. 2. PURPOSE.
 8        It is the purpose of this Act to develop and implement
 9 a comprehensive and coordinated national weather modi-
10 fication policy and a national cooperative Federal and
                                   2

1 State program of weather modification research and devel-
2 opment.
3    SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
4         In this Act:
5                  (1) BOARD.--The term ``Board'' means the
6         Weather Modification Advisory and Research Board.
7                  (2) EXECUTIVE   DIRECTOR.--The   term ``Execu-
8         tive Director'' means the Executive Director of the
9         Weather Modification Advisory and Research Board.
10                 (3) RESEARCH    AND DEVELOPMENT.--The    term
11        ``research and development'' means theoretical anal-
12        ysis, exploration, experimentation, and the extension
13        of investigative findings and theories of scientific or
14        technical nature into practical application for experi-
15        mental and demonstration purposes, including the
16        experimental production and testing of models, de-
17        vices, equipment, materials, and processes.
18                 (4)   WEATHER MODIFICATION.--The term
19        ``weather modification'' means changing or control-
20        ling, or attempting to change or control, by artificial
21        methods the natural development of atmospheric
22        cloud forms or precipitation forms which occur in
23        the troposphere.

       S 517 IS
                                  3
1    SEC. 4. WEATHER MODIFICATION ADVISORY AND RE-
2    SEARCH BOARD ESTABLISHED.
3        (a) IN GENERAL.--There is established in the De-
4 partment of Commerce the Weather Modification Advisory
5 and Research Board.
6        (b) MEMBERSHIP.--
7                 (1) IN   GENERAL.--The   Board shall consist of
8        11 members appointed by the Secretary of Com-
9        merce, of whom--
10                     (A) at least 1 shall be a representative of
11                the American Meteorological Society;
12                     (B) at least 1 shall be a representative of
13                the American Society of Civil Engineers;
14                     (C) at least 1 shall be a representative of
15                the National Academy of Sciences;
16                     (D) at least 1 shall be a representative of
17                the National Center for Atmospheric Research
18                of the National Science Foundation;
19                     (E) at least 2 shall be representatives of
20                the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin-
21                istration of the Department of Commerce;
22                     (F) at least 1 shall be a representative of
23                institutions of higher education or research in-
24                stitutes; and

      S 517 IS
                                  4
 1                    (G) at least 1 shall be a representative of
 2                a State that is currently supporting operational
 3                weather modification projects.
 4                (2) TENURE.--A member of the Board serves
 5       at the pleasure of the Secretary of Commerce.
 6                (3) VACANCIES.--Any vacancy on the Board
 7       shall be filled in the same manner as the original ap-
 8       pointment.
 9       (b) ADVISORY COMMITTEES.--The Board may estab-
10 lish advisory committees to advise the Board and to make
11 recommendations to the Board concerning legislation, poli-
12 cies, administration, research, and other matters.
13       (c) INITIAL MEETING.--Not later than 30 days after
14 the date on which all members of the Board have been
15 appointed, the Board shall hold its first meeting.
16       (d) MEETINGS.--The Board shall meet at the call of
17 the Chair.
18       (e) QUORUM.--A majority of the members of the
19 Board shall constitute a quorum, but a lesser number of
20 members may hold hearings.
21       (f) CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR.--The Board shall select
22 a Chair and Vice Chair from among its members.
23   SEC. 5. DUTIES OF THE BOARD.
24       (a) PROMOTION OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOP
25   MENT.--In      order to assist in expanding the theoretical

      S 517 IS
                                  5
 1 and practical knowledge of weather modification, the
 2 Board shall promote and fund research and development,
 3 studies, and investigations with respect to--
 4                (1) improved forecast and decision-making tech-
 5       nologies for weather modification operations, includ-
 6       ing tailored computer workstations and software and
 7       new observation systems with remote sensors; and
 8                (2) assessments and evaluations of the efficacy
 9       of weather modification, both purposeful (including
10       cloud-seeding operations) and inadvertent (including
11       downwind effects and anthropogenic effects).
12       (b) FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.--Unless the use of the
13 money is restricted or subject to any limitations provided
14 by law, the Board shall use amounts in the Weather Modi-
15 fication Research and Development Fund--
16                (1) to pay its expenses in the administration of
17       this Act, and
18                (2) to provide for research and development
19       with respect to weather modifications by grants to,
20       or contracts or cooperative arrangements, with pub-
21       lic or private agencies.
22       (c) REPORT.--The Board shall submit to the Sec-
23 retary biennially a report on its findings and research re-
24 sults.

      S 517 IS
                               6
 1   SEC. 6. POWERS OF THE BOARD.

 2       (a) STUDIES, INVESTIGATIONS, AND HEARINGS.--

 3 The Board may make any studies or investigations, obtain
 4 any information, and hold any hearings necessary or prop-
 5 er to administer or enforce this Act or any rules or orders
 6 issued under this Act.
 7       (b) PERSONNEL.--The Board may employ, as pro-
 8 vided for in appropriations Acts, an Executive Director
 9 and other support staff necessary to perform duties and
10 functions under this Act.
11       (c) COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES.--The
12 Board may cooperate with public or private agencies to
13 promote the purposes of this Act.
14       (d) COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS.--The Board may
15 enter into cooperative agreements with the head of any
16 department or agency of the United States, an appropriate
17 official of any State or political subdivision of a State, or
18 an appropriate official of any private or public agency or
19 organization for conducting weather modification activities
20 or cloud-seeding operations.
21       (e) CONDUCT AND CONTRACTS FOR RESEARCH AND
22 DEVELOPMENT.--The Executive Director, with the ap-
23 proval of the Board, may conduct and may contract for
24 research and development activities relating to the pur-
25 poses of this section.

      S 517 IS
                               7
 1   SEC. 7. COOPERATION WITH THE WEATHER MODIFICATION

 2                OPERATIONS AND RESEARCH BOARD.

 3       The heads of the departments and agencies of the
 4 United States and the heads of any other public or private
 5 agencies and institutions that receive research funds from
 6 the United States shall, to the extent possible, give full
 7 support and cooperation to the Board and to initiate inde-
 8 pendent research and development programs that address
 9 weather modifications.
10   SEC. 8. FUNDING.
11       (a) IN GENERAL.--There is established within the
12 Treasury of the United States the Weather Modification
13 Research and Development Fund, which shall consist of
14 amounts appropriated pursuant to subsection (b) or re-
15 ceived by the Board under subsection (c).
16       (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.--There is
17 authorized to be appropriated to the Board for the pur-
18 poses of carrying out the provisions of this Act
19 $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2005 through 2014.
20 Any sums appropriated under this subsection shall remain
21 available, without fiscal year limitation, until expended.
22       (c) GIFTS.--The Board may accept, use, and dispose
23 of gifts or donations of services or property.
24   SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE.
25       This Act shall take effect on October 1, 2005.

      S 517 IS
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize http://www.stratfor.com/news/archive/050903-geopolitics_katrina.php contributing editor to   - Rodger

GEOPOLITICAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT (by premium subscription only), 09.01.2005
By George Friedman

The American political system was founded in Philadelphia, but the American nation was built on the vast farmlands that stretch from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. That farmland produced the wealth that funded American industrialization: It permitted the formation of a class of small landholders who, amazingly, could produce more than they could consume. They could sell their excess crops in the east and in Europe and save that money, which eventually became the founding capital of American industry.

But it was not the extraordinary land nor the farmers and ranchers who alone set the process in motion. Rather, it was geography -- the extraordinary system of rivers that flowed through the Midwest and allowed them to ship their surplus to the rest of the world. All of the rivers flowed into one -- the Mississippi -- and the Mississippi flowed to the ports in and around one city: New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that the barges from upstream were unloaded and their cargos stored, sold and reloaded on ocean-going vessels. Until last Sunday, New Orleans was, in many ways, the pivot of the American economy.

For that reason, the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 was a key moment in American history. Even though the battle occurred after the War of 1812 was over, had the British taken New Orleans, we suspect they wouldn't have given it back. Without New Orleans, the entire Louisiana Purchase would have been valueless to the United States. Or, to state it more precisely, the British would control the region because, at the end of the day, the value of the Purchase was the land and the rivers - which all converged on the Mississippi and the ultimate port of New Orleans. The hero of the battle was Andrew Jackson, and when he became president, his obsession with Texas had much to do with keeping the Mexicans away from New Orleans.

During the Cold War, a macabre topic of discussion among bored graduate students who studied such things was this: If the Soviets could destroy one city with a large nuclear device, which would it be? The usual answers were Washington or New York. For me, the answer was simple: New Orleans. If the Mississippi River was shut to traffic, then the foundations of the economy would be shattered. The industrial minerals needed in the factories wouldn't come in, and the agricultural wealth wouldn't flow out. Alternative routes really weren't available. The Germans knew it too: A U-boat campaign occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi during World War II. Both the Germans and Stratfor have stood with Andy Jackson: New Orleans was the prize.

Last Sunday, nature took out New Orleans almost as surely as a nuclear strike. Hurricane Katrina's geopolitical effect was not, in many ways, distinguishable from a mushroom cloud. The key exit from North America was closed. The petrochemical industry, which has become an added value to the region since Jackson's days, was at risk. The navigability of the Mississippi south of New Orleans was a question mark. New Orleans as a city and as a port complex had ceased to exist, and it was not clear that it could recover.

The Ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, POSL is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products -- corn, soybeans and so on. A large proportion of U.S. agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 17 million tons, comes in through the port -- including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on.

A simple way to think about the New Orleans port complex is that it is where the bulk commodities of agriculture go out to the world and the bulk commodities of industrialism come in. The commodity chain of the global food industry starts here, as does that of American industrialism. If these facilities are gone, more than the price of goods shifts: The very physical structure of the global economy would have to be reshaped. Consider the impact to the U.S. auto industry if steel doesn't come up the river, or the effect on global food supplies if U.S. corn and soybeans don't get to the markets.

The problem is that there are no good shipping alternatives. River transport is cheap, and most of the commodities we are discussing have low value-to-weight ratios. The U.S. transport system was built on the assumption that these commodities would travel to and from New Orleans by barge, where they would be loaded on ships or offloaded. Apart from port capacity elsewhere in the United States, there aren't enough trucks or rail cars to handle the long-distance hauling of these enormous quantities -- assuming for the moment that the economics could be managed, which they can't be.

The focus in the media has been on the oil industry in Louisiana and Mississippi. This is not a trivial question, but in a certain sense, it is dwarfed by the shipping issue. First, Louisiana is the source of about 15 percent of U.S.-produced petroleum, much of it from the Gulf. The local refineries are critical to American infrastructure. Were all of these facilities to be lost, the effect on the price of oil worldwide would be extraordinarily painful. If the river itself became unnavigable or if the ports are no longer functioning, however, the impact to the wider economy would be significantly more severe. In a sense, there is more flexibility in oil than in the physical transport of these other commodities.

There is clearly good news as information comes in. By all accounts, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which services supertankers in the Gulf, is intact. Port Fourchon, which is the center of extraction operations in the Gulf, has sustained damage but is recoverable. The status of the oil platforms is unclear and it is not known what the underwater systems look like, but on the surface, the damage - though not trivial -- is manageable.

The news on the river is also far better than would have been expected on Sunday. The river has not changed its course. No major levees containing the river have burst. The Mississippi apparently has not silted up to such an extent that massive dredging would be required to render it navigable. Even the port facilities, although apparently damaged in many places and destroyed in few, are still there. The river, as transport corridor, has not been lost.

What has been lost is the city of New Orleans and many of the residential suburban areas around it. The population has fled, leaving behind a relatively small number of people in desperate straits. Some are dead, others are dying, and the magnitude of the situation dwarfs the resources required to ameliorate their condition. But it is not the population that is trapped in New Orleans that is of geopolitical significance: It is the population that has left and has nowhere to return to.

The oil fields, pipelines and ports required a skilled workforce in order to operate. That workforce requires homes. They require stores to buy food and other supplies. Hospitals and doctors. Schools for their children. In other words, in order to operate the facilities critical to the United States, you need a workforce to do it -- and that workforce is gone. Unlike in other disasters, that workforce cannot return to the region because they have no place to live. New Orleans is gone, and the metropolitan area surrounding New Orleans is either gone or so badly damaged that it will not be inhabitable for a long time.

It is possible to jury-rig around this problem for a short time. But the fact is that those who have left the area have gone to live with relatives and friends. Those who had the ability to leave also had networks of relationships and resources to manage their exile. But those resources are not infinite -- and as it becomes apparent that these people will not be returning to New Orleans any time soon, they will be enrolling their children in new schools, finding new jobs, finding new accommodations. If they have any insurance money coming, they will collect it. If they have none, then -- whatever emotional connections they may have to their home -- their economic connection to it has been severed. In a very short time, these people will be making decisions that will start to reshape population and workforce patterns in the region.

A city is a complex and ongoing process - one that requires physical infrastructure to support the people who live in it and people to operate that physical infrastructure. We don't simply mean power plants or sewage treatment facilities, although they are critical. Someone has to be able to sell a bottle of milk or a new shirt. Someone has to be able to repair a car or do surgery. And the people who do those things, along with the infrastructure that supports them, are gone -- and they are not coming back anytime soon.

It is in this sense, then, that it seems almost as if a nuclear weapon went off in New Orleans. The people mostly have fled rather than died, but they are gone. Not all of the facilities are destroyed, but most are. It appears to us that New Orleans and its environs have passed the point of recoverability. The area can recover, to be sure, but only with the commitment of massive resources from outside -- and those resources would always be at risk to another Katrina.

The displacement of population is the crisis that New Orleans faces. It is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot function without a city around it. The physical and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and right now, that is what New Orleans is. It is not about the facilities, and it is not about the oil. It is about the loss of a city's population and the paralysis of the largest port in the United States.

Let's go back to the beginning. The United States historically has depended on the Mississippi and its tributaries for transport. Barges navigate the river. Ships go on the ocean. The barges must offload to the ships and vice versa. There must be a facility to empower this exchange. It is also the facility where goods are stored in transit. Without this port, the river can't be used. Protecting that port has been, from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, a fundamental national security issue for the United States.

Katrina has taken out the port -- not by destroying the facilities, but by rendering the area uninhabited and potentially uninhabitable. That means that even if the Mississippi remains navigable, the absence of a port near the mouth of the river makes the Mississippi enormously less useful than it was. For these reasons, the United States has lost not only its biggest port complex, but also the utility of its river transport system -- the foundation of the entire American transport system. There are some substitutes, but none with sufficient capacity to solve the problem.

It follows from this that the port will have to be revived and, one would assume, the city as well. The ports around New Orleans are located as far north as they can be and still be accessed by ocean-going vessels. The need for ships to be able to pass each other in the waterways, which narrow to the north, adds to the problem. Besides, the Highway 190 bridge in Baton Rouge blocks the river going north. New Orleans is where it is for a reason: The United States needs a city right there.

New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. It is a terrible place for a city to be located, but exactly the place where a city must exist. With that as a given, a city will return there because the alternatives are too devastating. The harvest is coming, and that means that the port will have to be opened soon. As in Iraq, premiums will be paid to people prepared to endure the hardships of working in New Orleans. But in the end, the city will return because it has to.

Geopolitics is the stuff of permanent geographical realities and the way they interact with political life. Geopolitics created New Orleans. Geopolitics caused American presidents to obsess over its safety. And geopolitics will force the city's resurrection, even if it is in the worst imaginable place.
-END-
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y Picking up the Pieces: Practical Guide for Surviving Economic Crashes, Internal Unrest and Military Suppression http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index713.htm contributing editor to   - Viv

["the most basic rule of survival, LEAVE before it gets worse"  --  Tribble]

By: Sorcha Faal In the span of less than 3 months: Gasoline prices will rise 500%.  The prices of both food and shelter rise over 300%. Unemployment levels reach over 30% and are still climbing.  The savings of millions evaporate overnight due to currency devaluation and bank failures.  Unrest will begin in the larger cities first, then spreading out into the countryside.  Strong and repressive laws are newly enacted as Police and Military forces spread throughout the country to counter all signs of growing rebellion.

If you are an American reading these words you must understand two things:  1.) This is what is soon to happen to you, and 2.) The description written above applies equally to the United States of 2005, The United States of 1929, The former Soviet Union of 1989, The German Republic of 1924, The Cuba of 1960, Argentina of 1986, Iran of 1979 and the Czarist Russian Empire of 1917, to just name a few.

From each of these historical examples further lessons have been learned on how not only to survive, but on how to remain as free as possible and keep your family clothed, housed, fed and alive.

While in the midst of these cataclysmic human events is not the best time to learn the lessons provided in this book, but rather beforehand.

Your number one resource then will be exactly what it is now, YOUR KNOWLEDGE!

Gathered from historical archives, and hundreds of personal accounts, this book will provide you with all of the information you need (and from those who have lived through, and survived these same events) to survive what you are about to face in your lives.  It will give you this information, KNOWLEDGE, when you need it most, NOW.

This book begins with the most basic rule of survival, LEAVE before it gets worse.  Prior knowledge about events soon to occur have saved millions over the past Century allowing them to flee the most dangerous areas ahead of time, and when they still could.

What countries are available to Americans now to immigrate to should they choose to flee?  What are the ramifications in becoming an International refugee?  How can ones property and wealth be converted into allowing them leave their countries of origin?  These are important questions, this book provides those answers.

Not everyone that can leave will leave; history has taught this lesson well….especially to the almost complete annihilation of all the Jewish peoples in Europe during World War II.

To those who are trapped and not able to leave how then can they survive these events?  By utilizing the practical knowledge and information passed down to them by those who have gone through these things before.

This massive book (over 400 pages) contains perhaps the largest archive of survival information for those facing the imminent dangers of collapsing economies and currencies and the subsequent dictatorial or revolutionary regimes that inevitably follow.

How do you function in an underground economy?  How do you bribe officials and why do you need to know this?  What are the advantages in having multiple sets of identification papers for yourself and your family members BEFORE the onset of events you know are coming?

What are the advantages and disadvantages in grouping with other people?  What are the ethical, moral and legal implications for protecting those wanted by the State, and if necessary having to kill to protect them, yourself or your children?

These are only the beginning of the hardest questions you will ever have to ask of yourself and your family.  These are also questions that have already been asked and answered by those who have faced what you are facing now.

You have a rare choice before you now: 1.) To acquire this Knowledge now, or 2.) Keep living your lives in denial of the overwhelming evidence staring right at you, and telling you it is almost passed the time you should be prepared.

Do not believe foolishly either that your governments will allow much longer this book, or those by other groups seeking to assist Americans, to be available much longer into the future.
 

[More interesting read by Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Russian Subscribers,]
US Military Destroys Bomb Directed Against Chicago as Top Pentagon Doctor Killed In Helicopter Shoot-Down and US Secret Service Member Killed as United States Coup Continues

Numerous troubling reports from Russian Intelligence Analysts suggest that the Coup attempt currently underway in the United States is spiraling out of control and may soon break into open, and public, hostilities vying for control over the American Government.  Particularly troubling is one report detailing an American Air Force F-16 attack upon a bomb laden truck bound for the American City of Chicago but destroyed before it could reach its intended target and as we can read an American ‘sanitized’ version of this as reported by the Associated Press News Service in their article titled "Truck ‘vaporized’ when cargo explodes" and which says; ...
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index798.htm
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y Is God Removing His Hand of Protection from America? http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin255.htm contributing editor to   - Alan

By Pastor Chuck Baldwin, September 3, 2005

Amidst the horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is a question hardly anyone wants to ask (including Christian leaders), "Is God removing His hand of protection from America?" It is, perhaps, the greatest question that must be answered. For many reasons, I believe the answer is yes.

From the inception of our great country, Americans have constantly acknowledged the overriding providence of Almighty God. For example, during the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin said, "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

In his inaugural speech given April 30, 1789, George Washington said, "It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes."

Washington also said, "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States."

Thomas Jefferson said, "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever."

However, it seems that most Americans, including Christians and pastors, no longer believe God judges people that rebel against Him. Yet, if the Bible teaches anything, it teaches that both individuals and nations are accountable to God.

 The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 should have been a wake up call for America. They weren't. We have continued our sinful ways as a people and as a government. Washington, D.C., is intoxicated with power, the American people are intoxicated with pleasure, and churches and pastors are intoxicated with prosperity. What is worse, virtually no one is calling America to repentance.

As a result, America has sown to the wind and is now beginning to reap the whirlwind! Look no further than New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast to see an example of what a whirlwind can do. I, too, tremble for my country!

© 2005 Chuck Baldwin - All Rights Reserved

Chuck Baldwin is Founder-Pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. In 1985 the church was recognized by President Ronald Reagan for its unusual growth and influence.

Dr. Baldwin is the host of a lively, hard-hitting syndicated radio talk show on the Genesis Communications Network called, "Chuck Baldwin Live" This is a daily, one hour long call-in show in which Dr. Baldwin addresses current event topics from a conservative Christian point of view. Pastor Baldwin writes weekly articles on the internet http://www.ChuckBaldwinLive.com and newspapers.

To learn more about his radio talk show please visit his web site at: www.chuckbaldwinlive.com. When responding, please include your name, city and state.

E-mail: chuck@chuckbaldwinlive.com
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y America's Mayors: You've Been Warned http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd124.htm http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd123.htm contributing editor to   - Alan

By: Devvy, September 6, 2005, http://www.devvy.com/ Never have I watched such a mess unfold. Never have I seen such stupidity by city fathers. Every mayor of NO and every governor of the gulf states have known for decades that a Katrina strength would eventually hit. Every single mayor from NO to Mobile, along with every single person who lives along that coast - they all know that they live right where hurricanes come ashore. It's a decision they have made - a risky decision. Within twenty four hours, mayors in three states, Governor Blanco and a million people began screaming for help from FEMA and the federal government. FEMA is an evil, evil organization and I will never have anything to do with them. Besides, it's not your responsibility to rebuild my house should I have chosen to build it within a mile of the water in Gulfport or any other city along the gulf coast. It's called personal responsibility.

The response to Katrina by the insidious Department of Homeland Security headed up by another inept public servant, Michael Chertoff, has been nothing short of gross incompetence. Forget Homeland Security, it's a waste of time and money and must be abolished because America doesn't need it. While all the bickering and finger pointing was going on, the violence, starvation and conditions in NO escalated along with the deaths. News anchors interviewed the ravaged areas of Gulfport and Biloxi with shell shocked residents crying for water and help from FEMA and the feds. FEMA is not a search and rescue operation. They are there to arrive after the fact, help people assess damage and apply for low cost loans to rebuild homes. Then people started screaming for the military. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a shortage of National Guard because a large number of them are deployed in that unconstitutional quagmire called "nation building" over in Iraq. The politicians stumbled all over themselves on that issue, but people saw through it and were enraged. Finally, people were beginning to see part of the bigger picture.

While I have my problems with some of the programming on FOX, CNN and MSNBC, in the case of Katrina, all I can say is thank you to all the reporters and news anchors for their tireless help for the victims of Katrina. I sincerely believe that if these cable networks had not been on the ground from the git-go reporting the horrors unfolding in three states, more people would have died and chaos would still be going on whole scale. Because of their relentless coverage and exposure of the horror going on in NO, by Thursday morning, September 1st, in came our military (all branches) in full force; National Guard coming home from Iraq were diverted to the storm ravaged areas. It was impressive, they got the job done and are still on the job. Truly, all these reporters and big name anchors for the cable networks have really done a terrific job under the worst of circumstances.

To say there was a breakdown in communications from hour one after Katrina hit is a gross understatement. On Friday, September 2nd, the Mayor of NO, who was clearly out of his league before Katrina even hit, blew a gasket on CNN that night when he screamed that the federal response was too little, too late: "Now get off your a--- and let's do something and fix the biggest g-d crisis in the history of this country." Mayor Nagin was in panic mode as soon as Katrina hit and he has remained clueless ever since.

Beginning on Thursday, September 1st, the military began evacuating the Superdome and convention center. People who have lost everything have now been forcibly sent to Houston, Lubbock, some to Arizona and even as far away as Massachusetts! For the love of God, talk about uprooting and destroying people's families and shoving them into cities and towns where they have absolutely no family. This is what happens when there is no plan in place. Many have questioned why the people herded into the middle of the flooded area weren't removed by the military right away to dry ground using available resources? For the love of God, there are nearby military bases and air national guard locations where tent cities could have been set up right away, get people taken care of and go from there.

I know for a fact that many who had boats and other floating devices were there the day after the levee breaks who wanted to help move people out of the flooded area onto dry ground, but were barred from entering the city! Many of these rescuers are ex military, yet they were treated with contempt and turned away. My husband spent 27 years in the Army - all 27 years in the Corps of Engineers. He has been simply astonished at the chaos due to lack of planning, the stupidity in not beginning an immediate evacuation to outlying areas; he also said the destruction should not come as a surprise because of those levees.

Officials at all levels of government have known for years that New Orleans was basically a sitting duck just waiting for "the big one" to hit. They were warned repeatedly. Congress after Congress for more than three decades has continued to cut the budget for the Corps of Engineers to build up those levees. That is a fact. The budget cuts year after year by Congress with the approval of each sitting president. It was just a matter of time and now the results of not taking mother nature seriously are almost beyond comprehension. The long term consequences are going to be horrendous. That's just New Orleans. How about all those parishes and major towns, Biloxi and Gulfport - gone, destroyed, no longer there? The ravages of Katrina are far, far worse than the people who live in hurricane country could ever imagine, even in their worst nightmares. However, they all knew it could happen during any hurricane season, yet many chose to build homes, businesses and big casinos right on the water anyway.

I have been to NO several times and it was a beautiful city. There is a great deal of talk about rebuilding NO, but I hope to God the city fathers and the residents re-think that whole proposition. NO can get hit again next week by another cat four hurricane or next year when the first one of the season hits. Are you really going to rebuild just as the city was before and set up an entire population for the same end results? The same applies to Gulfport, Biloxi and all the parishes in between. Should you rebuild houses, businesses and huge casinos within one mile of the water of the Gulf of Mexico and hope you don't get hit again by anything other than a pesky tropical storm?

There is no money in the U.S. Treasury, so Congress just borrowed another $10.5 billion (first installment) for Katrina; the amount will probably go close to $100 billion dollars of borrowed debt. Does it make any sense to rebuild right in the path of the same kind of monster that can hit at the beginning of the hurricane season next year or two times next season? I know we're talking about people's homes, their lives and my heart has been heavy watching Katrina and it's destruction. I've seen all the interviews of victims on the tube and watched the nightmare probably more than most because I work at home. These are decisions that the folks in those areas need to consider in the weeks and months ahead. Yes, my husband and I donated for relief efforts with another decent one to United Animal Nations, a fine, fine operation that rescues and reunites pets with their owners in disaster areas. It's not about being uncaring or stingy, it's about common sense for the future.

What about the rest of the country and natural disasters?

Mayors of every city and town in America have been warned: you had better get your act together and prepare your populations for an event as crippling as Katrina because many of you live on borrowed time.

New Orleans' population was estimated at 1.2 million. In the end, we may see more than 10,000 fatalities and thousands of dead cats, dogs, birds and other little animals floating in the water. How about Los Angeles? A whopping 14 million people live in that basin which sits on earth quake faults. I have been to LA many, many times and every time I'm there, I pray the 9.0 or 10.1 quake doesn't hit. Those who live in hurricane belts have days of warning, earthquakes give none until the second they hit.

How about the San Francisco Bay Area with 8 million people packed in as densely as LA? I used to live in the Bay Area and have been through a number of earthquakes, it's pretty scary. Remember the large one that hit in 1989? The damage in human life and infrastructure was horrific, but the "big one" is coming and when it hits - unless those mayors all around the Bay Area get together and plan - the destruction will be beyond words.

Just imagine trying to evacuate LA tomorrow if a 9.5 earthquake hit? I guarantee you, the aftermath of that would make Katrina look mild. There are earth quake faults all over this country. There have been dam breaks, i.e. the St. Francis Dam, nicknamed "Mullholland Dam," which broke in 1928 in LA killing more than 500 people. That was about 13.5 million inhabitants ago. What would happen if the Hoover Dam went for whatever reason, terror or natural? Can't happen? Check this site. Let's not forget the Northridge quake of 1989 in the LA area. Let me repeat myself: Tragedy happens in a heart beat and it can happen anywhere, anytime.

Is your city or town ready for disaster? I submit to you that America is as unprepared as was New Orleans when Katrina hit. Those folks who live in the area between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama would have fared much, much better had they had the organized militia step right in the minute the rain stopped from Katrina. The Kidd household is prepared for the worst. Having lived in Colorado where you wake up one morning with six feet of snow on your front porch and the city virtually shut down by a blizzard, one learns the value of being prepared. We keep food and bottled water to last at least two weeks. It's a drag, but I keep the process up even though I live in a huge, upscale planned development in Sacramento, California. Even though we are prepared, I can tell you, probably less than one in 25,000 in this area is prepared for anything but withdrawals if the local McDonald's closes down.

I hope everyone will contact their mayor and ask them what are the contingency plans for any kind of mass disaster and then demand that the states revitalize their militia. I urge you to become part of the process in reinstituting constitutional government with the organized militia. Dr. Vieira goes into it in great detail here. Americans need to get on the same sheet of music, i.e. United we stand. However, that isn't going to happen until people are fully educated about government. Recently, a column appeared on the militia and I asked Dr. Vieira to comment on it as he is the foremost expert on constitutional militia in this country besides the central bank. Edwin's comment about that column is as follows:

"Thanks, Devvy. I have seen this. Unfortunately, these people have not done their historical homework. For example, there is NO example in pre-constitutional Colonial or State laws where the Militia was subordinate or reported to or worked through sheriffs. The office of "sheriff" is NOT a constitutional office. The word does not even appear in the Constitution,. NO sheriff is above the laws of the State in which he holds office. And as far as I can tell, the office of sheriff can be abolished in any State with no constitutional consequence. This is why sometimes I almost despair of accomplishing anything in this country. These people's hearts are in the right place...but they operate on the principle that they can simply make up the law to fit some romantic, historical notions that suit their fancy. Another example: the suggestion that the Militia could be used "worldwide". Where is that authority in the Constitution? Then, "the Militia's General Staff would report to Congress." Does not the Constitution make the president the commander in chief of the militia? Unless these people intend a comprehensive amendment of the Constitution (which I doubt) these suggestions are worse than hopeless."

I cannot stress strongly enough to every American how important it is to get the organized militia back up and running in all 50 states. Dr. Edwin Vieira is spear heading this crucial and vital effort. We can all see what happens when people depend on big government to save their bacon. We can all see that our best hope for survival in any disaster is we the people and the organized militia is an absolute integral part of the plan. No way would I allow myself to be herded into some sports facility, then routed on a bus hundreds of miles away from my home area and transferred again to a state a thousand miles away from where I called home. What madness! Had the organized militias been in place in New Orleans and in every parish and town along the gulf coast, I guarantee you, we would have not seen the horror that has unfolded. Our fellow countrymen and women who live along the gulf coast would not have gone without food or water for almost a week. Do you want to be forced to leave your home area and bussed around the country and dropped a thousand miles from family? Think about it and please act now. Just take a look at the Mayor of New Orleans. If the results of Katrina in NO is Nagin's definition of planning ahead and being prepared, God help us all.

Please read Edwin's columns on the constitutional militia, contact him and then go after your mayors to get with the program - before tragedy strikes your hometown.

© 2005 Devvy Kidd - All Rights Reserved

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Devvy Kidd authored the booklets, Why A Bankrupt America and Blind Loyalty, which sold close to 2,000,000 copies. Devvy appears on radio shows all over the country, ran for Congress and is a highly sought after public speaker. Get a free copy of Why A Bankrupt America from El Dorado Gold. Devvy is a contributing writer for www.NewsWithViews.com.

Devvy's website: www.devvy.com
E-mail is: devvyk@earthlink.net
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y Hurricane Center Director Tells Paper He Briefed Brown and Chertoff on Danger of Severe Flooding http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054595 contributing editor to   - Rodger

[This is one of many possible articles and reports that have been published and certainly will not be the last.  There are a lot of reports of disconcerting aspects of reactions to the hurricane and relief efforts.  You might dismiss any of them as disgruntled victims, agents or helpers, but the evidence seems clear that 4 years of preparedness (since 09/11/2001), with ALL the money spent on allegedly making this country more secure and safe, which is presumed to include disaster preparedness (response), has failed to help the people.  You might say, that this is a "natural" disaster and not a "terrorist" attack, but the response of aid should be the same regardless of the cause of the devastation.  Moreover, consider how force of arms (guns) was used to control the people in the Gulf region.  There is something GROSSLY wrong.  Do you think you have been deceived?  --  Tribble]

[This, along with reports that FEMA was in the area 4 days prior to the hurricane, indicate that the fiasco last week was either due to gross negligence and mismanagement or was handled the way it was on purpose.  What do you think?  --  Rodger]

By E&P Staff, Published: September 04, 2005 6:55 PM ET

NEW YORK Dr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, told the Times-Picayune Sunday afternoon that officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, including FEMA Director Mike Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, listened in on electronic briefings given by his staff in advance of Hurricane Katrina slamming Louisiana and Mississippi--and were advised of the storm’s potential deadly effects.

"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, which warned of a storm surge capable of overtopping levees in New Orleans and winds strong enough to blow out windows of high-rise buildings," the paper reported. "He said the briefings included information on expected wind speed, storm surge, rainfall and the potential for tornados to accompany the storm as it came ashore.

"We were briefing them way before landfall," Mayfield said. "It’s not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped."

Chertoff told reporters Saturday that government officials had not expected the damaging combination of a powerful hurricane levee breaches that flooded New Orleans.

Brown, Mayfield said, is a dedicated public servant. “The question is why he couldn’t shake loose the resources that were needed,’’ he said.

Brown and Chertoff could not be reached for comment on Sunday afternoon.

In the days before Katrina hit, Mayfield said, his staff also briefed FEMA, which under the Department of Homeland Security, at FEMA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., its Region 6 office in Dallas and the Region 4 office in Atlanta about the potential effects of the storm. He said all of those briefings were logged in the hurricane center’s records.
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y Ending the Impunity of the Bush White House http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=1&ItemID=8638 contributing editor to   - Rodger

[But, Bush is a "born again Christian who seeks God's face".  Maybe God told him to let those people in New Orleans die and focus on killing men, women and children in the middle east.  I'm just trying to give the benefit of the doubt.  --  Rodger]

September 02, 2005

The man in the Oval Office is fond of condemning “killers.” But his administration continues to kill with impunity.

“They can go into Iraq and do this and do that,” Martha Madden, former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said on Sept. 1, “but they can’t drop some food on Canal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, right now? It’s just mind-boggling.”

The policies are matters of priorities. And the priorities of the Bush White House are clear. For killing in Iraq, they spare no expense. For protecting and sustaining life, the cupboards go bare.

The problem is not incompetence. It’s inhumanity, cruelty and greed.

Media outlets have popularized some tactical critiques of U.S.
military operations in Iraq. But the administration is competent enough to keep the military-industrial complex humming. It’s good at generating huge profits for “defense” contractors, oil companies and the like. First things first, and first things last.

Why shore up levees when the precious money it would take can be better used for war in Iraq? Why allow National Guard units to remain home when they can be useful, killing and being killed, in a faraway war based on lies?

And when catastrophe hits people close to home, why should the president respond with urgency or adequacy if their lives don’t figure as truly important in his political calculus?

It’s time to end the impunity of President George W. Bush.

Of course he doesn’t pull the triggers, drop the bombs or oversee the torture himself. And he avoids the dying that he has facilitated in the wake of the hurricane. White-collar criminals -- in this case, white-collar war criminals -- rarely get close to their dirtiest work.

Every minute has counted in the wake of the hurricane. While dawdling and compounding the massive tragedy, Bush wants to shift responsibility. We should stop and think about why he noisily rattled a big tin cup midway through the week.

While the death toll rises in New Orleans and criticisms of his inaction grow more outraged across the country, the man wants us to think about making a charitable contribution, not taking political action. But George Bush and Dick Cheney must not be let off the hook.

There is something egregiously obscene about the people in charge of the U.S. government telling citizens to donate money for a hurricane relief effort while the administration, from the president on down, has viciously abdicated its most basic responsibilities.

For the activities it views as really important, like the war on Iraq, the Bush White House hardly requires private contributions while siphoning off vast quantities of taxpayer funds. But when the task is to save lives instead of destroying them, kids are supposed to bust open their piggy banks.

“True compassion,” Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out, “is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” He accused the federal government of demonstrating “hostility to the poor” -- appropriating “military funds with alacrity and generosity” but providing “poverty funds with miserliness.” Four decades later, de facto hostility to the poor remains government policy, and its results include widespread deaths in New Orleans that could have been prevented.

Respect must be paid, and justice must be created. The dead cannot be brought back; the suffering of recent days can’t be undone. But it’s up to us to create maximum pressure for a truly adequate rescue effort -- and to organize effectively while demanding political accountability. That means depriving Bush, Cheney and their congressional allies of the power they ruthlessly enjoy. And that means ending their impunity, so that truth has consequences.
___________________________

Norman Solomon is the author of the new book “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” For information, go
to: www.WarMadeEasy.com
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y Impeach Bush Now, Before More Die http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts09032005.html contributing editor to   - Rodger

[But, he's a "born again Christian who seeks..."

Oh crap!  Enough is enough!

He's an evil, wicked man who's willing to sacrifice even your children if need be.  If you haven't figured out what he is yet, you probably never will.  Wake up America!

Our word for today is "minion".  Can you say "minion of the beast" boys and girls.  I knew you could.  --  Rodger]

Failure on Every Front
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

The raison d'etre of the Bush administration is war in the Middle East in order to protect America from terrorism and to insure America's oil supply. On both counts the Bush administration has failed catastrophically.

Bush's single-minded focus on the "war against terrorism" has compounded a natural disaster and turned it into the greatest calamity in American history. The US has lost its largest and most strategic port, thousands of lives, and 80% of one of America's most historic cities is under water.

If terrorists had achieved this result, it would rank as the greatest terrorist success in history.

Prior to 911, the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned that New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen. Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project (SELA) in order to protect the strategic port, the refineries, and the large population.

However, after 2003 the flow of funds to SELA were diverted to the war in Iraq. During 2004 and 2005 the New Orleans Times-Picayune published nine articles citing New Orleans' loss of hurricane protection to the war in Iraq.

Every expert and newspapers as distant as Texas saw the New Orleans catastrophe coming. But President Bush and his insane government preferred war in Iraq to protecting Americans at home.

Bush's war left the Corps of Engineers only 20% of the funding to protect New Orleans from flooding from Lake Pontchartrain. On June 18, 2004, the Corps' project manager, Al Naomi, told the Times-Picayune: "the levees are sinking. If we don't get the money to raise them, we can't stay ahead of the settlement."

Despite the dire warnings delivered by the 2004 hurricane season, the Bush administration made deep budget cuts for flood control and hurricane funding for New Orleans. The US Senate, alarmed at the Bush administration's insanity, was planning to restore the funding for 2006. But now it is too late. Many multiples of the funding that would have saved the city now have to be spent to rescue it.

Not content with leaving New Orleans unprotected, it took the Bush administration five days to get the remnants of the National Guard not serving in Iraq, along with desperately needed food and water, to devastated New Orleans. This is the slowest emergency response by the US government in modern times. By the time the Bush administration could organize any resources for New Orleans, many more people had died and the city was in total chaos.

Despite the most dismal performance on record, Bush's Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, said on Thursday that the Bush administration has done a "magnificent job."

The on-the-scene mayor of New Orleans sees it differently: "They're feeding the people a line of bull, and they are spinning and people are dying."

"They're thinking small man, and this is a major, major deal."

It is a major deal, one that will affect Americans far beyond New Orleans. According to reports, 25% of our oil and gasoline comes through the New Orleans port and refineries, all out of commission. Needed goods cannot be imported, and exports will plummet, worsening an already disastrous deficit in the balance of trade.

The increased cost of gasoline will soak up consumers' disposable incomes, with dire effects on consumer spending. US economic growth will be siphoned off into higher energy costs. American lives far from New Orleans will be adversely affected.

The destruction of New Orleans is the responsibility of the most incompetent government in American history and perhaps in all history. Americans are rapidly learning that they were deceived by the superpower hubris. The powerful US military cannot successfully occupy Baghdad or control the road to the airport--and this against an insurgency based in only 20% of the Iraqi population. Bush's pointless war has left Washington so pressed for money that the federal government abandoned New Orleans to catastrophe.

The Bush administration is damned by its gross incompetence. Bush has squandered the lives and health of thousands of people. He has run through hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars. He has lost America's reputation and its allies. With barbaric torture and destruction of our civil liberty, he has stripped America of its inherent goodness and morality. And now Bush has lost America's largest port and 25 percent of its oil supply. Why? Because Bush started a gratuitous war egged on by a claque of crazy neoconservatives who have sacrificed America's interests to their insane agenda.

The neoconservatives have brought these disasters to all Americans, Democrat and Republican alike. Now they must he held accountable. Bush and his neoconservatives are guilty of criminal negligence and must be prosecuted.

What will it take for Americans to reestablish accountability in their government? Bush has got away with lies and an illegal war of aggression, with outing CIA agents, with war crimes against Iraqi civilians, with the horrors of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo torture centers, and now with the destruction of New Orleans.

What disaster will next spring from Bush's incompetence?

Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com
 
 

a r t i c l e   /   c o m m e n t a r y American Herods & The Fallacy of A Free Press http://www.rense.com/general67/herod.htm contributing editor to   - Rodger

Exclusive to Rense.com, By Douglas Herman, 9-5-5

Many writers and essayists on the Internet--that last bastion of a truly free press--have thoughtfully and passionately compared George W Bush to imperial leaders throughout history. Everyone from Richard Nixon to Adolf Hitler to Nicolo Machiavelli.

"This is a dangerous analogy," wrote Byron Williams in The Moral Cynicism of George Bush. "Tragedy, popularity, and bad intelligence combined to allow this president to consolidate his amoral agenda of power, selling it to the American people with overtly pious language."

Rather sympathetic, wouldn't you say? By contrast many essayists, like myself, wonder if something far more sinister hasn't been developing, for a much longer time, here in America. Ever since Eisenhower realized who wielded the REAL power behind the seats of power and spoke out, belatedly, in his farewell speech.

The recent essay "Informant Names JFK Jrs Assassins?" would have struck me as only another wacky Internet conspiracy theory if someone hadn't revealed the exact same thing to me several months earlier. Indeed my informant, a former intelligence insider, became the inspiration for the central character my recent novel, the sinister protagonist, Jimmy Jeremiah. Assassination by aviation, was how the real-life Jeremiah explained it to me, removing troublesome but charismatic leaders who become problematic to the status quo.

If we Americans realize that those in power are never hindered by any feelings of conscience or guilt, if we realize that our rulers freely act in their own self interest, (unless forced to do so by popular outcry), that they conduct policy as insatiable predators would, we begin to see them with a new clarity. If we realize profits and personal agendas, not ethics, forever influence foreign and domestic policies, then we may finally see how everything seems to make sense in a senseless world.

Thus the controlled demolition of a potential rival's plane--whether John F. Kennedy Jr. or Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone--makes perfect sense. Thus the controlled demolitions of sensitive buildings (Oklahoma City, World Trade Center, Building 7), or the controlled demolition of a country like Iraq, or the controlled demolition of the American media, not to mention the controlled elections in 2000 and 2004, all make perfect sense and have always made perfect sense.

Which makes the US media accomplices to an ongoing series of great crimes, stretching over fifty years. As Richard Salent, Former President of CBS News once admitted, "Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have." Clearly controlled, wouldn't you say?

But this sort of cold-blooded criminality speaks less of Prince Machiavelli or the Borgias than the Biblical Herod family. The three generations of the Bush family parallel the uncanny rise to power of the Biblical Herods. Just as the Herods conducted ruthless policy--secret assassinations and public executions, religious plots, terrorism, manipulation of the economic system while seeming to embrace the religious leaders of their day--so too have our own American Herods.

And all of these crimes have been aided and abbetted by the American mainstream media for well over fifty years! Indeed, when has anyone heard or read anything about Patrick "Bulldog" Fitzgerald, in the American media? US Attorney Fitzgerald, pursuing corruption in high places, very likely will become the next "accidental" death, planned by the American Herods. The details of his death, and the predictable press reports, are all being worked out behind the scenes as I write this.

When we realize that the Biblical Herods wielded limited but absolute power backed by imperial Rome, we realize that the Bushes, Clintons, Johnsons and Nixons wield limited power within a framework of power brokers. Otherwise what stake do our American Herods have in the Middle East? Certainly not for the benefit of the average US citizen.

Likewise our "free press," never seems to ask the pertinent question of any crime: Who benefits? Who benefits when a Paul Wellstone or well-respected critic dies "accidentally?" Who benefits when a 47 story building falls mysteriously? And who benefits when a country is invaded? Who profits? Aside from cementing power within the ruling junta--our American Herods, whether Democratic or Republican--the select group of power brokers continue to reap obscene profits. Katrina being no exception; witness the spike in petroleum prices.

Ironic indeed that far more blame has been leveled by the complicit US media, against the US government, for slow response to a predicted natural disaster, than to the predicted un-natural debacle in Iraq. Thirty months later still no outrage from the embedded US media to a phony war draining the American treasury and the volunteer armed forces. Ironic that far more outrage is directed against armed looters in New Orleans than to well-connected cronies of our American Herods who receive billions for looting the US citizen in no-bid contracts.

The Biblical Herods, like their American predecessors, once wielded incredible power. Until one day they were swept away, swept away more completely than Katrina swept away Biloxi. And today the Herods are remembered as diabolical scoundrels, relegated to the dust bin of history.

Amateur historian and Rense essayist, Douglas Herman is the author of the recent novel, Guns of Dallas

Comment
M. L., 9-5-5

And all of these crimes have been aided and abbetted by the American mainstream media for well over fifty years! Indeed, when has anyone heard or read anything about http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=6711
Patrick "Bulldog" Fitzgerald, in the American media?

===

I said as much [see item 18] to Bob Chapman yesterday:

12. No news shows mentioned that bodies are all over the place and many were being eaten by alligators.

===Wrong.

13. Looters were being arrested and handcuffed to be taken to - where?
=== Rendition-land

14. My thought: If it is true that there are internment camps all over the US (800 supposedly) which are completely supplied, manned and ready for action. If this is true, then why aren't they being used?

Because this is a lie...fear propaganda to keep the Internet distracted from true events..... These reports come out every few months. === Because this is the setup for their use on the next, upgraded synthetic attack. Everything in its time. You're skipping ahead. Look how people were begging to go to the Superdome gulag.

18. AND WHAT IS GOING ON ELSEWHERE, IN THIS COUNTRY AND GOVT. THAT IS KEEPING US CITIZENS DISTRACTED? === Rove et al. are still subject to indictment in Plame affair.

20. The idiot's main thoughts are about reconstruction with barely any mention of the people. === Of course.

September 1, 2005: The disaster in New Orleans was not unforeseen. In spite of his too-little too-late bleatings, Bush personally scrapped a multi-million dollar program to strengthen the dikes around that flooded mass of tragedy but took the money for his criminal war in Iraq.

We now see a genuine phenomenon with dozens of American television reporters, on the ground and on the scene in New Orleans and southern Mississippi, turning against both the Administration and the governments of both Louisiana and Mississippi for their utter failure to relieve the terrible suffering of hundreds of thousands of trapped, starving and sick citizens.

I would like to add something to the bubbling pot that might cast a light on the disgusting official breakdown of rescue and support. This afternoon, I was having lunch at the Cosmos Club out on Massachusetts Avenue. A good friend is a member of the posh club (that once was the elegant town home of Sumner Welles), and while at lunch, I was privy to a very vocal conversation at one of the big round center tables in the club dining room.

One man was giving an overview of the situation to a group of his friends. The speaker was an undersecretary of an important department, well -liked by Bush and often in the White House to consult. The others ranged from an academic economist whose writings can be seen in a right wing paper and a number of Washington-based businessmen, all of whom are active and heavy contributors to the Bush White House.

The loud one had obviously had a few drinks at the bar and this is probably why he was not more discreet. The gist of his comments was horrible to contemplate and it sounded like a top Nazi discussing Jews.

It is well known here that the Bush family and many of the top advisers at the White House are racists but instead of detesting Jews, in this case, they all detest blacks. Their rationale, aside from their view of racial superiority, is that blacks are all "welfare queens, unwed mothers and drug dealers." It was the very firmly stated view of the host that it was better for everyone that New Orleans was under water for the time being.

In that way, we were told (and I was not the only person in the dining room who heard all this), this served to "chase out the niggers" and permit Bush-supporting businessmen from buying up the soon-to-be condemned sodden houses for five cents on the dollar from friendly insurance companies (which one of them was a CEO of) and put up an enlarged and very profitable combination of industrial park and office building section. The money for this would, naturally, come from government grants which a terrified Congress (Mid Term elections are coming) had just voted for and the contracts to demolish the wrecked low-income slums would go, as a no-bid contract, to another stellar Bush supporter.

As for the refugees, our table of proto-fascists all commented on the fact that most of them were on welfare and probably all voted Democratic so they could all be shipped to California or Chicago at the public expense and allowed to occupy less valuable public housing there.

This conversation went on in a similar vein for some time and it was difficult for both myself and my host to refrain from making nasty comments or, for that matter, to enjoy our meal. These people are greedy and purely evil and I am positive from the overall conversations that Bush is conversant with this attitude and has no intentions of interfering with it.

He had an unparalleled opportunity to revive his sagging opinion polls and make an appearance in New Orleans, naturally with an army of sycophants and eager media, and be seen (in a safe placeprobably in Baton Rougebecause the desperate black citizens of New Orleans have taken to shooting at people and Bush is scared to death of violence) holding a small and photogenic black child whilst comforting its mother. Instead, Bush, typically, opted to sail overhead in his luxury Air Force One and having seen the inundated city below, retired to his small but elegant dining room for a nice lunch with some of his top aides.

I should also note here that Bush now has added the Mayor of New Orleans and a half a dozen irate and very articulate news reporters to his hate list because they have dared to criticize him to a very large audience.

Maybe this time, the Democrats will organize and nail him and his friends to a wall somewhere and then open the flood gates and watch them drown like the rats that they are."

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1802.htm

21. Was this a "training exercise" on a large scale? === Test for something on a larger scale yet.

22. Why haven't companies like Coca-Cola, etc. offered free water? === Budweiser has.

23. Is this the start of martial law for the country? === A presage to it.

24. Interesting that all military leave had been cancelled BEFORE this horror occurred, isn't it? === An Iran war was the skinny for that reason.

25. Something to think about... the TimeTraveller, John Titor, said civil war began in the US in 2005. Also, I have heard that this summer was being referred to as "The Summer of Blood"...Why? === Be that as it may, that's what the globies want...the timeline may be a bit premature. This week may have been a tripping point for it, but I just don't see it going down literally that soon.

Since you mention Titor, I'll throw in web bots that say a beginning point in early Dec. extends its impact through mid-06...so that doesn't sound like an acute rather chronic event. On the downside, someone who pegged, generically, New Oreans says something matching it lies in wait for later in Sept.

26. Where is Cheney? === Probably, just like during 911, sitting in front of a control panel under a bunker somewhere...rather than anything being told.

Regards, M.L. W, DC
 
 

R e s p o n s e re: Did the Government Cause Hurricane Katrina? http://www.rense.com/general67/herod.htm contributing editor to   - Rodger

[Here are some responses to the article "Did the Government Cause Hurricane Katrina?"  --  Tribble]

FROM:  Wendell, September 03, 2005
Don't be ridiculous!

REPLY:  Did you even read the email and notice the REAL legislative bill that congress passed?
Ask yourself, why make a law for something UNLESS you can do it?
They passed the law.  Do they think/believe/know they can control the weather?
More importantly, what do they know that you do not know?
Check the web for HAARP with the word "weather".
I am not the one being ridiculous, congress passed the bill.  Why?
--  Tribble
 

FROM:  Valtaree, September 04, 2005
It doesn't take effect until October, so how can it have affect any recent weather changes?

REPLY:  I do protest spending $10M/year on this project, no matter how ineffective or effective they believe it to become.

The bill may may not be effective till October, BUT if they believe they have such technology, do you think they are waiting till the bill takes effect to begin practicing, or have they been practicing for years or decades already?
 
 

D O    N O T drink the Kool-Aid* Can Hurricanes Be Used As Weapons of Mass Destruction? http://www.rense.com/general67/wmds.htm http://www.radarmatrix.com/ contributing editor to  - Rodger

[Maybe you will remember this one from last week.  --  Rodger]

If Not, Why Did The UN Outlaw Such Practices?
By Michael Shore (Israel), 9-5-5

What the masses of human beings all over the world have not been told is that it is possible to control and manipulate weather with a technology called 'scalar energy'. These energy weapons have other major capabilities that are even more dangerous than atomic weapons. Scalar Weapons could literally destroy the world and it is of the utmost urgency that human beings all over the world must be told of the existence of this devastating technology.

If none of this is true, where is there a law on the books of the United Nations, which prohibits one Nation from using environmental and weather manipulation weapons and technology against another Nation?

Nikola Tesla, one of the most incredible inventors of all time, developed this 'scalar technology' in the early 1900's. He created one device, about this size of a pack of cigarettes, which nearly brought down a New York highrise before he reportedly smashed it with a hammer to stop the vibrational
energy which was beginning to shatter the building.

In fact, many major technologies currently being used today were invented by Tesla including alternating current, light bulbs, robotics etc. etc. Tesla also invented an advanced technology to provide Free Energy to the entire planet, anywhere, and mainly for this reason the "powers that be" eliminated Tesla's name from history books.

It's not difficult to understand how 'they' wouldn't permit Free Energy to power the planet. Can you imagine a world, where OIL, HYDRO ELECTRIC ENERGY AND NUCLEAR ENERGY would be obsolete and no longer necessary as a major energy source?

Tesla wanted to give his free energy technology to the world, and for this reason all his funding was cut off by JP Morgan, Westinghouse and others, and he was never permitted to be recognized for his monumental achievements. The New World Order prefers that no one know that Tesla ever existed, so they can withhold this incredible technology from the People.

After Tesla died, the U.S.and Russia raced to confiscate all of Tesla's papers. Within his writings and drawings was the secret of energy technology...unlimited power which could clearly be used to dominate the world if it wound up in the wrong hands.

This amazing technology can also be used to heal people from many diseases, simply and for pennies. (So can such energy theoretically be used to induce disease in masses of people.) The current ultra-billion dollar medical-pharmaceutical industry would not be thrilled about Tesla's technology being used to replace their primitive but fantastically-profitable industries. So, human beings are forced to continue to suffer from diseases that can be easily and successfully treated using Tesla's technology. Sounds too good to be true? It's not.

Scalar technology can also be used in an EVIL WAY and has the potential to cause huge amounts of damage by using weather as a Weapon of Mass Destruction. This technology exists now. {see links below}. In fact, some government officials have tried in vain to get a law on the books that says that Scalar Weapons cannot be used by any Nation to manipulate weather to be used as a "weapon" Unfortunately, the US, Russia and Japan - and possibly other nations - have been pursuing the use of
advanced energy technology to control the weather.

Can this energy weapon be used to 'steer' hurricanes? Someone should seriously check it out. The US Air Force official policy is to completely control the weather by 2025. And the evidence points
to substantial progress already having been made.

Read the following links about using weather as a weapon of war...

http://cuttingedge.org/articles/weather.cfm

http://www.prahlad.org/pub/bearden/scalar_wars.htm

http://www.freedomdomain.com/weather.html

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO201A.html

SCALAR WEAPONS CAN ALSO BE USED TO MAKE EARTHQUAKES

http://www.cheniere.org/books/ferdelance/s71.htm

SEE THIS WEATHER VIDEO

http://www.cheniere.org/video/sovietweathervideo.html

The United Nations has a law on their books prohibiting this environmental warfare technology from being used against humanity, which is further proof this technology really exists. Read this link: http://cuttingedge.org/news/n1196a.html#guided

The possibility of weather manipulation is so hard for most people to believe, so they may say "show me some proof of the possibility that there is a means to control the weather". Here is one potential U.S. site in Gakona, Alaska that could possibly do that. They would never admit this, but it is interesting that the following is one of the FAQ that they post on their web site. They say one could take a tour of the site, but who is even interested to go to some remote area of Alaska and take such a tour? Who even knows that such a place exists???

The craziest thing is that it would only cost several millions of dollars to build such a site that could manipulate weather. The pictures are fields of electromagnetic antennas. They were expected to have 33 ACRES OF ANTENNAS when complete. That's a large amount of antennas. Wonder what they're REALLY doing there? There are probably other sites around the globe too.

http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/cam.fcgi>http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/cam.fcgi

Here's the FAQ that appears on their web site in the link above.

FAQ

"Is HAARP capable of affecting the weather?"

{Just having such a question points to the possibility that this technology and what they're doing could affect the weather!}

Their answer:

"The HAARP facility will not affect the weather. Transmitted energy in the frequency ranges that will be used by HAARP is subject to negligible absorption in either the troposphere or the stratosphere - the two levels of the atmosphere that produce the earth's weather. Electromagnetic interactions only occur in the near-vacuum of the rarefied region above about 70 km known as the ionosphere."

"The ionosphere is created and continuously replenished as the sun's radiation interacts with the highest levels of the Earth's atmosphere. The downward coupling from the ionosphere to the stratosphere/troposphere is extremely weak, and no association between natural ionospheric variability and surface weather and climate has been found, even at the extraordinarily high levels of ionospheric turbulence that the sun can produce during a geomagnetic storm. If the ionospheric storms caused by the sun itself don't affect the surface weather, there is no chance that HAARP can do so either."

Did they really answer the question and say NO, HAARP could NEVER be used to manipulate weather and that anyone saying this is completely wrong? Everyone knows we can trust the government to tell the truth, right? Yeah, sure we can.

PEACE
Michael Shore, Israel
 
 

I am from the gubment, & am here to help you - NOT New Orleans' Holdouts Coaxed From Homes http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/hurricanes_and_tropical_storms http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050907/ap_on_re_us/hurricane_katrina_59;_ylt=ApGOw6pphrFo82iR1KeaaEYbLisB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl contributing editor to   - Rodger

NEW ORLEANS - Soldiers coaxed some of Hurricane Katrina's stubborn holdouts from their homes Wednesday after the mayor ordered all 10,000 or so residents still in this ruined city evacuated — by force, if necessary — because of the risk of fires and disease. "I haven't left my house in my life. I don't want to leave," said a frail-looking 86-year-old Anthony Charbonnet, shaking his head as he locked his front door and walked slowly backwards down the steps of the house where he had lived since 1955. Charbonnet left only after a neighbor assured him: "Things will be OK. It'll be like a vacation." Still protesting, Charbonnet stepped into the ambulance in which soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division would take him to a helicopter. As the putrid, bacteria-filled floodwaters began to slowly recede with the first of the city's pumps returning to operation, Mayor C. Ray Nagin instructed law enforcement officers and the U.S. military late Tuesday to evacuate all holdouts for their own safety. He warned that the fetid water could spread disease and that natural gas was leaking all over town. As of midday Wednesday, there were no reports of anyone being removed by force. "We have thousands of people who want to voluntarily evacuate at this time," Police Chief Eddie Compass said. Once they all are out, he said, "then we'll concentrate our forces on mandatory evacuation."

AP Photo:  Jack Jones fixes coffee on  his balcony in the historic  French Quarter in New Orleans...

The stepped-up evacuation came as workers struggled find and count the corpses decaying in the 90-degree heat. Even when cadaver dogs pick up a scent, workers frequently cannot get at the bodies without heavy equipment. The mayor has estimated New Orleans' death toll could reach 10,000.

The enormity of the disaster became ever-clearer: State Rep. Nita Hutter said 30 people died at a flooded-out nursing home in Chalmette, just outside New Orleans. She said the staff left the elderly residents behind in their beds. And more than 100 people died at a dockside warehouse, waiting for rescuers to ferry them to safety, said Rep. Charlie Melancon, whose congressional district includes the area.

Meanwhile, firefighters battled blazes around New Orleans — an emerging threat in a city where the water pressure is too low to fight fires and where many people are using candles because of the lack of electricity. At the same time, workers returning to the city to restart essential services came under sniper fire.

More than 100 law officers using armored personnel carriers converged on a housing project and captured a suspect who had been firing on telephone workers, authorities said.

"These cell teams are getting fire on almost a daily basis, so we needed to get in here and clean this thing up," police Capt. Jeff Winn. "We're putting a lot of people on the street right now, and I think that we are bringing it under control. Eight days ago this was a mess. Every day is getting a little bit better."

The mayor's everyone-out directive — which superseded an earlier, milder order to evacuate made before Hurricane Katrina crashed ashore Aug. 29 — came after rescuers scouring New Orleans found hundreds of people ignoring warnings to get out.

Several residents said they heard Nagin's latest order on portable radios and were reluctantly complying.

Dolores Devron and her husband, Forcell, finally agreed to go. Dolores Devron said she was relieved the couple were allowed to take their dog with them but angry they were ordered out.

"There are dead babies tied to poles and they're dragging us out and leaving the dead babies. That ain't right!" she screamed, waving her arms as she was directed onto a troop carrier truck.

Picola Brown, 47, hobbled slowly down the street on her crutches. She said she had not been able to leave because a truck ran over her left foot shortly before the storm struck, breaking a toe.

"The mayor said everybody's got to go. I got ready. I just don't want them knocking on my door," she said.

"Where do you want to go?" asked a soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division. She answered, "Wherever it's comfortable."

Patricia Kelly, 41, sat under a tattered, dirty green-and-white-striped patio umbrella in front of an abandoned barber and beauty shop in the devastated Ninth Ward. Her home was flooded; she was not able to get back in, but did not want to leave the neighborhood.

"I'm going to stay as long as the Lord says so," Kelly said. "If they come with a court order, then we'll leave. I hope it doesn't get to the point where we're forced out."

Sgt. Joseph Boarman of the 82nd Airborne, standing on a corner, said he understood the reluctance to leave: "It's their home. You know how hard it is to leave home, no matter what condition it's in."

In Washington, President Bush and Congress pledged on Tuesday to open separate investigations into the federal response to Katrina and New Orleans' broken levees. "Governments at all levels failed," said Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., repeated her call for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be made autonomous from the Department of Homeland Security and for an independent commission to investigate the federal response to the disaster.

"The people that I met in Houston — they want answers and they want to know what went wrong and they want to know what they are going to be able to count on in the future," she said on NBC's "Today" show Wednesday, two days after visiting refugees at the Astrodome. "I don't think the government can investigate itself."

The pumping-out of the city began after the Army Corps of Engineers used hundreds of sandbags and rocks over the Labor Day weekend to close a 200-foot gap in the 17th Street Canal levee that burst in the aftermath of the storm and swamped 80 percent of this below sea-level city.

Although toxic floodwaters receded inch by inch, only five of New Orleans' normal contingent of 148 drainage pumps were operating Tuesday, the Corps said.

How long it takes to drain the city could depend on the condition of the pumps — especially whether they were submerged and damaged, the Corps said. Also, the water is full of debris, and while there are screens on the pumps, it may be necessary to stop and clean them from time to time.
 
 

I am from the gubment, & am here to help you - NOT Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury on New Orleans: "Americans Are Being Brainwashed" http://prisonplanet.com/Pages/Sept05/060905brainwashed.htm contributing editor to   - Rodger

Mentality is "like that of the brown shirts that followed Hitler"
Steve Watson/Alex Jones | September 6 2005
 

Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Regan administration. Roberts followed up his commentary Impeach Bush Now, Before More Die with an interview on The Alex Jones show on Monday 5th September 2005. The former Assistant Secretary had noted of the New Orleans disaster "If terrorists had achieved this result, it would rank as the greatest terrorist success in history." and went on to spell out how the disaster was left to happen. He succeeded these comments on Monday by laying out the facts again and asserting that the Federal government has been criminally negligent and should be held up to accountability. Click here to listen to the full interview

Mr Roberts believed that such comments would bring him much criticism from so called Patriots (the flag waving kind), yet he was surprised at the amount of people who agreed and even informed him that it was far worse then what he'd gone on record with. Roberts reviewed the way in which the federal government had slashed funding for flood prevention schemes and pumped everything into the war in Iraq and the war on Terror. He also went on to admit that the military was turning on the people, treating them as subjects, overturning the Posse Comitatus Act. Roberts agreed that FEMA has deliberately withheld aid, and cut emergency communication lines, and automatically made the crisis look worse in order to empower the image of a police state emerging to "save the day". He even insinuated that the shoot to kill policy was part of the overall operation in order get an awful precedence set to aid the military industrial complex takeover of America.

"The power of the Federal Government is now greater than at any time, it'll never go back and the Posse Comitatus Act has been eroding ever since it was passed in 1878..." Roberts asserted. Roberts further commented "There is no excuse for this, we have never had in our history the federal government take a week to respond to a disaster...this is the first time ever that the help was not mobilized in advance. The proper procedure is that everything is mobilized and ready to go" Mr Roberts commented that the American people are being "brainwashed" and no longer believe what the founding fathers said over and over, that your worst enemy is always your own government and never confuse Patriotism with support for the government. He asserted that the mentality is "like that of the brown shirts that followed Hitler" and that the government is deadly dangerous, "you can't let the military take over policing". On the question of where this is all leading and what the government is gearing up for, Mr Roberts suggested that "It does look like there is a push coming from inside the bowels of the police authorities and it seems to be independent of whoever the President is or who or whatever party is in office. It just gets worse and it's hard to say that it's Bush doing it, he may not even know what's going on... it's enough for us to say that New Orleans demonstrated massive federal incompetence, if it were laid on private people would be tantamount to criminal negligence... some kind of accountability has to be exercised"

The private corporations own and run everything and are turning America into a third world police state, when questioned as to how we can stop this Mr Roberts stated:

"The longer it goes on it will be harder and harder to stop...It depends on how much resistance or what kind of resistance they meet, but I think one thing we can do is demand accountability for this failure, do not buy the Karl Rove lie that this was a failure of State and Local Government"
 

Roberts urged listeners to look at the Patriot Act, which suspends Habeas Corpus, where they can now suspend you indefinitely, a massive erosion of civil liberties. He was quick to point out though that we should not assign the government omnipotence, we can make people aware of the situation and try to explain illogical actions that have no reasonable explanation. Roberts read out an email from an emergency management official who said that the feds are involved in everything they do, everything has to be approved by the feds. FEMA sets the table, Mr Roberts suggested, every major agency in New Orleans has been federalized, the State and Local officials have no authority. "They might screw up occasionally but why is it that NOTHING that was supposed to be done was done?" Roberts questioned.

"The whole problem is...failure, massive unacceptable failure, criminal negligence... it has caused the US it's largest and most strategic international Port through which 25% of all our oil and gas comes... look at the price of gasoline, this is a tremendous impact... I don't see how a recession can be avoided... We have lost our most influential port through what appears to be INTENTIONAL incompetence, it's very hard to understand"

Roberts went on to stress that this event is WORSE than 9/11 because it was announced days ahead of the event and contingency plans were intentionally ignored. The officials on the scene have said there was a complete stand down of the government and intentional incompetence. Furthermore they did nothing ON PURPOSE in order to provoke the resulting chaos and anarchy so they could say "look how out of control everything is - we have to have limits on freedom and troops on the streets."
 
 

I N S I G H T An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State http://tiadaily.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=1026 contributing editor to   - Jeanne

[Do you get the feeling, or idea, there has been a measure of testing being done during and after Katrina?  As previously said, something was/is wrong.  FEMA was turning back sheriffs from other states, turning away fuel, food and water.  Armed agents restricting movement.  --  Tribble]

by Robert Tracinski, Sep 02, 2005

It took four long days for state and federal officials to figure out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them, because it also took me four long days to figure out what was going on there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think that we are confronting a natural disaster.

If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure. For journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the heroism of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and dedication of doctors, nurses, and rescue workers; the steps being taken to clean up and rebuild.

Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have to do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicle, as if they are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists—myself included—did not expect that the story would not be about rain, wind, and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting.

But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster.

The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has gotten the story wrong.

The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over four days last week. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.

The man-made disaster is the welfare state.

For the past few days, I have found the news from New Orleans to be confusing. People were not behaving as you would expect them to behave in an emergency—indeed, they were not behaving as they have behaved in other emergencies. That is what has shocked so many people: they have been saying that this is not what we expect from America. In fact, it is not even what we expect from a Third World country.

When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion. They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care of us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to get out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of New Yorkers to September 11).

So what explains the chaos in New Orleans?

To give you an idea of the magnitude of what is going on, here is a description from a Washington Times story:

"Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets; and police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on.

"The plea from Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen poured in to restore order and stop the looting, carjackings and gunfire....

"Last night, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened Arkansas National Guard members were inside New Orleans with shoot-to-kill orders.

" 'These troops are...under my orders to restore order in the streets,' she said. 'They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.' "
 

The reference to Iraq is eerie. The photo that accompanies this article shows a SWAT team with rifles and armored vests riding on an armored vehicle through trash-strewn streets lined by a rabble of squalid, listless people, one of whom appears to be yelling at them. It looks exactly like a scene from Sadr City in Baghdad. What explains bands of thugs using a natural disaster as an excuse for an orgy of looting, armed robbery, and rape? What causes unruly mobs to storm the very buses that have arrived to evacuate them, causing the drivers to speed away, frightened for their lives? What causes people to attack the doctors trying to treat patients at the Superdome? Why are people responding to natural destruction by causing further destruction? Why are they attacking the people who are trying to help them?

A SWAT team drives past flood victims waiting at the  Convention Center in New Orleans yesterday.  (AP)

My wife, Sherri, figured it out first, and she figured it out on a sense-of-life level. While watching the coverage one night on Fox News Channel, she told me that she was getting a familiar feeling. She studied architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, which is located in the South Side of Chicago just blocks away from the Robert Taylor Homes, one of the largest high-rise public housing projects in America. "The projects," as they were known, were infamous for uncontrollable crime and irremediable squalor. (They have since, mercifully, been demolished.)

What Sherri was getting from last night's television coverage was a whiff of the sense of life of "the projects." Then the "crawl"—the informational phrases flashed at the bottom of the screen on most news channels—gave some vital statistics to confirm this sense: 75% of the residents of New Orleans had already evacuated before the hurricane, and of those who remained, a large number were from the city's public housing projects. Jack Wakeland then told me that early reports from CNN and Fox indicated that the city had no plan for evacuating all of the prisoners in the city's jails—so they just let many of them loose. [Update: I have been searching for news reports on this last story, but I have not been able to confirm it. Instead, I have found numerous reports about the collapse of the corrupt and incompetent New Orleans Police Department; see here and here.]

There is no doubt a significant overlap between these two populations--that is, a large number of people in the jails used to live in the housing projects, and vice versa.

There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when the deluge hit—but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people from two groups: criminals—and wards of the welfare state, people selected, over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced helplessness. The welfare wards were a mass of sheep—on whom the incompetent administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.

All of this is related, incidentally, to the incompetence of the city government, which failed to plan for a total evacuation of the city, despite the knowledge that this might be necessary. In a city corrupted by the welfare state, the job of city officials is to ensure the flow of handouts to welfare recipients and patronage to political supporters—not to ensure a lawful, orderly evacuation in case of emergency.

No one has really reported this story, as far as I can tell. In fact, some are already actively distorting it, blaming President Bush, for example, for failing to personally ensure that the Mayor of New Orleans had drafted an adequate evacuation plan. The worst example is an execrable piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by a supercilious Canadian who blames the chaos on American "individualism." But the truth is precisely the opposite: the chaos was caused by a system that was the exact opposite of individualism.

What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them. And they don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.

But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them.

People living in piles of their own trash, while petulantly complaining that other people aren't doing enough to take care of them and then shooting at those who come to rescue them—this is not just a description of the chaos at the Superdome. It is a perfect summary of the 40-year history of the welfare state and its public housing projects.

The welfare state—and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages—is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is reporting.

Source: TIA Daily -- September 2, 2005
Robert Tracinski is the editor and publisher of TIADaily.com and The Intellectual Activist magazine.
 
 

I am from the gubment, & am here to help you - NOT Senate OKs Restrictions on Cold Medicines http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050909/ap_on_he_me/meth_cold_medicine contributing editor to   - Rodger

By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 9, 5:19 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Sales of over-the-counter cold remedies used to make methamphetamine would be restricted under a measure approved by the Senate on Friday.

The bill would require stores to sell Sudafed, Nyquil and other medicines only from behind the pharmacy counter.

Those medicines contain the ingredient pseudoephedrine, which can be extracted to manufacture the highly addictive drug that has wreaked havoc in communities across the country.

"It will very substantially reduce the number of local labs that are out there because it throttles the ability of the cooks to get the pseudoephedrine that they need to make the methamphetamine," said Sen. Jim Talent (news, bio, voting record), R-Mo., who co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif.

Consumers would have to show a photo ID, sign a log, and be limited to 7.5 grams — or about 250 30-milligram pills — in a 30-day period. Computer tracking would prevent customers from exceeding the limit at other stores, according to the bipartisan bill.

The Senate voted by unanimous consent to add the anti-meth measure to the massive Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill, which is expected to pass the Senate next week.

The same appropriations bill has already passed the House but without the anti-meth measure attached. Talent said he is hopeful the anti-meth measure will be included in the final version of the legislation that emerges from a conference committee.

Retailers initially were reluctant to sign onto the bill, but as states across the country began passing their own laws restricting cold medicines, stores rallied to support a national approach. Many stores, including Target and Walgreen Co., have already voluntarily agreed to sell the products behind the pharmacy counter.

"This bill will put thousands of meth labs out of business across the country," Feinstein said.

The White House has not taken a public position on the Senate bill, a sore point with some lawmakers who have criticized Bush administration statements that marijuana still poses a larger drug problem.

Asked whether the administration has changed its stance, Talent said: "I'm not holding my breath waiting for anything. We're going ahead with what we think we need to do on our end of Pennsylvania Avenue."
 
 

I am from the gubment, & am here to help you - NOT New Orleans Begins Confiscating Firearms as Water Recedes http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2005/080905confiscatingfirearms.htm contributing editor to   - Rodger

[There are a LOT of stories, both pro and con, because of hurricane Katrina, relating to preparation for disasters and the treatment of people.is trimming the quantity of stories to report.  Most of them are becoming a variation on a theme.  There will be many a people who will compile a collection of reports for review, in fact, some already have published some.  Even with reducing the amount of published coverage the   will produce, some stories require sharing.  --  Tribble]

[It's obvious from this report and others that some people were not flooded in the intentional destruction of New Orleans.  Some want to stay and protect their property.  But the REAL owners of your property will have no part of that.  You will willfully obey you masters or they will force you to willfully obey them,  unless, of course, you are rich, then you can hire the police (security guards) to protect your property and that is perfectly acceptable.  Makes you proud to be in Amerika doesn't it!  Now let's all breath a sign of relief.  Thank God we're getting those foolish self sufficient Americans out of there.  For their own good of course.  --  Rodger]
 

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 8 - Waters were receding across this flood-beaten city today as police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered firearms, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here. No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said. But that order apparently does not apply to hundreds of security guards hired by businesses and some wealthy individuals to protect property. The guards, employees of private security companies like Blackwater, openly carry M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said that he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons. Nearly two weeks after the floods began, New Orleans has turned into an armed camp, patrolled by thousands of local, state, and federal law enforcement officers, as well as National Guard troops and active-duty soldiers. While armed looters roamed unchecked last week, the city is now calm. No arrests were made on Wednesday night or this morning, and the police received only 10 calls for service, a police spokesman said.

The city's slow recovery is continuing on other fronts as well, local officials said at a news conference. Pumping stations are now operating across much of the city, and many taps and fire hydrants have water pressure. Tests have shown no evidence of cholera or other dangerous diseases in flooded areas, though health officials have said the waters contain unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria and lead.

Efforts to recover corpses have also started.

But there were still signs of confusion and uncertainty over government plans. FEMA's director, Michael D. Brown, had said his agency would begin issuing debit cards, worth at least $2,000 each, to allow hurricane victims to buy supplies for immediate needs. More than 319,000 people have already applied for federal disaster relief, and many evacuees began lining up at the Astrodome, in Houston, early today in hope of getting cards.

"The concept is to get them some cash in hand," Mr. Brown had said, "which allows them, empowers them, to make their own decisions about what they need to have to restart their lives."

But this afternoon, FEMA announced that it no longer planned to issue the cards. An agency spokesman, David G. Passey, said that he did not know why the program was scrapped but that now "we believe that our normal methods of delivery - checks and electronic funds transfer - will suffice."

In Washington, the House an Senate overwhelmingly approved $51.8 billion for relief efforts, the second disbursement since the storm devastated the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. The funds include $50 billion for FEMA, $1.4 billion for the Department of Defense and an additional $400 million for the Army Corps of Engineers. The request follows a $10.5 billion package that President Bush signed on Friday and that is intended to address the immediate needs of survivors.

Hundreds of miles to the east, Ophelia, a tropical storm off the Florida coast, was upgraded to hurricane status this afternoon after its winds reached speeds of 75 miles per hour. Forecasters have predicted that Ophelia will turn east into the Atlantic Ocean during the next few days, although its path remains unclear.

With pumps running and the weather here remaining hot and dry, water has receded across much of New Orleans. Formerly flooded streets are now passable, although covered with leaves, tree branches and mud.

A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, Dan Hitchings, said 37 of the city's 174 permanent pumps were working this afternoon, removing about 11,000 cubic feet of flood water per second. The city's 174 pumps have the capacity to remove about 81,000 cubic feet of water each second when they are all operational.

While Mr. Hitchings would not try to quantify how much the water level in the city had dropped, he did say that "it's going down."

The Army Corps of Engineers continues to try to plug two levee breaks, Mr. Hitchings said, on London Avenue, and at the end of the Harbor Navigation Canal.

Many neighborhoods in the northern half of New Orleans remain under 10 feet of water, and Mr. Compass said today that the city's plans for a forced evacuation remained in effect because of the danger of disease and fires.

Mr. Compass said he could not disclose when New Orleans residents might be forced to leave en masse, but other police officers and law enforcement officials said the city planned to start as early as tonight.

The city's Police Department and federal law enforcement officers from agencies like the United States Marshals Service will lead the evacuation, Mr. Compass said. Officers will search houses in both dry and flooded neighborhoods, and no one will be allowed to stay, he said.

Many of the residents still in the city said they did not understand why the city remained intent on forcing them out.

"I know the risks," said Renee de Pontchieux, as she sat on a stool outside Kajun's Pub in the working-class Bywater neighborhood east of downtown. "We used to think we lived in America - now we're not so sure. Why should we allow this government to chase us out and allow people from outside to rebuild our homes? We want to rebuild our homes."

But Ms. De Pontchieux said she was resigned to being evacuated if the police insisted. "It would be foolish" to fight, she said.

This afternoon, President Bush announced a series of measures intended to make it easier for evacuees to receive state and federal assistance, like Medicaid and food stamps, to make the aid as "simple as possible to collect."

"There will be many difficult days ahead, especially as we recover those who did not survive the storm," he said, adding that he was declaring Sept. 16, next Friday, a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance.

Vice President Dick Cheney, accompanied by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, surveyed damaged neighborhoods in the Gulf Coast region today, and pledged that the federal government would help rebuild the devastated area.

Mr. Cheney visited Gulfport, Miss., and New Orleans, where flood waters are growing increasingly fetid and thousands of people are still insisting on staying, despite the evacuation order.

"The president asked me to come down to take a look at things, and to begin to focus on the longer term, in terms of making certain obviously that we're getting the search-and-rescue missions done and all those other immediate things," Mr. Cheney said after touring a neighborhood in Gulfport. "The progress we're making is significant."

Mr. Cheney's visit follows a visit earlier this week by President Bush, his second since the storm hit, following much criticism last week that the administration and federal agencies had been slow in responding to the disaster.

An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 people remain inside New Orleans more than a week after Hurricane Katrina hit, many in neighborhoods that are on high ground near the Mississippi River.

But the number of dead still remained a looming and disturbing question.

In the first indication of how many deaths Louisiana alone might expect, a spokesman for the State Department of Health and Hospitals, Robert Johannessen, said on Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had ordered 25,000 body bags. The official death toll remains under 100.

In Washington, House and Senate leaders announced a joint investigation into the government's response to the crisis. "Americans deserve answers," said a statement by the two top-ranking Republicans, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader. "We must do all we can to learn from this tragedy, improve the system and protect all of our citizens."

Democratic leaders, however, said they would not participate, citing a preference for an independent inquiry.

The government continued its efforts to help evacuees. At the Astrodome in Houston, where an estimated 15,000 New Orleans evacuees found shelter over the weekend, the number had dwindled to only about 3,000 on Wednesday as people were rapidly placed in apartments, volunteers' homes and hotels that had been promised reimbursement by FEMA.

With the overall death toll highly uncertain, Mr. Brown, the FEMA director, said in Baton Rouge that the formal house-to-house search for bodies had begun at midmorning. He said the temporary mortuary set up in St. Gabriel, La., was prepared to receive 500 to 1,000 bodies a day, with refrigeration trucks on site to hold the corpses.

"They will be processed as rapidly as possible," Mr. Brown said.

As it worked to remove the water inundating the city, the Corps of Engineers said that one additional pumping station, No. 6, at the head of the 17th Street Canal, had started up, and that about 10 percent of the city's total pumping capacity was in operation. But the corps added that it was dealing with a new problem: how to prevent corpses from being sucked to the grates at the pump inlets.

"We're expending every effort to try to ensure that we protect the integrity of remains as we get this water out of the city," said John S. Rickey, chief of public affairs for the corps. "We're taking this very personally. This is a very deep emotional aspect of our work down there."

Officials emphasized that as testing of the flood waters continued, substances in addition to E. coli bacteria and lead were likely to be found at harmful levels, especially from water taken near industrial sites.

"Human contact with the floodwater should be avoided as much as possible," the environmental agency's administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said.

A spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said state and local officials had reported three deaths in Mississippi and one in Texas from exposure to Vibrio vulnificus, a choleralike bacterium found in salt water, which poses special risks for people with chronic liver problems.

At a news conference this morning, officials in New Orleans cautioned people to decontaminate themselves as best as possible when entering homes after wading through the floodwater.

Among the authorities, though, some confusion lingered about how a widespread evacuation by force would work, and how much support it would get at the federal and state level. Mayor C. Ray Nagin told the police and the military on Tuesday to remove all residents for their own safety, and on Wednesday, the police superintendent, Mr. Compass, said state laws give the mayor the authority to declare martial law and order the evacuations.

"There's a martial law declaration in place that gives us legal authority for mandatory evacuations," Mr. Compass said. "We'll use the minimum amount of force necessary."

But because the New Orleans Police Department has only about 1,000 working officers, the city is largely in the hands of National Guard troops and active-duty soldiers.

State officials said Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco could tell the Guard to carry out the forced removals, but they stopped short of a commitment to do so. In Washington, Lt. Gen. Joseph R. Inge, deputy commander of the United States Northern Command, said regular troops "would not be used" in any forced evacuation.

The state disaster law does not supersede either the state or federal Constitutions, said Kenneth M. Murchison, a law professor at Louisiana State University. But even so, Mr. Nagin's decision could be a smart strategy that does not violate fundamental rights, Professor Murchison said.

When police officers came to Billie Moore's 3,000 square foot Victorian to warn her of the health risks of remaining in the city, she pushed her identification tag from the hospital where she works as a nurse through slats in the door.

"I guess you know the health risks then," the officer said as he walked away.

Ms. Moore and her husband, Richard Robinson, who do not drive and use bicycles for the 5-mile ride to their jobs at the still-functioning Ochsner Hospital in suburban Jefferson Parish, have no plans to leave. Their circa-1895 home, on the city's southwest flank, suffered virtually no damage in the hurricane or its aftermath. They have been lighting an old gas stove with a match to cook pasta and rice, dumping cans of peas on top for flavor.

"We try to be normal and sit down and eat," Ms. Moore, 52, explained as she showed off the expansive, well-kept home where they have lived for 10 years. "I think that's how we'll stay healthy is if I keep the house clean."

Ms. Moore said she had not worked since the hurricane because there are few babies left at the hospital, but that she remains on standby; her husband has been on duty the past five days.

"I don't want to go, I don't want to lose my job," she said. "Who's going to take care of the patients if all the nurses go away?"

Alex Berenson reported from New Orleans for this article, and Timothy Williams from New York. Reporting was contributed by John Broder from New Orleans, Sewell Chan from Baton Rouge, La; Christine Hauser from New York, and Matthew L. Wald from Vicksburg, Miss.
 
 

duh They were Underprivileged, so this is Working very well for Them http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15938967&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=barbara-bush-s-storm-slur--58-so-many-of-the-people-here-were-underprivileged-anyway--so-this-is-working--name_page.html contributing editor to   - Rodger

[Was this a Freudian Slip?  --  Tribble]

From Ryan Parry in New Orleans
 

BUNGLING Barbara Bush yesterday claimed poverty-stricken refugees who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina are actually better off thanks to the devastating floods. The 80-year-old former first lady piled more pressure on her under fire son George's administration by declaring that the victims are so happy in their makeshift camps they would rather stay than go back to their impoverished communities. Her gaffe came after a visit with husband George Snr to the Astrodome stadium in Houston, Texas, where thousands of evacuees from New Orleans and other affected areas are being housed. Barbara chuckled as she said: "So many of the people here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them. "What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. Almost everyone I've talked to says: 'We're going to move to Houston'." Many of the refugees are anxiously waiting for news of missing loved ones. Their homes have been destroyed and families shattered by the hurricane that hit southern America last week.

BUTTON IT: Barbara Bush

Barbara's comments come as celebrities lined up to criticise George Bush over delays in responding to the crisis.

As the hunt for the thousands of people still missing intensified yesterday, James Bond star Pierce Brosnan, 52, said: "This man called President Bush has a lot to answer for. I don't know if he is really taking care of America. This government has been shameful."

Actor Colin Farrell added: "If this had been a bunch of white people on the roofs of their houses I don't have any f***ing doubt there would have been every single helicopter, plane and means that the government has trying to help."

The 29-year-old Irishman spoke out after being auctioned off on a £6,000 charity date.

Other stars rolled up their sleeves and got on with the job of helping stricken communities themselves rather than waiting for politicians to sort out the mess.

Actor Sean Penn spent nine hours pulling bodies out of the putrid waters in New Orleans.

child in houston astrodome

TEARS: Child in Astrodome

He said: "It's the ultimate distress and human suffering.

"Though we have come to be suspicious of the will of our administration, I don't think anybody ever anticipated the criminal negligence of the Bush administration in this situation."

Penn had to abandon his mission when his boat sprung a leak. He bailed out using a plastic cup.

Grease star John Travolta delivered five tonnes of food and 400 tetanus shots to Louisiana on his private jet. He visited shelters across the region and spoke to victims before touring New Orleans with actress wife Kelly Preston.

Singer Paul Simon donated two mobile medical units and Barry Manilow announced his fund had raised £81,000 in aid.

Macy Gray and Oprah Winfrey visited the devastated region. Chat queen Oprah also handed out food at the Astrodome.

Author John Grisham has given £2.7million to the relief effort in his home state of Mississippi. Rappers P Diddy and Jay-Z pledged £550,000 to help the thousands of homeless.

Several concerts are being staged including an MTV benefit gig called ReAct Now: Music & Relief on Saturday. The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Kanye West, Sheryl Crow and Paul McCartney are due to play.

Up to 10,000 are believed killed by Katrina. By last night the floodwaters had dropped substantially and rescuers braced themselves for what horrors the receding deluge would reveal.

Dozens of refrigerated trucks were on standby to store bodies.

Draining the remaining water is likely to take weeks and with so many people decomposing the risk of disease worsens by the day.

In Violet on the Mississippi, 22 bodies were found lashed together around a pole - evidence of a bid to escape the rising waters.

New Orleans police estimated there were fewer than 10,000 people left in the city. Many refuse to leave their homes. The authorities have now refused to hand out water to those who insist on staying.

But officials said the lawlessness that plagued New Orleans has been brought under control.

Mr Bush yesterday pledged to lead a probe into the government's dismally slow relief effort. He said: "We've got to solve problems."
 
 

I N S I G H T FEMA's Blocking Of Relief Efforts - An Amazing List http://www.rense.com/general67/femwont.htm contributing editor to   - Jeanne

9-8-5

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/84aa35cc-1da8-11da-b40b-00000e

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/5/105538/7048

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15147862&BRD=

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/171718/0826

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050902dale

FEMA turns away generators
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470

That last one is really real -- not satire but straight from FEMA's website.
 
 

R e s p o n s e re: An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State contributing editor to   - Jeanne

[This is a reply to the article of September 7, 2005 (earlier this edition) entitled "An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State".  --  Tribble]

I agree.

Refugees who have and were receiving food stamps and welfare checks have been brought up to Ft. Smith, AR (Fort Chaffee) and are now being assimilated into the schools/etc. One woman said- “There is so much LOVE HERE- Why they even gave us our own P. O. BOX in order to continue getting our food stamps and our welfare checks!”

Think about this for a moment. There have been pleas by the local news media to the public to please give your time to come and HELP these people. What do they need for us to do? They have FREE FOOD, FREE WATER, FREE HOUSING, FREE MEDICAL CARE, FREE P. O. BOX to get their FREE food stamps and money…..do they really need some of us who work 60 hours a week to put a roof over our heads and food on the table for us and our family to go there and hand-feed them, or make their bed for them?  What is it that they need, I’m wondering? They even have FREE medical treatment without having to pay any health care premiums or ever pay back any health care fees. What a DEAL! Here’s the other kicker- the news media reported that they will get FREE bus rides up to NW Arkansas for job hunting and the businesses might even have a JOB FAIR to help them find jobs. That’s what we need. We already have a huge Mexican population that are working in the chicken-plucking plants for Tyson/George’s/etc. At least they work, but they have also brought all kinds of CRIME to the area as well. Stealing, rape, murder, shootings, etc. not to mention the diseases like TB which are being spread from those coming up from Mexico daily.  Why not just add more CRIME to our area with those on welfare who keep multiplying and getting more food stamps, while the “sperm” donors are out robbing/raping and pillaging the neighborhood, or selling drugs on the street corners. Let’s make NW Arkansas just like New York, ya want to?

 I don’t mean to sound hard-hearted, but if EACH ONE took care of themselves, WELL, just what would that be like, I wonder? Or maybe all of the women you see without husbands with 5+ children from 5 different men, who are 300 lbs. overweight, might just help each other look after their brood while continuing the “status quo” of someone else providing their every need for them.

GET UP OFF YOUR BUTT AND TAKE CARE OF YOUR BUTT FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE! Walk over to the kitchen where someone is preparing your meals for you and go ahead and EAT and DRINK.  How’s that for a Scriptural thought?  I’m not talking about those who are ill….let those who aren’t, help take care of the others….you know, like how real Americans do it when there is a disaster that affects their neighbors!

GEEZ!  This writer really hit the nail on the head on this one.
 
 

D O    N O T drink the Kool-Aid* Explosive Residue Found on Failed Levee Debris! http://www.halturnershow.com/DiversFindExplosiveResidueOnRupturedLevy.html contributing editor to   - Jeanne

Ruptured New Orleans Levee had help failing
By: Hal Turner      September 9, 2005   3:36 PM EDT

NOTE (Turner): This story has been UPDATED as of Saturday, September 10, 2005 @ 11:40 PM EDT The updated info is incorporated into the story and appears in bold type

 New Orleans, LA -- Divers inspecting the ruptured levee walls surrounding New Orleans found something that piqued their interest:  Burn marks on underwater debris chunks from the broken levee wall!

 One diver, a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, saw the burn  marks and knew immediately what caused them. When he surfaced and showed the evidence to his superior, the on-site Coordinator for FEMA stepped-in and said "You are not here to conduct an investigation as to why this rupture occurred, but only to determine how best to close it."  The FEMA coordinator then threw the evidence back into the water and said "You will tell no one about this."

At that point, the diver went back down to do more inspection of the levee.  On the second dive, he secreted a small  chunk of the debris inside his wet suit and later arranged for it  to be sent to trusted military friends at a The U.S. Army Forensic Laboratory at Fort Gillem, Georgia for testing.

 According to well placed sources, a military forensic specialist  determined the burn marks on the cement chunks did, in fact, come  from high  explosives.  The source, speaking on condition of  anonymity said "We found traces of boron-enhanced fluoronitramino explosives as well as PBXN-111 embedded in the debris.  This would indicate at least two separate types of explosive devices."

 The levee ruptures in New Orleans did not take place during Hurricane Katrina, but rather a day after the hurricane struck.  Several residents of New Orleans and many Emergency Workers reported hearing what sounded like large, muffled explosions from the area of the levee, but those were initially discounted as gas explosions from homes with leaking gas lines.

 If these allegations prove true, the ruptured levee which flooded New Orleans was a deliberate act of mass destruction perpetrated by someone with access to military-grade UNDERWATER high explosives.

 More details as they become available . . . . .
 
 

I N S I G H T Volunteer Helping Hurricane Survivors Reports how "Evacuees" Abused Those Who came to Help http://www.halturnershow.com/ReportFromAVolunteer.html contributing editor to   - Jeanne

[This shows there is enough bad charactor for the would be rescuers and also for the alleged victims.  --  Tribble]

Free food rejected as "not good enough";
Free water rejected with demands for beer and liquor;
Refusal to help each other carrying mattresses and supplies; saying "we just lost our homes, you want us to work?"

SO I VOLUNTEERED..........
Current mood: disappointed

I thought I might inform the few friends I have on my recent traumatic experience. I am going to tell it straight, blunt, raw, and I don’t give a damn. Long read, I know but please do read!!!

I went to volunteer on Saturday at the George R. Brown convention for two reasons.

        A: I wanted to help people to get a warm fuzzy.

        B: Curiosity.

I’ve been watching the news lately and have seen scenes that have made me want to vomit. And no it wasn’t dead bodies, the city under water, or the sludge everywhere. It was PEOPLE”S BEHAVIOR. The people on T.V. (99% being Black) where DEMANDING help. They were not asking nicely but demanding as if society owed these people something. Well the honest truth is WE DON’T. Help should be asked for in a kind manner and then appreciated. This is not what the press (FOX in particular) was showing, what I was seeing was a group of people who are yelling, demanding, looting, killing, raping, and SHOOTING back at the demanded help!!!!! So I’m thinking this can’t possibly be true can it???? So I decide to submit to the DEMAND for help out of SHOCK. I couldn’t believe this to be true of the majority of the people who are the weakest of society. So I went to volunteer and help folks out and see the truth. So I will tell the following story and you decide:

I arrived at the astrodome only to find out that there are too many volunteers and that volunteers where needed at the George R. Brown Convention Center. As I was walking up to the Convention Center I noticed a line of cars that wrapped around blocks filled with donations. These where ordinary Houstonians coming with truckloads and trunks full of water, diapers, clothes, blankets, food, all types of good stuff. And lots of it was NEW. I felt that warm fuzzy while helping unload these vehicles of these wonderful human beings. I then went inside the building and noticed approximately 100,000 sq. ft. of clothes, shoes, jackets, toys and all types of goodies all organized and ready for the people in need. I signed up, received a name badge and was on my merry way excited to be useful.

I toured the place to get familiar with my surrounding; the entire place is probably around 2 million sq. ft. I noticed rows as far as the eye can see of mattresses, not cots, BLOW UP MATTRESSES!!! All of which had nice pillows and plenty of blankets. 2 to 3 bottles of water lay on every bed. These full size to queen size beds by the way where comfortable, I laid in one to see for myself. I went to look at the medical area. I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing!!! A makeshift hospital created in 24 hours!!! It was unbelievable, they even had a pharmacy. I also noticed that they created showers, which would also have hot water. I went upstairs to the third floor to find a HUGE cafeteria created in under 24 hours! Rows of tables, chairs and food everywhere – enough to feed an army! I’m not talking about crap food either. They had jason’s deli food, apples, oranges, coke, diet coke, lemonade, orange juice, cookies, all types of chips and sandwiches. All the beverages by the way was put on ice and chilled!!!!  In a matter of about 24 hours or less an entire mini-city was erected by volunteers for the poor evacuees. This was not your rundown crap shelter, it was BUM HEAVEN.

So that was the layout: great food, comfy beds, clean showers, free medical help, by the way there was a library, and a theatre room I forgot to mention. Great stuff right????

Well here is what happened on my journey –

I started by handing out COLD water bottles to evacuees as they got off the bus. Many would take them and only 20% or less said thank you. Lots of them would shake their heads and ask for sodas! So this went on for about 20-30 minutes until I was sick of being an unappreciated servant.  I figured certainly these folks would appreciate some food!!! So I went upstairs to serve these beloved evacuees some GOOD food that I wish I could have at the moment!

***The following statements are graphic, truthful, and discuss UNRATIONAL behavior***

Evacuees come slowly to receive this mountain of food that is worth serving to a king! I tell them that we have 2 types of great deli sandwiches to choose from – ham and turkey. Many look at the food in disgust and DEMAND burgers, pizza, and even McDonalds!!!! Jason’s deli is better than McDonalds!!!! Only 1 out of ten people who took something would say “thank you” the rest took items as if it was their God give right to be served without a shred of appreciation!!! They would ask for Beer and liquor. They complained that we didn’t have good enough food. They refused food and laughed at us. They treated us volunteers as if we where SLAVES. No not all of them of course…but 70% did!!!!!!  20% where appreciative, 10% took the food without any comment and the other 70% had some disgusting comment to say. Some had the nerve to laugh at us. And when I snapped back at them for being mean, they would curse at me!!! Needless to say I was in utter shock. They would eat their food and leave their mess on the table… some would pick up their stuff many would leave it for the volunteers to pick up. I left that real quick to go down and help set up some more beds. I saw many young ladies carrying mattresses and I helped for a while. Then I realized something…their where hundreds of able bodied young men who could help!! I asked a group of young evacuees in their teens and early twenties to help. I got cursed at for asking them to help!!! One said “We just lost our fucking homes and you want us to work!!” The next said “Ya Cracker, you got a home we don’t” I looked at them in disbelief. Here are women walking by carrying THEIR FUCKING BEDS and they can’t lift a finger and help themselves!!

WHY THE FUCK SHOULD I HELP PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT TO HELP THEMESELVES!!!!

I waved them off and turned away and was laughed at and more “white boy jokes” where made at me. I felt no need to waste my breath on a bunch of pitiful losers. I went to a nearby restroom where I noticed a man shaving. I used the restroom, washed my hands and saw this man throw his razor towards the trash can...he missed… he walked out leaving his disgusting razor on the floor for some other “cracker” to pick up. Even the little kids where demanding. I saw only ONE white family and only TWO Hispanic families. The rest where blacks…sorry 20% to 30% decent blacks… and 70% LOSERS!!!!!

I would call them NIGGERS, but the actual definition of a nigger is one who is ignorant, these people were not ignorant……they where ARROGANT ASSHOLES. The majority of which are thugs and lifetime lazy ass welfare recipients. We are inviting the lowest of the low to Houston. And like idiots we are serving the people who will soon steal our cars, rape, murder, and destroy our city while stealing from our pockets on a daily basis through the welfare checks they take. We will fund our own destruction.

By “US” I don’t mean a specific race, I mean the people who work hard, work smart, have values and morals. Only people who want to help themselves should be helped, the others should be allowed to destroy themselves. I do not want to work hard, give the government close to half the money I earn so they can in turn give it to a bunch of losers.

I don’t believe in being poor for life.  My family immigrated here, we came here poor, and now thank God, and due to HARD WORK we are doing fine. If immigrants, who come here, don’t know the language can work and become successful... WHY THE FUCK CAN’T THE MAJORITY OF THE HOMEGROWN DO IT!!!  If we continue to reward these losers then we will soon destroy our great country. I just witnessed selfish, arrogant, unappreciative behavior by the very people who need help the most. Now these same people who cursed me, refused my cities generosity, who refuse to help themselves are DEMANDING handouts on their own terms!!!!!!! They prance around as if they are owed something, and when they do receive a handout, they say it’s not good enough! Well you know what……these types of people can go to hell for all I care!

© 2001 Hal Turner - All rights reserved. No material posted in any area of this site may be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission.
Web design:
 
 

I am from the gubment, & am here to help you - NOT "Smoking gun" documents nail FEMA, Chertoff, and Bush http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/9/1435/82827 contributing editor to   - Rodger

by Sharon Jumper
Fri Sep 9th, 2005 at 11:03:04 PDT

Rep. Waxman does it again!

He's just posted a letter to Secretary Chertoff from Ranking Member Waxman and Chairman Davis which describes documents from the Department of Homeland Security that show that FEMA was aware in 2004 that a "catastrophic hurricane" could hit New Orleans and "trap hundreds of thousands of people in flooded areas and leave up to one million people homeless." FEMA officials wrote: "the gravity of the situation calls for an extraordinary level of advance planning."

More after the fold...

Sharon Jumper's diary :: ::

Here's the letter that was sent to Chertoff today
 

the offices of Dewey, Cheetum & Howe War Vet Has Property Raided After Calling Bush a Liar On Radio Call-in http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/august2005/150805propertyraided.htm contributing editor to   - Rodger

Greg Szymanski | August 15 2005 Don Stout looked up into the Midwestern sky one afternoon two weeks ago and saw a strange helicopter flying over his five-acre piece of land in rural Albany, Ohio.

Before he knew what happened, the 77-year-old long-time resident, law-abiding citizen and Korean War veteran had eight law enforcement officials swarm on his property, checking the place out for marijuana.

Never before having a run-in with the law, Stout said the heavy-handed looking group of law enforcement thugs “came and went without saying a word” after suspiciously looking at a large bush on his property not in the slightest bit resembling a pot plant.

“I’ve been here since 1994 and everybody’s knows me including the sheriff. I never smoked marijuana and they know it, but I think they just like terrorizing people,” said Stout in a telephone conversation from his rural home, adding he still hasn’t received an answer from anyone why law enforcement officials invaded his privacy and entered his land without a proper search warrant.

“It scared the hell out of me as eight or ten men swarmed my place. I was weeding my garden and the next thing you know, they were on my property, looked at this bush and left without saying a word. It was ridiculous, but the sheriff, the deputy sheriff and the game warden all raided my place for no reason and I am still looking for an explanation.”

Although Stout can’t pinpoint why authorities entered his property without a warrant, earlier that day he aired his strong opinions against President Bush, calling him an outright liar, on a free speech and truth-telling talk radio show on the popular WAIF AM770 local radio station.

Stout said he has been calling in regularly voicing his anti-Bush opinions, saying people in rural Ohio are finally starting to wake up to lies, deceit and treachery imposed on the American people by what he calls a “lying dog of a President.’

“I think he and the rest of his buddies are corrupt, down right crazy and Bush should be impeached plain and simple for lying to the people about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” said the former Korean War veteran, who lashed out at Bush for going to war illegally and in the process killing thousands of innocent civilians, including more than 1,700 GI’s.

“I think George Bush is a liar and is personally responsible for the deaths of many good young men in order that his rich buddies could profit from this illegal war.”

Considering himself a “true American” who honorably fought for his country and drove a Greyhound bus for many years, the plain speaking Bush critic thinks America is in a crisis and at the brink of martial law at the hands of government tyrants bent on destroying the country from within.

“I think we have lost this country and many people feel it’s too late and feel helpless about doing anything about it,” said Stout. “I am pretty outspoken about a lot of things and it wouldn’t surprise me if another terrorist hits us harder than 9/11, putting the country under a state of emergency and martial law while at the same time taking the heat off Bush.

“This reminds me of Nazi Germany. The people are being fed propaganda and in turn the dollar is going to hell as are the rest of our freedoms. I don’t think we should give up our freedoms in order to be safer, when all the government is trying to do is take us over from within.

“The Founding Fathers would have never stood for what is going on and would have thrown Bush and his buddies out on their ears. I think the people of Ohio are starting to wake up and I do not intend to stop talking about how I feel on that talk radio show.”

Besides the strange raid on Stout’s property, the radio station giving the thumbs up to air the controversial truth-telling radio program in the traditionally conservative heartland also has reported mysteriously having its transmitter knocked out on two occasions from “two mysterious bolts of lightening.”

Housewife Lauren Dowling, another avid WAIF listener and unofficial promoter of the truth-telling show that schedules many of the guests for broadcaster Sharon Elliot and station owner Joe Edwards, isn’t pointing fingers but said this week from her rural home that the two “bolts of lightening” in the last six weeks was very unusual.

Although Elliot and Edwards have been airing a controversial show from their station headquarters in Nelsonville, Ohio, radio for quite some time, it hasn’t been until recently that they decided to bring on even more controversial figures like anti-establishment broadcaster Alex Jones and others to talk the traditionally mainstream audience at WAIF.

“And Maureen Jones just came on the other day educating people about fluoride in the water, which was very interesting,” said Dowling, adding calls have been coming in from all over the South East quadrant of Ohio, including parts of West Virginia about the station that has small town roots but a large broadcast reach.

“I thought it was time the people of our community heard the truth from people like Alex Jones, who by the way, probably shocked a few listeners, but had a very important message which has been basically censored by the mainstream press.

“I’m just an average Mom, giving out a common sense dose of the truth to these arrogant leaders.

.Besides Jones, WAIF is scheduling for future morning shows other alternative broadcasters and activists basically silenced in rural America by the Bush propaganda machine and a cooperative press.

Plans also include interviewing many people who have had their voices silenced about 9/11, especially eye-witness, victims and journalists who have struggled hard to wake up a sleeping country.

“It’s never too late and people around here are starting to open their hearts and minds, tuning in to listen and participate,” added Dalling.

And Stout, who many people in the community believe had his civil rights violated by law enforcement officials for voicing his regularly on WAIF, had one last message to President Bush before getting to the bottom of why officials illegally swarmed down on his private property:

“I don’t intend to trade of security for my rights as an American. I believe we need to take our country back from these thugs and brown shirts before or jobs, our financial security and our lives are taken away from us right before our very eyes.

“I want the American people to know that a lot of other people here in Ohio feel like I do and also know the election was stolen by Bush. He is losing popularity because a lot of people over here are finally starting to see through his lies, lies that are costing young American lives every day this illegal war continues.”
 
 

I am from the gubment, & am here to help you - NOT Citizen Flotilla Turned Back by Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries http://www.rense.com/general67/cit.htm contributing editor to   - Rodger

My name is Jason Robideaux, I am an attorney from Lafayette Louisiana and have dealt with all of the various law enforcement agencies in Louisiana during the past 18 years. Although I have had a positive relationship with law enforcement personnel throughout the State for many years, I regretfully have a story to share that will shake your head in disbelief about the La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries.

A group of approximately 1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats left the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette this morning (Weds.) and headed to New Orleans with a police escort from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff´s Department. The "flotillia" of trucks pulling boats stretched over five miles. This citizen rescue group was organized by La. State Senator, Gautreaux from Vermilion Parish. The group was comprised of experienced boaters, licensed fishermen and hunters, people who have spent their entire adult life and teenage years on the waterways of Louisiana.

The State Police waved the flotillia of trucks/boats through the barricades in LaPlace and we sped into New Orleans via I-10 until past the airport and near the Clearview exit. At that time we were stopped by agents of the La. Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries. A young DWF agent strolled through the boats and told approximately half of the citizens that their boats were "too large" because the water had "dropped during the night" and that they should turn around and go home.

We were pulling a large (24ft) shallow draft aluminum boat that can safely carry 12 passengers and had ramp access which would allow the elderly and infirm to have easier access to the boat. We politely informed the DWF agent that the local and national media had consistently reported that the water level had "risen" during the night which contradicted his statement to us that the water "was dropping" and no boat over 16ft. in length would be allowed to participate in rescue operations.

We then specifically asked the DWF agent that we (and other citizens in the flotillia) be allowed to go to the hospitals and help evacuate the sick and the doctors and nurses stranded there. We offered to bring these people back to Lafayette, in our own vehicles, in order to ensure that they received proper and prompt medical care.

The DWF agent did not want to hear this and ordered us home. We complied with the DWF agent´s orders, turned around and headed back to Lafayette along with half of the flotillia. However, two of my friends were pulling my other boat, a smaller 15ft alumaweld with a 25 hp. The DWF agents let them through to proceed to the rescue operation launch site.

My two friends were allowed to drive to the launch site where the La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries were launching their rescue operations (via boat). They reported to me that there were over 200 DWF agents just standing around and doing nothing. My friends were kept there for approximately 3 hours. During that time they observed a large number of DWF agents doing nothing. After three hours had passed they were told that they were not needed and should go home. They complied with the DWF´s orders and turned around and went home to Lafayette.

Watching CNN tonight, there was a telephone interview with a Nurse trapped in Charity Hospital in New Orleans. She said that there were over 1,000 people trapped inside of the hospital and that the doctors and nurses had zero medical supplies, no diesel to run the generators and that only three people had been rescued from the hospital since the Hurricane hit!

I can´t come up with one logical reason why the DWF sent this large group of 500 boats/1000 men home when we surely could have rescued most, if not all, of the people trapped in Charity Hospital. Further, we had the means to immediately transport these people to hospitals in Southwest Louisiana.

On Tuesday afternoon, August 30, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee asked for all citizens with boats to come to the aid of Jefferson Parish. A short time later Dwight Landreneau, the head of the La. Depart. of Wildlife and Fisheries, got on television and remarked that his agency had things under control and citizen help was not needed. Apparently, Sheriff Lee did not agree with that assessment and had one of his deputies provide the Lafayette flotillia with an escort into Jefferson Parish.

Sheriff Lee and Senator Gautreaux - 1000 of Louisiana´s citizens responded to your pleas for help. We were prevented from helping by Dwight Landreneau´s agency, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. When I learned that Charity Hospital has not been evacuated and that no one has been there to attempt a rescue, I became angry.

The "turf-marking" by some minor state agency should never take priority over the lives of citizens!

Signed,
 Bewildered and Frustrated,
 Jason Robideaux
Attorney At Law
1005 Lafayette Street
Lafayette, La. 70501
(337) 291-9444 office
http://www.thedeadpelican.com/lawyer.htm
 
 

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain** The President Explains the Virtues of his Social Security Plan http://www.acoustic-coffeehouse.com/Bush%20-%20Social.htm contributing editor to   - Jeanne

Tampa, FL, Feb. 4, 2005

WOMAN IN AUDIENCE:  I don't really understand. How is it the new [Social Security] plan is going to fix that problem?

Verbatim response:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to that has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled

Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words,how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.
 
 

The Flat Earth Report What you ought to know about Wal-Mart (and other corporations) http://www.acoustic-coffeehouse.com/Wal-Mart.htm contributing editor to   - Jeanne

[I do support free enterprise, and the opportunity for anyone to advance.  I have a lawyer acquaintance who tells me there are 4 branches of government.  If you remember your high school civic studies (even if you attended public warehousing) you were taught there are only 3 branches of government.  But, in today's world, there seems my acquaintance is correct is saying there is the Executive, Judicial, Legislative and Wal-Mart.  Now consider why some people/businesses continue to do things considered wrong, especially when a financial penalty is likely to be imposed.  Take the following article for example - if Wal-Mart occasionally pays a fine of $50million, yet profits over $7Billion, then even on a yearly basis, that is a profit of over $6Billion.  Hence, the occasional fines, settlements and judgments are merely a "cost of doing business" and those values are factored into the prices they charge.

Now this article does try to attack Wal-Mart for some things that may not be controllable, such a claimed disparage in wages between men and women, or percentage of women in clerk vs management positions.  Regardless of whether Wal-Mart has a deliberate agenda to encourage this statistic will not alter the basic facts of humanity.  Some of these factors are well explained by Marilyn Van Savant and her explanation is made the next article reported here in --  Tribble]

The next time you go shopping, think about this before you pull into Wal-Mart's parking lot:

The owners of one of the U.S.'s premiere retail corporations is comprised of five of the ten richest people in the world, all from the same family. Their personal wealth eclipses $100 billion dollars. Last year the companies CEO was paid a cool $11.5 million, more than the annual salaries of 765 of his employees combined! The company's profits are over $7 billion annually. In these difficult economic times how do they do it?  Here's how.

This company runs ads featuring the United States flag and proclaims "We Buy American". In 2001 they moved their world-wide purchasing headquarters to China and are the largest importer of Chinese goods in the US, purchasing over $10 billion of Chinese made products annually.  Products made mostly by women and children working in the labor hell-holes, China is famous for.

Wal-Mart's average employee working in the US makes $15,000 a year, $7.22 per hour!  The company brags that 70% of their employees are full time, but, fails to disclose that they count anyone working 28 hours a week or more, as full time. There are no health care benefits unless you have worked for the company for two years. With a turnover rate averaging above 50% per year, only 38% of their 1.3 million employees have health care coverage.  In California alone it's estimated that the taxpayers pay over $20 million annually to subsidize public health care benefits for these employees who get none from this behemoth corporation.

According to a report by PBS's "Now" with Bill Moyer, their managers are trained in what government social programs are available for these "employees" to take advantage of, so that the company can pass on those costs to you and me. It allows them to, not only keep their $7 billion in annual profits, but to do so by substituting benefits they refuse to provide with benefits paid for with taxpayer dollars.

This company holds the record for the most suits filed against it by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A lawyer from "Business Week" (not exactly the bastion for supporting Labor) said, "I have never seen this kind of blatant disregard for the law." They had to pay $750,000.00 in Arizona for blatant discrimination against the disabled! The judge was so incensed that he also ordered them to run commercials admitting their guilt. The National Labor Relations Board has issued over 40 formal complaints against the corporation in 25 different states in just the past five years. The NLRB's top lawyer believed that their labor violations, such as illegal spying on employees, fraudulent record keeping, falsifying time cards to avoid paying overtime, threats, illegal firings for union organizing etc., were so widespread that he was looking into filing a very rare national complaint against the company.

 Nearly 1 million women are involved in the largest class-action suit ever filed against a corporation. Although women make up over 65% of this corporations work force only 10% of them are managers. The women who have become store managers make $16,400 a year less then the men. The corporation took out nearly 350,000 life insurance policies on their employees. They did not tell the employees and then named the corporation as the beneficiary. They are now being sued by numerous employees, and although the corporation has stopped this practice of purchasing what is known as "Dead Peasant Policies", a company spokesperson stated,  "The company feels it acted properly and legally in doing this."  They force employees to work after ordering them to punch out. In Texas alone this practice of "wage theft" is estimated to have cost employees $30 million per year. Wage theft or "off-the-clock" lawsuits are pending in 25 states. In New Mexico they paid $400,000.00 in one suit and in Colorado they had to pay $50 million to settle one class-action case brought against them. In Oregon a jury found them guilty of locking employees in the building and of forcing unpaid overtime.

With 4,400 stores they practice "predatory pricing."  They come into a community and sell their goods at below cost until they drive local businesses under. Once they have captured the market the prices go up.  Locally owned and operated businesses put virtually all of their money back into the community which helps keep the local economies vibrant. This corporation sucks the money out of the local community, decreases wages and benefits and ships the profits out of state.  This company doesn't buy locally or bank locally. They replace three decent paying jobs in a community with two poorly paid "part-timers".  In Kirksville, Missouri when this company came to town, four clothing stores, four grocery stores, a stationery store, a fabric store and a lawn-and-garden store all went under. Eleven businesses are now gone. (The above information can be found in "Thieves in High Places", James Hightower, The Penguin Group, New York, NY, 2003 p. 166 193.)

Now you know how they can claim, "Always low prices."  Wal-Mart is the largest corporation in the world, larger than General Motors and Exxon-Mobil.  Wal-Mart will reap over 250 billion in sales in 2003, which is larger than the entire gross national product of Ireland and Israelcombined.  It has over 1.3 million employees. It sells more groceries, jewelry, photo processing, dog food, and vitamins than any other chain in the world.  Wal-Mart is owned by the Walton family.
 
 

duh Women, on Average, Earn 77 cents on the Dollar Compared to Men, IS A FALLACY http://www.parade.com/marilyn/index.html

An article by Marilyn Van Savant, From the week of June 18, 2000

Some time ago, you polled your readers for their opinions about men and women in the workplace, and I put in my 2 cents. I’m still waiting to read the results. Can it be that they are too controversial to publish?
—Herb Millspaugh, San Francisco, Calif.

No, but they’re surprising, all right! Before the survey, I replied to a question about the claim that women are paid less than men for equal work by writing: “But if their work is equal, why aren’t employers slashing their payroll costs by hiring women instead of men? In a free market, businesses are highly competitive, and if they’re paying men more than they pay women, there must be a reason.”

One reason, I wrote, might be that women often have less experience because of years spent at home raising children.  During that time, men and women with unbroken careers have built customer bases, cultivated professional
relationships and stayed in touch with developments in their industries. Those employees are going to be worth more, and that’s only fair.

The National Committee on Pay Equity wrote to complain about that assessment. It blamed sex discrimination instead:  “Women, on average, earn 77 cents on the dollar compared to men. Some of the gap is attributable to experience, education and time taken out of the workforce to raise children. But there is plenty of evidence that shows wage discrimination exists. We routinely hear from women who discover that they are paid less than equally qualified men.”

This is a common misunderstanding, based on an inflammatory misinterpretation of Census Bureau survey statistics:  The “77 cents on the dollar” figure is simply the weekly median (meaning middle: an equal number of women above and below) earnings figure ($473) of all working women divided by the weekly median earnings figure ($618) of all working men. These figures include everyone from dishwashers to physicists and have nothing whatsoever to do with equal pay for equal work. Yet the misleading phrase “77 cents on the dollar” has been the impetus for lawsuits and legislation, not to mention the source of unnecessary fury on the part of both sexes.

In short, much of the “wage gap” is due to experience, education and delayed or broken careers, plus the fact that women are concentrated in lower-paying occupations. It is possible that very little equal-pay-for-equal-work gap exists at all. Note: Equal qualifications don’t produce equal performance in the workplace. Just because employees complain that they’re not being paid as much as others doesn’t mean their complaints are justified: Both male and female employees routinely fail to recognize their own personal shortcomings, and both complain about not being paid as much as fellow workers who they believe are equal or inferior to themselves.

To be convinced of any real equal-pay-for-equal-work gap, first we must see unbiased studies that show men and women working in the same jobs and producing the same results but with unequal pay. And even that isn’t enough.  Then we must consider relevant additional factors, and there are many. For example, employees with management potential may be paid more. If women are perceived to have less ability to handle positions of more responsibility, they could lose some ground here.

To see if women are considered equally capable and valuable in other ways (that is, excluding management potential) by the public itself—not by employers—readers were asked to fill out a questionnaire. The results were amazing.  There wasn’t a single job for which the vast majority (say, 90%) of the readers answered that “it made no difference.”  And the only job for which even a simple majority (over 50%) of the readers actually preferred a woman was a babysitter, and that turned out to be the vast majority (about 90%). The runner-up (and still under 50%) was soothing angry customers—handling complaints! So that’s how we see it. Are we right or are we wrong? Are men and women equal or unequal?

If any unfair gap exists, litigation can help with situational inequities, but lawsuits make the stereotype worse, because they imply that women, as a group, need special help and are incapable of competing with men on their own. (For example, forced hiring and promoting has cast a cloud of doubt over all women.) On the other hand, if employers are not seriously biased—and the pay differences are for good reasons—I believe that forcing equality in pay is unfair to men.

In my judgment, women are capable of far more than they currently demonstrate, but to realize their full professional potential—whatever that may be—they would need to give up the home values they cherish, and I doubt that will happen. As I once wrote, “Money, power and fame are not most mothers’ goals.” Nor should they be.

Survey Results     Here's how 7,758 readers felt about men and women in the workplace:

Whom would you rather hire as a full-time babysitter while you work?

         Of the men, 4% chose a man, 91% chose a woman,
         and 5% said it made no difference.
         Of the women, 2% chose a man, 90% chose a
         woman, and 8% said it made no difference.

Whose voice do you trust more when you call computer tech support?

         Of the men, 57% chose a man,
         4% chose a woman, and 39% said it made no difference.
         Of the women, 44% chose a man, 7% chose a
         woman, and 49% said it made no difference.

Whose voice do you prefer to hear when you call a complaint department?

         Of the men, 18% chose a man, 43% chose a woman,
         and 39% said it made no difference.
         Of the women, 14% chose a man, 27% chose a
         woman, and 59% said it made no difference.

Whom would you prefer to pilot your airplane when you travel?

         Of the men, 69% chose a man, 2% chose a woman,
         and 29% said it made no difference.
         Of the women, 51% chose a man, 3% chose a
         woman, and 46% said it made no difference.

When buying a home, with which owner would you prefer to negotiate on the price?

         Of the men, 40% chose a man, 23% chose a woman,
         and 37% said it made no difference.
         Of the women, 28% chose a man, 22% chose a
         woman, and 50% said it made no difference.

Whom would you prefer to perform your heart surgery?

         Of the men, 59% chose a man, 2% chose a woman,
         and 39% said it made no difference.
         Of the women, 38% chose a man, 6% chose a
         woman, and 56% said it made no difference.

If you could have an agent negotiate for your pay, whom would you prefer?

         Of the men,
         64% chose a man,
         9% chose a woman,
         and 27% said it made no difference.
         Of the women,
         51% chose a man,
         14% chose a woman,
         and 35% said it made no difference.

If necessary, which could the workforce more readily do without?

         Of the men,
         3% chose the men,
         77% chose the women,
         and 20% said it made no difference.
         Of the women,
         9% chose the men,
         37% chose the women,
         and 54% said it made no difference.

Should we teach our daughters that they have a choice between having a career and staying at home?

         Of the men, 83% said “yes” and 17% said “no.”
         Of the women, 77% said “yes” and 23% said “no.”

Should we teach our sons that they have a choice between having a career and staying at home?

         Of the men, 28% said “yes” and 72% said “no.”
         Of the women, 40% said “yes” and 60% said “no.”

Say that you’re an employer hiring a new college graduate for a career position. Over the first few years, you will spend $250,000 on this person as he or she gains experience. Which—a man or a woman—do you think is more likely to quit for personal reasons? (Say, to become a full-time parent, follow a spouse to a new location or stop work after marriage.)

         Of the men,
         11% chose a man,
         83% chose a woman,
         and 6% said it made no difference.
         Of the women,
         7% chose a man,
         82% chose a woman,
         and 11% said it made no difference.
 
 

I N S I G H T Report from Iron Mountain http://www.amerikanexpose.com/ironmountain.html contributing editor to   - Rodger

[If you care at all about this country and the country you will be leaving to your children and grand children, go to this web site and download the Report from Iron Mountain.  Listen to it and pass the web site info on to those you want to inform.  If you want more info on Iron Mountain and what it is, let me know.  We are all busy but this is important.  If you're too busy to take a little time to listen to this and get educated about what is going on, may your children and grandchildren piss on your grave.  If we even have that much time.  --  Rodger]

[Be certain to also visit the web site of "Amerikan Expose" at
http://www.amerikanexpose.com/
http://www.amerikanexpose.com/index2.html
  --  Tribble]
 

Did the U.S. shadow government plan and orchestrate an environmental crisis for the purpose of restricting the freedoms of the American people? Is the next great crisis yet to come — the orchestration of a U.F.O. attack upon the earth? It is now scientifically possible to project a 3-D hologram into the sky, according to a technology brag on the website of the United States Air Force.

If explosives were planted ahead of time in buildings on the ground, and a hologram of a U.F.O. with beams of light flashing toward the ground were projected, then a very realistic and convincing "attack" could be orchestrated. The explosives would be detonated at the same time that the beams of light flashed, to create the appearance that the U.F.O. was firing upon a city, causing the buildings on the ground to explode.

As we've seen with the orchestrated acts of terrorism which were executed on September 11th, 2001, the momentum that the globalists could gain toward the implementation of the unification of the world would be phenomenal!

The population would be paralyzed by fear and would be susceptible to manipulation and control, in their desire to be saved from this perceived "threat".

This and more was addressed in the Report from Iron Mountain, of which Sid Tolbert speaks in this audio documentary, produced exclusively by Chris Gerner and Amerikan Exposé. The environmental "crisis" of today, the U.F.O. crisis of tomorrow: Are they real crisis, or are we being manipulated as a part of a Hegelian process? Listen here (below), and then you decide!
 

More Archived Audio
 
 

I N S I G H T U.S. Muslims Desecrate American Flag Video shows Group on Street Corner Declaring Islamic Dominance http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44664 http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44709 contributing editor to   - Bob

[Even though I have NEVER seen an "American" flag, and I doubt any of you have EVER seen such a flag, you may still take issu