India commits support to Iran's peaceful nuke programmeIndia on Saturday declared support to Iran's "peaceful" nuclear energy programme and made it clear that it should be within the framework of International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines.
"We support the pursuit by Iran of its peaceful nuclear energy programme in keeping with Iran's international obligations," External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh said after his hour-long meeting with Tehran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on the nuclear issue.
Singh said, "W... (more)
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National guard not allowing aid into the cityFrom http://getyouracton.com.
I am copying the information from the site about this. Just posted at 9:00PM
Get Your Act On! (Jeffrey and Andrea) are currently in Waco, TX. We are organizing a relief effort to bring much needed supplies directly into the City of New Orleans as almost NOTHING is getting in via 'official' channels (we have spoken to people still in the city).
Our house is still standing and should be relatively free of flood waters by now, so it... (more)
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The Military Is Frisking Little Children Before Rescuing ThemI have not seen this, but reader Aaron (who I know and trust) said he just watched ABC World News This Weekend and they showed footage of a black family being rescued from some highway above the waters and put on a military helicopter. But before the family was allowed inside, everyone was frisked -- including a little boy that was maybe ten years old! ABC assured us that military leaders insisted this was necessary. Yes, everyone standing politely by and waiting to be rescued needs to be treate... (more)
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Bush visit halts food deliveryThree tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush’s visit to New Orleans, officials said.
The provisions, secured by U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, and state Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom, baked in the afternoon sun as Bush surveyed damage across southeast Louisiana five days after Katrina made lan... (more)
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Knight Ridder Exposes Horsey Background of FEMA Chief So who is Michael Brown, now catching all kinds of criticism for his handling of the catastrophe in New Orleans? It seems his primary career experience before nabbing a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) post was running a Arabian horse association. An article by Matt Stearns and Seth Borenstein for Knght Ridder Newspapers observes, "there was little in Michael D. Brown's background to prepare him for the fury of Hurricane Katrina."
The reporters quote Kate Hale, former Mi... (more)
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California governor bypassed charities, gave cash back to NoeCalifornia Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could have cleared his campaign coffers of Tom Noe’s $10,000 in contributions by donating the money to a charity or the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, but instead he sent the cash back to the embattled coin dealer.
Marty Wilson, Mr. Schwarzenegger’s spokesman, said yesterday the governor was not aware there were other options for disposing of the money contributed by Mr. Noe, who is facing accusations that he stole mil... (more)
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'They Just Left Us Here to Die'On Saturday afternoon, as the Louisiana Superdome was finally emptying out, a lesser-known humanitarian crisis was in its fifth day a few blocks east, at the wrecked, mile-long Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
There, up to 20,000 survivors of Hurricane Katrina, desperate and dehydrated, waited in the punishing midday sun to board buses bound for Texas. By nightfall, almost 19,000 had been evacuated, according to the National Guard.
An unknown number remained, sus... (more)
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'My Pet Goat' -- The SequelWhile a rising chorus in the press has taken the White House, FEMA and the Pentagon to task for performing miserably in their response to the human disaster on the Gulf Coast, few have focused on the most telling aspect of the entire failure. It’s not just incompetence. It’s a shameful lack of concern: The 9/11 “My Pet Goat” dithering on an administration-wide scale.
Simply stated, the president and his top advisers chose vacation over action.
... (more)
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2002: Ass't Army secretary questioned budget cuts for the Corps -- Rumsfeld fired himThe assistant secretary of the Army resigned Wednesday, with congressional aides saying Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had him fired for questioning proposed budget cuts for the Army Corps of Engineers.
The Pentagon said Assistant Secretary of the Army Mike Parker resigned from his post and expressed appreciation for his contributions. But congressional aides said Rumsfeld wanted Parker fired after his testimony to Congress last week.
The White House declined com... (more)
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FEMA turned back 500 rescue boats on WednesdayThis is beyond my comprehension and after spending two frustrating days trying to just get someone to let us help we've FINNALLY been told we can conduct "renegade" boat rescues via the just concluded press conference that Gov. Blanco just held.
Why is this JUST NOW being allowed? Well let's start from the very beginning.
On Wednesday morning a group of approximately 1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats left the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette in the early morning and headed... (more)
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Big oil's bigtime lootingPRESIDENT BUSH yesterday told ABC-TV, ''there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud."
Zero tolerance is meaningless when the White House lets the biggest looters of Hurricane Katrina walk off with billions of dollars.
We are not referring to the people you currently see in endless footage, crashing ... (more)
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Bush faked levee repair for photo op yesterdayFrom a press release LA Senator Mary Landrieu sent out today:
But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presid... (more)
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Daley 'shocked' as feds reject aidA visibly angry Mayor Daley said the city had offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things the feds said they wanted was a single tank truck.
That truck, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency requested to support an Illinois-based medical team, was en route Friday.
"We are ready to provide more help than they have reque... (more)
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Venezuela convinced of US invasionVenezuela has uncovered plans for a US-led invasion and is preparing to defend the country against invading forces if necessary, President Hugo Chavez said in a report carried by the state-run news agency.
The Bolivarian News Agency reported that Chavez made the comments during an interview with CNN. It was unclear when the interview was to be aired.
"If it occurs to the United States to invade our country - Fidel Castro said it and I agree - a war will start here t... (more)
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As South drowns, Rice soaks in N.Y.Did New Yorkers chase Condoleezza Rice back to Washington yesterday?
Like President Bush, the Secretary of State has been on vacation during the Hurricane Katrina crisis, with Rice enjoying her downtime in New York Wednesday and yesterday. The cabinet member's responsibilities are usually international, but her timing contributed to the "fiddling while Rome burns" impression given by her boss during the disaster, which may have claimed thousands of lives.
On Wednesd... (more)
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Bush seen as doing too little, too lateThe fallout from the Gulf coast disaster could take a heavy political toll on President George Bush, who has been accused by some of fiddling while New Orleans drowns.
His already plummeting popularity rating is likely to take another big hit, according to experts who say the public largely see his response to the tragedy as several days too late, inadequate and insincere.
Visiting the storm-wrecked town of Biloxi, Mississippi, Mr Bush hugged a sobbing survivor. The... (more)
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Rove Not Entitled to D.C. Homestead DeductionPresidential adviser Karl Rove may live in Washington. But in his heart -- and for voting purposes -- he remains a Texan. Which means he is not legally entitled to the homestead deduction and property tax cap he's been getting on his Palisades home for the past 3 1/2 years.
This week, the D.C. tax collector was alerted to the problem. And Rove agreed to reimburse the District for an estimated $3,400 in back taxes, city officials said. But now some Lone Star officials also are wond... (more)
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Beyond PetroleumWhile it is difficult to see beyond the incalculable suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina, the impact on U.S. fuel supply is undeniable. For days, we watched the storm move toward Louisiana’s oil and natural gas operations. As feared, the storm disrupted a tenth of U.S. refining capacity and 25 percent of oil production. Now, analysts expect gas prices to squeeze to $4 per gallon. At this time, it is difficult to assess the price spike’s duration because the extent of structural da... (more)
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Engineers' warnings and pleas for money went unheededThe 17th Street levee that gave way and led to the flooding of New Orleans was part of an intricate, aging system of barriers and pumps that was so chronically underfinanced that senior regional officials of the Army Corps of Engineers complained about it publicly for years.
Often leading the chorus was Alfred Naomi, a senior project manager for the corps and a 30-year veteran of efforts to waterproof a city built on slowly sinking mud, surrounded by water and periodically a targ... (more)
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Pentagon Investigator Resigning: Joseph E. Schmitz, the Defense Department's inspector general, is suspected of blocking investigations of senior Bush officials.The Pentagon's top investigator has resigned amid accusations that he stonewalled inquiries into senior Bush administration officials suspected of wrongdoing.
Defense Department Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz told staffers this week that he intended to resign as of Sept. 9 to take a job with the parent company of Blackwater USA, a defense contractor.
The resignation comes after Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) sent Schmitz several letters this summer informing... (more)
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Church turns away SheehanReflecting the national divide over the war in Iraq, a Glenwood Springs church has decided that Cindy Sheehan is not welcome to speak there.
The decision sends organizers scrambling for another local speaking venue for the anti-war mother of a soldier who died in Iraq.
Sheehan, who has garnered much media attention after camping out near Bush’s vacation home in Crawford, Texas, had been scheduled to speak at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Glenwo... (more)
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Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana: Stop price gouging at gas pumpGov. Brian Schweitzer Thursday called on Montana oil refineries to stop "gouging'' gasoline consumers in the state, saying Hurricane Katrina should have no effect on prices for fuel refined and sold here.
"Even though their cost of production hasn't gone up one penny, they're raising the price 30, 40, even 50 cents,'' he said. "I think that's an outrage.
"That's not the way we treat neighbors. I'm asking them to hold the line. There is no reason to get a momentary s... (more)
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Pumping Us DryThe very first thing George W. Bush did in response to Hurricane Katrina was to offer a helping hand—not to the people stranded on rooftops in New Orleans, but to his friends in the oil industry. These were the same people who gave him $52 million in his last campaign. The president released millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve so the oil companies would have enough fuel to make gas and keep the country going. But the companies don't need this oil. They're alread... (more)
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October 2001: A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands.The boxes are stacked eight feet high and line the walls of the large, windowless room. Inside them are new body bags, 10,000 in all. If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water. "As the water recedes," says Walter Maestri, a local emergency management director, "we expect to find a lot of dead bodies."
New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen. The city lies below s... (more)
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