When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.
Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid.
But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.
Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle.
The [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
BUSH CUT NEW ORLEANS FLOOD BUDGET FOR IRAQ
In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.
PRESIDENTIAL FLYOVER: GEORGE BUSH IS ON THE JOB FOR HIS CONSTITUENTCY
The president discussed the ways his administration was moving to help ease the suffering of profit-soaked oil companies impacted by the storm, pointing out that he had instructed Energy Secretary Sam Bodman to work with refineries to "alleviate any shortage through loans" and that the EPA had waived clean air standards for gasoline and diesel fuels in all 50 states.
ROVE/BUSH FINALLY GIVES US THE TRUTH FOR THE IRAQ WAR: OIL
CORONADO, Calif. (AP)--President George W. Bush Tuesday answered growing anti- war protests with a fresh reason for American troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protecting that country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.
While in the past he has avoided making links between the war and Iraq's oil reserves, Bush used ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II to say that the Iraqi oil industry - and the wealth it could create - must not fall under the control of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida forces in Iraq led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
DAILY WAR DEAD: AUGUST 31ST
The Department of Defense has identified 1,873 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans yesterday:
KOLATH, Obediah J., 32, Sgt. First Class, Army; Louisburg, Mo.; Army Special Operations Command.
MARTINEZ, Joseph L., 21, Specialist, Army; Las Vegas; Second Squadron, Third Armored Cavalry.
VIETNAM CHICKENHAWKS: GEORGE BUSH, DICK CHENEY, RUSH LIMBAUGH, PAUL WOLFOWITZ, WILLIAM KRISTOL
YOUR KIDS DIE, OURS DON'T
NAMES OF THE DEAD: AUGUST 30, 2005
The Department of Defense has identified 1,871 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans:
DIESING, Trevor J., 30, Sgt. First Class, Army; Plum City, Wis.; Army Special Operations Command.
JERAK, Ivica, 42, Master Sgt., Army; Houston; Army Special Operations Command.
SHEA, Timothy M., 22, Cpl., Army; Sonoma, Calif.; Third Battalion, 75th Rangers.
JULY 3, 2003: "BRING 'EM ON" - GEORGE BUSH
"Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice," Bush said. "There are some that feel like if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they are talking about if that is the case. Let me finish. There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring 'em on."
U.S. forces, he added, are "plenty tough" to deal with any security threats.
"I have a message for the president," Gephardt said in a statement. "We should be focused on a long-term security plan that reduces the danger to our military personnel."
THE WAR DEAD: AUGUST 27TH
The Department of Defense has identified 1,868 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans yesterday:
CHAPIN, Chris S., 39, Master Sgt., Army National Guard; Proctor, Vt.; Second Battalion, 124th Regional Training Institute.
KATHIRIA, Hatim S., 23, Specialist, Army; Fort Worth; Third Infantry Division.
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catupult the propaganda" -
- George Bush, "President Participates in Social Security Conversation in New York," May 24, 2005
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - George W. Bush
NAMES OF THE DEAD: AUGUST 24TH
The Department of Defense has identified 1,863 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans yesterday:
ARCAND, Elden D., 22, Pfc., Army; White Bear Lake, Minn.; 360th Transportation Company, 68th Corps Support Battalion, 43rd Area Support Group.
CATHEY, James J., 24, Second Lt., Marines; Reno, Nev.; Second Marine Division.
MORRIS, Brian L., 38, Staff Sgt., Army; Centreville, Mich.; 360th Transportation Company, 68th Corps Support Battalion, 43rd Area Support Group.
NURRE, Joseph C., 22, Specialist, Army Reserve; Wilton, Calif.; 463rd Engineer Battalion.
PARTRIDGE, Willard T., 35, Sgt., Army; Ferriday, La.; 170th Military Police Company, 504th Military Police Battalion, 42nd Military Police Brigade.
ROMERO, Ramon, 19, Pfc., Marines; Huntington Park, Calif.; Second Marine Division.
GEORGE BUSH: A MOMENT OF CLARITY
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - George Bush, "President Participates in Social Security Conversation in New York," May 24, 2005
WAR DEAD: Aug. 23, 2005
The Department of Defense has identified 1,857 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans yesterday:
BOUCHARD, Nathan K., 24, Sgt., Army; Wildomar, Calif.; Third Infantry Division.
DOYLE, Jeremy W., 24, Staff Sgt., Army; Chesterton, Md.; Third Infantry Division.
FUHRMANN, Ray M. II, 28, Specialist, Army; Novato, Calif.; Third Infantry Division.
SEAMANS, Timothy J., 20, Pfc., Army; Jacksonville, Fla.; Third Infantry Division.
IT WAS'NT THE IRAQUIS AFTER ALL, IT WAS CARTER, REAGAN AND CLINTON (BUT NOT MY DAD)
...from his address today in San Diego.
They looked at our response after the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombings of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the destruction of two U.S. embassies in Africa, and the attack on the USS Cole. They concluded that free societies lacked the courage and character to defend themselves against a determined enemy… After September the 11th, 2001, we’ve taught the terrorists a very different lesson: America will not run in defeat and we will not forget our responsibilities.
(Conveniently, Bush doesn’t mention any terrorist attack that occurred during his father’s administration.)
"Mr. Bush, Specialist Young Would Also Like to Speak With You...
U.S. Army Specialist Tomas Young has some questions for George W. Bush. He's never met with the Commander-in-Chief who sent him into Sadr City, Iraq in a canvass covered truck during a massive uprising in that city on April 4, 2004. The same city on the same day that Cindy Sheehan's son Casey was killed.
Tomas was lucky. He was only paralyzed from the chest down. Amongst other things he'd like to ask of Bush, is why he won't allow funding for stem cell research which might eventually restore the spine that he lost in Bush's War. A spine, as Tomas explained to us yesterday on The BRAD SHOW, which apparently Bush has never had.
GAS WARS
A sign offers self-serve gasoline for $3.139 (euros 2.568) per gallon for regular, at a Union Oil station on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Crude oil prices topped $70 (euros 57.282) per barrel and further increases at the pump were anticipated, due in part to the temporary loss of oil production and refining capacity in Gulf Coast states and offshore due to devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF MAKES HEROIC SACRIFICE AND CUTS VACATION SHORT BY TWO DAYS
...the president decided that he needed to be in Washington to personally oversee the federal hurricane relief effort, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
Adding further, this should knock Cindy off the first page. How can the President grieve for her son when he are grieving for hurricane victims. We think it is time for Cindy to think of someone else and something else for a change.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
AN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION TRYING TO ESCAPE GLOBAL WARMING
For soothing denial and SUV validation tune into Rush tomorrow. Don't worry, the Republicans are in power. Everything is under control. Just go back to sleep
Saturday, August 27, 2005
DINASAURS FOUND ON NOAH'S ARK
...Dinny's new owners, pointing to the Book of Genesis, contend that most dinosaurs arrived on Earth the same day as Adam and Eve, some 6,000 years ago, and later marched two by two onto Noah's Ark. The gift shop at the attraction, called the Cabazon Dinosaurs, sells toy dinosaurs whose labels warn, "Don't swallow it! The fossil record does not support evolution."
"We're putting evolutionists on notice: We're taking the dinosaurs back," said Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, a Christian group building a $25-million creationist museum in Petersburg, Ky., that's already overrun with model sauropods and velociraptors.
ANN COULTER CALLS RUDI GIULIANI A COWARD
Ann Coulter: New Yorkers "Would Immediately Surrender" If Attacked...
Timothy McVeigh should have blown up the New York Times building instead of the one in Oklahoma City
told an audience in Canada that they should be helping us in Iraq as they did in Vietnam
she is – an ignorant parody of a right-wing nut who says things for effect and sales.
Friday, August 26, 2005
SHOCK AND AWE
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – 100.000 Iraqis across the country marched on Friday in support of Moqtada al-Sadr’s opposition to a draft constitution that U.S.-backed government leaders say will deliver a brighter future.
``Bush and America out,'' yelled cleric Abdel-Zahra al-Suwaidid, reading a statement on Sadr's behalf in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City which is named after his revered father, a cleric allegedly killed by Saddam Hussein's agents.
WHILE CONDI WAS SCREWING UP IN IRAQ, CHEVRON RENAMED HER TANKER
More than 20 foreign companies including Chevron Corp., British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell are being targeted in an effort to collect more than $3 billion.
Mr. Chavez, who presides over the largest oil reserves in the hemisphere is threatening to expel foreign oil companies if they do not pay up. Royal Dutch Shell and Houston-based Harvest Natural Resources, won't go without a fight.
These eight companies, including Harvest Natural Resources, the Spanish Repsol, and China National Petroleum Corp., last week signed transitory contracts that govern their operations as they negotiate the joint ventures with the state-run oil company PDVSA
"With a company like Chevron being in Venezuela for over 60 years, we are committed to Venezuela,"
Shell is "pro-active in approaching the government to talk about converting our operating agreement to a joint venture because we felt it was the right thing to do."
U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said that while Venezuela has a sovereign right to govern its natural resources as it pleases, it also has an "obligation to respect the contracts that it has already signed and voluntarily entered into."
Venezuelan navy plans to buy 3 submarines
VENEZUELA OPENS OIL FIELDS TO CHINESE OIL CORPORATION
Venezuela and China signed a "preliminary agreement" for a joint company to drill for light and heavy crude in eastern Venezuela, reported the government owned Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA.
Beijing and Caracas also signed an agreement to quantify and certify oil reserves in an area of the Orinoco Strip, in southeast Venezuela.
Venezuela is the world's fifth exporter of crude and the United States' fourth main supplier which represents 70% of all the country’s oil exports.
STRAIGHT TALK FROM SEAN HANNITY
Sean says, "Pat Robertson caused a bit of a media firestorm this week when he advocated, some say, the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez."
The "some" who say that Robertson did advocate Chavez's assassination includes Robertson himself
WE REPORT, YOU DECIDE.
PAGANS POPE-SLAPPED BY BENEDICT
"In the 20th century, in the darkest period of German and European history, an insane racist ideology, born of neo-paganism, gave rise to the attempt, planned and systematically carried out by the regime, to exterminate European Jewry," he said. "The result has passed into history as the Shoah," he said, using the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.
...and I always thought that homosexuality would be the canary in the culture-wars coal mine.
Oh well, I guess you need more than one canary
SERIOUSLY CINDY, ALL KIDDING ASIDE, IF YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST KNOW WHAT YOUR SON DIED FOR, THEN HERE IT IS (MOST OF IT)
(1) to strengthen US global dominance in the 21st century.
(2) To fracture independent nationalist movements which might encircle the "lone superpower" and serve as countervailing powers in a multi-polar world,
(3) to make a bold statement to the world that the US is willing to use massive military force, at great cost in money and lives, without justification and without regard for international law
(4) to increase US leverage on the world's oil spigot, giving the US security establishment veto power over who has energy for war and industry, and who doesn't;
(5) to establish an ongoing military presence and massive staging area in Iraq, enabling the US to control crush uprisings and control politics throughout the region;
(6) to privatize Iraq's previously natinalized economy to the benefit of US corporations and the rest of the US corporate-political power structure.
CAN YA SEE IT? IT'S RIGHT THERE. LOOK OUT! IT'S GONNA GIT YA.
"BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iranian agents have tried to obtain from South Korea a substance that can be used to boost nuclear explosions in atomic weapons, an Iranian exile group said on Thursday.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which has in the past provided accurate information on hidden Iranian nuclear activities, said Tehran had used front companies to obtain the substance, a hydrogen isotope known as tritium.
"The regime has tried to smuggle it in from South Korea," said Ali Safavi, a senior NCRI official, told a news conference in Brussels, citing what he called high-placed unnamed sources in the Iranian leadership.
Safavi said he understood that Iran's attempts to acquire the substance had been successful, but gave no further details."
Yea, Right.
WE WENT TO VIETNAM, SPENT 300 BILLION. 58,000 MEN CAME BACK IN BODY BAGS (TRANSFER TUBES) AND ALL WE GOT WAS THIS WALL
HOW MUCH WILL THE NEXT WALL COST?
AND IT'S ONE, TWO, THREE WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR? DON'T ASK ME CAUSE I DON'T GIVE A DAMN.
Because of connections to 9/11? Nope
Because Saddam was Osama? Nope
To shut down the terrorists network? Nope
Because of Weapons of Mass Destruction? Nope
To make America safer? Nope
To bring Democracy to Iraq? Nope
To gain control and access to Iraq's Oil? Yah think? Didn't work did it?
$300 trillion investment (deaths don't count). Arbusto has gone bust again. Who is going to bail him out this time?
WAR GAMES: FIRST CHAVEZ AND NOW THIS
The eight-day war games, which involved nearly 10,000 Chinese and Russian troops in east China's Shandong Peninsula, have been interpreted as a series of signals.
The unprecedented display of Russian and Chinese combined military might sends a signal to Central Asian countries that both Moscow and Beijing will no longer ignore American inroads into the strategically important region.
Russian-Chinese military cooperation could be developed within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) …China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
SCO as a counterbalance to growing US influence in the region. This policy appeared to entail the recent eviction of the US military from a base in Uzbekistan, a SCO member.
…To ensure the readiness of the two armies "to counter the challenges we face today in Asia-Pacific and globally".
As Washington is stuck in its Iraqi quagmire, Russia and China seemingly availed themselves an opportunity to demonstrate their unwillingness to live in a unipolar world
Moscow and Beijing have to join forces in a drive against the US unilateralism.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
OF THE REPUBLICANS, BY THE REPUBLICANS AND FOR THE REPUBLICANS
FAIR AND BALANCED
THIS IS OUT
BLEEPING
RAGEOUS
So John Bolton is having a reception at the U.N. ambassador's private residence in the penthouse at the Waldorf Astoria tonight. The Washington Times, Fox News, and various other conservatives will be represented there, but some of the people who won't be there include Colum Lynch from the Washington Post and Warren Hoge from the New York Times, both of whom cover the U.N. for their respective papers.
FINALLY, AT LONG LAST, BUSH MEETS WAR WIDOW
Speaking at a rally of 10,000 servicemen and their families in Idaho, the President quoted Tammy Pruett, from Idaho, who has also seen her husband and a fifth son serve in Iraq, as saying:
“If something happened to one of the boys, they would leave this world doing what they believe, what they think is right for our country. And I guess you couldn’t ask for a better way of life than giving it for something that you believe in.”
OOPS!! Not a war widow yet.
RUMMY SAYS COUNTRIES DO STUFF LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME
Some 10,000 Russian and Chinese troops are taking part in the weeklong air, land and sea exercise, which includes a simulated naval blockade and amphibious landing.
Chinese destroyers, submarines and fighter aircraft coordinated their movements in the Yellow Sea Tuesday with a Russian missile destroyer and anti-submarine vessels while a Russian surveillance plane circled overhead.
Russia and China did not invite the United States to attend as an observer.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050824/wl_afp/
uschinarussiamilitary_050824042838
CHAVEZ OFFERS CHEAP GAS TO POOR IN USA
HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, popular with the poor at home, offered on Tuesday to help needy Americans with cheap supplies of gasoline. Chavez did not say how Venezuela would go about providing gasoline to poor communities.
Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA owns Citgo, which has 14,000 gas stations in the United States.
Chavez said Venezuela could supply gasoline to Americans at half the price they now pay if intermediaries who "speculated ... and exploited consumers" were cut out.
Chavez, in Cuba to attend the graduation of Cuban-trained doctors from 28 countries, was seen off at the airport by Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Chavez and Castro offered to give poor Americans free health care and train doctors free of charge.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/23/
chavez.gasoline.reut/index.html
Robertson Denies Calling to Kill Chavez, Then Apologizes for Doing So
The Venezuelan foreign ministry said it was not satisfied with U.S. officials’ dismissal of Robertson’s remarks and wanted the White House to take legal action.
“This public call to assassinate a head of state, considered a crime by all modern legislation, is prosecutable by its very nature. That is what the civilized world is expecting of U.S. authorities,” the Venezuelan government said on Wednesday.
The White House remained silent despite calls by Venezuela and religious leaders including the Rev. Jesse Jackson for Bush to repudiate Robertson’s remarks.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
NO REAL PEOPLE ALLOWED. ALL QUESTIONS PRE-APPROVED
...and a 13 year old girl was handcuffed and arrested for throwing an egg at the President's motorcade.On March 21st, Bush held another forum on Privatization of Social Security in Tucson Arizona. On the "do not admit list" were a liberal radio producer, several university professors, a deputy democratic campaign manager, and a University of Arizona Young Democrat per the Arizona Wildcat.
Approximately 1000 protesters lined the motorcade route along South Granada Avenue for both Bush's entry and departure,
http://coolaqua.blogs.com/coolaqua/2005/03/bush_continues_.html
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