Houston abandons its neediest

Reading this article made me very upset and I feel there is no excuse in allowing this to happen.

Good thought

This is from a bumper sticker and I wanted to share it.

‘If you want to annoy a Conservative defend the Constitution.’

Good old Irish humor

May those who love us, love us

And those that
don’t love us,

May God turn their hearts.

And if He doesn’t
turn their hearts

May He turn
their ankles

So we’ll know them
by their limping.


-an old Gaelic Blessing-

'Twig's' approval ratings keep going DOWN...

This is a great day...and hopefully, people will continue waking up. A short sentence from the article says 'For the first time, a majority says he isn't a strong and decisive leader.'

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-09-19-bush-poll_x.htm?csp=24

New report on Blackwater mercenaries in N.O.

Friday, September 16th, 2005

The Militarization of New Orleans: Jeremy Scahill Reports from Louisiana

We go to Louisiana to speak with Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill who has been in New Orleans this past week. He has been looking into how the city has changed to a militarized zone and what that means for the residents who left. [includes rush transcript]

Well the Central Business District and the historic French Quarter were neighborhoods in New Orleans that saw relatively little damage. This weekend the city will start re-opening those areas and a few others for businesses and residents to return. However, many are concerned about what will happen to the city's poor, black residents whose neighborhoods were mostly destroyed.
Democracy Now correspondent Jeremy Scahill has been in Louisiana this past week. He has been looking into how the city has changed to a militarized zone and what that means for the residents who left.

AMY GOODMAN: He joins us on the phone from Baton Rouge. Welcome, Jeremy.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Good to be with you, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what you have been seeing, who you’ve been talking to this week?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I mean, in the days that have passed, the week or so since you were here this past weekend, we have seen a real increase in the militarization of the city. It's turned into a much greater state of lockdown. You have more military checkpoints set up. You have less of a civilian presence in large parts of the city and much more of a military presence. I mean in fact, I still have only seen one FEMA vehicle, the entire time I have been here. That wasn't even staffed. It was just a FEMA vehicle parked on a median near the Hyatt hotel where the main headquarters is of the so-called Operational Emergency Command of the military and various branches of the government coordinating their so-called disaster response. But there are soldiers all over the city. What's incredible is that you see them doing almost nothing. They're either just standing around or sitting around. There's very little work being done by the military. You do see units like the 82nd airborne patrolling the streets. It looks like the aftermath of a massacre or war zone where you have soldiers patrolling around. You also see a tremendous increase in the number of private security contractors who have arrived on the scene.
It's interesting, we talked earlier this week about the Blackwater mercenaries and I talked about my hour-long conversation with them when they had first arrived here, and I reported that they were saying they were on contract with the Department of Homeland Security. This, of course, was denied by the federal government. Well, now they have been forced to admit, the federal government, that Blackwater is on federal contract with FEMA to protect -- so-called protect, its rebuilding or reconstruction efforts in Louisiana. This is just one of the firms that is getting now federal money. I think that these firms view the current situation in Louisiana as the biggest pot of federal money to put their hands into since the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. I also, two days ago, had the chance to meet one of the wealthiest of citizens of New Orleans, F. Patrick Quinn III. He is the single greatest owner of private rooms in New Orleans. He owns the largest hotel chain in the state of Louisiana, to cater to hotels. He is currently -- he told me that his hotels are being looked at by FEMA to house the workers for the long haul of the so-called reconstruction. I was talking to him, as his head of security and after he pulled off in his S.U.V., about 30 Mexican workers came out of his hotel, and one of his security guards said that they had been brought in from Texas, and in fact another news report, about Patrick Quinn, said that he had brought in workers from Texas as well. So, we have the reality of these shelters full of people wanting work and then you see Mexican workers being brought in from Texas, and when they're done, doing this dirty work, they will be put on the back of trucks, piled into trucks and they go to wherever it is that they were staying.
This man, Patrick Quinn is bidding for these contracts where FEMA potentially could come in and rent out hundreds and hundreds of rooms in his hotel and other businesses are struggling to simply stay alive or scramble to get federal money to rebuild, he is standing to gain a tremendous amount of money from these lucrative federal contracts. It must be noted that he is a major contributor to the Republican party. In fact, his wife was just elected in the special election to the state Senate. Her name is Julie Quinn. And Amy, he has brought in security from a company called B.A.T.S. in Alabama: Bodyguard And Tactical Services. And I was talking to his head of security, I told him I was from New York, he said, I’ve been to New York during the daily news strike, referring to the strike the at the New York Daily News. Democracy Now! co-host, Juan Gonzalez, is a Daily News columnist was one of the leaders of the strike. I told him that Juan Gonzalez was a colleague of mine and he told me that he spiked Juan Gonzalez's car. He said he had put sugar in the gas tank of Juan Gonzalez's car. The man's name is Michael Montgomery, and he is the head of security for B.A.T.S. Security in Alabama, bragging about spiking the car of Juan Gonzalez and other strike leaders in the New York Daily News strike. He is heading up security for the Decatur Hotel chain, owned by Patrick Quinn, a major businessman in New Orleans, his wife a Republican state senator. This is just one example of cronyism that we see on the ground where the wealthy Republican contributors are being considered now for these tremendous federal contracts.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Jeremy Scahill, he is the Democracy Now! Correspondent on the ground now in New Orleans, Baton Rouge. You also spent time at the jail, which is the converted Greyhound Train Station, is that right? Run by the head of the Angola prison, the largest prison in this country.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. One of the things that happened, and it was something we're going to be looking at very closely on democracy now!, continue to in the coming weeks, that is what happened to the prisoners who were inside the Orleans parish prison as well as other facilities as prisoners now start to get released. They're going to be telling their stories, and one of the makeshift places that they took people was the -- they converted the Greyhound and Amtrak terminals into prisons where they brought people, and so they're using the concrete areas where the buses would pull in to house prisoners and they shipped them off to various parts of the country. In that downtown area, it's really sort of desolate and abandoned, and now they call it “Camp Greyhound” where they're running a prison. This is the major question that still looms in the air here, and that is-- what is going to happen to all of these people who were arrested the night before the hurricane struck, for instance, on minor violations who should have been processed in a matter of hours and then released, and they have been shipped all over the country, all over the state. Now you have lawyers scrambling to try to track down where people are, and make sure that they can get out.
One of the great concerns right now in New Orleans is businessmen talking openly of wanting to see New Orleans change, to change it completely in a demographic sense, geographically, politically, racially. You have this overt rhetoric. Well, as residents of New Orleans come back in and they try to go back to the apartments they were rent stabilized, the houses they were renting, they face a city that has repressive laws that do not protect tenants. You have an overt agenda to change the racial makeup of the city, the economic makeup of the city, and you have these very wealthy people hiring private mercenary types to guard their property and their interests. Then you also have the National Guard and the Army inside of the city now, and so the potential for conflict with residents coming back in is very great. A lot of people are very concerned now with this Marshal Law still in effect with the military curfew in effect, that that is going to remain as people come back and live here. It's one thing to have Martial law when you have a depopulated city. It's another thing to have it when you have people who want to go about the business of rebuilding their lives, particularly when they are being told by very wealthy, powerful people backed up by men with guns that they are not welcome in the city that they have lived in their whole life. We have a potential, I think, for serious, overt conflict, hot conflict here in New Orleans as people start coming back in.
AMY GOODMAN: And Jeremy, we all went over to Southern University, a black college in Baton Rouge where some of the evacuees had gathered to talk about how they can be a part of the planning for the reconstruction. Very difficult, because the most disempowered people have been sent off to areas all over the country, from Utah to Cape Cod, often not knowing when they were getting on a bus or perhaps a plane, where they were actually going to land. While they were sent off there, do they have the money even to return, let alone be a part of how this city will be rebuilt?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. I was just watching CNN and they were interviewing a guy they're called the pied piper of hurricane Katrina, a guy from Ohio, who has come to the Houston Astrodome to recruit 100 people who are -- who had left New Orleans to try to bring them to settle in Ohio. I mean, what they're really trying to do is to settle the poor and the African-American populations of New Orleans elsewhere. And to make New Orleans a nice, white city, for white, rich businessmen. There's no other way to put it. That's exactly what we're seeing right now. They want to take areas for instance like the ninth ward and turn them into big -- you know, Wal-Mart type neighborhoods. In fact, we heard mayor Nagin talk yesterday about how one of the first things they want to do is set up a gigantic Wal-Mart so people returning can have a place to shop in New Orleans. This hurricane is the greatest thing to happen to Wal-Mart since the superstore. And this is a very serious racist series of actions that we're seeing here right now. This is has everything to do with class and everything to do with race, and it's very, very frightening. And yes, we attended a conference where grassroots activists are talking about a plan for rebuilding New Orleans, but it's on right now, and they're not a part of it. The people that are a part of it are old-time Louisiana white Republican families working in conjunction with their friend, mayor Ray Nagin, and there's no other way to put it. They love Ray Nagin. He's pro-business. He's their guy.
Look at the comments of James Rice, a local businessman, who is one of the leaders of the private Audubon Place, the gated community. The only privately owned in the city of New Orleans. He told The Wall Street Journal, “Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way, demographically, geographically and politically. I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we have been living is not going to happen again or we’re out.” James Rice has brought in Israeli para-militaries to guard his facility. It's Israeli company that brags about having former members of the Shin Beit, the GSS, the Israeli Defense Forces. He has brought them in. I was talking to them in front of his property. Some of them participated in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and these are guys now who are patrolling outside on St. Charles avenue in front of Audubon Place and will potentially come into conflict with residents of New Orleans. What on earth are Israeli paramilitaries doing on the streets of New Orleans? These are the questions that people need to ask right now, defending a man like James Rice who was called for the poor to not be allowed back into New Orleans.
AMY GOODMAN: And Jeremy, as people are -- some people slowly making their way back, reports of the spraying of the city with pesticide that's never been used on urban populations and they're mixing it with blue dye so that the pilots can see where they have sprayed, I think its called something like NALID, have you seen planes dispersing this pesticide?
JEREMY SCAHILL: I remember the other night you called me and you alerted me to this, and just today I had seen what I thought were some sort of spy drones because really, what we have seen here is sort of -- some people are calling it “New Oraq” instead of New Orleans, because of all of the various forces, the Halliburtons, the KBR's, the Blackwaters that are here now, the connections to Iraq are so incredible. The same looters who have raided the federal funds in Iraq, U.S. funds in Iraq, are looting federal funds here in New Orleans. Yes, I saw the drones flying overhead. I'm concerned, very concerned of the toxic waste that they're now dumping on the city in addition to the horribly unsafe waters that flow through the city and continue to flow through the city.
AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy Scahill, thank you for being with us. Jeremy, speaking to us from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This is democracy now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/16/1222257

Just another day

I just saw a clip of “Twig” speaking his hypocritical crap in front of the U.N. and watching that sickening smirk cross his ugly mug, made me want to reach into the TV and slap him into the middle of next week. Here is the United States of America being ruled by an alcoholic, cocaine-snorting, dim-witted son-of-a-bitch…and his mom IS a bitch…telling other countries what they must and must not do. All the while with that taunting smirk on his face.
How dare this bastard say ANYTHING to ANYONE about human rights!! The complete gall of this thug is enough to send me into yelling at the TV screen. I do that sometimes when I hear him, ya’ know.
Our lives have changed so drastically since this group of thugs stole both elections that I almost don’t remember what it was like before. What a statement to have to make, huh? And I thought living under Nixon would be the worst thing in my lifetime. Damn!!
I can’t help thinking that even if a Democrat gets into office in the next election, the country is in such horrible shape, how the hell do we expect them to get much done? These Republican neo-cons have made such a mess it will take years to clean up after them.
Yesterday on the radio I heard about Al Gore taking his own plane (and no news media knew about it) to rescue several families from the Katrina floods. No fanfare. He just did it as the good man he is. What a contrast between him and the thug in the White House. “Twig” knew Gore was winning and had to steal the election so he could implement the fascist plans they had for this country and the rest of the world. Same thing in this past election with John Kerry. Exit polls don’t lie and when they said Kerry was in the lead, they were correct, but the Fascist plans must be allowed to continue again.
You can tell what a foul mood I’m in. The mood I slip into a lot since the take-over of the neo-cons in my fair country and, whenever I see the “Twig” smirking on TV.

A must-read regarding FEMA and Bush

I just remembered that you can not use copywrited newspaper articles so, I had to clean up some of my blogs and just leave the article title and hyperlink to read it. Same with this.

Did FEMA "Buy" Votes for Bush?
by William Fisher
Published Sept. 13, 2005

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0913-02.htm

This is so frightening!!!

Overkill: Feared Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans
Monday, September 12th, 2005

Listen to Segment Download Show mp3 Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream

In addition to the thousands of military troops patrolling the streets of New Orleans, there are also scores of private soldiers that are now spreading out across the city, like those from the Blackwater Security firm. Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill reports. [includes rush transcript]


Below is the transcript from DemocracyNow's Amy Goodman...

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, in New Orleans it is a militarized zone. When we came into the French Quarter on Saturday, we met some, well, interesting people.
AMY GOODMAN: Did you just get here?
BLACKWATER MERCENARY 1: We have been here a couple days.
AMY GOODMAN: Yeah? Who are you working for?
BLACKWATER MERCENARY 1: Blackwater.
AMY GOODMAN: And who are they working for?
BLACKWATER MERCENARY 1: Really don't -- don't have any way to tell you that. You know, we just do our assignments, and we go from there.
AMY GOODMAN: What's your assignment today?
BLACKWATER MERCENARY 1: I'm not at liberty to discuss. I'm sorry.
AMY GOODMAN: Have any of your guys just come back from Iraq, by any chance?
BLACKWATER MERCENARY 1: Last year.
AMY GOODMAN: Have you?
BLACKWATER MERCENARY 2: Last year. Who are you guys with?
AMY GOODMAN: Blackwater.
Today we're going to talk about that with Democracy Now! correspondent, Jeremy Scahill. We have been traveling through New Orleans together. Jeremy, you wrote a piece this weekend called “Overkill: Feared Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans.”
JEREMY SCAHILL: That's right, Amy. And the Blackwater mercenaries became very well known internationally a few years back when four of their men were killed in Fallujah, Iraq. Two of them had their bodied burned and then hung from a bridge. And that resulted in the massive retaliatory onslaught against Fallujah that resulted in tens of thousands of people having to flee the city and scores of people being killed, and now Fallujah has become an international symbol of resistance, and that goes back to those killings of the four Blackwater workers.
Well, as I was walking with Daniela Crespo through the streets of the French Quarter, we were talking to two New York City police officers when an unmarked vehicle pulled up, and there were three heavily armed men inside dressed in khaki outfits, and they asked the New York police officers, “Do you know where the Blackwaters guys are?” And my ears immediately perked up, because, of course, having covered Iraq for a long time, I know well who the Blackwater mercenaries are. And the New York police officer said, “Well, they're down the street that way. There are lots of them around here.” And then I said to the New York police officer, “Blackwater? You mean, like the guys in Iraq?” And he said, “Yeah. They're all over the place.”
And so, we tracked them down, found them down the street, and just approached the Blackwater mercenaries and began talking to them. Two of the guys that we talked to had served on the personal security details of L. Paul Bremer, the American pro-counsel in Iraq originally, the head of the occupation, as well as the U.S. ambassador -- former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte. One of the guys had just gotten back from Iraq two weeks ago. These are some of the most highly trained killers, professional killers in the world. And they had served in Iraq in a number of cities and in a number of capacities.
And one of them was wearing a golden badge, that identified itself as being Louisiana law enforcement, and in fact, one of the Blackwater mercenaries told us that he had been deputized by the governor of Louisiana, and what's interesting is that the federal government and the Department of Homeland Security have denied that they have hired any private security firms, saying that they have enough with government forces. Well, these Blackwater men that we spoke to said that they are actually on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and indeed with the governor of Louisiana. And they said that they're sleeping in camps organized by the Department of Homeland Security.
One of the Blackwater guys said that when he heard New Orleans, he asked, “What country is that in?” And he was bragging to me about how he drives around Iraq in what he called a State Department issued level five explosion-proof BMW. This, as U.S. soldiers don't even have proper armor on their Humvees and other vehicles. And so, we also overheard one of the Blackwater guys talking to, we presume, a colleague, complaining that he was only being paid $350 a day plus his per diem, and that other firms were paying much more. And we're seeing many of these Blackwater mercenaries and other private security agents roaming the streets of New Orleans.
And what's significant is that the way it's being reported and the way the company is presenting it is that they are here to help with the hurricane relief efforts, but they told us clearly that they are engaged in quote, “stopping criminals” and that they're actually patrolling the streets. In fact, we saw them take over a building on Bourbon Street when we were walking around with them. And now they have set up shop there on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. So this is very, very disturbing, I think, for anyone who knows the record of Blackwater. Of course, they do not ask questions first. They shoot first, and that is their reputation in Iraq. And so, Americans should be asking right now what these kinds of trained killers are doing on the streets of New Orleans, apparently on contract from the Department of Homeland Security.
AMY GOODMAN: And Jeremy, as we went around, saw other figures, we didn't know who they worked for, like those in front of Hibernia Bank, as we were driving by and John Hamilton was filming. They flagged down our car. They said, “Stop the filming.” And we said, “Why?” And they said, “We just said ‘stop the filming.’” They said, “These are our streets,” and made clear next to their sports shirt, you could see clearly that they were carrying guns.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Yes, that's right. And they also alleged that they had been deputized. And another key point is that these Blackwater guys said that they were given the authority to use lethal force, as well as the power to make arrests. And when we asked them about this use of them in the United States, they said that they believe that we're going to see a lot more of this and that this is a trend. So, I think that this is a very, very disturbing development that we are seeing here on the streets of New Orleans, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, if you want to read “Overkill” by Jeremy Scahill and Daniela Crespo, go to our website at DemocracyNow.org.

American Lockdown?

New Orleans: Dress Rehearsal for American Lockdown

by Carolyn Baker
September 13, 2005


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050913&articleId=938

Making $ off another tragedy

Firms with Bush-Cheney ties clinching Katrina deals
Posted 9/10/2005 9:28 PM

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-09-10-katrina-contracts_x.htm?csp=24

If the people don't vote these A-holes out of office in the next election, this country will never come back from HELL! EVER!!

Save the animals, too!

This has been one hell of a couple weeks for thousands of people in the southern states and, for so many hundreds and hundreds of animals.  

I am so thankful for having what I do have…an apartment that is dry and safe; my two cats that I love so much; food to eat whenever I want; entertainment by way of television and cd player; my photographs are intact and my books are placed on shelves…and, I have enough clothes to wear without having to worry about what to wear next.   I am lucky and didn’t always think about it.   I sure do now!

I keep worrying about all those animals that are left behind and hope that the animal rescue groups will find them all, and I pray they will be re-united with their guardians or adopted.  To me, they are sentient beings and should NEVER be forgotten in times like this.  

Somewhere on the internet, I saw something about making a law to have our pets considered family members.  That is just fine with me because my pets ARE members of my family.   This would help animals during disasters be saved in the proper manner.                        

Please click link below to save the flood animals

https://secure.hsus.org/01/disaster_relief_fund_2005?source=drfhb4

What if...

I think that it is quite possible that the Bush Administration and the right-wing fundamentalist wierdos decided that New Orleans is 'Sin City', and didn't really need to be saved. Strong words, huh? What if I am right? Stranger things have been happening under the control of this government.

I do know that this Administration along with FEMA did not do everything in its power to help those people in their hour of need and must take the blame all the way! The rest of the world sees what has been happening here and thinks Bush is just that much more of a moron.

Me, too.

To the government and their disgraceful bungling of Katrina tragedy

Barbara Bush : What a horrible woman!

Please read article...

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054719

Throw Out This Government!!

The Bush admistration is doing NOTHING to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina! What the hell is going on? This is absolutely unforgiveable and the good people of this country needs to IMPEACH this group of corrupt thugs ASAP!!

The victims have been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for help and where is it? Bush is farting around acting his usual cowboy jerk self; Condi Rice is in NY buying shoes and attending plays; Cheney is having a fundraiser in Wyoming for some rich ass. United States citizens are dying by the minute due to the incompetence of this sleazy, dastardly administration. This group of shitasses are on their way out for bungling so badly!!

My thoughts and prayers (which is about all I have to give) are with all those down in the flood areas. WE have not forgotten you!

Hurricane Katrina victims

Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by Hurricane Katrina. We all need to come together and help in whatever way we can.