The history of the violence in Iraq goes back many decades. It includes all ethnicities. Saddam Hussein in order to maintain control would even carry out killings of his own allies in towns such as Fallujah if he felt is was prudent to maintaining the oppression of the people and hence control of his authority. Fear was the primary venue of control in Iraq and in parallel today, Bush's "Culture of Fear" is nurtured as a means of control of the people of the USA. Even today when the GOP is facing a tough election season, the RNC reaches into their bag of tricks using 'fear' as an underlying theme in commercials to influence voters.
But in regard to Saddam Hussein and the al Sadr family, there is a history of annihilation of those men of religious authority whom stood unlike the Grand Ayatollah al Sistani in defiance of Hussein. As a result 'the al Sadr family' was all but destroyed.
The Shi'ite Cleric Moktada al-Sadr's father, the Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, was the most powerful Shiite cleric in Iraq in the late 1990s. His uncle, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, was a leading Shiite activist who was executed by Saddam Hussein’s forces in 1980. Muqtada al-Sadr went underground in February 1999 after a spray of gunfire—from Saddam’s agents, according to most accounts—killed his father and two brothers. He inherited a network of schools and charities built by his father, along with the allegiance of many of the elder Sadr’s followers.
The Mahdi Army is no joke (click on) and in realizing that is taking on the central authority of Iraq as established under a constitution that is now in debate and under amendment. It is my view that the country of Iraq will someday dissolve into three autonomous nations of ethnic origins. This as a result of the inability of those ethnicities to find 'trust' among each other in maintaining a central/federal government. There is currently a movement within the central government to provide provincial authority that would find a way to divide the assets of that country among those provinces and dilute the threat of any one authority over that of any ethnicity resulting in a return to Saddam Hussein in just another form.
The Mahdi Army has sustained itself through three years of some of the most intense violence Iraq has ever seen. I doubt there has been this degree of violence in that country on a continuous basis in it's history. There have been wars, such as the Iran-Iraq War, but none sustained to the death toll of this war. If you add up all the atrocities of Saddam Hussein which are substantial including mass graves and death by deprivation, they would not total 600,000 people. The violence in Iraq has to stop. The USA has to realize it's potency of sustained attack on these people which results in a 'backlash' of fear of continued violence and annihilation from their experience. This sustained death toll at the hands of occupiers results in all kinds of issues, the least of which is boasted by Bush to be "The Central Front on Terror." If Iraq is a 'central front on terror' it is because the Bush military propagates it. There are no outside forces seeking control of Iraq or initiating attacks from inside Iraq on the USA Coalition. Quite the contrary. Iran is a Shi'ite nation. The region that Iraq is a part is the only place in the world where Shi'ites have large numbers over Sunnis. The Shi'ites are the fundamentalists. They live in this region of the world for a reason. They are among the holiest of lands of Islam and to that end stand diligently in protection of them.
The concept of "The Central War on Terror" serves only one purpose. That purpose is to keep political dogma in the USA viable, to sustain the lies that brought Cheney's war cronies profits along with relief of his liability to Halliburton stockholders. Bush on the other hand wanted to vindicate his father's so-called 'incomplete' war with Saddam in rescuing Kuwait from an Iraq invasion. There is no other reason for the continued occupation of Iraq. The Iraqi forces even under Saddam and during The Persian Gulf War of Colin Powell were incompetent at best. There was little reason for strong and invincible militaries in this region before the USA decided it was profitable to conduct wars of retribution and fantasy.
The strength of the Madhi Army is obvious. The strength of the people that support it is more obvious. The events of Amara is the second notable 'show of force' by these people under the guidance of their Holy Men. The first was when the the USA tried to assault the Imam Ali Mosque in 2004 and the people under the direction of the Grand Ayatollah al Sistani marched without arms or military from Kufah to Najaf. It stopped the USA military dead in it's tracks. A USA military that already had tanks in the narrow streets of Najaf headed for the mosque where the Shi'ite Cleric al Sadr was being protected by members of the Madhi Army and people of the community already inside the grounds of the mosque. It was a show of force then that caught the eye of the USA media and Amara is the second time.
The obvious venue for peace in Iraq is to stop the hideous pursuit of confrontation by the USA Coalition with the militias of Iraq. The United States admittedly had no post-invasion strategy for Iraq. Iraq was considered by minimally Rumsfeld, to have the largest accumulation of munitions in the Middle East. Although accused of seeking weapons of mass destruction which was indeed an issue with some of the genocide under Hussein, none were discovered with this invasion and over the years the United Nations Inspectors were able to secure all the stockpiled weapons into bunkers with UN Seals. Those seals were respected by Hussein and his military as a part of the Oil for Food Program.
One of the most huge post war debacles was due to the lack of insight to securing those bunkers. Somehow, Rumsfeld believed they would remain untouched with nothing more than UN Seals on them despite the reality that the UN Sanctions through the presence of UN Inspectors no longer meant anything with invasion and occupation. Those bunkers were raided including 300 tonnes of high grade explosives. Those munitions of which many were supplied by the USA to the Hussein government are distributed throughout minimally Iraq bolstering the sustainability of the rebellion that followed the USA Coalition invasion. This war can literally go on forever. Due to that fact the Bush administration has engaged in speeches about Iraq that are grossly inappropriate and meant to sustain the war for the sake of USA military crony contracts. While admittedly there is an al Qaeda presence in Iraq by the death of al Zarqawi, that is the case in all nations of the Middle East and most nations of Muslim majority. To say it is essential to remain in Iraq as a surrogate location of fighting al Qaeda is a travesty and sets up the American Forces as 'targets' to the designs of training elements of al Qaeda, 'Cause Celebre' (click on) if your will. In an interview with General Grange on Saturday morning on CNN these were his words which mirror the concept of "Iraq is the Central War on Terror."
NGUYEN: Yes, maintaining the security is key. And, you know, while we don't know exactly what is being discussed detail by detail in this meeting with the president and his top generals, you have access to a lot of people in the know. You served a lot of time in the military, and you stay in contact with many people still serving.
So what are they saying? What are the ideas being bounced around about a solution to the situation in Iraq?
GRANGE: Sure. One -- one item that not many people want to hear anymore, especially some of the people in Congress, is that, well, you have to give them a little bit more time. Well, we do have to give the elected government some time, and then we just monitor their resolve, their willingness to solve this. And in fact, if that starts to diminish, now that they are a sovereign nation again, we have to kind of take their lead. And that may be a decision that we leave.
The other is, we have to keep the influence out of Iran, in particular, but also Syria from interfering, which they are doing considerably right now, especially with the Shia militias. We have to continue to take down terrorists that are in the country.
And a comment made early that it's a magnet for terrorists, well, that's not really a bad thing because they are all in one place right now. Not all, but a good majority of them. That -- tactically, that's not a bad -- bad thing.
The other is we support the security forces of Iraq where and when needed. And then we have to keep presence in the region, because the region is a powder keg. It's going to be -- would have been that way if we were in Iraq or not. And so we have to keep presence to either destroy, disrupt or deny those that want to do things to other nation states that the world, international community, does not desire to happen, or us, because of the strategic importance of this part of the world.
NGUYEN: Yes. A lot of ideas there, General. We'll see how it plays out.
We appreciate your time, though, this morning.
GRANGE: My pleasure.
That concept along with the rhetorical stand by Bush to "Stay the Course" is a guarantee for exploitive military occupation that serves only one purpose and that is the profits affiliated with military companies which support Bush's agenda. Many retired generals that act as consultants to news agencies also are advisors/members to Boards of Directors to these same companies.
The cost for such exploitation is the deaths of our troops and loss of confidence by them in their chosen career path. To undermine the integrity of military engagement as the Bush/Cheney administration has done is to undermine the National Security of the USA while causing unjustifable hardship on a country such as Iraq.
To cover his tracks with pending elections, Mr. Bush has decided to deny his rhetoric in hopes of reshaping the criticism of "Stay the Course in Iraq."
In the portion of his interview with President Bush broadcast on the October 22 edition of ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos let go without challenge several statements from Bush that contradict previous statements and actions. First, as the weblog Think Progress noted, Bush asserted that his administration has "never been stay the course" in Iraq, a statement to which Stephanopoulos could have responded -- but didn't -- by noting that Bush and other senior administration officials have repeatedly described the U.S. policy in Iraq as "stay the course." Bush began articulating his strategy for Iraq as "stay the course" shortly after the war began in March 2003 and has persisted until very recently, as Think Progress noted, and Media Matters for America has also documented (here and here).
http://mediamatters.org/items/200610220001
At a July 10, 2003, press conference in Botswana, Bush said:
BUSH: We haven't been there long. I mean, relatively speaking. We've been there for 90 to 100 days -- I don't have the exact number. But I will tell you, it's going to take more than 90 to 100 days for people to recognize the great joys of freedom and the responsibilities that come with freedom. We're making steady progress. A free Iraq will mean a peaceful world. And it's very important for us to stay the course, and we will stay the course.
"Stay the course" in Iraq was the oft-repeated mantra of Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. At an April 5, 2004, press conference, Bush said: "And we've got to stay the course, and we will stay the course. The message to the Iraqi citizens is, they don't have to fear that America will turn and run. And that's an important message for them to hear. If they think that we're not sincere about staying the course, many people will not continue to take a risk toward -- take the risk toward freedom and democracy." In an April 13, 2004, nationally televised address, he said: "It's hard to advance freedom in a country that has been strangled by tyranny. And, yet, we must stay the course, because the end result is in our nation's interest."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200609260012
Media claim Bush administration has disavowed "stay the course" rhetoric, but White House is still using it
Summary: Several media figures have recently claimed, or let Republicans claim, that the White House "rejects" the policy that the United States should "stay the course" in Iraq, even though President Bush and White House spokesman Tony Snow have continued to use that term to describe the administration's Iraq policy.
In recent days, several media figures have claimed, or let Republicans claim, that the White House "rejects" the policy that the United States should "stay the course" in Iraq, even though President Bush and White House press secretary Tony Snow have continued to use that term to describe the Bush administration's Iraq policy.
For example, in an August 31 Washington Post article, staff writers Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei reported that "[m]any Democrats accuse the president of advocating 'stay the course' in Iraq, but the White House rejects the phrase and regularly emphasizes that it is adapting tactics to changing circumstances." Similarly, on the August 30 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, guest host and MSNBC chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell left unchallenged the claim by Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman that "I don't think our approach is stay the course. ... Our approach is to adapt and win." During a roundtable discussion on the August 27 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, responding to Al Hunt, Bloomberg News' Washington bureau chief, who stated that the conservative National Review had described Bush's "stay the course" policy as "absolutely not credible," National Review Washington editor Kate O'Beirne claimed that the Bush administration is "changing" its rhetoric to "adapt for victory."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200608310012
George Walker Bush is a perpetual liar with only one interest in mind and that is the political control of the powers of the USA. He cares nothing about the will of the American people or the Iraqi people either.
Today, the debate over Iraq and the change in strategy revolves around one city, Baghdad and the strategy for "The Battle for Baghdad." This is the only city in Iraq where the USA has control over territory, however, that control is somewhat tenuous (click on). On two separate occasions Baghdad has been placed under 'curfew' to regain control. There have been attacks into The Green Zone and to that end, it would be wise for the USA to realize attempting any widespread control effort by increasing troop strength is mostly futile and will only cause a temporary escalation in even more deaths, both civilian and military. The USA military needs to find an exit solution and not turn back from it. Iraq has it's security in the persistent militias. The resolve of the sovereignty of Iraq will find it's way to sustain or dissolve, but, that would happen anyway, with USA military occupation the timeline will be longer and the 'playground' for al Qaeda extended preparing more terrorists and not less.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
I debated to write a composition or simply state the obvious, but, the stakes are too high and I morally have to address this correctly.
So.
Composition to follow.
Basically, al Sadr is doing what his heritage dictates him to do. He is the surviving member of religious leadership in Iraq. This is his right. The Grand Ayatollah is aging. Eventually, Cleric al Sadr will take his place. In the picture below and the accountings of Amara it is eminently clear that the young Cleric is respectful of the elected government of his people while taking no chances with the lives of his people.
Try this on for now. If the USA were to leave Iraq the Mahdi Army is already trained to protect the Shi'ites with techniques learned while opposing the toughest military in the world. Do you honestly think Iraqis aren't prepared to take care of themselves? That is all they have been doing since the invasion. These Holy Men of all the ethnicities provided the stability and guidance the people of Iraq needed. It would be a gross mistake to now kill off the very people that helped stabilize their regions while providing security Bush's military could never provide.
Composition to follow
So.
Composition to follow.
Basically, al Sadr is doing what his heritage dictates him to do. He is the surviving member of religious leadership in Iraq. This is his right. The Grand Ayatollah is aging. Eventually, Cleric al Sadr will take his place. In the picture below and the accountings of Amara it is eminently clear that the young Cleric is respectful of the elected government of his people while taking no chances with the lives of his people.
Try this on for now. If the USA were to leave Iraq the Mahdi Army is already trained to protect the Shi'ites with techniques learned while opposing the toughest military in the world. Do you honestly think Iraqis aren't prepared to take care of themselves? That is all they have been doing since the invasion. These Holy Men of all the ethnicities provided the stability and guidance the people of Iraq needed. It would be a gross mistake to now kill off the very people that helped stabilize their regions while providing security Bush's military could never provide.
Composition to follow
The Iraqi Campaign Against The Marsh Arabs
Readers might recall seeing the movie “Three Kings” a few years back. It was one of the few films made about the Gulf War. Basically a remake of the equally improbable World War II movie “Kelly’s Gold,” it is about a group of American soldiers who attempt to steal a stock of gold supposedly belonging to Saddam Hussein, but find themselves caught up in rescuing a large number of hapless Iraqis who had foolishly responded to President Bush’s call for Iraqis to rise up and overthrow Saddam. Most viewers of the film probably did ask themselves who were these Iraqis, for the movie did not tell us much about them. They really were only props for the American heroes. Given the location in the south of Iraq and their flight into Iran at the end of the movie, they probably were Marsh Arabs - even though no marshes at all were in sight on the screen.
In 2002, Saddam Hussein killed 50,000 Shi'ites after he first drained the wetlands and put them into a 'waterless' set of circumstances. The wetlands drained stopped their food supply and water availability.
In 2002, Saddam Hussein killed 50,000 Shi'ites after he first drained the wetlands and put them into a 'waterless' set of circumstances. The wetlands drained stopped their food supply and water availability.
I do not believe Cleric Moktaka al Sadr is anti-American. He is anti-Shi'ite deaths. Huge difference.
10/18/06 Iraq - Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric, with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki today.
The Perfect Pumpkin - Happy Halloween, Georgie - 2006
By Howard Fineman
Newsweek
Oct. 30, 2006 issue - Backed into a corner, George W. Bush gets louder and more deeply West Texas: a high-school football coach, down by 20 points at halftime, banging on the metal lockers for inspiration. He thinks that even a trace of presidential doubt will embolden Democrats at home and evildoers in Iraq. So here he was, at a not-oversubscribed Washington fund-raiser, launching the last drive of his last campaign with grim determination and warnings of apocalypse if Democrats take Congress. "They are the party of cut and run," he said. "Victory in Iraq is vital for the security of a generation of Americans who are coming up. And so we will stay in Iraq! We will fight in Iraq! And we will win in Iraq!"
American soldier deaths to date:
2793
United Kingdom deaths to date:
119
Other members of the coalition deaths to date:
119
US Non Mortal Casualties of any nature (In my opinion, a wound/illness requiring intervention beyond a simple clinic visit is serious and with the stress of battlefield circumstances is due to the conflict.)
44,779 as of September 30, 2006.
Many of these soldiers are alive because of body armor. That was not available in Vietnam. If the body armor was not available we would be seeing body counts far higher and escalating faster than anything we had seen in Vietnam.
The point here is, the rebels in Iraq don't have body armor. The death rates of Iraqis as reported in the journals are more than likely accurate. It brings to focus the issue of 'weighted' results in favor of the occupiers in the face of near genocide levels by some of the reporting journals of Iraqis. These are citizens of that country. The USA Coalition is not. The Iraqi death rate according to some estimates is at an extreme of 198 Iraqi death : 1 USA Coalition death due to the 'overwhelming power' of the occupiers miliary's precense. If only American loses are viewed the ratio changes to 215 : 1. Not a pretty picture. Nothing to be proud of. I do believe the research put forward by these statisticans. To deny the possiblity of this accuracy is to consent to genocide. This is the second time "The Lancet" has reported this high ratio of lose of civilian Iraqis. The first time was in 2004, I believe. For a journal with the prestige of "The Lancet" to repeat a mistake is highly unlikely. I refuse to be a part of a genocide of any kind.
Death casualties in Vietnam
U.S. MILITARY CASUALTIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
58,184
COMPARISON TO OTHER U.S. WARS
Revolution
4,435
War of 1812
2,260
Mexican War
13,283
Civil War (Union only)
364,511
Spanish - American War
2,446
World War I
116,516
World War II
405,399
Korea
36,913
Vietnam
58,184
Lancet study puts a number on Iraqi deaths (click on)
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Writers Group
Monday, October 16, 2006
(10-16) 04:00 PDT Washington -- "NOT CREDIBLE" was President Bush's quick verdict on the new study, published this week in the British medical journal The Lancet, calculating that more than 650,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S. invasion and its ensuing chaos. It is understandable that the president would be quick to dismiss such an explosive claim, but the rest of us should take the time to look a bit more closely.
The number of estimated deaths claimed by the study is inconceivably huge, and wildly out of scale with any previous figures we've heard. But it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that the human suffering in Iraq has been far beyond our imagining.
The peer-reviewed study's named authors include three researchers from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University -- one of them Gilbert Burnham, co-director of the school's Center for Refugee and Disaster Response -- and a professor from Baghdad's Al-Mustansiriya University. Funding for the project was provided by MIT. These are not shabby credentials.
2793
United Kingdom deaths to date:
119
Other members of the coalition deaths to date:
119
US Non Mortal Casualties of any nature (In my opinion, a wound/illness requiring intervention beyond a simple clinic visit is serious and with the stress of battlefield circumstances is due to the conflict.)
44,779 as of September 30, 2006.
Many of these soldiers are alive because of body armor. That was not available in Vietnam. If the body armor was not available we would be seeing body counts far higher and escalating faster than anything we had seen in Vietnam.
The point here is, the rebels in Iraq don't have body armor. The death rates of Iraqis as reported in the journals are more than likely accurate. It brings to focus the issue of 'weighted' results in favor of the occupiers in the face of near genocide levels by some of the reporting journals of Iraqis. These are citizens of that country. The USA Coalition is not. The Iraqi death rate according to some estimates is at an extreme of 198 Iraqi death : 1 USA Coalition death due to the 'overwhelming power' of the occupiers miliary's precense. If only American loses are viewed the ratio changes to 215 : 1. Not a pretty picture. Nothing to be proud of. I do believe the research put forward by these statisticans. To deny the possiblity of this accuracy is to consent to genocide. This is the second time "The Lancet" has reported this high ratio of lose of civilian Iraqis. The first time was in 2004, I believe. For a journal with the prestige of "The Lancet" to repeat a mistake is highly unlikely. I refuse to be a part of a genocide of any kind.
Death casualties in Vietnam
U.S. MILITARY CASUALTIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
58,184
COMPARISON TO OTHER U.S. WARS
Revolution
4,435
War of 1812
2,260
Mexican War
13,283
Civil War (Union only)
364,511
Spanish - American War
2,446
World War I
116,516
World War II
405,399
Korea
36,913
Vietnam
58,184
Lancet study puts a number on Iraqi deaths (click on)
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Writers Group
Monday, October 16, 2006
(10-16) 04:00 PDT Washington -- "NOT CREDIBLE" was President Bush's quick verdict on the new study, published this week in the British medical journal The Lancet, calculating that more than 650,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S. invasion and its ensuing chaos. It is understandable that the president would be quick to dismiss such an explosive claim, but the rest of us should take the time to look a bit more closely.
The number of estimated deaths claimed by the study is inconceivably huge, and wildly out of scale with any previous figures we've heard. But it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that the human suffering in Iraq has been far beyond our imagining.
The peer-reviewed study's named authors include three researchers from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University -- one of them Gilbert Burnham, co-director of the school's Center for Refugee and Disaster Response -- and a professor from Baghdad's Al-Mustansiriya University. Funding for the project was provided by MIT. These are not shabby credentials.
"Lamb" from album Thick Skin by Skid Row
I have been here for so long I've carried all the wait'
til something pulls me underneath the tide.
Climb to where the air is thin so I can breath again.
still it makes me wonder deep inside.
Nothin's free, no-one bleeds, We're all machines.
Shadows of your sins are following you.
When it sucks you in it's swallowing you,
King of the mountain thats what I am.
Everybodys someone elses sacrificial lamb.
Space between the world and me, defying gravity'
til something pulls me closer to the ground.
Drink the chemicals we spill. our eye is on the kill
while hell is freezing over, over.
Nothin's free, no-one bleeds, We're all machines
Shadows of your sins are following you.
When it sucks you in its swallowing you,
King of the mountain thats what I am.
Everybodys someone elses sacrificial lamb.
Shadows of your sins are following you.
When it sucks you in its swallowing you,
King of the mountain thats what I am.
Everybodys someone elses sacrificial.
Shadows of your sins are following you.
When it sucks you in its swallowing you,
King of the mountain thats what I am.
Everybodys someone elses sacrificial lamb.
lamb
til something pulls me underneath the tide.
Climb to where the air is thin so I can breath again.
still it makes me wonder deep inside.
Nothin's free, no-one bleeds, We're all machines.
Shadows of your sins are following you.
When it sucks you in it's swallowing you,
King of the mountain thats what I am.
Everybodys someone elses sacrificial lamb.
Space between the world and me, defying gravity'
til something pulls me closer to the ground.
Drink the chemicals we spill. our eye is on the kill
while hell is freezing over, over.
Nothin's free, no-one bleeds, We're all machines
Shadows of your sins are following you.
When it sucks you in its swallowing you,
King of the mountain thats what I am.
Everybodys someone elses sacrificial lamb.
Shadows of your sins are following you.
When it sucks you in its swallowing you,
King of the mountain thats what I am.
Everybodys someone elses sacrificial.
Shadows of your sins are following you.
When it sucks you in its swallowing you,
King of the mountain thats what I am.
Everybodys someone elses sacrificial lamb.
lamb
Friday, October 20, 2006
Over the next several weeks Americans will vote.
The Unsealed Ballot Box of the Maldives (click above)
Let all Americans take the process of voting as seriously as these people who valued the election of a government that was benevolent to them.
Elections Then:
Maldives: elections are held (click on)
05:39 2005-01-23
Police arrested 20 opposition party supporters during the Maldives' parliamentary election Saturday, a vote critics denounced as rigged, accusing the government of linking aid for tsunami survivors to favorable votes.
The archipelago nation held the elections three weeks late, a postponement caused by the Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed at least 82 people in the Maldives and crushed homes and businesses nationwide.
In the absence of a multiparty system, nearly 150 individual candidates contested the vote for parliament's 42 seats in the island chain, where the president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, has ruled with an iron first since 1978.
Government spokesman Mohamed Shareef said the detainees were supporters of the exiled opposition Maldives Democratic Party who tried to take a videocamera into a polling booth in violation of election rules.
Voters in the Maldives have cast their ballots in a general election postponed as a result of last month's tsunami.
No political parties are allowed and nearly 150 candidates stood as independents for the 42-seat assembly.
Reformist candidates have complained of irregularities, including allegations that the government threatened voters with withholding reconstruction aid, tells BBC News.
Elections to Come:
Maldives - News Archive (click on)
2008 Presidential Election in Maldives to be Multi-Party says President
Posted: 03/12/2006The Maldivian government has promised a multi-party election in 2008 when the country goes to polls to choose its next president. As part of the roadmap proposed by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on March 12, target dates will be drawn up for the next three years. This move is part of the democratic political reforms promised by President Gayoom and comes after a decision was made last year to allow political parties to register.
Source: ElectionGuide
Take your voting seriously. Make decisions that will bring back to the USA a government that inspires the world through democratic principles. Realize that actions speak louder than words and when other peoples are inspired toward democracy the greater international community insures it happens.
Democracy happens in a country as it's populous matures and comes to terms with the concept of people being responsible for the outcomes of government that affects their lives and the lives of their children. When people find a lack of truncation to the future through elections they have a far greater sense of hope about life. Joy and happiness take on different characteristics from the 'here and now' to benevolence of a heritage granted to future generations. Elections are huge and should never be toyed with by men or women seeking power for the sake of power over a reality that a populous has entrusted 'the promise' their 'hope' is to bring them in benevolence toward themselves and their children.
In reality what is a single vote except an effort to bring leverage over power. A country is a powerful entity with fiscal resources and a will. That will is expressed in the leadership and it's resultant policies. When all the votes are counted a single vote can make a decision that impacts not only the electorate but the community in which they live that have no power to influence the decisions of that leadership.
Never vote in fear. Vote in confidence. The truth will bring that confidence to decision making and wise choices in elections. Demand honest answers from candidates, research your choices and make that decision count with effective, uncorrupt balloting.
Elections, voting is not an illusion; it is the essence of democracy. Let's bring leadership back to the USA that will bring back the admiration of the world and not it's fear.
I am counting on you.
Earth is counting on you.
Peace is counting on you.
Vote. Make a decision and know that decision will translate in one way or another over the next few weeks. I trust all of you. Do the right thing. Take citizenship seriously.
I'll return to the 'usual' review of the news next week. I appreciate your interest in this expression of hope. Thank you.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
U.S. October death toll in Iraq hits 70
October 18, 2006.
From the New York Times.
An escalation in the deaths of American soldiers once again brings concentrated attention to the Iraq War. While I apprecate all the efforts such as made by The New York Times to; at the very least; 'remind' us of our losses, some of the exacerbations of deaths then accompanied by declines are irrespective of the fact no matter the number of deaths they are still people we value caught up in an illegal war that is out of control at the hand of an administration mired in affiliations of corruption.
The mean per month in Iraq is about 70 deaths per month. That isn't reflecting the deaths of civilians and members of the coalition in Iraq. Doesn't even speak to the concerns about escalations of violence in Afghanistan or the mimicking of truck/car bombs globally by militant groups.
In many ways, the escalations followed by declines were not 'reaction' followed by success so much as a 'slow down' of violence while the rebel forces in Iraq simply learned more about the tactics to defeat the US Coalition and then conducted those techniques against them. I don't believe the declines in American deaths are reflective at all of an Iraq resistance ready to capitulate authority.
The news this week is grim from the stand point that nothing much is new. There is some reporting on the reality some of us knew has existed all along or at least strongly suspected:
New groups appear more ruthless in use of violence
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15322218/
BAGHDAD - The young Shiite men, some wearing black masks, glided from house to house in search of Sunni Muslim men. They arrived at the two-story dwelling of Mohammed Hussein clutching a bomb, neighbors said. As his mother stood at the front gate, they detonated it. Shrapnel and glass flew, sending her to the hospital. A wall fell on a neighbor, sending him to his grave.
Additionally and more disturbing in some ways is the 'death of democracy' in the USA. Last night Keith Olberman gave a rather compelling "Special Comment: Beginning of the end" on Countdown, his hour news program.
Olbermann addresses the Military Commissions Act in a special comment
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15321167/
This type of legislation is the kind of thing that causes escalation in violence globally. The USA has become a threat to most nations on Earth. They witness the loss of civil rights in the USA and see their own governments affiliated with the USA and well, the rest is obvious. It is one of the reason that Iraq won't be turning away from violence in the near future, if ever.
The Shi'ite Majority in Iraq has been under seige for decades if not longer. That majority of Shia extends from Iraq into Iran. It is what Saddam Hussein battled against chronically. It is why Don Rumsfeld took Saddam Hussein as an ally initially and for so long. Hussein was a 'wedge' against a population of people with little regard for America and it's military.
The Shi'ites of Iran over threw the government there. What ensued was hostage taking of people in the US Embassy for over a year. Using the Iranian Hostage Crisis as a political platform the Reagan Administration never had to deal with Iran directly as it ended just about election time. Instead Mr. Reagan engaged in other scandalous issues with Iran called "The Iran - Contra Affair."
The Iran-Contra Affair
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande08.html
... In 1985, while Iran and Iraq were at war, Iran made a secret request to buy weapons from the United States. McFarlane sought Reagan's approval, in spite of the embargo against selling arms to Iran. McFarlane explained that the sale of arms would not only improve U.S. relations with Iran, but might in turn lead to improved relations with Lebanon, increasing U.S. influence in the troubled Middle East. Reagan was driven by a different obsession. He had become frustrated at his inability to secure the release of the seven American hostages being held by Iranian terrorists in Lebanon. As president, Reagan felt that "he had the duty to bring those Americans home," and he convinced himself that he was not negotiating with terrorists. While shipping arms to Iran violated the embargo, dealing with terrorists violated Reagan's campaign promise never to do so. Reagan had always been admired for his honesty....
... While probing the question of the arms-for-hostages deal, Attorney General Edwin Meese discovered that only $12 million of the $30 million the Iranians reportedly paid had reached government coffers. Then-unknown Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council explained the discrepancy: he had been diverting funds from the arms sales to the Contras, with the full knowledge of National Security Adviser Admiral John Poindexter and with the unspoken blessing, he assumed, of President Reagan....
... Speculation about the involvement of Reagan, Vice President George Bush and the administration at large ran rampant. Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh investigated the affair for the next eight years. Fourteen people were charged with either operational or "cover-up" crimes. In the end, North's conviction was overturned on a technicality, and President Bush issued six pardons, including one to McFarlane, who had already been convicted, and one to Weinberger before he stood trial....
THE POINT IS that while Bush sends troops into Iraq to continue the conflict that is decades old and doesn't really affect the National Security of the USA; he is also acting in legislation against the US Constitution and opening up dangers to Americans Civil Rights by their government with the understanding that all legislation starts out with the understanding of 'necessary and urgent' but becomes an instrument of paranoya and political scare tactics.
I don't feel much like conducting an audit of zoo articles or pursuing news information to enhance the understanding of a global dynamics of violence that has escalated beyond just Iraq due to the policies of the Bush Administration and it's rubber stamping House and Senate. It seems ludicrous to me that this week, when the American Democracy is dying at the hand of an openly confrontational and aggressive government that I conduct myself as if nothing happened yesterday.
Something did happen yesterday. It was profound. It was "W"rong. Every American should be concerned.... about the legislation .... about the escalation of dead American soldiers in Iraq ... and about the denial by this country of it's grossly unsuccesful meddling in the Middle East while nuclear proliferation globally is taking on a characteristic of 'irreversible' more and more everyday.
We have been here before. It's time to take by our country once again from greedy men and incompetent leadership.
We don't belong in Iraq.
We never did.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Click on for 12 hour loop
October 18, 2006.
0630z.
Water Vapor Satellite GOES East by UNISYS.
The circulation center/low pressure over the Gulf of Mexico is unusual. I don't recall seeing that before.
Click on to animate.
October 18, 2006.
6:00 am.
Summer has arrived on the Peninsula of Antarctica and it's not summer until December.
Temperatures across Antarctica (click on). There is a distinctive movement above zero Celcius. It won't go back to freezing now. Zero is still temperately cold enough but it is on the edge of going warmer than zero C by next week.
Morning Papers - concluding
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Cloudy
-23.0°
Updated Wednesday 18 Oct 8:15PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
33 ft / 10 m
37 °F / 3 °C
Overcast
Humidity:
75%
Dew Point:
30 °F / -1 °C
Wind:
Calm
Pressure:
30.16 in / 1021 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Overcast 3500 ft / 1066 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
Scott Base
Cloudy
-23.0°
Updated Wednesday 18 Oct 8:15PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
33 ft / 10 m
37 °F / 3 °C
Overcast
Humidity:
75%
Dew Point:
30 °F / -1 °C
Wind:
Calm
Pressure:
30.16 in / 1021 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Overcast 3500 ft / 1066 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Monday, October 16, 2006
Hawaii works to restore power, repair roads after strong quake
Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamounts (click on)
The Hawaiian Islands are part of this Earth dynamics. Over the past week there has been consistent seismic activity along the Aleutian Trench off Alaska. As can be seen easily in this image of the sea floor there is a 'consistent' ridge that runs to the Aleutian Trench. It is only reasonable to believe that if there is activity along that trench there is going to be movement in the Pacific Plate.
The Hawaiian Islands were generated from a 'hot spot' of volcanic movement. The 'hot spot' never moves. It is almost as though the Pacific Plate revolves around it. At any rate, as the Pacific Plate moves the sea floor over the 'hot spot' changes generating submersed land from eruptions. The islands move northwest along that ridge. The latest earthquakes moved the Hawaii Island northwest. It is completely obvious to me what the cause of the earthquake was and the fact the earthquakes the week previous at the Aleutian Trench occurred was a strong indicator the event would happen.
Also noted there was signifant weather over the earthquake epicenter as well.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BUFFALO NY
October 12, 2006.
Buffalo, New York.
The trees took a very hard hit.
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
BUFFALO NY
305 AM EDT
MON OCT 16 2006
...FROST EXPECTED EARLY THIS MORNING FOR THE GENESEE VALLEY ANDFINGER LAKES....CLEAR SKIES AND LIGHT WINDS WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO FALL INTOTHE LOWER AND MID 30S ACROSS THE GENESEE VALLEY AND FINGER LAKESREGION EARLY THIS MORNING. WIDESPREAD FROST IS EXPECTED. THISWILL INCLUDE MOST SUBURBAN AREAS AROUND ROCHESTER...WHILE THE CITYMAY ESCAPE.
Global Warming is Real. Knock it Off !!!! The impacts are real, too.
Global Warming: How History Is Being Manipulated to Undermine Calls for Action
By Spencer Weart
Mr. Weart is Director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics.
Informed people now understand that global warming is perhaps the most severe challenge facing the well-being of human society in the coming century. Only a dwindling minority of Americans now denies this (an even smaller fraction believe that we are regularly visited by space aliens). But those who deny it include powerful people, whose interests or ideology are threatened by government regulation of the fossil fuels that are the main source of the danger we face.
History is often used in these arguments. Its role can be direct, as when global-warming denialists assert that not long ago scientists were “spectacularly wrong” in claiming that not warming but a new Ice Age threatened us. So writes, for example, the columnist George Will, quoting from news magazines of the early 1970s. However, when people checked the history they found that Will, following a practice common among denialists, “cherry-picked” a few items that served his purpose from a much larger body of evidence.1 Here’s the real history. In the 1970s scientists discovered that climate can be catastrophically variable; they didn’t agree on what would come next; but they all agreed that they knew too little at the time to make a confident prediction. Any resemblance to the current strong scientific consensus is a fantasy.
http://www.hnn.us/articles/30148.html
Introduction:
A Hyperlinked History of Climate Change Science
"To a patient scientist, the unfolding greenhouse mystery is far more exciting than the plot of the best mystery novel. But it is slow reading, with new clues sometimes not appearing for several years. Impatience increases when one realizes that it is not the fate of some fictional character, but of our planet and species, which hangs in the balance as the great carbon mystery unfolds at a seemingly glacial pace."
— D. Schindler(1)
It is an epic story: the struggle of thousands of men and women over the course of a century for very high stakes. For some, the work required actual physical courage, a risk to life and limb in icy wastes or on the high seas. The rest needed more subtle forms of courage. They gambled decades of arduous effort on the chance of a useful discovery, and staked their reputations on what they claimed to have found. Even as they stretched their minds to the limit on intellectual problems that often proved insoluble, their attention was diverted into grueling administrative struggles to win minimal support for the great work. A few took the battle into the public arena, often getting more blame than praise; most labored to the end of their lives in obscurity. In the end they did win their goal, which was simply knowledge.
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/summary.htm
VIEWPOINT: The cold reality about global warming
By: Lou Smyrlis
Global warming and what we should do about it, is definitely, pardon the pun, a hot issue. Our August issue feature about forward-thinking shippers and carriers who are already taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated several calls and e-mails.
Many, while conceding transportation's role as significant contributor to greenhouse gases, expressed the same concerns: How can we possibly make a logical decision, one way or the other, given the complexity surrounding climate change -- we can't even get our weekly weather forecasts right half the time, how can we predict what's going to happen in 50 years?
Others pointed to the conflicting information that's out there -- some consider global warming a grave problem requiring immediate attention, while others, including some scientists, agree with James Inhofe, chairman of the American Senate's environment and public works committee, when he calls the threat of catastrophic global warming the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated."
http://www.ctl.ca/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=60994&issue=10062006
STORM 2006: Cleanup efforts under way
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006
STORM AFTERMATH: Carbon monoxide poisoning, clogged admissions causing problems
By Mark Lindsay/lindsaym@gnnewspaper.co
One of the dangers of being without power is the measures people take to get their power back on.
Some hospitals in the area are reporting a spike in carbon monoxide poisoning due to people using alternative methods of power and heat.
At Kenmore Mercy Hospital, spokesman Dennis McCarthy said they have seen five cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Other Catholic Health hospitals, including Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo and Sisters Hospital, were also reporting several cases of it. At Sisters, an entire family was taken in with effects of carbon monoxide poisoning.
At DeGraff Memorial Hospital in North Tonawanda, emergency room director Dr. Martin Barron said they have seen about 15 cases since the storm hit.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/local_story_288160758.html
FLOODING: Farmers concerned with crop
By Bill Wolcott/wolcottb@gnnewspaper.com
Crops in Niagara County may have survived the October storm shocker, but may not make it to the market.
Mindy and Oscar Vizcarra of Becker Farms of Gasport can’t get to acres of apples and pumpkins because of mud and standing water. The Red Creek flood plain is flooded, blocking tractors and u-pick customers from thousands of apples and pumpkins across Quaker Road.
At the Donald Walck farm on Lockport Road near Comstock, there are acres of soy beans and corn ready to be harvested. However, the mud and wet fields won’t let the farmer get to the crop.
“We don’t know how bad it is yet,” said Walck, who has been farming the large farm since 1951. “I have never seen this much rain from August through October. We need a week of good weather to start harvesting. We have a good crop.”
The soy beans have not been affected yet, but some of the corn has mold. Soy beans must be at a certain moisture at harvest.
“This is one of the worst months,” Walck said of the rain. “What we need is some dry weather. You can’t do anything in the rain.”
Walck may also lose the second and third cutting of the hay. He hopes to be able to begin some harvesting on Monday.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/local_story_288155650.html
STORM 2006: Thousands of residents flock to hotels for shelter
BY RICK FORGIONE AND JILL TERRERI
forgioner@gnnewspaper.com
The snow started falling and the lights went out at the Buffalo home of David and Amanda Johnson.
It was the perfect time to go on their honeymoon.
“We got married a month ago and didn’t have a chance to go on one,” Mrs. Johnson said, “but we’ve been meaning to come to Niagara Falls for a weekend. The storm gave us the perfect excuse.”
Thousands of vacant hotel rooms north of Erie County filled up fast as a result of the season’s first winter storm. The loss of power sent families scrambling for shelter as early as Thursday night. By Saturday, most of the hotels still operating were at full capacity.
The storm boosted business at hotels throughout Niagara County and Tonawanda.
But it also caused some serious trials for at least two couples on Friday, when they were forced to reschedule their wedding receptions after the Holiday Inn on Grand Island lost power.
The 261-bed hotel lost power in the early evening on Thursday and regained it Friday night.
The two couples were married during ceremonies on Friday and left on their honeymoons, but will reschedule their receptions for a later date. Meanwhile, the receptions of two other couples scheduled for Saturday were to go on as planned, according to Dale VanAlstien, director of catering for the hotel.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/gnnlocalnews_story_288113311.html
STORM 2006: Power out for nearly 400,000
EMERGENCY SHELTERS
Niagara County residents who are without heat and power can seek shelter at these locations:
n The Salvation Army, Cottage Street, Lockport
n North Tonawanda High School, Meadow Drive in North Tonawanda
n Wolcottsville Fire Company, Town of Royalton
BY RICK PFEIFFER
pfeifferr@gnnewspaper.com
A winter storm that the National Weather Service called “of historic proportions” slammed into the Niagara Region on Thursday with a fury fueled by brilliant flashes of lightning and window rattling bursts of thunder.
The devastating storm is being blamed for three deaths, including one in Niagara County. By mid-day Friday, it had also left an estimated 390,000 residential and business customers of National Grid and New York State Electric and Gas without electrical power.
Officials with National Grid were warning on Friday evening that restoring power to affected businesses and customers could take until sometime next weekend.
“We have pretty much completed our field surveys of the damage,” said National Grid spokesman Steve Brady. “It is pretty clear that we have a level of damage that is unprecedented in Western New York.”
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/gnnlocalnews_story_286201542.html
STORM 2006: Media image sticks, even if snow doesn’t
By KEVIN PURDY
purdyk@gnnewspaper.com
On Friday night and through much of Saturday, anyone in Western New York who could find working television or computer could see that their story was the big news item.
Each of the network newscasts led off with images of broken trees, furious shoveling and orange-jacketed line crews hard at work Friday night. Cable channels kept the images in rotation all day.
Front pages in newspapers in upstate New York and Ontario, national sections from Boston to Houston and Web news sites carried headlines describing a “paralyzed” or “crippled” region that had been “clobbered,” “blasted” and “buried” by “record-breaking” or just “bizarre” snow.
By Sunday afternoon, most of the national media had moved on — or back, rather — to the war in Iraq, the latest in the Amish school killings and the upcoming elections. But they’ve done their best to ensure that the image of a region doomed to suffer whenever the wind changes sticks in people’s heads long after power has been restored and roads have been cleared.
Associated Press stories continually updated throughout Friday and Saturday described Buffalo as being “world-famous for its wintry weather,” setting up a description of the unexpected storm’s power to leave the city “all but paralyzed” on Friday.
The New York Times devoted a story on Saturday to describing the troubles that gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer encountered Thursday night at Buffalo Niagara International Airport after his final debate against Republican opponent John Faso.
The article described Spitzer as optimistic early in the night that he’d be able to board a plane by 1:30 a.m., but ends up describing an all-night effort to escape the region and get back to New York.
“We’ll be fine. Buffalo is good at weather,” reporter Eric Konigsberg quoted Spitzer as saying early in the night. Konigsberg later describes Spitzer’s crew as having to push his SUV back onto a local road during a three-hour drive.
Albany’s NBC affiliate carried a story Sunday telling how some area residents have been heading as far as the Capital Region to find portable generators in stock. Stephanie Wolf of Buffalo described her hometown to one of the reporters.
“Awful, awful. It looks like a bomb hit,” she said. “Trees are snapped off at the top parts and the lines are just crossing the roads.”
By Sunday afternoon, the story had moved off the New York Times’ “Most E-Mailed” list — it had held as high as ninth place on Friday — and was missing altogether from CNN.com’s index page. But anyone wanting to follow up on the story need look no further than the local Web log community for updates on how the area is building itself up again.
Bloggers around the region posted throughout the weekend about their trials and recovery efforts. The blog tracking site Technorati counted more than 600 posts made on Saturday with the words “Buffalo” and “snow” in them, up from a typical number around 100 on Thursday.
One blogger who describes himself as a “23-year-old computer nerd” on his MySpace page wrote about sharing (or unintentionally sharing) his family’s generator with neighbors, as well as the quest to find a working gas station near his father’s workplace in Lockport.
“I dunno what the national headlines said about us, but we are a tough town and got through,” he wrote on his blog. “There was a professional hockey game this evening downtown and it was a near sell-out, which just shows that Buffalonians are tough and just want to enjoy watching the game.”
Another Web log, dubbed “Grandpa’s Thoughts,” told a similar story.
“Please don’t think a little snow will stop Buffalo,” a post Saturday morning read. “We know what to do with it, and recover real fast.”
http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/gnnlocalnews_story_288150232.html
By Spencer Weart
Mr. Weart is Director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics.
Informed people now understand that global warming is perhaps the most severe challenge facing the well-being of human society in the coming century. Only a dwindling minority of Americans now denies this (an even smaller fraction believe that we are regularly visited by space aliens). But those who deny it include powerful people, whose interests or ideology are threatened by government regulation of the fossil fuels that are the main source of the danger we face.
History is often used in these arguments. Its role can be direct, as when global-warming denialists assert that not long ago scientists were “spectacularly wrong” in claiming that not warming but a new Ice Age threatened us. So writes, for example, the columnist George Will, quoting from news magazines of the early 1970s. However, when people checked the history they found that Will, following a practice common among denialists, “cherry-picked” a few items that served his purpose from a much larger body of evidence.1 Here’s the real history. In the 1970s scientists discovered that climate can be catastrophically variable; they didn’t agree on what would come next; but they all agreed that they knew too little at the time to make a confident prediction. Any resemblance to the current strong scientific consensus is a fantasy.
http://www.hnn.us/articles/30148.html
Introduction:
A Hyperlinked History of Climate Change Science
"To a patient scientist, the unfolding greenhouse mystery is far more exciting than the plot of the best mystery novel. But it is slow reading, with new clues sometimes not appearing for several years. Impatience increases when one realizes that it is not the fate of some fictional character, but of our planet and species, which hangs in the balance as the great carbon mystery unfolds at a seemingly glacial pace."
— D. Schindler(1)
It is an epic story: the struggle of thousands of men and women over the course of a century for very high stakes. For some, the work required actual physical courage, a risk to life and limb in icy wastes or on the high seas. The rest needed more subtle forms of courage. They gambled decades of arduous effort on the chance of a useful discovery, and staked their reputations on what they claimed to have found. Even as they stretched their minds to the limit on intellectual problems that often proved insoluble, their attention was diverted into grueling administrative struggles to win minimal support for the great work. A few took the battle into the public arena, often getting more blame than praise; most labored to the end of their lives in obscurity. In the end they did win their goal, which was simply knowledge.
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/summary.htm
VIEWPOINT: The cold reality about global warming
By: Lou Smyrlis
Global warming and what we should do about it, is definitely, pardon the pun, a hot issue. Our August issue feature about forward-thinking shippers and carriers who are already taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated several calls and e-mails.
Many, while conceding transportation's role as significant contributor to greenhouse gases, expressed the same concerns: How can we possibly make a logical decision, one way or the other, given the complexity surrounding climate change -- we can't even get our weekly weather forecasts right half the time, how can we predict what's going to happen in 50 years?
Others pointed to the conflicting information that's out there -- some consider global warming a grave problem requiring immediate attention, while others, including some scientists, agree with James Inhofe, chairman of the American Senate's environment and public works committee, when he calls the threat of catastrophic global warming the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated."
http://www.ctl.ca/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=60994&issue=10062006
STORM 2006: Cleanup efforts under way
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006
STORM AFTERMATH: Carbon monoxide poisoning, clogged admissions causing problems
By Mark Lindsay/lindsaym@gnnewspaper.co
One of the dangers of being without power is the measures people take to get their power back on.
Some hospitals in the area are reporting a spike in carbon monoxide poisoning due to people using alternative methods of power and heat.
At Kenmore Mercy Hospital, spokesman Dennis McCarthy said they have seen five cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Other Catholic Health hospitals, including Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo and Sisters Hospital, were also reporting several cases of it. At Sisters, an entire family was taken in with effects of carbon monoxide poisoning.
At DeGraff Memorial Hospital in North Tonawanda, emergency room director Dr. Martin Barron said they have seen about 15 cases since the storm hit.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/local_story_288160758.html
FLOODING: Farmers concerned with crop
By Bill Wolcott/wolcottb@gnnewspaper.com
Crops in Niagara County may have survived the October storm shocker, but may not make it to the market.
Mindy and Oscar Vizcarra of Becker Farms of Gasport can’t get to acres of apples and pumpkins because of mud and standing water. The Red Creek flood plain is flooded, blocking tractors and u-pick customers from thousands of apples and pumpkins across Quaker Road.
At the Donald Walck farm on Lockport Road near Comstock, there are acres of soy beans and corn ready to be harvested. However, the mud and wet fields won’t let the farmer get to the crop.
“We don’t know how bad it is yet,” said Walck, who has been farming the large farm since 1951. “I have never seen this much rain from August through October. We need a week of good weather to start harvesting. We have a good crop.”
The soy beans have not been affected yet, but some of the corn has mold. Soy beans must be at a certain moisture at harvest.
“This is one of the worst months,” Walck said of the rain. “What we need is some dry weather. You can’t do anything in the rain.”
Walck may also lose the second and third cutting of the hay. He hopes to be able to begin some harvesting on Monday.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/local_story_288155650.html
STORM 2006: Thousands of residents flock to hotels for shelter
BY RICK FORGIONE AND JILL TERRERI
forgioner@gnnewspaper.com
The snow started falling and the lights went out at the Buffalo home of David and Amanda Johnson.
It was the perfect time to go on their honeymoon.
“We got married a month ago and didn’t have a chance to go on one,” Mrs. Johnson said, “but we’ve been meaning to come to Niagara Falls for a weekend. The storm gave us the perfect excuse.”
Thousands of vacant hotel rooms north of Erie County filled up fast as a result of the season’s first winter storm. The loss of power sent families scrambling for shelter as early as Thursday night. By Saturday, most of the hotels still operating were at full capacity.
The storm boosted business at hotels throughout Niagara County and Tonawanda.
But it also caused some serious trials for at least two couples on Friday, when they were forced to reschedule their wedding receptions after the Holiday Inn on Grand Island lost power.
The 261-bed hotel lost power in the early evening on Thursday and regained it Friday night.
The two couples were married during ceremonies on Friday and left on their honeymoons, but will reschedule their receptions for a later date. Meanwhile, the receptions of two other couples scheduled for Saturday were to go on as planned, according to Dale VanAlstien, director of catering for the hotel.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/gnnlocalnews_story_288113311.html
STORM 2006: Power out for nearly 400,000
EMERGENCY SHELTERS
Niagara County residents who are without heat and power can seek shelter at these locations:
n The Salvation Army, Cottage Street, Lockport
n North Tonawanda High School, Meadow Drive in North Tonawanda
n Wolcottsville Fire Company, Town of Royalton
BY RICK PFEIFFER
pfeifferr@gnnewspaper.com
A winter storm that the National Weather Service called “of historic proportions” slammed into the Niagara Region on Thursday with a fury fueled by brilliant flashes of lightning and window rattling bursts of thunder.
The devastating storm is being blamed for three deaths, including one in Niagara County. By mid-day Friday, it had also left an estimated 390,000 residential and business customers of National Grid and New York State Electric and Gas without electrical power.
Officials with National Grid were warning on Friday evening that restoring power to affected businesses and customers could take until sometime next weekend.
“We have pretty much completed our field surveys of the damage,” said National Grid spokesman Steve Brady. “It is pretty clear that we have a level of damage that is unprecedented in Western New York.”
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/gnnlocalnews_story_286201542.html
STORM 2006: Media image sticks, even if snow doesn’t
By KEVIN PURDY
purdyk@gnnewspaper.com
On Friday night and through much of Saturday, anyone in Western New York who could find working television or computer could see that their story was the big news item.
Each of the network newscasts led off with images of broken trees, furious shoveling and orange-jacketed line crews hard at work Friday night. Cable channels kept the images in rotation all day.
Front pages in newspapers in upstate New York and Ontario, national sections from Boston to Houston and Web news sites carried headlines describing a “paralyzed” or “crippled” region that had been “clobbered,” “blasted” and “buried” by “record-breaking” or just “bizarre” snow.
By Sunday afternoon, most of the national media had moved on — or back, rather — to the war in Iraq, the latest in the Amish school killings and the upcoming elections. But they’ve done their best to ensure that the image of a region doomed to suffer whenever the wind changes sticks in people’s heads long after power has been restored and roads have been cleared.
Associated Press stories continually updated throughout Friday and Saturday described Buffalo as being “world-famous for its wintry weather,” setting up a description of the unexpected storm’s power to leave the city “all but paralyzed” on Friday.
The New York Times devoted a story on Saturday to describing the troubles that gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer encountered Thursday night at Buffalo Niagara International Airport after his final debate against Republican opponent John Faso.
The article described Spitzer as optimistic early in the night that he’d be able to board a plane by 1:30 a.m., but ends up describing an all-night effort to escape the region and get back to New York.
“We’ll be fine. Buffalo is good at weather,” reporter Eric Konigsberg quoted Spitzer as saying early in the night. Konigsberg later describes Spitzer’s crew as having to push his SUV back onto a local road during a three-hour drive.
Albany’s NBC affiliate carried a story Sunday telling how some area residents have been heading as far as the Capital Region to find portable generators in stock. Stephanie Wolf of Buffalo described her hometown to one of the reporters.
“Awful, awful. It looks like a bomb hit,” she said. “Trees are snapped off at the top parts and the lines are just crossing the roads.”
By Sunday afternoon, the story had moved off the New York Times’ “Most E-Mailed” list — it had held as high as ninth place on Friday — and was missing altogether from CNN.com’s index page. But anyone wanting to follow up on the story need look no further than the local Web log community for updates on how the area is building itself up again.
Bloggers around the region posted throughout the weekend about their trials and recovery efforts. The blog tracking site Technorati counted more than 600 posts made on Saturday with the words “Buffalo” and “snow” in them, up from a typical number around 100 on Thursday.
One blogger who describes himself as a “23-year-old computer nerd” on his MySpace page wrote about sharing (or unintentionally sharing) his family’s generator with neighbors, as well as the quest to find a working gas station near his father’s workplace in Lockport.
“I dunno what the national headlines said about us, but we are a tough town and got through,” he wrote on his blog. “There was a professional hockey game this evening downtown and it was a near sell-out, which just shows that Buffalonians are tough and just want to enjoy watching the game.”
Another Web log, dubbed “Grandpa’s Thoughts,” told a similar story.
“Please don’t think a little snow will stop Buffalo,” a post Saturday morning read. “We know what to do with it, and recover real fast.”
http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/gnnlocalnews_story_288150232.html
Niagara designated federal disaster area
October 15, 2006.
Tonawanda, New York.
A long time resident of the town stated she has never seen devastation this bad before.
STAFF REPORT
Washington, D.C. -- Early Sunday evening, President Bush declared Niagara, Erie, Orleans and Genesee counties federal disaster areas, potentially allowing millions of dollars in aid to be directed here in the aftermath of the freak October snow storm that dumped more than two feet of snow and left 390,000 homes and businesses without power.
Bush’s Emergency Declaration for the state will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency to begin assisting with ongoing recovery efforts. Clean-up and related expenses can now be 75 percent federally funded, with 25 percent in matching funds coming from state and local governments.
The assistance can be used to help state and local governments with debris removal and emergency protective measures designed to save lives, protect public health, and ensure safety and property, according to the White House.
Ancient Thai temples under flood threat
October 13, 2006
Bangkok, Thialand
16.10 09:16 4 x 406
/Thailand-Nature/Floods/
Ancient Thai temples under flood threat
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Bangkok (dpa) - Flood barriers have become nearly as common as temples in the central plains provinces of Thailand in efforts to hold back an overflowing Chao Phraya River.
Throughout the rice-growing region, more than 100 temples have been damaged and some submerged, the government reported. Food and drinking water have been taken to monks marooned at some of the temples.
Many of the temples, some of them UNESCO World Heritage sites, are protected by sandbag barriers with pumps running around the clock.
In Nakhon Sawan, 210 kilometres north of Bangkok, civilians joined government authorities Monday to try to contain the rain-induced flooding.
The Fine Arts Department, which is responsible for preserving Thailand's historical sites, mobilized efforts to drain water from the temple Wat Koh-hong and its historically important main chapel, which the department finished restoring earlier this year.
On Wednesday, the Chao Phraya in Nakhon Sawan province hit its highest level in the 60 years that records have been kept, and even though the water level has fallen since then, it remained high enough to flood much of the area.
Soldiers in Ayutthaya, the capital of Siam from 1350 to 1767 and home to temple and palace ruins designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, increased the height of sandbag barriers Monday around some of the historic temples 90 kilometres north of Bangkok.
The Chao Phraya which drains most of northern and central Thailand has hit record highs from the run-off of heavy rains in the north of the country over the past couple of months. The situation has been compounded by heavy rains in the central plains this month.
The Royal Irrigation Department has begun diverting floodwaters from the Chao Phraya into 223,000 hectares of farmland in central provinces to save Bangkok from flooding.
Samart Chokanapitak, director general of the department, said dykes have been built in Bangkok to hold back the high water but he feared some of them in the provinces just north of Bangkok were not strong enough and some communities could be submerged.
It's already too late in some areas, including Suphan Buri province, 110 kilometres northwest of Bangkok, where several famous temples were submerged when the Tajeen River overflowed its banks.
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