The Antarctica Ice Chime
Monday, October 30, 2006
Click on for animation
October 30, 2006
9:00 AM
Antarctica is hot. It's going to be a long, hot summer. Not fun. This is not fun to watch either. The countries with camps there need to dispatch teams now, but, with strict instructions for vigilance to any change in ice conditions. The seas are going to be torturous this year with much more sea ice and large ice flows. There probably will be early icebergs of larger size. To all on the way to Antarctica, be careful, this will be a dangerous season with no ozone over head either. I would expect to see an abundance of marine mammals. It was a good freeze over the winter so there should be plenty of phytoplankton and algae with the first melt. Good luck to all.
There are many more 'temperate' areas this week. Vostok is 53 degrees C with a humidity of 35 percent (click on). I would anticpate a rise in humidity if there was significant sublimation/vaporations of the ice.
Photographer states :: Stormy Morning
October 27, 2006
Tynemouth, United Kingdom
With a severe storm the photographer went to the mouth of the Tyne River in the early hours of morning light to find out how the boats entering the river were managing. He was obviously concerned for their ability to navigate the passage. It takes a skilled and knowledgable person to attempt such a brave task. I am confident he sat vigilant with cell phone in hand.
Photographer states :: Rough Passage
October 27, 2006
Car transporter entering the Tyne River, United Kingdom
Morning Papers - concluded
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Some cloud
-12.0°
Updated Monday 30 Oct 9:15PM
Glacier Bay Weather (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
34 °F / 1 °C
Overcast
Humidity:
65%
Dew Point:
23 °F / -5 °C
Wind:
Calm
Pressure:
30.41 in / 1030 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Scattered Clouds 2900 ft / 883 m
Overcast 5000 ft / 1524 m
(Above Ground Level)
concluded
Scott Base
Some cloud
-12.0°
Updated Monday 30 Oct 9:15PM
Glacier Bay Weather (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
34 °F / 1 °C
Overcast
Humidity:
65%
Dew Point:
23 °F / -5 °C
Wind:
Calm
Pressure:
30.41 in / 1030 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Scattered Clouds 2900 ft / 883 m
Overcast 5000 ft / 1524 m
(Above Ground Level)
concluded
Flooding, High Wind to 50 mph and High Water in Penobscot, Maine
October 29, 2006
Photographer states :: Ridge (dog's name) has no fear. Here he is today, playing on the boat ramp in 50 mph winds. Doesn't bother him a bit, if he goes into the bay he loves to swim, so no problem.
I little bit of a casual attitude but it keeps the photographer on high ground and watchful rather than seeking rescue of a dog who has his circumstances under control. I am sure Ridge has seen it all.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
The Blog seems to be damaged. It's not operating well. Correction, it wasn't operating well last night. It has nothing to do with Google.
There has been a tracker program with an independent 'Window' obstructing access. No lie. It's a high level 'program' not a virus.
I didn't detect it until I started to shut the computer down. The independant window appeared for only a brief moment and I wasn't able to capture the address. I am convinced it's on the laptop in memory somewhere so I'll take it for evaluation.
There has been a tracker program with an independent 'Window' obstructing access. No lie. It's a high level 'program' not a virus.
I didn't detect it until I started to shut the computer down. The independant window appeared for only a brief moment and I wasn't able to capture the address. I am convinced it's on the laptop in memory somewhere so I'll take it for evaluation.
The strange part was the windows I had opened appeared and disappeared and reappeared at will. It was strange. I think they were being viewed by someone else whenever I couldn't see them on the screen. I wasn't doing anything significant except a little blogging, but, there was someone else within the connectivity between my laptop and the net.
Just thought I'd pass it on.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
The purpose for this entry tonight was to bring to light the benign changes, such as Daylight Savings Time, that occurred under the current Ruling Class in DC. These changes were accomplished for one reason, not to govern and improve the lives of Americans but to estrange from them any orientation to freedom and the understanding of life as it existed Pre-"W" Bush.
The authority of the country seeks not correctness but influence, it seeks to accomplish that through disorientation and reorientation. There are changes in language and focus that is troubling. This is one of the more benign areas of change but yet when measured on a global scale is the most insulting to the American society. In changing 'accepted' aspects of society will there be 'insistance' to reorient the international standards we all find function in, namely The International Date Line/Grenwich Mean Time.
The reason for estranging benign standards is not benevolent and expansive in coming to terms with a complex subject such as democracy but to create chaos in an ordered/structured world.
One other thing, I am exceptionally concerned over the 'lack of authority' noted in reporting news and information to the people of the USA. In the recent statements regarding the Southern California Wildfires there has been no concrete proof provided that would assist the public in bringing arsonists to justice. There is simply the statement that arson is the cause. That is unacceptable and while the public seeks solice in knowing authority has 'control' over all events so adverse it is far better for the public to demand prooof rather than blindly accept statements of that nature.
In realizing the extent to which 'disorientation' has taken place in the USA, it is reasonable to not only criticize the current government over falling SAT scores but to seek acknowledgement of changes in textbooks used by children in the learning environment and come to understand the 'disinformation' that might be causing a decline in achievement of our future brain trust.
Basically, the people of the USA have a lot of work to do in reclaiming their government from the hands of incompetence.
Later.
The authority of the country seeks not correctness but influence, it seeks to accomplish that through disorientation and reorientation. There are changes in language and focus that is troubling. This is one of the more benign areas of change but yet when measured on a global scale is the most insulting to the American society. In changing 'accepted' aspects of society will there be 'insistance' to reorient the international standards we all find function in, namely The International Date Line/Grenwich Mean Time.
The reason for estranging benign standards is not benevolent and expansive in coming to terms with a complex subject such as democracy but to create chaos in an ordered/structured world.
One other thing, I am exceptionally concerned over the 'lack of authority' noted in reporting news and information to the people of the USA. In the recent statements regarding the Southern California Wildfires there has been no concrete proof provided that would assist the public in bringing arsonists to justice. There is simply the statement that arson is the cause. That is unacceptable and while the public seeks solice in knowing authority has 'control' over all events so adverse it is far better for the public to demand prooof rather than blindly accept statements of that nature.
In realizing the extent to which 'disorientation' has taken place in the USA, it is reasonable to not only criticize the current government over falling SAT scores but to seek acknowledgement of changes in textbooks used by children in the learning environment and come to understand the 'disinformation' that might be causing a decline in achievement of our future brain trust.
Basically, the people of the USA have a lot of work to do in reclaiming their government from the hands of incompetence.
Later.
Time by Pink Floyd
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to nought
Or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desparation is the English way
The time is gone
The song is over
Thought I'd something more to say
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to nought
Or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desparation is the English way
The time is gone
The song is over
Thought I'd something more to say
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells
Friday, October 27, 2006
Global Warming
Global Warming Worries Iowa Farmers
By AMY LORENTZEN 10.25.06, 5:53 AM ET
Gary Larsen, who grows corn and soybeans in western Iowa, is among a growing number of farmers who are concerned about the potential effects of global warming.
Like Larsen, many in the agriculture industry are developing or adopting new technologies and farming methods to brace for the possibility of widespread drought and crop-pounding storms.
The industry has been especially aggressive in breeding and developing crops that more efficiently use soil moisture and nutrients and developing pest-resistant and drought-tolerant crops.
"We don't know how the world could actually turn out, but doing absolutely nothing and sticking your head in the sand is not an option," said Larsen, a 63-year-old grandfather who lives near Elk Horn.
In the past century, the Earth's surface temperature has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit and could climb another 5 to 10 degrees over the next century, according to government officials. The Environmental Protection Agency has blamed human activities for most of the warming over the last 50 years, including the buildup of greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.
"It's dire in the sense that this problem is already with us, and it's hard to see how it can go away," said Kevin E. Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
Crops that more efficiently use soil moisture and nutrients can ward off disease and pests that stress plants trying to cope with increased temperatures, experts say.
William Niebur, vice president of DuPont (nyse: DD - news - people ) Crop Genetics Research and Development, said the evidence of climate change includes the migration of successful corn production north 100 miles over the past three decades.
Niebur's company is developing pest-resistant and drought-tolerant crops. "It's really a holistic approach, understanding that the ecosystem is changing," he said.
Emerging technology has already been aiding crop production, said Jon Doggett, vice president of public policy for the National Corn Growers Association. "You are seeing good corn yields under conditions that would have probably been a crop disaster 20 years ago," he said.
Improved soil management methods are reducing greenhouse gases. No-till farming, for example, where farmers plant crops without using machines to plow or turn over the soil, cuts down on energy use and keeps carbon in the ground instead of releasing it into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
Farmers also are planting crops that require less fertilizer and herbicides; using alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel; capturing methane gas from livestock for energy production; and harnessing wind power.
Many are beginning to sort out water supply problems as warm, dry areas expand. This includes examining water rights before shortages happen and studying dwindling mountain snowpacks that supply farmers with water during spring melting. Faced with fiercer storms that cause rain to hit the ground and run off rather than be absorbed, researchers are exploring ways to capture the precipitation.
Francis Thicke, an organic dairy farmer and soil fertility expert from Fairfield in southeast Iowa, said he provides his 130 animals with grassy areas to forage for food. He said that cuts down on fuel needs because he's not growing as much grain for feed and allows carbon to remain in the soil because there's no need for tilling.
Thicke said he believes politicians should end subsidies to farmers who grow crops such as corn and soybeans in a way that robs the soil of nutrients and requires lots of energy.
"Our whole farming system really contributes a lot to global warming and it could be made to be much more sustainable," he said.
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/ap/2006/10/25/ap3117922.html
The £50 'global warming' jet tax
Kirsty Walker, Daily Mail
25 October 2006
Holidaymakers could be hit with a 'global warming' tax of up to £50 under plans aimed at forcing airlines to reduce gas emissions.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett yesterday said the new charges should be imposed by as early as 2008 or Britain will be thrown into ' climate chaos'.
In a keynote speech in Berlin, she urged Brussels to speed up plans to enforce the levy on airlines to encourage them to fly more fuel-efficient planes and deter people from travelling by air.
The cost is almost certain to be passed on to holidaymakers as budget airlines would be worst affected by what the aviation industry describes as a 'tax on holidays'.
Experts say the scheme could put £50 on the cost of flying from London to California, £35 on tickets to New York and between £5 and £10 on flights within Europe.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=414018&in_page_id=2
Gore scoffs at Reichert's stance on global warming
By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times staff reporter
Environmental policy took center stage in this year's congressional races on Tuesday, with candidates for U.S. Senate holding dueling news conferences across the state and former Vice President Al Gore expressing incredulity at Republican Rep. Dave Reichert's views on global warming.
At a Seattle University conference room, Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell — flanked by Gore and Reichert's Democratic challenger, Darcy Burner — cited her legislation to end subsidies to oil companies and refocus energy policy on alternative fuels.
"We want to get on with this revolution," she said.
Campaigning in Eastern Washington, Republican Mike McGavick, a former insurance executive, spoke at a viewpoint overlooking Ice Harbor Dam near the Tri-Cities.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2003321663_gore25m.html
Ski resorts fight global warming
Renewable energy sources supply power
10-27) 04:00 PDT Norden, Nevada County -- For the ski industry, both in California and rest of the nation, there is no greater truth than global warming, with its threat of a shrinking snowpack and the point that Yogi Berra once made so succinctly: "The future ain't what it used to be.''
Since 1950, spring temperatures in the Sierra Nevada have increased 2 to 3 degrees, bringing peak snowmelt two to three weeks sooner. Twenty-five years ago, snow-making machines were unusual in the area. Today, the majority of Sierra winter sports facilities make snow as soon as conditions dictate.
If nothing is done to curb emissions, greenhouse gas emissions could raise Sierra temperatures another 5 or 6 degrees by the end of the 21st century, according to some projections. The snowpack could be reduced by 89 percent.
The same is true for Aspen, where global warming could give the Colorado town the climate of Los Alamos, N.M., by 2100.
Climate change has become Topic A in the industry. And many resort owners are trying to do something about it. About 46 U.S. resorts are spending to help expand the market for renewable energy sources, particularly wind. Nineteen are offsetting 100 percent of their energy use by purchasing wind-power credits. The list includes many of the nation's major ski resorts.
These resorts are still receiving power from the electrical grid at regular rates. But they're also paying a premium to renewable energy retailers. The retailers in turn contract with wind farms or generate alternative power themselves to add wind-generated energy to the nation's electrical grid. This expands the market for wind power and reduces the need for fossil fuels such as coal and gas.
"We're not going to defeat global warming, but we can mitigate it,'' said Bob Roberts, executive director of the California Ski Industry Association. "People say you can't do anything about it. That's sophistry. I don't think you can make the case for its inevitability and sit back and watch our grandchildren fry.''
Wind is fastest-growing
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/27/SKI.TMP
Sea change: why global warming could leave Britain feeling the cold
· No new ice age yet, but Gulf Stream is weakening
· Atlantic current came to halt for 10 days in 2004
James Randerson, science correspondent
Friday October 27, 2006
Scientists have uncovered more evidence for a dramatic weakening in the vast ocean current that gives Britain its relatively balmy climate by dragging warm water northwards from the tropics. The slowdown, which climate modellers have predicted will follow global warming, has been confirmed by the most detailed study yet of ocean flow in the Atlantic.
Most alarmingly, the data reveal that a part of the current, which is usually 60 times more powerful than the Amazon river, came to a temporary halt during November 2004.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1932761,00.html
Pacific islands to sink under global warming, forum warned
1.00pm Wednesday October 25, 2006
By Kathy Marks
While rich nations tinker with policies that may shave their carbon dioxide emissions, low-lying South Pacific nations like Kiribati are sinking beneath the waves.
Kiribati, an archipelago of 33 coral atolls barely 6ft above sea level, is vanishing as global warming causes the oceans to rise.
Yesterday its president, Anote Tong, warned Australia and New Zealand - the two developed countries in the region - to prepare for a mass exodus within the next decade.
Speaking at the annual South Pacific Forum in Fiji, Mr Tong said that rising sea levels would create countless environmental refugees.
"If we are talking about our island states submerging in ten years' time, we simply have to find somewhere else to go," he said.
Environmentalists have warned that the effects of global warming, caused by a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, will include thermal expansion and a meltdown of glaciers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10407508
Captains of commerce turn heat on global warming
Kimina Lyall
October 28, 2006
BUSINESS and government should take unilateral action to arrest climate change instead of waiting for a consensus to emerge on the issue, ANZ Bank chief executive John McFarlane said.
Adding to a growing chorus of business voices urging action on global warming, Mr McFarlane urged market-based solutions including penalties for the most polluting forms of energy and subsidies for cleaner forms.
"Even before the costs of carbon emissions are fully reflected in market prices, business should be willing to pay more for sustainable products, clean sources of energy, more efficient energy use and embrace five-star environmental building policies," Mr McFarlane writes in an article for The Weekend Australian.
"Climate change is no longer a 'far in the future' issue. It is affecting us right now."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20658495-643,00.html
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
"They shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records..."
-- George W. Bush, April 24, 2003
October 27th, 2006 2:04 am
‘Shut Up & Sing’ is right in tune
Documentary is a piercing look at free speech and celebrity image
Associated Press
The Dixie Chicks would probably think of themselves as mothers first, then musicians.
They became accidental political figures — then they had to figure out how to reinvent themselves.
“Shut Up & Sing,” a documentary from directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck, follows the country trio after lead singer Natalie Maines’ offhanded on-stage comment that the group was ashamed that President Bush was a fellow Texan.
It’s not that the remark itself was shocking or even terribly provocative. But the backlash from the country music industry, from the South, from the core of the Chicks’ fan base was just stunning in its vitriol and hypocrisy. The same people who are so proud to live in a country where freedom of speech is an inalienable right wanted to silence these women — and worse.
Many complained that Maines shouldn’t have said such a thing on foreign soil (a 2003 concert in London) as the United States was about to go to war in Iraq. And as fiddler Martie Maguire so astutely points out, it’s the source of the comment that made it seem offensive: These were America’s sweethearts from the heartland, the top-selling female act of all time. At the film’s start, they’re singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. You can’t get much more patriotic than that.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8211
Currently 3926 Friends. Join the Blog. Join Free Speech.
http://myspace.com/shutupandsing
Lots of cities added November 10th
http://myspace.com/dixiechicks
October 27th, 2006 11:47 am
Confession that formed base of Iraq war was acquired under torture: journalist
LONDON (AFP) - An Al-Qaeda terror suspect captured by the United States, who gave evidence of links between Iraq and the terror network, confessed after being tortured, a journalist told the BBC.
Iban al Shakh al Libby told intelligence agents that he was close to Al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and "understood an awful lot about the inner workings of Al-Qaeda," former FBI agent Jack Clonan told the broadcaster.
Libby was tortured in an Egyptian prison, according to Stephen Grey, the author of the newly-released book "Ghost Plane" who investigated the secret US Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA) prisons that housed terror suspects around the world.
US President George W. Bush confirmed the existence of the network of CIA holding facilities overseas during a September 6 speech defending controversial US interrogation practices.
Libby was apparently taken to Cairo, Clonan told the broadcaster, after being captured in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
"He (Libby) claims he was tortured in jail and that would be routine in Egyptian prisons," Grey said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8214
October 27th, 2006 11:43 am
White House denies Cheney OK'd torture
By Terence Hunt / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The White House said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney was not talking about a torture technique known as "water boarding" when he said dunking terrorism suspects in water during questioning was a "no-brainer."
Human rights groups complained that Cheney's comments amounted to an endorsement of water boarding, in which the victim believes he is about to drown.
President Bush, asked about Cheney's comments, said, "This country doesn't torture. We're not going to torture." He spoke at an Oval Office meeting Friday with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Earlier, White House press secretary Tony Snow denied that Cheney had endorsed water boarding.
"You know as a matter of common sense that the vice president of the United States is not going to be talking about water boarding. Never would, never does, never will," Snow said. "You think Dick Cheney's going to slip up on something like this? No, come on."
In an interview Tuesday with WDAY of Fargo, N.D., Cheney was asked if "a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8213
October 26th, 2006 4:37 pm
Cheney endorses simulated drowning
Calls use of water boarding a ‘no-brainer’ to get intelligence on terrorists
By Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times
WASHINGTON - Dick Cheney, US vice-president, has endorsed the use of "water boarding" for terror suspects and confirmed that the controversial interrogation technique was used on Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the senior al-Qaeda operative now being held at Guantánamo Bay.
Cheney was responding to a conservative radio interviewer who asked whether water boarding, which involves simulated drowning, was a "no-brainer" if the information it yielded would save American lives. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney replied.
The comments by the vice-president, who has been one of the leading advocates of reducing limitations on what interrogation techniques can be used in the war on terror, are the first public confirmation that water boarding has been used on suspects held in US custody.
"For a while there, I was criticized as being the 'vice-president for torture'," Cheney added. "We don't torture ... We live up to our obligations in international treaties that we're party to and so forth.
"But the fact is, you can have a fairly robust interrogation program without torture and we need to be able to do that."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8206
October 27th, 2006 12:42 pm
Witness Grilled in CIA Leak Case
By Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald took on the first witness in the CIA leak case Thursday, dissecting an expert witness until she acknowledged errors and misstatements in her research.
Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, hoped the hearing would persuade a judge to let him call a memory expert at his obstruction and perjury trial in January.
At the outset of the procedural hearing, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton indicated that he was not inclined to allow a memory expert to testify at the trial. Still, he allowed Libby's lawyers to present a witness to bolster their claim that memory experts would help in his defense.
When it came Fitzgerald's turn, the veteran prosecutor launched into a nearly three-hour cross-examination of the witness — psychologist Elizabeth Loftus — that had some members of the audience shaking their heads.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8217
October 27th, 2006 1:34 pm
IG: Halliburton subsidiary abused rules
By Anne Plummer Flaherty / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Halliburton subsidiary that provides food, shelter and other logistics to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan exploited federal regulations to hide details on its contract performance, according to a report released Friday.
The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found that Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root Services routinely marked all information it was giving the government as proprietary, whether it actually was or not. The government promises not to disclose proprietary data so a company's most valuable information is not divulged to its competitors.
By marking all information proprietary — including such normally releasable data as labor rates — the company abused federal regulations, the report says.
In effect, Kellogg, Brown & Root turned the regulations "into a mechanism to prevent the government from releasing normally transparent information, thus potentially hindering competition and oversight."
Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann did not provide immediate comment.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8219
October 27th, 2006 12:50 pm
Ex-Bush aide Safavian gets 18-month prison term
By Richard Cowan / Reuters
WASHINGTON - Former Bush administration official David Safavian was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Friday for lying and obstructing justice in connection with the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal that has ensnared Republicans.
Safavian, 39, a former chief of staff of the General Services Administration (GSA) and ex-White House budget office appointee, received the prison term less than two weeks before elections that will determine whether Republicans keep control of the U.S. Congress.
Besides the Iraq war, ethics breaches have dominated many Senate and House of Representatives campaigns, allowing Democrats to accuse Republicans of fostering a "culture of corruption" in Washington.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman sentenced Safavian, who had faced up to 20 years in prison after being convicted on four counts, to 18 months.
"I stand here contrite and ashamed," a tearful Safavian said at his sentencing. He acknowledged he should not have given disgraced Washington lobbyist Abramoff information on the GSA, but did not admit to the charges.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8218
We need videographers and volunteers to help document the 2006 elections
We are asking citizens in all states to become journalists on November 7th and be on guard to document potential problems that may occur in your area. We especially need you or anyone you know to help us if you are located in the following key states: Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
http://www.endtheblackout.org/
You don't have to be a registered voter to be a videographer
We need videographers and volunteers to help document the 2006 elections
We are asking citizens in all states to become journalists on November 7th and be on guard to document potential problems that may occur in your area. We especially need you or anyone you know to help us if you are located in the following key states: Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
http://www.endtheblackout.org/
You don't have to be an American citizen to be a vidoegrapher
We need videographers and volunteers to help document the 2006 elections
We are asking citizens in all states to become journalists on November 7th and be on guard to document potential problems that may occur in your area. We especially need you or anyone you know to help us if you are located in the following key states: Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
http://www.endtheblackout.org/
VOLUNTEER !!!
Thank you.
Marshall’s Walking Itinerary:
Everyone is welcome to walk with Marshall where there are sidewalks (in the cities and towns). Keep in mind that the times listed are approximations so please try to arrive early and check the website for any updates or changes. We encourage you to bring signs that promote peace, such as PEACE IN IRAQ, PLAN FOR PEACE, RESPONSIBLE WITHDRAWAL, etc. We will be walking in pairs (single file).
http://www.soldierspeace.com/route.htm
Marshall's Journal
http://www.soldierspeace.com/journal.htm
Friday, October 27th, 2006
'My Son's Last Blanket' ...by Amy Branham
We all know the history of the American flag. We know its symbology. White signifies purity and innocence; red signifies valor and bravery; and blue signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice. Each star represents one of the states in the Union .
Driving through my typical American neighborhood, I see that many of my neighbors fly American flags in their front yards. They fly their flags to show their support and love of their country. To them, displaying the flag in their yards is a sign of patriotism.
I do not ever fly or display my flag. My flag is encased in a triangular shaped wooden box on the top of a bookcase in my living room. It is easily visible to all who enter my home. Also encased in this wooden box are the medals my son earned during his service in the Army and the bullet casings from a salute done at his funeral. Each of those casings represents a different element taught in the United States Army -- Duty, Honor, Country.
The American flag means many things to many people. Some wrap themselves in the security of the flag and call themselves "patriotic." Some people burn the flag in an effort to show their displeasure with the American government.
These days, the flag carries and entirely different meaning for me. My flag was my son's last blanket. It covered his wooden coffin, used to signify that he died in the service of his country. My flag carries on it tears of sorrow and mourning for the loss of the son that I will never see again. I followed the colors of my flag in the funeral procession to my son‚s last resting place.
There have been too many of these flags covering the coffins of our war dead from the Iraq war. There have been too many families that have been presented with these flags that covered these coffins.
Please, help those of us who are trying to end this illegal, immoral war. Help us by getting out and voting this election season for the candidate who will do what is right by ending the Iraq war. Honor America's fallen sons and daughters and their sacrifices by voting.
If you do not vote, you have failed them. If you do not vote, their sacrifice will have been for nothing.
Amy Branham
Mother of Sgt. Jeremy R. Smith
Nov. 1981 -- Feb. 2004
www.gsfp.org
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=749
*NEW MESSAGE FROM CINDY
Sit Down for Peace, Justice, and Accountability
Cindy Sheehan
I usually end my articles with a call to action, but today, I begin with one. Maybe readers get bored with my pieces before the end and don't get to the action part, which is the most important part.
Gold Star Families for Peace is calling for an action in front of the White House on the days of November 6th to November 9th (due to the urgency of our situation, we are beginning the sit-in on Monday, Nov. 6th) to perform a Gandhi-like sit down for peace and justice. Join us to sit down for all or part of the time we will be there. We might as well face it, the White House is where the power is. Congress has spent 6 years invalidating themselves and creating a Unitary Executive Branch that pats Congress on the head for being obedient and circumvents the Supreme Court and goes whining to the same agreeable Congress when the Court (in rare cases) slaps Georgie on the wrist. The potential Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) has already said that if the Democrats take back the House, impeachment proceedings will not be forthcoming. Who's going to sit down with us to hold the war criminals in power accountable for their war crimes and crimes against humanity and peace?
http://www.gsfp.org/article.php?id=265
The Times Picayune
WHAT A DRAG
In the continuing trudge toward recovery, all you need is a piece of paper: a copy of an act of sale, a property deed, a mortgage certificate. Do you have 36 hours to spare?
Friday, October 27, 2006
By James Varney
Eraina Shorty lost her home in the Lake Carmel subdivision to Hurricane Katrina, but that tragedy occurred in a few hours. The headaches associated with trying to be made whole have dogged her for months.
Shorty confronted the most recent of them this week at the makeshift headquarters of the Orleans Parish Mortgage and Conveyance Office on the 18th floor at 1340 Poydras St. It is a place where people wait for hours -- sometimes, more than a day -- to navigate a paperwork labyrinth. Most of the waiting homeowners seek routine documents they need to unlock loan money promised, but not yet secured, either through a loan from the federal Small Business Administration or a grant from Louisiana's Road Home program.
They need a copy of an act of sale or deed. They need a property description. They need a certified copy of an SBA mortgage recorded to get their loan released.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1161927863115360.xml&coll=1
Entergy N.O. deal would soften increases
Electric rates frozen, gas bills to slowly rise
Friday, October 27, 2006
By Pam Radtke Russell
New Orleans electric and gas rates will rise minimally in the next year under an agreement the New Orleans City Council will consider today.
"This is much lower than anyone predicted," said Council President Oliver Thomas, who has been involved in the negotiations. "It's a home run.
"Within the law at this time in our history, this is a best-case scenario," Thomas said.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1161931153272760.xml&coll=1
IRS to delay enforcement actions in Katrina-hit areas
10/27/2006, 10:48 a.m. CT
By JIM ABRAMS
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS will put off until after the new year enforcement action against people in Hurricane Katrina-hit areas who are late in paying their income taxes, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said Friday.
Everson, in an interview with The Associated Press, said that, after consultation with career officials at the agency, he decided not to further extend the Oct. 16 deadline for the approximately 1.2 million taxpayers in hurricane-hit areas of Louisiana and Mississippi to file their 2005 returns.
The deadline had previously been extended several times in light of the many people who lost homes or financial records in the storm
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-28/1161964442158430.xml&storylist=louisiana
BUILDING BLOCKS
In hard-hit neighborhoods, the return of commercial strips will help decide whether residents come back. Along Gentilly Boulevard, a slow revival is taking shape.
Friday, October 27, 2006
By Jaquetta White
The businesses that bookend the two-block-long retail hub along Gentilly Boulevard tell the story best.
On one end, the parking lot of Liberty Bank at 3002 Gentilly Blvd. is overflowing with cars. Business was fast to return when the bank reopened in March and has not slowed.
At the other end, the 3216 Gentilly Blvd. address of what once was the flagship store of Zuppardo's Family Supermarket, now marks only rubble.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1161931986272760.xml&coll=1
Who's coming back ?
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/graphics/wide.ssf?/katrina/graphics/102706_gentillymap.jpg
Lee, NAACP to meet today over controversial Lee remarks
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee and officials with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have made plans to meet this afternoon and discuss Lee's recently announced anti-violence tactic of making random searches of black neighborhoods.
In a television interview that aired Thursday night on WWL, Lee said that crime is historically concentrated in black communities, and that's where he will focus his efforts. Lee said his deputies would perform searchers of people in those high-crime neighborhoods, possibly for just standing in a crowd on a street corner.
While Danatus King, president of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP, called the remarks offensive Thursday after watching the tape in the WWL studio, he declined to comment further on Friday. King opted, instead, to meet with Lee first and address the matter in a press conference scheduled for 2 p.m.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_10_27.html
Beating draws federal interest
FBI, U.S. attorney checking Folsom case
Friday, October 27, 2006
By Richard Boyd
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said Thursday that his office will review Saturday's beating of a black man by two white construction workers in Folsom to determine whether the pair can be prosecuted under federal civil rights laws.
Letten said he has assigned a federal prosecutor to the case to coordinate efforts with Folsom Police Chief Beau Killingsworth and the St. Tammany Parish district attorney's office. The FBI has been consulted and will look into the matter, he said.
One of the suspects, Denny Griffin, 35, of Flint, Mich., was rearrested Wednesday and booked at the parish jail in Covington on a felony charge of second-degree battery and commission of a hate crime. A $10,000 bond was set on the battery charge, but bond on the hate crime charge will not be set until today.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1161930769272760.xml&coll=1
FEMA OK's $18.2 million more for Plaquemines Parish
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau
An additional $18.2 million in federal hurricane recovery money was approved for Plaquemines Parish this week, officials said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said the additional money brings to $195.8 million the total approved for the parish since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered it last year.
The money has been dedicated to a number of projects, FEMA said in a news release. Among them:
-- $8.3 million for removal of asbestos containing materials throughout the parish.
-- $59.1 million to the Plaquemines Parish public school district for schools and materials.
-- $3.8 million for the Plaquemines Parish Medical Center for vehicles, buildings, furniture and equipment.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_10_27.html
Protesters in Mexico block roadways
10/27/2006, 3:50 p.m. CT
By REBECA ROMERO
The Associated Press
OAXACA, Mexico (AP) — Protesters cut off highways and beefed up street barricades in the southern city of Oaxaca on Friday, vowing not to abandon their fight to oust the state governor even though their movement appears to be splintering.
The blockade of four main roads into this colonial city, one of Mexico's top tourist destinations, came a day after teachers agreed to end their 5-month-old strike that has kept 1.3 million children out of classes in the state of Oaxaca — a move expected to take the sting out of the anti-government protests.
The teachers have been camped out in Oaxaca city's colonial center since May when they first walked out to demand higher pay and better working conditions.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/topstories/index.ssf?/base/international-9/1161982748170530.xml&storylist=topstories
continued …
Global Warming Worries Iowa Farmers
By AMY LORENTZEN 10.25.06, 5:53 AM ET
Gary Larsen, who grows corn and soybeans in western Iowa, is among a growing number of farmers who are concerned about the potential effects of global warming.
Like Larsen, many in the agriculture industry are developing or adopting new technologies and farming methods to brace for the possibility of widespread drought and crop-pounding storms.
The industry has been especially aggressive in breeding and developing crops that more efficiently use soil moisture and nutrients and developing pest-resistant and drought-tolerant crops.
"We don't know how the world could actually turn out, but doing absolutely nothing and sticking your head in the sand is not an option," said Larsen, a 63-year-old grandfather who lives near Elk Horn.
In the past century, the Earth's surface temperature has risen by about 1 degree Fahrenheit and could climb another 5 to 10 degrees over the next century, according to government officials. The Environmental Protection Agency has blamed human activities for most of the warming over the last 50 years, including the buildup of greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.
"It's dire in the sense that this problem is already with us, and it's hard to see how it can go away," said Kevin E. Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
Crops that more efficiently use soil moisture and nutrients can ward off disease and pests that stress plants trying to cope with increased temperatures, experts say.
William Niebur, vice president of DuPont (nyse: DD - news - people ) Crop Genetics Research and Development, said the evidence of climate change includes the migration of successful corn production north 100 miles over the past three decades.
Niebur's company is developing pest-resistant and drought-tolerant crops. "It's really a holistic approach, understanding that the ecosystem is changing," he said.
Emerging technology has already been aiding crop production, said Jon Doggett, vice president of public policy for the National Corn Growers Association. "You are seeing good corn yields under conditions that would have probably been a crop disaster 20 years ago," he said.
Improved soil management methods are reducing greenhouse gases. No-till farming, for example, where farmers plant crops without using machines to plow or turn over the soil, cuts down on energy use and keeps carbon in the ground instead of releasing it into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
Farmers also are planting crops that require less fertilizer and herbicides; using alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel; capturing methane gas from livestock for energy production; and harnessing wind power.
Many are beginning to sort out water supply problems as warm, dry areas expand. This includes examining water rights before shortages happen and studying dwindling mountain snowpacks that supply farmers with water during spring melting. Faced with fiercer storms that cause rain to hit the ground and run off rather than be absorbed, researchers are exploring ways to capture the precipitation.
Francis Thicke, an organic dairy farmer and soil fertility expert from Fairfield in southeast Iowa, said he provides his 130 animals with grassy areas to forage for food. He said that cuts down on fuel needs because he's not growing as much grain for feed and allows carbon to remain in the soil because there's no need for tilling.
Thicke said he believes politicians should end subsidies to farmers who grow crops such as corn and soybeans in a way that robs the soil of nutrients and requires lots of energy.
"Our whole farming system really contributes a lot to global warming and it could be made to be much more sustainable," he said.
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/ap/2006/10/25/ap3117922.html
The £50 'global warming' jet tax
Kirsty Walker, Daily Mail
25 October 2006
Holidaymakers could be hit with a 'global warming' tax of up to £50 under plans aimed at forcing airlines to reduce gas emissions.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett yesterday said the new charges should be imposed by as early as 2008 or Britain will be thrown into ' climate chaos'.
In a keynote speech in Berlin, she urged Brussels to speed up plans to enforce the levy on airlines to encourage them to fly more fuel-efficient planes and deter people from travelling by air.
The cost is almost certain to be passed on to holidaymakers as budget airlines would be worst affected by what the aviation industry describes as a 'tax on holidays'.
Experts say the scheme could put £50 on the cost of flying from London to California, £35 on tickets to New York and between £5 and £10 on flights within Europe.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=414018&in_page_id=2
Gore scoffs at Reichert's stance on global warming
By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times staff reporter
Environmental policy took center stage in this year's congressional races on Tuesday, with candidates for U.S. Senate holding dueling news conferences across the state and former Vice President Al Gore expressing incredulity at Republican Rep. Dave Reichert's views on global warming.
At a Seattle University conference room, Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell — flanked by Gore and Reichert's Democratic challenger, Darcy Burner — cited her legislation to end subsidies to oil companies and refocus energy policy on alternative fuels.
"We want to get on with this revolution," she said.
Campaigning in Eastern Washington, Republican Mike McGavick, a former insurance executive, spoke at a viewpoint overlooking Ice Harbor Dam near the Tri-Cities.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2003321663_gore25m.html
Ski resorts fight global warming
Renewable energy sources supply power
10-27) 04:00 PDT Norden, Nevada County -- For the ski industry, both in California and rest of the nation, there is no greater truth than global warming, with its threat of a shrinking snowpack and the point that Yogi Berra once made so succinctly: "The future ain't what it used to be.''
Since 1950, spring temperatures in the Sierra Nevada have increased 2 to 3 degrees, bringing peak snowmelt two to three weeks sooner. Twenty-five years ago, snow-making machines were unusual in the area. Today, the majority of Sierra winter sports facilities make snow as soon as conditions dictate.
If nothing is done to curb emissions, greenhouse gas emissions could raise Sierra temperatures another 5 or 6 degrees by the end of the 21st century, according to some projections. The snowpack could be reduced by 89 percent.
The same is true for Aspen, where global warming could give the Colorado town the climate of Los Alamos, N.M., by 2100.
Climate change has become Topic A in the industry. And many resort owners are trying to do something about it. About 46 U.S. resorts are spending to help expand the market for renewable energy sources, particularly wind. Nineteen are offsetting 100 percent of their energy use by purchasing wind-power credits. The list includes many of the nation's major ski resorts.
These resorts are still receiving power from the electrical grid at regular rates. But they're also paying a premium to renewable energy retailers. The retailers in turn contract with wind farms or generate alternative power themselves to add wind-generated energy to the nation's electrical grid. This expands the market for wind power and reduces the need for fossil fuels such as coal and gas.
"We're not going to defeat global warming, but we can mitigate it,'' said Bob Roberts, executive director of the California Ski Industry Association. "People say you can't do anything about it. That's sophistry. I don't think you can make the case for its inevitability and sit back and watch our grandchildren fry.''
Wind is fastest-growing
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/27/SKI.TMP
Sea change: why global warming could leave Britain feeling the cold
· No new ice age yet, but Gulf Stream is weakening
· Atlantic current came to halt for 10 days in 2004
James Randerson, science correspondent
Friday October 27, 2006
Scientists have uncovered more evidence for a dramatic weakening in the vast ocean current that gives Britain its relatively balmy climate by dragging warm water northwards from the tropics. The slowdown, which climate modellers have predicted will follow global warming, has been confirmed by the most detailed study yet of ocean flow in the Atlantic.
Most alarmingly, the data reveal that a part of the current, which is usually 60 times more powerful than the Amazon river, came to a temporary halt during November 2004.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1932761,00.html
Pacific islands to sink under global warming, forum warned
1.00pm Wednesday October 25, 2006
By Kathy Marks
While rich nations tinker with policies that may shave their carbon dioxide emissions, low-lying South Pacific nations like Kiribati are sinking beneath the waves.
Kiribati, an archipelago of 33 coral atolls barely 6ft above sea level, is vanishing as global warming causes the oceans to rise.
Yesterday its president, Anote Tong, warned Australia and New Zealand - the two developed countries in the region - to prepare for a mass exodus within the next decade.
Speaking at the annual South Pacific Forum in Fiji, Mr Tong said that rising sea levels would create countless environmental refugees.
"If we are talking about our island states submerging in ten years' time, we simply have to find somewhere else to go," he said.
Environmentalists have warned that the effects of global warming, caused by a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, will include thermal expansion and a meltdown of glaciers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10407508
Captains of commerce turn heat on global warming
Kimina Lyall
October 28, 2006
BUSINESS and government should take unilateral action to arrest climate change instead of waiting for a consensus to emerge on the issue, ANZ Bank chief executive John McFarlane said.
Adding to a growing chorus of business voices urging action on global warming, Mr McFarlane urged market-based solutions including penalties for the most polluting forms of energy and subsidies for cleaner forms.
"Even before the costs of carbon emissions are fully reflected in market prices, business should be willing to pay more for sustainable products, clean sources of energy, more efficient energy use and embrace five-star environmental building policies," Mr McFarlane writes in an article for The Weekend Australian.
"Climate change is no longer a 'far in the future' issue. It is affecting us right now."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20658495-643,00.html
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
"They shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records..."
-- George W. Bush, April 24, 2003
October 27th, 2006 2:04 am
‘Shut Up & Sing’ is right in tune
Documentary is a piercing look at free speech and celebrity image
Associated Press
The Dixie Chicks would probably think of themselves as mothers first, then musicians.
They became accidental political figures — then they had to figure out how to reinvent themselves.
“Shut Up & Sing,” a documentary from directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck, follows the country trio after lead singer Natalie Maines’ offhanded on-stage comment that the group was ashamed that President Bush was a fellow Texan.
It’s not that the remark itself was shocking or even terribly provocative. But the backlash from the country music industry, from the South, from the core of the Chicks’ fan base was just stunning in its vitriol and hypocrisy. The same people who are so proud to live in a country where freedom of speech is an inalienable right wanted to silence these women — and worse.
Many complained that Maines shouldn’t have said such a thing on foreign soil (a 2003 concert in London) as the United States was about to go to war in Iraq. And as fiddler Martie Maguire so astutely points out, it’s the source of the comment that made it seem offensive: These were America’s sweethearts from the heartland, the top-selling female act of all time. At the film’s start, they’re singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. You can’t get much more patriotic than that.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8211
Currently 3926 Friends. Join the Blog. Join Free Speech.
http://myspace.com/shutupandsing
Lots of cities added November 10th
http://myspace.com/dixiechicks
October 27th, 2006 11:47 am
Confession that formed base of Iraq war was acquired under torture: journalist
LONDON (AFP) - An Al-Qaeda terror suspect captured by the United States, who gave evidence of links between Iraq and the terror network, confessed after being tortured, a journalist told the BBC.
Iban al Shakh al Libby told intelligence agents that he was close to Al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and "understood an awful lot about the inner workings of Al-Qaeda," former FBI agent Jack Clonan told the broadcaster.
Libby was tortured in an Egyptian prison, according to Stephen Grey, the author of the newly-released book "Ghost Plane" who investigated the secret US Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA) prisons that housed terror suspects around the world.
US President George W. Bush confirmed the existence of the network of CIA holding facilities overseas during a September 6 speech defending controversial US interrogation practices.
Libby was apparently taken to Cairo, Clonan told the broadcaster, after being captured in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
"He (Libby) claims he was tortured in jail and that would be routine in Egyptian prisons," Grey said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8214
October 27th, 2006 11:43 am
White House denies Cheney OK'd torture
By Terence Hunt / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The White House said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney was not talking about a torture technique known as "water boarding" when he said dunking terrorism suspects in water during questioning was a "no-brainer."
Human rights groups complained that Cheney's comments amounted to an endorsement of water boarding, in which the victim believes he is about to drown.
President Bush, asked about Cheney's comments, said, "This country doesn't torture. We're not going to torture." He spoke at an Oval Office meeting Friday with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Earlier, White House press secretary Tony Snow denied that Cheney had endorsed water boarding.
"You know as a matter of common sense that the vice president of the United States is not going to be talking about water boarding. Never would, never does, never will," Snow said. "You think Dick Cheney's going to slip up on something like this? No, come on."
In an interview Tuesday with WDAY of Fargo, N.D., Cheney was asked if "a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8213
October 26th, 2006 4:37 pm
Cheney endorses simulated drowning
Calls use of water boarding a ‘no-brainer’ to get intelligence on terrorists
By Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times
WASHINGTON - Dick Cheney, US vice-president, has endorsed the use of "water boarding" for terror suspects and confirmed that the controversial interrogation technique was used on Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the senior al-Qaeda operative now being held at Guantánamo Bay.
Cheney was responding to a conservative radio interviewer who asked whether water boarding, which involves simulated drowning, was a "no-brainer" if the information it yielded would save American lives. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney replied.
The comments by the vice-president, who has been one of the leading advocates of reducing limitations on what interrogation techniques can be used in the war on terror, are the first public confirmation that water boarding has been used on suspects held in US custody.
"For a while there, I was criticized as being the 'vice-president for torture'," Cheney added. "We don't torture ... We live up to our obligations in international treaties that we're party to and so forth.
"But the fact is, you can have a fairly robust interrogation program without torture and we need to be able to do that."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8206
October 27th, 2006 12:42 pm
Witness Grilled in CIA Leak Case
By Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald took on the first witness in the CIA leak case Thursday, dissecting an expert witness until she acknowledged errors and misstatements in her research.
Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, hoped the hearing would persuade a judge to let him call a memory expert at his obstruction and perjury trial in January.
At the outset of the procedural hearing, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton indicated that he was not inclined to allow a memory expert to testify at the trial. Still, he allowed Libby's lawyers to present a witness to bolster their claim that memory experts would help in his defense.
When it came Fitzgerald's turn, the veteran prosecutor launched into a nearly three-hour cross-examination of the witness — psychologist Elizabeth Loftus — that had some members of the audience shaking their heads.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8217
October 27th, 2006 1:34 pm
IG: Halliburton subsidiary abused rules
By Anne Plummer Flaherty / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Halliburton subsidiary that provides food, shelter and other logistics to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan exploited federal regulations to hide details on its contract performance, according to a report released Friday.
The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found that Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root Services routinely marked all information it was giving the government as proprietary, whether it actually was or not. The government promises not to disclose proprietary data so a company's most valuable information is not divulged to its competitors.
By marking all information proprietary — including such normally releasable data as labor rates — the company abused federal regulations, the report says.
In effect, Kellogg, Brown & Root turned the regulations "into a mechanism to prevent the government from releasing normally transparent information, thus potentially hindering competition and oversight."
Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann did not provide immediate comment.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8219
October 27th, 2006 12:50 pm
Ex-Bush aide Safavian gets 18-month prison term
By Richard Cowan / Reuters
WASHINGTON - Former Bush administration official David Safavian was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Friday for lying and obstructing justice in connection with the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal that has ensnared Republicans.
Safavian, 39, a former chief of staff of the General Services Administration (GSA) and ex-White House budget office appointee, received the prison term less than two weeks before elections that will determine whether Republicans keep control of the U.S. Congress.
Besides the Iraq war, ethics breaches have dominated many Senate and House of Representatives campaigns, allowing Democrats to accuse Republicans of fostering a "culture of corruption" in Washington.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman sentenced Safavian, who had faced up to 20 years in prison after being convicted on four counts, to 18 months.
"I stand here contrite and ashamed," a tearful Safavian said at his sentencing. He acknowledged he should not have given disgraced Washington lobbyist Abramoff information on the GSA, but did not admit to the charges.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8218
We need videographers and volunteers to help document the 2006 elections
We are asking citizens in all states to become journalists on November 7th and be on guard to document potential problems that may occur in your area. We especially need you or anyone you know to help us if you are located in the following key states: Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
http://www.endtheblackout.org/
You don't have to be a registered voter to be a videographer
We need videographers and volunteers to help document the 2006 elections
We are asking citizens in all states to become journalists on November 7th and be on guard to document potential problems that may occur in your area. We especially need you or anyone you know to help us if you are located in the following key states: Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
http://www.endtheblackout.org/
You don't have to be an American citizen to be a vidoegrapher
We need videographers and volunteers to help document the 2006 elections
We are asking citizens in all states to become journalists on November 7th and be on guard to document potential problems that may occur in your area. We especially need you or anyone you know to help us if you are located in the following key states: Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
http://www.endtheblackout.org/
VOLUNTEER !!!
Thank you.
Marshall’s Walking Itinerary:
Everyone is welcome to walk with Marshall where there are sidewalks (in the cities and towns). Keep in mind that the times listed are approximations so please try to arrive early and check the website for any updates or changes. We encourage you to bring signs that promote peace, such as PEACE IN IRAQ, PLAN FOR PEACE, RESPONSIBLE WITHDRAWAL, etc. We will be walking in pairs (single file).
http://www.soldierspeace.com/route.htm
Marshall's Journal
http://www.soldierspeace.com/journal.htm
Friday, October 27th, 2006
'My Son's Last Blanket' ...by Amy Branham
We all know the history of the American flag. We know its symbology. White signifies purity and innocence; red signifies valor and bravery; and blue signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice. Each star represents one of the states in the Union .
Driving through my typical American neighborhood, I see that many of my neighbors fly American flags in their front yards. They fly their flags to show their support and love of their country. To them, displaying the flag in their yards is a sign of patriotism.
I do not ever fly or display my flag. My flag is encased in a triangular shaped wooden box on the top of a bookcase in my living room. It is easily visible to all who enter my home. Also encased in this wooden box are the medals my son earned during his service in the Army and the bullet casings from a salute done at his funeral. Each of those casings represents a different element taught in the United States Army -- Duty, Honor, Country.
The American flag means many things to many people. Some wrap themselves in the security of the flag and call themselves "patriotic." Some people burn the flag in an effort to show their displeasure with the American government.
These days, the flag carries and entirely different meaning for me. My flag was my son's last blanket. It covered his wooden coffin, used to signify that he died in the service of his country. My flag carries on it tears of sorrow and mourning for the loss of the son that I will never see again. I followed the colors of my flag in the funeral procession to my son‚s last resting place.
There have been too many of these flags covering the coffins of our war dead from the Iraq war. There have been too many families that have been presented with these flags that covered these coffins.
Please, help those of us who are trying to end this illegal, immoral war. Help us by getting out and voting this election season for the candidate who will do what is right by ending the Iraq war. Honor America's fallen sons and daughters and their sacrifices by voting.
If you do not vote, you have failed them. If you do not vote, their sacrifice will have been for nothing.
Amy Branham
Mother of Sgt. Jeremy R. Smith
Nov. 1981 -- Feb. 2004
www.gsfp.org
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=749
*NEW MESSAGE FROM CINDY
Sit Down for Peace, Justice, and Accountability
Cindy Sheehan
I usually end my articles with a call to action, but today, I begin with one. Maybe readers get bored with my pieces before the end and don't get to the action part, which is the most important part.
Gold Star Families for Peace is calling for an action in front of the White House on the days of November 6th to November 9th (due to the urgency of our situation, we are beginning the sit-in on Monday, Nov. 6th) to perform a Gandhi-like sit down for peace and justice. Join us to sit down for all or part of the time we will be there. We might as well face it, the White House is where the power is. Congress has spent 6 years invalidating themselves and creating a Unitary Executive Branch that pats Congress on the head for being obedient and circumvents the Supreme Court and goes whining to the same agreeable Congress when the Court (in rare cases) slaps Georgie on the wrist. The potential Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) has already said that if the Democrats take back the House, impeachment proceedings will not be forthcoming. Who's going to sit down with us to hold the war criminals in power accountable for their war crimes and crimes against humanity and peace?
http://www.gsfp.org/article.php?id=265
The Times Picayune
WHAT A DRAG
In the continuing trudge toward recovery, all you need is a piece of paper: a copy of an act of sale, a property deed, a mortgage certificate. Do you have 36 hours to spare?
Friday, October 27, 2006
By James Varney
Eraina Shorty lost her home in the Lake Carmel subdivision to Hurricane Katrina, but that tragedy occurred in a few hours. The headaches associated with trying to be made whole have dogged her for months.
Shorty confronted the most recent of them this week at the makeshift headquarters of the Orleans Parish Mortgage and Conveyance Office on the 18th floor at 1340 Poydras St. It is a place where people wait for hours -- sometimes, more than a day -- to navigate a paperwork labyrinth. Most of the waiting homeowners seek routine documents they need to unlock loan money promised, but not yet secured, either through a loan from the federal Small Business Administration or a grant from Louisiana's Road Home program.
They need a copy of an act of sale or deed. They need a property description. They need a certified copy of an SBA mortgage recorded to get their loan released.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1161927863115360.xml&coll=1
Entergy N.O. deal would soften increases
Electric rates frozen, gas bills to slowly rise
Friday, October 27, 2006
By Pam Radtke Russell
New Orleans electric and gas rates will rise minimally in the next year under an agreement the New Orleans City Council will consider today.
"This is much lower than anyone predicted," said Council President Oliver Thomas, who has been involved in the negotiations. "It's a home run.
"Within the law at this time in our history, this is a best-case scenario," Thomas said.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1161931153272760.xml&coll=1
IRS to delay enforcement actions in Katrina-hit areas
10/27/2006, 10:48 a.m. CT
By JIM ABRAMS
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS will put off until after the new year enforcement action against people in Hurricane Katrina-hit areas who are late in paying their income taxes, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said Friday.
Everson, in an interview with The Associated Press, said that, after consultation with career officials at the agency, he decided not to further extend the Oct. 16 deadline for the approximately 1.2 million taxpayers in hurricane-hit areas of Louisiana and Mississippi to file their 2005 returns.
The deadline had previously been extended several times in light of the many people who lost homes or financial records in the storm
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-28/1161964442158430.xml&storylist=louisiana
BUILDING BLOCKS
In hard-hit neighborhoods, the return of commercial strips will help decide whether residents come back. Along Gentilly Boulevard, a slow revival is taking shape.
Friday, October 27, 2006
By Jaquetta White
The businesses that bookend the two-block-long retail hub along Gentilly Boulevard tell the story best.
On one end, the parking lot of Liberty Bank at 3002 Gentilly Blvd. is overflowing with cars. Business was fast to return when the bank reopened in March and has not slowed.
At the other end, the 3216 Gentilly Blvd. address of what once was the flagship store of Zuppardo's Family Supermarket, now marks only rubble.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1161931986272760.xml&coll=1
Who's coming back ?
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/graphics/wide.ssf?/katrina/graphics/102706_gentillymap.jpg
Lee, NAACP to meet today over controversial Lee remarks
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee and officials with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have made plans to meet this afternoon and discuss Lee's recently announced anti-violence tactic of making random searches of black neighborhoods.
In a television interview that aired Thursday night on WWL, Lee said that crime is historically concentrated in black communities, and that's where he will focus his efforts. Lee said his deputies would perform searchers of people in those high-crime neighborhoods, possibly for just standing in a crowd on a street corner.
While Danatus King, president of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP, called the remarks offensive Thursday after watching the tape in the WWL studio, he declined to comment further on Friday. King opted, instead, to meet with Lee first and address the matter in a press conference scheduled for 2 p.m.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_10_27.html
Beating draws federal interest
FBI, U.S. attorney checking Folsom case
Friday, October 27, 2006
By Richard Boyd
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said Thursday that his office will review Saturday's beating of a black man by two white construction workers in Folsom to determine whether the pair can be prosecuted under federal civil rights laws.
Letten said he has assigned a federal prosecutor to the case to coordinate efforts with Folsom Police Chief Beau Killingsworth and the St. Tammany Parish district attorney's office. The FBI has been consulted and will look into the matter, he said.
One of the suspects, Denny Griffin, 35, of Flint, Mich., was rearrested Wednesday and booked at the parish jail in Covington on a felony charge of second-degree battery and commission of a hate crime. A $10,000 bond was set on the battery charge, but bond on the hate crime charge will not be set until today.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1161930769272760.xml&coll=1
FEMA OK's $18.2 million more for Plaquemines Parish
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau
An additional $18.2 million in federal hurricane recovery money was approved for Plaquemines Parish this week, officials said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said the additional money brings to $195.8 million the total approved for the parish since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered it last year.
The money has been dedicated to a number of projects, FEMA said in a news release. Among them:
-- $8.3 million for removal of asbestos containing materials throughout the parish.
-- $59.1 million to the Plaquemines Parish public school district for schools and materials.
-- $3.8 million for the Plaquemines Parish Medical Center for vehicles, buildings, furniture and equipment.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_10_27.html
Protesters in Mexico block roadways
10/27/2006, 3:50 p.m. CT
By REBECA ROMERO
The Associated Press
OAXACA, Mexico (AP) — Protesters cut off highways and beefed up street barricades in the southern city of Oaxaca on Friday, vowing not to abandon their fight to oust the state governor even though their movement appears to be splintering.
The blockade of four main roads into this colonial city, one of Mexico's top tourist destinations, came a day after teachers agreed to end their 5-month-old strike that has kept 1.3 million children out of classes in the state of Oaxaca — a move expected to take the sting out of the anti-government protests.
The teachers have been camped out in Oaxaca city's colonial center since May when they first walked out to demand higher pay and better working conditions.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/topstories/index.ssf?/base/international-9/1161982748170530.xml&storylist=topstories
continued …
From the same photographer as below. This is during the 'blizzard.' It's a very good picture. It releases to me a severely cold Arctic Storm with a lot of freezing water in the direction of wind movement. Hence. Strong wind.
However.
The 'denser' water vapor is near the ground as opposed toward the second floor of the building. That mositure density could be fog near the ground where extremely cold air met with far warmer ground. So, why the freezing at all? Because water coming from the sky in the arriving storm is already frozen. It percipitated out of the storm as ice and snow. The items without the ability of 'heat retention' will become cold enough for frozen water to refreeze. However, the ground has a far higher heat retention than just the passing storm. It should not be a surprise when a storm this cold arrives over warmer ground that there might be fog.
An early start to avy season? (click on)
October 26, 2006. Colorado Springs, Colorado
Photographer states :: My friend Rob lives in Colorado Springs and have these incredible Blizzard Pictures!!
The picture reveals a heavy 'slush' in Colorado. The weight of the snow and the wind in combination did a lot of damage. It was a displaced Arctic Storm that met with the reality of Human Induced Global Warming temperatures after the Arctic Wind stopped. I don't know quite what to think about people calling this a blizzard. I guess if one is not familiar with a real blizzard it might seem like one. On the other hypothesis of that question is: "Has the biotic nature of Earth gotten to be so benign currently as it warms that the extremes need definition in some form and this is the new definition of blizzard?"
If the snows of this season are destined to melt as quickly as it percipitated there will be a real threat to water sources come this spring when there is no water runoff from melting snow fields.
When is a cloud not a cloud? (click on)
When it is burning biomass without moisture content leading to rain.
Relentless Santa Ana Winds Fan Esperanza Fire
Between one and two thousand firefighters on the ground and more than 40 aircraft -- helicopters and planes -- greeted the relentless Esperanza wildfire in the San Jacinto Mountains just west of Palm Springs on Friday morning, NBC4 reported.
Video: Friday Report, 6 a.m.
Santa Ana winds refused to die down overnight, fanning a fire that began at 1 a.m. Thursday to more than 24,000 acres -- 38 square miles -- by late Thursday night. It was just 5 percent contained.
Four dead, hundreds flee California wildfire (click on)
By Jill SerjeantLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A brush fire blamed on arsonists swept through the desert hills near Palm Springs on Thursday, killing four fire-fighters, sending residents fleeing and trapping hundreds more in a rural park for recreational vehicles.
Whipped by warm winds after a long, dry summer, the fire roared out of control through about 24,000 acres (9,700 hectares) in less than 24 hours, destroying at least 10 homes and engulfing a firetruck, fire officials said.
By nightfall, the fire line stretched 15 miles (24 km) along canyons and rugged hills 90 miles (145 km) east of Los Angeles and 17 miles (27 km) north-west of Palm Springs.
But Riverside County Fire Department Chief John Hawkins said the more than 1,000 fire-fighters were finally making progress. "We are doing better with it. We are saying 5 per cent containment. That might not sound like a lot but it really, truly is," Hawkins said.
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