Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
We've Raised a Half-Million Dollars and Sent over 50 Tons of Food and Water
Friends,
Last week I closed my New York production office and sent my staff down to New Orleans to set up our own relief effort. I asked all of you to help me by sending food, materials and cash to the emergency relief center we helped set up on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain with the Veterans for Peace. We did this when the government was doing nothing and the Red Cross was still trying to get it together. Every day, every minute was critical. People were dying, poor people, black people, left like so much trash in the street. I wanted to find a way to get aid in there immediately.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=186
"We're not counting on the government to take care of us anymore"
Following Hurricane Katrina evacuees out of New Orleans
By David Enders / MotherJones.com
COVINGTON, LA — Around 60 Hurricane Katrina refugees are staying in the cafeteria of Pine View Middle School. Covington has suffered heavy wind damage from the storm but not as much flooding as other areas. Since September 2, members of Veterans for Peace, an anti-war group that had been on its way to Washington, DC, for protests later this month, have been delivering donated relief supplies to the area.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php?id=15
Iraq slams U.S. detentions, immunity for troops
By Mariam Karouny and Alastair Macdonald / Reuters
Speaking to Reuters, Justice Minister Abdul Hussein Shandal also criticised U.S. detentions of Iraqi journalists and said the media, contrary to U.S. policy in Iraq, must have special legal protection to report on all sides in the conflict.
"No citizen should be arrested without a court order," he said this week, complaining that U.S. suggestions that his ministry has an equal say on detentions were misleading.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4088
Times changing for US since Bush's Iraq war speech
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - When George W. Bush addresses the United Nations on Wednesday he will not be the same US president who took the podium here three years ago to herald war with Iraq.
With his popularity plunging, his Iraq policies under fire and doubts raised about his leadership after Hurricane Katrina, Bush will likely cut a much less feisty figure before a world body he once disdained.
Then, with American blood still boiling a year after the September 11 terror attacks and a successful war in Afghanistan under his belt, Bush threw down the gauntlet to the United Nations to follow him into Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4083
As bodies recovered, reporters are told 'no photos, no stories'
By Cecilia M. Vega / San Francisco Chronicle
NEW ORLEANS - A long caravan of white vans led by an Army humvee rolled Monday through New Orleans' Bywater district, a poor, mostly black neighborhood, northeast of the French Quarter.
Recovery team members wearing white protective suits and black boots stopped at houses with spray painted markings on the doors designating there were dead bodies inside.
Outside one house on Kentucky Street, a member of the Army 82nd Airborne Division summoned a reporter and photographer standing nearby and told them that if they took pictures or wrote a story about the body recovery process, he would take away their press credentials and kick them out of the state.
"No photos. No stories," said the man, wearing camouflage fatigues and a red beret.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4087
U.S. troop cutback in Afghanistan mulled - report
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan could be cut by up to a fifth, or about 4,000 troops, next spring under a proposal being reviewed by the Pentagon, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
If adopted, it would be the biggest withdrawal since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001, the Times said, citing unnamed Pentagon and military officials.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in Berlin for a NATO meeting, declined to comment on the article but said the United States would continue to have "a strong role" in the country. A Pentagon spokesman said Rumsfeld had seen no such proposal.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4084
North Tour 'Swan Song'
September 13th, 2005
Sherry Glover's granddaughter, Dakota, in Crawford, TX
As I walked in that hot Crawford ditch August 6th, I sensed the cartilage rip in my left knee. By the time we reached Detroit I couldn't bear my weight on it. I had to leave the tour and return home. I'll need surgical repair of tear, scheduled for next week. I envisage myself temporarily 'in the stands' for a short time, and remain anxious to get back 'on the court'!
Secondly, my son in law, currently stationed just south of the Syrian-Iraq border checked in last week to say it would be a few weeks before he could call home again. Now I understand why. The media reports some sort of insurgent movement into Iraq along that border. Communication shuts down when a soldier is killed until the family is officially notified by the DoD so I owe my daughter the support she needs right now, and hopefully it will be only a matter of time until we hear from him again. Meanwhile, Dakota, my only grandchild doesn't know her father's face.
http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org/article.php?id=168
http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org/
The Washington Times
Ophelia Soaks N.C. Coast, Knocks Out Power
By KRISTEN GELINEAU
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; 12:05 PM
NAGS HEAD, N.C. -- Hurricane Ophelia picked up strength as it closed in on North Carolina on Wednesday, soaking the region with a half-foot of rain, washing away a barrier island street and causing power outages.
The storm had sustained wind of 80 mph Wednesday morning, up from 75 mph a few hours earlier, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane warnings were shifted northward, covering the entire North Carolina coast from the South Carolina line to Virginia, where a tropical storm warning covered the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/14/AR2005091400254.html
Indictments Added in GOP Fundraising Case
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; Page A17
A Texas grand jury added new indictments yesterday to criminal charges against U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's top political fundraiser and the executive director of a Texas political action committee that DeLay organized to orchestrate a Republican takeover of the Texas House in 2002.
The grand jury alleged that James W. Ellis, who has raised money for DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority political action committee (ARMPAC) as well as for an offshoot known as Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), illegally contributed $190,000 in corporate funds to the Republican National Committee within 60 days of the 2002 state election.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301724.html
Aid for Katrina Victims Spurned
"I hope people don't play politics," said President Bush in the hurricane's aftermath. But that message didn't get through at the State Department, which is playing politics by continuing to ignore Cuba's offer to send 34 tons of aid and the services of 1,586 doctors.
On the face of it, the State Department’s inaction is puzzling. Cuban doctors have much experience in helping the victims of tropical storms. In 1998, Cuba sent 2,000 doctors to Central America to help the victims of Hurricane Mitch, a storm far more devastating than Katrina. Cuba’s assistance was just part of a massive international outpouring, led by the United States, which sent more than $1 billion in aid. There is also a need for Spanish-speaking doctors in the Gulf Coast region. Americans obsessed by Katrina's racial angle have largely overlooked the fact that up to 40,000 Honduran immigrants, most of them poor, lived in Katrina’s path.
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/worldopinionroundup/
Telecommuting Interest Soars
Pump Prices Spur Workers To Abandon Long Drives
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; Page B01
When gas prices sped past $3 a gallon in the days after Hurricane Katrina, Sherrie Bell hit upon a quick way to avoid the pinch at the pump.
She decided to stop going to work.
Paralegal Sherrie Bell works at a federally funded telecommuting center 15 miles from her home in Southern Maryland.
Or at least stop working downtown. In a memo Thursday to her boss, Bell, a paralegal at the U.S. Education Department, requested permission to work two days a week from a federally funded telecommuting center 15 miles from her home in Southern Maryland.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301973.html
The Times-Picayune
Nagin foresees early return to parts of city
Optimistic mayor sets Monday as possible date
'I'm tired of hearing these helicopters. I want to hear some jazz,' Nagin says
By Steve Ritea, Gordon Russell and James Varney
Staff writers
Unflooded portions of New Orleans may be opened to residents, perhaps as early as Monday, Mayor Ray Nagin said in an upbeat and wide-ranging news conference Tuesday afternoon.
The possibility of repopulating areas of the city so quickly marked a stunning turnaround from earlier predictions that New Orleans could remain uninhabitable for months. Nagin said the final decision on the date would hinge on pending results of federal tests measuring the toxicity of the city's air and water, but he said initial reports are turning out much better than expected.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_14.html
Fall elections in Jefferson, N.O. postponed
Makeup dates still unknown, state says
By Mark Waller
East Jefferson bureau
Hurricane Katrina has forced an indefinite postponement of the fall elections in Orleans and Jefferson parishes, the Louisiana secretary of state's office said Tuesday.
Oct. 15 was the primary date for special elections for School Board, Kenner City Council and the state's 5th Circuit Court of Appeal in Jefferson Parish, and runoffs were set for Nov. 12 if necessary. Three New Orleans neighborhoods had Nov. 12 referendums planned on fees or taxes to finance security patrols and other local improvements.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_14.html
Bush takes responsibility for Katrina response failures
9/13/2005, 3:17 p.m. CT
By TOM RAUM
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush for the first time took responsibility Tuesday for federal government mistakes in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and suggested the calamity raised broader questions about the government's ability to handle both natural disasters and terror attacks.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1126621440119642.xml&storylist=hurricane
Computer brings Katrina's powerful surge to life
Simulation to help La. prepare for next storm
Model may not yield answer on floodwall breaches
By John McQuaid
Staff writer
The first detailed computer model of Hurricane Katrina's storm surge shows a gargantuan, 15-foot dome of water forming in the Gulf of Mexico. Propelled westward by 140-mph winds, the surge slams into levees east of New Orleans and pours over them, flooding eastern New Orleans, the city's Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish.
The model later shows water flooding the rest of New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain through levee breaches. Meanwhile, Katrina's giant wave continues its relentless northeast course, pushing a 30-foot wave toward Mississippi, over the Biloxi-Gulfport area.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_14.html
Sun Herald
Beauvoir deemed
structually sound
LISA M. KRIEGER
SUN HERALD
(image placeholder)
Despite massive storm damage, the historic Beauvoir House is structurally sound and can be restored, with time and money, according to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
"Plans are already under way,'' said Richard Cawthon, chief architectural historian for the department. "Architectural specialists have examined the home and found it preservable.''
The beachfront retirement home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and the only national historic landmark in Harrison County, the Beauvoir house has lived through the Civil War, attempted arson and 21 other hurricanes during its 150-year life.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12636015.htm
Parties boil over possible wooing
Democrats accuse GOP of putting insurers over affected residents
By GEOFF PENDER
SUN HERALD
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JACKSON - The air of post-Katrina bipartisanship evaporated Tuesday, with the state Democratic Party accusing GOP lawmakers of being in bed with insurance companies and those legislators accusing the party of trying to make political hay from a gut-wrenching disaster.
Democratic Party spokesman Sam Hall on Tuesday fired off a broadsides about Monday's joint session of the House and Senate Insurance committees. He said GOP lawmakers "turned their efforts to helping the insurance industry make more money" and neglected to address the Katrina insurance issues affecting South Mississippians. Hall's press release was headlined: "GOP Legislators Lead Love-Fest for Insurance Industry During Meeting."
But GOP committee members said Monday that they were getting their regular business out of the way, in a meeting planned before Katrina, so they could focus on Katrina on Tuesday, which they did in a lengthy hearing.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12640257.htm
BILOXI Water, sewer back online in most of regio
By MARIE McCULLOUGH
SUN HERALD
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BILOXI - Let the showering resume. And boil-water alerts have been lifted in some communities. But you may still need to hold off on the flushing, and be cautious about drinking the water until your community is cleared by the Mississippi Department of Health.
Scores of water workers from Florida, along with power workers from many states, helped local crews get the systems working, at least in a stopgap fashion.
Water pressure is low in some places because of leaky pipes. And numerous wastewater lift stations - where sewage is pumped through pipes that go uphill - are temporarily operating with diesel-fueled bypass pumps.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12638407.htm
The Advocate
THAT IS THE VERY SPOT ON THE PIER AT WRIGHTVILLE BEACH WHERE IS WAS YESTERDAY MORNING.
Ophelia soaks N.C. coast, knocks out power
By KRISTEN GELINEAU
Associated Press Writer
NAGS HEAD, N.C. (AP) -- Hurricane Ophelia picked up strength as it closed in on North Carolina on Wednesday, soaking the region with a half-foot of rain, washing away a barrier island street and causing power outages.
The storm had sustained wind of 80 mph Wednesday morning, up from 75 mph a few hours earlier, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane warnings were shifted northward, covering the entire North Carolina coast from the South Carolina line to Virginia, where a tropical storm warning covered the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
One side of Ophelia's eyewall - the circle of strongest wind surrounding the eye - was expected to move along North Carolina's southeast coast late Wednesday, the hurricane center said.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HURRICANE_OPHELIA?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-12-42-00
Bus system works to ease crowding
Ridership up; CATS expands routes, services
By SCOTT DYER
sdyer@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer
Advocate staff photo by Arthur D. Lauck
Capital Area Transit System riders get on and off one of the 50 route buses at the Florida Street bus station Tuesday. The number of riders and the time required to complete a route have increased since Hurricane Katrina sent thousands of displaced victims to Baton Rouge.
With the help of 50 buses salvaged by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, the Capital Area Transit System is looking to help ease crowding on local buses caused by evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.
CATS General Manager Dwight Brashear said bus ridership in the Baton Rouge area has exploded since the storm, largely because of use by displaced people from the New Orleans area.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/091405/new_bussystem001.shtml
Senate panel opens Katrina response probe
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Post-9/11 changes to improve the government response to catastrophic disasters failed their first major test in Hurricane Katrina's wake, the Republican chairwoman of a Senate committee said Wednesday as the panel opened an investigation.
Despite billions of dollars to boost disaster preparedness at all levels of government, the response to Katrina was plagued by confusion, communication failures and widespread lack of coordination, said Senate Homeland Security Committee chair Susan Collins, R-Maine.
"At this point, we would have expected a sharp, crisp response to this terrible tragedy," Collins said. "Instead, we witnessed what appeared to be a sluggish initial response."
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KATRINA_WASHINGTON?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-10-56-09
Russell Crowe seeks reduction in charge
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Russell Crowe's lawyers are working to win a reduction of the assault charge filed against him after he allegedly hurled a phone at a New York hotel staffer, an Australian magazine reported Wednesday.
The 41-year-old Oscar-winning actor, born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, was charged with felony assault after he was accused of throwing a malfunctioning telephone at hotel concierge Nestor Estrada in June.
If convicted, Crowe could lose his right to work in the United States and could face up to seven years in prison.
In an interview published by The Bulletin magazine, Crowe said his lawyers are working to have the felony charge reduced to a less serious misdemeanor.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PEOPLE_RUSSELL_CROWE?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-10-23-46
Truck spills load of $800,000 in quarters
HAMMONDVILLE, Ala. (AP) -- A truck carrying tons of quarters caught fire Tuesday and spilled most of them on a highway, where workers used heavy equipment, shovels and buckets to scoop up the singed coins.
The driver said the truck carried 39,000 pounds of new Kansas quarters, part of the U.S. Mint's state coin series, that were worth some $800,000, said Police Chief Michael Putnam.
The rear of the armored truck bound for Birmingham from the Philadelphia mint caught fire in the pre-dawn hours on Interstate 59 in northeast Alabama, Putnam said.
"It's kind of a surprise when you pull up on a fire call at 2:30 in the morning on the interstate and there are armed guards around the fire," he said.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/Q/QUARTERS_FIRE?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-09-22-17
Explosions in Iraq kill 152, injure 542
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- More than a dozen explosions ripped through the Iraqi capital in rapid succession Wednesday, killing at least 152 people and wounding 542 in a series of attacks that began with a suicide car bombing that targeted laborers assembled to find work for the day. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility.
The death toll at hands of insurgents in the capital Wednesday far exceeds the carnage inflicted in any one day since the war began.
Al-Qaida in Iraq linked the attacks to the recent killing of about 200 militants from the city of Tal Afar by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Before dawn Wednesday, 17 men were killed by insurgents in the village of Taji north of Baghdad, which pushed the death toll in all violence in and around the capital to 169.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-12-34-31
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