Miami Herald
FPL is set to raise bills by 16%
FPL is asking regulators to be allowed to charge customers 16 percent more in their monthly electric bills to pay for increased fuel costs caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
By MARC CAPUTO
mcaputo@herald.com
TALLAHASSEE - Get ready to pay about 16 percent more for electricity in South Florida every month.
Florida Power & Light asked state regulators Monday to levy a hefty new fee on each FPL customer to pay for $975 million in higher-than-expected fuel costs in 2005. The request is likely to be approved.
Power officials say the mini-energy crisis sparked by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which briefly closed oil and natural-gas production in the Gulf of Mexico this summer, is to blame for the increase. It would be imposed for two years.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13107471.htm
Hurricane Wilma
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/hurricane_wilma/
Wilma death toll reaches 31 across state
Hurricane Wilma is long gone, but across the state deaths attributed to the storm continue to mount.
By LUISA YANEZ
lyanez@herald.com
Fifteen days after Hurricane Wilma hit Florida, the death toll continues to rise.
Fatalities attributed to the storm have climbed to at least 31 in seven counties, according to state and local officials.
Miami-Dade leads with 10 deaths, making the storm the deadliest in the county since Hurricane Andrew. And the death toll may grow larger.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/hurricane_wilma/13108678.htm
Housing still needed for shelter people
Broward County will tackle the post-Wilma housing crunch today by telling state and federal officials what they need to find homes for people who lost theirs,
BY ERIKA BOLSTAD, LESLEY CLARK AND NATALIE P. McNEAL
ebolstad@herald.com
Wanted: vacant apartments, mobile home sites and empty blocks of hotel rooms.
With less than two weeks to find new shelter for more than 500 people still living on cots as well as up to 2,000 more who might need new homes, Broward leaders will meet today with some of the federal officials they say have been sluggish about helping them address the post-Hurricane Wilma housing crunch.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/hurricane_wilma/13108548.htm
Miami mayor pledges money for Wilma shelters
By MICHAEL VASQUEZ
mvasquez@herald.com
Dealing with hundreds of city residents left temporarily homeless due to Hurricane Wilma, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz on Monday announced the creation of a city housing fund designed to assist those displaced by the storm. How much money the fund will have -- and how exactly it would be spent -- remained fuzzy, as the mayor said some details would have to be worked out in the coming days. The city is still getting a handle on the exact needs of its populace, Diaz said.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13112277.htm
HURRICANE WILMA BUILDING DAMAGE
$100M school repairs, 3 years of work likely
Broward school officials have begun tallying the damages, estimating up to $100 million to repair hurricane destruction.
BY AMY DRISCOLL AND HANNAH SAMPSON
adriscoll@herald.com
A total of 69 Broward County schools sustained serious hurricane damage, with total repair costs running as high as $60 million to $100 million and taking two or three years to complete, officials estimated Monday.
As a fuller picture of Hurricane Wilma's toll emerges, school administrators have begun adding up the bills and prioritizing the fix-it list. More than 400 portables have already been repaired, officials said, with more work to come as students return to blue-tarped buildings after the two-week hurricane hiatus.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/hurricane_wilma/13108534.htm
Crew of cruise ship gave pirates an earful
Details emerged on how the crew of a Miami-based cruise line thwarted Saturday's pirate attack off the Somali coast.
By AMY MARTINEZ
aemartinez@herald.com
As pirates armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades closed in on a luxury cruise liner off Somalia's coast last weekend, crew members fended them off with water hoses and an electronic device that blasts an earsplitting noise.
The device, developed for U.S. warships after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole off Yemen, unleashed a piercing barrage nearly twice as loud as a smoke detector, while passengers huddled in a dining room away from windows. Capt. Sven Erik Pederson called for full steam ahead, taking the 10,000-ton Seabourn Spirit as fast as it could go. Pederson eventually outran the pirates, who were in small boats, and sought refuge in the Seychelles, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13109002.htm
LATIN AMERICA
Anti-Americanism has become ideology
BY CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER
www.firmaspress.com
President Bush learned two lessons at the failed Summit of Mar del Plata: the visceral hatred that the ideas inspired by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez have for the United States, and the profound division that afflicts Latin America.
The devastating protest was not surprising, however. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disappearance of the Soviet Union, the Left everywhere stopped offering options for governance or serious theories about development and equity and sought refuge in protest.
The enemies of globalization explain their ideas by stoning McDonald's to smithereens. Anticapitalists hurl pies at the president of the International Monetary Fund.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13109020.htm
Alito's clear opinion on notification
BY CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER
letters@charleskrauthammer.com
Pop quiz: Which of the following abortion regulations is more restrictive, more burdensome, more likely to lead more women to forgo abortion?
(a) Requiring a minor to get the informed consent of her parents, or to get a judge to approve the abortion.
(b) Requiring a married woman to sign a form saying that she notified her husband.
Can any reasonable person have any doubt? A minor is intrinsically far more subject to the whims, anger, punishment, economic control and retribution of a parent. And the minor is required to get both parents involved in the process and to get them to agree to the abortion.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13109022.htm
Evansville Courier and Press
Pond drained in search for bodies
By BYRON ROHRIG Courier & Press staff writer 464-7426 or blrohrig@evansville.net
November 8, 2005
Rescue workers Monday began draining a debris-filled retention pond several hundred feet west of Eastbrook Mobile Home Park, fearing more dead could be found there after remains of the 18th victim was pulled from the water.
"There's an axle, foundation or a whole trailer down there, because there is a wheel sticking out," said County Highway Superintendent Mike Duckworth.
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_4221034,00.html
Utility workers work 16-hour shifts to restore power to tornado victims
By BILL MEDLEY, Courier & Press staff writer 464-7519 or medleyb@courierpress.com
November 8, 2005
More than 300 workers and contractors with Vectren and 13 other power companies continued to work 16-hour shifts Tuesday to restore power to about 3,000 people in Warrick County.
Niel Ellerbrook, chairman, president and CEO of Vectren, said damage to the utility company's power system in the path of the storm was unprecedented, and some residents in outlying areas may not see their utility service restored until this weekend.
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/ebj/article/0,2578,ECP_19916_4221694,00.html
Boating for a good cause
Tours aboard Natchez raise funds for Katrina victims
By THOMAS B. LANGHORNE Courier & Press staff writer 464-7432 or langhornet@courierpress.com
November 8, 2005
When she heard about Sunday morning's tornado, Evansville resident Debby Josey immediately thought of her childhood in Nebraska's Tornado Alley.
Josey, who boarded the New Orleans steamboat Natchez on Monday with her boyfriend, Alan Tolley of Newburgh, said she saw several tornados with her own eyes as a girl in Nebraska.
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/news/article/0,1626,ECP_734_4220613,00.html
Colts finally get it right
Manning leads Indianapolis in rout of old nemesis Patriots
By BARRY WILNER AP football writer
November 8, 2005
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts finally scaled their personal Everest. Maybe now, after routing the New England Patriots 40-21 on Monday night, they'll admit this could be a super season.
Manning shrugged off his 0-7 record at Foxborough with an intelligent dissection of the two-time defending champions. Aided by star running back Edgerrin James' 104 yards on 34 carries, and 100-yard receiving games from Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, Manning led the Colts on six lengthy scoring drives and kept them perfect through eight games, the NFL's only undefeated team.
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/pro_sports/article/0,1626,ECP_750_4221105,00.html
Evansville Business Journal
They call Evansville home
Tri-State houses many corporate headquarters
By CAROL WERSICH " EBJ staff writer " 464-7542 or wersichc@EBJ.biz
November 8, 2005
Niel Ellerbrook recalls a time in the late 1990s when his former company, Indiana Gas, was planning to merge with Southern Indiana Gas and Electric Co.
Indiana Gas, which served a Central Indiana market, was based in Indianapolis. SIGECO, which served southwest Indiana, was based in Evansville. The merged company, which became Vectren, could have chosen to locate its corporate headquarters in either city, Ellerbrook said, but Evansville was picked.
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/ebj_magazine/article/0,2578,ECP_20276_4210073,00.html
Evansville is 'mother ship' for motor service
By CAROL WERSICH EBJ staff writer 464-7542 or wersichc@EBJ.biz
November 8, 2005
Many national and global companies headquartered in the Tri-State had modest, quiet beginnings.
Flanders Electric Motor Service, for example, began in 1947 as a tiny motor repair shop located at 1301 E. Missouri St. on Evansville's Northeast Side.
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/ebj_magazine/article/0,2578,ECP_20276_4210069,00.html
Guidant Sues J&J to Force Acquisition
By THERESA AGOVINO AP Business Writer
November 7, 2005
NEW YORK- Guidant Corp. sued Johnson & Johnson on Monday in an attempt to force it to complete a $25.4 billion acquisition of the medical-device maker, which has been roiled by a series of recalls.
Analysts and lawyers said the suit signals the two sides have failed to renegotiate the acquisition slated to close last week and that it will likely dissolve. Shares of Indianapolis-based Guidant tumbled nearly 5 percent in early trading Monday, before recovering slightly. J&J shares rose.
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/ebj_ap_business/article/0,2578,ECP_19938_4218688,00.html
Times Picayune
Levee chief defends rejecting N.O. plea
He says his crew was stretched too thin
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
By Sheila Grissett
East Jefferson bureau
In the hours after Hurricane Katrina breached the 17th Street Canal, flooding swaths of New Orleans and Old Metairie, the president of the East Jefferson Levee Board refused to let his agency help with emergency construction requested by state and federal engineers who were struggling to plug the break.
Levee Board President Pat Bossetta said he had too few people and too little functioning equipment to get that job done while combating flooding elsewhere in East Jefferson.
"At that point, I only had 11 men and two dump trucks left," Bossetta said. "Most of our equipment was broken down or burned out, and the guys were exhausted."
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1131432561215490.xml
Foti scrutinizing levee failures
Criminal, civil action possible, he says
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
By Laura Maggi and Bob Marshall
Staff writers
BATON ROUGE -- State Attorney General Charles Foti said Monday that his staff is looking into whether poor construction or design flaws played a part in the collapse of canal floodwalls during Hurricane Katrina and whether criminal or civil action is warranted.
The state Justice Department is reviewing the reports and findings of forensic experts with the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center and others who have been examining the floodwalls to determine why they failed, Foti said.
Foti's office is "still in the information-gathering phase," he said.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1131432360215490.xml
FEMA grant payouts could be weeks away
Hard-hit households might get $26,200
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
By Jan Moller
Capital bureau
BATON ROUGE -- Don't hold your breath for that FEMA check.
Although the Federal Emergency Management Agency is taking steps to speed the delivery of financial aid to displaced homeowners, agency officials said Monday it will take up to five weeks to contact the first group of 60,000 households in Louisiana and Mississippi that might be eligible for the maximum $26,200 benefit the government will give to those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Households identified by FEMA through satellite imagery as being hardest hit by Katrina, and related flood damage, will be eligible for cash assistance without an in-person visit from a FEMA representative.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1131432425215490.xml
Blanco budget plan leaves legislators cold
Critics says her trims are unfairly selective
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
By Jan Moller
Capital bureau
BATON ROUGE -- Gov. Kathleen Blanco's plan to trim more than $500 million from the state budget through cuts and spending freezes got a chilly reception Monday from legislators, some of whom questioned whether certain programs were being unfairly targeted.
But Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc said more cuts might be forthcoming as legislators try to close a $959 million deficit in the state general fund caused by a slowdown in tax collections since hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1131432345215490.xml
Foti scrutinizing levee failures
Criminal, civil action possible, he says
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
By Laura Maggi and Bob Marshall
Staff writers
BATON ROUGE -- State Attorney General Charles Foti said Monday that his staff is looking into whether poor construction or design flaws played a part in the collapse of canal floodwalls during Hurricane Katrina and whether criminal or civil action is warranted.
The state Justice Department is reviewing the reports and findings of forensic experts with the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center and others who have been examining the floodwalls to determine why they failed, Foti said.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1131432360215490.xml
Yes to budget, no to merit raises
Parish uses reserves to make up shortfall
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
By Jenny Hurwitz
River Parishes bureau
In a nearly unanimous vote, the St. Charles Parish Council voted Monday to approve Parish President Albert Laque's proposed $68 million budget for next year, voting down attempts to include merit raises for parish employees and additional drainage projects.
Council members April Black, Brian Fabre, Clayton "Snookie" Faucheux, Desmond Hilaire, Lance Marino, Barry Minnich, Ganesier "Ram" Ramchandran and Derryl Walls voted in favor of the budget, with Councilman Richard "Dickie" Duhe voting against it at the council's meeting in Hahnville on Monday.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1131432438215490.xml
Panel approves tax breaks, but bogs down on tax holiday
11/8/2005, 1:14 p.m. CT
By KEVIN McGILL
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A series of tax breaks proposed by Gov. Kathleen Blanco to help businesses and manufacturers recover from hurricanes Katrina and Rita were easily passed by a House committee on Tuesday.
But the panel bogged down on another Blanco-backed measure, a proposed sales tax holiday for retail purchases, as members argued over whether it goes far enough.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1131470045109700.xml&storylist=louisiana
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Chalabi to visit US ahead of Iraqi elections
By Carol Giacomo / Reuters
WASHINGTON - The Iraqi politician most associated with the discredited prewar intelligence that has the Bush presidency in turmoil visits Washington this week as he maneuvers for advantage before Iraq's December 15 elections.
Ahmad Chalabi, Iraq's deputy prime minister, is a former U.S. golden boy who for years as an exile helped organize opposition to Saddam Hussein through the Iraqi National Congress, which was funded by the United States.
He was taken into Iraq by the American forces, along with an armed group of supporters, as Washington tried to build a new power structure in the weeks after the 2003 invasion. But he soon fell into disfavor, targeted with allegations that he betrayed U.S. secrets to Iran.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4808
"I think I met with him at the State of the Union: -- George W. Bush, June 2, 2004
President Bush Discusses the Iraqi Interim Government
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON IRAQI INTERIM GOVERNMENT
The Rose Garden
11:30 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Today in Baghdad, U.N. Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, announced the members of Iraq's new interim government. Consulting with hundreds of Iraqis from a variety of backgrounds, Mr. Brahimi has recommended a team that possesses the talent, commitment and resolve to guide Iraq through the challenges that lie ahead.
On June 30th, this interim government will assume full sovereignty and will oversee all ministries and all functions of the Iraqi state. Those ministries will report to Prime Minister Allawi, who will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of Iraq's interim government. Dr. Allawi is a strong leader. He endured exile for decades and survived assassination attempts by Saddam's regime. He was trained as a physician, has worked as a businessman and has always been an Iraqi patriot.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/06/20040601-2.html
Sleeping With the Enemy: Chalabi’s Sordid History
“I can’t substantiate [Chalabi’s] claims. He makes new ones every year.”
- Colin Powell, 6/12/03
Today, Ahmed Chalabi arrives in the United States. The Guardian reports:
[Chalabi] is due to meet Ms Rice at the State Department tomorrow, and John Snow, the treasury secretary, today. He is also expected to see Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, and possibly the vice-president, Dick Cheney.
Here’s a short rap sheet on the man who the administration used to provide justification for the Iraq war:
PENTAGON FUNDED CHALABI TO PROVIDE RATIONALE FOR WAR: The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency paid the INC $335,000 a month in the lead-up to the Iraq war to gather intelligence. In all, the Bush White House has given the INC at least $39 million over the past 5 years.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/11/08/chalabis-sordid-history
Miller was WHIG operative--CONFIRMED!
Submitted by lambert on Wed, 2005-10-19 23:06.
Corrente was right on the money. Yesterday’s conspiracy theory is today’s news. Read on:
We wrote then:
7. I suggest that Times management—Keller, Sulzberger—was embedded in the disinformation campaign run by the White House Iraq Group, that Miller was their operative, and Libby was their handler. Of course, their White House handler wouldn’t have been crass enough to offer them money; the access to power, and the promise of scoops, would have been enough. The scoops were to come from Chalabi. (It doesn’t matter whether the White House still had faith in Chalabi; what matters is that the Times did).
The Daily News reports today (here via The Amazin’ Froomkin:
WASHINGTON - It was called the White House Iraq Group and its job was to make the case that Saddam Hussein had nuclear and biochemical weapons.
http://www.correntewire.com/miller_was_whig_operative_confirmed
Times takes the modified limited hangout route
Submitted by lambert on Sun, 2005-10-16 10:26.
Well! Today, for the first time, America’s Greatest Newspaper (not!) mentions the WHIG. Curiously, the Grey Lady chooses to lose her cherry on this story with Frank Rich behind the green door of Times Select, and not in the news section. Gosh, the news section is where the “Flame”-broiling of what remains of the Time’s reputation for journalism is taking place, isn’t it? It’s almost like they want to build a Chinese wall between Miller and WHIG, isn’t it?
Anyhow, Frank Rich does do a modified limited hangout.And the fact that this is a modified limited hangout shows just how bad things are. But, as in all coverups, watch for what is not said. Do a gap analysis!
http://www.correntewire.com/times_takes_the_modified_limited_hangout_route
THE PLOY
Talk about putting one over on the American people. This one takes the cake, it really does. Did you hear anyone even mention the White House Iraq Group until recently? Did you have a clue about who they were or what they were about? Luckily, Scooter Libby screwed up somehow and got himself indicted, and now we know. Talk about a con job.
It seems that the White House Iraq Group was quite an impressive bunch with an even more impressive job. They had to sell the entire population of the United States a really big dose of snake oil in a very short time. I kid you not. That really was their assignment, and boy did they ever carry it out in style!
http://tvnewslies.org/html/the_white_house_iraq_group.html
Whose Criminal Indictment/Trial Would You Most Like to See?
Selection
Votes
Karl "Turdblossom" Rove - 71% - 49
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby - 4% - 3
Tom "The Hammer" DeLay - 14% - 10
Bill "Kitten Killer" Frist - 10% - 7
69 votes total
Poll results are subject to error. Pollhost.com does not pre-screen the content of polls created by Pollhost customers.
http://poll.pollhost.com/VHJ1ZUJsdWVMaWJlcmFsCTExMjg1MzU0MTQJMDAwMDAwCTAwRkZGRglDb21pYytTYW5zK01TCUFzc29ydGVkCTA/
Justices to Rule on a Challenge to U.S. Tribunals
By Linda Greenhouse / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 - The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would decide the validity of the military commissions that President Bush wants to use to bring detainees charged with terrorist offenses to trial.
The case, to be argued in March without the participation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., places the court back at the center of the national debate over the limits of presidential authority in conducting the war on terror. Last year, the Supreme Court rejected the administration's position that the federal courts had no jurisdiction over those held as enemy combatants at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4809
Before Rearming Iraq, He Sold Shoes and Flowers
By Solomon Moore and T. Christian Miller / Los Angeles Times
BAGHDAD — Ziad Cattan was a Polish Iraqi used-car dealer with no weapons-dealing experience until U.S. authorities turned him into one of the most powerful men in Iraq last year — the chief of procurement for the Defense Ministry, responsible for equipping the fledgling Iraqi army.
As U.S. advisors looked on, Cattan embarked on a massive spending spree, paying hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraqi funds for secret, no-bid contracts, according to interviews with more than a dozen senior American, coalition and Iraqi officials, and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The money flowed, often in bricks of cash, through the hands of middlemen who were friends of Cattan and took a percentage of the proceeds.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4806
Who killed Dale Stoffel?
The above cartoon—published in the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mutamar last October—shows an insurgent shaking hands with a civil servant carrying suitcase labeled "Administrative Corruption."
The intersection of these sinister forces has now resulted in an American murder mystery—one that could have far-reaching implications for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and whatever government emerges from the January 30 elections.
The Los Angeles Times reports
An American contractor gunned down last month in Iraq had accused Iraqi Defense Ministry officials of corruption days before his death, according to documents and U.S. officials.
Dale Stoffel, 43, was shot to death Dec. 8 shortly after leaving an Iraqi military base north of Baghdad, an attack attributed at the time to Iraqi insurgents. Also killed was a business associate, Joseph Wemple, 49.
http://writingcompany.blogs.com/this_isnt_writing_its_typ/2005/01/who_killed_dale.html
Cheney in the Bunker
By Daniel Klaidman and Michael Isikoff / Newsweek
Nov. 14, 2005 issue - As usual, Dick Cheney insisted on doing business behind closed doors. Last Tuesday, Senate Republicans were winding up their weekly luncheon in the Capitol when the vice president rose to speak. Staffers were quickly ordered out of the room—what Cheney had to say was for senators only. Normally taciturn, Cheney was uncharacteristically impassioned, according to two GOP senators who did not want to be on the record about a private meeting. He was very upset over the Senate's overwhelming passage of an amendment that prohibits inhumane treatment of terrorist detainees. Cheney said the law would tie the president's hands and end up costing "thousands of lives." He dramatized the point, conjuring up a scenario in which a captured Qaeda operative, another Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, refuses to give his interrogators details about an imminent attack. "We have to be able to do what is necessary," the vice president said, according to one of the senators who was present. The lawmakers listened, but they weren't moved to act. Sen. John McCain, who authored the anti-torture amendment, spoke up. "This is killing us around the world," he said. The House, which will likely vote on the measure soon, is also expected to pass it by a large margin.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4790
Senate Votes Again for Ban on Abusing Prisoners
By Eric Schmitt / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 - The Senate restated its support on Friday for banning the abusive treatment of prisoners in American custody, and the measure's Republican sponsor chided the House Republican leadership for delaying a vote on it.
The Senate approved the same provision last month, 90 to 9. On Friday, senators endorsed it again, this time by a unanimous voice vote, and attached it to a revised military spending bill. The White House has threatened to veto the bill if it includes the measure, saying the provision would restrict the president's ability to protect the country.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4787
Hagel: Torture Exemption Would Be Mistake
By Douglass K. Daniel / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A leading Republican senator said Sunday that the Bush administration is making "a terrible mistake" in opposing a congressional ban on torture and other inhuman treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody.
Sen. Chuck Hagel, considered a potential presidential candidate in 2008, said many Republican senators support the ban proposed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4793
Afghan Detainee's Leg Was 'Pulpified,' Witness Says
The testimony comes at a hearing for an MP who delivered beatings. The inmate later died.
By Lianne Hart / Los Angeles Times
FT. BLISS, Texas — An Afghan detainee in U.S. custody was so brutalized before his death that his thigh tissue was "pulpified," a forensic pathologist testified Tuesday at a preliminary hearing for a military police officer charged in the 2002 assault.
"It was similar to injuries of a person run over by a bus," said Lt. Col. Elizabeth Rouse, who performed an autopsy on the detainee, identified only as Dilawar.
Rouse's telephone testimony came on the second day of an Article 32 hearing — the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding — to determine whether Army Pfc. Willie V. Brand, 26, should be court-martialed.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1931
Four U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Bombing
By Thomas Wagner / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four U.S. soldiers were killed Monday when a suicide car bomber attacked their checkpoint south of Baghdad, the military said. The soldiers were assigned to the Army's Task Force Baghdad, which is responsible for security in the capital and the surrounding area. But the statement did not specify where the attack occurred.
Names of the soldiers also were withheld pending notification of their families.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4805
Katrina homeless waiting for trailers
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Many Hurricane Katrina evacuees are still waiting for the 125,000 trailers or mobile homes the federal government has promised are on the way.
Only about 19,000 of the trailers and mobile homes have been delivered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the 10 weeks since the hurricane left hundreds of thousands homeless, the Chicago Tribune reports.
It's only one part of the housing plans, which include rental assistance, which 488,000 people have gotten so far.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4803
Roadtrip for Relief
Converge in New Orleans in a Showing of Solidarity! November 20-27 in New Orleans -- organized by Common Ground
Come lend a hand over the week of Thanksgiving until November 27th. That's less than four weeks away!
The folks at Common Ground invite you to join an estimated 300 volunteers from around the continent to converge in New Orleans the week of Thanksgiving. We want to encourage those in attendance to arrive with building & cleaning supplies, donated equipment and, if possible, funds that can apply directly to help rebuild and the 9th Ward.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php?id=51
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