It would be a huge mistake for the new government of Libya to pursue Gaddafi's family in exile.

Abdullah Al-Senussi, (click title to entry - thank you) head of the Libyan Intelligence Service speaks to the media in Tripoli August 21, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Paul Hackett


There is much work to be done in Libya.  The new government needs to use diplomatic channels to secure the return of criminals to their country for trial.


...The Hague-based International Criminal Court has approved warrants for the arrest of Muammar Gaddafi, another of his sons, Saif al-Islam, and Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity....




The National Transitional Council should be under no moral obligation to fall in line with western diktats (click here)

• By Linda S. Heard, Special to Gulf News
• Published: 00:00 August 30, 2011
• 
  

I'll paraphrase the Director of FEMA.

"Waiting to find out the damage in order to act insures the worst outcomes."


There are people alive today and city infrastructures secure because the worst outcomes were realized before the storm hit and not afterward.


This was a Climate Crisis storm destined for the Arctic Circle.  Scientists have stated for a very long time the civilized world could not afford the Climate Crisis.  No one listened.

Quechee Vermont Covered Bridge: The Day After Hurricane Irene

Lower Bartonsville Covered Bridge collapses into the Williams River in V...

Vermont has an area of 9,612 square miles.

This precision weather instrument (click here) was developed and manufactured to specifications from the U.S. Weather Bureau.  The top funnel of the instrument catches rain and delivers it to the one-inch capacity measuring tube, which can read to the nearest 1/100th of an inch.

1 square miles = 4 014 489 600 square inches

The very least Vermont received in rainfall was approximately 7 cubic inches of water in a rain guage or over 28 trillion inches of rain per square mile.

What rain was delivered in less than 12 hours.  

Why does a marketing firm advertise a rain gauge in full sunlight?

28 trillion inches is approximately 121,212,120.699 gallons.

121,212,120.699 gallons X 9,612 square miles = 1,165,090,904,158.788 gallons of rainfall fell on Vermont in less than 12 hours.

There is 127,729,000,000,000 gallons of water in Lake Erie.  

In less than 12 hours about 1% of the water volume of Lake Erie fell on Vermont.  As a result there is serious undermining of the land itself due to the force of the 'run-off' and 'overland flow.'  Vermont is going to suffer severe infrastructure challenges due to this hurricane.

Bennington (click title to entry - thank you) Police Chief Paul Doucette looks at a collapsed bridge on Route 9 in Woodford, Vt. on Aug. 28, 2011.


I am very worried about Vermont, Connecticut and our neighbor to the north which received far too much water than their infrastructures were ever designed to handle.


When a covered bridge after standing for 141 years washes away in a matter of hours, one has to wonder how anyone in Vermont is still alive.

The flooding in Vermont could not be stopped. It is a matter of physics, not policy.

Hurricane Irene (click here)

It is impossible to stop the flooding of such a vast amount of rain in Vermont.

Officials Ask Vermonters To Prepare For Hurricane Irene  (click here)

Friday, 08/26/11 7:34am

Vermont as noted in the physical map below is more mountains than low lands.  The water runs off the mountains into the low lands.  A lot of water in such geographical dynamics translates into a lot of flooding.  Just that simple.  There is nothing else to explain.  I have never seen a reservoir at the foot of every mountain to prevent flooding.  It could be done if the nation wants to spend a trillion or more over the next decade. 

Officials prep sandbags, shelter for storm (click title to entry - thank you)

NEAL P. GOSWAMI

Posted: 08/26/2011 11:21:39 PM EDT

Friday August 26, 2011BENNINGTON -- Local officials continued to prepare Friday for severe weather over the weekend as Hurricane Irene continued to track toward the Northeast.
Bennington Police Chief and Public Safety Director Paul Doucette said the town was preparing 1,000 sandbags to protect low-lying areas from flooding. Emergency officials also made plans to open the Mount Anthony Union Middle School as an emergency shelter, should one be necessary....

If anyone wants to make this into a story that was exploited for political purposes they will be showing how completely partisan, removed from reality and stupid they actually are

The ONLY political 'hot potato' that exists with Irene is why hasn't the USA government been more involved in reversing the Climate Crisis.  Now, if the Right Wing wants to try that topic for a change to lead the pack on change then that would be a historic first..


August 29, 2011, 12:27 PM

How Irene Lived Up to the Hype (click here)

By NATE SILVER

...I don’t know. What’s easier to evaluate is how much coverage Hurricane Irene received in comparison with other hurricanes. By that standard, the coverage was quite proportionate to the amount of death and destruction that the storm caused....

I don't believe any of the "Authoritarian Laws" being instituted in states across the country have been tested in court yet.

Local governments have very few venues for increasing revenues.  The revenues have to be raised.  Just that simple.  Legislators at any level of government stating otherwise are not practicing sound fiscal policy.


Citizens should not be lead into destroying their governments because of past irresponsible fiscal policy in the Federal Executive Branch.  This is like pulling the rug from under the recovery in any economy, state, local or federal.  Revenues have to bring about balance in stressed governments, not destruction of democratic principles. It is obvious what is happening and why there are increases in unemployment.  Republicans don't know how to govern.


These "Authoritarian Laws" are based on 'solvency' as if every town and hamlet was a corporation.  These cities might be incorporated, but, they are not producing a product for profit.  The entire approach is about destroying cities and towns and not about sustaining them or creating a 'tax base' that is workable.  If the property values are not sustaining these cities on a 'systemic' basis then the state needs to increase revenues until property values return to a reasonable level.  Snyder's policies throw the baby out with the bath water.  It isn't a reasonable approach.  The state needs to increase its revenue and provide subsidies to sustain local budgets while the economy recovers.  This is about emergency fiscal management and not corruption that derailed local governments.


Property values at the local level is an issue, it serves NO ONE to decrease employees incomes to balance budgets.  That will only result in lower property values and will further destabilize the housing market.  Public employees are not aliens, they have families and purchase homes like everyone else.  Destroying pay scales for public employees by destroying their unions is the sound fiscal policy it is more of the wayward approach we have seen for nearly a decade now and look where it has gotten the nation.

...Al Garrett is president  (click title to entry - thank you) of the 60,000-member Michigan chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 25. He said the money local governments have lost to plunging property values and state aid reductions is responsible for local governments' financial problems, not their contracts with unionized workers….

That attack by Governor Snyder is becoming SYSTEMIC.  It isn't a city on occasion that has a problem resulting from corruption and needs 're-organization' to recapture viability away from its corrupted infrastructure, the problem is broader that than. 

The need for skilled and qualified public employees was never more evident than when "Hurricane Irene" struck the east coast of the USA.  

The problem across the board in the USA is a result of LOST REVENUES to any government, not costs and certainly not the employees that work for the government.  The problem is REVENUE.  What new revenue is Synder and others like him bringing to their state budgets to influence GROWTH and not just 'Fire Sales' of public assets.  The methods of these governors are hideous while they continue to treat their power as dictatorial rather than democratic.

There is a problem here and it needs to be tested in the courts.  Those limiting and destroying government have not provided enough revenues to their treasury to even consider these measures.


The Federal Labor Board has to begin to draw conclusions regarding these policies and then litigate it while seeking injunctions .  The 'Authoritarian Laws' are destroying economies and job growth.


These are fundamental constitutional rights of citizens that are being attacked.  The right to assemble and organize is being destroyed by so called 'budget balancing.'  It is out control.


Snyder is digging a deeper hole for these communities, he is not solving their problems.  He is removing democratic processes while making matters worse.

Foundation files brief supporting university teaching assistants' First Amendment freedom of association  (click here)

Washington, DC (July 29, 2011) – The National Right to Work Foundation filed an amicus curiae("friend of the court") brief with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asking the Board to uphold its long-standing precedent to disallow union officials to corral university graduate students working as teaching assistants into unwanted union affiliation.

Foundation attorneys filed the brief with the NLRB in a case involving United Auto Workers (UAW) union organizers’ attempt to forcibly unionize graduate students at New York University (NYU) in New York City and ultimately to force them to pay union dues to maintain their status....

Maybe New York didn't do as well as it could have. Prison Populations need their own disaster plans.

One of the first places for Prison Reform and better inmate rehabilitation would be GRIEVANCE processes.  Grievance Processes that also include family and significant contacts that are proven to be a good citizen.  "A friendship process" of sorts could be instated as well.  Social mentoring from the outside connected with grievance processes that provide a venue to be heard and not just counted during lock down.


I see this as a racial issue as well.  We all know there is a disproportionate number of minorities in prisons compared to their counterparts.  I think the US Prisons in general need to be viewed as a racial problem.  It is not only racial but also socio-economic.  Live and die poor while imprisoned for lack of 'quality of life.'  


Governor Perry can tell anyone that aren't that many millionaires and billionaires on death row.


But, this is a topic that needs a dialogue.


Prisons also have employees that need to have a disaster plan in place.  For the most part USA Prisons are self contained with kitchens, laundry and the like so there need for emergency plans should be easier to put in place than not.


It could be a 'prison population' project.  There are many people within prisons.  It would not be a bad idea for prisoners to value their own lives in a way that works as a community in problem solving their emergency needs.  I don't know if that is workable, but, if prisoners can be on 'work furlough' they certainly have the capacity to 'act in an emergency' for the best interest of their community.


USA prisons are warehouses for the most part.  The populations are left to live according to their own rules rather than that of the society that put them there.  The prison population is a community, but, rarely is it seen as a functioning community that is responsible for their own rehabilitation.  I would think the greatest asset a prison could provide to the society that needs it would be to translate crime into productive possibilities that lead to rehabilitation. 


You know, the contact I have had with former inmates is that their 'work life' is limited after they are released, regardless, of the nature of their crime.  They turn to jobs such as truck driving and physical labor and work that doesn't require professional licensing.  I don't know why they are trained in firefighting and sanitation or skilled labor that pays well after they are released.  Why do they come back into society basically the same as they went in and returned to dysfunctional communities to do it all again?  


I would think being trained in emergency services of one kind or another within the prison would elevate their 'self' definition.  Why aren't there 'sand bag brigades' in places like Rikers?  Sand bags work in such circumstances.  


I would think when a prisoner is sentenced there would be a requirement to their release that they have to be skilled in a job that provides them a good income.  It would be a reason to do well and improve their lives on all fronts and even coming to the understanding like 'AA' the 'life style' that led them to crime and the people that continue to be a part of that should be abandoned before release.  If they have a skill that translates into a job when they exist their prison term I would think that would translate well into reducing recidivism. 


The idea that severe flooding could kill prisoners is only one aspect of emergency measures, but, to realize a Cat Five Storm could destroy the very prison that holds them is a completely different reality.  I don't know how many times 'the conditions' prisoners face can lead to a worse sentence than they were handed in American courts.  Facing death by storm for theft is not what I would call an equitable sentence.


Crimes of violence are the only ones that should receive significantly long prison sentences. and those prisoners should be sequestered into communities that address the fact they depersonalize their life experience into terms of survival that requires violence as a method of living.  Prisoners in the USA are there for reasons and they are traceable reasons.  There is little done about the reasons so much as warehousing people until they reach 'Three Strikes and They are In."  


The American Prison Systems need attention and rarely is that a topic any politician is willing to discuss because they know absolutely nothing about it except what is demanded of them administratively.  I am confident Bush and Perry have little to say about the prisons in their Governorships and the people they put to death.  To them it is simply paperwork.  Nothing more.  They don't assign 'breathing' as important to any prisoner.  As is true of any topic in the USA it won't be moved to resolve unless it is a national political issue.  I would think there would be a movement revolving around the death sentence and how innocent people have actually been killed in this country based on societal standards for no reason at all while the guilty still walk free.


Rehabilitation will work when a prisoner is exposed to the ability to achieve a real life for the first time after incarceration.  It will work better if prison populations are dissolved into destroying 'gang power' over the individual.  Rehabilitation will work if it is part of their sentencing.


Hardened Criminals become hardened, they aren't born that way.

I have yet to witness the abilities of Nic Robertson in the Middle East by another journalist.

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Nothing could have prepared me for what I'm about to see.

I'm in a fancy villa in a posh part of Tripoli, walking through the garden past a huge plastic children's swing set and a trampoline that dominate the lush green lawn. A young man is filling a large swimming pool.

All this in a city where water is running out. I've not had a shower or washed in running water for three days. The al-Megrahis, it seems, are not short of money.

This villa connects to another, equally palatial but far more contemporary. It's clad in modern ceramic tiles, like something you'd see in trendy London neighborhood.

As I walk up the grand staircase towards the front door, I'm mentally composing my questions -- what I'll ask Abdel Basset al-Megrahi first. Did you do it? Did Gadhafi give you the orders?

I've been waiting for the moment for a long time....

Nic Robertson: Bin Laden interview (click here)

November 11, 2001 Posted: 11:00 AM EST (1600 GMT)

I am quite certain he is the journalist of choice to many in the Middle East.  In the instance with al-Magrahi; the rebels and the family needed to make it known to a global community that indeed the decisions regarding extradition were the only ones to make.  So, they turned to a trusted journalist.  Nic is more valuable than he can ever be paid.  Dedication is invaluable and marked with status and not pieces of gold.  

New York did well.

But, there watersheds are met with high rise structures with a geographical small food print accompanied by large tracks of open space.  I thought the Mayor carried out plans for protecting citizens 'just right.'  I was a wonderful opportunity to keep people safe and examine their disaster plans.  Well done.

What does Vermont and New Jersey have in common?

Stone.  Not being stoned. but, stone.

Vermont has mountains that drain rain into a watershed and New Jersey has concrete that drains rain into a watershed.
One could say, Vermont is natural flooding and New Jersey is man-made flooding.

New Jersey Remains Drenched In Aftermath Of Irene; Serious Flooding Remains A Major Concern (click here)

August 29, 2011 8:30 AM

LINCOLN PARK, NJ (CBSNewYork/AP) – The flooding left by Tropical Storm Irene is not over yet – and it may even get worse for some before it gets better.

That’s because many of New Jersey’s swollen rivers are set to crest today.

Main street in Lodi turned into a river. The water flooded basements of many area homes….

Vermont Flooding Spares Few In Statewide Disaster (click title to entry for audio link - thank you)

Monday, 08/29/11 7:34am

Ross Sneyd

(Host) Tropical Storm Irene washed into Vermont with torrential rains that spread floods from end of the state to the other.

The storm dropped four to seven inches of rain in just a few hours and sent rivers raging through town after town.

As VPR's Ross Sneyd reports, the scope of the devastation drew comparisons to the historic 1927 floods.

(Sneyd) The toll in lives disrupted, property damaged and nerves frayed is staggering.

And Scott Whittier of the National Weather Service says it's historic.

(Whittier) "'73 was a signifidant flood across the state. Before that was '27. Now you're talking 2011. So we get these maybe every 40, 50 years. So it's pretty much a once-in-a-generation type of flood."

(Sneyd) Up and down the state, town after town was swept by the relentless rains of Irene. Rivers flooded, roads washed away and bridges gave way…

Watersheds are where drinking water is obtained.  With Irene, 'surface area' + 'rainfall' / 'watershed' = flooding

Vermont's watersheds are effected by mountains and elevation.

New Jersey has far less areas of 'absorption' so the 'overland flow' is high.  Therefore, the watershed is effected by lack of open space PER person and hence flooding.