Morning Papers - continued

New York Times

I THINK KEEPING ‘THE VOTE’ BEFORE THE PUBLIC AS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE BUT I DON’T BELIEVE IN A NATIONAL ID EITHER. Cost could be one reason but not necessarily the only reason. Idenity theft happens all to frequently and the increase in IDs in the nation of people who normally don't bother is adding to the problem.

I don't believe the government has a right beyond the census to know anything about my life. I don't break the law and that doesn't not have to be quantified in a Naitonal ID. I am allowed to make decisions at to who knows what about my life. It is a matter of personal chioce and security, especially being a woman. The USA Census determines the allotment of USA Representatives to the House and in that capacity a general overview has to be accurate, but only a general view. Any other information regarding income and items like square footage of my home is not what I would call pertinent information to purpose of "House Representation" but admittedly CAN enhance the govenment's focus to improve the quality of life in the USA for all. Howerver, wtih this administrations too much infromations in their hands is dangerous and provides venues of manipulatin to control their PARTIES elections. I think the USA census needs to be trimmed because with regime change in the USA the information places people at risk, espcially minorities.

The USA Census would have knowns the delicate nature of the populous of New Orleans.
realizing that the negligence by FEMA and the Executive Branch was far more than a mistake it was murder of BlackAmericans.

Denying Access to the Ballot

It has been clear since 2000 that the election system is in serious need of reform. But the commission led by James Baker III and former President Jimmy Carter has come up with a plan that is worse than no reform at all. Its good ideas are outweighed by one very bad idea: a voter identification requirement that would prevent large numbers of poor, black and elderly people from voting.

The commission makes helpful recommendations. It favors requiring electronic voting machines to produce paper records, and opposes partisan activity by state election officials. It fails to address other problems, like not counting provisional ballots cast at the wrong precincts.

But the bombshell recommendation is for the states to require voters to have drivers' licenses or a government-issued photo ID. That would not be a great burden for people who have drivers' licenses, but it would be for those who don't, and they are disproportionately poor, elderly or members of minorities. These voters would have to get special photo ID's and keep them updated. If they didn't have the ID's, their right to vote would be taken away. The commission recommends that the cards be free. But election administration is notoriously underfinanced, and it is not hard to imagine that states would charge for them. Georgia is already charging $20 and more for each of its state voter cards.

There is very little evidence of voters' claiming to be people they are not, and the commission admits that its members are divided about how big a problem it is. But the report goes on to say that even if there is just a small amount of fraud, it should be stopped. True, but if the solution risks disenfranchising hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of voters, it is a very bad reform.

There are more reasonable approaches. The states could require uniform ID's, but allow each voter without one to sign an affidavit attesting to his or her identity, a system some states use now. It is little wonder that a dissent came from the former Democratic leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle, a commission member. He said that "for some, the commission's ID proposal constitutes nothing short of a modern-day poll tax."

The disappointing report made public yesterday was not a complete surprise. There have been red flags waving around the commission for some time; Mr. Baker is remembered by many for his fierce fight to stop the counting of votes in Florida in 2000. There have also been complaints about the commission's process. Spencer Overton, a George Washington University law professor and commission member, complains that he was told he had to limit a dissent on complicated voting issues to just 250 words.

The purpose of election reform should not be making it harder to vote. We all have a duty to make our election system as good as it can be - and not to disenfranchise people in the name of reform.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/opinion/20tue2.html?pagewanted=print


Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal Is Dead at 96
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 20, 2005
Filed at 6:27 a.m. ET
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who helped track down Nazi war criminals following World War II, then spent the later decades of his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people, died Tuesday. He was 96.
Wiesenthal, who helped find one-time SS leader Adolf Eichmann and the policeman who arrested Anne Frank, died in his sleep at his home in Vienna, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
''I think he'll be remembered as the conscience of the Holocaust. In a way he became the permanent representative of the victims of the Holocaust, determined to bring the perpetrators of the greatest crime to justice,'' Hier told The Associated Press.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/obituaries/AP-Obit-Wiesenthal.html?hp


Simon Wiesenthal: "The Conscience of the Holocaust, Dies in Vienna" at 96
Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi Hunter has died in Vienna at the age of 96, the Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today (September 20th).
"Simon Wiesenthal was the conscience of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the International Human Rights NGO named in Mr. Wiesenthal’s honor, adding, "When the Holocaust ended in 1945 and the whole world went home to forget, he alone remained behind to remember. He did not forget. He became the permanent representative of the victims, determined to bring the perpetrators of the history’s greatest crime to justice. There was no press conference and no president or Prime Minister or world leader announced his appointment. He just took the job. It was a job no one else wanted.
The task was overwhelming. The cause had few friends. The Allies were already focused on the Cold War, the survivors were rebuilding their shattered lives and Simon Wiesenthal was all alone, combining the role of both prosecutor and detective at the same time."
Overcoming the world’s indifference and apathy, Simon Wiesenthal helped bring over 1,100 Nazi War Criminals before the Bar of Justice.
There will be a news conference at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Tuesday, September 20th at 10 am.

http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nl/content.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=312458&content_id=%7b3F90833B-C57B-42B7-BB2B-9876E0C87E89%7d&notoc=1


Ex-White House Aide Charged in Corruption Case
By PHILIP SHENON and ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Published: September 20, 2005
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 - A senior White House budget official who resigned abruptly last week was arrested Monday on charges of lying to investigators and obstructing a federal inquiry involving Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist who has been under scrutiny by the Justice Department for more than a year.
The arrest of the official, David H. Safavian, head of procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget, was the first to result from the wide-ranging corruption investigation of Mr. Abramoff, once among the most powerful and best-paid lobbyists in Washington and a close friend of Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader.
According to court papers, Mr. Safavian, 38, is accused of lying about assistance that he gave Mr. Abramoff in his earlier work at the General Services Administration, where he was chief of staff from 2002 to 2004, and about an expensive golf trip he took with the lobbyist to Scotland in August 2002.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/politics/20lobby.html?hp&ex=1127275200&en=083385ffda531ffa&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Little Difference Found in Schizophrenia Drugs
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: September 20, 2005
A landmark government-financed study that compared drugs used to treat schizophrenia has confirmed what many psychiatrists long suspected: newer drugs that are highly promoted and widely prescribed offer few - if any - benefits over older medicines that sell for a fraction of the cost.
The study, which looked at four new-generation drugs, called atypical antipsychotics, and one older drug, found that all five blunted the symptoms of schizophrenia, a disabling disorder that affects three million Americans. But almost three-quarters of the patients who participated stopped taking the drugs they were on because of discomfort or specific side effects.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/health/psychology/20drug.html?hp&ex=1127275200&en=75fc05e76754c22a&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Suicide Bomber Hits U.S. Convoy, Killing 4 Americans
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 20, 2005
Filed at 3:34 a.m. ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A suicide car bomber attacked a U.S. diplomatic convoy in the northern city of Mosul, killing four Americans and wounding two others, a U.S. official said Tuesday.
A U.S. Diplomatic Security agent and three private security guards died when the suicide bomber rammed their SUV, the middle vehicle in a convoy of three, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject.
He said the victims were attached to the U.S. Consulate in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, 225 miles north of Baghdad.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Americans-killed.html


Bush Aide Will Lead Hurricane Inquiry
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON and CARL HULSE
Published: September 20, 2005
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 - President Bush has named Frances Fragos Townsend, his domestic security adviser, to lead an internal White House inquiry into the administration's performance in handling Hurricane Katrina, Scott McClellan, Mr. Bush's spokesman, said Monday.
Mr. McClellan said Ms. Townsend's job would be "to follow through on the president's commitment to determine what went wrong, what went right and lessons learned."
Ms. Townsend, a former federal prosecutor, has undertaken a number of sensitive and high-profile tasks for Mr. Bush, most recently overseeing the reorganization of the nation's intelligence services after the intelligence failures about Iraq's weapons capabilities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/national/nationalspecial/20cong.html

Blacks Join the Eating-Disorder Mainstream
By DENISE BRODEY
Published: September 20, 2005
As a teenager, Nickona Knuckles regularly binged on food and then vomited to keep her weight down.
Ms. Knuckles, who is African-American, recalled that at the time she had no idea of the devastating health effects of bulimia, nor did she care. She was one of nine black students in a high school of 3,000 and was struggling simply to be accepted
Pat Shannahan for The New York Times
As a teenager, Nickona Knuckles binged and then vomited to keep her weight down.
"When it came to body image, my perception of beauty was based on my white peers and images of white celebrities in the media," Ms. Knuckles, now 34, said in an interview at her home in Phoenix. "I didn't want to be white but it was very difficult to be comfortable with who I was."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/health/psychology/20eat.html


Michael Moore Today

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Hurricane Katrina Relief:
Over 100 tons of food, clothing, medical supplies, and generators delivered; countless FEMA applicants walked through process on mobile internet facility; six families reunited; two dogs returned to their owners...

The Pix from Louisiana. Volunteers delivering food and giving support.

http://michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php

Sunday, September 11th, 2005
A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush from Michael Moore

To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?

How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?

That's right. Horse shows.

I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.

I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.

Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?

When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?
When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?
Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?

Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?

With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?

Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.
That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.

It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the window at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"

My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?

And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?
Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.

Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?

I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?

I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.

Yours,
Michael Moore

http://www.michaelmoore.com/
mmflint@aol.com

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=185

Monday, September 19th, 2005
See You in D.C.
A message from Cindy Sheehan

So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
(MLK, Jr. Aug. 28, 1963, I Have a Dream speech)

What Bush's Katrina shows once again is that my son died for nothing. If you listen to Bush – and fewer and fewer are, thank goodness -- we are in Iraq in part due to 9/11. All our president has been talking about has been protecting this country since 9/11. That's why people voted for him in the last election. Katrina shows it's all as sham, a fraud, a disaster as large as Katrina itself.
Hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of innocent lives wasted later what have we achieved? Nothing. Casey died for nothing and Bush says others have to die for those that have died already.

Enough, George! What is disgusting is not, as the first lady says, criticism of you, but rather the crimes you've committed against this country and our sons and daughters. Stop hiding behind your twisted idea of God and stop destroying this country.

This week I arrive in Washington DC to begin my Vigil at the White House just like I did in Texas. But this time I'll be joined by Katrina victims as well. In your America we are all victims. The failed bookends of your Presidency are Iraq and Katrina.

It is time for all of us to stand up and be counted: to show the media, Congress, and this inept, corrupt, and criminal administration that we mean business. It is time to get off of our collective behinds to show the people who are running our country into oblivion that we will stand for it no longer. We want our country back and we want our nation's young people back home, safe and sound, on our shores to help protect America. That it is time for a change in our country's "leadership." That we will never go away until our dreams are reality.

We have so-called leaders in our country who are waiting for the correct "politically expedient" time to speak up and out against the occupation of Iraq. It is no sweat for our politicos to wait for the right time, because not one of them has a child in harm's way. I don't care if the politician is a Democrat or a Republican, this is not about politics. Being a strong leader to guide our country out of the quagmire and mistake of Iraq will require people of courage and determination to stand up and say: "I don't care if I win the next election, people are dying in Iraq everyday and families are being decimated." We as the 62% of Americans who want our troops to begin coming home will follow such a leader down the difficult, but oh so rewarding, path of peace with justice.

It is no longer time for the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. It never has been the time for that. Our "now" is so fiercely urgent. Like my daughter, Carly, wrote in the last verse of her "A Nation Rocked to Sleep" poem:

Have you ever heard the sound of a Nation Being Rocked to Sleep?
Our leaders want to keep us numb so the pain won't be too deep,
But if we the people allow them to continue, another mother will weep,
Have you heard the sound of a Nation Being Rocked to Sleep?

Wake up: See you in DC on the 24th.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=506

Saturday, September 24
Massive March, Rally & Festival

Part of the UFPJ Sept. 24-26 D.C. Mobilization.
10:00AM All-Day Peace & Justice Festival Begins, Washington Monument Grounds
11:30AM Rally at Ellipse
12:30PM March steps off
3:00PM "Operation Ceasefire" Concert featuring Cindy Sheehan
Volunteer in D.C. On/Before Sept. 24

END THE WAR ON IRAQ
BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
Leave no military bases behind
End the looting of Iraq
Stop the torture
Stop bankrupting our communities
No military recruitment in our schools
More than two years after the illegal and immoral U.S. invasion of Iraq, the nightmare continues. More than 1600 U.S. soldiers have died, at least another 15,000 have been wounded; even the most conservative estimates of Iraqi deaths number in the tens of thousands. Iraq, a once sovereign nation, now lies in ruins under the military and corporate occupation of the United States; U.S. promises to rebuild have not been kept and Iraqis still lack food, water, electricity, and other basic needs.

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3091


CBC Premieres Michael Moore's 'Bowling for Columbine'
9/7/2005
As part of it's Turn On To Reality September Documentary Festival CBC Television is proud to present BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE the Academy Award®-winning documentary, from US filmmaker and social activist Michael Moore, on Sunday, September 18, 2005 at 8:00 p.m.
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE is a tour-de-force from award-winning Michael Moore and the result is a stunningly brave piece of work. As his country's leading satirist and social documentarian, Moore, in this groundbreaking film, boldly asks a question that most Americans dare not ask in these wildly patriotic times, "Are we a nation of gun nuts — or are we just nuts?"

http://www.broadcastermagazine.com/article.asp?id=47229&issue=09072005


Extended tours of some US military units eyed in Iraq: Pentagon
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US military planners are considering extended tours of duty for some units in Iraq if more US troops are needed for the upcoming elections there, a Pentagon spokesman said.
Lawrence DiRita, the defense department's chief spokesman, said it was "entirely possible" commanders would want to boost the force in Iraq beyond its current level of 140,000.
"And I guess the thinking at the moment is, if we did need more and it was based on rotations, how would that work?" he said.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4163


Activists link Katrina crisis, Iraq war
By Frederick Cusick / Philadelphia Inquirer
Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan yesterday laid some of the blame for the death and destruction associated with Hurricane Katrina on President Bush's Iraq war.
Sheehan, a Californian who became an international figure when she camped out next to Bush's vacation ranch in Crawford, Texas, last month, said Katrina was not only a natural disaster, but "a man-made tragedy and a criminal negligence disaster."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4151


British bishops lament "litany of errors" in Iraq
By Gideon Long / Reuters
LONDON, Sept 19 - The West has committed a "litany of errors" in Iraq and the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 was driven as much by American interest as by concern for the Iraqi people, British church leaders said on Monday.
In a wide-ranging report, bishops from the Church of England also criticised Western policy towards Iran and said the European Union had not tried hard enough to end a stand-off over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4158


What has happened to Iraq's missing $1bn?
By Patrick Cockburn / The Independent
One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq's defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history, The Independent can reveal, leaving the country's army to fight a savage insurgency with museum-piece weapons.
The money, intended to train and equip an Iraqi army capable of bringing security to a country shattered by the US-led invasion and prolonged rebellion, was instead siphoned abroad in cash and has disappeared.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4160


Leaders Who Won't Choose
In Washington, it's business as usual in the face of a national catastrophe.
By Fareed Zakaria / Newsweek
Sept. 26, 2005 issue - "Adversity builds character," goes the old adage. Except that in America today we seem to be following the opposite principle. The worse things get, the more frivolous our response. President Bush explains that he will spend hundreds of billions of dollars rebuilding the Gulf Coast without raising any new revenues. Republican leader Tom DeLay declines any spending cuts because "there is no fat left to cut in the federal budget."
This would be funny if it weren't so depressing. What is happening in Washington today is business as usual in the face of a national catastrophe. The scariest part is that we've been here before. After 9/11 we have created a new government agency, massively increased domestic spending and fought two wars. And the president did all this without rolling back any of his tax cuts—in fact, he expanded them—and refused to veto a single congressional spending bill. This was possible because Bush inherited a huge budget surplus in 2000. But that's all gone. The cupboard is now bare.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4154


Police Fortify Numbers for War Protests
March to Be First Since D.C. Passed Arrest Law
By Del Quentin Wilber / Washington Post
D.C. police have canceled days off and are planning to deploy several hundred officers during an antiwar demonstration next weekend that will include a march near the White House, but officials said they expect no trouble.
Saturday's rally, part of a weekend of protests and counter-protests, will be the first demonstration allowed to surround the White House in more than a decade. It is the first major rally to occur since a D.C. law that requires police to give clear warnings before arresting demonstrators took effect.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4140


The Boston Globe

25 geniuses get their day in the sun
Harvard professor among MacArthur grant winners
By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff September 20, 2005
A Massachusetts doctor fighting the global threat of viruses and a longtime Maine fisherman combining science with his experience on the water to save a way of life are among the 25 recipients of the MacArthur ''genius" grants announced today.
The MacArthur Fellows Program, now in its 25th year, awards $500,000 with no strings attached to encourage people who have shown great potential in a wide variety of fields, from the sciences to the arts. The Fellowship is unusual, and particularly dramatic, because it is shrouded in secrecy. Winners do not apply and do not even know that they are being considered until they get a phone call informing them they have won.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/09/20/25_geniuses_get_their_day_in_the_sun/


Winter heating cost to rocket
5 to 10 distributors face gas-price probe
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff September 20, 2005
Massachusetts average gasoline prices finally dropped below $3 a gallon yesterday following the post-Hurricane Katrina spike. But for Bay State consumers, the worst energy news is yet to come this winter.
The nearly 1 million homeowners who use heating oil can expect to pay 31 percent more for fuel than they did last year, translating to an average $500 total increase. Natural gas utilities are seeking average rate hikes of 26 percent over last year. Electric utilities are likely to soon follow with requests for 20 percent and higher rate increases.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/09/20/winter_heating_costto_rocket/


Higher education board proposes raising college tuition
September 20, 2005
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Students may pay several hundred dollars more next year to attend one of the state's three public colleges.
The Board of Governors of Higher Education is proposing tuition increases of 3 percent to 6 percent to help raise an additional $30 million it says it needs to run the colleges and Office of Higher Education. The board is asking the state to provide an additional $11.7 million, while students would pay $18.3 million more.
The University of Rhode Island would raise its tuition 6 percent to $7,724 for in-state students. With room and board increases as well, in-state students would pay a total of $16,464 per year.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2005/09/20/higher_education_board_proposes_raising_college_tuition/


Man charged in N.J. kidnap attempt is former N.H. cop
September 20, 2005
WHITEFIELD, N.H. --The Whitefield man being held on charges he tried to kidnap a boy in New Jersey last month is a former police officer who met the youngster through a homosexually oriented Web site, court documents and police say.
George Nugent, 56, is a former police officer in Lancaster, Northumberland and Litchfield, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported Tuesday. His most recent job was for a construction company in Plymouth.
He is being held without bail as a fugitive from justice from New Jersey, where he is charged with chaining a boy around the neck and trying to kidnap him.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/09/20/man_charged_in_nj_kidnap_attempt_is_former_nh_cop/


Major developments in Katrina's aftermath
By The Associated Press September 20, 2005
Major developments in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:
-- President Bush says he was concerned that Tropical Storm Rita could hit the already devastated Gulf Coast as he prepares for a fifth trip to the region to survey hurricane recovery efforts.
-- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin suspends his plan to start reopening large parts of the city to residents and told those who have returned to be prepared to evacuate again as Rita approaches the gulf. Some business owners and residents say they'll stay put.
-- The city is requesting 200 buses to assist in a possible evacuation. They would start running 48 hours before landfall from the downtown convention center and a stadium in Algiers.
-- The death toll in Louisiana spikes to 736, as receding floodwaters allow search and recovery crews to accelerate their probes into the city's decimated neighborhoods. The toll across the Gulf Coast is 973.
-- Brig. Gen. Robert Crear says the Army Corps of Engineers hopes to have New Orleans' levees back to being capable of handling a Category 3 storm by June, the start of the next hurricane season.
-- President Fidel Castro is lamenting that the U.S. government has still not responded to his offer to send nearly 1,600 Cuban doctors to help Hurricane Katrina victims, saying the team could have saved lives.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/20/major_developments_in_katrinas_aftermath/


Princeton claims progress against grade inflation
By Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press Writer September 19, 2005
Princeton University bigwigs are lauding the fact that fewer of their students got "A's" last year.
To them, the falling grades don't mean that the students are less capable or lazier, but that a year-old policy designed to hold in check grade inflation is working.
In the 2003-04 school year, 46 percent of grades given to undergraduates were "A-plus," "A" or "A-minus." Princeton wants to bring that down to 35 percent. It got about half way there last year, when 41 percent of grades were in the "A" range.
Princeton's efforts are among the most ambitious among elite schools trying to rein in the awarding of uniformly high grades, which some academics see as cheapening grade-point averages.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/09/19/princeton_claims_progress_against_grade_inflation/


AP reporter included in dengue fever cases
A worker fumigates the work area of a construction site as part of anti-mosquito breeding efforts Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005 in Singapore. Singapore has yet to pinpoint a reason for the spike in number of dengue infections and has embarked on a drive to weed out the cause. Eight people have died from dengue fever this year in the city-state. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
By Christopher Torchia, Associated Press Writer September 20, 2005
SINGAPORE --Hooked to an intravenous drip on wheels, I shuffled from my hospital bed to the bathroom and slumped over the sink to brush my teeth. Blood oozed from my gums, a symptom of dengue fever.
On another laborious visit to the bathroom, the IV needle pulled free, and big drops of blood splashed to the floor as I pressed a buzzer and waited for a nurse to find a vein again.
The high fever, aching joints and sharp, grinding headaches left me disoriented and bedridden for days when I had dengue fever in June. But doctors warned me that the biggest danger was bleeding because the mosquito-borne virus lowers the number of platelets, clotting agents in the blood, to dangerous levels.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2005/09/20/ap_reporter_included_in_dengue_fever_cases/


Voting improvement
September 20, 2005
THE MENINO administration and the Justice Department averted a court showdown last week over minority voting rights in Boston. Now Secretary of State William Galvin, the state's leading election official, is left to deal with the thorny details of the breakthrough settlement agreement.
In July the federal government sued the city, alleging that local officials had discriminated against voters with limited English skills by skimping on bilingual poll workers and election materials written in foreign languages. The Justice Department even charged the city with improperly influencing the ballot choices of Asian voters and demanded that city officials sign a consent decree admitting wrongdoing. To its credit, the Menino administration stood up to the Justice Department, which had provided little proof of its harsh allegations.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/09/20/voting_improvement/

continued ...

September 15, 2005. On the climb on Mount Wellington, Australia.

September 18, 2005. Top of the world in New Zealand. Mount Wellington. There is little snow and no other higher peaks.

September 20. 2005. 15 cm of snowfall in Canterbury, New Zealand. The end of Winter. The Christchurch suburb of Cashmere was one of the hardest hit.Roads on the hill side suburb were closed along with schools.
John McCombe Special for Herald Sept 19 2005

September 19, 2005. A Judical Hearing for Judge Roberts who exhibits indignation over the conflict of interest he produces regarding Military Tribunals which Roberts recently ruled on as an Appellate Court Judge granting the president more and increasing power. As a Chief Justice, Roberts will be assigning the judges to those very courts. In those courts are hearings regarding 'enemy combatants.'  

September 19, 2005. Scott Parkin deported as a terrorist for protesting against Halliburton.

The Korea Herald

Fitch may upgrade Seoul credit rating
By Kim So-young and Kim Jung-min
North Korea's agreement to scrap all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs will provide South Korean shares more fuel to run higher by removing geopolitical uncertainties, and will also put spurs to inter-Korean economic cooperation, analysts said yesterday.
But they expressed cautious optimism about the impact of the nuclear breakthrough on the overall economy, saying that many of the details to disarm the communist state have yet to be worked out.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/09/21/200509210008.asp


Six parties will have to put principles into action
By Lee Joo-hee
The joint statement on North Korea's pledge to dismantle its nuclear programs Monday marked a new chapter in the three-year nuclear stand-off by successfully breaking the communist state's grip on its atomic weapons programs.
But the statement on principles - elaborated mostly in ambiguous phrases - also signaled a tough and complicated road ahead for the six parties, who must now sit and negotiate how and when to transform the agreed principles into action.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/09/21/200509210014.asp


Gender pay gap widens over 50% at large firms
The average gap between men and women's pay at major Korean companies has stretched by more than 50 percent in the last five years, reports submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service showed.
The reports, filed by 50 bluechip companies, showed male workers at large Korean companies receiving a monthly check of 4.2 million won in the first half of this year, while females workers earned 2.6 million won. The 1.6 million won difference is a 52.8 jump from 2000 when the gap stood at 1.06 million won.
Experts attribute the widening pay gap to women's low chances of moving up the corporate ladder. They also cite the high concentration of women workers in assembly lines rather than in managerial positions.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/09/21/200509210020.asp


One year crackdown on sex business shows fewer brothels, more customers
Results of a one year crackdown on the sex business were announced yesterday by the National Police Agency, showing a large decrease in the number of brothels and sex workers, but an increase in the number of sex clients, the majority of who are in their thirties and forties.
Over the past year, the number of brothels went down from 1,679 to 1,061, a 36.8 percent reduction, and the number of sex workers from 5,567 to 2,653, down 52.3 percent.
Around 16,260 people were arrested in this period, and of these 1,1474 were male brothel owners, pimps and sex clients and 4,786 were female sex workers. Of these women, 987 were excused from punishment by the provisions in the anti-prostitution laws that protect the human rights of women who have been forced into sex work against their free will.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/09/21/200509210016.asp


Finance Ministry to raise soju tax despite opposition
The Finance Ministry decided yesterday to carry on with a tax rise on soju, Korea's popular alcoholic beverage, despite the Uri Party's opposition to the plan.
President Roh Moo-hyun led a cabinet meeting yesterday, approving a Finance Ministry plan to raise the liquor tax from its current level of 72 percent to 90 percent, in order to make up for an expected shortfall in tax revenues in the wake of a slower-than-expected recovery in the economy.
The plan is expected to result in rises on the retail prices of soju of up to 200 won per bottle, according to the ministry. Soju retails at between 1,000 won to 1,500 won per bottle.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/09/21/200509210013.asp>


USFK to replace commander
U.S. Forces Korea announced yesterday it will replace the chief of its troops on the peninsula early next year.
U.S. President George W. Bush has nominated Gen. Burwell B. Bell, Commander of U.S. Army Europe, to replace Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, the incumbent chief of USFK, at a date to be determined in 2006, according to a statement from USFK.
His appointment is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
The USFK said the replacement was made in close consultation with and the full concurrence of the South Korean government.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/09/21/200509210011.asp


The Korea Times

South Korea to Mediate Reactor Dispute
By Reuben Staines
Staff Reporter
South Korea is confident the North Korean nuclear disarmament agreement reached in Beijing on Monday can be implemented despite a continuing disagreement between Pyongyang and Washington over the sequencing of the deal.
President Roh Moo-hyun told a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that Seoul will seek to mediate the dispute, which focuses on Pyongyang’s demand for the construction of a light-water nuclear reactor in the North to help meet its energy needs.
``South Korea will have to play a proper role between the United States and North Korea to resolve the issue as the two main parties are engaged in a tug-of-war,’’ Roh said.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200509/kt2005092017041011950.htm


Researchers Find Cancer Gene
By Kim Cheong-won
Staff Reporter
A local research team has discovered that a gene in the human body suppresses the development of cancer.
The team discovered that the lack of a gene, known as ``sumo,’’ causes high instability in chromosomes.
Instability in chromosomes can provoke the formation of cancer.
Jang Yeun-kyu, 43, chief of the carcinogenesis branch at the National Cancer Center in Koyang, Kyonggi Province, said yesterday that his five-member team has discovered a direct link between a small ubiquitin-related modifier or sumo and chromosomes stability.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200509/kt2005092017203210220.htm


Denuclearization and Peace
Pyongyang Ought to Faithfully Keep Promises First
North Korea's vow to abandon its nuclear facilities and weapons program is fostering high expectations that the peninsula will become nuclear free at long last. However, the long-cherished denulcearization is not easy because it has to be met by various sensitive conditions. Needless to say, its starting point depends on the North's faithful observance of its promises stipulated in a six-point agreement that the six participants in the nuclear negotiations made on Monday, ending the arduous fourth round of the dialogue. They are to rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and permit U.N. nuclear inspections in addition to the complete scrapping of all nuclear activities.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200509/kt2005092017155254040.htm


Expectations on Economic Effect
Accord Provides Chance to Revitalize Business Climate
A rocky road lies ahead in implementing the nuclear deal made in Beijing Monday, but the first step has been taken. Most Koreans might have heaved a sigh of relief, but one of the happiest groups should be economic officials and business leaders. They hope, with reason, that the agreement to end North Korea's nuclear programs will dispel the long-drawn security risks and upgrade sovereign credit ratings. This will hinge on both the diplomats' follow-up talks and the business community's preparedness.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200509/kt2005092017133754050.htm


Lancaster Intelligencer

218 years old, but still a current event
Judge Stengel gives MU audience a tour of the U.S. Constitution
By Madelyn Pennino, Intelligencer Journal Staff
Intelligencer Journal
Published: Sep 16, 2005 9:29 AM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Federal Judge Lawrence F. Stengel gave Millersville University students a review of the U.S. Constitution Thursday night, then he taught them a lesson in current events.
Stengel spoke to an audience of more than 100 in Gordinier Hall in observation of Constitution Day.
Stengel told the crowd now is a good time to discuss the Constitution and its relationship to events in America and abroad.

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/17073


Marching on a puppy mill
By Steve Kopfinger
Sunday News
Published: Sep 17, 2005 9:37 PM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Thirty-one years after starring in “The Exorcist,” Linda Blair is still out to shock people.
Blair, who played a demon-possessed child in the 1974 creepy classic, is active these days in exposing a horror of a different kind: puppy mills, or dog-breeding facilities that crank out puppies in large quantities for the public, brokers or pet shops.

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/17132


U.N. Assembly Turns Attention to Poor
By Nick Wadhams
Associated Press Writer
Published: Sep 19, 2005 12:57 PM EST
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Leaders from developing nations took the rostrum Monday at the annual U.N. General Assembly debate to criticize rich countries for not doing enough to ease the plight of the world's poorest people.
Speakers from Africa, Asia and Latin America said they were encouraged by a document adopted at a three-day summit last week promising to alleviate poverty, but would withhold final judgment until rich nations make good on their vows.

http://ap.lancasteronline.com/4/un_general_assembly


Police arrest man wanted for assault in New Jersey
By Brett Lovelace, Intelligencer Journal Staff
Intelligencer Journal
Published: Sep 16, 2005 9:32 AM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Police Thursday morning arrested a 22-year-old man wanted for assault in New Jersey.
Javier Omar Burgos, also known as Omar I. Crespo-Burgos, had been on the lam since June, when he failed to appear for a court hearing in Camden County, N.J.
Despite a massive manhunt, Burgos eluded police in Lancaster city for a day and a half before a police dog finally cornered him in a row house on Church Street.

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/17075


The New Zealand Herald

PM orders investigation into visa claims
20.09.05 12.05pm UPDATE
Prime Minister Helen Clark said today an independent investigator will look into visa allegations surrounding Labour minister Taito Phillip Field.
Senior Cabinet ministers and Helen Clark separately spoke to Mr Field this morning about allegations that Mr Field gave assistance to a Thai overstayer.
The Thai man was seeking a New Zealand work permit and tiled Mr Field's house in Samoa.
Mr Field asked Associate Immigration Minister Damien O'Connor to review applications for New Zealand work visas by Sunan Siriwan and his wife after Mr Siriwan went to Mr Field for help.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10346479


Northland hit by storms
20.09.05 11.00am
Northlanders are mopping up after three days of weather that felled trees, sank boats, flipped a truck and cut power to thousands.
The weekend storm caused widespread damage in the north and west of the region.
Its effects were still being felt at high tide yesterday in Dargaville when sandbags were needed to hold back the Northern Wairoa River as it threatened to spill over stopbanks.
A long-line fishing boat moored in the normally sheltered Mangonui Harbour sank, and a yacht was driven on to rocks there by winds of more than 100km/h.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10346443


Early morning quake rattles Wanganui
20.09.05 10.00am
An early morning earthquake has rattled the central North Island, Geological and Nuclear Sciences said today.
The 5.54am quake, centred 30km northwest of Raetihi, registered 4.1 on the Richter scale. It was at a depth of 30km and would have been felt in Wanganui.
- NZPA

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10346439


Snow moves north and shuts roads
20.09.05 8.15am
By Colin Marshall
The big chill moved north last night, cutting roads in the central North Island.
MetService spokesman Bob McDavitt this morning said the worst of the snow appeared to be past.
"It was a snowy night, particularly in the pre-midnight hours, and there are still some rain and snow-bearing clouds we can see on the radar."
Mr McDavitt said the MetService believed they would be able to drop its snow warnings this morning.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10346438


Icy blanket swathes Canterbury
20.09.05
By Jarrod Booker
Christchurch was paralysed yesterday as a fierce snowstorm hit the South Island, cutting electricity and closing the city's airport, universities, schools and businesses.
Parts of Christchurch received between 5cm and 15cm of snow early in the day. But the sun broke through between rain and sleet showers in the afternoon.
The ferocity of the storm caught residents by surprise after a mild winter largely free of severe weather. The temperature hovered just above freezing throughout the day.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10346414


Latham backs NZ's approach to US relations
19.09.05 1.00pm
CANBERRA - Australia should follow the example of New Zealand, which had made itself the safest country on earth through distancing itself from the United States, former opposition leader Mark Latham said today.
Speaking ahead of the long-awaited launch of his diary today, Mr Latham said he reached the conclusion that Australia needed to renegotiate the alliance with the US after dining with then US Ambassador Thomas Schieffer, who he referred to in his diary as Brains ("Schieffer brains").
"We should have a look at how New Zealand has made itself the safest country in the world," he told ABC radio.
"There is no terrorist threat to New Zealand that has been identified but (there is) one here. If you go supporting bad American policy you make yourself a bigger target and you stir dissent in your own country," he said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10346290


Three killed in Guatemala prison gang fight
20.09.05 9.20am
GUATEMALA CITY - Three presumed gang members were shot and beaten to death today in the latest lethal clashes between street gangs in Guatemala's prisons.
The three prisoners, believed to be members of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang, were killed after being attacked with guns, stones and sticks by rival gang Mara 18, according to police spokesman Carlos Calju.
The gangs, known collectively as "maras", co-existed for the most part peacefully in Guatemala's jails until grenade-tossing inmates from several prisons broke a pact not to fight each other behind bars last month and killed 36.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10346445


UK frees soldiers from Iraq prison, witnesses say
20.09.05 1.00pm
BASRA, Iraq - British tanks smashed into an Iraqi prison to free two undercover British soldiers seized on Monday by Iraqi forces, an Interior Ministry official and witnesses said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said British troops using half a dozen tanks stormed the jail in the southern city of Basra. Dozens of Iraqi prisoners escaped during the raid, he said.
However, Britain later said the soldiers were released by negotiation. "We've heard nothing to suggest we stormed the prison,'' a defence ministry spokesman in London said. "We understand there were negotiations.''

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10346444


Up to $1 billion plundered from Iraqi funds
20.09.05
LONDON - Large-scale corruption in Iraq's ministries, particularly the defence ministry, has led to one of the biggest thefts in history with more than $1 billion going missing, Iraq's finance minister said in an interview.
"Huge amounts of money have disappeared. In return we got nothing but scraps of metal," Finance Minister Ali Allawi told British newspaper The Independent in a report published on Monday. "It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history."
Corruption, both in the bidding for and the awarding of contracts, and in the administration of public offices, is one of the most frequent accusations made by Iraqis against their government and foreign firms operating in the country.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10346386


New York Times Iraq reporter found dead in Basra
20.09.05
BASRA, Iraq - An Iraqi working as a reporter for the New York Times was found dead in the southern city of Basra on Monday after being kidnapped by masked men, family members and a doctor said.
Fakher Haider, who had worked for the Times for 2-1/2 years, was found with his hands bound and a single bullet wound to the head, a doctor in the forensic department of Basra's hospital told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Employees of the New York Times in Baghdad said they couldn't confirm Haider's death but said they were enquiring into reports that he had been kidnapped and killed.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10346356

continued …

September 18, 2005. A polar bear enjoys the view of his visitor from his underwater enclosure at Louisville, Kentucky.

September 18, 2005. Twin sister lioness at Louisville, Kentucky.

September 12, 2005. Giurnello, Italy.

Morning Papers - concluding

The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:

Scott Base

Clear

-18.0°

Updated Tuesday 20 Sep 2:59PM

The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:

54 °F / 12 °C
Mostly Cloudy

Humidity:
72%

Dew Point:
45 °F / 7 °C

Wind:
10 mph / 17 km/h from the ESE

Pressure:
29.76 in / 1008 hPa

Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers

UV:
1 out of 16

Clouds:
Mostly Cloudy 3300 ft / 1005 m
Mostly Cloudy 4400 ft / 1341 m
Mostly Cloudy 6000 ft / 1828 m
(Above Ground Level)

concluding

September 13, 2005. Bogue Banks of Morehead City, North Carolina BEFORE "Ophelia's" force hit. Periperal clouds noted rolling in over the wetlands.

September 13, 2005. This is a picture of the height of the repeatedly approaching waves of "Ophelia" under the pier as a reference point. Noted the absence of the water in front of the wave.

September 13, 2005. The cumulative effect of "Ophelia" was nothing less than REPEATED tsunamis on the coast of North Carolina. It is easy to see THE wave coming in with classic signs of a tsunami. The beach has no water. The wave is an exceptionally high curl/break over point. The wave goes the entire length of the picture even the other side of the pier. This is the tsunami wave of "Ophelia" at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

September 13, 2005. The tsunami waves of "Ophelia" is seen roaring in here. The 'height' of the wave can be noted best on the right side of the picture. Note the absence of water on the shoreline.

September 15, 2005. Channel markers damaged at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

September 15, 2005. Storm damage to Steamboat Motel at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

Morning Papers - concluded

The Cheney Observer

Halliburton, set to clean up, denies overcharges
By Brett Arends
Monday, September 19, 2005 - Updated: 11:34 AM EST
Politically-wired Halliburton Inc. is denying it overbilled the U.S government in Iraq – just three months after a Pentagon report showed $422 million in ``unsupported'' costs in the company's contracts.
The company, which is in line for Federal work helping rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, also responded to scrutiny of its CEO's growing fortune by taking the unusual step of highlighting the share option gains of an executive at a rival firm.
Halliburton has been a target of Bush administration critics over its work in Iraq. Vice-President Dick Cheney ran the company from 1995 to 2000.

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=103196


Iraqis to Bush -- Where Did All Our Money Go?

by Evelyn J. Pringle
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/
September 18, 2005

I have come to the conclusion that even if I live to be 100, I will never be able to track down every Bush-connected profiteer involved in this phony war on terror scheme. According to a report released in March 2005 by Transparency International (TI), an international organization that focuses on matters of corruption, Iraq could become "the biggest corruption scandal in history."
"I can see all sorts of levels of corruption in Iraq," report contributor Reinoud Leenders stated, "starting from petty officials asking for bribes to process a passport, way up to contractors delivering shoddy work and the kind of high-level corruption involving ministers and high officials handing out contracts to their friends and clients."

One of the top ten crooks has got to be Ahmed Chalabi. A former banker in Jordan, Chalabi was forced to flee the country in 1989 before he could be arrested for his involvement in a $200 million financial scam. He was later tried and found guilty in his absence, and sentenced to 22 years in prison for more than 30 charges of theft, embezzlement, misuse of depositor funds, and currency speculation.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept05/Pringle0918.htm


The Incompetent Chimp To The Rescue: How Will Our President Screw Up This Time?
Brendan Nyhan
Book from Touchstone
Release date: 03 August, 2004
Bush made a hash of 9/11 by responding with the Iraq War, and now we sit, in a quagmire of his making. How will he screw up Katrina reconstruction? No doubt there'll be other things besides no-bid contracts with Halliburton, and suspending minimum wage rules for reconstruction firms. But what else? Expect something.
This administration hasn't touched anything yet that it hasn't managed to screw up. Frank Rich really nails W to a high mast here:
The worst storm in our history proved perfect for exposing this president because in one big blast it illuminated all his failings: the rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of "compassionate conservatism," the lack of concern for the "underprivileged", his mother condescended to at the Astrodome, the reckless lack of planning for all government operations except tax cuts, the use of spin and photo-ops to camouflage failure and to substitute for action.
In the end, something like Katrina tests a president's character, and Bush has come up close to zero in that department. You can't spin character: you either have it or you don't.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/18/170423.php


US peace activist deported as threat to ‘national security’
Dale Mills
Like a scene from a James Bond flick, 36-year-old Texan-based peace activist Scott Parkin was picked up on the streets of Melboune at lunchtime on September 11, while he was at a cafe. He was arrested by six immigration officials and Australian Federal Police (AFP), kept in detention and then flown out of the country on September 15.
Parkin was arrested as he was about to present a workshop about the US peace movement and how corporatations, such as Halliburton, profit from the war on Iraq. Parkin’s six-month tourist visa to Australia was cancelled with three months remaining, on the basis that his continuing presence in Australia was a “threat to national security”.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/643/643p10.htm


Cheney Wins -- Again
By MIKE ALLEN
As key Senators in both parties push President Bush to name a "hurricane czar" to take charge of the Katrina aftermath, some Administration officials relish the notion of outsourcing their Category 5 headache. But the idea of a superpowerful hurricane guy hit a major obstacle: Vice President Dick Cheney, who--eight days after Katrina made landfall--was put in charge of assessing whether the Administration was meeting its goals in the relief effort.
G.O.P. officials say Cheney opposed a czar largely out of his affection for standard operating procedure. But a presidential adviser tells TIME that Cheney was also concerned that the new office would invite more meddling by Congress and create another power center. "If you appoint a czar and he doesn't get what he wants, like if you start to tamp down the spending, all he has to do is go to the press and create sympathy for his viewpoint and make it difficult for the President," the adviser says. Bush and his inner circle agreed, with little debate, top aides said.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1106315,00.html


Congress must see records of Cheney's secret meetings
Shortly after the Bush administration took office, Vice President Dick Cheney held secret meetings with the chief officers of the major energy companies. Even when members of Congress asked for the records of what went on in those meetings, Cheney refused to turn over his records.
In the past four years, even before Hurricane Katrina, gasoline, crude oil, natural gas and electricity all saw dramatic price increases. There have been several big mergers in the oil industry, which means less competition.
Now, they say because of the hurricane, of course, prices are going to go much higher. I think the members of Congress should be outraged and demand to see the records of those meetings. The American people have a right to know when they are being robbed. This administration is handing the country over to big business every day.
JOE KRISTON
Kimball Township, Sept. 12
Originally published September 18, 2005

http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050918/OPINION03/509180329/1014/OPINION


Letters from September 19
Monday, September 19, 2005
(image placeholder)
In response to some of those who say that you cannot lay responsibility for the disastrous relief response to Hurricane Katrina on the president, that is simply not the case. Part of any executive's job is selecting the right team to help him or her lead. We expect it of Gov. Bredesen just as we expect it of any good business leader. A major part of Bush's 2000 campaign revolved around his ability to make Americans safe and secure. That included a government restructuring that moved FEMA under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security. Ostensibly FEMA could now respond to any type of disaster. Many citizens over the course of the 2000 campaign remarked that Bush and Cheney made them feel safer.
And yet, look who the president chose to lead the agency responsible for handling the aftermath of disasters on American soil. The top three leaders of FEMA had ties to Bush's campaign or the White House advance operation. A former GOP lieutenant governor of Nebraska and a one-time political operative fill another two senior operational spots.
The president chose political patronage over more responsible selections. These individuals' resumes included a media strategist, lobbyist, campaign advance deputy-director, and commissioner of a horse-sporting group - not exactly what one would consider typical training for emergency management. It was possible that no natural or manmade disasters of this scope would have occurred, and the president's patronage appointees would never have been known outside the Beltway. Yet in this case it cost lives, plain and simple. So was Bush partly responsible for the disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina? Absolutely. Poor personnel management is a sign of poor leadership, especially when it is a matter of life and death.
Mark Kelly
Kingsport

http://www.timesnews.net/article.dna?_StoryID=3547872


Luminaries flock to jailed reporter
By Carol D. Leonnig
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Locked in the Alexandria, Va., Detention Center for the past 11 weeks, New York Times reporter Judith Miller is cut off from the world. She has no Internet access and little opportunity to view CNN. Her phone calls are limited, friends say. Her daily newspaper arrives a day late.
But for 30 minutes nearly every day, the world comes to her: A parade of prominent government and media officials, 99 in all, visited Miller between early July, when she was jailed for refusing to be questioned by a federal prosecutor, and Labor Day, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002502806_millervisit18.html


John Roberts: career-long criminal player and imperial bagman
By Larry Chin
Online Journal Associate Editor
September 18, 2005—In yet another typically stomach-turning Washington charade, the smug John Roberts non-answered his way through his Senate confirmation hearings, sailing towards a virtually certain approval as America's 17th chief justice.
Another deep political player who should be grilled, excoriated, and punished, for a lifetime of criminal and treasonous activity, was warmly welcomed by a panel of hapless and equally corrupt politicians, and then permitted to perjure, lie and play-act to a position on the highest court of the land.
It is no surprise that the ascension of Roberts has been such an urgent priority for this administration. It is not just because Roberts facially resembles Bush, and echoes Bush's oily and arrogant smugness. The darkness at the core of Roberts is amply documented in Nat Parry's John Roberts and the apex of presidential power.
Parry points out:
"While much of the focus on Bush's choice of Judge Roberts has centered on his life-long conservative ideology, including his hostility towards women's rights, a sleeper issue has been Roberts's support for giving the Executive nearly unlimited authority, at least when the White House is held by a Republican.
"Roberts's deference to presidential power is a strand that has run through his entire career as special assistant to Ronald Reagan's attorney general, a legal strategist for Reagan's White House counsel, a top deputy to George H.W. Bush's solicitor general Kenneth W. Starr, and a federal appeals court judge accepting George W. Bush's right to deny due-process rights to anyone deemed an 'enemy combatant.'"

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/091805Chin/091805chin.html


John Roberts, Stare Decisis, and the Return of Lochner: An Impetus to Jump-Start the Labor Movement
by Matthew Ford
There are some things we take for granted, some things that seem so natural we forget that they were the result of long, hard struggle: the forty-hour work week, weekends off, the abolition of child labor, worker safety laws, and the right to collective bargaining -- to name a few. But as John Roberts begins to settle into his seat as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court and the next corporate crusader slides through a mock nomination hearing, labor activists and their progressive allies will have plenty of impetus to jump-start the labor movement.
Judges are not theoretical recluses hiding from society as they arrive at unavoidable conclusions by simply applying the rule of law to the facts at hand. We must send a clear signal to the Supreme Court, both before and after Roberts and the next new Justice are firmly seated on the bench, that certain precedents are here to stay.
Roberts on Precedent:

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/ford180905.html


Frank Rich: "The Administration's Priority Of Image Over Substance Is Embedded Like A Cancer In The Katrina Relief Process"…
Message: I Care About the Black Folks
By FRANK RICH
ONCE Toto parts the curtain, the Wizard of Oz can never be the wizard again. He is forever Professor Marvel, blowhard and snake-oil salesman. Hurricane Katrina, which is likely to endure in the American psyche as long as L. Frank Baum's mythic tornado, has similarly unmasked George W. Bush.
The worst storm in our history proved perfect for exposing this president because in one big blast it illuminated all his failings: the rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of "compassionate conservatism," the lack of concern for the "underprivileged" his mother condescended to at the Astrodome, the reckless lack of planning for all government operations except tax cuts, the use of spin and photo-ops to camouflage failure and to substitute for action.
In the chaos unleashed by Katrina, these plot strands coalesced into a single tragic epic played out in real time on television. The narrative is just too powerful to be undone now by the administration's desperate recycling of its greatest hits: a return Sunshine Boys tour by the surrogate empathizers Clinton and Bush I, another round of prayers at the Washington National Cathedral, another ludicrously overhyped prime-time address flecked with speechwriters' "poetry" and framed by a picturesque backdrop. Reruns never eclipse a riveting new show.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/opinion/18rich.html?ex=1284696000&en=64a2f63f0c39dc70&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss


Funnyman Walker gets serious about New Orleans
Hearne Christopher
No big surprise that comedian Jimmie “J.J.” Walker took a shot at the prez during his recent gig at Stanford’s in Overland Park.
“Good news for George Bush,” Walker told the crowd. “He’s finally found his weapons of mass destruction — Hurricane Katrina.”
But not all Bush jokes are well-received, it seems (more on that later). In an interview off stage, Walker was dead serious on the subject of Bush and New Orleans.
“It’s a very tough situation,” Walker begins. “I think George Bush should come down there and live and stay with the people.”
On the other hand, New Orleans could provide Bush with an excuse to pull out of Iraq, Walker says.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/living/12645692.htm


Rove surfaces to clear path for Bush
Correspondents in Washington
September 19, 2005
"BUSH'S brain" was missing when floodwaters swamped New Orleans.
Karl Rove, the White House aide who goes by that unofficial title, was suffering from kidney stones and was admitted to hospital in the middle of the biggest crisis so far of President George W.Bush's second term.
Once his condition improved, it was Mr Rove who urged the President, against the advice of White House economists, to spend $US200billion ($260billion) to rebuild the stricken city "higher and better", as Mr Bush went on to promise. Though many Republicans are horrified by the cost, Mr Rove is determined to revive Mr Bush's dormant image as a compassionate conservative, the theme of his first presidential campaign in 2000, and will be overseeing the reconstruction effort.
Bill Kristol, editor of the neo-conservative Weekly Standard, said Mr Rove's absence had made a significant difference after the hurricane hit.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16646620^2703,00.html


Phone call from Rove spurred dismissal
By Wayne Slater
The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas — White House Deputy chief of staff Karl Rove personally called the Texas secretary of state about a newspaper story quoting a staff lawyer about whether Rove was eligible to vote in the state.
The lawyer was subsequently fired.
Secretary of State Roger Williams said that he decided to dismiss the lawyer after talking with Rove but that the White House adviser didn't request that he do so.
"Absolutely not," said Williams, a longtime supporter of President Bush and a major GOP fund raiser.
"Karl called me. He had read the article and wanted to know if it was our stance" that his voter-registration status in Texas might be in jeopardy, he said. "I told him it wasn't and that the person who gave that opinion was not authorized to do so."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002502813_rovefire19.html


Bush nephew resisted arrest
Austin - A nephew of President George W Bush repeatedly pushed against an officer who was trying to handcuff him during his arrest on suspicion of public intoxication, according to an affidavit.
John Ellis Bush, 21, whose father is Florida governor Jeb Bush, was arrested by agents of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission at 02:30 (06:30 GMT) on Friday in Austin's Sixth Street bar district.
Bush had approached the state agents and Austin police officers to ask about an arrest earlier of people he knew. Officers said he appeared intoxicated and could have posed a danger to himself and others, said TABC Capt. David Ferrero.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Backpage/HotGossip/0,,2-1343-1344_1772515,00.html


Williams: Rove did not request lawyer's dismissal
9/17/2005 1:52 PM
By: Associated Press
AUSTIN -- Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams said he spoke with presidential adviser Karl Rove before deciding to fire a lawyer quoted in a newspaper story about Rove's eligibility to vote in Texas -- but Rove did not ask him to do so.
Williams said that Rove had read the article and wanted to know if it was the state's stance that his voter registration status in Texas might be in jeopardy.
Williams said that he told Rove it wasn't and that the person who gave that opinion wasn't authorized to do so.

http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=145702


The whitewash thickens
The WMD Mirage: Iraq's Decade of Deception and America's False Premise for War, edited and with an introduction by Craig R Whitney Buy this book
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Reviewed by Piyush Mathur, with Eihab M Abdel-Rahman
As New York Times reporter Judith Miller cools her heels in prison for refusing to disclose her sources to special prosecutor Patrick J Fitzgerald (in a case ultimately related to America's erstwhile quest for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction - WMDs), it is ironical to review The WMD Mirage, a volume edited and introduced by another Times journalist, Craig R Whitney, who is on precisely that quest.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GI17Ak02.html


Houstonian stirs a ruckus in Australia
War protests get him 5 days in jail, a revoked visa and a bill for $8,000
By EDWARD HEGSTROM
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
In Houston, Scott Parkin lived a mostly inconspicuous life as a part-time history teacher and peace activist.
ADVERTISEMENT
But in Australia, he has become a media sensation, a symbol of dissent and a topic of fervent Australian senate debate. When he was arrested this month after participating in a Sydney protest against the Houston-based company Halliburton, some Australians started describing him as the country's first "political prisoner."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3357623


Post-Katrina reconstruction
Just look who’s cleaning up
Molly Ivins
AUSTIN, Texas — Here’s a good idea: Consumer groups and progressive congressfolks have joined in an effort to stop thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina from being further harmed by the new Bankruptcy Act, scheduled to take effect Oct. 17.
This law was notoriously written of, by and for the consumer credit industry, and is particularly onerous for the poor.
The bill was passed with massive support from the Republican leadership in Congress and from a disgusting number of sellout Democrats. While it was being considered in committee earlier this year, Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee offered an amendment to protect victims of natural disasters. It was defeated, without debate, on a party-line vote.

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/opinion/12667084.htm


FEMA: Dumping Ground for Bush-Cheney Shills by ATTYTOOD
Two Bush 2000 Florida recount aides were rewarded with top FEMA posts.
Reversing an eight-year crusade to rid the now-embattled Federal Emegency Management Agency of political patronage, a newly elected George W. Bush in 2001 named two key players in his Florida recount fight to important FEMA posts.
Neither man, Jacksonville attorney Reynold Hoover (pictured at right) and Miami lawyer Mark Wallace, had any experience in emergency management before they were named by the Bush administration to FEMA, now under fire for its botched response to Hurricane Katrina.
Hoover, a longtime "explosives expert" with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who became a lawyer in 1996, is still with FEMA as its director of national security coordination. Wallace left the Bush administration in 2004 to become deputy manager of the president's re-election campaign, and is now a lobbyist.
They are two more names to add to the list of political appointees and out-and-out hacks at FEMA.

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=2&contentid=2765


Cheney Revives Parvus 'Permanent War' Madness
by Jeffrey Steinberg, Allen Douglas, and Rachel Douglas
It was never a secret that the ranks of today's Washington neo-conservative war-party are filled with former first and second generation Trotskyists—personified by Irving Kristol, the former Shachtmanite Trotskyist, self-described "Godfather" of the entire neo-con apparatus, and the father of Weekly Standard editor William Kristol. What was ignored was that fact that both they and Vice President Dick Cheney's are still fanatically committed to former Bolshevik minister of war Leon Trotsky's doctrine of "permanent revolution," and to the kind of permanent war which Cheney has created in Iraq, and is preparing to launch, very soon, as nuclear-armed warfare against Iran, and similarly permanent warfare against Syria, in South American, and elsewhere as soon, and as often as possible. It is this doctrine, which most historians associate with the name of Josef Stalin rival Leon Trotsky and his followers, which is presently the most immediate threat of mass-murderous violence to the world as a whole.
It is also the leading active threat to the continued existence of the U.S.A. as a constitutional republic, here, at home.

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3237cheney_parvus.html


BUSH HAS NO INSIGHT. WHAT DOES ANYONE EXPECT?

Newsview: Crisis Overtakes Bush's Agenda
By TOM RAUM
Associated Press Writer
September 19, 2005, 12:11 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Hurricane Katrina swamped President Bush's second-term domestic agenda, reordering his priorities and changing the political landscape.
His open-ended commitment to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast has become his No. 1 domestic imperative.
Swept away was Bush's pledge to cut the budget deficit in half. His centerpiece proposal to restructure Social Security -- in trouble even before the storm -- probably is a casualty, too.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-katrina-bush-agenda,0,7761278.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines


Must Future Court Nominees Match Qualifications of Roberts?
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: September 18, 2005
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 - Judge John G. Roberts Jr. has not done any favors for the next Supreme Court nominee.
As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares for its vote on Thursday on Judge Roberts's nomination to be the nation's 17th chief justice, Democrats and Republicans agree on one thing: he will be a tough act to follow.
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Despite Judge John G. Roberts Jr.'s reticence in answering questions posed by members of the Judiciary Committee, Republicans and Democrats agreed he made a good impression.
A regularly updated guide to the nomination and confirmation of Judge John G. Roberts.
With President Bush trying to fill a second Supreme Court vacancy, both sides are already insisting that the next nominee must meet Judge Roberts's standard, each to further its own political goals.
After months of arguing that Judge Roberts should not disclose his views on specific legal matters, Republicans say he revealed enough to push the benchmark for the next nominee firmly to the right.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/politics/politicsspecial1/18roberts.html


EDITORIAL
The Senate and the real John Roberts
Published Sep 17, 2005 10:50 AM
There’s a saying that if something looks like a duck, walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it probably IS a duck.
John Roberts, George Bush’s nominee for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, has argued right-wing causes on just about every significant social and econo mic issue in this country over the last two decades. He has written right-wing, reactionary legal position papers and argued right-wing, reactionary legal cases for right-wing, reactionary administrations. He has made right-wing, reactionary decisions as a federal judge. A quick check of the websites of the women’s movement, the civil rights movement and the labor movement will show his uninterrupted record of reaction.
The chances are—he is a right-wing reactionary!

http://www.workers.org/2005/editorials/roberts-0922/


The Unconstitutional FEMA
by Sheila Samples
September 16, 2005
It's a good thing President George Bush doesn't read newspapers or watch TV. If he did, even he could see that people from one end of this nation to the other are rapidly reaching zero tolerance with his bumbling ineptitude each time he is faced with a crisis. Those who watched in amazement as Bush sat paralyzed in a Florida elementary school on the morning of September 11, 2001 as planes were ramming into the World Trade Center and Pentagon – who watched in dismay as he zigzagged across the country from one hidey hole to another throughout the day – were not surprised that he dropped the ball when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast on August 29.
Bush has dropped every ball thrown to him throughout his life. But he's a hell of a cheerleader. It's almost like being back in college. In an instant, Bush can whip a crowd into a frenzy, armed with nothing but a bullhorn and a shell-shocked firefighter. He can divert the attention of an entire nation from what is happening on the field by locking it into one massive, cheering "wave." Life is a game. Go Team.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SAM20050916&articleId=962


While You Were Watching Katrina
House Republicans derail probes of Plame affair
by Murray Waas
September 16th, 2005 3:10 PM
Murray Waas will continue covering the Plame affair on his blog, http://www.whateveralready.blogspot.com/
Republicans on three separate congressional committees this week derailed three formal "resolutions of inquiry" by Democrats that would have required the Bush administration to turn over sensitive information and records relating to the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame.
Had the resolutions of inquiry been adopted, they would have led to the first independent congressional inquiries of the Plame affair, and perhaps even the public testimony of senior Bush administration aides such as Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff, and I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, about their personal roles.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0538,waas,67952,2.html


Halliburton is in Katrina's trough
Published on Friday, September 16, 2005, in the Tracy Press.
AUSTIN, Texas — It’s an ill wind that blows no one good, so we should not be surprised to learn the first winner out of the gate on Hurricane Katrina is none other than the Halliburton Co., whose deserving subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root has already been granted a $29.8 million contract for cleanup work in the wake of Katrina.
Of course, no one would suggest Halliburton and its subsidiaries get government contracts (more than $9 billion for reconstruction work in Iraq, with Pentagon audits thus far showing $1.03 billion in “questioned” costs and $422 million in “unsupported costs”) just because Vice President Dick Cheney is still on the payroll. Heavens no. The veep continues to receive deferred pay from the company he formerly headed — $194,852 last year.
But Cheney has nothing to do with the Halliburton contracts — that, friends, goes through none other than the noted lobbyist and former head of — of all things — the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Since Joe Allbaugh, who was President Bush’s campaign manger in 2000, left FEMA in December 2002, he has been busy making sure reconstruction contracts in Iraq go to companies that give generously to the Republican Party.

http://www.tracypress.com/voice/2005-09-16-ivins.php


The secret country
September 17, 2005
Scott Parkin: 'secret' reasons for deportation.
Photo: Ringo H.W. Chiu
Why was this man detained on 'national security' grounds and deported? The trouble is, we don't know, writes Ian Munro.
ROB Stary admits he got it wrong. Late last year the president of the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association warned that the Federal Government's new national security laws had the potential to stifle political debate. But he never imagined it would happen so quickly.
Stary believed the new laws, covering terrorism, national security and ASIO, were aimed clearly at Islamic fundamentalists. While the legislation could technically be used to quell political dissent more broadly, he reasoned it was "inconceivable" that this would happen.
This week, after the detention and deportation of US peace activist Scott Parkin, Stary says he underestimated the Government. "Unfortunately, I was wrong, and it seems Parkin is the first example of someone who is a political dissident who suffered the consequences of dissent after being targeted by the intelligence community," Stary says.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/general/the-secret-country/2005/09/16/1126750129508.html


Andy Stern: Rebuild the Value of Work With New Orleans
Andy Stern Fri Sep 16,11:19 AM ET
President Bush last night, reeling from sagging polls, a sagging U.S. economy, and a sagging war effort, laid out his plan for the region.
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I love government programs, and entrepreneurship, but in the long run it can't beat a good job that allows you to own a home, raise a family, and gain the dignity and self-respect from hard work.
What the President did not mention was that he has suspended the one government program that could have assisted that -- Davis-Bacon, which provides for a prevailing wage, which by the way, is less than $10 an hour in New Orleans.
He did not suspend Halliburton profits or land speculation, just made sure that people who work start out in the whole when it comes to making the reconstruction jobs, jobs you can actually afford on you own to purchase a home.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20050916/cm_huffpost/007448;_ylt=A86.I12h.ypDKvgAmgD9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl


Letters to the editor: Watch administration's wake
September 16, 2005
In the midst of the tragedy Hurricane Katrina brought to this nation, only a man like President Bush could find a silver lining ... literally.
The first step was to persuade people to agree that the workers hired to rebuild the devastated area should be paid less than scale. Then he granted three no-bid contracts to his friends. A division of Halliburton got one, the company of a former Bush campaign manager got another, and the third went to someone who gave "generously" to the Bush reelection campaign. CNN further reported that Bush has relaxed restrictions on imports of building supplies.
At first it would appear that these steps might save the American taxpayer some money in the long run. However, as this administration has proven over and over again, the friends of the president will become richer and the American taxpayer will get poorer. American workers will be paid less, and American suppliers will be slighted.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-85529sy0sep16,0,96503.story?coll=dp-opinion-editorials


NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi blasts Bush administration's use of no-bid contracts for Katrina work
September 16, 2005
ALBANY, N.Y. September 16, 2005 - New York State United Teachers President Richard C. Iannuzzi today joined other labor leaders across the country in criticizing President Bush's decision to award no-bid contracts and suspend Davis-Bacon Act protections for reconstruction projects in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
Iannuzzi said the Gulf Coast region already has the lowest prevailing wages in the country, and the suspension of Davis-Bacon Act protections means that workers involved in the cleanup and reconstruction of the region will find their wages driven even lower.
"It's outrageous that no-bid contracts to rebuild New Orleans are going to corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel," Iannuzzi said. "And it's beyond outrageous that Davis-Bacon Act protections have been suspended. Working men and women who have already lost everything are now going to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast for less than $10 an hour. It's pretty clear the Bush administration doesn't have its priorities straight."

http://www.nysut.org/media/releases/20050916hurricane.html

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