Regarding Katrina....

The victims of this horrible tragedy have my heartfelt prayers. But I also pray, as the looting continues, local authorities are fired on and manpower is stretched ridiculously thin, that influential government leaders ask if the National Guard would better serve American citizens in New Orleans than fighting a bogus war in Iraq.


This is an unpresidented disaster, but it is also a failure of the government. Needing money for his elective war in Iraq and to pay for his tax cuts, President Bush cut funding for hurricane and flood control for New Orleans by 70% and is gutting FEMA as we speak.

and out of respect for all the people suffering, I am going to deluge Clinton, Kerry, Biden, etc with Pleas, to quit being silent and start taking a leadership role.

PLEASE HELP HERE IF YOU CAN

There are well over a 1200 people still in the Tenet Memorial Hospital on Napoleon in New Orleans. Predictions are that flood waters will continue to rise to another 9 feet tonight. Latest info is that they have started helicoptering out people, but very small numbers, less than 100 since 1 pm. Giving you this update because we may have no electricity before long.

Our phone numbers are 504.897.4531 and 504.897.4530, we cannot call out.

Feel free to call us or give numbers to media to call us. They are estimating that it may take several days to evacuate these people - water electricity food security all will be gone by then.

Please help by notifying the press and the government. People are hoping that friends around the country can help out. Thanks for giving people hope.

Peace, Bill Quigley

Gonzales said yesterday that the Senate bill's tighter provisions would make it too difficult for investigators to conduct secret searches or obtain "roving wiretaps" in terrorism investigations. He also said the threshold for obtaining business records, including those held by libraries, would be set too high by the Senate bill.

Gonzales, during a meeting with editors and reporters at The Washington Post, said he favors a competing House version of the antiterrorism law that includes fewer restrictions on the government.

Parts of the Patriot Act have come under fire from advocacy groups, lawmakers and hundreds of local governments as intrusions on civil liberties. Gonzales and other Justice officials say such fears are overblown and that no abuses have been documented.

A new poll to be released today by the University of Connecticut found that a majority of Americans support the Patriot Act, but most are not knowledgeable about the law's details when asked specific questions.

and check out the comments on the Huffington Report. My, my some people do not take too kindly to Alberto...doneflying.

We all agree
We live to be free
They can’t tell us
They can’t tell us, how to be

We, we all agree
You individually
We the people
Share the power
Hold the key
-Journey

ACLU reveals FBI labeled peace, affirmative action group 'terrorist'

The American Civil Liberties Union today released an FBI document that designates a Michigan-based peace group and an affirmative action advocacy group as potentially "involved in terrorist activities."

"This document confirms our fears that federal and state counterterrorism officers have turned their attention to groups and individuals engaged in peaceful protest activities," said Ben Wizner, an ACLU staff attorney and counsel in a lawsuit seeking the release of additional FBI records. "When the FBI and local law enforcement identify affirmative action advocates as potential terrorists, every American has cause for concern."

"Labeling political advocacy as 'terrorist activity' is a threat to legitimate dissent which has never been considered a crime in this country," said Kary Moss, Executive Director of the ACLU of Michigan. "Spying on people who simply disagree with our government's policies is a tremendous waste of police resources."

When I read this, I just stopped and hung my head. I just don't understand what has happened to this country. Well, actually I know all too well what has happened.

Don’t get me started on politicians
And the lies they spread
Don’t even mention sex and religion
And who they take to bed
But if you see me running down the street
Know where I’m running to
I’m tired of honesty being denied us
I’m coming looking for you

Don’t hold me down, I’m on my way
And nothing’s gonna turn me round
Don’t turn around, give it to me straight
I’m on my way and nothing’s gonna shake me
I’ll hold my ground
Wild horses won’t make me

Don’t get me started on information
Magazines and t.v.
There’s one man under his big umbrella
While it’s raining on you and me
Everyday it’s getting harder to judge
Fiction from fact
I’m tired of truth being denied me
It’s mine and I want it back
- Phil Collins

UNCONSTITUTIONAL: The War on our Civil Liberties
directed by Nonny de la Pena

Nonny de la Pena presents a devastating account of the erosion of American liberties following the passage of the USA Patriot Act in 2001.

ON ROADS AND STARS

It's early morning here on the East Coast, but the roads are still dark in Crawford. As dark as Dick Cheney's heart, and the stars as numerous as W's lies.

Last night on Real Time with Bill Maher, Cindy was asked about the grief of losing her son. She was reminded of the phases that one goes through when losing a loved one: Shock, Denial, Guilt, Anger, Depression, Acceptance.

Uncannily enough, Bill seemed to think she was in her Anger stage. I think he has the wrong Sheehan.

Cindy Sheehan is the voice we had not heard. When she has said her peace, I think she’ll just want to take off the microphone and go home, and I hope we will let her. Cindy has shown us what we need to do.

The movement born in Crawford will metamorphose into a series of bus tours targeting key congressional districts on the road to Washington, D.C., between now and September 24

World peace is widely seen as one of the most noble goals of humanity.

21 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak

well, that about says it...however this fine lady has more

Just a thought...

It is remarkable that Cindy Sheehan has effectively driven Dubya out of Texas and all the way into the deep red state of Idaho. It doesn't get redder than that. The president said "She doesn't represent the view of a lot of the families I have met with". Bush won't meet with people who disagree with him because they don't represent the views of people he meets with.

Cindy has also sparked Democrats and Republicans into rethinking their positions on Iraq. As the tides are turning, the Democratic Party needs to take the initiative, because if they don't the Repugs will and they will run with it.

It's time to put the focus of this "Bushka War on Terror" where it should have been from the very beginning: on the terrorists and not on the Recommitment to the mission nor compare the fight against terrorism to both world wars.

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - At least 40 people died when a passenger jet crashed in Peru's jungle on Tuesday, police said.

"Until now, there are 40 cadavers that rescue teams are pulling from the wreckage. There could be more deaths, we assume some 60 people in total, since we've rescued 20 injured people," a police officer in the town of Pucallpa told RPP radio.

ANOTHER TURN OF THE SCREW

"In St. Paul on Sunday, Rowley told a crowd of about 250 supporters that Sheehan's quest to speak to Bush -- which has fueled war protests around the country -- may well mushroom into a critical mass of opposition that could force the administration to bring U.S. troops home.

"I think we will, in fact, reach the tipping point," Rowley said."

Al Rogers at Daily Kos says "All Hell Breaks Loose in Utah - 2000+ Protest Bush"

After six weeks of vacation with my family on that other Coast I finally went to school today in preparation for the return of the students in September. My boss asked "Hey Lizzy how was your "hiatus"?" I told him I fell in love. He looked at me and I smiled and said "with the written word."

And Mom, you are not the only one saying You've Just Been Swift-Boated!

SUNDAY MORNING POLEMICS AND TIPPING POINTS

In an age when little noticed events in faraway places can have an eventual huge impact on us, and I was stunned that so little attention was paid here.

So it seems the Rocky State that gave Dubya his largest margin of victory of any state in the 2000 and 2004 elections has called for "the biggest demonstration this state has ever seen" to protest President Bush's appearance Monday before a national veterans convention.

The Iconoclast is reporting that Joan Baez, long time folk singer activist is going to be at Camp Casey on SUNDAY! I really like All the Weary Mothers of the Earth

My friend near the Twin Cities called me a bum. I am not bummed when I read that conservative-talk Limbaugh's show has lost 43 percent of its audience among 25- to 54-year-olds in the past year.

Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside the President's ranch has galvanised the anti-war movement - and provoked a vicious political slanging match, however the power of last week's vigils and one Mother tips the balance against Bush

Jim Lobe asks Has the U.S public lost so much confidence in the George W. Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war that its current strategy -- to the extent one actually exists -- is unsustainable?

A wave to The Coat who has some Sunday Gems. And a compassionate hug to a mother named Joan.

Steve Perry at City Pages has done an excellent job putting together
The Bush administration's Top 40 Lies about war and terrorism

Lie # 20 The looting of archaeological and historic sites in Baghdad was unanticipated.

General Jay Garner himself, then the head man for postwar Iraq, told the Washington Times that he had put the Iraqi National Museum second on a list of sites requiring protection after the fall of the Saddam government, and he had no idea why the recommendation was ignored. It's also a matter of record that the administration had met in January with a group of U.S. scholars concerned with the preservation of Iraq's fabulous Sumerian antiquities. So the war planners were aware of the riches at stake. According to Scotland's Sunday Herald, the Pentagon took at least one other meeting as well: "[A] coalition of antiquities collectors and arts lawyers, calling itself the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), met with U.S. Defense and State department officials prior to the start of military action to offer its assistance.... The group is known to consist of a number of influential dealers who favor a relaxation of Iraq's tight restrictions on the ownership and export of antiquities.... [Archaeological Institute of America] president Patty Gerstenblith said: 'The ACCP's agenda is to encourage the collecting of antiquities through weakening the laws of archaeologically rich nations and eliminate national ownership of antiquities to allow for easier export.'"

The truth will not set them free

A wave to this dad, this mom and this Gem

Blessed are the peacemakers.

Especially today.

Make sense. Make peace. Make history

My daughter said "One Voice"
was heard on August 17th, 2005

Some kids have and some kids don't
And some of us are wondering why.
And Mom won't watch the news at night
There's too much stuff that's making her cry.
We need some help
Down here on earth
A thousand prayers, a million words
But one voice was heard.

That voice was for PEACE

Rush said "Frankly, I'm also fed up -- not fed up. I retract that. I'm weary, ladies and gentlemen, of even having to express sympathy. "Oh, she lost her son!" Yes, yes, yes, but (sigh) we all lose things."

As upsetting and disgusting as Rush's comments are, I think we should take heart that this protest is driving the Republicans crazy.

Casey's mother, in her grief, is trying to save other sons and daughters from the same fate. I agree that Democratic leaders should not join her in Texas because she is much more effective as a grass-roots movement.

Paul Begala keenly remarked: "Such is the hatred of the far right at the dawn of the 21st Century. And my how the optical worm has turned. Today it is the left invoking faith, flag and family, while the right destroys crosses. Today it is the left that honors the war dead, raises up a Gold Star Mother and publicly prays for our troops, while the right viciously attacks a woman who gave her country everything. Today it is the left that patiently and peacefully respects the Office of the Presidency, while the right diminishes the office by claiming it's more important for the President to go bike-riding with a sports hero than comfort the mother of a war hero. " more

My suggested links for the day: donkey o.d.
Is A Dark Future Emerging? bu$hmeriKa HAS ARRIVED...

Cindy Sheehan Vigil in Pawling, New York