Chalk up the city of New Orleans as a cost of Bush's Iraq war.

There were not enough helicopters to repair the breached levees and rescue people trapped by rising water. Nor are there enough Louisiana National Guardsmen available to help with rescue efforts and to patrol against looting.

The situation is the same in Mississippi.

The National Guard and helicopters are off on a fool's mission in Iraq.

US Offered USD 75 Million to Iraqi Sunnis for Signature under Constitution...

53 Percent of Respondents Say They Disapprove of Bush

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

As the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina's damage to Louisiana and Mississippi overwhelms families, aid agencies, and news coverage, we will do well to remember one group of people truly caught in the middle: the 6,000 National Guardsmen from Louisiana and Mississippi serving in Iraq right now.

First Bush convinced the House to cut $20 million out of $37 million that was supposed to go to Louisiana's coastal restoration and flood control. Then, to add insult to injury, we read in The Times-Picayune that Bush is against giving coastal states up to $500 million a year out of royalties from oil and gas drilling off our coasts. Coastal states generate more than a quarter of the oil and gas consumed by the United States, but Bush opposes the Senate's plan to share that income.

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness.

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.

Pope tells Catholics to multiply...

The US government on Wednesday agreed to lend refiners small quantities of oil from its strategic emergency stockpile to help ease the shortage of petrol caused by Hurricane Katrina. But the relief it caused in the overheated oil market was cut short when it became clear that the move would have little impact on the problem and was as much a political gesture as an economic one.

An eccentric Long Island judge, reviled for showering naked in his yard, was snared in a mob sting yesterday � after he allegedly helped fence hot jewelry and used his campaign war-chest to wash "dirty" cash for the Genovese crime family.

As the federal government takeover of New Orleans continues and the helpless masses beg the state for refuge and assurance, the media is ignoring the key fact that it was the federal government itself that lowered the guard in cutting off key funding to protect Louisiana from natural disasters.

The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty.

The "exburbs" and the rural poor will feel it first and hardest. Exburbians moved to the farthest reaches of suburbia for cheap real estate, willing to drive at least an hour each way to work. Many live marginally now. What happens when their commute becomes prohibitively expensive, just as interest rates and inflation rise, while their property values plummet? Urban real estate will go up, so they won't be able to live near their jobs � and there's nowhere else to go. In addition, thanks to Congress' recent shameless activity, bankruptcy is no longer an option for many. What happens to these people? Exburb refugees. A modern Dust Bowl.

White people find things. Black people loot things....

Despite hardball U.S. political pressure Spain, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Philipines, New Zealand and Thailand have been or are currently withdrawing all or most of their troops�in some cases because of successful public opposition to the war and occupation.

Experts: $4 a gallon gas coming soon...

While our attention must now be on the Gulf Coast's most immediate needs, the nation will soon ask why New Orleans's levees remained so inadequate. Publications from the local newspaper to National Geographic have fulminated about the bad state of flood protection in this beloved city, which is below sea level. Why were developers permitted to destroy wetlands and barrier islands that could have held back the hurricane's surge? Why was Congress, before it wandered off to vacation, engaged in slashing the budget for correcting some of the gaping holes in the area's flood protection?

New Orleans: Destroyed by Presidential Negligence...

�I don�t think there�s any question that the sheriff misapplied the ordinance and acted improperly,� Barnard said, adding that the raid was discriminatory and an act of censorship. �If individuals break the law, punish them. But don�t assume that everyone who goes to a rap, hip-hop, or electronic music concert is a criminal.�

FIND THE LOWEST GAS PRICES IN YOUR AREA...

A well known radio host said this morning, "When this is over, some people will have a lot to answer for," referring to unnamed elected officials.

The airline industry felt the brunt of Hurricane Katrina yesterday, with some airports running low on jet fuel and carriers canceling hundreds of flights. Meanwhile, Wall Street feared that the financial problems of the sickest airlines could grow worse.

"There is way too many fricking ... cooks in the kitchen," Nagin said in a phone interview with WAPT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi, fuming over what he said were scuttled plans to plug a 200-yard breach near the 17th Street Canal, allowing Lake Pontchartrain to spill into the central business district.

Freeway Blogger (new images)...

Breaking: Thousands dead in New Orleans...

HEY, GEORGE...HOW ABOUT TAKING A POLYGRAPH?...

Police officers were asking residents to give up any guns they had before they boarded buses and trucks because police desperately needed the firepower:

Can�t Happen Here...

Bible-bangers blame New Orleans disaster on the gays...

President George W. Bush showing the nation that not even a major city being entirely submerged can prevent him from getting on with his life.

Jewish Woman Charged In Swastika Graffiti Spree--20 of them...

Bush gives new reason for Iraq war...

MSM Refuses to Poll on Impeachment...

Israelis claiming is God's punishment for forcing Israel to give back stolen Palestinian lands...

Pachachi�s main concern is that Iraq�s Constitution contain a comprehensive bill of rights, but this is not popular with his American overlords. The US government demands that American soldiers in Iraq be exempt from Iraqi law and its bill of rights.

Teacher and war mom fired for discussing protest crusades for vets...

President Nero. That's what we should call him from now on. He could hardly care less, although I'm sure his handlers are prepping him for some teary-eyed show to come. But history books will record that, once again, when America was under attack - this time from nature - our president proved he's one of the world's worst leaders. Even the mayor of New Orleans at least called upon the nation for prayers. You'd think Christianity-waving Bush might have at least thought of that one. But no. Golf was more important than assuring a worried nation.

Hey maybe 'democracy' for a desert people just isn't worth the cost, when Freedom's Citizens, are accommodated with platitudes, slogans, and patronizing, sniff, 'this is a terrible time. While those on the road to nowhere, are being charged top dollar, to keep their gas tanks filled [even in a national emergency], the Washington crowd could care less. The cost of gas, no matter how high it goes, isn't coming out of their pockets. President Bush's jaunts around the country/world are costing a fortune. While the citizen's ordered to evacuate are scrounging for gas money, GWB, never gives it a thought, as he takes off on Air Force One. Almost every vehicle Bush uses is custom-made to add security and communications capabilities, and the heavier weight of these guzzlers drives up gas and jet fuel costs.

Will the Bush administration wise up and withdraw from the mess it created? Probably not.

Decorated veteran, and lifelong Republican, says new Abu Ghraib photos must be released...

You have to want to know the facts. You have to care about social justice; and that requires effort; it requires living with a troubled conscience and trying to set things right. It requires that you inform yourself and make an effort to change things. The trouble is that most Americans don't want to know the truth because it would make them uncomfortable. So they turn their heads the other way and allow themselves to be distracted from their civic and patriotic duties. It is easier to display the flag and plaster their cars with 'Support our troops' stickers. This mode of being requires no real effort; nor accountability.

New Orleans must be abandoned, governor says...

If hydrocarbons are renewable- then is "Peak Oil" a fraud?...

ON 7/7 IT WAS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE 'SUPPOSED' LONDON BOMBERS TO BE FILMED AT 7.22 AM AT LUTON STATION AND ALSO CATCH A TRAIN WHICH ARRIVED AT KINGS CROSS PRIOR TO BEING FILMED AT 8.26 AM

Free-for-all as looters lose scruples and grab what they can...

Nagin said he called the governor, and that he and other state and local officials are unsuccesfully trying to get through to the White House to ask if the people in Washington know what they're doing.

The White House switchboard is 202-456-1414.

To ask the La. Air National Guard to ignore Bush's treasonous orders and plug the hole, call (504) 271-6262 .

Unnamed White House Source Wegman (Pudgy) Waterhouse, speaking on the condition of anonymity said, "No one, George Bush included, can look at the devastation along the Gulf Coast and not be moved to tears. All those damaged and destroyed Refineries and Oil Rigs...all those Pipelines. All those profits for his friends...Oh, God... I just can't go on..."

Under current law, an assailant must be a member of the "enemy forces" against Israel for the action to be considered terrorism, said Mayan Malkin, a spokeswoman with the Defense Ministry.

But in this case the shooter was Jewish and his attack cannot be designated as terror, said Malkin.

Traffic-Power.com said in the suit that confidential information about the company has been published on the blog, and it accused Mr. Wall of publishing "false and defamatory information," but it didn't identify any of the material in question.

A cameraman for Reuters in Iraq has been ordered by a secret tribunal to be held without charge in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison until his case is reviewed within six months, a US military spokesman said today.

The US military has refused Reuters requests to disclose why he is being held. He has not been charged.

A crippling blow to U.S. oil industry...

US second quarter growth revised down...

More Americans lack cover for ill-health...

No mitigation monies in 2003...huge budget cuts forthcoming...NG troops having to be 'borrowed' to restore order...privatization of emergency managment tasks...

A recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, this time, the meal was served in LA, MS, and AL.

FLASHBACK: The Ghost of the Crash of Shuttle Colombia...

Nagin said the sandbagging was scheduled for midday, but the Blackhawk helicopters needed to help did not show up. He said the sandbags were ready and all the helicopter had to do was "show up."

Twenty Things We Now Know Four Years After 9/11...

9/11 Firefighters: Bombs and Explosions in the WTC...

FLASHBACK: At Least 7 of the 9/11 Hijackers are Still Alive...

Anyone who types the words "9/11" and "conspiracy" into an online search engine soon learns that not everybody buys the official narrative of what took place on Sept. 11, 2001.

Turkish authorities have linked one of the suspects in the Zotob worm case to individuals thought to be part of a credit card fraud ring, according to the FBI.

FBI document links former Green Beret to McVeigh, bombing...

More than 95 percent of Gulf oil production lost...

It appears that the money has been moved in the president�s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that�s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can�t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us. -- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.

The "barbeque" on Thursday, Aug. 25, was the annual Lewinsky-style blowout George Bush gives for the humping, groveling media during his vacation each year -- an off-the-record affair wherein the Prince becomes "Pauper for a day" and exposes himself to the hoi polloi of the Fourth Estate.

Except Bush called it off last year, so it's really not an annual party. And the fried fish, potato salad and chocolate-chip cookies don't really qualify as a barbeque either. Some are saying it was a pool party, but nobody went swimming...

So, what is it? It's a super-duper double-secret reaffirmation by media stage-door Johnnys that Bush is the President, the Dear Leader, the commander-in-chief, the stud-muffin in control, and they're willing to crawl on their bellies across the fire-ant hills and weed-tangled Texas prairie to get access to him. Like the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin pointed out Friday in his "White House Briefing," the media are so eager to be near Bush they'll agree to anything, "pretty much no matter what the conditions."

From around July 1, 2003, until October 10, 2003, approximately 1000 individuals in the United States and abroad bought Loverspy and sent e-cards containing the application to around 2000 people, according to the authorities. Around half of those 2000 are known to have had their computers compromised and their communications intercepted, the indictment stated. The antivirus software of the day didn't identify Loverspy as dangerous, so it didn't block the program's installation, the indictment noted. Perez-Melara's operations were shut down after the FBI executed a federal search warrant for his San Diego apartment on October 10, 2003.

In a shameless repeat performance of the piece I analyzed earlier this year, the New York Times has gone for the jugular of the antiwar movement by portraying its strongest spokespersons � military family members who oppose Bush and are calling for troops to be withdrawn from Iraq � as weak, misguided, confused, mentally unbalanced, and unpatriotic.

Oil prices hit another record...

General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it was recalling about 800,000 sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks in 14 northern states because corrosion was affecting the antilock brake system, leading to more than 200 low-speed crashes.

Bush returning to Washington to monitor hurricane effort...

Speculation is rife in the city that he is interested in buying a property there, and reports are circulating that he has purchased a house in Bahrain.

Extremist broadcasters such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, the mouthpieces of the Bush Junta, have embarked upon a smear campaign that revolves around one simple argument, namely that you cannot support the troops and be anti-war at the same time. The notion that all anti-war supporters are also by association of belief, anti-military, is at first, a logical argument, however, upon closer examination, like most propoganda built on lies, it tends to fall apart very quickly.

Yellow Dog Blog: Sorry, Troops Needed At Home Are Not Available Sorry, Troops Needed At Home Are Not Available...

(Bottom paragraph) According to Abbas, immediately thereafter Bush said: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."

George W. Bush coughed up his latest rationale for continuing the Iraq war - I think this is the fourth or fifth one of these to this point - by saying that because so many American soldiers have been killed, we have to keep sending American soldiers to get killed as a means of honoring the American soldiers who have been killed.

Gonzales Comes Out For Civil Liberty Restrictions In New Patriot Act......

It's high time someone told you outright that you must be suffering from holy water on the brain, if you think we can't see you for what you are: a klavern of counterfeit prophets waxing psychotic for other cretinous hypocrites. Also, you can cease playing the persecuted party, whenever someone stands up to you, because we're no longer buying that ploy. Remember, you're the ones who threw the first epitaphic stones. It was you who labeled us a mob of Hell-bound, Satan-pimping sodomists . . . Although�as much fun as that sounds�I must ask you, where do you get the unmitigated gall to make such insane claims? When did the golden light of the sun abandon its position in the eastern horizon and begin rising, each morning, from out of your silly, neo-Iron Age asses?

Why Do Israelis Keep Posing as Arab Terrorists?...

There is a potentially fatal flaw at the heart of the global economy: the strong possibility of financial meltdown following a collapse of confidence in the greenback.

A Rhode Island lawyer trying to collect a $116 million terrorism judgment against the Palestinian Authority has obtained a court-ordered freeze on all its US-based assets, severely limiting most Palestinian economic and diplomatic activities in the United States at a critical moment for the fledgling government.

On August 31st, the last day of the encampment, the Bring Them Home Now Tour will launch three buses from Crawford, Texas, each carrying military and Gold Star families, veterans of the Iraq War and veterans of previous wars. These buses will travel different routes across the country, converging in Washington, DC on September 21, for the United for Peace and Justice Mobilization September 24th-26th.

The Bush administration has prepared a list of sanctions against Israel should it refuse to comply with a plan for a Palestinian state by the end of the year.

As long as Mr. Bush�s fantasies, self-delusions, false optimism and surrealistic take on the world are passed along with little or no correction by the mainstream media, a passable base of public support for the war can remain and Americans will continue dying in a hopeless cause. It�s that fact behind the missing analysis that is critical.

There are countless US government and Officials from around the world who have come out and blown the whistle that it was an inside job. That certain factions of the US government helped and allowed it to happen.

Because he is stubborn, close-minded, egocentric and arrogant, the president sticks with policies that, rather than make people feel more aligned, have defaced the body politic with wide, indelible lines -- in wealth, health, education, justice, religion and, most especially, ideology. In all of those categories, the divide is filled with animus.

Bush is hardly the only American with such dispositional flaws -- his cabinet roster alone proves that -- but no one else can be held responsible for picking an interminable war that is multiplying enemies, broadening the danger of terrorism, killing and maiming military and innocents alike and draining the public treasury.

With every poll showing smaller and smaller minorities approving of Bush and his war in Iraq, with top U.S. generals sending signals that they want to reduce U.S. troops in Iraq, and with the world at large viewing Bush as a fanatic who cannot acknowledge his blunders and mistakes, Bush announced in his weekly radio address that "our efforts in Iraq and the broader Middle East will require more time, more sacrifice, and continued resolve."

Does Bush think he is a dictator?

The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs says unauthorized flights by the CIA will not be allowed into Danish airspace

The government has told the United States that the CIA can no longer use Danish airspace for flights to transport suspected terrorists around the world, reported the Copenhagen Post.

Top Ten Reasons to �Undo� Iraq in Due Haste...

Watching news coverage of the refugees trying to enter the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans for safety from the approaching force-five Hurricane Katrina, I was incredulous how the people attempting to enter the stadium were being treated by the National Guard troops and local police. The people were made to stand for hours outside in the awful Louisiana climate while they were admitted one or two adults at a time so they could be searched "for firearms and alcohol."

The frail elderly, many grasping walkers and others in wheelchairs seemed to be near collapse. They, along with hundreds of small children needing water and rest-room relief, were forced to wait as long as four hours to get to safety.

Also being planned is a January, 2006, attack on Syria. This is not because Syria threatens the United States (to the contrary, seeing the destruction and slaughter of civilians the US troops are wreaking daily in their neighbor, they want nothing to do with us. The idea is that Kurdish oil from northern Iraq is wanted to ship, via a pipeline across Syria, to a shipping port in Haifa, Israel. At one stroke, Israel will gain access to cash-rich oil and get rid of a military and political danger on its eastern flanks. They hope the U.S. will do al the dirty work�and especially to suffert he casualties. They are weighing this now at the highest levels. Question: Would the American people put up with another disastrous war? The answer is probably not but Israeli pressure in Washington is awesome.

But wouldn't you know, the biggest dittohead on the block, Rush Limbaugh, is calling the storm Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel and warning that the left is going to use this tragedy against the right. Jonah Goldberg, who has never seen a bad joke bandwagon he could resist jumping on with both feet, blogged, and I quote, "It would be pretty cool if Fox played to caricature and repeatedly referred to the hurricane as Katrina vanden Heuvel." Not satisfied, he went on to imagine the headlines, "The destruction from Katrina vanden Heuvel is expected to be massive...The poor and disabled are particularly likely to suffer from the effects of Katrina vanden Heuvel."

What can one say to such heartlessness? Americans are dying, and this is their idea of respect for the dead. At least Limbaugh has the excuse that drug abuse tends to stunt emotional development. What Jonah's problem is nobody has yet discovered.

Europe may need to send oil stockpiles to US after Katrina damage - IEA's Mandil - Forbes.com...

Heavy Fighting Reportedly Erupts in Western Iraq...

"I'm very optimistic about Iraq because, first of all, I believe, deep in everybody's soul, is the desire to be free," the president said during a brief trip here to promote his health care policy.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld offered a passionate defense of the war in Iraq while speaking to a group of hundreds of soldiers at the Army's National Training Center on Monday afternoon, urging them not to give up on the war against extremism as they prepare to re-enter the fight in coming months.

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham "demanded and received" a bribe from a Pentagon contractor who paid far above market value for the congressman's Del Mar-area home in 2003, according to court documents filed yesterday by federal prosecutors.

The Pentagon's military training academy formerly known as the School of the Americas is trying to change its reputation through a PR campaign and outreach to its opponents.

With lawmakers facing tough questions at home about the war in Iraq, Senator John W. Warner, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, says he intends to summon Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld quickly for a hearing when Congress returns next week.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency shook up its way of distributing disaster preparedness money when it introduced its Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) grant program in 2002. Given the program's criteria, Louisiana appeared to have been a shoo-in for federal dollars for 2003, the first year the program began awarding money. Instead, Louisiana got nothing.

Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent...

Judge: Bush Plot Case Evidence Classified...

The US air strike early on Tuesday near the Iraqi western town of Qaim killed 56 civilians, said an Interior Ministry source.

Weapons Sales Worldwide Rise to Highest Level Since 2000...

The anti-war group Code Pink, slammed by conservatives and some wounded veterans for co-sponsoring recent protests in front of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., now suggests that the most inflammatory signs held up at the protests might have been the work of "infiltrators whose aim [was] to disrupt the vigil."