There are moments...

...in the Truman Show when cracks in the conjured reality inhabited by Truman Burbank start to widen. Like a mad detective, Truman tells his wife to look in the rear view mirror with him, "I predict, that in just a moment we will see a lady on a red bike, followed by a man with flowers and a Volkswagen Beetle with a dented fender...." and sure enough they materialize, passing by, almost as if he had a crystal ball.

Last night I had one of those Truman flashes... when I learned that, "a U.S. House of Representatives committee on Thursday approved a bill to create a corporation that would buy and redevelop tracts of land devastated by recent Gulf Coast hurricanes, helping property owners in Louisiana avoid massive defaults on home and business loans."

First the lady on a red bike...
Katrina floods breeches the 17th Street Canal levee with surgical precision, inundating the poorest sections of the city, leaving the poor and a majority of NOLA's (democ)rats left clinging to anything that floats for almost a week. Then, survivors are bussed as far as possible from the scene of the crime - Houston, Atlanta. Those who want to stay, undergo forced evacuation by sheriff's deputies in body armor, holding rifles. Shipwrecked, jobless, homeless, the refugees still hang on to their land back home, expecting to return someday.

Followed by a man with flowers...
Facing foreclosure with no solution in sight, they can thank Louisiana Republican and White Knight, Rep. Richard Baker for coming to the rescue with the Louisiana recovery bill. The House agreed yesterday to create the "Louisiana Recovery Corp." taking over the debt on "destroyed" properties at the request of owners unable to make their mortgage payments. The corporation would "relieve" hurricane victims of their mortgage obligations up to $500,000.

"This is a major step toward providing urgently needed financial options to tens of thousands of Louisiana citizens who right now face terrible choices, between continuing to pay the house note on a destroyed home they will never live in again or accepting foreclosure and an impaired credit record," Baker said.

"It's also a step toward rebuilding communities through the maintenance of a functioning market system, safeguarding a lending industry that will be essential for financing recovery efforts, and utilizing private sector resources to provide a fiscally responsible return on the taxpayer's investment," he said.

and a Volkswagen Beetle with a dented fender....


All of those beached and demolished waterfront casinos will magically reappear on dry land in the 9th Ward, bringing jobs and prosperity to a section of the city that was once wrought with poverty.

The Truman Show stars the first child ever adopted by a corporation... tune in any time for another episode in Louisiana's Electoral Disaster.

"When Hurricane Katrina broke the levees in New Orleans, it did more than create a wave of evacuees fleeing the city. Democracy itself is now a disaster area. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has postponed city elections indefinitely, thereby extending the term of the city's mayor by executive decree. Meanwhile, bureaucratic squabbling and flawed voting mechanics threaten to bar tens of thousands of people from future elections..."

"New Orleans needs to get absentee ballots to its many registered voters who are displaced, but only the Federal Emergency Management Agency has a relatively comprehensive list of new addresses. Citing privacy concerns, FEMA refused to share that list and later decided it was too costly to notify people about their voting rights. Just this week, under threat of a lawsuit, it agreed to pass the list on to the state. Louisiana now plans to send notices about how to apply for a mail-in ballot to those already registered, but the onus remains on displaced residents to register and apply for a mail-in ballot."

All we are saying...

...is give peace a chance. Seems like a harmless request, but in the run up to the Iraq war it was Clear Channel that published a list of banned anti-war songs and prohibited their stations from broadcasting them.

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reports on another sign of the times....

A Madison radio station owned by national media conglomerate Clear Channel is selling the name of its newsroom, a move that drew sharp criticism from the Society of Professional Journalists. Under the naming rights deal, the station will deliver its newscasts from the "Amcore Bank News Center.

Imagine the discomfort in two corporate offices if this story ever needed to be told: Now this news update from the Amcore Bank News Center... Top Amcore Bank officials were indicted this morning by a federal grand jury on charges of financial fraud, criminal conspiracy and obstruction of justice. More on this breaking story at the top of the hour.

Death notices

An editorial, "Without mercy" in today's SF Chronicle states, "GOV. ARNOLD Schwarzenegger once characterized his conflicted feelings about the death penalty as a duel between his 'Austrian brain and the American brain.' He recalled that capital punishment was an 'absolute no-no' in his native Austria."

The writer concludes, "Perhaps there was a time when Schwarzenegger might have at least delayed the death of Stanley Tookie Williams until the California Assembly could consider the merits of AB1121, which would impose a moratorium on capital punishment while a commission assesses whether its application in this state is 'fair, just and accurate.'"

MTV reports, "In the end, the execution process took longer than usual as technicians struggled for more than 10 minutes to find a vein in Williams' muscular left arm. As the team searched, Williams visibly winced and lifted his head off the gurney several times and, according to the Times, at once appeared to say, 'Still can't find it?' Witnesses said his death from the lethal injection took close to 20 minutes."

Williams' friend Barbara... "Becnel and two other supporters of Williams turned toward the media in the witness room and yelled in unison, "The state of California just killed an innocent man!"

"Mr. Williams has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested," Attorney Verna Wefald wrote in the petition filed to California's top court on Saturday. "Given that the state's case rests on the testimony of criminal informants who had an incentive to lie, not only to obtain benefits, but to hide the truth of their involvement in these crimes, it is imperative that discovery be granted at this critical stage of Mr. Williams' case."

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), the national NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and several other civil rights groups filed an amicus (Friend of the Court) brief urging the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider racist injustices in jury selection during Tookie’s 1981 trial:

"His trial was based on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of several witnesses, all of whom were facing a range of felony charges, including fraud, rape, murder and mutilation. Even the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stated in a September 10, 2002, ruling that the witnesses in Stan’s case had 'less-than-clean backgrounds and incentives to lie in order to obtain leniency from the state in either charging or sentencing.'"

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Tookie’s appeal to investigate the racism and discrimination at the heart of his case, as well as Tookie’s innocence issues. One issue highlighted the fact that the prosecutor in Tookie’s original case removed three African-American jurors from the jury. During Stan’s trial, this prosecutor made racially-coded remarks during his closing argument, comparing Stan during the trial to a Bengal tiger in the zoo and stating that a black community - South Central Los Angeles - was equivalent to the natural "habitat" of a Bengal Tiger.

Now upheld by the United States Supreme Court, this ruling will establish as "case law" for the nation the right for prosecutors to exclude jurors on the basis of race and to denigrate minority defendants in front of all-white juries.

The ruling is a frontal attack on the civil rights of all Americans.

The California State Supreme Court had twice censured this prosecutor for equally discriminatory behavior. Indeed, a member of the California Supreme Court at that time made the following statement about that prosecutor :

...I believe that we must place the ultimate blame on its real source - the prosecutor. It was he who unconstitutionally struck Black prospective jurors. The record compels this conclusion and permits none other... This prosecutor knew that such conduct was altogether improper. The trial court told him as much. And so did we... This court attempted to teach this same prosecutor that invidious discrimination was unacceptable when we reversed a judgment of death because of similar improper conduct on his part. He failed - or refused - to learn his lesson. The result is another reversal - and another costly burden on the administration of justice.

Robert G. says, "Today, the Times ran lengthy obits of Eugene McCarthy and Richard Pryor on opposing pages and one neat bit of symmetry was found in their definitions of truth that has stayed in my thoughts throughout the day."

McCarthy: "slowed his baritone for a plain definition of patriotism: 'To serve one's country not in submission but to serve it in truth.'"

Pryor: "a lie is profanity," he explained. "A lie is the worst thing in the world. Art is the ability to tell the truth, especially about oneself."

Talk 2 Action

What if there was a place you could go to talk about the religious right, whenever you had a question and needed an answer?

What if there was a place you could increase your knowledge, hone your skills and network with concerned and knowledgeable people all over the United States?

What if that place was not controlled by an organization with a narrow agenda?

What if people of any religious or nonreligious orientation who share a concern about the rise of the dominionist movement in the Unites States were equally welcome, and their perspectives were respected and taken into account as strategy discussions took place?

What if that place had an eclectic mix of people with considerable expertise as featured writers who you could read, and question and discuss with every day? And what if those same experts and all of the site participants shared a spirit of learning -- and learning in the open -- about things that could affect the outcome of the most important struggles of our time?

What if the goal of the site were not just education and the expression of opinions, but to think about and encourage taking action?

Talk to Action hopes to be that place. Become a registered user to participate.

"We are pro-religious equality and pro-separation of church and state. We are prochoice, and we support gay and lesbian civil rights -- including marriage equality. Therefore, debates about the validity of abortion and gay rights are off topic."

Good News for Progressives!

Senator Hillary Clinton is being challenged for her US Senate Seat by Jonathon Tasini. This will be a campaign worth watching.

"Our goal is to raise $3 million. Not to run television ads full of poll-driven political spin," says Johnathan. "We want to build a statewide, grassroots movement of people who are tired of politics as usual and want their elected politicians to reflect their values."

Tasini intends to run a bread and butter campaign. The only issues he'll be actively speaking about are:

• End the War
  
• Medicare For All
  
• New Rules For the Economy

Tasini says, "The Administration and others who attack those who call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq often pose that option as 'cut and run.' The language is purposely designed to try to frame people who oppose the war as unreliable cowards who can't be trusted to stick around when the going gets tough."

"But, the truth is immediate withdrawal is a far more sophisticated position...might I say "adult" position. It acknowledges the reality and the chaos of the war, it looks at the facts on the ground as they are and, effectively says, the war was a mistake. Grown-ups admit mistakes, learn from them and try to pursue a better course."

He will be a great ally of the Barbara Boxers and Russ Feingolds in the US Senate. Read more in his blog: Working Life.

Kinky politics in Texas

Texan Kinky Friedman, author of "Texas Hold 'Em," is running for governor. Given the successes of Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Kinkster figures he could be a governor, too; since governors don't do any "heavy lifting," he could do "some spiritual lifting," perhaps referring to his vow "to fight the wussification" of Texas. Apart from arguing for know-nothings in politics, Friedman supplies his readers with a great number of lists: Texas cheerleaders, Texas inventions, Texas oddities, Texas prison slang, etc. He even tries his hand at a bit of pop sociology, pondering the number of former Eagle Scouts on Texas's death row: He says, "Texas is number one in executions and number 50 in education... Dr. Phil might ask, 'How's that working for ya?'"

An an even lighter note...
PLAY THE GIVE-BUSH-A-BRAIN GAME: CLICK HERE TO PLAY.

According to Santayana...

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Thanks to Christopher Wren of Madison who sends the following:

"I more than suspect already that he is deeply conscious of being in the wrong - that he feels the blood of this war, like the blood of Abel, is crying to Heaven against him. That originally having some strong motive - what, I will not stop now to give my opinion concerning - to involve the two countries in a war, and trusting to escape scrutiny, by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory - that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood - that serpent's eye that charms to destroy - he plunged into it, and has swept on and on till, disappointed in his calculation of the ease with which (that nation) might be subdued, he now finds himself he knows not where.

How like the half insane mumbling of a fever-dream is the whole war part of his late message! His mind, tasked beyond its power, is running hither and thither, like some tortured creature on a burning surface, finding no position on which it can settle down and be at ease."

That nation was Mexico and that snippet is from a speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln in 1848 attacking President Polk for the Mexican War.

Chris Wren says, "The remarks bear frequent repetition, if only because they starkly emphasize the modern Republican Party's complete loss of - more accurately, eager abandonment of - its moral and political soul. Excerpts from Lincoln's speech have floated around the Internet since before Bush sent the first troops into Iraq. I like this selection from Garry Wills's book."

Source: Garry Wills, "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America," pp. 177-78 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992).

See also:
http://azindy.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/4/4/113849/6102

Outspoken folk...

Madison's own Michael Feldman opened today's Whad' Ya Know with, "What Clinton did to an intern, Bush is doing to an entire nation!"

On Thursday, November 17, Congressman John Murtha held a press conference on US policy in Iraq. He says Abu Ghraib was what caused the shift in world and local support for the Iraq war. In the House floor debate on Friday Murtha quoted a recent survey that states that 45% of the Iraqi people now feel that attacks on the US forces are justified. The perception of American occupation of Iraq is now the driving force behind the insurgency.

Murtha further explained that in the first Iraq war Bush Sr. gathered a real coalition over $60 billion in financial support and followed UN resolutions to the letter. Bush Sr. also listened to all of his military advisors and moved accordingly. Murtha says the current Bush administration listens to no one: "The war's not going as advertised. What they're saying is rhetoric."

Send Congressman John Murtha a note telling him that you will not be silent while he is attacked...

Dear Col. Murtha,
I am writing to express my appreciation for adding another commendable act of courage to your service record, demonstrated by your recent speech in Congress. Thank you for standing up and voicing your beliefs and opinions even though you must have known well in advance that those actions were sure to draw a wave of personal attacks and insults. BUT, therein lies the true value of your effort - there were no reasonable or logical replies, no reasonable counter responses to your arguments because there is nothing that can be said to defend what Bush and Company have brought forth; preemptive war, torture, secret prisons and the use of chemical weapons on insurgents. Instead of a well-reasoned recourse all we get is personal insults and war chants from an administration with no plan of action and no wish to be held accountable.

Thank you for opening up this intentional log jam of silence. With a continual and unrelenting demand for truth it is the hope of more and more Americans that one day our country's honor and respect as a leader among the nations of the world will be restored.

Steve Kastner

Compassionate Conservatives

Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Frist wants to get to the bottom of something. He's so worked up he's calling for joint congressional hearings on the scale of the 9/11 Commission.

"A string of prisons in Eastern Europe in which suspects are held and tortured indefinitely, without trial, without lawyers, without the right to confront their accusers, without knowing the evidence or the charges against them, if any. Forever. It's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich." Another secret prison in the midst of a military camp on an island run by an infamous dictator. Prisoner without a name, cell without a number," explains Molly Ivins.

As Sen. John McCain said, speaking of the terrorist enemy, "This isn't about who they are. This is about who we are."

The League of Compassionate Conservatives led by Sen. Bill Frist is demanding some answers in a letter signed by him and Speaker of the House Republican Dennis Hastert, delivered on November 8 to Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Are they shocked to see that American policy regarding the humane treatment of prisoners according to the Geneva Conventions has been abandoned? Are they angry that we have leaders who are actually fighting for the right to torture? Are Frist and Hastert demanding an investigation into the existence of what The Washington Post described as "“black sites," secret detention facilities maintained by our own government?

Nope.

"We request that you immediately initiate a joint investigation into the possible release of classified information to the media alleging that the United States government may be detaining and interrogating terrorists at undisclosed locations abroad," said Frist and Hastert.

They are seeking a Federal investigation to discover the leak that enabled the Washington Post to report: "The CIA is holding an unknown number of prisoners in secret detention centers abroad. In violation of the Geneva Conventions, it has refused to register those detainees with the International Red Cross or to allow visits by its inspectors. Its prisoners have 'disappeared,' like the victims of some dictatorships."

Don't despair! The League of Compassionate Conservatives bungled this with such slapstick that it rivals the Keystone Cops... Alexander Bolton reports Bungling meant leak letter leaked.

On Tuesday at 11:36 a.m., the Drudge Report reported that Frist and Hastert would “announce a bicameral investigation into the leak of classified information to The Washington Post regarding the ‘black sites’ where high-value al Qaeda terrorists are being held,” catching Senate and House Republicans off-guard.

CNN reported earlier in the day that Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) had said a Republican senator may have leaked information about the so-called black sites to the Post. Lott told reporters yesterday that he had been talking about another Post article. He said he was not talking about the article about the detention and interrogation facilities.

GOP aides conjectured privately that Frist’s delay in signing the letter may have been caused by concern over the possibility of endangering a Republican senator by calling for the investigation.

Frist told a gaggle of reporters at around 5 p.m. that he had not signed the letter. He did not sign it until 5:45 p.m. But even after then, it was not certain whether Frist had signed the letter. Frist’s office compounded the confusion by informing some reporters that he had signed the letter but also decided not to release it.

Don't miss On Rumsfeld's Watch, Nat Hentoff's commentary on a PBS documentary that aired on October 18 (watch the full program online) entitled "The Torture Question," produced, directed, and written by Michael Kirk that names U.S. torture commanders.

That sinking feeling...

An October 2005 survey commissioned by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute found that "only 6 percent of Wisconsin citizens believe their elected officials represent the interests of their constituents on important issues. Most (47%) believe their local officials represent their own interests, while 40% believe they represent special interests over the interests of their constituents."

The numbers have dropped significantly since the last time the data was surveyed in March of 2002 when 21% thought that elected officials represented their constituents’ interests. The current survey reports that the lack of faith in elected public officials, "was widespread across every demographic group. The most stunning number was that there were no Blacks who believed their elected officials put constituents’ interests first."

If we think this little of the state's elected officials I'd like to see a poll on what Wisconsinites think of people "serving" in Washington.

Rummy is not Satan

"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions" - Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense CBS News, January 2002

But the transactions that can be tracked are even more disturbing, especially when they lead to insider trading benefits. Dick Cheney is about to be surpassed as the most wealthy Bush Cabinet member. Check out Donald Rumsfeld + Gilead... and don't forget to give it a News Googling.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences have a great stake in the future of Bird Flu. CNN reports Rummy has between $5 and $25 million invested in Gilead... the CA biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu. While the Pentagon has already spent $58 million on Tamiflu the Bush administration is considering a multi-billion dollar investment. In the last 6 months Gillead stock has jumped from $35 to $47 per share making Rummy one of the richest men individuals in the cabinet. Meanwhile, Tamiflu is not a vaccine. It merely shortens the duration of the symptoms.

Doubts Over Effectiveness Of Tamiflu: "Writing in the journal Nature, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working with researchers in Asia, have reported a worrying finding regarding avian flu. It seems that the virus may already be altering itself to become resistant against the drug oseltamivir, marketed under the name Tamiflu."

Before Rummy was Defense Secretary, allegedly approving the torture of prisoners, he was both CEO at Searle Corp. (a major maker of aspartame products) and part of the Reagan transition team that appointed the FDA Commissioner who then approved aspartame for human consumption. Attorney Jim Turner was able to nearly single handedly keep it off the market for 11 years until Searle hired Rumsfeld to skirt through the politics of the FDA and get it approved so they could earn billions of dollars.

FreemarketNews.com reports that the claims that Nutrasweet and other aspartame-based artificial sweeteners are "perfectly safe" have been encountering more and more opposition lately, as activists from a variety of consumer and health groups continue to challenge the contentions by manufacturers that they are not systematically poisoning those who consume foods and beverages that use their products instead of sugar or other substitutes.

Dr. Betty Martini of Mission Possible, an international 'Aspartame resistance' movement, outlines two aspects of the situation:

• the recent study in Italy – showing causative links malignant brain tumors, lymphoma, and leukemia. In Sept they added kidney cancer and cancer of the cranial peripheral nerves
  
• and the upcoming hearing in New Mexico to consider a statewide ban.

She has even written to Senator Joe Biden, who is exploring charges of Rumsfeld's complicity in the Abu Ghraib incidents, asking if he should not be investigating this much older (and potentially deadlier) abuse of power. Aspartame is now found in more than 5,000 food products, including diet soft drinks and snacks like puddings. A new documentary, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, thoroughly examines a hot-button subject many consider to be imaginary: the toxicity of aspartame.

Peg Lautenschlager meet Mr. Floatie

"After a year of failed negotiations aimed at averting litigation, Wisconsin's state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said Tuesday that she would sue the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District for dumping about 1.5 billion gallons of untreated storm water and sanitary waste into local waterways in May 2004."

Canadians are contending with an even greater disregard for the effects of municipal sewage dumping, and their cleanup advocate also tried campaigning as a candidate. Unfortunately Mr. Floatie, the Vancouver sewage activist, was wiped clean off the B.C. ballot.

People Opposed to Outfall Pollution (POOP) say, "Watch for him to keep popping up to talk about Victoria's ongoing dumping of raw sewage into the ocean," as they continue their ongoing efforts to build greater public awareness.

Warmongers in retreat...

Bush Admin. Drops 'Bunker-Buster' Plan
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said funding for the nuclear bunker-buster as part of the Energy Department's fiscal 2006 budget has been dropped at the department's request.

"This is a true victory for a more rational nuclear policy," said Stephen Young, a senior analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nuclear nonproliferation advocacy group. "The proposed weapon, more than 70 times the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, would have caused unparalleled collateral damage."

In the trenches...

"Three years ago when the Congress and the country debated the resolution to give President Bush the authority to launch a preemptive war against Iraq, reference was often made to the lessons of Vietnam... There are many lessons, both of that war and of the efforts to end it. But one that made a deep impression on me came from former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the architect of that war, who said our greatest mistake was not understanding our enemy." - Read Sen. Patrick Leahy's complete statement on The War In Iraq, delivered this morning, October 25, 2005 on the Senate Floor.

Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold:
Why a Timeframe for the U.S. Military Mission in Iraq Will Improve Our National Security

Cindy Sheehan: Don't support Clinton unless she flips on war

NPR's David Welna reports that...
As Death Toll Hits 2,000, Democrats Divided on Iraq

• 22 Senate Democrats voted against the Iraq war resolution
• Of the 29 who voted for the Iraq War... Dodd, Feinstein, Parkins, Rockefeller have all come to regret that action. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) continue defend their vote.
  

David Sirota says, "Democratic Senators who voted for the Iraq War and who do not say that vote was a mistake have hurt the party's ability to craft any sort of coherent message on national security. Welna's piece is extremely hard hitting. He gets some Democratic Senators on record who voted for the war to admit it was a mistake - these Senators have a lot of guts and should be applauded. Welna also catches on tape two Democratic Senators - Hillary Clinton and Herb Kohl - refusing to answer any questions about the war."

SUSA's latest poll

Thanks to Robert Godfrey for the following details from SUSA's latest 50-state Bush poll:

• Seven states actually gave Bush higher approval ratings than disapproval: Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska, Nebraska, Oklahoma and North Dakota. Two were a wash.
• Forty-one states are turning against Bush... with thirty-five scoring a double-digit disapproval disparity.
• Interestingly, Ohio - the BIG Bush Swing State - gives him a 37% approval and a 61% disapproval rating.
• Also, check out the surprising sudden turnaround in Texas.
  

Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) Ohio is currently delivering a blistering attack in Congress against Republican efforts to maintain tax cuts for the wealthy while Medicare premiums have doubled over the past few years and Republicans plan further cuts in other benefits. He also recently announced a plan to run for Senate in Ohio... to campaign in the Democratic primary against Paul Hackett, the Iraq war veteran who almost won a seat in the House by running in a very strong Republican district of Ohio. Hackett, a former Marine is asking people to sign this pledge:

I pledge to only support candidates who:
1. Acknowledge that the U.S. was misled into the war in Iraq
2. Advocate for a responsible exit plan with a timeline
3. Support our troops at home and abroad

Plan Columbia

Bill Anderson sends the following:

I saw an excellent presentation tonight, by a woman from Columbia. She is a human rights lawyer, and native Columbian. She was talking about "Plan Columbia", the drug war supported by the Columbian government, but funded and implemented by the United States government primarily through private corporations.

Military and Para-military operations are everywhere in Columbia. Tens of thousands of people have been "disappeared", assasinated, and murdered, by mercernary and guerrilla forces. Jets built by private corporations, but paid for by US taxpayers, are flown in, which spray herbacidal chemicals that are dangerous to humans, and are run out of airports built by private corporations, also financed by U.S. taxpayers. Native populations are forced to privatize their land, so that it can be bought by international investors and venture capitalists.

It was a very moving presentation, but there is no simple answer to the problems raised. The ultimate goal must be to end the military operations. The problem is, the United States government denies that it is a military action, since it is a part of the "War on Drugs."

An older gentleman also spoke, about his own experiences travelling to Columbia several times in the past few years, to see the situation for himself. When he went, he had to bring two letters from his US Senators telling any potential guerillas, para-military forces, or mercernaries, not to kill him and his wife.

More information can be found at these sites-

www.colombiasupport.net
www.witnessforpeace.org

Peace,

Bill

Catch Arianna on Judy

"So which way will it go? Will the Times save its journalistic soul by coming clean or will it serve up a mushy bowl of Judy-shielding pablum to avoid contradicting its editorial stance so far?" Don't miss this... Catch-22 at the New York Times

Gas, oil... and pedal power

An energy consultant who's privy to a lot of insider information about the hurricane damage to the US energy infrastructure from Katrina and Rita provides the following report:

21 natural gas processing plants with a total daily capacity of 13.1 billion cubic feet per day are closed. Natural gas prices have doubled. Respective storage injection is down by at least 35% nationally.

15 natural gas pipelines are either completely shut-in (no supply) or are not meeting delivery contracts (force majeure).

2 liquefied natural gas terminals are closed (the US only has 4 or 5 LNG terminals total). One terminal is expected to reopen today, Wed., Oct. 5, 2005.

Katrina destroyed 46 Gulf oil production platforms. Rita destroyed 63 production platforms, newer than those hit by Katrina and having higher average production rates. Therefore, the short term impact of Rita is twice that of Katrina - and the impacts are additive.

45% of ALL US offshore drilling rigs have been sunk, severely damaged, set adrift, or run aground.

• 8% have been destroyed or sunk.
• 18% have been severely damaged.
• 19% are adrift or aground.
• Backorders for new drilling rigs now extend out over 6 years.
  

Over 50% of Gulf Coast refinery capacity (25% of US total) is still not running. 35% of Gulf Coast refineries will remain down for a while

6 refined product pipelines are having supply problems, 2 of which are completely shut down and 4 are running at less than 50% capacity.

Release of Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) will have some impact, but it will not help the natural gas situation at all. SPR is crude oil… shortages will still develop because of loss of refinery capacity.

Hurricane Ivan (last year) had a minor impact on the markets for 6 months. Katrina and Rita will have a major impact for about 6 years!

PEDAL [Pedal Energy Development Alternatives] develops and promotes the use of pedal powered technology - including Maya Pedal, a new organization in Guatemala that recycles used bicycles to build pedal-powered machines, bicimáquinas.

Pedal Power - recycled bike-machines give new life to Guatemalan farmers

I Love Paris in the Fall

"I love pink, I love Barbies, and pink's the favorite color of my whole life," Paris Hilton is saying at a shutterbug press conference. "I think every girl loves pink." Through it all, Paris is sporting a limited-edition watch from her new luxury collection. Only 100 watches are being made, retailing for $100,000 each! The Paris Hilton watch has not been released to the public yet bt will launch in December 2005.

Charts and more charts

The following charts, based mostly on data from the Office of Management and Budget, display the growth of the federal government since the 1960–1963 period.

Sea Ice Decline Intensifies
Summer Arctic sea ice falls far below average for fourth year, winter ice sees sharp decline, spring melt starts earlier