Global
Future historians will remember the George W. Bush administration for allowing two colossal catastrophes on U.S. soil: the 9/11 terrorist attack and the Katrina hurricane invasion. In both cases, Bush the Younger ignored mounds of evidence pointing to each impending disaster.
In December 2002, Bush announced that his administration planned to study the issue of climate change for five more years rather than be forced into any action regulating fossil fuel emissions. The question of global warming was put on the back burner.
Even if Bush refused on principle to read those boring policy papers he might have accidentally stumbled on the fact that New Orleans was in peril from leafing through the pages of Rolling Stone, glancing at the pictures and reading a paragraph or two.
The February 20, 2003 issue of Rolling Stone had a graphic of the U.S. Capitol under water, and citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said "New Orleans, which has an average elevation of eight feet below sea level could become the next Atlantis."
In December 2002, Bush announced that his administration planned to study the issue of climate change for five more years rather than be forced into any action regulating fossil fuel emissions. The question of global warming was put on the back burner.
Even if Bush refused on principle to read those boring policy papers he might have accidentally stumbled on the fact that New Orleans was in peril from leafing through the pages of Rolling Stone, glancing at the pictures and reading a paragraph or two.
The February 20, 2003 issue of Rolling Stone had a graphic of the U.S. Capitol under water, and citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said "New Orleans, which has an average elevation of eight feet below sea level could become the next Atlantis."
Slidell, LA - The residents of Chalmette are glum: three and a half weeks ago, Hurricane Katrina ravaged their coastal community, a suburb east of New Orleans. Chalmette was determined to be "100%"; this damage classification means that all of the homes in the community were badly damaged by the storm, nearly obliterating the small town. Thirty-seven year-old Ben Holder, longtime resident and homeowner, came back Monday to find his two-story home flooded with six feet of brackish water and briny mud. Holder, like many of the residents I spoke with, has an unusually optimistic attitude:
"My grandmother and mother-in-law were both drowned in the flood, and my truck is completely destroyed, my boat is upside-down on the roof of my house, which is also upside down; but somehow, by the grace of God, these two little lizards I was keeping upstairs spent ten days alone without food and water and both of them survived!"
"My grandmother and mother-in-law were both drowned in the flood, and my truck is completely destroyed, my boat is upside-down on the roof of my house, which is also upside down; but somehow, by the grace of God, these two little lizards I was keeping upstairs spent ten days alone without food and water and both of them survived!"
Bangkok, Thailand – Katrina's victims may learn lessons from Thailand's tsunami where DNA and real estate profits have become priorities, and thousands of survivors still cannot cope eight months after rescue.
Unlike impoverished Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka, quake-propelled tidal swells hit Thailand's glitzy tourist zone, killing more than 5,400 Thai residents and foreigners.
It became a crash-course for U.S. and international aid workers dealing with relatively prosperous victims in vicious floods.
Investigators needed to quickly determine the identities of Thailand's tsunami toll — so relatives could file insurance claims, inherit property, and stay in business.
Interpol tried to ensure criminals did not fake their own deaths to dodge arrest amid the tsunami's chaos.
The uniqueness of popular tattoos became a valuable clue, identifying many Westerners' corpses in Thailand.
Expensive, private, American and other security firms became a growth industry, along with scam artists, clairvoyants and others seeking to profit from the hunt for missing loved ones.
Unlike impoverished Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka, quake-propelled tidal swells hit Thailand's glitzy tourist zone, killing more than 5,400 Thai residents and foreigners.
It became a crash-course for U.S. and international aid workers dealing with relatively prosperous victims in vicious floods.
Investigators needed to quickly determine the identities of Thailand's tsunami toll — so relatives could file insurance claims, inherit property, and stay in business.
Interpol tried to ensure criminals did not fake their own deaths to dodge arrest amid the tsunami's chaos.
The uniqueness of popular tattoos became a valuable clue, identifying many Westerners' corpses in Thailand.
Expensive, private, American and other security firms became a growth industry, along with scam artists, clairvoyants and others seeking to profit from the hunt for missing loved ones.
Dear Friends,
On October 5th, Simply Living and three other local organizations (Bexley Public Radio Foundation, Community Refugee and Immigration Service and Groveport Madison Local School District) were granted a long-awaited construction permit from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to build a Low Power FM (LPFM) radio station. (By definition, a low power station operates at 100 watts, which the FCC considers to cover a five-mile radius. In actuality the signal can cover up to an eleven-mile radius.) This action was the culmination of a series of filings and agreements which included a timeshare agreement whereby we share the signal, 102.1 FM, and programming with the three other permit holders. According to the permit, we have until April 2007 to put this station on the air. Pertinent to this process is the parallel effort of Columbus Community Radio Foundation to build a 170 watt translator station at 98.3 FM in Grandview, a station that by definition cannot originate programming but can pick up another station's programming and broadcast it to a wider audience, due to its higher power.
On October 5th, Simply Living and three other local organizations (Bexley Public Radio Foundation, Community Refugee and Immigration Service and Groveport Madison Local School District) were granted a long-awaited construction permit from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to build a Low Power FM (LPFM) radio station. (By definition, a low power station operates at 100 watts, which the FCC considers to cover a five-mile radius. In actuality the signal can cover up to an eleven-mile radius.) This action was the culmination of a series of filings and agreements which included a timeshare agreement whereby we share the signal, 102.1 FM, and programming with the three other permit holders. According to the permit, we have until April 2007 to put this station on the air. Pertinent to this process is the parallel effort of Columbus Community Radio Foundation to build a 170 watt translator station at 98.3 FM in Grandview, a station that by definition cannot originate programming but can pick up another station's programming and broadcast it to a wider audience, due to its higher power.
In April when I wrote "An Evening with Rod Parsley" for the Free Press, I noted that guest speaker former UN ambassador and presidential candidate Alan Keyes hinted to an audience of several thousand at Parsley's World Harvest Church that Ohio, with Parsley's guidance, would soon be an experiment, inspiration and model for Christian Nationalists throughout the country. Unfortunately, that section of my article was cut due to space considerations. (The whole piece can be found at my Theoconia blog (see below). Keyes' hints have now been made flesh with Parsley's new socio-political redemption project, Reformation Ohio.
October 15th, Toledo, Ohio was the scene of a violent confrontation between police and demonstrators after Neo-Nazis held a rally in a African-American neighborhood on the north side of Toledo. The rally by the Nazis was promoted throughout the local media and anti-fascist activists from around the Midwest were gathered to protest as well as countless members of the community. As the crowd grew to close to 600 people, some eggs and other items were tossed at the Nazis who held up their white power signs in front of their faces as shields. The police responded by riding their horses out into the crowd and protecting the Nazis with shielded officers. They singled out a youth wearing a Cincinnati Red’s hat and arrested him without any explanation. The crowd grew indignant as the Nazis were then escorted by police to where residents believed they were going to begin their march.
The devastation and misery created in so many lives by the recent hurricanes is horrible. And the outpouring of generosity and assistance by government, organized philanthropy and the general public is wonderful. It is impossible to be perpetually confronted with the scope of the tragedy and not want to respond.
And yet, here in Columbus, our homeless neighbors are being issued tickets by the police for “camping” on public land because the shelters cannot accommodate them, while evacuees are receiving free rent and utilities.
It has been a year since the City of Columbus bulldozed The Open Shelter facility on the Scioto Peninsula, hiding behind the official position that we were no longer necessary. And in that one year, our Advocacy and Day Center has worked with 4,000 different people – twice as many as last year, even though we no longer can provide shelter ourselves.
And yet, here in Columbus, our homeless neighbors are being issued tickets by the police for “camping” on public land because the shelters cannot accommodate them, while evacuees are receiving free rent and utilities.
It has been a year since the City of Columbus bulldozed The Open Shelter facility on the Scioto Peninsula, hiding behind the official position that we were no longer necessary. And in that one year, our Advocacy and Day Center has worked with 4,000 different people – twice as many as last year, even though we no longer can provide shelter ourselves.
Nearly a year after senior Judiciary Committee Democrat John Conyers of Michigan asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate malfunctioning voting machines during the November 2, 2004 presidential election, the nonpartisan agency’s report reveals serious flaws with electronic voting. The House Judiciary Committee received “more than 57,000 complaints” following Bush’s re-election, according to CNN.
The GAO report found that, “some of [the] concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes.”
The United States is the only major democracy that allows private partisan corporations to secretly count and tabulate the votes with proprietary non-transparent software. Among the GAO’s key findings are:
1. “Some electronic voting systems did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, thus making it possible to alter them without detection”
2. “It is easy to alter a file defining how a ballot appears, making it possible for someone to vote for one candidate and actually be recorded as voting for an entirely different candidate”
The GAO report found that, “some of [the] concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes.”
The United States is the only major democracy that allows private partisan corporations to secretly count and tabulate the votes with proprietary non-transparent software. Among the GAO’s key findings are:
1. “Some electronic voting systems did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, thus making it possible to alter them without detection”
2. “It is easy to alter a file defining how a ballot appears, making it possible for someone to vote for one candidate and actually be recorded as voting for an entirely different candidate”
The U.S. Census Bureau records that over 45 million people have no health care and that the average member of Walmart’s Walton family now has 771,287 times as much wealth as the median U.S. household.
As Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel point out in their new book Economic Apartheid in America by the New Press, “Widening disparities in the U.S. are the result of three decades of bi-partisan public policies that have tilted the rules of the economy to the benefit of major corporations and large asset owners at the expense of people whose security comes from a paycheck.”
The authors note that “The failure to raise the minimum wage from its 1997 level of $5.15 an hour guarantees continued income stagnation for the working poor for years to come.”
On October 19, the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate rejected an attempt to raise minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.25 over an 18 month period. The amendment, introduced by Senator Edward Kennedy, was defeated 51-47. Kennedy pointed out that Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the perils of poverty in our nation.
The authors note that “The failure to raise the minimum wage from its 1997 level of $5.15 an hour guarantees continued income stagnation for the working poor for years to come.”
On October 19, the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate rejected an attempt to raise minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.25 over an 18 month period. The amendment, introduced by Senator Edward Kennedy, was defeated 51-47. Kennedy pointed out that Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the perils of poverty in our nation.
As I understand from the governor's commission which looked into irregularities in 2004, the electronic voting machines in PA have no paper trail because it is not needed-- since all the machines are certified by the commission as safe and tamper proof. In fact , according to the commission, the paper trail is considered a waste of money. In other words the governor of PA through his commission says, "trust me--I vouch that these machines are OK." and I guess that is supposed to be the end of it. Unless someone in the press says that this is not a good enough answer and prods- the politicians. Please investigate PA also.