PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — “Someone killed my dog,” sputtered Royaltee Forman, still livid two weeks later.

“They just threw him out the window and hung him with his own leash,” he said, convinced that someone broke into his home while he was out. “I mean, what kind of place has this become?”

Forman’s place is FEMA City, a dusty, baking, treeless collection of almost 500 trailers that was set up by the federal emergency agency last fall to house more than 1,500 people made homeless by Hurricane Charley, one of the most destructive storms in recent Florida history. The free shelter was welcomed by thankful survivors back then; almost a year later, most are still there — angry, frustrated, depressed and increasingly desperate.

“FEMA City is now a socioeconomic time bomb just waiting to blow up,” said Bob Hebert, director of recovery for Charlotte County, where most FEMA City residents used to live. “You throw together all these very different people under already tremendous stress, and bad things will happen. And this is the really difficult part: In our county, there’s no other place for many of them to go.”

As government efforts move forward to relocate and house some of the 1 million people displaced by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast — including plans to collect as many as 300,000 trailers and mobile homes for them — officials here say their experience offers some harsh and sobering lessons about the difficulties ahead.

Most troubling, they said, is that while the badly damaged town of Punta Gorda is beginning to rebuild and even substantially upgrade one year after the storm, many of the area’s most vulnerable people are being left badly behind.
washingtonpost.com

An epidemic of the use of street-culture language broke out in this year’s GCSE English exam essays, according to examiners.

A report by the Edexcel exam board said there was “a surprising number of lapses” in standard English. It issued a reminder to teachers that they should discourage pupils from using “street language and text style”, adding: “Most answers require formal expression [of language].”

“Many concerns were expressed by examiners about elementary errors, often appearing in the work of apparently able candidates,” the report continued.

“At this level it is almost unforgivable for a candidate to use a lower case for the first person pronoun – and yet in occasional answers this mistake was repeated throughout essays.” It added that the use of street and text language “appeared with surprisingly regularity in the work of candidates who clearly aspired to at least a C grade”.

“Most answers require formal expression but – even when an informal register or style is appropriate – candidates should remain aware of the examination context and, in particular, should not use street language and text style,” it said.
independent.co.uk

A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. Scientists fear that the Arctic has now entered an irreversible phase of warming which will accelerate the loss of the polar sea ice that has helped to keep the climate stable for thousands of years.

They believe global warming is melting Arctic ice so rapidly that the region is beginning to absorb more heat from the sun, causing the ice to melt still further and so reinforcing a vicious cycle of melting and heating.

The greatest fear is that the Arctic has reached a “tipping point” beyond which nothing can reverse the continual loss of sea ice and with it the massive land glaciers of Greenland, which will raise sea levels dramatically.

Satellites monitoring the Arctic have found that the extent of the sea ice this August has reached its lowest monthly point on record, dipping an unprecedented 18.2 per cent below the long-term average.

Experts believe that such a loss of Arctic sea ice in summer has not occurred in hundreds and possibly thousands of years. It is the fourth year in a row that the sea ice in August has fallen below the monthly downward trend – a clear sign that melting has accelerated.
commondreams.org

Eight in 10 people say it’s important for Americans now driving sport utility vehicles to switch to more fuel-efficient vehicles to reduce the nation’s dependence on oil, a poll found.

With gas prices hovering around $3 a gallon nationally and the price of natural gas rising sharply, six in 10 said they are not confident President Bush is taking the right approach to solving the nation’s energy problems, according to the survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Given several choices for dealing with energy problems, the public has some clear preferences:

-Almost seven in 10 want the government to establish price controls on gasoline and want more spending on subway, rail and bus systems.

-Just over seven in 10 want to give tax cuts to companies to develop wind, solar and hydrogen energy.

-Just over eight in 10 want higher fuel efficiency required for cars, trucks and SUVs.

-Slightly more than half, 52 percent, favor giving tax cuts to energy companies to explore for more oil.
commondrams.org

Out of steam: India’s decrepit railways in line for overhaul
Everything about the Indian railways is epic, from the distances covered and the millions transported, to the endless hours spent waiting for a train. Until now the choice for passengers has been first class or “hard class”. And neither offered a pleasant experience.

Its ageing trains and decaying stations are notorious for delays, overcrowding and surly employees. Bathrooms stink, security is poor, and rats and stray dogs roam many stations.

All that is supposed to change after the government gave the state railway one month to clean up its act. Rail authorities have been ordered to implement a “touch and feel” programme to transform its antique network into a modern customer-focused environment.

One of the more remarkable legacies of the colonial era, Indian Railways is among the world’s largest employers, with a staff of 1.6 million. It has 40,000 miles of track with 7,000 stations, and more than 11,000 trains running every day. The network is a lifeline to the nation’s poor, providing long-distance connections for as little as £1 and supports the livelihoods of some 80 million people.

While in the U.S. there is virtually no cheap long-distance transportation. What happens to the burbs when the oil runs out?

Critics say plan is designed for possible attack against Iran.

The Pentagon has drafted a revised plan to allow for US military commanders in the field to ask presidential approval to use nuclear weapons in order “to preempt an attack by a nation or a terrorist group using weapons of mass destruction.” The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the plan would also allow for the use of nuclear weapons to destroy “known” enemy stockpiles of “nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.”

To deter the use of weapons of mass destruction against the United States, the Pentagon paper says preparations must be made to use nuclear weapons and show determination to use them “if necessary to prevent or retaliate against WMD use.”

The draft says that to deter a potential adversary from using such weapons, that adversary’s leadership must “believe the United States has both the ability and will to pre-empt or retaliate promptly with responses that are credible and effective.” The draft also notes that US policy in the past has “repeatedly rejected calls for adoption of ‘no first use’ policy of nuclear weapons since this policy could undermine deterrence.”

GlobalSecurity.org, a leading global intelligence firm, also has a copy of the document on its website. The draft plan’s executive summary outlines four key goals:

The US defense strategy aims to achieve four key goals that guide the development of US forces capabilities, their development and use: assuring allies and friends of the US steadfastness of purpose and its capability to fulfill its security commitment; dissuading adversaries from undertaking programs or operations that could threaten US interests or those of our allies and friends; deterring aggression and coercion by deploying forward the capacity to swiftly defeat attacks and imposing severe penalties for aggression on an adversary’s military capability and supporting infrastructure; and, decisively defeating an adversary if deterrence fails.
christiansciencemonitor.com

WASHINGTON – A Pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman said Thursday.

The employee is prepared to testify next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee and was expected to name the person who ordered him to destroy the large volume of documents, said Rep. Curt Weldon (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa.

Weldon declined to name the employee, citing confidentiality matters. Weldon described the documents as “2.5 terabytes” — as much as one-fourth of all the printed materials in the Library of Congress, he added.

A Senate Judiciary Committee aide said the witnesses for Wednesday’s hearing had not been finalized and could not confirm Weldon’s comments.

A message left Thursday with a Pentagon spokesman, Army Maj. Paul Swiergosz, was not immediately returned.

Weldon has said that Atta, the mastermind of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and three other hijackers were identified in 1999 by a classified military intelligence unit known as “Able Danger,” which determined they could be members of an al-Qaida cell.

On Wednesday, former members of the Sept. 11 commission dismissed the “Able Danger” assertions. One commissioner, ex-Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said, “Bluntly, it just didn’t happen and that’s the conclusion of all 10 of us.”

Weldon responded angrily to Gorton’s assertions.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable that a commission would say this program just didn’t exist,” Weldon said Thursday.

Pentagon officials said this month they had found three more people who recall an intelligence chart identifying Atta as a terrorist prior to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Two military officers, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott, have come forward to support Weldon’s claims.
news.yahoo.com

Interesting what pops up on yahoo news and then goes away…

…Going beyond the vein of FDR, Bush addressed the issue of poverty, particularly as it relates to racial disparity in America. The president had been accused of not being quick or sensitive enough in his initial response because the majority of people in need after the hurricane were minorities and poor.

In his remarks, the president acknowledged that poverty in the region has its roots in “a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America” and said the government has a duty to confront poverty with decisive actions.
foxnews.com

A flash of Rovian genius, this speech, liberal, humanistic…Earlier in the speech he spoke of the “vulnerable people left to the mercy of criminals, who had no mercy,” and that is the truest thing he said, oblivious to the fact that he represents the real criminals here…

As if the official ineptitude of the Bush administration in the aftermath of Katrina and the callousness of the Bush family were not enough to digest, a U.S. Federal appeals court has just delivered this bombshell in the Jose Padilla case:

“The Congress of the United States, in the Authorization for Use of Military Force Joint Resolution, provided the President all powers necessary and appropriate to protect American citizens from terrorist acts by those who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001… [T]hose powers include the power to detain identified and committed enemies such as Padilla, who associated with al Qaeda and the Taliban regime, who took up arms against this Nation in its war against these enemies, and who entered the United States for the avowed purpose of further prosecuting that war by attacking American citizens and targets on our own soil…”

What this means is that unless the Supreme Court overturns this verdict, the U.S. government can keep Mr Padilla, a U.S. citizen, in jail indefinitely, without charge. Worse, the government will be tempted to invoke this power against pretty much anyone it likes since the Appeals Court made no attempt to verify the authenticity of the allegations made against the prisoner. While the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says the judgment “does not authorize the government to designate and detain as an ‘enemy combatant’ anyone who it claims is associated with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups”, the bitter truth is that U.S. citizenship will not protect individuals from being deprived of their liberty if the Administration decides they are a threat to U.S. national security. Its Guantanamo time for everyone. And since the war on terror has been described by U.S. officials as “an endless war”, the period of incarceration will also be endless. This is precisely what the Italian scholar, Giorgio Agamben, means when he says the State of Exception — which in ‘democratic’ countries is meant to be a ‘provisional measure’ — has become a normal , routine, paradigmatic form of rule.
globalresearch.ca

Jesse Ventura Compares Bush to Hitler, Says US Becoming a ‘fascist state’
by Jeff Wells
… since we’ve come to this almost inconceivable moment, when dogs pick at uncollected corpses in the streets of a murdered American city, preemptive nuclear war against the threat of non-nuclear weapons is official policy, the potential repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act is floated, and a former US Governor – even if it is Jesse Ventura – speaks of fleeing the fascism and ruin that the Bush White House is visiting upon the country, I’m thinking maybe what’s really needed is a proper allegory. Something like Bob Dylan’s Masked and Anonymous.

The war has come home to America, right here, right now and so have myriad questions so disturbing that most Americans, even if they know what the questions are, are terrified to ask:

Why is Blackwater USA, the principal mercenary force outsourced by the Pentagon to fight in Iraq, now patrolling the streets of New Orleans?

Why the disgraceful, ghastly slowness of response by the federal government to the Katrina disaster? Why FEMA’s destruction of communication lines and implacable refusal to allow food, water, and medicine into the city? (http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/, September 6)

Why have reconstruction and clean-up contracts conveniently fallen, with perfect timing, to Halliburton and Bechtel, the two U.S. corporations most infamous for their expertise in rebuilding Iraq and worldwide whatever the U.S. military has blown up?
globalresearch.ca

The Militarization of New Orleans. From Victims to Vandals: Mass Media and New Orleans

Ominously, in his speech last night Bush said one of the ‘lessons of Katrina’ was the need for “greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces.”

The crowd gathered on Lexington Avenue awaiting the chance to see Christopher Hitchens and George Galloway’s debate of the occupation of Iraq wrapped around the block, and kept growing by the minute. As I stood in line, still hundreds of yards from the auditorium’s entrance, I spied Hitchens and an armada of young staffers from the neoconservative cultural journal, the New Criterion, seeding the crowd with leaflets exposing Galloway in bold print as “The Toad to Damascus,” an apologist for “his new fascist playmate Bashar al-Assad.” The crudely composed leaflets, which seemed to have been adapted from notes Hitchens scribbled on a cocktail napkin, set the tone for a sleazy, pointless debate which ultimately had more to do with its two bilious Brit stars than its purported topic.

In fact, Hitchens and Galloway’s verbal slime-fest wasn’t much of a debate at all. It was more like a competition for who could do the most possible damage to his own cause. Galloway tried his best, declaring, “You may think that those airplanes in this city on 9/11 came out of a clear, blue sky. I believe they emerged out of a swamp of hatred created by us.” True or not, Galloway had severely miscalculated. He was in New York City, after all, and even anti-war audience members began to boo.

Galloway bulldozed ahead at full-steam, seemingly determined to personify the terrorist-sympathizing, loony leftist lifted from the neoconservative imagination. “How dare you slander the Iraqi resistance?” he asked Hitchens with his trademark stentorian tenor. The Iraqi “resistance?” Did Galloway mean the assorted Ba’athist and al-Qaeda vampires drowning Iraq in a pool of their own countrymen’s blood? Or was he referring to a previously unknown band of oppressed peasants led by a cadre of revolutionary intellectuals in a quixotic struggle against Yankee imperialism? He didn’t say.

While “Gorgeous” George displayed all the political acuity of Curious George, he was not to be outdone by Hitchens, who defended not only the Bush administration’s policy in the Middle East, but its hapless response to Hurricane Katrina. “For people to start pumping out propaganda saying those were black people who were killed in New Orleans is shameful,” Hitchens exclaimed with indignation. “Those bodies haven’t even been identified.” (If only the press had been more contrarian!) He added, “Only the Governor could have given the orders” to send help. For this, Galloway dubbed Hitchens, “The court jester” of the “Bourbon Bushes.”
huffingtonpost.com