September 14, 2005
Lush timber forests become wastelands
Sep. 14, 2005 Hurricane Katrina's fury has turned tens of thousands of acres of lush pine and other forests in Mississippi into wastelands...One such place is Judd Brooke's 4,000-acre timber ranch near the coastal town of Kiln. Katrina destroyed about 70 percent of his timber that was ready for harvest or about $2 million worth. The Mississippi Forestry Commission says Katrina caused $2.4 billion of tree damage, more than half in commercial timber spread across 1.3 million acres. Forests account for more than 60 percent of Mississippi's land, the report said...Forestry expert Joe Pettigrew says landowners like Brooke will be lucky to get a quarter of what their timber was worth before Katrina struck.http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20050914-110826-3434r.htm
WWII Soldier's Last Letter Makes It Home
Sep 14 POOLE, Neb. It took more than 60 years, but the final letter of a soldier killed in World War II finally made it home. ...The letter, with military markings from France, was postmarked March 6, 1944...Clinton Krotz, an infantry soldier in France during the war, was killed in action on May 8, 1944. The letter was the last one he sent home. In the letter, her brother thanked his parents for a wristwatch they had sent as a birthday gift, as well as some candy and nuts.... http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/14/D8CK0JK82.html
NASCAR Engineers Help Design New Combat Vehicle
13 September 2005 The U.S. military unveiled this week a concept combat vehicle that combines new blast-deflection technology with the safety features of a commercially available truck and NASCAR engineering. ...Built on the skeleton of a Ford F-350 truck, the vehicle is called the ULTRA AP (Armored Patrol). Its builders melded some of the latest advancements in vehicle defense with the maneuverability and safety features of an "off-the-shelf" truck to develop a concept vehicle that may one day replace the familiar Humvee in the battlefield.... http://www.livescience.com/technology/050913_military_vehicle.html
The beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisoners
September 13, 2005 A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered. Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about".http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1568622,00.html
ACLU threat nixes 23rd Psalm display
Tapestry with Bible passage hung in county courthouse
September 14, 2005 Fearing an expensive legal challenge from the ACLU, a county commissioner begrudgingly ordered removal of a display of the 23rd Psalm from a courthouse...The Banner-Herald said there was no complaint about the tapestry until a reporter began asking about it Monday.......http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46307
Prosecutor drops charges against transgendered hurricane evacuee
Sep 12, BRYAN, Texas Prosecutors will not press charges against a transgendered Hurricane Katrina evacuee for showering in the women's restroom at a shelter…Arpollo Vicks, who was born male but lives as a woman, was arrested last week for criminal trespassing after leaving a women's shower at Texas A&M University's Reed Arena. Brazos County Attorney Jim Kuboviak ordered Vick's release on Friday after five days in jail. Vicks "lacked criminal intent to violate the law," Kuboviak told the Bryan-College Station Eagle. If Vicks "had been rummaging through stuff or doing any harm, that would have been different."
Corps of Cadets Commandant John Van Alstyne, who runs the shelter, told police he had warned Vicks not to use the women's showers after another shelter resident complained. Vicks said he/she received permission from a shelter volunteer. [Gee, I’ll bet a lot of 20 year old guys will now say they feel more comfortable taking a shower with women… reminds me of a joke…] http://www.southernvoice.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=2434
Joke as promised…
A Wyoming cowboy gets off a plane in L.A., walks into a nearby bar and sits down beside a stunning looking redhead. He tries to pick her up but she says, "Don`t waste your time...I`m a lesbian."
"What part of Lesbia are you from?" he asks.
"You don`t understand...see that gorgeous blonde on the other side of the bar? Well, I`d love to take her up to my room and make mad passionate love to her!"
"Wow!" says the cowboy, "...I must be a lesbian too!"
Group Blasts Lehman Bros. for Slavery Apology
Sept. 13, 2005 Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), Tuesday denounced Lehman Brothers for apologizing for its alleged links to slavery, warning that such apologies, without legal or moral merit, will only embolden slave reparations activists to advance their unjust agenda.... "Lehman Brothers should have made the case against group guilt. Whatever ties the company or its officials may have had with slavery 150 years ago is irrelevant."...Flaherty added that, "Lehman Brothers should have stood up to the activists whose goal is to force companies and individuals to compensate the descendants of slaves. This is morally indefensible as it forces innocents to pay money to non-victims."http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/13/203941.shtml
New Orleans Gun Seizures Allegedly 'Creating More Victims'
September 14, 2005 Few people objected when police began gathering firearms they found in abandoned New Orleans homes, to prevent them from falling into the hands of criminals. But one gun policy expert says confiscating guns from law abiding citizens who remain in the city is increasing the danger posed by criminals...But many residents, whose neighborhoods were undamaged by either Hurricane Katrina or the resulting flooding, do not want to leave. Most fear looters will damage or destroy anything they cannot steal and some of those citizens have armed themselves...http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200509\NAT20050914a.html
Congressman visited his New Orleans home with assistance of National Guard troops, trucks and helicopters.
Sept. 13, 3005 — Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings — even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned.
...five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast — Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was allowed through the military blockades set up around the city to reach the Superdome, where thousands of evacuees had been taken. ...Jefferson went into the house alone, the source says, while the soldiers waited on the porch for about an hour...Finally, according to the source, Jefferson emerged with a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator, which the enlisted men loaded up into the truck...
The Louisiana National Guard tells ABC News the truck became stuck as it waited for Jefferson to retrieve his belongings. Two weeks later, the vehicle's tire tracks were still visible on the lawn.
...The soldiers signaled to helicopters in the air for aid. Military sources say a Coast Guard helicopter pilot saw the signal and flew to Jefferson's home. The chopper was already carrying four rescued New Orleans residents at the time.A rescue diver descended from the helicopter, but the congressman decided against going up in the helicopter, sources say. The pilot sent the diver down again, but Jefferson again declined to go up the helicopter.
After spending approximately 45 minutes with Jefferson, the helicopter went on to rescue three additional New Orleans residents before it ran low on fuel and was forced to end its mission. "Forty-five minutes can be an eternity to somebody that is drowning, to somebody that is sitting in a roof, and it needs to be used its primary purpose during an emergency," said Hauer.
The Louisiana National Guard then sent a second 5-ton truck to rescue the first truck, and Jefferson and his personal items were returned to the Superdome.
...In an unrelated matter, authorities recently searched Jefferson's property as part of a federal investigation into the finances of a high-tech firm. Last month FBI officials raided Jefferson's house as well as his home in Washington, D.C., his car and his accountant's house. http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1123495&page=1
Woman arrested after posing as hurricane victim
A Memphis woman has been charged with forgery and attempted theft after trying to collect more than $1,500 in Hurricane Katrina relief money, police say...Emma Hill, 31, told a worker at an American Red Cross hurricane relief center in Memphis Friday that she lived in Gulfport, Miss., and had lost everything in the hurricane, according to the charges... Police say they discovered Hill had an outstanding warrant on charges of passing bad checks. And they found she had a Tennessee driver's license with a Memphis address and that she paid the utility bills at that address.http://www.southernstandard.net/news.ez?viewStory=20850
Clinton's Disaster Response Took Longer Than Bush's
Sept. 13, 2005 ...President Clinton, on other the other hand, got glowing reviews for responding to his administration's biggest disaster, the Oklahoma City bombing - even though he took a day longer to arrive on the scene than Bush did last week...New Orleans' levees broke on a Tuesday - and Bush had his own boots-on-the-ground just three days later on Friday. When the Alfred P. Murrah Building exploded on Wednesday morning, April 19, 1995, President Clinton didn't travel to the scene for four full days. ...The real difference, of course, was that Clinton had a sympathetic media that was just as anxious as he was to blame the disaster on right wing Republicans. Bush, on the other hand, faces a press corps that couldn't wait to use Katrina against him...The double standard becomes even more obvious when reaction to Katrina is compared with what remains the worst law enforcement debacle in U.S. history - the Clinton administration's decision to rout the Branch Davidians from their encampment at Waco...More children were killed in that April 19, 1993, assault than died in Oklahoma City. Yet the Clinton administration received little if any blame - and no one was forced to resign. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/13/110122.shtml
Officials delve deeper into 'Able Danger'
09/12/2005 ...After nearly a month of searching for evidence of the data-mining operation, "Able Danger," the Pentagon has discovered three individuals who recall the defunct military intelligence program. This brings the total to five individuals who recall either seeing Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta's picture or hearing his name mentioned during the 15-month-long Special Operations Command project...http://www.timesherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15195991&BRD=1672&PAG=461&dept_id=33380&rfi=6
Judge: School Pledge Is Unconstitutional
Sep 14 SAN FRANCISCO A federal judge declared the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional Wednesday in a case brought by the same atheist whose previous battle against the words "under God" was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on procedural grounds. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates school children's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God." http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/14/D8CK77685.html
Over 50 Katrina evacuees have died in Texas
9/14/2005 HOUSTON At least 53 Hurricane Katrina evacuees from the New Orleans area have died since coming to Texas, medical examiners said Wednesday... most of the 35 deaths were from natural causes, including several heart attacks and complications from cancer. Two refugees killed themselves... Many were elderly living in hospitals, hospice centers and nursing homes..."We think most of these people had existing conditions," said Beverly Begay, chief forensic investigator for the Harris County medical examiner's office. (I'm sure these people will be counted in the official Katrina death toll)http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1126715043143342.xml&storylist=louisiana
GALLUP POLL: The results CNN and USAToday decided not to publish!
September 13, 2005 Public: Response to Katrina Better Now Than Just After Hurricane Hit Most Americans were not impressed with the initial response to Hurricane Katrina, but according to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey, majorities of Americans now say that the people and officials involved in the rescue effort are doing a good job. Most Americans believe that government agencies in New Orleans should have been better prepared, and they support the proposal for an independent investigation into the problems with the government's response. But they reject the notion that race or poverty were reasons why the government was slow to respond.
Recent Response (total good)
58% (good) George W Bush
59% (good) Residents of New Orleans
57% (good) State and local officials in LA
56% (good) FEMA/federal agencies
http://gallup.com/poll/content/?ci=18466
http://www.freewill-predestination.com
Sep. 14, 2005 Hurricane Katrina's fury has turned tens of thousands of acres of lush pine and other forests in Mississippi into wastelands...One such place is Judd Brooke's 4,000-acre timber ranch near the coastal town of Kiln. Katrina destroyed about 70 percent of his timber that was ready for harvest or about $2 million worth. The Mississippi Forestry Commission says Katrina caused $2.4 billion of tree damage, more than half in commercial timber spread across 1.3 million acres. Forests account for more than 60 percent of Mississippi's land, the report said...Forestry expert Joe Pettigrew says landowners like Brooke will be lucky to get a quarter of what their timber was worth before Katrina struck.http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20050914-110826-3434r.htm
WWII Soldier's Last Letter Makes It Home
Sep 14 POOLE, Neb. It took more than 60 years, but the final letter of a soldier killed in World War II finally made it home. ...The letter, with military markings from France, was postmarked March 6, 1944...Clinton Krotz, an infantry soldier in France during the war, was killed in action on May 8, 1944. The letter was the last one he sent home. In the letter, her brother thanked his parents for a wristwatch they had sent as a birthday gift, as well as some candy and nuts.... http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/14/D8CK0JK82.html
NASCAR Engineers Help Design New Combat Vehicle
13 September 2005 The U.S. military unveiled this week a concept combat vehicle that combines new blast-deflection technology with the safety features of a commercially available truck and NASCAR engineering. ...Built on the skeleton of a Ford F-350 truck, the vehicle is called the ULTRA AP (Armored Patrol). Its builders melded some of the latest advancements in vehicle defense with the maneuverability and safety features of an "off-the-shelf" truck to develop a concept vehicle that may one day replace the familiar Humvee in the battlefield.... http://www.livescience.com/technology/050913_military_vehicle.html
The beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisoners
September 13, 2005 A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered. Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about".http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1568622,00.html
ACLU threat nixes 23rd Psalm display
Tapestry with Bible passage hung in county courthouse
September 14, 2005 Fearing an expensive legal challenge from the ACLU, a county commissioner begrudgingly ordered removal of a display of the 23rd Psalm from a courthouse...The Banner-Herald said there was no complaint about the tapestry until a reporter began asking about it Monday.......http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46307
Prosecutor drops charges against transgendered hurricane evacuee
Sep 12, BRYAN, Texas Prosecutors will not press charges against a transgendered Hurricane Katrina evacuee for showering in the women's restroom at a shelter…Arpollo Vicks, who was born male but lives as a woman, was arrested last week for criminal trespassing after leaving a women's shower at Texas A&M University's Reed Arena. Brazos County Attorney Jim Kuboviak ordered Vick's release on Friday after five days in jail. Vicks "lacked criminal intent to violate the law," Kuboviak told the Bryan-College Station Eagle. If Vicks "had been rummaging through stuff or doing any harm, that would have been different."
Corps of Cadets Commandant John Van Alstyne, who runs the shelter, told police he had warned Vicks not to use the women's showers after another shelter resident complained. Vicks said he/she received permission from a shelter volunteer. [Gee, I’ll bet a lot of 20 year old guys will now say they feel more comfortable taking a shower with women… reminds me of a joke…] http://www.southernvoice.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=2434
Joke as promised…
A Wyoming cowboy gets off a plane in L.A., walks into a nearby bar and sits down beside a stunning looking redhead. He tries to pick her up but she says, "Don`t waste your time...I`m a lesbian."
"What part of Lesbia are you from?" he asks.
"You don`t understand...see that gorgeous blonde on the other side of the bar? Well, I`d love to take her up to my room and make mad passionate love to her!"
"Wow!" says the cowboy, "...I must be a lesbian too!"
Group Blasts Lehman Bros. for Slavery Apology
Sept. 13, 2005 Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), Tuesday denounced Lehman Brothers for apologizing for its alleged links to slavery, warning that such apologies, without legal or moral merit, will only embolden slave reparations activists to advance their unjust agenda.... "Lehman Brothers should have made the case against group guilt. Whatever ties the company or its officials may have had with slavery 150 years ago is irrelevant."...Flaherty added that, "Lehman Brothers should have stood up to the activists whose goal is to force companies and individuals to compensate the descendants of slaves. This is morally indefensible as it forces innocents to pay money to non-victims."http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/13/203941.shtml
New Orleans Gun Seizures Allegedly 'Creating More Victims'
September 14, 2005 Few people objected when police began gathering firearms they found in abandoned New Orleans homes, to prevent them from falling into the hands of criminals. But one gun policy expert says confiscating guns from law abiding citizens who remain in the city is increasing the danger posed by criminals...But many residents, whose neighborhoods were undamaged by either Hurricane Katrina or the resulting flooding, do not want to leave. Most fear looters will damage or destroy anything they cannot steal and some of those citizens have armed themselves...http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200509\NAT20050914a.html
Congressman visited his New Orleans home with assistance of National Guard troops, trucks and helicopters.
Sept. 13, 3005 — Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings — even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned.
...five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast — Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was allowed through the military blockades set up around the city to reach the Superdome, where thousands of evacuees had been taken. ...Jefferson went into the house alone, the source says, while the soldiers waited on the porch for about an hour...Finally, according to the source, Jefferson emerged with a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator, which the enlisted men loaded up into the truck...
The Louisiana National Guard tells ABC News the truck became stuck as it waited for Jefferson to retrieve his belongings. Two weeks later, the vehicle's tire tracks were still visible on the lawn.
...The soldiers signaled to helicopters in the air for aid. Military sources say a Coast Guard helicopter pilot saw the signal and flew to Jefferson's home. The chopper was already carrying four rescued New Orleans residents at the time.A rescue diver descended from the helicopter, but the congressman decided against going up in the helicopter, sources say. The pilot sent the diver down again, but Jefferson again declined to go up the helicopter.
After spending approximately 45 minutes with Jefferson, the helicopter went on to rescue three additional New Orleans residents before it ran low on fuel and was forced to end its mission. "Forty-five minutes can be an eternity to somebody that is drowning, to somebody that is sitting in a roof, and it needs to be used its primary purpose during an emergency," said Hauer.
The Louisiana National Guard then sent a second 5-ton truck to rescue the first truck, and Jefferson and his personal items were returned to the Superdome.
...In an unrelated matter, authorities recently searched Jefferson's property as part of a federal investigation into the finances of a high-tech firm. Last month FBI officials raided Jefferson's house as well as his home in Washington, D.C., his car and his accountant's house. http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1123495&page=1
Woman arrested after posing as hurricane victim
A Memphis woman has been charged with forgery and attempted theft after trying to collect more than $1,500 in Hurricane Katrina relief money, police say...Emma Hill, 31, told a worker at an American Red Cross hurricane relief center in Memphis Friday that she lived in Gulfport, Miss., and had lost everything in the hurricane, according to the charges... Police say they discovered Hill had an outstanding warrant on charges of passing bad checks. And they found she had a Tennessee driver's license with a Memphis address and that she paid the utility bills at that address.http://www.southernstandard.net/news.ez?viewStory=20850
Clinton's Disaster Response Took Longer Than Bush's
Sept. 13, 2005 ...President Clinton, on other the other hand, got glowing reviews for responding to his administration's biggest disaster, the Oklahoma City bombing - even though he took a day longer to arrive on the scene than Bush did last week...New Orleans' levees broke on a Tuesday - and Bush had his own boots-on-the-ground just three days later on Friday. When the Alfred P. Murrah Building exploded on Wednesday morning, April 19, 1995, President Clinton didn't travel to the scene for four full days. ...The real difference, of course, was that Clinton had a sympathetic media that was just as anxious as he was to blame the disaster on right wing Republicans. Bush, on the other hand, faces a press corps that couldn't wait to use Katrina against him...The double standard becomes even more obvious when reaction to Katrina is compared with what remains the worst law enforcement debacle in U.S. history - the Clinton administration's decision to rout the Branch Davidians from their encampment at Waco...More children were killed in that April 19, 1993, assault than died in Oklahoma City. Yet the Clinton administration received little if any blame - and no one was forced to resign. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/13/110122.shtml
Officials delve deeper into 'Able Danger'
09/12/2005 ...After nearly a month of searching for evidence of the data-mining operation, "Able Danger," the Pentagon has discovered three individuals who recall the defunct military intelligence program. This brings the total to five individuals who recall either seeing Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta's picture or hearing his name mentioned during the 15-month-long Special Operations Command project...http://www.timesherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15195991&BRD=1672&PAG=461&dept_id=33380&rfi=6
Judge: School Pledge Is Unconstitutional
Sep 14 SAN FRANCISCO A federal judge declared the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional Wednesday in a case brought by the same atheist whose previous battle against the words "under God" was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on procedural grounds. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates school children's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God." http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/14/D8CK77685.html
Over 50 Katrina evacuees have died in Texas
9/14/2005 HOUSTON At least 53 Hurricane Katrina evacuees from the New Orleans area have died since coming to Texas, medical examiners said Wednesday... most of the 35 deaths were from natural causes, including several heart attacks and complications from cancer. Two refugees killed themselves... Many were elderly living in hospitals, hospice centers and nursing homes..."We think most of these people had existing conditions," said Beverly Begay, chief forensic investigator for the Harris County medical examiner's office. (I'm sure these people will be counted in the official Katrina death toll)http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1126715043143342.xml&storylist=louisiana
GALLUP POLL: The results CNN and USAToday decided not to publish!
September 13, 2005 Public: Response to Katrina Better Now Than Just After Hurricane Hit Most Americans were not impressed with the initial response to Hurricane Katrina, but according to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey, majorities of Americans now say that the people and officials involved in the rescue effort are doing a good job. Most Americans believe that government agencies in New Orleans should have been better prepared, and they support the proposal for an independent investigation into the problems with the government's response. But they reject the notion that race or poverty were reasons why the government was slow to respond.
Recent Response (total good)
58% (good) George W Bush
59% (good) Residents of New Orleans
57% (good) State and local officials in LA
56% (good) FEMA/federal agencies
http://gallup.com/poll/content/?ci=18466
http://www.freewill-predestination.com
posted by David Bennett | 7:30 PM
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