Life in OUR America, Volume 2, The Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

.... and if it were not in part for the influence of the Schuylers, whose daughter Betsy, I believe it was, was married to young Alexander Hamilton, Hamilton himself would likely not have been made a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 in Philadelphia, and then, who knows, but I always find these connections between people in various places over time to be interesting, and so, when given the opportunity, or maybe even half an opportunity, well, I do prattle on then, don't I.......

During winter camp at Morristown, Hamilton met and fell in love with Elizabeth Schuyler, whom he would marry at the end of the year.

The Schyuler family was one of the wealthy Dutch dynasties of New York.

Elizabeth's father, Major General Philip Schuyler, was acquainted with Hamilton and was delighted with the match, despite the fact that Hamilton was penniless and propertyless.

Not inconsiderable was the fact that the marriage would be a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Schuyler had a feeling that Hamilton would go far and was willing to give him a push if necessary; although it turned out that Hamilton ended up doing most of the pushing.

In "Betsy" Hamilton found a loving and adoring wife, who proved a steadfast companion even in his darkest moments.

When not busy with correspondence or courting his wife-to-be, Hamilton turned back to the business of building a better nation.

During his tenure as aide-de-camp, Hamilton had formed important ties among New York politicians with whom he regularly corresponded.

On the request of congressman James Duane, Hamilton wrote a lengthy missive on his "ideas of the defects of our present system, and the changes necessary to save us from ruin."

Hamilton then enumerated the weaknesses of the current government, and offered a very forward-thinking solution: ". . .by calling immediately a convention of all the states with full authority to conclude finally upon a general confederation."

The Philadelphia convention was still seven years away.

The rest of the letter reveals a great chunk of what was to become Hamilton's official policies.

Indeed, a study of his unofficial political musings prior to his taking office as Secretary to the Treasury show the unfolding of a consistent political plan for America based upon his experiences with the government of a weak confederation.

Congress's inability to provide even the most basic of the army's needs proved the dire necessity for a more powerful government.

The army, Hamilton observes "is now a mob . . . without cloathing, without pay, without provision, without morals, without discipline."

"We begin to hate the country for its neglect of us; the country begins to hate us for our oppressions of them."

The poor state of the army comprises "three fourths of our civil embarrassments."

Once again, he casts the eyes of the world on the doings of the American government.

Hamilton then goes on to detail a financial plan for the country.

Had his future political rivals read this letter, none of Hamilton's fiscal policies would have taken them by surprise.

He suggests revenue sources--securing a foreign loan, a money tax on business, and a tax in kind on farmers.

He expounds upon turning the public debt to the nation's advantage; creating an economy based on paper money; and dwells at length on the founding of a national bank which would be established by the investments of "monied men of influence" who would "relish the project and make it a business."

Knowing full well how his plan would be received by the bulk of Americans, Hamilton opines:

"There are epochs in human affairs, when novelty even is useful."

http://www.iment.com/maida/familytree/henr...derhamilton.htm

[Livyjr]

As a brilliant modern American thinker once said,:

" There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, it's probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on ... shame on you.

"It fool me."

"We can't get fooled again."

And then what happens, jeffmoskin, is that despite those wise words of this brilliant American PROPHET, WE GET FOOLED AS A NATION, ALL OVER AGAIN, EACH AND EVERY DAY, BY THIS SAME GUY THAT IS SAYING "CAN'T GET FOOLED AGIN", above here!

SO!

Go figure that, will you?

Except .....

I wonder, maybe down there in Tennessee, they don't get fooled like they do in Texas ...........

No, that's not right, 'cause they got Frist, and Texas has DeLay, and Bush, and so .....

Maybe they get fooled worse?

[Abu Beacon]

I wonder, maybe down there in Tennessee, they don't get fooled like they do in Texas ...........

No, that's not right, 'cause they got Frist, and Texas has DeLay, and Bush, and so .....

Maybe they get fooled worse?

Just so we here in Ohio don't feel left out -- we got Taft. So there.

A.B.

[Livyjr]

Just so we here in Ohio don't feel left out -- we got Taft.

So there.

A.B.

And howdy, Mr. A.B., good to know you're around as always, with your own observations on Life in OUR America, over the span of your own lifetime, which it is good to hear about from time to time, these thoughts of yours from days gone by, like on Mr. Taft, here.

It's interesting, Mr. A.B., how our regional differences shape our perspectives on things, and especially politicians, who often times are from someplace, like George W. Bush, or Howard Dean, but are known differently than that in other places, because of this "media" thing that can portray a person in an entirely false light, all too often, for either good or ill!

People in the place a politician is from often have a view of that person that can be insightful, but generally is never heard outside of that small region, as in the case of George Pataki, who is out there raising money in a lot of other states than New York, where people do not really "know" him, while here, he is held in low regard, partly because he is not here doing his job, but instead, is out there traipsing around, raising money for himself and George W. Bush and the Republican Party, as if that is what we, the people here, elected him to do, which to me, is being damn frivolous with OUR trust, and ON OUR DIME, to boot.

And Taft is probably outside the consciousness of a lot of people today, and so, hearing the name, and having to think of who he really was, is a good mental exercise for us younger folks in here, and so, thanks for providing the impetus to have to do that thinking, and if you like, feel free to flesh out your thoughts with a thumbnail sketch of Mr. Taft, from your perspective.

[Livyjr]

To me, the ultimate beauty of this thread is that it has no real form, no real substance that has to be defended in any way, shape or manner; no ground to control, so to speak, and so, at a literal moment's notice, I can go streaking off in just about any direction possible, and based on what Mr. A.B. has added above here, which is his thoughts on Mr. Taft, and the people of Ohio, I want to jump back in time even farther than that, to the days of OUR nation's beginnings, which in this case would be 1787, in the wake of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, which I must say, are times in OUR America, the significance of which I am only now coming to really grasp, in terms of their significance to US in OUR America today!

I have been reading lately from a book entitled Miracle at Philadelphia, by Catherine Drinker Bowen, and it is about the 1787 Constitutional Convention, largely through the eyes of James Madison, though his notes of the convention, which were extensive, and exhaustive, and thus, are a continuing source of information about OUR America, right on down to OUR present times, as anyone following along in my Judicial Thread would note from the language of Justice O'Connor, just the other day in a well-publicized United States Supreme Court decision which I have posted over there, for its language on how OUR Constitution is interpreted today, by the courts of this nation.

The specific phrase that came to me from that book, in response to this comment above by Mr. A.B., about Mr. Taft, is from words by General John Lamb, who in the days before ratification, expressed fears concerning what the true range of presidential power was to be in OUR America, AFTER George Washington was gone, and his humility with him, from that high office.

It is said that General Lamb grew tired of hearing about George Washington and his virtues alone as a reason to ratify the Constitution, who Lamb called "our illustrious chief, this Cincinnatus who laid down his laurels and returned to the plow", like a common citizen, here in OUR America, despite the fact that he could have been a king, if he so chose!

The words of General Lamb which caught my attention are these, where General Lamb admitted that it was all well and good with General Washington, "BUT WHAT ABOUT GENERAL SLUSHINGTON, WHO MIGHT SUCCEED HIM"?

And what about General Slushington, indeed?

How many of him have we had sitting on the throne since General Washington departed that high office?

At least one, isn't it, and in OUR own times, to boot?

[Livyjr]

The specific phrase that came to me from that book, in response to this comment above by Mr. A.B., about Mr. Taft, is from words by General John Lamb, who in the days before ratification, expressed fears concerning what the true range of  presidential power was to be in OUR America, AFTER George Washington was gone, and his humility with him, from that high office.

It is said that General Lamb grew tired of hearing about George Washington and his virtues alone as a reason to ratify the Constitution, who Lamb called "our illustrious chief, this Cincinnatus who laid down his laurels and returned to the plow", like a common citizen, here in OUR America, despite the fact that he could have been a king, if he so chose!

The words of General Lamb which caught my attention are these, where General Lamb admitted that it was all well and good with General Washington,  "BUT WHAT ABOUT GENERAL SLUSHINGTON, WHO MIGHT SUCCEED HIM"?

And what about General Slushington, indeed?

How many of him have we had sitting on the throne since General Washington departed that high office?

At least one, isn't it, and in OUR own times, to boot?

Lamb, John

Lamb, John, 1735–1800, American Revolutionary leader, b. New York City.

Prior to the Revolution he was a leader of the Sons of Liberty in New York and helped form the New York committee of correspondence to coordinate anti-British activity.

With Isaac Sears he led (1775) a mob that seized the New York customhouse and another that captured the British arms at Turtle Bay in Manhattan.

Lamb served in the Quebec campaign and in later battles.

In 1784, he became collector of customs in New York City.

Later he was one of the leaders of the opposition to the U.S. Constitution in New York.

See I. Q. Leake, Memoir of the Life and Times of General John Lamb (1850, repr. 1971).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

[Abu Beacon]

It's interesting, Mr. A.B., how our regional differences shape our perspectives on things, and especially politicians, who often times are from someplace, like George W. Bush, or Howard Dean, but are known differently than that in other places, because of this "media" thing that can portray a person in an entirely false light, all too often, for either good or ill!

if you like, feel free to flesh out your thoughts with a thumbnail sketch of Mr. Taft, from your perspective.

About this Governor of ours here in the Buckeye State of Ohio ----

It's important to know that, basically, both rural and downstate

Ohio is pretty much Republican. Most of the larger northern cities, i.e. Cleveland, Toledo, Youngstown, Akron, etc, are largely democrat cities.

That is why so many Ohio Governors & Senators are GOP'rs. Also why inept people like Taft and that person in the White House get so many Ohio votes.

Dems are simply outnumbered.

Taft is a " downstater ", from Cincinnati I believe.

Back to Taft ------Mediocrity is his greatest asset. Most Ohio people think he is fairly honest. This includes most dems. Just not very smart.

There is a big scandal happening right now in the state concerning several million dollars of so called lost or missing funds. I agree with the word missing but not with the word ' lost'. When something is lost, it generally means no one knows where it is. I have always held the belief that there is no such thing thing as ' lost' government money. Someone always knows where it is but producing it is liable to send the finder to jail.

These missing funds are from the assets of the Workman's Compensation Bureau.
It is quite a long story. In the interests of brevity, let us just say that Mr. Taft has once again come up with egg all over his face. His honesty is not being questioned.
Just his ability.

I have put in a few quotes from the Cleveland daily paper, in order to provide a better understanding of this ' happening'.

Ohio Democrats cry foul; Taft surprised by investment losses
Friday, June 10, 2005
T.C. Brown
Plain Dealer Bureau
Columbus- Gov. Bob Taft is weary of "getting surprised" with the drumbeat of revelations of financial missteps by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, but he warned Thursday there could be more to come.

Democrats, meanwhile, toured the state decrying a "cover-up" by state Republican leaders and calling for a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. They also want the BWC Oversight Commission to cede authority for approving investments to the state treasurer for a year.

This week, the bureau publicly acknowledged that politically connected MDL Capital Management, of Pittsburgh, lost $215 million in bureau investments last year. Taft says he learned of the missing funds only this week.

The latest news added fuel to an ever-growing financial scandal involving the bureau's $55.4 million investments in rare coins controlled by Toledo coin dealer and Republican money machine Tom Noe. That investment has lost up to $13 million and Noe has become the subject of civil and criminal investigations.

Taft, who initially defended the coin investments, did not know of the coin fund or MDL's losses, "a huge amount of money to lose," Taft said Thursday.

Taft held a 20-minute news conference after he and interim BWC Administrator Tina Kielmeyer gave bureau employees a pep talk.

"Clearly there was something very wrong with the investment management at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation," Taft said. "I don't think we know yet everything that went wrong with that part of the bureau."


The MDL fund ran into problems when it greatly exceeded the leveraging of its principal account, at one point putting the bureau at risk for between $3.5 billion and $7 billion, according to Jim McLean, the bureau's chief financial officer who was put on leave this week.

Taft said, "I simply don't know" why his bureau liaison, Jim Samuel, failed to alert him about the MDL investment loss after Samuel received an e-mail in October from former Administrator Jim Conrad. Conrad resigned last week.

"A process was in place and the bureau was taking care of this issue. Things were happening," Samuel said. "I didn't recall the e-mail. When I saw it this week, I remembered it."

Taft said Samuel will no longer serve as the bureau's liaison.

At an earlier Statehouse news conference, Senate Minority Leader C.J. Prentiss accused Republican leadership of conducting a "cover-up all the way up and all the way down."

Prentiss - and other Democrats at a morning news conference in Cleveland - renewed calls for equal representation on a House-Senate committee that will examine the bureau's investments.


Harris, a Republican, said that if Democrats don't appoint members, he will appoint them, and if they fail to show, they will be marked absent.

"We are in the majority and we are responsible for whatever we do," Harris said. "Trying to make this an issue sounds good politically."

As state GOP Chairman Bob Bennett accused Democrats of conducting a "politically motivated road show," Attorney General Jim Petro proposed legislative changes in the way state agencies award contracts.

Plain Dealer reporter Brian Albrecht contributed to this report.

A.B.

[Livyjr]

About this Governor of ours here in the Buckeye State of Ohio ----

A.B.

Well, Mr. A.B. you just got me to see how far my own ignorance runs, because the Taft that I thought you were talking about was that other Taft, the "White House" Taft of some years ago.

Over in my JUDICIAL thread, I just finished a post about how little we really do know of this country, in the aggregate, and here is a case in point, where being from the east of you, and in another state, I really am pretty ignorant of what Ohio politics are really all about, and that is what I like about this forum, and this thread, is that we get a chance to hear from people like yourself, who is just another person out there, with experience of life, as opposed to all these "spinners' and "pundits" and "pitchmen" and "shills", whose job it is to package up some other incompetent that someone wants in office, for their ends, and designs.

Since I have seen the power this forum in particular gives to us as common citizens, here in OUR America, I have begun to envision all of us as a continuing "committee of correspondence", as was the case here in OUR America during the pre-revolutionary war days, when British corruption was rampant over here.

The information that I get to consider in here, like your viewpoints, Mr. A.B., coupled with this "news" from your area, serves to "inform" me in a way that has never been available to me, before, and I find that kind of mind-boggling at times, that you and I could even be having this conversation in here at all, because just a short time ago, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE.

It's like finding two pins in a giant haypile, instead of just one, the odds that you and I, and jeffmoskin, and all these others, would ever meet, let alone converse, when you think of all the obstacles that there are to that happening, distance alone being the very first of those.

SO!

If you're simple-minded like me, miracles occur every day, and you know, Mr. A.B., that's not a bad thing, at all!

And by the way, I think Pataki is over in Spain right now!

Who he is getting money from over there, we don't know yet, but since Pataki is like a New York city taxi, which doesn't move from the curb unless there is money in the meter ........

[Livyjr]

There is a big scandal happening right now in the state concerning several million dollars of so called lost or missing funds.

I agree with the word missing but not with the word 'lost'.

When something is lost, it generally means no one knows where it is.

I have always held the belief that there is no such thing thing as 'lost' government money.

Someone always knows where it is but producing it is liable to send the finder to jail.

A.B.

And what a mouthfull you have just said here, Mr. A.B.!

Missing money!

Up here, it is missing because all these "special people" that are better than the rest of us, and who therefore are "privileged" to have "public office" absent the need for "public trust", since they are better, and we are not, well, because they are "special", ISN'T THAT MONEY IN OUR TREASURY REALLY THEIRS, to do with what they will because we are just too stupid to know the difference?

"Audit questions SUNY Foundation payments - Comptroller cites housing allowances for presidents, $1.3 million for lobbyist"

By KENNETH AARON, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, June 10, 2005

ALBANY -- An audit of the State University of New York's Research Foundation uncovered questionable housing allowances to a pair of presidents and a payment to send the child of SUNY's top enrollment officer to an out-of-state college, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi said Thursday.

The audit, which included July 2001 through the end of 2003, pointed to other transactions that Hevesi found suspect -- such as a $1.3 million contract with a Republican lobbyist that didn't specify particular duties.

The $97,500 in housing allowances -- including $46,500 that went to SUNY acting Chancellor John Ryan when he was president of SUNY Maritime College -- helped skirt the university's regulations limiting presidents' housing perks to $37,500.

"This is highly inappropriate and it is unfair to the students and faculty on all SUNY campuses -- and indeed to all New Yorkers," Hevesi said.

Foundation officials said that some of Hevesi's complaints are unfounded because it is not a state agency subject to SUNY rules, but a private, nonprofit group that supports SUNY and pays for research.

The housing allowances and tuition reimbursement helped attract top-flight talent to SUNY, officials maintained.

And the lobbyist -- former U.S. Rep. Bill Paxon -- helped attract millions of dollars to the system.

"Over the past five years, we've spent $5 million and brought in $87 million," foundation spokeswoman Cathy Kaszluga said.

The audit comes at a time when SUNY has been criticized for excessive compensation.

In January, for example, former Chancellor Robert King asked for a six-month paid leave at the same time that a tuition hike was on the table.

He canceled his request and the tuition hike was ultimately shelved, but he still was given a $206,000-a-year professorship after he stepped down as chancellor last week.

The foundation has several SUNY officials on its board but is not subject to the same rules of disclosure as the university and has long resisted attempts to shine light on many of its financial doings.

The organization was reluctant to give Hevesi's office information, but ultimately acquiesced.

Assembly Higher Education Chairman Ronald Canestrari said the foundation is a "mystery agency" that needs to be opened up to increased public scrutiny.

"We fought for every dollar for SUNY, fighting back a tuition increase, fighting to restore the tuition assistance program," the Cohoes Democrat said.

"And here, dollars are being spent in this manner."

"It's outrageous."

Kaszluga said the foundation fought against releasing records because officials didn't think Hevesi had jurisdiction to see them.

"Our records are appropriately public through our annual report, our IRS filings and the audits performed by the sponsoring agencies that provide the funding," she said.

The vast majority of the foundation's $710 million budget last year came from federal sources.

State tax dollars are not used to support it.

While much of the money goes for scientific research at SUNY institutions, the foundation can also pay for things that improve the system.

The foundation stopped paying a housing allowance to Ryan, who also served a year as interim president at the University at Albany until February.

The other president to get a housing payment was John Craine, who ultimately succeeded Ryan at the Maritime College but was president of the Levin Institute in Manhattan when the foundation gave him $51,000.

The foundation is not currently giving housing payments to any other presidents.

But Kaszluga argued that these payments are common practice.

David Bass, director of the National Center for Institutionally Related Foundations, agreed.

"That's just one of the many ways that college and university foundations can bring private resources to support the missions of the institutions that they're affiliated with," he said.

The $7,000 tuition payment to Wayne Locust, SUNY's vice chancellor for enrollment and university life, matched a perk he got at his last school, the University of Connecticut.

His daughter was already enrolled at a non-SUNY school.

The foundation "was happy to help SUNY recruit a person of this caliber rather than lose him over such a small amount of money," Kaszluga said.

Foundation officials agreed with some of the audit's findings.

They plan to institute tighter controls on no-bid contracts, for instance, and require better documentation of goods and services supplied to the foundation before payment is made.

[jeffmoskin]

About this Governor of ours here in the Buckeye State of Ohio ----

It's important to know that, basically, both rural and downstate

Ohio is pretty much Republican. Most of the larger northern cities, i.e. Cleveland, Toledo, Youngstown, Akron, etc, are largely democrat cities.

That is why so many Ohio Governors & Senators are GOP'rs. Also why inept people like Taft and that person in the White House get so many Ohio votes.

Dems are simply outnumbered.

Taft is a " downstater ", from Cincinnati I believe.

Back to Taft ------Mediocrity is his greatest asset. Most Ohio people think he is fairly honest. This includes most dems. Just not very smart.

That's what bothers me about this country. It seems to me that, because of TELEVISION, the not-so-very-smart candidate who looks like "one of us" (I'm talking about a certain dim-witted Texan now) can convince 50 percent of the electorate (and I'm talking give or take 3.5 million) to vote for him.

Doesn't speak well for OUR country.

It was James Madison who said, “It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.”

How did we get to where we are today?

And how do we escape?

[Livyjr]

"Ohio Democrats cry foul; Taft surprised by investment losses"

Friday, June 10, 2005

T.C. Brown

Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus - Gov. Bob Taft is weary of "getting surprised" with the drumbeat of revelations of financial missteps by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, but he warned Thursday there could be more to come.

Democrats, meanwhile, toured the state decrying a "cover-up" by state Republican leaders and calling for a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

They also want the BWC Oversight Commission to cede authority for approving investments to the state treasurer for a year.

This week, the bureau publicly acknowledged that politically connected MDL Capital Management, of Pittsburgh, lost $215 million in bureau investments last year.

Taft says he learned of the missing funds only this week.

The latest news added fuel to an ever-growing financial scandal involving the bureau's $55.4 million investments in rare coins controlled by Toledo coin dealer and Republican money machine Tom Noe.

That investment has lost up to $13 million and Noe has become the subject of civil and criminal investigations.

Taft, who initially defended the coin investments, did not know of the coin fund or MDL's losses, "a huge amount of money to lose," Taft said Thursday.

Taft held a 20-minute news conference after he and interim BWC Administrator Tina Kielmeyer gave bureau employees a pep talk.

"Clearly there was something very wrong with the investment management at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation," Taft said.

"I don't think we know yet everything that went wrong with that part of the bureau."

The MDL fund ran into problems when it greatly exceeded the leveraging of its principal account, at one point putting the bureau at risk for between $3.5 billion and $7 billion, according to Jim McLean, the bureau's chief financial officer who was put on leave this week.

Taft said, "I simply don't know" why his bureau liaison, Jim Samuel, failed to alert him about the MDL investment loss after Samuel received an e-mail in October from former Administrator Jim Conrad.

Conrad resigned last week.

"A process was in place and the bureau was taking care of this issue."

"Things were happening," Samuel said.

"I didn't recall the e-mail."

"When I saw it this week, I remembered it."

Taft said Samuel will no longer serve as the bureau's liaison.

At an earlier Statehouse news conference, Senate Minority Leader C.J. Prentiss accused Republican leadership of conducting a "cover-up all the way up and all the way down."

Prentiss - and other Democrats at a morning news conference in Cleveland - renewed calls for equal representation on a House-Senate committee that will examine the bureau's investments.

Harris, a Republican, said that if Democrats don't appoint members, he will appoint them, and if they fail to show, they will be marked absent.

"We are in the majority and we are responsible for whatever we do," Harris said.

"Trying to make this an issue sounds good politically."

As state GOP Chairman Bob Bennett accused Democrats of conducting a "politically motivated road show," Attorney General Jim Petro proposed legislative changes in the way state agencies award contracts.

Plain Dealer reporter Brian Albrecht contributed to this report.

A.B.

Trying to make this an issue?

Excuse me, but I would say it already was one, at least from a citizen's point of view, here.

And boy, Mr. A.B., this country has REPUBLICANS, like a dog has fleas!

And you got a nitwit for a governor out there, from the sounds of it, Mr. A.B., while here, we have a thug instead, or at least a thug-like man!

Up here, Pataki knows where the money is going, and he makes no pretenses whatsoever about it being anything other than intended, since the REPUBLICANS, in his scheme, have the "power", and so, they have the graft, as well, because in New York State, politics and graft are indistinguishable, and so .....

At least the nitwit sounds honest, and maybe that is something, if you can only overlook what sounds like gross incompetence .....

[Livyjr]

And from Mr. A.B.'s beloved Ohio, we wing our way back east to where I am, and here, it is hot and unsettled, and unseasonably so.

Right now, we are under the influence of what is known up here as a "Bermuda High", and so, our air is coming in from the south, and when I look down that way .....

"Tropical Storm Arlene moves into gulf - Forecasters say system could become weak hurricane Saturday"

NBC News and news services
Updated: 1:35 p.m. ET June 10, 2005

PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla - Florida's west coast was already feeling the wind and rain as Tropical Storm Arlene strengthened Friday and moved north through the Gulf of Mexico, bearing down on Gulf Coast communities still recovering from last year’s hurricanes.

Forecasters said Arlene, the Atlantic hurricane season’s first named tropical storm, could become a weak hurricane before hitting the Deep South late Saturday, with the worst weather arriving earlier, east of the storm’s center.

It was then expected to travel north along the Mississippi-Alabama line, reaching Tennessee by Sunday evening.

Mississippi officials urged residents in flood-prone areas to move to higher ground, and two large deepwater oil platforms off the Louisiana coast were evacuated.

In Pensacola Beach, where many residents are still living in government trailers because of damage from last year’s Hurricane Ivan, residents eyed the forecast warily.

Margie Wassner, 57, said she planned to ride out Arlene with friends inland in Pensacola.

“It’s pretty scary to me."

"I just kept hoping that we wouldn’t have anything, but I don’t know."

"It’s awfully early in the year to be having this,” she said.

Tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches were posted from Florida to Louisiana for Arlene, which had top sustained winds of 60 mph, up from 45 mph earlier in the day.

A tropical storm becomes a hurricane when its speed reaches 74 mph.

Arlene's speed was likely to increase, but forecasters said the biggest impact would be heavy rain that arrives ahead of the storm’s center.

'Major rainfall'

“This is going to be a major rainfall event before and ahead of the storm,” said Trisha Wallace, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

At 11 a.m. ET, Arlene’s poorly defined center was about 440 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The storm was moving north at about 13 mph, picking up speed from its 10 mph pace earlier in the day, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Wind and rain extended 150 miles north and east of the storm’s center.

Southern and central Florida could see tornadoes Friday and more than 7 inches of rain by midday Saturday.

Beach erosion was also possible, with coastal storm surge flooding of 2 to 4 feet above normal tide levels.

A tropical storm warning stretched along the northern Gulf Coast from Grand Isle, La., to St. Marks, Fla., including Lake Pontchartrain.

A hurricane watch went from the mouth of the Pearl River to Panama City, Fla.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters that the state and its residents were prepared, saying he was encouraged by “phenomenal” sales of generators and hurricane-related materials.

“This is a good sign that people are taking this very seriously,” Bush said.

Resident feels odds in his favor

Panhandle residents were told to prepare for possible heavy rain and flooding this weekend.

Sitting outside his temporary mobile home, 69-year-old retiree Jim Milliken monitored the forecasts and hoped the bad luck that cost him his house had finally run its course.

“I have to assume the probabilities are in my favor and it’s not going to be a really big, bad thing this time,” he said.

The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and ends Nov. 30.

Forecasters have predicted a very active summer.

Fifteen named storms spawned nine hurricanes last year.

Florida was struck by hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne; between them, the four storms damaged one out of every five homes in the state.

The storms caused about 130 deaths in the United States and are blamed for $22 billion in insured damage.

Florida State meteorologist Ben Nelson warned coastal residents that flooding patterns could be different now “because the dunes, the offshore structures, have been changed around by Ivan.”

Oil, crop concerns

Crude oil held above $54 a barrel Friday, amid concerns about U.S. supply disruptions as the Atlantic hurricane season gets under way.

Many offshore wells and some refineries are located around the gulf.

One of the gulf’s largest producers, Chevron Corp. said it was evacuating 900 company and contract workers from the area, including some essential ones, but production was not affected.

Murphy Oil said it was shutting three oil and natural gas platforms and removing all workers on them ahead of the storm.

Total and BP had also evacuated nonessential staff from offshore facilities, and Total shut production at three of its rigs.

Hurricane Ivan wrecked seven oil platforms and numerous pipelines in the gulf, which provides 25 percent of domestic production.

Arlene could also blow soybean rust spores into Alabama and neighboring states by early next week, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.

Soybean rust is a contagious windborne disease that can slash soybean crop yield by as much as 80 percent.

Cuba welcomes rain

Arlene was a godsend for central and eastern Cuba, where light rainfall brought relief from the longest drought in a century.

The storm also dumped 4.5 inches of rain on the tobacco-growing province of Pinar del Rio, which grows the leaves for Cuba’s famed cigars.

Some 14,000 people were evacuated Thursday night from Cuba's southern coast, including several hundred foreign tourists at a diving center.

Havana saw some evacuations and coastal flooding but no reports of deaths or injuries.

The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC's Mary Murray in Havana, Cuba, contributed to this report.

end quotes

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters that the state and its residents were prepared, saying he was encouraged by “phenomenal” sales of generators?

What, he has stock in some generator company, then?

Encouraged by the "phenomenal" sale of generators?

Hhhhhmmmm.

I guess you just had to be there, to understand!

[Livyjr]

And from Mr. A.B.'s beloved Ohio, we wing our way back east to where I am, and here, it is hot and unsettled, and unseasonably so.

Right now, we are under the influence of what is known up here as a "Bermuda High", and so, our air is coming in from the south, and when I look down that way .....

"Tropical Storm Arlene moves into gulf - Forecasters say system could become weak hurricane Saturday"

NBC News and news services
Updated: 1:35 p.m. ET June 10, 2005

PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla - Florida's west coast was already feeling the wind and rain as Tropical Storm Arlene strengthened Friday and moved north through the Gulf of Mexico, bearing down on Gulf Coast communities still recovering from last year’s hurricanes.

Forecasters said Arlene, the Atlantic hurricane season’s first named tropical storm, could become a weak hurricane before hitting the Deep South late Saturday, with the worst weather arriving earlier, east of the storm’s center.

It was then expected to travel north along the Mississippi-Alabama line, reaching Tennessee by Sunday evening.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters that the state and its residents were prepared, saying he was encouraged by “phenomenal” sales of generators and hurricane-related materials.

end quotes

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters that the state and its residents were prepared, saying he was encouraged by “phenomenal” sales of generators?

What, he has stock in some generator company, then?

Encouraged by the "phenomenal" sale of generators?

Hhhhhmmmm.

I guess you just had to be there, to understand!

And while the one brother is exulting down there in Florida about the phenomenal sales of generators, which after all, puts some bucks in the pockets of the Republican "base", what's the other brother doing up there in Washington, D.C., about this strange weather?

Oh!

More of that ......

"White House defends editing of climate reports"

By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY

Thu Jun 9, 7:51 AM ET

The White House on Wednesday defended the actions of one of its key staffers who's publicly accused of editing government reports to downplay the link between "greenhouse" gases and global warming.

But some scientists reacted angrily.

It's "par for the course from the administration, in terms of interfering with science for political ends," said Luke Warren of the Union of Concerned Scientists, which has criticized the Bush administration's science policies.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Philip Cooney, chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, changed descriptions of climate research approved by government scientists.

The Times said that Cooney, a lawyer and former lobbyist with the American Petroleum Institute, made notes on drafts of reports issued in 2002 and 2003, removing or adjusting language on climate research.

Some of the changes were as subtle as adding the words "significant and fundamental" before the word "uncertainties," the Times reported.

In one section, he crossed out a paragraph describing the projected reduction of glaciers and snowpack, the newspaper said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in a press briefing that Cooney's editing was part of a broad review by 15 federal agencies, including policy people like Cooney as well as scientists.

"Everybody who is involved in these issues should have input in these reports, and that's all this is," he says.

Climate change has been controversial for the Bush administration since 2001, when it withdrew support for the Kyoto Protocol, a global pact to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.

The administration questioned the cost and scientific merit of planned constraints.

"Scientists are best equipped to inform the public about climate science, not White House lawyers," says Naomi Oreskes of the University of California, San Diego.

"People have a right to know the truth about climate science and the scientific consensus on the seriousness of this problem," she says.

McClellan says that some of the reports edited by Cooney were praised by scientists:

"One of the very reports highlighted in the article today was the administration's 10-year plan for climate science, and that plan was widely praised by the scientific community, including the National Academies of Science."

The academies warned the White House in a 2004 report that political involvement in climate change reports could discredit the administration.

Asked if the White House is politicizing science, McClellan said, "These reports should always be based on our scientific knowledge ...."

The documents were provided by the Government Accountability Project.

end quotes

Scottie McClellan is full of ****!

Chock full!

And as to discrediting this administration?

Fat chance, because it already has no credibility, with regard to anything, and thus, it has nothing to lose, while we, of course, have everything ....... to lose!

[Livyjr]

And boy, Mr. A.B., this country has REPUBLICANS, like a dog has fleas!

For an interesting perspective on that thought .....

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/061005Y.shtml

[Livyjr]

And speaking of George W. Bush's crowd, here's one of them now, and my, my, my, I don't think he's a happy camper at all, nor do I think he has one shred of credibility left to him, either:

"Rumsfeld Defends Treatment of Prisoners"

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld defended the military's handling of detained terror suspects Wednesday while acknowledging that some have been mistreated, "sometimes grievously."

At a Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld criticized Amnesty International, the human rights group, for calling the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "the gulag of our time."

The group has urged the United States to close the prison, where about 540 men are held on suspicion of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban or the al-Qaida terror network.

Some have been there for more than three years without charges.

Rumsfeld said the U.S. military has done more than any other force to liberate oppressed people and has gone to great lengths to ensure that detainees are free to practice their religion.

"Indeed, that's why the recent allegation that the U.S. military is running a gulag at Guantanamo Bay is so reprehensible," he said.

The executive director of Amnesty International, William F. Schulz, issued a statement in response, saying that Rumsfeld and other officials "continue to ignore the very real plight of men detained without charge or trial."

"Rumsfeld plays down idea of closing Guantanamo"

Thu Jun 9,12:18 PM ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday played down the idea of closing the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, saying such a move would raise questions about what would happen to the prisoners.

"A whole lot of questions come to mind."

"If you closed it, where would you go," he told a news conference at NATO headquarters.

Amid mounting complaints and calls for the facility to be shut down, including a broadside from former president and human rights champion Jimmy Carter, President Bush on Wednesday left open the door to its eventual closing.

"We're exploring all alternatives as to how best to do the main objective, which is to protect America."

"What we don't want to do is let somebody out that comes back and harms us," Bush said in an interview with Fox News Channel when asked whether it should be shut down.

Rumsfeld, asked about Bush's remarks, did not contradict his boss, but said he understood that what "the president said is that we're always looking at ways to improve our operations."

The Pentagon earlier this week ruled out any prospect of shutting down the Cuba-based detention center and Rumsfeld on a stop in Norway on Wednesday reinforced that line.

"I know of no one in the U.S. government, in the executive branch, that is considering closing Guantanamo," he told reporters, within hours of Bush's comments being broadcast in the Fox News interview.

During the NATO news conference, Rumsfeld said Washington's goal has been to ensure that people involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people or who were captured on battlefields in Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere be kept off the street "so they don't kill more people."

Aiming to prevent future attacks, the suspects have been interviewed, in some cases providing intelligence that saved lives, he said.

In all, 70,000 to 80,000 people have been detained and the majority have been released, Rumsfeld said.

The Pentagon has turned over suspects to their countries of origin "when we have been able to negotiate with the country an agreement that they would handle them in a way that was humane and appropriate," he said.

It would like to release many more to Iraqi and Afghan governments but both lack appropriate prison and criminal justice systems.

The aim is to have these suspects "off the street, but in the hands of the countries of origin for the most part," he added.

Calls for closure of the Guantanamo prison camp for foreign terrorism suspects have risen since Amnesty International set off a furor last month by calling it a "gulag" and comparing it to the brutal Soviet system of forced labor camps in which millions died.

Adding to the drumbeat, the United Nations said on Wednesday that 6,000 of Iraq's 10,000 prisoners were in the hands of the U.S. military and that thousands are detained without due process in apparent violation of international law.

end quotes

The thumb up, or the thumb down of the God Emporer Bush is due process, isn't it?

At least as far as he is concerned, anyway!

[Livyjr]

And while the one brother is exulting down there in Florida about the phenomenal sales of generators, which after all, puts some bucks in the pockets of the Republican "base", what's the other brother doing up there in Washington, D.C., about this strange weather?

Oh!

More of that ......

"White House defends editing of climate reports"

By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY

Thu Jun 9, 7:51 AM ET

The White House on Wednesday defended the actions of one of its key staffers who's publicly accused of editing government reports to downplay the link between "greenhouse" gases and global warming.

But some scientists reacted angrily.

It's "par for the course from the administration, in terms of interfering with science for political ends," said Luke Warren of the Union of Concerned Scientists, which has criticized the Bush administration's science policies.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Philip Cooney, chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, changed descriptions of climate research approved by government scientists.

"Scientists are best equipped to inform the public about climate science, not White House lawyers," says Naomi Oreskes of the University of California, San Diego.

"People have a right to know the truth about climate science and the scientific consensus on the seriousness of this problem," she says.

The academies warned the White House in a 2004 report that political involvement in climate change reports could discredit the administration.

"China Flood Hits School, Killing 29"

Fri Jun 10, 9:56 AM ET

BEIJING - A torrent of water rushed down a mountain in northeast China on Friday and hit a primary school, killing 29 people, most of them students, and leaving another four people missing, the government said.

Twenty-seven of the victims in Shalan, a town in Heilongjiang province, were students, while the other two were villagers, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Rescuers were searching for another four people, including two students, it said.

Some 352 pupils between the ages of 6 and 14 were at the Chang'an Primary School with 31 teachers when the flood of water poured into the town, which lies in a basin, Xinhua said.

Shalan is in a remote area 280 miles from the capital of Harbin, it said.

[Livyjr]

"Rumsfeld plays down idea of closing Guantanamo"

Thu Jun 9,12:18 PM ET

"I know of no one in the U.S. government, in the executive branch, that is considering closing Guantanamo," he told reporters, within hours of Bush's comments being broadcast in the Fox News interview.

Adding to the drumbeat, the United Nations said on Wednesday that 6,000 of Iraq's 10,000 prisoners were in the hands of the U.S. military and that thousands are detained without due process in apparent violation of international law.

end quotes

The thumb up, or the thumb down of the God Emporer Bush is due process, isn't it?

At least as far as he is concerned, anyway!

And speaking of George W. Bush and de-mockery in the same breath .....

"Thousands Demand Ouster of Arroyo"

By OLIVER TEVES, Associated Press Writer

34 minutes ago

MANILA, Philippines - Thousands of protesters on Saturday demanded President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo step down during the biggest anti-government rally since allegations surfaced that she fixed last year's election and her family received gambling kickbacks.

The government has denied the allegations, saying they were part of a plot to unseat Arroyo.

Police nationwide and soldiers in the capital Manila were on full alert against a power grab in a country with a history of coup attempts.

Claims of payoffs to Arroyo's son and a brother-in-law from illegal gambling operators and an alleged wiretapped conversation between Arroyo and an election official to fix the 2004 vote, come as she battles poverty, rising prices, a fiscal deficit, corruption and the lowest popularity rating since late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

At a reception on the eve of Philippine independence, Arroyo said "purveyors of instability and intrigue" were undermining her efforts to reform the economy.

Arroyo said she was focused "like a laser beam" on reforms "to turn this economy around, and no one will deter me from that mission."

"We cannot resolve our differences by tossing out the democratic process just because we are not getting our way," she said.

In a rare show of solidarity, a wide spectrum of anti-Arroyo groups, including opposition politicians and rival leftist groups, joined forces in Saturday's rally dubbed a "National Day of Mourning."

Police estimated that 5,000 people took part in the protest.

"The rally for me can be seen as a measure of how far or how widespread the disgust is for Arroyo and her isolation," said Rep. Teddy Casino of the left wing Bayan Muna party.

Casino said his party wants Arroyo's ouster, but opposes a coup d'etat, a military junta or a "palace coup."

"This is the early stage of the struggle for the eventual regime change that is expected," he said.

However, he said talk of "an imminent downfall is not accurate."

Earlier in the week, a key witness testifying in an ongoing Senate hearing on the illegal numbers game called jueteng claimed she personally handed payoffs to Arroyo's son and brother-in-law, who are both members of the House of Representatives.

The two men have denied the charges.

Arroyo's son has filed a libel suit against the witness.

To show she was not protecting her family, Arroyo immediately ordered government investigators to look into the allegations and file charges if warranted, saying her kin are not above the law.

On Friday, the dismissed deputy head of the justice department's investigation agency claimed he was the source of an audio recording that purportedly has Arroyo talking to an election official about fixing last year's election to gain a 1 million margin against her closest rival, Fernando Poe Jr.

Poe died in December following a stroke.

Samuel Ong, former deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation, said disgruntled military intelligence agents gave him the "mother of all tapes" containing the alleged wiretaps.

Officials said the recording was doctored to show alleged wrongdoing by the president.

"In the first place," Ong said, "our constitution says that the (Commission on Elections) is an independent constitutional body to ensure peaceful, orderly and honest election."

"Now here comes somebody outside this constitutional body ... not only asking but directing him to do something."

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Ong's allegation is "part of a well-orchestrated plot to destabilize the government and eventually replace the president."

"We will not allow democracy to be undermined," he said.

end quotes

If democracy is government by the people, how exactly can it be undermined, except by corrupt politicians, of course, shutting the people out of the process, so that the only ones who can really undermine democracy are those in power!

Hhhhmmmm.

[Livyjr]

Well, I just did something that I have been heading for for quite a while now, but never exactly knew how to do before, and that was to go over to the HEALTH part of this forum, to start a thread on the healing benefits of 'tai chi.

If it were not for the power of the mind that t'ai chi can unlock, well, I probably would not be much more than a mound of dirt out in a field somewhere, with a stone marker above it saying something like, "Oh Well ....", because when you are a disabled combat veteran, as I am, there really is not much room for error in life as one gets older, and so .....

SO!

We'll see how that all goes, I guess!

The name is the "T'ai Chi Corner", kind of like a holistic healing version of Mr. A.B.'s corner, perhaps, where I will feel comfortable talking about just that one subject, which ultimately must include all things under the sun, if it is to truly be t'ai chi, and so .....

[Livyjr]

And while the one brother is exulting down there in Florida about the phenomenal sales of generators, which after all, puts some bucks in the pockets of the Republican "base", what's the other brother doing up there in Washington, D.C., about this strange weather?

Oh!

More of that ......

"White House defends editing of climate reports"

By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY

Thu Jun 9, 7:51 AM ET

The White House on Wednesday defended the actions of one of its key staffers who's publicly accused of editing government reports to downplay the link between "greenhouse" gases and global warming.

But some scientists reacted angrily.

It's "par for the course from the administration, in terms of interfering with science for political ends," said Luke Warren of the Union of Concerned Scientists, which has criticized the Bush administration's science policies.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Philip Cooney, chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, changed descriptions of climate research approved by government scientists.

The Times said that Cooney, a lawyer and former lobbyist with the American Petroleum Institute, made notes on drafts of reports issued in 2002 and 2003, removing or adjusting language on climate research.

Some of the changes were as subtle as adding the words "significant and fundamental" before the word "uncertainties," the Times reported.

In one section, he crossed out a paragraph describing the projected reduction of glaciers and snowpack, the newspaper said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in a press briefing that Cooney's editing was part of a broad review by 15 federal agencies, including policy people like Cooney as well as scientists.

"Everybody who is involved in these issues should have input in these reports, and that's all this is," he says.

Climate change has been controversial for the Bush administration since 2001, when it withdrew support for the Kyoto Protocol, a global pact to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.

The administration questioned the cost and scientific merit of planned constraints.

"Scientists are best equipped to inform the public about climate science, not White House lawyers," says Naomi Oreskes of the University of California, San Diego.

"People have a right to know the truth about climate science and the scientific consensus on the seriousness of this problem," she says.

McClellan says that some of the reports edited by Cooney were praised by scientists:

"One of the very reports highlighted in the article today was the administration's 10-year plan for climate science, and that plan was widely praised by the scientific community, including the National Academies of Science."

The academies warned the White House in a 2004 report that political involvement in climate change reports could discredit the administration.

Asked if the White House is politicizing science, McClellan said, "These reports should always be based on our scientific knowledge ...."

The documents were provided by the Government Accountability Project.

end quotes

Scottie McClellan is full of ****!

Chock full!

And as to discrediting this administration?

Fat chance, because it already has no credibility, with regard to anything, and thus, it has nothing to lose, while we, of course, have everything ....... to lose!

I just heard on the radio news that this White House lawyer Cooney, who has no scientific training, himself, has resigned from this position in OUR government that allowed him to lie to us by editing scientific reports which he was not qualified to edit!

Good riddance, say I, for if there is one thing that we don't need in OUR government, it is these lobbyists like Cooney, who will use their postions, on behalf of their clients, to protect their client's "interests" by lying to US, the American people!

Good riddance to Mr. Cooney!

Now, stay gone!

And thank you on behalf of a grateful nation, for resigning!

[Livyjr]

I just heard on the radio news that this White House lawyer Cooney, who has no scientific training, himself, has resigned from this position in OUR government that allowed him to lie to us by editing scientific reports which he was not qualified to edit!

Good riddance, say I, for if there is one thing that we don't need in OUR government, it is these lobbyists like Cooney, who will use their postions, on behalf of their clients, to protect their client's "interests" by lying to US, the American people!

Good riddance to Mr. Cooney!

Now, stay gone!

And thank you on behalf of a grateful nation, for resigning!

And while we are on the subject of "climate" .....

"Heavy rain drenches Florida panhandle - Arlene approaches Gulf Coast; expected to stay a tropical storm"

The Associated Press

Updated: 1:08 p.m. ET June 11, 2005

PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. - Heavy rain drenched the Florida Panhandle early Saturday and heavy surf pounded beaches as Tropical Storm Arlene plodded toward the Gulf Coast, chasing a few weather-weary residents into shelters.

The storm had wind blowing at a sustained 70 mph, and the National Hurricane Center posted a hurricane warning along 125 miles of coast from Pascagoula, Miss., to Destin in the western Florida Panhandle.

Meteorologists said there was a slight chance Arlene could build into a Category 1 hurricane by landfall, with its heaviest wind and rain north of the storm's center.

The center of the storm was expected to hit the northern Gulf Coast during the mid to late afternoon, the hurricane center said.

"We anticipate that Arlene will probably stay at a very strong tropical storm this afternoon," Ben Nelson, Florida's state meteorologist, said Saturday afternoon.

"Those warnings are up just in case."

Bob Garcia checked into a Red Cross shelter at Gulf Shores, Ala., with his son, Tommy.

Garcia said they live in a mobile home in Sommerdale, Ala., and there was "no sense in taking chances" with the possibility of tornados developing as the storm plowed ashore.

He was one of only 13 people in the shelter Saturday morning.

One death had been blamed on the storm -- a Russian exchange student died after she was pulled from the rolling waves off Miami Beach Friday.

'Here we go again'

The worst fears were in the Florida Panhandle, still reeling from Hurricane Ivan nine months ago.

Piles of debris, gutted homes and storm-damaged roofs covered by plastic blue tarps are vivid reminders of Ivan's wrath.

"I was pretty shocked to see how bad it still was," said tourist Roddy Rogers, 46, of Springfield, Mo.

"I've been in third-world countries and it looks kind of like that in some places."

Officials urged thousands of people in low-lying areas of three Panhandle counties to evacuate, and people flocked to hardware stores to buy generators, flashlights and other hurricane supplies.

At the Islander Package and Lounge in Pensacola Beach, a sign read "Here we go again."

However, Florida officials said only about 200 people had sought refuge in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, two areas hit hard last year by Ivan, and no one showed up at a shelter in Walton County.

"I really believe there are a lot of folks that were looking at this and saying 'OK, it's not a hurricane, it's not a Hurricane Ivan and we're probably going to be OK to stay where we are,"' said Escambia County spokeswoman Sonya Smith.

State of emergency

By midmorning, about 4,000 Gulf Power customers in Escambia County were blacked out, though most service was quickly restored.

"It's mostly been because of tree limbs that were weakened or cracked by Hurricane Ivan," said John Hutchinson, Gulf Power's general manager of public affairs.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency Friday.

At 11 a.m. EDT, the storm was centered 85 miles south-southeast of Mobile, Ala., and was meandering toward the north-northwest at 14 mph.

Meteorologists said Arlene could bring up to 8 inches of rain to some areas, plus a storm surge of up to 5 feet.

"Rainfall is definitely a concern, as well as severe weather, and not just around the storm center," Nelson said.

Hurricane conditions exist when a storm has sustained winds of at least 74 mph or dangerously high water or both.

Arlene had sustained winds of 70 mph, with higher gusts.

Hurricane watches and tropical storm warnings extended west to Grand Isle, La., and east to Indian Pass, Fla.

A tornado watch was issued for a huge swath of the Gulf region.

In Gulf Shores, Ala., residents worried about the storm undoing repairs and adding to beach erosion from Hurricane Ivan.

Sue Alford had her beachside townhouse repaired but still has a big steel container of Ivan trash in front of the building.

"My biggest concern is there's so much debris around," she said.

Arlene had moved northward Friday across the Gulf of Mexico, drenching western Cuba and causing heavy rain, gusty wind and rough seas in South Florida.

The hurricane season began June 1 and ends Nov. 30.

Last year's first storm of the season, Alex, didn't form until Aug. 1.

Two weeks later, Florida was hit by the first of four hurricanes in the space of a few weeks.

They caused about 130 deaths in the U.S. and $22 billion in insured wind damage.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.