Life in OUR America, Volume 5, the Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

HADJI GIRL

DURKA DURKA MOHAMMED JIHAD
SHERPA SHERPA BAK ALLAH

DURKA DURKA MOHAMMED JIHAD
SHERPA SHERPA BAK ALLAH

DURKA DURKA MOHAMMED JIHAD
SHERPA SHERPA BAK ALLAH

DURKA DURKA MOHAMMED JIHAD
SHERPA SHERPA BAK ALLAH

DURKA DURKA MOHAMMED JIHAD
SHERPA SHERPA BAK ALLAH

THEY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THEY WERE F***ING WITH A MARINE

--The lyrics to the "Hadji Girl," sung by a Marine, Cpl. Joshua Belile, who was videotaped during the performance; cited in Thomas Riggins, "The 'Hadji Girl' Debate and the Fog of War" (Political Affairs Magazine/Selves and others, June 21)
http://www.selvesandothers.org/article14713.html

"U.S. says Baghdad crackdown moving slowly"

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:16 p.m., Tuesday, June 27, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S. military issued a sober assessment Tuesday of the Baghdad security crackdown, saying violence had decreased slightly but not to "the degree we would like to see" in the two weeks since 75,000 Iraqi and American troops flooded the capital.

The evaluation came as 18 more Iraqis fell victim to sectarian and insurgent violence, including five people whose bodies were found dumped in Baghdad.

The U.S. military also announced the deaths of a Marine and three soldiers; three of the deaths were west of the capital in volatile Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said the overwhelming security operation launched two weeks ago to rein in violence in Baghdad was moving more slowly than hoped.

"It's going to take some time."

"We do not see an upward trend."

"We ... see a slight decrease but not of the degree we would like to see at this point," he said at a news conference in the heavily fortified Green Zone.

However, Caldwell added, "we don't see this as turning into a civil war right now."

U.S. officials hope the willingness of leading Sunni Arabs to withdraw support for the insurgency will help heal the nation.

On Tuesday, an influential Sunni Arab cleric endorsed the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's 24-point reconciliation plan.

Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samaraie, the head of the Sunni Endowment, the state agency responsible for Sunni mosques and shrines, applauded the provision that calls for the release of all prisoners who have not been charged with crimes.

He called on the government to implement the plan quickly, but emphasized that it should include the disbanding of armed Shiite militias.

Minority Sunnis have accused Shiite-led militias -- who have infiltrated the police and armed forces -- of random detention, torture and killing.

"We bless this initiative," al-Samaraie said.

"We see a glimmer of hope in this plan, but at the same time we are noticing that some people are pushing the armed groups to attack some areas in Baghdad, spreading terror and chaos in the city in order to make this plan a failure."

"... The government will not be able to enforce the law while those militiamen consider themselves above the law."

Al-Maliki's plan is vague on this issue, saying only that the government should address the "problem of sectarian militias and illegal armed groups through political, economic and security measures."

Al-Samaraie urged the government to provide more details about the plan, which parliament will debate.

Al-Samaraie's endorsement came a day after key lawmakers said seven Sunni Arab insurgent groups offered the government a conditional truce.

The seven groups do not include al-Qaida or Islamic terror groups.

They are mostly made up of former members or backers of Saddam Hussein's government, military or security agencies.

On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie said he had met secretly in Jordan with exiled Sunni tribal leaders from Anbar province to win their support for al-Maliki's plan.

Al-Zubaie said the meeting took place before al-Maliki unveiled the plan Sunday.

"We have reached positive results so that they can try to persuade members of the honorable resistance to join the political process," al-Zubaie told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Many Iraqis refer to those who have attacked only foreign troops in Iraq as the "honorable resistance" because they do not target Iraqis.

"There is no dialogue with those who targeted Iraqis," said al-Zubaie, a member of the influential Sunni Arab Zubaa tribe.

He said the tribal leaders called for the release of detainees, an end to military operations in Sunni areas and a halt to detentions.

The Justice Ministry, meanwhile, said 453 more detainees were released from U.S. detention centers across Iraq, part of al-Maliki's plan to free 2,500 by the end of June as a goodwill gesture.

In the first tangible step after al-Maliki's reconciliation plan was announced, the Council of Ministers said it will reinstate the jobs of government employees who were detained and recently released.

It said the government will consider their service uninterrupted when considering bonuses, promotions and retirement privileges.

The ministers said they will allow freed students to return to school and take final exams, and that their absence in the 2005-2006 academic year will not be held against them.

Separately, the Iraqi High Tribunal announced that Saddam Hussein and six members of his former regime will be put on trial Aug. 21 for a 1980s campaign that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds and saw thousands of their villages razed.

The trial will be the second for Saddam and top officials of his Baath Party regime.

More trials over crimes committed during his 23-year dictatorship are also expected.

An American soldier on a foot patrol south of Baghdad was killed Tuesday in a bombing, and a Marine died Tuesday in fighting in Anbar province west of the capital.

The military also announced the deaths of two soldiers killed Monday in Anbar fighting.

In other developments:

-- A suicide car bomb struck a busy gas station in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least three people and wounding 17.

-- A parked car packed with explosives blew up at an open-air market in a Shiite section of Baghdad's predominantly Sunni Dora neighborhood, killing three people and wounding 10, police said.

-- A university professor was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighborhood.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Studies said it will stage a sit-in at all universities Wednesday to protest kidnappings and violence against its employees.

-- Gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying a tribal leader in Dujail, north of Baghdad, killing him and four drivers.

-- A tribal chief in the southeastern town of Amarah was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.

Sheik Kadim al-Sebahawi's 22-year-old son died in the attack.

------

Associated Press writers Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, and Sameer N. Yacoub, Bushra Juhi and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

A MESSAGE TO AMERICA .....

AND ALL THE CANDID WORLD ....

FROM GEORGE W. BUSH .....

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF ....

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS .....

BURGER KING ....

I KNEW ....

IT WAS LOVE ....

AT FIRST SIGHT ......

DURKA DURKA MOHAMMED JIHAD ....

SHERPA SHERPA BAK ALLAH ....

HADJI GIRL .....

DURKA DURKA MOHAMMED JIHAD ....

SHERPA SHERPA BAK ALLAH ....

HADJI GIRL .....

I LOVE YOU ANYWAY .....

DURKA DURKA MOHAMMED JIHAD ....

SHERPA SHERPA BAK ALLAH ...

DURKA DURKA MOHAMMED JIHAD .....

SHERPA SHERPA BAK ALLAH ....

LITTLE SISTER ....

THE BLOOD SPRAYED FROM BETWEEN HER EYES ....

AND THEN I LAUGHED MANIACALLY .....

AND I SAID .....

DURKA DURKA MOHAMMED JIHAD ....

SHERPA SHERPA BAK ALLAH .....

THEY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN .....

THEY WERE F***ING WITH A MARINE .....

--The lyrics to the "Hadji Girl," sung by a Marine, Cpl. Joshua Belile, who was videotaped during the performance; cited in Thomas Riggins, "The 'Hadji Girl' Debate and the Fog of War" (Political Affairs Magazine/Selves and others, June 21)
http://www.selvesandothers.org/article14713.html

Those .....

Who would ...

Take over the earth ....

And shape it ....

To their will ...

Never .....

I notice ....

Succeed ...

- Lao Tze, Tao Te Ching

No NUANCE, there, anyway ....

And so ....

"U.S. says Baghdad crackdown moving slowly" 
 
By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:16 p.m., Tuesday, June 27, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie said he had met secretly in Jordan with exiled Sunni tribal leaders from Anbar province to win their support for al-Maliki's plan.

Al-Zubaie said the meeting took place before al-Maliki unveiled the plan Sunday.

"We have reached positive results so that they can try to persuade members of the honorable resistance to join the political process," al-Zubaie told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Many Iraqis refer to those who have attacked only foreign troops in Iraq as the "honorable resistance" because they do not target Iraqis.

And why is it ...

That every time we hear from Dick Cheney ......

He is out hitting people up for money .....

For the REPUBLICAN PARTY .....

INSTEAD OF DOING THE JOB THAT HE GETS PAID TO DO ....

WHICH IS TO FIGURE OUT ...

HOW TO GET OUR TROOPS OUT OF IRAQISTAN ....

AND TO KEEP THIS COUNTRY SAFE .....

And so ....

IF THIS WAR ...

IN IRAQISTAN ....

WERE TO END ....

IT WOULD PUT A HUGE DENT ....

INTO THE AMOUNT OF MONEY ...

THAT DICK CHENEY IS RAISING ...

FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY COFFERS ....

BASED ON THIS WAR GOING ON ...

FOR A LONG, LONG TIME TO COME ...

WHICH PUTS MONEY ...

BACK INTO THE POCKETS ...

OF THOSE ...

WHO ARE GIVING DICK CHENEY MONEY ...

TO KEEP THIS WAR GOING ...

AND SO ....

THOSE OF YOU ...

OUT THERE IN OUR AMERICA ....

WHO ARE BEING SACRIFICED ....

BY GEORGE W. BUSH ...

OVER THERE IN IRAQISTAN ...

BE PROUD!

IT IS FOR THE GOOD OF THE PARTY, AFTER ALL ...

And what other nation ....

On the face of this earth ....

IS GOING TO GIVE YOU THAT OPPORTUNITY THESE DAYS, EH?

And so ....

"Reservists shoulder heavy burden in Iraq"

By ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jun 27, 2:45 PM ET

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Unlike many Marines in this dangerous city, Staff Sgt. George Scott could have said "no."

He could have stayed home in Ohio with his two young sons.

Pentagon rules limit the number of times reservists like Scott can be called to duty involuntarily.

But Scott keeps coming back.

He's on his third tour now, and said he'd volunteer for a fourth.

"I like to be a Marine, leading Marines, and being around them," said Scott, who in civilian life is a car dealer service manager in Orwell, Ohio.

With the war in Iraq still raging after three years and the full-time military stretched thin, the Pentagon is counting on, and courting, committed volunteers like Scott to fill the ranks.

Scott served earlier in Iraq with another unit, but volunteered to help the 1st Battalion, 25th Regiment, 4th Marine Division, when it was looking for more troops.

Many others also agreed to deploy again: about half of the 500 original members of the 1st Battalion are in Iraq by choice, said Gunnery Sgt. Pete Walz, a spokesman for the reserve battalion stationed in Fort Devens, Mass.

The 1st Battalion's numbers shows the increasing reliance on volunteers from the reserves and the National Guard, even as the total number of reserve units is going down.

The extended Iraq conflict, and the Afghanistan fight, have forced U.S. commanders to use reserve forces more heavily than at any other time in recent decades.

During the Vietnam War, active duty troops did the vast majority of the fighting.

In Iraq, by comparison, the reserve troops made up half of the ground force for much of last year.

After signs that the reserve system was in trouble — including a major recruiting shortfall by the Army National Guard — the Pentagon moved to reduce the numbers of reservists called up.

Of the roughly 127,000 U.S. troops in Iraq today, the number has dropped to about 21 percent, said Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

U.S. commanders have said part-time troops will play a much smaller combat role for the remainder of the war.

But reservists haven't shared only the duty, they've shared the toll.

In 2004, about 20 percent of the 845 U.S. military deaths in Iraq came from the reservists' ranks.

In the first nine months of 2005 — when an Army National Guard division was sent into battle for the first time since the Korean War — reservists accounted for 36 percent of 595 U.S. deaths.

Though many reservists and national guardsmen in Iraq have been assigned to support roles, others have been sent to some of the most violent areas of the country.

Scott's battalion is responsible for Fallujah, the former insurgent stronghold where militants are trying to make inroads.

It's no less dangerous for these reservists than for the active-duty Marines.

Last year one battalion of Marine reservists in western Iraq suffered 48 fatalities during a seven-month tour.

In the summer of 2005, the Army's Georgia National Guard was stationed in Mahmoudiyah, one of Iraq's most dangerous areas, and quickly suffered several deaths before being moved to a calmer area.

But despite the long deployments, the risks, and fears of an extended Iraq conflict that have driven many away, others continue to volunteer.

In Fallujah, the Marine reservists who volunteered said they did so for many reasons, ranging from patriotism, to a sense of camaraderie with other troops from their hometowns, to the opportunity to save money.

"What I tell a lot of people is that we've got to finish what we started," said Staff Sgt. Christopher Hale, of Albany, N.Y., a correctional officer back home who now oversees one of six checkpoints leading into Fallujah.

"I knew they needed a staff (noncommissioned officer), and the other guy wasn't going."

Some Marines, particularly those with wives and children, acknowledged the stress of being away for months.

Sgt. Mark Sabourin, a carpenter back home in Bellingham, Mass., said he had a child back home who was "attached to his hip" but yet he still agreed to deploy to Iraq for the second time.

"My biggest reason was to take care of my Marines," said Sabourin, 37, noting that his battalion had several young Marines with only two years of experience.

"I wouldn't feel right sitting at home watching these guys on TV, doing what they need to do."

"That's not why I joined the Marine Corps."

Sgt. Recordo Demetrius, a mechanic taking a break from repairing a Humvee damaged by a roadside bomb, said his wife was a "little reluctant" about his second tour in Iraq.

He acknowledged that the stress of deployments often falls on relatives back home.

"I think it's harder for the families back home than the Marines who are doing it."

"Some of them understand."

"Others are like, 'Why are you doing it?'" said Demetrius, a New York City police officer.

While sometimes their families lack confidence in the mission, many of these Marines said they see important gains in Iraq.

"Every day I think about going home."

"But if I had the opportunity, I wouldn't."

"I'd stay here," said Sgt. Manuel Felicio, 31, a native of Rhode Island, on his first tour.

Scott too says he thinks about home, and looks forward to spending time at the end of this deployment with his sons, ages 6 and 10.

"It's wearing a little bit, since my boys are at the age where I should be teaching them to throw a football, how to fish," he said.

end quotes

What George W. Bush started ...

In Iraq ....

IS A CAMPAIGN OF EXTERMINATION ....

Which will be over ...

When all the HADJI GIRLS are dead .....

And so ....

If there are 25 MILLION PEOPLE in Iraq .....

And half of them are HADJI GIRLS .....

Well, hell, folks ...

You're better at math than me ...

And so ...

You figure it out ....

And if you figure ....

That we've got a bit of slaughter yet to do ....

Over there ..

Before all the HADJI GIRLS are finally gone .....

You're into what Dick Cheney is collecting all that money for ...

FROM ALL THOSE "CONTRIBUTERS" ....

AT ALL THESE FUND-RAISERS ....

THAT DICK IS ALWAYS ATTENDING ...

FOR THE "GOOD" ....

OF THE "PARTY" ....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

And while George W. Bush ....

Is out there ....

Destroying the earth .....

In the name ....

Of OUR America ....

"Heavy rains lead to two deaths - 117-mile stretch of Thruway closed as central New York sees massive flooding and power outages"

Staff and wire reports, Albany, New York Times Union
Last updated: 5:50 p.m., Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Two truckers were killed today when they drove into a chasm cut into Interstate 88 in Binghamton by drenching rains that flooded homes, closed roads, cut power and forced the evacuation of hundreds of people across upstate New York.

The state Thruway Authority has closed a 117-mile stretch of Thruway between Rotterdam and Syracuse after flooding left large sections of the highway impassable.

The eastbound and westbound lanes between Exit 25A in Rotterdam and Exit 34A in Syracuse will remain closed until noon Thursday.

Westbound traffic is being diverted at Exit 25A and eastbound traffic is being detoured at Exit 34A.

Thruway officials made the decision amid National Weather Service predictions that water levels will continue to rise until early Thursday morning.

The two truckers -- one headed east, the other west -- separately drove their trucks into the 25-foot deep hole about 6:20 a.m., said State Police Lt. Robert Galletto Jr.

It was raining hard at the time of the accidents and it was not clear if the truckers even saw the break, which created a jagged tear across the highway.

"All four lanes were washed out,'' Galletto said.

The highway was closed between exits 8 and 13 because of the gap created by Carrs Creek in Sidney.

The truckers' names were not immediately released.

The deluge that washed out the nation's capital earlier this week and is blamed for four other deaths cut across upstate New York Tuesday and today.

Though flood warnings were posted from the Catskills to the Adirondacks, the heaviest-hit area was around Binghamton.

A house was reported floating down the rain-swollen Susquehanna River near the city today and whole villages to the north in rural Delaware County were cut off by flood waters.

Rescue workers were searching for a vehicle washed away in Kortwright Creek; it was unclear if there was anyone in the missing vehicle.

"We have significant flooding throughout the county,'' said Delaware County planning director Nicole Franzese.

"... Widespread power outages, bridges washed out, roads washed out, the National Guard was operating all night.''

Tuesday's rainfall was the most ever received in a 24-hour period at the Binghamton airport, said National Weather Service meteorologist Theodore Champney.

A total of 4.05 inches fell during the day, breaking the former one-day record of 3.57 inches set on June 11, 2001, Champney said.

About 300 people were being cared for at a Red Cross emergency shelter set up at Binghamton University after the Susquehanna, Chenango and other rivers flooded.

College officials said they expected more evacuees to arrive throughout the day.

More homes were evacuated a few hours to the north, near the Mohawk River.

A small bridge in Charlotteville in Schoharie County was closed and floodwaters had risen to the bottom of at least one other area bridge.

Broome County emergency services director Michael Aswad reported a series of gas explosions in vacated homes in the town of Conklin, just south of Binghamton.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Ten counties declared states of emergency amid the heavy rains: Broome, Cortland, Tioga, Chenango, Madison, Delaware, Montgomery, Schoharie, Otsego and Herkimer.

Dennis Michalski, spokesman for the State Emergency Management Office, said Gov. George Pataki activated the National Guard for evacuation support and engineering.

Pataki canceled a visit to New Hampshire today and was headed to Binghamton to deal with the emergency.

The governor planned to issue a disaster declaration, the first step to gaining federal assistance to deal with the flooding, said William Howard, the governor's first deputy chief of staff.

Dam experts were dispatched to the Binghamton area by the Department of Environmental Conservation for inspections.

Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan said minor leaks have been reported in the floodwall that protects downtown from Susquehanna River.

All traffic heading west on the Thruway must exit at 25A (Schenectady, Binghamton, I-88).

Only vehicles with local destinations will be allowed to travel westbound between Interchange 25A and Interchange 28.

No westbound traffic will be allowed past Interchange 28.

All eastbound traffic must get off the Thruway at Exit 36 (Syracuse, Watertown, Binghamton, I-81).

Only local traffic can travel eastbound between Interchange 36 and Interchange 31.

No eastbound traffic will be allowed past Interchange 31.

In rural Schoharie County, about 90 miles northeast of Binghamton, a mudslide closed a road and prevented emergency crews from reaching residents of a home cut off by the debris.

The county's emergency management office said there were no reports of injuries from the mudslide, but reported "quite a few roads'' in the farming region were closed due to flooding.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown also was closed.

Michalski said emergency officials were tracking the storm as it moved east toward the Hudson Valley.

In the Catskills, the Esopus and Rondout creeks flooded, and the Delaware and Neversink rivers in Sullivan County neared flood stage in several spots.

Homes near those rivers were also evacuated.

The National Weather Service reported that the Delaware River at Port Jervis was at 18.4 feet, over flood stage of 18 feet.

The river was expected to rise to near 24.3 feet by Thursday morning.

[Livyjr]

And while George W. Bush ....

Is out there ....

Destroying the earth .....

In the name ....

Of OUR America ....

"Heavy rains lead to two deaths - 117-mile stretch of Thruway closed as central New York sees massive flooding and power outages" 
 
Staff and wire reports, Albany, New York Times Union
Last updated: 5:50 p.m., Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Two truckers were killed today when they drove into a chasm cut into Interstate 88 in Binghamton by drenching rains that flooded homes, closed roads, cut power and forced the evacuation of hundreds of people across upstate New York.
 
The state Thruway Authority has closed a 117-mile stretch of Thruway between Rotterdam and Syracuse after flooding left large sections of the highway impassable.

"Pennsylvania flooding forces evacuations"

By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press Writer

14 minutes ago

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - Up to 200,000 people in the Wilkes-Barre area were ordered to evacuate their homes Wednesday because of rising water on the Susquehanna River, swelled by a record-breaking deluge that had killed at least 12 people across the Northeast.

Thousands more were ordered to leave their homes in New Jersey, New York and Maryland.

Rescue helicopters plucked residents from rooftops as rivers and streams surged over their banks, washed out roads and bridges, and cut off villages in some of the worst flooding in the region in decades.

Wilkes-Barre, a northeastern Pennsylvania city that was devastated by deadly flooding in 1972 from the remnants of Hurricane Agnes, is protected by levees, and officials said the Susquehanna was expected to crest just a few feet from the tops of the 41-foot floodwalls.

But Luzerne County Commissioner Todd Vonderheid said officials were worried about the effects of water pressing against the levees for 48 hours.

The floodwalls were completed just three years ago.

"It is honestly precautionary," Vonderheid said.

"We have great faith the levees are going to hold."

An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people in the county of about 351,000 were told to get out by nightfall.

The evacuation order applied to much of Wilkes-Barre and several outlying towns, all of them flooded by Agnes more than three decades ago.

Laura Lockman, 42, of Wilkes-Barre packed a car and planned to clear out along with her husband, three kids and a puppy named Pebbles.

They were not ordered to evacuate their brick home, a half-mile from the Susquehanna, but were going to nearby Scranton anyway for the children's safety.

Their home was inundated in 1972, when water reached the second floor.

"I just want to get out of here."

"I just want to be safe, that's all," she said.

A dozen helicopters from the Pennsylvania National Guard, the state police and the Coast Guard were sent on search-and-rescue missions, plucking stranded residents from rooftops in Bloomsburg, Sayre and New Milford.

Hundreds of National Guardsmen prepared to distribute ice, water and meals ready to eat.

Flooding closed many roads in the Philadelphia area, including the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

"We lost just about everything — the cars, the clothes, even the baby's crib," said James Adams, who evacuated his family's home near Binghamton, N.Y., after watching their shed float away and their cars get submerged.

"I'm not sure what we are going to do."

Elsewhere in the Binghamton area, an entire house floated down the Susquehanna.

The soaking weather was produced by a low-pressure system that has been stalled just offshore since the weekend and pumped moist tropical air northward along the East Coast.

A record 4.05 inches of rain fell Tuesday at Binghamton.

During the weekend, the same system drenched the Washington and Baltimore region with more than a foot of rain.

Although the bulk of the rain moved out of the area Wednesday, streams were still rising from the runoff and forecasters said more showers and occasional thunderstorms were possible along the East Coast for the rest of the week.

Earlier this week, floodwaters in the nation's capital closed the National Archives, the IRS, the Justice Department and other major government buildings.

The National Archives, several Smithsonian museums and some government office buildings were still closed Wednesday.

The National Archives moved in giant dehumidifiers to preserve its historic documents.

"The threat to the records is not floodwater, but humidity from the lack of air conditioning," spokeswoman Susan Cooper said Wednesday.

An estimated 2,200 people were ordered to evacuate the area around Lake Needwood at Rockville, Md., which was approaching 25 feet above normal.

Engineers reported weakened spots on the lake's earthen dam.

A swollen creek carved a 25-foot-deep chasm through all four lanes of Interstate 88, about 35 miles northeast of Binghamton, N.Y., and two truckers were killed early Wednesday when their rigs plunged into the gaps, officials said.

Thousands of people were evacuated from communities across New York state, and whole villages north of Binghamton County were isolated by high water.

Along the Delaware River, more than 1,000 people left low-lying areas of Trenton, N.J., and state employees in buildings along the river left work early.

Trenton's water filtration system was shut down because of debris floating down the Delaware, and Mayor Doug Palmer called for conservation, saying the city had only about two days of drinkable water.

The river was expected to crest Friday at nearly 8 feet over flood stage, the fourth-highest level on record for Trenton.

The weather was blamed for four deaths each in Maryland and Pennsylvania, one in Virginia and three in New York, including the two truckers.

The Agnes flood caused 50 deaths and more than $2 billion in damage in Pennsylvania, and remains the worst natural disaster in state history.

It left 20,000 families homeless in Wilkes-Barre and surrounding Luzerne County towns.

Afterward, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers undertook one of the most ambitious flood-control projects east of the Mississippi River, raising the existing levees by 3 to 5 feet.

The $200 million project was finally completed in 2003.
___

Associated Press writer Michael Rubinkam contributed to this report from Allentown, Pa.

[Livyjr]

And while George W. Bush ....

And his crowd ....

Are out there ....

Destroying the earth .....

In the name ....

Of OUR America ....

WHAT IS THE EARTH ...

DOING BACK TO US ......

RIGHT HERE .....

AT HOME?

"Deadly Northeast deluge prompts evacuations"

By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press Writer

38 minutes ago

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - Up to 200,000 people in the Wilkes-Barre area were ordered to evacuate their homes Wednesday because of rising water on the Susquehanna River, swelled by a record-breaking deluge that has killed at least 12 people across the Northeast.

Thousands more were ordered to leave their homes in New Jersey, New York and Maryland.

Rescue helicopters plucked residents from rooftops as rivers and streams surged over their banks, washed out roads and bridges, and cut off villages in some of the worst flooding in the region in decades, with more rain in the forecast for the rest of the week.

Wilkes-Barre, a city of 43,000 in northeastern Pennsylvania coal-mining country, was devastated by deadly flooding in 1972 from the remnants of Hurricane Agnes.

It is protected by levees, and officials said the Susquehanna was expected to crest just a few feet from the tops of the 41-foot floodwalls.

But Luzerne County Commissioner Todd Vonderheid said officials were worried about the effects of water pressing against the levees for 48 hours.

The floodwalls were completed just three years ago.

"It is honestly precautionary," Vonderheid said.

"We have great faith the levees are going to hold."

The river was expected to crest early Thursday at a level at least four feet below the tops of the levees, said Alan Pugh, county public safety chief.

An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people in the county of about 351,000 were told to get out by nightfall.

The evacuation order applied to more than half the residents of Wilkes-Barre, as well residents of several outlying towns, all of them flooded by Agnes more than three decades ago.

By late Wednesday, 50,000 to 70,000 people had heeded the call to evacuate, Pugh said.

Police and National Guard troops were patrolling the streets in the evacuated area and were under orders to arrest anyone who violated a 9 p.m. curfew.

Laura Lockman, 42, of Wilkes-Barre packed a car and planned to clear out along with her husband, three kids and a puppy named Pebbles.

They were not ordered to evacuate their brick home, a half-mile from the Susquehanna, but were going to nearby Scranton anyway for the children's safety.

Their home was inundated in 1972, when water reached the second floor.

"I just want to get out of here."

"I just want to be safe, that's all," she said.

The newsrooms of the Times Leader and The Citizens' Voice left their downtown Wilkes-Barre offices and planned to print their Thursday editions elsewhere.

A dozen helicopters from the Pennsylvania National Guard, the state police and the Coast Guard were sent on search-and-rescue missions, plucking stranded residents from rooftops in Bloomsburg, Sayre and New Milford.

Hundreds of National Guardsmen prepared to distribute ice, water and meals ready to eat.

Flooding closed many roads in the Philadelphia area, including the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

"We lost just about everything — the cars, the clothes, even the baby's crib," said James Adams, who evacuated his family's home near Binghamton, N.Y., after watching their shed float away and their cars get submerged.

"I'm not sure what we are going to do."

Elsewhere in the Binghamton area, an entire house floated down the Susquehanna.

The soaking weather was produced by a low-pressure system that has been stalled just offshore since the weekend and pumped moist tropical air northward along the East Coast.

A record 4.05 inches of rain fell Tuesday at Binghamton.

During the weekend, the same system drenched the Washington and Baltimore region with more than a foot of rain.

Although the bulk of the rain moved out of the area Wednesday, streams were still rising from the runoff, and forecasters said more showers and occasional thunderstorms were possible along the East Coast for the rest of the week.

Earlier this week, floodwaters in the nation's capital closed the National Archives, the IRS, the Justice Department and other major government buildings, and toppled a 100-year-old elm tree on the White House lawn.

The National Archives, several Smithsonian museums and some government office buildings were still closed Wednesday.

The National Archives moved in giant dehumidifiers to preserve its historic documents.

"The threat to the records is not floodwater, but humidity from the lack of air conditioning," spokeswoman Susan Cooper said Wednesday.

An estimated 2,200 people were ordered to evacuate the area around Lake Needwood at Rockville, Md., which was approaching 25 feet above normal.

Engineers reported weakened spots on the lake's earthen dam.

A swollen creek carved a 25-foot-deep chasm through all four lanes of Interstate 88, about 35 miles northeast of Binghamton, N.Y., and two truckers were killed early Wednesday when their rigs plunged into the gaps, officials said.

Thousands of people were evacuated from communities across New York state, and whole villages north of Binghamton County were isolated by high water.

After touring the region by helicopter, New York Gov. George Pataki said the heavy rain caused "unparalleled devastation" and estimated that property damage in his state would total at least $100 million.

He activated more than 300 National Guard members to help with evacuations and rescues and conduct traffic.

Along the Delaware River, more than 1,000 people left low-lying areas of Trenton, N.J., and state employees in buildings along the river left work early.

Trenton's water filtration system was shut down because of debris floating down the Delaware, and Mayor Doug Palmer called for conservation, saying the city had only about two days of drinkable water.

The river was expected to crest Friday at nearly 8 feet over flood stage, the fourth-highest level on record for Trenton.

In anticipation of more flooding, New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine declared a statewide emergency Wednesday evening.

The weather was blamed for four deaths each in Maryland and Pennsylvania, one in Virginia and three in New York, including the two truckers.

The Agnes flood caused 50 deaths and more than $2 billion in damage in Pennsylvania, and remains the worst natural disaster in state history.

It left 20,000 families homeless in Wilkes-Barre and surrounding Luzerne County towns.

Afterward, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers undertook one of the most ambitious flood-control projects east of the Mississippi River, raising the existing levees by 3 to 5 feet.

The $200 million project was finally completed in 2003.
___

Associated Press writer Michael Rubinkam contributed to this report from Allentown, Pa.

[Snuffysmith]

Chris Floyd: The Bush War on Liberty Intensifies :

The recent "controversy" over the New York Times report on the Regime's surveillance of bank records is, as Greenwald astutely notes, based entirely on outright falsehoods. It is also being deliberately stoked by the White House, whose lies about the non-existent "damage" the NYT story has done to national security are exposed here -- by their own words
http://tinyurl.com/f63af

[Snuffysmith]

Nuke the Messenger

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, June 27, 2006; 1:34 PM

In accusing the press -- and specifically, the New York Times -- of putting American lives at risk, President Bush and his allies have escalated their ongoing battle with the media to nuclear proportions.

Here's what Bush had to say yesterday: "We're at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America, and for people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America."

Here's Vice President Cheney: "The New York Times has now made it more difficult for us to prevent attacks in the future."

Here's press secretary Tony Snow: "The New York Times and other news organizations ought to think long and hard about whether a public's right to know, in some cases, might overwrite somebody's right to live, and whether, in fact, the publications of these could place in jeopardy the safety of fellow Americans."

It's a monstrous charge for the White House to suggest that the press is essentially aiding and abetting the enemy. But where's the evidence?

The White House first began leveling this kind of accusation immediately after a New York Times story revealed a massive, secret domestic spying program conducted without congressional or judicial oversight. See, for instance, Bush's December 17, 2005 radio address , in which he said the disclosure put "our citizens at risk."

But not once has the White House definitively answered this question: How are any of these disclosures actually impairing the pursuit of terrorists?

Terrorists already knew the government was trying to track them down through their finances, their phone calls and their e-mails. Within days of the Sept. 11 attacks, for instance, Bush publicly declared open season on terrorist financing.

As far as I can tell, all these disclosures do is alert the American public to the fact that all this stuff is going on without the requisite oversight, checks and balances.

How does it possibly matter to a terrorist whether the government got a court order or not? Or whether Congress was able to exercise any oversight? The White House won't say. In fact, it can't say.

By contrast, it does matter to us.

This column has documented, again and again , that when faced with a potentially damaging political problem, White House strategist Karl Rove's response is not to defend, but to attack.

The potentially damaging political problem here is that the evidence continues to grow that the Bush White House's exercise of unchecked authority in the war on terror poses a serious threat to American civil liberties and privacy rights. It wasn't that long ago, after all, that an American president used the mechanisms of national security to spy on his political enemies.

The sum total of the administration's defense against this charge appears to be: Trust us. Trust that we're only spying on terrorists, and not anyone else.


But what if the trust isn't there? And what if they're breaking the law?

That's why it's better to attack. It makes for great soundbites. It motivates the base. And perhaps most significantly, it takes attention away from Bush's own behavior.

The Coverage

Peter Baker writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush offered an impassioned defense of his secret international banking surveillance program yesterday, calling it a legal and effective tool for hunting down terrorists and denouncing the media's disclosure of it as a 'disgraceful' act that does 'great harm' to the nation.

"The president used a White House appearance with supporters of troops in Iraq to lash out at newspapers that revealed the program, which has examined hundreds of thousands of private banking records from around the world. His remarks led off a broader White House assault later amplified by Vice President Cheney and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow. . . .

"Critics said Bush was trying to divert attention from his own actions. Bush, Cheney and other Republicans 'have adopted a shoot-the-messenger strategy by attacking the newspaper that revealed the existence of the secret bank surveillance program rather than answering the disturbing questions that those reports raise about possible violations of the U.S. Constitution and U.S. privacy laws,' said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.)."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times: "Administration officials had argued strongly that in reporting on the financial tracking operation, The Times would endanger national security by prompting the Belgian banking consortium that maintains the financial data to withdraw from the program. On Sunday, Mr. Keller, the paper's executive editor, posted a letter on The New York Times Web site saying that the newspaper 'found this argument puzzling,' partly because the banking consortium is compelled by subpoena to comply. . . .

"Mr. Keller said in the letter that the administration had made a 'secondary argument' that publication of the article would lead terrorists to change tactics, but he said that argument had been made 'in a halfhearted way.' "

Here is Keller's letter .

On MSNBC, Chris Matthews spoke with Ron Suskind, author of the new book "The One Percent Doctrine." Matthews noted that Suskind specifically wrote in his book that Al Qaeda got wise to electronic transfer surveillance after a while.

Matthews: "So in other words, the bad guys figured out how we were catching them."

Suskind: "Right, it's a process of deduction. After a while, you catch enough of them, they're not idiots. They say, 'Well, we can't do the things we were doing.' They're not leaving electronic trails like they were.' "

Dean Baquet , the editor of the Los Angeles Times, explains his paper's decision to publish the story: "We considered very seriously the government's assertion that these disclosures could cause difficulties for counterterrorism programs. And we weighed that assertion against the fact that there is an intense and ongoing public debate about whether surveillance programs like these pose a serious threat to civil liberties.

"We sometimes withhold information when we believe that reporting it would threaten a life. In this case, we believed, based on our talks with many people in the government and on our own reporting, that the information on the Treasury Department's program did not pose that threat. Nor did the government give us any strong evidence that the information would thwart true terrorism inquiries. In fact, a close read of the article shows that some in the government believe that the program is ineffective in fighting terrorism. . . .

"History has taught us that the government is not always being honest when it cites secrecy as a reason not to publish."

Kelly O'Donnell reports for NBC News: "Today's coordinated response is more than simply shared frustration. Analysts say there is political upside as well."

Charlie Cook tells O'Donnell: "They've got to motivate their base, and conservatives, Republicans, tend to distrust the media, so anytime you can play off and use the media as a foil, it's probably a good thing."

Ron Hutcheson of Knight Ridder Newspapers noted in his pool report from yesterday's event: "The president seemed determined to keep [taking] questions until he got the one he wanted -- regarding the media disclosures about the government's efforts to monitor financial transactions. He became quite animated during his response, speaking forcefully, and leaning forward and gesturing with his hands for emphasis."

And why so much ire specifically directed at the Times?

Julie Mason writes in the Houston Chronicle quotes Dennis Simon, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University: "The ardent conservatives in the Republican Party believe in biased mainstream media, and at the top of that list is the New York Times. So this is good politics for them."

What They Said

Here's the transcript of Bush's exchange with reporters yesterday.

"Q Sir, several news organizations have reported about a program that allows the administration to look into the bank records of certain suspected terrorists. My questions are twofold: One, why have you not gone to Congress to ask for authorization for this program, five years after it started? And two, with respect, if neither the courts, nor the legislature is allowed to know about these programs, how can you feel confident the checks and balances system works?

"THE PRESIDENT: Congress was briefed. And what we did was fully authorized under the law. And the disclosure of this program is disgraceful. We're at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America, and for people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America. What we were doing was the right thing. Congress was aware of it, and we were within the law to do so.

"The American people expect this government to protect our constitutional liberties and, at the same time, make sure we understand what the terrorists are trying to do. The 9/11 Commission recommended that the government be robust in tracing money. If you want to figure out what the terrorists are doing, you try to follow their money. And that's exactly what we're doing. And the fact that a newspaper disclosed it makes it harder to win this war on terror."

On the issue of Congress being briefed, by the way, Peter Wallsten and Greg Miller write in the Los Angeles Times: "The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Monday that she and many of her colleagues on the panel were briefed on the program by Treasury Department officials only after the administration learned it would be exposed in the press."

The White House e-mailed to reporters -- but didn't Web-post -- an excerpt from Cheney's remarks at a fundraiser in Nebraska: "The New York Times has now twice -- two separate occasions -- disclosed programs; both times they had been asked not to publish those stories by senior administration officials. They went ahead anyway. The leaks to The New York Times and the publishing of those leaks is very damaging. The ability to intercept al Qaeda communications and to track their sources of financing are essential if we're going to successfully prosecute the global war on terror. Our capabilities in these areas help explain why we have been so successful in preventing further attacks like 9/11. The New York Times has now made it more difficult for us to prevent attacks in the future. Publishing this highly classified information about our sources and methods for collecting intelligence will enable the terrorists to look for ways to defeat our efforts. These kinds of stories also adversely affect our relationships with people who work with us against the terrorists. In the future, they will be less likely to cooperate if they think the United States is incapable of keeping a secret.

"What is doubly disturbing for me is that not only have they gone forward with these stories, but they've been rewarded for it, for example, in the case of the terrorist surveillance program, by being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for outstanding journalism. I think that is a disgrace."

Here's the transcript of yesterday's press briefing by Tony Snow.

Red Meat Watch

Heather MacDonald writes in the Weekly Standard: "By now it's undeniable: The New York Times is a national security threat. So drunk is it on its own power and so antagonistic to the Bush administration that it will expose every classified antiterror program it finds out about, no matter how legal the program, how carefully crafted to safeguard civil liberties, or how vital to protecting American lives."

And the editors of the National Review write: "President Bush, who said on Monday morning that the exposure 'does great harm to the United States of America,' must demand that the New York Times pay a price for its costly, arrogant defiance. The administration should withdraw the newspaper's White House press credentials because this privilege has been so egregiously abused, and an aggressive investigation should be undertaken to identify and prosecute, at a minimum, the government officials who have leaked national-defense information."

Ooh, that would show them. Banning Times reporters from the nearly meaningless rituals of noncommunication that pass for briefings? They should be so lucky.

Plots Averted?

Here's another reason that attacking is better than defending: The evidence that Bush administration policies have actually averted any serious terrorist plots appears pretty much nonexistent.

The closest they've come lately is their much-ballyhooed Friday announcement of the arrest of seven men indicted on conspiracy charges for plotting to blow up the Sears Tower.

Richard Cohen writes in his Washington Post opinion column: "But theirs was such a preposterous, crackpot plot that the only reason it rose to the level of a televised news conference by the nation's chief law enforcement officer was the Bush administration's compulsive need to hype everything. For this, Gonzales, like a good Boy Scout, is always prepared.

"Does it matter? Yes, it does. It matters because the Bush administration has already lost almost all credibility when it comes to terrorism. It said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and there were none. It said al-Qaeda and Iraq were in cahoots and that was not the case. It has so exaggerated its domestic success in arresting or convicting terrorists that it simply cannot be believed on that score. . . .

"Americans are being asked to surrender a measure of privacy and civil liberties in the fight against terrorism -- essentially the argument Cheney has been making. I for one am willing to make some compromises, but I feel downright foolish doing so if the fruit of the enterprise turns out to be seven hapless idiots who would blow up the Sears Tower, if only they could get to Chicago."

How can that be?

Well, look at the wording.

Here's the Gallup question: "Which comes closer to your view? Congress should pass a resolution that outlines a plan for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq (or) decisions about withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq should be left to the president and his advisers?"

In other words: Should Congress propose a timetable, or just leave it all up to Bush?

Here's the Post question, with my emphasis: "Some people say the Bush administration should set a deadline for withdrawing U.S. military forces from Iraq in order to avoid further casualties . Others say knowing when the U.S. would pull out would only encourage the anti-government insurgents . Do you yourself think the United States should or should not set a deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq?"

That's awfully close to: Are you in favor of cutting and running? What's amazing is that 47 percent of Americans said yes.

Susan Page writes in USA Today: "A majority of Americans say Congress should pass a resolution that outlines a plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday. Half of those surveyed would like all U.S. forces out within 12 months.

"The poll finds support for the ideas behind Democratic proposals that were soundly defeated in the Senate last week. An uptick in optimism toward the war after the killing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi earlier this month seems to have evaporated. . . .

"Bush's approval rating is at 37%. After hitting the low point of his presidency at 31% in May, it rose to 38% in mid-June. His standing, which slipped below 40% in February, hasn't rebounded above that level since then."

Dan Balz and Richard Morin write in The Washington Post: "Americans are sharply divided along partisan lines over whether to set a deadline for withdrawing all U.S. forces there, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. . . .

"President Bush's approval rating rebounded from its lowest point a month ago and now stands at 38 percent. That is five points higher than it was in May, though still weak enough to cause Republicans to worry about their electoral chances in November."

Incidentally, Post polling director Morin is off to go work for Pew .

Signing Statements Get a Hearing

Laurie Kellman writes for the Associated Press: "A bill becomes the rule of the land when Congress passes it and the president signs it into law, right?

"Not necessarily, according to the White House. A law is not binding when a president issues a separate statement saying he reserves the right to revise, interpret or disregard it on national security and constitutional grounds.

"That's the argument a Bush administration official is expected to make Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who has demanded a hearing on a practice he considers an example of the administration's abuse of power."

Here's a list of witnesses for today's hearing.

And over at NiemanWatchdog.org , I'm about to publish a review of what we know -- and more significantly, what we don't know, and need to know -- about Bush's signing statements.

As a result of their ambiguous language, it's not abundantly clear what practical effect the signing statements are having -- conceivably, not so very much.

It's also not clear what they really mean. Is the White House simply expressing abstract philosophical objections? Or is it documenting, right in front of our very eyes, an enormous ongoing expansion of presidential power?

'The President Is Wrong'

Bill Blakemore , who has spearheaded ABC's coverage of global warming, puts up with no guff from the president.

"Bush was addressed by a reporter, thus: 'I know that you are not planning to see Al Gore's new movie, but do you agree with the premise that global warming is a real and significant threat to the planet?'

" 'I have said consistently,' answered Bush, 'that global warming is a serious problem. There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused. We ought to get beyond that debate and start implementing the technologies necessary . . . to be good stewards of the environment, become less dependent on foreign sources of oil. . . . '

"The President -- as far as the extensive and repeated researches of this and many other professional journalists, as well as all scientists credible on this subject, can find -- is wrong on one crucial and no doubt explosive issue. When he said -- as he also did a few weeks ago -- that 'There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused' . . . well, there really is no such debate.

"At least none above what is proverbially called 'the flat earth society level.' "

More Addington

More from Jane Mayer's (not available online) New Yorker profile of Cheney chief of staff and longtime legal advisor David S. Addington:

"Bruce Fein, a Republican legal activist, who voted for Bush in both Presidential elections, and who served as associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan Justice Department, said that Addington and other Presidential legal advisers had 'staked out powers that are a universe beyond any other Administration. This President has made claims that are really quite alarming. He's said that there are no restraints on his ability, as he sees it, to collect intelligence, to open mail, to commit torture, and to use electronic surveillance. If you used the President's reasoning, you could shut down Congress for leaking too much. His war powers allow him to declare anyone an illegal combatant. All the world's a battlefield -- according to this view, he could kill someone in Lafayette Park if he wants! It's got the sense of Louis XIV: 'I am the State.' "

[Snuffysmith]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20010924-2.html

Fact Sheet on Terrorist Financing Executive Order
September 24, 2001



"We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them against each other, rout them out of their safe hiding places, and bring them to justice."

President George W. Bush
September 24, 2001

The President has directed the first strike on the global terror network today by issuing an Executive Order to starve terrorists of their support funds. The Order expands the Treasury Department’s power to target the support structure of terrorist organizations, freeze the U.S. assets and block the U.S. transactions of terrorists and those that support them, and increases our ability to block U.S. assets of, and deny access to U.S. markets to, foreign banks who refuse to cooperate with U.S. authorities to identify and freeze terrorist assets abroad.

Disrupting the Financial Infrastructure of Terrorism

Targets all individuals and institutions linked to global terrorism.
Allows the Treasury Department to freeze U.S. assets and block U.S. transactions of any person or institution associated with terrorists or terrorist organizations.
Names specific individuals and organizations whose assets and transactions are to be blocked.
Identifies charitable organizations that secretly funnel money to al-Qaeda.
Provides donors information about charitable groups who fund terrorist organizations.
States the President’s intent to punish those financial institutions at home and abroad that continue to provide resources and/or services to terrorist organizations.
Authorities Broadened
The new Executive order broadens existing authority in three principal ways:

It expands the coverage of existing Executive orders from terrorism in the Middle East to global terrorism;
The Order expands the class of targeted groups to include all those who are “associated with” designated terrorist groups; and
Establishes our ability to block the U.S. assets of, and deny access to U.S. markets to, those foreign banks that refuse to freeze terrorist assets.
Blocking Terrorist Assets

The Order prohibits U.S. transactions with those terrorist organizations, leaders, and corporate and charitable fronts listed in the Annex.
Eleven terrorist organizations are listed in the Order, including organizations that make up the al-Qaeda network.
A dozen terrorist leaders are listed, including Osama bin Ladin and his chief lieutenants, three charitable organizations, and one corporate front organization are identified as well.
The Order authorizes the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury to make additional terrorist designations in the coming weeks and months.
Other Actions in War on Terrorist Financing
This Executive Order is part of a broader strategy that we have developed for suppressing terrorist financing:

A Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Center (FTAT) is up and running. The FTAT is a multi-agency task force that will identify the network of terrorist funding and freeze assets before new acts of terrorism take place.
The President, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of State and others are working with our allies around the world to tackle the financial underpinnings of terrorism. We are working through the G-8 and the United Nations. Already, several of our allies, including Switzerland and Britain, have frozen accounts of suspected terrorists

[Snuffysmith]

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getc...&friend=nytimes

Jump to: [Opinion] [Concurrence 1] [Concurrence 2] [Dissent 1] [Dissent 2] [Dissent 3]
HAMDAN v. RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, et al.

certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the district of columbia circuit

No. 05-184. Argued March 28, 2006--Decided June 29, 2006

[Livyjr]

"Nuke the Messenger"

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, June 27, 2006; 1:34 PM

Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times: "Administration officials had argued strongly that in reporting on the financial tracking operation, The Times would endanger national security by prompting the Belgian banking consortium that maintains the financial data to withdraw from the program.

On Sunday, Mr. Keller, the paper's executive editor, posted a letter on The New York Times Web site saying that the newspaper 'found this argument puzzling' ....

Partly because the banking consortium is compelled by subpoena to comply. . . .

And without looking to either the right ...

Or the left here, Snuf .....

There is my sticking point ...

This bit with the subpoenas ......

Because this company .....

THIS BELGIAN BANKING CONSORTIUM ....

Isn't American .....

NOR IS IT IN AMERICA .....

NOR IS IT SUBJECT TO AMERICAN LAWS .....

And so ....

A subpoena from America .....

Is essentially worthless .....

Since it can't be enforced against the Belgian company .....

And so .....

WHERE IS THIS COMPULSION TO COMPLY COMING FROM?

Except out of thin air .....

And speaking of thin air ....

Out here in the country ...

If something has a strong whiff of BULL **** about it .....

That's what it usually is .....

And so ......

If the BUSHCOS hadn't of brought up the business of the subpoenas ......

It might not have made itself .....

Look like it was lying again ...

To cover up something else ....

Unsavory ....

That it was doing ....

And so .....

[Livyjr]

And while George W. Bush ....

Is out there ....

Destroying the earth .....

In the name ....

Of OUR America ....

"Rainy weather dries up business - Outdoor workers see drop in activity as damp ground prohibits job"

By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, June 29, 2006

ALBANY -- For landscapers, pool installers and other outdoor laborers, week after week of persistent rain has rendered backyards into a surreal scene: Holes fill with water as soon as they're dug and plants experience death by drowning.

While most of the Capital Region avoided the deluge that flooded several counties to the west, a range of local business owners have seen their June revenue disappear because of the about 14 inches of rainfall since May 1.

"The rain is killing us," said Bob Hale, owner of Bob's Rental Center in West Sand Lake.

Customers have been canceling rentals of tillers, backhoes, excavators and other equipment for do-it-yourself landscaping projects they've put off.

With twice the normal rainfall this spring, including a string of weekend washouts, Hale is having the worst season since he went into business in 1978.

Ed Engel, a sixth-generation farmer and proprietor of Engel's Farm & Market in Colonie, is on pace for the worst year of sales for bedding plants in 50 years, because gardeners have been driven inside by the rain.

Engel's planting and treating of 55 acres of sweet corn, tomatoes, cabbage and carrots has lagged far behind schedule, too.

"We can't get on the ground to plant or weed."

"The fields are just floating with water, and Colonie has a reputation for having sandy soil that drains well," Engel said.

Even if it does dry out eventually, the shortened season will make it difficult to harvest some varieties of corn, which take up to 110 days to mature.

The heavy rainfall has slowed pool installations considerably as well, said Rich Fenwick, vice president of Concord Pools in Latham, whose company builds about 300 pools in an average summer.

"We're weeks behind because the water tables are so high, our holes keep filling up with water as we dig."

"It's very hard to work in these conditions," Fenwick said.

Concord's masonry crews have been idled, because finished concrete decking can't be poured around pools in the rain.

Heavy rains have had an unexpected effect on Professional Diving Services of New York, a Galway firm that has three scuba divers who go into pools to detect and repair leaks.

"When we're getting 3 inches of rain in a day, no one realizes their pool is leaking, so it's slowed down our business a lot," said office manager Amy Bullock.

It's been a slow go for landscapers, too.

"Working in mud and slop is tedious and instead of shoveling soil, we're squeegeeing soil," said Bob Graves, an owner of Faddegon's Nursery in Latham.

"The ground is so waterlogged, we've had new plantings die because their roots are drowning."

Graves added that lawns, trees and shrubs are beginning to be stressed by fungi and molds created by continuously damp local conditions.

Wild animals are experiencing a mixed bag in the soggy weather, according to Craig Thompson, director of Five Rivers Environmental Education Center in Delmar.

Waterfowl are frolicking, while woodchucks are being displaced from their flooded below-ground burrows.

Baby otter, beaver and other critters that nest along riverbanks may have been drowned by high water.

"This will cut down our number of visitors the rest of the season because the trails will be muddy and very buggy for quite a while," Thompson said.

The rain also has driven window washers indoors in a switch to commercial building accounts.

"We've had to cancel a lot of outdoor residential work," said Gilbert Nadeau, owner of Ace Window Cleaning in Cohoes.

"Customers want to see dry, sparkling windows when we're done, so we don't do houses in the rain."

Golfers have been missing in action during the rainy spring and early summer as grounds crews scramble to pump water from bunkers and keep their layouts playable.

"Our course drains well, but with this much rain it's underwater," said Jesse Cone, assistant pro at Wolfert's Roost in Menands.

Wednesday's second round of a 120-woman invitational tournament was scratched due to flooding and the golfers played cards in the clubhouse instead.

At least two businesses enjoyed a boost in sales because of the prolonged precipitation.

"It's been busier than usual because of the rain," said Brian Alley, who works the front desk at Latham Bowl.

The Tan Shop in Guilderland was doing a brisk business in its $25 Mystic Tan, a spray-on chemical application that creates a bronze glow in just a couple hours.

"People are sick of the rain and want an instant tan," said manager Jennifer Miller.

Paul Grondahl can be reached at 454-5623 or by e-mail at pgrondahl@timesunion.com.

end quotes

I'm accepting of the rain ....

And I don't want anything instant ....

And so ....

Make it people minus one ....

And so .....

[Livyjr]

And from the rain .....

We go ...

Back to politics .....

And George W. Bush's CHOICE to have been .....

Director of his HOMELAND SECURITY .....

Which just might not be OURS ...

At all ....

And when I consider articles like this ...

In connection with George W. Bush ....

All I can think ...

Is that this George W. Bush ....

Can spot a man ...

With no integrity ...

A mile away ...

And when he does ...

George wants that person on his "TEAM" .....

And so ....

"Deal would spare ex-cop chief jail - Bernard Kerik, headed New York City department, seeks to end case involving bribery charges"

Associated Press
First published: Friday, June 30, 2006

NEW YORK -- Bernard Kerik, the former nominee for homeland security chief whose home improvement project made him the target of a bribery probe, on Thursday sought a plea deal designed to spare him jail time.

Negotiations with prosecutors had produced a tentative agreement in which Kerik would appear in court today and admit to noncriminal administrative violations, said his attorney, Joseph Tacopina.

"We're optimistic this will be resolved by the end of the week," the lawyer said.

Neither Tacopina nor Bronx district attorney spokesman Steven Reed would discuss details of the proposed agreement.

Kerik was accused of violating conflict-of-interest codes by accepting a gift -- $200,000 in renovations to his apartment courtesy of a New Jersey construction company with alleged links to the mob.

He was correction commissioner at the time, and later became police commissioner.

If the deal goes through, Kerik would have to pay a large fine but not go to jail, and therefore be able to continue as a security consultant in the Middle East.

Prosecutors had considered bringing felony bribery charges against Kerik based on allegations that in exchange for the renovations he helped the company, Interstate Industrial Corp., seek business with the city.

Through his attorney, Kerik had previously denied any wrongdoing, saying he paid every bill he received for the job -- about $30,000 -- and that he never intervened for Interstate.

The home, bought in 1999 for $170,000, sold for $460,000 in 2002.

Kerik first drew national attention while leading the New York Police Department's response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

By late 2004, President Bush wanted him for homeland security chief, but allegations of ethical lapses doomed his nomination.

end quotes

Should that last sentence actually read:

By late 2004, BECAUSE OF allegations of ethical lapses, President Bush wanted him for homeland security chief ......

[Livyjr]

AN OPEN LETTER ......

TO: UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM NEW YORK CHARLES SCHUMER

FROM: WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA RESIDING IN THE FEDERAL NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

RE: THE JUDICIAL NOMINATION OF NEW YORK LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR MARY O'CONNOR DONOHUE TO BE A DISTRICT COURT JUDGE IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

DATED: JUNE 30, 2006

SIR:

In an article entitled "A gavel for Donohue? - Lieutenant governor confirms her name has been submitted by Gov. Pataki for federal district judge" by ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union, first published, Friday, March 3, 2006, it is reported that REPUBLICAN New York State Lt. Gov. Mary Donohue is up for an appointment to a federal judgeship after REPUBLICAN Gov. George Pataki submitted her name to the Bush administration.

In that same article, which is public domain, it is reported, and admitted by FEDERAL JUDICIAL CANDIDATE MARY O'CONNOR DONOHUE that in her present public employment as REPUBLICAN Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York, FEDERAL JUDICIAL CANDIDATE MARY O'CONNOR DONOHUE has little real responsibility, and that she personally has embraced the public role of being a CHEERLEADER for REPUBLICAN George Pataki without complaint.

QUESTION 1: HOW DOES SUCH WILLING SUBSERVIENCE TO REPUBLICAN GEORGE PATAKI SPEAK TO HER ABILITY TO BE INDEPENDENT AS A FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT JUDGE IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK?

That March 3, 2006 Times Union article further reports that as a "CHEERLEADER" for REPUBLICAN George Pataki, FEDERAL JUDICIAL CANDIDATE MARY O'CONNOR DONOHUE "attends ribbon cuttings, lectures at schools, heads task forces and never forgets to credit Pataki for everything."

QUESTION 2: HOW DOES THIS EXPERIENCE SERVE TO HELP PREPARE FEDERAL JUDICIAL CANDIDATE MARY O'CONNOR DONOHUE TO BE A FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT JUDGE IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK?

It is then reported in that March 3, 2006 Times Union article that during her present term of public service in the State of New York, FEDERAL JUDICIAL CANDIDATE MARY O'CONNOR DONOHUE "has generally managed to keep a low profile during her time in office, with more attention paid to her ever-changing hairstyle than her public pronouncements.

QUESTION 3: HOW DO YOU SEE THIS TYPE OF PUBLIC SERVICE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK AS A CHEERLEADER FOR REPUBLICAN GEORGE PATAKI AS SERVING TO PREPARE FEDERAL JUDICIAL CANDIDATE MARY O'CONNOR DONOHUE FOR THE SOLEMN TASK OF INTERPRETING THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION AS A FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT JUDGE IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK?

That March 3, 2006 Times Union article then reports that the reason for the NOMINATION of FEDERAL JUDICIAL CANDIDATE MARY O'CONNOR by President George W. Bush was as a favor to REPUBLICAN New York State Governor George Pataki, to wit:

It has typically been assumed that if Donohue was given a judgeship, it would be a sign Pataki was about to leave office and wanted to pass New York into the care of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, rather than to the lieutenant governor, who -- like most of her predecessors -- has had little involvement in the day-to-day running of the state.

QUESTION 4: HOW WOULD THE APPOINTMENT OF FEDERAL JUDICIAL CANDIDATE MARY O'CONNOR DONOHUE TO THE FEDERAL BENCH AS A FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT JUDGE IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK AS A FAVOR TO REPUBLICAN NEW YORK STATE GOVERNOR GEORGE PATAKI SERVE TO PROTECT OUR CONSTUTUTIONAL RIGHT TO JURY TRIALS, AND DUE PROCESS OF LAW, AS CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA RESIDING IN THE FEDERAL NORTHEN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK?

Sincerely ......

If any of you out there in OUR America .....

Or the world for that matter ....

Are concerned ....

As are we up here ...

In Rensselaer County ...

In the State of New York ....

With the INDEPENDENCE ....

And INTEGRITY ....

OF OUR FEDERAL JUDICIARY ...

WHO ARE APPOINTED FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES ....

And you wish to make comments ....

To Senator Schumer ....

Or anyone else in OUR government for that matter ....

And all of the news media ....

Here in OUR America as well ....

ON THIS JUDICIAL NOMINATION .....

Click on this URL to take action now

http://capwiz.com/congressorg/pyv/electors/

Then look to your left ....

And click on CONGRESS ....

Then type in the name of Charles Schumer ....

Or whomever ....

And look by his name on his individual page for how to contact him ....

Which is a neat service ...

Where you scroll down to the bottom of the choices ...

And click on "compose your own letter" .....

Where you can simply "paste in" these questions above here ....

If you have no questions ...

Or comments ...

Of your own ....

And so .....

[Livyjr]

George W. Bush ...

Openly mocks us ....

Up here in the State of New York ....

By nominating Mary Donohue ......

Who allegedly has had .....

Some 495 different hair styles ....

As her only real accomplishment ....

During her term as Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York ...

As a FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT JUDGE ...

For the Northern District of New York ....

MOCKS .....

US ...

OPENLY ....

And so ....

"5 GIs being investigated in 4 Iraq deaths"

By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer

7 minutes ago

BEIJI, Iraq - The U.S. Army will investigate charges that five American soldiers were involved in the killings of four Iraqi relatives, including a woman who had been raped, military officials said Friday.

It's the sixth current inquiry into the alleged slayings of Iraqi civilians by American troops.

Some of the five soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of assaulting in the March incident, a U.S. military official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

The U.S. command issued a statement saying only that Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of coalition troops in Baghdad, had ordered a criminal investigation into the alleged killing of a family of four in Mahmoudiyah, south of Baghdad.

At least 14 American troops have been convicted in other cases.

The United States also is investigating allegations that two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed by Marines in the western town of Haditha on Nov. 19 in a revenge attack after one of their own died in a roadside bombing.

"The entire investigation will encompass everything that could have happened that evening."

"We're not releasing any specifics of an ongoing investigation," military spokesman Maj. Todd Breasseale said of the Mahmoudiyah allegations.

"There is no indication what led soldiers to this home."

"The investigation just cracked open."

"We're just beginning to dig into the details."

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he had no additional details on the incident but added that the military routinely investigates all allegations of misconduct.

However, a U.S. official close to the investigation said at least one of the soldiers, all assigned to the 502nd Infantry Regiment, has admitted his role and been arrested.

Two soldiers from the same regiment were slain this month when they were kidnapped at a checkpoint near Youssifiyah.

The official told the AP the accused soldiers were from the same platoon as the two slain soldiers.

The military has said one and possibly both of the slain soldiers were tortured and beheaded.

The official said the mutilation of the slain soldiers stirred feelings of guilt and led at least one of them to reveal the rape-slaying on June 22.

According to a senior Army official, the alleged incident was first revealed by a soldier during a routine counseling-type session.

The official, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said that soldier did not witness the incident but heard about it.

A second soldier, who also was not involved, said he overhead soldiers conspiring to commit the crimes, and then later saw bloodstains on their clothes, the official said.

He also said the four people killed included three adults and a child, and one of the adults was the woman who allegedly was raped.

One of the accused soldiers already has been discharged and is believed to be in the United States, several U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The others have had their weapons taken away and are confined to Forward Operating Base Mahmoudiyah.

Senior officers were aware of the family's death but believed it was due to sectarian violence, common in the religiously mixed town, a U.S. official said.

The killings appeared to have been a "crime of opportunity," the official said.

The soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols.
___

AP correspondent Ryan Lenz is embedded with the 101st Airborne Division in Beiji, Iraq. He was previously embedded with the 502nd Infantry Regiment in Mahmoudiyah.
__

The Associated Press News and Information Research Center and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

"5 GIs being investigated in 4 Iraq deaths"

By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer

BEIJI, Iraq - The U.S. Army will investigate charges that five American soldiers were involved in the killings of four Iraqi relatives, including a woman who had been raped, military officials said Friday.

It's the sixth current inquiry into the alleged slayings of Iraqi civilians by American troops.

"Guantanamo ruling heralds US political showdown"

By Patricia Wilson

21 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats see the Supreme Court's Guantanamo ruling as repudiation of a power-hungry White House.

Republicans say it shows how tough President George W. Bush is on terrorists and voters will eat it up.

Both parties face a contentious political debate over the decision declaring military tribunals illegal as they look to capitalize on a national security issue ahead of crucial congressional elections in November.

"How do you go back to Chicago, Illinois, or Las Vegas, Nevada, and say 'You know what? The president is just being too mean to these people," said Don Stewart, spokesman for Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.

"That's a very difficult argument to make."

In Thursday's ruling, the nation's highest court found the tribunals, which Bush created right after the September 11 attacks for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, violated the Geneva Conventions and U.S. military rules.

The White House has been accused of using the war against terrorism to grab executive power at the expense of the U.S. Congress.

Vice President Dick Cheney has spoken publicly about restoring the powers of the presidency after what he saw as "an erosion"' in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the Watergate sandal.

The Bush administration has turned that tide in many ways, ranging from the fight to keep secret the deliberations of its energy task force, to its assertion of authority after September 11, including secret domestic surveillance and financial tracking programs.

'LIPSTICK ON A PIG'

"The Guantanamo ruling is a repudiation of their entire governing philosophy," said Simon Rosenberg, founder of the centrist New Democrat Network.

"This philosophy has failed."

"It's not only failed, it hasn't passed the test of the Supreme Court."

"Unless they address that, they're just putting lipstick on a pig."

The Supreme Court rebuff pushes the issue into Congress where the road ahead is likely to be long and hard, especially with four months to go before mid-term elections that will decide if Bush's Republican Party keeps control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The president, who is struggling with the lowest poll ratings of his term mostly because of the unpopular Iraq war, and his political architect Karl Rove have played the national security card to successfully trump Democrats in previous elections.

And Republicans believe the Supreme Court has dealt them another winning hand, especially with voters in middle America.

"The president's fighting and killing terrorists and we think he has to be more gentle?" Stewart said.

"The Democrats are making a gigantic mistake by going out and talking about what will be translated into English as the president is too tough on terrorists."

Republican consultant Scott Reed said the court's decision served to "remind everybody what it was like right after 9/11."

"I think in raw politics, it is a net positive for Bush to bring clarity and remind people we're in this war," he said.

Democrats believe they're ready for any Republican onslaught and don't think voters will buy into the Democrats-are-weak argument again.

"They'll throw the biggest chunk of mud that they can come up with," a senior Democratic official said.

"That we must be heartened by this ruling because we don't want to see any terrorists get prosecuted."

"That is just ridiculous."

Bush and Rove already have stepped up their attacks on Democrats in the past couple of weeks, accusing some of wanting to "cut and run" and "waving the white flag" in Iraq.

"They haven't worked," the official said, citing polls showing most Americans want U.S. troops out of Iraq and think the U.S.-led invasion was a mistake.

"I just don't think people are going to buy it," Rosenberg said.

"We've seen the movie before and we know what happens."

[Livyjr]

And instead of politics ....

Or IRAQINAM ....

Let's go to jeffmoskin's ....

Sunny city of Los Angeles .....

For some "history" ....

"Scientists dig up Ice Age bones in mid Los Angeles"

by Zachary Slobig

Fri Jun 30, 1:28 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The bone-digging season began Thursday in Los Angeles for paleontologists sifting through the world's only active Ice Age excavation site in a major metropolitan area.

Two months a year, scientists and volunteers descend 15 feet underground in the midst of Los Angeles, to remove, clean and catalogue a baffling array of Ice Age biodiversity at a site known as La Brea Tar Pits.

This abyss is tucked between world-class art museums, high-rise condominiums and some of the busiest automobile traffic in the United States.

The site is even an unknown to many city residents.

But since 1969, scientists have mined this urban bone yard and built a massive collection of pre-history, with some bones dating back 40,000 years.

"This is the richest Ice Age deposit in the world," chief curator of the Tar Pits, John Harris told AFP.

"We will still be pulling out bones in 20 years."

Last summer scientists removed some 3,000 bones from the site, from the jawbones of mice, to the leg bones of mastodons.

The site was first discovered in 1915 during construction of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The collections now approach four million items from 12 deposits spread over several acres, including more than 650 species of plants and animals.

"Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles," US architect, Frank Lloyd Wright once joked.

Thousands of ancient mammals were just passing through the prehistoric Los Angeles basin when they were trapped in the bubbling black ooze formed by the petroleum deposit.

Much like the city of Los Angeles, the tar pit contains more transplants than it does natives.

The richness of the pit is staggering even to the excavators.

"Everywhere you look there's bones," said former anatomy professor and volunteer excavator, Jean Moore.

"In the twelve years that I've been digging in this hole, I've probably gone through 5,000 years of natural history," she said while picking at the pelvis of a prehistoric cat with tar caked fingernails.

With the issue of global warming entering mainstream dialogue, paleontologists believe their work at La Brea may become even more relevant.

"The more we know about prehistoric climate change, the more we'll know about what's going on right now," said chief excavator Kristen Vowells.

"We're looking back to look forward," she said while logging thumbnail sized finds and securing them in small envelopes.

The Tar Pits' research staff has such a backlog of fossils and bones that diggers could take a season or two off and cataloguers would still have more than enough work.

"We're absolutely running out of space," laboratory supervisor Shelley Cox told AFP surrounded by floor-to-ceiling stacks of various relics marked "waiting to be cleaned" and "waiting to be catalogued".

"But if we find something really cool, we'll bump it to the front of the line," she said.

Last summer, diggers discovered the skull of a 30,000 year-old saber-toothed cat with its jaws in place.

"He stepped into the tar in the prime of his life," said Cox while pointing at the teeth.

"We named him Max."

The tar deposits are believed to spread throughout the immediate area.

The neighborhood adjacent to the pits recently spent 10 million dollars to resurface and landscape the streets, according to Harris, and within a year the tar bubbled back up through the streets and sidewalks.

It continues to trap the occasional squirrel or loose house cat wandering into the muck.

Exciting finds often coincide with local development.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the pit's immediate neighbor to the south, recently began construction of a parking facility.

In the processing of digging, they found the entire skeleton of a mastodon, the size of a city bus.

Cox said a planned subterranean metro line down Wilshire Boulevard, known locally as Miracle Mile, just south of the pits, will turn up a whole new collection of deposits.

"As the city continues to develop, we're going to have a major storage problem," said Cox.

But the lack of space does not dampen her enthusiasm for her place as recorder of the natural history of Los Angeles.

Though thousands pass the site unaware, paleontologists world wide rely on La Brea's collection for comparative study.

"We are the Mecca for Ice Age mammals," said Cox.

[Livyjr]

"Stranded by too much water to sail - After crossing Atlantic, French family is marooned by flooding in Waterford; 'You don't know what will happen'"

By KATE PERRY, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, July 1, 2006

WATERFORD -- The Biziens left France in their 37-foot sailboat in September, and they've weathered a hurricane in the Canary Islands and crooked police in the Dominican Republic.

Now, 261 miles south of their destination in Quebec, the boat is moored indefinitely in Waterford at Lock 3.

Their 6-year-old daughter, Lilou, spends her days dangling a orange rubber worm from a fishing pole into the Erie Canal.

This is no big deal, said Pierre Bizien, sipping Chardonnay in the cabin on Friday afternoon.

"When you are on a boat, you can't plan anything," said Bizien, who works for a computer company.

"You don't know what will happen."

The family's boat, Atacapoum, was one of 35 stranded in the state canal system after two days of flooding.

On Friday, cleanup continued along rain-swollen and debris-littered waterways and in neighborhoods across the Capital Region.

But the canal system was still crippled, with 45 of 57 locks closed and some completely submerged.

It will be at least Tuesday before any locks are re-opened, and late next week before the damage is assessed, said the Canal Corporation's director, Carmella R. Mantello.

"There is so much debris out there, even if water recedes we couldn't get them to open right," Mantello said.

"We heard there's a Dodge Durango in there."

Boaters stuck in the east end of the canal, like the Biziens, will be allowed to head into the Hudson when the river recedes enough for them to fit under bridges and passage is deemed safe.

Those stuck farther west must wait until the locks are repaired.

Along the Mohawk River in Schenectady, fire, police and public works employees spent Friday pumping out flooded basements in the Stockade, checking electrical wires before turning on the lights.

More than 100 homes flooded -- some with 10 feet of water in their cellars, said the city's fire chief, Robert Farstad.

In Waterford, at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, crews cleaned debris off the roads and boat launch parking lot on Front Street, which had been underwater the day before, said Mayor Bert Mahoney.

Town employees have also visited the stranded boaters at Lock 3, offering to drive them to the grocery store and other spots in vans.

There was a small party for the boaters on Thursday at the village visitors center, where villagers handed out T-shirts for a tug boat meet that was supposed to take place today.

Pierre Bizien said he tried to pay for the rides, refreshments and shirts, but no one would take his money.

"It's something incredible for us," he said in a thick French accent.

"Nobody do that in France."

Bizien and his wife, Veronique, both took a year off work in the computer industry to make their trans-Atlantic sail.

They said they wanted to see the United States and have real interaction with Americans, who are stereotyped as arrogant in Europe.

The hospitality from Florida to New York, they said, proved otherwise.

They reached Guadeloupe on Dec. 29, 29 days in the Atlantic Ocean.

In the Dominican Republic, Pierre Bizien said, the family was on the way to the airport in a rented car to pick up visiting relatives when a police officer told them to hand over all of their money -- $220 -- or go to jail.

They did, and while it's not the happiest memory of their trip, the Biziens consider it part of traveling's calculated risk.

They spent the spring riding the current up the Eastern seaboard.

They hit a motorcycle rally in Myrtle Beach.

They scanned the grounds of the White House for President Bush.

They slipped into Manhattan at 1 a.m. and marveled at the lights and skyscrapers.

Lilou got a look at the "big Barbie," her pet name for the French import Americans call the Statue of Liberty.

When the rain started coming down hard this week, Veronique Bizien guided the boat up the Hudson in rain gear.

The Biziens are happy to stay until it's safe for them to sail north by way of Lake Champlain.

They'll fly home from Quebec and return to pick up their boat next year.

Perry can be reached at 454-5420 or by e-mail at kperry@timesunion.com.

Staff writer Anne Miller contributed to this story.

[Livyjr]

"Northeast residents weary after floods"

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press
Last updated: 1:11 a.m., Saturday, July 1, 2006

TRENTON, N.J. -- Even as they cleaned up the muck left behind by some of the Northeast's worst flooding in decades, some riverside residents wondered Friday how long it would be before they would be at it again.

Life along the swollen Delaware River was frustrating -- thousands evacuated, roads and bridges closed, utilities crippled and tens of millions of dollars in flood damage.

It was at times bizarre -- with a 4-foot alligator left behind in a Trenton apartment and foot-long carp flopping around on the streets of a nearby neighborhood.

But with storms having flooded many of the same homes and businesses in 2004 and 2005, there was a renewed call to finally do something about it.

"Our basement is destroyed -- again -- exactly what happened last time," Lambertville resident Dan Jacquemin said as he shined a flashlight at muddy water that still filled half his basement.

After touring areas along the Delaware, New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine said he would take another look at flood task force report, released this year, that calls for redrawing maps to include more land in flood plains, further limiting development in those areas and having government buy out homes in especially flood-prone areas.

Upriver in Easton, Pa., residents along Bushkill Drive -- one of the most vulnerable blocks in the city, were similarly flood-weary.

Cliff Weasner hosed mud from his home's second floor as he motioned to a towering maple tree in his still-submerged back yard.

"That tree is probably worth more than my house," he lamented.

Buildings along the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers were among those battered worst by the this week's flooding, which forced tens of thousands to evacuate and left at least 20 people dead in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and Virginia.

"We should do what we can immediately ... to get people back to some degree of normalcy," said U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who toured some flooded areas Friday.

"But we've got to think about the longer-term picture, how we deal with these things in as quick a fashion as possible."

The politics could be complicated, but the science of flood damage is pretty simple, said Jonathan Husch, professor of geological and environment sciences at Rider University.

"Streams flood," he said.

"That's what they're supposed to do."

People make it worse by building on floodplains, and control measures like levees can make flooding even worse downstream, he said.

"I feel for these people, I really do," Husch said.

"But the science side of me says, 'OK, how much of a hint do you need to get?'"

Corzine on Friday formally asked President Bush to declare a major disaster area in New Jersey.

His counterparts in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia have done the same, seeking federal aid for people hurt by flooding, and Bush declared eight Pennsylvania counties disaster areas Friday evening.

Scores of roads in the region were rendered impassable by flooding, but some had been reopened by Friday and government officials and travel experts predicted mostly minor headaches over the busy holiday weekend.

One exception was Interstate 88, where two truckers died this week after floodwaters ripped out the highway over a culvert.

In the nation's capital, a popular Independence Day destination, most museums, monuments, memorials and attractions that were closed after flooding early in the week have reopened.

In Philadelphia, however, the Independence Day regatta on the Schuylkill River was canceled for the first time in 126 years because of debris, high water and fast currents.

In Maryland, water continued to leak through the 65-foot-high earthen dam that holds back Lake Needwood in Rockville, but the water was receding and about 2,200 people who had been evacuated were allowed to return Thursday night.

The Delaware, which peaked Thursday evening in Trenton at just over 25 feet, was not expected to fall below flood stage -- about 19 feet -- until very early Saturday morning.

The city's water filtration system was restarted around 3 p.m. Friday and was operating normally, Mayor Douglas Palmer said Friday night.

The plant had been shut down Wednesday because of debris in the river.

"We have to continue to monitor the water filtration system because there's so much debris and sediment in the water, but it seems to be running OK," Palmer said.

Many residents along the river had no idea when their homes would be inhabitable again.

Even after the water was removed, electricity and gas still needed to be restored.

Matt Skrebel helped pump water from six Lambertville homes -- including his own.

He removed all the furniture and appliances he could before the flood, but couldn't stop the extensive damage to his basement and first floor.

"I just went through this last April, and it was a little over $30,000," Skrebel said.

He planned to replace his furnace, washer, dryer, carpeting and drywall yet again.

------

Associated Press writers Wayne Parry and Angela Delli Santi in Trenton, Michael Rubinkam in Easton, Pa., Mark Johnson in Albany, N.Y., and Stephen Manning in College Park, Md., contributed to this report.

end quotes

People who do stupid things ....

Like building homes ...

Where it floods ...

Should be congratualted ...

For the depth ...

And breadth ...

Of their stupidity ...

When the inevitable happens .....

And outside of that?

Well .....

Why does the government ...

Or anyone else for that matter ....

"OWE A DEBT" .....

To these people ...

Because they were stupid ...

And we were not?

[jeffmoskin]

"Scientists dig up Ice Age bones in mid Los Angeles"

I'll be on the look-out for any paleontologists staring at me.

[Livyjr]

I'll be on the look-out for any paleontologists staring at me.

Keep your ear-flaps down, jeffmoskin .....

And don't get mistaken ...

For a mastodon .....

Or a sabre-tooth cat .....

They'll have you caught ...

And in a museum ....

In a heartbeat ....

And so ....