WSJ reported erroneous tax cut figures

In a September 29 Wall Street Journal (subscription required) article, staff writers David Rogers, Brody Mullins, and Jeanne Cummings erroneously reported that the Republican proposal to extend capital gains and dividend tax cuts would cost "$12.5 billion from 2008 to 2010." Not only does this statistic underestimate the cost of the proposed cut, it also contradicts the figure Mullins cited in a previous article on Republican tax cut proposals. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that extending the capital gains and dividend tax cuts (currently set to expire in 2008) through 2010 would cost $2 billion in 2008, $13 billion in 2009, and $8 billion in 2010, for a total of $23 billion. In a September 13 Journal article (subscription required), Mullins presented a chart in which these same cuts were estimated to cost $20 billion if extended through 2010, far more than the $12.5 billion purported in his latest piece.

Join Not in Our Name on Nov. 2 for a National Day of Die-Ins and Resistance to Endless War and Repression

Join Not in Our Name on Nov. 2 for a National Day of Die-Ins and Resistance to Endless War and Repression We believe that as people living in the United States it is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government in our names. Let's unite to drive out the Bush Regime!
A die-in is a symbolic act of resistance. We will die-in to cross a line and to symbolically put our bodies on the machinery of war, hatred, lies and greed. We will die-in because the business of this government as usual must stop, and it must stop on our school campuses at lunch, in downtown city centers at rush hour, and wherever people are gathered. We die-in to show that from New Orleans to Baghdad, from AIDS ravaged Africa to the Border of Mexico -- life is precious.
When we gather in groups of thousands, hundreds, or just of few, and at the appointed time lay ourselves on the ground, we join with people of conscience all around the country to become a living monument to the unspeakable tragedy of the senseless death that our government is committing, and simply allowing to let happen.
We will die-in so that others can see your message and find the courage and the voice to speak out and take action. Our collective actions, both large and small, can inspire, motivate, and yes, even change the world.

Interesting!

I dont recall this on local news...

1.1 Million Ordered To Evacuate Homes

1.1 Million Ordered To Evacuate Homes By Ceci Connolly and Sylvia Moreno Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, September 22, 2005; A01 NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 21 -- Hurricane Rita, a massive storm packing 165-mph winds and destructive force equal to the might of Hurricane Katrina, tracked through the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, prompting evacuation orders for more than 1.1 million Texans and the few remaining holdouts in storm-ravaged New Orleans. After nicking the Florida Keys as a Category 2 storm, Rita intensified to Category 5 status, the highest ranking used by the National Hurricane Center. Authorities in Galveston, Tex., a coastal city of 60,000, ordered mandatory evacuations. By midday, a 20-mile line of cars snaked up Interstate 45 out of Galveston -- scene of the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history when an unnamed storm killed 8,000 to 10,000 people in 1900. Thousands of cars crammed roads around Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city, where authorities also ordered residents in low-lying areas to evacuate. About 1,000 state troopers were staged near the Gulf Coast, while dozens of shelters prepared for evacuees in Austin, Lufkin, College Station-Bryan, San Antonio and Huntsville. In Austin, which just three weeks ago took in 4,000 Katrina evacuees, 50 shelters were being opened to house as many as 15,000 Texas Gulf Coast evacuees. President Bush declared states of emergency in Texas and Louisiana. Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) urged residents along a 250-mile swath, from Beaumont to Corpus Christi, to leave. "I urge the citizens to listen carefully to the instructions provided by state and local authorities, and follow them," Bush said during a speech in Washington. "We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm, but we've got to be ready for the worst." In recent days, Rita has grown into a giant storm with hurricane-force winds stretching 45 miles from its center and tropical storm force winds extending 140 miles. Forecasters project Rita will make landfall early Saturday along the central Texas coast. However, even a slight shift north would put New Orleans back in the bull's-eye, prompting fears the city's already-fragile levee system could be breached again, flooding neighborhoods that remain coated in a crusty layer of muck. Painful memories of Katrina -- with a death toll that reached 1,000 Wednesday -- drove thousands of private citizens and elected officials to act fast rather than take the wait-and-see approach that greeted some coastal storms in recent years. "If Katrina did anything, it woke people up to the power of Mother Nature," said Anthony Griffin, 51, who spent Wednesday boarding up his Galveston law office before heading to his brother's home in Fort Worth. "When Katrina hit this country, it was in a city that everyone knew and those folks looking at the TV camera looked like folks we knew." In Texas, Perry urged those in the path of the storm to evacuate. "Homes can be rebuilt; lives cannot," he said from the governor's mansion in Austin. "If you're on the coast between Beaumont and Corpus Christi, now's the time to leave." The Department of Defense, taking lessons from Katrina, intends to send surveillance aircraft soon after Rita strikes land to "determine the magnitude of the relief required and, secondly, where it would be required," said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense. "We want to ensure as a matter of policy we have better eyes on target." Already, about 5,000 Texas National Guard troops have been mobilized and another 1,300 who had been assisting in New Orleans are returning from Louisiana. The Pentagon is drawing up plans to assist local law enforcement "in the event that the first responders become the first victims," as happened in Katrina, he said. "The National Guard MP [military police] response to Katrina was nothing short of extraordinary, but it was a response that was formulated on the fly as we recognized an emerging law enforcement requirement," he said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency positioned 45 truckloads of water and ice and 25 truckloads of Meals Ready to Eat at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. More than 400 medical workers and 14 urban search-and-rescue teams, comprising 744 people, have been stationed in Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth. "The most important thing that we're doing is work with the Department of Defense to use their assets up front before the storm instead of waiting until after the storm lands," said acting FEMA Director R. David Paulison. Earlier this week, a military satellite communications system was shipped to New Orleans. FEMA also asked the Pentagon to provide 26 helicopters to ferry people and supplies, five two-person communications teams for first responders, temporary hospital beds for 2,500 patients and field kitchens capable of serving 500,000 meals a day. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta assembled four teams of 20 to deploy after Rita makes landfall, Tom Skinner, an agency spokesman, said. The CDC has three dozen staffers in Texas as part of its Katrina recovery effort, providing care at shelters, hospitals and local health departments. After suffering sizable losses in Katrina, several oil refineries shut down Wednesday, pulling hundreds of workers from rigs off the Texas shore. The Texas area accounts for about one-quarter of the nation's total crude oil production. In New Orleans, pockets of rescue workers and cleanup crews kept watch on the weather map even as they struggled to restore critical services in a metropolitan area that just one month ago bustled with 1.3 million residents and thousands of revenue-generating tourists. A team of seven Public Health Service doctors and nurses planned to stay in New Orleans through Rita, but about 45 CDC employees relocated to Baton Rouge. Louisiana state officials were moving about 75 homebound patients from "special needs" shelters in Lafayette and Thibodaux to centers in Monroe and Shreveport, said Bob Johannessen, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Hospitals. Still, even going more than weeks without power, water or sewer service were not enough to uproot some here. After surviving the Mariel boatlift from Cuba in 1980 and Katrina on Aug. 29, Jose Mendez, 66, said he was not frightened by Rita. Speaking in Spanish in his mildewed apartment near the New Orleans Fairgrounds horse-racing track, Mendez smiled: "I know how to deal with water." Moreno reported from Austin. Staff writers Manuel Roig-Franzia in New Orleans, Blaine Harden in Houston and Christopher Lee, Spencer S. Hsu and Ann Scott Tyson in Washington also contributed to this report._________________

TRIBUTE TO KATRINA

http://www.gmagic.com/katrina/

Another ridculous mistake in judgement?

Grandma Charged With Looting Freed

GRETNA, La. Sept. 17, 2005--- 73-year-old diabetic grandmother and church elder who ended up in prison for more than two weeks after authorities accused her of looting was released from jail Friday evening.
"I thank God this ordeal is over," she said after being released from the parish jail. "I did nothing wrong."
Police arrested Merlene Maten the day after the hurricane on charges she took $63.50 in goods from a looted deli. Though never before in trouble with the law, her bail was set at a stiff $50,000.
The town of 17,500 across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, has also been criticized for the actions of its police chief, Arthur Lawson Jr., who ordered officers to block a bridge leading into the community, shortly after Katrina's landfall. Gretna is almost two-thirds white. New Orleans is two-thirds black.
Family and eyewitnesses insist Maten only went to her car to get some sausage when officers cuffed her in frustration, unable to catch younger looters at a nearby store.
Despite intervention from the nation's largest senior lobby, volunteer lawyers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and even a private attorney, the family fought a futile battle for 16 days to get her freed.
Then, hours after her plight was featured in an Associated Press story, a local judge on Thursday ordered Maten freed on her own recognizance, setting up a sweet reunion with her family.
"I'm just gonna hug her and say 'Mom, I'm so sorry this had to happen,"' Maten's tearful daughter, Elois Short, told AP shortly after getting the news.
Maten must still face the looting charge at a court hearing in October. But the family, armed with several witnesses, intends to prove she was wrongly arrested outside the hotel.
"There were people looting, but she wasn't one of them. Instead of chasing after people who were running, they (police) grabbed the old lady who was walking," said Short, who works in traffic enforcement for neighboring New Orleans police.
Defense attorney Daniel Becnel, family members and witnesses said police snared Maten in the parking lot of a hotel after floodwaters swamped her New Orleans home. She had paid for her room with a credit card and followed authorities' instructions to pack extra food, they said.
She was retrieving a piece of sausage from the cooler in her car and planned to grill it so she and her husband, Alfred, could eat, according to her defenders. The parking lot was almost a block from the looted store, they said.
"That woman was never, never in that store," said Naisha Williams, 23, a New Orleans bank security guard who said she witnessed the episode and is distantly related to Maten. "If they want to take it to court, I'm willing to get on the stand and tell them the police is wrong. She is totally innocent."
Police Capt. Steve Carraway said Wednesday that Maten was arrested in the checkout area of a small store next to police headquarters.
The arrest report is short and assigns the value of goods Maten is alleged to have taken at $63.50. The items are not identified.
"When officers arrived, the arrestee was observed leaving the scene with items from the store. The store window doors were observed smashed out, where entry to the store was made," police reported.
Christine Bishop, the owner of the Check In Check Out deli, said that she was angry that looters had damaged her store, but that she would not want anyone charged with a crime if the person had simply tried to get food to survive. "Especially not a 70-year-old woman," Bishop said.
"Why would someone loot when they had a car with a refrigerator and had paid with a credit card at the hotel?" asked Becnel. "The circumstances defy the theory of looting.
As Maten's case neared conclusion, controversy over the bridge blockade intensified.
Three days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Gretna officials learned that people trapped in downtown New Orleans were being told to make their way over the bridge called the Crescent City Connection.
Officials quickly organized a bus caravan to take 6,000 victims to an evacuation center about 16 miles away, but they were overwhelmed, as people began gathering near a mall just over the bridge.
Looting and a fire inside the mall convinced Lawson that his city, itself without power and water, could not handle the masses pouring in from New Orleans. He ordered rifle-carrying officers to block the bridge.
"We all of a sudden were receiving hundreds of people who were being told, 'If you cross over the bridge there was food, shelter, water and buses,' which we had none of," Lawson said Thursday in an AP interview.
"Basically, we had people thrust at our doorstep, and we were unprepared," he said. "If the city of New Orleans was unprepared, how can we, in a city of 3.5 square miles, be prepared?"
The Gretna City Council passed a resolution Thursday supporting the police chief's move. Lawson said the council's lone black member also endorsed the decision.
The move gained notoriety after two emergency responders from San Francisco who were in the crowd turned back by police wrote about the incident in a socialist newspaper.
Criticism surfaced again Thursday from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who lashed out at the neighboring city during a news conference.
"When we allowed people to cross the Crescent City Connection because people were dying in the convention center, that was a decision based upon people," Nagin told reporters. "Now, if they made a decision based upon assets, to protect assets over people, and to have attack dogs and armed people with machine guns, then they're going to have to live with that."
Lawson said his officers did not carry machine guns. He said allowing people into Gretna was not an option, in part because the town already was under an evacuation order.
"It was a situation that was hostile and volatile because people in New Orleans were given misinformation. Lawson said.
© MMV The Associated Press

Neglegent Homicide?

Charles Foti, Louisiana's attorney general has charged two owners of a New Orleans nursing home with negligent homicide because, to quote Reuters the state "presumes" 34 residents of the facility drowned during the flood. No need for autopsies: elderly patients seldom die of natural causes, especially under stress. That's why Salvador Mangano Sr., 65, and his wife, Mable, 62, decided against evacuating these folks. They thought their patients stood a better chance of surviving Katrina and the government's "help" in their own beds. Given the number of elderly people who died in their wheelchairs at the Superdome, anyone with any sense would have agree. Talk about negligent homicide! Even if we forget about the 34 souls the Manganos supposedly killed, the state to date has contributed to 389 deaths in Louisiana alone. Government's poor maintenance allowed the levees to crack; its false promises of salvation during an emergency persuaded many people to make bad choices; its incompetence at rescue work and its deliberate thwarting of private efforts killed more..... Attorney General Charles Foti has worked for the "beast" most of his life. According to Foti's own website, he first "served" as "an attorney for several local, state and federal agencies." Then he "served" "for 30 years as one of the most innovative law enforcement officials in the United States, Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff.... In his tenure as Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff, he oversaw the expansion of the parish jail, growing from 800 prisoners in 1973 to more than 7,000 currently." Behold the measure of success for Our Rulers. Those who incarcerate 10 times as many people as their predecessors, who rip almost 10 times as many victims from their families and shatter almost 10 times as many futures and dreams, strut among us as attorneys general. One of Charles Foti's special interests is "the elderly and the disabled." He claims that he "has for many years been an advocate for the elderly." Unless, of course, they happen to own nursing homes when Louisiana's authorities need a red herring to distract attention from their own criminal neglegence. And Foti is doing his best to reel that herring in. According to Chuckie: "We feel we have criminal negligence,They did not follow the standards of care that a reasonable person would follow in a similar circumstance."-----Is he talking about the Manganos or FEMA? "They were warned repeatedly both by the media and by the St. Bernard Parish emergency preparation people that the storm was coming. Their inaction resulted in the death of these people."--------- He MUST be referring to FEMA! The Manganos not only cared for their patients, they invited friends and family to take shelter with them at the nursing home because they considered it to be safe. The Manganos neither starved anyone or held them at gunpoint as was the case at the Superdome. The Manganos had to make a decision and they did. Government agencies are still in the process of decision making and the storm has passed! Did the Manganos make a bad decision? They probably did. Did Government agencies make bad decissions? Most definately!

Bush Vacation

Help DR. BEN!

"A week or so ago I experienced the single most traumatic week of my life," So on 090805 I put on an old nasty "Mr. T I PITY THE FOOL" tshirt to go salvage what I could from our wrecked home....LOL.... My friend Jay Scully and I were driving to my former house on 2nd Street in Gulport, Ms. that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. I arrived at the railroad tracks when the MP's wouldn't let me cross a barricade that is literally 200 feet or so from my house. They told me "no one" could pass and so I would have to take another route which was about an extra 20 minutes of driving. Now thanks to Dubya Gump and Mr. Cheney gas is really expensive and extremely hard to get anywhere Katrina has destroyed so needless to say I was extremely aggravated that they wouldn't let me pass. Then suddenly a long line of dark cars pulls up and they start honking at me to backup to let the long line of cars through the barricade that supposedly no one can drive through. Well that pissed me off even more so I waved a middle finger at the caravan. I drove the extra 20 minutes and finally made it back to my destroyed house filming video of the destruction along the way. A few minutes later I overheard a neighbor say that Dick Cheney was down the street talking to people. Now I know Dubya Gump and Mr. Dick do NOT control the weather but I am no fan of them for several reasons. Unlike some people I am in the business of saving lives so I am not happy about the fact that so many people have died in the aftermath of Katrina due to the slow action of FEMA not to even mention the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time for all the wrong reasons i.e. Iraq. And for those who don't know Mr. Cheney is infamous for telling Senator Leahy "GO **** YOURSELF" on the senate floor. Now my neighbor was talking to two police officers at the time and so I asked them if me and my friend could go down and see what was going on. They said they were looking forward to talk to the locals...LOL. So we grabbed my Canon digital rebel and my Sony videocamera and started walking down the street. And then right in front of the destroyed tennis court I used to play on Dick Cheney was giving a pep rally talking to the press. The secret service guys patted us down and waved the wands over us and then let us pass. Anyway I was standing about 10 feet away from Mr. Cheney while my friend was filming. I then took a picture of him and then yelled "Mr. Cheney Go F**** Yourself....Go F**** YOURSELF....Go F**** Yourself...you *******". I had/have no intention of harming anyone but merely wanted to echo Mr. Cheney's infamous words back at him. At that moment I noticed the secret service guys with a panic stricken look on their faces like they were about to tackle me so I calmly began walking back to my house waved to one of them and said "Have a nice day". My friend videotaped a little bit longer and then he came back to the house. We were loading the things we could salvage and about 10 minutes or so later two MP's waving M-16's showed up at my house. They said they were looking for someone who fit my description who had cursed at the VP. I told them I was probably the person they were looking for and so they put me in handcuffs and 'detained' me for about 20 minutes or so. My right thumb went numb because the cuffs were on so tight but they were fairly courteous and eventually released me after getting all my contact info. They said I had NOT broken any laws so I was free to go.
My wife, Lisa Marble, was featured on CNN after having our baby Sofia Grace shortly after the storm but the truth is we are still luckier than many people down here because at least we didn't die in the worst natural disaster in the history of our nation. Nevertheless I thought I could try to raise some awareness to the bad policies of the Dubya Gump administration and also possibly raise some money to replace the many things we lost. So I am going to auction the mini-dvd we personally shot of the event plus a bunch my personal footage of the disaster....(not to be mistaken with the video shown on "The Daily Show" or anywhere else which is already all over the web). I will also grant an interview to the winner if so desired." For those who wish to help me directly my paypal id is 'clone9@yahoo.com'

Ben Marble, M.D.

http://hurricanekatrinasucked.com/

FEMA SUCKS!!!!!

Adding fuel to recent and growing criticism of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, a recently revealed government memo shows that the federal agency tasked with handling emergency relief efforts waited until after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast before seeking additional authority to deploy thousands of Department of Homeland Security personnel to the area. The August 29 memo from Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael D. Brown to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, which was obtained by the Associated Press, asks for 1,000 workers within 48 hours and 2,000 more within seven days.The category four hurricane hit land around 6 a.m. on Monday, August 29. Later that day, President George W. Bush declared Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana disaster areas. FEMA had already positioned some teams in the area, but waited until after the hurricane struck to ask the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA's umbrella agency, for additional help. The letter from Brown to Chertoff is polite and deferential. It does not sound urgent. "It is beneficial to use DHS employees as it allows us to be more efficient responding to the needs of this disaster and it reinforces the Department's All-Hazard's Capabilities," wrote Brown. "Thank you for your consideration in helping us meet our responsibilities in this near catastrophic event."The letter says that training will be provided for the requested personnel and that their responsibilities would be to "establish and maintain positive working relationships with disaster-affected communities and the citizens of those communities" and to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public."

Katrina's victims need a bed.

If anyone is within 500 miles of New Orleans & has an extra bed, couch or cot you can help. Please help if you can. These people have lost everything!

http://www.hurricanehousing.org/