Aspen Times News for Aspen Colorado - Aspen Times Weekly Editorial: "Bleeding-heart liberals who are claiming that Ms. Nature was only acting in self-defense, protecting herself from an administration bent on destroying her, are being rounded up and sent to New Orleans to 'tread water 'til they get their minds right.' President Bush has been uncharacteristically candid in admitting that this war will probably take a terrible human toll. He suggested that the fact that the vast majority of the casualties will be poor and black is the only thing that takes some of the sting out of it."

KRT Wire | 09/16/2005 | Lawyer's firing came after call from Rove

Clinton Gathers World Leaders: "each of the attendees is required to commit to doing something to improve the world."
Intellect: The anti-Bush.

E-mail suggests government seeking to blame groups - The Clarion-Ledger

Why the '74 VW Dasher leaves your Prius in the dust: "Bush would no more force his Big Auto pals to overhaul their terrible fuel technologies than he'd force Karl Rove to give up his beloved raw puppy hearts and eat a salad. "

Heavy contamination of New Orleans sediment hinders testing - Yahoo! News: "The sediments in parts of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes are so contaminated with petroleum products that the EPA hasn't been able to sort out what other potentially hazardous chemicals are spread across the region"

World leaders shake heads as reforms to check nuclear arms spread dumped - Yahoo! News: "the United States had vehemently objected to focusing on disarmament"

Chertoff delayed federal response, memo shows - Yahoo! News

HoustonChronicle.com - Golf fundraiser raises money for secretive fund "Since last year's indictments, [Republican fundraisers] Ellis and Colyandro [who were indicted on additional charges yesterday, according to this page A17 WP story] have had their legal bills paid for by a trust that does not disclose the names of donors....The defense fund is administered as a trust by former Bexar County GOP Chairman Roy Barrera Jr."

Los Angeles Times: Only until further notice: "In the French Quarter, a south-facing brick wall atop Antoine's crumbled, exposing timbers and the old building's attic to the elements. Over the weekend, soldiers for the 82nd Airborne tarped the gap"

No doubt they're putting tarps on the roofs of homes in the poorer neighborhoods, too.

Spending on environment yields big returns: report - Yahoo! News: "every dollar spent on clean water and sanitation in the Third World, for instance, could bring $14 in benefits ranging from lower health care costs to higher work productivity and school attendance....
Every dollar invested in fighting land degradation and desertification, like building terraces to stop hillside erosion, could generate at least $3 in benefits...
And every dollar invested in protecting coral reefs could generate $5, ranging from scuba-diving tourism to renewable fish stocks....
The carbon storage or 'sequestration' potential of forests ranges between $360 and $2,200 per hectare."

Boing Boing: Katrina: Kanye remixed, "George Bush Don't Like Black People"

Now They Tell Us

AlterNet: Overkill in New Orleans: "Officially, Blackwater says its forces are in New Orleans to 'join the Hurricane relief effort.'...But what has not been publicly acknowledged is the claim, made to us by two Blackwater mercenaries, that they are actually engaged in general law enforcement activities including 'securing neighborhoods' and 'confronting criminals.'...They told us they not only had authority to make arrests but also to use lethal force.
...Later we overheard him on his cell phone complaining that Blackwater was only paying $350 a day plus per diem."

Meanwhile, New Orleans police officers earn a starting salary of $32,625 per year including uniform allowance; Louisiana State Police earn a starting salary of $3050 per month - each after completion of a year in the Police Academy.

So, I guess they didn't suspend the prevailing wage law for mercenaries.

Did FEMA Chief Brown's Payment of Millions in False Insurance Claims Help Bush Win Fla. Votes in '04? | BaltimoreChronicle.com

Quoting Bible, Cutting Worker Pay: "The suspension applies to more than 100 counties and parishes in the states hit by Katrina - indefinitely, for all contracts, whether or not they are meant to clean up and rebuild devastated areas. The order cancels 'prevailing wages,' which assure that workers on federal jobs receive hourly pay akin to workers doing similar work in those areas. Prevailing wages in the Deep South states are barely above poverty: $9.55 an hour, for example, for a construction laborer in New Orleans. "

Returning war wounded strain veterans' services: The Daytona Beach clinic is "'12 to 13 people short, including nurses. Doctors have to call in their own patients,'....Recently, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported being underfunded by billions. The underfunding occurred because the budget is figured three years ahead, and no one could have anticipated 'two wars and the additional demand placed on the system,' a VA spokesman said."

Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan: "The draft also includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons."
Like the ones found in Iraq.

Funding the public health response to terrorism