According to VoteNoWar.org, Cuba is offering to send 1,100 doctors with over 26 tons of medical supplies to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The U.S. has not even acknowledged the offer.
Looks like continuing the last battle of the Cold War takes precedence over saving American lives.
You can petition Congress and the White House to accept this offer of aid here.
Just to put the final nail in the coffin of the American Century, looks like W is going to get to select not just one, but two Supreme Court justices. With the Senate little more than a rubber stamp, you can bend over and kiss your rights goodbye.
Think it's going to take the nation a long time to recover from Katrina? It's going to take decades to recover from the damage done to this nation by George W. Bush.
Rarely has a natural disaster become so politicized. From climate change to Iraq to bankruptcy reform, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has touched on many current controversies.
It's been suggested that global warming may lead to more severe weather, including more (and more severe) hurricanes. And forecasters are calling for stronger hurricane seasons in the years to come; however, many are arguing that this is part of a natural cyclical variation. While we know with a good deal of certainly that climate change is occurring, and that part of it is driven by human activity, the picture just isn't clear enough to connect hurricanes with CO2 emissions.
An interesting new candidate has entered the race for the Maryland Senate seat being opened by Paul Sarbanes' retirement. Lise Van Susteren, sister of television personality Greta Van Susteren, supports stem cell research, gay marriage and abortion rights, and called the Iraq war a "terrible mistake." She's got my attention.
From www.venganza.org:
OPEN LETTER TO KANSAS SCHOOL BOARD
I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.
Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster.
After a few hours of Drupal hacking, I've integrated the files archives from the old site into our new setup. Enojy!
This Guardian story mentions in passing:
Not only can operators pinpoint users to within yards of their location by "triangulating" the signals from three base stations, but - according to a report in the Financial Times - the operators (under instructions from the authorities) can remotely install software onto a handset to activate the microphone even when the user is not making a call. Who needs an ID card when they can do that already?
http://www.organicconsumers.org/BTC/cocacola082405.cfm
So in 2001, Coca-Cola builds a bottling plant in Plachimada, India. And then a few months later, the local wells start running dry. And then it turns out that the "free fertilizer" they've been giving out to the locals is lead and cadmium-laden waste sludge from the plant - with no fertilizer value.
Said Veerendrakumar, member of parliament and editor of the influential 'Mathrubhumi' newspaper: ''The fact of the matter is that that water from underground sources is being pumped out free, bottled and sold to our people to make millions for cola companies while destroying the environment and damaging public health''.
Letter to the Editor, Baltimore City Paper, regarding Brian Morton's recent "Political Animal" column, Police State:
So Brian Morton is waking up to the fact that the U.S. is sliding into a police state ("Political Animal", Aug 24 2005). Great. The problem is that this is not a post-9/11 phenomenon, but a consequence of the "War on Drugs" that has been eroding American civil liberties for decades. And the irony is that Mr. Morton himself, in his previous position as spokesman for drug czar Barry McCaffrey, aided and abetted the process of increasing police power so the state could stick its nose into Americans' private choices.