Money Earmarked for Evacuation Was Redirected
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Money Earmarked for Evacuation Redirected

As far back as eight years ago, Congress ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a plan for evacuating New Orleans during a massive hurricane, but the money instead went to studying the causeway bridge that spans the city's Lake Pontchartrain, officials say.

The outcome provides one more example of the government's failure to prepare for a massive but foreseeable catastrophe, said the lawmaker who helped secure the money for FEMA to develop the evacuation plan.

"They never used it for the intended purpose," said former Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La. "The whole intent was to give them resources so they could plan an evacuation of New Orleans that anticipated that a very large number of people would never leave."

In Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, attention has focused on the inability of local and federal officials to evacuate or prepare for the large number of poor people, many of them minorities, who had no access to transportation and remained behind.

That possibility was one of the concerns that led Congress in 1997 to set aside $500,000 for FEMA to create "a comprehensive analysis and plan of all evacuation alternatives for the New Orleans metropolitan area."

Frustrated two years later that nothing materialized, Congress strengthened its directive. This time it ordered "an evacuation plan for a Category 3 or greater storm, a levee break, flood or other natural disaster for the New Orleans area."

The $500,000 that Congress appropriated for the evacuation plan went to a commission that studied future options for the 24-mile bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney said.

The hefty report produced by the Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission "primarily was not about evacuation," said Robert Lambert, the general manager for the bridge expressway. "In general it was an overview of all the things we need to do" for the causeway through 2016.

Lambert said he could not trace how or if FEMA money came to the commission. Nor could Shelby LaSalle, a causeway consulting engineer who worked on the plan.

LaSalle said it would be "ludicrous" to consider his report an evacuation plan, although it had a transportation evacuation section, dated Dec. 19, 1997. That part was tacked on mainly to promote the causeway for future designation as an official evacuation route, LaSalle said.

"We didn't do anything for FEMA," he added.

Asked why the congressional mandate was never fulfilled, Barry Scanlon, senior vice president in the consulting firm of former FEMA Director James Lee Witt, said he believes the agency did what it needed when it gave the money to the state.

"FEMA received an earmark which it processed through to the state as instructed by Congress," Scanlon said. Witt is now a private consultant to Gov. Kathleen Blanco, D-La., on the Katrina aftermath.

Tauzin said he, too, could never find out where the money went. "They gave it to the causeway commission? That's wacky," he said.

At the time eight years ago, the Louisiana delegation had plenty of political muscle to get the money. Then-Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, which controls the government's purse strings.

Livingston, now a lobbyist, said he could not explain what happened either, although he knew of other predictive hurricane studies over the years.

"Do I wish the study had been made? Sure, but now that's by the boards. We're doing the best we can right now to repair and rebuild," he said.

FEMA typically contracts its studies to private or government entities. Kinerney, the agency spokesman, said it appeared the money went through the Louisiana government. State emergency and transportation officials said they did not recall it.

After nothing came of its first directive, FEMA addressed the need for an evacuation plan "off and on" over the years, Kinerney said. Last year, the agency undertook the massive "Hurricane Pam" project that was supposed to create a comprehensive emergency plan for New Orleans.

That work was unfinished when Katrina struck, though its first phase involved an elaborate hurricane simulation that was eerily predictive of Katrina's disaster.

Asked about any earlier FEMA-funded plan, Mark Smith, spokesman for the state Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said, "To the best of our knowledge we can find no information on this."

Congress' 1999 language directed that FEMA consult with that state agency as well as the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

FEMA's parent agency, the Homeland Security Department, did provide $75,000 to print 1 million evacuation maps that were distributed this year for the state's updated transportation evacuation blueprint, state transportation spokesman Mark Lambert said.

That plan used phased evacuation orders and reverse-flow traffic patterns to avoid the highway snarls New Orleans saw during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

But that plan was designed for traffic management, not to provide transportation or contingencies for the infirm, elderly and poor who could not get out on their own, officials said.

Breitbart ~ Associated Press ** Money Earmarked for Evacuation Redirected

NASA's plan to create new generation of space vehicles to replace shuttle fleet; trip to the moon
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Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

Apollo 12 mission Commander Charles P. "Pete" Conrad is shown on the moon's surface in this Nov. 1969 file photo. >>>>>

NASA to unveil plans for 2018 moon mission

WASHINGTON - NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the moon by 2018.

The U.S. space agency now expects to roll out its lunar exploration plan to key Congressional committees on Friday and to the broader public through a news conference on Monday, Washington sources tell Space.com.

President George W. Bush called in January 2004 for the United States to return to the moon by 2020 as the first major step in a broader space exploration vision aimed at extending the human presence throughout the solar system.

NASA has been working intensely since April on an exploration plan that entails building an 18-foot (5.5-meter) blunt body crew capsule and launchers built from major space shuttle components, including the main engines, solid rocket boosters and massive external fuel tanks.

That plan, called the Exploration Systems Architecture Study, was presented by NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, his space operations chief Bill Gerstenmaier and several other senior agency officials Wednesday afternoon to senior White House policy officials, including an advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney and the president's Deputy National Security Advisor J.D. Crouch.

NASA's plan, according to briefing charts obtained by Space.com, envisions beginning a sustained lunar exploration campaign in 2018 by landing four astronauts on the moon for a seven-day stay.

The expedition would begin, these charts show, by launching the lunar lander and Earth departure stage (essentially a giant propulsion module) on a heavy-lift launch vehicle that would be lifted into orbit by five space shuttle main engines and a pair of five-segment shuttle solid rocket boosters.

Once the Earth departure stage and lunar lander are safely in orbit, NASA would launch the Crew Exploration Vehicle capsule atop a new launcher built from a four-segment shuttle solid rocket booster and an upper stage powered by a single space shuttle main engine.

The CEV would then dock with the lunar lander and Earth departure stage and begin its several day journey to the moon.

NASA's plan envisions being able to land four-person human crews anywhere on the moon's surface and to eventually use the system to transport crew members to and from a lunar outpost that it would consider building on the lunar south pole, according to the charts, because of the regions elevated quantities of hydrogen and possibly water ice.

One of NASA's reasons for going back to the moon is to demonstrate that astronauts can essentially "live off the land" by using lunar resources to produce potable water, fuel and other valuable commodities. Such capabilities are considered extremely important to human expeditions to Mars which, because of the distances involved, would be much longer missions entailing a minimum of 500 days spent on the planet's surface.

NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle is expected to cost $5.5 billion to develop, according to government and industry sources, and the Crew Launch Vehicle another $4.5 billion. The heavy-lift launcher, which would be capable of lofting 125 metric tons of payload, is expected to cost more than $5 billion but less than $10 billion to develop, according to these sources.

NASA's plan also calls for using the Crew Exploration Vehicle, equipped with as many as six seats, to transport astronauts to and from the international space station. An unmanned version of the Crew Exploration Vehicle could be used to deliver a limited amount of cargo to the space station.

NASA would like to field the Crew Exploration Vehicle by 2011, or within a year of when it plans to fly the space shuttle for the last time. Development of the heavy lift launcher, lunar lander and Earth departure stage would begin in 2011. By that time, according to NASA's charts, the space agency would expect to be spending $7 billion a year on its exploration efforts, a figure projected to grow to more than $15 billion a year by 2018, that date NASA has targeted for its first human lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Senate approves $16.4 billion budget

The U.S. Senate approved a $200 million budget increase for NASA Thursday.

The NASA funding was approved as part of a $48.9 billion spending bill that also funds the Justice and Commerce Departments. Of that amount, NASA would receive $16.4 billion for 2006, about $60 million less than the agency requested but $200 million more than it had to spend this year.

The House of Representatives approved NASA's budget in July, providing $15 million more for NASA than it requested but the House bill also would require NASA to spend $110 million more on aeronautics research than it would like, or $952 million.

Similarly, the Senate bill would require NASA to spend $250 million in the year ahead preparing for a space shuttle mission to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA requested only a fraction of that amount for the proposed mission.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued a press release Thursday afternoon highlighting, among other things, the extra money added funds for the Hubble Space Telescope. Her press release also states that the $16.4 billion approved by the Senate "fully funds all major space science and earth science programs, the space shuttle, space station, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and the Moon-Mars initiative."

The Senate passed the spending bill by a vote of 91-4.

The House and Senate now must work out the differences between the two bills before sending the spending legislation to the White House for the president to sign into law.

USA Today ~ Space.com - Brian Berger ** NASA to unveil plans for 2018 moon mission

Feds Release Report on Sexual Behavior ~ More Women Experimenting with Bisexuality
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Now Playing: Advance Data From Vital and Health Statistics
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Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures: Men and Women 15-44 Years of Age, United States, 2002

Advance Data 362. Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures: Men and Women 15-44 Years of Age, United States, 2002. 56 pp. (PHS) 2003-1250.
View/download PDF 1.2 MB

Objective: This report is intended to provide reliable national estimates of some basic statistics on certain types of sexual behavior, sexual orientation, and sexual attraction for men and women 15-44 years of age, based on data collected in the United States in 2002. The data are relevant to public health concerns, including efforts to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and to demographic and social concerns such as birth and pregnancy rates among teenagers. The data are from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), and are based on 12,571 in-person interviews with men and women 15-44 years of age.

Highlights of findings

Teens
♥ At ages 15-19, about 12 percent of males and 10 percent of females had had heterosexual oral sex but not vaginal intercourse. (The male-female percentages are not significantly different.) This percent drops to 3 percent for both males and females at age 22-24, when most have already had vaginal intercourse. There are no trend data for females. Trend data for males suggest that no large changes in these behaviors have occurred since 1995.

Adults-heterosexual activity
♥ Among adult males 25-44 years of age, 97 percent have had sexual contact with an opposite-sex partner in their lives; 97 percent have had vaginal intercourse, 90 percent have had oral sex with a female, and 40 percent, anal sex with a female. Among women, the proportions who have had sexual contact with an opposite-sex partner were similar.
♥ Males 30-44 years of age reported an average (median) of 6-8 female sexual partners in their lifetimes. Among women 30-44 years of age, the median number of male sexual partners in their lifetimes was about four. The findings appear to be similar to previous surveys conducted in the early 1990's.

Same-sex activity
♥ Three percent of males 15-44 years of age have had oral or anal sex with another male in the last 12 months (1.8 million). Four percent of females had a sexual experience with another female in the last 12 months.
♥ The proportion who had same-sex contact in their lifetimes was 6 percent for males and (using a different question) 11 percent for females.
♥ About 1 percent of men and 3 percent of women 15-44 years of age have had both male and female sexual partners in the last 12 months.

Sexual orientation
♥ In response to a question that asked, "Do you think of yourself as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or something else?" 90 percent of men 18-44 years of age responded that they think of themselves as heterosexual, 2.3 percent of men answered homosexual, 1.8 percent bisexual, 3.9 percent "something else," and 1.8 percent did not answer the question. Percents for women were similar. These findings are similar to data collected in 1992 by Laumann et al.

Sexual attraction
♥ Survey participants were asked if they were sexually attracted to males, to females, or to both. Among men 18-44 years of age, 92 percent said they were attracted "only to females," and 3.9 percent, "mostly" to females. Among women, 86 percent said they were attracted only to males, and 10 percent, "mostly" to males. The percentage attracted "mostly to males" was 3 percent in a survey conducted in 1992, compared with 10 percent in the 2002 NSFG.

Selected health measures
♥ 29 percent of men who have ever had male-male sexual contact were tested for HIV (outside of blood donation) in the last year, compared with 14 percent of men with no same-sex sexual contact.
♥ 17 percent of men who ever had male-male sexual contact had been treated for a non-HIV sexually transmitted infection (STI), compared with 7 percent of those who had never had male-male sexual contact.
♥ Among men 15-44 years of age who had at least one sexual partner in the last 12 months, 39 percent used a condom at their most recent sex. Among never married males, this figure was 65 percent, compared with 24 percent of married males. Among males who had ever had sexual contact with another male, 91 percent used a condom at their last sex, compared with 36 percent of men who never had sex with another male.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ~ Advance Data From Vital and Health Statistics ** Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures: Men and Women 15-44 Years of Age, United States, 2002

Slippery slope arguments are never valid. (Sarcasm: OFF)...

More Women Experimenting with Bisexuality

Survey: Females in late teens and 20s report increasing same-sex contact

More women - particularly those in their late teens and 20s - are experimenting with bisexuality or at least feel more comfortable reporting same-sex encounters, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The survey, released Thursday by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, found that 11.5 percent of women, ages 18 to 44, said they've had at least one sexual experience with another women in their lifetimes, compared with about 4 percent of women, ages 18 to 59, who said the same in a comparable survey a decade earlier.

For women in their late teens and 20s, the percentage rose to 14 percent in the more recent survey. About 6 percent of men in their teens and 20s said they'd had at least one same-sex encounter.

While those who conducted the survey took measures to protect respondents' privacy, researchers say it's unclear whether the figure for men was lower because they're are more likely to avoid same-sex experiences or whether they're not reporting them.

It wouldn't surprise Kat Fowler, a 27-year-old art student who dates both women and men, if men were less likely to talk about their experiences.

"There?s a certain higher level of discrimination (for men). It's a lot easier for women to have these kinds of experiences and be open about it because it's more accepted," said Fowler, who attends the University of Florida.

The findings on bisexuality and other aspects of Americans' sexual habits were taken from the National Survey of Family Growth, which included 12,571 in-person interviews, done from March 2002 to March 2003. Overall, researchers said the report shows that most people have relatively few partners and are at a low risk for sexually transmitted diseases.

"Instead of just anecdotes and stories that raise people's anxieties, I think it's best to have real numbers," said William Mosher, the statistician who oversaw the report. "And now we have those."

A rite of passage?
When it comes to women and same-sex relationships, Mosher said it would be worth studying why young women seek such relationships, and whether they may be trying to avoid diseases more commonly spread through sex with men.

But some experts who study sexuality say it's even more likely that many college students simply see experimentation as a rite of passage.

"It's very safe in the academic community; no one thinks anything of it," said Elayne Rapping, a professor of American studies at the University of Buffalo who has written about sexuality.

"But to some extent there's more talk than action," she added, noting that the bisexuality label has become a "badge of courage" for some college women, even those who only date men. Meanwhile, she said, men who have same-sex experiences are often less likely to talk about it publicly.

The trend among college women has prompted some sexual behavior experts to light-heartedly refer to the term "LUG," or "lesbian until graduation," said Craig Kinsley, a neuroscientist at the University of Richmond who studies the biology of sexual orientation and gender.

In other findings, the survey said that about 10 percent of females, ages 15 to 19, and 12 percent of males had experienced heterosexual oral sex but not vaginal intercourse. While no earlier data were available for young women, percentages for young men in 1992 were about the same, researchers said.

Those numbers dropped substantially for people in their 20s, who were more likely to have had vaginal intercourse.

Increased condom use
The survey also revealed that 39 percent of men, ages 15 to 44, who'd had at least one sexual partner in the last year said they used a condom during their most recent sexual encounter. That figure rose to 65 percent for men who'd never been married - and 91 percent for men who'd ever had sexual contact with another man.

Mosher said it was likely that men in higher-risk categories were heeding campaigns that encourage them to use condoms.

"Whether the levels (of condom use) are high enough is for others to judge," Mosher said. "But I think it's at least encouraging."

The survey of adults has a margin of error of 1 percentage point and 3 percentage points for the teen data.

MSNBC.com ~ Associated Press ** More women experimenting with bisexuality

Hitchens vs. Galloway ~ The Grapple In The Apple
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Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

Hitchens vs. Galloway ~ The Grapple In The Apple

I must say I missed it. Having only now heard the pre-debate bullshit from the peacenik pacifist libtards, then Hitchens' opening kick-ass statement. Here is a repost of Mark Coffey, who liveblogged it...

The Real Wrapup

Here's the bottom line: Hitchens laid out the case for Iraq in terms of a commitment to democracy and freedom and a stance against the jihadists and their theocratic dreams. Galloway…well, Galloway engaged in a lot of ad hominem attacks, dwelt overly long on the past statements of Hitchens, and never really answered the charges that he hobnobs with (and takes money from) dictators, because, of course, he can’t answer the charges. Galloway clearly showed himself to be an anti-Semite, anti-American, and a traitor to his own country, and if you think that's too strong, wait until the transcript comes out (I'll link to one when I find one), or better still, watch the debate yourself C-Span 2 on Saturday. Hitchens clearly won the debate against the much-vaunted Galloway, despite having to overcome a partisan crowd.

(Play-by-play excerpts - typos included)

Jennifer Rush(?) - local Galloway coordinator - provides intro - leftist propaganda, as you would expect - Amy Goodman about to come on...

The video feed is very weak...three minute wait again...the whole thing was a half-hour late because of metal detectors...

It's widely expected by most that Galloway may run away with it, despite the wrongness of his positions, because of his oratory skills...Hitchens, of course, is famous for the pen, and not the mouth...we shall see. Hopefully Hitch has had a chance to quench his legendary thirst prior to the commencement of the fireworks, and will thus be loose...

God, just looking at Galloway is enough to make your skin crawl...

One of the sponsors is the National Socialist Review, a favorite of my readers, to be sure...

Wow, more Galloway propaganda...you'll all want to visit his website here...

Hitch has some fans, for sure! The resolution on the floor: the War in Iraq was just and necessary...

Sigh...More Galloway propaganda...

Hitchens opening statement: begins with a moment of silence for the 160 dead today...

Hitch takes on some fool who talked through the moment of silence: I hope those comments were very much worth hearing...

Hitchens says he questions the assumption that only the pro-war factions have something to answer to...

Hitchens: if we followed the anti-war line, Kuwait would be a province of Iraq, Milosivec would still be ruling, Taliban would be ruling, al Qaeda their guests

H: if I had that record, I would be quite modest...

H lays out the case against Iraq: genocide, starving its people, imploding, Turkey would have invaded, Iran, Saudia Arabia as well, had Iraq fell apart...

Saddam is in jail, soon to face trial...Hitchens says some here will not take delight in this, but I do: it's a long overdue act of justice...

H: We acknowledge the difficulties, which are quite evident...the positive results:

Constitution debated widely in a country where it would have been death to question Saddam...

Kurds - WMDs not a complete bust - busted up Khan network, Qaddafi...Jacques Chirac: a man so corrupt he's willing to pay for the pleasure of selling himself...

Spread of Democracy - the demonstrations in Libya...we intend to stand by the Iraqis (Kurds?) no matter what...

H: This mood would be unthinkable if it were not for the removal of the worst tyrant in the region...

H: It is a disgrace that a member of the House of Commons would go to Washington, decline to testify, and insult those who question him...boos, Hitch says he will not take up his time for the boos! It's getting good...

H: The Oil-For-Food debacle - how dare he show his face in this town in light of the $11 billion stolen from the stolen Iraqis!

Galloway's turn now...

Anyone who can speak and feel this way is far beneath my contempt, and I hope yours...I'm pumped out now...

Galloway: Tries to tie Hitchens to Palestinian terrorism, says Hitchen was against War in Iraq in 1991...

Hitchens told 'gun nut' Heston to keep his wig on, asked him to name 4 countries bordering Iraq, Heston could name now...

G: Still going on and on about 1991...

G: Calls Hitchens a slug, leaving a trail of slime...wow, what a powerful argument!

Oh, boy, here we go: Cindy Sheehan...big round of applause...

No real arguments yet from Galloway whatsoever...

G: Hitchens ready to fight to the last drop of other people's blood...(that's a new one)...

G: Takes a cheap show at the dead of Louisiana lying in the streets for a week...

Galloway screams the whole time, no control over dynamics whatsoever - color me unimpressed...

What a weak argument from Galloway: are you with the foreign occupation of Iraq, or the right of Iraqis to be free...

G: Americans massacred thousands in Fallajuh...

G: Quotes the Lancet study! BwaaaHaaaHaaa...

G: the Neocon slur! What a parody of a leftist (and a despicable moral coward and degenerate to boot)...

G: Now it's blood for oil (or is it Israel?)...I'm confused...the last three minutes Galloway's been screaming at the top of their lungs...

G: England and America two biggest rogue states in the world! Scattered boos...thank God that jerk's through for now...

H: Admits he was mistaken for 1991 stance...

H: How can a man be a pacifist and stand by the dictator of Syria and praise 145 operations a day by insurgents?

H: Galloway praises jihadists who killed UN diplomats...who fight for sharia...big applause!...

H: Galloway is as revolting as Michael Moore comparing the jihadists to the minuteman...

H: the human toothbrush and slobbering idiot Asad, Mr. Galloway's new pal...

H: isn't it revolting to praise the killers of Casey Sheehan, and then to come to American and appeal to the emotions of his mother...Hell, yeah!...

H: takes on the 100,000 Lancet figure...absolutely shown to be false...

H: Iraq is not being occupied by President Talibani...he was born and lived there...

H: While the Leftists are masturbating over their Cheney fantasies, the Iraqis are fighting the biggest fascists seen in years in the jihadists...

H: We make no apologies for standing with the Iraqi left versus fascism...

Galloway again: Defends the Lancet figures, the hall is turning against him...

G: How far has this neocon rot gone into your soul?

G: Again appeals to Hitchens' past - because, naturally, he has no answer to the charges presented by Hitchens...

G: A shameless hack...his whole M.O. is to attack Hitchens personally...what a grade A hole...

G: No al Qaeda in Iraq before Bush and Blair...

G: Completely lost the crowd, blamed 9/11 on the Americans...biggest boos of the night!...

G: By their unending support of the Jews, the U.S. brought on 9/11...he's completely lost...he's rattled!...

Folks, no matter what happens from here on, Galloway lost, and big - if anyone tells you different, they didn't watch with any honest eye...

G: Again takes on the Jews, again huge boos!...

Welcome, Michelle Malkin readers...Galloway took a huge fall when he started bashing the Jews and saying the U.S. deserved 9/11 because of our policies...

Hitchens: That was the appeal to the cerebellum, was it? You'll excuse me for waiting, I was waiting for the other shoe to fall...

Hitchens: The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was probably a bigger spur to violence then free elections in Iraq

H: You picked the wrong month and the wrong city to blame 9/11 on America...

H: When you look at the situation in Gaza, of course, one wants to fly planes into buildings...why didn't I think that?...

H: How dare you stand next to Saddam and the Syrian despot, and say we brought on 9/11 with our own behavior?...

H: Iraq was a strange target for Holy War...is your strategy to avoid war by being nice to the jihadists? This is masochism...brought to you by a sadist...

H: Galloway met with Tariq Ali to discuss diverting funds from Oil-For-Food, and he will not sign an affidavit denying it...and until he does, I will follow him every step of the way...

G: Do you want me to run through the dictatorships you support? H: Please do...

G: Lebanon wasn't Democracy; now he praises the leader of Hizbollah...

I'll say this; a little Galloway goes a long way...this crowd is trying to support him, but even their support is lagging...

G: Brings up the Carlyle Group (sp?)...again with the personal attacks...tells Hitchens he should be ashamed of himself...H: but I'm not...

G: Says Hitchens did write like an angel, now he works for the devil...

First part of the debate is over...Amy Goodman says evil of Saddam was not the main goal of U.S. invasion, it was WMDs...did U.S. engage in active campaign of deception?...

H: That was not the only reason given by Mr. Bush, he presented a whole menu of wrongs by Saddam...

H: I'm not here to answer questions on behalf of the Bush Administration, but the President was right to do what Clinton had only promised to do...

H: I did not endorse the Saudi royal family, nor the Egyption dictatorship...

H: Saddam Hussein gassed his own people...I'm not prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt...

H: Colin Powell running for most overrated person in the world - I don't care if he's UN speech was a stain on his record...

G: Iraq invaded Iran at the behest of the U.S. (and people cheer! What kind of fools...?)...

G: I was against the Baathists before I was for them...

G: I was Saddam's biggest enemy! I?m the king of the world!...

H: I checked with the chairman of the Campaign for the Restoration of Iraqi Democracy, they don't remember you...if Saddam was such a monster, why did you praise him?

G: Falls back on Hitchens' 1991 stance again, though Hitchens has already admitted he was mistaken...

G: I worshipped the ground you walked on then! You chose the lesser evil...

G: Vanity Fair, the whiskey, and all your money changed you...were you wrong in 1991 or are you wrong now? How can we trust you now? Galloway again screaming at the top of his lungs...

G: If you're capable of such grave flipflops, how can you trust you?

H: Yes, we had some fun with Heston, it was all good sport; 1991 was not an invasion of Iraq; but I congratulate you on being absolute consistent in your support of thugs and criminals...

G: If it looks like a duck...oh, clever...U.S. has engineered a puppet regime and intends to never leave Iraq...

G: Halliburton stealing all our money...

Galloway screaming again now at the top of his lungs...now it's the fault of agribusiness in the United States...

G: What Hitchens can't stand is that U.S. agribusiness is losing
(????!!!)...

G: Stands up for the jihadists again, how noble they are!...

G: Only 6% of prisoners of 'resistance' are foreigners...

Galloway now compares jihadists to Vietnamese fighting for freedom...this guy is a real piece of work...

Galloway quotes Juan Cole, calls him more cerebral than Hitchens (scattered boos at the mention of Cole)...

G: Iraqis want the occupation to end: Get used to it, get over it, or you're fooling yourself...

G: when asked if forces should leave immediately, states yes...

H: Thanks Galloway for restating his support of the murderers and beheaders...

H: Even Cole (though he changes his mind once a week) admits that Sistani is Iraqi's spiritual leader, and he favors this transition to a democratic Iraq, as do the Iraqi people...

H: Shame on the people who call this a liberation movement...

Amy Goodman: What about New Orleans? Get ready for a Hitch moment...

H: The President can't order troops into Louisiana unless ordered to by Governor...there were more than enough troops...they weren't order in in time...aren't you proud of Honore?...

H: I'm not going to let Galloway call me racist...for people to pump out propaganda before the bodies are even recovered...to say that these people died because they were black...that they died because we're helping Arabs (mass boos - Hitchens' worst point - so I was wrong again)...

G: Hitchens is a monkey and an apologist for the Bush family - goes after Barbara Bush for her 'underprivileged' comment...

G: Calls Hitchens a court jester...not of Camelot...but of Barbara Bush, "the Marie Antoinette of modern politics"...

H: I didn't defend Barbara Bush...but I won't go to a poor Louisianan and say "Did you know the Arabs stole your money?"...Hitchens warns audience not to jeer the U. S. soldiers...

H: What I say doesn't require your endorsement or your animal noises?...

H: Are you in favor of abandoning Afghanistan to the warlords?
G: It's already happened...

H: We must treat enemies like enemies...not surrendering to the whims of a courtier to dictators...I would never do that...and this man comes straight from embracing this murderers and blame you for what is happening...

Amy Goodman: Christopher Hitchens, is the media friendlier since you've changed your views? H: I frankly think that's a waste of a question...

G: I think this debate is running out of steam...we needn't get any more belligerent towards each other...the most reasonable thing he's said all night...

Galloway appears to be wrapping up, claims the left represents the American mainstream, says Hitchens is trying to conjure up a false picture of Iraq; Iraq is getting worse...

G: Bush and Blair have put religious fundamentalists in power; believe me, Sistani is an Islamic fundamentalist...

G: If either the U. S. or its friend Israel (amazing how anti-Semitic the Left has become) attacks Iran...blah, blah...we have more people who hate us now...

G: This war on Iraq is a disaster: when Talleyrand was told of the murder of a political opponent, an aide said, it's a terrible crime! Talleyrand said it's worse than a crime, it's a blunder...

G: ...ridiculous spectacle of this popinjay who continues to support the war...

H: ...don't mind being called a popinjay, since a popinjay is a target...

H: I don't mind losing the support of the MoveOn.org crowd to take solidarity with the Iraqis...I don't take orders from Michael Moore, nor Oil-For-Food money...ladies and gentlemen, you will feel better about yourself if you help the Iraqis...you'll look on with regret if you support those who sabotage Iraq...

And it's over, folks! Final thoughts: Galloway started weak, ended stronger, and the opposite for Hitchens...but Galloway blundered tremendously with his Jew-baiting and 9/11 is the fault of Americans tactic, and that was the overwhelming misstep of the evening. Give it to Hitchens...and thanks for dropping by!...

First 40 minutes are stalling and bullshit, and Hitchens' opening statement... A HOME RUN, RIGHT OFF THE BAT! ~ Hitchens vs. Galloway ~ The Grapple In The Apple ([LONG] Audio clip)

FAA warned about Al-Qaeda hijacking threat in 1998
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

F.A.A. Alerted on Qaeda in '98, 9/11 Panel Said

By Eric Lichtblau

WASHINGTON - American aviation officials were warned as early as 1998 that Al Qaeda could "seek to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark," according to previously secret portions of a report prepared last year by the Sept. 11 commission. The officials also realized months before the Sept. 11 attacks that two of the three airports used in the hijackings had suffered repeated security lapses.

Federal Aviation Administration officials were also warned in 2001 in a report prepared for the agency that airport screeners' ability to detect possible weapons had "declined significantly" in recent years, but little was done to remedy the problem, the Sept. 11 commission found.

The White House and many members of the commission, which has completed its official work, have been battling for more than a year over the release of the commission's report on aviation failures, which was completed in August 2004.

A heavily redacted version was released by the Bush administration in January, but commission members complained that the deleted material contained information critical to the public's understanding of what went wrong on Sept. 11. In response, the administration prepared a new public version of the report, which was posted Tuesday on the National Archives Web site.

While the new version still blacks out numerous references to particular shortcomings in aviation security, it restores dozens of other portions of the report that the administration had considered too sensitive for public release.

The newly disclosed material follows the basic outline of what was already known about aviation failings, namely that the F.A.A. had ample reason to suspect that Al Qaeda might try to hijack a plane yet did little to deter it. But it also adds significant details about the nature and specificity of aviation warnings over the years, security lapses by the government and the airlines, and turf battles between federal agencies.

Some of the details were in confidential bulletins circulated by the agency to airports and airlines, and some were in its internal reports.

"While we still believe that the entire document could be made available to the public without damaging national security, we welcome this step forward," the former leaders of the commission, Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, said in a joint statement. "The additional detail provided in this version of the monograph will make a further contribution to the public record of the facts and circumstances of the 9/11 attacks established by the final report of the 9/11 commission."

Bush administration officials said they had worked at the commission's request to restore much of the material that had been blacked out in the original report. "Out of an abundance of caution, there are a variety of reasons why the U.S. government would not want to disclose certain security measures and not make them available in the public domain for terrorists to exploit," said Russ Knocke, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.

Commission officials said they were perplexed by the administration's original attempts to black out material they said struck them as trivial or mundane.

One previously deleted section showed, for instance, that flights carrying the author Salman Rushdie were subjected to heightened security in the summer of 2001 because of a fatwa of violence against him, while a previously deleted footnote showed that "sewing scissors" would be allowed in the hands of a woman with sewing equipment, but prohibited "in the possession of a man who possessed no other sewing equipment."

Other deletions, however, highlighted more serious security concerns. A footnote that was originally deleted from the report showed that a quarter of the security screeners used in 2001 by Argenbright Security for United Airlines flights at Dulles Airport had not completed required criminal background checks, the commission report said. Another previously deleted footnote, related to the lack of security for cockpit doors, criticized American Airlines for security lapses.

Much of the material now restored in the public version of the commission's report centered on the warnings the F.A.A. received about the threat of hijackings, including 52 intelligence documents in the months before the Sept. 11 attacks that mentioned Al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.

A 1995 National Intelligence Estimate, a report prepared by intelligence officials, "highlighted the growing domestic threat of terrorist attack, including a risk to civil aviation," the commission found in a blacked-out portion of the report.

And in 1998 and 1999, the commission report said, the F.A.A.'s intelligence unit produced reports about the hijacking threat posed by Al Qaeda, "including the possibility that the terrorist group might try to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark."

The unit considered this prospect "unlikely" and a "last resort," with a greater threat of a hijacking overseas, the commission found.

Still, in 2000, the commission said, the F.A.A. warned carriers and airports that while political conditions in the 1990's had made a terrorist seizure of an airliner less likely, "we believe that the situation has changed."

"We assess that the prospect for terrorist hijacking has increased and that U.S. airliners could be targeted in an attempt to obtain the release of indicted or convicted terrorists imprisoned in the United States."

It concluded, however, that such a hijacking was more likely outside the United States.

By September 2001 the F.A.A. was receiving some 200 pieces a day of intelligence from other agencies about possible threats, and it had opened more than 1,200 files to track possible threats, the commission found.

The commission found that F.A.A. officials were repeatedly warned about security lapses before Sept. 11 and, despite their increased concerns about a hijacking, allowed screening performance to decline significantly.

While box cutters like those used by the hijackers were not necessarily a banned item before Sept. 11, some security experts have said that tougher screening and security could have detected the threat the hijackers posed. But screening measures at two of the three airports used by the hijackers - Logan in Boston and Dulles near Washington - were known to be inadequate, the commission found. Reviews at Newark airport also found some security violations, but it was the only one of the three airports used on Sept. 11 that met or exceeded national norms.

Richard Ben-Veniste, a former member of the Sept. 11 commission, said the release of the material more than a year after it was completed underscored the over-classification of federal material. "It's outrageous that it has taken the administration a year since this monograph was submitted for it to be released," he said. "There's no reason it could not have been released earlier."

NY Times ~ Eric Lichtblau ** F.A.A. Alerted on Qaeda in '98, 9/11 Panel Said

Children's Author: Warning Kids About Liberals in New Book, ''Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed''
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Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

Children's Author: Warn Kids About Liberals

Los Angeles, CA - The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina has exposed an ugly truth about liberals, and parents need to teach this to their kids, according to the author of a controversial upcoming children's book.

Katharine DeBrecht — the author of the soon-to-be-released "Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed" (Kids Ahead; hardcover: $15.95; ISBN 0976726904) — dismisses the notion that parents should not talk to their young kids about politics. If anything, she claims, the behavior of liberals following the flooding of New Orleans shows that parents with traditional values need to take a hands-on approach to making sure their kids aren't bombarded by left-wing messages.

"Liberals don't hesitate in pushing their extremist ideology," says DeBrecht, the mother of three and a co-captain of her state's Security Moms for Bush. "Their actions in the wake of the tragedy in New Orleans shows this only too well."

In support of her point, DeBrecht asserts that as soon as New Orleans" levees burst liberals set out to exploit the tragedy. She notes that Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal immediately blamed President Bush for the flooding, Jesse Jackson claimed black residents were abandoned because of conservatives' racism, and columnist Robert Kennedy Jr. argued that opposition to the Kyoto treaty on global warming caused the hurricane. Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan even used the tragedy to argue against America's liberation of Iraq.

"As crass as they have been in exploiting the tragedy in the Gulf Coast," adds DeBrecht, "they have been equally aggressive in exploiting America's children. From pro-socialist stories like "Rainbow Fish" to attacks on traditional values like "King & King," liberals have been pushing books with their extremist philosophy into our classrooms and school libraries unabated for years. Conservative parents have to do what they can to make sure their kids hear the other side of the story."

Although its official publication date is still a week away, "Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed" has already made waves in the typically staid world of children's publishing. The announcement of the book caused an uproar among liberal commentators, with many claiming the book teaches children to hate. The full-color illustrated story tells of two brothers who open a lemonade stand only to encounter a Ted Kennedy character who taxes away their profits and a pants-suit clad Hillary Clinton look-alike who outlaws sugary drinks.

"Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed" will be available in bookstores nationwide on September 20.

About World Ahead Publishing:
Kids Ahead is an imprint of Los Angeles-based World Ahead Publishing, the West Coast's premier publisher of conservative and libertarian books. To learn more, visit www.worldahead.com.

Contact Information:
To interview author Katharine DeBrecht, contact Special Guests at (630) 848-0750.

WORLD AHEAD PUBLISHING
Jerry McGlothlin with Special Guests
630-848-0750
E-mail Information

Yahoo News ~ PRWeb Free Newswire ** Children's Author: Warn Kids About Liberals

World Doesn't End; Angry Left Hardest Hit
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Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

World Doesn't End; Angry Left Hardest Hit

Hurricane Katrina's death toll "has climbed past 400, making it one of the deadliest hurricanes in the United States in a century," Reuters reports:

Louisiana raised its official death count to 197 on Sunday. Mississippi, the other hardest hit state, had 211 confirmed killed. There were also fatalities, though much lower numbers, in Alabama and Florida.

The number is likely to climb as searchers find more bodies, but the estimates of 10,000 dead that some officials were bandying plainly were far too high. It's even realistic to hope that the toll doesn't top 1,000.

Believe it or not, reaction from the Angry Left is mixed. Josh Marshall calls the apparent lower death toll "possibly encouraging news." But Vanity Fair's James Wolcott saw in the assumed higher death toll an opportunity to diminish a crime against humanity:

Any number substantially higher than 3,000 dead presents a political and symbolic dilemma for the most avid advocates of the War on Terror. . . . Since 9/11, "3000" has been elevated to a sacred, symbolic number in political discourse. . . . If 10,000 deaths amount to but a drop of blood in the abattoir of time, 3000 is an even smaller drop, and once you begin to shrug off large numbers of dead to the caprices of fate, striking a militant pose over a smaller number becomes even harder. . . .

Whatever the final numbers are from Hurricane Katrina, it will be harder for the WOT propagandists to ritualistically invoke the "3000 dead" to the same sonorous effect.

A week and a half ago, we likened the opportunistic spirit in which the Angry Left was attacking President Bush to that which animated looters stealing TV sets. Some of our readers thought this was an invidious comparison, and after reading Wolcott's post, we think they may have a point. Possibly we were too harsh on looters.

Opinion Journal ~ Best of the Web Today - James Taranto ** World Doesn't End; Angry Left Hardest Hit

Novak: Bush Favors Owen to Replace O'Connor
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Novak: Bush Favors Owen to Replace O'Connor

With the confirmation of John Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court now widely considered a certainty, attention has turned to the replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

And despite continuing talk that President Bush might nominate Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to the post, the front-runner now appears to be Federal Appellate Judge Priscilla Owen, according to political pundit Robert D. Novak.

Owen, who is with the 5th Circuit in Austin, Tex., met secretly with the president last week, and Bush knows and admires the Texas Republican.

According to Novak, Washington insiders believe Bush will name a conservative woman to replace O'Connor.

Appellate Judges Edith Clement (New Orleans) and Edith Jones (Houston) have been cited as possible choices. But Owen is considered the strongest candidate for the post.

At age 50, she can guarantee a conservative court for 20 years, Novak writes.

Owen was a petroleum industry lawyer when Republicans tapped her to run for the Texas Supreme Court in 1994. She and Bush, then a candidate for Texas governor, occasionally campaigned together, and Karl Rove was their mutual consultant.

Owen was approved by only a 55-to-43 margin for appellate judge and would face bitter opposition from the left, "but so would any of the other conservative women acceptable to Bush," Novak reports. Gonzales would be a more palatable choice for Democrats, but would face strong opposition from many on the right.

Republican insiders have long believed that President Bush would like to nominate Gonzales in part because of "the historic opportunity it would afford him to appoint the first Hispanic justice – a potential major boost in his long-running campaign to build Republican support among the growing Hispanic population," according to the Washington Post.

But conservatives argue that Gonzales has not proved himself to be devoted to their cause on such issues as abortion and affirmative action.

"You finally get a Republican president, a real Republican majority in the Senate and then you don't move the court to the right?" asked William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard. "It would be totally demoralizing to the president's supporters."

As a Texas Supreme Court justice two years ago, Gonzales sided with the court's decision to allow a 17-year-old girl to get an abortion without notifying her parents.

As Bush's White House counsel, Gonzales also clashed with conservatives over the administration's approach to affirmative action. Brad Berenson, an associate White House counsel from 2001 to 2003, defended Gonzales, saying that many of the objections to his nomination "are based on fear and doubt rather than facts and data. "The conservatives who know Gonzales the best are, to a person, strong supporters of his."

But Bruce Fein, a conservative legal scholar who served in the Justice Department, told the Post: "Al Gonzales has never said or written anything to indicate that he has pronounced conservative convictions – it's been a symphony of silence."

News Max.com ~ Carl Limbacher ** Novak: Bush Favors Owen to Replace O'Connor

LIBTARD AMNESIA ALERT ~ Dem Senate Confirmed Michael Brown
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Dem Senate Confirmed Michael Brown

Democrats who've been complaining about FEMA director Michael Brown still want him fired - saying that Homeland Security czar Michael's Chertoff's decision on Friday to recall him to Washington isn't enough.

"It is not enough to remove Mr. Brown from the disaster scene," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Sens. Dick Durbin, Debbie Stabenow and Charles Schumer complained in a letter to President Bush. "His continued presence in this critical position endangers the success of the ongoing recovery efforts."

As noted by National Review Online's Byron York, however, Brown got glowing reviews from some of his new critics, when he was confirmed by the Senate in 2002.

"Not only was Brown confirmed," noted York. "But he was apparently confirmed by a unanimous voice vote -- when the Senate was controlled by Democrats. . . .

"The whole affair, including tributes from Brown's home-state senators, apparently lasted less then an hour, and ended with [Sen. Joe] Lieberman saying, 'Mr. Brown, I thank you very much. I will certainly support your nomination. I will do my best to move it through the committee as soon as possible so we can have you fully and legally at work in your new position.'"

The hearing was for Brown's nomination as FEMA deputy director - but apparently Brown didn't have to be re-confirmed when he became director.

News Max.com ~ Carl Limbacher ** Dem Senate Confirmed Michael Brown

Plan to reopen French Quarter in 90 days; Scaled-down Mardi Gras
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Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

PLAN TO REOPEN FRENCH QUARTER IN 90 DAYS; SCALED-DOWN MARDI GRAS

The New Orleans business establishment-in-exile has set up a beachhead in a government annex building here, located across the street from the state Capitol.

It is here that organizations like the New Orleans Convention and Visitor's Bureau have begun to plot the rebirth of the city, the NEW YORK TIMES plans to report on Saturday.

In the cramped offices and hallways of this building, called the Capitol Annex, and continuing into the evening at watering holes and eateries scattered around Baton Rouge, New Orleans's business leaders and power brokers are concocting big plans, the most important of which is reopening the French Quarter in 90 days, the paper's Gary Rivlin is planning to report on Page One.

Other schemes being discussed include staging a scaled-down version of Mardi Gras, scheduled to take place at the end of February 2006.

Drudge Report Exclusive ** Plan to reopen French Quarter in 90 days; Scaled-down Mardi Gras