Bush is Going to New Orleans for 2nd Anniversary of Katrina

clipped from http://www.first-draft.com/2007/08/bush-coming-to-.html

Yes he's making an appearance for the anniversary. Here are some of the comments at the Times Picayune and they reflect the vast majority of the comments there:

--NEW ORLEANS MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

--The Prez has some set of ballz comin' down for the anniversary after the his watch has pretty much left New Olreans for dead.

--The last thing we need this time of year is more hot air.

Other commenters really liked the idea of that last comment so don't be surprised if you see some upside down flags. In fact Suspect Device has one already....

Gulfstream at Napa County Airport raises eyebrows

clipped from www.napavalleyregister.com

Spy craft, or just another private jet at Napa County Airport?

That question arose after a Gulfstream jet with a notorious tail number flew in and out of the airport last week.

The plane’s tail number, N1HC, is mentioned in a European Parliament document from 2006 that describes planes chartered by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA reportedly used a plane with that tail number, among other craft, to transport terrorist suspects to secret locations overseas, where the suspects were subjected to extreme interrogation techniques in an effort to gain information about terrorist networks.

According to the European Parliament document, “The N1HC is listed as an alleged CIA airplane, according to the report of the Scottish National Party.”

Flush with Profits from the Iraq War, Military Contractors See a World of Business Opportunities

clipped from http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/59571/?page=3

"These private contractors are really an arm of the administration and its policies," argues Kucinich, who has called for a withdrawal of all U.S. contractors from Iraq. "They charge whatever they want with impunity. There's no accountability as to how many people they have, as to what their activities are."

That raises the crucial question: what exactly are they doing in Iraq in the name of the U.S. and U.K. governments? Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a leading member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which is responsible for reviewing sensitive national security issues, explained the difficulty of monitoring private military companies on the U.S. payroll: "If I want to see a contract, I have to go up to a secret room and look at it, can't take any notes, can't take any notes out with me, you know -- essentially, I don't have access to those contracts and even if I did, I couldn't tell anybody about it."

Fellow Americans: It's time to consider a national strike by workers to take back our democracy

The US Congress, for reasons best understood only by itself, has now revised the FISA laws to allow the Bush Administration to spy on anyone at any time, with or without a reason and certainly without a warrant.

The only person to have "oversight" will be Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. This is the same man that for years has been doing his utmost to undermine every civil liberty we have. This is far worse than merely a situation of the Fox guarding the hen house. Bush has decided to break any he doesn't like while his henchman, Gonzales, assures him its ok. Much like Hitler deciding to throw people he didn't like in concentration camps while the people who served him applauded his actions. It really is as though the inmates have taken over the asylum.

Let's be realistic: the Bush Administration has made an unprecedented power grab. The John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, passed by Congress in 2006 gives Bush the power to institute martial law in the US at any time he decides to do so. On July 17, 2007, as I mentioned in my earlier blog, Bush issued an executive order that would allow him to freeze the assets of anyone for any reason without any oversight and without recourse. He has set up the secretive Northern Command to enforce marshall law.

I'm telling you as plainly as I know how - he's grabbing power because he intends to use it to topple our democracy and take over. This is how dictatorships come into existence. Hitler is a perfect example of a democratically elected/appointed leader who then grabbed power and destroyed the democratic institutions. It's just a matter of time before people start being rounded up and disappeared to those holding pens that Halliburton's subcontractor is building in the southwest. (Did you really think those were for poor Mexican peasants illegally crossing the border?

It's painfully clear that not only is this US Congress is not going to stand up to this President and hold him accountable for laws he has broken, it's now giving him additional powers. In doing so, too many members of Congress have violated their oath to protect and defend the US Constitution.

Congress has let us down. I believe that it is now up to the American people to do what Congress seems to be afraid to do: hold the Bush Administration accountable for its lies, its lawlessness, and its trampling of the US Constitution.

It's time to have a national strike by everyone who thinks that the Bush Administration should not have the power to spy on American citizens. There's no law that says you must go to work if you choose not to. If everyone stayed home from work even one day, I promise you Congress, who seems to be afraid of the Bush Administration, would seriously reconsider taking back its power. In France, national strikes have been used very effectively by the citizens to force their national government to sit up and take notice. As was pointed out by an American living in France in Michael Moore's movie Sicko, in France the government seems to be afraid of the people but in the US, the people seem to be afraid of the government. It's time to turn that around and make our government work for the people.

Let's not be like the Germans at the end of WWII who were utterly surprised to find out that Hitler, who had came into power legally, turned out to be a fear mongering dictator capable of disappearing anyone who he didn't like. It CAN happen here and it WILL happen here if we don't take action to prevent it NOW.

Pass the word. Start talking to your members of Congress about a national strike if they don't take immediate action to do their constitutional duty of oversight over this runaway administration. Talk to your family and friends. Let's put a national strike on the table as a real possibility if the US Congress doesn't put the interests of the democracy before the nefarious interests of the Bush Administration.

See my blog dated July 24, 2007 "Is the Bush Administration Planning a Coup?"