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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (42642)	9/2/2005 12:36:06 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 93284

Bush can and should be impeached -- in front of all the cameras...this fall....He has LIED to take our country into a reckless elective war...Then there is the Valerie Plame LeakGate Scandal...And Now we have the totally ineffective response to the Katrina Tragedy...A board of Directors of a successful Fortune 500 company would have FIRED Bush long ago...Why won't the Senate realize that Bush can't handle being CEO of our country..? He (AND CHENEY) have lied and their Middle Eastern adventure in Iraq and drastic budget cuts (for our infrastructure) have jeopardized our country -- we don't have the level of homeland security we deserve...Where is real leadership when you need it...?

To: American Spirit who wrote (42642)	9/2/2005 1:06:08 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 93284

Bush's Role in the Drowning of New Orleans __________________________________________ By Van Jones Fri Sep 2, 1:30 AM ET Don't say that a hurricane destroyed New Orleans. Hurricanes don't drown cities. It was a "perfect storm" of a different kind that put that great city underwater: Bush-era neglect of our national infrastructure, combined with runaway global warming and a deep contempt for poor African-Americans. The result: catastrophe. The flooding was not a result of heavy rains. It is a result of a weak levee -- one that was in mid-repair when the storm hit. And that levee, which has held back floodwaters for time beyond memory, collapsed for one simple reason: Bush refused to fix it last summer, when local officials were begging him to do so. Instead, he diverted those funds to the war effort. In other words, the dollars that could have saved New Orleans were used to wage war in Iraq, instead. What's worse: funds that might have spared the poor in New Orleans (had the dollars been properly invested in levees and modern pumping stations), were instead passed out to the rich, willy-nilly -- as tax breaks. With those two simple steps, Bush squandered the hard-won Clinton-era surplus. He left the national piggy bank empty for fixing and maintaining basic U.S. infrastructure. (And what was Clinton doing next to the president, giving him cover at a time like this?) Had the levee repairs been completed in a timely manner (two years ago), Katrina would have hit hard, destroyed buildings and probably taken some lives. But it would NOT have cracked open the floodwalls and submerged an entire CITY. It took Bush's criminal neglect of his domestic duties to produce that outcome. But that is only one area of Bush's culpability. Ross Gelbspan says: "Katrina began as a relatively small hurricane that glanced off south Florida, [but] it was supercharged with extraordinary intensity by the relatively blistering sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico." In other words, global warming likely super-charged this hurricane. Yet Bush's energy policies amount to an ongoing conspiracy to add even MORE carbon to the atmosphere, further destabilizing the climate. So get ready for even worse storms next year, and the next. And the next. And the human suffering was not -- and will not be -- equally distributed. Poor people and Black people didn't "choose to stay behind." They were left behind. All evacuation plans required the city's residents to have working, private cars -- plus gas money, nearby relatives or funds for a hotel stay. And if you didn't have all those things, tough luck. Had the responsible agencies valued the lives of the poor, they would have helped the destitute flee in the face of the hurricane -- even those who couldn't afford a car or a motel room. But when the "face of suffering" is Black, somehow our high standards for effective action and compassion begin to sag. Of course, seeing this, Bush could have taken a strong stand for the poor and the suffering. But his half-hearted, emotionally flat statement on Wednesday did little to rally the nation. It seems that, as long as "the terrorists" didn't do it, Bush just can't get himself too worked up about Americans dying by the hundreds. So tonight Americans are dying in the flooded streets of New Orleans like flies. And many of the men and women in uniform who could help rescue them and restore order are nowhere to be found. Instead of helping their grandparents and aiding their neighbors in this time of crisis, Louisiana and Mississippi guardsmen are half-a-world away, fighting for a lie. We are witnessing a monumental leadership failure in the Bush White House, on top of five years of foolish policies that set the city of New Orleans up for this disaster in the first place. We must not be afraid to speak that truth. Some will say that this is no time for playing the "blame game." No time for engaging in "divisive politics." Pardon me. To the contrary: this is exactly the time to draw a clear line of distinction between those of us who have always fought to invest in this country -- and those who happily squandered the national treasure on give-aways and imperial adventures. Between those of us who have long fought to protect the most vulnerable among us, and those who have worked feverishly to undo those protections. news.yahoo.com

To: American Spirit who wrote (42642)	9/2/2005 3:53:58 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 93284

IS CONYERS THE ONLY SENATOR OR REPRESENTATIVE WITH A CONSCIENCE...? Are there any other progressive voices in Congress with the courage to speak out and take action...? rawstory.com Conyers readies gas price gouging, hurricane bankruptcy bills RAW STORY John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, will introduce legislation next week in response to gas price gouging and bankruptcies related to Hurricane Katrina, RAW STORY has learned. Democrats inserted provisions into the bankruptcy bill last year to provide for similar emergencies, but they were stripped out of the final bill. "I plan to introduce legislation explicitly giving the federal government authority to pursue price gouging actions -- price gouging is a national problem, and it warrants a national response," Conyers quipped. "Second, I am introducing a law to amend the Bankruptcy Code so that the most onerous provisions of the new law, scheduled to take effect October 17, do not inflict damage on the millions of victims of Hurricane Katrina and their families. "While these steps won't save lives, they will help alleviate the massive financial burdens in the Gulf and around the nation," he added. He also criticized the government's response to the disaster. "There is no sugarcoating how we got here," he remarked. "There is little doubt the Administration has underfunded flood protection in New Orleans. There is little doubt FEMA and the military did not prepare adequately for the likelihood of flooding in a city below sea level that is in a hurricane prone area." "The task before us today is alleviating the ongoing hardship we see every day. At some point the president will also need to reevaluate the individuals he has placed in charge of FEMA. Clearly, it is unacceptable to have a director who is unaware that the New Orleans Convention Center is being used to house hurricane victims, and a deputy director who asserts that FEMA's performance is "probably one of the most efficient and effective responses in the country's history."

To: American Spirit who wrote (42642)	9/2/2005 4:45:38 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 93284

The Gulf Between Rhetoric and Reality By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com Friday, September 2, 2005; 1:51 PM washingtonpost.com Incredible stuff ...

To: American Spirit who wrote (42642)	9/2/2005 5:19:19 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93284

THIS SHOULDN'T SURPRISE ANYONE... Halliburton gets Katrina contract, hires former FEMA director 1 Sept. 2005 WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Chronicle reported today. The work was assigned to Halliburton's KBR subsidiary under the Navy's $500 million CONCAP contract awarded to KBR in 2001 and renewed in 2004. The repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi. KBR has not been asked to repair the levees destroyed in New Orleans which became the primary cause of most of the damage. Since 1989, governments worldwide have awarded $3 billion in contracts to KBR's Government and Infrastructure Division to clean up damage caused by natural and man-made disasters. Earlier this year, the Navy awarded $350 million in contracts to KBR and three other companies to repair naval facilities in northwest Florida damaged by Hurricane Ivan, which struck in September 2004. The ongoing repair work involves aircraft support facilities, medium industrial buildings, marine construction, mechanical and electrical improvements, civil construction, and family housing renovation. In March, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is tasked with responding to hurricane disasters, became a lobbyist for KBR. Joe Allbaugh was director of FEMA during the first two years of the Bush administration. Today, FEMA is widely criticized for its slow response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Allbaugh managed Bush's campaign for Texas governor in 1994, served as Gov. Bush's chief of staff and was the national campaign manager for the Bush campaign in 2000. Along with Karen Hughes and Karl Rove, Allbaugh was one of Bush's closest advisers. "This is a perfect example of someone cashing in on a cozy political relationship," said Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington watchdog group. "Allbaugh's former placement as a senior government official and his new lobbying position with KBR strengthens the company's already tight ties to the administration, and I hope that contractor accountability is not lost as a result." halliburtonwatch.org