NEW ORLEANS - After struggling for months to come up with $1.1 billion for stage one of New Orleans’ hurricane rebuilding plan, city officials faced with growing public frustration intend to move ahead with a drastically scaled-back first step of $216 million.

The blueprint being released Friday by city Recovery Director Ed Blakely is far more modest than the one he issued in March. But he said it will at least get the rebuilding started and give the public desperately needed signs of progress — which, in turn, will encourage private investment in New Orleans.

“Plans help you make progress,” Blakely said.

The plan — the general outlines of which were approved by the City Council earlier this year — is not the radical remaking of the city urged by some urban planners who wanted to see a New Orleans with a much smaller footprint, and with people moved out of flood-prone areas.

Instead, it largely embraces Mayor Ray Nagin’s settle-where-you-will philosophy, while also endorsing the removal of blight and the creation of parks, affordable apartments and vibrant communities.

All I can come up with is one thought, New Orleans is SINKING, why do these numb-skulls want to dump billions of dollars into rebuilding it?? It’s not going to be there that much longer, why should the taxpayers of this nation have to finance a half-assed rebuilding and a massive cash theft?? That’s what you’ll get if you hand Louisiana politicians $6.1 billion dollars, and I think someone in the Federal government may have realized that little fact…

And let’s face one more fact, that $6.1 billion would take away from Mr. Bush’s war effort in Iraq, he can’t allow that to happen now can he??

By one estimate, rebuilding New Orleans could cost $14.4 billion in private and government money and take at least a decade.

Well, look at the bright side, spread over a decade that’s only $1.4 Billion a year, not too bad if you say it really fast, I just wonder how many hurricanes will hit New Orleans in that 10 year period?? Do you suppose that there will be a Cat 4 or 5 blast New Orleans off the map and take those billions of dollars with it??

But two years after Katrina laid waste to much of the metropolitan area, the rebuilding is slow, stymied by red tape, bureaucratic infighting and what some see as a lack of political leadership.

Lack of political leadership?? Wait a minute, the have ‘Chocolate Ray’, the Dark Knight of New Orleans, and his faithful minion, Chief Warren J. Riley, and oh yeah, the re-elected William ‘Cold Cash’ Jefferson himself, how much more competent leadership can you possibly have?? Throw in Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and hell, you have a ‘four of a kind’, 4 Dems, ALL crooks with their hands out taking anything and everything that’s not nailed down, how can the MSM be so cold hearted as to call that a ‘lack of leadership’??

That is New Orleans leadership at it’s very best…

Full Story Here:
New Orleans scales back on rebuild

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BAGHDAD (AP) - A U.S. attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, northwest of the capital Thursday - one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in an American operation in recent months. The military said it was targeting senior leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq.

American forces have applied fierce and determined pressure on militants, especially al-Qaida in Iraq, since the full contingent of additional U.S. troops arrived June 15. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has recently confronted top American commander Gen. David Petraeus about what he sees as overly aggressive U.S. tactics that harm innocent civilians, according to Iraqi officials.

The military statement detailing Thursday’s air and ground assault said soldiers were acting on intelligence reports about an al-Qaida meeting in the Lake Tharthar region. The southern reaches of the big, man-made lake are about 50 miles northwest of the capital.

The American account said U.S. surveillance confirmed “activity consistent with the reports and supporting aircraft engaged the time-sensitive target.” The first air attack killed “four terrorists,” said the statement.

Full Story Here:
9 Children Killed in U.S. Raid in Iraq

Oh MY Gawd! The horror of it all, those murdering U.S. troops, how dare they attack those innocent children and peace loving goat herders just going about their daily toil to survive, the shame, the tragedy, the outrage of it all, we must have investigations, we have to know, was Blackwater USA in the area?? Can we blame it on them??

How did that sound?? Did I get the right inflection in there?? I’ve been practicing my feigned outrage and indignation for blog posts, and I think I got it down too…

Look, this was an air and ground assault in a somewhat urban area, people are going to die when things like this happen, THAT is a fact of life, I’m not trying to be a heartless bastard, I’m just a realist, I understand what happens in a confrontation like this, and I also understand that the insurgents will deliberately use civilians as human shields as well, and there is one other point I need to make here, the insurgents have been known to lie about the casualties suffered by civilians, it’s called propaganda, and they KNOW how to use it…

The only thing that surprises me about this story is that they didn’t say our guys blew up an orphanage along with a school for the deaf and blind that was holding a fund raiser to buy a new boiler so the little kiddies could stay warm this winter, and they were having a prayer service when WE attacked the innocent little tykes too…

OK, so I was being a a heartless bastard… Sue me…

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has hired a high-powered Washington lawyer to represent him in investigations of mismanagement of the Justice Department. George Terwilliger, a white-collar crime defense attorney and the second-ranking Justice official in the early 1990s, was on the White House’s short list last month to replace Gonzales.

Investigators are look into allegations that Gonzales lied to lawmakers and illegally allowed politics to influence hiring and firing at the department.

Terwilliger said Gonzales, a close friend of the president’s and a former Texas Supreme Court justice, maintains he did nothing wrong or illegal, and that hiring an attorney should not signal any guilt.

“It would really be unfair to individuals who are smart enough to get themselves a lawyer to draw some inference that they need a lawyer because they did something wrong,” Terwilliger said in an Associated Press interview.

Full Story Here:
Alberto Gonzales Hires Defense Attorney

Ya know, I may be wrong, but I am seriously of the belief that there’s going to be a lot of high powered lawyers put on retainer as the Bush administration draws to a close, and being an attorney himself, and especially being the former AG, I am guessing that Gonzo thinks he’s may need an attorney, and as I have heard said, an attorney that represents himself, has a fool for a client, so, all in all, Gonzo is likely making a wise decision…

And since Terwilliger didn’t get the job as AG, and can’t prosecute Gonzo FOR the government, he might as well make a ton of money defending him FROM the government, hell, Terwilliger can’t lose…

Just sayin’…

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NEW YORK (AP) - The director of a group that monitors Islamic militant Web sites said the government leaked an Osama bin Laden video that was passed along to senior U.S. officials on condition that they keep it secret. She claimed the leak rendered certain intelligence-gathering capabilities ineffective.

The White House said it was not responsible for the leak, and a senior official said the director of national intelligence should investigate the allegation.

Rita Katz, who runs the Washington-based SITE Institute, said her decision to pass the video to an official in the Bush administration has had an impact on the ways that the group has for obtaining these videos before they are made available by al-Qaida.

“Due to the leak, sources that took years to develop are now ineffective,” Katz told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “A rare window into the world of al-Qaida has now been sealed shut.” She declined to elaborate on whether she meant people or methods.

In a story first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday, Katz said that on Sept. 7 she contacted White House counsel Fred Fielding, whom she had met before and trusted, and offered the video and a transcript, long before anyone else had a copy.

Katz said she wanted to give the government a head start on the video, which she expected al-Qaida to release in the coming hours. She said she did not expect payment for passing along the information.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the White House was not responsible for the leak and was “concerned about it.”

They are “concerned about it“, well, that’s comforting, I’d hate to think that the clowns running President Numbnutz administration didn’t care, and it’s even MORE reassuring to know that the White House isn’t responsible, many of us have known the White House wasn’t responsible for a long time, but for them to admit it, wow, that’s a huge move, and it thrills me to no end just knowing that our Intelligence community is still obviously populated by the same brainless asshats that were left in place when the Clinton debacle was rendering them useless eunuchs…

“When the White House refers information from an individual or a company, we refer that appropriately to the intelligence community. That’s what happened here,” she said.

Fran Townsend, assistant to the president for counterterrorism and homeland security, told reporters that she would leave any investigation to the director of national intelligence “to ascertain what’s the appropriate way of dealing with this and understanding what happened, so we can ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Ross Feinstein, spokesman for National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, said his office had not yet opened an official investigation, but was looking into the matter.

And you can bet the farm on this statement coming to fruition, there will be many fingers pointed and a couple of guys will fall on their swords and that will be the end of it, it WILL be buried or altered and made to look like it never happened in the 1st place, look at WHO we’re talking about, deception IS their job, dis-information is their shield and they are damn good at covering their own asses in the process…

Katz said Fielding referred her to Joel Bagnal, deputy assistant to the president for homeland security. Bagnal asked her to pass the transcript and video on to Michael Leiter at the National Counterterrorism Center. Katz said she also copied Fielding in on the e-mail.

About an hour and a half after sending her e-mail, she saw news outlets reporting that the government had obtained the video. And soon after that, a transcript appeared on the ABC News Web site and later on the Fox News site.

And there is your answer to the WHO of it all, more or less, either there is a direct leak in the Intelligence community or the MSM has figured out a way to view Intel emails and thus the ability to ferret stories from them directly, or the sender(s) may have done a Bcc and sent it themselves, and if they did, and it was an accident, that’s an accident out Intel people can’t afford to make, and if it was deliberate, well, the word treasonous pops into my mind for some reason…  

In any scenario, the perpetrator needs to be publicly hung by the neck until DEAD…

Full Story Here:
Group Accuses US of al-Qaida Video Leak

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BAGHDAD (AP) - Guards in a security convoy opened fire on a car at an intersection in central Baghdad on Tuesday, killing two Christian women, police said. Separately, suicide car bombings targeting a local police chief and a Sunni sheik working with U.S. forces killed at least 19 people.

Across Iraq, violence claimed the lives of at least 44 people.

Police and witnesses could not immediately give more details about the gunmen in Baghdad except to say they were in a convoy of four SUVs commonly used by private security companies and the Iraqi Ministry of Interior.

While there was no indication Blackwater USA was involved, the attack threatened to increase calls for limits on the security firms that mounted after the Sept. 16 shooting deaths of as many as 17 Iraqi civilians allegedly that company’s guards. The American security company said its employees were acting in self-defense.

Let’s talk about the desire of the Islamic insurgency to continue the war in Iraq regardless of what peace options the al-Maliki administration offers up, let’s talk about the Islamic insurgency murdering these 2 women and driving off to leave the Iraqi police to deal with it, let’s discuss these so-called convoy guards in masks…

‘But wait a minute TexasFred, the article says this was done by private security contractors’, and THAT is the intent of this story and what the hypocritical MSM would love for you to believe, because you see, a lot of people only read the 1st four paragraphs, that’s the meat of the story, and the MSM knows that fact, and let’s face it, a lot of people don’t have an attention span that lasts past 4 or 5 paragraphs, but you’re siting there thinking that I’m trying to deflect blame and make it look like the peaceful Muslims are again being blamed by me for something that private contractors did, right?? They may have been private contractors, but WHO were they contacted TO??

Well, here’s a little tidbit from several paragraphs into the story that should have been right there in the headline, it’s pretty relevant to the initial context of the story in my opinion…

Another policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retribution, said the guards were masked and wearing khaki uniforms. He said one of them left the vehicle and started to shoot at the car while another opened fire from the open back door of a separate SUV.

Our own MSM, and their biased reporting, the anti-American tilt that they give to so many stories, that and the tenacity of the insurgents, presents our forces, and the Iraqi government, with a set of circumstances that are going to be difficult to overcome, not impossible, but difficult…

Our media is the insurgents best friend, and I realize that here in the USA we have to adhere to the tenants of the constitution, free press, free speech and all that, but Iraq isn’t the USA, why in the hell does the MSM have such unfettered access to the entire operation?? Can’t it be at least reined in, if not stopped?? Isn’t there still such a thing as a news blackout?? Can’t reporters and so-called journalists be held to some degree of responsibility instead of being allowed to write their garbage with a tilt?? What the hell has happened to the TRUTH??

There have always been combat reporters but until recent times they were held to a high level of Operational Security, and most used good sense in their reporting, they brought you the story AND the facts and they did it in the 1st four paragraphs, they didn’t bury the most important line of the story half was down the page, and they didn’t give away any and all information available concerning ongoing operations…

Journalistic integrity, another casualty of the war on terror and global PCness…

Full Story Here:
2 Iraqi Women Killed by Convoy Guards

UPDATE: BAGHDAD (AP) - Guards working for an Australian-owned security company fired on a car as it approached their convoy Tuesday, killing two women before speeding away from the latest bloodshed blamed on the deadly mix of heavily armed protection details on Baghdad’s crowded streets.

Full Story Here:
Guards Fire on Car in Iraq, Kill 2 Women

Somehow, I don’t think we can believe one word that comes out of the MSM in Iraq, and what in the hell were the boys from Oz thinking?? And WHY were they wearing masks?? Or, were they??

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Facing untimely resignations, an unpopular war and a troubling 2008 election landscape, Senate Republicans didn’t need another headache this week. But they got one anyway when Sen. Larry Craig vowed Thursday to serve out the last 15 months of his term, despite a court ruling that left intact his guilty plea in a sex sting operation.

The Idaho Republican’s decision gives his GOP colleagues two unpleasant choices. They can resume pressuring him to leave, and risk being seen as disloyal politicians who go harder on alleged homosexual misdeeds than on heterosexual wrongdoings.

Or they can basically ignore him for months, and endure more TV comics’ taunts about a conservative senator convicted in a case involving public bathroom stalls.

Judging from comments in the first hours after Craig’s announcement, Republican senators were unsure exactly where to land. Outright confrontation with Craig, however, seems unlikely.

Full Story Here:
Craig Poses Dilemma for GOP Colleagues

A dilemma?? Sen. Craig creates a dilemma?? Personally, I see NO dilemma, I see a potty pervert that got caught trying to line up a partner and like any other potty pervert that got caught, he has suffered the consequences of his actions, he just doesn’t have the dignity to step down from an office that should be filled with public trust, decency, honesty and morals, things that are only a dim notion to potty pervert Sen. Larry Craig…

And to the 99 other pandering asshats sitting in the Senate, GROW A SET you bunch of gutless wimps, what part of WRONG is WRONG did you guys miss?? Or are there a few more closet peter puffers hiding out under the banner of so-called Republican Conservatism??

“Oh, they’ll NEVER suspect me of being a homo that picks up total strangers in a public rest room, I’m a U.S. Senator and a Republican, I have a cover that can’t be blown…”, pun definitely intended…

It doesn’t matter if the guy is a flaming faggot or some philandering fool cheating on his wife, the standards that a U.S. Senator or Congressman should be held to have got to be the highest in this land, you people need to learn to lead by example, not by whatever you think you can pull off in the closet, no pun intended…

Censure Sen. Craig, demand that he remove himself from the venerable halls of the U.S. Senate, him, and any other pervert or lawbreaker among you, police yourselves and for at least once in American history, install a TRUE and unshakable sense of dignity to your ranks, make America PROUD again, and hope like hell Craig doesn’t have a list of ALL of the wrongdoings that none of you spineless asshats are ever going to stand up and admit on your own…

Actually, I’d love to see it happen, Sen. Craig gets his pink panties in a wad and does a TELL ALL on the U.S. Senate, goes on Oprah and gets her blessing, cries on her shoulder and declares himself a reformed person, OUT and proud and now wants to become an outed libber homo Dem representing all the other oppressed homos in the world, do a potty pervs of the world unite drive, ALL of it, the whole 9 yards of Drama Queen hysterics, THAT would be priceless, and I believe may possibly be more of a dilemma than Sen. Potty Perv presents in his current state of embarrassment…

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WASHINGTON — Presidents don’t have indefinite veto power over which records are made public after they’ve left office, a federal judge ruled Monday.

In a narrowly crafted ruling, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly invalidated part of President Bush’s 2001 executive order, which allowed former presidents and vice presidents to review executive records before they are released under the Freedom of Information Act.

By law, the National Archives has the final say over the release of presidential records and Kollar-Kotelly ruled that Bush’s executive order “effectively eliminates” that discretion. It allows former presidents to delay the release of records “presumably indefinitely,” she said.

The judge ordered the National Archives not to withhold any more documents based on that section of the executive order.

The ruling was made in a lawsuit filed by the American Historical Association and other organizations, which argued that Bush’s Executive Order 13,233 was an “impermissible exercise of the executive power.”

The judge dismissed most of the claims and sidestepped some of the loftier questions, such as whether the entire order was unconstitutional or whether former presidents can claim executive privilege as grounds for withholding documents.

Spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said the White House was reviewing the opinion and considering its options.

SOURCE:
Judge says Bush order on records goes too far

Well, is Mr. Bush going to be taken to task or is this a libber judge out to grind an axe??

I am hoping that it’s a call to prayer meeting thing, as SBeene from Texas Minutemen has said, “This man forgets, or does not believe, that he is a paid employee of US citizens and thus has NO right to pick and choose just which work products we can see or not.”

The far right will claim Bush is being persecuted by the left, the far left will claim it’s a Rove conspiracy come to fruition and those true Conservatives caught in the middle are still paying the bills for a Globalist asshat…

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Monday defended the construction of a fence along the southwest border, saying it’s actually better for the environment than what happens when people illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico line.

“Illegal migrants really degrade the environment. I’ve seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifact in pristine areas,” Chertoff said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “And believe me, that is the worst thing you can do to the environment.”

To curb illegal immigration, the U.S. government plans to complete 370 miles of fencing and put 200 miles of vehicle barriers on the southwest border by the end of 2008. But this has brought complaints that the fence and barriers are harmful to the environment.

Chertoff said the department exceeded its goal to complete 150 miles of fencing along the Mexican border by the end of the 2007 fiscal year, which was Sunday.

He’s seen pictures of it?? He’s seen PICTURES?? Excuse the hell outta me but shouldn’t the director of the HSA have seen it a lot more up close and personal?? Pictures for crying out loud?? And these asshats in the Bush administration want us to fall all over ourselves believing they are taking care of America??

And these lofty goals of fencing?? 150 miles here, this year, 350 miles there next year and the border is STILL over 2/3 unprotected and wide open, that’s really taking care of Homeland Security there Sec. Jerkoff…

Last month, Chertoff said there was glitch in a “virtual fence” - a 28-mile stretch of surveillance technologies near the border southwest of Tucson - and he would not pay the contractor, Boeing Co., until that was resolved. The technologies were not all working together so that images caught on radar could be sent to a Border Patrol agent monitoring the system, Chertoff said Monday.

But he also said the problem “appears to be getting fixed” and Chertoff said the program will undergo its final testing phase over the next 30 days.

There was a glitch in a virtual fence?? And it “appears to be getting fixed”, did ya get that from a series of pictures that you had some lackey take for you while you sat your ass in an office in D.C.??

Virtual fencing that sends messages to Border Patrol Agents that are going to get sent to prison for doing their jobs and stopping the wetbacks, terrorists and drug dealers from coming into the USA, what a concept…

The Bush administration is, as far as border security is concerned, in MY opinion, the most miserable failure in the history of this nation, the Bush administration, all the way up to Bush himself, are the biggest bunch of lying, hypocritical fools to ever inhabit the White House and Washington, D.C.

And the really aggravating part is this, either Bush doesn’t care about the American people, the voters, and their safety, security and opinions or he really is so delusional that HE believes he is doing a marvelous job as POTUS…

Either way, We, The People are the losers and the sooner we get Bush out of office and install a REAL Conservative and not some half-assed RINO Globalist that wants to give America away, the better off we’ll ALL be…

What I have to wonder though is this, does the Bush administration really think that ALL of the American people are so damned stupid that we actually fall for their bullshit??

Full Story Here:
My Way News - Chertoff: Illegals ‘Degrade’ Environment

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