Tag: Docudharma Times

They Are Not Distortions

They Were Not Misspoken

They Are Lies

And, Those Telling Them Are Liars

Devastating Ike roars ashore in Galveston



By JUAN A. LOZANO and CHRIS DUNCAN

The Associated Press

Saturday, September 13, 2008; 4:15 AM    

GALVESTON, Texas — A massive Hurricane Ike ravaged southeast Texas early Saturday, battering the coast with driving rain and ferocious wind gusts as residents who decided too late they should have heeded calls to evacuate made futile calls for rescue.

Though it would be daybreak before the storm’s toll was clear, already, the damage was extensive. Thousands of homes had flooded, roads were washed out and several fires burned unabated as crews could not reach them. But the biggest fear was that thousands of people had defied orders to flee would need rescue from submerged homes and neighborhoods.

‘Total destruction’: At least 15 die in head-on Metrolink crash

Commuter train with 225 aboard slams into freight train on winding route in Chatsworth. More than 135 are injured.

 By Joel Rubin, Ann M. Simmons and Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

September 13, 2008    

Rescue teams worked frantically into the night Friday after a Metrolink passenger train carrying 225 people collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train on a sharp curve in Chatsworth, killing at least 15 people and leaving more than 135 injured. It was one of the worst train crashes in Southern California history and Metrolink officials said they could not explain why warning systems failed to prevent such a catastrophic collision.

Los Angeles City Fire Capt. John Virant, his face glistening with sweat hours after the crash, described the scene as “total destruction . . . chaos.” “They are in there removing dead bodies that are lying on top of survivors,” Virant said. In the front train carriage, he said, “it was as if somebody had just taken all the seats and thrown them in there.

USA

Groundhog Day election forces rival teams to alter strategy



Ewen MacAskill in Washington

The Guardian,

Saturday September 13 2008  

After almost two years of campaigning, the US election is arriving with a rush. Although there are 52 days left until the November 4 poll, the first of the ballot booths will open next Friday in Virginia for early voting.

Other states will follow soon after; 36 of the 50 are offering the opportunity to vote early, either in person or by post.

The expansion of early voting is posing a dilemma for the campaign teams, with decisions having to be made about whether to time ads and rallies to coincide with them or whether to delay drives until nearer November 4.

With 30% or more of the electorate predicted to vote early, the Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns are in overdrive.

Sarah Palin Foreign Policy Expert

The Bush Doctrine: Isn’t That The Brush Cutting Operation In Crawford?

9/11 and Iraq: You Can’t Tell Me Saddam Wasn’t Involved After All 19 Of The Hijackers Were from Saudi Arabia

Rule Changes Would Give FBI Agents Extensive New Powers



 By Carrie Johnson

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, September 12, 2008; Page A02    

The Justice Department will unveil changes to FBI ground rules today that would put much more power into the hands of line agents pursuing leads on national security, foreign intelligence and even ordinary criminal cases.

The overhaul, the most substantial revision to FBI operating instructions in years, also would ease some reporting requirements between agents, their supervisors and federal prosecutors in what authorities call a critical effort to improve information gathering and detect terrorist threats.

Ike is rolling in, Texans are rolling out

Thousands of Gulf Coast residents jam highways. Forecasters say the storm could strengthen to a Category 3 — and possibly a Category 4 — before making landfall early Saturday.

 By David Zucchino and P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

September 12, 2008  

FREEPORT, TEXAS — Thousands of residents of Texas’ vulnerable Gulf Coast clogged highways headed inland Thursday, heeding mandatory evacuation orders as Hurricane Ike churned through warm waters and took aim at southeastern Texas.

Facing a hurricane that Gov. Rick Perry said could have “extraordinary impact,” authorities ordered the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents of low-lying coastal areas south and east of Houston. Chemical plants and refineries closed, bracing for high winds and damaging floods.”I can’t overemphasize the danger that is facing us,” Perry told reporters in Austin. Ike is “going to do some substantial damage. It’s going to knock out power and it’s going to cause massive flooding.”

Ike was a Category 2 storm late Thursday, with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters predicted the storm would strengthen to a Category 3, with winds of at least 111 mph — and possibly a Category 4 — before making landfall early Saturday.

USA

Palin Links Iraq to Sept. 11 In Talk to Troops in Alaska



  By Anne E. Kornblut

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, September 12, 2008; Page A01  

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska, Sept. 11 — Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would “defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”

The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. But it is widely agreed that militants allied with al-Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion.

Is John McCain Running For

School Yard Bully or

President Of The United States?

Bush Said to Give Orders Allowing Raids in Pakistan



  By ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI

Published: September 10, 2008    

WASHINGTON – President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials.

The classified orders signal a watershed for the Bush administration after nearly seven years of trying to work with Pakistan to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and after months of high-level stalemate about how to challenge the militants’ increasingly secure base in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department



By CHARLIE SAVAGE

Published: September 10, 2008  

WASHINGTON – As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal – including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government’s largest sources of revenue other than taxes.

“A culture of ethical failure” pervades the agency, Mr. Devaney wrote in a cover memo.

USA

From Families’ Grief, a Symbol of Loss and Hope



 By Nick Miroff

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, September 11, 2008; Page A01  

Jim Laychak arrived at the corporate headquarters of Anheuser-Busch on a windy afternoon in April, thinking through his pitch. A company photographer snapped his picture beside a giant bronze eagle in the lobby, and executive Laura Reeves invited him upstairs. He had come to ask for a million dollars.

It was not an unreasonable sum. After all, the St. Louis brewing giant had helped the Pentagon Memorial Fund get started five years earlier with a $1 million donation. Laychak sat down at a wooden table in a suite with Reeves, senior director of the company’s charitable foundation, and took out his promotional materials.

Where In The World

Is Kim Jong-il?

A Sigh of Relief, but Hard Questions Remain  



  By VIKAS BAJAJ , KEITH BRADSHER and  DAVID JOLLY

Published: September 8, 2008  

Investors around the world breathed a sigh of relief Monday after the U.S. government took over and backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, assuring a continued flow of credit through America’s wounded mortgage system. Stocks rallied in Europe and Asia, after the U.S. Treasury’s announcement that it would transfer control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to conservatorship. Stocks in Tokyo closed 3.4 percent higher.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index in London rose 3.7 percent at the opening while the CAC 40 in Paris registered a 4.3 percent gain and the DAX in Frankfurt 3.1 percent.

Dharavi, India’s largest slum, eyed by Mumbai developers

The rich of Mumbai want to turn the prime real estate into high-rises and parks. The poor but industrious residents won’t go without a fight.

By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 8, 2008  

MUMBAI, INDIA — Reincarnation is Kallu Khan’s stock in trade.

His workshop floor is a swamp of cardboard strips hacked from salvaged boxes. Laborers scoop them up, work them over and give them new life as smaller boxes, which Khan then sells to stationery and packing companies.

In another warehouse a few doors down, dozens of rubber soles cut from discarded shoes also await a second chance. Next to these, a mountain of plastic castoffs — toys, computer keyboards, car parts — is separated by squatting workers, to be melted down into tiny pellets before being reborn in some new form.

One man’s junk is another’s fortune in Dharavi, the largest slum in India. With the economy and consumption soaring, recycling is good business here, a source of jobs for thousands, from scavengers to sorters to manufacturers.

USA

Sarah Palin’s leadership style has admirers and critics

Some who have worked with the Alaska governor say her bold approach is lacking in follow-through, and that she punishes those who dare say ‘no.’

By Tom Hamburger and Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

September 8, 2008  

ANCHORAGE — Three years ago, when a Democratic state legislator tried to get bipartisan support for investigating charges of unethical conduct by a senior Republican official, only one member of the GOP answered the call: Sarah Palin.

Palin pursued the allegations — as well as ethics charges against another top GOP official — so vigorously that both had to leave office.

The public acclaim that followed helped propel her into the governor’s office a year later with promises of reform and a more open, accountable government that would stand up to entrenched interests, including the big oil companies.

Yet a strange thing happened on the ethics issue once Palin became governor: She appeared to lose interest in completing the task of legislating comprehensive reform, some who supported the cleanup say.

Flag Pins And Paper Flags

The Real Important Issues

Unlike Say The Economy Or The War In Iraq

Treasury to Rescue Fannie and Freddie  

Regulators Seek to Keep Firms’ Troubles From Setting Off Wave of Bank Failures

By Zachary A. Goldfarb, David Cho and Binyamin Appelbaum

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, September 7, 2008; Page A01    

The Bush administration yesterday prepared to take over the troubled housing finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, after concluding the companies don’t have enough capital to continue to play their crucial role funding home mortgages.

Under the plan, engineered by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., the government would place the two companies under “conservatorship,” a legal status akin to Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Their boards and chief executives would be fired and a government agency, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, would appoint new chief executives.

Pakistan: Bhutto’s shadow lingers as Zardari takes reins of power

Benazir’s husband is voted in amid muted rejoicing, but army hostility and militant violence could threaten hopes for stability, reports Jason Burke

Jason Burke

The Observer,

Sunday September 7 2008

Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, will be sworn in today as President of Pakistan, arguably the most powerful civilian to take the office in the volatile, nuclear-armed state for more than 30 years.

Zardari takes power at a time of extreme instability, with the strategically crucial state struggling to contain a growing Islamic militant insurgency and deal with a crumbling economy. The challenges facing the new head of state, who controversially looks set to remain leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), were reinforced yesterday by a blast in the western city of Peshawar, which killed 17 and injured scores more. In a separate incident, Pakistan’s military said 24 people were killed after residents of a village in the unruly northwest foiled a militants’ kidnap attempt, then were attacked.

USA

This story says a lot about, not only the state of American politics but the media as well

Flag flap sullies candidates’ vow to stand together at Ground Zero



By William Douglas and Margaret Talev | McClatchy Newspapers  

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – On the same day that John McCain and Barack Obama pledged to put political differences aside and appear together at Ground Zero for the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, the two campaigns were engaged Saturday in a flap over the American flag.

The spat began in this Republican stronghold at an airport rally for McCain and running mate Sarah Palin. Before the Republican presidential ticket took the stage, a radio personality emceeing the event announced that veterans were going to give the rally crowd thousands of small American flags that were discarded and rescued from Obama’s massive Democratic National Convention rally at Denver’s Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium.

That School Looks Familiar And

Using Music Without Permission

Laws Only Apply To The Little People

Just Ask Republicans

U.S. Rescue Seen at Hand for 2 Mortgage Giants  



By STEPHEN LABATON and ANDREW ROSS SORKIN

Published: September 5, 2008  

WASHINGTON – Senior officials from the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve on Friday called in top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants, and told them that the government was preparing to place the two companies under federal control, officials and company executives briefed on the discussions said.

The plan, which would place the companies into a conservatorship, was outlined in separate meetings with the chief executives at the office of the companies’ new regulator. The executives were told that, under the plan, they and their boards would be replaced and shareholders would be virtually wiped out, but that the companies would be able to continue functioning with the government generally standing behind their debt, people briefed on the discussions said.

The escalating breakdown of urban society across the US

‘There are two Americas – separate, unequal, and no longer even acknowledging each other except on the barest cultural terms. In the one nation, new millionaires are minted every day.

David Simon

The Guardian,

Saturday September 6 2008

Baltimore – it’s been an ordinary week in Maryland’s largest city. The August heat broke and one can nearly sleep with a window open; the Orioles are again down in the cellar in the American League East; the city murder rate is a bit behind last year’s blood-letting, and if it holds into the fall, politicians and police commanders will compete to claim credit.

The stories in the Baltimore Sun remain fixed on the surface, each of them premised on the givens: schools will open next week and provide more or less the same inferior education as previous years; Johns Hopkins is building its biotech park expansion where the East Baltimore ghetto used to be and the ghetto is migrating due east and north-east; the biotech park will be great for white folk with college degrees, for those with union cards, the factories are still closed and the port is still losing cargo to Norfolk; a shooting here, a cutting there ..

USA

U.S. needs more troops in Afghanistan, commander says

But with Petraeus set to recommend slowing the drawdown in Iraq, more forces are unlikely to be available soon to deal with rising bloodshed.

By Peter Spiegel and Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

10:33 PM PDT, September 5, 2008

WASHINGTON — A top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said Friday that he needed thousands of additional troops to combat violence along the border with Pakistan, a requirement that appears to be at odds with recommendations from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus on future troop levels in Iraq.

Because of strains on the military, plans to boost the number of troops in Afghanistan depend on reducing the force in Iraq. Petraeus’ plan, which President Bush is expected to approve Tuesday in an appearance at the National Defense University, would slow the reduction of combat troops in Iraq, freeing up only one full Army combat brigade for redeployment to Afghanistan. That move would not happen until early next year.

In addition to the combat brigade of about 3,500 to 4,000 troops, U.S. officials also plan to withdraw about 2,000 non-combat support personnel from Iraq and transfer about 1,300 Marines from Iraq’s Anbar province to western Afghanistan.

John McCain Agent of Change

Of Changing His Mind On The Issues

To Placate Religious Extremists  

Unemployment up for 8th straight month. Rate jumps to 6.1 percent

CNN

McCain Vows to End ‘Partisan Rancor,’ Seizing Theme of Change From Rival  



By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MICHAEL COOPER

Published: September 4, 2008  

ST. PAUL – Senator John McCain accepted the Republican presidential nomination Thursday with a pledge to move the nation beyond “partisan rancor” and narrow self-interest in a speech in which he markedly toned down the blistering attacks on Senator Barack Obama that had filled the first nights of his convention.

Standing in the center of an arena here, surrounded by thousands of Republican delegates, Mr. McCain firmly signaled that he intended to seize the mantle of change Mr. Obama claimed in his own unlikely bid for his party’s nomination.

U.S. Spied on Iraqi Leaders, Book Says

Woodward Also Reveals That Political Fears Kept War Strategy Review ‘Under the Radar’

By Steve Luxenberg

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, September 5, 2008; Page A01  

The Bush administration has conducted an extensive spying operation on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, his staff and others in the Iraqi government, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward.

“We know everything he says,” according to one of multiple sources Woodward cites about the practice in “The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008,” scheduled for release Monday.

The book also says that the U.S. troop “surge” of 2007, in which President Bush sent nearly 30,000 additional U.S. combat forces and support troops to Iraq, was not the primary factor behind the steep drop in violence there during the past 16 months.

USA

Georgia lawmaker describes Obama, wife as ‘uppity’



By Halimah Abdullah | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON – A Republican lawmaker is facing criticism over using the racially charged term “uppity” to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, on Thursday.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia used the word in a conversation with reporters just outside the House chamber about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama.

According to The Hill newspaper, a Washington publication, Westmoreland said, “Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity.

Without Community Organizers

There Would Be No Community

Palin Assails Critics and Electrifies Party



By ELISABETH BUMILLER and MICHAEL COOPER

Published: September 4, 2008  

ST. PAUL – Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska introduced herself to America before a roaring crowd at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night as “just your average hockey mom” who was as qualified as the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, to be president of the United States.

An hour later Senator John McCain, a scrappy, rebellious former prisoner of war in Vietnam whose campaign was resurrected from near-death a year ago, was nominated by the Republican Party to be the 44th president of the United States after asking the cheering delegates, “Do you think we made the right choice” in picking Ms. Palin as the vice-presidential nominee?

Pakistan reacts with fury after up to 20 die in ‘American’ attack on its soil

· Children reported dead in assault near Taliban base

· Raid was gross violation, says foreign ministry?

Simon Tisdall and Saeed Shah in Islamabad

The Guardian,

Thursday September 4 2008

The war in Afghanistan spilled over on to Pakistani territory for the first time yesterday when heavily armed commandos, believed to be US Special Forces, landed by helicopter and attacked three houses in a village close to a known Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold.

The surprise attack on Jala Khel was launched in early morning darkness and killed between seven and 20 people, according to a range of reports from the remote Angoor Adda region of South Waziristan. The village is situated less than one mile from the Afghan border.

Local residents were quoted as saying that most of the dead were civilians and included women and children. It was not known whether any Taliban or al-Qaida militants or western forces were among the dead.

USA

New Orleans gets its people back

Roadblocks are lifted and residents stream back into many neighborhoods. Power service remains spotty. Mayor C. Ray Nagin says he’s concerned that it’s too soon.

 By Richard Fausset and David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

1NEW ORLEANS — It was people this time, not water, that poured into the streets of the storm-tossed city.

On Wednesday morning, police removed the roadblocks that had kept evacuees out of metro New Orleans. Thousands who had fled streamed back home, with wailing children in back seats and empty gas cans strapped to the tops of cars. They returned to a quiet city of fallen trees, spotty electric service, a fragile sewer system, and shuttered grocery stores and gas stations.0:43 PM PDT, September 3, 2008

But at least it was mostly dry.

“I’m more than happy to be back — I’m delighted, and relieved too,” said Esther Padilla, 74, a widow who lives alone in a brick ranch home in the Lakeview area. Her house was inundated three years ago when the 17th Avenue levee ruptured. This time it was fine, save for some debris in the yard, which she promptly set to cleaning up.

The evacuees’ return to New Orleans has proven to be trickier than their departure, which was widely praised as a model of thoughtful government planning. On Tuesday, many of those residents fumed as they waited at police checkpoints.

Another one bites the dust

Another one bites the dust

And another one gone, and another one gone

Another one bites the dust

Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda resigns

ncreasingly unpopular 72-year-old steps down after less than year in office amid deadlock in coalition government

Justin McCurry in Tokyo

guardian.co.uk,

Monday September 01 2008 14:26 BST  

Japan’s beleaguered prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, resigned today less than a year after taking office in a shock move that threatens to plunge the world’s second-biggest economy into a new round of political turmoil.

Faced with poor poll ratings, policy deadlock and mounting economic problems, a grim-faced Fukuda said he had decided several days ago to step down to avoid creating a “political vacuum”.

Fukuda’s resignation leaves the door open for Taro Aso, an outspoken rightwinger whom Fukuda made secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) in last month’s cabinet reshuffle.

Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process

?

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: September 1, 2008

ST. PAUL – A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket.

On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father.

Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.

USA

New Orleans Levees Tested As Gustav Lashes Gulf Coast



By Jacqueline L. Salmon and Spencer S. Hsu

Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, September 2, 2008; Page A01  

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 1 — Hurricane Gustav smashed into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast on Monday, unleashing torrential rains and 110-mph winds that sent waves of water splashing over this city’s levees. But early indications were that the weakened storm caused far less damage than feared, and New Orleans appeared to have avoided a disaster on the scale of Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

As the storm made its way inland, federal, state and local officials expressed confidence that the levees protecting New Orleans would hold, sparing the city from catastrophic flooding. U.S. Coast Guard helicopter overflights late Monday afternoon confirmed that there were no levee breaches so far, according to Marty Bahamonde, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Questioning Qualifications Is One Thing

Acting Like The National Enquirer

Is Something Else

Coast Braces for Storm; G.O.P. Cuts Back



By ADAM NOSSITER

Published: September 1, 2008  

NEW ORLEANS – Nearly two million people from Texas to Alabama fled the Gulf Coast on Sunday ahead of Hurricane Gustav, anticipating a storm that could rival Hurricane Katrina in its destructive power.

New Orleans was largely emptied of its residents after a mandatory evacuation order, and interstate highways across the region were jammed bumper to bumper in one of the largest evacuations in American history.

With memories of the shaky response to Hurricane Katrina fresh, officials from President Bush on down were on high alert; Mr. Bush himself described the preparations and warned residents to get out of the storm’s way.

A Long and Weary Bus Ride to Anywhere

?

By SHAILA DEWAN

Published: August 31, 2008  

ABOARD A BUS FROM NEW ORLEANS – The 40-odd people boarding the black, red and white bus that the city provided late Saturday afternoon embarked on a journey of pure faith. They did not know how long they would be away or whether they would have anything to come home to. It would be many hours before they even learned where they were going.

They had no way of knowing that when they finally reached their refuge, roughly 350 miles away, it would be ill-prepared for their arrival. But they did have a firm grasp of what the worst could mean if they stayed in the broad, unpredictable path of Hurricane Gustav.

So, uncomplaining, they hoisted themselves aboard, taking advantage of the government’s offer of free transportation for those without cars.

USA

Even without Bush in St. Paul, GOP can’t escape his record



By David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers  

ST. PAUL, Minn. – In many ways, the Republican National Convention here this week is President Bush’s convention, and that’s not good political news for John McCain.

Even though Bush canceled his live Monday night appearance so he could monitor the impact of Hurricane Gustav, he’s still the leader of the GOP – and the key reason why its political fortunes are under a cloud.

Not since Lyndon Johnson stayed away from his party’s 1968 Democratic convention, after being advised by party officials not to come, has an incumbent president been such a liability to his own party.

Are We Caught In The Sarah Palin

Twilight Zone?

New Orleans Empties as Gustav Closes In

Mayor Orders a Full Evacuation as Storm Gathers Over the Gulf of Mexico

 By Dana Hedgpeth and Jacqueline L. Salmon

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, August 31, 2008; Page A01

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 30 — Mayor C. Ray Nagin on Saturday night ordered a mandatory evacuation of this city ahead of Hurricane Gustav, which swelled from an already deadly tropical storm into a monster depression with winds of more than 150 mph.

“This is the real deal, not a test,” Nagin said as he issued the order, effective 9 a.m. Eastern time Sunday for low-lying areas and 1 p.m. citywide. He warned residents that staying would be “one of the biggest mistakes of your life.”

Troop ‘Surge’ Took Place Amid Doubt and Debate

?

By MICHAEL R. GORDON

Published: August 30, 2008  

WASHINGTON – When President Bush speaks to the Republican convention on Monday, he is expected to tout the “surge” of forces in Iraq as one of his proudest achievements. But that decision, one of his most consequential as commander in chief, was made only after months of tumultuous debate within the administration, according to still-secret memorandums and interviews with a broad range of current and former officials.

In January 2007, at a time when the situation in Iraq appeared the bleakest, Mr. Bush chose a bold option that was at odds with what many of his civilian and military advisers, including his field commander, initially recommended. Mr. Bush’s plan to send more than 20,000 troops to carry out a new counterinsurgency strategy has helped to reverse the spiral of sectarian killings in Iraq.

USA

Lots of no-shows expected at Republican National Convention

So many GOP lawmakers have sent regrets — citing tough reelection battles, previous commitments or other scheduling conflicts — that a Senate official notes ‘it’s probably easier to say who is atten

 By Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 31, 2008

DAYTON, OHIO — As Sen. John McCain prepares to accept the Republican presidential nomination this week, his party’s four-day convention will be notable in part for who isn’t attending.

Compared with past GOP conventions, a surprising number of prominent lawmakers and candidates will stay away from the festivities Sept. 1 to 4 in St. Paul, Minn. — chiefly citing tough reelection battles, previous commitments or other scheduling conflicts.

At least 10 incumbent senators, plus several Senate candidates, have sent their regrets. Only three incumbents in hotly contested races, including Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, will join the partygoers.

“It’s probably easier to say who is attending,” said Rebecca Fisher, spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. But the list is “a moving target,” she added.

Republican officials have encouraged candidates to focus first on winning their own elections. But an aide to a Republican senator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, offered another reason for the no-shows.

Sarah Palin Governor Alaska (R)

Candidate for Vice President of the

United States

 Palin has risen quickly from PTA to VP pick

Alaska’s first-term governor and McCain’s new running mate is enormously popular in her state, despite some tensions with other Alaska Republicans.

 By Cathleen Decker and Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

August 30, 2008

Palin is breathtakingly unlike any other vice presidential pick in American history — a gun-toting, mooseburger-eating former Miss Wasilla, an Alaska governor whose parents nearly missed her national unveiling because they were out hunting caribou.

The first woman to grace a Republican ticket stepped onto the stage with McCain in Dayton, Ohio, surrounded by her husband and four of their five children, including a baby born in April. The tableau of everyday mom-ness, however, may have masked the ambition and grit that have marked Palin’s meteoric rise in Alaska.

Two years ago, she knocked off the sitting Republican governor in the primary and a former Democratic governor in the general. Her relations with Alaska officialdom have not always been sunny, resuscitating a nickname given when, as a high schooler, she led her basketball team to the state championship: “Sarah Barracuda.”

By her own telling, Palin’s political rise has been improbable.

Thai protesters break into gov’t office as PM heads to consult king



 BANGKOK (AFP)

 Thai protesters broke into abandoned government offices Saturday in their escalating campaign to force Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej from office.

The prime minister, just back from visiting the revered king’s seaside palace, meanwhile planned to return there Saturday evening to consult on the crisis, a government official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Chamlong Srimuang, one of the leaders of the so-called People’s Alliance for Democracy for whom an arrest warrant has been issued, ordered 45 PAD guards to break into the main government building on Saturday afternoon, activists said.

The PAD have been holding a protest camp in the grounds surrounding the building since Tuesday, and 15,000 people were rallying in the compound on Saturday.

USA

Surge in Natural Gas Cars Has Utah Driving Cheaply  



By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

Published: August 29, 2008  

SALT LAKE CITY – The best deal on fuel in the country right now might be here in Utah, where people are waiting in lines to pay the equivalent of 87 cents a gallon. Demand is so strong at rush hour that fuel runs low, and some days people can pump only half a tank.

It is not gasoline they are buying for their cars, but natural gas.

By an odd confluence of public policy and private initiative, Utah has become the first state in the country to experience broad consumer interest in the idea of running cars on clean natural gas.

Utahans are hunting the Internet and traveling the country to pick up used natural gas cars at auctions. They are spending thousands of dollars to transform their trucks and sport utility vehicles to run on compressed gas.