When a Hurricane come, you get ready. Here comes Ernesto

We woke up this morning and Ernesto is headed our way. We're not worried, we've done this before. It's just a lot of work getting ready, bringing in all the items outisde so they don't blow around, board up the windows, fill up the garbage cans and bath tub with water, fill up the all your gas cans and your car with gas. It's just a lot of dang work. And then when it is over you have to clean it all up and hopefully your not picking up your roof from your yard.

They've already told the tourest in the Keys to leave the islands and head to the mainland. People are already filling up the grocery stores and Home Depot. People are getting ready for Ernesto while we wait to see what happens.

Greg Palast wrote a very good article about getting ready for Katrina. It is a must read. I really hate when they play games with our lives. Sometimes I wonder how much money they make off the Hurricanes. The stores are full here this morning.... Thank about it.

The world is a chess game. We're the pawns, Bush and Cheney are the king and queen. Only the pawns can move in one direction but the king and queen can move all over the board. The pawns get killed first and when the king gets captured, game over.

Oh the games they play with our lives.......

HURRICANE EXPERT THREATENED FOR PRE-KATRINA WARNINGS

A Greg Palast special investigation for Democracy Now!

Monday, August 28. From New Orleans.

DON'T blame the Lady. Katrina killed no one in this town. In fact, Katrina missed the city completely, going wide to the east.

It wasn't the hurricane that drowned, suffocated, de-hydrated and starved 1,500 people that week. The killing was done by a deadly duo: a failed emergency evacuation plan combined with faulty levees. Behind these twin failures lies a tale of cronyism, profiteering and willful incompetence that takes us right to the steps of the White House.

Here's the story you haven't been told. And the man who revealed it to me, Dr. Ivor van Heerden, is putting his job on the line to tell it.

Van Heerden isn't the typical whistleblower I usually deal with. This is no minor player. He's the Deputy Director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center. He's the top banana in the field -- no one knew more about how to save New Orleans from a hurricane's devastation. And no one was a bigger target of an official and corporate campaign to bury the information.

Here's what happened. Right after Katrina swamped the city, I called Washington to get a copy of the evacuation plan.

Funny thing about the murderously failed plan for the evacuation of New Orleans: no one can find it. That's right. It's missing. Maybe it got wet and sank in the flood. Whatever: no one can find it.

That's real bad. Here's the key thing about a successful emergency evacuation plan: you have to have copies of it. Lots of copies -- in fire houses and in hospitals and in the hands of every first responder. Secret evacuation plans don't work.

I know, I worked on the hurricane evacuation plan for Long Island New York, an elaborate multi-volume dossier.

Specifically, I'm talking about the plan that was written, or supposed to have been written two years ago by a company called, "Innovative Emergency Management."

Weird thing about IEM, their founder Madhu Beriwal, had no known experience in hurricane evacuations. She did, however, have a lot of experience in donating to Republicans.

IEM and FEMA did begin a draft of a plan. The plan was that, when a hurricane hit, everyone in the Crescent City would simply get the hell out in their cars. Apparently, the IEM/FEMA crew didn't know that 127,000 people in the city didn't have cars. But Dr. van Heerden knew that. It was his calculation. LSU knew where these no-car people were -- they mapped it -- and how to get them out.

Dr. van Heerden offered this life-saving info to FEMA. They wouldn't touch it. Then, a state official told him to shut up, back off or there would be consequences for van Heerden's position. This official now works for IEM.

So I asked him what happened as a result of making no plans for those without wheels, a lot of them elderly and most of them poor.

"Fifteen-hundred of them drowned. That's the bottom line." The professor, who'd been talking to me in technicalities, changed to a somber tone. "They're still finding corpses."

Van Heerden is supposed to keep his mouth shut. He won't. The deaths weigh on him. "I wasn't going to listen to those sort of threats, to let them shut me down."

Van Heerden had other disturbing news. The Hurricane Center's computer models showed the federal government had built the levees around the city a foot-and-a-half too short.

After Katrina, the Hurricane Center analyzed the flooding and found that, had the levees had just that extra 18 inches, they would have been "overtopped" for only an hour and a half, not four hours. In that case, the levees would have held, and the city would have been saved.

He had taken the warning about the levees all the way to George Bush's doorstep. "I myself briefed senior officials including somebody from the White House." The response: the university's trustees threatened his job.

While in Baton Rouge, I dropped in on the headquarters of IEM, the evacuation contractors. The assistant to the CEO insisted they had "a lot of experience with evacuation" -- but couldn't name a single city they'd planned for when they got the Big Easy contract. And still, they couldn't produce the plan.

An IEM press release in June 2004 boasted legendary expert James Lee Witt as a member of their team. That was impressive. It was also a lie. In fact, Witt had nothing to do with it. When I asked IEM point blank if Witt's name was used as a fraudulent hook to get the contract, their spokeswoman said, weirdly, "We'll get back to you on that."

Back at LSU, van Heerden astonished me with the most serious charge of all. While showing me huge maps of the flooding, he told me the White House had withheld the information that, in fact, the levees were about to burst and by Tuesday at dawn the city, and more than a thousand people, would drown.

Van Heerden said, "FEMA knew on Monday at 11 o'clock that the levees had breached… They took video. By midnight on Monday the White House knew. But none of us knew ...I was at the State Emergency Operations Center." Because the hurricane had missed the city that Monday night, evacuation effectively stopped, assuming the city had survived.

It's been a full year now, and 73,000 New Orleanians remain in FEMA trailers and another 200,000, more than half the city's former residents, remain in temporary refuges. "The City That Care Forgot" -- that's their official slogan -- lost a higher percentage of homes than Berlin lost in World War II. It would be more accurate to call it, "The City That Bush Forgot."

Should they come home? Rebuild? Is it safe? Team Bush assures them there's nothing to worry about: FEMA won't respond to van Heerden's revelations. However, the Bush Administration has hired a consulting firm to fix the failed evacuation plan. The contractor? A Baton Rouge company named "Innovative Emergency Management." IEM.

******
Watch this special investigative report about Katrina on Democracy Now! this morning or hear it on your local Pacifica or NPR station. You can also download it at DemocracyNow.org.

And catch the one-hour special report, "Who Drowned New Orleans?" on LinkTV, with Greg Palast in New Orleans plus an exclusive interview with Amy Goodman. (Get it on Direct TV channel 375 and Dish TV channel 9410. Or check your cable listing at LinkTV.com.)

And for more on IEM and Katrina, read Greg Palast's new NYT bestseller, "Armed Madhouse" (Penguin 2006).

A Jacquie Soohen BigNoise Films Production, produced by Matt Pascarella.
And very, very, special thanks to our Associate Producers on this particular story -- without their generosity and financial support this report would not have been possible.

Happy Birthday Carlos Arredondo, RIP Alex.....

Two years ago today Carlos was waiting to get a "Happy Birthday Poppy" call from Alex in Iraq. Instead he got the van pull up to his house to tell him the news his very special son Alex had died in Iraq.

Two years ago today was a day that changed me forever. Even as I type this I have a really bad feeling in the pit of my soul. Two years ago - everyday we would hear how many have died in Iraq. It was soul killing to me. And then, Carlos blew up the van. I thought at the time his actions would awaken the people into fighting for life. Not their own life but the lives of the ones we decided to put in place of all of ours. We traded the lives of the military hero's for our own when we were told "were going to fight them over there so they don't come here to get us". It's like trading one set of people for another. Except...the fear that has all been instilled in some is vented in the wrong direction. The ones who want to kill and destroy us are not in Iraq. Today, I feel the ones who want to kill and destroy us live in the White House. They killed Alex and so many other. They don't care who they kill~ In New Orleans or in Iraq. 2 years ago, I really thought Carlos's actions would awaken people....but it didn't.

Today is a day I wish to celebrate Carlos's birth and not Alex's death. Life should be celebrated ~ It is so precious. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY FRIEND! I wish to God you didn't have to spend the rest of your birthdays this way. So much hurt has been brought on to us for no good reason......except for the love of money and power but the PNAC who is in control of our government.

Learn more about Carlos and the day that changed him forever by clicking here.

May peace be inside all of us,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARLOS!
your friend always,
Cindy

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Son's death stirs protest over Iraq war Peter Urban Purban@ctpost.com

As supporters of Sen. Joe Lieberman gathered at the Goodwin Hotel in Hartford Tuesday, Carlos Arredondo stood vigil outside, patiently waiting to learn if the three-term Democrat would go down in defeat. Arredondo, a 46-year-old handyman from Boston, has never met Lieberman, but takes the senator's support for the Iraq war personally. Two years ago, his son was killed fighting in Najaf. "His position on the war, being a Democrat, I do not agree. I do not agree at all," said Arredondo, who emigrated from Costa Rica more than 25 years ago. "I hope he loses tonight. He will give an example to the rest of the Senate." I met Arredondo on my way to the hotel. It would have been easy to breeze right by him but for his red pickup truck — more specifically, the casket draped with an American flag in the back. Atop the casket were his 20-year-old son's combat boots and uniform. The casket was filled with his first-born son's childhood toys — a soccer ball, stuffed Tweety Bird and Winnie-the-Pooh doll. A sign on the side panel states that Marine Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo was killed on Aug. 25, 2004. Arredondo, whose command of English is somewhat limited, said he had been driving the pickup truck around Connecticut for the past two days. People, he said, understood the message. "I don't need to say anything. It says it all," Arredondo said. "I am mourning my son." Arredondo hands me an envelope that he said would explain more. It includes a letter his son, who was born in Boston, sent while on the way to Iraq. The letter was written at sea on Jan. 19, 2003. Arredondo complained briefly of seasickness and his wonder at how blue and vast the ocean was. He wrote that it was difficult to comprehend how much his life had changed in such a short time. "I am not afraid of dying. I am more afraid of what will happen to all the ones that I love if something happens to me. Soon enough, I will be in the desert, outside the city of Baghdad, in full combat gear, ready to out my mission, wondering how this all happened so fast — wishing I was back home going to school, dating Sheila, taking care of my family," he wrote. "Just because I wonder what if, doesn't mean I'm not proud, it doesn't mean I feel like I made the wrong decision. It doesn't mean I have any regrets. I'm still proud to be fighting for my country." Arrendondo was killed 19 months later when his platoon was attacked while clearing a four-story hotel in Najaf. He was killed in an exchange of gunfire with enemy snipers. Carlos Arredondo was living in Hollywood, Fla., with his second wife, Melida, when three uniformed Marines approached his front door to tell him that his son had been killed in combat earlier that week. He snapped. The grief-stricken father walked into the garage, picked up a propane tank, a can of gasoline and a lighting device. He smashed the window of the Marine Corps van, got inside and set it ablaze. Arredondo suffered severe burns, according to an Associated Press report. "This is his scream that his child is dead. The war needs to stop," Melida Arredondo said during an interview the following day on ABC's "Good Morning America." Carlos Arredondo has calmed down a bit since then, but remains passionate about the war. He created the pick-up truck memorial to honor his son. Before bringing it to Connecticut, he visited the U.S. Capitol, where he was able to speak to Sen. Hillary Clinton to urge her to support an end to the war. Friends back in Costa Rica can't believe he is allowed to protest like this. It is a privilege he does not take lightly. "We have unbelievable democracy in this country," he said. There is a lesson here for everyone to learn including Lieberman. Political protest is what makes American democracy robust and special. Where is the peril in that?

Religion gives GOD a bad name

This is a very good article.
May peace be inside all of us,
Cindy

Why Do We Hate Them? Fear and Loathing in the Occident

"Opinion"

Monday August 21 2006 14:46:42 PM BDT

By Jason S. Miller, USA

Islamophobia is a mental and spiritual affliction. And our Western ruling elites bear the responsibility for inflicting it upon the psyches of the masses.

Now that the Stalinist/Maoist regimes have collapsed or evolved toward capitalism and no fascist states with imperial ambitions exist (besides the United States and its few allies), the American Empire needed to find a new "enemy” to replace Stalinists and Nazis. Much of the soft power employed by the leaders of America’s “top down democracy” stems from psychological manipulation of “the mob”. Mobilization of the masses against a common enemy “threatening the very existence of the American Way” has long been a staple in the United States’ ruling elites’ ongoing push to monopolize the world’s wealth, power, and prestige.

And who better to vilify than Islamic people? Many are dark-skinned and live in developing nations, meaning their lives are inconsequential in the prevailing moral calculus of the West. The Middle East is predominately Islamic, its sands are oozing with crude oil, and it is home to Israel. From the perspective of the Empire, what better region to target than the Middle East?

And whether one believes that 9/11 was a false flag operation perpetrated by the US government or the work of radical Islamic Fundamentalists, the members of the Bush Regime obviously shed their crocodile tears publicly while privately celebrating the event as their Pearl Harbor. 3,000 civilian deaths and the demolition of a powerful symbol of the Western “value” of avaricious Capitalism whipped the American public into a furor against the “evil Muslims” who “hate our freedoms”.

Never mind the fact that the United States and Israel have undertaken a nearly unparalleled program of military aggression and ethnic cleansing throughout the Middle East since the formation of the illegitimate colonial nation in Palestine. Given the premises for founding Israel, someone needs to remind Great Britain and the United States that it is incumbent upon them to create a homeland for homosexuals and Romani people. After all, they were also Holocaust victims and are people without a nation. And like the Palestinians, the other inhabitants of the Middle East are more akin to animals than human beings. So why not establish two more colonies on their land?

On August 13, Sixty Minutes aired a segment that revealed a great deal about Islamophobia and the role the corporate media plays in its proliferation.

In his recent open letter to Mike Wallace, Michael K. Smith declared:

Your interview with Iranian Prime Minister Ahmadinejad was a disgrace to the journalistic profession. You began with the condescending manner of a school principal lecturing the class clown for immature behavior and squandered the entire interview on hypocritically accusatory questions. If gall were an Olympic sport, you'd take the Gold Medal.

Michael made some fine points throughout his letter. However, I opine that he was too generous when he called Wallace’s vituperative verbal assault an interview. What I witnessed was Mike Wallace, the Ugly American. Brimming with contempt, impatience, hubris, and belligerence, he more closely resembled the Grand Inquisitor than a journalist.

Did Wallace truly fail to grasp that he was acting as an apologist and cheerleader for bellicose, heartless, and ruthless perpetrators of war crimes on behalf of Israel, and thus is a Zionist (as Ahmadinejad suggested)? Through its grossly biased coverage of the “War on Terrorism” and mindless perpetuation of the inane myth that Israel has the right to annihilate an unlimited number of civilians to protect its “right to exist”, CBS News has joined the squad of corporate media cheerleaders which has been shamelessly complicit in the Empire’s egregious crimes against humanity. I submit that one can be a Zionist and a journalist. Mike Wallace is living proof.

Yet in spite of Wallace’s tenacious efforts, the “devil incarnate”, Ahmadinejad, remained composed. At times Ahmadinejad seemed to thoroughly enjoy Wallace’s obvious “flustration” in attacking him from what has become an absurdly untenable position, both morally and logically. For those of us who don’t believe the Western media fairy tale that the United States is a force for good engaged in a noble struggle in its bid to rid the world of the evil of Islam and defend Israel’s “right to exist”, Wallace’s ill-fated attempt to expose the malevolence of the “enemy” was quite entertaining.

Just as Wallace scrambled madly in a hopeless attempt to prevail intellectually in his interrogation of Ahmadinejad, the debt-ridden, aging American Empire and its allies are flailing wildly in a desperate attempt to claim military victory in the Middle East. And like Ahmadinejad, those who comprise the resistance to occupation and exploitation in the Middle East are facing down their occupiers with a deft persistence, filled with a confidence born from the knowledge that recent history has not been kind to imperial invaders facing a people determined to expel them (i.e. Vietnam, Lebanon, and Iraq).

In the perverse worldview of the Neocons, Israel, and AIPAC, Iran is considered to be a part of the “Axis of Evil”. Since Wallace championed the cause of the “benevolent” United States in his Sixty Minutes interrogation of the leader of one of the members of the “Axis”, it is instructive to consider the “evils” Iran and resistance groups like Hamas and Hezbollah have perpetrated.

While various resistance groups in the Middle East have certainly committed war crimes by killing civilians, the “leader of the free world” and its counterpart in Palestine have annihilated hundreds of thousands more civilians than have the so-called “terrorists”.

Yes, militant Fundamentalist Islamic individuals wield much of the power in Iran. But let’s put on our thinking caps to discern how that situation evolved. In 1979 hard-line anti-American Islamic clerics assumed control of the Iranian government when they ousted the Shah (the corrupt US puppet who tortured and killed tens of thousands of Iranian “dissidents” during his reign of terror).

Ironically, the Iranian government the United States loves to hate exists because the CIA and MI6 facilitated the Shah taking power from Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953. The significance? Mossadegh was a democratically-elected secular prime minister who had had the audacity to nationalize the oil industry because the British oil companies were grossly exploiting the Iranian people.

By acting in typical fashion (by taking out a populist leader and replacing him with a vicious tyrant), the United States provided an incubator for powerful anti-American sentiment. Thus the United States and Great Britain are responsible for the theocracy in Iran which they fear and despise.

Corporate media pundits like Michelle Malkin and Anne Coulter are the vanguards in spreading pernicious distortions which fan the rapidly spreading emotional flames of fear, prejudice, and hatred comprising Islamophobia. Two of the most disturbing and inflammatory perversions of the truth the Western media entities disseminate are that all adherents of the Islamic faith are radical fundamentalists and that Sharia Law is universally harsh and grossly inferior to the Empire’s system (which provides “liberty and justice for all”).

Just as Christianity encompasses a broad spectrum of people with varying ways of practicing and expressing their faith, the Islamic world is filled with human beings who have diverse ways of expressing their religious beliefs. There are liberal, moderate, and Fundamentalist Muslims. And surprising as it may seem, most practitioners of Fundamentalist Islam, like most Fundamentalist Christians, are essentially peaceful individuals. In fact, a Muslim truly following the tenets of Islam practices moderation and tolerance. Many Muslims are no more willing to strap plastic explosives to their belts for a suicide mission than most Christians would be to bomb an abortion clinic. There are radicals from both religions, but they are very much in the minority.

Another lie deeply embedded in the barrage of communications we receive from the Western corporate media is that the United States and its allies are morally superior to the “evil Muslims”. One aspect of Islam they offer as “proof” of this faulty conclusion is that many Islamic nations incorporate Sharia into their legal systems. While Sharia can involve harsh and rigid forms of justice, it exists to varying degrees in the many Muslim nations around the globe. Judiciaries in Islamic nations manifest the influence of Sharia in ways that span the spectrum from extremely dogmatic to highly secular and liberal.

While the Western media’s blistering criticism of the more draconian actions of some Islamic nations (i.e. Iran’s execution of teenagers) is definitely warranted, the Empire has a great deal of house-cleaning to do before it is in a position to preach to other nations on human rights issues.

Here are but a few recent examples of the United States’ own flagrant human rights abuses:

1. carrying out quite a number of its own executions in a manner recently discovered to inflict a great deal of suffering on the victim

2. routinely torturing and suspending justice for suspected “enemy combatants”

3. funding the Israeli Apartheid and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians

4. occupying a nation where it has killed over a million Iraqi civilians since the Gulf War invasion (through brutal economic sanctions and military actions).

5. funding the Israeli devastation of Lebanon

6. supporting numerous ruthless and murderous regimes (as long as they are friendly to US corporations)

7. having cynically embraced Saddam Hussein as an ally (knowing of his crimes against humanity) when it furthered US interests and invading Iraq preemptively to topple him when he ceased to be useful.

8. having kept the House of Saud in power for years despite its harsh practice of Sharia (i.e. thieves’ hands are severed and adulterers are stoned).

9. maintaining the largest prison population in the world through a legal system so unjust that 50% of those incarcerated are Black when Blacks comprise 14% of the general population.

10. engaging in numerous outright massacres of civilians (i.e. Haditha, Fallujah)

In light of the above, how long will it be before a significant portion of the Muslim population falls prey to an extreme prejudice against all Westerners called Anglo-Christophobia? Let’s hope it does not happen any time soon.

Speaking of Christians (at least the Fundamentalist ones), their demonization of Islam is actually rather amusing. Christian Fundamentalists share more common ground with the extreme members of the Islamic faith than they perhaps realize. Some Muslim nations treat homosexuality as a crime. Abortion is illegal in virtually every circumstance throughout much of the Middle East. Separation of church and state does not exist in nations like Iran. Implementation of the death penalty is common in the Middle East. How can men like John Hagee reconcile their cognitive dissonance in advocating war against Iran, a model of the theocracy they strive to implement in the United States?

CBS, Mike Wallace and the rest of the United States’ corporate media can continue to do the Empire’s bidding from now until the world comes to an end (which may not be as far away as I make it sound if sanity and humanity do not prevail over greed, ignorance, and hatred). However, their nearly endless bombardment of intelligently crafted lies readily distributed to nearly every corner of the globe are powerless to alter the truth.

In truth, Israeli and American lives are no more precious than those of the Arab and Persian human beings populating the Middle East. And neither the United States/Israel/Great Britain nor the nations and groups comprising the resistance in the Middle East are innocent of the deep transgression of murdering innocents. Each nation or group also commits human rights abuses against its own people in some fashion. However, Western exploiters and invaders are culpable of far more frequent and grievous war crimes than the Middle Easterners who are defending themselves, their resources, and their people.

If the majority of the human beings controlling the corporate media had a shred of moral decency they would focus their efforts on informing their viewers, listeners, and readers of the vast number of war crimes committed by Israel and the United States. They would start portraying the “terrorists” as the resistors of oppression they truly are. They would make a distinction between the various Middle Eastern resistance groups’ legitimate attacks on their occupiers’ militaries and the war crimes they commit against civilians. And they would devote most of their remaining substantial resources to the inundation of news consumers with stories, photos and video footage depicting the tragic and gruesome civilian suffering and death.

As it is, the Western corporate media shamelessly serve the Neocons by perpetuating a virtually endless cycle of hatred and violence. They incite and feed Islamophobia and they fabricate a plethora of false justifications for the malevolent actions of Israel and the United States. But then in a fascist nation, corporations are wedded with the state, militarism is the state’s primary focus, scapegoats and enemies are essential, and the function of the Fourth Estate is to provide the propaganda to control the masses.

Just imagine if the mainstream media in the United States actually began fulfilling its role (in what is ostensibly a free society) and acted as a check on our government rather than its accomplice. If more Americans knew more truth, instead of hating Islamic people and pushing to intensify the war in the Middle East, the masses would be demanding that reason, justice, and peace prevail. They would demand that the United States completely withdraw its military from the Middle East and leave Israel to stand on its own, which would force the Israelis to finally settle the Palestinian issue in a just manner and to cooperate with their neighbors as equals.

If the major media entities of the West were living up to their responsibilities as members of the Fourth Estate, perhaps 3 year old Ali Ahmad Hashim of Qana would not have been bombed to death, the members of the Ghalia family would not have been obliterated on a Gaza beach, 76 year old wheel-chair bound amputee Abdul Hamid Hassan Ali would not have been massacred at Haditha, Cindy Sheehan would not be grieving for a son lost to a war of imperial aggression, and Reuven Levy of Haifa would not have been annihilated by a rocket attack as he was doing his job for Israel Railways.

I am not holding my breath waiting for money-driven enablers of war like Rupert Murdoch to start heeding the advice of Jiminy Cricket. However, I will not succumb to their assault of malicious distortions. I refuse to fear, hate, or consider myself at war with 20% of the world’s population simply because they choose to follow the teachings of the Qur’an.

Islamophobia is an intellectual and spiritual malignancy. Reason and humanity are the cures.

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Jason Miller is a 39 year old sociopolitical essayist with a degree in liberal arts and an extensive self-education (derived from an insatiable appetite for reading). He welcomes responses at willpowerful@hotmail.com or comments on his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.

Rove and his friends laugh over killing people in the PNAC war

The 32 - 34% of our country who still support this president and his policys will always be divided from the sane people. They have no heart and don't care about anyone but themselves.

Anti-war protesters unveil a large banner protesting in the lobby where President Bush's top advisor Karl Rove was speaking at an Associated Republicans of Texas dinner Saturday, Aug. 19, 2006, in Austin, Texas. Cindy Sheehan and more than 50 other war protesters ambushed the reception chanting 'Try Rove for treason.' (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Rodolfo Gonzalez)

As they sit in their fundraiser dinners laughing about a mother who lost her son in the war. A mother doing all she can to stop other mothers from getting the knock on the door like she did. They laugh at her because she has had to go to extreames to wake up the sleeping nation from their nap. They laugh as more of our kids are killed. They laugh......we cry from their actions.



Dede Miller, sister of anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, is knocked to the ground after being caught in the middle of a scuffle with police as they arrested Tiffany Burns during a protest outside the doors of the ballroom where President Bush's top advisor Karl Rove was speaking at an Associated Republicans of Texas dinner Saturday, Aug. 19, 2006, in Austin, Texas. Sheehan and more than 50 other war protesters ambushed the reception chanting 'Try Rove for treason.' (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Rodolfo Gonzalez)

1. Rove ousted a CIA agent for the PNAC's plan to go to war.
2. War to the the PNAC (people in charge of our government) = a lot of damn money.
3. If we don't take back our vote we will never get rid of the PNAC. He who counts the votes wins.
4. Why don't they want to give up control of our government? BECAUSE THEIR MAKING A LOT OF DAMN MONEY. OUR TAX $ and Money they borrow from China that our kids will have to pay back.

Now I ask you, how much money do we owe China? How much money did Clinton leave in the kitty of OUR MONEY on his departure? How much money have the neocons made since they came into office? How much are you paying for gas right now? Who's in the White House? The Oil men and woman, the PNAC.

Laugh away you 32% of our contry who are destroying us and killing our citizens. Stop thinking you are better than us. You 32% will never change, you will always be selfish, heartless people. You can go across the planet killing whom ever you like and it doesn't bother you. You can kill your own people and it doesn't bother you. You heartless bastards, you will never change. Divided We Stand

Anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, center, is caught in the middle as police arrest Tiffany Burns during a protest outside the doors of the ballroom where President Bush's top advisor Karl Rove was speaking at an Associated Republicans of Texas dinner Saturday, Aug. 19, 2006, in Austin, Texas. Sheehan and more than 50 other war protesters ambushed the reception chanting 'Try Rove for treason.' (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Rodolfo Gonzalez)

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Rove rallies Texas Republican stalwarts

Cindy Sheehan protests Austin appearance by presidential adviser

By W. Gardner Selby
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, August 20, 2006

After protesters allied with anti-war demonstrator Cindy Sheehan rushed the ballroom doors and scuffled with police, senior White House adviser Karl Rove roused Republicans Saturday in Austin by suggesting that a strong economy and President Bush's course abroad will lead GOP candidates to November wins.

Saying Democrats are pro-taxation, pro-spending and wrongly committed to cutting and running from Iraq, the chief White House political adviser said: "We are right, and they are wrong."

One protester managed to slip inside the event, which attracted more than 300 guests and raised an estimated $250,000 for the Associated Republicans of Texas.

Shouting objections, including "men and women are dying," the woman was escorted from the ballroom of the Renaissance Austin Hotel.

Laughter came after Rove said: "I don't question the patriotism of our critics. Many are hard-working public servants who are doing the best they can. Some of them are people looking for a free meal."

Rove also posed an unanswered query to Pat Robbins, the GOP group's executive director: "Pat, did you get her check before she left?"

Protesters began gathering outside the hotel well before Rove slipped in through a side door for a pre-dinner private reception. Waving handwritten signs, about 50 chanted, "Get out of town, Karl. Get out, get out."

Several dozen protesters entered the hotel and briefly unfurled a pink banner from a balcony that read "Rove v. Truth No Contest. Pink Slip Rove."

After GOP supporters entered the ballroom to dine and hear Rove, protesters surged to within several feet of the room's doors, which hotel employees held shut.

One protester momentarily entered the ballroom and yelled, "Karl Rove is a war criminal!" She was hauled out.

Outside the room, police demanded that protesters leave the hotel.

Scuffling between protesters and Austin police led Sheehan's sister, DeDe Miller, to fall backward to the carpeted floor.

One protester was arrested, Austin police said.

Cindy Sheehan also read aloud "war crimes" charges against Rove, including a charge that Rove was responsible for her son's 2004 death as an Army specialist in Iraq. After each charge, protesters yelled, "Citizens arrest."

Police detained Tiffany Burns of Los Angeles, who has been Sheehan's press representative. Burns said she was handcuffed after she asked officers to arrest Rove.

Inside the ballroom, Rove said Democratic leaders in Congress have not come to terms with the necessity of continuing the conflict in Iraq.

"Democrats cannot support the goal of victory while opposing the means necessary to achieve it. And it is fiction and fantasy to pretend otherwise," he said.

"If leading Democrats have their way, their policies would make our nation weaker and the enemies of our nation would be stronger. That is a stark fact of modern life, and it is the issue on which the forthcoming election should center," Rove said.

Among the protesters was Linda Foley of Azle near Fort Worth.

"This is just one more thing we do when we're trying to change administration policy," she said.

Foley, who wore peace-sign earrings and a Veterans for Peace shirt, said she and others had caravaned from Camp Casey near President Bush's ranch outside Crawford south of Waco. The camp is named after Sheehan's late son, Casey.

Several dozen protesters remained on the street outside the hotel.

Rove, 55, is a Utah native best known as Bush's political guru. His career as a Republican political consultant took shape in Texas starting in the late 1970s when he coached Bush, then of Midland, in an unsuccessful U.S. House bid.

Rove built a business centered on sending fundraising appeals and candidate leaflets by mail. He advised Dallas oilman Bill Clements in his upset of Democrat John Hill for governor in 1978, subsequently helping many candidates end a century of Democratic dominance in state offices.

Republicans cheering him Saturday included Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who presented Rove with a flak jacket.

"He takes a lot of shots from virtually everyone," Patterson announced.

Rove gave thanks, and also accepted Patterson's offer to mail the jacket to Washington.

***********************************

Sheehan, others protest at Rove event

Posted 8/20/2006 2:39 AM ET

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Chanting "Try Rove for treason," Cindy Sheehan and more than 50 other war protesters disrupted a reception before President Bush's top adviser Karl Rove spoke at a fundraiser Saturday.

One woman was arrested during a scuffle with police after Sheehan and the anti-war demonstrators rushed toward the closed doors and kept chanting loudly after the guests went into the dinner.

Rove was speaking to the Associated Republicans of Texas, and ticket prices started at $200. He was not in the Renaissance Hotel lobby during the reception.

"I want him arrested. He planned the war that killed my son," Sheehan told officers guarding the door. Sheehan's oldest son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Police then ordered the group to leave, but some protesters had paid for rooms for the night. Those protesters went upstairs, including Sheehan.

One protester slipped inside the ballroom during the dinner but was escorted out after shouting about men and women dying, the Austin American-Statesman reported in its Sunday editions.

"Pat, did you get her check before she left?" Rove quipped to the GOP group's executive director, Pat Robbins, as the crowd of 300 laughed, the newspaper reported.

"I don't question the patriotism of our critics. Many are hardworking public servants who are doing the best they can. Some of them are people looking for a free meal," Rove said, drawing more laughs.

Earlier, wearing shorts and T-shirts while guests of the lobby reception walked past in sequined dresses and expensive suits, anti-war demonstrators carried American flags and signs, including one that read "Check your conscience." A few protesters unfurled a large banner from a sixth-floor hotel balcony that read "Rove v. Truth: No Contest. Pink slip Rove."

Those at the reception sipped their drinks and largely ignored the protesters before they started chanting. One man looked at the group and said, "Go Bush!"

Earlier Saturday, the group of more than 70 gathered at the hotel entrance, carrying a large banner that read, "Rove: Guilty of crimes against humanity." Ann Wright, a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in 2003 in protest over the war, yelled through a bullhorn, "Karl Rove, you are a criminal!"

After about 30 minutes, Austin police made them move onto grass at the edge of the property about a block away. Dozens remained later Saturday, holding signs as cars drove by, honking their horns.

Sheehan and the group left their campsite in Crawford near Bush's ranch, where they have held vigil the past two weeks, and drove about 100 miles south to Austin.

The war protest will continue until early September, although Bush's ranch 10-day ranch vacation ended last weekend. Sheehan's 26-day protest last August drew more than 10,000 people to her campsite in ditches off the rural road leading to the ranch, but she recently bought land near downtown for the group to camp on.

Standing on the right side of what is good for us ALL

I haven't had time to blog lately. This was back to school week and I've been real busy with my new business. Here are some things I read this morning and I would like to respond to:

A country divided:How will we survive?

Daily News of Newburyport

Election time is about 90 days away when Americans across the country will elect 435 congressmen and 33 senators. I have a problem, which is how will the American voters react in this election, and how the vote will affect the lives of millions of us citizens.

There are so many issues that need solutions for this country to survive as our founders had hoped for, and the outcome of this election will have a direct bearing on our direction.

This country is so divided on issues that I fear for our survival. While Dick and Jane go off to work daily in a struggle to survive and provide a few comforts and needs for themselves and their children, the world around them is in turmoil and the country is slowly crumbling from democracy to socialism, while our leaders try spreading democracy.

Republicans spend time on "flag burning" and "same-sex marriage" while important issues sit by the wayside with no solutions.

We have Ann Coulter going around spouting her words of "wisdom," making millions with garbage words.

We have Cindy Sheehan saying she'd rather live under Hugo Chavez instead of President Bush.

We have Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi and the likes of Ramsey Clark (who went to Iraq to defend Hussein) calling for impeachment.

Republicans are calling Democrats the "cut and run guys."

We have the bitter voices of John Murtha, John Kerry, John Dean, Carl Levin, Harry Reid, The New York Times, Julian Bond, Pat Robertson, Al Gore, Charlie Sheen, Al Franken and many more.

Someone asked what treason was. I have an answer - treason is when a United States congressman, who is supposed to be addressed as "the honorable," tells the country "do not join the U.S. military" as John Murtha did - that's treason as I see it.

Now Americans are asked to go to the polls in November and vote.

How? Vote for who?

Nobody should want an American president to fail, but in today's politics it seems some in government hate the president so much that to defeat him, they are willing to sacrifice this country.

On the Supreme Court are the words "Equal Justice Under Law." I have a new phrase, "Moral Words with Ethical Value."

Al Gore, while in Saudi Arabia, denounced American policy toward the Muslim world, accusing America of unwanted and unwarranted capture of Muslims. To me, that's treason. The Saudis support schools that teach hatred of Jews, the Western nations and the United States.

With words, ideas and thoughts like this all around us, we are expected to go to the polls in November and elect our future.

With all this on my mind, I sent the following letter to all 100 of our senators:

"The Gettysburg Address, 19 Nov. 1863

" ' ... that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.'

"Unless you Democrats and Republicans start to downplay your rhetoric of blame, nothing will get done. Today's political situation that is dividing this nation for votes is absolutely the beginning of the end of our country as we once knew it.

"When will Congress govern correctly and stop playing politics?

"We need someone to start acting like a 'true' candidate for 'Profiles in Courage' and to break this discord and create a government that actually governs for the people.

"At one time this country, our flag, the Statue of Liberty stood for strength and free people.

"What happened, Senator?

"Hopefully this piece I have written will incite you to think, to ponder, to discuss all the issues, all the words and help you to vote the right way. It's a vital decision; our country's future and direction are at stake."

Richard A. Astukewicz of Salisbury is a retired business manager.

I have issue with some points in this article. First of all Murth knows this so called war is wrong and wants us to get the hell out of there. As far as him telling people not to join the military...DAMN STRAIGHT. Why would you want to tell someone to give up their life for yours? The military right now is nothing than a killing machine. You join, your chances of loosing your life are great or never getting your freedom back from the military is also great with the stop loss.

WE ARE BITTER because of all the killing going on in our name for our so called defense while our freedoms are eroding away. We have had enough and we are standing up for our rights as Americans.

Everyone MUST USE YOUR FREEDOM AND VOTE! If we have masses show up at the polls in support of ending the invasion, standing up for our freedoms that are being taken away. Then and only then can we get our votes counted and take back our country from the thieves who have stolen it who think they are the true Americans.

******************************

Embarrassing the city

Deseret Morning News editorial

Cindy Sheehan has every right to come to Salt Lake City later this month when President Bush visits and to bring her protest circus with her. And Mayor Rocky Anderson, who couldn't manage to be in town earlier this year when the City Council voted on the city's annual budget, has the same right as any American to show up for this, organize a protest and extend an invitation to Sheehan.
We wonder, however, whether he would do the same if one of Sheehan's new friends, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, were to come to Salt Lake City. Chavez has apparently grown weary of press criticisms in his own country and has threatened to use new laws to clamp down on such things. He is consolidating power and making alliances with people like Fidel Castro while poverty rises among his own citizens.
Yet Sheehan embraces Chavez while calling President Bush a terrorist. She is emphatic that the president himself killed her son, who died in Iraq in 2004. Anderson maintains that he supports the troops, even though he opposes the war. His support of Sheehan, however, lends deeper meaning to his protests. At what point does opposition to a war cross over the line of aiding the enemy?
A year ago, many in the media were wondering whether it was appropriate to be harshly critical of Sheehan. After all, she was a grieving mother whose son had paid the ultimate price for his country. That gave her an aura of entitlement and a shield of respect. But her actions in the past year have changed all that.
Legitimate debates can be waged over whether the war in Iraq was appropriate, whether it is being waged correctly, whether a civil war is about to engulf all that coalition forces are trying to do, and whether the fight should be carried to Iran and other terror-sponsoring nations in the region.
But Sheehan's mantra is little more than a tiresome and angry repetition of "bring the troops home." She has yet to articulate how she would deal with terrorism in the broad sense, or what an Iraq left to its own devices might mean to the security of the world. The sound and fury that she, the mayor and other protesters will generate here later this month won't be heard by the president or his entourage, nor will it add a chapter to any foreign policy textbook. It will, however, get media attention — much more than something as mundane as a vote on the budget.
A year ago, we said Anderson's decision to organize protests against the president's last visit here diminished his position and was an embarrassment to the city. Like any American, he has a right to do this again, but that assessment has not changed.

I am very offended with people who think they can slam my friend Cindy Sheehan for her tireless efforts in bringing peace to the world while they do nothing to make our planet a better place for us to live. She will keep doing what she is doing until the killing is stopped. We all will stay the course defending our right to speak outagainsts King George until he stops killing us and destroying ourchildren'ss future by selling our country to China.

What is tiresome of people putting down Hugo while making Bush a saint. Hugo has done more to better human life while George does everything he can to destroy it. Hugo helped after Katrina when Bush was on vacation. Hugo gave heating to the poor people of our country last winter while Bush allowed the oil companies to makeunbelievablee profits off of us.

********************************

Neil Young, remember: We do need you around
By Dave Wedge
Boston Herald Chief Enterprise Reporter
Friday, August 18, 2006

What has always made America great has been our freedom to opine and disagree, no matter how unpopular or outrageous the views.
But in this day of specialized, targeted newscasts and narrow-minded, bullying talk show hosts, dissenting opinions are heard less frequently and more often than not, they are outright smashed down and ridiculed.
Much of middle America, encouraged by the venom of right-wing pundits, routinely pounce on those who speak out against President Bush, as though doing so is not only wrong, but a traitorous act. Look at the McCarthyesque vitriol thatÂ’s been heaped upon the Dixie Chicks, Kayne West and Cindy Sheehan.
ItÂ’s this soul-crushing climate of fear in which we live that makes Neil Young as relevant as he has been in his 40-year career. He has never been one to pull punches or shy away from an opinion out of fear of the reaction.
He wrote his epic anti-authoritarian masterpiece “Ohio” in response to the National Guard gunning down four unarmed college students in 1970. The song was released just 10 days after the massacre. His 1989 song “Rockin’ In the Free World,” railed against homelessness, teen pregnancy and the failure of George Bush Sr.’s 1,000 Points of Light policy.
Today, the 60-year-old Canadian-born songwriter has adopted the United States as his own and continues to unflinchingly defend his own American ideals, despite swimming against the fierce tide of our post-9/11 world.
When Young embarked on his harshest political slam yet, the unambiguously titled “Let’s Impeach the President,” at Manfield’s Tweeter Center, there were some boos and middle fingers raised. But for most, hearing the song was a moving return to pre-9/11 days when it was acceptable to question and criticize the president - anyone remember Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter?
The fact that weÂ’re now at war should not be used as a convenient excuse to stifle speech. Nor should criticizing BushÂ’s policy be considered an act of treason.
Implying that criticism of the war or BushÂ’s policies is somehow unsupportive of the troops is a smokescreen. ItÂ’s a diversion from reality - a demand for dissenters to get back in line and stick with the program. Either that or risk being painted as an Axis of Evil sympathizer.
Neil Young, though, has once again boldly chosen to step out of line and ignore “the program.” Whether you’re with him or against him, what’s undeniable is his ability to offer pointed political criticism in a way that’s passionate and honest.
And whatÂ’s un-American about that?


YES!!! What is so un-American about that? I am loving the protest music that is out now. I listen to it everyday. It's good for my soul.

Speak the truth to your family and friends. Make them aware of how many have died while they go about their happy day.

USE YOUR FREEDOM AND VOTE!!!

Citizens of the World want PEACE while the Leaders make War

The Pro Peace movement is growing.

People around the world want peace while the leaders of our world fight and breed hate in some of us. I've said for a while. We as a whole are like drug addicts. We won't climb out of the hole of war we have dug for ourselves until we reach rock bottom. Have we reached it? If not, when will we? I've been waiting a long time....

What do we do to the children?

What are we teaching them?

To Hate or to LOVE?

May peace be inside all of us for the children who will have to live in the world we leave them,
Cindy

2600 Knocks on the doors..... how much is enough with you?

I've had enough!

STOP THE KILLING IN MY NAME!
Stop telling these kids they are fighting for our freedom!
AND STOP KILLING THEM!

Killing begets more death. Love begets peace. Have love so we can come to peace. Stop hateing and living in fear of other people.
We're all human, we all live here together.

Remember them always....
May peace be inside all of us,
Cindy

Bomb kills 2 U.S. soldiers in Baghdad

Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two U.S soldiers were killed Saturday when their foot patrol was hit by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, the military said. The deaths brought to 23 the number of Americans killed in Iraq this month.

At least 2,600 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The names of the soldiers were not released and no further details were given.

Also Saturday, the U.S. military said soldiers had raided a funeral and detained 60 men suspected of ties to al-Qaida car bombings.

It was the first announcement of a major roundup of suspected insurgents since troop reinforcements began arriving for a new crackdown in Baghdad.

Attacks killed 16 people across Iraq on Saturday, and police reported finding 15 apparent victims of sectarian violence, including a dozen bodies fished out at a grate that blocks weeds from flowing down the Tigris River.

Despite the rise in sectarian fighting and other violence, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he would not rule out U.S. troop reductions this year. Pace, who arrived in Baghdad on Saturday, said he would consult with top commanders on the outlook for a turnaround in the violence and the need for U.S. troops.

A statement by the U.S. military said the arrests in Baghdad were made Friday in Arab Jabour, a southern neighborhood of the capital and a stronghold of Sunni insurgents. The 60 detained men are believed associated with a senior Iraqi al-Qaida leader in a cell that "specializes in bomb making," the statement said.

"The group has been reported to be planning and conducting training for future attacks," it said. "Multiple forms of credible intelligence led the assault force to the location, later determined to be a funeral gathering, where the suspects were detained."

Women and children at the funeral were separated from the men and the arrests were made without incident, the statement said without giving any details.

Baghdad and the Sunni-dominated Anbar province west of the capital are centers of the insurgency, which uses bombings, suicide attacks, mortar barrages and armed assaults by gunmen.

Attention has focused on Baghdad due to a rise in Sunni-Shiite bloodshed, which U.S. officials describe as the greatest danger facing Iraq's new government of national unity. Between 1,000 and 1,500 people have been killed every month in the Baghdad area since January.

U.S. commanders are rushing nearly 12,000 more American and Iraqi soldiers into the capital. The military has not said how many reinforcements have arrived in Baghdad beginning last week, but some soldiers of the Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade have been seen on the city's streets.

The mounting violence prompted the United States to increase its troop levels in Iraq. But Pace said that "there is still the potential to reduce the number of troops" this year, though he would not say how soon he thought this could happen.

"We thought as recently as a month or so ago that we were going to be able to come down" in the numbers, he said in an interview aboard his plane on an overnight flight from Washington. "What changed was the increase in sectarian violence."

Much of the violence is blamed on al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, which launched two uprisings against U.S. forces in November 2004, resulting in heavy fighting.

In an interview with the New York Times published Saturday, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Iran was instigating Shiite militias to step up attacks on U.S. forces in retaliation for the Israeli assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Shiite Hezbollah is backed by Iran.

Iran's prodding has led to a surge in mortar and rocket attacks on the fortified Green Zone, the compound that houses the main components of the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy, Khalilzad was quoted as saying.

The Shiite guerrillas behind the attacks are members of splinter groups of the Mahdi Army, he said. The newspaper quoted unidentified officials of the Sadr Organization as saying that rogue elements of the Mahdi Army are not under their control and carry out attacks without guidance from al-Sadr.

"Iran is seeking to put more pressure, encourage more pressure on the coalition from the forces that they are allied with here," Khalilzad was quoted as saying.

U.S. Embassy officials were not immediately available to confirm Khalilzad's comments.

The extent of Iranian involvement here has long been the subject of debate within the U.S. military and civilian establishment. Privately, some senior U.S. officials are skeptical the Iranian government is doing more than providing money to select Shiite groups. Others insist Iran is providing weapons and training to some Shiite factions.

The increase in attacks on the Green Zone also followed a coalition crackdown on Mahdi Army elements in Basra, Mahmoudiya, Musayyib and Baghdad.

On Saturday, the bound and blindfolded bodies of 12 men were found in the Tigris in Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, at one of the metal grills fixed in the river to block debris from being swept downstream.

The victims were aged between 35 and 45, and most had been shot in the head and the rest in the chest, said Mamoun al-Rubaie, an official at the morgue in Kut, where the bodies were bought.

Three more bodies were discovered Saturday, one in Baghdad and two in Kifil in Hillah province south of the capital.

In addition, 16 people died from bombings and gun attacks, including two in the southern city of Basra killed when a bomb exploded at a shop selling CDs featuring sermons and interviews of al-Sadr.

The U.S. military said two U.S soldiers were killed when their foot patrol was hit by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, bringing to 23 the number of Americans killed in Iraq this month. No details of the latest deaths were released.

Happy Birthday Alex Arredondo - he would have been 22

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX

August 5, 2006 ~ Alex would have 22 candles on his cake..instead his family is having a hard time dealing with him being missing from their lives.

I went away for the weekend. We took out kids on one last little weekend at the beach before they go back to school. I wanted to post this before I went away. With my new business, back to school and just being mom I got busy and forgot to let you all know about Alex. He wasn't forgotten in my thoughts, only on my blog.

I wish I knew Alex. From what his friends and family say, he was a hell of a kid. Always had a smile, always joking. This is a letter he sent home. I try to honor him last year and this year by sharing one of his letter with you.

May PEACE be inside all of us, for Alex....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX
Cindy

Mom & Dad,

Today is Sunday, January 19, 2003. I've been out at sea for three days now and I'm starting to feel better. The first two days I was completely sick from seasickness and some virus. So far everyday I come outside the skin of the ship and write letters, whale watch, (which isn't that great cause I haven't seen any but there are plenty of dolphins that swim along side the ship), watch the horizon and sunset, etc. This seams so unreal to me. I've never seen water this BLUE before, I've never looked 360 degrees around me and seen nothing but water, clouds, the sun and a Fleet of Battleships surrounding me. Tomorrow is one of my many , many training days on ship to prepare me for my mission. I will also be training a short time in Kuwait. This is hard for me to comprehend. It seems like my whole life changed in an instant. Yesterday I was in a classroom learning about trigonometry and history. I graduated, went to boot camp, went to school, graduated as a GRUNT. I was sent across the country to train. Now I'm being sent across the world to fight. Today I am in a classroom learning about Tactical Urban Combat and Nuclear, Biological and chemical warfare. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, on my way to experience 1st hand what I am learning about. I am not afraid of dying. I am more afraid of what will happen to all the ones that I love if something happens to me. Soon enough I will be in the desert, outside in the city of Bagdad, in full combat gear, ready to carry out my mission. Wondering how this all happened so fast, Wishing I was back home going to school, dating Shelia, taking care of my family. Although I think this way now I am almost certain that if I didn't walk this path I would be wondering to myself "why didn't I make the other decision. Why didn't I walk the path of a proud warrior, a marine." Just because I wonder "what if" doesn't mean I'm not proud, it doesn't mean I feel like I made the wrong decision. It doesn't mean I have any regrets. I'm still proud to be fighting for mycountry. I feel like, If I'm not helping one way I should still do all that I can to help (OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM). I'm on a time back now. I need to send this letter in the next hour for it to get to you by Tuesday or Wednesday. I love you both very much and I wish I could keep writing but I got to go. LOVE YOU. PFC ARREDONDO/ UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

A note to Brian his brother:

WHATS UP BRIAN, I feel so lucky to be blessed with the chance to defend my country 6 months after I joined the military. Some Marines have been in for over 20 years and still haven't seen combat. I'm also lucky to have such a wonderful family. I know how much you love me and support me and that keeps me going along with a few other things. Is Jeanette babysitting for Mom? LOVE YOU BROTHER Your Big Brother - Private First Class Arredondo USMC

August 25, 2004

Lance Corporal Arredondo served as Fire Team Leader during the Battalion's attack into the old cith of Najaf. As the Platoon attacked to clear a four-story hotel, it was heavily engaged by enemy machine gun and sniper fire from three different directions. Lance Corporal Arredondo returned fire exposing himself to great risk to ensure the members of his team were safe. After fearlessly exchanging fire with the enemy snipers for more than three hours, Lance Corporal Arredondo fell mortally wounded as he moved through the rooms to inspect the Marines' defensive position.

Sleeping America - Not for some parents....

I keep asking myself day after day, year after year, WHEN WILL WE STAND UP FOR OUR COUNTRY? FOR OUR FREEDOM? I am sickened daily with the events we live through. While it kills the pit of my soul the effects on the people I come across are very little from what I see. People going about their life, bitching about if another hurricane will blow through here. Bitching about what happens to the personally but not giving a thought what goes on outside their world. Thousands are dead in their names as Americans, and it seams to me very few give a shit. And because so many don't give a shit is the reason why our government can get away with what they do.

May peace be inside all of us,
Cindy

Another Sleepless Night

By Georgia Stillwell / Military Families Speak Out

I am living in a nightmare.

Is all this pain and destruction ever going to end? I am hearing all these other stories of pain and devastation of families. The knot that lives inside my stomach since the war began is growing. I used to be able to alleviate it somewhat by purging myself through my writing or my activism. I can’t anymore. There isn’t anymore relief. I refer you to the following blog.

Military families outside the Capital for 6 weeks and hardly anyone notices....

People on a hunger strike outside the White house on their 27th day and hardly a whisper.

Many participating in acts of civil disobedience no one hears.

Mothers hugging tombstones trying to will their children back to life.

Mothers lying awake at night crying for their children who have returned home and are living in PTSD hells we can’t even fathom -- I am one of these.

Families who feel like they can’t breathe while their loved one is currently in harms way... waiting for the dreaded knock on the door.

Our children injured and maimed.

Dead Iraqi Men, Women, children and babies. More than we even know.

We cry alone and we cry together. Embracing each other through this vile creature called war. It has wrapped us in its arms. I feel no escape.

How much love will it take to end this war? My child is your child and their children are our children and we all are interconnected. Please God end this madness.

America... AMERICA... AMERICA... America, SAVE OUR CHILDREN!!!

Am I yelling into a barren land of souls? I am begging, I am pleading, and I am on my knees... Do whatever needs to be done. Do whatever you can and then do even more.

I know that there are people out there doing all they can and with all my heart I thank you!

Its 3AM... another late night rambling from a soldier’s mother who can’t sleep. My son will never be the same. How I miss my boy… the tears streaming down my face now. I am helpless to erase the memories.

The memories of his fellow soldier’s brains spattered on him, the face of the young boy my son killed because they thought he had a bomb, and he didn’t. My son wounded by shrapnel, the medals he received which are in the bottom of a drawer in an old Wal-Mart plastic bag.

My last trip to Washington D.C. I met with many high officials but the biggest event was when I called home to my son and told him what I was doing and I heard the voice of my first born child say “Thanks Mom.”

I have purged myself again, though never feeling completely clean. Maybe I’ll sleep. Maybe I’ll dream of a world where we don’t kill each other.

And sometimes a picture says a thousand words... a picture of my son in Iraq at 19 years old. Specialist Robert Stillwell:

As the years go by ....we WILL know the truth about 9/11

9/11 Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon
Allegations Brought to Inspectors General

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 2, 2006; A03

Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate.

Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according to several commission sources. Staff members and some commissioners thought that e-mails and other evidence provided enough probable cause to believe that military and aviation officials violated the law by making false statements to Congress and to the commission, hoping to hide the bungled response to the hijackings, these sources said.

In the end, the panel agreed to a compromise, turning over the allegations to the inspectors general for the Defense and Transportation departments, who can make criminal referrals if they believe they are warranted, officials said.

"We to this day don't know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Command] told us what they told us," said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor who led the commission. "It was just so far from the truth. . . . It's one of those loose ends that never got tied."

Although the commission's landmark report made it clear that the Defense Department's early versions of events on the day of the attacks were inaccurate, the revelation that it considered criminal referrals reveals how skeptically those reports were viewed by the panel and provides a glimpse of the tension between it and the Bush administration.

A Pentagon spokesman said yesterday that the inspector general's office will soon release a report addressing whether testimony delivered to the commission was "knowingly false." A separate report, delivered secretly to Congress in May 2005, blamed inaccuracies in part on problems with the way the Defense Department kept its records, according to a summary released yesterday.

A spokesman for the Transportation Department's inspector general's office said its investigation is complete and that a final report is being drafted. Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said she could not comment on the inspector general's inquiry.

In an article scheduled to be on newsstands today, Vanity Fair magazine reports aspects of the commission debate -- though it does not mention the possible criminal referrals -- and publishes lengthy excerpts from military audiotapes recorded on Sept. 11. ABC News aired excerpts last night.

For more than two years after the attacks, officials with NORAD and the FAA provided inaccurate information about the response to the hijackings in testimony and media appearances. Authorities suggested that U.S. air defenses had reacted quickly, that jets had been scrambled in response to the last two hijackings and that fighters were prepared to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93 if it threatened Washington.

In fact, the commission reported a year later, audiotapes from NORAD's Northeast headquarters and other evidence showed clearly that the military never had any of the hijacked airliners in its sights and at one point chased a phantom aircraft -- American Airlines Flight 11 -- long after it had crashed into the World Trade Center.

Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold and Col. Alan Scott told the commission that NORAD had begun tracking United 93 at 9:16 a.m., but the commission determined that the airliner was not hijacked until 12 minutes later. The military was not aware of the flight until after it had crashed in Pennsylvania.

These and other discrepancies did not become clear until the commission, forced to use subpoenas, obtained audiotapes from the FAA and NORAD, officials said. The agencies' reluctance to release the tapes -- along with e-mails, erroneous public statements and other evidence -- led some of the panel's staff members and commissioners to believe that authorities sought to mislead the commission and the public about what happened on Sept. 11.

"I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described," John Farmer, a former New Jersey attorney general who led the staff inquiry into events on Sept. 11, said in a recent interview. "The tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public for two years. . . . This is not spin. This is not true."

Arnold, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, told the commission in 2004 that he did not have all the information unearthed by the panel when he testified earlier. Other military officials also denied any intent to mislead the panel.

John F. Lehman, a Republican commission member and former Navy secretary, said in a recent interview that he believed the panel may have been lied to but that he did not believe the evidence was sufficient to support a criminal referral.

"My view of that was that whether it was willful or just the fog of stupid bureaucracy, I don't know," Lehman said. "But in the order of magnitude of things, going after bureaucrats because they misled the commission didn't seem to make sense to me."