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Walking the Talk
Famed for his response to the attacks on 9-11, Rudy Giuliani became America's mayor, not just New York City's mayor. August 30, 2004, Former NY Mayor Rudy Guiliani addressed the Republican National Convention. Who can ever forget these words:
There are times when leadership is the most important.
On September 11, this city and our nation faced the worst attack in our history. On that day, we had to confront reality.
For me, when I arrived there and I stood below the north tower and I looked up, and seeing the flames of hell emanating from those buildings, and realizing that what I was actually seeing was a human being on the 101st, 102nd floor, that was jumping out of the building, I stood there, it probably took five or six seconds, it seemed to me that it took 20 or 30 minutes, and I was stunned.
And I realized, in that moment, in that instant, I realized we were facing something that we have never, ever faced before.
We had never been confronted with anything like this before. We had to concentrate all of our energy and our faith and our hope to get through those first hours and days. And we needed all the help that we could get and all the support that we could get.
And I will always remember that moment as we escaped the building that we were trapped in at 75 Barclay Street, and I realized that things outside might actually be worse than inside the building.
We did the best we could to communicate a message of calm and hope, as we stood on the pavement watching a cloud come through the cavernous streets of lower Manhattan.
Our people were so brave in their response.
At the time, we believed that we would be attacked many more times that day and in the days that followed. Without really thinking, based on just emotion, spontaneous, I grabbed the arm of then-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, and I said to him, "Bernie, thank God George Bush is our president."
I say it again tonight. I say it again tonight:
Thank God that George Bush is our president, and thank God that Dick Cheney, a man with his experience and his knowledge and his strength and his background, is our vice president.
That was 2004...What happened in 2005?
The Government Accountability Office issued a report in May 2005 stating the following stupendously irresponsible mistakes from 2002-2004 (Hat tip to Yoss at Daily Kos):
It appeared that between the years of 2002 and 2004, over $466 million dollars in Department of Defense property had been lost, damaged, or simply gone missing. Within this vast amount of items were military property with demilitarization restrictions, including "chemical and biological protective suits, body armor, and guided missile warheads." In addition, their investigation found that military services had spent at least $400 million in order to buy new items rather than use excess items in "new or unused" condition.
In response to this, the DoD officials assured both the Congress and the American people that their security was adequate to keep our weapons out of enemy hands, and that they would have new enhanced security measures in place by January 2006 in order to further bulk up already programs.
Well, it turns out we aren't safe at all...
Now, how are things looking in the latest report? Read this and tell me if anyone should be uttering, "Thank God for George Bush":
Using investigative techniques and acting in an undercover capacity to disguise our identity, we tested DOD systems and controls to see if we could obtain sensitive excess military equipment and technology items that require demilitarization and should not be available to the public. We used DOD's Federal Logistics (FedLog) system information to identify and validate the population of military equipment and technology items that require demilitarization.
We then identified public sales of excess military items that required demilitarization by total destruction when no longer needed by DOD to prevent these items from falling into the wrong hands. Next, we tested the systems and controls by making undercover purchases of military equipment and technology items from DOD's liquidation sales contractor. In making these purchases we used a fictitious identity to obtain End-Use Certificates (EUC) where this documentation was required as a condition of sale.
For sales where we were outbid, we tracked the bid activity to identify the winning bidders. We are referring these purchases and numerous other public purchases of items that should have been demilitarized to federal law enforcement agencies for further investigation.
In addition, we used publicly available information to develop undercover techniques to penetrate Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) excess property warehouses.
We used a fictitious identity posing as a private citizen to purchase numerous sensitive excess DOD military technology items that should have been demilitarized instead of being sold to the public. Sensitive excess military equipment purchased by our investigator at DOD liquidation sales auctions included ceramic body armor inserts currently used by deployed troops; a time selector unit used to ensure the accuracy of computer-based equipment, such as global positioning systems and system-level clocks; a universal frequency counter used to ensure that the frequency of communication gear is running at the expected rate; 2 guided missile radar test sets, at least 12 digital microcircuits used in F-14 fighter aircraft; and numerous other sensitive electronic parts. We were able to purchase these items because controls broke down at virtually every step in the excess property turn-in and disposal process.
In addition, posing as DOD contractor employees our undercover investigators were able to easily penetrate security at two separate excess property warehouses in June 2006. There, they were able to obtain, at no cost, numerous sensitive military equipment items valued at about $1.1 million that should not have been released outside of DOD. The items we obtained included two launcher mounts for shoulder-fired guided missiles, several types of body armor, a digital signal converter used in naval electronic surveillance, an all-band antenna used to track aircraft, six circuit cards used in computerized Navy systems, and several other items in use by the military services. The body armor could be used in terrorist or other criminal activity. Many of the other military items have weapons applications that also would be useful to terrorists. Our undercover investigators were able to obtain these items because DRMO personnel did not confirm their identity and authorization to requisition excess DOD property items. The DRMO personnel even helped our undercover investigators load the items into our van.
This is another massive failure of our government. We want our politicians to do more than praise God or thank God. We want them to do the job we pay them to do. That means we need to demand more for our tax dollars than empty words. Less talk and more action would be a great motto.
What do you think?
I agree! Good work, Suz. And horrifying, as is usual with this lot.
I just put up a diary at Kos about Fear Up, with information on tickets etc. Please check it out and post over there too.
Tickets just went on sale today, and already we are getting lots of requests. We'd love to have as many DCPers as possible there!
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/29/134028/615
If anything ever made me want to read the whole article, it was this. Good exposure of non-sequitor in logic of this bunch!
They are the embodiment of hypocrisy. & who would thank God for Dick Cheney in the lst place!
I like this title.
Matthew Rothschild | Condoleezza Rice: Midwife From Hell
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072906Y.shtml
"Her description of the conflagration in Lebanon as the 'birthpangs of a new Middle East' was about as callous as it gets, matched only by Bush's remark that the conflict represents 'a moment of opportunity,'" writes Matthew Rothschild describing Condoleezza Rice's opposition to an immediate cease-fire.
& by the way, just found out the Hate Crime in Seattle was done by a buy with bipolar disorder - bad combination with a 45 caliber revolver. The whole thing is so sad.
What do you think?
Posted by Suz Krueger at July 29, 2006 12:53 PM
I think anyone who thanked God that George W. Bush is our president, at any moment, ANYWHERE, is out of their freakin' tree, and disqualifies them as a credible resource on any topic, especially that of judging peoples character and experience.
Rudy acted like a responsible adult during those days, and THAT is what endeared him to so many.
I get in this argument often with the chickenhawk cheerleaders... they still insist, that no matter how bad things may be, that having ol' Dub in there is still better than if President Gore were at the helm, inferring that nothing would have been done.
So what do I think?
Truth or Consequences.
So .. I have a headache, have been cleaning up after a couple of
cats & never did get to the news ..but people are writing to me something about air raids in Syria & then I see this article - that's just the email
| Bush Bids for Sweeping Detention Power
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072906X.shtml
US citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill. A 32-page draft measure is intended to authorize the Pentagon's tribunal system, established shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks to detain and prosecute detainees captured in the war on terror.
Road Warrior: Did Police Try to Hide Mel Gibson's Tirade?
By E&P Staff
Published: July 29, 2006 2:30 PM ET
NEW YORK Did police in Malibu, Ca., try to cover up an anti-Semitic tirade, and other actions, by actor Mel Gibson after his arrest for drunk driving on Friday? The fact of his arrest became public quickly enough but what happened next only emerged today.
The New York Daily News opened its story today with: "A blitzed Mel Gibson launched into an obscenity-laced tirade when he was busted on suspicion of drunken driving early yesterday, threatening an officer and making anti-Semitic and sexually abusive remarks, according to a police report."
It seems that the full report was suppressed but four pages of it were leaked to the celebrity Web site tmz.com, which posted them today. The Daily News claims that a mug shot of the actor has also been withheld under orders from the sheriff.
Gibson had been pulled over by Deputy James Mee in the wee hours early Friday for going 80 mph and then tested DUI.
The Daily News picks up the story: "According to the incident report obtained by TMZ.com, the Road Warrior embarked on a belligerent, anti-Semitic outburst when he realized he had been busted. 'F-----g Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,' Mee's report quotes him as saying. 'Are you a Jew?' Gibson asked the deputy, according to the report.
"The actor also berated the deputy, threatening, 'You motherf----r. I'm going to f--- you,' according to Mee's report. The actor also told the cop he 'owns Malibu' and would spend all his money "to get even with me," Mee said in his report.
"TMZ quoted a law enforcement source as saying Gibson noticed a female sergeant on the scene and yelled at her, 'What do you think you're looking at, sugar t--s?'
http://tinyurl.com/qedk4
The Passion of the Cripes
Go here and watch five of the truly brave and patriotic get arrested for trying to stop the war.
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm
These are the folks I have been learning much from over the past month. I find it hard to see how thin they have become, but amazing that the spirits are still so strong and clear.
Marketing & spin...where would we be without marketing & spin...
On CNN, stories about the Iraq War are now under a banner of "Iraq: Transition of Power" (with a story about how 4 more Marines were killed, with a total now up to 2565 U.S. troops now dead...)
Stories about Israel & Lebanon are under the banner "Crisis in the Middle East"
And to further inflame the public, they're showing "Marine Barracks Bombing" tonight & tomorrow night, just in case any of us forgot about the 1983 bombing...
All the more reason to stick to online news via blogs & other trusted sites...
CORPORATE MEDIA CENSORS MOVEON
Joel Bleifuss, In These Times
In a new series of TV ads, MoveOn exposes GOP lawmakers' fealty to the corporations that fund their campaigns. Now if only the stations would run them.
http://alternet.org/story/39473/
US Drops Bechtel Project Promoted by Rice, Laura Bush
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072806R.shtml
The United States is dropping Bechtel, the American construction giant, from a project to build a high-tech children's hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Basra after the project fell nearly a year behind schedule and exceeded its expected cost by as much as 150 percent.
Better Get Used to Killer Heat Waves
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072906Z.shtml
In Fresno, the morgue is full of victims from a California heat wave. A combination of heat and power outages killed a dozen people in Missouri. And in parts of Europe, temperatures are hotter than in 2003 when a heat wave killed 35,000 people. Get used to it.
Israel Rejects Peace Offer
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072906A.shtml
Hezbollah political leaders reversed course and agreed to join a Lebanese government proposal aimed at stopping the fighting in the country's south. Israel dismissed Hezbollah's offer as disingenuous.
End of Secret Detention Urged
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072906D.shtml
A United Nations rights panel Friday demanded the immediate closure of any secret US detention facilities and said Washington should grant the International Red Cross access to captives.
Sergeant Tells of Plot to Kill Iraqi Detainees
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072906E.shtml
For more than a month after the killings, Sgt. Lemuel Lemus stuck to his story. Then, on June 15, Sergeant Lemus offered a new and much darker account in a lengthy sworn statement about the deliberate plot by his fellow soldiers to kill the three handcuffed Iraqis.
Stan Goff | Playing the Atheism Card Against Pat Tillman's Family
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072906F.shtml
Stan Goff, a retired veteran of the US Army Special Forces, writes about the events surrounding the fratricidal death of Army Ranger and former NFL player Pat Tillman, and the possible military cover-up that ensued.
GOP Senator Calls Firefighters "Lazy"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072906G.shtml
US Senator Conrad Burns, a Republican running for re-election this year, pointed across the Billings airport Sunday and accused a member of an elite firefighting team of not doing "a God damned thing" and charged that crew members just "sit around" on the job.
Posted by: DiAnne at July 29, 2006 01:46 PM
Between Rothschild's article and the one that says Israel rejected a peace offer... I can only conclude war-madness has struck a huge bloc of "leaders" in the so-called "free world."
WHY do these people want war, war, and more war??? Okay, yes, I know they want to control the oil in the Mideast and make all of those countries puppets of the US (and maybe Britain as a surrogate), but that's not a rational or logical justification for war.
I don't get it.
Someone at one of the Busboys events last fall said that we should ask all the Israelis and all the Palestinians who want to fight to move into a proscribed area. We can let them have all the weapons they want. At any time, if anyone wants to stop fighting, they can.
This can continue until someone wins, or most are dead, but by then, everyone else will have moved on and peace will reign.
I kind of like it.
Karen
After 9/11, I spoke to my cousin in Japan. He wanted to put some of the leaders out in a football field & let them have at it.
Makes about as much sense.
Call Me Hokey, but... (not hokeybutt)
it's a world of laughter, a world or tears
its a world of hopes, its a world of fear
theres so much that we share
that its time we're aware
its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small world after all
its a small, small world
There is just one moon and one golden sun
And a smile means friendship to everyone.
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small small world
(...and yes, that's a funktafied version of the mouse I put down, yo)
All the more reason to stick to online news via blogs & other trusted sites...
Posted by: madame defarge at July 29, 2006 06:47 PM
I hate that bile, it makes me wanna vomit. I havent tuned into that drek for almost 6 years, well, since Theft 2000. When I walk into a restaurant and see even a snippet of that tabloid trash they pass off as news, I literally well up with anger.
How's this for a banner?
"America Is A Drama Queen"... (Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy applicable)
Monkey
Keep up the good work! Except for tiny bits, for me, it's been since 1991 and no regrets!! When I see it (tv cable news), I'm shocked. I pretty much have only watched animation and shows like FrontLine & 60 Minutes since.
Check out Psycho's pic, er, I mean, check out the photo of yet another pillar of christian idolotry showing true colors ...
"I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable," Mel Gibson said in a statement released Saturday after reports that the actor made some anti-Semitic remarks when police arrested him for suspicion of drunk driving the other day.
more...
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Mel_Gibson_apologizes_for_despicable_statements_0729.html
Well I'm reading Dan Assmussen "The Bad Reporter" -
The LIES behind the TRUTH, and the TRUTH behind those LIES that are behind that TRUTH
Unearthed 2001 Memo may have warned Bush that Lance Bass of N'Sync was gay .. yet it was not specific enough to act upon .. they were unprepared .. or perhaps it could have been prevented .. but the CIA's gaydar failed again .. military spread too thin
Posted by: DiAnne at July 29, 2006 10:38 PM
Apparently Lance was the n' in n'sync, but don't quote me.
Lamont endorsement - Bush spanking
File this under the do not mess with the New York Times category:
"Citing national security, Mr. Bush continually tries to undermine restraints on the executive branch: the system of checks and balances, international accords on the treatment of prisoners, the nation's longtime principles of justice. His administration has depicted any questions or criticism of his policies as giving aid and comfort to the terrorists. And Mr. Lieberman has helped that effort. He once denounced Democrats who were "more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq" than on supporting the war's progress.
At this moment, with a Republican president intent on drastically expanding his powers with the support of the Republican House and Senate, it is critical that the minority party serve as a responsible, but vigorous, watchdog. That does not require shrillness or absolutism. But this is no time for a man with Mr. Lieberman's ability to command Republicans' attention to become their enabler, and embrace a role as the president's defender."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/opinion/30sun1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Karen,
Thanks for the link to the video. It brought tears to my eyes to see such grace and dignity under those difficult conditions. And all the while fighting and speaking truth to run-away power. Truly awesome.
Posted by: karen at July 29, 2006 08:01 PM
I love that idea. And not just the Israeli and Palestinians who want to fight - we better throw in the pro-war people from within the US as well as from the "Axis of Evil" countries.
I remember that 1988 Reagan quote you once had here at the DCP main page - that a free people will always want peace. Apparently, we are no longer free, since we want to resolve everything through pre-emptive wars.
Suz,
I'm not surprised about the ability to obtain government property, sensitive or otherwise, with very little red tape to skirt. In fact, I'm surprised the people went to all that trouble to obtain the DRMO stuff. All too often, if you just show up in a uniform and start loading up government property, people will thank you for getting it off your hands and say no more.
The "buy rather than reutilize" is exceedingly common and tied up with all the rules about properly accounting for transferred property and the financial accounting lines that are involved when you transfer a piece of equipment between agencies or between missions. Usually it's a lot easier just to dump it in the trash (even DRMO is a pain to pacify) and buy new. Not to mention, government budgets are on a "use it or lose it" basis - so if you don't spend the money this year (because you saved $$ by going through DRMO), then you will get a smaller budget next year.
Funny how general US consumer behavior acts exactly the same way.
Lebanese Die as Condi Plays Piano in Malaysia
By Kurt Nimmo
The Lebanese, facing “the geopolitical realities” of Israeli aggression and indiscriminate murder, are not having a good time, but then they hardly matter, as became obvious the moment Rice’s plane touched down and she engaged in “discussions” with the Israelis, talks designed to do little more than provide the Israelis with more time to kill Lebanese civilians.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14259.htm
{{{This is what I was talking about in a post a day or two ago after I saw the story on BBC. The photo on this page is not of Condisleazy playing the piano, however - it is of the dead....}}}
Posted by: Lou at July 29, 2006 11:05 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/opinion/30sun1.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Ending sentences in that article:
But this primary is not about Mr. Lieberman’s legislative record. Instead it has become a referendum on his warped version of bipartisanship, in which the never-ending war on terror becomes an excuse for silence and inaction. We endorse Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary for Senate in Connecticut.
At this point, I'll take any candidate who will oppose the Iraq war and show any signs of standing up to Bu$hCo and holding the whole administration to account for their actions since they were installed in 2000.... (Impeach; then The Hague...!!!)
Mel Gibson Apologizes for Tirade After Arrest
By ALLISON HOPE WEINER
MALIBU, Calif., July 29 — The film star and director Mel Gibson apologized Saturday for belligerent behavior and for saying what he called “despicable” things that he does “not believe to be true” when he was arrested here on a drunken-driving charge early Friday.
But Mr. Gibson, in a statement, stopped short of addressing claims that he made virulently anti-Semitic remarks to an arresting officer, as described on a Web site that posted several pages of the sheriff’s report.
The sheriff’s report, carried on TMZ.com, a Web site owned by Time Warner, said Mr. Gibson had demanded to know if the officer, James Mee, was a Jew. During an obscenity-laced tirade, according to the report, Mr. Gibson also said “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”
Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, declined to comment on the report. But he said the department would eventually disclose details of the arrest. “Nothing will be sanitized,” Mr. Whitmore said in a statement.
People associated with the case privately acknowledged the report’s authenticity, but they agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/us/30gibson.html
I heard a similar thought friday re sports & doping-have 2 leagues and let the folks who want to enhance do so unchecked and see how long they live...true role models if you would....
July 30, 2006
Dozens Killed, Hurt in Israeli Airstrike
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:27 a.m. ET
QANA, Lebanon (AP) -- An Israeli airstrike killed at least 50 people -- more than half children -- in a southern Lebanese village Sunday, the deadliest attack in 19 days of fighting. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice postponed a visit to Lebanon in a setback for diplomatic efforts to end hostilities.
Infuriated Lebanese officials said they had asked Rice to postpone the visit after Israel's missile strike. But Rice said she called Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to say she would postpone the trip, and that she had work to do in Jerusalem to end the fighting.
The missiles destroyed several homes in the village of Qana as people were sleeping. Rescue officials said at least 50 people were killed, and the bodies of 27 children were found in the rubble.
Israeli said it targeted Qana because it was a base for hundreds of rockets launched at Israeli, including 40 that injured five Israelis on Sunday. Israel said it had warned civilians several days before to leave the village.
''One must understand the Hezbollah is using their own civilian population as human shields,'' said Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir. ''The Israeli defense forces dropped leaflets and warned the civilian population to leave the place because the Hezbollah turned it into a war zone.''
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Lebanon-Israel.html
From the Chicago Sun-Times:
What is the worth of a single Iraqi life?
The New York Times reported that during recent months a hundred Iraqis die violently every day, 3,000 every month. In terms of size of population, that is the equivalent of 300,000 Americans a month, 10,000 every day. Yet the typical television clip on the evening news -- an explosion, automatic weapon fire, dead bodies on the streets -- has become as much a cliche as the weather report or another loss by the Cubs. The dead Iraqis are of no more value to us than artificial humans in video games. The Iraqis seem less than human, pajama-wearing people with dark skin, hate in their eyes, and a weird religion, screaming in pain over their losses. Weep with them, weep for them?
Why bother?
Rarely do Americans tell themselves that the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, is responsible for this slaughter. In a spasm of arrogance and power, we destroyed their political and social structure and are now unable to protect them from one another. Their blood is on the hands of our leaders who launched a war on false premises, without adequate forces, without plans for the time after the war and then sent in inept administrators who could not provide even a hint of adequate public services.
As Colin Powell, who knows something about war, unlike the president and his top thinkers, told President Bush, "If you break it, you own it." If you shatter a society, it is yours, and you're responsible for it. The United States shattered Iraq and we are responsible for the ensuing chaos that we are unable to control. So a hundred human beings are killed every day, and the most powerful military in the world (as Messrs. Rumsfeld and Cheney insist) is unable to stop the killing.
On most of the standards for a just war, the invasion of Iraq was criminally unjust. Messrs. Wolfowitz, Cheney and Rumsfeld wanted to invade Iraq the day after the World Trade Center attack. They tried to persuade the people that Iraq was somehow involved in the attack. They insisted that the Iraqis possessed weapons of mass destruction. Their arguments for the war, we all know now, were not true.
There was, therefore, no just cause, no attempt to exhaust all possible alternatives short of war, no real hope for victory, no postwar plan, and no ability to prevent the postwar butchery that was easily predictable to those who understood Iraq. The war leaped from slogan to slogan -- weapons of mass destruction, the critical front in the global war on terror, stay the course, freedom and democracy in Iraq. All these slogans are false.
Were America's leaders deliberately lying? Did they really believe that the Shiites and the Sunnis would not murder one another, or did they know better? One must leave the state of their consciences to God. However, they should have known, and in the objective order, they are criminally responsible for the hundred deaths every day. They should be tried for their crimes, not that such trials are possible in our country.
The hundred who die every day are not merely numbers, they are real human beings. Their deaths are personal disasters for the dead person and also for all those who love them: parents, children, wives, husbands. Most Americans are not outraged. Iraqis are a little less than human. If a hundred people were dying every day in our neighborhoods, we would scream in outrage and horror. Not many of us are lamenting these daily tragedies. Quite the contrary, we wish the newscast would go on to the weather for the next weekend.
Is blood on the hands of those Americans who support the war? Again, one must leave them to heaven. But in the objective order it is difficult to see why they are not responsible for the mass murders. They permitted their leaders to deceive them about the war, often enthusiastically. How can they watch the continuing murders in Iraq and not feel guilty?
How would you feel if the street were drenched with the blood of your son or daughter, if your father was in the hospital with his legs blown off?
We cannot permit ourselves to grieve for Iraqi pain because then we would weep bitter and guilty tears every day.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel28.html
Coushatta, La. - After Wanda Faye Hudson was killed in what some folks call the "bloodiest murder that ever happened in this town," it was handyman Robert Charles Browne's job to clean up the apartment.
Vickie Woods helped her friend.
"Blood was everywhere, I mean everywhere," Woods recalled. "I won't ever forget it."
When Browne's brother couldn't rent the tainted apartment, Browne moved in.
"He said, 'I ain't afraid of a ghost,"' Woods recalled.
Now this town of 2,200 on the lazy Red River knows that Browne, one of their own, may have killed Hudson, two other women in town and 46 others.
Investigators in Colorado last week revealed that Browne, who is serving a life sentence for murdering a 13-year-old Colorado girl, has claimed killing 48 other people.
He says the murder spree started in the early 1970s and spanned South Korea and nine states until he was convicted in 1995.
Browne says 14 of those killings were in Louisiana, and law enforcement officials have linked him to the Coushatta slayings of 15-year-old Katherine Jean Hayes in 1980, 25-year-old Fay Self in 1983 and 21-year-old Hudson in 1983.
"I feel like I've lost a friend," said Woods, standing amid the rundown clapboard cottages where she had been a neighbor and close friend of Browne's since childhood.
"I feel like the Robert I knew is gone," she said, "and this monster who did this was left behind."
The son of a sheriff's deputy, Browne was known to be handsome and neatly dressed, a loner who was born on Halloween in 1952.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4113099
Tommorrow my moms interview with the Denver post should be up.
We have spoken now to Kerrie, Alines daughter, who was lost to us for 18 years. Once we spoke she told us where her little brother is.
There was something different about their lives than for the baby Aline was supposed to come back for that night. Kerrie and Petey were older, by her first husband.
A few years after Aline disappeared Kerrie and Peteys daddy committed a triple murder down in Texas and went on the run for a minute and is now on death row.
Thier mother the unknown victim of a serial killer, their daddy a mutiple killer himself, and this w as all before Petey was 8 years old.
Because of nefarious plots within the family Kerrie I believe ran away to the streets. Petey was placed into an orphanage at 12 and was disappeared into the system before we found out and could retrieve him.
It is no surprise to learn he is now also in prison. We still don't know what for and frankly I don't care, if there is one con that deserves mercy it would be that boy.
My sister the cop is trying to get through to him personally, I imagine she is asking for professional curtosy. I can not image they wouldn't make an exception in this case.
After all we still have to figure out what to do now. My mother and uncle, and these three kids are her only surviving next of kin.
This may sound like a stupid question, but do they need a lawyer?
The cops get their own lawyers and Attorney Generals, do we actually need one and if so, seriously what are we supposed to do first?
Should WE look for her body, ask them to do it yet again, or state police maybe?
COUSHATTA, La. - Robert Browne, says one of the people who knew him best, liked letting his young wife know what he could do to her.
“‘I could just kill you, and nobody would do anything about it down here,’” Rita Morgan says her ex-husband would scream in rage, a stranger who had replaced the doting suitor she knew until the first week of their marriage.
http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1319732
A moment of truth me thinks.
Posted by: Lou at July 30, 2006 08:53 AM
Lou, that's an extraordinary editorial. I didn't think I'd see the day when a major newspaper laid the truth out so baldly.
Sounds like it could have been written by one of those left-wing moonbats from left blogistan. (/end snark)
Christy,
I think it would be a good idea for all your family to get a lawyer who could help you sort through all of this.
I can't imagine all the things your family must be dealing with right now. You are in my prayers.
I checked the Louisiana State Bar Assn website for info about lawyers willing to work pro bono. They provide 2 different lists. One listing attorneys by parish and another one listing attorneys who work statewide.
Here's the link for the by parish listing...
http://www.lsba.org/atj/Provider_Directory/red_river_parish.asp
Here's the link for the statewide listing...
http://www.lsba.org/atj/Provider_Directory/statewide_services.asp
There's another site called http://www.lawhelp.org which is put up / managed by a group called Pro Bono Net ( http://www.probono.net )
When you click on their by-state info list here...
http://www.lawhelp.org/LA/
at the top of that page is a link to a directory of legal programs in LA here...
http://www.lawhelp.org/LA/StateDirectory.cfm/County/%20/City/%20/demoMode/%3D%201/Language/1/State/LA/TextOnly/N/ZipCode/%20/LoggedIn/0
It's quite lengthy. It appears to be all organizations that did sign up to be part of the Pro Bono Net so perhaps you can find help there if you cannot find it on the Louisiana Bar Assn. site.
Good luck and ((( hugs )))
Rove: Reporters slam politicians to save selves
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Presidential adviser Karl Rove said Saturday that journalists often criticize political professionals because they want to draw attention away from the "corrosive role" their own coverage plays in politics and government.
"Some decry the professional role of politics. They would like to see it disappear," Rove told graduating students at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. "Some argue political professionals are ruining American politics -- trapping candidates in daily competition for the news cycle instead of long-term strategic thinking in the best interest of the country."
But Rove turned that criticism on journalists.
"It's odd to me that most of these critics are journalists and columnists," he said. "Perhaps they don't like sharing the field of play. Perhaps they want to draw attention away from the corrosive role their coverage has played focusing attention on process and not substance."
Rove told about 100 graduates trained to be political operatives that they should respect the instincts of the American voter.
"There are some in politics who hold that voters are dumb, ill informed and easily misled, that voters can be manipulated by a clever ad or a smart line," said Rove, who is credited with President Bush's victories in the 2000 and 2004 elections. "I've seen this cynicism over the years from political professionals and journalists. American people are not policy wonks, but they have great instincts and try to do the right thing."
Rove said it is "wrong to underestimate the intelligence of the American voter, but easy to overestimate their interest. Much tugs at their attention."
But he said voters are able to watch campaigns and candidates closely and "this messy and imperfect process has produced great leaders."
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/29/rove.journalists.ap/index.html
Can't somone spray OFF! on this phat roach?
Posted by: dwahzon at July 30, 2006 11:15 AM
Ah, that's Father Andrew Greeley, who the slime on the right have been attempting to sleazeboat - but who resolutely refuses to walk away from core tenets of Jesus' philosophy.
If only the nutjobs praying for the end of time were as true to the spirit of Christ's teachings as is Father Greeley - because if I were them, I'd be praying for as much time as is humanly possible to get my sorry act together.
Posted by: Matthew Carnicelli at July 30, 2006 12:12 PM
You just, per usual, hit the nails on the heads for me.
Crossroads.
Reasonable Doubt
By REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN
Boston
THURSDAY marked the 350th anniversary of the excommunication of the philosopher Baruch Spinoza from the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam in which he had been raised.
Given the events of the last week, particularly those emanating from the Middle East, the Spinoza anniversary didn’t get a lot of attention. But it’s one worth remembering — in large measure because Spinoza’s life and thought have the power to illuminate the kind of events that at the moment seem so intractable and overwhelming.
The exact reasons for the excommunication of the 23-year-old Spinoza remain murky, but the reasons he came to be vilified throughout all of Europe are not. Spinoza argued that no group or religion could rightly claim infallible knowledge of the Creator’s partiality to its beliefs and ways. After the excommunication, he spent the rest of his life — he died in 1677 at the age of 44 — studying the varieties of religious intolerance. The conclusions he drew are still of dismaying relevance.
The Jews who banished Spinoza had themselves been victims of intolerance, refugees from the Spanish-Portuguese Inquisition. The Jews on the Iberian Peninsula had been forced to convert to Christianity at the end of the 15th century. In the intervening century, they had been kept under the vigilant gaze of the Inquisitors, who suspected the “New Christians,” as they were called even after generations of Christian practice, of carrying the rejection of Christ in their very blood. It can be argued that the Iberian Inquisition was Europe’s first experiment in racialist ideology.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/29/opinion/29goldstein.html
Interesting.... Thanks for pointing that out Matt.
I faintly remembered some connection between Father Greeley and the Milwaukee Archdiocese so I googled it and came across this *interesting* summation of Father Greeley's faults written in 1982. Milwaukee's Archbishop Rembert Weakland evidently defended him and that is what I was remembering. I suspect there were some newspaper articles of that time concerning the controversy.
http://www.sspx.ca/Angelus/1982_September/Letter_Apostolic_Delegate.htm
I also found this Atlantic Monthly article by Father Greeley for those who are interested in the topic of the Catholic church in America and the evolution of its involvement in politics and moral initiatives over the last 50+ years.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/resources/resource-files/timeline/2004-01-01-Greeley-YoungFogeys.htm
There's a very interesting article in the NYTimes today about the pastor of a St. Paul-area, MN megachurch that has spoken out against mixing politics and Christianity and the price he's paid for that outspokenness. Sorry for the length of the quotes but there were so many good ones.
Truth is that there are evangelical Christians out there who "get it" and he's one of them.
Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: July 30, 2006
Like most pastors who lead thriving evangelical megachurches, the Rev. Gregory A. Boyd was asked frequently to give his blessing — and the church’s — to conservative political candidates and causes.
The requests came from church members and visitors alike: Would he please announce a rally against gay marriage during services? Would he introduce a politician from the pulpit? Could members set up a table in the lobby promoting their anti-abortion work? Would the church distribute “voters’ guides” that all but endorsed Republican candidates? And with the country at war, please couldn’t the church hang an American flag in the sanctuary?
After refusing each time, Mr. Boyd finally became fed up, he said. Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called “The Cross and the Sword” in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a “Christian nation” and stop glorifying American military campaigns.
“When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses,” Mr. Boyd preached. “When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.”
Mr. Boyd says he is no liberal. He is opposed to abortion and thinks homosexuality is not God’s ideal. The response from his congregation at Woodland Hills Church here in suburban St. Paul — packed mostly with politically and theologically conservative, middle-class evangelicals — was passionate. Some members walked out of a sermon and never returned. By the time the dust had settled, Woodland Hills, which Mr. Boyd founded in 1992, had lost about 1,000 of its 5,000 members.
~snip~
Sermons like Mr. Boyd’s are hardly typical in today’s evangelical churches. But the upheaval at Woodland Hills is an example of the internal debates now going on in some evangelical colleges, magazines and churches. A common concern is that the Christian message is being compromised by the tendency to tie evangelical Christianity to the Republican Party and American nationalism, especially through the war in Iraq.
~snip~
He is known among evangelicals for a bestselling book, “Letters From a Skeptic,” based on correspondence with his father, a leftist union organizer and a lifelong agnostic — an exchange that eventually persuaded his father to embrace Christianity.
~snip~
Mr. Boyd said he never intended his sermons to be taken as merely a critique of the Republican Party or the religious right. He refuses to share his party affiliation, or whether he has one, for that reason. He said there were Christians on both the left and the right who had turned politics and patriotism into “idolatry.”
He said he first became alarmed while visiting another megachurch’s worship service on a Fourth of July years ago. The service finished with the chorus singing “God Bless America” and a video of fighter jets flying over a hill silhouetted with crosses.
"I thought to myself, 'What just happened? Fighter jets mixed up with the cross?' " he said in an interview.
~snip~
“America wasn’t founded as a theocracy,” he said. “America was founded by people trying to escape theocracies. Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn’t bloody and barbaric. That’s why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state.
“I am sorry to tell you,” he continued, “that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ.”
Mr. Boyd lambasted the “hypocrisy and pettiness” of Christians who focus on “sexual issues” like homosexuality, abortion or Janet Jackson’s breast-revealing performance at the Super Bowl halftime show. He said Christians these days were constantly outraged about sex and perceived violations of their rights to display their faith in public.
“Those are the two buttons to push if you want to get Christians to act,” he said. “And those are the two buttons Jesus never pushed.”
Some Woodland Hills members said they applauded the sermons because they had resolved their conflicted feelings. David Churchill, a truck driver for U.P.S. and a Teamster for 26 years, said he had been “raised in a religious-right home” but was torn between the Republican expectations of faith and family and the Democratic expectations of his union.
When Mr. Boyd preached his sermons, “it was liberating to me,” Mr. Churchill said.
~snip~
The Rev. Paul Eddy, a theology professor at Bethel College and the teaching pastor at Woodland Hills, said: “Greg is an anomaly in the megachurch world. He didn’t give a whit about church leadership, never read a book about church growth. His biggest fear is that people will think that all church is is a weekend carnival, with people liking the worship, the music, his speaking, and that’s it.”
In the end, those who left tended to be white, middle-class suburbanites, church staff members said. In their place, the church has added more members who live in the surrounding community — African-Americans, Hispanics and Hmong immigrants from Laos.
This suits Mr. Boyd. His vision for his church is an ethnically and economically diverse congregation that exemplifies Jesus’ teachings by its members’ actions. He, his wife and three other families from the church moved from the suburbs three years ago to a predominantly black neighborhood in St. Paul.
Mr. Boyd now says of the upheaval: “I don’t regret any aspect of it at all. It was a defining moment for us. We let go of something we were never called to be. We just didn’t know the price we were going to pay for doing it.”
~snip~
One woman asked: “So why NOT us? If we contain the wisdom and grace and love and creativity of Jesus, why shouldn’t we be the ones involved in politics and setting laws?”
Mr. Boyd responded: “I don’t think there’s a particular angle we have on society that others lack. All good, decent people want good and order and justice. Just don’t slap the label ‘Christian’ on it.”
There's more here...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/us/30pastor.html?ex=1311912000&en=28c82f6fb9327ad1&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Hi everyone. Sorry about the silence these two days. I had company from out of town.
One of my visiters was originally from Arkansas and now lives in the Nebraska-Iowa region. We had an interesting discussion about conservatives, democrats, and issues that divide us. I expected when he said "I'm a conservative" that we would not find anything in common to agree upon.
Interesting enough, we found many things in common.
1. The 2nd amendment should remain but there is no reason for assualt weapons not being banned.
2. Jobs and transporting jobs to slave labor abroad.
3. National healthcare.
4. pro-choice or what I call "really pro-life!" (Take care of the life not just the fetus.)
5. We agreed that my state law that makes ultrasounds 'free' at abortion clinics while those who have already decided to keep the child must pay for the same proceedure is wrong.
(In the end, he said the conservative Republican is now a moderate Democrat.)
Interesting convesation overall though. And it goes to show you that if you talk, not shout, you can discover more incommon than you'd think.
And for those who appreciate fine writing, there's a superb example of writing from the heart by SusanG at dailykos:
The Impossibility of Unknowing
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/7/30/13132/0506
It appears that this morning's attack that left 50+ innocent Lebanese citizens dead has changed the equation. I just heard Tony Blair call for an immediate resolution to the conflict.
Yeah, the hourly 5 min news recap that I heard on NPR a short while ago indicated that over half the dead are children and that the building that took the direct hit was the one that many of the villagers who were unable to escape had taken refuge in.
Here's a link to the report...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5592728
Lou
Amazing editorial
Posted by: Cyrano at July 30, 2006 06:01 AM
I honestly don't believe Mel Gibson made those terrible anti-Semetic remarks.
I'll only believe it if I see the actual documents themselves.
I know alot of people think Mr. Gibson was capitalizing on the brutality and horror of the story of Christ's crucifiction. He knows the point is not that the Jews were the race responsible for the crucifiction.
I honestly think all this tabloid and rag like media frenzy over his arrest is from the FAR left.
Just my 2 cents.
sorry truth but Gibson and his father have a long history of anti-semetic activism. I absolutely believe not only that he made such remarks but believes them. I will not ever spend another penny on a Gibson movie and hope others agree. I hope his career is finished. Are you suggesting that I am part of the far left? I beg to differ with you.
"I honestly don't believe Mel Gibson made those terrible anti-Semetic remarks."
Are you suggesting that I am part of the far left? I beg to differ with you.
Posted by: Ira at July 31, 2006 05:23 PM
No, Ira, I am not suggesting that you are part of the far left.
I understand that you don't agree with my assessment of the Mel Gibson situation, and I am totally o.k. with that. We can all have differing opinions here and still have respect for one another.
My point was this: I believed the report was embellished in the first place. The far left has some nuts in it, same as the right has it's nuts...and I have read alot of hate propaganda about Mr. Gibson on far left web sites. I think sometimes some of the far left wingnuts write and post very ugly and hateful things about Christians, and about Mr. Gibson. I think they un-necessarily drug his name through the mud and accused him of being anti-Semitic.
There is so much hate posted on extreme left wing blogs against Christians, and yet I have yet to see or hear Christians running around screaming "anti-Christian" to these same people.
I PERSONALLY (means me, not anyone else) think that Mr. Gibson is not anti-Semitic, and did not make those terrible remarks. I realize now that he did come out and apologize for the awful things he did say, and if he did make anti-Semitic remarks, I will be the first one to apologize.
Ira, if you have links and URL's for me to go to to read solid historical facts of him saying anything anti-Semitic, please contact me and let me know. I will look them up and read them.
As much as the left gets tired of the religious right wing-nuts telling people they are going to hell, the devout people of faith who are not misusing their religion for political reasons get tired of the far left's hateful slurs and ugly un-necessary remarks labeling them as nuts, kooks, and whackos.
Devout people of faith, no matter what their faith, and as long as they are not trying to control an entire population by forcing their beliefs on others, should be given the dignity by the far left afforded to gays, athiests, agnostics, liberal Christians, and all others they welcome into their fold.
I happen to think personally that someone saw an opportunity to wreak havoc and slur Gibson. If he really did say those things then I will stand corrected, but we don't know that he did at this time. He knows the Jews are not primarily responsible for the crucifixion.
Looks like Gibson really did make those remarks. I'm disappointed....he had so much visibility, and along with that should have come responsibility.
http://www.midco.net/news/read.php?id=14278349&ps=1016
Gibson did this to himself truth, not me, not the left, no one but himself. What is most disturbing was a direct question to Gibson himself(not his dad)whether he believed that the hollocost happened and that 6-7 million Jews, many of them my relatives lost their lives. His answer: I can't answer that. No one is beating up on Christians, that is mind game that Ann Coulter uses to make the right look like a victim, which Gibson is attempting to do. He gets absolutely no sympathy from me and if he had made such crude remarks about other minorities (as he did on video tape) he would have been run out of town. Don't take this personally but this whole ugly episode makes my blood boil and I truly don't understand why anyone would be sticking up for him or excusing his conduct.
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Well, Ira, here's why I was sticking up for him before I read that he had apologized for his derogatory words, and asked if he could work with someone in the Jewish community to bring about healing:
From my understanding, after watching Gibson in a pre-"The Passion" interview, Gibson claimed to have directed and produced "The Passion" because he had overcome chronic alcoholism and adulterous behavior through his faith (which is, by the way, Roman Catholic, not fundamentalist Christian).
He seemed sincere on that broadcast. He said he made the film to show people what Jesus of Nazareth went through - and the idea taken from the New Testament scriptures is that Jesus willingly went through it so mortal men did not have to. The idea is also that because he did it in place of all of mankind, no guilt was put on any race of people, and that definitely includes the Jews. I thought he meant it. Now I have explained it, and no one is obligated to believe it, but there is why I was defending him.....I didn't feel he had enough bigotry to feel that way, let alone say it. And, again, I was very disappointed in his actions and words.
Ira, I beg to differ with you regarding Christians being hammered by the far left. I see it all the time. And, I truly wonder that if it were any other religion or race, if people would sit back and just let it continue. They are laughed at, made fun of, mocked, and called crazy, and kooks. It happens regularly on left blogs. I used to defend them and explain what the difference was between a sincere devout Christian, and a sheeple who just follows the crowd and is being exploited by the right.
I don't do that here anymore because most everyone here knows what I mean, and knows that there is a difference. However, elsewhere on left blogs in the blogisphere on the internet(s)
insults are hurled free and often. I wonder if the same insults were hurled at the gay community, or disabled people, or minorities, or a race, if it would be applauded and accepted so readily.
Again I am totally confused why anyone would defend the indefensable conduct of Gibson. His statement was obscene and in the 21st century it is hard to believe that anyone would still hold those feelings much less a public figure who verbalizes them. And the idea that he would deny or trivilize the hollocost is equally abhorant to me and my family and millions of Jewish families who lost relatives in Poland. I would suggest that he spend a weekend in the D.C. Hollocost museum or travel to Treblinka or Auschwitz and then be asked if he still believes that the hollocost was no big deal.
Yes there are some on the left who have some really strange ideas about religion who I try to ignore, and I have heard many call into Air America and go on and on about poor Hezbollah.
I also find false Christians like Ann Coulter using religion to make a political point. Who flashes her cross in front of everyone that can see it and then when the media checks the N.Y. church she is supposedly active in find out that she is not even a member.
Personally I agree with Kohn Kerry that religion does not belong in our political discussion. I take my religion seriously as do you, but it is something I choose to share with my family and rabbi at my synagogue, and not get into arguments as to whether I am religious enough, should JK be given communion, whether scientist should be influenced by Bush's views on stem cell research and whether a poor woman should choose a back ally abortion or abiding by her President's views on abortion. I believe that many practicing and non practicing religous people and atheist just want to be left alone and pray and believe as the founding fathers promised them, privately. As to Gibson, he is a scumbag who would be otherwise ignored and repudiated if not a public figure. I am not impressed with his version of hate filled religion.
Actually, Ira, I agree with you on all points.
I was shocked and horrified that Gibson made those remarks. I am still shocked, but also saddened, because he has the money and fame to make a profound difference in this world in a multitude of positive ways, should he choose to, regardless of his religion.
Here is what I remember happening just before the film "The Passion" was released ~
I remember many accused Gibson of anti-Semetism
at that point, and he vigorously denied it. His father had said the holocaust had never happened, but not him, according to the media.
Many people on the left also accused Gibson of false motives, of capitalizing on the crucifiction story to make big bucks. I thought most of them either misunderstood, or were cynical. I didn't see it as a political movie. I saw it as purely a movie that many Christians across denominational lines would come to see, therefore making it an artist's depiction of the story of the crucifiction. No one was forced to see it. To me it is like any art form ~ it is there for people to watch and listen to if they choose for personal reasons, whether those reasons be voyeurism, religious, or historical, or any other reason.
When I talk about religion here or on any other blog, it is almost always in answer to a statement or question, and the reason I answer is because I have desired people to know that not every partaker of a religion - regardless of what that religion is, is callous, greedy, murderous, slanderous and so on. And in just a few short years past, that is the concept many on the left thought about some religions.
Religion and politics don't mix - except when they do. And, in this day and age they are very much mixed in this country. I have hated the manipulation of the religious in this country.
People have gotten very very angry with Christians in this country, because many of them thought they all had the same values, and if you have met one you have met them all. Now we know that isn't true, any more than to think that a radical extremist Muslim person holds the view of all the members of Islam.
It should be a very private affair. There are plenty of people on the left and the right who aren't contented to leave it there, not on the blogosphere, anyway.
I remember many accused Gibson of anti-Semetism
at that point, and he vigorously denied it. His father had said the holocaust had never happened, but not him, according to the media.
Those that acused him of anti semitism were absolutely right and even Joe Scarborough just admitted that he was wrong when he previously defended Gibson during the Passhion debate. And sorry to argue the point but not just Gibson's dad but Mel Gibson himself was asked by a reporter if he agreed with his father that the holocaust was overblown. He refused and has refused to respond or acknowledge the loss of 6 million Jews.
He should certainly not be held up as a shining example of the goodness of Christianity. There are truly wonderful Christians like Jimmy Carter and Billy Graham who are far better examples of what Americans should aspire to be as Christians. I reject the blanket criticism of Christianity that you refer to from the far left, but some of it is brought on by the far right including Bush and Dobson who constantly want to throw their religious beliefs in our face and disrespect the religious pluralism that this country was founded under.
Posted by: Ira at August 2, 2006 06:23 PM
Good points all, Ira. I agree! I am still stunned by Gibson's alleged recent anti-Semitic remarks. The officer who arrested him said it was "the booze talking".
Gibson says he wants to meet with members of the Jewish community and work towards healing. Maybe something good can come out of this after all.