Tuesday, December 01, 2009

The Afghan people deserve a real chance at Peace, that is why I support President Obama and the Troop increase.

The Afghan people deserve a real chance at Peace,
that is why I support President Obama and the Troop increase.

Sean Lewis
December 1, 2009

The moment Rumsfeld denied the Military Generals request to
send addition troops into Tora Bora to capture or kill
Bin Laden, that was the moment that a swift and
long lasting victory against terrorism was forever lost.

We have been fighting a mismanaged war of attrition
and will ever since that moment.

The will of Al-Qaeda would have been crushed if
Bin Laden had been quickly brought to justice. The
exact opposite occurred when Bin laden was allowed to
escape. It not only allowed Al-Qaeda to re-constitute
itself but also energized multiple terrorist organizations
through out the world.

These organizations now knew that not only could they
strike at America, but they could also do so and live to
reap the benefits of such a successful attack.

Had the US actually completed the task of capturing or
killing Bin Laden the post war Afghanistan theater of
operations would have been one of reconstruction not
continued warfare.

Unfortunately this is not what occurred.

Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda found sanctuary in Pakistan
and reestablished itself as a nebulous enemy with
no central point to attack and thus be able to eradicate
it. Such a swift and quick victory will never be available again.

In fact the ability to win militarily may no longer be an option.

This option was squandered by Rumsfeld, time,
constant war, incompetence, torture and no clear plan or
strategy have turned the population in Afghanistan into
angry participants in a war not of their choosing.

What President Obama may be trying to do is to
make an untenable situation at least salvageable.

To do this he is willing to do what the Bush Administration
under Rumsfeld failed to done.

Fight the war the correct way with a clear strategy and
exit.

Simply put, for 8 years the war was not fought to attain
a long term victory, but merely to win in the short term.
These are not the same things as time has clearly proven.

President Obama wants to try to correct a monumental
mistake. To TRULY stabilize the region so that the population
has a real opportunity to establish their own government
that may be able to withstand the influence of both the
Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

America had no business in trying to establish a US
style democracy in another Country. This is a recipe
for certain failure.

It is one thing to free a people from tyranny, but they will
quickly reject their rescuers if they are merely shackled
to another form of forced governance.

This is exactly what the Bush Administration did, they
merely changed one form of forced governance for
another, neither of which were the actual will of
the Afghan people.

The best President Obama can hope for after 8 years
of utter incompetent Presidential oversight in the
execution of military action in Afghanistan, is a country that
can remain stable and not once again come under the influence
of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

It is a long shot, but that doesn't mean the Afghan people
do not deserve the opportunity to actually have the ability
for real reform in a safe and stable environment that is
created by overwhelming military force, securing the peace.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/1/81844/7221?new=true

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Cost Of Insurance Reform VS No Reform is $1 Trillion VS $1.5 Trillion.

The Cost Of Insurance Reform VS No Reform
is $1 Trillion VS $1.5 Trillion.

Sean Lewis
November 10,2009

I was curious what the actual numbers were, so I did a
Google search on the issues.

What was the average cost of an Emergency Room Visit?
Answer: $1,000

How Many People used Emergency Rooms per year?
Answer 100,000,000,000 a year.

How Many People are uninsured?
On average %15.

This is just a quick thumbnail comparison, but it does give a
better idea of what the fuss is all about.

Each year, more than 100 million visits are made to emergency rooms around the country. At an average cost of $1,000 a visit, the annual price tag for ER care tops more than a billion dollars. And to make matters worse, most of these visits aren't even real emergencies.
http://www.myoptumhealth.com/portal/Information/item/Avoiding+the+High+Cost+of+Emergency+Car?archiveChannel=Home/Article&clicked=true

Analyzing data from the Community Tracking Study Household Surveys, researchers found that uninsured individuals accounted for 15.5 percent of emergency department visits in 1996-1997, but only 14.5 percent of visits in 2003-2004. During the same period, the proportion of visits by higher income people (equal to or greater than 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level) increased from 21.9 percent to 29 percent. The proportion of visits by those whose usual source of care was a physician’s office rose from 52.4 percent to 59 percent. Overall emergency department visits rose from 90.3 million in 1996 to 113.9 million in 2004, an increase of 26 percent.
http://www.acep.org/pressroom.aspx?id=37562

Health care reform, if it passes, will cost about $1 trillion over the next 10 years. Negotiators in the Senate and House are now saying they've winnowed the cost down to "only" $900 billion or so. Where will that money come from? Look in the mirror.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/10/business/moneywatch/main5230656.shtml

For those who do not understand what I just posted

Currently the uninsured who use emergency rooms for medical treatment is about 15% of
all emergency room visits of about $150,000,000, 000 a year.

The cost of health insurance reform is about $100,000,000,000 a year.

So the savings to tax payers and Corporate America is about $50,000,000,000
a year, and this is calculating the average Emergency room visit costs $1,000.

So the savings over 10 years for American taxpayers and Corporations is
$500,000,000,000.

This does not include the lowering of premiums and the lowering of medical costs
now that both hospitals and Insurance companies are no longer passing
on the costs of the uninsured to thier insured customers.

In addition morally we need to stop the preventable deaths of 18,000 Americans
a year who do not have health insurance because they can't afford it or because
they have an uninsured precondition.

My Sunday column looks at health care reform through the prism of Nikki White, a young woman from Tennessee. She became too sick with Lupus to work — and then lost her health insurance, and then died because of lack of medical care. We may know intellectually that 18,000 Americans die each year because they don’t have insurance, but to confront one such person is still heartbreaking. And I just can’t believe that we will let this opportunity for health reform slip through our fingers, so that Americans like Nikki continue to die needlessly every 30 minutes.
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/nikki-white-and-health-care/

For me this is a no brainier do the Health Insurance reform, it IS cost effective.,

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Bush Legacy: War crimes and dereliction of duty.

The Bush Legacy: War crimes and dereliction of duty.

November 21, 2007 original post date

It is time to seriously consider Impeachment,
and not just Bush.

This has been the worst period in US politics in recent
history.

Bush is the worst President in history. The Bush
Administration has done more damage to this country
than any Terrorist could ever hope to accomplish.

9/11 was a single event that should have been dealt
with swiftly and deadly. America was doing just that
with Afghanistan. We had the world on our side. The
WORLD!

What Bush has done to the prestige, preeminence
and prosperity of this country is criminal. The man should
be impeached and charged with war crimes. We invaded
a country killed 100,000s, destabilized a region and
created a terror state that has made America less secure.

The military has been morally destroyed by Bush. He
put them in an unwinable situation with no exit strategy,
no thought out plan and wonders why America wants
the troops out of Iraq.

The Republian party is dead.

No Republican will ever proudly state I voted for bush,
wasn't he a great president? It was during his
governance that America became a debtor nation,
the dollar lost half of it's value, we no longer became the
economic engine of the world, and we became the
laughing stock of world leaders with Bush's know
nothing and proud of it, idiotcy.

The total route of the 2006 election should have made it clear
to Bush supporters with any brains that America had, had enough.
But some people just don't get it! Those are the ones
who should be rounded up and sent to Iraq, so they
see first hand what supporting Bush REALLY means.

The Military should be over flowing with recruits,
especially republicans who BELIEVE that Bush is
doing the correct thing. However that is not the
case. Bush Republicans are too selfish to actually
sacrifice for their beliefs, hence tax cuts during war
time. If there was ever a single action that truely
did not support the troops it was not sacrificing
monetarily to fund the war, and make sure the troops
had everything they needed. Instead, the country has gone
into record debt.

I hate Bush, not simply because of his incompetence,
arrogance or ignorance. I hate Bush for the blood on
the hands of every american because of his unprovoked
war of aggression in Iraq. For his gutting of the military.
I hate Bush for his bancrupting of the US Treasury. I
hate Bush because of the Americans that did not need
to die on 9/11 and during Katrina when Bush was NOT
being a leader and protecting America, but was ignoring
his responsibilities to serve honor and protect America.
There were warnings and Bush chooose to do NOTHING!

For America to regain its place in the world, we need to punish
Bush and the Administration. The crimes they committed
are to the degree Bush should be Impeached.

As the economic damage of his failed governance comes
to bear it's full weight on America, the call for Bush and the
Administration and Republican Congress will become
increasingly deafening. America will punish Bush. It will
because he deserves it.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

When did it become a Political Ideology to celebrate Failure in America?

When did it become a Political Ideology to celebrate Failure in America?

Sean Lewis
October 11, 2009

If I didn't know better I swear I lived in a Communist Anti-American
country.

Only there would I hear cheers when The US failed to achieve a goal,
of hear a chorus of ridicule and excuses if the US President was
awarded a Noble Prize or tried to make life better for the majority of
Americans.

What happened to this Country?

There is an entire block of Americans actively undermining the
US President, Congress and hard working patriotic
Americans. These individuals hope that the Country The Congress
and the President will fail in their attempt to reverse the last
8 years of economic decline.

These individuals WANT America to Fail!

There are entertainment Channels who sole purpose it appears
is to undermine US Democracy. These channels cultivates
anti-American opinions and actually organize protests against
the US Government!

The Entertainers on these channels cite unverified, erroneous half
truths and perpetuate urban legends as fact, not to educate or
enlighten but to sow dissent and agitation for one reason. Ratings
and money.

At what point does it become UN-American to try to undermine
this country for the benefit of financial gain at the cost of
American prestige and prosperity?

At what point do the American people say ENOUGH. We are
Americans first and we stand for America for better or for worst
and as Americans we will all join together to help America succeed
rather than celebrate and cultivate Americans failure!

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

August was the month of the Jerry Springer Fringe of the GOP.

August was the month of the Jerry Springer Fringe of the GOP.

Sean Lewis
September 9, 2009

The Jerry Springer Fringe of the GOP are
the intellectually challenged MOB who are
contemptuous of intellectuals and are the Pavlovian
attack dogs unleashed by cultist conspiracy
lunatic personalities on ideological issues while being proudly
and willfully ignorant of the facts, truth, and the reality
of the situation or that obstruction of certain policies
are actually not in their own best interest!

For the Republican party to be taken seriously in
any real discussion of the issues these Fringe voices must
be silenced.

The American people, who are thinking intelligent and
who do remember history, the truth and the facts, will
turn further away from a Party that is becoming the
Party of No. They will identify the GOP with people
who would rather believe in insane conspiracy theories
than except the realities of proven truth. They will identify
the GOP with a group of individuals who would put Party and
selfish personal needs in front of Country and the success of
America as a whole.

August was a water shed moment, the Fringe considers it a win.
The majority of America saw it as an eye opening moment to the
real agendas and beliefs of the Opponents to President Obama.
It is not about reaching compromise, it is about a scorched earth
policy to defeat President Obama no matter what the cost
even if it means the destruction of the very country they
claim they are trying to save.

Enough is enough, summer recess is over and it is time
for the adults to be back in control.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Bush Incompetence may have help warn Al qaida in London Attacks!!!!

posted by VirtualTruth @ 7/15/2005 12:59:09 PM 0 comments links to this post
Bush Incompetence may have help warn Al qaida in London Attacks!!!!

ABC News just reported that the British authorities say they have evidence that the London attacks last week were an operation planned by Al Qaeda for the last two years. This was an operation the Brits thought they caught and stopped in time, but they were wrong. The piece of the puzzle ABC missed is that this is an operation the Bush administration helped botch last year.

The London bombers, per ABC, are connected to an Al Qaeda plot planned two years ago in Lahore, Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities recovered the laptop of a captured Al Qaeda leader, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, on July 13, 2004. On that laptop, they found plans for a coordinated series of attacks on the London subway. According to an expert interviewed by ABC, "there is absolutely no doubt that Khan was part of a worldwide Al Qaeda operation, not just in the United States but also in Great Britain and throughout the west."
ABC reports that names in the computer matched a suspected cell of Britain's of Pakistani decent, many of who lived near the town of Luton, England. According to ABC, authorities thought they had stopped the subway plot with the arrest of more than a dozen people last year. Obviously, they hadn't.
Those arrests were the arrests that the Bush administration botched by announcing a heightened security alert the week of the Democratic Convention. Because the US let the cat out of the bag, the media got a hold of Khan's name, his Al Qaeda contacts found out he was co-opted, and they fled. The Brits had to have a high speed chase to catch some of them as they fled, and, according to press reports, the Brits and Pakistanis both fear that some slipped away.

If people only knew the facts, they would not be fighting for the 'RIGHT' to be screwed over.

+ $1,751,132,130,359 Social Security Trust Fund
– $7,805,708,317,936 The Gross National Debt

Time will tell all the Truth.
VT

Sean Lewis/VirtualTruth/VT

Founder
OpenDebateForum
http://VTSL.blogspot.com

Bush administration act of incompetence, reporting the Capture of the Al qaida computer expert.

Friday, July 15, 2005

There are times I wish I was wrong, this is one of them

Subj: Latest Bush administration act of incompetence.
Date: 8/18/2004
To: opendebateforum@groups.aol.com, Virtualtruth


Once again it appears a larger opportunity was squandered by the Bush Administration.

In reporting the Capture of the Al qaida computer expert, the US administration short circuited an international attempt by our allies to capture al qaida operatives in recent contact with the expert.

Way to go Bush.

The once again ill conceived and poorly thought out policies of the Bush Administration in releasing the terror threat alert announced just after the Democratic Convention ended, effectively ended all attempts to capture additional al qaida operatives by announcing the capture of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan.

We need competent leaders in the White House capable of actions that will enhance the safety of US citizens, not continue to keep America in danger.

Cast your vote in this real time nation wide vote.
http://www.electionguide04.com/straw_poll.adp

Time will tell all of the Truth

VT

If people only knew the facts, they would not be fighting for the 'RIGHT' to be screwed over.

+ $1,751,132,130,359 Social Security Trust Fund
– $7,805,708,317,936 The Gross National Debt

Time will tell all the Truth.
VT

Sean Lewis/VirtualTruth/VT

Founder
OpenDebateForum
http://VTSL.blogspot.com

http://groups.google.com/group/opendebateforum/web/bush-administration-act-of-incompetence-reporting-the-capture-of-the-al-qaida-computer-expert?hl=en

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The GOP is Committing Political Murder of Americans by Killing Health Care Reform

The GOP is committing Political Murder
of Americans by Killing Health Care Reform

Sean Lewis
August 19, 2009

This is not a game or a strategy to stop the Democrats
and President Obama or to weaken them politically.
This is simply the political murder of Americans.
There are Americans dying everyday because they
do not have insurance.

These Americans want and need insurance but are
either denied coverage because of preexisting conditions
or are priced out of coverage because of high premiums.
Americans by the Millions have lost their jobs and with
unemployment they have lost their insurance because of
the high cost of assuming the entire premium when out
of work.

The focus needs to get back to the fact that we do not abandon
our own, we do not leave people behind. We offer a helping
hand to all who are willing and able to help themselves if
given a helping hand to get them back on their feet.

If this means a bare bone public option that is paid for by the
premiums of the unemployed and uninsured so be it. It can be done
with little Government costs if at all.

This solution is revenue neutral and is paid for by the premiums
paid into by the uninsured.

Premiums need to be $200 a month for Adults and $100
a month for children.

The number of individuals annually needing hospitalization
will be on average 13.5%.

The average cost per hospitalization currently is $17,195.
With cost savings and preventative care the annual costs
should be reduced.

Total revenues is $112,800,000,000 Billion
Total expenditures will be $109,102,275,000.

This is based on 2002 figures.
http://www.ahrq.gov/data/hcup/factbk6/factbk6.pdf

Health Care should be bottom up.

$10,000 of health credits per tax payer for preventative care.
The individual Must get a physical check up each year or lose a
portion of

the benefits. Give the Taxpayer a lifetime Budget of $250,000 for
medical care of their choosing. Pro rate this by age 18 to 72 at the
start of this program.

The way to keep medical costs down is early treatment. If a person
does not address a medical problem reduce their benefits.
This is not to REPLACE medical insurance but to give a minimum
level of medical care.

It is important to realize that this works regardless of the pool size
because it is based on the 13,5% of participants who end up
hospitalized annually.

OK here is the math.

47,000,000 uninsured.

13.5% will need hospitalization

This means 6,345,000 annually hospitalized.

Average cost of hospitalization is $17,195

Total cost of all Hospitalizations
6,345,500 X $17,195 = $109,102,275.000 annually

To figure out group premiums.
$109,102,275,000 / 47,000,000 = $2,321.33 annually

$2,321.33 / 12 = $193.45 Monthly premium.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

For the Record, President Bush's Fall 2008 Bailouts

For the record the Bush Fall 2008 Bail outs..

● Bear Stearns 2008 JP Morgan Chase and the federal government bailed out Bear Stearns when the financial giant neared collapse. JP Morgan purchased Bear Stearns for $236 million; the Federal Reserve provided a $30 billion credit line to ensure the sale could move forward. $30 billion

● Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac 2008 On Sep. 7, 2008, Fannie and Freddie were essentially nationalized: placed under the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Under the terms of the rescue, the Treasury has invested billions to cover the companies' losses. Initially, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson put a ceiling of $100 billion for investments in each company. In February, Tim Geithner raised it to $200 billion. The money was authorized by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. $400 billion

● American International Group (A.I.G.) 2008 On four separate occasions, the government has offered aid to AIG to keep it from collapsing, rising from an initial $85 billion credit line from the Federal Reserve to a combined $180 billion effort between the Treasury ($70 billion) and Fed ($110 billion). ($40 billion of the Treasury’s commitment is also included in the TARP total.) $180 billion

● Auto Industry 2008 In late September 2008, Congress approved a more than $630 billion spending bill, which included a measure for $25 billion in loans to the auto industry. These low-interest loans are intended to aid the industry in its push to build more fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly vehicles. The Detroit 3 -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- will be the primary beneficiaries. $25 billion

● Troubled Asset Relief Program 2008 In October 2008, Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which authorized the Treasury Department to spend $700 billion to combat the financial crisis. Treasury has been doling out the money via an alphabet soup of different programs. Here’s our running tally of companies getting TARP funds. $700 billion

● Citigroup 2008 Citigroup received a $25 billion investment through the TARP in October and another $20 billion in November. (That $45 billion is also included in the TARP total.) Additional aid has come in the form of government guarantees to limit losses from a $301 billion pool of toxic assets. In addition to the Treasury's $5 billion commitment, the FDIC has committed $10 billion and the Federal Reserve up to about $220 billion. $280 billion

In one quarter the Bush Administration and the Bush controlled Treasury urged Congress
to approve $1.615 Trillion of Bailouts in one Quarter, yet Republicans say
it is President Obama who is leading American to a socialist state!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The Republican Gambit In Iran, three moves ahead

The Republican Gambit in Iran, The Gop not thinking three moves ahead.
it is Iraq all over again.

Sean Lewis
June 24, 2009

Let's pretend that the American people for the last 2 elections did
not set forth a mandate that the Republican party was to no longer
have control of the Governance of this Country.

Let's pretend that the Republicans now speaking out against the
President of the United States about his apparent 'weak' response
were the ones now in control of the Country.

Let's pretend that the actions they called for President Obama to
carry out, the Republicans actually DID if they were still in
control of the Governance of this Country.

Let's pretend the Republicans would have supported the Iranians in
their citizen revolt against the apparent election fraud. The
Republicans would have said that the world needed to put pressure on the Iranian
rulers to have another election. Some Republicans might have claimed
this was the beginning of a 'revolution' for American style Democracy
in Iran and this occurred as a result of what happened in Iraq.

Let's pretend the 'Republican' President called for the Iranian people
to rise up to overthrow their oppressors and called for other nations
to support this uprising.

Let's pretend the Iranian people did protest the way we have seen
already. but unlike the restraint President Obama showed, The
'Republican' President took all of the above actions. What do you think would have
occurred?

Let's pretend the Iranians in power would have responded the way all
threatened dictatorships would have responded, with overwhelming brute
strength. The Iranians would have bloodily put down the uprising
under the cover of outside American interference.

Who in Iran would actually question the fact that this was an American
controlled revolt? History has numerous examples of US intervention in
Iran going back to the installation of the Shaw of Iran, and the war
between Iraq and Iran where the United States backed the Iraqis.
Continue to how after the Moderates in Iran helped the United States
with the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, the Republicans in power
rewarded this support by calling Iran part of the Axis of Evil,
thereby undermining the pro US moderates in Iran and solidifying the power
of the radical anti American factions in Iran.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-06-09-iran-taliban_x.htm

So let's pretend what the actual result of Republican ideology in
regard to Iran would have lead to. The Iranians involved in the
citizen revolt would have been branded American controlled operatives. They
would have been hunted down, jailed, tortured and executed OPENLY.
The Iranians would have claimed 'victory' over ANOTHER American lead
attempt to overthrow the Iranian government. Finally the anti
American Iranians would have secured an even stronger hold of the country
because this uprising would have given the Iranians the perfect opportunity
to eliminate ALL opponents to the current leaders.

How can I make these claims? History gives an example.

In Iraq when America called for a revolt, the Iraqis who lead the
revolt were slaughtered while The Republican President did nothing
to stop the killing. At the time the allied troops were in force
stationed in the Middle East after the first Gulf War. Yet even with
this military presence the 'Republican President did nothing to help the
Iraqis that answered the Republican's President call for 'internal regime
change'.

The Republicans no longer control foreign policy. President Obama
is now the ONLY voice beyond the US borders that matters in regard to
foreign policy. President Obama is wise enough to realize that to
interfere in internal Iranian politics is arrogant and dangerous to
the Iranian people. President Obama is wise enough to learn from past mistakes and
understands' that support should be measured, controlled and rational.

The result of this is the Iranians are faced with a game changing
series of events that have shown the Iranian people the truth of their
leaders. The Iranian leaders did not have outside influences to blame
the revolt on. The Iranian leaders could not use overwhelming force to
quell a peaceful protest to an obviously questionable election.

There is violence in Iran, it will continue, but it is up to the
Iranian people to demand change. Change has occurred, Iran will never
be the same, and the Iranian leaders have lost the trust of the Iranian
people, possible forever.

The clock has started for the Iranian people to change their own
destiny and how they are governed.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Rachel Maddow, stating the facts about the Sotomayor GOP lies

Spin on Sotomayor
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30951352

A Name Game
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30951606

Scarying up money
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30951542

The GOP lie revealed about reverse racism!!!!

WASHINGTON — In 2001, Sonia Sotomayor, an appeals court judge, gave a speech declaring that the ethnicity and sex of a judge “may and will make a difference in our judging.”

In her speech, Judge Sotomayor questioned the famous notion — often invoked by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her retired Supreme Court colleague, Sandra Day O’Connor — that a wise old man and a wise old woman would reach the same conclusion when deciding cases.

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” said Judge Sotomayor,

Her remarks, at the annual Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California, Berkeley,Lecture: ‘A Latina Judge’s Voice’

The following is the text of the Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial Lecture in 2001, delivered at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, by appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor. It was published in the Spring 2002 issue of Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, a symposium issue entitled "Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation," and it is reproduced here with permission from the journal.

"A Latina Judge's Voice"

By Sonia Sotomayor

Judge Reynoso, thank you for that lovely introduction. I am humbled to be speaking behind a man who has contributed so much to the Hispanic community. I am also grateful to have such kind words said about me.

I am delighted to be here. It is nice to escape my hometown for just a little bit. It is also nice to say hello to old friends who are in the audience, to rekindle contact with old acquaintances and to make new friends among those of you in the audience. It is particularly heart warming to me to be attending a conference to which I was invited by a Latina law school friend, Rachel Moran, who is now an accomplished and widely respected legal scholar. I warn Latinos in this room: Latinas are making a lot of progress in the old-boy network.

I am also deeply honored to have been asked to deliver the annual Judge Mario G. Olmos lecture. I am joining a remarkable group of prior speakers who have given this lecture. I hope what I speak about today continues to promote the legacy of that man whose commitment to public service and abiding dedication to promoting equality and justice for all people inspired this memorial lecture and the conference that will follow. I thank Judge Olmos' widow Mary Louise's family, her son and the judge's many friends for hosting me. And for the privilege you have bestowed on me in honoring the memory of a very special person. If I and the many people of this conference can accomplish a fraction of what Judge Olmos did in his short but extraordinary life we and our respective communities will be infinitely better.

I intend tonight to touch upon the themes that this conference will be discussing this weekend and to talk to you about my Latina identity, where it came from, and the influence I perceive it has on my presence on the bench.

Who am I? I am a "Newyorkrican." For those of you on the West Coast who do not know what that term means: I am a born and bred New Yorker of Puerto Rican-born parents who came to the states during World War II.

Like many other immigrants to this great land, my parents came because of poverty and to attempt to find and secure a better life for themselves and the family that they hoped to have. They largely succeeded. For that, my brother and I are very grateful. The story of that success is what made me and what makes me the Latina that I am. The Latina side of my identity was forged and closely nurtured by my family through our shared experiences and traditions.

For me, a very special part of my being Latina is the mucho platos de arroz, gandoles y pernir - rice, beans and pork - that I have eaten at countless family holidays and special events. My Latina identity also includes, because of my particularly adventurous taste buds, morcilla, -- pig intestines, patitas de cerdo con garbanzo -- pigs' feet with beans, and la lengua y orejas de cuchifrito, pigs' tongue and ears. I bet the Mexican-Americans in this room are thinking that Puerto Ricans have unusual food tastes. Some of us, like me, do. Part of my Latina identity is the sound of merengue at all our family parties and the heart wrenching Spanish love songs that we enjoy. It is the memory of Saturday afternoon at the movies with my aunt and cousins watching Cantinflas, who is not Puerto Rican, but who was an icon Spanish comedian on par with Abbot and Costello of my generation. My Latina soul was nourished as I visited and played at my grandmother's house with my cousins and extended family. They were my friends as I grew up. Being a Latina child was watching the adults playing dominos on Saturday night and us kids playing loteria, bingo, with my grandmother calling out the numbers which we marked on our cards with chick peas.

Now, does any one of these things make me a Latina? Obviously not because each of our Carribean and Latin American communities has their own unique food and different traditions at the holidays. I only learned about tacos in college from my Mexican-American roommate. Being a Latina in America also does not mean speaking Spanish. I happen to speak it fairly well. But my brother, only three years younger, like too many of us educated here, barely speaks it. Most of us born and bred here, speak it very poorly.

If I had pursued my career in my undergraduate history major, I would likely provide you with a very academic description of what being a Latino or Latina means. For example, I could define Latinos as those peoples and cultures populated or colonized by Spain who maintained or adopted Spanish or Spanish Creole as their language of communication. You can tell that I have been very well educated. That antiseptic description however, does not really explain the appeal of morcilla - pig's intestine - to an American born child. It does not provide an adequate explanation of why individuals like us, many of whom are born in this completely different American culture, still identify so strongly with those communities in which our parents were born and raised.

America has a deeply confused image of itself that is in perpetual tension. We are a nation that takes pride in our ethnic diversity, recognizing its importance in shaping our society and in adding richness to its existence. Yet, we simultaneously insist that we can and must function and live in a race and color-blind way that ignore these very differences that in other contexts we laud. That tension between "the melting pot and the salad bowl" -- a recently popular metaphor used to described New York's diversity - is being hotly debated today in national discussions about affirmative action. Many of us struggle with this tension and attempt to maintain and promote our cultural and ethnic identities in a society that is often ambivalent about how to deal with its differences. In this time of great debate we must remember that it is not political struggles that create a Latino or Latina identity. I became a Latina by the way I love and the way I live my life. My family showed me by their example how wonderful and vibrant life is and how wonderful and magical it is to have a Latina soul. They taught me to love being a Puerto Riqueña and to love America and value its lesson that great things could be achieved if one works hard for it. But achieving success here is no easy accomplishment for Latinos or Latinas, and although that struggle did not and does not create a Latina identity, it does inspire how I live my life.

I was born in the year 1954. That year was the fateful year in which Brown v. Board of Education was decided. When I was eight, in 1961, the first Latino, the wonderful Judge Reynaldo Garza, was appointed to the federal bench, an event we are celebrating at this conference. When I finished law school in 1979, there were no women judges on the Supreme Court or on the highest court of my home state, New York. There was then only one Afro-American Supreme Court Justice and then and now no Latino or Latina justices on our highest court. Now in the last twenty plus years of my professional life, I have seen a quantum leap in the representation of women and Latinos in the legal profession and particularly in the judiciary. In addition to the appointment of the first female United States Attorney General, Janet Reno, we have seen the appointment of two female justices to the Supreme Court and two female justices to the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court of my home state. One of those judges is the Chief Judge and the other is a Puerto Riqueña, like I am. As of today, women sit on the highest courts of almost all of the states and of the territories, including Puerto Rico. One Supreme Court, that of Minnesota, had a majority of women justices for a period of time.

As of September 1, 2001, the federal judiciary consisting of Supreme, Circuit and District Court Judges was about 22% women. In 1992, nearly ten years ago, when I was first appointed a District Court Judge, the percentage of women in the total federal judiciary was only 13%. Now, the growth of Latino representation is somewhat less favorable. As of today we have, as I noted earlier, no Supreme Court justices, and we have only 10 out of 147 active Circuit Court judges and 30 out of 587 active district court judges. Those numbers are grossly below our proportion of the population. As recently as 1965, however, the federal bench had only three women serving and only one Latino judge. So changes are happening, although in some areas, very slowly. These figures and appointments are heartwarming. Nevertheless, much still remains to happen.

Let us not forget that between the appointments of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981 and Justice Ginsburg in 1992, eleven years passed. Similarly, between Justice Kaye's initial appointment as an Associate Judge to the New York Court of Appeals in 1983, and Justice Ciparick's appointment in 1993, ten years elapsed. Almost nine years later, we are waiting for a third appointment of a woman to both the Supreme Court and the New York Court of Appeals and of a second minority, male or female, preferably Hispanic, to the Supreme Court. In 1992 when I joined the bench, there were still two out of 13 circuit courts and about 53 out of 92 district courts in which no women sat. At the beginning of September of 2001, there are women sitting in all 13 circuit courts. The First, Fifth, Eighth and Federal Circuits each have only one female judge, however, out of a combined total number of 48 judges. There are still nearly 37 district courts with no women judges at all. For women of color the statistics are more sobering. As of September 20, 1998, of the then 195 circuit court judges only two were African-American women and two Hispanic women. Of the 641 district court judges only twelve were African-American women and eleven Hispanic women. African-American women comprise only 1.56% of the federal judiciary and Hispanic-American women comprise only 1%. No African-American, male or female, sits today on the Fourth or Federal circuits. And no Hispanics, male or female, sit on the Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, District of Columbia or Federal Circuits.

Sort of shocking, isn't it? This is the year 2002. We have a long way to go. Unfortunately, there are some very deep storm warnings we must keep in mind. In at least the last five years the majority of nominated judges the Senate delayed more than one year before confirming or never confirming were women or minorities. I need not remind this audience that Judge Paez of your home Circuit, the Ninth Circuit, has had the dubious distinction of having had his confirmation delayed the longest in Senate history. These figures demonstrate that there is a real and continuing need for Latino and Latina organizations and community groups throughout the country to exist and to continue their efforts of promoting women and men of all colors in their pursuit for equality in the judicial system.

This weekend's conference, illustrated by its name, is bound to examine issues that I hope will identify the efforts and solutions that will assist our communities. The focus of my speech tonight, however, is not about the struggle to get us where we are and where we need to go but instead to discuss with you what it all will mean to have more women and people of color on the bench. The statistics I have been talking about provide a base from which to discuss a question which one of my former colleagues on the Southern District bench, Judge Miriam Cederbaum, raised when speaking about women on the federal bench. Her question was: What do the history and statistics mean? In her speech, Judge Cederbaum expressed her belief that the number of women and by direct inference people of color on the bench, was still statistically insignificant and that therefore we could not draw valid scientific conclusions from the acts of so few people over such a short period of time. Yet, we do have women and people of color in more significant numbers on the bench and no one can or should ignore pondering what that will mean or not mean in the development of the law. Now, I cannot and do not claim this issue as personally my own. In recent years there has been an explosion of research and writing in this area. On one of the panels tomorrow, you will hear the Latino perspective in this debate.

For those of you interested in the gender perspective on this issue, I commend to you a wonderful compilation of articles published on the subject in Vol. 77 of the Judicature, the Journal of the American Judicature Society of November-December 1993. It is on Westlaw/Lexis and I assume the students and academics in this room can find it.

Now Judge Cedarbaum expresses concern with any analysis of women and presumably again people of color on the bench, which begins and presumably ends with the conclusion that women or minorities are different from men generally. She sees danger in presuming that judging should be gender or anything else based. She rightly points out that the perception of the differences between men and women is what led to many paternalistic laws and to the denial to women of the right to vote because we were described then "as not capable of reasoning or thinking logically" but instead of "acting intuitively." I am quoting adjectives that were bandied around famously during the suffragettes' movement.

While recognizing the potential effect of individual experiences on perception, Judge Cedarbaum nevertheless believes that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices and aspire to achieve a greater degree of fairness and integrity based on the reason of law. Although I agree with and attempt to work toward Judge Cedarbaum's aspiration, I wonder whether achieving that goal is possible in all or even in most cases. And I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society. Whatever the reasons why we may have different perspectives, either as some theorists suggest because of our cultural experiences or as others postulate because we have basic differences in logic and reasoning, are in many respects a small part of a larger practical question we as women and minority judges in society in general must address. I accept the thesis of a law school classmate, Professor Steven Carter of Yale Law School, in his affirmative action book that in any group of human beings there is a diversity of opinion because there is both a diversity of experiences and of thought. Thus, as noted by another Yale Law School Professor -- I did graduate from there and I am not really biased except that they seem to be doing a lot of writing in that area - Professor Judith Resnik says that there is not a single voice of feminism, not a feminist approach but many who are exploring the possible ways of being that are distinct from those structured in a world dominated by the power and words of men. Thus, feminist theories of judging are in the midst of creation and are not and perhaps will never aspire to be as solidified as the established legal doctrines of judging can sometimes appear to be.

That same point can be made with respect to people of color. No one person, judge or nominee will speak in a female or people of color voice. I need not remind you that Justice Clarence Thomas represents a part but not the whole of African-American thought on many subjects. Yet, because I accept the proposition that, as Judge Resnik describes it, "to judge is an exercise of power" and because as, another former law school classmate, Professor Martha Minnow of Harvard Law School, states "there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives - no neutrality, no escape from choice in judging," I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that--it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others. Not all women or people of color, in all or some circumstances or indeed in any particular case or circumstance but enough people of color in enough cases, will make a difference in the process of judging. The Minnesota Supreme Court has given an example of this. As reported by Judge Patricia Wald formerly of the D.C. Circuit Court, three women on the Minnesota Court with two men dissenting agreed to grant a protective order against a father's visitation rights when the father abused his child. The Judicature Journal has at least two excellent studies on how women on the courts of appeal and state supreme courts have tended to vote more often than their male counterpart to uphold women's claims in sex discrimination cases and criminal defendants' claims in search and seizure cases. As recognized by legal scholars, whatever the reason, not one woman or person of color in any one position but as a group we will have an effect on the development of the law and on judging.

In our private conversations, Judge Cedarbaum has pointed out to me that seminal decisions in race and sex discrimination cases have come from Supreme Courts composed exclusively of white males. I agree that this is significant but I also choose to emphasize that the people who argued those cases before the Supreme Court which changed the legal landscape ultimately were largely people of color and women. I recall that Justice Thurgood Marshall, Judge Connie Baker Motley, the first black woman appointed to the federal bench, and others of the NAACP argued Brown v. Board of Education. Similarly, Justice Ginsburg, with other women attorneys, was instrumental in advocating and convincing the Court that equality of work required equality in terms and conditions of employment.

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O'Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.

Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown.

However, to understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give. For others, their experiences limit their ability to understand the experiences of others. Other simply do not care. Hence, one must accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the presence of women and people of color on the bench. Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.

I also hope that by raising the question today of what difference having more Latinos and Latinas on the bench will make will start your own evaluation. For people of color and women lawyers, what does and should being an ethnic minority mean in your lawyering? For men lawyers, what areas in your experiences and attitudes do you need to work on to make you capable of reaching those great moments of enlightenment which other men in different circumstances have been able to reach. For all of us, how do change the facts that in every task force study of gender and race bias in the courts, women and people of color, lawyers and judges alike, report in significantly higher percentages than white men that their gender and race has shaped their careers, from hiring, retention to promotion and that a statistically significant number of women and minority lawyers and judges, both alike, have experienced bias in the courtroom?

Each day on the bench I learn something new about the judicial process and about being a professional Latina woman in a world that sometimes looks at me with suspicion. I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.

There is always a danger embedded in relative morality, but since judging is a series of choices that we must make, that I am forced to make, I hope that I can make them by informing myself on the questions I must not avoid asking and continuously pondering. We, I mean all of us in this room, must continue individually and in voices united in organizations that have supported this conference, to think about these questions and to figure out how we go about creating the opportunity for there to be more women and people of color on the bench so we can finally have statistically significant numbers to measure the differences we will and are making.

I am delighted to have been here tonight and extend once again my deepest gratitude to all of you for listening and letting me share my reflections on being a Latina voice on the bench. Thank you.

Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a Harvard law professor and an adviser to Mr. Obama, said Judge Sotomayor’s remarks were appropriate. Professor Ogletree said it was “obvious that people’s life experiences will inform their judgments in life as lawyers and judges” because law is more than “a technical exercise,” citing Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.’s famous aphorism: “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.”

In a forward to a 2007 book, “The International Judge” (U.P.N.E.), Judge Sotomayor seemed to put a greater emphasis on a need for judges to seek to transcend their identities, writing that “all judges have cases that touch our passions deeply, but we all struggle constantly with remaining impartial” and letting reason rule. Courts, she added, “are in large part the product of their membership and their judges’ ability to think through and across their own intellectual and professional backgrounds” to find common ground.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

The Shifting Denial about Torture

The shifting denial about torture.

May 16, 2009
Sean Lewis

Torture is just one more nail into the coffin
for the Republican Party.

Cheney is just trying to protect himself and
doing preemptive damage control. It is clear
the torture policy was his decision. Cheney
is hoping for another terror attack so he can
be vindicated the same way the entire GOP
party wants President Obama to fail so the
GOP policies can be vindicated.

The water down spin on torture is that water
boarding is not torture. Dunking someones
head is hardly torture, it is like getting baptised!
The rough questioning was needed to get results!

However a few things are being left out, 98
dead prisoners, the torture did not work, and
torture is against the both US and International
law.

If all the CIA was doing was 'questioning' prisoners
why was a doctor needed to be present?

I have been questioned by the police, no doctor was present.

In previous questioning by the FBI, no doctor was present,
so what changed?

What changed was there was now a chance that the prisoner
might die from the harsh interrogation. In fact 98 prisoners
who were being held for 'questioning died.
http://opendebateforum2.blogspot.com/2009/04/98-prisoners-died-in-us-custody-report.html

This article had 623 footnotes verifying the deaths.
http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/06221-etn-hrf-dic-rep-web.pdf
I posted one of those footnotes at the end of this article.

The Torture Apologists want you to believe that water boarding
is not dangerous, problem is water boarding wasn't the only
harsh treatment the prisoners received. A point the Torture Apologist
conveniently do not bring up. Also if it wasn't torture
explain the 98 dead prisoners?

Next comes the issue of why the prisoners were being tortured
and what were the results of the torture.

We were told that the torture was to protect Americans from future
attack, and that valuable information came as a result of the torture.
This was after we were told that the US does not torture by the way.

The truth is that the CIA was torturing prisoners. not to protect
America or Americans, but to find a connection between Iraq and
9/11 or a connection between Iraq and Al qaeda. This was to
give cover to the Bush Administration after no WMD's were found
in Iraq.

The torture how ever did not work, In fact it had the opposite effect.
Prisoners who were cooperating and freely giving valuable Intel about
Al qaeda without torture to the FBI, stopped cooperation when the
CIA began torturing them about non existent connections between
Iraq and 9/11 or Iraq and Al Qaeda.

http://opendebateforum2.blogspot.com/2009/05/timeline-history-of-harsh-interrogation.html
http://opendebateforum2.blogspot.com/2009/05/report-links-cia-to-military-harsh.html
http://opendebateforum2.blogspot.com/2009/05/harsh-interrogation-techniques.html

The legality of torture is, there is none. The Bush Administration knew
this so in an effort to do a work around, the Bush Administration
redefined the status of the prisoners to a classification the Bush Administration
deemed outside of the Geneva Convention.

Next came the justification of 'Harsh Interrogation' because of the 'ticking
time bomb' scenario. The White House ordered White House attorneys to
write briefs not only saying that harsh interrogation was not torture, but
instances when harsh interrogation was prudent and advised.

Two problems with this, the need for a doctor during 'questioning' and the
98 dead prisoners, also the questioning of the prisoners had nothing to
do with an imminent threat that was time sensitive. It was about getting
back fill Intel to justify the Iraq invasion.

Currently the Torture Apologists are trying to say that key democratic leaders
were also culpable in the torture. The belief is, if everyone is guilty then
no one is guilty. The Torture Apologists are floating out the Pelosi knew
so it;s her fault the torture occurred.

The CIA said that the Leaders of the Democratic and Republican Parties were
briefed about the torture already being used against prisoners. When asked
for the dates of the briefings, the CIA gave four dates two in April of '02,
two in September." When these dates were checked, it was discovered that
three of these meetings never occurred. The fourth meeting was on the topic
of prisoner interrogation. The CIA says they INFORMED the Leaders of the
torture, even though it was already occurring without Congressional Approval
or Knowledge for a month or more. The Congressional Leaders disagree with
these facts and based on the erroneous dates already supplied, one has to
wonder what else the CIA has wrong?

http://opendebateforum2.blogspot.com/2009/05/floridas-graham-backs-pelosi-on-cia.html

So the Torture Apologists have shifted reasons for Torture each time their
reasons have been proven to be flawed or wrong. This is reminiscent of the reasons
to invade Iraq. The Apologists have claimed there was no torture, that the torture
wasn't limited, that the torture was needed to protect America and finally that the
torture approved of by the Democratic leaders so it was OK.

The one thing the Torture Apologists keep forgetting is this. Torture is illegal,
both domestically and internationally and that America is better than this.




321 See DIC Table: Unknown 1 (died in November 2002 in Afghanistan
“Salt Pit” prison of hypothermia after being chained to the floor and
left without blankets; official cause of death not released); Naseer
(allegedly tortured to death by Army Special Forces soldiers in Mar.
2003; official investigation findings not released); al-Sumaidae
(unarmed 21-year-old student allegedly killed in cold blood in June
2005 by
Marine during a search of his home; case referred to Navy criminal
investigators 10 days after death); Dababa (June 2003 autopsy
indicates body covered by bruises and at least 50 abrasions, with head
and neck suffering the most significant abuses, resulting in
hemorrhaging throughout his brain; official cause of death not
announced); Kenami (death after detainee subjected to extreme
exercise,
cuffed, hooded and left in overcrowded cell; cause officially
undetermined); al-Izmerly (chief of forensics at Baghdad Hospital
found
January 2004 death was due to “massive blow” to head; investigation
pending); Unknown 15 (U.S. forces allege male shot during home
raid while reaching for a pistol; family alleges he was a physically
disabled old man and reportedly provides medical records indicating a
spinal condition or degeneration; no criminal investigation or any
other action appears to have been initiated); Nasef Ibrahim (military
ruled
death due to natural causes; son, with him at the time, filed lawsuit
alleging death from abuse); Khan (military initially stated death due
to
heart attack, until press reports of snakebite; family alleges abuse;
no medical or other investigation records released since death in
September 2004); A. Najem (military ruled death from natural causes
after hunger strike, but no medical records or interviews in support);
Zaid (U.S.-conducted autopsy stated accidental death from heat stroke;
army official stated possibility that Zaid was not given enough
water or proper care). Human Rights First asked the Department of
Defense on January 20 and 26, 2006 the status of the investigations
and any prosecutions in the following cases for which, as of February
10, we had received no response: Naseer; al-Sumaidae; Dababa;
Kenami [sought comment on medical expert finding that death caused by
suffocation]; al-Izmerly; Ibrahim; Khan; Zaid.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Harsh interrogation techniques ineffective,' former FBI agent testifies

Harsh interrogation techniques ineffective,' former FBI agent
testifies

By WARREN P. STROBEL
McClatchy Newspapers
A former FBI special agent who interrogated senior al-Qaida captives
told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that harsh
interrogation techniques are "ineffective, slow and unreliable," and
disputed claims by former Vice President Dick Cheney and others that
they helped uncover major terrorist plots.

Ali Soufan, a veteran FBI investigator, said that CIA officials and
others responsible for the extreme measures inflated the program's
successes and downplayed the consequences of physical abuse.

"The situation was, and remains, too risky to allow someone to
experiment with amateurish, Hollywood-style interrogation methods that
in reality taints sources, risks outcomes, ignores the end game and
diminishes our moral high ground," Soufan said.

"It was one of the worst and most harmful decisions made in our
efforts against al-Qaida," he said.

Former State Department official Philip Zelikow, who in 2005 was
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's point man in a battle to
overhaul the Bush administration's detention and interrogation
policies, joined Soufan in criticizing the use of techniques such as
waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning that's widely considered
torture.

Zelikow said the U.S. could combat terrorism without resorting to
extreme methods.

"Others may disagree," he said. "The government, and the country,
needs to decide whether they are right. If they are right, our laws
must change, and our country must change. I think they are wrong."

Cheney has argued that the now-defunct CIA program, which included a
global network of secret prisons, produced valuable intelligence that
thwarted terror attacks and saved American lives.

Cheney, who's scheduled to give a major speech on the subject next
week at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington
policy organization, has called for the release of two classified CIA
memos that he says detail the program's successes.

However, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., a member of the Senate Judiciary
and Intelligence committees, said he's seen the two documents and they
don't prove Cheney's case.

Soufan's testimony apparently was the first public appraisal by a
senior U.S. government interrogator who dealt directly with suspected
terrorists in CIA custody.

It came a month after President Barack Obama released four Bush-era
Justice Department legal memos justifying methods that included
confinement boxes, sleep deprivation and slamming detainees into
walls. That reopened the debate over whether top Bush officials should
be investigated and prosecuted for their actions.

Adding to the drama, Soufan testified from behind a screen where the
senators, but not the audience, could see him. Since at least one
photo of Soufan is available on the Internet, the reason for the
security measures wasn't readily apparent.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who's also an Air Force Reserve lawyer,
said the Bush administration erred in its reading of the law but
argued that harsh interrogation techniques sometimes produce valuable
information.

He challenged Soufan to dispute that.

"I can only speak to my experience," the former FBI agent replied.

"That's the point, isn't it?" Graham retorted.

Soufan was a lead FBI interrogator of Abu Zubaydah, one of the first
major al-Qaida figures to be captured after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks. The initial interrogation of Zubaydah, using the
bureau's traditional, rapport-building techniques, yielded valuable
intelligence, including the role of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the
mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, he said.

Then-CIA director George Tenet congratulated the interrogators - until
he learned that they were from the FBI, not the CIA, Soufan said. A
team from the CIA's Counterterrorism Center that included a government
contractor quickly replaced him and his colleagues. They introduced
harsh interrogation techniques, and Zubaydah's cooperation stopped,
Soufan said.

After complaints from officials in Washington about the dried-up
intelligence flow, Soufan and colleagues reverted to the traditional
approach, and Zubaydah began talking again.

To bolster the Democrats' case against torture, Sen. Sheldon
Whitehouse, D-R.I., released summaries of Soufan's interrogations of
another al-Qaida figure, Abu Jandal, who was a bodyguard to Osama bin
Laden. Without being tortured, Jandal divulged intimate details and
personal histories of bin Laden's inner circle, the 100 pages of
documents appear to show.

The hearing took place amid an escalating political fracas over what
congressional Democrats knew at the time about the CIA program.
Republicans say that documents call into question House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi's contention that she wasn't briefed about waterboarding.

Zelikow called the CIA program "a collective failure, in which a
number of officials and members of Congress (and staffers), of both
parties, played a part."

Zelikow wrote a classified February 2006 memo challenging the legal
reasoning of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. The
White House responded by ordering copies of the memo destroyed, but
Zelikow said his six-page document has been retrieved from State
Department files and is undergoing declassification review.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/v-print/story/1047093.html

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing: http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=3842

Thursday, April 23, 2009

I am sick in my heart by the depth of betrayal of the American Ideal by the Bush Administration

I am sick in my heart by the depth of betrayal of the American Ideal by the Bush Administration

April 23, 2009
Sean Lewis

We don't torture.
We don't torture.
We don't torture.

The United States does not torture.

Then it changed to, we tortured but it
was to protect the country and under strict
control.

Then it changed to a few rouge individuals
tortured, but we caught it.

Then it changed to we tortured but
it was only high value individuals and
the Intel prevented terror attacks.

Now we find we tortured, it was an organized
program, that was developed out of the Bush
White House, it was done to offer cover for
the torture program that began BEFORE the
written program for 'enhanced interrogation'
was developed, and the real reason for torture
was to provide back fill intelligence to provide
a link between Saddam and 9/11 and not to protect
America for terror attacks from Al qaida or Bin Laden.

I can only imagine what we will discover over the next
few weeks, months and years...

For this country to regain the prestige squandered and
misused by the Bush Administration, the American people
must demand the Bush Administration be brought to justice
for breaking both National and International Laws especially
if they pertain to War Crimes.

This can not be a partisan inquiry it must be a ground swell
from the American people that even the Republicans can not
ignore.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Why Do Republicans Desperately need Obama to Fail?

Why do Republicans Desperately need President Obama
and the Democrat controlled Congress to fail?

Sean Lewis
February 22, 2009


President Obama has been President for barely
a month.


He is facing a Crisis equal if not greater that the
Crisis Bush faced after 9/11.


After 9/11 the country unified behind President Bush
and gave him almost unanimous support to deal
with the crisis. It was about country first, not party.


Yet even BEFORE President Obama took office
Republicans, their surrogates and the press have
ridiculed and second guessed EVERYTHING
President Obama has done.


President Obama has asked for input from all corners because
he NEEDS the help of ALL AMERICANS to deal with
this crisis the same way ALL AMERICANS rallied behind
President Bush on 9/11.


Republicans instead of offering their advice and then understanding
that they DO NOT HAVE THE FINAL SAY on what Obama
decides and backing him in a unified effort to deal with the
economic problems are instead ridiculing every decision and
proclaiming failure before the ink is even dry on the BILLS leaving
Committees!


The Country is facing multiple crisis of which any one could
create disaster for America and Americans. Yet the Republicans
seem hell bent on being obstructionists, and adding to the chaos.


Why?


Because the simple fact is that if Obama and the Democratic
lead Congress fixes the many problems left behind by the
Republican controlled Congress and Republican Administration
it will CONFIRM and VALIDATE that the Republicans were
irresponsible and incompetent during the years they had Majority
Control in the Government.


Republicans are not thinking about the Country or American
people first, they are thinking about the REPUBLICAN party
first!


The American people said 'we want change' and that change was
to let the Democrats run things. That Republicans no longer get
to demand it is 'their way or the highway', yet this is
still how they are governing.


The Republicans use the guise of they are the Minority party
and their job is to oppose the Democrats. The problem is the
Country is on the brink of a monumental collapse and this is
a time for cooperation, NOT opposition. So why do it?


Because for the Republican Party to be of consequence again
in the future, the Republican party needs the President and the
Democratic controlled Congress to fail. If the Democrats do fail,
then the Republicans can say " see this wasn't our fault NO ONE
could have prevented this from happening.


However if President Obama and the Democratically controlled Congress
succeeds, it only emphasises that not only did the Republicans not
acknowledge the crisis as they arose but even after they finally
admitted the problem they did nothing to remedy the problem either through
ignorance or incompetence.


So do not be fooled by the insincere arguments that Republicans
are trying to be bipartisan and want to help. They have an agenda,
and that agenda is for the failure of the Democrats, even if it
destroys the Country in the process.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Wall Street Still Doesn't Get It!

Wall Street Still Doesn't Get It!

February 20, 2009
Sean Lewis

Wall Street is upset about bailing out an
individual who was 'irresponsible' and over
extended themselves by buying a mortgage
on a property that had a variable rate and when
it reset it was after 13 plus interest rate adjustments.

It doesn't matter that a wall street type advised
this person to take the loan. It doesn't matter
that a wall street firm approved the mortgage.

No the fault is the unsophisticated and trusting
homeowner who believed those Wall Street types
advising them at a fee.

Wall Street argues that it is wrong to give aid to
the homeowner but whine about the fact that if wall
street firms receive TARP money they have to be
accountable by reducing their pay and bonuses.

The argument of course is that to keep the talent
that bankrupted the Wall Street firm in the first place
you have to give them a bonus to stay. my answer
to that is, where are they going to go? Thousands
are being fired and there are fewer firms left.There
aren't any jobs out there to go to!

No wall street thinks that they are entitled to their
bailout but the ones bailing out wall street are not
entitled to their own bailout.

Main Street must be held responsible and must be
punished for their irresponsible finances, but Wall
Street should not be accountable and should not be
punished and in fact by action of how the TARP
money was used to pay unearned Bonuses, REWARDED!

Like I said, Wall Street Just doesn't get it!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Limbaugh Needs To Retire For America's Benefit

Limbaugh needs to retire for America's benefit

Sean Lewis
January 28, 2009

In a time of mutual cooperation and joined sacrifice the last thing we need is someone openly organizing opposition to create failure.

Is this man a Patriot or an enemy to America?

The boat is taking on water and sinking fast, all of America is
bailing water out of the boat to try to keep it from sinking
and Rush is drilling holes in the bottom of the boat and trying to
get others to join him in doing this.

Rush wants to sink the boat because the Captain is not his
guy, survival for all be damned this is about twisted principle and flawed ideology not common sense or reality.

Any one who is openly hoping the Country goes deeper into
recession because it helps the Republican party is obviously
not someone who favors country over partisan politics.

The man's priorities are all wrong in a time when obstructionist
dissention is not only destructive but dangerous to America.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

8 Years of Failure in 8 Minutes

UPDATE w/ comment from K.O.: Olbermann's Recap of the Bush Admin Must
Not Be Missed
by thereisnospoon
Fri Jan 16, 2009 at 06:27:25 PM PST
UPDATE: From Keith Olbermann himself, in the comments:

Nobody Likes Kudos Better Than I Do


But I'm passing all these on to my segment producer, Jonathan Larsen,
with whom I've worked on and off since we were at CNN in 2001-02. He
compiled and wrote this one; I honestly made about four small changes
in it.


Monday we go gently after the Torture Prosecution...


Thanks to all, and to all a good night.


thereisnospoon's diary :: ::
Offered with as little commentary as possible: the most astonishing
and damning review of the Bush Administration ever seen, courtesy of
Keith Olbermann. And half of the administration's morally negligent
or even criminal activities didn't even make it into the 8-minute
summary; much of the other half was mentioned only briefly.


Still, if you can bear to watch a replay of the misery through with we
have suffered these last eight years, it has never been done better
than this:


Transcript provided by TrueBlueMajority:


George Walker Bush.
43rd president of the United States.
first ever with a criminal record.
our third story tonight,
his presidency: eight years in eight minutes.


early in 2001 the U.S. fingered Al Qaeda
for the bombing of the USS Cole
Bush counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke
had a plan to take down Al Qaeda.
instead by February the NSC
had already discussed invading Iraq,
and had a plan for post-Saddam Iraq.


by March 5 Bush had a map ready for Iraqi oil exploration
and a list of companies.
Al Qaeda?
Rice told Clarke not to give Bush a lot of long memos.
not a big reader.


August 6, 2001
a CIA analyst briefs Bush on vacation:
"Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S."
Bush takes no action tells the briefer—quote
all right, you've covered your ass now.


next month Clarke requests
using new predator drones to kill Bin Laden
the Pentagon and CIA
say no.


September 11th
Bush remains seated for several minutes
to avoid scaring school children
by getting up and leaving.
he then flies around the country
and promises quote a full scale investigation to find
those folks who did it


Rumsfeld says Afghanistan does not have enough targets
we've got to do Iraq.
when the CIA traps Bin Laden at Tora Bora
it asks for 800 rangers to cut off his escape
Bush outsources the job to Pakistanis
sympathetic to the Taliban
Bin Laden
gets away


in February General Tommy Franks tells a visiting Senator
Bush is moving equipment out of Afghanistan
so he can invade Iraq.
one of the men who prepped Rice for her testimony
that Bush did not ignore pre 9-11 warnings
later explains quote we cherry picked things
to make it look like the president
had been actually concerned about Al Qaeda
they didn't give a bleep about Al Qaeda


July and Britain's intel chief says Bush is
fixing intelligence and facts around the policy to take out Saddam
January 03
Bush and Blair agree to invade in March
Mr. Bush still telling us he has not decided
telling Blair they should paint an airplane in UN colors
fly it over Iraq and provoke a response
a pretext for invasion


the man who said it would take several hundred thousand troops
fired
the man who said it would cost more than a hundred billion
fired
the man who revealed Bush's yellowcake lie
smeared
his wife's covert status
exposed
the White House liars who did it
and covered it up
not fired
one convicted
Bush commutes his sentence


then in Iraq, stuff happens:
Iraq's army, disbanded
the government de-Baathified
200,000 weapons, billions of dollars just
lost
foreign mercenaries immunized from justice
political hacks run the Green Zone
religious cleansing forcing one out of six Iraqis from their homes
Abu Ghraib
the insurgency
Al Qaeda in Iraq


other stuff does not happen:
WMD
post-war planning
body armor
vehicular armor


the payoff?
oil
and billions for Halliburton, Blackwater and other companies
while Mr. Bush denies VA healthcare to 450,000 veterans
tries to raise their healthcare fees
blocks the new G.I. Bill
and increases his own power with the USA PATRIOT Act
with the Military Commissions Act
public orders exempting himself from a thousand laws
and secretly from the Presidential Records Act
The Geneva Conventions
FISA
sparking a mass rebellion at the Justice Department


secret star chambers for terrorism suspects,
overturned by Hamdan v Rumsfeld.
denying habeas corpus,
overturned by Boumediene v Bush.
200 renditionings
sleep deprivation
abuse


Rumsfeld warned in 2002 that he was torturing
that it would jeopardize convictions
out of 550 at Gitmo
hundreds ultimately go free with no charges
dozens are tortured
eight fatally
three are convicted


on U.S. soil twelve hundred immigrants rounded up
without due process
without bail
without court dates
without a single charge of terrorism


it wasn't just Mr. Bush no longer subject to the rule of law
he slashed regulations on everyone from banks to mining companies
appointed 98 lobbyists to oversee their own industries
weakening emission standards for mercury
and 650 different toxic chemicals
regulators shared drugs
and their beds
with industry reps
the Crandall Canyon mine owner told inspectors to back up
because his buddy, Republican Mitch McConnell
was sleeping with their boss
McConnell's wife is Bush Labor Secretary Elaine Chao
her agency overruled engineer concerns about Crandall Canyon
and was found negligent
after nine miners died in the collapse there


Mr. Bush's hands off
as Enron blacks out California
doubling electric bills
after months of rejecting price caps Mr. Bush bows to pressure


the blackouts end


Mr. Bush further deregulates commodity futures
midwifing the birth of unregulated oil markets
which just like Enron jack up prices to an all time high
until Congress and both presidential candidates call for
regulations


and the prices fall


deregulating financial services and lax enforcement of remaining
rules
created a housing bubble
creating the mortgage crisis
creating then a credit crisis
devastating industries that rely on credit
from student loans to car dealers


firms that had survived the Great Depression could not survive
Bush
those that did got
seven hundred billion dollars
no strings, no transparency
no idea whether it worked


unlike the auto bailout
which cut workers' salaries.
a GOP memo called it
a chance to punish unions


but Bush failed even when his party and his patrons
did not stand to profit
investigators blamed management cost cutting communication
for missed warnings about Columbia
Bush administration convicts include
sex offenders at Homeland Security
convicted liars
every kind of thief in the calendar
and if you count things that were not prosecuted
the vice president of the United States actually
shot a man in the face


the man apologized.


Mr. Bush faked the truth
with paid propaganda in Iraq
on his education policy


tried to silence the truth about global warming
rocket fuel in our water
industry influence on energy policy


politicized the truth of science at NASA, the EPA,
the National Cancer Institute, Fish and Wildlife
and the FDA


his lies
exposed by whistleblowers from the cabinet down
"complete BS" the treasury secretary said
of Mr. Bush on his tax cuts.


Rice's mushroom cloud
Powell's mobile labs
Iraq and 9-11
Jack Abramoff
Jessica Lynch


Pat Tillman
Pat Tillman again
Pat Tillman, again.


the air at Ground Zero
most responders still suffering respiratory problems.


global warming
carbon emissions
a Clear Skies initiative lowering air quality standards
the Healthy Forests initiative increasing logging
faith based initiatives
the cost of medicare reform
fired US attorneys
politically synchronized terror alerts


the surge causing insurgents to switch sides
that abortion causes breast cancer
that his first recession began under Clinton
that he did not wiretap without warrants
that we do not torture.


that American citizen John Walker Lindh's rights
were not violated
that he refused the right to counsel


heckuva job Brownie
some survivors still in trailers
New Orleans still at just two-thirds its usual population


the lie that no one could have predicted the economic crisis
except
the economists who did
no one could have predicted 9-11 except
one ass-covering CIA analyst
or thirty
no one could have predicted the levee breach
except literally
Mr. Bill
in a PSA that aired on TV a year before Katrina


Bush actually admitted that he lied about not firing Rumsfeld
because he did not want to tell the truth.
look it up.


all of it
all of it and more leaving us with
ten trillion in debt
to pay for 31% more in discretionary spending
the Iraq War
a 1.3 trillion dollar tax cut


median income down two thousand dollars
three-quarters of all income gains under Bush
going to the richest one percent
unemployment up from 4.2 to 7.2 percent


the Dow, down from ten thousand five hundred eighty seven
to eighty two hundred seventy seven
six million now more in poverty
seven million more now without health care


buying toxic goods from China
deadly cribs
outsourcing security to Dubai
still unsecure in our ports
and at our nuclear plants
more dependent on foreign oil
out of the international criminal court
off the anti ballistic missle treaty
military readiness and standards down


with two unfinished wars
a nuclear North Korea
disengaged from the Palestinian problem
destabilizing eastern european diplomacy with
anti missile plans
and unable to keep Russia out of Georgia


2000 miles of Appalachian streams
destroyed by rubble from mountaintop mining
at his last G-8 summit,
he actually bid farewell to other world leaders
saying quote—goodbye from the world's greatest polluter


consistently undermining historic American reverence
for the institutions that empower us
education, now "academic elites"
and the law, "activist judges"
capping jury awards


and Bin Laden?
living today unmolested in a Pakistani safe haven
created by a truce endorsed and defended by George W. Bush


and among all the gifts he gave to Bin Laden
the most awful, the most damaging not just to America
but to the American ideal
was to further Bin Laden's goal
by making us act out of fear rather than fortitude


leaving us with precious little to cling to tonight
save the one thing that might yet suffice:


hope


The Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtnE4C9Gv5U

KATRINA TIMELINE

KATRINA TIMELINE

Friday, August 26

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA [Office of the Governor]

GULF COAST STATES REQUEST TROOP ASSISTANCE FROM PENTAGON: At a 9/1 press conference, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, commander, Joint Task Force Katrina, said that the Gulf States began the process of requesting additional forces on Friday, 8/26. [DOD]

Saturday, August 27

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN MISSISSIPPI [Office of the Governor]

5AM CDT — KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE [CNN]

GOV. BLANCO ASKS BUSH TO DECLARE FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: “I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.” [Office of the Governor]

FEDERAL EMERGENCY DECLARED, DHS AND FEMA GIVEN FULL AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO KATRINA: “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.” [White House]

Sunday, August 28

2AM CDT — KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]

7AM CDT — KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE [CNN]

MORNING — LOUISIANA NEWSPAPER SIGNALS LEVEES MAY GIVE: “Forecasters Fear Levees Won’t Hold Katrina”: “Forecasters feared Sunday afternoon that storm driven waters will lap over the New Orleans levees when monster Hurricane Katrina pushes past the Crescent City tomorrow.” [Lafayette Daily Advertiser]

9:30 AM CDT — MAYOR NAGIN ISSUES FIRST EVER MANDATORY EVACUATION OF NEW ORLEANS: “We’re facing the storm most of us have feared,” said Nagin. “This is going to be an unprecedented event.” [Times-Picayune]

AFTERNOON — BUSH, BROWN, CHERTOFF WARNED OF LEVEE FAILURE BY NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER DIRECTOR: Dr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center: “‘We were briefing them way before landfall. … It’s not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped.’” [Times-Picayune; St. Petersburg Times]

4PM CDT — NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ISSUES SPECIAL HURRICANE WARNING: In the event of a category 4 or 5 hit, “Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer. … At least one-half of well-constructed homes will have roof and wall failure. All gabled roofs will fail, leaving those homes severely damaged or destroyed. … Power outages will last for weeks. … Water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards.” [National Weather Service]

LATE PM — REPORTS OF WATER TOPPLING OVER LEVEE: “Waves crashed atop the exercise path on the Lake Pontchartrain levee in Kenner early Monday as Katrina churned closer.” [Times-Picayune]

APPROXIMATELY 30,000 EVACUEES GATHER AT SUPERDOME WITH ROUGHLY 36 HOURS WORTH OF FOOD [Times-Picayune]

LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD REQUESTS 700 BUSES FROM FEMA FOR EVACUATIONS: FEMA sends only 100 buses. [Boston Globe]

Monday, August 29

7AM CDT — KATRINA MAKES LANDFALL AS A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]

7:30 AM CDT — BUSH ADMINISTRATION NOTIFIED OF THE LEVEE BREACH: The administration finds out that a levee in New Orleans was breached. On this day, 28 “government agencies, from local Louisiana parishes to the White House, [reported that] that New Orleans levees” were breached. [AP]

8AM CDT — MAYOR NAGIN REPORTS THAT WATER IS FLOWING OVER LEVEE: “I’ve gotten reports this morning that there is already water coming over some of the levee systems. In the lower ninth ward, we’ve had one of our pumping stations to stop operating, so we will have significant flooding, it is just a matter of how much.” [NBC’s “Today Show”]

11:13 AM CDT - WHITE HOUSE CIRCULATES INTERNAL MEMO ABOUT LEVEE BREACH: “Flooding is significant throughout the region and a levee in New Orleans has reportedly been breached sending 6-8 feet of water throughout the 9th ward area of the city.” [AP]

MORNING — BROWN WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE POTENTIAL DEVASTATION OF KATRINA: In a briefing, Brown warned Bush, “This is, to put it mildly, the big one, I think.” He also voiced concerns that the government may not have the capacity to “respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe” and that the Superdome was ill-equipped to be a refuge of last resort. [AP]

MORNING — MAYFIELD WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE TOPPING OF THE LEVEES: In the same briefing, Max Mayfield, National Hurricane Center Director, warns, “This is a category 5 hurricane, very similar to Hurricane Andrew in the maximum intensity, but there’s a big big difference. This hurricane is much larger than Andrew ever was. I also want to make absolutely clear to everyone that the greatest potential for large loss of lives is still in the coastal areas from the storm surge. … I don’t think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but there’s obviously a very very grave concern.” [AP]

MORNING — BUSH CALLS SECRETARY CHERTOFF TO DISCUSS IMMIGRATION: “I spoke to Mike Chertoff today — he’s the head of the Department of Homeland Security. I knew people would want me to discuss this issue [immigration], so we got us an airplane on — a telephone on Air Force One, so I called him. I said, are you working with the governor? He said, you bet we are.” [White House]

MORNING — BUSH SHARES BIRTHDAY CAKE PHOTO-OP WITH SEN. JOHN MCCAIN [White House]

11AM CDT — MICHAEL BROWN FINALLY REQUESTS THAT DHS DISPATCH 1,000 EMPLOYEES TO REGION, GIVES THEM TWO DAYS TO ARRIVE: “Brown’s memo to Chertoff described Katrina as ‘this near catastrophic event’ but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, ‘Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities.’” [AP]

LATE MORNING — LEVEE BREACHED: “A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new ‘hurricane proof’ Old Hammond Highway bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina’s fiercest winds were well north.” [Times-Picayune]

11AM CDT — BUSH VISITS ARIZONA RESORT TO PROMOTE MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: “This new bill I signed says, if you’re a senior and you like the way things are today, you’re in good shape, don’t change. But, by the way, there’s a lot of different options for you. And we’re here to talk about what that means to our seniors.” [White House]

4:30PM CDT — BUSH TRAVELS TO CALIFORNIA SENIOR CENTER TO DISCUSS MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: “We’ve got some folks up here who are concerned about their Social Security or Medicare. Joan Geist is with us. … I could tell — she was looking at me when I first walked in the room to meet her, she was wondering whether or not old George W. is going to take away her Social Security check.” [White House]

8PM CDT — RUMSFELD ATTENDS SAN DIEGO PADRES BASEBALL GAME: Rumsfeld “joined Padres President John Moores in the owner’s box…at Petco Park.” [Editor & Publisher]

8PM CDT — GOV. BLANCO AGAIN REQUESTS ASSISTANCE FROM BUSH: “Mr. President, we need your help. We need everything you’ve got.” [Newsweek]

LATE PM — BUSH GOES TO BED WITHOUT ACTING ON BLANCO’S REQUESTS [Newsweek]

Tuesday, August 30

11AM CDT — BUSH SPEAKS ON IRAQ AT NAVAL BASE CORONADO [White House]

MIDDAY — CHERTOFF CLAIMS HE FINALLY BECOMES AWARE THAT LEVEE HAS FAILED: “It was on Tuesday that the levee–may have been overnight Monday to Tuesday–that the levee started to break. And it was midday Tuesday that I became aware of the fact that there was no possibility of plugging the gap and that essentially the lake was going to start to drain into the city.” But later reports note that the Bush administration learned of the levee breach on Aug. 29. [Meet the Press, 9/4/05; AP]

PENTAGON CLAIMS THERE ARE ENOUGH NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS IN REGION: “Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said the states have adequate National Guard units to handle the hurricane needs.” [WWL-TV]

MASS LOOTING REPORTED, SECURITY SHORTAGE CITED: “The looting is out of control. The French Quarter has been attacked,” Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson said. “We’re using exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue while we still have people on rooftops.” [AP]

U.S.S. BATAAN SITS OFF SHORE, VIRTUALLY UNUSED: “The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It also can make its own water, up to 100,000 gallons a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came roaring ashore. The Bataan rode out the storm and then followed it toward shore, awaiting relief orders. Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans residents. But now the Bataan’s hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty.” [Chicago Tribune]

2PM CDT — PRESIDENT BUSH PLAYS GUITAR WITH COUNTRY SINGER MARK WILLIS [AP]

BUSH RETURNS TO CRAWFORD FOR FINAL NIGHT OF VACATION [AP]

Wednesday, August 31

1:45AM CDT — FEMA REQUESTS AMBULANCES THAT DO NOT EXIST: “Almost 18 hours later, [FEMA] canceled the request for the ambulances because it turned out, as one FEMA employee put it, ‘the DOT doesn’t do ambulances.’” [Wall Street Journal]

11:20 AM CDT — FEMA STAFF WARNED BROWN THAT PEOPLE WERE DYING AT THE SUPERDOME: Three hours later, Brown’s press secretary wrote to colleagues complaining that Brown needed more time scheduled to eat at a restaurant: “He needs much more that (sic) 20 or 30 minutes. We now have traffic to encounter to go to and from a location of his choise (sic), followed by wait service from the restaurant staff, eating, etc. Thank you.” [AP]

NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS ARRIVE IN LOUSIANA, MISSISSIPPI, ALABAMA, AND FLORIDA: Troops arrive two days after they are requested. [Boston Globe]

TENS OF THOUSANDS TRAPPED IN SUPERDOME; CONDITIONS DETERIORATE: “A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers. ‘We pee on the floor. We are like animals,’ said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. … By Wednesday, it had degenerated into horror. … At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for. There is no sanitation. The stench is overwhelming.”" [Los Angeles Times, 9/1/05]

PRESIDENT BUSH FINALLY ORGANIZES TASK FORCE TO COORDINATE FEDERAL RESPONSE: Bush says on Tuesday he will “fly to Washington to begin work…with a task force that will coordinate the work of 14 federal agencies involved in the relief effort.” [New York Times, 8/31/05]

JEFFERSON PARISH EMERGENCY DIRECTOR SAYS FOOD AND WATER SUPPLY GONE: “Director Walter Maestri: FEMA and national agencies not delivering the help nearly as fast as it is needed.” [WWL-TV]

80,000 BELIEVED STRANDED IN NEW ORLEANS: Former Mayor Sidney Barthelemy “estimated 80,000 were trapped in the flooded city and urged President Bush to send more troops.” [Reuters]

3,000 STRANDED AT CONVENTION CENTER WITHOUT FOOD OR WATER: “With 3,000 or more evacuees stranded at the convention center — and with no apparent contingency plan or authority to deal with them — collecting a body was no one’s priority. … Some had been at the convention center since Tuesday morning but had received no food, water or instructions.” [Times-Picayune]

PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY DECLARED FOR ENTIRE GULF COAST: “After a natural disaster, short and long-term medical problems can occur. Diseases like cholera, typhoid, hepatitis and mosquito-borne illnesses tend to break out under these conditions.” [WCBS-TV]

BUSH SURVEYS DAMAGE FROM AIR FORCE ONE: President Bush flew over New Orleans on Air Force One. “During the 35-minute tour, Bush clearly saw from his vantage point the damage to the football stadium in New Orleans as well as the flooded neighborhoods, wiped out bridges and slabs of foundations where houses used to stand.” [Fox News]

CHERTOFF “EXTREMELY PLEASED WITH THE RESPONSE” OF THE GOVERNMENT: “We are extremely pleased with the response that every element of the federal government, all of our federal partners, have made to this terrible tragedy.” [Department of Homeland Security]

EARLY AM — BLANCO AGAIN TRIES TO REQUEST HELP FROM BUSH: “She was transferred around the White House for a while until she ended up on the phone with Fran Townsend, the president’s Homeland Security adviser, who tried to reassure her but did not have many specifics. Hours later, Blanco called back and insisted on speaking to the president. When he came on the line, the governor recalled, “I just asked him for help, ‘whatever you have’.” She asked for 40,000 troops.” [Newsweek]

4PM CDT — BUSH GIVES FIRST MAJOR ADDRESS ON KATRINA: “Nothing about the president’s demeanor… — which seemed casual to the point of carelessness — suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.” [New York Times]

7PM CDT — CONDOLEEZZA RICE TAKES IN A BROADWAY SHOW: “On Wednesday night, Secretary Rice was booed by some audience members at ‘Spamalot!, the Monty Python musical at the Shubert, when the lights went up after the performance.” [New York Post, 9/2/05]

8PM CDT — FEMA DIRECTOR BROWN CLAIMS SURPRISE OVER SIZE OF STORM: “I must say, this storm is much much bigger than anyone expected.” [CNN]

Thursday, September 17AM CDT — BUSH CLAIMS NO ONE EXPECTED LEVEES TO BREAK: “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” However, as former FEMA Director Michael Brown told CNN, “the president knew from our earlier conversations that that was one of my concerns, that the levees could actually breach.” [Situation Room, 3/2/06]

CONDOLEEZZA RICE VISITS U.S. OPEN: “Rice, [in New York] on three days’ vacation to shop and see the U.S. Open, hitting some balls with retired champ Monica Seles at the Indoor Tennis Club at Grand Central.” [New York Post]

STILL NO COMMAND AND CONTROL ESTABLISHED: Terry Ebbert, New Orleans Homeland Security Director: “This is a national emergency. This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can’t bail out the city of New Orleans.” [Fox News]

2PM CDT — MAYOR NAGIN ISSUES “DESPERATE SOS” TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: “This is a desperate SOS. Right now we are out of resources at the convention centre and don’t anticipate enough buses. We need buses. Currently the convention centre is unsanitary and unsafe and we’re running out of supplies.” [Guardian, 9/2/05]

2PM CDT — MICHAEL BROWN CLAIMS NOT TO HAVE HEARD OF REPORTS OF VIOLENCE: “I’ve had no reports of unrest, if the connotation of the word unrest means that people are beginning to riot, or you know, they’re banging on walls and screaming and hollering or burning tires or whatever. I’ve had no reports of that.” [CNN]

NEW ORLEANS “DESCEND[S] INTO ANARCHY”: “Storm victims were raped and beaten, fights and fires broke out, corpses lay out in the open, and rescue helicopters and law enforcement officers were shot at as flooded-out New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday. ‘This is a desperate SOS,’ the mayor said.” [AP]

CONDOLEEZZA RICE GOES SHOE SHOPPING: “Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, ‘How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!’” [Gawker]

MICHAEL BROWN FINALLY LEARNS OF EVACUEES IN CONVENTION CENTER: “We learned about that (Thursday), so I have directed that we have all available resources to get that convention center to make sure that they have the food and water and medical care that they need.” [CNN]

Friday, September 2

ROVE-LED CAMPAIGN TO BLAME LOCAL OFFICIALS BEGINS: “Under the command of President Bush’s two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan…to contain the political damage from the administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina.” President Bush’s comments from the Rose Garden Friday morning formed “the start of this campaign.” [New York Times, 9/5/05]

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES DEMAND THAT DHS TO PAY ATTENTION TO WORKER-SAFETY: “By Friday, experts and officials from NIH, the Department of Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency began to make frantic calls to the Department of Homeland Security and members of Congress, demanding that the worker-safety portion of the national response plan be activated.” [Wall Street Journal]

EARLY AM — BUSH WATCHES DVD OF THE WEEK’S NEWSCASTS CREATED BY STAFF WHO THOUGHT BUSH “NEEDED TO SEE THE HORRIFIC REPORTS”: “The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.” [Newsweek]

10 AM CDT — PRESIDENT BUSH STAGES PHOTO-OP “BRIEFING”: Coast Guard helicopters and crew diverted to act as backdrop for President Bush’s photo-op.

10:35AM CDT — BUSH PRAISES MICHAEL BROWN: “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” [White House, 9/2/05]

BUSH VISIT GROUNDS FOOD AID: “Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush’s visit to New Orleans, officials said.” [Times-Picayune]

LEVEE REPAIR WORK ORCHESTRATED FOR PRESIDENT’S VISIT: Sen. Mary Landrieu, 9/3: “Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment.” [Sen. Mary Landrieu]

BUSH USES 50 FIREFIGHTERS AS PROPS IN DISASTER AREA PHOTO-OP: A group of 1,000 firefighters convened in Atlanta to volunteer with the Katrina relief efforts. Of those, “a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew’s first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.” [Salt Lake Tribune; Reuters]

12PM CDT — BUSH “SATISFIED WITH THE RESPONSE”: “I am satisfied with the response. I am not satisfied with all the results.” [AP]

PM — FEMA’S NO. 2 OFFICIAL “IMPRESSED” WITH GOVERNMENT RESPONSE: “I am actually very impressed with the mobilization of man and machine to help our friends in this unfortunate area….I think it’s one of the most impressive search-and-rescue operations this country has ever conducted domestically.” [Time]

BUSH COMMENTS ON SEN. TRENT LOTT’S HOUSE: “Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.” Time called the remarks “astonishingly tone-deaf to the homeless black citizens still trapped in the postapocalyptic water world of New Orleans.” [White House; Time]

CONGRESS APPROVES INITIAL FUNDING: Congress quickly approves $10.5 billion in initial aid for rescue and relief efforts. [AP, 9/4/05]

Saturday, September 3

SENIOR BUSH ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL LIES TO WASHINGTON POST, CLAIMS GOV. BLANCO NEVER DECLARED STATE OF EMERGENCY: The Post reported in their Sunday edition “As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.” They were forced to issue a correction hours later. [Washington Post, 9/4/05]

9AM CDT — BUSH BLAMES STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS: “[T]he magnitude of responding to a crisis over a disaster area that is larger than the size of Great Britain has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need.” [White House, 9/3/05]

8:05PM CDT — FEMA FINALIZES BUS REQUEST: “FEMA ended up modifying the number of buses it thought it needed to get the job done, until it settled on a final request of 1,335 buses at 8:05 p.m. on Sept. 3. The buses, though, trickled into New Orleans, with only a dozen or so arriving the first day.” [Wall Street Journal, 9/13/05]

KANYE WEST TELLS AUDIENCE, “GEORGE BUSH DOESN’T CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE.” [BBC, 9/3/05]

CHERTOFF CLAIMS THAT NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED KATRINA: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argues that “government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.” However, scientists and others had warned of the possibility for years. [CNN, 9/5/05]

THE LOUISIANA SUPERDOME IS FULLY EVACUATED: By the time the evacuation was finished, the Superdome was in such a poor state that “inside and outside…[it] was a sea of trash up to 5 feet deep. [AP, 9/3/05]

Monday, September 5

FORMER FIRST LADY PATRONIZES POOR REFUGEES: Former First Lady Barbara Bush says, “Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them.” [American Public Media, 9/5/05]

Thursday, September 8

BUSH SUSPENDS DAVIS-BACON ACT: Bush halts the enforcement of a law that sets the minimum pay for workers on federal contracts. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney blasted the move as “outrageous.” [Washington Post, 9/9/05]

CONGRESS APPROVES MORE RELIEF FUNDING: Congress appropriates an additional $51.8 billion relief funding, six days after approving initial funding of $10.5 billion. [Washington Post, 9/9/05]

Friday, September 9

BROWN STRIPPED OF RELIEF DUTIES: FEMA chief Michael Brown is removed from his duty overseeing relief operations. He is replaced by Vice Admiral Thad Allen, chief of staff of the U.S. Coast Guard. [CTV, 9/9/05]

Monday, September 12

FEMA DIRECTOR RESIGNS: FEMA head Michael Brown resigns. Brown was “under fire over his qualifications and for what critics call a bungled response to Katrina.” [CNN, 9/12/05]

Tuesday, September 13

BUSH TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR FLAWED RESPONSE: “Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government,” Mr. Bush said. “And to the extent that the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility.” [New York Times, 9/13/05]

Wednesday, September 14

INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATIVE PANEL REJECTED: Senate Republicans voted down an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton “to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate” the government’s failures following Hurricane Katrina. [AP, 9/14/05]

Thursday, September 15

BUSH ADDRESSES NATION, SAYS HIS ADMINISTRATION WILL “LEARN THE LESSONS” OF KATRINA: “This government will learn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina. We are going to review every action and make necessary changes, so that we are better prepared for any challenge of nature, or act of evil men, that could threaten our people.” [Bush, 9/15/05]

HOUSE ESTABLISHES KATRINA COMMISSION: A day after the Senate rejected an independent panel, the House of Representatives approved legislation to create the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) was named as Chairman of the Committee. [House, 9/15/05]

Tuesday, September 20

ALLSTATE REFUSES TO REIMBURSE VICTIMS: Insurance giant refuses to pay those filing Katrina flood claims. The storm may end up costing insurers as much as $60 billion. [MarketWatch, 9/20/05]

October 3rd — IRAQ WAR HINDERS KATRINA RELIEF: An inquiry into the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina finds that the effort suffered “near catastrophic failures due to endemic corruption, divisions within the military and troop shortages caused by the Iraq war.” [Independent, 10/3/05]

10th — BUSH VISITS REGION FOR THE 8TH TIME SINCE KATRINA HIT [Situation Room, 10/10/05]

13th — 600,000 REFUGEES LIVING IN HOTELS: Spending $11 million a day, the reliance on hotels has been necessary because FEMA “has had problems installing mobile homes and travel trailers for evacuees.” [New York Times, 10/13/05]

19th — CHERTOFF TESTIFIES, CLAIMS ADMINISTRATION WAS PREPARED FOR KATRINA: In his testimony, he says, “The idea that this department and this administration and the president were somehow detached from Katrina is simply not correct. We were acutely aware of Katrina and the risk it posed.” Despite Chertoff’s claim, Bush wasn’t made aware of the failed response until four days after the storm hit. [Chertoff, 10/19/05]

November 1st — BUSH APPOINTS “KATRINA CZAR”: Donald Powell, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., is tapped by President Bush to become the hurricane recovery czar. He will work to coordinate recovery and rebuilding efforts. [U.S. News & World Report, 11/3/05]

10th — VICTIMS SUE FEMA FOR AID [New York Times, 11/10/05]

16th — EVACUEES GIVEN 15 DAYS TO LEAVE: 150,000 evacuees are given until December 1 to leave government-subsidized hotels and find other housing. “Housing advocates criticized the announcement, saying that FEMA failed to spell out long-term housing plans, ignored existing federal housing programs and will push some poor evacuees into shelters for the homeless because of lack of planning.” [Washington Post, 11/16/05]

23rd — THOUSANDS REMAIN MISSING: Nearly three months after Katrina hit, the National Center for Missing Adults says over 6,500 people are unaccounted for in the hurricane’s wake. In addition, “more than 400 bodies remain unidentified.” [ABC News, 11/23/05]

December 4th — “THE DISASTER IS STILL REALLY GOING ON, IN TERMS OF HEALTH CARE”: “Many hospitals in the New Orleans area are short-staffed and struggling to care for a growing population of patients who are returning to their homes three months after fleeing Hurricane Katrina.” [USA Today, 12/4/05]

13th — VICTIMS TAKE OUT AD TO GET CONGRESS’ ATTENTION: Homeless victims of Hurricane Katrina took out ad space to “[plead] with Congress to pay for stronger levees.” See the ad here. [New York Times, 12/13/05]

14th — HOUSTON ENDS VOUCHER PROGRAM: Houston Mayor Bill White said today he will stop giving Katrina refugees vouchers for a year’s worth of rent and utilities. With more than 100,000 displaced persons flocking to Houston, White declared, “Houston is full.” [Houston Chronicle, 12/14/05]

21st — PRESIDENT BUSH SIGNS SUPPLEMENTAL OF $29 BILLION FOR KATRINA RELIEF [Brookings, 3/21/06]

2006: JANUARY 4th — NEW ORLEANS STILL NOT SAFE FOR DISPLACED: “The bottom line: it continues to be a very risky decision for many of the displaced households to return to the area, since all of the key necessities are in scarce supply, and it is not at all clear when or if they will be brought back online.” [Brookings, 01/04/06]

12th — PRESIDENT BUSH TRAVELS TO NEW ORLEANS; SPENDS LESS THAN 24 HOURS IN THE REGION: He congratulated Mayor Ray Nagin for getting the city’s infrastructure “back on its feet,” but he met the locals in an area that wasn’t flooded and saw little of the city, save for the view from the interstate as he arrived. “I will tell you, the contrast between when I was last here and today…is pretty dramatic,” he said. “It’s a heck of a place to bring your family.” [WSJ, 01/13/06]

24th — WHITE HOUSE REFUSES TO COOPERATE WITH A SENATE INVESTIGATION OF KATRINA: “The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain documents about Hurricane Katrina or make senior White House officials available for sworn testimony before two Congressional committees investigating the storm response.” [New York Times, 1/24/06]

25th — ADMINISTRATION REJECTS RECONSTRUCTION PLAN: The White House rejects a Congressional reconstruction plan — the “most broadly supported plan for rebuilding communities,” and instead backs $6.2 billion in block grants that Congress provided last year, which Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) called “unacceptable.” [Times-Picayune, 1/25/06]

31st — PRESIDENT BUSH DOES NOT MENTION KATRINA ONCE IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS [Bush, 1/31/06]

FEBRUARY1st — GOVERNMENT AUDITORS “LAMBAST” SECRETARY CHERTOFF’S RESPONSE TO KATRINA: Congressional investigators on Wednesday lambasted the U.S. government for its response to Hurricane Katrina, saying a lack of a clear chain of command hindered relief efforts and that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff or another top official should have been the point person on relief efforts. [CBS News, 2/1/06]

10th — MICHAEL BROWN TESTIFIES: Brown called “a little disingenuous” and “just baloney” assertions by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other top administration officials that they were unaware of the severity of the catastrophe for a day after Katrina struck on Aug. 29. [New York Times, 2/11/06]

13th — GAO REPORT CONCLUDES THAT FEMA’S DISASTER AID PROGRAM IS RIDDLED WITH FRAUD [USA Today, 2/13/06]

13th — HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY MICHAEL CHERTOFF ANNOUNCES REFORMS FOR FEMA [CS Monitor, 2/14/06]

15th — BUSH, SENIOR ADMINISTRATION LEADERS SINGLED OUT IN “BLISTERING” HOUSE REPORT ON KATRINA: The House of Representatives releases a 600-page report that further criticizes the White House’s response. [The report] lays primary fault with the passive reaction and misjudgments of top Bush aides, singling out Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Operations Center and the White House Homeland Security Council. [Washington Post, 2/12/06]

23rd — WHITE HOUSE ISSUES OWN “LESS SCATHING” REPORT [ABC, 2/23/06]

27th — ONLY ONE-THIRD OF KATRINA CHARITY DONATIONS REMAIN [Washington Post, 2/27/06]

28th — MARDI GRAS FINDS A QUIET NEW ORLEANS: “The lack of revelry reflects the lack of people — New Orleans’s black middle class is gone.” [Washington Post, 2/25/06]

MARCH 1st — TAPES SHOWING BUSH BEING WARNED OF A POTENTIAL BREACH IN THE LEVEES ARE RELEASED [Washington Post, 3/1/06]

2nd — UNCERTAINTY STILL REIGNS IN NEW ORLEANS: “Now six months since Katrina made landfall, New Orleans remains primarily in a gut and wait mode. Homeowners have gutted their houses, but are waiting to invest in their homes until they receive greater signs of certainty.” [Brookings, 3/2/06]

5th — CONSERVATIVE CRITICIZES RESPONSE TO KATRINA: Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol said that Bush’s handling of the disaster had become “an emblem of the administration that just isn’t as serious about the competent execution of the functions of government as it should be.” [Fox News Sunday, 3/5/06]

8th — TIM McGRAW AND FAITH HILL, NATIVES OF LOUISIANA, CALL RECOVERY EFFORTS “HUMILIATING”: McGraw specifically criticized President Bush. “There’s no reason why someone can’t go down there who’s supposed to be the leader of the free world … and say, ‘I’m giving you a job to do and I’m not leaving here until it’s done. And you’re held accountable, and you’re held accountable, and you’re held accountable.’” [ABC, 3/8/06]

15th — A STUDY FINDS THAT THE WHITE HOUSE HAS REJECTED HURRICANE DISASTER-RECOVERY LOANS AT A HIGHER RATE THAN ANY OTHER ADMINISTRATION IN THE LAST 15 YEARS [USA Today, 3/15/06]

19th — THE BROADEST COUNSELING PROGRAM EVER GETS UNDERWAY: An estimated 500,000 people need some form of mental health service, but “even people trained to offer solace break down easily and often.” [Baltimore Sun, 3/20/06]

21st — THE LARGEST CHILD-RECOVERY EFFORT IN U.S. HISTORY ENDS: Six months after Katrina, 5,192 children are reunited with their family members. [USA Today, 3/21/06]

30th — BUSH ADMINISTRATION MISCALCULATES COST OF REBUILDING LEVEES: “The Bush administration said yesterday that the cost of rebuilding New Orleans’s levees to federal standards has nearly tripled to $10 billion and that there may not be enough money to fully protect the entire region.” [Washington Post, 3/31/06]

APRIL 4th — MARY LANDRIEU (D-LA) THREATENS TO PLACE HOLDS ON THE PRESIDENT’S NOMINEES: “Mr. President, the piecemeal approach that has marked your administration’s response to providing adequate levee and flood protection for Louisiana has not worked,” Landrieu wrote. “It needs to be replaced by a comprehensive approach that is both more effective and cost-efficient.” [The Hill, 4/5/06]

6th — BUSH NOMINATES R. DAVID PAULISON TO HEAD FEMA: Seven other candidates turned down the post. [CBS News, 4/6/06]

12th — THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION ISSUES LONG-AWAITED CONSTRUCTION GUIDELINES FOR KATRINA-AFFECTED REGIONS [WP, 4/13/06]

14th — THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY FAULTS ITSELF: “After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, [Homeland Security’s] prevention and preparedness for terrorism have overshadowed that for natural hazards, both in perception and in application,” the report reads. [CBS News, 4/14/06]

17th — “KATRINA KIDS” SING FOR LAURA BUSH: Today at the White House Easter Egg Roll, dozens of children “from the stricken Gulf Coast region serenaded First Lady Laura Bush with a song praising the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency.” To the tune of “Hey Look Me Over,” the kids from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama sang:
“Our country’s stood beside us
People have sent us aid.
Katrina could not stop us, our hopes will never fade.
Congress, Bush and FEMA
People across our land
Together have come to rebuild us and we join them hand-in-hand!” [ThinkProgress, 4/17/06]

24th — HOUSING SECRETARY SAYS ONLY THE “BEST RESIDENTS” SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO RETURN TO HOUSING COMPLEX: Alphonso Jackson added: “I don’t care what color they are, if they are devastating a community, they shouldn’t be allowed to return.” [USA TODAY, 4/25/06]

25th — BUSH ASKS CONGRESS FOR ADDITIONAL $2.2 BILLION TO REPAIR LEVEES: The move comes after the government announced it had initially underestimated the amount needed to repair New Orleans’ damaged levees. Bush, however, said that this request should come out of FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund. [Bush, 4/25/06]

27th — SENATE RELEASES 800-PAGE REPORT: The only national bipartisan inquiry in the country faults the Administration for “bungling the storm response by neglecting warnings, failing to grasp Katrina’s destructiveness, doing too little or taking the wrong steps before the Aug. 29 landfall.” [hsgac.senate.gov, 4/27/06]

27th — BUSH MAKES 11TH TRIP TO DAMAGED GULF COAST SINCE KATRINA LANDED: “If you are interested in helping the victims of Katrina, interested in helping them get back on their feet, come on down here.” [Washington Post, 4/28/06]

MAY 2nd — FEMA CLOSES ITS LONG-TERM RECOVERY OFFICE IN NEW ORLEANS [AP, 5/2/06]

8th — 7.2 MILLION TONS OF DEBRIS YET TO BE REMOVED AS LANDFILL DEBATE RAGES [New York Times, 5/8/06]

10th — LOUISIANA LAWMAKERS APPROVE $7.5 BILLION AID PROGRAM FOR HOMEOWNERS [Boston Globe, 5/10/06]

18th — DEATH TOLL OF LOUISIANA REACHES 1,577: “A continuing rise in reports of out-of-state deaths” has increased Louisiana’s official Katrina toll by 22 percent. [The Times-Picayune, 5/19/06]

20th — NEW ORLEANS MAYOR RAY NAGIN IS REELECTED [ABC, 5/20/06]

JUNE1st — FEMA CLOSES THE LAST FOUR CAMPS THAT HOUSE AND FEED RECOVERY VOLUNTEERS [The Times-Picayune, 5/31/06]

5th — THE FIRST CRIMINAL TRIALS SINCE KATRINA OPEN [Fox News, 6/6/06]

15th — PRESIDENT BUSH SIGNS ADDITIONAL SPENDING OF $19.4 BILLION FOR KATRINA RELIEF: $4.2 billion goes towards housing. The package brings the total allocated by the federal government for recovery efforts to around $107 billion. [Brookings, 7/1/06]

16th — DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SAYS THAT NEW ORLEANS IS NOT PREPARED FOR ANOTHER DISASTER [DHS, 6/16/06]

19th — NEW ORLEANS CONVENTION CENTER REOPENS [mccno.com, 6/20/06]

26th — $2 BILLION IN TAX DOLLARS FOR RELIEF LOST TO WASTE AND FRAUD: “The estimate of up to $2 billion in fraud and waste represents nearly 11 percent of the $19 billion spent by FEMA on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as of mid-June, or about 6 percent of total money that has been obligated.” [New York Times, 6/26/06]

JULY 3rd — SEXUAL ASSAULTS AMONG KATRINA EVACUEES CLIMB ALARMINGLY: “We have families doubling and tripling up in substandard housing, families living with extended family members they wouldn’t normally choose to live with,” said Alisa Klein, a public health and violence prevention specialist with the nonprofit National Sexual Violence Resource Center in Harrisburg, Pa. “We’re seeing this increased vulnerability to sexual violence…” [Women eNews, 7/3/06]

11th — DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT APPROVES $4.2 BILLION FOR LOUISIANA’S REBUILDING PROGRAM [USA Today, 7/11/06]

21st — NEW ORLEANS RESIDENTS FACE HIGHER ELECTRICITY PRICES AMID BLACKOUTS: “Ten months after Hurricane Katrina, the city still does not have a reliable electrical system. Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of repairs are still needed on a system devastated by flooding, the local utility is in bankruptcy and less than half the system’s prestorm customers have returned.” [New York Times, 7/22/06]

26th — MAYOR RAY NAGIN OUTLINES 100-DAY PLAN TO REBUILD NEW ORLEANS [BayouBuzz.com, 7/26/06]

28th — U.N. CRITICIZES THE U.S. FOR FAILING TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF THE POOR: A panel of 18 UN poverty experts said it was concerned that the poor, especially African-Americans, “were disadvantaged by the rescue and evacuation plans implemented when Hurricane Katrina hit the United States of America.” [Mississippi Sun Herald, 7/28/06]

AUGUST 3rd — GRAND JURY INVESTIGATION OF NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPTARTMENT IS LAUNCHED: Law enforcement officials from Gretna prevented the evacuees, most of them black, from crossing a Mississippi River bridge into the predominantly white suburb. [Los Angeles Times, 8/4/06]

7th — FIRST WAVE OF NEW ORLEANS SCHOOLS OPEN: Eight new public schools open giving 4,000 students an early start on the school year. [CNN, 8/7/06]

8th — NEW ORLEANS STILL NOT BACK ON TRACK: One year after Katrina, New Orleans is showing signs of early rebirth…but the majority of indicators are troubling, pointing to much-needed progress in basic city services, infrastructure, and affordable housing for workers in order to boost market confidence and move the region’s economy affirmatively forward. [Brookings, 8/06]