May Contest Winner

I’m a day late…and more than a dollar short. Apologies!

The May contest was “How High Will It Go?“

The highest price of fuel was……$3.119 per gallon
The only entry was “cnile” who guessed $3.97/gallon.

Since cnile was the only person to enter the contest, he/she will still get a very pretty postcard mailed to him/her.

Email me at: the_pa_lady131 AT yahoo DOT com with your address, and I’ll put that in the mail to you. (I promise and vow on the heads of my children that I will not sell or give away your address and true identity ever – not even if I’m threatened with torture or offered bribes of chocolate. )

As soon as I can think of something fun, I’ll post another contest.

NYC: FU Chertoff

I would suggest that Michael Chertoff avoid going to New York City any time in the future without a very large and very well-armed Secret Service detail. 

 

I'm sure someone at the Department of Homeland inSecurity is up for a promotion and a Medal of Freedom after writing a report that claims New York City has zero national monuments or icons, which caused the anti-terrorism budget to be slashed by 40%.

From ABC News' The Blotter: [emphasis mine]

New York has no national monuments or icons, according to the Department of Homeland Security form obtained by ABC News.  That was a key factor used to determine that New York City should have its anti-terror funds slashed by 40 percent–from $207.5 million in 2005 to $124.4 million in 2006. "All I can tell you is if you look at their worksheets, and it says that New York City doesn't have any high visibility national icons … I mean, I don't have to list the Brooklyn Bridge, the United Nations, Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building and the Stock Exchange," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in response to ABC News' questions. 

[snip]

The form ignored that New York City is the capital of the world financial markets and merely stated the city had four significant bank assets.

Not that New York is a target or anything….

Zero national monuments or icons?! Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ!!

From the New York Daily News: [emphasis mine]

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff determined, however, that cities that have never been targeted by Al Qaeda — like Louisville, Atlanta and Omaha — deserve whopping increases. "This is a knife in the back," fumed a furious Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "As far as I'm concerned, the Department of Homeland Security has declared war on New York." Mayor Bloomberg ridiculed Homeland Security's reasoning. "When you stop a terrorist, they have a map of New York City in their pocket. They don't have a map of any of the other 46 places or 45 places [that get funding]," he fumed.

[snip]

The fire chief of Charlotte, N.C., admits his city doesn't have any national monuments in danger of being bombed. And a spokesman for Omaha is "not aware" of a single credible threat against his municipality since 9/11.

Yet these cities are among 15 that received an increase in homeland security funding this year, while New York City's allotment was slashed. Most of the lucky localities are using their windfall to buy equipment, beef up training or create emergency response plans. In Louisville, Ky., for instance, the money will go toward creating a new communication system for first responders to a disaster. A spokeswoman drew on the failure of FDNY radios in the World Trade Center attack on 9/11 — even though the tallest building in Louisville tops out at 35 stories.

From Yahoo News:

Others, including Rep. Vito Fossella, … R-Staten Island, say Washington-New York relations were deteriorating steadily well before the funding cut, particularly after the disagreement about the seriousness of the stroller bomb warning.

"Chertoff has done a lot of damage when you think about the fact that his job exists because of Sept. 11 and a giant hole in Manhattan," said Fossella. "They need to immediately transform their responsibilities or pack up and go home."

Once again, the incompetence of the Bush mis-administration is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, but wait, there's more!

Washington, DC – our nation's capitol and scene of a terrorist attack on 9/11; home to the United States Government; 'hub of democracy' (though not lately…) – is also seeing it's anti-terrorism budget cut. 

From the Washington Post: [emphasis mine]

The Department of Homeland Security yesterday slashed anti-terrorism money for Washington and New York, part of an immediately controversial decision to reduce grant funds for major urban areas in the Northeast while providing more to mid-size cities from Jacksonville to Sacramento.

The announcement that the two cities targeted on Sept. 11, 2001, would suffer 40 percent reductions in urban security funds prompted outrage from lawmakers and local officials in both areas, who questioned the wisdom of cutting funds so deeply for cities widely recognized as prime terrorist targets. The decision came less than five months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff unveiled changes in the grants plan intended to focus funding on areas facing the gravest risk of attack.

Heckova job Chertie! 

Friday Anti-War Song

Photos of the murdered children of Haditha. Correction: These photos are from Ishaqi, where 11 people were killed in mid-March, five of them children.

RawStory is carrying the story now, and the US military is saying these deaths fall "within the rules of military engagement," according to ABC News, despite the fact that – at the time – the military reported FOUR people killed when troops destroyed a house while going after a "high value target they succeeded in apprehending."

Photos from A Citizen of Mosul – who posted them on his blog on March 16th.

Caution! The Raw Story link and other posts on Truth teller's site contain the same extremely graphic and disturbing photos, including close-ups of bullet wound(s) inflicted on an infant.

*

HOW LONG
by Jackson Browne

When you look into a child's face
And you're seeing the human race|
And the endless possibilities there
Where so much can come true
And you think of the beautiful things
A child can do
How long — would the child survive
How long — if it was up to you

When you think about the money spent
On defense by a government
And the weapons of destruction we've built
We're so sure that we need
And you think of the millions and millions
That money could feed
How long — can you hear someone crying
How long — can you hear someone dying
Before you ask yourself why?

 

And how long will we hear people speaking
About missiles for peace
And just let it go by
How long will they tell us these weapons
Are keeping us free
That's a lie
If you saw it from a satellite
With its green and its blue and white
The beauty of the curve of the earth
And its oceans below
You might think it was paradise
If you didn't know
You might think that it's turning
But it's turning so slow

 

How long — can you hear someone crying
How long — can you hear someone dying
Before you ask yourself why?
And how long will it be 'till we've turned
To the tasks and the skills
That we'll have to have learned
If we're going to find our place in the future
And have something to offer
Where this planet's concerned
How long?

Lies and 9/11

Is anyone surprised to discover that the EPA – on George Bush's watch – lied to emergency personnel and volunteers about the health risks of working in the rubble of the World Trade Center? Is anyone surprise to discover, nearly five years later, that at least seven deaths have been reported, and thousands have been diagnosed with serious and life-threatening health problems?

From Newsweek:

Only one responder’s death—that of New York City police detective James Zadroga, who succumbed to respiratory failure in January—has been directly linked by a medical examiner to his exposure to environmental toxins at Ground Zero. But at least six other deaths (from causes ranging from heart failure to lung cancer) have been reported among responders in their 30s and 40s who worked at the World Trade Center site. And thousands more are struggling with health problems far worse than officials initially anticipated. “People think that it’s just a few guys from 9/11 suffering,” says Feal, “but there are literally thousands of us.”

It’s too early to know with certainty how many deaths may result from the toxic cocktail of asbestos, mercury, silica, fiberglass and other potentially hazardous materials released when the twin towers collapsed. Nor is it possible to say with certainty which of their health problems are related their work in the rubble of the trade center. But it’s clear that many of the estimated 40,000 police, firefighters and other workers who came to the site to assist in rescue and recovery efforts have begun suffering from similar and sometimes serious ailments during the past four and a half years. “You can’t witness and be exposed to what these people were exposed to without it taking a toll,” says Dr. Stephen M. Levin, codirector of the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. “To listen to how life has become for some patients, it’s absolutely horrifying.”

[snip] 

More than 10,700 Worker Compensation claims have been filed in New York, and nearly 94 percent have been “fully resolved,” according to Jon A. Sullivan, spokesman for the New York State Workers' Compensation Board.

But some ailing workers complain that their claims have been disputed or delayed for months—or even years. Industrial cleaner Alex Sanchez, 38, spent several days at Ground Zero clearing dust from the airshafts and indoor surfaces of the buildings around the World Trade Center site with just a washcloth or paper mask over his face. (Newman, from NYCOSH, says no more than 60 percent of workers at Ground Zero wore respirators on any given day and, on some days, just 20 percent wore them—in part, perhaps, because the Environmental Protection Agency issued a statement that the air was safe to breathe a week after the attacks, an assurance that later proved to have been dangerously premature.)

[snip] 

Several thousand other responders who’ve developed health problems since 9/11 have also turned to the courts. “Every day, people come into my office who have trouble breathing,” says attorney David Worby, who has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of more than 8,000 workers at Ground Zero against several defendants, including the city of New York, the Port Authority, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and contractors with workers at the site.

“If we don’t get these people the help and treatment they need now, more of them may die than died on 9/11,” says Worby, who categorizes about 1,000 of his clients as “severely ill.”

Will the government create another fund for responders who didn't qualify for the Victim Compensation Fund? So far, it’s given no indication it will do so. But, as Mount Sinai’s Levin points out, billions of dollars in aid were recommended for recovery efforts after the attacks. “Out of such a vast amount of money, wouldn’t it be possible to set some aside to take care of this group of responders?” he asks. “I can’t see how any rational social policy can say it’s OK for these guys to suffer.”

Rational social policy wouldn't allow them to suffer, but as we all know: Under King George, there is no such thing as "rational policy".