Robert Bennett was CLINTON'S lawyer during several of his sexual harrassment lawsuits and the Monica fiasco. Yes, he is a real Republican partisan. Sheesh.
Women were Being Raped, Babies were Being Killed, Alligators were Eating People, But Where the Hell was the National Guard? How We Survived the Flood By CHARMAINE NEVILLE
This is a transcription of an interview Charmaine Neville, of New Orleans's legendary Neville family, gave to local media outlets on Monday, September 5.
I was in my house when everything first started. When the hurricane came, it blew all the left side of my house off, and the water was coming in my house in torrents.
I had my neighbor, an elderly man, and myself, in the house with our dogs and cats, and we were trying to stay out of the water. But the water was coming in too fast. So we ended up having to leave the house.
We left the house and we went up on the roof of a school. I took a crowbar and I burst the door on the roof of the school to help people on the roof.
Later on we found a flat boat, and we went around the neighborhood in a flat boat getting people out of their houses and bringing them to the school.
We found all the food that we could and we cooked and we fed people. But then, things started getting really bad.
By the second day, the people that were there, that we were feeding and everything, we had no more food and no water. We had nothing, and other people were coming in our neighborhood. We were watching the helicopters going across the bridge and airlift other people out, but they would hover over us and tell us Hi! and that would be all. They wouldn't drop us any food or any water, or nothing.
Alligators were eating people. They had all kinds of stuff in the water. They had babies floating in the water.
We had to walk over hundreds of bodies of dead people. People that we tried to save from the hospices, from the hospitals and from the old-folks homes. I tried to get the police to help us, but I realized they were in the same straits we were. We rescued a lot of police officers in the flat boat from the 5th district police station. The guy who was in the boat, he rescued a lot of them and brought them to different places so they could be saved.
We understood that the police couldn't help us, but we couldn't understand why the National Guard and them couldn't help us, because we kept seeing them but they never would stop and help us.
Finally it got to be too much, I just took all of the people that I could. I had two old women in wheelchairs with no legs, that I rowed them from down there in that nightmare to the French Quarters, and I went back and got more people.
There were groups of us, there were about 24 of us, and we kept going back and forth and rescuing whoever we could get and bringing them to the French Quarter because we heard that there were phones in the French Quarter, and that there wasn't any water. And they were right, there were phones, but we couldn't get through to anyone.
I found some police officers. I told them that a lot of us women had been raped down there by guys, not from the neighborhood where we were, they were helping us to save people. But other men, and they came and they started raping women and they started killing, and I don't know who these people were. I'm not gonna tell you I know, because I don't.
But what I want people to understand is that, if we hadn't been left down there like the animals that they were treating us like, all of those things wouldn't have happened. People are trying to say that we stayed in that city because we wanted to be rioting and we wanted to do this and, we didn't have resources to get out, we had no way to leave.
When they gave the evacuation order, if we could've left, we would have left.
There are still thousands and thousands of people trapped in their homes in the downtown area. When we finally did get into the 9th ward, and not just in my neighborhood, but in other neighborhoods in the 9th ward, there were a lot of people still trapped down there... old people, young people, babies, pregnant women. I mean, nobody's helping them.
And I want people to realize that we did not stay in the city so we could steal and loot and commit crimes. A lot of those young men lost their minds because the helicopters would fly over us and they wouldn't stop. We would make SOS on the flashlights, we'd do everything, and it really did come to a point, where these young men were so frustrated that they did start shooting. They weren't trying to hit the helicopters, they figured maybe they weren't seeing. Maybe if they hear this gunfire they will stop then. But that didn't help us. Nothing like that helped us.
Finally, I got to Canal St. with all of my people I had saved from back there.
I don't want them arresting nobody else. I broke the window in an RTA bus. I never learned how to drive a bus in my life. I got in that bus. I loaded all of those people in wheelchairs and in everything else into that bus, and we drove and we drove and we drove and millions of people was trying to get me to help them to get on the bus, too.
Charmaine Neville is a member of the third generation of New Orleans's legendary Neville musical family. She fronts the Charmaine Neville Band.
on talking about the war in Iraq, per se, but more about the war on terror.
Does this mean he's targeted another country to "spread freedom" to? With 74% of the American public thinking Iraq was a mistake, I'd LOVE to see him try to sell another war to this Congress, after all his lies the first time.
Having 9/11 being an inside job is only a notch or two lower than using that tragedy to promote his own personal war against Iraq, so I don't think it would surprise me.
I don't know if I can stomach watching him or not, so I haven't decided yet.
Such bad, bad taste! Such a disrespectful man! (I forget...what are the other names he's been called by his honor-challenged haters?)
Dinner Honoring McCain to Be Hosted by Obama
Saturday, January 10, 2009; 2:30 PM
President-elect Barack Obama will host a dinner honoring Sen. John McCain, the Republican he tromped in the election, the night before his inauguration, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced yesterday, saying the gesture demonstrates Obama's "commitment to bridging the bipartisan divide."
The dinner will be one of a series that night: Gen. Colin Powell and Vice President-elect Joe Biden also will be feted.
"In these times of great challenge and great change, leadership requires rising above the same old narrow partisanship," Obama said on the PIC Web site. "Each of these distinguished Americans has spent his life in service to his country, at each and every moment placing the interests of America before issues of political party."
Congressional leaders from both parties will attend the dinners at the National Building Museum, Union Station and the Hilton Washington.
The first time, they rented a truck and tried to knock the towers down by detonating it in the underground parking garage.
When that failed, they regrouped, formed another plan, and meticulously set it in motion. Took years, but they accomplished their objectives, save for that heroic United flight.
The problem with Americans is that they have very short attention spans. They think if the war's not over in 2 or 3 years, it's 'old news' and they move on. If it's not on their TV screens every night, with flashing lights and music like an MTV video, they can't process the information. Out of sight, out of mind. Like the victims of 911 and the noble men and women fighting the war on terror. All forgotten, for the most part, by an impatient, clock-watching public.
Terrorists, on the other hand, know a little something about watching and waiting. In a religious war like they're fighting, time is measured in centuries.
So, I'm sorry, but your little theory just doesn't hold water, and was naive in the extreme.
The simple truth is that there has not been another attack on US soil since Bush has been in office.
Why don't you try to sound just a teensy bit thankful that your hide is safe, and not in a foxhole somewhere, or digging out of the rubble of a bombed-out apartment complex? A little dose of humility, and reality, goes a long way.
Disability is one thing...poor planning is another
I'm sorry for your situation, and I do believe people who cannot work due to a disability should have help. I'm not heartless. I'm really kind of stumped, because I thought employers and insurance companies could no longer deny/discriminate people a job and/or insurance because of pre-existing conditions. I know that you can't get disability insurance with pre-existing conditions, but again, it's my understanding that no one can be denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. My husband has diabetes and has changed jobs in the last five years and has gotten ins. with no problem.
The problem with most socialized medicine is that if you have a serious condition, say like cancer, at some point they quit treating you. This is what is happening in the U.K. as we speak. So, in a round about way that's being denied health care altogether. You have to then seek it out of pocket, and most of the time you have to leave your home country to pay for it out of pocket.
the right to free speech. Thanks to the moderator for straddling the fence and electing not to ban me. That said, I will not hide (change my name) and I will not go away. I will not allow those who are afraid of opposite opinion to stop me from posting mine. That is not the America I want to live in, and I think it is time that more of us stood up againt bullying tactics. I am standing.
In deference to those of you who would seek to silence me....I am an Independent and I will post independently. I will not reply directly to any of you, you can keep your threads all to yourselves. If I have a rebuttal I will post it separately. You are free to do as you have been doing without me entering your threads. That is me, reaching across the aisle.
I will also retract a statement I made yesterday. I was wrong to lump all Democrats into the same barrel. As Oldtimer so astutely pointed out, I fell into the same trap I accused others of, and in retrospect and after McCain's speech it became more clear to me. All Democrats/liberals/progressives are not of the same cloth as what I have experienced on this board. I apologize for that.
What I do not apologize for is being a conservative and having conservative values. Too many of us have been too quiet for too long. We sat down. We need to stand up with John and Sarah. There is nothing wrong with nor to be ashamed about in the way we feel and we are as much entitled to that as liberals are to liberalism. And part of that is tolerance. So, as a compromise....
Democrats/liberals, start your threads, and I will not encroach upon them. I would ask for the same respect from you as I post independently. There will be no need for you to open any of them or to spend half a page piling on. I will respect your threads. Kindly respect others.
As McCain said last night, we are all God's children (even if you don't claim Him, He claims you), we are all Americans. So let's allow both sides to present views, support their candidates, exercise our right to free speech, have diverging opinions. I would like to see the America back where I grew up, when the old fellas sat and played checkers in front of the library in town and bantered back and forth about politics, but it was good natured and they were still best of friends. I miss that. We need to stop belitting others for where they live or for their religion or the lack thereof. We need to stop attacking each other, period. A house divided against itself cannot stand. We do need to try to be one America again. No politician can rejoin us. That is a task we must do ourselves.
In a March 17th interview with The Hill, Specter said he absolutely would not switch parties:
"[Democrats] are trying very hard for the 60th vote. Got to give them credit for trying. But the answer is no.
I'm not going to discuss private talks I had with other people who may or may not be considered influential. But since those three people are in the public domain, I think it is appropriative to respond to those questions.
I am staying a Republican because I think I have an important role, a more important role, to play there. The United States very desperately needs a two-party system. That's the basis of politics in America. I'm afraid we are becoming a one-party system, with Republicans becoming just a regional party with so little representation of the northeast or in the middle atlantic. I think as a governmental matter, it is very important to have a check and balance. That's a very important principle in the operation of our government. It's in the Constitution on separation of powers."
Thanks for the civics lecture, Arlen. Apparently this is just another one of those "inconvenient truths" that got to be more than you could actually live with, eh buddy?
I supported Ron Paul too...but
Ron Paul is not in the race anymore. He was a good candidate and I was behind him 100%. Even he is in agreement with Barack on certain issues (no not all of them but some of them). And yes Hillary does need to step down. She will tear the party apart so much that we will be seeing a win for McBush. She has so much bad baggage attached to her that if she was to win the nomination McBush would win hands down over her. Yes everyone should be allowed to vote but we should also know that there will only be two candidates come election time. If anyone wants to write in someone else and not vote for McCain or Obama then its just a waste. If people think its going to make a difference it won't. Those votes will just go in the trash can.
For those who supported Ron Paul sm
Great article in the Rocky Mountain News.
Ron Paul has performed a great service for the Republican Party
By Jeff Wright
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Largely unappreciated and attacked by his own Party Congressman Ron Paul has, in fact, done a great service to the Republican Party this election season. Paul enlarged the Republican ‘tent’ to again include disaffected core Republicans, Independents and real Conservatives who have been forced outside that ‘tent’ in the last two decades.
Paul uses classic Republican language to defend that point of view which demands small-government, constitutionally-oriented, fiscally-responsible and true free-market adherents actually be recognized and accommodated, rather than just paying lip-service to those positions.
Most importantly, that message has motivated a generation of young people to join the Party who are technically savvy, constitutionally-smart and extremely enthusiastic about spreading the message of freedom, liberty and free markets. They have been inspired by a candidate who really understands and believes in a Republic and, one would think, be embraced by incumbent Republican Party members.
However that, it seems, is not the case. Too many existing Republicans do not understand the language of those positions any more and can’t speak it in public. It also seems the NeoCon members are intent on forcing out of the party the very people that represent its future. I urge my Republican brothers and sisters to reject such collectivist, herd mentality which is indicative of Democrats while being logically and historically repugnant to Republicans.
In the 1960s and 70s that same “insurgent” group within the party was represented by Goldwater/Ronald Reagan conservatives. For those of you who don’t remember, the “Reaganites” were ostracized and isolated throughout that period right up to the 1980 election, when they were fully embraced. That is why in March of 1980, even former President Gerald Ford was still quoted as saying, “.....the Man is unelectable,” seven months before Reagan was elected President. It is worth noting that Congressman Paul was one of only 4 Congressman who endorsed Reagan in 1976.
However, the Goldwater/Reaganites were never treated as badly as the Paulites have been this season. The NeoCon/establishment faction within the Party has diligently worked to eliminate all true vestiges of the real Reagan Revolution from the party, as exampled by their behavior this election season. They have but one thought: Power and control at any cost. Yet, the record shows they keep losing running against historic principles of the Party.
They are attempting to make stillborn the Paul movement. Why? Because we are strong supporters of the original values of the Party? My friends, we are being weakened further by the poor leadership of that NeoCon faction and its adherents. Check the record.
The results since 2004 have been abysmal. In Colorado, while having a 200,000-vote advantage of registered Republicans over Democrats, we have lost the State Senate and the House, the Governor’s mansion, the Treasurer’s seat and two Congressional seats.
Nationally, we already have lost the US House and Senate and it is nearly a foregone conclusion we will lose 25-30 more House seats and 6-9 Senate seats in November.
In early tests, we have already lost seats in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi. Seats that Republicans have held for decades. The damage is mounting. We are CONTINUING to lose Governor’s seats left and right. The Democrats are out-raising us in funding $3 and $4 to one (in Congress $6 to $1) as noted recently by Republican Congressional leaders. The leadership should be forced to explain where it is that we have a winning strategy in constantly compromising our historic principles rather than firmly re-establishing them each generation? That is what the Founders taught.
From McKinley to Taft to Goldwater to Reagan, this Party used to promote and celebrate the core Republican message and historical principles of the Party. That seems to be all but banished from the party, except to pay it lip service. The result of that banishment are, and will be, clearly evident in the election results this November and after. If establishment Republicans persist in ostracizing and obstructing every attempt for the classic Republican message to have a voice in the Party, than who are Republicans, really? I did not spend the last 33 years as a conservative to start voting for liberals. Please join me today in supporting and promoting what should be the real message of the Republican Party in 2008 and beyond. Send the message to the Party leadership that we no longer support any further erosion of this party’s principles! Don’t allow them to keep rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Regardless of whether or not you would ultimately have voted for Congressman Paul, every Republican should have respected the message. That was the Republican way for the first 140 years of this party. At this point, even if he wins, John McCain will likely be another Millard Fillmore presiding over the complete demise of the Whig Party from 1850-54.
Well, the pubs supported s/m
the Wall Street bailout didn't they? Haven't you heard about American Express? This is the most ridiculous thing this lousy government has ever done. Big business gets bailed out with our tax dollars and the "small businesses" that Bush says is providing all the new jobs, they either sink or swim on their own. This is just another way for politicians to feather the nexts of their big business buds. And what about that economic summit going on in Washington today? Could it be the creditors of the USA are here to call in their loans? It is absurd to bail out the auto industry. Do you think it's going to save jobs? Well, it won't. If they are going to get bailed out it should be with a stipulation that all their parts are AMERICAN made. THAT might save American jobs. They'll get the bailouts and their employees and the rest of the country will get SCREWED.
I loved and supported
my sister through surgery. It didn't mean we were married. You can love and support anyone. It doesn't make a marriage. A man and a woman who love and support each other and have sexual intercourse to try and conceive or not is what makes a marriage. It's a simple concept that has worked over the centuries and it will continue regardless of homo judges and whining, crying abnormal mental cases who are confused about their sexuality.
*Heckuvajob Brownie* starts disaster planning firm
Ex-FEMA Head Starts Disaster Planning Firm
Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.
If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses — because that goes straight to the bottom line — then I hope I can help the country in some way, Brown told the Rocky Mountain News for its Thursday editions.
Brown said officials need to take inventory of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.
In the aftermath of the hurricane, critics complained about Brown's lack of formal emergency management experience and e-mails that later surfaced showed him as out of touch with the extent of the devastation.
The lawyer admits that while he was head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency mistakes were made in the response to Katrina. He also said he had been planning to quit before the hurricane hit.
Hurricane Katrina showed how bad disasters can be, and there's an incredible need for individuals and businesses to understand how important preparedness is, he said.
Brown said companies already have expressed interested in his consulting business, Michael D. Brown LLC. He plans to run it from the Boulder area, where he lived before joining the Bush administration in 2001.
I'm doing a lot of good work with some great clients, Brown said. My wife, children and my grandchild still love me. My parents are still proud of me.
Since Proposition 8 passed, several legal challenges to Proposition 8 have already been filed in California courts, and more than 40 state legislators filed a friend-of-the-court briefs to support legal efforts to void Proposition 8. A series of protests have spread across California, and are sweeping the country, and now they've moved onto the Internet with blacklists that are outing those who gave money to get Proposition 8 passed.
Reminiscent of Christian boycotts against companies who supported gay rights, and the ever popular War on _____ boycotts, now gay right activists are calling for the same action. Several new websites have launched that list all the names and businesses of all the donors. Evidently those who made political donations to Prop8 did not realize that their contributions are a matter of public record... or that publishing those records is legal.
Arlen Specter supported it...
Makes me proud to be from PA...not. He needs to be beaten in the next election.
Although I am an Obama supported, John McCain ..sm
was the old John McCain, stupid supporters degrading Obama, and John saying, no, he is a patriotic American that only wants the best for our country, we just don't agree about what is best. Things were getting very dangerous I think, and I was happy to see him making an attempt to diffuse the situation.
Obama supported the bailout too didn't he?
I respect your right to vote for who you want to, but why is it whenever something negative is said about Obama it is rumor but whenever something negative is said about Mccain it is fact? Shouldn't it go both ways. I mean I'm not dumb, I know that a lot of the mudslinging on both sides is pure crap, but there is some truth to both sides.
I'm praying with you too, but I'm not praying for one candidate over another. I'm just praying that God will put the person HE wants in there and He will work in their heart to help them make the right decisions. But sometimes I fear we may have already pushed God out of our nation to much and we it may be time for the judgment on America, just like what happened to Israel.
No matter who wins, it's time to batten (right word?) down the hatches and start saving and probably start stocking up on canned food! We are in for a llloonnnggg winter!
I supported Obama at first too. Now I'd have to agree with Savage 100%.
x
She apparently had no hard feelings. She supported
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Yep, even McCain supported Hillary, that was nice. nm
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The posts on the conservative board were supported by videos. sm
These videos all showed US Soldiers discussing their views on the war. Much different than something you read in print. I would also like to say that the Military Times is NOT an armed forces newspaper. It is privately owned and does not in any way speak for the military. The generals are saying they will resign if we go into Iran.
I'm a woman, and supported Hillary 'til I heard Obama
I don't pick a candidate by their gender, their color, their name, their religion, or anything else. I pick a candidate by their intelligence, ability to lead, and one whom the rest of the world will be more likely to listen & relate to. After the last 4 years, I've watched big companies get TAX BREAKS and INCENTIVES for shipping our work overseas. I work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and I'm close to needing section-8 housing and food stamps because my pay won't get me much in this country, anymore. Ever notice that just about EVERYTHING you buy these days is made in China? Yet try and find those same products made in the USA. Impossible. So no, I want a candidate that I can look up to and be proud of, not one like Dubya, who's made me embarrased to be an American for the past 8 years.
An John McCain supported the secret sale of weapons...sm
to Iran during Iran/Contra to raise money to support the contras in Nicaragua (sp)when Congress refused to fund them. Talk about criminal activity. IRAN I am telling you, Iran! McCain thinks it is OK to keep you and I in the dark and take us from a democracy to a fascist nation for our "own good". Several republican presidents in my lifetime have been guilty of this. We do need fixing. I do not envy anyone who gets elected. I think I would run the other way. It is not going to be easy, but I have hope with Obama and do not trust John McCain.
And George supported bigger profits for bigger business and richer people, that was soooo much bette
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Being faithful to his family
You're kidding, right?
I saw a show on TLC about this family...
To each his own, especially if you're footing the bill yourself, but this family is just uplain creepy. The children are all homeschool and virtually isolated from any other children other than another family or two who share the same nutty religious convictions. They even have their OWN church at home. The girls all wear these horrid sad-sack Little House on the Prairie identical plaid potato sack dresses that look like they were made from discarded curtains and when asked their only aspirations are to have lots of children and to be a mother. The boys also dress identically in little Leave it to Beaver short-sleeved dress shirts. It's called Full Quiver parenting, as in having as many kids as you get before you get to menopause or your uterus falls out, whichever comes first. I find the whole thing rather odd, but who am I to judge I suppose.
Your family will be in my prayers. nm
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