US Soldiers show off Hillbilly Armor.

From the film “Gunner Palace” here’s a film clip showing what US soldiers think of their Hillbilly Armored Humvees.

QuickTime movie clip.

Link via Political Animal

Thrill to the soldier explaining how the “armor” they scrounged for their Humvee will allow the bullets to stop inside them rather than passing through.  Be regaled, as they are, rolling on the ground laughing at the absurdity of fighting a war with no protection. Betcha they just love Rumsfeld, huh?

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Protest Vigil to Bring the Troops Home!
This Saturday Dec. 18, 7 pm
Hollywood & Highland

Upcoming:

Counter-inaugural rally and march.
Jan. 20, 6 pm 
Westwood Federal Building
Part of protests in D.C. S.F, and Seattle

Global Day of Coordinated Actions
Los Angles March and Rally
Sat. March 19, 2005, Noon
Hollywood
On the 2nd Anniversary of the “Shock and Awe” Invasion of Iraq

Called by ANSWER LA

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Line the Inaugural Route on January 20
Be there by 9:00 am!

The Bush administration is planning to privatize Pennsylvania Avenue so that Corporate America and the ultra-right can line the route of march.  To succeed they must push antiwar demonstrators and all those defending civil rights and civil liberties off to the margins and try to scare people into silence.

7,000 Endorsers: “We’ll Line the Parade Route”

The Bush administration and the government are trying to prevent people from effectively accessing the inaugural route. Some groups have announced plans that also divert protestors from lining the front of the inaugural route. Agreeing to permits from the government for demonstrations at far off places in Washington DC effectively removes anyone who attends these actions from being able to line the inaugural route.

Why any group would meekly consent to having their “protest” miles away from the inaugural route is incomprehensible. The streets belong to the people, and protest is quite legal, including on the inaugural route. Protestors have a right to be there, even if we have to fight for it.

Some groups have advocated that people who do go the parade route should conform to the administration’s efforts to limit dissent by volunteering to be silent and carrying no signs.

This is not dissent, this is cowardice.

The ANSWER Coalition is fighting for inaugural route permits

On Monday, protest organizers from A.N.S.W.E.R. and their lawyers met with the National Park Service, which has been delaying meeting to discuss the permit requests. Despite the fact that A.N.S.W.E.R. applied nearly a year ago for areas along the inaugural route of Pennsylvania Avenue, law enforcement has stated that it will not yet tell the protest organizers whether and where they will grant inaugural route permits.

 Bush wants to allow his supporters and his corporate constituents to take ownership over Pennsylvania Avenue to conduct a stage-managed sanitized spectacle bestowing legitimacy on his lawless enterprise. To accomplish this he must find a way to banish dissent from the scene of the planned spectacle.

It is crucial that protestors be there so the world sees the dissent. The best way to do this is to be at the inaugural route before 9 am.

Continuing…

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Evict everyone including the blameless then bulldoze the buildings. That’s the plan for an apartment building in a high crime area.. No matter that some tenants are single moms with no gang involvement and no place to go. Toss ‘em out, then demolish the building.  And what miserable hellhole of a city is this happening in?

Los Angeles

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Counting San Diego’s disputed votes shows write-in candidate would have beaten the incumbent mayor, already sworn in.

The trend continues! Courts saying -  no need to count all those bothersome votes. Candidates like Kerry say the same thing! Heck, let’s all save lots of time and energy and not vote at all.

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Q. Are we facing a water shortage in California?

There’s definitely a shortage of cheap water. And some of these physical changes, like the cutback on the Colorado River, for example, have influenced the overall water supply.

And, if the climate experts are correct, we’re likely to have less available storage over time in the snow pack because of global warming. So those are real changes, physical changes in the system.

Now we’ve had a very substantial run-up in population in the last 20 years and very little increase in urban water use, so one of the big questions is whether that trend will continue.

Q: Why didn’t the consumption go up more?

One of the main ones is that industrial use of water is way down, largely because of water pollution control regulations. Companies have found it more economical to recycle their own water and to treat it before they dump it in water bodies or put it in a public treatment plant. The other reason is the significant investment in water-saving appliances, low-flush toilets and showerheads — particularly in Southern California.

Q: Are new technologies such as desalinization and water reclamation going to be part of the solution?

A: The technology’s completely available for desalinization, it’s just very expensive, even for reclamation. For urban water uses in certain settings, it’s potentially a good idea. But agriculture can’t even pay for conventional water projects, much less these high-tech new supplies. So for the great bulk of California’s water supply it’s not a solution.

Q: How does the overall water usage break down?

A: Statewide, roughly 70 percent is still used in irrigation for agriculture, maybe a little more than that, and 25 percent for all urban uses, commercial, industrial and residential.

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