Archive for September 21st, 2005


Cindy Sheehan in D.C. for Sept. 24 anti-war rally

Bob Morris @ Sep 21st 2005 18:47 - Category: Unfiled ;

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan pledged Wednesday to “force change to happen” during protest speeches outside the White House and Capitol.

Sheehan arrived in Washington after a three-week cross-country bus tour
that began near President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. She is
expected to participate in an anti-Iraq war rally Saturday that
organizers hope could draw tens of thousands of people.

Sept. 25 antiwar rallies
D.C. at the White House
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Seattle

No Comments »

Ron Kovic endorses Sept. 24

Bob Morris @ Sep 21st 2005 18:45 - Category: Unfiled ;

This is to express
my enthusiastic support for the Sept. 24 demonstrations to End the War
in Iraq and the ANSWER Coalition. This demonstration represents an
important turning point in the struggle against this war. For the first
time, many citizens who have not until now joined in the struggle to
stop the war are joining people of all races and classes, veterans,
military families, clergy and everyday Americans to speak out and join
this dynamic and expanding movement. The recent hurricane disaster in
New Orleans underscores the urgent need for all of us to join together
to strongly oppose the direction this government is now going in, and
to demand funds and resources for our fellow citizens here at home.

On September 24, as a Vietnam veteran who knows all too well the
horrors of war, I plan to join with hundreds of thousands in
Washington, DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles and around the world to
demand an end to the war in Iraq, and that the Bush administration
immediately bring our troops home to their families and communities. I
hope everyone will join us in this important movement for peace.
 
Ron Kovic, Vietnam war veteran, and author,
“Born on the Fourth of July”

No Comments »

Freeway banner drop. Hollywood, Sept. 20

Bob Morris @ Sep 21st 2005 18:44 - Category: Unfiled ;

No Comments »

North Korea and nuclear power

Bob Morris @ Sep 21st 2005 18:42 - Category: Unfiled ;

North Korea is simply asking the US to honor the agreement made in ‘94
to build a light water plant there to produce power. The US said they
would, yet since then has reneged on the deal. Amid all the blather
about North Korea being warlike (a laughable charge coming as it is
from the most bellicose country on the planet) this would seem a
crucial fact, yet it’s barely mentioned in mainstream media.

The war between the U.S. and North Korea was averted when the two sides signed the 1994 Framework Agreement.
The U.S. was accusing the DPRK of developing nuclear weapons at its
only nuclear energy plant at Yongbyon. The plant was vital to the
DPRK’s plan to create indigenous energy reserves to substitute for the
loss of trade with the Soviet Union.

Under the Framework Agreement, the DPRK agreed to halt nuclear energy
production at Yongbyon in exchange for heavy oil shipments. And the
U.S. pledged to construct two light water reactor power plants in North
Korea. These reactors do not produce enriched plutonium that could be
used in the production of nuclear weapons.

Construction of the light water reactors was scheduled to be completed in 2003.

The U.S had stalled on building the much-needed power plants for years.
Now, under Bush, it cancelled the construction altogether.

No Comments »

Rita hits Category Five

Bob Morris @ Sep 21st 2005 18:41 - Category: Unfiled ;

National Hurricane Center Miami Fl
255 PM CDT Wed Sep 21 2005

Data from
reconnaissance aircraft indicate that Rita has reached Category Five
intensity with estimated maximum sustained surface winds of 165 mph.

For those of you with XML/RSS readers, here’s the NOAA feed for Rita.

Also, the Houston Chronicle has a Rita blog. (The website for the Galveston County Daily News is already melting down under the gigantic pounding its servers are taking.)

Update:

The
NOAA hurricane hunters found a central pressure of 934 mb at 11:17 am,
and the Air Force hurricane hunters found a central pressure of 923 mb
at 1:02pm. This incredible drop of 11 mb in 105 minutes is the fastest
pressure fall I can ever recall seeing in a hurricane.

Update 2

416 PM CDT
Rita becomes the fifth most intense hurricane on record…
Central pressure has fallen to 904 MB

And still growing.

5:00 PM PDT. NPR is reporting Rita is now the third biggest ever, bigger than Katrina.

No Comments »

Madness

Bob Morris @ Sep 21st 2005 18:38 - Category: Unfiled ;

Undercover Brit soldiers killed two Iraqis in a gunfight, they get
arrested and jailed by Iraqis, then the British Army breaks them out
using tanks. Things are falling into the abyss there, aren’t they?

Undercover UK soldiers arrested after Basra gunfight

Violence boiled
over in Basra today when two British soldiers were arrested by Iraqi
authorities after a lethal exchange of gunfire with Iraqi police.

British soldiers free two from Iraq jail

British armored
vehicles broke down the walls of the central jail in this southern city
Monday and freed two British soldiers, allegedly undercover commandos
arrested for shooting two Iraqi policemen.

British “undercover soldiers” caught driving booby trapped car
“They refused to say what their mission was.”

A report of Al
Jazeera TV, which preceeded the raid on the prison, suggests that the
British undercover soldiers were driving a booby trapped car loaded
with ammunition. The Al Jazeera report (see below) also suggests that
the riots directed against British military presence were motivated
because the British undercover soldiers were planning to explode the
booby trapped car in the centre of Basra:.

No Comments »

E.P.A. struggles to determine extent of hazards in sludge

Bob Morris @ Sep 21st 2005 18:36 - Category: Unfiled ;


The magnitude and geographic sweep of
the pollution left by Hurricane Katrina is so enormous that the
Environmental Protection Agency is struggling to determine what the
worst hazards are, where they are and what can be done about them.

Perhaps they need to struggle a teensy bit harder, y’know, before
thousands die over the next few years from the results of this very
same toxic sludge.

Scientists
who have studied other floods say that receding waters leave mud,
sometimes contaminated with toxic chemicals, on streets and mold on
walls. When dry, each can become airborne.

Solutions, EPA, we need solutions for, not explanations of, what will
be happening. Black mold, as just one example, is highly toxic if
inhaled. How is EPA mitigating this serious health hazard? Talk is
cheap, action is needed.

No Comments »

Vatican shielding Croatian war criminal from UN prosecution

Bob Morris @ Sep 21st 2005 18:35 - Category: Unfiled ;

Pope Benedict XVI is apparently shielding a Croatian war criminal
from capture and prosecution for war crimes committed during the
Bosnian war. The Vatican claims that it has no international
obligations to help the UN hunt war criminals, and even though the UN’s
Chief Prosecutor knows roughly where General Ante Gotovina is holed up
in Croatia, the Vatican says they have “no direct authority over
individual bishops” who may know where Gotovina is.

Really? The Vatican has no authority over individual bishops? That sure
isn’t the party line when it comes to abortion and politics, is it?

The
church has fallen so far down in my estimation that, for me as a
lifelong Catholic, it is almost impossible to respect this Pope or the
church when you read stuff like this.

No Comments »

Radio UserLand had a serious hiccup

Bob Morris @ Sep 21st 2005 18:34 - Category: Unfiled ;

I updated a code segment in this blog software, Radio UserLand. It
updated the code, then  crashed. It refused to load, even after a
reboot.

Arrghh. I’m seriously thinking of moving to WordPress. Radio has great features, but sometimes it gets really contrary.

So, all posts from Tuesday-Wednesday are gone, and I’ll republish the major ones.

Yes, I had a backup. That’s why you’re reading this!

No Comments »