A Christmas Wish That Won't Come True

While browsing through a yahoo search for material this week, a story caught my eye. Found in the pages of the Orlando Sentinel's online news articles, it put a face to the suffering still being experienced by the victims of Katrina and Rita, especially those in New Orleans.

Tammy Carter's mother and father lost their home in Katrina. Her father, now 70, is anxious to put his life and his family, back together and who can blame him. The American dream is that we work hard, we save to buy our own piece of the apple pie and then we retire and live out our golden years in relative comfort. Ms. Carter's father thought he had achieved that goal, and the the levees broke.

The disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi is more than local or state governments can handle. It is for times like these that FEMA was created, but FEMA and our federal government, has dropped the ball.

Pushed off the White House agenda, these people are being forgotten and are slipping, or being pushed, through numerous cracks. SBA has processed only about 33% of the requests for loans sent to them. Of those scant few that made it through the system, 82% have been DENIED. Now granted these are loans and need to be paid back but to put NO on it's feet again every possible benefit of doubt should be granted to those people who lost their homes and businesses.

I fear there an unspoken motives at work. New Orleans will be rebuilt but will it be rebuilt for all that fled or will it simply be redesigned to the advantage of the industry that has long wanted to claim land there?

This information came from a letter sent out by Senator Jay Rockefeller.

Congress has appropriated over 62 billion for the hurricane Katrina and Rita relief and recovery operations to date. Of this amount, 60 billion went to the disaster relief fund which enables FEMA to provide emergency food, shelter and medical care to areas stricken by the Hurricane and other disasters. However, more than 40 billion has yet to be allocated for any specific purpose and only 4.4 billion has been reported spent.

As of October 31, 2005, more than 200,000 people displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita remain in temporary housing. Earlier this year congress allocated nearly 81 million to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for housing assistance to displaced residents. To this day the total amount of reported expenditures from these funds remains nearly zero.

With over a half a million jobs lost as a result of these storms, fewer than 6% of the contracts issued by FEMA for recovery operations have been issued to businesses based in LA and MISS. Local workers,according to the Stafford act, are supposed to receive preferential treatment for government contracts whenever feasible.

So if the money has been allocated, where is the bottleneck? Why isn't much needed help reaching the victims of Katrina and Rita?

One thing that those of us still concerned that aide is not reaching NO can do is write our congressmen and spread the word that help not only is needed but that we believe America wants to offer. It does not make sense to me that we can spend half a trillion dollars on rebuilding Iraq and yet deny our own citizens who are victims.

Tammy Carter's father wants his life back, as do the other victims of Katrina and Rita. The federal government can either make way for these people to return or be up front and buy them out so that they can start life again elsewhere. American citizens should expect and receive timely aid from her government and not be forced to live in limbo.

To read Tammy Carter's article in the Orlando Sentinel click here:

A Christmas Wish Won't Come True

The Threat To America

In 1972 a scandal involving wire tapping and secret surveillance brought down the Nixon administration. It led to a president resigning in disgrace and seven indictments for the burglary of the Demoncratic Party National Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. Nixon was ultimately seen as a conniving politicians who showed one face to the public but had a darker, more sinister side that came out in political strategy sessions. Thanks to the effort of diligent reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, the scandal was exposed to the public and denounced by all facets of America.

But Nixon now looks like a piker compared to George Bush.

News revealed yesterday says that Bush signed a wavier allowing secret service to wiretap and intercept communications from any American without the need to show cause to a judge and receive approval from the courts.

My initial question is how can a president sign a wavier disallowing our constitutional rights? We are granted the right to be secure in our homes. Specifically, the 4th amendment says:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Certainly our private conversations and communications would fall under such a broad category. How can we be secure in our homes when big brother is listening in on everything we say and do?

Now certainly that's an overstatement. I would wager most of us have not been subjected to the scrutiny of the US government but if the possibility remains that our rights might be infringed on then our security is not only threatened but denied.

There are several ironies here. The first being that Bob Woodward, who was such a rebel during the Nixon years, has become an insider at the White House and reportedly is sympathetic to the president's decisions. Had anyone offered excuses for Nixon, Woodward would have been the first to repudiate them.

The president has overstepped his bounds. He has encroached upon the civil rights of every American. He desperately needs to learn that his first duty is not to "protect us" from outside attacks but to secure us from internal abuses by defending and upholding the constitution of the United States. That was his oath. That was his duty.

That being said, I fear few Americans will see the magnitude of his transgression. Too many people, still caught up in the idea that terrorism is bad and we are the ultimate good, will excuse the transgressions away with the thought that: "Well, our government wouldn't target anyone but the bad guys and why should they be protected?" They'll go with the baseless argument that anyone with nothing to hide shouldn't object. It will take months if not years for national outrage over this to grow. I hope I'm wrong but somehow I think I'm not.

This is the ultimate victory by the terrorists. Our constitution has been subverted. Our freedoms diminished. By attempting to "defend" against the physical attack we are changing, possibly forever, the face of our democratic republic.

I will say a prayer tonight that Americans will not accept this.

December 7th, 1941.....least we forget....

Reposted with permission from Cyberbilly

I rerun this post every year on December 7th, when we should pause and take a moment to remember those who gave their lives in the defense of freedom while serving aboard the USS West Virginia which went down atPearl Harbor.

There have been three US Navy ships to bear the name West Virginia. The first USS West Virginia ACR-5 was a Pennsylvania-class Armored Cruiserwhich was launched in 1903. This ship was later renamed the USS Huntington to free up the name West Virginia for the new Colorado-class ship. The third USS West Virginia (SSBN-736) is an Ohio-class ballistic missle submarine currently in service with the US Navy.

The second and probably best known USS West Virginia was the Super-Dreadnought (Colorado Class) Battleship BB-48. Her keel was laid at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock company in Norfolk,Virginia on 12 April 12 1920. She was christened on 19 November 1921,and commissioned on 1 December 1923. This ship was built at a cost of$11.5 million.

On the morning of 7 December 1941, the USS West Virginia was moored on the outboard side of the USS Tennessee along Battleship Row at the U.S.Naval Base at Pearl Harbor when combined elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Air Force launched a surprise attack. The USS WestVirginia was one several US Battleships to be heavily damaged in the attack.

She took two bomb hits; one to her superstructure and a second bomb further aft. The second bomb was a dud, but caused collateral damage to one of the ship's Vought OS2U Kingfisher Seaplanes; this caused gasoline spills to start a fire on her rear deck. But the worst damage came from aircraft-launched 18-inch torpedoes

Initial reports indicated 5 torpedo hits, but subsequent investigations showed that a total of 7 torpedoes had hit the USS West Virginia on her port side. It was only through the prompt action by Lieutenant ClaudeV. Ricketts, the assistant fire control officer who had some knowledge of damage control techniques, that saved the ship from the fate that befell USS Oklahoma (BB-37) moored ahead. By deliberately flooding certain compartments, Lt. Ricketts was able to allow the West Virginiato stay "balanced" and settle at the bottom of the harbor on an even keel. The USS Oklahoma also took torpedo hits that flooded the ship and caused her to capsize and overturn.
The West Virginia's commanding officer, Captain Mervyn S. Bennion, arrived on the bridge early in the battle, only to be struck down by a bomb fragment hurled in his direction when a Japanese 15 inch bomb hit the center gun in the Tennessee's Turret number 2, spraying that ship's superstructure and the West Virginia's with fragments. Bennion, hit in the abdomen, crumpled to the deck, mortally wounded, but clung tenaciously to life until just before the ship was abandoned, and stayed involved in the conduct of the ship's defenses up to the last moment of his life. Captain Bennion was posthumously awarded the Navy Medal of Honor.

Seaman First Class Dorie Miller, a cook (who was also the ship's heavyweight boxing champion) manned an antiaircraft battery when the regular gunner became wounded. Despite having no previous experience using such a weapon, Miller shot down at least one Japanese airplane,for which he was awarded a Navy Cross. On 24 November 1943, Miller was serving on the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) when it was hit by a single Japanese torpedo. The torpedo set off an explosion in the ship's store of aircraft munitions and she sank within minutes. Miller was one of 646 sailors who went down with her. On 30 June 1973, the Knox-class frigate USS Miller (FF-1091) was christened and named in Dorie Miller's honor.

The West Virginia, though battered, but not beaten, would live to fight another day. She was eventually patched and refloated on 17 May 1942, then towed to a drydock at Pearl. During the ensuing repairs, the bodies of 70 sailors were recovered from an airtight compartment below deck. A wall calendar in the compartment showed dates crossed off up until 23 December, leaving one to conclude that at least one of those sailors survived for 16 days before dying of suffocation.

In the summer of 1942, the USS West Virginia was able to cruise under her own power to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyards at Bremerton,Washington for full repairs and rebuilding. The tall lattice style Fire Control Towers were removed, and the ship was outfitted with a new lower-profile superstructure. Turret guns and anti-aircraft batteries were upgraded, and her hull was repainted with a "sea cammoflage" paint scheme of various shades of blue, white and gray, instead of the standard one-color battleship Haze Gray. This gave the West Virginia a completely new appearance from the one that sank at Pearl Harbor. Like the Phoenix, she had risen from the Ashes. And she was a leaner, meaner fighting machine.

The USS West Virginia was put back into service in July of 1944, and in October of that year, saw action in the battle of Leyte Gulf, the last major ship-to-ship sea battle of the War in the Pacific. On 25 October, she helped sink the Japanese Battleship Yamashiro, thus avenging her crippling at Pearl Harbor. In February of 1945, she dutifully performed shore bombardment chores during the invasion of Iwo Jima and witnessed the Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi. Late in March, the USS West Virginia was the victim of a Kamakaze attack. Four sailors died in the attack, but fortunately, the plane's bomb did not explode. She was repaired by Ship's Force and pressed on.

In early April of 1945, the Japanese attempted to strike at the American fleet in a last gasp offensive formed around the super-battleship Yamato. On the night of 7 April and into the morning of 8 April, the West Virginia steamed north and south in the waters west of Okinawa ready to intercept and engage the Japanese surface force headed her way. The next morning the Commander of Task Force 68 reported that most of the ships in that enemy force had been sunk including the Yamato, whose last sortie had been made with only enough fuel to get to Okinawa but not to return. Thus, the Japanese Navy's largest kamikaze perished many miles short of her objective.

On 10 August 1945, the West Virginia picked up a garbled report on radio that the Japanese government had agreed to surrender. The American ships soon commenced celebrating; the indiscriminate use of antiaircraft fire and pyrotechnics (not only from the naval vessels in the bay but from Marines and Army troops ashore) endangered friendly planes. Such celebrations, however, proved premature. On 12 August, the West Virginia sailors felt a heavy underwater explosion. Later, the battleship intercepted a radio dispatch from the USS Pennsylvania reporting that she had been torpedoed. West Virginia sent over a whaleboat on 13 August with pumps for the damaged Pennsylvania.

In early September, the USS West Virginia steamed into Tokyo Bay and was present on 20 September 1945, when the Japanese signed the formal surrender on board the USS Missouri, thus ending the War in the Pacific. This gave the West Virginia the unique distinction of being the only US warship to be present at both the beginning (PearlHarbor) and end (Tokyo Bay) of World War II.

In 1947, the "Wee Vee", as her crew called her, was decommissioned and placed in reserve. She never again saw action. In 1959, she was struck from the Navy's list and sold for scrap to the Union Minerals and Alloys Corp. of New York City in August of that year.

But some artifacts of the West Virginia live on. Her bell resides in the West Virginia State Museum in Charleston. Her mast, along with the bell of the USS West Virginia ACR-5, are on display in front of Oglebay Hall on the campus of West Virginia University.

Thus ended the story of one of the greatest battleships ever to sail for the United States' Navy. Even though she sat out through much of the War, the USS West Virginia never the less managed to earn five battlestars in service of her country.

-Cyberbilly

The Hypocracy Of Religious Fanatics

I am Catholic and have never attempted to hide that fact altho it doesn't come up in every day conversations. I am a failed human and am often not a good example of what a spiritual person should be.

I also understand that my puny mind can't possibly understand the higher being that I call God and accept that there may be different paths for different people. That's why I find beauty in many of the Wiccan beliefs as well as those of the Native peoples and so many more.

That being said.

Have you ever seen Trading Spouses? It's one of those programs where the Mom's switch places.

What happens when a religiously narrow minded zealot woman (I won't call her Mom because I'm not sure she earned that moniker) trades places with a new age spiritual mother that reads tarot cards, studies astrology and believes in the skills of the mind?

Well, after a week the zealot goes home and freaks out.

Watch this and tell me what you think.
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Trading-Spouses1.wmv
or http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Trading-Spouses1.mov (Quick time)