At least 80 are reported dead and twice as many wounded in suicide car bomb explosion near a gathering of laborers in Kadhimiya, a Shiite area of north-central Baghdad. About three hours later, another suicide car bomb targeted shoppers in… Read moreIraq: insurgents attack civilians, Syria in US crosshairs
Cindy Sheehan, the grieving military mother whose vigil outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, TX, focused the nation’s attention on the human cost of the Iraq war, will be arriving in Covington, LA, joining the ongoing national volunteer effort to… Read moreSheehan builds Camp Casey III on Gulf Coast
In a Sept. 13 update for the Village Voice, Sarah Ferguson reports that Houston mirco-radio activists have sidestepped FEMA bureaucracy to broadcast relief info to Katrina survivors: After a week of wading through FEMA red tape, media activists finally fired… Read moreDome City Radio goes live in Houston
Kristen Lombardi in the Village Voice Sept. 6 remembers 9-11’s forgtten victims—who continue to suffer in silence: Alex Sanchez likes to say he’s “living proof” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s response to the September 11 terrorist attacks bordered on the… Read more9-11 health impacts: residents demand EPA action
“Vasean’s Law” is a step in the right direction, but too bad it couldn’t be applied retroactively. In the USA, it seems having a driver’s license is literally a license to kill. From New York Newsday, Sept. 13: Drunk driver… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Walter Pincus of the Washington Post reports Sept. 11 that the Pentagon has drafted a revised doctrine for the use of nuclear weapons that envisions commanders requesting presidential approval to pre-empt an attack by a nation or terror group using… Read morePentagon prepares nuclear pre-emptive doctrine
Al Garza, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, confirmed on Sept. 7 that his group is beginning operations in Texas sooner than expected, bringing about 50 volunteers to Brownsville this month for “Secure Our Borders,” a campaign targeting undocumented… Read more“Minutemen” hit Texas, New York
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA, ruled unanimously Sept. 9 that Jose Padilla, held for more than three years as an “enemy combatant,” can be detained indefinitely without trial. Judge Michael Luttig wrote the decision for a… Read more4th Circuit upholds Padilla detainment
Reports Sarah Garland of Newsday Sept. 9: Michael Dardar lost his home when Hurricane Katrina flooded his trailer in Boothville, La., but that is the least of his worries. For Dardar, 43, a Houma Indian, the loss of his land… Read moreKatrina pushes Houma Indians towards cultural extinction
Sarah Ferguson of the Village Voice reports Sept. 8 of the feds shutting down yet another citizens’ self-help initiative: Although the effort was trumpeted in the media as an example of grassroots ingenuity in the face of disaster, local officials… Read moreFEMA shuts down grassroots radio initiative for evacuees
From AP, Sept. 9, via TruthOut: The deployment of thousands of National Guard troops from Mississippi and Louisiana in Iraq when Hurricane Katrina struck hindered those states’ initial storm response, military and civilian officials said Friday. Lt. Gen. Steven Blum,… Read moreIraq deployment cost lives on Gulf Coast: National Guard chief
Contrary to earlier reports, the St. Petersburg Times states Sept. 9 that nobody has yet been arrested for disobeying evacuation orders—but authorities are preparing to carry out forcible evacuations if “hold-outs” continue to resist. The paper acknowledges that this suspension… Read moreNew Orleans: “standoff” over forced evacuation
