Black College Enrollment Falls in Florida: "New figures show fewer black students are attending Florida universities, providing ammunition for critics of Gov. Jeb Bush's 5-year-old policy that excludes race in admissions decisions.

Six of the state's 11 public universities reported a drop, and the percentage of blacks in this year's freshman class is at its lowest since Bush became governor in 1999.

The decline comes despite continued growth in the overall student population at the state's public universities -- a 3.1 percent increase to nearly 282,000 students, according to figures released Friday."

(Via Salon.)

Soldiers Try to Kill Afghan Minister: "Afghan soldiers botched a brazen attempt to assassinate the defense minister at the capital's airport Saturday, while fighting in southern Afghanistan left 30 suspected militants dead, officials said."

...

"The motive for the shooting was not announced. A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said the soldiers were angry over a pay dispute."

(Via Salon.)

Salon.com News | History is being flooded, too: "On Thursday Sept. 8, Shelly Henley Kelly, the immediate past president of the Society of Southwest Archivists composed a letter to the editors of major newspapers.

'Imagine that Washington D.C. is struck by a CAT 5 hurricane and the National Archives has been damaged and/or flooded,' Kelly, an archivist at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, wrote. 'Archivists and conservators are trained to have a disaster response/disaster recovery plan. They will get in and begin the massive effort to reclaim the damaged documents... But what happens when the archivist is prevented from returning to the repository? How long can the many important documents, photographs, sound recordings documenting our nation's history and culture sit alone, un-airconditioned, possibly wet, before they rot beyond any hope for recovery?'

This, Kelly argued in her letter, is precisely what has been happening for nearly two weeks in New Orleans' cultural and historical repositories. 'More than ten days after what will probably become the greatest natural disaster in the United States... archivists have NOT BEEN ALLOWED into their collections -- not for a day, an afternoon, even an hour,' read the letter. If these collections are ignored, wrote Kelly, 'they will soon be unrecoverable... New Orleans, a city so rich in history, may soon become a city with no history.'"

(Via Salon.)

Salon.com Wire Story: "One storm could end up costing almost as much as two wars. Although estimates of Hurricane Katrina's staggering toll on the treasury are highly imprecise, costs are certain to climb to $200 billion in the coming weeks. The final accounting could approach the more than $300 billion spent in four years to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.

(Via Salon.)

Co-sponsors of Resolution of Inquiry at 70 and climbing | AfterDowningStreet.org: "Co-sponsors of the Resolution of Inquiry into Bush's lies about the reasons for war now include these 67 and these three brand new ones: Congressman Bob Menendez, Congressman Ben Cardin, and Congresswoman Julia Carson. That makes 70. Now is the time to act to increase that number! Send this letter to all your friends!"

(Via Afterdowningstreet.org.)

Salon.com Wire Story: "Challenged in court by CNN, the Bush administration agreed on Saturday not to prevent the news media from following the effort to recover the bodies of Hurricane Katrina victims.

The government won't, however, permit photographers to join them in boats or helicopters during the mission to recover bodies from flooded homes.

CNN filed suit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency in U.S. District Court in Houston late Friday, concerned about two statements made by government officials that day. The officials said they didn't believe it was right for the news media to show pictures of Katrina victims."

(Via Salon.)

Israel to Complete Gaza Pullout by Tuesday: "Israeli forces are completing their withdrawal from Gaza with the last soldier expected to be out by Tuesday - slightly ahead of schedule.

Israeli troops were demolishing their remaining military installations in Gaza in one of the last steps before the soldiers leave.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz initially said he expected the pullout completed by Monday. But, he added the departure could be delayed. That is because the Israeli Cabinet must decide what to do with the remaining synagogues in the former Jewish settlements.

Senior rabbis had said the synagogues must not be destroyed, but Palestinian officials have said they want them razed along with the rest of the buildings in the settlements. The cabinet decision is expected Sunday.

It appears likely the Israeli soldiers will be out by Tuesday. The gates of the Kissufim Crossing - once the entry point into the settlements of southern Gaza - will be locked after the last convoy crosses and Israel's 38-year presence in Gaza comes to an end."

(Via Google News.)

Iraq: "'Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the situation with Iraq?'

	Approve %	Disapprove %	Unsure %
ALL adults	35	60	5"

(Via PollingReport.com.)

The Counterterrorism Blog: Discosvery Channel's "The Flight That Fought Back" Is an Outstanding Tribute to the Flight 93 Warriors: "To commemorate the fourth anniversary this Sunday of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Discovery Channel will present 'The Flight That Fought Back' at 9 pm ET. The special takes us through the timeline of United Airlines Flight 93, which took off from Newark International Airport, was hijacked by Osama bin Laden's minions, and then crashed into a field near Shanksville, PA, after the passengers attempted to take back the aircraft. 'The Flight' presents a dramatization of the events onboard, alternating with interviews with the victims' loved ones about the phone calls received from the aircraft. The producers had unprecedented access to the families and United Airlines and used actual recordings of the conversations, many never previously heard on television."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

Defense Tech: NoLa's Biolab Mystery: "Anybody know what happened to New Orleans' anthrax labs? That's the excellent and scary question Defense Tech pal Russ Kick asks over at the Memory Hole.

In and around the Big Easy are a number of Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) labs, meant to handle some of the nastier biological agents out there -- stuff like anthrax, plague, and genetically-engineering mousepox."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

ArmsControlWonk | an arms control weblog: Iran Nuclear Abilities Limited: "These estimates also jibed with an early 2004 intelligence briefing given to congressional staff members, which indicated that Iran would not be able to produce a nuclear weapon until after 2010 because Iran’s program was beset by technical delays and shortfalls."

...

"Iran appears to face difficulties in operating both its uranium-conversion and centrifuge facilities. Uranium-conversion facilities convert lightly processed uranium ore into several compounds, including uranium hexafluoride. Gas centrifuges enrich uranium hexafluoride gas by spinning it at very high speeds. Low-enriched uranium is used to fuel power reactors; HEU can be used to make nuclear weapons. Iran currently has a pilot centrifuge facility and has said it plans to build a much larger commercial facility.

According to the State Department official, Iran had “major problems” with the conversion facility in 2004 when it produced uranium hexafluoride that was unsuitable for enrichment. Tehran also may be having trouble obtaining the proper materials to handle and properly store uranium hexafluoride and other uranium compounds, the official added."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Baghdad Burning: "We’re also having water difficulties, though people have grown accustomed to that. You can tell first thing in the morning that the water is cut off. I woke up this morning and knew it even before I had gotten out of bed. The house just sounds… dry. You strain your ears for the familiar house sounds and they aren’t there- there’s no drip-drip-drip from the faucet in the bathroom down the hall. There’s no sound of dishes being washed in the kitchen downstairs. There’s no sound of a toilet being flushed, and certainly no sound of a shower. The house is dry."

...

"Many areas in Baghdad seem almost shrouded in black these last two weeks- ever since the A’aima Bridge tragedy. There’s a mosque a few kilometers away from our house and the last two years we’ve been accustomed to seeing the large black banners draped across its outer walls. On each banner are carefully painted words in elaborate Arabic fonts announcing the death of another Iraqi and notifying people that the male members of the family would be receiving condolences inside the mosque for the next few days.

Now, the dusty beige surface of the mosque wall is nearly invisible under the black of death announcements. The eye can barely take it all in. The most disquieting thing about the banners is that many of them no longer carry a single name- after the bridge stampede, the banners now announce the deaths of two, three, four members of the same family."

(Via Iraq The Model.)

Talking Points Memo: cut off press access to report the story: "At first the evidence was scattered and anecdotal. But now it's pretty clear that a key aim of the Bush administration's takeover of the NOLA situation is to cut off press access to report the story."

...

"Now comes this post from Brian Williams, which suggests a general effort to bar reporters from access to many of the key points in the city.

Take a moment to note what's happening here: these are the marks of repressive government, which mixes inefficiency with authoritarianism. The crew that couldn't get key aid on the scene in time last week is coming in in force now. And one of the key missions appears to be cutting off public information about what's happening in the city."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

Soldier Kicked Prisoner who Later Died : "A military police officer testified Tuesday that she saw a fellow sergeant kick a chained detainee in the knees days before the prisoner died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan.

Sgt. Keri Patterson told the military court that Sgt. Christopher W. Greatorex and another officer took turns hitting the detainee, known as Habibullah, as he stood in an isolation cell with his hands chained to the ceiling at Bagram Airfield.

Greatorex, a reservist with the 377th Military Police Company in Ohio, is charged with abusing Habibullah and then lying about it. Habibullah died days later, in December 2002.

According to a 2004 military report, Habibullah died of a pulmonary embolism apparently caused by blood clots formed in his legs from beatings.

Patterson said she was working at the isolation unit when she watched Greatorex and Sgt. Darin Broady. She said Broady also gave Habibullah 'a kind of kung-fu kick' to the abdomen as the man shouted 'Allah' several times. A third officer was also present, she said, but she could not recall his name.

Patterson acknowledged that she should have reported the incident, but instead wrote in a log only that the prisoner had been reprimanded."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

Martini Republic - Timeline of Brown foot-dragging and decision making.: "As Joseph notes below, the response of FEMA chief Brown was less-than-energized when he requested the dispatch of emergency workers only after waiting some 5 hours from the time Katrina hit and devastated the Gulf Coast on August 29.

Two days earlier, on August 27, Governor Blanco, who has become one of the rightwing's favored scapegoats for the slow and inadequate response by FEMA, requested that Bush declare a national emergency.  In her request, Blanco stated:

Under the provisions of Section 501 (a) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5121-5206 (Stafford Act), and implemented by 44 CFR § 206.35, I request that you declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period beginning August 26, 2005, and continuing. The affected areas are all the southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area and the mid state Interstate I-49 corridor and northern parishes along the I-20 corridor that are accepting the thousands of citizens evacuating from the areas expecting to be flooded as a result of Hurricane Katrina."

(Via Martini Republic.)

Salon.com Wire Story: "Iran will send the United States 20 million barrels of crude oil to help it overcome the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, if Washington waives trade sanctions, a senior Iranian oil official said.

In a gesture that mirrors American aid offers after a devastating 2003 earthquake in Iran, Tehran's envoy to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced his government would ship up to 20 million barrels of oil to the U.S., state radio reported late Tuesday.

'If U.S. sanctions are lifted, Iran is prepared to send that quantity of oil to America,' the radio quoted Hossein Kazempour as saying.

U.S. officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment, but there were no signs that the U.S. policy toward Iran was about to change. Last week the Iranian Foreign Ministry offered to send relief supplies to the American Red Cross; Iranian newspapers reported that no response had been received.

Iran's offers reciprocates the goodwill that the United States displayed after an earthquake flattened the southeastern Iranian city of Bam in 2003, killing more than 26,000 people. The United States flew in emergency supplies, which were gratefully unloaded at an Iranian airport."

(Via Salon.)

LewRockwell.com Blog: Keith Olbermann is Dare I Say, 'En Fuego'!: "'Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: 'Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater...'

'Well there's your problem right there.

'If ever a slip-of-the-tongue defined a government's response to a crisis, this was it.

'The seeming definition of our time and our leaders had been their insistence on slashing federal budgets for projects that might’ve saved New Orleans. The seeming characterization of our government that it was on vacation when the city was lost, and could barely tear itself away from commemorating V.J. Day and watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, to at least pretend to get back to work. The seeming identification of these hapless bureaucrats: their pathetic use of the future tense in terms of relief they could’ve brought last Monday and Tuesday — like the President, whose statements have looked like they’re being transmitted to us by some kind of four-day tape-delay."

(Via LewRockwell.com Blog.)

Martini Republic - Lead, follow, or have a drink.: "It's not like these people are ER doctors, waiting for patients.  These are the nation's head of emergency response and head of homeland security. Weird how they all haven't been fired yet.

 

But if you saw Bush today, you saw a guy who looks like he's on the verge of cracking.  His insistence--with pointy fingers flailing--that the Senate focus on this nominee, not on one he has not yet made, was completely bizarre.  Did he forget that Republicans control the Senate?"

(Via Salon.)

t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | Washing Away the Conservative Movement: "What we are seeing in New Orleans is the end result of what can be best described as extended Reaganomics. Small government, budget cuts across the board, tax cuts meant to financially strangle the ability of federal agencies to function, the diversion of billions of what is left in the budget into military spending: This has been the aim and desire of the conservative movement for decades now, and they have been largely successful in their efforts.

Combine this with a wildly expensive and unnecessary war, rampant cronyism that replaces professionals with unqualified hacks at nearly every level of government, and the basic neoconservative/Straussian premise that the truth is not important and that the so-called elite know best, and you have this catastrophe laid out on a platter. The conservative and neoconservative plan for the way this country should be run has been blasted to matchsticks, their choice of priorities exposed as lacking, to say the very least.

The Katrina disaster in a nutshell: A storm that had been listed for years as #3 on America's list of 'Worst Possible Things That Could Happen' arrives in New Orleans to find levees unprepared because massive budget cuts stripped away any ability to repair and augment them. The storm finds FEMA, the national agency tasked to deal with the aftermath of natural disasters, run by Bush friend Michael Brown, a guy who got fired from his last job representing the rights of Arabian horse owners. The storm finds a goodly chunk of the Louisiana National Guard sitting in a desert 7,000 miles away with their high-water Humvees parked beside them. The storm finds that our institutional decades-old unwillingness to address poverty issues left tens of thousands of people unable to get out of the way of the ram.

...

In so many ultimately dangerous ways, their exposure is complete. For the last four years, we have been inundated with the claim that only Bush and the neocons can protect us from terrorism. The justification and shield for every action taken, no matter how absurd, has been that it is for our own good and defense. That's all dust now. 'This is the Law and Order and Terror government,' writes MSNBC newsman Keith Olbermann in his blog. 'It promised protection - or at least amelioration - against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.'"

(Via NervousFishBlog.)

Salon.com - When the spin becomes a lie: "Karl Rove has dispatched George W. Bush back to Louisiana and Mississippi this morning, presumably with marching orders to show the sort of respect and compassion he failed to muster his first time around last week. Meanwhile, all the president's men -- and the president himself -- are trying to shift the blame for the Katrina response from the White House to state and local officials."

(Via Salon.)

The Counterterrorism Blog: Head of Aryan Nations Responds to "The Peculiar Alliance": "On Thursday, I published an article at the Weekly Standard's website entitled 'The Peculiar Alliance,' about the growing relationship between white supremacists and Islamists.  These two groups have found a surprising amount of common ground in recent years due to their shared hatred of the Jews in particular, and also their hatred of the United States.

One of the figures I discuss at length in the article is August Kreis, the head of Aryan Nations and an admitted admirer of Osama bin Laden:

In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Kreis said of al Qaeda, 'You say they're terrorists, I say they're freedom fighters.  And I want to instill the same jihadic feeling in our peoples' heart, in the Aryan race, that they have for their father, who they call Allah.'  Going a step further, Kreis told CNN that he had a message for Osama bin Laden:  'The message is, the cells are out here and they are already in place.  They might not be cells of Islamic people, but they are here and they are ready to fight.'

My article also explores in some depth the Aryan Nations website, which goes to great lengths to detail its sympathy for radical Muslims."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

The Republican Party's priority? The estate tax: "Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman has other priorities in mind. In an e-mail he sent yesterday, Mehlman called on the Senate to eliminate the estate tax. And he urged his supporters to call their senators -- 'today' -- to demand that they get on board with the plan.

The message arrived in our in box at just about the same time Scott McClellan was pushing away criticism of the president by saying, 'This is not the time for politics.'

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has asked Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to table talk of the estate tax in the wake of Katrina, saying that members of the Senate 'would have great difficulty explaining why we were debating the estate tax during our first days back when we know hundreds of thousands of families are suffering.'"

(Via Salon.)

Salon.com Wire Story: "When the medical paperwork was finished, Alexander sent the sisters on.

'Because both of you get Social Security checks you're going to want to go over to SSA and then go get your mail changed,' the nurse said.

The Postal Service works to set up post office boxes for the refugees so they can receive mail. The women filled out those forms at another table.

'It may be next week before you get anything,' the volunteer told them.

At the Social Security table, Landry showed her Social Security card and found out where she could receive her check -- at a PO box at Fort Chaffee.

The sisters have a safety deposit box at their New Orleans bank, but were told it was probably damaged. The women are also worried that they missed paying some bills this month. They were assured that most companies would understand.

Almost finished, Landry and Roberts received a clear plastic bag filled with shampoo, toothpaste, a toothbrush, towel and other toiletries before another volunteer guided them on a bus to the barracks so they could take a shower and get something to eat.

'Oh, thanks. Thanks a million,' Landry said on her way out the door."

(Via Salon.)

Salon.com Wire Story: "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended President Bush on Sunday against charges that the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina showed racial insensitivity.

'Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race,' the administration's highest-ranking black said as she toured damaged parts of her native Alabama.

Later, during a service at the Pilgrim Rest AME Zion church outside Mobile, Rice nodded in agreement as the Rev. Malone Smith Jr. advised the congregation, 'Wait for the Lord.'

'There are some things the president can do; there are some things the government can do,' Smith told about 300 worshippers during a rollicking two-hour service. 'But God can do all things. I want you to know he's never late. He's always on time.'

Rice later echoed the call for patience.

'The Lord is going to come on time -- if we just wait,' she said.

It was a sort of homecoming for Rice, an Alabama native and granddaughter of a Presbyterian minister.

Her visit came as some black leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, have complained bitterly about the slow response to the disaster, whose victims have been disproportionately black and poor. They have said racial injustice was a factor in the government's slow relief effort."

And your 1% ls for the week: If race really wasn't an issue, then why was Condi the one answering the question instead of the press secretary? I'm sure they're glad they had their "spare token" since General Powell left.

(Via Salon.)

Salon.com Wire Story: "Ten people are living at the Waffles Plus, where vehicles passed by for five days without stopping. On the sixth morning, a church group pulled in and handed them a box of food -- the first they had received.

Jimmy Dubreuil, 23, had tried earlier in the week to enter a Dollar Store several miles away but says he was chased out by a police officer who pistol-whipped him. A fresh gash on his close-cropped head has been stapled shut.

'They started telling us we're thieves,' he says. 'We're not thieves. We just wanted to feed the babies.'"

(Via Salon.)

ArmsControlWonk | an arms control weblog: Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran, GOV/2005/67: "IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei has submitted a report concerning the Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran (GOV/2005/67).

Paul obtained the full text. The report—marked ‘restricted distribution’—fell off a truck, digitally speaking.

George Jahn with AP led with the revelation that Iran has produced 6,800 kg of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas.

Iran has produced about 7 tons of the gas it needs for uranium enrichment since it restarted the process last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Friday. A former UN nuclear inspector said that would be enough for an atomic weapon."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

The Counterterrorism Blog: Katrina Response - Another Quick Observation: "It's becoming increasingly clear the Federal response in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina has been less than stellar. It finally seemed to be getting underway in a major way as of Friday. The inevitable inquiries, investigations and reviews will undoubtedly pick this apart for months to come...and rightfully so. Since the hurricane response has a direct correlation to the Government's ability to deal with the aftermath of a major terrorist attack, we should all be paying close attention to what is happening along the Gulf Coast. We can bet our terrorist adversaries are.

There was at least one notable exception to the lethargic institutional Federal reaction to the hurricane disaster, and that was the United States Coast Guard. As soon as the weather conditions allowed, the Nation saw those orange Coast Guard choppers rescuing victims from the flood waters. And those efforts have continued relentlessly throughout the crisis. One recent report noted the Coast Guard rescued an incredible 10,000 victims."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

CNN.com - Qatar offers $100m to relief fund - Sep 3, 2005: "The oil-rich nation of Qatar has offered the United States $100 million to assist in the humanitarian crisis triggered by Hurricane Katrina.

The state-run Qatar News Agency said Saturday that Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, decided to contribute that amount for relief 'and humanitarian supplies for the victims of this disaster.'

The U.S. government has received offers of support from dozens of nations across the globe.

As of Friday, the White House had not accepted any offers, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the State Department was 'working very closely with the Department of Homeland Security to match up what is available with what is needed.'

There was no immediate word whether the United States would take Qatar up on its offer."

(Via CNN.)