“I joined for different reasons. I found a party that sees me as an individual, not as part of a group. I found a party that puts family first. I found a party that has love of liberty at its core. And I found a party that believes that peace begins with strength.”

“It’s that expression of the individual and a willingness to put the educational opportunities before me that led to who I am. Who you are is who you are as an individual.”

Condoleezza Rice
National Security Advisor

AP

 PHOTOS

By STEPHANIE GASKELL
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

RAMADI, Iraq - When members of the government of Anbar Province met with President Bush last week, they presented him with a letter dedicating their success in wiping out Al Qaeda here to the victims of Sept. 11

The letter, which was obtained by the Daily News, was signed by Anbar Governor Mamoun Sami Rashid, Provincial Council Chairman Abdul-Salam Abdullah, and Sheik Sattar abu Risha, the sheik credited with beginning the Anbar Awakening.

"In the month when the terrorists attacked the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, we dedicate the victory of Anbar Province to the families of the victims who suffred that criminal act," the letter said, which was addressed directly to Bush.

"With the help of the president of the United States, we pledge to continue to cooperate and communicate with you to continue to get good results," the letter said.

Bush traveled to Anbar Province to highlight the dramatic decrease in violence there, just days ahead of the progress report that Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker presented to Congress Monday.

PHIL KERPEN: The deficit is lower than it was every single year between 1980 and 1996. How did this happen? “The Deficit Is Smaller . . .”

THOMAS E. NUGENT: The economic data favors Republicans heading into Nov. 7 — if they’ll only use it. “Have Jobs, Will Travel”

Authorities ordered all vehicles off the roads starting Friday night for two days in more than a dozen Baghdad neighborhoods to forestall violence during a mass rally commemorating the death of an 8th-century Shiite saint.

Jordan's Ambassador Ahmed al-Lozi presented his credentials to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Thursday, said a statement by the president's office.

Al-Lozi arrived Tuesday with Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit, who was on a three-day visit, and stayed behind to take up his duties, Talabani's aide, Hiwa Othman, told The Associated Press.

CountryWatch: Iraq

Al-Lozi is the first fully accredited Arab ambassador in Iraq. Egypt sent an ambassador, Ihab al-Sherif, last year but he was kidnapped and killed in July 2005 before he could present his credentials.

Despite U.S. pressure, Arab countries have dragged their feet on sending ambassadors to Iraq because of the violence raging in the country since the March 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein in the U.S.-led invasion.

WASHINGTON — The United States has found 500 chemical weapons in Iraq since 2003, and more weapons of mass destruction are likely to be uncovered, two Republican lawmakers said Wednesday.

"We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons," Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said in a quickly called press conference late Wednesday afternoon.

Reading from a declassified portion of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a Defense Department intelligence unit, Santorum said: "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."

• Click here to read the declassified portion of the NGIC report.

He added that the report warns about the hazards that the chemical weapons could still pose to coalition troops in Iraq.

"The purity of the agents inside the munitions depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives and environmental storage conditions. While agents degrade over time, chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal," Santorum read from the document.

Click headline link to read the rest of story

View the complete Deck of Weasels

Make no mistake: Democrats are depressed. They're down in the dumps because they have been counting on the war in Iraq to go badly so that they can use that to pick up enough seats in this fall's election to take back control of the House. With Zarqawi getting clipped yesterday [WARNING: Fox News photos of Zarqawi's dead body] , this throws a wrench in things. What is going to happen to their aspirations if this marks a turning point in Iraq and we defeat the insurgency? Worse than that .. what happens if Bush gets the opportunity to display the bloated and bloodied face of that slime Osama bin Laden between now and the election? You can bet the ranch that in that event there will be Democrats who will swear that it was all staged ... that Bush knew where Osama was all along, and just waited until the most opportune time to make his move.

Well ... at least the Democrats have that "culture of corruption" thing to run on. But wait! ... there's $90,000 in William Jefferson's freezer that says that won't work. Plus .. the Congressional Black Caucus is defending him? Corruption? Clean the green fuzz out of your own refrigerator first. Gas prices? People are actually starting to realize that there are market forces at work here that Bush has, and should have no control over. No, if the Bush Administration rights the ship in Iraq, the Democrats are done...and they know it.

So they responded accordingly yesterday. Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader and Speaker-in-waiting, said yesterday Zarqawi's death changes nothing. In fact, she responded with a quote that could have come right off an Islamic hate website: "Several hours after Zarqawi's death, 19 Iraqis were killed and 40 were wounded in a roadside bombing in Baghdad." Pelosi, along with most of her kook leftist buddies, are banking on American defeat in Iraq.

Some Democrats are so upset that Bush is getting some positive help from al-Zarqawi's death that they're actually claiming that the whole thing was nothing but a stunt.  Congressman Pete Stark from California said that Bush had al-Zarqawi killed to cover for the deaths of civilians in Iraq and to boost his poll numbers.  I guess we could laugh at Stark, if he wasn't so completely pathetic.  If al-Zarqawi remains free Bush takes the heat for not being able to find him.  If al-Zarqawi is killed, Bush takes the heat for trying to divert attention from his sagging poll numbers.  This just goes to show the depths to which Democrats and the left will sink to feed their hatred of George Bush .. hatred fueled by the election of 2000.

And as for whether or not Zarqawi was an important hit....absolutely he was. This is the guy who ran Al-Qaeda's operations in Iraq. Yet here are Democrats...downplaying it as symbolic. They call rubbing out Zarqawi symbolism, yet whine about how Osama Bin Laden hasn't been caught. This despite the fact that Osama is sitting in a cave somewhere in Pakistan doing absolutely nothing. Which one is it, fellas? Make up your minds already.

Any more good news from Iraq, and Democrats may get really desperate. Maybe they'll strap on an AK-47 and join the insurgency.

Before it began the streak in June 2005, the active Army had missed its target four consecutive months. And even though results improved during the summer months, it missed its full-year target for the first time since 1999. The Army National Guard and Army Reserve also fell short of their 2005 goals but are doing better now.

The regular Army signed up 5,806 new recruits last month, compared with its target of 5,400, and the Army National Guard and Army Reserve also exceeded their May goals, according to statistics released by the Pentagon.

March 16, 2006 — Following are the ABC News Investigative Unit's summaries of four of the nine Iraqi documents from Saddam Hussein's government, which were released by the U.S. government Wednesday.

The documents discuss Osama bin Laden, weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda and more.

The full documents can be found on the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office Web site: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm.

Note: Document titles were added by ABC News.

"Osama bin Laden and the Taliban"

Document dated Sept. 15, 2001

An Iraqi intelligence service document saying that their Afghani informant, who's only identified by a number, told them that the Afghani Consul Ahmed Dahastani claimed the following in front of him:

That OBL and the Taliban are in contact with Iraq and that a group of Taliban and bin Laden group members visited Iraq.
That the U.S. has proof the Iraqi government and "bin Laden's group" agreed to cooperate to attack targets inside America.
That in case the Taliban and bin Laden's group turn out to be involved in "these destructive operations," the U.S. may strike Iraq and Afghanistan.
That the Afghani consul heard about the issue of Iraq's relationship with "bin Laden's group" while he was in Iran.

At the end, the writer recommends informing "the committee of intentions" about the above-mentioned items. The signature on the document is unclear.

"Election Campaign Laws in France"

Documents dated July-August 1999

Correspondence regarding election campaigns in France. This includes a document from the Iraqi intelligence service classified as "secret," ordering the translation of important parts of a 1997 report about campaign financing laws in France. It also includes a document from the foreign minister's office indicating the report was attached. The attached translated report included very detailed information about all the regulations regarding financing of election campaigns in France. Translation was done by someone called "Salam Abdul Karim Mohammed."

"The UAE reaffirmed its stance against terrorism and its commitment to continue to support and cooperate with the international community in this endeavor," the two countries said in a joint statement released by the State Department.

The uproar in Washington concerns a contract the Bush administration gave to a UAE government-owned business — Dubai Ports World — to run significant operations at six of the nation's largest seaports: Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, and Newark, N.J.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, had suggested the UAE could not be trusted to fight terrorism because of its past backing for the Taliban and its role in facilitating flows of financial support for the Al Qaeda.

A State Department official said he was not aware of anything in Rice's discussions with UAE Vice President Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid that would affect the ongoing battle in Washington over the ports deal.

The official asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

Rice's discussions also touched on U.S.-UAE free trade negotiations, the joint statement said.

It noted that the UAE is the third largest trading partner of the United States in the Middle East.

Rice stopped in Abu Dhabi after visits to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.

WASHINGTON — Despite a presidential veto threat, Republicans and Democrats continued Wednesday to make loud noises over blocking a controversial port deal that has President Bush in the hotseat.

House Republicans are forging ahead with legislation that would block an administration-approved plan to hand over terminal operations at six U.S. ports to a UAE-owned company, Dubai Ports World. A British company, Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., currently operates the terminals in question.

President Bush, however, signaled Wednesday that despite the opposition from even members of his own party over the deal, he still wants it to go through.

"The president's position is unchanged," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters on Air Force One while traveling with the president to New Orleans. "We're continuing to work closely with Congress. We recognize that some members have concerns. The lines of communication are open. ... There are a lot of conversations going on between the company and Congress and the administration."

And we hapless Americans -- already desperately trying to mediate, pacify and baby-sit the ruins of Churchill's Empire: Iraq, Palestine, India/Pakistan, Yemen, even (Anglo-Egyptian) Sudan -- would not be in the midst of a mini-firestorm over the sale of the venerable P&O, which manages six American ports, to the UAE.

One of the important federal court decisions recognizing the president's inherent authority to order warrantless foreign intelligenc surveillance is the Truong case, discussed in John's analysis of the legality of the NSA surveillance program. John noted that the Fourth Circuit decided United States v. Truong in 1980 and that the case involved a criminal prosecution arising out of the defendant’s spying on behalf of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The case squarely presented the issue of the executive branch’s inherent power to conduct warrantless surveillance for national security purposes:

The defendants raise a substantial challenge to their convictions by arguing that the surveillance conducted by the FBI violated the Fourth Amendment and that all the evidence uncovered through that surveillance must consequently be suppressed. As has been stated, the government did not seek a warrant for the eavesdropping on Truong’s phone conversations or the bugging of his apartment. Instead, it relied upon a “foreign intelligence” exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement. In the area of foreign intelligence, the government contends, the President may authorize surveillance without seeking a judicial warrant because of his constitutional prerogatives in the area of foreign affairs.

The court agreed with the government’s position:

For several reasons, the needs of the executive are so compelling in the area of foreign intelligence, unlike the area of domestic security, that a uniform warrant requirement would, following [United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297 (1972)], “unduly frustrate” the President in carrying out his foreign affairs responsibilities. First of all, attempts to counter foreign threats to the national security require the utmost stealth, speed and secrecy. A warrant requirement would add a procedural hurdle that would reduce the flexibility of executive foreign intelligence activities, in some cases delay executive response to foreign intelligence threats, and increase the chance of leaks regarding sensitive executive operations.

In his performance at Mrs. King's funeral this week, the execrable Jimmy Carter obviously chided President Bush by reference to the "secret government wiretapping" of Martin Luther King. In today's Washington Times, Charles Hurt recalls that it was of course Jimmy Carter himself (and Attorney General Bell) who authorized the warrantless surveillance involved in the Truong case.

"The irony for me is that George Bush, after spending the week lobbying for Alito, justifying wiretaps and explaining for the thousandth time why he did not respond to Katrina, will stand somewhere on Monday and piously act as though he remembers Dr. King, when in fact, he has stood against everything Dr. King represented and is probably the most renowned Dr. King dream-buster that we've seen in the last 20 years."

And yet, Bill Clinton used the same authority as President Bush so Clinton's administration could spy on african-American playgrounds based on worries over drugs and gangs.

Sharpton drew parallels between the Bush administration's anti-terrorism domestic wire-tapping and the FBI's wiretapping of King during the civil rights movement.

Associated Press/USA Today Focus on the Negatives in New Poll From Iraq  

As reported yesterday by NewsBusters, a brand new ABC News/TIME poll depicted Iraqis as being very optimistic about themselves and the future of their country. The Associated Press via USA Today is sharing this information with its readers by focusing attention on the negatives first. The article, entitled “Most Iraqis Oppose U.S. Troops, Poll Says,” began:

“Most Iraqis disapprove of the presence of U.S. forces in their country, yet they are optimistic about Iraq's future and their own personal lives, according to a new poll.

“More than two-thirds of those surveyed oppose the presence of troops from the United States and its coalition partners and less than half, 44%, say their country is better off now than it was before the war, according to an ABC News poll conducted with Time magazine and other media partners.”

Then the article addressed the positives:

“But Iraqis are surprisingly upbeat on many fronts, the poll suggests. 

“Three-quarters say they are confident about the parliamentary elections scheduled for this week. More than two-thirds expect things in their country to get better in the coming months.”

Furthermore, when you get deep into the article, you find that more than half of those polled don’t want American troops to leave immediately:

“A fourth of those surveyed, 26%, say U.S. forces should leave now, and another 19% say troops should leave after those chosen in this week's election take office. The other half say U.S. troops should stay until security is restored, 31%, until Iraqi forces can operate independently, 16%, or longer, 5%.

When press reports on Iraq typically begin with the negatives, is there any wonder the American people think things are going poorly there? By contrast, United Press International is reporting this same news with a headline “Poll: Iraqis Feel More Optimistic,” and a lede:

“A poll of Iraqis by ABC News shows seven out of 10 feel their lives are going well, and two thirds believe life in Iraq will improve in the next year.

"With the country's parliamentary elections scheduled Thursday, 76 percent of Iraqis said they were ‘confident’ the vote would produce a ‘stable government,’ despite sectarian divisions among Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Few Iraqis expressed concern about civil war.”

According to Ms. Tritch, our tax system should serve one purpose and one purpose only—to soak the rich.  Any reduction in tax rates, especially on saving and investment, has nothing to do with raising growth, but is nothing but a give-away to the ultra-wealthy.  One can see now why she was hired by the Times despite a paucity of knowledge or experience in the field of economics.

Interestingly, the latest Internal Revenue Service data on distribution of the tax burden were released the same day Ms. Tritch’s tirade appeared.  They show that the top one percent of taxpayers paid 34.3 percent of all federal income taxes in 2003, although they earned just 16.8 percent of the adjusted gross income.  The top five percent of taxpayers paid more than half of all federal income taxes, the top 10 percent paid two-thirds, and the top half of taxpayers paid 96.5 percent, meaning that the bottom half paid just 3.5 percent.

In ongoing violence aimed at thwarting approval of the document, a suicide bomber killed 30 Iraqis at an army recruiting center in a northwestern town.

The lawmakers gathered for about an hour at a special session of the National Assembly to hear a set of amendments to the constitution that are at the heart of the compromise, which was reached Tuesday night.

The session, attended by 157 of the body's 275 members, ended without a vote on the measure. Parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani said a vote was not necessary and that the amendments were approved.

"Today with the presence of the National Assembly members, it is considered to be adopted," al-Hassani told The Associated Press. The deal had already been accepted by the main parties in parliament.

White House Praises Sunni Arab Support for Iraqi Constitution

WASHINGTON — The White House welcomed a last-minute agreement to gain Sunni Arab support on a new Iraqi constitution as a positive step on Wednesday but cautioned that it likely would do little to quell violence directed at Saturday's vote. President Bush urged Syria to do more to seal its borders against Iraq-bound militants.

"We have always emphasized the importance of encouraging as broad a participation in the political process as possible. We believe the political process should be inclusive," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said of the deal on the constitution.

But, McClellan added, "The more the Iraqi people move forward on the political process, the more desperate the terrorists become. We expect to see continued violence because the terrorists understand how high the stakes are in Iraq."

He spoke as Iraqi lawmakers met to consider a compromise to gain Sunni support on the draft constitution. The speaker of Iraq's parliament said the compromise had been approved. The special session of parliament was called after Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish powerbrokers reached the breakthrough on the charter, reviving hopes of winning Sunni approval of the document in Saturday's nationwide referendum.

The Washington Times reports that Karl Rove was "very involved" in President Bush's selection of Harriet Miers to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court. This should put to rest the notion that Mr. Rove is a political genius.

Bennett, a former U.S. education secretary and national drug policy director, is under fire from Democrats, civil rights leaders, black conservatives and, as of yesterday, the White House and the Republican Party for saying Wednesday that "you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down."

He added immediately that such a thing would be "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do."

"Anyone paying attention to this debate should be offended by those who have selectively quoted me, distorted my meaning, and taken out of context the dialogue I engaged in this week," his statement said.

HUD chief foresees a 'whiter' Big Easy

Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development, during a visit with hurricane victims in Houston, said New Orleans would not reach its pre-Katrina population of "500,000 people for a long time," and "it's not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."

Rep. Danny K. Davis, Illinois Democrat and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, quickly took issue. "Anybody who can make that kind of projection with some degree of certainty or accuracy must have a crystal ball that I can't see or maybe they are more prophetic than any of us can imagine," he said.

Mr. Jackson, [who is African-American, but not liberal] whose remarks were reported by the Houston Chronicle, said New Orleans might reach a population of 375,000 people sometime late next year with a black population of about 40 percent at the highest, down from 67 percent before Hurricane Katrina sent a storm surge that overwhelmed New Orleans levees and flooded 80 percent of the city.

To answer Danny Davis charge about not having a crystal ball:  Forty-three percent of these evacuees planned to return to New Orleans, the survey found. But just as many -- 44 percent -- said they will settle somewhere else, while the remainder were unsure. Many of those who were planning to return said they will be looking to buy or rent somewhere other than where they lived. Overall, only one in four said they plan to move back into their old homes, the poll found.

According to the poll, most of those who did not plan to go back to New Orleans are already living in their new hometown. Fully two in three of the 44 percent who will not return said they plan to permanently relocate in the Houston area, the city that now is home to about 125,000 New Orleans evacuees.

But the media elitists don't care what racist Congressman Charles Rangel says: RANGEL ALL TANGLED IN RACE RAGE 

REP. Charles Rangel has scored plenty of headlines in his 35 years in Congress, but lately, he's outdone himself by comparing President Bush to the revolting Southern racist "Bull" Connor, who sicced attack dogs on black protesters in 1963.

"George Bush is our 'Bull' Connor," claimed the Harlem Democrat — New York's most senior member of Congress — as he charged that the Hurricane Katrina response was slow because many victims were black.

But that's not all.

“Some Americans want us to withdraw our troops so that we can escape the violence. And I recognize their good intentions but their position is wrong,” Bush said. "For the safety and security of the American people, that's not going to happen on my watch."

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former US president Bill Clinton sharply criticised George W. Bush for Iraq War and the handling of Hurricane Katrina, and voiced alarm at the swelling US budget deficit.

Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq "virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction."

The Iraq war diverted US attention from the war on terrorism "and undermined the support that we might have had," Bush said in an interview with an ABC's "This Week" programme.

Clinton said there had been a "heroic but so far unsuccessful" effort to put together an constitution that would be universally supported in Iraq.

The US strategy of trying to develop the Iraqi military and police so that they can cope without US support "I think is the best strategy. The problem is we may not have, in the short run, enough troops to do that," said Clinton.

On Hurricane Katrina, Clinton faulted the authorities' failure to evacuate New Orleans ahead of the storm's strike on August 29.

People with cars were able to heed the evacuation order, but many of those who were poor, disabled or elderly were left behind.

"If we really wanted to do it right, we would have had lots of buses lined up to take them out," Clinton.

He agreed that some responsibility for this lay with the local and state authorities, but pointed the finger, without naming him, at the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

FEMA boss Michael Brown quit in response to criticism of his handling of the Katrina disaster. He was viewed as a political appointee with no experience of disaster management or dealing with government officials.

"When James Lee Witt ran FEMA, because he had been both a local official and a federal official, he was always there early, and we always thought about that," Clinton said, referring to FEMA's head during his 1993-2001 presidency.

"But both of us came out of environments with a disproportionate number of poor people."

On the US budget, Clinton warned that the federal deficit may be coming untenable, driven by foreign wars, the post-hurricane recovery programme and tax cuts that benefitted just the richest one percent of the US population, himself included.

"What Americans need to understand is that ... every single day of the year, our government goes into the market and borrows money from other countries to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, and our tax cuts," he said.

"We have never done this before. Never in the history of our republic have we ever financed a conflict, military conflict, by borrowing money from somewhere else."

Clinton added: "We depend on Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Korea primarily to basically loan us money every day of the year to cover my tax cut and these conflicts and Katrina. I don't think it makes any sense."

NEW YORK (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair has complained privately to media tycoon Rupert Murdoch that the BBC's coverage of Hurricane Katrina carried an anti-American bias, Murdoch said at a conference here.

Murdoch, chairman of the media conglomerate News Corporation, recounted a conversation with the British leader at a panel discussion late Friday hosted by former president Bill Clinton. "Tony Blair -- perhaps I shouldn't repeat this conversation -- told me yesterday that he was in Delhi last week. And he turned on the BBC world service to see what was happening in New Orleans," Murdoch was quoted as saying in a transcript posted on the Clinton Global Initiative website.

"And he said it was just full of hate of America and gloating about our troubles. And that was his government. Well, his government-owned thing," he said of the publicly owned broadcaster.

Murdoch went on to say that anti-American bias was prevalent throughout Europe.

"I think we've got to do a better job at answering it. And there's a big job to do. But you're not going to ever turn it around totally," said Murdoch.

He added, "We're in place, we've got equipment in place, supplies in place and once we're able to assess the damage we'll be able to move in and help those good folks in the affected areas."

Where are the Guardsmen?
Right where they ought to be.
The New York Times has called the military response “a costly game of catch up.” Catching up compared to what, one wonders. National Guard units were mobilized immediately; 7,500 troops from four states were on the ground within 24 hours of Katrina — a commendable response given the disruptions to the transportation infrastructure. The DOD response is well ahead of the 1992 Hurricane Andrew timetable. Back then, the support request took nine days to crawl through the bureaucracy. The reaction this time was less than three days officially, and DOD had been pre-staging assets in anticipation of the aid request from the moment Katrina hit. DOD cannot act independently of course; the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the lead agency. Requests for assistance have to be routed from local officials through FEMA to U.S. Northern Command and then to the necessary components. In practice, this means state officials have to assess damage and determine relief requirements; FEMA has to come up with a plan for integrating the military into the overall effort; DOD has to begin to pack and move the appropriate materiel, and deploy sufficient forces. This has all largely been or is being accomplished. Seven thousand mostly Navy and other specialized assets are currently in the area directly supporting hurricane relief, and a much larger number of other forces are en route. The process has been functioning remarkably smoothly under the circumstances.

The Army Corps was planning to upgrade 303 miles of levees along the river in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. This was needed, a Corps spokesman told the Baton Rouge, La., newspaper The Advocate, because “a failure could wreak catastrophic consequences on Louisiana and Mississippi which the states would be decades in overcoming, if they overcame them at all.”

But a suit filed by environmental groups at the U.S. District Court in New Orleans claimed the Corps had not looked at “the impact on bottomland hardwood wetlands.” The lawsuit stated, “Bottomland hardwood forests must be protected and restored if the Louisiana black bear is to survive as a species, and if we are to ensure continued support for source population of all birds breeding in the lower Mississippi River valley.” In addition to the Sierra Club, other parties to the suit were the group American Rivers, the Mississippi River Basin Alliance, and the Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi Wildlife Federations.

State Leads in Army Corps Spending, but Millions Had Nothing to Do With Floods

Before Hurricane Katrina breached a levee on the New Orleans Industrial Canal, the Army Corps of Engineers had already launched a $748 million construction project at that very location. But the project had nothing to do with flood control. The Corps was building a huge new lock for the canal, an effort to accommodate steadily increasing barge traffic.

Except that barge traffic on the canal has been steadily decreasing.

In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times as large.

But overall, the Bush administration's funding requests for the key New Orleans flood-control projects for the past five years were slightly higher than the Clinton administration's for its past five years. Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the chief of the Corps, has said that in any event, more money would not have prevented the drowning of the city, since its levees were designed to protect against a Category 3 storm, and the levees that failed were already completed projects. Strock has also said that the marsh-restoration project would not have done much to diminish Katrina's storm surge, which passed east of the coastal wetlands.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As the response efforts to get people out of harms way and placed in safe clean environments continues, the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency is reaching out to individuals and assisting them in the application process for disaster assistance. The registration process is one of the first steps in receiving aid through FEMA's programs, and assistance is being expedited to assist those in need.

Currently, the amount of money being distributed through the expedited assistance program is $2,000 per household. This expedited assistance is made available by FEMA to those residents severely impacted by disasters from Mississippi and Louisiana who do not have the usual means of identifying damage to their property or unable to provide the immediate documentation necessary.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said "80 percent" of the city was evacuated before the storm hit, but Bob Williams says that's not good enough.

Williams dealt with emergency response issues as a state representative in Washington when his district was forced to deal with the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.

"If the plan were implemented, lives would have been saved," Williams said.

There's no question the federal government plays a major role in disaster relief. But federal officials say in order to get involved, they must first be asked to do so by state officials.

As one FEMA official told ABC News, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco failed to submit a request for help in a timely manner.

Shortly before Katrina hit, she sent President Bush a request asking for shelter and provisions, but didn't specifically ask for help with evacuations. One aide to the governor told ABC News today Blanco thought city officials were taking care of the evacuation.

"If the city and the state are stumbling or in over their head, then it's FEMA's [Federal Emergency Management Agency's] responsibility to show some leadership," said Jerry Hauer, director of public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Both the president and Congress have vowed to investigate questions of blame. It may already be safe to conclude that there will be plenty of it to go around.

"I need 500 buses, man," he told WWL. "One of the briefings we had they were talking about getting, you know, public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out of here."

Nagin described his response:

"I'm like - you've got to be kidding me. This is a natural disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

While Nagin was waiting for his Greyhound fleet, Katrina's floodwaters swamped his school buses, rendering them unusable.

Race was a factor in the death toll from Hurricane Katrina, Howard Dean told members of the National Baptist Convention of America on Wednesday at the group's annual meeting.

Dean, chairman of the Democratic party, made the comments to the Baptists' Political and Social Justice Commission. The Baptist Convention, with an estimated 3.5 million members, is one of the largest black religious groups in the country.

"We must ... come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not," Dean said.

 The economy is holding up well despite high energy prices. Economic activity expanded at an energetic 3.4 percent clip in the second quarter as consumers and businesses showed they were still in the mood to spend.

The latest snapshot, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, offered fresh evidence that the economy had recuperated after a brief slip in the early spring and possesses good momentum heading into the second half of the year.

A North Carolina Republican who played a pivotal role in helping the White House narrowly win approval of a free-trade pact with Central America pressed U.S. trade officials on Friday for an agreement that would restrict textile and clothing imports from China through 2008.

"The agreement must cover products where (U.S. decisions on China import curbs) are pending or have been accepted in the past, but more importantly, where China is having a disruptive impact on our domestic market," Rep. Robin Hayes said in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman.

Hayes switched sides during a vote on the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, to help the White House eke out a 217-215 victory early on Thursday.

He said afterward he agreed to vote for the pact only after receiving Bush administration assurances on certain textile issues, including "assurances of renewed efforts to crack down on the main adversary to our domestic industry -- China."

The Springdale Republican’s switch infuriated sectors of the textile industry that had fought to defeat CAFTA. Wilson on Thursday said he concluded — as two other conservative S.C. Republicans had, publicly, days before — that side agreements to the treaty would protect S.C. textile jobs.

Pro: Tuscarora Yarns Inc., headquartered in Mount Pleasant

As he spoke to Rep. Robin Hayes on Wednesday, Peter Hegarty, president of Tuscarora Yarns, was afraid his congressman wouldn't vote for CAFTA.

Tuscarora is a yarn-spinning company with 400 workers among its Mount Pleasant, Oakboro and China Grove mills in Hayes' 8th District. A privately held company with about $40 million in annual sales, Tuscarora already exports about 25 percent of its specialized yarn to Central American countries. Shipping yarn to its customers' apparel factories in the CAFTA region allows the companies to turn around their garments more quickly than if they bought them in Asia.

This was part of the argument he was making to Hayes after the Republican from Concord told him he wasn't sure he'd support CAFTA. Hegarty called as an independent voice; he said he probably voted GOP last election, but isn't a political contributor.

As Hegarty drove to work Thursday morning, he was elated when he heard the House had narrowly approved CAFTA and that Hayes had changed his mind.

Like many Carolinas companies, Tuscarora's No. 1 rival is China. With CAFTA, Hegarty thinks he'll be able to ship 20 percent more yarn to the region.

Tuscarora's yarn goes into up-market garments for brands such as Nike and Polo Ralph Lauren, and retailers such as Kohl's Corp. Hegarty says he bids against China for yarn contracts and often loses.

Besides benefiting from CAFTA-region trade, Tuscarora is buying the latest equipment and has developed products woven from bamboo fiber and camel hair, he said. A quarter of its business comes from making yarn for industrial uses, such as a product for outdoor furnishing that resists fading in sunlight.

Hegarty said he expects to continue growing his export and domestic business. "The only negative about CAFTA is the fact that it rhymes with NAFTA," Hegarty said.

I know the reporting’s bad because I know people in Iraq. A Marine colonel buddy just finished a stint overseeing the power grid. When’s the last time you read a story about the progress being made on the power grid? Or the new desalination plant that just came on-line, or the school that just opened, or the Iraqi policeman who died doing something heroic? No, to judge by the dispatches, all the Iraqis do is stand outside markets and government buildings waiting to be blown up.

I also get unfiltered news from Iraq through an e-mail network of military friends who aren’t so blinded by their own politics that they can’t see the real good we’re doing there. More important, they can see beyond their own navel and see the real good we’re doing to promote peace and prosperity in the world. What makes this all the more ironic is the fact that the people who are fighting and dying want to stay and the people who are merely observers want to cut and run….

Instead, we get Monday’s front-page story about a “secret” memo about “emerging U.S. plans” to withdraw troops next year. Why isn’t the focus of the story the fact that 14 of 18 Iraqi provinces are stable and the four that aren’t are primarily home to the genocidal gang of thugs who terrorized that country for 30 years?"

58% Say Senate Dems Should Confirm Qualified Conservative 

If President Bush nominates a qualified conservative to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, 58% of Likely Voters say that Senate Democrats should vote to confirm that nominee.

A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 24% believe that Harry Reid's party should oppose a qualified conservative nominee. More...

Bush Job Approval at 51%

Londoners packed churches across the capital yesterday to mourn the victims of last week's terror attacks, as religious leaders sought to prevent retaliation against Muslims.

The London Aftermath: Photos 

Questions for the AARP
Rich Lowry

"60 percent of the public believe the media are biased in reporting the news." Hello, NewsWeek...CBS...and all the rest of the elitist media!