Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby .....

How sick is sick? Mycos ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Bill Bennett: '[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down'" Audio file here.....

A Pentagon Whitewash

By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet. Posted September 28, 2005. Amid feeble excuses, the Pentagon refuses to allow key witnesses to testify in the investigation of destroyed counter-terrorism intelligence. Those on-again, off-again Senate Judiciary Committee hearings concerning a once-secret military intelligence unit called 'Able Danger' are off, again. Citing national security concerns, top Defense Department officials refused to allow key witnesses to testify last week, setting off a firestorm of criticism from both the right and the left. Those same unnamed officials abruptly reversed course this week -- their previous concern over our (their?) security presumably vaporized -- and decided the witnesses could appear before the Committee, at new hearings set for October 5." cont.....

ACLU Seeks Information on the Fate of 6,500 New Orleans Prisoners

ACLU Seeks Information on the Fate of 6,500 New Orleans Prisoners Locked Prisoners Were Abandoned by Guards When Katrina Struck; More Than 500 Missing FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 28, 2005 CONTACT: Emily Whitfield, ACLU, (212) 549-2666 or media@aclu.org NEW ORLEANS - Citing eyewitness reports of locked prisoners being abandoned to drown in their cells in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the American Civil Liberties Union today demanded access to the relocated prisoners it represents under a longstanding class-action lawsuit over prison conditions. "It is critically important to discover the truth about whether New Orleans officials left these prisoners to die a nightmare death. If true, they not only abandoned their duty, they abandoned basic human decency," said Eric Balaban of the ACLU's National Prison Project. "While surrounding parishes managed to get guards and prisoners to safety, Orleans Prison Parish was plunged into chaos. We are asking the court to grant us access to our clients so that we can get to the bottom of this horror." Earlier this month, the ACLU filed state and federal Freedom of Information Act requests seeking information about what happened to the prisoners, if dead bodies were disposed of, and what evacuation plans were in place at the time Katrina struck. In a motion filed today before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, the ACLU cites both eyewitness accounts and news reports saying that no evacuation plans were in place and that the sheriff of the prison, Marlin N. Gusman, did not seek state assistance until midnight on August 29, days after other parish prisons had already called for help. The prison is located within miles of the 17th Street Canal Levee, which was breached on August 29, the day the hurricane struck. The ACLU also cited reports by the New Orleans Times-Picayune that after generators failed and the jail ran out of food, deputies walked off their posts, "tossing their badges down and turning their shirts inside out." Further, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, also cited in the ACLU's legal papers, prisoners housed in one building known as Templeman III reported that as of August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. As the water inside the locked building began to rise, the prisoners frantically signaled people outside the building by setting fire to blankets and shirts and hanging them out of broken windows. The prisoners in this unit were not evacuated until September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level, the report said. In addition to today's motion seeking access to its clients, on September 19 the ACLU filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the U.S. Marshals, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Justice, seeking records regarding: * Deaths that occurred in the prison since August 26, 2005 * The collection and disposition of dead bodies from the prison since August 26, 2005 * Any evacuation plans in effect as of August 26, 2005 * Any documents pertaining to evacuation plans in effect as of August 26, 2005 Further, on September 22, the ACLU also filed a state public records request seeking information about the collection and disposition of dead bodies andany evacuation plans in effect at the time of the hurricane. That requestwas sent to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Mayor Ray Nagin, Dr. Frederick P. Cerise of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Richard Stalder, Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, and Dr. Frank Minyard, Coroner of the Orleans Parish. Orleans Parish Prison is the ninth largest in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Under the terms of a longstanding class action lawsuit over prison conditions, the ACLU has acted as counsel for the more than 6,500 OPP prisoners since 1989. In that capacity, the ACLU has sought to enforce court orders regarding the medical and mental health and environmental conditions of the prisoners. The motion filed today, Hamilton v. Morial, Civ. Action No. 69-2443, is online at: http://www.aclu.org/Prisons/Prisons.cfm?ID=19172 &c=26 The Sept. 19, 2005 federal FOIA requests are online at: http://www.aclu.org/Prisons/Prisons.cfm?ID=19176 &c=26 The Sept. 22, 2005 state FOIA requests are online at: http://www.aclu.org/Prisons/Prisons.cfm?ID=19174 &c=26 The Human Rights Watch report is online at http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/09/22/usdom11773.htm Paul Wright, Editor Prison Legal News 972 Putney Rd. PMB 251 Brattleboro, VT 05301 (802) 257-1342 pwright@prisonlegalnews.org www.prisonlegalnews.org Seattle Office: 2400 NW 80th St. PMB 148 Seattle, WA 98117 (206) 246-1022

Bush Cares?

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed." "OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!" His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands. Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"

People who advocate freedom

"People who advocate freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are people who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without the awful roar of the thunder and lightning. Without struggle, there is no progress. This struggle might be a moral one. It might be a physical one. It might be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. People may not get all that they pay for in this world, but they certainly pay for all that they get." Frederick Douglas (1817-1896)