The Associated Press reports that the White House plans to cut Homeland Security’s counterterrorism funds by more than half next year—slashing grants for police, rescue departments, firefighters, port security, transit security, and other anti-terrorism programs.
We urge everyone to read the following AlterNet.org interview with Naomi Wolf, author of the new book The End of America: Letter of Warning to A Young Patriot. (Ms. Wolf, best known for her book The Beauty Myth [1992], is not to be confused with the other admirable Naomi, Ms. Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine [2007].) This spring Naomi Wolf published “Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps” in The Guardian (UK).
Pittsburgh’s KDKA reports that the Defense Department is demanding that thousands of disabled U.S. soldiers return parts of their signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments. They had to go and get blown up so bad the army couldn’t patch them up well enough to push ’em back out on the streets of Baghdad as they do with other wounded soldiers. It is well known that the army has had to resort to signing bonuses of up to $30,000 to attract new soldiers to an increasingly unpopular war (though the army continues to fall short of its recruiting goals).
The article below by political scientist Alan Wolfe explains in convincing detail the deadly consequences of the conservatives’ unbelief in governing and reveals why a deliberately weakened FEMA was unable to respond to the destruction and suffering wrought by Hurricane Katrina:
As we reported in “Let the Eagle Soar” below, the Congressional Budget Office released a report Oct. 24 estimating that the total expenditures for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost over $2.4 trillion over the next ten years—or $8,000 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. We hear often enough that “freedom isn’t free,” but we’re not sure we’re getting our money’s worth—especially when so many important priorities are neglected here at home.
Within two days, the two chambers of the U.S. Congress have voted to override the president’s veto of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA)—the first water projects bill in seven years (normally passed every two years), and the first override of a presidential veto since 1998. Today the Senate voted 79 to 14—an overwhelming margin similar to that of the House’s 361 to 54—to authorize spending levels for about 900 projects nationwide, including about $7 billion for Louisiana coastal restoration and flood protection. Bruce Alpert of the Times-Picayune notes, “Congress still must approve individual appropriations to get the work done.”
The following letter has been faxed to the White House (202-456-2461). Please see below for a letter faxed to leaders in the House and Senate urging an override of the president’s veto. (The House has done it! 361 to 54—ninety votes more than needed to override.) Please see our ‘Political Action’ page for fax and phone numbers of the White House and Senate. Help us press for a Congressional override of the president’s veto—it would be a first. We’re halfway there. Thank you.
Mark Schleifstein joined the Times-Picayune in 1984 as an environmental reporter after five years at the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Mississippi. Since 1996 he and his Times-Picayune colleague John McQuaid have written numerous major environmental series for the paper, most recently in January 2006. Schleifstein and McQuaid won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their series “Oceans of Trouble: Are the World’s Fisheries Doomed?”—a comprehensive eight-day series about the threats to the world’s fish supply, including the effects of coastal wetlands erosion on fish in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. In 1998 the Picayune published their series “Home Wreckers: How the Formosan Termite Is Devastating New Orleans,” a finalist for the 1999 Pulitzer.