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For the curious:

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/costly_time-consuming_test_of.html

Link

BP hired a top oilfield service company to test the strength of cement linings on the Deepwater Horizon's well, but sent the firm's workers home 11 hours before the rig exploded April 20 without performing a final check that a top cementing company executive called "the only test that can really determine the actual effectiveness" of the well's seal.

A spokesman for the testing firm, Schlumberger, said BP had a Schlumberger team and equipment for sending acoustic testing lines down the well "on standby" from April 18 to April 20. But BP never asked the Schlumberger crew to perform the acoustic test and sent its members back to Louisiana on a regularly scheduled helicopter flight at 11 a.m., Schlumberger spokesman Stephen T. Harris said.

At a few minutes before 10 p.m., a belch of natural gas shot out of the well, up a riser pipe to the rig above, igniting massive explosions, killing 11 crewmembers and sending millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf. The rig's owner, Transocean, blames failed cement seals, installed by Halliburton, for the disastrous blowout.

Criminal Negligence.

Ok, so, if you're a dangerous sex offender, you never need to be let out of prison.

But, you can't get life without parole unless you've killed someone....

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/05/us_supreme_court_ends_life_sen.html

The media blitz and review panels _must_ decide there is no fraud, otherwise a trillion dollar carbon credit swap industry will die.
(Which, I think the whole Man Made Global Warming crowd are just a bunch of people who want to make a ton of money.)

It really comes down to who you believe. If you read the Email trail that was leaked, it is obvious the panel is phoney baloney.

If you believe the Email trail that was released was a big "conspiracy" then you can believe the panel.

But a siginificant number of people, and I mean important people, were forced to resign in disgrace over this "did nothing wrong conclusion" by the panel.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/12/climate-change_researcher_resi.html

So I tend to believe that someone released the Emails to blow the whistle and am curious why these "exhonorated people" didn't get thier jobs back?

They never will.

Finally, its hilarious that they had to have a second media blitz at the whole thing to try and convince people the Emails that where leaked where just a scam.

Oh _REALLY_?

Will they have a third and a fourth panel?

LOL

-Hack

..for what were originally serious felonies of trying to bug a U.S. senator's office in broad daylight in New Orleans. Helped that the co-conspirator was the son of a U.S. Attorney in Louisiana, one suspects. The leader is the same creep who pretended to be a 1970s pimp in order to smear ACORN with a faked the video. Now he's getting off with a slap on the wrist for stuff the Watergate burglars went to prison for. (They went into the Landrieu's office, in a federal building, and pretended to be a telephone repair crew. The receptionist became suspicious when they asked her where the equipment closet was.) http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/04/arraignment_set_in_sen_landrie.html

Someone's on a modding spree apparently. The parent post is certainly not off topic.

..for what were originally serious felonies of trying to bug a U.S. senator's office in broad daylight in New Orleans. Helped that the co-conspirator was the son of a U.S. Attorney in Louisiana, one suspects. The leader is the same creep who pretended to be a 1970s pimp in order to smear ACORN with a faked the video. Now he's getting off with a slap on the wrist for stuff the Watergate burglars went to prison for.
(They went into the Landrieu's office, in a federal building, and pretended to be a telephone repair crew. The receptionist became suspicious when they asked her where the equipment closet was.)
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/04/arraignment_set_in_sen_landrie.html

The hacking incident took place in September 2008. The only other stories I find say the same things. The boxes of emails that were turned over to Andree McLeod in June 2008 were heavily redacted, and the ones that were still being requested from the Yahoo accounts are the ones that Palin refuses to turn over, citing executive privilege. How you claim executive privilege over email that isn't related to state business, I have no idea, so I can only assume that they are state business related emails.

There were still FOIA requests pending, but Palin said it would cost $88,000 to hand over those emails, knowing that the woman couldn't pay it. That's more than a year's salary for most people, and a completely ridiculous amount for handing over 1,000 emails.

Lots of politicians get cleared after ethics probes. It's hard as hell to ever prove anything because of all the privileges they get and how easy it is for them to obstruct the investigation without consequence. Unless they get caught pretty much red-handed (like that William Jefferson asshole from Louisiana who got off really easy with only a 13 yr sentence), they'll generally get out of it. Even Jefferson put up a pretty good fight, and that one was about as open and shut as they come. If it had been anyone but a politician they'd have been screwed from the start.

Yep, there's been a big flap of there trying to say they have the copyright over Who Dat? and doing cease and desist letters to small dress and tshirt shops here for printing this and the fleur-dis-lis.

Apparently the NFL has backed off this a little bit...but, sure has pissed off a bunch of people down here...

so being in New Orleans, I'll have a "Who Dat" Party ... oh wait... "© Dat" Party. http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/01/vitter_to_nfl_back_of_who_dat.html

Since I submitted this, nola.com came out with a more in depth article. The NFL is claiming "who dat" too, which has also been around for years and years, AND the roman numerals XLIV, which have been around, since... well, the Romans. The article goes more in depth about the history of "who dat" which is pretty interesting.

http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2010/01/post_140.html

"While Katarina was ongoing, there were plenty of independent news outlets running video footage of professionals warning what would happen. It made the Bush mantra of "No one could have predicted..." out to be just as much of a joke as the "No one could have predicted..." 9-11 version. (And then the Aug 6th PDB title was released.)"

Exactly, so how a Judge could belatedly blame the Army Corps of Engineers, defies logic. Of course he couldn't every state the real reasons. That the levees failed because of their flimsy construction and funding was denied to pay for Bushs war in Iraq. Not only that Bush was warned in advance about Katrina, but took no action.

"President Bush is expected to shift $1.3 billion away from raising and armoring levees, installing floodgates and building permanent pumping in Southeast Louisiana in order to plug long-anticipated financial shortfalls in other hurricane-protection projects, a move Sen. David Vitter describes as a retreat from the president's commitment to protect the whole New Orleans area"

Bill Gates is already working on that. Google could send hurricanes his way, and Bill could try to kill them.

Him tiggering behaviour (by being an antagonist) would make his research flawed

Not really. The whole point was to find out how people would respond to him being an asshole. Which is what he did: he was an asshole, both in playing style and in conduct, apparently.

Of course, none of these claims below are substantiated with any sort of proof, but neither is the claim that he was saying only the more innocent things such as "heroes win".

Posted by cygnata on 07/06/09 at 3:58PM

I, too, am a CoH player. I don't PvP for reasons of my own, but from all logs and such that I've seen, the Professor was NOT as innocent as he makes himself out to be.

He was abusive to other players, and as was stated above, using Teleport Foe to port enemies in front of the zone drones (who make sure that the exits are "safe" for players still loading said zone.) He might have noticed that the game didn't give him any credit for those "kills."

Also, he had a tendency to "kill-steal," that is, waiting for other people to get an enemy down to very few hit points, then porting said enemy away from the people fighting it, an into the drone's range.

=============

Posted by iltat on 07/06/09 at 5:09PM

I'm actually a CoH player who PvPed both with and against Twixt (I am not any of the players named, and my verbal interactions with Twixt were quite limited). I'd like to clear up a few things that seem to be missing. Note that I am, in no way, discounting the seriousness of death threats, but maybe a little more understanding of what really took place will allow people to relate better to the frustration.

...

3) Twixt commonly made fun of players he killed.

He did not simply say random hero-supporting things, he oftentimes bragged openly after using his computer-generated helpers to kill someone. Like any other competitive situation, bragging and talking trash will earn people talking back and becoming more upset. He worked to goad individuals into becoming angrier at what he did.

He mentions the forums as a place where people speculated about parts of his life, but he seems to have left out where he posted kill-logs from his time spent in PvP zones. He posted quite frequently on those boards, and he went out of his way to fuel the hate that developed for him. Professional athletes who do such a thing are widely derided by the media and fans. Twixt worked hard to generate hate, he was not simply an innocent victim.

=============

Posted by Gunsang on 07/07/09 at 6:01PM

Wait wait wait... my common sense was tingling when a friend showed me this.

Okay... I've seen Twixt in the game before, and I've got to say I've got a huge hand-imprint in my head.

...

He was, in fact, "trash-talking" not in "lulz I pwned you" but labelling people RV farmers, and even posting his rightous conquest and tampered (Yes, proven tampered, so don't think about skill here when you see it, people.) defeat list in the CoX forums, but coincidentally close to the next couple of months he stopped showing, so I'm assuming he was just blowing off steam. (Feel free to correct there. Assumptions are bad things if not.)

Him tiggering behaviour (by being an antagonist) would make his research flawed

Not really. The whole point was to find out how people would respond to him being an asshole. Which is what he did: he was an asshole, both in playing style and in conduct, apparently.

Of course, none of these claims below are substantiated with any sort of proof, but neither is the claim that he was saying only the more innocent things such as "heroes win".

Posted by cygnata on 07/06/09 at 3:58PM

I, too, am a CoH player. I don't PvP for reasons of my own, but from all logs and such that I've seen, the Professor was NOT as innocent as he makes himself out to be.

He was abusive to other players, and as was stated above, using Teleport Foe to port enemies in front of the zone drones (who make sure that the exits are "safe" for players still loading said zone.) He might have noticed that the game didn't give him any credit for those "kills."

Also, he had a tendency to "kill-steal," that is, waiting for other people to get an enemy down to very few hit points, then porting said enemy away from the people fighting it, an into the drone's range.

=============

Posted by iltat on 07/06/09 at 5:09PM

I'm actually a CoH player who PvPed both with and against Twixt (I am not any of the players named, and my verbal interactions with Twixt were quite limited). I'd like to clear up a few things that seem to be missing. Note that I am, in no way, discounting the seriousness of death threats, but maybe a little more understanding of what really took place will allow people to relate better to the frustration.

...

3) Twixt commonly made fun of players he killed.

He did not simply say random hero-supporting things, he oftentimes bragged openly after using his computer-generated helpers to kill someone. Like any other competitive situation, bragging and talking trash will earn people talking back and becoming more upset. He worked to goad individuals into becoming angrier at what he did.

He mentions the forums as a place where people speculated about parts of his life, but he seems to have left out where he posted kill-logs from his time spent in PvP zones. He posted quite frequently on those boards, and he went out of his way to fuel the hate that developed for him. Professional athletes who do such a thing are widely derided by the media and fans. Twixt worked hard to generate hate, he was not simply an innocent victim.

=============

Posted by Gunsang on 07/07/09 at 6:01PM

Wait wait wait... my common sense was tingling when a friend showed me this.

Okay... I've seen Twixt in the game before, and I've got to say I've got a huge hand-imprint in my head.

...

He was, in fact, "trash-talking" not in "lulz I pwned you" but labelling people RV farmers, and even posting his rightous conquest and tampered (Yes, proven tampered, so don't think about skill here when you see it, people.) defeat list in the CoX forums, but coincidentally close to the next couple of months he stopped showing, so I'm assuming he was just blowing off steam. (Feel free to correct there. Assumptions are bad things if not.)

Him tiggering behaviour (by being an antagonist) would make his research flawed

Not really. The whole point was to find out how people would respond to him being an asshole. Which is what he did: he was an asshole, both in playing style and in conduct, apparently.

Of course, none of these claims below are substantiated with any sort of proof, but neither is the claim that he was saying only the more innocent things such as "heroes win".

Posted by cygnata on 07/06/09 at 3:58PM

I, too, am a CoH player. I don't PvP for reasons of my own, but from all logs and such that I've seen, the Professor was NOT as innocent as he makes himself out to be.

He was abusive to other players, and as was stated above, using Teleport Foe to port enemies in front of the zone drones (who make sure that the exits are "safe" for players still loading said zone.) He might have noticed that the game didn't give him any credit for those "kills."

Also, he had a tendency to "kill-steal," that is, waiting for other people to get an enemy down to very few hit points, then porting said enemy away from the people fighting it, an into the drone's range.

=============

Posted by iltat on 07/06/09 at 5:09PM

I'm actually a CoH player who PvPed both with and against Twixt (I am not any of the players named, and my verbal interactions with Twixt were quite limited). I'd like to clear up a few things that seem to be missing. Note that I am, in no way, discounting the seriousness of death threats, but maybe a little more understanding of what really took place will allow people to relate better to the frustration.

...

3) Twixt commonly made fun of players he killed.

He did not simply say random hero-supporting things, he oftentimes bragged openly after using his computer-generated helpers to kill someone. Like any other competitive situation, bragging and talking trash will earn people talking back and becoming more upset. He worked to goad individuals into becoming angrier at what he did.

He mentions the forums as a place where people speculated about parts of his life, but he seems to have left out where he posted kill-logs from his time spent in PvP zones. He posted quite frequently on those boards, and he went out of his way to fuel the hate that developed for him. Professional athletes who do such a thing are widely derided by the media and fans. Twixt worked hard to generate hate, he was not simply an innocent victim.

=============

Posted by Gunsang on 07/07/09 at 6:01PM

Wait wait wait... my common sense was tingling when a friend showed me this.

Okay... I've seen Twixt in the game before, and I've got to say I've got a huge hand-imprint in my head.

...

He was, in fact, "trash-talking" not in "lulz I pwned you" but labelling people RV farmers, and even posting his rightous conquest and tampered (Yes, proven tampered, so don't think about skill here when you see it, people.) defeat list in the CoX forums, but coincidentally close to the next couple of months he stopped showing, so I'm assuming he was just blowing off steam. (Feel free to correct there. Assumptions are bad things if not.)

I'm actually a CoH player who PvPed both with and against Twixt (I am not any of the players named, and my verbal interactions with Twixt were quite limited). I'd like to clear up a few things that seem to be missing. Note that I am, in no way, discounting the seriousness of death threats, but maybe a little more understanding of what really took place will allow people to relate better to the frustration.

1) Twixt's actions in PvP translated to an investment of time. By teleporting (the action described) villains into a row of firing squad computer-generated enemies, he would give the other character debt. This debt would impede the character's ability to gain experience by cutting it in half for a certain period of time. Thus, anyone who suffered from what Twixt did would pay for it by having their progress cut in half the next time they got the opportunity to play. A full portion of debt could take upwards of 3 hours of nonstop play to be worked off.

Imagine you go play miniature golf. Directly in front of you is a group of 10 children who have no idea what they're doing. You are unable to skip past them, and as is allowed, they refuse to let you pass. Due to this inconvenience, you only get to play 9 holes (or 4, if you're only on a 9-hole course). Would you be frustrated? I sure would be. They didn't break the rules, but they hurt the fun of my outing by specifically robbing me of the time that I had dedicated to accomplishing my goal. It's not much different than traffic, bowling balls getting stuck in the lanes, people talking during a movie, or any other issue that would rob an individual of their free time. The individuals causing your frustration may not be breaking the rules, but they are affecting your enjoyment.

2) Twixt's account of what took place in the PvP zones he visited just plain isn't accurate.

People did chat because many of the players had played together prior to the release of City of Villains (CoH was released in May of 2004 while CoV in October of 2006). Most of us already knew each other. However, that didn't result in a lack of fighting. Many times, Twixt would simply teleport people from battles already in place to his computer-generated death squads. He's presenting the situation as if he was the only one using the zones correctly when, in actuality, he was just the only one manipulating loopholes to allow him to generally be mean to other players. That's the biggest reason why he was despised.

3) Twixt commonly made fun of players he killed.

He did not simply say random hero-supporting things, he oftentimes bragged openly after using his computer-generated helpers to kill someone. Like any other competitive situation, bragging and talking trash will earn people talking back and becoming more upset. He worked to goad individuals into becoming angrier at what he did.

He mentions the forums as a place where people speculated about parts of his life, but he seems to have left out where he posted kill-logs from his time spent in PvP zones. He posted quite frequently on those boards, and he went out of his way to fuel the hate that developed for him. Professional athletes who do such a thing are widely derided by the media and fans. Twixt worked hard to generate hate, he was not simply an innocent victim.

4) Twixt died. A lot.

Twixt perfected his method of generating debt for other players by dying a whole lot along the way. Statements like, "But no one could stay alive long enough to defeat Twixt..." completely misrepresent what happened.

5) Twixt's research plays a role by examining another realm of society, but his results are predictable.

It's not surprising that people get upset when you're mean to them without reason. On an unmarked curb, it's legal for me to park 5 fee

Remember that the Wall Street Journal authors apparently have no knowledge whatsoever of technical things. That doesn't stop them from writing articles about technical things, however.

Air France didn't begin replacing the malfunctioning pitot tubes in the Airbus until April 2009, and the tubes were not replaced yet in the crashed aircraft. The computers were not at fault apparently; there is no reason to suspect a computer malfunction.

Notice that the Wall Street Journal article, Computer Failures Are Probed in Jet Crash, says exactly that: "... seemingly beginning with malfunctioning airspeed sensors..." The "airspeed sensors" are the pitot tubes, which in the Airbus have been known for many years to collect ice in unusual conditions, and to stop giving reliable data.

The computers did what they were programmed to do, apparently. They stopped operating when they calculated that the data was bad. At that point the pilots needed to fly the plane themselves. However, the aircraft was operating in what is known in the aircraft industry as the coffin corner". There was apparently no way a human could fly the aircraft safely at the speeds necessary to get the craft to France in time, since in a severe thunderstorm the airspeed could not be known accurately enough to prevent overstressing the aircraft.

The Wall Street Journal apparently has NO new information. Here is a quote from the article: "The Air France crash could become the first since the 1980s in which U.S. and European investigators try to piece together a probable cause in a high-profile crash without the help of information from at least one of the plane's black boxes -- the digital recorders containing detailed flight data and cockpit conversations from the flight." There is apparently NO honest reason for the Wall Street Journal to publish an article now, claiming "Computer Failures".

Quote from a June 25, 2009 Aviation Week article, EASA: No Action Soon On A330 Pitot Tubes published three days ago: "The pitot tubes have come under fire in the wake of the crash of AF447 because the accident aircraft, an A330-200, broadcast maintenance messages just before all contact was lost, indicating inconsistent speed information and potential problems with the pitot tube."

Should the Wall Street Journal be trusted for financial information? Apparently the publication did NOTHING to stop the present corruption in the financial departments of the U.S. government. Warren Buffett very publically called derivatives "financial weapons of mass destruction" beginning in 2002. The corruption was caused by the removal of laws designed to prevent fraud, at the beginning of George W. Bush's first term.

Apparently the Wall Street Journal always serves the profit of its advertisers and others in the U.S. financial industry. If publishing the article at this time and in the way it did indicates anything other than ignorance, it could be theorized that someone connected with the publication has investments in Air France or Airbus Industries.

Other similar incidents concerning the Airbus 330 are being investigated, according to a June 25, 2009 Associated Press news release, US panel probes 2 incidents involving Airbus A330s. The Wall Street Journal has access to the Associated Press, obviously. Why did it publish its misleading article two days later, which appears to blame the "computers"? The REAL story is apparently that apparently such incidents with the Airbus are common.

Here

Daily Show Special Report

Jason Jones: Tell me a joke.
New York Times manager: No, that's your job.
JJ: You wanna hear one from me? Okay. What's black and white and red all over?
NYT: A newspaper.
JJ: No, your balance sheet.

I seem to recall having been explained that "whiskey" is the Irish one, while "whisky" is Scottish. Google seems to find a few sources (including this one) that confirm this.

Easy- Steampunkafy it.

Where were you 2nd amendment warriors during the Bush years when FEMA did a gun grab in New Orleans after they botched the relief effort after Katrina?

My understanding is that didn't originate with FEMA, it originated with Mayor Nagin. Anyway, the NRA was all over it and legislation was eventually passed on a Federal level to prohibit Federal resources from being used to seize lawfully possessed firearms. I'm pretty sure the state of Louisiana passed similiar legislation although you'd have to check with someone who follows their politics to get specifics.

Dishonest dealings makes you paranoid and suspicious. It increases your chances of going to jail. The people you work with end up going to jail or get killed. People like the guy in the FPP sell crypto and hardening services to child pornographers and human traffickers. They dart from gig to gig hoping they wont get caught. Its incredibly stressful to be a successful crook.

Ultimately, many gun and drug deals lead to victimization or are victimizing acts themselves. Read about how many people get killed just trying a deal.

Yes, there is a real benefit in an honest living. Its 'hip' to think everything is morally relative, but really threyre not. How you feel about selling guns to gangbangers is very different about how you feel selling widgets to the Walmart crowd.

>You can't prove you're right any more than he can.

Here's some illustrated proof on what a typical life of crime gets you. Or this.

well...

Wrong...see other post. It is for New Orleans, LA....anyone that lives here or in the area knows that. For instance, why does NOLA.com give reports and news about New Orleans....and not northern Louisiana as you try to put forth?

Let me remind you that there are locations in the Netherlands which are more than two times below sea level compared to that of New Orleans. New Orleans is of course much more prone to storms than the aforementioned place but I do not see why technology could not solve this [reinforcement] issue.

A couple differences: Parts (10-20%) of New Orleans are settling an inch a year, while parts of the Netherlands are settling a tenth or a quarter of an inch a year. 55% of the Netherlands is below sea level, so efforts to preserve it will have steady national support. Only a small section of the Mississippi river delta is below sea level. Still, towns in the Netherlands are in fact being told they can't build anything new. And there are mitigation efforts that work for river flooding that won't work for hurricane flooding, such as floating foundations. All in all, the Netherlands has good reason to take their situation much more seriously than New Orleans does, and it shows in what they have done.

Here's a nice documentary about the real problems behind the hurricanes.

After vetoing their pay raise, perhaps Jindal thought that fighting a 94-3 vote was a distraction he didn't need? Especially when it's unlikely that teachers are going to cooperate anyhow. Save your anger for the legislators and remember how decentralized government limits the damage any one group of nitwits can cause.

Pick your battles: rule #1 of politics.

Your examples:

http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/040502/D7IMSS901.html

Pot found on his person and in his system.

http://www.nola.com/speced/buscrash/index.ssf?/buscrash/9908040090.html

Charter bus driver smokes the morning of his trip.

Took me about two minutes to find those.

And if you're seriously going to try and question whether anyone has ever died while driving on pot, you're a moron. It seems like you DID try so...

Cops are above the law.. they are our betters.

They are government officals.. whats the problem pesent?

City councilwoman clocked driving 100 mph
http://blog.nola.com/updates/2007/04/city_councilw oman_clocked_driv.html
"She proceeded to exclaim to me that she had the authority to 'do what I wanted' and that she had a badge and was late for a meeting," the report reads.

Here is a warning.. and if you do it again.. you'll get another.. ( >_> ) ..warning. ok?

"Out" as in on Parole. The penalty for murder in Canada is life in prison without parole eligibility for 25 years (first degree) and between 10 and 25 years (second degree) according to what the sentencing judge orders.

" ... Offenders who are paroled while serving life sentences remain on parole for life, unless parole is revoked. Without a grant of parole, the offender remains imprisoned for life. ..." -Corrections Service Canada (the federal prison system).

In Canada, any sentence of two years or more is automatically Federal custody, and sentences of less than two years custody means serving time in a provincial jail.

I'm not familiar with the "serial killer" case you mention. Do you have a name?

As for the FLQ, I don't know whom you refer to when you say " ... murderers out in less than ten (FLQ)"; perhaps you are referring to Jacques Rose who was convicted of accessory to murder and sentenced to eight years. He served five years in prison and successfully completed 3 years on parole without incident. He was acquitted of charges of murder and kidnapping. His lawyer, Robert Lemieux, was convicted of contempt of court over numerous courtroom incidents and sentenced to two and one half years in prison.

Pierre-Paul Geoffroy was arrested for the 1969 bombing of the Montreal Stock Exchange, which injured numerous persons. He pled guilty to every bombing believed to be the work of the FLQ, some 129 charges in all, and was sentenced to 124 terms of life in prison.

Two others were convicted of murder (Paul Rose, Francis Simmered) and sentenced to life in prison, and a third (Bernard Sortie) sentenced to 20 years for kidnapping. During the 1970 crisis, simply being a member of the FLQ became a crime punishable by five years imprisonment. In total, 46 people were charged with crimes related to the kidnappings. Five persons were charged with kidnapping but escaped prosecution for a time; they were discovered to be living in Paris (Marc Carbonneau, Jacques Lanctôt, and Jacques and Louise Cossette-Trudel, who were given passage to Cuba in exchange for releasing British Diplomat James Cross, whom they had held for 60 days) as well as fugitives Yves Langlois. All faced outstanding charges in Canada. French authorities indicated they would refuse a request to extradite them.

All five would voluntarily return to Canada during the early 1980's and receive relatively light sentences (in the range of two years), but they had not murdered anyone; they released their hostage, James Cross unharmed. The light sentences were party because much of the evidence required to obtain a conviction was missing; the files held by the Quebec department of justice disappeared on the night of the election of the Parti Québécois, on November 15, 1976.

Comparing justice in the US is difficult, as there are essentially 51 jurisdictions; some are sentenced to long, harsh sentences while others get a "slap on the wrist". In Utah, the parole board has the power to alter the sentence itself, so that one cannot be sure that a harsh sentence will actually be served by the offender; while in Louisiana currently there are cases of murder that go unprosecuted, with the offender being released without trial. See: The Times-Picayune: Crime Thrives Under 60 Day Rule: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/ base/news-7/11712631133140.xml&coll=1/

Often a harsh sentence is given but offenders are released after serving relatively brief periods of incarceration. Certainly there are many examples of both harsh and lax sentences in the US, and I'm sure every nation has it's share of outraged citizens who decry sentences that they feel are too easy on offenders.

• The memorial was voted on by the city council.
• The ACLU was complaining because it is on a public waterway.
• The ACLU does not believe the claim that it is being done by a private group.

I'm not asking you to agree with the ACLU on this one (I don't) - just to acknowledge that by omitting those facts, Fox News deliberately distorted the story. To be fair, they did later provide some balance to the story (at least on their web-site - I never heard this story, but I'm not a regular viewer, either).

Again, why was this not noted all over the blogosphere? I'm guessing that because it is expected from Fox News.

Rumors of rampant violence at the Convention Center prompted Louisiana National Guard Lt. Col. Jacques Thibodeaux put together a 1,000-man force of soldiers and police in full battle gear to secure the center Sept. 2 at about noon.

It took only 20 minutes to take control, and soldiers met no resistance, Thibodeaux said. What the soldiers found - elderly people and infants near death without food, water and medicine; crowds living in filth - shocked them more than anything they'd seen in combat zones overseas. But they found no evidence, witnesses or victims of any killings, rapes or beatings, Thibodeaux said.

Ah, plasmacutter.

After spending a week reading things of substance, I view you as the dessert - an article without substance, but a little sweet... ahh...

This is an "after the fact" call, and all crimes regardless of severity are investigated and when possible the perpetrators are brought to justice. This is also NOT the argument you were making in your earlier post.

Your earlier post said it was perfectly "ok" to shred the bill of rights and the constitutional provisions against overstep of government power if it prevented crimes before they happened.

I'll say this again: "Minority report anyone?"

As usual, this is just too rich, my boy.

Perhaps you were unaware that plotting murder is, in itself, a crime? Would you suggest that the police shouldn't attempt to stop those plotting a murder? Or do you prefer Steven Spielberg to set your political ideas?

They don't do this with speeding, they don't even do it with murder, but I guess it's ok whenever they shriek "national security" at the top of their ultrafascist lungs.

They don't arrest people for planning murder? Are you sure about that?

In Canada, it's punishable by life in prison. In the U.S., laws vary from state to state, but generally the penalty is quite severe.

Are these laws "shredding the bill of rights"? Are they punishing people for thought? Do people have the right to plot murder? At what point should we take action to prevent an act of murder, as the knife is pulled, as the finger moves to the trigger, as the plane approaches a building?

A "wait and see" approach is absurd, stupid, and unsurprisingly what you advocate. People don't have the right to plot murder, no more than they have the right to shout "fire" in a crowded theatre (unless, of course, there is a fire).

people who are arrogant enough to wander around calling other people stupid to their face are usually the ones who need to expand their wisdom, I advise you to do so.

Ah, this is my favorite part. Coming right after the "ultrafascist" bit.

Why don't you "expand [your] wisdom" by not arguing that every thing that doesn't reinforce your truly idiotic view of the world is part of a vast, extreme right wing conspiracy and that, perhaps, things might go a little beyond the class warfare you so earnestly love.

I call you stupid because you ignore the facts and the world around you. I call you stupid because you compare a Steven Spielberg flick to actual crime. I call you stupid because you believe that the Council on Foreign Relations is an extreme right organization. I call you stupid for a variety of reasons, and you richly deserve the title.

Now keep on slash stalking away, my good boy. You'll give me entertainment for weeks to come.

New Orleans was built were it was and the levees were built along the Mississippi because both are required by the nation. I am not talking about the tourism or oil. The New Orleans port complex is the largest by volume in the US and the fifth largest in the world. We have the levees along the river because the nation needs a navigatable river. Large ocean going ships can go as far as New Orleans and barges take commodites the rest of the way into the entire center of the country. The entire economy of the center of the country from agriculture to steel is predicated on cheep movement of commodites that the river system provides. Thats why the US took responsibility away from Louisiana for flood protection. Unfortunately the corps of engineers has been malfeasant. Publically saying they built the flood walls to cat 3 standards while actually building flood walls that didnt stand up to the cat 1 or 2 that most of New Orleans actually got.
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-0/ 1133336910287360.xml?nola
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-2/ 1132558719240640.xml?nola
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/library -90/113238581335800.xml?nola

They have lied about the construction techiques they used and futher would release their records on the flood ways citing Homeland Security Concerns! Does that really matter now? In our own investigations using sonar, an independent investigating team has discovered that the steel piling only go to half the depth the corps claims.

Luckly for the US, most of the port system has survived the storm in good order. But how long to do you expect the port workers to continue to work without the support of a city? How long will the work overtime inorder to make up for people who have not come back because they have no place to comeback to and the country does no seem to want them back?

A good article on the importance of New Orleans and the current situation:

http://www.stratfor.com/news/archive/050903-geopol itics_katrina.php

New Orleans was built were it was and the levees were built along the Mississippi because both are required by the nation. I am not talking about the tourism or oil. The New Orleans port complex is the largest by volume in the US and the fifth largest in the world. We have the levees along the river because the nation needs a navigatable river. Large ocean going ships can go as far as New Orleans and barges take commodites the rest of the way into the entire center of the country. The entire economy of the center of the country from agriculture to steel is predicated on cheep movement of commodites that the river system provides. Thats why the US took responsibility away from Louisiana for flood protection. Unfortunately the corps of engineers has been malfeasant. Publically saying they built the flood walls to cat 3 standards while actually building flood walls that didnt stand up to the cat 1 or 2 that most of New Orleans actually got.
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-0/ 1133336910287360.xml?nola
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-2/ 1132558719240640.xml?nola
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/library -90/113238581335800.xml?nola

They have lied about the construction techiques they used and futher would release their records on the flood ways citing Homeland Security Concerns! Does that really matter now? In our own investigations using sonar, an independent investigating team has discovered that the steel piling only go to half the depth the corps claims.

Luckly for the US, most of the port system has survived the storm in good order. But how long to do you expect the port workers to continue to work without the support of a city? How long will the work overtime inorder to make up for people who have not come back because they have no place to comeback to and the country does no seem to want them back?

A good article on the importance of New Orleans and the current situation:

http://www.stratfor.com/news/archive/050903-geopol itics_katrina.php

New Orleans was built were it was and the levees were built along the Mississippi because both are required by the nation. I am not talking about the tourism or oil. The New Orleans port complex is the largest by volume in the US and the fifth largest in the world. We have the levees along the river because the nation needs a navigatable river. Large ocean going ships can go as far as New Orleans and barges take commodites the rest of the way into the entire center of the country. The entire economy of the center of the country from agriculture to steel is predicated on cheep movement of commodites that the river system provides. Thats why the US took responsibility away from Louisiana for flood protection. Unfortunately the corps of engineers has been malfeasant. Publically saying they built the flood walls to cat 3 standards while actually building flood walls that didnt stand up to the cat 1 or 2 that most of New Orleans actually got.
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-0/ 1133336910287360.xml?nola
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-2/ 1132558719240640.xml?nola
http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/library -90/113238581335800.xml?nola

They have lied about the construction techiques they used and futher would release their records on the flood ways citing Homeland Security Concerns! Does that really matter now? In our own investigations using sonar, an independent investigating team has discovered that the steel piling only go to half the depth the corps claims.

Luckly for the US, most of the port system has survived the storm in good order. But how long to do you expect the port workers to continue to work without the support of a city? How long will the work overtime inorder to make up for people who have not come back because they have no place to comeback to and the country does no seem to want them back?

A good article on the importance of New Orleans and the current situation:

http://www.stratfor.com/news/archive/050903-geopol itics_katrina.php

"Do you have any idea what it would take to make a building that can sustain 275 sustained wind load??? The answer to that is easy. No you don't." ... "I doubt that you could fined anyone that would even attempt to build a building rated at 265 MPH sustained winds."

Suggestion: Perhaps you shouldn't assume so much. That way, I won't have to paste links to buildings that can withstand the winds from very strong tornadoes.

"A levee that can take a 35 foot surge + 275MPH winds? Never have been done and would cost way to much. "

I was under the impression that a much larger one already existed.

"The only correct action in the face of a Category 5 storm is to evacuate."

Which is why I no longer live there - I essentially agree with this.

So are Floridians. The state set up the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund so that people can buy hurricane insurance. This state-created fund reimburses insurers for losses.

The pattern of lots of people living in unsafe areas is actually widespread in this country. And the pattern of the governments stepping in to help those people after or in preparation for a tragedy is also common, even tragedies that are _totally_ foreseeable.

The condition of New Orleans and its levees had much to do with federal projects diverting silt from the Mississippi away from the delta, both sinking the city further by receding the delta itself and destroying protective wetlands (see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/581820/po sts and the great editorial at http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/ base/news-4/1132475704190650.xml). These projects benefitted upriver development and offshore drilling to New Orleans' detriment.

Your sanctiomny was misplaced.

Not that "tinkerable" - I expect that the source code for everything won't come loaded on the machine.

According to several recent articles, the machine has a bunch of USB ports, Wireless mesh-topology networking, 1G of RAM and no hard disk; the storage will all be flash.

See also:

http://laptop.media.mit.edu/faq.html
http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/index.ssf?/base/liv ing-5/113030655622200.xml

-- Terry

The other reply to your polite request was a bit rude, so here are some useful links:

http://www.nola.com/weblogs/print.ssf?/mtlogs/nola _tporleans/archives/print082732.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050928-1 21515-2539r.htm
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la- na-rumors27sep27,0,5492806,full.story?coll=la-home -headlines

Another thing you might want to do is read every original transcript of everything Pres. Bush has said since 9/11. You'll never trust a newspaper again.

Another thing that works well is to compare newspapers against themselves six months later. You'll never trust a newspaper again.

God I hope the media don't get any sort of protection. I can't think of many groups that would deserve it less.

Bullshit. It sounds good at first but it breaks down when you think about it. As long as they bring food and shelter for themselves everything they do is appreciated and useful. Training is better, co-ordinated trained people are best but no one is useless. Turning people away for lack of paper work "certs" is one of the worst things that happened. All help is appreciated by decent people and there are plenty of them in New Orleans, Slidel and on the Gulf Coast.

Contact The Red Cross.

The Red Cross know what it's doing, unlike FEMA or that horrible woman who did not know she was in command of the National Guard and delayed aid for days without reason. Contact Them and join an organized response. They might even tell you what to fill your truck with.

Now, let's see what people in New Orleans are saying. "Please open a Wal Mart"! Family members report that the one grocery store open smells like the fridges they taped shut and put on the curb. I think they can use almost ANYTHING but beer is in short supply.

Your backs will also be useful. There's plenty of cleaning up you can offer people who are unable to do such things on their own. They will be happy to see you.

Of course, there are some real jerks there too. I've heard plenty of stories about people who not only expected heroism on their behalf, they expressed anger to those helping them. I have it first hand that, as in other urban dissasters, police and firemen were shot at while putting out fires. Some people have such a strong sense of entitlement they are angry they were not rescued earlier and have been asking questions like, "Where's my appartment?" for weeks. Don't let them deter you.

Good luck, you are going to need it.

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf? /base/news-19/1126310641289593.xml&storylist=louis iana

Yes, and it appears that poor communications is now being highlighted as a significant contributor to the slow response of disaster relief. There is obviously a recognition that the whole communications system needs a rethink. The link reports a briefing to state Sen. Robert Barham on a system for linking networks of support agencies.

From http://homelandresponse.org/full_story.php?WID=139 77 : "Gov. Blanco has complained repeatedly and bitterly behind the scenes that the federal government did not act quickly enough. According to a White House spokesman, she was asked by President George Bush to order the evacuation of New Orleans on Aug. 27, 48 hours before Hurricane Katrina struck. Blanco, for reasons unknown, waited until Aug. 28. After the levees broke and the city began to flood, the White House spokesman says the president asked if she wanted the federal government to take control of the evacuation of New Orleans. Gov. Blanco asked for 24 hours to think about it."

Nicely summarized, but the information is also available in plenty of other places online.

Perhaps you should leave your outrage at the door of ignorance, since you clearly don't understand that the Mayor and Governor are in charge of their locality, not the President.

The President was practically begging them to evacuate the city before the Katrina hit. Instead, the mayor completely failed to even follow his own city's evacuation plans, leaving thousands of people stranded and on their own.

Those 20% should have been smart enough to get out like the other 80% of the city's population, but to blame Bush for any of it is ridiculous. We don't have a dictatorship here, you know. It's not like he could have waved a magic wand. FEMA has to wait for the locals to declare an emergency and ask for help. It's their city and state, after all.

When they finally ordered a mandatory evacuation, the Governor and Mayor "at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.".

The basic problem they had in NO is that the city and state have been in Democratic control for decades and are extremely prone to graf and waste. Frankly, the locals simply didn't have their act together, unlike most of the rest of the places the hurricane hit.

"Some four years after September 11th, both FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security have demonstrated that they can't protect Americans -- indeed, their leaders in abject and total failure can only blithely deny news footage we're seeing with our own eyes."

You're being too generous. Seriously. The head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, claimed that the event was a surprise, for example: that overtopping the levees was not expected. That's utterly ridiculous.

Given that the levees were engineered for a Category 3 hurricane, and this was very well known among local politicians, scientists, the press, and the general public for years earlier, everyone who cared about the issue knew it was a disaster waiting to happen, and many of the details of how it might unfold if a Category 4 or 5 hurricane arrived in the right spot were also well known, and are scarily prophetic if you read them now.

Chertoff -- the supposed head of the effort to deal with the event -- has demonstrated the kind of cluelessness that could only be paralleled by announcing he had no idea a nuclear bomb could cause so much damage, days after the event! He's clearly ignorant of his job, which is a fatal flaw for the head of an organization that is supposed to handle emergencies, and is supposed to be keeping politicians informed enough to make the hard decisions.

To cast it in the only terms that seem to matter to the people in power, Chertoff should have been on the phone last weekend before the storm talking directly to Pres. Bush and telling him that: A) this hurricane is on track to be exactly the catastrophe that people have been predicting there for many decades, and B) if improperly handled, there could be serious political repercussions for Bush's presidency (the latter being the only thing that might wake Bush up from the kind of stupor that had him contininuing on his way to the next political speech elsewhere in the country).

It's as if somebody credible called the federal government to tell them there was a high chance of a nuclear bomb being dropped on the New Orleans area in the next couple of days, yet Bush still kept his speaking appointments. What the hell were he and all his advisors thinking?

I know the people on the ground are working very hard, but it could have been more effective sooner if the effort wasn't so headless at the start.

"Some four years after September 11th, both FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security have demonstrated that they can't protect Americans -- indeed, their leaders in abject and total failure can only blithely deny news footage we're seeing with our own eyes."

You're being too generous. Seriously. The head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, claimed that the event was a surprise, for example: that overtopping the levees was not expected. That's utterly ridiculous.

Given that the levees were engineered for a Category 3 hurricane, and this was very well known among local politicians, scientists, the press, and the general public for years earlier, everyone who cared about the issue knew it was a disaster waiting to happen, and many of the details of how it might unfold if a Category 4 or 5 hurricane arrived in the right spot were also well known, and are scarily prophetic if you read them now.

Chertoff -- the supposed head of the effort to deal with the event -- has demonstrated the kind of cluelessness that could only be paralleled by announcing he had no idea a nuclear bomb could cause so much damage, days after the event! He's clearly ignorant of his job, which is a fatal flaw for the head of an organization that is supposed to handle emergencies, and is supposed to be keeping politicians informed enough to make the hard decisions.

To cast it in the only terms that seem to matter to the people in power, Chertoff should have been on the phone last weekend before the storm talking directly to Pres. Bush and telling him that: A) this hurricane is on track to be exactly the catastrophe that people have been predicting there for many decades, and B) if improperly handled, there could be serious political repercussions for Bush's presidency (the latter being the only thing that might wake Bush up from the kind of stupor that had him contininuing on his way to the next political speech elsewhere in the country).

It's as if somebody credible called the federal government to tell them there was a high chance of a nuclear bomb being dropped on the New Orleans area in the next couple of days, yet Bush still kept his speaking appointments. What the hell were he and all his advisors thinking?

I know the people on the ground are working very hard, but it could have been more effective sooner if the effort wasn't so headless at the start.

What governmental disaster relief?

The New Orleans Times-Picayune (which in 2002: published this report which predicted much of the current disaster.) has a scathing open letter to the president that spells out a lot of the FEMA incompetence.

The busses are submerged and thus may not be started anymore (a motor magazine warned to start submerged cars because they are very likly to break. Although if this is the only chance one should at least try to start them). Btw. you are missing the point. The New Orleans desaster is only secondary caused by the hurricane but by the breach of the levee's. These very leeves where in very bad condition because a lot of money has been shiftet to the irak war. This issue has been known at least since 2002 (http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/).

Lots of links are burried in this small article:
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/20/20848/1.html

So if you still think that there is no administration error, well i can't help you :-(

You don't have to be a liberal to know that Louisiana had to be prepared for the worst then then or even earlier.

I don't think they were. The Governor even admitted that it was George Bush that phoned her and asked her to call for a mandatory evacuation. From an article published here:

The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could
leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order
because airlines had already cancelled all flights.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news
conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for
a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to
flooding.

If you're the Mayor or the Governor and your city is about to get smashed, you don't wait for the president to tell you to get the hell out of there. These people had information available to them, if they were paying attention Friday, that the city was in trouble, yet waited until George Bush asked them to declare a mandatory evacuation. Imagine that: George Bush had more clue than they did, apparently. That by itself proves they're idiots.

A new meme that's spreading in right wing blogs is that the mayor should have started evacuating the city on (Saturday/Sunday) using fleets of schoolbusses that are, today, sitting in water. There are logistical problems with that "solution", obviously. Some of it's a matter of getting fuel, drivers, and places to go. Some of it is that, as you and I as people that have lived through this before (you said in another post you live in Florida, I live in Stuart - Frances made landfall 15 miles south of here, Jeanne made landfall here) know, a huge proportion of the public simply wouldn't have left.

And yet someone actually did take a school bus and drove 100 people to Houston -all without needed the Mayor's or the Governor's or the president's say-so.

So you go ahead and ridicule the idea of using school buses to evacuate, but there were some people that took the idea seriously are are better for it. If one kid can steal a bus and carry 100 people to safety, then it must be possible for the government of New Orleans to have done the same in an organized way.

Over 200 buses were available. With 100 people on each bus, that's 20,000 that could have gotten out.

So the five days comment is perfectly reasonable.

No. It was a lie by congresspeople trying to score political points. And it's an easy lie to detect since it's well documented that Katrina was still in Mississippi Tuesday morning. That means there was about 3 days, not 5 days, delay.

You're right -- helicopters are 100 times more expensive, which is why the feds are not usually in charge of disaster recovery. The country is too damn big to have disaster plans for every region, which is why it's the responsibility of local and state governments to have plans. Why the hell didn't the mayor of New Orleans have a plan to get HIS OWN CITIZENS out?? The guy is being a total a-hole blaiming the feds for his own failure, as well as the failure of the governor of Louisiana.

Did you know that it was BUSH who personally called the mayor to order a mandatory evacuation? From this...

"Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding."

In other words, Bush saved thousand, if not tens of thousands of lives. The deaths can be put squarely on the government of Louisiana and New Orleans.

Not that things couldn't have been done faster -- they could have. But Bush is getting way too much of the blame here. The feds are not designed to move fast, combined with the fact that it was an incredible mess, and it doesn't help when people are shooting at the rescuers.

You're kidding, right? Have you ever tried to move 100,000 people from a disaster area? These are the sick, the old, the very young, injured and, unfortunately, some are the criminal. It is not easy to move them, especially when large parts of the transportation infrastructure has been destroyed. Flat bottom boats are not going to do the job well.

We don't (or didn't) need high-tech toys to control the crowds. Simple, common-sense, things like on-going airdrops of food and water, combined with convoys of buses, and temporary shelters at schools, etc, would have prevented major losses of life in this fiasco.

They did try airdrops and were shot at. The Mayor of New Orleans had over 400 buses at his disposal after he was urged by President Bush to evacuate New Orleans ~48 hours before Katrina hit. He chose to leave those city and school buses in the motor pool. The buses that are in New Orleans had to come from outside the city. The buses that were used delivered the victims to locations without adequate resourses such as the Superdome and Convention Center. It is unfortunate that Nagin ignored his own disaster plan.