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For Icelanders, shock and anger over a dizzying fall By Sarah Lyall Sunday, November 9, 2008 REYKJAVIK: The collapse came so fast it seemed unreal, impossible. One woman here compared it to being hit by a train. Another said she felt as if she were watching it through a window. Another said, "It feels like you've been put in a prison, and you don't know what you did wrong." Iceland, as modern and sophisticated as it is geographically isolated, still seems to be in shock. But if the events of last month - the failure of banks; the plummeting of...

Machosauce/Zo gives his 2 cents on the results.

WASHINGTON — John McCain's campaign was meandering through the summer, one day focusing on the Everglades, the next on Iraq and hardly ever on Democrat Barack Obama, when his top advisers took him aside and told him to make a choice. You can keep running a comfortable, "play it safe" campaign — hanging out with the media on the back of the bus, talking about climate change and handling Obama with kid gloves — and lose by a respectable 2 or 3 percentage points, they said. Or, they told the former Navy pilot and war hero, he could authorize a...

Aftermath: Population Zero investigates what would happen if every single person on Earth simply disappeared. Explore an interactive world without humans.

The Election Aftermath Barry Farber Monday, Nov. 13, 2006 The elections of Nov. 7 made me feel like the Jewish grandmother in an old joke that deserved a longer shelf-life than it got. Her granddaughter approached her gingerly and said, "Grandma. I really have to talk to you even though what I have to say may upset you terribly." The grandmother says, "What is it, my child? "You know you and I have always talked about important things." "Well," tremulated that young woman. "I'm in love and I intend to get married and he's not Jewish!" The grandmother, rupturing all...

So what happened?In 1994, the Republicans were elected on a wave of voter discontent. Under the brilliant leadership of Newt Gingrich, the Class of '94 helped shape the booming economy of the '90s with welfare reform. They kept the Democrats on notice that Bubba wasn't going to be around forever. They got the message of classical conservatism out to the American people in a way that would have made Reagan proud.And then they got re-elected.Following their losses in 1998, the GOP decided they were better off without Newt and went where they thought the votes were: the religious conservatives who...

It was exactly one year ago. Storm hit New Orleans, turning Mardi-Gras city into rubble. Local Chabad rabbi writes to Ynetnews about days following disaster, and about one good-hearted act, that infused hope into hearts of all Rabbi Yossie Nemes Published: 08.29.06, 14:50 New Orleans: As today is the one-year anniversary of Katrina we reminisce about the passed year. Pre-Katrina Greater New Orleans was a city of 1.3 million inhabitants, amongst them 12,000 Jews, half of whom have not returned. The life of every single New Orleanian was shaken to the core and changed forever by Katrina. We remember levees...

Okay...I know none of you would want to watch See-BS because of their traitorous, lying 'news' division. However, I was surfing around last night and found out about a show on their Fall lineup, "Jericho". The premise focuses around the fictional town of Jericho, Kansas. It's a typical small town in mid-America. The opening introduces us to some of the main characters, no biggie. Then , the big twist comes in: A nuclear mushroom cloud is sighted on the horizon in the direction of Denver. Power, lights, phone, TV, radio from the outside...all go dead. Later, it's found out that...

Speaking Spanish in a new New Orleans By GREGORY RODRIGUEZ Special to the Los Angeles Times No matter what all the politicians and activists want, African-Americans and impoverished white Cajuns will not be first in line to rebuild the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast and New Orleans. Latino immigrants, many of them undocumented, will. And when they're done, they're going to stay, making New Orleans look like Los Angeles.It's the federal government that will have made the transformation possible, further exposing the hollowness of the immigration debate.President Bush has promised that Washington will pick up the greater part of the cost for...

As much as communications and time will allow i will try to keep this updated with our animal rescue trip to louisiana. We havent even gotten down there and most of us havent slept in 24 hours. People from all over are calling to help them, shelters need us....we have alot of work to do. -snip- None of these pictures have been edited at all....nothing. We took them on the run while driving or working and to get them down i left them as was. I hope yall still feel the effect of them. I dont think i have ever...

Seems to be a slow news evening - so how about a little creative "caption this picture" fun....

I know this is probably the wrong place for this, but I have been wondering. I lost power for 14 hours during Katrina and cable for longer, but when I think about the criticism of Federal response I don't know what they did wrong. I know: 1. The President encourage local officals to evacuate BEFORE the storm and made the rare move of declaring a disaster before the storm hit. 2. The Mayor delayed evacuation but now it looks like most people were able to get out. The city failed to provision their shelters. 3. The govenor and attorney general...

Lt. Rodney Neighbors of the Garland County Sheriff’s Department says an 18-year-old Louisiana man has been arrested for and charged with rape. Glenn Dorsett is accused of raping a 13-year-old mentally challenged girl from New Orleans at the Assembly of God church campground on Hwy. 7 that has been set up for hurricane evacuees. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison. Lt. Neighbors says Dorsett's adult arrest history since he turned 18 years old includes Louisiana charges of aggravated criminal damage to property, illegal use of weapons, terrorizing, disturbing the peace, criminal trespass, manufacturing - distribution -...

As the C-130s headed to Houston to pick up people fleeing the destruction of New Orleans, I realized I was wrong. Dreadfully wrong. The kind of wrong that only comes from voicing an opinion without knowing the facts. Of course the West Virginia Air National Guard should have its C-130s. What was I thinking? The men and women of this unit show loving care for their planes. Panama, Gulf War, mercy missions -- I cannot recall an emergency that the 130th missed. Gov. Joe Manchin knows how important the 130th is. He sent those planes to pick up people who...

Crude oil prices struck a record high of $70.85 in New York trading on August 30. If you believed all the hype surrounding the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – e.g., it was Bush’s fault and the economy will be in ruins – well, you may just have been a victim of the TV talking heads’ hysteria, and that of the New York Times, LA Times, etc., etc. A few days after Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, the news networks kept showing the “startling” image of a gas station sign advertising $5.87/gallon – I believe it was in Atlanta. Of course,...

After 10 days of often uncertain responses to the Bush administration's management of Hurricane Katrina, Democratic leaders unleashed a burst of attacks on the White House on Wednesday, saying the wreckage in New Orleans raised doubts about the country's readiness to endure a terrorist attack and exposed ominous economic rifts that they said had worsened under five years of Republican rule. Democrats offered what was shaping up as the most concerted attack that they had mounted on the White House in the five years of the Bush presidency. snip The display of unity was striking for a party that has...

LOUIS ARMSTRONG NEW ORLEANS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, La. -- When David Cook’s resolve crumbled after a week of surviving in his third-floor apartment amid Hurricane Katrina floodwaters, he searched for help that arrived too quickly. After Mr. Cook endured Katrina’s wrath Aug. 29, he said his two “hardheaded” roommates talked him into staying put another seven days despite the damage to their room. “The smell started to get to me,” Mr. Cook said about the 7 feet of floodwater that filled up the first floor of his complex. Fortunately he had access to a boat, so he loaded up himself and...

SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) -- Nineteen years of growing up around the capricious hurricanes of Pascagoula, Miss., kept a staff sergeant here relatively calm upon hearing the news that a surge in the Gulf of Mexico was on the way. But the reality of Hurricane Katrina’s wrath soon set in. Following the devastation and displacement of thousands of hapless victims since the Aug. 29 catastrophic event, Staff Sgt. Jamie Bosarge said she never felt more helpless trying to save her family from peril. With more than 4,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean separating the Airman from her family, Sergeant Bosarge...

RALEIGH -- Nearly 400 New Orleans evacuees are fed, clean and safe in a vacant office building in West Raleigh, but their future remains as uncertain as it was when the devastation of Hurricane Katrina forced them from their homes. Three planeloads of storm victims, ages 2 to 97, arrived at a cargo terminal at Raleigh-Durham International Airport late Monday and early Tuesday. Local officials were ready with hot meals, showers, medical and mental health care and clean, dry sleeping quarters. But there is much more to do. Local, state and federal agencies must help Katrina's victims find temporary homes,...

New Orleans is where it is for a reason: The United States needs a city right there. New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. It is a terrible place for a city to be located, but exactly the place where a city must exist. With that as a given, a city will return there because the alternatives are too devastating. The harvest is coming, and that means that the port will have to be opened soon. As in Iraq, premiums will be paid to people prepared to endure the hardships of working in New Orleans. But...

U.S. commercial air carriers continue transporting tens of thousands of evacuees from the New Orleans airport to destinations throughout the nation. Rooftop air rescue efforts continue. One rescue chopper crashed late today. Crew members are reported safe. Gunmen who fired upon bridge repair contractors were killed by law enforcement. To date, an estimated 70 countries and U.S. businesses have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, supplies, food and equipment to assist the United States' efforts in Katrina's aftermath. Lt. General Honore described the damage to Mississippi today, "all infrastructure south of Jackson, MS is either damaged or destroyed." Secretary of...

President Bush continues to assess the catastrophic damage by air and on the ground in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Bush spent the day meeting with search and rescue personnel, relief commanders, and displaced residents in Mobile, Biloxi, and the New Orleans area. U.S. Congress passed a $10.5 billion relief package for the hurricane ravaged areas. First Lady Laura Bush issued a press statement from an evacuation shelter in Lafayette, Louisiana. Patient and staff evacuations continue from numerous New Orleans Hospitals. Thousands of patients are being airlifted to a field hospital at Louis Armstrong New Orleans Airport for triage, staging, and...

As we mourn New Orleans, let us also celebrate it, as New Orleanians famously celebrate their own dead. The city has long been admired for its literary creativity, its exceptional food, and its wonderful music, and deplored — albeit also frequented — because of its legendary corruption and degradation. The possibility of its destruction no doubt played a role in the character of its people, and it is no accident that an annual bacchanal took place there, in the riotous celebrations of Mardi Gras.

28,000 National Guard troops are deployed to the disaster areas in Mississippi, Alabama, and to Louisiana, where SWAT teams are working to combat the looters and shooters in New Orleans. Additional 1400 National Guard troops are being deployed daily. Shootings reported at a New Orleans hospital, rescue boats, and a military helicopter, while conditions continue to deteriorate at the SuperDome amid refugee deaths and chaos. Evacuation of New Orleans continues. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has voiced serious doubts about rebuilding New Orleans with federal funds, while assuring the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida that the United States Congress...

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFPN) -- The Tanker Airlift Control Center here started generating missions Air Mobility Command aircrews will fly supporting Hurricane Katrina relief operations in Louisiana and Mississippi. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, through Northern Command and U.S. Transportation Command, asked for airlift support to fly relief supplies to the stricken region, said Col. Jeff Franklin, the center controller working hurricane relief mission taskings. “We’ve already tasked two aeromedical evacuation airlift missions to fly from Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., to (Lackland AFB) in San Antonio,” he said. “In addition, AMC has been tasked to...

Even as the insurance industry is expected to pay out as much as $25 billion to cover claims from Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of homeowners and small businesses in areas hard-hit by the storm may end up footing their own rebuilding costs because they don't have federal flood insurance. In Mississippi, as few as one in five homes and businesses in the areas most at risk for flooding held flood-insurance policies as of June 30, while just less than half of such properties in Louisiana were covered, according to data from the federal National Flood Insurance Program. In New...

The situation in New Orleans continues to deteriorate due to rising water levels and desperation. Search and rescue continues via boat and air. Authorities have announced the goal to evacuate all the remaining residents of NOLA. The New Orleans Mayor has reported numerous gas leaks throughout the city. Sporadic fires occurring. Attempts to evacuate hundreds of hospital patients from Charity Hospital and Tulane Medical Center are in process. Patients are being transported to other hospitals as far away as Florida. The Army Corps of Engineers is at the NOLA levee breaks with current plans to drop 3000 lb sand bags...

Much has been written recently about the fact that Democrats, arguably with malicious intent, mercilessly attack Republican positions, programs, and political appointees without offering any positive alternatives of their own. This has been ascribed variously to their hatred of George W. Bush (which is certainly a factor), to the fact that a significant percentage of the Democrat base and their elected representatives are unrepentant '60s-style liberals (this, too, plays into the current scenario), even, as Michael Medved has put it, to "an internal contradiction deep within the liberal soul." The bottom line is that, no matter how we might characterize...

Blue blue town Published: Nov 12, 2004 Election"s aftermath leaves Democrats down in the dumps and looking for ways to cope with four more years of W. By ANNE BLYTHE AND MATT DEES, STAFF WRITERS TVs have been off. Some of the political commentary is too much to take. Radios are tuned to music, not talk. Newspapers with front-page pictures of President Bush either go straight into recycling bins or get flipped over quickly to hide what die-hard Democrats and Anybody-But-Bush fans commonly refer to as “that smug mug.” Sure, 11 days have passed since 59 million Americans cast ballots...

U.S. Sen. John Kerry had it right Wednesday morning: "In an American election, there are no losers, because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning we all wake up as Americans." George W. Bush and Kerry both called on the American people to unite as Americans. The question is: are we willing to be united? I'm willing to bet my kid's college tuition there are a large number of Bay Area residents who are gagging at the thought of having to respectfully refer to Bush as "the president." Maybe I'm just thinking of the SFGate reader who,...

/begin my translation Cabbi and a Passenger Slug it out over Troop Dispatch to Iraq A Cabbi in his 50's and a passenger in his 30's had a heated argument over additional troop dispatch to Iraq, and ended up punching each other. Both were arrested. On 25th (of June, 2004), two were arrested for battery at the police dept of Western District in Kwangju(, S. Cholla Province.) Around 4:30am on 23rd, they heard the news of 'Kim Sun-il's beheading' from the radio in a cab. Argument ensued over the troop dispatch. Both lost their temper and a fist fight broke...

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" criticizes President Bush for listening to Sarasota second-graders read a story for nearly seven minutes after learning the nation was under attack on Sept. 11, 2001. But Gwendolyn Tose'-Rigell, the principal at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, says Bush handled himself properly. "I don't think anyone could have handled it better," Tose'-Rigell told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in a story published Wednesday. "What would it have served if he had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?" "Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the top honor at last month's Cannes Film...

World War II Holocaust survivors Fred Bremer, left, and Irving Senor talk with American GI Holland Williams during a meeting Tuesday involving survivors and former soldiers on Fort Huachuca. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review)FORT HUACHUCA - In 1945, Dallas Peyton Jr. saw two men run toward each other, embracing as they fell to the ground. That scene nearly six decades ago is still vivid in the 81-year-old Peyton's mind. A flood of tears suddenly wet the man's cheeks. "They were living skeletons. They may have been family members or friends," Peyton said of the two men who were inmates at the Dachau Concentration...

war stories Military analysis. Why Are We Still Fighting in Iraq? The military doesn't know how to end a war. By Fred Kaplan Posted Tuesday, June 17, 2003, at 4:39 PM PT Seven weeks after President Bush's May Day victory declaration, the war in Iraq is not yet over. More than 50 American soldiers have died in Iraq since then, almost as many as were killed in the three weeks of formal combat. The deaths have come not just from sniper potshots, but also in the course of sizable U.S. raids, at least one (in Fallujah, outside Baghdad) involving a...

Bloomberg Offers Two Budgets, One Bleak and the Other Bleaker By MICHAEL COOPER ayor Michael R. Bloomberg released two budget proposals yesterday, a $44.5 billion best-case plan that he described as "painful" and a backup plan of $1 billion less that he said would be "devastating." Even the best-case situation includes many of the toughest cuts Mr. Bloomberg has sought in his 15 months as mayor. It calls for laying off 4,500 city workers, including teachers' aides, the most layoffs in the city since 1991. A dozen children's clinics would be closed, a vaunted police antidrug operation would cease, rush-hour...

More than 2,000 Iraqi policemen reported for work in Baghdad yesterday as efforts were made to curb the looting and vandalism. Following American radio appeals, the officers arrived at the National Police College to register for work. Later American soldiers made their first joint patrol with Iraqi policemen. Two marine Humvees accompanied five Iraqi police cars through the eastern part of the capital. Yet this largely symbolic start to a crackdown on lawlessness has made little difference so far. Baghdad normally has 40,000 police and it will be some time before all of the new volunteers are deployed on the...

War was his best moment and his worst. Visions of whistling bullets, airborne body parts, screams of the wounded—and that was a good day for Joe Hooper. The Medal of Honor winner and most decorated soldier in Vietnam would bolt upward in his Seattle bed, sweating booze from the night before. Those earlier appearances on national TV, the possibility of a Hollywood biopic, hanging out with Bob Hope and several presidents—that just churned him up more inside. The catlike, strawberry-haired 6-footer and former Washington state football scoring champ at Moses Lake High School had enlisted at age 19 because he...

On The Brinkwritten by James Daly (james_daly_ca@hotmail.com)The situation in Iraq, regardless of UN bickering and posturing, will come to a head this week.  Forget the diplomats and forget the UN proposals that would stretch out the inspections indefinitely.  Most importantly, forget what all those talking heads on cable news are saying.  If you want to truly understand the situation, watch what America and her allies do, rather than what they say.  While last minute diplomacy continues, it should be clear to all that we are indeed on the brink of war.It has long been understood that actions speak louder...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks will be in total charge of Iraq immediately after the war, but will be supported shortly thereafter by three civilian administrators, each in charge of a different geographic sector of the country, Pentagon officials said Friday. Iraq would be divided into thirds for administrative purposes -- northern, southern and central sectors. The borders of those areas have not been established, according to the Pentagon officials, but the southern sector is expected to be demographically dominated by Shiites and the northern sector by Kurds. Boundary lines would be determined by existing major...

Aftermath In Iraq Is the Key To Everything February 19, 2003 "Folks, the Brits have warned all of their nationals in Iraq to hightail it out of there as soon as they can, before the bombs start to drop. The day is drawing closer, folks – and when the war is over, that's when the really good stuff is going to start happening. When the shooting is over – and it will be over quickly – the world will discover that George W. Bush was 100% right about everything he has been saying about Iraq and Saddam Hussein. I'm going...

(WASHINGTON) Senior Bush administration officials are for the first time openly discussing a subject they have sidestepped during the massive buildup of forces around Iraq: what could go wrong not only during an attack, but especially in the aftermath of an invasion. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has a four-to-five-page typewritten catalog of risks he keeps in his desk drawer. He refers to it constantly, updates it regularly and has incorporated suggestions from senior military commanders into it and discussed it with President George W. Bush. The list includes a "concern about Saddam Hussein using weapons of mass destruction against his...

After the war, what kind of government should the U.S. seek for post-Saddam Iraq? Foreign-policy experts are divided. As long as the new rulers don’t sponsor terror against us, one argument goes, nothing else matters. If they are autocrats, but friendly autocrats, fine. The other view holds that we can guarantee our long-term security only by forcibly democratizing Iraq, and eventually other Middle Eastern tyrannies, just as we brought democracy to defeated Japan after World War II. Given the dangers of nuclear proliferation and terror, a freedom-loving, democratic, and prosperous Middle East is essential to our future safety, in this...

In the aftermath of the September 11th 2001 attacks on America, it is time for us to examine our national, and to some extent, local policies, as an integral part of our overall response to this “undeclared war” against America and her allies.The principle assumptions are (1) that it is not the responsibility of the United States to be everything to everybody. And, (2) the only geopolitical variable that we can realistically control is the United States.It is time for other nations, particularly developing nations, to step up to the plate and work to make things better for “their” citizens...

Lead flees flare ups By Dan Daly, Journal Staff Writer Residents in a broad swath of Lead were asked to voluntarily evacuate their homes late Sunday when the Grizzly Gulch Fire flared up along its western edge. The new evacuation involved areas south of Lead's Main Street and the areas north of Main Street that are east of Washington Street, Brenda Bower, information officer with the U.S. Forest Service, said. That's about two-thirds of the city. Gov. Bill Janklow ordered the evacuation Sunday afternoon. The new evacuees joined thousands of people from Deadwood and rural areas east and south who...