Sun's direct role in global warming may be underestimated, Duke physicists report Study does not discount the suspected contributions of 'greenhouse gases' in elevating surface temperatures DURHAM, N.C. -- At least 10 to 30 percent of global warming measured during the past two decades may be due to increased solar output rather than factors such as increased heat-absorbing carbon dioxide gas released by various human activities, two Duke University physicists report. The physicists said...

NBC Offers Stunning Evidence of Decade-Old Levee Problems in New Orleans Could New Orleans have been saved for $809,659? It seems that as time progresses, we are going to continually be apprised of errors and poor assumptions that were reported to us during the days that followed the recent hurricane disaster in New Orleans. Last night, �NBC Nightly News� peeled back the curtain on another misconception that was proffered by most media outlets right after Katrina hit, namely that the ...

"In fact, while the last regularly scheduled train out of town had left a few hours earlier, Amtrak had decided to run a "dead-head" train that evening to move equipment out of the city. It was headed for high ground in Macomb, Miss., and it had room for several hundred passengers. "We offered the city the opportunity to take evacuees out of harm's way," said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black. "The city declined." So the ghost train left New Orleans at 8:30 p.m., with no passengers on board."...

"This preparedness plan is government as it really is. It reminds us that canning Michael Brown or appointing some tough response czar will not change the endemic failures at the heart of this institutional collapse .""

"" We've seen three of the cards," said a senior employee of the Louis Vuitton store at the Lenox Square Mall in affluent Buckhead, who asked not to be named. "Two I'm certain have purchased; one actually asked if she could use it in the store. This has been since Saturday."

"Florida emergency planners criticized and even rebuked their counterparts -- or what passes for emergency planners -- in those states for their handling of Hurricane Katrina. Gov. Jeb Bush, the head of Florida AHCA and the head of Florida wildlife (which is responsible for all search and rescue) all said they made offers of aid to Mississippi and Louisiana the day before Katrina hit but were rebuffed .""

"Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky, two San Francisco paramedics trapped in New Orleans for five days last week, have a different story to tell than many of the tales that have come out in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. By their account, the cops weren't necessarily the good guys, and it was crystal clear that most of the city government structure collapsed along with the levees that left the city at the mercy of the rising waters. "

Great NT Times article going over the tensions between State and Fed officials. For our foreign readers, the separation between the State and Federal level of government is a HUGE deal and explains why Bush/the Feds/the Military didn't just swoop in. This article details how the Feds wanted to go in fast and hard, but Blanco resisted the legal conditions for that to happen. It came down to her refusing to give up control to the feds, which was required as a matter of law. Here are som...

"It [North Carolina mobile hospital ] travels in a convoy that includes two 53-foot trailers, which yesterday afternoon [9/4/2005] was parked on a gravel lot 70 miles north of New Orleans because Louisiana officials for several days would not let them deploy to the flooded city, Rich said. Yet plans to use the facility and its 100 health professionals were hatched days before Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, doctors in the caravan said." Yet somehow, people continue to s...

The Salvation Army has confirmed that their efforts to get the Convention Center and Superdome resupplied were blocked by the LA Dept Homeland Security as well. For those keeping count, the LHSD prevented both the Red Cross and Salvation Army from coming in and resupplying the Superdome (RC/SA) and the Convention Center (SA).

On the Hannity and Colmes show, Jesse Jackson explained that the reason the school buses weren't used to evacuate the citizens of NO, was due to a lack of destination. Unfortunately, since there was no place for the buses to go, there was no reason to use them. Jesse didn't explain where he came across this information.

This is actually good news, based on news reports, I had been afraid there was no food and water at the Superdome. I'm not sure how successful their attempt at getting the poor of NO to be self-sufficient was though. "Mayeaux, who is the deputy director of the state’s Office Of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said that the state began shipping its own stores of food and water from the Pineville staging area down to New Orleans two days after the storm, on August 31st. T...

Here's a great article which goes into how the ACE get's their funding and how it's spent. Specifically, how LA prioritized the funding they did receive (hint: it wasn't levees). Although not highlighted, the article points out that the Bush Administration sided with NO citizens (mostly black and poor) fighting a floodgate project against the City and State. Perhaps this was just a ruse to hide the racist intentions that some people keep claiming the Bush Administration has? ...

On Wednesday, a line queued up in FEMA's registration line at the Astrodome for the $2,000 debit cards that are going to be passed out to victims. Well, after some people stood in line for 4 hours, it turns out the line was for normal FEMA emergency registration (not debit card registration), which most people had already signed up for. Whose fault is that? FEMA? FEMA hadn't announced the start of debit card registration and there was no debit card queue, but as soon as some people s...

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