Let them suffer

Long after the waters have receded, the poor of the Gulf Coast are still being screwed by the Bush Cabal:

The Bush administration unconstitutionally denied aid to tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and must resume payments immediately, a federal judge ordered yesterday.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said the Federal Emergency Management Agency created a "Kafkaesque" process that began cutting off rental aid in February to victims of the 2005 storms, did not provide clear reasons for the denials, and hindered applicants' due-process rights to fix errors or appeal government mistakes.

"It is unfortunate, if not incredible, that FEMA and its counsel could not devise a sufficient notice system to spare these beleaguered evacuees the added burden of federal litigation to vindicate their constitutional rights," Leon, a D.C. federal judge, wrote in a 19-page opinion.

"Free these evacuees from the 'Kafkaesque' application process they have had to endure," he wrote.

An example of the "Kafkaesque" nightmare:

According to Leon, FEMA issued "ambiguous and unintelligible" computer-generated denial letters that included "only a cryptic code and a phrase such as 'Ineligible-Other' " to explain why benefits were denied. Recipients were referred to a vague "Applicant Guide," which in turn referred them back to the "specific reason" in the letter.

Several evacuees told the court they received "contradictory and confusing" answers when they called FEMA for explanations. Plaintiffs "are unable to address, let alone intelligently appeal, decisions they cannot understand," Leon wrote. "Guessing by an applicant from among several explanations for ineligibility does not serve the fundamental purposes of due process."

Did the CIA kill Bobby Kennedy?

Of course they did.

Some interesting new evidence in this article from the Guardian.

Beyond Reductionism: Reinventing the Sacred

This essay resonates strongly with me, and points out the aburdities of the false dichotomy which limits the discussion of "God" to theist versus atheist -- ignoring other more nuanced philosophies of the sacred. Highly recommended.

An exerpt:

I would like to begin a discussion about the first glimmerings of a new scientific world view — beyond reductionism to emergence and radical creativity in the biosphere and human world. This emerging view finds a natural scientific place for value and ethics, and places us as co-creators of the enormous web of emerging complexity that is the evolving biosphere and human economics and culture. In this scientific world view, we can ask: Is it more astonishing that a God created all that exists in six days, or that the natural processes of the creative universe have yielded galaxies, chemistry, life, agency, meaning, value, consciousness, culture without a Creator. In my mind and heart, the overwhelming answer is that the truth as best we know it, that all arose with no Creator agent, all on its wondrous own, is so awesome and stunning that it is God enough for me and I hope much of humankind.

Thus, beyond the new science that glimmers a new world view, we have a new view of God, not as transcendent, not as an agent, but as the very creativity of the universe itself. This God brings with it a sense of oneness, unity, with all of life, and our planet — it expands our consciousness and naturally seems to lead to an enhanced potential global ethic of wonder, awe, responsibility within the bounded limits of our capacity, for all of life and its home, the Earth, and beyond as we explore the Solar System.

1st Trial in Hosanna Case - August, 2007

First trial scheduled for Ponchatoula rape case

By DEBRA LEMOINE
Advocate Florida parishes bureau
Published: Nov 16, 2006

AMITE — The first of the seven members of a Ponchatoula church charged by a grand jury with raping children will go on trial in August, District Judge Doug Hughes ordered Wednesday.

Austin “Trey” Bernard III, 38, of Hammond will be tried on two counts of aggravated rape starting Aug. 27 in 21st Judicial District Court in Amite. No trial date has been set for the other six indicted members of the congregation.

Bernard is among the nine members of the now-defunct Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula arrested in May 2005 in an investigation focusing on complaints of alleged rape of children. He also is the only one of the seven indicted who has not gotten out of jail on bond.

Some of those arrested allegedly told investigators that the sexual abuse was part of a Satanic ritual. No physical evidence of the alleged rites were found during searches at the church and the suspects’ homes, investigators have said.

During Wednesday’s hearing in 21st Judicial District Court at Amite, Bernard’s attorney, Al Bensabet, noted that his motion for discovery — the request for all the evidence against his client to which he is entitled — has not been answered 18 months after his client’s indictment.

Hughes noted Bensabet’s statement for the record but did not comment further about it.

Assistant District Attorney Don Wall, the lead prosecutor in the case, said after the hearing that he is still going through the voluminous amount of material seized in the case. The materials include everything from computers to furniture stored in a large freight trailer at the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Wall turned over to the defense a report made by Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Detective Michael DePhillips after DePhillips interviewed Bernard on May 19, 2005. The interview was videotaped, but neither the tape nor its transcript has been turned over to defense.

The interview takes place after Bernard allegedly confessed his involvement to investigators, according to DePhillips’ report.

Bernard implicated his ex-wife, who was not indicted, and the wife of the pastor, Robbin Lamonica, 47, of Hammond, who is facing child rape charges. Bernard alleges they participated in a ritual to offer a young girl to Satan by sprinkling the child with blood while inside a pentagram, the report says. Then, Bernard says that each person present allegedly raped the child, the report says.

Bernard also alleges that Robbin and the former pastor, Louis Lamonica, 47, of Hammond, had sex with a different girl in their home. He also allegedly told the detective that Louis Lamonica and another church member who was not arrested allegedly would go to a hotel in New Orleans to have sex with the child involved in the ritual.

NOTE: The index of articles about this case can be found here.

Adios, amigos -- welcome to Gitmo

Are you an immigrant, particularly an illegal one?

President Lame Duck Walking and his InJustice Department say they can throw you in their secret gulags, hold you indefinitely, and subject you to the not-quite-torture interrogation methods like, say, waterboarding.

Apparently the mid-term elections have not dampened his imperial hubris. Let's hope the Dems pack the cojones to put an end to this rampant shredding of the Constitution.