Obama’s Stimulus Bill

This historic 'Major Milestone' for American domestic dissention and economic implosion.

Valentine's day is Historical Paganism

A Young woman buys flowers for Valentine's day at a shop in Gaza City, on 14 February 2009.

The history of Valentine's day is based originally on paganism nor throughout history of Islam or Judaism was it ever acceptable to participate in this holiday; for such as this should never be found among us and this includes anything pertaining or associated to this particular day.

As to giving love for someone, this should be already something everyone does modestly throughout the year and this is by Allah (Hashem, G-d), not by the use of this day that creates Haram (sinful) intentions and as in the concept of dating, this also is not found nor considered acceptable in Islam.

For we shall love one another as Allah (Hashem, G-d) love’s us.

US Foreign and Domestic Policy

“Can’t quite reach it, without keep falling down!”

US: Frequent Military Binge Drinking Reported

13 February 2009

MINNEAPOLIS-Binge drinking is common among active-duty military personnel and is strongly associated with alcohol-impaired driving, U.S. researchers said.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed data from 16,037 active-duty military personnel who participated in a 2005 Department of Defense Survey of Health-Related Behaviors among Military Personnel.

For purposes of the study, binge drinking is defined as consuming four or more drinks on one occasion for a woman or five or more drinks on one occasion for a man.

The study, scheduled to be published in the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found than half of all active-duty personnel who reported binge drinking -- compared to non-binge drinkers -- were more than six times more likely to report job performance problems and about five times more likely to report driving after having too much to drink.

First author Mandy Stahre, a doctoral candidate in alcohol epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, said that 43 percent of active-duty personnel reported binge drinking during the past-month.

The researchers calculated that the number of binge drinking episodes amounted to roughly 30 episodes per person per year -- or more than 30 million binge-drinking episodes in 2005.

The Blood from a Turnip

It is tax time again; for the majority of American’s and it is assured your mouth is watering with the hope of that nice return check, but this year think again.

US President Barack Obama passed a bill to nix that income tax return check, instead the majority of American’s rather it is state or federal will have to pay until the pain can not even be relieved by an aspirin.

If American’s where wondering about the issue of how Obama was going to come up with money for his current beat the government over the head stimulus package, here is one idea.

What is saddened by this, is how American’s are struggling to make end’s meet now and those who took out loans with the hope to pay them back with the now invisible tax return check; it is a wonder of how far the American people will have to suffer before their government stripes everything away from them.

32 Years of US Mayhem Legacy

From left: US Presidents George H. W. Bush, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter met in the Oval Office, on 7 January 2009.

In just the last thirty-two years of criminal foreign policy and activities, which has included every form of human suffering, war’s, terrorism and murder; starting with Carter in 1977 and ending with the current US President Obama of 2009.

A Days Catch

Fishermen cast their rods from their boats off the coast of Gaza City, on 12 February 2009.

Palestine has the oldest and most historic fishing water’s in the world, that dates back several thousand years.

Fishermen collect their catch of fish off the coast of Gaza City.

Fishermen prepare their nets in Gaza City.

A fisherman takes a rest at the port of Gaza City.

New Orleans: Police searching for person in connection with fatal shooting of former police officer

11 February 2009

New Orleans- New Orleans police are asking for the public's help in identifying the driver or occupants of a dark-colored SUV in connection with the Feb. 8th shooting death of a former New Orleans police officer, according to NOPD spokesman Garry Flot.

Police responding to a call of "shots fired" found Willie Jones Jr. inside of a dark colored BMW at about 5:15 a.m. near the Downroad Road exit ramp of the Interstate 10, Flot said. He had suffered apparent gunshot wounds to the body and was pronounced dead on the scene by emergency medical technicians.

According to investigators, Jones had been involved in a traffic accident eastbound on the Interstate 10 by the high rise. He then exited the Downman Road ramp towards Chef Menteur Highway, at which time he lost control of his vehicle, went off the road and struck a fence and a vehicle parked inside the fence.

It has not been determined at which point the shooting took place, Flot said. The coroner's office will conduct an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death, he said.

Detectives are looking for the driver or occupants of the SUV who may have information about the incident, Flot said. The person or persons are not suspects in the incident, but just people who detectives would like to speak with.

Jones served with the New Orleans police from 1988 to 2006, when he resigned after being booked in connection with a domestic abuse incident, police said.

Investigators are in the process of gathering evidence and information to identify the person or persons involved in this incident, as well as a motive, Flot said. Homicide Detective Nick Gernon is in charge of the investigation.

Anyone with information that can help solve this crime is asked to call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 1.877.903.7867. Crimestoppers is offering a cash reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and indictment of those responsible. Callers do not have to give their name or testify to receive the reward.

For it is Written in a Miracle

Jewish Torah scroll covered with Yad (pointer )

Nas gadol hayah sham (A great miracle has happened.)

Jewish Olive Wood Dreidel (Dreydle) with Chanukah (Hanukkah) chocolate gold (Paradise) coins (gelt).
Jewish Olive Wood Dreidels Dreydles with Hanukkah (Chanukah) chocolate gold(Paradise) coins (gelt).

Jewish Dreidels with Hanukkah (Chanukah) chocolate gold (Paradise) coins (gelt). Anytime there is three of something in particular, it is by Hashem (Allah, G-d).

Jewish Torah scroll with Yad (pointer )

With that which was (history), Hashem (Allah, G-d) shall love and protect the steadfast; as they have trust in Him.-HRM Deborah

US Involvement in Palestine

Not Welcome in any manner, shape or form!

Turning the Back

Two Palestinian boys sit on top of a poster depicting Canaanite terrorists Mahmoud Abbas (L) and late terrorist Canaanite leader Yasser Arafat with their backs turned in disgust, as thousands gather in Ramallah to take part in a demonstration showing their overwhelming support for HRM Deborah of Palestine against global terrorist Interpol fugitive Mahmoud Abbas; on 9 February 2009.

Palestinian people gather in the city of Ramallah during a demonstration to show their support for HRM Deborah of Palestine.

Hurricane Katrina: End of rent help is a disaster for many

Displaced by storm, they scramble to stay afloat

7 February 2009
By Katy Reckdahl

As a longstanding disaster rent subsidy ends this month, thousands of families might be unable to pay their March rent.

Among them is a nursing assistant from Algiers who just got laid off, a Gentilly homeowner who works with the homeless and now fears he could join their ranks, and a disabled St. Bernard Parish man who worked with oil for decades until the fumes scrambled his nervous system.

The federal Disaster Housing Assistance Program, known as DHAP, will no longer pay rent for nearly 15,000 New Orleans-area households and thousands of other families displaced by Katrina, including more than 5,000 in the Houston area. "We don't know what we're going to do. I guess we're going to have to become a burden to our children," said Charles Ricord, the disabled man from St. Bernard.

On the Bush administration's last day, federal housing officials refused to continue the program. The Louisiana Recovery Authority and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., are pushing for a one-year extension, arguing that New Orleans still faces an acute affordable-housing shortage and that thousands of Louisiana homeowners still await Road Home money.

In a recent letter to President Barack Obama, Landrieu wrote: "It would be remiss of the federal government to infuse hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy . . . while we terminate a program housing more than 30,000 people in a region struggling to restore its affordable housing stock."

As many as 80 percent of DHAP tenants might be eligible for permanent Section 8 rental assistance because they're elderly, disabled or impoverished, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the program. But only 300 of the area's 15,000 affected households secured vouchers by this week, officials said. Many renters interviewed for this story didn't know they were eligible.

HUD, along with the Housing Authority of New Orleans, has beefed up the staff for its toll-free phone line, 866.202.3487. The agency can handle as many as 150 appointments a day in the office and more through teams that make home visits, said Dwayne Muhammad of HANO. "Get in here and we'll see you on the spot," he said.

Still, the sheer number of vouchers at stake might make the task impossible, with three weeks left and Mardi Gras approaching, observers say -- especially since disabled and elderly renters are apt to need more time and help.

Even renters who emerge with vouchers have more work to do. If their landlords accept vouchers, HANO still must inspect each unit and sign a contract, which usually takes at least two weeks.

--- 'We don't want to unpack' ---

Charles and Cynthia Ricord moved into a house near the Murphy Oil plant in July, supported by DHAP, since their only income is his $637 monthly disability check. On one wall are family photos. All else remains in boxes.

"We don't want to unpack," he said. "We don't know when we'll be moving again."

Many tenants who remain on DHAP could be called the neediest of the needy, because the program took in the last Katrina holdouts living in hotels and in FEMA trailers. For some, the past three years have been a turbulent sequence of moves between temporary homes, made worse by illness, depression, meager resources and shattered support networks.

The Ricords, who ran a successful but uninsured oil recycling business before Katrina, lived in Texas and Mississippi motels before returning to St. Bernard. They've stayed inside a tent, a garage, a FEMA trailer and an apartment where sewage ran under the floor.

They had begun to repair the home they lived in before Katrina, making payments on it as part of a lease-to-own deal. But last year, their landlord evicted them without explanation, they said.

The house was across the pasture from where they grew up as neighbors, before her rheumatoid arthritis made it hard to fold laundry and before he was diagnosed with nerve damage that causes him to clench his fists in pain, even when he's taking painkillers. "It seems like a lifetime ago," he said.

--- No one is hiring ---

D'Antionette Johnson got the call from her supervisor on Wednesday, and her heart sank. Her employer had laid off a group of people, including her.

She has been trying to land a job as a nursing assistant. But few, if any, are hiring, she said.

After Katrina, a helicopter rescued Johnson, clutching her toddler daughters, from a roof in the Lower 9th Ward, where she had rented a one-bedroom apartment for $150 a month. They began a nomadic life, mostly following relatives who can keep her daughters while she works.

Before her apartment in Algiers, the family lived with an aunt in Baton Rouge, cousins in Houston, and in three different places in New Orleans.

Her girls -- Darreion Johnson, 9, and Laureion Johnson, 8 -- have now attended nearby Harriet Tubman Elementary School since March, their longest stay in the same place since the storm, she said. She hopes to get help there for her younger daughter, whose sweet disposition changed after the storm.

Lately, Johnson has earned about $800 a month, the same amount DHAP paid for her apartment. Inside, there's almost no furniture except a flowered couch, salvaged from the street. The girls sleep on the couch, Johnson on the floor.

Johnson graduated atop her high school class, got her nursing assistant's certificate when she was 19, and has always worked hard to provide for her children, she said.

She hopes to pay her own rent again, she said. But not by March 1. "I can do it if I have a little more time," she said.

--- 'I have to make a decision' ---

Last fall, FEMA relocated Clarence White from the trailer he had set up in front of his Gentilly house, citing potential formaldehyde exposure.

He's now in an apartment, paid for by DHAP, in the Irish Channel. But the house he owns is only half rebuilt because of Road Home delays, a bad contractor and the incessant demands of his job as a caseworker for the homeless.

White helped house hundreds of people from the city's homeless encampments at Duncan Plaza and underneath the Claiborne Avenue overpass. Most of his monthly salary goes toward his $1,200 mortgage, utilities and other bills.

But DHAP renters who aren't elderly or disabled can get vouchers only if their income is less than 30 percent of the area's median income. Even White's modest paycheck exceeds the threshold of $12,550 a year for a single person.

By the end of this month, I have to make a decision," he said. Right now, he's leaning toward living with relatives in Baton Rouge and commuting.

White spends every day working with people who live precariously. He and other caseworkers say thousands of homeless people squat in houses that lack electricity or plumbing.

Only his family saves him from that fate, he said.

--- Not so wonderful ---

The Ricords still hope to get a voucher by March 1, with the help of a New Orleans Legal Assistance lawyer. But they aren't sure their landlord will accept it.

The two flip through a photo album they brought when they evacuated on Aug. 28, 2005. Pictures show the family clowning on its boat, Mr. Mac. They're smiling, playing horseshoes and volleyball, boiling crawfish. "It's like we're in the movie 'It's a Wonderful Life,' " said Charles Ricord.

But in this version, no angel appears to give them the good part back, he said.

Further Reading:

Competing stimulus bills divide Congress