LA wanted equipment returned from Iraq

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Note the date on this article:

LA National Guard Wants Equipment to Come Back From Iraq

Yunji de Nies

August 1, 2005, 9:07 PM CDT

JACKSON BARRACKS — When members of the Louisiana National Guard left for Iraq in October, they took a lot equipment with them. Dozens of high water vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators are now abroad, and in the event of a major natural disaster that, could be a problem.

“The National Guard needs that equipment back home to support the homeland security mission,” said Lt. Colonel Pete Schneider with the LA National Guard.

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Moving on

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I had been blogging the hurricane over on World Turning, but as we’ve moved on from much of the immediate scientific and ecological info, I’ll be mostly blogging political and cultural reactions over here. Science and ecology will continue at that site. This may seem odd, but it helps me keep my thoughts straight.

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New Orleans last night

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AP photo by Eric Brown
Just getting into the news this morning, but apparently New Orleans is descending into further lawlessness, with fires and explosions reported south of the French Quarter. Many many nations have offered help in the forms of both money and forces, but so far the President has not accepted any help.
The explosion was apparently in a chemical factory, and is not thought to be toxic. It was apparently the result of natural gas pipe problems, and not deliberately set.

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Katrina

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I’ve posted a bunch of links about hurricanes and Katrina over at World Turning. If my heart feels up to it, which I doubt, maybe I’ll rant here sometime about a government that ignores environmental science, and keeps our National Guard tied up in an illegal, pointless war.

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Removing the Mayor of Baghdad

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Juan Cole has an explanation of the “coup” which recently removed the mayor of Baghdad, and his explanation is quite different from what I’ve seen in the mainstream media, so it bears repeating here:

The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq won the provincial elections in Baghdad on Jan. 30, a fact that has been little noted in the Western press. They have now moved to depose the mayor of Baghdad and install their own man. Alaa al-Tamimi left quietly. That SCIRI and the Badr Organization (this militia ran as a political party) won the election in Baghdad province gives them the right to name the mayor. Some US reports are portraying this as a coup by a “Shiite militia”, but the “coup” happened on Jan. 30 at the ballot box.

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Hackett

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My attention this week has mostly been following the Hackett/Schmidt special election in Ohio’s second district. I’ve seen Hackett on TV and heard him on the radio several times, and I really like the guy. He’s a real straight talker, doesn’t back down from his positions, and seems to respond very well to the boost he’s been getting from the netroots and all the money we’ve sent his way. That’s he’s gotten within the margin of error in a deeply Republican district is like a small miracle in this difficult times.
Today is the election, Swing State Project is the blog to follow.
UPDATE: From Swing State, here’s their post following the results. So far, so good.
UPDATE: Well, I would have much preferred winning, but it sure was close. Given the results of the Conyers report on the 2004 election, however, my own concerns are much like Billmon’s:

After Florida 2000, Ohio 2004, and everything that’s come light since then about the Rovian death grip on power, it doesn’t seem too tinfoilish to wonder whether the GOP’s approach to close elections in Ohio isn’t the same as the party’s approach to close votes on the House floor — in which the count is held open until the leadership gets the result it wanted.

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It is Dominion we are after

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Just to make clear who and what I was referring to in that last post, let me post this quote, which I found at Theocracy Watch. These are the people that the current administration is allied with, and beholden to.

Author and educator George Grant was Executive Director of Coral Ridge Ministries for many years. He explains in The Changing of the Guard, Biblical Principles for Political Action:
Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ — to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.
But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
It is dominion we are after.
World conquest. That’s what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less… Thus, Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land — of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ. (pp. 50-51)

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