Cheney Visits MS After Halliburton Awarded $12M for Reconstruction in Gulfport

You''re mistaken for President Bush recently awarded Haliburton $500 Million for the New Orleans/Gulf Coast coast clean.Correction that is $500 Million...so far!

Halliburton is a very competent engineering firm. Who else is going to do work on this scale? Ronald McDonald? Habitat for Humanity? Get a grip.

http://snipurl.com/hkbw [OpEd News]

Physician who told Cheney to go F*ck Himself Lost his Home in Katrina,
Detained, Cuffed by Cheney's M-16-carrying Goons
by Jackson Thoreau

Dr. Ben Marble, a young emergency room physician who plays in
alternative rock bands and does art on the side, needs our help. Since
he was the one who told Dick Cheney to "go fuck yourself" on Sept. 8,
that's the least we can do.

Marble is a complex guy, to say the least. Some of the lyrics he writes
can be considered harsh by some – personally what I've heard is very
much on target - but he has a softer side as an organizer of breast
cancer fund-raisers, not to mention an ER doctor.

When he, like thousands of others, lost his home due to Hurricane
Katrina last week, it was the single most traumatic week of his life.
That led to his Sept. 8 confrontation with the man who best represents
the worst of the most callous, heartless, shittiest administration in
U.S. history.

As Marble explains, he was driving to his destroyed house Sept. 8 in
Gulfport, Ms., when military police refused to allow him to cross a
barricade that was about 200 feet from his home. They forced him to
drive an extra 20 minutes and spend even more on gasoline.

"Thanks to Dubya Gump and Mr. Cheney, gas is really expensive and
extremely hard to get anywhere Katrina has destroyed," Marble wrote.
"So needless to say, I was extremely aggravated that they wouldn't let
me pass."

Suddenly a long line of dark cars pulled up, and they honked at Marble
to back up to let them through the barricade that supposedly no one
could drive through. That only made Marble madder so he did what most
of us would do – or at least consider doing.

"I waved a middle finger at the caravan," Marble wrote.

After driving the extra 20 minutes and filming video of destruction
along the way, he made it to his home. Marble overheard a neighbor say
that Cheney was down the street talking to people. That's when he got
the idea to go meet Dr. Evil himself.

"I am no fan of Mr. Cheney because of several reasons," Marble wrote.
"For those who don't know, Mr. Cheney is infamous for telling Senator
[Pat] Leahy 'go fu** yourself' on the Senate floor. Also, I am not
happy about the fact that thousands have died due to the slow action of
FEMA, not to even mention the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong
time, i.e. Iraq."

So Marble asked a couple police officers if he and a friend could walk
down to Cheney. They told him Cheney was "looking forward” to talking
to “the locals.”

"So we grabbed my Canon digital rebel and my Sony videocamera and
started walking down the street," Marble wrote. "And then right in
front of the destroyed tennis court I used to play on Dick Cheney was
giving a pep rally, talking to the press. The Secret Service guys
patted us down and waved the wands over us, and then let us pass."

As he stood about 10 feet away from Cheney and his friend and some
camera operators from CNN and other media filmed the scene, Marble
suddenly yelled, "Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney! Go fuck yourself, you
asshole!"

Hey, at least Marble was polite. After all, he referred to Cheney as
“Mr. Cheney.”

"I had no intention of harming anyone but merely wanted to echo Mr.
Cheney's infamous words back at him," Marble wrote. "At that moment, I
noticed the Secret Service guys with a panic-stricken look on their
faces, like they were about to tackle me, so I calmly walked away back
to my former house."

His friend videotaped a little bit longer and then came back to
Marble’s house. As they were salvaging a few things from Marble's home,
two military police waving M-16's showed up and said they were looking
for someone who fit Marble's description who had cursed at Cheney.

"I told them I was probably the person they were looking for, and so
they put me in handcuffs and 'detained' me for about 20 minutes or so,"
Marble wrote. "My right thumb went numb because the cuffs were on so
tight, but they were fairly courteous and eventually released me after
getting all my contact info. They said I had NOT broken any laws so I
was free to go."

So let’s get this straight: A physician with a newborn baby loses most
everything he owns in the hurricane, does what most of us WANT to do
and “echoes” Cheney’s words he spoke on the Senate floor last year,
walks away harmlessly, mission accomplished, and then once the media
cameras leave, he is treated like a foreign terrorist as Cheney’s goons
waving M-16s handcuff him in front of his destroyed home? Had it not
been for the media cameras filming the initial scene, I doubt Cheney’s
goons would have just let Marble go after 20 minutes.

America, land of the free?

Marble and his family have been in the media spotlight before,
including his wife, Lisa, and baby, Sofia Grace, who was born shortly
after the storm, on CNN. Marble has also been interviewed in art
magazines and the Biloxi Sun Herald about his concert fund-raisers and
musical success — one of his bands, dR. O, has had at least 20 No. 1
songs on the MP3.com charts.

"The truth is even with all our losses, we are still luckier than many
people down here because at least we didn't die," Marble wrote. "But I
thought I could try to raise some awareness to the bad policies of the
Dubya Gump administration and also possibly raise some money to replace
the many things we lost, and so I decided I would auction the videotape
my friend shot of the event. I will also grant an interview to the
winner if so desired."

So go to eBay here and place a bid for this important video to help
Marble raise some needed funds. I have done so and was at least at one
time the high bidder.

Marble also has an Internet site with photographs of some damage in his
town at http://www.HurricaneKatrinaSucked.com. A photo of him is here, and you
can also email Marble at clone9 [at] yahoo.com.

Dr. Ben Marble, you rock. May we all return the favor.