Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Kerry to follow today's visit to LV by Bush
By Jace Radke <jace@lasvegassun.com>LAS VEGAS SUN
In a week of campaign visits to Nevada, President Bush was scheduled to make a campaign stop in Las Vegas today to speak with National Guard soldiers.
Bush's visit will be followed by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, who will also speak at the National Guard Association Conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center after he arrives Thursday.
Vice President Dick Cheney was expected to make a speech in Reno on Thursday, and Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, delivered a 25-minute speech to about 4,000 at the University of Nevada, Reno Monday.
Their visits are just the latest in a string of high-profile campaign events in the state.
Nevada has been named a battleground state -- one of 20 states considered a tossup -- and the campaigns are spending a significant amount of time and energy in the state.
Campaign officials say more visits and events will be planned in Nevada.
On Monday, Edwards criticized the Bush administration's economic and foreign policies and repeated a pledge that Nevada Democrats believe will help the Kerry-Bush ticket carry the state that Bush won in 2000 after Bill Clinton claimed it twice before.
"When John Kerry is president, there will be no nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain," Edwards said to loud applause.
Edwards said President Bush should apologize for Cheney's comments suggesting a Kerry-Edwards administration would leave the country vulnerable to new terrorist attacks.
"The vice president actually said if you don't vote for Dick Cheney and George Bush, if there's another terrorist attack, basically it is your fault," Edwards said from an outdoor stage at UNR.
"This statement was intended to divide us. It was calculated to divide us. And to divide us on an issue of safety and security for the American people -- here's the truth -- it is un-American," he said.
"The president of the United States should be willing to say it's wrong."
The Associated Press reported that before Edwards' speech, police stepped between about 30 Bush-Cheney backers and a dozen Kerry-Edwards supporters who waved signs, chanted and shouted back and forth at each other at a protest organized by the National College Republicans on the edge of the quad .
Gregory Green, 24, a UNR student, wore a large yellow flip-flop sandal around his neck to ridicule what he said was Kerry's frequent change of positions on important issues.
"I don't know how people can know what policies Kerry stands for because he's changed his position so many times on so many issues, like war," said Green, who said he served five years in the Air Force in Iraq.
On Monday the Army's first female three-star general, retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, stopped in Las Vegas to campaign for Kerry and talk about Bush's military record.
"John Kerry decided to come speak to the National Guard in Las Vegas, and Bush then said, 'It sounds like a good idea to me too,' and now he's coming as well," Kennedy said at a rally at a downtown chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "We're going to hear a lot about how President Bush will claim success in Iraq, but more than 1,000 soldiers losing their lives is not a success."
The National Guard Association represents about 45,000 current and former Guard officers, and the group's convention runs through Thursday, when Kerry is scheduled to speak.
Jon Summers, spokesman for the Democratic Party in Nevada said protesters would be in front of the convention center by 11:30 a.m. today for Bush's arrival in Las Vegas.
Also today the Democratic National Committee was scheduled to begin airing television ads in Nevada questioning the Bush administration's commitment to National Guard soldiers.
The ads feature narration stating that National Guard members have answered the call to serve the nation, but Republicans in Washington have let the soldiers down.
The ad states that the Bush administration has been "sending troops into battle without protective equipment," enacting involuntary extensions of duty, and "even pushing a veto on health care benefits for National Guard families."
Also scheduled to speak at the National Guard Association Conference are Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and various military officials.
By Jace Radke <jace@lasvegassun.com>LAS VEGAS SUN
In a week of campaign visits to Nevada, President Bush was scheduled to make a campaign stop in Las Vegas today to speak with National Guard soldiers.
Bush's visit will be followed by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, who will also speak at the National Guard Association Conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center after he arrives Thursday.
Vice President Dick Cheney was expected to make a speech in Reno on Thursday, and Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards, delivered a 25-minute speech to about 4,000 at the University of Nevada, Reno Monday.
Their visits are just the latest in a string of high-profile campaign events in the state.
Nevada has been named a battleground state -- one of 20 states considered a tossup -- and the campaigns are spending a significant amount of time and energy in the state.
Campaign officials say more visits and events will be planned in Nevada.
On Monday, Edwards criticized the Bush administration's economic and foreign policies and repeated a pledge that Nevada Democrats believe will help the Kerry-Bush ticket carry the state that Bush won in 2000 after Bill Clinton claimed it twice before.
"When John Kerry is president, there will be no nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain," Edwards said to loud applause.
Edwards said President Bush should apologize for Cheney's comments suggesting a Kerry-Edwards administration would leave the country vulnerable to new terrorist attacks.
"The vice president actually said if you don't vote for Dick Cheney and George Bush, if there's another terrorist attack, basically it is your fault," Edwards said from an outdoor stage at UNR.
"This statement was intended to divide us. It was calculated to divide us. And to divide us on an issue of safety and security for the American people -- here's the truth -- it is un-American," he said.
"The president of the United States should be willing to say it's wrong."
The Associated Press reported that before Edwards' speech, police stepped between about 30 Bush-Cheney backers and a dozen Kerry-Edwards supporters who waved signs, chanted and shouted back and forth at each other at a protest organized by the National College Republicans on the edge of the quad .
Gregory Green, 24, a UNR student, wore a large yellow flip-flop sandal around his neck to ridicule what he said was Kerry's frequent change of positions on important issues.
"I don't know how people can know what policies Kerry stands for because he's changed his position so many times on so many issues, like war," said Green, who said he served five years in the Air Force in Iraq.
On Monday the Army's first female three-star general, retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, stopped in Las Vegas to campaign for Kerry and talk about Bush's military record.
"John Kerry decided to come speak to the National Guard in Las Vegas, and Bush then said, 'It sounds like a good idea to me too,' and now he's coming as well," Kennedy said at a rally at a downtown chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "We're going to hear a lot about how President Bush will claim success in Iraq, but more than 1,000 soldiers losing their lives is not a success."
The National Guard Association represents about 45,000 current and former Guard officers, and the group's convention runs through Thursday, when Kerry is scheduled to speak.
Jon Summers, spokesman for the Democratic Party in Nevada said protesters would be in front of the convention center by 11:30 a.m. today for Bush's arrival in Las Vegas.
Also today the Democratic National Committee was scheduled to begin airing television ads in Nevada questioning the Bush administration's commitment to National Guard soldiers.
The ads feature narration stating that National Guard members have answered the call to serve the nation, but Republicans in Washington have let the soldiers down.
The ad states that the Bush administration has been "sending troops into battle without protective equipment," enacting involuntary extensions of duty, and "even pushing a veto on health care benefits for National Guard families."
Also scheduled to speak at the National Guard Association Conference are Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and various military officials.
NEW ORLEANS - More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were warned to get out Tuesday as 140-mph Hurricane Ivan churned toward the Gulf Coast, threatening to submerge this below-sea-level city in what could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years.
AP Photo
AP Photo
Slideshow: Hurricanes & Tropical Storms
Evacuees Flee Florida, New Orleans Ahead of Ivan(AP Video)
Related Links
•
Caribbean Satellite (Yahoo! Weather)
•
Fla. Severe Weather Alerts (Yahoo! Weather)
Residents streamed inland in bumper-to-bumper traffic in an agonizingly slow exodus amid dire warnings that Ivan could overwhelm New Orleans with up to 20 feet of filthy, chemical-polluted water. About three-quarters of a million more people along the coast in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama also were told to evacuate.
Forecasters said Ivan, blamed for at least 68 deaths in the Caribbean, could reach 160 mph and strengthen to Category 5, the highest level, by the time it blows ashore as early as Thursday somewhere along the Gulf Coast.
"Hopefully the house will still be here when we get back," said Tara Chandra, a doctor at Tulane University in New Orleans who packed up his car, moved plants indoors and tried to book a Houston hotel room. Chandra said he wanted to ride out the storm, but his wife wanted to evacuate: "All the news reports are kind of freaking her out."
With hurricane-force wind extending 105 miles from its center, Ivan could cause significant damage no matter where it strikes. Officials ordered or strongly urged an estimated 1.9 million people in four states to flee to higher ground.
"I beg people on the coast: Do not ride this storm out," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said, urging people in other parts of the state to open their homes to relatives, friends and co-workers.
At 8 p.m. Tuesday, Ivan was centered about 325 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving north-northwest at 10 mph.
The National Hurricane Center (news - web sites) in Miami posted a hurricane warning for about a 300-mile swath from Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle to New Orleans and Grand Isle in Louisiana. Forecasters said Ivan could bring a coastal storm surge of 10 to 16 feet, topped by large, battering waves.
"If we get the kind of tidal surge they are saying, the fishing boats are all going to be in the trees," said Jamee Lowry, owner of a bar and restaurant in Perdido Key, Fla., near the Alabama border.
New Orleans, the nation's largest city below sea level, is particularly vulnerable to flooding, and Mayor Ray Nagin was among the first to urge residents to get out while they can. The city's Louis Armstrong Airport was ordered closed Tuesday night.
Up to 10 feet below sea level in spots, New Orleans is a bowl-shaped depression that sits between the half-mile-wide Mississippi River and Rhode Island-size Lake Pontchartrain. It relies on a system of levees, canals and huge pumps to keep dry.
The city has not taken a major direct hit from a hurricane since Betsy in 1965, when an 8- to 10-foot storm surge submerged parts of the city in seven feet of water. Betsy, a Category 3 storm, was blamed for 74 deaths in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Experts said Ivan could be worse, sending water pouring over levees, flooding to the rooftops and turning streets into a toxic brew of raw sewage, gas and chemicals from nearby refineries.
Nagin said he would "aggressively recommend" people evacuate, but that it would be difficult to order them to, because at least 100,000 in the city rely on public transportation and would have no way to leave. In addition, he said 10,000 people were in town for conventions, and there was nowhere for many of them to go except their hotels.
By midday Tuesday, traffic on Interstate 10, the major hurricane route out of New Orleans, was at a near standstill, and state police turned the interstate west of the city into a one-way route out. U.S. Highway 59 to Baton Rouge also was jammed.
In the French Quarter, businesses put up plywood and closed their shutters. A few people were still hanging out at Cafe du Monde, a favorite spot for French roast coffee and beignets, and a man playing a trombone outside had a box full of tips.
"They said get out, but I can't change my flight, so I figure I might as well enjoy myself," said George Senton, of Newark, N.J., who listened to the music. "At least I'll have had some good coffee and some good music before it gets me."
Tourist Dee Barkhart, a court reporter from Baltimore, was drinking Hurricane punches at Pat O'Brien's bar.
"I looked into earlier flights, but they were hundreds of dollars more and I wasn't sure I could switch flights," she said. "I figure I'm happier sitting here drinking hurricanes than sitting at the airport worrying about them."
But Barkhart's drinks would have to be for the road. The bar planned to close by nightfall.
Elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, thousands of residents, gamblers and tourists crowded northbound roads. Motels were booked as far north as Jackson, Miss., and Montgomery, Ala.
Mississippi regulators ordered a dozen casinos along the state's 75-mile-long coast to close at noon Tuesday. Many gamblers pumped coins into the slot machines right up to closing.
"I don't worry about what's going to happen tomorrow. We can't control it anyway," said Ed Bak of Fairfield, Ohio, who dropped quarters into a machine at the President Casino.
Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, a major shipbuilder for the Navy, closed its Pascagoula shipyard, which employs 12,000.
In Alabama, Gov. Bob Riley ordered the evacuation of coastal resorts. "This is a serious storm that requires serious action to get people out of harm's way," he said.
In Gulf Shores, Ala., the heart of the "Redneck Riviera," the sugary white beaches and offbeat tourist spots were largely deserted. Workers at Souvenir City, where tourists enter by walking through the mouth of a huge shark, packed up glass figurines for storage in a warehouse.
"I don't know if it will be any safer where they're taking it. Only the good Lord knows what's going to happen," said Pamela Davis, an employee.
Along Florida's Panhandle, the sounds of saws and drills filled the air as people put up boards to protect their homes and businesses.
"We are just hoping to still be here," said Matt Claxton, an assistant manager of a Perdido Key seafood restaurant as workers brought the patio furniture inside.
___
Associated Press Writers Bill Kaczor in Perdido Key, Fla.; Allen G. Breed and David Royse in Panama City Beach, Fla.; Shelia Hardwell Byrd in Biloxi, Miss.; Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Ala.; and Mary Foster in New Orleans contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
AP Photo
AP Photo
Slideshow: Hurricanes & Tropical Storms
Evacuees Flee Florida, New Orleans Ahead of Ivan(AP Video)
Related Links
•
Caribbean Satellite (Yahoo! Weather)
•
Fla. Severe Weather Alerts (Yahoo! Weather)
Residents streamed inland in bumper-to-bumper traffic in an agonizingly slow exodus amid dire warnings that Ivan could overwhelm New Orleans with up to 20 feet of filthy, chemical-polluted water. About three-quarters of a million more people along the coast in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama also were told to evacuate.
Forecasters said Ivan, blamed for at least 68 deaths in the Caribbean, could reach 160 mph and strengthen to Category 5, the highest level, by the time it blows ashore as early as Thursday somewhere along the Gulf Coast.
"Hopefully the house will still be here when we get back," said Tara Chandra, a doctor at Tulane University in New Orleans who packed up his car, moved plants indoors and tried to book a Houston hotel room. Chandra said he wanted to ride out the storm, but his wife wanted to evacuate: "All the news reports are kind of freaking her out."
With hurricane-force wind extending 105 miles from its center, Ivan could cause significant damage no matter where it strikes. Officials ordered or strongly urged an estimated 1.9 million people in four states to flee to higher ground.
"I beg people on the coast: Do not ride this storm out," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said, urging people in other parts of the state to open their homes to relatives, friends and co-workers.
At 8 p.m. Tuesday, Ivan was centered about 325 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving north-northwest at 10 mph.
The National Hurricane Center (news - web sites) in Miami posted a hurricane warning for about a 300-mile swath from Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle to New Orleans and Grand Isle in Louisiana. Forecasters said Ivan could bring a coastal storm surge of 10 to 16 feet, topped by large, battering waves.
"If we get the kind of tidal surge they are saying, the fishing boats are all going to be in the trees," said Jamee Lowry, owner of a bar and restaurant in Perdido Key, Fla., near the Alabama border.
New Orleans, the nation's largest city below sea level, is particularly vulnerable to flooding, and Mayor Ray Nagin was among the first to urge residents to get out while they can. The city's Louis Armstrong Airport was ordered closed Tuesday night.
Up to 10 feet below sea level in spots, New Orleans is a bowl-shaped depression that sits between the half-mile-wide Mississippi River and Rhode Island-size Lake Pontchartrain. It relies on a system of levees, canals and huge pumps to keep dry.
The city has not taken a major direct hit from a hurricane since Betsy in 1965, when an 8- to 10-foot storm surge submerged parts of the city in seven feet of water. Betsy, a Category 3 storm, was blamed for 74 deaths in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Experts said Ivan could be worse, sending water pouring over levees, flooding to the rooftops and turning streets into a toxic brew of raw sewage, gas and chemicals from nearby refineries.
Nagin said he would "aggressively recommend" people evacuate, but that it would be difficult to order them to, because at least 100,000 in the city rely on public transportation and would have no way to leave. In addition, he said 10,000 people were in town for conventions, and there was nowhere for many of them to go except their hotels.
By midday Tuesday, traffic on Interstate 10, the major hurricane route out of New Orleans, was at a near standstill, and state police turned the interstate west of the city into a one-way route out. U.S. Highway 59 to Baton Rouge also was jammed.
In the French Quarter, businesses put up plywood and closed their shutters. A few people were still hanging out at Cafe du Monde, a favorite spot for French roast coffee and beignets, and a man playing a trombone outside had a box full of tips.
"They said get out, but I can't change my flight, so I figure I might as well enjoy myself," said George Senton, of Newark, N.J., who listened to the music. "At least I'll have had some good coffee and some good music before it gets me."
Tourist Dee Barkhart, a court reporter from Baltimore, was drinking Hurricane punches at Pat O'Brien's bar.
"I looked into earlier flights, but they were hundreds of dollars more and I wasn't sure I could switch flights," she said. "I figure I'm happier sitting here drinking hurricanes than sitting at the airport worrying about them."
But Barkhart's drinks would have to be for the road. The bar planned to close by nightfall.
Elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, thousands of residents, gamblers and tourists crowded northbound roads. Motels were booked as far north as Jackson, Miss., and Montgomery, Ala.
Mississippi regulators ordered a dozen casinos along the state's 75-mile-long coast to close at noon Tuesday. Many gamblers pumped coins into the slot machines right up to closing.
"I don't worry about what's going to happen tomorrow. We can't control it anyway," said Ed Bak of Fairfield, Ohio, who dropped quarters into a machine at the President Casino.
Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, a major shipbuilder for the Navy, closed its Pascagoula shipyard, which employs 12,000.
In Alabama, Gov. Bob Riley ordered the evacuation of coastal resorts. "This is a serious storm that requires serious action to get people out of harm's way," he said.
In Gulf Shores, Ala., the heart of the "Redneck Riviera," the sugary white beaches and offbeat tourist spots were largely deserted. Workers at Souvenir City, where tourists enter by walking through the mouth of a huge shark, packed up glass figurines for storage in a warehouse.
"I don't know if it will be any safer where they're taking it. Only the good Lord knows what's going to happen," said Pamela Davis, an employee.
Along Florida's Panhandle, the sounds of saws and drills filled the air as people put up boards to protect their homes and businesses.
"We are just hoping to still be here," said Matt Claxton, an assistant manager of a Perdido Key seafood restaurant as workers brought the patio furniture inside.
___
Associated Press Writers Bill Kaczor in Perdido Key, Fla.; Allen G. Breed and David Royse in Panama City Beach, Fla.; Shelia Hardwell Byrd in Biloxi, Miss.; Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Ala.; and Mary Foster in New Orleans contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
