Demo 9/30 at NYPD (NYC) Police Plaza HQ, Against Brutality, In Solidarity with Wall Street Protestors

Demonstrate Friday, September 30, 5:30 to 7:00 PM, at One Police Plaza Headquarters of the New York Police Department (NYPD of New York City) (pass through the Municipal Building arches, opposite City Hall which is on the other side of Park Row. Take 4, 5, 6, J or Z trains.) (Need examples of the brutality? Just see the videos I uploaded or linked here earlier this week.)
Against Police Brutality and in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street Protestors
From protest announcement:

We the undersigned condemn recent police attacks against the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations underway in Lower Manhattan. The NYPD has:

- pepper sprayed people in custody
- violently arrested non violent demonstrators
- curtailed the expressive activities of demonstrators in Liberty Square [renamed from Zuccotti Park --Ed.]

All of this is part of a long standing practice of the NYPD to make public protest extremely difficult, unpleasant, and even dangerous.

Join us in calling for an end to police repression of protests in New York, and to support the ongoing Occupy Wall Street demonstration.

Bring signs and soapboxes/milkcrates

NYPD Investigates 9/24 Mace Cop Bologna

Scroll to bottom for pepper-spray health hazards and human rights organizations' condemnation of pepper-spray.
The New York Police Department (New York City Police) has announced on Wednesday, September 28, 2011 that its Internal Affairs office is investigating the activities of a high-ranking, white collar officer, Anthony Bologna. (UK Guardian story, posted late Wednesday afternoon, "Occupy Wall Street: inquiries launched as new pepper-spray video emerges".) The photo identifying Captain Bologna has him with his arm extended for a second pepper spray attack. (In a VIDEO of the second attack we do not see whether the woman in grey to his immediate left gets sprayed.)

This is FOUR days after Captain Anthony Bologna's pepper spray (macing) attack on Saturday September 24 in Union Square on peaceful unarmed protestors, some trapped inside an orange plastic net, was captured on cellphone cameras, videocams and digital cameras, and uploaded the same day on the Internet. After netting the women in the plastic-netted area, Captain walked into a small crowd on one section of sidewalk, and rotated and pepper-sprayed a swath of protestors in a second pepper spray attack.
The Activism site at Suite 101 added: "New York women had been corralled into a mesh pen, when a senior police officer gassed them with capsicum spray. Human rights groups decry the practice.
Read more at Suite101: Occupy Wall Street: Pepper Spray Used on Protesting US Women | Suite101.com

That night, some corporate media news outlets, including WABC-TV (channel 7), broadcast claims of police attacks.

How do they need an investigation? His acts are right there on video.

UPDATE:
Guardian UK reported 9/26: "Occupy Wall Street: 'Pepper-spray' officer named in Bush protest claim: Anthony Bologna, NYPD [captain rank] officer named in pepper-spray incident, is accused of civil rights violations at the time of the 2004 Republican national convention protests".

* * *
Pepper-spray dangers and human rights organizations' condemnation of pepper-spray, from American Suite 101:

What is Pepper Spray?

Pepper spray is a common term for a chemical agent based around Oleoresin Capsicum. The components explain its other names of OC gas or OC spray. Others know it as Mace, by the trademark of its main manufacturer, Mace Security International. Some versions may also contain tear gas.

As a lachrymatory agent, pepper spray attacks the corneal nerves in the victim's eyes. This causes pain and temporary blindness, lasting up to thirty minutes. Where it touches the skin, a burning sensation can be felt for up to an hour. It is impossible not to inhale it, which results in upper body spasms and coughing. In a healthy person, there can be difficulty breathing for around a quarter of an hour.
Pepper Spray Can Kill in Certain Situations

Click for original document for pepper spray fatalities discussion.

"Occupy Together" Takes Occupation Wall Street National; Find YOUR Local Big City

Occupy Together (http://occupytogether.org/) is a hub for people taking the Occupy Wall Street national,
to a range of big cities across the continental United States.

Here are cities with protests developing:

MIDWEST
Occupy Chicago
Occupy Cincinnati
Occupy Cleveland
Occupy Columbus
Occupy Indiana
Occupy Indianapolis
Occupy Kansas City
Occupy Michigan
Occupy Minnesota
Occupy OKC
Occupy Omaha
Occupy OSU (Stillwater)
Occupy St. Louis
Occupy Tulsa
Occupy Wisconsin
Occupy Yougstown

NORTHEAST
Occupy Binghamton
Occupy Boston
Occupy D.C.
Occupy Hartford, CT
Occupy Maine
Occupy New Haven
Occupy New Jersey
Occupy Philadelphia
Occupy Pittsburgh
Occupy Providence, RI
Occupy Rochester
Occupy Vermont

SOUTHEAST
Occupy Arkansas
Occupy Birmingham, AL
Occupy Charlotte
Occupy Clarksville, TN
Occupy Columbus, GA
Occupy Daytona Beach
Occupy Durham
Occupy Florence, SC
Occupy Greensboro, GA
Occupy Jacksonville, FL
Occupy Knoxville
Occupy Lexington, KY
Occupy Louisville
Occupy Memphis
Occupy Miami
Occupy Mississippi
Occupy Nashville
Occupy New Orleans
Occupy Orlando
Occupy Richmond, VA
Occupy Tallahassee
Occupy Tampa
Occupy Winston Salem

SOUTHWEST
Occupy Albuquerque
Occupy Austin
Occupy Dallas
Occupy Houston
Occupy Phoenix
Occupy San Antonio
Occupy Tucson

WEST
Occupy Boise
Occupy Colorado Springs
Occupy Denver
Occupy Eugene
Occupy Las Vegas
Occupy Los Angeles
Occupy Olympia
Occupy Portland
Occupy Sacramento
Occupy Salt Lake City
Occupy San Diego
Occupy San Francisco
Occupy San Jose
Occupy Santa Cruz
Occupy Seattle
Occupy Spokane

Unconfirmed: 100 NYPD Officers Refusing to Work, in Support of Occupy Wall Street Protestors

There are unconfirmed reports (from http://www.in5d.com/over-100-nypd-officers-refuse-to-work-in-support-of-occupy-wall-street.html) that:

a growing movement of New York City Police Department officers are banding together with the Occupy Wall Street movement, while the main stream media continues to relatively ignore this escalating event.

The Occupy Wall Street movement issued the following statement on their website:
"Today we received unconfirmed reports that over one hundred blue collar police refused to come into work in solidarity with our movement. These numbers will grow. We are the 99 percent. You will not silence us."

At this point this is an Internet rumor. We need corroborating details, confirmation.

This could be a matter of police not wanting to be identified on cellphone cameras, doing any mischief.

Occupy Wall Street Resources; Russell Simmons, Susan Sarandon Join Protests

(SCROLL DOWN for directory of Wall Street protests resources)
From Mogulite, also the source for the above photo; Simmons is sitting on right, eyes closed or gazing down.
(Scroll below Simmons for Susan Sarandon story.)

Who’s that sitting right there with the determined Occupy Wall Street protesters (or meditators, rather)? It’s Russell Simmons.

Just a quick question. Do these very non-violent protesters have any idea what Simmons is worth? $340 million. Do they know that he wrote a book about how to get rich? Really, it’s called Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All.

Apparently Simmons forgot a bunch of these facts too, as he’s suddenly decided to join the Occupy Wall Street protesters, who are protesting the uneven distribution of wealth (or something like that, they’re not quite sure either). Though we thought at first that the devoted yogi just wanted to get his zen on, he actually (strangely enough) seems committed to the cause. He wrote the following explanation on his website Global Grind:

“Today I will join in solidarity the peaceful protesters at Liberty Plaza in New York City who are “Occupying Wall Street.”

For far too long in this country we have allowed the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer.

I believe in a nation where everyone gets a fair share of the fruits of our labor and where everyone pays a fair share for what they receive.

I am asking the United States government to raise my taxes and not allow the Republicans to use this economic recession as an opportunity to strip the basic programs that protect our most vulnerable.

Lastly, I am demanding that the big banks and corporations stop unduly influencing our government to make decisions that are not in the best interest of the majority of our citizens.

We need to re-examine our whole American political system that allows corporations and their lobbyists to rule over the people.”

Susan Sarandon at Occupy Wall Street, Christian Sci. Monitor, 9/28/11, "Susan Sarandon lends star power to Wall Street protests: Susan Sarandon joins Wall Street protests to 'educate' herself. Visits by Sarandon and other high-profile activists are helping 'Occupy Wall Street' gain attention"

OCCUPY WALL STREET RESOURCES
From DemocraticUnderground.com:
"Occupy Wall Street resources. With list of states & cities."
(Keep updating this notice for new organizing notices for this weekend and next week: http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2015441

Daily updates, links for donations, and an agenda calender. Also, chat, forum, photos & conference.
OccupyWallSt.org
https://occupywallst.org /
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144937025580428
Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23occupywallstreet

Adbusters, the group that originally called this action.
http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet
Twitter
https://twitter.com/#!/OccupyWallStNYC

OccupyTogether.org
A Great Resource For Finding Info About Sister Occupations And Protests
With a caveat... Please scroll down the page to see links to ongoing and organizing cities When you open the site a few actions are highlighted on the right but a comprehensive list is down a bit further. Links on the list take you to your local organizing committee sites.
http://occupytogether.org /

The Dissenter live blogging every day at Fire Dog Lake
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com /

Roar Magazine, Reflections of a Revolution
Commentary, links and updates from actions around the world.
http://roarmag.org /
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/roarmag

US Day of Rage: http://www.usdayofrage.org/help-us-organize-or-participate.html

Twitpic sharing photos of the revolution
http://twitpic.com/tag/occupywallst?page=1

Live streams
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

Video: Michael Moore (in Fin'l Dist.) joins Barr and Olbermann as Major Figures for Occupy Wall Street Protestors; 2 Days After Police Violence

ZUCCOTTI PARK AND UNION SQUARE SHAPE UP AS NEW YORK'S TAHRIR SQUARE!

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore joined Occupy Wall Street Protestors at Zuccotti Park, just blocks north of Wall Street, on the evening of Monday, September 26, 2011.
Go to lower half of article for coverage of Saturday, Sept. 24 protests and New York Police Department violence against protestors.

Video is available in this link. The audio is frustrating, owing to the ban on megaphones. The audience responds with a repeated response, akin to that of a religious congregation repeating a prayer.
The key parts of Moore's statement:

"100 years from now people will remember that you came down to this plaza and started this movement." He said, surrounded by protesters echoing it all. "Thank you very much. I am honoured to be in your presence."

At another point he said,

"I'm so impressed by what I see here. You have done something very historic and very important. It had to happen somewhere, it might as well be here."
"I want to see the people responsible for destroying the lives of millions of people in handcuffs; and led away to justice."

Transcription from Suite101.

Earlier in the week Roseanne Barr gave a rousing supportive speech on September 17, Day 1 of the protests. (See previous blog post on this blog.)

And Keith Olbermann on September 21 criticized the mainstream media for blacking out the hot story of the intense street protests of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

* * * *

Desperate late capitalism unraveling: NYPD brutality against peaceful Free Speech protestors on Day 8 of Occupy Wall Street Protests

Saturday, September 24, 2011 New York Police Department officers got brutal against protestors in New York City's Union Square, which is just north of Greenwich Village.

Highlights, or low-lights, are
*police dragging people in connection to arrests (especially see 3:28 on the video): See "Sharpest 11:41."
*WABC-TV news coverage of the brutality
*NYPD macing or pepper-spraying women protestors. Note how the positions of woman keeled over, screaming (at 1:01), is reminiscent of the 1970 Kent State University protests over the Vietnam War.

Health Facts on Five Milk Alternatives

Brittany Risher, "Milk, Minus the Cow" August 25, 2011

Are those new alternatives better than old-fashioned cow's milk?

Compare the alternatives:
Almond
Coconut
Hemp, that's right, hemp
Rice
Soy

What happened? They left out Oat milk.

The full story at Yahoo News.

Researchers Link Deaths to Social Ills

The New York Times reported this summer,
social ills, such as poverty and discrimination can be as dangerous to a person's health as smoking and obesity.

Read on, the Times story by Nicholas Bakalar, from July 4, 2011

He cites an article from The American Journal of Public Health.

NYC Cop Muzzles Free Speech at Day 4 of Wall Street Protest

On Tuesday, September 20, Day 4 of street protests at Wall Street turned tense as New York Police Department police arrested man with megaphone on Broadway, adjacent to Wall Street, near the Lexington Avenue 4 and 5 line Wall Street Station. Click to this link or watch the video at the right.

NYC radical political economists meeting: Oct. 1, 2011

Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) 2011 Conference:
The War on the Working Class, meeting at St. Francis College, in Brooklyn Heights

October 1, 2011, Sat.: Conference sessions
October 2, 2011, Sun.: URPE Organizational meeting


Brooklyn location, time and conference panel schedule, click here.

Advance registration and payment at this link.

Republicans Call Obama's Tax, Program Cuts Program: Class Warfare

Obama Plan to Cut Deficit Will Trim Spending by $3 Trillion
By HELENE COOPER, New York Times, published: September 18, 2011

First half of the article reads as follows. (Click here for complete New York Times article including Republican claims of class warfare.)

(I would argue from the left that Pres. Barack Obama's Medicare, Medicaid cuts are class warfare; the Republican right call Obama's tax policies class warfare. The problem is that we have no left third party to challenge him.)

WASHINGTON — President Obama will unveil a deficit-reduction plan on Monday that uses entitlement cuts, tax increases and war savings to reduce government spending by more than $3 trillion over the next 10 years, administration officials said.

The plan, which Mr. Obama will lay out Monday morning at the White House, is the administration’s opening move in sweeping negotiations on deficit reduction to be taken up by a joint House-Senate committee over the next two months. If a deal is not struck by Dec. 23, cuts could take effect automatically across government agencies.

Mr. Obama will call for $1.5 trillion in tax increases, primarily on the wealthy, through a combination of closing loopholes and limiting the amount that high earners can deduct. The proposal also includes $580 billion in adjustments to health and entitlement programs, including $248 billion to Medicare and $72 billion to Medicaid. Administration officials said that the Medicare cuts would not come from an increase in the Medicare eligibility age.

Senior administration officials who briefed reporters on some of the details of Mr. Obama’s proposal said that the plan also counts a savings of $1.1 trillion from the ending of the American combat mission in Iraq and the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

In laying out his proposal, aides said, Mr. Obama will expressly promise to veto any legislation that seeks to cut the deficit through spending cuts alone and does not include revenue increases in the form of tax increases on the wealthy.

That veto threat will put the president on a direct collision course with the House speaker, John A. Boehner, who said last week that he would not support any legislation that included revenue increases in the form of higher taxes.

Mr. Obama’s proposal is certain to receive sharp criticism from Congressional Republicans, who on Sunday were already taking apart one element of the proposal that the administration let out early: the so-called Buffett Rule. The rule — named for the billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett, who has complained that he is taxed at a lower rate than his employees — calls for a new minimum tax rate for individuals making more than $1 million a year to ensure that they pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers.

That proposal, which was disclosed on Saturday, was met with derision Sunday by Republican lawmakers, who said it amounted to “class warfare” and a political tactic intended to portray his opponents as indifferent to the hardships facing middle-class Americans.

Richard D. Wolff: Austerity Politics Descends on US States

Austerity Politics Descends on US States
Monday 22 August 2011
by: Richard D. Wolff, rdwolff.com | News Analysis -From Truthout.org site.

Last week, Democratic Governors in New York and Connecticut repeated the austerity politics of Greece’s Prime Minister Pappandreou and Portugal’s Socrates. In doing so, they likewise imitated the austerity politics of their Republican and Democratic counterparts across virtually all 50 states. Austerity for labor and the public is everywhere capitalism’s Plan B. Even capitalists now see that capitalism’s Plan A failed.

You will recall that Plan A entailed a crisis-response program of bailing out the banks, insurance companies, large corporations, and stock markets to achieve “recovery.” The theory behind Plan A – we used to call it “trickle down economics” – was that recovery would spread from financial markets and financiers to everyone else. It never did. So now the same servants of capitalism who imposed Plan A are dishing out Plan B.

Governors Cuomo in New York and Malloy in Connecticut had very similar Plan B’s. They threatened the public employee unions and the people of their states in nearly identical ways. Either the unions accept new contracts with wage freezes and raised contributions to their health insurance plans (and other declines in their basic remuneration) or the governors would fire tens of thousands of unionized state workers. In Connecticut the state workers first voted to reject and then re-voted to accept that contract. In New York the state workers accepted on the first vote.

Let’s be really clear on what the two governors were doing. They were forcing a very painful either/or onto the mass of people who elected them. Each governor said: I will either fire many thousands of state workers and thereby impose drastic cuts in public services on the entire citizenry or I will subject tens of thousands of state employees to significant cuts in their wages and benefits.

Each Governor spoke and acted as if those were the only two choices even though that is blatantly untrue. Each Governor refused to even consider an obvious alternative Plan C: increasing taxes on corporations and the rich enough to avoid either public service or wage cuts. Instead each governor snubbed his nose at the public by forcing unions to choose between two awful options.

The public employees unions voted to accept serious cuts in pay and benefits. That was in the face of the latest government figures showing US consumer price inflation now running at between 3.5 and 4 % per year. The contracts that state employees accepted in New York and Connecticut give them 0% wage increases in the first two years and less than 2 % per year increases in the last years of their contracts. In addition, New York workers accepted unpaid furlough days while both states’ contracts involved higher health insurance premiums and copays to be charged to state workers. These are serious reductions in state workers’ standards of living. They will thus reduce their expenditures, thereby hurting communities, businesses and other workers.

The states will thus learn the same lessons learned in Greece and Portugal and wherever austerities are governments’ Plan B’s. Austerities make difficult, painful, and unjust capitalist crises more so.

Corporations and the rich bankroll the parties and governors who design and impose Plans A and B while avoiding Plan C.

And so matters will remain unless and until corporations’ profits are no longer available to their boards of directors to enrich themselves and major shareholders and to buy politicians’ servitude. The best response to capitalism’s crisis, to its failed Plan A and to its unjust Plan B would be Plan D: to change how we organize productive enterprises in our society. Profits should be distributed by the democratic decision-making of all those who produce and depend on them, the workers and affected communities.

The twists and turns of this global capitalism system, painful as they are to endure, nonetheless also move it toward a confrontation with alternative D. The real question is whether the advocates and supporters of Plan D can be organized, mobilized and focused on achieving their goals in that confrontation.

141
Email
RICHARD D. WOLFF
Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. He also teaches classes regularly at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan

Click to original Truthout site for Wolff's bio.

Trumka's Statement on Congress and Obama's Jobs Program

Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president's statement on Pres. Barack Obama's jobs proposal.

Did you watch President Obama’s speech last night? He showed working people he is willing to go to the mat to create new jobs on a substantial scale. His speech should energize the nation to come together and get serious about jobs.

We call on Congress to act and look forward to working with the president and Congress on all elements of this proposal. As the president explained, we no longer can delay putting Americans back to work rebuilding our nation’s schools, roads, bridges, transit, ports, rail, communications and energy systems. And we need to help state and local governments avoid layoffs that are dragging down the economy—rejecting the myth that the only way to end a crisis Wall Street started is to punish firefighters, teachers and others who perform critical public services.

Tell Congress: It’s time to get moving on jobs. Start with President Obama’s proposals and then keep going.

The plan announced by President Obama to create jobs is only the opening bid in a national conversation we’ve needed to have for a long time. In the coming weeks and months, we expect to see more proposals from the president and Congress to put America back to work.

President Obama understands this economic crisis was not created overnight, and it will not be solved overnight. The middle class has been under attack for decades. He understands we need to rebuild our economy for the 21st century and rebuild our middle class.

But doing this will require a revolution in the way Washington takes on these questions. Republicans are going to have to stop blocking bills that sustain or create millions of jobs and start offering and accepting credible solutions. As the president explained last night, we can delay no longer.

Tell Congress America wants to work. Add your name, then spread the word to your friends and family.

America isn’t broke—we’re the richest country in the world. We will only go broke if our leaders fail year after year to create jobs and turn our economy around. We can’t let that happen.

Politicians need to recognize that America’s best days are still before us. We cannot accept the disappearance of the American middle class or several more years of crisis-level joblessness. We can and must solve the jobs crisis—and we must start now. Please take action to help us make this happen.

In Solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO

P.S. Some politicians claim cuts to our social safety net, deregulation and lower taxes for the rich will fix our problems. But they’re flat wrong. If we continue down this road, it only will destroy more jobs and send us into a vicious downward spiral. Our country is too good and too rich to weaken our commitment to safety net protections such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and unemployment insurance.

We don’t have time to waste on the same old failed policies that drove our economy off a cliff in the first place. Tell Congress: Working families will judge our elected leaders by whether they act with integrity and energy to create good jobs now.
To find out more about the AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.aflcio.org.

Drew Westen Invitation to Take America Back Conference (Washington, 10/3-5)

From Oct. 3 to 5, I will be at the Take Back the American Dream conference — along with thousands of people who have joined the growing American Dream movement so that together, we can tackle those questions.

Will you join me?

Click here to register for the Oct. 3-5 Take Back the American Dream conference, in Washington, DC.

With Van Jones, Robert Reich, Richard Trumka, Robert Borosage, Rep. Barney Frank, Rep. Keith Ellison, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Lizz Winstead and many more progressive leaders set to come, the Take Back the American Dream conference is sure to be a historic event you don't want to miss.

Right now, too many staffers from the so-called "Super Committee" are meeting in back rooms finalizing plans to cut the pillars of our retirement security while they ignore the worsening jobs crisis.

But if thousands of us come to Washington and speak with one voice — the voice of the American people, who are tired of “grand bargains” designed to cut when we should be rebuilding — we can turn the debate around.

I know with the right vision, the right ideas, and the right language — and some backbone — we can do it. But only if we come together.
Drew Westen

[The conference is a project of the Campaign for America's Future. Robert L. Borosage & Roger Hickey, Co-directors, Campaign for America's Future]

Video: 9/17/11 March on Wall Street Protestors Jeer Luxury Restaurant Patrons

View the video at the right on to see the best September 17, 2011 (9/17/11) march on Wall Street that I have found on Youtube. Other videos are just dull shots of protesters standing about on streetcorners.
Or input this URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rfuvDr2wJQ

A linefeed across the bottom of the screen asserts that Twitter had censored the protest.
The revolution won't be on the mainstjavascript:void(0)ream media or Twitter; it will be live.

9/21/11 7 PM - GPNYC Presents Rick Wolff Major Speech: "Why We Need A Powerful Left Party - Now"

Why We Need A New Left Party - Now

Hosted by the Green Party New York City
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - 7:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.
Location: Laura Parsons Pratt Conference Center,
The Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies building, ground floor,
291 Park Ave. South, at the southeast corner of 22 Street, New York, New York
(1 block from 6 train -23rd St. Station, near N, R trains -23rd St. Station)

Has Capitalism finally hit the fan? And, if so, why do we need a powerful Left third party to deal with the mess?
Professor Rick Wolff will discuss some of the reasons why we need a new left party in the United States, including the Democratic Party’s dependence on Wall Street and other big business interests; how this dependence has silenced the voices of the poor and middle class in our current political debates; and how left parties in Europe have contributed both to a stronger safety net and more egalitarian society, and to more widespread and militant resistance to corporate power.

(Prof. Wolff has written a book, Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It (Olive Branch Press, 2009)
and a DVD, Capitalism Hits the Fan: Richard Wolff on the Economic Meltdown (Media Education Foundation, 2009).)

(Review of Wolff's DVD.)

This event is sponsored by Green Party New York City, consisting of members of the Green Party of the United States.

Map: Fire Saturation of East Texas; Approaching neighboring states

Map of the concentration of wildfires in East Texas.
National map with fires in Texas and other areas cluster fo fires now approaching southeastern Oklahoma, southwestern Arkansas (Texarkana vicinity) and Louisiana (Shreveport vicinity):
"Active Fire Mapping Program" with "Current Large Incidents," as of September 6, 2011:
http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/

Guide to terms used, e.g., Incident Management Team:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incident_management_team

Here we go again (Latest Maps): Projected 5 day Hurricane Katia storm path & times - Storm upgraded

Just on the last weekend of August, 2011 much of the United States east coast was struck by the strongest hurricane since perhaps 1960 with Hurricane Donna.

Another hurricane, Hurricane Katia, is set to strike the continental United States in this coming week. Scroll to bottom for NOAA satellite maps and 5-day Hurricane Katia path forecast

Click to this site, IrishWeatherOnline, for illustrated maps and satellite maps of the storm's presnet location and its projected path. (Mark Dunphy, "Hurricane Katia Monday Update – Satellite Imagery And Projected Track", September 5, 2011.)
Maps at the site indicate a projected are of the hurricane's striking the U.S. as being from South Carolina, north to North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey.
Several more MAPS at the bottom of this post, including map with hurricane path timeline.
It is projected to reach a Saffir-Simpson Category 2 hurricane.

Maximum sustained winds of Katia have increased to 105 miles (165 kilometers) per hour, with higher gusts, making it a category two hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity. Further strengthening is expected on Monday.

Yet, Hurricane Katia is projected to moderate once it reaches landfall:

Meanwhile, there is a small risk that the remnants of Hurricane Katia could threaten parts of the eastern Atlantic in 8-9 days time.

The following satellite maps are Sept. 4, 20:15 UTC-Greenwich Mean Time (5:15 PM EST), and Sept. 4, 20:45 UTC-Greenwich Mean Time (5:45 PM EST)