The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 27

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11 2005 EDITOR: MANNY GARCIA magarciaheraldcom 305-376-3638 or 954-538-7150 THE HERALD WILMA AFTERMATH slipped from the moral high ground throughout the house and on all the Monroe already had to shutter a convalescent home in Marathon after mildew began sprouting on ceilings walls and floors In Key West alone about 690 homes trailers and apartments were deemed uninhabitable by surge according to the TURN TO KEYS 2B trailers for residents who suffered debilitating water damage inside their homes In some cases longterm dilemmas are only now becoming obvious as mold becomes a larger problem who are living in these properties realize how bad it said County Manager Thomas WillL places are just starting to dry out Now is the time you are going to see the mold spreading cars up and down the Lower and Middle Keys relief and emergency officials in Monroe County are still grappling with an aftermath that left more than 4100 homes with major damage or worse flung hundreds of boats from their moorings and rendered thousands of vehicles useless county manager has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 2000 travel As flooded homes turn moldy county manager has asked for 2000 trailers to house residents But homes are only part of the wreckage BY JENNIFER BABSON jbabsonheraldcom KEY WEST Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Wilma sent saltwater surging into homes and IMMIGRATION ENERGY Drilling remains a threat Bush warns ANGUISHED RELATIVES: Family members of two migrants who drowned toss carnations into the channel in front of the US Coast Guard station in Miami Beach Below Jose Lopez leads pro across the causeway The rest of the migrants have not been allowed on shore JljL A PLEA TO RELATIVES CALL ON PRESIDENT TO FREE 33 CUBANS Well I guess that settles that do not President Bush said on Monday Never mind all those torture pictures from Abu Ghraib Never mind all those torture stories from Guantanamo Bay Never mind the 2002 Justice Department memo that sought to justify torture Never mind reports of US officials sending detainees to other countries for torture Never mind Dick Cheney lobbying to exempt the CIA from rules prohibiting torture do not said the president And that right? I mean if you believe the Bush administration who can you believe? No torture Period end of sentence But What does it say to you that the claim even has to be made? SECRET PRISONS Bush spoke in Panama on the last day of a five-day swing through Latin America to promote free trade He was addressing controversy over secret CIA prisons in foreign countries America Bush reminded us in case it had slipped our minds in tjie 20 minutes since he last reminded us is at war Guess that would explain all the dead people And yes war is not a niqe business under the best of circumstances It is less so when you fight a stateless enemy that strikes from shadows But been at war before nasty brutish wars one war with civilization itself on the line yet somehow we always managed to be the good guy That is not to say our soldiers and sailors and fliers were always good immune from committing atrocities It is not to say our officials were always good untouched by dirty deeds done in clandestine ways Finally it is not to say our cause was always good free from the taint of imperialism or expedience But we the collective we the official we the face shown in light of day we were the good guys It occurs to me that maybe larded that statement with so many caveats as to drain it of meaning not trying to be cute Rather trying not to sound naive while at the same time getting at something important: We were the nation of moral authority the nation of moral high ground the nation that lectured other nations about human rights And you know what? People believed us They rush to our shores because there is freedom here yes because there is opportunity here yes but also because we stood for something which was more than the tin-pot tyrants who ran their countries could ever say What a difference a presidency makes do not he said When I heard that my first thought was a one-liner been torturing me for years But you know this just funny BETRAYED VALUES In the name of fighting terror we have terrorized and in the name of defending our values we have betrayed them We have imprisoned Muslims in America and rqfused to say if we had them why we had them or even to provide them attorneys We have passed laws making it easier for government to snoop into what you read who you talk to where you go We have equated dissent with lack of patriotism disagreement with treason And we have tortured Yes Bush says we don't do that kind of thing but to paraphrase Groucho Marx who you going to believe him or your lying eyes? We ignore our lying eyes I think because we arc afraid because we saw what happened Sept 11 and wc never want to sec it again I'd never suggest wc ought not fear terrorism But wc should also fear the nation wc arc becoming in response Wc should fear the fact that wc have abrogated moral authority retreated from moral high ground become like those we once chastised do not torture" says the president I can remember when that went without saying Threats to coastline remain even as congressional leaders obtained what they say is a significant victory scrapping a plan to allow oil and gas exploration in Gulf waters BY MARY ELLEN KLAS AND LESLEY CLARK s' meklasaheraldcom TALLAHASSEE A defiant Gov Jeb Bush criticized Congress on Thursday for abandoning a controversial plan to permit oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico arguing that the state won a short-term victory but lost a rare opportunity to secure a permanent commitment to keep oil rigs away from its coast Bush said he was disappointed with the decision by congressional leaders late Wednesday to scrap a proposal to expand oil and gas drilling in the deepest waters off coasts in exchange for a permanent 125-mile buffer zone around the entire state The governor who had opposed any oil drilling off Florida shores when he ran for reelection in 2002 Came under fire for supporting the plan and splintering congressional delegation which had long been united on the issue But Bush insisted Thursday that his approach would have guaranteed finality a temporary victory Bush said of the congressional decision not an ultimate The bipartisan delegation that opposed the pact which had been negotiated by Bush and California Republican Richard Pombo declared its collapse a significant political victory while acknowledging that the struggle to keep rigs out of Florida waters is far from over have won the battle to keep coasts free from drilling but we hAve not come close to win- TURN TO DRILLING 2B BY ALFONSO CHARDY achardy aherald com The scene played out Thursday as it has for a decade in South Florida: Protesters calling on the president to set free Cuban migrants held by US officials on the high seas lawyers feverishly filing motions in Miami federal court carnations tossed into turquoise waters amid prayers for divine intervention All the while the bodies of Isabel Machado 74 and Luisa Cardentey 60 rest in a legal limbo here Their relatives refuse to bury them until the 33 Cubans who traveled with the women can come ashore to attend the funeraL The migrants are facing repatriation afier their boat capsized Saturday south of Key West drowning Mcndndcz and Cardentey Relatives of the two women protested in front of a Coast Guard station in Miami Beach Thursday and asked a federal judge to order Homeland Security to let them come ashore The civil action and the protest led by a Cuban exile who pioneered traffic-blocking demonstrations against Cuban migrant repatriations came on the fifth day of a standoff between the US government and family members over whether the 33 migrants will be sent home TURN TO MIGRANTS 4B i HEALTHCARE With new supplies clinics preparing to reschedule flu shots Some South Florida flu shot clinic that war cancaltd will soon hava anough supplias to raopan BY JACOB GOLDSTEIN igoldslomohwiildcom Flu shot clinics arc back at least a few of them on Oct 21 when it shut down to prepare for Hurricane Wilma Maxim initially planned to reopen here after the storm but supply problems instead forced the company to cancel clinics throughout the state after Nov 6 TURN TO VACCINE 2B Last week the company that gives shots at dozens of South Florida supermarkets drugstores and malls canceled the remaining clinics citing Hurricane Wilma and a shortage of vaccine But on Thursday Maxim Health Systems rescheduled a handful of clinics at Broward County malls Other clinics will be rescheduled in Miami-Dadc County as well said Kevin Colley who oversees the company's Florida operations Colley said Maxim recently learned it would get an additional shipment of vaccine making more clinics possible The company had canceled all South Florida clinics CRIMINAL JUSTICE SB SON ADMITS KILLING MOTHER Manuel Medina confessed to police ho killed his mother then told reporters too VETERANS DAY SB MILITARY MEMBERS HONORED Jackson Health System honored the veterans who have worked there DEATHS 6B ALYCE MILLER Christian bookstore owner was a longtime promoter of gospel music.