Thursday, August 28, 2008

AFP graphic Tropical Storm Gustav is projected to become a hurricane and hit the United States on Tuesday -- the second day of the four-day Repugnican National Convention. A Hurricane Gustav would strike in the area of Louisiana and Mississippi, the same region that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina three years ago. Katrina: The Sequel coming just in time for the Repugnican National Convention This is surreal: A Katrina-like hurricane, Gustav, might hit the United States three years to the week after Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005 -- and would strike during the Repugnican National Convention, no doubt reminding the entire nation of how the Repugnicans allowed more than 2,000 Americans to perish unnecessarily in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Reports Reuters today: Tropical Storm Gustav was blamed [today] for at least 68 deaths in the Caribbean, and U.S. forecasters said it could hit New Orleans and Gulf of Mexico oil fields as a potentially powerful hurricane next week. As Gustav churned through the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Hanna formed in the Atlantic Ocean with 40-mph winds. The eighth storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season was on a track that could threaten the Bahamas and Florida, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Energy companies prepared for Gustav to deliver what could be the hardest hit to the heart of the U.S. Gulf oil patch since the devastating 2005 hurricane season.... Forecasters said [Gustav] could become a hurricane by [tomorrow]. New Orleans, the Southern U.S. city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina three years ago, remained near the middle of the range of possible landfall locations on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal put New Orleans residents on alert for possible evacuations starting [tomorrow], the third anniversary of Katrina's strike, and issued a precautionary disaster declaration. A state of emergency was declared in neighboring Mississippi, which was also devastated by Katrina.... Gustav is the first serious Atlantic storm since the 2005 hurricane season to threaten New Orleans and the 4,000 U.S. energy platforms in the Gulf. [Hurricanes] Katrina and Rita destroyed 124 platforms and severed pipelines when they swept through the Gulf of Mexico as Category 5 storms on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity. Katrina came ashore near New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005, as a Category 3 hurricane and flooded the city. It killed 1,500 people along the Gulf Coast and caused $80 billion in damage. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program manager Bill Irwin told a news conference [today] that gaps remained in New Orleans' flood control system and that it was still vulnerable despite improvements after Katrina.... While I hope that if a Hurricane Gustav does hit the United States, deaths are prevented -- as they should have been three years ago when Katrina hit the United States -- what poetic justice it would be for a Katrina-level hurricane to remind us, during the Repugnican National Convention, what a COLOSSAL FAILURE the Repugnicans have been and how insane it would be be to put Repugnican John Fossil Fool McCain into the White House but to expect different results. Let a Hurricane Gustav remind us that when Hurricane Katrina hit the United States on Aug. 29, 2005, John McInsane was too fucking busy eating birthday cake with George W. Bush to care. Trivia fun! Wikipedia notes of the Sept. 1-4 Repugnican National Convention: This is the latest [that] any major party convention has ever been convened, and the first one to take place entirely in September. Traditionally, the party [that] holds the White House has the opportunity to select the date of its convention second, and normally the challenging party holds [its] convention in July while the incumbent party holds its convention in August. This year, later dates were chosen for both conventions since the Democrats wanted to schedule their convention after the 2008 Summer Olympics ended, and the Republicans wanted to keep the political and financial advantages of going second. Gee, Gustav seems Goddess-sent... 10:05:14 PM    Comments []

Democratic convention notes I've been watching the Democratic National Convention sporadically on PBS over the past few nights (I missed the first night), and first off, I want to say that columnist David Brooks of The New York Times, who has been one of the convention commentators on PBS for the past four nights, is one smug prick. Don't we have enough overcomfortable, overprivileged middle-aged and old white-male commentators who are smug pricks? Haven't stupid white men held the national podium for long enough? Isn't it long past time for other voices? Just saying. Anyway, I haven't watched all of the speeches of the Democratic National Convention. I'm sorry that I missed Michelle Obama's speech (I've downloaded it via the Internet but haven't listened to it yet), which is said to have been impressive, and Joseph Biden's speech (which I also plan to listen to belatedly). I did watch Billary Cunton's speech. What she said was pretty good -- she did deliver some good zingers -- but her delivery remains robotic and wooden. She doesn't warm the cockles of my heart and I find her only mildly inspiring at best. But did I actually hear Billary actually state -- whether she believes it or not (and I don't think that she does) -- that it isn't all about her? I think that I did... That probably was the biggest surprise of the whole convention... And I watched Mr. Billary's speech. You know, I just never really liked Mr. Bill. Something about him -- he just never did it for me. So I never understood his cult of personality, which was evident when it took him a considerable amount of time to quiet down the lemming-like delegates so that he could begin his speech. I recognize that he was an OK president -- of course, history would shine brightly upon anyone who had immediately preceded George W. Bush, the worst "president" in the history of the United States of America -- but Bill never really floated my boat. (And no, it has nothing to do with Monica; it's that he never struck me as speaking from the heart, but struck me as a very calculating, very polished speaker -- a politician...) I'm listening to Al Gore speak right now. I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000, but I like Al today. So far his speech is the best that I've heard yet. I detect a genuine passion in his voice that was lacking certainly in Billary's speech and even in Mr. Billary's. I still largely blame him (Al, not Ralph!) for the past eight years; he didn't fight nearly hard enough in late 2000, when he won not only the popular vote but also won the pivotal state of Florida, because while Team Bush and the Repugnicans acted like savages who wanted the White House whether they'd won it or not, Al wanted to act civilized. So Al was civilized, remained above it all -- and we've had the last eight years. Last night was Military Night of the Democratic National Convention, and the Democrats would have us forget that they barely made a peep when the unelected Bush regime launched its illegal, immoral, unjust and unprovoked invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq in March 2003. At that time in the post-9/11 hysteria, the flames of which the Bush regime stoked tirelessly, the majority of the Dems at best kept quiet, not wanting to damage their political futures by appearing to be terrorist sympathizers or the like for not rubber-stamping the Vietraq War. Now that it's clear what a colossal mistake the Vietraq War has been, again, the Dems would have us forget history. The Dems would have us believe that they've been fighters for the past eight years, when the fact is that time after time they've caved. They caved in late 2000 when the Bush regime stole the White House. They caved in late 2002 and early 2003 when the Bush regime rammed its Vietraq War down the world's throat. They caved in November 2004 when the Repugnicans stole the state of Ohio, much as the Repugnicans stole Florida in 2000. Only when the damage wreaked by the Bush regime was absolutely undeniable by November 2006 did the Repugnicans lose control of Congress to the Dems, and even though the Dems have had control of Congress since January 2007, they have remained timid and accommodating of the Bush regime. As others have put it, the Dems routinely snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. So, um, no, the Dems don't make me wet. I've been paying attention to the events of the past several years, you see. So I've been watching the Democratic National Convention only sporadically, because the Dems have been spineless for the past eight years and it remains to be seen whether or not their spines will recalcify. I mean, even when the Dems control the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate, will they still cower before the Repugnicans? Despite Barack Obama's catchword of hope, I don't have my hopes up. 8:48:28 PM    Comments []