Open Thread

14 Comments

1. 

   Militarytracy on August 28, 2005 at 12:28 pm

   Katrina is moving away from me.  We will probably have to watch out for tornadoes though.  Katrina has really grown into one big bad girl though.  I asked Cat if she thought that maybe the movie The Day After Tomorrow could be  resonating perhaps just a little bit with some people today.

   • 

     mlk19569 on August 28, 2005 at 12:38 pm

     Tracy,

     Stay safe.  Katrina is one big ass hurricane and a lot of areas outside of NO will be affected as well.  Do you have a basement to go into in case of tornados?

     • 

       ATinNM on August 28, 2005 at 1:40 pm

       In most of Lousiana, south of Shreveport, basements have the tendency to become indoor swimming pools in the best of times.  Also, going into a basement during a hurricane isn’t a great idea as there is a real potential of getting trapped and drowned.

       On WeatherUnderground, no link, they are saying Katrine may cause 25 feet (~20 meter) storm surge, is a minimal Class 5, and the fifth strongest hurricane ever recorded.

       Life in La and Ms is going to get “interesting” real soon.

       • 

         ATinNM on August 28, 2005 at 1:46 pm

         Just discovered 1/3 of the nation’s oil moves through the area Katrina is going to hit.

         Shall we start a poll of how high gas-at-the-pump will go?

         My Guess: $4

         • 

           mlk19569 on August 28, 2005 at 2:48 pm

           On dKos, someone thought oil would go up $7/barrel tomorrow alone.

       • 

         mlk19569 on August 28, 2005 at 2:50 pm

         Not exactly sure where Tracy is, but if there’s a tornado, the best place to be is in a basement or some sort of underground shelter.

         • 

           Militarytracy on August 28, 2005 at 10:49 pm

           We have such a thing too, as odd as it is.  It is a bricked in shelter under our back patio.  All steel girders and concrete overhead and all sides and one little doorway in, it’s kind of creepy.  No basements where I live much, not feasible with all the clay and all the rain that happens here.  I am about a 100 miles inland, I’m above Panama City…..the last place that got clobbered.  Not much happened to us though because it was so early in the season and the hurricane just didn’t have umph.  Katrina has UMPH though…..the thing is huge.  I am severe Southeast Alabama.  My trip next month though for my son’s surgery and to see Kat and Janet though ought to be interesting.  It ought to be interesting just figuring where there is an I-10 and where there isn’t an I-10.

2. 

   mlk19569 on August 28, 2005 at 12:29 pm

   Any news on Susan?  Is she still in the hospital or has she been released?  Do the drs know what is making her feel poorly?  An update would be appreciated.

   • 

     BooMan on August 28, 2005 at 12:41 pm

     yet.  I will let you know.

3. 

   Hopeful in AZ on August 28, 2005 at 12:48 pm

   I’m just sick about this hurricane–of all cities!

   And I wonder how many Louisiana National Guard members are off serving in Bush’s folly in Iraq.

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     diane101 on August 28, 2005 at 1:03 pm

     I heard the govenor talking about this yesterday on cable news and evidently the national guard left stateside is very depleted in La, just as it is in a lot of other states.
     You know the national guard is not apparently ‘National’ for us…but for Iraq.  Maybe Iraq’s equilivent can come here to help us, oh wait, they don’t have one either….

     • 

       Militarytracy on August 28, 2005 at 10:50 pm

       or I’m going to end up insanely pissed.

4. 

   sybil on August 28, 2005 at 12:49 pm

   [is he in is pajamas? did he fall off his bike again?]

   He was just crowing over the radio in very bad audio that Iraq has a new constitution.

   And yet, the Sunnis have adamantly opposed it. Shouldn’t he have waited for them?

   Posted August 28 at 9:19 am PDT
   http://tinyurl.com/be2t2
   BAGHDAD — Talks between Iraq’s disparate groups collapsed today as Iraqi Shiites and Kurds signed and presented a draft constitution over the vehement objections of Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority.

   Members of the constitutional panel signed the document and handed it to the National Assembly. Leaders of the constitutional sub-committees read aloud the proposed draft constitution in the National Assembly chamber this afternoon. Afterward, assembly vice-president Hossein Shahrestani adjourned the meeting without a vote.

   Iraq’s Shiites and Kurds said they had negotiated enough with Sunnis, had already given up enough on the divisive issues of autonomy for Iraqi regions and the outlawing of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party and were willing to compromise no further. […]

5. 

   ask on August 28, 2005 at 3:59 pm

   A good post over at Americablog

   I don’t know what got the Boston Globe editorial page stirred up (besides the obvious) but they do a smackdown of Rove today:

       Rove’s record has been consistent. Over 35 years, he has been a master of dirty tricks, divisiveness, innuendo, manipulation, character assassination, and roiling partisanship.

   Also check his link to this WaPo-story:

   About 50 members of the White House press corps accepted President Bush’s invitation last night to come over to his house in Crawford, eat his food, drink his booze, hang around the pool and schmooze with him — while promising not to tell anyone what he said afterward.
   (snip)
   Nevertheless, I’m told that several reporters expressed squeamishness about last night’s event, particularly as the press-pool vans drove by antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan’s “Camp Casey” site. And later, a small handful watched askance as the rest fawned over Bush, following him around in packs every time he moved.
   (snip)
   Incidentally, Bush isn’t the only one holding off-the-record dinners with reporters this summer. I’m told senior adviser Karl Rove has held several in the last month himself.

   That last bit suggests that we will have a few wild goose chases coming up this fall.  We need to watch our focus!