…that some yo-yo is going to claim that George W. Bush couldn’t come back to Washington immediately to deal with the mess of Katrina because Cindy Sheehan kept him cornered inside his ranch?
(Yes, another nutcase who thinks he’s Jesus with a bunch of people inside with automatic weapons pinned down in a compound outside Waco, feeling persecuted by the Clinton administration. Really, what are the odds? Must be something in the educational system in Texas or something.)
Protesters on both sides of Iraq war follow Bush – Yahoo! News:
By Jeremy Pelofsky Mon Aug 29,10:18 PM ET
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, California (Reuters) –
President George W. Bush was greeted by Iraq war supporters and protesters on Monday as he interrupted his Texas vacation to promote a new Medicare prescription drug program.Hundreds of demonstrators for and against the Iraq war staged protests near Rancho Cucamonga, California, where Bush wove comments on Iraq into a Medicare speech to a group of senior citizens.
Okay. Worst storm to hit America in a decade, possibly a generation. Huge loss of life. Economic impact in the billions. A major city that could be underwater by the end of the day. And Bush decides to take time out and talk about Medicare?
Parts of New Orleans are beginning to lose power, as you can see on this webcam. Street lights went out around 4 AM their time. You can follow minute by minute and see for yourself.
…because you knew that somehow, I was going to blame some of this on the pinhead:
In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding.
It would be the largest single-year funding loss ever for the New Orleans district, Corps officials said.
“I’ve been here over 30 years and I’ve never seen this level of reduction,” said Al Naomi, project manager for the New Orleans district. “I think part of the problem is it’s not so much the reduction, it’s the drastic reduction in one fiscal year. It’s the immediacy of the reduction that I think is the hardest thing to adapt to.
“There is an economic ripple effect, too. The cuts mean major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.”
Money is so tight the New Orleans district, which employs 1,300 people, instituted a hiring freeze last month on all positions. The freeze is the first of its kind in about 10 years, said Marcia Demma, chief of the Corps’ Programs Management Branch.
About the only thing missing is a memo entitled “Hurricane Determined To Strike In U.S.”. (“But he gets those kinds of memos all the time! How could he know to take it seriously?”)
(Via Suburban Guerrilla.)
So I’m sitting here watching the webcams of New Orleans, wondering how many of these lights are shining for the last time.
Steve Gilliard has his nasty thoughts:
A couple of months ago, Rick Santorum wanted to bar the National Weather Service from sharing some of it’s data with the public.Let’s see: talking points for tommorrow.
1) Will Bush give up his vacation as a major American city is wiped off the map? We hope that this isn’t the case, but if it is, will Bush finally act like a leader or hide again.
2) Why is the Lousiana National Guard as well as their first responders in the Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force reserve not home to help save their city?
3) Why did the Bush administration repeatedly cut funding for the Corps of Engineers district since 2001, despite being warned that this was one of the most likely disaster to hit the US, after a terrorist attack in New York.
The nasty thoughts that occur to me:
* The US economy is about to tank. Hard. (Again.) We’re about to lose 30% of the nation’s oil refining capacity for weeks at least, possibly months. I expect gasoline to hit $4 a gallon easily, $5 is not impossible. We haven’t even gotten into the impact of the loss of businesses, inventory, livestock, and of course people– not to mention how badly messed up anything that travels along the Mississippi River may be, which is the shipping lane for the central half of the country.
* The housing bubble has just popped, because we’ve just had tens of thousands of mortgages literally go underwater. And if you held stock in insurance companies, kiss your dividends goodbye.
* The federal government is about to pay off on a LOT of flood insurance, increasing an already huge deficit. And that’s before we find out if the southern tip of Louisiana is going to become the nation’s largest Superfund site.
* We are about to have a massive exodus from the southern states, one that will redraw demographic maps for years. We’re also about to have about half a million homeless people, easy.
* Bush may actually have an excuse to pull troops out of Iraq now; they’re needed back home. Of course, knowing him he’ll recommend fighting this with tax cuts.
What you can do:
* Donate cash to the Red Cross. Not supplies, cash.
* Conserve power. NOW. Oil, gas, and natural gas. See if you can convince your boss to let you telecommute, or take mass transit.
* Be prepared for houseguests. They won’t have much with them, and they may be with you for a long while.
* Check in on sign in pages. Let people know you’re okay and where you are. Some are up here and here.
As I was watching how bad Hurricane Katrina was looking and worrying about the people down there, I realized that a large hunk of our nation’s oil capacity was about to be submerged. And lo and behold, I was unfortunately right:
Crude-oil and natural-gas prices may soar after Hurricane Katrina moved into production regions of the Gulf of Mexico, forcing companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. to close operations.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it shut 420,000 barrels of daily oil production in the Gulf. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which handles about 11 percent of U.S. imports, closed yesterday. Katrina is one of the most powerful storms ever to enter the Gulf, source of about 30 percent of U.S. oil production and 24 percent of the country’s natural gas.
“Forecasters are saying Katrina could do more energy damage than any storm in recent years,” said Jason Schenker an economist with Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte. “It’s not just that there’s going to be outages for the next couple of days. With shutdowns and damage at platforms and refineries, the bullish impact could be felt for the rest of the year.”
$3 a gallon for gas? Brother, we’re going to be lucky if we can keep it to $5. All bets are now off.
Here’s a picture:
The good news: It seems that colleges and universities are actually rejecting high school science courses that aren’t science, but religion, as I suggested here.
The bad news? They’re getting sued over it:
Amid the growing national debate over the mixing of religion and science in America’s classrooms, University of California admissions officials have been accused in a federal civil rights lawsuit of discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints.
The suit was filed in Los Angeles federal court Thursday by the Assn. of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 religious schools in the state, and by the Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, which has an enrollment of more than 1,000.
Under a policy implemented with little fanfare a year ago, UC admissions authorities have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin’s theory of evolution, the suit says.
Other courses rejected by UC officials include “Christianity’s Influence in American History,” “Christianity and Morality in American Literature” and “Special Providence: American Government.”
The 10-campus UC system requires applicants to complete a variety of courses, including science, mathematics, history, literature and the arts. But in letters to Calvary Chapel, university officials said some of the school’s Christian-oriented courses were too narrow to be acceptable.
According to the lawsuit, UC’s board of admissions also advised the school that it would not approve biology and science courses that relied primarily on textbooks published by Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books, two Christian publishers.
Instead, the board instructed the schools to “submit for UC approval a secular science curriculum with a text and course outline that addresses course content/knowledge generally accepted in the scientific community.”
“It appears that the UC system is attempting to secularize Christian schools and prevent them from teaching from a world Christian view,” said Patrick H. Tyler, a lawyer with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which is assisting the plaintiffs.
Wendell E. Bird, an Atlanta attorney who represents the Assn. of Christian Schools, said California was the only state in the nation that had taken such actions against Christian schools.
Bird said the schools have no objection to teaching evolution alongside creationism but consider the UC regulations a violation of their rights. “And a threat to one religion is a threat to all,” he added.
UC had not yet been served with the suit, so spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina said she could not comment on its details. But she said the university had a sound legal right to set course requirements for incoming students.
“What we’re doing is really for the benefit of the students,” she said. “These requirements were established after careful study by faculty and staff to ensure that students who come here are fully prepared with broad knowledge and the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed.”
(Via JosephW in comments.)
(In the same vein as the previous post, I found this in my draft post folder from a few weeks back. Via The News Blog.)
Chickenhawks cry about being asked to enlist
Las Vegas, Nevada–YRNC 2005 Chairman Nathan Taylor has been responding to attacks by leftists who threaten protests at the 2005 Young Republican Convention.
“In recent weeks I have received numerous e-mails from leftist groups bent on infiltrating the Convention and protesting the appearance of veterans of the War on Terror. We will not allow these cowards to dishonor our servicemen,” stated Taylor.
“The childish insults and threatened protests of these leftists reveal ignorance of, and disrespect for, the sacrifice borne by many hosted by the Convention,” Taylor continued. “Most of our members either serve, have served, or plan to serve in the United States Armed Forces, or have participated in events or projects supporting the United States Armed Forces. We will not be intimidated.’
Nathan, Nathan, Nathan. We aren’t calling the soldiers cowards, nor are we dishonoring them. In fact, we think it’d be an excellent boost to your honor to become one. Having participated in events supporting the Armed Forces just isn’t enough anymore– how about participating in the Armed Forces itself?
Neat Things: Operation Yellow Elephant:
I finally decided to participate in Operation Yellow Elephant, and I think I successfully ticked off the republicans a bit. I went to their callout and spent a few minutes trying to recruit soldiers for Iraq after the meeting; unfortunately, they had a BOUNCER at their callout, who decided to shut me down. I was called insensitive, Michael Moore, and other nasty names.
There’s a video that’s worth the click.