Tropical Storm Rita Heads to Keys

Tropical Storm Rita, likely to become a category 1 or category 2 hurricane by the time it reaches Key West tomorrow, is projected to move into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will find plenty of hot water to build strength.

Meteorological alarmist Jeff Masters offers this advice:

The entire stretch of coast from 500 miles south of Brownsville, Texas to Mobile, Alabama is at risk -- no one can say with any confidence where Rita will hit this far in advance. Texas and Louisiana are at the highest risk. The current model trend is to recurve Rita earlier and earlier, so residents from Corpus Christi to New Orleans need to be particulary concerned.

Hurricane Philippe is heading over open ocean and not expected to threaten land.

I took a bath on my Philippe shares in the Yahoo Buzz game, riding them from $12.43 to $15.34 and back down to $10.62, selling at a loss this morning. Prices are set by search results for all stocks in a market, so when Rita jumped from $10 to $20.30 in two days, everything else in the Atlantic Hurricane exchange plunged.

My new strategy is to buy equal shares of every hurricane except Rita, which is the equivalent of short-selling the storm. Katrina only reached a high of $22.49, so I'm betting that Rita's oversold.

I'm currently ranked 8,203 out of 8,520 players.

The information contained on this weblog entry is for information purposes only and is not intended to constitute a solicitation or offer to acquire or dispose of any investment nor is it intended to form the basis of an investment decision and should not be relied on in any way.

Hurricane Katrina · Florida · 2005/09/19 · Comment · Link

Democratic Response: Thanks from Louisiana

In the weekly Democratic response to the presidential radio address Saturday, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco thanked the people who reached out to the Gulf after Hurricane Katrina, supporting President Bush's plan to offer "extraordinary" federal support for the region's recovery. "Only the resources of the federal government are adequate to the challenge ahead," she said.

The text of her remarks:

Good morning. This is Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.

I speak for a grateful state to thank people across our nation who have lifted Louisiana in our time of need. Your generosity and support renews our faith in God and in the human spirit.

Nearly three weeks ago, the unforgiving winds and wrath of Katrina bore down on Louisiana and Mississippi, leaving a path of devastation and human tragedy unprecedented in our history. The destruction is almost beyond comprehension.

We have lost hundreds of our loved ones. Entire communities have been destroyed, others crippled, and countless businesses destroyed -- and with them the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people. And more than a million people have been displaced from their homes.

Even as the storm winds and surging waters passed, the people of Louisiana began responding, with breathtaking courage and in overwhelming numbers.

Their story needs to be told.

While the storm winds were still whirling in fury, National Guard soldiers and airmen, wildlife agents, law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel and the Coast Guard selflessly went into action, pulling survivors out of the water and from rooftops.

They were followed by hundreds of ordinary citizens who answered the call for help from all over our state, bringing their own boats to save their fellow Louisianans.

They gave no thought to their own safety -- only to help and to serve.

They were not alone.

They were joined by thousands of their fellow Americans, who came from all across the nation: military personnel, rescue workers and police officers, firefighters, doctors and nurses, Red Cross volunteers, EMS personnel, and just plain folks driving to Louisiana in trucks laden with food and water and love.

I offer our profound thanks, to all of you who opened your homes, your hospitals, your classrooms, your churches, your wallets, and your hearts to our people.

As long as the Mississippi River flows into the gulf, we will never forget your generosity.

Accept our thanks and hear our resolve: We will bring our people home as soon as we can. We need and we want our people back.

We will rebuild New Orleans and the surrounding communities of Southeast Louisiana. We look forward to returning your hospitality in a safer and more secure Louisiana, vibrant, just, and diverse, her cultural wealth restored to the world.

We need the help of Congress and the Federal Government in this epic task of reconstruction, because only the resources of the federal government are adequate to the challenge ahead.

I want to take this opportunity to thank President George W. Bush. He has recognized that Katrina was no ordinary hurricane and that our federal government will have to help us in extraordinary ways. We are prepared to work as partners.

Some issues reach beyond party. In the face of the human tragedy, which lies behind us, and the task that lies ahead of us, there is no room for partisan politics.

Let the people of America know: We must all work together. We will all work together.

Once again, I thank you for your help and I ask for God's blessings on the people of Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Thank you, and may God bless the United States of America.

Hurricane Katrina · Podcasts · Politics · 2005/09/18 · Comment · Link

Keep an Eye out for Hurricane Philippe

There's a new tropical depression forming in the Caribbean at latitude 13.0 north, longitude 55.0 west.

Tropical Depression 17 has the potential to become Hurricane Philippe around the time it nears the islands of the Lesser Antilles on Monday, according to Jeff Masters:

TD 17 is here, and will likely be the first major hurricane of September. This storm will be with us for the next two weeks, since it is moving slowly and has a large area of ocean ahead of it. The storm is in a an environment favorable for intensification, and should be Tropical Storm Phillippe Sunday and Hurricane Phillippe by Tuesday. ...

It is impossible to say where TD 17 may go five days from now.

While looking up this depression's potential name, I found an experimental Yahoo Buzz game, where you can buy and sell fantasy shares in newsworthy and technical subjects. I now own 804 shares of Hurricane Philippe, which is Saturday's biggest gainer.

Hurricane Katrina · Florida · 2005/09/17 · 9 COMMENTS · Link

Two Americas, One Bridge

People would go up the bridge every time they lined us up for the buses and the buses wouldn't come. People in groups would go up the bridge trying to go across the river. People who had family across the river couldn't get across the river. They were not letting us out of there. -- Denise Marsh, a Convention Center evacuee interviewed on This American Life (audio attached)

For all you people who think we are races in Gretna, please leave your address, we will be glad to bus all the criminals to your home town. Lets see how you would like your house robbed, or your daughter raped, or you house burned down. ... You people in cities like Houston will be sorry you took those people in, just watch the crime rate in Houston climb, and the other cities that took them in. -- comment posted this morning on Workbench

Residents of Gretna, Louisiana, are pleased with the decision to block the Mississippi River bridge leading out of New Orleans to evacuees after Hurricane Katrina.

The Gretna city council passed a resolution Thursday supporting the police chief's decision to block the bridge.

The Los Angeles Times describes three of the undesirables kept out of the city:

Among the people trapped in the city were Sandra's son and her ex-husband, Otis, 61, a diabetic who has used a wheelchair since his leg was amputated.

Otis had gone without dialysis for five days when their sons, Otis Jr., 35, and Orrin, 34, decided to push his wheelchair down the highway in search of help. They ended up walking miles.

They were near safety that Wednesday after the hurricane -- most of the way across the Crescent City Bridge into Gretna, La. -- when an armed officer told them to turn back because Gretna officials were concerned about looting.

By the time they made it out of New Orleans, hitching a ride on a truck, the younger men's feet were bloody and covered with rashes. Otis Sr. had fallen out of his wheelchair three times while they were walking and had open wounds on his head. He was nearly in a coma.

Allegations that race played a factor in the bridge blockade are being heard by attorneys for the NAACP, President Bruce Gordon told me during a bloggers' conference call Wednesday.

Louisiana NAACP President Ernest Johnson said, "Those who had the ability to transport themselves out prior to the floods were received with open arms. It wasn't 'til the ethnicity changed that that kind of reception committee was formed."

Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson Jr. denies race motivated the decision.

Gretna, population 17,000, is the seat of Jefferson Parish, described in 2003 as "Louisiana's most notoriously racist parish" by the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, a group that provides legal defense for indigent suspects in death penalty trials.

A blogger's map shows the position of Gretna relative to flooding and relief efforts staged on Interstate Highway 610 northwest of the city. The map's creator argues that the bridge route would have done more harm than good, sending people on foot further than a route along the New Orleans side of the Mississippi River.

In other news:

Gretna Mayor Ronnie Harris said his city relied on help from friends in other cities in the first harrowing days after Hurricane Katrina because no assistance from federal or state governments was forthcoming.

"We got help from people that I made contacts with, not from the bureaucracy for four or five days," he said.

"I kept trying to get the director of [Louisiana] Office of Emergency Preparedness and he never took my call. We never saw anybody from FEMA or the Red Cross," Harris said. "I understand the national media focus was on New Orleans but we had needs too."

Politics · Podcasts · Hurricane Katrina · 2005/09/17 · 11 COMMENTS · Link

Henri Bergius has incorporated code from my Weblog Pinger Library for PHP into the Midgard Content Management System.

This represents a Sally Field moment for me, the first time that any code I've written has made its way into another project thanks to an open source license. I'm going to celebrate my increased geek cred by buying something like this.

Php · Programming · 2005/09/15 · 2 COMMENTS · Link

Senate Testimony Signifying Nothing

Andrew Hyman, a conservative attorney who has been promoting John Roberts vigorously since his selection by President Bush, abandoned the judge in response to his answers during the first day of the confirmation hearings:

It now appears very possible to me that President Bush has nominated a pro-Roe vote in place of an anti-Roe vote. It appears from this morning's testimony -- and I could be wrong about this -- that Judge Roberts will probably affirm the so-called right to obtain an abortion all the way up until viability, even though 72% of women in the United States have consistently said that abortion should generally be illegal months before viability.

Read the entire discussion, one of the most fascinating I've found on the Roberts hearings, and you'll find that conservatives have no more idea than liberals what we're getting for the next 30 years. With a voice as soothing as an NPR host, Roberts has shown that he's expert on constitutional law, quick-witted, and intelligent enough to give the American public absolutely no clue as to his judicial philosophy.

He's also extremely personable. After hearing his encyclopedically vague answers for three days, I like Roberts so much I resent myself for wanting to know anything about him.

Throughout the hearings, Roberts has relied often on the rationale that he can't provide his opinion on matters that might be revisited by the court. He even used it to avoid discussing Bush v. Gore, a case in which the Supreme Court explicitly stated it was not setting a precedent. Here's the exchange about the case with Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl:

KOHL: I asked you what your opinion of that decision was at that time.

ROBERTS: Well, that's an area where I've not been -- I've not felt free to comment whether or not I agree with particular decisions or...

KOHL: Well, it's not likely to come up again.

ROBERTS: Well, I do think that the issue about the propriety of Supreme Court review in matters of disputed electoral contests, it is a matter that could come up again. Obviously, the particular perimeters in that case won't, but it is a very recent precedent.

And that type of a decision is one where I thought it inappropriate to comment on whether I think they were correct or not.

If the nation no longer expects candor from Supreme Court justices, the Judiciary Committee should adopt the format of What's My Line?, with blindfolded senators asking a series of yes-no questions of the nominee to determine his identity. The winner could receive a federal highway named in his honor and three ethical violations to be named later.

Politics · 2005/09/15 · 10 COMMENTS · Link

Justice Junction, What's Your Function?

The primary job of Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee is to run out the clock and help John Roberts say as little of substance as possible during the confirmation hearings. Some of them are better at this than others.

Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions used his alloted time yesterday to make Roberts walk through the process of how a case reaches the Supreme Court and becomes a decision:

SESSIONS: So the lawyers from both sides then appear before the court, over in the Supreme Court building, and they answer questions and make their presentations as to why they think the court should rule the way they would like it to?

ROBERTS: They usually get an hour for the whole case.

So each side gets a half hour and that half hour is taken up almost entirely by the justices' questions.

I hope that Sessions, the former attorney general of Alabama, will test Roberts next on the three branches of government and how a bill becomes a law.

Politics · 2005/09/14 · 4 COMMENTS · Link

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