Sticking My Fingers in My Ears, Chanting "La-La-La"

As if my outrage fatigue wasn't bad enough, Will's all over a lot of the issues, The First Idiot is staging photo ops in the middle of the disaster, and the statements he and FEMA director Mike Brown have made to the effect of "no one could predict this" are discredited by...oh, well, two posts down, and all the news organizations linked therein, and the experts they quote...oh hell, Jeff Masters says it better in his new Katrinablog:

A horror unimagined by anyone, except by every hurricane scientist and government emergency management official for the past forty years and more. It was a certainty that New Orleans would suffer a catastrophe like this.

So, one last comment which forms a segue into talking about something else, and then I am going to perform metaphorically the title action of this post for a bit. Bush went back to New Orleans today...and at the Nats game, we clearly saw Marine One go overhead on the way back. At 3:52 PM EDT. When I know, from watching CNN this morning, that he was in the White House at 8 AM. Nice trip. The nation's got a fuel crunch, and he can't even be bothered to stay long enough to hand out a blanket or something.

Segue: Nats game! They won 5-2 and still hot in the wild card chase. Let me tell you, even if it's a holiday, there's nothing like being at the ballpark on a sunny weekday afternoon. Especially if the doofuses around you want Livan Hernandez pinch hit for in the 8th, despite the fact that any healthy body on the bench who is actually better than him has already been used, and he comes through with a two-out single to key the rally that breaks the game open. Good times.

Also spread the smile vibe: My hovercraft is full of eels. Just because.

Aftermath

You've probably satisfied your need for Katrina knowledge before coming here, but I feel like posting a follow-up, given what's happened...

With the levee breaches--two of them now, apparently--Steve Gregory's blog at Weather Underground terms it "a 'slow motion version' of the worst case scenario for New Orleans." A lot of the info I'm going to collect here for you comes from somewhere on nola.com, which is the home for the Times-Picayune, (author of the report Wilhite sent me):

--60,000 people in the Superdome, as hotels have sent their guests/refugees there; (and the aforelinked Steve Gregory reports that the occupants are getting restless)
--Fires have started which can't be attended to (you'll recall similar things happening in Grand Forks, ND after flooding in 1997
--Looting has started
--Devastation photos can be found here, mostly with AP photos though, as the T-P staff has had to evacuate their offices after the levee breaches
--Martial law has been declared in various places (and not Marshall law, which is presumably Adam throwing people in jail, as an understandably frazzled nola.com staffer let slip by earlier today.)

There's little to no water, sanitation, or food, and they'll need to be displacing even more people soon. I'd suggest if you can swing it, try to give a little something to the Red Cross or other acceptable organization.

One last thought: The nola site probably ought to take down the text ad proclaiming "FLOOD INSURANCE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"

By the time you read this, there may not be a New Orleans

Update 9:43 pm 8/28: Now 4th largest storm on record; Dr. Masters' blog:

I put the odds of New Orleans getting its levees breached and the city submerged at about 70%.

Edit: photo removed as weather event ending--Stevis 8/30/05

That's Category 5 Hurricane Katrina, currently bearing down on New Orleans. It's already the sixth strongest measured hurricane ever in the Atlantic. Here's the Weather Underground forecast for Monday in New Orleans, as of post time:

Widespread showers and scattered thunderstorms. Hurricane force winds. Some thunderstorms may produce damaging winds and heavy rainfall. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Highs in the upper 80s. Northeast winds 60 to 90 mph with gusts to around 125 mph becoming northwest and decreasing to with gusts to around 115 mph in the afternoon. Chance of showers and thunderstorms 90 percent.

That is the epitome of a calm statement about complete devastation.

Now, I'm not being facetious with the title of this post. New Orleans is below sea level, and protected by a large network of levees from the Mississippi flooding. Of course, if that system is breached--say by a huge storm surge--the water isn't getting out. The pumps which clear the city of ordinary rainfall would be submerged and useless, and you'd end up with a giant lake full of swamp critters and toxic waste. This article discusses the issue; I first saw these points as a feature out of a New Orleans paper some years ago but can't find it now.

So, in conclusion, I'd wait until late next week before making your Mardi Gras plans.

Link Post #12 & 35

Yeah, it's just a link post, but it's things I thought were worth sharing.

This guy wants to use Green Flourescent Protein to make deer more visible at night.

Jim Caple's essay on the steroid era calling into question all records and Hall of Fame status. No, not baseball--football.

I'm a sucker for shallow, one-note, rimshot-style political commentary. Enter The Ministry of Reshelving.

Stevis posts. Also in News: Trumpets Sound; Cats, Dogs Lie Down Together.

Alright. I come to you with a new commitment. Twice a week posts, minimum.

Yeah, that's not exactly setting a standard for journalistic output. But I will post at least twice a week, whether or not I have anything to say. And this will not count the TAR threads. And you all have my permission to call me a piece of crap if I fail to live up to this, unless I mention a specific absence due to vacation or work related trip in advance.

I figure if I at least put it in print somewhere, I can feel guilty for not living up to it, and then I may actually post to avoid that feeling.

So what can I talk about here that is not about me? Well, in baseball news, the Cubs are out but don't know it yet. I'd thought of driving to Pittsburgh (Coop!) over Labor Day weekend, but I need to get my car fixed to do that, and if I do I probably shouldn't spend money on the trip. Oh well.

The Nationals are improbably still in the wild card hunt. I haven't heard that they want my money for playoff tickets yet, but they almost certainly will take a deposit, earn interest on it, and hand it back if they don't make the playoffs. They do have the most remaining home games of any of the contenders, but their early-season home field wonders haven't carried over. Which is not surprising, of course.

That's all for now. There will be more. Really. I mean it.

Spoilerific Discussion Thread--Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The ground rules: You enter the comments section, you take your chances. Don't go in until you've finished, and if you post there don't worry about spoiler tags. I might not be in for a bit as my folks are in town this weekend....but I got quite a ways in before shutting it and going to bed last night...

I picked up my copy at the party held by A Likely Story, in which they turned the small Amtrak stop down the street from their store into Platform 9 3/4 (by covering the two glass doors with butcher's paper painted to resemble brick, so you had to walk between the bricks once you opened the doors. Neat.) They then lined everyone up in houses (i.e., they'd sorted the pre-orders) and marched, post-opening-feast style, down the street to the store--complete with a cop stopping traffic for this motley procession.

Anyway, happy reading.

My Parents are not allowed to follow this link

Specifically, as they are flying out to see me this week, they should not read thisreport from the Guardian about uncovering embarrassing secrets about the airline industry.

Nothing about dangers, mind you--except pilot boozing which you know about--but the question of what is done with people who die on long-haul flights is...intrestingly answered.