rainin' on the rnc parade

maybe there is a god?

hurricane gustav has been bearing down on the gulf coast for several days. this time authorities seem to have their act somewhat together and evacuations, preparations and curfews fell into effect several days ago. katrina remains a raw memory (not hard to forget if you're still living in a fema trailer, i bet), so 2 million people hotfooted hopefully to safer land north and west. mayor nagin of new orleans told residents they "need to be scared". a few hold-outs remain, holed up with tobacco, canned beans, guns and ammo, but his words seemed to have the desired effect. as i type, the storm keeps moving but a big question mark remains about what mother nature has in mind.

from today's ny times:

"we are hoping and praying gustav runs out of steam,” said lt. gen. robert l. van antwerp, the commanding general for the corps of engineers, as lightning flashed in the clouds over lake pontchartrain behind him.

maybe he should have been *praying* harder over the past 3 years to get the damn levees and t-walls built faster?

i digress.

mccain and his cons now must scale way back on the hate fest. opening night in st. louis is basically canceled. balloons and bunting are unseemly when you've got millions on the move to save their lives, eh? the next few days will force minute-to-minute decisions, having no disaster emergency precedent by which to choose the *right thing to do.* a sunshiney spot in the storm is that bush and cheney will NOT attend the convention, making it impossible for any pix to be taken together of the nominee and the least favored president in us history. visual, if not idealogical, distance thanks to a mighty wind.

riddle me this, kind readers: wtf were mccain and palin doing down there? he is a senator from arizona. not what i'd call hurricane central. she is, well, i wrote that all yesterday. gidget goes to the gulf, ya know? (did she bring a jet-ski, hoping for rad waves?) there is NOTHING they can do to help or assist authorities who are presumably busting ass to keep everybody's shit together. even shrub has the sense to stay away. shouldn't they stop sucking valuable resources? landing planes, motorcades, security -- all that could have been avoided by conference calls and e-mail. OH, WAIT! then there would be no pix or video of mccain and palin looking concerned in the rain. AND, OH! mccain cannot use the internet.

gustav is the lead story on cable and the net, making the republican convention an also-ran.

maybe this will turn out to be a breath of fresh air after all.