Approximately 1/3 of the nation’s oil and natural gas moves through the port of New Orleans. I think we’re looking at $3 a gallon - and up.
Here’s the National Weather Service warning:
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005
..DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED
HURRICANE KATRINA
A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH [...]

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Via No More Apples:
George Will and Cokie Roberts were lavishing praise on Alan Greenspan [on] This Week and his legacy for reigning in inflation during his tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve when Fahreed Zakaria offered what he called a “mild dissent” — Fahreed suggested that it has not been Greenspan but in recent [...]

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Sigh. It’s very hard to do good works and see no results. But every great spiritual teacher says the same thing - it isn’t the results, but the very act of your good works that tilts the world’s balance of good and evil:
What she dealt with daily goes beyond the pale…beyond the nightmares of most [...]

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That “flypaper” strategy’s working real well, isn’t it?
THIRTY Philippine ferry passengers, including several children, were injured when a home-made bomb left on a pile of liquefied petroleum gas tanks exploded.
The explosion ripped through the back section of the Dona Ramona ferry as it was about to depart from the port of Lamitan in the southern [...]

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For New Orleans. Wind gusts recorded at 200 mph.
UPDATE: Bubble Boy will address the nation about the hurricane Iraqi constitution at 12:30 p.m. EST.
UPDATE UPDATE: Worst cast scenario, via Kevin Drum.

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As a shiska who married a Jew, all I can say is, “Oy vey.” (Or, as I once said to my (now-deceased former) mother-in-law, “If you wanted Jewish grandchildren, you should have raised Jewish children.”)

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So if this guy didn’t do it, why was the CIA willing to let the real perps get away? Interesting:
A FORMER Scottish police chief has given lawyers a signed statement claiming that key evidence in the Lockerbie bombing trial was fabricated. The retired officer - of assistant chief constable rank or higher - has testified [...]

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Here’s some background on the “grassroots” group Move America Forward - the ones protesting Cindy Sheehan in Crawford.
Now, you knew this, right?

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I had an unexpected treat last night. One of my readers was in town and took Jim C. and myself out to the White Dog Cafe.
I’d suggested the place, but I forgot this was move-in weekend at Penn and boy, was it crowded on campus. (Not to mention that most of the area parking meters [...]

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I wonder what he plans to do about the straight priests who are molesting children and having sex with parishioners?
The new Pope faces his first controversy over the direction of the Catholic church after it was revealed that the Vatican has drawn up a religious instruction preventing gay men from being priests.

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What an asshole.

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Arthur Silber:
What continues to astonish me about the Democrats’ utterly craven performance is the element I mentioned the other day. As the Bush foreign policy self-immolates and disintegrates more with every day that passes, we are witnessing a political and moral vacuum. At the moment, we are being provided with no political leadership from anyone. [...]

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A Reuter reporter writes about the real war:
Last month, a Sunni Muslim politician who became a regular source was gunned down in Baghdad because he was working on writing the new constitution. His name and number are still in our list of contacts — emotionally, it’s not easy instantly to erase them.
That is just one [...]

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Here’s a real eyeopener of an interview with Gen. Janice Karpinski, who was in charge of Abu Ghraib. There are far too many points to quote, so be sure to read the whole thing:
“It was a memorandum signed by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, authorizing a short list, maybe 6 or 8 techniques: use of [...]

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The “Bring Them Home Now” Crawford-to-Washington Tour leaves Crawford Aug. 31st and will be passing through different parts of the country.
They’re looking for sponsors and hosts. Click here for more info.

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You know, if these people were really “pro life,” they would be out protesting this war that’s already killed so many:
The Marine, Staff Sgt. Chad Simon of Monona, suffered a severe brain injury in November when a roadside bomb hit his Humvee, injuring Simon and killing three other Marines from his Madison-based Reserve unit. Surgeons [...]

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Billmon has a very, very interesting analysis of Pat Robertson’s recent proposal that Hugi Chavez be assassinated:
In other words, I don’t think we should entirely dismiss Pat’s fatwa as simply a hysterical rant by a man who sees the Anti-Christ around every corner. I think Robertson went after Chavez for a more pragmatic reason. The [...]

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It’s all so sadly familiar:
A program supposed to monitor the health of thousands of federal workers who answered the call of 9/11 has been lost for more than two years, the Daily News has learned. “We seem to have inherited our own Loch Ness monster in terms of being able to find this monitoring,” said [...]

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Krugman:
Because employers don’t have to raise wages to get workers, wages are lagging behind the cost of living. According to Labor Department statistics, the purchasing power of an average nonsupervisory worker’s wage has fallen about 1.5 percent since the summer of 2003. And this may understate the pressure on many families: the cost of living [...]

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Eli points out that Bush has a double standard when it comes to meeting with women whose loved ones were killed in Iraq:
George Bush has claimed repeatedly that he doesn’t need to meet with Cindy Sheehan because he has already met with her, and it’s a line that his supporters repeat frequently as well. Just [...]

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This means a reprieve for Willow Grove Air Force Base:
PHILADELPHIA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Pentagon had broken the law in seeking to close down the 111th Fighter Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard without first obtaining the governor’s approval.
The ruling was a victory for Democratic Gov. [...]

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So this is how they plan to pass their Social Security pillage privatization:
Congressional Republicans, persisting in hopes of enacting some form of private Social Security option despite opposition from the public and the Democrats, are considering the same kind of maneuver that enabled them to pass a controversial Medicare drug bill two years ago.
That’s [...]

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When in doubt, it’s always a good idea to have another conference on blogger ethics. From Think Progress:
In April, Judge John Roberts “heard arguments about the Bush administration’s [Guantanamo Bay] policy as he was discussing a Supreme Court appointment in private conversations with the White House.� On July 15, “when Judge Roberts met with President [...]

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Oh really? you say. The Republicans are all about state’s rights?
Yesterday, the Bush administration released new federal fuel efficiency standards. (Not surprisingly, the standards will do little to increase fuel efficiency and may actually encourage automakers to produce bigger, more inefficient vehicles.)
Buried on page 150 of the draft rule is a provision that would [...]

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So yesterday I got a call asking for references, and now I’m waiting. And waiting.
What if I don’t get this job? I keep coming back to the same logical solution: I need to get me one of those MacArthur genius grants.
The MacArthur Fellows Program awards five-year, unrestricted fellowships to individuals across all ages and [...]

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But you have to admit, the people of Iraq are better off than they were under Saddam Hussein.
Apparently some people don’t agree:
BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) - Thousands marched in adoring praise of Iraq’s deposed leader Saddam Hussein on Friday, offering a stark display of the loss of power and leadership felt by some of Iraq’s Sunni [...]

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I thought they were our allies in the fight for global democracy?
Uzbek authorities have jailed hundreds of people and forced them to confess to links to radical Islamists to justify the army crackdown on peaceful demonstrators last May that left 500 people dead, The Independent has learnt.
Human Rights Watch reports that witnesses of the [...]

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You’re Marc Bolan, the man behind T. Rex.
You are a glam machine, original as all hell.
You really know how to flaunt your eccentricities,and you write funny nonsensical, mysticallyrics. Sometimes you can seem like a parody ofyourself, but hey, no one can do you betterthan yourself. (?). You have a distinctivestyle, and you are [...]

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It’s a good thing that they took that weapon from him, because he went looking for the guys who’d robbed him. Figured they’d be easy enough to find on that shiny red scooter. Fortunately he didn’t find them, and he went home. Stopped and got a pint of vodka first, to calm his nerves. Told [...]

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If you didn’t get to see Jon Stewart’s brilliant takedown of the unctuous Christopher Hitchens last night, you can watch the rerun at 10 a.m. EST or check it out at Crooks & Liars.

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