folo

Not feeling real festive today, but we do need a bite of Sunday Dinnah, so . . .

Would you believe that China is just now being introduced to fortune cookies? Check it out, here and (more fun) here.

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A reader of both folo and the Hattiesburg American says, “Here is a link to the best coverage of the Howard Industries saga. The question Emma James’s last paragraph leaves with me is ‘Where is the accountability for this $50,000,000 dollars of “taxpayer monies” Howard Industries have received over the last 5 years?’”

Dunno. Maybe there really isn’t supposed to be much. One of the story’s most telling passages reads:

… The Legislature in 2002 approved $31.5 million in bonds for the company to expand its computer and transformer manufacturing operations. The company put up $80 million.

The legislation required that the company hire 2,000 employees for the computer and transformer divisions by 2012. If it fails to meet that deadline, the company must repay the state $3,000 for every employee short of that mark.

Interestingly enough, the 2002 legislation included a requirement that the company hire workers eligible for employment under state and federal law due to concerns about the hiring of illegal immigrants in other industries, according to a 2002 report in The Clarion-Ledger.

But a reading of the bill that was overwhelmingly approved by the House and Senate does not detail any penalties for hiring illegal workers. …

You’ll want to read the rest.

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NMC is right to solicit the prayerful for New Orleans and Louisiana, but when he says “I think the Mississippi coast seems ok,” you can tell he’s somebody who’s always lived 275 miles upcountry from the hurricane zone. The Mississippi coast will not be okay. Nor will Picayune, Baton Rouge, or Hattiesburg. Vicksburg, Jackson, and the Delta won’t be especially okay either. Even Oxford may catch a bad day out of this. The forecasters want you to know

It is important not to focus on the exact track of Gustav as this is a large hurricane and significant impacts are likely to occur well away from the center.

At 4 AM CDT, the National Hurricane Center posted a Hurricane Warning for the whole stretch from Cameron, Louisiana, to the Alabama-Florida line: anyone along that coast could be in on a Cat 3 or 4 by this time tomorrow.

Gustav is a category three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Some restrengthening is forecast during the next 24 hours…and Gustav could regain category four strength later today or tonight. Fluctuations in strength are likely…but Gustav is forecast to remain a major hurricane until landfall.

Gustav is a large tropical cyclone. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 50 miles … from the center…and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 200 miles …

An extremely dangerous storm surge of 18 to 25 feet above normal tidal levels is expected near and to the east of where the center of Gustav crosses the northern Gulf Coast.

The storm-surge forecast map is ugly, even for above Baton Rouge, and now the NHC expects Gustav to stay a Cat 4 for some distance after landfall and remain a Cat 1 as far inland as Alexandria. Mississippi will be in his northeast quadrant, the least-lucky one.

You cannot look at those colored storm-symbols or the yellow circles on these maps and think they’re it. For one thing, hurricanes have an awful habit of jinking a bit right or left just before landfall — a wobble that makes a huge difference near-term and quite a bad one on up the line too (as Waveland and Pass Christian, among many other towns, can testify). For hundreds of miles the weather goes bad — as I type, Gustav’s outflow has a thunderstorm overhead here (maybe one over your head too?). These things throw off tornadoes like nothing, even far from their cores.

So if I were just about anywhere in Mississippi, Louisiana, or the eastern half of Texas, I’d want to know where to lay hands on a chainsaw, batteries, and enough food and water (and something to heat them with) to hold me ’til the power comes back on. If I were anywhere from I-20 south, I’d sure want to bring in or tie down anything that might go blowing around near my house. (I would not want some fool self-serving politicians showing up to complicate my town’s life.)

In my experience (which does not include either critical damage to or loss of my home or injury or death of loved ones), this waiting period is the hardest psychological stress of the whole storm cycle. In the past, I’ve actually felt better when the damn thing arrived and things started happening — at least now I knew what it included. The aftermath has been second most-stressful, and the active storm-period the least (in my experience, I emphasize). So if you have Katrina-survivor friends now under threat again, send them special caring today. No telling how freaked-out they are, and justifiably so.

Yes, pray for everybody near the coast — and a long way inland too. May you and yours be safe.

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The latest from the NY Times.

City officials ordered everyone to leave New Orleans beginning Sunday morning — the first mandatory evacuation since Hurricane Katrina flooded the city three years ago — as Hurricane Gustav grew into what the city’s mayor called "the storm of the century" on Saturday and moved toward the Louisiana coast.

Mayor C. Ray Nagin said Gustav was larger and more dangerous than Katrina, and pleaded with residents to get out or face enormous flooding and life-threatening winds.

They’re saying it’s tracking West of New Orleans, and will produce tropical storm force winds in New Orleans.  I think the Mississippi coast seems ok.  It looks like it’s going to run into the coast in the New Iberia area.  The storm surges seem pretty extreme, and I’m worried again about a place I love.

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. . . the Coast of Mississippi, Louisiana, or Texas, that is, you need to read Jeff Masters’ new post, including the image below, and in a few minutes, the 5 PM updates at Wunderground.com.

Figure 1. Visible satellite image of Hurricane Gustav at landfall in Cuba, 3:02 pm EDT 8/30/08. At the time, Gustav was a Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph winds. Tropical Storm Hanna is visible at the right. Image credit: NASA.

UPDATE: Was just reading some of the latest comments on Jeff Masters’ thread, and this certainly isn’t good:

We just updated Chuck Watson’s models over at The Oil Drum with the new tracks. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port is right in line for some serious damage–LOOP is the only supertanker oil port on the USA East Coast:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4468

(scroll down in the post to see maps, data, etc.)

Please, Gus, move about 50 miles west. Please.

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. . . I’m talking at least four. Hearken, you Saddy Animals.

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Hey you Coastals, your folo-pal Bob invites you to Tallahatchie Flats’ “Rhythm on the River.”

If you gotta evacuate anyway, why not take in a great “deep blues, jazz, country music & gospel” festival up Greenwood way?!

UPDATE: The rest of Greenwood and LeFlore County are preparing for company too (Tupelo, somewhat less so).

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folo’s friend Mary has just posted a very important diary at DKos (where she’s “Mary2002″). You’re used to her meticulous research and wit in comments here, so you know what to expect. Her topic today is not only John McCain’s ties to Ahmad Chalabi, a top aide of whose has just been arrested for getting four Americans and six Iraqis killed in a bombing, but also Chalabi’s role in the new oil deal that Iraq’s just struck with — not us but China. She begins:

McClatchey is reporting the arrest at Baghdad International Airport of Ali Faisal al Lami, a top aide to Ahmed Chalabi. The arrest is reported to be related to a June bombing that killed four Americans and six Iraqis. Chalabi and McCain have [associations] extending back into the the 1990s and McCain also received Chalabi’s enthusiastic support in the 2000 Presidential election.

Aram Roston, in his book about Chalabi, The Man Who Pushed America To War, details that McCain was one of initial backers of Chalabi’s “International Committee for a Free Iraq” that was founded early in the 1990s. During the Clinton administration, McCain pushed to have America set up an Iraqi government in exile, using Chalabi’s group.

After both the Pentagon and State Department rejected McCain’s approach, McCain sponsored the “Iraq Liberation Act” in an effort to commit America to regime change in Iraq. McCain then used his position on the Senate Armed Services Committee to chastise General Zinni when the General raised questions about Chalabi’s exile group. …

After detailing that new oil deal, Mary concludes:

… So following the announcements of Maliki wanting a timeline for troop withdrawal, and contemporaneously with the announcement of the Iraqi oil deal with China, we now suddenly discover that a top aide to McCain’s best friend in Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, is being arrested for suspicion of being involved in a bombing in June that killed Americans and was apparently targetting a political rival.

The arrest has left Ahmed Chalabi, McCain’s former supporter and major client for McCain lobbyist, a bit miffed.

Chalabi condemned the arrest Thursday night. “This incident shows the need for an end to the random arrest of Iraqis by the American forces, which are against the human rights outlined in the constitution. It proves for a fact that each Iraqi might be arrested or put in prison without knowing the reasons,” he said in a news release. He couldn’t be reached for further comment.

I guess the real question now is whether McCain’s selection of Sara Palin and her strong pro-life stance and will bring Chalabi and his known associates back into the McCain fold? /snark

Now go read the middle part — that is, if you’re at all interested in McCain’s judgment when it comes to foreign policy. He’s about as wise and careful there as he is at Veep-selection.

(h/t op99)

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Someone just sent me the link to this short diary at DKos by “Libero7″:

Look at this picture:

“On the streets or at the stadium, tears of the people”, from www.repubblica.it

There are a lot of differences between the lady in the picture and me.

She is black, I am white. She is American, and is certainly proud to be. I am Italian, at this particular time not much proud to be, thinking for example to the politicians who represent us.

There is another difference: the evening Barack Obama has accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party she was in Denver, along with other 84,000 people screaming, I was at home, and I raised in the middle of the night (at 3 a.m….), without making noise to let sleeping the rest of the family, and I followed the speech on TV.

But at least one thing joins us: probably at the same time tears have dropped on our cheeks: tears of joy and emotion, tears without colour and who need no translation. …

Go read the rest. It’ll take you maybe a minute or two but it’ll change your day for the better — and maybe your cheeks for the wetter, too.

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Kevin Drum has been busy doing due-diligence on Sarah Palin’s views on seven domestic issues. And here she is (audio only, h/t TPM) speaking for herself on Iraq two weeks ago:

I wish she were kidding.

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