Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Arrrggghhh....gas problems, part XXXIII

2:29 P.M. - GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency scrambled to quash a fast-spreading rumor today that Hurricane Rita would trigger a gasoline shortage, but not fast enough to prevent long lines and fears.

At lunchtime, dozens of motorists were reportedly lined up at gasoline stations along U.S. Highway 49 from Hattiesburg to the Gulf Coast. Nina Smith, 33, of Biloxi got a call from a friend who told her -- wrongly -- the pumps would be shut off at noon.

---------------------------

and here:
Rumor fuels run on gas stations
By Nell Luter Floydnlfloyd@clarionledger.com

Rumors about a gasoline shortage in advance of Hurricane Rita are untrue, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. William L. Carwile, federal coordinating officer for FEMA, said there is plenty of gasoline in the state, and neither FEMA nor the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has the authority to commandeer gasoline supplies.

"Those rumors are absolutely untrue," he said. "The retail distribution system for petroleum products is fine."Milinda Evans, an employee at the Shell station on High Street in Jackson, said traffic at the station picked up about noon. A line had formed by 1 p.m. and there was a steady stream of drivers."We have gas," she said. "Our company said there isn't a problem."

Most drivers filled up their tanks, she said, noting the station had done double its normal business between noon and 1 p.m.Drivers also formed lines at the Texaco-Interstate Station across the street from the Shell station. Across town there were lines at the Pilot Travel Center on South Gallatin Street.

Latrichia Thurman of Jackson, a loan processor, stopped to gas up her 2002 Ford Escort after she saw the line at the Shell station on High Street. "I heard everybody was getting gas and that (Jackson mayor) Frank Melton was raising the price $1 a gallon," she said.

Kennedy Thomas of Jackson, who handles billing for anesthesiologists, filled up his 2000 Nissan Xterra at the Shell station."I was planning on getting gas and I went ahead and filled up," he said.

Will Morton of Magee, a third year student at Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson, said he went to fill up his Toyota Tacoma pickup after his wife called and told him FEMA planned to take all the gasoline."I drive back and forth from Magee every day," he said. Morton said the wait at the Shell station was only 15 minutes, about 30 minutes less than after Hurricane Katrina.


Please, people, will everybody just please calm down? Geez.

All four stations I passed on the way back to the office after lunch had long lines of stupid selfish weak pathetic people waiting for gas, probably to top off their @#$@#$@ Escalades so they can get their stupid fatasses to the buffet at Corky's or the Wal-Mart whenever they feel like it or something stupid like that.

They should re-deploy the cops who sit in the median of the interstate doing fundraising to each of the stations in town. If you have more than 1/4 of a tank, you get a $500 ticket and have to get out of line. The police department gets half the money for having to waste time policing these sorry sacks of
#$#@$, and the other half can be given to people who lost their vehicles in the hurricane.

I hope like heck this is just a really short term thing and people will start behaving responsibly, but after the way these pathetic animals and reprobates acted last time I'm not betting on it.

(Ole Miss Update) Lane to start....but wait....




It's a good news/bad news situation. Robert Lane is set to start Saturday against Wyoming. The Clarion Ledger has a preview/Lane profile. The good news is Lane will probably start. The bad news is that Noel MazREDzone is our offensive coordinator.

I've wanted Lane to be the starter since he stepped on campus. Some of that is, for sure, this peculiar phenomenon among supporters and fans that when the team is playing poorly, the guy who's not playing is always better than the guy who is playing. Never mind that the coaches and the reporters and the people who make it their business to know these things think differently, I GO TO THE GAMES AND/OR WATCH THEM ON TV, so I know more and, more importantly, I can see the forest better (ie, the big picture) because I'm not deep in it all the time, blah blah blah. (Notice: digression over).

Anyway, Robert Lane is set to start, and I'm pretty excited about that. I think Robert Lane, while not the most accurate passer, is a winner. A winner like Tee Martin. A winner like Jason White. Not the most gifted passer or the most comfortable in the "system" but a winner. Someone who other players rally around. Someone who puts his head down and fights. That is what I've seen when he's been in there. You can sense the team playing just a bit harder. You can sense the crowd getting more into it.

The prospect of this season turning around with a gutsy winning performance from Lane is exciting. After his fumble on the last play of the last game (when he was rushed into service following the injury to Spurlock), he said "It was a tough situation to be put in, but I survived it, I learned from it and it'll make me a better quarterback. I plan to lead this team to victory." That's a winner talking.

Lane's NOT saying "I've learned the offense and am comfortable and I look forward to the challenge of implementing the system at full speed in game conditions." He's planning on LEADING the TEAM to VICTORY. That's what a quarterback should do. Whether he does that with his arm, his head or his legs doesn't matter. His familiarity with the "system" doesn't matter. Winning matters. Offensive coordinator Noel MazREDzone said of Lane ""He's got a bit of a bow in his neck ... he brings that to the team, a toughness at that position. He's got a little moxie. Now, we have to roll the ball out there and see what he knows for real."

BUT WAIT

That's not the whole picture. MazREDzone has to get him in the stupid "system." MazREDzone also said: "There are all kind of wrinkles in that offense, we're trying to iron them all out." (As if it's the execution, rather than the stupid "system" that's to blame for our poor offensive performance thus far. Why does there have to be a system? NASA needs systems, computer networks need systems. Offenses need plays. Anyway, I digress).

What really gives me pause, however, is this "Mazzone said Lane is "night and day different" from the player he saw on film last season and early in fall camp — a quarterback who struggled to throw the ball downfield and often took off to run too soon. " Oh no, MazREDzone is taking that square peg, moving it toward his round hole. He's gotta stay in the "system" even if his talents aren't suited for it. Look, Mazzone's been mediocre with that offense everywhere he's been and he's not gonna change the "system" just to adapt to the personnel he has right now, no siree.

MazREDzone goes on: "I don't know how much they asked him to step back and read coverages last year, but we've been working with him on staying on his progressions and getting to the third reads. At times, he's too anxious to take the football and show everybody he can run over people." Translated "I know he's a better runner than passer. But that doesn't matter to me. What matters is he runs MY offense (so I get the credit when we succeed). If we don't, it'll be a matter of EXECUTION. It won't be because i'm asking a running, scrambling quarterback to stand back in the pocket and make 3 and 4 reads even though I know it's not his strong suit."

The point is Lane CAN run over people (and Spurlock can run around people), so why not just let him do it? Is that such a difficult thing to understand? Will the world come to an end, will the offense and team just completely break down into chaos and anarchy if he only makes TWO reads and then takes off for a 6 yard gain running the ball? Isn't that the point, to go forward toward the end zone? Is it better for him to make his third read and throw it away than make 2 reads and run for 4 yards? If he takes off and runs a few times, won't there be more receivers open later when LBs and DBs cheat up to stop that (like they do when you have a traditionally effective running game)? I'm no expert, but will someone point out the flaw in this approach? I must be too much of a simpleton, because I can't fully comprehend the "system" It's almost as if the "system" is more important than first downs and points.

I wonder what would have happened had Ole Miss brought in an option-oriented OC when Eli was here. Would they have made Eli run the option? That makes about as much sense as asking Lane or Spurlock to sit back in the pocket and make 3 or 4 reads when their strengths are running, scrambling and improvising. Apparently, MazREDzone (and Cutcliffe last year, who started Flatt over Lane and also insisted on a slavish devotion to a stupid "system") is more concerned with Lane staying in the "system" than actually moving the ball and scoring points. Of the three touchdowns we've scored on offense (that's 1.5 per game against powerhouses Memphis and Vandy), 2 have been players improvising (Spurlock and Mico), not flawless execution of some stupid wrinkle in MazREDzone's super-crafty "system."

So I'm excited, but I sure hope Lane just goes out there and plays on gut and instinct. We'll see Saturday.



AP is crap

I expect this sort of tripe from TimeWarnerCNNCorp, MicrosoftGENews, DisneyNews, etc. but the AP is supposed to be a legitimate news outlet.

Check out this "report" from AP, which is nothing more than a poorly disguised hatchet job on New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. This is clearly just an opinion piece. And it's not credited, either. So called "liberal media" strikes again.

First, the headline: "Mayor's handling of crisis questioned"

Really? by whom? The classic use of the passive voice. Who, exactly, has questioned the mayor's handling of the crisis? Name someone. The reason no one is named is either a) the author hasn't bothered to run a google search to find and/or interview someone or b) the only people the writer found were republicans and divulging only their viewpoints would expose the bias of the writer.

---

Then, about 5 paragraphs in, "Some observers from outside New Orleans say, Nagin's handling of the crisis has created the perception of a leadership void in this city at precisely the time it requires a steady hand."

Again, really? Who exactly are these OBSERVERS (plural) The OBSERVERS is/are 1 person, Melissa Harris Lacewell, a political science professor with the University of Chicago's Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. First, what exactly about his "handling" of the crisis would a political science professor know anything about? Is she trained in engineering? Is she trained in emergency management? She's speaking to a "political crisis," not the Katrina crisis. This suggests, to me, again, that the writer is coming from a political angle, not an emergency management or policy angle. (Lacewell is probably considered a liberal, from what I can tell based on the little research I did on her.)

---

"Others have said in Nagin's defense that he is dealing with an enormous and unprecedented crisis" Again, who exactly are these "others?" Care to name even ONE?

Lazy, shoddy reporting. Pathetic.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Bush on the Wing

A must see. Here.

Bush + Air Force One + Katrina = Pigs on the Wing

We were right, part 776

New CNN/Gallup Poll:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush's vow to rebuild the Gulf Coast did little to help his standing with the public, only 40 percent of whom now approve of his performance in office, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday.

Just 41 percent of the 818 adults polled between Friday and Monday said they approved of Bush's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while 57 percent disapproved. And support for his management of the war in Iraq has dropped to 32 percent, with 67 percent telling pollsters they disapproved of how Bush is prosecuting the conflict.

The survey had a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Fifty-nine percent said they considered the 2003 invasion of Iraq a mistake, 63 percent said they wanted to see some or all U.S. troops withdrawn from that country and 54 percent told pollsters they favor cutting spending on the war to pay for disaster relief.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Will someone please pass this on to the SCLM?

Monday, September 19, 2005

New Ryan Adams CD

is just a straight ahead country record. That's good news.

More here.

Louisiana 1927

by the Drive By Truckers.

Download here.

Friday, September 16, 2005

More Blame Game Lies

Remember how the good folks at the WH were not going to play the blame game?

Well, we already know that means "except for local and state officials" and the people who didn't evacuate.

Now it means environmental groups, as well.

10:31 A.M. - JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- The federal government is trying to find evidence of any past efforts by environmental groups to block work on New Orleans' levees, according to a published report.

The Clarion-Ledger said Friday it obtained an internal Justice Department e-mail sent out this week to U.S. attorneys that asks: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."

Full account here.

Pathetic.

This is why I like lawyers

5:55 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- A group of Louisiana homeowners sued 16 insurance companies Thursday, asking a state district court to rule that neglect and wind damage caused the flood that inundated thousands of homes in Orleans and Jefferson parishes.
Breaches in the levees which ring the city allowed the water in, so the floods were not caused by an "act of God," contends the lawsuit filed Thursday in 19th Judicial District Court.

from WWL's excellent Katrina blog.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Why do a majority of Americans hate America?

The "stay the course" folks are now squarely in the minority. The rest of us in reality want withdrawal from the Iraq quagmire:

As Kos notes:

42 percent of Republicans want us to start pulling troops out. Message to the idiots at the DLC and the rest of the timid DC Democratic establishment -- there's nothing radical or extreme about the growing anti-war sentiment in this nation. The position in favor of withdrawal is now supported by a 3-2 margin. Those advocating staying the course are now the extreme on the issue, marginalized to the fringes.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

In the laa-aand of the

Free.......Not.....

Is this the freedom we're trying to spread in the Middle East? Is this the freedom people are so hungry for? Is this the freedom people are dying for?

Worst. President. Ever.

Wow.

"At a news conference, Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush's choice for head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had ''absolutely no credentials.''She related that she had urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Michael Brown...

He said 'Why would I do that?''' Pelosi said.'

''I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.'

And he said 'What didn't go right?''

'''Oblivious, in denial, dangerous,'' she added."

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Does BushCo EVER Stop Lying? Ever?

These guys are downright pathological. They are LIARS. Scumbags.

Today, September 6, 9:22 A.M. - WHITE HOUSE (AP) -- The White House is rebuffing calls to fire the federal disaster chief in the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina. Press Secretary Scott McClellan says, "We're not going to engage in the blame game."

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4th (NYT) - Under the command of President Bush's two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan. The effort is being directed by Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and his communications director, Dan Bartlett.

And, oh yes, in case anyone forgot. From Shrub's inaugural address:

"Encouraging responsibility is not a search for scapegoats, it is a call to conscience. . . .I will live and lead by these principles: . . . to call for responsibility and try to live it as well."



See also this.

Monday, September 05, 2005

Scumbag Assholes

Thousands dying in New Orleans....

Here's your president. First it was blame the victimes (see "Chuck and Duck")

Now it's blame state officials. This is what the WH is concerned about. This is the only thing it's ever concerned about.

Scumbag sociopathic lying liars.

It took them days to come up with a rescue and relief plan but it only took them a few hours to come up with a political salvage plan for their Dear Leader.

Scumbag sociopathic lying liars.

From the NYTimes:

Under the command of President Bush's two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan.

The effort is being directed by Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and his communications director, Dan Bartlett. It began late last week after Congressional Republicans called White House officials to register alarm about what they saw as a feeble response by Mr. Bush to the hurricane, according to Republican Congressional aides.

As a result, Americans watching television coverage of the disaster this weekend began to see, amid the destruction and suffering, some of the most prominent members of the administration - Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense; and Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state - touring storm-damaged communities.


Yep. Scumbags. More here.

As bad as it appears to be in New Orleans...

I think that great town will recover.....

Why? Well there's this:

from here:

Scenes from New Orleans
Sunday Sept. 5, 2005 10:45 p.m.
By Jim Varney

In the midst of this, Joann Guidos, 55, perched on a bar stool in the front door of Kajun’s Pub on the 2200 block of St. Claude Avenue. She brandished her pump action shotgun at any unknown vehicle or pedestrian, but said she did so with good reason.“If you noticed, every place around here has been looted, except this one,’’ she said, noting proudly that she never closed during or since Katrina.

and this:

3:15 A.M. - (AP) -- Not even Hurricane Katrina could prevent the Decadence Parade from being staged in the French Quarter. The annual Labor Day gay celebration drew about two dozen people. Street musician Matt Menold summed it up best: "It's New Orleans, man. We're going to celebrate."

On a related note:

6:24 P.M. – Saints GM Mickey Loomis – we would like to play our games in Baton Rouge but we have to see what is possible. The NFL will have a lot of say. No decision has been made.

I had seen on television news that the Saints would play the season in San Antonio. I hope they stay in the state.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Ole Miss Quarterback Race a "Tie"

OXFORD — The Ole Miss starting quarterback job remains a toss-up with three days left until Monday's season opener.Senior Micheal Spurlock and sophomore Robert Lane are in a dead heat, coach Ed Orgeron said after Thursday's practice.

The Rebels are preparing to face Memphis on Labor Day at the Liberty Bowl in a game that will televised by ESPN."I think they're both playing well; it looks like a tie " said Orgeron, who had hoped to name a starter last Monday but said the competition has been too close to call. "We're going to have to make a decision, but it's really close in our minds. The (decision) will come down to the intangibles and looking at the whole picture."

Read more here.

C'mon Robert C'mon Robert:

Oh, yes, before Katrina, I went to Wrigley Field!

Before Katrina, I spent a couple of days in Chicago to see the Cubs (lose, of course. It wouldn't make any sense to travel all that way to see the Cubs win).

Here's a self-explanatory picture



This is a picture from the upper deck before the game


We were on the 5th row behind home plate. This is the Cubs scoring their first run in the first game


As mentioned, we had really excellent seats for this game. Here's Glendon Rusch, the starter, about to hurl his pitch.

Here's the Harry Caray statute:


I think that's Derrick May about to strike out


There's the Bulldog, Greg Maddux, warming up to pitch game 2 (Cubs lost 2-1, but he went the full 9 innings)


The jewel of my chicago pic collection. This is a classic ButtCuttMullet. Fella thought I was taking a picture of the game, but I was always intending to get the shot of his mug, his butt cutt, and, of course, the beautiful plumage. In a million years I couldn't have gotten him to pose any better. Scary though, he looks a bit like Coach O:


This is Maddux walking off in the 8th, I think after getting out of a jam. He pitched well. I was really glad to have been able to see him


Mia Hamm was in the audience, as well. We waited to get our picture made with her, but she was preoccupied, so we violated her privacy this way:


Here are some kids playing the drums after the game. It was hot that day.





That's all for now. Thank you for tuning in.

Pictures from Katrina

Here are some pictures of our yard after Katrina. Fortunately, Entergy got the lights back on yesterday. The neighbors had moved the tree that fell across the street (into my ditch, but it got moved). Obviously, we did not get it as bad as most, but this gives you an idea of Katrina's power 1/2 way into the state of MS.



Friday, September 02, 2005

Chuck and Duck

Always the same with these guys. Not my fault, couldn't be anticipated, blame Clinton.

This time it's blame the victims. From an interview with the Sheep in Wolf (Blitzer's) clothing, the head of FEMA, the liar Michael Brown:

BROWN: Well, I think the death toll may go into the thousands. And unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the evacuation warnings. And I don't make judgments about why people choose not to evacuate.

But, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. And to find people still there is just heart wrenching to me because the mayor did everything he could to get them out of there. And so we've got to figure out some way to convince people that when evacuation warnings go out, it's for their own good. Now, I don't want to second guess why they did that. My job now is to get relief to them.

It was the fault of the victims. These guys will stop at nothing. They take no responsibility for the Iraq debacle (it's the media's fault!), for the economy (blame Clinton!) or take any responsibility for this (they should have heeded the evacuation warnings!).

See Josh's post here for a good breakdown of the insanity and cowardice of this position, but before you do, remember, on the day after Katrina hit, as New Orleans was flooding and hundreds of thousands of people were stranded, and as the Mayor of NO and others begged for assistance, the accountability president, the CEO president, was doing this:

More Gas insanity

This is why I do not own a gun.

Tempers exploded in a south Jackson gas station line this morning as an angry driver shot into the air.

Jackson police charged Lloyd Coleman with a misdemeanor count of discharging a weapon in city limits. The shots were fired at at 10:45 a.m. at the Pilot Travel Center on Gallatin Street, just south of I-20.


"He had waited in line two-to-three hours. Somebody from the back cut in front of him. (Coleman) tried to talk to the driver, but he wouldn't listen," Jackson Police officer B. Sanders said.Coleman grabbed his black .357 revolver and fired one round straight into the air to get the driver's attention, Sanders said. No one was injured. Police did not have the other driver's name or more information on Coleman.

They really should go after the line-cutter, too. C'mon people, let's stop acting like animals.

See also: "Woman charged in gas line assault"