This is quite a sobering statistic:

More journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March, 2003, than during the 20 years of conflict in Vietnam, media rights group Reporters Without Borders said yesterday.

Think Progress reports:

From the 6/6/05 New Orleans City Business:

In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding…The cuts mean major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.

....Landrieu said the Bush administration is not making Corps of Engineers funding a priority. “I think it’s extremely shortsighted,” Landrieu said. “When the Corps of Engineers’ budget is cut, Louisiana bleeds. These projects are literally life-and-death projects to the people of south Louisiana.”

Also, here's why there was no national guard to assist in evacuation by buses to safe shelters in unaffected communities, rather than leaving the poor and infirm in town

A similar warning that New Orleans would cease to exist causing thousands to face death if they remained, was given in 2004. [hat tip Patriot Daily.]

In fact, as Norwegianity pointed out last night, Fox made a aired a movie, Oil Storm, about it in June. From the synopsis:

I just saw the Cindy Sheehan ad directed to President Bush on CNN. It is powerful. You can watch the ad at Gold Star Families for Peace.

Here's Cindy's latest entry at Huffingington Post.

Chris Swecker, the Assistant Director of the FBI's criminal division, says now it would take "a cartel" to get the FBI involved in a drug bust. The agency, Swecker says, has shifted to terrorism.

Drug crimes largely have been ceded to the Drug Enforcement Agency, while the U.S. Marshals Service now apprehends all but the most violent fugitives. Investigation of bank robberies, once a signature FBI duty, and large swaths of white-collar crime are also largely off the bureau's to-do list.

What's left? Public corruption, civil rights violations, organized crime - including gangs, major white-collar crime and certain kinds of violent offenses. The rationale is simple: The bureau now focuses on crime that might shed light on terror or that no other law enforcement agency can pursue.

Two released sex offenders who were on a registration list available on the Internet have been murdered. A man is believed to have posed as an FBI officer, went to their apartment and shot them.

The man presented himself to the three roommates as a member of the FBI and said he wanted to talk to them about their Level III sex offender status, according to police.

The fake FBI agent told the roommates that one of them was on a “hit list” on an Internet site, according to the police. The roommate who reported the deaths left while the FBI imposter was still there, Ambrose said.

Is this an isolated case of vigilante justice, or will this be the beginning of a trend?

by TChris

The right wing built its power by embracing extremism, but surely those who still claim to be “compassionate conservatives” will publicly oppose this hate mongering:

Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending the United States, a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq. …

The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist Church in, Topeka, Kan., contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. …

The church members carried signs and shouted things such as "God hates fags" and "God hates you."

Remember when the left was denounced for “fuzzy thinking”? What about denouncing unthinking hatred?

Update: New Orleans has been spared a direct hit by the most damaging part of the hurricane. There was still plenty of damage though.

Red Cross Online Donation Form or call 1-800-HELP-Now. Use the Red Cross, they know what they're doing.

I've been writing about Katrina and New Orleans since yesterday. I'm glued to the tv. Part of it is that New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in America. I'm there at least two times a year, usually for legal meetings - it's a favorite of just about every organization I belong to - but also because for more than 20 years I have gone there just for weekend jaunts and it never disappoints. I have stayed with friends on Lake Ponchetrain as well as in the hotels. The restaurants, art galleries, shopping, local historical sites, the beignets, the bars, the music venues, Mardi Gras, the Jazz Festival, even the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals where I've argued cases, are an indelible part of my memories.

Here's a place for your thoughts on New Orleans, your memories and your best wishes for those imperiled by this disaster.

Kudos to:

• Office Depot (my favorite office supply store) which has already pledged $1 million to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

• Anheiser-Busch is shipping 300,000 cans of water.

If you want to help, do so through the Red Cross. Send money, not goods. Here's the donation link, or call 1-800-HELP-NOW

Official description of possible damage:

Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks...perhaps longer. At least one half of well constructed homes will have roof and wall failure. All gabled roofs will fail...leaving those homes severely damaged or destroyed.

The majority of industrial buildings will become non functional. Partial to complete wall and roof failure is expected. All wood framed low rising apartment buildings will be destroyed. Concrete block low rise apartments will sustain major damage...including some wall and roof failure.

High rise office and apartment buildings will sway dangerously...a few to the point of total collapse. All windows will blow out.

Three nursing home patients in New Orleans died while being evacuated:

Three residents of a New Orleans nursing home fleeing Hurricane Katrina aboard a school bus died during an evacuation to a Baton Rouge church Sunday, authorities said.

The Times Picayune is running a news blog here. The paper will be reporting throughout the storm from a hurricane bunker on the third floor of the building:

Update: Katrina may be our "Asian Tsunami." One other point: we need to stop destroying the Louisiana wetland which serves as a buffer. More on that here.

"While the many are concerned with how the hurricane will effect the price and production the oil and gas - we are also concerned about the people and the precious habitat that could be destroyed as Hurricane Katrina makes land fall." said Sidney Coffee, Executive Assistant to the Governor for Coastal Activities. "The country depends on the resources provided by coastal Louisiana - the cargo and shipping industries, and the millions of barrels of oil and gas that flow through the terminals and pipelines found throughout America's WETLAND," continued Coffee "A direct hit from a storm like Hurricane Katrina could be devastating, and this danger is increased by the continued loss of our wetlands."

Katrina will cut oil production in the gulf coast of Mexico area by one-third.

U.S. energy companies said U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude oil output was cut by more than one-third on Saturday as Hurricane Katrina appeared poised to charge through central production areas toward New Orleans. The Gulf of Mexico is home to roughly a quarter of U.S. domestic oil and gas output, with a capacity to produce about 1.5 million barrels per day of crude and 12.3 billion cubic feet per day of gas.

Accuweather says where Katrina crosses the coast, it will resemble a war zone:

Update 7pm: Experts predict New Orleans will turn into an Atlantis and more than 1 million people will be homeless.

When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans on Monday, it could turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries.

Crude oil prices have already shot up due to Katrina.

Crude oil soared to a record above $70 a barrel in New York after Hurricane Katrina forced companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. to shut operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

So far, there's no word about banning sex offenders from hurricane shelters as planned in Flordia.

Live local NOLA tv video coverage here. Also, as mentioned below, Truth Laid Bear has a Katrina blogging aggregator page. More links with webcams from New Orleans here. Newsblog is here. Also check out the NOLA Hurricane Center.

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Original Post 12:30 pm

This hurricane is serious. The eye is now less than 200 miles away. It may be a category five. Here is the projected path. The Mayor has ordered mandatory evacuation of the city.