(Before the Deluge.)

Isaac will be a Cateogry 1 Hurricane when it hits Louisiana around 7 pm tonight. New Orleans is directly in its cross-hairs. Here's the latest advisory.

How much has been learned in the seven years since Hurricane Katrina? Even the $10 billion invested in its hurricane risk reduction system hasn't fixed the attitudes of some:

Jefferson Parish officials issued a stern warning to anyone who dares tread outside during Tropical Storm Isaac. "If you create damage, you are going to jail,'' Sheriff Newell Normand said during a news conference that just wrapped up.

[More...]

I was on Daily Kos Radio, on my own today.Podcast here:

Also here or here or here.

Open Thread.

in a good way:

Not to mention the systematic Republican campaign to deny people of color the fundamental right to vote.

Mitt Romney "jokes" about the racist birther attacks on the president. But the short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump, slated for, in his words, "a big role" at the Republican National Convention, is deadly serious about it. After receiving the "Statesman of the Year" award (I kid you not) from the Sarasota Republican Club, Trump said:

[S]ome people thought [Romney's quip] might not be a joke. It happens to be an issue that a lot of people believe in. [...] Let’s just say this there’s a huge group of people that are not believers in what [Obama] did, what he said and where he came from. We’ll see what happens. Well see what happens over the coming weeks and months."

[...] I had a big role tomorrow night. You know what happened tomorrow night. So it’s now up to them. […] It’s totally up to them, whatever they like," he said. "They gave me a big role and I was looking forward – I was actually going to Tampa right after this, right after this dinner, but now I probably will be going back to New York. I may come back but I’ll probably be going to New York after the dinner. Asked to elaborate on what the "big surprise" was, Trump just said it was a "very big thing." "I think they're still going to probably do it," he added.

A very big thing from the leading birther in the nation for the Republican National Convention. Suuuure Romney was joking.

NOTE: Due to Hurricane Isaac, Trump has been bumped from the schedule.

Busy work day here. How about an open thread? All topics welcome.

Tropical Storm Isaac has hit the Florida Keys and is expected to turn into a category 2 hurricane.

Miami looks safe, but the latest warning says New Orleans may be in danger.

A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR...
* THE FLORIDA KEYS INCLUDING THE DRY TORTUGAS
* THE WEST COAST OF FLORIDA FROM BONITA BEACH SOUTHWARD TO OCEAN REEF
* FLORIDA BAY

A HURRICANE WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR...
* EAST OF MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA TO INDIAN PASS FLORIDA...INCLUDING METROPOLITAN NEW ORLEANS AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN

Thanks to TL pal Fishcamp who is in the Keys and been updating us in comments. He recommends following the Caribbean Hurricane Network.

Baby Lorenzo arrived just after 3 a.m. Must have been a long night of labor for Snooki. Congrats to Snooki and Jionni LaValle.

The world just got another Guido!!!" a rep for Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi told MTV. Lorenzo Dominic LaValle has entered the world weighing 6lbs, 5oz. Nicole, Jionni & Enzo are doing great!"

MTV shared in Snooki's excitement: "We couldn't be happier for Nicole and Jionni on the healthy delivery of their baby boy! We look forward to Lorenzo's first trip to the Jersey Shore and can't wait to see his first animal print onesie."

Me either, I'm a big Snooki fan.

Pics soon, no doubt. CNN has more: Snooki spin-off 6 pound 'Guido.'[More...]

For Lt. Neil Armstrong.

In other news, Republicans have postponed the start of their convention due to Tropical Storm Isaac.

Tonight on TV: The 2012 London Hyde Park concert is on VH-1 and Palladia ("Hard Rock Calling") with Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Paul McCartney and more.

Snooki's in labor in New Jersey.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Here is the Republican party platform from 1956. It's very worth reading, for the stark contrast to the party's platform in 2012.

The latest version of the proposed 2012 Republican Platform was erroneously posted on the RNC website yesterday and quickly pulled. You can read it here. Here are summaries by the Washington Post and LA Times.

Shorter version of the comparisons: A party that has gone to hell in a handbasket in the last 50 years. [More...]

NYTimes:

Neil Armstrong was a quiet self-described nerdy engineer who became a global hero when as a steely-nerved pilot he made “one giant leap for mankind” with a small step on to the moon. The modest man who had people on Earth entranced and awed from almost a quarter million miles away has died. He was 82.

Rest in peace.

Update (TL): Video added, at 2:57 seconds in, you can see Neil Armstrong step on the moon and say, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

From an AP interview of the president:

"I can't speak to Governor Romney's motivations," Obama said. "What I can say is that he has signed up for positions, extreme positions, that are very consistent with positions that a number of House Republicans have taken. And whether he actually believes in those or not, I have no doubt that he would carry forward some of the things that he's talked about."

This is a critical point. Mitt Romney is a weak man of little conviction except that he should be President. He will do as he is bid by the extreme base of the Republican Party. No Pat Buchanan primary challenges for him if he can help it. At a conference I attended last May, conservative legal scholar Michael Greve said:

[Liberals cannot] seriously believe that, but for their extravagant positions, we would hand over the country to Opus Dei, bind our wives’ and daughters’ feet, allow George Soros or David Koch to buy their very own Congressmen, or for that matter toss ailing widows and orphans into the streets. The real fear is that the Constitution might pose some limit to progressivism’s anything-goes imagination.

Michael Greve does not call the shots in the GOP, and neither will Mitt Romney. The President has it right - whether he believes it or not, Mitt Romney will implement the extremist GOP agenda.

In a comment in her post defending Romney's birther joke, Ann Althouse writes:

What we're talking about -- or really just feeling -- is that Obama might not be sufficiently American. That's what Romney found a way to say with a smile. It's not about "defending" Romney for telling the joke or explaining the joke. Something has been made a topic: Obama's insufficient commitment to American values.

I see. It's mot an appeal to racists, just a little McCarthyism. All better.

Speaking for me only