|
Written by Melanie Morgan
|
|
Sunday, 31 August 2008 |
|
UPDATE FROM THE "I TOLD YOU SO" CATEGORY. My amateur weatherman friend Joe Wierzbicki also gets bragging rights - September 1, 2008
Even as Gustav made landfall it was not only not a Category 5 hurricane as forecasters had thought might happen at one time. Nor a Category 4 which the media had hyped would be the true strength of the storm. It was not even a Category 3 hurricane as they had revised their position (while hoping it would reintensify back into a Category 4).
Gustav was a strong Category 2 but forecasters admit that even this was probably jealous.
Just like the media, they started to believe their own hype and exaggerated the windspeeds a bit. Could still be a very bad storm, but the forecasters fed the misninformation angle themselves. Shame on them.
August 31, 2008
I'm not a meterologist, although I occasionally play one on the radio. But I do have friends who are, friends who want to be, and friends who are pilots.
So, based on their collective judgement, I'm going out on a limb and predict that Hurricane Gustav is going to miss New Orleans, ploughing a westerly path, with winds no higher than 70 mph.
From Joe Wierzbicki, also known as Weatherman Wierzbicki around Move America Forward Headquarters - the very latest.
According to the latest update from the National Weather Service, Gustav has stopped it's weakening sequence (it rapidly weakened after interacting with the island nation of Cuba) and may begin on a brief stage of re-intensification.
Before it hit Cuba, and thus weakened, they had predicted it could have winds of 130-140 knots. Now their prediction is for 110 knots at time of impact. For comparison purposes, Katrina hit land with windspeeds of 140 mph. Right now Gustav has winds at about 115 mph.
But, the key issue here is that they've been wrong the entire time about Gustav. Forecasters were totally caught off guard when it went from a moderate Tropical Storm to a Category 4 hurricane in less than 24 hours. Then they thought it would hold up in strength as it crossed Cuba and intensify strongly in the southern Gulf of Mexico (where the water is deep and warm), and then begin to weaken as it approached the Northern Gulf of Mexico and the coastline (where the water is shallower and not quite as warm). I
nstead Gustav weakend over Cuba, weakened more over the southern Gulf, and now may be strengthening over the northern Gulf.
|
|
|
Written by Melanie Morgan
|
|
Sunday, 31 August 2008 |
|
...as a member of the media for over 30 years, I know what the MSM is up to ...it's the "mountain out of a molehill" trick - one of the oldest.
Check out ABC's not-so-fair-or-balanced coverage of Sarah Palin.
Why aren't we seeing more stories like this one? Hmm?
Palin's son leaves
for Army boot camp
TRACK: Governor supports enlistment "for the right reasons."
UPDATE! This just in!
Pretty pistol packin' Palin VIDEO.
...and what are the Brits saying about Governor Palin? You might be surprised.
|
|
|
Written by Melanie Morgan
|
|
Sunday, 31 August 2008 |
|
Time for Republicans to get crackin' ...the Democrats are activating email lists.
I am ready to jump a jet to Minneapolis and start broadcasting live relief fund-raising efforts on the web, if they need me.
ST. PAUL — Plans for the Republican National Convention were in jeopardy on Sunday as the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, announced that the thrust of the convention would change “from a party event to a call to the nation for action” to help residents of the Gulf Coast affected by the approaching Hurricane Gustav. .. “We have to go from a party event to a call to the nation for action, action to help our fellow citizens in this time of tragedy and disaster, action in the form of volunteering, donations, reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster. ...
Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, said in Ohio on Sunday that he had no plans to travel to the Gulf Coast because he did not want to get in the way of emergency efforts there. Mr. Obama, speaking to reporters after leaving services at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Lima, Ohio, said his campaign would mobilize its giant e-mail list of supporters to encourage them to volunteer or send contributions as soon as the impact of Hurricane Gustav becomes known.
“We can activate an e-mail list of a couple million people who want to give back,” Mr. Obama told reporters. “I think we can get tons of volunteers to travel down there if it becomes necessary.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/us/politics/01repubsday.html?ref=us
|
|
|
Written by Melanie Morgan
|
|
Saturday, 30 August 2008 |
|
The left-leaning Zogby poll has new numbers out this weekend. Since Senator McCain added Governor Palin to the ticket, McCain now leads Obama 47 percent to 45 percent.
While statistically even (given the margin of error) Zogby's polling shows that Sarah Palin is the buzz-killer for the Democrats.
Pollster John Zogby: "Palin is not to be underestimated. Her real strength is that she is authentic, a real mom, an outdoors person, a small town mayor (hey, she has dealt with a small town city council - that alone could be preparation for staring down Vladimir Putin, right?). She is also a reformer."
"A very important demographic in this election is going to be the politically independent woman, 15% of whom in our latest survey are undecided."
"In the final analysis, this election will be about Obama vs. McCain. Obama has staked out ground as the new JFK - a new generation, literally and figuratively, a new face of America to the world, a man who can cross lines and work with both sides. But McCain is the modern day Harry Truman - with lots of DC experience, he knows what is wrong and dysfunctional with Washington and how to fix it, and he has chosen a running mate who is about as far away from Washington as he could find.
"This contest is likely to be very close until the weekend before the election - then the dam may break and support may flood one way or the other."
Meanwhile, the Gallup poll has Obama up eight points as he enjoys a post- convention bubble.
But for how long? I think the Gallup polling is lagging behind the real numbers as Gallup tends to over-sample Democrats and under-sample Republicans.
The next couple of weeks are very very important for the GOP due to Hurricane Gustav and all the political oxygen gets sucked up as the storm bears down on the hapless Southern states.
The GOP should turn the convention floor into a Red Cross relief center, and immediately begin a web-based telethon on UStream.tv to raise money for the victims (should the storm slam the Gulf Coast as predicted.)
Just my two cents.
|
|
|
Written by Melanie Morgan
|
|
Saturday, 30 August 2008 |
|
Some of the the comments we are reading about Governor Palin are so hateful (Democrat Underground, Kos Kiddies, HuffPo and the rest of the gang on the left) I choose not publish nor link to any of that trash.
The kooks with keyboards are a determined bunch, however.
Sick, but persistent.
But there is quite a bit of thoughtful reaction to report from conservatives and other Republicans, including this from Mark Tapscott, editorial page writer for the Washington Examiner.
...Here's my view:
The political class talks about "change we can believe in" with an Obama who in actual fact offers nothing different but the rhetoric - his substance is more government, more taxes, more regulation. Someone comes along like Palin who concretely challenges the status quo of more government and the political class is instantly desperate to discredit her because they know she is the real thing. There is a fundamental miscalculation in the conventional wisdom about "change" - people rejected the GOP because they stopped believing the party would deliver genuine change - i.e. less government, lower taxes, etc. The Democrats come in and make it clear they didn't learn anything during their exile and within less than two years have the most unpopular Congress in living memory. Obama, Biden and McCain are all creatures of Big Government Washington conventional wisdom, with differences only on the margins. Palin is the real rebel, the candidate who actually represents a new approach. Barring an Eagleton-type problem in her background, she will emerge from this campaign as a major leader of a new generation of conservative leadership.
My take is pretty close to Mark's....
The ferocity of the counter-attack on Governor Palin in real time confirmed for me that Palin is challenging the status quo, and has become instantly iconic to the younger generation of conservatives sickened by the drift of the class of '94.
Of course, it is possible she is the 'right' Rorschach test –we see in her what we want to see. But as you point out, barring any background problems or an inability to enunciate conservative principles effectively, we win this election hands down.
Jim Geraghty at NRO weighs in on the Dem's gone wild - on tape !
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next > End >>
|
| Results 1 - 9 of 50 |