BOHICA

Yep, friends, Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.

Not so much the fact that a hurricane has the potential to enter the Gulf. After all, that's only been happening for the last several thousand years or so.

But more for the breathless, please please please let there be destruction news media who will be covering this storm like there's no tomorrow.

Here's some predictions from ole Catfish:

- There will be live, on the ground coverage in New Orleans. As part of this coverage, there will be interviews with people still trying to recover from Katrina.
- There will be live, non stop, 24/7 coverage of this storm the instant in hits the Gulf (if indeed it makes it into the Gulf of Mexico.
- There will be non stop coverage of just what FEMA is going to do to help anyone potentially displaced by this storm.
- There will be the obligatory global warming interviews all over the news, explaining that all these major hurricanes are essentially man-made.
- The news media will essentially create a state of panic.

Please feel free to add your own. This should be a good one, as the media has been frothing at the bit since last year when there weren't any hurricanes to worry about.

Visitors

Had this fellow come visit me at work today. He was kind enough to hang out while I ran to get my camera. We sat around and looked at each other for about 20 minutes or so this morning.

Hugo Chavez to unveil proposal tonight

If anyone doubts that a democracy can fall into despotism, please take a moment to consider what is happening in Venezuela tonight.

President Hugo Chavez will present his blueprint for constitutional reform Wednesday, proposing sweeping changes expected to allow him to be re-elected indefinitely.

I'm not so naive as to posit that Venezuela has enjoyed any form of real democracy during Chavez's reign, but now the sham is being exposed for what it really is: a full-blown dictatorship, thinly disguised with the benign name of "constitutional reform." If by "reform" you mean "disposal," then it's on the money. Of course, Chavez has answers for critics:

Chavez rejects allegations that he poses a threat to democracy.

The Venezuelan leader predicted that most people would support his proposal to reform the constitution, but he also forecast the beginning of a tenacious political battle with the nation's opposition.

"I have faith that we are going to convince the immense majority of Venezuelans of the necessity and the immediate benefits that this is going to bring the country," Chavez said during a televised interview.

"Tomorrow our great battle begins," Chavez said. "They are going to launch a campaign tomorrow to try to distort the text and the spirit of the proposal."

A reform proposal, my fanny. Look at the propaganda machine in full swing, and look at his supporters. There are masses of people in Venezuela who are actually proponents of this change. Here's the great irony of the whole thing:

National Assembly President Celia Flores said lawmakers could finish the reform debate within two months. Under the constitution, the final draft of the proposal must be approved by voters in a referendum.

That's right - the people must vote to relinquish their democracy. And you just watch - they'll do it cheering all the way to the polls.

But that could never happen here, could it? Yes, people ARE that stupid.

Suspected DUI Driver Jumps From Car, Flees With Beer In Hand

'There was a 12-pack of Corona he was working on in the front seat,' Orange County sheriff's Cmdr. Jeff Stonebreaker said. 'He decided to take one of those over the fence with him. So, he bails out of the car and runs from the deputies with a beer in his hand.'

It's all about the beer.

Cmdr. Jeff Stonebreaker? Sounds like an action figure.

Now what?

(AFP/Wissam al-Okaili)

In this photo (ED:it's been removed from Yahoo's site - here's the cached version) you'll see an Iraqi woman who claimed the two bullets she's holding in her hand hit her house.

Coupla problems here from a gun nut's perspective.

1. The only way those bullets (cartidges to be precise) could have hit her house was if someone threw them or they fell out of a passing helicopter ferrying troops around.

2. Looks like .223/5.56 rounds. Now the stickler here is that as far as I know, standard US Army issue 5.56 rounds are the SS109 round. They have a very distinctive green tip. You'll note on the photo that the bullets in question (BIQ) are lacking a green tip. The BIQ look like plain jane FMJ to me.

Now there's all sorts of possible explanations - perhaps the Iraqi army isn't issued the 109 rounds, or our own forces aren't utilizing them exclusively (can anyone confirm or deny this one?); perhaps the rounds came from one of many contractors in Iraq now - Blackwater, Triple Canopy, etc... Or perhaps the rounds just came off the open gun market in Iraq, which I understand is thriving.

One thing IS clear, however. The BIQ that this woman is holding were not fired out of a gun at her house. Thrown, dropped, whatever. But they weren't shot. You'd be hard pressed to understand that if you didn't understand weapons or at least have a BASIC understanding of how firearms work. But oh, I guess that describes the vast bulk of the media right there...

Invitation to endorse the International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina & Rita

I wonder if this is for real, or just a really bad joke. Are people really this crazy/racist/whatever?

The People’s Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF), US Human Rights Network (USHRN), Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) and the Mississippi Disaster Relief Coalition would like to formally invite you to be one of the endorsers of the International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Current co-conveners include former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Brazilian trade unionist Edenice Santa de Jesus and Algerian Parliamentarian Louisa Hanoune. The Tribunal is going to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana August 29th through September 2nd, 2007. This event will call into question the ongoing ethnic cleansing of New Orleans and commemorate the lives of the 2,000 people killed or missing, the 800,000 people displaced, and the additional 3,000 people who have died post Katrina-Rita as a result of ongoing human rights violations.

The International Tribunal on Hurricane Katrina and Rita is an outgrowth of the demand for justice and restitution called for by the more than two hundred Survivors gathered at the first Survivors Assembly held in December 2005 (http://www.peopleshurricane.org/assembly-call).

We consider you an ardent and unwavering supporter of human and civil rights in the US, we would be honored if you would join us in this initiative to hold the U.S. government accountable for the crimes. Your support will increase the fighting capacity of the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Cynthia McKinney??? Doesn't the state of Georgia have enough problems without exporting her brand of racist insanity? Ethnic cleansing? This has GOT to be a bad joke.

Hmm, I wonder

I wonder how big the hole in the ground will be? Will he bounce, or just splat all over the place?

The big story you're not hearing

It would seem that two young muslim men (and I use the term "men" only to describe their gender) were stopped speeding in South Carolina on August 4. The local gendarmes happened to find pipe bombs and "related material" in the car with them. And oh, yes - they were caught fairly close to a US military facility that has been used to house some of the bad boys caught in the war on terror. I'm sure, however, that there was no connection.

Today, the FBI searched the home of the turds in a suburb of Tampa, Florida. The interesting connection to Tampa and these two "misunderstood youths" is one Sami Al-Arian, a former professor at the college in Tampa, the University of South Florida.

Records show the owner of that house is Sameeh Hammoudeh, a co-defendant in the trial of Sami Al-Arian. Al-Arian is the former USF professor who was acquitted on most charges of funding terror-related organizations. He pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Both of the clowns caught in South Carolina attended classes at USF. Again, I'm sure there's no connection there and it's just my paranoia at work. As usual when it comes to this kind of thing, Michell Malkin is all over this story, doing the job that CNNCBSABCNBCFOX won't do.

We can't have anyone thinking that muslim males are a problem now, can we?

Perfection

Panache.

Look it up.