10:39  RNC keeping schedule tight.  Keeps talking heads off of cable.  Lieberman now on.

10:40  Lieberman leads with Gustav.  Anyone else see irony in Lieberman’s talking about nonpartisanship after Thompson’s bright red bloody moose meat of a speech?

10:41  Crowd responding a bit tepidly.  RNC might have been smarter to switch order:  Lieberman then Thompson.

10:41  Lieberman emphasizing the dissonance in DC.

10:42  Lieberman speaks of Washington’s warning about factions.  But didn’t Washington also warn of the dangers of risky foreign interventions?

10:43  Joe supporting McCain because country matters more than party.  John McCain is the best choice to bring our country together and lead America forward.

10:44  More important to be an American than a Republican or Democrat.  Indirect slap on Obama?

10:44  Only one candidate has actually changed the culture of Washington.  But if that’s true, why is McCain still running against the culture of Washington?

10:45  People don’t care about whether you’re an R or a D, they care about putting country first, as McCain did this week.  As I’ve blogged, I’m not sure that’s the case — Gustav response may be another example of RNC cronyism.

10:48  God made only one John McCain.  True.  Thank Buddha he only made one Joe Lieberman as well.

10:49  “If John McCain is another partisan Republican, then I’m Michael Moore’s favorite Democrat.”  He laughs at his own joke.

10:49:  Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man, but eloquence is not a substitute for a record, not in these times.

10:50  Obama has not reached across party lines?  Really?  Ask Dick Lugar.

10:51  OMG Lieberman just got the Republican base to applaud for Bill Clinton.

10:51  Palin is a “great lady.”  Has Lieberman met her?  Someone please ask him.

10:52  Sincerely believe that the real ticket for change this year is the McCain-Palin ticket.  Crowd still not really responding as enthusiastically as they did to W and Thompson.

10:52  Washington powerbrokers can’t build a pen to hold these two mavericks in.  Not sure that was the best metaphor.

10:53  What country needs is not party unity but national unity.  Crowd doesn’t like this as much as Thompson’s red meat.

10:54  When others were silent about Iraq, John McCain had the guts to raise the mistakes we were making.  You mean like invading, Joe?

10:54  Lieberman plays the Obama voted to cut off funds canard.

10:55  Crowd chants “country first.”

10:55  McCain liked and respected by leaders across the board.  McCain will be a President our allies will trust and our enemies will fear.

10:56  Wants to speak to fellow Democrats and independents:  I know you’re angry and frustrated by politics of our government.  You may be thinking of voting for McCain and in an ordinary election you never would.  But this is no ordinary election because these are not ordinary times.  John McCain is no ordinary candidate.

10:57  You may not agree with McCain on every issue but you can count on him to be straight with you.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  Sorry — that was the best joke of the night.

10:58  Vote for person who you think is best for country, not party you happen to belong to.  Vote for the leader who from the age of 17 who has always put America first.

Meh.  Lieberman’s speech was just like him — kind of milquetoast-y.  Audience response was not really powerful.  I kept thinking of Jon Stewart’s portrayal of Lieberman as Droopy.  I think the RNC made a tactical mistake:  Thompson, the stem-winder, should have gone after Lieberman, whose tone was droning and a bit dull.

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Michael Moore has issued a follow-up to his comment on MSNBC’s Countdown that Gustav hitting New Orleans during the Republican National Convention was “proof that there is a God in heaven.”

And just to demonstrate how out of whack his ego is, it’s in the form of a letter to God:

Sunday, August 31st, 2008
An Open Letter to God, from Michael Moore

Dear God,

The other night, James Dobson’s organization asked all believers to pray for a storm on Thursday night so that the Obama acceptance speech outdoors in Denver would have to be canceled.

I see that You have answered Dr. Dobson’s prayers — except the storm You have sent to earth is not over Denver, but on its way to New Orleans! In fact, You have scheduled it to hit Louisiana at exactly the moment that George W. Bush is to deliver his speech at the Republican National Convention.

Now, heavenly Father, we all know You have a great sense of humor and impeccable timing. To send a hurricane on the third anniversary of the Katrina disaster AND right at the beginning of the Republican Convention was, at first blush, a stroke of divine irony. I don’t blame You, I know You’re angry that the Republicans tried to blame YOU for Katrina by calling it an “Act of God” — when the truth was that the hurricane itself caused few casualties in New Orleans. Over a thousand people died because of the mistakes and neglect caused by humans, not You.

Some of us tried to help after Katrina hit, while Bush ate cake with McCain and twiddled his thumbs. I closed my office in New York and sent my entire staff down to New Orleans to help. I asked people on my website to contribute to the relief effort I organized — and I ended up sending over two million dollars in donations, food, water, and supplies (collected from thousands of fans) to New Orleans while Bush’s FEMA ice trucks were still driving around Maine three weeks later.

But this past Thursday night, the Washington Post reported that the Republicans had begun making plans to possibly postpone the convention. The AP had reported that there were no shelters set up in New Orleans for this storm, and that the levee repairs have not been adequate. In other words, as the great Ronald Reagan would say, “There you go again!”

So the last thing John McCain and the Republicans needed was to have a split-screen on TVs across America: one side with Bush and McCain partying in St. Paul, and on the other side of the screen, live footage of their Republican administration screwing up once again while New Orleans drowns.

So, yes, You have scared the Jesus, Mary and Joseph out of them, and more than a few million of your followers tip their hats to You.

But now it appears that You haven’t been having just a little fun with Bush & Co. It appears that Hurricane Gustav is truly heading to New Orleans and the Gulf coast. We hear You, O Lord, loud and clear, just as we did when Rev. Falwell said You made 9/11 happen because of all those gays and abortions. We beseech You, O Merciful One, not to punish us again as Pat Robertson said You did by giving us Katrina because of America’s “wholesale slaughter of unborn children.” His sentiments were echoed by other Republicans in 2005.

So this is my plea to you: Don’t do this to Louisiana again. The Republicans got your message. They are scrambling and doing the best they can to get planes, trains and buses to New Orleans so that everyone can get out. They haven’t sent the entire Louisiana National Guard to Iraq this time — they are already patrolling the city streets. And, in a nod to I don’t know what, Bush’s head of FEMA has named a man to help manage the federal government’s response. His name is W. Michael Moore. I kid you not, heavenly Father. They have sent a man with both my name AND W’s to help save the Gulf Coast.

So please God, let the storm die out at sea. It’s done enough damage already. If you do this one favor for me, I promise not to invoke your name again. I’ll leave that to the followers of Dr. Dobson and to those gathering this week in St. Paul.

Your faithful servant and former seminarian,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. To all of God’s fellow children who are reading this, the city of New Orleans has not yet recovered from Katrina. Please click here for a list of things you can do to help our brothers and sisters on the Gulf Coast. And, if you do live along the Gulf Coast, please take all necessary safety precautions immediately.

Emphasis added.

This is so deeply cynical I don’t even know where to start.  It’s not an apology, it’s a smug rant against conservatives and Republicans.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Most of the time, there’s nothing I love better than a smug rant against conservatives and Republicans.  But not when a storm is going to affect innocent people.  And now that the storm has hit, and at least five people have lost their lives (and thousands in southern Louisiana have been left homeless), where exactly did Moore’s letter get us?

Apparently God doesn’t listen to sanctimonious blowhards no matter where they fall on the political spectrum.

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Here’s the latest tracking on Gustav.

New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain are at roughly 30° North, 90° West on the map above.  They’re the part of the red line that appears to run inland from the coast.

Don’t be fooled by the fact it’s not heading directly at New Orleans anymore.  If anything, the current path is worse:

If, as currently predicted, Gustav lands west of New Orleans on Monday as a Category 4 hurricane with wind speeds up to 155 mph (249 kph), its 16-foot (4.9 metre) storm surge could break through the same levees that failed three year ago.

In the face of what is likely to be one of the worst natural disasters in American history, it may seem a bit insensitive and even vulgar to talk about the storm’s political implications. But the timing and location of the storm — during the Republican National Convention and on the same path as (and on the third anniversary of) Katrina — ensures that politics are inevitably part of the bigger story.

Right now, it looks like the Republicans are going to go forward with the Convention.  They have promised to make it a more subdued, muted affair, but you can bet that every media outlet in town (well, everyone other than Fox) is going to be cruising for revelers.

In addition, the White House has announced that neither President George W. Bush nor Vice President Lord Voldemort Dick Cheney will attend the convention (which doesn’t preclude their addressing it via a live feed or even videotape).  The Cheney announcement alone may lead some delegates to celebrate — the last thing McCain wanted (other than, of course, Hurricane Gustav) was that guy showing up.

John McCain has promised that the convention will not be a celebration, and is visiting the Mississippi Gulf Coast today apparently to show just how cynical he can be he really truly does care a whole lot about the danger Gustav poses.  Barack Obama, smartly in my opinion, is staying away and not criticizing McCain’s decision.

Here are five issues to watch as Gustav makes landfall:

1.  The mainstream media will portray McCain’s visit to Mississippi as a sign of leadership rather than as a cynical ploy or a foolishly rash act (after all, we’re talking about a person who wants to be the next POTUS putting himself in the way of a “monster” storm).  The one exception is Anderson Cooper, who may just go postal on McCain, just as he did three years ago on New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Senator Mary Landrieu, and others.

2.  No matter what the Republicans do in St. Paul, they’re facing a split screen convention, with coverage of the devastation competing with their rhetoric and ruffles.  It is a comparison from which they cannot benefit, no matter how muted or subdued they make the event.  And iff New Orleans is badly damaged by the storm — even if its residents evacuate — they’re going to find it almost impossible to hold the media’s (and by extension the public’s) attention.

3.  Gustav is both bad news and good news for the McCain campaign.  The bad news (other than the issue of a split screen convention) is that Gustav will cost McCain all or part of his convention bounce — even if it fails to hit New Orleans.  The good news is that Ron Paul’s alternative convention will disappear off the radar.

4.  No matter what happens — good or bad, direct hit on New Orleans or not — the Administration (and more than likely the McCain campaign) will attempt to portray the federal response to the crisis as fast, smart, and a reflection of the lessons learned from Katrina.  And chances are that it will be an outright lie.  The big question is not what the Administration will say, but rather how the media responds.  Again, Anderson Cooper will be a bellwether.

5.  Sooner or later, a prominent Democrat (not Obama or Biden, but someone) will be tempted to talk about how great it is that Gustav is hitting New Orleans just when the Republicans are holding their convention (much as Michael Moore did on MSNBC Friday night).  If that Democrat fails to shut the hell up, it will negate any and all bad publicity for the Republicans.  The most likely purveyor of such idiocies is New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who once again will be portrayed by Republicans as utterly incompetent.

Both parties have to be careful here.  Gustav is a potential tragedy in the making, and hundreds if not thousands of people will lose their lives.  Hundreds of thousands will at best find themselves displaced and at worst homeless.  Any effort by either candidate (or party) to use this terrible development for political ends will not play well either on the Gulf Coast or in the rest of the country.

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On MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night, Michael Moore said that Hurricane Gustav is “proof that there is a God in heaven.”

Yes, thank Buddha that the Almighty has decided to make New Orleans and the upper Gulf Coast suffer horribly so that we can have a good laugh at the expense of the Republicans.

What an arrogant twit.

Congratulations, Michael.  You’re our Dillweed of the Day.

Oh, and Keith Olbermann — shame on you for failing to call him on it.  Come to think of it, shame on you for giving this pompous blowhard a full segment.

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