Year: 2005

Gateway Pundit has all of the gory details, including a video. Proceed at your own risk.

MORE: Yikes! Michelle was there!

Even though Tony Blair has echoed George W. Bush’s position against any announcement of a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, a document being drafted by the British government and planned for publication next month looks a lot like an announcement of a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

The document being drawn up by the British government and the US will be presented to the Iraqi parliament in October and will spark fresh controversy over how long British troops will stay in the country. Tony Blair hopes that, despite continuing and widespread violence in Iraq, the move will show that there is progress following the conflict of 2003.

Britain has already privately informed Japan – which also has troops in Iraq – of its plans to begin withdrawing from southern Iraq in May, a move that officials in Tokyo say would make it impossible for their own 550 soldiers to remain.

The increasingly rapid pace of planning for British military disengagement has been revealed on the eve of the Labour Party conference, which will see renewed demands for a deadline for withdrawal. It is hoped that a clearer strategy on Iraq will quieten critics who say that the government will not be able to ‘move on’ until Blair quits. Yesterday, about 10,000 people demonstrated against the army’s continued presence in the country.

Ah, so that’s what this is, the floatation of a trial balloon on the eve of a political gathering. A little further down in the story, Blair’s Defense Secretary, John Reid throws this qualifier into the mix.

Defence Secretary John Reid insisted that the agreement being drawn up with Iraqi officials was contingent on the continuing political process, although he said he was still optimistic British troops would begin returning home by early summer.

“The two things I want to insist about the timetable is that it is not an event but a process, and that it will be a process that takes place at different speeds in different parts of the country. I have said before that I believe that it could begin in some parts of the country as early as next July. It is not a deadline, but it is where we might be and I honestly still believe we could have the conditions to begin a hand-over. I don’t see any reason to change my view.”

“But if circumstances change I have no shame in revising my estimates.”

Political smoke and mirrors. No promises. No commitments.

In other words, a waste of time.

I spent a lot of time blogging Hurricane Katrina and I guess I just wasn’t up to it a second time. Plus, I knew there would be dozens of capable bloggers covering the story, so I didn’t bother. It was a good thing too because I decided to give this blog site a much needed internal overhaul (optimizing style sheets, templates, etc.). Over the past 48 hours, a nuclear bomb could have gone off and I wouldn’t have known it.

And now that the Hurricane Rita cleanup seems to be underway, it’s pretty clear that I missed the exciting part. How fortunate it was for me to stop by Joe Gandelman’s place. He’s wrapped up the event quite nicely.

And there’s always got to be someone live blogging the ‘event’. This time, CJ was at the controls navigating Rita.

Before I tore the guts outta this site and put it back together again, I put together this list of home-grown Texas bloggers who were covering Rita. If you haven’t visited any of these yet you should.

Some consultant made a lot of money off of this worthless map. 

Hurricane Rita evacuees are supposed to use this as a guide for the day they’re to return to Houston. Just who is going to adhere to this plan? Apparently, no one.

Heh, ‘pending’. Riiiiiight.

Note to self – the next time you get stopped for speeding, tell the cop about how you saw demons who urged you to go 10 MPH over the limit.

A man suspected of killing two tourists and injuring 12 others on the Las Vegas Strip told police he steered his car into the crowd on the sidewalk because they were staring at him like demons.

Stephen M. Ressa, 27, also told police he saw people with their hands in their pockets and thought they might be armed with guns, according to an arrest report obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

“They were staring at him like they were `demons,'” the report said. “Ressa admitted he became angry at them, and intentionally steered the vehicle toward them.”

Drink enough and everyone will look like Mephistopheles…or Pamela Anderson.

Blogging has been light for the past 24 hours…I’ve been busy fixing/tweaking/breaking/fixing/breaking/fixing and tweaking this site. Wow…do you know how many land mines there are under the hood of a movable type install? I swear, I have grown 10 new gray hairs since Thursday evening. Still more to do, but not a whole lot. The heavy lifting is done.

From what little I’ve seen, Rita looks very different than Katrina – from planning, to evacuation, to damage (flooding) – amazing. And Houston looks good.

To the regulars who read PunditGuy, thanks.

More later.

     “The first time is bad. After that, you numb up.”

Katrina refugees from the Lower Ninth Ward are housed at the Progressive Baptist church in Lafayette. They are watching the TV news as the canal levee in their neighborhood was breached again, flooding their homes once more.

Just as authorities are gaining ground on moving water out of New Orleans, Hurricane Rita’s rainfall is causing problems for these newly patched levee systems.

Hurricane Rita’s steady rains sent water pouring through breaches in a patched levee Friday, cascading into one of the city’s lowest-lying neighborhoods in a devastating repeat of New Orleans’ flooding nightmare.

“Our worst fears came true,” said Maj. Barry Guidry of the Georgia National Guard.

“We have three significant breaches in the levee and the water is rising rapidly,” he said. “At daybreak I found substantial breaks and they’ve grown larger.”

A spokeswoman for Mayor Ray Nagin said officials believed the neighborhood had been cleared of residents. But throughout Friday, water began rising again onto what remained — buckled homes, piles of rubble and mud-caked cars that Katrina had covered with up to 20 feet of water.

President George W. Bush has just landed in San Antonio and will be meeting with authorities to review plans for preparation ahead of Hurricane Rita.

Various links relating to Hurricane Rita

Area Blogs: Liberty’s Blog | Smoke on the Water | Banjo Jones | Hou-Galv Area Blogger Ntwk | A Certain Slant of Light | BlogHouston | Blogs of War | Burnt Orange Report | Charles “Off the Kuff” Kuffner | Diane’s Stuff | Generation Why? | Houston Clear Thinkers | Houston Strategies | Lone Star Times | Lou Minatti | Matt Bramanti | MikeyPod | My Own Thoughts | Rightmom | Stolen Thunder | J. Marler |

Media: Galveston Daily News | Houston Chronicle | Chron.com Rita | Chron.com SciGuy | Chron.com Stormwatchers | KTRH-AM | KHOU-TV (CBS) | KHOU-TV Blog | KPRC-TV (NBC) | KTRK-TV (ABC) | KRBE-FM |

Houston Television Live Streams: NBC Affiliate KPRC Channel 2 | CBS Affiliate KHOU Channel 11 | ABC Affiliate KTRK Channel 13 |

Agencies: NOAA.GOV | NHC | Map | Houston Red Cross | Houston SPCA | Houston OEM | Transtar Cams |

Laurence Simon has wireless cameras up and running so he can catch Rita as she comes in. Right now though, the pictures are rather boring. The cams are pointing at cat beds.