I have a COLD!!!!

Actually bronchitis, ad the codeine cough syrup is frying my brain.  I can't gte anthig rght.

I stole Drudge's siren.

Actually http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ did.

FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right: Obama Pulls Ahead in Electoral College Projection

Obama Pulls Ahead in Electoral College Projection



Charts and graphs are updated. Full polling report coming within the hour.

-- Nate Silver at 4:48 PM

Great site for political poll junkies. BTW this site has Landrieu a lock for re-election.

Update: New source for siren!!! It's back!!!

Ike.

Boo! Go away.

I knew Ville Platte was suspicious of strangers, but this really sucks.

2theadvocate.com | News | Guardsmen fired on, return fire; no one hurt — Baton Rouge, LA

National Guardsmen returned fire after being shot at early Wednesday while protecting tractor-trailers filled with hurricane-relief supplies in Ville Platte, according to the Louisiana National Guard.

Soldiers from the Missouri National Guard who traveled to assist in hurricane relief were guarding three tractor-trailers on West Lincoln Street in the city when they are believed to have come under fire about 1 a.m. Wednesday, National Guard spokesman Rick Breitenfeldt said.

Breitenfeldt said the soldiers reported hearing small-arms gunfire and seeing flashes and impacts in ground water.

It was luck, not levees that spared us this time.

Bloomberg.com: Exclusive

``Gustav was not a major hurricane,'' said Stephen P. Leatherman, director of the International Hurricane Research Center and Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University in Miami. ``The levees that broke last time,'' including some off Lake Pontchartrain, ``were not truly tested this time.''

Earliest return: Thursday Morning.

The latest re-entry information for the metro area - Hurricane Gustav News and Storm Tracking - NOLA.com

ORLEANS: New Orleans residents should not expect to return to their homes until Thursday morning at the soonest, a spokeswoman for Mayor Ray Nagin said Tuesday morning. With an estimated 77,000 Entergy customers blacked out across the city and hospitals still operating below capacity, Ceeon Quiett said New Orleans is not ready to welcome home as many as 300,000 residents who evacuated in advance of Hurricane Gustav.

It's going to cost millions for evacuees to stay out another two nights. I'm not sure this is the best way to handle things.

Good news -- I'd like to see pictures.

Floodgates remain closed, pumps are working - Hurricane Gustav News and Storm Tracking - NOLA.com

It was the maiden run for massive flood gates and temporary stations the Army Corps of Engineers built after Hurricane Katrina breached floodwalls on both canals and caused catastrophic flooding.

At 17th Street, along the border of New Orleans and East Jefferson, the temporary corps pump stations are continuing this morning to help the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board drain the canal of rainwater.

At London Avenue, the gates are still closed, but the corps pumps are no longer running because there's no excess water in the canal, said Col. Jeff Bedey, the corps Hurricane Protection Office chief who had responsibility for building the stations and gates on all three outfall canals, including the Orleans Avenue Canal.

"The pumps ran all night long," Bedey said Tuesday morning. "But the lake is still at 4 (feet), so the structures remain in place."

Col. Al Lee, corps district chief in New Orleans with responsibility for operating the gates and pumps, told his bosses that the emergency structures functioned at a high level.

"All the pumps worked. All the gates locked in place. All of it worked," Lee said.

Good news, but this was a comparatively mild storm, will they be enough next time?

Fiddling while New Orleans drowns. Again.

Girls Republicans just want to have fun

Damning story from ABC tonight (read a shortened transcript here) about GOP parties in Minneapolis while the south drowns. Watch this video. It's completely over the top. One party took place only hours after McCain said most events, other than the most essential, would be shut down today. The party featured a band called "Hookers and Blow" (blow is cocaine), and the guests included the House GOP deputy whip Congressman Bill Schuster (R-PA). Watch this, then send the link to your friends:

Sometimes the headline says it all.

The Raw Story | RNC delegate: 'We already do a lot for the people of New Orleans'

Palin thinks the founding fathers wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.

Eagle Forum Alaska: 2006 Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire

11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?
JB: No.
SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.