Här förklaras hur RNC-konventet nu kommer att se ut:
Och här är några fler artiklar om stormen som sätter käppar i hjulen:
SVD skriver om Orkanen:
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_1644335.svd
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/artikel_1645383.svd
måndag 1 september 2008
Mer om Orkanen Gustav
Styrkan i Gustav ska inte underskattas, däremot bör noteras att ingen - vare sig borgmästare Ray Nagin i New Orleans, Guvernör Bobby Jindal eller President Bush har tagits på sängen.
Yahoo News skriver om föberedelserna:
Gustav gives Nagin a second change to get it right
By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press WriterSun Aug 31, 5:54 PM ET
Ray Nagin's rhetoric was tough — calling Hurricane Gustav "the mother of all storms" — but his demeanor was confident and cool as he ordered the second evacuation of his city in three years.
It was a stark contrast to the desperation in the mayor's voice as he begged state and federal officials for help while Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters overwhelmed New Orleans in 2005.
Harshly criticized for his reactive handling of Katrina three years ago, Nagin is changing his tactics and responding more quickly in hopes of capitalizing on the rarest of political commodities — a second chance.
"I don't think I can do another Katrina, but I can definitely do what we're doing today because it's smooth, it's effective, and it's getting the job done," Nagin said Sunday from the train station where residents were boarding evacuation buses in a scene that was far less chaotic than during Katrina. "And we'll be able to get our people back with little hassle."
As Gustav gained strength from warm Gulf of Mexico waters and headed toward the Louisiana coast, Nagin's tone wasn't the only thing different from three years ago.
The White House is "showering us with resources," Nagin told a local TV station, and President Bush called him Sunday "to check in."
Bush bore as much criticism as Nagin for the federal government's slow and inadequate response to Katrina. This time, the president canceled his planned Monday appearance at the Republican National Convention and instead will travel to Texas, where emergency personnel were staging ahead of the storm.
He opted to stay away from Louisiana "because I do not want my visit to impede in any way the response of emergency personnel."
A third public official who was stained by Katrina, former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, is long gone. Her replacement, rising GOP star Bobby Jindal, has been as visible as Nagin as the storm approaches.
For public officials, Gustav offers another chance to get it right, said political analyst Elliott Stonecipher.
"We sent a message out to the country three years ago that was absolutely horrendous, and we know that," he said. "Everybody wants to see this one done right."
None moreso than Nagin, 52, a former cable TV executive who never held public office before being elected mayor.
"I feel like Job today," he told reporters.
Business owner Chad Harris sees a safer city this time.
"I'm impressed," said Harris, who stayed for Katrina and armed his employees to chase away looters who'd broken into his boat and marine equipment business. "They took all the criticism, all that happened, and applied some processes that are working."
Nagin's struggles didn't end when Katrina's waters receded.
Over the next three years, he was beset by bureaucratic battles, finger-pointing and a loss of confidence by residents. They questioned whether their mayor had the mettle to not only rebuild, but improve what was in many respects a broken city even before Katrina.
Yet Nagin was re-elected in 2006, despite having nearly two-dozen challengers, including the sitting lieutenant governor.
He maintains he's done the best he could with the resources he had. Only in the last nine months, when rebuilding money began to flow more freely, did he begin sounding more upbeat, speaking of 2008 as a "tipping point" for the city's still-fragile recovery.
And there has been progress: Before Gustav, the state planned to phase out the more than 300 National Guard troops who had continued to patrol less-populated areas of the city to let the depleted ranks of the New Orleans Police Department focus on curbing violent crime.
The city's long-troubled public school system was being overhauled, and hundreds of city rebuilding projects are under way or planned. At least two-thirds of the population was back — somewhere between 310,000 and 34,000 — and tourists were returning in force.
But quality of life remains a big issue, with limited affordable housing and health care and vast swaths still in ruins.
"In Nagin's case, what he has to do is be a leader of all people in New Orleans and quietly, solidly execute," Stonecipher said. "No flamboyance, no loudness, no treatment of the media one way or the other. Just keep your head down and do this well."
No one expects a repeat of Katrina. Officials say they've learned from the storm and are better prepared.
"So far," Nagin said, "I'd give everybody an A."
But a powerful hurricane could deal a blow to the billions of dollars in rebuilding done since Katrina and the psyche of residents not yet sure if they want to continue living here.
"We were on our own last time," said Charlie Hackett, 63, who stayed in his home for Katrina but was leaving ahead of Gustav. "I don't think so this time."
The Army Corps of Engineers insists the city is safer than before Katrina, but there remain shortcomings; on the West Bank, for example, levees, floodwalls and floodgates are in varying states of completion.
Nagin thinks the rebuilt system will pass the test.
"It's going to test the levee system," Nagin said, "and it's going to show that, I'm thinking, most of it's going to work. It's going to show some weaknesses on the West Bank, which we expect. So it's going to give people more confidence to come back and rebuild after this storm is over."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_on_re_us/gustav_nagin 2008-09-01
Yahoo News skriver om föberedelserna:
Gustav gives Nagin a second change to get it right
By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press WriterSun Aug 31, 5:54 PM ET
Ray Nagin's rhetoric was tough — calling Hurricane Gustav "the mother of all storms" — but his demeanor was confident and cool as he ordered the second evacuation of his city in three years.
It was a stark contrast to the desperation in the mayor's voice as he begged state and federal officials for help while Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters overwhelmed New Orleans in 2005.
Harshly criticized for his reactive handling of Katrina three years ago, Nagin is changing his tactics and responding more quickly in hopes of capitalizing on the rarest of political commodities — a second chance.
"I don't think I can do another Katrina, but I can definitely do what we're doing today because it's smooth, it's effective, and it's getting the job done," Nagin said Sunday from the train station where residents were boarding evacuation buses in a scene that was far less chaotic than during Katrina. "And we'll be able to get our people back with little hassle."
As Gustav gained strength from warm Gulf of Mexico waters and headed toward the Louisiana coast, Nagin's tone wasn't the only thing different from three years ago.
The White House is "showering us with resources," Nagin told a local TV station, and President Bush called him Sunday "to check in."
Bush bore as much criticism as Nagin for the federal government's slow and inadequate response to Katrina. This time, the president canceled his planned Monday appearance at the Republican National Convention and instead will travel to Texas, where emergency personnel were staging ahead of the storm.
He opted to stay away from Louisiana "because I do not want my visit to impede in any way the response of emergency personnel."
A third public official who was stained by Katrina, former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, is long gone. Her replacement, rising GOP star Bobby Jindal, has been as visible as Nagin as the storm approaches.
For public officials, Gustav offers another chance to get it right, said political analyst Elliott Stonecipher.
"We sent a message out to the country three years ago that was absolutely horrendous, and we know that," he said. "Everybody wants to see this one done right."
None moreso than Nagin, 52, a former cable TV executive who never held public office before being elected mayor.
"I feel like Job today," he told reporters.
Business owner Chad Harris sees a safer city this time.
"I'm impressed," said Harris, who stayed for Katrina and armed his employees to chase away looters who'd broken into his boat and marine equipment business. "They took all the criticism, all that happened, and applied some processes that are working."
Nagin's struggles didn't end when Katrina's waters receded.
Over the next three years, he was beset by bureaucratic battles, finger-pointing and a loss of confidence by residents. They questioned whether their mayor had the mettle to not only rebuild, but improve what was in many respects a broken city even before Katrina.
Yet Nagin was re-elected in 2006, despite having nearly two-dozen challengers, including the sitting lieutenant governor.
He maintains he's done the best he could with the resources he had. Only in the last nine months, when rebuilding money began to flow more freely, did he begin sounding more upbeat, speaking of 2008 as a "tipping point" for the city's still-fragile recovery.
And there has been progress: Before Gustav, the state planned to phase out the more than 300 National Guard troops who had continued to patrol less-populated areas of the city to let the depleted ranks of the New Orleans Police Department focus on curbing violent crime.
The city's long-troubled public school system was being overhauled, and hundreds of city rebuilding projects are under way or planned. At least two-thirds of the population was back — somewhere between 310,000 and 34,000 — and tourists were returning in force.
But quality of life remains a big issue, with limited affordable housing and health care and vast swaths still in ruins.
"In Nagin's case, what he has to do is be a leader of all people in New Orleans and quietly, solidly execute," Stonecipher said. "No flamboyance, no loudness, no treatment of the media one way or the other. Just keep your head down and do this well."
No one expects a repeat of Katrina. Officials say they've learned from the storm and are better prepared.
"So far," Nagin said, "I'd give everybody an A."
But a powerful hurricane could deal a blow to the billions of dollars in rebuilding done since Katrina and the psyche of residents not yet sure if they want to continue living here.
"We were on our own last time," said Charlie Hackett, 63, who stayed in his home for Katrina but was leaving ahead of Gustav. "I don't think so this time."
The Army Corps of Engineers insists the city is safer than before Katrina, but there remain shortcomings; on the West Bank, for example, levees, floodwalls and floodgates are in varying states of completion.
Nagin thinks the rebuilt system will pass the test.
"It's going to test the levee system," Nagin said, "and it's going to show that, I'm thinking, most of it's going to work. It's going to show some weaknesses on the West Bank, which we expect. So it's going to give people more confidence to come back and rebuild after this storm is over."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080831/ap_on_re_us/gustav_nagin 2008-09-01
Gustav wipes out GOP opener
By MIKE ALLEN | 8/31/08 4:42 PM EST
ST. PAUL, Minn. — John McCain told reporters via satellite Sunday that most opening day activities of the Republican National Convention will be suspended because of the threat from Hurricane Gustav.
“Of course, this is a time when we have to do away with our party politics, and we have to act as Americans,” he told a convention news conference from St. Louis. “We’re going to suspend most of our activities tomorrow.”
Four days of festivities were to open Monday, but now a party business session is all that is scheduled.
President Bush, first lady Laura Bush, Vice President Cheney and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger all canceled Monday appearances. Bush is likely to address the nation, instead, if killer Gustav does not veer off its path toward the Gulf Coast.
Convention planners said McCain hopes to show up later in the week to accept his party’s nomination, but there was no guarantee of it, and he is not required to be in the hall for the nomination to be official.
Officials said they will execute “certain basic minimum requirements” of party rules, including receiving the report of the credentials committee, adopting rules and the party platform and electing officials of the convention.
The convention will be called to order at the scheduled opening of 3 p.m. local time and last until about 5 or 5:30 p.m. before adjourning.
“What will be missing will be any kind of political rhetoric,” McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said.
Davis said the convention will be decided day to day, with delegates notified by e-mail and text message. Davis said the convention hopes to conduct a roll call, but doesn’t know when that will be.
“We will try to constitute as much of a program as events allow us to,” Davis said. “Everything will be considered optional after the 5:30 session tomorrow.”
McCain said he “can hardly wait” to get to St. Paul. “I hope and pray we’ll be able to resume some of our normal operations as quickly as possible,” he said. “But some of that is, frankly, in the hands of God.”
During the week, the delegates will work to raise money for charities that operate in the Gulf Coast region, Davis said.
The many corporations that plan parties and celebrations in conjunction with the convention will be contacted and asked “to please be respectful of the situation that exists in the Gulf,” and to use the events “as part of the extended fundraising network that we hold to establish for the Gulf.”
Asked by Jeff Greenfield of CBS News if the campaign planned any joint charity effort with the Obama campaign, Davis said: “We haven’t had any contact with the Obama campaign. I wouldn’t rule something like that out.”
The McCain campaign made a plane available to Gulf Coast delegates to return home. About a dozen from the Louisiana delegate made the trip and “will be getting family members and returning,” Davis said.
McCain said the U.S. must prepare for “a great national challenge, and the possibility of a great natural disaster.”
The senator added that it’s “time to open our hearts, our efforts, our wallets, our concern, our care for those American citizens who are now under the shadow and the probability of a natural disaster.”
Davis said he hopes all the scheduled speakers will still come: “We do expect all the speakers to speak at some point. … We can’t promise them when or if.”
“We hoped that we could have a more traditional convention,” Davis said. “But, as the senator indicated, events have conspired to do otherwise.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/13031.html 2008-09-01
ST. PAUL, Minn. — John McCain told reporters via satellite Sunday that most opening day activities of the Republican National Convention will be suspended because of the threat from Hurricane Gustav.
“Of course, this is a time when we have to do away with our party politics, and we have to act as Americans,” he told a convention news conference from St. Louis. “We’re going to suspend most of our activities tomorrow.”
Four days of festivities were to open Monday, but now a party business session is all that is scheduled.
President Bush, first lady Laura Bush, Vice President Cheney and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger all canceled Monday appearances. Bush is likely to address the nation, instead, if killer Gustav does not veer off its path toward the Gulf Coast.
Convention planners said McCain hopes to show up later in the week to accept his party’s nomination, but there was no guarantee of it, and he is not required to be in the hall for the nomination to be official.
Officials said they will execute “certain basic minimum requirements” of party rules, including receiving the report of the credentials committee, adopting rules and the party platform and electing officials of the convention.
The convention will be called to order at the scheduled opening of 3 p.m. local time and last until about 5 or 5:30 p.m. before adjourning.
“What will be missing will be any kind of political rhetoric,” McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said.
Davis said the convention will be decided day to day, with delegates notified by e-mail and text message. Davis said the convention hopes to conduct a roll call, but doesn’t know when that will be.
“We will try to constitute as much of a program as events allow us to,” Davis said. “Everything will be considered optional after the 5:30 session tomorrow.”
McCain said he “can hardly wait” to get to St. Paul. “I hope and pray we’ll be able to resume some of our normal operations as quickly as possible,” he said. “But some of that is, frankly, in the hands of God.”
During the week, the delegates will work to raise money for charities that operate in the Gulf Coast region, Davis said.
The many corporations that plan parties and celebrations in conjunction with the convention will be contacted and asked “to please be respectful of the situation that exists in the Gulf,” and to use the events “as part of the extended fundraising network that we hold to establish for the Gulf.”
Asked by Jeff Greenfield of CBS News if the campaign planned any joint charity effort with the Obama campaign, Davis said: “We haven’t had any contact with the Obama campaign. I wouldn’t rule something like that out.”
The McCain campaign made a plane available to Gulf Coast delegates to return home. About a dozen from the Louisiana delegate made the trip and “will be getting family members and returning,” Davis said.
McCain said the U.S. must prepare for “a great national challenge, and the possibility of a great natural disaster.”
The senator added that it’s “time to open our hearts, our efforts, our wallets, our concern, our care for those American citizens who are now under the shadow and the probability of a natural disaster.”
Davis said he hopes all the scheduled speakers will still come: “We do expect all the speakers to speak at some point. … We can’t promise them when or if.”
“We hoped that we could have a more traditional convention,” Davis said. “But, as the senator indicated, events have conspired to do otherwise.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/13031.html 2008-09-01
RNC konventet inställs
RNC konventet inställs, åtminstone tillfälligt, för att avvakta och se konsekvenserna av Orkanen Gustav. New Orleans, staden som för tre år sedan nästan total förstördes, har nu evakuerats i god tid på förhand. Nationen är dessutom avsevärt bättre förberedd än den var 2005. Exakt vilken materiell förödelse Gustav kan tänkas skapa återstår dock att se. Men såväl McCain som Vita Huset verkar anse det olämpligt att hålla RNC konventet mitt i den nationella krisen. Både Bush och Cheney som var tänkt att tala idag har ställt in, och Bush har begett sig till Texas där han ska möta hjälparbetare.
McCain själv förklarade via telefon att invigningsdagen skärs ned, och i princip inställs -bortsett från en del formaliteter.
Detta är första gången i modern valhistoria som ett konvent ställts in, eller planerna för miljontals dollar så abrupt kastats om. Det är inte troligt att konventet alls (som kräver månader av förberedelser och miljontals med pengar) kommer att bli vad det var tänkt att vara, och precis som ovissheten kring Gustav inte ger oss något besked om stormens konsekvenser, så är det idagsläget lika svårt att veta vilka konsekvenser som kan drabba McCain utan ett riktigt konvent.
Yahoo News skriver:
Storm sucks air out of GOP's sails
M.E. SprengelmeyerMon Sep 1, 12:45 AM ET
The sun was shining through partly cloudy skies, but a Category 4 storm of uncertainty blew into the Republican National Convention's host city Sunday.
Though more than 1,000 miles to the south, Hurricane Gustav played havoc with the festivities planned to coronate Sen. John McCain as the Republican presidential nominee.
In a surreal scene inside the Xcel Energy Center, hundreds of journalists crammed into a small ballroom to stare into a television screen as McCain appeared via satellite from Missouri and announced that all but perfunctory party business would be scrapped on the first day of the convention while the nation sends its thoughts and prayers to the people of the Gulf Coast.
"This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics, and we have to act as Americans," McCain said.
Instead of a daylong celebration of McCain's candidacy and expected attacks on Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama, all McCain and his newly named running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, can do is wait out the storm.
Delayed bounce
The suspension of the usual political fun and games - for the first day and perhaps beyond - is unprecedented in modern politics. In the television age, the national party conventions are carefully choreographed as public relations springboards to give presidential tickets a big "bounce" upward in the polls.
Now, the uncertainty has made downtown St. Paul resemble more of a high-security ghost town compared with the festive, crowd-filled streets of downtown Denver during last week's Democratic National Convention.
And it has put McCain's hopes in limbo at a time when he needs to regain the spotlight after Obama's history-making acceptance speech before more than 80,000 people inside Invesco Field at Mile High and an estimated 40 million American television viewers at home.
McCain had been hoping to get his own bounce and celebrate Palin, a little-known Washington outsider, whose selection was greeted enthusiastically by many Republicans but questioned by some pundits, both liberal and conservative, because of her relative youth and lack of foreign policy experience.
"The Palin selection completely undercuts the argument about Obama's inexperience and readiness to lead," conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote last week. "To gratuitously undercut the remarkably successful 'Is he ready to lead?' line of attack seems near suicidal."
But Palin's big coming-out party will have to wait.
Other things to cover
Normal convention activities might have backfired against Republicans with national television networks broadcasting political coverage in a split screen, showing an ominous weather radar map of New Orleans as a constant, painful reminder of the botched government response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
So McCain urged party members to "take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats" and pull together to help the people of the Gulf Coast states.
"America needs us now, whether we are Republican or Democrat," McCain said.
After Republicans announced their scaled-back convention plans, the Democratic National Committee followed suit by cancelling the daily "More of the Same" briefings they had been planning in St. Paul.
Already, some of the 15,000 national and international reporters who flocked to the convention have booked new flights for the region bracing for the hurricane.
Many had planned to cover appearances by President Bush and Vice President Cheney at the convention Monday. But those appearances have been canceled, along with other political speeches.
Instead, that might mean more attention for one event that is going forward as scheduled: a march of tens of thousands of war protesters through the streets of Minnesota's capital city. Advance media reports suggest that the street demonstrations could be more tense than those in Denver last week. St. Paul-area authorities reportedly raided locations where demonstrators had been mobilizing.
Colorado's Republican delegates were taking the uncertainty in stride.
"It's definitely unfortunate," said delegate Guy Short, of Erie. "We will get our work done here, but the first and foremost concern is any damage caused by a hurricane."
At the convention site, reporters pressed McCain campaign manager Rick Davis for answers on when the regular convention would resume.
Davis promised daily briefings but added: "There's no pattern to how we will react to this."
Staff writer Lynn Bartels contributed to this story.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/rockymountainnews/20080901/pl_rockymountainnews/stormsucksairoutofgopssails 2008-09-01
Och här skriver New York Times en artikel om orkanen:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/02gustav.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
McCain själv förklarade via telefon att invigningsdagen skärs ned, och i princip inställs -bortsett från en del formaliteter.
Detta är första gången i modern valhistoria som ett konvent ställts in, eller planerna för miljontals dollar så abrupt kastats om. Det är inte troligt att konventet alls (som kräver månader av förberedelser och miljontals med pengar) kommer att bli vad det var tänkt att vara, och precis som ovissheten kring Gustav inte ger oss något besked om stormens konsekvenser, så är det idagsläget lika svårt att veta vilka konsekvenser som kan drabba McCain utan ett riktigt konvent.
Yahoo News skriver:
Storm sucks air out of GOP's sails
M.E. SprengelmeyerMon Sep 1, 12:45 AM ET
The sun was shining through partly cloudy skies, but a Category 4 storm of uncertainty blew into the Republican National Convention's host city Sunday.
Though more than 1,000 miles to the south, Hurricane Gustav played havoc with the festivities planned to coronate Sen. John McCain as the Republican presidential nominee.
In a surreal scene inside the Xcel Energy Center, hundreds of journalists crammed into a small ballroom to stare into a television screen as McCain appeared via satellite from Missouri and announced that all but perfunctory party business would be scrapped on the first day of the convention while the nation sends its thoughts and prayers to the people of the Gulf Coast.
"This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics, and we have to act as Americans," McCain said.
Instead of a daylong celebration of McCain's candidacy and expected attacks on Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama, all McCain and his newly named running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, can do is wait out the storm.
Delayed bounce
The suspension of the usual political fun and games - for the first day and perhaps beyond - is unprecedented in modern politics. In the television age, the national party conventions are carefully choreographed as public relations springboards to give presidential tickets a big "bounce" upward in the polls.
Now, the uncertainty has made downtown St. Paul resemble more of a high-security ghost town compared with the festive, crowd-filled streets of downtown Denver during last week's Democratic National Convention.
And it has put McCain's hopes in limbo at a time when he needs to regain the spotlight after Obama's history-making acceptance speech before more than 80,000 people inside Invesco Field at Mile High and an estimated 40 million American television viewers at home.
McCain had been hoping to get his own bounce and celebrate Palin, a little-known Washington outsider, whose selection was greeted enthusiastically by many Republicans but questioned by some pundits, both liberal and conservative, because of her relative youth and lack of foreign policy experience.
"The Palin selection completely undercuts the argument about Obama's inexperience and readiness to lead," conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote last week. "To gratuitously undercut the remarkably successful 'Is he ready to lead?' line of attack seems near suicidal."
But Palin's big coming-out party will have to wait.
Other things to cover
Normal convention activities might have backfired against Republicans with national television networks broadcasting political coverage in a split screen, showing an ominous weather radar map of New Orleans as a constant, painful reminder of the botched government response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
So McCain urged party members to "take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats" and pull together to help the people of the Gulf Coast states.
"America needs us now, whether we are Republican or Democrat," McCain said.
After Republicans announced their scaled-back convention plans, the Democratic National Committee followed suit by cancelling the daily "More of the Same" briefings they had been planning in St. Paul.
Already, some of the 15,000 national and international reporters who flocked to the convention have booked new flights for the region bracing for the hurricane.
Many had planned to cover appearances by President Bush and Vice President Cheney at the convention Monday. But those appearances have been canceled, along with other political speeches.
Instead, that might mean more attention for one event that is going forward as scheduled: a march of tens of thousands of war protesters through the streets of Minnesota's capital city. Advance media reports suggest that the street demonstrations could be more tense than those in Denver last week. St. Paul-area authorities reportedly raided locations where demonstrators had been mobilizing.
Colorado's Republican delegates were taking the uncertainty in stride.
"It's definitely unfortunate," said delegate Guy Short, of Erie. "We will get our work done here, but the first and foremost concern is any damage caused by a hurricane."
At the convention site, reporters pressed McCain campaign manager Rick Davis for answers on when the regular convention would resume.
Davis promised daily briefings but added: "There's no pattern to how we will react to this."
Staff writer Lynn Bartels contributed to this story.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/rockymountainnews/20080901/pl_rockymountainnews/stormsucksairoutofgopssails 2008-09-01
Och här skriver New York Times en artikel om orkanen:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/02gustav.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
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