News for August 28

Political Storm: The RNC and Gustav

The Democratic National Convention is winding down on the edge of a significant date: the three-year anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast. This year another storm, Gustav, could become a hurricane and hit New Orleans just as the Republican National Convention begins next week in St. Paul. Bloggers and news outlets are keeping an eye on the storm, the date and the conventions:

Politico |  “Gustav’s projected path suggests possible landfall on the convention’s opening day — Labor Day. The storm could threaten everything from President Bush’s Monday night address to the broader Republican message of effective government management.”

New York Times |  “Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a rising star in Republican circles, has even said that he will skip the party’s national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul next week if necessary; he was scheduled to speak at the convention on Wednesday night.”

Spiritual Politics |  “If I believed in that sort of thing, I’d say it was one of those divine punishments that is being visited upon the GOP by an angry God set on reminding voters what that Party’s still sitting Administration accomplished three years ago to the day.”

The Nation | “A quick hypothetical: if a Democratic president had allowed, say, all of Connecticut to flood and done nothing but strum a guitar and look out the window while it happened, do you think that might, maybe, feature prominently in the Republican attacks during the next presidential year? I ask this because as I sat at a surprisingly interesting Katrina roundtable yesterday, it occurred to me that Katrina has been astoundingly, shockingly absent from the convention.”

Symbols Count  |  Mixed Race America

I know that symbols can be too easily deconstructed and dismissed. I make my bread and butter through tearing apart language and images in literary texts. My training in the academy has been to be suspicious and cynical of easy symbols and overly sentimental narratives. And yet here I am crying at the realization that our nation has nominated an African American man to be the presidential nominee. .. And that symbolism is powerful.

Ain’t No Wind in T. Boone Pickens’ Sails  |  Salon

Until Pickens puts his money behind progressive politicians, then his quest for progressive policies will remain an impossible dream.