So much for the well-publicized promises to "set aside partisan politics and festivities planned for the convention opening" and adopt "a more a subdued business-only tone in deference to Gulf Coast residents" due to the hurricane.

ABC's Blotter: As NOLA Residents Flee, Republican Party Officials Don Pink Boas and Swig Vodka Shots

As residents of New Orleans were fleeing Hurricane Gustav, top Republican party officials donned pink boas and swigged vodka shots at a wild whirl of corporate and lobbyist-paid parties this weekend in Minneapolis-St. Paul. [...]

[T]he National Rifle Association, Lockheed Martin and the American Trucking Association put on a raucus six-hour party at a downtown bar featuring music by the band "Hookers and Blow." There was no evidence of any actual prostitutes or cocaine.

h/t Wonkette

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How dare Hurricane Gustav threaten the Gulf Coast on a Sunday?  Doesn't Mother Nature know that McCain likes to take weekends off?  I'm hoping that it is truly the feedback he complains about in the early part of the video and not just petulance for being forced to make executive decisions on a Sunday that accounts for a somewhat disoriented McCain announcing that in sensitivity to the damage that Hurricane Gustav may wreak on the Gulf Coast, he's opted to cancel all but the "necessary" components of today's RNC schedule: 

Ariz. Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, visited the Gulf briefly and instructed convention organizers to suspend all but essential business on the opening day of the convention and turn many of the gathering's planned festivities into fundraisers for potential victims of the storm.[..]

Adding to the sense of uncertainty, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney announced that they would skip the convention to monitor preparations for the storm, which is expected to make landfall late this morning.

Officials said that as part of the convention's opening night, Laura Bush and McCain's wife, Cindy, would speak from the podium and describe ways to help victims of Hurricane Gustav. The First Lady visited the convention hall Sunday evening to check out the podium. Cindy McCain and Palin arrived in the Twin Cities by private plane Sunday night.

It's heartwarming to see such concern for the hurricane victims, isn't it?  Especially since John McCain did so little for Hurricane Katrina victims and actively fought against a commission to find out what went wrong.   My buddy Bob Geiger--the Senate blogger--is back to his blogging duties and files this: 

What does seem odd is that McCain thinks Gulf Coast residents will forget how he, George W. Bush and the then-Republican Congress turned their backs on them so many times in the months after Katrina thundered ashore in 2005.

Sure, McCain was big on rote sympathy right after the disaster, saying on September 1, 2005 "American citizens have proven time and again how generous and selfless a people we are, and now we have an opportunity to come to the aid of those in need." A week later he stridently said "Our work to help the victims of this national tragedy has just begun, and Congress must do all that is necessary to fund essential relief and recovery efforts and help those in need."

It must be nice to have staffers writing that stuff for you.

Too bad he spent the months to follow leading the Republican charge against every Senate bill that would have actually helped Katrina victims or mandated investigations on how the Bush administration could have blown disaster response so thoroughly.

Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden jumped immediately to the aid of hurricane victims in the week after the 2005 disaster, authoring S.Amdt. 1661 "...to provide emergency funding for victims of Hurricane Katrina."[..]

But with John McCain's help, the Republican-led Senate shot down the funding on a 41-56 vote with McCain voting against, while Biden and Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama voted for the funding.

When Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) proposed the creation of a Congressional Commission to "examine the Federal, State, and local response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.. and make immediate corrective measures to improve such responses in the future," John McCain was once again exactly where George W. Bush wanted him to be: On the "nay" side of a straight party-line vote (44-54) that killed that legislation.

So when McCain tells the people of the Gulf Coast now that we'll pray for them, is that the only assistance they can expect from him?

Transcripts below the fold

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Of all the nakedly transparent political manuevers...I'm pretty cynical and this shocked even me.  Dana Bash reports to Wolf Blitzer that McCain, clearly cognizant of the bad press George Bush got of celebrating McCain's birthday rather than keep an eye out for the citizens of the Gulf Coast, is considering a few different options for the Republican National Convention, scheduled to start Monday just as Hurricane Gustav makes landfall.   One option, delaying the convention, has been set aside.  Instead, McCain, along with wife Cindy and running mate Sarah Palin, will fly down to the Gulf Coast 

The Arizona senator and Alaska governor will fly to Mississippi on Sunday to view preparations for the hurricane, adding a last-minute trip in an effort to contrast their would-be administration with President George W. Bush's slow response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago. 

This is a little like the "McCain in the Baghdad Marketplace" moment.   How much personnel will get pulled off from desperately needed duties in order for McCain to get his photo-op?  Can you imagine the cries of "presumptuousness" and worse if Barack Obama had done so?  But it gets worse, much worse.  Now there's talk of turning the Republican National Convention -- peopled by the same types who thought that those Ninth Ward citizens should have drowned rather than look to the government to help evacuate them during Katrina, mind you -- into a telethon of sorts for Gulf Coast relief.

McCain said he had been in touch with the Governors from Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Florida and continued on to say, "I've been talking to all of them, but you know it just wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster, so we're monitoring it from day to day and I'm saying a few prayers too."

The Republican Convention planners are preparing to alter the scheduled events and may simply stick to the minimal ceremony required by law to officially nominate John McCain as the Republican's Presidential candidate and Sarah Palin as the vice presidential candidate for the GOP.

One contingency plan in the event of a worse case scenario where Gustav reaps massive destruction along the U.S. Gulf Coast is to turn a portion of the convention into a "giant hurricane relief telethon", where attending Republicans would be transformed into "Red Cross-type volunteers" as the New York Post phrases it in their report.

Those Republicans would help collect donations, not for the Republican Party or John McCain but instead for storm victims as well as collecting food and goods to help them as well.

McCain - whose campaign motto is "Country First" - said helping people during an emergency will take precedence over accepting his GOP nomination for president.

Right...he's only thinking about the people.  Moira at DemocracyArsenal:

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Amy Goodman from DemocracyNOW asks investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill how Blackwater profited off Hurricane Katrina.

Security and intelligence expert Dr. R.J. Hillhouse reports at her "Spy Who Billed Me" blog that Blackwater has issued a shout-out for armed security officers for possible deployment under their DHS contract in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. Officers must have a firearms license - and those with revolver- only status need not apply. She reproduces this call for personell from Blackwater themselves, issued late Friday:

Blackwater is compiling a list of qualified security personnel for possible deployment into areas affected by Hurricane Gustav. Applicants must meet all items listed under the respective Officer posting and be US citizens. Contract length is TBD.

Law Enforcement Officers (all criteria must apply)

1. Current sworn [may be full time, part time or reserve]

2. With arrest powers

3. Armed status (must indicate Armed and/or Semi Auto. Revolver only not accepted) expiration must be greater than 60 days out

4. Departmental credentials (not just a badge)

Armed Security Officers (all criteria must apply)Only from the following states: OR, WA, CA, NV, NM, AZ, TX, FL, GA, SC, NC, VA, MD, IL, OK.

1. Current/active/licensed/registered armed security officer

2. All training verification [unarmed and armed certificates of completion]

3. Current state issued face card indicting armed status [expiration must be greater than 60 days out]

Last time out, during Katrina, Blackwater mercenaries were patrolling New Orleans in full battle dress and with assault weapons in what some called an end-run around Posse Comitatus. It looks like they're ready to do it again.  If so, let's hope there's none of the kind of "accidents" they've had in Iraq