Rita

Is it just me, or does all this hurricane talk kind of
turn you on too?

via Crooks and Liars

Also, Pensacola Beach Blog points to a post from February in the Houston Chronicle that describes what might happen if a hurricane of Rita's magnitude strikes near Houston.

A landfall here would allow its powerful upper-right quadrant, where
the waves move in the same direction as the storm, to overflow Galveston
Bay. Within an hour or two, a storm surge, topping out at 20 feet or more,
would flood the homes of 600,000 people in Harris County. The surge also
would block the natural drainage of flooded inland bayous and streams for
a day or more.

It's not gonna be pretty.

But let's hope that the local and state governments as well as the federal government have learned some lessons from Katrina.

As you can see here, White House Spokesmonkey, Scott McClellan isn't sure if they have or not.