TAKING RUSSIA’S COLLECTIVE FARMS FREE-MARKET: “The business of buying and reforming collective farms is suddenly and improbably very profitable, attracting hedge fund managers, Russian oligarchs, Swedish portfolio investors and even a descendant of White Russian émigré nobility. Earlier reformers envisioned the collective farms eventually breaking up into family farms. But the new business model rests on a belief that Russia’s long, painful history of collectivization is destined to end in large corporate factory farms.”

IF YOU’RE IN GUSTAV’S PATH, IT’S TOO LATE for this stuff, but here’s a roundup on disaster preparedness. It’s not like Gustav will be the last hurricane.

A DUMB PRO-PALIN TALKING POINT is that she is the commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard. All governors are in charge of their states’ National Guard units, and their actual responsibilities in this regard are generally pretty light. It’s true she visited the troops in Kuwait, but I don’t think this experience is really a very strong argument in terms of military competence.

UPDATE: On the other hand, claims that Palin faked her pregnancy would have to count as dumber . . . .

THREAT TO NEW ORLEANS INCREASES: Brendan Loy has the scoop.

UPDATE: ABC News: Obama ‘Deeply Concerned’ About Hurricane Gustav. As everyone should be.

POLITICO: Obama vs. His Staff. “Just hours after his campaign issued a first statement yesterday ripping the addition of Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket, Barack Obama backed away from that statement — or at least its tone — and said that his own campaign had misrepresented him. Obama often speaks of how important his staffers are to his bid and would be to his administration, and he’s praised them for covering for each others’ mistakes. But in the heat of the campaign, he’s publicly called them out for everything from missing an event to misrepresenting his policy positions to using his office to aid a donor.”

Via Newsalert.

JERRY POURNELLE ON SARAH PALIN:

Were matters left to her, she would leave a great number of issues to the states — as would I. I’d rather see her President than McCain, but we live with the choices we have.

Mr. Heinlein once speculated that we ought to reserve high political office for women with children because they tend to see things a bit more realistically. While I didn’t necessarily agree with him, I never won the argument with him. On the other hand, Robert used to take positions for the sheer fun of it. (Actually I think he’d have preferred that anyone elected be a woman with children who could solve quadratic equations in her head, but he never went quite that far in public statements. Ginny never had children, but she could certainly do the math….)

We do live in interesting times.

Indeed.

BRUCE REED says Democrats shouldn’t be too quick to trash Sarah Palin, and that’s good advice. And as for comparisons to Quayle, could somebody remind me again how many terms Lloyd Bentsen served as Vice President?

POLITICO: Five questions for Sarah Palin. I notice that several of them have already been answered by bloggers.

Here’s an answer to the travel question: “But if it turns out she has rarely traveled abroad — or has never been to any foreign country other than Canada — this will be seized upon instantly.” No worries.

Here’s an answer to the finances question. From first thing this morning.

And here’s something on evolution.

Bloggers: Doing the MSM’s work ahead of time.

UPDATE: A big roundup of Palin downsides from Fabius Maximus. Also doing the MSM’s work . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Oh, and I should mention Jeralyn Merritt’s look at Palin’s judicial appointments.

SOME SARAH PALIN LOOKALIKES. I’m not really seeing it with Megan Mullaly, though.

NAGIN ORDERS MANDATORY EVACUATION: Brendan Loy has more.

UPDATE: Gustav on Twitter. Chuck Simmins notes: “The folks at Twitter are doing a great job following Gustav. Red Cross and Home Depot are using Twitter for providing info.”

BRENDAN LOY: “One thing McCain may want to consider is that Gustav, though it’s getting all the attention right now, isn’t the only tropical threat out there. The one on the right is Tropical Storm Hanna, which could be menacing Florida by the end of the week. At present, it is not officially forecasted to become a hurricane, but that could change; some of the models think it could be a Category 2 or 3 hurricane in three days’ time! If that happens, a couple days’ delay in the convention could potentially create a new conflict, this time involving the convention coinciding with a landfalling hurricane in the key electoral swing state of Florida.”

Some Democrats think it’s the hand of God. Of course, by saying that on video they muddy the question of who it’s taking out . . . . Especially as this is the main headline on Drudge right now.

ALLAH POSTS three interviews with Sarah Palin.

HEATHER MACDONALD ON THE PALIN PICK: Republicans betray their principles by playing identity politics.

On the other hand, here’s what Doc Searls says: “Struck me as pretty smart, though maybe a little too smart for McCain’s own good. . . . Also FWIW, I know a lot of Hillary partisans, and if anything the Palin selection helps them rationalize voting for Obama.” He also links to this critical post by Richard Bennett.

ZOGBY POLL: “Brash McCain pick of AK Gov. Palin neutralizes historic Obama speech, stunts the Dems’ convention bounce . . . The latest nationwide survey, begun Friday afternoon after the McCain announcement of Palin as running mate and completed mid-afternoon today, shows McCain/Palin at 47%, compared to 45% support for Obama/Biden. In other words, the race is a dead heat.” If other polls bear this out, that’s big news. But this is only one quickie poll, so stay tuned. This USA Today/ Gallup poll doesn’t look as strong, though it’s of voter reactions to the pick, not a horserace question. But 23% of those polled had never heard of Joe Biden? I don’t know if that undercuts the poll, or just indicates that a lot of people just don’t pay attention to politics.

UPDATE: Hmm. This Gallup horserace poll shows Obama retaining his lead. Same at Rasmussen. So either Zogby’s found something everyone else has missed, or it’s a bad poll.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Jon Aaron writes:

The Gallup and Rasmussen polls are daily trackers, which average the results over a 3-day period. So they mostly don’t reflect the impact of the Palin pick yet, and won’t completely reflect it until Monday or Tuesday. The Zogby poll was conducted entirely after the Palin pick. Zogby polls actually aren’t very reliable, but in this case there’s no discrepancy with Gallup and Rasmussen.

That makes sense. And looking back at the links, the Gallup poll was Wed. – Friday, while the Rasmussen was Tues.-Thursday. So neither really reflects the Palin shift yet. Will Zogby turn out to be right, or not? Stay tuned, I guess.

GUSTAV WINDS HAVE HIT 150 MPH, and it has made landfall in Cuba. Brendan Loy has the scoop. Looks like the Cayman Islands — hit this morning when Gustav was barely over hurricane strength — dodged a bullet. Cuba isn’t so lucky; let’s hope others in the path have better luck.

Meanwhile, news on preparations in New Orleans, and video, at the Times-Picayune site.

UPDATE: Actually, Little Cayman was hit harder than initial reports suggested, and — to a lesser degree — so was Cayman Brac. British warships are arriving to provide relief.

ASTROSPIES? A new space hotel venture.

WHEN BILL MAHER HAS NOTICED THE PROBLEM, it’s a problem.

AT GAY PATRIOT, some thoughts on links and hate comments.

PHOTO: Why you should do your disaster preparedness in advance.

MAYBE IT’S A BOGUS RUMOR, but Buffy fans will dig it.

USE IT OR AND LOSE IT:

Invented by American computer scientists during the 1970s, the Internet has been embraced around the globe. During the network’s first three decades, most Internet traffic flowed through the United States. In many cases, data sent between two locations within a given country also passed through the United States.

Engineers who help run the Internet said that it would have been impossible for the United States to maintain its hegemony over the long run because of the very nature of the Internet; it has no central point of control.

And now, the balance of power is shifting. Data is increasingly flowing around the United States, which may have intelligence — and conceivably military — consequences.

Read the whole thing.

MIXED FEELINGS ON PALIN from Dale Carpenter. Plus, a roundup of pundit skepticism from Mickey Kaus.

UPDATE: Heated discussion in Dale Carpenter’s comments.

INSTAPUNDIT FAILED PROGNOSTICATION NUMBER . . . OH, HELL, IT WOULD TAKE SCIENTIFIC NOTATION:

THERE’S A BLOG AIMED AT DRAFTING ALASKA GOV. Sarah Palin for Vice President. I don’t see that as terribly likely, but I certainly like her action on the Bridge to Nowhere, and I wouldn’t mind seeing her fill Ted Stevens’ seat.

Turns out the guy who started the blog got a phone call from Palin yesterday, which was a nice touch on her part.

POLITICO: McCain: I may postpone convention.

Instead of doing that, how about having delegates on the floor putting together relief packages, and sending a group of volunteers down afterward, with Sarah Palin in charge?

UPDATE: Reader Brian Gates emails:

Make it a telethon. Show up on Tuesday and say, “The normal festive atmosphere certainly isn’t appropriate right now, but we wanted to take this opportunity to demonstrate how people can work together to solve problems without government. We think there’s too much money in politics anyway, so for convention week we’re not accepting donations. If you find yourself agreeing with the kinds of things we talk about on this stage, call in and make a donation to one of these fine, nonpartisan charitable organizations.”

Intersperse the political speeches with little how-tos on disaster preparedness. Have live feeds from civic groups throughout the South who are hosting people fleeing the storm, saying what they need. By the end of the week, the storm should be past, and McCain’s speech can be a celebration not of his candidacy, but of what people accomplished to help each other without a single dime being shuffled through Washington (and getting transmuted into a nickel en route).

If the Democrats are smart, they’ll take the same approach, and immediately distance themselves from Michael Moore’s comments.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Apparently, McCain’s way ahead on this: “John McCain and the GOP are considering scrapping political speeches and turning their St. Paul/Minneapolis convention into a ‘service’ program to help victims of Storm Gustav, The Post has learned. . . . The contingency plan – a worst case scenario if the storm devastates coastal areas – would turn Republicans into Red Cross-type volunteers who would help collect donations, food and goods to help storm victims.”

AT TALKLEFT, Jeralyn Merritt is looking at Sarah Palin’s judicial appointments.