NEW ORLEANS is battered and submerged today. But it will rise again because it is — and always has been — the single most important cog in the nation's economy.

Hurricane Katrina left the port pretty much intact, and the river seems navigable. But you can't have a port without people, and the commercial facilities will be needed in two weeks, when Midwest farmers begin harvesting. Their harvest will be handled this year and, if civilian workers cannot be found, the Army units cleaning up the storm damage could be expected to stay and work the ports.

But in the long run, the economic health of the nation depends on developing a port city about where New Orleans sits — a port surrounded by workers and better protected from nature. That city will be called New Orleans. It will be rebuilt for the same reason it was built in a malarial swamp in the first place: because it is where a city must be built.

George Friedman, founder of Stratfor and strong advocate of Open Source Intelligence, checks in on the New Orleans situation.

George Friedman, on New Orleans' raison d'être

"We are all here in China that represents quite a lot of opportunities, not only on the business side, but also on the social side," Yang said.

"We look at our users' interests, without our users we don't have business."

At the same time, it was essential that Yahoo employees abide by local laws as well, he added.

"I would not put our employees at risk in anyway, shape or form and when it comes to issues such as seeking user information we have a very clear cut set of rules."

"The government of any country has engaged with us through legal documentation or legal procedures, we get a lot of those every day around the world."

On the heels of Yahoo helping China bust journalist Shi Tao, Jerry Yang is in China taking part in the Internet Summit being thrown by Alibaba. Who thinks they would have been welcome there if they didn't hand over the information? I don't.. And I'm not just talking about the summit.

Bill Clinton is also attending.

"In China, I think that so far the political system and restraint on political speech in the Internet has not seemed to have any adverse commercial consequences," Clinton said.

"It will be interesting to see whether that is true of the future.

"In America, the Internet is this wild cauldron of dissenting voices, we have now whole different media over the Internet with all the blog sites in America," he said.

Clinton nails it. Its all about the market. Its the Chinese internal market that must put the pressure on the Chinese government. An internal approach is better than an external one. In China's eyes, any pressure from outside to change their approach to speech would be seen in a light akin to terrorism. The Chinese citizens need to be the ones to fly the Internet into Beijing. To stretch the analogy for all its worth, the pilots cannot be Chinese trained in America for their actions to take hold in the society. It must come from within. They can do it based on our ideology, but lets not be so blatant about it as to put it in the context of a state based attack. Put your faith in freedom and people. In this case, the Chinese people.

The next person standing in front of a tank will be holding a laptop with Wifi.

Yahoo's Yang say hands tied in China Internet censorship case

Foamy... Several of my friends have told me that I speak like Foamy... Its 'ok'. They are still my friends. I don't have a problem with Foamy. I'm down with Foamy. I can tell he is closer to my neck of the sprawl than I am right now.. If that rabid squirrel shows his mug down at the shore, we could hang.

Now, to the point... This Foamy cartoon is a definite departure from the normal ranting we expect from our high strung pal. Within Foamy's heavily filtered voice, I very clearly hear something not present in his other rants: True genuine concern. Go Foamy.

After watching this, I actually took the time to seriously sit and ponder the obvious question that follows Foamy's rant. How can I help? Its a hard question to answer. I don't have money to toss at the problem, and I question the effectiveness of that unless I can target it anyway. I can't head down there right now, and if I could I'm not sure what I would be able to accomplish. All the things I can come up with are long term results of things I'm already working on and it amounts to a copout. I'm being challenged by a flash squirrel, damnit. Good job Foamy.

Before this disaster is over, I will find some way to help those affected by it. It didn't take Foamy to push me to that conclusion, it had already happened, but I'm adding him retroactively to my list of premises.

While we are at it, take in Anne Rice's take on the situation, via the New York Times.

Foamy the Squirrel vs. New Orleans Disaster

I've been moving and dumping 55 gallon drums all day. It's back breaking work, but it's a good thing I've got a strong back. I haven't fooled with that much diesel since I was on shit-burning detail in the first Gulf War. I used to volunteer for it because it meant I could skip morning formation. Never been much of a garrison soldier. I was always a field soldier.

So here at Outpost Crystal, we're set pretty good. Thanks for the heads up on the 12-15 feet of water that you guys are telling me I can expect in the CBD tomorrow. That's fine, I'm trained for water operations too. I appreciate all the recommendations, but we're not going.

Exmilitary guy who runs a datacenter in a tower in NOLA is still there and his systems are operational! He has a Livejournal and several cam feeds running. In a way I think all this effort and risk to keep some computers running is a bit silly. On the otherhand, this is absolutely the most hard core systems administration that I have ever heard of.

The Interdictor: Admining in Hell

John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said last night that the corps and other agencies were "in a great frenzy" to figure out how to plug the 300-foot gap along the 17th Street Canal.The narrow canal, which is used to drain water pumped out of the eternally soggy city, is not accessible by barge, in part because a newly built low bridge and hurricane barrier sits 700 feet down the canal toward the lake end. "We can't get at it," Mr. Hall said.

Engineering challenges... is putting it lightly. Its going to be a hard week in the Big Easy.

I must admit that the full impact of this storm was not clear to me until I saw the TV last night, even though I expected it to be bad.

For years I have made the joke that I'd like to see New Orleans before its completely destroyed. Today, I'm feeling bad about making that joke. And its not because I still have not spent any time down in New Orleans.

The sheer human tragedy present on everyone TV screens today is heartbreaking. What's worse, is we saw this coming. The failures present here were all preventable at multiple stages. It starts with the fact that its not a good idea to build a city below sea level, and it ends with evacuation plans that were clearly not mature enough to deal with the reality everyone knew was coming.

The big question: What do we rebuild? And what do we abandon?

Geography Complicates Levee Repair - New York Times

The Rev. Al Sharpton plans to join peace activist Cindy Sheehan, known as the Peace Mom, on Sunday near President Bush's Texas ranch.

Its time to put up the circus tent and hire the midgets.

Rev. Al Sharpton Plans to Join 'Peace Mom'

Godson-2 currently clocks in at around 400Mhz to 500Mhz on a 0.18 micron process. Samples based on 0.13 micron technology should appear this year. That's a generation or two behind Intel and AMD, but Halfhill says the progress China is making is remarkable.

Nothing to get too excited about in terms of specs. Its no big news that China now has micro-processor production capability. The chip is a MIPS derivative, and there are some possible IP troubles there.. Imagine that, China and IP troubles..

Here is the real fun part:

"There would be two ironies here," he notes." One is the irony of China outsourcing manufacturing. The other irony is if it chooses TSMC as a fab, and outsources to Taiwan."

"Two ironies, one issue." Somewhere, Thomas Friedman just let out a chuckle..

Yes, you heard that correct. The Chinese national company BLX IC Design is outsourcing its manufacturing to Taiwan.

China Outsources to Taiwan

Pounding her Baghdad beat, wrapped in a bulletproof vest and brandishing a pistol, Sgt. Bushra Jabar definitely stands out in the new Iraq.

She’s the only woman in the Iraqi Army unit patrolling the Kharkh district in the heart of the capital.

Publius Pundit - Iraqi Cop Babe

But instead of hardened KGB agents lurking on street corners in dark glasses, the spy stories appearing in the Western press recently have been about fresh-faced Chinese students.
Some are said to be engaged in research at respected foreign establishments, while others are enrolled as bright young business trainees in major Western companies.

Their mission - or so the reports allege - is to use fair means or foul to gather technological and commercial intelligence that will help speed China on its way to becoming the next global superpower.

The Aggressive-China-Meme continues to grow... My instinct tells me there is a game being played here to influence public perceptions. Signs so far point to pressure being put on China for reasons of . . . North Korea?

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China's spies come out from the cold

Could it be part of a greater geopolitical game? In other words, what President Bush is really worried about in Asia is North Korea. He does not really care about the RMB; he just pretends to care. This allows him, in negotiations with the Chinese, to say: "I will fold on the RMB, if you give North Korea up; in that way, you guys can give up your embarrassing ally without losing face".

North Korea IS China. Intrigue.

The Big Picture: Playing With Fire?