Tourists evacuated from East China island as typhoon approaches

HANGZHOU: Some 900 foreign and Chinese tourists were persuaded by the Chinese soldiers to evacuate from Nanji, a resort island off east China's Zhejiang Province on Wednesday as the Typhoon Morakot approaches, Xinhua news agency reported Thursday.

The provincial meteorological station monitored the center of the typhoon at 950 km east of Zhejiang's coast Thursday morning, with wind speeds up to 144 km per hour.

The observatory expected Morakot to strengthen into a strong typhoon, as it moved towards Zhejiang and Fujian provinces at a speed of 20 to 25 km per hour Thursday. It is forecast to make landfall late Friday or Saturday.

The ferry services to the mainland will also be stopped on Thursday.

A tourist from Jinhua City, Zhejiang told Xinhua that: "We didn't expect the typhoon would be so strong, and had planned to stay on the island for another two days.

"We are grateful that the soldiers helped us book ferry tickets and leave the island safely before Morakot arrives".

The Shanghai-based East China Weather Forecast Center under the State Bureau of Oceanic Administration on Thursday warned coastal units to take high tide precautions, as Morakot would hit at a peak tide time, and the storm tide in Zhejiang and Fujian would surge 150 to 250cm on Saturday. -- BERNAMA

Recess Rally: Rachel Maddow reveals the Republican organization ties behind 'grassroots' recess rally

Maddow shows how tied recess rally is to Republicans. Photo by Paul Schultz

In the video below Maddow does a detailed analysis of the website www.recessrally.com. Maddow looks into the prominent sponsors of the Recess Rally and demonstrates just how much the organization is a result of Republican operatives and elitists as opposed to your "average Joe middle class American."

As Maddow points out, some of the listed supporters of Recess Rally include Michelle Malkin a noted conservative Fox News commentator, a former speech writer for George Bush, a regional field director Bush-Cheney 04, a former Washington D.C. lobbyist, the former Director of the Illinois Republican party, the funder of the swift boat ads attacking John Kerry, and finally the owner of the largest privately-held oil company in America. These are the "middle class Americans" bringing you the "grassroots" protests.

As a side note at the beginning of the video Maddow explains how end of life consultations are actually not that controversial and not merely a Democratic idea. It turns out both parties have been supporting the ability of people to make living wills for over twenty years without controversy. It is only now that Republicans are trying to take the non-controversial issue to try and scare old people into believing they will be euthanized.

Watch the video below and provide your own comments if you wish.

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