Speaking of oil and states of emergency, it looks like Rita has both become a real monster, and has shifted such that they're now predicting a strike between Matagorda and the Sabine River - which is to say that she's going to whack every oil platform and derrick on the central Gulf coast which *wasn't* smashed up by Katrina. At least it isn't going to be the worst-case for Galveston that was predicted by last night's four-kilometre models, which predicted a strike directly on the Matagorda coast, giving Galveston the worst of the upper-right quadrant. This morning, it looks like Rita might *not* reduce Galveston to flooded splinters.

Wherever she hits is gonna look like a mid-yield nuke went off, though. Hope they've got those rigs locked down tight.