From Climate Central:

Although recent rains have put a dent in the Texas drought, a day of reckoning looms for the state’s long-grain rice growers, who pump millions into the economy in Southeast Texas each year and account for about 5 percent of America’s rice production. Come March 1, if there is less than 850,000 acre-feet of water in reservoirs along the Lower Colorado River, water managers will be forced to take the unprecedented step of withholding water from agricultural users, which will mean severe cuts to Texas rice production this year.

According to Bob Rose, chief meteorologist with the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), it’s unlikely that enough rain will fall between now and March 1 to reach the 850,000 acre-feet threshold that was established by a recent agreement between the authority and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. An acre-foot is the amount of water required to cover one acre of land to a depth of one foot, and it amounts to about 326,000 gallons.

As of January 30, the highland lakes that serve as the area’s reservoirs held about 758,000 acre-feet.

“This is going to be a huge, huge deal,” Rose said during a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in New Orleans. “What’s going to happen is that there will be no water for rice irrigation in the Lower Colorado River Basin this year.” (more…)

The United States Department of Agriculture has updated the map it issues to help gardeners across the nation determine what they can plant.

Because the nation is getting warmer, people are now able to plant various flowers and trees in parts of the country that before would have not been hospitable to such a wide range of plantings.

Above you see the map. Here is the link to the USDA site that has facts on how to use the map, and also has specific information for each of the states.

The Chicago Sun-Times has a story about how this warming is being acknowledged in the ways everyday people are planting their gardens.

From this story—-

“Vaughn Speer, an 87-year-old master gardener in Ames, Iowa, said he has seen redbud trees, one of the earliest blooming trees, a little farther north in recent years. “They always said redbuds don’t go beyond U.S. Highway 30,” he said, “but I’m seeing them near Roland,” 10 miles to the north….“It is great that the federal government is catching up with what the plants themselves have known for years now: The globe is warming and it is greatly influencing plants (and animals),” Stanford University biology professor Terry Root wrote in an email.”

Do folks who think global warming is a scam believe that these map changes are a government plot? Is it better to deny even the prospect of warming than to at least admit the possibility, and to prepare for what might be on the way?

Here is a synopsis of current warming facts from the co-conspirators at the New York Times.

Folks on the right can go on creating an alternate reality about just about everything. I’m certain that press bashing will by itself change the facts in just the same way the idea that the rain will follow the plow made arid places wet.

(Below–The Eastern Redbud Tree. You might be seeing more of them in Iowa before long.)

America’s television meteorologists are theprimary source of climate information for most Americans, and are second only to scientists — who have much less access to the general public — in the level of trust they are given. Yet more than half of TV weather reporters don’t believe in human-induced climate change, even as our poisoned weather grows more extreme.

Forecast the Facts, a new campaign of 350.org, the League of Conservation Voters, and the newCitizen Engagement Lab, aims to turn the tide. The first call to action challenges the American Meteorological Society to vote next week for a strong climate change statement that rejects science denial:

It’s a big problem: weather reporters reach millions of people every night, and right now they’re not telling their viewers the full story. We can change that. Meteorologists are meeting this month at the annual conference of the American Meteorological Society, where the AMS Council will vote on a new official statement on climate change. Denier meteorologists don’t want the statement to pass, and are doing everything they can to derail the process. We can’t let that happen.

In 2009, ThinkProgress Green exposed weathermen James Spann and Joe D’Aleo as Marc Morano’s go-to climate deniers. Forecast the Facts has identified dozens more zombie weathermen (yes, they’re all male) from around the country. These climate denier meteorologists are betraying the public’s trust and distorting America’s airwaves with ideological science denial: (more…)

From TP:

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which opens to the public this weekend, advances in fuel economy are taking center stage. Thanks to aggressive leadership by the Obama administration, working in concert with the state of California and the unions and carmakers of the American auto industry, fuel economy standards are zooming toward an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. A Detroit Free Press editorial reports that the new fuel economy standards have breathed new life into American automobile manufacturers, spurring them to innovate new technologies and new styles. Their new cars — which reduce our vulnerability to the whims of Big Oil and lessen dangerous pollution — will be able to compete on the international stage, which has much higher standards for fuel efficiency:

Against the backdrop of the North American International Auto Show, which opens to the public Saturday, anything seems possible, including fuel efficiencies that seemed out of reach just a few years ago. The stylish introductions focused as much on engine and power configurations (hybrid, plug-in, turbocharged, direct injection, etc.) and weight-savings as they did on appearance.

“This year’s auto show proves beyond all doubt that fuel efficiency is no longer just a euphemism for ‘econobox,’” writes the Detroit Free Press. “With the long-term planning horizon offered by the new fuel efficiency rules, automakers can do far more than survive. They can thrive, they can do it with style and — most important to everyone around here — build the cars that people want to buy.”

My First Model S Ride from Tesla Motors on Vimeo.

There is nothing boring about the Tesla. Beautiful car. Great lines. Sounds like it handles well. Great acceleration. I need to drive one of these.

First of all, we see a classroom with five people in it. We are to assume that there are three students, one teacher and one janitor/maintenance man. No one identifies himself/herself, but these are fair assumptions. Interestingly, the teacher never says anything. The whole conversation is driven by one student, the tall white guy. The commercial opens with him asking, “Aren’t you getting a little emotional?” One of the two females responds with a stupid little quip, “Aren’t you getting a little industrial?” Instantly, we have the thoughtful logical character pitted against one of the women who does not have a thoughtful or logical answer. She is already painted as emotional and her quip/response reinforces that thought. Let’s move on.

White guy: there’s enough energy right here in America.
Black girl: yeah, over 100 years worth.
White girl: so you’re just going to ignore the environment
Black girl: actually, it’s cleaner
White guy: and it provides jobs and helps our economy.
White girl: okay, I’m listening.

This commercial is brilliant. Besides the captions and graphics that you see floating in space, we place this conversation in a classroom, giving it the stamp of academia. Yet, because some in our society recoil whenever teachers say anything, the makers of this commercial have the teacher say nothing. The educator is silent. Therefore, you still get the air of academia without the negativity that can be associated with some teachers. (Why some in America recoil at teachers – because there has been a relentless attack against teachers by conservatives for over 30 years.)

Now, the announcer comes in and states that at Conoco Phillips, they’re “helping power America’s economy with cleaner, affordable natural gas. More jobs. Less emissions. Good answer for everyone.” (While the announcer is giving his spiel, we see the teacher instructing at the board, but we never hear his voice. We see the students listening intently and we see different graphs, which mean absolutely nothing because they are never put in context. We are to assume that the teacher is expounding on the wonders of natural gas.)

The commercial concludes –

One of the women (can’t really tell which one): so, by reducing the impact of production… and protecting our land and water.
White guy: I might get a job once I graduate.

So, to sum up this commercial, natural gas has little or no impact on the environment and can produce tons of jobs.

If you are unaware of the debate, this is one of those commercials that tend to sway you towards natural gas. It doesn’t mention anything about fracking. Fracking is shorthand for hydraulic fracturing. This technique is basically pumping water and lubricants at extremely high pressures deep beneath the ground in order to fracture the rock and release the natural gas. What could possibly go wrong with the process that breaks rock a mile or two underground? There’s no way that any of these lubricants which include chemicals like benzene, a known carcinogen, could actually get into our underground water supply. In the town of Dish, Texas the EPA found benzene in the air 55 times higher than allowed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

It is true that burning natural gas produces 40% fewer emissions/greenhouse gases than burning coal. 40% is good. Zero emissions is even better. Our goal must be to stop looking for quick answers to our energy needs. We need to find sustainable, reliable, non-polluting answers to our energy problems. This is not a pipe dream. We just need to focus. This commercial simply paves over some of the environmental dangers of natural gas. It paves over the fact that natural gas is a finite solution. I have a problem with people being able to light their faucets, a phenomenon which has actually happened in areas where fracking has been allowed. We need to be the world leader in solar energy and wind energy and tidal energy. We cannot let the oil and gas industry beat us into submission, yet again. Clever commercials should not steer us away from where we need to be going.

I was on Local Edge Radio today. I presented this data, but some listeners want to read this data for themselves. Cool. Here’s the data.

From Science Daily:

For three days after September 11, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded commercial aircraft in the U.S., stranding travelers, hindering mail delivery and interrupting courier service, but for scientists at Penn State and the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, the three-day shutdown provided a rare glimpse of the climate effects of jet contrails.

“In the past, some studies have compared the climate of areas with little overhead air traffic with those under heavily used flight paths,” says Dr. Andrew M. Carleton, professor of geography. “Other studies looked at cloud cover before the advent of heavy jet traffic in the 1960s and afterwards, but these studies really provide circumstantial evidence.”

Carleton, and Dr. David Travis, climatologist at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Ryan Lauritsen, then an undergraduate at UW-W, looked at high and low temperatures recorded throughout the country during the three days of commercial air shutdown and at satellite photos taken during that time. The satellite photos show where contrails were occurring, mostly absent over the U.S. between Sept 11-14, but still occurring in Canada and northern Mexico.

“We show that there was an anomalous increase in the average diurnal temperature range for the period Sept. 11-14, 2001,” the researchers reported in today’s (Aug. 8 ) issue of the journal Nature. “Because persisting contrails can reduce the transfer of both incoming solar and outgoing infrared radiation and so reduce the daily temperature range, we attribute at least a portion of this anomaly to the absence of contrails.”

The diurnal temperature range is the difference between the nighttime low temperature and the daytime high temperature, usually for a given day.
“Because the shutdown occurred before noon on Sept. 11, the low temperature had already been reached, so we looked at 24-hour periods beginning with the high on Sept. 11 to the low on Sept. 14,” said Carleton.

The change in the temperature difference was plus 1.1 degree Celsius, equal to plus 2 degrees Fahrenheit, above the 30-year long-term mean diurnal temperature range. The researchers compared the temperature ranges on these three days to those of the three days directly before Sept. 11 and the three days after Sept. 14, finding that the days before and after were similar, but that the three days in question differed by 1.8 degrees Celsius or 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit. (more…)

More info – here

From NYT:

Relying on the centuries-old principle that white objects absorb less heat than dark ones, homeowners like the Waldreps are in the vanguard of a movement embracing “cool roofs” as one of the most affordable weapons against climate change.

Studies show that white roofs reduce air-conditioning costs by 20 percent or more in hot, sunny weather. Lower energy consumption also means fewer of the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming.

What is more, a white roof can cost as little as 15 percent more than its dark counterpart, depending on the materials used, while slashing electricity bills.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, has proselytized for cool roofs at home and abroad. “Make it white,” he advised a television audience on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” last week.

The scientist Mr. Chu calls his hero, Art Rosenfeld, a member of the California Energy Commission who has been campaigning for cool roofs since the 1980s, argues that turning all of the world’s roofs “light” over the next 20 years could save the equivalent of 24 billion metric tons in carbon dioxide emissions.

“That is what the whole world emitted last year,” Mr. Rosenfeld said. “So, in a sense, it’s like turning off the world for a year.”

Please understand, this does not fix the problem. This will delay the effects of global warming. It will help the planet. We still have to develop a permanent solution.

You can find more information on white roofs – here.

Bachmann may be down but unfortunately, I don’t think that she should throw in the towel yet.

I think that President Obama needs to think big. He needs to go big. I would push him to go for a $1.5 trillion jobs package. Let the Republicans’ heads explode, to quote Cheney. He should take the package to the American people. He should say that an unemployment rate of 9.1% is criminal. We have to do better. We have to bring unemployment under 5% as quickly as possible. Rick Newman has a more middle of the road suggestion for the president.

I still think that Romney’s job proposal is laughable. There is nothing new. It is a continuation of what Bush started and that didn’t end so well for us. Well, before I completely trash it I should wait for some economists to come out with their thoughts.

We need to prepare for more costly disasters, not less. Eric Cantor, are you listening?

I know that Rick Perry has been bashing RomneyCare but a closer look is illuminating. 27% of Texans don’t have health insurance, whereas 5.3% of Massachusetts residents don’t have health insurance. I’m just saying.

Updates:

Texas Wildfires. Tons of problems in East Texas -

Yesterday, the Texas Forest Service responded to 19 new fires for 1,490 acres, including new large fires in Red River and Rusk counties. In the past seven days, Texas Forest Service has responded to 172 fires for 135,051 acres.

An assessment has been completed on the Bastrop County Complex and 785 homes have been reported destroyed. An additional 238 have been reported lost on other fires in the past three days, for a total of approximately 1,023.

A significant number of aircraft have been mobilized to assist with the heavy fire activity. Six heavy airtankers, three 1,500-gallon scoopers, 15 single-engine airtankers, 12 helicopters, and 12 aerial supervision aircraft are in place. Eight National Guard Blackhawk and three Chinook helicopters have been providing critical aerial support. In addition, a 12,000-gallon DC-10 airtanker will be activated Friday morning at the Austin-Bergstrom Airport. This aircraft was instrumental in helping to contain Wildcat Fire in Coke County last April.

A Type I Incident Management Team is in place in Bastrop this morning and is assisting Texas Forest Service in managing the Bastrop County Complex. Additional Type 1 teams have been requested to assist with the large fires in Northeast and Southeast Texas.

Remember that Rick Perry cut funding for fighting wildfires.

If you are going to invest in government bonds, whose are the safest?

45-year-olds need to plan on retiring at age 70 – Rick Perry. What? Why retire then? Who will have the money? Let’s just retire when we are dead. Is that okay with you, Rick?

Did you catch the London speech of Chicago Fed Chair Charles Evans? Here’s a piece:

Suppose we faced a very different economic environment: Imagine that inflation was running at 5% against our inflation objective of 2%. Is there a doubt that any central banker worth their salt would be reacting strongly to fight this high inflation rate? No, there isn’t any doubt. They would be acting as if their hair was on fire. We should be similarly energized about improving conditions in the labor market.

This has been my point for over 12 months. There are too many Americans out of work. Both parties are acting as if there is something that they need to put up at the Dry Cleaners. It is important but …. Damn it. Millions of Americans are out of work. Let’s get to it. Let’s put Americans back to work. NOW!

Finally, just to prove that we aren’t the only nation that has really crazy people – we have been voted the “coolest nation.” Really? Who votes in that poll? When you look at Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, do you think cool? Will Smith – cool. Lady Gaga – cool or odd?

College grads are losing ground on wages. This isn’t good. We need higher wages, living wages for everyone.

Prolonged unemployment is causing and will continue to cause long lasting damage to our society. Everyone is affected. Everyone!

I don’t get it. If children are our future and we, all, believe that children are the foundation of tomorrow then why are we short changing the most important gift that we can give to our children – their education?

BTW, I don’t care if the president backed down on when he would schedule his speech to Congress. I really don’t. We need jobs now. Not tomorrow or next week. Why couldn’t the Republican candidates debate an hour later or two hours earlier? Why couldn’t the president give his speech today and not next week? I don’t care about these macho contests. I care about jobs. Tomorrow we will have another jobs report. I suspect that this is going to be mediocre – with 60,000 – 75,000 jobs added. We need 10 times that much every month for more than two years in order to put 25 million workers (unemployed and underemployed) back to work in jobs that they want at wages that can truly support them. Shame on the media for pushing this non-story and why isn’t the media showing us a daily segment entitled – JOBS???!?!?

Vermont and Connecticut are still struggling with recovery.

For some reason auto sales went up last month. Who would have thunk? I’ll take any economic good news.

From PA:

* Libya: “The transitional government of Libya’s triumphant rebels decided Thursday to extend by up to a week the deadline given to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and his remaining fighters to surrender, but the fugitive leader rejected the ultimatum and raged at his enemies in a new broadcast that called for the country to be ‘engulfed in flames.’”

* Better, but still too high: “Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 409,000, the Labor Department said, still pointing to a jobs market struggling to find strength, but well short of a recession signal.”

* Iraq: “Under increased pressure from the United States, an Iraqi crackdown on Iranian-backed Shiite militias has helped produce a previously elusive goal: For the first time since the American invasion of Iraq, an entire month has passed without a single United States service member dying.”

* Maybe someone should do something: “The Obama administration downgraded its forecast for economic growth Thursday, predicting turmoil in the economy will likely keep unemployment above 9 percent through next year’s election.”

* On the other hand, the federal budget deficit will run “20% lower than expected this year.” Tea Partiers will be celebrating the Obama administration’s progress on deficit reduction, right?

* Counter-terrorism: “On a steady slide. On the ropes. Taking shots to the body and head. That’s how White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan described al-Qaida on Wednesday as he offered the first on-record confirmation that al-Qaida’s latest second-in-command was killed last week in Pakistan.”

* The White House’s new “We The People” online petition initiative looks pretty good.

Connecticut’s governor calls Ron Paul an idiot. Remember that Ron Paul wants to get rid of FEMA.

Serious delinquencies at Freddie and Fannie are unchanged this month. Wasn’t this supposed to be getting better?

Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC news analyst, has been trying to change his soft and milquetoast image. He’s been trying to be a little bit more forceful. He had a segment the other night where he went after Rudy Giuliani. Now, I have no love for Rudy Giuliani. I think that there are very few people outside of the Bush administration who exploited 9/11 more than “America’s Mayor.” I’m not sure why Lawrence O’Donnell decided that this was a good time to go after Rudy Giuliani since he’s not running for office and we’re still approximately two weeks away from the anniversary of 9/11. Yet, it’s hard to argue with his points.

Representative Allen West considers leaving the Congressional Black Caucus. Really? Who cares?

Three graphs which you should show anyone who tries to tell you that Obama is spending “too much.”

Where were the Tea Party dudes when Bush was spending and spending? One supplemental spending bill after another was passed without much fuss from Republicans.

Although I would be the first to admit that the stimulus did not go far enough and did not help as many people as intended, it is clear that the stimulus stopped our trend of hemorrhaging jobs.

I do not support the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. I cannot remember any merger over the last 10-15 years which has actually benefited the American people. Mergers like these decrease competition and increase the monopolistic tendencies of these huge companies.

A suspicious package was delivered to an Army base. Three people who handled the package developed a mysterious rash. I’m not sure what this is.

Remember all of those secret flights carrying those terrorism suspects to places unknown? It looks like the court has shed some light on this subject.

Please file this under – You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me. The Florida legislature spent time, effort and brainpower passing a bill which bans saggy pants on college campuses. As a matter fact, a Florida legislator stood on one of the Florida campuses and handed out belts to those who “needed it.” Florida’s unemployment rate currently sits at 10.9%. Instead of trying to find jobs the Florida legislature is sitting around passing laws about style. This is so wrong I do not know where to begin.

There’s a nice article in the New York Times about how this recovery missed Main Street. I would add that the problem with our economy is that the last 10-15 years of economic growth have been largely been based on credit and the availability of credit. To quote that old Smith Barney commercial, we have to start making money the old-fashioned way – we have to earn it. America is slowly switching over from a credit-based society back to a cash-based society. This is going to take some time. In spite of this, I will stand up and say again that we need jobs and we need jobs NOW.

On Sunday, Colin Powell was on Face the Nation. In a very nice and diplomatic way he told former Vice President Dick Cheney to stuff it.

There have been several occasions in which Ron Paul has stepped out on the limb only to have the limb break and fall off. As everyone knows Ron Paul is an antigovernment crusader. In the wake of the terrible disaster which struck the East Coast and New England, Ron Paul thought it was wise to highlight that there is simply too much dependency on FEMA and the federal government.

Watch the Video:

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Once again, the mainstream media almost missed the story. On Sunday you could feel the mainstream media almost start to cry that Hurricane Irene was not more powerful and more destructive. They wanted to see devastation and suffering. On Sunday and Monday we began to see stories about how New York City was saved. Then, late Monday we began seeing stories of flooding in Connecticut. This was followed by more stories about devastating flooding in Vermont. This was followed by more stories of millions of people without power. All of a sudden, the mainstream media had the disaster that they were looking for. Although it would be easy for me to bash the mainstream media, I would like to focus on the millions of people who need help. This is a time when we need to quit bickering and help our fellow Americans. We need to pretend, at least for a while, that we paid attention in church/synagogue/temple. Currently the death toll sits at 43. Several cities in Vermont are completely cut off from surrounding communities because roads and bridges have washed away. It’s time for us to help these Americans now. We need to figure out how to pay for the help… Later.

Update: Glenn Beck is receiving mediocre ratings with his new network. What do you do if you have mediocre ratings? Instead of trying to be a better reporter/announcer/guru for conservatism just say outlandish stupid stuff.

The state of Nevada goes after Bank of America/Countrywide for deceptive practices and fraudulent loans. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

PG&E gets excoriated for being a large American corporation. Remember, large American corporations care about profits and nothing else. The explosion outside of San Francisco which killed eight people and damaged 38 homes was basically caused by negligence by PG&E. My question is how many more American homes and lives are at risk because of the large corporations have decided to cut costs at our expense?

Finally, over Nine million views of this video reminds me of how crazy we really are. Nine million views of Taylor Swift and her wardrobe “malfunction.”

Over the last six years I’ve written on Katrina many many times (here, here, here and here. This last one is an interview with James Perry who was running for mayor of New Orleans at the time.) I think there are a lot of lessons that can be learned from this disaster. I’ve been to New Orleans twice in the last six years. New Orleans is a city that I truly love. New Orleans is a city that is completely different than any other city in the South. It’s not like Atlanta or Miami or even nearby Houston. The only city in the United States, in my opinion, that comes close to the feeling of pre-Katrina New Orleans would be San Francisco. There was something wonderful about New Orleans. It wasn’t simply a great mecca for music. It wasn’t simply one of the best places in the United States to eat. It wasn’t the unique architecture of the French quarter or even the garden district. It wasn’t brunch at Commander’s Palace or the fabulous art shops where we can buy original paintings from national and internationally known artists at prices the 10th of which you’d find in New York or Chicago. It wasn’t the abject poverty or the wealth of the financial district. It was all of this and more which made New Orleans a great city.

The tragedy of Katrina is that it exposed a dysfunctional political system. New Orleans politics has been famously dysfunctional for decades. Louisiana politics is almost laughable. It was nearly impossible to get anything done in Louisiana unless you “knew somebody.” Then, on top of this dysfunctional system you had the Bush administration. You had an administration that actually hated government. You add all of this together and tens of thousands of people suffered needlessly. My conclusion after reading tons of information on Hurricane Katrina is simply that we need to treat each other better.

I found this article in the New Orleans Times Picayune:

In April 2010, four and a half years into recovery, the Census Bureau found that Katrina cost New Orleans 29 percent of its population; Jefferson, 5 percent; St. Bernard, 47 percent; Plaquemines, 14 percent.

Some of those people settled nearby. St. Tammany’s population grew 22 percent; St. Charles Parish grew 10 percent; St. John the Baptist grew 7 percent.

But census takers counted a net loss of nearly 150,000 people who were driven out of a metropolitan area of what was once 1.3 million.

Allison Plyer of the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, a co-author with Elaine Ortiz of “The New Orleans Index at Six,” an annual recovery analysis, said the region has showed unusual resilience in facing not only Katrina, but the 2008 recession and last year’s BP oil spill. (more…)

Update: Melissa Harris-Perry does a great job at summing up the lessons of Katrina.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hurricane Irene is dumping tons of rain along the eastern seacoast. New York and New Jersey are completely shut down. Atlantic City has been completely evacuated… Almost.

Another Al Qaeda operative has been killed in Pakistan. I hate to type that he is Al Qaeda’s number two, since we’ve been told that multiple times before only to find out that the guy was some Al Qaeda flunky. There’s not much detail on exactly how this guy was killed.

Germany is looking to shut down all of its nuclear reactors and is looking for alternative energy sources. Greece just so happens to have some expertise in solar power. It appears that some agreement has been reached between Greece and Germany. This could be good for both economies. Now, I wonder if the US could invest billions in solar power and… what am I thinking? Sorry, I forgot about the political environment. We’re not to spend money on anything as a government. It just isn’t going to happen.

There seems to be a new Tea Party bus tour. A chairwoman for the Tea Party Express stated, “We want Washington to live within its means, just like we do.” Let me just take a moment to say there’s almost nothing in this short sentence that is correct. American families have not been living within our means. American families have taken on more and more debt over the last 15 years. Currently, US household debt is a staggering $13.4 trillion. We owe a whopping 116% of disposable income. So, it is a lie to say that we live within our means. Also, this chairwoman is using the same stupid analogy that many conservatives have been using for decades. They’ve been using the analogy that the United States economy works exactly the same as our household budget. Nothing can be further from the truth. I don’t know about your household but I do not have the ability to borrow nearly unlimited sums of money. The US government has that ability. Secondly, as we’ve seen in the last eight recessions since World War II, we have had the ability to spend our way out of the economic doldrums. No household can spend its way out of economic problems. Simply put, spending puts people back to work. More people working equals more tax revenue. More people working equals more people spending money at businesses and this increases business revenue. This also equals more tax revenue. It is the simple concept of putting Americans back to work which seems to elude conservatives.

Rebels in Tripoli have found the charred remains of over 50 bodies.

Gizmodo has put together the most amazing products that Apple has developed under Steve Jobs.

I know that everyone is supposed to be on edge, but it looks like this is going to be a ton of rain and that’s about it. Now, don’t get me wrong. That’s enough. Flooding will be a problem but the winds from this hurricane seem to be dying down.

Herbert Hoover said in 1932, “Nothing is more important than balancing the budget with the least increase in taxes. The Federal Government should be in such position that it will need issue no securities which increase the public debt after the beginning of the next fiscal year, July 1. That is vital to the still further promotion of employment and agriculture. It gives positive assurance to business and industry that the Government will keep out of the money market and allow industry and agriculture to borrow the monies required for the conduct of business. I cannot overemphasize the importance of the able nonpartisan effort being made by the Ways and Means Committee and the Economy Committee of the House whose work are complementary to each other.” (Read more at the American Presidency Project: www.presidency.ucsb.edu http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=23478#ixzz1WCDUZuns)

More in a sec.

From the Weather Channel:

• We’ve added an “EXTREME” threat level category from eastern North Carolina to southern New England. According to Hurricane Expert, Dr. Rick Knabb and Sr. Meteorologist, Stu Ostro, “this is a particularly threatening situation and it’s best for people to be on alert.“
• Computer models are currently trending toward a forecast solution of rare potency for portions of the Northeast.
• Irene will be a serious and multi-hazard threat for the major metropolitan areas of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. This includes Norfolk, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Hartford, and Boston. This hurricane has the potential to produce flooding rains, high winds, downed trees (on houses, cars, power lines) and widespread power outages. Significant impacts along the immediate coast include high waves, surge and beach erosion.
• For North Carolina, the main impacts of damaging winds and storm surge flooding will be confined to the far eastern portions of the state. In addition to the Outer Banks, this potentially includes Morehead City and Atlantic Beach.
• Timing: Irene will make its closest approach to North Carolina late Friday night through Saturday. Northeast U.S. impacts would be Saturday night through early Monday.
• We remain a couple of days away from Irene’s direct impacts along the US East Coast andcritical uncertainties related to Irene’s exact track and intensity remain. Stay tuned to The Weather Channel and right here on weather.com for further updates. 

North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue:

Above is a picture of the front page of yasterday’s Houston Chronicle.

I took the picture outside on the hot and parched Texas grass.

It sure is hot.

The newspaper above reports that Texas farmers and ranchers have suffered major losses due to the current drought in Texas, while at the same time Texas Governor and Presidential candidate Rick Perry denies the existence of global warming.

While nobody can be sure that one cause of the terrible weather in Texas for the past few months has been global warming, it is quite possible that this is indeed the case.  However, of course, Rick Perry won’t even consider the very idea that this is possible.

No letup in the Texas drought is predicted in the months to come.

Three other stories in the Houston Chronicle today detail record heat in Houston, mosquitio spraying by Harris County out of concern that tropical West Nile disease may occur in the area, and the facttrees are dying in Houston due to the drought.

Here are facts about West Nile Disease. 

Also, an ozone alert has been declared for yesterday in the Houston area. 

In Texas, the air quality is often so bad that it offends deeply conservative Oklahoma. 

Meanwhile, out on the Presidential campaign trial, the Republican field is bashing the EPA. 

In the end, people are just going to have to decide what kind of future they want. If you want Rick Perry and how he governs Texas for your future, then that is your call to make.

And–since I have you here–please also note that the Texas Miracle Rick Perry has been touting as his economic record, involves one in four Texas children living in poverty and the highest rate of uninsured children in the nation.

Rick Perry has called for prayer to end the drought. His prayers and the prayers of his supporters have not been heard in this regard. Under Governor Perry’s reasoning for why we are being afflicted with terrible weather, maybe the State of Texas is being judged for harsh treatment of the poor and neglect of those in need.

(Below—It is very hot in Houston, Texas. Both photos in this post copyright Neil Aquino 2011.)

MOSCOW — Russia’s vast permafrost areas may shrink by a third by the middle of the century due to global warming, endangering infrastructure in the Arctic zone, an emergencies ministry official said Friday.

This AFP story snuck across my desk on little cat feet.  It didn’t get much attention,  in part because they buried the lede in the very last sentence:

Scientists have said that permafrost thawing will set off another problem because the process will release massive amounts of greenhouse gas methane currently trapped in the frozen soil.

Ya think?

The permafrost permamelt contains a staggering “1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon, about twice as much carbon as contained in the atmosphere, much of which would be released as methane.  Methane is 25 times as potent a heat-trapping gas as CO2 over a 100 year time horizon, but 72 (to 100) times as potent over 20 years!

The carbon is locked in a freezer in the part of the planet warming up the fastest (see “Tundra 4: Permafrost loss linked to Arctic sea ice loss“).  Countless studies make clear that global warming will release vast quantities of GHGs into the atmosphere this decade.  Yet, no climate model currently incorporates the amplifying feedback from methane released by a defrosting tundra.

Here’s more from the AFP story:

“In the next 25 to 30 years, the area of permafrost in Russia may shrink by 10-18 percent,” the head of the ministry’s disaster monitoring department Andrei Bolov told the RIA Novosti news agency.

“By the middle of the century, it can shrink by 15-30 percent, and the boundary of the permafrost may shift to the north-east by 150-200 kilometres,” he said.

The temperature of the zones of frozen soil in oil and gas-rich western Siberia territories will rise by up to two degrees Celsius to just three or four degrees below zero, he predicted.

Permafrost, or soil that is permanently frozen, covers about 63 percent of Russia, but has been greatly affected by climate change in recent decades.

Check out more here

In a segment on the causes of 2011′s extreme weather, CBS Nightly News completely ignored the influence of global warming pollution. The piece, reported by correspondent Ben Tracy, discussed the historic dust storm in Arizona, the record drought in the Southwest, and other floods, storms, and fires that are on track to make 2011 the most expensive year for climate disasters in U.S. history, even before hurricane season began.

Tracy, assigned to “look into why” there’s been so much violent weather, ascribed the “freak weather” entirely to mesoscale phenomena: La Niña, a “stronger than normal jet stream pattern,” and “warm water from the Gulf of Mexico”:

The dust storm is the latest freak weather phenomenon in a string of strange weather events. Drought in the southwest has fueled wildfires in three states, but in the western mountains there was so much moisture this winter the snow is still there. A lingering snow pack that hasn’t been seen for 15 years. That snow and record rains here in California were caused in large part by La Niña, cooler water temperatures in the Pacific that change weather patterns. That helped end California’s three-year drought. But la Niña was followed this spring by a stronger than normal jet stream pattern, creating winds that collided with warm water from the Gulf of Mexico, causing severe storms across the southern US, that led to all those tornadoes and record flooding.

more…

• Huge dust storm envelops Phoenix. The airport was shut down for over an hour. Now, that’s a dust storm.
• Mentally deranged man is being detained for mental health evaluation after threatening to kill the President.
• When I was on the air regularly, there are times when I was talking and it seemed to me that I was not as engaged in what I was talking about as I should’ve been. I think the same thing happen to Republican presidential candidate and former Senator Rick Santorum. He stated, on-air, that “they (the Obama administration) created only 240 million jobs.” Misspeaking is not his only problem. The problem is that his error was pointed out and he doggedly stuck to it. He didn’t realize that he was off by a factor of 100. The total number of jobs in the United States is only about 130 million. Our population is only 311 million. To me, the take-home lesson is be aware of the facts and if you make a mistake correct it.
• To everyone who follow sports, it was clear that Roger Clemens had taken some sort of performance enhancing drug. Yet, he sat in front of Congress and simply lied. Now, his trial for perjury begins. I think it is a separate question whether drugs should or should not be allowed in professional sports. The question is should you be able to sit in front of Congress and lie like Jim Carrey‘s character in the movie Liar Liar.
• America’s education system is in a sad state of affairs. Many students are not learning the information that is necessary to make them successful in this hyper-competitive, technology-based society. So, it is extremely disheartening to find out that over 150 teachers and principals in Atlanta have been caught up in a cheating scandal. As a reflex, I would like to take the side of the hard-working teachers and principals, but there really is no excuse. I understand they’ve been put under increased scrutiny and pressure and have not been given the resources to adequately complete their tasks, but there is no excuse.
• American businesses are sitting on cash. A lot of this cash could be used to expand business and hire workers but it isn’t happening.

• A study by the Labor Department was supposed come out four years ago. This study was supposed (may need a subscription) to look at workers who have lost their jobs and have been “retrained” to qualify for higher paying jobs. I’m not sure we need to study. I think it is pretty clear that once a middle-aged worker loses a manufacturing job the majority of these workers end up in the service sector which cuts their pay approximately in half.
• A new study questions whether too many angioplasties are performed in United States. All I know is if I’m having chest pain and I have other signs and symptoms of a heart attack I want an angioplasty by a qualified cardiologist because that could save my life. Also, when you have a patient that comes back to the ER with recurrent chest pain and you can’t find an etiology and cardiology is finally consult it and finds a mild coronary artery lesion should they stent that as the possible problem for the chest pain? I’m just asking.
• The online magazine Mother Jones has a section of a huge graphic called Capital Gain which simply asks the question of whether Congress can really represent the American people. With the median net worth of American families being approximately $120,000 and the median net worth of the members of Congress being $912,000. In our general population one and 22 Americans are millionaires. In Congress, nearly half of every congressman is a millionaire. The combined net worth of the top 10 members (richest members) is $2.8 billion. All 10 of these members voted to extend the Bush tax cuts. So, does Congress represent us?

So what articles are you following? So what’s on your mind?