Hottest Summer For One State In U.S. History X2

by: WeatherDem

Thu Sep 08, 2011 at 21:28:34 PM MST

It was so hot that Texas and Oklahoma set the U.S. record for the 1st and 2nd hottest summers: 86.8F and 86.5F, respectively, beating out Oklahoma's 1934 record (set during the Dust Bowl years) of 85.2F.  To be clear, from June through August, the average of all the temperatures taken at the top of every hour came out to above 86 degrees.  Oh, Louisiana's 2011 summer now ranks 4th warmest all-time at 84.5F.

When records from the previous hottest period in the nation's history are falling, it's time to pay attention.  Instead of natural variability playing the primary role, the heat wave this year has been boosted by the altered background state.

Rick Perry, Our Next President

by: saindenver

Fri Aug 12, 2011 at 09:56:24 AM MST

None of this apparently matters, though, because America is beginning the process of electing another Texan to be president. Gigantic tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, a trumped up war and a ruined economy from the last Texan seem incapable of dissuading supporters of Rick Perry.

His Saturday speech in South Carolina will make clear that he is entering the race for the White House and will spawn the ugliest and most expensive presidential race in U.S. history, and he will win. A C and D student, who hates to govern, loves to campaign, and barely has a sixth grader's understanding of economics, will lead our nation into oblivion.

How can this work?

Perry, of course, can't come right out and print bumper stickers that say, "Rick Perry -- 2012 -- Not a Mormon." But he doesn't have to. He's wearing his faith like a power tie while Romney stays quiet as a tabernacle mouse on the topic of religion. Romney has business experience and intellect that are not on Perry's resume' but he is from "Massatoositts..."

So much for Mitt

He goes on to describe how this will become a P-P candidacy, and having lived in Texas for 15 years and seen how this man has risen using his "Consevative" Democrat label and language to gain power in Texas, and then switched parties during the Bush ascendency, I think that he has to be taken seriously.

There is little hope that anyone can get enough votes were Obama to retire, so he'll run and lose.

The general election will, quite literally, decide the fate of a nation. Every time Team Obama criticizes the Texas economy for its minimum wage job boom, the president will be accused of attacking the working men and women of America. (Texas has created a large share of the new jobs in the United States in the last decade but studies indicate many of them are at places like Wal-Mart and Carl's Jr.)

President Obama will also get beaten up for presiding over the first bond rating downgrade in U.S. history as well as high unemployment. When the cold rains fall in early November next year, unemployed voters in places like Ohio will step into the booth and dream of a minimum wage job in the Texas sun selling fishing rods at big box sporting goods stores or working in call centers; they will vote against Barack Obama.

And in the process, they will write the epitaph to set upon the tombstone of history's greatest democracy: Perry-Palin, 2012.

I hope that this isn't true, but it sure seems to be credible.  

We may not want to support our likely nominee, but I think this is a worse case than the Bennet-Buck situation last year and for a lot more stakes.  I will be supporting the nominee and the party candidates.

TX Oil Companies Try to Kill CA Clean Energy Legislation

by: NRDC Action Fund

Thu Jun 24, 2010 at 11:38:17 AM MST

Why should you care?  Let us count the ways.