Free Republic

Tim Geithner has message for the 112th Congress: The sky really is falling. President Obama’s blunt Treasury secretary has dispatched a doomsday missive to congressional leaders, detailing the very bad things that will happen to the country – a default and global economic cataclysm – if the GOP fails to increase the debt limit to $14.29 trillion this spring. Geithner, responding to a request by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), outlined a handful of painful short-term stopgaps to increase the “headroom” needed to fund day-to-day operations and fulfill the country’s fiscal obligations

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A worst-case scenario devised by US researchers shows that the American southwest could experience a 60-year stretch of heat and drought unseen since the 12th century. Researchers at the University of Arizona examined studies of temperature changes and droughts in the region over the past 1,200 years and used them to project future climate models in the hope that water resource managers could use the information to plan ahead. An examination of the past, through human-kept records but also via rings in the cores of trees that can show periods of wetness or drought, showed that dry...

<p>A robot met its end near Coors Field tonight when the Denver Police Department Bomb Squad detonated the "suspicious object," bringing to an end the hours-long standoff between police and the approximately eight-inch tall figurine.</p> <p>Denver Police Spokesman Matt Murray said that a citizen called police at 3:27 p.m. to report the presence of the plastic white toy robot cemented to the base of a pillar supporting a footbridge near the intersection of 20th and Wazee streets. Police closed 20th Street between Blake Street and Chestnut Place, but did let a few people past the police tape to retreive cars parked in nearby lots. Nobody was allowed within about 100 yards of the robot.</p>

Extreme weather events linked to climate change has caused the deaths of 21,000 people worldwide in the first nine months of 2010, according to Oxfam. This is already twice the casualties of 2009. In a new report More than ever: climate talks that work for those that need them most, the organization outlines the casualties of such weather-related disasters, for example devastating floods in Pakistan which killed 2,000 people and affected more than 20 million. "This year has seen massive suffering and loss due to extreme weather disasters. This is likely to get worse as climate change tightens its grip....

Has Rush Limbaugh ever before specificed the manner in which he would let us know when it is "time to panic"? Apparently, he did so last week: Nov. 15- RUSH: "I will tell you when it's time to panic. If you tune in and I'm not here for ten straight working days, then you can panic. And if you haven't heard anything about it, then it's time to panic, otherwise don't." http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_111510/content/01125111.guest.html Also, Rush made this odd statement on Tuesday:"The [fake Taliban] imposter got into the equivalent of the White House in Afghanistan! Did they not ask this guy for...

Every person emits the equivalent of approximately two tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from the time food is produced to when the human body excretes it, representing more than 20% of total yearly emissions. That is what a study by the Universidad de Almería says, confirming for the first time that human excrements contribute to water pollution, primarily with nitrogen and phosphorus. A team of researchers from the Universidad de Almería (UAL) has estimated the environmental impact of the Spanish diet and role that human excrements play in the life cycle of food. It is the first time that...

I went to vote today. extra voting booths, few people (8:00 AM). My district is tiny and rural. The nearest village has 2,200 people. When I left, I noticed a large white SUV marked "Homeland Security" "Federal Protective Services" with G18 plates. This location is about as unlikely a one as I could imagine for any kind of mischief. Even if someone phoned in a threat, isn't a G18 pretty high ranking to send over to a tiny rural firehouse with few people?

The U.S. military has refuted South Korean media reports that Seoul and Washington have called off plans to hold a major joint naval exercise in the Yellow Sea this month, because there were no such plans. A spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea told VOA Monday that no such exercise was set for this year. The spokesman said there is no exercise to cancel. The Yonhap news agency quoted South Korean government anonymous sources Sunday as saying an exercise involving a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier had been postponed to avoid tensions on the Korean peninsula during the upcoming G20 summit in...

Home Depot later this year plans to carry a Philips LED bulb designed as a replacement for the common 60-watt incandescent. The bulb, now called the 12-watt EnduraLED, will be available by the beginning of December and will cost between $40 and $50, representatives from Philips and Home Depot said today. Home Depot started selling a line of LED bulbs under the EcoSmart label earlier this year, which includes both spotlights and general-lighting LEDs. The Philips bulb will likely be sold under a different name than 12-watt EnduraLED, Philips representative Silvie Casanova said. I have been using an early production...

Googled "Fish Kill" and used advanced search to limit to last 30 days. Below are a few of the reports but there are literally thousands all across the country. Delaware Bay - fish kill 'highly significant' Baytown, Tx - Fish kill in Burnet Bay Hancock County, Mississippi - EOC Director: Fish kill after oil washes up, “ALL the crabs are crawling up on the bank”; “Dying everywhere” says fisherman New Jersey shore - Cause of Fish Kill: Low Oxygen or Scared to Death? Fishy theories don't explain why seagulls won't eat the dead fish washed up on the shore ALBERT...

The New York Times devoted a big chunk of its front page one day last week to noting that much of the spilled BP Deepwater Horizon oil has "dissipated." Most of it, in fact. And to scant noticeable ill-effect -- at least so far -- relative to the apocalyptic rhetoric attending weeks of televised video footage that showed oil rushing from the ocean floor. It's not clear how much oil actually spilled; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute expert Dr. Judy McDowell estimates that between 96 million and 184 million gallons made its way into the Gulf before the leak was capped...

Global land and ocean surface temperatures in the first half of 2010 were the warmest January-June on record, the federal climate service reported Thursday. January-June temperatures averaged 57.5 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.22 F above the 20th Century average, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Its records go back to 1880. 2010 has also surpassed 1998 for the most "warmest months" in any calendar year, the center stated. "Each of the 10 warmest average global temperatures recorded since 1880 have occurred in the last fifteen years," it added. "The warmest year-to-date on record, through June, was 1998, and 2010 is warmer...

This summer we enrolled our older one in a local half-day recreational camp. They use one of the public elementary schools in our town. As I was walking back through the hallway after dropping him off at the classroom, I stopped to notice this poster hanging on the wall: Note the URL at the bottom of the poster: Energystar.gov/kids. Dot-gov? Yup. This is a government-run—and therefore, taxpayer-funded—website that has evidently gotten together with whoever runs “Energy Star” and whoever owns the rights to Dr. Seuss’ “Lorax.” And lookie, the EPA is involved too! And you know if the EPA’s involved,...

have seen other info re other locations in FL

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 3,500 acres in southern Arizona have now been closed to U.S. citizens because of the dangers posed in that area from Mexican drug smugglers. The area includes part of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. Refuge manager Mitch Ellis told Fox News: “The situation in this zone has reached a point where continued public use of the area is not prudent.” Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said: “It’s literally out of control. We need support from the federal government. It’s their job to secure the border and they haven’t done it. In...

arth’s climate changes are extraordinarily complex phenomena. They represent decadal, to millennial, to epochal changes in weather patterns as nature continuously attempts to compensate for solar heating imbalances in and between the atmosphere and oceans. Read more: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/climategate-what-we-should-be-doing-about-natural-climate-change/

Is the stock market setting investors up for another 2007-style ambush, or worse? Since you've been inundated lately with giddy talk from the folks on Wall Street and their dupes in the media, please excuse me if I take the other side of this issue (like I did in September 2007) and warn you that all isn't right. Let's go through a short list of some of the problems. Greece is bankrupt. And, as they say at Disneyland, it really is a small world. So even when the European Union reaches an agreement to bail out Athens, that won't stop...

Prices drop as European Union sticks to 2020 emissions targetLONDON (MarketWatch) -- The price of European carbon emission permits dropped nearly 9% Monday after climate talks in Copenhagen resulted in an accord that fell short of initial expectations.Emission allowances for December 2010 delivery fell to 12.77 euros a ton Monday, from Friday's settlement price of 13.58 euros. The contract earlier dropped as much as 8.7% to 12.40 euros a ton. Emission allowances haven't traded that low in more than six months. The decline came after the United Nation's Copenhagen summit acknowledged a U.S.-led accord to combat climate change and prevent...

MONTEREY BAY NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY, Calif. – Far from Copenhagen's turbulent climate talks, the sea lions, harbor seals and sea otters reposing along the shoreline and kelp forests of this protected marine area stand to gain from any global deal to cut greenhouse gases. These foragers of the sanctuary's frigid waters, flipping in and out of sight of California's coastal kayakers, may not seem like obvious beneficiaries of a climate treaty crafted in the Danish capital. But reducing carbon emissions worldwide also would help mend a lesser-known environmental problem: ocean acidification. "We're having a change in water chemistry, so 20...

There are many kinds of truth. Al Gore was poleaxed by an inconvenient one yesterday. The former US Vice-President, who became an unlikely figurehead for the green movement after narrating the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, became entangled in a new climate change “spin” row. Mr Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, stated the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years. In his speech, Mr Gore told the conference: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the...