During a day that Republicans pussied out of voting for the Z-list porno-y named "Stimulus Bill", Obama didn't waste time using the weather as a metaphor for calling out DCists a bunch of whiney little pussies :

Ohio had severe weather conditions at the moment. The A judge ordered 15 polling stations in County Coyahuga, the county for Cleaveland, to reopen until 9:00pm.

7:58 p.m.
The Obama campaign has gone before a judge to try and get an order to have the polls remain open in Cuyahoga County until 9 p.m. The campaign claims there was a shortage of Democratic ballots that may have left some voters without the chance to vote. A higher number than expected number of Republican voters showed up at the polls Tuesday asking to switch parties and receive a Democratic ballot. A judge in Sandusky County already approved a similar measure requested by Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner. Brunner says there was a lack of Democratic ballots in that county due to the number of voters switching parties.

Read more at WKYC.COM's site.

I am finding I get lots of good info to pass on by getting on the mailing lists of particularly competent politicians. Here is some info from Florda CFO Alex Sink regarding the recent storms in Florida. I hope this is helpful for anyone who has been affected or knows someone who has been affected.

CFO SINK, TOURING STORM-HIT AREA, PROVIDES UPDATE ON SEARCH EFFORTS, LOCATION OF CONSUMER ASSISTANCE SITES

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer and State Fire Marshal Alex Sink, who Friday afternoon toured the storm-ravaged Central Florida area with Governor Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum, said search and rescue crews are reporting they have completed a primary search of impacted areas and are now conducting secondary searches.

CFO Sink also said that the Department of Financial Services, Division of Consumer Services, is now traveling into the area to set up mobile consumer assistance units in The Villages, Lady Lake, DeLand and Port Orange and expects to have those operating by 8 a.m. Saturday, and will be open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. The department’s storm hotline, 1-800-22-STORM (1-800-227-8676) will remain in operation on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“The damage is widespread and significant,” CFO Sink reported as she toured the area. “But our department is geared up to respond to this kind of devastation and we will be there for as long as it takes to make sure these storm victims get the help they need.”
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It finally snowed in New York City! This will certainly cheer up my hairless monkeys, especially Thing2.

Thing 2 has been having "nightmares" with global warming, especially after he saw the previews for "An Inconvenient Truth". He's scared about the prospect of the New York City 'drowning' if the polar icecaps melt.

He doesn't want to see the Al Gore documentary.

I asked him why. I wanted to know why he was scared by a documentary but when he watches movies like Lord of the Rings and plays games like Half Life or Halo3, he barely blinks.

His answer?

"Mommy, those are fantasy; but global warming is real".

Scientists say 2007 may be warmest yet - Yahoo! News:

"The short-term effects of global warming on crop production are very uneven," said Daniel Hillel, a researcher at Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research. "I warn against making definitive predictions regarding any one season's weather."

What is clear is that the cumulative effect of El Nino and global warming are taking the Earth's temperatures to record heights.

"El Niño is an independent variable," Jones said. "But the underlying trends in the warming of the Earth is almost certainly a result of the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere."

You know what pisses me off the most?
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Location

Some trivia from the history books:

From: “The American Remembrancer, and Universal Tablet of Memory: (containing) A List of The Most Eminent Men, Whether in Ancient or Modern Times, with …..: as also The Most Memorable Events in History,…. The Whole being intended to from a comprehensive abridgement of History and Chronology, particularly of that part which relates to America”. James Hardie A.M. 1795 Entered according to Act of Congress

Selected entries related to frosts and other weather from the section, “Earthquakes, Famines, Inundations, Storms, Tempests, Frosts, Accidental Fires, &c.”

pp 200:
Frosts, remarkable; a severe one in Scotland, which lasted 14 weeks, 359; the sea of Pontus, and that between Constantinople and Scutari, 401; so severe a frost all over Britain, that the rivers were frozen up for above two months, 508: one so great, that the Danube was quite frozen over, 558; carriages were used on the Adriatic sea, 859; the Mediterranean sea was frozen over and passable in carts in 860; most of the rivers in England frozen over for two months, 908; the Thames frozen for 13 weeks, 923; a frost in England on midsummer day so vehement, that the corn and fruits were destroyed, 1035; the Mediterranean sea was frozen over and the merchants past their merchandise in carts, 1234; the Cattegat sea, between Norway and Denmark was frozen 1294; the sea from Sweden to Gothland frozen 1296; the Baltic was passable for foot passengers and horsemen for six weeks, in 1323; again in 1402; the sea between Constantinople and Iskodar was passable on ice, in 1620; a great frost in England for three months, with heavy snows, from December to March 1709; again when a fair was held on the Thames in 1716; a very severe frost in Russia, 1747; in America so severe in the winter of 1780 and 1781, that in January the passage between New York and Staten Island was practicable for the heaviest cannon; in England January 1789, when the Thames was crossed on the ice opposite the customs house, the tower, etc. This frost was at the same time general in Europe, particularly in Holland; frost and snow, with hail, in different parts of England at midsummer 1791; and in Italy and Spain in December following; the most remarkable frost in Europe which has happened in this century, was in the present winter 1794 and 1795, when the Zuyder sea in Holland was frozen over, a circumstance which has not happened in the memory of man. This frost was also intensely severe in Britain, Ireland, etc.
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