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NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration], part of the Department of Commerce, is going to be providing information to individuals and decision-makers through a new NOAA Climate Service office. “More and more, Americans are witnessing the impacts of climate change in their own backyards, including sea-level rise, longer growing seasons, changes in river flows, increases in heavy downpours, earlier snowmelt and extended ice-free seasons in our waters. People are searching for relevant and timely information about these changes to inform decision-making about virtually all aspects of their lives,” the release says.

Earlier snowmelt? That would be nice.

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The most important thing for the public to understand is we're not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11.

Obama evidently thinks this should count in his favor. But for anyone who believed his professed commitment to due process and the rule of law, the fact that his anti-terrorist policies are very similar to Bush's is cause for disappointment.

Change it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fall that's all
But the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war . . .
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

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What's the difference between Vegas and Washington D.C.?
In Vegas the drunks gamble with their own money.

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• The FBI named Murtha an “unindicted co-conspirator” in its ABSCAM sting operation in the late 1970s and early ‘80s.
• Nicknamed “The King of Pork,” Murtha also faced scrutiny for earmarking federal dollars for projects in his district.
• The Congressman also faced scrutiny for campaign contributions he and other appropriators received from the now defunct PMA lobbying firm.

With Murtha gone, however, the special election will be seriously contested. Murtha's district is the only one in the country won by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 and by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008, according to Republican sources, and that trend line coupled with the volatile national environment for Democrats ensures Republicans will heavily target the contest.

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Yet more news that Iran is beating the war drums.

Iran has opened two production lines to manufacture ‘advanced’ attack drones capable of carrying out attacks with ‘high precision’.

In the past week Iran has announced a spate of technological advances and military achievements in the run up to the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution on Feb 11.

It’s no secret that Iran has been trying to get their hands on Russia's S-300 anti-aircraft system (worried about Israeli air strikes, no doubt). They have tired of waiting and will “soon” unveil their own system:

"In the near future, a new locally-made air defence system will be unveiled by the country's experts and scientists which is as powerful as the S-300 missile defence system, or even stronger," [commander Heshmatollah Kassiri] said. . . .

The truck-mounted S-300PMU1, known in the West as the SA-20, can shoot down cruise missiles and aircraft. It has a range of 150 km (90 miles) and travels at more than two km per second.

Much of this is posturing (ala Comical Ali). On the other hand, there is no doubt that Iran is gearing up to be a major power in the region. This endangers all nearby states, Jewish and Islamic alike.

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Gallup notes:

The all-time low Gallup reading on congressional approval is 14%, recorded in July 2008. Prior to this, 18% was the lowest in Gallup's history of asking this question, which dates to 1974. In addition to the current measure, congressional approval was at 18% for several months in 2008 as well as in March 1992. It was only slightly higher in June 1979 (19%) and October 1994 (21%).

Congress enjoyed a bump in public approval at the start of last year as the Obama administration was getting underway -- fueled mostly by enhanced approval among Democrats and independents. Nearly all of that heightened support among independents had peeled off by last fall, and now Democrats are breaking away.

This certainly does not bode well for Democrats in November.

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In the meantime, our roads are covered with snow and very slick, accidents abound, and the city’s salt trucks were still on the lot well into rush hour.

View from AlphaPatriot’s Back Porch

The Gorebot’s home is quite a ways north of here. I wonder what it looks like?

On the other hand, snow is being trucked into Vancouver for the winter Olympics as the area experiences unseasonably warm temperatures.

Trouble is, with opening ceremonies only five days away, the above-freezing temperatures in Vancouver continue to raise concerns for other sports, particularly snowboarding and freestyle skiing, two events being held on the mountain overlooking the city.

The biggest test comes today, when freestyle moguls training sessions are scheduled to begin.

So much for being able to predict global temperatures with any sort of accuracy what-so-ever.

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Donor nations have poured tens of millions of dollars into the impoverished Caribbean nation and some Haitians have blamed corruption for the sometimes sluggish distribution of aid.

Sacks of donated rice have turned up in local street markets. Aid officials said it was inevitable that some aid would find its way to the black market in Haiti, which was ranked 10th from the bottom of Transparency International's latest corruption rating of 180 nations.

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who sought during the 2008 presidential campaign to associate himself with Barack Obama, has become sharply critical of the American president, often comparing Obama unfavorably to himself, according to an article published this week in the authoritative French daily Le Monde.

The article quotes Sarkozy twice recently criticizing Obama in public, and says he's twice gone on the record criticizing Obama in recent weeks. Asked last Monday in a television interview of his sweeping attempt to reform several sectors of French government simultaneously, Sarkozy pointed to Obama's made health care reform his sole focus.

"I didn't see that that made things simpler," he said.

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USDA estimates up to $58 billion will be spent on food stamps this fiscal year, which ends Sept 30, with average enrollment of 40.5 million people. Food stamps were renamed the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program in 2008.

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U.S. cases have been declining since October. An official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says swine flu cases are still occurring and are likely to continue a while longer at some level.

But another expert said a future large wave of cases now seems very unlikely. The expert, Vanderbilt University's Dr. William Schaffner, said the epidemic has "one foot in the grave."

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Some once-flourishing local charities have been unable to survive. Family Services of the Mid-South, a 115-year-old nonprofit, is closing this week after transferring a few of its programs to other agencies. The Destiny Foundation of Central Florida, which ran a children's clinic, thrift store and food pantry in Orlando, has suspended its operations and may close.

A recent survey by the Human Services Council of New York City, encompassing 244 local nonprofits, found that 60 percent had seen some decrease in public funding and 73 percent reported reductions in private donations. More than half had laid off staff in the past year, and 35 percent had eliminated programs.

One of the city's oldest and largest charities - the Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service - has laid off about 50 of its 550 employees. It's also eliminated a program that helped disabled people make the transition from welfare to work, and scaled down a program that's helping kids from troubled homes avoid foster care.

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(Mr Eko on Feb 5, 2010 12:05 AM) FA Hayek wrote in Road Serfdom about the Left's disingenuous claims that it just wants to move past economic quarrels and focus on people and hugging trees, etc. Liberals and progressives think of nothing BUT economics (most notably, other peoples' money they feel they have intrinsic claim to or power over). Conservatives and libertarians MUST start doing a better job of explaining and defending and promoting (tirelessly, I might add) the free market system and the inextricable links between religious, political and economics freedom. You gotta check out this article on that very topic: http://rjmoeller.com/2010/02/the-economics-of-mere-conservatism-part-i/