Looks hot to me. It only has to be above freezing to melt. There is nothing magic about ice in Antarctica. It is still ice. Just compaced in a large volume.

The Coldest Reporting Station

Vostok, Antarctica

Local Time :: 7:10 AM VOST (GMT +06)

Lat/Lon: : 78.4° S 106.9° E

Elevation :: 11220 ft

Temperature :: -54 °F

Conditions :: Clear

Humidity :: 36%

Dew Point :: -63 °F

Wind :: 7 mph from the SSW

Wind Gust :: -

Pressure :: in (Steady)

Visibility :: 12.0 miles


Tbe Warmest Reporting Station

Base Jubany, Antarctica Local Time: 1:33 AM GMT (GMT +00)

Lat/Lon: 62.2° S 58.6° W

Elevation :: 13 ft

Temperature :: 38 °F

Conditions :: Partly Cloudy

Humidity :: 66%

Dew Point :: 31 °F

Wind :: 6 mph from the ENE

Wind Gust :: -

Pressure :: 28.78 in (Falling)

Visibility: 7.0 miles

UV: 0 out of 16 Clouds:
Scattered Clouds
Mostly Cloudy
(Above Ground Level) 6890 ft 984 ft

A glory over the Brunt Ice Shelf. Credit: Michael Studinger

...A glory  (click title to entry - thank you) is an optical phenomenon which appears much like a saint's halo about the head of the observer, is produced by a combination of diffraction, reflection and refraction by a cloud of uniformly-sized water droplets. Diffraction is what occurs when a wave of light encounters an obstacle and is bent, and refraction is the change in the direction of a wave, due to a change in that wave's speed, usually as it passes through a medium, such as water or a crystal. Reflection is the return of a wave after striking a surface.

Glories are much smaller than the typical  rainbows that stretch across the sky. The size of a glory depends on the size of the droplets that create it....

Losing Antarctica is an extreme worry. Not just for penguin survival.

Warming across Antarctica, 1957-2007. The rapidly warming areas of West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula, at left, are in orange and light brown.

My concern is not just about plankton, but, the continent is so massive that the abundance of only 20% of 'normal' and the abundance of somewhat more is probably both true.  Depending on the winds, temperature and 'nutritional content' with warmer waters the 'biotic' content of sea life is going to be spotty, rather than ABUNDANT in its entirety as is 'normal.'
 

22 Nov 2010: Report

The Warming of Antarctica:
A Citadel of Ice Begins to Melt

The fringes of the coldest continent are starting to feel the heat, with the northern Antarctic Peninsula warming faster than virtually any place on Earth. These rapidly rising temperatures represent the first breach in the enormous frozen dome that holds 90 percent of the world’s ice....

by fen montaigne 

...The physical changes — especially the drop in sea-ice duration — have had major ecological effects. Ice-dependent organisms, including certain species of phytoplankton, are declining where sea ice is disappearing. The most important link in the Antarctic food chain — ice-dependent Antarctic krill, on which just about every seabird or marine mammal in Antarctica feeds — also appears to be in decline. (One study suggested that krill in the southwestern Atlantic sector of Antarctic waters had fallen by 80 percent, but other krill specialists think the decline is not nearly so steep.)...

This color-enhanced map of Antarctica, (click here - picture contained in photo gallery) produced by NASA scientists, shows the rate of ice loss from Antarctica’s glaciers, with the glaciers that are shedding ice most rapidly colored pink and red. The Pine Island Glacier, which drains part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, is discharging more ice into the sea than any other glacier on the continent. The net loss of ice in Antarctica — meaning the amount of ice that melted or calved into the sea without being replaced by more snow and ice — increased from 112 billion tons a year in 1996 to 196 billion tons in 2006.

"Morning Papers" - Its Origin

The Rooster
"Okeydoke"

In his first two years of office, President Obama has found it necessary to BAILOUT the American People.

Nobody else bothered.  The promise of TARP was to save the USA economy as well as the global economy from collapse.

That didn't happen.  The TARP funds were used to bolster the viability of the investment banks which removed their 'investment bank status' in order to receive TARP.  

Instead, the USA was left to figure it out for ourselves.  With no idea to the extent the economy would deteriorate given the level of government neglect due to DOWNSIZING of the Federal Infrastructure which bred all kinds of corruption.  So, the initial action by the Federal Government following the Democrats taking the Congress and the Executive Branch in the 2008 Election was to create a Stimulus Fund, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.of 2009.  The signs are still being seen in regard to the excellent use of those funds.  

The American Infrastructure was badly deteriorated, as noted by a major bridge collapse during the Bush Administration which caused innocent citizens to die.  The ARRA of 2009 has and is correcting many of those issues.  It put some of the construction industry, THEN floundering, back to work quickly since the housing sector was completely unavailable for any funding or loans in the private sector.  At that time private banks were still tanking.

The American People have much to be grateful for with the Obama Administration.  They were the right people for the job and if it were up to the Republicans we would still be looking at failing infrastructure and streets full of unemployed and homeless.  The work this administration has done on all fronts of his cabinet is completely remarkable.  

I thank the Obama Administration for taking care of a country that is always there for the private sector, but, in the years since January 20, 2009 has been 'there' for the citizens.  President Obama is a remarkable President with a full agenda of achievements to date.

Good Night, Moon.

The "W" Bailouts

 $18.6 Billion - The Airline Industry

The terrorist attacks of September 11 crippled an already financially troubled industry. To bail out the airlines, President Bush signed into law the Air Transportation Safety and Stabilization Act, which compensated airlines for the mandatory grounding of aircraft after the attacks. The act released $5 billion in compensation and an additional $10 billion in loan guarantees or other federal credit instruments. 

The Chrysler and airline bailout plans had a commonality: stock warrants. A provision inserted into the ATSS Act, which allowed the Treasury to purchase stock at below-market prices from any airline receiving a loan guarantee, allowed the Treasury to earn money. Reports varied on the total net profit, ranging from $141.7 million to $327 million. The loan guarantee program suffered one loss of about $23.2 million when ATA Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection.

$30 Billion - Bear Sterns

JP Morgan Chase and the federal government bailed out Bear Stearns when the financial giant neared collapse. JP Morgan purchased Bear Stearns for $236 million; the Federal Reserve provided a $30 billion credit line to ensure the sale could move forward.

$400 Billion - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

On Sep. 7, 2008, Fannie and Freddie were essentially nationalized: placed under the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Under the terms of the rescue, the Treasury has invested billions to cover the companies' losses.  Initially, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson put a ceiling of $100 billion for investments in each company. In February, Tim Geithner raised it to $200 billion. The money was authorized by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

$180 Billion - A.I.G (American International Group)

On four separate occasions, the government has offered aid to AIG to keep it from collapsing, rising from an initial $85 billion credit line from the Federal Reserve to a combined $180 billion effort between the Treasury ($70 billion) and Fed ($110 billion). ($40 billion of the Treasury’s commitment is also included in the TARP total.) 

$25 Billion - Auto Industry

In late September 2008, Congress approved a more than $630 billion spending bill, which included a measure for $25 billion in loans to the auto industry. These low-interest loans are intended to aid the industry in its push to build more fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly vehicles. The Detroit 3 -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- will be the primary beneficiaries.

$700 Billion - Troubled Assets Relief Fund

In October 2008, Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which authorized the Treasury Department to spend $700 billion to combat the financial crisis. Treasury has been doling out the money via an alphabet soup of different programs. 

In July of 2010, the financial regulation overhaul reduced the amount authorized for TARP to $475 billion.

Below is a breakdown of the money promised or committed through those programs and a plain language description for each.  (click title to entry - thank you)

$280 Billion - Citigroup

Citigroup received a $25 billion investment throught the TARP in October and another $20 billion in November. (That $45 billion is also included in the TARP total.) Additional aid has come in the form of government guarantees to limit losses from a $301 billion pool of toxic assets. In addition to the Treasury's $5 billion commitment, the FDIC has committed $10 billion and the Federal Reserve up to about $220 billion. 

$142.2 Billion - Bank of America 

 Bank of America has received $45 billion through the TARP, which includes $10 billion originally meant for Merrill Lynch. (That $45 billion is also included in the TARP total.) In addition, the government has made guarantees to limit losses from a $118 billion pool of troubled assets. In addition to the Treasury's $7.5 billion commitment, the FDIC has committed $2.5 billion and the Federal Reserve up to $87.2 billion.

I think that brings us up to current events.

President Bill Clinton...

...never instituted any bailouts for any industry during two terms of office and left office with a surplus in the USA Treasury.

41's Bailouts

$293.3 billion - Savings and Loan

After the widespread failure of savings and loan institutions, President George H. W. Bush signed and Congress enacted the Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act in 1989.

The Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act authorized $293.8 billion dollars to finance the folding of numerous failed S&Ls. The final tab for the bailout was roughly $220.32 billion. Of that total, taxpayers were responsible for about $178.56 billion; the private sector covered the rest.

...Between 1981 and 1989, (click title to entry - thank you) when George Bush finally announced that there was a Savings and Loan Crisis to the world, the Reagan/Bush administration worked to cover up Savings and Loan problems by reducing the number and depth of examinations required of S&Ls as well as attacking political opponents who were sounding early alarms about the S&L industry.  Industry insiders were aware of significant S&L problems as early 1986 that they felt would require a bailout.  This information was kept from the media until after Bush had won the 1988 elections.

Jeb Bush defaulted on a $4.56 million loan from Broward Federal Savings in Sunrise, Florida. After federal regulators closed the S&L, the office building that Jeb used the $4.56 million to finance was reappraised by the regulators at  $500,000, which Bush and his partners paid. The taxpayers had to pay back the remaining 4 million plus dollars.

Neil Bush was the most widely targeted member of the Bush family by the press in the S&L scandal.  Neil became director of Silverado Savings and Loan at the age of 30 in 1985.  Three years later the institution was belly up at a cost of $1.6 billion to tax payers to bail out.

The basic actions of Neil Bush in the S&L scandal are as follows:

Neil received a $100,000 "loan" from Ken Good, of Good International, with no obligation to pay any of the money back.

Good was a large shareholder in JNB Explorations, Neil Bush's oil-exploration company.

Neil failed to disclose this conflict-of-interest when loans were given to Good from Silverado, because the money was to be used in joint venture with his own JNB.  This was in essence giving himself a loan from Silverado through a third party.

Neil then helped Silverado S&L approve Good International for a $900,000 line of credit. 

Good defaulted on a total $32 million in loans from Silverado.

During this time Neil Bush did not disclose that $3 million of the $32 million that Good was defaulting on was actually for investment in JNB, his own company.

Good subsequently raised Bush's JNB salary from $75,000 to $125,000 and granted him a $22,500 bonus. 

Neil Bush maintained that he did not see how this constituted a conflict of interest.

Neil approved $106 million in Silverado loans to another JNB investor, Bill Walters.  

Neil also never formally disclosed his relationship with Walters and Walters also defaulted on his loans, all $106 million of them.

Neil Bush was charged with criminal wrongdoing in the case and ended up paying $50,000 to settle out of court.  The chief of Silverado S&L was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail for pleading guilty to $8.7 million in theft. (Keep in mind that you can get more jail time for holding up a gas station for $50.)

Today Neil Bush is working on closing a deal in Florida, where his brother Jeb is governor, to sell a software package to schools with his startup company Ignite.

Update 11/28/2003: Some of Neil Bush's business deals have been exposed in his recent divorce case....

The Reagan Bailouts

9.5 Billion - Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust

Then the nation's eighth largest bank, Continental Illinois had suffered significant losses after purchasing $1 billion in energy loans from the failed Penn Square Bank of Oklahoma. The FDIC and Federal Reserve devised a plan to rescue the bank that included replacing the bank's top executives.

It took the FDIC seven years to completely divest itself of Continental Illinois -- the bailout plan had given the government 80 percent ownership over the bank -- through the gradual sale of its share holdings. By 1991, Continental Illinois had been returned to the private sector, but the FDIC had suffered a $1.8 billion loss. Three years later BankAmerica Corp. acquired the bank.

The Chrysler Bailout. A Democrat bails out a car company. Not a bank? Oh.

$40 Billion

In 1979 Chrysler suffered a loss of $1.1 billion. That year the corporation requested aid from the government. In 1980 the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act was passed, which provided $1.5 billion in loans to rescue Chrysler from insolvency. In addition, the government's aid was to be matched by U.S. and foreign banks. 

By 1983, seven years earlier than the scheduled deadline, Chrysler had paid back its loan with the aid of the guarantees from the U.S. government. The corporation bought back the 14.4 million stock warrants.  A security entitling the holder to buy a proportionate amount of stock at some specified future date at a specified price, usually one higher than current market. This "warrant" is then traded as a security, the price of which reflects the value of the underlying stock. Warrants are usually issued as a "sweetener" bundled with another class of security to enhance the marketability of the latter. Warrants are like call options, but with much longer time spans -- sometimes years. (Washington Post) given to the government in exchange for the loan guarantee. Because Chrysler's finances had improved and its stock had bounced back -- it reported $1.7 billion in profits for the second quarter of 1984 -- the government netted a profit of more than $660 million from its bailout investment.

The Ford Bailout

 

9.4 Billion - New York City

During the 1970s, New York City became over-extended and entered a period of financial crisis. In 1975 President Ford signed the New York City Seasonal Financing Act, which released $2.3 billion in loans to the city. 

Until 1986, the government continued using loan guarantees and direct loans to support the fiscally-troubled city. All the loans, loan premiums and fees have since been repaid.

The Nixon Bailouts

...The Emergency Loan Guarantee Act of 1971 (click title to entry - thank you) provided up to $250 million in guaranteed loans to Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. As of December 1976, $100 million of these loans were still outstanding. This thesis is an investigation of the Emergency Loan Guarantee Act, the Emergency Loan Guarantee Board, and Lockheed Aircraft Corporation during the 1971-1976 time frame. Both the legislation and Lockheed's subsequent performance under the 1971 Act are evaluated. (Author)...

By 1977, Lockheed had paid off its loans, and its dependency on the federal loan guarantees came to an end. The government earned about $112.22 million in loan fees.

$3.2 billion - Penn Central Railroad

In May 1970, Penn Central Railroad, then on the verge of bankruptcy, appealed to the Federal Reserve for aid on the grounds that it provided crucial national defense transportation services. The Nixon administration and the Federal Reserve supported providing financial assistance to Penn Central, but Congress refused to adopt the measure. Penn Central declared bankruptcy on June 21, 1970, which freed the corporation from its commercial paper obligations. To counteract the devastating ripple effects to the money market, the Federal Reserve Board told commercial banks it would provide the reserves needed to allow them to meet the credit needs of their customers. 

In 1976, the federal government consolidated the still struggling Penn Central with five other railroad companies that were also failing to form Consolidated Rail, or Conrail. The government spent $19.7 billion, including roughly $7.7 billion for the initial investment, to keep Conrail operating. By 1981, Conrail began to earn a profit. The government sold Conrail in 1987 for $3.1 billion. In addition to the sale price, the Treasury received a $579 million dividend from Conrail.

$7.8 billion - Franklin National Bank

In the first five months of 1974 the bank lost $63.6 million. The Federal Reserve stepped in with a loan of $1.75 billion.

As the story behind Franklin National's failure unfolded, evidence emerged of corruption and shady business practices among the bank's executives -- several were eventually convicted. With the need for further intervention apparent, the FDIC stepped in as receiver that same year and sold Franklin National's104 branches and other assets to European American Bank. By 1981 the FDIC had sold Franklin assets worth about $5.1 billion. The agency was still owed another $185.3 million in interest.  

"I hope we never forget what this man did."

Michael Moore is one of the greatest documentarians of all times.  He is awarded some of the finest awards a filmmaker can receive.  He has a dedication to promoting democracy that works for the Middle Class.  He is somewhat naive to believe people are smart when they are full of fear.  And yes when USA citizens feel they are backed into a corner, they seek relief and don't care where that comes from.

Michael successfully lead the country out of the ignorance of the Bush White House into a clear understanding to the wrongful war in Iraq.  He showed the hypocrisy of Wall Street and how the American people blindly believed they had a productive relationship with Corporations.  The people always believe the 'best of themselves' and 'the best of others.'  What they never 'cement' firmly in their minds is that there are people in the USA that sincerely DON'T CARE about them.  They never seem to 'get it.'  

Go, figure.  I guess it must be that writing a book complete white washes 'the true.'  What is the name of that thing?  Oh, yeah, "Decision Points."  It should be named "How I justified Crony Politics while disregarding any morals."  OR  "The Ends Justify The Means."  

Hm.  It truly is difficult to be moral. 

Governor Palin's Crony Preference is really disgusting.

...The State Board of Education (click title to entry - thank you) has been weighing new school nutrition guidelines for nearly six months that encourage healthier choices, but they wouldn't create any no-cookie mandates.

"This proposed regulation does not impose requirements or sanctions about classroom parties," said State Department of Education spokesman Steve Weitzman. "We are not counting cookies or limiting parties."...








She does not get facts correct.  Passes judgement on every day people.  Ridicules people that care about children.  And sees sugar of any variety as a benefit to a school lunch program.  And she won't even favor 'National Dental Insurance for Children."

This is what Right Wing hate breeds and has for decades. They don't believe in THE RULE OF LAW.

A young Native American (click title to entry - thank you) man from Navajo, N.M., tells the Navajo Times’ Jan-Mikael Patterson, here, that three men accused of attacking him and branding him with a swastika treated him “like a goat getting branded.” The victim, who is 22 but who functions at the mental level of a 12-year-old, was branded wire clothes hanger. A swastika was shaved into his hair, and white supremacist symbols and slogans also were drawn on his body, prosecutors say.

The incident is being investigated as a possible hate crime....

THREE MEN CHARGED IN ALBUQUERQUE, NM, WITH FEDERAL HATE CRIMES RELATED TO ASSAULT OF DISABLED NAVAJO MAN (click here)

Published 11/12/2010 - 4:23 p.m. CST

WASHINGTON, DC - A federal grand jury indicted three men in Albuquerque, N.M., on federal hate crime charges related to a racially-motivated assault of a 22-year-old man of Navajo descent who has a significant cognitive impairment....

 The Commerce Clause, Bud.  The Commerce Clause.  A tea bagger though and through.

...Here is an exchange (click here) between the good Doctor and Rachel Maddow on her show, recently:

"Maddow: Do you think that a private business has a right to say that 'We don't serve black people?'
Paul: I'm not in favor of any discrimination of any form. I would never belong to any club that excluded anybody for race. We still do have private clubs in America that can discriminate based on race."

`Oh come on Field, what's wrong with that? The guy takes a position that any decent A-merry-can would take. `

Yes, but then he said this:

"Maddow:... How about desegregating lunch counters?...

Paul: Well what it gets into then is if you decide that restaurants are publicly owned and not privately owned, then do you say that you should have the right to bring your gun into a restaurant even though the owner of the restaurant says 'well no, we don't want to have guns in here' the bar says 'we don't want to have guns in here because people might drink and start fighting and shoot each-other.' Does the owner of the restaurant own his restaurant? Or does the government own his restaurant? These are important philosophical debates but not a very practical discussion..."

...The good Doctor believes that a truly free society will allow people to discriminate against whoever, and the free market will decide whether that person's business should prosper or not. Like many other conservatives and wingnuts, he doesn't believe that the Commerce Clause (which applies to interstate commerce) should have been used by the the advocates of civil rights to do away with segregation in public places. The ruling in this case pretty much said that A-merry-cans could go ahead and use the Commerce Clause to stop segregation in public places, but that is not cool with Dr. Paul and his ilk. Stunning! 

Where is the indictment for Rand Paul, the Repuglicans and Tea Partiers.  They are accomplices.  The Arizona Law targeting illegal immigrants is enough.

Department of Justice  (click here)

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, November 12, 2010

Three Men Charged in Albuquerque, N.M., with Federal Hate Crimes Related to Assault of Disabled Navajo Man

WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury indicted three men in Albuquerque, N.M., on federal hate crime charges related to a racially-motivated assault of a 22-year-old man of Navajo descent who has a significant cognitive impairment.
Paul Beebe, 27, William Hatch, 29, and Jesse Sanford, 25, all of Farmington, N.M., have been charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that was enacted in October 2009. More specifically, the indictment alleges that the defendants branded the victim by heating a wire hanger on a stove and burning the victim’s flesh, causing a permanent swastika-shaped scar on his arm. It is alleged that as part of the plan and purpose of their conspiracy, the defendants further defaced the victim’s body with white supremacist and anti-Native American symbols, including shaving a swastika in the back of the victim’s head and using marker to write the words "KKK" and "White Power" within the lines of the swastika. The indictment also alleges that the defendants took advantage of the victim’s developmental disability to induce him to make a cell phone video in which he purportedly consents to the branding.
This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Albuquerque Division in cooperation with the Farmington Police Department and the San Juan County District Attorney’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Roberto D. Ortega for the District of New Mexico and Special Litigation Counsel Gerard Hogan and Trial Attorney Fara Gold of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
An indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The Republicans have no conscience. Just that simple.

Haiti Cholera Outbreak Reaches Port-au-Prince, Congress Continues to Block Release of Aid Funds

November 11, 2010

In Haiti, a cholera outbreak has reached the capital Port-au-Prince, where more than a million people are still homeless and living in crowded tent cities following January’s deadly earthquake. Meanwhile in Washington, Congress has put up another obstacle to delivering the $1.15 billion in reconstruction money it promised to Haiti back in March. We go to Port-au-Prince to speak with Jonathan Katz, Haiti correspondent for the Associated Press, and we are joined by Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat. [includes rush transcript]

Will people ever get the message? The Right Wing has been 'handling' public opinion through deception a long, long time.

...The fiscally responsible (click title to entry - thank you) republicans don't have problem adding $700 billion of unfunded tax cuts for th wealthy (or $70 billion just for one year of extended tax rates) - but for the middle class professionals - who have never asked for a dime, worked hard and paid taxes all of their lives - minimal, temporary assistance must be paid for?! 

The Republicans are not only arrogant hypocrites, they are ignorant and keep proving that fact daily - if people would just pay attention, they'd get the message... 

Your Vote Matters

...But Cindy McCain (click title to entry - thank you) later backtracked partially on the issue, tweeting "I fully support the NOH8 campaign and all it stands for and am proud to be a part of it. But I stand by my husband's stance on DADT."...

NPR is not an acronym for "Nazi PaRty."

...According to my online (click title to entry - thank you) Oxford American dictionary, a Nazi is "a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party" or "a member of an organization with similar ideology" or a derogatory "term for a person who holds and acts brutally in accordance with extreme racist or authoritarian views."

Now, NPR may be a lot of different things to different people, but I've never known anyone from the network to act brutally in accordance with extreme racist or authoritarian views — unless they've changed pledge drive tactics... 

 Ah, huh.

It is Sunday Night.

Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal (Radio Edit)