Now that Fire-Gate is over....

[candycorn]

I think Perry will do well tonight. I'd be shocked if he didn't do well. Huntsman, Gingrich, Cain and Santorum have to understand that this is their last chance (if they ever had one to start with).

 

[ScienceRocks]

Drought+winds=fire. It is a natural event that happens...Why blame perry?

 

[candycorn]

Drought+winds=fire. It is a natural event that happens...Why blame perry?

Again, I don't blame him for the natural disaster. Using it to get out of one debate then ignoring the same exact fire a few days later when there's a political upside is hypocrisy. Plain and simple.

 

[waltky]

Drought threatens ranchers livelihoods...

Drought threatens way of life for Texas ranchers
12 Sept.`11 – The rolling pastures surrounding this West Texas city usually are green and verdant, chock-full of roving herds of sheep and cattle grazing on a seemingly endless supply of grass.

These days, acre after acre is yellowed and inedible from a withering lack of rain. Wide patches are scorched black from where wildfires mauled them, and highway bridges span dry, empty riverbeds. There are few visible sheep or cattle, many having been sent to slaughter rather than left to starve in the barren fields. "It's just burnt up," says Jim Hughes, 68, a local cattle rancher who has lost 7,000 acres of his property to wildfires and sold off most of his herd. "It's the worst I've ever seen it." As parts of the northeastern United States recover from historic flooding, Texas is suffering the worst one-year drought in its history. The state has received just 7.33 inches of rain this year through August, the lowest amount in four decades, state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon says.

Temperatures, meanwhile, have hit record highs: Texas' June-through-August average of 86.8 degrees was the hottest summer for any state in U.S. history, beating out a record set by Oklahoma (85.2) in 1934, according to the National Weather Service. The dearth of rain has wilted fields and led to destructive wildfires across the state. In the Bastrop area, 25 miles east of Austin, recent wildfires killed two residents and destroyed 1,500 homes in less than a week — far surpassing the statewide record of 436 in 2009. Across Texas, wildfires this year have burned a record 3.7 million acres — an area about the size of Connecticut, according to the Texas Forest Service.

Most affected by the drought have been cattle and sheep ranchers, whose grazing fields have been scorched into arid brown parchment and who have sent their herds to slaughter in record numbers. The drought so far has cost the state a record $5.2 billion in livestock and crop losses, according to the Texas AgriLife Extension Service at Texas A&M University. Statewide water restrictions now prevent waitresses from pouring glasses of water for guests at restaurants unless requested, and force some residents to drive 10 miles or more to wash their cars in neighboring counties that have fewer restrictions on water use. Lawns haven't had a drink in months. Throughout Texas, residents pray for rain at church, at the dinner table, at nightly vigils and at funeral eulogies. Still, no rain comes.

"Everything about this is historic and comparable to the Dust Bowl years," says Robert Dull, an assistant professor of geography and the environment at the University of Texas at Austin, referring to the severe drought and dust storms of the 1930s that forced mass migrations from Oklahoma and other states. "People made major life-changing decisions based on that event, just as they will with this." Droughts and wildfires usually are phenomena that occur in faraway, rural corners of West Texas, Dull says. But last week, some of his students said their families had lost homes to the wildfires in nearby Bastrop, marking a disaster that has been felt as much in urban centers as in rural areas. "There's a psychological effect that will linger for years," he says.

Claiming homes, not just prairie

 

[Baruch Menachem]

He is good at talking, but his policies are old had and wrong party. We don't need another Dukakis.

 

[Mr.Owl]

If Romney gets the nomination Ill probably vote for him over Obama. No one else though