Once again surrounded by the devastation left by a hurricane Donald Trump attempts to convince people his hands are YUGE!

#Trump today in #Naples ripping through a pair of white gloves says his hands were too big needs bigger gloves pic.twitter.com/RB3twfG7ap

— Strategic Sentinel (@StratSentinel) September 14, 2017

Courtesy of New York Magazine:  

President Trump, who’s been dealing with smart alecks making fun of his gerbil hands since he was a fixture in Spy magazine, made a show of not being able to fit into a pair of rubber gloves on Thursday, the second time he’s done so in as many weeks. 

During his trip to hurricane-ravaged Naples, Florida, Trump, along with the First Lady, vice-president, and others, passed out lunch to people working to clean up the coastal town. According to the White House pool report, Trump positioned himself behind a tray of sandwiches, where he attempted to put on a pair of rubber gloves. He struggled to fit them over his mitts, declaring, “They’re too small.” After the glove on his right hand ripped, Trump decided to recommend hoagies rather than actually pass them out. 

“Here’s a nice one,” he told one diner.

This is the second time while standing amid the destruction left by Mother Nature that Trump attempted to vindicate himself against the now 27 year old charge made by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter that he is a "short fingered vulgarian."

Apparenlty the "vulgarian" part never bothered him at all.

You may remember the first time this same happened in Texas earlier in the month.

As he puts on plastic gloves to serve food at NRG Stadium...President Trump turns to press and says: "My hands are too big!" pic.twitter.com/WIUTLOS4XD

— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) September 2, 2017

Keep in mind that in both of these cases Trump was supposed to be faking compassion and at least pretending to help people whose lives had just been devastated, and yet he cannot help but make everything about him.

Okay well this can't be good.

An ocean used to be here. #HurricaneIrma stole it away. https://t.co/p2kzbakCWq pic.twitter.com/7KqwL49D0t

— CNN (@CNN) September 10, 2017

That is just incredibly humbling to witness the awesome power of nature.

And now that being demonstrated all over Florida.

You can click here to see how Florida is handling it.

In many cases not too well.

Though apparently there is not enough devastation of loss of life to impress Ann Coulter.

I wish cables would mention the hurricane. There is a decidedly heavier-than-average morning dew in Miami; Palm Beach bordering on breezy.

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 10, 2017

Things aren't all bad however.

Rush Limbaugh is now fleeing from the storm which he labeled a "liberal hoax."

After claiming Hurricane Irma was a liberal hoax, Rush Limbaugh evacuates South Florida pic.twitter.com/NVvceqZWwx

— Media Matters (@mmfa) September 8, 2017

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Rush Limbaugh didn't say the magic words, but on Tuesday he basically accused the media of creating fake news about Hurricane Irma, which is threatening Florida after hitting Barbuda and Antigua. The storm's 185-mile-per-hour winds tied the record high for any Atlantic hurricane making landfall.“These storms, once they actually hit, are never as strong as they're reported,” Limbaugh claimed on his syndicated radio show. He added that “the graphics have been created to make it look like the ocean's having an exorcism, just getting rid of the devil here in the form of this hurricane, this bright red stuff.” 

Why would the media exaggerate the threat of a hurricane? Here's Limbaugh's theory: 

"There is symbiotic relationship between retailers and local media, and it’s related to money. It revolves around money. You have major, major industries and businesses which prosper during times of crisis and panic, such as a hurricane, which could destroy or greatly damage people’s homes, and it could interrupt the flow of water and electricity. So what happens? 

Well, the TV stations begin reporting this and the panic begins to increase. And then people end up going to various stores to stock up on water and whatever they might need for home repairs and batteries and all this that they’re advised to get, and a vicious circle is created. You have these various retail outlets who spend a lot of advertising dollars with the local media. 

The local media, in turn, reports in such a way as to create the panic way far out, which sends people into these stores to fill up with water and to fill up with batteries, and it becomes a never-ending repeated cycle. And the two coexist. So the media benefits with the panic with increased eyeballs, and the retailers benefit from the panic with increased sales, and the TV companies benefit because they’re getting advertising dollars from the businesses that are seeing all this attention from customers."

This was so egregious that even mild mannered weather dude Al Roker felt the need to call Limbaugh out on his shit.  

Do not listen to @rushlimbaugh when he says #Irma is not a dangerous #storm and is hype. He is putting people's lives at risk

— Al Roker (@alroker) September 6, 2017

To have @rushlimbaugh suggest the warnings about #Irma are #fake or about profit and to ignore them borders on criminal. #ShameOnRush

— Al Roker (@alroker) September 6, 2017

And now we see Limbaugh fleeing like a camp counselor in a horror movie from a storm that he claimed was being exaggerated to frighten people into buying stuff.

If he were a man of his convictions he would stay put as an inspiration to his followers.

Just think how many would show to his funeral.

Assuming they could find the body of course.

Fox News in a nutshell.

Sen. James Inhofe "disproves" climate change by throwing a snowball on the Senate floor.

Courtesy of The Hill:  

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) threw a snowball on the Senate floor Thursday in an effort to disprove what he sees as alarmist conclusions about man-made climate change. 

Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said the snowball was from outside in Washington, which he used to argue against claims that the earth’s temperature is rising due to greenhouse gas emissions. 

“In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, do you know what this is,” Inhofe said to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who was presiding over the Senate’s debate, as he removed the snowball from a plastic bag. 

“It’s a snowball. And it’s just from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out. Very unseasonable.” 

He then warned Cassidy before throwing the snowball at him.

Well hell I guess I stand corrected. I mean who could argue with logic like that?

I will assume that sometime this week Sen. Ted Cruz will show up on the Senate floor with a chimpanzee to disprove the theory of Evolution.

Guy has perfect response when Fox News asks to use his video.

Apparently it was just a video that captured a tornado at the Rose Bowl.

In fact here it is. 

But still, he's not wrong.

Meet the Press sets up debate between Bill Nye and climate change denier Rep. Marsha Blackburn, giving more credence to the idea that there is no consensus on global warming.

Here was Time Magazine's take on the "debate.":

Blackburn maintained that there is no consensus in the scientific community about global warming, pointing to two vocal dissenters, Richard Lindzen of MIT and Judith Curry of Georgia Tech, who claim that humans are not causing climate change. 

“Neither [Bill Nye] nor I are a climate scientist. He is an engineer and actor, I am a member of Congress. And what we have to do is look at the information that we get from climate scientists,” said Blackburn. “There is not agreement around the fact of exactly what is causing this.” 

Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities, according to NASA. Experts say there is still some uncertainty in absolutely linking isolated extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy or bad droughts to global warming, but the vast majority of scientists ascribe climate change and the increase in extreme weather to human activity. 

Nye responded harshly to the Congresswoman. 

“We have overwhelming evidence that the climate is changing. That you cannot tie any one event to that is not the same as doubt about the whole thing,” said Nye. “There is no debate in the scientific community. I encourage the Congresswoman to really look at the facts. You are our leader. We need you to change things, not deny what’s happening.” 

THAT, that right there is where the conversation should have ended! But no....

Blackburn argued that responding to climate change will involve balancing the costs of not preventing climate change with the benefits of continuing at high rates of carbon emissions. 

“One of the things that we have to remember is cost-benefit analysis has to take place,” said the Congresswoman. “And it is unfortunate that some of the federal agencies are not conducting that cost-benefit analysis.” 

Nye said the U.S. could stand to gain economically by investing in new technologies, but warned against the cost of denial. 

“For me, as a guy who grew up in the U.S., I want the U.S. to lead the world in this,” he said. “These are huge opportunities, and the more we mess around with this denial, the less we’re going to get done.” 

To my mind the idea that there should be a cost-benefit analysis on preventing a change to the environment that is currently causing massive, dangerous weather events, and will undoubtedly kill thousands of human beings and millions of animals if left unchecked, is ridiculous.

Yes, there may be higher costs in the short term, but in the long term there will be....well there will actually BE a long term!

And Nye is right that there are great opportunities to turn America's famous inventive nature to coming up with new innovations that would quickly get us off of fossil fuels and onto renewable resources. and that we could then market to the rest of the world.

We are already doing much in that area, but with more federal money and more public support the sky would be the limit.

The very clean and very blue sky in fact.

However that simply will not happen as long as news programs continue to treat this as if the jury is still out as to its cause, and allow crazy people like Marsha Blackburn to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of the American people.

"People are going to be dying." Philadelphia reporter kind of loses it as she reports on ice storm.

Look I understand her passion and desire for people to take the weather warning seriously, but there is a find line between providing necessary information and having a breakdown on television.

If she were a flight attendant on a flight that hit severe turbulence she would be in the back of the plane screaming "We're all going to die!"

So helpful.

P.S. By the way I found this on the American Preppers Network Facebook page.

They of course think she is underselling the problem.

Yesterday in Georgia. The Snow Apocalypse.

Courtesy of Gawker:  

As much as four inches of snow fell over parts of the South today, leaving a wake of destruction in its path — thousands of flights were canceled, Georgia is currently in a state of emergency, and students are stranded in schools across multiple states.

Four inches of snow and the whole damn state closes down.

Commuters in Atlanta are still trying to make their way home; at this point, some of them have now been on the road for more than 19 hours. With all of the city's major highways and roads in gridlock, many drivers took to CVSs and grocery stores for overnight shelter.

Made it to CVS on W Paces Ferry. People sleeping in every aisle, using maxi pads as pillows. pic.twitter.com/NLBhAYZMCr
— Jaime Sarrio (@JaimeSarrio) January 29, 2014

Here are just some of the horrendous stories of people being trapped for up to twelve hours in their cars on the highways.

 I have a friend who's truck has been hit by 6 cars. She has two kids in the car and trying to get to 2 more at daycare. She's by riverside dr by the Waffle House and publix. 911 is busy. Any suggestions??? 

is anyone near the QT station on Roswell Rd and Canton? My 74 year old father is trapped there in his car. He has been in his car for 12 hours now and is unable to go anywhere 

Can someone tell me if there is shelter or assistance near 85 south from half mile from Clairmont exit. I have a friend with 2 very small children and they are almost out of gas. 

My grandparents are stranded on 75/85 near Tech. My grandfather is on a battery operated heart pump. He has at least one extra set of batteries for the heart pump. I am very concerned now and road conditions do not seem to be improving. 

Trying to get help to a Cobb County Special Ed bus driver and her 3 students... they have been on the road for hours with no food and have to go to the restroom. Theses are special needs kids and an older woman. 

My husband is near exit 244 in downtown Atlanta. He is almost out of gas. Can anyone help. He has been on the road 10 hours . 

My dad has a heart condition, feels faint, going on 11 hours and almost no food today. He thinks he may be have chest pain and he doesn't have his medication. How can I get him help??? 

That is only a taste.

It was so bad that a Walking Dead fan posted this comparison on Reddit.

The bottom photo is how the creators of the show saw Atlanta after a zombie apocalypse, the top is what Atlanta was like for real.

In the meantime in Alaska we are in our second week of unseasonably warm weather which is confusing our bear population as well as the plants.

So can some Republican tell me again, how is it that climate change is fake?

Essential but unpaid Weather Service employees in the Alaska bureau insert secret call for help in their nightly bulletin.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Someone at the National Weather Service’s Alaska bureau has a message for those who have shut down the government: “PLEASE PAY US.”

Check the left hand side and read down.

Raw Story contacted the Anchorage office, but was told that “no one wanted to comment right now.” 

Although many National Weather Service employees are considered “essential” and are therefore exempted from the furloughs caused by the government shutdown. 

However, as Dan Sobien, present of the NWS Employee Organization told Popular Science, these “essential” employes aren’t being paid. 

“There’s no money to pay them,” he said. “Nobody knows when anyone’s going to get paid.” 

In the meantime, these employees are being issued IOUs if they work despite the lack of compensation for their labor.

People need to be paid for their work, and asking them to work without compensation while the people who  caused this train wreck are still able to draw their pay is unconscionable. (And yes I know a number of millionaire lawmakers have said they will refuse their pay during the shutdown as well, in a purely symbolic gesture. But let's face it, MOST of these guys simply use their Congressional pay for cab fair, tipping doormen, and renting hookers anyhow. Nobody in THEIR families are going to go to bed hungry due to this shutdown.)

I have to imagine that if this thing goes on muhc longer there will be crowds of furloughed federal workers with torches and pitchforks at the ready.

The difference eight hours can make in Alaska.

This was Anchorage in the morning.

This was about eight hours later.

I did not take these pictures I found them here, but I am pretty sure that is in my neighborhood.

Yesterday was our first snowfall which arrived surprisingly early. A whole six days earlier, by the way, than last year's surprisingly early snowfall.

Last camping trip of the summer!

Well here I am again sleeping outside in a leaky tent instead of back at home in my cozy house and my comfy bed. I think my friends hate me.

There are no mosquitoes this time around but there are overcast skies with the chance of a deluge. Oooh, lucky me!

As usual I have chosen a location where I can still get WiFi access, because let's face it, we can do without flushing toilets and central heating, but the lack of internet is simply barbaric!

Later this evening I am looking forward to a meal of undercooked processed meat with splinters in it, washed down with warm beer, and for dessert charcoal black marshmallow flambe.

Of course as you know I love Alaska and will soak up as much nature (Hopefully NOT in the crotch of my jeans this time) as I can before the snow arrives, which gauging from the fact that there is termination dust on that mountain over there may be much earlier than we are prepared for.

Okay seriously, is that snow? Goddammit!

I will provide you updates as events warrant.

Don't worry about leaving Alaska for the tropics, apparently the tropics decided to head north.

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

A searing dome of heat has laid itself out over interior Alaska, pushing temperatures to all-time records in several locations. 

The core of heat was lodged over south central Alaska where the mercury spiked into the mid-90s Monday, nearly 30 degrees above average and warmer than anywhere east of the Mississippi in the contiguous U.S. 

Even Alaskan coastal areas where stifling (by their standards). Valdez and Cordova both established new all-time record highs, climbing to 90 degrees.

This is essentially ALL anybody in Alaska is talking about these days.

There is a reason that I will never leave Alaska, and that because I am extremely acclimated to the conditions up here and if I go any place where the temperatures reach the high 70's or 80's I am fucking miserable!

I have every fan in the house on, as well as the internal air (We don't have air conditioning), and I am still sweating like Sarah Palin spotting Katie Couric headed her way..

Having the temperature in the 90's in Southcentral Alaska is completely unheard of, and to be honest it has a lot of us wishing that winter would hurry up and return.

Yesterday was the first time in a week that the weather was bearable due to some clouds that rolled in, but the forecast predicts sunny weather for many more days to come.

Now if you will excuse me I have to go wring out my boxer shorts. Again!

Oklahoma hit by perhaps the worst Tornado in history. Update!

The tornado has destroyed two schools and there are attempts right now to rescue the students trapped under the debris.

My understanding is that some of these children are third graders.

This is going to be bad.

Update: Courtesy of CNN:

Areas of metropolitan Oklahoma City appeared to be in shreds Monday afternoon after a massive tornado moved through the region. "The houses are destroyed. ... Completely leveled," a helicopter pilot for CNN affiliate KFOR said. A school was apparently among the structures leveled by the twister.

I have not yet heard of any deaths, but I am having trouble believing that there will not be any fatalities considering the damage I am seeing on the television right now.

Update 2: According to news reports the 4th, 5th and 6th grade classes were evacuated and they are safely at a nearby church. That seems counter intuitive to me, but I don't know any details I don't know the reasoning.

There were 75 people in the school when the tornado hit.

So far they are not reporting any deaths but there is also a neighborhood all around the school and it is flattened like a pancake, so things do not look good.

Update 3: More pictures:

It looks like a war zone.

Update 4: Reports of two dozen or more fatalities in that school. They are apparently the missing school children.

Update 5: President Obama has notified FEMA to get "all available  assistance" to the area ASAP.

That is good because it is beyond clear that these people need as much assistance as possible right now.

Rush Limbaugh rewards young listener with I-Pad for "discovering" that climate change is a hoax after visiting his school library. Dafuq?

"Okay just how small is my audience these days?"

Courtesy of Salon: 

On his show Thursday, Rush Limbaugh hosted a climate expert to explain how global warming is “a hoax.” Sorry, did we say climate expert? We meant 13-year-old kid from Indiana. The young man called into Limbaugh’s show and said he had done his own research at the local library for a school project and concluded that it was obvious that man-made climate change is bogus. 

“It was really easy for me to find this evidence, really easy,” said young Alex. “I believe the reason that the liberals do not have the evidence [that it's a hoax] is because they do not want the evidence. They don’t want to hear that it’s wrong.” 

Alex said he found all the information at the library, because he didn’t have a computer. Limbaugh was so impressed that he told Alex he wanted to send him an iPad, assuming his parents were OK with it, in order to help him with future research.

I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh, or any radio at all for that matter, but I just so happened to hear this exchange with this young man as I was driving in my car. 

It should be noted that at NO time did Limbaugh ask this young man WHICH books in the library supposedly provided this evidence which refuted the findings of virtually EVERY climatologist on the planet, nor did he ask him WHAT it was that he read that led him to conclude that climate change was a "hoax."

In fact all Limbaugh did was congratulate this child and offer him a free I-Pad (Limbaugh gives these away with some frequency.) for his completely unsubstantiated remarks.

The next day Limbaugh followed up on that conversation by saying this:

Folks, just exactly as the news media is no longer about the news, there aren’t any news outlets, it’s a branch of the Democrat Party, so too is much of science today. The Democrats have literally politicized everything they can use to expand government, which is their primary objective. Whatever they can do to grow government, they will politicize it… ‘The consensus of scientists.’ Well, they are all politicized as well. The global warming scientists are just Democrats, folks. They are all part of an agenda. It’s where they get their money, it’s where they get their funding to study all this stuff… Government money, grant money. So they’re all part of the agenda.

So since Limbaugh really cannot argue his case based on the evidence he has to undermine that evidence by claiming it is tainted with liberal bias.

Which, and I hate to agree with Limbaugh here, it kind of is. But not because the scientists doing the research start off that way, but rather because the evidence and facts do not respect mythology or stone age rationalizations.

I have to wonder just how long that young man will hold onto his contention that climate change is a hoax once he has an I-Pad to help him do some REAL research?

The Kulluk, Shell Oil's antiquated old drilling ship, was ripped from its tow lines by high winds and has become grounded near Kodiak Island. Chances of a diesel fuel leak very high.

Courtesy of the Guardian:  

A large drill ship belonging to the oil company Shell has run aground off Alaska after drifting in stormy weather, company and government officials said.

The ship, the Kulluk, broke away from one of its tow lines on Monday afternoon and was driven, within hours, on to rocks just off Kodiak Island, where it grounded at about 9pm Alaska time, officials said. 

The 18-member crew had been evacuated by the coastguard late on Saturday because of risks from the ongoing storm. 

There was no known spill and no reports of damage, but the Kulluk had about 155,000 gallons of fuel on board, said coastguard commander Shane Montoya, the leader of the incident command team. 

With winds reported as reaching 60 miles an hour and Gulf of Alaska seas of up to 12 metres, responders were unable to keep the ship from grounding, he told a news conference late on Monday night in Anchorage. 

"We are now entering into the salvage and possible spill-response phase of this event."

I received a phone call on this from one of my sources a few hours ago, and from what I understand Shell was essentially warned NOT to go through with putting his drill ship out into these waters. they were told the ship was not prepared for the type of seas it would encounter and that it was literally an accident waiting for  place to happen.

Well now it has happened, and my sources tell me that the expectations are very high that there already substantial leaks, though nothing has officially been confirmed as of yet.

Stay tuned, this is still unfolding.

Seriously Alaska? WTF?

Okay so I woke up this morning to my daughter coming home at 5:30 a.m. after driving her drunken co-workers home last night. (She is a nondrinker and therefore always tapped to be the designated driver.)

First she says "Good morning Dad," quickly followed by "Have you SEEN what is going on outside?"

Well I was just then sipping my first cup of coffee, so no I had not seen what was happening outside as I was still not completely sure what was happening directly in front of me.

So I looked.

Gryphen front porch

Crappy cell phone picture of Gryphen front yard featuring denuded, snow encrusted, tree.

Gryphen back yard. Well at least you can no longer see the dog poop!

Okay what the actual fuck, Alaska?

I had to check my calendar three times just to make sure I was the appropriate amount of freaked out about this. Yep, it is ONLY September 29th!

Again, WTF Alaska?

Okay you know we do get early snowfalls. Usually around the end of October. But never this early, right?

I know that because I live here. And also because it is part of my childhood trauma.

Here let me explain, you see when I was a little boy I wanted to dress up like Spider-man, because you know Spider-man was the shit.

However we were pretty poor, so my mom tried to talk me into dressing up as something she could put together from items around the house. You know like a hobo, or a ghost, or a little boy whose heart was broken because he could NOT be Spider-man!

Anyway after I whined the sufficient amount and promised to eat my vegetables (Yeah right!) and clean my room (Never happened!), she caved in and bought me a cheap ass Spider-man costume at Woolworths.

And let me just tell you that I looked EXACTLY like Spider-man! (YOU know if Spider-man had been a hyperactive little midget, with a speech impediment.)

I loved the hell out of that costume and wore it to bed, at the dinner table, and even tried to wear it to school but my mother stopped me because apparently she did not want me to be the most awesome kid on the playground. (Mom was always holding me back like that.)

So after two weeks of waiting it was FINALLY Halloween, and I was so amped up I was crawling on the walls even without web-shooters. (Which this cheap ass costume did not have, even though it was an obviously imperative accessory.)

However when I woke up, you guessed it, we had snow.

A butt load of snow.

In response my mother made one of those executive decisions that all kids dread, and told me it was now too cold and that I would have to wear my Spider-man costume UNDER my snowsuit. Aaagghh!!!

Anyhow after some calm negotiations (Well essentially after fifteen minutes of my screaming and banging my head on the floor) we compromised. I COULD wear my Spider-man costume for all the world to see on the OUTSIDE of my snowsuit.

My throat was dry, I was having trouble breathing, and my head hurt like crazy, so I acquiesced.

However after my mother squeezed my snowsuited body into the costume I ended up looking like Spider-man with a serious pituitary problem. I was so bloated that I looked like a candidate for a superhero fat farm.

Well what could I do?  There was candy just waiting for me on the streets of Anchorage, so I "Spider-manned up" and went out to claim my booty.

Well to make a long story short (I know, too late right?) I ended up having one of the WORST Halloweens ever!  The snow was up to my knees, so my costume got drenched and started to fall apart. It was cold outside but hot inside my mask, so my face was sweating, and then the sweat was freezing to my cheeks. And to make matters worse my eye-holes got all frosty and I couldn't see where the hell I was going and kept wandering into traffic.

But possibly the worst thing was that I also could not see the top of my little orange pumpkin Halloween candy bucket and I kept missing it and dropping my candy in the fucking snow! And when I reached down to get my hard earned popcorn ball, the back of my costume split from crotch to hairline, and suddenly I was only a cool pudgy Spider-man from the front, and a sweaty little sobbing child from the back. Fuck that Halloween!

But I digress.

Really the important part of this post, is why in they hell is it snowing already?

Sometimes Alaska blows.

So as some of you realize we have been dealing with some very serious windstorms up here in the Great Land.

Two weeks ago I lost my electricity for almost two days, and last night I lost power repeatedly.

The wind has been blowing so hard that it has blown away everything not nailed down.

For instance here is my neighbor's tree.

And here is a copse of trees we saw along the bike path which were completely uprooted.

The entire group was laying across another neighbor's fence.

And another one just down the street.

However the wind has not simply been blowing the hell out of Anchorage, it has also extended out to Palmer. This is video that my friend Dennis Zaki took about two hours ago out in Palmer, which is about forty three miles away.

Did you hear that wind? That is what it has been like outside of my window for weeks now.

That giant tree you see laying across the ground is just one of the many trees that Dennis has had crash down on his property, and there are a number of other giant trees uncomfortably close to his rather tiny cabin.

Anyhow that is what it has been like up here for the last three weeks, off and on. So if I suddenly disappear from the internet for several hours at some point in the near future you will probably have some understanding as to why.

I love Alaska, I just love it better when it is not picking shit up and throwing it at my house.

And here I sit NOT believing in divine intervention. Update!

Courtesy of the New York Daily News:  

Mitt wants to knock out Barack — but he may have to get past Isaac first. 

A tropical depression in the Atlantic Ocean strengthened into Tropical Storm Isaac Tuesday and was threatening to swamp Florida in time for Mitt Romney’s big moment at the Republican National Convention in Tampa next week. 

Isaac formed east of the Lesser Antilles and was moving west, churning up winds of 40 miles-per-hour late Tuesday afternoon some 500 miles east of the island of Guadeloupe. 

The National Hurricane Center predicted Isaac blowing over Haiti at hurricane strength Saturday, hitting Cuba the next day and possibly making landfall in Florida. The RNC starts Monday. 

An expert said an Isaac appearance at the RNC is a longshot, but not an impossibility. 

“It would take a ‘perfect storm’ sort of conditions to all fall in place ... but that is one of the possibilities the models have been suggesting could happen,” blogged Dr. Jeff Masters, a meteorologist who co-founded The Weather Underground. 

You know the truly weird thing is that this also happened during the 2008 convention.

In 2008 the first day of the RNC in St. Paul, Minn., was shortened out of concern for the millions of Gulf Coast residents forced to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Gustav.

Sorry I still can't accept this as evidence of a supreme being, but I will admit that it is an interesting coinky-dink!

Now we can rest assured that Palin won't show up in Florida.  No WAY could that road kill wig of hers stand up to 40 mile hour winds!

Update: Todd Akin weighs in on the possibility of a hurricane during the GOP convention.

Here is that enthusiasm gap we keep hearing about.

Click image to visit panoramic image and then use mouse to move left and right.

6,500 stood in temperatures that reached the high 90's to catch a glimpse of our President.

Okay so HOW big was the crowd that came to see Mitt Romney bullshit about his ability to create more jobs in this country again?

"How many showed up to see the President? Really, in all that heat?"

Yeah, that's what I thought.

(H/T to Obama Diary.)