Politics and Weather, the Storm of the Century

Have you noticed that the term "global climate change" is replacing "global warming"? For much of the United States, this last winter was colder than any in the recent past. Via the news media, travelers snowed in at airports were fed a steady diet of looming catastrophe. The newscasters have shrewdly altered the phrase to highlight the viciousness of the weather. To a passenger sleeping on a cold airline terminal floor, any warming would be a relief. Even at this late date in the spring, temperatures in Florida are below average.

The weather is often the subject of most casual conversation between strangers, and polite conversation studiously avoids mentioning religion, and politics. But now, because of fear, it is fashionable to throw religion, politics and the weather into the same conversation grist mill. Al Gore, has declared that global warming is more of a threat than terrorism. Those who oppose the political global warming orthodoxy (Earth is catastrophically heating and industry is the cause), are labeled "immoral." Such consciousness raising has earned Mr. Gore a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. Meteorologists are threatened with their careers. Academics who go against the dogma are denied tenure, their research papers are ignored, and Politicians are voted out of office.

The appearance of a sub-tropical storm, Andrea, has caused the usual suspects to sound the drumbeat for political action. In fact, such sub-tropical storms appear almost every year, and can be as violent as a hurricane. Hurricane season is an arbitrary date that the forecasters have agreed upon, but nature, by nature knows no boundaries. The "Storm of the Century" immortalized by a book and movie was not climate atypical, but quite memorable in our human lifetimes. Record low pressures, wind speeds, low temperatures and snowfall amounts were more than enough for this storm to gain the status of "Perfect Storm." Indeed, this storm killed over 250 people. In our climate, such storms moving up the East coast of the United States, and colliding with cold air masses are called Nor'easters. Catastrophic weather is not just a modern phenomenon, as scores of wrecked Spanish galleons attest.

Joe Sobel, is one of the most respected meterologists in the United States. In 1972 Joe joined AccuWeather, the world's largest commercial weather organization. He started as a part-time employee, became a full-time forecaster in 1976 and was promoted to Expert Senior Forecaster in 1978. The following year, he was appointed Director of Forensic Services. In 1980, Joe was promoted to Vice President and Director of Radio Services. Since Joe joined AccuWeather, he has presented more than a million radio weather forecasts and can be seen nationally and internationally on cable television channel, MSNBC. A long successful career has given Mr. Sobel the boldness to speak the truth, without fear of retribution.

Joe has a theory on why Andrea, a sub-tropical storm, was given a tropical name: "Back in the old days... and I'm only talking 5 years or so ago... we did not name sub-tropical storms. Names were only given to storms that were deemed to be truly tropical. In the last few years, there have been a number of sub-tropical storms named. Those named storms go into the total of named storms and obviously increase the number of storms that year and consequently increase the average number of storms per year. It has been claimed that global warming is responsible for an increasing number of tropical storms and hurricanes, but here is a reason that the number of storms is increasing that has absolutely nothing to do with global warming. It's because we are mixing apples and oranges and calling them all apples! And, by the way, on that topic, there was an interesting article recently published by the American Geophysical Union written by C.W. Landsea, a very respected hurricane researcher, that says any increase in the number of hurricanes observed over the last 100 years is only the result of the fact that we have more ships at sea, more people living on coastlines, and satellites to see storms now that would have gone unrecorded 50 or 75 years ago."

Liberal doomsayers claimed that the hurricane season of 2005 was the result of global climate change. Fueled by political speculation, some science fringe elements, such as Richard Hoagland, advanced evidence that hurricanes were being steered and intensified by secret government programs. The politicization of the aftermath of Katrina is without precedent in modern American politics. The constant complaint about the handling of Katrina relief was an element in the defeat of Republican Congressmen in November 2006, and the assumption of congressional power by the Democrats.

Speaking to a black audience in Richmond, VA, Senator Obama cited the deadly Kansas tornado as he decried the loss of 10,000 souls in Greensburg, and likened the event to the poor federal response to Katrina. The Senator later corrected the record on the number of dead, (10), but did not apologize to the aid workers rushing to help the victims. As they did with Katrina, Democrats are keen to connect the Federal response to disasters to the Iraqi war.

According to the President's Press Secretary, Tony Snow, the governor of a State must request federal aid before FEMA can respond with help. Presidential candidate Sam Brownback has corrected claims by Democrat Governor Kathleen Sebelius that the Kansas tornado exposed holes in National Guard readiness caused by the Iraq war.. "That's what really got me, is her saying that, So I asked, privately and publicly, the adjutant general, do you have the equipment you need? Because if you don't, we're going to hit Fort Riley and McConnell (Air Force Base) and other places to make sure we have all the equipment we need to respond to disasters. Everybody there said no, we have the equipment we needed."

National news services, AP, Fox, CBS, MSNBC, and others have amplified the remarks of the Kansas Governor. Many news consumers are being left with the impression that FEMA is falling down on the job again.

According to Jim Quinn, a radio host on XM satellite, the Kansas Governor launched her attacks, and continues to criticize at the behest of Howard Dean and Dick Durbin..... He claims his sources informed him that she is acting completely on their direction and knew and admitted full well to the Republican Senator in Kansas, what she was doing and that she was lying. Behind the scene observers have commented that Governor Sebelius has apologized to Brownback. A public apology has yet to be made.