Via Dr. Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog, a visible satellite image from NASA’s Aqua spacecraft on Monday, June 23, 2008. The fires are on the ridges and mountains around California’s Central Valley. Every red dot is a fire.

Because the rest of the news is just depressing.

You can read all kinds of stories about the FISA, but Ken Strickland, Senate Producer, NBC News, has this version out tonight: Dems cut surveillance deal with White House

WASHINGTON – In the war on terror, Democrats claim President Bush has abused the power of his office, violated civil rights, and trampled on the Constitution.

But when given the chance last week to challenge the administration’s use of wiretapping, Democratic leaders instead chose to cut a deal with the White House.

The result? It may now never be known if the Bush administration broke the law or sidestepped the Constitution when it launched its secret surveillance program shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.
…

On Thursday, the Senate is expected to give final passage to that deal — a bill that better regulates ongoing surveillance activity.
…

[Read more →]

This is a list of the Senators that opposed this bill from the beginning:

Roll call vote on FISA amendment S.2248, February 12, 2008, 05:30 PM

Clinton (D-NY) and Obama (D-IL) were not present for the vote, as it was scheduled on a day with primary elections.

Ten more Senators are need to sustain a filibuster, if both Clinton and Obama oppose the current bill.

From CNN’s US page:

On the West Coast –800 fires in Northern California

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) — In less than a day, an electrical storm unleashed nearly 8,000 lightning strikes that set more than 800 wildfires across Northern California, a rare example of “dry lightning” that brought little or no rain but plenty of sparks to the state’s parched forests and grasslands.

They are forecasting more dry lightning storms later in the week.

Along the Mississippi – another levee break as the earthen berms become over-saturated and flow away after weeks of pressure. The crest is moving slowly down the river, and the danger isn’t over until the river is down in its natural bed.

People are discovering that a flood system for a 100-year event is no good, as we have had 500-year events every 15 years.