Republicans square off in Iowa debate tonight

Here's the advance from Chris Cillizza. Jon Huntsman will be the new face in the first GOP face-off since June. No Rick Perry in Ames -- despite his attempt to upstage the event -- and no Palin.

The star of the show is likely to be Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who's been riding a wave of momentum since her strong performance in the June debate in New Hampshire. Polling shows Bachmann running strong in Iowa and she is the favorite to win Saturday's Ames Straw Poll.

Bachmann's rise over the past two months ensures she will be on the receiving end of barbs from her rivals as they seek to slow her progress. How she handles the slings and arrows will be a major storyline to watch.

The other person to keep an eye on is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Romney enters the debate as the frontrunner for the nomination. But he won't be competing in the straw poll over the weekend and is de-emphasizing the Iowa caucuses in his plans to win the nomination. Expect the other people on stage to mock Romney's on-again, off-again plans in the state.

The Iowa caucuses are still months away, but debates are rare moments when voters pay attention long enough to compare and contrast. Any winner in this one gets media and money.

Romney's "Corporations are people, too" gaffe is liable to hurt him. If not among the other oligarchs on the stage, then with conservatives and independents who aren't so inclined to feel empathy for the INCs and the LLCs and the PCs and so on. Surely there are some of those somewhere ...

The debate will be showing everywhere you care (or don't) to watch on your teevee -- or online -- this evening.

Update: More from The Ticket ...

Tomorrow, Sarah Palin, who is flirting with her own White House bid, will revive her bus tour in Iowa, visiting the state fair in Des Moines, and threatening to upstage other GOP hopefuls in the state. On Saturday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry will officially declare his intentions to run for president in South Carolina--a speech that happens to be scheduled on the same day as the Ames straw poll.


A week from now, we will likely know more about the make-up of the so-far volatile GOP field. Can Rommey hold on to his position as frontrunner? Is Perry the savior many GOP voters are looking for? Can Pawlenty gain enough momentum to save his lackluster campaign? Will Ron Paul be taken seriously? And can Huntsman and Newt Gingrich—two candidates whose campaigns have fallen short of expectations—survive? Is Palin even running?

Here's a quick look at what's at stake for some of the leading GOP contenders ...

One of the reasons I objected to The Response

Because I also know first-hand how filled with love many Christians are.

The Fox News Facebook page got over 8,000 death threats posted on its wall after the communications director for the group American Atheists, Blair Scott, appeared on the network’s “America Live” discussing the group’s lawsuit hoping to stop the erection of a crucifix at the World Trade Center Memorial.

The admins of Fox’s Facebook page worked furiously to delete the hateful posts, but not before the atheist blogger behind One Man’s Blog managed to capture screenshots, some of which we’ve reproduced below.

Organizers of the 9/11 museum feel that the cross, which is a symbol of hope for many, should have a place at the memorial. And then there are those other folks who passionately disagree with Scott’s group and who are behaving in a manner that is contrary to their religion fundamentals.

Christians are up in arms about Blair’s television appearance and have waged an all-out war against his possibly blocking the memorial’s plans. Reportedly, by the time Blair returned to his office, his voicemail was full to capacity with threat messages from Christians who were seething with hatred.

Well, it doesn't look like this is going to be our century.

2011 vs. 1980

Eric Berger, SciGuy:

I’m running out of superlatives to describe this summer’s heat, so this week I’m going to focus in on 100-degree days, especially after the run of them we’ve had to start August. So far every day this month has reached the century mark.

All told this summer we’ve had eighteen 100-degree days. That’s more than three times the normal for a Houston summer, which is five. But it’s not the most.

The city’s record for most 100-degree days came in 1980, with 32. The following table shows how our 100-degree days each month stack up. We’re already seventh this year with just one-quarter of the month gone.

Rank	June	July	August	September
1.	10 (1902)	18 (1980)	14 (1993)	5 (2000)
2.	8 (1980)	13 (1998)	10 (1999)	4 (1995)
3.	7 (2011)	10 (2000)	9 (1902)	3 2005)
4.	7 (2009)	7 (1909)	8 (1998)	2 (1909)
5.	4 (1906)	5 (1978)	8 (1962)	2 (1907)
6.	2 (1998)	4 (2011)	8 (1907)	1 (1985)
7.	2 (1934)	4 (2009)	7 (2011)	1 (1980)
8.	2 (1930)	4 (1995)	7 (1951)	None
9.	2 (1911)	4 (1986)	7 (1909)	None
10.	1 (2006)	4 (1969)	6 (2009)	None

.

Interestingly there’s never been a 100-degree day in Houston in May, although it did hit 99 degrees in 1996.

I spent June through August 1980, my last summer before graduating from Lamar University, as a laborer at the Mobil (now Exxon Mobil, of course) refinery in Beaumont. Two things I remember ...

1. Just as Eric's chart above indicates, it was 100 degrees or more nearly every day in July (August was strangely cooler). I was assigned to the coking unit and they took the furnaces down for a maintenance turnaround. We would crawl into them, clean them out for a few minutes, and then come out. It was about 115-120 even after those giant ovens had cooled overnight, and exiting them into the one-hundred-degree air outside felt like opening the freezer door in your face -- an instant but brief blast of coolness.

2. Just before I was about to leave the plant for the fall semester, Hurricane Allen swirled into the Gulf and rapidly strengthened to a Category 5. That hurricane was so big that the radar pictures showed him filling the entire Gulf of Mexico. We spent a couple of days scrambling all over that coker pulling down hoses and buckets and mallets and wrenches and anything else that could conceivably become a projectile in a gale-force wind.

(If you haven't already read the Wiki link above, Allen eventually went in just north of Brownsville and took a straight shot at Big Bend before petering out.)

That was the hottest, dirtiest, meanest, nastiest summer of my life. But this one's coming close to it.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Response blew into Houston, raised the temperature a few more insufferable degrees, and left quickly without spending any money or delivering any rain. The Texas Progressive Alliance, meanwhile, is praying for a cool snap and drought relief as it brings you this week's roundup.

There's still redistricting going on, as Harris County tries to redraw its county commissioners' precincts. So far, the main thing they've done is attract a lawsuit from Latinos who say they have retrogressed the one Latino opportunity district. Off the Kuff has the scoop.

The Response had better than expected attendance, a very diverse crowd, and the event's sponsors made a sincere effort to have the event be all about one man (not the governor of Texas). Having praised it, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs then proceeded to rip it. Wide open.

Our economy is in bad shape and is unlikely to get better any time soon. WCNews at Eye On Williamson tells us the reason why: The politics of the economy are upside down.

Prior to The Response, Letters From Texas predicted the response to the response to The Response.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is disgusted with the republican campaign to destroy the middle class, kick the poor to kingdom come and abandon the elderly.

This week Left of College Station began Rick Perry's Texas project, telling the truth about the governor's record in Texas. From Perry's scores on climate change to the fact that the Texas economic miracle was really a stimulus miracle.

Lightseeker offers his take on Why Democrats Lose Texas Elections. Hint: It's NOT because we are too Liberal! See the whole analysis at TexasKaos.

This week at McBlogger, Harry offers forth from the Book of Balczak his take on Prayerapalooza.

Sunday Funnies

Is god willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

-- Epicurus