Story #1: Predictions Wrong: '07 Sixth Warmest Year on Record

RUSH: It's now official.  "This year is set to be the sixth warmest since records began 150 years ago, cooler than earlier predicted which means a slight respite for European ski resorts or bears trying to hibernate. '2007 will likely be near equal with 2006, so joint sixth warmest year,' Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia, told Reuters." What's wrong with this?  Sixth warmest, they originally predicted 2007 would be the warmest year on record.  I wonder if these are the same people that predicted all these hurricanes that never happened.

Story #2: "Rush to Name Storms" at Hurricane Center

RUSH: Speaking of that, great story today in the Houston Chronicle.  When I saw this headline, I said, "Whoa, I'm about to be honored."  It says, "Rush to Name Storms."  See, I have this tendency to personalize things.  Here's the story: "With another hurricane season set to end this Friday, a controversy is brewing over decisions of the National Hurricane Center to designate several borderline systems as tropical storms.  Some meteorologists, including former hurricane center director Neil Frank, say as many as six of this year's 14 named tropical systems might have failed in earlier decades to earn 'named storm' status.  'They seem to be naming storms a lot more than they used to,' said Frank, who directed the hurricane center from 1974 to 1987 and is now chief meteorologist for KHOU-TV. 'This year, I would put at least four storms in a very questionable category, and maybe even six.'"  There's no question he's right.  We never named subtropical storms but will this year, and the reason they started doing that is because their predictions were running light. 

Their predictions were embarrassing, so they had to get some named storms.

Do you know where Nova Scotia is?  Nova Scotia, way up there above Maine, and there was a storm system that formed up there, and then it went out to sea and dissipated.  They called it a tropical storm, a sea storm, I think, doesn't matter what it is.  No way that was a tropical storm.  For one thing, it didn't happen in the tropics.  Nova Scotia is not the tropics.  I suspected this all along, naming storms that are not tropical, central pressure has not fallen below, even though the winds might be 39 miles-an-hour higher, which is the low designation for a tropical storm. The barometric pressure never got low enough to be named, but they did it anyway just because their predictions were running so slow and the season was so uneventful, and they had to do something to keep people interested here.  Then we had the story yesterday, we had two years of light hurricane activity in this country, "Experts are worried you will become apathetic," when, in fact, we ought to be celebrating that storms creamed other people this year and last year rather than us. We took our share of them a couple years ago.

Story #3: What Are the Odds of This?

RUSH:  What are the odds of this?  "The winner of a $1 million lottery scratch ticket may not be so lucky after all: He's a convicted bank robber who isn't supposed to gamble. Timothy Elliott faces a Dec. 7 court hearing over whether he violated his probation when he bought the $10 ticket for the $800 Million Spectacular game at a supermarket in Hyannis. ... Under terms of his probation, he 'may not gamble, purchase lottery tickets or visit an establishment where gaming is conducted, including restaurants where Keno may be played.'  Elliott, 55, has collected the first of 20 annual $50,000 checks from the Massachusetts lottery commission. A picture of Elliott, holding his first check, was posted on the lottery's Web site Monday, though it was removed by Wednesday." (laughing) What are the odds that a guy who's not supposed to gamble, who's on probation, is stupid enough to have his picture put on the website?

Story #4: We Can't All Get Along: Rodney King Shot

Story #5: Tragedy: Most Americans Can't Watch Game Tonight

RUSH: Hey, Snerdley? Quick question: Are you going to be watching the Packers and Cowboys tonight?  You must have satellite.  Brian, are you going to watch the Packers and Cowboys?  You must have satellite.  Yeah, I know, H.R.'s gotta go to a sports bar, which is not bad if you're married, to watch the football game.  I've got satellite.  I'll be watching on satellite.  Only 35 million homes are going to be able to watch this game tonight because NFL Network is not in most cable systems. I'm not trying to rub it in on the Packers and Cowboys, folks, but I can't wait for this game.  I simply can't wait for this game.  It's just a tragedy most of you can't see it.  It's just a tragedy.