We’re not at the brink of an economical crisis, we are IN one. 750,000+ jobs were lost so far in 2008. Doesn’t that bother you? We need a change to take place for our country to stabilize.

Our country is in this condition because of 8 years of reckless governing by Bush, and right now all the McCain campaign is going to do for the next 4 weeks is smear Obama. Is that the best that he can do? Where is the change? Where are the solutions? I think Palin has made a grave mistake trying to tie up Obama with Ayers; not only is that association bogus and short-sighted, whoever is swayed by those charges are simply uninformed.

Obama has one house. McCain has 12. Obama doesn’t want to lose the only house that he has. McCain wouldn’t care if he lost half his houses, he’d still be a multi-millionaire. Let’s make choices that are important for us. Let’s make choices that are important for you and I, and neighbors of ours in neighboring states. We can’t have mediocre people in office. And we DEFINITELY cannot have trickster characters in office! McCain is involved in the largest savings scandal in this country’s history! The billions of dollars lost due to fraud in the Lincoln Savings and Loan scandal, it was settled with taxpayers’ money. OUR MONEY, FOLKS. We cannot make the same mistake.

If we do, we’ll end up paying for it. It’s your choice.

It was a wet monsoon, but don’t get used to the rain.

Forecasters are calling for warmer, drier weather through December on the heels of a monsoon that poured more rain than average into 90 percent of the reliable gauges in and around Tucson, according to one weather expert.

“A lot of them were significantly over - 50 percent over or 80 percent over,” said Gary Woodard, a University of Arizona researcher who tracks hundreds of rain gauges across the state.

It was enough rain to erase drought temporarily statewide. Only the western edge and northwest corner of Arizona are abnormally dry, according to the National Drought Monitor.

It is not the first time in recent years the monsoon quashed drought. But with the Pacific Ocean temperatures average, we are likely in for less rain and warmer temperatures through December, according to a monthly report from the Climate Assessment for the Southwest, a collaborative of scientists at UA.

“If that happens, we could be looking at drought creeping back in,” Woodard said. The monsoon was boosted by tropical storms Dolly and Julio.

“And maybe a little bit from Lowell,” said Gregg Garfin of CLIMAS.

But the picture for the next three months is a bit fuzzy, because weather resulting from neutral Pacific temperatures is harder to predict than from El Niño (warmer water) or La Niña (cooler water), Garfin said.

Though Tucson International Airport got just 5.52 inches of monsoon rain - just below the normal 6.06 inches - midtown got hit hard. The most rain fell in an area bounded by Alvernon Way and Craycroft Road and Speedway Boulevard and Fort Lowell Road. Several gauges in that area took in 10, 11 or 12 inches, Woodard said.

Marana gauges came in under 6 inches, though Green Valley hit 10 inches, he said.

Phoenix was also hit hard with 5.7 inches, or slightly more than twice normal. Flagstaff got less than Phoenix, at just 5.44 inches.

Woodard tracks local rainfall in more detail than has ever been done through Rainlog.org, a network of hundreds of volunteers with backyard gauges. Though their data is less reliable than a controlled, mechanical gauge individually, because there are more than 600 in Pima County, researchers can weed out anomalies in the data, Woodard said.

“If you have a dense enough network you see anomalies. At some point a dense network of volunteer scientists is better than a less dense network of tipping gauges maintained by the government,” he said.

His Rainlog system includes 619 Pima County volunteers, who report rainfall daily. It started in Sierra Vista, grew to Tucson and Phoenix and is now statewide.

Volunteers include retired weather professionals and ordinary homeowners, Woodard said. “We’ve also got Brownie groups.”

Credits: Tucson Citizen

If you had purchased $1,000 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago, you would have $49 left. With Fannie Mae, you would have $2.50 left of the original $1,000. With AIG, you would have less than $15 left. But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drunk all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have $214 cash.

That right there just leaves me in utter disbelief. That’s how bad this whole economic crisis came down to, huh? Glad that Safeway is selling 18-Pack Bud Light beers for $13.99!

The stock markets took another 350+ point dip today also. Too many investors are scared right now, and the panic that they’re facing is causing these drops. Please calm down, America!!!

But there’s some bright-side news I have for you. There’s a housing relief organization called “Hope Now” and they’ve helped 189,000 troubled homeowners from going into foreclosure in August. And the number of homeowners helped in August was 1.7% less than the number helped in July. Significant when we’re talking about more than 100,000 people, but they say it’s not significant enough to be signifying a bottom of any kind.

It’s going to take time to get stable in this wobbly market. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t take too long.

Tonight, we see if the new plan for the financial industry bailout will pass or not. The bailout has been revised, and yes, there are stipulations that the taxpayer should have gotten since the beginning of this all. There still are some questionable things going on, but I’m sure my curiousities aren’t going to be entertained by the Senate nor the Congress.

So this is what we have in store that will benefit you and I:

• The FDIC will now insure banks for $250,000 instead of $100,000
• There will be more renewable energy tax breaks
• Expiring tax breaks will be brought back
• Instating Alternative Minimum Tax, which helps those from ending up paying the “income tax for the wealthy”

You can find out the specifics here: CNNMoney.com

And it would place curbs on executive pay for companies selling assets or buying insurance from Uncle Sam. One provision: any bonus or incentive paid to a senior executive officer for targets met would have to be repaid if it’s later proven that earnings or profit statements were inaccurate.

But this provision above just boils my blood. Why on earth are we even paying these executive schmucks? They’re the ones who got us into this mess! They have some nerve to be demanding pay of any kind, they should be glad that they’re continuing to sit behind their oak desks in the corner offices! Executives might feel otherwise because they support their own, but everyone I spoke to about this whole ordeal feels the same way. We need new leaders running our banks, not the same clowns who ran the circus for the past 6 and a half years.

A closely watched index released Tuesday showed home prices tumbling by the sharpest annual rate ever in July, but the rate of monthly declines is slowing.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index fell a record 16.3% in July from a year earlier, the largest drop since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index plunged 17.5%, the biggest decline in its 21-year history.

Prices in the 20-city index have plummeted nearly 20% since peaking in July 2006. The 10-city index has fallen more than 21% since its peak in June 2006.

No city in the Case-Shiller 20-city index saw annual price gains in July, the fourth straight month that has happened.

However, the pace of monthly declines is slowing, a possible silver lining. Between May and July, for example, home prices fell at a cumulative rate of 2.2% - less than half the cumulative rate experienced between February and April.

But there’s “no evidence of a bottom,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P.

The pace of dropping home values slowing down is definitely a good sign for homeowners, yet I’d give the market quite some time to gather its wits. In the major boom cities, like Phoenix and Vegas, you see a drop of up to 30%, that’s harsh. Harsh for homesellers, but definitely an opening for investors who have equity ready to invest.

No evidence of a bottom… Well, let me tell you this much. Whenever a media outlet pushes out a headline that the bottom has finally been reach, trust me, it’s already old news. Greed is what made the economy what it is right now, so I can’t suggest to investors to wait for the market to plunge down even further. In my opinion, I can’t see it getting any worse than now. It seems like Congress will be putting up another bailout for voting, and I’m pretty sure that it’ll happen this time. I just hope that the fine print will be fair for the average American though.

Las Vegas prices plunged the most at nearly 30%, with Phoenix diving 29% and Miami 28%. Prices in the seven cities in the Sunbelt all fell between 20% and 30% from a year ago.

Only seven cities showed positive or flat returns from June to July, down from nine that showed month-over-month gains in June. Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver and Minneapolis all posted positive returns for three months or more.

It’s great to hear that 5 metros have stood strong through this tough year. Yesterday was a real heartbreaker for those in the finance sector, but all I can really tell you is that life goes on, and America will get back on track. Elections aren’t too far away, and I can only urge you to vote. We have already seen how incompetent McCain is. If he’s this incompetent as a presidential candidate, it will only be worse when he’s in the Oval Office. Not only should we be voting for our choice of President, but also for the officials of our city and the city’s propositions.

Credits: CNNMoney.com