Consider these quotes from two climate scientists:

"In our models, it's difficult to understand how a 1-degree Fahrenheit warmer sea can spawn the ... rather significant increase that we've seen in Category 4 and 5 hurricanes. Therefore, we can't put it all together. ... But the notion that a warmer Earth could cause more hurricanes, certainly that would be predicted by the climate scientists."

"Yet how can a barely discernible, 1-degree increase in the recorded global mean temperature since the late 19th Century possibly gain public acceptance as the source of recent weather catastrophes? And how can it translate into unlikely claims about future catastrophes?"

Make no mistake, the $700-billion request from the Bush administration including Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, is very much a bailout of Wall Street first and foremost. The tactics used here are familiar ones. Create shock and fear, and amplify it by fast-tracking legislative action. Create a profound sense of urgency, coupled with vague but absolute solutions with no time for verification or alternatives. Threaten the core security of every citizen to justify, and obtain approval for, the transfer of power being sought. In this case, the request is an unprecedented transfer of power to the U.S. treasurer's office, with virtually no oversight, regulatory control, or checks and balances of any kind.

Thirty years after the group's inception, executive director June Podagrosi remembers the moment that she and her husband, Victor, embarked on the project that would become Child's Play Touring Theatre, the professional, Chicago-based organization dedicated to producing stage works for children, written by children. Moreover, she remembers the frog and the hillbilly that inspired them.

Alex Riggen and Nick Pompou will perform their first public show as Murnau on Saturday at East Moline's Mixtapes, but the duo's ambitions are already clear.

Based in Morrison, Illinois, the band is named for the expressionist silent-film director F.W. Murnau (who made Nosferatu and Sunrise), and in addition to a trio of demos it has already recorded a score for the 1929 surrealistic classic short Un Chien Andalou as part of an EP with the single "We March on." The songs for a full-length have been written, the drums are recorded, and the album should be released next year, Riggen said last week.

"We've just always focused on recording and releasing ... to a wide audience [on the Web] rather than finding shows," he said. "We just like to write."

Last October, Moline-based filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle debuted their documentary Lost Nation: The Ioway, a 53-minute exploration of the Native Americans for whom the state of Iowa was named. And if you were one of the lucky ones who saw this Fourth Wall Films production at its October 11 premiere in Des Moines, its October 21 engagement at the Putnam Museum & IMAX Theatre, or its subsequent screenings throughout the Midwest, you likely already know that it's something special - a fantastically informative, beautifully constructed, and (not for nothing) thoroughly enjoyable piece of work.

This should not be taken as anything other than an inquiry from a discouraged person. We here at Daytrotter.com would like to know if the general Quad Cities public cares if we present shows here in town. We have the opportunity to host more and more shows here, with some of the best bands in the country, but have been turning them down because we can't afford to do them with the small draws that we've been getting. We want to help build this music scene up to what it could potentially be.

With credits including Do the Right Thing, Clockers, Get on the Bus, 4 Little Girls, 25th Hour, and the landmark documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Spike Lee has made more great films over the past 20 years, perhaps, than any other American director. (And that list doesn't include the Spike Lee joints that are merely very good, among them Jungle Fever, The Original Kings of Comedy, and Inside Man.) But when Lee's movies go wrong, they tend to go shockingly, stunningly wrong, and for at least its opening half hour, the director's new Miracle at St. Anna seems poised to topple Girl 6, Bamboozled, and the execrable Summer of Sam as the most misguided and embarrassing work of the director's career.

Last week, I discussed the manner in which the federal government of the United States has taken over our economy, manipulated our money and credit, and turned our once-free nation into a second-class "welfare" state headed towards authoritarian dictatorship - and how our two major-party political candidates, McCain and Obama, are powerless to stop this advance due to the fact that they helped create it.

Are you mad as hell? You need to be; any citizen left in this country who doesn't have the soul of a slave ought to be screaming bloody murder.

The polling results I've seen from both sides of the debate say a plurality of you will vote for a state constitutional convention this November.

The numbers still aren't there yet. The question on the fall ballot must either be supported by 60 percent of those who vote on the issue, or by at least half of all those voting in the election itself. Still, it's getting there.

I'm one of those who supports a constitutional convention. And after 18 years of covering Illinois politics, I am not only convinced that a convention is necessary; I also believe I have a duty to tell you why.

For the bailout bill, public opinion is running anywhere from 100 to 1 to 300 to 1 or more against passing this bill, according to sources on Capitol Hill. Given the massive size of this package, the fact that it rewards the guilty on Wall Street and does nothing to address the cause, that anger is fully justified.