The U.S. Geological Survey has collaborated with Asian glaciologists for a new report on what's happening to the glaciers of Asia. Many are shrinking as a result of climate change.

"This retreat impacts water supplies to millions of people, increases the likelihood of outburst floods that threaten life and property in nearby areas, and contributes to sea-level rise," USGS said in a release.

"As glaciers become smaller, water runoff decreases, which is especially important during the dry season when other water sources are limited. Climate change also brings warmer temperatures and earlier water runoff from glaciers, and this combined with spring and summer rains can result in flood conditions. The overall glacier retreat and additional melt can increase the amount of water dammed in the vicinity of a glacier, and the added pressure enhances the likelihood of disastrous outburst flooding."

That's pretty much all there is to this post. If you don't watch the show, maybe you will to see Sarah Palin's daughter. Or maybe you won't. Here's the story.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio,  is scheduled to give a pre-buttal Tuesday afternoon to President Barack Obama's prime-time Oval Office speech announcing the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq. In an address to the American Legion National Convention, Boehner suggests that Obama is overly-concerned about fulfilling a campaign promise to get out of Iraq than focusing on victory.

"Using campaign promises as a yardstick to measure success in Iraq and Afghanistan runs the risk of triggering artificial victory laps and premature withdrawal dates unconnected to conditions on the ground," Boehner says in prepared remarks advanced by his office.

Boehner will warn that lawmakers who opposed the Iraq war - including  Obama - shouldn't now take credit for the end of combat. "This day belongs t our troops, whose courage and sacrifices have made the tranistion to a new mission in Iraq possible," Boehner says. "...When Gen. (David) Petraeus embarked on the surge strategy in Janurary 2007, it was widely viewed as our last chance to save Iraq from spiraling into an irreversible descent towards chaos."

"Some leaders, who opposed, criticized, and fought tooth-and-nail to stop the surge strategy now proudly claim credit for the results," Boehner adds.

Boehner says he supports Obama's counterinsurgency plan for Afghanistan but adds that the president "must do more o ephasize his commitment to ensuring its success rather than focusing on meeting arbitrary deadlines for withdrawal."

The Republican leader suggests to conventioneers that the Obama adminstration has gone wobbly in its commitment to Israel and is naive in its approach to dealing with Iran and its nuclear ambitions.

"...America has stood by Israel since Harry Truman sat in the Oval Office," Boehner says. "Our commitment to them should be no less strong today...Where I come from, you stick by your friends, you stick by people who share your values. You do not send a message of strength to your enemies by shunning your friends and allies." 

When President Obama speaks tonight on the end of combat operations in Iraq, he'll be doing so from a newly renovated Oval Office.

His formal work space got a redecorating while the Obamas were on vacation. That's sure to trigger some debate: Is it an ostentatious move when so many Americans are struggling economically? A good way to support U.S. furniture and rug makers? Ultimately does it symbolize anything or are White House room makeovers just something presidents do?

In a statement relayed through today's in-town print pool reporter, Chuck Lewis of Hearst, the White House did not release the tab for the work but called it "a comparable level of redesign" to what Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton had done and said it was paid through the White House Historical Association with funds from the Presidential Inaugural Committee. In other words, not by taxpayers.

The changes include:

New and reupholstered furniture (the new desk chair, coffee table, couches and table lamps are American-made), new paint and wallpaper.

A new rug, wheat, cream and blue colored and oval-shaped, of 25 percent recycled wool, with the presidential seal in the center and historical quotes of Obama's choice. The rug is by the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Scott Group, which made the Oval Office rug designed for Clinton and rugs for the White House State Dining Room.

The quotes Obama chose for the rug come from FDR, Martin Luther King Jr., Lincoln, Kennedy and Teddy Roosevelt: “The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself;” “The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But it Bends Towards Justice;” “Government of the People, By the People, For the People;” “No Problem of Human Destiny is Beyond Human Beings”; “The Welfare of Each of Us is Dependent Fundamentally Upon the Welfare of All of Us.”

Could Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., be the next Republican establishment candidate felled by tea party insurgents?

The conservative blogosphere is talking up a challenge to the moderate-to-liberal Castle in a Senate primary on Sept. 14.  Also, the Tea Party Express, which helped direct cash to Alaska Senate primary challenger Joe Miller, is now urging its members to contribute to Delaware challenger Christine O'Donnell.

Castle is the choice of the GOP establishment in the Republican primary. O'Donnell says his support for such things as energy legislation make him too liberal.

The winner will take on likely Democratic nominee Chris Coons for the seat once held by Joe Biden.

Castle's a fixture of Delaware politics who's served as governor and then won 9 statewide elections as the state's only member of the U.S. House.

He is, however, anathema to many conservatives. He gets high grades from the Chamber of Commerce. But he gets poor marks from the American Conservative Union and good marks from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., tells radio talker Laura Ingraham that 1.6 million attended Saturday's Glenn Beck rally in Washington. She said she got the estimate from a National Park Service source.

The Park Service does not do crowd estimates.

Vice President Joe Biden is in Iraq. He'll mark tomorrow's formal end to combat operations there. (Obama will do so in a speech tomorrow from Washington. The remaining U.S. troops - shy of 50,000 - are scheduled to leave Iraq by the end of next year.)

Biden is to participate in a Change of Command and Change of Mission Ceremony, his office said this morning, and meet with Iraqi leaders including: President Jalal Talabani, Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, Vice President Adil Abd al-Mahdi, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, leader of the Iraqiyya coalition Ayad Allawi, Chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council Ammar al-Hakim.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee will be sending lawyer Sean Cairncross to assist Sen. Lisa Murkowkski's campaign while the Division of Elections finishes counting absentee ballots in Alaska's still-undecided Republican Senate primary.

Murkowski continues to trail challenger Joe Miller in what's shaping up to be one of the biggest upsets of the 2010 campaign season. The winner of the GOP primary will go on to face Democrat Scott McAdams, the mayor of Sitka -- and until now, as little known statewide as Miller was a few months ago.

The Washington Post reports that "committee sources insisted that too much should not be read into Cairncross' presence in Alaska -- only that the NRSC is an incumbent-retention committee and, as such, provides assistance when Senators ask for it."

The committee also spoke with the Miller campaign and promised its full support if he ultimately wins.

Two environmental groups _ the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council _ wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder today saying that when the federal government totes up the damages from the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, it should count not just the oil but the natural gas that escaped as well.

The government estimates 4.1 millions of barrels of oil spilled. The letter says that if gas is added, it's the equivalent of more than 6 million barrels. The administration began a criminal investigation of the oil disaster on June 1. 

A Justice Department spokeswoman said she couldn't say anything because the investigation is ongoing _ not even whether the federal government had made a decision yet about whether to include both oil and gas in the damage assessment.

Vice President Joe Biden says there's no broad benefit to the economy in extending tax cuts for the wealthy because they wouldn’t spend it anyway.

Tax cuts are better given to people "who are going to go out and spend it," Biden said during a meeting with small business owners Wednesday at a Washington pizza restaurant.

"They're going to come in and buy a pizza, they're going to go buy a car, they're going to pay their electric bill, they’re going to make a payment to send their kid to school, they're going to buy school clothes…They're the people who need the money."

By contrast, he said, it’s wrong to give tax cuts to "people making over a million bucks a year. …They're spending all they’re going to spend anyway. Giving somebody in that top percentage bracket, giving them another $250,000 tax cut, they’re not going to spend that. They're not going to stimulate the economy."

He said he did not begrudge the wealthy. "I'm glad they're super wealthy," he said. "I hope one of my grandkids makes that kind of money, so when he puts me in a home I get a window with a view."

The Obama administration wants to extend Bush era tax cuts now set to expire on Dec. 31 for people making less than $200,000 and households making less than $250,000. It proposes to let the tax cuts expire as scheduled for those making more than that.

"Our colleagues on the other side think we should extend the whole tax cut, to the people who are in the top 2 percent," he said.

"To extend those tax cuts costs $700 billion over 10 years at a time when we are worried about the economy, when long term we have to be worried about deficits," he said.

Biden said that 50 percent of those tax cuts would go to people with average incomes of $8.2 million, costing a total of $350 billion over 10 years.

He disputed Republican arguments that small businesses would be hurt all the tax cuts are not extended.

"Not 3 percent of the small businesses in America would benefit one single solitary penny from extending that …tax cut," he said. "So this is just a bunch of malarkey."