The Daily Show is referring to the various problems in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan as “Crises in Israfghyianonanaq.”

According to The Storm Track, Tropical Storm Beryl is already weakening, and may be becoming extratropical.

All evening, Drudge has been headlining this Guardian story:

The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources.

The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

“It’s clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week,” a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control.

But according to this AP report…

Israel declared Tuesday it was ready to fight Hezbollah guerrillas for several more weeks, raising doubts about international efforts to broker an immediate cease-fire in the fighting that has killed more than 260 people and displaced 500,000.

We report, you reconcile.

En route to Becky’s parents’ house in Gold Canyon this evening after work, Becky and I drove smack into a bitchin’ haboob:

Here’s the view looking back into the Valley from Gold Canyon. (Here’s a close-up look.)

But the most truly awesome sight was the dust cloud running smack into the Superstition Mountains:

The dusty sunset was pretty nice, too:

CNN is reporting in a breaking-news alert on its homepage: “FAA: Power outage at high-altitude radar monitoring center grounds flights at Los Angeles area airports.”

UPDATE: Story here.

As of the 8 pm advisory, Tropical Storm Beryl was located about 160 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras. With sustained winds near 40 MPH, she is heading towards the north, and will eventually move off to the northeast. Current minimum pressure of 1006 MB, next advisory is due in at 11PM EST. A Tropical Storm watch is in effect from north of Cape Lookout to south of Currituck Beach Light.

Senate votes 63-37 to loosen President Bush's ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a move Bush has pledged to veto. Visit CNN for the latest.

NOTE: Due to a technical glitch, this breaking-news alert did not actually appear on the blog until 1:53 AM on August 1. I have adjusted the timestamp to more accurately reflect when the alert was originally published.

Yikes:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran’s Hizbollah, which claims links to the Lebanese group of the same name, said on Tuesday it stood ready to attack Israeli and U.S. interests worldwide.

“We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year,” said Iranian Hizbollah’s spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli, speaking by telephone from the central seminary city of Qom.

“They have been trained and they can become fully armed. We are ready to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardise Israel and America’s interests. We are only waiting for the Supreme Leader’s green light to take action. If America wants to ignite World War Three … we welcome it,” he said.

As one my fellow summer associates just said to me over the phone: “All right, well, we’re all gonna die. Talk to you later.”

UPDATE: It gets better and better:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday promised a “rejoicing” for Muslims in the Middle East “soon,” the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Speaking to university officials in the town of Mashhad, Ahmadinejad said the “volcano of rage” at the “arrogant powers” was “on the verge of eruption.”

Referring to escalating violence in Lebanon and northern Israel, he was quoted as saying, “The Zionists themselves have realized that they have launched a risky move and are aware that the flame of the fury of the regional states will set them ablaze.”

This might be a good time to read up on the 12th imam cult.

UPDATE 2: More:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday, “The day of happiness for the region is near… The world is on the verge of great changes,” according to the Iranian news agency.

Ahmadinejad added that he considered Israel’s operation in Lebanon “a type of playing with fire.”

And:

The speaker of Iran’s parliament warned Israelis on Tuesday that no part of their country is safe from Hezbollah attack.

The comments by Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel called into question Tehran’s official position that it is not involved in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“The towns you have built in northern Palestine (Israel) are within the range of the brave Lebanese children. No part of Israel will be safe,” Haddad Adel told thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators in Palestine Square.

Honestly, if Israel were to a launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran RIGHT NOW, I don’t see how you can argue that they wouldn’t be totally justified.

A group of Oklahoma City area investors led by buisnessman Clay Bennett has reportedly purchased the Seattle SuperSonics and Seattle Storm for $350 million.

The Sonics were the first pro team in the northwest, starting 1967 and were the first to bring home a championship to Seattle in 1979. The Seattle Storm, founded in 2000, won Seattle’s most recent (and only other as far as I knwo) pro-Championship in 2004.

An ongoing dispute has been occuring between the Sonic/Storm ownership and the City of Seattle regarding their lease of the KeyArena. The teams ownership has been pushing for a major renovation of the Arena largely funded by public tax dollars, and the city and State have balked at the high demands the team has been offering, especially given their recent mediocre performance and the general lack of interest in the NBA across the country. The teams lease runs out in 2010.

There had been talk of moving the team to another local city (Bellevue and Renton being the top choices).

According to the group the team will play the 2006/2007 season in Seattle, but beyond that nothing is known at this time.

That was quick. At 5:20 MST this morning, a low-pressure system was better organized in the Atlantic. It is now a formal system. From the 11 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. MST) NHC advisory:

SECOND TROPICAL DEPRESSION OF THE SEASON FORMS OFF THE NORTH CAROLINA COAST…
…TROPICAL STORM WATCH ISSUED FOR EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA…

AT 11 AM EDT…1500 UTC…A TROPICAL STORM WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR THE EASTERN COAST OF NORTH CAROLINA FROM NORTH OF CAPE LOOKOUT NORTHWARD TO SOUTH OF CURRITUCK BEACH LIGHT.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA…INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS…PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 1100 AM EDT…1500Z…THE CENTER OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION TWO WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 32.5 NORTH…LONGITUDE 73.4 WEST OR ABOUT 220 MILES…355 KM…SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF CAPE HATTERAS NORTH CAROLINA.

THE DEPRESSION IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH NEAR 5 MPH. A SLOW TURN TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHWEST OR NORTHWEST IS EXPECTED TO OCCUR LATER TONIGHT OR WEDNESDAY.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 35 MPH…55 KM/HR…WITH HIGHER GUSTS. SOME STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS AND THE DEPRESSION COULD BECOME A TROPICAL STORM LATER TODAY OR TONIGHT.

THE ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 1011 MB…29.85 INCHES.

Next advisory at 2 p.m. EDT.

The NHC issued a Special Tropical Disturbance Statement at 8:20 AM EDT (5:20 MST):

SATELLITE AND SURFACE OBSERVATIONS THIS MORNING INDICATE THE LOW PRESSURE AREA LOCATED ABOUT 250 MILES SOUTHEAST OF NORTH CAROLINA COAST HAS BECOME BETTER ORGANIZED THIS MORNING… AND A TROPICAL DEPRESSION MAY BE FORMING. AN AIR FORCE RESERVE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE THE SYSTEM THIS AFTERNOON. INTERESTS ALONG THE NORTH CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA COASTS SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS SYSTEM.

Dr. Jeff Masters, FLhurricane and HurricaneTrack have more.