Yeah, Chris - we are REALLY screwed. And I don't know why we're considered a blue state, either. There is absolutely no sympathy in letters to the editor I read for the poor, state employees, labor, labor unions or anybody else who is not actually to blame for this crisis. The elites seem to have suffered little from the rejection of the Bush administration and Republicanism, and are being very successful in keeping the middle and lower classes fighting among themselves. The spending cuts are ALL on the backs of the aforelisted peons, and any talk of even a temporary tax hike is automatically rejected.

Interesting M6.0 today near the north end of the Cocos plate. Subduction I suppose, but near where the plate border becomes strike-slip or transform. I don't know if that area has historically had makor subduction-zone quakes. But you probably do.

Nice, simple map of the plates of the Americas at (link below) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tectonic_plates_Caribbean.png

Mike W.

• Plates of the Americas