In April 2007, Bettina Boxall wrote about the "perfect drought" hitting California. "Nature is pulling a triple whammy on Southern California this year. Whether it's the Sierra, the Southland or the Colorado River Basin, every place that provides water to the region is dry."

Officially, Southern California is in the eighth year of a drought. The affable weatherman, Dallas Raines, wrote for ABC on Sept. 6, 2007, that the perfect drought could last 100 years. In year eight, we have millions of dollars in lost crops. In September, he was writing about fires raging out of control, and this was before the mid-October Malibu fires started off horrific weeklong firestorms raging from Malibu to the Mexican border.

By then, Griffith Park, in the middle of LA County, had already had a fire and Lake Tahoe in Northern California had a fire that destroyed 200 homes. Ventura County was still battling the Zaca fire at the time of the article. The fire started on July 4th, and was finally contained on October 29th.

What is a perfect drought? "The idea of a perfect drought plays off the idea of a perfect storm," said Glen MacDonald with the Department of Geography at UCLA. "It's a convergence of natural or man-made effects that lead to a somewhat unexpected, but catastrophic result." UCLA is, of course, in Los Angeles. The lowest snow packs on record were in the Eastern Sierras, where Los Angeles gets most of its water. Lake Mead, which is in Nevada, was at less than half its normal levels, according to Raines, and still the water saving measures were voluntary.

How far away is Los Angeles, and indeed, all of Southern California from running out of water - like in Orme, Tennessee, where Mayor Tony Reames turns on the water for three hours each day.

After the fires, availability of water was a problem because water is needed to fight fires, leaving low levels. In addition, if the electricity is cut off, the pump stations may not be up, even after the evacuees are returned - as was the case with Ramona. Want to see things get ugly in America? Cut off our flushing toilets, flowing sinks, and showers. Ramona residents turned their water meters back on after district employees had turned them off, and some people had even taken water from fire hydrants.

Carl Bernstein (as he's been promoting his new book about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., the Democrats' leading candidate), has complained about an "idiot culture" in which news resources have been devoted to the lifestyles of celebrities. Bernstein and Bob Woodward were at the Washington Post when they broke the Watergate scandal, leading to then-President Richard Nixon resigning from office.