politics

Great New York Metro piece on Judy Miller from a while back: "...when there is trouble, it appears she

MSNBC Analyst Says Cooper Documents Reveal Karl Rove as Source in Plame Case This would be the most ironic story ever - Journo leaks via unknown source - Supreme Court rules that journos have to give up sources - Supreme Court member resigns - Rove gets to be spindoctor for replacement - MSNBC analyst says that Rove was the leaker. "Now that Time Inc. has turned over documents to federal court, presumably revealing who its reporter, Matt Cooper, identified as his source in the Valerie Plame/CIA case, speculation runs rampant on the name of that source, and what might happen to him or her. Tonight, on the syndicated McLaughlin Group political talk show, Lawrence O'Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst, claimed to know that name--and it is, according to him, top White House mastermind Karl Rove." Somehow this doesn't ring true. This rumor has been around blogs for a while, but...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | US accepts Earth is warming in bid to avert clash In a massive u-turn over global warming a government statement says: "We know the surface of the Earth is warmer and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem" Perhaps David Holcberg (the guy that the Ayn Randis booted out for saying that people shouldn't donate to tsunami victims) will be the last person on Earth to deny it. That is until someone creates an 'Intelligent Design' version.

"Private bloggers or websites must register the complete identity of the person responsible for the site, and the ministry - which has set a June 30 deadline for compliance - said 74% of all sites had already registered." A nice reminder that despite China's economic growth, it is not free. Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | China orders bloggers to register with government

I overheard someone today use the clich

What we are seeing is a very interesting form of meme, a meme that is propagated in the exact same form, unmutated, by hosts who both support and oppose the idea coveyed by the meme itself. Republicans have tried to refer to filibuster amendment as the 'Byrd option' or the 'constitutional option'. Josh Marshall points to a memo urging Republicans not to use the 'nuclear option' epithet. What is interesting is that both sides cannot help but use the term, despite the fact that it looks like a purely pejorative phrase. This is an unusually viral phrase because of its dual appeal. It appeals to Republicans because of its viscerally combative stance and to Democrats because of its alarmist quality. If one looks at memes such as religious ideas, they obviously transfer from one believer to another. Imagine an entire idea system as perfectly symmetrical as the 'nuclear option' phrase...

The spin: On the face of it, it looks like it is the Democrats that are being stubborn by threatening to filibuster judicial nominees. The reality: The numbers show something different, the Senate agreed to approve all but 1.5% of judicial nominees, and the Republicans are threatening to change one of the fundamental checks and balances on government to have things 100% instead of 98.5% their own way. "Since Bush took office, he has made 218 judicial nominations and the Senate has confirmed 208 of them. Ten, including Owen, failed to win confirmation because of Democratic filibusters. Seven of those 10 were renominated at the start of this year. Of those seven, Democrats have indicated that they would be willing to confirm as many as four to avoid the showdown." Neither side blinks as Senate starts debate on judicial nominees

Dawkins in the Independant Remember, Dawkins' credentials make Hitchens look like the poseur he is.

Today's Financial Times has a piece announcing the trial of 4 men for the murder of a senior Vatican banker, who had threatened to blow the whistle on corruption linked to the Catholic Church with details he said were enough to provoke 'the third world war'. This announcement comes more than twenty years after the murder happened - on the exact day that the first election of a new Pope commences. The Shady Deals of God's Banker Over twenty years ago, after being arrested on corruption charges involving dissapearance of $1 billion, on a trail that lead to the Vatican, and possible funding of right wing governments in South America, Roberto Calvi was found hanging under a bridge in London. His death was deemed to be suicide but was later deemed to be murder. Against the backdrop of the Vatican banking scandal, Pope John Paul II was appointed as the...

Global warming is fact. As of this week we now know that global warming as a man made phenomenon is a fact. That the effects of global warming will cause death and destruction is a fact. Given these facts, government avoidance of action to reduce global warming would now be criminally negligent. The final proof: global warming is a man-made disaster

Part of a democracy is to prevent election of the undemocratic which happened disastrously in Algeria. In December the Associated Press ran this: Key among its [Iraq's] parties is the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, a group closely allied to Iran and led by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim... Al-Hakim's prominence on the list and his close relations with Iran give ammunition to many secular and non-Shiites to attack his coalition, saying Iraq's political future will mirror Iran's Shiite-run establishment if he and his supporters gain power. Mustafa Alani: "The nightmare scenario in the region is the election of an Iranian-influenced Shiite government in Iraq will lead to the creation of a 'Super Iran'" The UIA have two thirds of the votes counted so far. CTV.ca | Iraq Shiite win may bring 'Super Iran': critics

"As present world temperatures are already 0.7C above the pre-industrial level, the process is well under way... when the temperature moves up to 2C above the pre-industrial level, expected in the middle of this century - within the lifetime of many people alive today - that serious effects start to come thick and fast... when the temperature moves up to the 3C level, expected in the early part of the second half of the century, these effects will become critical. There is likely to be irreversible damage to the Amazon rainforest, leading to its collapse... There will be a rapid increase in populations exposed to hunger, with up to 5.5 billion people living in regions with large losses in crop production, while another 3 billion people will have increased risk of water shortages... Above the 3C raised level, which may be after 2070, the effects will be catastrophic: the Arctic...