I Read The News Today, Oh Boy: October 6, 2008

yahoo: A protester holds a sign outside of a fundraiser for Republican vice presidential Nominee Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in Dallas, Texas October 3, 2008. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
(USA)
In a stampede to come clean, seven state employees who failed to appear for testimony after being subpoenaed in the Troopergate investigation in Alaska had a change of heart after a judge rejected their challenge to the subpoena. Now they've agreed to testify in the investigation into Sarah Palin's firing of the state's popular Public Safety Commissioner.

You want to talk about associations? 20 years ago while John McCain was palling around with his soon-to-be-a-felon BFF Charles Keating, Barack Obama was in an airport giving a complete stranger enough money to be able to take all her bags to Norway. A leader's character is revealed in everyday situations.

Speaking of character-revealing actions, read the 5-page article in today's Washington Post about the marriage of John McCain and his first wife Carol, which ends with these devastating concluding grafs:

At the Republican National Convention this summer, the family came together to celebrate McCain's triumphant moment. "Everyone," says McCain's old friend and lawyer Bud Day, "was there and jovial."

Everyone except Carol. She declined to join her children and her ex-husband.

It was probably just as well. The buildup to McCain's acceptance speech included an eight-minute video that celebrated his life, work and family. At its conclusion, delegates in the convention hall erupted in applause.

Carol McCain, the woman who stood beside McCain through triumph and tragedy, was never mentioned.

The LATimes gets in on the McCain-revealing action with this article: Mishaps mark John McCain's record as naval aviator. The subhead for the article is:

Three crashes early in his career led Navy officials to question or fault his judgment. A Times review of his record suggests he was cocky, occasionally cavalier and prone to testing limits.

Ouch!

More good news for Barack Obama: Bluegrass legend, 81-year-old Ralph Stanley has cut a radio ad [listen to the ad here] for Obama in Virginia. Ralph Stanley is the guy who sang "Oh Death" on the Oh Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack.

The Stanley Brothers in their heyday; Pete Seeger is the guy sitting, listening:

Bush to Whales: Drop Dead (Updated, below)

Conservationists criticized President Bush's decision to exempt the Navy from an environmental law so that it can keep using sonar in its training in California, a practice they say harms whales and other marine mammals.
Photo Credit: By Reed Saxon -- Associated Press

The Bush Administration is pressing to overturn the federal court's ban on the Navy's use of sonar, which kills whales and other marine life in violation of several federal laws. It doesn't sound like Bush has a legal leg to stand on, but that hasn't stopped him in the past.

The whales, and the US, must survive another 368 days being ruled by the House of Bush.

Los Angeles Times: Bush sides with Navy in sonar battle
He cites national security in aiming to override a judge's injunction aimed at protecting marine mammals off Southern California. An environmental group promises to fight his move.

President Bush on Wednesday moved to exempt Navy sonar training missions off Southern California from complying with key environmental laws, an effort designed to free the military from court-ordered restrictions aimed at protecting whales and dolphins.

The president's directive was designed to short-circuit a long-running battle in which environmental groups have won court victories that frustrated the Navy's preparations for nine training missions over the next year, the first one set to begin next week.

[]

Some legal scholars Wednesday questioned what they called the administration's self-manufactured emergency, noting that it had not surfaced as a legal argument until after nearly a year of litigation.

If the Navy had complied with the National Environmental Policy Act to begin with, it wouldn't be in an emergency situation, said Daniel P. Selmi, an environmental law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

At the same time, he said, he was impressed with the "full-court press" of the White House, the Pentagon and federal agencies, including the filing of a classified affidavit by Navy admirals that can be seen only by the judges.

"The federal government is pitching it as a full-blown matter of national security," Selmi said. "That puts an enormous pressure on judges to defer to the government."

[]

Citing the Navy's own studies, [Federal District Judge] Cooper concluded that planned exercises off Southern California "will cause widespread harm to nearly 30 species of marine mammals, including five species of endangered whales and may cause permanent injury and death."

Mid-frequency active sonar, first developed in the later days of World War II, has grown more powerful and has been used increasingly in coastal waters, the habitat of most marine mammals.

NYTimes: White House Exempts Navy From Sonar Ban, Angering Environmental Groups

WaPo: Navy Wins Exemption From Bush to Continue Sonar Exercises in Calif.
President Cites National Security in Order

Looks like I wasn't the only blogger (and not the first, sorry) channeling the New York Daily News:

Lawyers, Guns & Money: Bush to Whales: Drop Dead

And the Ford to City: Drop Dead formulation is popular throughout the media:

salon.com: Bush to Arab world: Drop dead

The Nation: Bush to Children: Drop Dead

Counterpunch: Bush to New Orleans: Drop Dead

Will Durst, CommonDreams: Bush to Poor: Drop Dead

TomPaine.com: Bush To Earth: Drop Dead

There are many more of these.

Action Alert: Oppose Navy Use of Sonar

No more beached whales

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has released a Proposed Rule, Number 062206A. This proposed rule would allow the Navy to use Low Frequency Active (LFA) Sonar in most oceans for the next five years.

LFA is bad stuff. The sounds of sonar travel thousands of miles in the ocean and harm the things that live there. For more information, click on the Fact-Esque link at the bottom of this post.

Only 15 days were allowed for comments, and today is the last day. So please send a comment opposing LFA!

Send an email to this address: PR1.062306A@noaa.gov

You can copy the comment I sent:

To the National Marine Fisheries Service:

I am writing this email in opposition to Proposed Rule Number 062206A.

I oppose the use of Low Frequency Active (LFA) Sonar for the following reasons:

(1) LFA sound can travel at levels that are harmful to the marine environment for thousands of miles underwater.

(2) LFA causes mass strandings and deaths of marine mammals.

(3) Our oceans are already under pressure from pollution and global warming. Adding LFA will just further harm ocean inhabitants.

(4) The NMFS is supposed to protect fish, not harm them. This rule does not further your agency's goals and is not congruent with the latest scientific research on LFA.

(5) I agree with the following groups that have opposed the use of LFA: the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission, the United Nations Law of the Sea deliberations, the European Union Parliament, and the IUCN-World Conservation Union.

Please do not approve proposed rule number 062206A.

Thank you for your consideration of these comments.

Sincerely,

hat tip to Fact-Esque, which I saw on Newsfare

Fact-esque: Very Easy Anti-Sonar Action - Deadline for Public Comments TODAY