Federal Court knocks down Bush-EPA

A collection of states - mostly Democratic states that believe in science - filed suit against the Bush EPA who changed laws to allow power plants to emit dangerous mercury into the air. The courts ruled against the Bush administration who never met an energy company pollution plan that it didn't love.

The three-judge panel agreed with the states that the EPA did not have the authority to exempt the power plants. The court unanimously ruled that EPA's arguments were "not persuasive."

Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that accumulates in fish and poses the greatest risk of nerve and brain damage to pregnant women, women of childbearing age and young children. Emissions of mercury total about 48 tons a year, most of it in the form of air pollution that winds up in waterways.

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"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno." - John McCain in 1998

Bashing an 18 year old girl and making a lesbian joke about the attorney general. Enough said. Read the rest of this post...

Is this progress in Iraq?

As if Afghanistan wasn't bad enough, now stories like this from Iraq. What kind of a country are we building in Iraq? Another step in the wrong direction.

The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion -- some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture.

The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other "rules" that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce.

"Fear, fear is always there," says 30-year-old Safana, an artist and university professor. "We don't know who to be afraid of. Maybe it's a friend or a student you teach. There is no break, no security. I don't know who to be afraid of."

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Kentucky paper blasts McConnell for blocking stimulus package

Louisville Courier-Journal editorial:

Obstructionist

Sen. Mitch McConnell did precisely what we said he was doing. He blocked the Senate Democrats' economic stimulus bill, which would have included not only payments to more than 20 million Americans on Social Security and more than 250,000 disabled veterans but help for others in need.

As a result of Sen. McConnell's tactics, the federal effort to stimulate the lagging economy will provide less help. The failure to extend unemployment insurance will affect 11,458 Kentuckians. And Kentucky loses $50.24 million in energy assistance for the needy.

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Bush administration strategy in Anbar imploding

Ilan Goldenberg tells us that the "Anbar Awakening" forces, essentially the Sunni groups we gave money and weapons to so they'd drive out the minor (if oft-cited) al Qaeda elements in Anbar, are close to open conflict with the major elected Sunni parties. I know, it's hard to believe that giving a large group of people a bunch of money and weapons might make them think about using it to gain political power (and not just do whatever we tell them), but it's true:

It looks like tensions have reached a new level between the Sunni Green Zone politicians and the "Awakening" movement. What's scary here is that the level of distrust and hatred in intra-Sunni politics probably doesn't even come close to what you have to deal with in terms of getting the Awakening Groups and Concerned Local Citizens integrated into national Shi'a dominated institutions. And trying to change the leadership by holding elections may only make the situation worse. On top of that, if violence between the Green Zone politicians and the Awakening Councils breaks out in Anbar we're in for a whole new set of problems and "bottom up reconciliation" could very well go up in smoke.

The Bush administration strategy in Iraq continues to make things worse, not better. Day by day, worse and worse.

I was going to close this post by linking to a report of the latest US deaths in Iraq, but CNN doesn't have that information on its front page . . . or it's "World" page . . . or the front page of its "Middle East" section. Fitting, I guess. Read the rest of this post...

Is the blog loading faster, easier now?

UPDATE: Thanks, everyone. Yeah, it seems the "ratings" functionality was slowing the site down, so I'm not going to put it back until we build it ourselves, guaranteeing that it won't conflict with the site loading. I am putting it back up, just for the next hour, so I can run some tests. But it will be gone in an hour. Thanks again.
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Gang, the past few weeks I've been experimenting with a new service that lets you rate posts, take polls, and lets us post a list of the most popular recent posts. During the same period, I've received a lot of emails complaining that the site is loading more slowly, locking up Web browsers, etc. In an effort to see if this new service is the problem, I've removed it from the site. Please click around over the next few hours and let me know, via the comments or via an email, if the site is loading/acting any better. Thanks, JOHN Read the rest of this post...

Evangelicals still not loving McCain. More pandering required.

McCain is going to have to do a lot more pandering if he's going to win over the evangelicals. After McCain's performance yesterday at CPAC, it's clear that McCain is quite capable of doing the necessary pandering to win them over:

"It's possible that the lack of enthusiasm for McCain could lead to a lower turnout among evangelicals in the fall," said Scott Keeter of the Pew Research Center.

That scenario could tilt the election in favor of the Democrats as Republicans have come to rely heavily on an evangelical community energized to get out and vote by its opposition to abortion rights and gay rights.

Their vote was widely seen as the difference for President George W. Bush in his two successful White House runs.

"Anything short of a fully engaged and mobilized Republican base will spell disaster for the Republican nominee," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobby group with strong evangelical ties.

"Evangelicals do more than vote ... they volunteer, they work in campaigns. They'll do volunteer phone work and pass out flyers," he said.

Evangelicals comprise about a fifth of the U.S. population and according to Pew surveys account for at least a third of the Republican electorate, giving them serious clout in politics.

At some point, McCain is going to have to decide how hard he is willing to go to win over his own party's base. Looks like McCain has to go pretty far because he can't win without them. Read the rest of this post...

WashPost headline: "Rice Cites Significant Progress in Afghanistan"

Yes, I was quite curious as well what progress she was citing and the story fails to mention anything specific. Of course, this is because there is no progress to cite but don't tell that to whoever coughed up the headline. Afghanistan has drifted for years and now we have a resurgent Taliban, increased poppy production, dropping investments and a government who stands idle while a journalist is found guilty of downloading a report on women's rights. No wonder they can't cite a damned thing. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

John McCain was in full pander mode yesterday at CPAC. His mantra was "I am one of you." Now, let's just hope that some inkling of that pandering performance penetrated the thinking of the punditry -- the ones who love McCain. Many of them push the line that McCain is something of a maverick moderate. He's not. Yesterday, McCain showed his true colors -- as he was begging the right wingers to like him. That's the story on John McCain.

Okay, let's get moving.... Read the rest of this post...

Japanese whale hunters kill mother and calf

At least the Australian government is documenting the whale hunt this year to prove once and for all, this has nothing to do with science. This is all about the ego of a small group of backwards thinking people in Japan who don't care how much they embarrass the rest of the country. Last year the whale meat was so unpopular they tried giving it away to schools. Even then, nobody wanted it.

It's time to put this hunt in the past and move on. Why is Australia the only country to get serious? What was disappointing this year was that Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd could not even agree on working together in harassing the Japanese whaling fleet. Both used too much fuel so they had to turn back to refuel. Not long after their departure, the Japanese hunters successfully killed a number of whales including the mother and calf. The environmental groups are going to need to do much better in the future, but so are governments from the US and Europe. Read the rest of this post...

James Dobson endorses Huckabee

I know the extremist religious right is behind the times, but talk about showing up late to the party. Not just any leader could dive in and support a candidate after the game is over. It takes a special kind of leader to stand up and let the world know that he doesn't care how stupid this looks because McCain has won and the time for leadership was weeks or months ago. Who am I to argue for what passes as vision and bold leadership among the Christian crazies? Just don't give up the dream Mr Dobson. Keep fighting on! Read the rest of this post...