Needlenose

Although Obama seems to be having some trouble getting unity among his own party in Congress, there is some good news – 8 Republican Representatives  crossed party lines to vote with the Dems on the recent climate change legislation.

Although I’ve occasionally decried the leadership of Pelosi and Reid, the looming GOP attacks on these 8 Representatives could give Pelosi something to work with in the form of a small group of ‘quislings’ to give the appearance of bi-partisan support to legislation and offset the more disloyal and conservative Democratic Representatives.  Definitely 8 Reps to keep an eye on!

In related and joyful news, Al Franken is now Senator Al Franken, because “he’s good enough, and smart enough, and doggone it, Minnesotans like him!”

Juan Cole marks today as a critical milestone in the Iraq War, the beginning of the end of the conflict.  He points out a number of issues and potential actions that could bedevil the withdrawal, from a potential uptick in car bombings to Iranian meddling.

I was concerned as far back as November 2003 that there were elements within Iraq that would like to keep us around and might carry out actions that would make it difficult or impossible for us to leave.

So far it seems that most of the continuing internecine bloodbath is focused around the Kurdistan/Islamic Republic of Iraq divide in ‘swing’ cities Mosul and Kirkuk.  I think the Shi’ites and Kurds will find common cause at some point and that won’t be an impediment to withdrawal.

I don’t think Iranian meddling will be as much of an issue – if the Mullah government doesn’t fall to the Green Revolution, it will certainly be bloodied, and much less inclined to meddle in Iraqi affairs.

So the real question I think will be the Sunni/Shi’ite divide and how soon and to what extent it intensifies.

I few weeks ago I was getting a cheap laugh at the citizens of Tennessee and their desire to legally mix moonshine with handguns.  But I figured it was a freak hillbilly thing, and we wouldn’t see other Red States rushing to recreate the Old West.

But I’ll be danged – here I am sitting in a bar in Phoenix reading the paper and guess what?  The folks in McCain Country will shortly follow suit, creating a toxic mix of booze, rednecks and firearms.

I better git outta Dodge pronto!

Obama’s tough talk with rogue leaders is worse than Shrubya’s tough talk about rogue leaders that accomplished nothing.

Who is stupider, Victor Davis Hanson or Deborah Saunders? And why does the SF Chronicle run their columns?

In the very beginning of the Judeo-Christian bible, God allegedly grants humanity

“…dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

And so it came to pass.  And speaking of creeping things that doth creepeth, it seems the creeps have inherited the Earth, creeps that seem intent to stomp every creeping thing over which they have dominion into extinction (and don’t forget the permanent snuffing the fowl of the air).

You’re probably wondering why I’ve decided to bum you out tonight.  I’m blue because of these new bummer tidbits, the massive die-off and looming extinction of nine species of shark due to the charming practice of ‘finning’ the poor critters for shark-fin soup while tossing the still alive but mutilated shark back into the ocean to effectively die slowly from blood loss and asphyxiation.

I can’t tell you how depressed I get knowing that over the course of my lifetime I’ve watched the biggest species die-off since the disappearance of the dinosaurs.  Except for a few modest successes (think a few species of whales, wolves, American bison), people world-wide seem driven to destroy as many habitats and species as rapidly as possible, whether through global warming, deforestation, desertification, strip mining, urban sprawl, polluting and increasing the acidity of fresh and salt water, overfishing, poaching and just polluting the air and land in general.  Is the game to see how many of them we can take with us before our fossil fuel runs out and civilization collapses?

In the case of creatures like pelagic sharks or other deepsea fish, we’re looking at the classic tragedy of the commons writ large.  Unless some modern day, environmentally-motivated Captain Nemo decides to take matters into his own hands, it’s pretty much all she wrote for these poor creatures.  Wouldn’t hurt to have some more (and less gentle) Bruno Mansers on land as well.

There might be a bit more hope for the poor vaquita which recently lost funds for protection due to the economic downturn.  Rather than watch it follow the Yangtse River Dolphin, perhaps a campaign funded by private donations run by a group such as the WWF could make up the shortfall?

The only thing that depresses me more than the actual mass extinction event underway is how people seem to care so little about it.

The 2,000-plus miles of the Appalachian Trail might be considered a brisk stroll in comparison to the long verbal road South Carolina governor Mark Sanford took in today’s press conference, before finally admitting that his mysterious 7-day disappearance from the state was related to an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina.

He didn’t have much choice.  Once he was surprised by a local reporter at the Atlanta airport (where he’d hoped to evade notice), there was no way to keep the media from dissecting clues about where he’d been, and no plausible cover story he could tell to end the speculation (especially since the real story was already leaking out).

It’s amusing, though, that Sanford implied in the press conference that he was down in Buenos Aires putting an end to the affair.  Seven days seems like an awfully long time to spend breaking up, y’know?

Depressing news, a new world record – there are now 1 billion hungry people in the world, about 1 out of every 7 people.  Lester Brown of the WorldWatch Institute warns how food shortages are leading to failed states and a threat to the overall world order.

Venal senators from the Midwest just don’t get it – they insist on porking out the current energy bill with subsidies for corn farmers, diverting food from the plates of the world poor into the gas tanks of the rich’s SUVs.

Again via the indefatigable Nico Pitney, a report from Iran’s official (!) PressTV news agency:

Iran’s Guardian Council has admitted that the number of votes collected in 50 cities surpass the number of the people eligible to cast ballot in those areas.

The council’s Spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, who was speaking on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Channel 2 on Sunday, made the remarks in response to complaints filed by Mohsen Rezaei — a defeated candidate in the June 12 Presidential election.

“Statistics provided by Mohsen Rezaei in which he claims more than 100% of those eligible have cast their ballot in 170 cities are not accurate — the incident has happened in only 50 cities,” Kadkhodaei said.

The spokesman, however, said that although the vote tally affected by such an irregularity is over 3 million, “it has yet to be determined whether the amount is decisive in the election results” . . .

Hey, so there were at least a few million votes’ worth of fraud — but let’s not jump to the conclusion that it’s any kind of big deal! Somewhere, Antonin Scalia is smiling…

Via Nico Pitney’s indispensable liveblog at the Huffington Post, President Obama has edged a bit further off the sidelines regarding the Iranian post-election protests:

I’m very concerned — based on some of the tenor and tone of the statements that have been made – that the government of Iran recognize that the world is watching. And how they approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard will, I think, send a pretty clear signal to the international community about what Iran is and — and is not.

Meanwhile, the immense crowds that have been gathering daily in Tehran and the authoritarian regime they’re protesting against continue to watch each other, waiting to see who will blink first.

Despite threats from “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of violence in response to further demonstrations, messages of continuing resistance are being passed along via new media (thanks, Attackerman) and word of mouth.

The mood of the protesters seems to be both courageous and fatalistic.  Anecdotes cited in Nico Pitney’s liveblog and elsewhere on HuffPo reveal individuals uncertain of their chances of success — or even survival — and not viewing Mousavi as a savior, but nonetheless recognizing what may be a singular opportunity to affirm that the voice of the people matters in their country.

The government’s reluctance so far to respond with a direct crackdown is explained by Jon Lee Anderson in the New Yorker:

Thirty years ago, during the demonstrations that led to the Shah’s downfall, one of the dominant images was scenes of uniformed soldiers firing live ammunition at protesters. This week, Iran’s clerics seem determined, at least, not to repeat that historic mistake. They remember that the daily news coverage of the Shah’s soldiers shooting and killing unarmed protesters precipitated the collapse of the regime.

The regime’s attempt to quell the dissent has thus been limited to the work of shadowy plainclothes militias, whose thuggery appears to have been met in some instances with reverse vigilantism.

In this context, Obama’s reminder that “the world is watching” is timely and important as a way of (hopefully) deterring wider bloodshed.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

I found this puff piece on ‘secret’ negotiations between the US and so-called ‘moderate’ members of the Taliban on HuffPo and I was quickly skimming through it when this bit caught my eye:

Also included in the negotiations is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the notorious renegade Afghan warlord whose active insurgency continues to fight against U.S. and coalition forces.
Two former Pakistani intelligence officials say a deal was underway in which Hekmatyar would call for an end to his insurgency and be allowed to live above ground in Saudi Arabia with a budget of $85 million. At least one Afghan government official confirmed that a deal with Hekmatyar was being assembled.

Seriously?  Gulbuddin Hekmatyar? If there is any credence whatsoever to the article, Obama will just be the next in line to be taken by this consummate “Khan” artist.