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He's going to veto the farm bill:"At a time of record farm income, Congress decided to further increase subsidy rates, qualify more people for taxpayer support and move programs toward more government control," Schafer told reporters today. "The president will veto this bill." ...Bush had also asked for a $200,000 cap on payments to farm owners. The bill ends payments to individuals...Posted 09:12 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(2) | Share this post It's tempting to agree with Bob Kagan--that the 21st century will indeed be just like the 19th. Yet there's (at least) one crucial difference: Following J.A. Hobson's analysis, 19th century imperialism was largely driven by a quest for new markets, while 21st century "imperialism" is mostly driven by a quest for security of supply, in order to up the living standards...Posted 03:26 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(3) | Share this post Lest anyone think that Isabella Rossellini's foray into zoophilia for the cover image of our environmental issue was a one-time deal, check out this year's Sundance Film Festival, which features a series of short "Green Pornos" directed, written by, and starring the most genetically perfect human being on the planet (thanks to MoJo for the link).
The films feature...Posted 02:38 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(9) | Share this post Normally, if anyone claimed to have a simple, elegant solution to the problem of runaway greenhouse-gas emissions that didn't require a massive restructuring of the world's energy policies, well, I'd narrow my eyes and keep a hand on my wallet. But New Scientist has a story that sounds... well, let's call it "possibly plausible." Ning Zeng, a climatologist at the University...Posted 01:11 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(15) | Share this post In other cool animal news, a group of scientists in New Zealand have released more information about that colossal squid carcass they've been studying for the past year. The 32-foot-long squid has eyes about the size of beachballs, and may not even be full-grown—it's possibly even just 2/3 the size of a mature adult. Very few people have ever seen a colossal squid alive, and only...Posted 03:32 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(19) | Share this post Judy Pasternak had a good piece in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday taking a closer look at the rapid proliferation of uranium-mining claims on the fringes of Grand Canyon National Park. The number of claims within five miles of the park has soared from just 10 in January 2003 to more than 1,100 now, with most of the new claims on the Kaibab Plateau north of the canyon. Pasternak highlights the dilemma...Posted 01:55 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(8) | Share this post I can't say for certain what role The Wall Street Journal's in-house conservatives played in this incident, recounted by one of the paper's news editors, but there are at least a couple important insights here:
The other night, the phrase "global warming" drew our attention. Its use as a "stated fact" in a commentary piece seemed loaded, and we decided to edit it...Posted 01:45 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(13) | Share this post
Because she's a dominant hermaphrodite with the social intelligence of a primate, that's why. Smithsonian magazine has up an amazing piece about spotted hyenas in Kenya, detailing their matriarchical clannish society and bizarre private parts (hyenas were long thought to have witch-like powers, including the ability to change gender at will to foil predators—in fact, female hyenas have extremely...Posted 12:30 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(5) | Share this post This probably isn't the first thing anyone wants to see looming over their house:
That's from this Reuters slideshow of last Friday's eruption of Mount Chaiten in Chile, a volcano that was long believed to be inactive.
--Bradford PlumerPosted 11:55 AM to Environment & Energy | Comments(4) | Share this post Guess it's not just American politicians calling for a gas-tax holiday: Now the New Zealand government is going to hold off on adding liquid fuels to its national cap-and-trade system for two years, to temper rising gas prices (the cap would've boosted gas prices up to 30 cents/gallon). New Zealand's Greens are enraged, although the prime minister insists that high oil prices are doing...Posted 11:32 AM to Environment & Energy | Comments(3) | Share this post There are two things going on with high gasoline prices. From an environmental standpoint, these are pretty valuable price signals that are getting people to consume less oil, drive more sparingly, and switch to more fuel-efficient cars. Insofar as you think it's a good idea to wean the country off fossil fuels—either for energy-security reasons or to save the planet from toasting—those are positives...Posted 12:28 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(18) | Share this post One of the things we can expect to see more of in the final months of the Bush administration is a major push by industry groups to get sweetheart deals and favorable policy changes railroaded through before the next president is sworn in. The creatively named Froude Reynolds highlights one such attempt, by the nefarious Westlands Water District in California's San Joaquin Valley. Westlands, you...Posted 05:34 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(7) | Share this post
It's a good thing for Obama that he's pretty much got the nomination in the bag, because I don't think this video is going to get him that many votes (H/t T.P.):--Jason ZengerlePosted 08:55 PM to The Plank | Comments(11) | Share this post The idea of a Barack
Obama-Hillary Clinton "unity ticket" has been floated quite a bit the last few
days. But, seriously, is the idea any good? We asked a few friends of the
magazine to weigh in. Here's Mark Schmitt, senior fellow at the New America
Foundation.
There are fights within the Democratic Party that reflect
deep structural and ideological rifts that, in turn, are...Posted 06:06 PM to The Plank | Comments(22) | Share this post In general, I dig quirky scenes-from-the-trail color. But CNN has a snippet from Obama's press plane so weird and stupid it must be seen to be believed. Titled simply "Obama in jeans," it presumably aims to show us the famously dapper candidate in a dressed-down moment. But you can't see the jeans that well in the grainy footage, and at some point in the 1:01 video (the last quarter...Posted 05:49 PM to The Plank | Comments(13) | Share this post Karl Rove, writing in today's Wall Street Journal:
This will be a very difficult year for Republicans. The economy's shaky state, an unpopular war, and the natural desire for partisan change after eight years of one party in the White House have helped tilt the balance to the Democrats.
Gee, Karl, any other factors you're leaving out here? Republican scandals and incompetence...Posted 05:24 PM to The Plank | Comments(5) | Share this post ...always have, always will.I saw the Tarantino-scripted, Tony-Scott-directed True Romance twice in theatres, but was one of the few to do so, as the movie made a paltry $11.5 million during its initial release. But it became a cult success on video, especially once Pulp Fiction made Tarantino a household name, and Maxim has gathered the cast and filmmakers for a 15th anniversary testimonial. As is...Posted 04:25 PM to The Plank | Comments(6) | Share this post The Federal Election Commission, you will recall, is currently unable to function because four of its six seats are vacant, thanks to a long-standing nomination dispute between the Bush administration and Senate Democrats. In what looked like a surprisingly conciliatory gesture, Bush agreed to send up a new slate of nominees. On closer inspection, though, what he's really done is send a big favor...Posted 03:54 PM to The Plank | Comments(5) | Share this post I just received an odd fund-raising plea from Bill Clinton. It begins:Dear Friend,I want to tell you about the day I had on Monday. I stopped in nine towns
throughout North Carolina, starting the day at 7:30 a.m. in Elizabeth City and
ending with a rally in Raleigh. That's the most stops I've ever done in a single
day--for any campaign. And I couldn't be happier to work that...Posted 03:15 PM to The Plank | Comments(5) | Share this post Mike asks, "if Hillary thinks white Americans won't elect a black president, is it so transgressive for her to say it out loud?" Matthw Yglesias agrees, "I think Clinton's meaning is perfectly clear -- she really does do better than Obama among white working class voters in Democratic primary elections."
The offensive part of Clinton's quote -- "working, hard-...Posted 02:14 PM to The Plank | Comments(36) | Share this post Some
excellent home news to report: Our very own Kate Marsh won an Edgar
Award for her haunting children's novel, The
Night Tourist. It's a prestigious piece of hardware, and huge
congratulations are in order. ...
--The EditorsPosted 01:34 PM to The Plank | Comments(6) | Share this post Over at The Stump, Mike asks:If Hillary thinks white Americans won't elect a black president, is it so transgressive for her to say it out loud? Generally speaking, one should not get in trouble for stating what they believe to be the truth. But it's a matter of context. Clinton is saying this about the man who is going to be the Democratic nominee for President; these comments are not happening...Posted 01:12 PM to The Plank | Comments(13) | Share this post The idea of a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton "unity ticket" has been floated quite a bit the last few days. But, seriously, is the idea any good? We asked a few friends of the magazine to weigh in. Here's Ed Kilgore, managing editor of The Democratic Strategist, an online magazine.
There are a lot of obstacles to an Obama-Clinton "unity ticket." Maybe she doesn't want...Posted 12:37 PM to The Plank | Comments(15) | Share this post Yesterday, Dick Morris wrote this in The Hill, dismissing the idea that Hillary would adopt the Mike Huckabee "play nice" strategy for the remainder of her campaign: Hillary won’t avail herself of that option because it does not serve
her long-term fallback position: a shot at the nomination in 2012. If
Obama is elected this year, he will seek reelection in 2012 and Hillary
would have...Posted 12:07 PM to The Plank | Comments(18) | Share this post
As long as we're doing what-ifs, John Heilemann has an interesting one in his latest column:
What if Clinton had gone magnanimous on Obama and the Reverend Wright?The GOP strategist Alex Castellanos offers an intriguing theory about how Hillary might have reacted differently, and more effectively, to the issue that threatened to swallow Obama. “After the Reverend Wright controversy...Posted 12:12 AM to The Stump | Comments(11) | Share this post Time's Tumulty on Hillary's five big mistakes is a good read. But let me offer a candidate for number six: Standing by her Iraq vote. Hillary made it clear that, knowing what she knows now, she would not have voted to authorize the war in October 2002. But she never flat-out apologized for her vote. Let's flash back to February 2007:One of the most important decisions that Senator Hillary...Posted 05:13 PM to The Stump | Comments(17) | Share this post Two quick, semi-related thoughts:
1.) On the "white Americans" comment, I 80-percent agree with Mike. Hillary was saying something we've all been preoccupied with for months now. It gets more attention when she says it, but you can't pretend it's never come up in polite company. The problem is the implication that non-white Americans aren't hard-working, which, if you'...Posted 01:57 PM to The Stump | Comments(27) | Share this post It's definitely uncomfortable to hear her say it, but if Hillary thinks white Americans won't elect a black president, is it so transgressive for her to say it out loud? Everyone in politics and media has been having this conversation for more than a year now. If anything it seems better than reliance on cutesy euphemisms like "working class" or "electability." I'm ...Posted 10:40 AM to The Stump | Comments(58) | Share this post Tom DeFrank has something I hadn't heard before:
A top Democratic source with insight into Bill's and Hillary's states of mind says the Clintons are convinced that a Democratic presidency is all but certain no matter how messy the fight for the nomination.
In that scenario - which the Obama side and some Democratic elders worry is wishful thinking at best, delusional at worst - there...Posted 11:41 PM to The Stump | Comments(17) | Share this post Update: Sorry people, a friend who knows from Intrade says I'm looking at the wrong numbers (although even he wasn't sure what the ones below are.) Obama is actually at a more sensible 91.9. McCain's at 95.2. The Intrade prediction market has Obama surging to nearly 87 percent. Still sounds low to me! (Slate's Hillary DeathWatch now gives her a 2.5 percent shot at the nomination.)Also...Posted 05:54 PM to The Stump | Comments(10) | Share this post Clinton held a somewhat Baghdad Bob-ish presser today in which she vowed to press on towards the nomination. Like her aides on this morning's conference call, she reminded people that her husband didn't lock up the nomination until June of 1992. "We tradiitionally have gone longer than you've seen in the last couple of cycles," Hillary said. For those who missed it, this might...Posted 05:00 PM to The Stump | Comments(5) | Share this post Here's someone else who found her "robotic and hollow" as she spoke of the upcoming contests last night (but animated while giving valedictory-seeming thanks to her family and supporters). I'm actually a little surprised she's pressing on. Surely even the Clintons can see some point of diminishing returns where the harm to their reputation outweighs whatever tiny chance she has...Posted 04:43 PM to The Stump | Comments(25) | Share this post Since the results came into focus last night, I've heard a couple explanations for why Hillary might stay in the race even though she has no chance of victory. Most of them boil down to proving some sort of point in West Virginia and Kentucky. For example, Tim Russert (I think) suggested that winning big in those states lays the groundwork for a kind of "I told you so" argument ...Posted 10:58 AM to The Stump | Comments(28) | Share this post Opening what may prove his most challenging conference call of the campaign, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson promises to "talk about how we go forward from here towards the nomination and victory in November."More: Working with thin gruel, the Clinton team doesn't have much more to offer. Wins in upcoming states, seating Michigan and Florida, and, above all, convincing superdelegates...Posted 10:07 AM to The Stump | Comments(18) | Share this post "Clinton-Obama '08," a unity ticket organization started by ex-Hillary vets, re-filed last week (and unveiled itself yesterday afternoon) as "Vote Both." Says founder Adam Parkhomenko, “originally my goal was to have a place for
Clinton-Obama supporters (in that order) to organize,” but now the org's mock banner alternates between reading "Clinton-Obama" and...Posted 05:53 AM to The Stump | Comments(54) | Share this post A few days ago I joked that Hillary had come to resemble Mike Huckabee: Deriding elites, playing the populist, campaigning hard in rural areas. But as I get ready to sign off, with Indiana still undecided, it's clear that tonight was at best a major blow for Hillary and at worst a total campaign-ending disaster. A few TV commentators have declared that her campaign is effectively dead either way...Posted 12:41 AM to The Stump | Comments(11) | Share this post
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