Yeah, I know, I'm late to the party, but John McCain gave a big speech on climate policy today. When I was writing this piece for the print mag about McCain's topsy-turvy environmental record, a couple of folks told me that he was planning to talk about global warming a lot in the general election, using Schwarzenegger's green-themed lurch to the center in California as a model. So, here...Posted 11:57 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(1) | Share this post Since we're discussing bald eagles, I might as well bring up the symbolically resonant case of Beauty--an injured eagle from Alaska that is being fitted with a prosthetic beak:
(Credit: AP)
Looking at the image, it's hard not to think of America's "wounded warriors"--the thousands of injured Iraq and Afghanistan veterans that are fuelling a prosthetic body parts boom. In ...Posted 01:40 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(8) | Share this post The Associated Press reports that a three-judge panel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously yesterday that Winslow Friday, a member of the Northern Arapaho tribe in Wyoming, will have to stand trial for shooting and killing a bald eagle for use in a tribal ritual:The appeals court ruled that American Indians' religious freedoms
are not violated by federal law protecting eagles...Posted 06:40 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(6) | Share this post Al Gore told NPR this week that the typhoon in Burma "might be associated with continued global warming." The Cato Institute's Indur Goklany wonders how this can be possible, since sea-surface temperatures in the Bay of Bengal before the storm hit were about the same as they were at the same time last year, and were actually cooler than in 2005. So how can one say that warming contributed...Posted 02:53 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(10) | Share this post A report last week from MIT's Technology Review points out that we've been experiencing a severe silicon drought in the US since 2005. Capacity to extract and produce silicon, long used for semiconductors and in microtechnology, has not kept pace with the increasing demand--especially for the type of silicon used in solar panels. So even as support for generating solar power has lifted the...Posted 11:45 AM to Environment & Energy | Comments(2) | Share this post 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(11) | 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(11) | Share this post Usually, when anyone claims to have a simple, elegant solution to the problem of runaway greenhouse-gas emissions that doesn't require a massive restructuring of the world's energy policies, well, I narrow my eyes and keep a hand on my wallet. But New Scientist has a story that sounds... well, let's just call it "eyebrow raising." Ning Zeng, a climatologist at the University ...Posted 01:11 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(18) | 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
The Supreme Court announced today that for the first time in recent memory, it will be unable to consider a case because too many justices recused themselves due to conflicts of interest. The case asked whether lawsuits based on the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act can proceed against companies who did business with Apartheid-era South Africa. (The lawsuits will go forward, since the opinion from the Second...Posted 06:13 PM to The Plank | Comments(6) | Share this post
To mark the 60th
anniversary of Israel's
independence, we're going through TNR's archives to find some of our most memorable
writings on the subject. Today, we've updated with pieces from Yossi Klein
Halevi, our man in Jerusalem. His
dispatches look back at the West
Bank pullout, consider the legacy of Ariel
Sharon, and even meditate on the appeal of Kabbalah
in the...Posted 04:16 PM to The Plank | Comments(1) | Share this post Remember that Pentagon program, revealed last month, that fed talking points to supposedly objective military analysts to push the Bush administration's line on Iraq? The Department of Defense just released thousands of documents from the program, so we asked Government Executive correspondent and TNR contributor Alyssa Rosenberg to sift through the documents and see what she can find:
Reading...Posted 04:10 PM to The Plank | Comments(8) | Share this post Kudos to Michael Slackman for his superb New York Times story today on Saudi Arabian youths (male youths, to be exact). The piece starts with a Tom Friedman-esque anecdote about a young Saudi trying to get a girl's phone number, and the reader is reasonably certain that what follows will be a heartwarming tale about how kids in every culture are basically the same, and how the next generation ...Posted 03:31 PM to The Plank | Comments(12) | Share this post I know I made fun of George Will a little while ago, but his new column -- questions for John McCain -- is extremely sharp. (In fact, Will writes a lot of good columns -- I just can't stomach him calling somebody a condescending elitist.) The amazing thing is that reporters have a lot of access to McCain and they never ask questions like this. They should literally print out this column and start...Posted 03:26 PM to The Plank | Comments(3) | Share this post Talking Points Memo has a video compilation from the weekend talk shows. I particularly liked this exchange between Bon Schieffer of CBS News and Terry MacAuliffe of the Clinton campaign:
Bob Schieffer: Was she somehow saying that black people are not hard working or that white people are not going to vote for Barack Obama?
Terry MacAuliffe: No, absolutely not. If Barack Obama happens...Posted 01:46 PM to The Plank | Comments(16) | Share this post John C. Hulsman and A. Wess Mitchell have a fun and smart article in The National Interest comparing the Corleone family's response to the attempted assassination of Vito to America's response to 9/11. Tom Hagen counsels prudence and negotiation, and therefore represents the "liberal institutionalism" of the Democratic Party. Sonny Corleone wants vengeance and conflict, and thus ...Posted 12:48 PM to The Plank | Comments(6) | Share this post As the McCain veep watch chugs on, one name that's come up repeatedly is that of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, whom fiscal conservatives love. One thing that's not as widely known about Sanford, though--and one reason why it might not be realistic to expect Republicans to be enthusiastic about his selection--is that he's a harsh critic of the Bush administration's power grab...Posted 12:26 PM to The Plank | Comments(8) | Share this post Josh notes that, before opting for just-resigned lobbyist Doug Goodyear, John McCain initially wanted Paul Manafort to run the 2008 Republican National Convention. Manafort was passed over, ironically enough, thanks to his lobbying ties with foreign governments. Which governments? Newsweek cites those of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich. Which...Posted 12:10 PM to The Plank | Comments(1) | Share this post John McCain plans to spend the entire week talking about global warming. "Talking" is arguably the operative word here, since the Arizona Senator's record suggests he's more interested in looking like a "maverick" than fixing the problem.
Check out Jonathan Chait and Bradford Plumer's coverage of McCain's green record and see for yourself.
--The EditorsPosted 12:08 PM to The Plank | Comments(2) | Share this post ...but sometimes the nation's newspaper of record reads like one. Alan Jacobs at The American Scene makes appropriate fun of this line from an Eric Asimov story on wine:People are unlikely to be ridiculed for buying $300 jeans that are
washed, bleached and beaten over rocks instead of $60 jeans that will
last a decade. My favorite example of the Times's sheltered, blue-statey innocence from...Posted 11:40 AM to The Plank | Comments(5) | Share this post The night of the Indiana primary, I was musing here about exit polls showing that a significant number of Hillary Clinton voters plan to vote for John McCain in November even if Clinton is the nominee. The Jed Report -- a statistically-sharp pro-Obama blog -- breaks this down further. His conclusion:
Therefore, among voters who are not committed McCain supporters, Barack Obama won a 3.6 point victory...Posted 11:34 AM to The Plank | Comments(11) | Share this post
Via Politico's Martin, Minnesota Governor and McCain VP contender Tim Pawlenty:"I have a wife who genuinely loves to fish. I mean, she will take the
lead and ask me to go out fishing, and joyfully comes here," the
governor said before adding, "She loves football, she'll go to hockey
games and, I jokingly say, 'Now, if I could only get her to have sex
with me.'"...Posted 05:48 PM to The Stump | Comments(9) | Share this post Obama has run a pretty great campaign overall, but here's a reminder of a potential trouble to come:For Obama, the challenge will be to respond quickly and surely—but
without overreacting or inviting an endless cycle of recriminations.
Team Obama has been a model of tight, highly efficient organization,
certainly in contrast to most presidential campaigns. The few tensions
that have emerged...Posted 05:15 PM to The Stump | Comments(25) | Share this post A more serious take on the problem noted below, from Time's Scherer:McCain's campaign is resigned to the fact that late night comics are
foaming at the prospect of six more months worth of old man McCain
jokes. And polls show that the Republican's age — he will be 72 by
Election Day — could have an impact at the ballot box. But both McCain
and his advisers have been pointing to a prospect...Posted 04:53 PM to The Stump | Comments(5) | Share this post Among the many fascinating details in Barack Obama's discussion of Israel with Jeffrey Goldberg, this one stood out for me:
I always joke that my intellectual formation was through Jewish scholars and writers, even though I didn’t know it at the time. Whether it was theologians or Philip Roth who helped shape my sensibility, or some of the more popular writers like Leon Uris. ...
Philip...Posted 04:21 PM to The Stump | Comments(16) | Share this post Spam, McDonald's, Israel, AARP, Cheney, plutonium, and more....(It remains to be seen, however, whether the age gap is clearly to McCain's disadvantage.)--Michael CrowleyPosted 03:56 PM to The Stump | Comments(8) | Share this post Ben Smith has an interesting take on Charles Krauthammer's claim that Clinton only learned how to run against Obama "late in the fourth quarter." The winning offensive scheme, writes Krauthammer, was "back to the center -- not ideologically but culturally, not on policy but on attitude. She changed none of her positions on Iraq or Iran or health care or taxes. Instead...Posted 01:24 PM to The Stump | Comments(12) | Share this post First Read has some thoughts about why Obama might agree to those joint forums McCain has proposed, the most important being this one, I think: "It cuts out the media and the commission from the debate/forum conversation -- something campaigns hate. They like to have their own control and simply force the media to cover them roadblock style." That would be a big selling point, particularly...Posted 12:27 PM to The Stump | Comments(21) | Share this post Another day, another combative letter from McCain guru Mark Salter, this one challenging Newsweek's framing of the race. The man loves to write letters! The good news for McCain is that Salter is a skilled writer and interesting thinker, the sort of qualities that endear him to national reporters. But I suspect this habit will backfire on him eventually. It seems dangerous for an aide to churn...Posted 09:32 AM to The Stump | Comments(6) | Share this post So much for that! An Obama insider says the idea of helping Hillary with her debt went down very, very badly among supporters, donors, fundraisers, etc. This person says the most generous offer he could foresee would be Obama headlining a fundraiser for Hillary, but cautions that this is just speculation and might even be a stretch.
Of course, this could just...Posted 01:57 PM to The Stump | Comments(50) | Share this post As a journalist and potential spectator, I think it would be great theater. But if I were thinking through strategy for the Obama campaign, I'd have serious concerns. Here's what today's Times has to say about the idea:
In a sign of what could be an extremely unusual fall campaign, the two sides said Saturday that they would be open to holding joint forums ...Posted 01:22 PM to The Stump | Comments(35) | Share this post Is it just me, or is Hillary now effectively spending Barack Obama's money to continue running against him, albeit more gingerly than before. Just combine a couple pieces of information from today's Times (and elsewhere):
Mr. Obama made his own peace offering to the Clinton camp, albeit a tactical one, suggesting he would be open to helping her retire her campaign debt. “I’d want to have...Posted 01:33 PM to The Stump | Comments(34) | Share this post Bill Clinton boasts that Hillary can get eighty percent in WV. So much for managing expectations! But Rasmussen does have her up by 39 points.Obama's in a bind here. Not competing ensures a total blowout. But competing and still losing badly is rather embarassing. (Not that WV can save Hillary's bacon but Obama wants to downplay stories about his weaknesses.) --Michael CrowleyPosted 05:19 PM to The Stump | Comments(111) | Share this post
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