“The first six months of 2006 were the warmest, on average, since the United States started keeping records in 1895, and global warming is a contributing factor, a U.S. climate expert said on Wednesday.”

The House voted 235-193 today to overturn Bush’s veto, 51 short of the required two-thirds majority. Rep. James Langevin (D-RI), who is wheelchair bound, spoke out about the veto in a emotional speech.

Former Christian Coalition head and Abramoff associate Ralph Reed may have lost his bid for state office in Georgia, but he’s “still the owner of the consulting and lobbying firm Century Strategies. … ‘He’s working it. He’s working it harder now,’ said a campaign staffer.” Apparently Reed knows some corporations in need of a little humping.

The constitutional ban on gay marriage was defeated yesterday in the House. During the debate, several right-wing congressmen revealed what God thinks about the gay marriage amendment:

Rep. John Carter (R-TX): “It’s part of God’s plan for the future of mankind.”

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN): “It wasn’t our idea, it was God’s.”

Rep. Bob Beauprez (R-CO): “We best not be messing with His plan.”

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA): “I think God has spoken very clearly on this issue.”

Watch the video compilation:

Not everyone believes that writing discrimination into the U.S. Constitution reflects biblical principles. The Clergy for Fairness has organized clergy members and religious leaders around the country who strongly oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Full transcript below: Read more

according to Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-MN), who just returned from a visit to Iraq. “Baghdad is worse today than it was three years ago,” he said. Gutknecht was critical of some of the “spin” from Bush administration officials. “We learned it’s not safe to go anywhere outside of the Green Zone any part of the day.” He added, “What I think we need to do more is withdraw more Americans.” (via The Swamp)

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman was in Baghdad yesterday to meet with Iraq’s oil and electricity ministers. The New York Times reports, Bodman “had a rosy view of progress here since his last visit in 2003″:

“The situation seems far more stable than when I was here two or three years ago,” he said in an interview in the fortified Green Zone. “The security seems better, people are more relaxed. There is an optimism, at least among the people I talked to.”

Iraq is not more stable. The same day of Bodman’s visit, a U.N. report showed that 3,149 civilians had died violently in Iraq last month. Baghdad’s central morgue alone received 1,595 bodies in June.

As for Bodman’s sense that Iraqis seem optimistic and “more relaxed,” recall what one private contractor wrote in an intelligence brief to the U.S. military earlier this month:

Baghdad looks so exhausted these days and so do her people; the relentless violence, the lack of basic services and the scorching heat abolishes human desire to do anything or to even think of anything.

Sure sounds relaxing.

Moments ago, Bush made a statement at the White House discussing why he vetoed a bill expanding funding for embryonic stem cell research. (The media was barred from covering the veto itself.) Bush explained, “these boys and girls are not spare parts.” Watch it:

An embryo is not a boy or a girl. It’s a cluster of about 150 cells smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. The embryos funded by the bill Bush vetoed were “created for the purposes of in vitro fertilization”¦which are spare or in excess of clinical need and in every single case are slated for medical waste.”

Only about 10 percent of embryos are adopted “” the rest are disposed of. Had Bush signed the bill into law, they could instead be used to develop potentially live-saving cures for millions of people.

Transcript: Read more

after the Inspector General accused him of violating gift rules in the shooting of an American buffalo, U.S. News reports.

Today, President Bush will veto his first piece of legislation – a stem cell research bill that “could lead to treatments that save millions of lives and improve the quality-of-life for millions more.” Apparently, he’s not too proud of it. Moments ago at the White House press conference, Tony Snow announced that no press would be allowed at the signing:

SNOW: The president will, however, before he delivers remarks this afternoon, veto the Castle bill.

Here’s how it works, because I know a lot of you have had questions. There will be no photographers, no ceremony. What the president will do is, in his office, he will sign a veto message, he will hand it to a clerk, who will convey it to a clerk of the House, and then you go through the formalities of announcing a message from the president, and at some point the House will vote on the veto.

QUESTION: Is there a reason why he’s not having photographers in, at least?

SNOW: Because he doesn’t feel it’s appropriate. He’s signing a veto.

67 percent of Americans support embryonic stem cell research. The same percentage believes “It would be terrible if cures were delayed because of policies that make embryonic stem cell research difficult.”

This morning on Fox, Bill Kristol continued to escalate his calls for war against Iran, stating, “We can try diplomacy. I’m not very hopeful about that. We have to be ready to use force.” Kristol claimed the people of Iran would embrace “the right use of targeted military force.” He added that military force could “trigger changes in Iran,” causing them to embrace regime change. Watch it.

Kristol’s argument is a regurgitation of what he argued would result from the Iraq war. This is what wrote on the pages of the Weekly Standard in the days leading up to the Iraq war:

We are tempted to comment, in these last days before the war, on the U.N., and the French, and the Democrats. But the war itself will clarify who was right and who was wrong about weapons of mass destruction. It will reveal the aspirations of the people of Iraq, and expose the truth about Saddam’s regime. … History and reality are about to weigh in, and we are inclined simply to let them render their verdicts.

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.

Transcript: Read more