for referring to a man of Indian descent as “macaque.” “In no way was it meant to demean him, and I’m sorry if he was offended,” Allen said in a telephone interview. “Let’s give a welcome to macaque here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia,” Allen said in remarks last Friday, referring to S.R. Sidarth, who was born and raised in Virginia.

UPDATE: Crooks and Liars has the video of CNN’s interview with Sidarth.

at airport check-in counters, suggested conservative radio host Mike Gallagher on Fox News’s “Dayside.” “It’s time to have a Muslims check-point line in America’s airports and have Muslims be scrutinized. You better believe it, it’s time.”

than in apparently any other month of the war. “An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed per day in July, according to figures from the Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue. At least 3,438 civilians died violently that month, a 9 percent increase over the tally in June and nearly twice as many as in January.”

Over the weekend, Donald J. Boudreaux — George Mason Unversity professor and “adjunct analyst” at the Exxon-backed Competitive Enterprise Institute — wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune called “The case for neglecting global warming.” He argued that the “documented health gains that people in the West have enjoyed over the past five or six generations” can be attributed to capitalism. Therefore, the government shouldn’t work to stop climate change because it would impede capitalism:

Those of us who recognize these important benefits of capitalism…are reluctant to yield power to governments to tackle global warming. … [I]t’s a perfectly legitimate stance for truly reasonable people to conclude that the best policy regarding global warming is to neglect it — and let capitalism continue to make us healthier and wealthier.

Big business recognizes that strong environmental policies and capitalism aren’t mutually exclusive. According to a recent report from the Climate Group, an international environmental charity, “43 multinationals — including Bayer, BT and DuPont — saved a combined $11.6 billion last year by improving energy efficiency, reducing waste output and harnessing solar power.”

The best policy regarding global warming is to neglect Boudreaux.

Last night, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol appeared on the Charlie Rose show and reported from inside knowledge that President Bush is “not believing the happy talk any more that he was getting from Rumsfeld.” But, Kristol claimed, Bush will not replace the Secretary of Defense because he’s “unwilling to second-guess Rumsfeld’s fundamental understanding of the use of the military” in Iraq. Watch it:

As Sen. Hillary Clinton pointed out at a recent hearing, Rumsfeld’s “fundamental understanding” of Iraq has been consistently wrong every step of the way. At one point, Rumsfeld even acknowledged surprise at the hostility the troops faced in Iraq. Bush’s unwillingness to question Rumsfeld or challenge his decisions has prevented the strategy in Iraq from advancing past “stay the course.”

Full transcript: Read more

why it never revealed Labor Department deputy assistant secretary Karen Czarnecki’s government position when she appeared on their shows: “The only terms on which we could keep her was to not identify her as a Bush person.”

each year since 2001, according to a report by the Republican Senate Budget Committee. The analysis raises doubts over Pentagon projections that spending will only increase 3.4 percent a year from 2007 to 2011. “Is that sustainable given the underlying trends in defense spending?”

Yesterday, 24,000 scientists, activists, and officials arrived in Toronto for the world’s “largest ever AIDS conference.” “[S]ome of the most important breakthroughs in the fight against AIDS have been announced” at these conferences.

But instead of engaging the global community on solutions, the Bush administration has decided to cut back its presence at this year’s conference because it can’t stand mild criticism:

Travel restrictions implemented by the office of the U.S.a Global AIDS Coordinator following the 2002 International AIDS Conference in Barcelona “” at which former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson was booed by critics who believed the U.S. contribution to the Global AIDS Fund was insufficient “” reduced the maximum number of HHS officials who can attend the conference by two-thirds, from more than 230 in 2002 to 50, according to HHS spokesperson Bill Hall.

The Bush administration’s “intensely ideological approach” to HIV/AIDS issues has stirred more resentment than hope among the activist community. The government’s “ABC” policy — “Abstinence, Be Faithful, and Use a Condom” — has been “criticized for excessively encouraging abstinence and marital fidelity,” with condoms demoted to “a last-resort option.”

Bill Gates sharply criticized the administration’s approach in the conference’s keynote address, pointing out that abstinence “is often not an option for poor women and girls, who have no choice but to marry at an early age.” A recent GAO report found that the President’s policy had “created a culture of fear” among aid partners.

Bush’s policies sound like they deserve a few boos.

– Rohan Mascarenhas

Salon profiles methods being used in six states, including “new photo I.D. laws, the criminalizing of voter registration drives, and database purges that have disqualified up to 40 percent of newly registered voters from voting.”