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Politics

Perino quotes Daily Show host ‘Don Stewart.’

At today’s White House press briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino said that setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq is like sending a “save-the-date card to the Iraqis.” She added, “I stole that from Don Stewart,” referring to the host of the Daily Show, evoking laughter from the press corps. One reporter tried to correct her; another said, “I bet you just guaranteed yourself an appearance there.” Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/04/perinostewart1.320.240.flv]

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Politics

White House Cites ‘Experience From September 11th’ To Justify Staying In Iraq

In today’s White House press briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino tried to justify President Bush’s escalation in Iraq by stating, “The terrorists that are seeking a safe haven in Iraq, if we were to leave, would find one, just like they had one in Afghanistan.” When reporter Helen Thomas asked how she knows that statement is true, Perino replied, “Well, based on experience from September 11th, that’s how we know it.” Thomas then quickly said, “September 11th had nothing to do with Iraq.” Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/04/perino911.320.240.flv]

As the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Additionally, a new survey of military and diplomatic analysts concludes that “the likelihood that enemy combatants from Iraq might follow departing U.S. forces back to the United States is remote at best.” The danger is that staying in Iraq is breeding more new terrorists by the day.

UPDATE: Last week, Vice President Cheney also tried to tie Iraq to 9/11, telling Rush Limbaugh that “Al Qaida [is] operating in Iraq. And as I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq.”

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Security

Hillary Clinton Defends Pelosi Over Syria Trip: She Was ‘Doing The Right Thing’

clinton

In a radio interview with a Syracuse radio station, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) issued a staunch defense of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) trip to Syria last week. Noting that Republicans also visited Syria last week, Clinton said the congressional delegations did “the right thing”:

I think that both her delegation, which was primarily Democrats, and a Republican delegation that was there approximately at the same time are doing the right thing. We have got to engage these countries.

listen_icon1.gifCLICK TO HERE TO LISTEN

“I don’t agree with the President’s view that we don’t talk to bad people,” Clinton said, “because clearly that’s not a smart way to figure out how you can bring leverage on them and that’s what I’m interested in.” Clinton is right. Leverage over Syria can only come from giving the regime an opportunity to demonstrate it is willing to become part of the solution rather than remain part of the problem. The Bush administration’s approach of isolating Syria has only made the situation worse because it contains no incentives for Syria to change its behavior.

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Media

Civility

Eric Alterman has a great column up about “The Politics of Pundit Prestige.” The lede is worth the price of admission:

Back in the pre-Internet days of yore, political punditry was the best job in journalism and one of the best anywhere. You could spout off on anything you wanted, and almost nobody would call you on it, much less find a place to publish and prove you wrong. And once you had established yourself as “credible,” it required little work, save coming up with a few semi-memorable phrases. (George Will’s chef-d’oeuvre was opining that the Reagan Administration “loved commerce more than it loathed Communism.”) With the advent of television talk shows, riches arrived in the form of corporate speaking gigs that paid tens of thousands of dollars an hour just to say the same damn thing you said on television. When Fred Barnes famously pronounced on The McLaughlin Group, “I can speak to almost anything with a lot of authority,” he was right, at least to the degree that he was really saying, “I can speak to almost anything without anyone pointing out how full of shit I usually am.”

This, I think, is what a lot of the obsession with blogosphere “incivility” is all about. A lot of people in the media do things that bloggers generally can’t do. File dispatches from dangerous foreign lands. Investigate serious wrongdoing inside the government. That kind of thing. But lots of people in the media do things that are essentially the same as what bloggers do. Offer commentary on things they read about in the newspaper. Summarize what they think the most salient elements of a high-profile speech were. Point out some noteworthy portions of a press conference. Journalists don’t like the competition, don’t like the criticism, don’t like the threat to their economic model, etc., etc., etc. So there’s a tendency to seize on semi-arbitrary things that distinguish blog posts from op-ed columns. We don’t write “fuck” or call people “wankers,” we don’t say mean things about other journalists, we’re civil, and so forth.

Climate Progress

Summary of the IPCC Summary for Policymakers, Part II

Africa

By 2020, between 75 and 250 million people are projected to be exposed to an increase of water stress due to climate change

The area suitable for agriculture, the length of growing seasons and yield potential, particularly along the margins of semi-arid and arid areas, are expected to decrease. This would further adversely affect food security and exacerbate malnutrition in the continent. In some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50% by 2020.

Towards the end of the 21st century, projected sea-level rise will affect low-lying coastal areas with large populations. The cost of adaptation could amount to at least 5-10% of GDP.

Asia

Glacier melt in the Himalayas is projected to increase flooding, rock avalanches from destabilised slopes, and affect water resources within the next two to three decades.

Freshwater availability in Central, South, East and Southeast Asia particularly in large river basins is projected to decrease due to climate change which, along with population growth and increasing demand arising from higher standards of living, could adversely affect more than a billion people by the 2050s.

It is projected that crop yields could increase up to 20% in East and Southeast Asia while it could decrease up to 30% in Central and South Asia by the mid-21st century.

Endemic morbidity and mortality due to diarrhoeal disease primarily associated with floods and droughts are expected to rise in East, South and Southeast Asia due to projected changes in hydrological cycle associated with global warming.

Australia

Significant loss of biodiversity is projected to occur by 2020 in some ecologically-rich sites including the Great Barrier Reef and Queensland Wet Tropics.

Production from agriculture and forestry by 2030 is projected to decline over much of southern and eastern Australia, and over parts of eastern New Zealand, due to increased drought and fire.

As a result of reduced precipitation and increased evaporation, water security problems are projected to intensify by 2030…

Europe

Nearly all European regions are anticipated to be negatively affected by some future impacts of climate change and these will pose challenges to many economic sectors.

Health risks due to heat waves are projected to increase

Latin America

…gradual replacement of tropical forest by savanna in eastern Amazonia. Semi-arid vegetation will tend to be replaced by arid-land vegetation. There is a risk of significant biodiversity loss through species extinction in many areas of tropical Latin America.

Changes in precipitation patterns and the disappearance of glaciers are projected to significantly affect water availability for human consumption, agriculture and energy generation.

In drier areas, climate change is expected to lead to salinisation and desertification of agricultural land. Productivity of some important crops are projected to decrease and livestock productivity to decline, with adverse consequences for food security.

Sea-level rise is projected to cause increased risk of flooding in low-lying areas.

Polar Regions

In the Polar Regions, the main projected biophysical effects are reductions in thickness and extent of glaciers and ice sheets, and changes in natural ecosystems with detrimental effects on many organisms including migratory birds, mammals and higher predators.

In the Arctic, additional impacts include reductions in the extent of sea ice and permafrost, increased coastal erosion, and an increase in the depth of permafrost seasonal thawingDetrimental impacts would include those on infrastructure and traditional indigenous ways of life.

Beneficial impacts would include reduced heating costs and more navigable northern sea routes.

Small Islands

Small islands, whether located in the Tropics or higher latitudes, have characteristics which make them especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, sea level rise and extreme events.

Politics

Pelosi and Reid respond

to President Bush’s request for a non-negotiation: “The President is demanding that we renew his blank check for a war without end. Despite the fact that the President persists in trying to score political points at the expense of our troops, congressional Democrats have repeatedly reached out in the spirit of cooperation.”

UPDATE: Reid assails Bush during a press conference:

The president is inviting us down to the White House with preconditions. Things are not OK in Iraq. As the Pope said on Easter Sunday, a slaughter is taking place in Iraq. The Pope further said nothing good is coming from Iraq. The president must realize that. He has to deal with Congress. We are an independent branch of this government, and by our Constitution we have equal say that he has. And he’s got to listen to us. Because we are speaking for the American people; he isn’t.

Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/04/reid410iraq.320.240.flv]

Politics

Kerry Forces Gingrich To Admit Inhofe Is Off-Base On Global Warming Science

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) engaged in head-to-head debate this morning on global warming. During the event, Kerry challenged Gingrich on his commitment to global warming science, asking him what his message would be to conservatives like Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) who are “resisting the science.”

Gingrich distanced himself from Inhofe, saying:

My message I think is that the evidence is sufficient that we should move towards the most effective possible steps to reduce carbon-loading of the atmosphere.

Via CNN Pipeline:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/04/gingkerry.320.240.flv]

Gingrich went on to say that acknowledging the scientific consensus around climate change “is a very challenging thing to do if you’re a conservative” because they associate environmentalism with “bigger government and higher taxes.” Another possible explanation? Global warming skeptics find it lucrative and rewarding to side with the deep pockets of the oil lobby.

Gingrich concludes by arguing it is time for “green conservatism.”

UPDATE: BlueClimate has a full review of the debate.

Transcript: Read more

Politics

Breaking: Missing Justice Dept. documents subpoenaed.

MSNBC reports that the House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department for a series of additional documents, revealed last week by The American Spectator, that have not been turned over to Congress.

msnbc041007123846.jpg

UPDATE: Several senators sent a letter yesterday to Alberto Gonzales requesting these documents:

Justice Department officials have previously said they turned over all relevant materials, but held back sensitive personnel information about most prosecutors other than those who were removed last year.

Among the missing documents the senators mentioned was a chart cited in a Feb. 12, 2007, e-mail message from Monica Goodling, a former aide to Mr. Gonzales, to other department officials.

The senators suggested that other documents had been withheld, like biographies of each of the 93 prosecutors in briefing books provided for Mr. Gonzales in December in preparation for a meeting of United States attorneys. The meeting was held to start an initiative against child exploitation.

UPDATE II: You can read the full subpoena HERE. Christy Hardin Smith explains exactly what House Judiciary Committee is requesting.

Politics

Giuliani Restates Support For Federal Intervention In Schiavo Case

giuliani.jpgDuring a visit last week to St. Petersburg, FL, former mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) said he backed efforts in 2005 to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case and stop her doctors from removing life support:

He told reporters he supported government intervention to keep the severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive after courts ordered her feeding tubes removed: “I thought it was appropriate to make every effort to give her a chance to stay alive.”

Politico’s Ben Smith noted that Giuliani “avoided comment” on Schiavo in 2005, and suggested his current statements are a “pander” to the cultural right. But a New York Post article from April 1, 2005, in the midst of the controversy, quotes Giuliani expressing the same position:

“I think the right decision would have been to keep the feeding tube in, under the circumstances of the case,” former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said.

Giuliani’s take on Schiavo reflects the same support for government overreach that characterizes his positions on a range of issues. Glenn Greenwald has documented similar cases, such as Giuliani’s belief that the President of the United States has the legal authority to imprison American citizens without any opportunity for review, or that the president has the authority to override Congress and mandate funding for wars.

Such extreme claims of executive power were also a hallmark of the right’s efforts during the Schiavo scandal. As federal appeals court Judge Stanley Birch, a Bush I appointee, wrote in his concurrence in a Schiavo case, their efforts were unconstitutional:

In resolving the Schiavo controversy it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers’ blueprint for the governance of a free people — our Constitution.

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