Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds

An old friend asks if there is anything Dick Cheney wouldn’t screw up for the fun of screwing it up. Apparently not, as Paul Kiel at Talking Points Memo wrote Wednesday:

^{Cheney’s Office: (Do Not) Save The Whales}

The latest contribution to good government from Vice President Dick Cheney: preventing the implementation of rules to protect the endangered right whale.

This comes from a letter House sleuth Henry Waxman (D-CA) sent to the White House today, requesting that the administration quit delaying the rules, which would restrict the speed of ships near American ports. Faster moving ships hit the whales, causing injury or death, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say.

Faster ships aren’t a problem, according to Cheney’s office.

In a  letter sent today to Susan E. Dudley, Administrator of Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Waxman wrote:

Another internal document shows that the officials working for the Vice President also raised spurious objections to the science. According to this document, the Vice President’s staff “contends that we have no evidence (i.e., hard data) that lowering the speeds of ‘large ships’ will actually make a difference. NOAA rejected these objections, writing that both a statistical analysis of ship strike records and the peer-reviewed literature justified the final rule. In its response to the objections from the Vice President’s staff, NOAA reported that there is “no basis to overturn our previous conclusion that imposing a speed limit on large vessels would be beneficial to whales. …

A third document reveals that the White House requested that NOAA consider unpublished information relating to the birth rate of right whales. NOAA responded that it “used the latest, peer-reviewed, scientific data when developing” the rule. According to NOAA: NOAA closely monitors calf counts but is unaware of any recent scientific publications that provide more recent information on more recent calving. OSTP [the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy] was posed this question as well; and we have not received from them any new information on studies.

While I appreciate the value of vigorous scientific debate, I question why White House economic advisors are apparently conducting their own research on right whales and why the Vice President’s staff is challenging the conclusions of the government’s scientific experts. The appearance is that the White House rejects the conclusions of its own scientists and peer-reviewed scientific studies because it does not like the policy implications of the data. This is not how the review process is supposed to work. [My emphasis - MB]

C’mon, Congressman Waxman, science is just one opinion.

As for sending stern letters, I’m uncertain of the size of the circular file Ms. Dudley maintains for handling such correspondence, not to mention scientific reports, but I imagine the Vice President keeps available for this purpose a dozen or so abandoned missile silos in his old Wyoming stomping grounds. Given the number of times this administration has overridden scientific experts in the past seven-plus years, those silos must be just about full.

The Overnight News Digest is posted.

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Open Thread and Diary Rescue

Tonight’s Rescue Rangers are jlms qkw, Louisiana 1976, Patriot Daily, vcmvo2, Wes Opinion, watercarrier4diogenes, with srkp23 as editor.

• Valtin reminds us that when governments are motivated, Hunting Down the War Criminals can happen even decades after their crimes were committed. (Patriot Daily)
• Travis Wheeler contrasts the megamedia free trade hype with the reality of human rights abuses in Actual News from Colombia Belies Blitzkrieg of Pro-FTA Editorials and Op-Eds. (Patriot Daily)
• jimstaro gives us encouraging news for veterans who get into legal trouble in Veterans Court – Buffalo NY. (vcmvo2)
• dhonig pens another interesting entry on wine and its benefits. This time resveratrol is the star: Wine – nature, Big Pharma, and orphan drugs. (vcmvo2)
• Project Vote reports on government and judicial decisions that may collectively disenfranchise eligible voters in the 2008 elections in Three Strikes Against Florida Voters. (Patriot Daily)
• dogemperor sheds some light on the motives of this “boot camp” in Teen Challenge: Possible missionary mill? (jlms qkw)
• Rimjob elicits nostalgic thoughts, both delighted and anguished, in High School & The Prom. (watercarrier4diogenes)
• Andrew Schamess writes of the bigotry and injustice that resulted in the ousting of Deborah Almontaser, an Arab-American educator and principal of NYC’s first Arab language school. (watercarrier4diogenes)
• Stranded Wind continues his excellent series with a tale of coyotes, llamas, and rescue donkeys in Walkabout # 11: Natural Born Killers. (vcmvo2)
• A Siegel takes apart the columnist piece by piece in Truthiness Samuelson Strikes Again at the Post. (jlms qkw)
• LtdEdishn is here to remind us, and exemplify, how Real Issues Not Distraction need to be our focus. (watercarrier4diogenes)

jotter serves up High Impact Diaries – April 29, 2008.

brillig brings Top Comments 4/30/08 Whites & Darks Edition.

Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread.

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McCain Has a Bridge He Wants to Sell You

It’s not in Brooklyn:

Republican John McCain said Wednesday that the bridge collapse in Minnesota that killed 13 people last year would not have happened if Congress had not wasted so much money on pork-barrel spending.

Federal investigators cite undersize steel plates as the “critical factor” in the collapse of the bridge. Heavy loads of construction materials on the bridge also contributed to the disaster that injured 145 people on Aug. 1, according to preliminary findings by the National Transportation Safety Board.

“The bridge in Minneapolis didn’t collapse because there wasn’t enough money,” McCain told reporters while campaigning in Pennsylvania. “The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects.”

I never took physics, but I’m pretty sure it collapsed because it wasn’t strong enough to hold the weight it was bearing.  It probably would have held up if some money had been spent to strengthen it, but the Republicans neglected infrastructure investment the entire 12 years they controlled Capitol Hill, because they were more concerned with tax cuts to the rich and war in Iraq.  

But the man does offer a compelling argument against electing a Republican Congress.

Also, does McCain think he’s already been elected President?  Doesn’t he know that he shouldn’t be blaming Congress, especially his own Republican leadership, while he’s still a member of Congress?  

And I love this:

“I think there is a long, long list of earmarks which went to unnecessary and unwanted projects that I think should have gone to the bridge in Minnesota,” McCain said.

“I don’t know whether it would have gone or not, but if you’re spending $223 million on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it …”

McCain said such projects “have everything to do with the power and influence of an individual congressman or senator and has nothing to do with the actual transportation needs of the United States.”

On the same day, McCain was confronted with an earmark he did consider worthy. During a forum at Lehigh Valley Hospital, he met a woman with ovarian cancer who was treated in a clinical trial funded with $80 million in congressional earmarks.
The hospital was showing off an electronic medical records system that is virtually paper-free.

McCain insisted he was not trying to have it both ways and said that deserving projects can get money through regular channels.

“It’s the process I object to,” he said. “I’m sure that I can give you a list of projects the Mafia funds, and they would probably be good projects. But I can’t give you a justification for the Mafia. I can’t give you a justification for the corruption that’s been bred which has sent members of Congress to the federal prison,” he said.

Did John McCain just compare Ted Stevens to a tool of the Mafia?  

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While You Were Campaigning…

With April joining a long line of “deadliest months” for U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and on the day before the five year anniversary of Mission Acommplished, one would think that Iraq would be front and center in presidential politics.  One would be wrong.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former first lady who hasn’t driven a car or pumped gas in many years because of Secret Service restrictions, joined a blue-collar worker at a filling station Wednesday to illustrate how the high price of gasoline is squeezing consumers.

It should be noted that this photo op to show concern for the little people’s pain included “a Secret Service motorcade consisting of six gas-guzzling Suburbans, two squad cars and a green SUV.”

And Barack Obama:

…took his campaign today to a slightly different setting — a lunch and a discussion with working families at a park in Indianapolis.

Credit where credit is due:  they weren’t saying they were fine with staying in Iraq for 100 years or singing about bombing Iran, but neither were they putting any focus on wanting to get us out of Iraq. Considering that this war is costing us lives every day and billions of dollars every week, it’s not an issue that should be relegated to a throwaway line in the daily stump speech, tucked between pseudo fixes for the energy crisis or sandwiches in the park.  

And in case you missed it, four more U.S. soldiers were killed today in Iraq.

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Another Mission Not Accomplished

On the eve of the 5th anniversary of Mission Accomplished Day, here’s a report of another major failure:

Iraq’s Nassriya Water Treatment Plant, the country’s largest reconstruction project, is a failure so far because it isn’t delivering sufficient water to enough people, a new audit says.

Inspectors in December and again in February found the U.S.-funded plant 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of Baghdad was operating at only 20 percent capacity, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said in a report released today.

“Potable water is only reaching a fraction of the Iraqi people for which it was designed and intended,” Inspector General Stuart Bowen said. Two of the intended five cities, Ad Diwayah and Suq Al Shoyokh, weren’t receiving water, he wrote.

The Iraqi government that has been “in charge” since the war “ended” on May 1, 2003 hasn’t been able to manage the project because of a lack of reliable electricity, a failing water distribution system, and general inability to rise to the day-to-day demands of maintaining a complex system. Which is perfectly understandable, considering they’re in the middle of a civil war.

Heckuva job, Georgie.

Update: BarbinMD recalls this gem from Cheney on 5/1/2003 (Mission Accomplished Day):

Every day, life in Iraq is improving as coalition troops secure unsafe areas, bring food and medical care to the needy and make sure Iraq’s drinking water is clean and dependable.

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US Elections: Quote of the Day

‘We in Denmark cannot figure out why you are even bothering to hold an election. On one side, you have a lawyer who is married to a lawyer, and a lawyer who is married to a lawyer. On the other side, you have a true war hero married to a blonde with a huge chest who owns a beer distributorship. Is there a contest here?’

H/T: Collin Williams

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Working Around The Globe

Think you’re working too hard here in the US? Or maybe you’re some sick bastard who isn’t working enough?

Life’s not the same around the globe. Other countries tend to value work very differently.

Maybe you could find your ideal working conditions here:

South Korea: According to an interesting article on Minyanville.com, South Korea was a completely destitute company with a practically non-existent economy around 40 years ago. Today, through government regulation and the high-technology and industrial production boom, this country enjoys the world’s 10th largest economy.

But they aren’t really enjoying too much. Apparently, all that growth has made everyone in South Korea a workaholic. South Koreans work 195 hours per month on average, compared with the average American who works 144 hours.

They are even taking after Japan with work-stress related deaths. It’s called gwarosa, and amounts to heart attacks or strokes induced by freaking out about your job too much. Jeez, relax, Koreans. Someone needs to tell humanitarian aid to dump a cargo plane full of stress balls over there in Seoul.

France: The Frenchies take it a little bit easier. Back in 1996, the Frogs were suffering a 12% unemployment rate in their country. Which is pretty substantial and leads to plenty of other socials ills. To combat this, the government shortened the work week from 40 to 35 hours. That way companies would be forced to hire more people to complete the same jobs.

It worked and the French were able to indulge in their extravagant relaxing lifestyles even more. Lunch at the top of the Eiffel Tower, picnics in the park, espresso with a croissant, shopping for baguettes and berets, and all those other hopelessly inaccurate stereotypes.

In recent months, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has been attempting to repeal this imposed shortened work week, in the hopes that it will help bolster more economic growth.

So if you’d like to work 5 hours less each week and you have a thing for tight horizontally striped shirts, France may be a good move for you.

Samoa: If that’s even too strenuous for your delicate psyche, try moving to Samoa where they only work on average 30 hours a week and 125 a month.

This is a place where tourism dollars and tropical weather are adundant, and also for some reason, American football is huge. According to an interesting article on ESPN, a Samoan male is 40 times more likely to play in the NFL than a non-Samoan American. Weird. But just look at Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steeler and Junior Seau of the New England Patriots as some case examples.

So maybe my advice for this one is to move here if you want to work very little and also raise children to be top NFL prospects.

Let us know in the comments section if any of this sounds like your cup of tea.

Minyanville: No Country For Some Men, February 2008

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Bush more unpopular than Wright

Pat Buchanan, on MSNBC:

If President Bush is more unpopular than the Reverend Wright, the Republicans are in a lot of trouble.

Was there ever any doubt about this? I know Clinton supporters and Republicans fervently believe that Wright is a top concern among voters, but really, were people supposed to think that the crazy rantings of a Chicago preacher are more relevant to their lives than the mess Bush has left behind the last eight years?

Buchanan was likely responding to this new NBC/WSJ poll:

According to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, could end up hurting his chances of winning the White House.

So could his earlier comment that small-town Americans are “bitter” and cling to guns and religion.

Question have also been raised over Sen. Hillary Clinton’s honesty and trustworthiness, as well as her husband’s possible return to the White House.

But a bigger problem appears to be John McCain’s ties to President Bush.

How much bigger? 43 percent of respondents are concerned about the 71-year-old John McCain’s close ties to George Bush.

36 percent have concerns about Clinton’s political opportunism, and 27 percent are concerned about Bill Clinton being back in the White House.

34 percent have problems with Obama’s “bitter” remarks and 32 percent give a damn about Jeremiah Wright.

Of course, Wright is about the only thing Republicans have on Obama beyond the “liberal elitist” thing they run against any Democrat by rote. But no matter how much they harp on it over the rest of the year, it’ll never have the effect that eight years of Bush have on McCain’s bid. So much so, in fact, that despite having two Democrats beating the crap out of each other, the November matchups still tilt Democratic:

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Obama keeps McCain under 50 in Arizona

Arizona State U for Eight/KAET-TV. 4/24-27. Registered voters. MoE 4% (No trend lines)

Obama runs +7 in Arizona, and even keeps McCain under 50 percent in his own state. Now McCain is the prohibitive favorite in AZ, and few would claim the state will be competitive. But the state will feature key races in AZ-01 (open-R), AZ-03 (Shadegg-R), AZ-05 (Mitchell-D), and AZ-08 (Giffords-D). Mitchell and Giffords are both freshman Democrats in Republican-leaning districts. So are AZ-01 and AZ-03, but are both winnable seats. AZ-03 features Democratic challenger Bob Lord, who has been one of the emerging fundraising stars in the early going this cycle. Shadegg is a favorite of the wingnutosphere, so striking here would be extra delicious.

In yet another state we find that Obama runs stronger at the top of the ticket. Add the 50-state voter registration drive that Obama has announced (still unmatched by the Clinton camp), and we have yet another instance in which an Obama nomination can pay dividends far beyond the Oval Office.

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Late Afternoonish/Early Eveningish Open Thread

There has to be a joke about trial lawyers in here somewhere:

A Greek court has been asked to draw the line between the natives of the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos and the world’s gay women.  [...]

Three islanders from Lesbos — home of the ancient poet Sappho, who praised love between women — have taken a gay rights group to court for using the word lesbian in its name.

“My sister can’t say she is a Lesbian,” said Dimitris Lambrou. “Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos,” he said.

This is an open thread for Lesbians, Lesbians and everybody else…

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