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Thursday, September 20, 2007
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Andrew Sullivan: "The Republican mayor of San Diego just reversed himself on marriage equality and agreed to sign a a City Council resolution supporting a challenge to California's gay marriage ban (also opposed by the state legislature). Moving video moment here. He'd previously vowed to veto it. He has a lesbian daughter, it turns out, and like many other parents of gay children, simply didn't believe it was a positive step to keep her segregated from her own family and community and stigmatized as inferior."
"2008 pres"
7:04:16 PM 
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Captain's Quarters: "Infidels come from the strangest places! Osama bin Laden found a lot of them very close to home. In his latest video, OBL declares a holy war on Pervez Musharraf and the military clique ruling Pakistan, after his siege of the Red Mosque produced plenty of martyrs."
"2008 pres"
6:53:38 PM
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Wash Park Prophet: "Colorado has a long history of uranium mining and was the source of the uranium used in the first atomic bombs, but that mining in and around Nucla and Naturita for the most part, in Western Slope canyons, was far from major population centers. Most of the mining area near Nucla and Naturita has been reclaimed as a golf course, after a long clean up effort was completed. Surprisingly, golf courses are desirable reclamation uses."
6:48:00 PM
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Denver Business Journal: "Slightly more than a third of Coloradans younger than 65 were without health insurance in 2006-2007, according to a study released Thursday. The Families USA study found Colorado was almost in line with the U.S. figure. Families USA, a Washington-based advocacy group for affordable health care, said 1.44 million Coloradans were uninsured during the study period, or 34.2 percent of the state's non-elderly population."
"2008 pres"
6:42:34 PM
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NYT: "Gen. George Casey, the top American commander in Iraq, said today that the additional troops being sent to Iraq could begin to be withdrawn by late summer if security conditions improve in Baghdad. 'I believe the projections are late summer,' General Casey said, adding, 'I think it's probably going to be late summer before you get to the point where people in Baghdad feel safe in their neighborhoods.'"
Thanks to the Daily Kos for the link.
Washington Post: "The U.S. military has introduced 'religious enlightenment' and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday. Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to 'bend them back to our will' and are part of waging war in what he called 'the battlefield of the mind.' Most of the younger detainees are held in a facility that the military calls the 'House of Wisdom.' The religious courses are led by Muslim clerics who 'teach out of a moderate doctrine,' Stone said, according to the transcript of a conference call he held from Baghdad with a group of defense bloggers. Such schooling 'tears apart' the arguments of al-Qaeda, such as 'Let's kill innocents,' and helps to 'bring some of the edge off' the detainees, he said."
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link.
Ocala.com: "Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants to add 100,000 full-time troops to America's armed forces around the world and eliminate certain taxes...'We're under attack from jihadists,' Romndy [Sic] said, calling it one of the great issues of our time. While Romney did not mention the war in Iraq by name, he cited the report by Gen. David Petraeus that Americans are making progress helping the Sunnis reject al-Qaida. 'Thank heavens Barack Obama wasn't president,' Romney said. 'We'd have been out of there, and al-Qaida would be dancing in the streets.'"
Thanks to The Right's Field for the link.
"2008 pres"
6:16:00 PM
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From a reader of Talking Points Memo, "Politics is the art of the possible. And when nothing concrete is possible, that leaves theater."
Pollster.com: "A new Pew Research Center national survey of 1,501 adults (conducted 9/12 through 9/16) finds: Among 568 registered Democrats and those who lean Democratic, Sen. Hillary Clinton leads Sen. Barack Obama (42% to 25%) in a national primary; former Sen. John Edwards trails at 14%; Among 467 registered Republicans and those who lean Republican, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani leads former Sen. Fred Thompson (32% to 21%) in a national primary; Sen. John McCain trails at 15%, former Gov. Mitt Romney at 9%, former Speaker Newt Gingrich at 6%."
"2008 pres"
6:11:36 PM
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From The Rocky Mountain News, "James Dobson, one of the nation's most politically influential evangelical Christians, made it clear in a message to friends this week that he will not support Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson. In a private e-mail obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, Dobson accuses the former Tennessee senator and actor of being weak on the campaign trail and wrong on issues dear to social conservatives. 'Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S. ... won't talk at all about what he believes, and can't speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?' Dobson wrote."
Here's a look at presidential campaign stickers and what they reveal about the candidates from Good Magazine.
"2008 pres"
6:44:29 AM
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Here's a look at a new study on the spread of mercury in waterways from The Environment News Service. From the article:
Mercury atmospheric emissions will end up in fish in as little as three years, according to new research by a multidisciplinary team of about 50 researchers from the United States and Canada. The study concludes that if mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants and other industrial activities were to be reduced immediately, the amount of mercury showing up in fish would begin to go down within a decade. Called METAALICUS - Mercury Experiment to Assess Atmospheric Loading in Canada and the United States - the research involved government agencies and universities on both sides of the border. "Before this study, no one had directly linked atmospheric deposition of mercury emissions and mercury in fish," says study co-author Vincent St. Louis of the University of Alberta. But this research provides "undeniable proof of a direct link," said St. Louis.
The study was conducted at the Experimental Lakes Area, near Dryden, Ontario, a freshwater research station with a long history of limnological research, including studies based on the manipulation of lakes. Scientists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's Microbial Ecology Lab participated in the study and explained how it was conducted.. The mercury load to the study ecosystem is being increased by a factor of about five over current local atmospheric ambient deposition, using highly-enriched stable mercury, Hg, isotopes, they said. "Three separate isotopes are being used to dose the upland, wetland and lake," they explained. "This unique approach is allowing us to track the fate of newly deposited Hg separately from the larger existing pools, through time, and across various habitats." The experiment filled a major gap in scientists' understanding of how mercury moves from the atmosphere through forests, soils, lakes and into the fish that people eat.
"2008 pres"
6:15:19 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:27:39 PM.
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