After the National Intelligence Estimate last November which reported that Iran had no nuclear program since 2003, many of us breathed a sigh of relief. It was official: When it came to attacking Iran, the administration hadn’t a leg to stand on.

But, as with Iraq, it was used to that. Once anointed lame duck, it didn’t skip a beat and continued to stumble forward. Full Story »

Got hot links if you want ‘em!

In “Mr. Cool’s Intensity” in the Washington Post, David Ignatius writes of Obama’s reluctance to write off Rev. Wright. There’s “an instinctive American fondness for people who don’t rat out their friends, even when their friends are creeps. That’s why a Wright-based strategy may backfire for the Republicans, just as it did for Hillary Clinton.” Full Story »

Hint: It’s not just upbringing and culture.

Back in 2005 James Wolcott wrote of torture: “Women may take part — though I imagine it’s rare, and under duress — but only men could devise the intricate and cruel tortures and torture devices that have been inflicted over the centuries.”

This is one generalization about women that feminists let slide. Lynndie England of Abu Ghraib fame was a blip on torture’s radar screen and women would like to keep it that way. But what infuses men with the urge to torture? Full Story »

Especially at a time when the recent release of photographs of Hiroshima’s aftermath by an unknown Japanese photographer reminds us anew that nuclear weapons are not intended for use on another state’s military, but its people.

“‘Everywhere you turn, you hear it,’ said Savannah businessman Ed Feiler.”

What, that Clinton will pull it out? That we’ll attack Iran? No, think local. Turns out that Georgians are speculating whether Sam Nunn, their Democratic senator for 25 years, will be invited to join a Barack Obama ticket. Full Story »

My congressman sent me his May 2008 newsletter today via e-mail to explain to me why gasoline prices are so high and what he’s doing about it. His analysis is unimpressive.

According to the newsletter and its link to his Web site, Rep. John R. “Randy” Kuhl (R-N.Y.) says:

Why are gas prices so high?

The high price of gasoline results from the cost of crude oil, the world demand and supply for oil, our limited refining capacity, and taxes. [emphasis added]

But what didn’t make his list?
Full Story »

I think blogs are dedicated to cruelty, they’re dedicated to dishonesty, they’re dedicated to speed.

— Buzz Bissinger, author of “Friday Night Lights” and other bestsellers, castigating blogs on HBO’s “Costas Now”; May 1.

It’s one of the bigger Cadillacs. I’ve got a desk in it. It’s like an airplane. … I want them to feel that they are somebody and their congressman is somebody. And when they say, ‘This is nice,’ it feels good.

— Rep. Charles Rangell, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, describing the 17-foot-long, 300-horsepower, 2004 Cadillac DeVille he leases for for $777.54 a month; House rules permit members to lease any vehicle at taxpayer expense; May 1.
Full Story »

It’s often difficult to get the attention of my students. But when I told them that it’s possible that a few of them would see the year 2100, and that most of their children surely would, they stopped furtively texting under their desks and began paying attention.

When I was born just after World War II, I told them, the population of the United States was about 141 million; of the world, about 2.7 billion. Now, 62 years later, Americans tip the scale at about 303 million; the world’s population has grown to about 6.6 billion.

A little extrapolation of U.S. Census data, I told them, shows the American population hitting 518 million at mid-century and 758 million in 2100. The world’s population is likely to grow to 14 billion at century’s end. Imagine what that world — their world — would be like, I challenged them.

But I was too optimistic. In a report to be released today, a Virginia Tech professor estimates that between 2100 and 2120 the population of the United States will reach one billion people.
Full Story »

Got hot links if you want ‘em!

Nobody took off George Stephanopoulous and Charles Gibson’s heads and handed them to them better than Will Bunch at Attytood. But, in an interview, he also asked Barack Obama, if elected, whether he would prosecute the Bush administration after it’s out of office. “Obama sent a clear signal that — unlike impeachment,” he writes, “which he’s ruled out and which now seems a practical impossibility — he is at the least open to the possibility of investigating potential high crimes in the Bush.” Full Story »

In a garbage dump in Haiti, people scavenge for food.

They look at me and say, ‘Papa, I’m hungry,’ and I have to look away. It’s humiliating and it makes you angry.

— Saint Louis Meriska of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, whose “children ate two spoonfuls of rice apiece as their only meal recently and then went without any food the following day”; food prices in Haiti have spiked 45 percent since 2006; April 18.
Full Story »

Nota Bene attempts to provide an overview of the week’s news. Meanwhile, in its appendix, we cull trenchant comments to articles and posts, as well as those heard in person or emailed. This week Nota Bene appears in two installments: Political and foreign policy today; the economy, lifestyle, and the appendix on Wednesday.

Candidate for most surprising person to come to the defense of Obama for his “Small town comments” (also known as Bitter-gate)? How about correspondent David Brody of Pat Robertson’s network, CBN News? “Look, could Obama have said the whole thing better?” he asked. Of course, “but to me this seems like a case of piling on. We talk a lot in Christian circles about giving people ‘grace’ but in politics those same rules don’t apply.” Full Story »

This is actually a boost to remind people that we can produce this kind of journalism at any time. We’re going to have a large enough newsroom to continue to produce this kind of quality journalism.

— Leonard Downie Jr., editor of The Washington Post, winner of six Pulitzer Prizes for 2008; The Post’s front-page story by media critic Howard Kurtz did not mention the paper has endured three rounds of staff cuts since 2003, but the AP’s story did; April 7; emphasis added.

I can only confirm that the route is dynamic.

— Nathan Ballard, a San Francisco city spokesman, as, said The New York Times, “The precise route remained in flux on Tuesday as the torch extravaganza threatened to become more civic migraine than celebration in the face of potential protests by those upset with China’s human rights record and recent crackdown in Tibet”; April 9.
Full Story »

I still do not know whom I will vote for as president. That’s because what I wish to know, candidates will not tell me — whom they’ll appoint to office. It is through appointments to judgeships, cabinet posts and other executive branch positions that presidents implement their policies and impress their will upon government and therefore the governed.

Alan Pergament of The Buffalo News, in his review of PBS’ “Bush’s War,” said it well:

At a time in which America is preparing to elect a new president to deal with Bush’s war, it reminded me of something I learned from my college courses in political science: It doesn’t so much matter who becomes president as it matters whom he or she chooses to put in his or her Cabinet. [emphasis added]

Full Story »

For those who believe that the key to lowering the political temperature in the Middle East lies in snuffing out the pilot light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Senator Obama’s otherwise transcendent race speech offered little of his trademark hope.

A view “that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam,” as he characterized that of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, is “profoundly distorted.” Once again, whatever you may think of them, Israel’s policies toward Palestine were accepted as Bible. Full Story »

A lot of Americans have heard the word “Kosovo” but aren’t sure what it means. Some of those who know a little more on the subject are still fuzzy on the finer details.

Thanks to our new friend George Turner, we now have a pretty helpful little primer to get everybody up to speed.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, believes that a Yahoo / Microsoft tie-up would be awful for the Internet. Schmidt issued the vague sequitur that we should all beware of, “the things that it has done that have been so difficult for everyone.” Of course, everyone knows that Microsoft is the Great Satan, so it stands to reason that anything they do should be regarded as automatically the equivalent of making baby stew.

Here, though, it is Google - owner of 62.9% of all Internet searches ($16.4 bn in ad revenue) - which dwarfs any tie up (Yahoo-Microsoft have a combined search share of 15.7% and $ 9.8 bn in ad revenue). Could it be that Google is trying to pull a Microsoft and protect its home-turf advantage from a healthy rival? Full Story »

Appearing weekly, Nota Bene takes a step back from the news. Also, as an appendix, it culls trenchant comments to articles and posts, as well as the occasional passage from email. Nota Bene was founded by Mike Sheehan.

When New York’s Governor Eliot Spitzer spit the bit, it was a loss for New York state and the Democrats. But Spitzer had been, and continues to be a problem for Hillary Clinton, as Peter Baker, blogging for the Washington Post, points out. John Nichols also weighed in on this at the Nation. Full Story »

The Bush administration likes to think of itself as nuclear policeman to the world. North Korea? Put those missiles back in your pants. Iraq? Wipe that nuclear smirk off your face. Iran? We don’t like the look on your face either — no nuclear power for you.

Bush & Co. have gotten North Korea to shut down its reactor. But they can’t take credit for shuttering Iraq’s nuclear labs — Bush 41’s Gulf war convinced Saddam to do that. Still there’s no doubt that they’ve delayed Iran’s nuclear evolution.

Never mind any irregularities inherent in our initiatives toward Iran. Such as denying it the nuclear fuel it’s guaranteed by Article IV of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Or putting the fear of God into European diplomats by showing them plans for a nuclear warhead designed to fit on a missile with just enough thrust to reach Europe. Full Story »

The UN Security Council just passed a third set of sanctions against Iran ostensibly because it refuses to cease and desist enriching uranium. In truth it was informed by another issue both more immediate and intimidating.

On February 22 the International Atomic Energy Agency issued what seemed like a passing grade to Iran’s nuclear program. But shortly before that, its chief of weapons inspection, Olli Heinonen, exhibited approximately 1,000 documents and videos to an array of ambassadors and experts in Vienna.

They’d been downloaded from a laptop described by the Washington Post in 2005 as “allegedly stolen from an Iranian whom German intelligence tried, unsuccessfully, to recruit as an informant [and] whisked out of the country by another Iranian.” Among them were apparent designs for nuclear warheads –- light years more menacing than just the enriched uranium that infuses them. Full Story »

According to an article in New Scientist, scientists from the University of Colorado - Boulder have calculated that a) there isn’t much volcanic dust in the Earth’s atmosphere and b) that may be contributing to global heating.

Generally speaking, volcanoes emit lots of stuff, including carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and lots and lots of ash. However, it’s been shown scientifically that the dominant climate factor in nearly all volcanic eruptions is the sulfur dioxide, a gas that combined with water vapor in the atmosphere to create sulfuric acid droplets. Those droplets are very reflective, and when combined with high-altitude ash and dust, they create very white clouds that cool the Earth down far more than any carbon dioxide emissions would heat it up. Full Story »

Years ago, when Bosnia-Serbia-Kosovo was aflame, I found myself tuning out the conflict because of difficulty tracking all the warring factions. Afterward, I read a book on the subject, Michael Parenti’s “To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia” (Verso, 2002). However illuminating, after about a week I’d forgotten who was who. My only consolation was that 99 percent of Americans understood even less.

When the US invaded Iraq, the protagonists stood in sharp contrast. Then the Shiites and Sunnis divided and replicated.

You hear the term “Balkanization” applied to Iraq. True, it may split into smaller states. But the expression can also be used to describe how the division into factions results in a political scene too confusing for the average person. Full Story »