Good news: President Bush is studying global warming. Bad news: He’s getting his info from a Michael Crichton novel.
The president reportedly met last year in the White House with sci-fi author Crichton (in photo), whose novel “State of Fear” dismisses global warming as an elaborate hoax perpetrated by evil scientists.
Never mind that Crichton’s “science” in the book has been thoroughly demolished by real scientists — the president “avidly read” the novel and spoke enthusiastically about it to the author.
To be fair, Crichton recently received one journalism award for his novel — from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists!
“It is fiction,” an AAPG spokesman said. “But it has the absolute ring of truth.”
You can’t make this stuff up. What’s next? Bush naming disgraced author James Frey as his drug policy adviser?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Conventional wisdom has been that the confirmation of Justice Samuel Alito will be enough to swing the U.S. Supreme Court decisively to the right ideologically. But many are closely watching moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy to see how much sway his swing vote will have now that Sandra Day O’Connor has retired. And liberals are holding onto hope, albeit feeble, that the president won’t have an opportunity to further shape the court. The liberal radio network Air America has even been playing a song parody titled “Hang on, Stevens,” a parody of the 1965 McCoys’ hit “Hang on Sloopy,” with lyrics calling for 85-year-old liberal Justice John Paul Stevens (in photo) to “Just wait until Bush leaves before you resign.”
One revealing test of the new order of things on the court will be what it makes of the federal law banning partial-birth abortions, a case it accepted Tuesday.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Israel has frozen the transfer of about $50 million a month in tax and customs receipts due to the Palestinian Authority in response to the swearing in Saturday of a Hamas-dominated legislature. This is understandable, given that Hamas advocates the elimination of Israel. But former President Jimmy Carter argued in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post that such action could backfire. “The likely results will be to alienate the already oppressed and innocent Palestinians, to incite violence, and to increase the domestic influence and international esteem of Hamas,” Carter wrote. “It will certainly not be an inducement to Hamas or other militants to moderate their policies.” Do you agree? Is there any hope for peace? Is this the fruit of democracy?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., acknowledged on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that the Medicare prescription drug program has had some “stumbles and glitches.” But he also pronounced it a winner politically for Republicans in the fall elections and beyond: “I predict that six months from now or a year, a program that gives seniors affordable access to prescription drugs which are lifesaving — which they didn’t have before, which on average saves them $1,400 — is something that those seniors will appreciate.” Recent polls suggest Frist is either ahead of or out of step with public opinion on the issue, though, with most elderly Americans viewing the program as too confusing, not applicable to them or unlikely to save them money.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, wrote an op-ed piece for The Washington Post explaining his decision to publish the cartoons of Muhammad. He said it wasn’t provocation for the sake of provocation, and it wasn’t a PR stunt. Rather, he wrote, “I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. . . . The idea wasn’t to provoke gratuitously — and we certainly didn’t intend to trigger violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world. Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter.”
He also raised interesting questions about the interplay of religion and democracy: “Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn’t intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The Bush administration’s contention that it has authority to wiretap U.S. citizens without getting court approval isn’t holding up in Congress. Leading Senate Republicans have said they want some degree of judicial oversight — including Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan, who said last week that he would like to see the program brought under the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. And Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told “Fox News Sunday” that “I am adamant that the courts have some role when it comes to warrants. If you’re going to follow an American citizen around for an extended period of time believing they’re collaborating with the enemy, at some point in time, you need to get some judicial review, because mistakes can be made.”
Exactly. Critics of the program aren’t saying that the government shouldn’t wiretap; they just believe the program needs some oversight to guard against abuses.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
