500 Terror Attacks in EU in 2006 . . . .

. . . . But Only 1 by Islamists

The failed suitcase bomb plot in Germany was the only Islamist terrorist attack in the EU in 2006, according to the Europol study. Here German CCTV footage shows Jihad Hamad, one of the main suspects in the plot, at Cologne railway station.

Der Spiegel reports:

There were almost 500 acts of terrorism across the European Union in 2006 -- but only one, the foiled suitcase bomb plot in Germany, was related to Islamist terror, a new EU report reveals. Meanwhile the trial of one of the main suspects in the German plot has been adjourned in Lebanon.

Almost all the terrorist attacks in the European Union in 2006 were unrelated to Islamist terror, a new report reveals -- but the potential impact of an attack aimed at mass casualties made Islamist terrorism a top priority for European investigators nonetheless.

According to a report released Tuesday by Europol, the European Union's law enforcement organization, 498 attacks were carried out in the EU in 2006. Of them, only one -- the failed suitcase bomb attacks in Germany -- was perpetrated by Islamist terrorists.

The vast majority of terrorist attacks were carried out by separatist terror groups targeting France and Spain. Almost all attacks "resulted only in material damage and were not intended to kill," the report's authors write.

However, Islamist attacks such as the German plot and the foiled airplane mass bomb attacks (more...) in the United Kingdom were aimed at mass casualities, the report points out. As a result, "investigations into Islamist terrorism are clearly a priority for member states' law enforcement," the report writes. Half of the 706 terrorism-related arrests made in 2006 were related to Islamist terrorism, with France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands having the highest number of arrests of Islamist terrorist suspects.

A small number of attacks by left-wing and anarchist terror groups were also carried out in Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain. The report concluded that France, Spain and the UK are the EU member states "most severely affected" by terrorism.

One of the two main suspects in the German suitcase bomb plot, Jihad Hamad, went on trial in the Lebanese capital Beirut Wednesday with three other Lebanese suspects. However the trial was immediately adjourned to April 18, as the defense had asked for the trial to be relocated to the northern city of Tripoli because the defendants are all from northern Lebanon. The other main suspect, Youssef Mohammed el-Hajdib, is in custody in Germany, but will also be tried in absentia by the Lebanese court, according to media reports.

Meanwhile a new report by the UK-based think tank the Oxford Research Group has warned that British and American policy towards Iraq has "spawned new terror in the region." The report, "Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World," said that the ongoing war on terror and particularly the war in Iraq were increasing the risk of future terrorist attacks on the scale of those of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Treating Iraq as part of the war on terror ... created a combat training zone for jihadists," it said, and also warned that any military intervention in Iran would be "disastrous." The report added that the United States is "increasingly viewed as the greatest threat to world peace."

Congressional Oversight Uncovers The Damnedest Things . . . .

. . . . Like Crime.

Laptops and paging devices were supplied to Karl Rove and his aides by the GOP and used in violation of the law.

The LA Times reports:

When Karl Rove and his top deputies arrived at the White House in 2001, the Republican National Committee provided them with laptop computers and other communication devices to be used alongside their government-issued equipment.

The back-channel e-mail and paging system, paid for and maintained by the RNC, was designed to avoid charges that had vexed the Clinton White House — that federal resources were being used inappropriately for political campaign purposes.

It was? It was designed to avoid charges made against the Clinton administration that federal resources were being used inappropriately for politics? Says who?

Now, that dual computer system is creating new embarrassment and legal headaches for the White House, the Republican Party and Rove's once-vaunted White House operation.

"...embarrassment" and "...legal headaches"?

Obviously the reporter who wrote this (Tom Hamburger) had an off-the-record interview with an inside-the-White-House spinmeister who gave him this explanation. I say that because Hamburger wrote the article, taking the explanation for granted, as if it had to be an innocent mistake with the best of intentions, and that the Bush administration had no intention of skirting the law or trying to conceal their activities from oversight or investigations.

Democrats say evidence suggests the RNC e-mail system was used for political and government policy matters in violation of federal record preservation and disclosure rules.

Here we go....it's "the big, bad Democrats, those nasty people, who are causing the problem."

In addition, Democrats point to a handful of e-mails obtained through ongoing inquiries suggesting the system may have been used to conceal such activities as contacts with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was convicted on bribery charges and is now in prison for fraud.

Democratic congressional investigators are beginning to demand access to this RNC-White House communications system, which was used not only by Rove's office but by several top officials elsewhere in the White House.

The prospect that such communication might become public has further jangled the nerves of an already rattled Bush White House.

Some Republicans believe that the huge number of e-mails — many written hastily, with no thought that they might become public — may contain more detailed and unguarded inside information about the administration's far-flung political activities than has previously been available.

"There is concern about what may be in these e-mails," said one GOP activist who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.

"The system was created with the best intentions," said former Assistant White House Press Secretary Adam Levine, who was assigned an RNC laptop and BlackBerry when he worked at the White House in 2002. But, he added, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Ah, see?

Just a former White House staffer offering an "aww, shucks, just an innocent mistake that shouldn't let those evil and suspicious Democrats tie us up with endless investigations and keep us from doing the business of the people."

If I didn't know better, if I didn't know who Adam Levine is, I might be moved. But I do, and I'm not.

Mr. Levine pops up in all sorts of "locations of interest."

In 2002, Bob Novak featured Levine prominently in an article about Karl Rove, Ralph Reed, Enron & Bush back in 1997.

Levine shows up again in David Corn's and Mike Isikoff's book on the Bush administration, "Hubris":

National Security advisor Condoleezza Rice invites White House communications aide Adam Levine into the White House Situation Room to look over hundreds of highly classified intelligence photos that supposedly constitute evidence that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction. Levine is supposed to select a few choice photos to release with Bush’s speech in Cincinnati (see October 7, 2002) to strengthen the administration’s case. One of the pictures that catches Levine’s eye is a photo of a UAV. But when he looks closely, he sees that there is a Czech flag on it. One of Rice’s aides explains that the UAV was on display at a German air show. The administration believes it is like the ones Saddam has. Levine also sees a series of before-and-after shots of weapons sites visited by UN inspectors. But the photographs are from 1998. As Levine continues his search for the perfect photo, he realizes that none of them really constitute evidence of anything. “I remember having this sinking feeling,” he later recalls. “Oh my God, I hope this isn’t all we have. We’ve got to have better stuff than this.” [Isikoff and Corn, 2006, pp. 145]

Adam Levine is hardly the political neophyte, new to government or politics, that the quote Tom Hamburger attributes to him suggests.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, last week formally requested access to broad categories of RNC-White House e-mails.

Waxman told the Los Angeles Times in a statement that a separate "e-mail system for high-ranking White House officials would raise serious questions about violations of the Presidential Records Act," which requires the preservation and ultimate disclosure of e-mails about official government business.

Waxman's initial request to the RNC seeks e-mails relating to the presentation of campaign polling and strategy information to Cabinet agency appointees. He is also expected to ask for e-mails relating to Abramoff's activities, which Waxman is also investigating.

The Senate and House Judiciary Committees are also expected to formally request e-mail records from the RNC that relate to last year's firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

The private e-mail system came to light in the U.S. attorney controversy because one of Rove's deputies used an RNC-maintained e-mail domain — gwb43.com — to communicate with the Justice Department about replacing one of those prosecutors.

White House officials said the system had been used appropriately and was modeled after one used by the Clinton White House political office in the late 1990s.

"The regular staffers who interface with political organizations have a separate e-mail account, and that's entirely appropriate," said White House spokesman Scott M. Stanzel. "The practice is followed to avoid inadvertent violations of the law."

Stanzel said he did not know how many officials used the separate system. Another White House official called it "a handful."

Some Republican activists say the e-mail request will not create great difficulty for the White House because nothing nefarious happened and because the RNC automatically purges some e-mails after 30 days.

RNC officials are expected to meet with House Government Reform and Judiciary Committee lawyers as early as this week to discuss the first document request.

"We'd like to cooperate to whatever level is appropriate," Republican Party spokeswoman Lisa Camooso Miller said Friday.

Waxman focused on the e-mails after a hearing last month examining a presentation of campaign forecasts and polling data made by a Rove deputy to top appointed officials of the Government Services Administration, some of whom believed they were being instructed to help GOP candidates.

White House staff arranging for the GSA briefing by a Rove deputy, Scott Jennings, used the gwb43.com e-mail domain name. That caught the attention of Waxman's investigators, who had previously examined e-mails from Abramoff to Rove's executive assistant, Susan B. Ralston, to object to an impending Interior Department decision. The decision, he wrote, was "anathema to all our supporters it's important if possible to get some quiet message from the WH [White House] that this is absurd."

Ralston used outside accounts — including at rnchq.org — to communicate with Abramoff and his partners. One e-mail from an Abramoff associate said that White House personnel had warned "it is better to not put this stuff in writing in [the White House] … e-mail system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc."

Abramoff's response, according to a copy of his e-mail released by Waxman's committee, was: "Dammit. It was sent to Susan on her rnc pager and was not supposed to go into the WH system." Ralston later resigned in connection with the lobbying scandal.

Waxman told RNC Chairman Mike Duncan in a letter that such exchanges "indicated that in some instances White House officials were using nongovernment accounts specifically to avoid creating a record of communications" that could be reviewed by congressional committees or released under the Presidential Records Act.

Lawyers for the committees say that use of campaign-connected e-mail addresses may make it easier to gather information because it would be harder for the White House to make a broad claim of executive privilege. Lawyers for congressional Democrats have anticipated that the White House will invoke executive privilege in an effort to block requests for information about its role in the firing of U.S. attorneys, Abramoff and other matters.

In the U.S. attorney case, Rove deputy Jennings used the RNC e-mail system to write to D. Kyle Sampson, then Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff, in August 2006 about replacing Arkansas U.S. Atty. H.E. "Bud" Cummins III with former Rove protege Tim Griffin.

"We're a go for the U.S. atty plan. WH leg, political and communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes," Jennings wrote in an e-mail from the gwb43.com domain name. Sampson noted in a related e-mail that "getting him appointed was important to" Rove, then-White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers and other officials.

The gwb43.com account, and others like it, have been traced to the Republican National Committee computer servers, Waxman's staff said.

Doug Sosnik, White House political director under Clinton, says that his office had a small number of separate computers and cellphones for campaign-related matters but that the scope of the political operation was smaller than that in the Bush White House.

For both administrations, the separate system was an acknowledgment that certain White House jobs necessarily mixed policy and politics. Though campaign-related activity is prohibited for federal workers on the job, White House appointees typically work extraordinarily long hours and are required to be available around the clock.

Sosnik said only a handful of people used the political computers in the Clinton White House, which were purchased with campaign funds. However, he said, the political messaging from the Bush team appears to have been broader than that of Clinton's. He could recall no instance, for example, in which campaign computers or cellphones were used to communicate with the Justice Department.

Levine, the former Bush press aide, said he saw senior White House colleagues, including Rove and his top staff, moving fluidly between the two computer systems, which often sat on officials' desks along with their government computers.

But Levine said he found the two computers with their separate purposes and log-in procedures confusing and inefficient. So he quietly slid his RNC laptop into a desk drawer, deciding to use the telephone rather than e-mail to communicate anything that was not considered official government business.

"In retrospect," he said last week, "I was lucky."

No, Mr. Levine, 'luck' had nothing to do with it.

When the next special investigation convenes, high on the list of questions that the prosecutor will have for you will probably be, "When separating became 'confusing and inefficient,' did you wonder how everybody else managed it?" "Did you observe anyone else mixing uses?" "Did you talk with others, or warn anyone, or did others warn you, to be careful because it was easy to mix uses?" And, "If you realized the importance of keeping these computers and accounts distinctly separate and were having trouble doing it yourself, did you report your concern to anyone, suggest a protocol be created for safeguarding the inadvertent use of RNC machines?"

"Did you ever hear anyone say, 'If you get caught, just say Clinton did it!'"?

Wouldn't the reaction to a past administration's practices that you and your party had accused of criminality (if you were honest and ethical) be to dispense with the practice altogether? How does increasing the numbers of the laptop computers, communications' devices, private email accounts, and people in your administration required to use this dual system of back-channel communications provide a better safeguard against misuse occurring in your administration than in previous administrations?

Will we be hearing about another executive order like the one Bush signed November 1, 2001, which effectively prevents the release to the public of any and all papers a president doesn't want anyone to know about?

A Better Argument Than "197 Scientists Can't Be Wrong"

Maha writes:

Global Idiots

Will someone please explain to these scientifically illiterate twits that the phenomenon of global warming doesn’t mean the planet is getting warmer in a uniform way. My understanding is that climate changes are causing shifts in long-established patterns of air circulation around the planet as well as disrupting ocean current patterns like the Gulf Stream. These changes are causing some places to get colder because air is moving more directly from the poles to those places that it used to. But it’s the warming of the oceans, among other things, that is causing the changes in wind and current patterns. Hence, global warming is causing some parts of the planet to be cooler. Some scientists argue that we ought to be talking about “global climate change” rather than “global warming” to avoid confusion.

Every time I see some dimbulb rightie hoot because there’s a cold snap in his neighborhood (hence, global warming is a myth) I feel embarrassed for our species.

We might want to begin by figuring out what it is that we're trying to achieve.

If we're looking for allies to help light a fire under our elected representatives in government, I think we might have better success if, no matter how frustrating, we resist condescending and insulting them, calling them names. It only makes them defensive, they dig in their heels, which makes convincing them of the urgency of taking their heads out of their anuses all the more difficult.

If we really believe that global warming is the single greatest threat to "our way of life" (I do), as well as it being the single greatest threat to civilization continuing on the planet (I do), and that drastic measures are necessary (I do), and that even waiting for Bush-Cheney to leave office is too long if we're to try to mitigate the devastation ahead (I do), then we're going to have to rethink how we've been going about this problem. Shouting didn't make Annie Sullivan any more understandable to Helen Keller.

Are Al Gore and the Global Warming Crisis Inextricably Linked?

Al Gore has been doing all of the heavy lifting. While I admire his efforts, his dedication, and how he teaches, Gore and global warming have become synonymous. This issue is more than Al Gore, the 2000 election, Bush stealing elections, and with him as the poster boy for this climate changing catastrophe, they both become too easy to dismiss.

It's really a tragedy what has been done to that man, but done, he is. He's beyond having 'baggage': He is a lightning rod chained to steamer trunks stuffed with IEDS. If, when you hear some celebrity's name and a punchline pops into your head, even if you cringe and don't think it's funny but you know everyone else in the room is having the same thought, then that celebrity's public life is over.

That's the problem with "An Inconvenient Truth," despite the fact that it's "Global Warming for Dummies" made into a movie. It preaches to the choir, to people who already liked Al Gore, probably voted for him in 2000, and were already on board with understanding the danger that global warming posed to civilization on the planet. The people who need to see it, become convinced, and understand that changing human behavior is the solution won't go see it. They probably wouldn't have gone to see it in any case, but they certainly aren't about to put their entertainment dollars into any project that Gore or activists on the left derive profit from.

The war on global warming needs to be uncoupled with Gore. You shouldn't have to like Gore before you can sign on to believing there is a crisis and committing to doing something about it, but that's the way conservatives are. These are people who have and will cut off their noses to spite their faces. Even if they came to like or respect Gore, they'd sooner die than admit they were might have been wrong.

We need to develop better teaching models, audio-visual aids like those that appear in "An Inconvenient Truth," because explaining it through our blogs, electronic and print media, is one area where we might make the difference. If we, who write for a living (or past-time/passion), become frustrated and can't explain why what's happening isn't "part of a natural cycle," or explain why it's not useless to try to change it (or why 37 inches of rain in one day in Mumbai isn't "typical"), who can? The debate in the blogosphere has been reduced to "Our side has 197 of the world's scientists, while your side has 2."

That's an argument for mob rule, not sound reason.

Unholy Alliance

"North Korean Commies ate my giant rabbits!" says a German rabbit breeder who sold 12 of his animals to North Korea so the communist country could start its own breeding program fears they have been eaten by officials.

Karl Szmolinsky with one of his giant rabbits, which weighs 23lb

From the Telegraph:
Karl Szmolinsky sent the huge rabbits, which can grow as big as dogs and produce 15lb (7kg) of meat, to North Korea last year so they could be bred and used to ease desperate food shortages.

He thought they were being kept at a zoo in the capital Pyongyang and was planning to travel to the country after Easter to give advice on setting up a breeding facility.

But the 68-year-old says his trip has been cancelled and he suspects it may be because communist officials have eaten the rabbits, which he sold for a cut-price €80 (£54) each rather than the usual €200.

Mr Szmolinsky, who has won prizes for his rabbits during 47 years of breeding them, said: "That’s an assumption, not an assertion. But they’re not getting any more.

"I think the animals aren’t alive any more. I was due to go and inspect the animals and look at the facility.

"They kept delaying the trip. I would have liked to go."

He added that he will no longer export rabbits to the country. "North Korea won’t be getting anything from me any more, they shouldn’t even bother asking."

But the North Korean embassy in Berlin denied anyone had contacted Mr Szmolinsky and insisted his "German grey giant" rabbits were still alive.

"The rabbits aren’t intended to be eaten, they are for breeding purposes," a spokesman said.

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's leader, is said to be a huge film buff, owning a collection of more than 20,000 video tapes. His reported favorites are the slasher film Friday The 13th, Rambo, the James Bond and Godzilla series, any movie with Elizabeth Taylor, and Hong Kong action movies. He is the author of the book On the Art of the Cinema. In 1978, on the orders of Kim, South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choe Eun-hui were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry. In 2006 he was involved in the production of the Juche (self-reliance) based movie Diary of a Girl Student – depicting the life of a girl whose parents are scientists – with a KCNA news report stating that Kim "improved its script and guided its production".

More than two million people are thought to have died as a result of a famine in North Korea during the mid-1990s, and its citizens have been encouraged to breed rabbits to be eaten as food shortages continue.

Mr Szmolinsky, meanwhile, is in talks to sell his rabbits to a host of other countries including China and Russia.

I'd like to know how far Szmolinsky's 'ranch' is from a nuclear power plant.

Screwing around with nature:

According to Szmolinsky, eight female rabbits should produce between 60-70 offspring each year. So, in theory, North Korea could have a large enough population of German Grey Giants in less than decade to begin using the rabbits as a food crop. Each rabbit should provide around 7 kg. of meat, enough to feed more than one family.

If it is true that North Korea plans on turning these rabbits into a high-volume food source to help feed its 23 million citizens, it will be interesting to see how Pyongyang actually makes it happen.

Many European countries, China, and Indonesia do produce and consume significant amounts of rabbit meat. But no major population on earth uses rabbit meat as a primary food source.

Malta is the worldwide leader in per capita rabbit consumption. And, at present, North Korea is not even one of the world’s major rabbit meat producers.

The problems that North Korea faces setting up this programme are significant. First, how would Pyongyang establish such a large breeding operation? It is doubtful that the government could create the infrastructure needed to make this a viable industry. In order to produce 2,273,000 kg. of rabbit meat annually, North Korea would have to build facilities to house at least one million rabbits. The number and size of housing could be reduced by turning a large portion of the public into “backyard breeders.”

But, leaving this programme in the hands of an underfed populace and small farms is not a viable option. Especially when you consider the eating habits of these giant hares. Each rabbit eats close to one kg. a day of grains and vegetables that could otherwise be consumed by humans. Szmolinsky himself limits the number of rabbits he keeps on-hand because of the cost of feeding them.

Nationwide, a population of 1,000,000 rabbits would be consuming 910,000 kg of food staples daily. Should this rabbit population grow into the millions, it is conceivable that the rabbits would end up eating more potatoes and rice daily that the North Korean population.

Perpetual Drought In U.S. Southwest & California Has First Claim To Colorado River Water

Sediment deposits and low water levels in the Colorado River at Hite Overlook near Hite, Utah.

The Pak Tribune reports:

Global warming will permanently change the climate of the American Southwest, making it so much hotter and drier that Dust Bowl-scale droughts will become common, a new climate report concludes.

While much of the nation west of the Mississippi River is likely to get drier because of the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the greatest effect will be felt in the already-arid areas on both sides of the US-Mexico border. By the end of the century, the climate researchers predict, rainfall in that region will have declined by a worrisome 10 percent to 20 percent annually.

A similar drying out of the subtropical belt above and below the equator will hit the Mediterranean region and parts of Africa, South America, and South Asia, the report says, as the overall warming of the oceans and surface air transforms basic wind and precipitation patterns around the earth.

The prediction of a drier Southwest was made by 16 of 19 climate computer models assembled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the international scientific effort to assess the impact of global warming, which is releasing a new report today. The drought results were analyzed separately in a paper published on line yesterday by the journal Science, which also predicted that regions outside the drying belt will get more rain.

"It's a situation of the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer when it comes to rainfall," said Yochanan Kushnir of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, one of the paper's authors.

He said the authors of the new paper had a very high level of confidence that the droughts will develop and that they will be the result of increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases created through burning fossil fuels and other human activities.

The researchers said future droughts in the affected regions will be different from those in the past, which were caused by local weather conditions and the effects of El Niqo and La Niqa ocean temperature variations. The Southwest has seen significantly below-average rainfall since 1999, and there is some preliminary information to suggest that global warming is already playing a role .

As the planet warms, the researchers said, basic climate dynamics will change. Currently, hot air from the equatorial tropics rises about 8 to 12 miles until it hits the stratosphere and is blocked, then spreads to the north and south and remains aloft until it passes 10 to 30 degrees latitude before cooling and descending again. The computer models show that with more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases making the planet hotter, the area where the hot air remains aloft -- and suppresses rainfall -- will widen. Dry areas will become drier, and arid areas will expand.

The prospect of a drier Southwest is particularly troublesome because the region has some of the nation's fastest growing cities, including Las Vegas and Phoenix.

Richard Seager, also from Lamont-Doherty and a lead author of the paper, said the region will have to rethink how it uses water. Governments "need to plan for this right now, coming up with new, well-informed, and fair deals for allocation of declining water resources," he said.

The climate models generally assumed a gradually increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere until 2050, at which point they assume that the nations of world will have found ways to replace fossil fuels as the main source of energy. Because climate responds steadily but slowly to the buildup, however, the full effect on precipitation changes would not be felt until 2100.

The changes are already in progress and will not be stopped for decades even by dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the researchers said.

The current drought that has affected much of the Southwest since 1999 may already be the result of global warming as much as regional weather patterns, they said. For example, Kushnir said, the drought continued last year even though there was a significant El Niño effect -- which normally produces increased rainfall in the area.

Scientists have debated whether the increased dryness projected is a function of greater evaporation as a result of hotter temperatures or of decreases in rainfall. The broad consensus from the 19 new climate models blames decreased rainfall, Kushnir said.

A Peek Into Tomorrow, Coming Sooner Than You May Think

These refugees in Chad are escaping violence in Darfur. But the displaced of the future may be running from the climate.

Der Spiegel reports:

The picture painted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is one of blighted nations and millions of desperate immigrants fleeing climate disaster. But experts disagree about whether the bleak vision will ever come true.

These refugees in Chad are escaping violence in Darfur. But the displaced of the future may be running from the climate.

Once upon a time, a warming climate tempted the Romans into northern Europe -- as far as northern Germany and even into Britain. Hundreds of years later cooling weather drove Germanic tribes from Scandinavia into the south. Vikings settled Greenland after it warmed up, only to leave when it froze again.

Climate, in short, has long triggered mass migration. And the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that more may be on the horizon. The second part of its extensive report on global warming, released on Friday, warns that coming climate-related disasters may kick off a worldwide exodus of Biblical proportions. Indeed, according to the International Red Cross, 25 million people have already started to shift from places blighted by environmental problems -- a figure that would top the current number of war refugees across the globe.

Rich industrial nations, after decades of pouring more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than poor countries, can adjust to the changes if they invest enough money; but the poorest parts of Central America, Asia and Africa will suffer harshly from flooding and drought. This conventional wisdom in the climate controversy has opened a human-rights debate: Now it's not just globalization, closed markets, or the consequences of colonialism that have robbed the poor of their opportunities -- it's also greenhouse gases. Will coming decades see millions of "climate refugees" flowing north from the floodplains and deserts of Africa or Latin America?

"Horror-movie scenarios"

This question is still wide open among scientists. Experts can't agree if climate refugees even exist. Oxford-based ecologist Norman Myers argues they do, and says the number could soar to as high as 200 million within 50 years. "These people see no alternative to seeking asylum elsewhere, as hazardous as the attempt (to get there) might be," he says.

His colleague Stephen Castles, at Oxford's International Migration Institute, contradicts these horror-movie scenarios. "Myers and others simply take the climate predictions at face value and look at how many people live in the areas that will be flooded," says the author of "The Age of Migration," a now-standard text. This method, says Castles, leads to exaggerated refugee estimates.

He says it's more accurate to research how people actually respond in a given area to environmental disaster, war, or widespread poverty. "What we see is something else -- immigration is generally not the main strategy." When living conditions do get unbearable, people also tend to move within their own countries -- only rarely do they cross national borders.

Immigration experts in countries like Bangladesh tend to agree. Along with low-lying islands like the Maldives, Bangladesh is an early indicator of climate-change prophecies, and even there, sea levels aren't rising all at once. Parts of the country can be protected with dikes; other parts may have to be abandoned, but the people can be resettled. "Only a few will really flee to India," says Castles.

The crucial issue is how well governments react to disasters. After the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, most of the 300,000 displaced residents returned a few months later. After the Pinatubo volcano erupted in the Philippines, though, a large-scale return took years. But the capacity of a nation to respond isn't just a matter of money, as the US government's desultory response to Hurricane Katrina showed in 2005. "It has more to do with decisiveness and organization, and with the struggle against corruption and mismanagement" within a government, says Castles. Overly dramatic predictions of mass migration, he says, mainly serve to aggravate xenophobia: "Right now a tide of refugees is already lapping against the EU's shores," he points out.

Land reform against the apocalypse?

Thomas Faist, a sociologist at the University of Bielefeld, also resists the shrill language his colleagues have started to use. "I don't want to deny the problem," the professor says. "But we can't lose sight of the fact that there are other far more decisive reasons for people to leave home." Floods and desertification are happening now; at the same time people are going hungry and trying to flee. But Faist argues that their ultimate reasons for leaving boil down to ethnic conflict, or economic as well as political mismanagement. He thinks climate change is just an exacerbating factor. Anyone who wants to stop a stream of immigrants has to address its underlying cause, and he doubts the climate can be cited as a root cause for all conflicts raging through all the poor parts of the world.

Faist therefore believes that pots of emergency-fund or "just in case" money for the countries most affected by climate change will be useless. "What they need from us is technological help, drought-resistant seeds, and political support to help the governments react," he says. "Climate change should not be exploited as a cause, to relieve developing nations of their own responsibilities."

The difference between good and bad political management can be seen in Turkey. In the west, where land reform has been underway for decades, the farming sector has flourished; people can support themselves and export their products. In eastern Turkey, where most farmland still belongs to a handful of huge landlords, productivity is low, poverty is high, and many people are leaving for the cities.

"Western Turkey," says Faist, "is in better shape to deal with climate change."

Necessity Breeds Invention

It just requires the right motivation:

"Good enough for government work."

The Graphic Evidence of Global Warming

"Report confirms climate change is a fact.

This graph shows the increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere over the last 10,000 years (panel inset shows the increase since 1750) based on the study of ice cores. Different colors represent different studies. Radiative forcing indicates the influence a factor has on the amount of energy entering or leaving the earth's atmosphere and is an index of how important the factor is as a climate change mechanism. The higher it is, the more important it is.

Der Spiegel reports:

The United Nations on Friday issued its most dramatic warning yet about the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change on the planet. European political leaders say we must cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a climate change process that is already underway.

Climate change in the coming century may lead to disasters ranging from famine in Africa to the thinning of Himalayan glaciers, according to the long-awaited second part of an extensive United Nations report on global warming. More than 100 countries represented in the UN's panel on climate change spent a tense Thursday night in Brussels trying to agree unanimously on the language of a final draft.

The report, prepared by more than 2,500 scientists for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), provides the first confirmation from the entire international scientific community that the burning of fossil fuels by humans is one of the main culprits of global warming.

Scientists "have finally established at the global level that there is an anthropogenic, there is a man made climate signal coming through on plants, animals, water and ice," said Martin Parry, co-chair of the IPCC working group the assembled report. "This is the first time this signal has been confirmed at the international level."

Desertification and water shortages

The report claims that global warming will lead to desertification, droughts and rising seas and that those living in the tropics will be the worst hit -- from sub-Saharan Africa to the Pacific islands. Billions could face water shortages, and ocean levels might rise for centuries to come. It could lead to a sharp drop in crop yields in Africa and bring heatwaves to Europe and North America. Europe's Alpine glaciers will disappear and much of the coral that comprises Australia's Great Barrier Reef will die from bleaching.

The scientific conclusions -- based on 29,000 sets of data -- also said that up to 30 percent of the Earth's species faced a higher risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average in the 1980s and '90s.

"The urgency of this report prepared by the world's top scientists should be matched by an equally urgent response from governments," said Hans Verolme, director of the global climate change program at the conservation organization WWF. "Doing nothing is not an option."

Merkel to address issue at G-8 summit

The contents of the report, most of which had already been leaked to the media in recent weeks, prompted political leaders to call for action, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "The report confirms that climate change is a fact," Merkel told the Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. "That's why we need quick and determined action to limit the rise in temperatures worldwide and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. I will also address the issue at the G-8 summit. My aim is, insofar as possible, to involve all states in taking responsibility for climate protection. "

Merkel said she hoped recent European Union actions might help to push China and the United States -- the world's two largest sources of greenhouse gases -- to do more to reduce emissions. In March the EU's 27 member states agreed cut greenhouse gas emission by at least 20 percent from 1990 levels over the next 13 years. In addition, it agreed that at least one-fifth of all of the EU's energy would come from renewable sources by 2020.

Speaking on Friday, EU Commissioner for the Environment, Stavros Dimas warned that the report "further underlines both how urgent it is to reach global agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and how important it is for us all to adapt to the climate change that is already under way."

"Scientific vandalism"

Originally, the report was to be released on Friday morning at 10 a.m., but the presentation was delayed for hours as heated discussions continued as countries like China, Russia and the US continued to lobby for the removal of parts of the report.

US delegates also opposed a passage warning of the prospects of "severe economic damage" to parts of North America. But the main tension in Brussels between some authors of the report and some political representatives was not over the scientific findings, but over a 21-page summary that would be shown to policymakers.

Earlier this week, the summary said scientists had "very high confidence" that natural systems around the world "are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases."

"Very high confidence," in the language used by the report, translates to a 90 percent certainty. Delegates from China and Saudi Arabia lobbied for "high confidence" instead, or 80 percent certainty -- and after a dramatic hours-long protest by three scientists on Thursday night, the milder language went in.

"The authors lost," said one of the scientists. "A lot of authors are not going to engage in the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) process anymore. I have had it with them," he told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Though Washington and Beijing ultimately succeeded in changing very little of the text, the political tug o' war drew sharp criticism in Germany. "We are happy that we were able to prevent this kind of scientific vandalism in the end," Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel told Reuters TV. "The people have a right to find out about the consequences that threaten them if we are unable to stop climate change."

Still, the final version is the clearest and most comprehensive scientific statement to date on the impact of global warming. "Certain passages were lost for time or for lack of agreement," Parry said, "But I don't think in any respect that the message was lost."

In the first part of the study -- released in February in Paris -- the IPCC concluded with 90 percent certainty that humans were the main cause of global warming since 1950. That alone was an unprecedented statement by a global body; but this section of the report details how species, water supplies, ice sheets and regional climate conditions were already being affected.

Friday's report was the second of four to be released by the IPCC this year. The findings of those reports are expected to serve as a guide for negotiations over extending the Kyoto Protocol, the main UN plan for capping greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2012.

This graph shows the increase in the concentration of methane in the earth's atmosphere over the last 10,000 years (panel inset shows the increase since 1750) based on the study of ice cores. Different colors represent different studies. Radiative forcing indicates the influence a factor has on the amount of energy entering or leaving the earth's atmosphere and is an index of how important the factor is as a climate change mechanism. The higher it is, the more important it is.

This graph shows the increase in the concentration of nitrous oxide in the earth's atmosphere over the last 10,000 years (panel inset shows the increase since 1750) based on the study of ice cores. Different colors represent different studies. Radiative forcing indicates the influence a factor has on the amount of energy entering or leaving the earth's atmosphere and is an index of how important the factor is as a climate change mechanism. The higher it is, the more important it is.

Changes in a) global average surface temperature; b) global average sea level rise; and c) snow coverage in the Northern Hemisphere from March to April. All changes are relative to corresponding averages for the period 1961 to 1990. Smoothed curves represent decadal averaged values while circles show yearly values.

A comparison of continental and global surface temperature rises. The black lines show decade-by-decade rises relative to the average from 1901 to 1950. The blue lines shows natural forces contributing to global warming. The pink lines show natural forces combined with human activity.

What next? The middle column shows projections for temperature increases based on three separate models. The middle column shows 2020-2029 and the right hand column shows 2090 to 2099. The color-coded scale corresponds to Celsius degree rises. The three scenarios B1, A1B and A2 are based on different assumptions about economic growth, population development and fuel usage.

This graph shows expected relative changes in winter precipitation (in percent) for the period 2090 to 2099 relative to the period 1980 to 1999 using the A1B model. White areas show where less than 66 percent of the models agree on the change. Dotted areas show where more than 90 percent of the models agree.

This graph shows expected relative changes in summer precipitation (in percent) for the period 2090 to 2099 relative to the period 1980 to 1999 using the A1B model. White areas show where less than 66 percent of the models agree on the change. Dotted areas show where more than 90 percent of the models agree.

How hot is it going to get? The black line at the left shows the 20th century. The colored solid lines show where the temperature might go using different models -- shading indicates error ranges. Bars at the right show best estimates (solid lines) with the gray showing the likely range.

The Easter Monkey

For your amusement, meet Nina Conti and 'Monk':



Interesting alter ego she has.

Friday Cat Blogging

Things are not as they appear to be . . . .

Protest Without Having To Leave The Comfort Of Your Armchair

Top California Democrat seeks to put war in Iraq on the ballot in the state's 2008 primary election.



Reuters reports:

California's top Democratic legislator called on Thursday for voters to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in a ballot measure for the state's 2008 presidential primary election.

"We do not have to be on the streets of Berkeley or on the streets of Oakland," state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said. "We can now use the ballot box."
"With the possible exception of George Bush, we all know it's time to go," said Perata. "If the biggest state in the nation says 'end the war now,' maybe it will start to sink in."

During the Vietnam War, both Northern Californian cities hosted frequent anti-war demonstrations, but with students today not threatened by a draft as they were in the 1960s, the Iraq war has not sparked the same level of public response.

Polls suggest, however, that a growing percentage of the public favors an end to the U.S. involvement in Iraq.

A Field Poll report released on Thursday said disenchantment with President George W. Bush's handling of the war has pushed his approval rating among California voters to its lowest level since he assumed office and near a record low scored by President Richard Nixon in August 1974 shortly before he resigned from office in the Watergate scandal.

Perata said he would introduce his bring-the-troops-home measure on Monday. To make the ballot, the measure requires a majority vote in the state Senate and Assembly, each controlled by Democrats, and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature.

State Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman said Perata should not expect Republican support. "California doesn't have any claim to establishing what the foreign policy should be for the United States," he said.

Ackerman said he expects Schwarzenegger would veto the bill: "I'd say it's dead on arrival."

Spokesman Aaron McLear said Schwarzenegger had no comment on the bill but said the governor supports a timeline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq and "believes we need to do all we can to be successful in Iraq."

The advisory measure, mirroring a similar item passed by voters in San Francisco, comes as Bush and Democrats in Congress brace for a showdown over legislation to fund U.S. troops in Iraq.

"With the possible exception of George Bush, we all know it's time to go," said Perata. "If the biggest state in the nation says 'end the war now,' maybe it will start to sink in."

Where's The Outrage?

Not 24-hours after Bush and Cheney's condemnation of Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria (along with every rightwing media outlet), "U.S. Congressman Darrell Issa meets Syrian president in Damascus."

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) shakes the hand of Bashar Assad, President of Syria, which is on the U.S. State Department's list of nations that sanction state-sponsored terrorism

On Rush Limbaugh's program today (from the transcript up on the White House website), Dick Cheney said, "In this particular case, by going to Damascus at this stage, it serves to reinforce, if you will, and reward Bashir Assad for his bad behavior."

The Associated Press reports:

A U.S. Republican congressman met President Bashar Assad on Thursday, a day after a visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, spurning the White House policy of isolating the Syrian leadership.

Congressman Darrell Issa of California said U.S. President George W. Bush had failed to promote the dialogue that is necessary to resolve disagreements between the United States and Syria.

"That's an important message to realize: We have tensions, but we have two functioning embassies," Issa told reporters after separate meetings with Assad and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.

President Bush has rejected direct talks with Syria, saying others have tried the tactic but without result. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Thursday the administration had a clear line on Congress members — Democrat or Republican — going to Syria.

"We do not think it's productive; we do not think it is useful," Johndroe said, adding that such visits "only makes (the Syrians) feel validated."

Washington accuses Syria of backing Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups it deems terrorist organizations. The Bush administration also says Syria is contributing to the violence in Iraq by allowing Sunni insurgents to operate from its territory and is destabilizing Lebanon's government. Syria rejects the charges.

Issa, a Lebanese-American who frequently travels to the Middle East, said he and other members of Congress would continue to encourage the Bush administration to engage Syria.

"I have no illusions. We have serious problems to be resolved but we will resolve them," he said.

Assad and Issa discussed "the mechanisms and means that must be available to build a solid U.S.-Syrian relationship," the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

Foreign Minister al-Moallem stressed Syria's keenness to talk to the U.S. and said the congressional visits helped to "formulate a joint vision for finding solutions to the problems in the region," SANA reported.

Bush sharply criticized Pelosi, a Californian Democrat, for calling on Assad, saying her visit eased the country's isolation. However, his administration stayed relatively quiet about a similar visit days earlier by a three-man Republican delegation.

Pelosi said the congressional visits were an "excellent idea" and said she was hopeful that Syrian-U.S. confidence could be restored through dialogue.

Pelosi's visit followed one by three congressmen from Bush's own party who also met with Syria's leaders.

"I don't care what the administration says on this. You gotta do what you think is in the best interest of your country," said Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, who was part of the delegation.

On This Day . . . .

In 1991, the Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, John Heinz (Theresa Heinz Kerry's first husband) and six other people were killed when a helicopter collided with Heinz's plane over a schoolyard in Merion, Pa.

In 1984, Bob Bell retired as Bozo the Clown on WGN-TV in Chicago after 24 years.

In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger was launched for the first time.

In 1974, Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth's career home run record by hitting his 714th round-tripper in Cincinnati.

In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

In 1967, Johnny Carson quit "The Tonight Show." He returned three weeks later after getting a raise of $30,000 a week.

In 1965, actor/singer Robert Downey, Jr., was born.

Robert Downey, Jr., Chaplin

In 1964, the Beatles held the top five spots on Billboard's Hot 100 ("Can't Buy Me Love," "Twist and Shout," "She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "Please Please Me"), setting an all-time record. They also had the number one album.

The Beatles perform 'Twist and Shout' at the London Palladium, November, 1963

In 1963, Jason Robards, Sr., stage and screen actor and father of Jason Robards, Jr., died in Sherman Oaks, California.


In 1956, David E. Kelley (husband of Michelle Pfeiffer; writer and producer of such television programs as L.A. Law, Doogie Howser, M.D., Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal) was born.

In 1949, NATO was formed by 12 western democratic nations, including the United States and Great Britain, to safeguard against Soviet aggression. [Guardian Unlimited, Special Report: NATO]

In 1932, Vitamin C was first isolated by C.C. King at the University of Pittsburgh.

In 1928, Maya Angelou was born.

In 1902, British financier Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will to provide scholarships for Americans at Oxford University in England.

In 1887, Susanna Medora Salter became the first woman elected mayor of an American community (Argonia, Kansas).

In 1872 in Vienna, Franz Sacher, a 16-year old apprentice chef, came up with a recipe for chocolate cake which bears his name - Sachertorte. It's a rich chocolate cake and is big business for Vienna. The recipe of the Original Sacher Torte is a well-kept secret to this day, protected by copyright, but it is served in the Hotel Sacher Wien (purely organic ingredients, contains no preservatives), can be ordered and shipped anywhere in the world.

"The Original Sacher-Torte tastes best with unsweetened cream and a cup of Original Sacher Café or tea!"

In 1850 The city of Los Angeles was incorporated, the same year that California was admitted to the United States.

In 1841, President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia one month after his inauguration, becoming the first U.S. president to die in office.

In 1818, Congress decided the U.S. flag would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state.

In 1802, Dorothea Dix, activist on behalf of the indigent insane who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums, was born in Maine.

Dorothea Dix, April 4, 1802 – July 17, 1887

In 1648, Grinling Gibbons (master wood carver to King George 1, employed by Sir Christopher Wren to work on St. Paul's Cathedral and other churches around England) was born.

Choir stalls carved by Grinling Gibbons, St. Paul's Cathedral, London

Ends of the bookcases sport intricate carvings by Grinling Gibbons in the lighter limewood. The Wren Library, Cambridge [Explore St. Paul's Cathedral - virtual tour]

In 1581, English navigator Francis Drake returned home after sailing around the world, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.

Drake presented Queen Elizabeth with his diary of the voyage and a map of the world. The original map was lost in a fire but several copies were made. Shown above is the Hondius Map held by University of California-Berkeley's Bancroft Library. [Note the four corners of the map with illustrations of important events that ocurred during the voyage. See Sir Francis Drake History on the Internet for a detailed view.]

Mitt Romney's Wife Has Chronic, Degenerative Multiple Sclerosis

Why isn't FOXnews.com obsessing about the Romneys' decision to continue campaigning, as they are the Edwards's?

Living with a chronic, degenerative disease like multiple sclerosis is no day at the beach. There is no cure. Although not uncommon, multiple sclerosis by itself can be fatal (1% of the MS population). More frequently, about 10% of MS patients experience other life-threatening complications, such as:

Dehydration or Malnutrition as a result of difficulty swallowing or the inability to care for oneself.

Kidney failure. Urinary tract infections, urine retention and sphincter dysfunction are common in MS and of which could lead to kidney failure

Aspiration. Throat muscles not working can cause choking or inhalation of food or drink, which may cause pneumonia

Depression unaided or left without assistance can, and sadly often does, lead to suicide

Stress can make symptoms worse, trigger flare-ups, and hasten the disease's progression, so avoiding stress wherever possible becomes key to a patient's strategy for living with MS. For the other 90% of MS patients not in imminent danger of dying, achieving some success in living with this disease includes therapies which help in managing the normal physical and psychological stress of daily life. The rigors of a two-year campaign for the presidency mean constant stress that takes a toll on the healthiest candidates and their families. And make that a six-year campaign, should Romney actually win the general election, because every day of his first term will be in reelection mode for a second term.

I question the emotional fitness, judgment, values and commitment (to spouse and family) of any candidate who goes ahead with a bid for the presidency after his spouse has gotten an MS diagnosis.

I see this as a much more serious consideration for voters than Elizabeth and John Edwards' situation. While stress certainly plays a role in cancer's course, once cancer has progressed to stage 4 (metastasized to other parts of the body, which is what has happened to Mrs. Edwards; the cancer has spread to bones and organs, a lung), she's pretty much "Dead Woman Walking." That may sound harsh, but that's what's happening, absent the high-priced public relations' consultants' positive, "best case scenario" spin.

Edwards's campaign got out the pertinent facts regarding his wife's condition: The severity of her condition, and how his campaign will be affected by it. When Elizabeth Edwards needs him by her side, he'll be with her and not the campaign.

Elizabeth Edwards has decided that whatever time she has left, she's going to spend it as she sees fit, doing what she believes is important. With her family's blessings. John Edwards dropping out of the campaign isn't going to change Mrs. Edwards' prognosis or give her more time.

The same isn't true for Ann Romney, nor is the benefit that dropping out of the campaign would have on her health.

Yet the media allows the Romneys to avoid the questions that are dogging the Edwards. Today, FOXnews.com has begun anew the same story from 3 weeks ago - Wife of John Edwards Defends Decision to Stick With Campaign After Cancer Diagnosis:

Elizabeth Edwards wants to be clear: She made the choice to stick with her husband's campaign for president after learning her cancer was back.

"I think that people who are critical like to think that John dragged me kicking and fighting the whole way, that I'm somehow disappointed in this. I'm not disappointed in this," she said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters after her husband's town hall meeting at Concord High School, Edwards, 57, said at decision time, she went first.

"He let me make it first, I think, because he wanted to make certain it was mine and I wasn't just deferring to him," she said. "This is what I wanted to do."

As for criticism of their decision: "I don't worry for me because we've got tough skin. And, honestly, having been through the death of a child, it's just words. You want to hurt us, you're going to have to do a little better than that."

It was the couple's first campaign trip to New Hampshire since announcing last month that Elizabeth Edwards' breast cancer, diagnosed at the end of the 2004 campaign, had returned in her bones. John Edwards stayed in the race, drawing praise from cancer survivors. From others, he drew questions about whether that was the right choice.

In Concord, Elizabeth Edwards led the way into the gymnasium, followed by her husband, son Jack and daughters Cate and Emma Claire.

John Edwards was the headliner, speaking to a mostly high school-age audience on broad themes of unity and change and their importance in solving Iraq, health care, climate change and poverty.

"The country and the world has to change," he said. "Instead of taking small steps, we need big bold steps."

On Iraq, Edwards criticized President Bush's threat to veto a House-passed bill to set a timeline for withdrawing from Iraq.

"If the president chooses to veto it, it's the president of the United States who's decided 'I'm not going to provide the funding to the troops leaving Iraq," he said. "If he vetoes it they ought to send it back to him."

But Elizabeth Edwards was the show stealer. John Edwards got his first round of applause by mentioning his wife: "She's shown extraordinary courage and I'm very, very proud of her."

And when he left the room, she lingered, surrounded by autograph seekers, well-wishers and reporters jostling for quotes.

"I was here to see Elizabeth, really," said Ruth Ann Herbert.

Herbert wanted to speak to Edwards about their common loss — both had teenage sons who died. In introducing her husband, Edwards spoke of their son, Wade, who died at 16 in a car crash, and the high school learning lab created in his memory. Herbert, a reading tutor at Concord High, established a scholarship in her son's name.

"I just wanted to tell her that we're sisters. You have no idea unless you've lost a child, and I just wanted to let her know that she's very inspiring to me," Herbert said.

In Durham, after a packed town hall meeting at the University of New Hampshire, an elderly woman bustled through the crowd surrounding John Edwards, threw her arms around him in a hug and asked where his wife was.

"She's over there," he said. "She's got a big crowd around her."

Edwards spoke a day after announcing he had raised more than $14 million in campaign money. Sen. Hillary Clinton had raised a record $26 million.

"One thing is clear — there are at least two candidates, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton, who are going to have plenty of money to run a serious campaign," Edwards said.

Where will Romney be when his wife can't make the campaign schedule, can't pull herself out of her bed, can't feed herself or speak?

Where is Bernadine Healy, informing the public about multiple sclerosis?

Where is Rush Limbaugh, and other "somebodies," accusing Mitt Romney of political opportunism?

Why Has Google Replaced Post-Katrina Photos With Pre-Katrina Photos on Its Map Portal?

House subcommittee blasts Google over pre-Katrina map images.



"If we assume that the purpose of the government is to serve and improve the welfare of the entire body of citizens, the Bush administration has clearly been a major failure. It has served a minority, and the majority have not only failed to share in the gains yielded, they have suffered from reduced rights, freedoms, greater economic instability and stress, and a diminution of expectations and sense of hope for the future."

The AP reports:

Google's replacement of post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery on its map portal with images of the region before the storm does a "great injustice" to the storm's victims, a congressional subcommittee said.

The House Committee on Science and Technology's subcommittee on investigations and oversight on Friday asked Google Inc. Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt to explain why his company is using the outdated imagery.

The subcommittee cited an Associated Press report on the images.

"Google's use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history," subcommittee chairman Brad Miller, D-N.C., wrote in a letter to Schmidt.

Swapping the post-Katrina images and the ruin they revealed for others showing an idyllic city dumbfounded many locals and even sparked suspicions that the company and civic leaders were conspiring to portray the area's recovery progressing better than it is.

Andrew Kovacs, a Google spokesman, said the company had received the letter but Schmidt had no immediate response.

After Katrina, Google's satellite images were in high demand among exiles and hurricane victims anxious to see whether their homes were damaged.

Now, though, a virtual trip through New Orleans is a surreal experience of scrolling across a landscape of packed parking lots and marinas full of boats.

Reality, of course, is very different: Entire neighborhoods are now slab mosaics where houses once stood and shopping malls, churches and marinas are empty of life, many gone altogether.

John Hanke, Google's director for maps and satellite imagery, said "a combination of factors including imagery date, resolution, and clarity" go into deciding what imagery to provide.

"The latest update from one of our information providers substantially improved the imagery detail of the New Orleans area," Hanke said in a news release about the switch.

Kovacs said efforts are under way to use more current imagery.

It was not clear when the current images replaced views of the city taken after Katrina struck Aug. 29, 2005, flooding an estimated 80 percent of New Orleans.

Miller asked Google to brief his staff by April 6 on who made the decision to replace the imagery with pre-Katrina images, and to disclose if Google was contacted by the city, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey or any other government entity about changing the imagery.

"To use older, pre-Katrina imagery when more recent images are available without some explanation as to why appears to be fundamentally dishonest," Miller said.

Edith Holleman, staff counsel for the House subcommittee, said it would be useful to understand how Google acquires and manages its imagery because "people see Google and other Internet engines and it's almost like the official word."

Google does provide imagery of New Orleans and the region following Katrina through its more specialized service called Google Earth.

Out of sight, out of mind.

That's the innocent explanation. Even if whomever did it had the best of intentions, or no conscious intention at all. Even if it was just an impulse to put New Orleans' best foot forward for the Google-camera - a knee-jerk reaction to an internal sense of discomfort over a situation that resists solution.

Just as dysfunctional families set aside their differences, smile and say "cheese" for the annual Christmas photograph, we tend to forget that it's people making decisions at corporations. They bring to the job the same coping mechanisms they've developed in problematic personal relationships.

Unfortunately, it's what those who are in powerful positions to make change happen, those who are charged with fixing it, who agreed to take on the job of fixing it and aren't (for whatever reason), are counting on . . . . When they can no longer count on the public's apathy.

"Each day that passes without an impeachment inquiry into the Bush administration, Americans' standards lower, expectations of government's responsibility and action by elected officials extinguish. Democracy ceases, and along with it, respect for rule of law."