Daily Briefing - 12/1/06

Happy December all! The holiday season approaches (not like it hasn't been approaching since October, thanks commercialism).

In today's global warming news, reports are out that show warming may be linked to bigger monsoons in India and South Asia and the future. Across the Indian Ocean, some Aussies are questioning what their place in the Kyoto Protocol does for anyone, while the land of the ancestors pushes forward on tough cabon cuts which the U.S. (gasp, I'm so surprised!) opposes. If somebody starts to cackle about the mild hurricane season debunking global warming, feel free to send them directly to the liberal bastion that is the Houston Chronicle. To paraphrase, this past season is "no excuse to discount the risks." Wait, climate is different than weather? We can't make a judgment with one single data point? Rats.

In Washington, Speaker-elect Pelosi chooses Congressman Reyes (D-TX) to chair the Intelligence Committee, no doubt pleasing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus but angering the Congressional Black Caucus and disappointing all the Jane Harman fans out there. In '08 news, Mitt Romney employed illegal immigrants, John McCain is trying to scare Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton is scared of Barack Obama, nobody knows who Tom Vilsack is, and nobody cares about John Kerry.

The other news has a couple of interesting pieces (by my opinion). An op-ed from Tom "I don't care what Chris Columbus thinks, the world is flat" Friedman examines current global conflict and sees alternative energy as our saving grace. The Christian Science Monitor offers up ways to conserve in an unglamorous, yet highly effective manner, and an anlaysis of the hurricane season's effect on the energy market.

The blogosphere is atwitter with talk of '08... races in House, Senate, Dog Catcher are already being strategized and overthought. And finally, schools are buying students cars for having good attendance (my generation isn't spoiled enough, you know) and airports now want to use X-Ray vision (for good they say). I don't know, the only one I can think of who uses X-Ray vision for good is Superman. On to the briefing!

MW

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Daily Briefing – 12/1/06
It’s the most… wonderful time… of the year!

Key Issues in the News
Global Warming
- Washington Post on the Supreme Court case
- In Australia, questions about the validity of Kyoto
- Global warming linked to bigger monsoons
o Affecting Indian farming
o Also from Scientific American, Reuters, International Herald Tribune
- Skiers worry careers could be crimped
- EU embarks on tough carbon cuts
o U.S. opposes cuts scheme for airliners
- Forbes: Carbon trading catch up
- Houston Chronicle: Mild hurricane season is no excuse for discounting risks of climate change
- EPA staffers go to Hill over global warming
- Global warming test for Arnold, lawmakers
- Oregon’s Secretary of State, Bill Bradbury, among the Gore cavalry
- Activist offers Vermonters ten tips to slow global warming
- Overstating the obvious?
o Reaction from Grist
Washington/Legislation/Politics/People/etc.
- D.C. still fighting for voting representation
- Pelosi picks Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) to head Intelligence Committee
- Testing Harry Reid
- Security of electronic voting condemned
o Could be a major cause of FL-13 bungled race
- Rep. Kendrick Meek asks Americans what we should do with that rubber stamp
- Potential ‘08ers…
o Romney (used illegal immigrants), McCain (crashing “Romney’s” party), Kerry (Asks people to move on, pretty please), Vilsack (goes to NH, hopes somebody recognizes him), Obama (still angering the Christian right), Clinton (starts to move)
Other News from the Media
- Hurricane season’s dud may be energy market’s gain
- Tom Friedman on using renewable energy as our wall separating us from the Middle East
- Not so glamorous conservation works best
- Beijing sets national standard for methanol as automotive fuel
…and the Blogosphere
- SciGuy: What did we learn this hurricane season?
- The Fix is already looking at the ’08 House races
- DailyKos looks at the AL and GA Senate ’08 races… Jonathan Singer at MYDD weighs in as well… as does Political Insider
- Eugene Volokh from the National Review on why Rep-elect Keith Ellison has every right to be sworn in with the Koran
- Nora Ephron from HuffPo defends Jim Webb’s “boorishness”
- From a diary on DailyKos: Global warming and energy policy on collision course
- An interview with Andrew Revkin, environment reporter for NYT
- From Grist:
o A Wyoming town fights back against gas exploration
o The revolution will be solarized
o What Saudi Arabia wants, Saudi Arabia gets
Miscellaneous… or just plain weird
- Single massive asteroid wiped out dinosaurs and lots of other species, study says
- TOMS Shoes: You buy a pair, a pair gets sent to a child in need
- Airports consider using X-Ray screening, the same used in prisons. Like getting through an airport wasn’t enough like prison…
- What the heck… all I ever got was a stupid certificate.
- The White House holiday menu
Quotes O’ the Day
"If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life." ~Rachel Carson