Daily Briefing - 12/6/06

Senator Inhofe had a hearing this morning on -- say this with a loud, sinister voice -- "Climate Change and the Media." Luckily for those of us who enjoy the Senator's rants and the paid-for-by-big-oil lackeys he trots out, the hearing viewable by live webcast on the EPW site. Check it out, there are some great soundbites. In other global warming related news, Al Gore was on Oprah (aka the bastion of all that is important in the world) yesterday discussing An Inconvenient Truth and debating global warming with an employee of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. I wonder what Gayle thinks of green taxes...

In Washington, rhetorical bombs were dropped squarley on the Administration's Iraq policy yesterday by ways of SecDef-elect Robert Gates in his hearing and the Baker-Hamilton Commission. In short, it doesn't look good. Speaking of not looking good, Katherine Harris's former district is still up for grabs thanks to some serious balloting snafus. Also on the not-good-news front, the roughly 600,000 people in the city of Washington D.C. will continue to lack voting representation in Congress. Hooray for feudal democracy!

In other news, Tom Friedman lauds the Chinese solar power business, and the U.K. looks to focus its budget on the environment and education. Hmmmm, other nations noticing the necessities of tomorrow (innovation in clean energy, a better educated workforce...), and here we're having hearings on -- be sure to use that sinister voice again -- "the hyping of climate change!" Finally, Mary Cheney is pregnant... giving James Dobson an ulcer. All that and more in the briefing.

MW

---------------------------------
Daily Briefing – 12/6/06
It’s the most… wonderful time… of the year!
Key Issues in the News
Global Warming
- Senator Boxer to call state leaders to testify on warming law – laying out an agenda with California as the model
- An Inconvenient Truth honored
o Al was on Oprah yesterday!
- Global warming moving our breadbasket to Canada
- Southern Ocean could significantly help slow global warming
- Does good wine mean bad weather? Using grapes to predict warming.
- Sen. Inhofe to skewer media… and bravely save the world from melting!
o CBS News actually takes a look to see if the media is hyping global warming
o Here is the webcast of the hearing
- Alternet: Rich nations put burden of global warming on Africa
- More than 50 tribes convene
Washington/Legislation/Politics/People/etc.
- Executive Summary of report from Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group
- Still no winner in FL-13
o Analysis from noted election law professor Rick Hasen
- GOP leaders let DC voting rights bill die
- Culture shock on Capitol Hill… House to work – get this – 5 DAYS A WEEK!
- TX-23 special election poll
- Senator George Clooney?
Potential ‘08ers…
- Clinton (making early moves), Clark (doing the book thing), McCain (another book), Bayh (say hello), Edwards (needs to start fundraising),
Other News from the Media
- Friedman on the Chinese solar business
- Environment and education focus of U.K. budget
o Including green taxes
- Toyota in the U.S.: Different shades of green
- Adapt or die, Australian environment report
…and the Blogosphere
- DailyKos: If Obama runs, he wins
- MYDD is preparing is ’08 rankings
- RedState: A rough start for SecDef nominee Robert Gates
- Huffington Post: Navy Times editorial blasts “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
- RCP: Will it be the economy in ’08?
- From Grist:
o A special series on biofuels
o Podcast
Miscellaneous… or just plain weird
- Umm, miraculous conception?
- Come on, you know you have been stuck next to a person like this, save for the matches.
- The richest 2% of the world’s adults own more than half of the world’s wealth
- Britney Spears, Yahoo most popular search item.
Quotes O’ the Day
“The science is in. The facts are there that we have created, man has, a self-inflicted wound that man has created through global warming.” Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA)