Daily Briefing - 12/7/06

Yesterday we witnessed the end of an era (the mesozoic perhaps?). Sneator Inhofe proceeded over his final hearing on global warming, attempting to show the world the dastardly one-sidedness of the media's coverage. Result? Well, for the most part the media either ignored or skewered him... and he gave a platform to the incoming Chairwoman and a not-so-unusually fired-up Senator Boxer to set a base for the future policy of the Committee. Canadians will be happy to hear that, since they stand to lose the whole Victoria region. Sea life is also threatened, so says a new report, and while some think the UK's Gordon Brown is not doing enough others are lauding India for adapting well.

I can hear the whining from the Capitol all the way from my office in Dupont. The new leadership is imposing longer work weeks (meaning 5 days), and shorter vacations (normal one week breaks). GOOD GOD, THE HORROR. The Washington Post editorializes on the possibility of Congress that may actually do something. There's a thought. The 109th is surprisingly still working. They confirmed SecDef nominee Robert Gates yesterday, 95-2 with Sens. Bunning (R-KY) and Santorum (R-PA) voting no. The Congressional Black Caucus has chosen its leader and there is a lot of news surrounding the potential '08ers.

In other news, we remember Pearl Harbor sixty-four years later. An interesting personal connection -- my paternal grandparents were married on the exact day. Moving from somber news of the day to just plain weird, there is a comedian in LA who is trying to make Jesus more appealing to males by... yup, making him manlier. I sure know that's what's most important to me in a religious figure, masculinity! All this and more in the briefing.

MW

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Daily Briefing – 12/7/06
64 years ago, a day that lives in infamy

Key Issues in the News
Global Warming
- Parting is such sweet sorrow. We shall not miss your irreverent views and incoherent rants, Mr. Inhofe.
o Also from San Francisco Chronicle
o They agreed on one thing – letting the data flow
- Threatening sea life
- Victoria region could be sunk
- India ahead of many in adapting
- Gordon Brown - a pale shade of green
- Zero-carbon house plans
- Grist on the insurance industry and global warming
Washington/Legislation/Politics/People/etc.
- A Do-Something Congress
- Senate confirms Gates, 95-2
- Congressional Black Caucus chooses a leader
- Further eroding moderation in the GOP
- And one final Rick Santorum fire-and-brimstone speech
Potential ‘08ers…
- McCain (hiring the man behind the Harold Ford “bimbo ad”), Clinton (too vane), Richardson (anti-border fence), Pataki (in NH), Obama (sells out… an event), Romney (names a campaign manager), Gore (making noise), Giuliani (scores a player), Huckabee (welcomes Hispanics), Kucinich (pondering a run)
- Chicago Tribune wants Obama to run
Other News from the Media
- Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
- 1,100 premature deaths from diesel emissions in California
- Rising interest in nuclear power brings new life to uranium mining
…and the Blogosphere
- Bob Burnett of the Huffington Post: Killing Conservativism
- Stirling Newberry of TPMCafe argues for, among other things, a Pigou-Tobin tax
- DailyKos: Update on TX-23 race
- SciGuy’s view on the Inhofe hearing
- From Grist:
o Victoria’s Secret bares all with new catalog policy
o On Obama
Miscellaneous… or just plain weird
- Water flows on Mars
- Conservative Jews to allow ordination of gay rabbis and same-sex unions
- Senator one day, Bollywood the next
- A manlier Jesus?
- PSA: Don’t use your blackberry while driving
- A tornado in London? Rapture anyone?
Quotes O’ the Day
“There is no darkness but ignorance.” ~ William Shakespeare