Daily Briefing - 4/9/07: $100 million, Fighting Scientists, Virtuoso Violinists, and Global Warming

Happy Monday.

MW

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Daily Briefing – 4/9/07
574 days until the NEXT election… and global warming is an integral part of our nation’s agenda!

Key Issues in the News
Global Warming
- Next Task: Repairing the climate
- Learning from Europe
- Christine Todd Whitman: SSC ruling is a welcome first step
o For the Chief Justice, a dissent and a line in the sand
- Doris Duke Foundation to offer $100 million to deal with global warming
- Detroit decides to help shape, not resist, regulation of emissions
- UN sounds the alarm
o Scientists v. diplomats
o Scientists see report as too soft, blame China, Saudi Arabia for watering it down
- Washington Post: A Consensus on Crisis
o Climate wars loom as the future looks bleak
- Mountaineers: The eyewitnesses to climate change
- The 3 step climate action plan
- Newsweek: The War of the Words
- China to participate in post-Kyoto talks
- Worried about high gas prices
Washington/Legislation/Politics/People/etc.
- President renewing efforts on immigration
- Democrats’ cause is tempered by reality
o But they seek to lead the way in tax overhaul
- Another layer of scandal
Potential ‘08ers…
- Romney (he’s rising), Obama (all sizzle and no steak?), Clinton and McCain (lose frontrunner status), Gingrich (taking on AG Gonzalez), Obama again (boosted by Clinton defectors), Romney again (initial public offering), Thompson, Tommy (record isn’t enough), Clinton (the end of inevitability), Clinton again (will not be crowned), Edwards (getting help in SC), Giuliani (blasted by firefighters), McCain (the meltdown), Huckabee (slaps down Romney for hunting gaffe), Richardson (arrives in North Korea),
- “Why do US candidates need so much money?” This is America buddy, why does ANYBODY need so much money?
- Candidates should look beyond Iraq
- Democrats may now top GOP in donor efforts… now both parties can be bought with equally massive sums of money!
Other News from the Media
- Iran goes nuclear… somebody tell them they’re not allowed to use Yucca Mountain
- Slate: Green is in
- Even the President is intrigued by plug-in hybrids (Even if he doesn’t know how to use a socket)
o The folks at Grist sure enjoyed this
- Ranchers and army at odds in the old west
- Plastic wrapper today could be fuel tomorrow
- Can man improve on nature’s fishbowl?
…and the Blogosphere
- The Fix: Romney’s inner circle
- Raw Fisher: McCain’s new money man
- RCP’s Politics and Elections page
- Grist:
o A unique insight into the IPCC process
o Texas solar opportunity
Miscellaneous… or just plain weird
- This. Is. Un-believable
- Apple ships 100 millionth iPod
- Will this fad ever get old?
- Imus: “I’m not a racist”
- Flight cancelled over rude language
Quotes O’ the Day
“Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.” ~ Aldous Huxley