- A new face for American diplomacy
Obama has also surrounded himself with capable and respected foreign policy advisors, including seeking advice from a preeminent and forceful U.S. negotiator, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose reputation overseas is less sullied than it is back home. With foreign policy, there is no indication Obama will give away the store or, contrary to what his opponents might charge, that he will be a Chamberlain-like appeaser.
Rather, a President Obama will likely engage the world in the way it should be engaged — with respect, understanding and a clear sense of purpose. He will be, at the very least, a symbol of what can restore greatness to America — a greatness that millions of people outside America want to believe in, but have up until now had difficulty reconciling with the facts. From their perspective, if a black son-of-an-immigrant with a Muslim name can become an American president, then anything truly is possible in America. And that’s a country that would be very hard to be enemies with.
- Evolution wins as creationists (accidentally) switch sides in Florida
A decision by the Florida Board of Education to approve a curriculum referring to “the scientific theory of evolution” has an unintended side effect: It embeds evolution in the curriculum for the first time. It also will require teaching kids what a “scientific theory” is. The benefit of that, of course, is that with proper instruction, kids will actually learn that a scientific theory is not “just a theory”, and should help stem the tide of ignorance that has been washing over this “debate”.
- Possibility of life on Mars looking more remote
The never-say-die robotic geologist Opportunity continues its extended explorations in Victoria Crater on Mars. The latest findings from the mission suggest that while plenty of water did exist in this location, it was so salty that life would have a very hard time gaining a foothold. ‘Not all water is fit to drink,’ said Andrew Knoll, a member of the rover science team. ‘At first, we focused on acidity, because the environment would have been very acidic. Now, we also appreciate the high salinity of the water when it left behind the minerals Opportunity found. This tightens the noose on the possibility of life.
- HEPA filters may improve cardiovascular health: study
The researchers discovered that when the HEPA filters were used, they removed about 60 per cent of the particles in the homes. As well, the finger sensors picked up an 8.1 per cent improvement in blood flow on average.
- Another mysterious right foot floats ashore in Gulf Islands
For the third time in six months, a right foot wearing a sneaker has washed up on the shores of the Gulf Islands, in the Strait of Georgia. The latest foot was found on the east side of Valdez Island, near Nanaimo. Last August two other right feet, both male and both wearing size 12 sneakers, washed ashore on nearby Gabriola and Jedediah Islands.
- “Lacking specifics is much more of an urban myth than it is borne out by the facts”
Sen. Obama:
This is an area where, I think, a certain myth has been perpetrated. Ironically, in the beginning of this campaign, I was criticized for being too professorial and providing too much detail. And I would say that if you actually take a look at my website and Senator Clinton’s website, I’ve been far more specific on what I would do on Social Security, for example. I’ve been very explicit that I think we need to raise the cap on the payroll tax. She suggested a commission. I’ve been very explicit on energy, climate change, healthcare. On foreign policy, I’ve repeatedly laid out how I would approach problems like Iraq and Pakistan and the fight against terrorism. So I really think the whole issue of lacking specifics is much more of an urban myth than it is borne out by the facts.
- Top McCain adviser will quit, because he loves Obama more
“I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama,” said McCain adviser Mark McKinnon in an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered. “I think it would be uncomfortable for me, and I think it would be bad for the McCain campaign.”
- ABC article on Clinton’s delegate math challenge
So much for the “inevitable” candidate…
She told a crowd today she can hear the voices of two strong Texas women who have died — former Texas Governor Ann Richards and former Texas Rep. Barbara Jordan — urging her to go on. “I can hear their voices saying, ‘You keep going! You give the people a real choice about the future!’” Clinton said.
Oh great; first George Bush said that God told him to invade Iraq, and now Hillary Clinton is saying she can hear the voices of dead Texan politicians. Why should she be president, again?
- FakeSteve: “People keep telling me to stay out of politics”
Folks, look. If you’re writing in saying this, then you clearly don’t understand me and you don’t understand Apple. Apple isn’t a technology company. Apple isn’t a consumer electronics company. Apple is a lifestyle. It’s a way of looking at the world. It’s a perspective. An experience. Politics and culture are woven in the very fabric of who we are. So are music and literature and film and religion. And yoga and meditation. These are the things we at Apple think and care about. Except for the engineers, who really do care about nothing other than their stupid little weenie projects. Especially the OS and developer tool freaks. But they’re a tiny majority of the company. For the rest of us, the point of Apple is not just to sell more iPods and iMacs. We’re trying to change the world.
- U.S. Navy intercepts Russian bombers
A U.S. military official says that one Russian Tupolev 95 flew directly over the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz twice, at a low altitude of about 2,000 feet, while another bomber circled about 58 miles out. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because the reports on the flights were classified as secret. The Saturday incident, which never escalated beyond the flyover, comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Russia over U.S. plans for a missile defense system based in Poland and the Czech Republic. Such Russian bomber flights were common during the Cold War, but have been rare since.
How is this not major news?
- Meet Hillary’s new friend and campaign manager!
In 1995, a uniformed Secret Service officer swore under oath he saw her leave White House lawyer and Hillary confidant Vince Foster’s office carrying documents after Foster committed suicide. Williams denied it. She ran up more than $100,000 in legal bills defending Hillary in various investigations.
- What’s behind the record price of gold?
The latest high prices for gold are part of an upward trend that began in April 2001. Analysts explain the bull market in gold by pointing to a slowing economy and the metal’s increasing scarcity in the ground.
This is why going back to the gold standard would be retarded.
- It’s raining energy. Hallelujah!
Researchers have developed a technique that harvests energy from rain showers and converts it into electricity. The technology could work in industrial air conditioning systems, where water condenses and drops like rain.
- Barack Obama raises $7 million since Super Tuesday
Clinton, with less money to spend and less confident of her prospects in the February contests, plans to concentrate on Ohio and Texas, large states with primaries March 4 and where polling shows her with a significant lead. She even is looking ahead to Pennsylvania’s primary April 22, believing a large elderly population there will favor the former first lady.
- Chelsea Clinton is mean to 9-year-old girls
Hillary trots out her daughter on the campaign trail to convert younger voters, and what happens? A 9-year-old reporter for Scholastic News has the temerity to ask if Bill would make a good “first man,” and Chelsea tells her “I’m sorry, I don’t talk to the press, and that applies to you, unfortunately.” Stay classy!
- Kimberle Crenshaw and Eve Ensler on the “either/or” feminism that’s crept into Clinton’s campaign
For many of us, feminism is not separate from the struggle against violence, war, racism and economic injustice. Gender hierarchy and race hierarchy are not separate and parallel dynamics. The empowerment of women is contingent upon all these things. Despite the fact that we know that identity does not equal politics–especially an antiwar, social equity and global justice politics–we are led to believe that having a woman in power is the penultimate accomplishment. And even when the “either/or” feminists back off this claim in general, we are told, it is true in the case of the particular, Hillary Clinton. Experience and judgment go hand in hand, we are told, but one has to wonder how is it that so many ordinary citizens who were outside the beltway instinctively sensed what would come with the war, but the female candidate running for President did not?
For us, the choice at hand is actually quite simple. It is not about the woman candidate vs. the Black male candidate. It is about the candidate who works to dismantle the bomb, rather than drop it; the candidate who works to abolish the old paradigm of power, rather than covet and rise to its highest point; the candidate who seeks solutions and dialogue rather than retaliation and punishment.
As feminists our freedoms have been hard won and we’d like to think that we have learned from our mistakes along the way. The feminism we fought so hard for and benefited from was not to make us blind to the complexity, but to help us see beyond simple formulas and body politics.
- Survivors speak of Rwanda quake horror
Leaving Kamembe we travelled for about an hour to the island of Nkombo, on Lake Kivu, near the epicentre of the earthquake. Here about 400 homes have been destroyed. Hundreds of people are homeless and sleeping on plastic sheeting. The schools have been closed down. The aid agencies told me they are worried about the humanitarian situation becoming more desperate. They say there is an urgent need for shelter, food and clean water to avoid outbreaks of disease.
This has been getting no play in the news, while we hear a lot about violence in Chad and Kenya. What the fuck? People only care about what’s going on in Africa if they’re killing each other over there, not when a natural disaster occurs?