Wait for it...wait for it...

Ta-da!

In the wake of Katrina, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announces administration push to open the Arctic Refuge, outer continental shelf, and other areas to energy development (which is the polite way of saying drilling and mining). (NYT)

[Asst. Interior Secretary] Craig Manson... defended the review of national park management policies. Permissible "impacts" on park lands, Mr. Manson said, are confused with impermissible "impairments."

"Footprints are going to be made if people are in the parks," he said. "But that's not necessarily an impairment."

Giant, oil-derrick-shaped footprints. Yeah, you'll hardly even notice them.

And if you're going to trust anybody's word on this, trust the guy who once said, “If we are saying that the loss of species in and of itself is inherently bad, I don’t think we know enough about how the world works to say that." (Craig Manson, LA Times, 11/14/03)

Hire a copyeditor, please

CBS News: "Michael Brown, who recently resigned as the head of the FEMA, has been rehired by the agency as a consultant to evaluate it's response following Hurricane Katrina."

"the FEMA"?

"it's response"? Please, use the correct part of speech. "It's" is a contraction of "it is." The correct word here is "its," no apostrophe, which is the possessive of "it." "It's" and "its" are, in fact different words with different meanings. [pet peeve]

Let it be said that I'm in a pissy, persnickety mood for reasons unrelated to the copywriting skills of the CBSnews.com interns. Apologies, but still--it's never a good time for bad grammar.

How to run really really really fast

Caffeine, the world's most abused, legallest, and bestest drug (in this blogger's opinion), is now available to young athletes in startlingly high doses. Let the fun begin.

At issue is a beverage called "Spark" that's being marketed to children as young as four. (NYT)

"In her endorsement for AdvoCare's children's products, [12-year-old gymnast] Taylor said: 'I have more energy and I like them a lot. I would suggest that anyone try them!'"

Yeah, I bet you have more energy, at 120 mg of caffeine a serving (roughly the equivalent of a double espresso).

Let me tell you something from personal experience, Taylor: caffeine will stunt your growth, young lady. And don't come crying to me when you find yourself dissolving instant coffee granules on your tongue just to feel "normal" someday...

Issue advocacy thought of the day

The field is where the people are.

Duty calls

No blogging for the next week or so.

Global warming = stronger hurricanes

Says article in Science. It's what you would expect. Do we go there during this national period of mourning? I say yes.

"Fuel For Global Warming Debate" (CBS)
"Experts say global warming is causing stronger hurricanes" (USA Today)

It would also seem that NOAA has a meteorologist working for them named Christopher Landsea, who was quoted in the CBS article. Cool. I like it when people's names match their occupations randomly. For example, the director of my college's Dining Services (my boss during the dish-washin'-for-tuition years) is named Stu Orifice.

How to capitalize on fear

A bill introduced yesterday by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) would waive environmental laws during post-Katrina reconstruction. (NYT)

This is a few months on the heels of the passage of the Real ID Act, which exempts the Department of Homeland Security from federal environmental laws for border security activities. (Among other nasty things.)

It's a winning strategy, obviously. Why simply weaken our national commitment to a healthy environment law by law, when you could also try doing it region by region.

Study: teens figure out how to get off, not get pregnant

WP: "Slightly more than half of American teenagers ages 15 to 19 have engaged in oral sex, with females and males reporting similar levels of experience, according to the most comprehensive national survey of sexual behaviors ever released by the federal government...The findings on oral sex among teens are sure to stir debate over abstinence-only sex education. Supporters of such programs say they have resulted in young people delaying intercourse, but opponents say they also have led young people to substitute other behaviors, especially fellatio and cunnilingus."

As the study authors point out, many nasty STDs can indeed be passed through oral sex. Use a condom or a dental dam. But otherwise, I say, go forth, kids. Be smart and safe, don't get yourself pregnant or do anything else you're not ready for, and for God's sake ignore the crazy abstinence-only people who seek to deny your randy selves the simple safety measures that could save your life.

On the importance of handing out free food

Did anyone else see the people dressed up in giant, grinning, foam egg costumes outside the Australian embassy this morning? They were holding signs that said things like "Honk if you [heart] eggs," "U.S.A., get crackin'!" and "Give me my visa!." I would definitely have stopped and asked the eggs what was up if they had been handing out goodies, like maybe egg and cheese sandwiches--or, better yet, Cadbury eggs. As it is, I kept walking, and have no idea.

Are you serious?

From WP article on Roberts confirmation hearing:

"Of the many questions to emerge during this morning's confirmation hearing for John G. Roberts Jr., two clearly stood out: Who is Stare Decisis? And what does Roberts think of her?"

Way too cutesy, even for the Post. You're a journalist. Journalize. Sheesh.

A first

George W. Bush: "To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility." (WP)

!!!

Taking responsibility for one's mistakes is a sign of maturity. Poor grammar? Well, we'll let that slide for now.

Crap--NYT online goes subscription

Soon an online subscription will be required to access many of the features that are currently free on the NYT website, including...the op-ed section! Woe! Details here.

I am heartbroken, and about to be forty bucks poorer.

Digging a hole

Sometimes I wonder, "if I just started digging a hole of infinite depth, where would I end up?" If you wonder that too, you might like this cool Google maps application that a resourceful Brazilian has designed to figure that out for you. You click where in the world your hole will start, and it shows you where your hole will end. For example, I learned that if I dig a hole in my backyard in Washington, DC through the center of the earth, my hole will end in the Indian Ocean slightly southwest of Australia. (via Lifehacker)

Conservatives' Katrina postmortem

Recommended article in the NYT today about conservative groups' reactions to the Katrina debacle.

The spinmasters at the big conservative think tanks do a stellar job, arguing that Katrina spending should be offset by cuts elsewhere, and/or that this just proves the federal government has become, in the words of the Cato spokesman, "a fat, bloated conglomeration that should shed other functions that divert it from the core functions." Hey, at least these guys are intellectually consistent, as in their opposition to the obscenely expensive war in Iraq.

Anyway, to the point. More interestingly, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) says "that the post-Katrina reaction shows 'people have a more expansive view about what the role of the federal government is or ought to be than is warranted by the Constitution or the principles of good governance.'"

[Just because I smell blood, it should also be noted that Flake took a stand as one of 11 Congresspeople to vote against the emergency supplemental for Katrina aid.]

Let's discuss this. In fact, let's parse it out and overanalyze it.

Flake seems to imply that "people want the government to take an active and effective role at preventing things like what happened on the Gulf coast recently, but the people are wrong, and that's not actually the role of our government." I.e., the expectations or understanding that the public has about the government's role in this particular case are out of step with what the government's role actually is or should be. (Well, should be according to Flake, that is.)

"Principles of good governance" are a more subjective thing than Mr. Flake implies. Where I come from (ummm, America), what the public thinks government should do is, ideally, what government in fact does do.* So if there's a disconnect between expectations and reality, it's the role of government that should change, not what the people are demanding of their government.

Yup, the people want a big [enough] government, but they are wrong, according to Rep. Flake.

You heard it here first, and remember it next time you hear bullshit about all the elitist, socialist liberals. Perhaps it's not only wealthy Northeastern latte-sippers who believe that our state should not be leaving the poor, elderly, disadvantaged, and weak to die--literally, as in New Orleans last week, or figuratively, as when key social programs are gutted while the ultrawealthy receive tax cuts and billions of dollars in subsidies are granted to certain special interests.**

*Most of the time.
**Yes, yes, I realize the small government types occasionally oppose that kind of spending too--but not nearly as frequently as you would expect.

The TV doesn't lie

Katrina: Nature's urban renewal

David Brooks on "Katrina's Silver Lining" in today's NYT: "Katrina...disrupted the patterns that have led one generation to follow another into poverty. It has created as close to a blank slate as we get in human affairs, and given us a chance to rebuild a city that wasn't working."

Phew, good thing the displaced victims are probably too busy finding food, clothing and shelter to pore over the Times op-ed page today.

Making the world safe for plutocracy

Sometimes the three-way revolving door between the White House, K Street, and giant corporations is sort of absurdly amusing. On the other hand, sometimes it's a little disgusting:

Halliburton gets Katrina contract, hires former FEMA director (Halliburton Watch)

Hordes of angry journalists

As you may have noticed, many journalists and commentators have been having very public "what the hell?" moments in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (a la Anderson Cooper's interview with Senator Landrieu). Today, first in a series, we present to you the Washington Post's Terry Neal.

RIP William Rehnquist

Whoa. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist Dies (WP)

I swear to God, if Scalia ends up as Chief Justice I am leaving this country.

Actually, I think the big question here is whether the Bush camp overreaches and nominates someone really awful to fill the open seat, or whether they strike a deal on someone with Senate Democrats in exchange for speedy approval of Roberts.

$3 gas is the least of our worries

With the situation deteriorating even further along the Gulf Coast, Bush plans to tour hurricane-struck areas around Mobile, AL and Biloxi, MS. He is scheduled to do not a tour, but a flyover of devastated New Orleans. A wise choice, as he would almost certainly be shot at if he touched ground. (CNN)

Speaking of CNN's hurricane coverage, angry journalists are hot. Especially when they're Anderson Cooper.

Totally fucked up

Do we live in America? Or Bangladesh?

My dad writes, "Just watched CBS news, where countless thousands of almost exclusively black people are stranded on the only dry places interstate hiways in blazing sun with no water, no water drops no immediate support...One elderly woman was sitting on the interstate railing beside the body of her dead husband who had died during the night. When she asked for help from the authorities she was told just to move his body further away to avoid the smell."

Check out also, dispatch on Boing Boing.

What the fuck? Thousands dead?

What are we to do? To start, if you are having a Labor Day shindig, why not collect donations for the American Red Cross at your party. My house did something similar for the tsunami survivors at our New Year's party this year and raised a couple hundred bucks from our 20-something non-profit-staffing guests--imagine what you could do.