The Nightowl Newswrap

So, they can't agree on peace, but they can come together and work on solutions for the Dead Sea? The Dead Sea is lowest place on Earth and it keeps getting lower. The Dead Sea is a popular tourist site, and its waters and low atmospheric conditions (at minus 440 meters below sea level) have been used since at least the times of the Romans for their healing powers. The Israeli government recently approved the "economic peace corridor" project, which is due to build a 160 km channel to bring water from the Red Sea, through the Arava desert valley, into the Dead Sea in order to prevent the Dead Sea from drying up. Jordan's Prime Minister Nader Dahabi is concerned about the sea. In fact, he announced Saturday that finding additional water resources for his citizens and the Dead Sea are top priority. This year the rate of decline in the sea's level is expected to be over 4 feet; the cause is man-made. People are using 90 percent of the Dead Sea's main source, the Jordan River, for farming and drinking. As the Dead Sea's water recedes, hundreds of sink holes have appeared making the coastline dangerously unstable, which is not good for tourism. The sea is one the region's biggest attractions and has one of the world's most unique environments. If Jordan, the Palestinians, and the Israelis are already in agreement as to how to proceed, why is peace so goddamned elusive?

A lawless Mexican Army operating on our southern border IS a problem for this country. Forget the idiots who spout off about immigration reform--we cannot have this. The National Human Rights Commission on Friday accused the Mexican military of wrongfully killing eight civilians at roadblocks, torturing witnesses and allowing soldiers accused of rights violations to escape prosecution during its continuing campaign against drug cartels. In a lengthy report, commission investigators documented a case of soldiers jamming splinters beneath the fingernails and toenails of a witness and forcibly injecting alcohol down his throat. The man had been mistaken for a drug dealer operating in the hills near the border south of Phoenix, the report said. In another case, soldiers stormed a house in the western village of Uruapan and allegedly tortured two suspects by stabbing their genitals with electric cattle prods. Other suspects were held at military facilities, forced to undress and barred from communicating with lawyers or family. Most of the abuses have gone unpunished, the report said. For instance, no action has been taken against soldiers suspected of shooting dead four civilians at a roadblock in the central state of Sinaloa, the report said. Don't they know--torture is what WE do best.

Only a lame-duck Senator would dare propose a return to the 55 mph speed limit:
Congress thus far has shown no movement toward resurrecting the 55-mph speed limit, but one of the Senate's senior members — Republican John Warner of Virginia — says it's time to start the conversation about an energy-saving national speed limit to help spare Americans from usurious fuel costs. The 55-mph limit was imposed by federal law during the energy crisis of the mid-1970s, remained in effect for 20 years and ultimately was booted off the roadways by Congress in 1995 amid near-universal contempt among motorists. Warner hasn't specified what a new limit should be, but he points out that Americans saved 167,000 barrels of petroleum a day when the 55-mph speed limit was in effect. He told fellow senators this week that he'll probably proceed with legislation after the Energy Department determines the most fuel-efficient speed limit for the nation's highways. "We have to take the lead in Congress, and hopefully the president will join," Warner said on the Senate floor. "We have that duty." Ain't gonna happen--this President wants to be loved and leave a legacy, which isn't going to happen.

I'm sorry, but you need a hell of a lot more skill to play chess than poker, so this doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot: Human pride took a hit 11 years ago when IBM's Big Blue computer beat world chess champion Gary Kasparov. Now it's poker players' turn to be humiliated by a machine. A computer system called Polaris outperformed some of the world's top players last weekend at a human-vs.-machine competition in Las Vegas. The score was computer 3, humans 2, with one draw. If you think it should be easier for a computer to win at poker than at the highly intellectual game of chess, think again. The human element makes poker a much more complex challenge. "Poker is a completely different game," said computer scientist Michael Bowling, the leader of a Computer Poker Research Group at the University of Alberta, Canada. "In chess or checkers, you have perfect information. There are no secrets on the board," Bowling said. "But in poker you don't know the other person's cards. The basic computer techniques used in chess can't help you in poker." Ever seen the world's best poker players? Now, compare those to Spassky, Kasparov, Geller, Karpov, Fischer, and the like. 'nuff said.

Were any of them used for religious purposes? Not that I care, but, damn. That's a lot of charges: Ten people have been arrested and another one cited by Kentucky state conservations officers after a nearly two-year undercover investigation of the illegal possession, importation and buying and selling of venomous snakes and other reptiles. Forty-four officers with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife seized more than 125 venomous snakes and other reptiles, including an alligator, in the investigation, and are expected to issue more than 700 charges. Animals seized included illegal western diamondback rattlesnakes, timber rattlesnakes, cottonmouth water moccasins, northern and southern copperheads, cobras, great basin rattlesnakes, a gaboon viper, a puff adder and a 2-foot-long alligator.

A little help for struggling Americans? The Senate has passed a massive housing aid package to save hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure. Struggling homeowners who can't afford their mortgages and banks facing big losses would get government help under a foreclosure rescue that has broad bipartisan support. The $300 billion plan was approved on 63-5 vote that reflected broad bipartisan support despite a White House veto threat. Final action on the legislation is weeks off. The House wants to rewrite some details, and lawmakers are negotiating with the White House in efforts to avoid a veto. The centerpiece of the plan would let the Federal Housing Administration back up to $300 billion in new loans to give struggling homeowners more affordable, fixed-rate mortgages. It allows lenders who agree to take a substantial loss on the mortgages to reclaim at least some money and avoid a costly foreclosure. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the Financial Services Committee chairman and an architect of the bill, said the few but significant revisions House leaders are seeking could be made in as little as one week. Key players are preparing for a week of intense negotiations to resolve differences on Capitol Hill and with the White House, with an eye toward producing a bill President Bush could sign later this month.

Can't say this enough--get checked if you need to: New research shows there's been a disturbing increase in melanoma among young women. In 1973, there were five-and-a-half cases per 100,000 women, ages 15-39. But by 1980, the rate had nearly doubled. And it went up another 50 percent by 2004. During that same time, the melanoma rate for young men leveled off. Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer. Sixty-two thousand new cases are reported each year in this country and more than 8,000 Americans die from it. The link takes you to some work done by Katie Couric--and this is one thing she can do well, so check it out.

No twittery here--this case meant something: It was above 80 degrees, the start of another steamy summer day in Washington. At 8:58 on the morning of July 25, 2001, three D.C. police sergeants gathered 28 cadets along Glover Road in Rock Creek Park. They were looking for any trace of a government intern named Chandra Ann Levy. The 24-year-old woman from California, with hazel eyes and a head full of unruly brown curls, had left her Dupont Circle apartment and then simply disappeared. She had been missing for 85 days, and the search for her had captivated the city and the nation. Her laptop computer's history showed that she was interested in visiting the vast 1,750-acre park on the day she vanished. See a 360 degree view of the site where Chandra Levy's remains were found in 2002.Now, the line of cadets executed the order of the city's chief of detectives, Cmdr. Jack Barrett: Search 100 yards from the roads that crisscross the park. But someone had made a mistake. D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey had wanted the cadets to search 100 yards off the park's trails. By limiting the search to the areas near the roads, the police would canvass a far smaller portion of the park and not go deep into the woods. Either Ramsey miscommunicated his order, or Barrett misunderstood it. Read on for more...

Go get yourself some Glenn Greenwald and enjoy your weekend: The New Yorker's Jane Mayer, one of the country's handful of truly excellent investigative journalists over the last seven years, has written a new book -- "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals" -- which reveals several extraordinary (though unsurprising) facts regarding America's torture regime...

No, We Don't Need Hummers

UPDATE: The link takes you to a column by Matthew DeBord at the WashingtonPost.com. If you have trouble with it, I apologize profusely and promise to do whatever it takes to rectify the problem.

You know, if you're going to do a (satirical? No, too earnest) ode to a vehicle that might disappear, you do it to an actual vehicle that is worth driving. And the Hummer isn't that vehicle. Let it go. Let it die. The commercial version is worthless and the HUMVEE used by our troops has been an awful vehicle. Too many went to war without the right armor and too many troops have been injured or killed in what I, personally feel is an underpowered lemon not worth driving anywhere but to the junkyard.

When General Motors announced that it would subject its Hummer division to what in the automotive business is known as a "review," you could hear the tree huggers, the unreconstructed hippies, the postmodern Greens, Al Gore's organic peanut gallery, every single customer at the Pasadena Whole Foods and the United Prius Owners of America shove aside their alfalfa sprouts and commence clapping.

No set of wheels since the hapless Edsel has been as persistently reviled as the Hummer. Just recall the Hummer damaged by masked eco-vigilantes in the District last year.

GM probably didn't see that coming when it purchased Hummer as a brand name from AM General Corp. in 1999. AM General developed the Hummer in the late 1970s as the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, for tactical military applications. On the battlefield, it has enjoyed a successful 20-year run, despite issues regarding armor that have emerged during its service in Iraq. The civilian version that AM General builds for GM is another story.

Still, it would be a mistake for GM, assisted by the raving grease-monkey CPAs of Citibank, to sell the brand to an upstart carmaker in India or China or to breed it as a hybrid, as some have suggested. GM desperately needs an obnoxious, attention-grabbing brand to keep from turning into a dreary shadow of its former self. And America needs the Hummer to remind us of what has always made our automobiles stand out, from the tailfin 1950s to the muscle car 1960s and '70s: swagger. Americans don't just drive their cars -- they proclaim something about themselves by driving them.

He goes on to say that there's something manly about driving and owning a Hummer. Well, if you're an idiot, sure. If you're insecure about your penis size, all the better. I know some people just love slapping that "sorry about your penis" decal on Hummers. But unless you've driven something that can actually go off road or something that resembles a vehicle with a working suspension, I don't know why there is this fascination for the box on wheels with the overly-high profile. It's not a toy--it's actually an awful vehicle to try to drive and ride around in.

I guess I spent too much time riding in them--that probably explains my bias. The ambulance version of the HUMVEE was, and always will be, something I will revile all of my life.

If you gave me one of these things, I wouldn't take it from you. I wouldn't.

--WS

Yes, He Will Cut and Run--Because He Wants A Legacy

Now that the so-called surge has "worked" in the collective wisdom of the Washington DC establishment, the acceleration of the withdrawal of US troops can start--so that George W Bush can depart the Presidency with troops being drawn down. He can do this because coverage of the war is non-existent, it makes people feel good about him, and it allows him phony coverage so he can claim he "won" the Iraq war, handed it off to someone else, and brought the boys home by Christmas.

The Bush administration is considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, according to administration and military officials, raising the prospect of a far more ambitious plan than expected only months ago.

Such a withdrawal would be a striking reversal from the nadir of the war in 2006 and 2007.

One factor in the consideration is the pressing need for additional American troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other fighters have intensified their insurgency and inflicted a growing number of casualties on Afghans and American-led forces there.

More American and allied troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq in May and June, a trend that has continued this month.

Although no decision has been made, by the time President Bush leaves office on Jan. 20, at least one and as many as 3 of the 15 combat brigades now in Iraq could be withdrawn or at least scheduled for withdrawal, the officials said.

The desire to move more quickly reflects the view of many in the Pentagon who want to ease the strain on the military but also to free more troops for Afghanistan and potentially other missions.

Prepare to be sickened by the praise for the Bush Administration. They know the only chance McCain has is to eliminate the Iraq War as an issue, so the Bush Administration and the DC Establishment is going to do whatever they can to praise Bush for his "leadership" and to show that only John McCain can be trusted to "finish the job."

This cynical, unrealistic and untenable position on the war is all these people have left. They are fighting tooth and nail to keep the American people from seeing the costs of the war--in deaths and injuries, in lost souls and wandering, homeless Veterans. They desperately need to draw down to around a hundred thousand US troops or slightly less--so they can say that there are "more" troops deployed in Europe, Japan and Korea than in the Middle East. It's a sham, and no one should buy it.

--WS

Russia and China thwart the International Community

The inherent weakness and ineffectiveness of Condoleezza Rice as a diplomat has all but guaranteed a rise in the obstructive tendencies of China and Russia. It's obviously not entirely her fault that both countries have decided to thwart the international community with regards to sanctioning Zimbabwe--but it is also true that there is absolutely no way the Russians and Chinese can be persuaded by anything she says or does. Because of that the US has had, in effect, a lame duck foreign policy for years.

Russia on Saturday attacked remarks by U.S. and British officials who criticized Moscow's veto on proposed U.N. sanctions against Zimbabwe.

The Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement Saturday said it was "impermissible" that the criticism called into doubt Russia's worthiness as a Group of Eight partner.

The United States accused Russia and China of standing with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe against his own people, after the two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council vetoed proposed sanctions against Zimbabwe.

The resolution would have imposed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, an international travel ban and a freeze on the personal assets of Mugabe and 13 other officials.

It also called for the appointment of a U.N. special envoy for Zimbabwe.

The U.S., along with Britain and France, supported the resolution, arguing that sanctions were needed to respond to the violence and intimidation that opposition leaders and international observers said Mugabe and his supporters used to steal the recent presidential election.

Russia, however, claimed the sanctions would have taken the U.N. beyond its mandate, while China argued Zimbabwe should be allowed to resolve its political crisis on its own.

You don't threaten to throw Russia out of the G8--you either do it or you don't do it. And who realistically thinks that would happen anyway? Russia has Europe over a barrel when it comes to energy supplies anyway.

The fact that the UN can't stop arms from going to Zimbabwe effectively ends the possibility that anything will be done any time soon. And the ineffectiveness of the UN body plays into the hands of the people who think Rice is a capable diplomat because it confirms their bias against the organization.

--WS

The real reason Matt Blunt opted out of running for reelection

As soon as Governor Matt Blunt of Missouri announced that he would not be seeking a second term "because he had accomplished everything in one term" that he set out to achieve; we were immediately suspicious and doubted his claim because there are still a few people receiving Medicaid.

Almost immediately my phone started ringing, and every single call laid out a plausible scenario for an impending indictment, most of them based on the fee-office fiasco from his first months in office. During every single one of those calls I made some notes, and then filed them away, waiting for corroboration that never came.

Most recently, the rumor has been pervasive - he is going to be "outed."

Yesterday, I got an email from a prominent attorney friend of mine with the subject line URGENT! CALL ME ASAP!!! so I did - I tend to always comply with urgent messages from attorneys - and I got some details.

Now folks, it is still just a rumor until you read it in the Post-Dispatch - but here is what we have on good authority will be substantiated in the coming days...

The governor has had an ongoing homosexual relationship with a 29-year-old real estate broker from the St. Louis area.

Apparently, Matty B is one of those self-loathing gay people who publicly rail against their inner selves, almost like they are engaging in some form of exorcism - "if I say it enough, and believe hard enough, I won't be gay any more."


I tried to dig up some quotes and comments from both Matt and his father Roy. All I felt was ill.

I am the mother of three fantastic children - and the youngest one happens to be a lesbian. This does not make me love her any less, nor do I think she should "change"
because some people are narrow-minded and priggish. My daughter is gay. She is also well adjusted and healthy and happy because she grew up in an environment knowing that she was loved unconditionally and that would never change.

Some of her friends in the gay community are not so lucky - many of them were dragged to therapists and psychiatrists and medicated against their will by parents intent on "fixing" them. Many more were unable to cope and acted out - cutting and self-mutilation, drug abuse and self medication - kids kicked out of the house and onto the street while still in high school for the sin of being born gay.

Revisiting some of the hateful spewings that have emanated from Roy Blunt just broke my heart after I put it in the context of a little boy, just entering adolescence, who is starting to figure out his sexuality and suspects he might be different. It's enough to make you want to break down and sob.

What really pisses me off is the fact that adults, intent on absolute control, damage their kids for not being what they, the parents, envisioned.

Parents, love your kids. Unconditionally. And if you don't have the capacity to do that, then you have no business even attempting to parent.

Tony Snow RIP

The Republicans lose their best guy, bar none.

Former White House press secretary Tony Snow -- who once told reporters "I'm a very lucky guy" -- has died at the age of 53 after a second battle with cancer.

Snow, who had been undergoing chemotherapy treatments for a recurrence of the disease, left his White House job September 14, 2007, and joined CNN in April as a conservative commentator.

In parting comments to reporters at his final White House news conference, he said, "I feel great."

He also called the job "the most fun I've ever had."

Snow said he was leaving the White House position to make more money. His White House salary was $168,000.

Tony Snow was their most effective communicator. RIP, Mr. Snow.

--WS