Author: Dean Pajevic

No, silly! Not the Bush cabinet at their White House meeting this morning.
(The photo is courtesy of the White House. Can you find George? Clue: Skeletor Man is nearby.)

NO! It’s CANADA!

Canada: environmental bad boy

‘Sluggish, asleep at the wheel, haywire and incontinent.’ A leading green country a decade ago is found severely wanting in a new report, writes Anne McIlroy

Monday October 24, 2005

Canada’s international reputation as a boy scout on environmental issues has been in decline for well over a decade, and now a new report ranks it 28th out of 30 OECD countries on key indicators such as cutting greenhouse gas emissions and smog.

The damning report was commissioned by the David Suzuki Foundation, an environmental group based in Vancouver, and prepared by a team of scientists at Simon Fraser University. It found that Canada was the worst or second worse performer in the OECD on eight of 29 environmental indicators including per capita production of volatile organic emissions, one of the main components in smog, per capita generation of nuclear waste and energy use per unit of GDP. … Read all at The Guardian.

So that’s why the air smells funny when I turn my nose northward!

There was something Catnip said in the comments section of her great story, “The Madness of King George.” OPEN THREAD!

The Palestine Hotel in Baghdad — home to many, many journalists — has been struck by up to three car bombs. They also reported that many journalists are taking refuge in hallways. “Very dangerous, very frightening” situation. They are noting that Bush has just come out of a cabinet meeting. I’m hearing this on MSNBC. Anyone else hear more?

Update [2005-10-24 11:9:38 by susanhu]: Bush spoke very briefly after leaving a cabinet meeting, announcing that he’s declared Florida a disaster area. He didn’t mention Baghdad. And, at 1pm ET, Bush will announce his choice to replace Fed chair Alan Greenspan. I think all the cable news shows will carry that live. As ejmw asks below, “Any bets?”

Update [2005-10-24 11:46:24 by susanhu]: It’s Ben Bernanke, per MSNBC, which provided the PHOTO LEFT.

Bernanke was a professor of economics at Princeton and chairs the WH Council of Economic Advisors. The WaPo has more.

“Wang Yiming, 21, is a self-confessed internet addict, one of a growing number in China. He used to spend hours online each day, often going without food or sleep. His face is drawn and sallow,” writes BBC’s Daniel Griffiths. “He said addiction changed his whole life.”

China has opened its first Internet addiction clinic. Um, what in the hell is that on that kid’s head? (Is this an “either it’ll kill you or cure you” kinda treatment? The caption says: “The clinic provides medical treatment and therapy.”)

Perhaps more pertinent to, um, BooTribbers: “A new study [from AdAge.com] shows that workers will ‘waste’ 551,000 work years reading and posting to blogs,” notes Alternet PEEK’s Evan Derkacz.

Sounding suspiciously defensive, Evan Derkacz adds:

Granted, blogs can be drivel. But they can also be a shining example of participatory democracy; the grand conversation. They can be mindless blather but they can be a pinprick of sanity in a mechanical existence. In other words, they can be anything. It’s just people writing and reading folks.

… But for the number of people I’ve seen who read the comics, do the crossword, chatter on the cell phone, gossip in the kitchenette… Employers ought to be glad their employees may be honing their writing and becoming more knowledgeable about something…

Hip, hip, hooray, Evan! You’ve given me new arguments! My motley bunch of relatives — save my daughter — either don’t care that I blog or think it’s a complete waste of time, refusing to read a single thing I write.

How many of you have avocations or professions that most everyone thinks are rather a waste of time, or of no worth?

I’ve given up on mentioning my blogging to my family, except for my daughter. I finally got the courage to send a URL to my thoughtful, funny next-door neighbor Pat — he who gave me a huge bag of dog food so I could keep feeding the raccoons we all love and enjoy.

Pat came over the other day and gave me a book. He said he’d found it in his closet. It was a novel by longtime Newsweek reporter Arnaud de Borchgrave.

Pat said, “I thought I should give it to you because you’re a journalist.” (I’ll never forget those words.) And so are all of you — including all of you who don’t put up diaries but who post your incredibly interesting and thoughtful comments. What do others think of your blogging?

WaPo tells us more about how Fitz handled Novak:

“A critical early success for [Special Prosecutor Patrick] Fitzgerald was winning the cooperation of Robert D. Novak, the Chicago Sun-Times columnist who named Plame in a July 2003 story and attributed key information to ‘two senior administration officials.’ Legal sources said Novak avoided a fight and quietly helped the special counsel’s inquiry, although neither the columnist nor his attorney have said so publicly.”

Atrios offers many more insights on this WaPo paragraph and the “Novakula” flipper.

WaPo‘s Walter Pincus — himself a witness before the grand jury, along with Glenn Kessler, another WaPo reporter — writes that “Resignations May Follow Charges,” quoting Sen. George “Anchor Hair” Allen saying presciently that “I think they will step down if they’re indicted” and Sen. Chucky “Say Cheese” Schumer saying that “I am willing to accept to accept [Fitzgerald’s] decision, and I have no idea what it will be.” (What in the hell does that mean, Chuck?)

In the WaPo‘s “Inquiry as Exacting As Special Counsel Is,” we get a whiff of the fear enveloping the White House:

Someone present when Fitzgerald questioned a witness said he was glad not to be a target.

“He’s that really strict judge that everyone fears, not because they think he’s going to do the wrong thing, but because they’re afraid he might do the right thing,” said the source, who has ties to the White House and requested anonymity.

“As White House staffers,” he continued, “you had generals and Cabinet secretaries being deferential to you. He didn’t care what you’d done or how well you knew the president.”

And we learn much more about the scope, and depth, of Fitzgerald’s investigation: