In Other News, Sun Rises In East Today

Two headlines caught my eye this morning, not because they were so unusual, but simply because they seem to illustrate what is so much the same in this country these days. The first was Administration Breaking Law by Withholding Global Warming Report, Judge Rules:

Federal officials have "unlawfully withheld action they are required to take," preparing a new scientific assessment by November 2004 and a research plan by July 2006, said U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of Oakland. "Congress has imposed clear-cut, unambiguous deadlines for compliance."

A 1990 federal law requires the government to produce a scientific report every four years on climate change and its effects on the environment, including land, water, air, plant and animal life, and human health.

"This administration has denied and suppressed the science of global warming at every turn," said Brendan Cummings, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The ruling is the second legal defeat for the administration on global warming this year. The Supreme Court ruled in April that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted from vehicle tailpipes are pollutants subject to federal regulation - rejecting the government's position that it lacked such authority - and said the voluntary measures promoted by the Bush administration were an inadequate substitute for regulation.

The other one was Bush: Leaving Iraq Would Be Devastating:

President Bush says U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "without getting job done" would be devastating. In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention, Bush said Iraq is central front in war on terror.

Earlier today, the White House sought to dispel the impression left by President Bush that he was distancing himself from embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in advance of a new assessment of the war and conditions in Iraq.

Bush on Tuesday had offered a tepid endorsement of the Iraqi government, expressing frustration at the lack of progress and saying it was up to the Iraqi people to decide whether to replace those in power. The remark brought an angry response from al-Maliki who said, "No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq government. It was elected by its people."

The White House set out to reframe Bush's comment and the way it was interpreted.

"The ideals and interests that led America to help the Japanese turn defeat into democracy are the same that lead us to remain engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq," Bush said in advance excerpts of Wednesday's VFW speech.

"The defense strategy that refused to hand the South Koreans over to a totalitarian neighbor helped raise up an Asian Tiger that is a model for developing countries across the world, including the Middle East," Bush said.

Bush often uses historical comparisons in urging patience on Iraq, but White House aides hope a specific focus on Asia will get skeptics to rethink their positions on Iraq and get beyond the daily, violent setbacks there.

Bush even cites Vietnam as a cautionary tale for those urging troop withdrawals today.

"Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam War and how we left," Bush said. "Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,''re-education camps' and 'killing fields.'"

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., quickly dismissed Bush's position.

"President Bush's attempt to compare the war in Iraq to past military conflicts in East Asia ignores the fundamental difference between the two," he said. "Our nation was misled by the Bush administration in an effort to gain support for the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, leading to one of the worst foreign policy blunders in our history."

So, basically, this administration continues to break the law with impunity, and to attempt to spread the same lies to the same people with the same weak arguments over and over and over again. Nothing ever changes. *sigh*