Too Progressive

Is anyone else wondering why this hostage situation involving one (1) U.S. citizen and there Somalian pirates is getting so much attention? Is anyone else wondering why at least three U.S. Navy warships are on the scene? FOR ONE U.S. CITIZEN. Obviously every life is important and I hope Captain Phillips returns to the country in good health but at the same time I can’t help but wonder what kind of political connections his family and/or Maersk (his employer) must have to warrant President Obama getting daily briefings on the situation. Unfortunately, U.S. citizens being kidnapped or being taken as hostages is nothing new. Just recently, two U.S. journalists were kidnapped and jailed in North Korea and charged with illegally entering the country. Because we all know how desperate the rest of the world is to call North Korea home. I realize, at least at first glance, the situations are a little different because the two journalists were taken by the North Korean government and the Captain Phillips was taken by a bunch of pirates. However, Somalia has no functioning government and is overrun with pirates, making them the de facto power.

Again, I’m not saying Mr. Phillips doesn’t deserve our thoughts or best wishes, It’s just a little peculiar that the government responds to some kidnappings and not others.

Oh, who the fuck cares?

A chuck of ice in western Antarctica measuring nine times the size of Manhattan collapsed earlier today and an even larger glacial area is now at risk. The collapsed chunk was about 220 square miles wide, and is a result of global warming according to British scientist David Vaughan:

Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 220-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica. British scientist David Vaughan says it’s the result of global warming.

The rest of the Connecticut-sized ice shelf is holding on by a narrow beam of thin ice and scientists worry that it too may collapse. Larger, more dramatic ice collapses occurred in 2002 and 1995.

So, so sad. Can we please come together and start taking global warming seriously now?

2:45pm UPDATE: BBC News reports that the affected shelf is part of the larger Wilkins Ice Shelf which has been stable for the better part of the past century. The shelf began retreating during the 1990’s and is now on the brink of total collapse.

Six ice shelves in the same part of the continent have already been lost, says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: “Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.

“I didn’t expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread - we’ll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be.”

According to the same article, unprecedented warming is to blame for the collapse of not only the Wilkins Ice Shelf, but another six complete collapsed over the past 30 years:

“This is not a sea level rise issue, but is yet another indication of climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula and how it is affecting the environment.”

Scientists say the Antarctic Peninsula, which juts out into the Southern Ocean towards the tip of South America, has experienced unprecedented warming over the last 50 years.

Several ice shelves have retreated in the past 30 years - six of them collapsing completely.

According to a report issued last week from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the year 2007 will go down as one of the 10 warmest years on record for not only the contiguous United States, but also the entire planet.

In the United States:

The preliminary annual average temperature for 2007 across the contiguous United States will likely be near 54.3° F- 1.5°F (0.8°C) above the twentieth century average of 52.8°F. This currently establishes 2007 as the eighth warmest on record. Only February and April were cooler-than-average, while March and August were second warmest in the 113-year record.

The warmer-than-average conditions in 2007 influenced residential energy demand in opposing ways, as measured by the nation’s Residential Energy Demand Temperature Index. Using this index, NOAA scientists determined that the U.S. residential energy demand was about three percent less during the winter and eight percent higher during the summer than what would have occurred under average climate conditions.

Exceptional warmth in late March was followed by a record cold outbreak from the central Plains to the Southeast in early April. The combination of premature growth from the March warmth and the record-breaking freeze behind it caused more than an estimated $1 billion in losses to crops (agricultural and horticultural).

A severe heat wave affected large parts of the central and southeastern U.S. in August, setting more than 2,500 new daily record highs.

Across the globe:

The global annual temperature − for combined land and ocean surfaces – for 2007 is expected to be near 58.0 F – and would be the fifth warmest since records began in 1880. Some of the largest and most widespread warm anomalies occurred from eastern Europe to central Asia.

Including 2007, seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1997. The global average surface temperature has risen between 0.6°C and 0.7°C since the start of the twentieth century, and the rate of increase since 1976 has been approximately three times faster than the century-scale trend.

The greatest warming has taken place in high latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Anomalous warmth in 2007 contributed to the lowest Arctic sea ice extent since satellite records began in 1979, surpassing the previous record low set in 2005 by a remarkable 23 percent. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, this is part of a continuing trend in end-of-summer Arctic sea ice extent reductions of about 10 percent per decade since 1979.

Obviously a scary report. And when whack jobs on the right, and those who reject proven Science dismiss this as “hippie Liberal political games,” just remember the report came from the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration, not Al Gore, MoveOn.org or any other perceived “radical left” organizations that often land on the right wing’s list of favorite targets.

On the flip though, and to be fair, this single report does not by itself definitively prove anything. However, added to the mounting evidence that shows global warming to be very real, and a very serious threat to Earth as we know it, I think we can all agree that we must work to get it under control and adopt better environmental policies as a national and international community.

BREAKING: A rocket caused the blast and Athens police are saying it was an act of terrorism!

UPDATE: Via The Associated Press:

“This is an act of terrorism. We don’t know where from,” Attica Police Chief Asimakis Golfis said. “There was a shell that exploded in the toilets of the building … It was fired from street level.”

UPDATE #2: The U.S. ambassador to Athens, Charles Ries spoke to reporters outside the mission:

“I am treating this as a very serious attack. “The embassy was attacked in a senseless act of violence. There were no injuries.”

UPDATE #3: A pair of anonymous phone calls came in claiming responsibility for the bombing by a local leftist guerrilla group:

“There is one or two anonymous phone calls which claim that the Revolutionary Struggle was behind the attack,” Public Order Minister Byron Polydoras told reporters outside the embassy.

DEVELOPING…

[Note: This 'live thread' is a continuation of the former!]

BREAKING: There are reports coming out of Athens, Greece that an explosion occurred inside of the U.S. Embassy there. Via Reuters:

An explosion ripped through the U.S. embassy compound in central Athens on Friday, police said.

It was not clear what caused the blast and there was no immediate word on whether there were any casualties.

UPDATE: I am assuming that details on what’s going on are EXTREMELY few and far between since NONE of the major media outlets have come on air live yet, despite the fact that the story first broke about 10-15 minutes ago.

UPDATE #2: Associated Press reporting as well. I still can’t figure out why no TV media has gone live with this yet, perhaps it’s just not as big of a story as the online reports will have us believe? Or like I said in the earlier update, might just be a case of simply NO details yet..?

[Live blogging continued in new thread.]

If this is true, well, all I can really say is that it doesn’t surprise me.

It’s a well-known fact–oft detailed in this column–that the boys in the Bush Regime swing both ways. We speak, of course, of their proclivity–their apparently uncontrollable craving–for stuffing their trousers with loot from both sides of whatever war or military crisis is going at the moment.

That’s why it came as no surprise to read last week that just before he joined the Regime’s crusade against evildoers everywhere (especially rogue states that pursue the development of terrorist-ready weapons of mass destruction), Pentagon warlord Donald Rumsfeld was trousering the proceeds from a $200 million deal to send the latest nuclear technology–including plenty of terrorist-ready “dirty bomb” material–to the rogue state of North Korea, Neue Zurcher Zeitung reports.

Via both Lowell over at Raising Kaine, and News Hounds I see that ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. The report shows that Israel may have three prime targets just south of Tehran:

- Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges are being installed for uranium enrichment

- A uranium conversion facility near Isfahan where, according to a statement by an Iranian vice-president last week, 250 tons of gas for the enrichment process have been stored in tunnels

- A heavy water reactor at Arak, which may in future produce enough plutonium for a bomb

I agree with both Melanie at News Hounds and Lowell at Raising Kaine when I say this is scary, chilling news.