With whom? Does it matter? Sure, especially when another Madman of Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, makes this provocative announcement in the Sudan (think Darfur, think al Qaeda — not good). Said Khamenei: “Iran’s nuclear capability is one example of various scientific capabilities in the country. The Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to transfer the experience, knowledge and technology of its scientists.” Is this just more Ahmadinejad-like bluster “ahead of the Friday...

According to CNN, leading experts have concluded that “[t]he record Atlantic hurricane season last year can be attributed to global warming”. That included Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Others disagree, some “[attributing] the warming to natural cycles”. Regardless: “Whatever the cause, computer projections indicate the warming to date — about one degree Fahrenheit (half a degree Celsius) in tropical water — is ‘the tip of the iceberg’ and the...

Jane Jacobs, the great urbanist and social activist, has died at the age of 89. She lived not too far from me in the lovely Annex neighbourhood of Toronto, and this great city owes much to her generous influence. So do cities worldwide. I don’t agree with everything she had to say on every topic she explored, notably Quebecois separatism, but she was truly one of our greatest and most humane advocates for a fuller, richer existence amid the din of modern life. She will be missed. See nice...

Also at The Reaction, The (liberal) Girl Next Door looks at the president’s record on the environment and finds it rather lacking. It’s a provocative post. See here.

Ahmadinejad‘s at it again. According to the AP, he said yesterday that Israel is a “fake regime” that shouldn’t “continue to live”. Lovely, huh? I realize he’s playing the nationalism card for a domestic audience, but what is one to make of a nuclear Iran that makes such overt threats against Israel? (For past Ahmadmaninejadisms, see here. How’s that for my neologism of the day?)

Over at The Reaction, guest blogger Aspazia tackles poverty and health care within a feminist framework. Her conclusion: The risk here for many feminists is that we would be neglecting the specific agenda already laid out. But, I am sorry, I just don’t believe that feminist politics — whether we are talking about NOW or Feminist Majority — are going to be effective until they give up the old paradigms, and the old political rhetoric, and start attracting more men and women to participate...

From Time‘s Mike Allen: “So the White House is now on a survival footing, and Bolten is essentially planning a six-month campaign that will not only prevent a Republican hemorrhage in the fall but might even produce accomplishments for Bush in his lame-duck years.” The plan: Deploy guns and badges (referring to a tough policy on illegal immigration); make Wall Street happy (referring to tax cuts on stock dividends and capital gains); brag more (referring to “happy talk”...

For my fellow Big Love fans out there (or for those of you who just don’t get it or who dislike it or are even repulsed by it without even giving it a chance), here’s an interesting analysis of a key theme by William Saletan at Slate. He’s right, more or less, yet I wonder if he quite grasps the show’s intentional irony. The show is immensely entertaining, but beneath the thin, soap-operaish, occasionally melodramatic veneer it also says a great deal about human nature,...

Well, there’s another bin Laden tape. Maybe: A newly broadcast audiotape believed to be from Osama bin Laden slams the West for cutting off funds to the Palestinian Hamas-led government and calls on al Qaeda followers to fight a proposed international force in Sudan. In the tape, aired Sunday in part on Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera, the speaker repeatedly blasts a “crusader-Zionist war” against Islam, citing other activities in Chechnya and Somalia. Uh, shouldn’t...

In a speech at Boston’s Faneuil Hall marketplace (a wonderful part of the city that I frequented regularly during my years at Tufts), John Kerry said that dissent during wartime is patriotic, “a response to Republican critics who insist that questioning the conduct of the war in Iraq emboldens America’s enemies,” according to a report in The Washington Post. Said Kerry: “I believed then [in 1971, when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee], just...

It’s not much, but it’s something. And, for what it is, it’s awfully important: One of the Roman Catholic Church’s most distinguished cardinals has publicly backed the use of condoms among married couples to prevent Aids transmission. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini said that in couples where one had HIV/Aids, which could pass to the partner, the use of condoms was “a lesser evil”. The Vatican says condoms should never be used, even to stop Aids spreading from one...

This is just an addendum to Swaraaj’s excellent posts on the situation in Nepal — see links below. ********** It’s not a major story here in North America, but the political crisis in Nepal — marked by pro-democracy protests in Kathmandu, a clampdown by state police, and King Gyanendra’a promise to restore democracy — continues. You can find a historical timeline here and background to recent events here: “The latest turmoil in Nepal has its roots in the...

The White House knows that timing is everything. The McClellan/Rove announcement was no exception. And Reaction contributor Creature sees it all as yet another example of Survivor White House.

From the world of Beatles memorabilia, another clue for you all: A John Lennon schoolbook containing an illustration of a walrus has been sold at auction for £126,500. [That's about US$225,075.] Featuring the 12-year-old Lennon’s drawing of Lewis Carroll’s poem The Walrus and the Carpenter, the book had been expected to reach up to £150,000. The poem inspired Lennon to write The Beatles’ 1967 song I Am the Walrus. The book of the late Beatle’s early thoughts, drawings...

David H. Koch, the executive vice president of Koch Industries, is the 33rd richest person in the world, according to Forbes. His estimated net worth stands at roughly $12 billion. In 1994, Mr. Koch bought Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue, the entire 15th floor of the building, for $9.5 million. He and his wife, Julia, renovated it at an estimated cost of $5-10 million. But, alas, as The New York Times reports, the times they are a-changin’ in the Koch household....

Do you know what the biggest story in Washington is? Hint: It’s also the biggest story in the American news media and the blogosphere (well, unless the recent arrival of Tomkitten is — poor kid). And it’s also the story the White House wants to be the biggest in Washington, the news media, and the blogosphere. In fact, it’s a story completely manufactured by the White House — by that collection of spinners and dodgers I’ve called The Magicians of 1600 Pennsylvania...

From the BBC: Italy’s supreme court has ruled Romano Prodi the country’s election winner, after the result was challenged by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Mr Berlusconi made no comment after the ruling, but his aides said he was still refusing to concede. The court confirmed a narrow win for centre-left opposition leader Mr Prodi, nine days after polls closed, after reviewing disputed ballots. Give it up, Silvio. Persistence in the face of undeniable fact is not a virtue, it’s...

Over at The Reaction, The (liberal) Girl Next Door sees “a bright speck on the horizon” even though “the news is bad on just about every front”. For her full post, see here.

(Part I is here.) So the Bush Administration may be planning an all-out offensive in Baghdad for later this year. But what is life in Baghdad like right now? Some on the right, including many in the blogosphere, would like us to believe that all is going well aside for some media-hyped sectarian violence. If only. The truth is rather more unsettling: Snipers held rooftop positions as masked Sunni Arab insurgents said they were gearing up for another open street battle with pro-government Shi’ite...

Over at Slate, Fred Kaplan argues that now is the time to talk directly to Iran about its nuclear program, “not as an act of appeasement but as a hard-headed security calculation”. Consider: Bush should commence direct talks with Iran not because they offer a hopeful chance for peace and good will, but because they’re a necessary prelude to an international campaign of economic pressure—and because more drastic military pressure would likely backfire. There are two likely...

It looks like the Iraq War could take another dramatic turn later this year. The Times has reported this: THE American military is planning a “second liberation of Baghdadâ€? to be carried out with the Iraqi army when a new government is installed… The battle for Baghdad is expected to entail a “carrot-and-stickâ€? approach, offering the beleaguered population protection from sectarian violence in exchange for rooting out insurgent groups and Al-Qaeda. Sources close to the...

According to The Washington Post, in an interesting article in this past Sunday’s edition, “Blair fatigue has become the dominant narrative in British politics.” There are other narratives, to be sure, including the rise of Blair’s rival and presumptive successor, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, and of the new and dynamic Conservative Leader David Cameron; scandal upon scandal; and, of course, Iraq. But, simply, it seems that the British have grown tired of a prime...

Reuters via Ynet News: Ex-professor pleads guilty to aiding Islamic Jihad Former university professor Sami al-Arian has pleaded guilty to aiding the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad and agreed to be deported, according to documents made public on Monday by a U.S. court in Florida. Al-Arian and three co-defendants were arrested in 2003 and charged with helping the group carry out attacks in Israel. In December, a federal jury found al-Arian not guilty on eight charges and failed to reach a verdict...

Well, it looks like the Italian election results will be settled sooner than expected. From the BBC: “[Opposition leader] Romano Prodi looks set to be confirmed as the winner of Italy’s general election after the number of contested ballots was drastically lowered.” Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi claims that he will continue to “resist” and that Italy is “at a standstill,” but “even if all the contested ballots [and there aren't nearly as many as...

As some of you may know, I’ve been extremely tough on the Bush Administration over its lack of concern for the environment, specifically for global warming and other facets of climate change. See here, for example, where I argued that America needs “a president who understands and cares about the environment, one who is willing to adopt far-reaching policies to deal with climate change”. But let no one think that we’re doing all that much better up here in Canada. Stephen...