The intrepid twitterer tweets:
Source: Protest is mutating into a more subtle but potent form. It's changed from the 1st week, but it's definitely not over
Rooftop Allahu Akbars still on, despite Basij raids – 1 case where all residents of a 5-floor apt building were bused to Evin
Full statement from the Mourning Mothers of Iran http://bit.ly/DUPls
State just issued advisory that Americans consider the risks of travel to Iran. "Some elements in Iran remain hostile to the United States"
Amsterdam, Netherlands, 5.56 pm
Like most intelligent human beings, the more I look at Waxman-Markey the more dismayed I am. If you thought Obama could actually stop lobbyists writing legislation, you missed the audacity of whatever gets past Pelosi and Reid. I take Gerson’s view that it’s a start. But after so much procrastination, we’re really back to the fierce urgency of whenever, aren’t we? But here’s something to give you something to celebrate. The federal government may even – wait for it – do something itself to address a problem:
The Department of Interior, which is by far the largest landowner in the United States, and which at various points in its history has been seen as a beacon of the “drill, baby, drill!” philosophy of land management (cf: James Watt, passim), [is] in fact now quite serious about applying a “Re-greening” approach to the 20 percent of the US landmass under its control.
The idea is to develop the land to absorb more carbon:
Hayes gave more details than I will recount here. They boiled down to a sequence of: trying to measure and understand the carbon-absorption properties of the various lands under its control; seeing how they can be improved, including with market-based offsets; telling the story to the public of why protecting and expanding forests, grasslands, wetlands, etc has an important climate-change component; making forest-preservation an important part of international climate negotiations (rather than talking only about clean-energy sources); and a lot more.
This is indeed most encouraging. But if the Interior Department is like the rest of this lotta-talk not-so-much-action administration, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Lara gets a letter from Tehran:
When I was at the Ghoba mosque thing on Monday, a large number of [the demonstrators] were religious, chador-wearing women. middle aged, wearing wrist bands. to them that's like going against the leader, who is the prophets deputy. It's interesting that they have continued to go for the civil rights thing versus the religious decree thing.
My friend's neighbor's son was arrested. He was younger. And they beat him really badly, to the point that now that he's at home he has nightmares, wakes up screaming really badly in the middle of the night, etc. So they do of course beat up. But the waterboarding? I had never heard before. Apparently they use hot water, too. and a towel, not a plastic bag.
It feels like martial law. There are checkpoints, they randomly pull over cars. They check the whole thing for cameras. Even if you're carrying a camera, they take that. So you're on edge because its not a normal–the forces are everywhere. It's a very physical presence.
Read the rest here.
They're bravely planning a march on Thursday. They haven't given up.
You know I said a lot of tough things about Steve Schmidt in the rough and tumble of the campaign, but the more we find out about what actually went on, the more you realize he was actually one of the few sane people with real clout in the McCain implosion. And CBS News has some new evidence of a classic Palin lie – deployed against the McCain campaign. She tried to argue that it was false that her husband had been a member of the Alaska Independence Party and false that the Alaska Independence Party actually supports secession. Here's the email she fired off to Schmidt when the press exposed her husband's extremist politics:
This is a classic Palin lie – because it has a high school quality to it and is provably untrue in the public record. CBS points out:
To his eternal credit, Schmidt fired back:
We will not put out a statement and inflame this and create a situation where john has to adress this."
These are the words of a sane professional grappling with smeone who can only be called a pathological whack-job, unable to accept criticism and responding to it with pathetic untruths and diva-flame-outs and personal vendettas. This person could have been a heartbeat away from being president of the United States in a moment of economic crisis and national security peril. Her selection remains the most surreal moment in modern American political history. That she is a serious candidate to be the GOP nominee in 2012 is a sign of something very, very seriously wrong with the contemporary American right.
RCP rounds up some analysis. Here is Jesus Rios of Gallup:
So, if Zelaya does in fact return to power before the November presidential election, the question then becomes: how will he manage to govern amidst an adverse public opinion environment and among institutions that backed his ousting, including his own political party? And, what role, if any, will Chavez play in Honduran politics from now on? Will Zelaya drop or moderate his pro-Chavez stance to regain political support? According to the 2008 Gallup survey, just 20% of Hondurans approve of President Hugo Chavez.
Ed Kilgore says to think twice about Palin's chances:
I don't disagree. But that is the reason why she is so dangerous to the Republican party. She is a kind of poison pill. If she becomes the leader of the national GOP, the wilderness they are now in will seem like an oasis.
(Hat tip: Weigel)
David Frum wants more Palin exposure:
The McCain campaign is over. The duty of confidentiality has expired. The next campaign has begun. If conservatives are to avoid catastrophe, they need to hear from those inside what exactly happened. If true, the leaks constitute an urgent warning and public service. I believe they are true. For sure they confirm what I have heard during the campaign and after. Instead of complaining about these leaks, conservatives should heed them – and fast.
Mudflats has found another untruth from the office of the Alaskan governor:
Actually:
It just keeps coming, doesn't it?
The Dish 