Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Bush’s Budget: A Slash To The Environment

• Over the past week, we’ve told you how Bush’s record-breaking $3 trillion budget has slashed important programs, despite requesting a whopping $515 billion for defense spending. Turns out, it gets worse. [Washington Post]
• President Bush’s budget, released yesterday, would slash funding for the Environmental Protection Agency “by $330 million from fiscal 2008 to $7.1 billion, with significant drops in spending on clean-water projects.
• That’s not all. The proposal calls for an overall decrease of almost $600 million from EPA spending in 2007 and the elimination of five programs.”
• And while the President did set aside funds for nuclear energy and for capturing and storing carbon from coal-burning power plants, he cut money for solar energy research and provided only a small increase for other renewable-energy programs. [McClatchy]
• The unfortunate thing is that we can’t say we’re surprised. At the UN climate conference in Bali that happened at the end of last year, the U.S. attempted to sideline set goals for emission reductions/ While a consensus was eventually met that left most world leaders happy , there are still no set standards for emissions reductions. [Mic Check]

Meanwhile, in other environmental news...

• The White House may, in fact, be more environmentally unaware than Big Oil. On Monday, the BBC reported that “[t]he former chairman of Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell has called on the European Union to ban gas-guzzling cars, saying they are unnecessary.” [AFP]
• “Nobody needs a car that does 10-15 mpg (miles per gallon, 19-28 litres per 100 kilometres),” Mark Moody-Stuart said. “We need very tough regulation saying that you can’t drive or build something less than a certain standard. You would be allowed to drive an Aston Martin — but only if it did 50-60 mpg.”
• Moody-Stuart, who was chairman of Shell between 1998 and 2001, and who is currently chairman of mining group Anglo American, added that the EU was too lax with motor manufacturers and insisted that wealthier people must play their part in tackling climate change.

The White House: Refusing to give some green for Green.

Iraqi Refugees: Dubya’s Unfilled Moral Obligation

• The U.S. has a nasty track record for making hollow promises when it comes to Iraqi refugee crisis, what the UN calls “the Middle East’s largest long-term population movement since the displacement of Palestinian in 1948.” [MIC CHECK]
• Last year, the U.S. pledged to allow 7,000 Iraqi refugees to resettle here, but only 1,608 ever made it. [CNN]
• Reality check: this is just a mere fraction out of the 17,000 referrals of Iraqi refugee cases the State Department received last year and in 2006, the U.S. accepted only 202 Iraqis out of its 70,000 refugee slots. [MIC CHECK]
• But past failures aren’t keeping the Bush Administration down – James Foley, the State Department’s senior coordinator on Iraqi refugee issues, has set 12,000 Iraqi refugees as the new goal for the current fiscal year.
• So far this year, only 375 have been admitted.
• But Foley claims the process will speed up in the coming months because of resolved bickering between the Homeland Security and State Departments, stronger cooperation with the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, expanded U.S. processing facilities in Jordan and other countries, and a new practice of interviewing refugee applicants inside Iraq instead of in other countries.
• Still, the Bush administration will have to allow roughly 1321 refugees every month until September in order to meet its 12,000 goal.
• Why we’re skeptical: the U.S., with few exceptions, has never been able to admit more than 1,000 refugees per month in the past 5 years. [FOX NEWS]
• Which is just plain sad, seeing as 12,000 is just a teensy weensy percent of the 1.2 million Iraqi refugees Syria has admitted. [MIC CHECK]

We bet on the U.S. failing Iraqi refugees…again.

Super Tuesday: The Results

Ladies and Gents: Your Super Tuesday results, unedited and unabridged, as of 8:00 AM. Each state contains the projected winner from each party, and, when applicable, the projected number of delegates each state will pledge. These results will be updated as more information arrives. [CNN] [MSNBC]

Alabama
Democrat winner: Obama (21 delegates); Clinton (23 delegates)
Republican winner: Huckabee (14); McCain (13)

Alaska
Democrat winner: Obama (10 delegates); Clinton (5 delegates)
Republican winner: Romney (12); Huckabee (6)

American Samoa
Democrat winner: —
Republican: N/A

Arizona
Democrat winner: Clinton (29 delegates); Obama (23 delegates)
Republican winner: McCain (53 delegates)

Arkansas
Democrat winner: Clinton (31 delegates); Obama (6 delegates)
Republican winner: Huckabee (28 delegates)

California
Democrat winner: Clinton (64 delegates); Obama (35 delegates)
Republican winner: McCain (56 delegates); Romney (3)

Colorado
Democrat winner: Obama (15 delegates); Clinton (10 delegates)
Republican winner: Romney (22)

Connecticut
Democrat winner: Obama (29 delegates); Clinton (23 delegates)
Republican winner: McCain (27 delegates)

Delaware
Democrat winner: Obama (9 delegates); Clinton (8 delegates)
Republican winner: McCain (18 delegates)

Georgia
Democrat winner: Obama (30 delegates); Clinton (20 delegates)
Republican winner: Huckabee (45 delegates); McCain (3)

Idaho
Democrat winner: Obama (17 delegates); Clinton (3 delegates)
Republican N/A

Illinois
Democrat winner: Obama (82 delegates); Clinton (31 delegates)
Republican winner: McCain (55); Romney (3)

Kansas
Democrat winner: Obama (24 delegates); Clinton (10 delegates)
Republican N/A

Massachusetts
Democrat winner: Clinton (60 delegates); Obama (43 delegates)
Republican winner: Romney (22 delegates); McCain (17)

Minnesota
Democrat winner: Obama (51 delegates); Clinton (27 delegates)
Republican winner: Romney (38)

Missouri
Democrat winner: Obama (34 delegates); Clinton (32 delegates)
Republican winner: McCain (58 delegates)

Montana
Democrat N/A
Republican winner: Romney (25)

New Jersey
Democrat winner: Clinton (61 delegates); Obama (38 delegates)
Republican winner: McCain (52 delegates)

New Mexico
Democrat winner: Clinton (17 delegates); Obama (13 delegates)
Republican N/A

New York
Democrat winner: Clinton (166 delegates); Obama (88 delegates)
Republican winner: McCain (101 delegates)

North Dakota
Democrat winner: Obama (12 delegates); Clinton (5 delegates)
Republican winner: Romney (8); McCain (6)

Oklahoma
Democrat winner: Clinton (24 delegates)l Obama (14 delegates)
Republican winner: McCain (52 delegates); Huckabee (6)

Tennessee
Democrat winner: Clinton (35 delegates); Obama (32 delegates)
Republican winner: Huckabee (21); McCain (15)

Utah
Democrat winner: Obama (14 delegates); Clinton (11 delegates)
Republican winner: Romney (36 delegates)

West Virginia
Democrat N/A
Republican winner: Huckabee (18 delegates); Romney (1)

Democrats Abroad
Democrat winner: N/A

That’s a wrap.

Good News, Bad News

Near-Fatal Attraction

Meet Braden Eberle. The four-year-old tyke proved that boys will, in fact, be boys after he swallowed two pieces of a magnet which then stuck together through (get this!) his intestinal walls. After having the magnets removed during an emergency (and from what we hear, excruciating) surgery, Braden offered this sage warning: “Um, don’t swallow the magnets.” Let’s check out the pros and cons. [ABC]

GOOD NEWS

Can you imagine how popular you’d be after bringing that x-ray into show-and-tell?

BAD NEWS

Swallowing magnets can be very dangerous. In fact the Consumer Product Safety Commission reports 27 cases of intestinal injuries and one death from ingesting Magnetix magnets alone.

Quote Of The Day

“Let me make it very clear and to state so officially in front of this committee that waterboarding has been used on only three detainees. It was used on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. It was used on Abu Zubaydah. And it was used on Nashiri.”

—CIA Director Michael Hayden gets specific for the first time on the CIA’s torture program [TPM]

Speed Round

AUDIO: NOT THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHED

Dana Perino forgets a lot of things. Like her keys, people’s birthdays, and the anniversaries of historic events that have changed the course of America’s future.

AUDIO: MIKE MCCONNELL ON WATERBOARDING

Testifying before Congress, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell explains why waterboarding is okay, but he, personally, just doesn’t like getting water up his nose. [Think Progress]

ON THE SHELVES

This should be interesting: Erik Prince — Blackwater’s founder and CEO — has inked a deal for a book defending his organization with conservative publisher Regnery. Look for it this summer. [Think Progress]

TROOPS SPEAK OUT

Anti-war candidates: The top recipients of 2008 donations from U.S. troops. [Think Progress]

BRING A BOOK

Last year marked the second worst year ever for airline delays. [AP]

AMERICA’S GREATEST SCANDALOUS PAST-TIME

During a five-hour-long testimony before Congress yesterday, embattled baseball star Roger Clemens vowed that he did not use performance-enhancing drugs. [AP]

ON THE MOVE

New U.S. intelligence shows that al-Qaeda is likely establishing cells outside of Iraq, such as in Pakistan and Afghanistan. [AP]

HOLD UR TXTS

In an effort to hold someone accountable for all the violence, Kenya will prosecute anyone who sent “hate text messages” after the contested December election. [CNN]

IN CASE YOU NEED MORE PROOF

For the first time in 5 years, the U.S. service industry contracts, fanning the fire of recession talk.[MSNBC]

3

The number of detainees subjected to waterboarding by the CIA shortly after September 11. Ouch. [Reuters]

$400 BILLION

The size of the federal deficit that will greet whoever succeeds Bush in the White House. Now that’s the way to go out with a bang.[USA Today]

IRAQ AND THE UN

If Iraq can’t make a bilateral agreement with United States to keep U.S. forces on Iraqi soil, they may go to the UN to reauthorize American troop presence. [Reuters]

BUSH <HEARTS> TELECOM

Bush promises to veto any spying bill that doesn’t include immunity for the telecom companies that helped Bush illegally spy on Americans. [USA Today]

CHANGE IN POSITION

“The No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, has been chosen to be the next Army vice chief of staff, replacing Gen. Richard Cody.” [AP]

MMMM...BREAD BASKET

Welcome to the World Trade Organization, Ukraine! [AP]