Insta-hoglets

Wheeeee! Here we go with some more Newshog snippets from all over.

There's a UK general election coming, probably in early May. Depending on the results, it could seriously change the dynamic between the US and Europe. In fact, even if Blair wins another victory it may not be good news for BushCo as it looks more and more likely that "Vote Blair, get Brown" is something that UK voters are quite happy with - and Gordon won't be the poodle that Tony has been, no-sirree. He has already clashed with the White House over ending world poverty, and is a true modern socialist who has still managed to have a great reputation in the financial markets.

Rep. Chris Cox (R) obviously hasn't been keeping up on his homework, as he still thinks ""We continue to discover biological and chemical weapons and the facilities to make them inside of Iraq" along with a plot to poison America's perfume counters, as he told the Conservative Political Action Conference. A Tiny Revolution chases down the statement and works out that Cox is getting reality confused with the Batman movies. Are Republicans embarassed that this guy draws a salary from the nation?

Via an email from Kirkrrt and Al-jazeera, we find that energy investment banker and Bush-Cheney energy advisor Matthew Simmons thinks we have "already passed peak oil" and that from now on the world's oil production will decrease. Time to trade in that SUV for a hybrid.

Ambivablog says that Joe Bilden is a contender for 2008. As far as I am concerned, this is great news if true. Bilden has consistently impressed me with his attitude, especially his willingness to get in the face of rightwing spinners and make them retract or recant. I laugh every time I see him on Fox News Sunday - Chris Wallace is obviously terrified of Bilden and I don't think he is the only conservative that straight-talking Joe scares.

New York Times correspondent Tim Egan writes a letter to the BBC, suggesting that there is a new class division emerging in America - between the graduates and the fast food workers.

It is not enough to be the smartest kid in class. Virtually every elite university has a legacy system - sometimes termed Affirmative Action for White Guys.

Those legacies can make up 15% of a top university's intake. Who says the USA doesn't have an aristocracy?

One difference between Vietnam and Iraq is that in Iraq the party drugs are given out via the chain of command. First came ketamine as a morphine substitute. Now soldiers suffering from post-trauma stress are to be plyed with ecstasy to help them get over their experiences.

Patrick Seale at the Guardian gets it right:

Syria is already under great international pressure from the US, France and Israel. To kill Hariri at this critical moment would be to destroy Syria's reputation once and for all and hand its enemies a weapon with which to deliver the blow that could finally destabilise the Damascus regime, and even possibly bring it down.
So attributing responsibility for the murder to Syria is implausible. The murder is more likely to be the work of one of its many enemies.

Indeed. But he then goes on to pretty much blame Israel, which may be obvious but I am not convinced about. The plot thickens and the international community are still no closer to knowing the truth while Bush and his cronies spout rhetoric rather than sense.

The Pope has a new book out. In it, he attacks the moral permisiveness of the West for undermining society with divorce, free love, abortion, euthanasia, and genetic manipulation.

But its main focus is the risk democracies pose to the law of God. La Repubblica, the Italian daily which was shown advance excerpts, wrote yesterday: "The nihilism of the West is disturbing to the Pope. His claim is that democratic parliaments are the carriers."

Driven by "powerful economic forces," the Pope claims, the "anti-Gospel" is spreading the idea that "one must live life as if God does not exist".

By contrast, Eastern Europe, the Polish Pope said, had reached "a spiritual maturity for which certain important values are less devalued than in the West".

"The risk democracies pose to the law of God"...sound familiar to anyone? It isn't too long since Charles Stross opined on this blog that the Pope was a fundie as bad as any ayatollah or Taliban member.
Good call, Charlie.

The Peoples Republic of Seabrook has something to say about Fox News altering words in a Clinton quotation. That's true conservative journalism for you. Plus, as usual, PRS has a great pic to go with the story. Heh.