Instahoglets 6th April 07

Something for the weekend? How about a generous helping of snark, news and blogroll goodies?

The biggest news today everywhere on the planet except in America is the UN's much awaited climate change report. Joe at TMV gets to grips with with the details. The USA is the only democratic nation in which climate change denial is still policy. Fun huh? Ah well, maybe all those Republican's from the South will start to take it seriously when their electorate dries up and blows away. Leave it to the one socialist in the Senate to actually get of his ass and do something positive...and I don't mean debating Newt Gingritch.

The Right is clutching at straws saying Nancy Pelosi should be behind bars for talking to Syria. Is there any provision for removing a Vice President from office on the grounds of mental instability? Which is more dangerous - a maverick or a madman?

Meanwhile, the UK is the latest nation to start talking to Hamas. If you had the feeling that, on the international scene, no-one outside of Bush's cheerleading squad would give a damn about President 30% and his insane shadow if they didn't have all that military might, you'd be bang on.

Today in PurgeGate. Monica M. Goodling, Gonzales top aide and someone who said she would "take the fifth" if she had to talk to Congress, has quit suddenly with a three-line resignation letter. Steven Taylor writes : "Ok, let me get this straight: both Gonzales’ chief of staff and a top aide have now resigned, yet we are supposed to believe that the USA story was nothing more than the President asserting his right to fire political appointees. Oh, and said top aide has pre-asserted her Fifth Amendment rights. This simply doesn’t track".

And up in Minnesota, four top staffers have quit rather than submit to any more fundie lectures from Bush's chosen US Crony-Attorney. Amanda at Think Progress writes "The Bush administration justified several of its firings of the eight U.S. attorneys by baselessly criticizing their management styles. We await the Justice Department’s response to Paulose."

To those Newshog readers who are students - does your college or university belongs to a national criminal conspiracy to bilk financially vulnerable students for all they're worth? Investigations by the New York Attorney General are revealing that dozens and perhaps hundreds of institutions are implicated in these schemes.

Regular reader Kirkrrt sent me a link to an op-ed by Prof. Miles Weinberger, professor of Pediatrics at the University of Iowa and a man Kirkrrt says is the "best asthma doctor in the world." Weinberger calls for "the heathcare we deserve" and writes "A single-payer system is the only economically viable reform option that will serve us better as a nation. Yet opposition from insurance and drug industry giants continues to intimidate lawmakers and aspirants to the presidency. It is time for our leaders to stand up for the health of the American people rather than the wealth of our richest firms." Definitely worth a read.

Patricia at Whirled Views asks "Whatever happened to America's social safety net?" Good question. The Republicans, who confused all government with bad government, dismantled it in favor of an experiment in fast-forward social darwinism.

Back to Newt. Kathy at Cut To The Chase reveals how his exorbitant speaking fees bankrupted the conservative club at the University of Vermont. It seems they took out a bank loan to pay him and then couldn't pay it back. Ah, those fiscal conservatives!

Liberty Street looks at getting paid to blog."We cannot be having Atrios and Kos and Josh Marshall and other A-listers talking only to each other and to reporters about how bloggers who are not financially self-supporting should get the financial support they need. Perhaps some of those influential bloggers who are always being quoted in the mainstream media should set up mentoring programs for less well known and unknown bloggers." (I never did tell Glenn, but I did think it would have been a great idea if, instead of closing his old blog when he moved to Salon, he had used it's name recognition and traffic to kickstart a few smaller and good blogger's careers by putting a "Greenwald-approved" team in place there.)

One of the best bits of news I had this last week was that Mr. M has returned to Comments From Left Field. When M gets his righteous rant on, it is truly a blogging wonder to behold. Star quality. Go see what I mean as he takes apart Michelle Malkin's Nazi manifesto. You may have already read about the story - but not like this.

And if you still need more bloggy round-up goodness then head over to The Sideshow. Avedon is one of the true champions of the blogging community. Every day she has one or more excellent roundups which always showcase smaller blogs as well as the A-List talent and she even makes time to write her own excellent analysis. Truly a class act.