Think Progress

CLIMATE CHANGE -- WHITE HOUSE 'EVISCERATES' CDC DIRECTOR'S TESTIMONY ON GLOBAL WARMING: Yesterday, Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that global warming "is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans." But Gerberding gave few specifics in her opening remarks, instead focusing on CDC's current preparation plans. CDC officials are now revealing that the White House heavily edited Gerberding's testimony, which originally was longer and had more "information on health risks." The White House's deletions included "details on how many people might be adversely affected because of increased warming and the scientific basis for some of the CDC's analysis on what kinds of diseases might be spread in a warmer climate and rising sea levels." A CDC official said that "while it is customary for testimony to be changed in a White House review, these changes were particularly 'heavy-handed,' with the document cut from its original 14 pages to four." Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) also released a statement, calling on the administration to "immediately release Dr. Gerberding's full, uncut statement, because the public has a right to know all the facts about the serious threats posed by global warming."

JUSTICE -- SENATORS REQUEST CLARIFICATION FROM MUKASEY ON TORTURE: In a strongly worded letter to Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey, all 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee pressed him yesterday to clarify his position on torture, specifically on the practice of waterboarding. During his nomination hearing last week, Mukasey called a Justice Department memo authorizing the use of torture on terrorism detainees "worse than sin" and said that torture is "antithetical to what this country stands for." Yet Mukasey refused to rule out waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning, saying he was not sure if it constituted torture. In the letter, the senators reminded Mukasey that many people, including Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), agree that waterboarding is torture, and that after WWII, the "United States prosecuted Japanese military personnel as war criminals for waterboarding U.S. prisoners." "Your unwillingness to state that waterboarding is illegal may place Americans at risk of being subjected to this abusive technique," the senators wrote. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said that he would not schedule a vote on Mukasey's nomination until the nominee has responded to all written questions asked of him. 

ETHICS -- DISGRACED FORMER FEMA DIRECTOR 'AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS' ON CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES: After infamously managing the Bush administration's disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina, former FEMA director Michael Brown released a statement yesterday proclaiming that he was "available for interviews" to discuss disaster response for the California wildfires. "Mr. Brown can speak...to some of the new processes in disaster relief efforts that will help to restore California communities. ... He can offer advice to residents and businesses on proper relief and recovery efforts." As 500,000 California residents are being forced to evacuate due to the wildfires, the storm has elicited memories of Katrina. "In a particularly nervy move," Brown drew parallels between the two tragedies, stating, "Of these 500,000 people, an estimated 10,000 of them have taken shelter at the local NFL stadium, Qualcomm, vaguely reminiscent of circumstances of Hurricane Katrina evacuees two years ago." During Katrina, Brown repeatedly ignored warnings that "thousands of evacuees in New Orleans' Superdome were running out of food and water."

Right-wing pundit Glenn Beck responded to criticism over his suggestion earlier this week that the California wildfires are damaging the homes of "a handful of people who hate America." Beck yesterday lashed out at "a few liberal bloggers" who, he said, "claim that I'm serious when I'm joking and try to cause trouble."

"Despite new House travel restrictions, lawmakers accepted free trips worth nearly $1.9 million during the first eight months of this year -- more than in all of 2006, records show." For example, the conservative Club for Growth "spent $32,242 to bring 10 GOP lawmakers to its April convention at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach in Florida that included a four-hour cruise on a 170-foot yacht."

"The Bush Administration is reportedly considering air strikes, including cruise missiles, against the Kurdish rebel group PKK in northern Iraq. The move would be an attempt to stave off a Turkish invasion of that country to fight the rebels."

The Iraqi government announced today that it has decided to "formally revoke the immunity from prosecution granted to private security companies operating in the war-ravaged country." A government spokesman said in a statement that the Iraqi cabinet "decided to scrap the article pertaining to security companies operating in Iraq that was issued by the CPA in 2004."

$2.4 trillion: The potential cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the next decade, "or nearly $8,000 per man, woman and child in the country, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate." "The number is so big, it boggles the mind," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL).

"President Bush said yesterday that a missile defense system is urgently needed in Europe to guard against a possible attack on U.S. allies by Iran." Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested that the United States "could delay activating such a system until there is 'definitive proof' of such a threat."

"Despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing," Bush is the biggest spending president since 1964. According to an analysis by McClatchy, annual growth of discretionary spending (adjusted for inflation) has increased 5.3 percent under Bush's watch, a number that exceeds the spending of his recent predecessors.

"The government's terrorist watch list has swelled to more than 755,000 names," growing by approximately "200,000 names a year since 2004." The new report by the Government Accountability Office also "raised worries about the list's effectiveness."

And finally: A job listing recently appeared on the D.C. government's public job database allegedly looking for a personal chef for MSNBC pundit Tucker Carlson. The posting named Carlson, who listed his own occupation as "Able Seaman." The pay was just "$7.50 an hour, with no benefits." Evidently, according to Carlson, the posting was a hoax.