Tony In The Intertubes

Scalia or a Right-Wing Blogger

This is just great. Antonin Scalia’s grenade-tossing editorializing in the Gitmo decision contained wingnut nonsense and urban legends.

What Hilzoy said,

The first thing to notice about it is that it says that 30 detainees have returned not to the battlefield, but to “the fight”. Since I have become accustomed to treating the words of this administration the same way I treat such words as “Orange Juice Drink: Made With Real Orange Juice!” (which automatically makes me wonder: OK, so exactly how many drops of orange juice per vat of corn syrup would that involve?), I naturally thought: ah, “the fight”. I wonder what counts as returning to “the fight”? Luckily, the DoD elaborates:

YA Oil Is Fungible

We cannot break our dependence on foreign oil. Period. We have to stop using it. It isn’t rocket science, it isn’t even political science.

Everything else is bullshit. This from the CIA Factbook. US

Oil – production: 8.322 million bbl/day (2005 est.)
Oil – consumption: 20.8 million bbl/day (2005 est.)
Oil – exports: 1.048 million bbl/day (2004)
Oil – imports: 13.15 million bbl/day (2004)
Oil – proved reserves: 21.76 billion bbl (1 January 2006 est.)

According to the political BS we should be able to quit exporting 1.048 million barrels per day too.

Crude oil exports are restricted to: (1) crude oil derived from fields under the State waters of Alaska’s Cook Inlet; (2) Alaskan North Slope crude oil; (3)certain domestically produced crude oil destined for Canada; (4) shipments to U.S. territories; and (5) California crude oil to Pacific Rim countries.

Tell me more John. Tell me more.

"It’s Not My Fault" Blimey!

Poll: most Britons doubt cause of climate change

The majority of the British public is still not convinced that climate change is caused by humans – and many others believe scientists are exaggerating the problem, according to an exclusive poll for The Observer.

I don’t care what the cause of global warming is, so long as we can acknowledge that it is occurring.

That being said there is little sense in our exacerbating the problem with our own activities, anymore than having someone crap in your swimming pool is good enough reason to open it up as a public privy.

How To Construct A Circular Argument

U.S. May Free Up More Land for Corn Crops

CHICAGO — Signs are growing that the government may allow farmers to plant crops on millions of acres of conservation land, while a chorus of voices is also pleading with Washington to cut requirements for ethanol production.

The article follows with Smokin’

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and one of Capitol Hill’s main voices on farm policy, on Friday urged the Agriculture Department to release tens of thousands of farmers from contracts under which they had promised to set aside huge tracts as natural habitat.

So yesterday that was said,

An Agriculture Department spokesman said Friday that the Grassley proposal would be considered. This week, the agriculture secretary, Ed Schafer, said his department would consider “everything possible” to aid farmers.

And moving even quicker than that,

In the last couple of days, corn fell from its recent highs as traders grew convinced the government would release conservation land. Corn closed Friday at $7.21 a bushel, still an extraordinary price by historical standards.

Damned! If Grassley had acted last month we could have cleared this up last year.

Nice Pair of Melons Used In Visual Punditry

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