In Brief - February 1st, 2008

Since I was born in New Hampshire (relax, I've lived in Washington for 22 years), I'll dutifully drool in front of the TV for a few hours on Sunday in honor of the Patriots, who hope to cap a perfect season with a Super Bowl win.

Might be the thing to do, anyway; weather promises to be sloppy. Or you might go through some of the recent Republican debate videos and see how many times Mitt Romney can invoke the name of Reagan, or how often John McCain mentions “timetable.” Hm...the Super Bowl looks pretty good.

Now, on with today's quick news digest.

In the Pacific Northwest

• KIRO continues to shoot itself in the foot with local programming reductions. In addition to lopping off David Goldstein (see Andrew's posts earlier this week), Carl Jeffers and Bryan Styble are also getting the ax. Ain't media consolidation great? Fewer voices! More generic content! Radio custard! Go KIRO!
• Steve Duin's column in the Oregonian has some stern warnings for his readers: Polluters are accommodated in Beaverton. The Lakeside Reclamation Landfill, according to the Northwest Environmental Defense Council, is polluting the Tualitin River. According to the NEDC, local laws actually allow for this sort of behavior, and Duin is urging his readers to make some noise.

Across the Nation

• The United States has killed the al Qaeda #3 guy - again. Pretty soon, the traditional media outlets will just start running these stories in the local police blotters, right next to car prowls, shoplifting and vandalism. The story always says the same thing, much like the Victory narratives in “1984.” You know, 'we killed one of their leaders, but we still need to live in abject fear of everybody who's different...'
• Suicide rates for soldiers have increased to record levels, thanks to the occupation of Iraq. This highlights the fact that, although by pure statistics the body count of American service people has been low compared to, say, Vietnam, the devastation of lives and families remains absurdly high, and completely unacceptable.
• On a more cheerful note, conservatives don't seem too thrilled with their choices for president this time around. Gee, why not? An inarticulate rich white guy more reminiscent of an aging Ken doll than an American voter, or the establishment senator who would gladly attack Iran and sink us deeper into debt in the process. Here's a quote from McCain's 96-year-old mom, about her son: “"I think holding their nose they're going to have to take him," she told C-SPAN recently.” Wow. Thanks, Mom.

Around the World

• Hey, another scientific journal cites the climate crisis as a very real problem. Imagine that! Seems that droughts are influenced by increasingly low snowpacks in the mountains, which is brought on by human-induced greenhouse gases. But I'm sure an Exxon-sponsored scientist can prove them wrong.
• Credit al Jazeera for letting us know about George Clooney's new position as U.N. peace envoy. He's been a huge influence in getting people to pay attention to the genocide still taking place in Darfur, so it should be at least a tiny bit noticeable in traditional media in the States, one would think. Nope. We learn about this from al Jazeera. Oh, yeah, People Magazine, too. Incredible. Britney Spears in rehab (again)? News! George Clooney, Messenger of Peace? Nah.
• Damaged undersea cables in the Mediterranean have caused Internet outages across the Middle East and North Africa early Thursday (1/31) morning, with Egypt taking the brunt. It will probably “take days” to get the country up and running again. There is speculation that the culprit was an anchor dragging across the cable.

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