“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Peter Daou: Who said this: “Barack The Terrible is a tyrant and a threat to the American people”

The story of Barack Obama’s presidency is the story of how the left turned on him. And it eats him up. You know it from Robert Gibbs, you know it from Rahm Emanuel and you know it from Obama himself:

Democrats, just congenitally, tend to get – to see the glass as half empty.  (Laughter.)  If we get an historic health care bill passed – oh, well, the public option wasn’t there.  If you get the financial reform bill passed – then, well, I don’t know about this particularly derivatives rule, I’m not sure that I’m satisfied with that.  And gosh, we haven’t yet brought about world peace and – (laughter.)  I thought that was going to happen quicker.  (Laughter.)  You know who you are.  (Laughter.)

The constant refrain that liberals don’t appreciate the administration’s accomplishments betrays deep frustration. It was a given the right would try to destroy Obama’s presidency. It was a given Republicans would be obstructionists. It was a given the media would run with sensationalist stories. It was a given there would be a natural dip from the euphoric highs of the inauguration. Obama’s team was prepared to ride out the trough(s). But they were not prepared for a determined segment of the left to ignore party and focus on principle, to ignore happy talk and demand accountability.

As president, Obama has done much good and has achieved a number of impressive legislative victories. He is a smart, thoughtful and disciplined man. He has a wonderful family. His staff (many of whom I’ve worked with in past campaigns) are good and decent people trying to improve their country and working tirelessly under extreme stress. But that doesn’t mean progressives should set aside the things they’ve fought for their entire adult life. It doesn’t mean they should stay silent if they think the White House is undermining the progressive cause.

Case in point: the extraordinarily disturbing case of Anwar al-Aulaqi:

The Obama administration urged a federal judge early Saturday to dismiss a lawsuit over its targeting of a U.S. citizen for killing overseas, saying that the case would reveal state secrets. The U.S.-born citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, is a cleric now believed to be in Yemen. Federal authorities allege that he is leading a branch of al-Qaeda there. Government lawyers called the state-secrets argument a last resort to toss out the case, and it seems likely to revive a debate over the reach of a president’s powers in the global war against al-Qaeda.

digby: On Hippie Punching

I haven’t weighed in on this because Susie pretty much said it all. But this post in the NY Times  persuaded me to say something. It details the exchange with Axelrod, where she asks him if he knows what “hippie punching” is. Tobin’s summary:

“He was apparently at a loss. So, I assume, were plenty of other people. “Madrak was referencing a phrase thrown around by bloggers who think the Obama administration has treated its liberal base with disdain,” reported CBS News’s Stephanie Condon, which seems fairly obvious in context, but isn’t much help in terms of derivation or meaning. As for being “thrown around,” I can only remember seeing the phrase once before, and not on a liberal blog.”

He then links to Ann Althouse to explain it. (I assume he did that since she’s a female and so is Madrak? There’s absolutely no other reason to consult a right wing crank like her on the matter.)

Joe Conason: Return of the ‘Contract With America’

The Republicans have announced the forthcoming release of the “Contract From America”-a set of legislative proposals presumably intended to replicate the “Contract With America” used by their leaders in the historic 1994 midterm when they won control of both houses of Congress.

The question immediately raised by this news is why John Boehner and his colleagues would remind voters of their political descent from the likes of Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay, and the legacy of misconduct, fakery and error that they represent.

They may well believe that most Americans won’t remember what Republicans actually did when they regained control of Congress for the first time in decades. Certainly amnesia is a perennial pathology in American politics. But anyone who listens closely to what the Republicans are saying this year should be able to detect the clues suggesting that the more they claim to have changed, the more they remain the same.

Robert Kuttner: The Optimistic Scenario for Election Day

Tired of bleak political news? Here is an optimistic scenario of what just might happen on November second: some Republican gains, but both houses of Congress remain Democratic.

It may well be that the anticipated Republican takeover of Congress peaked a little too soon and that the Tea Parties were too successful for their own good. As Democrats get more strategic about smoking out the core differences between the two parties, disaffected voters will think twice about electing lunatic fringe candidates.

Karl Rove, nobody’s idea of a liberal, is in the doghouse with Sean Hannity and the Tea Party crowd because Rove has publicly said that some of the candidates who won Republican nominations are too far-right to get elected. If Karl Rove is worried about this risk to his grand designs, it may even be true.

The Democrats caught a few breaks, in the nomination of Tea Party nutcakes like Christine O’Donnell in Delaware and Joe Miller in Alaska. As the national media focuses on the campaign, the effects spread beyond increasing the likelihood of Democratic wins in these two states (which had previously been considered safe for Republicans.) The result will be to remind voters of the extremism of Republicans generally.

Democrats may also get lucky if the rumored John Boehner sleaze scandal turns out to be true, and Republicans dither while the media piles on and Boehner twists in the wind. On the other hand, if the story can’t be proven, it strengthens Boehner.

E.J. Dionne Jr.: The GOP’s Northeast Achilles’ heel

“Where are our plans for a New Deal or a Great Society?” asked Edward W. Brooke, the legendary Massachusetts Republican.

It’s not a question anyone in today’s Republican Party would dare get caught even considering, but Brooke had the temerity to raise it in “The Challenge of Change,” a book published in 1966, the year he became the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction.

The midterm election that year was very good for Republicans in general, including a Californian named Ronald Reagan. But it was an especially fine year for moderate and progressive Republicans of the Brooke stripe across the Northeast. Their prizes included governorships in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and Pennsylvania.

In 2010, Republicans run away in horror at the prospect of being called moderate, let alone progressive, and that is an obstacle in the GOP’s path to a congressional majority. It will be very hard for Republicans to take the House if they don’t break the Democrats’ power in the Northeast — and they still have to prove they can do that.

Derrick Z. Jackson: Keep Frankenfish fiction

I’M NOT getting anywhere near Frankenfish. I mean, do I really want to eat an aquatic Roger Clemens?

The Food and Drug Administration is close to approving a farm-raised salmon jacked up with enough growth hormone to come to market in 18 months instead of three years. In a publicity photo, the genetically-modified salmon is a battleship to the dinghy of a normal one. I do not care that the FDA says it is safe. We seethe at athletes on steroids and growth hormones, yet we’re about to digest a food that is the equivalent of Shaquille O’Neal growing to seven feet by fourth grade? I don’t think so.

But there is a far more important reason to shun Frankenfish. We need to rethink farmed fish, period. Aquaculture messes with Mother Nature far too much for the convenience of having fish available 24/7.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

September 27 is the 270th day of the year (271st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 95 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1922, Jean-François Champollion deciphered the hieroglyphs of the Rosetta Stone with the help of groundwork laid by his predecessors: Athanasius Kircher, Silvestre de Sacy, Johan David Akerblad, Thomas Young, and William John Bankes. Champollion translated parts of the Rosetta Stone, showing that the Egyptian writing system was a combination of phonetic and ideographic signs.

Thomas Young was one of the first to attempt decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, basing his own work on the investigations of Swedish diplomat Akerblad, who built up a demotic  alphabet of 29 letters (15 turned out to be correct) and translated all personal names and other words in the Demotic part of the Rosetta Stone  in 1802. Akerblad however, wrongly believed that demotic was entirely phonetic or alphabetic. Young thought the same, and by 1814 he had completely translated the enchorial (which Champollion labeled Demotic as it is called today) text of the Rosetta Stone (he had a list with 86 demotic words). Young then studied the hieroglyphic alphabet and made some progress but failed to recognise that demotic and hieroglyphic texts were paraphrases and not simple translations. In 1823 he published an Account of the Recent Discoveries in Hieroglyphic Literature and Egyptian Antiquities. Some of Young’s conclusions appeared in the famous article Egypt he wrote for the 1818 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

When Champollion, in 1822, published his translation of the hieroglyphs and the key to the grammatical system, Young and all others praised this work. Young had indicated in a letter to Gurney that he wished to see Champollion acknowledge that he had made use of Young’s earlier work in assisting his eventual deciphering of hieroglyphics. Champollion was unwilling to share the credit even though initially he had not recognized that hieroglyphics were phonetic. Young corrected him on this, and Champollion attempted to have an early article withdrawn once he realized his mistake. Strongly motivated by the political tensions of that time, the British supported Young and the French Champollion. Champollion completely translated the hieroglyphic grammar based in part upon the earlier work of others including Young. However, Champollion maintained that he alone had deciphered the hieroglyphs. After 1826, he did offer Young access to demotic manuscripts in the Louvre, when he was a curator. Baron Georges Cuvier (1825) credited Champollion’s work as an important aid in dating the Dendera Zodiac.

 489 – Odoacer attacks Theodoric at the Battle of Verona, and is defeated again.

1331 – The Battle of Plowce between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order is fought.

1422 – after the brief Gollub War the Teutonic Knights sign the Treaty of Melno with the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania

1529 – The Siege of Vienna begins when Suleiman I attacks the city.

1540 – The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) receives its charter from Pope Paul III.

1590 – Pope Urban VII dies 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history.

1605 – The armies of Sweden are defeated by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Battle of Kircholm.

1669 – The Venetians surrender the fortress of Candia to the Ottomans, thus ending the 21-year long Siege of Candia.

1777 – Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the capital of the United States, for one day.

1821 – Mexico gains its independence from Spain.

1822 – Jean-Francois Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta stone.

1825 – The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens, and begins operation of the world’s first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.

1854 – The steamship SS Arctic sinks with 300 people on board. This marks the first great disaster in the Atlantic Ocean.

1903 – Wreck of the Old 97, a train crash made famous by the song of the same name.

1905 – The physics journal Annalen der Physik published Albert Einstein’s paper “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?”, introducing the equation E=mc².

1908 – The first production of the Ford Model T automobile was built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan.

1916 – Iyasu is proclaimed deposed as ruler of Ethiopia in a palace coup in favor of his aunt Zauditu.

1922 – King Constantine I of Greece abdicates his throne in favor of his eldest son, King George II.

1928 – The Republic of China is recognised by the United States.

1930 – Bobby Jones wins the U.S. Amateur Championship to complete the Grand Slam of golf. The old structure of the grand slam was the U.S. Open, British Open, U.S. Amateur, and British Amateur.

1937 – Balinese Tiger declared extinct.

1938 – Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth launched in Glasgow.

1940 – World War II: The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy.

1941 – The SS Patrick Henry is launched becoming the first of more than 2,700 Liberty ships.

1941 – Foundation of EAM (National Liberation Front) in Greece.

1942 – Last day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps troops barely escape after being surrounded by Japanese forces near the Matanikau River.

1944 – The Kassel Mission results in the largest loss by a USAAF group on any mission in World War II.

1949 – The first Plenary Session of the National People’s Congress approves the design of the Flag of the People’s Republic of China.

1954 – The nationwide debut of Tonight! (The Tonight Show) hosted by Steve Allen on NBC.

1956 – USAF Captain Milburn G. Apt becomes the first man to exceed Mach 3 while flying the Bell X-2. Shortly thereafter, the craft goes out of control and Captain Apt is killed.

1959 – Nearly 5000 people die on the main Japanese island of Honshu as the result of a typhoon.

1961 – Sierra Leone joins the United Nations.

1964 – The Warren Commission releases its report, concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

1964 – The British TSR-2 aircraft XR219 made its maiden flight from Boscombe Down in Wiltshire.

1968 – The stage musical Hair opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where it played 1,998 performances until its closure was forced by the roof’s collapsing in July 1973.

1977 – The 300 metre tall CKVR-TV transmission tower in Barrie, Ontario, Canada is hit by a light aircraft in a fog, causing it to collapse. All aboard the aircraft are killed.

1979 – The United States Department of Education receives final approval from the U.S. Congress to become the 13th US Cabinet agency.

1983 – Richard Stallman announces the GNU project to develop a free Unix-like operating system.

1988 – The National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi is founded.

1993 – The Sukhumi massacre takes place in Abkhazia.

1995 – The Government of the United States unveils the first of its redesigned bank notes with the $100 bill featuring a larger portrait of Benjamin Franklin slightly off-center.

1996 – In Afghanistan, the Taliban capture the capital city Kabul after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.

1996 – The Julie N. tanker skip crashes into the Million Dollar Bridge in Portland, Maine spilling thousands of gallons of oil.

1997 – Communications are suddenly lost with the Mars Pathfinder space probe.

1998 – Google is founded.

2002 – Timor-Leste (East Timor) joins the United Nations.

2003 – Smart 1 satellite is launched.

2008 – CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk while flying on Shenzhou 7.

Military thwarted president seeking choice in Afghanistan

The first of three articles adapted from “Obama’s Wars” by Bob Woodward.  

By Bob Woodward

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, September 27, 2010; 12:34 AM

For two exhausting months, he had been asking military advisers to give him a range of options for the war in Afghanistan. Instead, he felt that they were steering him toward one outcome and thwarting his search for an exit plan. He would later tell his White House aides that military leaders were “really cooking this thing in the direction they wanted.”

He was looking for choices that would limit U.S. involvement and provide a way out. His top three military advisers were unrelenting advocates for 40,000 more troops and an expanded mission that seemed to have no clear end. When his national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2009, for its eighth strategy review session,the president erupted.

A new shelf life for treasures of nature

Berlin museum bombed during the war is finally reborn, reports Tony Paterson  

Monday, 27 September 2010

They might have been lifted from the most ghoulish of horror films: more than 200,000 jars containing more than a million snakes, monster frogs, bats, stunted fish, outlandish lizards and serpents, all garishly illuminated on nearly eight miles of theatrically back-lit shelving.

The spectacular display, which uses some 21,600 gallons of alcohol, is the world’s biggest, most sophisticated collection of so-called “wet species”, comprised of rare reptile specimens collected across the globe in the past 200 years. Visitors to Berlin’s natural history museum are able to pass through an elaborately constructed climatised air lock at the 200-year-old research institute and enter a vast darkened chamber where the alcohol-preserved reptiles have gone on permanent public display to the public for      the first time.

USA

U.S. Is Working to Ease Wiretaps on the Internet



By CHARLIE SAVAGE

Published: September 27, 2010  

WASHINGTON – Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications – including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype – to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages  

Politicians’ money woes strike a chord with voters

Candidates who’ve faced bankruptcy or foreclosure are finding that many people sympathize with their problems. And their opponents refrain from attacking on the financial front.

By Richard Fausset

Reporting from Marietta, Ga. – Georgia voter Bobbie Huff has heard about the failed business venture and the big loan that has Nathan Deal, this state’s gubernatorial front-runner, on the hook for more than $2 million.

She’s also heard that Deal, an 18-year veteran of Congress, will likely have to sell his house and liquidate other assets to cover the debt.

But Huff can’t bring herself to render a stern judgment on the man just because he’s suffered in the recession. After all, she said, who hasn’t?

Europe

Russia digs up woolly mammoth remains for guilt-free ivory  

Russia is mining the remains of its long extinct woolly mammoths to meet a growing demand for ethical ivory.  

Andrew Osborn in Moscow  

Taking advantage of a global ban on the trade in elephant ivory, Russia is gambling that ivory lovers around the world will pay a premium for ethically friendly mammoth ivory instead.

Michelle Obama, the US First Lady, has been spotted wearing jewellery crafted from the mammoth ivory.

It is exporting 60 tons of mammoth ivory to China, the world’s biggest ivory market, per year, and scientists estimate there is plenty more where that came from.

In fact, they believe there may be as many as 150 million dead mammoths frozen beneath the Siberian tundra just waiting to be dug up.

Basque group may call permanent, verifiable ceasefire

The Basque separatist group ETA has said it is ready to make a ceasefire called earlier this month “permanent and verifiable,” according to a newspaper. However, the declaration appears to have been dismissed by Madrid.  

Terrorism

The armed Basque separatist group ETA is prepared to observe a permanent and verifiable ceasefire, Basque newspaper Gara reported on its website Saturday, following interviews with two members.

When asked if they would commit to a permanent and verifiable ceasefire, the representatives said, “ETA is willing to take that step and also to go further” if the right conditions are met.

When asked if they would commit to a permanent and verifiable ceasefire, the representatives said, “ETA is willing to take that step and also to go further” if the right conditions are met.

“The goal is to resolve the [Basque] political conflict democratically, to close the wound forever, and in order to do that we are all obliged to act responsibly,” the ETA members said.

Middle East

Netanyahu urges Jewish settlers not to provoke collapse of peace talks

Israeli premier resists US pressure while preparing right wing for compromise. Donald Macintyre reports from Jerusalem

Monday, 27 September 2010

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appealed early today to the Palestinian leadership to continue direct negotiations for a peace deal despite his refusal to prevent the resumption of Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank.

The midnight deadline set for an end to the partial freeze on settlement building passed amid last ditch international attempts to broker a compromise between Israel and a Palestinian leadership demanding that the ten month moratorium be prolonged.

Palestinian rivals close to reconciliation deal  



Jason Koutsoukis

September 27, 2010

Hopes were raised yesterday that the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas were close to signing a deal that would resolve their bitter divisions.

Fatah, the secular Palestinian resistance movement of the President, Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, a radical Islamic group opposed to any peace negotiations with Israel, have been in a state of almost civil war since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Reconciliation between the two factions is crucial to any resolution of the conflict with Israel, with Hamas enjoying widespread support among the nearly 4 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Asia

Afghan stringers are the bedrock of our reporting

The two recent arrests of al-Jazeera stringers interrupted our coverage when they were picked up for being ‘Taliban facilitators’  

Sue Turton The Guardian, Monday 27 September

2010  

2Stringers in Afghanistan, where I am the correspondent for al-Jazeera, are the eyes and ears of the world’s media. Without them, getting a picture of what is going on outside Kabul is almost impossible for a western journalist. Most correspondents don’t often stray from the capital and those embedded with security forces struggle to witness anything not cleared by military censors.

Al-Jazeera is bolder than most, with an occasional trip to the more dangerous provinces. But in the past week our invaluable stringer network has closed down. This month, one stringer’s home in Khost was raided and four of his relatives were arrested. Then our Ghazni stringer was arrested two days after polling day for being what the International Security Assistance Force termed a “suspected Taliban media and propaganda facilitator”. Two nights later, our Kandahar stringer was also picked up for being a “Taliban facilitator”.

North Korea waits to hear that Kim Jong-il’s youngest son will take over  

Announcement expected at Tuesday’s Worker’s party assembly that Kim Jong-un will succeed Kim Jong-il  

Petteri Tuohinen in Pyongyang  

The fruit crop is expected to be excellent. The apples are plump and the grape clusters heavy. Farmers smile as they toil in the fields, and people wave flags on their way to work. Tractors are bringing in another good harvest.

The footage unfolding across North Korean television screens offers images of the good life, apparently unaltered for years. But change is coming to this isolated and bizarre dictatorship, as the world’s first communist dynasty prepares to transfer power to its third generation.

Africa

Playing Beethoven in Kinshasa

Central Africa’s Only Orchestra

By Elke Schmitter

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, misery has a tender sound. It sounds like the voices of children at play, conversations between women, men talking in the half dark of Nathalie Bahati’s apartment on Avenue Yassa. It sounds like the noises of wringing and pounding, the beat of bare feet on packed mud, the scraping of a spoon against metal. Bahati’s son Dan plays with his toy cars, imitating their noises with his lips, as a friend hums Bahati’s infant daughter Belmeande to sleep. Bahati found her daughter’s name in a calendar of saints and liked its sound.

Bahati is 34 years old and a flutist, one of more than 200 musicians adding another layer to the sounds of the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.

France ready for Mali hostage talks  

Statement comes as official says the five French nationals in custody of al-Qaeda branch are alive.



Last Modified: 27 Sep 2010  

The French government has said it is ready to talk to the group holding five of its nationals in Mali, as reports emerge that they are still alive.

A source in Mali told the AFP news agency that five hostages and two other foreigners kidnapped in Niger by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim) are alive and being held in the mountains in the north of the country.

Members of Aqim seized the French nationals, along with a Togolese and a Madagascan, in a raid on  September 16 on a uranium mining town in the deserts of northern  Niger.

“We are ready to talk to the kidnappers,” a presidential aide said on Sunday.

The aide said that “we have every reason to think that the hostages are alive” and have been taken to the hilly desert zone of Timetrine near the Algerian border.

Latin America

Rescue capsule arrives for trapped miners  

 

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles Monday, 27 September 2010

Families of 33 miners trapped inside a collapsed copper and gold mine in northern Chile since early August have been shown the rescue capsule that authorities hope will eventually bring their loved ones safely to the surface. Crowds waiting outside the San Jose mine near the city of Copiapo on Saturday chanted “Viva Chile!” as the steel cage, named “Phoenix” was driven into the compound where the delicate operation to free the men, who are confined to a cavern 700 metres below ground level, is being coordinated.

Relatives were allowed to step inside the capsule, which is 10-feet high and 28 inches wide and has been specially designed by the Chilean navy. “I’m happy because we’ve been waiting for this for 50 days,” the wife of one of the trapped miners, Elizabeth Segovia, told reporters.

Ignoring Asia A Blog  

I have been thinking about sustainability for a long, long time.  Unfortunately, in my scientific analysis, it not possible if we continue on the route that we have chosen.  This is an extremely complex topic, and might even deserve its own, new, date.  I am thinking that Wednesdays might be a good time for it.  This is more speculation than science, so it does not properly belong on Pique the Geek for the long term.

This will be the most controversial topic that I have ever tackled.  I may be dead wrong in some of my speculations, but a lot of thought has gone into them.  I offer no easy remedies but do ask the hard, horrible questions and illustrate them with facts.  I will ask that you, my readers, tell me whether this deserves a new series, uncoupled from Pique the Geek. Please read further.

The Geek apologizes for being absent last week.  He was a bit under the weather, not really ill, but did not feel like staying with the comments for the several hours that he usually does.  He has too much respect for his readers to be a “post and run” writer, and besides the comments are the best part of his posts.

First, let us define sustainability.  That is pretty broad term, but for these discussions, I define it thusly:

The ability for the human population to maintain a lifestyle that does not impact the economy, the environment, or natural resources in such a way that any are destroyed, exhausted, or significantly and irreversibly degraded.

Well, this is pretty broad.  Sustainability runs the gamut from natural resources, to the global economy, to the overload of people on our planet, to energy supply and use, and many other factors as well.  One of the problems is that all of these issues are connected to a greater or lesser extent, so when one is perturbed, so are all of the others.  This complex set of relationships makes it extremely to model “what if” scenarios, especially without a tremendous amount of data to put into such a model.  In addition, some of the data that exist are of questionable validity.  However, I can make a couple of speculations.

First, I am quite pessimistic that our western lifestyle can be maintained, let alone improved, unless we (the developed and especially the rapidly developing) counties change the way in which things are done.  India and China MUST be major players in these endeavors, because that is where the bulk of the population is.  These two nations have a combined population of 2.53 billion at present, out of a projected 2012 world total of 7 billion.

When I was born, the world population was just under 3 billion people.  I have lived through a population doubling event, and have a good chance of living to see the population triple in my lifetime if projections based on estimated rates of growth are accurate.  This is an astonishing number of people.  Also note that India and China alone currently have almost as many people as existed on the entire globe when I was born.

These numbers are disturbing as well as astonishing.  To feed 7 billion people requires significantly greater resources proportionately than to feed 3 billion, because the amount of arable land has not increased since 1957, and actually has decreased because of poor land practices and the physical area required for 4 billion more people to live.  Here is how we have managed to do so:

First, mechanization and intensive agricultural practices have increased the amount of crops that can be produced from a given land area.  However, mechanization requires natural resources and energy, and intensive cropping often destroys topsoil and the fertility of the land.  There is not much that can be done about topsoil, but intensive use of chemical fertilizers can offset heavy cropping.  Heavy fertilizer use has its own problems, including loading waterways and eventually saltwater at river outlets with excess nutrients, causing things like the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.  It also requires lots of natural resources and energy to produce, transport, and apply the fertilizers.  To complicate matters, projections show that the amount of phosphate (one of the big three nutrients of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium) that can be economically exploited will be worked out in less than 100 years.

Second, irrigation has increased the productivity of formerly marginal land.  One of the most striking examples is in the Central Valley of California, which is pretty much a desert without irrigation.  Now that there is a prolonged drought in the western United States, we are seeing almond trees being bulldozed to make was for crops that have a better return on water used.  In addition, those 4 billion extra people have to have fresh water to drink and for other domestic uses.  Another nasty little secret about fresh water is that industrial operations consume a tremendous amount of fresh water, much of it rendered unfit to drink or for irrigation without expensive and resource intensive treatment.

Third, the introduction of superior varieties of crops has increased the productivity of staples, but with the more sophisticated techniques available today there is a big controversy about genetic engineering contaminating the genetic makeup of “wild” plants and even animals.  I personally think that this is one of the least of the problems.  In my estimate, the real danger is the greater and greater reliance on only a few, highly productive strains of staple crops rather than hundreds of varieties in the past.  The danger with this is that when (not if) some pathogen or pest evolves that attacks these few strains that devastation of the strains that provide the bulk of the food occurs.

And these are only a very few of the factors involving just food production.  There are many other aspects of supporting civilization that are also becoming harder and harder to sustain.  Energy is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, because everything operates off of energy.  Many projections indicate that peak oil either has already been attained or will be by 2014.  In other words, after the instant of peak oil, less and less will be produced as time goes on, until finally there are no more economical sources for oil as an energy source.  (Oil will always be valuable as a raw material for everything from plastics to pharmaceuticals, even if it is too expensive to burn).

Well, we have lots of coal, right?  Actually, Great Britain, the ancestral home of coal mining, reached peak coal in 1919!  Several experts have projected that 90% of the economically workable coal will have been extracted in or around 2074.  That is not that far off, and of course coal is a terrible fuel insofar as its environmental impact goes (unless you are like The SOBber from that false “news” channel who does not believe in anthrogenic climate change).

Natural gas is a better alternative, and is much better from an environmental standpoint.  However, the United States is already importing natural gas, and will increase imports unless new sources are found.  I am cautiously optimistic that methane hydrates on the seafloor can be exploited for its gas content in the fairly near future, but that has yet to be seen.

Nuclear energy may well be a bridge until truly sustainable sources of energy are developed, but the bottom line is that energy, regardless of any government energy policies, will continue to rise in price as long as demand is strong.  The only thing that I see that would significantly reduce demand is either a massive economic collapse or a fairly large change in standard of living, neither of which is, according to the conventional wisdom, a good thing.

All the talk about ethanol is pretty much nonsense.  Since ethanol today is mostly produced by fermenting and distilling corn in the US, corn prices are already on the rise in north America.  There were riots last year in Mexico because of the increase in cost of corn meal, the staple starch in that country.  As I said, everything is connected to everything else.

I think that I shall stop here except to mention another idea that The SOBber has.  His numbskull solution (just one of many numbskull ideas that he has) is just to make more of everything.  He was on his self titled show the other day wearing a baker’s apron that had the lettering,

I’m a Baker, not a Divider.

His application was specifically about the US enonomy, and his implication is that all that we have to do is expand the economy (and ONLY the unfettered, regulation free private sector can do it) everything is fine.  To do back to his pie analogy, he completely neglects to mention that it takes more resources (apples, flour, lard, sugar, fuel) and capital investment (piepans, ovens, etc.) to make more pies.  It is not something that just happens, because there are costs involved.  I am not against expanding the economy, but the conventional wisdom that this is a panacea is just plain wrong.  In the final analysis, there are finite amounts of resources, and these resources are the limiting factor.

The bottom line is that, in my estimate, we are getting dangerously close to the limit of resource availability worldwide, and without serious action we will find ourselves in a position that more conflicts, some perhaps armed, will arise as competition for the remaining resources increases.  That is why I have sort of a heavy heart this evening.

Well, you have done it again.  You have wasted many more einsteins of perfectly good photons reading this discouraging essay.  And even though The SOBber decides to slow down on baking when he reads me say it, I always learn much more than I could possibly hope to teach writing this series, so please keep those comments, questions, corrections, and other feedback coming.  Remember, no technical or scientific issue is off topic here.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Docudharma.com and at Dailykos.com

Well, I know someone who’s a big fan of The Amazing Race.  New Season starts tonight.  60 Minutes has Af-Pak (BREAKING!  War Reporters Shot At!  Quelle Horreur!), Park51, and Drew Brees.  New Simpsons and Family Guy (1 hour double episode with James Woods), also The Cleveland Show.

Sunday Night Throwball, Jets @ Aquatic Mammal (as opposed to semi-aquatic monotreme.  Where’s Perry?), but why are you watching that when there’s Sox @ Yankees on ESPN?  New Boardwalk Empire if you pay for premium (waste of money in my opinion).

• A&E– The Glades (premier)
• ABC Family– The Princess Diaries
• AMC– Pearl Harbor (just horrible), Rubicon and Mad Men (premiers)
• Bravo– House marathon
• Discovery– Dual Survival marathon
• Food– Network Challenge, Iron Chef America (premiers)
• History– Ice Road Truckers, Swamp People (premiers)
• Lifetime– The Brave One x 2 (ugh.  Doomed from the concept and not salvaged by Jodie Foster and Mary Steenburgen.  They need better agents.)
• SciFi– Ogre, Mandrake
• TBS– Disturbia x 2 (again and again)
• Turner Classic– Viva Zapata!, Viva Villa! (Mexican Revolutionary night)
• TNT– I Am Legend x 2 (You Damn Dirty Apes!  Not worth watching, even for Will Smith.)
• Toon– New Delocated
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon

Later-

• Comedy– Some classic Futurama
• MTV– House of Wax (the Paris Hilton one, not the superior Vincent Price classic shot in Dr. Tongue’s 3D House of Stewardesses Vision)
• SciFi– Abominable (title says it all)
• TBS– Sleepy Hollow (Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci)
• Turner Classic– Scaramouche (shhhh, no singing Bohemian Rhapsody in the peanut gallery)
• USA– The Bourne Ultimatum

Adult Swim has the 3.5 Season Premier of Metalocalypse, a new Childrens Hospital, and Episode 3 of Season 4.5 of The Venture Brothers– Every Which Way But Zeus (last week’s episode, Pomp & Circuitry, summary).

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Italian bank chief’s exit sparks concern

by Mathieu Gorse, AFP

Sun Sep 26, 3:43 am ET

2 Alonso edges Vettel to win Singapore Grand Prix

by Martin Parry, AFP

1 hr 34 mins ago

Hamilton was clearly past Webber, who hit him in the rear!

3 Women entrepreneurs in China get a helping hand

by Allison Jackson, AFP

Sun Sep 26, 2:01 am ET

4 In Milan, Emilio Pucci revisits bohemian looks

by Gina Doggett, AFP

Sat Sep 25, 5:14 pm ET

5 Delhi makes frantic effort for C’wealth Games

by Ben Sheppard, AFP

Sun Sep 26, 11:12 am ET

6 ETA ready for verifiable, permanent ceasefire: report

AFP

Sun Sep 26, 6:51 am ET

7 Miliband launches quest to return Labour to power in Britain

by Robin Millard, AFP

Sun Sep 26, 4:32 am ET

8 U.S. set to be a posse of one on China yuan at G20

By Paul Eckert, Reuters

Sun Sep 26, 12:15 pm ET

9 India races to ready Games Village in time

By Amlan Chakraborty and Sudipto Ganguly, Reuters

Sun Sep 26, 11:18 am ET

10 Democrats, Republicans duel over tax-cut vote

By Glenn Somerville and Kevin Drawbaugh

1 hr 53 mins ago

11 Chavez likely to retain parliament in Venezuela vote

By Daniel Wallis, Reuters

23 mins ago

12 Britain’s Labour elects Ed Miliband in cliffhanger

By Adrian Croft, Reuters

Sun Sep 26, 6:28 am ET

13 Pakistan PM cancels trips as govt speculation swirls

By Michael Georgy, Reuters

Sat Sep 25, 4:24 pm ET

14 Ga. megachurch pastor pledges to fight accusations

By ERRIN HAINES, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 32 mins ago

15 White House, Dems see tax cut vote after election

Associated Press

1 hr 16 mins ago

16 Computer attacks linked to wealthy group or nation

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 21 mins ago

17 Experts question BP’s take on Gulf oil spill

By DINA CAPPIELLO, Associated Press Writer

57 mins ago

18 PROMISES, PROMISES: Waiting for Abu Ghraib amends

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 29 mins ago

19 $93,000 cancer drug: How much is a life worth?

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer

1 hr 30 mins ago

20 New Muslim comic book superhero on the way

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 23 mins ago

21 Nevada ranked in AP poll for first time since 1948

By RALPH D. RUSSO, AP College Football Writer

1 hr 12 mins ago

22 Pakistani minister resigns after criticizing army

By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 26, 11:58 am ET

23 Afghan election commission orders recounts

By HEIDI VOGT and RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writers

2 hrs 8 mins ago

24 Turkey: gallery attack ignites debate

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 26, 7:04 am ET

25 AP Poll: Many think health overhaul should do more

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and JENNIFER AGIESTA, Associated Press Writers

Sun Sep 26, 3:02 am ET

26 BP fund czar promises bigger, faster claims

By HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 26, 3:02 am ET

27 Plans to haul big oil refinery loads spark battle

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 28 mins ago

28 After 10 years in US, abortion pill still divisive

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

Sun Sep 26, 1:17 pm ET

29 Kenya says West wasting money on anti-piracy ships

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

Sat Sep 25, 11:16 pm ET

30 Ill. anti-war activists targeted by FBI speak out

By KAREN HAWKINS, Associated Press Writer

Sat Sep 25, 10:03 pm ET

31 At UN, climate ministers seek way out of stalemate

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

Sat Sep 25, 5:09 pm ET

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

New York Times Editorial: The G.O.P.’s ‘Pledge’

Extravagant promises and bluster are the stuff of campaign rhetoric, but the House Republicans’ “Pledge to America” goes far beyond the norm.

Its breathless mimicry of the Declaration of Independence – the “governed do not consent,” it declares, while vowing to rein in “an arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites” – would be ludicrous, if these were not destructively polarized times.

While it promises to create jobs, control deficit spending and restore Americans’ trust in government, it is devoid of tough policy choices. This new “governing agenda” does not say how the Republicans would replace revenue that would be lost from permanently extending all of the Bush tax cuts, or how they would manage Medicare and Social Security, or even which discretionary programs would go when they slash $100 billion in spending. Their record at all of these things is dismal.

The best way to understand the pledge is as a bid to co-opt the Tea Party by a Republican leadership that wants to sound insurrectionist but is the same old Washington elite. These are the folks who slashed taxes on the rich, turned a surplus into a crushing deficit, and helped unleash the financial crisis that has thrown millions of Americans out of their jobs and their homes.

Not only are the players the same, the policies are the same. Just more tax cuts for the rich and more deficit spending. We find it hard to believe that even the most disaffected voters will be taken in. But again, these are strange and worrying times.

Still, the pledge was worth a careful reading. It is a reminder that there is a choice to be made this fall.

Maureen Dowd: Slouching Toward Washington

Holy Roddy McDowall.

Christine O’Donnell doesn’t understand why monkeys can’t turn into people right before her eyes.

Bill Maher continued his video torment of O’Donnell by releasing another old clip of her on his HBO show on Friday night, this time showing one in which she argued that “Evolution is a myth.”

Maher shot back, “Have you ever looked at a monkey?” To which O’Donnell rebutted, “Why aren’t monkeys still evolving into humans?”

The comedian has a soft spot for the sweet-faced Republican Senate candidate from Delaware, but as he told me on Friday, it’s “powerful stupid to think primate evolution could happen fast enough to observe it. That’s bacteria.

“I find it so much more damaging than the witch stuff because she could be in a position to make decisions about scientific issues, like global warming and stem cells, and she thinks primate evolution can happen in a week and mice have human brains.”

Nicholas D. Kristof: Birth Control Over Baldness

Over the next decade, some astonishing new technologies will spread to fight global poverty. They’re called contraceptives.

This is a high-tech revolution that will affect more people in a more intimate way than almost any other technological stride. The next generation of family planning products will be cheaper, more effective and easier to use – they could be to today’s condoms and diaphragms what a smartphone is to the bricklike cellphones of 20 years ago.

Contraception dates back to ancient Egypt, where amorous couples relied on condoms made of linen. Yet after three millennia, although we can now intercept a missile in outer space, we’re often still outwitted by wandering sperm.

Largely, that’s because research on contraception is pitifully underfunded; if only family planning were treated as seriously as baldness! Contraception research just hasn’t received the resources it deserves, so we have state-of-the-art digital cameras and decades-old family planning methods.

Ray McGovern: Petraeus Cons Obama on Afghan War

One thing that comes through clearly in Bob Woodward’s new book, Obama’s Wars, is the contempt felt by Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, toward President Barack Obama.

One of Woodward’s more telling vignettes has Petraeus, after quaffing a glass of wine during a flight in May, telling some of his staff that the administration was “[expletive] with the wrong guy.”

No need to divine precisely what may be the “expletive deleted.” Petraeus’s Douglas-MacArthur-style contempt for the commander-in-chief comes through clearly enough. But Obama is no Harry Truman, facing down a popular general who may fancy himself a future president.

Pity poor Obama. Journalists favored with an advance peek at Woodward’s new book, like Peter Baker of the New York Times, report that Obama last year pressed his advisers to come up with ways to avoid a major escalation in Afghanistan.

Baker notes that at one meeting the President “implored” them. “I want an exit strategy,” Obama said.

Obama implored in vain. Petraeus, then the head of Central Command, and the other generals refused to come up with an exit strategy from Afghanistan. What does that tell you? Among other things that Barack Obama is “no Jack Kennedy,” either.

David Swanson: On Voting for Bad Democrats: the Perriello Predicament

What if you told your local congress critter you’d oppose them if they funded more war, and they funded more war, but their opponent is even worse and a Republican? . . . .

Some well-meaning souls tell me that Perriello is with us in his heart and would vote the right way if he thought he could. Supposedly, he does vote the right way when bills fly under the radar and won’t be a big deal to his constituents. The evidence for that is underwhelming. The approach to democracy that it establishes is disturbing. If Perriello believes his district is lagging behind, he ought to use the platform he has to educate people, not make enlightened votes when, and only when, nobody’s watching.

When I look for the very best members of Congress, I notice that some of them are in similar situations to Perriello. Congressman Alan Grayson is a first-term Democrat from a traditionally Republican district in Florida. He, like Perriello, came in through a narrow victory in a year in which a presidential race turned out lots of new and excited voters. Grayson quickly became a leader in the progressive caucus and went beyond what most of its members would do. He took an out-spoken position in support of peace, justice, and the social good on a wide range of issues. He didn’t just vote against more war. He publicly organized people around the country to lobby other congress members to vote No. That kind of leadership is almost unheard of. It almost makes it look as if the congressman actually wants to end the wars. People have responded by flooding Grayson’s reelection campaign with support and funding. Perriello, too, has raised lots of money, so much that the Democratic Party has an excuse for not giving him more, despite his loyalty.

But here’s the difference: people are excited and energized to back Grayson. His blunt outspokenness for progressive positions generates endless controversy and free media attention. He aggravates people who would never have voted for him anyway. And he excites people who would otherwise likely stay home to get out and vote and bring all their neighbors. I tell people to help Grayson, and I live in Perriello’s district. Here, the arguments for Perriello are mumbled more than shouted. They focus on his supposed goodness at heart, his voting record notwithstanding, and the horror of his opponent.

Ralph Nader: Why Say Yes to the Party of No?

How does the Big Business-indentured Republican Party get away with expectations of a runaway election victory this November? If such a victory should occur in Congress and for many governorships and state legislatures, it will be due to a ten percent or so shift in voters who voted Democratic in 2008 and are expected to vote Republican this year or stay home in despair or disgust. The rest of the voters who do vote will still stay with their hereditary Republican or Democratic candidates.

Jeff Cohen: Colbert Annoys Press Corps . . . Again

Let’s face it: Some in the Washington press corps still resent Stephen Colbert because he so brilliantly lampooned them to their faces at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner over their coziness with the Bush White House.

Yesterday, some elite journalists couldn’t contain their anger after Colbert testified before Congress on behalf of immigrant farm workers — mostly in character (with some funny and not-so-funny jokes) and partly in total seriousness:  “I like talking about people who don’t have any power and it seems like some of the least powerful people in the United States are the migrant workers who come and do our work and don’t have any rights as a result . And yet we still invite them to come here, and at the same time ask them to leave.”

Thanks to Colbert, a hearing on migrant workers that would have been ignored by mainstream journalists was jam-packed with mainstream journalists.

260 Stories served.  37 per day.

This is actually the hardest diary to execute, and yet perhaps the most valuable because it lets you track story trends over time.  It should be a Sunday morning feature.

• Sunday 9/19
• Monday 9/20
• Tuesday 9/21
• Wednesday 9/22
• Thursday 9/23
• Friday 9/24
• Saturday 9/25

Sunday 9/19 1

• 29 World leaders to spotlight goals to help poor

Monday 9/20 3

• 4 Sarkozy calls for global finance tax to help the poor
• 16 Greece delayed bank stress tests to avoid EU overlap
• 19 Recession pain still real, despite end, Obama says

Tuesday 9/21 7

• 3 Italian prosecutors probe Vatican bank for money laundering
• 5 Ireland, Greece, Spain pass crucial bond auctions
• 7 Sarkozy says banks must help meet poverty goals
• 16 Fed lays groundwork for possible further stimulus
• 24 Fed signals it will take further steps if needed
• 26 Italian police seize $30 mln from Vatican in probe
• 31 AT&T to sell satellite-enabled smart phone

Wednesday 9/22 12

• 6 Romania sticks to austerity plan, could delay eurozone entry: Basescu
• 11 Europe finally adopts landmark finance curbs
• 12 Geithner: Banks can meet capital rules with profits
• 13 Volcker says mortgage market reform crucial
• 14 White House adviser Summers stepping down
• 16 Wealthy benefit most from tax subsidies: study
• 19 U.N. to boost poverty goals in $40 billion plan
• 21 Japan PM warns of more action versus yen
• 24 UN anti-poverty goals get new financial pledges
• 47 Mercedes sedan ups fuel mileage
• 49 Tailor-made treats: Web offers your food your way
• 50 Vintners having a ball with harvest dinners

Thursday 9/23 10

• 3 France protests pension reform
• 4 Blockbuster files for bankruptcy
• 6 UN summit ends with calls for tougher battle against poverty
• 8 Irish economic recovery fails in second quarter
• 9 Japan’s vending machines sell cool bananas, read minds
• 11 Obama asks Wen for more action on yuan
• 13 Summers’ successor to set tone on economic policy
• 21 Debt, changing media habits topple Blockbuster
• 23 Initial claims for unemployment aid rise to 465K
• 35 Obama praises US-China cooperation on economy

Friday 9/24 6

• 3 Europe’s top bank HSBC unveils boardroom shake-up
• 4 HSBC chief executive to quit in major shake-up: reports
• 5 US Congress moves to punish China on currency
• 12 France protests pension reform
• 17 House panel cranks up pressure on China currency
• 21 Ireland to fight back against attack on euro zone

Saturday 9/25 2

• 17 China rises and rises, yet still gets foreign aid
• 25 Citigroup gives pay hikes to top execs in stock

Sunday 9/19 7

• 1 Twin Baghdad car bombs kill 29
• 7 Afghans praised for voting in shadow of violence
• 9 Afghanistan vote count begins amid fears of fraud
• 11 Fraud and turnout weigh on "miracle" Afghan poll
• 16 Three bombs kill 18, wound scores in Iraq
• 19 ‘Serious concern’ over fraud at Afghan elections
• 20 Car Bombs tear through Baghdad, Fallujah; 36 dead

Monday 9/20 4

• 1 Intimidation and fraud claims cast shadow over Afghan poll
• 11 UK forces hand over Afghan district to US
• 13 Karzai believes too early to judge Afghan election
• 21 Afghan officials say too early to judge election

Tuesday 9/21 5

• 1 NATO chopper crash makes 2010 deadliest year of Afghan war
• 8 Intimidation and fraud claims cast shadow over Afghan poll
• 9 Afghanistan says over 3,000 complaints about vote
• 15 Helicopter crash makes 2010 worst year of Afghan war
• 32 9 NATO troops die in Afghan chopper crash

Wednesday 9/22 6

• 9 Bomb kills 12 at Iran military parade
• 17 Blast in Iranian city kills 12, injures dozens
• 23 New Woodward expose details Afghan policy battles
• 25 Bomb attack kills 12 people in western Iran
• 27 US official: CIA runs elite Afghan fighting force
• 28 Book says aides doubt Obama’s Afghan strategy

Thursday 9/23 2

• 26 First partial Afghan poll results released
• 29 Afghan president calls for release of journalists

Friday 9/24 1

• 18 U.S. troops fight on despite end to combat in Iraq

Saturday 9/25 1

• 23 US strategists seek Afghan fixes outside the box

Sunday 9/19 11

• 2 China suspends senior bilateral exchanges with Japan
• 3 Pope beatifies convert in climax of British visit
• 4 Pope expresses ‘shame’ as meets abuse victims
• 6 Swedes re-elect government, vote in far-right: exit polls
• 8 Three more protesters die in Indian Kashmir
• 13 Swedish government leads vote but may lose majority
• 14 China suspends contacts as Japan boat row deepens
• 15 Pope, ending his trip, recalls Nazi terror in WW2
• 17 Diplomats see little hope in reviving arms talks
• 23 Vatican declares Pope’s visit to Britain a success
• 26 Swedish election too close to call

Monday 9/20 11

• 2 Political stalemate looms in Sweden amid far-right rise
• 3 Basque separatist warns of IRA-type split within ETA
• 7 Swedish vote ends in hung parliament
• 8 Political stalemate looms in Sweden
• 9 Pope beatifies convert in climax of British visit
• 10 Zuma tries to stamp out worries over leadership
• 14 China media warn Japan over escalating sea row
• 15 Sweden faces minority government but currency gains
• 17 Pope, ending his trip, recalls Nazi terror in WW2
• 20 France steps up pledge to combat world poverty
• 22 Japan urges calm after China severs contacts

Tuesday 9/21 6

• 6 Anti-Islam rant sees far-right fly high across Europe
• 12 Father and son tell Syrian tales on the brink of extinction
• 14 Somali prime minister announces resignation
• 19 Rare North Korea meeting on Sept 28, eye on succession
• 20 China snubs Japan PM over boat row, rules out meeting
• 28 Kim Jong Il may promote son at NKorea party meet

Wednesday 9/22 7

• 2 China’s Wen threatens new action in Japan boat row
• 3 NATO and Russia on ‘solid path’: alliance chief
• 4 NATO and Russia seek new trust in New York talks
• 5 UN launches $40 billion health drive
• 20 NATO, Russia aim to step up military cooperation
• 22 China’s Wen threatens to step up Japan row
• 29 Spanish area OKs flaming bull festivals

Thursday 9/23 2

• 36 UN chief urges tolerance to combat polarization
• 37 AP Interview: Yanukovych seeks deeper US ties

Friday 9/24 6

• 1 DR Congo mass rapes ‘defy belief’: UN
• 2 Japan frees skipper at centre of maritime row
• 13 Obama leads new UN pressure on Sudan over votes
• 20 Catholic, Orthodox report promising progress on unity
• 24 Queen tried to get UK poverty fund to heat palace
• 32 Obama: US-Japan alliance a security ‘cornerstone’

Saturday 9/25 6

• 2 Serbian president says Kosovo talks to start ‘soon’
• 3 China renews compensation demand in skipper’s arrest
• 7 Britain’s Labour elects new leader in cliffhanger
• 14 AP IMPACT: Vatican probes group tied to scandal
• 19 Ed Miliband elected new leader of UK Labour Party
• 20 LA, Beijing to exchange ideas on solving traffic

Monday 9/20 1

• 30 Nations pledge more in Pakistan flood aid

Saturday 9/25 2

• 9 Pakistan PM cancels trip to Europe
• 22 US wants more aid recognition in Pakistan

Sunday 9/19 6

• 24 GOP divided on how to replace health overhaul law
• 25 Obama: Black lawmakers must rally voters back home
• 27 Ed Dept: Lift a community, raise a school
• 28 Daley mentored others as he reshaped Chicago
• 30 Will edgier college marketing get a failing grade?
• 31 Los Angeles activists protest police shooting

Monday 9/20 8

• 6 Lady Gaga gathers gay rights supporters
• 12 Obama, facing tough questions, says times still hard
• 24 Groups allied to GOP boost their fundraising
• 25 O’Donnell makes light of witchcraft comment
• 26 Muslim groups back Islamic center near ground zero
• 27 Real-time security cameras link NYC subway hubs
• 28 Lesbian seeking return to Air Force testifies
• 29 House to vote on medal for "Go for broke" veterans

Tuesday 9/21 14

• 4 Senate blocks move to lift ban on gays in US military
• 11 Lady Gaga rallies opposition to ban on gays in the military
• 17 Senate blocks debate on ending military gay ban
• 22 Obama, facing tough questions, says times still hard
• 23 Ex-city manager among 8 arrested in Calif. scandal
• 25 New tea party: energy, money and detente with GOP
• 27 APNewsBreak: 3rd woman says Wis. DA harassed her
• 29 Summit calls for reduction in distracted driving
• 30 AP Investigation: Calif. pension bonuses examined
• 34 Obama backs economic effort, asks for voters’ help
• 36 Surprise Del. primary winner seeks GOP support
• 37 Study: Teacher bonuses fail to boost test scores
• 38 Moonshine still a popular drink with hobbyists
• 39 ACLU sues Pittsburgh police over post-G-20 conduct

Wednesday 9/22 25

• 15 White House tries to give healthcare a human face
• 18 Florida ban on gay adoption is illegal: court
• 26 Obama faults himself for not selling health law
• 30 Audit finds Bell misused millions in city funds
• 31 Atlanta megachurch pastor denies sex with men
• 32 North Dakota lake swallows land and buildings
• 34 For Obama, time to remind the world of his agenda
• 35 Dems’ plea to core voters: We need you fired up
• 36 Va. could execute 1st woman in nearly a century
• 37 Republicans block bill to lift military gay ban
• 38 New tea party: energy, money and detente with GOP
• 39 Obama aide’s exit could be prelude to more changes
• 40 AP Poll: Health care law making us muddle-minded
• 41 Anonymity promised for NYC terror trial jurors
• 42 Ray Perelman mounts solo bid for Philly newspapers
• 43 Court affirms overturning Fla. gay adoption ban
• 44 DA: NYC cabbie attacker called himself a patriot
• 45 Little known republic in La. celebrates 200 years
• 46 Would-be school volunteers thwarted by their past
• 48 Mental health pros boo haunted house at Pa. asylum
• 52 DREAM Act dies with rejection of defense bill
• 53 Judge to rule Friday on Witt’s return to Air Force
• 54 Brown wants executions to resume in California
• 55 Tax, spending cuts top GOP campaign-year ‘Pledge’
• 56 Dems struggle for resolution on taxes, spending

Thursday 9/23 15

• 10 No hope for tax cut vote before election: Democrat
• 12 House Republicans draft campaign manifesto
• 14 GOP ‘Pledge’ vows cuts, repeal of health care law
• 15 Double-digit hikes for some Medicare drug plans
• 16 Congress to send small business bill to Obama
• 17 Va. woman, out of options, nears execution
• 18 Lawyer: Other young men went on trips with pastor
• 19 Pakistani given 86 years for firing at US troops
• 25 AP-GfK Poll: Independents as upset as Republicans
• 27 Abortion an issue in Senate races
• 28 Federal help boosts vulnerable Democrats
• 30 Obama faults himself for not selling health law
• 31 Prosecutors: Corruption ingrained in Calif. city
• 33 Groups demand explanation of ‘sexting’ DA inaction
• 34 5 years after Rita hit, some left out of recovery

Friday 9/24 13

• 11 Pakistani scientist sentenced to 86 years in US prison
• 14 US executes grandmother despite protests
• 15 Pelosi hedges on timing of Bush-era tax vote
• 16 No tax cut vote before election: Democrat
• 22 Pelosi says tax cut vote possible before election
• 23 AP-GfK Poll: Dems disliked, but so is GOP
• 25 Colbert tells Congress farm work ‘really hard’
• 26 Ga. pastor’s youth academy preached sexual control
• 27 Judge orders lesbian reinstated to Air Force
• 28 Troubles of US education get big screen close-up
• 29 Former police chief investigated in S. Calif. city
• 30 Wis. regulators reopen ‘sexting DA’ investigation
• 31 Time crunch for Emanuel in Chicago mayor race

Saturday 9/25 13

• 10 U.S. urges judge to toss lawsuit over target killings
• 12 Facebook’s Zuckerberg gives $100 million to Newark
• 13 AP Poll: Many think health overhaul should do more
• 15 Some churches like Ga. pastor’s thin on safeguards
• 18 WH: lawsuit for cleric would reveal state secrets
• 21 In 1975 incident, officials considered US prestige
• 26 Pelosi says tax cut vote possible before election
• 27 Judge orders lesbian reinstated to Air Force
• 28 Lawyer questions CA execution set before election
• 29 Hermit monks plan monastery on remote Wyo. ranch
• 31 Jumbo emerald at center of ownership debate
• 32 Boaters, campers credit lawsuit for improved river
• 33 Texas ed board adopts resolution limiting Islam

Sunday 9/19 3

• 5 BP’s disastrous broken well in Gulf of Mexico is ‘dead’
• 12 U.S. says BP permanently "kills" Gulf of Mexico well
• 18 Blown-out BP well finally killed at bottom of Gulf

Saturday 9/25 1

• 34 BP works on own estimate for amount of oil spilled

Sunday 9/19 2

• 10 Germany’s beer fest deploys stench-eating bacteria
• 21 Spiriva as good as Serevent in asthma study

Monday 9/20 2

• 18 Fish or frankenfish? FDA weighs altered salmon
• 23 For deaf, wireless devices a new portal to world

Tuesday 9/21 6

• 13 Twitter under attack as hackers exploit security flaw
• 18 Stem cells, obesity finding lead Nobel predictions
• 21 Dementia costs hit $604 billion in 2010
• 33 Report: Obesity hurts your wallet and your health
• 35 Consumer groups push for label for modified salmon
• 40 Calif. utility stumbles on 1.4M years old fossils

Wednesday 9/22 2

• 10 ‘Extinct’ frogs haven’t croaked — scientists
• 51 Chimps’ future prompts debate over NM primate lab

Thursday 9/23 3

• 20 Number of fat people in US to grow, report says
• 22 US restricts, EU bans controversial diabetes pill
• 32 Study backs new heart valve without cracking chest

Friday 9/24 1

• 19 Russian-U.S. space crew aborts return to Earth

Saturday 9/25 4

• 6 Russian spacecraft from ISS lands safely
• 11 Russian-U.S. space crew lands in Kazakhstan
• 24 Soyuz capsule lands in Kazakh steppe with 3 aboard
• 30 Racist messages pose quandary for mainstream sites

Sunday 9/19 1

• 22 Michigan St moves in, Arizona moves up AP poll

Monday 9/20 1

• 5 India says Commonwealth Games ‘safe’ despite gun attack

Tuesday 9/21 2

• 2 C’wealth Games event in crisis as bridge collapses
• 10 Pakistan draw level as cricket ‘fix’ row rages

Wednesday 9/22 2

• 1 India battles deepening Commonwealth Games crisis
• 33 Commonwealth Games chief rushing to New Delhi

Thursday 9/23 4

• 1 Delhi makes Games ‘progress’ as criticism pours in
• 2 India battles deepening Commonwealth Games crisis
• 7 England win fifth ODI against Pakistan by 121 runs
• 24 India scrambles to save Commonwealth Games

Friday 9/24 3

• 6 Athletes arrive as Delhi races against the clock
• 7 Ahletes set to arrive as things look up for Commonwealth Games
• 8 Vettel sets the pace for Singapore F1 Grand Prix

Saturday 9/25 4

• 1 Extensive work still needed: Commonwealth Games chief
• 5 Alonso edges Vettel to take Singapore pole
• 8 Games chief says all countries will take part
• 16 Commonwealth Games head sees improved conditions

Wednesday 9/22 2

• 7 London Fashion Week ends with new confidence
• 8 In Milan, plus-size label Elena Miro goes it alone, in style

Thursday 9/23 1

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• 10 In Milan, feminine wiles cede to Prada’s urban chic

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This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

September 26 is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 96 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day on 1957, West Side Story premieres on Broadway. East Side Story was the original title of the Shakespeare-inspired musical conceived by choreographer Jerome Robbins, written by playwright Arthur Laurents and scored by composer and lyricist Leonard Bernstein in 1949. A tale of star-crossed lovers-one Jewish, the other Catholic-on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the show in its original form never went into production, and the idea was set aside for the next six years. It was more than just a change of setting, however, that helped the re-titled show get off the ground in the mid-1950s. It was also the addition of a young, relatively unknown lyricist named Stephen Sondheim. The book by Arthur Laurents and the incredible choreography by Jerome Robbins helped make West Side Story a work of lasting genius, but it was the strength of the songs by Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein that allowed it to make its Broadway debut on this day in 1957.

There are no videos of the original Broadway production which starred Larry Kert as Tony, Carol Lawrence as Maria, Ken Le Roy as Bernardo and Chita Rivera as Anita (Ms. Rivera reprized her role in the movie), so here is the Prologue from the Academy Award winning movie. The area that the movie was filmed no longer exists. The 17 blocks between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, from West 60th to West 66th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where he filming took place were demolished to build Lincoln Center for the Preforming Arts.