The Nightowl Newswrap - a roundup of news you might have missed

It's one thing to help start a war, another entirely to actually, you know, cover it So far in 2008, the three major networks have aired all of 181 minutes of coverage of the war in Iraq, compared with 1,157 in all of 2007. The “CBS Evening News” has devoted the fewest minutes to Iraq, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC’s “World News” and 74 minutes on “NBC Nightly News.” CBS doesn't even keep a full time correspondent in Iraq. Paul Friedman, a senior vice president at CBS News, said the news division does not get reports from Iraq on television “with enough frequency to justify keeping a very, very large bureau in Baghdad.” He said CBS correspondents can “get in there very quickly when a story merits it.”


Arrest and try big oil CEOs That is the recommendation of James Hansen, one of the worlds top climate scientists. He says they should be charged with crimes against humanity and nature for intentionally peddling misinformation about the perils of climate change. In his book, they are as corrupt and culpable as tobacco executives who denied a link between cancer and smoking long after causation was established.


Obama's tenure at the Harvard Law Review is encouraging His work there reveals diligence, openmindedness and fairness. Those are qualities that we should probably look for in our next president.


Isn't this a comparison too far? The campaign of the only surviving POW in American history (What? He isn't the only one? Really? Our bad...) is really taking it too far with this latest bit of hyperbole. Now one of his minions, campaign adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer, actually equated the constraints of public financing to being a prisoner of war facing possible torture. Seriously. How much more are the people around him going to cheapen his experiences and his sacrifices before this is all said and done? It's already painful to watch, and it is only going to get worse between now and November.



92% That is how many of our fellow citizens believe in god or some sort of supreme being. This number leaves the god boffins shaking our collective head in dismay.


The organizer fancies that it is more than just theater The dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, Lawrence Velvel, plans to convene a 'convention' at the school's facilities on September 13-14 in which the attendees will plan strategies to prosecute members of the Bush administration for war crimes. "This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred," stated Velvel in a press release. "It is, rather, intended to be a planning conference at which plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth. We must try to hold Bush administration leaders accountable in courts of justice. And we must insist on appropriate punishments, including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top German and Japanese war-criminals in the 1940's."


A noun, a verb, and "radical Islamic extremism" That is all the McCain campaign has to offer. One of his campaign advisers, Charlie Black, even went so far as to say that another terrorist attack on American soil would help McCain's chances in November. "Certainly it would be a big advantage to him," says Black. To his credit, McCain denounced the remark swiftly.


A total farce...that likely will conceal forever impeachable offenses That is how Feingold describes the immunity deal inexplicably passed by the House last week. “I do think this is a total farce with regard to the immunity [for telecommunications companies]. It basically guarantees the immunity,” Feingold said. “It doesn’t simply have the impact of potentially allowing telephone companies to break the law. It may prevent us from ever getting to the core issue … which is the president ran an illegal program that could’ve been an impeachable offense.”


Brilliant! Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will make their first joint appearance of the general election campaign on Friday...in Unity, New Hampshire. Not only does the town have the perfect name for the event - in the New Hampshire primary, both candidates received 107 votes.

This was nice to see Yesterday, New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt gave Maureen Down a long-overdue upbraiding for her sexist, over-the-top rantings about Hillary Clinton during the primary. It was so scathing that it would be utterly humiliating to anyone with a conscience (so MoDo is safe). That's all well and good Mr. Hoyt - but did you ask her to clean out her desk by five? No? Get back to us when you fire her ass. Then you can pass out pink slips to Bill Kristol and Michael Warhead Gordon.


UPS waited until after five eastern to let this out Under pressure by high fuel costs and a faltering economy, UPS slashed it's profit projections earlier today. It is the second straight quarter that the company has warned it would fall short of prior profit expectations. Shares were off 4% in late trading.


Bob Gates is fuming right now The bu$h administration, via the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has slapped back an attempt by the Pentagon to rein in contractor abuses. Gates has been trying to get a handle on mercenary abuses practically since he took the SecDef job. (See here, here and here for previous posts on the topic.)