Counterbalance: Tue. 13 June

THE BUZZ OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA

A protestor holds a sign outside the New Hampshire Republican Party's annual dinner where U.S. President George W. Bush's senior adviser and White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove is speaking in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 12, 2006.

COMMENTLINES

In media and politics:
When it comes to the 2006 Yearly Kos convention in Las Vegas, for the bloggers attending, perhaps it is best to hope what happens in Vegas truly stays in Vegas. Who really cares what those socially maladjusted folks post to their blogs while they sit around in their dirty underwear.

On the White House:
Howard Dean, Sen. Harry Reid, and the others who presumed Karl Rove was guilty in Plamegate, should themselves, in the words former ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, was the CIA employee at the center of the affair, be frog-marched out in front of the American people and made to apologize. The Washington Post, being one of the media sources who reported that Fitzgerald had obtained a secret indictment against Rove made mention of their mistake in the last line of their report today -- no apology offered.

A sampling of liberal Web sites by NewsMax shortly after the Rove news was announced Tuesday morning featured reaction ranging from disbelief to denial to the desperate hope that Rove has turned states' evidence against Vice President Dick Cheney. "How could this snake slither away from an indictment?" complained one visitor to the Huffington Post Web site - where bloggers had confidently predicted that Fitzgerald's probe would yield up to 23 White House indictments.

Over at the Daily Kos, reaction was even more harsh:
"This is appalling, and any D.C. jury, and many Main Street USA juries, would find them guilty . . . It really, really is a bad precedent to allow a criminal to have free rein in the White House."

On the environment:
Stephen Hawking, a man I admire and respect, joins ranks with the global warming crisis mongers in order to support future space exploration.

Hawking, a world-renowned astrophysicist, lends a much needed scientific voice often lacking in the self-centered global warming argument. Perhaps the best way to look at global warming is to remember that Earth historically has had many periods of global warming followed by periods of global cooling.

Please allow me to digress and give a recent example. From the 10th to the 14th century, the planet experienced what is known as the Medieval Warm Period or Medieval Climate Optimum. This period of global warming ushered in The Middle Ages, a time of human migration and reinvention ... all helped along by the unusually warm climate.

The most recent example of global cooling is the Little Ice Age, which followed the Medieval Warm Period and lasted approximately from the 14th to the mid-19th centuries.

Here's a global warming example: we probably call the world's largest island Greenland because when Eric the Red settled there around the year 1000, the southern part of the island was lush and had a warmer climate.

The best part of all this gloom and doom is man has so far survived all the cycles of warming and cooling (Note to crisis mongers: If humanity hadn't survived we wouldn't be here now. Note to mainstream media: The dinosaurs all died out.). In short, enjoy the warmth while you can. It's the cold snap at the end that's the killer.

MEDIA AND POLITICS
Kossacks in the Desert
By Shawn Macomber
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (spectator.org) -- As I listened to a group of twenty or so Kossacks (slang for devotees of the Daily Kos website) argue over the three "L"s of the Bush presidency, eventually determined to be "Liar," "Louse" and "Lawbreaker in Chief" -- the third "L" was tough to tease out, but the committee persevered -- at this weekend's much-heralded Yearly Kos convention, I could hear Mr. Valerie Plame's voice interrupted intermittently by raucous applause at a panel discussion of the CIA leak investigation in the next room.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove listens to questions after his speech on economic policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington May 15, 2006. Rove said on Monday worries about the Iraq war had contributed to a sour public mood but Republicans would fare 'just fine' in November's congressional elections.

THE WHITE HOUSE
Rove Won't Be Charged in CIA Leak Case
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top White House aide Karl Rove has been told by prosecutors he won't be charged with any crimes in the investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity, his lawyer said Tuesday, lifting a heavy burden from one of President Bush's most trusted advisers. Also see.

'Fitzmas in July' Canceled, Dems Distraught
(NewsMax) -- Democrats are distraught over reports that Leakgate Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has decided not to indict senior White House advisor Karl Rove.

The space shuttle Discovery is rolled to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida May 19, 2006. NASA approved a major design change in the space shuttle's fuel tank on Wednesday, clearing the last major hurdle before shuttle flights can resume as early as July 1, officials said.

ENVIRONMENT
Hawking Says Space Colonies Needed
HONG KONG (AP) -- The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday.

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