BLITZER: Now, your great friend and supporter Congressman Charlie Rangel said and I’m quoting now. "It’s the dumbest thing you could have said."
 
CLINTON: Well, he’s probably right.

Awww: Just because they're cute doesn't make them endangered.

The Secretary was compelled to make a listing he clearly didn't want to make and that comes with all sorts of foreseeable detrimental consequences of exactly the sort I describe in my book.  In an effort to obviate those consequences, the Secretary has attempted to erect some barriers that will have all the legislative strength of tissue paper.  It will take just a few seconds of a new administration to blow through them and bring about the dire consequences Sec. Kempthorne has obviously foreseen.  The ESA needs to be reformed for all sorts of reasons that I discuss in the book, but this is perhaps the most urgent now. 

Kempthorne said, “Listing the polar bear as threatened can reduce avoidable losses of polar bears. But it should not open the door to use of the ESA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, power plants, and other sources.”

To prevent the environmental lobby from using this listing as a means to prevent domestic energy development Kempthorne proposed a rule to allow this type of activity in the area if it is permissible under standards dictated by the Mammal Protection Act.

This rule has not been adopted.

The first is the possible wide geographic reach of the global warming argument. The snail darter almost killed a single dam. The polar bear could, in theory at least, stop everything.

Suppose someone wants to build a coal-burning power plant in Florida. Environmentalists might challenge the construction on the grounds that the plant will emit greenhouse gases leading to global warming and an increased threat to polar bears.

An October 2007 NASA study concluded that changing wind patterns are responsible for sea ice loss. New wind patterns have compressed sea ice and moved it into the Transpolar Drift Stream which has taken the ice to lower latitudes where it has melted.

The classification would open the door for environmentalists to challenge any new forms of energy production -- including oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) or new power plants and factories that emit fossil fuels. It also would jeopardize a highly promising arrangement in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, which contains an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Now is not the time to cut back on domestic oil production. With gas prices soaring to nearly $4 per gallon in some parts of the country, there’s hardly been a better time to embark on energy exploration in the United States to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

At present, polar bear populations are robust and, according to native people, are considerably larger than they were in previous decades.[29] Predictions of polar bear endangerment are based on two sets of computer models: one set predicts how much Arctic sea ice will melt as a result of global warming, and the other predicts how polar bear populations will respond. But computer models of climate are known to be fraught with problems, and the ecological models used to predict polar bear response are equally limited.

Colin Finnerty, center in green, poses with former teammates after scoring three goals on Duke in a NCAA tournament game at Duke's home field. (Photo courtesy of the Duke Men's Lacrosse Parents Group)

He scored three goals, receiving a hearty ovation from the home fans after each one.

"It was a great feeling to be back with the playoff atmosphere," Finnerty said. "It felt great to be scoring. I was happy to be stepping up for my team.

"It was a lot of emotion with the fans from Duke supporting me. I'm not surprised by their character."

After the game, Finnerty posed with several of his former teammates for a photograph near midfield.

"They're great guys, all of them," he said. "There's nothing but good vibes between us."

Said Toomey: "I hope it's a little bit of closure coming down here. I think there's a piece of his heart that's still at Duke."

Duke defenseman Tony McDevitt said his teammates have special feelings toward Finnerty.

"He played awesome," McDevitt said. "We would like him to not score so much."

All five fifth-year seniors are elite players, led by Danowski’s son, Matt, who won the Tewaaraton Trophy last year as the best men’s player in college lacrosse. He is a finalist again this season, leading Division I with 84 points (36 goals, 48 assists). He is also only 3 points from tying the N.C.A.A.’s career record of 343.

Along with Danowski, the Blue Devils have two defensemen, McDevitt and Nick O’Hara, who were preseason first-team all-Americans. They join midfielder Michael Ward, a preseason second-team all-American, and goalie Dan Loftus, a preseason third-team all-American, as the fifth-year seniors who make the Blue Devils one of the most productive teams ever.

“They’re the best team out there, I don’t think there’s any question about that,” Starsia said. “I don’t mean to discredit anyone else. They’re the best team in the field, and part of it is certainly because of their unusual experience.”

For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families: He has given up golf.

“I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

Obama posited -- incorrectly -- that Arabic translators deployed in Iraq are needed in Afghanistan -- forgetting, momentarily, that Afghans don't speak Arabic.

"We only have a certain number of them and if they are all in Iraq, then its harder for us to use them in Afghanistan," Obama said.

The vast majority of military translators in both war zones are drawn from the local population.
Naturally they speak the local language. In Iraq, that's Arabic or Kurdish. In Afghanistan, it's any of a half dozen other languages -- including Pashtu, Dari, and Farsi.

"We need agricultural specialists in Afghanistan, people who can help them develop other crops than heroin poppies, because the drug trade in Afghanistan is what is driving and financing these terrorist networks. So we need agricultural specialists," he said.

So far, so good.

"But if we are sending them to Baghdad, they're not in Afghanistan," Obama said.

Iraq has many problems, but encouraging farmers to grow food instead of opium poppies isn't one of them. In Iraq, oil fields not poppy fields are a major source of U.S. technical assistance.

"I still hear some dogs barking," Carville said, according to The State newspaper. "I'm for Senator Clinton, but I think the great likelihood is that Obama will be the nominee."

"As soon as I determine when that is, I'll send him a check," he added.

Asked about who might share a ticket with Obama, Carville floated Clinton's name, as well as that of Clinton ally Gen. Wesley Clark. Carville also mentioned Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg as possible running mates, according the Greenville News.

“We’re going to continue to keep making this case with initiatives to make it clear that his support for Israel could not be more unequivocal,” Mr. Wexler said.

JG: Do you think that Israel is a drag on America's reputation overseas?

BO: No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable. I am absolutely convinced of that, and some of the tensions that might arise between me and some of the more hawkish elements in the Jewish community in the United States might stem from the fact that I'm not going to blindly adhere to whatever the most hawkish position is just because that's the safest ground politically.

Pushing back against political punditry, more than six in 10 Democrats say there's no rush for Hillary Clinton to leave the presidential race – even as Barack Obama consolidates his support for the nomination and scores solidly in general-election tests.

A Middle East policy adviser for Barack Obama has left the campaign after acknowledging having held talks with Hamas, FOX News confirms.

The Times newspaper in London first reported Friday that the campaign was severing ties with the adviser, Robert Malley.

Malley said he had been in contact with the Palestinian group, but only through his work for a “conflict resolution think tank,” and not on behalf of the Obama campaign, the newspaper reported.