Le Show; 2008-09-14

From deep inside your radio, let's jump in you, you hire a C student, you get C work. Seven years after the 9-11 attacks, the federal government has made only limited progress toward preventing a catastrophic nuclear biological or chemical attack. Like on U.S. soil, hey, it hasn't happened yet, and combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction abroad. That's according to a report card issued this week by 22 former U.S. officials, yes, when they're out of work they can maybe tell the truth, and bipartisan partnership for a secure America gave the United States an overall grade of C. Gentlemen, see, I'm not sure. Three days, eight C's, seven B's in areas such as sustaining support of foreign scientists and governments, integrating programs to prevent nuclear terrorism and strengthening coordinated law enforcement efforts. They are urging the next president to appoint a cabinet-level White House coordinator

with the authority to direct counter-proliferation plans, programs, and funding from day one. Well, I mean, they have to, the panel is co-chaired by Lee Hamilton from the 9-11 Commission and Warren Rudman, former senator and chairman of a 2001 Blue Ribbon Commission on Terrorism. Why don't we give the terrorists Blue Ribbons? The threat of a new major terrorist attack on the United States is still very real. They wrote in the report's introduction, a nuclear, chemical, or biological weapon in the hands of terrorists was the single greatest threat to our nation. They said, adding, we are still dangerously vulnerable. I thought we were safer. What the partnership's advisory board includes several 9-11 Commission members and other were these. The partnership's report card makes three main recommendations. The government should appoint that White House advisor, coordinate all government programs

for counter-proliferation under a strategic plan and strengthen international cooperation. The United States, they add, cannot be safe working alone. Now they tell us. The government earned its highest marks for interdicting nuclear weapons and materials abroad destroying half the chemical weapons stockpile of this country. Half is good and restricting access to bioterrorism agents in former Soviet states. Yep. Even bioterrorism has an agent now. But the group said there's been a little progress integrating nuclear terrorism programs or sustaining long-term support for foreign governments. Speaking of our efforts to fight proliferation. The nuclear smuggling ring headed by Pakistani scientists AQCon had a broader range of secret nuclear designs and was previously known. They were, and shared them electronically among members of their network.

This is according to the IAEA, you know, we think of them, but we're supposed to think of them. A report by them acknowledged large gaps in investigators understanding of the smuggling ring. Well, that would be good reason to be able to question him. But no, the Pakistani government has done all the questioning that's going to be done. They raised concerns that cons nuclear black market may have had additional customers whose identities are still unknown. The key documents they found, instructions for making enriched uranium, attention president Ahmad Dindajat, and more disturbingly information related to nuclear weapons design. This came as a result of the IAEA's five-year investigation into Libya's program. Libya was a long time customer of cons. It voluntarily turned over the evidence. Libya now has a clean bill of health.

The IAEA discovered that the smuggling ring, the Khan run smuggling ring, he's a hero on Pakistan, by the way, possessed multiple designs covering nearly every aspect of nuclear weapons development from uranium processing to machining and the testing of nuclear weapons components. Some of the blueprints were modern designs more advanced than similar drawings, Khan is known to have shared with Iran because they were digitized, they could be easily distributed. It's naive to think that somehow these guys aren't still doing business, says the director of the nuclear strategy and non-proliferation initiative at the New American Foundation. These networks lay around like a loaded gun for anyone to use. And for that, ladies and gentlemen, we get a C. Imagine how bad we'd have to be to get an F. Hello, welcome to the show. This is my way, the sun's purged in, stepped over a grave and stood in sleep, took the

time, couldn't swim, I've flagged without the wind, when there's no morning without you. There's only darkness the whole day through, took the time and from my soul and turned it back into cold. All these voices, all these memories made me feel like stone, all these people make me feel so alone, lost in the dark, no shades of grey, until I found me,

midnight's another day, swept away, in a brave stone, chapter's missing, ages taught, waited too long to feel the warmth, I had to chase the sun. All these voices, all these memories made me feel like stone, all these people, all

these people make me feel so alone, lost in the dark, no shades of grey, until I found me, midnight's another day. From the other edge of America, from just spitten distance, from John F. Kennedy International

Airport in New York City, to be explained, I'm Harry Scherer welcoming you to this edition of the show. You may have read this week that the stock of United Airlines got pummeled because somewhere on the internet somebody recycled a news story from a couple of years ago when United was going bankrupt and the fear spread on Wall Street, a place not much of a stranger to fear these days, that United was going bankrupt again. Well ladies and gentlemen, the reason I'm speaking to you from a hotel adjacent to John F. Kennedy International Airport is because I think it's time for a rumor that American Airlines is going bankrupt. I don't know if that's made the internet yet. It seems to me I've read it, did I just dream that American Airlines going bankrupt? Has that spread to Wall Street yet?

We'll keep tabs for you on that. They don't deserve to God knows they're so good, but you know, times are rough and now ladies and gentlemen, the Pentagon Inspector General's office appears to have briefed the United States Senator who says the number of American troops and contractors who've been accidentally electrocuted in Iraq is higher than previously reported. Pennsylvania's Bob Casey briefed by the Pentagon IG says the number now stands at 18. Do I hear 25? The IG's office has been investigating the death of a green beret who was electrocuted while showering EWS in his barracks. Besides shower electrocutions, apparently there have been more than one.

The IG says there have been deaths involving contact with power lines, air conditioning units and power generators. The Pentagon Inspector General is subpoenaing military contractor KBR. You've heard of them, formerly a subsidiary of Aliburton, which holds a multi-billion dollar contract to provide basic services such as electrocution. No, sorry, at facilities in Iraq for U.S. soldiers. And you probably heard about this, but it's too good not to share if you haven't or to revel in if you have government officials. These are the grown-ups in charge of collecting billions of dollars worth of royalties from oil and gas companies, accepted gifts, steered contracts to favored clients and engaged in drug use and illicit sex with employees of the energy firms they were collecting royalties from, says the Interior Department's Inspector General's office. More than a dozen employees, including the former director of the oil role of the program

itself, guess he thought that meant he was royalty, took meal, ski trips, sports tickets and golf outings from industry representatives. The report says the former director Gregory Smith also made more than $30,000 from improper outside work because the freebies weren't enough. The report contains fresh allegations about the practices at the beleaguered royalty program of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service. Last year it collected more than $4 billion worth of oil and natural gas royalties from companies with contracts on federal and Indian lands and offshore. Louisiana gets none of that, they'll start to get some of it soon. That's another story. The royalty program based near Denver, well that explains it, and it'll get a lot of free sex in Denver. It allows energy companies to pay the government in oil and gas rather than cash for the privilege of drilling on government land. It's been the subject of multiple investigations since 2006 by the Interior Department. It's Inspector General, the Justice Department in Congress for alleged mismanagement and conflicts

of interest. It's the grownups. In the report, investigators said they discovered a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity. Well, it's at least it's a culture. So they're getting high and having sex while they go to the opera. Employees accept that gratuitous with prodigious frequency as the report, citing one email from a shell pipeline representative asking a woman in the royalty office to attend tailgating festivities at a football game. Quote, you're invited. Have you and the girls meet in my place at 6 a.m. for bubble baths and final prep just kidding. Unquote. The social outings to tail in the report included alcohol, cocaine and marijuana field parties where certain employees of this service were nicknamed the MMS Chicks by energy employees. The company is paid for federal workers to attend football and baseball games, PGA events, Colorado ski trips, paintball outings and treasure hunts. The current director of the Minerals Management Service Randall Luthe said he takes the report very seriously.

Unlike the rest of us, we're giggling behind our papers, adding that the small number of people implicated does not represent a culture and an agency of over about 1700 employees. The Royalty and Kind Program has about 50 employees. Many employees identified in the report told investigators they didn't think ethics rules applied to them because of their unique role in the agency, the grownups, and they needed to socialize with industry representatives for, quote, market intelligence. How's that light, sweet, crude, baby? These employees, some of whom have been transferred to different offices, have been recommended for internal administrative action. That's called accountability. The former directors Smith, who resigned last year, had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate whom we paid to buy cocaine, allegedly promising her a $250 bonus in return. People are so cheaply bought. The report stated Smith admitted to the sexual encounter.

He now works for a private oil company in Denver and he did not respond to requests for comment. His lawyer said he hasn't read the report. Officers have referred their findings to federal prosecutors. The reports, the workings of the inspectors general, ladies and gentlemen, oh, I haven't even bothered to copyright it, but there are copyrighted features straight ahead, on the show, such as this one, tales of airport security, sorry, just checking the wire. See if American Airlines has gone bankrupt yet. Of course they wouldn't do that on a Sunday, would they? Dear Harry, Rachel writes. But that's all, all she writes. She continues, I work in a tiny elementary school in rural Northern California. Every year, when an area-state park hosts a wonderful storytelling festival, we're lucky

enough to have two of the storytellers come to our school as happen today. With a quiet and gentle voice, the storyteller began with a captivating story of a haunted castle. Students jumped from their seats when she told of a headless skeleton, plotting down a dark hallway. A musical interlude preceded her second story, a true tale of the Civil War. She brought out an auto harp, oh, sorry, and told the kids a little about it before starting her story. It's a lot like a zither, but easier to play because it has buttons to press, she said. She didn't mention whether it's easier to listen to, but I digress back to the story. She said, however, it's hard to tune because it has 36 strings, and then she offhandedly mentioned an incident when she was traveling by air to a festival.

At the boarding gate, airport security instructed her to remove her auto harp from its case, apparently regarded as a potential weapon by the TSA agents. The auto harp was not allowed onto the plane until she unwound and removed everyone of the 36 strings. And she went on with her story about the Civil War. It doesn't say whether she flew American, tales of airport security latest gentlemen on a copyrighted feature of this broadcast. So let's check up on how they're going.

First of all, the US military this week conceded, it's not winning in Afghanistan against an increasingly deadly insurgency, said it would revise its strategy to combat militant safe havens in Pakistan as a result. Well, why not adopt the strategy that we've been so successful in Iraq and just pay off the Sunnis? Oh, there are no Sunnis in Afghanistan. That's why that would defense secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullin of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the House Armed Services Committee success in Afghanistan would require more civilian effort beyond the military. And frankly, we're running out of time, Mullin said, I guess he had another hearing to go to. I'm not convinced we're winning it in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can. Violence in Afghanistan has soared over the last two years as it has decreased in Iraq in that nutty. Now while Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have regrouped in that border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mullin said he was looking at a new more comprehensive strategy for the

region that would cover both sides of the border. We can hunt down and kill extremists as they cross over the border from Pakistan, but until we work more closely with the Pakistani government to eliminate the safe havens, really terrorists have safe havens? I thought we stopped that. The enemy will only keep coming as you may know the New York Times reported this week that the United States has started the President Bush has approved and the United States has started covert operations in that restive area of Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government, Pakistani leaders have started an outcry against the series of missile strikes from unmanned drones and arrayed by helicopter-borne US commandos in recent days. The officials, our officials said the West should do more to help Afghans with new roads and other infrastructure. We got all the infrastructure we need in this country, education and crop assistance.

These are the keys to success in Afghanistan said Mullin of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we cannot kill our way to victory. Can we drill our way to victory? And how are things in Iraq? Well, part of it's on the verge of exploding, according to the Washington Post, Kurdish leaders have expanded their authority over a 300-mile long swath of territory beyond the borders of their autonomous region, stationing thousands of Kurdish soldiers in ethnically mixed areas in what Iraqi Arab sea as an encroachment on their homeland. The assertion of greater Kurdish control, which has happened stealthily since the war began and caused tens of thousands of Arabs to flee their homes, is viewed by Iraqi Arabs and US officials as provocative and potentially destabilizing. That's counterproductive and increases tensions, says the commander of US forces in northern

Iraq. The predominantly led Arab-led government of Prime Minister Maliki has recently sent the Iraqi army to drive Kurdish forces out of some of the lands. The face-off between the Iraqi army and the Kurdish forces has stoked fears of Arab-Kurdish strife. Kurdish leaders have maintained war relations with the United States officials who see the Kurds as allies in the effort to promote democracy and stability in Iraq. But Arab residents, in at least one town, have begun to chafe over what they describe as a campaign to drive them out of their lands. The Kurds had imprisoned, reportedly kidnapped and killed more than 40 Arabs recently in an attempt to promote Kurdification. Kurdish officials reject that charge.

It says one Arab official, we're now subject to two occupations, one by the Americans and one by the Kurds, the Kurdish one is much worse and is driving the people to become terrorists. This area, he says, is now on the verge of exploding. What they need is a surge. Everybody but Texas could use a surge and now ladies and gentlemen, the apologies of the weak. The Church of England is conceding an statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Charles Darwin's ideas, it will call anti-evolutionary fervor and indictment on the Church. The bold move, a certain to dismay, dismay sections of the Church of England that believe in creationism, apparently according to another report, a 10% of British children believe in creationism. The apology, though, has been written by Reverend Dr. Malcolm Brown, the Church's director of Mission and Public Affairs, it says that Christians in their response to Darwin's theory of natural selection, repeated the mistakes they made in doubting Galileo's astronomy,

Tom. Yeah, in the 17th century. The statement reads, Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. He tried to practice the old virtues of faith, seeking understanding, and hope that makes some amends. The comments are included on the Church of England website. That's how hip they are. Daylight Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs Elementary School principal is apologized for making students look inside a bag of human feces in urine. Peyton Elementary Principal Michael O'Clair, nicknamed chocolate, no, I don't think so, said he wanted to make a point to the students because someone had been leaving human waste on the floor and toilet seats in a girl's laboratory. Some parents complained O'Clair's actions were inappropriate and created a health risk. O'Clair said he's apologized in person to the students and by letter to their parents,

he said it realized it was not the best thing to do. Students were given janitorial gloves to wear before holding the bag and were told to wash their hands afterward. South Carolina's Democratic Party Chairwoman was washing her hands this week of a comment she made. She had said that Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's top qualification seems to be not having had an abortion. She is now apologized in an interview on the political website, Politico Chairwoman Carol Fowler, apologized for the comment. Oh, it was a comment made in an interview with Politico, saying she made the statement during an interview about single issue voters, quote, I personally admire and respect the difficult choices that women make every day and I apologize to anyone who finds my comment offensive. I would clumsily was making a point about people in South Carolina who may vote based on a single issue. That was the only point I was attempting to make. Unquote or about Sarah Palin coming up, but a woman whose name photograph in a hometown

were featured in Nassau County's wall of shame after her may arrest, though she was neither intoxicated nor drug-impaired is suing the county and the Belrose Village Police Department that arrested her. This is in Long Island, New York. I can spit there from here. Andrea, I'm not going to, Andrea Sangamano wiped away tears at a miniola Long Island press conference as she spoke of the humiliation she's felt since being arrested by police and hemp-stead village for driving while impaired by drugs. That was the first day of County Executive Thomas Swozy's plan to publicize the drunken driver arrest through a wall of shame, including the photos and names of nearly 900 people up to now. Prosecutors in a judge have since conceded that Sangamano, who was diabetic, was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but was suffering from hypoglycemic unawareness thanks to a decline in her blood sugar. She said, she felt sick to my stomach, unquote, when she learned her name, likeness and personal identification had been released to the media after her arrest.

It's humiliating. Swozy at a news conference late this week apologized to her saying, I really do feel very bad for her, but referring to the wall of shame and publicizing a people arrested for drunken driving and driving while impaired, he said, we're going to continue with the program. It's always good to continue with the program. That's what I'm doing right now. Louisiana's federally financed disaster food stamp program had a disaster start this week when miscommunication and poor planning seemed to be the rule on a second day of a seven day application period. The State Secretary of Social Services took the blame for early errors and made adjustments. Department of Social Services Secretary Anne Williams and had used a late morning news conference to apologize for understaffing several intake centers and for a bout of miscommunication that sent some applicants from one wrong location to another. But Louisiana Governor Bobby Gendell seemed less than satisfied with the apology. I'm extremely dissatisfied with the plan yesterday. He said, it's still not what it should be. It should have been done better. What we were told was going to happen didn't happen such as backup plans for large crowds

as well as ice water and air conditioned buildings. It was not an acceptable plan. He said, there will be some consequences for individuals. He said, that's odd. The chief executive of a government in the United States to say that. And finally, speaking of awful, up Canadian way, liberal leader Stefan Dion, lashed out at an opponent who was published an image featuring a puffin flying over his head and defecating on his shoulder. This is saying more about them than about us. If you're as Dion said at a campaign stop, the ad was yanked off the internet. Although television network captured the image, which clearly shows the bird dropping on Dion's shoulder. And the revised posting on the internet, the bird flies over his shoulder without dropping anything.

Later Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to Dion saying he agreed the graphic was in bad taste. I agree. He said, it is totally unacceptable. Oh, there's one more. I think actor Gerry O'Connell, really, as publicly apologized for calling his pregnant wife Rebecca Romman, huge on US television. I regret calling my wife huge on late night with Conan O'Brien. He told people magazine, I meant to say there are specific areas of my wife that are larger than normal and growing every day. I apologize to her and will be coming home with flowers. He's a former child actor, but that's no excuse. The apologies of the week, ladies and gentlemen, a copyrighted feature of this broadcast. So on to Sarah Palin. First of all, from John Fury, a Republican strategist, he says, the campaign is entering a stage in which disagreements over facts are less important than the dominant themes that are forming voters' opinions of the candidates, quoting, the more the New York Times and the Washington

Post go after Sarah Palin, the better off she is because there's a bigger truth out there. And the bigger truths are, she's new, she's popular in Alaska, and she's an insurgent fear, he said, as long as those are out there, wherever that is, please, if you know where out there is, it's referred to all the time and I've been trying to Google map it. As long as those are out there, he says, these little facts don't matter. Some little facts from the New York Times, Sunday edition, interviews with people who've worked with her in Alaska show that Sarah Palin's style of governing is running an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy, well, that's about time. Man, that'll change Washington. The governor and the top officials sometimes use personal email accounts for state business, Ditto, Rich Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the email messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears and administration

official told Steiner his request would cost half a million dollars to process. He finally obtained the email messages through a federal records request. He discovered that state scientists, contrary to Governor Palin's statement that they'd found no ill effects of climate change on polar bears had in fact agreed the bears were in danger. It's a little fact. It's a little fact. Give me some big themes, will you? Has she been to Ireland? Sorry. Has she been to Iraq? It was a big deal. When Senator Obama hadn't been to Iraq in two years, Governor Palin had said when she was new that she had been to Iraq, now according to the Boston Globe, which last time I looked as neither the Washington Post nor the New York Times, she's not been to Iraq. Her visit to Iraq in 2000 actually consisted of a brief stop at a border crossing between Iraq and Kuwait.

This is the second official revision of her only trip outside North America. AIDS said she had traveled to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait and Iraq to meet with members of the Alaska National Guard, and she was said to have visited a military outpost inside Iraq. The campaign has since repeated. Her travel included an excursion into the battle zone, but now in response to queries about the details, campaign aids and national guard officials say she did not venture beyond the border last year. She visited a military outpost, said a spokeswoman, on the other side of the Kuwait-Iraqi border. Here the campaign acknowledged Palin made only a refueling stop in Ireland, as opposed to an actual visit. But you know, most visits to Ireland really are just a matter of refueling. And of course, those little facts about the bridge to nowhere. Critics have questioned her claim that she told Congress thanks to no thanks on the bridge

to nowhere. In 2006, she expressed support for the bridge project, later as support for the project was vanishing in Washington. She announced she was abandoning the project. Alaska still kept the federal money once intended for the bridge, and has directed it to other fine projects. In other words, when I'm asleep, you're in every dream, but can you be as grand as you seem? You span the miles, why I really don't know. You promise a journey, but where do you go?

Bridge to nowhere. I'm under your spell, if you were a tunnel, in your walls I would dwell. Please set me free, oh how I wonder, how you feel about me. Bridge to nowhere. At first I loved you, I thought you could help, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk.

But you became a notorious curse. My dreams are driving, right into reverse, Bridge to nowhere. Under my skin, when my world is at stake, or seeking you is no sin. Just leave me alone, we keep the money, honey, you're on your own. Okay, take me to the bridge. Bridge to nowhere.

At first I loved you, I thought you could help, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk. I'm under your spell, if you were a tunnel, in your walls I would dwell.

At first I loved you, I thought you could help, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk. I'm under your spell, if you were a tunnel, in your walls I would dwell. At first I loved you, I thought you could help, cut short my commute to the moose and

the elk, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk. At first I loved you, I thought you could help, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk. At first I loved you, I thought you could help, cut short my commute to the moose and

the elk, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk, cut short my commute to the moose and the elk.

Now ladies and gentlemen, news from outside the bubble. This is a good one from the BBC. The outgoing commander of US troops in Iraq, General David Patreus, has said he will never declare victory there. Don't tell John McCain, it would break his heart. He said recent security gains were not irreversible and that the US still faced a, quote, long struggle. Unquote. Because it's only been five and a half years. When asked a few of us troops could withdraw from Iraqi cities by the middle of next year,

he said that would be doable. He also added the trends in Afghanistan have not gone in the right direction, indicating he's not totally delusional. General Patreus, of course, is the author of the surge. Leaving his post, he says there are many storm clouds on the horizon which could develop into real problems. He says the situation is still hard, but hopeful. Situation is hopeful, let alone the people. The progress in Iraq was a bit more durable, but the situation there remained fragile. What is he trying to tell us? He said he did not know that he would ever use the word victory. This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade. He said. All right then. Will await further definitions.

Imminently. News from outside the bubble, ladies and gentlemen, a copyrighted feature of this broadcast. Now to a task that doesn't seem to be doable, in interviews with the Washington Post, American officials have attributed their failure to find Osama bin Laden to an overreliance on military force, a pattern of underestimating the enemy, and tell John Kerry, if you've heard this one, disruptions posed by the war in Iraq. Above all, they said they search has been handicapped by an inability to develop informants in Pakistan's isolated tribal regions. Investigators with the CIA and US military said they began shifting resources out of Afghanistan in early 2002, why that's more than a year before the Iraq war began. And they still haven't recovered from that mistake. Quote. Iraq was a fundamental wrong turn that was the most strategically negative action that was taken. Unquote. John O'Brennan, a former deputy executive director of the CIA and a former chief of the National

Counterterrorism Center. The collective effort in the government required to go after an individual like bin Laden, he says, well, the Iraq campaign consumed that. And now strangely enough, national public radio is learned that the raid by helicopter born US special ops forces in Pakistan last week was not a one off, but part of a three phase plan approved by President Bush to strike at Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaeda leadership. The plan represents an 11th hour effort to hammer al-Qaeda and possibly capture bin Laden before the Bush administration leaves office. Said a source who has been briefed on the plan, quote, definitely, the gloves have come off. Yep, actually landed, too, as I recall.

Sure he did. Well, sir, with Hurricane Act threatening in Texas, I've flown to Oklahoma, met some good people, raised some good money for John McCain, going that Sarah Payland, sure has been a shot in the arm for his campaign. Yes, sir. I like the gal. You know, she's got the gumption and the swagger and the self-confidence of a younger me, a younger female, you know, I say I don't see things in those terms. I just look into the soul, but man, they're sure trying to play the old elite media games with her. Oh, yeah, quizzing her on the Bush doctrine. Yeah, you know, I didn't remember Musharraf's name when they pulled that stunt on me back in 2000. It didn't keep me from getting into the White House, and the heck 41, even I don't know what the Bush doctrine is, so how the hell are her briefers supposed to know? No, no, good point. So are you taking the gloves off with bin Laden?

Well, you know, that's such media spin, of course it is. He took the gloves off right after 9-11. That's right. And we took him off again at the time of the surge, so those gloves have been off all along now. Yeah, must have been something to the leak though. You would like to get bin Laden up before you leave office. Well, who wouldn't? I mean, sure, give me some closure, be a fine part of the legacy, could be a whole room in the presidential library, you know, could put the gloves in there. The ones he took off, sure, Mr. Bin Laden has been kind of your white whale for a while now. Yeah. And what respect? I think it shows great maturity and McCain's part to let your people into run his campaign. Great professionalism, well, when you send a drown in man, the best campaign managers in the business, he's naturally going to start, you know, take into the water like a ducks back.

I guess he learned a lesson from our friend Al Gore. Yeah. Maybe you don't want to separate yourself so completely from the soon-to-be-ex going president. His strategy didn't turn out so well for Citizen Gore, I'm sure he got a Nobel Prize. Yeah. And I'm getting a library, you know. He can fit a lot of prizes into a library, yeah. So are the Pakistanis giving you grief about taking the gloves off after the incursions became public ambassadors to ask me what other parts of the Obama platform I was planning to adopt? The ledger there. Well, I guess this new fellow president, you know, president, something that just trouble with the Pakistani names. I guess he's got to show that he's the big man who can, you know, stand up to the bad old me. Oh, sure. Got some serious fundamentalists there, they got to appease. Well, who doesn't? He's got plenty of Muslims too. But, you know, when I got to tell you, there is no feeling to compare with what it feels like as though when you're sitting at the desk and the oval and watching what the predator

groan sees as it's targeting some out kind of leaders and their extended families must be not quite a feeling of power. I mean, you don't control the drone. No, not even if I wanted to, no, not power, you know, just a sense of pride that they finally got the video feed from the drone to work, you know, it took months. I mean, you can't really be fully gloves off when you can't even see the damned gloves. Of course not. Yeah. Looks proud. American people have seen you land now just one state away from a couple of major hurricane events. I think they, I think they see you now as a president who doesn't just fly over those things anymore. Yeah. Yeah. You think we got that part of the legacy fixed up? Thanks, so. Well, you know, spring to the finish, there's no picnic, no, no, no, doing great 43. This wouldn't tick the Pakistanis off a great deal more as all, you know, they got tempers

and they got nooks, yeah, yeah, but counties playing them like a shred of varsity, well, that's what counts. All right, then bar says hi to Laura, thanks. So do I. You take care of 41. You too, 43. And now ladies and gentlemen, news of the war, won't you? Yes, we can today possible solutions and ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning a fossil fuels could be kept below harmful levels if emissions from coal are phased out within the next few decades, say, researchers quoted in Eureka science news, they say that less plentiful oil and gas should be used sparingly as well, but that far greater supplies of coal media must be the main target of reductions.

The study appears in the journal Global Biochemical Cycles, but there are more solutions. If the world's 100 biggest cities were to whiten the roofs of all their buildings and use more reflective pavement, the global fuel cooling effect would be huge, a new study has concluded. Speaking of the fifth annual California climate change research conference in Sacramento, Hasham Akbari, a physicist with Lawrence Berkeley national lab said that he's created a formula to determine how much heat-trapping carbon dioxide would be offset by reflecting solar radiation back into space, he says replacing dark shingles on a 1000 square foot roof, the average size of an American home, with white material would offset 10 metric tons of greenhouse gases, the paper will be published in the journal climatic change, the potential savings are huge, globally roofs account for 25% of the surface of most cities, pavement accounts for 35%, if all were switched to reflective material in 100 major urban areas, it would offset 44 metric gigatons of greenhouse gases.

That's more than all the countries in earth emit in a single year, installing cool roofs and pavements would offset more than 10 years of emissions growth, even without slashing industrial pollution. White roofs of course can also cut air conditioning costs by 20%. But maybe, maybe not. There's another solution, humanity must urgently embark on a massive program to power civilization from wood to stave off catastrophic climate change, one of the world's top scientists has told the independent on Sunday. Professor James Hanson was the first leading scientist to announce global warming was taking place 20 years ago. Now, he's issued a warning that a back to the future return to one of the oldest fuels is imperative because the world has exceeded the danger level for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, growing trees which absorb the gas from the air as they grow, burning them instead of fossil fuels to generate electricity and capturing and storing the carbon produced

in the process as needed to get the greenhouse effect down to safe levels. And ecologists say climate change will shrink species, according to new scientists. The effects are likely to be seen for many more years. But a biologist at UC San Diego believes we need to think now about how we're going to preserve large species. I suggest amber. Our collective actions are negatively affecting body sizes of many living species, says the researcher. It's well known that humans tend to hundred fish larger animals, creating a selective pressure that favors the smaller ones that can reproduce while they're still small. The degradation of natural environments around the world is having the same effect by limiting the amount of food available, meaning smaller animals that need less food have a head start. In global warming, we enforce this trend toward smaller sizes through the temperature size rule, also known as Bergman's rule, first propounded during the fireside theaters reign. It says species size increases with latitude, they tend to be smaller in the tropics and

closer to the poles. That's frightening prospect in any event, being closer to the poles, but that news from the warm ladies and gentlemen, a copyrighted feature of this broadcast. And can you imagine how much greenhouse gas emissions we'd save if American Airlines

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