Morning News Roundup (02 Feb)

• The BBC is reporting that while the Iranian "nuclear row" is reaching a critical point, with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) discussing a resolution that Iran be reported to the UN Security Council--but it's not yet a crisis.
  
  
• MSNBC reports that DC police dropped charges against Cindy Sheehan and Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, R-Fla., and offered apologies after both were escorted from the SOTU for wearing T-shirts with war messages (Sheehan being anti-war, Young being supportive). You can read Sheehan's account of the incident over at AfterDowningStreet.org (hat tip to Facade Friend Wardovac) as well as a WaPo story on the controversy.
  
  
• Facade Friend Velvet Bulldog posted a comment on my coverage of the SOTU address, noting that President Bush talked about reductions in energy use, but no pollutant reductions. He might want to think more about the latter as ENN (from a Reuters story) reports that scientists are painting a bleak picture for our world if we don't reverse greenhouse gas emissions within two decades.
  

  The world must halt greenhouse gas emissions and reverse them within two decades or watch the planet spiralling towards destruction, scientists said on Monday.
  [...]
  Global average temperatures were already 0.6 Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and a rise of just 0.4C more would see coral reefs wiped out, flooding in the Himalayas and millions more people facing hunger, she said.
  
  A rise of 3C -- just half of what scientists have warned is possible this century -- would see 400 million people going hungry, entire species being wiped out and killer diseases such as dengue fever reachning pandemic proportions.

• Oh, and all that talk about reducing Middle East oil imports from the SOTU... that really was all talk. Knight Ridder reports that BushCo administration officials are already backtracking (hat tip to ThinkProgress):
  

  He pledged to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."

  Not exactly, though, it turns out.

  "This was purely an example," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.

  He said the broad goal was to displace foreign oil imports, from anywhere, with domestic alternatives. He acknowledged that oil is a freely traded commodity bought and sold globally by private firms. Consequently, it would be very difficult to reduce imports from any single region, especially the most oil-rich region on Earth.

  Asked why the president used the words "the Middle East" when he didn't really mean them, one administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands." The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he feared that his remarks might get him in trouble.

• Speaking of forecasting the climate, the WaPo is reporting that groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, meaning six more weeks of winter. Happy Groudhog Day!
  
  
• Song of the day: Electric President - Ten Thousand Lines (via iTunes or Amazon; also check out more info)
  

[UPDATE - 8:26am PST] On the subject of backtracking from the SOTU, Salon's War Room asks:

During his speech Tuesday night, Bush said he will press the fight against "tyranny" around the world, push to lower the costs of healthcare, propose increases in funding for education and research, lead a renewed fight against HIV/AIDS and cut the deficit in half by 2009. Are we to "understand" that those were "just examples," too?

[UPDATE - 9:18am PST] Yeah, it was all window dressing. Daily Kos diarist essexblue points us to this NYTimes story on the difficulties in implementing President Bush's vision for energy policy. This tidbit is buried at the bottom of the story:

The Energy Department will begin laying off researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the next week or two because of cuts to its budget.

A veteran researcher said the staff had been told that the cuts would be concentrated among researchers in wind and biomass, which includes ethanol. Those are two of the technologies that Mr. Bush cited on Tuesday night as holding the promise to replace part of the nation's oil imports.

The budget for the laboratory, which is just west of Denver, was cut by nearly 15 percent, to $174 million from $202 million, requiring the layoff of about 40 staff members out of a total of 930, said a spokesman, George Douglas. The cut is for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1.

Nice timing.