Morning News Roundup (19 Apr)

First off, some sad breaking news: White House Press Secretary Scottie McC--the press' favorite talking piñata--has announced his resignation. Also, Karl Rove is giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on politics with the approach of the fall midterm elections. Developing...

• An EPA press release this week declared: “The Bush Administration has an unparalleled financial, international and domestic commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.” Meanwhile, British climate scientists have released figures showing the United States “emitted more greenhouse gases in 2004 than at any time in history, confirming its status as the world’s biggest polluter.” [via ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• Here's some more from that Independent article confirming, once and for all, that USA is No. 1:
  

  The figures, which were quietly released on Easter Monday, reveal that net greenhouse gas emissions during 2004 increased by 1.7 per cent on the previous year, equivalent to a rise of 110 million tons of carbon dioxide.
  
  This is the biggest annual increase since 2000 and means that in 2004 - the latest year that full data is available - the US released the equivalent of nearly 6,300 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
  [...]
  Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are now a third higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, and probably higher than they have been for at least 10 million years.
  
  Scientists have suggested that if the international community is to try to stabilise carbon dioxide levels at twice pre-industrial levels then countries such as the US and Britain need to reduce emissions by about 60 per cent by the middle of this century.

  
  
• The President rises in age from toddler to surly high schooler: President Bush told Montgomery County students yesterday that math and science are "cool subjects" and warned that the country would lose jobs overseas unless more funding is devoted to the disciplines. [WaPo]
  
  Speaking of his temper tantrum from yesterday, here's a fitting, Seussian poem from Daily Kos diarist Roddy McCorley.
  
  
• And I like this cover from the new issue of Rolling Stone (HT to HuffPo):
  
  
  
  
• Urban clashes continued for a second day in a volatile Sunni Arab neighborhood of northern Baghdad, leaving at least five Iraqis dead and 20 wounded Tuesday in fighting between gunmen and Iraqi security forces. The district's mostly Sunni residents blamed elements of the security forces for the troubles. They allege that specialized units of the Interior Ministry have been acting as sectarian death squads and terrorizing their communities. [SFChronic]
  
  
• The details of the unusual street battle that began Monday remained shrouded by the fog of war. U.S. and Iraqi soldiers thought they were shooting at insurgents who were trying to ambush them. Local men on neighborhood watch in the predominantly Sunni Arab area thought they were shooting at Shiites who were coming to kidnap and kill them. Residents hiding in their homes, simply praying for survival, could only guess who was fighting whom. [WaPo]
  
  
• Oil prices are holding around $71 a barrel, after hitting new peaks overnight amid rising tension between Iran and the international community. US benchmark light sweet crude peaked at $71.35 before settling at $70.89 - passing highs hit last year during Hurricane Katrina. [BBC]
  
  
• Here's a bit of deja vu: More than a decade after the Clinton administration's Northwest Forest Plan was launched to save the threatened spotted owl, a Seattle environmental group says the bird's population in Washington is plummeting. The Seattle and Kittitas chapters of the Audobon Society cited five spots in southwest Washington where the state allowed extensive logging by Weyerhaeuser near owl nests. The logging, and more that is planned, violate the Endangered Species Act, the environmentalists contend. [Seattle P-I]
  
  
• And yes, TomKat was born.