The first impression from this title is that the White House has resorted to the same sort of jingoism seen during the Bush years, such as that if you are not with us you are supporting the terrorists. Reading Brennan’s actual op-ed gives an entirely different meaning when these words are not taken out of context. This quote comes from this passage:

Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill. They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community. And the notion that America’s counterterrorism professionals and America’s system of justice are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd.

Headlines do need to condense, but simply expanding the headline to “unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda” provides a far closer view of what Brennan wrote. He is repeating what many of us critics of the Bush administration and the right wing response to terrorism have been saying since 9/11. The goal of terrorists is to instill terror in the population. Fear-mongering by the right wing does play into their hands, and does serve the goals of al Qaeda.

Brennan also makes another point which many others have also made in recent weeks since the Obama administration has been attacked for handling the attempted Christmas day terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in civilian court (emphasis mine):

It’s naive to think that transferring Abdulmutallab to military custody would have caused an outpouring of information. There is little difference between military and civilian custody, other than an interrogator with a uniform. The suspect gets access to a lawyer, and interrogation rules are nearly identical.

Would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid was read his Miranda rights five minutes after being taken off a plane he tried to blow up. The same people who criticize the president today were silent back then.

Cries to try terrorists only in military courts lack foundation. There have been three convictions of terrorists in the military tribunal system since 9/11, and hundreds in the criminal justice system — including high-profile terrorists such as Reid and 9/11 plotter Zacarius Moussaoui.

Brennan also responds to those on the right who claim that the Obama administration is not taking the threat of terrorism seriously, noting Obama’s successes in 2009 and how they compare to Bush’s record:

This administration’s efforts have disrupted dozens of terrorist plots against the homeland and been responsible for killing and capturing hundreds of hard-core terrorists, including senior leaders in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and beyond — far more than in 2008. We need no lectures about the fact that this nation is at war.

Update: An op-ed at The Washington Examiner further misquotes Brennan with a headline reading:  White House: People who criticize us are helping al Qaeda.

With everyone talking about Sarah Palin’s crib notes on her hand, I would like to present The Top Ten Things Written on Sarah Palin’s Hand (after passing them through a spell checker). I know this is a lot of stuff to fit on a hand, but Palin has practice at this. After all, this is how she passed her tests in college.

10. Will cut taxes & reduce deficit at same time after elected

9. 12345 (My secret password for all internet sites)

8. Foreign Policy Experience–Can See Russia from Alaska

7. Obama is a Socialist (Note to self: look up what “socialist” means)

6. Uphold the Constitution (Note to self: must read the Constitution some day)

5. Ask for divine intervention from God when have questions about what government should do

4. Stay away from explaining about dinosaurs and people–audience often laughs at me when I talk about this unless all Republicans

3. Explain how it is cold outside, proving global warming is a hoax

2. Make sure not to use any Purell on hand before speech

1. If not listed here, just say whatever a Maverick would say

Many people seemed to see the slow down in action after the loss in Massachusetts as a sign that the Democrats had given up on health care reform. I thought it was more plausible that they were taking a little time to reassess their strategy. Now we are beginning to see the results of this as Barack Obama is planning a televised summit on health care for February 25.

It is important at this point that Barack Obama takes the lead. He is more popular than either the Democrats or Republicans in Congress, and we saw that after he spoke out on health care in August that support for reform increased. We also saw how he is able to debunk Republican talking points last week.

Obama is inviting the Republicans to the health care summit. That is an excellent idea. So far they have shown no sign of willingness to offer any serious solutions yet they constantly repeat the same empty statements as if they made some sense. If Republicans are going to continue to do nothing more than obstruct legislation, let the voters see this.

Let the Republicans suggest that we open sales of insurance across state lines on television. Obama can explain that this is included in the health care reform proposals–but this can only be done if there are nation-wide regulations to protect consumers. Obama could go on to explain that the main reason the Republicans are pushing this for the insurance companies which are calling the shots is that this would allow insurance companies to all operate out of the states with the weakest insurance regulations. This might result in less expensive insurance being sold, but such policies would provide very poor coverage to those who are sick.

The Republicans can also push for malpractice reform. Obama could explain that this would only result in a very small reduction in overall health care costs. However, Obama has previously expressed willingness to consider malpractice reform and, while the potential savings are greatly exaggerated by Republicans, they should not be ignored. Malpractice reform is not possible in a health care bill written by the Congressional Democrats, who represent the interests of the trial lawyers as faithfully as the Republicans represent the  interests of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Perhaps an open, televised health care summit could lead to agreements which get past these partisan differences. There is even a long shot that Republicans would be forced by such open coverage to agree to support a compromise bill which might correct some of the problems in the Senate bill. Even if nothing comes out out of the meeting, it is still of value to discuss these matters openly.

Some on the left have been attacking Obama for trying to appeal to Republicans, claiming it has been a failure because no Congressional Republicans are giving him any support. What they fail to recognize is that seeking bipartisan support does not only refer to members of Congress. It also refers to people who have voted Republican in the past but either voted for Obama in 2008 or are open to voting Democratic in the future. The way to secure these votes is to show a willingness to consider Republican ideas, along with showing their failings if Republicans do not come up with any better ideas than they have to date.

LA X, the season premiere of Lost, gave two answers for what happened after the bomb went off. The show first showed a scene aboard Oceanic Flight 815 in which the plane did not crash on the island. The real surprise here was that more changed than just the fate of the characters we have been following. The entire island was under water.

Rather than alternating between present and flashbacks, the show alternated with views of one reality in which the plane did not crash and another in which the explosion threw everyone from the past to 2007 after the hatch was blown up. It is not clear why an explosion would do this as opposed to either changing the time line or killing everyone, but this is Lost.

In what might be another key scene, Juliet had some last words: “It worked.” I take this to mean that the other time line is equally real as the one on the island but wonder how Juliet would know this. If it was Desmond I would have an easier time seeing how a character would be seeing two different realities.  As we’ve often seen the dead interacting with the living, perhaps being near death is what allowed Juliet to see both realities.

The episode reveals more about the smoke monster, showing it is also the Man in Black. Questions remain as to his actual role and relationship to Jacob. I’ve seen reports that his actual nemesis is someone other than Jacob (who did not really seem to object to getting killed). The scene at the temple also revealed what happened to some of the passengers from Oceanic 815 who have not been seen in quite a while.

In the other reality we are reminded that, despite their eagerness to return home, many of the passengers were better off on the island. Jack’s life is still a mess, and now there’s the added complication that his father’s body is missing. I suspect that means he is still alive. Kate is on the run from the law (and reportedly Sawyer is a cop). Rose presumably still has cancer. Locke cannot walk, but perhaps he will take up Jack’s offer and be cured. One major difference is with Hugo who describes himself as the world’s luckiest man in this reality. TV Overmind has posted the above picture which also shows that Hugo had played a different set of numbers when he won the lottery. This returns to the question of the significance of the numbers. Perhaps Hurley’s luck all depended upon which numbers were played.

With the island under water people will be in different places in this reality. We already saw that Desmond is somehow still connected to the other passengers. With no hatch for him to be busy pushing the button in he wound up as another passenger on Oceanic 815. There’s no indication as to whether he is involved with Penny in this reality. Ben would be entirely different if he hadn’t lived on the island. Elizabeth Mitchell has a new show to keep her busy, but there are reports she will return as Juliet later in the season. It is not clear how she would interact with characters that in this reality she would not know (unless the two realities are merging together by then).

Tomorrow night is the season finale of Heroes. There has been talk that NBC plans to end the series but reportedly the episode was not written to be a series finale in the hopes that the series would be renewed.  I sure hope that they don’t end with a cliff hanger if the show is not returning. Masi Oka  told Fancast that possibly the episode could have been edited to be a series finale:

“They could probably edit it [to provide closure],” Masi Oka told me. “But whatever the case, I really hope that we get an opportunity to at least give the show a proper ending in one way or another. We want to pay respect to the fans who have been with us since Day 1.”

Neil Gaiman has verifed rumors that he is writing an episode of Doctor Who but it won’t be appearing until the second season under Steven Moffatt.  SFX reports:

In a special message sent to the SFX Weekender in his acceptance speech for winning Best Comic at the SFX Awards, Neil Gaiman has confirmed that he is writing an episode for the second Matt Smith season of Doctor Who.

Although not present personally, Neil Gaiman sent the following message:

“Over the years SFX, and its readers and their votes in the polls, have always been very kind to me. I thought I’d return the favour with what used to be called, in journalistic circles when I was a boy, a scoop.

As anyone who’s read my blog knows, I’m a big fan of a certain long-running British SF TV series. One that started watching — from behind the sofa — when I was three. And while I know it’s cruel to make you wait for things, in about 14 months from now, which is to say, NOT in the upcoming season but early in the one after that, it’s quite possible that I might have written an episode. And if I had, it would originally have been called “The House of Nothing”. But it definitely isn’t called that any more.

Countdown. You’ve got about 14 months.”

Julie Benz was originally signed to appear on three episodes of Desperate Housewives after she concluded her role on Dexter. TV Squad reports that her character was so well-received that she will be remaining longer. Their post gives some spoilers as to upcoming story lines.

I won’t give any more details about the season for the benefit of those waiting until NBC shows the series this spring, but I figure everyone realized that this showdown was inevitable after last season ended with Coach Eric Taylor being fired at what was then Dillon High School and getting a job at the reopened East Dillon High.

The season does get into an issue which readers of this blog should find interesting but I’ll let people see this as it develops.

One other minor (and predictable) mini-spoiler: Tim Riggins gets in trouble.

Palin’s use of crib notes on her palm, which I discussed more seriously here, is likely to remain a source for endless jokes about Palin, such as in my current Facebook status above. She is lucky this came out too late for Saturday Night Live last night but I can imagine the late night comedians really getting her on Monday.

Will David Letterman’s Top Ten List be The Top Ten Things Written on Sarah Palin’s Hand?

I’m not sure why so many people are surprised by this. After all, it is how she got through all those tests in college.

There’s been a lot of uproar in the blogosphere about how Sarah Palin used crib notes written on her palm during her speech before the Tea Party convention. The real problem is not that she used crib notes, which I see nothing wrong with (although she could have been more discrete) but that her crib notes were to a question during the Q&A session.

Just like George Bush, it looks like Sarah Palin is relying on planted questions. Considering the disasters we have seen when she has tried to take questions from the media this is somewhat understandable. Still, she is before a friendly audience and I would think she could handle questions from that crowd.

I am far more concerned about the content of her answer, such as calling for government to seek divine intervention from God, than whether she got this answer from her palm.

Many have pointed out the hypocrisy of having crib notes after attacking Barack Obama for using a teleprompter. Crib notes are not the same as a teleprompter with the entire text. My suspicion is that there are three main reasons why Palin could get by with limited crib notes while Obama prefers a teleprompter:

1. Memorizing a speech word for word takes much more time. Obama has a day job at present. Sarah Palin does not.
2. It is easier to give a speech with vague generalities without the prepared text to read. For example, when you are calling for budget cuts but avoiding any specifics as to what you would cut it is easier to talk with minimal notes.
3. As far as I can determine, there was not a prepared text distributed to the press prior to the speech. Prepared text for Obama’s speeches are routinely released ahead of time and the media quotes from these. While there would normally be no problem with a speaker varying from the actual prepared text while making the planned points, there could be confusion when a prepared text has been made public.

The teleprompter argument is also a bogus argument as Barack Obama has spoken many times without a teleprompter. This included his recent question and answer session at a Republican gathering. During the presidential campaign he varied between the use of a teleprompter and speaking without one, such as prior to a key speech prior to the Iowa caucuses in which he memorized the speech believing this would give it more intensity.

Here is the full video of Palin’s speech:

Palin adroitly re-wrote the history of the past three months of elections, giving the Tea Party movement credit for Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts and calling the White House “0 for 3″ in recent elections–leaving out the New York special election where her candidate, the Conservative Party’s Doug Hoffman, lost in a last-minute upset.

“You know,” said Palin of Brown, “he was just a guy with a truck, and a passion to serve his country,” said Palin. Brown, however, was a state senator and state representative whose campaign staffers cut their teeth with Mitt Romney.

The Guardian reports that things got even weirder at the Q&A session:

The weirdest part of the evening came not during the speech but during the following Q&A session. Asked what she thought that a Republican-controlled congress’s top three priorities should be, she answered: stop spending, energy policy and … well, here’s the whole quote, judge for yourself:

“I think, kind of tougher to put our arms around, but allowing America’s spirit to rise again by not being afraid to kind of go back to some of our roots as a God fearing nation where we’re not afraid to say especially in times of potential trouble in the future here, where we’re not afraid to say, you know, we don’t have all the answers as fallible men and women so it would be wise of us to start seeking some divine intervention again in this country, so that we can be safe and secure and prosperous again. To have people involved in government who aren’t afraid to go that route, not so afraid of the political correctness that you know – they have to be afraid of what the media said about them if they were to proclaim their alliance to our creator.”

So, one of the US congress’s top priorities should be … asking for divine intervention from God? “I can think of two words right now that scare liberals: President Palin,” the moderator ended the evening by saying. A brief chant of “Run, Sarah, run,” broke out, although not one shared by the whole room. Proving, perhaps, that you don’t have to be a liberal to be worried by Sarah Palin.

The GE (GE) unit has removed every episode of the show’s seven-month run from its NBC.com site, as well as Hulu, the site NBC owns with News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox and Disney’s (DIS) ABC.

A little odd, given that a couple of days ago, the network was offering every single “Tonight Show” episode O’Brien had taped on NBC.com. But then again, everything about this story has been odd. NBC declined to comment.

NBC–at least, I’m assuming it’s NBC–has also been aggressive about taking down Conan episodes from Google’s (GOOG) YouTube.

Conan’s picture has also been removed from a mural in the lobby of NBC’s corporate headquarters.

The message from NBC is that Jay Leno has always hosted The Tonight Show since Johnny Carson retired, just like Oceana was always at war with Eurasia.

Jim Parsons plays 30 characters, showing how it’s “Up2″ all of them and each and every one of us to help end cancer

Rachel Maddow on  Barack Obama on The Late Show with David Letterman on Thursday:

“The most interesting thing about Obama’s first year is how crazy the opposition has gone in reaction to him. And that’s been so exciting – the Sarah Palin, Michael Steel, Tea Party thing on the right – that I think that nobody’s noticed that he’s quietly put together the most legislatively accomplished first year of any president in a generation.”

Conservatives and libertarians believe that our health care system makes us more free than the rest of the industrialized world. A system which leads to millions being uninsured and placing even those with insurance at risk of bankruptcy if they get sick does not mean we are more free–it means we are backwards.

If people insist on keeping their current insurance plans that is one thing, but please don’t also block plans to allow others to voluntarily buy into Medicare or a public option.

Arctic ice melting could cost global agriculture, real estate and insurance anywhere from $2.4 trillion to $24 trillion by 2050 in damage from rising sea levels, floods and heat waves, according to a report released on Friday

“Everybody around the world is going to bear these costs,” said Eban Goodstein, a resource economist at Bard College in New York state who co-authored the report, called “Arctic Treasure, Global Assets Melting Away.”

He said the report, reviewed by more than a dozen scientists and economists and funded by the Pew Environment Group, an arm of the Pew Charitable Trusts, provides a first attempt to monetize the cost of the loss of one of the world’s great weather makers.

“The Arctic is the planet’s air conditioner and it’s starting to break down,” he said.

The loss of Arctic Sea ice and snow cover is already costing the world about $61 billion to $371 billion annually from costs associated with heat waves, flooding and other factors, the report said.

The losses could grow as a warmer Arctic unlocks vast stores of methane in the permafrost. The gas has about 21 times the global warming impact of carbon dioxide.

Melting of Arctic sea ice is already triggering a feedback of more warming as dark water revealed by the receding ice absorbs more of the sun’s energy, he said. That could lead to more melting of glaciers on land and raise global sea levels.

It is necessary to respond to the effects of climate change which are already occurring. Contrary to the paranoid conspiracy theories popular among many in the anti-science right this view is not motivated by opposition to our industrialized society or market economies or a desire to control the world, but out of a realization that action is needed to preserve our economy.

It is consistent with human nature to deny climate change and avoid having to take action to solve difficult problems such as this. Conservatives and libertarians have the added motivation to deny climate change because it is a problem which can only be addressed by government and by international cooperation.

Conservatives prefer not to admit that any problems require government action for their solution and would prefer to deny that the problem exists. Conservatives might go along with some big government programs, primarily those involving invasion of other countries, torture, or imposing their religious codes upon others. They are far less likely to go along with big government programs which involve cooperation with other countries as opposed to invading them.