Kept them all for himself

This Modern World cartoon.

Tony Blair, who looks very bad indeed after revelations about the government’s spinning of intelligence about Iraq (read: lying) and the leaking of the name of Dr Kelly, has fired the first sacrificial lamb, communications director Alistair “Ali C” Campbell. This is supposed to send a message that government by spin is over, because Campbell symbolized the melding of spin and policy, although one sign that it is not is Campbell and Blair claiming that he wasn’t fired but resigned to spend more time with his family.

The Times, writing about whether The Arnoldater’s past will hurt him, talks about sex scandals past in American politics, including a story I hadn’t heard before, that in 1800 John Adams’s opponents claimed he used his VP as a pimp, that he had gone to England to pick out four girls as mistresses, two each for himself and Adams. Adams responded, "I do declare upon my honour, if this be true, General Pinckney has kept them all for himself."

Kano state in northern Nigeria will require Muslim girls to wear headscarves in schools.

Bush expanded the gag rule, banning aid to all family groups that have anything to do with abortions, even with their own money. And he did it on a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend.

Also under the radar, he’s decided that carbon dioxide emissions, the main cause of global warming, don’t count as pollution, and so do not fall under the EPA’s purview.

Also, if I’m getting this straight, the new WTO deal on drugs for poor countries looks ok on paper but is designed to be unworkable in practice.

Story in Friday’s NYT “Prosecutors Fight DNA Use for Exoneration” worth reading. Florida will bar DNA testing to prove innocence in old cases after Oct. 1.