Despite dire warnings of water shortages due to prolonged drought, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday rejected a plan to ration water in the nation's second-largest city for the first time in 18 years.

The unanimous 15-0 vote against the plan marked a surprise setback for Los Angeles water managers, who like their peers in cities throughout California were directed to cut water use 20 percent this year under a drought emergency proclaimed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But David Nahai, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation's biggest municipal utility, insisted that the proposal was not dead.

"The city must cut back its water use. There are no two ways about that," Nahai told Reuters after the vote.

Hispanics made up nearly half of the more than 1 million people who became U.S. citizens last year, according to a Hispanic advocacy group.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said the number of Latinos who became Americans in fiscal year 2008 more than doubled over the previous year, to 461,317. That's nearly half of the record 1,046,539 new citizens overall in 2008, a 58 percent increase from 2007.

There is a major difference between Conrad Black and you: Lord Black is a much better writer and thinker, and authored a respected biography about Roosevelt, who we were founded to defend. That newspapers continue to run your column is a mystery to me, since it is composed of knee-jerk frothings and ravings. If I were an editor searching for a conservative, I wouldn't choose a mad dog. My recommendation: The admirable Charles Krauthammer.

Bill, I am concerned that you have been losing touch with reality recently. Did you really say you are more powerful than any politician?

That reminds me of the famous story about Squeaky the Chicago Mouse. It seems that Squeaky was floating on his back along the Chicago River one day. Approaching the Michigan Avenue lift bridge, he called out: Raise the bridge! I have an erection!
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Roger Ebert is a fat ass moron who is a lousy movie reviewer. BFD.

U.S. envoys met with Pakistani leaders on Tuesday to ensure that the $7.5 billion that President Obama plans to send their way over the next five years will be used to achieve common goals in the fight against extremism.

But according to a Pakistani newspaper, regional envoy Richard Holbrooke and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen came up empty-handed and received a "rude shock" when a proposal for joint operations against al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the volatile tribal regions was rejected.
Dawn newspaper reported that Pakistan also asked the U.S. to turn over the unmanned drone missions over the territory to them, saying that the drone strikes were fueling extremism.

And The Independent published an interview with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday in which he said Pakistan would go after high-value targets on their own if the U.S. would hand over its drone technology and intelligence.

Twitter Goes Mainstream

On Monday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a significant reordering of U.S. defense programs. His recommendations should not go unchallenged.

In the 1990s, defense cuts helped pay for increased domestic spending, and that is true today. Though Mr. Gates said that his decisions were "almost exclusively influenced by factors other than simply finding a way to balance the books," the broad list of program reductions and terminations suggest otherwise. In fact, he tacitly acknowledged as much by saying the budget plan represented "one of those rare chances to match virtue to necessity" — the "necessity" of course being the administration's decision to reorder the government's spending priorities.

Rachel Maddow has said in countless profiles that despite hosting a show on MSNBC, she doesn't actually own a television.

But Gawker, quoting an upcoming interview in Dossier magazine, points out that Maddow will soon be able to watch the broadcast networks — if not yet cable — thanks to one drunken purchase on Amazon.

The Sevmash shipyard in northern Russia said on Wednesday it would start construction of a fourth Borey class nuclear-powered strategic submarine this year.

"Russia's Defense Ministry has ordered the shipyard to start construction of the fourth Borey class submarine this year," a Sevmash official told RIA Novosti, adding that work could begin either in July or December.
All Borey class submarines will be equipped with new Bulava-M (SS-NX-30) intercontinental ballistic missiles, which carry up to 10 nuclear warheads and have a range of 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles).
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Yet, Obama is cutting national missile defense by $ 1.4 billion next year

The Human Rights Campaign takes on the National Organization for Marriage's new ads. Maggie Gallagher responds:

HRC's record of truth and honesty about their intentions is not that impressive. They once said marriage amendments weren't necessary because there were no federal court cases. Now there is one. They called us liars when we said public schools will teach about gay marriage if it's the law—but they do in Massachussetts. Serious religious liberty scholars from Eugene Volokh to Doug Laycock to Robin Wilson acknowledge the central driving idea behind gay marriage—there is no difference between same-sex and opposite-sex unions and supporters of marriage are engaging in discrimination if they think differently—will have consequences for the freedoms of tradtional faith communities. To pretend otherwise is to be profoundly unserious—if not deceptive—about what gay marriage means.

One of the great coups of the movement for same-sex marriage has been to plant the premise that it represents the inevitable future. This sense has inhibited even some who know perfectly well that marriage is by nature the union of a man and a woman. They fear that throwing themselves into the cause of opposing it is futile — worse, that it will call down the judgment of history that they were bigots.

Contrary to common perception, however, the public is not becoming markedly more favorable toward same-sex marriage. Support for same-sex marriage rose during the 1990s but seems to have frozen in place (at least according to Gallup) since the high court of Massachusetts invented a right to same-sex marriage earlier this decade.

The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.

John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.

Iran's hard-line president said Wednesday that his country welcomes talks with the United States should the American president prove to be "honest" in extending its hand toward Iran, one of the strongest signals yet that Tehran welcomes Barack Obama's calls for dialogue.
"But if, God forbid, the extended hand has an honest appearance but contains no honesty in content, it will meet the same response the Iranian nation gave to Mr. Bush," Ahmadinejad said.

If Iowans choose to open the hood on the Iowa Constitution, it could invite all sorts of tinkering, law professors and state lawmakers said today.

Voters soon have a once-a-decade chance to step around lawmakers and update the Constitution on their own.

A constitutional convention is a heady thought for Iowans who see that as a possible way to put the brakes on gay marriage in Iowa.

Taking inspiration from a landmark 1970s tax revolt, a determined group of activists say the moment is right for another voter uprising in California, where recession-battered residents have been hit with the highest income and sales tax rates in the nation.

And like Proposition 13, the 1978 ballot measure that transformed the state's political landscape and ignited tax-reform movements nationwide, they see the next backlash coming not from either major political party, but from the people.

If the anti-tax crusaders can galvanize voter discontent, they hope to roll back the latest tax hikes, impose permanent, iron-clad spending caps on Sacramento lawmakers and make the issue central in the 2010 gubernatorial election.

"There's a lot of latent anger boiling to the surface out there," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a group named after the California anti-tax crusader who spearheaded Prop 13.

It doesn't matter. Garamendi is not a player in the Governor's race.

New York prosecutors joined with the Obama administration on Tuesday to shut down a China-based network that allegedly supplied Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes with the unwitting aid of some of Wall Street’s biggest banks.

The action is likely to prove a test of the administration’s relationship with Beijing, which to date has been unenthusiastic about sanctions on Tehran. The move came as US Vice-President Joe Biden warned Israel not to strike Iran and as Washington sought to win time for possible negotiations with the Islamic Republic by slowing down Tehran’s progress towards nuclear weapons capability.