Couldn’t Help But Notice (081307)

John Murtha’s office has a hang-up about the clearing of Haditha Marines he irresponsibly maligned last year.

Kevin at Pundit Review observes, and asks: “(Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt) is now the third Haditha Marine cleared. How does Murtha sleep at night?”

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Redbook goes the Cosmo route, and perhaps worse. “Mainstream” women’s magazines are no longer kid-safe. How disappointing.

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The Google News story-subject feedback mechanism described here looks promising. But I have to wonder about what happens if it gains wide acceptance. Will lazy journalists use its existence as a reason not to attempt get comments from people they are covering before they (the journalists) publish their stories?

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This ought to be a fun battle to watch — Globalarmists vs. organic farming advocates, who turn out to be greenhouse gas generators when compared to their genetically modified (GM) farming counterparts:

Over the past ten years US farmers have eagerly adopted GM crops with 84 percent of corn, 90 percent of soy and 85 percent of cotton now planted with GM varieties. In Canada, farmers have increased no-tillage canola from 0.8 million hectares to 2.6 million hectares. Ninety five percent of this acreage is planted with GM herbicide tolerant canola.

(But) some have suggested a complete conversion to organic agriculture. But, on average, organic agriculture produces 30 percent less per hectare than conventional farms. If we were to convert entirely to organic agriculture, we would need at least 30 percent more farmland. Significant amounts of the remaining wilderness would have to be ploughed under to maintain current food production levels.

The conversion to organic farming would also require a tremendous increase in animals to generate manure fertilizer. Anyone who has ever been near the back end of a cow knows this would significantly increase a different greenhouse gas.

….. Organic farming practices generate significantly greater CO2 emissions while producing less than conventional agriculture. On the other hand, growing genetically modified crops allow the farmer to reduce CO2 emissions while maintaining yields.

Research has demonstrated soil and water conservation benefits of genetically modified HT (herbicide tolerant) crops. It is now clear that these products of modern biotechnology can also help farmers reduce agriculture based CO2 emissions.

I think the whole carbon-footprint obsession is a load of, well, cow manure. But if you buy into it, it makes the famine-relief community’s objections to using genetically modified foods in food programs all the more outrageous.

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As is the case in Dayton, the firing (HT RAB) of four Cleveland city workers in enforcing a residency-requirement rule that has been outlawed statewide and upheld by the courts is totally indefensible. Pending an appeal, you’re supposed to comply with the law, not ignore it.

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Jennifer Loven, Scott Lindlaw (”My mission is to see that George Bush is not re-elected”; background here), Martin Crutsinger (latest example here) — These are Associated Press reporters shown to be chronically, perhaps even congenitally, biased. The first two are deeply afflicted with Bush Derangement Syndrome, while Crutsinger seems functionally incapable of unconditionally acknowledging good business and economic news when it occurs.

Add Glen Johnson to the list of AP reporters whose every story should be presumptively suspect. Compare Johnson’s story on Mitt Romney (link is to unbylined MSNBC report; Johnson’s byline in the same story appears at this link, which will move in a few days) to Romney’s full response to the question posed as transcribed by Hugh Hewitt, who notes:

AP left out both the text of the question and all of the italicized comments. Nice reporting, eh?

No. Just typical.