Last Best Chance

American voters are turning against the Iraq war, worrying about the economy and losing faith in their political leaders.

Now there's more food for thought in the The New Yorker.

Enough, in fact, to give what most New Yorkers would call agita.

The Talk of the Town this week features an article by Hendrik Hertzberg, about a political hot potato in the form of a short film, Last Best Chance.

Watch the trailer (Windows Media Player)

"It has no sex scenes, no car chases, and no wisecracking sidekicks, and it is only forty-five minutes long," Hertzberg writes, "but it lays out a frighteningly plausible narrative of how terrorists might buy or steal the makings of a nuclear bomb, assemble one, smuggle it halfway around the world, and send it on its way to an American city in an S.U.V."

OK, stop trying to scare us. That's ridiculous. Homeland Security is a No. 1 priority of the Bush administration since 9/11, no?

Sadly, no - at least when it comes to preventing nuclear materials from ever getting here.

But thanks to the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program - lead by Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar (who, by the way, are in hot contention for this year's Nobel Peace Prize) - the hunt is on for weapons of mass destruction that have, in fact, solid basis in reality.

The film about them (Last Best Chance on HBO beginning October 17) was recently previewed at the Park Avenue offices of the Council on Foreign Relations, and sadly illustrates the neglect that the government is showering on the problem.

Mired down in Iraq at the moment, it seems the White House continues to ignore the very real threat posed by former Soviet nuclear materials that, inevitably, will be gotten to by Al Qaeda or other terrrorist organizations first. That is, if the U.S. or Europe don't beat them to it.

Tying up these extremely lethal loose cannons has been ongoing since 1991.

Then, "the United States launched a program aimed at giving the Russians financial and technical help in locking down their bombs," says Hertzberg. "Fourteen years later, half of Russia`s material is still unsecured, and at the present rate the job won`t be finished until 2022." [italics ours]. The author concludes, "We don`t have that long."

Surely, the Bush administration must suspect that Al Qaeda currently has in its crosshairs Los Angeles, Melbourne, Australia, or perhaps a replay in New York or London, this time with even more devastating casualties.

The 9/11 Commission has already reported that al Qaeda has been trying to acquire nuclear weapons for ten years and cited reports that bin Laden wants to carry out a "Hiroshima" somewhere.

Can the current administration afford NOT to "prioritize" this one?

Or will the assertion be made - too late - that nobody could have known this was coming?

Related links:

Nuclear Threat Initiative

Get a Free DVD
Copy of Last Best Chance

ABC Nightline with Ted Koppel May 18, 2005
Regarding Last Best Chance (Adobe Acrobat PDF file)

The Brain Gain

One of our editors is at it again.

Espousing a pet theory on human evolution, he mixes quasi-religion and science to conclude that, as a species, we haven't even begun to grow up.

Now, a new report has given this far-out idea credence with recent findings in two related papers published in the journal Science, wherein University of Chicago researchers report that two genes linked to brain size are rapidly evolving in humans.

In short, our brains have undergone substantial evolution in the last 60,000 years, leading to the surprising suggestion that the human brain will get larger. Closer to home, these new findings have resulted in at least one swelled head right here at Chiff.com. We're not naming names.

But aren't humans at the very pinnacle of evolution? The most intelligent species on the planet? Do we not RULE? With a little luck, we can beat back nature and overcome any obstacle presented to us, anytime we want to.

"Have you read the headlines lately?" says our theorist-in-residence.

As the human brain evolves in the future, he muses, it will be as common as learning multiplication tables for everyone to exhibit creative intelligence, scientific insight, cosmic consciousness, and telepathic abilities.

Recall all those sci-fi movies? You know, the ones featuring aliens from another planet with the huge eyes and big brains? Well, they are us.

"Kinda makes you want to hang around another 60,000 years to see what happens, huh?"

We can't wait.

Gathering Storm

It's not another hurricane, although tropical storm Ophelia is threatening Florida this week. But batten down the hatches. It's a media storm of epic proportions which is aimed straight at Washington following the aftermath of Katrina.

By any measure, the latest polls for President George Bush are the worst of his administration, showing that two-thirds of Americans believe the federal government was at fault, both before and after the Katrina disaster, this following the latest news that only 34 percent of Americans, according to a CNN/USA poll, believe that they are safer because of the invasion in Iraq.

BARBARA WATCH

Only the latest in a rogue's gallery of talking heads in Katrina's aftermath, now the president's
mother is making headlines over a 'Most Popular' rated story at the Yahoo! daily news roundup this week. The item culled from The Nation (with quotes heard on radio interviews nationwide) was penned by columnist John Nichols who writes:

"On the heels of the president's 'What, me worry?' response to the death, destruction and dislocation that followed upon Hurricane Katrina comes the news of his mother's Labor Day visit with hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston.

Commenting on the facilities that have been set up for the evacuees -- cots crammed side-by-side in a huge stadium where the lights never go out and the sound of sobbing children never completely ceases -- former First Lady Barbara Bush concluded that the poor people of New Orleans had lucked out.

'Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them,' Mrs. Bush told American Public Media's 'Marketplace' program, before returning to her multi-million
dollar Houston home."

Here is a link to the raw audio of that interview. RealPlayer required.

CINDY WATCH

The precipitous drop in support for the war in Iraq was reflected in a solitary protest begun by Cindy Sheehan, the mother of the American soldier, Casey Sheehan, who was killed only weeks into his tour in Iraq.

Among Sheehan's supporters are more mothers and other relatives of Iraq War dead who are likely to follow her bus tour to Washington, planning to to camp out there in the coming months in not-so-silent protest.

VALERIE WATCH

Now heading into September, it's the end of the line for federal prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald who soon will be required to point fingers and present evidence amassed in a months-long investigation into the Valerie Plame Affair.

If you've just arrived on the planet, the former CIA operative, Valerie Plame, (married to career diplomat and Mideast expert, Joe Wilson) took the heat from the administration in 2003 for her husband's badmouthing the Iraq War. So who was the bad guy inside the White House who revealed her identity? Was it "Bush's Brain," Karl Rove? Or Vice President Dick Cheney's right-hand man, Scooter Libby?

BUSH WATCH

Might President Bush, who once ran on a platform of strength and decisiveness, be entering premature lame duck status only a year into his second term?

The radar is up.

Katrina SOS

Katrina bloggers are almost apoplectic at what's not being done as heartwrenching pictures of Katrina victims continue after three days.

The days ahead will tell if Katrina was solely to blame for the dire circumstances that New Orleans now finds itself in, or whether it is the lack of will and planning on the part of the country's leadership who are now - rightly or wrongly - taking the heat.

Overseas, a stunned world reacts as they watch the planet's only remaining superpower respond with apparent confusion, indecision and deadly delays.

Citizens worlwide, meanwhile, continue to support Katrina's victims with record-breaking contributions to the Red Cross in the U.S., UK and to Red Cross International.

We will continue to update this page in the days to come as part of the Katrina Internet effort to shine a brighter spotlight on desperate scenes in Louisiana, Mississippi and throughout the Gulf Coast...

Rescuers, Residents
Struggle On U.S. Gulf Coast

Rescue Efforts Continue,
Many Still Stranded

Biloxi Survivors Discuss
Escaping Wall of Water