Obama just doesn't understand his job as war chief of this big crazy tribe. A war chief doesn't have to win; only a wonk's view of the world would see things that way. A war chief has to look like a war chief and talk like one. And yell a lot. Obama just can't manage that, and when he tries, he makes us feel stupid. He embarrasses us, trying to sing along to a tune you know he thinks is just dumb.

It's a shame in a way, because his war wonks did a pretty good job actually running the wars. I like to think of them grumbling about it now, a bunch of youngish dressy-casual technocrats drowning their sorrows in frappucinos at some suburban DC Starbucks, counting off their so-what accomplishments: "We got out of Iraq ... not one American killed there this year; we took down Qaddafi without one single American casualty; we killed bin Laden right in front of the Pakistani Army and got away with it; what does a C-in-C have to do to get a little respect around here?"

The answer is: He has to look convincing when he holds our enemy's head up on a stick and shows it to the crowd, all drippy and drawing flies. That's what we want, and Obama, with all that creepy self-control, is the last guy you'd pick for that job.

Officials at Nasa have been given an unexpected gift by American spy chiefs: a pair of space telescopes, each as large as the Hubble observatory.

The huge instruments were designed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), a secretive intelligence agency, to peer down on sites in the Middle East and former Soviet Union. However, the project was cancelled and now Nasa has been presented with the leftover instruments. One group of astronomers has already begun work on plans to use a telescope to help in the hunt for life on other worlds.

"This is a gift that we have to take advantage of," said Dr Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. "These are very large telescopes, and from their design specifications they appear ideal for carrying out large surveys of the heavens, including searches for Earth-like worlds orbiting stars near our solar system."

Telegraph - Andrew Gilligan - No way to run a grown-up railway

Yet hard as it may be to get worked up about which one of two unappealing companies gets to paint its logo on some trains, Sir Richard has done us a big favour by exposing the broken nature of the franchising system. Last year, the Government tried to reform rail franchises to avoid the "one-way bet" of revenue support. They made franchisees put up a risk-related "performance bond" to guard against broken promises, and they linked future revenue demands and revenue support to future changes in the economy. West Coast is the first franchise to be let under the new rules. But it is precisely these calculations, the level of the performance bond and the likely changes in the economy, that the civil servants assessing Virgin against First appear to have got so badly wrong.
[....]
 In the end, however, the most lasting effect of the Virgin rebirth will be to fuel the growing consensus that the railways cannot go on like this. The system's effort to share risk between public and private always seems to work against the taxpayer and farepayer. One option would be to move to a "concession" form of franchising, as on London's buses and many European regional railways, where the company is no more than a contractor.

Britain's second-most important main line, East Coast, offers a more radical alternative......

Guardian - Republican congressman Paul Broun dismisses evolution and other theories

A Republican congressman who sits on the science committee of the House of Representatives has dismissed evolution, the Big Bang theory and embryology as "lies straight from the pit of hell".
[...]
In the clip, Broun, who is a doctor, says that "as a scientist" he has found data that shows the earth is no older than 9,000 years and was created in six days. Mainstream scientific thought holds that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, give or take the odd millennia.

Broun also says that theories regarding the origins of the universe and evolution represent "lies to try and keep me and all the folk that were taught that from understanding that they need a saviour".

apparently he is unopposed in the next election..why ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

Guardian - Gary johnston - Legalising marijuana: most Americans get it, so when will our politicians?

Prohibition in the US was a huge, miserable failure. During its 13-year run, beginning in 1920, Prohibition caused a massive rise in organized crime and actually increased alcohol consumption instead of curtail it.

After Prohibition's repeal in 1933, kids didn't start drinking in record numbers. Society didn't collapse. Today, bathtub gin dealers don't run amok on playgrounds; microbreweries don't protect their turf with automatic weapons. Instead, a safe environment to drink was created when the government began regulating and taxing alcohol.

And yet, here we are in 2012, giving Prohibition another shot. For lack of a better word, that's just stupid.

Last year, the European Commission decided to lower the proportion by which EU-sponsored projects require co-financing to help Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Latvia and Hungary, which have all benefited from different forms of bailouts in recent years.

Under EU rules, member countries have to provide at least 15% of the funding of EU-sponsored projects from their own budget. Under the Commission proposal, the EU contribution could be increased to a maximum of 95% if requested by one of the countries concerned.

But the German paper says that in the new Multiannual Financial Framework (jargon for the long-term EU budget), the rules for financing will return to the "pre-crisis status".

Live-blogging Venezuela Election: UPDATE 1:20 PM EDT: Peruvian politician and author Mario Vargas Llosa has added his voice to those of other outside fear-mongers warning of possible "fraud" that would ensure a Chavez victory, among other incendiary comments.

UPDATE 1:53 PM: An election monitor reports that:

In the Arevalo Gonzalez in Higuerote, a national observer comments that, in the eight centers he has visited in Miranda State, he has encountered no serious incidents and only 3 accidental blank votes. He's from the Red de Observadores Electorales de Venezuela, which has more than 600 observers spread out throughout the country.

The state television station VTV has a message at the bottom of the screen that reads: one must WAIT to see the face of the candidate before pressing VOTE (Deben ESPERAR ver el rostro de su candidato para presionar VOTAR). The message hasn't changed for at least half an hour.