This is guaranteed to get the fundies’ and creationists’ knickers in a twist: scientists in Germany, in collaboration with an American company, extract Neanderthal DNA. Neantherthals vanished about 30,000 years ago, or about 24,000 years before that six day thing.

But it gets better:

If Dr. Paabo and 454 Life Sciences should succeed in reconstructing the entire Neanderthal genome, it might in theory be possible to bring the species back from extinction by inserting the Neanderthal genome into a human egg and having volunteers bear Neanderthal infants. This might be the best possible way of finding out what each Neanderthal gene does, but there would be daunting ethical problems in bringing a Neanderthal child into the world again.

How many years ago was Jurassic Park released? But at least this time, we’d be cousins, not dinner.

I had never heard of this source, but the name seems apt: OhmyNews.

The crisis in Somalia has a new dimension now that neighboring Ethiopia has sent its military into the country to protect the weak interim government from advancing Islamist militants.

The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which last month defeated warlords in Mogadishu, and took over the capital, had promised in principle not to attack the interim government.

Since the takeover, Ethiopia had made it clear that it would closely watch the situation and would not hesitate to take up arms against the Islamists if they went anywhere near the seat of the interim government, which is based in Baidoa.

So now even Ethiopia is doing a military intervention? Truly, the world has gone mad.

More than one hundred Iraqi citizens died per day during June. If that’s winning, I sure as hell would hate to see losing. And I think we can safely stop talking about “descending into civil war”; that elevator has reached the basement.

But toward the end of the article came a statement that made me boggle.

The American energy secretary, Samuel W. Bodman, who met with Iraq’s oil and electricity ministers in Baghdad, had a rosy view of progress here since his last visit in 2003.

“The situation seems far more stable than when I was here two or three years ago,” he said in an interview in the fortified Green Zone. “The security seems better, people are more relaxed. There is an optimism, at least among the people I talked to.”

Among the people you talked to in the freakin’ Green Zone, maybe, though I doubt that those who live outside of it would agree. Even by Bushian standards, this statement defies belief.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, accused Cheney, Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of revealing Plame's CIA identity in seeking revenge against Wilson for criticizing the Bush administration's motives in Iraq.

It will be interesting if Cheney claims that he shouldn’t be sued while he’s still in office. That worked so well for Bill Clinton.

John found a religious group that’s upset with another religious group that’s upset about torture. (Yeah, I know.)

(AgapePress) - A conservative Christian leader says the organization known as the National Religious Campaign Against Torture isn't saying anything about torture in places like North Korea, China, and Saudi Arabia -- but instead is focusing its ire upon the U.S. and the Bush administration.

Mark Tooley directs the United Methodist Committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), based in Washington, DC. Tooley says he has reviewed the declaration issued by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and has noted the document does not say anything about torture in places where it really occurs. That causes him to question the group's motive.

"If this group were genuinely interested in torture, of course they would be addressing those regimes that actively and deliberately do practice torture rather than focusing exclusively on the United States," he comments. He says he detects a "double standard" in the campaign against torture. "[It] is primarily a creation of the religious left and whose interest is not so much in torture, per se, but about opposing U.S. foreign policy."

[Emphasis added]

John makes his own points, but I’ll add one more. American critics of American policies have been bashed just this way for years. Noam Chomsky is not everyone’s favorite guy, but he’s made many cogent criticisms of U.S. policy over the years. During the Cold War, he was constantly slammed, “Why don’t you criticize the Soviet Union or Red China instead of always trashing America?” His (paraphrased) reply was on point: Because I don’t live there and there’s nothing I can say or do to influence their policies. I do live here, and it’s here that I can do something.

I hope members of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture have thick skins.

Everybody’s piling on this from Crooks and Liars. But what the heck?

Q Mr. President, if I could follow up, you say diplomacy takes time –
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, it does.

Q — but it was four years ago that you labeled North Korea a member of the "axis of evil." And since then it’s increased its nuclear arsenal, it’s abandoned six-party talks and now these missile launches –

THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you a question. It’s increased it’s — that’s an interesting statement: "North Korea has increased its nuclear arsenal." Can you verify that?

Um, George? Isn’t that your job? Just asking.

From the Times:

In Big Shift, U.S. to Follow Geneva Treaty for Detainees

Once upon a time, this wouldn’t be news. It would be taken for granted.

So George is taking his act on the road:

[Dan ]Bartlett said the Chicago trip was the beginning of occasional presidential trips around the country to learn what's on Americans' minds.

[…]

It also provides Bush with an opportunity for more exposure at a time when his popularity is low and Americans are unhappy with his handling of Iraq and the economy.

Good for him. The more he exposed himself on his Social Security tour, the less people liked it. The more he exposed himself after Katrina, the less people liked him. I wish him similar success.