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McCain Praises Egyptian Revolution »

So it’s a virus that only attacks al Qaeda? That’s pretty ingenious, and the only way to think of this as anything other than an ill-timed an opportunistic flip-flop. They think we’re not paying attention, that we’ll accept that Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. (Next week, we’ll explore why he didn’t use the term “refudiation”.)

Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona and independent Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut were in Egypt this weekend as the first visiting congressional delegation since Mubarak’s ouster. McCain and Lieberman met with officials in Egypt’s transitional government and even took a walk through Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the focal point of the uprising. At a news conference, McCain had warm words for the Egyptian revolution.

Sen. John McCain: “This revolution is a repudiation of al-Qaeda. This revolution has shown the people of the world, not just in the Arab world, that peaceful change can come about and violence and extremism is not required in order to achieve democracy and freedom. That’s why we are especially proud to be here, where history is being made for the entire world, not just the Arab world.”

McCain’s comments appear to differ from his stance during the height of the Egyptian uprising. Speaking on Fox News just days before Mubarak was forced to resign, McCain described the popular movements in the Arab world as a “virus.”

Sen. John McCain: “This virus is spreading throughout the Middle East. The president of Yemen, as you know, just made the announcement that he wasn’t running again. This, I would argue, is probably the most dangerous period of history in—of our entire involvement in the Middle East, at least in modern times.”

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) released analysis today of their American Power Act, or APA, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA’s analysis definitively demonstrates that we can reduce our carbon pollution and jumpstart the clean energy economy at a very small cost to American consumers. This analysis is also consistent with several other studies showing that the American Power Act would create jobs, reduce consumer energy prices, and help the United States lead the world toward stabilizing carbon emissions at safe levels by 2050.

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Andrew Light & Richard W. Caperton

“EPA modeling shows American Power Act brings economic and climate benefits” | Grist

The picture is more complicated than the EPA analysis would indicate, but read the whole article for the fuller view.

Chiefly at issue are scenarios about “what developing countries will do,” but I think that arms control research is instructive. Peace research shows that an initial unilateral offer, followed by “tit for tat” responses in kind, is a realistic path to a safer future. This is good news.

This government is drowning us all!

(via Peace Now : Activities > Countrywide Activities)

Peace Now will demonstrate tomorrow evening “to express the frustration and anger towards our government headed by Netanyahu, Barak and Lieberman. The demonstration will not be against the IDF.”