Midday open thread

• CREW releases its list of Top 10 ethics scandals of 2007.
• The NYT has a must-read on what the future holds for the Sunni Awakening in Iraq

  But it is also clear that there is little loyalty, in either direction, between the Sunni groups and the Shiites who run the government.

  
  The Americans are haunted by the possibility that Iraq could go the way of Afghanistan, where Americans initially bought the loyalty of tribal leaders only to have some of them gravitate back to the Taliban when the money stopped...

  
  “Many people believe this will end with tens of thousands of armed people, primarily Sunnis, and this will excite the Shiite militias to grow and in the end it will grow into a civil war,” said Safa Hussein, the deputy national security adviser and a point man on the Awakening program for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

• Krugman making more sense: Forget about Bush-and the middle ground

  What progressives should be focused on now is taking on the political movement that brought Bush to power. In short, what we need right now isn't Bush bashing—what we need is partisanship.

• USA Today has a so-called year in science review. Note the boldface:

  (Climate change) led the pack as the main science story of 
2007. This was a year in which the topic moved from being theory to 
fact in the scientific world and, perhaps more important, in the 
minds of many Americans.

  Um, no. It's been considered a fact in the scientific community for many years, 
unless you're talking to dumbasses Exxon-funded climate change denying "scientists" like Patrick Michaels and friends.

• Reuters reports on new studies that reflect poorly on health care for poor Americans:

  Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black 
children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans...

  
  "I feel strongly that this is such an important health issue and yet because it only affects the poor it has been ignored," (Dr. Peter) Hotez said.

• More Republican civil war.

  Mike Huckabee is overselling his record of cracking down on illegal aliens as governor, claiming he ordered his state police to arrest illegal aliens when in fact he never signed the agreement with federal authorities that would have allowed it.

• Meanwhile the Boston Globe reports that the Huckster is getting help from home-school and anti-tax activists.
• The WH logs recording visits by top theocrats such as Jerry Falwell and James Dobson won't be made public until the Cheney administration completes its appeal for keeping the information a presidential secret.
• Dick Cheney appears to be the hidden hand behind the EPA's decision to refuse to permit California to set more stringent auto emission standards. It's a story developed over the last week by the Detroit News and LA Times. See this diary by DWG.