Below the Fold for March 16

Let's check out some political stories we found Below the Fold:

Smog of War

Hans Blix, the chief United Nations weapons inspector, told an MTV News audience this week that he had discovered the chief treat to global peace and stability:

"Long term, I am more worried about the environmental problems like global warming than about the use of armed force on the large scale."

There's some bad news for the Swede: The prestigious scientific journal, Nature has just published two studies that demolish the global-warming hypothesis. One slaps down the claim that carbon dioxide emissions heat up the planet. The other indicates that tree-sitting environmentalists may in fact be eco-terrorists. The study, repeating a prior claim by noted scientist Ronald Reagan, says that evergreen trees emit more smog-producing nitrogen than all the world's cars trucks and factories combined.

Delayed Apology Syndrome?

It took a mere 13 days for Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, to apologize for likening Usama bin Laden and Al Qaeda to George Washington and America's revolutionary fighters.

In brief remarks, Friday night to 45 people at a Toledo VFW Hall, Kaptur said: "If my remarks have hurt anyone, I'm sorry." Then she invited further condemnation by saying: "What I said was twisted... people read the twist, not what I said."

Absent Minded?

One of President Clinton's former military aides, retired Col. Robert Patterson, has written a book about his times with the former commander in chief. Among the revelations: President Clinton misplaced the nuclear codes the day the Monica Lewinsky story broke; the chief was too busy watching golf on TV one day in 1996 to sign off on a plan to bomb Iraq; and was MIA when it came time to make decisions about Usama bin Laden.

Patterson, who was detailed to carry the "nuclear football" for Clinton for two years, also says that on the day the president was to trade in the nuclear launch codes, they were missing.