Nepal is in the throes of a democratic revolution.

"We call upon people from all walks of life to take to the streets and bring everything in the capital and all across the country to a complete halt."

Where is President Bush and his pro-democracy agenda?

President George W. Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put aside their differences in a show of Republican solidarity on Friday after Bush approved federal help to shore up the state's fragile levee system.

"He is a really interesting man," Bush said of his fellow Republican. "He didn't have to run for office, but chose to do so and I admire that in you, I admire somebody who doesn't always take the comfortable way in life."

What a silly comment. Who has to run for the governorship? (Apparently, the elder Bush forced W to run in Texas, and perhaps Jeb to run in Florida.) Maybe the comment isn't so silly after all ...

Why doesn't CNN tell you about Bush's position on Nepal?

In a blunt message to Nepal’s King Gyanendra, the Bush administration has said he should return power to the parties and adopt a more ceremonial role in the political process.

"It is time for the King to return political power to the parties so they can appoint a prime minister and take over governance. It is time for the King to adopt a more ceremonial role and let the political process go forward," the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, Mr Richard Boucher told reporters at a roundtable at the state department.

At the State web site:

The United States salutes the people of Nepal's courage and resilience in their struggle for democracy. We are pleased that King Gyanendra's message today made clear that sovereignty resides with the people. We expect the King to live up to his words, and allow the parties to form a government. We urge the parties to respond quickly by choosing a prime minister and a cabinet. The people of Nepal deserve a democratic government that can return stability and peace to their country. We urge all sides to refrain from violence to allow the restoration of democracy to take place swiftly and peacefully.

It's interesting that these statements are occurring only now, when protestors are in the streets. What did they have to say when it happened? Now they're saying:

"King Gyanendra's decision 14 months ago to impose direct palace rule in Nepal has failed in every regard."

As though the overthrow of democracy would have been OK if only he had been a more effective dictator.

In February 2005, when the K... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

Embattled King of Nepal Offers Gesture to Protesters

To help atone for their environmental sins, some SUV drivers are turning to groups on the Internet that offer pain-free ways to assuage their guilt while promoting clean energy.

It involves buying something known as a carbon offset: a relatively inexpensive way to stimulate the production of clean electricity. Just go to one of several carbon-offset Web sites, calculate the amount of carbon dioxide produced when you drive, fly or otherwise burn fossil fuels, and then buy an offset that pays for an equivalent amount of clean energy.

Gas Guzzlers Find Price of Forgivenes

Mr. Bennett teaches the "Hidden Pursuit" escape and evasion class to college seniors who have forgone the wet T-shirt contests and beer bongs of Cancun, Mexico, and Fort Lauderdale, for the chance to dodge simulated gunshots and cannon explosions at Mountain Shepherd Wilderness Survival School in Amherst, Va.

So-called survival and wilderness schools where students learn team-building and leadership skills through building fires and foraging for food have been around for decades, but Mr. Bennett's course is one of a handful of new offerings around the country that feature a more extreme kind of challenge. For fees that range from a few hundred dollars for a two-day class to a few thousand for adventures that can be four weeks long, those willing can pay to be pursued by make-believe assailants, survive hypothetical plane crashes and car accidents, and hunt down guerrillas.

This sounds remarkably like a terror training camp.

Do you think al-Qaeda could get away with setting up training camps in Western democracies, so long as they sell them as entertainment?

Manly Men Answer Call of the Wild

The operative, Marwan Hadid al-Suri, 38, also known as Abu Marwan, was shot to death on Thursday during a gunfight outside Khaar, a tribal area close to the Afghan border. Mr. Suri was killed after his bus was stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint. He shot one of the soldiers and was fired upon as he tried to flee.

"This is a big achievement because he was Al Qaeda's explosives expert."

A Qaeda Bomb Expert Killed in Pakistan Was a Paymaster

Congratulations to Elonka on making prime coverage in the New York Times ...

For nearly 16 years, puzzle enthusiasts have labored to decipher an 865-character coded message stenciled into a sculpture on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters in Langley, Va. This week, the sculptor gave them an unsettling but hopeful surprise: part of the message they thought they had deciphered years ago actually says something else.

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Sanborn left a phone message for Elonka Dunin, a computer game developer who also runs an e-mail list for enthusiasts trying to solve the "Kryptos" puzzle. For the first time, Mr. Sanborn had done a line-by-line analysis of his text with what Mr. Gillogly and Mr. Stein had offered as the solution and discovered that part of the solved text was incorrect.

Within minutes, Ms. Dunin called back, and Mr. Sanborn told her that in the second section, one of the X's he had used as a separator between sentences had been omitted, altering the solution. "He was concerned that it had been widely published incorrectly," Ms. Dunin said.

Ms. Dunin excitedly started sending instant messages ...

A Break for Code Breakers on a C.I.A. Mystery

"Everything is miserable."

The unemployed pass their time smoking tobacco at a teahouse. Many in Iran turn to opium.

While the world focuses on Iran's nuclear ambitions, Iranians focus on the unmet aspirations of the two-thirds of the population that is younger than 30. Nearly three decades after a revolution that swept aside a monarchist system grounded in privilege, the typical Iranian has seen average income shrink under a religious government that has cultivated an elite of its own atop a profoundly dysfunctional economy.

The 80 percent of the population working in the private sector struggles mightily to make a living in the 20 percent of the economy that is not controlled by the government. The end product is a frustration edging into resentment that informs every private conversation with ordinary Iranians and frames every public issue.

As Iran Presses Its Ambitions, Its Young See Theirs Denied

The Pentagon hopes to save at least $2 billion after trimming a troubled $34 billion radio project, the Defense Department said.

After more than a year of restructuring, the Joint Tactical Radio System remains in limbo. Program officials have shuffled the program structure and mapped out a new outline, but details remain hazy.

DoD Trims Troubled Radio Project, Hopes To Save Billions

A bomb scare that shut down security checkpoints for two hours at Atlanta's airport was the result of a computer software glitch, the nation's top security administrator said.

Transportation Security Administration Director Kip Hawley said a screener at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport spotted what looked like an explosive on an X-ray machine. It was a false alarm. Hawley apologized for the numerous flight delays.

Computer Glitch Blamed in Atlanta Airport Bomb Scare

Bearing "true faith" to the Constitution requires military personnel to speak out, regardless of the cost, when they think our civilian leaders have gone beyond the pale. Both our democracy and the lives of the soldiers who fight in our name depend on it. If officers remain silent when our military policies go terribly wrong, there's little the rest of us can do to set things right again.

A 4-star defense of the republic

Joshua B. Bolten, the new White House chief of staff, has raised the possibility of moving Harriet E. Miers from her job as President Bush's counsel as part of a continuing shake-up of the West Wing, an influential Republican with close ties to Mr. Bolten said Thursday.

It was not clear whether Mr. Bolten was floating a trial balloon to gauge White House reaction to the idea, or whether he might have been intending to send a signal to Ms. Miers that he would like her to think about leaving on her own.

Bush Counsel May Be Next in Shake-Up