Morning Read: 6/28/09

» Washington Monthly: Ideological Inference ... Benen breaks down an element of the Dan Froomkin departure that's worth some reflection. Namely, the assumption of ideology based on how a writer covers a President. As completely banal as the "liberal bias" mythology is, I might be more willing to just accept the point of Froomkin being some kind of liberal if the same proponents of said myth would admit the equally "logical" conclusion that Jake Tapper is conservative because of the way he covers the White House. Of course, neither point would be accurate, but the intellectual consistency on the part of the believers would be a refreshing change. Unfortunately, as we've seen, when the party labels are reversed in real life examples of faulty reporting, the failings that affect Republicans somehow mean the media is liberal, while the reverse never - and I mean never - mean that the media is conservative.

» Chron: Wild hogs wreaking havoc (Shannon Tompkins) ... Everything you ever wanted to know about feral hogs. Or, at least more than I believe to be the average of what people already know about feral hogs. There's just something about the subject that I find mildly amusing.

» NYT: Climate Change Bill May Be Election-Year Issue (Carl Hulse) ... I'm a little curious to know exactly when the concept of cap & trade became anathema to conservatives. When the concept was incorporated into the 1990 Clean Air Act (for SO2 emissions), it passed both houses with very large margins. In fact, to the point there was opposition to the idea, it came then from liberals worried that the concept allowed for legalizing pollution. Whatever, I guess. The talking points have been dispensed and the parroting class will be chirping their newfound beliefs as strongly as they will the main chorus of better-aged talking points.

» Chron: The next step in space exploration (Bob Crippen) ... the latest in NASA defenses ....

Critics may question the benefits of a strong space program, but America's space industry is a critical component of both our economy and our legacy of exploration. Wernher von Braun, who developed the Saturn V rocket that propelled Apollo to the moon, answered the critics of his day with the facts:

"The NASA budget is not being spent on the moon. It is being spent right here on Earth. It provides new jobs, new products, new processes, new companies and whole new industries."

If any part of that were true, it would be a perfect rationale for unleashing NASA to the joys of the private sector. Unfortunately, due to the vagueness of the benefits, there's no reason to take them at face value.

» NYT: Saving a Kashmiri Village After Remaking His Life ... your weekly feel-good story here. Todd Shea seems to have made a niche for himself in the world of disaster relief. That his latest finds him in what would otherwise seem to be inhospitable turf is nothing short of remarkable.