I just came from the live webcast at the NY Botanical Gardens where Al Gore and an array of very distinquished climate scientists and environmentalists spoke this morning, so please excuse any inconsistencies in this report on it, as I am writing it from memory.

Knight Ridder (God love `em) has an article today about how the State Department, in a program under the supervision of Karen Hughes, has been screening out Bush critics from representing the U.S. overseas in speaking engagements.

WASHINGTON - The State Department has been using political litmus tests to screen private American citizens before they can be sent overseas to represent the United States, weeding out critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, according to department officials and internal e-mails.

Several authors are mentioned as being screened out of the program, as well as Sen. Obama: