[+/-] When republicans attack

The rethuglican war on democracy continues today with three offensives. First, Reuters reports that a journalist working for Reuters Television was shot dead Sunday in Baghdad by American forces. The death brings to 66 the number of journalists and their aides killed in Iraq since the start of the invasion in 2003, surpassing the 63 journalists killed over 20 years of conflict in Vietnam.

Second, a former top US Army procurement official who raised concerns about Halliburton Co.'s contracts in Iraq plans to sue the Army after being demoted for blowing the whistle.

Finally, some of America's leading scientists have accused Republican politicians of intimidating climate-change experts by placing them under unprecedented scrutiny:

A far-reaching inquiry into the careers of three of the US's most senior climate specialists has been launched by Joe Barton, the chairman of the House of Representatives committee on energy and commerce. He has demanded details of all their sources of funding, methods and everything they have ever published.

Mr Barton, a Texan closely associated with the fossil-fuel lobby, has spent his 11 years as chairman opposing every piece of legislation designed to combat climate change.

Republican Sherwood Boehlert, the chairman of the house science committee, objected to what he called a "misguided and illegitimate investigation," and accused the committee of seeking to "erase the line between science and politics."