links for 2009-04-11

Governor Sarah Palin has urged the Secretary of Defense not to reduce the Missile Defense Agency’s budget. In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Governor Palin outlined her concerns about the proposed $1.4 billion in budget cuts to the agency.

“Your announcement of a proposed $1.4 billion reduction of the Missile Defense Agency’s budget is not the best decision for today’s threat environment. Alaska is committed to supporting continued missile defense implementation at Fort Greely and the development of future technology through our Kodiak Launch Complex, which has access to the Gulf of Alaska Maritime Exercise Area. This unique training space offers a safe and secure location to further develop and test future missile intercept technologies in conjunction with the latest sea-based and land-based radar.

Right to Life officials announced Thursday that, in addition to speaking to a sold-out crowd of 2,180 during the 6 p.m. banquet in The Centre's Bill Brooks Exhibition Hall, Palin will appear before people paying $16 per ticket to watch a live broadcast feed in the building's auditorium.

Right to Life officials had been working for weeks to confirm Palin's appearance in the auditorium with theater seating, where 564 of an available 2,500 tickets have been sold.

Palin, the Republican Party's 2008 nominee for vice president and a possible 2012 presidential candidate, will be accompanied by her husband, Todd Palin, and the couple's baby son, Trig.

Right to Life Executive Director Mary Ellen Van Dyke said Palin's appearance in the auditorium "makes this event extra special."

New rockets will by 2016 account for at least 80% of the strategic missile forces in Russia as it replaces its Soviet-era arsenal with new nuclear-capable missiles, the military said Friday.

"Plans for the development of the Russian strategic rocket forces through 2016 foresee a decrease in quantity and a transformation in quality at the same time, " Nikolai Solovstov, the commander of Russia's strategic missile forces, told reporters.

"Rocket systems with an extended shelf life will account for roughly 20%, while new rocket systems for at least 80% of the forces," said Colonel-General Solovtsov, quoted by the Russian news agencies.

In December, he announced that Russia would by 2020 replace its Soviet-era arsenal with new nuclear-capable intercontinental missiles capable of overcoming anti-missile defense measures by enemy states.

The weather was so nice in fact, that, after President Obama received his economic briefing and met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the Oval Office, the POTUS and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to hold their 4:15 meeting out behind the White House—next to the swing set installed for the Obama girls in March.

Republican strategist Karl Rove called Vice President Biden a "liar" on Thursday, dramatically escalating a feud between Biden and aides to former President George W. Bush over Biden's claims to have rebuked Bush in private meetings.

"I hate to say this, but he's a serial exaggerator," Rove told FOX News. "If I was being unkind I would say liar. But it is a habit he ought to drop."

Rove added: "You should not exaggerate and lie like this when you are the Vice President of the United States."

Biden's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, although Biden spokesman Jay Carney told Fox on Wednesday: "The vice president stands by his remarks."

Meghan McCain may be topping off her recent publicity blitz with a big payday: the daughter of former Republican presidential candidate John McCain has scored a six-figure book deal, according to the New York Observer.

Hyperion, which reportedly inked the deal with McCain, has not responded to a CNN request for comment or details on what would be the 24-year-old's second book. (Her first, released last fall, was a Simon & Schuster children's book about her father's life.)

McCain's attention-grabbing blog posts and television appearances over the past few months have kept her in the post-campaign spotlight, and made her one of the year's hottest young Republican pundits.

Member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan warns the United States about socialized/nationalized health care like the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. Hannan has called the NHS a "mistake for 60 years" and said, "People can see for themselves that Britain has become a place where foreigners fear to fall ill…."