links for 2009-12-04

South Carolina’s Tea Party Senator, Jim DeMint, is either quite serious about his perpetual campaign for “purity” or else he is pandering to the far right. When one considers that the combined voting power of the far right who adores him and five bucks can get you a frap at Starbucks, it is entirely possible he is quite sincere.

DeMint is a big supporter of Chuck DeVore who is going all out against Carly Fiorina in California. If this is any indication, DeVore is not exactly a class act.

“…I’m not exactly sure what California Senate candidate Chuck DeVore, running to Fiorina’s right in the Republican primary, is trying to achieve with this Twitter taunt:

@carlyforca has been following the same 314 on Twitter for months. I follow 9,044. I listen to those whose votes I ask for. #tcot #gop #rs…”

Further proof that Rudy Giuliani is less than focused on running for office has emerged in an unlikely spot – Rio de Janeiro.

Brazilian officials, joined by Giuliani in sunny Rio, announced Thursday they would hire the former mayor as a long-term security advisor for the 2016 Olympic Games in the city.

"He's going to help us in day-to-day security and, especially, with an eye toward … the Olympic Games," said Sergio Cabral, the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, after eating lunch with Giuliani.

Giuliani's continuing efforts to boost his bottom line – and that of his security firm, Giuliani Security & Safety, which technically holds the Rio contract – would not preclude him from running for U.S. Senate, as some suggest the mayor is considering.
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I did not think Rudy would run for the Senate, despite his lead in early polling.

DeVore's idea was to give pregnant and post-pregnant women some special so-called "handicapped" parking privileges. More specifically, a bill recently introduced by DeVore, AB 1940, would have defined women's last trimester of pregnancy and the first two months after birth as a time of "temporary disability," which would have entitled them to obtain handicapped placards and to park in most handicapped spots during that five-month period.

"This is a reasonable accommodation," said DeVore, R-Irvine, adding that the idea came from a constituent who had recently struggled with balancing late pregnancy and early motherhood with the driving – and parking – demands of modern urban life. DeVore said he also ran the idea past his closest and wisest advisor – which is to say, Mrs. DeVore, the mother of their two children.
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Talk about Nanny-Statism.

Good Grief, Chuck – Listen to Your wife , would you?

We're pleased a Nanny State intrusion wisely was rejected Monday in a legislative committee vote that killed Assemblyman Chuck DeVore's plan to extend special parking privileges to pregnant women.

Mr. DeVore, R-Irvine, often has lambasted Nanny Staters for their know-it-all intrusions into peoples' lives. But apparently he isn't immune to the "fix-everyone's-problem" syndrome. His bill would have extended temporary handicapped parking passes to pregnant women, despite the obvious fact pregnant women aren't handicapped. This GOP version of Nanny Statism had the usual flaw we see when Big Brother "helps." It's entirely arbitrary.

The AMA strongly believes that addressing these issues will create a better foundation for health system reform. In addition to these principal concerns, we offer for your consideration a number of other policy refinements and technical changes that we believe will improve the bill, which are described in the attached Addendum.

Once again, the AMA wishes to reiterate its commitment to working with Congress and the Administration to enact comprehensive reforms. There are many aspects of H.R. 3590 that we support, and we recognize that improvements have been made already to earlier versions of the legislation. We are committed to continuing to work constructively with you and your Senate colleagues to make essential refinements to H.R. 3590 as the legislative process continues.

Two Hollywood conservatives have called on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to rescind the Oscar that it gave ex-Vice President Al Gore two years ago for the environmental movie "An Inconvenient Truth."

Roger L. Simon and Lionel Chetwynd, both Academy members, are among a small pack of known political conservatives in the liberal bastion of movie-making, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In 2007, Hollywood's Academy sanctified Gore's cinematic message of global warming with its famous statue, enriched his earnings by $100,000 per 85-minute appearance and helped elevate the Tennesseean's profile to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Chetwynd and Simon were prompted to make their hopeless demand this week by the leak two weeks ago of a blizzard of British academic e-mails purporting to show that scientists at the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit systematically falsified data to document the appearance of global warming in recent years, The Times reported..

One of the subplots to the health care debate I've been following is the cozy relationship between AARP and the Obama administration, as the group has thrown its full-throated support behind the Democrats' health care push even though their membership comes from the age group most opposed to Democratic health care proposals. ..AARP is in a position to recieve tens of millions of dollars in "kickbacks" if Democratic health care legislation becomes law.

President Obama and Democrats have proposed saving money to pay for health care legislation, in part, by cutting $162 billion in payments to Medicare Advantage, which allows Medicare recipients to choose privately-administered coverage. If these changes go through, millions of seniors who have chosen Medicare Advantage would lose their current coverage, forcing them into government-administered plans with less generous benefits. As a result, many of them would have to purchase policies to supplement traditional Medicare. Enter AARP.

I’m not exactly sure what California Senate candidate Chuck DeVore, running to Fiorina’s right in the Republican primary, is trying to achieve with this Twitter taunt:

@carlyforca has been following the same 314 on Twitter for months. I follow 9,044. I listen to those whose votes I ask for. #tcot #gop #rs
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Why, is a good question.