• Del.icio.us Links

    links for 2010-02-14

    • Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in an exclusive appearance on ABC News’ “This Week,” offered a sharp critique of the Obama administration’s handling of national security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying any achievements over the past year largely stemmed from policies implemented under President George W. Bush.
      “If [the administration is] going to take credit for [Iraq’s success], fair enough … but it ought to come with a healthy dose of ‘Thank you, George Bush’ up front and a recognition that some of their early recommendations with respect to prosecuting that war were just dead wrong,” Cheney told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl.

    • Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Dick Cheney hurtled barbs across the airwaves Sunday morning in a split-screen debate over terrorism, charging each other with being dangerously “misinformed” or just “dead wrong.”

      The rare dueling sit-downs — Biden on NBC and CBS, Cheney on ABC — broke little new ground but amounted to a point-by-point defense of each vice president’s view of the war on terrorism and a recitation of how the other side has screwed it up.

    • The United Nations climate panel faces a new challenge with scientists casting doubt on its claim that global temperatures are rising inexorably because of human pollution.

      In its last assessment the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the evidence that the world was warming was “unequivocal”.

      It warned that greenhouse gases had already heated the world by 0.7C and that there could be 5C-6C more warming by 2100, with devastating impacts on humanity and wildlife. However, new research, including work by British scientists, is casting doubt on such claims. Some even suggest the world may not be warming much at all.

      “The temperature records cannot be relied on as indicators of global change,” said John Christy, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, a former lead author on the IPCC.
      +++++++
      Let the science speak and not political agendas

    • The academic at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the information.

      Colleagues say that the reason Professor Phil Jones has refused Freedom of Information requests is that he may have actually lost the relevant papers.

      Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organisational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is ‘not as good as it should be’.

      The data is crucial to the famous ‘hockey stick graph’ used by climate change advocates to support the theory.

      Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.
      ++++++++
      Fancy that

    • Sun columnist Jon Ralston is reporting that the Tea Party has qualified as a third party in Nevada and will have a candidate in the Senate race to battle for the seat held by Majority Leader Harry Reid.

      The party has filed a Certificate of Existence but needs to get 1 percent of the electorate to vote for its candidate in November to permanently qualify, according to the report.

      Ralston reported that Jon Ashjian will be the Tea Party’s U.S. Senate candidate on the November ballot. Ashjian still must declare his candidacy.

      There are six other third-party candidates going through the verification process to appear on the ballot as U.S. Senate candidates — one Reform Party hopeful and five as independents, Ralston reported.

      Reid’s Republican challengers currently include former state Sen. Sue Lowden, former UNLV basketball star Danny Tarkanian and former state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle.
      ++++++
      Will this help Harry Reid win re-election?

      (tags: harry_reid)

    • Clinton acknowledged that U.S. President Barack Obama’s approach to Iran had not borne fruit, blaming Iran for refusing to engage and suggesting that a fourth U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution was the only option.

      “I would like to figure out a way to handle it in as peaceful an approach possible, and I certainly welcome any meaningful engagement, but … we don’t want to be engaging while they are building their bomb,” Clinton said at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum conference.

    • Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who served as defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush, expressed support for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which President Barack Obama has asked Congress to work on this year.

      Cheney told ABC’s “This Week” that 20 years ago when he was secretary of defense, the military was a strong advocate of the policy that bans gays from openly serving in the military, but that “things have changed significantly since then” and he anticipates that ultimately “the policy will be changed.”

      “I think society has moved on,” Cheney said the policy shift is partly “a generational question.”
      +++++++
      Society has moved on – just as I suspect with gay marriage but only in some states.

      (tags: gay_politics)

    • LOL! The folks at the Democratic Party of Orange County (DPOC) are absolutely losing it because Carly Fiorina, a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate, is coming to the O.C. on Monday, to visit with the members of the OC GOP Central Committee.

      In the email below, which they sent to their members, the temporary Exec. Director of the DPOC, Henry Vandermeir, rips into Fiorina, for screwing up Hewlett Packard.

      Gee Henry, considering that members of your Democratic Party have destroyed California’s economy, buried us in the highest taxes in the nation, and stuck us with ten percent unemployment. I don’t think you want to go there Henry!
      ++++++
      The Democrats of Ventura County protested here too when Carly spoke to the GOP women. Why are they helping Carly beat Boxer?

      LOL indeed.

    • So much for using “carpetbagger” as a campaign slur.

      Increased political polarization coupled with a highly mobile society, big media markets and sprawling districts are diluting the importance of residency for California congressional candidates.

      Reps. Tom McClintock and John Garamendi, neither of whom lived inside their districts when they ran, survived their opponents’ “carpetbagger” political grenades.

      This year, three GOP congressional candidates, Richard Pombo and Jeff Denham in the 19th District and David Harmer in the 11th, are running as strong primary candidates in districts in which they do not live.

      “People don’t really care about residency,” said Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkeley’s Washington, D.C., Center. “There is so much mobility in California and the media markets are so mixed — especially in Los Angeles and the Bay Area — that for someone with strong name identification, it’s transferable. We also live in a more polarized society…
      ++++++
      Mobile Society indeed

      (tags: Carpetbagger)

  • Day By Day

    Day By Day February 14, 2010 – Cap N Trade

    Day by Day by Chris Muir

    Tea Party America IS Middle America which is unfortunate for the Congressional Democrats who gained their majority by convincing them that Democrats in red states could be moderate. Well, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid had their chance that Rahm Emanuel gave them in 2006 and they blew it.

    Now, Hillary Clinton looks like she is nearing retirement and President Obama in trouble. Moreover, the Democrats congressional majority, for all intents and purposes, is moribund. Incumbent Democrats are running for cover, purposely voting against their leadership or retiring.

    Although the Tea Party folks per se may not aid the GOP, they will nevertheless force Democrats to the RIGHT – or they will be voted out of office.

    Previous:
    The Day By Day Archive


  • Twitter

    @Flap Twitter Updates for 2010-02-14

    Powered by Twitter Tools