On this symbolic date, it seems worthwhile to reflect that the planet has not only cooled since George W. Bush took office – pause and let the significance of that one sink in – but began to chill significantly at almost precisely the moment that we signed the Kyoto Protocol, exactly ten years ago today.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Planet Has Cooled Since Bush Took Office
Director's checks on 'Joe' called unfounded
A slap on the wrist for government officials who violated Joe's privacy and misused their offices for political purposes. I guess that's OK as long as their motives were pure, and obviously anyone who contributed to the Obama campaign has the public's best interests at heart.
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland is standing by an agency director who OK'd improper computer checks for confidential information on "Joe the Plumber" and used state e-mails for political fundraising.
Strickland announced today that Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Department of Job and Family Services, will be placed on unpaid leave for one month in response to an inspector general's investigation.
The investigation found Jones-Kelley had no legitimate reasons to check on Toledo-area resident Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who was popularized as "Joe the Plumber" by Republican presidential candidate John McCain. It also confirmed she improperly used her state e-mail account to raise campaign money for President-elect Barack Obama.
Some Republican leaders, who cited the report's findings to call on Democrat Strickland to fire Jones-Kelley, were stunned that she will remain on the job.
"The actions described in this report cross the line of what you can do and lead a state agency. She violated the public trust," said House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Obama Should Think Twice About This Clinton Retread
So to be clear, Holder helped steer the attorney for Rich, a fugitive whose pardon request would likely have been rejected through normal channels due to his status as a fugitive, to the man Holder wanted assistance with in getting his next job. Now there's a man who knows something about conflicts of interest.[...]
So returning to Holder's possible selection as Attorney General, the mind reels as to why this person, who participated in a notorious Clinton scandal and himself seemed so oblivious to his own conflict of interest, would be chosen. Is this the New Politics? Or is it a throwback to the Clinton years, the very years Obama is attempting to turn the page on, to put behind us all?
When one looks to the people Obama in turn has selected as mentors (e.g., Reverend Wright, Father Michael Pfleger), friends (e.g., Tony Rezko), and now key advisors (e.g., Eric Holder), voters may begin to question whether Obama possesses the judgment necessary to run an effective and scandal-free administration. If Holder is emblematic of Obama's personnel decisions and an example of what is to come, the answer is "no."
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Victory in Iraq Day, November 22, 2008
I declare November 22, 2008 to be "Victory in Iraq Day." (Hereafter known as "VI Day.")
By every measure, The United States and coalition forces have conclusively defeated all enemies in Iraq, pacified the country, deposed the previous regime, successfully helped to establish a new functioning democratic government, and suppressed any lingering insurgencies. The war has come to an end. And we won.
Shelby Steele on President-Elect Obama: Chapter 3 of 5 - Uncommon Knowledge on National Review Online
Shelby Steels says Obama represented an opportunity for white voters to dispel the stigma that this is a racist country. Black voters, by contrast, voted for Obama to dispel the idea that they are inferior.
Help Us Lead the Renewal by Kathryn Jean Lopez on National Review Online
This year, we've added a few new levels of sponsorship support (and additional tokens of thanks) for those who invest $100 or more in the present and future of NRO. Donations of $1,000 or more include new opportunities for access to our editors and writers.
Your donation — whether it be $5,000 or $50 — will go directly toward the cost of runningNRO: our recent necessary server upgrade, salaries, author's fees (which have not grown with inflation since NRO was first established) and essential support services. Your generosity, in other words, will keep this light on and shining bright in the wilderness.
And as you donate, I encourage you to e-mail me with your suggestions as we look toward the next four years together.
Make your donation here. Thank you for your support. We can't do this without you.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
A future for U.S. conservatives
Neither the Bush presidency nor the McCain candidacy was a pleasant experience for conservatives. George W. Bush was a liberal big spender in domestic policy and John McCain's "maverick" image was code for insulting conservatives in order to charm the travelling press. Having to swallow these irritations and support their authors was a trial that is now over.
Sarah Palin, by contrast, is in Margaret Thatcher's phrase "one of us." She does more than advocate — she incarnates — the practical common-sense conservatism of Middle America. The assembled right-wingers love her for the smears and condescension she has suffered on their behalf. And since they will be among the donors, precinct workers and voters in the 2012 presidential primaries, Ms. Palin clearly has a big political future.
Restoring Reaganism by Deroy Murdock on National Review Online
Nevertheless, Bush is the GOP's Jimmy Carter, a weak bumbler who embarrassed his constituents, betrayed his philosophical movement, sank his party, and eventually surrendered the White House to the opposition, this time led by the Senate's Number One liberal, still in his first term. Bush should retire quietly to Texas, where he can drive his truck, chop wood, and avoid the limelight for the balance of his natural existence.
Monday, November 17, 2008
The world has never seen such freezing heat
A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.
This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.
So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That andClimate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Palin, the Governors, and the New Power in the Republican Party by Byron York
Although the loss of the presidential election is the backdrop to this meeting, everyone here will tell you that Republicans shouldn't be thinking about 2012, because the way to build long-term success is by achieving short-term success.
"I thought Sarah was very right to say that we're focused on 2009 and 2010," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told reporters. "Thirty-six governors' races in 2010, including in Florida — that's where our focus is. When I was chairman of the Republican National Committee the last time we lost the White House, after the 1992 election, we focused exclusively on 1993 and 1994. And at the end of that time, we had both houses of Congress with Republican majorities, and we'd gone from 17 Republican governors to 31. So anyone talking about 2012 today doesn't have their eye on the ball. What we ought to worry about is rebuilding our party over the next year and particularly in 2010."
If that's the message, then Palin is very much on message. Speaking to the governors, she made a few jokes about the campaign — reporting on her last year, she said, "I had a baby, I did some traveling, I very briefly expanded my wardrobe, I made a few speeches, met a few VIPs, including those who really impact society, like Tina Fey, but other than that, it was pretty much the same old, same old." She praised John McCain. She recounted inspiring moments involving children with special needs. And then she spent a lot of time talking about the future — the governors' future.
"Let the pundits go on with their idle talk about the next election, about what happens in 2012," she said. "Our concern should be about our state's next great reform, our next budget, our next opportunity to progress in the states that we serve, and on issues like taxes and energy and health care, immigration, education, we will not lack for opportunities to serve and to lead and to show the way."
The Rise Of The West by William McNeill
As conservatives ponder a long exile in the political wilderness, many voices are calling for a period of contemplation, a returning to roots, so to speak.
They could do worse than return to William H. McNeill's 1963 magnum opus, The Rise of the West, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. The lessons of that 900-page survey of human history have as much urgency today as they did at the height of the Cold War, and they make a sweeping case for economic and political freedom.
Hillary for secretary of state?
Others wondered last night if the Obama camp - which is very disciplined about unwanted leaks - is even serious about floating her name or simply trying to compliment her by suggesting she's in the running.
Barack Obama gives campaign staffers extra cash, BlackBerrys, laptops
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Progressivism's Achilles Heel by Jonah Goldberg on National Review Online
But something interesting happened on Election Day that didn't get much attention. Bans on gay marriage were on ballots in several states, and they all won. In fact, gay marriage bans have ultimately passed in all 30 of the states in which they were on the ballot.
The ban in California was particularly intriguing. Proposition 8 would have failed in the Golden State if it were up to white voters, who opposed it by a 51-49 ratio. What carried it over the top was enormous support from black voters, with about 70 percent of them backing it. Hispanics also supported the ban by significant, though smaller, margins. In Florida, where a similar ban required a 60 percent margin, Amendment 2 just barely passed, getting 60 percent of the white vote. The cushion came from blacks, who voted 71 percent in favor, and Latinos, who voted 64 percent in favor.
In other words, Obama had some major un-progressive coattails. The tidal wave of black and Hispanic voters who came out to support Obama voted in enormous numbers against what most white liberals consider to be the foremost civil rights issue of the day.
Congressman Broun sorry for likening Obama to Hitler
In an interview with the Associated Press earlier this week, Broun admitted to calling the future commander-in-chief a 'Marxist' at a recent Rotary club meeting, and said Obama has expressed support for policies similar to those of Hitler.
"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Broun told the AP. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may– may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."
Broun was specifically referring to a July speech by Obama, where the then-Democratic presidential nominee said he supports a civilian force helping the military when it comes to national security: "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded [as the military]," Obama said in the speech that was largely a call to national service.
Responding to those comments, Broun told the AP Monday: "That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did. When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."
"We can't be lulled into complacency," Broun added. "You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I'm saying is there is the potential."
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Free Markets [Iain Murray]
The point is that the free market, which I think amounts to one of the Permanent Things, cannot be fooled or tooled. As Malcolm Muggeridge said, God is not mocked. I make the point again in my article today, when I say that the housing market reacted to the signals of government in ways that government approved of, until the market showed them the end result. So we should defend the free market not because it always delivers perfect results. It won't, not unless we have perfect people. Instead, we must defend it because it delivers information far better than a Philosopher King, a Politburo, or a Regulator. [...]
In other words, if we value property rights, the free market is an essential consequence. And that is why market socialism never works, because it devalues property rights. Liberty demands property rights which demand free markets. We only interfere with that chain in defiance of history.
Silence from McCain
MELISSA CLOUTHIER: Shame on John McCain for Not Defending Sarah Palin. "What rock is Senator McCain hiding under and why can't he show himself for a moment to defend his running mate? . . . Once again, John McCain's actions betray the character traits conservatives abhorred about the man during his years in the Senate: He would spit in a friend's eye to win the favor of an enemy." On the upside, he's making a lot of Republicans feel better about losing to Obama. It's all part of the healing!
I for one never trusted McCain to care about conservatives so it's not surprising that he declines to support Palin. His whole "maverick" image depends on betraying conservatives so that liberals will like him. Now, watch him sell out the Republicans to cozy up to Obama and the press. As Rush said, the McCain campaign was one long concession speech.
Camille Paglia on Obama, Palin and the next four years
Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology -- contradicting Democratic core principles of compassion, tolerance and independent thought. One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice.
I like Sarah Palin, and I've heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is -- and quite frankly, I think the people who don't see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn't speak the King's English -- big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns -- that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World.
As for the Democrats who sneered and howled that Palin was unprepared to be a vice-presidential nominee -- what navel-gazing hypocrisy! What protests were raised in the party or mainstream media when John Edwards, with vastly less political experience than Palin, got John Kerry's nod for veep four years ago?
Monday, November 10, 2008
Eight Wasted Years by John Derbyshire on National Review Online
Margaret Thatcher used to talk about the "ratchet effect." When the Left gets power, she said, they drive everything Left; when the Right gets power, they slow the Leftward drive, perhaps even halt it for a spell; but nothing ever gets moved to the Right. U.S. politics in the 21st century so far bears out this dismal analysis. What does the Right have to show for eight years of a Republican presidency? I supported George W. Bush in 2000 because I thought he had a conservative bone in his body somewhere. I supported him in 2004 because I thought him the lesser of two evils.
No “illegal aliens” in Arizona? | Center for Immigration Studies
Illegal-alien and open-borders advocates may succeed in getting the Arizona Supreme Court to ban numerous immigration-related phrases, including "illegal alien" and "open-borders advocates."
In a significant blow to the First Amendment and the use of legally-correct terminology, Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor has advanced the demands of the Arizona Hispanic Bar Association by moving to ban the following language from all of the state's courtrooms:
Aliens
Illegal aliens
Resident or non-resident aliens
Illegal immigrants
Illegal immigration
Illegals
Immigration epidemic
Immigration crisis
Immigrant invasion
Pro-illegal immigration activists
Open borders advocates
Anchor babies
Proponents for amnestyMany of these terms have a precedent in the law that reaches back to the origins of this country. The first five terms are used repeatedly throughout federal immigration statutes and case law. In place of these words, the Hispanic Bar Association demands the use of legally-enigmatic terms such as "unauthorized workers." Of course, use of inaccurate and activist-created terms only creates confusion and legal uncertainty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
