The San Francisco Gate reports that "Hawaii lawmakers declined to vote Friday on a bill that would have allowed same-sex civil unions, effectively killing the measure. The state House of Representatives decided to indefinitely postpone a decision on whether to grant gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits the state provides to married couples." Tweet
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Climate Chief Was Told Of False Glacier Claims Before Copenhagen
The TimesOnline reports that the "chairman of the leading climate change watchdog was informed that claims about melting Himalayan glaciers were false before the Copenhagen summit, The Times has learnt. Rajendra Pachauri was told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment that the glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong, but he waited two months to correct it. He failed to act despite learning that the claim had been refuted by several leading glaciologists. The IPCC’s report underpinned the proposals at Copenhagen for drastic cuts in global emissions. Dr Pachauri, who played a leading role at the summit, corrected the error last week after coming under media pressure. He told The Times on January 22 that he had only known about the error for a few days. He said: 'I became aware of this when it was reported in the media about ten days ago. Before that, it was really not made known. Nobody brought it to my attention. There were statements, but we never looked at this 2035 number.'" Tweet
Bin Laden Rants About Global Warming In Recent Tape
The AP reports that "Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming, according to a new audiotape released Friday. In the tape, broadcast in part on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden warned of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to stop it is to bring 'the wheels of the American economy' to a halt. He blamed Western industrialized nations for hunger, desertification and floods across the globe, and called for 'drastic solutions' to global warming, and 'not solutions that partially reduce the effect of climate change.' Bin Laden has mentioned climate change and global warning in past messages, but the latest tape was his first dedicated to the topic. The speech, which included almost no religious rhetoric, could be an attempt by the terror leader to give his message an appeal beyond Islamic militants." Tweet
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Senator Jon Kyl: Democrats To Use Reconciliation Or "Nuclear Option" To Get Around Filibuster And Pass Health Care Bill
Senator Jon Kyl correctly notes that the "nuclear option" does not "relate to comprehensive bills with a lot of substantive provisions in them." Yet the Democrats are intent on doing whatever it takes to ram this bill through Congress, and will apparently use reconciliation in a way they should not, to get around the strong obstacle the minority party should be able to present through the power of the filibuster.
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Obama Confuses Declaration Of Independence With Constitution
President Obama said, "We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal..."
The Constitution says nothing about being "created equal." The closest to that sort of language appears in the post-Civil War 14th Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection of the laws." It is in fact the Declaration of Independence that states "[w]e hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
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Hondurans Boo United States During Newly Elected President's Inaugural Address
The Wall Street Journal reports that "Porfirio 'Pepe' Lobo, sworn in Wednesday as Honduras's president, called for national reconciliation as his ousted predecessor, Manuel Zelaya, left his refuge in the Brazilian Embassy and flew into exile. Mr. Lobo, 62 years old, a wealthy rancher from the conservative Nationalist Party, won a landslide victory in November elections against Mr. Zelaya's divided Liberal Party. Mr. Lobo stopped his inaugural speech to sign a decree approving political amnesty for Mr. Zelaya as well as for the Honduran military, which in June put Mr. Zelaya, in pajamas, on a plane bound for exile... The crowd attending Mr. Lobo's inaugural booed mentions of the OAS, U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens, and Costa Rican President Óscar Arias, all of whom tried to arrange for Mr. Zelaya's return to power."
The crowds in Hoduras were more than correct in their sentiments, as the United State sided with the Honduras's mini-Chavez President Manuel Zelaya that was removed from office by order of the Honduras Supreme Court for violation of their Constitution. He was replaced by the head of the Congress, a member of his own party. The interim President promised a full and fair election would be held. He kept that promise. Yet despite all this, the United States wrongfully sided with the Hugo Chavez crony, and even took measures in support of Zelaya. The response at the new President's inaugural should come as no surprise.
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Obama Administration Opposes Funding For 9/11 Victims Health Bill
The New York Daily News reports that the Obama administration stunned New York's Congressional delegation Thursday, "dropping the bombshell news that it does not support funding the 9/11 health bill. The state's two senators and 14 House members met with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius just hours before President Obama implored in his speech to the nation for Congress to come together and deliver a government that delivers on its promises to the American people. So the legislators were floored to learn the Democratic administration does not want to deliver for the tens of thousands of people who sacrificed after 9/11, and the untold numbers now getting sick."
"I was stunned — and very disappointed," said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand,
"To say the least, I was flabbergasted," said Staten Island Congressman Mike McMahon.
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CNN And Fox News Focus Groups Responding To State Of The Union
When Obama used the word "hope" in his speech, it actually recieved a negative response from the CNN focus group. Check out CNN's focus group:
Fox News's Frank Luntz also had a focus group of his own:
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CATO Institute Points Out What Else Was "Not True" In The State Of Union Address
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito rightly shook his head and mouthed "not true" as the President criticized the Court's recent free speech ruling. The Cato Institute also pointed out in the following video what was "not true" about the State of the Union:
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010
AP Fact Checks Obama's State Of The Union
To see the AP report on the Obama lies (or what Justice Alito would call what is "not true") in the State of the Union visit http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/fact-check-obama-and-the-hatchet-job-198652.html. Tweet
Congressman Paul Ryan In WSJ: "A GOP Road Map for America's Future"
Congressman Ryan says "there's still time to rejuvenate our market economy and avoid a European-style welfare state." Visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703808904575025080017959478.html to read the article. Tweet
Justice Samuel Alito Appears To Mouth "Not True" As Obama Blasts Recent Supreme Court Decision During State Of The Union
Linda Greehouse confirms on the New York Times website that Justice Alito was in fact correct in that what Obama was saying was "not true." Greenhouse writes that "Mr. Obama’s description of the holding of the case was imprecise" when he "said the court had 'reversed a century of law.'"
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Bloomberg Joins Growing Cry Calling For Terror Trial To Be Moved
The New York Times reports that for "the first time, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has spoken out against plans to stage the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, at the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan, joining a growing chorus of people who believe the epic trial will be too disruptive and expensive for the city. 'It would be great if the federal government could find a site that didn’t cost a billion dollars, which using downtown will,' he told reporters on Wednesday. 'It’s going to cost an awful lot of money and disturb an awful lot of people,' he said. 'Can we provide security? Yes. Could you provide security elsewhere? Yeah, and I mean — the suggestion of a military base is probably a reasonably good one. Relatively easy to supply — to provide security. They tend to be outside of cities so that they don’t disrupt other people.'"
The New York Times further reports that the "mayor is not the only one pondering a military base as the place for a trial. Leaders of Community Board 1 in Lower Manhattan also want the government to study the feasibility of holding the trial elsewhere within the Southern District of New York. On Tuesday evening, the group’s full board voted 42-to-0 to ask Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to consider a list of alternative sites. They include the Unites States Military Academy at West Point, the National Guard base at Stewart International Airport near Newburgh and a federal prison in Otisville. The Southern District of the federal court system covers Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester and five other downstate counties. Julie Menin, chairwoman of Community Board 1, said she wanted the federal government to seriously study the costs, security implications and the overall impact to the communities in each of those areas, to 'start a dialogu' about moving the trial out of Lower Manhattan. 'We are looking at military installations because they provide a political compromise between those who favor a less public setting, i.e., a military tribunal and those who favor a federal court trial, so what we are recommending is that a federal judge would preside in one of these military settings,' Ms. Menin said on Wednesday. 'I’m trying to think outside-the-box solutions that are still jurisdictionally within the Southern District and may provide additional security if they are on a military installation.' Community Board 1 represents the seaport and financial districts of Lower Manhattan and TriBeCa, Battery Park City and parts of Chinatown, as well as ground zero. Of plans to hold the trial at the federal courthouse in Foley Square, Ms Menin said that the site 'is next to the financial district, which is the financial capital of our country.' She added, 'Why on earth would we have the trial in the heart of the financial district when it has already been attacked twice by terrorists and when our country is on the verge of trying to recover from the economic recession?' Ms. Menin said the board’s resolution would be sent to elected officials, including Senator Charles S. Schumer and others. Adding to the chorus of opposition, the city’s oldest real estate trade association said on Wednesday that the trial would 'wreak havoc' on Lower Manhattan and the commercial and residential property owners there. After working behind the scenes for more than two months to urge state and federal officials to consider other locations for the trial, the group, the Real Estate Board of New York, has started a Web site, MoveTheTrial.com, to urge the public to become involved. Last week, in a joint statement, a list of politicians, including Representative Jerrold L. Nadler, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, State Senator Daniel L. Squadron and Councilwoman Margaret Chin, urged an alternate site, one less harmful to 'our already overburdened Lower Manhattan neighborhoods.'"
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Members Of Congress Rip Treasury Secretary Geithner: "It Stinks To High Heaven"
Reuteres reports that "U.S. lawmakers turned up the heat on U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner over his role in the bailout of insurer AIG, challenging his claim he did not influence a decision to keep quiet AIG payments to big banks. Both Democrats and Republicans questioned whether Geithner, who led the New York Federal Reserve Bank at the time, could have been in the dark over the decision not to disclose details of $62 billion AIG paid to banks to settle swaps contracts. One Republican said he should resign... Anger over the eventual $180 billion of taxpayer money poured into AIG prompted the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee to hold the hearing and colored the tone of the questioning... Lawmakers are particularly incensed that AIG paid counterparty banks 100 cents on the dollar to settle the swaps deals after the insurer received taxpayer funds and that details were not publicly disclosed for several months."
Geithner denied he played a role in withholding information about deals that sent billions of taxpayer dollars from the bailout of AIG to big banks, but lawmakers were not buying it.
The first video below shows Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Stephen Lynch forcefully chewing up Geithner. The next video is of Florida Republican Congressman John Mica telling Geithner to stop with the "lame excuses" and "resign":
The following is the AP compilation from the hearing:
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
NYT: Democrats Have "Slammed The Brakes" On Health Care
The New York Times reports that with "no clear path forward on major health care legislation, Democratic leaders in Congress effectively slammed the brakes on President Obama’s top domestic priority on Tuesday, saying that they no longer felt pressure to move quickly on a health bill after eight months of setting deadlines and missing them. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, deflected questions about health care. 'We’re not on health care now,' he said. 'We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.' He added, 'There is no rush,' and noted that Congress still had most of this year to work on the health bills passed in 2009 by the Senate and the House… Some Democrats said that they did not expect any action on health care legislation until late February at earliest, perhaps after Congress returns from a weeklong recess. But the Democrats stand to lose momentum, and every day closer to the November election that the issue remains unresolved may reduce the chances of passing a far-reaching bill… 'It’s a timeout,' Mrs. Feinstein said. 'The leadership is re-evaluating. They asked us to keep our powder dry.'” Tweet
Monday, January 25, 2010
Amid Pressure To Move To The Center, Obama Calls For Discretionary Spending Freeze
The Washington Post reports that President Barack Obama, under pressure from deficit hawks, will seek a three-year freeze on domestic spending in his 2011 budget that would save $250 billion by 2020, administration officials said on Monday.
Here is what Obama thought of spending freezes during the 2008 campaign:
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"Chemical Ali" Executed
The AFP reports that "Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin and henchman "Chemical Ali" was executed on Monday, Iraq's government said, eight days after he was sentenced to death for the 1998 gassing of thousands of Kurds. Ali Hassan al-Majid was better known by his macabre nickname and as the King of Spades in the pack of cards of "most wanted" Iraqis issued by the US military in 2003, and will forever be associated with mass killings. He was "executed by hanging until death," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. 'The execution happened without any violations, shouting or cries of joy,' in sharp contrast to Saddam's death on the gallows, he added. State television later aired two still photographs of Majid, in which he was wearing an orange-red jumpsuit and the first of which clearly displayed his face. The second picture showed him on a platform, with a black hood over his head and with two men wearing balaclavas standing on either side." Tweet
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Killer Of Soldier At Arkansas Recruiting Station: "This Was A Jihadi Attack" That Was "Justified According To Islamic Laws"
CNN reports that the Tennessee man to be tried for the fatal attack at a military recruiting center in Arkansas in June "wants to plead guilty and claims to have ties to al Qaeda in Yemen in a letter he wrote to the judge presiding over his case. In the handwritten letter dated January 12, Abdul Hakim Muhammad said he did not want a trial and insisted the shooting was 'justified' under jihad. 'This was a jihadi attack on infidel forces that didn't go as plan,' he wrote. 'Flat out truth.' It was not immediately clear whether the judge, Herbert Wright Jr., would accept the plea."
CNN reports that Muhammad's lawyer, Claiborne Ferguson, called the letter "highly inappropriate" saying his Islamoterrorist client "is misguided and misinformed as to Arkansas law" as he "can't plead guilty to a capital crime." CNN reports that before "pleading not guilty, Muhammad waived his Miranda rights and gave a video statement indicating political and religious motives, authorities said. He 'stated that he was a practicing Muslim ... that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past,' Detective Tommy Hudson wrote in a police report at the time. Muhammad told police 'he fired several rounds at the soldiers with the intent of killing them,' according to Hudson's report. In his letter to the judge, Muhammad claimed he had links to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, a group that has claimed responsibility for the attempting bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day. 'My lawyer has no defense,' he wrote. 'I wasn't insane or post traumatic nor was I forced to do this act. Which I believe and it is justified according to Islamic laws and the Islamic religion jihad -- to fight those who wage war on Islam and Muslims.'"
The New York Times reports that "Mr. Muhammad, 24, a Muslim convert from Memphis, spent about 16 months in Yemen starting in the fall of 2007, ostensibly teaching English and learning Arabic. During that time, he married a woman from south Yemen. But he was also imprisoned for several months because he overstayed his visa and was holding a fraudulent Somali passport, the Yemen government said. Under pressure from the United States government, Yemen deported Mr. Muhammad in late January 2009. But just four months after his return, Mr. Muhammad used a semiautomatic rifle to gun down two soldiers — Pvt. William A. Long and Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula — while they were standing outside a military recruiting station in Little Rock, killing Private Long and wounding Private Ezeagwula. After the shooting, Mr. Muhammad pleaded not guilty, but also took responsibility for the shootings in interviews with The Associated Press. But he did not acknowledge being part of an extremist group and some terrorism experts came to view him as a self-radicalized, lone actor. In his letter to Herb Wright Jr., a Pulaski County circuit judge, Mr. Muhammad calls himself a member of 'Abu Basir’s Army,' an apparent reference to Naser Abdel-Karim al-Wahishi, the Yemen group’s leader, who also goes by the name Abu Basir."
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Side Supporting California's Prop 8 Soon Set To Press Case For Traditional Marriage In Federal Court As Plaintiff Rests Case In Trial
The Wall Street Journal reports that the plaintiffs "will likely rest their case Monday in the federal trial over California's Proposition 8, setting the stage for backers of the ban on same-sex marriage to open their line of defense... Judge Vaughn Walker will decide whether the 2008 voter initiative that limited marriage to a man and a woman codified discrimination or protected a legitimate state interest. This is the first federal challenge to state gay-marriage bans Defense lawyer Andrew Pugno said his side would present evidence from experts that traditional definitions of marriage between heterosexual couples have special benefit for children and for society. The defense's portion of the trial could be short. Only two of the defense's original set of expert witnesses remain, after four withdrew from the trial. Early in the trial, the court proposed broadcasting proceedings online and at other courthouses, leading some witnesses to say they feared retribution. The broadcast proposal was overturned by higher courts." Tweet
California Supreme Court Invalidates State Limits On Medical Marijuana Possession
The Los Angeles Times reports that in "a unanimous decision filed Thursday, the California Supreme Court struck down the state's specific limits on how much medical marijuana a patient can possess, concluding that restrictions imposed by the Legislature were an unconstitutional amendment of a voter-approved initiative. The decision, which affirmed an appellate decision, means people who have a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana can possess and cultivate as much as is 'reasonably necessary.' The court invalidated a provision of a 2003 state law passed to clarify the initiative. Under that law, patients or their primary caregivers could have no more than eight ounces of dried marijuana and grow no more than six mature or 12 immature plants. The law, however, allowed patients to have more than that if they had a statement from a doctor that the amount was insufficient... The state's 1996 medical marijuana initiative put no limit on the amount of cannabis a patient could possess or cultivate other than to require that it be for 'personal medical purposes.' Seven years later, the Legislature passed a law to create medical marijuana identification cards to help protect patients from arrest and included the limits on possession and cultivation. The justices concluded that the state Constitution bars the Legislature from changing an initiative approved by voters, but also appeared to rue that restraint. Almost a third of the 54-page decision written by Chief Justice Ronald M. George discusses how California's initiative process places unparalleled limits on the Legislature. The decision notes that it 'may well be prudent and advisable' for lawmakers to have the power to set limits." Tweet
Keith Olbermann Says The Supreme Court's Free Speech Decision Has Allowed For The "Murder" Of Democracy And Is "Our Dred Scott"
Kieth Olbermann must know nothing about Scott v. Sanford (1857), more commonly known as the Dred Scott case, if he can with a straight face compare last week's Supreme Court decision on corporate free speech rights to that infamous ruling. The Court ruled in that pre-Civil War case that slaves were not protected by the Constitution and could never be citizens of the United States, that they were chattel that could not be taken away from their owners. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote the majority opinion in Scott which stated that at the time the Constitution was written blacks "were considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subjugated by the dominant race, and, whether emancipated or not, yet remained subject to their authority, and had no rights or privileges but such as those who held the power and the Government might choose to grant them." The Court thought it terrible to think of allowing "persons of the negro race, ...the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, ...the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went."
Only a complete ignoramus and hyper-partisan hack like Keith Olbermann could compare the decision in Citizen United v. Federal Election Commission a few days ago to the shameful decision of the Supreme Court in 1857.
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Steven Greenhunt: "Public Employee Unions Are Sinking California"
To read this important article explaining why "California needs to take on its public employee unions," visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703699204575017182296077118.html. Tweet
Capital University Law Professor Bradley Smith: "First Amendment Upheld" As Supreme Court Ends "Giving Political Speech Less Protection Than" Porn
Professor Smith writes in the Wall Street Journal that "Thursday's Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, in which the Court struck down a blanket government prohibition on corporate political speech, is a wonderful decision that restores political speech to the primacy it was intended to have under the First Amendment." To read the full article visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704509704575019112172931620.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion. Tweet
Barney Frank And The Fannie Mae Conflict Of Interest
Fox News reports that unqualified "home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s. So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions. Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank's relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie... Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.... The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses 'helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs.' Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector. Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively. Three years later, President Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of today’s economic crisis. 'I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when when I was president, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,' Clinton said recently." Tweet
Bin Laden Takes Credit For Underwear Bomber Terror Attempt
The Wall Street Journal reports that "Osama Bin Laden, speaking in a newly released audio tape, says the top al Qaeda leadership ordered the attempted Christmas Day bombing of the Detroit-bound airliner and vowed to continue attacks against America and its allies. The claim of responsibility appears to trump an earlier statement by the Yemen-based branch of the terror group and suggests a high level of coordination and communication between the top leadership thought to be hiding along the Afghanistan and Pakistan border and the group based in and operating from the impoverished Arab country. Intelligence officials and al Qaeda experts have debated how much control Mr. bin Laden has over the operations conducted by regional branches of the terror group due to what is presumed to be his remote and rugged existence while evading capture by U.S. forces since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against America. The Yemeni branch, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has raised its profile recently by broadening its attacks beyond Yemen. U.S. officials say that Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has been indicted for the attempted airline bombing, told interrogators that he received his explosives in Yemen. In August, the Yemeni group claimed it deployed a suicide bomber in a failed assassination attempt against the Saudi deputy interior minister, a nephew of King Abdullah al Saud. In the brief audiotape aired Sunday by Arabic-language broadcaster Al Jazeera, Mr. bin Laden suggested that the Yemeni branch was following his orders to pursue attacks against the U.S. and its allies." Tweet
George Mason Law Professor Ilya Somin Defends Supreme Court Corporate Free Speech Decision
Professor Ilya Somin reacts to those that argue that Citizens United was wrongly decided because the freedom of political speech of corporate entities can be limited as corporations are "state-created entities." To read Somin's response visit http://volokh.com/2010/01/22/should-people-acting-through-corporations-be-denied-constitutional-rights-because-corporations-are-state-created-entities/. Tweet
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