The Day’s Top Political News
Attorney General Eric Holder may probe Bush-era “torture”.
Alone among cabinet officers, attorneys general are partisan appointees expected to rise above partisanship. All struggle to find a happy medium between loyalty and independence.
"You have the responsibility of enforcing the nation's laws, and you have to be seen as neutral, detached, and nonpartisan in that effort," Holder says. "But the reality of being A.G. is that I'm also part of the president's team. I want the president to succeed; I campaigned for him. I share his world view and values."
Unfortunately, Holder has already been found wanting on that area – especially displaying a bias regarding real or imagined incidents of racism and discrimination. One think Holder is not is non-political.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/206300
Palin plans to stay in politics
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she plans to jump immediately back into the national political fray — stumping for conservative issues and even Democrats — after she prematurely vacates her elected post at month's end.
The former Republican vice-presidential nominee and heroine to much of the GOP's base said in an interview she views the electorate as embattled and fatigued by nonstop partisanship, and she is eager to campaign for Republicans, independents and even Democrats who share her values on limited government, strong defense and "energy independence."
Given the reality of today’s Washington and the political crisis – even suggesting considering campaigning for Democrats will hurt Palin’s credibility. Finding a conservative Democrat today is a more than daunting task.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/12/palin-stump-conservative-democrats/
Sotomayor confirmation no done deal, GOP warns
The Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican cautioned Friday that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation "is not a foregone conclusion" amid what he said was growing concern on both sides of the aisle.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, who will lead the committee's Republicans in questioning Judge Sotomayor at confirmation hearings that begin Monday, told The Washington Times that her new-age judicial philosophy - unless she recants - threatens to disqualify her for the bench.
The Alabama Republican stressed that her ascent to the top court is not a done deal, and several Democrats have expressed reservations with her stance on the Second Amendment, potentially shattering the chances Democrats could use their supermajority to ram through her confirmation.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/11/sotomayor-confirmation-no-done-deal-gop-warns/
Opinion:
Free Speech – something liberals cannot stand, something with which they cannot compete.
Liberals have never been able to produce a talk radio program that can survive in the marketplace. Listeners just don’t buy it and refuse to tune in. PBS survives, but only by ripping off America tax payers who have no voice in granting the millions of dollars PBS uses to try promoting the liberal party line.
If you have been a subscriber of AOL – you are likely very familiar with their Terms of Service operation (TOS) through which subscribers can have their accounts cancelled through the arbitrary caprice of the AOL “powers that be”. I have been victimized many times. Once I was kicked off for observing “Dan Rather is a liar”. Other TOS violations have been claimed against me that are just as frivolous and politically partisan. There is no appeal, the judgment is universally slanted to the liberal side of things. Conservatives get cited, liberals don’t.
We are about to see AOL TOS in steroids, only now, the threat lies in seeing such a thing imposed on the entire Internet. Freedom of Speech is once again under attack from liberals who cant hold their own in debate.
An otherwise unknown Harvard Law professor, Cass Sunstein, has must been named by Obama to a post deceptively labeled White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The Sunstein post will hand him powers that will terrify normal Americans. He specifically supports using the courts to impose a “chilling effect” on speech that might hurt someone’s feelings. Sunstein claims bloggers on the Internet have been “rampaging out of control” and new laws are needed to reign in such free speech. We can be certain the speech to be targeted will be from conservatives.
Sunstein even has a new book, “On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread”.
Conservatives have been worried the liberal domination of Capitol Hill might result in a reimposition of the “Fairness Doctrine” so-called – a liberal plot designed specifically to take out talk radio. Since liberals cannot compete in honest debate, they are seeking to end it.
Given the extremist views of Obama’s new White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs chief, a legislative bludgeon will replace fair competition, free speech, and the First Amendment in general.
How long will it take Obama’s “Thought Czar” to consider commentaries against atheism or pro religion to be legitimate subjects for repression? That cant be determined now, of course, but count on its coming unless this extremist version of the thought police can be brought to heel.
Reality is not reassuring.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has alredy dug in her spiked heels and refuses to allow debate and discussion of “The Broadcaster Freedom Amendment” – a Republican measure that would insure First Amendment rights will be protected in over the air programming. That Pelosi so fears this legislation that she will not allow an honest vote, reveals just how truly terrified liberals such as Pelosi are of honest debate. “Fact and Truth” are to liberals what crosses and garlic are to the legendary vampires.
YOUR rights are very much at stake in all this, and it is a strictly partisan question. So many of the crises facing our country and its people today are.
Buddy
The Day’s top blogs:
1.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124726489588925407.html
Why We Don't Want a Nuclear-Free World
The former defense secretary on the U.S. deterrent and the terrorist threat.
MELANIE KIRKPATRICK
Maclean, Va.
'Nuclear weapons are used every day." So says former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, speaking last month at his office in a wooded enclave of Maclean, Va. It's a serene setting for Doomsday talk, and Mr. Schlesinger's matter-of-fact tone belies the enormity of the concepts he's explaining -- concepts that were seemingly ignored in this week's Moscow summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev.
We use nuclear weapons every day, Mr. Schlesinger goes on to explain, "to deter our potential foes and provide reassurance to the allies to whom we offer protection."
(NOTE: Nuclear weapons saved the world from the threat of WWIII. I was a B-47 pilot in SAC (The Strategic Air Command) and knew full well our ability to deliver a devastating blow on the Soviet Union should the Communists really threaten the world, was the best means of keeping the Communists in check. Of course, Communist aggression continued in Vietnam, Central America, and elsewhere – but on a far more muted form. The principle of “Assured Mutual Destruction” worked and worked well. No bombers flew, missiles remained in silos, and the world slept soundly.)
Mr. Obama likes to talk about his vision of a nuclear-free world, and in Moscow he and Mr. Medvedev signed an agreement setting targets for sweeping reductions in the world's largest nuclear arsenals.
Reflecting on the hour I spent with Mr. Schlesinger, I can't help but think: Do we really want to do this?
For nuclear strategists, Mr. Schlesinger is Yoda, the master of their universe. In addition to being a former defense secretary (Nixon and Ford), he is a former energy secretary (Carter) and former director of central intelligence (Nixon). He has been studying the U.S. nuclear posture since the early 1960s, when he was at the RAND Corporation, a California think tank that often does research for the U.S. government. He's the expert whom Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on last year to lead an investigation into the Air Force's mishandling of nuclear weapons after nuclear-armed cruise missiles were mistakenly flown across the country on a B-52 and nuclear fuses were accidently shipped to Taiwan. Most recently, he's vice chairman of a bipartisan congressional commission that in May issued an urgent warning about the need to maintain a strong U.S. deterrent.
But above all, Mr. Schlesinger is a nuclear realist. Are we heading toward a nuclear-free world anytime soon? He shoots back a one-word answer: "No." I keep silent, hoping he will go on. "We will need a strong deterrent," he finally says, "and that is measured at least in decades -- in my judgment, in fact, more or less in perpetuity. The notion that we can abolish nuclear weapons reflects on a combination of American utopianism and American parochialism. . . . It's like the [1929] Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing war as an instrument of national policy . . . . It's not based upon an understanding of reality."
In other words: Go ahead and wish for a nuclear-free world, but pray that you don't get what you wish for. A world without nukes would be even more dangerous than a world with them, Mr. Schlesinger argues.
"If, by some miracle, we were able to eliminate nuclear weapons," he says, "what we would have is a number of countries sitting around with breakout capabilities or rumors of breakout capabilities -- for intimidation purposes. . . . and finally, probably, a number of small clandestine stockpiles." This would make the U.S. more vulnerable.
Mr. Schlesinger makes the case for a strong U.S. deterrent. Yes, the Cold War has ended and, yes, while "we worry about Russia's nuclear posture to some degree, it is not just as prominent as it once was." The U.S. still needs to deter Russia, which has the largest nuclear capability of any potential adversary, and the Chinese, who have a modest (and growing) capability. The U.S. nuclear deterrent has no influence on North Korea or Iran, he says, or on nonstate actors. "They're not going to be deterred by the possibility of a nuclear response to actions that they might take," he says.
Mr. Schlesinger refers to the unanimous conclusion of the bipartisan Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States, which he co-led with Chairman William Perry. The commission "strongly" recommended that further discussions with the Russians on arms control are "desirable," he says, and that "we should proceed with negotiations on an extension of the START Treaty." That's what Mr. Obama set in motion in Moscow this week. The pact -- whose full name is the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty -- expires in December. But what's the hurry? Mr. Schlesinger warns about rushing to agree on cuts. "The treaty . . . can be extended for five years. And, if need be, I would extend it for five years."
There's another compelling reason for a strong U.S. deterrent: the U.S. nuclear umbrella, which protects more than 30 allies world-wide. "If we were only protecting the North American continent," he says, "we could do so with far fewer weapons than we have at present in the stockpile." But a principal aim of the U.S. nuclear deterrent is "to provide the necessary reassurance to our allies, both in Asia and in Europe." That includes "our new NATO allies such as Poland and the Baltic States," which, he notes dryly, continue to be concerned about their Russian neighbor. "Indeed, they inform us regularly that they understand the Russians far better than do we."
The congressional commission warned of a coming "tipping point" in proliferation, when more nations might decide to go nuclear if they were to lose confidence in the U.S. deterrent, or in Washington's will to use it. If U.S. allies lose confidence in Washington's ability to protect them, they'll kick off a new nuclear arms race.
That's a reason Mr. Schlesinger wants to bring Japan into the nuclear conversation. "One of the recommendations of the commission is that we start to have a dialogue with the Japanese about strategic capabilities in order both to help enlighten them and to provide reassurance that they will be protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella. In the past, that has not been the case. Japan never was seriously threatened by Soviet capabilities and that the Soviets looked westward largely is a threat against Western Europe. But now that the Chinese forces have been growing into the many hundreds of weapons, we think that it's necessary to talk to the Japanese in the same way that we have talked to the Europeans over the years."
He reminds me of the comment of Japanese political leader Ichiro Ozawa, who said in 2002 that it would be "easy" for Japan to make nuclear warheads and that it had enough plutonium to make several thousand weapons. "When one contemplates a number like that," Mr. Schlesinger says, "one sees that a substantial role in nonproliferation has been the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Without that, some and perhaps a fair number of our allies would feel the necessity of having their own nuclear capabilities."
He worries about "contagion" in the Middle East, whereby countries will decide to go nuclear if Iran does. "We've long talked about Iran as a tipping point," he says, "in that it might induce Turkey, which has long been protected under NATO, Egypt [and] Saudi Arabia to respond in kind . . . There has been talk about extending the nuclear umbrella to the Middle East in the event that the Iranians are successful in developing that capacity."
Mr. Schlesinger expresses concerns, too, about the safety and reliability of U.S. nuclear weapons, all of which are more than 20 years old. "I am worried about the reliability of the weapons . . . as time passes. Not this year, not next year, but as time passes and the stockpile ages." There is a worry, too, about the "intellectual infrastructure," he says, as Americans who know how to make nuclear weapons either retire or die. And he notes that the "physical infrastructure" is now "well over 60 years" old. Some of it "comes out of the Manhattan Project."
The U.S. is the only major nuclear power that is not modernizing its weapons. "The Russians have a shelf life for their weapons of about 10 years so they are continually replacing" them. The British and the French "stay up to date." And the Chinese and the Indians "continue to add to their stockpiles." But in the U.S., Congress won't even so much as fund R&D for the Reliable Replacement Warhead. "The RRW has become a toxic term on Capitol Hill," Mr. Schlesinger says. Give it a new name, he seems to be suggesting, and try again to get Congress to fund it. "We need to be much more vigorous about life-extension programs" for the weapons.
Finally, we chat about Mr. Schlesinger's nearly half-century as a nuclear strategist. Are we living in a world where the use of nuclear weapons is more likely than it was back then? "The likelihood of a nuclear exchange has substantially gone away," he says. That's the good news. "However, the likelihood of a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States" is greater.
During his RAND years, in the 1960s, Mr. Schlesinger recalls that "we were working on mitigating the possible effects [of a nuclear attack] through civil defense, which, may I say parenthetically, we should be working on now with respect, certainly, to the possibility of a terrorist weapon used against the United States. . . . We should have a much more rapid response capability. . . . We're not as well organized as we should be to respond."
Mr. Schlesinger sees another difference between now and when he started in this business: "Public interest in our strategic posture has faded over the decades," he says. "In the Cold War, it was a most prominent subject. Now, much of the public is barely interested in it. And that has been true of the Congress as well," creating what he delicately refers to as "something of a stalemate in expenditures."
He's raising the alarm. Congress, the administration and Americans ignore it at their peril.
Ms. Kirkpatrick is a deputy editor of the Journal's editorial page.
'Put nothing in writing,' Browner told auto execs on secret White House CAFE talks; Sensenbrenner wants investigation
MARK TAPSCOTT
Editorial Page Editor
Carol Browner, former Clinton administration EPA head and current Obama White House climate czar, instructed auto industry execs "to put nothing in writing, ever" regarding secret negotiations she orchestrated regarding a deal to increase federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.
(NOTE: The stringent CAFÉ standards will seriously impact our economy as well as the quality of our automobiles. The only way such standards as those imposed can be reached is by making cars lighter – using lighter metals and substituting other materials. Such modifications will make our cars less safe. Thus Browner’s dictatorial hand will lead to higher death and injury figures. Reduced speed and other modifications will impede commercial traffic.)
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI, is demanding a congressional investigation of Browner's conduct in the CAFE talks, saying in a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA, that Browner "intended to leave little or no documentation of the deliberations that lead to stringent new CAFE standards."
Federal law requires officials to preserve documents concerning significant policy decisions, so instructing participants in a policy negotation concerning a major federal policy change could be viewed as a criminal act.
Waxman is chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Sensenbrenner is the ranking Republican member of the panel.
Browner's informal directive was previously reported by The New York Times. Sensebrenner's letter is being made public tomorrow. A copy was made available to The Examiner by an official with knowledge of the controversy.
Sensenbrenner also wants a congressional investigation of why a global warming study by Alan Carlin, an EPA economist who is a career civil servant, was suppressed by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and other senior agency officials. The study warned of seriously damaging economic consequences for small businesses if the agency moved to regulate CO2 gases as illegal emissions under the Clean Air Act.
The CO2 gases, which are also produced by humans and other air-breathing creatures when they exhale, are viewed by global warming activists as contributing to the trapping of heat in the atmosphere when carbon-based fuels like oil and coal are burned. Carlin's situation was previously detailed here by The Examiner.
When the study author requested that it be included in official EPA materials on the issue of whether the agency should adopt an "endangerment rule" to allow regulation of CO2, senior agency officials denied it. Al McGartland, director of EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics, told Carlin that his study was rejected because "your comments do not help the legal or policy case" for EPA's decision to enact the endangerment rule.
In other words, according to Sensenbrenner, EPA officials purposely ignored the study simply because it did not advance their political policy agenda. Both President Obama and EPA's Jackson have repeatedly promised not to make policy decisions on the basis of political or ideological considerations.
The full text of Sensenbrenner's letter follows:
July 8, 2009
The Honorable Edward Markey
Chairman, House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Markey:
During her confirmation hearing, Administrator Jackson promised “overwhelming
transparency.” She said, “[a]s Administrator, I will ensure EPA’s efforts to address the
environmental rises of today are rooted in three fundamental values: Science-based policies and
programs, adherence to the rule of law, and overwhelming transparency.” Notwithstanding this
promise, EPA has conducted itself under an unprecedented veil of secrecy.
I initially raised these concerns in a letter to you and Congressman Towns dated June 9,
2009.1 In that letter I cited two incidents. First, Mary Nichols, the head of the California Air
Resources Board (CARB), revealed that the White House had held a series of secret meetings as
they were crafting the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. Nichols
admitted that there was a deliberate “vow of silence” surrounding the negotiations with the
White House on vehicle fuel standards.2 According to Nichols, “[Carol] Browner [Assistant to
the President for Energy and Climate Change] quietly orchestrated private discussions from the
White House with auto industry officials.” Negotiators were instructed to “put nothing in
writing, ever.” Clearly, Browner’s actions were intended to leave little to no documentation of
the deliberations that lead to stringent new CAFE standards.
The second issue raised in the previous letter related to EPA’s proposed endangerment
finding. An official from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) warned EPA in an
interagency memo that “[m]aking a decision to regulate CO2 under the CAA for the first time is
likely to have serious economic consequences for regulated entities throughout the U.S.
economy, including small businesses and small communities.”3 According to Administration
sources, these warning were dismissed, in part, because they originated from “a Bush
Holdover.”4 In fact, the “holdover” was a career civil servant hired by the Clinton
Administration.
1 Letter from the Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner and Darrel Issa to the Honorable Edolphus Towns and
Edward Markey (June 9, 2009).
2 Colin Sullivan, Vow of Silence Key to White House-California Fuel Economy Talks, New York Times,
May 20, 2009.
3 Ian Talley, OMB Memo: Serious Impact Likely from EPA CO2 Rules, Dow Jones Newswire, May 11,
2009, available at http://www.djnewsplus.com/article_ss/SB124206897993062889.html?param=gn&
4 Ian Talley, EPA Chief Says CO2 Finding May Not ‘Mean Regulation,’ Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2009.
I am again raising concerns regarding the transparency of EPA’s process in light of new
evidence of suppression at EPA. In a series of emails, dated March 12-17, 2009, the Director of
EPA’s National Center for Environmental Economics (NCEE) expressly refused to include
relevant scientific evidence in the official record because, in his view, the administration had
already reached its conclusion regarding the endangerment finding.
On March 16, a senior analyst with EPA wrote to his office director to request that his
comments be included in EPA’s record. The analyst wrote:
I believe my comments are valid, significant, and contain references to significant new
research since the cut-off for IPCC and CCSP inputs. They are significant because they
present information critical to the justification (or lack thereof) for the proposed
endangerment finding. They are valid because they explain much of the observational data
that have been collected which cannot be explained by the IPCC models.
In response, the director refused to forward the analyst’s comments, not because he questioned
their scientific merits, but because “[t]he administrator and administration has decided to move
forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this
decision.”5
The director then sent a follow-up email, forbidding the analyst from continuing his
work: “With the endangerment finding nearly final, you need to move on to other issues and
subjects. I don’t want you to spend any additional EPA time on climate change. No papers, no
research etc.”
As it did with the OMB memo, EPA attacked the analyst’s credibility. In response to
publication of the above emails, EPA spokeswoman Adora Andy reiterated EPA’s now empty
pledge of transparency and said, “[i]n this instance, certain opinions were expressed by an
individual who is not a scientist and was not part of the working group dealing with this issue.”6
In fact, the analyst is a 38-year EPA employee with a scientific background, but
regardless, EPA’s response ignores the ultimate problem. NCEE’s director did not dismiss the
analyst’s opinions because of his scientific background or because of the merits of his study, the
director expressly refused to forward his opinion because they did not support the conclusions
that EPA had already reached.
This past December, President Obama said, “[p]romoting science isn’t just about
providing resources—it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts
and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what
our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient—especially when it’s inconvenient.”
5 Email from Office Director of EPA’s NCEE to Senior Operations Research Analyst at NCEE (March 17,
2009).
6 Robin Bravender, House GOP Accuses Admin of Suppressing EPA Staff on ‘endangerment' finding,’
E&ENews (June 25, 2009).
The email exchange documents a second instance in which EPA refused to consider
alternative internal opinions and delineates an agency culture set in a predetermined course. It
therefore raises substantial questions about what additional evidence may have been suppressed.
EPA has become an agency determined to silence inconvenient perspectives, but as
policymakers we must openly and honestly consider all reliable evidence.
I therefore respectfully request that we hold a hearing to investigate the lack of transparency at EPA. I am prepared to assist in any way necessary to help prepare for such a hearing.
Sincerely,
F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Ranking Member
Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming
3.
Democrats Admit That Their Cap and Trade Bill Is a Job Killer
Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
In her remarks bringing the debate over the climate bill to a close, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California urged her colleagues to vote in favor of the cap and trade bill, saying the measure was about four things: "jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs."
She was right—the House-passed version of cap and trade is all about jobs: jobs lost, jobs never created, jobs sent overseas, and, unbelievably, jobs people will be paid for doing long after they cease to exist.
According to Friday's Washington Times, the legislation includes language that provides, should it become law, that people who lose their jobs because of it "could get a weekly paycheck for up to three years, subsidies to find new work and other generous benefits—courtesy of Uncle Sam."
(NOTE: Make no mistake about it – the Democrat “Cap and Trade” legislation is nothing but a Democrat imposition of another tax – one of the largest Democrat tax ever levided. It will mean each and every American family will be required to pay a tax running into the thousands for a federal program liberals claim will only support Al Gore’s man made “Global Warming” scam.)
How generous are these benefits? Well, according to the Times, "Adversely affected employees in oil, coal and other fossil-fuel sector jobs would qualify for a weekly check worth 70 percent of their current salary for up to three years. In addition, they would get $1,500 for job-search assistance and $1,500 for moving expenses from the bill's 'climate change worker adjustment assistance' program, which is expected to cost $4.2 billion from 2011 to 2019."
Instead of being a the source of millions of new jobs of "green jobs"—as House Democrats are fond of saying over and over again—the provision is a hidden admission that their effort is a job killer, not just a massive new tax on energy.
Building a safety net into the legislation is probably the responsible thing to do. The government is going to be directly responsible for the destruction of millions of jobs if the bill passed by the House becomes law—anywhere from a net loss of .5 percent of total jobs over the first 10 years, according to the liberal Brookings Institution, to 3 million by the year 2030, according to the industry-backed Coalition for Affordable American Energy. But wouldn't it be better to leave the jobs alone in the first place? It would certainly be cheaper.
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/poll_stimulus_opposition/2009/07/07/232783.html
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