On a recent episode of "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, Jon Stewart interviewed Christopher Horner, a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism".
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is an organization dedicated to, among other things, supposedly waging a battle against global warming alarmism. CEI is also an organization which has accepted large donations from such environment friendly companies as Amoco, CSX, Philip Morris and Texaco. In addition to those companies, ExxonMobil has donated a total of more than $2 million to CEI. Myron Ebell, the organization's Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy, has asserted that global warming is a hoax perpetrated by the European Union and the rest of the world in order to harm the U.S. economy. Possibly even more unbelievable than Ebell is Steven Milloy, an Adjunct Scholar at CEI. Aside from being an advocate for Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, Milloy has served as a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, Dow Chemical and FMC. (And those are just 2 members of CEI.) Last but certainly not least, CEI claims that the Wall Street Journal has referred to the organization as "the best environmental think tank in the country". However, I have scoured the Internet and have been unable to find any article where that statement is made.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Important Web Site of the Day
On tonight's episode of "60 Minutes", the lead story focused on the numerous U.S. military personnel who have signed a petition called the Appeal for Redress. This petition provides individual service members with the ability to appeal to their Congressional Representatives and Senators to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation of Iraq. To learn more about the Appeal for Redress, please visit http://www.appealforredress.org/.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Obvious Statement of the Day
During a speech today in South Carolina, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) provided his opinion on former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "I think that [Rumsfeld] will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history."
Although I wholeheartedly agree with his statement, the fact that McCain also stated "We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement -- that's the kindest word I can give you -- of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war" makes me wonder why he is not laying the numerous failures of the Iraq War at the feet of Mr. Bush. After all, Mr. Bush is supposedly the commander-in-chief or, as he so eloquently puts it: "the decider". Even though McCain delivered these comments, he never once called for Rumsfeld's resignation. In fact, McCain once explained that "the President picks his team and the President has the right to stay with that team if he wants to".
Although I wholeheartedly agree with his statement, the fact that McCain also stated "We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement -- that's the kindest word I can give you -- of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war" makes me wonder why he is not laying the numerous failures of the Iraq War at the feet of Mr. Bush. After all, Mr. Bush is supposedly the commander-in-chief or, as he so eloquently puts it: "the decider". Even though McCain delivered these comments, he never once called for Rumsfeld's resignation. In fact, McCain once explained that "the President picks his team and the President has the right to stay with that team if he wants to".
Discouraging Statistics of the Week
With the proposed 2008 federal budget recently sent to Congress, Mr. Bush has once again emphasized the mindset and attitude of his administration and the Republican Party. The following is only a short list of the various changes in the new budget:
- Agriculture: Subsidies for farmers earning more than $200,000 annually would be eliminated. However, a total of $5.4 billion is designated for food stamps. In addition, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides food to more than 500,000 low income senior citizens, would also be eliminated.
- Education: Mr. Bush plans on increasing the spending for the No Child Left Behind Act but, by doing so, would eliminate 42 other programs. (It is an absolute shame that any program is affected by No Child Left Behind, a program filled with corruption, inequality and inaccuracies.
- NASA: The planned spending for NASA would increase by $1.1 billion from the $16.2 billion in Mr. Bush's proposed budget for 2007. Included in the $17.3 billion in spending are funds to send astronauts to the moon by 2020. (I am not sure if Mr. Bush is aware of this fact or not but the U.S. has already been to the moon. What's next? Appropriating billions of dollars to explore the area west of the Mississippi River? How about we just focus on more important topics, such as affordable health care or improving our educational system?)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Funding in this area would decrease by $500 million, including grants to states for bioterrorism preparations.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Frustrating Evidence of the Week
During recent testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the former U.S. Administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, discussed the billions of dollars irresponsibly spent by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Bremer served as the head of the CPA during the organization's "rule" of Iraq from May 2003 to June 2004.
Please keep in mind the various accomplishments of Bremer in his tenure as the U.S. Administrator of Iraq, including completely disbanding the Iraqi military (more than 300,000 individuals) and removing approximately 50,000 Baath Party members from government ministries, schools and universities. Aside from those excellent decisions, audits by both the United Nations and Stuart Bowen, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, concluded that Bremer and CPA could not account for the $12 billion allocated. One primary reason is that the CPA never released spending guidelines. In fact, Bowen reported that virtually no evidence was available to verify the funds were spent on legitimate projects. At the same time, when any evidence was actually provided, the information clearly showed a complete mismanagement of the appropriated money due to waste and corruption, including funds for a Baghdad police academy with severe construction defects and a $48 million police training camp (which was never used but still contained an Olympic size swimming pool).
Please keep in mind the various accomplishments of Bremer in his tenure as the U.S. Administrator of Iraq, including completely disbanding the Iraqi military (more than 300,000 individuals) and removing approximately 50,000 Baath Party members from government ministries, schools and universities. Aside from those excellent decisions, audits by both the United Nations and Stuart Bowen, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, concluded that Bremer and CPA could not account for the $12 billion allocated. One primary reason is that the CPA never released spending guidelines. In fact, Bowen reported that virtually no evidence was available to verify the funds were spent on legitimate projects. At the same time, when any evidence was actually provided, the information clearly showed a complete mismanagement of the appropriated money due to waste and corruption, including funds for a Baghdad police academy with severe construction defects and a $48 million police training camp (which was never used but still contained an Olympic size swimming pool).
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Brain Surgeon of the Day
During last night's "The O'Reilly Factor" on FOX News, Julie Banderas appeared as a media analyst to discuss possible explanations for changes in viewer ratings for the evening news shows on the three major networks. Concerning NBC specifically, Banderas stated that "NBC has lost over two million viewers since Peter Jennings stepped down. And then Tom Brokaw, his show has lost about, uh, I don't know, two million viewers."
I know this world and its issues can be confusing from time to time so maybe I am wrong to think that it is public knowledge that Peter Jennings was employed by ABC. (I know it could be difficult to tell since Jennings only worked for ABC for more than thirty years.) With Tom Brokaw, I am sure "NBC Nightly News" is most closely associated with him but he has not anchored that show in more than two years. However, as I have stated before, FOX News has never served as a bastion of accuracy.
I know this world and its issues can be confusing from time to time so maybe I am wrong to think that it is public knowledge that Peter Jennings was employed by ABC. (I know it could be difficult to tell since Jennings only worked for ABC for more than thirty years.) With Tom Brokaw, I am sure "NBC Nightly News" is most closely associated with him but he has not anchored that show in more than two years. However, as I have stated before, FOX News has never served as a bastion of accuracy.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Shock of the Day
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the Democratic chairman of a House panel examining the government's response to climate change, stated yesterday that extensive evidence exists in which senior Bush administration officials attempted repeatedly "to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming".
If you could not tell, my title for this particular posting is extremely sarcastic. If the Bush administration would produce lie after lie in order to justify a war in Iraq, it is not at all surprising that similar tactics would not be utilized against trivial matters (trivial in the administration's eyes) as the environment. Two private advocacy groups presented a survey which shows 2 in 5 of the 279 climate scientists responding to a questionnaire complained that portions of their scientific papers had been edited to intentionally alter their meaning. In regards to another question, approximately half of those 279 scientists responded that, at some point, they were pressured by the Bush administration to delete references to "global warming" and "climate change" from their reports. What do you expect from an administration which still refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol (aimed at reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases) even though 169 other nations have done so already?
If you could not tell, my title for this particular posting is extremely sarcastic. If the Bush administration would produce lie after lie in order to justify a war in Iraq, it is not at all surprising that similar tactics would not be utilized against trivial matters (trivial in the administration's eyes) as the environment. Two private advocacy groups presented a survey which shows 2 in 5 of the 279 climate scientists responding to a questionnaire complained that portions of their scientific papers had been edited to intentionally alter their meaning. In regards to another question, approximately half of those 279 scientists responded that, at some point, they were pressured by the Bush administration to delete references to "global warming" and "climate change" from their reports. What do you expect from an administration which still refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol (aimed at reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases) even though 169 other nations have done so already?
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Irresponsible Stretch of the Day
During the airing of Thursday's "The Big Story with John Gibson" on FOX News, Mr. Gibson provided his latest inaccurate comments on the Scooter Libby trial: "We now know from testimony yesterday in the Libby trial that Ambassador [Joseph] Wilson was sent on the CIA mission by his wife, CIA analyst Valerie Plame. I have said from the beginning that, if CIA analyst Valerie Plame was inserting herself in politics by sending her anti-war, anti-invasion husband on a fact finding mission about Saddam Hussein, then damn right, we should know her name. I said Karl Rove should get a medal for it if he did it."
First and foremost, how much power does Gibson think Plame had as a member of the CIA? The final decision to send Wilson to Niger was made by the office of the Vice President. At the same time, I do not doubt that Plame recommended her husband for the mission to Niger to determine if Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase enriched uranium yellowcake, especially considering the fact that he previously served as a U.S. Ambassador to several African nations. In fact, declassified documents from the State Department (a Bush led State Department) released during the Libby trial verify this assertion:
"Meeting [on February 19, 2002] apparently convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA WMD managerial type and the wife of Ambassador Joe Wilson, with the idea that the agency and the larger [Under Secretary Grossman] USG could dispatch Joe to Niger to use his contacts there to sort out the Niger/Iraq uranium sale question."
"With the idea" of dispatching her husband to use his contacts. As a "CIA WMD managerial type", that is exactly what Plame should have done as part of her job responsibilities. At the same time, those same declassified documents paint a picture of the role played by both Plame and Wilson in this scandal contrary to Gibson's.
"[Wilson] previewed his plans and rationale for going to Niger but said he would only go if the [State] Department thought his trip made sense."
From his comments, it is apparent that Plame recommending her tremendously qualified husband for the Niger mission is much worse to Gibson than Plame being exposed by her own government as an active CIA official, which is clearly in violation of federal law. Of course, Gibson and other conservative pundits steer clear of the infamous "16 words" delivered by Mr. Bush in his State of the Union address in January 2003. During that speech, Mr. Bush, in contradiction of Wilson's findings, falsely claimed that "the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa". However, in March 2003, when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) finally obtained the documents (regarding the alleged transactions between Iraq and Niger) referred to by former Secretary of State Colin Powell in front of the United Nations Security Council, the IAEA concluded that the documents were clearly fraudulent. With that being said, I definitely understand why Plame and Wilson are the villians in this story.
First and foremost, how much power does Gibson think Plame had as a member of the CIA? The final decision to send Wilson to Niger was made by the office of the Vice President. At the same time, I do not doubt that Plame recommended her husband for the mission to Niger to determine if Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase enriched uranium yellowcake, especially considering the fact that he previously served as a U.S. Ambassador to several African nations. In fact, declassified documents from the State Department (a Bush led State Department) released during the Libby trial verify this assertion:
"Meeting [on February 19, 2002] apparently convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA WMD managerial type and the wife of Ambassador Joe Wilson, with the idea that the agency and the larger [Under Secretary Grossman] USG could dispatch Joe to Niger to use his contacts there to sort out the Niger/Iraq uranium sale question."
"With the idea" of dispatching her husband to use his contacts. As a "CIA WMD managerial type", that is exactly what Plame should have done as part of her job responsibilities. At the same time, those same declassified documents paint a picture of the role played by both Plame and Wilson in this scandal contrary to Gibson's.
"[Wilson] previewed his plans and rationale for going to Niger but said he would only go if the [State] Department thought his trip made sense."
From his comments, it is apparent that Plame recommending her tremendously qualified husband for the Niger mission is much worse to Gibson than Plame being exposed by her own government as an active CIA official, which is clearly in violation of federal law. Of course, Gibson and other conservative pundits steer clear of the infamous "16 words" delivered by Mr. Bush in his State of the Union address in January 2003. During that speech, Mr. Bush, in contradiction of Wilson's findings, falsely claimed that "the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa". However, in March 2003, when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) finally obtained the documents (regarding the alleged transactions between Iraq and Niger) referred to by former Secretary of State Colin Powell in front of the United Nations Security Council, the IAEA concluded that the documents were clearly fraudulent. With that being said, I definitely understand why Plame and Wilson are the villians in this story.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Strongest Reply of the Day
The following excerpts are taken from the statement released by Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq War veteran and the Executive Director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), in response to Mr. Bush's State of the Union address last week:
"Tonight [Mr. Bush] once again failed to demonstrate a real commitment to the 1.6 million new American veterans who have been created under his watch. For the second year in a row, [Mr. Bush] in his State of the Union address chose to mention the troops only as a prop for his failing policies and ignored the nation's new veterans entirely."
"[Mr. Bush], this nation's new veterans and this new Congress will together rewrite the book on our approach to veterans' services and we'll do it with or without your help. Tonight you demonstrated your willingness to send more troops into harm's way. A demonstration of your commitment to preserving this nation's promise to its veterans is long overdue."
The IAVA is the nation's first and largest group dedicated to the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the civilian supporters of those individuals. More importantly, the organization is non-partisan, criticizing both Republicans and Democrats alike. The subject matter of Rieckhoff's statements is definitely one of the main reasons for people being opposed to sending more troops to Iraq. Aside from the numerous lies perpetrated as justification for invading Iraq in the first place, the Bush administration has appeared to be extremely casual and flippant on multiple occasions when it comes to U.S. casualties suffered during the war.
"Tonight [Mr. Bush] once again failed to demonstrate a real commitment to the 1.6 million new American veterans who have been created under his watch. For the second year in a row, [Mr. Bush] in his State of the Union address chose to mention the troops only as a prop for his failing policies and ignored the nation's new veterans entirely."
"[Mr. Bush], this nation's new veterans and this new Congress will together rewrite the book on our approach to veterans' services and we'll do it with or without your help. Tonight you demonstrated your willingness to send more troops into harm's way. A demonstration of your commitment to preserving this nation's promise to its veterans is long overdue."
The IAVA is the nation's first and largest group dedicated to the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the civilian supporters of those individuals. More importantly, the organization is non-partisan, criticizing both Republicans and Democrats alike. The subject matter of Rieckhoff's statements is definitely one of the main reasons for people being opposed to sending more troops to Iraq. Aside from the numerous lies perpetrated as justification for invading Iraq in the first place, the Bush administration has appeared to be extremely casual and flippant on multiple occasions when it comes to U.S. casualties suffered during the war.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Best Quote of the Week
"Today I am announcing that I will form an exploratory committee to run for president." -- Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in announcing her intentions to run for President of the United States
Thank God! My only dilemma with this news is that I don't know which sounds better: President Hillary Clinton or First Lady Bill Clinton.
Thank God! My only dilemma with this news is that I don't know which sounds better: President Hillary Clinton or First Lady Bill Clinton.
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