1) Obama Making Plans to Use Executive Power
WASHINGTON — With much of his legislative agenda stalled in Congress, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities.
Mr. Obama has not given up hope of progress on Capitol Hill, aides said, and has scheduled a session with Republican leaders on health care later this month. But in the aftermath of a special election in Massachusetts that cost Democrats unilateral control of the Senate, the White House is getting ready to act on its own in the face of partisan gridlock heading into the midterm campaign.
…Mr. Obama has already decided to create a bipartisan budget commission under his own authority after Congress refused to do so. His administration has signaled that it plans to use its discretion to soften enforcement of the ban on openly gay men and lesbians serving in the military, even as Congress considers repealing the law. And the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with possible regulations on heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change, while a bill to cap such emissions languishes in the Senate.
Yes, King Obama, keep skirting the legislative process. You will see that the people of the United States of America aren’t going to put up with a dictatorship.
See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/us/politics/13obama.html
2) Kyl: Dems have already decided how to force health bill through
Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona on Sunday threw more cold water on the chances that his party would cooperate with a Feb. 25 healthcare reform summit at the White House, protesting that Democrats already seem poised to force a bill through Congress.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kyl echoed a claim that congressional Republicans have made for the past week, that President Barack Obama and House and Senate Democrats intend the summit as a public display and not a genuine dialogue. He quoted a recent Wall Street Journal article that asserted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has “set the stage” for using reconciliation to pass the bill. That controversial legislative tactic could allow the bill to pass the Senate with 51 votes instead of 60 as usually required to break a filibuster.
2a) Obama keeps all-Democratic health care option open
WASHINGTON – The White House signaled Thursday that an aggressive, all-Democratic strategy for overhauling the nation's health care system remains a serious option, even as President Barack Obama invites Republicans to next week's televised summit to seek possible compromises.
The administration's stance could set the stage for a political showdown, with Democrats struggling to enact the president's top domestic priority and Republicans trying to block what many conservatives see as government overreach.
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100219/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul
3) Biden Takes Credit for Liberated Iraq
Appearing on CNN’s Larry King Live Wednesday night, Vice President Joe Biden took personal credit on behalf of the Obama Administration for a liberated Iraq – with no mention that had President Obama’s wishes won the day back when the Iraq invasion took place in 2003, the oppressive Saddam Hussein would still be in power.
See: http://newsmax.com/InsideCover/Biden-Takes-Credit-Liberated/2010/02/11/id/349638
3a) Republicans Object to Biden Taking Credit for Success in Iraq
…"I am very optimistic about Iraq," he said. "I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration."
But Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said you cannot oppose the surge and then claim it for your legacy.
"When Joe Biden was in the Senate and Obama was in the Senate, they authored and were the chief architect of the resolution opposing the surge," he said.
The vice president also took credit for the troop drawdown.
"You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer," he said. "You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government."
But the drawdown was negotiated in the Status of Forces Agreement before the Obama administration took office.
See: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/11/republicans-object-biden-taking-credit-success-iraq/
3b) EXCLUSIVE: Dick Cheney Critical of Biden, Obama National Security Policies
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in an exclusive appearance on ABC News' "This Week," offered a sharp critique of the Obama administration's handling of national security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying any achievements over the past year largely stemmed from policies implemented under President George W. Bush.
"If [the administration is] going to take credit for [Iraq's success], fair enough ... but it ought to come with a healthy dose of 'Thank you, George Bush' up front and a recognition that some of their early recommendations with respect to prosecuting that war were just dead wrong," Cheney told ABC News' Jonathan Karl.
See: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Politics/dick-cheney-joe-biden-war-words-continues/story?id=9821035
4) Bayh the latest exit as moderates leave Congress
WASHINGTON – The moderate middle is disappearing from Congress. Evan Bayh is just the latest senator to forgo a re-election bid, joining a growing line of pragmatic, find-a-way politicians who are abandoning Washington. Still here: ever-more-polarized colleagues locked in gridlock — exactly what voters say they don't like about politics in the nation's capital.
More like, dems, who know there is no way they can win in an election, and cutting their losses and going home…
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100217/ap_on_go_co/us_goodbye_moderates
5) Is Global Warming Really A Bigger Threat than Iran?
Over the past year, Iran has declared itself a nuclear state and continues to expand their ballistic missile program, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair has testified to Congress that Al Qaeda and its affiliates are planning a large-scale attack on American soil within the next six months, and failed Flight 253 Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has told the FBI that he met with other English speakers at a terrorist training camp in Yemen.
Meanwhile, the scientist at the center of Climategate now tells BBC News that there has been no statistically significant rise in temperature in the past fifteen years and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been forced to admit their 2007 report substantially overstated global warning’s impact on glacier loss, hurricane damage, and African crop failure.
So how is the Obama Administration focusing our precious national security resources? Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve (rtd) explains in The Telegraph:
Under American law, every four years the US Defence Department must present to Congress a comprehensive review of the security threats and challenges to America. The security picture presented in the review provides the justification for planning and creating the appropriate military forces and capabilities. The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is supposed to be a non-partisan and objective strategic document – free of partisan politics. … Last week the Defense Department released the 2010 QDR. It is a remarkable document.
…However, it’s not what is in the document that surprises the reader – it’s what was left out. There presence of two elephants in their living room apparently escaped the notice of American’s top civilian and military leaders. Islamic radicalism does not receive any mention whatsoever in the American Defense Review and the threat posed by a nuclear Iran is mentioned in only one general sentence at the end of a document (page 101). To put this lack of discussion in proportion, contrast this non-discussion with other security issues mentioned in the document. For example, the security effects of climate change are highlighted and discussed in depth in eight pages of the document.
See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/16/is-global-warming-really-a-bigger-threat-than-iran
6) SEC Votes for Corporate Disclosure of Climate Change Risk
WASHINGTON—Political feuding over global warming reached the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday when commissioners, divided on party lines, voted to encourage companies to disclose the effects of climate change on their business.
SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, an Obama administration appointee, said the agency wasn't weighing in on the global-warming debate and wanted to ensure that investors get reliable information.
The agency's two Republican commissioners voted against issuing the guidance. "I can only conclude that the purpose of this release is to place the imprimatur of the commission on the agenda of the social and environmental policy lobby, an agenda that falls outside of our expertise," said Republican Commissioner Kathleen Casey.
Two Republican lawmakers from the House Energy and Commerce Committee also took a swipe at the SEC in a letter sent Tuesday, calling the move "transparently political and such a breathtaking waste of the commission's resources."
Agree!
See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703410004575029303322357276.html
6a) More on this…SEC to require disclosure of climate change risks
A politically divided Securities and Exchange Commission voted on Wednesday to make clear when companies must provide information to investors about the business risks associated with climate change.
The commission, in a 3 to 2 vote, decided to require that companies disclose in their public filings the impact of climate change on their businesses -- from new regulations or legislation they may face domestically or abroad to potential changes in economic trends or physical risks to a company.
Chairman Mary L. Schapiro and the two Democrats on the commission supported the new requirements, while the two Republicans vehemently opposed them.
See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/27/AR2010012704502.html
7) Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995
-Data for vital 'hockey stick graph' has gone missing
-There has been no global warming since 1995
-Warming periods have happened before - but NOT due to man-made changes
The academic at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the information.
Colleagues say that the reason Professor Phil Jones has refused Freedom of Information requests is that he may have actually lost the relevant papers.
Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organisational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is ‘not as good as it should be’.
The data is crucial to the famous ‘hockey stick graph’ used by climate change advocates to support the theory.
Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.
And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.
7a) Mark Landsbaum: What to say to a global warming alarmist
It has been tough to keep up with all the bad news for global warming alarmists. We're on the edge of our chair, waiting for the next shoe to drop. This has been an Imelda Marcos kind of season for shoe-dropping about global warming.
At your next dinner party, here are some of the latest talking points to bring up when someone reminds you that Al Gore and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won Nobel prizes for their work on global warming.
ClimateGate – This scandal began the latest round of revelations when thousands of leaked documents from Britain's East Anglia Climate Research Unit showed systematic suppression and discrediting of climate skeptics' views and discarding of temperature data, suggesting a bias for making the case for warming. Why do such a thing if, as global warming defenders contend, the "science is settled?"
…HimalayaGate – An Indian climate official admitted in January that, as lead author of the IPCC's Asian report, he intentionally exaggerated when claiming Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035 in order to prod governments into action (emphasis mine). This fraudulent claim was not based on scientific research or peer-reviewed. Instead it was originally advanced by a researcher, since hired by a global warming research organization, who later admitted it was "speculation" lifted from a popular magazine. This political, not scientific, motivation at least got some researcher funded.
…PachauriGate – Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman who accepted with Al Gore the Nobel Prize for scaring people witless, at first defended the Himalaya melting scenario. Critics, he said, practiced "voodoo science." After the melting-scam perpetrator 'fessed up, Pachauri admitted to making a mistake. But, he insisted, we still should trust him.
PachauriGate II – Pachauri also claimed he didn't know before the 192-nation climate summit meeting in Copenhagen in December that the bogus Himalayan glacier claim was sheer speculation. But the London Times reported that a prominent science journalist said he had pointed out those errors in several e-mails and discussions to Pachauri, who "decided to overlook it." Stonewalling? Cover up? Pachauri says he was "preoccupied." Well, no sense spoiling the Copenhagen party, where countries like Pachauri's India hoped to wrench billions from countries like the United States to combat global warming's melting glaciers. Now there are calls for Pachauri's resignation.
…RussiaGate – Even when global warming alarmists base claims on scientific measurements, they've often had their finger on the scale. Russian think tank investigators evaluated thousands of documents and e-mails leaked from the East Anglia research center and concluded readings from the coldest regions of their nation had been omitted, driving average temperatures up about half a degree.
And it goes on and on…
See: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/-234092--.html
8) US demands Toyota turn over recall documents
WASHINGTON – The government ordered Toyota to turn over documents related to its massive recalls Tuesday, pressing to see how long the automaker knew of safety defects before taking action. Toyota, concerned about unsold cars, said it would temporarily idle some production in three states.
The Transportation Department is demanding that Toyota reveal when and how it learned of problems with sticking accelerators and with floor mats trappping gas pedals, and the company must respond within 30 to 60 days or face fines. Those defects and problems with brakes on new Prius hybrids have now led to the recall of 8.5 million vehicles.
Remember Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood’s comment, “We’re not finished with Toyota”?
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100216/ap_on_bi_ge/us_toyota_recall_us
9) Tea Party Organizer Wins New York State Assembly Race
The Tea Party followers can boast about their first elected official.
Dean Murray, a 45-year-old Long Island, N.Y., businessman who organized Tea Party protests, will be sworn in as the new Republican state assemblyman representing Long Island's eastern 3rd Assembly District on Monday, after being certified the winner of a special election held last Tuesday.
See: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/17/tea-party-organizer-wins-new-york-state-assembly-race/
10) South Carolina Lawmaker Seeks to Ban Federal Currency
South Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts has introduced legislation that would mandate that gold and silver coins replace federal currency as legal tender in his state.
As the Palmetto Scoop first reported, Pitts, a Republican, introduced legislation this month banning "the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin" in South Carolina.
In an interview, Pitts told Hotsheet that he believes that "if the federal government continues to spend money at the rate it's spending money, and if it continues to print money at the rate it's printing money, our economic system is going to collapse."
"The Germans felt their system wouldn't collapse, but it took a wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread in the 1930s," he said. "The Soviet Union didn't think their system would collapse, but it did. Ours is capable of collapsing also."
See: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/17/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6217403.shtml
11) Captured Taliban leader could shape stalemated war
WASHINGTON – The capture and interrogation of Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar could help unravel the Afghan insurgency, but it's less likely to lead U.S. forces to Osama bin Laden.
In nearly two weeks of interrogation in Pakistan, the Taliban operations chief has provided limited information, officials said. In his discussions with his Pakistani captors, Baradar has focused on his own fate and not provided full details about the location of fellow insurgents or weapons caches.
Maybe we should beat him with fluffy pillows. That would do it.
That means the immediate benefit from Baradar's arrest has been his sudden absence as the Taliban's daily battlefield commander. But if he decided to cooperate, the growing hope among both U.S. and Pakistani officials is that he would play the broker in negotiating a cease-fire between the Afghan Taliban and the U.S. and NATO-led forces fighting in Afghanistan.
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100218/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_captured_taliban
11a) Troops: Strict war rules slow Afghan offensive
MARJAH, Afghanistan — Some American and Afghan troops say they're fighting the latest offensive in Afghanistan with a handicap — strict rules that routinely force them to hold their fire.
Although details of the new guidelines are classified to keep insurgents from reading them, U.S. troops say the Taliban are keenly aware of the restrictions.
"I understand the reason behind it, but it's so hard to fight a war like this," said Lance Cpl. Travis Anderson, 20, of Altoona, Iowa. "They're using our rules of engagement against us," he said, adding that his platoon had repeatedly seen men drop their guns into ditches and walk away to blend in with civilians.
If a man emerges from a Taliban hideout after shooting erupts, U.S. troops say they cannot fire at him if he is not seen carrying a weapon — or if they did not personally watch him drop one.
What this means, some contend, is that a militant can fire at them, then set aside his weapon and walk freely out of a compound, possibly toward a weapons cache in another location. It was unclear how often this has happened. In another example, Marines pinned down by a barrage of insurgent bullets say they can't count on quick air support because it takes time to positively identify shooters.
…Col. Shrin Shah Kohbandi, commander of the new Afghan army corps in Helmand province, told reporters that his troops saw militants running away from the battlefield toward a village in Nad Ali district where they disappeared among villagers. "They hid their weapons so they became `civilians,'" under the rules, he said. "We didn't kill them and we weren't able to arrest them."
The Taliban are also known for using human shields, e.g., firing from schools, etc., knowing fired cannot be returned. Our enemy is laughing at us. This is absolutely RIDICULOUS!!!!!
See: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ie7Ds68zL9eB_hd65DFUETVLashAD9DSPP5G0
12) Opposition Grows in Germany to Bailout for Greece
BERLIN — As European finance ministers refused Monday to name specific measures to rescue Greece and the Continent’s common currency, opposition grew among Germans to bailing out what they call spendthrifts to the south after years of belt-tightening by workers at home.
I know how you feel, Germany.
The fiscal crisis, shaking the Greek government while driving down the value of the euro, is forcing taxpayers and voters across Europe to confront the fact that their fortunes are tied together more closely than their politicians confessed in the late 1990s, in the rush to create the common currency over public objections.
Yes, so what will happen when there is a global currency?
…“Europe has become a huge welfare state for everybody, for states as well as individuals,” he said.
See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/world/europe/16germany.html
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