Gee Thanks, President Obama

Warmist Peter Gleick Admits to Being Part of Heartland Document Leak

LuveniaKaighn765 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:35:27 +0000

You remember the kerfuffle over the Heartland documents, right? The ones that include what is charitably called a completely faked “gotcha” document. And now, Peter Gleick, involved in globull warming advocacy for numerous organizations, including the National Academy of Science, has admitted to obtaining the documents by impersonating a Heartland board member The Origin of the

View post:
Warmist Peter Gleick Admits to Being Part of Heartland Document Leak

Democrats Feeling A Bit Cocky About November

LuveniaKaighn765 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:35:17 +0000

For the life of me, I can’t understand why. But, they do have the majority of the media watching their backs (Politico) Democrats have plenty of reason to feel good right now: The economy’s improving, the president’s numbers are up, their prospects for holding the Senate have brightened, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Read the original post:
Democrats Feeling A Bit Cocky About November

Fired ESPN Editor Claims no Racial Slam Meant with ‘Chink in Armor’ Headline

GeeThanksPresidentObama — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:35:07 +0000

-By Warner Todd Huston The headline written by ESPN editor Anthony Federico about Asian-American basketball star Jeremy Lin lasted only about a half hour before ESPN changed it but the fallout is lasting a bit longer for editor Federico. On its Saturday story on Jeremy Lin’s less than stellar game the night before, ESPN’s headline screamed, “Chink

Continue reading here:
Fired ESPN Editor Claims no Racial Slam Meant with ‘Chink in Armor’ Headline

Supreme Court to Hear Affirmative Action Case in University Admissions

monclerinnavy — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:00:00 +0000

This is awesome. At WSJ , ” Justices to Revisit Race Issue: University of Texas Admissions Policy to Be Tested Before Reshaped High Court “: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to revisit affirmative action in state-college admissions, suggesting a 2003 ruling that narrowly permitted race-conscious policies in public higher education may face tough scrutiny from today’s more conservative court. The case, which comes from the University of Texas at Austin, joins a docket already crowded with major issues, most prominently President Barack Obama’s 2010 health-care overhaul, whose constitutionality will be argued next month…. The University of Texas said it based its admissions policy on the 2003 precedent, Grutter v. Bollinger. In that case, involving the University of Michigan Law School, the court by a 5-4 vote held for the first time that racial diversity in higher education qualified as a compelling governmental interest. Such a state interest is essential when a government classifies individuals by race. The UT policy includes consideration of race as part of a “holistic” evaluation of applicants who didn’t qualify for admission through either superior academic performance or a plan that grants admission to the top 10% of graduates from each Texas high school. The policy was challenged by lead plaintiff Abigail Fisher, who was denied admission to the university after applying in 2008. RTWT .

See the article here:
Supreme Court to Hear Affirmative Action Case in University Admissions

3 Ways to Take Birth Control Out of the Presidential Race

EdwardsWendy31 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:30:00 +0000

In the heat of a presidential election season, The Washington Post disingenuously asks, ” Birth control as election issue. Why? ” The title is disingenuous (methinks) because it's clear that the main reason why we are talking about this is the rightly controversial mandate in President Obama's health care reform plan that virtually all employers , including those for whom contraception is religiously proscribed or not a core business focus, give their employees free-to-them contraceptives. Well, that and the current leader in the Republican search for a losing presidential nominee rarely seems to miss an opportunity to diss anything that makes getting pregnant tougher. But let's face it, long after the term Santorum exists only under vine-covered ruins of safe-search-off Google queries, we'll still be talking about the beast-with-two-backs in public policy venues. Or at least in JFK-themed memoirs. But in the hopes of moving past the issue and never having to hear about state-mandated ” vaginal probing ” at least until tonight's GOP debate (a series that has now tied Gunsmoke and Meet the Press for longevity and coma-induction), I propose three relatively frictionless ways to take birth control out of current political discussion. 1. Scrap the employer mandate , which is just as problematic as the mandate that all god's children need to show proof of health insurance as a condition of drawing a breath. Apart from all the other issues about how to pay for health care, an employer-based system is just a mess (not least of which because most companies can't be expected to know what the hell they're doing in picking and choosing for the needs of all their workers). If employers want to help their workers pay for health care, they can give them money – preferably taxed or not taxed as normal income to minimize economic inefficiencies – to pick and choose among the myriad of competing health-care options out there (and we all know even more options would come online if workers were en masse picking health insurance like we do car insurance). I think the individual mandate is screwed-up and unconstitutional, but scrapping the employer mandate doesn't even have anything to do with that. So it's something that even reform advocates could get behind. Think about it: If the goal of Obama's health care reform was to guarantee universal coverage for people (and it won't do that, but never mind), all it has to do is decree that everybody needs to have coverage. Businesses would then be able to either keep offering coverage, give a cashout for at least a big portion of the cost of foregone benefits, or just cut that portion of their expenses. If they chose the latter, their employees would squawk or walk if they didn't get most of what they want. Even in a crap economy. 2. Stop searching for old Rick Santorum quotes . Whether he's talking about Satan's designs on the good ol' US of A or yammering on about the libertinism made possible by Trojan Twizzler-flavored condoms or what have you, Santo has been out of office and on the rubber-chicken (not that kind of rubber!) circuit long enough to provide years worth of oddball quotes. 3. Stop having sex. It's already happening among high schoolers whose frequency rates declined during the Clinton years (can you blame them?), so maybe the children will lead us on this issue, as they do in so many other areas of life (they are, after all and god help us all, the leaders of tomorrow). A steely-eyed appraisal of each of these options, alas, yields the plain truth that none is likely to happen. But at the very least, can we acknowledge that forcing all sorts of lifestyle issues into a realm not simply of public discussion but one of legal coercion is a very bad thing? Conservatives and liberals characteristically make an Evel Knievel-style leap from deciding that some activity is good or bad to decreeing with all the force of law that said activity should be banned, subsidized, or mandated. That's never a good idea, even as that very mind-set pervades local, state, and national politics. If liberals want to keep the Rick Santorums of the world out of their bedrooms, all they need to do is renounce the idea that even people they agree with have the right to sniff around in private quarters. And if conservatives are afraid that Lord Obama is going to force them into sexual-reeducation camps or start wrapping state-sanctioned school lunches in rimming squares made from 50 percent recycled materials or whatever, then they simply need to admit that rendering unto Caesar doesn't give them the right to go all Gladys Kravitz on the neighbors. It is hard enough to work alongside people on a daily basis without having to wonder about what sorts of health problems, sexual proclivities, and inherited diseases they have. I think about this because I work with people such as Matt Welch , whose life choices, particularly when it comes to rooting for the baseball Angels (what town are they falsely claiming to represent today?), leave me alternating between laughter, sadness, and fear that he's going to shoot up the office. Isn't it enough that two strangers, raised on different coasts by different people, can get along well enough to write a pretty widely praised book that costs just $17.15 (hardcover)/$11.50 (Kindle) at Amazon and has been called ” the up-to-date statement on libertarianism,” “an inspiring vision,” and a better beach read than Ludwig von Mises' Human Action ? Must we also be yoked together for all eternity like Holmes and Moriarity falling into Reichenbach Falls because of goddamned stupid health-care policy? God, I hope not. And I hope that at least for the last 30 seconds or so, you were not thinking about contraception, Barack Obama, Rick Santorum, or the events of this coming fall, when regardless of how you vote, who you root for, and what happens, you will be at least mostly disgusted at the turn of events on Election Day. Just like Angels fans every October but one . Nick Gillespie is the editor in chief of Reason.tv and Reason.com and the co-author of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America .

Santorum’s Big Bet: Will Firm Focus on Social Issues Propel Him into the Lead? (Time.com)

buyjewellery — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:15:00 +0000

Time.com – To position himself as a credible threat to Barack Obama, Santorum had to use the spotlight afforded by his three-state sweep two weeks ago to demonstrate the breadth of his appeal

Read the original:
Santorum’s Big Bet: Will Firm Focus on Social Issues Propel Him into the Lead?
(Time.com)

Shocker: UN’s IAEA Reports Iran Talks Failed

GerlemanLonnie861 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:48:58 +0000

From a shocked and dismayed Associated Press: UN nuclear agency reports failed Iran talks By GEORGE JAHN February 22, 2012 VIENNA (AP) — The U.N. nuclear agency acknowledged renewed failure Wednesday after a trip to probe suspicions of covert Iranian nuclear weapons work, in a statement issued just hours after an Iranian general warned of

See more here:
Shocker: UN’s IAEA Reports Iran Talks Failed

Romney Has More ‘Maxed Out’ Givers

CervantesNatalie878 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:45:10 +0000

Mitt Romney’s large donors are hitting their maximum legal amounts, presenting an opening for the GOP candidate’s competitors.

The rest is here:
Romney Has More ‘Maxed Out’ Givers

Remember When ‘Nixonian’ Was Bad?

SteuckKapinos248 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:44:19 +0000

Obama promises unilateral action. In keeping with his “We Can’t Wait” initiative, President Barack Obama has once again asserted that if Congress does not enact his policies in the future, he will continue to forge ahead on his own. “When…

Read the original here:
Remember When ‘Nixonian’ Was Bad?

Afghan Inmates Passed Messages Via Korans

RochelleBomkamp798 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:18:19 +0000

From the Agence France-Presse: Afghan jail inmates passed messages to each other via Korans, US military says February 22, 2012 The US military removed Korans from a US-run prison in Afghanistan because inmates were suspected of using the sacred book to pass messages to each other, American officials say. The Korans and other religious material

See the original post here:
Afghan Inmates Passed Messages Via Korans