Today's edition of quick hits:
* Sen. Carl Levin (D) of Michigan announced this afternoon that he will retire at the end of his term in 2014. I'll have more on this in the morning.
* President Obama had quite a bit to say at the signing ceremony for the Violence Against Women Act.
* After some delays and quite a bit of drama, the Senate confirmed John Brennan to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. The final vote was 63 to 34.
* As the U.N. Security Council approves tough new sanctions against North Korea, the severity of Kim Jong Un's belligerent rhetoric intensifies.
* Counter-terrorism: "Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, who acted as a spokesman for al-Qaida, was captured in Jordan, and has been transported to New York where he will appear in court as early as Friday to face terror-related charges."
* Kind of creepy: "Venezuela's acting president says Hugo Chavez's embalmed body will be permanently displayed in a glass casket so that 'his people will always have him.'"
* A big case: "An Idaho woman won a major court battle Wednesday, when a federal judge struck down a law banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The Idaho law has been based on beliefs by some that the fetus was able to begin feeling pain at the 20-week stage."
* Beltway media says the sequester isn't hurting anyone. Local media knows better.
* The scariest climate change graph just got scarier.
* Add Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to the list of Republican senators who supported the Voting Rights Act, but who are now afraid to say out loud whether the law is constitutional.
* This is more than a little entertaining: One of the ACORN employees caught in those 2009 video stings has won $100,000 in damages."
* And Nate Silver takes a closer look at whether Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was wrong when citing voting statistics during oral arguments on the Voting Rights Act.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Leave a Comment:
The scariest thing about global temperatures is that we're supposed to be coming to an end of a 1000 year cooling period. If temperatures have risen despite this, that does not bode well for our collective futures.
Given these circumstances, how many of us can even feel comfortable having children? Do you believe that your own children will not have abbreviated lives where the earth can no longer support life?
This is the most important issue we're facing today, folks. Nothing else matters more than this. If we don't get a handle on our climate, then all bets are off for everything else.
Denier talking points 1) This is just a continuation of normal patterns(ignore the speed of rise in temps) 2) God would never let us destroy the Earth(forget about WW with the nukes and death camps or the extinct dinosaurs) 3) It's snowing (all this BS about freaky weather resulting from the global warming is just a cover story too explin away the Snow)
Wait until the Gulf Stream and other currents slow down appreciably. Consider the ideas that it takes about a hundred years for the oceans to circulate bottom cold water into surface water and that ozone eating gases are formed by CO2 freezing over Antartica and forming new compounds as they thaw all of which takes about fifty years for the air to circulate from over us to down there. Add in the rate of population growth and industrialization in former third world nations.
My guess is that by 2048 we will see the shi...hit the fan.
Now get in your car and go have a drink!
By the way I understand catalytic convertors burn off the gases at around 5000 degrees. All those cars with hot exhausts would seem to be almost as bad for the rise in temps as the gases that they burn off---at least to me. Sure the heat dissipates but millions of cars are on the road at any given time.
I guess by your writings, you must drive a peddle car... Doubt you heat a mansion with fossil fuels or have a private jet to scoot around in.
Rusty, this isn't about me. It's about the way we all live.
Even if you deny reality and ignore climate change, then what do you do about the surge in population growth? What, are we just going to keep expanding? Do we need to build houses everywhere? How about strip malls?
The size of the average American home is 2,000 square feet. That's 2,000 square feet where every other create has gotten a permanent eviction notice. What, do you really think that we can live with just the limited biodiversity you get in the freaking suburbs? Will the only animals that exist will be chickens, pigs, cattle, dogs, and human beings?
Civilization itself has told us a lie. It's a lie that we can forever escape the Laws of Nature. But nothing can escape nature. We are part of nature. The more we destroy the life support systems that keep us alive, the closer we are to mass extinction. There's simply no way around it.
So enjoy your SUV while you still can. Your children won't be around long enough to graduate college, but at least you can still go shopping at the mall.
Well, I actually was responding to Paul's diatribe against autos, etc.
But, what I find hilarious is that on other blogs of the same date, there is a push for freedom of speech. I've not sworn, threatened, etc. but, the Left, when they see something they don't like, seems to use a silencing trick called "collapsed by the community". A ploy to censure contrary opinions. Would you agree that it is very hypocritical?
Btw, I actually don't have an SUV, and live within a 12 minute drive from work, everything else I need is closer yet. I don't complain about fuel prices because I really don't spend too much on it. I live in a 3 br, 1600 sq ft home, not too much to heat and cool.
My tongue-in-cheek reference was toward Al Gore, who built a large mansion, huge carbon footprint on his lifestyle, well documented. But, he claims it's ok because he "buys offsets". And he gets defended for such...
Arizona's 'local media' appears to be rather obtuse. The 'sequestration denial' syndrome of the Repugs has a tinge of hysteria as Witch Brewer and others yammer ecstatically about all the new jobs coming to our 'State of Maricopa' ---and carefully avoid mentioning the thousands of DoD jobs that will be evaporating. ---Soon.
Hugo-a-go-go is very creepy.
As creepy as Lenin. It must be a Socialist dictator thing.
Was it Mozart who asked: Please don't bother me while I'm decomposing?
A popularly elected President is a dictator?
Sleeping Beauty, Lenin, and now Chavez -- all displayed in glass caskets. Sleeping Beauty got "kissed awake". Lenin got mouldy, despite all the embalming. Can't help but wonder what Chavez's fate will be...
Guess he's "smelling the sulfur" now.
Alva- they made the same stupid claims about the soviet presidents and Castro. You hang in here, comrade.
Except in Chavez' case, it's actually true. Under Chavez, Venezuela grew like China is growing.
source: http://venezuelanalysis.com/indicators/2009
Love this...all the local media listed say things like "might," "could," "may," "possible," etc. Sounds like they are unsure, too!
Ask people in a few weeks if they are still unaffected.
If it lasts a few months watch your local taxes start to get adjusted to cover the loss.
Granted it still beats any of the republican offers.
It all depends on what the claim is.
If they're saying the sequester is already cutting programs, they are wrong. Because here's what has to happen:
Each Cabinet agency has to submit its plan for sequester cuts to OMB. If OMB approves those plans, it must forward those plans to Congress by March 30. Sub-agencies of a Cabinet agency (e.g. Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Department of Labor) mnust get their cuts approved by the Cabinet agency, then get OMB approval, etc.
That's going to take all month. Plus any furloughs require 30 days' notice to the affected employees. Many agencies haven't sent out any furlough notices yet; those that have that I've heard of, have effective dates in April.
If they're saying the sequester will cut programs, the answer is: maybe sorta yes, maybe sorta no. Because what's really going to settle the issue is the Continuing Resolution, aka the CR.
The current CR expires on March 27. If a new CR isn't passed and signed by Obama by then, the government will shut down, which will at least temporarily make the sequester moot - and make it look like small potatoes.
If a new CR is passed, either by 3/27 or after, it will supersede the sequester. It may include some or all of the sequester cuts, or it may include other cuts that replace some or all of those cuts. So any which way, the CR, or the lack of one, will be what really determines what cuts, if any, will happen.
The CR is real. The sequester? Not so much.
As to Brennan, that was more like melodrama.
Rachel, this fan and lurker wants to offer a theory in response to your question about why retired Republicans evolve on positions while Jeb ("The smart one?") Bush is devolving as he aims to start running now for the next presidential election.
It is a bigger point than about Jeb, it is a fascinating point you made. I believe the answer has to do with collective consciousness, the Zeitgeist as it were, for a group of people being represented politically.
On the public stage, doing their job, politicians embody the collective consciusness of their constituency.
During my second marriage, to David Ramsay, I learned a bit about this theory. David
worked on the Republican staff for the House of Representatives in Illinois. He
used to come home from work and tell me how shocking it was, seeing how the reps
would change on the house floor: Their personalities, their body language (Tee hee), their views.
Political leaders, while in office, express the clarity or confusion, the
integrity or dishonesty, the civility or dysfunction, of the sum total of voters
they represent.
Socialist Dictators are always creepy, in life more than death. They're always a legend in their own mind.They view themselves as demi-gods, looking for the bards to sing songs, write poetry and literature invoking their persona. That runs contrary to a man that's supposed to be a man "of the people". Plus all the wealth seized from the work of others with a point of a finger. The suspension of liberty, heavy handed intrusion and control of the economy have been more like the Royalty that a socialist claims to despise. That's why less is more. Governments get corrupted.The Constitution's authors foresaw this centuries prior. Chavez should be a lesson learned.
Chavez was not a dictator. He was a popularly elected President, who happened to enjoy greater approval ratings than either Obama or Bush.
Alva
Here's the definition of dictator
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dictator?s=t
As you can see it doesn't exclude someone popularly elected. A dictator is about how someone rules. I would say Chavez ( and many Venezuelan ex-pats) would call Chavez a dictator. He may have done some good things for the poor but watch out if you got on his bad side.
Interesting that in the state of Michigan, governor Schneider can appoint an emergency financial manager of his choice to come into a city and arbitrarily "fire" any duly ELECTED official, take over and run things however he/she deems necessary ... yet the president of the united states, Barack Obama has NO authority to insist any of the elected politicians in the House/Senate do their job, much less fire them! Hmmm and we call this country a democracy?
Blame the Constitution. That's how the Founding Fathers set things up.
Congratulations to the ACORN employee. Of course the destruction of AVCORN is done and the right wingers are still trying to destroy one man one vote with voter ID and gerrymandering but what heck a small step towards democracy has been taken with this.
Another dinosaur retires.. Who's next, the Frankenfeinstein? I certainly hope so!
At least Chavez had the decorum to simply die!
Nate Silver needs to get his article to at least the clerks at the Supreme Court; a copy to each of the Justices would be appropriate, as well. Love the comparison to transportation safety, no terrorist attack, so no need for those procedures. After all, its worked!
Let me get this straight: Osama bin Laden's son-in-law in New York for terror-related charges (inside U.S. borders, right?) but Guantanamo "detainees" cannot be brought to the U.S.?
What am I missing?
Where did they pick him up.
Turkey