Climate change skeptics on Capitol Hill are quietly watching a growing accumulation of global cooling science and other findings that could signal that the science behind global warming may still be too shaky to warrant cap-and-trade legislation… More than 31,000 scientists across the world have signed the Global Warming Petition Project, a declaration started by a group of American scientists that states man’s impact on climate change can’t be reasonably proven.
Dear Editor: As a scientist and life-long liberal Democrat, I find the constant regurgitation of the anecdotal, fear mongering clap-trap about human-caused global warming (the Levi, Borgerson article of 9/24/08) to be a disservice to science, to your readers, and to the quality of the political dialogue leading up to the election… The global warming alarmists don’t even bother with data! All they have are half-baked computer models that are totally out of touch with reality and have already been proven to be false.
Though it seems to be based on rumors, the sheer possibility that it’s true is too ironic not to mention.
The New York Post is reporting that Ann Coulter, the neo-conservative siren, has had her jaw wired shut. For those who don’t agree with Coulter’s radical views, take this as a chance to enjoy the world being a little less crazy until she recovers.
I still like to subscribe to the idea that Coulter’s entire brand is fake and created just to sell books (as seen in the clip from The Boondocks below). If not, I can’t comprehend someone is that ridiculous and filled with that much hate. [Clip NSFW]
November 23rd, 2008 by
Nick Wallace, Assistant Opinion Editor
The Economist has released its predictions for the coming year. They’re interesting, but I personally found it more intriguing to reevaluate their predictions for 2008 now that they year’s come to a close.
While the Economist propoerly declared 2008 “The Democrats’ Year,” it misidentified which Democrat would capture the stage. All bets were on Senator Clinton becoming the next Commander-in-Chief. Like many political junkies, I too believed that Hillary’s superior fundraising and party support would lead her to the White House.
Still, The Economist is almost vindicated for predicting that the winner of Iowa – Mr. Obama, in the end – would stand a good chance at wrapping up the party nomination and winning the presidency:
“This is not to say that she will be a shoo-in. Mr Obama or John Edwards could make a breakthrough in Iowa (where they are running neck and neck with Mrs Clinton).”
Too bad their prediction for Billary in the White House won’t come true:
“She will be the first president married to a former president (who will in turn be America’s first male “first lady”).”
As part of her “executive” powers as Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin recently pardoned a turkey. If that isn’t ridiculous enough, take a look at the backdrop of the press conference following the pardon.
Yup, that’s Palin talking about saving a turkey while a slaughterfest takes place right behind her. I still can’t get over how oblivious you can be to all that noise and carnage. And what was her staff doing?! MSNBC’s coverage on the Countdown last night was brilliant…note the captions.
November 20th, 2008 by
Nick Wallace, Assistant Opinion Editor
Ted Stevens, as the ballots were finally tallied on his 85th birthday, failed to become the first convicted felon elected to the United States Senate. Happy Birthday, (ex-)Senator!
And now that Stevens is headed back to Alaska (or the big house?) a la Sarah Palin, Democrats are only two seats away from gaining the 60 they would need to break Republican filibusters. Whether or not this would constitute a healthy distribution of power is unclear, but certainly would be a dramatic change in Washington.
While I personally think Al Franken would make a great Senator, the idea of unlimited Democratic power certainly leads us to wonder whether or not his election (as well as the Georgia senator’s) would be the best thing for the nation. Actually having to run the government for two years could be the fastest ticket out of power for Democrats. Just look what happened to Republicans in 2006 and 2008.
Still, I don’t think we can buy into Norm Coleman’s assertion that his seat is “too important” for a recount.
Refusing to count votes in the interest of the American people is even scarier than giving Democrats a get-out-of jail free pass. History teaches us that the implications of democracy may be a scary one-party reign, but that’s certainly preferable to the no-party reign Coleman has been touting.
An interesting debate is brewing over President-elect Barack Obama’s resignation from the Senate recently. With Obama’s departure, there are no blacks in the Senate and there is pressure for Gov. Blagojevich to appoint a black person to replace him. I’m not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I’m glad this episode highlights how far we have to go, in terms of racial equality. Particularly after the election, there was this narrative that electing Obama ended a “racial barrier.” We aren’t even close to doing that. Large swaths of the black population still suffer from institionalized racism, whether it be failing public schools or the criminal justice system. To that end, appointing a black person may help ensure that these issues are addressed.
Still, I’m uncomfortable with the notion that the only way a black person can get elected to the Senate is when another black person drops out. The Senate isn’t a quota system and ideally, we should have a number of minorities in public office. I also don’t want minorities elected to office with the purpose of representing an ethnic or racial constituency. Our public officials represent all Americans and while it is true that some issues (like poverty) affect a disproportionate number if minorities, you don’t have to be black to get that.
You know why I don’t call myself a Democrat…this is why. Sen. Joe Lieberman, a vicious critic of Obama and a cheerleader of John McCain during the election season, will get to keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. It’s all about unity and bipartisanship, people. While we’re at it, maybe Obama can appoint Alberto Gonzalez for Attorney General?
While this move certainly proves how spineless Democrats can be, this is a real insult to all the liberals, the college students and the million others who campaigned for Barack Obama.
Asked what it would mean if Lieberman kept his chairmanship, one Senate Democratic aide said bluntly: “The left has been foiled again. They can rant and rage but they still do not put the fear into folks to actually change their votes. Their influence would be in question.”
Got that? The Democratic party doesn’t really care about the left. Huh.
Now this video by itself would not be very meaningful, beyond entertainment value. Anyone can make a Michael Moore-style documentary to say anything he wants it to say. There’s no way to prove, for example, that these people weren’t actors or weren’t merely hand-selected for the video because of their shocking levels of cluelessness. But when added to a large body of evidence (some anecdotal, some not) it provides a good visual representation of a big problem we have in our political system.
The above video comes from a Web site for an upcoming film called “Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected.” The site includes polling data from a post-election Zogby poll confirming how uniformed the average Obamaniac is. Of course, not all Obama supporters were mind-numbed robots who got caught up in a fad (though a good deal clearly were). There were many intelligent, informed people who knew exactly why they were voting for Obama. But for every one of them, there were probably at least 10 others who were simply starstruck. There can be little doubt that the phenomenon that was “Obama” consisted of incredible amounts of people (mostly from the so-called “Youth Vote“) who don’t know the first thing about politics, or, likely, anything else. You can decide for yourself whether that’s healthy for our country or not, but I don’t think that voting is a virtue in and of itself. I think that electing good leadership is a virtue.
This video and the accompanying evidence of voter ignorance should be an indictment on both our political system, which values “fluff” over “stuff,” as well as our media who’d rather create a superstar than fulfill its role of informing the public. To be fair, I’m sure there are a lot of uninformed Republican voters out there too, and while I’m not aware of any comparable investigations, stupid GOP voters are a problem too. But I don’t think we’ve ever quite seen anything like the Obama craze, and it’s time we decide whether we want a President or just the next American Idol.
November 28th, 2008 by 
Chase Cooper
