Looks like it will be a recess appointment, after all.
Bolton
by John Cole| 16 Comments
This post is in: Politics
by John Cole| 16 Comments
This post is in: Politics
Looks like it will be a recess appointment, after all.
by John Cole| 21 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
The Instapundit touches on why Arlen Specter may be a little ‘uncooperative’ regarding judicial nominees, and points to stem cell research as one cause:
Specter’s voice was rough from chemotherapy treatments. He said he is angry that stem-cell research is still being delayed by lack of funding.
“I’ve been waiting too long already,” Specter said.
Specter has introduced a bill that would overthrow President Bush’s executive order, which limits federal funding to a small number of human embryonic stem-cell lines. Specter’s bill would open up funding to unused embryos donated by couples after in vitro fertilization. The House has already passed the bill, and the Senate was expected to do the same.
But the president has promised to veto it.
Not to mention that certain members within the social con movement took it upon themselves to personally savage Arlen Specter, calling him a member of the ‘culture of death’:
Senator Specter apparently wants a place on your wall. Here’s why he shouldn’t get the chance.
Pick your poster child: Arlen Specter, bald from chemotherapy treatments for Hodgkin’s disease, saying that he is Exhibit A for embryonic stem-cell research … or those cute little kids in the AP photo with this caption: “President Bush appeared at the White House with babies and toddlers born of test-tube embryos, some wearing shirts that read ‘former embryo.'”“I look in the mirror every day,” says Specter, “barely recognize myself. And not to have the availability of the best of medical care is simply atrocious.”
Meanwhile, President Bush was busy praising a Christian agency that helps couples adopt frozen embryos. Amidst 21 babies and toddlers who began their lives as frozen embryos left over after fertility treatments, the president said, “there is no such thing as a spare embryo.”
So, again, pick your poster child. The man with a disease who thinks there is vast medical potential in destroying babies described as embryos, or the children who developed from their embryonic state to roll around on White House carpet.
That might have angered him a touch. Add to it the sheer hell the hard right put Specter through simply to get the position he had wanted as Chairmen of the Judiciary committee:
One focus when the Senate reconvenes on Tuesday will be the efforts of Specter, R-Pa., to convince his fellow Republicans that he deserves to be the next Judiciary Committee chairman. Opposition has arisen to the moderate Republican, who supports abortion rights, as a result of his postelection statements that nominees with anti-abortion views would have a tough time winning Senate confirmation.
He has since stressed that he would be a team player if he succeeds the current chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch (search), R-Utah, who must step down because of GOP-imposed term limits…
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Specter must still make his case to Republican senators.
A chairman, Frist said on “FOX News Sunday,” is responsible to “the feelings, the beliefs, the values, the procedures that are held by the majority of that committee,” which overwhelmingly opposes abortion.
Frist added that he would expect the committee’s head “to have a strong predisposition” to supporting the president’s nominee in committee and the full Senate.
A litmus test to install a chairman who will allow litmus tests, if you will, again with cheerleaders within a certain wing of the Republican party. I can’t imagine why he would engage in a little foot dragging or be a little bitter. Not at all.
by John Cole| 33 Comments
This post is in: Politics
The budget deficit will be slightly smaller than expected:
For the first time since President Bush took office, an unexpected leap in tax revenue is about to shrink the federal budget deficit this year, by nearly $100 billion.
A Jump in Corporate PaymentsOn Wednesday, White House officials plan to announce that the deficit for the 2005 fiscal year, which ends in September, will be far smaller than the $427 billion they estimated in February.
Mr. Bush plans to hail the improvement at a cabinet meeting and to cite it as validation of his argument that tax cuts would stimulate the economy and ultimately help pay for themselves.
Based on revenue and spending data through June, the budget deficit for the first nine months of the fiscal year was $251 billion, $76 billion lower than the $327 billion gap recorded at the corresponding point a year earlier.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated last week that the deficit for the full fiscal year, which reached $412 billion in 2004, could be “significantly less than $350 billion, perhaps below $325 billion.”
Of course there are tsome on the left who are claiming the previous deficit projections were artificially high (or that this is a giant PONZI scheme), making this drop inevitable. I would just like to point out that one might say that being excited about our nation only hemmorhaging $300 billion a year as opposed to $400 billion could possibly qualify as succumbing to the “SOFT BIGOTRY OF LOW EXPECTATIONS.” [/snark]
by John Cole| 82 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Alright- some contention with #5, so we will rephrase it:
5.) Joseph Wilson was sent to Niger by the CIA, and not asked directly by the Office of the Vice President, as some media reports claim.
And #6, which should be a gimme:
6.) One of the main reasons (but not the only) offered the public for the necessity of invading Iraq was that Saddam Hussein had WMD, had a WMD campaign, or was actively seeking WMD.
6.) Post 9/11, the administration and others believed that Saddam Hussein had WMD, was developing WMD, or wanted to develop WMD, and this was no longer acceptable. This was not the only reason provided for the necessity of invading Iraq, but it was the main reason that was advanced by the administration, and it was a primary selling point to the American public.
Answer only “YES” if you agree, “No” and a reason if you disagree. Flame wars should be held in Darrell’s Plame Flame War Thread.
*** Update ***
Statement #6, the ‘gimme,’ has been edited.
This post is in: Politics
By popular request (in an indirect way).
by John Cole| 94 Comments
This post is in: Politics
Alright- there seems to be consensus so far. This is slow and tedious, but we are going to hash this out proper. So far, we have general agreement on the following:
1.) Valerie Plame worked for the CIA, was stationed in Washington at the time of her outing, and previously had been a covert agent.
2.) Joseph Wilson, husband of Valerie Plame and former ambassador to Iraq, was sent by the CIA to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein was interested in/trying to buy uranium (ignore precisely what he was doing in Niger for now- we can get to that later).
3.) Valerie Plame recommended her husband to CIA authorities for the job, as he had extensive contacts in Africa from his numerous years of previous service.
4.) Joseph Wilson, either on his own volition, or at the behest of the NY Times, wrote an editorial critical of the Bush administration and many claims made by the Bush administration and was quoted widely in major media outlets prior to the ‘outing’ of his wife.
Time to take another baby step:
5.) It was erroneously asserted in the media (pay no attention who circulated it or why) that Joseph Wilson’s report on uranium/Niger was made at the behest of the Office of the Vice President, when in fact he was sent by the CIA. Whether the CIA sent him at his wife’s request is unknowable and doubtful, but she did endorse/recommend him for the job, as he did have contacts in Africa
Yes or no, please. If no, explain why.
by John Cole| 65 Comments
This post is in: Politics
Ok, We generally seem to have agreement about the following statements:
1.) Valerie Plame worked for the CIA, was stationed in Washington at the time of her outing, and previously had been a covert agent.
2.) Joseph Wilson, husband of Valerie Plame and former ambassador to Iraq, was sent by the CIA to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein was interested in/trying to buy uranium (ignore precisely what he was doing in Niger for now- we can get to that later).
3.) Valerie Plame recommended her husband to CIA authorities for the job, as he had extensive contacts in Africa from his numerous years of previous service.
Time to step boldly forward:
4.) Joseph Wilson, either on his own volition, or at the behest of the NY Times, wrote an editorial critical of the Bush administration and many claims made by the Bush administration and was quoted widely in major media outlets prior to the ‘outing’ of his wife.
Again, answer only “Yes,” if you agree, “No” and then why if you disagree.