Tag: policy

“The implication that Mr. Cunningham may have engaged in criminal conduct with respect to Fast and Furious is a major escalation of the Department’s culpability.”

3:06 pm

“The implication that Mr. Cunningham may have engaged in criminal conduct with respect to Fast and Furious is a major escalation of the Department’s culpability.”

Mr. Cunningham is a Department of Justice lawyer. The “Department” is the Department of Justice itself. And “Fast and Furious” was the Obama administration’s project to allow about 2000 guns to be smuggled illegally into Mexico, for reasons that remain inexplicable.

Though Cunningham has the right to take the fifth, it should immediately disqualify him from his job, and the Obama administration should fire him. That they don’t tells us a lot about their own culpability in the Fast and Furious gun smuggling scandal. As Issa wrote in his letter to Eric Holder on Tuesday,

Mr. Cunningham’s broad assertion of his Fifth Amendment privilege raises the specter that the Department has allowed him to continue in his position as Chief of the Criminal Division knowing that he might have criminal culpability himself.

You can read Darrell Issa’s (R-California) full letter to Eric Holder here. [pdf]

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Gingrich pledges a moon base by his second term

7:16 pm

Bumped with Update 2: I will be on the radio in Houston tomorrow morning with Scott Braddock for twenty minutes to discuss Gingrich’s proposals. See the “Recent and Upcoming Appearances” list in the right column for details.
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In a speech today Newt Gingrich pledged a moon base would be operating by his second term.

I’m not sure I trust the reporting here. However, this story fits with many other things that Gingrich has said over the years. And though I like his desire to think big, I dislike the feeling I get that he wants to once again make this a big government-run effort.

There will certainly be more details about Gingrich’s proposals in the coming days.

Update. More details here.

It seems to me that Gingrich’s promise of a moonbase by 2020 is campaign fodder, designed to inspire voters not only to dream big but to vote for Gingrich. However, his proposal that the U.S. offer big prizes for private achievement in space is right on the money, literally identical to ideas I proposed more than eight years ago.

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“My message is simple.” Rating the reading grade level of all State of the Union speeches.

9:59 am

“My message is simple.” Rating the reading grade level of the State of the Union speeches.

The Flesch-Kincaid test is designed to assess the readability level of written text, with a formula that translates the score to a U.S. grade level. Longer sentences and sentences utilizing words with more syllables produce higher scores. Shorter sentences and sentences incorporating more monosyllabic words yield lower scores.

Smart Politics ran the Flesch-Kincaid test on each of the last 70 State of the Union Addresses that were delivered orally by presidents before a Joint Session of Congress since Franklin Roosevelt. Excluded from analysis were five written addresses (by Truman in 1946 and 1953, Eisenhower in 1961, Nixon in 1973, and Carter in 1981) and two addresses that were delivered orally, but not by the President himself (Roosevelt in 1945 and Eisenhower in 1956). The vast majority of State of the Union speeches were delivered in writing prior to FDR.

While you might not be surprised by the results, a close look at the list illustrates both the influence of television and the decline in political thought in the past half century.

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The modern liberal press, described in one paragraph

4:45 pm

The modern liberal press, described in one paragraph:

“I call them ‘dumb arses,’” she said. “They think by trotting out this old Gingrich divorce interview — that’s old news and it does feature this disgruntled ex- that claimed that it would destroy a campaign. All this does is, Sean, is incentivize conservatives and independents who are so sick of the politics of personal destruction because it’s played so selectively by the media.” [emphasis mine]

It isn’t that the accusations against Newt Gingrich shouldn’t be looked at, it’s that the press is only interested in accusations like this against Republican and conservative candidates. Where were they while John Edwards was simultaneously having an adulterous affair and running for President, even as his wife was dying of cancer? Similarly, the mainstream press didn’t think Anthony Weiner’s sexual exploits were worth coverage, even though those exploits ended up destroying his career. And of course, there is Bill Clinton’s history, which for the liberal press, was irrelevant because it was “his personal life.”

But when it comes to Republicans, all bets are off.

Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mind the press going after politicians like this at all. What I mind is, as Palin notes, the selective manner in which the press goes after politicians. Their partisanship in favor of Democrats has become so obvious it is disgraceful. They should be ashamed.

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Obamacare’s 34 pilot programs designed to save money will have no effect or will increase costs, according to a Congressional Budget Office report yesterday.

9:14 am

Repeal it: Obamacare’s 34 pilot programs, designed to save money, will have no effect or will increase costs, according to a Congressional Budget Office report yesterday.

I guarantee that they will increase costs, and actually hinder the work of doctors. The number one task of the new Congress after 2012 should be to repeal this abomination of a law as fast as possible.

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The Supreme Court has refused to block a court suit against the San Francisco cops who entered a home and killed a resident without a warrant

11:15 pm

Good: The Supreme Court has refused to block a court suit against the San Francisco cops who entered a home without a warrant and ended up killing one of its residents.

If the police invade a home without a warrant they are no different than thieves. Get a warrant, however, and everything changes.

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NASA is soliciting private aerospace companies to bid on building their designs for rocket upper stage that will send the Orion capsule beyond Earth orbit.

10:47 pm

NASA is soliciting private aerospace companies to bid on building their own designs for the rocket upper stage that will send the Orion capsule beyond Earth orbit.

This is good news: Rather than design the upper stage themselves, NASA is behaving like a customer and looking for someone else to provide them the product, much as the agency has been doing in buying from private companies crew and cargo services for ISS. Using this approach the agency is more likely to get its upper stage quickly and at less cost.

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The Obama State Department has rejected the European code of conduct for space

3:21 pm

The Obama State Department made it known today that it has rejected the European code of conduct for space.

“Too restrictive,” Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said of the 12-page document that seeks to promote the peaceful, safe and “transparent” use of outer space. Tauscher, speaking to a gathering of Washington, D.C.-based defense reporters on Jan. 12, let slip at the end of her talk that the State Department had rejected the document as it was written. While answering an unrelated question, she mentioned that, “we’re not going to be joining with the Europeans on their [space] treaty.” She did not share any further details as to what parts of the code were “too restrictive.”

Though I applaud the decision of the Obama administration to say no now, the article notes that Tauscher later admitted that the administration is still willing to negotiate this thing.

Why has Western civilization decided in recent decades that the solution to all problems is to lay down restrictions on what people can do? This authoritarianism goes against every ideal and principle that made our culture a success. Worse, it never works. Like gun control, the only people the rules harm are those who follow the rules.

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The Supreme Court looks hard at the EPA and doesn’t like what it sees

10:39 pm

The Supreme Court looks hard at the EPA and doesn’t like what it sees.

This case is about the EPA’s ongoing effort to steal property from private landowners.

The Sacketts wanted to build a home on a 0.63-acre lot near Priest Lake in the Idaho panhandle that they bought for $23,000. But after three days of bringing in fill dirt and preparing for construction in 2007, officials from the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ordered the activity stopped and said they suspected the land contained wetlands.

Months later, the agency sent the Sacketts a “compliance order” that said the land must be restored as a wetlands before the couple could apply for a building permit. The government acknowledged Monday that fines for failure to comply with the orders could be as much as $75,000 a day.

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