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Monday, March 26, 2007
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Political Wire: "Sen. Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani 'continue to enjoy significant leads over rivals in national tests of likely primary voters,' according to a new Zogby International telephone poll. In the Democratic race, Clinton leads with 32%, trailed by Sen. Barack Obama at 22% and John Edwards at 13%. No other Democrat gets more than 2% support and 24% are still undecided. On the Republican side, Giuliani leads with 27%, followed by Sen. John McCain at 13%, Mitt Romney at 9% and Fred Thompson also at 9%. No other Republican gets more than 3% and 28% are still undecided."
"2008 pres"
7:56:55 PM 
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Colorado Confidential: "In their latest issue of the newsletter Election Insider, the progressive oriented National Committee for an Effective Congress makes the case that recent success by Democrats in Colorado suggests that the Centennial State will once again vote blue for President in 2008. Colorado's electoral votes have not gone to the Democratic nominee since 1992, when Bill Clinton won 40% of the vote, and was aided by a strong performance by independent candidate Ross Perot (who won 24%). But evidence suggests Colorado has at least shifted back to purple, if not full blue."
"2008 pres"
8:50:10 AM
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Captain's Quarters: "Has Chuck Hagel read the Constitution? Chuck Hagel floated the I-word yesterday during his appearance on ABC's 'This Week'. He warned that George Bush could face impeachment unless he adopted a policy on Iraq more to the liking of Congress. Hagel, who wants to run for the Republican nomination for President in 2008, has apparently learned the word impeachment in some other resource than the Constitution."
Andrew Sullivan: "In the last few weeks, there have been a few slivers of hope that maybe their current quiescence is not merely a factor of lying low until the U.S. leaves, but may indicate a more constructive approach to Iraq's future. Some new data seems to be undermining that hope. The good news is that Moqtada al-Sadr appears to be losing his grip on the chaotic organization; the bad news is that the various rival gangs and militias are no less dangerous but much less containable. And Iran is getting more involved."
"2008 pres"
8:24:30 AM
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beSpacific: "'On Monday, March 26, at 10 a.m., the House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing to examine the high cost of biotech medicines to our health care system, as well the prospects and need for a pathway that would allow the FDA to approve safe and affordable generic versions of biotech drugs. Witnesses will include representatives of FDA, pharmaceutical manufacturers, scientists, and consumer groups.'"
"2008 pres"
8:19:53 AM
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Four years ago the Denver Police "Spy Files" controversy helped to bring down the mayoral hopes of Ari Zavaras. Is there a sequel in the future? Here's an article about the New York Police Department's alleged spying on protesters prior to the 2004 Republican National Convention from the New York Times. From the article, "For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews.From Albuquerque to Montreal, San Francisco to Miami, undercover New York police officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists, the records show. They made friends, shared meals, swapped e-mail messages and then filed daily reports with the department's Intelligence Division. Other investigators mined Internet sites and chat rooms. From these operations, run by the department's 'R.N.C. Intelligence Squad,' the police identified a handful of groups and individuals who expressed interest in creating havoc during the convention, as well as some who used Web sites to urge or predict violence.
"But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files. In hundreds of reports stamped 'N.Y.P.D. Secret,' the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show. These included members of street theater companies, church groups and antiwar organizations, as well as environmentalists and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies. Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports. In at least some cases, intelligence on what appeared to be lawful activity was shared with police departments in other cities. A police report on an organization of artists called Bands Against Bush noted that the group was planning concerts on Oct. 11, 2003, in New York, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston. Between musical sets, the report said, there would be political speeches and videos."
Be sure to read the whole thing. Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link.
"2008 pres"
8:16:10 AM
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Political Wire: "Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) 'hit Hollywood last night at the estate of grocery store mogul Ron Burkle and took home $2.6 million for her presidential campaign,' reports Fox News. 'It was twice as much as Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) raised last month at a similar fundraiser thrown by Dreamworks SKG's David Geffen -- a point that was made privately during the Clinton event by many of the fundraisers.'"
eyeon08.com: "John McCain's campaign invited two bloggers, me and Townhall's Matt Lewis, to join his campaign this weekend in New Hampshire. We attended two town hall meetings, in Plymouth and Littleton. On the bus, John McCain sat between the two of us for two hours, with 5 or 6 'old media' reporters present, and handled questions from all of us. I recorded about 2.5 hours of video, limited only by my battery life and tape. Over the next week, I will be posting it all on YouTube here."
Boston Globe: "Leaders of a secretive coalition that includes some of the most influential social conservatives in the nation are interviewing presidential candidates in hopes of flexing political muscle and reframing the Republican primaries in 2008. Over the past few months, members of the executive committee of the so-called Arlington Group have questioned several declared and potential White House hopefuls with the intention of settling on a single candidate, according to Arlington Group members and Republican operatives familiar with the discussions. A nod from the conservative movement's biggest names to followers at the grass-roots level would give a major boost to candidates such as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, whose past moderate positions on social issues have hampered his attempts to court the right, or former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who lacks front-runner name recognition and fund-raising numbers."
Thanks to The Right's Field for the link.
Political Wire: "According to the Washington Post, 'perhaps only one word can be used to describe all of the leading presidential contenders: multimillionaire. Not only that. With one exception among the three leading Republicans and three leading Democrats, the contenders each appear to be worth tens of millions...The exception: Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). As a community organizer-turned-law professor-turned-state senator-turned U.S. senator, the bulk of Obama's wealth has come only in the past few years, with the huge success of his second book, The Audacity of Hope."
"2008 pres"
8:04:27 AM
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Here's an opinion piece refuting some of the conclusions that have been drawn from the IPCC report released earlier this year, from the Cato Institute. Read the whole column -- money quote, "Want my candid opinion about the summary? Ho-hum. Despite breathless news reports, there's very little in it that's new to anyone involved in global warming science. Instead, there have been dozens of stories about how scientists now believe there is a definite human influence on mean global surface temperature, and that, in recent decades, much of the warming can be attributed to the effect of increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. Scientifically, this is tantamount to concluding that because Las Vegas is awash in poker chips and prophylactics, we now have high confidence that much of the recent decades' increase in economic growth has something to do with the prevalence of gambling and hanky-panky. In the case of the atmosphere, the evidence is even more suggestive. For longer than any active climate scientist has been alive, it has been known that increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide should result in a preferential warming of winter (versus summer) temperatures, a warming of the coldest nights of the winter more than the hottest days of summer, and a general cooling of the global stratosphere. All three have been observed for well over a decade. So much for the big 'news' in the summary.
"Nor should this surprise: The biggest story in the summary was largely missed by the environmental media. The IPCC now projects, in its mid-range scenario for carbon dioxide emissions, that the maximum rise in global sea level in this century will be around 17 inches. That's a reduction of 30 percent from what was in the Third Scientific Assessment, published just six years ago. That's huge news, or it should be. But instead of listening to what the IPCC is saying, people are opting for the science fiction of Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth,' whose central disaster scenario is that Greenland sheds the majority of its ice this century, raising sea level as much as 20 feet. Much of Florida disappears, and the Mall in Washington goes under water. The U.N.'s sea-level projections 'include a contribution due to increased ice flow from Greenland and Antarctica, but these flow rates could increase or decrease in the future.'"
More Coyote Gulch coverage of the IPCC report here.
"2008 pres"
7:07:04 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 12:46:04 PM.
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