Top CIA Official: Obama Changed Virtually None of Bush ’s Controversial Programs

With a notable exception of the enhanced interrogation program, the incoming Obama administration changed virtually nothing with respect to existing CIA programs and operations. Things continued. Authorities were continued that were originally granted by President Bush beginning shortly after 9/11. Those were all picked up, reviewed and endorsed by the Obama administration. From Top CIA… Continue reading Top CIA Official: Obama Changed Virtually None of Bush ’s Controversial Programs

Krugman being grouchy in the NYT

Zero job growth, with unemployment still at nosebleed levels. Meanwhile, the interest rate on 10-year US bonds is down to 2.04%, and it’s negative on inflation-protected securities. Aren’t you glad we pivoted from jobs to deficits a year and a half ago? Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, Is austerity killing Europe’s recovery?… Continue reading Krugman being grouchy in the NYT

Bush Says Dwindling Surplus Will Halt Government Growth – NYTimes.com

CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 24 — President Bush said today that there was a benefit to the government’s fast-dwindling surplus, declaring that it would create “a fiscal straitjacket for Congress.” He said that was “incredibly positive news” because it would halt the growth of the Federal government. From Bush Says Dwindling Surplus Will Halt Government Growth… Continue reading Bush Says Dwindling Surplus Will Halt Government Growth – NYTimes.com

McCain Promised Qaddafi To Help Secure Military Equipment From U.S.

For all the braying by the Senate’s top three hawks about how the U.S. wasn’t doing enough to oust Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Qaddafi from power, one might be surprised to learn that exactly two years ago, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were in Tripoli meeting with the erratic… Continue reading McCain Promised Qaddafi To Help Secure Military Equipment From U.S.

Hitchens: Does the Texas governor believe his idiotic God talk, or is he just pandering for votes?

Perry did not, of course, suffer politically for making an idiot of himself in this way. Not even the true believers really expect that prayers for precipitation will be answered, or believe that a failed rainmaker is a false prophet. And, had Perry’s entreaties actually been followed by a moistening of the clouds and the… Continue reading Hitchens: Does the Texas governor believe his idiotic God talk, or is he just pandering for votes?

Krugman: Republicans Against Science

Mr. Perry suggests; those scientists are just in it for the money, “manipulating data” to create a fake threat. In his book “Fed Up,” he dismissed climate science as a “contrived phony mess that is falling apart.” I could point out that Mr. Perry is buying into a truly crazy conspiracy theory, which asserts that… Continue reading Krugman: Republicans Against Science

Remember When House Republicans Voted Against Hurricane Forecast Funding?

Remember When House Republicans Voted Against Hurricane Forecast Funding?

mikehudack:

itsfullofstars:

In the US, we rely on the National Hurricane Center to forecast storms. The NHC is in turn a division of the National Weather Service, itself a part of the NOAA. Which, in the GOP’s 2011 budget bill, had its funding slashed by $1.2 billion from what was proposed in the president’s own budget bill, a bill that very notably included a $700 million increase over the previous year to cover needed upgrades to the satellites that gather the data that gets crunched in order to predict storms and weather in general.

Apparently weather forecasting is better left to the private sector.