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Posts from the ‘Politics’ Category

Jan 30

A Legal Defense Fund for Climate Scientists

It’s a relief to see something like this happening in the world. A legal defense fund, the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, has been set up to help scientists who are stuck in litigation battles with politicians, or other (conservative) political entities, who look to tie up their climate research work. Their focus is centered on:

Litigation: The Climate Science Defense Fund is taking an active interest in litigation. Currently several climate scientists have litigation in the courts. The Climate Science Defense Fund will play an active role in helping raise funds for their defense, serving as a resource in finding pro-bono representation, and providing support during difficult litigation proceedings.

Education: The Climate Science Defense Fund will work to educate the scientific community about their rights and their responsibilities with regard to legal issues surrounding their work.

Knowledge Bank: The Climate Science Defense Fund will serve as a clearinghouse for information related to legal actions taken against scientists. Our goal is to provide lawyers representing scientists with information about past cases and strategies.

I would hope something similar to CSLDF would take up the cause of suing politicians who use taxpayer money to fight ideological battles. Aren’t there more pressing issues in the world like, say, drugs, human trafficking, murders, insider trading, fraud and other things to focus on?

A Legal Defense Fund for Climate Scientists – NYTimes.com.

Jan 29

Reading List for January 23-29, 2012

This week I learned just how big Newt Gingrich’s ego can be and perhaps it better to plan for a permanent manned base on his ego. It must be easy to say what you want in front of people who want to hear it and not giving much thought to how disappointed those people will be when you don’t do what you say you want. Newt should probably read Ryan Lizza’s article on just how constrained a president can be when they occupy the Oval Office and not be the transformational president they want to be. The easy part is coming up with the dream. The difficult part is knowing how to make it a reality. And speaking of the moon, how timely it was for Scientific American to release an article on the fire that destroyed the Apollo 1 test capsule and what NASA and the country learned from that tragic disaster. I also learned that German astronauts (Weltraumnaut?) had a penchant for cowl-neck sweaters, at least on screen anyway. And the price of Stradivarius instruments continue to rise and rise, making it more and more impossible for a performer to own one of these instruments on their own without the help of a wealthy patron. And you might want to remember those that died and suffered in producing that electronic device you’re using, not just those made by Apple, but by every other company.

Jan 29

Citizen King – PBS Documentary on Martin Luther King: A must see

This is truly a great documentary on Martin Luther King. I believe it is a must see for everyone. All 13 parts are available on YouTube starting with part one here. The other 12 parts should be accessible from this video or from the video’s page on YouTube.

PBS Citizen King Part 1 of 13 – YouTube.

Jan 28

Writing the 2012 State of the Union Address on Vimeo

While perhaps not as detailed as watching an episode of the West Wing about how a president’s State of the Union speech is written, this is still quite interesting, and not to mention in the “real world.”

via Behind The Scenes: Writing the 2012 State of the Union Address on Vimeo.

Jan 22

Stung by Defeat, Romney Considers Adultery « Borowitz Report

Andy Borowitz sure doesn’t hold back in his comedic punches, and he’s extremely quick to release up to the minute comedic material. Just hours after the results were announced in South Carolina’s GOP primary and Newt Gingrich’s trouncing of Mitt Romney, Borowitz announced Romney’s decision to consider committing adultry. Definitely worth reading, but he saved the best line for last:

… an exultant Newt Gingrich made the following victory statement: “I’ve left Mitt Romney behind faster than a woman with cancer.”

Mitt Romney

via Stung by Defeat, Romney Considers Adultery « Borowitz Report.

Jan 12

2012 New Hampshire Primary Speeches On Wordle

The 2012 New Hampshire primary is history, with the nomination process now moving onto South Carolina. As is the tradition, one person gave a victory speech along with several concession speeches. Considering the variety of personalities in this year’s GOP field, I thought it interesting to compare each candidate’s speech as a word cloud generated by Wordle.net. The themes of these speeches come out much clearer when seen as a word cloud. It also makes it easier to not have to read each speech in its entirety.

In a nutshell, Mitt Romney loves to say the word ‘America’, Ron Paul loves the word ‘liberty’, Jon Huntsman is very polite with “ladies” and “gentlemen”, Newt Gingrich loves a lot of words and Rick Santorum has a “message” and a lot of “faith”.

Here they are.

Mitt Romney:

Ron Paul:


Jon Huntsman:

Newt Gingrich:

Rick Santorum:

Jan 9

Separated At Birth: Bill Daley and Bensonmum

Bill Daley and Sir Alec Guinness separated at birth?

Jan 7

When will Rick Santorm exit stage right?

At least none of the major news outlets covered him when he was in second to last place in Iowa. Unfortunately now we must hear his daily “gaffes”, which is loosely translated as “what he really believes in but tries to cover up by saying he was taken out of context.”

During his 15 minutes in the political spotlight, here are some good articles about Santorum’s hypocrisy:

“The Grating Santorum” – by Maureen Dowd

Tweet: “Better when Santorum was the ignored candidate. Thanks to Iowa, news has to pay attention to him & his hate. http://t.co/95Hxyywi #politics“

Nov 3

The Two Year Cycle

It has been said political cycles last 30 years before change sets in.  Has that now become 2 year cycles?  Two years ago it was a Democratic triumph, today it’s a Republican triumph.  Will the pendulum swing back to the Democrats two years from now only to swing back again two years later. All election cycles lately have one word linking them all together: change!  Each election cycle will only devolve into attempts to undue what the previous party did. We are truly screwed…