The great hope was that President Obama would have the courage and political sense to do what JFK did forty six years ago. Kennedy told the generals no to their demand for escalation in Vietnam. It wasn't easy. The Pentagon had drawn up plans for the massive military ramp up,' [...]
One of the most damning of the e-mails to emerge from Climategate has been this one from Phil Jones of the UK’s Climate Research Unit talking about scientific papers he didn’t like (emphasis ours):
“The other paper by MM is just garbage – as you knew. De Freitas again. Pielke [...]
It’s difficult to absorb the wave after wave of revelations and comments on Climategate, but here are a few snippets:
“The case is blown to smithereens and this whole theory should be destroyed and discarded and Copenhagen conference should be closed,” said UK astrophysicist and non-zealot Piers Corbyn, in [...]
It looks like the UCLA Bruin is wearing a little cardinal and gold. There must be a football game this weekend. Darn vandals.
Post from: Orange Punch
[...]Steve Greenhut will be guest hosting a radio spot on KFI AM 640 this Sunday night from 7pm-10pm.
This is a chance to call in and rib him a little.
Post from: Orange Punch
[...]
Imagine the all too imaginable and there had been an attempt on President Obama's life. Since threats to Obama are 400% higher than against any other president, you'd think security would be pretty tough. You'd be wrong. Party crashers got in, got past the Secret Service, the [...]
1) I was struck traveling on Wednesday by how many uniformed soldiers clotted my planes and the airports, and how young they were. (A couple of reservists were carrying skateboards.) It put faces to all the TV talk about our "brave young men and women in uniform." Not in itself [...]
Next year's big contests for governor and for the United States Senate are closer than they seem.
On this week's Capital Notes Podcast, we take a pause from weekly events to check in on where the candidates and campaigns stand as 2009 comes to a close.
The gubernatorial and senatorial campaigns [...]
Now that most of us have consumed (or over-consumed) our Thanksgiving meals, the next step is planning how early to get up tomorrow for the Black Friday sales. How many of you will be out early hitting the stores to get some hot deals? Looking for a new computer or [...]
Rep. Ed Royce and the State Dinner crasher
Rep. Ed Royce is one of the notables who got their pictures taken at Tuesday night’s White House State Dinner with a woman who crashed the party.
That’s right. The leader of the [...]
I would be happy to leave God out of this. I would be happy even to leave out arguments about who got there first and has maintained a presence. We, in fact, do not go over these issues with other states. We're not giving America back to Native Americans. The' [...]
Israel’s ministry of health has been ordered to complete, within four months, a detailed set of regulations for medical marijuana, with an emphasis on making it genuinely available to patients. They’re still fixated on making sure it isn’t available to “recreational” users, but this is certainly progress — [...]
Some defenders of the revealed information from the U.K. Climate Research Unit leaked e-mails essentially say, “Oh, you’re taking things out of context,” or “It’s only a little piece of the big picture, which is really still is valid, trust us.”
“Trust us.” You’ve gotta love it. Why would anyone cook [...]
When President Obama addresses the nation on Afghanistan Tuesday night, he will own the war. And Democratic solidarity will be shattered. His decision is widely viewed as the most consequential of...
It's been a rough week for California's first family, at least when it comes to the tabloids and driving -- namely TMZ , which busted Maria Shriver (again) Tuesday for failing to obey traffic laws....This might not be the most appropriate item for the day before Thanksgiving, but we do well to face facts. Gold hit a new high today of $1,189 an ounce (India bought a bunch), and the dollar hit a 15-month low. Should we be thankful to see evidence that [...]
The Chinese blogger and activist known for his efforts to help victims of the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 has been sentenced to three years in prison this week.
We have become accustom to the Chinese government’s free speech-squelching antics and authoritarian policies and this is another example.
Chinese authorities claim that blogger [...]
We sure love our ballot initiatives here in sunny Cali, and 2010 is shaping up to be no exception. Consider this: in the past month, the Secretary of State has announced that no less than 17...
Now that Attorney General Jerry Brown is running for governor again, it's time that he help change a law that locked up his gubernatorial papers for 50 years, or until his death. Voters need to be able to examine the inner workings of his first administration -- from 1975 to [...]
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his share of official declarations and we pretty much never cover them due to their lack of newsworthiness. Today being the day before a holiday, though, we thought...
Palo Alto physicist Charles T. Munger Jr., son of Warren Buffett’s billionaire investor partner, yesterday put another $512,167 into his “Voters First Act for Congress” ballot measure, bringing his total so far to $1,515,197. The measure would remove authority for setting California’s 53 Congressional district boundaries [...]
Jonathan and Gail-Tzipporah are concerned that a critical mass of Palestinians isn't serious about peace with Israel. They may be right. I spoke to a Palestinian college student in New Jersey recently who said a two-state solution would be wrong, because only a return to her family's pre-1948 home would' [...]
Even though Phillip Carter is a former WaPo staffer, this story on him resigning as asst. SecDef for detainee affairs doesn’t even pretend to try to dig for possible deeper reasons for the resignation, contenting itself with the official boilerplate about “personal and family reasons.” Whatever the reason — [...]
UPDATE
KMJ radio officials knock down the possibility of Ray Appleton leaving the top-rated station to run for Congress. Appleton will be at KMJ "for a good long time," station officials say.
Longtime KMJ radio host Ray Appleton suggested today on his Facebook page that he might run for Congress when he [...]
The president hosted his first State Dinner for the Indian prime minister.
Rep. Ed Royce and his wife Marie were one of a handful of Republicans who got to party down with the president last night [...]
The Wall Street Journal has published on its website the text of the proposed 10-point checklist for determining whether a Republican candidate is orthodox enough to benefit from the party's endorsement and fund-raising.
The affirmations issues are quite a mixed bag. Some are perennial and cosmic, such as: "We support [...]
Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online makes another point about the unfolding story of the global warming scandal unearthed in those hacked (stolen?) documents. There’s more than e-mail…
“Although the e-mails are open to interpretation, there is also a lot of computer code included that is being waded through. [...]
The effort to recall Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, was pronounced dead by Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Friday, but recall advocates today found cause to hope for a revival.
Recall leader Mike Schroeder of Corona del Mar said some of the rejected petition signatures thrown out may indeed be valid, [...]
Sen. Abel Maldonado, rated by the California Republican Assembly as the least Republican-acting state legislator and rated by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association as the worst Republican in the Senate when it comes to taxes, told us a few minutes ago he’s delighted to be selected to be leuitenant governor [...]
Ever wonder why the mainstream press has fawned over and uncritically accepted the global warming scare stories? Since the leak (theft?) of thousands of documents revealing what’s been going on behind closed doors, it’s become clearer what role the press has played.
Jonah Goldberg sums up nicely:
“The elite press [...]
Schroder
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Martinez Mayor Rob Schroder to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.
He also reappointed to the board Lafayette resident Shalom Eliahu, 82, who has served on the board since 2000. Eliahu is president of Solo Engineer Consulting and has [...]
The Register’s Cindy Carcamo just filed this story:
Mexican Consul Carlos Rodríguez y Quezada is retiring from his post in Santa Ana on Monday, according to his spokesman, Agustin Pradillo Cuevas. Quezada is leaving a few months shy of two years from when he first came to Santa Ana, replacing a [...]
Let the political handwringing begin.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lieutenant Governor-designate Abel Maldonado made their big debut this morning at an event in Los Angeles, with the Guv calling Maldo his "soulmate," and the GOP senator offering an almost tearful thank you amidst a recounting of his immigrant [...]
No, I’ve not read Palin’s book. Or Plouffe’s.
But I’ve very much enjoyed Thomas Fleming’s “The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers” (Smithsonian Books, $27.99), which examines the women behind the men who launched our nation. A young George Washington [...]
It was a love fest at this morning's news conference in East Los Angeles, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger re-announced that he is appointing Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria (Santa Barbara...
Bay Area companies have been awarded more than $49 million in economic-stimulus funds for energy storage projects aimed at improving the efficiency and reliability of the nation’s electrical grid, the U.S. Department of Energy announced this morning.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $620 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act [...]
The Orange County supervisors voted unanimously this morning to urge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to block the sale of the Orange County Fairgrounds.
The city of Costa Mesa last week agreed to ask the governor to scrap the sale, and advocates call today’s move a critical step toward preserving the fairgrounds. The county’s [...]
Lou Dobbs is not ruling out running for president. But if the past is any guide (remember presidential candidate Joe Biden?), he may be willing to take second place on the ticket. Palin-Dobbs, anyone? The only condition that Lou might impose on the deal would be for [...]
The problem in making peace in the Middle East is neither geographical nor intellectual. Were there a will for peace, both sides know how to carve up the borders and exchange land in Israel for West Bank towns. They know how to tie Gaza and the West Bank together with [...]
The New York Times reports that conservatives have been drawing up a 10-point checklist -- to be printed on litmus paper? -- against which the Republican National Committee should measure prospective GOP candidates.
There's nothing surprising about the contents of the proposed creed (for example, opposition to government funding of [...]
In addition to announcing Abel Maldonado as his new Lite Guv pick last night on Jay Leno show( Hello out therrrrrrrrrrrre? Is anybody watching ?), the Guv mentioned that he hasn't been pulled...
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg says he has “grave concerns” about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to nominate GOP Sen. Abel Maldonado as the next lieutenant governor.
“I congratulate Senator Maldonado upon his nomination by the governor,” Steinberg said in a release a few minutes ago. “Senator Maldonado is a fine [...]
Last night/early this morning, I took part in a crazy ceremony, welcoming home a runner who just completed his goal of running a marathon in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.
John Volkman, a high school librarian and head coach for the Central California chapter of [...]
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