U.S. NUCLEAR STOCKPILES IN EUROPE are being drawn down further: “An administrative document showing that there would no longer be nuclear weapons inspections at Ramstein airbase, means that the U.S. no longer stores nuclear weapons there. These bombs were intended for the use by German aircraft, in the event of a major war with, well, there don’t seem to be any suitably scary enemies available any more. There are still apparently about 300 American nuclear weapons stored in Europe, all of them believed to be 1960s era B61 nuclear weapons, configured as a half ton bomb that can be carried by most U.S., and some European, fighter-bombers.”
Archive for 2007
July 12, 2007
THE DAWN OF A PRIVATE SPACE AGE: My Popular Mechanics column for next month is up.
SHADES OF NEAL STEPHENSON: New Victorians in New York City.
IN THE MAIL: Daniel Yankelovich’s Profit with Honor: The New Stage of Market Capitalism.
LISA GOLDMAN ON BEIRUT A YEAR LATER: And look at the reaction to her reporting.
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times editorializes:
PORK IS NOT PARTISAN. Republicans took over Congress in the mid-1990s promising to cut wasteful government spending, then started a feeding frenzy at the public trough. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, the number of earmarks (home-district projects whose funding is inserted into spending bills) in the House went from 3,000 in 1996 to 15,000 in 2005. Democrats wrested Congress back last year with many of the same promises and initially seemed to be fulfilling them, but in reality they just found a sneakier way to fund their pet projects. . . .
Back in January, when pork was very much in the public spotlight, the Senate passed a bill requiring disclosure of the names of earmark sponsors. The House simply changed its rules to require disclosure. Since then, the process of reconciling the Senate bill with a similar version passed in the House has stalled. Some senators are disclosing their earmarks anyway, while others refuse. It is a near certainty, though, that unless the practice is codified in law, senators will return to business as usual. House rules, meanwhile, can be altered with each new session of Congress.
Attaching names to earmarks won’t eliminate them, but it decreases the likelihood that politicians will try to grab funds for something truly outrageous, such as the notorious $223-million Alaskan “bridge to nowhere.” The public is still watching; Democrats will pay a political price if they let earmark reform die.
And they should.
RAIDERS OF THE LOST EXPLOIT: A look at mercenaries and cyberwar. “There hasn’t been a full out, no-holds-barred Cyber War yet. But there’s no longer any doubt that it is possible. And the major powers are getting ready.”
BIGGER AND BETTER THAN AN IPHONE: “Special Forces troops and infantry unit commanders are finally getting a handheld device that will show them real-time video taken by UAVs or aircraft overhead.”
SOME THOUGHTS ON LAWYERS AND WAR: Our war on terror is overlawyered, but it’s not well-lawyered.
PLAYING NAME THAT PARTY! And again!
THE “FAIRNESS DOCTRINE:” Politicians using laws to bully those who don’t agree with them.
And I like this on the inhabitants of Incumbistan: “This is all thinly-disguised posturing for what’s really bothering the senators: They don’t like that people are allowed to criticize them on public airwaves.”
I think that’s right.
MCCAIN SKIRTING CAMPAIGN FUNDRAISING RULES?
MICKEY KAUS: “Mayor Villaraigosa appears to have drawn a line around Mirthala Salinas and put his credibility, if not his career, on it.”
Plus, the case of the Diamond Dildo.
HOMELAND SECURITY — STILL A JOKE: “Undercover Congressional investigators set up a bogus company and obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March that would have allowed them to buy the radioactive materials needed for a so-called dirty bomb.”
A TALE OF TWO SENTENCES.
CONSEQUENCES: Austin Bay sketches seven scenarios on withdrawal from Iraq.
UPDATE: Don’t miss this Gateway Pundit roundup, with lots of charts.
SEVERING THE LINK between oil and Al Qaeda.
SECRET MILITARY FILES FOUND ONLINE: Nice job, guys. “And these are the people who want to monitor our phone calls and online traffic?” Hey, they’re letting us read their secrets . . . .
July 11, 2007
MOYNIHAN? Say it ain’t so.
ANOTHER TAPE OF ZAWAHIRI SOUNDING DEFENSIVE.
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Roll Call editorializes:
After much sturm und drang, the House has a full disclosure policy on earmarks, at least as far as appropriations are concerned. Now the Senate is heading for turmoil on the issue, with even the August recess in doubt.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is threatening to keep the chamber in session during August if leaders do not agree to adopt a Senate rule requiring full earmark disclosure.
Vacation plans aside, we think that on the merits Senate leaders should accede to DeMint so disclosure of spending requests is not delayed until President Bush signs an ethics reform measure that still has not even gone to a House-Senate conference.
The House, in one of its first actions in the 110th Congress, passed a rule requiring disclosure of the sponsorship of all special benefit requests by Members in appropriations, authorization and tax bills. The Senate lopsidedly passed similar requirements — though excluding tax bills — but as part of its ethics reform bill, not as a Senate rule.
House implementation of its rule surely has been rocky. Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) tried to delay disclosure until appropriations were at the House-Senate conference stage. A Republican-media uproar forced him to guarantee disclosure before a bill hits the House floor.
The House rule is still weak when it comes to taxes. Disclosure is required only when a tax provision affects 10 or fewer taxpayers. But at least the House’s policy is set and working as the chamber processes appropriations.
In the Senate, Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) agreed to impose a disclosure rule voluntarily, but reports issued by the Congressional Research Service and Taxpayers for Common Sense show major omissions in the six bills processed by the committee so far. . . .
We don’t oppose earmarks in principle. Members come to Washington, D.C., partly to see to it that their districts and states get federal help. But, as events last year amply demonstrated, earmarks can be a source of rotten corruption. Full disclosure is crucial, and the Senate ought to institute it forthwith.
Indeed. If you want to let your Senators know what you think, here’s the Senate contact list.
UPDATE: Bringing home the bacon in Missouri. And in North Dakota! I wonder if more local media outlets will start picking up on the PorkBusters index.
BACK WHEN THE GORES DIDN’T LIKE ROCK MUSIC quite so much.
A COLUMN FROM FRED THOMPSON, at Power Line.