A co-founder of Greenpeace told lawmakers there is no evidence man is contributing to climate change, and said he left the group when it became more interested in politics than the environment.RELATED: John Kerry’s Phony Climate War
Patrick Moore, a Canadian ecologist and business consultant who was a member of Greenpeace from 1971-86, told members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee environmental groups like the one he helped establish use faulty computer models and scare tactics in promoting claims man-made gases are heating up the planet.
“There is no scientific proof that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the dominant cause of the minor warming of the Earth’s atmosphere over the past 100 years,” he said.
Even if the planet is warming up, Moore claimed it would not be calamitous for men, which he described as a “subtropical species.”
Skeptics of manmade climate change say there is no evidence the Earth is warming. A UN report on the scientific data behind global warming released in September indicated that global surface temperatures have not increased for the past 15 years, but scientists who believe climate change due to man is occurring say it has merely paused because of several factors and will soon resume.
An astonishing photograph of John Kerry having a cozy and intimate dinner with Bashar al-Assad has emerged at the moment the U.S Secretary of State is making the case to bomb the Syrian dictator's country and remove him from power.
Kerry, who compared Assad to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein yesterday, is pictured around a small table with his wife Teresa Heinz and the Assads in 2009.
Assad and Kerry, then a Massachusetts senator, lean in towards each other and appear deep in conversation as their spouses look on.
A waiter is pictured at their side with a tray of green drinks, believed to be lemon and crushed mint.
The picture was likely taken in February 2009 in the Naranj restaurant in Damascus, when Kerry led a delegation to Syria to discuss finding a way forward for peace in the region.
While President Barack Obama has softened his military threat against Syria by putting the question to Congress and guaranteeing at least a week's delay, Kerry remains outspoken about the dangers posed by the Syrian regime.
He said that Assad 'has now joined the list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein' in deploying chemical weapons against his own people.RELATED: Video: John Kerry’s not good, very bad day with Chris Wallace
Kerry said Sunday that the U.S. now has evidence that sarin nerve gas was used in Syria and that 'the case gets stronger by the day' for a military attack.
A spokeswoman for Secretary of State John Kerry reversed herself on Friday, now saying that Kerry was — indeed — sailing in Massachusetts as Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was ousted in a military coup.
“While he was briefly on his boat on Wednesday, Secretary Kerry worked around the clock all day including participating in the president’s meeting with his national security council,” the spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, told The Boston Globe.
On Wednesday, Psaki denied a CBS News report on Twitter that the nation’s top diplomat had been seen boarding his yacht, Isabel, off Nantucket just hours after Morsi — Egypt’s first democratically elected leader — was deposed.
“Any report or tweet that he was on a boat is completely inaccurate,” Psaki said, seeking to quell any notion that Kerry was not on the job.
Another Kerry aide who was not authorized to speak publicly told the Globe on Friday that Wednesday’s denial stemmed from “confusion,” adding that Kerry had apparently taken his grandson out for an hourlong sail.
The secretary’s aides bristled at the suggestion that Kerry was simply lounging around on Wednesday, saying that he has been working the telephones with world leaders and participating in White House meetings about the Egyptian situation and other foreign policy matters, the Globe reports.
United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice has sent an official request to President Barack Obama that her name be withdrawn from consideration to replace Sec. Hillary Clinton to be the next Secretary of State.RELATED: Brian Williams Asks Susan Rice If She Is ‘Blameless’ In Controversy Over Libya Attacks
NBC News reports that the ambassador will speak with anchor Brian Williams to elaborate on her reasoning. The interview will be broadcast on Thursday night.
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) is the likely candidate to be sent to the Senate for possible confirmation to replace Sec. Clinton.
UPDATE: President Obama has accepted Rice’s request that her name be removed from consideration to replace Sec. Clinton. “I deeply regret the unfair and misleading attacks on Susan Rice in recent weeks,” Obama said in a statement.
Count me among those frustrated by the anti-Romney Bain attacks, now in their umpteenth day dominating the political news cycle. Every day that Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, has to spend talking about precisely when he left Bain Capital or why he won’t release a gajillion years of tax records is a day lost from making the case for why President Obama has failed this country and needs to be replaced. Romney should be talking about how he’ll do a better job in the Oval Office than its current feckless occupant.RELATED: George Will: Romney Must Think Costs Of Releasing Tax Returns Outweigh Not Releasing Them
At Obama headquarters, they are surely clinking champagne glasses watching Romney and his surrogates stammer and sputter. Meanwhile, the Romney campaign surely knew it would be like this– the president is a “brass knuckled brawler.”
Do not count me among those, however, who believe Mitt Romney should cave and release eight to ten years of tax records. To what end? We know the guy’s rich. And rich guys probably take advantage of every tax deduction and loophole their accountants advise them to use. Just ask tax-me-more-oh-please-oh-please Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway company is still fighting the IRS over taxes.
No, if Romney does release more tax records, expect more of the same from the past week. I do not believe for one second that the issue would go away quickly. The Obama camp would probably find a trove of ad material in the records, and they would be discussed endlessly on cable news shows—the Obama campaign has a willing partner in the news media on stories such as this.
The Romney camp needs to get beyond the Bainers’ obsession with irrelevant details about his past and beyond those who want to shout to the world what we already know—the guy has money.
In the recent past, the Romney camp demonstrated smarts and feistiness that surprised skeptics (such as me) who wondered about his ability to stage a winning campaign. Now his staff needs to dig back and analyze how they successfully fended off previous irrelevant attacks.
For example, when liberals started to make an issue about Romney’s family dog (whose cage was strapped to the top of the station wagon for a road trip), the Romney camp used humor to put the issue in context. You wanna talk abuse of dogs, they seemed to be saying, well, bring it on (pointing out how the president admitted to actually, ugh, eating dog, in his travels).
That’s what they need to do now. Don’t explain. Don’t deflect. Demonstrate.
When the dog story appeared, the Romney team didn’t say then that Americans wanted to talk about jobs while the president wanted to talk about dogs. They demonstrated how desperate the Obama camp was when raising the dog issue by…talking about dogs.
Now they need to do the same by talking about records—Obama’s, not Romney’s. The Obama camp, aided and abetted by a herd-like media, is afire to have records released. The Romney camp could say: Fine. You don’t want to talk about jobs, you want to talk about records. Okay. Let’s talk about records. Release yours, and we’ll talk. Release your college transcripts—after all, weren’t you sold to the American people as one of the smartest guys in the room? Release Fast and Furious records. Release anything and everything related to those intelligence leaks. Release the details of the sweet deals green energy companies received, especially those that contributed to your campaign.
Release them all. Let them rain on newsrooms like confetti.
Don’t run away from the issue, in other words. Use it to your advantage. Talk about it, but talk about it your way to demonstrate how desperate the Obama campaign is to talk about anything but what’s important.
I would love to see the Romney camp use that as a drumbeat, relentlessly pounding the release-the-records chorus so loudly that it would drown out the Obama “Bainers” and their whine about tax records and Bain tenure. It would put Obama’s side of this discussion in context. He and his surrogates (including some in the media) want answers on Bain and taxes? The American people want answers on where their tax dollars went and why the White House can’t control leaks and its DOJ.
Which are the records we need to see most? Records that tell us what we already know—Romney was a businessman who accumulated a lot of treasure—or records that might shed light on how the current occupant of the White House has ineptly dealt with our blood and treasure?
The ridiculous media hypocrisy concerning all the fuss over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's wealth and income tax rate was perfectly demonstrated on MSNBC's Morning Joe Monday.
After claiming that Romney's "tax issue is not remotely" past him, John Heilemann, the National Affairs editor for New York magazine, admitted that he never reported John Kerry's income tax rate during the 2004 campaign
And there it is. What else do you need to know about the state of today's media?
Kerry's low income tax rate was not an issue for them in 2004.
But despite the immutable fact that Romney pays more in federal income taxes as a percentage of Adjusted Gross Income than 97 percent of the nation including Kerry, people like Heilemann - who totally ignored Kerry's lower tax rate in 2004 - are going to pound on this issue as long as Romney is in the race.
As NewsBusters has been reporting for months, the media are going to do anything to get Barack Obama reelected.
It was a surprise to many (and a shock to media liberals) when three judges on Iowa's Supreme Court were voted off that court in the same recent elections in which a lot of politicians were also sent packing.The people's voice only matters when it serves and protects the far-Left agenda. When it doesn't the people are well...idiots.
These judges had taken it upon themselves to rule that the voters of Iowa did not have the right to block attempts to change the definition of marriage to include homosexual couples. Here again, the particular issue -- so-called "gay marriage" -- was not as fundamental as the question of depriving the voting public of their right to decide what kinds of laws they want to live under.
That is ultimately a question of deciding what kind of country this is to be -- one ruled by "we the people" or one where the notions of an arrogant elite are to be imposed, whether the people agree or not.
Those who believe in gay marriage are free to vote for it. But, when they lose that vote, it is not the role of judges to nullify the vote and legislate from the bench. Judges who become politicians in robes often lie like politicians as well, claiming that they are just applying the Constitution, when they're in fact exercising powers that the Constitution never gave them. If they're going to act like politicians, then they should be voted out like politicians.
Media liberals, who like what liberal judges do, spring to their defense. The media spin is that judges were voted off the bench because of "unpopular" decisions and that this threatens judicial "independence."
Since this was the first time that a justice of the Iowa Supreme Court was voted off the bench in nearly half a century, it is very doubtful that there was never an "unpopular" court decision in all that time. The media spin about "unpopular" decisions sidesteps the far more important question of whether the judges usurped powers that were never given to them by the Constitution.
As for judicial "independence," that doesn't mean being independent of the laws. Being a judge doesn't mean being given arbitrary powers to enact the liberal agenda from the bench, which means depriving the citizens of their most basic rights that define a free and self-governing people.
A testy U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday blamed clueless voters with short attention spans for the uphill battle beleaguered Democrats are facing against Republicans across the nation.
“We have an electorate that doesn’t always pay that much attention to what’s going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what’s happening,” Kerry told reporters after touring the Boston Medical Center yesterday.
Conservative political blogger William Jacobson, who writes Legal Insurrection, immediately pounced on Kerry’s comments, saying that attitude is why voters are looking to shake up Capitol Hill by electing upstart candidates such as U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.
“It just continues the Democrats’ theme that the reason people are upset is because they don’t understand. They’re not smart enough. That sort of rhetoric just gets people even more upset,” said Jacobson.
Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.
Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.
But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.
Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?
Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.
A jovial U.S. Sen. John Kerry must have been channeling his inner Letterman Tuesday when he quipped the wrong governor had gone missing.What a loser. Democrat President and Democrat controlled Congress and they still can't get past their obsessive hate for Sarah Palin. Funny that.The Bay State Democrat was regaling a group of business and civic leaders invited to the Capitol on the bizarre disappearance of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who was said to be hiking the Appalachian Trail.
“Too bad,” Kerry said, “if a governor had to go missing it couldn’t have been the governor of Alaska. You know, Sarah Palin.”
The Democratic-centric crowd chuckled.
The more I read about Sonia Sotomayor, the more I feel that she's qualified to be on the Supreme Court--her resume reflects both experience and competency. Plus, judging from some of her past rulings, it's really hard to categorize Sotomayor as being an "activist" judge. But Barry's playing a dangerous game warning the GOP about any filibusters when he himself got with sorry-ass John Kerry in attempting to impede Justice Alito's nomination without any credible reason only 3 years ago. Best bet for Barry now is to lie low and let this thing play out. But it might too be late as the Limbaugh-Right will certainly jump on Obama's hypocrisy soon and often if they're smart enough.President Obama's expressed hope today in his weekly address "that we can avoid the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this (Supreme Court nomination) process, and Congress, in the past" runs against another historical first for the 44th president: his unique role in history as the first US President to have ever voted to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee.
So while there is little indication Republicans intend to filibuster President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the GOP will likely invoke the President's unique history whenever he calls their tactics into question.
In January 2006, then-Sen. Obama joined 24 colleagues in a futile effort led by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of now-Justice Samuel Alito.
On January 29, 2006, Mr. Obama told George Stephanopulos on "This Week" that he would "be supporting the filibuster because I think Judge Alito, in fact, is somebody who is contrary to core American values, not just liberal values, you know. When you look at his decisions in particular during times of war, we need a court that is independent and is going to provide some check on the executive branch, and he has not shown himself willing to do that repeatedly."
Mr. Obama did seem to express some reserve about using the filibuster process, which in common parlance refers to a procedural Senate maneuver requiring 60 votes to end debate and proceed to a vote.
"I think that the Democrats have to do a much better job in making their case on these issues," then-Sen. Obama said. "These last-minute efforts using procedural maneuvers inside the Beltway, I think, has been the wrong way of going about it, and we need to recognize because Judge Alito will be confirmed that if we're going to oppose a nominee that we've got to persuade the American people that, in fact, their values are at stake and frankly I'm not sure that we've successfully done that."
He added that "there is an over-reliance on the part of Democrats for procedural maneuvers and mechanisms to block the president instead of proactively going out to the American people and talking about the values that we care about. And, you know, there's one way to guarantee that the judges who are appointed to the Supreme Court are judges that reflect our values and that's to win elections."
With both presidential candidates condemning use of the race issue in the campaign, Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean has once again, put his foot in his mouth by referring to the Republican Party aa the “white” party.
According to Breitbart TV, Dean told a group of Democrats “Our party has a been no-majority party for a long time … the Democratic Party is made up of lots of different people and we're all minorities in our party.
“That's the way it's been for a long, long time - we are the party of opportunity, so the demographic trends favor the Democrats because we are an inclusive and accepting party. If you look at folks of color - even women - are more successful in the Democratic Party than they are in the white -- excuse me [giggles] -- in the Republican Party.
It wasn’t the first time he’s made a similar charge. Speaking to a forum in June 2005 in San Francisco Dean said that Republicans are "a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party."
Again, the most significant aspect of a Black man winning the Democratic nomination for President will not be progress for the Black community, but more and more white liberals getting over their "guilty complex" when it comes to matters of race. It will be far more significant, and a benefit to Blacks as a whole, if the first Black president were a Republican or an Independent.
You see sane people who don't bow down to the George Soros-sponsored Left, know the real deal: McCain appeals strongly to independents, he backslaps Obama on national security, conservatism still stands for something in this country and the young-uns preaching "change" in the Barack camp aren't really known for actually yunno . . . voting, as John Kerry found out in 2004.Although the margin between Obama and McCain is now similar to what it was in the last few weeks of the Democratic primary race, the structure of the race looks slightly different than at any other time this year as a result of the relatively high percentage of voters -- 15% -- not favoring either major-party candidate. This includes 7% of voters who say they are undecided and 8% who say they will not vote for either candidate (including 1% who volunteer they will vote for another specific candidate).
....As a result, the percentages of Americans now supporting Obama and McCain are near the lowest seen for either candidate since Gallup Poll Daily tracking on the Obama-McCain matchup started in early March, and well below the high of 48% achieved by each at them at various times.
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Embracing Barack Obama as his choice for president at a college rally here, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said the freshman senator from Illinois offered America a unique opportunity to move beyond racial and political divisions and to unite behind common goals."Barack Obama can be, will be and should be the next president," Kerry told the crowd of about 4,000 people, who listened from an outdoor courtyard shaded by live oak and Spanish moss at the College of Charleston."Who better than Barack Obama to turn a new page in American politics, so that Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike can look to the leadership that unites to find common ground?"
Switzerland - Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry slammed the foreign policy of the Bush administration yesterday, saying it has caused the United States to become “a sort of international pariah.”Seriously, even a diehard liberal has to be worried about John Kerry, especially if you're throwing all your energy behind winning the White House in 2008. Because John Kerry is a threat to any Democrat running for President in 2008 and you're a fool if you think that relying on your liberal base is going to win you a national election, much less a local one (ask Ned Lamont).The statement came as Kerry responded to a question about whether the U.S. government had failed to adequately engage Iran’s government before the election of hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.
Kerry said the Bush administration has failed to adequately address a number of foreign policy issues.
“When we walk away from global warming, Kyoto, when we are irresponsibly slow in moving toward AIDS in Africa, when we don’t advance and live up to our own rhetoric and standards, we send a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy,” Kerry said.
“So we have a crisis of confidence in the Middle East - in the world, really. I’ve never seen our country as isolated, as much as a sort of international pariah for a number of reasons as it is today.”
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