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One of our national nightmares is in abeyance
Good news everyone…there isn’t another Republican Presidential Debate for you to follow through the posting of horrific quotes for more than two weeks. Apparently the candidates will be busy fighting the War on Chanukah (“C” vs. No “C”) amongst other things — although I’m just going to throw it out there and say Rick Santorum […]

Good news everyone…there isn’t another Republican Presidential Debate for you to follow through the posting of horrific quotes for more than two weeks. Apparently the candidates will be busy fighting the War on Chanukah (“C” vs. No “C”) amongst other things — although I’m just going to throw it out there and say Rick Santorum will be celebrating Ashura.

But what a paradigm of modern GOP Wingnuttery we had last night as CNN, last seen sponsoring a debate with the “Tea Party“, joined forces with the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute on the subject of who will make the rubble in Iran bounce higher Foreign Policy. With such neo-con luminaries as Paul Wolfowitz, David Addington and Danielle Pletka asking questions via obliging former AIPAC employee Wolf Blitzer.

* We learned “Africa is a Country” from Rick Santorum, who must have heard that from Sarah Palin.

* Herman Cain said that despite his fear of mountains, if Israel demands we bomb Iran, well by golly who are we to say no?

* Ron Paul criticized the Patriot Act and the War on Drugs and was never heard from again.

* Willard Mitt Romney explicitly denied his first name was “Willard” (it is, but it is pronounced “Throat Warbler Mangrove”) .

* Gingrich indicated he was open to allowing illegal immigrants to be in the U.S. legally. *record scratch*

Well, so long Newt’s front runner status, that was almost not intolerant.

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Turkish PM: Step Down, Assad
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s list of international supporters is dwindling, and he can strike another off the list now that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has joined the chorus calling for Assad’s resignation. In a strongly worded statement, Erdogan invoked some striking figures from recent and more distant world history to back up his advice to Syria’s embattled leader.  —KA The New York Times: “Just remove yourself from that seat before shedding more blood, before torturing more and for the welfare of your country, as well as the region,” Mr. Erdogan said of Mr. Assad in a televised statement at his party meeting in Ankara. “It is not heroism to fight against your own people,” Mr. Erdogan said. “If you want to see someone, who has fought against his own people, look at Nazi Germany, Hitler, Mussolini, Ceausescu of Romania. If you do not learn your lesson from them, look at the Libyan leader, who pointed his gun against his own people and, only 32 days ago, got killed in a way that none of us desired, after using the same phrases that you use.” Read more

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s list of international supporters is dwindling, and he can strike another off the list now that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has joined the chorus calling for Assad’s resignation. In a strongly worded statement, Erdogan invoked some striking figures from recent and more distant world history to back up his advice to Syria’s embattled leader.? —KA

The New York Times:

“Just remove yourself from that seat before shedding more blood, before torturing more and for the welfare of your country, as well as the region,” Mr. Erdogan said of Mr. Assad in a televised statement at his party meeting in Ankara.

“It is not heroism to fight against your own people,” Mr. Erdogan said. “If you want to see someone, who has fought against his own people, look at Nazi Germany, Hitler, Mussolini, Ceausescu of Romania. If you do not learn your lesson from them, look at the Libyan leader, who pointed his gun against his own people and, only 32 days ago, got killed in a way that none of us desired, after using the same phrases that you use.”

Read more

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Right-Wing Media Twist Pelosi’s “Conscience” Comment To Claim She “Bash[ed] Catholics”

Right-wing media seized on a comment Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi made about Catholics and health care providers to suggest that Pelosi was mocking Catholics for having a “conscience.” In fact, Pelosi, who is Catholic, was discussing Republican-backed “conscience exemptions” for health care providers that refuse to perform abortions, which Pelosi has said could endanger the health of women.

Right-Wing Media Claim Pelosi “Bash[ed] Catholics” With “Conscience” Comment

Doocy Asks Bishop: “What Do You Think [Pelosi Is] Talking About There With Catholics And Their ‘Conscience Thing?’ “ On the November 22 broadcast of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy interviewed Bishop William Lori, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to discuss whether the Obama administration is “anti-Catholic.” At one point, Doocy asked Lori about Pelosi’s comments:

DOOCY: Sir, I want to ask you for your reaction on something that the former speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said yesterday in the pages of The Washington Post. She said: “I am a devout Catholic, and I honor my faith and love it. But they have this conscience thing.” What do you think she’s talking about there with Catholics and their “conscience thing”?

LORI: It’s not Catholics and their conscience thing. It’s the Bill of Rights. Religious liberty is the first of our freedom [sic] and the source of all the others. I think that there are comments being made in public by lawmakers and others that really underline the reason why we have this ad hoc committee on religious freedom and why we have to, as a country, unite in defending our religious freedoms. [Fox News, Fox & Friends,

[Drudge Report Archives, 11/22/11]

American Thinker: “This Conscience Thing? As In, They Have One? And [Pelosi] Called Cain Clueless?” In a November 18 post, American Thinker attacked Pelosi’s comments, writing:

Pelosi sought to defend herself from allegations that she and her husband made millions from insider trading in what the Washington Post calls a wide ranging interview. And she responded to Herman Cain’s recent reference to her as “Princess Nancy,” calling it clueless: “clueless in that you don’t say something like that.”

Unlike, for instance, when Pelosi charged that, in voting to allow health care providers a conscience exemption from providing abortions, Republicans “will be voting to say that women can die on the floor.”

Pelosi conveniently ignored that the measure passed with Democrat support.

So, in Nancy’s world, it’s clueless to jokingly call Pelosi a princess, but okay for her to accuse Republican members of Congress of saying that women can just die on the floor? “They would!” she reiterated to the Post. “Again, whatever their intention is, this is the effect.”

Before the reader can recover from her hypocrisy, Pelosi added a startling, if inadvertent, admission. Addressing the effects such legislation would have on Catholic health care providers, Pelosi said:

“I’m a devout Catholic and I honor my faith and love it . . . but they have this conscience thing.” (Emphasis added.)

This conscience thing? As in, they have one?

And she called Cain clueless? [American Thinker, 11/18/11, emphasis original]

But Pelosi Was Referring To “Conscience Exemptions” For Hospitals — Not Individual Conscience

In Wash. Post Article, Pelosi Was Referring To “The Conscience Protections” For “Catholic Health-Care Providers.” In a November 17 Washington Post article, Pelosi addressed criticisms of how she characterized Republican proposals to expand “conscience exemptions” for providers that refuse to perform abortions. From the article:

Pelosi recently was criticized for the way she characterized a bill to amend Republican-proposed conscience exemptions for health-care reform that allow providers to refuse to perform abortions. Pelosi called the measure, which passed last month with some help from Democrats, “savage,” and said, “When the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor and health-care providers do not have to intervene, if this bill is passed. It’s just appalling.”

In retrospect, does she think that assessment went too far? Not at all, she said: “They would” let women die on the floor, she said. “They would! Again, whatever their intention is, this is the effect.”

Catholic health-care providers in particular have long said they’d have to go out of business without the conscience protections that Pelosi says amount to letting hospitals “say to a woman, ‘I’m sorry you could die’ if you don’t get an abortion.” Those who dispute that characterization “may not like the language,” she said, “but the truth is what I said. I’m a devout Catholic and I honor my faith and love it . . . but they have this conscience thing” that she insists put women at physical risk, although Catholic providers strongly disagree. [The Washington Post, 11/17/11, emphasis added]

‘Homeless Halloween’ Firm Goes Under
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Republican Family Values Magazine

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With European solar markets in decline, the industry is looking to the next hot solar region. Even with political troubles in the U.S., companies still see America as a good long-term bet. (And let’s remember, Europe’s slowdown doesn’t mean the region is going to stop being a major player.) But analysts now see the Asia […]

With European solar markets in decline, the industry is looking to the next hot solar region. Even with political troubles in the U.S., companies still see America as a good long-term bet. (And let’s remember, Europe’s slowdown doesn’t mean the region is going to stop being a major player.)

But analysts now see the Asia Pacific solar market as the Next Big Thing, driven largely by growing domestic demand in China. For the first time this year, China may surpass the U.S. market, according to analysis from NDP Solarbuzz. Historically, that country has been a supplier of solar technologies, not an installer. But that trend is shifting.

Most of the growth — particularly in the second half of 2011 — is being driven by China and India. These countries hold the most promise due to their sheer size. But they are also very immature markets, with major regulatory hurdles and a limited downstream installation network, explains SolarBuzz:

“As the European markets no longer present certain growth, the Asia Pacific markets are increasingly the focus of international companies looking to expand. Companies seeking to take a share of this growth still face significant hurdles to define strategies to successfully access the downstream value chain,” said NPD Solarbuzz analyst Christopher Sunsong. “These challenges, though, are unlikely to deter their determination to participate given the potential of this new regional market opportunity.”

This comes as Ernst and Young has issued its latest Country Attractiveness Indices report, which tracks the top countries for clean energy investors. China came in number one, with the U.S. coming in at number two. While many developed countries will continue to lead, Ernst and Young calls attention to the rapidly tipping scales:

Gil Forer, Ernst & Young’s Global Cleantech Leader, explains, “the mature renewable energy markets of Western Europe and the US have been hit by a perfect storm of reduced government incentives, restricted access to capital, and increased competition from abroad.

“At the same time we are seeing growing support for renewable energy in emerging markets. Such countries, with a strongly growing energy demand, are seizing this opportunity to leap-frog fossil fuel generation to secure a low carbon and resource efficient future in renewable energy, with 15 emerging markets being added to the CAI in the past two years.”

In the Asia Pacific region, the solar market is expected to grow around 130% this year, with China representing 45% of total demand.

GRAPHIC: Most Common Words At CNN Debate: ?War,? And ?Israel?
The Washington Post, as part of their helpful interactive transcript of tonight’s Republican presidential primary debate, has a graphic of the evening’s most commonly uttered words. It’s no surprise that, at a debate sponsored by two neoconservative think-tanks (American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation), candidates from the party that brought you the Iraq debacle […]

The Washington Post, as part of their helpful interactive transcript of tonight’s Republican presidential primary debate, has a graphic of the evening’s most commonly uttered words. It’s no surprise that, at a debate sponsored by two neoconservative think-tanks (American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation), candidates from the party that brought you the Iraq debacle said “war” more than just about any other word, along with “Israel.” Not on the list? “Al Qaeda,” “terror,” or “Osama Bin Laden.” Here’s the Post’s complete graphic of the top GOP foreign policy vocab:

Trump still might run. Or maybe just sell some books.

Here we go again. Donald Trump is flirting with a run for the White House. And he’s also got a book to sell. (Who doesn’t?).

Let’s just pretend for a second that those two things are completely unrelated and go along with it, just as we did in the the spring, when Trump choppered his way into New Hampshire, cruised through that early primary state in a black stretch limo, and shook a few hands along the way declaring that he just might announce a run for the White House, but only after his reality show had wrapped up for the season.

Read full article >>

Romney ad misleads its way to desired result

Did former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s campaign just make its first real blunder of the 2012 presidential campaign? Or is the reaction to its new ad exactly what the campaign was banking on?

The campaign’s rollout of its first TV ad in New Hampshire on Monday night was marked by a controversy over its use of an out-of-context quote by President Obama.

Read full article >>

Federal belts get too tight for Santa

Agency holiday parties appear to be slimming down this season. Indeed, one of the primo bashes, the one thrown by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. , has been canceled, we were told, to save money in these tough budget times.

For many years, the Justice Department drew hundreds of officials, including top agency heads, some Supreme Court justices and other usually reclusive folks, who enjoyed fine hors d’oeuvres — we’re not talking munchies here — along with excellent drinks and chatter.

Read full article >>

Democrats lobby against any broader exceptions to contraceptive coverage

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At issue is whether the provision, announced in August, should exempt a far broader range of religious organizations than originally proposed.

Read full article >>

US Sen. McCain says GAO report linking immigrants to Ariz. wildfires justifies his statements

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A study by Congress’ investigative arm shows investigators have linked 30 fires that erupted in a five-year period in Arizona’s border region to people who crossed into the United States illegally. Sen. John McCain said it backs up earlier statements he made about illegal immigrants and wildfires. An opponent dismissed the finding as meaningless.

Read full article >>