January | 2010 | Wellsy's World

Browsing All Posts published on »January, 2010«

Obama tells DOJ to look for other sites for KSM trial

January 28, 2010

After a wave of broad opposition to holding a civilian trial in lower Manhattan for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the White House has quietly instructed the Department of Justice to begin looking for other venues for the high-profile trial. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Dem. Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently joined the growing chorus of voices […]

Don’t get fooled by spending freezes and populism

January 26, 2010

President Barack Obama makes his first official State of the Union address tomorrow evening, and commentators on the left and right are buzzing with his potential content tomorrow on the heels of a devastating Democratic defeat in liberal Massachusetts, an election which has put the brakes on the President’s premier domestic proposal and highlighted the […]

Scientist: UN glacier report fueled by politics, not science

January 25, 2010

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change continues to suffer more blows to its credibility as a climate scientist admits that a claim in one of the UN’s reports – one which said the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 – was not based on peer-reviewed science and included to put political pressure on world […]

Some belated thoughts on campaign finance reform

January 25, 2010

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to overturn certain provisions of McCain-Feingold’s campaign finance reform bill, including restrictions on corporations preventing them from paying for their own campaign ads, but leaves them unable to directly contribute to individual campaigns. The ruling is also likely to positively affect the ability of unions to pay for […]

Barney Frank acknowledges political reality and dooms Obamacare

January 20, 2010

I was surprised when I saw the following transcript from Barney Frank’s memo to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (via American Spectator): I have two reactions to the election in Massachusetts. One, I am disappointed. Two, I feel strongly that the Democratic majority in Congress must respect the process and make no effort to bypass the electoral […]

Does Brown’s MA win derail the Democrat agenda?

January 19, 2010

With Republican Scott Brown’s earth-shaking victory in Massachusetts, the Democrats have lost their filibuster-proof 60-vote majority. Though they still maintain a more than healthy 59-41 vote advantage, Brown’s win tonight in liberal Massachusetts should rightly send warning signs to Congressional Democrats and to the White House. Rationalizations are being offered left and … well, left for Coakley’s defeat and […]

Shockwave: Brown wins MA Senate seat

January 19, 2010

In an amazing upset that will be felt across the nation, particularly in Washington, Republican Scott Brown has defeated Democrat Martha Coakley in the election for the Massachusetts Senate seat held previously by Ted Kennedy. With nearly 80% of precincts reporting at this moment, Brown holds a decisive 7-point lead over Coakley in a race in […]

Obama goes campaigning as MA explodes

January 15, 2010

With an ever-tightening special election race for the Massachusetts Senate seat held by Ted Kennedy, President Obama, after signalling for a long time that he would stay out of the state, has decided to go stump for Democrat Martha Coakley on Sunday. The decision underlines how far Scott Brown has come after trailing Coakley by 30 points […]

Unions may be exempt from health plan tax in deal with Congress

January 14, 2010

Union leaders appear to have reached a tentative deal in wrangling over health care reform with Congress (I say “appear to” since these negotiations remain behind closed doors). They will drop their outright opposition to a tax on so-called “Cadillac” health insurance plans in exchange for a pretty handsome pay-off: the tax that everyone else […]

Heavy debt hampers economic growth, says 200 years of data

January 14, 2010

A new report that looked at 200 years of economic data from 44 countries found that a high debt-to-GDP ratio will cripple a country’s propensity to grow economically. Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, economists respectively from the University of Maryland and Harvard, found that there are discrete breakpoints at which debt becomes ever more harmful. With […]

Convenient: MA Sen winner may get delay in seating

January 13, 2010

The Associated Press and the Boston Herald have reported that Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Glavin is hinting that there will probably be a delay in certifying a winner for his state’s Senate seat in a tightening special election between Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley. Glavin says state law indicates that city […]

Pray for Haiti

January 13, 2010

Haiti remains an absolute disaster zone after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the poor island nation Tuesday afternoon. Hundreds of thousands may be dead, says a leading Haitian Senator, and lines of communication remain sketchy. Numerous buildings have collapsed and bodies of the victims are lining the streets. The presidential palace collapsed, though the Haitian President […]

Scott Brown raises $1M in one day

January 11, 2010

The Republican candidate in the special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat got a major boost today by raising over $1 million in a single day. The fundraising targets had been upped a few times in response to the overwhelming reaction to Scott Brown’s push for dollars. To be sure, a lot of […]

Gitmo detainee gets most evidence tossed out

January 11, 2010

A federal judge has thrown out a majority of the evidence against a Guantanamo Bay detainee on the grounds that his confessions were coerced. US District Judge Thomas Hogan said the government failed to prove that 23 statements made to interrogators by Musa’ab Omar Al Madhwani weren’t forced. Luckily, Hogan ruled a few other statements as admissible and with […]

Sarah Palin to join Fox News and diminish her brand

January 11, 2010

Fox News confirmed today that former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be joining the network as a contributor. She won’t have a regular one-person show a la Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity, but she will apparently be hosting a series that will run on the network semi-frequently. Reaction has been fairly typical along party […]