I almost didn’t realize it, but we passed the 1,000th post earlier today… this one here is 1,002, which would make the earlier post about the judge holding the government in contempt of court the 1,000th.
We’re currently at 829 approved comments, let’s see who can be #850… can’t promise a prize, though I might surprise someone, but we can at least give you bragging rights!
“I hope to be able to get waivers from Congress and the white house to allow us to do so. At the end of the day, if you are going to provide health care to all of our people in a cost effective way, you have to get rid of the health insurance companies, not profiteering and bureaucracy,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told MSNBC.
(emphasis added)
RealClearPolitics has the video.
Nice of him to confirm what everyone except tie-dyed-in-the-wool-lefties have known about ObamaCare since the whole debate started.
I guess when Judge Martin Feldman ordered the Obama Administration to lift the drilling moratorium, he really meant it.
A federal judge Wednesday blasted the Obama administration for “determined disregard” of his order to lift a ban on offshore oil and gas drilling last year, giving fresh ammunition to the oil industry and its allies on Capitol Hill who want the Interior Department to speed approvals of new offshore drilling projects.
The ruling by Judge Martin Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana means the Interior Department could have to reimburse Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC, a Louisiana drilling company, for the costs of litigation that the firm brought last year challenging the legality of the drilling moratorium.
The drilling halt was first ordered last May after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, in which 11 workers died, and the resulting oil spill. Judge Feldman struck down the initial ban in June, and the Interior Department quickly ordered a second one.
In his ruling, Judge Feldman said Hornbeck was owed the money because the government’s conduct amounted to contempt of court.
A spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar declined to comment late Wednesday. In a written statement, Hornbeck’s general counsel, Sam Giberga, said “What is striking about today’s ruling is that it holds the government, acting through its highest levels, in contempt of a federal court order.”
This is exactly what the founders considered “checks and balances” in the federal government. In this case, we have the judicial branch riding herd on the executive branch.
Of course, the Obama Administration could–and probably will–ignore the ruling, but that will carry a heavy political price, as it will increase the perception that they’re out of control and don’t care about the rule of law.
Gotta love it when a real statistician takes on a guy that didn’t do too well in math and science:
It takes no effort to point to untoward events after the fact and say, Jean Dixon-like, “See! More evidence that my theory is right!” If it is true that global warming will cause the Northern Hemisphere to experience cooler temperatures, then say so in advance. Don’t bustle to the cameras after things go wrong if you did not, or could not, say that they would in advance.
Vague predictions like “There will be snowstorms and rumors of snowstorms” do not count and are not evidence that the end is near. Take heed that no man deceive you. It is, after all, perfectly possible to forecast that there will be, say, “15% more snowfall in the 2010-2011 Northern Hemisphere winter”, or that “There will be at least three more Pacific ocean typhoons in 2011 than there were in 2010″, and so forth.
What is absurd is to point to a typhoon/cyclone/hurricane/snow storm after it has occurred and say that, “I could have predicted that if I wanted to. I chose not to because, among other reasons, I was busy. But that storm certainly indicates that my theory of climate change is true.”
Of course, it might be true that this storm was caused by mechanisms consistent with anthropogenic climate change theory; however, since every winter has its share of snowstorms, and that this winter is not unusual compared with history, this latest storm is also consistent with the theory that the climate is insignificantly affected by mankind. The same goes for weather events of other kinds.
Read the whole thing.