Per a blogger’s request, here is a dedicated thread on Larry King’s interview Thursday with George and Laura Bush.
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Daily Archives: July 7, 2006
Good news whenever a terrorist plot is foiled
July 7, 20061:49 p.m.
The New York Daily News reported that one man has been arrested in Lebanon and others are being sought in a foiled plot to blow up New York City tunnels. Some would rather that Americans not know about any of this, at least not yet, as the investigation is ongoing. But this and other revelations about unrealized terrorist plans reflect well on the Bush administration, showing that anti-terrorism efforts are working. Whenever possible, news of foiled attacks should be shouted from the rooftops.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Immigration hearings make noise, reform nothing
July 7, 200612:07 a.m.
If the hearings being held across the country by House Republican leaders have a point, it has yet to be revealed. As a New York Times editorial noted, “this novel approach to governing — seeking public input on bills after they have passed — reflects a cynical gamble that linking immigration and terror will upend the Senate bill and give House Republicans a short-term electoral boost.”
Kris Kobach, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and former candidate for Congress in Kansas, tried to make that link when he testified at a hearing Wednesday near San Diego. He argued that securing the southern border is crucial to U.S. security, citing 2005 figures that 3,722 foreigners from U.S.-identified terror states were detained by federal authorities, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
“The threat is real, the threat is out there,” Kobach said. “The only thing we know that stops people from coming in is a physical barrier.”
But while Congress is debating, illegal immigrants continue to flow in, and those millions already here continue to live in legal limbo.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Global warming doesn’t make our blood boil
July 7, 200612:03 a.m.
Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, explains in this piece why our government is spending billions of dollars to prevent terrorism while spending virtually nothing to prevent an even surer threat to Manhattan — rising sea levels due to global warming. Terrorism violates our moral sensibilities, he argues. Global warming does not. He writes, “Although all human societies have moral rules about food and sex, none has a moral rule about atmospheric chemistry. And so we are outraged about every breach of protocol except Kyoto. Yes, global warming is bad, but it doesn’t make us feel nauseated or angry or disgraced, and thus we don’t feel compelled to rail against it as we do against other momentous threats to our species, such as flag burning. The fact is that if climate change were caused by gay sex, or by the practice of eating kittens, millions of protesters would be massing in the streets.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
More heads-of-state dates, one involving a header
July 7, 200612:01 a.m.
Inspired by President Bush’s kitschy tour of Graceland with the Japanese prime minister, MSNBC’s First Read blog asked 2008 presidential hopefuls which world leaders they’d take on a trip and where. Former Sen. John Edwards said he’d take Chinese President Hu Jintao to a North Carolina-Duke basketball game. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would walk Boston’s Freedom Trail with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee would take British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Then there was this surprise from Sen. John Kerry: “I’m sure I’d get in trouble if I said I’d take (Iranian leader) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the Grand Canyon and push, but, man, would that exorcise some ’04 campaign demon.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
