Democrats at Work
June 26th, 2008 at 02:03am Mark Noonan
From NRO’s The Corner:
A friend on the Hill writes:
Today marked a new low for the way congressional Democrats deal with national security. This morning, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming held a joint hearing on a “National Intelligence Assessment” on global climate change. This analysis was ordered by the Democratic Congress last year and was issued a few weeks ago. Some highlights (or low-lights) from the hearing:
1) In response to a question by Global Warming Committee member Greg Walden (R-OR), the Intelligence Community admitted they had “low to medium confidence” in the accuracy of this estimate because intelligence officers lack the expertise to write such an estimate (it was mostly contracted out to other organizations) and climate change science is so uncertain. As Walden started to ask about why an analysis of such low reliability was issued, Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA), the Global Warming Committee Chairman, cut him off and told him he was out of time even though Markey let all the previous Democrats speak substantially past their time limits.
2) Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Peter asked what intelligence was used for this estimate and whether intelligence collection requirements were prepared. National Intelligence Council Chairman Thomas Fingar said no clandestine intelligence was used and that intelligence officers extrapolated what would happen if the “mid-level estimates” by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were correct. When Hoekstra asked why the U.S. Intelligence Community would write an major analysis of low to medium confidence that contained no intelligence, Fingar answered, “because you [Congress] told us to.”
3) Hoekstra noted that intelligence assessments of high confidence have proven to be wrong and he wondered why an intelligence assessment of low to medium confidence would even be published. In an attempt to dispel the debate over confidence, Intelligence Committee member Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) responded by noting that the 2002 Iraq WMD NIE had high confidence in its findings. Some Republicans thought Rep. Eshoo’s statement actually made their case about the futility of issuing an intelligence assessment that intelligence officers cannot fully back.
If Obama gets in, we can expect mountains of nonsense like this - a whole slew of laws, hearings, regulations and campaigns which sound like they’re about something, but are really about liberals burnishing their own self-image. One of the many problems with liberals is that their ranks are heavily laced with bureaucrats, lawyers, judges, activists, community organizers…people who, in short, don’t actually do anything in the sense of actually producing an end product usable by Joe Average. Of course there is an intelligence estimate on global warming…because it is the biggest threat we face, and we’re going to really go after it, including the CIA! And liberals who thought this up will pat themselves on the back and thing they’ve done something - just as they do after they recycle, or vote for a guy who will increase government spending.
The irrationality here is astounding, but not actually surprising - given that the Democrats (who absurdly call themselves “the reality based community” on the strength of their rejection of Christian teaching on abortion and sexuality) have cut themselves off from the source of reason and are adrift on a sea of inconsequential, mental cobweb spinning. The more one thinks about it, the more silly the whole concept of allowing a Democrat to run the show becomes - they just don’t have what it takes to run a government…heck, they don’t have what it takes to run a boy scout troop (that does take some personal responsibility, ya know?).
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Congress, Democrats, Environment, Science
8 Comments
1. The New Conservative | June 26th, 2008 at 4:16 am
So the Dems are planning to waste our money what else is new?
http://thenewconservatives.blogspot.com/
2. kjstrouble | June 26th, 2008 at 4:22 am
Nothing, but it needs to be pointed out, time and time again. Without that, it seems that people forget what the Dems are like.
3. Republican minds want to know. | June 26th, 2008 at 5:07 am
I find it amazing in the extreme that the dems answer to the protection of this country is to use our resources specifically designed to track and counter the enemies of our country to now track the effects of global warming. You would think with all the agencies at the disposal of the government that there would be one better suited to the job.
Then on the other hand, maybe the results from the scientist just weren’t enough to strike fear into the hearts of all those voters needing the protection that only the dems could supply against this terrible foe. More importantly, maybe there is a reason it didn’t. Though I hold little belief that 103 years of data is going to hold the secrets of mans demise on this 6 billion year old planet, that’s really unimportant here, priorities are.
Let’s let the people trained to do a job do the job they are trained to do. I wonder, are the dems really looking to use the intelligence community report as a scare tactic to move focus to an issue they believe they can win on? Well regardless of popular belief, the intelligence community really does have intelligent people in it and the contempt they felt for even being assigned such a task was evident in the way answers were given.
4. Disollusioned Male | June 26th, 2008 at 7:41 am
As a non minority, their victim politics leaves you out in the cold. 85% of those who seek affirmative action want your job and to extract entitlements that you will pay for. They have pushed the regulations in place that have lost generations of blue collar jobs to more cost effective foreign nations. Bill Clinton signed Nafta, costing hundreds of thousands of your jobs. Their current candidate embraces a church that does not have your best interest at heart.
How can you vote Democrat this fall?
5. kmg | June 26th, 2008 at 8:41 am
This NIE was supported by Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Intelligence Community has already been looking at the impact of global climate change for the last couple of years.
NIEs are intended to be predictive, so I personally don’t see a problem with trying to determine how global climate change may impact our ability to respond to military threats and humanitarian crises around the world.
6. Tractatus | June 26th, 2008 at 11:38 am
The irrationality here is astounding, but not actually surprising - given that the Democrats (who absurdly call themselves “the reality based community” on the strength of their rejection of Christian teaching on abortion and sexuality) have cut themselves off from the source of reason and are adrift on a sea of inconsequential, mental cobweb spinning.
Actually, the whole reality-based thing comes from, you know, dealing with reality instead of the wishful thinking that has guided the Bush administration. Also, Bushies used that term as a pejorative: “You silly people with your adhesion to reality!”
And it has nothing to do with your Joe Jesus Jr. ramblings, either. But religious paranoia will always domintae your thinking, it seems. Probably why you don’t seem to understand what “reason” is.
Incidentally, I encourage you to continue disparaging community leaders and activists. That plays really well with the public and certainly shows that you are a compassionate, caring individual who would never slag community service for political gain. Uh-huh.
7. The Gaza Gang | June 27th, 2008 at 7:32 am
Did Obama Sell Drugs?
Barack Obama needs to come clean about whether he ever sold drugs or stole to obtain them . We need to know if there will be people who will potentially come forward with embarrassing photos of drug use or stories about his abuse, sale, and criminal history . The Democrats do not need another embarrassment in the White House nor does America at large.
8. Smelly Cat | June 27th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Obama’s Government Record Raises Questions
Given what you know about Barack Obama why is anyone comfortable with having him driving us into our future?
He is a tax and spend liberal.
He supports affirmative action in colleges and government.
He has been identified as having the most liberal Senate voting record.
He believes in global warming.
He wants to pull our troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq despite Pentagon advice to the contrary.
He voted for biofuel without thinking long-term, which has raised futures markets and therefore food prices worldwide.
He is on record as willing to raise your taxes.
He bought land & a home from his friend Tom Rezko who’s under investigation for demanding kickbacks from companies wanting to do government business in IL.
He is against sending 12,000,000 illegal aliens home and wants to reward them with a path to citizenship.
He wants to push for a Jimmy Carter style windfall oil tax that is guaranteed, as in the past, to reduce US production and exploration.
Barack Obama is unsafe at any speed.