BrianFaughnan's blog
Posted at 7:25pm on Jul. 10, 2008 House Republicans Travel to ANWR
By BrianFaughnan
I've commented before that Republicans in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ought to travel to the part of the Coastal Plain where drilling might someday be allowed. Once you get there, you can see that it's not exactly something to write home about:
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Posted at 7:23pm on Jul. 10, 2008 Iraq Asks U.S. Troops to Stay... a Little While Longer
By BrianFaughnan
So with Barack Obama considering the degree to which he's going to flip-flop on his plan for withdrawing from Iraq, an Iraqi government spokesman asks for U.S. troops to stay until 2011 -- or longer:
Ali al-Dabbagh said any timetable would depend on "conditions and the circumstances that the country would be undergoing." But he said a pullout within "three, four or five" years was possible.
Posted in Foreign Affairs — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:49pm on Jul. 8, 2008 How Can McCain NOT Run Against Congress?
By BrianFaughnan
If Bill Clinton earned a strong re-election win in 1996 by standing against the perceived excesses of a Republican Congress (who favored radical ideas like budget balancing, welfare reform, and term limits) then John McCain ought to take a lesson. Whoever is elected president is likely to be working with a Democratic Congress led by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. That Democratic Congress is the lowest rated in history, and has earned its rating by being the least productive Congress in at least 20 years. Under the leadership of Reid and Pelosi, the Congress has fought for timetables to end the war in Iraq, has adopted a budget plan which calls for a huge tax increase, has neglected the growing entitlement problem, ignored high gas prices, and alienated some of our closest allies. And that's not to mention minor issues like threatening to nationalize the U.S. oil industry.
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Posted at 9:24pm on Jul. 3, 2008 GOP House Candidate to Tour ANWR
By BrianFaughnan
Polls show support for expanded drilling here in the U.S. on the upswing -- including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Some Americans however, remain resistant to drilling because they believe it will mar the unspoiled beauty of the Refuge. To help highlight the fact that the ANWR's Coastal Plain is... ugly, Congressional candidate Craig Williams is taking a trip to the site of the proposed drilling:
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Posted at 1:41pm on Jul. 3, 2008 Does Obama Really Want to Compare War Records?
By BrianFaughnan
Political analyst Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report reminds Democrats of two critical facts: that John McCain's war record is probably unassailable, and that John McCain benefits from a greater focus on national security:
Some party operatives and political insiders argue that for Obama to succeed, he must undermine McCain's hero image. What an utter waste of time. Not only is it not believable -- the guy spent five years in a Vietnamese prison camp, for crying out loud -- it's also counterproductive. Any time "military service" is uttered, regardless of the intent or the context, it gives McCain and his allies the opportunity to steer the debate back to the terrain where he's most confident.
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Posted at 9:33am on Jul. 3, 2008 Obama: I'm More Patriotic Than You
By BrianFaughnan
In his much-discussed speech on patriotism the other day, Barack Obama assured us "I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign." Yet as Joe Eule notes, it he did exactly that in the very same speech. Eule highlights to the following passage:
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Posted at 7:43pm on Jul. 2, 2008 Tales of the Gold Monkey
By BrianFaughnan
Democrats see the hands of Roger Stone seemingly everywhere (and not least because he likes it when they get paranoid). They think Stone set up Eliott Spitzer, and they suspect he has a nefarious plot to sabotage the Obama campaign. Yet if Stone were looking for the opportunity to make Barack Obama seem outside the mainstream, surely he couldn't do any better than this:
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Posted at 9:56pm on Jun. 27, 2008 Russia's GazProm Targets the U.S.
By BrianFaughnan
While Congressmen and presidential candidates argue over whether or not the United States should tap into its own domestic supply to meet our future energy needs, at least one foreign producer is stepping up to the plate. If the United States doesn't expand domestic production, we can count on Russia to be there for us:
Posted in Energy — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:09pm on Jun. 26, 2008 Reid, Pelosi Develop Own 'K Street Project'
By BrianFaughnan
Meet the New Boss.
When Democrats campaigned for Congress in 2006, they pointed to a reform agenda aimed at curbing the worst of the abuses of the Republican Congress. One of the signature reforms was a supposed end to 'The K Street Project,' in which elected officials pressed lobbying firms to hire Republican lobbyists instead of Democrats. And while the Democratic leadership has apparently not resorted to forcing firms to hire Democrats -- yet -- they are insisting that K Street's leading companies and associations must drop their own legislative priorities and interests, and instead push for those of the Democrats:
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Posted at 12:57pm on Jun. 24, 2008 Is China Hacking U.S. Computers?
By BrianFaughnan
The Hill reports on allegations of infiltrations of Congressional computers by hackers operating from China:
More Members of Congress have had their computers infiltrated by hackers within China than initially suspected, a lawmaker has revealed.
Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) admitted to having data removed from their Capitol Hill computers last week, but Wolf says there are more.
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Posted at 7:43pm on Jun. 23, 2008 WPost: For Lower Deficit, It's McCain
By BrianFaughnan
The Washington Post looks at the fiscal challenges facing the next President, and suggests that John McCain's fiscal bona fides are more credible than those of Barack Obama:
Obama has not made balanced budgets a priority. Instead, he promises numerous tax cuts likely to make the situation worse, including subsidies for education, child care, homeownership, "savers" and people who work. Obama also vows to extend the Bush tax cuts for families who earn less than $250,000 a year. According to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of Brookings and the Urban Institute, his tax plans would deprive the Treasury of nearly $900 billion in his first term, and increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion by 2018.
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Posted at 5:45pm on Jun. 20, 2008 Obama's Fat Cat Donors
By BrianFaughnan
Yesterday Barack Obama became the first presidential candidate ever to entirely opt out of the public financing system (delivering on his promise of 'change'). He has said that he did so because the public financing system is broken (a position he came to some time after promising to stay within the system, last September). And in April, when he first floated the idea of opting out, he said:
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Posted at 10:46pm on Jun. 19, 2008 Democrats Stack the Deck on Offshore Drilling
By BrianFaughnan
It seems as if the GOP is starting to gain some traction on the issue of increasing domestic oil production. Polls show a majority of voters support expanded drilling, and expect it to help keep pump prices down. There's been pressure on Congress to re-examine the moratorium on drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And as Democrats feel more pressure, it seems they may be trying to dodge a vote that may go against them:
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Posted at 6:57pm on Jun. 18, 2008 NY Gov 2010: Paterson (D) Attacks Bloomberg (I?)
By BrianFaughnan
New York's accidental governor David Paterson is likely to face stiff competition for re-election in 2010. Andrew Cuomo and other Democrats are regarded as potential primary challengers and there's speculation that Rudy Giuliani will run on the Republican line. But perhaps his biggest re-election threat is current New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Bloomberg is term-limited out of Gracie Mansion in 2009, and his actions make it clear that he's open to remaining in public life.
Posted in State Politics — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:44pm on Jun. 17, 2008 Kanjorski (D-PA) In Trouble
By BrianFaughnan
Since it's generally agreed right now that the political climate for Republicans will be toxic this year, it's not surprising that there are painfully few Democrats who seem to face uphill climbs for re-election. It looks like at least one however, has earned his way onto the list:
Kanjorski’s district leans Democratic, with 53 percent voting for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for president in 2004, but Republicans see an opportunity in the blue-collar district. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) performed poorly in the district in the April presidential primary, losing by 42 points to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
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