United Liberty

The Cato Institute is running another ad in newspapers disputing a position of the Obama Administration, this time taking on global warming:

We, the undersigned scientists, maintain that the case for alarm regarding climate change is grossly overstated. Surface temperature changes over the past century have been episodic and modest and there has been no net global warming for over a decade now. After controlling for population growth and property values, there has been no increase in damages from severe weather-related events. The computer models forecasting rapid temperature change abjectly fail to explain recent climate behavior. Mr. President, your characterization of the scientific facts regarding climate change and the degree of certainty informing the scientific debate is simply incorrect.

Communism once had a certain stoicism and suicidal bent than made its diehards appear sexy to over-stimulated American idealists. But times are a changing, liberalism lost its youth, and sardonic kisses between Communist leaders no longer decorate the Berlin wall.

Mark Fisher covers the “On The Idea of Communism” conference at The Birkbeck Institute, where you can watch free videos shots of Zizek, Terry Eagleton, Alain Badoiu,  Judith Balso, Alessandro Russo, Jacques Rancieres, and Antonion Negri chase communism to its most current revelation.

Several senators are stepping up to re-examine the trade embargo with Cuba:

At a Capitol Hill news conference scheduled for tomorrow, a wide array of senators and interest groups — including Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.); Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.); Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and Human Rights Watch — will rally around a potentially historic bill to lift the travel ban.

This seems like a complicated situation. There would be alot of benefits to having Cuba opened up to American dollars and business, and the embargo is a failure in crippling the communist regime, which has had a stranglehold on its people for fifty years.

More details are emerging on what the Obama Administration intends to do with GM and Chrysler:

In surprising findings to be outlined at the White House on Monday, President Obama has concluded that neither GM nor Chrysler as they now exist deserve more bailouts. But the White House is sparing them for a month or two, and is promising American consumers that the government will stand behind warranties if the automakers fail.

My favorite political magazine, Liberty, had an interesting observation by writer Richard Kostelanetz in its April 2009 issue:

One libertarian truth is that social problems consigned to the state can instead be resolved by the free market. Since I’ve previously advocated that divorce be made illegal, so tacky and unnecessary is government intervention in the termination of relationships, may I take pleasure in noting that the current decline in personal assets discourages divorce? People sharing a house don’t want to be forced to sell in a soft market, and it’s hard to claim alimony from someone who is unemployed. On Bloomberg Radio here in New York, I heard one matrimonial attorney complain that his biz was down a whopping 50%. Good-bye, with good riddance.

Contributor Jason Pye recently reported on the government report emanating from Missouri which labeled supporters of Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr as possible domestic terrorist suspects.  Because of the immense public outcry, the report has been rescinded and apologies issued.

From John Tate, Executive Director of the Campaign for Liberty-

Dear Friend of Liberty,

Although it sometimes seems that freedom is shrinking everywhere we turn, the fact is a powerful grassroots stand can still stop Big Government bureaucrats in their tracks.

It’s about two months in and far too early for a final analysis of Barack Obama’s presidency. Unsurprisingly, however, Ed Morrisey at Hot Air seems to view a recent article in the Economist arguing that Obama is providing insufficient leadership as warranting an obituary on the only two month old Obama administration.

On the main issue of the economy, Obama hasn’t parted the sea or transformed America into a land of gumdrops and lollipops equally shared amongst all citizens. That may prove a disappoint to some of his supporters.

Jim Harper at the Cato Institute thinks the transparency from the Obama Administration is a publicity stunt:

President Obama promised to make his administration the most open and transparent in history, and taking questions from the public kind of looks like that. But it also kind of looks like a gimmicky, canned publicity stunt, rather than true openness in government.

Real transparency would include fulfilling his campaign promise to post bills online for five days before signing them. The president has now signed 10 bills into law and not subjected any of them to that five-day public review.

From the New York Times:

As widely expected, former President George W. Bush, like many past occupants of the Oval Office, is writing a book. But rather than delivering a more traditional presidential memoir, Mr. Bush plans to explain 12 difficult personal and political decisions he has made.

Mr. Bush mentioned the book Tuesday in his first speech since leaving office, delivered in Calgary, Alberta. The book, tentatively titled “Decision Points,” is to be published in 2010 by Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House.