Republican Party

Geez, Congressman Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) sure is a busy guy. Since I mentioned his fundraising scam for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC)--the "Congressional Order of Merit"--last month, myriad new reports of Cole's activities have emerged. For proof, just check out the comments on the earlier post. If that's not enough, though, there's plenty more from around the blogosphere: Thirteen Colonies The South of Iowa Online Guide to Mediation This one, though, is my favorite. From John Baer of Philadelphia Daily News: I DON'T WANT to suggest the national Republicans are…
After the House passed its expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program on Wednesday, the Senate passed its version late Thursday. Although the House version passed along party lines, against strong Republican opposition, the Senate version enjoyed more bipartisan support, passing 68-31 (although all 31 "no" votes came from Republicans, with no Democrats voting against the measure).
Here's some good news from Congress, where the House of Representatives yesterday passed HR 3162, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007. This is the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP or SCHIP) that I've been blogging about recently. For more information on CHIP check out these previous entries. CHIP expires this year and Congress has now voted to renew and expand the program. The Senate is expected to vote on (and pass) its version today or tomorrow, although President Bush has absurdly and preemptively promised to veto the expansion. The…
Ira Flatow, of NPR's Science Friday, reports on the Science Friday blog about being the target of an interesting Republican Party scam, specifically one involving the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC): The phone message on my machine from the NRCC office said that the Congressman [Tom Cole, (R - Oklahoma)] wanted to "recognize me with their highest honor, the Congressional Order of Merit." It was given to those few select people "in recognition of their undying commitment, patriotic loyalty, and dedication to service to ... the United States of America." Who could resist?…
First, the good news, though. Phil Plait (of the Bad Astronomy Blog) reports today at The Huffington Post that the House just passed HR 985, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. As he notes, scientists have plenty of reasons to be happy about this: Scientists in government agencies (NASA, NOAA, FDA, etc), laboring for years under the heavy cloud of scientific suppression, can now feel safer if they want to call foul. And call foul they will, since there has been cripplingly obvious, sweeping, and routine suppression of scientific findings for the past few years. There's no need…
While most of the candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination have been in a race to see who can most shamelessly pander to the Religious Right, Rudy Giuliani has more or less remained above the fray. So far, this strategy has paid off surprisingly well, as recent polls have indicated. Even more surprisingly, though, comes the today's revelation by Roll Call (subscription required) that Giuliani may pick up the endorsement of one of the dirtiest conservative organizations out there, the Club for Growth: Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said the group's leaders are still…
As the presidential primaries for 2008 slowly approach, we're seeing the expected heavy swing to the right by several on the Republican side. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, though, seems to have taken things a step further by attempting to buy the support of right-wing organizations: In the months before announcing his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts contributed tens of thousands of dollars of his personal fortune to several conservative groups in a position to influence his image on the right. Last December, a foundation…
Back in my undergraduate days at Texas A&M University, I often lobbied for there to be a student representative on the A&M Board of Regents (the organization that governs the university). With issues such as skyrocketing tuition negatively affecting A&M's students, I thought that it was important for the students to have their own voice on a board that was otherwise pretty disconnected from their daily lives. Apparently, this finally came to fruition the year that I graduated. The latest appointment from unpopular Republican Governor Rick Perry, though, is a complete…
As 2008 approaches, many of the Republican contenders for the Presidency will try to paint themselves as moderates. An article in today's Washington Post, though, underlines why we should be weary of their empty rhetoric. Romney, who is expected to formally enter the presidential race today in Dearborn, Mich., has been particularly aggressive. In October he held a casual gathering at his Boston home for a who's who of social conservative leaders. Falwell and evangelist Franklin Graham munched on sandwiches and sipped soup alongside former presidential candidate Gary Bauer and pastor Richard…
As the Republicans try to pick up the pieces of their Election Day loss last week, one of the things they have to do is select their new Congressional leadership. Most of their choices haven't been too surprising, including their choice for House Minority Leader, John Boehner (R-Ohio). As House Majority leader, Boehner had previously held the second highest Republican rank in the House, and he has now been elevated to the highest. Although most of the press coverage has painted him as a moderate choice, over the conservative Mike Pence (R-Indiana), a look at Boehner's record would…
Four days after the Democrats' impressive Election Day victory, the commentary keeps streaming in, almost to the point of overkill. Today's Guardian, though, ran a particularly poignant piece from Martin Kettle: Every poll for months had signalled a serious Republican defeat. Reporting from America in May, I was told that no Republican strategist believed they could hold the House of Representatives. As David Broder, the dean of American political reporters, wrote this week: "Never was a political wipeout better advertised in advance than the one that hit the Republican party on Tuesday."…
Chris of Mixing Memory points us toward a good comparison of the Democratic victory in 2006 to the Republican victory in 1994. In short, the comparison--located at a Columbia statistics blog, Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science--shows that the Democrats won a greater percentage of the total vote in 2006 (56%) than the Republicans won in 1994 (51.6%). The Democrats were shortchanged, in a sense, because the number of seats they won does not truly reflect their impressive lead in total votes. In light of this, although the Republican victory in 1994 was incredibly…
With the election results almost completely finalized, it's time to reflect on what they mean. Make no mistake about it, Tuesday demonstrated a true mandate for the Democrats. The Democrats achieved a majority in both the Senate and the House, picking up 6 seats and 29 seats, respectively. The Democrats did not lose any seats in either house. In total votes, the Democrats had a 13.4% advantage over the Republicans in Senate races and 5.6% advantage in House races (this shows that, in the Senate in particular, the 2 seat advantage that the Democrats hold hardly does them justice). The main…
Here's some election news from back home in Texas--specifically, from the district where my mother lives, just south of Austin, Texas. From the Burnt Orange Report: This just in from Hays County. Former Republican [State] Rep. Rick Green who was taken down by Patrick Rose in 2002, apparently got a little upset over a Rose mailer that had his face superimposed on this year's Republican nominee Jim Neuhaus (as Green is deeply involved in running the Neuhaus campaign). So upset that Rick Green drove up to the polling location that Patrick Rose was at a punched him in the face, catching him off…
There is so much to say about the importance of today's election, but not a great deal that hasn't already been spelled out time and time again. Most importantly, if you haven't already voted, go vote today! Hopefully you'll have time to research the individual races and find out where the candidates stand on the important issues, particularly those related to science. Either way, though, if you are concerned and disheartened with the direction our nation has taken lately, and if you want to ease the suffering that U.S. science has been forced to endure, you'll probably be voting…
This won't be news to anyone from Texas, but our governor, Republican Rick Perry, is a walking disaster. From The Dallas Morning News: SAN ANTONIO - Gov. Rick Perry, after a God and country sermon attended by dozens of political candidates Sunday, said that he agreed with the minister that non-Christians will be condemned to hell.... "If you live your life and don't confess your sins to God almighty through the authority of Christ and his blood, I'm going to say this very plainly, you're going straight to hell with a nonstop ticket," Mr. Hagee said during a service interspersed with…
If George Bush is driving our nation down a one-way road to hell, it's the Republican-controlled House and Senate that are enabling him to do this. On October 17th, Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which had previously passed the Senate and House on the 28th and 29th of September, respectively. This is another dangerous piece of legislation from the Bush Administration, one that should leave us all slightly disturbed and give us something else to think about on election day. Current Yale Law student and former Oxford student (and India travel buddy) Cyrus Habib…
What they clearly lack in substance, they attempt to make up for in style, but global warming denialists certainly aren't winning any points for class. In a September 25th speech in the Senate, Crazy Ol' James Inhofe--who once called global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people" and who ironically serves as the chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee--attacked The New York Times' esteemed environmental reporter Andrew Revkin for what else but his new children's book The North Pole Was Here. "So here we have a very prominent environmental…
I don't have my copy yet of the latest edition of Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science, but I've been told that it's on its way. And, believe me, I'll bump it up to the top of my reading list when I get it, so you can expect a review sometime soon. I'm embarrassed to admit that I never actually read the hardcover edition, so I'm doubly looking forward to the new paperback. In his introduction to the paperback edition, Chris writes that it has more of a focus on what the reader can do to combat these attacks on scientific progress: I often heard from readers of the hardcover edition…
Over at Retrospectacle, Shelley reports on a Forbes article detailing the impressive degree to which various billionaires are picking up the slack left in the wake of restrictive Bush Administration regulations on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. From the original article: Since the ban, federal funding of embryonic stem-cell work has risen to all of $40 million a year, just one-fifth of the money for other kinds of stem cells and a pittance in the $20 billion research budget of the government's National Institutes of Health. But Eli Broad and a few other billionaires--some…