Enigineering professor puts Toyota recall into perspective

Paul S. Fischbeck is a professor in the departments of Engineering and Public Policy and Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie-Mellon University. He puts the Toyota recall into perspective as he is interviewed by CNBC.



Eye-opening stuff.

Technorati tags: automobiles cars auto news toyota carnegie mellon engineering cnbc

Chile hit by powerful earthquake

A powerful earthquake struck Chile overnight near the city of Concepción. It measured 8.8 on the Richter scale, for perspective, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was believed to be a 7.8 magnitude occurrence, and the recent Haiti earthquake reached only 7.0.

My prayers are with the Chileans, and anyone who may be in the path of a tsunami.

Related post:

Yellowstone earthquakes

Technorati tags: geology history earthquakes nature tsunami chile concepción

Sen. Tom Coburn delivers the Weekly GOP Address

There are two doctors in the US Senate. On Wednesday I participated in a conference call with Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the topic was of course health care reform. The other doctor is Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who was coincidentally born in the same Casper, Wyoming hospital where Barrasao practiced medicine for 25 years.

Coburn delivers the latest Republican Weekly Address, and the topic is of course health care.



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Illinois "Obama campaign signs" make Sen. Coburn's waste list

Stimulus funds lost in the Oklahoma panhandle

Sen. Coburn to propose amendment to ban Obama stimulus "campaign" signs

Senate needs more Coburns

Report from the bloggers' conference call on the Patients Choice Act

Technorati tags: government Oklahoma Tom Coburn Republican health universal health care Wyoming barrasso senate

GOP senators rip Holder over terror defense attorneys

The most important responsibility of any government is to protect its citizens. But the Obama administration at times acts as if health care reform and cap and trade are more important endeavors.

ABC News reports:

In an escalating war of words with Attorney General Eric Holder, Senate Republicans are raising "serious concerns" about political appointees at the Justice Department who previously worked on behalf of terror suspects.

The Republicans told Holder in a letter obtained by ABC News that "unanswered questions" about these political appointees "raise serious concerns about who is providing advice on detainee matters." The letter, signed by all seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, also accuses the Justice Department of being "nonresponsive" and "intentionally evasive" to questions on this issue.

The Senators are demanding answers about these political appointees by March 12, when Holder is next scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Justice Department has acknowledged that at least ten political appointees at the agency previously worked on behalf of detainees in terror cases, including six lawyers who worked as legal counsel for detainees and four who worked for advocacy organizations.

Holder was a controversial pick for attorney general, not just for his role in the Pardongate scandal, but also his appointment by disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich as a special investigator for the Illinois Gaming Board, something he left off his vetting questionnaire that he filled out for then-President-elect Obama.

Holder: Please resign now.

Technorati tags: current affairs Obama politics Barack Obama War on Terror man made disaster Blagojevich eric holder

Republican Party: Start over on health care reform

While the Democrats still insist on passing their Frankenstein-monster version of health care reform, the Republican Party has a better idea--start over.



Technorati tags: Politics congress government Obama Barack Obama obamacare health universal health care health care reformObama Barack Obama

Obama's Friday news dump: Desiree ditches DC

Barack Obama bundler and White House party planner Desiree Rogers will leave that job next month, as it appears she will take the fall for the Salahi gate-crashing fiasco.

Major barf-alert from the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet:

White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers told me Friday she will step down next month, after presiding over 330 events in the White House in 14 months.

Rogers is departing after achieving a major goal of President Obama and First Lady Michelle — opening up the White House to make it the "peoples house."

I guess she opened it up too much.

Of her now-unpopular boss, Rogers said last spring, "We have the best brand on earth: the Obama brand. Our possibilities are endless."

Double barf.

Technorati tags: Barack Obama Obama Politics news democrats

Obama foreign policy cluelessness: This time it's the Falklands

The aimlessness of Barack Obama's foreign policy--other than broadcasting a determined weakness--presents us with a new example, the sparsely populated Falkland Islands.

From the Telegraph:

The Bush administration got a lot of things wrong – but at least they usually had some idea of who America's adversaries were and who America’s friends were. For example, Bush’s policy of maintaining the special relationship with Britain was a simple recognition of the close bonds of alliance, friendship and interests that the British and Americans have had since World War I.

In contrast, Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are apparently clueless about some of the most basic aspects of foreign policy: supporting one's friends and fencing in one's adversaries. The declaration of neutrality on the issue of the sovereignty of the Falklands issued by the US State Department is clear proof of the uselessness of the Obama administration.

In the grand scheme of things it makes little sense for America to give moral support to the Kirchner government in Argentina. Kirchner is no friend of the US and Kirchner’s government is in deep domestic trouble for its gross mismanagement of the economy and its attempts to suppress the press criticism of the regime at home. One has to wonder what benefit America gets out of hurting Britain on this issue. Perhaps Obama thinks that the more Leftist Latin American regimes will somehow approve of the US. If that is the case, he is truly mistaken, as most Latin American nations dislike the Argentineans, and have little sympathy for the mess Argentina got into over the Falklands.

But this mess is just typical of the drift in US foreign policy – if one can say that it even HAS a coherent foreign policy these days. As I said, at the core of the problem is a simple inability to recognise and support our friends over adversaries. In his first year in office Obama made numerous apologies for America’s past to the Third World, he effusively greeted the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, he bowed low to the Saudi ruler, and called for a "reset" of relations with Russia – all the while implying that America was at fault for all these problems. At the same time he rudely undermined the security of America's Eastern European allies by cancelling the ballistic missile defence with no notice and no prior discussion, he failed to push for a free trade agreement with Colombia – America’s strongest ally in South America – and he supported Chavez’s allies when they tried (luckily unsuccessfully) to unseat a democratic and pro-US government in Honduras.

When Ronald Reagan was president and Britain and Argentina went to war over the Falklands, we sided with the UK.

I'm siding with the UK.

Related posts:

Al Haig is gone, meanwhile Argentina seeking UN help over Falklands claim

Obama doesn't view UK relationship as special

Technorati tags: current affairs UK argentina falklands Obama Barack Obama