Jesse Kelly for Congress – Arizona: Cato Connection

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One of the hottest Congressional races in the country will be District 8 AZ. An embattled and vulnerable Democrat is a top GOP target for 2010.

As Ilya Shapiro at Cato.org explains:

The Arizona 8th, which covers part of Tucson and the extreme southeast of the state, is currently represented by Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords won in this traditionally Republican district in 2006 when the GOP fielded a candidate too socially conservative for this libertarian area. Though she was reelected in 2008, John McCain carried the district 52-46. Giffords is considered to be vulnerable; while apparently a member of the “Blue Dog” caucus, she voted for TARP, the stimulus, Obamacare, and cap-and-trade, and has a D+ rating from the NRA. And so the 2010 election should be an opportunity for a libertarian Republican

That libertarian Republican is Jesse Kelly.

He is a United States Marine Corps combat veteran. He led a squad of Marines while deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Since his discharge in 2004, he's been a Construction site Manager.

Kelly has garnered an impressive list of supporters on the Right: Reps. Michele Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, Trent Franks, Mike Pence, and two legends in Arizona Barry Goldwater, Jr. and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

A Tea Party Patriot, his views are solidly libertarian.

Continues Shapiro:

I actually met Kelly once and was impressed with how forthrightly he spoke not only about “limited government” generally — any politician can mouth that — but about constitutional protections for liberty, such as Article I’s enumerated powers and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. Adam tells me that Kelly’s been known to reference Locke, Jefferson, Hayek, and Friedman at house parties and fundraisers alike.

On Defense, from his website:

We live in a time when our enemies test nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of reaching American interests. Terrorists continue to plot attacks against America and her interests. We must fully fund our nation's military and ensure the men and women in uniform have the tools, training, and care they need and deserve.

Our government has a constitutional obligation to protect its citizens. Border security needs to be a top National Defense priority. I am committed to fully funding vital military systems such as missile defense and upgrading our fighter and bomber fleets.

And Kelly has a solid "movement libertarian" link. One of his campaign staffers comes from the Cato Institute.

Adam Kwasman is a former economics and law student at George Mason Univ. He's also a former Cato intern. Kwasman serves as Policy Director for the Kelly Campaign.

Libertarian Republican for President sighting in New Hampshire

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On the edge of 2010, with only two years to go before the first Presidential primaries and caucuses in the US. A Libertarian Republican appears to be the very first to make an explicit move towards a candidacy.

From the Nashua Telegraph, Dec. 29:

Republican Gary Johnson, who served as New Mexico’s governor from 1995 to 2003, will speak at a forum Jan. 23 organized by the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire.

The group’s chairman, Jim Forsythe, told the New Hampshire Union Leader that speculation that Johnson may run for president in 2012 was one of the reasons he was invited. Johnson has not said whether he is considering a run, but he is building a following among ladvocates for smaller government, and there are several Web sites dedicated to drafting him to run.

Johnson also recently set up a political action committee to promote libertarian views.

Meanwhile Johnson has been gaining attention on another front. He's been carving out a "third way" approach on foreign policy, simultaneously opposing the War in Iraq and calling for the Troops to come home from Afghanistan, while also carefully distancing himself from isolationism, and stressing his support for a strong Military and Defense against all threats to the US.

From a recent press release:

Governor Johnson has also been a strong advocate of the war on terrorism but has been critical of the war in Afghanistan. “Our efforts should be directed towards protecting U.S. citizens and our allies from terrorism. We are at war with Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. I am very concerned about the direction and focus of our continued involvement in Afghanistan,” Johnson said.

Johnson's PAC OurAmericaInitiative.com

Methane Threat and National Redlines

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A final assessment of Copenhagen analyzes the process and breaks the conference into two phases.  It’s worth analyzing whether a world-wide conference run by the UN and political leaders trying to reach a political and economic agreement is the best way to approach this problem.  It’s certainly not the only way to approach a global warming solution.  Immediate action is called for, at this point.

The first phase they analyzed was the first week — chaotic.  Nothing was getting done. The second phase was more political and an accord was arrived at, but that was not the best outcome either.

The outcome of the second phase, when a small group – around 30 – heads of State took the lead, is a minimalist agreement, disappointing in substance, and hectic in process. It proves that the pileup of countries redlines did not leave room for an ambitious agreement: the agreement found is somehow the lowest common denominator. This is not the deal we hoped, but given the context, and especially given the perception that States had of their own national interests, this was probably the best possible deal.

You can download the entire analysis here. (PDF)   It was done by the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI).

Sonar image of methane plumes rising from the Arctic Ocean floor (Image: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton)

The agreements so far are great, but they are static, and non-action based.  The world needs real action on global warming.  That means real leadership, on a country-by-country basis.  Real leaders need to tell citizens what can be done, and how they can be involved, for starters.

The reason we can’t wait for the next COP or the plodding pace of the UN meetings anymore is that we are running out of time.   The methane that is escaping from the Arctic sea, as it warms up,  especially means we don’t have time to wait for the countries to get together again to start cutting emissions.   In the U.S., we need to support the EPA’s immediate regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and other actions like re-forestation (and ending deforestation) to undo the damage of coal plants and all the damage of burning fossil fuels.   This will cost money but we can’t let that be a barrier to action.   Every country has to act now, and stop waiting for a global agreement which may never come, and if it does come, is likely to be too weak.  Individually, countries may arrive at their own conclusions out of necessity like an obvious situation of dwindling resources, or flooding damage, and take stronger action.  The many demands within these conferences have gotten the world only to a stalemate.

Methane is being released from the sea floor due to global warming and no one is sure how much is down there, but scientists know it’s “megatons“.  Depending on how fast this methane is released, this could very quickly accelerate climate change.  See below for new information on the latest methane threat.

New [...]

Are Digital Strip Searches Coming Soon To Every Airport Near You? | 80beats

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tsa-release-images-400-webThe Christmas Day airplane bombing attempt has renewed the debate over full body scanners at airports. The Transportation Security Administration in recent years has tried out a series of “whole-body imagers” to look for threats that typical metal detectors can’t find. These systems are the only way that smuggled explosives, like the one officials say was brought on the Christmas flight, can be reliably found [Wired.com].

Privacy advocates are calling the full body scanners a “digital strip search” (take a look at this TSA image of a full body scan and you’ll get the idea). But some security advocates say that either patting down every passenger or taking full body scans are the only options to ensure certain dangerous items are kept off airplanes.

Right now there are 40 full body scanners in 19 different U.S. airports. Only 6 airports use them for primary screening, the rest are used for follow-up searches. These scanners use millimeter-wave sensors that emit radio frequencies. By measuring the differences in the radiated energy, the scanner produces detailed 3-D images that resembles photo negatives. TSA has also ordered 150 similar scanners, at about $170,000 each, that use backscatter X-ray technology, after the completion of a successful pilot project.

TSA says privacy concerns are unwarranted since facial features (and other body parts?) are blurred out before the screening officer, who is in a separate room, sees the images. A senior U.S. air security source acknowledged the ongoing controversy over using the high-resolution body scanners that can show breast enhancements, body piercings and genitals. Full-body scanners currently in use in the U.S. have been set on a “politically correct” lower resolution that prevented screeners from seeing the outlines of genitals, the source said [New York Daily News]. Supposedly, the images will be permanently deleted immediately after screening.

Last June, the House of Representative voted 310 to 118 to oppose the use of full body scanners as a primary means of screening passengers. This doesn’t mean the issue is dead however, as President Obama has ordered a system-wide review on all screening procedures.

Related Content:
80beats: Editing Goof Puts TSA Airport Screening Secrets on the Web
80beats: Computer Glitch Delays Airline Flights Around the Country
DISCOVER: A Wing and a Prayer: The U.S.’s Crumbling Air-Travel Infrastructure
80beats: Researcher Discovers Effective Profiling; Says It’s More Trouble Than It’s Worth

Image: TSA


Once in a Blue Moon

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A blue moon! See it on New Year's Eve!

Unless you are as unlucky as I am (heh, I know Trudy is in the same boat) you will be treated to a blue moon on New Years eve!  Ok the moon won’t really be blue, but it will be full and also the second full moon in one month and that my friends, is a blue moon.  Gosh it’s been a while since the last one, May of 2007 I think.

The last blue moon on New Years was in 1990 and the next one won’t be until 2028 so while you are ringing in the new year, please take a moment and go outside and look up at the moon.  Hey go out early and take the kids.  It will be a long time before you can do it again and your kids will be adults by then!

Now why am I lamenting my  and as it happens Trudy’s bad luck?  Because even though we are not located all that close together we aren’t so far apart we both will escape the New Years storm heading our way.

Near the Edge of the Solar System, Voyager 2 Finds Magnetic Fluff | 80beats

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voyager2After three-plus decades of exploring the gas giants, passing the orbit of Pluto, and reaching points beyond, Voyager 2 has found something interesting near the edge of the solar system: surprisingly magnetic fluff. Researchers document their findings in this week’s Nature.

Of course, this fluff isn’t made from the dust bunnies you find under your bed, the ‘Local Fluff’ (a nickname for the Local Interstellar Cloud) is a vast, wispy cloud of hot hydrogen and helium stretching 30 light-years across [Discovery News]. Astronomers already knew this fluff was out there near the boundary area between our solar system and interstellar space. What surprised them is that the fluff is much more magnetized than they’d expected.

Voyager 2 isn’t actually in the fluff yet, but it can measure the area’s magnetism by observing how its magnetic field deforms the shape of the heliosphere, that balloon of space created by the solar wind pushing outward from our sun. The magnetic field is not only stronger than anticipated—3.7 to 5.5 microgauss—it’s also tilted off the galactic plane of the Milky Way by about 30 degrees, NASA investigator Merav Opher says. “The tilted field probably is a result from turbulence in the interstellar medium outside our solar system or results from collisions of clouds in the solar system neighborhood,” Opher says [USA Today].

Magnetism could answer the question of why the “Local Fluff” continues to exist at all. Though it formed from supernova remnants 10 million years ago, exhaust from other supernovae should have destroyed it by now. It would be like expecting a wisp of cigarette smoke to retain its structure in the middle of a tornado; some kind of force would need to be surrounding (or intertwined through) the smoke helping it resist being dispersed. In the case of the wispy Local Fluff, a magnetic field may be helping [Discovery News].

Next stop for Voyager 2: interstellar space, beyond the influence of the solar wind. By NASA’s calculations, the two voyagers have until about 2025 to keep exploring before their instruments operate no longer.

Related Content:
80beats: Voyager 2 Hits the Edge of the Solar System—And Writes Home
80beats: Solar Winds Drops to Lowest Recorded Level, Probe Finds
80beats: NASA Spacecraft Will Soon Map the Solar System’s Distant Edge
The Loom: Astrophilia, a tattooed ode to Voyager 2
DISCOVER: 20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Aliens, including that the Voyager golden record contains a Bulgarian folk song

Image: NASA


Ushuaia

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As the ship cruised through Drakes Passage we were quite subdued as we pined for more Antarctic time even the passage seemed rather deflated. We wished our fellow passengers with whom we had shared dinners and exchanged stories of the day farewell before being greeted by Ushuaia Argentina the most southernly city in the world. The city is perched behind a cluster of Beagle Channel islands c