Thursday Mashup (10/16/08)

Interesting – I actually learned something from Dana Perino’s White House press briefing today (from here, at the bottom)…

MS. PERINO: Mark.

Q What is your response to the House -- sit down -- House Oversight -- (laughter) -- the House Oversight Committee report that accused the administration of using public funds to influence elections during the midterms in '06, accused the administration of a gross abuse of the public trust?

MS. PERINO: Well, this is Congressman Waxman, who I think took a moment of -- a target of opportunity, three weeks before an election, to say, wow, there's a (sic) Office of Political Affairs at the White House. We weren't the ones that created it; that office has been here for decades. And it should come as no surprise to people that the administration seeks to promote its agenda, and we do so within the rules.

That remains to be seen; this post from The Gavel (dated yesterday) provides the following details…

Today, the House Oversight Committee released a draft report finding “that the White House used the political affairs office to orchestrate an aggressive strategy to use taxpayer-funded trips to help elect Republican candidates for public office.” Over the course of the Committee’s investigation, they found that “from January 1, 2006, until the mid-term elections on November 7, 2006, cabinet secretaries and other senior officials traveled to over 300 events recommended by the political affairs office. All of these events were held with Republican candidates, and in most cases, the travel costs were paid for with federal funds.”

The post goes on to say that Scott Jennings, the Deputy Director of the Office of Political Affairs, “displayed PowerPoint slides to the GSA officials describing the top 36 House Republicans the White House wanted to defend in the 2008 election, the top 20 House Democrats the White House wanted to defeat, and a slide depicting the “Battle for the Senate 2008.”

And see, Dana, the problem we have here is that Jennings, in all likelihood, violated the Hatch Act, which “prohibits federal employees (civil servants) from engaging in partisan political activity,” the type that Lurita Doan (the former General Services Administration chief) was also charged with here for allowing the meeting to take place.

“Within the rules,” huh Dana?

Remember when “Governor Hottie” was worried here about our ol’ buddy Vlad Putin being able to poke his head into Alaska (or something)? Well, it turns out that the Russkies were able to get a lot more “up close and personal” with some of the best oil industry pals of the “Alaska Disasta” here…

The Russian state-run natural gas company sent eight senior executives to Anchorage for talks Monday with officials from the state Department of Natural Resources and with the ConocoPhillips chief executive, Jim Mulva, state and company officials said.

Gazprom, which supplies a quarter of the natural gas used by Europe, is seeking to increase its reach with projects around the world, including in North America.

Why do I have a feeling that this is some kind of a power play by Gazprom as they try and control the worldwide energy supply (my pessimism is based in part on stories like this; all this is particularly dicey given our uncertain economic times).

“Governor Hottie” should be mindful of what her running mate has said about Putin, looking into his eyes and seeing “K-G-B” (an inflammatory statement, but probably true). She would be wise not to look at a rep from Gazprom in a similar fashion and see “M-O-N-E-Y.”

Update 10/17/08: Funny stuff here (h/t profmarcus - but please don't tell Rich Lowry!!)...

This story tells us the following…

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – The European Union's 15 original member nations are on target to meet Kyoto treaty commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the bloc's environment agency said Thursday.

The countries pledged by 2012 to reduce by 8 percent their emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases thought to contribute to global warming.

Only three countries – Denmark, Italy and Spain – were “off their Kyoto track” and unlikely to meet individual targets, the European Environment Agency said.

But their shortfalls would be made up by Britain, Germany and Sweden, which were expected to show “outstanding performance,” according to agency's executive director, Jacqueline McGlade.

Meanwhile, in this country, we have to deal with a wholly other form of gas contributing to the crisis from one particularly noxious individual (who, in the process, helps to delay the action needed so desperately from our executive “leadership”) as James Wolcott tells us here.