National Security

 This country and the planet cannot afford to delay climate and clean energy legislation. It is that simple. Every day Washington politics puts our clean energy future on hold our economy gets weaker, our enemies get stronger, and the planet gets more polluted. It has been almost a year since the House approved comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation to create jobs, cut our oil imports in half and reduce the carbon pollution that threatens us all, and we are still waiting for the Senate to act. The time is now for comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that jump-starts our economy, strengthens national security, and leads to a healthier planet.

 Over the past week, Sarah Palin encouraged Tea-Party candidates to make energy issues a central part of their campaigns. "There’s nothing stopping us from achieving energy independence that a good old national election can’t fix," she said.

The Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate released a great video yesterday with military perspectives on clean energy, climate change and national security. 

Does Kit Bond's grandstanding about prosecuting terrorists have anything to do with politics? "Give me a break!" he says.

I'm not sure why Chuck Todd even asked that question. We all remember when Bond hyperventilated like this when the Bush Administration was prosecuting terrorists in criminal courts.

We may die in a terrorist attack if Congress repeals "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Last night: 

VoteVets.org is launching a new ad campaign targeting Roy Blunt's opposition to clean energy and jobs legislation that would reduce American dependence on foreign oil.  The ads will be running St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia and Springfield, a spokesman tells the Post-Dispatch.

UPDATE: Jason Noble has a brutal blog post over at the Prime Buzz about Stouffer's campaign official press conference.  In response, Stouffer's campaign has explained that the Senator will be sponsoring legislation somehow related to federal policy. 

Tell us again why Stouffer's Congressional campaign is making the announcements about what his official office is doing? 

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State Sen. Bill Stouffer is conducting an "informal press conference" tomorrow morning alongside state senate candidate Jack Jackson to talk about how terrible it would be if the discriminatory and counterproductive "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy -- a federal policy -- is repealed. 

In Stouffer's media advisory, distributed at taxpayer expense, the Senator promises to offer a "Missouri response" to President Obama's stated intention to end DADT. 

Of course, there aren't any "Missouri responses" to a prospective change in federal DADT policy, but Stouffer wants to get his name in the paper to prove he's as disgusted by gays in the military as primary opponent Vicky Hartlzer.

I'm sure Stouffer doesn't mind any criticism from the left for his demagoguery against the LGBT community. But conservatives and progressives alike should be able to agree that it makes no sense for taxpayers to be paying for this garbage.

Why was it okay for the Bush Administration to prosecute shoe bomber Richard Reid in criminal court, but a very bad idea for the Obama Administration to put Omar AbdulMutallab into the criminal justice system?

Or put another way, why is our justice system equipped to handle a man who tried to blow up an airplane with explosives in his shoes, but unable to handle the a man who tried to blow up an airplane with explosives in his underpants? 

UPDATE: Kit Bond's Communications Director Shana Marchio responded to my question via Twitter:

Simple answer - it wasn't - this mistake was corrected w/Padilla

Should've been as enemy combatnt. Like 2day's show, Bond critical of Bush AND Obama Admin. Goal: prevent repeating mistakes