SandBox Comments: Commentary Magazine/Contentions "Medicare Administrator Steps Down"

It was pretty clear that controversial Medicare head Don Berwick ""wasn’t going to make it past the end of the year, after 42 Republican senators vowed to block his confirmation. On Wednesday, the Obama administration finally announced that Berwick will step down, a major scalp for Republicans in the health care battle, but one that will probably get lost in the Thanksgiving news blackout:

Obama nominated Berwick to the post but before Democrats scheduled a hearing, the president bypassed the Senate and appointed him to the post during recess last July, which allowed him to serve through the end of the year.

The soon-to-be former Medicare head was a favorite target for Republicans, who pointed to past quotes they say demonstrated his embrace of socialized medicine and rationing as a sure reason to oppose him...."
(Alana Goodman)

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SandBox Comments: Power Line "Climategate 2.0 and Me"

"Back in 2005 I wrote a paper for AEI entitled “Climate Change Science: Time for ‘Team B?’”, which argued that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was so badly politicized that the time had come to emulate the famous CIA Team B assessment of the Soviet Union in the 1970s:

A genuinely independent climate assessment process would need to build from the ground up, recruiting a team wholly independent of the IPCC’s personnel, and funded adequately to conduct original research, computer modeling, and consultations on a scale similar to the IPCC. Congress might consider earmarking a portion of current climate science appropriations for a competitive effort, perhaps in collaboration with Australia, Russia, Italy, Japan, and other nations that have expressed reservations about the Kyoto process.

Well, well, well—my idea turns up in one of new batch of Climategate emails released last week...."
(Steven Hayward)

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SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "Marines to wind down Afghan combat in 2012 "

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S. Marines will march out of Afghanistan by the thousands next year, winding down combat in the Taliban heartland and testing the U.S. view that Afghan forces are capable of leading the fight against a battered but not yet beaten insurgency in the country's southwestern reaches, American military officers say.

At the same time, U.S. reinforcements will go to eastern Afghanistan in a bid to reverse recent gains by insurgents targeting Kabul, the capital.

Gen. James F. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, said in an Associated Press interview that the number of Marines in Helmand province will drop "markedly" in 2012, and the role of those who stay will shift from countering the insurgency to training and advising Afghan security forces.

The change suggests an early exit from Afghanistan for the Marine Corps even as the prospects for solidifying their recent successes are uncertain...."

(Robert Burns)

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SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News/Letter to the Editor "Passing judgments"

"Editor:

Jack Johnson has been so venomous to Marilyn Marks and Elizabeth Milias over the years that he deserves everything they throw at him and more. In Bruce Berger’s judgment scale, Jack Johnson also goes out of his way to be a shark in a small pond, and I highly doubt he engages in winter sports of any kind. For many of us that call Aspen our home, I am proud to call Elizabeth Milias a friend. There is nothing hysterical about Elizabeth Milias and Berger’s catch-phrase sexism is more a reflection upon himself and the more negative aspects of the old guard than anything else."
(Randy Geren, Aspen)

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SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News/Lorenzo Semple "Fast women in Aspen"

"What’s more beautiful than fast women on skis? It’s a rhetorical question really. One man will choose a scantily clad swimsuit model over a bundled up bunny. Another will gladly peel away the layers after a satisfying day on the slopes to reveal the beauty underneath. There’s just something inexplicably sexy and graceful about a woman on skis, especially one who can dominate the mountain. They are almost more than mortal man deserves, and can handle.

There’s a carnival like atmosphere in town right now with the Women’s World Cup races. As you drive down Main Street and see the flags from all around the world, it’s hard not to get excited about this weekend. The schedule looks action packed, complete with fireworks and live music. Late this summer there was an unexpected weekday fireworks display that pleasantly caught a lot of people off guard. I was walking downtown right as it started and passed some happily baffled tourists. They asked me what the occasion was to which I casually replied in passing — it’s Aspen, there’s fireworks every night...."
(Lorenzo Semple)

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