Recent News
Tauscher at Global Zero
Feb 06, 2010
Recently, Ellen Tauscher, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, spoke before the Global Zero summit in Paris on February 3, 2010.
As usual, she had some interesting things to say.
And President Obama set forth an ambitious agenda in his speech in Prague last year. The president has embraced the vision of John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan of calling for a world without nuclear weapons.
Those are not just abstract words for him. This issue animates the president, it’s not one of those issues that an aide had to tell him about. He has put his political capital and muscle behind that vision.
(snip)
We're Hiring!
Feb 04, 2010
Join our team! Council for a Livable World and its sister organization, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, are hiring for the position of Contributions Coordinator/Office Manager.
Click here for application details.
Oh. No. She. Didn’t.
Feb 04, 2010
Contest over, Carly Fiorina wins. Not in the election, of course, but in the contest that matters most – for the best campaign video of all time. Check out Fiorina’s latest ad against Republican primary opponent and ex-Rep. Tom Campbell. It’s even compelled fellow primary competitor Chuck DeVore to create his own website, “Society for the Eradication of Demon Sheep from our Political Discourse.”
Get ready for fields of grazing sheep, falling sheep, demon-eyed sheep, and – oh yes – even a man-sheep.
Simply amazing.
New Senate candidates - IN and DE
Feb 04, 2010
New Senate candidates are still coming out of the wood work -- another reason that predictions for November are still premature.
Republicans, smelling (Brown*) blood in the water, are recruiting new candidates with renewed hope of victories after the Massachusetts Senate special election.
In Indiana, they have just about convinced former Sen. Dan Coats (R) to run against incumbent Sen. Evan Bayh (D).
Coats has two weeks to obtain 500 signatures from each of the nine congressional districts to get on the ballot. He could be tough competition, but he has been living in Virginia for many years and is a -- horror of horrors -- a lobbyist.**
Coats has just a couple of weeks to seek 500 petition signatures in each of the state's nine congressional districts.
Bayh has been enormously popular and has $13 million in his campaign treasury. He will not be easy to knock off.
Also, Coats retired rather than face Bayh 12 years ago.
Don’t Give the Pentagon a Blank Check
Feb 04, 2010
When President Obama proposed a freeze on discretionary spending over the next three years in his State of the Union address, he exempted the hundreds of billions of dollars spent annually on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as spending by the Pentagon.
Write a letter to the editor of your local paper today to oppose this exemption!
The President’s decision to freeze domestic expenditures but not defense spending is wrong, especially when total defense spending for next year exceeds $733 billion, including almost $160 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Exempting defense spending from the budget axe does not make sense when the country is facing so much red ink. The political pressure to save Pentagon pork is tremendous despite the many expensive weapons programs that are faulty or unneeded.
Since September 11th, 2001, the Pentagon’s budget has more than doubled, from $333 billion to $733 billion in just nine years. At the same time, our economy has suffered the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. Any serious attempt to spur an economic recovery has to take the massive defense budget seriously.
Write a letter to the editor of your local paper! Explain how the exemption of the defense budget from the freeze on discretionary spending is not only illogical, but contrary to the President’s goals.
Please send us a copy of your submission, and let us know if your letter gets published.
In the House - Latest House Election News
Feb 03, 2010
Click "Read More" (below) to watch the video.
IL & FL Primary Results
The biggest news in House elections this week are the first primaries of the 2010 elections, held yesterday in Illinois and Florida.
The most competitive general election race will be in Illinois’ 10th Congressional District, a seat left open when Rep. Mark Kirk (R) decided to run for Barack Obama’s Senate seat. Kirk has held the seat since 2000, but the district went for John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama by a wide margin in 2008. Kist won narrow victories over Democrat Dan Seals in 2006 and 2008. Seals will get a third shot at the seat this year, as he won a narrow victory over state Rep. Julie Hamos in last night’s primary. Seals will face conservative Republican Bob Dold, a first time candidate, in November. This will be one of the hottest races in the country.
Latest Senate Race Predictions
Feb 03, 2010
Each election cycle, in addition to our own analyses, we compile predictions by other political race experts on the most competitive races in the country. Find updated forecasts for key 2010 Senate races from Stuart Rothenberg’s Political Report, Congressional Quarterly, the Cook Political Report, and Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball.
The biggest moves since November?
• Arkansas is now either a "toss-up" or "leans Republican" from all sources
• With Dodd's retirement, all the experts agree that Dem's chances of keeping his seat are in their favor.
• After Beau Biden (D) announced in January that he would not run for his father's former seat, chances of Republican takeover have increased
• Everyone agrees that Republican's chances of taking the North Dakota Senate seat have vastly improved with Dorgan's announced retirement.
Read the complete analysis here, and continue to check back for the latest updates.
John Isaacs Returns to Russia TV
Feb 02, 2010
As Kingston says over at Nukes of Hazard, maybe John should take out a second office over at Russia Today. Yesterday John was returned to the program to discuss some of the issues delaying a new START agreement and President Obama's commitment to maintaining a safe, secure, and effective nuclear stockpile. Check out the video here.
Meanwhile, it appears that the U.S. and Russia have resolved their remaining differences and reached a consensus in principle on a new START agreement.
Chris Cillizza on the top 10 Senate races - Jan. 29
Jan 29, 2010
Senate landscape shifts, Republicans primed for gains
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/the-line/senate-landscape-shifts-republ.html
The last 30 days (or so) have been the most momentous to date in the battle for the Senate.
It all began back on Jan. 5 when Sen. Byron Dorgan stunned the political world by announcing he would retire from his North Dakota seat after three terms. Later in the day, it was revealed that embattled Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) would step aside amid poll numbers that suggested he could not win re-election.
While the Dorgan news was most unwelcome for Democrats as it opened up a seat in strongly Republican territory, the day was mitigated somewhat by the Dodd retirement and the quick emergence of state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) as the replacement candidate.
The rest of the month, however, quickly turned against Democrats.
We Need your Voice! Speak Out Against Nuclear Weapons
Jan 29, 2010
While most news coverage of the President’s State of the Union address has focused on jobs, the speech included some very important promises on nukes:
Even as we prosecute two wars, we are also confronting perhaps the greatest danger to the American people — the threat of nuclear weapons. I have embraced the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan through a strategy that reverses the spread of these weapons, and seeks a world without them. To reduce our stockpiles and launchers, while ensuring our deterrent, the United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades. And at April's Nuclear Security Summit, we will bring forty-four nations together behind a clear goal: securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists.
We need to make sure this issue continues to receive the attention it deserves. Important decisions are being made in the next four weeks and you can make your voice heard.
