Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Belief in Global Warming at All-Time Low — BEFORE Climategate
2. Palin Book Tops Hillary’s in First-Week Sales
3. Despite Sanctions, Iran to Head U.N. Group
4. Jailed Spy Jonathan Pollard: Kill Hamas Prisoners
5. We Heard: Andrew Breitbart, Lou Dobbs, Ed Rollins
1. Belief in Global Warming at All-Time Low — BEFORE Climategate
A new poll reveals that the percentage of Americans who believe carbon dioxide emissions will cause global warming has dropped dramatically in recent years.
And that poll by Harris Interactive was conducted between Nov. 2 and 11 — before the so-called “climategate” controversy erupted, calling into question the validity of some of the science supporting manmade global warming.
The poll found that the percentage of American who believe in global warming has dropped from 75 percent in 2001 and 71 percent in 2007 to just 51 percent.
At the same time, the percentage of those who do not believe in global warming has risen from 19 percent in 2001 and 23 percent in 2007 to 29 percent today, and the percentage who are unsure has climbed from 6 percent to 21 percent since 2001.
“The 51 percent who believe emissions will cause climate change is by far the lowest number recorded in any Harris Poll since we started asking this question 12 years ago,” Harris Interactive disclosed.
Opinions differed sharply along party lines — 73 percent of Democrats believe in manmade global warming, compared to 28 percent of Republicans and 49 percent of Independents.
As for the upcoming international conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, only 28 percent of those polled knew that the main topic to be discussed is global warming and climate change. Nearly 10 percent said the economic crisis would be the topic, while smaller numbers cited nuclear weapons, health and epidemics, terrorism, international trade, or drugs.
Six days after the poll closed, on Nov. 17, someone hacked a server used by the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and disseminated more than a thousand e-mails and other documents.
Climate change skeptics charge that the e-mails show collusion by climate scientists to skew scientific information in favor of manmade global warming.
The leaked documents “show that prominent scientists were so wedded to theories of manmade global warming that they ridiculed dissenters who asked for copies of their data, plotted how to keep researchers who reached different conclusions from publishing, and concealed apparently buggy computer code from being disclosed under the Freedom of Information law,” CBS News reported.
One climatologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research was quoted as saying: “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.”
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2. Palin Book Tops Hillary’s in First-Week Sales
Sarah Palin’s book “Going Rogue: An American Life” sold more copies in the first week after its release than did Hillary Clinton’s memoir “Living History.”
On Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” on Nov. 25 — eight days after the publication of Palin’s book — co-anchor Alisyn Camerota declared that the book “is just taking the world by storm.”
She said: “Now there’s a comparison between how Sarah Palin’s book has done in the first week and how Hillary Clinton’s memoir did the first week, and the winner is: Sarah Palin.”
Co-anchor Clayton Morris noted that “Going Rogue” sold 700,000 copies in its first week, while “Living History” sold 600,000.
Brian Kilmeade said: “Here’s the thing with Sarah Palin’s book and one of the reasons why it’s selling. She has news in it . . . where ‘Living History’ is kind of a look back at Hillary Clinton...
“When you talk about ‘Living History,’ it felt like history. With Governor Palin, it felt brand new, it felt like news. It felt like, wow, the woman that was mocked on national television, was laughed at by her own party, all of a sudden has the chance to stand up and be counted and tell her side of the story, and people have really rallied around her.”
The Media Research Center observed that the report of Palin’s book outselling Hillary’s is “a piece of information not likely to receive much attention from the mainstream media.”
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3. Despite Sanctions, Iran to Head U.N. Group
Just days after the United Nations reprimanded Iran for its nuclear program, a U.N. body elected the Islamic Republic as chairman of its next year-long session.
The chairmanship is just one of a number of leadership positions Iran holds in the world body, despite its stubborn flaunting of demands to halt its uranium enrichment efforts.
On Friday, Nov. 27, the U.N. nuclear agency's board censured Iran, with 25 nations backing a resolution that calls on Tehran to immediately mothball its newly revealed nuclear facility and heed U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on it to stop uranium enrichment.
Iran is already under three sets of Security Council sanctions over its nuclear program.
Iran remained defiant after the censure, with its chief representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declaring that his country would resist "pressure, resolutions, sanction(s) and threat of military attack."
Then on Wednesday, the Vienna-based, 53-member Commission on Narcotic Drugs — the U.N.’s central policy-making body on drug-related issues — elected Iran chairman of its next session.
Iran will be represented by Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, the diplomat who represents Iran at the IAEA, according to CNSNews.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime, declared: “The U.N. allowing Iran to chair any agency should cause the U.S. to reconsider how much of a commitment we have to the U.N.”
Iran is also expected to be picked to chair a conference of another Vienna-based U.N. agency, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The U.S. withdrew from the UNIDO 13 years ago over differences with its policies, but the Obama administration is said to be considering rejoining the organization, CNSNews reported.
Rep. Rohrabacher said: “We should not be a part of any agency the U.N. permits Iran to lead considering that decision reconfirms what the U.N. is really all about.”
Other U.N. leadership positions held by Iran include:
- President of the executive board of the U.N. Development Program for 2009.
- President of the executive board of the U.N. Population Fund for 2009.
- Vice-chairman of the U.N. General Assembly’s Committee on Information for 2009-2010.
In the height of irony, Iran in 2007-2008 was vice-chairman of the U.N. Disarmament Commission, which deals with nuclear and conventional arms reduction and non-proliferation.
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4. Jailed Spy Jonathan Pollard: Kill Hamas Prisoners
Former U.S. intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard, who has spent the last 25 years in prison for spying for Israel, is outraged that Israel would consider releasing 980 Palestinian prisoners in return for one kidnapped soldier.
Speaking to two Israeli visitors at the Butner Federal Correction Complex in North Carolina, Pollard said he wanted to see the return of Gilad Schalit, who was kidnapped by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid in June 2006. But one visitor said the thought of terrorists being released “boiled him with anger,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
“Instead, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu should take the list of prisoners Hamas requested and kill one of them every day until they release Gilad from prison,” Pollard said. “He should not free terrorists, no matter what.”
Pollard said he would not want any terrorists released even in a deal that would lead to his own release from prison.
He opposed a rumored deal that would free Pollard and Palestinian militant leader Marwan Barghouti, a convicted murderer imprisoned in Israel.
“Even after 25 years in prison, Jonathan is not ready for terrorists to be released from jail in exchange for him,” visitor Moshe Feiglin told the Post.
The Insider Report disclosed in June that Vice Admiral Mike McConnell, when he was director of National Intelligence, told a Senate committee the previous year: "We are unequivocally opposed to leniency for Mr. Pollard...
"Clemency for Pollard will undermine U.S. security practices and complicate U.S. counterintelligence programs."
Pollard, 55, is serving a life sentence but can be paroled after 30 years if he has a clean record in prison. The earliest he can be freed is November 2015.
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5. We Heard: Andrew Breitbart, Lou Dobbs, Ed Rollins
THAT Web maven Andrew Breitbart — a key figure in the ACORN undercover videos controversy — is writing a book aimed at Americans who want to fight back against what he calls the “Democrat media complex.”
His book “Thinking Big” will be published by an imprint of Hachette Book Group USA, which paid him an advance of more than $500,000, according to The New York Observer.
Breitbart, a former editor at the Drudge Report Web site, is a Washington Times commentator and runs the Web sites Big Hollywood and Big Government.
The latter site first aired footage showing ACORN employees giving a make-believe pimp and prostitute advice about establishing a brothel with underage hookers.
Breitbart’s book, which he terms “a call to arms,” won’t be released until after the 2010 election.
THAT former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has held talks with CNBC about hosting a show on the business news network.
Dobbs, who abruptly left CNN last month, recently confirmed that he was pondering both a Senate bid and a presidential run. The CNBC post, The New York Times observed, would “provide him an important media platform as he contemplates a run for office.”
A CNBC spokesman did not deny a report about the talks, but did deny that Dobbs would join the network.
THAT Republican strategist Ed Rollins is urging Dobbs to run for the White House in 2012 and has offered to serve as his campaign manager.
A Republican insider sniped to the New York Post: “Given the excellent job Rollins did for President Perot and President Huckabee ... it’s hard to understand why Dobbs would put his fate in Rollins’ hands.”
Rollins, Ronald Reagan’s national campaign director in 1984, was hired as co-manager of Ross Perot’s 1992 presidential campaign. He also served as Mike Huckabee’s national campaign manager beginning in December 2007.
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