Monday, July 20, 2009

Sometimes things go horribly off-script

In a highly unusual move, politicians holding a news conference actually generate news:

India served notice on Sunday that it remains opposed to legally binding targets to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, digging in its heels against the United States as the Obama administration begins marshaling support for a new global agreement on climate change.

India voiced its rejection of the American position in an awkwardly public forum: during a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to an energy-efficient office building here on the outskirts of New Delhi that was supposed to celebrate cooperation between India and the United States on climate policy.
In other news, those already so thoroughly gorged on unfunded federal mandates say, "no más":

The nation’s governors, Democrats as well as Republicans, voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health care bill emerging from Congress, fearing that the federal government is about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without providing the money to pay for them.

The role of the states in a restructured health care system dominated the National Governors Association’s summer meeting here this weekend — with bipartisan animosity voiced against the Obama administration’s plan during a closed-door luncheon on Saturday and in a private meeting on Sunday afternoon with the secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius."I think the governors would all agree that what we don't want from the federal government is unfunded mandates," said Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont, a Republican who is the group's incoming chairman. "We can't have the Congress impose requirements that we are forced to absorb beyond our capacity to do so."
In case one needs a primer on how it all works:


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