Nothing Matters Now But Getting Out The Vote

I ran into an old friend, a Democratic operative, the other day. He's kind of Old School and when I asked him why contributions this late in the cycle-- after all there are only 10 days until all the ballots have been counted-- are important, his response was sickening.

Dems Call GOP Effort To Protect Exxon An ‘Embarrassment’

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology held a hearing Wednesday seemingly with the goal of affirming that chairman Lamar Smith has the authority to subpoena those investigating whether the oil industry covered up what it knew about climate change. But Democrats on the committee used the hearing to slam Smith and the GOP for what they say are embarrassing efforts to defend the oil industry.

The House Science Committee’s Anti-Science Rampage

If you know the answers you want in advance, you can always find them by cherry-picking your data. That's what climate-change deniers have tried to do in recent years in arguing that there's been a "pause" in the global-warming trend over the past two decades-suggesting, thereby, that global warming is just a temporary anomaly unrelated to human industrial activity.

Clinton Confronts New Scrutiny Over E-Mails, Foundation Ties

Hillary Clinton was confronted by a new round of questions about potential conflicts of interest between her family's foundation and her work at the State Department as well as the prospect that more e-mails from her private account will be released right up to the November election. Separate lawsuits brought by the conservative group Judicial Watch spurred the release Monday of previously undisclosed e-mail exchanges between a former Clinton Foundation executive and top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, as well as an order from a federal judge that the State Department expedite its review of almost 15,000 previously undisclosed documents the FBI recovered from Clinton's private e-mail servers.

Texas has a front row seat to NAFTA, one of the campaign’s most contentious policies.

Caught between the anti-globalist tirades of their presidential standard bearer and their state's close trade ties with Mexico, Texas congressional Republicans are straddling a tricky political line when it comes to talk of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

5 Years After Space Shuttle, Obama’s NASA Still Can’t Put A Man Into Space

The last Space Shuttle launched 5 years ago Thursday, but NASA still cannot put men into space without Russian cooperation due to President Obama's cuts to the agency's exploration and spaceflight capability. NASA plans to return to Earth's orbit are entirely dependent on private companies, some of which are scheduled to launch by the end of next year.

Republicans “Acting at Behest of Big Oil” Trying to Block Investigation of Exxon “Fraud”

"The American people will wake up tomorrow morning shaking their heads when they learn that a small group of radical Republican house members is trying to block a serious law enforcement investigation of potential fraud at Exxon." This is how Eric Soufer , a spokesperson for the New York Attorney General's office responded to an unprecedented subpoena to them, as well as to the Attorney General of Massachusetts and eight environmental groups, by the House Science Committee yesterday.

NY attorney general rejects GOP lawmaker’s request on Exxon

New York's attorney general is rejecting a congressional committee chairman's demand for records about his investigation into whether Exxon Mobil misled investors about global warming. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, told Attorney General Eric Schneiderman he has until midnight Wednesday to provide documents the committee requested two months ago.

In Meme-Moriam

This weekend, America will pause to honor the thousands of men and women who fought and died to preserve ExxonMobil's First Amendment rights, and protect it from the tyranny of justice. The effort to cast Exxon as victim of a cabal between state Attorneys General, environmentalists, and other ne'er-do-wells followed reports by journalists from InsideClimate News , the Los Angeles Times , and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

GOP congressmen, NY attorney general in climate dispute

Republican members of Congress have accused New York's Democratic attorney general and his counterparts in 16 other jurisdictions of chilling free speech over climate change through their legal and political campaign to curb fossil fuel burning. Thirteen of the 21 GOP members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology said in a letter Wednesday that Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the others have been pushed by environmental activists "to use their prosecutorial powers to stifle scientific discourse."