Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation

UK Telegraph "Our hopelessly compromised scientific establishment cannot be allowed to get away with a whitewash of what has become the greatest scientific scandal of our age."

Climategate: it's all unravelling now

UK Telegraph "So many new developments: which story do we pick? Maybe best to summarise, instead. After all, it’s not like you’re going to find much of this reported in the MSM."

The Open-Ended War

Warning Signs Hat tip to Alan Caruba "While Obama’s speech was delivered well and met with polite applause from the cadets and others at West Point, its real message was that America will not shoulder the burdens of an open-ended war by itself or with the desultory support of NATO allies."

Dean Obama

Victor Davis Hanson "That was such a strange speech. Deploring partisanship while serially trashing Bush at each new talking point. Sending more troops, but talking more about when they will come home rather than what they will do to the enemy. There was nothing much new in the speech, yet apparently it took the president months to decide whether even to give it."

Barnes: A Disappointing Speech in Support of the Right Policy

Fred Barnes "And Obama praised the military for the success of the “surge” in Iraq without mentioning the person who -- against the advice of nearly everyone in Washington -- ordered that troop increase, Bush. Obama tacitly acknowledged the surge had worked, though he didn’t seem to remember that he’d insisted that it would worsen conditions in Iraq."

A war president

William Kristol "At the press briefing this afternoon by two senior administration officials, a questioner pointed out that the government of Iran “regards the U.S. government's policy of surging forces as following Bush policy” and that the Iranian regime sees “no change in U.S. policy.”"

Obama Afghanistan Speech – Transcript

Sweetness&Light "Mr. Obama has the troops slated to come home from Afghanistan just in time for his 2012 re-election campaign. Good thing he isn’t politicizing this. By the way, Mr. Obama only used the pronoun ‘I’ 36 times in this speech. He’s getting better."

From the 9-11 families: LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Keep America Safe It's down a bit but you may be interested in the foregoing. "It is morally offensive to offer Constitutional protections to individuals charged with murdering 3,000 individuals, in essence, to jeopardize justice for war crimes victims, in order to make an appeal to the Muslim world."

McCain: “Success is the real exit strategy”

Hot Air "Good luck, general. For your viewing pleasure, here’s Krauthammer taking a dim, McCain-esque view of the speech; compare and contrast with Bill Kristol, who’s in sync with me in thinking that, as feeble as it is, this one last chance is more than we ever expected to get from Obama. "

Climategate Document Database from PJTV/Pajamas Media

Pajamas Media "PJTV and PJM now present a complete database of the Climategate documents with a comment section for readers to respond to the individual entries and a way to rank those entries according to interest level. Also available: a roundup of commentary and videos on the subject."

Obama Finally Resolute on Afghanistan?

Max Boot "The key question now is, how much resolve will Obama signal in the address itself? If he spends too much time talking about “off-ramps” (i.e., situations under which reinforcements might be canceled), “benchmarks” that the Karzai government must meet “or else,” or “exit strategies,” he will undo some of the positive impact of his courageous decision to substantially increase the number of American troops on the ground." We'll know in about 45 minutes.

Blackfive Live Blogs the Reaction to the President's Afghan Plan tonight

Blackfive First point, will the West Point back drop/photo op make him look more decisive? Second point, will his plan have guarantees from NATO countries (thank you, Brits!)? Third point, will he set realistic expectations about a tough fight, high cas[ua]lties, lots of effort and time invested, etc? Fourth point, will he set a timetable for withdrawal?