Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

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Congress: Ask Condi Rice, Why has the U.S. Climate Action Report been held up for more than a year?

Monday, January 8th, 2007

On January 11 Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is scheduled to appear before both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House International Relations Committee to talk about the Administration’s position on Iraq. While Iraq is certainly more than enough of a problem to consume the committees’ attention, some committee member (Committee Chair Sen. Biden? Ranking Member Lugar? Boxer? Kerry? Obama? Hagel?) might want also to ask Secretary Rice a question about why the Administration has failed to issue the fourth U.S. Climate Action Report, a national communication that is required by the climate treaty to which the U.S. is a party. U.S. stonewalling on global warming cooperation has only added to the low regard in which the Administration is held internationally and has not helped U.S. relations with allies. Prolonged holding up of the Climate Action Report exemplifies the Administration’s failure to communicate.

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Scientists’ Report Documents ExxonMobil’s Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on Global Warming Science

Saturday, January 6th, 2007

– Someday, when the damage of Global Warming is full upon us, people will be asking, “How did this happen?” and “Why weren’t we told?” And, at least some of the answers are going to lead back to these folks who, for the sake of their personal profits, helped to sell all of our futures down the river. We can only hope they get their just rewards.

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Oil Company Spent Nearly $16 Million to Fund Skeptic Groups, Create Confusion

WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists offers the most comprehensive documentation to date of how ExxonMobil has adopted the tobacco industry’s disinformation tactics, as well as some of the same organizations and personnel, to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue. According to the report, ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science.

“ExxonMobil has manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer,” said Alden Meyer, the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Director of Strategy & Policy. “A modest but effective investment has allowed the oil giant to fuel doubt about global warming to delay government action just as Big Tobacco did for over 40 years.”

Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics to “Manufacture Uncertainty” on Climate Change details how the oil company, like the tobacco industry in previous decades, has

  • raised doubts about even the most indisputable scientific evidence
  • funded an array of front organizations to create the appearance of a broad platform for a tight-knit group of vocal climate change contrarians who misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific findings
  • attempted to portray its opposition to action as a positive quest for “sound science” rather than business self-interest
  • used its access to the Bush administration to block federal policies and shape government communications on global warming

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White House visitor records closed

Saturday, January 6th, 2007

-Doubtless, the White House wants to hide the comings and goings of those whose presence might be deemed an embarrassment to them.  “Trust us“, they are saying.   yeah, right!
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WASHINGTON – The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.

The Bush administration didn’t reveal the existence of the memorandum of understanding until last fall. The White House is using it to deal with a legal problem on a separate front, a ruling by a federal judge ordering the production of Secret Service logs identifying visitors to the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.

In a federal appeals court filing three weeks ago, the administration’s lawyers used the memo in a legal argument aimed at overturning the judge’s ruling. The Washington Post is suing for access to the Secret Service logs.

The five-page document dated May 17 declares that all entry and exit data on White House visitors belongs to the White House as presidential records rather than to the Secret Service as agency records. Therefore, the agreement states, the material is not subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

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THE SCIENCE CHANCELLOR

Saturday, January 6th, 2007

– How refreshing, in a world of political stupidity, to find a national leader with a hard science background and the political acumen to push science’s POV into the decision making. 

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Angela Merkel, a physical chemist-turned-G8 leader, is putting science on the European and global agenda.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel—theoretical chemist, head of state during Germany’s upcoming EU presidency, and current leader of the G8—recently took a shot at the climate politicking of the United States. “To prevent global warming, the nations with the largest emissions of gases that are causing climate change will have to take part,” she stated. “That’s why we will make this an important issue again on the agenda during our G8 presidency.”

It was a bold move, considering the US delegation’s notorious avoidance of climate commitments during Tony Blair’s G8 leadership two years ago. But Merkel, whose direct diplomatic style has been dubbed “the Merkel method,” is capable of exploiting the potential of complex situations. Her political success has come as a result of both her analytical mind and her remarkable tenacity. Merkel is, in many ways, still a scientist, and Germany—the fifth-largest economy in the world—is her lab.

Merkel was born in 1954 in Hamburg, but she didn’t see much of it: Her father, Horst Kasner, decided that year to take his family to Soviet-held East Germany, where he became a pastor about 50 miles north of Berlin. Merkel attended church, despite the risks; in the communist society, churchgoing could make it almost impossible to gain admission to state-controlled university, get good jobs, or even rent an apartment.

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Fox News Segment Falsely Claims That Denver Blizzard Casts Doubt On Global Warming

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

– Some months ago, a friend gave me a copy of Outfoxed – Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, which is a DVD expose of how Fox News works – and it wasn’t pretty.

– One of the problems with the world in general is that unless we exert effort to do what is in our best interests, we will all slide down the slippery slope. The co-opting of a major news outlet to clandestinely serve the interests of a political faction is what I’m talking about.

– What Murdoch is doing with Fox News is a great example. News reporters used to ‘get the facts and unbiasedly report both sides’ – it was a staple of what made decent democracies work. But a close analysis of what Fox is doing reveals that it is a very conscious effort to manipulate the perceptions of their viewers/readers in favor of their points of view. They slant things in favor of their ideologies and then cloak it all in the mantel of Fair and Balanced reporting.

– If you have doubts, and many will, get a copy of Outfoxed, Super Size Me and Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. and have a look.

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Today, prominent climate skeptics Pat Michaels and Dan Gainor appeared on Fox News Your World with Neil Cavuto to argue that the recent snowstorms in Denver prove there is a Northeast bias on global warming. Both agreed with Cavuto’s claim that if more of those who support global warming did not live in the East Coast, or more specifically in New York, and were stationed in Denver, they might be more skeptical of global warming.

Michaels added that if you believe that warming causes cooling, you’re like my neighbors down in Virginia who think that if you put hot water in the ice cube tray, it freezes faster.

The severe blizzards in Colorado weren’t necessarily caused by global warming. But they also don’t prove that climate change isn’t happening. As the concentration of carbon dioxide increases, the frequency of extreme weather events “including snowstorms” also increases. Additionally, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2001 report notes that global average water vapor concentration and precipitation are projected to increase during the 21st century.

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Trounced at Polls, Kansas GOP Is Still Plagued by Infighting

Sunday, December 31st, 2006

Party Puts Ousted Official In His Opponent’s Old Post

Phill Kline is not one to slink away — and the ideological wars inside the Kansas Republican Party show no sign of ending.

The fiercely antiabortion Republican attorney general in Kansas lost his reelection bid in November when moderate Republicans voted in droves for Paul Morrison, a longtime Johnson County district attorney who became a Democrat in hopes of vanquishing Kline.

Statewide, Kline got barely 4 in 10 votes. In Johnson County, the state’s most populous county, his loss was more dramatic. That made it especially shocking after the election when Republican precinct leaders in the county chose Kline to finish the final two years of Morrison’s term as prosecutor.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), a vocal Kline foe, refused to sign his nomination papers, a ceremonial task, lambasting a “small narrow group of partisan political operatives” for choosing him. At the Westside Family Church in Lenexa, after precinct leaders backed Kline over a Morrison aide 316 to 291, Republicans showed just how divided they are.

“The moment Phill Kline got the nomination, half the room got up and walked out,” said Scott Schwab, the county GOP chairman. “It wasn’t so much yelling or cussing. They threw up their arms and said, ‘What do we do now?’ ”

Kline’s reincarnation as Johnson County prosecutor reveals the depth of the continuing Republican split in Kansas and suggests challenges faced by the GOP nationwide as it tries to recover from its Nov. 7 losses and build toward 2008.

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Bogus data masks China’s pollution woes

Friday, December 29th, 2006

BEIJING (AFP)—Soaring pollution levels in China may be even worse than thought because local governments bent on economic growth are lying about their progress in meeting environmental goals.

Data reported by China’s regional governments indicates a national goal to reduce China’s two main pollutants by two percent in 2006 has been reached, but calculations by the top environment watchdog show they actually grew two percent, Xinhua news agency said, quoting an environment official Thursday.

“The figures on pollution control reported by local governments dropped remarkably this year, while the real environmental situation continues to deteriorate,” said the unnamed official with the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

“The inaccurate figures were caused by insufficient supervision of the local governments and possible fabrication.”

The two pollutants are chemical oxygen demand, a measure of organic pollutants in water, and sulfur dioxide, Xinhua said.

The official’s comments mark the latest in a series of alarms by SEPA, which has said central-government efforts to curb the environmental damage from China’s chugging economy are being overwhelmed by the local pursuit of economic growth at any cost.

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US scientists reject interference

Friday, December 15th, 2006

– If you want to see what the end of an empire looks like, you don’t have to look too far to see it in subtle clues like this.   Political and religious conservative right-wing types are rotting a nation into mediocrity from within.   They are giving away what was one of the greatest political experiments in human history.  There could be no surer course for sending a nation backwards in time than by bending its scientific findings to conform to religious and/or political aims.
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Some 10,000 US researchers have signed a statement protesting about political interference in the scientific process.

The statement, which includes the backing of 52 Nobel Laureates, demands a restoration of scientific integrity in government policy.

According to the American Union of Concerned Scientists, data is being misrepresented for political reasons.

It claims scientists working for federal agencies have been asked to change data to fit policy initiatives.

The Union has released an “A to Z” guide that it says documents dozens of recent allegations involving censorship and political interference in federal science, covering issues ranging from global warming to sex education.

Campaigners say that in recent years the White House has been able to censor the work of agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration because a Republican congress has been loath to stand up for scientific integrity.

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Internet the key to White House – Eric Schmidt, Google CEO

Friday, December 1st, 2006

Eric Schmidt told Republican Governors that the Internet was the key to next Presidential Election, according to an article in Zdnet.

Eric offered a few examples of how the Internet, especially video file-sharing sites like Google’s newly acquired YouTube, had changed the political landscape by enabling anyone to disseminate information widely and instantly.

A couple of examples were given in the Zdnet article that I was not fully aware of. I knew that US. Rep. John Murtha was running for a key position in the Democratic House – and somehow, that he was not popular enough (did not know why) till now:

Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania felt the sting when somebody resurrected secretly recorded footage taken during the FBI’s Abscam bribery investigation in the late 1970s. Murtha rejected a bribe offer from undercover agents dressed as Arab sheiks and was never charged during the investigation, but the video showed him telling the purported sheiks that “I want to deal with you guys awhile before I make any transactions.”The footage was posted on YouTube and other Web sites just as Murtha was trying to persuade fellow Democratic representatives to elect him as their majority leader. He lost.

In other words, the skillful use of online video and audio footage can destroy or raise any one’s reputation within a couple of hours – that’s how powerful the Internet is.

In another well-publicized campaign incident, a videotape of Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen calling an opposition campaign worker of Indian descent “macaca” also spread quickly over the Internet. Allen went on to lose to Democrat Jim Webb.

I heard something about Google Earth Maps and the Gulf kingdom of Brhrain last weekend but did not have the details. Turns out that……

……Schmidt said the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain got a taste in the run-up to its elections last weekend, when someone used the Google Earth satellite mapping feature to photograph the ruling family’s lavish houses, and posted them on line, juxtaposed next to the homes of ordinary citizens.The government tried to censor the photos, which instantly boosted their popularity, he said.

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Administration Lawyer Claims Link Between CO2 and Warming “Cannot Unequivocally Be Established”

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

– Every day we delay taking decisive action against Global Climate Change is a day in which the power of the coming changes increases. Even if all CO2 emissions were utterly ceased today, the experts tell us that the material already in the atmosphere will still produce strong effects in the coming decades as the Earth’s massive and ponderous climate shifts into a new configuration to accommodate them. Someday, the names of those who advocated delay now will be cursed by future generations.
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Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Massachusetts v. EPA. The outcome of the case will “likely determine whether the [Environmental Protection Agency] can regulate [greenhouse gas emissions] from power plants and other industries.”

Deputy Solicitor General Gregory Garre, who argued the case for the administration, admitted to the Justices that he had limited knowledge of climate science. “I am not an expert on global climate change,” Garre said.

Despite being uninformed in this “extraordinarily complex area of science,” Garre tried to introduce an element of doubt into the link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. From Slate’s account of the arguments:

Justice Stephen Breyer lights into Garre for some of the agency’s silly reasoning in declining to regulate the emissions. When Garre says that scientific uncertainty alone can justify the EPA’s refusal to regulate, Justice John Paul Stevens asks whether it matters that even the scientists who worked on the National Research Counsel study on global warming felt there was less scientific uncertainty than the EPA claimed. Garre insists that there is a “likely connection” between greenhouse gases and global warming but that “it cannot unequivocally be established.”

There is no doubt among the experts. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body which involves thousands of scientists from over 120 countries who develop detailed reports on climate change, produced a report in 2001 which was reviewed by more than 1,000 top experts, including so-called “climate skeptics” and representatives from industry. The report stated, “There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.”

Most recently, the National Academy of Sciences unequivocally concluded that natural causes cannot explain the unprecedented warmth over the last 400 years, and “human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming.”

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