Category Archives: Uncategorized

"The director . . . of the National Hurricane Center said this was the big one," Davis said, but "when [Katrina] happened . . . Bush is in Texas, Card is in Maine, the vice president is fly-fishing. I mean, who’s in charge here?" Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.)

Last night in his State of the Union address, President Bush claimed that warrantless eavesdropping was necessary in order to "connect the dots" and prevent terrorist attacks. This claim has already been challenged by the LA Times, among others, but (irony alert!) yesterday a climatologist used the same concept to explain why the administration wantsContinue reading “Speaking of Connecting the Dots…”

Back in the fall of 2000, while running for President against an environmentalist, George Bush’s campaign promised to establish mandatory reductions on power plant emissions of greenhouse gasses, including carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming.

In 2001, over the strenuous objections of EPA director Christine Whitman and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, and under pressure from the coal industry, the plan was sabotaged, probably by Dick Cheney (as documented in O’Neill’s tell-all book).

Nonetheless, high energy prices and alarming indications that global warming is pushing the planet’s climate to a perilous "tipping point" have spurred many Bush supporters and moderates to call on the President to act now to change our energy policy and reduce carbon emissions.

Thomas Friedman, whose NYTimes column is said to be taken seriously within the administration, on Friday called on Bush to announce a new energy policy in tonight’s State of the Union Address. He wrote (behind a firewall) a mock speech for Bush that began with a historic challenge:

President Kennedy was
worried about the threat that communism posed to our way of life. I am here to
tell you that if we don’t move away from our dependence on oil and shift to
renewable fuels, it will change our way of life for the worse — and soon —
much, much more than communism ever could have. Making this transition is the
calling of our era.

    

Why? First, we are in a war with a violent strain of Middle East Islam that
is indirectly financed by our consumption of oil. Second, with millions of
Indians and Chinese buying cars and homes as they join the great global middle
class, we must quickly move away from burning fossil fuels or we’re going to
create enough global warming to melt the North Pole. Because of that, green
cars, homes, offices, appliances, designs and renewable energies will be the
biggest growth industry of the 21st century. If we don’t dominate that industry,
China, India, Japan or Europe surely will.

Friedman added a threat: If Bush fails to act on the issue, "you can stick a fork in this administration."

Irwin Seltzer, a conservative economist who writes an insightful column for the "Weekly Standard," and who has advocated a tax on carbon, reveals that the administration is being lobbied (believe it or don’t) by an insider group that wants a tax on gasoline:

A third group of policy makers, which includes the former president of Resources for the Future, (and now dean of the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona), the widely respected Paul Portney, wants the president to announce that "the gas tax will be going up steadily for the foreseeable future to stimulate investment in all kinds of technologies without anointing any particular ones." The proceeds can be used to lower the tax on wages. The president may buy into a version of that proposal, asking Congress to set a tax on oil imports that cuts in only if crude oil prices fall below $35 per barrel.

Bush himself indicated that he will talk about changes in energy policy, in an interview with Bob Schieffer of CBS News.

"We have got to wean ourselves off hydrocarbons, oil. And the best way, in my judgment, to do it is to promote and actively advance new technologies."

Being naive and overly sincere (an occupational hazard among enviros) I read this and became a little excited. After all, polls consistently say that the public believes global warming is real and a threat; according to a poll taken last July, 73% of Americans believe that this country should join the Kyoto Protocol, and according to an ABC News poll published this weekend, over one-quarter of the public believes that global warming is the most serious issue facing this country today.

So I conducted a little poll of my own. Having minimal resources, it’s just one question long, and I sent it to a few dozen people I know have an interest in the issue (or at least, an interest in politics). Not everyone replied, of course, but the results are still interesting….and entertaining, actually. Lotta smart people in this world. Below the virtual fold are the responses to the question:

In his upcoming State of the Union address, will President Bush mention global warming in any way, shape, or form?

The NYTimes leads today with the news that the Bush Administration has in recent weeks tried to silence James Hansen, the most widely known climatologist in the country, ever since he gave a speech on global warming in December. His crime? He said it still might be possible to avoid disaster. If we act now,Continue reading “Bush Administration Tries to Silence Global Warming Scientist”

Now that it’s been revealed that one of its columnists was secretly taking big bucks (over $90,000 a year) from Big Tobacco, will FOXNews dump Stephen Milloy, the science abuser of JunkScience infamy? It’s an interesting question; already, as detailed on this site months ago, Milloy was horrified when FOXNews, under the influence of AlContinue reading “Fox Hack Attacked: Secretly Took Money from Big Tobacco”

In a speech last Friday, White House political advisor Karl Rove laid out the Republican battleplan for the 2006 elections, saying that: Republicans have a post-9/11 worldview and many Democrats have a pre-9/11 worldview. That doesn’t make them unpatriotic — not at all. But it does make them wrong — deeply and profoundly and consistentlyContinue reading “A Pre-Katrina Worldview”

Today in Lodi, lifelong Republican Pete McCloskey announced his campaign for the 11th District of California, which is represented by rampaging anti-environmentalist Richard Pombo, a protege of Tom Delay. (Pombo denies the label, but even the Wall Street Journal highlights his extreme positions on the environment.) Here’s how McCloskey puts it: I run, in part,Continue reading “Even the Republican Party Has Soul, Says McCloskey, Joining Congressional Race”

David Quammen, one of this country’s most thoughtful nature writes, editorializes today in the NYTimes against "delisting" grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park: Some people have argued that it’s important in principle to de-list the Yellowstone grizzly, in order to show that the Endangered Species Act can yield success stories. That’s like arguing that weContinue reading “An Island of Bears”

Hard on the heels of his groundbreaking speech on MLK day, the LATimes reveals that Gore will be featured in a new high-profile documentary on global warming, soon to premiere at Sundance. As discussed on this blog recently, Gore has been getting rave reviews for his PowerPoint presentation on the issue, even from unlikely cornersContinue reading “Al Gore: Movie Star? Or President?”

In commemoration of Martin Luther King, former Vice-President Al Gore gave the best speech heard in this country by this reporter, a Gore doubter, in some time. While challenging the idea that the President can act on foreign policy unchecked by Congress or the judicial branch (which Gore says should be called the "unilateral theory"Continue reading “Controlling the Debate vs. Facing Facts: The Weakness of the Unilateral Executive”