Climate Change For Dummies

For any problems I have with the way President Obama is leading on certain issues, it certainly is nice to have a Commander in Chief who not only knows the issues, but can explain them in an understandable way to a three year old.

The Air We Breathe

MoveOn is coming out with a series of attack ads on corporatist Dems like Senator Landrieu, for trying to block climate change legislation. This is really good stuff.

How China Bitch Slapped The World On Climate Change In Copenhagen

In the days after the Democratic Leadership in the Senate and the White House gave up on real reform in the health care reform bill there was another storm brewing. President Obama went to the climate change talks in Copenhagen and ended up leaving with something far short of what most liberals and progressives were hoping for. Now I had followed what was going on over there so I was pretty sure that China had fucked everything up and really the weaksauce compromise Copenhagen agreement was probably a little more than I thought we could get done with China basically giving the world and particularly the US and President Obama their ass to kiss since they are the one country holding most of the cards now when it comes to the economy.

But a curious thing happened shortly after that debacle. Naomi Klein, the author of the popular particularly on the left book on the financial crisis, Shock Doctrine, came up with this blatantly ignorant screed against President Obama entitled "For Obama, No Opportunity Too Big to Blow" (sensationalize much?)which included this great nugget of wisdom:

There's plenty of blame to go around, but there was one country that possessed unique power to change the game. It didn't use it. If Barack Obama had come to Copenhagen with a transformative and inspiring commitment to getting the U.S. economy off fossil fuels, all the other major emitters would have stepped up. The EU, Japan, China and India had all indicated that they were willing to increase their levels of commitment, but only if the U.S. took the lead. Instead of leading, Obama arrived with embarrassingly low targets and the heavy emitters of the world took their cue from him.

I would love to know what the color of the sky is on the planet which Klein lives on where she evidently snorts heroin. But what was most fucked up is that many liberals and progressives who were already disenchanted with President Obama over health care reform, bought this steaming pile of bullshit.

Now if there were any question left that China was the actual villan in Copenhangen we now have a first hand account of what actually went down in the room from Mark Lynas which ironically enough contradicts Klein even in the title "How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room" which included some actual reporting instead of ponies and rainbows:

To those who would blame Obama and rich countries in general, know this: it was China's representative who insisted that industrialised country targets, previously agreed as an 80% cut by 2050, be taken out of the deal. "Why can't we even mention our own targets?" demanded a furious Angela Merkel. Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, was annoyed enough to bang his microphone. Brazil's representative too pointed out the illogicality of China's position. Why should rich countries not announce even this unilateral cut? The Chinese delegate said no, and I watched, aghast, as Merkel threw up her hands in despair and conceded the point. Now we know why – because China bet, correctly, that Obama would get the blame for the Copenhagen accord's lack of ambition.

China, backed at times by India, then proceeded to take out all the numbers that mattered. A 2020 peaking year in global emissions, essential to restrain temperatures to 2C, was removed and replaced by woolly language suggesting that emissions should peak "as soon as possible". The long-term target, of global 50% cuts by 2050, was also excised. No one else, perhaps with the exceptions of India and Saudi Arabia, wanted this to happen. I am certain that had the Chinese not been in the room, we would have left Copenhagen with a deal that had environmentalists popping champagne corks popping in every corner of the world.

Now I am not going to question Klein's motives for her post (although I think they had to be dubious at best) but I will say that if she is half the journalist she claims to be she should at worst note that a first hand account has been published that directly contradicts her claims, and at best print a full retraction.

See its bullshit like her post that gets liberals and progressives labeled as crybabies because it give the appearance that when we get mad or dissappointed then we just start making up shit like a child throwing a fit. That is not the left that I want to be a part of. And that's real.

Yep, She's A Dummy

Jon Stewart PWNS FoxNews' resident dumb blonde Gretchen Carlson.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Gretchen Carlson Dumbs Down
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Guess she doesn't know how to work teh google lol

Give Us The Truth

I highly recommend this op-ed from Neal Gabler in the LA Times entitled 'Truth' vs. 'facts' from America's media

I am just going to excerpt the ending:

Why don't we get the truth? Part of it, as I've said, is fear -- fear that if journalists dispel the rumors they will be bashed by the right, which is implacably against the president's reforms no matter how much sense they make. Part of it is a lack of expertise. Most reporters are not equipped to quickly and authoritatively tell truth from spin on an issue such as healthcare. And part of it, frankly, is sheer laziness.

Telling the truth requires shoe leather. It requires digging up facts that aren't being handed to you, talking to experts, thinking hard about what you find. This isn't easy. It takes time and energy as well as guts, especially when there are conflicting studies, as there are on healthcare. But finally, we may not have a journalism of truth because we haven't demanded one. Many of us are invested in one side of the story; we are for Obama or against him, for healthcare reform or against it. These are a priori positions. Truth won't change them.

Yet the danger of not insisting on the truth in a brave new world of constant lies is that it subjects our policies to whichever side shouts the loudest or has the most money to spend to mislead us. That is likely to lead to disastrous governance: a needless war, a great recession, a continuation of a failing healthcare system.

What it comes down to is that sometimes the media have to tell the truth not because anyone really wants them to but because it is the right thing to do -- the essential thing to do -- for the sake of our democracy.

Paging George Will

GottaLaff has the info on this one but it seems that during the Bush years they surpressed a lot of evidence of global warming. The reporting comes from the Guardian over in the UK but it seems solid Above and beyond the info though the accompanying picture is enough to make your heart skip a few beats.

click image to enlarge

If that won't shut George Will's mouth, nothing will.

Quick To Jump On Some Bullshit

For a political party that doesn't have much credibility left, the GOP doesn't seem to mind squandering the rest.

Conservatives are jumping up and down over a report by an EPA analyst expressing skepticism about climate change, which, they claim, was suppressed by agency brass because it didn't conform to Obama administration orthodoxy on global warming. The story has sparked explosive claims, on Fox News and other right-wing outlets, that the EPA censored scientific data for political reasons. And Monday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) called for an outright criminal investigation into the matter.

But it's hard to blame EPA for not paying much attention to the study. And it's more than a little ironic that DC Republicans have chosen its author as their new standard-bearer in the defense of pure science against politics. Because the author, EPA veteran Al Carlin, is an economist, not a climate scientist. EPA says no one at the agency solicited the report. And Carlin appears to have taken up the global warming topic largely as a hobby on his own time. In fact, a NASA climatologist has called the report -- whose existence was first publicized last week by the industry-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) -- "a ragbag collection of un-peer reviewed web pages, an unhealthy dose of sunstroke, a dash of astrology and more cherries than you can poke a cocktail stick at."

Rudy Poot Candy Ass Congressman Rodriguez

Talk about living down to the reputation of Democrats as cowards.

After all the arms had been twisted, only two four Democrats gave their leadership an unpleasant surprise at the end of the climate change vote -- and are firmly in Pelosi-Obama doghouse:

Texas Rep. Ciro Rodriguez and Rep. Alcee Hastings from Florida, according to House sources.

UPDATE: House leadership sources add two more who reportedly said "yes" and voted "no" -- Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) and Solomon Ortiz (D-Tx.)

Rodriguez had told leadership that he was a likely yes -- but then cast a quick "no" vote and practically sprinted from the chamber, frustrating floor managers whose shouts of "Rodriguez!" rang through the House as the final anxious votes were cast.

At one point, New York Rep. Anthony Weiner bounced from a huddle of leadership members and began calling the rep's name, like a wayward toddler, as he scanned the Speaker's lobby and the adjacent balcony.

"He cast his no and then ran the hell out of there," said a member of the whipping team, still steaming after the vote. "We tried him at his office and they said he was gone."

Seriously, Cicero did you think hauling ass and hiding out is going to help you win reelection? Is that the kind of Representative you think your constituents want? Hell I am not really that pressed about the no vote, but at least be a man and stand up for your vote.

When he goes to pick up his check for being a member of Congress he ought to wear a mask, because he is stealing right now.

I also watched the vote live on CSPAN and right up until the last moment there were 220 votes to pass the bill. Then right as voting was about to close and after it was apparent the bill would pass, another courage challenged Democrat changed their yea vote to a nay vote.

I would just LOVE to know who that coward was.

I realize that there are a lot more seats in the House but damn, is that REALLY who we want as Democrats these days?!