Month: July 2005

Some thing called the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (CREA) issued a press release today commending George W. Bush for “his leadership in steering the G-8 nations onto the right track in addressing climate change.”

Well, that’s a bit overstated. If Bush steered anything, he steered the G8 toward agreeing on a toothless, actionless, goalless agreement that sounds good, but means little, and away from real progress.

Claude Mandil, executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, told Reuters that given the refusal of the United States to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on curbing air pollution, the G8 “plan” was the best that could be achieved: “Nobody could seriously expect the Kyoto Protocol would be ratified by those who had not ratified Kyoto. No one could seriously expect targets would be set,” Mandil said.

But do the Repugs see it that way? According to the press release, nope:

“President Bush has shown real leadership in steering the G-8 nations onto a path that will protect the environment while boosting the global economy,” said CREA President Italia Federici. “Development of new technologies and new energy sources will create jobs while potentially slowing and eventually reversing global climate trends,” continued Federici.

It has become increasingly apparent that many nations that signed onto the Kyoto Protocol will miss their emission target deadlines. Most, including France, Canada, and Japan, experienced emission increases after adopting the treaty. Some nations, such as Germany, have only been able to reduce emissions by shuttering power plants. While closing facilities may be a way to reduce emissions, it is not good for a nation’s economy.

Yeah, well ALL of the nations that didn’t sign Kyoto missed their non-targets.

All the G8 leaders agreed to last week at their summit in Gleneagles in Scotland was that they recognize climate change requires urgent action, but they set no targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that cause it.

Not content with such an empty agreement, the wingnuts seized the opportunity to take their rhetoric over the top:

In recent months, more and more scientists have cast doubts on whether or not climate change is man-made. Russian scientists have called the Kyoto Protocol ‘scientifically-ungrounded,’ while the British House of Lords questioned whether scientific reports supporting the Kyoto Protocol were politically motivated.

Decide for yourself here.

According to a survey released today, U.S. workers say they squander over two hours a day at the workplace — twice as much as employers had estimated. Among the top time-wasting activities were surfing the Web, socializing with co-workers and “spacing out.”

All that wasted time comes at a cost of $759 billion in annual salary paid for nothing, found the on-line survey conducted by America Online and Salary.com. (Of course, since it was AOL, half of the wasted time could be attributed to logging on and waiting for AOL to access Web pages, etc.)

Bill Coleman, senior vice president at Salary.com, said some time-wasting activities — such as personal use of the Internet — can be positive, resulting in new business ideas or a happier work environment. “There is such a thing as creative waste,” said Coleman. “Not all wasted time is bad.”

Which brings us to Pensito Review. Time spent on PR — especially time taken out of your busy work day — is good time, not wasted time. Here are some reasons why you should spend more of your “wasted” time on the job on Pensito Review:

10. Gain insights into complex political issues through PR’s oversimplified and distorted articles.
9. Experience cool graphic effects and doctored news photos.
8. Post your own comments on articles, thereby making the editors appear more intelligent by comparison.
7. Read enlightening quotations, complete with expletives.
6. Expand your vocabulary with rad neologisms like “wingnut” and “Repug.”
5. See the most unflattering photos of politicians available on the Internet.
4. Follow the whacky antics of George, Dick, Jeb, Arnold and all the other wingnut Repugs as they send our great nation to hell in a handbasket.
3. Respond viscerally to incendiary headlines that make your blood boil, which improves circulation and can prevent stroke, heart attacks and the heartbreak of psoriasis.
2. PR is easier to read with fewer typographical errors than other, less erudite blogs.

And the number-one reason to read Pensito Review while you’re on the clock:

1. It’s the next best thing to “spacing out.”

In the wake of the London bombings, it’s interesting to note that, according to a subscription-only article in “National Journal,” both houses of Congress have refused to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security’s operations center as President Bush has requested. The center, which runs 24/7, links federal, state and local officials during emergencies.

According to the House Appropriations Committee report on Homeland Security spending for fiscal 2006, the center is the “primary national-level hub for operational communications, information sharing and situational awareness for all information pertaining to domestic incident management.”

Gee, sounds pretty important.

Maybe, but Congress so far has declined to increase the center’s funding from $35 million in fiscal 2005 to $61 million in fiscal 2006, as the administration requested. Of the additional $26 million, $13.4 million would go to expand the homeland security information network and $12.9 million to enhance systems and operations.

The House bill would provide $56 million, and the Senate version would allocate $40 million.

The House passed its measure in May; the Senate is to consider its bill this month. Both chambers must agree on an allocation before sending a bill to the president.

The administration’s budget proposal aimed to include one-third of the nation’s counties on the department’s homeland security information network. Last year the department added every state and major urban area to the network.

The House deducted $5 million from Bush’s request because the department has not provided a five-year implementation plan for the center as required by the 2005 spending measure. The Senate did not explain its reduction.

Senators also rejected the administration’s proposal for a new information-sharing and collaboration program, which would enhance information-sharing processes among federal, state and local officials, as well as the private sector. The House provided $5.5 million for that initiative.

House and Senate appropriators fully funded the administration’s request for $143 million for an emergency-preparedness telecommunications program, including a national communications system and an initiative to wirelessly link key personnel and government officials during a national crisis. That allocation still represents $1.9 million less than Congress provided last year.

Maybe the bombs of London will loosen the purse strings of Capitol Hill.

Newsweek has seen the email sent by Time Magazine reporter Matt Cooper to his editor recapping the phone call he had with Karl Rove in which Rove tried to spin him on the White House contretemps with former ambassador Joe Wilson over Saddam Hussein’s nuclear capabilities.

What is critical here is that in Cooper’s raw notes from his “double super secret” conversation with Rove, he wrote that Rove told him that Wilson’s wife was involved in the search for WMD. He knew, but he simply did not care. Going after a political enemy was more important to him than United States national security:

It was 11:07 on a Friday morning, July 11, 2003, and Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper was tapping out an e-mail to his bureau chief, Michael Duffy. “Subject: Rove/P&C,” (for personal and confidential), Cooper began. “Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation …”

…In [his] brief conversation with Rove, Cooper asked what to make of the flap over Wilson’s criticisms… [He] wrote that Rove offered him a “big warning” not to “get too far out on Wilson.” Rove told Cooper that Wilson’s trip had not been authorized by “DCIA”—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, “it was, KR said, wilson’s wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip.” Wilson’s wife is Plame, then an undercover agent working as an analyst in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division. (Cooper later included the essence of what Rove told him in an online story.) The e-mail characterizing the conversation continues: “not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly there’s still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger … “

Former Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry happened to be in England during the bombings, and has posted several great entries to his blog on the subject. I found this one particularly interesting.

Last night we went to see the musical production of “Mary Poppins,” which is quite different from the movie, and astonishingly good. If this show gets to New York, it will be huge, one of those shows that runs forever.

The theater had been closed the night before because of the bombings, but last night the house was full. We stood for a minute of silence in honor of the bombing victims, and then the show, as shows must, went on.

The show goes on everywhere here: The underground is running again, and people are resuming their lives. I remain awed by how calmly Londoners have handled the terrorist attack. I believe that one reason for this is that the British TV news people have displayed less excitability and hysteria than American TV news people displayed in response to the Michael Jackson verdict.

Our TV reporters, and really most of the members of our press, have been such a disappointment during all the W years, starting with election night 2000. I grew up with Uncle Walter, then lived my idealistic years (my teens) when investigative reporting was considered a noble and valiant calling. Somewhere along the way Geraldo Rivera morphed into Geraldo, and CNN paved the way for Fox News.

Howard Troxler, in the St. Petersburg Times summed up the state of the press – and the government’s view of it – in America today, starting with a quote from the special prosecutor in the Miller/Cooper/Rove case:

“Journalists are not entitled to promise complete confidentiality – no one in America is.” – special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald

I have no doubt that Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who got an American newspaper reporter thrown in jail this week, truly believes that “no one in America” is entitled to keep anything secret from the government.

I do doubt, however, whether he understands the scope of the power that he has now claimed on behalf of the crown.

No one in America!

No one may refuse to answer when the all-powerful government demands it!

Does he mean it?

Does he mean that the government is entitled to force ministers to inform against sinners, doctors against patients, lawyers against clients, wives against husbands, children against parents?

No one in America.

On Jan. 16, 1787, Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and future president, wrote a letter expressing his beliefs about a free press.

The only possible check on the abuse of government power, Jefferson wrote, is informed public opinion. But the citizens cannot stand up to the government unless they are armed with a free press. This led to Jefferson’s famous conclusion:

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Of course, the person who blew Plame’s cover, Robert Novak, isn’t even being asked to reveal his source, let alone threatened with imprisonment. I have to wonder if it’s because Miller is so much more of a reliable martyr, as portrayed by James Wolcott in his stunningly fabulous and prescient book, “Attack Poodles.” Are they going after Judy because they know she will take that bullet, and ask for another, before giving them up for the petty, vindictive sleezes they are?

Although Troxler gives Miller the benefit of the doubt, he also puts the responsibility where it really belongs.

But this “crime,” if one exists at all, was committed by the government itself. The perverse claim here is that the government can commit an act, then “investigate” it, and jail reporters for not “cooperating.”

You think this is partisan? Go ahead. Feel free to believe that it’s okay under a Republican president to throw the New York Times in jail. Just be sure you’re comfortable with giving the same power to a future President Hillary Clinton, or whichever Democrat sneaks back into the White House first, over Fox News.

This is July, the month of Independence. This is not a month for kings.

No one in America, the king’s prosecutor now claims. But he is wrong.

As you’ve probably read, Karl Rove now says he did not “knowingly” reveal the secret identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson to journalists in 2003. The word “knowingly” is key because if you knowingly reveal the identity of a secret operative, it’s treason. If you do it unknowingly, you’re in the clear.

Knowingly or not, Rove was fully aware that Plame’s purview at the CIA was intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. Considering the importance of the search for WMD to national security, Rove had to know that outing Plame might cause serious damage to the spy agency’s efforts. Apparently, he did not care.

Unfortunately, the breach caused by revealing Plame’s identity turned out to be much bigger than the outing of a single intelligence officer:

Not only was Plame’s cover blown, so was that of her cover company, Brewster Jennings & Associates. With the public exposure of Plame, intelligence agencies all over the world started searching data bases for any references to her. Damage control was immediate, as the CIA asserted that her mission had been connected to weapons of mass destruction.

However, it was not long before stories from the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal tied Brewster Jennings & Associates to energy, oil and the Saudi-owned Arabian American Oil Company, or ARAMCO. [The company was named for the late] Brewster Jennings [who was] a founder of Mobil Oil company, one of Aramco’s principal founders.

… Brewster Jennings was, in fact, a well-established CIA proprietary company, linked for many years to ARAMCO. The demise of Brewster Jennings was also guaranteed the moment Plame was outed.

Brewster Jennings was set up by the CIA to collect intelligence about ties between groups involved in smuggling nuclear material to countries such as Israel and Pakistan. The unmasking of this secret effort tipped off the smugglers and drove them deeper underground.

Loss of the Brewster Jennings’ survelliance arguably makes it more likely that terrorists are assembling a nuclear “dirty bomb” now that might explode in a world capitol one day soon.

So here’s the question, why does this man still have a job? And here’s another: Why isn’t he in jail?

Once again we find ourselves faced with a serious question about the performance of a high-ranking Republican: Did Karl Rove inadvertently breach national security or did he do it on purpose?

Note: See this newer post to read the raw notes of Time Magazine reporter Matt Cooper’s 2003 conversation with Rove in which Rove told Cooper that Joe Wilson’s wife was a CIA expert on WMD.

Not only is there much to support a theory that genetics prevents any member of the Bush from admitting mistakes, this same postulated strand of DNA also keeps them from saying they’re sorry, or acknowledging they’re vindictive (tell me why we are in Iraq again?), overblown morons with supernatural powers of denial.

Jeb’s All-Star Vendetta Against Michael Schiavo is surely an integral part of the hypothesis.

Naples (Florida) News guest editorial:

At every stage of the Terri Schiavo case Jeb Bush has been wrong and the husband of the comatose woman and the local, state and federal courts, who supported Michael Schiavo, right.

The Florida governor and his allies in trashing the courts and the poor woman’s right to privacy, the Senate and House Republican leaders, Bill Frist and Tom DeLay, were conclusively and, one could only hope, for the last time proved wrong again last month when the medical examiner released the results of his autopsy…

There, you would have thought, the matter would rest.

But the implacable governor had one more shot at Michael Schiavo in his arsenal. Still unwilling to let go, he asked a state’s attorney to launch a criminal investigation into alleged discrepancies in the time of her collapse…

The state attorney assigned two experienced prosecutors to the probe and their findings were released Friday… They re-plowed…all evidence and found no justification “to use our investigative powers to perpetuate suspicion where, despite extended litigation and a detailed autopsy, we have no proof to suggest that a crime has occurred.”

Wow. That’s pretty definitive. Embarrassing for Jeb, but maybe he could still come out holding his head up by saying something about his heart being in the right place, or that at least now the Schiavo and Schindler families can move forward, or even just something philosophical about the nature of life. So what did he in fact say when he announced this was the end of the whole mess, that he would let it go now?

Palm Beach Post:

“It’s done,” Bush told reporters at a hurricane briefing early Friday afternoon. “Sad tragedy. Horribly sad.”

Asked to elaborate, he said, “I think it’s pretty clear — sad tragedy. That’s what I mean. It’s a sad tragedy that this woman starved to death.”

Did you get that? The tragedy here is that Teri Schiavo was taken off life support – after a decade and a half, with no chance of recovery. That’s the big tragedy.

Congress needs to pass emergency legislation prohibiting any member of the Bush family from further reproducing until science can ensure the gene pool will be safe from whatever mental disorder plagues Jeb, W, Barb, George H.W., Neil, and the whole defective lot.

Great guest editorial by Bud Hendershot in my local paper.

Recently the U.S. Senate voted on a bill that would ban the EPA from accepting data from companies who use intentional pesticide dosing of human beings as part of their studies…

It seems that chemical companies have been paying people to ingest pesticides. The subjects include pregnant females, and the fetuses they carry. According to the Wall Street Journal, these tests are designed by pesticide manufacturers to “prove” the safety of their products, in hopes of weakening EPA regulations regarding pesticide use on U.S. crops.

…By a vote of 60-37, senators voted to prohibit the EPA from accepting, considering, or relying on chemical industry studies involving intentional dosing of human subjects. Who voted against this bill? Thirty-seven senators, all Republicans, including Mel Martinez. So did the very sanctimonious Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania; a man who never met a fetus he didn’t like.

Apparently, poisoning fetuses is a-ok with these senators. Just don’t abort them.

Interestingly, a subset of the 37 senators who voted against the protection of fetuses (and the already born) also voted against a recently passed anti-lynching bill [Editor’s note: actually, they just didn’t vote in favor of it] You’d think being against lynching would be a no-brainer for any senator, “pro-life” or not, right?

…[Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN)] is the perfect representative of this crew…He is vehemently anti-abortion. He spent weeks grandstanding to keep a brain-dead, blind woman alive, so full of life’s “sanctity” is he. Yet he loves the death penalty and supports the war (as long as it is fought by other people’s sons and daughters).

Lynching and pesticides? Fine by Frist! The contradictions are dizzying.

Thankfully, the Congress is busy with other important business, namely a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit Flag Burning. Yes, that is a critical problem these days. You can barely cross the street without tripping over burning flags, right?

With 1,700 soldiers dead in Iraq and a host of other tiny little problems, it’s good to see our government focusing on legislation that truly impacts our daily lives. Flag burning. It makes you angry enough to want to dose somebody with pesticides and lynch ’em, doesn’t it?

According to a Program On International Policy Attitudes poll, an overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens favors the United States joining with other G8 members to limit greenhouse gas emissions. That places George Bush in a small and radically insouciant minority.

The PIPA-Knowledge Networks poll asked whether President Bush should or should not be willing to act to limit greenhouse gases that cause climate change if the leaders of the G8 countries are willing to act to limit the gases. Of all respondents, 86% said that he should; 81% of Republicans supported that as well as 89% of Democrats.

Virtually all respondents — 94% — agreed the United States should limit its greenhouse gases at least as much as the other developed countries do, and 44% think the U.S. should do more than other countries, on average.
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