Author: Trish

2005: Year One

Trish

Ten years ago, what American would have believed they’d someday be living in a country that denies global warming and evolution? In 2005, nature provided all the proof of herself we need.

The Sierra Club is calling it Year One. Bill McKibben:

So far we’ve raised the temperature of the planet by about one degree, and that’s been enough to set the poles to melting and the winds to roaring. Even if, right now, we started doing all that we could to overhaul our energy economy, we’d probably still be stuck with a couple more degrees of warming, and the world would change more profoundly than at any time in human history.

…a month before Katrina hit, [the] Massachusetts Institute of Technology…published a landmark paper in the British science magazine Nature showing that in the past half century tropical storms have been lasting 60 percent longer and spinning winds 50 percent more powerful. Two weeks after Katrina struck, Science published another paper, by a Georgia Institute of Technology team, demonstrating that Category 4 and 5 hurricanes have become twice as likely in recent decades… Katrina, a Category 1 storm when it crossed Florida, roared to monster size in the abnormally hot waters of the Gulf. Within a day, a million people were homeless. That’s far too many, we soon found out, for the federal government to cope with. And it’s just the beginning…

Katrina cast up ironies like so much flotsam and jetsam. The storm, for instance, wreaked particular vengeance on Mississippi, a state governed by Haley Barbour (R), who in an earlier incarnation as a GOP power broker and energy lobbyist helped persuade President George W. Bush to renege on his promise to treat carbon dioxide as a pollutant. Thanks to Barbour and the other lobbyists-turned-administrators who throng the White House, the federal government has done exactly nothing to slow the progress of climate change. Today we’re emitting 20 percent more carbon than we were in 1990, when scientists were first issuing their prescient warnings. […]

Can’t Put the Abramoff Toothpaste Back in the Tube

Trish

Great commentary at Indianz.com on the members of Congress who are now falling all over themselves to return the Abramoff money they worked so hard to get.

The money that Abramoff and associates funneled…already bought the access, consideration, help, favors and votes it was meant to buy. Giving away money won’t undo whatever these politicians did to earn support from Abramoff and his clients.

Members of Montana’s congressional delegation have joined politicians elsewhere in attempting to distance themselves from Abramoff.

This is silly and entirely for show.

The money that Abramoff and associates funneled to Burns, Baucus and Rehberg, et al, already bought the access, consideration, help, favors and votes it was meant to buy. Giving away money won’t undo whatever these politicians did to earn support from Abramoff and his clients.

For that matter, the money itself has been spent. “Returning” money to Abramoff’s clients or “donating” it to third parties qualifies now as a new campaign expense – more or less like buying an ad that proclaims, “We’re not in this guy’s pocket – honest.” Where’s this money going to come from? That’s right – from other lobbyists or big-money donors who will have their own demands, expectations and strings to pull.”

The editors also left a message for readers explaining there will be light posting until after New Year’s.

…we wish you a happy holiday season to you, your family and all of your lobbyists

Bush vs. the Bill of Rights

Trish

Funny what you see when you’re getting your oil changed: The waiting room had FOX News going, so I got a rare glimpse. The anchor, a scary-looking woman with way too much eye makeup, was trying to get the requisite two opposing sides to say that because “all” the people Bush spied on were “really bad guys” that what he did was O.K. And because Bush did the noble thing and admitted he was doing this, these “really bad guys” are going to get off on a technicality.

Illegal evidence – evidence obtained in an illegal search – is not made more legal in light of what it reveals

Our team explained that the 4th Amendment is not generally regarded as a technicality but a pretty important foundation of our society.

What he didn’t say was what I learned in Constitutional Law 101: illegal evidence – evidence obtained in an illegal search – is not made more legal in light of what it reveals. Murder cases have been thrown out over this fact. It’s not new, and it’s not directed at the Bush White House. It’s just bedrock law in America. Or it was until Bush came to town.

Today in History

Trish

On this day in 1831, Charles Darwin set out on his only trip away from England, aboard the HMS Beagle and eventually to the Galapagos Islands off South America. Little did he realize he could have just stayed home and read the Bible and known everything anyone would ever need to about how life works. Silly Darwin. We’re so much smarter than that now.

New Hampshire Republicans Declining the Kool-Aid

Trish

Boston Globe:

Republican senators and congressmen are trying to distance themselves from an increasingly unpopular national GOP

…the state’s all-Republican congressional delegation is becoming increasingly at odds with the national Republican Party in a state that was long a GOP bellwether, according to an analysis of votes and other actions in Congress over the past year.

Congressmen Jeb Bradley and Charles Bass voted for expanded stem cell research and opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and Bradley notably declined to endorse Bush’s Social Security plan.

Senator John E. Sununu opposed Bush’s plan for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, joined a filibuster to insert civil liberties protections into the USA Patriot Act, and voted against his party leadership on several major spending bills.

Even the state’s senior senator, Judd Gregg, who is a member of the GOP leadership and generally backs the party’s priorities, voted against the transportation bill and the massive energy bill that grew out of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force.

The senators and congressmen say they are acting in the tradition of the state’s libertarian brand of conservatism, even if the national GOP moves in a different direction. But Democrats and some independent observers, pointing to the fact that Senator John F. Kerry beat President Bush in New Hampshire, and that Governor John Lynch , a Democrat, is the most popular official in the state, say the Republican senators and congressmen are trying to distance themselves from an increasingly unpopular national GOP.

GAO Wants Bush Administration to Wake Up to Economic Problems

Trish

Forget those ill-fated “listening tours” from Karen Hughes. The man who sued Dick Cheney for information about his so-called energy task force is on a wake-up tour.

For the ninth straight year, the GAO said it couldn’t certify the government’s financial statements.

David Walker, 54, U.S. comptroller general and head of the Government Accounting Office, sees nothing but gray skies ahead for the American economy. And while his doomsday scenario might be too centered on entitlements, he makes some important points.

Earlier this month, he released the GAO’s annual statement on the accounting of the U.S. government. For the ninth straight year, the GAO said it couldn’t certify the government’s financial statements. For the second year, Walker emphasized the nation’s long-term financial risk.

He wrote that the nation is $46 trillion in debt, and social insurance promises and fiscal exposures were four times the current gross domestic product as baby boomers approach 2008, when they begin to become eligible for early retirement.

Walker, who has switched back and forth between the two major parties, was a Republican when Pres. Clinton accepted his nomination to the 15-year GAO post.

…as the choice of the Republican-led Senate in 1998, Walker was seen as a GOP man. Few accuse him of that now.

The position, created by Congress in 1921, is a 15-year appointment, and the comptroller general cannot be removed except by impeachment.

That fact came in handy in 2002, when Walker felt he had no choice but to sue Dick Cheney in the case later appealed to the Supreme Court. […]

Bush Already Knows If You’ve Been Naughty or Nice

Trish

The Washington Post is carrying Bush’s holiday greetings to Americans, which features three messages – one each for people celebrating Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa. In the future, these missives will be even more personalized…

“The season of hope and joy is upon us, although from what I hear in your phone calls to your mom, you need to get in the spirit a little more before the big visit. And quit calling Moviefone to get Christmas day showtimes – you’re going to hang out with your family and you’re going to like it.

You’ll be paying for that PSP for years, if you’re not in federal prison by then for supporting public radio, which I can’t help but notice you’ve been doing.

At this time of year, we must remember the less fortunate, which you’re going to be come January when all those credit card bills we’ve been monitoring come due. Remember, minimum payments are going to double and I’ve made it impossible for little folks like you to get bankruptcy protection. You’ll be paying for that PSP for years, if you’re not in federal prison by then for supporting public radio, which I can’t help but notice you’ve been doing.

And another thing – what’s up with buying that Al Franken book at Barnes & Noble? Your library records show you already checked it out, why do you need to own it? In the store security video, it was right next to the Bill O’Reilly book but your receipt shows you not only bought Franken, you bought the Jimmy Carter book too. You got some ‘splainin’ to do, buddy.

Let’s also ask God to protect those getting shot up in Iraq and Afghanistan for whatever reason they were supposed to be fighting over there. That reminds me – you need to use more gas and turn up the heat. Our DOT traffic surveillance cameras are in place on all major highways and bridges (I know you’ve noticed them, those little stands with the solar panels and antennas), and you’re not making enough trips – especially solo trips – in the SUV. Our economy depends on constantly increasing demand for oil, and you need to do your part until we come to drag you away in the middle of the cold, dark night.

Laura and I send our best wishes for a blessed holiday season for all Americans, and by that, I mean the ones who support us which you obviously don’t.

God Bless America! – George W. Bush”

Forget Impeachment, Let’s Have a National Recall

Trish

California might be on to something, according to syndicated columnist and cartoonist Ted Rall, who made the case for a national recall instead of impeachment, and made it before the latest round of revelations. Rall wrote last month, when we thought exposing CIA agents they didn’t like and maintaining secret torture prisons was all Bush-Cheney were up to.

To “kill the hydra,” we have to get rid of them all, and that means a new election.

…our constitutional system only allows for impeaching individuals, not whole administrations. If Cheney is indicted and forced to quit, Bush will appoint a replacement–Washington scuttlebutt points to secretary of state Condi Rice. If Bush falls, Rice ascends. If something happens to Rice, the person she chose as vice president succeeds her. All the political hacks who lied and schemed and whose incompetence led to the current crisis of leadership–Donald Rumsfeld, Stephen Hadley, Karl Rove–stay in place. The hydra lives.

Rall rightly points out that simply impeaching Bush (and finding him unfit for office) would make no substantive change. To “kill the hydra,” we have to get rid of them all, and that means a new election.

One solution is to establish a California-style recall system on the national level. If a significant percentage of Americans loses confidence in the president and his administration to the extent that they’re willing to sign a recall petition, a special election should be held within three months. The number of required signatures should be high enough–California’s system calls for 12 percent of the number of people who cast votes in the preceding election–to ensure that recalls are only held as the result of widespread disgust among the citizenry.

To avoid disruption, the constitutional amendment creating the recall provision could prevent such elections from being held more often than, say, annually. And a recall won’t automatically result in a new party taking over the White House–just a new administration. But it would replace our current system of political stagnation with a more dynamic democracy.

“A more dynamic democracy.” I like the sound of that. Where do I sign the petition?

56 Senators Can Sleep Well Tonight

Trish

Thank you to all the brave senators who voted to defeat the so-called budget resolution that contained a provision for drilling in ANWR. By insisting that the ridiculous end-run tossed at them like spoiled produce by Sen. Ted Stevens at the last minute be removed from the spending bill, they showed remarkable integrity. In the case of Florida’s own Bill Nelson, the only Democrat to hold statewide office, it took true grit to risk being labeled anti-military in his re-election bid next year, when Republicans will be throwing all the wilted lettuce and squishy tomatoes they’ve got at him and will no doubt try to spin this into something it wasn’t. Thanks Bill, for always being counted on to do the right thing.

Retired Quakers Considered Credible Threat by Bush Spies

Trish

[Editor’s note: Two stories from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel were used in compiling this post]

A South Florida peace group is calling for a congressional investigation of domestic surveillance after finding itself a target.

The Truth Project, a group of largely Quaker retired folks, uses puppets, placards, and home-printed flyers to warn high school students about heavy-handed military recruiting efforts. Its targeting was uncovered this week in a Department of Defense document.

“I’m disabled, I’m 59 and if I’m a credible threat to the government of the United States, then either the government is terribly paranoid or terribly weak”

The 400-page document obtained by NBC described the group as both a “threat” and “credible…”

“I’m disabled, I’m 59 and if I’m a credible threat to the government of the United States, then either the government is terribly paranoid or terribly weak,” said Rich Hersh of Boca Raton…

[Michael] Foley, [associate professor of politics at Catholic University] said spying on groups like the Truth Project can be an inefficient use of government time and money. “There’s a lot of retirees, a lot of older people who are involved in protesting,” he said. “There’s not much alarming here. What do you expect Quakers to do?”

The government’s spy skills are almost as subtle as the activists are threatening.

[One member] said his group…has attracted government agents to meetings in private homes. Though the agents were disguised as anarchists, Del Papa said their footwear gave them away: Nike or Reebok running shoes, which to anarchists represent corporate greed.

“No anarchist is going to wear Nikes or Reeboks to a protest,” Del Papa said…

…several people reported hearing mysterious clicks and echoes during recent telephone conversations and noticing cars they considered suspicious pass by during meetings.

During one outdoor gathering by a Lake Worth canal, Marie Zwicker said she had seen men in a Boston Whaler cruise by, posing, unconvincingly, she added, as fishermen. “It was the wrong time of day,” she said.

Bush continues to lie, saying just yesterday that the only people being spied on were those on the giving or receiving end of international phone calls, with links to al Qaeda, or who represent a credible threat to America. He obviously can’t distinguish between someone disagreeing with him and the entire country being under attack. The man is mental and needs some serious – possibly residential – therapy.

Instead, his poll numbers shoot up with every lie, as Americans, eager for it all to go away, accept at face value both Bush lies and guys in suits fishing on a falling tide.