Global warming = bad science -- The Chimp
Below are two passages from Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce. I chose them, because the Kabuki theater of modern governments has only one purpose: protect the "rights" of corporations while pretending to address the needs of citizens. And the rapacious need for capitalism to grow and consume spells the end for both.
"Today, the unbalanced and unequal relationship between authority and the governed is being played out within the city-states that we call the modern corporation, and unlike times past, the distinctions between our private lives and corporate rights has become blurred and confused."
. . . .
"The problem is essentially this: We in the rich, industrial nations are under the impression that we are experiencing an ingenious outfoxing of carrying capacity. Clever, yes, but ingenious no, because our means of production do not necessarily increase the carrying capacity of the environment, they only temporarily insulate us from the results of our actions. We confuse our rate of and ability to consume with the capacity of living systems to provide for those wants."
Sayonara .
Culture of intellectual corruption
"It will be nearly impossible in the next several months to avoid the phrase "culture of corruption." It is of Democratic vintage, coined to take the sins of Jack Abramoff, former Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham and maybe some others and visit them on all Republicans running for office, especially congressional incumbents. Strictly speaking, it's a bit of a smear. But if it applies anywhere, and it does, it's not to corruption having to do with money, it's to corruption having to do with thought. The Bush administration is intellectually corrupt."
The planet can't wait
"The warnings are coming from frogs and beetles, from melting ice and changing ocean currents, and from scientists and responsible politicians around the world. And yet what is the U.S. government doing about global warming? Nothing. That should shock the conscience of Americans."
Hidden ties: Big environmental changes backed by big industry
"Since President Bush took office, Republicans have successfully pushed through major reforms that target regulations for power-plant emissions and the management of federal forests. During his 2004 campaign for reelection, the president praised his Healthy Forests initiative as 'a good, common-sense policy.' This year, the Republican-led Congress is gearing up for yet another 'common-sense' reform to a major piece of environmental legislation—the Endangered Species Act (ESA)."
Alaska oil spill exposes 'gentle' drilling problems
"In response to the latest spill, the environmental advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife said the rupture shows the devastation drilling in wildlife areas can cause. They said the spill illustrates that improved technologies for drilling do nothing to prevent pipeline ruptures down the line."
Hard push for offshore drilling from Congress and Bush administration
"With the fight to pry open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge having stalled out, the oil and gas industry and some members of Congress are now focused on parts of the outer continental shelf (OCS) that have been off-limits to drilling for nearly 25 years. This change comes at a time of escalating energy prices, an ever-louder drumbeat for energy independence, and a presidential declaration only month ago that the time had come to break America's addiction to oil."
US nuclear plant leaks fuel health concerns
"'We don't know what else has been leaked from that site. When they close ranks, you can't believe them,' Cosgrove said, referring to the plant owner and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees safety at the nation's 103 commercial reactors, including 11 in Illinois."
Group warns of toxic tuna
"The mercury levels of the 12 tuna samples averaged about double the FDA standard, and a quarter of the orders were near or above the limit where the agency says fish should not be sold, said Eli Saddler, a public health analyst and attorney for GotMercury.org."
12 states appeal emissions decision: Challenge to EPA refusal to regulate greenhouse gases
"California and 11 other states asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to review the Bush administration's refusal to regulate motor vehicle emissions of gases that scientists blame for global warming."
Big food's bad idea
"Some people called it a folly of know-nothing Luddites. Others praised it as an important blow against technological hubris. But no matter where you stood on the 2004 ballot measure in California's Mendocino County that banned the cultivation of GMO crops, it's generally agreed that the initiative represented all that is best about local democracy -- citizens coming together to address an issue that's important to them. And in the Mendocino case, it was an issue that is well-made for local governance, given how intimate food is, how uniquely attached to our sense of place."
Years ago, I read a guideline for the consumption of food: Eat nothing grown farther afield than what can be seen growing when viewed from the highest building in town.
The death of the Intelligence Panel
"The Republicans' idea of supervision involves saying the White House should get a warrant for spying whenever possible. Currently a warrant is needed, period. And that's the right law. The White House has not offered a scrap of evidence that it interferes with antiterrorist operations. Mr. Bush simply decided the law did not apply to him."
The chairman of the senate cover-up committee
"By voting down a sensible proposal offered by Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) to comprehensively review the spying program, Roberts failed once again to demonstrate he has the leadership to conduct the required oversight of the Bush administration. As Rockefeller said, 'This committee is basically under control of the White House.' It was 'no surprise that Mr. Roberts led this retreat;' he has been doing the 'president's dirty work' repeatedly over the past few years in his efforts to stonewall investigations into important national security matters."
GOP plan would allow spying without warrants
"Civil liberties advocates called the proposed oversight inadequate and the licensing of eavesdropping without warrants unnecessary and unwise. But the Republican senators who drafted the proposal said it represented a hard-wrung compromise with the White House, which strongly opposed any Congressional interference in the eavesdropping program."
Conduct unbecoming the commander-in-chief
"Under the Rules of War13 'The Law of Armed Conflict aims to protect civilians, prisoners of war, the wounded, sick and shipwrecked. DoDD 5100.77 requires each military department to design a program that ensures LOAC observance, prevents LOAC violations, ensures prompt reporting of alleged LOAC violations, appropriately trains all forces in LOAC, and completes legal review of new weapons. LOAC training is the treaty obligation of the United States under provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions'
"The Bush-Cheney administration has carried out the destruction of Iraq violating the UN Charter, the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the Nuremberg Charter, the Law of Armed Conflict and patently commissioning through the chain of command violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice."
Envoy to Iraq sees threat of wider war
"The top U.S. envoy to Iraq said Monday that the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime had opened a 'Pandora's box' of volatile ethnic and sectarian tensions that could engulf the region in all-out war if America pulled out of the country too soon."
Abu Ghraib to close, abuse to continue
"The move will do nothing to end the systematic abuse of Iraqi prisoners, which has been most closely associated with, but by no means limited to, the torture carried out at Abu Ghraib."
The court-martial of Willie Brand
"Brand told correspondent Scott Pelley what he did wasn’t torture, it was his training, authorized and supervised by his superiors. So how is it he was charged with assault, maiming and manslaughter?"
Iraq through the prism of Vietnam
"The Vietnam War had three phases. The War in Iraq has already completed an analogous first phase, is approaching the end of the second phase, and shows signs of entering the third."
8,000 desert during Iraq war
"Since fall 2003, 4,387 Army soldiers, 3,454 Navy sailors and 82 Air Force personnel have deserted. The Marine Corps does not track the number of desertions each year but listed 1,455 Marines in desertion status last September, the end of fiscal 2005, says Capt. Jay Delarosa, a Marine Corps spokesman."
Washington's "democracy" in Iraq hangs 13 political prisoners
"The execution Thursday of 13 Iraqi political prisoners, including a woman, was a calculated act of state terror against the resistance to the US occupation. The executions, all by hanging, were ordered by interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari to underscore his determination to hold onto power amid a political stalemate between rival factions in Baghdad."
US drumbeat against Iran threatens new war of aggression
"Such a claim is clearly ludicrous. The Iranian people, like the rest of the world, have looked with horror upon what the US invasion and occupation has wrought in neighboring Iraq, where over 100,000 civilians have been killed, basic economic and social life has been shattered and an American-dominated government rules through death squads and torture."
Canada still a 'refuge from militarism'?
"Meantime, new war resisters continue to flee to Canada. Some are living underground, and some are seeking official protection from a Canadian government that does not appear willing, at this time, to adopt the position of former premier, Pierre Trudeau, who more than 30 years ago said, 'Those who make the conscientious judgment that they must not participate in this war ... have my complete sympathy, and indeed our political approach has been to give them access to Canada. Canada should be a refuge from militarism.'"
I met the author, Mark Nykanen, in Oregon in the 80s. He now lives in Nelson, BC, a charming town where Roxanne was filmed.
Canada out of Afghanistan!
"A recent poll found that approximately 62 percent of Canadians think that our military intervention in Afghanistan is wrong, especially without any serious debate in the House of Commons or the news media. You can almost hear the establishment hit the alarm button. What is to be done?"
Hunger in America: 25 million depend on emergency food aid
"The brutal impact of social polarization and the protracted assault on the living standards of broad masses of working people was reflected in two recent reports documenting the deepening crisis of hunger in America."
Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m killing on bird flu drug
"Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease."
Lose your job for America
"But of course he didn't say it was painful for everyone. Wall Street and wealthy investors, the driving force behind the globalization/free-trade push that began in the 1990s, love the cheap labor and lax regulatory policies that exist in China and India. It is, however, a one-way street - how many Chinese companies do you see hiring workers in Freeport? And how many U.S. companies can compete in those Chinese markets when the Chinese manipulate their currency and pay workers pennies on the dollar?"
Retirement fund tapped to avoid national debt limit
"The Treasury Department has started drawing from the civil service pension fund to avoid hitting the $8.2 trillion national debt limit. The move to tap the pension fund follows last month's decision to suspend investments in a retirement savings plan held by government employees."
The numbers behind the lies
"Williams starts by discussing the headline economic data: 'Real unemployment right now -- figured the way that the average person thinks of unemployment, meaning figured the way it was estimated back during the Great Depression -- is running about 12%. Real CPI right now is running at about 8%. And the real GDP probably is in contraction.' (By "real," he means calculating the data the way they used to be calculated, not as inflation-adjusted.)"
Quotes from www.bartcop.com and others:
"It's breathtakingly cynical. Faced with a president who is almost certainly breaking the law, the Senate sets up a panel to watch him do it ...and calls that 'control'. " --NY Whore Times Editorial, Link
"Earlier today, Bush flew to New Orleans. There was an awkward moment when he looked around and said 'Oh my god, what the hell happened here?' " --Conan
"Ladies and gentlemen, one of the basic truths of the world is that George W. Bush is a man of his word." -- Dick Cheney, Link
"The republican Senate voted to reject a Democratic proposal to investigate Bush's domestic surveillance program and instead approved establishing a seven-member panel to oversee the effort. Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said that he had asked the committee 'to reject confrontation in favor of accommodation' and that the new subcommittee, which he described as 'an accommodation with the White House,' would 'conduct oversight of the terrorist surveillance program." -- Walter Pincus, "Senate Panel Blocks Eavesdropping Probe", Link
Each time the criminals rob a bank or muder someone, the senate rushes into session to either make robbery and murder legal or they get a fake promise from Bush that they won't rob or murder again, but then they do, and the Senate goes back into session again.
"The panel's vice chairman, Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), took a sharply different view of yesterday's outcome. 'The committee is, to put it bluntly, basically under the control of the White House through its chairman,' he told reporters. 'At the direction of the White House, the Republican majority has voted down my motion to have a careful and fact-based review of Bush's eavesdropping activities inside the United States.'" -- Walter Pincus, Link
America has turned into a small town in the wild West, where the crooked bastard who owns the town has a crony become sheriff who then makes all the owner's crimes legal. As we've seen, there's no crime Bush can commit that would get his crooked ass arrested.
"The White House could just decide not to tell them everything, and there's no sanction. And the president can still claim that he has inherent power to conduct surveillance." -- Bruce Fein, a Reagan lawyer who believes that the NSA program is illegal, on the Senate voting not to investigate Dubya's secret spy program, Link
"Iran is currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future
of Iraq. And we know it." -- Rumsfeld, setting up their next invasion, Link
"Bush speaks to the audience as if they're idiots. I think the reason he does that is because that's the way these issues were explained to him." -- Graydon Carter, on Dubya, Link
"Too many bills passed by Congress include unnecessary spending." -- Thrill-Killa Dubya, confessing that he stole billions from the Treasury? No, he wants the line-item veto, so he can steal billions from the Treasury while doing away with hot lunch programs for inner-city schoolkids, Link
Worse than that, every time the bank gets robbed, bank security gets a medal for "Job well done."
"Today, the unbalanced and unequal relationship between authority and the governed is being played out within the city-states that we call the modern corporation, and unlike times past, the distinctions between our private lives and corporate rights has become blurred and confused."
. . . .
"The problem is essentially this: We in the rich, industrial nations are under the impression that we are experiencing an ingenious outfoxing of carrying capacity. Clever, yes, but ingenious no, because our means of production do not necessarily increase the carrying capacity of the environment, they only temporarily insulate us from the results of our actions. We confuse our rate of and ability to consume with the capacity of living systems to provide for those wants."
Sayonara .
Culture of intellectual corruption
"It will be nearly impossible in the next several months to avoid the phrase "culture of corruption." It is of Democratic vintage, coined to take the sins of Jack Abramoff, former Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham and maybe some others and visit them on all Republicans running for office, especially congressional incumbents. Strictly speaking, it's a bit of a smear. But if it applies anywhere, and it does, it's not to corruption having to do with money, it's to corruption having to do with thought. The Bush administration is intellectually corrupt."
The planet can't wait
"The warnings are coming from frogs and beetles, from melting ice and changing ocean currents, and from scientists and responsible politicians around the world. And yet what is the U.S. government doing about global warming? Nothing. That should shock the conscience of Americans."
Hidden ties: Big environmental changes backed by big industry
"Since President Bush took office, Republicans have successfully pushed through major reforms that target regulations for power-plant emissions and the management of federal forests. During his 2004 campaign for reelection, the president praised his Healthy Forests initiative as 'a good, common-sense policy.' This year, the Republican-led Congress is gearing up for yet another 'common-sense' reform to a major piece of environmental legislation—the Endangered Species Act (ESA)."
Alaska oil spill exposes 'gentle' drilling problems
"In response to the latest spill, the environmental advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife said the rupture shows the devastation drilling in wildlife areas can cause. They said the spill illustrates that improved technologies for drilling do nothing to prevent pipeline ruptures down the line."
Hard push for offshore drilling from Congress and Bush administration
"With the fight to pry open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge having stalled out, the oil and gas industry and some members of Congress are now focused on parts of the outer continental shelf (OCS) that have been off-limits to drilling for nearly 25 years. This change comes at a time of escalating energy prices, an ever-louder drumbeat for energy independence, and a presidential declaration only month ago that the time had come to break America's addiction to oil."
US nuclear plant leaks fuel health concerns
"'We don't know what else has been leaked from that site. When they close ranks, you can't believe them,' Cosgrove said, referring to the plant owner and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees safety at the nation's 103 commercial reactors, including 11 in Illinois."
Group warns of toxic tuna
"The mercury levels of the 12 tuna samples averaged about double the FDA standard, and a quarter of the orders were near or above the limit where the agency says fish should not be sold, said Eli Saddler, a public health analyst and attorney for GotMercury.org."
12 states appeal emissions decision: Challenge to EPA refusal to regulate greenhouse gases
"California and 11 other states asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to review the Bush administration's refusal to regulate motor vehicle emissions of gases that scientists blame for global warming."
Big food's bad idea
"Some people called it a folly of know-nothing Luddites. Others praised it as an important blow against technological hubris. But no matter where you stood on the 2004 ballot measure in California's Mendocino County that banned the cultivation of GMO crops, it's generally agreed that the initiative represented all that is best about local democracy -- citizens coming together to address an issue that's important to them. And in the Mendocino case, it was an issue that is well-made for local governance, given how intimate food is, how uniquely attached to our sense of place."
Years ago, I read a guideline for the consumption of food: Eat nothing grown farther afield than what can be seen growing when viewed from the highest building in town.
The death of the Intelligence Panel
"The Republicans' idea of supervision involves saying the White House should get a warrant for spying whenever possible. Currently a warrant is needed, period. And that's the right law. The White House has not offered a scrap of evidence that it interferes with antiterrorist operations. Mr. Bush simply decided the law did not apply to him."
The chairman of the senate cover-up committee
"By voting down a sensible proposal offered by Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) to comprehensively review the spying program, Roberts failed once again to demonstrate he has the leadership to conduct the required oversight of the Bush administration. As Rockefeller said, 'This committee is basically under control of the White House.' It was 'no surprise that Mr. Roberts led this retreat;' he has been doing the 'president's dirty work' repeatedly over the past few years in his efforts to stonewall investigations into important national security matters."
GOP plan would allow spying without warrants
"Civil liberties advocates called the proposed oversight inadequate and the licensing of eavesdropping without warrants unnecessary and unwise. But the Republican senators who drafted the proposal said it represented a hard-wrung compromise with the White House, which strongly opposed any Congressional interference in the eavesdropping program."
Conduct unbecoming the commander-in-chief
"Under the Rules of War13 'The Law of Armed Conflict aims to protect civilians, prisoners of war, the wounded, sick and shipwrecked. DoDD 5100.77 requires each military department to design a program that ensures LOAC observance, prevents LOAC violations, ensures prompt reporting of alleged LOAC violations, appropriately trains all forces in LOAC, and completes legal review of new weapons. LOAC training is the treaty obligation of the United States under provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions'
"The Bush-Cheney administration has carried out the destruction of Iraq violating the UN Charter, the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the Nuremberg Charter, the Law of Armed Conflict and patently commissioning through the chain of command violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice."
Envoy to Iraq sees threat of wider war
"The top U.S. envoy to Iraq said Monday that the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime had opened a 'Pandora's box' of volatile ethnic and sectarian tensions that could engulf the region in all-out war if America pulled out of the country too soon."
Abu Ghraib to close, abuse to continue
"The move will do nothing to end the systematic abuse of Iraqi prisoners, which has been most closely associated with, but by no means limited to, the torture carried out at Abu Ghraib."
The court-martial of Willie Brand
"Brand told correspondent Scott Pelley what he did wasn’t torture, it was his training, authorized and supervised by his superiors. So how is it he was charged with assault, maiming and manslaughter?"
Iraq through the prism of Vietnam
"The Vietnam War had three phases. The War in Iraq has already completed an analogous first phase, is approaching the end of the second phase, and shows signs of entering the third."
8,000 desert during Iraq war
"Since fall 2003, 4,387 Army soldiers, 3,454 Navy sailors and 82 Air Force personnel have deserted. The Marine Corps does not track the number of desertions each year but listed 1,455 Marines in desertion status last September, the end of fiscal 2005, says Capt. Jay Delarosa, a Marine Corps spokesman."
Washington's "democracy" in Iraq hangs 13 political prisoners
"The execution Thursday of 13 Iraqi political prisoners, including a woman, was a calculated act of state terror against the resistance to the US occupation. The executions, all by hanging, were ordered by interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari to underscore his determination to hold onto power amid a political stalemate between rival factions in Baghdad."
US drumbeat against Iran threatens new war of aggression
"Such a claim is clearly ludicrous. The Iranian people, like the rest of the world, have looked with horror upon what the US invasion and occupation has wrought in neighboring Iraq, where over 100,000 civilians have been killed, basic economic and social life has been shattered and an American-dominated government rules through death squads and torture."
Canada still a 'refuge from militarism'?
"Meantime, new war resisters continue to flee to Canada. Some are living underground, and some are seeking official protection from a Canadian government that does not appear willing, at this time, to adopt the position of former premier, Pierre Trudeau, who more than 30 years ago said, 'Those who make the conscientious judgment that they must not participate in this war ... have my complete sympathy, and indeed our political approach has been to give them access to Canada. Canada should be a refuge from militarism.'"
I met the author, Mark Nykanen, in Oregon in the 80s. He now lives in Nelson, BC, a charming town where Roxanne was filmed.
Canada out of Afghanistan!
"A recent poll found that approximately 62 percent of Canadians think that our military intervention in Afghanistan is wrong, especially without any serious debate in the House of Commons or the news media. You can almost hear the establishment hit the alarm button. What is to be done?"
Hunger in America: 25 million depend on emergency food aid
"The brutal impact of social polarization and the protracted assault on the living standards of broad masses of working people was reflected in two recent reports documenting the deepening crisis of hunger in America."
Donald Rumsfeld makes $5m killing on bird flu drug
"Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease."
Lose your job for America
"But of course he didn't say it was painful for everyone. Wall Street and wealthy investors, the driving force behind the globalization/free-trade push that began in the 1990s, love the cheap labor and lax regulatory policies that exist in China and India. It is, however, a one-way street - how many Chinese companies do you see hiring workers in Freeport? And how many U.S. companies can compete in those Chinese markets when the Chinese manipulate their currency and pay workers pennies on the dollar?"
Retirement fund tapped to avoid national debt limit
"The Treasury Department has started drawing from the civil service pension fund to avoid hitting the $8.2 trillion national debt limit. The move to tap the pension fund follows last month's decision to suspend investments in a retirement savings plan held by government employees."
The numbers behind the lies
"Williams starts by discussing the headline economic data: 'Real unemployment right now -- figured the way that the average person thinks of unemployment, meaning figured the way it was estimated back during the Great Depression -- is running about 12%. Real CPI right now is running at about 8%. And the real GDP probably is in contraction.' (By "real," he means calculating the data the way they used to be calculated, not as inflation-adjusted.)"
Quotes from www.bartcop.com and others:
"It's breathtakingly cynical. Faced with a president who is almost certainly breaking the law, the Senate sets up a panel to watch him do it ...and calls that 'control'. " --NY Whore Times Editorial, Link
"Earlier today, Bush flew to New Orleans. There was an awkward moment when he looked around and said 'Oh my god, what the hell happened here?' " --Conan
"Ladies and gentlemen, one of the basic truths of the world is that George W. Bush is a man of his word." -- Dick Cheney, Link
"The republican Senate voted to reject a Democratic proposal to investigate Bush's domestic surveillance program and instead approved establishing a seven-member panel to oversee the effort. Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said that he had asked the committee 'to reject confrontation in favor of accommodation' and that the new subcommittee, which he described as 'an accommodation with the White House,' would 'conduct oversight of the terrorist surveillance program." -- Walter Pincus, "Senate Panel Blocks Eavesdropping Probe", Link
Each time the criminals rob a bank or muder someone, the senate rushes into session to either make robbery and murder legal or they get a fake promise from Bush that they won't rob or murder again, but then they do, and the Senate goes back into session again.
"The panel's vice chairman, Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), took a sharply different view of yesterday's outcome. 'The committee is, to put it bluntly, basically under the control of the White House through its chairman,' he told reporters. 'At the direction of the White House, the Republican majority has voted down my motion to have a careful and fact-based review of Bush's eavesdropping activities inside the United States.'" -- Walter Pincus, Link
America has turned into a small town in the wild West, where the crooked bastard who owns the town has a crony become sheriff who then makes all the owner's crimes legal. As we've seen, there's no crime Bush can commit that would get his crooked ass arrested.
"The White House could just decide not to tell them everything, and there's no sanction. And the president can still claim that he has inherent power to conduct surveillance." -- Bruce Fein, a Reagan lawyer who believes that the NSA program is illegal, on the Senate voting not to investigate Dubya's secret spy program, Link
"Iran is currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future
of Iraq. And we know it." -- Rumsfeld, setting up their next invasion, Link
"Bush speaks to the audience as if they're idiots. I think the reason he does that is because that's the way these issues were explained to him." -- Graydon Carter, on Dubya, Link
"Too many bills passed by Congress include unnecessary spending." -- Thrill-Killa Dubya, confessing that he stole billions from the Treasury? No, he wants the line-item veto, so he can steal billions from the Treasury while doing away with hot lunch programs for inner-city schoolkids, Link
Worse than that, every time the bank gets robbed, bank security gets a medal for "Job well done."
posted by Jerry | 8:03 PM
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