A good little article on how climate change got to be the controversial issue it is today.
This analysis of right-wing politics and its impact on science shows how a handful of individuals have managed to obscure the truth on issues that range from the dangers of smoking to global warming. [...]
Funded by corporations and conservative foundations, these outfits exist to fight any form of state intervention or regulation of US citizens. Thus they fought, and delayed, smoking curbs in the '70s even though medical science had made it clear the habit was a major cancer risk. And they have been battling ever since, blocking or holding back laws aimed at curbing acid rain, ozone-layer depletion, and – mostly recently – global warming.In each case the tactics are identical: discredit the science, disseminate false information, spread confusion, and promote doubt. As the authors state: "Small numbers of people can have large, negative impacts, especially if they are organised, determined and have access to power."
…scientists' warnings – that without action the world will get at least two degrees hotter this century – have been obscured by a small group of ideologues who believe individual liberties are more important than any other cause. Our planet may burn, millions may die, and cities such as Moscow and New York may smoulder, but at least we will be free of petty regulation and bureaucracy. It seems a stiff price to pay.
Few issues piss me off as much as this one so let me make my thoughts clear. If you are a climate change denier then regardless of what views you might hold on any number of other issues, you are undeniably a fool, a jackass, a simpleton, a moron, a dolt, an imbecile and an idiot. And if that wasn't redundant enough for you, let me add this: you really are a stupid human being.
I've had enough with debating these ignoramuses on this issue. If they still don't get it given the wealth of data, information and expert opinion available, then they obviously lack the intellectual capacity or honest conviction to ever understand. The powers that be, in the U.S. and across the world, need to understand this and just get the job done. Pass comprehensive legislation that deals with this issue in a serious manner and let the denier's grandchildren thank you somewhere down the road.
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In what possible reverse PC universe does FOX beat out NPR as a news organization? It's amazing how the mainstream media just bends over backwards to "prove" to conservatives that it's not liberal. The Republicans, and the Republican propaganda organ, play the White House correspondents like a fiddle.
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From CNN.com: Florida church plans a Quran burning event.
In addition to being particularly hateful, what purpose does this serve aside from ratcheting up the tension? But, underneath it all, a Holy War is what these people want, isn't it?
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He let the fiscal fiasco known as Republican tax and budget policy gut the finances of the US, former Fed President Mr. Andrea Mitchell finally says tax cuts do not increase revenues.
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Mr. Obama's performance to date has not lived up to expectations, to be sure. He simply must do better - and, pssssst, Mr. President, your best move might be to forego this nonsense about compromising with the GOP and just get stuff done through reconciliation, filibuster reform and the ever-handy Executive Order - but the public's collective impression of his performance to date has been thoroughly skewed by the absence in our national discussion of the last guy to occupy the Oval. The media wants you to forget George W. Bush ever happened.It's hard for anyone with a brain to forget something we've been slapped in the face with every day for the last ten years.
Don't fall for it.
The American working and middle class has been put out to pasture: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/08/they-shoot-horses-dont-they.html
The White House wants to add just four words to the law that empowers the government to collect information on you w/o a warrant. But it would represent a huge expansion of the what the government could (legally) collect on you.
The administration wants to add just four words — "electronic communication transactional records" — to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication.But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters. These missives, which can be issued by an FBI field office on its own authority, require the recipient to provide the requested information and to keep the request secret. They are the mechanism the government would use to obtain the electronic records.
Make no mistake. This is one of the most important pieces of civil liberties news in a long time. The Obama Administration is asking Congress to sanction the collection of internet records without a warrant–the kind of shit they used to do without a warrant, until people expressed their opposition.
But then Democrats took over and now they want legal sanction and now–Voila, a request that presumably provides cover.
Go read this article.
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The US State Department plumbing the depths of the stupid ocean
One of the biggest fiascoes in the whole Iraq War clusterfuck was the massacre of civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square by the trigger=happy goons of a past State Department security contractor: Formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe (and probably soon to be known as the Princess Sparkle Pony Armed Escort Service). Blackwater was not the only contracting company that acted like a pack of thugs, they were just the most prominent.
And so now the State Department is going to try it again.
When you do something that doesn't turn out right and you keep trying again, there is a line where you cross from "stubborn" into "stupid".
We have a group of people whose job is to provide security for embassies. They are called the United States Marines. If the problem is that the Iraqis don't want American soldiers in Iraq, then fine, put the Marines in civilian clothes and we'll all pretend they are not Marines.
It worked for decades when the Japanese said that they did not want nuclear weapons on their territory and everyone pretended that they didn't know that American warships during the Cold War had nukes in their magazines.
The Coast Guard approved dozens of requests by BP to spread hundreds of thousands of gallons of surface oil dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico despite the Environmental Protection Agency's directive on May 26 that they should be used only rarely, according to documents and correspondence analyzed by a Congressional subcommittee.Between allowing BP to forbid the use of safety gear, decide who can fly where and who can see what, the Coast Guard has been operating as though it were a subsidiary of British Petroleum, rather than an agency of the U.S. Government.
BP's overuse of dispersants means that the oil, instead of being seen as large globs and goops that might have been picked up by skimmers, is now entering the Gulf's food chain. They've done a bang-up job of poisoning the Gulf.
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Michigan oil spill damages wildlife, forces residents to evacuate.
We clearly need to drill more.
###Was Saturday's Uni-Tea rally in Philadelphia a success? Well, it depends on your definition of "epic fail." If you're more on the defensive end of the tea party spectrum, you would have left the rally this afternoon even more convinced that the movement is not now about race and never has been. If you're the kind of tea partier who'd like to see that abounding not-racism result in some actual demographic diversity in the movement, the Uni-Tea rally appeared to be a borderline disaster… Among those who did make it, for most of the time the numbers of non-white faces could be counted on two hands, and maybe a foot.
But the best line of the TPM piece (I think) is:
Uni-Tea reached out the hand of tea party acceptance to young people, too — in the form of white conservative rapper Hi-Caliber and a band of veterans called The Bangers. "This reaches out to the 18-34 year-olds," organizer Jeffrey Weingarten said. It should be noted that Weingarten was successful in getting at least one 18-34 year-old to join him for the day: his son, Freedom Weingarten.
As they say, Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
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They're on their own - no going back now. "July was Iraq's deadliest month for more than two years, figures show, amid fears insurgents are exploiting a political power vacuum. Last month, 535 people were killed and 1,000 hurt in bombings or other attacks, Iraq said, although the US insisted the tolls were much lower. Insurgent attacks have increased since inconclusive elections in March. Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions that won most seats are still bickering over who should be the next prime minister. Both former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and incumbent Nouri Maliki insist that they are best placed to lead the war-torn country. March's elections left Mr Allawi's Sunni-backed secular Iraqiyya alliance with 91 seats, just two ahead of Mr Maliki's mainly Shia coalition. Both are well short of the 163 seats needed to form a government, meaning that some sort of wider coalition will be needed. People are getting fed up with the stalemate, the BBC's Hugh Sykes reports from Baghdad. It is very hot - above 50C (122F) some days - but there are incessant power cuts, and there have already been street demonstrations complaining about the failure to provide enough electricity for fans, air conditioners and fridges. And violence is beginning to re-occupy the political vacuum, our correspondent says."
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The undead still walk among us
Former US vice president Dick Cheney is out of intensive care but still in hospital more than five weeks after being admitted for his latest heart problems, his evil spawn said Sunday on Fox News, her personal Facebook.
"He is still in the hospital, but he's doing well.
He's out of the intensive care unit and hopefully will be home later this week. He's looking at fly fishing and hunting dates for later on this year, so we're very hopeful.– Liz Cheney, the MOST IMPORTANT DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR NEAR EASTERN AFFAIRS In Our Nation's History, Maybe Ever
"In the meanwhile," the Princess of Darkness did not say, "we are looking for some old guys for him to shoot in the face, you know, to help him keep his morale up."
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General Petraeus has once again given the green light to airstrikes on "dilapidated buildings or other abandoned structures" in Afghanistan, which may be troubling because virtually every structure in Afghanistan is dilapidated to one degree or another. WSJ via Fox
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