Another Bush Knife In The Back

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeBush has broken his promise to the G8 Summit and has now rejected the regulation of greenhouse gases. The Bush administration on Friday rejected regulating greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, saying it would cause too many job losses. In a 588-page federal notice, the Environmental Protection made no finding on whether global warming poses a threat to people's health, reversing an earlier conclusion at the insistence of the White House and officially kicking any decision on a solution to the next president and Congress. The White House on Thursday rejected EPA's conclusion three weeks earlier that the 1970 Clean Air Act "can be both workable and effective for addressing global climate change." Instead, EPA said Friday that law is "ill-suited" for dealing with climate change. This contrasts sharply with the tone of statements President Bush made at the just-concluded G-8 summit of leading industrialized nations in Toyako, Japan. The United States at that meeting joined other summit partners in embracing a policy declaration to seek a 50 percent reduction in global greenhouse gases by 2050. Sure, let's just wait some more. The North Pole ice cap will always be there. Antarctica's ice shelfs won't float past Australia and Africa. We have all the time in the world... now, don't you feel more relaxed once you are wrapped in blankets of denial? It is so warm in there.

Oil vs Ice

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeThankfully, California is doing something about global warming. California outlined for the first time the largest U.S. attempt to regulate greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, calling for the creation of a new emissions- trading program and increased renewable-energy production. All parts of the $1.6 trillion economy, the largest of the U.S. states, would be affected. Utilities, refiners, carmakers, farmers, manufacturers and forest managers would be called on to cut pollution under the draft plan released today by the state Air Resources Board. The blueprint comes 18 months after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law requiring the country's most populous state to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The law is the most far-reaching of any climate-change plan in the U.S., where President George W. Bush's administration and Congress have resisted mandatory caps on greenhouse gases. But is it too late? When polar bears start suffering from heat stroke, you know something is wrong. The plight of the polar bear is not just hinged on global warming. In Iceland, polar bears are being shot dead. Icelandic authorities said they were forced to shoot a polar bear found wandering on the island in order to protect the public after a plan to anaesthetize the animal was abandoned. The bear, an adult male weighing around 250 kg (500 lbs), was presumed to have swum to shore from drifting ice. The last time a polar bear came ashore in Iceland was in 1988. "There was a lot of fog in the area and the bear was moving into the fog. We couldn't risk losing him and there was no time to wait for anaesthetics, so we had to shoot him. It was for the safety of the public," Police Superintendent Stefan Vagn Stefansson told Icelandic national radio on Wednesday. In response to a public outcry at the shooting, the environmental ministry said it would review the incident to see if it could avoid shooting the next bear that lands in the country. The world's largest land-based predator lives in the Arctic, depending largely on sea ice to hunt seals. The sport hunting of polar bears continues and some groups wants to lift the ban of polar bear hide importation into the US. And of course, oil companies are given full permission to harass polar bears. T'S just over a month since the US government designated the polar bear as an endangered species. Now the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) stands accused of giving oil companies a "blank cheque to harass polar bears". The row revolves around the seven oil companies that paid $2.6 billion in February for the rights to look for oil in the Chukchi Sea, off the coast of Alaska. Some 2000 polar bears live in the region - a significant chunk of the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 bears worldwide, and the companies were worried that environmental groups might take legal action to prevent the animals being disturbed. But the FWS issued regulations last week permitting firms to disturb "small numbers" of bears and walruses without fear of prosecution as long as they report each incident and take steps to minimise the animals' stress. If underwater sonar is being used, for instance, engineers must stop surveying should a bear swim close by.

McCain Doesn’t Do “New”

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeMcCain was speaking about his "new" energy policy of $300 million, "one dollar for every American" to leap-frog to the next level of battery technology so we can have plug-in hybrids. Here is a link for the McCain campaign's science adviser - Lithium-Ion Batteries. They are available now. The technologies required to put them into automobiles are available now. But McCain wants to drill the shit out of ANWR - an old Bush policy. McCain also wants to drill the shit out of American coastal areas. Also McCain wants to blow the shit out of mountains to get out all the dirty coal out that he can, with total disregard to the environment - just like Bush. Lastly, even though McCain is trying hard to be green, he fails to understand the true impact of global warming. His $300 million, wrongly spent, does nothing to solve the climate crisis. McCain's insistence in allowing the "free market" economy solve that woe is Bushian to the core. More McSame for a Do-Nothing President. SPECIAL REQUEST FOR TCD FANS: The San Francisco Chronicle is pondering the addition of new cartoons for their paper - a process that seems to be initiated by Darren Bell, creator of Candorville (one of my daily reads - highly recommended). You can read the Chronicle article here and please add your thoughts to the comments if you wish. If anything, put in a good word for Darren and Candorville. I am submitting Town Called Dobson to the paper for their consideration. They seem to have given great weight to receiving 200 messages considering Candorville. I am asking TCD fans to try to surpass that amount. (I get more than that many hate mails a day, surely fans can do better?) This is not a race between the two of us, it is a hope that more progressive strips can be represented in the printed press of America. So if you read the San Francisco Chronicle or live in the Bay Area (Google Analytics tell me there are a lot of you), please send your kind comments (or naked, straining outrage) to David Wiegand at his published addresses below. If you are a subscriber, cut out your mailing label and staple it to a TCD strip and include it in your letter. candorcomment@sfchronicle.com or David Wiegand Executive Datebook Editor The San Francisco Chronicle 901 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103

Holy Crap! Barack Obama Is Black!

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal, as well as the Wild Wild Left, the Independent Bloggers Alliance, the Peace Tree and Worldwide Sawdust. Anybody out there ever watch the Family Guy cartoon on the American Goebell’s Network otherwise known as FOX? The only reason to watch FOX is for cartoons such as The Simpsons or The Family Guy. How ironic FOX airs cartoons with satirical commentary about America’s conservative culture. Anyway, some years ago, an episode of the Family Guy showed imbecile father/husband Peter Griffin watching Star Trek on television. In typical Peter fashion he observed, “Holy crap! Lt. Uhura is black!” Adding to the humor was how Peter watched Star Trek regularly and only realized Uhura was black that very moment. Watching news coverage of this year’s presidential campaign I feel like everyone from corporate media executives, field reporters and the Clintons have declared: “Holy crap! Barack Obama is black!” Bill Clinton hoped to diminish the outcome of South Carolina by noting how Jesse Jackson (a black man!) won the primary in 1984 and 1988. In other words just a black man getting a lot of black votes in South Carolina. Black votes can’t possibly be considered as a credible bellwether of a candidate’s political viability unless they’re supporting the Clintons. The media of course fanned the flames of race to further generate hype. Hype is far easier to cover than substance anyway. Sadly, it will only get worse as we approach Epic Tuesday on February 5th. You will read and hear more “horserace” garbage about the Clintons scheming for the woman vote and using subtle codified language to remind voters that Obama is the “black candidate.” Meanwhile, the John Edwards populist anti-corporate message will be dwarfed, as the media instead focuses on how he splits white southern voters with Hillary Clinton. Finally, you will begin to read how important Hispanic voters are in states such as California as pundits ponder whether “brown” voters combined with women will help Clinton over Obama. A subtle backdrop to all this is how the corporatist media could never allow John Edwards to prevail because he just might implement policies that benefit wage earners at the expense of America’s corporatist pro-war plutocracy. Populism isn't sexy and doesn't fit into a narrative that reconciles with America's corporatist brain massage machine. Please forgive me for pointing out that the stakes demand infinitely more respect than treating this election as an insipid beauty contest. For starters, the greatest threat to humanity today is global warming. Nothing else comes close. Certainly not the fear mongering canard known as "radical Islam" exploited by sniveling neo-cons. On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cited a report from Independent Alert, a London based peace organization that identified 46 countries with 2.7 billion people where climate change and water-related crises create "a high risk of violent conflict" while an additional 56 countries, with 1.2 billion people "are at high risk of violent conflict." I posted about this very topic in December 2005 and noted evidence of a growing water shortage in the American southwest. How come we never hear any of the candidates asked about the world’s pending crisis regarding access to fresh water? All the Democratic candidates and John McCain regularly utter platitudes about global warming but have any of them even thought through the challenges ahead once global water shortage reaches critical mass? Has any journalist thought of asking them about the issue during the debates instead of their usual gotcha drivel? And then there is the minor problem of America’s crumbling infrastructure. Typically, infrastructure and capital projects fall under the bailiwick of state and local governments. Seven years of insipid conservative rule, crony capitalism and tax cuts favoring the rich have created a fiscal calamity for municipal governments nationwide. Perhaps the candidates should be asked if they have a plan to bail out municipal governments and how they intend to pay for it. In yesterday’s New York Times, William Yardley reported about the increasing demands for infrastructure repairs and the inability of municipal governments to meet their obligations. If you think that isn’t important I suggest talking to those Minnesota families who lost loved ones when the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed last summer. And don’t get me started on New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. If we're discussing race why not ask the candidates about the number one growth industry in America today: incarcerating young black men to populate our prisons? America’s prison industrial complex is as much a blight on our national soul as Guantanamo. What does Barack Obama think about that? Perhaps he should be asked that question during the debates. Finally, I realize Americans would prefer to just ignore the world but like it or not, we’re currently occupying two countries. Regardless of whatever propaganda you read about the surge working in Iraq or progress in Afghanistan, our continuing occupation of both countries is ineffective and immoral. Yet how many interviews have you observed with the presidential candidates when they’re not asked a single question about either Iraq or Afghanistan? Why not ask the presidential candidates what they intend to do about the increased opium trade in the United States due to our occupation in Afghanistan? There is also more to the world than America’s occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Rape and violence against women is used as a weapon in the Congo’s ongoing civil war. Genocide continues in Kenya and Darfur. The Bush Administration, Prime Minister Olmert’s government in Israel and Palestinian President Abbas thought they could simply inhumanely ignore the people of Gaza. As a result there is a border crisis with Egypt to further destabilize the region. Challenges abound at home and abroad with far reaching repercussions for our society, economy, security and ecosystem. Furthermore, the American empire is disintegrating and the fall out needs to be managed with tolerance and sense. But who cares about any of that? Barack Obama is black! Holy crap!

Al Gore is the Kwisatz Haderach

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeFrequent readers of TCD will know I have made a few references to Frank Herbert's Dune series - maybe some of the best science fiction ever written. What I can't escape is the close allegories between Dune and the current political climate. It is fun to play at placing the characters around the story. Is Karl Rove part of the Spacing Guild or House Harkonnen - maybe a mentat? Rice has to be a Bene Gesserit. I shudder to think of the role of Barbara Bush in all of this. Taking this game to the logical conclusion, Al Gore is the Madhi, the off-world prophet that will lead the Fremen and the world of Arrakis to a paradise of green and lush ecology. But there is a price and that price is a loss of spice that the Empire needs in great abundance to continue its reign of power. That of course makes all of the Gore supporters, Fremen. Bi-La-Kaifa!

Derangement and Denial

Appearing at The Jaundiced Eye, the Independent Bloggers' Alliance, and My Left Wing. Update: Blog Action Day 2007 has been declared by its organizers an "unprecedented success." They have documented the participation of 20,603 bloggers who blogged on the environment on October 15, 2007. With that the Blog Action Team appears to have folded its tent and gone home, taking their graphics with them. (Art for this entry has been replaced.) Thanks for reading. Krugman hits it out of the park once again, with a send-up of conservative dissonance. Faced with the reality of Al Gore's Nobel win, denial rules the right. On the day after Al Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize, The Wall Street Journal’s editors couldn’t even bring themselves to mention Mr. Gore’s name. Instead, they devoted their editorial to a long list of people they thought deserved the prize more. And at National Review Online, Iain Murray suggested that the prize should have been shared with “that well-known peace campaigner Osama bin Laden, who implicitly endorsed Gore’s stance.” You see, bin Laden once said something about climate change — therefore, anyone who talks about climate change is a friend of the terrorists. And so the slime machine slugs along in its tireless disregard for troublesome facts. Still more merriment was to be found on Fox News Sunday, where Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer came not to praise Gore but to bury him. Sarcastically calling Gore’s win “deeply moving,” Kristol disparaged Gore and the Nobel prize itself, saying “it’s a prize given by bloviators to a bloviator”: KRISTOL: Friday, I felt a warm glow thinking that this man got the Nobel Peace Prize for bloviating about global warming. I mean, it’s a prize given by bloviators to a bloviator for nothing. What did he — he was Vice President of the United States for eight years. I missed the Clinton administration’s bold initiatives on global warming and carbon caps. Did they enforce the Kyoto Treaty? I don’t think so. You know, so he gets the Nobel Peace Prize for talking. Claiming that the Nobel Peace Prize is “the Kentucky Derby of the world left,” Krauthammer was even more shrill than Kristol, saying “Al Gore now joins the ranks of Yasser Arafat, the father of modern terrorism.” He then claimed the award “has nothing to do with peace” and that “it gives it to people whose politics are either anti-American or anti-Bush, and that’s why [Gore] won it.” Laying aside, for the moment, the hilarity of warmongers like Kristol and Krauthammer discussing what does and doesn't advance peace, I must point out that the issue of global warming, which the Nobel committee has underscored with Gore's award, has a very direct connection to issues of peace and security. Or so the Pentagon learned when it commissioned a risk assessment study... which they promptly buried. Appointed to head that study was Edward W. Marshall, or "Yoda," as he is referred to in Pentagon circles. The findings could only prove embarrassing to an Administration in denial of the reality of global warming. Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.. A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents. 'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.' Global warming, a bigger threat than terrorism! Where is our war on greenhouse gases? Krugman explains why the Bush Administration has it's head in the sand -- looking for oil, presumably -- while we are teetering on the brink of a genuine security nightmare. Today, being a good Republican means believing that taxes should always be cut, never raised. It also means believing that we should bomb and bully foreigners, not negotiate with them. So if science says that we have a big problem that can’t be solved with tax cuts or bombs — well, the science must be rejected, and the scientists must be slimed.

Deny, Deny, Deny - The GOP Weapon Against Gore

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge And the GOP Smear Machine wasted no time going after Gore - the first volley shot by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. "Morning Joe" started with the lies about Gore's use of private jets (fact, Gore uses airlines) and the rest of the show went downhill after that. The only weapon the GOP has anymore are lies. And it is getting very hard to stand behind those lies when the climate is going to hell all around us. Atlanta only has 12 weeks of water supply left, many parts of the country are experiencing summer weather and most of the Arctic ice pack is gone. Should that be a surprise since the temperatures have hovered near the 70's all summer? Now an adventure to the North Pole takes the same preparation as an April trip to Myrtle Beach - sunblock and a light windbreaker. Lastly, someone should think about drafting Gore to run for President. Really.

It's Not Just The Humidity

24 Goes Green

It may sound like a publicity stunt, but Fox spokesman Chris Anderson says the network isn't after bigger ratings. "We are publicizing '24's' commitment to climate change for two reasons and two reasons only: to inspire the public to take global warming seriously and hopefully to motivate other studios to make changes to their production practices as well," he says. The show's electricity bills will go toward renewable-energy credits that will bring a share of wind, solar and water power to Los Angeles's grid. A diesel-powered soundstage will be converted to electricity, thus lessening the show's contribution to the local air pollution problem, and the show's five location scouts will be given Priuses to drive. Scripts, schedules and memos -- which used to be hand-delivered by car -- will be sent via e-mail. The "24" page at Fox.com now features energy conservation tips and a public service announcement about global warming featuring Kiefer Sutherland; more information will be posted when the show airs in January. Plus, climate change will be incorporated into the series' plot (which just might scare some viewers into taking action). Maybe I'm wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised Kiefer himself gently nudged 24 in this direction. After all, his dad was a long-haired, rabble-rousing hippie from the old school (M*A*S*H, FTA). And from the few interviews I've read, Kiefer has always appeared uncomfortable with the program's fascist inclinations, especially in the later episodes. Still, as a struggling actor who was one step away from either obscurity or a reality TV series before 24, I'm sure he's even more uncomfortable nibbling the hand that signs his big paychecks. But hey, whatever works. I'm not a purist. Anything that gets the mainstream audience thinking seriously about global warming is good. Sure, maybe Jack Bauer beats up dirtbag Muslims, but at least his recycles his trash, right? A tip of the Kangol to The Blogging Curmudgeon.

Airhead

Stupidity got us into this mess, why can't it get us out? --Will Rogers I read this in USA Today: NASA chief regrets comments on warming The head of NASA told scientists and engineers that he regrets airing his personal views about global warming in a recent radio interview, according to a video of the meeting obstained by the Associated Press. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in the closed-door meeting Monday at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., that "unfortunately, this is an issue which has become far more political than technical." "I feel badly that I caused this amount of controversy," he said. Griffin made news last week when he told National Public Radio he wasn't sure global warming "is a long-term concern." Huh? Griffin is a delusional Luddite who should be the President of The Flat Earth Society, not the NASA chief. Only in George Bush's America.

Desmond Tutu on global warming

This is worth reading and sharing: The melting of the snows on the peak of Kilimanjaro is a warning of the changes taking place in Africa. Across this beautiful but vulnerable continent, people are already feeling the change in the weather. But rain or drought, the result is the same: more hunger and more misery for millions of people living on the margins of global society. Even in places such as Darfur, climate change has played a role. In the semi-arid zones of the world, there is fierce competition for access to grazing lands and watering holes. Where water is scarce and populations are growing, conflict will never be far behind. Click here for the rest.

Going Backwards

Forget about Stephen King and his fake boogeymen. If you want to have the shit scared out of you, then read this nightmare scenario by David Michael Green, a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York: "One day you’re gonna wake up in a hostile world where your country no longer has any friends. There will be governments of other countries – former long-standing allies – that cannot afford to have anything to do with you, lest their publics angrily remove them from office for collaborating with a country as hated as yours. Nor will those governments trust yours anyway. They will perhaps possess intelligence that could save your life, but they will not share it. They will possess forces that could help you survive real security threats, but they will not provide them. Your country will have become an international pariah, the South Africa of the twenty-first century." You can read the rest of Professor Green's terrifying essay here. This canary-in-a-coal-mine memo was from Alternative Brain. And thanks for the sleepless nights, guys. But, then again, you can't see the oncoming train with your eyes closed. ,

Log Cabin Polar Bears

Republicans depend on good intelligence.

click to enlarge Inhofe is a sterling example of what the GOP is, stupid, willfully ignorant and whiny. Yesterday's confrontation between Gore and Inhofe shows clearly who the adults are in the room. From our friends at Grist: First, he spent the beginning of the hearing whining about the rules, and whether Gore submitted his testimony in time, and whether he was going to get his full 15 minutes, and whether if Gore's answers were too long he'd get time added, and etc. etc. Then when time came to question Gore, he started by demanding yes-or-no answers to charged and misleading questions. He repeatedly cut Gore off and talked over him. At one point he demanded that Gore respond in writing! Then he said verbal responses are OK if they're "brief." When Boxer tried to intervene to give Gore a little time to answer, he snapped and her and whined about not getting his full time. Then -- the hacktacular coup de grace -- he asked Gore to sign a pledge to reduce his personal home energy use to that of an average American. As gimmicks go, this one would embarrass a high school student, but Inhofe's band of knuckle-draggers seems quite pleased with themselves. I'm sure there were frat boy back slaps all around. But every time Gore tried to respond, Inhofe cut him off - typical of those who are unwilling to listen. They are only concerned with their agendas and have no care about America or its future. When the bulk of Gore's message is that we are in a "true planetary emergency" one would hope all Senators would ask more poignant questions besides ones dealing Gore's electric bill.

"A terrifying message from Al Gore"

When I went to find the video of Al Gore's global warming testimony on You Tube, I noticed the video entitled "A terrifying message from Al Gore", which featured a cartoon Al Gore and Bender the robot from Futurama doing an ad for An Inconvenient Truth. And I remembered I'd transcribed that, complete with screen caps, a while back--for anyone who might not be able to view the video for whatever reason. Enjoy... "Hello, I'm Al Gore, and I'm here to scare you about global warming. If we don't take immediate action, our planet, Earth, will become a deadly smog ball that chokes out all human life." "Good! More beer for the robots!" 2D Al Gore goes on about the risks to the Earth, including noxious gasses... ...and then says "It's all in my movie." Bender: You're in a movie? What do you play? A burned out cop? A streetwise pimp...? Gore: (deadpan) Yes, I play a streetwise pimp with a hybrid pimpmobile. Bender: Boooring! Gore: It's not boring! I'm trying to save us all from certain death! Bender: "Save us all from certain death." Less talk, more action!" Gore: You want action? Here's some action! Voiceover: An Inconvenient Truth. The movie that will make you feel like you should probably do something! Gore: And don't forget to recycle!

Al Gore to testify before Congress Wednesday

Via Yahoo News: Former Vice President Al Gore has collected nearly 300,000 electronic signatures asking Congress to take action on global warming, Gore said in an entry on his Web site Friday. Gore said the signatures demonstrate "that hundreds of thousands of people share my sense of urgency" on climate change. Gore is scheduled to testify before Congress about the issue Wednesday. Click here for more of the article, and here to visit Al Gore's online journal. You can add your own electronic signature here.