Why can't we make them EAT this? Oil men CHANGING scientific reports...

[Pepperbelly]

This is incredible. I could not have written it as fiction, no one would believe it.

-snip-

A White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down the links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal U.S. government documents.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/08/news/climate.php

And we PISS away our time, energy and efforts on who said what about whom! These bastards are stealing EVERYTHING while we fiddle.

:grr:

[Coexist]

1. how many scandals can a girl handle?

my goodness. I am so tired of being stunned and pissed off.

[indepat]

2. Will nothing, absolutely nothing, stir up some outrage among the sheeple?

[welshTerrier2]

3. here's another similar case from today's Guardian ...

below is from a post i made earlier today ... do we see a pattern here?

perhaps this is what our Party leaders should be talking about today instead of all this other noise and nonsense? the answer to "why can't we make them EAT this is disturbing yet simple ... the Democrats never lay the groundwork for stories like this ... when we talk about this country being a "corporate state", this is what we mean ... let's stop using the term "special interests" ... let's start talking about corruption of our democracy ... let's start talking about secretive lobbyists buying government influence ... let's start talking about the best interests of American citizens ... let's start talking about the broad pattern of corporate abuse ... we never come at these things with a long-term, organized battle plan ... instead, at best, we send off a bunch of snipers to make the attack ... and often Democrats don't comment at all on what should be an important story ...

the Democratic Party needs to put issues like this in context long before specific evidence, like the cases you and i have highlighted, are brought before the public as proof ... these should be examples of our major themes ... we have no context and our candidates, when they next run, will have no context to speak from ... if we want to get our message out, it needs to start now and it needs to be cast in broad underlying themes ... and that, my good friend Mr. Pepperbelly, is why these important stories will go absolutely nowhere ...

here was my earlier post:

you may be shocked to learn that Exxon (you know their slogan: "look for the sign of the double cross") has been "helping" bush formulate his environmental policy ... Exxon has been denying this since bush took office but documents now prove they've been lying ... quelle suprise !!!

today's Guardian has a Special Report showing the extent to which the corporate state, especially big oil, is driving US policy ...

***************************

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1...

President's George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to the Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries, according to US State Department papers seen by the Guardian.

The documents, which emerged as Tony Blair visited the White House for discussions on climate change before next month's G8 meeting, reinforce widely-held suspicions of how close the company is to the administration and its role in helping to formulate US policy.

In briefing papers given before meetings to the US under-secretary of state, Paula Dobriansky, between 2001 and 2004, the administration is found thanking Exxon executives for the company's "active involvement" in helping to determine climate change policy, and also seeking its advice on what climate change policies the company might find acceptable. <skip>

"President Bush tells Mr Blair he's concerned about climate change, but these documents reveal the alarming truth, that policy in this White House is being written by the world's most powerful oil company. This administration's climate policy is a menace to humanity," said Stephen Tindale, Greenpeace's executive director in London last night. <skip>

***************************

[Pepperbelly]

4. I think you have hit the nail right on its flat head.

INFLUENCE PEDDLERS RUN GEORGE BUSH'S AMERICA is a good succinct way of putting a mosaic of corruption, neglect, and shameless promotion of the most harmful things so long as it serves the interests of their monied partners.

Whether it is allowing a powerful and egregiously gouging company to write policy or putting an oil industry lobbyist in a position of authority and allowing that person to tailor scientific reports to suit what the oil companies want rather than the truth or allowing energy execs (i.e. Enron, Haliburton, et al) to develop the country's energy policy, this things should be a fabric of discourse, not something that disappears into the memory hole. When it becomes part of the fabric, then the succinct phrase .... INFLUENCE PEDDLERS RUN GEORGE BUSH'S AMERICA would gain traction. I think you have discovered a technique for taking back our public debate.

Something else we need to do is to make sure that the people representing our side of things know their shit a little better. Their laziness and inattention to preparation makes them poor advocate. In fact, I think they do more harm than good. Our people need to get their shit into one sock, be aggressive, and put the context out there.

[welshTerrier2]

5. your two cents ...

you might want to toss it in on this thread ==> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1838633&mesg_id=1838633

it could use a good kick for the night crowd ...

[Pepperbelly]

6. and you might check this out ...

I think that this, too, is one of the big problems with which we must deal if we ever want to win again.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1836976&mesg_id=1836976

On edit, I forgot the link. Ooooops. :smoke:

[welshTerrier2]

7. check it out ...

i added a reply to your thread ... thanks for the link ... i couldn't agree more ... what a total waste of time all this Dean said this and Dean said that arguing is ...

[athena]

8. The NYT was the first to report this, I think.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/politics/08climate.html

[LeahD]

9. NBC Nightly News Gave it Brief Coverage tonight. n/t

[oxbow]

10. I agree, this is scandal overload

We must keep hammering the DSM/ We can't ignore this though. What should we do? I for one am getting a bit tired of how much corruption there is to deal with here!

[MiniMe]

11. WH answer: they didn't change anything important.

The oilmen relied on their own scientific data.

Yeah, right.

[Pooka Fey]

12. Nothing to see !! (Atlantic current stops/Europe is freezing) MOVE ALONG !

Britain faces big chill as ocean current slows
Jonathan Leake, Science Editor
The Times Online (UK)
May 08, 2005
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/051305_world_stories.shtml#1
<snip>
CLIMATE change researchers have detected the first signs of a slowdown in the Gulf Stream - the mighty ocean current that keeps Britain and Europe from freezing....They have found that one of the "engines" driving the Gulf Stream - the sinking of supercooled water in the Greenland Sea - has weakened to less than a quarter of its former strength.

The weakening, apparently caused by global warming, could herald big changes in the current over the next few years or decades. Paradoxically, it could lead to Britain and northwestern and Europe undergoing a sharp drop in temperatures....Such a change has long been predicted by scientists but the new research is among the first to show clear experimental evidence of the phenomenon.
<snip>
:scared::scared::scared::scared::scared::scared::scared::scared::scared:
Cold Snap chills much of Europe
By Kerstin Joensson, AP
USA Today
June 8, 2005
<snip>
So much snow fell Wednesday on parts of Austria that authorities closed roads to cars without tire chains. And temperatures dipped below freezing in corners of Croatia, England and Scotland, fouling moods and spoiling picnic plans....The unseasonably cold June has even caused headaches in Italy, a country that's normally balmy at this time of year. Officials say cooler-than-usual temperatures and hailstorms have caused significant damage to crops....In agricultural areas near Verona in northeastern Italy — one of the hardest-hit areas — between 30% and 40% of peaches and apples were lost after hail pummeled trees, according to Coldiretti, an Italian farmers' association.

It's been far colder than usual in parts of Germany, where overnight temperatures recently have dropped as low as 35 in the east and in neighboring Switzerland, where high winds swept away several tents at a fairground last weekend....Many parts of Britain also have had an unusually cold June....Temperatures fell below freezing on Tuesday, with thermometers in the village of Aboyne, Scotland, recording 30 degrees, the Meteorological Office said. It is predicting more chilly nights this week.
<snip>
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2005-06-08-chilly-june-europe_x.htm?csp=28&RM_Exclude=Juno

[jasmeel]

13. JS mentioned it on TDS last night! n/t