Open Water At The North Pole

-
There's a strong possibility that artic weather will be so warm this year that there will be open water at the North Pole. But perhaps it isn't really Climate Change, it might be all that Republican hot-air and over-heated rhetoric that's melting the artic ice cap.

North Pole on Thin Ice

Some scientists have asserted that the Arctic ice cap could retreat so dramatically this summer that there could be open water covering the North Pole.

Who Muzzled This Climate Scientist?

Two years ago, the quiet and bookish climate scientist James Hansen kicked up a tempest. He alleged that his work on global warming at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies had been censored, and that he had been prevented from speaking to reporters by politically appointees in NASA’s public affairs office.

Hansen has been outspoken on his belief that the consequences of global warming could be drastic, and that the United States should act as soon as possible to regulate greenhouse gases. After his accusations of censorship were aired in the press, 14 senators requested a full investigation by NASA’s inspector general. Now, the results are in.

From the fall of 2004 through 2006, the report said, NASA’s public affairs office “managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public.” It noted elsewhere that “news releases in the areas of climate change suffered from inaccuracy, factual insufficiency, and scientific dilution” [Washington Post].

...(Discover Magazine - full article)

Dino Rossi's Lowlife Pals

-
They say you can judge a person by the company he keeps and Dino Rossi's bestest buddies are the right-wing extremists who run the BIAW. They've already dumped half a million dollars into scurrilous attack ads. But of course, lies and slander are daily fare for the BIAW's staff.

Rossi's top backers slur environmentalists as Nazis

-Republican Dino Rossi's top backers, the most powerful special interest lobbying group in Olympia, have taken to slurring environmentalists by trivializing Nazism and the Holocaust. Rossi refuses to reject and denounce these remarks, because his political career has been built from the ground up by BIAW. Even today, BIAW continues to spend millions on misleading attack ads against Gov. Gregoire. Visit http://www.therealdinorossi2008.com/ for more information

-

The Agenda Behind Rossi & His Special Interest Pals

Between dumping $500,000 into false and misleading attack ads aimed at installing Rossi into the governor's mansion and $450,000 Rossi has pocketed directly from the BIAW, its top leadership and major developers that comprise the BIAW's membership base, Olympia's most powerful special interest lobbyists have now dumped nearly $1 million into Republican Dino Rossi's campaign to bring their Bush-like anti-worker, anti-environmental, anti-consumer agenda to Washington state.

greed on steroids

The cancerous phase of unregulated, corporate welfare, externalize costs and rake in the profits continues. The contrast between a fisherman and a corporate CEO couldn't be more clear. Always leads me to wonder..."just exactly what is it that guy does in an hour that is so unbelieveably valuable????????????" hmmmm

The Exxon Valdez ruling: requiem for fishermen, justice
Finally, after more than 19 years, the Supreme Court has put to rest litigation over punitive damages in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound.
By Frank Mullen
Special to The Times

Oil-covered birds were among the many victims in Prince William Sound in 1989 after the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground about 25 miles from Valdez.

Finally, after more than 19 years, the Supreme Court has put to rest litigation over punitive damages in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound. As a
fisherman involved in the litigation, I have dedicated one-third of my life to observation of this "David vs. Goliath" conflict.
Naturally, since I was an oil-damaged fisherman who lost an entire season of salmon fishing — who waded with hip boots in knee-deep oily mousse along pristine Alaska shoreline while picking up bird carcasses with a stick; who observed firsthand the comedy of horrors as Exxon hired the VECO Corporation to waste millions in a pathetically ineffective response; who has replayed a thousand times in my mind the voice of the drunk Joe Hazelwood slurring into the microphone his report to the Coast Guard: "We have fetched up hard aground on Bligh Reef ... ."

— I expected this case to be a no-brainer, and that the U.S. justice system would prevail on behalf of the little guy. Little did I know in 1989 that I would be sitting at a keyboard nearly 20 years later reflecting on the failures of the U.S. justice system. Little did I know that, as the years went by and I attended funerals of many of my fishermen friends who passed away without seeing closure to this agony, that I would grow to be so angry and disheartened by the success that Exxon has had with their methodical manipulation of the justice system. Way back in 1989, it was rumored that Lee Raymond, the CEO of Exxon at that time, was saying privately that he would dedicate every resource of the corporation to making sure that fishermen never received a dime in compensation. I find it interesting to note that Raymond's severance package when he retired from Exxon some years ago was about $400 million. Now, nearly 33,000 plaintiffs must split an amount only slightly higher than that!

full article
Fisherman Frank
Mullen lives in Homer, Alaska.

and this from the Alaska
News.........

... Last year, Exxon generated a record $40.6 billion dollars in profits, the largest profits of any corporation in history. The damages awarded under this ruling represent roughly 4.5 days of Exxon profits. ...
full article


looks like Alaska has a really good candidate running Berkowitz Condemns Exxon Valdez Ruling


powerful little video...imagine if the fisherman had received what the consultants where paid to introduce doubt about the external costs these criminals have shifted to us as they reap in record profits......it's our home!

and the contrast between where Lee Raymond, CEOExxon, and the residents and fisherman of Valdez are these almost 20 years later.....hmmmmmm

An Oily Favor
By William Raspberry
Monday, November 14, 2005

Oil profits "go up and down," Exxon Mobil Chairman Lee Raymond told the Senate the other day, explaining why the oil giants' huge post Katrina profits were not profiteering.

Exxon Mobil Chairman Lee Raymond, left, and Chevron Chairman David O'Reilly during a Senate hearing last week. (By Pablo Martinez Monsivais -- Associated Press)

Thus the $32.8 billion in profits that America's five biggest petroleum corporations reported for the JulySeptember quarter were more like a natural occurrence -- that darned "invisible hand"! -- than a calculated effort to take advantage of a national emergency. Profits just "go up and down."
full article

Robert Kennedy, Jr.spoke in Bellingham today

I had the pleasure of attending an event hosted by RE Sources where Robert Kennedy, Jr. spoke eloquently and passionately about the situation we find ourselves in, on this planet of ours. His case for a true free market, allowing us to be good stewards of the planet we all share, is right on. We have a planetary emergency on our hands. We can no longer allow a handful of people to enrich themselves as they greedily squander our shared resources and pass the mess and the bill for the clean-up on to rest of us. We need to immediately stop subsidizing them to behave this way.
I really enjoyed his stories about the law students at Pace University School of Law learning to try cases by trying cases against Hudson River polluters. And winning!!!
It was great to be there for a very inspiring, hopeful message and also to see so many people in this community who care. I hope we are all waking up so we can leave a hospitable home to those who come after. I really appreciate the great work being done by the folks at RE Sources....thanks!

oh, and be sure to go to their be cool page and sign up to be cool

RE Sources' North Sound Baykeeper, Wendy Steffensen with Robert Kennedy, Jr.

RE Sources had a rare opportunity to host Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for a summer luncheon to raise funds and awareness for our North Sound Baykeeper program.

An international spokesperson for the Waterkeeper Alliance and attorney for the
Natural Resource Defense Council, Mr. Kennedy will discuss local and regional
clean water issues and highlight the work of RE Sources’ own Baykeeper, Wendy
Steffensen

Wake Up And Smell The Death

-

Out of sight, out of mind? The dying goes on, even if it isn't on the nightly news.

"06/25/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Capt. Gregory T. Dalessio, 30, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, died June 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered in Salman Pak, Iraq, when his patrol encountered small arms fire during combat operations. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion..."

"06/24/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Staff Sgt. Du Hai Tran, 30, of Reseda, Calif.,died Jun. 20 in Baqubah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on patrol during combat operations. He was assigned to the Fires Squadron..."

Iraq story buried by US networks- features Lara Logan of CBS

More at http://therealnews.com/c.php?c=080601YT
Major networks spend only 2 minutes per week on Iraq war coverage; Lara Logan of CBS joins critique

It's The Strategy, Stupid

-
The Bush Administrations has screwed up from day one. They may have been good at pulling the wool over Americans eyes but once they got the wars they wanted, they proved over and over again that they are a batch of incompetent boobs.

It would be laughable if it weren't for all the suffering and death they've spread.

-NBC: Commanders in Afghanistan say Iraq is hurting them

There are still Bush dead-enders out there saying, "the surge is working" but that just ain't true.

Government Study Criticizes Bush Administration’s Measures of Progress in Iraq

By JAMES GLANZ
Published: June 24, 2008

Beyond the declines in overall violence in Iraq, several crucial measures the Bush administration uses to demonstrate economic, political and security progress are either incorrect or far more mixed than the administration has acknowledged, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.

Over all, the report says, the American plan for a stable Iraq lacks a strategic framework that meshes with the administration’s goals, is falling out of touch with the realities on the ground and contains serious flaws in its operational guidelines. ...(full article)

Global Warming - Truth Or Reality?

-
It's been clear for quite some time that Global Warming/Climate Change "skeptics" are actually agents of disinformation funded mainly by Big Oil. Those so called skeptics are paid to muddy the waters and give cover to the corrupt politicians who have been blocking actions needed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global warming.

Now a noted climate scientist says it's time to put those profit hungry Big Oil Boys on trial for putting the human race at risk.

Put oil firm chiefs on trial, says leading climate change scientist
· Testimony to US Congress will also criticise lobbyists
· 'Revolutionary' policies needed to tackle crisis
Ed Pilkington in New York
The Guardian,
Monday June 23, 2008

James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer. ...(more)

20 Year Anniversary of "Greenhouse Effect"

Jim Hansen - 20 Years of Climate Concerns

Dr. James Hansen, a veteran NASA climate expert, has been both lauded and criticized for moving beyond studying global warming to pressing lawmakers and the public to
end unfettered coal burning and build a nonpolluting energy system. I interviewed him 6.21.08 for a New York Times story and post and video on my Dot Earth blog.

More at nytimes.com/dotearth and nytimes.com/climate.Dr. Hansen's personal Web site is: columbia.edu/~jeh1.

Gov. Gregoire Posts On Daily Kos

-
The Governor has made a post on the Daily Kos about Rossi's special interest backers.

Obama and all Democrats face attacks from all directions
by Governor Chris Gregoire

... The BIAW’s values don’t match up with the voters of Washington. As you can see here, here, and here, local bloggers agree. The BIAW has opposed cleaning up toxics in the Puget Sound, opposed fighting globalwarming and even opposed protecting orca whales. My opponent voted with them 99% of the time while he was a State Senator. ... (full post)