Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Musings: Mixed Messages

Though waning, the moon still shone brilliantly last night, causing clouds to gleam gold and the pastures to shine silver. By morning it had vanished, vanquished by a heavy pre-dawn rain shower that left the world, or at least our little corner of it, fresh and clean when Koko and I went walking this morning.

“Now this feels like spring,” I exulted when we ran into my neighbor Andy, who was still in that hazy place of trying to remember a dream. But I helpfully pulled him out of it with a discussion on politics — a surefire jolt into reality.

It seems Rep. Roland Sagum’s election year bid to pander to his constituents has gone down in flames now that the Lege has nixed his resolution seeking to recognize the cultural merits of cockfighting.

Kinda sad to think that was his main contribution to the legislative arena this session.

Interestingly, Rep. Jimmy Tokioka voted against it. Apparently in his contorted world, it’s OK to take a flat out stand of discriminating against same-sex couples, but you wouldn’t want to send the world a “mixed message” about cockfighting.

When it comes to climate change, it seems there’s an attempt under way to send people messages deliberately mixed up by special interests. According to a new Greenpeace report, oil companies and Koch Industries — one of the nation’s largest private corporations, owned by two brothers ranked among the 10 wealthiest people in the U.S. — are providing extensive financial backing for climate change deniers. The report details where the money has gone and notes:

[O]rganizations funded by Koch foundations have led the assault on climate science and scientists, “green jobs,” renewable energy and climate policy progress.

A Koch spokeswoman offered this reassuring rebuttal:

These efforts are about creating more opportunity and prosperity for all, as it’s a historical fact that economic freedom best fosters innovation, environmental protection and improved quality of life in a society.

Gee, I really wish she would have cited her historical references.

The Greenpeace report also maintains that Koch provided money to help turn up the flame under the much ballyhooed “Climategate scandal.”

In related news, the British Parliament just completed a formal inquiry into the controversy and found the scientists had not manipulated data. The report further concluded that while withholding information is standard practice in climate science, it’s “unacceptable” in a matter of such extreme “global importance and public interest.”

The inquiry also found that the climate data generated by the University's Climate Research Unit corresponds with other datasets from NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies and the National Climatic Data Center.

Such facts are slow to trickle in to Fox News, which continues to beat the drum of denial.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is sending some mixed messages to the environmental community. On the one hand, we have the EPA finally speaking out against plans to blast the top off yet another coal-containing mountain in West Virginia, with the agency’s Shawn Garvin saying:

“We must prevent the significant and irreversible damage that comes from mining pollution, and the damage from this project would be irreversible.”

Then on the other, you’ve got Obama announcing plans to expand offshore oil drilling.

The latter is apparently part of Obama’s ongoing effort to appease obstructionist Republican lawmakers. But predictably, GOP politicians responded that it wasn’t enough.

When is the Prez going to realize that these guys are not gonna go along with anything he wants because their goal is to waylay his agenda in an effort to push him out of office?

And that by taking these sorts of approaches, he’s alienating a core group of supporters?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joan asked: "When is the Prez going to realize that these guys are not gonna go along with anything he wants because their goal is to waylay his agenda in an effort to push him out of office?"

Ummmm.... Never! His (original) agenda "single payer health care for all citizens" became "mandatory health insurance to be paid to Insurance companies" - Now that's progress.

Anonymous said...

"Kinda sad to think that was his main contribution to the legislative arena this session."

-- wow. was it? not good. and hate to say it, as i like the guy personally and have no basis for the speculation....but i sure hope no crime organization money prompted / pushed this legislative effort. cockfight money can get big, and is often "controlled" (which is common knowledge, i beleive)


"are providing extensive financial backing for climate change deniers"

-- not much different that tobacco lobbying of not so long ago


dwps

Dawson said...

-- not much different that tobacco lobbying of not so long ago

And we know how well that worked for the tobacco industry. ;)

Anonymous said...

Obama has been such a letdown. The country has moved so far to the right that a president who caves to the oil and pharmaceutical industries is considered a socialist.

Anonymous said...

Roland - ha, ha, ha, ha.

Anonymous said...

"And we know how well that worked for the tobacco industry. ;)"

-- yep. worked pretty damn well for a while here. then again i hear market shares are up in the 3rd world for them. "the insider" was awesome


"Obama has been such a letdown."

-- odds are history will view him as a very good president


dwps

Anonymous said...

Especially if history is written by the pharmaceutical and oil industries.

Anonymous said...

From "The Money Fighting Health Care Reform":

"The other obstacle has to do with the power of money in politics: through lobbying, advertising, and campaign contributions. This subject is less often discussed. It's an old story now, and people just more or less accept it as the state of things."

"But the dollar figures are staggering. The lobbyists have been at this for a long time, so we must assume that they know what they're doing, and that they are spending all that money for a reason.

In all, federal lobbyists and their clients spent more than $3.47 billion last year. That is an all-time high, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, whose executive director notes dryly that lobbying is one business that appears to be "recession proof.""

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23764

System's broken. Obama can't fix that.

Anonymous said...

"Kinda sad to think that was his main contribution to the legislative arena this session."

don't worry about him, he has a good side business consulting - oh yes, it is sad for those whom he represents or is it just the ones who pay him to represent them for business?

Anonymous said...

don't worry about him, he has a good side business consulting - oh yes, it is sad for those whom he represents or is it just the ones who pay him to represent them for business?

--what is really sad is he would eliminate home rule if you let him. He is for all planning decisions to be made on Oahu and no one, yes that is correct, no one is running against him. good luck kauai, may many gods be with you.