[Sosfbay-discuss] Fwd: [usgp-media] Re: Impeach Bush for climate lies, neglect (Greens quoted) (John Nichols, The Nation)

Wed Feb 7 10:13:42 PST 2007

--- Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at yahoo.com>
> To: usgp-media at gp-us.org, brent at gp.org, emily at gp.org
> Subject: [usgp-media] Re: Impeach Bush for climate lies, neglect
> (Greens quoted) (John Nichols, The Nation)
> Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2007 12:17:56 -0800 (PST)
> 
> My guess is that the catchy subject line ('Global
> warming: Bush is doing to world what he did to
> New Orleans') grabbed Nichols' attention.
> 
> The quotes got put to good use, too:
> congratulations Rebecca & Jody!
> 
> Stick this article in a file somewhere for future
> use in fundraising & publicity for the GP.
> 
> Scott
> 
> 
> --- Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > Holding Bush to Account for Climate Lies,
> > Neglect
> > 
> > 
> > By John Nichols
> > The Nation
> > BLOG | Posted 02/06/2007 @ 11:57am
> >
> http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=163597
> > 
> > 
> > Viewers of Fox News, listeners to Rush Limbaugh
> > and all the other sorry deadenders who choose
> > Bush administration propaganda over perspective
> > will be shocked to learn that the debate about
> > global warming has been over for a long time. 
> > 
> > Climate change is real. And the cynical ploy by
> > conservative politicians and commentators of
> > suggesting otherwise has slowed the American
> > response to a crisis scientists say has grown
> > so
> > severe that -- no matter what is now done to
> > reduce emissions of greenhouse gases -- gases
> > that have already been produced or are in
> > production will continue to contribute to
> > global
> > warming and the rise of oceans for more than
> > 1,000 years. 
> > 
> > The message from the world's top scientists is
> > sobering. "Warming of the climate system is
> > unequivocal, as is now evident from
> > observations
> > of increases in global average air and ocean
> > temperatures, widespread melting of snow and
> > ice,
> > and rising global mean sea level,'' argues a
> > new
> > report from the climate scientists working with
> > the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
> > formed by the United Nations' Environment
> > Program
> > and World Meteorological Organization. 
> > 
> > The Bush administration has consciously and
> > intentionally failed for six years to address
> > the
> > crisis. Worse yet, the president and his aides
> > have actively attempted to foster the fantasy
> > that global warming: a. does not exist, b. is a
> > natural phenomenon, c. is a good thing or d.
> > all
> > of the above. 
> > 
> > The combination of deliberate inaction and
> > delusional denial has earned this president a
> > place in history alongside all the past Neros
> > who
> > have fiddled while their Romes burned. But the
> > evidence that the Bush administration tampered
> > with scientific research on global warming in
> > order to advance its agenda calls for more
> > immediate sanction. 
> > 
> > The president and those around him have, as
> > evidenced by their actions over the past six
> > years, proven that they cannot be trusted with
> > power. Yet, without an intervention, they will
> > retain power for another two years. 
> > 
> > That is not a prospect to be considered
> > casually.
> > 
> > 
> > "The Bush Administration is doing to the whole
> > world what it did to New Orleans as Katrina
> > began
> > to descend on the city," says Green Party
> > co-chair Rebecca Rotzler, who has been in the
> > forefront of demanding an official response to
> > the administration's assault on science. "By
> > altering scientific research on global warming
> > to
> > fit his political agenda and refusing to take
> > necessary steps to protect the public,
> > President
> > Bush has aggravated an impending environmental,
> > public health, and security crisis. 
> > 
> > What to do? The Green Party, for reasons both
> > of
> > its environmental commitment and the
> > seriousness
> > with which it approaches issues of political
> > accountability, has proposed a proper response.
> > Responding to complaints from more than 120
> > scientists from seven federal agencies that
> > they
> > have been pressured to remove references to
> > global warming from research reports, press
> > releases, and communications with Congress, the
> > Greens have accused the Bush administration of
> > conspiring to deceive Congress and the America
> > people about fundamental issues facing the
> > nation. And there is a proper sanction for so
> > serious an offense. 
> > 
> > "Congress must recognize the Bush
> > Administration's tampering with studies on
> > global
> > warming and other scientific research as an
> > impeachable offense," says Jody Grage, who
> > serves
> > as treasurer of the Green Party. "Ever since
> > Vice
> > President Cheney initiated private meetings
> > with
> > oil company representatives to determine energy
> > policy, the administration has placed the
> > demands
> > for corporate profits over urgent human and
> > environmental needs." 
> > 
> > Just as there are still those who debate
> > whether
> > climate change is actually taking place, there
> > are still those who debate whether this
> > president
> > has committed acts that merit impeachment and
> > removal from office. 
> > 
> > But the Greens are right on this one. 
> > 
> > The founders intended impeachment not as a
> > legal
> > process but as a tool for the protection of the
> > nation and its citizens from irrational,
> > irresponsible and immoral executives. The point
> > of creating a procedure that allowed the
> > Congress
> > to interrupt a presidential term was not to
> > punish minor acts of wrongdoing, it was to
> > preserve the republic -- both structurally and
> > physically -- from a president whose actions,
> > in
> > the words of Thomas Jefferson, might be
> > "productive of cruel distress to our country." 
> > 
> > The European kings and queens against whom
> > American revolutionaries took up arms had
> > attacked science and free thought in order not
> > merely to advance their pet theories but to
> > improve their fortunes. A president who did the
> > same, Jefferson argued, was no different from a
> > monarch -- except that his tenure was
> > constitutionally limited. That did not mean,
> > however, that Americans should accept a king
> > for
> > four years. 
> > 
> > "An elective despotism was not the government
> > we
> > fought for, but one which should not only be
> > founded on true free principles, but in which
> > the
> > powers of government should be so divided and
> > balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as
> > that no one could transcend their legal limits
> > without being effectually checked and
> > restrained
> > by the others," explained the author of the
> > Declaration of Independence who would make
> > himself the steadiest advocate for democratic
> > principles in the early days of the republic. 
> > 
> > Jefferson, James Madison, George Mason and
> > their
> > circle fought to assure that the Constitution
> > would include a broad power of impeachment. It
> > was, these men of the enlightenment knew, the
> > essential corrective against an elective
> > despotism that might see an imperial president
> > reject even the logic of science in pursuit of
> > whims, fantasies and self-interest. 
> > 
> > The founders knew that the impetus for
> > impeachment might not be an act, but rather an
> > inaction. And if that inaction was the result
> > of
> > a choice by the president and his aides to
> > serve
> > their oil-industry partners and contributors
> > rather than their country and their planet,
> > then
> > surely it is a high crime against the republic
> > --
> > an impeachable crime in the sense intended by
> > the
> > authors of the Constitution -- that has been
> > committed. 
> > 
> > The Greens have wisely recognized this fact,
> > and
> > made an appropriate argument for booting a
> > pathetic president from the Oval Office. 
> > 
> > Perhaps if those of us who still retain a
> > Jeffersonian regard for science begin to speak
> > of
> > denying climate change as the impeachable
> > offense
> > that it is, we can begin to put the issue in
> > proper perspective for the folks at Fox -- who
> > seem only to feel a sense of urgency when their
> > dear leader is threatened with sanctions more
> > immediate than those of history. 
> > 
> > We may, as well, answer the most poignant of
> > the
> > questions left us by Thomas Jefferson. "Yes, we
> > did produce a near-perfect republic," observed
> > the third president, who then turned his
> > attention to those who would inherit that
> > republic and asked: "But will they keep it? 
> > 
> > 
> > John Nichols' new book is THE GENIUS OF
> > IMPEACHMENT: The Founders' Cure for Royalism.
> > Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson hails it as a
> > "nervy, acerbic, passionately argued
> > history-cum-polemic [that] combines a rich
> > examination of the parliamentary roots and past
> > use of the 'heroic medicine' that is
> > impeachment
> > with a call for Democratic leaders to 'reclaim
> > and reuse the most vital tool handed to us by
> > the
> > founders for the defense of our most basic
> > liberties.'" 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >  
> >
>
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> 
> 
>  
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