Thursday, December 06, 2007

Returning to blogging

It's been a while. No idea if people are still out there for me. But, starting today, I will be blogging again.

As I think of what I want -- and need -- to talk about, please enjoy a talk I gave at David Horowitz's Restoration Weekend in Palm Beach in mid-to-late November. It's my more humorous stuff (as opposed to the Heritage Foundation speech) and available in two parts at Youtube.com:


http://youtube.com/watch?v=SWfZi1W13Go&feature=related

and

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SZ08kg_iwdg&feature=related

Please pass on word about the talk (I followed Ann Coulter. How's THAT for billing!!!) and that I'm back blogging on a regular (though not daily) basis.

Hope you're all well!

Evan

32 comments:

Fatguy said...

Welcome back!

Unknown said...

Glad you're back. I loved your Heritage Foundation speech.

Anonymous said...

Evan, I just discovered you a few weeks ago and have been back to your blog site a dozen times hoping to read more of your brilliant work. Yes please, keep doing what you do...

bigwhitehat said...

Glad to have you back.

Anonymous said...

It's so rare to hear political commentary as mindless as that found on this blog and in videos of Mr. Sayet posted online. If this is the best conservatives can muster, ad hominem attacks on everyone occupying the other side of the aisle, then I truly worry about the future of the conservative movement in this country.

Anonymous said...

Responding to liberal attacks with anything more than an ad hominem's would be like casting pearls before swine.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, the "they did it first so we have to do it too" argument. I believe I perfected that one on the playground when I was 8 years old.

Embarrassing. As a wise man once said, "Stop hurting America".

Anonymous said...

So many Republicans,so few prisons.

The Alaska political corruption investigation
Posted by David Hulen and Rich Mauer


Overview of the key figures

A broad federal investigation of public corruption has been under way in Alaska for more than three years, although it didn’t become widely known until Aug. 31, 2006. That’s when teams of federal agents executed search warrants at the offices of six state legislators and elsewhere around the state. The government has since brought indictments and won three guilty verdicts from juries and several guilty pleas.

The investigation continues, with grand juries hearing secret testimony in Anchorage and Washington, D.C.

In July, federal agents searched the Girdwood home of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, drawing national attention.

Authorities have said very little about the overall shape of the inquiry, where it’s headed or what’s being investigated. Here’s some of what’s known:




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Who is conducting the investigation?

It’s being run by the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section from Washington, D.C., which focuses on government corruption cases. Two prosecutors from the Alaska U.S. Attorney’s Office have been assigned to the effort.




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Tried and convicted

- Former Alaska House Speaker Pete Kott of Eagle River. Indicted in May and convicted on Sept. 25 of bribery, extortion and conspiracy for selling influence to executives of the Veco Corp. to do their bidding during debate on oil taxes during 2006. Jurors acquitted him of a fourth felony, wire fraud. On Dec. 7 he was sentenced to six years in prison with an additional three years probation and fined $10,000. Jurors found Kott took payoffs and was promised a job from Veco to help push an oil-production tax favored by the industry through the Legislature in 2006. Prosecutors played nearly five dozen secretely made recordings and also relied on the testimony of two former Veco executives. The evidence showed Kott received $1,000 cash, a $7,993 check, a political poll for his campaign, and the promise of a job, perhaps as a Veco lobbyist. Kott's defense tried to portray him as a hard worker, both as a legislator and in his flooring business, who never asked for anything from Veco. They just had the common goal of working for a natural gas pipeline, his lawyer argued. Download the charges against Kott here.

- Former Rep. Vic Kohring of Wasilla. The former chairman of the Special Committee on Oil and Gas was indicted in May and convicted on Nov. 1 of bribery, conspiracy and attempted extortion. Sentencing is scheduled for February. He was accused of accepting $2,100 to $2,600 in cash from Veco boss Bill Allen during the 2006 legislative session, arranging a $3,000 summer job for Kohring's nephew with the company, and an attempting to get another $17,000 from the Veco executives to pay off a credit card bill - all in exchange for supporting the company's position on the oil tax. A member of the Legislature when indicted in May, he later resigned under pressure from constituents and Republican House leaders. Find coverage here. Find all the audio and video exhibits, plus testimony here.

- Former Anchorage state Rep. Tom Anderson. He was sentenced to five years in prison on Oct. 15 - and is the first person to the go jail in the corruption investigation. On July 9, a federal jury convicted him on seven felony charges including bribery, conspiracy and money laundering connected with taking payoffs from a consultant for a private prison company who was working undercover for the FBI. Cornell Cos. didn't know about the scheme. Anderson was also a paid consultant for Veco, the oil field services and engineering company at the center of the broader investigation, although none of the charges against him concerned Veco. It was revealed during his trial that federal agents were investigating corruption in the Alaska Legislature as far back as early 2004.




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Pleaded guilty

- Longtime Veco CEO Bill Allen. He pleaded guilty in May to charges of bribery and conspiracy for his dealings with four legislators: former Reps. Pete Kott, Bruce Weyhrauch and Vic Kohring, and former Sen. Ben Stevens (described in the plea as “State Senator B”). The first three were charged; Stevens has not been. Allen also admitted paying a “bonus” in company funds to executives for illegal campaign contributions in 2005 and 2006. For more than two decades, Allen was a major political fundraiser for Alaska politicians and a strong presence in Juneau. He resigned from Veco after his guilty plea and awaits sentencing. Read or download Allen's plea agreement here. Read or download details of what he pleaded to here. Listen to portions of his testimony in Kott's bribery trial here.

- Veco vice president Rick Smith, who ran the company’s government affairs operations. He worked part of the year out of Suite 604 in Juneau’s Baranof Hotel, which was being secretly monitored by the FBI in 2006. In May he pleaded guilty to the same charges as Allen. He admitted, with Allen, to making more than $400,000 in payoffs to elected officials. Read or download Smith's plea agreement here, and details of what he pleaded to here.

- Lobbyist Bill Bobrick. A longtime lobbyist at the city level and one-time executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party, he pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy for bribing Anderson while working for a private prison company, Cornell Cos. He testified against Anderson. On Nov. 27, he was sentenced to five months in jail, five months under house arrest, two years probation and 800 hours of community service.



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Charged and awaiting trial

- Former state Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau. Charged with bribery, attempted extortion, conspiracy and mail fraud, Weyhrauch is accused of switching his vote on the oil tax after receiving instructions from Kott and Bill Allen. He’s also accused of soliciting work for his legal practice from Veco in exchange for his vote. He pleaded not guilty and was originally scheduled to stand trial with Kott in September. The case has been split over questions about what evidence can be considered in the case. No trial date is scheduled.




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Others connected with the investigations

- U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. He has represented Alaska since 1968 and is the most senior Senate Republican in history. As chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he was among the Senate's most powerful members, and steered at least hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money to Alaska programs. He is the ranking Republican on Commerce Committee and on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. The Daily News reported in June that a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. was examining the 2000 remodel of Stevens’ Girdwood home and his relationship with the oilfield services and construction company Veco. In July, agents from the FBI and IRS searched the house Veco’s Allen oversaw a construction project in 2000 that doubled the size of Stevens’ Girdwood home, and investigators have been trying to learn if at least some of that work was an improper gift. Allen testified in Kott's and Kohring's corruption trial that Veco employees worked on the remodeling. Stevens has come under political attack from fiscal conservatives and others for his use of earmarks to direct programs and money to Alaska. Some of the earmarks benefited his son Ben and a former aide, Trevor McCabe, and their clients. In 2003, the Los Angeles Times cataloged actions by Ted Stevens that benefited companies that paid Ben. The Associated Press, citing anonymous sources, reported in late October 2007 that federal investigators are looking at whether fisheries legislation pushed by Stevens benefited his son.


- Former state Sen. Ben Stevens. He has been charged with no crimes. But in his plea agreement, Veco's Bill Allen admitted making improper payments of $243,250 to “State Senator B” — a clear reference to Ben Stevens, an Anchorage Republican the former state Senate president. Ben Stevens’ office was searched in the August 2006 raids and was later visited again by FBI agents seeking information about his fishery interests and benefits he may have received from legislation written by his father. He was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars as a consultant for various commercial fishing companies and groups, and chaired a federally funded panel created in an earmark by his father (see below), that awarded grants to some of those entities. In 2005, the Daily News reported that Ben Stevens held a secret option to buy into a seafood company on Adak Island at the same time his father was creating a special Aleutian Islands fishery that would supply the company with pollock worth millions of dollars a year. He was silent about the investigation until September of 2007 when he called in to a talk show on an Anchorage radio station and talked at length about the investigation and insisting he did nothing illegal.

- U.S. Rep. Don Young. Alaska’s sole U.S. representative since 1973, Young has been widely reported to be under investigation over his own ties to Veco and use of earmarks, although details of what is being examined are unclear. Since 1989, he has received more than $212,000 in campaign donations from Allen, Smith and other Veco executives, making the company by far his top contributor. The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported in July that federal investigators are examining Young's relationship with Veco. McClatchy Newspapers, citing an anonymous source, said the Justice Department was investigating whether Young took campaign cash in return for securing $10 million for construction of a proposed Florida highway ramp that would give a windfall to a local real estate developer. McClatchy produced a package of stories, describing how, when he was chairman of the House Transportation committee, Young collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from people and business interests around the country who benefited from highway projects he funded. One of Young’s aides has pleaded guilty in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, and Young himself has ties to the lobbyist. Young reported in October that he has spent $446,845 in campaign funds on unspecified legal fees during the first nine months of 2007; neither he nor his campaign would describe the nature of the legal work.

- Frank Prewitt. Former state corrections commissioner who became a consultant to Cornell Cos., a private prison company that wanted to build a large prison in Alaska (at one time teaming with Veco). Prewitt was being investigated by the FBI in 2004 when he agreed to work for the government to root out corrupt legislators and lobbyists. He passed out money and recorded conversations, providing the foundation for the Anderson case. He also recorded secret video of a conversation with Kohring, and testified at his trial for the government.

- Sens. John Cowdery, R-Anchorage, and Donald Olson, D-Nome, also had their offices searched in August 2006, but have not been charged. Ex-Veco Vice President Rick Smith testified in Kott's trial that Cowdery, who was chairman of the Rules Committee while Ben Stevens was Senate president, was among the lawmakers that he bribed for help in passing the oil profits tax that was favored by the company and the oil industry.


- Trevor McCabe. Seward native and former legislative director to Ted Stevens, he became partner in a consulting business with Ben Stevens, and lobbied Congress on behalf of a Southeast salmon group that obtained federal funds from Ted Stevens. An attorney and lobbyist, McCabe has represented other seafood interests as well. With two partners, McCabe sold property to the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward at a price substantially above its appraisal after Ted Stevens provided the money in an earmark.




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Entities connected with the investigations

- Veco Corp. An oil field services and engineering company that has operated extensively in Alaska and elsewhere, Veco has been among the most politically active companies in the state for many years. It lobbied in Juneau for legislation beneficial to the oil industry and aggressively supported pro-development candidates in Alaska and Outside. Allen and Smith are the only two Veco executives charged. The company received more than $170 million in federal contracts for logistic support of National Science Foundation while Ted Stevens was Appropriations Committee chairman, and later, when he chaired the Commerce Committee, which has oversight over the foundation. Bill Allen stepped down earlier this year as company chief, but his family kept control of a majority of the company. It was sold in September to Denver-based CH2M Hill.

- Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board. Created by Sen. Ted Stevens in 2003 to boost the North Pacific fishing industry, the nonprofit board has distributed some $30 million in federal money to seafood companies and other entities to promote their products. Ben Stevens served as chairman of the board until last year, and while he was in that role the board awarded millions in grants to groups that paid him consulting fees. Last November, a grand jury in Anchorage issued subpoenas to several North Pacific seafood companies and groups demanding records on their dealings with the marketing board, Ben Stevens, McCabe (who also sat on the board) and others.

- Alaska SeaLife Center. The Seward research center and visitor attraction was built, in part, with settlement money from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and run with heavy federal financial support engineered by Ted Stevens. Investigators are examining a deal in which the SeaLife Center bought property from former Ted Stevens aide Trevor McCabe and partners at a price substantially above its appraisal after Stevens provided the money in an earmark.

Anonymous said...

...and there you have it, conclusive proof that progressive Liberals are not only the most ignorant and rude, but also the most boring people on the planet.

Dr. Heywood Floyd said...

Glad to see you posting again. Thanks for the links to YouTube. I'll look forward to viewing. The Heritage Foundation speech has been well-received here, and, perhaps unintentionally, groundbreaking. You managed to put into words a theory about the Modern Liberal Worldview many have tried and failed at doing. Much appreciated.

Anonymous said...

Haha...the Heritage speech was groundbreaking...as in digging another grave for modern conservatism...now firmly ensconced as the biggest failure in US political history. It must be terribly embarassing to be a Republican right now. Nothing but an avalanche of incompetence, corruption and the damndest parade of perverts anyone has EVER seen. Wow...what a freak show.

Anonymous said...

Maaaaan, this says it all about blogs like this...the GOParrot Farm Team shovelling fertilizer for the naive, little sprouts who eat it up...Dan Bartlett, on the White House's use of right wing blogs:

I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on.

Anonymous said...

Evidently Leftwingers are all free-thinkers... LOL!

WHAT? Caught spewing DNC talking points, AGAIN, anon?

Anonymous said...

from The Unraveling, At Last?
By Ernest Partridge
Created Dec 12 2007

...Although we are too close in time to realize it, last week may have marked the beginning of the downfall of Bushism - the fatal loosening of the centripetal Bushevik grip - as senior intelligence officials from sixteen federal agencies finally stood their ground and said to Bush and Cheney, and to the world, "no more! - we will no longer validate your lies and be complicit in your war crimes!"
When, prior to the invasion of Iraq in March, 2003, the Bush regime was determined to "fix" the facts and intelligence to fit the pre-determined policy, [1] the intelligence apparatus complied, suppressing the compelling evidence that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction and was in no way involved in the attacks of 9/11, 2001. Then followed an illegal war and occupation in Iraq, the violation of the Nuremberg and Geneva Conventions, the looting of the U.S. Treasury, and the deaths of a million innocent Iraqis and four thousand American soldiers and still counting.

An attack on Iran, equally illegal and unjustified, would possibly have even more drastic consequences. The military Joints Chiefs of Staff are reportedly opposed to the attack, along with career officials in the State Department and the CIA. But who will prevent an attack on Iran? The Bush administration owns the courts and the media. The Democratic Congress, elected to end the Iraq fiasco, refuses to do so. Neither will the Congress support a resolution to refuse funding of an attack on Iran.

That leaves the intelligence agencies and their primary weapon, the plain facts and the evidence that supports them. In their National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), the sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies unanimously concluded, "with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program." It is reported that several senior intelligence officers told the White House that if the NIE report were not officially released, they would take the report directly to the media, even if it meant jail sentences for the leakers. [2]

With the release of the NIE report, the primary Bush/Cheney pretext for an attack on Iran has been discounted, and the likelihood of such an attack reduced, though not, unfortunately, eliminated.

Bush responded to the NIE report with a package of excuses and outright lies so absurd and transparent that even the mainstream media had to take note of it. In a White House press briefing, "spokesmodel" Dana Perino's attempt at defending Bush was met with unprecedented ridicule from the press corps.

It is clear that the Bush/Cheney administration is at a crossroads: if it is to retain its power, it must initiate some bold and likely ruthless means of control. If not, a disapproving public, an erosion of media support, a deteriorating economy, and a revolt within the administration may lead to a spectacular disintegration of this misbegotten regime and with it the Karl Rove's "permanent Republican majority."

Specifically, here is how the opposing forces are now lining up:

Centrifugal Forces:

The American public has had it with this regime. The approval rating of George Bush, in the mid-twenties, is at an historical low. Cheney's score is in the teens. Equally significant, a majority of the public "strongly disapproves" of both. There is no prospect of reversal of these dismal numbers.
As the mainstream media persists in its support of the Bush regime, it is increasingly at odds with public opinion. Accordingly, the media is losing its audience and its influence, and with these losses, its profits. Due perhaps to these pressures, the corporate media is becoming more critical of the regime, and even more significantly, is publishing and broadcasting damaging reports about the administration.
As more information about the malfeasance and misfeasance of the administration comes to light, more and more of the public is willing to suspect the worst about the Busheviks: that the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 were stolen, that Bush, Cheney, Rice and Powell lied the country into an illegal war, that "inconvenient" political enemies were murdered, even that the Bush/Cheney regime was responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. While I personally doubt that last accusation, [3] the widespread support of 9/11 conspiracy theories testifies to an extraordinary public distrust of the administration.
The dire economic consequences of the Bush/Cheney policies are becoming ever more apparent to the public. Paul Krugman reports: [4]

"Americans' Economic Pessimism Reaches a Record High." That's the headline on a recent Gallup report, which shows a nation deeply unhappy with the state of the economy. Right now, "27% of Americans rate current economic conditions as either 'excellent' or 'good,' while 44% say they are 'only fair' and 28% say they are poor." Moreover, "an extraordinary 78% of Americans now say the economy is getting worse, while a scant 13% say it is getting better." ...

(In contrast,) in the fall of 1998 almost two-thirds of Americans thought the economy was excellent or good.

Bush and Cheney are being abandoned by their own party, as their names are virtually absent from the campaigns of the Republican candidates. There is an epidemic of GOP resignations and retirements in Congress, and a declining number of voters are willing to identify themselves as Republicans.
As last week's release of the NIE indicates, there is growing resistance to Bushism in the federal government. As I noted in July, 2005, [5] when Bush and Cheney "outed" Valerie Plame Wilson, they may have made some formidable enemies: "of this much we can be confident; the rank and file of the CIA is super-pissed-off. One of their own has been trashed, her operation demolished, and dozens of agents and operatives put in grave danger. Possibly some have been killed. Nor is that all. The CIA has been asked to take the fall for the Iraq fiasco - the result of 'flawed intelligence' the Bushistas tell us. The motto on the floor at Langley, 'The Truth Shall Make Your Free,' has been effectively supplanted with 'The Truth Shall Get You Canned.' Pissing-off the CIA can be a very dangerous business. These folks are very good at overthrowing governments."
International support of the Bush/Cheney regime has virtually disappeared, as one by one allies of the administration have been ousted from power: Blair in England, Aznar in Spain, Berlusconi in Italy, Howard in Australia. Hendrik Hertzberg reports [6] that "An avalanche of new international polls... show that anti-Americanism has reached astronomical levels almost everywhere and has solidified in the Northern European belt from Britain to Poland."
Centripetal Forces:

Despite these myriad forces that are undermining the Busheviks, the capacity of the regime for command and control is still formidable.

Interstate 95/495, "the beltway" that surrounds Washington, DC, remains a veritable moat, effectively isolating the "DC society" of corporate lobbyists, pundits, military brass and politicians from the country and citizens that presumes to "govern."
The levers of Bushevik control - the compliant media, the privatized voting devices, the intimidation and punishment of dissenters and whistle-blowers - though diminished, remain in place. Some administration retaliations are well-known: Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame, General Eric Shinseki, Bunnatine Greenhouse, Dan Rather. But we can only speculate as to the pressures exerted "below the surface" and out of sight. Why are the victims of small aircraft accidents (e.g. Senators Mel Carnahan and Paul Wellstone, and John F. Kennedy, Jr.) disproportionately democrats? Why were the Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle, and the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, specifically targeted with Anthrax letters, and why hasn't the culprit who sent them been apprehended? What extraordinary threats may be preventing the congressional Democrats from responding to the voters' mandate that put them in control of the Congress?
If, in fact, Bushevik control has been accomplished through crimes such as extortion, bribery, intimidation and even murder, then the regime is extremely motivated to remain in power, or, failing that, to transfer power to those who will neither investigate nor prosecute these crimes.
Finally, and most significantly, the administration, with the connivance of Congress, [7] has passed a series of "enabling acts," supplemented with uncontested executive orders, which today gives Bush the virtual powers of a dictator, should he choose to exercise them. Among these are The PATRIOT Act, the Military Commissions Act, The National Continuity Policy of May 9, 2007, The Executive Order of July 17, 2007. (See my "A Republic if We Can Keep It." [8]). Due to the pernicious vagueness of these acts and orders, Bush can, virtually at his personal say-so, imprison without charge, counsel or trial, any dissenting citizen and/or seize all the assets of that citizen. He is presumably restrained by the likely outrage that such behavior might provoke. Nonetheless, its all there, "in the books." All it takes is another "national emergency," and perhaps not even that.
"A Criminal Regime:" The phrase is no longer hyperbole: it conveys a demonstrable truth, clear and incontrovertible to any and all willing to face the facts.

Aggressive war is a crime. Torture is a crime. Warrantless surveillance is a crime. Contempt of Congress is a crime. Defiance of acts of Congress is a crime. Extortion and bribery are crimes. Election fraud is a crime. The Nuremberg and Geneva conventions, the Constitution of the United States, and the federal statutes say what they say. The remedy is unequivocal: "The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." "Shall," not "may." (Constitution of the United States, Article 2, Section 4).Without question, the Bush regime now rules in disregard and defiance of the rule of law. Each and every day that passes without decisive action against this lawless junta, is another day of anarchy.

The courageous senior intelligence officers who demanded the release last week of the NIE have opened a window of opportunity for the dissenting activists, journalists, government officials and members of Congress. We would all be foolish and derelict in our civic duties not to respond promptly and decisively to this opportunity.

The catalytic moment may be at hand, wherein a mass of individual dissenters coalesce into a "movement" - when these dissenters look about and discover that they are participants in a significant political force; when they achieve perceivable results, perchance minor at first, but with the realization that significant reform is within reach and even, through coordinated effort and inspired leadership, irresistible; when, in short, perception becomes reality...

Anonymous said...

Lively blog ya got here...wow. Here's a clue...all the literate Republicans have given up, and the Xtians are all in perv therapy. It's OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOover.

Anonymous said...

Bush will be President for WHOLE year MORE. Then we get to elect ANOTHER Republican President to handle the NEXT 8 years.

That's longer than my remaining term. Woo-Hoo!

Anonymous said...

Hey, I thought your psycho was going to "blog" some mo...I need some laughs hohohohohohoho what's the deal...I thought he was the last GOPiggy not in jail...did that change?

Anonymous said...

Wow...I just had to see the train wreck, so I looked at Sayet's you tubes...no one was laughing but him...with a weird, sick, little chuckle. His idea of a liberal is Chris Mathews and Dobbs...we despise them more than he does...then he goes further into his straw man routine with his pathetic, wildly exaggerated stealing thing...no wonder you guys are in trouble. Maybe you can hire a liberal to be the comic of the right.

Anonymous said...

I think Anon's crowd is programmed to laugh only at potty humor and profanity.

Take that B*tch!

I think I hear them anonymously chuckling now!

Anonymous said...

You lunatics are going completely insane...desperation?

Simon Caldwell is a LIAR
Category: Global Warming
Posted on: December 12, 2007 12:51 PM, by Tim Lambert

I don't think I've ever seen a more dishonest piece of reporting than this whoppper from Simon Caldwell at the Daily Mail:

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

Needless to say, this story was linked by Drudge and all the other denialists. But the Pope's actual statement is online, so we can see that Caldwell is lying about it. What the Pope actually said:

We need to care for the environment: it has been entrusted to men and women to be protected and cultivated with responsible freedom, with the good of all as a constant guiding criterion. ... it means not selfishly considering nature to be at the complete disposal of our own interests, for future generations also have the right to reap its benefits and to exhibit towards nature the same responsible freedom that we claim for ourselves.

Looks like he agrees with Stern about low discount rates.

Nor must we overlook the poor, who are excluded in many cases from the goods of creation destined for all. Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow. It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions,

And he thinks you should listen to the IPCC.

and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances. If the protection of the environment involves costs, they should be justly distributed, taking due account of the different levels of development of various countries and the need for solidarity with future generations. Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and postponing decisions; it means being committed to making joint decisions after pondering responsibly the road to be taken

"Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and postponing decisions." That seems a bit more sensible than the position of the US government

Anonymous said...

"Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and postponing decisions." That seems a bit more sensible than the position of the US government.

...but "speaking of dishonesty" it's not exactly a ringing endorsement of the Draconian return-to-the-stone-age policies of CO^2 emission worry warts like the Sierra Club, carbon credit profiteers like Gore, Inc. or an endorsement of he Kyoto/Euro-Club's let the Chinese and Indian subcontinent run amock, either.

Anonymous said...

Oh, it's a ringing endorsementation alright, but the modern rightist does not deal in facts any more than the pre-modern rightist did.

Anonymous said...

LOL! You're really trippin'! Facts are MADE by rightist's... dreams are where Leftists dwell.

Bosch Fawstin said...

Currently watching your Restoration Weekend talk, great stuff, glad to see you're back posting, it's important that you keep your way of saying it all out there, you're one of a kind.

Anonymous said...

'A' for Andronicus said...
LOL! You're really trippin'! Facts are MADE by rightist's... dreams are where Leftists dwell

Man hits it on the head...they make them, alright...but they never coincide with REALITY...yes, I,too, sorrow for humanity.

Anonymous said...

Yep, that confirms it. Leftists don't believe that facts have even a slight relationship to reality...

Anonymous said...

Somebody call the asylum. Tom's reading for his "white coat" fitting.

nanc said...

what did the dyslexic agnostic say?

THERE IS A DOG!

thank you so much for coming back, now hopefully you'll reclaim your troll!

Anonymous said...

I volunteer to help him with the buckles in the back!

Anonymous said...

Sheesh...look at the previous four comments...wingbat stooges don't even pretend to have anything left.

Anonymous said...

justamoron says... what?

Anonymous said...

Hey, I done pass the gass dat yuze back...why is everyone yawning?