Who's on first

I confess that trying to keep up with all the scandals (there seems to be a new one every day) is somehow beyond my abilities. I think it would be interesting is someone would actually list all the scandals of the present administration from the beginning up until now (this is totally beyond any resources available to me). What do you think? Dozens? Hundreds? This is one way the Bush/Cheney administration survives as it does - no one can keep up with the scandals. Before one is thoroughly investigated (if at all) the next one pops up. As a result of this nothing much ever comes of any of these miserable violations of law and morality. The most recent of these blatant violations have to do with FBI violations of the Patriot Act and the questionable firing of eight Federal prosecutors. Both Shumer and Biden have called for the resignation of Alberto Gonzales. How long do you think it will take for this to simply blow over like all of the rest of them. My favorite, if you have followed this blog for a while you will know, is not the most important but potentially one of the most juicy, the Gannon/Guckert affair. How is it that a known male prostitute (strictly an "on-top guy") was allowed into and out of the White House on occasions where there was no ostensible reason for him to be there? Someone had to be responsible for allowing him in and out but we have never been told just who that someone was. As this was hushed up big time it had to have been someone with lots of power. Of course he could have been there just for the daily prayer meetings.

John McCain, warmonger number one (or maybe two) has now said that if we insist on withdrawing our troops on a timeline it will send a message to the Iraqis that we are not only going to leave, but when. He obviously thinks this is bad. I thought the whole point of it was to do just that - tell the Iraqis when we were going to leave so they would prepare to take over. Of course as we have no intention whatsoever of leaving the whole argument is moot.

I am already tired of listening to all the BS about Gore's electric bill. Yes, he has a really big electrical bill. He also has a very large house out of which both he and his wife operate much of their business. He has paid for expensive carbon credits (or whatever they are called) to offset his heavy usage. While this may prove eventually to not be the best way to go, it is at the moment the acceptable solution to excessive energy use. At least he is trying to do the right thing. I would like to know the consumption records of other people who live in large houses and how much, if anything, they pay to compensate.

Of course I think the whole to-do about electricity consumption is utterly absurd as long as every skyscraper in the the United States is allowed to leave all their lights on all night long. Unlike Gore, virtually no one in the U.S., let alone corporations, makes any attempt to save energy. Certainly not the automobile industry where substantial savings could easily be made if we had the will to do so.

It seems to me there are two main questions about global warming: (1) does it exist, and (2) does it have anything to do with human activities? It seems to me that the first question is indisputable. The evidence for warming is right here in front of our eyes, what with the melting of the glaciers, the displacement of species, and so on. With respect to the second question I also think the answer is obvious although there are still a few who apparently disagree. As I understand it there are something like 2000 scientists, from 30 or 40 different countries, who agree that human activity has something to do with it. It seems to me highly unlikely that all of these scientists are giving in to political pressures (as some may seem to be doing in the U.S.). It is important to note that the U.K. and the E.U. are already taking steps to curb global warming even thought the U.S. is not doing much.

One of the arguments against human activity has to do with the fact that the earth has undergone climactic changes repeatedly over the the last hundreds of thousands of years. This is indisputable. But it is also known that the earth's temperature has risen fairly substantially over the last 100 years. One hundred years in geological time is no more than an instant. The question would seem to be, is the fairly dramatic rise in temperature over the last 100 years totally unrelated to human activity? What has happened in human cultures over the past 100 years? A billion (?) cars and trucks, millions of ATV's, personal watercraft, power boats, lawnmowers, hundreds of coal fired plants, the growth of waste to energy plants, thousands of airplanes, and what-have-you. I don't know about you, but I find it hard to believe this is all merely coincidental. Well, like, who really needs polar bears anyway?