What's Known for Certain?

Scientists know for certain that human activities are changing the composition of Earth's atmosphere. Increasing levels of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2 ), in the atmosphere since pre-industrial times have been well documented. There is no doubt this atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is largely the result of human activities

The EPA's official stance on global warming can be found at this site. Hmm. With this level of certainty, within our government, as to the effects of humans on earth's atmosphere, what is the controversial issue about adopting more environmentally friendly policies?

Decius provided me earlier with some "non-partisan" websites with more info. Here they are:
"
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/index.html
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=238
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_controversy

Of course, the British Government could be viewed as "liberal:"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4660938.stm

CNN is also known as the "Communist News Network:"
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/01/21/climate.cooling.ap/

The author of that report is: http://www.pik-potsdam.de/~stefan/

If you're looking for a politically conservative view, you should try
the Cato Institute:
http://www.cato.org/current/global-warming/"

If everyone agrees- at least- that humans have some effect on the atmosphere, why wouldn't it be at least a low-level priority to make that effect positive? Scientists? Explain please.

EPA : Global Warming : Climate : Uncertainties

In its unanimous opinion, the [Supreme] court expressed no view on the constitutionality either of lethal injection in general or of the specific procedures and combination of chemicals that a Florida inmate, Clarence E. Hill, and numerous others around the country have recently challenged in federal court.

The justices addressed themselves solely to the procedural route that such lawsuits must take, and chose the route that is by far the more inmate-friendly from the two options that the case presented.

Not that I suspect any of you will ever be on death row, but it might be a good idea to check out this article just in case. Even though you cannot challenge the constitutionality of the death penalty under this case law, you now have the opportunity to challenge procedures deemed inadequately painless.

Personally, I would like to see the Supreme Court tackle the bigger issue here. There have been a lot of problems with the death sentence over the years-like earlier this century, when a black man was sentenced to death for stealing less than $2 from a white woman. If we must use it, we must make sure it is absolutely humane and does not get missapplied. Unfortunately, both inhumane uses and missaplication are still frequent. WITBD?

Prisoners Gain in Suit Attacking Lethal Injection - New York Times

I remember fielding telephone calls on Election Day 2004 from friends and colleagues anxious to talk about the exit polls, which seemed to show that John Kerry was beating George W. Bush and would be the next president.

As the afternoon faded into evening, reports started coming in that the Bush camp was dispirited, maybe even despondent, and that the Kerry crowd was set to celebrate. (In an article in the current issue of Rolling Stone, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. writes, "In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair went to bed contemplating his relationship with President-elect Kerry.")

I was skeptical.

The election was bound to be close, and I knew that Kerry couldn't win Florida. I had been monitoring the efforts to suppress Democratic votes there and had reported on the thuggish practice (by the Jeb Bush administration) of sending armed state police officers into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando to "investigate" allegations of voter fraud.

As far as I was concerned, Florida was safe for the G.O.P. That left Ohio.

Republicans, and even a surprising number of Democrats, have been anxious to leave the 2004 Ohio election debacle behind. But Mr. Kennedy, in his long, heavily footnoted article ("Was the 2004 Election Stolen?"), leaves no doubt that the democratic process was trampled and left for dead in the Buckeye State. Mr. Kerry almost certainly would have won Ohio if all of his votes had been counted, and if all of the eligible voters who tried to vote for him had been allowed to cast their ballots.

Mr. Kennedy's article echoed and expanded upon an article in Harper's ("None Dare Call It Stolen," by Mark Crispin Miller) that ran last summer. Both articles documented ugly, aggressive and frequently unconscionable efforts by G.O.P. stalwarts to disenfranchise Democrats in Ohio, especially those in urban and heavily black areas.

The point man for these efforts was the Ohio secretary of state, J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who was both the chief election official in the state and co-chairman of the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio — just as Katherine Harris was the chief election official and co-chairwoman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Florida in 2000.

No one has been able to prove that the election in Ohio was hijacked. But whenever it is closely scrutinized, the range of problems and dirty tricks that come to light is shocking. What's not shocking, of course, is that every glitch and every foul-up in Ohio, every arbitrary new rule and regulation, somehow favored Mr. Bush.

For example, the shortages of voting machines and the long lines with waits of seven hours or more occurred mostly in urban areas and discouraged untold numbers of mostly Kerry voters.

Walter Mebane Jr., a professor of government at Cornell University, did a statistical analysis of the vote in Franklin County, which includes the city of Columbus. He told Mr. Kennedy, "The allocation of voting ma... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Those Pesky Voters - New York Times

Providing hints that a reduction in coastal sea ice may make life difficult for polar bears, government biologists from Canada and the United States say they observed three instances of cannibalism among polar bears in a three-month stretch in 2004 along Alaskan and Yukon coasts. In the journal Polar Biology, the researchers said that no previous examples had been observed in the region in at least 24 years. Computer simulations project that the Arctic Ocean could become largely free of sea ice later in the century in summers if global warming intensifies

Oh, this can't be true. There's no such thing as global warming! Stupid NYtimes, being all political and making up stories.

Biologists Note Polar Bear Cannibalism - New York Times

Here's Coulter from Chapter 1 of Godless: The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River in Maine, was halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant previously believed to be extinct.

Here's the Portland Press Herald, from the year 2000, in its list of the "Maine Stories of the Century": The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River, is halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant believed to be extinct.

Strangely similar, no? By the way, that's a story from 1976. Coulter doesn't tell you that little tidbit, making you think it happened last week. The next one's from 1977:

Anything that will get this horrible woman out of my face...

Coulter Copying Scandal

Of course you know, this means war.
“They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.”

Yes, an act of war as asymmetrical as a MySpace haircut — reverse-psychological war, you might call it. It was an act of war so devious, so sneaky, that we can only imagine what the terrorists have in store for us next in this new phase of the Long, Long War. Perhaps a group of anti-American Saudi airline pilots will hijack planes, fill them with fellow jihadists, and run them into their own homes! A group of Iraqi insurgents might assassinate their favorite radical cleric! Al-Qaeda agents in the mountainous Pakistan border areas might detonate explosives at the opening of the caves they’re hiding in, causing a cave-in that will permanently trap them inside and destroy the resolve and morale of international troops attempting to find them. Yes, this clearly was, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Colleen Graffy told the BBC, “a good PR move.” If this doesn’t boost Mani bin Shaman bin Turki al-Habardi’s album sales, nothing will.

Guantanamo Prisoners to Fire Edelman - Wonkette

Paramount Classics and Participant Prods. have teamed with NativeEnergy on an eco-savvy way to tout the film: They're offsetting 100% of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by pic-related globetrotting activities such as air travel, car services and hotels.

NativeEnergy calculates a "carbon footprint" based on the promopromo activities, with ParPar Classics and Participant splitting the costs associated with the footprint. NativeEnergy will use the proceeds to help build new Native American, Alaskan Native Village and farmer-owned renewable energy projects.

Thus, the doc becomes the first carbon-neutral pic in Tinseltown, Par Classics boasts.

And, its a fantastic movie. Everyone should go check it out, if only to get a handle on what they disagree with.

Variety.com - 'Truth' prevails as eco-friendly film

In that old battle of the wills between young people and their keepers, the young have found a new weapon that could change the balance of power on the cellphone front: a ring tone that many adults cannot hear.

A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears - New York Times

The Senate, as expected, defeated a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage today in a procedural vote that fell far short of the number required to amend the Constitution.
The 49-48 vote on a motion to end debate on the proposal advanced by Republicans and President Bush was 11 short of the number required under Senate rules. It was 18 short of the two-thirds majority in both houses required for proposed amendments to the Constitution.

Best news I've seen on the front page in months!!!!!!

Gay Marriage Amendment Fails in U.S. Senate

Senior Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sharply criticized a Justice Department official yesterday for refusing to say whether the Bush administration has ever considered prosecuting journalists for publishing leaked national security information.
.....
"You're basically taking what would be called a testifying Fifth Amendment. You should be ashamed of yourself, or your superiors should be ashamed of themselves," Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) told Friedrich after he declined to answer questions from committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa

Silence Angers Judiciary Panel