White House Prevarications (WP editorial on global warming)

[Kolesar]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/26/AR2005122600781.html

White House Prevarications

Tuesday, December 27, 2005; Page A24

GIVEN ALL THE fuss about what government officials in Washington
say off the record, it's surprising how little attention is paid
to some of the things they say on the record. Take, for example,
the subject of U.S. emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause
climate change. Earlier this month, we noted that the emissions
figures cited by U.S. officials attending the international
climate change conference in Montreal seemed dubious: Although the
negotiators claimed U.S. emissions had fallen by 0.8 percent
between 2000 and 2003, that drop actually reflected the recession
of 2000-2001, not any substantive environmental policy change. In
fact, as we noted, emissions had begun rising again in 2002 and
2003, and they looked set to rise again in 2004 -- to levels
higher than they reached in 2000.

James L. Connaughton of the White House Council on Environmental
Quality disputed our editorial; he noted, among other things, that
the 2004 figures had not yet been published. But now the Energy
Information Administration, one of two government agencies that
tracks climate statistics (the Environmental Protection Agency is
the other) has released its 2004 numbers. As many predicted, they
show a hefty 2 percent rise in greenhouse gas emissions, the
largest growth in five years. Thanks to that rise, U.S. emissions
now account for about 25 percent of the world's total. When the
EPA figures are released, they are expected to show the same
trend, despite the EPA's different methods of calculation.

...snip...edit for copyright reasons...

If it can't get its numbers right, why should we take seriously the
White House's declared intention to forge a "constructive and
effective approach" to climate change at all? (the lying b*st*rds! -editor)

...end editorial...

[Clark2008]

1. Prevarications?

Why can't the corporate media just call it what it is?

LIES!

:grr:

[EST]

2. Good point.

However, given the mealy-mouthed, chicken gut eating, slimy euphemism sucking non-words they've been using, prevarication sounds rather stalwart.

[newswolf56]

3. Once again the Goebbels/Rove/Norquist approach to governance:

destroy the programs (social safety net, Medicare, Medicaid, Small Business Administration, workplace safety regulations, environmental protection, higher-education funding, whatever) and claim they've been improved. The same Big Lie/Big-Lie policy is evident throughout the administration.

And -- once again -- the Democrats are paralyzed by the corporate/Republican Fifth Column: the Democratic Leadership Council. Thus they not only refuse to do anything to stop the advance of fascism, they become active collaborators with the fascists and the fascist agenda (as in enactment of "bankruptcy reform" -- with its re-imposition of indentured servitude, the most savage blow ever struck against U.S. workers).

Wake up, people! (Though I fear it's already way past too late.)