Global Warming Deniers Take A Cue From Big Tobacco – How They Lie And Put Profits Before The Public Welfare

One of the most famous and dramatic events depicted in the motion picture "The Insider", was the testimony of the seven CEOs of Big Tobacco. Their "nicotine is not addictive" testimony, under oath as part of the Congressional Waxman hearings, started the modern day practice of having educated persons of authority disseminate scientifically fraudulent information to the public. Each CEO repeated,

"I don´t believe that nicotine or our products are addictive."

To support the claims of their corporate leaders, Big Tobacco learned how to take revisionist science one step further, buying off scientists to disseminate false data in order to manipulate and mislead the public. Now the big oil companies like ExxonMobil and their right-wing, global warming denying friends are using the same play book, as an unsuspecting public scratches their head and wonders what the truth really is.

Alden Mayer, the Union of Concerned Scientists' strategy and policy director, said recently that . . . 

“ExxonMobil based its tactics on those of tobacco companies, spreading uncertainty by misrepresenting peer-reviewed scientific studies or cherry-picking facts”. 

Mayer also stated that . . .

"They have manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer."

Big Tobacco knew just how effective it could be, when they used supposedly impartial experts to knowingly disseminate their corporate talking points to the public. The reality was that these experts were far from being impartial. In actuality they were hand-picked industry advocates whose job was to use the media to report distorted, biased information to the public under the guise of it being credible news. In most cases, they were paid exorbitant amounts of money to do so.

In 1993 Philip Morris determined that smoking restrictions were estimated to have decreased their profits by $40 million, knowing this was a result of legal restrictions being put on smokers and where they could smoke. To combat this assault on their corporate profits, they decided that they would initiate a massive campaign to recruit scientists willing to publicly support a position that smoking was not harmful.

They thus made an evil and calculated pact with the devil, signing away their souls when they decided that maximizing corporate profits was far more important than the health and welfare of their customers. Former Philip Morris political affairs director Ellen Merlo said . . .

"If smokers can't smoke on the way to work, at work, in stores, banks, restaurants, malls, and other public places, they are going to smoke less and a large percentage of them are going to quit. In short, cigarette purchases will be drastically reduced and volume declines will accelerate."

In the early 1990s, tobacco companies secretly paid thirteen scientists a total of $156,000 to write letters to influential medical journals with one getting $10,000 for writing a single letter that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. A cancer researcher also received $20,137 for writing four letters and an opinion piece for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and the Wall Street Journal.  

Professor Gary Huber was a scientific researcher for the tobacco industry for many years. He had built a career by regularly disputing the growing body of scientific evidence about tobacco's deadly effects and over the years received more than $7 million in money from the tobacco industry. His emphysema project at Harvard was paid for directly by the tobacco law firm of Shook, Hardy and Bacon. 

Having learned well from their corporate big brothers in the tobacco industry, ExxonMobil and their sister oil companies have likewise engaged in a systematic campaign of disinformation and lies to manipulate public opinion on global warming and man’s contribution to it.

Dr. James McCarthy, a professor at Harvard University, said the company has sought to . . .

"create the illusion of a vigorous debate" about global warming.

They haved pumped millions into think tanks, association, media outlets, and consumer groups and religious organizations to preach skepticism about the oncoming climate catastrophe and discredit the science behind global warming. They paid $16 million between 1998 and 2004 and in 2005 alone, shelled out $133 million including $6.8 million for public information and policy research to groups that publicly disputed the link between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. 

Here are a few of the recipients of ExxonMobil’s money and what they received.

1. Advancement of Sound Science Center - Run by FoxNews.com's Steve Milloy $40,000.

2. American Council for Capital Formation - Says science questions must be addressed before the United States and its allies embark on a path as non-productive as that of the Kyoto Protocol.- Group netted nearly a million dollars from ExxonMobil from 2000-2003 but the real science bashing was in 2001 when they got $250,000.

3. Acton Institute for the Study of Religious Liberty - Calls CO2 caps a misguided attempt to solve a problem that may not even exist. - $155,000.
   
4. American Council on Science and Health - Says Policymakers can safely take several decades to plan a response to global warming -$90,000.
   
5. American Enterprise Institute - Published 2004 climate article titled, 'Don't Worry, Be Happy.' Dick Cheney is a former senior fellow.- $960,000.

6. American Legislative Exchange Council - Launched attack on 'Sons of Kyoto' state legislation in 2004 Published Michaels paper that claims 'global warming could actually save lives.' - $712,200.
   
7. Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy - Says answering questions about global warming takes more than a few thermometers, an agenda and a press release. Honored Senator Inhofe for 'supporting rational, science-based thinking and policy-making' - $427,500

8. Atlas Economic Research Foundation - Said that 'As the science behind global warming becomes increasingly sketchy, many environmentalists clutch even harder to their views.'  - $440,000.
   
9. Cato Institute - One of the modern right's most respected think tanks - $75,000
   
10. Capital Research Center - Right-wing nonprofit watchdog group says, 'scientists disagree about climate change, but you wouldn't know that from the Kyoto treaty' - $115,000.

Today, an educated and aware public needs to be continually on guard and skeptical of corporate pronouncements that seem to go against common sense and reason. In the end, we have to take responsibility for what we believe. The stakes are now too high not to.
 

Debunking The Bunk, The Truth About Al Gore's Lifestyle

Well what do we have here, looks like solar panels on Al Gore's roof! (Yes Billo, it's an actual photo of his roof)

Poor Al Gore, the guy has more holes in him than Harry Whittington, Darth Vader's hunting buddy as he's been subjected to the most pre-meditated, vile and vicious character assassination attempt since Edward Coke brought down Francis Bacon.

Attack the messenger, that's what the reactionary right does when they are no longer able to compete on the field of reasoned intellectual objectivity. It's a time-honored strategy embraced and taught by Karl Rove. Worry not when you are lacking rationality, intelligence, cognitive reasoning and substantive facts. Just attack the messenger, swift boat them and ignore the truth, the people are dumb and won't know it until it's too late. (Please also see the Iraq War, No Child Left Behind, Illegal Wiretapping, Torture, Suspension of Habeas Corpus and Illegal Imprisonment).

It's all they have, as there is no credible debate anymore within the scientific community as to the veracity of the global warming crisis. So armed with supposedly irrefutable evidence of Gore's environmental hypocrisy they line up at Fox Noise like a pack of rabid dogs eager to take their wacks at poor Al. It's actually riveting in a perverse kind of way to watch Billo wipe the drool lovingly from Michelle Malkin's face as she spits all over herself trying to eviscerate Al Gore for daring to care about the stupid planet while there is a war in Iran to plan. Well the gig is up, the truth patrol is on the job debunking your bunk. Al Gore practices what he preaches and the truth is he lead's an exemplary environmental lifestyle. Here are the facts:

1. Al Gore has recently completed renovations to make his residence a model "green" home.

2. This plan has been in the works for a long time and has only recently been made public because of attacks by the right.

3. Gore's home meets Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council.

4. Al Gore's neighborhood council had zoning laws that previously prohibited the installation of solar panels. That has now changed and Al Gore has installed solar panels on his roof.

5. He has installed a geothermal system that will drastically reduce the cost of his water heating.

6. He has upgraded his windows and ductwork for maximum energy efficiency.

7. He has installed energy-efficient light bulbs.

8. He has created a rainwater collection system for irrigation and water management.

9. Al Gore drives a hybrid vehicle.

10. Al Gore’s family has signed up for 100% percent green power through Green Power Switch.

11. Al Gore espouses a very consistent belief in purchasing carbon offsets to offset his family’s carbon footprint. This is a concept the right-wing fails to understand and I suggest you do some reading before you discount it.

12. Al Gore flies commercial whenever possible. He is also an ex Vice President of the United States and receives numerous threats. Depending upon the security assessment and his schedule he is sometimes precluded from flying commercial.

13. Al Gore is an ex-Vice President who maintains his official office in his home for which requires adequate staff and space. He's has no other offices, making it unnecessary to use energy in separate locations.

14. The Gores' energy bills are in line with others in their part of the country. They live in the South, where extreme heat and humidity make air-conditioning the main drain on energy usage.

15. The Gores purchase, at great expense to themselves, "green" energy for their home (green energy costs 50% more than energy from conventional sources).

16. The Gores purchase carbon-offset credits to help mitigate the effect of their energy use on the environment.

17. One hundred percent of the profits from Al Gore's book and movie “An Inconvenient Truth” are going to a new bi-partisan educational campaign to further spread the message about global warming in addition to having a thousand people offer his slide presentation to groups around the world. Your bunk was junk.

A Thought On Whale Hunting

I think that historically, native peoples living in frozen, arctic locales have hunted whales for sustinence and clothing. The geography and harsh climate does not allow for agriculture, sufficient fishing or keeping farm animals. From my understanding, they take a very limited number of whales and use everything the animal offers. If it weren't for the whale's high blubber and fat content being part of their diet, the native people's probably would not have survived. They revere and respect the animals. On the other hand are the many countries that hunt whales commercially for profit. They are cruel and unecessary. That's my take.

Child Labor Enablers

Well, just when you thought that the Bush administration's sycophantic pandering to their corporate benefactors could go no further . . this from Washington. While negotiating a deal with Walmart to investigate reported child labor abuses, the Labor Department reportedly has agreed to give Walmart a fifteen-day advance notice before inspecting a facility! Way to go Elaine Chao; another heroic move defending the rights of corporations to profit at any cost.

What Progressives Believe

There is a after all is said and done a real difference between the reactionary right and progressive Democrats. We care about ending terrorism not emboldening terrorists, about rejecting torture, about affordable energy costs, about global warming, about education, about tax and election reform, about keeping religion out of government and our schools, about senior citizens, about affordable prescription drugs, about providing equal access to health care for all, about creating jobs, about protecting social security and medicaid, about sexual equality and homosexual rights, about not enabling corrupt and oppressive governments, about a woman's right to chose and a fair immigration policy, about civil rights, about safeguarding the environment and protecting wildlife and about not opting to stimulate corporate profits and malfeasance at the expense of the working class of this country. Say it proudly, it's the moral highground.

Jimmy Carter On Iraq

"Going to war without our county being directly threatened is a new policy that's radically changed the basic moral values and ethnical standards of the United States of America. I think it was made long before President Bush was elected president," he says, "and the people that believed that America should be the dominant force in the world, unilaterally, acting militarily if necessary, is another basic change in the principles that have always guided our country and made us great". - President Jimmy Carter

John Dean On Valerie Plame

"I thought I had seen political dirty tricks as foul as they could get, but I was wrong. In blowing the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame to take political revenge on her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for telling the truth, Bush's people have out-Nixoned Nixon's people. And my former colleagues were not amateurs by any means." --John W. Dean (Counsel to President Richard M. Nixon)

Stop Junk Mail

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Anne Coulter Funnies

It's getting far too serious out there isn't it? In this sad and often depressing world, we all need a laugh now and then to get through the day. So how about some uproarious levity, brought to you by the smiling, maliciously evil Eva Braun of arch conservatism, Anne Coulter. Here are just a few of her classic and timeless gems; her own uniquely despotic pearls of racist, neocon wisdom designed to give all of you progressives out there the confidence that we are indeed morally and intellectually superior. Writing for the rightwing National Review, she turned in a column offering her final solution to the Muslim problem.

• We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war". (Even the right wing Review fired her! Imagine that!)

• Congress could pass a law tomorrow requiring that all aliens from Arabic countries leave. We should require passports to fly domestically. Passports can be forged, but they can also be checked with the home country in case of any suspicious-looking swarthy males.

• I think we ought to nuke North Korea right now just to give the rest of the world a warning. They’re a major threat. I just think it would be fun to nuke them and have it be a warning to the rest of the world.

• I take the Biblical idea. God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees God says, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.

• She was also fired from MSNBC when she astoundingly told a disabled Vietnam veteran, people like you caused us to lose that war.

• My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is that he did not go to the New York Times Building.

• Liberal soccer moms are precisely as likely to receive anthrax in the mail as to develop a capacity for linear thinking. Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant.

Anti-Land Mine Treaty

An old story that we need to keep in the public eye. How do Americans feel that their country is in bed with China, Iran, North Korea, South Korea, Pakistan and Russia as the only ones not to sign a treaty banning land mines? I wonder what would be said if they knew that thousands of kids have had their legs blown off by land mines.

The Bush administration of course in their first term rejected a 150-nation anti-land mine treaty. In Afghanistan and Cambodia, among other countries, the buried land mines serve no military purpose and are a menace to farmers, children and other people who accidentally trip over them. The mines maim or kill. Stephen Goose, executive director of the arms control division of Human Rights Watch, said the United States is isolated by its insistence on using land mines in its defense programs. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a leading opponent of land mines said,

On the whole it is a deeply disappointing step backward. This is another squandered opportunity for U.S. leadership on a crucial arms control and humanitarian issue," he said. "Worst of all, in a sharp departure from past policy, it says the United States will continue using land mines indefinitely.

Conservatives are worried about gay folks who love each other getting married, but don't care that their country will countenance killing innocent people with land mines. Makes sense to me.