Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Speak oft and carry a big shtick

Obama loves the meaningless pronouncement. For instance, his hollow executive order to “prevent” federal funding of abortion, in a word, won’t – but it was cover enough to excuse holdouts to vote for ObamaCare. Thank goodness he doesn’t alter the status quo with his announcement not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear nations. The NYT fails to see it that way and thinks words are stronger than sticks:
It eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the Cold War. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons, or launched a crippling cyberattack.
Really? Our nukes aren’t going away. It’s only Obama’s word that prevents us to use nukes in specific contingencies. As Mary Poppins says, that’s a pie crust promise ‘easily made and easily broken’. That should be ambiguous enough for our enemies. After all, he's my president and I don’t trust him. Furthermore, this promise expires when he is replaced as president – unless Obama finds it convenient to move up the expiration date.

This isn’t a sop for our enemies – they’re not stupid. There is someone else Obama is trying to cover; perhaps Stupak’s buddies in Congress beholden to lefty constituents. Those constituents will see through this every bit as much as Stupak’s right to life constituents saw through Obama’s executive order. From the WSJ:
To many arms-control advocates, the review is likely to be a
disappointment. "It's a status quo document, I think, in virtually every
respect," said Bruce Blair, president of World Security Institute and
co-coordinator of Global Zero, a disarmament group.

Cross-posted at Anatreptic

Monday, April 05, 2010

If they cheat, maybe their cause isn't just

Greenpeace has become an oxymoron:
The politicians have failed. Now it's up to us. We must break the law to make the laws we need: laws that are supposed to protect society, and protect our future. Until our laws do that, screw being climate lobbyists. Screw being climate activists. It's not working. We need an army of climate outlaws
This green warrior is a little late calling forth the eco-outlaws. Activists have long been spiking trees, bid tampering land lease auctions, committing arson to name a few eco-crimes in vogue. Or does he fit the definition of someone who keeps doing the same thing but expecting different results?

What is new is the rash of law breaking designed to perpetuate the religion of environmentalism or cash in on the eco-duped. For instance Phil Jones, former director of the East Angilia Climate Unit would be facing charges for violating freedom of information laws (ed.: if not for the statute of limitations). He was trying to hide information that didn't support the eco-theology. The EU is embroiled in fraudulent carbon credits. Every day it seems, a new eco-fraud story appears:

It might sound like common sense. But the misspelling of an expert’s name in a multibillion-dollar environmental lawsuit filed against Chevron is what tipped off Chevron’s lawyers to the fact that the reports may have been fudged, a fact that has now been conceded by the expert himself...

The disclosure comes in the midst of a huge lawsuit accusing Chevron of causing widespread environmental damage in the Ecuadorean rain forest. In 2004, the plaintiffs hired an American biologist named Charles Calmbacher to help oversee soil and water tests in Ecuador.

Reports signed by Calmbacher showed high levels of toxins at two sites and estimated the contamination would cost more than $40 million to clean up at these sites alone.

But in a sworn deposition last week, Calmbacher said he didn’t write the reports submitted over his signature, which said the sites were highly polluted and needed remediation.

“I concluded that I did not see significant contamination that posed immediate threat to the environment or to humans or wildlife around it,” Calmbacher said, according to a transcript provided by Chevron.
Eco-fraud is certainly run by "Green" outlaws - perhaps not the types Mr. Green Warrier is enlisting, but he ignores them at his peril. The politicians at Copenhagen did fail to enact his agenda - but I submit they were in fact influenced a great deal by the unraveling of outlaw eco-huckster schemes.

Update: Rewrote the post to better express my point.

Update II: Here it is April 6, and I woke up to 12 inches of white global warming. I know it's only weather when it snows and Global Warming when it doesn't but just saying...

Cross-posted at Anatreptic