Climate Change Methane Ocean Carbon Dioxide East Coast Colder Winters Obama Media Attack Barton BP Apology

Tags: Climate Change Methane Ocean Carbon Dioxide East Coast Colder Winters Obama Media Attack Barton BP Apology

Leonard Pitts of the McClatchy's Miami Herald is quite good. I don't read the New York Times anymore and started reading the Wall Street Journal again, but never read its editorial page.

The slowdown in the job increase, especially those over 55 whom the corporations took advantage of the recession to get rid of higher income employees. Reagan subsidized corporations and Bush, Jr further increased tax breaks for corporations to send jobs overseas and also blatantly used patented automation technology from Japan in the 1980s without compensation to replace workers with no significant improvement in production costs, but a powerful threat to current workers to keep wages low.

The Republican Study Committee, which includes almost all Republicans, almost unanimously believe what Joe Barton below thinks and says. He apologized to BP for our government's attack on them, took it back, and then re-state his BP support yesterday.

The constant media attack on Obama has changed what Americans think of Obama and for the first time more disagree with him than agree with his policies. The New York Times read by the powerful elites gave permission for the corporate press/media to attack Obama in the same way they gave permission to attack the Catholic church.

The Climate models indicate that in the future the Eastern Coast will be much colder in the winter than in the past. For whatever reasons, methane is starting to be released from the ocean off the California coast. Normally, the ocean is cold enough to keep methane from because a gas but I saw several days ago the intense bubbling off the California coast on TV. Methane has about 20 times more warming effects than carbon dioxide!

We also may be close to limit is the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide because of increasing acidity, especially seen in coastal waters. The temperature on earth went up sharply about 12 centuries ago when there was a huge release of carbon dioxide from the oceans and stayed stable for ten thousand years.

Only when we discovered oil in the ground did the temperature start to increase and sharply in the 1990s and 2000s along with carbon dioxide. Bush/Cheney allowing coal companies to expand production with putting in the modern pollution protection devices increased both carbon dioxide and other toxic pollutants. The carbon dioxide increase per year in carbon dioxide from 1% increase per year in the atmosphere to 2% increase per year changed the ball game.

... To peruse the CRP website (www.crp.org) is to be forcefully reminded just how much sway business interests have over what are supposedly OUR elected officials.

From South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, who's received $145,000 from the utilities industry since 2009 to South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson, who's received $322,000 since 2005 from insurance companies, to Nevada Sen. John Ensign's $305,000 from casinos since 2005 to Florida Rep. Kendrick Meek's $779,000 from lawyers since 2009, there is no shortage of lawmakers who work hard for the corporate money. What is less certain is the number who work hard for the national good. ...

President Obama had secured from BP a $20 billion escrow fund to help those whose lives were upended by the spill. You'd think that was a good thing, but Barton told BP CEO Tony Hayward, "I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where anytime a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that ... amounts to a shakedown. So I apologize." ... Barton alone has accepted more than $100,000 in donations from that industry just since 2009. And according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, oil interests have given him more than $1.4 MILLION since 1990 — more than any other representative. ...

Jim Kawakami, June 24, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

By Leonard Pitts Jr. | Miami Herald

OK, let's make sure we have this straight.

An oil rig operated by British Petroleum explodes in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven people die. As much as 2.5 million gallons of BP oil gushes into the Gulf every day. Fragile eco-systems are wrecked, sea life is slimed, fishermen and boaters who make their living from the Gulf are facing ruin and BP, we discover, had no real plan for handling a catastrophe of this magnitude.

So we should apologize to BP?

That was the astonishing, incomprehensible and galling conclusion of Texas Rep. Joe Barton last week in a congressional hearing. He was reacting to news President Obama had secured from BP a $20 billion escrow fund to help those whose lives were upended by the spill. You'd think that was a good thing, but Barton told BP CEO Tony Hayward, "I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where anytime a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that ... amounts to a shakedown. So I apologize."

Hours later, under fire from Democrats and his fellow Republicans, Barton apologized for the apology and retracted it. But the damage was already done.

Indeed, the gaffe was a gift to Democrats, who wasted no time hammering the GOP with it. Why not? The apology plays right into the narrative of a GOP snugly in the pocket of Big Oil. Barton alone has accepted more than $100,000 in donations from that industry just since 2009. And according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, oil interests have given him more than $1.4 MILLION since 1990 — more than any other representative.

As we can plainly see, he works hard for the money.

Still, it seems short-sighted to frame this only in the context of one politician — or even one party — in thrall to a single industry. To peruse the CRP website (www.crp.org) is to be forcefully reminded just how much sway business interests have over what are supposedly OUR elected officials.

From South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, who's received $145,000 from the utilities industry since 2009 to South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson, who's received $322,000 since 2005 from insurance companies, to Nevada Sen. John Ensign's $305,000 from casinos since 2005 to Florida Rep. Kendrick Meek's $779,000 from lawyers since 2009, there is no shortage of lawmakers who work hard for the corporate money. What is less certain is the number who work hard for the national good.

America's democracy has become a pay to play system in which lack of money equals invisibility and muteness. The solution is obvious: public funding of all national political campaigns.

How else will these people know who they work for? And isn't that ultimately the crux of Joe Barton's confusion?

Every election cycle, the people and the politicians join in an act of willful self-deception, a ritualized charade in which everybody knows the truth, but nobody speaks it. Politicians flood the airwaves with commercials that show them walking and talking with the common folk who listen with rapt attention. The final shot frames the candidate with a flag in the background as he or she gazes soulfully into the middle distance and promises to work on our behalf, to always be on our side.

They pretend to mean it and we pretend to believe it.

But last week, Joe Barton didn't even care enough to pretend. Instead, he stood tall against the people and environment of the Gulf Coast, and WITH the industry that gave him $1.4 million.

There is a certain raw truth in that image that blasts all pretense away. As he genuflects before his corporate masters, Barton also reflects the ugly underside of American politics. And validates an ancient axiom that suddenly sounds like a warning:

You get what you pay for.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Leonard Pitts Jr., winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, is a columnist for the Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33132. Readers may write to him via e-mail at lpitts@miamiherald.com. Leonard Pitts chats with readers every Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EDT on www.MiamiHerald.com.

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