On Jul 8, 1:08 pm, "Docky Wocky" <mrch...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Senator Barbara Boxer, liberal Democrat of California, who chairs, and
is
> the hypocritical greenie geek behind the Senate Environment Committee,
> leveled her newest attack today against the vice president and other
> administration officials, say they were "recklessly" seeking to censor
> testimony about the unproven supposed dangers of global warming, and
working
> to prevent legislation that would further the global warming and depress
> American manufacturing
> In a burst of unusually hot, but typical air similar to the statements
she
> first was given to read after Cheney took office nearly 8 years ago, the
> senator said, "This cover-up is being directed from the White House and
the
> office of the vice president."
>
> Of course, hitching wagons to the global warming scam was the thing to
do
> back in the olden days, but the scientific community that finally woke
up
> after Algore's so****ific rants, has been shooting down some of the best
> arguments the supercilious geeks were promoting to help push the USA
down
> into full Third World status
>
> The discovery that both Venus, and Mars, were exhibiting almost
identical
> and parallel rises in atmospheric temperatures and reductions in ice
caps
> doesn't appear to have affected the senator's writers and managers, and
they
> still keep insisting that whenever she speaks, it is to place blame on
> someone, or even anyone. Cheney, being as personable as he is, is the
> obvious choice to be the foil for the Boxer.
>
> Boxer's next diatribe is expected to be her backing for the newest
darling
> of the left - the biofuels scam and what they term, "zero emissions
> vehicles."
>
> While these feel good ideas are gaining in popularity, little liberal
brain
> power will be devoted to the enormous social, economic, and
environmental
> impact that their dreamy conversion to these fuzzy "biofuels" will
entail.
>
> The shear volume of land, water, toxic metals, and fossil fuel required
to
> make this pie-in-the-sky transference to these so-called biofuels will
be
> stupendous and guaranteed to create whole other cl***** of ego-geeks who
> will be happily burning effigies of Boxer during their democratic
> get-togethers.
>
> And let's not forget the other idiot, Pelosi, calling for the end to our
oil
> addiction, but without the slightest idea of how to pull this off and
still
> get re-elected.
Except the story was confirmed by the EPA official who testified. Too
Bad try again
Cheney's Staff Cut Testimony On Warming
Health Threats at Issue, Ex-EPA Official Says
By Juliet Eilperin
Wa****ngton Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 9, 2008; A01
Members of Vice President Cheney's staff censored congressional
testimony by a top federal official about health threats posed by
global warming, a former Environmental Protection Agency official said
yesterday.
In a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), former EPA deputy
associate administrator Jason K. Burnett said an official from
Cheney's office ordered last October that six pages be edited out of
the testimony of Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Gerberding had planned to say that the
"CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern."
Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee,
said the administration sought the changes for fear that Gerberding's
testimony could trigger new controls under the Clean Air Act that
would regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. The
White House has opposed mandatory limits and has insisted that
voluntary measures and increased research are the best ways to address
the issue.
"The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Office of the Vice
President (OVP) were seeking deletions to the CDC testimony," Burnett,
31, a Stanford-trained economist and a Democrat, wrote in response to
an inquiry from Boxer's committee. "CEQ requested that I work with CDC
to remove from the testimony any discussion of the human health
consequences of climate change."
Several media outlets, including The Wa****ngton Post, re****ted at the
time of Gerberding's testimony that the administration had revised her
proposed remarks. White House officials justified the changes by
citing doubts about the scientific basis of her testimony.
Burnett -- a grandson of high-tech entrepreneur David Packard and a
member of the Packard Foundation's board of trustees -- has given more
than $129,000 to Democratic campaigns in recent years, including
$3,600 to presidential candidate Barack Obama (Ill.). He did not
identify who in the vice president's office had called him.
"I'm not interested in pointing fingers at any individual," he said at
a news conference with Boxer, adding that he is focused on how the
government will address climate change in response to a Supreme Court
decision last year requiring the EPA to deal with rising carbon
dioxide emissions. "I'm interested in helping inform the next
administration to help make those decisions, while recognizing
Congress could act to pass a better law."
Boxer demanded that, in light of Burnett's allegations, EPA
Administrator Stephen L. Johnson turn over "every do***ent related to
the agency's finding that global warming poses a danger to the public"
-- a determination the EPA reached late last year in a do***ent that
has never been made public. On that basis, the senator said, the
agency must issue regulations to limit the emissions.
The White House declined to open the EPA e-mail containing that
finding, which Burnett sent on Dec. 5, leaving the recommendation in
limbo. Burnett was responsible for climate change issues at EPA.
"I'm calling on Mr. Johnson to act now, and if he doesn't have the
courage or the strength or determination to act, he should resign,"
Boxer said.
EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said Johnson will not provide the
do***ents, but added that Boxer and others will be able to read about
the agency's findings in detail when it releases its proposed
regulation of greenhouse gases, expected within days.
"The administrator is glad to see Senator Boxer agrees that we need a
robust and complete advance notice of proposed rulemaking that will
come out as soon as Friday," Shradar said, adding that "a lot of those
do***ents" Boxer is seeking will be in the proposal. "I don't know if
she's just now working on her summer reading list or what."
Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride declined to discuss Burnett's
allegations, saying, "We don't comment on internal deliberations." But
White House spokesman Tony Fratto noted that officials in past
administrations have vetted congressional testimony from agency
officials.
"There's absolutely nothing unusual here in terms of the inter-agency
review process, whether it's testimony, rules or anything else,"
Fratto said in an interview. "The process exists so that other offices
and departments have the op****tunity to comment and offer their views.
There's nothing unusual about that, there's nothing nefarious about
that, and there's nothing different here from previous
administrations."
CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said that any changes to Gerberding's
planned testimony were made "during the normal editing process" and
that she "spoke openly and fully without constraint" while testifying
before the Senate.
Frank O'Donnell, who heads the advocacy group Clean Air Watch, said
the revelations confirmed that the vice president has been steering
environmental policy during President Bush's tenure.
"For years, we've suspected that Cheney was the puppeteer for
administration policy on global warming," O'Donnell said. "This kiss-
and-tell account appears to confirm the worst."
Boxer was particularly harsh in *****sing earlier comments made by
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, who in October said that some of
Gerberding's original draft "did not com****t with" the 2007 re****t of
the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"This was a lie," Boxer said, reading Perino's quote. "She said it was
in contradiction with the IPCC re****t. It wasn't."
The IPCC re****t raised many of the same points that Gerberding did in
her original testimony, but Bush's science adviser, John H. Marburger
III, issued a statement in October saying that "there was an overall
lack of precision" in Gerberding's draft concerning "the specific
nature of some climate change impacts on human health."
Yesterday, Fratto said White House officials "stand 100 percent behind
what Dana said."
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