Posted on 02/25/2015 11:07:11 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
After President Obamas veto this week of legislation demanding the approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, congressional Republicans are charging him with once again flouting the will of the duly elected legislative branch. The charge has the ring of truth when it comes to energy and environmental matters, given how much the Obama administration has sought to circumvent Republicans with regulation and executive orders in that arena, most notably with the rules announced last year limiting carbon emissions from existing power plants. But there is a reason that Obama has chosen to go it alone on energy: The GOPs utter refusal to reckon with the reality of climate change has left him no choice. And if anyone doubts the extent of that refusal, consider what happened Wednesday at a routine joint hearing of two House Energy and Commerce subcommittees.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
"1. Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican and former chairman of the committee who is so close with the oil industry that he apologized to BPs CEO for the government daring to fine the company for the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill, started off by telling McCarthy: I could really have some fun with you, but youre too nice a person. He proceeded to have fun with her anyway, repeatedly demanding to know whether she had seen any actual signed documents from the presidents agreement with the Chinese government to limit carbon emissions. His staff, he said, had told him that no such documents actually existed, an omission that he cast in conspiratorial tones. If its a signed agreement, lets see it, he said. You dont just stand up and say, We have this agreement and hug. What you have is a press release, a photo op. McCarthy said that as she understood it, the agreement was a serious one at the highest levels of both countries
expressing both of their commitments to this goal, regardless of whatever paperwork was signed. That didnt satisfy Barton. I can take you over to the National Archives and show you the signed Declaration of Independence. I can show you lots of documents that have signatures on them, he said. You and I can agree that Im not going to go out and rob a bank. You can agree that youre not going to rob a bank. We can both hold a press conference: Weve agreed that were not going to rob a bank.
".....Support from Joseph Stalin gave Lysenko even more momentum and popularity. In 1935, Lysenko compared his opponents in biology to the peasants who still resisted the Soviet government's collectivization strategy, saying that by opposing his theories the traditional geneticists were setting themselves against Marxism. Stalin was in the audience when this speech was made, and he was the first one to stand and applaud, calling out "Bravo, Comrade Lysenko. Bravo." This event emboldened Lysenko and gave him and his ally Prezent free rein to slander the geneticists who still spoke out against him.
Many of Lysenkoism's opponents, such as his former mentor Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, were imprisoned or even executed because of Lysenko's and Prezent's denunciations.
On August 7, 1948, the V.I. Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences announced that from that point on Lysenkoism would be taught as "the only correct theory". Soviet scientists were forced to denounce any work that contradicted Lysenko's research.
Criticism of Lysenko was denounced as "bourgeois" or "fascist", and analogous "non-bourgeois" theories also flourished in other fields in the Soviet academy at this time (see Japhetic theory; socialist realism).
Interestingly, perhaps the only opponents of Lysenkoism during Stalin's lifetime to escape liquidation came from the small community of Soviet nuclear physicists: as Tony Judt has observed, "Stalin left his nuclear physicists alone... [He] may well have been mad but he was not stupid."....
...From 1934 to 1940, under Lysenko's admonitions and with Stalin's approval, many geneticists were executed (including Isaak Agol, Solomon Levit, Grigorii Levitskii, Georgii Karpechenko and Georgii Nadson) or sent to labor camps. The famous Soviet geneticist Nikolai Vavilov was arrested in 1940 and died in prison in 1943....."
McCarthy said that as she understood it, the agreement was a serious one at the highest levels of both countries expressing both of their commitments to this goal,
So?
Gina, you miserable *×××*! A commitment carry no force of contract, much les the power kf treaty, which “Must” be ratified by Congress.
“But there is a reason that Obama has chosen to go it alone on energy: The GOPs utter refusal to reckon with the reality of climate change has left him no choice.”
SO either congress agrees with him and passes a law for him to sign. Or they refuse, and he is forced issue a law without them.
Classic dictatorship.
“.....Environmentalists have long argued that human population growth is straining the environment and the climate. In the 1960s, academics like Paul Ehrlich and current White House science czar John Holdren pushed for population control methods to stave off ecological disaster.
Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society, Holdren and Ehrlich wrote in a textbook. Few today consider the situation in the United States serious enough to justify compulsion, however......
http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/04/activist-claim-birth-control-the-key-to-stopping-global-warming/
It would appear that it is Barry that is not respecting the science of Climate Change.
Why is he such a Denier?
The U.S. State Department gave a vote of confidence to the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, saying in a report that it has no major environmental objections to the construction of the megaproject.
The report says development of the massive pipeline to move oil from Alberta to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast won’t significantly increase the rate of oil extraction and release an unacceptable level of greenhouse gases.
“This is the fifth federal study on the environmental impact of the Keystone XL pipeline. Each previous one has stated that building Keystone XL would not adversely affect the environment,” Oliver said.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/keystone-xl-gets-environmental-ok-from-u-s-state-dept-1.2518271
Yes, I’m all for population control; but let’s do it right.
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Henry The Sixth, Part 2 Act 4, scene 2
Because “the environment” is so vague, I believe Obama (and his supporters need something to point as an accomplishment of his disastrous administration - and this is it. The economy may be ruined, the world may be aflame, but Obama saved “the environment”. Just like “jobs saved” versus “jobs created”, it is an intangible that can’t be proven or disproven.
He will be remembered as our first “green president”...
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