Rush: Fleischer Flips Back, White House Realigns With EPA Warning Report

Rush ^ | Rush

[Sir Gawain]

		y friends, the plot thickens. During Wednesday's program, the White House again shifted their position on the EPA global warming report that has been discussed extensively on this program and subsequently throughout the rest of the media.

		On Tuesday, the president, while at the National Security Agency, was asked about the EPA report, and he said that he read the report by the bureaucracy, and then affirmed his position against the Kyoto Protocol, which states, among many other things, its prominent claim that human activity is responsible for global warming. So, it was assumed by the press corps that he was not accepting that since he was against the Kyoto protocol. But then on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was asked the following question. Here's a partial transcript: REPORTER: Since the president addressed greenhouse gases, but not specifically global warming, does the president agree with the conclusion that human activity is likely the cause of global warming? FLEISCHER: That's what the president said in his speech in June. REPORTER: Exactly. He does agree with that? FLEISCHER: When the president cites the National Academy of Sciences saying that the National Academy of Science indicates that the increase is due in large part to human activity, I don't know how the president could say it more specifically than that. REPORTER: So he hasn't changed his mind at all? FLEISCHER: No. The bottom line for the president is, number one, he has made a proposal that he believes is a proposal that not only can reduce the problem of greenhouse gases and global warming, but it also protects the American economy, so the American economy can lead the world in technological and scientific advances that also have an effect in reducing pollution. The president has said, citing the National Academy of Sciences, that the increase is due in large part to human activity. The president has also continued, citing both now this report the EPA has sent to the United Nations, previous evidence from the National Academy of Sciences, that there is uncertainty. And the recent report notes that there is considerable uncertainty. That's the state of science, and the president agrees with it.

		The questioning went on and you can hear it for yourself in the audio link below, but Ari Fleischer has now confirmed that the president does believe that human activity is the cause for global warming, and there's no doubt about this now. Fleischer came to this briefing prepared with a statement outlining how the president's view on the causes of global warming have not changed, so they probably were sitting at the White House a little bit angry at the interpretation of what the president said yesterday when he spoke of, "the bureaucracy." So the White House is making it clear in no uncertain terms that the president believes human activity is largely responsible for global warming, that he totally agrees with the EPA report that went out, and that there's no disagreement. Whatever he said about "the bureaucracy" was misread, mis-analyzed, and misunderstood by the press and others. I think what they will say is that there has not been a flip-flop at all, there never was a flip-flop, and they can't help the way the press is going to interpret things. So it's been a roller coaster ride that needn't have left the gate, and here we are: According to the White House, human activity does cause global warming. Now, what I think about this is well known. I have said it before and it would be redundant for me to start repeating myself here, so I'm not going to take the occasion to do it. You know what I think, and you know what you think.

[OldFriend]

The point is that there is schmutz in the air, put there by us and it would behoove us to do all in our power to remove it.

Helllooo......does Pittsburgh or Bethlehem, PA mean anything to you?

Do you deliberately miss the point?

[Amelia]

Have you read the statement from June 2001 posted on the White House web page?

The position has NOT changed!

[Dave S]

All this only matter to Rush who sees himself losing his base of listeners and is now pandering to the libs.......he's just looking for friends poor thing

Are you that doddering geriatric idiot caller that got thru to Rush yesterday and made that same charge? What a nut. Rush bitches and moans about what Bush is doing just about every day. Since what Bush is reportedly doing is pandering to the libs, how can Rush be pandering to these same folks by attacking Bush day in, day out? Use your brain. You've got the reflex action of calling everything you dont like liberal that you cant tell your right from your left. Guess youve gone so far right that you've come full circle and are now a leftist.

[Clara Lou]

Unlike so many around here who post as though able to see into the future, I can't-- so I won't say you're wrong, but I will say that I surely have my doubts about your prediction. I think Rush the Bombastic (to whom I first started listening in the early 80's while I lived in Alaska) is just attempting to create an issue for himself with the accompanying spotlight. Time will tell.

[B Knotts]

Oh, no. Here we go again... :-P

[rambo316]

Yeah but people are not living longer because of the EPA or the DEA. People are living longer because they are taking better care of themselves and life is easier than long ago.

[callisto]

Antarctic Ice Cap Growing (20 Jan 2002)

A new paper published in Science (Joughin & Tulaczyk, vol.295, p.476, 18 Jan 2002) reports that radar studies show the West Antarctic Sheet to be growing, not shrinking as previously believed. They measured a net growth of +26.8 gigatons of ice per year instead of the -20 gigatons shrinkage estimated from older studies.

The authors also found that the retreat of ice following the end of the last ice age has now all but ceased and that the current positive mass balance of this ice sheet (i.e. a sheet which is accumulating ice faster in its accumulation zone than it is losing it at its melt zone near the coast) may indeed represent a reversal of the ice retreat which has been going on for thousands of years since the end of the last ice age. With accumulating ice in spite of `global warming' predictions, there is now little chance of the West Antarctic ice sheet collapsing, contrary to some of the scare stories being peddled by environmentalists.

This new finding comes on the heels of another Antarctic study published a week ago in Nature to show that the Antarctic continent has been cooling in recent decades instead of warming as predicted by the climate models and basic greenhouse theory....

Joughin & Tulaczyk, vol.295, p.476, 18 Jan 2002/A>

[NittanyLion]

I agree with you. Please reference my #62 for the actual post.

[lavaroise]

human activity does cause global warming.

Mea Culpa Bush, we are all equaly and socialy responsible. We are all sinful, and the government has anointed itself with a sinless report and program to fight our sins. Isn't that sweet!

[meanspirit77]

Is this going to be the Bush-bashing thread of the day? Just want to know if I am at the right spot. If so,hope this one has some legs. That one of yesterday fizzled out this A.M at around 1000 posts.

[Ben Ficklin]

"frome here on, the liberals will frame the debate"

Are you curious as to why the Senate Democratic Leadership has not made any comments on the EPA Report, which was released last Friday? Bush has them snookered.

Bush has his climate policy in place. The Senate Dems have been very critical of that policy. You would think that they would pick up the EPA Report and start clubbing Bush with it.

The Senate dems know that the EPA Report is bad science and likely a illegal document. It would not withstand a legal challenge.

Bush has marginalized the Senate Dems' criticism of his policies.

[Howlin]

:-)

[Dave S]

I'm with you. I think Bush agrees as to the source of the problem but disagrees with the solutions proposed up til now. Nothing wrong with that.

Even the climatologists that believe in global warming dont believe that cutting emissions is going to reduce the climate change much, if at all, over the next hundred years. It certainly makes much more sense to find out what is really going on and then determine what can be done to alleviate the problem than putting the world economy into a prolonged slump. If there is anything to global warming then we will need a strong economy in order to address the immediate problems of drought, disease, flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes, etc.

[NittanyLion]

Bush has marginalized the Senate Dems' criticism of his policies.

By ceding the debate to the enviro lobby. Short-term marginalization is going to shift the entire debate.

[truthkeeper]

Free Republic is supposed to where the free exchange words and ideas can be shared without being spat upon. That is why I go to FreeRepublic everyday. I am proud to call myself a Freeper. I tell everybody about this sight.

I couldn't have said that better myself, so I will only add "Amen."

[SerpentDove]

>>Miss, I've always gotten along with you, but I respectfully suggest that you are molding your opinions to fit your candidate, rather than the other way around.<<

Affirmative.

[B Knotts]

Is this going to be the Bush-bashing thread of the day?

No. This is the thread where we all bash each other. :-(

[SerpentDove]

Don't robots "think" only what they are programmed to "think"?

[truthkeeper]

Say it ain't so. :-(