[CoolGuyVic]

Should be interesting...

[Tuor]

"'I read the report put out by the bureaucracy,' Bush said dismissivly... "

Done in your name, buddy. Better learn to take responsibility for the actions of your administration, especially when you requested the report be made.

You could've stopped the report. You could've had someone check it out for you since you certainly have better things to do than read such a report.

Again, Bush is trying to have his cake and eat it too. On the one hand, his administration produced and submitted this report to the socialist UN. On the other, he's acting as if this was merely some autonomic bureaucratic action. He's the captain of his ship, the head of his administration.

He has two choices, IMO: either support the report the EPA made under his orders, or repudate the report and its findings in no uncertain terms. Tell people you hadn't reviewed it and think it is a load of bunk. Trying to placate both sides of this issue *will not work*, and will only serve to piss everyone off (which is happening already). He isn't coming across as moderate or centrist, but wishy-washy and not in control of his own administration.

Step up to the plate and state your position for all to hear and know.

Tuor

[Humidston]

Methinks he read FR and his email last night..

Too bad. Too late. Dye is cast and the whiners are now hysterical with glee.

[Clara Lou]

Remember that so-called "reality" you mentioned on the other thread?

[Ronaldus Magnus]

Although I didn't partake in the discussion yesterday, I'm thankful for what Rush had to say. As I see it, the administration (including the President) were testing the waters to see how well this would go over. Had this really been the result of excessive bureaucratic autonomy, Ari would have been out there retracting it within an hour of it appearing on Drudge. Thanks in part to these "Bush Bashers", the waters were too hot. I love this President, but like any politician he is going to try to get as close to the political center as we as his core supporters allow him to get.

[Sabertooth]

Good, I'm glad he said it.

However, "The beauracracy did it" isn't good enough. I realize that a lot of these folks are entrenched federal employees, but the President needs to have checks and balances by putting his own people into positions to insure that this crap can't happen.

Have an office within each agency which does nothing but vet this nonsense and prevent it from being used to undermine the President's policies.

Anyone have a problem with that?

[concerned about politics]

Kalee Kreider, global warming campaign director for the National Environmental Trust, an advocacy group, said environmentalists want from the administration a climate change plan that joins with other nations in requiring carbon dioxide emission reductions and increased fuel efficiency requirements for vehicles.
"It's good they've done a 180-degree turn on the science. Given the audience, they pretty much had to," Kreider said. "But we're still waiting for a plan that mandates pollution cuts."

You knee-jerk BushBots had better not count your chickens before they hatch.
Bush will sign a Koyoto treaty, but the name will just be changed to something more "pleasureable" as to not offend anyone.
It will be an issue for 2004, especially since Bush publically announced global warming is real.
I don't think you folks should be so gullable.

[Ol' Sparky]

Now why would Bush do that? If the EPA is a bureaucracy and contradicting his beliefs, then why doesn't he eliminate those that contradicts his true beliefs like Christie Todd Whitman? Why doesn't he demand the EPA hire some experts that are opposed to global warming to give the agency some balance?

He made this statement because Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the base were outraged. Bush can only compromise as far as the base lets him and enough didn't let him on this issue.

Just think if the base always held Bush's feet to the fire and demanded that he not compromise on all the issues he has betrayed conservatives on.

[Redleg Duke]

Sounds like that "Dim bulb" suckered them into leaning into a left hook!

One of the ways of getting rid of rats is to lure them out in the open.

[OldFriend]

Well, my guess is that Rush is too small a man to admit that Drudge pulled his strings.........

It saddens me to witness the lack of faith some freepers have in our President. The benefit of the doubt is withheld in every instance and the implication is that he deserves no more respect or trust than the previous president.

[eraser X]

Well, I for one am happy that Bush has come out and dismissed the human activity part of that report. I don't understand the folks who didn't feel it necessary for Bush to back away from the report. Heck, I even remember reading one poster adamantly supporting Bush who was about to accept global warming as human induced. I consider this a win for the free market conservatives who actually think words matter.

[eleni121]

You gotta love the way Bush plays everyone especially the Left...what a master manipulator...does Macchiavelli proud.

Go Bush!

[RISU]

Don't blame any "public" official, Bush included, for promoting an "emergency".

After all, without a dire emergency, a real "scary prospect", what do we need them for?

[Political Junkie Too]

How many of Bush's departmental appointees are still waiting to be confirmed? Could all this have been the work of "moles" in the administration who haven't been ousted yet because Congress is bottle-necking the appointments?

-PJ

[ohioWfan]

It's all about character. This President can be trusted, so it's folly to assume something negative until you have heard his own statement on a given subject, especially when what you hear goes against everything he stands for.

I'm not at all surprised by this.......not at all.

Thank you for your rigorous defense of our honorable President! You are magnificent!!

[RAT Patrol]

now this IS encouraging!

[clintonh8r]

So let's see how many Bush-bangers with their self-righteous "principles" also include humility in their quiver of attributes and can admit when they're wrong. (Some would say they made fools of themselves. But not me. No. I wouldn't say that).

[Redcloak]

Not meaning to dump any acid rain on anyone's parade, but the AP article Drudge is referring to does not say that Bush is repudiating this EPA drivel...

---

JUNE 04, 12:58 ET

White House Warns on Climate Change

By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush dismissed on Tuesday a report put out by his administration warning that human activities are behind climate change that is having significant effects on the environment.

The report to the United Nations, written by the Environmental Protection Agency, puts most of the blame for recent global warming on the burning of fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the environment.

But it suggests nothing beyond voluntary action by industry for dealing with the so-called ``greenhouse'' gases, the program Bush advocated in rejecting a treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 calling for mandatory reduction of those gases by industrial nations.

``I read the report put out by the bureaucracy,'' Bush said dismissively Tuesday when asked about the EPA report, adding that he still opposes the Kyoto treaty.

Japan ratified the international accord Tuesday and urged the United States and other countries to join efforts to fight global warming by cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet gave final approval to the Kyoto Protocol, which passed the upper and lower houses of Parliament last month.

The report submitted to the United Nations was the first by the Bush administration to mostly blame human activity for global warming.

``The changes observed over the last several decades are likely mostly due to human activities, but we cannot rule out that some significant part of these changes is also a reflection of natural variability,'' the report says.

``Human-induced warming and associated sea level rises are expected to continue through the 21st century,'' it says. ``Secondary effects ... include increases in rainfall rates and increased susceptibility of semiarid regions to drought.''

The report also says that despite some lingering scientific uncertainties, ``There is general agreement that the observed warming is real and has been particularly strong within the past 20 years.''

In the United States, changes over the next few decades are expected to put Southeastern coastal communities at greater risk of storm surges, prompt more uncomfortable heat waves in cities and reduce snowpack and water supplies in the West

The extents of aspen, eastern birch and sugar maple probably will contract dramatically in the United States, shift into Canada and cause loss of maple syrup production in northern New York and New England. Great Lakes water levels are expected to drop, which would affect navigation, water supplies and aquatic species. Production of U.S. hardwood and softwood products is projected to increase, mostly in the South. Fewer cold days and reduced snowpack do not bode well for the southernmost ski areas, where costs of snowmaking would rise.

Kalee Kreider, global warming campaign director for the National Environmental Trust, an advocacy group, said environmentalists want from the administration a climate change plan that joins with other nations in requiring carbon dioxide emission reductions and increased fuel efficiency requirements for vehicles.

``It's good they've done a 180-degree turn on the science. Given the audience, they pretty much had to,'' Kreider said. ``But we're still waiting for a plan that mandates pollution cuts.''

Last year, the White House described climate change as a serious issue but was undecided about how much of the problem should be blamed on human activities. President Bush favors a climate plan with voluntary measures to slow the rate of growth in gas emissions but allow them to continue to rise.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the administration remains convinced that the president's plan is the best path, for two reasons. He pointed to language in the report acknowledging ``considerable uncertainty in current understanding of how climate varies naturally.''

And, he said, Bush's plan will ``significantly reduce the growth of greenhouse gas emissions,'' while investing in new science and technology to curb them. Bush has proposed spending $4.5 billion on climate change science and technology.

European Union countries formally signed the Kyoto Protocol on Friday. It was negotiated in 1997 to stem pollution and global warming; President Bush has rejected it. The ratification by Japan and the 15 EU countries at the headquarters of the United Nations represented a major step toward putting the treaty into force.

---

George Bush and the White House are still on the side of the environmentalist whackos. As I stated yesterday in another thread, this isn't truly a flip-flop since he's always embraced the theory of global warming. "Oh! But Red... He refused to sign up to the Kyoto Treaty." Are you confident that had Kyoto been just a little less heavy handed, Bush would still have rejected it? And should a watered down treaty come before him, are you confident that he'll reject "Kyoto-lite"? I'm not. It is still the position of this government that human activity is to blame for the rise in global temperature that's been going on since the 17th Century. Do you want Bush holding such a view?

[vaudine]

He should dismiss many at EPA as well as their report. Even the report is not a strong endorsement of greenhouse gas theory.

vaudine

[bandleader]

Of COURSE HE DID BECAUSE ALL THAT IT IS IS A GREAT LOAD OF LEFTIST,ENVIRO-WACKO PROPOGANDA BASED ON PC JUNK-SCIENCE!!!!!

[Action-America]

Geez?

Dubya does just one thing right and the mind-numbed followers of GOP propaganda all shout, "See, he really is conservative", as if that one conservative act suddenly absolves him of all the liberal c#@p that he has supported/signed.  This one statement doesn't even begin to absolve him for either CFR or USA Patriot.

The reaction of the bushies on this report, sadly reminds me of the fans of an also-ran local sports team, that accidentally wins one game by a single point and the local paper splashes, "Local Team Wins Big" across the front page.  It's understandable that the huge relief would cause such overreaction in both cases.  It's just sad that one of those cases involves a Republican President and Republican voters, desperate for good news.

I remind everyone that conservatism is not a single issue.  It is a state of mind that crosses all issues.  If Dubya had supported conservative issues all along and stumbled on this single issue, I would gladly accept it as a minor flaw in an otherwise conservative agenda.  But, this is a single conservative instance in an otherwise moderate to liberal agenda.

In fact, being an isolated event, this could as easily have been nothing more than that his advisors told him that he needed to do something conservative to keep his Republican base in line and this was a throwaway issue to him.  But, since I am inclined to give anyone who does anything conservative, the benefit of the doubt, I will make this statement:

"Thank you President Bush, for this token of conservatism.  True conservatives anxiously await further signs that you have indeed, mended your moderate, one-world ways."