Wingnuts continue to attack Al Gore... but support Bush's criminal war on the environment

True to form, it's almost unanimous. Many local wingnuts are using the recent cold snap to attack Al Gore. They have so little to cheer about, to make themselves feel better, they practice the well-worn conservative tactic now synonymous with political smear and personal attacks - 'swiftboating.' Think about it realistically for a moment. Wingnuts attack Al Gore for heating a swimming pool while Dick Cheney gets a pass for designing an Energy Policy in secret meetings with big energy companies that has rolled back environmental protections and enforcement for polluters.

So ... Terry Frank, Mark Rose, Bill Hobbs, Bob Krum and the rest of you wingnuts, answer the question:

Who has contributed more to the release of greenhouse gasses and polluting the planet ?

A) Al Gore's house and pool

B) The 30 biggest utility companies owning the majority of the 89 dirtiest power plants in America that have poured $6.6 million into the coffers of the Bush presidential campaigns and the RNC, and have essentially designed America's energy and environmental policies.

Well? Just to review... we understand where you're coming from. We know that the Republican political machine is funded by polluting industries and that's your main reason for politicizing this climate change issue... you're just parroting the standard Republican line - taught to defend the hand that feeds you. So ... who's causing the real environmental damage? Who are the real hypocrites . . . the real environmental criminals?

Yes, Criminal - Federal Judges Rule Bush Environmental Policies Illegal

If you're ignorant on the subject of the Bush Administration's criminal environmental atrocities, let me enlighten you.

1. As mentioned, Bush received millions in campaign contributions from the biggest air polluting industries and as a payback, rolled back air pollution protections. A report released by the National Academy of Sciences finds the Bush administration's so-called "Clear Skies Initiative" would weaken existing Clean Air Act requirements. Prosecutions for violators have dropped 75 - 90% under Bush and polluting industries get to pollute more. Fortunately, in a unanimous ruling, a Federal Appeals Court struck down an attempt by the Bush Administration to weaken national rules limiting smog. The court held that EPA violated the Clean Air Act in relaxing limits on smog-forming pollution from large power plants.
2. Bush and the Republican National Committee get big donations from the Coal Mining Industry. In return, Bush has attempted to rewrite a 25-year-old rule of the Clean Water Act, thus legalizing illegal valley fills so that coal mining companies can use Mountain Top Removal Mining. This horrible practice creates a huge amount of waste that fills valleys annihilating the ecosystem and polluting the watershed. A federal judge has twice ruled that most valley fills are illegal under the Clean Water Act (CWA).
   
3. Bush and the Republican National Committee get big donations from Timber Companies.
   In return for campaign contributions, timber companies are raping our forests under the guise of fire protection. The Bush administration has been trying to overturn a Clinton-era rule that made nearly 60 million acres of national forest off-limits to road-building and logging. This is part of the Bush "Healthy Forest Initiative" -a concentrated effort to decrease public involvement, reduce environmental protection and increase access to our National Forests and other federal lands for timber companies. It will do little or nothing to protect communities from fire. Fortunately, Bush's plan has been ruled illegal. Here are some of the details of Bush's payback to Timber Companies.

Even worse, Bush has gone to great lengths to distort and suppress scientific research showing the damage that his policies have done to the environment. This is how Republicans do business.

• Scientific Integrity in Policymaking - Censoring Info on Air Quality
• Scientific Integrity in Policymaking - Distorting Research on Climate Change
• Nobel Award Winning Scientist Charges Bush with Distorting Research
• Exxon Mobil with ties to Bush Administration attack Global Warming with junk science

This is how Republicans do business, and if they can keep their actions away from public view, ignorance is bliss.

Well, this will be my last post for a few days, I have to go play a concert .... so read, learn, and live right. Love the earth and each other. Peace.

"People only protect what they love, but they can only love what they know."
- Jacques-Yves Cousteau