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White House edits CDC climate testimony – Yeah, again!

Byoliveridley

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Turns out that the Emperor did not want anyone to know what the possible health effects of climate change were going to be.

White House edits CDC climate testimony – Yahoo! News:

It was eviscerated,’ said a CDC official, familiar with both versions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the review process.

The official said that while it is customary for testimony to be changed in a White House review, these changes were particularly ‘heavy-handed,’ with the document cut from its original 14 pages to four. It was six pages as presented to the Senate committee.

So, is there any point in blogging about this story about the Emperor and his politburo wielding the censor pen on yet another government report? No, because like million other stories like the one above, nothing comes of it. Nobody loses anything, the press does not understand that this behavior is unprecedented and more representative of 1960s USSR than the so called leader of the free world. The people who read about it could not care less. This is small fry compared to the “enhanced interrogation techniques” (call it torture), “private military contractors” (call them mercenaries), “extraordinary rendition” (state sanctioned kidnapping, disappearing, whatever you call it), etc. This country has apparently been outraged to boredom. Where does the “editing” (censoring) of a government report even register on this list of outrages?

Seriously, the Democratic party has been the most undistinguished of opposition parties. Yes, they supposedly control the Senate and Congress, but they don’t. In this weird undemocratic and archaic presidential system, you can only succeed if you have 60% of the Senate, 67% of the Congress or the president on your side. So, functionally, the Democrats are still the opposition party and do not seem to understand that as the opposition party, they need to oppose, manufacture outrage (in this case, no manufacturing necessary), and keep yelling continuously. Some shrillness is indicated here. Yes, they have some power that comes from the majorities, but the power needs to be used. They have to keep sending bills that the president will veto, they have to keep subpoenaing the politburo members so they can refuse to testify, and they have to keep repeating that they’re outraged, I tell you, outraged!!

Oh well, I come from the famously fractious politics of India, so none of my rants are going to make sense. If you want outrage, here you go… Mind you, this is the member of the coalition that rules India exerting pressure on it’s ally, not even the real opposition who only yesterday called for the PM to resign because “a resurgent nation like India should not be led by a helpless and sad leader” – Ouch, take that!! All this over a nuclear deal with the US where India gained all kinds of concessions for essentially building a nuclear arsenal on the sly and against the wishes of the international community.

The democrats needs a master class on opposition politics from the BJP.

Picture Courtesy Ristocrats

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    Byoliveridley

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    Byoliveridley

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2 Comments

  1. All this over a nuclear deal with the US where India gained all kinds of concessions for essentially building a nuclear arsenal on the sly and against the wishes of the international community.

    indeed. Do you have any input on the value of nuclear energy for India? Absent from any of the ‘discourse’ around the nuclear deal is talk of merits and demerits of nuclear energy itself, especially its impact on the environment…

  2. I don’t like nuclear power. Waste disposal is a problem, it is not carbon neutral. It has a higher carbon footprint than renewable energy, though not as much s fossil fuels. Uranium mining is pretty destructive on the environment.

    It’s also hard to get a handle on operating costs because nuclear plant operations (especially in India) tend to be shrouded in secrecy. No clue if it is actually economically viable or not. But India’s pretty serious about getting 25% of its energy from nuclear power by 2050. No idea where they’ll put the waste. If a country with as much free land as the US is having trouble siting nuclear waste disposal sites, where’ll we put it?

    And living under the shadow of a nuclear power plant is scary stuff. I guess I was far enough away from Kalpakkam growing up in South Madras, but 60 km ain’t that far!

    Oliver Idley (Thanks!)

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