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Groundhog Day
By Molly Ivins
01/31/06 "Creators Syndicate" -- --
In a happy harmonic convergence, Groundhog Day falls only two
days after the State of the Union Address this year. Some days,
I’d feel better with Punxsutawney Phil in the Oval Office—at
least he doesn’t lie about the weather. The Bush administration
is now trying to stop NASA’s top climate scientist from speaking
out on the need for prompt action on global warming. As far as
we know, the groundhog isn’t suppressing anyone, he just calls
it as he sees it.
James E. Hansen, longtime head of the Goddard Institute for
Space Studies, gave a speech last month calling for immediate
reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases because global
warming is so pressing. He says since then NASA has reviewed his
coming lectures, papers, postings and requests for interviews
from journalists. “They feel their job is to be this censor of
information going out to the public,” said Hansen. The top P.R.
guy denies it, saying, “It’s about coordination.”
Yep, it sure is about coordination. According to the
Environmental Working Group’s Website, there’s a coordinated,
multimillion-dollar campaign funded by polluters to convince us
that global warming doesn’t exist—or if it exists, it’s not
serious, or if it’s serious, it’s not an immediate threat. And
so we get into another one of those weird debates where
something as clear as elementary addition suddenly becomes,
“Well, some say ... but then, other’s say.”
For instance, some call it domestic spying, whereas others call
it a terrorist surveillance program. Actually, it’s a domestic
spying program being conducted without warrants.
The problem is not just keeping track of everything the Bushies
are up to, but trying to evaluate the damage. For example, the
man who has headed the Justice Department investigation into the
dealings of corrupt Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff for the
last two years has been removed from his job. The Bush team
decided to put him on the federal bench, so the Abramoff
investigation will be headed by someone less senior and less
experienced.
Now, is this real damage? I don’t think so. The investigation
continues and would be damned hard to bury at this point. This
gesture is just Bush flipping the bird to the Democrats and the
public: “See? Ha! I can do whatever I want, no matter how it
looks.” Whereas, six years of dragging, delaying and
disinforming about global warming—now that causes irreversible
damage.
Some damage is harder to see than others—and I offer two cases
of suppression. First, there’s a congressionally mandated report
on outsourcing high-tech jobs. It was supposed to be released
before the ‘04 election but wasn’t, because it was politically
embarrassing. More than a year later, they are still
stonewalling, ignoring the federal law that ordered the study
done and be released before November 2004.
Second case: According to the Project on Government Oversight,
the Congressional Research Service has warned a senior analyst
to avoid describing his research findings. The analyst, whose
job it is to describe research findings of the nonpartisan
service, specializes in separation-of-power issues, but was
criticized over a report and comments he made concerning the
plight of national security whistleblowers.
“It is undeniable that unprecedented numbers of government
whistleblowers face retaliation with no adequate protections. We
are stunned that the Congress is offended to hear the truth
about its failure to help whistleblowers and are even punishing
their own seasoned researchers for talking about it,” said
Danielle Brian, executive director of the project.
What we have here are two small examples of an entire climate of
secrecy and fear being created by this administration. As
government officials keep more and more information from us,
they are in turn increasingly less accountable for what they do,
since we have no idea they’re doing it. Those are small things
with grave consequences.
And then there are the consequences that can never be counted.
The New York Times broke a sad story about a duplicitous Bush
policy that helped drive the elected president of Haiti, Jean
Bertrand Aristide, out of his country.
Haiti has since descended into abysmal chaos. Perhaps no one
person or policy should be blamed for Haiti’s long-developing
problems, but it has sunk to a new low after its one noble grasp
at real democracy, which Bush claims to support. How sad. The
worst damage is always the small, starving children.
Copyright Creators Syndicate
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