Anyway Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives at their conference or rally at CPAC took a few shots across Obama's bow and he has fired back full guns blazing . He says his policies and programs will be good for the country and so he won't back down.
President Obama's Weekly Address Feb. 28, 2009
Obama says he will do what is right for America and not just what the special interests groups and lobbyists want. He is willing to fight the Insurance Lobby and big Pharmaceuticals to do what he believe is necessary. This sounds like a bold move. Are there Lobby Groups which even Obama may be hesitant to take on such as Big Coal, Big Oil and the Israeli Lobby.If for instance Obama wants to prove he cares about the Environment then he should find a way to put a stop to Mountaintop Removal Mining.
Country Roads Parody - Mountaintop Removal Mining Feb. 19, 2009
Coal Action Heats Up Capitol-Feb. 27, 2009
Global warming is lighting a fire on todays campuses, and this weekend thousands of students will come to D.C. to rally, lobby, and get arrested for a clean energy economy. ANP talks with young activists about why this issue inspires their generation, and we hear from Congressman Jim Moran about why the time is right for civil disobedience.
But in his address Obama mentions " Clean Coal " but the idea of Clean Coal is not at the moment feasible and is a marketing tool and part of the Public Relations campaign of the Coal Industry to take the pressure off of them. Big Coal has been operating over the last eight years almost carte blanche without any restraint . Strip-Mining and Mountaintop Removal is creating the worst environmental disaster in America . It has become a disaster for the Appalachians . First President Obama should put a moratorium on strip-mining and Mountaintop Mining if not then at least prevent any new licenses from being issued . The departments of the Environment and the Departments of Labor Health and safety should be required to do rigorous inspections of these sites. Forests , streams , rivers and lakes and even many of the people in the areas around these mining sites are in danger.Little is also done in policing health and safety of the workers in the Coal Industry.There should be a complete review of the regulations and re-write them where necessary.
As for Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining it should be stopped as quickly as possible. Is a few tonnes of coal worth the loss of an entire mountain .This part of the industry is not as labor intensive as more traditional mining methods and should therefore be less difficult to shut down. Those laid off could be used on other more traditional mining projects or public work projects such as Wind Mill Farms. The public outcry of Mountain Top Removal should be harnessed by the use of government sponsored ads on TV and print and of course the internet. It would be awesome to find more truthful information on the governments website along with videos which also could be posted on YouTube etc.
Obama's administration needs to use the internet even more than they have to inform the public about various issues including MountainTop Removal Mining to gain as much public understanding and hopefully the public's support in stopping the practice. Since the Media over some issues are not going to support Obama's policies and programs the government itself needs to get its message out by other means. During the Bush Era he had members of his government and their conservative and neoconservative pundits and paid experts go on all the Sunday Talk shows to push their message and talking points. It also helped that some of the TV broadcasters received the offical talking Points which were passed on to the news departments and used as the basis of how they would talk about a certain issue that is what slant they would give it as they did in promoting the Iraq War etc.
Coen brothers and Clean Coal- Harnessing the awesome power of the word " CLEAN"
Coen Brothers Direct New Ad Slamming 'Clean Coal'by Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet Feb. 26, 2009.
Sadly, no coal execs get stuffed into a wood chipper ...
Reality's latest ad in its campaign against the oh-so-honest coal industry and its lies about "clean coal" comes from the same folks who brought you The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona and Fargo, to name a few.
That's right, the dose of reality below was directed by the Coen brothers. That being said ... no coal execs get stuffed into a wood chipper in this one.
There's no such thing as Clean Coal
Dressing up coal: Rachel Maddow Public Relations Campaign
( why didn't the defenders of Christmas not make a public fuss about this)
In reality, there is no such thing as clean coal. Learn more. Join the campaign.
Brian Hardwick, Reality Campaign Manager, appeared on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show in December 2008 to call out the coal industry's latest attempt to dress up the reality on coal. In a now aborted web campaign, the public was asked to dress up cartoon-like lumps of coal online and listen to them sing Christmas carols praising clean coal. There were songs like Frosty the Coal Man.
also see: website: About the Reality Campaign
In reality, there is no such thing as "clean" coal in America today. Coal cannot be called 'clean' until its CO2 emissions are captured and stored safely.
Let's be clear: there are no US homes, factories, shopping centers or churches powered by coal plants that capture and store their global warming pollution.
Today, coal power plants emit carbon dioxide (CO2), the pollutant causing the climate crisis. A third of the America's carbon pollution now comes from about 600 coal-fired power plants. And of the more than 70 proposed new coal power plants, barely a handful have plans to capture and store their CO2 emissions. If these dirty plants are allowed to be built, this will mean an additional 200 million tons of global warming pollution will be emitted in America each year. Until coal power plants no longer release CO2 to the atmosphere, coal will remain a major contributor to the climate crisis.
Scientists indicate that we can avoid the worst climate impacts if we turn CO2 emissions around in the next few years. The Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, in 2007, said, "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment." For coal to maintain a role in America's energy mix, the industry must act quickly to stop emitting CO2.
The Reality Coalition is a project of the Alliance for Climate Protection, Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the League of Conservation Voters, and tells the truth about coal today — it isn't clean. We are challenging the coal industry to come clean — in its advertising and in its operations. You can learn more about the reality of "clean" coal here or take action and help stop misleading coal campaigns.
" Americans in Appalachia Are Living in a State of Terror " By Bo Webb , AlterNet. Feb. 19, 2009.
Like sitting ducks waiting to be buried in an avalanche of mountain waste, we are trapped in a war zone within our own country.
...Peachtree is but one of hundreds of Appalachian communities that are being bombed. Our property has been devalued to worthlessness. Our neighbors put their kids to bed at night with the fear of being crushed or swept away in toxic sludge. And the outside coal industries continue their criminal activity through misleading and false ads...
...I beg you to re-light our flame of hope and honor and immediately stop the coal companies from blasting so near our homes and endangering our lives. As you have said, we must find another way than blowing off the tops of our mountains. We must end mountaintop removal.
I also ask you to please put an end to these dangerous toxic-sludge dams.
'Clean coal' the ultimate climate change oxymoron " by Shahram Vahdany at Media With Conscience/ Guardian.UK , Feb. 26, 2009
...Cynics may say it's about time Americans joined the action. The fact is that too many Americans have been bamboozled for too long by a campaign of disinformation about the science of climate change. Many still think the whole question of mankind's role in global warming is disputed in scientific circles (I expect the comments beneath this blog will soon demonstrate this point).
Hopefully, that science battle is slowly being won. But now the big greenwash is coming from another direction. Now, we have a technology battle. The people who told us for years how climate change was a myth now say it is all true – but something called "clean coal" can fix it.
It's hard to keep track of the differing organisations behind this. First there was Americans for Balanced Energy Choices. Last year that merged with the Center for Energy and Economic Development to create the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). That body is now headlining as something called America's Power. The one thing they have got is money. Money to try and persuade us that coal is good, coal is green and coal is the solution to America's energy needs.
The ACCCE spent $38m last year buying TV, newspaper and magazine space to persuade Americans that coal can be clean and carbon-free. The money mostly came from its members in the coal mining, transportation and burning industries...
and he concludes:
Sadly, for too many policy-makers, the idea that we can have coal and tackle climate change at the same time is too good to miss. Sadly, it is too good to be true.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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