The truthiness will out

Here is a pick of some pure unadulterated news and fluff, without my two pennies worth for a change — hope you are having a relaxing weekend.

Mel

Privatization of Iraqi Oil Resources
Dec 7, 2006

Dennis Kucinich speaking from the Floor of the House

“On October 25th, President Bush cited oil as a reason for our continued presence in Iraq. The Iraq study group is recommending Iraq law be changed to facilitate privatization of Iraq’s oil wealth.

“The Iraq Study Group report says as much as 500,000 barrels per day — that is $11.3 billion per year — in Iraqi oil wealth is now being stolen, which is interesting, since the Ministry of Oil is the first place our troops were sent after the invasion of Iraq and we now have 140,000 troops there.

“How can we expect the end of the Iraq war and national reconciliation in Iraq, while we advocate that Iraq’s oil wealth by handled by private oil companies?

“It is ironic that this report comes at the exact time the Interior Department’s Inspector General says that oil companies are cheating the US out of billions of dollars while the Administration looks the other way.

“Is it possible that Secretary Baker has a conflict of interest, which should have precluded him from co-chairing a study group whose final report promotes privatization of Iraq oil assets, given his ties to the oil industry?

“Is it possible that our troops are dying for the profits of private oil companies?” ++

‘Truthiness’ is the word of the year
Associated Press
December 9, 2006

After 12 months of naked partisanship on Capitol Hill, on cable TV and in the blogosphere, the word of the year for 2006 is … “truthiness.”

The word — if one can call it that — best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.

“Truthiness” was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as “truth that comes from the gut, not books.”

“We’re at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people’s minds, and truth has become up for grabs,” said Merriam-Webster president John Morse. “‘Truthiness’ is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue.”

Other Top 10 finishers included “war,” “insurgent,” “sectarian” and “corruption.” But “truthiness” won 5-to-1, Morse said.

Colbert — who once derided the folks at Springfield-based Merriam-Webster as the “word police” and a bunch of “wordinistas” — was pleased.

“Though I’m no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas, I am a fan of anyone who chooses to honor me,” he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

“And what an honor,” he said. “Truthiness now joins the lexicographical pantheon with words like ’squash,’ ‘merry,’ ‘crumpet,’ ‘the,’ ‘xylophone,’ ‘circuitous,’ ‘others’ and others.”

Colbert first uttered “truthiness” during an October 2005 broadcast of “The Colbert Report,” his parody of combative, conservative talk shows. ++

W.House won’t accept all proposals from Baker group
Reuters
08 Dec 2006

The White House on Friday dismissed former Secretary of State James Baker’s appeal that his Iraq recommendations be largely adopted as a whole and said President George W. Bush was considering various proposals for a change in course.

Democrats who will take control of the U.S. Congress in January piled pressure on Bush for a major shift in strategy after meeting him at the White House along with Republicans now in their waning days in power.

“Someone has to get the message to this man,” said Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, soon to be the Senate majority leader, who has praised the work of the Iraq Study Group that issued its report on Wednesday.

In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Baker urged Congress to accept most if not all of the report’s 79 recommendations as part of a comprehensive strategy and said Bush should do the same.

“I hope we don’t treat this as a fruit salad, and say, ‘I like this but I don’t like that,’” Baker said.

But White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the report by the group, led by Baker and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton, would be considered along with internal reviews being conducted by the Pentagon, the State Department and the National Security Council.

Bush’s goal is to outline a shift in course in a speech to be delivered before the Christmas holiday. He has given a cool response to two key recommendations — talks with Iran and Syria and pulling back U.S. combat forces by early 2008.

“I understand that Secretary Baker’s comment yesterday about the fruit salad is descriptive, I think, of how they feel about it; however, I don’t think the president considers it as any type of food,” Perino said.

“I think that he is going to digest it, however, and he will take the time that he needs in order to figure out how he wants to move forward.”

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush, “as commander in chief, still has the obligation to take seriously every bit of analysis and advice he gets and to make his own decisions.”

Snow noted the study group’s report has not been accepted outright by either Democrats or Republicans on Capitol Hill.

American support for Bush’s handling of the war continued to decline. An AP-Ipsos poll taken earlier this week found that just 27 percent of Americans approved of Bush’s handling of Iraq, down from his previous low of 31 percent in November.

Under pressure for a course correction in the unpopular war, Bush set up meetings for next week with senior Pentagon and State Department officials and outside experts on Iraq.

“The time for change is now and is apparent to the American people,” said California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who will take over in January as speaker of the House of Representatives, after meeting Bush at the White House.

Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said Bush did not reject the Iraq Study Group report outright.

“But when he talked about his approach to Iraq, there was no indication of a change in basic strategy. He talked about changing some tactics,” Durbin said.

Reid praised the work of the study commission, but said Bush made it clear that he is the one who calls the shots.

“As he said this morning, he is the commander in chief. He reminds us of that all the time. And we acknowledge that,” Reid said.

Perino insisted Bush is keeping an “open mind” about recommendations from the bipartisan panel on ways to shift course in Iraq despite his cool response to key proposals. ++

Britain ‘tried to keep Iraq army’
BBC
Saturday, 9 December 2006

Britain tried to stop the US disbanding the army in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Europe Minister Geoff Hoon has said.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Mr Hoon says British ministers “lost the argument”.

His comments come after a senior US official described the relationship between the British and American governments as “totally one-sided”. Downing Street said the two countries had “a very close” relationship.

Mr Hoon, who was defence secretary at the time, said he and other members of the government tried to persuade the United States not to purge members of Saddam’s Ba’ath party from senior positions in the army.

He told the Daily Telegraph: “We would not have disbanded the Iraqi army.

“We were very concerned in the final stages of the conflict that the Iraqi army was a force for stability in Iraq and I think we would have preferred for that army to remain intact.”

He added: “I don’t think we would have pursued the de-Ba’athification policy in quite the same way.

“I think we understood from perhaps experience in Europe that quite a lot of people were Ba’athists because they had to be if they wanted to be teachers or administrators and they weren’t necessarily committed to Saddam Hussein.

“Those were arguments that I certainly put forward and I know other members of the government put forward. So we lost the argument.”

‘One-sided’

Last month, Kendall Myers, a senior analyst at the US State Department, said Britain’s relationship with America was “one-sided” and Prime Minister Tony Blair was routinely ignored by President George Bush.

He described Britain’s attempts to influence US policy as a “sad business”, the Times reported. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said it was clear from early in the conflict that British advice was being ignored.

“The prime minister’s strategy of staying close in public so as to be influential in private simply didn’t work,” he said.

“The problem for the British government was that we became so enmeshed in American strategy that we had no option but to go along with it, even when it was palpably wrong.”

A Downing Street spokesman said details of discussions between the British and American leaders would not be revealed.

He added: “The prime minister and the president have got a very close and good working relationship.” ++

Your carbon footprint revealed
The Independent
09 December 2006

The first piece of research to calculate a carbon footprint for the average British citizen has detailed the precise environmental damage each of us causes.

A study by the government-funded Carbon Trust puts the annual carbon footprint of the average Briton at 10.92 tons of CO2 - roughly half of the 19 tons of CO2 produced each year by the average American. The research also demonstrates that our leisure and recreation pursuits - activities as diverse as watching a football match or taking a trip to the seaside - account for most of our emissions, rather than a lack of insulation or a predilection for 4×4 cars.

The figures are published at a time when the Government is under intense pressure to take firmer action on climate change, with a raft of environmental measures outlined by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, in his pre-Budget report this week.

The individual impact we make on the climate has tended to be diluted by carbon emission figures generated by the Office of National Statistics which detail emissions at source - electricity production, for example, or primary manufacturing. But the Carbon Trust’s figures takes the overall emission figure and, using a University of Surrey model, reallocates them to the point of consumption. The data reveals an annual carbon footprint for each of 11 kinds of consumer need. That is then divided by the size of the population of Britain.

Nearly a fifth of the average British citizen’s 10.92 tons of CO2 - 1.95 tons - is emitted through recreation and leisure: everything from holiday trips by car and visiting a gym, which has substantial emissions, a trip to a leisure centre where the swimming pool is heated, watching television and enjoying live evening sport under floodlights.

The importance of minimising carbon emissions from our homes is also reinforced by the figures, which show the average British citizen contributes 1.49 tons of CO2 a year through the heating of his or her home.

In the third category, 1.39 tons of CO2 are generated by food and catering. That includes everything from emissions generated directly by cooking and food use - refrigerating, freezing and cooking - plus the indirect emissions from the production of food and drink products and services. Production includes raw material cultivation, packaging production, manufacturing, distribution, disposal and recycling. Together, the top three categories account for a half of our individual carbon emissions.

Consideration of food miles, use of efficient fridges and rejecting items with too much packaging can help but the message from the Carbon Trust is clear: we are not expected to cut out many or all of these activities, but we can think more broadly about where we might reduce our carbon footprint. ” This piece of work is about making people aware that everything they do involves carbon emissions and not just flights and heating their homes,” said Euan Murray, strategy manager at the Carbon Trust.

The trust’s research reflects the “I Count” ethos of the Stop Climate Chaos organisation, whose rally at Trafalgar Square last month was the biggest environmental protest Britain has seen.

“Cynics are gradually accepting that individual actions can make a different when it comes to tackling climate change,” Ashok Sinha, director of Stop Climate Chaos, said yesterday. “We just have to look at the split in terms of the impact of individual actions and those of government.”

Though individual actions cannot have the impact that reducing aviation fuel use and power station emissions, the “I Count” campaign’s work has been highly effective in communicating knowledge of the inividual emission savings we can make.

For instance, 2kg of carbon can be saved for every journey under three miles for which we walk and don’t use the car, while 30kg can be saved by switching the power off at nights in your house and 2,300kg by switching the office to recycled paper.

Fourth in the Carbon Trust’s list of personal carbon emissions is ” household activities”, on which we each emit 1.37 tons a year. That includes lighting, household appliances such as vacuum cleaners and DIY equipment, the electricity used to produce household furnishings and electricity used to create the building itself (from making bricks, to delivering furniture).

We emit a further ton of emissions each year simply by the clothing and footwear we consume. The figure includes emissions from the chemical processes used to manufacture and transport the items, emissions from water heating and wet appliances used in cleaning, drying and pressing clothes.

A further 0.81 tons is created by commuting, another category in the data, and 0.68 through aviation. Education accounts for 0.49 tons, including the production of books and newspapers.

The new footprint has been launched after research earlier this year by the Carbon Trust showing that two thirds of consumers are more likely to buy products and services with a low carbon footprint.

The Carbon Trust is working with Walkers, Trinity Mirror, Boots and Marks & Spencer to undertake a carbon audit of their supply chains. But individual actions are only a part of reducing carbon emissions. Inherent in the ‘I Count’ philosophy is the idea that if individuals take action then Governments will be morally bound to follow suit.

Carbon scores

Recreation 1.95 tons
The single largest source of emissions. Researchers analysed CO2 caused by leisure activities plus the production of goods and services. Examples include seaside trips, which create 200kg per person each year, and TV, videos and stereos - another 35kg

Heating 1.49 tons
Second biggest source of CO2 resulting from burning of gas, electricity and oil. It is one of the easiest sectors to reduce, say campaigners. The easiest way is to turn down heating: every extra degree on thermostat accounts for 25kg of CO2 each year

Food 1.39 tons
Generated by cooking, eating and drinking, including food miles and production of raw materials. Includes food transport in UK - equivalent to 300kg per person a year - and driving to supermarkets - another 40kg. A restaurant meal generates 8kg per diner

Household 1.37 tons
This covers non-heating emissions generated in the home from appliances, furnishings and from the construction of the building itself. A fridge is responsible for 140kg of carbon annually, while lighting in a house contributes a further 100kg

Hygiene 1.34 tons
Includes emissions from the NHS and from individuals bathing and washing. Typical examples include taking a bath instead of a shower, which adds 50kg of carbon in energy production, or heating up a house’s water, which adds 150kg

Clothing 1.00 tons
Energy and emissions generated in producing, transporting and cleaning clothes and shoes. In a year, the average person will expend 70kg of energy on new clothes, 100kg by using washing machines and 36kg by using tumble dryers, for example.

Commuting 0.81 tons
Travelling to and from the workplace on both public and private transport including aviation. Assuming a journey of three miles undertaken five times a week, the use of a car represents 500kg of energy for the average commuter in a year

Aviation 0.68 tons
The fastest growing source of CO2 emissions, thanks in part to the boom in low-cost air travel. A return flight to Malaga, for example, would represent 400kg of energy per passenger. A short break to Prague would expend 220kg of energy

Education 0.49 tons
These are emissions relating to schools, educational travel, books and newspapers. School buildings, for example, made up 172kg of energy; books accounted for 13.6kg; and the 4×4 school run (1.2 miles five times a week during terms) was 200kg

Phones 0.1 tons
All sources of CO2 emanating from communications including computing. Mobile phone chargers, for example, accounted for between 35 and 70kg per person per year. Sending letters, by contrast, represented only 0.01kg ++

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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