George Bush's midnight rule and regulation changes he made on his way out the door by way of admisnisrative orders is another practice we need to look into. All presidents do it but it is a lousy practice and most bad rule changes won''t be over turned. If you do get them overturned you waste a lot of valuable time and money getting it done.

Case in point the midnignt rule and regulation changes to EPA for George Bush's coal corporation buddies will accelerate the destruction of the appalachian mountains by the Mountain Top Removal method of mining.

The Bush/Cheney corporate greed orgy that really originated with the Regan trickle down, deregulation, greed is good orgy has finally led to the destruction of the free market they proclaimed as god.  The gluttony of the few at the expense of the masses has brought the financial systems of the world to ruin and has destroyed the planet that sustains us all. As they rolled Dick Cheney out of D.C. and power and ushered in a new age of  enlightenment the Corporate lobby must be destroyed as we now know it because it lays at the root of all that is evil and sick in government.

The money in freezers, the revolving door from government office to corporate office and right back to D.C. as a high salaried corporate lobbyist. Our government is broke and we won't fix it. Corporations not only influence legislation there have been cases lately where they actually write it and the their bought and paid for lackey's introduce the bill. 14,000 paid lobbyist shadowing all the representatives and sticking money in their campaign funds or blind trust. We complain about laws being passed the masses would have never signed off on and yet their representatives make laws and regulation changes detrimental to the welfare of the people and the planet. Why? Because this representative government has been hijacked by multinational
Corporations that owe no allegiance to the country, the planet or anything except their corporate greed.

The government we try to hold up as the light to the world today is not the same government brought into being by the founders of this country. Jefferson warned about the influence of the merchant class "multinational Corporations" Ike warned about the influence of the military industrial complex. Jefferson and the founding fathers never completely got it right. They developed the best checks and balance system they could for the time but never envisioned the power and influence of the multinational corporation and made no provisions to counter this influence in the constitution. We all have the right to petition the government but when the voice of the people is silenced and the ear of government only listens to the power elite and corporate interest you end up with the perverted hollowed out symbol of a representative government.

The shadow government is not being taken serious enough at the grassroots level, at the academic level, at the environmental level. The people will never be served, enlightenment and reason will be dominated by corporate dogma, the planet will lay in ruins if we don't as a country correct this corrupt anomaly that has wrapped it's tentacles around all branches of government. The voice of common sense and reason will not prevail even in the face of extinction while the oil and coal corporations have a choke hold  on government.

Our new president whom I believe is a good man and of the people will not be able to get any of his alternative energy programs forwarded or funded. He will not be able to get the alternative energy and energy infrastructure programs funded. He will be as a salmon swimming up stream against a horde of corporate lobbyist thwarting his efforts at every turn. He will not be able to get the country off coal and oil. He will not be able to develop mass transit. The Wall Street lobby has already raided the treasury taking trillions with no oversight and the same people who broke the system have set themselves up to fix it. Obama will have to beg the same lobby who destroyed the financial system for the funding to fix the environment and to  help him pass the legislation that they will see as detrimental to their corporate interest.

Such is life in a corpocracy!

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

Kleptocracy, or corpocracy Pomp.  Interchangeable?  Where is Canis to help discover which one fits the purpose of describing our plight?

Anyway, great word smithing, I'm going to borrow "corpocracy"!   "Corporate feudalism" is so 20th century.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

I appreciate the link to SAP 2.3 regarding aerosol research. Previously aerosol was thought to associated with "global dimming" and cooling, and I always mistrusted that. The more I learn about the subject the less I seem to understand - but maybe someday the global synoptic models can have an aerosol component, which might better explain some feedbacks, tipping points, and so forth. -sam

Onward through the fog

New drinking game: Take one drink for every post on a global warming topic thread before the denier trolls come out of the woodwork...

What a tirade that was...and of course, s/he's absolutely right. That's the heart of the problem all right, and we can't solve any of our problems if we can't take the bit out of our mouths and the reins from the inhuman hands of the corporate "persons."
One place I think Pompey gets it wrong though--Obama WILL be able to fund alternative energy programs. But he'll be forced to also fund "clean coal" and nuclear research and ethanol--and we have no time left to waste on dead ends. We need to be going full speed ahead with the right projects, not dividing our resources between useful things and boondoggles.

...but we need to push hard to make sure that the research is mostly put upon these wealthy industries to prove their effectiveness before they see serious tax dollars. The subtext I see in the admin. language on coal seems to indicate that strategy. One can only hope...

Wildfire,

Pompey Road is a He, and gets carried away when he gets on his soap box.

One good sign today that Obama is on this, he come out strong on the lobby thing for his administrative branch. I will bet he takes this to the people if he has to for the legislative. I am impressed by this man.

Bad news corporate lobby has already got to some legislative people before he even introduces his recovery legislation. The 30 billion suggested for mass transit has already had 10 billion skimmed off for new Highway Construction. Like we need more roads for the gas guzzlers! I don't know if it was the oil lobby or GM but you can see the hand the corporate lobby all over this. They all should have to wear the overalls as they wear in NASCAR with their sponsors logo and patches on them. Then we could see who is buying all the legislation that gets passed.

I will give you he will get some of what he wants but it will be like pulling teeth and so much is going to be wasted.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

Robco1

You are catching on,

Gonna tell my age here but I remember back in the day when you had to cover you own R&D and bid on contracts against several other companies.  Specs requirements plus deadlines for each phase of construction. Penalties for missing deadlines.

Dick Cheney no bid contracts for Haliburton, military procurement with extended deadlines, cost over runs and systems that don't even work. The corporate lobby has even ruined our government procurement system of anything government funded. Earmarks and pork with everybody at the trough.

Change we need, How about going back to competitive bidding and some transparency when letting these contracts out.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

    I agree holeheartedly!
 I've worked in some of the most polluted places
 in Canada and of course big business was at the forefront of it all. Would'nt that be something if they could all be held accountable.
           "Wishfull Thinking"
                                    ML.
     PS: "It is Cowardice to perceive
          what is right but not do it."
                       --Confucius--

to Pompey Road, who said:

"The shadow government is not being taken serious enough at the grassroots level, at the academic level, at the environmental level. The people will never be served, enlightenment and reason will be dominated by corporate dogma, the planet will lay in ruins if we don't as a country correct this corrupt anomaly that has wrapped it's tentacles around all branches of government. The voice of common sense and reason will not prevail even in the face of extinction while the oil and coal corporations have a choke hold on government."

it would be much easier to replace the corporations who hold sway over our political system, than it would be to change their ability to do so by way of that very system.

if you cant ask a wolf to stop eating your sheep, shoot it! by this i mean replace it with a system of locally managed and operated, but nationally and internationally associated, non-profit cooperative organizations.

give control over the production of goods and the provision of services to those who use and need them; this will leave only the judicial system for governments to legislate!

Cooperatism > Capitalism: with Capitalism a few people control the means to produce goods and accrue wealth, Cooperatism is precisely the opposite.

rckoegel,

Replacing a multinational corporation is no easy task and even this can be contributed to the dangerous animal called a lobbyist. In accordance with pure capitalism the inefficient and failed companies, corporations and individuals are supposed to be cannibalized or simply self destruct. The efficient and the profitable will rise to the top and replace them. Capitalist Darwinism in a representative democracy.  In a Corpocracy the inefficient and failed institutions can ensure there survival by employing lobbyist. Wall Street was rewarded for making poor financial decisions and unwarranted risk taking. The real assets of the top players were not put at risk because they had lobbyist who could buy the Wall Street bailout to make the American Tax payer pay for all the trillions lost by the corrupt and inefficient.

The Auto Corporations that have failed to provide a fuel efficient reliable automobile and stay competitive with foreign competition were not allowed to fail, for the most part because of well placed lobbyist. None of the business models or corporations that would have failed before the Representative Government was allowed to become a Corpocracy are swept out of the way to allow the new and efficient to emerge. The corporate lobby buys the necessary rule & regulation changes or the legislation that allows the corrupt, the inefficient and the status quo to survive. A lobbyist is a parasite on government, especially representative style democracy's that will eventually destroy its host.

It was said when all of this bailout of Wall Street, Banks, and inefficient corporations was sold to us a few months ago by the Wall Street, Banking and Corporate lobby that capitalism only works when bailed out by socialism. Just another cheap shot at socialist democracies that see the person or the citizen as important as the corporate entity.  Socialist Democracies or socialist style representative governments are seen as not being as efficient as pure capitalist representative governments . We will never know because the corporate lobby has changed our model or government to a corpocracy with only the corporate interest at heart and no regard for the working or middle class.  You as an individual are seen as only a consumer or a worker by the corporate and because they are multinational and have no specific allegiance to country you are in completion as American worker with other workers in other countries to reduce labor and legacy cost. In a corpocracy you either a tax payer or an unfunded liability and in competition with the corporate who lobby are for the corporate and have no regard for the individual, the working, middle class or the environment.

Provisions of the constitution that allow all to petition the government was the corporate lobbyist foot in the door and what keeps the door wide open for them. You will have to understand that under current law the corporation is seen as a person. I have no problem with that as long as it is for liability or tax purposes even if some see the later as a form of tax evasion. The problem being is that the corporate person with the 14,000 paid lobbyist petitioning has a deliberate desire to protect only the interest of the corporate.  They have no regard for the people they see only as consumers or only a part of the overall cost of producing or selling their product.

It may not be as desirable to do away with the corporate as it would be to change the way they are counted as a person. Obama has made some inroads on the administrative side with lobby reform and is trying to include some provisions for transparency and anti lobby rules in his new Economic Recovery Bill he is sending to congress.  Unless real lobby reform is done first the Economic Part of the Recovery Bill will be slanted toward the corporate. The alternative energy portion of the Economic Recovery Bill will be stripped out for corporate interest and billions wasted on earmarks and non relevant pork. The portion that was supposed to be for rail and mass transit will be skimmed off in the same fashion.

Real, Meaningful, Substantial Lobby Reform to make the corporation person be counted the same as the individual or the corpocracy will cannibalize more than just the Representative style of government. The corpocracy  will cannibalize the planet if not reigned in. The big planet killing part of the corpocracy big oil and big coal will spend billions to maintain the status quo. A very difficult task indeed to kill the corporate and we need the economic engine to survive. Change the rules that created the Corpocracy and  it will have the same effect.  

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

The change in administration happily has resulted in the release of important information, as attested by the four climate change reports cited by Grist. In late December 2008 another very important report=Abrupt Climate Change=by the USGS, NOAA, and NSF was released. Land managers and informed citizens need to wade into this information soon. Either we plan changes in the way we live, or nature will do it for us.

Howard Wilshire

The parts of the study that says co2 last a thousand years in the atmosphere was troubling to hear. If we are at 385 parts per million and the 400-460 mark represents the irreversible for a thousand years most will throw in the towel and start promoting trying to live with the changes. Spending more time on working around the effects of climate change than reducing co2 if we have already reached the tipping point.

This does not take into account we may at some point learn how to remove co2 from the atmosphere. A daunting task now I know but a thousand years is a long time in human development and technical advances. I still am an avid advocate of reducing co2 but does anyone know of any attempts or study's involving removing co2 from the atmosphere.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.