Comments

1
For fuck sake. The president should stop what ever speech his making and completely engage with every one of the thousands of hecklers at every single event he attends?

Otherwise he's just like George Bush. You know. Who imposed free-speech zones.

When you get tired of false equivalencies maybe you should ask what kind of server systems The Stranger uses to host it's website? Are they renewable resource or solar powered?

Are the vans and trucks that deliver the papers to their paper boxes hybrid or electric?

Maybe The Stranger could take a hint from Mayor McBikeShorts and ask what's YOUR commitment to altering Climate Change?
3
@1
I only read your first paragraph. Very good. I've already forwarded it to whitehouse.gov. Have faith my friend. Change will come; continue with the effort!
4
If George W. Bush was still president and responded that way, he'd be torn to shreds by liberals for being so callous about the environment. I wonder if anyone in the sycophantic crowd who cheered Obama's response will come to regret that, say, by around the time Maldives succumbs to higher, warmer sea levels.
Bush would be criticized because his deflection would only amplify his display of antipathy towards climate change. Obama isn't criticized because he has attempted to use his power to mitigate climate change but has been stopped by Republicans. And Obama has held rallies for that cause, unlike Bush. So when Obama says that the protesters missed an actual rally about their concerns, he is 100% correct. In the case of Bush, it would be 100% false. Clearly you have not thought your argument through.
5
How was Obama's response "callous"?
6
@1: if they're in Seattle, they have no carbon footprint.
8
@6

That is true. Seattle is part of the best coast. Eco-Supremacists to other states.

Being the best. Being better than other people is the necessary goal for every slogger.
9
@8 And you fail so completely at that.
10
Maybe something about a large proportion of the population wanting him dead and not much bothering to hide it has thickened his skin.
11
Thank you @4.

I'm not happy with the progress that Obama has made, but seeing him defend the baby steps he's been able to make tackling the health care crisis was a reminder of the opposition he's been facing. I never expected Obama to be anything more than a centrist politician, but I admit I am surprised that Republicans have shed all semblance of being sane.
12
@13 yeah that was a bit of a surprise, I mean you knew the crazy would be upset with a Black man being elected President, but the self injurious behaviour by an entire political party, no.
13
LOL opps, @11
14
If George W. Bush was still president and responded that way, he'd be torn to shreds by liberals for being so callous about the environment.
15
A12 13

Machiavelli was stoned
16
How come the intern is the only Stranger writer worth a shit?
17
@6: I think given the composition of our local power grid, in-Seattle (or even in-Washington) servers are "only" around 70% green as regards their power consumption.
18
keystone pipeline, coal trains, what evz.

the planet is fucked no matter what. it's too late, any chance to slow it down was lost when bush was installed. the denial industry has seen to that over the last 15 years.
19
Even before I reached comment # 16, which confirm the impression I got, I was wondering why people were welcoming Herz back a few weeks ago. I wish he stayed away.
20
@11 - "... but seeing him defend the baby steps he's been able to make tackling the health care crisis was a reminder of the opposition he's been facing."

It reminds me of how tragically he under-reached in the first steps of negotiation. Remember how quickly he dropped the Public Option? Maybe if he'd put up a fight in the first place (or even the second or third place) he wouldn't have to squabble over crumbs now.
21
@17: Do they only get 70% of their power from Seattle City Light? I was basing my comment on SLC's proclaimed neutral carbon footprint.
22
The climate change panickers still haven't provided a working solution to meet our energy needs not using oil. This oil will be removed and will be used.
23
Dude, lighten up.
24
No because George Bush NEVER would have had a climate change rally!
25
Even before I read comment 19 I knew that the most ignorant of peasants would get angry when you insult their king, they delight in their servitude.
26
@4 - "Obama isn't criticized because he has attempted to use his power to mitigate climate change"

that is just plain not true:
"Even as President Obama cast a veneer of caution over the Keystone pipeline’s northern half, he quietly expedited dozens of similar projects"
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/20…

"Obama Administration Rushes To Expand Fracking On Public Lands, Despite Frightening Evidence"
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/08…

27

When you blame everything on someone else for five years, it's hard to then assign credit and pass judgement on the good and bad.
28
I have a shockingly politically incorrect lack of sympathy for the Maldives, after they went and arrested that coconut for witchcraft.
29
Thanks for the post, Ansel. Great job to the protestors, they were definitely heard and that's the point.
32
FUR IS MURDER!

EVERYBODY SHUT UP!

I AM IN COMMAND NOW!

FUR IS MURDER!

PUT DOWN YOUR DRINK, SIR!

FUR IS MURDER!

I AM IMPORTANT AND MUST BE RECOGNIZED!

FUR IS MURDER!

/repeat until unconscious
33
@20, Obama's not squabbling over crumbs. The ACA is law.

Climate change will not be stopped or even slowed; it is indeed too late for that. No matter what we do or say to make ourselves feel better, the glaciers are melting. There really isn't any point in talking about it anymore.
34
>If George Bush blah blah blah

If George Bush was on the record in favor of a Carbon Tax that comparison would make sense.
35
For fuck's sake, Ansel, what's the man supposed to do? Throw up a fist and declare that all of America should rise as one and overthrow the fossil fuel plutocracy? Obama isn't being callous, he's making a goddamn point -- the people yelling are preaching to the choir.
36
Republicans introduced the Keystone XL pipeline into their hostage negotiations against Obamacare just days, weeks ago.

Obama and Harry Reid have a proven record for years now of surrendering on important issues in negotiations behind closed doors. Most of Paul Ryan's 2009-2012 budgets' provisions have been implemented through these secret negotiations.

The activists' only hope is to keep the pressure and public's attention constantly on these issues. Being polite and patient is not the path to success in political action.

Unreasonable people change the world.
37
My god this is fucking dumb. I mean, don't get me wrong, the XL pipeline project shouldn't be moving forward, and attention needs to be brought to that. In that regard, good for the protestors, however obnoxious they may be (It's their job in this case, after all).

But is the president being dismissive? Callous? Are you fucking kidding me? He's trying to talk about one issue, and he's being interrupted. He's telling people in the audience who are booing that "Ahhh no no, it's OK" - i.e. NOT BEING A DICK, or otherwise allowing or encouraging disrespect for the protestors (despite their lack of respect of his own goals for his speech). He then tries to BUILD A BRIDGE to the protestors - "We had that the climate change rally back in the summer!" - saying that, YES, he's generally on their side. He was fucking smiling for god's sake!

I mean, Ansel, What would you have done that would have been better? Not finished your speech? Invited them on stage? Take a few minutes to detail their concerns and your reasoning for your course of action? Remember, you're their for a particular reason (healthcare, btw... also reasonably important, even if you believe the only reason he cares is his "legacy"). So really... tell us.
38
I seriously hope The Stranger is still not paying Herz for whatever this is. This post has less reason and content than a Mudede post.

Apparently the president is supposed to stop every speech he is making and engage in a conversation with any heckler or protester he sees/hears.

Do you think Obama should stop his rally if the hecklers were pro Keystone pipeline, or do you only think the president should drop everything to talk about ideas you support?
39
You're an idiot. He stopped the crowd from booing them then after they were gone made a legitimately funny joke to defuse the tension. WELL I GUESS THE MALDIVES DOESN'T THINK IT'S FUNNY! Fuck off.
40
That oil is coming out of the ground one way or another - it will get to the US via rail or trucks if there is not enough pipeline capacity or it will go to China in tankers. Unless the whole lot of Americans are suddenly going to adopt the lifestyle of a 'developing nation' and the rest of the world stops having babies - its all just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.
41
As usual, you'll find almost all of the top dog Senators and Oval Office in bed with, or beholden to, big business and banking. When I lived out East I came across this tidbit about Senator Kelly Ayotte, the new darling of the Elephants:
http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/201…

02 January 2011

Why did big business dupe Kelly Ayotte ignore her own Senior EPA Staff Attorney Jennifer Patterson on writing an Amicus Brief in the successful case of Massachusetts v. EPA, 127 U.S. 1438 (2007)?

*******
At this point I have to call a spade a spade, because when I was NH NAACP Legal Chair I reached out to the Obama camp to work for them as I had worked for Dick Gephart in '04. But I'm sure his people looked at my profile and said hell no, even though I was doing good things to help all kinds of people out there and the Mayor and Aldermen even publicly commended me. Politics suck and most politicians suck, simple.
42
I'm going to assume Herz is a troll.

Look, President Obama cares about environmental issues. His speech was about healthcare. The hecklers were disrespectful and did nothing to advance their cause. It's not as if President Obama is against their point of view. He handled their rudeness like a Boss.
43
@33 - Whether the planet warms by 3 or 6 deg C will make a huge difference so it is false to say that there is nothing we can do.
44
Pain. This post pains my brain. The internet already has enough hyperbole...
45
Ansel - No.

@25 - Put down the alcohol and go play in traffic.
46
@43 - True, but the point remains. Nothing is going to be done until the impact of climate change worldwide becomes more expensive than fossil fuels.
47
Apparently the President must address every single important issue at every appearance or he deserves to be heckled? There is a time and a place for everything, hecklers. It's not Obama's fault if you missed your chance to be supportive of what the President is doing on climate change. Geez.
48
Next week, at an appearance touting his work on climate change, Obama will be harassed by hecklers demanding him to address the health care situation.
49
Ansel's post was terribad.
@48: /thread
50
@46 - If you have already decided that nothing is going to get done, you likely won't do anything. That is the decision you are making.

On climate like other policy areas, Obama's action are very different from his rhetoric (pretty much opposite in fact). It's basically impossible to address climate change and simultaneously push for more shale plays (i.e. natural gas as a bridge to clean energy is bunk) or facilitating exploitation of the tar sands.
51
What is there in this country's history that would lead you to believe that anyone of any significant influence will every give a rip about the Maldives? A few nice words at most. Maybe offer them an atoll that a bit higher..
52
@6 is somewhat correct.

If you live in Seattle and take an electric bus line or walk or bike to work and play, and replace your lights with LED lights and mostly use the microwave to cook, you're pretty green.

But if you own a giant house with a yard, use oil heat and incandescent bulbs and BBQ everything and care about parking downtown cause you drive your SUV to the grocery store then - nope.
53
@33- The ACA is law AND is crumbs compared to a real national healthcare system.
55
Pipelines are generally safer than rail cars. They certainly fail less often and less spectacularly.

Given that, I don't understand why it's the environmental choice to oppose the pipeline.
56
@55- Because making oil harder and costlier to use means people use less of it.
57
Lol. Conservadems on SLOG are funny. Big points to sarah70 for saying climate change is a done deal, therefore we should just go about our lives like Rush Limbaugh suggests. Too bad climate change can't be gay--then you'd sing a different story.
58
@57: Even if increased greenhouse gas levels are A Done Deal, there's still geoengineering to mitigate warming. I'm currently a fan of high-altitude sulfate particulate haze methods.
59
@58 Yes. I was being flip because it sounds like sarah70 has given up so quickly because of partisan concerns. I'm aware of proposed geoengineering solutions to climate change generally, not particularly. First, I am not against trying or thinking about it; however, I also think there's a lot of faith in technology when the returns are not as stellar as advertised. So, yes, let's study and do things to mitigate! Let's also not pretend we fully understand the dynamical systems with which we intend to tinker (e.g. one factor, warming, already seems to reduce the complexity of the problem to first-order effects).
60

@58- Geoengineering might work.

Reducing greenhouse increasing emissions will defintely slow and mitigate global warming. I'd rather put our money in the sure thing.

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