Here are a couple things that make you go “Hmm.” Global Warming I am not a global warming denier. I believe that the human race puts stuff in the atmosphere that depletes the ozone layer. Now, I don’t agree with some folks who say that Florida will cease to exist by 2040, but I do believe that reducing carbon emissions is a good idea. So does President Barack Obama, and under his leadership, the U.S. has made some progress in limiting global warming. According to the U.S. Energy Department, between 2008 and 2013, the U.S. reduced more carbon pollution than any other nation. Roughly 475 million tons of carbon pollution was kept out of the atmosphere. Yay! But conversely, a story by the Associated Press points out that during that same time period, U.S. exports of gasoline and diesel fuel have doubled. And it’s not just the good, cleaner diesel fuel we have to burn here in the U.S. It’s the dirty kind. And it goes to places where they don’t have any problem burning the dirty stuff. The AP used the example of Panama in its story, noting that imports of diesel and gasoline from the U.S. have nearly quadrupled there since 2008. Panama is “the largest recipient of diesel fuel dirtier and more carbon-laden than would be allowed in engines in the U.S.,” the AP reports. Of course, cars and trucks in Panama aren’t nearly as efficient as those in the U.S. and they aren’t inspected or maintained as well either. The Panama phenomenon, when extrapolated across the globe, means that any gains the U.S. made in reducing carbon emission at home are wiped out. In fact, the AP investigation revealed that those exports, when burned, released roughly 1 billion tons of carbon pollution into the atmosphere. That’s almost double what we saved. Hmm. Transparency I remember when President Obama was campaigning for president, he talked a lot about transparency. Then at the big party in Chicago after he was elected the first time, he said he was going to operate “the most transparent adminstration in history.” Ann Compton was a journalist for ABC News. I don’t know for sure how long she worked for ABC, but her reporting career spanned 40 years. She retired recently and was interviewed by Brian Lamb on C-SPAN. Here’s a little bit of what she said: “Before I walked out the door on September 10, I was a strong voice for complaining that this particular administration has been more opaque than any I have covered about what the president does in the Oval Office everyday. He is far less accessible on photo-ops with meetings. Even some meetings on the record, meeting in the Roosevelt room with financial leaders, from Wall Street or on issues with environmental groups, or with issues with environmental groups, with public opinion leaders,” She also said she witnessed a couple of tirades in the last year: “Both were off-the-record. ... One, profanity-laced where he thought the press was making too much of scandals that he did not think were scandals.” I find it fascinating that the president has the perception that the press is picking on him, when, quite the converse is true. If anything, the press has given him a pass on lots of stuff that get Republican presidents plenty of negative press on the evening news. Things like deficits, high gas prices and myriad ineffective policies. A little thin-skinned there, Mr. President? And, by the way, opaque is the opposite of transparent, isn’t it? Hmm. War The Washington Times reported that Secretary of State John Kerry told Congress Tuesday that President Obama wants expansive war powers to pursue Islamic State terrorists. This was a bit of a shocker to lawmakers, because a war authorization would allow the Pentagon to put American combat troops on the ground. “I don't think anybody wants to get into a long-term ground operation here. But we also don't want to hamstring the generals and the commanders in the field and the president, who's commander in chief, from their ability to be able to make some decision they need to make,” Kerry was quoted as telling the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. OK, where have we heard that before? The committee voted Thursday to grant the president’s request for war powers. The full Senate will vote next. This is kind of big news, but it flew under the radar of the major networks. And according to Reuters, the president signed an order in November authorizing a more expansive mission and 1,000 more troops for military operations in Afghanistan in 2015. U.S. troops will be carrying out missions against the Taliban – a direct role in combat. That’s the opposited of what the president said in May when he told us the U.S. would have no combat role in Afghanistan in 2015. This news, of course, also eluded major news outlets across the U.S. So the president who vowed to end war is now seeking sweeping war powers and expanding war. Hmm.
