Hurricane Kristi Noem. Hurricane Ted Cruz. Hurricane Paul Broun. Hurricane Kelly Ayotte. Hurricane Darrell Issa. Hurricane Vicki Hartzler.
Those are a few names of congressional blowhards that the eco-advocacy group 350 Action at ClimateNameChange.org would like to see the World Meteorological Organization start attaching to the big storms that scientists believe are going to get worse and possibly more frequent as climate chaos continues on its course. They've set up a petition in this regard.
Why? Because those representatives and senators deny that the climate is changing. Or they concede that it is, but say humans aren't the cause. Or they concede that it is, that humans are causing it, but say it's no big deal. Or they concede that it is, that humans are causing it, that it is a big deal, but there is nothing that can be done about it. Or...well...whatever the latest denier trope is.
“It’s a new day but some songs remain the same. Congress used to have tobacco addition deniers, now it has far too many climate deniers,” said 350 Action policy director Jason Kowlaski.
As you can see at the interactive state-by-state map at the above link, there are a lot more of these deniers than the short list above. Chances are you've got a denier in Congress from your state. Perhaps your entire state delegation is in the denier camp. Here's what 350 Action wants to do about that:
Obviously, 350 Action has its tongue in its cheek just a bit. The WMO has a standing list of names that it rotates every six years, occasionally retiring the name of an especially devastating hurricane so that nobody gets confused about the Hurricane Katrina that demolished New Orleans and some future Hurricane Katrina that barely makes landfall. So it is not going to choose the names of these backward politicians to attach to hurricanes.
But there's an alternative that could boost the campaign's objective, which is all about publicity anyway. When WMO calls a hurricane "Marsha," 350 Action can add the "Blackburn" surname in press releases and tweets and via other social media to spotlight the deplorable record chalked up by Tennessee's 7th District congresswoman on climate issues. Or other deniers in Congress.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2002—Bush afraid of Congress:
The Bush Administration has ignored calls to build support for the invasion of Iraq at the UN Security Council. The reasons are obvious -- the US would be hard pressed to pick up a couple of votes, much less the full support of the council.
For the same reasons, the administration is now trying to claim it doesn't need Congressional approval to invade Iraq.
If Bush felt confident he had the votes, he wouldn't be trying to shirk his duties. Congress is the only national branch of government currently occupied by elected officials (Bush and the Supremes were all selected). As such, Congress is the only branch with the moral authority to commit our youth to possible death. Yet in another example of Bush's disdain for democracy, he's hiding behind his legal team's vapid opinions.
The gist: the 1991 Gulf War resolution and the 9-11 resolution give the president all the authority he needs.
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On today's
Kagro in the Morning show,
Greg Dworkin rounds up the overwhelming number of underwhelming primary challengers for Lindsey Graham, EJ Dionne's "Armageddon Caucus," and leaning on Starbucks to change its gun policy. Today in GunFAIL: an elderly man sneezed so hard he shot himself. A 1998 paper on successful self-defense vs. bad outcomes from guns at home. Justice Ginsburg on conservative judicial activism. New top level domains are coming online to totally ruin the Internet. The NSA paid tech companies to cover the costs of PRISM compliance. NSA operatives spied on ex-wives & love interests. And Jeffrey Toobin's a bit of a hypocrite about Snowden.
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