Who's transparent now?

[Images of the Greenland ice sheet melting from the Satellite Imaging Corp.]


I remember hearing some nogoodnik, a Repugnican congressman, speaking at the so-called "Values Summit," say very sarcastically that Obama had promised a "transparent" administration when he was campaigning for president, but has abandoned any pretense of transparency.

The implication, which the "values" crowd ate up was that Obama is engaging in all sorts of nefarious actions behind closed doors.

More lies from the "values" crowd.


This little anti-Obama speech was made at the same time as the announcement that President Obama has held more press conferences during his brief time in office than Georgi W. Bush held in his entire eight years of screwing up the world.


But, when talking about transparency, there's more.

Back in July, the Guardian released satellite images of polar ice sheets taken in July 2006 and July 2007 which showed in graphic detail how the ice is disappearing. Here's what the Guardian wrote:

"Graphic images that reveal the devastating impact of global warming in the Arctic has been released by the US military. The photographs, taken by spy satellites over the past decade, confirm that in recent years vast areas in high latitudes have lost their ice cover in summer months."

Now, read carefully: (Emphasis is mine)

THE PICTURES, KEPT SECRET BY WASHINGTON DURING THE PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE W. BUSH, WERE DECLASSIFIED BY THE WHITE HOUSE LAST WEEK. President Barack Obama is currently trying to galvanise Congress and the American public to take action to halt catastrophic climate change caused by rising level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere."

We've known for some time that Georgi Bush and company attempted to play down global warming, even forcing scientists to rewrite (and thus falsify) reports detailing the horrendous, and very likely, possible consequences of global warming to our planet.

Other actions taken (or not taken) by the Bushites had to do with our "aging satellite fleet." It was not upgraded or replaced when necessary. And this has resulted in a real danger that we will not be able to gather the satellite data "crucial to predicting climate changes..."

Professor Jane Lubchenco, appointed by President Obama to head up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), says "We are playing catch up."

Here's why: "...America, the world's scientific superpower, was virtually blinding itself to climate change by cutting funds to the environmental satellite programmes run by the Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Nasa."


The truth. President Obama's administration's "transparency" is like the light of the sun compared to the darkness that enveloped the secretive shenanigans of George W. Bush and friends!

The difference between the approaches of the Obama and Bush administrations relative to the problem of global warming are just one example.

It is an example, however, that carries great significance. In fact, it has to do with life and death.

And which administration sided with death?


[The Guardian article referred to above was titled "Revealed: the secret evidence of global warming Bush tried to hide," and was written by Suzanne Goldberg and Damian Carrington. It appeared in The Observer, Sunday, July 26, 2009.]