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Title: Obama throws NASA enviro-hack Hansen under the bus
Source:
The Washington Examiner
URL Source: http://campaign2012.washingtonexami ... -nasas-hansen-was-paid-witness
Published: Nov 8, 2011
Author: Conn Carroll
Post Date: 2011-11-08 07:27:12 by Happy Quanzaa
Keywords: Obama-doma-ding-dong, enviro scam, green kooks
Views: 10697
Comments: 19
FOIA reveals NASA's Hansen was a paid witness
"We're going to punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends," President Obama famously told Hispanics in a Univision interview before last year's midterm election. And as Dr. James Hansen has just learned, your status as Obama's "friend" or "enemy" can flip fast.
Hansen, chief of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has been a darling of the progressive movement since he first testified on global warming before the Senate in 1988.
Since that time, Hansen has been a relentless activist for draconian regulations on fossil fuels. This past Sunday, for the second time this year, Hansen was arrested outside the White House protesting against the Keystone XL pipeline.
But while that activism was accepted while a Republican was in the White House, such behavior simply cannot be tolerated while Obama is in the White House.
So on Friday the Obama administration stopped fighting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and released documents showing that Hansen was paid $250 an hour by a Canadian law firm for testimony against developing Alberta's oil sands; income which Hansen does not appear to have disclosed.
American Tradition Institute director of litigation Chris Horner first filed a FOIA request with NASA for records on Hansen's outside employment in February, but the Obama administration initially fought the request, even litigating the matter in court.
Then, all of a sudden last Friday, the Justice Department sent Horner the documents he had requested.
A January 20, 2009, document shows that the Canadian law firm Ackroyd LLP retained Hansen to prepare a report "regarding the anticipated greenhouse gas emissions from the Joslyn Oil Sand Mine."
Ackroyd represents the Oil Sand Environmental Coalition (OSEC), a group fighting to stop oil sand development. Federal government employees are not allowed to accept money for expert testimony in proceedings before a court or agency of the United States. But Hansen was testifying before a Candian court, so as long as he disclosed the payments, the agreement should have been legal.
It is still unclear how much money Hansen received from Ackroyd, however, since his 2010 financial disclosure form did not list them as a source of income. Neither does his 2009 form. There is also no record of his disclosing any travel expenses related to his 2010 oil sands testimony in Canada.
If approved by the State Department, Keystone would bring about 700,000 barrels of oil a day -- 255.5 million barrels a year -- from Alberta, Canada, across the U.S. border, and then south to the Gulf Coast at Houston and Port Arthur.
Activists like Hansen oppose the pipeline because, while hundreds of pipelines already cover much of the same ground, the Alberta oil will come from tar sands whose production, according to critics, emits three times more greenhouse gas than the average barrel of oil consumed in the United States.
The Keystone XL pipeline has become a political headache for Obama. At a time when Obama is demonizing corporations for sitting on profits, and is pushing for more infrastructure spending to create construction jobs, the Keystone XL project would have injected $7 billion in infrastructure spending into the economy.
Unions like the AFL-CIO are firmly in favor of the project, while environmental activists like Hansen, Friends of the Earth, and the Natural Resources Defense Council are against it.
Obama would prefer the issue would simply disappear. While he told a Nebraska TV station last week that he would personally make the final call on the project, it now seems likely the decision won't come until after the 2012 election. We'll see if Hansen stays silent until then.
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FOIA is now selective.
The gov't can tell you the info does not exist.
But in this case, no harm to the state's position....;}
#2. To: mcgowanjm (#1)
FOIA is now selective.The gov't can tell you the info does not exist.
But they changed their mind I read. They promised they are not going to implement the lying about FOIA requests.
Or was that a lie too?
#3. To: A K A Stone (#2)
But they changed their mind I read. They promised they are not going to implement the lying about FOIA requests.Or was that a lie too?
I'll need a LINK for that.
And in the meantime, that was a lie too.
And just a btw, even when the info comes out, you have to scan it for idiocy/mistakes. Case in point:
" US spy drone crashes in Somalia Tue Nov 8, 2011 12:25PM GMT Reddit A US spy drone has crashed in Somalia. An unmanned US spy drone has crashed in southeastern Somalia, near the African country's border with Kenya, Press TV reports. According to Somali military officials, the US spy plane crashed near the port city of Kismayo, as it was helping Kenyan troops monitor the port city, a Press TV correspondent reported Monday.
Kismayo is in SOUTHWESTERN Somalia...;}
#4. To: mcgowanjm (#3)
http://www.emptywheel.net/2011/11/03/doj-lies-about-its-foia-lies/
#5. To: A K A Stone (#4)
The Guv hasn't stopped.
Just buried their idea under verbiage:
Per your link:
"In other words, DOJ has only committed to taking the language about exclusions out of the rule, not to changing the practice on exclusions it has followed for 20 years. It’s only going to make a change in the practice if it can find some new practice that works as well.
And there’s reason to doubt DOJ’s overall good faith with this letter. That’s because they claim their approach to exclusions “never involved ‘lying’.”
While the approach has never involved “lying,” as some have suggested, the Department believes that past practice could be made more transparent.
That’s an out and out “lie” (I’m guessing that DOJ thinks those scare quotes make “lie” mean something other than what we think it means). As Judge Cormac Carney laid out in his ruling on this practice, the government “lied” to him about what FBI documents existed on CAIR."
And P Leahy is just a sad neutered human now. Just a husk, looking for warm meals and soft sheets.
Sad.....;}
#6. To: mcgowanjm (#5) (Edited)
The Guv hasn't stopped.
Of course not.
But I believe war buys it hook line and sinker.
#7. To: A K A Stone (#6) (Edited)
But I believe war buys it hook line and sinker.
No, because war's in finance.
And you don't last long in finance trusting the other guy at his word.
Or better, trusting the other guy Not to take every advantage.....8D
#8. To: All (#7)
And speaking of trust or lack thereof,
MFGlobal is Still not over.
Iowa farmers to England....$1.45 Billion in commingled funds not available.
#9. To: mcgowanjm (#3)
Kismayo is in SOUTHWESTERN Somalia...;}
Uh...no...it's on the eastern seaboard...
I'll believe that a corporation is a person 1 second after Texas executes one...
#10. To: war (#9)
Kismayo is in SOUTHWESTERN Somalia...;}
Map and LINK.
Noting that Kenya is not Southeast of Somalia...;}
#11. To: war (#9)
Kismayo is in SOUTHWESTERN Somalia...;}Uh...no...it's on the eastern seaboard...
And that This is what you're replying to me on?
;}
For future reference, I'm very good at geography....just sayin'...;}
Kismayo is between Mogadishu and Kenya.
There really Isn't a Southeastern Somalia.
The entire state is on a Southwest to Northeast bias. Swinging around the horn of Africa. Southeast could only really apply to Somaliland. Or Ethiopia.
#12. To: mcgowanjm (#10)
Noting that Kenya is not Southeast of Somalia...;}
Nor is it on the east coast of Africa. Somalia is on the horn of Africa. Kismayo is a port city. UNless Somalia ends on the coast, it would be physically impossible for it to be in the SW...
I'll believe that a corporation is a person 1 second after Texas executes one...
#13. To: mcgowanjm (#11)
For future reference, I'm very good at geography....just sayin'...;}
As am I...
I'll believe that a corporation is a person 1 second after Texas executes one...
#14. To: war (#12)
Noting that Kenya is not Southeast of Somalia...;}Nor is it on the east coast of Africa. Somalia is on the horn of Africa. Kismayo is a port city. UNless Somalia ends on the coast, it would be physically impossible for it to be in the SW...
Kenya Is on the East Coast of Africa.
Somailia is the horn of Africa.
Kismayo is a port city.
And Somalia Does end on the coast.
War: "And it would be physically impossible for it to be in the SW..."
Kismayo is in Southwestern Somalia. The only way Kismayo is in Southeasten Somalia is if the border stops at Kismayo. And runs up the Giuba River.
#15. To: mcgowanjm (#14)
Your map shows it clearly on the east coast.
I'll believe that a corporation is a person 1 second after Texas executes one...
#16. To: war (#13)
For future reference, I'm very good at geography....just sayin'...;}As am I...
Wonderful.
A fellow cartographer....I knew we had something in common....8D
#17. To: mcgowanjm (#16)
Mapreading is how I kept my parents from fighting when we took a "family trip"...
I'll believe that a corporation is a person 1 second after Texas executes one...
#18. To: war (#15)
Your map shows it clearly on the east coast.
Well, yes, taking your POV for the moment.
But then that brings us back to the article about Kenya invading Somalia.
If the article states as it does, that Kismayo is on the Southeastern Coast, it can Only mean that there is nothing farther to the east, and the map above clearly shows that nearly all of Somalia is to the East and North of Kismayo.
"An unmanned US spy drone has crashed in southeastern Somalia, near the African country's border with Kenya"
That quote evidently came out of Ethiopia/Kenya to the Northwest. Like at the New US Drone base maybe?....8D
The Kenyans are the Mercs/foot soldiers being led by SpecOps. No other explanation.
#19. To: war (#17)
Mapreading is how I kept my parents from fighting when we took a "family trip"...
when we took a "family trip" I always had dibs on the passenger seat and was called the navigator...;}
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