LexRides

[politicalhero]

a few folks posted some comments about dip shit Rep. Gooch wasting the time of our citizen legislator by brining in Exxon talking heads to discuss global warming.

Here are some more details and actions from a KFTC action alert. Lets get this ass clown out of office.

I love this expert: Monckton generated controversy during the 1980s with his recommendation -- which he repeated for lawmakers yesterday -- that people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS be locked up for life.

"Twenty years ago we could have stopped this disease from spreading worldwide by treating it just like any other fatal, infectious disease, by making it notifiable, so people who got it were isolated -- and in the kindest and nicest way -- but isolated so they couldn't spread it to everybody else," he said.

KFTC ALERT: November 15, 2007
WHERE'S KENTUCKY'S LEADERSHIP on Global Climate Change Issue?

While other policy-makers around the nation and world are considering how to cut carbon emissions and deal with the real threat of global climate change, Kentucky lawmakers were hearing from two non-scientists who came to tell us not to worry, that the massive volume of scientific research documenting global climate change is just nonsense.

"In short, there is no global warming problem," said Viscount Christopher Monckton of the Frontiers of Freedom Foundation, one of the two invited speakers. Both speakers' organizations receive funding from the fossil fuel industry.

Global climate change, you see, is just a fabrication of Hollywood elites and those who would profit from the earth's demise, according to state Rep. Jim Gooch. The United Nations is in on the plot, too.

Rep. Gooch's point of view might be easily dismissed except for the fact that the Democrats have put him in control of environmental legislation in the Kentucky House of Representatives. He used his position as co-chair of the Interim Joint Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources to invite global climate change "skeptics" for two hours of testimony. Scientists were not invited to testify (Rep. Gooch said he did not know how we could get any scientists to come to Kentucky).

You can read more about the hearing at KFTC's blog: http://www.kftc.org/blog and link from there to various media reports, including KET video of the hearing.

And if you visit the Lexington-Herald-Leader's online report about yesterday's hearing you can vote in their poll whether or not you think human activity has anything to do with global warming. Go to: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/231346.html.

We want to let you know how KFTC responded to the hearing.

1. A half hour before the hearing we held a press conference. KFTC Chairperson Doug Doerrfeld read a statement calling for leadership from state officials to move Kentucky away from energy policies mired in the dirty fuels of the past.

2. We compiled several documents that showed the overwhelming consensus of scientists worldwide on the threat of global climate change.

3. We contacted a leading scientist at NASA who has studied climate for four decades and asked him to issue a statement evaluating the evidence for global climate change. You can read Dr. James Hansen's statement on the KFTC web site.

4. We compiled all this information in a packet for legislators on the committee and the media. These documents are also available to you at: http://www.kftc.org/gw-packet/.


ACTIONS

Yesterday's hearing was part of a strategy to keep the debate focused on whether global climate change is real or not. If we keep the existence of climate change in doubt then we won't have to do anything about the problem, is how the thinking goes (similar to what the tobacco companies did for many years).

But that debate is over. You can help defeat that strategy:

1. Contact your legislator expressing concern about Rep. Gooch's leadership on environmental issues and urging support for policies that protect our environment. Better yet, contact KFTC and we'll help set up a meeting with your legislator for you and other KFTC members to express these views and to ask him/her to support legislation addressing mountaintop removal mining and other KFTC priorities.

2. Call the legislative message line (1-800-372-7181) and leave a message for Speaker of the House Rep. Jody Richards. Tell him that we need honest and courageous leadership to speak out against the abuses of the coal industry, one who will promote and respect honest debate about real issues, not propaganda.

3. Support KFTC financially, especially now during our Fall Fundraising Campaign, to help continue KFTC's work on these important issues. Donate online at: http://www.kftc.org/join-buy-donate or respond to the fall fundraising appeal we just sent out.

4. Plan to come (in a carpool) to the I Love Mountains Rally and Lobby Day on February 14 in Frankfort.

[mcrib]

impeach Gooch campaign
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Albert Einstein trembled when he found out time was water. Seeping through the rafters to put out this burning world.