January 28, 2008

Liveblogging President Bush's Final State Of The Union Address

End note. SOTU affairs are always a laundry list, and few expect them to deliver poetry. This year's address (full text) did lack the rhetorical punch of previous years, particularly Bush's first SOTU address following 9/11, which received very high marks.

If there is one character trait that describes this president, it is determination-bordering-on-
stubbornness. He has largely ignored polls and the punditry, and he only changed tacks in Iraq when the calls for a change in course permeated his own administration. Plenty of Americans didn't tune in to this speech tonight, on the assumption Bush is a lame duck. That is probably not the case, at least as far as the legislature is concerned.

With his veto threat and the executive order coming Tuesday, Bush is asserting himself in a dramatic way. The rate of federal spending under Bush's watch is triple that of the Clinton administration. That Bush is positioning himself to put a foot down on pork-barrel spending was pretty unexpected in his final year in office. We'll be watching to see how it pans out.

As for Bush's various claims in tonight's speech, NPR's reporters have been posting fact checks all evening. See their corrections on the tax cuts, FISA, Iraq and entitlement reform. Good night.

10:27. A somewhat unexpected criticism of the president here: "In spite of the attempts to convince us that we are divided as a people, a new American majority has come together. We are tired of leaders who rather than asking what we can do for our country, ask nothing of us at all.

"We are Americans sharing a belief in something greater than ourselves, a nation coming together to meet challenges and find solutions; to share sacrifices and share prosperity; and focus, once again, not only on the individual good but on the common good."

It should come as little surprise that Sebelius has endorsed Barack Obama. This speech reflects Democrats' palpable eagerness to move the country well away from the Bush era.

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Posted at 10:47 PM
Posted to: Barack Obama, Bush Administration, Campaigns, Climate Change, Congress, Democrats, Economy, Hillary Rodham Clinton, House, Iraq, Middle East, Military, President Bush, Senate, Taxes, Terrorism, Trade, Veterans, WH 2008
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January 03, 2008

States Sue EPA Over Emissions Rules

With California leading the charge, 16 states have come together to bring a lawsuit against the Bush administration over the ability of states to craft their own rules about greenhouse gas emissions. The states filed the suit yesterday, claiming their rights were violated when the Environmental Protection Agency denied their request.

Both houses of Congress will take up the issue with hearings on "whether the White House and automakers influenced the Environmental Protection Agency's decision, which was required to be based on scientific and legal grounds," according to the Los Angeles Times. California Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) is also calling for an investigation into the EPA's ruling.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) soundly rebuked the EPA in a statement yesterday, saying the agency is "ignoring the will of millions of people who want their government to take action in the fight against global warming." His state was denied a waiver for an existing California law that would have mandated the reduction of emissions from new vehicles by 30 percent over the next eight years.

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Posted at 7:56 AM
Posted to: Bush Administration, Climate Change
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December 10, 2007

Gore Summons 'Political Will' In Oslo

Al Gore formally accepted his Nobel Peace Prize this morning in Oslo, Norway, delivering the official Nobel lecture to a silent, serious crowd in the opulent city hall. He shared the prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. group of 3,000 members.

Echoing "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary that earned him the prize, Gore's speech offered warnings to the world about the effects of global warming. "The Earth has a fever, and the fever is rising," he said.

Gore singled out his own country multiple times, noting that the warming crisis is being "most heavily influenced by two nations that are now doing nothing, the U.S. and China" -- two of the largest carbon-dioxide emitting countries. "Each country should stop using the other's behavior as an excuse for stalemate," he added.

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Posted at 9:15 AM
Posted to: Al Gore, Climate Change
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December 07, 2007

Bali Summit Rattled By Earthquake & Dubious Progress

The 10,000 attendees of the U.N.'s two-week climate change conference got a reminder of the Earth's fragility today, when an earthquake hit 150 miles southwest of Bali, Indonesia.

The quake wasn't strong enough to cause damage or injury -- just 5.4 on the Richter scale -- but the walls and floors in the complex hosting the conference shook for about 10 seconds. Attendees from 190 countries are working on striking a deal to address global warming and other international environmental concerns.

Organizers of the conference may have been struck another kind of blow, as well: A U.N. official said today that it's unlikely the U.S. will agree to any binding deal to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention on Climate Change, said the discussion started "very enthusiastically," but several developing nations along with the U.S. will probably reject the standards and the international community has failed to agree on an approach to global warming.

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Posted at 9:10 AM
Posted to: Asia, Climate Change, U.N.
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December 03, 2007

The Cheese Stands Alone

The U.S. is now the lone holdout on the Kyoto Protocol, following new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's decision to ratify it. The Bush administration shows no indication it will cave to international pressure to sign on to mandatory emissions caps. The Sydney Morning Herald has details on the summit in Bali, and today's Wall Street Journal (subscription) has a must-read backgrounder on the negotiations.

Posted at 11:29 AM
Posted to: Bush Administration, Climate Change
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September 27, 2007

Reunited, And It Feels So Not Awkward

In 1992, the young and handsome duo of Bill Clinton and Al Gore achieved something close to rock-star status. Fifteen years later, they're more famous and beloved than ever, thanks to their work on humanitarian and environmental causes.

Yesterday, a grayer Clinton and, uh, more big-boned Gore teamed up for the third annual Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York City (video). The dynamic twosome had parted ways since leaving the White House, thanks to a certain intern and failed presidential bid. It seems both may have put the past behind them.

"I'm very proud that he's continued in this fight," Clinton said, after talking about losing the battle to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

"First of all, I'm proud of what you're doing... and thank you for your leadership on all of these issues," Gore responded, beaming warmly.

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Posted at 10:59 AM
Posted to: Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Bush Administration, Campaigns, Climate Change, Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Bush, WH 2008
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September 25, 2007

Bush's Other Legacy On Display At U.N.

President Bush called on the U.N. General Assembly to renew its focus on human rights, as he reminded increasingly distant member nations of America's outsized role in humanitarian work around the globe.

Placing the spotlight on the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Bush told the audience, "The nations in this chamber have our differences. Yet there are some areas where we can all agree."

The president ticked off a laundry list of ills, some of them ancient, still plaguing the globe, from malaria to HIV/AIDS, starvation to closed markets, impositions on the freedom of speech and assembly, and "tyranny and violence."

The Universal Declaration is not being upheld, Bush said, "when innocent people are trapped in a life of murder and fear" or "when millions of children starve to death or die from a mosquito bite."

"Changing these underlying conditions is what the declaration calls the work of underlying freedom," he said.

Bush then turned his attention to the representatives of Myanmar.

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Posted at 12:17 PM
Posted to: Asia, Bill Clinton, Bush Administration, China, Climate Change, HIV/AIDS, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Middle East, President Bush, Russia, Terrorism, U.N.
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September 07, 2007

Climate Negotiations Continue At APEC Summit Among Security Concerns

The 19 leaders participating in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney reached a preliminary agreement today on a pact designed to combat global warming.

Australian President John Howard and President Bush vowed to make climate change the focus of this year's APEC summit. However, an agreement between the widely variant nations has been hard to come by, as industrialized and developing countries have squabbled over who should foot the bill for cleaning up the planet.

But several days of negotiation have yielded a bill that all are hoping will prove acceptable. After so much build up, if Bush leaves Australia with nothing signed, it will be viewed as a big defeat.

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Posted at 3:13 PM
Posted to: Asia, Climate Change, President Bush
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September 06, 2007

Bush And Hu Discuss Contentious Issues In Sydney

President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao met Thursday to discuss a range of contentious topics on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific summit in Sydney, Australia. The leaders reported a "friendly atmosphere" during the bilateral talks, but Bush admitted Wednesday that "our relationship with China is complex." If anything, it has become even more so in recent months, as China has come under intense international criticism for its failure to implement promised changes ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games, to be held in Beijing.

Australian President John Howard has made climate change the focus on this year's APEC summit, and on Thursday Bush and Hu expressed their shared view that global warming has the potential to affect the entire world community.

The Bush administration refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the most significant international climate change agreement to date, in part because the treaty did not hold developing countries China and India to the same standards as the U.S. and European nations. President Bush has expressed willingness in Sydney to move forward on an APEC pact that would reduce fossil fuel emissions, but only if China is ready to do its part as well. Hu told reporters that "this issue should be ... tackled through a stronger international cooperation."

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Posted at 11:54 AM
Posted to: Asia, China, Climate Change, Olympics, President Bush
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August 08, 2007

'08 Olympics: 365 Days And Counting...

Today marks the one-year countdown to the opening ceremony of Bejing’s 2008 Olympic Games, an event the communist superpower hopes will draw positive attention from the international community. However, the Chinese government has faced harsh criticisms on a range of issues, from food safety to human rights abuses to complicity in the genocide in Darfur, leaving many to wonder: Is China ready to open itself up to the world?

Immediately after winning its bid for the games, the Chinese government in 2001 released the Beijing Olympic Action Plan, a series of principles and objectives for developing not only the venues for the games, but also an environment conducive to hosting delegations from across the world. One provision was that China would clean up its human rights record and expand press freedoms for domestic and international journalists before the games.

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Posted at 3:45 PM
Posted to: Africa, Asia, China, Climate Change, Congress, FDA, Health, House, Olympics, Sudan
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July 06, 2007

Live Earth Coming To D.C.

Al Gore has rustled up a last-minute deal to bring Live Earth to Washington, D.C., after all.

The Washington Post reports that D.C.'s leg of the pro-environment megaconcert will feature married country singers Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood and will be held at the National Museum of the American Indian (Fourth Street & Independence Ave., S.W.). Gore himself will start off the 10:30 a.m. show with remarks, before heading up to the main event at Giants Stadium in North Jersey.

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Posted at 11:46 AM
Posted to: Al Gore, Climate Change
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July 05, 2007

Live Earth: Rocking, Rolling & Recycling

UPDATED.

If the prospect of shelling out $83 to hear the likes of John Mayer and Kelly Clarkson yell at you about SUVs doesn't totally float your boat, you are not alone. Ticket sales for Saturday's Live Earth megaconcerts have been underwhelming across the board, with the exception of London's sold-out Wembley Stadium.

The concert in Rio de Janeiro is the only one being held for free. Tickets for the show in North Jersey's Giants Stadium, for example, range from $83 to $362.95. That, as the enviros might say, is an awful lot of green.

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Posted at 3:24 PM
Posted to: Al Gore, Climate Change
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June 07, 2007

G-8: U.S. To 'Seriously Consider' Emissions Goal

The world's largest industrialized nations were unable to persuade the United States to join them in a pledge to halve carbon emissions by 2050, but a decision by the U.S. to "seriously consider" that target was hailed as a victory by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations agreed: "In setting a global goal for emissions reductions in the process we have agreed today involving all major emitters, we will consider seriously the decisions made by the European Union, Canada and Japan which include at least a halving of global emissions by 2050."

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Posted at 1:08 PM
Posted to: Climate Change, G-8
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June 01, 2007

Ads Zero In On Democratic Debate

One day after Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd (D) sought to shift the political dialogue in the early primary states from Iraq to the environment, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson joined his ranks.

Ahead of Sunday's Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire, both candidates have new ads touting themselves as leaders in the fight against global warming. Dodd launched his forward-looking spot, which promotes his plan to curb carbon emissions, on Hawkeye and Granite State airwaves on Thursday.

Richardson's newest ad highlights his past achievements as governor. Especially prevalent in the spot are the strides he says New Mexico has made in developing renewable energy.

The Republican National Committee also put in its two pre-debate cents with a new radio ad in New Hampshire. The spot, which can be heard on the RNC Web site, features a veteran calling out Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards by name and asking the candidates to defend their declarations of support for the troops.

See Ad Spotlight (subscription) on Monday at noon EDT for more on these spots.

Posted at 4:45 PM
Posted to: Bill Richardson, Campaigns, Christopher Dodd, Climate Change, Democrats, WH 2008
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May 31, 2007

Bush Announces New Global Strategy On Climate Change

UPDATED.

The White House has announced a new long-term, international strategy for combating climate change ahead of next week's Group of Eight summit in Germany. The plan, which President Bush unveiled in a speech today, calls for global economic powers to band together and set shared targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

"By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases," Bush declared in a speech on the U.S. international development agenda. "To help develop this goal," he added, "the United States will convene a series of meetings of nations that produce most greenhouse gas emissions, including nations with rapidly growing economies like India and China."

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Posted at 12:33 PM
Posted to: Bush Administration, Climate Change
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