DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

The Union of Concerned Scientists is a non-partisan advocacy group dedicated to creating a “cleaner, healthier environment and a safer world.” In a February report entitled Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policy Making, 62 reputable scientists “charged the Bush administration with widespread and unprecedented ‘manipulation of the process through which science enters into its decisions.’”

Here’s one timely example, copied from a brochure they mailed me. (See a longer version here: Information on Power Plant Mercury Emissions Censored)

Mercury is a neurotoxin that can cause brain damage and harm reproduction in humans and wildlife. Coal-fired power plants are the nation’s largest source of mercury air emissions. Faced with congressional proposals to strongly regulate these mercury emissions, Bush officials suppressed and sought to manipulate government information about merucry contained in an EPA report on children’s health and the environment. After nine months, a frustrated EPA official leaked the draft report to the Wall Street Journal, which revealed one of the report’s findings that eight percent of women between the ages of 16 and 49 have mercury levels in the blood that could lead to reduced IQ and motor skills in their offspring. The finding provides strong evidence in direct contradiction to the administration’s desired policy of reducing regulation on coal-fired power plants… Perhaps most troubling about this incident is that the report may never have surfaced at all had it not been leaked to the press.

There is a pattern here; in August 2003, the Bush administration lied to New Yorkers about the presence of dangerous asbestos due to the WTC attack.

“I’m from the government; I’m here to help” really shouldn’t be the punchline to a joke.

I just finished doing my small part to stop the INDUCE act, aka “Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004” or S. 2560. I called Congressperson Nancy Pelosi, Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Barbara Feinstein, and Senator Barbara Boxer. I spent ten minutes now in hopes that my DVD burner and digital camera won’t become controlled substances.

If you want to help, find your senators’ phone numbers. Call in and politely express your reservations about S. 2560. Here’s why the bill should scare you.

According to opensecrets.org, the TV/Movies/Music industry contributed over a half-million dollars to Barbara Boxer’s 2004 campaign. I can’t compete with that. But I can sure call her and tell her I think the new INDUCE act sucks.

My vote is not for sale, but Boxer can lose it by endorsing legislation I find offensive and wrong-headed.

Read more at Wired: Big Anti-Induce Campaign Planned

Over the past 24 hours, I endured:

• a derogatory joke about John Kerry, implying that he married Teresa Heinz for her money
• a defense of Rush Limbaugh’s drug addiction
• an accusation that Michael Moore fabricated most of Fahrenheit 9/11
• a recap of the comedic highlights of Schwarzenegger’s speech at the Republican Convention
• an inquiry whether I can get Fox News on my cable feed
• the suggestion that bloggers were to blame for Trent Lott’s late-2002 resignation as Senate majority leader

Sigh. The air is so thick with distortions I may not survive until the election.

Townshend on Michael Moore (seen in Pete Townshend’s diary):

[Michael Moore] will have to work very, very hard to convince me that a man with a camera is going to change the world more effectively than a man with a guitar.

Here’s a welcome update on the California privacy bill that’s been kicking around Sacramento for years: it finally passed!

Senate Bill 1, which was passed and signed last year, will go into effect beginning today. The law requires banks, brokerages, insurance companies and other financial services companies to obtain their clients’ permission before selling or sharing information about them with outside parties, as well as giving consumers the right to “opt out” of information sharing within the same family of companies.

“We think this is an enormous victory for California consumers,” said Shelley Curran, a lobbyist for Consumers Union.

Here’s the text of the bill: SB 1: Financial institutions: nonpublic personal information.