The Wall Street Journal blog reports on the Houston Anti-Waxman/Markey rally. The WSJ reports:
The rally, carefully orchestrated by the American Petroleum Institute and other organizations, is part of a 19-state campaign that seeks to stir opposition against the Waxman-Markey climate bill while Senators on their summer break take the ideological pulse of their constituents.
The rallies will be mostly held in energy- and manufacturing-intensive heartland states that would be disproportionately affected by the legislation, as they emit more carbon dioxide per dollar of economic output than their peers in the East and West Coasts. The theme has been already played up by Texas officials who argue that the fossil fuel-loving Lone Star state, which emits more carbon dioxide than France or Canada, would suffer badly if a cap and trade system is put in place.
It’s unclear, though, whether the message will catch fire with constituents. The effort has already drawn criticism from environmental group Greenpeace, which called it an “Astroturf†– as opposed to a bona fide grass-roots – movement.
No mention of whether those attending the rally were treated to free hotdogs, but eagle-eyed readers will note the t-shirts worn by protesters are exactly the color of American yellow mustard.
As all a’ y’all know, if there is a nearby rally, I would like to attend. I’d even try to encourage JeffId (another Illinois resident) to go with me.
I continue to investigate whether there will be any rallies in the greater Chicago area, whether the public is invited to join and whether we will be treated to free hotdogs. Conflicting information suggests the possibility of a rally in Elkhart, Indiana and Joliet, Illinois. I emailed Marc Morano of Climate Depot, and contacted the API through their web page to learn more. Neither has replied. Maybe if Marc watching incoming pings he’ll stop by and tell us.
update
Anthony asked about Munchkin, aka “the orange weiner dog”. Sadly Munchkin passed away, but here is his photo.
I see the rally was “carefully orchestrated” by the API and others. Are they to be congratulated for being careful rather than careless?
I want a free hotdog so I can be in the employ of the evil fossil fuel industry at $1 per lifetime, than be a realclimatescientist at $60K/year. How about you?
JohnF–
I like hotdogs. If they have hotdogs at a rally in Joliet, I’m there!
PS: I strongly suspect the climate modelers at NASA GISS etc. make more than $60K a year.
Well, at least hot dogs are simple enough to prepare that I can bring some in case none are provided. To avoid fire hazards, I should test how large a solar reflector is needed to cook a hot dog. It could be an amusing task, particularly if it’s too cloudy at the event… and I’m in for a spell of cloudy weather so I’ll have trouble doing testing.
A Marc Morano filled out the contact form and he is looking into details and says he will be reporting.
The empire strikes back, with hotdogs.
I miss the orange weiner dog that used to be the mascot here. When blogging on weiners, it seems prudent to bring it back.
Yes, Lucia, I am sure they do. However, I have found giving conservative estimates means less time justifying, since even the opposition is smart enough to figure out what your point will be if they take the bait: “It is even worse than we thought” 😉
It’s funny that when SEIU or NEA lobbies for more government spending (directed at them) it’s not AstroTurfing or special interest pleading. However, the slighest hint of organization by anybody else is somehow suspect and illegimate….
I have had a few conspiratorial conversations in API’s DC offices back in my days as a lobbyist. I suspect that these days the API political staff would like to be far more active but some of the larger corporate members of API are utterly terrified of offending Greens in any way. So they are reduced to mobilizing employees of (some) energy companies and buying a few hot dogs in modest-sized rallies while overspending on bland media buys. Kinda sad, really.
It is a strange new world.
Old-timers I knew who pioneered astroturfing (eg., deploying machines at conventions and malls for printing letters to Congressmen that randomly changed font type and wording so as not to not look like a form letter; creative and unexpected melding of organized groups, etc) ultimately hit a wall on AGW mostly because it was no longer about interests, facts or costs but about Yuppie sensibilities, the vapid new dominant culture that has elevated matters of style and symbol to a strange new religious level. Once something gets grafted onto the New Identity it goes from politics to a kind of theology of identity.
Obama’s appeal to that new dominant cultural entity got him in office but I doubt that narcissism by proxy is going to be a successful policy foundation even if the opposition continues to fumble and founder.
“… the vapid new dominant culture that has elevated matters of style and symbol to a strange new religious level. Once something gets grafted onto the New Identity it goes from politics to a kind of theology of identity.”
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This is not completely wrong .
Even though I find it rather insulting for mankind’s history to associate the word “culture” to this robotic conformal behaviour pattern that defines the zombies populating western Europe and North America .
We seem to be moving already beyond the degeneracy that served to make analogies with the fall of the roman Empire .
I think that there is no sci-fi / fantastic writer who has yet written a new “1984” where , instead of progressing , mankind returns to the middle age dominated by superstition , fear , violence and witch hunting .
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However as I have been and am travelling very much , I don’t do the perspective error that most do .
Chinese , Namibians , Indonesians , Czechs etc have not (yet ?) learned the Voodoo and transformed themselves in zombies .
Perhaps our future is there , regardless if the temperatures rise by 4 degrees in some centuries or fall by 3 in some other what is , indeed , a ridiculously negligible matter .
Munchkin’s picture is crying out for a caption. I suggest, “If the World’s getting warmer do I have to wear this?”
I emailed Exxon a while ago asking for money for making anti-AGW comments on blogs. No reply. How do you get on the gravy train?
Hi Lucia,
I’m truly sorry for your loss. I didn’t know. The loss of a beloved pet can be just as tragic as the loss of a human family member.
RIP OWD
Lucia,
My condolences on your loss. I know the feeling all too well.
Michael, Anthony,
Thanks, but Munckin wasn’t my dog. He lived at the DOE ARM CART site in Oklahoma. He’d wandered on to the site and the technicians took him in. He was getting old and skinny, so Jim suggested I knit him a sweater. (We aren’t sure he liked it.)
Munchkin was the one and only global climate change dog (to your knowledge) by virtue of acting as guard dog protecting equipment to measure water vapor in the atmosphere. There were no dogs adopted at the other sites.
Jim doesn’t work on ARM anymore, but I would suspect the technicians in Oklahoma have probably adopted another dog.
Rich (Comment#18208)-It used to be that the money would be funneled to you indirectly through conservative and libertarian think tanks 😉 However, Exxon Mobil has ceased donating to many think tanks recently, no doubt because of accusations that they were being paid to dispute AGW.
Tom Vonk said:
“I think that there is no sci-fi / fantastic writer who has yet written a new “1984″ where , instead of progressing , mankind returns to the middle age dominated by superstition , fear , violence and witch hunting .”
Actually, Ayn Rand wrote a novelette named “Anthem” back in the 1930’s which described a retrogressed civilization. You can download it from the Gutenberg Project. It seems that the original publisher lost the copyright some years ago.
In some ways, it’s the best fiction she ever wrote.