i should be the head of alcoholics anonymous

Today's NY Times ran a story about a White House staffer's repeated changes to climate reports designed to reduce any connection between global warming and emissions. Frankly, I'm not surprised that such things take place...it's part of what happens every day. Anyone remember the initial accounts of Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan? Turned out to be false. Those pesky WMDs? Can't find them? Well, let's change the report and say that we know they're there anyway. In fact, the part of the story that really got me was the fact that people like Phil Cooney (the individual who made the changes) get to their positions in the first place. According to the Times:

"Mr. Cooney is chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office that helps devise and promote administration policies on environmental issues. Before going to the White House in 2001, he was the 'climate team leader' and a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the interests of the oil industry. A lawyer with a bachelor's degree in economics, he has no scientific training."

Are you kidding me? How can Tony Blair visit Bush this week and actually even attempt to begin any sort of rational conversation about global warming and the environment in light of this sort of crap?

While Bush is at it, let's put Michael Jackson in charge of New Jersey's troubled Division of Youth and Family Services, and Jeffrey Dahmer as the head of Aruba's tourist division for high school kids. Maybe Mark Felt and Bob Woodward can run the gossip column on Page Six while we're at it. Well, maybe not anymore...