Top NASA climate scientist arrested at White House

Source: Raw Story

One of the nation's foremost experts on climate change was arrested outside the White House on Monday morning after he joined a protest against a planned Canadian tar sands pipeline.

Dr. James Hansen (pictured), who runs NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, was arrested along with 139 other protesters taking part in a series of demonstrations against the planned $7-billion Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport 500,000 barrels of crude per day from America's neighbor to the north all the way to the Gulf coast of Texas.

So far, 521 activists have been arrested since their first protest on Saturday, Aug. 21. Also included in Monday's arrests were Greenpeace Executive Director Phil Radford, president of CREDO Mobile Michael Kieschnick, 350.org Executive Director May Boeve and many others.

Hansen, a 44-year veteran of the nation's space agency, is perhaps the best-known climate scientist in the world. He was the center of a years-long controversy in the last decade, after he claimed that NASA had tried to censor his findings about earth's climate on behalf of the Bush administration. He's also the author of "Storms of My Grandchildren," a book that calls for radical action to combat climate change. He's also been arrested before, protesting against mountaintop mining.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/29/top-nasa-climate-scientist-arrested-at-white-house/

Dr. James Hansen :patriot:

But I've heard very little about this on the small screen, and protests just don't work anymore. Everything we see is controlled by the oligarchs at the gate. Why do you think they quit reporting on the oil spill, or the nuke disaster in Japan? Made the oligarchs who clamor for this stuff daily on the tube look bad.

This isn't your daddy's word, and protests are pretty ineffective. If you didn't see it on the small-screen, did it really happen?

you might change your mind

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/08-2
Transcript.

He spoke at an event covered by Pacifica Radio..it too was entitled Calling All Rebels and it was jaw dropping

...you're welcome?

Mods, please delete post #178. Thank you.

the uniformed division are heroes?

I do.

at so many levels

even when I used to post on boards that allowed people of all parties to post their views. But, the "ignore" feture is starting to look very useful.

Me neither. "Ignore" stops you learning. You and I may not always agree but that shouldn't stop either of us at least considering the other's point of view.

they don't appreciate.

But we do learn, as you say. From the above post alone we can conclude that the individual likely prefers the rightie position on oil, environmental consequences and climate change.

might be a more accurate term.

:hi:

dare I suggest . . . .troll.

understand that 'ignore' enables some of us to prevent nasty, vitriolic personal attacks. I have several misogynists and other negative people on my list, particularly those people who routinely blasted me for supporting Clinton and questioning Obama's qualifications during the run-up to his election.

BTW, I seldom put someone on ignore for posting sanctimonious drivel.

I kid. I kid.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

anything of value, though.

My view is that I can always "ignore" the really useless posts without clicking on any button, much as I ignore a lot of what I don't like IRL. In fact, I can probably ignore something I see more than I can ignore something that is hidden.

But, as I said, today is the first time in seven or eight years of posting that I even considered using the ignore feature. Some posts are all too predictable and some are really a waste of bandwidth.

Keeps my blood pressure under control.

Never used it before. It may come in very handy.

You *do* know there's a Sarcasm Smiley, right?

===========================

Or, is that your IQ, divisible by 2,000?

of Victor Hugo's hero from "Les Miserables" Jean Valjean.

At least one reader grokked your ironic comment without need for a fucking smiley.

:hi:

:thumbsup:


=====================

The fact I would be reamed for not putting a sarcasm smiley here if I left that comment alone makes me seriously wonder about the intelligence of some du'ers.

Because your joke sure did.

The number it's using- 24601- is the prisoner number Jean Valjean was assigned in Hugo's Les Miserables. If you aren't familiar with the story, Valjean was imprisoned for a total of nineteen years in French prisons and hounded for years after (most of the rest of his life, in fact). He got five years for stealing a loaf of bread to help feed his sister and her children, and then received several more for several escape attempts and two years for fighting back during one escape attempt.

In the story, Valjean takes on the name of "Monsieur Madeline", and pioneered a manufacturing process that made certain glass trinkets, popular at the time, much less expensive to make. His process enriched himself and the entire region, especially the town of Montreuil Sur Mer, where his factory was located. Eventually, he was elected mayor, and it was about that time that the officer who initially arrested him- one Inspector Javert- caught up with him.

Valjean, following a long night wrestling with his conscience, traveled to a court hearing in which an innocent man was being accused of being Valjean- a man Javert himself had made Valjean aware of. There, he revealed who he was to the judge, spectators, and most importantly the prisoners who were identifying the innocent man as Valjean. He was able to present irrefutable evidence, taken from the prisoners' own recollections of him and information about him only he knew, that he was who he said he was.

Unable to believe that "Monsieur le Mayor" was actually a convicted felon in breach of ban, he was allowed to leave the court; he even gave them the exact location he was traveling to. There, he promised Fantine- a very ill woman of the town whose young daughter, Cosette, was in the care of the Thenardiers (a nasty pair of innkeepers)- that he would care for her and keep her safe. He managed to escape Javert's houndlike tracking by enrolling Cosette in a convent, where they spent the next five years in hiding.

Doesn't much sound like the 24601 that posts here, does it?

excellent catch... I read Les Miserables in highschool, but forgot the details. So much to re-read...

You did leave out a very important part, where the priest does not turn in Jean Valjean for stealing (I believe silver) from the church, saying he gave it to him. I think that was such an important part of the story, how one persons kindness changes so many peoples lives. The first time I saw the musical I was so moved. My friends kept asking if I liked it and I could not answer for about an hour.

If it is sarchasm elaborate a bit on this

If it is a joke then you have to set up the punchline

If this is some troll posting crap then get lost.

Somebody needs to constantly be making a stand on this.

Huh?

Oh.

Nevermind.

It's illegal to loiter in front of the White House, for this exact reason. Why do you think the protesters are doing it? To get arrested, and therefore get on the news.

concept. What does it mean exactly to loiter in front of the White House?

In this case, all day.

in one place all day protesting, as in the constitutionally guaranteed rights of peaceful assembly and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances without fear of unreasonably search or seizure? That kind of loitering?

"Peaceful assembly" doesn't mean "totally unlimited right to be anywhere you like, for as long as you like."

Why should the public get a permit to assemble in a public place from the public institution it's assembled to protest?

... lest someone just might become 'offended' by another's 'Free Speech'. Sorry state of affairs, that...

there is a balancing test.

I don't believe that for a second. And please explain to me how the 'balancing test' applies to 'Free Speech Zones'...

know how the balancing test would apply to a free speech zone. I just know that no Constitutional rights are absolute. There is always a balancing test: the government interest in restricting the right weighed against the individual interest in exercising the right.

Typo edir

me, too.

Too many condescending posts from that one...

of the Constitution that grants those of us in the U.S. the right to assemble peacefully and to petition the U.S. government(as opposed to a foreign government) for redress of grievances?

And if all day is too long for one person to stand peacefully, how many seconds, minutes or hours does the Constitution protect, and how do you know?

A link or a SCOTUS case name will do.


Just so it's clear: I am not saying that you are either correct or incorrect. I am simply asking the basis for your assumption that the police acted constitutionally.

Thanks.

What the policy may or may not allow us to do in Central Park or elsewhere does not mean the police are Constitutionally entitled to make the arrest. Ditto the officials who have been later held to have denied permits unconstitutionally.

Another flaw in your statement is that people are not arrested because of their intent to be arrested. Intending to be arrested is not, in itself, illegal. People get are arrested for getting caught engaging in activity that is against the law. Whether the arrest is constituional, in turn, depends upon whether the activity for which they were arrested is contitutionally protected or not, which brings us back to the first flaw.

See generally, http://wiki.nlchp.org/display/Manual/Challenges+to+vagrancy,+loitering,+and+curfew+laws (Please note espec. the 1999 Circuit Court case on a Washington D. C. statute.

Right to peaceful assembly with a permit. Other restrictions may apply. Doesn't apply to those we don't agree with. See your lawyer for further instructions and limitations on your right to peaceful assembly. sheesh, and I thought buying a car had a lot of fine print!

for as long as you desire to do so. The restrictions on that right are clearly unconstitutional, especially when an exercise in peaceful communication of political speech is involved. In almost all cases such as the depicted arrest, if the accused challenges the arrest in court the charges will be dropped.

plan on "loitering" in Washington on Oct. 6. Guess this is what we have to look forward to?

No? Then you're fine.

if you standup you won't be arrested?

I hope to be there, and it would be great if all the DUers who are going network beforehand!

I booked from LA to DC for $298 for a week round trip. I've got a bunk at Hostelling International in DC (about a half mile from Freedom Plaza). If I could I would stay for the duration. If I can get arrested great! Clogging up the bullshit court system is part of the protest. See www.october2011.org STOP THE MACHINE!!!

When your 10 minutes is up, you are on your way to the slammer...

to petition the Lord with prayer?

Sorry, couldn't resist the obvious.

Pretty well known band that had a singer named Jim Morrison.

He learned that back there in seminary school.

ETA

With two exceptions:

1. those on the internet who are even younger than 19

2. Those on the interent who say they know better than you do because they've been around longer.

Chains you can believe in!

Tesha

I'm stealing that.

(I've already stolen "Change you can bereave in.")

...in Jackpine's post is the Obama Admin's decision to build this ridiculous pipeline, not the protests against it, and the resultant arrests for civil disobedience.

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Bush and Cheney still free. What is this now, ten years they got away with war crimes? But loiter near the White House in order to peacefully protest something and you get the hammer.

whatever with the land purchases in Argentina by "w", cheney, rice,etc? One of our ex, local politicians just bought some land there too. He is under a lot of investigations. Does anyone know what is going on there?

This is wrong!

Never heard of Satyagraha I see....

I think you are onto something there

Have fun.

Even in the civilian workforce, not just the military, the culture is that disagreement should be private; to the public the government should seem to have just one opinion about every issue. When I worked for the government I was told not to attend any public demonstration on any issue related to my work. And I was just a staffer; these rules become more important as rank increases.

By his presence at a public rally urging Obama, his (indirect) boss, not to sign that directive Hansen is pretty much saying "fuck you." The repercussions of that could be much more unpleasant than an hour or two in the clink.

If this planet is going to remain habitable to the human race, it will be because of people like him.

His is a courageous action.

Although I imagine with his credentials he could find an academic position easily, even if he has to go to a reasonably rational country somewhere to do it.

No murder or rape cases that need attention?

never mind........

He's a physicist specializing in the study of atmospheres.

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by our government's bad decisions and vindictiveness.

science the middle finger as global warming is poo-pooed by yet another president, all for the sake of enormous oils profits for mega-corporations to the detriment of the environment. Yea, America the beautiful. :shrug: :cry: :patriot:

moment that Obama Administration gave BP a 20 billion dollar "pass" on their destroying the Gulf, and all the marshland that incubates 40% of America's fish, (destruction that will last decades) I knew he was a lot more similar to Georgie Pordgy than most of want to consider.

I don't really care what the polls say as I would never betray the aleft to a any pollster.


No one I know is happy with him. They just feel he is better than Republican. And maybe they are not even sure of that, but feel they may as well vote Democratic.

and didn't you see Mr. Obama (and his daughter) swimming in the Gulf last summer, to reassure all of us that the BP oil spill hadn't wrecked the environment?

Stop it. Stop it now.

Live together in perfect harmony. ♪ ♫ ♩ ♬ Sorry, I couldn't resist. :)

Dr. Hansen is the type of person that we should look up to and admire. Amazingly enough, even here on DU I see people criticizing what he and others are doing.

What the hell has become of this rapidly eroding country when a plan such as the Keystone XL is even considered as a possibility? The only thing worse than the Obama administration not rejecting this monstrosity prior to this time, is arresting people who have the courage and integrity to stand up for all of us.

What a joke this country has become. Protest against such obvious disasters like the Keystone XL, MTR Mining, Fracking...etc and get arrested for a PEACEFUL PROTEST???!!!

IF...Pres, Obama approves this (and I'm sure that he will), there will no longer be any doubt as to which masters he listens to. Of course, he's already done a lot to demonstrate that it isn't us.

Or baggers with TEH STOOPID. Most likely the former.

But, yeah, there's a lot of teh stoopid going around, too.



==========================

Anyone in a position to speak for a Democratic President and who is idiotic enough to curse Democrats and/or claim they are retarded and/or on drugs, etc. should not work for any Democratic President or for his campaign or get his endorsement for public office.

And, if they do, what are we to conclude about that Democratic President?

hundreds of thousands of people arrested there for peacefully demonstrating on that issue.

To demonstrate against destruction of the United States by wars and fealty to big business (not this issue alone, but including this issue).

http://october2011.org/welcome

Please do one or more of the following: Join the demonstration or donate, or organize a solidarity event where you live or help get out the word in time for others to do so or anything else anyone can think of.

Blessings.

So you guys take the lead, as is only right.

We're right there with you.

eg: http://www.google.es/search?q=indignados+octubre+6&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:es-ES:official&client=firefox-a

The same corporations that wrecked our economy wrecked the global economy, so SOLIDARITY!

Supposedly, October 6 marks the tenth anniversary of the start of the {current} war in Afghanistan.

protest-wise, over there, this particular very significant issue, which involves/includes/symbolises the whole implacable list of absolutely justifiable complaints.

Courage.

Or, in this case, mine, baby, mine! More like Palin.

There is no viable plan for immediate change. The Government has shown such weak leadership, that we really do need projects like this to maintain the economy. It's like being chained to a corpse and thrown into the ocean.
As a nation we need to throw billions into subsidizing a change to alternative fuel transportation. Make it so inexpensive that the common man will be compelled to join in.
Right now, the direction on this is so nebulous and expensive it may take decades before people can even attempt to change over. We don't have the time and that is the rub.

to here such a sweet and innocent statement made in such cynical times!

Koch Brothers Positioned To Be Big Winners If Keystone XL Pipeline Is Approved

By David Sassoon at SolveClimate

Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:03am EST

Obama’s bitterest political enemies already import and refine 25 percent of oil sands crude reaching the U.S., and stand to profit from an increased flow

By David Sassoon

The Keystone XL pipeline, awaiting a thumbs up or down on a presidential permit, would increase the import of heavy oil from Canada's oil sands to the U.S. by as much as 510,000 barrels a day, if it gets built...

...What's been left out of the ferocious debate over the pipeline, however, is the prospect that if president Obama allows a permit for the Keystone XL to be granted, he would be handing a big victory and great financial opportunity to Charles and David Koch, his bitterest political enemies and among the most powerful opponents of his clean economy agenda.



Rest of article here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/10/idUS292515702420110210

That's why they donated to the DLC in its early days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Leadership_Council

However, there is at least one more very important fact, IMO, that is referred to only obliquely there, namely the prevalence of white, male Southern Democrats in the founding group.

They were always in the Party, trying to pull the party to the right. In the earlier days after Emancipation, some of the more colorful ones were populist, but maybe distasteful or even repugnant in other ways, like racism.

Populism is not especially a characteristic of the DLC types, though.

I have a feeling Mark Warner may be in line after Obama.

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They seem to be manipulating both sides.

among them.


Listen to yourselves.


The Capitol police don't check with the President when they arrest protestors. I would bet my house that Obama didn't even know this was going on.

Do you think he cares? We know...we care...


Maybe you should twtter him and give him the lowdown.

and I believe I am what he said he was, not what he has become, then I would have issued a directive to allow people to protest peacefuly as long, and as often as they want outside the white house. I would have made it my fcking mission to make this a symbolic gesture of the nature of my governance.


Obama could easily have set a new tone so that things like this just do not happen.


Obama < fail.

ASKING someone if they could possible get a note to the President. Arrested and detained for questioning by the Secret Service.

Obama had been asking over and over if anyone had better suggestions for health care reform than his plan. (More of a taunt than a request, really, but never mind.)

The doctor's note said simply, "Single payer."

Not only did her story make the new, but she told it soon after her arrest on Bill Moyers Journal. I'm guessing he learned of it, if not directly, then from whoever reports such things to him. Didn't make a bit of difference.

Unless you know that his knowing of the arrest would have made some difference, what is the point of your questions, really?

but ineffective.

It won't change anything when 10 or 100 or 1000 people are arrested. When 10000 or 100000 or 1000000 people refuse to leave until they are arrested, and damn the consequences of sitting peacefully, they will return the second they are let loose, that is when politicians will pay attention. When we flood the jails with so many of our own that they cannot hold another, and there are still so many protestors standing there that they cannot be ignored.

Till then its well meaning, worthy protest, but will have no effect on policy. Just like the antiwar protests and all the rest. We have to have numbers and determination to overload the system, because publicity is not enough anymore.

It's going to have to get a whole lot worse before we see the kind of spontaneous protests you're talking about.

In the meantime I'm thankful for anyone who's willing to put their principles over their own convenience for a change.

I give full respect to the people out there sticking it on the line.

I just think we need to be clear. Anyone who thinks a big protest or a big rally or that sort of thing will change policy are unfortunately living in the past. Anyone who thinks that a famous person or a respected scientist being arrested is enough to bring change is similarly deluded. Actual change is probably not even realistically possible via elections anymore, given how coopted the candidates are by the need for money.

If we want change, we have to do exactly what Obama said. "make me". Until we are willing to do that, work en masse to force change, even at personal cost to ourselves, all we will have is a handful of heroes standing tall, on their own, with a few attentive folk giving silent applause and most of the nation ignorant that such a thing ever happened, and oblivious to what it means even if they were to learn of it.

May look like a ripple in the ocean, but it's a massive floor shift upward, or downward on the other side. Bad analogy.

But true, you'd do better work staying at home, trying to pick up friends, and pushing your thoughts out into the ether there, than going and giving Washington $100 for a fine, and buying gas, or a ticket to Washington. I applaud the effort. The only way you can actually hurt a Koch brother is if he no longer exists. I honestly think it's about the only thing they can lose that means anything, as obviously nothing material is going to change the fact that he tries to shove policies down the throats of people, that actually hurt, keep people sick, keep them uneducated, and suck up money from them, just to pad his already bulging pants.

We need people who are not just willing to protest, or even just willing to be arrested, but who go en masse with intent to peacefully resist, to not move until they are physically removed, to come back as soon as released. I am coming to believe that the only option left to us is to choke the whole system with so many bodies that the powers that be cannot ignore it, cannot deal with it, and have to make a change.

keep posting about October 6. Keep encouraging the vast numbers of disenchanted, marginalized US citizens to participate in this event, for as long as it takes!


To those of you gearing up to denigrate this planned event:

Are you scared? Me, too. But, I'm more frightened of what promises to happen if we do nothing!


Are you discouraged? Yeah, count me in here, too. The last decade has been a real downer, tempting me inexorably toward misanthropy. BUT, I'm digging in my heels and saying, "DAMMIT, *humanity* is worth it!"

Are you tired? Wow, walking right alongside ya... I am in my twilight years, with chronic back pain and a host of other challenges that sap my emotional and physical energy every single day. BUT, I can sit ensconced on my pity pot OR I can be a part of the change we desperately NEED to see in this world!


We can no longer indulge in armchair politics. We can no longer allow the minuscule fraction of humanity I call the Corporate Megalomaniacs to use and abuse us. We MUST act.


Gandhi and millions of his fellow citizens threw off the shackles of Britain's economic oppression using Satyagraha and non-violent resistance. We MUST do the same.


Remember:






Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

and






Margaret Mead, (1901 - 1978)

And I pretty well ignored it, as it was never to me directly, and most protests do not impress me much. So I looked at your website. I mean, If I am going to explain the futility of such a thing, I should at least know what the thing is.

This is the first real push that I have seen that makes me think maybe others are starting to get it. I have more reading to do, but at a quick look it looks like people actually willing to put themselves on the line, to not just go home or disburse at the end of the day, no matter whether they get what they want or not.

Thank you.

Thank You sir.

he would listen and act on good science.

So now President Obama is ignoring and arresting one of the best scientist.

Shame on you, Mr. O.

quite pretending to be Bush. you don't live anywhere near Texas. I'm not even sure liberal Texans would approve o_O

they need it to be raining water not oil.

After the BP oil spill, and the bullshite pr about how they cared about the people and the environment-it's just more of the same corporate shite. Saw the documentary about the BP oil spill directed by Spike Lee, and it seems that it was BP calling the shots, not allowing people to fly over, not allowing people within certain area, with the aid of the coast guards. And my thought was that the corporations, no matter where they're from have more power, more hold than the american people.

Now I can see this project tunneling under the Mississippi river, and since these greedy sociopaths, to me, could care less about this country or its environment or its people as long as they make a buck--What we've seen on mining safety, oil spills (texas and the gulf) and now this shite. But, it will be the people who will pay, not much the corporations--for wanting to be seen as people they do not and will not carry the responsibility of an individual. I just have to say, at least in China you harm the consumers cause death to make an extra buck you get the death penalty. Here, you may get a monetary slap and then it's business as usual.

k/r

Oh, wait, he was protecting the environment, never mind.

Arresting hundreds and hundreds each day, all through September?

I'll bet they have to call in the National Guard, if we still have one, that is...

But expose the evils of BushCo.?

Never!

...this country is messed up.

for this? Are they blocking gates or something?

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To demonstrate against destruction of the United States by wars and by government fealty to big business (not this issue alone, but including this issue).

http://october2011.org/welcome

Please do one or more of the following: Join the demonstration or donate, or organize a solidarity event where you live or help get out the word in time for others to do so or anything else anyone can think of.

Most states have coordinators whom you can contact for more information, answers to your questions, etc. http://october2011.org/pages/local-contact-persons

To donate: http://october2011.org/donate

Blessings.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Full of catchphrases like ""clean coal", stopping agency regulation and more drilling and fracking. As if a nation with 3% of the worlds oil that is already producing 6% and reached peak production years ago can somehow immpact oil prices in an industry where the majority of the production is controlled by a handful of companies.

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If we want our kids to have half a chance, we gotta win this fight.

Trav

He was featured quite prominently.

He was featured quite prominently.

Case in point.

it is really time for every one to act on this.

smart people are thinking about 'now what?'

even if there is far more protest?

We do not have the will or organization backing to do that.

New Nuclear power plants might offset the CO2 but the Coal and Natural Gas lobbies will block that. Game over.

fucking media criminals are slowly killing us

n/t

as you can see, it didn't get much attention here either..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1804943

and the National Network News is ALIVE with LIVE coverage

Thank you Dr. Hansen

The way I see it has been game over for a while now.

One day an old man was walking along the beach. It was low tide, and the sand was littered with thousands of stranded starfish that the water had carried in and then left behind.

The man began walking very carefully so as not to step on any of the beautiful creatures. Since the animals still seemed to be alive, he considered picking some of them up and putting them back in the water, where they could resume their lives.

The man knew the starfish would die if left on the beach's dry sand but he reasoned that he could not possibly help them all, so he chose to do nothing and continued walking.

Soon afterward, the man came upon a small child on the beach who was frantically throwing one starfish after another back into the sea. The old man stopped and asked the child, "What are you doing?"

"I'm saving the starfish," the child replied.

"Why waste your time?... There are so many you can't save them all so why does it matter?", asked the man.

Without hesitation, the child picked up another starfish and tossed the starfish back into the water... "It matters to this one," the child said.

:grouphug:

... as a reminder for when I feel the overwhelming odds against
success in such a task render it hopeless, it is still better
to "do the right thing" than just give up.

:hug:

The circle-D messiah-fellating assclowns will be here soon with their bold-blue-links(tm) and list of reasons why this pipeline is good and Obama is brilliant about this and every other subject known and unknown.

:puke:

RL

A man of principle!