Published: 10/24/07, 12:46 PM EDT
By H. JOSEF HEBERT

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House significantly edited testimony prepared for a Senate hearing on the impact of climate change on health, deleting key portions citing diseases that could flourish in a warmer climate, documents obtained by The Associated Press showed Wednesday.

The White House on Wednesday denied that it had "watered down" the congressional testimony that Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had given the day before to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

But a draft of the testimony submitted for White House review shows that six pages of details about specific disease and other health problems that might flourish if the Earth warms were not delivered at the hearing.

Does that surprise you????????

Nothing this adminisration does surprises me. What surprises me is how they keep getting away with it.

All based on the words of one anonymous source...

Well, I suppose that the one that wrote the paper, Dr. Julie Gerberding, should know what was in it, and how it differed from what was delivered.

Yeah, they should have waited until they talked to her before publishing the story. Any other administration and they would have. Reporters have a rule that if they are going to use anonymous sources, they should have two non-connected anonymous sources that agree to the facts. This article only includes one anonymous source. The author of the paper could not be reached for commnet. The CDC spokesman said "Her spokesperson said that she was able to say everything she wanted to say. It was not watered down in terms of its science. It wasn't watered down in terms of the concerns that climate change raises for public health."

Everything negative in the article is attributed to one anonymous person at the CDC. They should have waited to talk to Dr. Julie Gerberding.

You can twist and turn things as much as you like, but there is never smoke without a fire. You, of course, can believe what ever you like, as long as you don't take your blinders off it doesn't account to a lot.

Right on invis. Spider, I see you have taken the advanced class in neo-con spinning. You worship at the feet of King George. Constitution? We don't need no stinking Constitition.

he has taken all the classes, left, right and center, and he got the medal for fulfilled indoctrination.

Could either of you post a single false statement in my post? No? Then what is your complaint?

You guys make me laugh. "Quick, we can't let him be right...we'll call him a liar, indoctrinated and then we'll accuse him of worshipping George Bush". Sorry, but that doesn't amount to a good argument.

Looked in the mirror again, spider?
who is calling who liar?
remember?
or is old age setting in?
you have shown yourself too well, and now you can't hide anymore, it's too late.

invisible,

Sweetheart, everyone who has been around here for awhile knows that you called me "Hitler" several times before I did the same to you. But in a private email, you claimed that I did it first. You call me a liar without blinking "You can twist and turn things as much as you like", but cry like a child when I return the favor. But inspite of all that, I still love you. If you post a problem or question, I will do my best to help you. I don't deny your worth as a human being, ever. And I don't believe for a second that what little I know of your from your online persona is all there is to you.

I'm not surprised in the least that you didn't try to prove that I'm a liar, because everything I have posted in this thread is 100% truthful. You just feel that you can call me a liar and repeat it enough to make everyone who reads my posts, ignore them instead.

God bless.

Stop calling me sweetheart, will you?
It's not becoming, and nobody believes you anyway.
And I will not stop calling you whatever until you stop your hate propaganda against everything that's called Islam.
Take it or leave it, I don't care.
You call yourself a Christian, but you have so much hate in your heart, it's out of this world.
How can you possibly live like that?

Oh, and don't mail me, I don't believe anymore what you say in your mails.

invisible,

"It's not becoming, and nobody believes you anyway. "

Just out of curiosity, how do you know what everyone believes?

"against everything that's called Islam. "

My post was about RADICAL Islam. I have seen Voil say many times that he only has a problem with "fundamentalist" Christianity. Why don't you jump on him? Why do you ignore the fact that I only have a bone to pick with RADICAL Islam? Three million little girls are mutilated a year by RADICAL Islam, why can't that be enough reason to hate that particular religion? Not Islam, but RADICAL Islam. The branch of Islam that teaches hate and violence. They are two different things. To defend RADICAL Islam and lump it in with Islam is insulting to Islam. Your reaction to my posts makes it seem like castrating little girls is normal and accepted behavior for a Muslim...IT'S NOT. It's something that is practiced by RADICAL Islam, normal Muslims love their children and their wives. RADICAL Muslims don't value human life. There is a difference and it would behoove you to learn it.

"You call yourself a Christian, but you have so much hate in your heart, it's out of this world.
How can you possibly live like that? "

Why do you believe that you know everything there is to know about me from what I have posted? The truely sad thing is that you don't go by my posts, you go by my posts, which have been redacted by you. You remove words like "RADICAL" and claim that I hate all Muslims. I don't even hate RADICAL Muslims, but I hate their religion (RADICAL Islam, not Islam). Not only do you judge me harshly for the things I say, but you alter my statements and judge me as if they were my own statements.

"Stop calling me sweetheart, will you?"

I only did it once and I didn't realize it was going to offend you. I'm from Texas and sometimes we say "sweetheart" to any woman we are talking to. I'm sorry that I offended you.

Here ya go spider!!!

Looks like they did talk to Gerberding, and they have copies of the original and the final speech, soooo.......



But a draft of the testimony submitted for White House review shows that six pages of details about specific disease and other health problems that might flourish if the Earth warms were not delivered at the hearing.

The draft noted that "scientific evidence supports the view that the earth's climate is changing" and that many groups are working to address climate change. "Despite this extensive activity, the public health effects of climate change remain largely unaddressed. CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern," the draft declares.

That paragraph was not in Gerberding's text as approved by the White House.

The draft document was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press from a source other than the CDC, the Atlanta-based agency considered the government's premier disease tracking and monitoring agency.

Two people familiar with the documents told the AP on Tuesday, after the Senate hearing, that the White House Office of Management and Budget edited the CDC director's congressional testimony, removing specific scientific references to potential health risks.

Gerberding told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that climate change "is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans."

They were protecting us!!

No sense letting the public know things that will hurt them...

They might protest!! They might gather in large groups and insist the government do more about global warming!

We couldnt have that....

*grins* Gosh, I feel so proud, stepping into a war of this magnitude. I love the question of "Why do they think they can get away with it?"

Let's answer it by looking at this discussion, shall we?

My impression so far is:

Spidercmb debunked the article, citing the lack of identifiable source material - ignoring that the AP tends to be a lot less biased and significantly more accurate in their material than... say... Fox News.

Invisible and Fanta46 believe the article completely - they do not even acknowlege that both news reports are rather fuzzy about their source material.

Invisible refuses to debate the point, choosing instead to lob personal attacks instead of rightly aimed positional attacks.

Spidercmb seems to be willing to join Invisible on that level, but only halfway, citing correctly that she's attacking him and not his arguement. Whether intending to or not, however, Spider is being drawn off topic.

Fanta46 is the only one still on topic.

So, Fanta46, to answer Invisible's question, they "think they'll get away with it" because people like Invisible and Spider will take umbredge and then forget the issue entirely under a wave of personally-directed hate-mail. And, ironically, it was just proved in the real-life proportions. 2/3 of US Voters are not vocal enough to lodge complaints, and so are ignored.

Take a lesson about debate from a person who has done it for a living. No matter how much you hate your opposition, stay on the subject. You look less fanatical, if nothing else.

Fanta46,

Yes, that quotes her testamony before Congress, but nothing about this supposed censorship by the White House. Of course they might limit what she is saying before Congress, but as the CDC spokesman said, she hit all the points she wanted to hit. So she couldn't give her theories about what would happen, that's immaterial. Predictions of that nature are extremely unreliable. The facts and the science was presented to Congress, that's the important thing.

'spider',

After reading this post of yours "... My post was about RADICAL Islam...", I immediately mailed the JSH 'webmaster'
and asked him to change the title of the thread you are referring to:

"... The Violent Oppression of Woman in Islam..."

... and add 'RADICAL' in front of Islam, such that you won't come across like a
... obsessed manipulator, cheap propagandist, hate-spreader, obsessive-compulsive-delusional fundamentalist radical christian, since that would strip you of all credibility on these forums, and I would hate that 'sweetheart'. I hope you're not offended if I call you sweetheart. I live in Montréal, and we say 'sweetheart' to anyone we talk to.

I also asked JSH 'webmaster', to add 'radical' everytime you wrote Muslim(s) or Islam, Iran, etc.

I also asked them while at it, to try and re-write your posts in such a manner that the desperate, off-topic, attention grabbing, and egocentric ramblings you often slide into would not be so overwhelming.

As you know 'spider', you can count on me to watch out for you!!! I must admit though, that you've been all over the place lately. Hard to keep up with all these delusional attacks, and out of control venim of yours. Maybe if you stop thumping the bible, and just trusted the spirit of Jesus to flow through you (without putting your delusions in the way), I'm sure you would feel peace, and people around you would be touched by the spirit, instead of disgusted by the venim.

Knowing there is so much more to you than your obsessive- compusive-delusional tendencies, I remain faithful that you will see the light one day, and we will all finally get a taste of your undisturbed side. I truly believe you must have one!!!