Quack, quack, quack

From the Herald Leader:

[The Rev David, Holsinger's pastor]Calhoun, a United Methodist pastor, noted that Holsinger and his wife, Barbara, were members of Lexington's First United Methodist Church, which asked them to set out and start a new congregation.

They founded Hope Springs Community Church in a warehouse at 1109 Versailles Road. Calhoun called it a socially diverse congregation with a "very vital recovery ministry." It serves the homeless and those with addictions to drugs, alcohol and sex; and it has a Spanish-language Hispanic congregation with its own pastor.

"It's built around compassion for people who struggle with a lot of issues," he said.
Hope Springs also ministers to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian, Calhoun said.
"We see that as an issue not of orientation but of lifestyle," he said. "We have people who seek to walk out of that lifestyle."

On this point, the church would differ with many gays and lesbians, who consider their sexuality a matter of identity, not a lifestyle choice.

Charles Taylor boycotts opening of his war crimes trial

MIKE CORDER
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Former Liberian President Charles Taylor boycotted the opening of his war crimes trial and his assigned lawyer walked out of the courtroom in a dramatic opening to the landmark first international tribunal of a former African leader.

Lawyer Karim Khan said Taylor had fired him and wanted to act has his own defence attorney. Khan walked out even though Presiding Judge Julia Sebutinde of Uganda repeatedly directed him to continue to represent Taylor, if only for the opening day.

Apologizing and defying threats of contempt of court, Khan gathered his files and left the room.

"This is not defence counsel making some cheap trick," Khan told The Associated Press outside the courtroom. Taylor "thought this was a railroad to a conviction and in those circumstances, he exercised his right to terminate my representation and to represent himself."

The court ordered the trial to continue, and Chief Prosecutor Stephen Rapp began outlining the horrors inflicted on Sierra Leone villagers by forces allegedly under Taylor's control.

The attackers would randomly murder people and enslave others to use as fighters, miners and farmers, Rapp said. Then "the attackers would mutilate – amputating arms, limbs, gouging eyes. Children conscripted by the attackers killing their own parents," he added.

Taylor, 59, has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court has no death sentence and no maximum sentence if he is convicted.

The prosecution was making a four-hour opening statement Monday, after which the case was to adjourn for three weeks. It was unclear who would be sitting on the defence bench when it resumes June 25. The trial was expected to last 18 months.

Taylor was not in court Monday, but in a letter read to judges by Khan, he claimed he had been prevented from seeing a court official mandated with making sure he is properly defended and that his one court-appointed attorney was heavily outgunned by the prosecution team of nine.

"At one time I had confidence in this court's ability to dispense justice. Over time, it has become clear that confidence has been misplaced," Taylor's statement said. "I will not receive a fair trial."

Taylor's supporters say he has been unfairly targeted by prosecutors and that his defence team has not had enough time to prepare. "He's taking the blame for what others did," said his daughter, Charen Taylor, who grew up in the United States and dropped out of college to help organize his defence.

Rapp told the court Taylor had been assigned a lawyer, assistant attorneys, a special investigator and court funds.

Sebutinde, the presiding judge, repeatedly interrupted Khan's reading of Taylor's letter, demanding a to-the-point explanation for Taylor's absence.

"We are not interested in political speeches," she told the lawyer.

The trial had been expected to be difficult and complex even before Monday's developments raised more questions about how the process would work. Despite the difficulties, though, the trial has been hailed as a watershed for war-torn western Africa.

"It's a time in the history of Africa that the leaders ... go on notice that they just cannot destroy their own people for whatever purpose," said David Crane, a former chief prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

The atrocities in Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war are well documented. Fighters – often children drugged and turned into merciless killers at brutal rebel training camps – murdered thousands of men, women and children and mutilated more by hacking off hands and limbs with axes and machetes. Women were raped and abducted to become sex slaves.

Many victims had the initials of rebel groups carved into their skin with burning-hot bayonets. Children were sent out with burlap bags to hack off and collect limbs and were punished if the bags were not full when they returned.

When witnesses begin testifying, survivors, including amputees, will take the stand along with former allies from Taylor's inner sanctum who will be critical to proving he controlled rebels responsible for atrocities in another country.

Many will testify anonymously for fears of reprisals from Taylor supporters, and some will be put in witness protection schemes after giving evidence.

"Prosecutors will have to prove that the linkage exists between Taylor's alleged participation in the crimes and the crimes themselves," said Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch. "There is no question these kinds of cases are difficult, they are complex."

While the charges he faces refer to events in Sierra Leone, Liberia's neighbour, Taylor also is linked to brutality in his own country.

At the Liberian capital's largest cemetery, where most of the tombstone dates are from the period of the country's 14-year civil war, four gravediggers listened to radio reports of the start of Taylor's trial Monday.

One gravedigger, Flomo Tokpah, 54, said his older brother was killed by Taylor's forces, and that he was glad Taylor did not address the court himself.

"I don't want to hear that wicked man's voice anymore," he said.

But his co-worker, Teddy Taweh, 42, said Taylor "should face the court and tell people why he did what he did."

From 1989 to 1997, Taylor led the rebel National Patriotic Front of Liberia, whose aim was to unseat then-president Samuel K. Doe. Taylor is believed to be one of the first warlords to recruit children, who were organized into a Small Boys Unit and christened with names like "Babykiller." Taylor was elected Liberia's president in 1997.

Taylor was indicted in 2003, accused of sponsoring Sierra Leone's rebel Revolutionary United Front in exchange for diamonds. Taylor agreed to give up power and go into exile, but was arrested in Nigeria in March 2006.

He was transferred to The Hague a year ago amid fears his trial in Sierra Leone could trigger fresh violence in the region. His trial will take place in a courtroom rented from the International Criminal Court by the U.N.-backed court that usually sits in Sierra Leone and was established to try those held most responsible for the Sierra Leonean war.

Bush nominates anti-gay quack as Surgeon General

Jim gave me this, from United Methodist Daily News. I've excerpted the least complimentary passages.

President George W. Bush has nominated Dr. James W. Holsinger, Jr., 68, currently president of the United Methodist Judicial Council, to become the nation's 18th surgeon general.

...

As word of the nomination spread, media outlets began raising questions about Holsinger's qualifications and past performance, along with questions of continued cronyism on the part of President Bush, as with his previous nominations of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court and Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.

...

A Kansas City, KS, native, Holsinger has a Ph.D. in anatomy and a medical degree from Duke University, along with a master's degree in hospital management from the University of South Carolina. He also has a master's degree in biblical studies from multidenominational Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY.

Although trained in general surgery and cardiology, and described in President Bush's announcement as a cardiologist, Holsinger has no national board certification in any speciality, according to the web site of the American Board of Medical Specialities.

...

Holsinger has been a consistent contributor to the Republican Party, according to Newsmeat.com. The web site lists close to $17,000 in contributions to the national party and to various candidates, including President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, both fellow United Methodists, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

...

In The United Methodist Church, Holsinger rose to national prominence through his membership on the 1989-92 churchwide Committee to Study Homosexuality. He resigned from the committee shortly before the 1992 General Conference in Louisville, KY, because he said the committee's report was "skewed toward liberal interpretations" of homosexual orientation and behavior. At the time, Holsinger declined the committee's invitation to be included in a minority report on the subject.

Since that time, Holsinger has consistently supported forces in the denomination opposed to the acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. He has served previously on the board of the Indianapolis-based Confessing Movement within The United Methodist Church, a 15-year-old unofficial organization dedicated to "preserving the apostolic faith", according to a statement on its web site. Current Confessing Movement board members include Asbury Seminary chancellor Dr. Maxie Dunnam and layman David W. Stanley, also a director of the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

Holsinger was elected to the Judicial Council at the 2000 General Conference in Cleveland, OH. He was nominated from the floor along with Judicial Council members Mary A. Daffin, an attorney from Houston, TX, and Rev. Keith D. Boyette of Spotsylvania, VA, in one of the most successful political campaigns launched by the combined forces of the Confessing Movement and the Good News caucus.

During Holsinger's term on the Judicial Council, the church's "supreme court" has ruled consistently against acceptance of homosexual people. In 2005, the council upheld the defrocking of Rev. Beth Stroud, a lesbian, affirming the church's prohibition against ordaining GLBT people. Also that year, the Judicial Council set off a wave of debate in the church by siding with a Virginia pastor who refused membership to an openly gay man in Decision 1032. Several annual conferences this year have adopted resolutions challenging the views expressed in Decision 1032.

Holsinger currently serves in two other faith-based capacities, as treasurer of the World Methodist Council based in Lake Junaluska, NC, and as chairman of the Good Samaritan Foundation in Kentucky.

...

According to a 1991 New York Times report, congressional investigator Mary Ann Curran testified before a House subcommittee that she found shoddy care at veterans hospitals, including several cases during 1989 and 1990 in which incompetence and neglect led to the deaths of patients. Curran visited six hospitals and studied the records of another 30 facilities in her investigation.

At the time, Holsinger testified to the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations that the VA was "obviously not perfect", but said that he had begun management changes intended to improve quality. At a briefing prior to the hearing, Holsinger denied that there were systemic problems in the Veterans Affairs' medical system.

However, three months later, the government ruled that the unit Holsinger directed was responsible for six of 15 documented deaths at a North Chicago veterans' hospital. Veterans' Affairs subsequently negotiated confidential settlements with the patients' families.

...

After a stint as chancellor of the medical center at the University of Kentucky, Holsinger was tapped in 2003 by Gov. Ernie Fletcher, also a physician, to serve as the commonwealth's secretary of health.

Holsinger's term reached a low point in July 2005 when the Louisville Courier-Journal published a special report showing that Kentucky citizens had the worst health in the United States, primarily through poor individual health habits such as smoking, bad nutrition and lack of exercise. Kentucky ranked second worst nationally for cancer deaths, fifth worst for cardiovascular deaths and seventh worst for obesity, according to the paper.

Major chronic diseases cost the Kentucky Medicaid program $611 million for diabetes, $422 million for cancer, $372 million for coronary artery disease and $728 million for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the fiscal year ending June 2003.

At the time of the Courier-Journal report, Holsinger said that Kentucky had "some big mountains to climb" in terms of promoting better health among its citizens. Although he is credited with initiating changes in the state's Medicaid system to save taxpayers money, Holsinger left his position halfway through his term, five months after the newspaper report, reportedly to spend more time with his family. He joined the teaching staff of the University of Kentucky College of Public Health.

...

While Holsinger's political and academic colleagues praised his nomination, United Methodist leaders in the Kentucky Annual Conference were notably silent. The frigid reception to Holsinger's nomination as surgeon general most likely stems from a lawsuit still under way between the conference and the Good Samaritan Foundation that Holsinger chairs.

In January, Holsinger, on behalf of the foundation, said he planned to launch a second appeal of a decision by Fayette Circuit Judge Gary Payne. The judge ruled in 2003 that the Kentucky Annual Conference is the rightful owner of an estimated $20 million from the foundation's 1995 sale of Good Samaritan Hospital in Lexington, KY, to Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. The conference had filed suit in 2000, claiming it owned the hospital through its historic relationship with the foundation, which until Holsinger's chairmanship reported regularly to annual conference sessions, according to the Rev. Chris Morgan's blog, "Assembled Reflections".

Under Holsinger's leadership, the foundation put the $20 million into an endowment that typically provides $1 million in annual grants for health care and health education. Judge Payne has ruled the hospital was held in trust for the conference by the foundation, and that the Kentucky Conference rightfully owns the money. An appeals court upheld his ruling and returned the case to Payne, who last December reaffirmed his earlier decision and ordered the foundation's trustees to turn the money over the conference. The appeal is still pending.

...


Meanwhile, the liberal site Buzzflash.com, after reporting on his past performance, sniped: "Dr. Holsinger seems like a great choice for the VP to take hunting, but he hardly seems like the best candidate out of all the doctors in America to become our next surgeon general."

Also on Buzzflash, a reader who identified himself as a doctor wrote about Holsinger's lack of board certification: "While this probably matters less for someone who has chosen to make their life as a political hack than someone who actually takes care of patients, this is certainly something of note. As a physician, I take it to mean that he is someone who didn't care enough about his clinical training to demonstrate competence according to national standards."

Upon further reflection, there was almost nothing complimentary in that article. Americans should ask serious questions about whether Dr Holsinger is the kind of person we want to be Surgeon General.

Martyrdoms of Mary Dyer and Joan of Arc

I've been really busy this week, so I wasn't able to post this on time. However, Wednesday May 30 was the date that Joan of Arc was martyred, and Friday June 1 was the day that Mary Dyer was martyred.

I've already discussed St. Joan, who followed what she believed to be God's orders, against the teachings of the church (especially on the matter of gender roles and appropriate clothing) to her death. History proved her right, and I believe the Episcopal Church now includes her in Lesser Feasts and Fasts.

Mary Dyer was another such woman. Unlike Joan, she was not a soldier, but she is the only woman to die in the US from causes related to religious freedom. From the Wikipedia article:

In 1637 Mary Dyer met Anne Hutchinson, who preached that God "spoke directly to individuals" rather than only through the clergy. Dyer joined with Hutchinson and became involved in what was called the "Antinomian heresy," where they worked to organize groups of women and men to study the Bible in contravention of the theocratic law of the Massachusetts Bay Colony...

Mary Dyer and her husband returned to England with Roger Williams and John Clarke in 1652, where Mary Dyer joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) after hearing the preaching of its founder George Fox and feeling that it was in agreement with the ideas that she and Hutchinson held years earlier. She eventually became a Quaker preacher in her own right.

The Dyers returned to Rhode Island in 1657. The next year she traveled to Boston to protest the new law banning Quakers, and she was arrested and expelled from the colony. (Her husband, who had not become a Quaker, was not arrested.)

Mary Dyer continued to travel in New England to preach Quakerism, and was arrested in 1658 in New Haven, Connecticut. After her release, she returned to Massachusetts to visit two English Quakers, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, who had been arrested. She was also arrested and then permanently banished from the colony. She traveled to Massachusetts a third time with a group of Quakers to publicly defy the law, and was again arrested, and sentenced to death. After a short trial, two other Quakers were hanged, but because her husband was a friend of Governor John Winthrop he secured a last-minute reprieve -- against her wishes, for she had refused to repent and disavow her Quaker faith.

She was forced to return to Rhode Island, traveled to Long Island, New York to preach, but her conscience led her to return to Massachusetts in 1660 to defy the anti-Quaker law. Despite the pleas of her husband and family, she again refused to repent, and she was again convicted and sentenced to death on May 31. The next day Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common for the crime of being a Quaker in Massachusetts.

"Nay, I came to keep bloodguiltiness from you, desireing you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law made against the innocent servants of the Lord. Nay, man, I am not now to repent."

A statue of her stands outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston.

Given the nature of the times we're in, both conservative and liberal Anglicans could politicize these women, and say that we too must follow God's commands, and to heck with the Nigerians/Americans. Both sides are, after all, pretty darn sure that they're following God's law. But it is not my intent to politicize the witness of these saints.

Mary and Joan were called by God, it seems. Their fellows turned against them, and killed them, and certainly in Joan's case, her gender played some role in her death. Lord, have mercy on us.

Mary's and Joan's witness do show us that sometimes, you have to do what you are called by God to do. Only history may vindicate your actions, so you have to realize that you might be wrong.

Did Mary have doubts, in her heart, as she was led to be hanged? Did she at least consider the possibility that she was wrong? It's impossible for me to say. But if she did, she still acted on what she believed were God's orders, as did Joan. And God vindicated them in time.

So, God, have mercy on those who killed Joan and Mary. Grant Joan and Mary rest eternal, and let light perpetual shine upon them. And God, please grant us all your spirit of discernment. Let it be that no one needs to be imprisoned or persecuted for following you, and let us never think that following you means we are called to imprison or kill our fellow human beings. Because, to you, we are all sisters and brothers. Amen.

Governors of California and Ontario sign stem cell deal, work on fuel efficiency standards

Governer Schwarzenegger has done things I don't agree with, and has allegations of sexual harassment, but he has also done things I respect.

Despite opposition from the Catholic Church, he has committed to stem cell research, all the while reminding people that he is a devoted Catholic. Many American Christians, Catholic and Evangelical Protestant, do the same over their leaders' objections.

That tells me this: the majority of Americans are proving, by their actions, that they don't believe that human personhood begins at conception, which is not what the Catholic magisterium and the Religious Right teach. We all know that the majority can be horribly wrong, but that isn't a given.




California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced a new $30-million joint research venture to facilitate stem-cell research Wednesday morning.

McGuinty and Schwarzenegger signed the deal at the MaRs Discovery District research centre in Toronto as part of the California governor's three-day trade mission to Canada.

"Our government is proud to be investing $30 million in the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium to be headquartered right here at MaRs," McGuinty said.

"The consortium will research ways to use knowledge of cancer stem cells to find a lasting cure."

Government sources say funding for the agreement is provided by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.

Schwarzenegger is a leading supporter of stem-cell research and said he hopes new discoveries will lead to "a cure for deadly and debilitating diseases."

The governor's father-in-law suffers from Alzheimer's disease.

The two Canadian scientists who discovered stem cells in 1963 were on-hand to hear the premier's announcement.

McGuinty said the research may do more than help the two-out-of-five North Americans that will be diagnosed with cancer.

"In the future, stem cells could also be used to treat Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries and muscle damage," McGuinty said.

Critics and anti-abortion activists have condemned both the governor and Ontario's premier for the plan.

The Campaign Life Coalition accused McGuinty of betraying his Catholic faith by supporting stem-cell research with the grant.

"Read my lips, Arnold and Dalton, embryonic stem cell research does not work," said Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition.

"There is no need to kill human embryos. The scientists are only pushing for this because the embryos are available."

McGuinty and Schwarzenegger also signed an agreement on Wednesday to cut emissions in Ontario.

The deal includes low-carbon fuel standards for Ontario, but will fall short of California's tough emission caps.

Schwarzenegger has pledged to cut his state's greenhouse emissions 25 per cent by the year 2020, and an additional 80 per cent by the year 2050.

The deal commits Ontario to:

* Adopt California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard, implemented to reduce carbon content of all fuels sold in the state by 10 percent by the year 2020;
* Promote innovative, low-carbon technology; and
* Explore more energy-efficient programs and policies.

The premier has already set a target to reduce Ontario's greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, but McGuinty and Canadian environmentalists think the federal government should set standards for every province and territory.

"In an ideal world, we would have a global standard for everything from emissions to fuel standards to energy efficiency," McGuinty said Wednesday.

The premier says it doesn't make sense for provinces to set their own emission limits.

"North America as a whole is about 15 years behind the European Union and Japan when it comes to fuel efficiency standards. Requiring California standards in Canada would put us on track to making up some of the lost time," Emilie Moorhouse, Atmosphere and Energy Campaigner, said in a statement.

Critics say the emissions plan could damage Ontario's embattled automotive sector.

Schwarzenegger said he's also been hampered in getting the U.S. government onboard with his policies, but he's made it clear that California is going to get federal support to go green, one way or another.

"We're working with federal government, and at the same time we made it clear that if we don't get it, we'll sue the federal government," Schwarzenegger said, cracking a smile.

McGuinty said he's convinced that North America's national levels of government will get onboard soon, but in the meantime, regional governments have to work together to gain momentum.

"I don't think you're going to see the federal governments at the front of the parade, I think that you'll see them joining it sometime in the not-so-distant future, but much of the leadership will be provided by states and individual provinces," he said.

"What we're doing now is reaching out to each other and reminding ourselves that we share the same planet, and we can work together to form a critical mass and continue to build on that."

This is Schwarzenegger's first trip to Canada as governor. He is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell in a series of meetings throughout the week.

From Madpriest

Dubya plays the fiddle while Rome burns - calls for meaningless discussions on global warming

By Brad Knickerbocker | Staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor




On the eve of the Group of Eight (G-8) summit in Germany June 6-8, President Bush is trying to gain the diplomatic initiative on climate change. For the moment, most political actors and expert analysts remain skeptical.

"The new American initiative seems an admission that its previous strategy has failed," says The Economist magazine in its analysis of Mr. Bush's proposal.

Referring to plans put forth by German Chancellor Angela Merkel (who will host the G-8 meeting), other European countries, and the European Union, the Economist observes:

"All these proposals are much more ambitious than America's, and it will take a lengthy debate – and perhaps another president – to reconcile them."

Under the Bush plan, "the US would convene meetings over the next year among the world's 15 greatest polluters," reports The Times of London. "These would set their own, looser goals for reducing emissions – but allow individual nations to develop different strategies for meeting them."

The plan also involves cutting tariff barriers and sharing environmental technology. "It's important to ensure that we get results, and so we will create a strong and transparent system for measuring each country's performance," Bush said.

But at this point at least, the plan lacks specifics. Asked if the commitment to cut greenhouse gases would be voluntary or binding, White House environment adviser James Connaughton described it to reporters as "a long-term, aspirational goal."

Despite (or perhaps because of) the relative vagueness of the Bush announcement, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the president's closest foreign ally, was quick to laud Bush's move. During a visit to South Africa, Mr. Blair told Britain's Sky News:

"For the first time [the United States] is setting its own domestic targets, for the first time it is saying it wants a global target for the reduction of emissions, and therefore for the first time we've got the opportunity of getting a proper global deal."

During his term in office the outgoing British prime minister failed to push the US administration into taking a tougher stand on global warming.

Seeing a potential diplomatic opening, Chancellor Merkel called Bush's announcement "an important statement on the way to Heiligendamm," referring to the German resort where the leaders of the G-8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Britain, and the United States) will gather next week with climate change as the main item on the agenda.

The plan put forth by Ms. Merkel for G-8 consideration goes much further than Bush has been willing to accept. It pledges to slow the rise in average temperatures this century to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, and to increase energy efficiency in power generation and transportation by 20 percent by 2020.

"As far as the concrete formulations for Heiligendamm are concerned, we will have to make significantly more progress," the German Chancellor said.

"What is positive is that we can see from [Bush's] speech that … nobody can ignore the question of climate change," Merkel told reporters.

In a June 1 editorial, The New York Times was less sanguine. It allowed that Bush's rhetoric was "different and heartening," and that his efforts to include China and India in any solution were on the mark. But the newspaper added:

"Given Mr. Bush's history of denial and obstructionism when it comes to climate change, there are good reasons to be cynical about this sudden enthusiasm, coming as it does on the eve of the meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized nations."

Some environmental groups were equally critical.

Said David Doniger, climate policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council in an Associated Press story:

"It is nothing less than embarrassing that three of the world's biggest oil companies are calling for tougher measures than the White House."

Mr. Doniger was referring to BP, ConocoPhillips, and Shell, which have joining the US Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of corporations and environmental organizations pushing for binding legal limits on heat-trapping pollution – limits that Bush rejects.

On the other hand, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, says he finds the Bush proposal "very encouraging": He told the Reuters news agency:

"When I originally heard the President's speech I was concerned that this initiative would be taking the debate outside the multilateral process, but explanations I've received from White House staff indicate that this is meant to take things to a higher level and accelerate the process."

The next major international climate meeting, to be held in Bali, Indonesia, in December, is scheduled to work on steps to address global warming beyond the 2012 time frame set by the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The Kyoto accord, which set binding targets on 35 industrial countries to reduce carbon emissions by an average 5 percent from 1990 levels by 2012, has never been ratified by the US.

On Capitol Hill, opposition lawmakers focused on climate policy weighed in.

In February and April of this year, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) of California, who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, invited the President to convene a summit of the nations that emit the most greenhouse gases.

"Today he has accepted that challenge," she said May 31 on the committee's website. "I stand ready to assist him with the summit and continuing negotiations in any way I can."

Rep. Edward Markey (D) of Massachusetts, who chairs the new House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, had a more direct response, as noted in a story from the Environment News Service.

"It's vitally important for America and this president to re-engage internationally on this issue, and agree to binding targets for reducing heat-trapping pollution. Instead, all that President Bush is willing to do is engage in fruitless discussions until the very end of his administration, leaving his successor with the task of actually doing something."