ON THE TOWN:A lot of hot air on global warming

Someone wake me up and tell me that it was a bad dream, that Congressman Dana Rohrabacher did not say “the myth of human-caused global warming.”

And please tell me that he did not say that those who believe global warming is real also believe that rain forests cause greenhouse gases and are contributing to the problem.

And did he really offer that the “global warming alarmists” simply want to control people’s lives and expand government power?

According to a story in Thursday’s Pilot by Alicia Robinson, he said all that.

It is shocking to me that a veteran politician, one whom one would assume has access to sophisticated polling and tracking data, could utter such foolish comments.

Even if he believed that nonsense, it is sheer ignorance, arrogance or both to say so publicly.

Perhaps Rohrabacher is becoming the Mel Gibson of politics, saying things he would otherwise not have said due to the intoxicating nature of his profession.

I checked some reliable online sources and found several instances where Rohrabacher pooh-poohed the whole idea of global warming. “Global baloney” he once called it.

Now, Rohrabacher seems to have moved a bit on his position. Where it once was just a blanket dismissal of global warming, now it is “human caused” global warming.

Rohrabacher is so out of touch with mainstream America on this issue it’s scary. In a new Los Angeles Times Bloomberg poll, 74% of Americans said that global warming is “somewhat” or “very” serious. Notice they didn’t use the “human-caused” qualifier in the poll.

Even if global warming were not “human caused,” which I do not believe but will temporarily concede to make a point, does that make the problem any less serious? Does it make it any less urgent?

Of course not. But Rohrabacher and his other out-of-touch colleagues are content to make this a partisan issue instead of doing something to correct the problem.

Americans are more concerned about global warming and more united in their resolve to fix it than any other issue facing the nation, including illegal immigration, the war in Iraq or the battle in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.

They’re more worried about global warming than anything having to do with China or anything having to do with Iran or North Korea’s nuclear weapons capabilities.

Perhaps even more than the consequences of global warming, Americans are concerned that hardly anyone in Washington wants to do anything about it.

Human-caused or not, the problem is real and it’s now hitting home and we’re a little scared. And even if Rohrabacher doesn’t believe it, 74% of his constituents do. Rohrabacher would do well to stop his global warming tap dance and take the lead on meeting the challenge.

Just so you know that it’s not just me picking on little ol’ KOCE, here’s some journalistic support.

Last Wednesday in a story that revealed an attempt led in part by state Assemblyman Curt Pringle to hijack the sales process of the station no one watches, there was this quote in the Los Angeles Times: “Despite its tiny viewership, operating losses and the fact that much of its programming duplicates that of Los Angeles-based KCET, [KOCE] is a source of civic pride ?”

That “source of civic pride” costs you about $2 million a year, which wouldn’t be so bad but it’s not reaching enough people. And the station has had enough time to try.

Mel Rogers can kick and scream all he wants about how valuable the station is to the area, but it’s not. And now you know it’s not just me talking. The viewership is “tiny.”

The sale of the station is no more about civic pride than it is about football. It’s about a handful of people who refuse to let it be sold to the highest bidder, Daystar, a Christian network that will probably put people with big hair and 800-numbers on the screen.

Well, those big-hair people may be taking tens and twenties from suckers, but at least the suckers have a choice in the matter. KOCE has been picking our pocket for about $2 million dollars a year, and you don’t have a choice.

Now we have legislation that aims to change the rules after the game has begun. Who’s really the sneaky player in all this? At least with Daystar, I know what we’re getting.

And would there really be such opposition to the sale if the station were to be turned into a sports or gardening channel? I don’t think so.

Yvette Monet called me the other day to hand me my head on a platter, which I deserved.

In a recent column, I tried to set up a scenario in which a candidate for the office of lieutenant governor in Nevada, someone who appears to be taking a hard line on illegal immigration, would conduct a raid on a major hotel and rid it of its illegal immigrant workers.

In that made-up setting, I chose the Bellagio, mostly because I have stayed there three times in the past year or so and have promoted several conferences at the hotel. In the planning stages of those conferences, I vigorously supported the choice of the Bellagio because I like it. In fact, I will be back at the Bellagio at another conference I am promoting next month.

What I did not do was state more clearly that the raid idea was a fantasy and that when I wrote that column I had no knowledge of the immigration status of the hotel’s employees.

I simply did a bad job of setting up the story and in owning this, I will say clearly and directly to the Bellagio: I am sorry.

And Monet, a Bellagio spokesperson, wants you and me to know that “the Bellagio does not hire illegal immigrants.”

My other Bellagio challenge is getting my college poker buddies to stay there during our weekend in October. Right now, we’re headed down the street.

Maybe I can convince them to switch if I tell them that the other hotel contributes to human-caused global warming.