Posted on 10/19/2007 9:47:03 AM PDT by Disturbin
NEW BEDFORD — Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attacked the Bush administration, corporate polluters, the media and a misinformed public Thursday night in an impassioned speech about the erosion of U.S. democracy and the global environment.
"Democracy and the environment are intertwined," said Mr. Kennedy, who spoke in front of a crowd that half-filled the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center. "You can't separate one from the other."
Mr. Kennedy, who serves as a chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and president of Waterkeeper Alliance, also teaches law at Pace University in New York, writes books and co-hosts a weekly show on Air America Radio. His speech kicked off the three-day Bioneers by the Bay conference, an annual gathering of environmental and social justice leaders at UMass Dartmouth.
Mr. Kennedy condemned President Bush for appointing polluters to head up government agencies charged with protecting the environment.
"He is the worse environmental president we've ever had in environmental history," he said. "There are many industries in my book that have a choke hold on this administration."
The coal industry has given the Bush administration millions of dollars in exchange for lax environmental laws that allow power plants to pollute the air and contaminate freshwater fish with mercury, Mr. Kennedy said.
"I will have to watch my children gasp on bad-air days because someone gave money to our politicians," he said.
The consolidation of the media into the hands of a few corporate owners has pushed Hollywood gossip into the headlines while investigative reporting and foreign news coverage has declined.
"We're supposed to be the leaders of the free world, but most Americans don't know what's going on in the free world," he said. "We know more about Katie and Tom Cruise than global warming. "¦ You can't have a democracy for very long if you don't have an informed public "¦. We need an aggressive and independent press that is willing to stand up and speak truth to power."
Environmental stewardship is not about protecting birds, trees and fish, Mr. Kennedy said, but rather preserving communities and democracy.
"One hundred percent of the time, good environmental policy is identical to good economic policy," he said.
Before his speech, a small crowd of protesters gathered outside the Zeiterion to challenge Mr. Kennedy's opposition to the controversial Cape Wind project. Representatives from Clean Power Now, a group that supports the Nantucket Sound wind farm project, stood at the corner of Spring and Purchase streets holding signs decorated with wind turbines and the statement, "Yes." As people walked into the theater, the protesters urged them to ask Mr. Kennedy why he opposes the project.
"We think it just doesn't fit," said David Dionne of Westport. "I respect him as a fellow environmental warrior, but he has it wrong on this issue."
Richard Shepard of Dartmouth said he was unaware of Mr. Kennedy's opposition to Cape Wind until he spoke with the protesters. A fan of both Mr. Kennedy and Cape Wind, Mr. Shepard said he would like to learn why the attorney is against the project.
Mr. Kennedy, who has voiced support for wind power though not in Nantucket Sound, did not address Cape Wind during his speech.
Ha ha, he is complaining that there is not enough media coverage of so-called global warming.
This article is full of hilarious one-liners.
Sounds like one of the latest “communiques” from OBL - probably only thing missing is a bunch of PBUH’s.
It’s easy to oppose corporations when you’ve never done a fair day’s work in your life, you live in a mansion, and have more money than God.
Just the heroin talkin’.
RFKJr is a fool. He talks like a fool; he acts like a fool; and he proposes foolish action. He is an inconsequential will(k)not in the assh*le of the world. He should be summarily ignored. Yemach sh’moy!
Hypocrites don't want you to know that they are hypocrites.
I could comment on every sentence he uttered. He is not a bright man. A remarkable display of stupid pronouncements.
Citizen’s Energy Corporation, the partnership the Kennedy family has with the Marxist dictator, Hugo Chavez, is exempt, of course.
Ostensibly providing home heating fuel for the “poor and elderly,” Citizen’s Energy doesn’t tell the whole story.
Only half of its allotment of fuel goes to the “poor and elderly” - - the other half is sold on the open market for the highest dollar.
How else could Citizen’s Energy pay its absentee CEO and founder, brother Joe Kennedy, his annual $600,000?
Peter Smith, Citizen’s president, runs the operation, is paid half a million and “young Joe” just shows up for publicity photos.
The four-year-old battle started heating up last summer when Greenpeace USA staged a demonstration against well-known eco-activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's been an outspoken opponent of the proposal for a 130-turbine wind-power project in Horseshoe Shoal, a shallow portion of Nantucket Sound south of Cape Cod. Kennedy -- a senior attorney at Natural Resources Defense Council and a pioneer in the waterway-protection movement -- was on a sailboat for an event with the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which opposes the wind project. A Greenpeace vessel cruised up alongside with a banner that read, "Bobby, you're on the wrong boat" -- a stunt that was part of a larger Greenpeace campaign pressuring Kennedy to change his mind on the development. (Hear audio from the Greenpeace/Kennedy confrontation.)
I find it funny that someone who is so fond of ranting about environmental issues spends so much of his time completely polluted.
If this idiots name ended in anything other than Kennedy he would be pumping gas for a living...
HASSAN ROBAAR! STUPID.....AS A KENNEDY!
Nope...he'd be dealing heroin.
Robert and Ethel Kennedy had eleven children, not one of whom has the least common sense, or even a glimmer of intelligence. Bobby II ruined his political chances with heroine early on, and now spends his time using the family name to further his pretensions of being an environmental lawyer.
But he ain't dumb. He has kidnapped the The Hudson River and this non-profit pays the miserable SOB handsomely. In fact, numerous Kennedys have discovered the non-profit route to riches.
I don’t know too much about him, has he had to go through rehab for heroin addiction?
Don't know about "rehab" but he was busted for heroin possession some years ago.And it seems that heroin is an important theme in his family...his brother died of a heroin OD.
And the astounding thing is that Michael Skakil used his cousin,RFK Jr,as a **character witness** during his murder trial and in the appeals he launched after being convicted
nah, he would have died from an OD years ago
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.