CLINTON BLAMES GLOBAL WARMING ON BUTT SITTERS

Bill Clinton reckons we in the west need to "get off our butts" and do something about Global Warming. In reporting the story Reuters ignores the history of the Kyoto Protocol, finding it more convenient to blame Bush:

During Clinton's administration, the global Kyoto Protocol to curb the release of greenhouse gases was created but the Bush administration has rejected it on grounds it will hurt the U.S. economy.

That's basically correct but doesn't tell anywhere near the whole story:

On July 25, 1997, before the Kyoto Protocol was to be negotiated, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed by a 95–0 vote the Byrd-Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98)[2], which stated the sense of the Senate was that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol that did not include binding targets and timetables for developing as well as industrialized nations or "would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States". On November 12, 1998, Vice President Al Gore symbolically signed the protocol. Both Gore and Senator Joseph Lieberman indicated that the protocol would not be acted upon in the Senate until there was participation by the developing nations. The Clinton Administration never submitted the protocol to the Senate for ratification.

Maybe if Clinton hadn't been on his butt with Monica in the footwell of his desk...