Climategate - a manufactured scandal

crossposted from TennesseeFree.com

It's inexplicable to me that conservatives seem to represent the vast majority of the science deniers. I guess it's a combination of low scientific literacy, lack of education, paranoid conspiracy theories, fixed persistent party-line thinking, and perhaps fundamentalist religion/creationism. I don't know. One thing for certain, conservatives seem to hate academia and higher education. On the subject of climate change, conservatives can not seem to separate science from political agenda. They see it as one in the same, a classical persistent response pattern.

Well, the science deniers' big scandal has fizzled.

Investigations clear scientists of impropriety and dishonesty

Newsweek:

British investigators clear the East Anglia scientist at the center of it all, Phil Jones, of scientific impropriety and dishonesty in April, an investigation at Penn State cleared PSU climatologist Michael Mann of “falsifying or suppressing data, intending to delete or conceal e-mails and information, and misusing privileged or confidential information” in February.

Newspapers around the world are retracting their claims of fraud and scientific dishonesty. The campaign of lies is now exposed. Of course the Faux News right wing media machine has already spread the lies. Doesn't matter. Limbaugh and Levin tell them what to think.

For the record, yes, I believe the climate is changing, as it always has. Yes, human activity is definitely a factor in recent warming. That is accepted scientific fact. Can humans effectively halt climate change? I doubt it, I am skeptical, at least in our lifetime. The trend has already been established, and perhaps a 'tipping point' has been reached. Even if it were possible, it would be logistically impractical and improbable, at least in the short term. If it means a cleaner planet, it may be worth a try. I recognize there have been huge climate change events in the past, some triggered by seismic and impact events that would dwarf any effect of human activity and the warming we are now experiencing.

Republicans defend BP - that's all you need to know in the next election

Thanks Joe Barton for apologizing to BP. This is the guy who could be chairing the Energy and Commerce Committee if the Republicans could retake a majority. Remember how Republicans defend the perpetrator of the worst environmental disaster in US history when the next election comes around.

WaPost:
How Joe Barton's apology to BP saved President Obama's week

Barton, a Texas congressman and the highest-ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, decided to apologize to -- wait for it -- BP chief executive Tony "I'd like my life back" Hayward during a hearing Thursday morning.

"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," Barton told Hayward, condemning a $20 billion account funded by BP to help pay damages from the spill and calling it a "shakedown" of the company by the Obama administration.

Barton realized his gaffe and retracted. Ooops, too little too late.

TN Republicans support mountaintop removal mining - an eco disaster

Republicans vote against bill to ban the ecologically disastrous practice of mountaintop removal mining.

Tennessean - June 9, '10:

An attempt to revive a bill that would ban "mountaintop removal" coal mining in Tennessee failed in the state Senate today. The recall motion by Sen. Andy Berke, a Chattanooga Democrat, failed by a 12-14 vote that fell mostly along party lines.The bill would have prohibited surface coal mining more than 2,000 feet above sea level.

Mountaintop removal is devastating hundreds of square miles of Appalachia; polluting the headwaters of rivers that provide drinking water to millions of Americans ... but that's OK with Republicans. Tennessee already allows mountaintop mining at Zeb Mountain in Pioneer, where pollution is showing up in water supplies.

All 12 votes to ban this practice came from Democrats.

The The Republican War on the Environment continues...

more.

Limbaugh on the BP oilspill: "This many gallons of oil seep from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico everyday."

A few words from conservative leaders on the oil spill:



First it was, "where's the oil?" ... then it's "Obama's Katrina"

My favorite part of this video is at 1:32 where Brit Hume says, "where's the oil?" and Juan Williams answers in stunned disbelief.... "where's the oil???"

How's that for credibility.

Rand Paul defends BP - the perpetrator of the worst environmental disaster in US history

Rand Paul defends BP - calls Obama "un-American" for criticizing BP.

Republican Tea Party candidate Rand Paul defends the perpetrator of the worst environmental disaster in US history.

"What I don't like from the president's administration is this sort of, 'I'll put my boot heel on the throat of BP. I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business. ... this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it's always got to be somebody's fault instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen"

--- Rand Paul on Good Morning America.

Bill Maher had the best take on Rand's statement about BP...

"He said 'sometimes accidents happen'....which is not really what you want to hear from the guy doing your Lasik surgery." (Rand Paul is an ophthalmologist)

So we know he is for the right to racially discriminate and now for the rights of oil companies not to be blamed for committing world changing environmental catastrophes.

Great leadership from the head of the Tea Klux Klan...

The trouble with Dr. Paul is that despite his independent thinking, much of what he stands for is repulsive to people in the mainstream. For instance, he holds an unacceptable view of civil rights, saying that while the federal government can enforce integration of government jobs and facilities, private business people should be able to decide whether they want to serve black people, or gays, or any other minority group. -- Louisville Courier Journal

Conservatives try to diminish the danger posed by oil spill

Would you expect anything less from Fox News moron, Brit Hume?

"Where's the oil? .... You're not even seeing it on the shore yet. .... The greatest source of oil that seeps into the ocean is from natural seepage... not from drilling accidents.... the ocean absorbs a lot." -- Brit Hume, Fox News

Yea, the BP spill clearly visible from space 3 weeks ago, is typical of "natural seepage?"

Here's the oil, Brit....

Where do you find morons like this?

You know where...






UPDATE 5/19: Lastest NASA photo of the spill, appearing to head to the center of the gulf.
(click to enlarge)


Natural seepage, aye Brit?

Republicans Block Bill To Raise Oil Companies' Liability Cap

Would you expect anything less from Republicans? In the face of the worst oil spill in US history, Republicans blocked a bill that would have raised the maximum liability for oil companies after a spill from a paltry $75 million to $10 billion.

A friend from New Orleans told me BP reps are going door to door in the LA fishing communities trying to get fishermen to sign waivers of liability for a $5000 check.

Much of the oil remains below the surface and appears to be headed toward FL and fragile marine ecosystems.



If you haven't seen the 60 Minutes Report on the BP oil spill, you need to watch this - it a gripping tale:



Part 2



Part 3

DRILL BABY DRILL VIDEO: 3 MILLION GALS PER DAY - Gulf Oil Spill More Than 10X Greater Than First Reported

Experts now say 70,000 barrels of oil - 2,940,000 gallons per day are spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. That is an Exxon Valdez spill every 4 days.

This is shaping up to be the worst oil spill in human history.





Can you imagine what the Florida's sugar white panhandle beaches will look like? I'm specifically worried about St. Joseph's Peninsula, my favorite wilderness beach:

Right wing crazies Levin and Limbaugh: oil spill caused by environmentalists, beginning of Obama takeover of oil industry

How stupid and paranoid could people be to actually believe the lies that right-wing radio nuts spew?

Obama said he was dispatching a "SWAT Team" to inspect oil rigs. Guess what he meant by "SWAT Team?" The so-called "SWAT Teams" work with the Minerals Management Service, a bureau in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf. Researchers called the 'Swat Team' are a group from University of California Santa Cruz that collaborate with MMS on shoreline inventory of biodiversity. They are scientists, you fucking douchebags ... not guys in black with guns!!! The name SWAT is not an acronym, but a nickname that came along with the idea that a group of researchers was needed to travel along the coast quickly surveying as many sites within a minus tide series as possible.

But in the paranoid mind of Mark Levin ... it's Obama's plot to take over the oil industry:

“I think those SWAT teams are there in coordination with the attorney general’s office, the Interior Department, Homeland Security, maybe the EPA….to seize records at these sites and to lay the foundation for more government takeover” - Mark Levin

Even more lies from Limbaugh:

Not only did Limbaugh lie when he said it took Obama 8 days to respond to the oil spill, Limbaugh blamed the spill on sabotage by "environmental whackos."

The bottom line here is that if blame for the oil spill could be determined, it most likely will fall on Halliburton contractors and the failed valve manufactured by Cameron International. Cameron's board are all Bush/Cheney contractor cronies, BTW...
It seems clear that Halliburton is directly linked to the failure causing the spill and explosion. Regulators have previously identified problems in the cementing process as a leading cause of well blowouts, in which oil and natural gas surge out of a well with explosive force. It's not the first time for Halliburton, either. Halliburton also was the cementer on a well that suffered a big blowout last August in the Timor Sea, off Australia. The rig there caught fire and a well leaked tens of thousands of barrels of oil over 10 weeks before it was shut down.

Investigators delving into the possible cause of the massive gulf oil spill are focusing on the role of Houston-based Halliburton Co., the giant energy services company, which was responsible for cementing the drill into place below the water.

This spill will certainly be classified as the worst in US history, and maybe the worst ever on earth.... far worse than the Exxon Valdez. Just wait when the pictures come in of the black slick on the sugar white sand of the FL panhandle. Drill baby drill... indeed.

Drill Baby Drill

5000 barrels of oil a day spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. The slick is expected to hit the coast tomorrow.

Spill Baby Spill....

The spill occurred on Earth Day.

AP: A new oil leak was discovered at the site in the Gulf of Mexico where a drilling rig exploded and sank, and experts now estimate that five times more has been spilling into the water a day than previously believed, the Coast Guard said late Wednesday. Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead.

Hope this serves as a lesson to those mindless idiots who chant "Drill Baby Drill" .... but then again, you wouldn't expect people like that to give a shit about the environment.

Cheney says Bush Administration has been committed to "guarding our spectacular wildlife populations"

Dick Cheney spoke Friday at the White House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy in Reno, NV, claiming that the Bush administration has championed wildlife preservation:

President Bush made wildlife conservation an early and a high priority of his administration. - Dick Cheney, Reno, NV

Look at the Bush record. Rules proposed by the Bush administration would effectively gut the Endangered Species Act, no longer requiring federal agencies to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine whether a project would harm an endangered species.

If you love and respect animals, you certainly shouldn't vote Republican. McCain VP pick Sarah Palin thinks killing wolves for fun from airplanes is just fine and has done everything possible to make this legal, including a $400,000 propaganda campaign.



HT/TP

Sarah Palin kills animals for fun - creates science to fit her policy

It's not sporting, it's not humane, it's not necessary... it's like shooting fish in a barrel ... and she calls herself pro-life

This aerial killing of wolves and other wildlife is BEING ENCOURAGED by Republican VP nominee, Sarah Palin. Palin's $150 bounty for wolves can be claimed by presenting the severed foreleg of the killed wolf. This brutal savagery shows ignorance and a complete disregard for wildlife and the environment. Sarah Palin kills animals for fun, not for subsistence or food. Because of her delight in killing, she has invented science to justify it. The Republican War on Science and the Environment continues.

Contrary to reports that there is no scientific basis for wolf control, Palin has encouraged the aerial killing of wolves by offering a $150 bounty, even dispatching her state employees last July to kill 14 wolf puppies by shooting them in the head, citing a control effort to save caribou. These wolves could have been relocated, shot with tranquilizers instead of bullets. But no, blow their brains out.

Estimates of moose populations, which this need to kill wolves was based on, have turned out to be wrong. Some wildlife biologists say predator control advocates like Palin don't even understand what wolves eat.

Alaskans say Palin's enthusiasm for predator control fits a method of operation - how she edits science to suit her personal views. In 2007, she approved $400,000 to "educate" the public about the ecological success of shooting wolves and bears from the air. Some of the money went to create a pamphlet distributed in local newspapers, three weeks before the public was to vote on an initiative that would have curtailed aerial killing of wolves by private citizens. "The timing of the state's propaganda on wolf control was terrible," wrote the Anchorage Daily News on its editorial page.

"Across the board, Sarah Palin puts on a masquerade, claiming she is using sound management and science," says Nick Jans, an Alaskan writer who co-sponsored the initiative. "In reality she uses ideology and ignores science when it is in her way." The initiative was defeated last month.

Gordon Haber is a wildlife scientist who has studied wolves in Alaska for 43 years. "On wildlife-related issues, whether it is polar bears or predator controls, she has shown no inclination to be objective," he says of Palin. "I cannot find credible scientific data to support their arguments," he adds about the state's rationale for gunning down wolves. "In most cases, there is evidence to the contrary."

[Source] [Source]

This is classic Republican manipulation of people by misinformation and propaganda.... sound familiar? Fixing facts around the policy... sound familiar as well?

Palin caught in a lie

[TP]

In her interview with ABC News’s Charlie Gibson last night, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin denied that she had ever said climate change isn’t caused by human activity, challenging Gibson to show her where she had made such claims. In a fact-check segment on Good Morning America today, Jake Tapper demonstrated that Palin was making a false claim, pointing to a December 4, 2007 Fairbanks Daily News-Miner article in which she was quoted as saying, “I’m not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity.”

The Republican War on Science and the Environment continues... as well as the gun and animal killing fetish.

UPDATE:

Palin caught in yet another lie

Palin Backs Off Bridge To Nowhere Lie, Admits She Supported ‘Infrastructure Being Built In The State’

McCain and TN GOP prey upon the ignorant on offshore drilling issue

If you've seen the TN GOP ad, or this McCain ad, you'd think Obama was responsible for high gas prices.

Why this issue is a red herring and is designed to persuade the ignorant to capture votes:

1) There are 172 US offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, and 26 off of southern California. These rigs cover 77.3% of the known reserves or 68 billion barrels where drilling is already allowed.

2) The estimates of offshore oil reserves in areas where drilling has not been allowed amounts to only 18 billion barrels.

3) The untapped oil in the gulf would be extremely difficult and expensive to obtain. Most of it is under a mile of ocean, 1 to 2 miles of granite and a mile of salt. It would cost more to produce than it would sell for. In order to make this possible, the government would have to extend to oil companies subsidies and tax breaks. If you factor that in, we'd actually be paying more for the oil than we would have to pay if we just bought it on the world market.

4) The 18 billion new offshore reserves would amount to just over 2 years of US oil demand. This added supply would take 10 years to obtain and only affect global oil prices by less than a nickel.

5) One spill on the level of the Exxon Valdez would cost as much as several billion dollars to clean up, not to mention the possibility of ruining a coastal habitat for a generation.


More

So, don't be led by ignorance, red herrings, or the super stupid TN GOP.

Reminder: McCain, his staff, and other conservatives repeatedly lied by saying that no oil was spilled during hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Even LA Republican Governor Jindal was clueless about the oil spills created by Katrina and Rita. The Minerals Management Service reported that 113 oil platforms were “totally destroyed” — a total of 124 offshore spills. The US coastguard, which is responsible for the marine environment, said more than 6.5 million gallons of crude oil had been spilled - one of the worst spills in US history.

The fact is that Democrats want to see more domestic drilling where leases are already held.

House Democrats are pushing legislation they say would spur oil drilling on already available lands in Alaska, the West and the western Gulf of Mexico. Reserves in shale and land areas in the west hold far more productivity than new offshore drilling.

More

What it means to VOTE REPUBLICAN

What it means to VOTE REPUBLICAN:

Bush uses EPA Administrator to manipulate environmental policy and lies about it

Watch Republicans do what they do best: evade issues and protect their corrupt superiors, in the case, President Bush. The Bush Administration LIED. They said Johnson 'made an independent decision' on California's request regulate auto emissions. (not the case - read below)

This video is awesome: Watch Administrator Stephen Johnson evade simple straightforward questions about whether or not he had certain discussions with Bush about key environmental issues. Republican Congressman Darrell Issa [R-CA] tried to come to Johnson's rescue but committee chair, Henry Waxman heatedly rejects Issa's interruptions and threatens to have him physically removed from the hearing ... YEA!!! Watch this AWESOME video.



C&L:

Why is it that conservatives consistently appoint people to head agencies who have nothing but contempt for the issues those agencies are supposed to oversee? ... The problem lies not with government, but rather with the stooges who run the government and appoint their incompetent cronies to fix problems they have no intention of fixing.

UPDATE - Bush Administration caught in yet another lie:

Despite the EPA Administrator's obvious effort to protect Bush, Wired and the LA Times report: Congress has a smoking gun proving the Bush Administration meddled in the Environmental Protection Agency ruling that denied California the authority to strictly regulate the amount of C02 and other auto emissions.

When he denied the state's request earlier this year, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson claimed the ruling was his and his alone. Yet a House investigation that has examined more than 27,000 pages of records and the sworn testimony of eight EPA officials revealed that Johnson faced intense pressure from the Bush White House to reject the state's request, which would have required automakers to cut emissions of C02 and other pollutants by 30 percent by 2016.

Bottom line: the Bush Administration LIED. They said Johnson ''made an independent decision.''

Bush: the pollution president

The Republican War on the Environment ruled illegal by the courts.

The Bush Administration has lost 77 out of 78 federal court cases involving threatened species since 2001. The courts have also largely rejected Bush's attempt to rewrite the Clean Air Act. This is all about Bush's attempt at payback to the nations top polluters in exchange for campaign contributions. This is how Republicans do business in their War on the Environment. It's a family tradition, Bush 41 broke the law 35 times in failing to issue regulations needed to carry out the Clean Air Act.

"In almost all cases, the EPA rules and decisions overturned by the courts benefited polluting industries at the expense of human health and the environment."

- Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles

The latest rejection of Bush policy came last week when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a halt to three proposed logging projects in the northern Sierra. The ruling repudiated the administration's approach to forest management: selling large trees to loggers to finance removal of smaller trees under the guise of fire protection.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, was troubled by the Environmental Protection Agency's string of overturned rules. As chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, he asked the agency to add up time and money spent to develop and defend every rule or decision that has been legally challenged since Bush took office in 2001.

"The consequences of such losses are substantial delays in environmental protection, waste of government resources, and confusion and costs for regulated entities," Waxman wrote in his request.

This is how Republicans do business: Bush campaign contributions from industries that rape the environment for profit:

Industry -- 2000 and 2004 contributions
Oil and gas -- $4.2 million
Mining -- $584,000
Electric utilities -- $1.3 million
Timber -- $877,000