D-BUNK-R

Climate Change Denial In Action

2012-02-02T16:25:00.000-08:00

Okay, you have to read the individual articles about this.

First, Britian's "Met Office" (or "Meteorological Office"), which handles weather reports for the country, issued a news release about Climate Change, stating "Decline in solar output unlikely to offset global warming".

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2012/solar-output-research

Then, the British paper The Guardian ran their own report on the news release, entitled "Sun's changes unlikely to slow global warming, scientists say".

;http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/24/sun-changes-global-warming%20

Then, the Daily Mail, a paper with a noted conservative bias, spun the whole story around, with the title "Forget global warming - it's Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again".

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2093264/Forget-global-warming--Cycle-25-need-worry-NASA-scientists-right-Thames-freezing-again.html#ixzz1kzfH1r2i

In a rare act or bravery, the Met Office brought the Daily Mail to task with their rebuttal:

"Today the Mail on Sunday published a story written by David Rose entitled “Forget global warming – it’s Cycle 25 we need to worry about”.

This article includes numerous errors in the reporting of published peer reviewed science undertaken by the Met Office Hadley Centre and for Mr. Rose to suggest that the latest global temperatures available show no warming in the last 15 years is entirely misleading.

Despite the Met Office having spoken to David Rose ahead of the publication of the story, he has chosen to not fully include the answers we gave him to questions around decadal projections produced by the Met Office or his belief that we have seen no warming since 1997."

http://metofficenews.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/met-office-in-the-media-29-january-2012/

We report, you decide...if we're lying or not.

2011-12-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

Fox news caught using fake riot footage:

http://www.bluestatepost.com/politics/news_062.htm

Judge who ruled for Monsanto now works for that company

2011-10-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.truthistreason.net/judge-who-ruled-humans-have-no-food-rights-resigns-takes-job-with-monsanto-law-firm

"As courts and bureaucrats continue to assert that citizens have no fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice, we find Monsanto lurking nearby. The Wisconsin judge who recently ruled that we have no right to own a cow or drink its milk resigned to join one of Monsanto’s law firms. Former judge Patrick J. Fiedler now works for Axley Brynelson, LLP, which defended Monsanto against a patent infringement case filed by Australian firm, Genetic Technologies, Ltd. (GTL) in early 2010."

1896 - The First Global Warming Hypothesis

2011-07-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

I doubt the deniers will bother to read this but the Anthropogenic Global Warming 'conspiracy" is not new. The first hypothesis was made in 1896 by Nobel Prize winning Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius.

You can read about the man and his research here:

http://www.lycos.com/info/svante-arrhenius.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svante_Arrhenius

Yes, it really is getting hotter!

2011-06-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

Courtesy ''Weather Underground''

"Unprecedented heat scorched the Earth's surface in 2010, tying 2005 for the warmest year since accurate records began in the late 1800s. Temperatures in Earth's lower atmosphere also tied for warmest year on record, according to independent satellite measurements. Earth's 2010 record warmth was unusual because it occurred during the deepest solar energy minimum since satellite measurements of the sun began in the 1970s. Unofficially, nineteen nations (plus the the U.K.'s Ascension Island) set all-time extreme heat records in 2010. This includes Asia's hottest reliably measured temperature of all-time, the remarkable 128.3°F (53.5°C) in Pakistan in May 2010. This measurement is also the hottest undisputed temperature anywhere on the planet except for in Death Valley, California (two hotter official records, at Al Azizia, Libya in 1922, and Tirat, Zvi Israel in 1942, have ample reasons to be disputed.) The countries that experienced all-time extreme highs in 2010 constituted over 20% of Earth's land surface area."

Fox Executive Admits to Lying On-Air About Obama's "Socialilsm"

2011-03-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to DangerousMinds.com!

"If an NPR executive or a CNN VP said something like this against a conservative politician, or even made a generic comment disparaging the right, they’d be forced out of their job within a matter of days. Sammon—AN ADMITTED LIAR, WHO LIED ON FOX NEWS, WHERE HE IS EMPLOYED—should be repudiated and fired by Fox immediately. There is no nuance to what he said. He admitted to lying. That is what he did. The man has no credibility professionally—as an admitted liar, as a supposed newsman—moving forward."

NPR "Lunch Video" Exposed As Edit Hatchet Job

2011-03-14T18:55:00.000-07:00

...and who revealed this? Believe it or not, Glenn Beck!

http://wonkette.com/440468/glenn-becks-website-reveals-npr-lunch-video-was-edited-to-ruin-npr

Don't believe it? Check out Glenn Beck's own website!

Fox "News" proves that there is no difference between lies and the truth

2011-03-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

Remember that heckler screaming "Fox Lies!"?, well, Fox proved he was right!

You mean...Fox News can't be trusted?

2011-03-01T17:34:00.000-08:00

Fox reporter Mike Tobin claims that he was "battered" at a rally he was covering, but no video coverage was ever released by Fox. A video blogger shows he was never even touched.

The greatly hyped "Climategate" scandal turned out to be a lot of hot air, after the US Government's Commerce Department's inspector general did some investigating, as requested by climate change denier Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), and came to the conclusion that there was no evidence of manipulated data to support the claims of Climate Change supporters.

You can read the report here.

In related news, an attempt of bringing a Fox News-style network to Canada was foiled after an attempt to repeal a law that forbids the broadcasting false or misleading news was foiled.

Now, why did we go to war with Iraq?

2011-02-15T15:20:00.001-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/15/defector-admits-wmd-lies-iraq-war

"The defector who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his story, then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war."

"Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials who dealt with his claims, has told the Guardian that he fabricated tales of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995."

Video: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/feb/15/curveball-lies-us-war-iraq-video

Who needs facts when you're Republican and rich?

2011-02-15T15:15:00.000-08:00

http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/president_reagan_tells_real_heroes_an_inspiring_story/

http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/facts_we_dont_need_your_stinking_facts_why_rightwing/

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH

2011-01-31T18:40:00.000-08:00

Al Jazeera English is presently broadcasting uncensored news about the current situations in Egypt. If you live in the USA or Canada, you probably can't watch Al Jazeera English on your cable system due to political or contractual problems.

For streaming video, click here:
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

If you live in the USA or Canada have an Ku Band FTA dish, tune into the following:
Satellite: Galaxy 19
Orbital: 97 ° W
Frequency: 12,152 MHz
Polarity: H
Symbol Rate: 20,000 Msyb/s
FEC: 2/3

Snowstorms and Climate Change

2010-12-29T17:27:00.000-08:00

It always happens this time of year. A major snowstorm and the climate change deniers start braying like jackasses.

If there's heavy snow, then all this talk of “global warming” must be a myth! Right?

Wrong.

Meteorologist Jeff Masters, on his blog Weather Underground, pointed out that the two major storms that hit Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., this winter were among the 10 heaviest those cities have recorded. The chance of them happening in the same winter (as they did)? Highly unlikely.

The 2009 U.S. Climate Impacts Report finds that over the past 50 years, large-scale cold-weather storm systems have gradually tracked to the north in the U.S.. As the climate had warmed, the frequency of storms in the middle latitudes has decreased while the intensity of those storms has increased. Hotter air holds more moisture, so storms release more snow. By contract, cold air is drier. If we were in a cold snap, we would not see so much snowfall.

The diminishing Arctic Sea ice speeds the warming of the northern atmosphere, due to the Albedo effect. White ice reflects sunlight back into space and cools the air. Dark ocean water absorbs the heat, warming the air and altering wind patterns. This weakens the jet stream and allows more cold air out of the Arctic and into the eastern USA as well as Europe.

Jeff Masters made this analogy to explain the effect: If you leave the refrigerator door open, the house cools, but the refrigerator gets warmer.

To quote the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's own website: “The data showing that the world as a whole has been warming on the average are unequivocal, and over time this means there will be fewer (but not zero) cold spells and more (but not constant) hot spells. In the 1950s, the number of record hot days was about the same as the number of record cold days, but in the 2000s we saw twice as many record highs as record lows.“

Anthropogenic climate change is science, friends, not faith. Faith involves belief in something that can't be scientifically proven, like the Earth is only 6,000 years old and was created in 6 days, or that all land creatures are descended from single pairs of breeding specimens that were on an ark built by a 600 year old man.

Sources:

http://www.noaa.gov/features/02_monitoring/snowstorms.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20101229/hl_time/08599203977700

16 of the Dumbest Things Americans Believe -- And the Right-Wing Lies Behind Them

2010-11-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

Only sixteen?

"When one side breaks the social contract, and the other side makes a virtue of never calling them out on it, the liar always wins. When it becomes 'uncivil' to call out liars, lying becomes free."

Less Oil In Alaska Than Originally Thought

2010-11-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

Turns out the USGS discovered the reserves are only 896 million barrels instead of 10.6 billion or less than 1/10th as originally thought.

Wrap your mind around that one.

Read the article here.

The Conspiracy Theory Top-10

2010-08-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.truth-out.org/patriot-paranoia-a-look-top-ten-conspiracy-theories62368?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Chemtrails, Martial Law, FEMA Concentration Camps, Foreign Troops on US Soil, "Door-to-Door" Gun Confiscations, 9/11 As A Government Plot, Population Control, HAARP, The Federal Reserve Conspiracy and the North American Union.

Did I leave anything out?

Is Lindsey Williams telling the truth?

2010-08-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, the man who wrote "The Energy Non-Crisis" insists there's giant pool of oil sitting under Alaska's Gull Island.

However, petroleum industry experts beg to differ.

http://blog.mlive.com/readreact/2008/07/not_yet_ready_look_at_k_colleg.html

http://wilco278.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/mr-williams-and-gull-island-oil/

http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/690171677.shtml

I'll be blunt: The "Gull Island reserves" are a myth, and Rev. Williams could not have had any access to the material he claims.

Climate Denial Crockery - Heatwave Edition

2010-08-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

Part 1:

Part 2:

How do you deny the deniers?

2010-06-05T08:43:00.000-07:00

From New Scientist magazine:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627606.100-living-in-denial-why-sensible-people-reject-the-truth.html?full=true

To quote the article:

Whatever they are denying, denial movements have much in common with one another, not least the use of similar tactics (see "How to be a denialist"). All set themselves up as courageous underdogs fighting a corrupt elite engaged in a conspiracy to suppress the truth or foist a malicious lie on ordinary people. This conspiracy is usually claimed to be promoting a sinister agenda: the nanny state, takeover of the world economy, government power over individuals, financial gain, atheism.

...

Similarly, global warming, evolution and the link between tobacco and cancer must be taken on trust, usually on the word of scientists, doctors and other technical experts who many non-scientists see as arrogant and alien.

Many people see this as a threat to important aspects of their lives. In Texas last year, a member of a state committee who was trying to get creationism added to school science standards almost said as much when he proclaimed "somebody's got to stand up to experts".
It is this sense of loss of control that really matters. In such situations, many people prefer to reject expert evidence in favour of alternative explanations that promise to hand control back to them, even if those explanations are not supported by evidence.

Sorry folks! No U-Turn here!

2010-02-15T17:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/02/daily-mangle/#comment-160092

To quote directly:

Yesterday, the Daily Mail of the UK published a predictably inaccurate article entitled “Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995″.

The title itself is a distortion of what Jones actually said in an interview with the BBC. What Jones actually said is that, while the globe has nominally warmed since 1995, it is difficult to establish the statistical significance of that warming given the short nature of the time interval (1995-present) involved. The warming trend consequently doesn’t quite achieve statistical significance. But it is extremely difficult to establish a statistically significant trend over a time interval as short as 15 years–a point we have made countless times at RealClimate. It is also worth noting that the CRU record indicates slightly less warming than other global temperature estimates such as the GISS record.

The article also incorrectly equates instrumental surface temperature data that Jones and CRU have assembled to estimate the modern surface temperature trends with paleoclimate data used to estimate temperatures in past centuries, falsely asserting that the former “has been used to produce the ‘hockey stick graph’”.

Finally, the article intentionally distorts comments that Jones made about the so-called “Medieval Warm Period”. Jones stated in his BBC interview that “There is much debate over whether the Medieval Warm Period was global in extent or not. The MWP is most clearly expressed in parts of North America, the North Atlantic and Europe and parts of Asia” and that “For it to be global in extent, the MWP would need to be seen clearly in more records from the tropical regions and the Southern hemisphere. There are very few palaeoclimatic records for these latter two regions.”

These are statements with which we entirely agree, and they are moreover fully consistent with the conclusions of the most recent IPCC report, and the numerous peer-reviewed publications on this issue since. Those conclusions are that recent Northern Hemisphere warming is likely unprecedented in at least a millennium (at least 1300 years, in fact), and that evidence in the Southern Hemisphere is currently too sparse for confident conclusions. Mann et al in fact drew those same conclusions in their most recent work on this problem (PNAS, 2008).

Unfortunately, these kinds of distortions are all too common in the press nowadays and so we must all be prepared to respond to those journalists and editors who confuse the public with such inaccuracies.

So there!

More on "those e-mails" about "Climategate"...

2009-12-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

From "The Real News"...

Part One of Two:

More at The Real News

Part Two of Two:

More at The Real News

REVEALED: There IS no "Climategate"!

2009-12-12T18:13:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press has read and re-read the 1,047 e-mails that were stolen (not "leaked" or "released" but STOLEN!) from the servers of the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit.

Their findings? Lots of intellectual bitch-slapping, but no fraud or mis-truths.

To quote the article:

The scientists were so convinced by their own science and so driven by a cause "that unless you're with them, you're against them," said Mark Frankel, director of scientific freedom, responsibility and law at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also reviewed the communications.

Frankel saw "no evidence of falsification or fabrication of data, although concerns could be raised about some instances of very 'generous interpretations.'"

Some e-mails expressed doubts about the quality of individual temperature records or why models and data didn't quite match. Part of this is the normal give-and-take of research, but skeptics challenged how reliable certain data was.

Read it here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34392959/ns/us_news-environment/

So, there you have it folks. No smoking gun, no evidence of cooking the books, no fraud. Just of a bunch of scientists who let their egos get the best of them.

And, yes, the planet is getting warmer. And we're the cause of it, despite what the denialists are saying.

Let's see if Alex Jones and his ilk will backpeddle on this one...

So, just for a wrap-up on what was meant by "trick" and "hide the decline", please watch the following video (9 minutes and 54 seconds well spent):

Now Fox Spins Lies In Print!

2009-09-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

The Funhouse News Channel has decided to cast its web of lies in the Washington Post.

Read on:

"Rick Sanchez of CNN is tired of Fox News and their lies and he isn’t afraid to call them out on it. The fight is centered on the Tea Party Express and a new claim that Fox News has made stating that other news channels didn’t cover the event. In fact, this morning, Fox News unveiled a full page ad in the Washington Post that claimed ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and CNN missed the story of the Tea Party Express; the protest that took place on September 12, 2009.

Many people can testify that they witnessed their local media networks cover the event, as well as those who know that they saw the coverage aired on all of the networks mentioned. The claim is preposterous and shows that the divide between Fox and other news media outlets is less likely to ever be bridged."

You can read the full article here (Courtesy of Examiner.com).

You can see Rick Sanchez's video here:

You also may be interested in another video of the rally where someone, presumed to be a Fox News producer, is caught coaching the audience (The woman in the green shirt standing next to the camera operator).

Two German Cargo Ships Sail Arctic Passage (Without Icebreakers!)

2009-09-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

Gee! What happened to all that ice?

Two German merchant ships have traversed the fabled Northeast Passage after global warming and melting ice opened a route from South Korea along Russia's Arctic coast to Siberia.

Now the German-owned ships are poised to complete their journey through the cold waters where icebergs abound, heading for Rotterdamin the Netherlands with 3,500 tons of construction parts.
The merchant ships MV Beluga Fraternity and MV Beluga Foresight arrived this week in Yamburg, Siberia, their owner Beluga Shipping GmbH said Friday. They traveled from Ulsan, South Korea, in late July to Siberia by way of the Northeast Passage, a sea lane that, in years past, was avoided because of its heavy ice floes.
Scientists report that the Arctic Ocean ice cap has been shrinking to unprecedented levels in recent summers, because of global warming, opening up many passages that were ice-choked in earlier times.
In July, new NASA satellite measurements showed that sea ice in the Arctic was not just shrinking in area, but thinning dramatically.

Niels Stolberg, the president of Beluga, which is based in the German city of Bremen, called it the first time a Western shipping company successfully transited the Northeast Passage.

Read the full article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090911/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_arctic_passage

Or better still, watch this video by 2 The Ranting Gryphon:

WARNING: MAY NOT BE SAFE FOR WORK!!!!

Barney Frank Tells It Like It Is!

2009-08-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) was asked a stupid question at one of those "town hall meetings". I love his reply.

Faux Marx

2009-08-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

Just a brief note: There's a quote circulating the internet that is supposedly by Karl Marx and was supposedly in his magnum opus "Das Kapital", predicting the current comsumer credit crisis;

"Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalised, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism."

There is no record of him ever writing that, and it doesn't appear in "Das Kapital". We've got enough problems without fake quotes from Marx and Nostradamus gumming up the works.

Thanks to the good people at Snopes.com for this one.

Fox "News" Caught Spinning Half-Truths... Again!

2009-08-15T18:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Media Matters For America for this one:

Fox News Channel has been caught using both falsehood and cropped video footage to hype unsolicited e-mail claims.

"Even while asserting that he wasn't suggesting anything "nefarious" on the part of the White House, Fox News' Major Garrett did just that while recounting an exchange he had with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, in which Garrett relayed complaints from people who, according to Garrett, said they received an unsolicited email from the White House. Garrett based his report in part on the false claim that it was Gibbs who first used the word "list" in reference to people receiving the email, when in fact it was Garrett himself who introduced the notion of a targeted "list" of recipients -- as well as the actual word -- into the exchange."

Article and video are here.

Also, for the last time... there are no "death panels" waiting to unplug your grandparents from life support!

Jon Stewart Rides Again!

2009-07-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

The Comedy Central superstar comes to the forefront once again with sharp comments on Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck. If it weren't so tragic, it would truly be funny.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

So You Think You Can Douche

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Joke of the Day

Finally! Congress refutes the "Birthers"!

2009-07-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin

The U.S. House of Representatives said happy birthday to the 50th State yesterday, peripherally stepping into the "birther" fray with a resolution that notes, "President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961."

While the resolution was considered routine, the national media picked up on the action because of attacks by fringe groups that do not believe Obama was born in Hawaii. Internet media services Salon and the Huffington Post ran articles.

The issue of Obama's birth certificate resurfaced last week when CNN commentator Lou Dobbs, in a separate radio program, raised the issue of whether Obama had been born in Hawaii and whether he is an American citizen. If he were born in Kenya to a Kenyan father, as some allege, his eligiblity for the presidency would be in question.

The House approved the resolution that was offered by U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, a personal friend of Obama's father. Hawaii became a state on Aug. 21, 1959, and this year is the 50th anniversary.

The measure, House Resolution 593, passed without objection, with 378 aye votes and 55 representatives not voting. Voting in favor were 158 Republicans and 220 Democrats.

Also yesterday, state Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino issued a statement saying: "I have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barrack (sic) Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen."

It was the second time that Fukino issued a statement attesting that Obama was born in the state of Hawaii. State officials have said they are not allowed to produce Obama's actual birth certificate because Hawaii law forbids the release of birth certificates to those who do not have a tangible interest in the record.

It's been said that a symptom of insanity is performing the same action over and over, expecting a different reaction each time.

So, you conspiracists reading this, stop asking to see Obama's birth certificate. It's the same piece of paper you were shown before, and it proves he was born in Hawaii, and that his mother was a US citizen.

The "Accuracy" of Fox News

2009-07-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the folks at Quatloos for pointing this one out to me.

A few weeks back, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was caught cheating on his wife on an alleged "hiking trip" on the Appalachian Trail (He was actually seeing his mistress in Argentina). Sanford is a Republican, by the way.

So how did Fox "News" depict him? As a Democrat!

Was this the first time Fox "News" did this, of course not! There was Representative Mark Foley, Republican of Florida, who was caught in a sex scandal...

And back in 2007, when Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, was grilling Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, he must have been too much for the Republicans at Fox to bear...

So, let me see... They're Republicans until they get caught?

Pat Buchanan, Your Sheet Is Showing!

2009-07-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

You can read the article here, but the "money quote" is:

"I think white men were 100% of the people who wrote the constitution, 100% of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence, 100% of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, probably close 100% of the people who died at Normandy. This has been a country basically built by white folks.”

Watch the video here:

Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)

2009-07-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

One of a kind, and a sterling example of television journalism at its finest.

1963 - Reporting the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy:

1968 - Reporting the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Emdebbing is not available with this clip, but you can see his February 27, 1968 editorial on Vietnam that brought him so much grief. Imagine one of today's newscasters straying from the official line today!

About that photo of Obama at the G8 Summit...

2009-07-10T16:38:00.000-07:00

The "internets" is all abuzz over a photo that is being heavily promoted and talked about concerning President Obama supposedly gawking over the backside of a young woman at the G8 Summit.

Case in point is coverage from the Fox News Channel, Fox Nation and the Drudge Report. There has been a lot of website nattering over the photo, even after Fox News reporter Greta Van Susteren exposed it as a "misleading" photo.

Obama is simply pausing to let another woman walk down the stairs. You can see the whole video here, showing that is was French President Nicholas Sarkozy doing the leering.

Even the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post had to backtrack after it was exposed that the photo was misleading.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you have nothing to say, stop banging the table.

Yes, Alaska's glaciers are melting. There's a golf course to prove it!

2009-07-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

From Impact Lab and The New York Times:

"JUNEAU, Alaska — Global warming conjures images of rising seas that threaten coastal areas. But in Juneau, as almost nowhere else in the world, climate change is having the opposite effect: As the glaciers here melt, the land is rising, causing the sea to retreat.

At low tide, it is possible (but messy) to hike across exposed mudflats around Juneau.

Morgan DeBoer opened a nine-hole golf course, above, at the mouth of Glacier Bay in 1998 on land that did not exist when his family settled in the area 50 years ago.

Mr. DeBoer figures he has picked up enough additional land since then to build nine more holes.

Morgan DeBoer, a property owner, opened a nine-hole golf course at the mouth of Glacier Bay in 1998, on land that was underwater when his family first settled here 50 years ago.

“The highest tides of the year would come into what is now my driving range area,” Mr. DeBoer said.

Now, with the high-tide line receding even farther, he is contemplating adding another nine holes.

“It just keeps rising,” he said."

The Climate Change "Smoking Gun" That Wasn't

2009-07-01T18:30:00.000-07:00

From Media Matters For America:

Following allegations that the EPA "suppressed" an internal document that was skeptical of climate change, several Fox News figures have advanced the document's false claim -- previously repeated by CBS -- that, in Fox News host Steve Doocy's words, "for the last 11 years, temperatures had been dropping." In fact, Doocy's claim simply is not true.

A draft of the EPA document stated in one of its "principal comments" that "[g]lobal temperatures have declined -- extending the current downtrend to 11 years with a particularly rapid decline in 1907-8 [sic]." The document went on to state that "[g]lobal temperatures have declined (Figure 1a) -- extending the current run of time with a statistically robust lack of global temperature rise to eight years (Figure 1b), with some people arguing that it can be traced back for 12 years."

In fact, as Media Matters for America has noted, annual global average temperatures have both risen and fallen over the past 11 years, and while there have been some relatively cooler years during that period -- including a decline in each of the past three relative to the year before -- climate scientists reject the idea that those temperatures are any indication that global warming is slowing or does not exist. Scientists have identified a long-term warming trend spanning several decades that is independent from the normal climate variability -- which includes relatively short-term changes in climate due to events like El Niño and La Niña -- to which they attribute the recent relatively cooler temperatures.

Of course, this didn't stop conspiracy monger Alex Jones from picking up this ball and running with it.

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly exposed as a liar by CNN's Rick Sanchez

2009-06-06T11:34:00.000-07:00

Thanks to FoxNewsBoycott.com for this one.
From Friday, 5 June 2009:

It’s always great to see someone in the main stream media call Bill O’Reilly out on his lies, especially when it’s an absurd lie and there is absolute irrefutable proof. Take Bill O’Reilly’s comments about CNN not covering the Army recruiting center attack until Anderson Cooper featured it. O’Reilly had the audacity to state that CNN didn’t think of the tragedy as news and failed to report on it all day.

Rick Sanchez proceeded to play a montage showing CNN anchors and reporters discussing the incident all day.

“Let’s see, that was Kyra Phillips, Tony Harris, Heidi Collins, Lou Dobbs, certainly you saw myself, you just saw David Mattingly there, Wolf Blitzer, we saw Kiran Chetry, we saw Erica Hill — that’s nobody?” Sanchez asked.

“Let’s add this up together now,” Sanchez said. “We led with the story when it broke. We led with it again the next day. We analyzed the terrorism angle with experts and called former FBI agents to take us through it. And as a network, we covered the story umpteen times throughout the days, throughout all hours of those days. But Bill O’Reilly says he only saw it once. And since he only saw it once, well then that must be the truth. It doesn’t matter what really happened. It doesn’t matter what the record shows. All that matters is what Bill thinks he saw. We called Fox today, by the way. No response yet.”

The only thing Bill O’Reilly was correct about was calling CNN a “news channel.”

Waterboarding critic is convinced it's torture

2009-05-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

(Thanks to The Young Turks.)

Eric Muller, aka "Mancow" (sort of a Conservative version of Howard Stern), originally laughed off the idea of waterboarding as torture, so he decided to have it done to himself on live radio.

The result:

He lasted six seconds. Quoting Mancow: "It's absolutely torture."

Glenn Beck, the "lying sack of dog mess"

2009-05-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't seen or heard this, Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck had his butt handed to him by the ladies of the TV show "The View". This is just too good not to share...

The full article can be read at Newshounds.

The clip from "The View" is here:

For what it's worth, Beck's rebuttal, on Fox News Channel, is here:

Fox "News" caught re-editing a news clip

2009-03-16T19:49:00.000-07:00

I'll just take this directly from Media Matters:

Summary: Fox News' Martha MacCallum claimed that "after weeks of economic doom and gloom, the Obama administration is now singing a slightly different tune. Take a look at what was said in recent interviews this weekend." Fox News then aired clips of administration officials purportedly giving an optimistic view of the economy, which included video of Joe Biden stating: "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." However, Biden did not make those remarks during an "interview[]" over the past weekend; he made those remarks at a September 2008 campaign event in which he criticized statements by John McCain.

You can read more and watch the video here. Apparently, there is no low that Faux news will reach to smear someone.

Jon Stewart tears CNBC a new one

2009-03-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

Words don't do justice. Jon Stewart, host of the Comedy Network program "The Daily Show", takes CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel) to task for Rick Santelli's faux outrage against President Obama's financial relief plans, and why the network was so blind to the coming signs of the financial collapse.

This was from the 4 March 2009 broadcast.

In case this video is down: try here.

You also may be interested in Jon Stewart's commentary on his report on David Leterman's show the very next day.

A bit of fresh air about James Hansen's "boss"

2009-01-28T17:33:00.000-08:00

The deniers are at it again. "Outing" James Hansen's former supervisor, Dr. John S. Theon, as a global warming skeptic after his years of working under Al Gore.

This all goes back to a "news release" from the U.S Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works with a headline screaming " James Hansen’s Former NASA Supervisor Declares Himself a Skeptic - Says Hansen ‘Embarrassed NASA’ & ‘Was Never Muzzled’ - Gore Faces More Scientific Blowback".

A bit of examination is needed here:

First, the two men behind the article are Marc Morano and Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe. Let's check SourceWatch about them:

"Marc Morano is communications director for the Republicans on the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Morano commenced work with the committee under Senator James Inhofe, who was majority chairman of the committee until January 2007 and is now minority ranking member. In December 2006 Morano launched a blog on the committee's website that largely promotes the views of climate change skeptics.

Morano is a former journalist with Cybercast News Service (owned by the conservative Media Research Center). CNS and Morano were the first source in May 2004 of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth claims against John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election and in January 2006 of similar smears against Vietnam war veteran John Murtha.

Morano was "previously known as Rush Limbaugh's 'Man in Washington,' as reporter and producer for the Rush Limbaugh Television Show, as well as a former correspondent and producer for American Investigator, the nationally syndicated TV newsmagazine."

"James M. Inhofe has voted in favor of big oil companies on 100% of important oil-related bills from 2005-2007, according to Oil Change International. These bills include Iraq war funding, climate change studies, clean energy, and emissions.

On April 28, 2004, Inhofe was honored for his 'work in promoting science-based public policy' by the Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy, a think tank that disputes the scientific consensus on the causes and magnitude of global warming. (The think tank has received $658,575 from ExxonMobil since 1998).

Asked in writing in 2004 by journalist Chris Mooney whether Inhofe agrees that he's at odds with the scientific mainstream, his committee staff retorted, 'How do you define 'mainstream'? Scientists who accept the so-called 'consensus' about global warming? Galileo was not mainstream.'

On September 28, 2005, The Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works held a hearing titled 'The Role of Science in Environmental Policy-Making'. Inhofe, the committee's chairman opened the hearing stating that: 'Today's hearing will focus on one of the three objectives I set out when I assumed the Chairmanship of the Committee – to ensure that regulatory decisions are based on sound science.Too often the environmental policy decisions made by EPA and other science-based agencies are driven by political or personal agendas. You see this in types of research that gets funded or the types of grants that get awarded. It is my hope this hearing will help shed some light on how science is used by policy-makers and that we can arrive at some concrete suggestions for making the process better.'

In 2003, the Natural Resources Defense Council noted that Inhofe 'scored zero with the League of Conservation Voters since 1997, was the only senator to oppose Everglades restoration, and once compared the Environmental Protection Agency to the Gestapo.'"

Next is the claim that Theron was Hansen's supervisor. He wasn't. He retired in 1994, a full decade before Hanson's claim that he was "muzzled". Quoting NASA’s Gavin Schmidt on RealClimate:

"Dr. Theon appears to have retired from NASA in 1994, some 15 years ago. Until yesterday I had never heard of him (despite working with and for NASA for the last 13 years). His insights into both modelling and publicity appear to date from then, rather than any recent events. He was not Hansen’s ‘boss’ (the director of GISS reports to the director of GSFC, who reports to the NASA Administrator). His “some scientists” quote is simply a smear - which scientists? where? what did they do? what data? what manipulation? This kind of thing plays well with Inhofe et al because it appears to add something to the ‘debate’, but in actual fact there is nothing here. Just vague, unsubstantiated accusations."

More info here at Climate Progress.

Nice try guys, when you don't have any facts to speak of, please stop pounding the table.

"I'm as mad as Hell..."

2009-01-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

450 words from the classic 1976 film "Network" that has been set to dramatic music and put in animated typography by Aaron Leming ("geek180" on YouTube).

These words ring truer today than when they were first spoken by the fictional newscaster Howard Beale (In a posthumous Oscar winning performance by actor Peter Finch).

The cost of Obama's inauguration

2009-01-18T14:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, here it starts. Obama hasn't even been sworn in yet, and already there are half-truths flying about stating how much the inauguration is costing as compared to Bush2's.

According to the "reports", Obama's inauguration will cost as much as $150,000,000, while G.W. Bush's cost only $40,000,000... or course, that's only if you don't include security and transportation costs incurred by the US Gov't and Washington DC itself... which ARE included in Obama's $150M estimate. (source)

To quote Media matters: "buried in a recent New York Times article published one week before the controversy erupted over the cost of Obama's inauguration, the newspaper reported that in 2005, 'the federal government and the District of Columbia spent a combined $115.5 million, most of it for security, the swearing-in ceremony, cleanup and for a holiday for federal workers'."

Yes. $115,500,000 for GWB's 2005 inauguration. (source)

I'm afraid we're going to see LOTS of nonsense like this for the next four, perhaps eight, years.

You wanted proof of athropogenic global warming?

2008-12-29T15:19:00.000-08:00

"NASA Study Links Severe Storm Increases, Global Warming"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081227214927.htm

To quote directly:

"The frequency of extremely high clouds in Earth's tropics -- the type associated with severe storms and rainfall -- is increasing as a result of global warming, according to a study by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif."

"In a presentation today (Dec. 28, 2008) to the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, JPL Senior Research Scientist Hartmut Aumann outlined the results of a study based on five years of data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft. The AIRS data were used to observe certain types of tropical clouds linked with severe storms, torrential rain and hail. The instrument typically detects about 6,000 of these clouds each day. Aumann and his team found a strong correlation between the frequency of these clouds and seasonal variations in the average sea surface temperature of the tropical oceans."

"For every degree Centigrade (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in average ocean surface temperature, the team observed a 45-percent increase in the frequency of the very high clouds. At the present rate of global warming of 0.13 degrees Celsius (0.23 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, the team inferred the frequency of these storms can be expected to increase by six percent per decade."

"Climate modelers have long speculated that the frequency and intensity of severe storms may or may not increase with global warming. Aumann said results of the study will help improve their models."

Still think it's a hoax?

Debugging the DDT Lies

2008-12-26T18:02:00.000-08:00

According to conservatives, the worldwide de facto ban on the insecticide DDT has been responsible for more deaths than Hitler, and we have Rachel Carlson and her environmentalist ilk to blame.

A few facts are in order:

1. There is no de facto ban.
2. Trade bans for using DDT are not threatened.
3. Reinstating DDT in South Africa did not cause a 95% decrease in deaths.
4. The environmentalists’ ban on the agricultural use of DDT saved lives.
5. Mosquitoes have begun to be immune to DDT.

You can read the detailed info in Tim Lambert's blog .

By the way, the biggest proponent of this mistruth is Roy Spencer, a global warming skeptic and a creationist (perhaps why doesn't realize that mosquitoes "evolve" a resistance to DDT, no?).

Update on Barack Obama's birth certificate

2008-11-26T16:26:00.000-08:00

FactCheck.org got their hands on the real thing. Yep, it's legit. Seals, stamps and everything. It even has the registration number on it, so click here and see it for yourself. Oh, yes, they also found a birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser dated Sunday, Aug. 13, 1961, so you conspiracy freaks can direct your attention to another red herring.

And stop calling Chiyome Fukino and Alvin Onaka!

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA!

2008-11-04T20:34:00.000-08:00

I could not say it any better:

From the film "Wattstax":

Obama's Birth Certificate and Supposed Kenyan Citizenship

2008-10-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

The right-wingers on talk radio are still spreading the outright and blatant lies that Barack Obama's birth certificate can't be located and there's no "proof" that he's a US citizen by birth, and that he's secretly a Kenyan citizen.

Yes, you read right, I said "outright and blatant lies".

Click this link to read Barack Obama's birth certificate.

He was born on 4 August 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. As Bruce Springsteen sang, "Born in the U.S.A.".

As for his alleged Kenyan citizenship, FactCheck.org did some research and found out that Barack Jr's Kenyan citizenship through his father was valid only until his 21st birthday. Since he didn't swear an oath or alliegiance to Kenya or renounce his USA citizenship, his status of dual citzienship expired on his 21st birthday.

Barack Obama Jr. is, and remains, a native-born citizen of the United States of America.

So there.

I know, he's a comedian...

2008-10-13T20:03:00.000-07:00

...but Jon Stewart is my man! Only he can show the dirty side of "moralists" and (at least for now) get away with it. Sort of the sly humor that royal court jesters had to have in Medieval Europe when tweaking the nose of His Majesty. Case in point, here's his take on the "Sarah Palin Gender Card" issue (from 3 September 2008):

And this is his take on the Fox "News" Network's reports on alleged voter fraud and trying to link it to the Obama campaign (from 9 October 2008):

If only the "real" news reporters could deliver the truth this well...

"Lipstick On A Pig"

2008-09-10T19:00:00.001-07:00

Yes, yes, yes, the right-wingers are shrieking over this; Obama's "lipstick on a pig" quote, insisting it was meant as a swipe at VP candidate Sarah Palin. Well, guess what? Seems that the present VP Dick Cheney used the same folksy quote a number of times during the 2004 campaign:

"Now, in the closing days of this campaign, John Kerry is running around talking tough. He's trying every which way to cover up his record of weakness on national defense. But he can't do it. It won't work. As we like to say in Wyoming, you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig, but at the end of the day it's still a pig." - (November 1, 2004, Vice President's Remarks in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, Hawaii )

"You saw John Kerry Wednesday night trying to back off that idea of a "global test." That notion fits with his whole career, but he doesn't want us to know about his whole career. He is trying to hide it, to cover it up by using a little tough talk during the course of this campaign. But you can't do that. It won't work. To use a phrase that we like in our home state of Wyoming, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" - (October 15, 2004, Remarks by the Vice President at a Victory 2004 Rally, Deltaplex Entertainment & Expo Center, Grand Rapids, Michigan)

"Now in the closing days of this campaign, John Kerry is trying every which way to cover up his record of weakness on national defense. But he can't do it. It won't work. As we like to say in Wyoming, you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig but at the end of the day, it's still a pig. (Laughter and applause.) That's my favorite line. (Laughter.) Want to hear it again? (AUDIENCE: Yes!) As we say in Wyoming -- (laughter) -- you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig, but at the end of the day, it's still a pig. (Applause.)" - (October 30, 2004, Vice President's Remarks in Zanesville, Ohio, Hallowed Hills Conference Center, Zanesville, Ohio)

And one from Mrs. Lynne Cheney:

"John Kerry tries to put a bunch of fancy, fancy talk -- tried to disguise that record, sort of like his fancy haircut, fancy manicure, tried to disguise the whole thing. (Laughter.) But there is nothing you can do to really -- to really obscure that record. You can try, though. And in Wyoming, we've got a saying for what it is when you keep trying to make something that's not so good look good, we call it putting lipstick on a pig." - (Following a Debate Watching Party, Embassy Suites Hotel, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, October 13, 2004)

But let's let Republican Presidential candidate John McCain speak for himself:

And again:

Read your history, folks!

2008-09-06T20:38:00.001-07:00

Many Americans are completely ignorant of the War of 1812, save for the fact that it was when the poem "Defense of Fort McHenry" was written, and then "filked" to fit the lyrics of the British melody "The Anacreontic Song (To Anacreon in Heaven)" to create the song "The Star-Spangled Banner".

But do most Americans know, or were even taught in schools, that during that war, British troops from Canada made their way to Washington DC and burned down the White House?

This is something that Canadians love to gloat about: That the only two countries that the USA failed to win a war against were Vietnam and Canada.

The Canadian folk trio Three Dead Trolls In a Baggie have taken this sentiment and written a song about it, entitled simply, "The War of 1812".

Below is a YouTube video of the song, set to clips from Ren & Stimpy cartoons (The cartoon duo's creator, John Kricfalusi, is Canadian). Enjoy.

Re-running the "news"?

2008-09-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Guess what, folks? The Fox "News" Channel is using nearly the same hysteria, half-truths and outright lies against Barack Obama that they used against John Kerry.

Surprised? I thought not.

How does that song go? "Everything old is new again"?

US Coast Guard gets ready for a climate change

2008-08-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

From the US Coast Guard itself:

Ever think the USCG would have permanent bases in the Arctic?

You can read more about the Coast Guard base in Barrow here.

To quote Adm. Gene Brooks, Cmdr. of the Coast Guard in Alaska:

""Because the multi-year polar sea ice has receded, this is water longer than it's ever been, which means that all maritime activities that can occur anywhere else -- Savannah, New Orleans -- can now occur here for longer periods of time, and they are coming, (...) We have to prepare for the world coming to the Arctic."

Reading, Writing & Right-Wing Shouting

2008-08-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

Bill O'Reilly, the mad dog of the Fox "News" Channel and talk radio, has written The O'Reilly Factor for Kids; A Survival Guide for America's Families.

Uh...yeah. This is the guy who has dropped racist hints in his commentaries and is prone to shouting "SHUT UP!" to his detractors while on the air!

In case you forgot about that second part:

I took a little peek at the reviews on Amazon and found this by "Todd and In Charge":

"Boy oh boy, as a father with kids who regularly watch the Factor I was looking forward to this book. But I have to tell you: it's a disappointment! Poorly written, little actual advice of a substantive nature, more platitudes and homilies that you could have written for Bill yourself. This one really looks like Bill is milking a cash-cow to death, and with the economy the way it is, we could all spend our money more wisely than purchasing this book. I hope that doesn't make me a 'pinhead.'"

Todd gave the book one out of five stars.

Brave New Films, the folks you brought you Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, has made a short video about O'Reilly and his book. It's worth a look:

Like I said...

2008-08-07T16:38:00.001-07:00

We won a battle, but not the war.

After the FCC ruled against Comcast in a 3-2 decision, Comcast is readying their lawyers to try to get the ruling overturned.

FreePress is raising funds to keep this victory intact. Click here to donate!

Internet Neutrality Upheld...For Now

2008-08-01T21:09:00.000-07:00

Some good news for a change!

From SaveTheInternet.com:

Today the FCC delivered a technical knock-out to Comcast. In a landmark decision, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein approved an “enforcement order” that would require Comcast to stop interfering with the use of popular peer-to-peer applications by people on its network.

Today’s FCC move is precedent-setting. It sends a powerful message to phone and cable companies that blocking access to the Internet will not be tolerated.

It also gives the FCC (one still controlled by industry-friendly Republicans) the teeth to stop powerful companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from getting between you and what you want to do online.

And it wouldn’t have happened without the strong public backlash against phone and cable companies and their gatekeeper ambitions. Activists, bloggers, consumer advocates and everyday people who love an open Internet took on entrenched corporate power and won — defying every ounce of conventional wisdom in Washington.

In short, we won a battle, but the war continues.

Exaggerating the Exaggerators

2008-07-31T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here we go again. Yet another "scientific expert" who is supposedly going to expose the "myth" of climate change...

According to an article on Sydney, Australia's Herald Sun) (which is also reported on Alex Jones' Prison Planet), "IPCC external reviewer Dr Madhav Khandekar says the UN body has exaggerated the costs of global warming."

In the article, Exaggerators: IPCC accused by its own, written by Andrew Bolt:

"The full paper, kindly sent to me by Dr Khandekar, a former research scientist with Environment Canada who holds a PhD in meteorology and has worked in the fields of climatology," makes the following claim:

"The exaggerated claim of GW impacts by the IPCC has led to a distortion of the reality of climate change and its future impact. The earth’s climate has changed and is changing continuously, a fact accepted by most climate scientists on both sides of the present debate. Is the present climate change deleterious to human societies? Are there beneficial aspects of climate change that have been overlooked? Do adverse impacts outweigh beneficial impacts? We do not have all the answers yet. There is a definite need to carefully analyze climate change impact on world-wide human societies. The IPCC assessment is far from objective and needs to be critically re-assessed."

Permit me to express my thanks and appreciation to "KarmakazeNZ" for bringing up the following points that I will post below:

Dr Khandekar is a member of the Friends of Science Scientific Advisory Board.

“In an August 12, 2006, article The Globe and Mail revealed that the group had received significant funding via anonymous, indirect donations from the oil industry, including a major grant from the Science Education Fund, a donor-directed, flow-through charitable fund at the Calgary Foundation. The donations were funnelled through a University of Calgary trust account research set up and controlled by U of C Professor Barry Cooper. The revelations were based largely on the prior investigations of Desmogblog.com, which had reported on the background of FoS scientific advisors and Cooper’s role in FoS funding.”

“Following an internal audit and review begun in March of 2007, the University determined that some of the research funds accepted on behalf of the Friends of Science “had been used to support a partisan viewpoint on climate change”. As a consequence, the University advised FoS “that it would no longer accept funds on the organization’s behalf”, according to an email from University legal counsel Elizabeth Osler sent on December 24, 2007. On February 17, 2008, CanWest News Service reported that U of C officials had shut down Cooper’s “‘Research on Climate Change’ trust account”, and were about to advise Elections Canada of the University’s ongoing review of the matter. In the wake of the revelations, Liberal public works critic Mark Holland called for parliamentary hearings to investigate the source of donations. A few days later, CanWest reported that the targeting of the FoS radio ad campaign to key Ontario ridings was directed by then FoS media contact Morten Paulsen (later a vice-president at Fleishman-Hillard), who also served as volunteer spokesperson for the Stephen Harper led Conservative Party of Canada during the election.”

Strike One!

"The journal Energy and Environment is a social science journal published by Multi-Science. The journal’s editor is Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen, a reader in geography at the University of Hull in England and climate skeptic.

Energy and Environment is not carried in the ISI listing of peer-reviewed journals. Its peer review process has been widely criticised for allowing the publication of substandard papers. Numerous climate skeptics and contrarians have published in the journal and these studies have later been quoted by Republican critics of global warming science such as Senator James Inhofe and Congressman Joe Barton.”

Strike Two!

What else has Dr Khandekar been involved in?

Well, there was the “2008 International Conference on Climate Change”.

“The 2008 International Conference on Climate Change was a conference held at the Marriott New York Marquis Times Square Hotel in New York between March 2-4 . The conference was organised and “sponsored” by the Heartland Institute, a U.S. think tanks that in preceding years received substantial funding from Exxon for its work downplaying the significance of global warming.”

“The conference was described by Washington Post reporter, Juliet Eilperin, as “a sort of global warming doppelganger conference, where everything was reversed.” At the event, skeptics unveiled their response to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) report, edited by corporate-funded skeptic Fred Singer, argued that “recent climate change stems from natural causes.” Eilperin notes that “while the IPCC enlisted several hundred scientists from more than 100 countries to work over five years to produce its series of reports, the NIPCC document is the work of 23 authors from 15 nations, some of them not scientists.”

The New York Times reports that while the Heartland conference “was largely framed around science ... when an organizer made an announcement asking all of the scientists in the large hall to move to the front for a group picture, 19 men did so.” The conference invitation identified its goal as “to generate international media attention to the fact that many scientists believe forecasts of rapid warming and catastrophic events are not supported by sound science.”

The Heartland Institute offered “$1,000 to those willing to give a talk,” and “a free weekend at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan, including travel costs, to all elected officials wanting to attend,” according to the RealClimate blog.”

Strike Three! Yer OUT!

To quote "Karmakaze", "I hope Dr Khandekar and Andrew Bolt enjoy their blood money."

Whoops! Looks Like Dick Cheney Was Right!

2008-07-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

Back in 1994, before he was Vice President, he said that invading Iraq would be a "quagmire"!

Maybe he should have listened to himself, no?

Fox "News" In Denial

2008-07-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

MoveOn.org and ColorOfChange.org organized a petition drive against Fox News Channel's racially tinted commentary on apparent Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. First it was the 'fist bump' between himself and his wife Michelle supposedly being a "terrorist fist jab". Then it was Michelle Obama being referred to as Barack's "baby mama". So, MoveOn.org organized the following petition campaign directed to NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and other media outlets:

"FOX is a Republican mouthpiece, not a legitimate news organization. Real news organizations must reject FOX's smears of Barack Obama, not parrot them and distract Americans from the pressing issues of the day."

What did Fox do on 23 July when 620,127 signatures on the petition was delivered to their offices in New York City, accompanied by the rapper Nas? They refused to accept them! I guess sometimes the truth hurts.

News of Fox's refusal hit Rolling Stone, Billboard Magazine and MTV news sources, but not Fox, which chose not to report the incident. Steven Colbert on Comedy Central's ''The Colbert Report'' invited Nas on his show and brought the petitions. You can see the video here. It includes Nas performing his track "Sly Fox" which tears the "fair and balanced" network a new one.

Want to know more about Fox News Channel and its notorious bias? Visit Fox Attacks. They watch Fox... so you don't have to.

APS Position on Global Warming Remains Unchanged

2008-07-20T21:59:00.000-07:00

On 18 July 2008, the conservative blog American Thinker has posted an article entitled "You were saying something about a Global Warming Consensus?". In a gloating manner, the article states:

"The American Physical Society representing nearly 50,000 physicists "has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming," according to an article in The Daily Tech. The leadership of the society had previously referred to global warming evidence as 'incontravertible.'
What does this mean? It doesn't mean that the APS has abandoned its position on man made climate change. What they have done is perhaps more significant; they have opened the subject up for debate once again. And once the facts can be judged on their merits and not on who is submitting them, at the very least global warming deniers have a powerful platform to present their findings."

Even conspiracy monger Alex Jones saw fit to repeat this posting in its entirety on his website Prison Planet.

But has anyone bothered to check the website of the American Physical society about this? If you did, you'd see on their website's front page (which I accessed on 20 July 2008), the following statement:

"The American Physical Society reaffirms the following position on climate change, adopted by its governing body, the APS Council, on November 18, 2007:

'Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate.'

An article at odds with this statement recently appeared in an online newsletter of the APS Forum on Physics and Society, one of 39 units of APS. The header of this newsletter carries the statement that 'Opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the APS or of the Forum.' This newsletter is not a journal of the APS and it is not peer reviewed."

Even Fox News had to admit it!

The July 2008 disclaimer listed here reads as follows:

The FPS Executive Committee strongly endorses the position of the APS Council that "Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate." The statement in the July 2008 edition of our newsletter, Physics and Society that, "There is considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for the global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution" does not represent the views of the Executive Committee of the Forum on Physics and Society.

If you'd like to read the APS statement on Anthropogenic Global Warming, simply click here.

So all I can say to you deniers is: "Close, but no cigar."

Baldfaced Lie: "And not a drop (of oil) was spilled!"

2008-07-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

Taken from the Center for American Progress Action Fund:

Offshore drilling advocates know that the specter of oil-slicked beaches would doom their campaign, so they are desperate to wish its environmental impact away. Yesterday, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed "not a drop of oil was spilled during Katrina or Rita." This myth has been told again and again by the likes of Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Mike Huckabee, George Will, and Bill O'Reilly. There were, in fact, major onshore and offshore spills due to the hurricanes. According to the official Minerals Management Service report, the hurricanes caused 124 offshore spills for a total of 743,700 gallons, six spilling 42,000 gallons or more. The largest of these spills dropped 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a "major spill." In addition, the hurricanes caused disastrous spills onshore throughout southeast Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast as tanks, pipelines, refineries and other industrial facilities were destroyed, for a total of 595 different oil spills. The nine million gallons reported spilled were comparable with the Exxon Valdez's 10.8 million gallons, but unlike the Exxon Valdez, they were distributed throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Gulf Coast states, many in residential areas.

If you go to the original article, you'll find two other myths refuted: The "Drill Here, Drill Now Pay Less" myth and the "China On Our Coasts" myth.

More Proof That Fox Isn't "Fair & Balanced"

2008-07-12T15:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is just plan nutty. Media Matters ran a report on this, but let me just post the article from UPI in its entirety.

NEW YORK, July 2 (UPI) -- A New York Times (NYSE:NYT) editor Wednesday said a Fox News Channel graphic in which images of two Times reporters were altered was "beneath comment."

Fox aired photographs of Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and television editor Steven Reddicliffe on its morning show, "Fox & Friends," in a segment firing back at a June 28 Times report that referred to "ominous trends" for Fox News's ratings.

The liberal Web site Media Matters posted the photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe, which appeared to have been manipulated to yellow their teeth, add dark bags under their eyes and distort other facial features.

The photos appeared to have been altered using graphics tools, Editor & Publisher magazine said Wednesday.

As the photos aired, "Fox & Friends" personalities Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade chatted about the Times article and called it a "hit piece" on Fox News. They also derided Reddicliffe's tenure as editor of TV Guide -- owned by Fox News's parent company, News Corp. (NYSE:NWS)

Neither Steinberg nor Reddicliffe was available for comment Wednesday, E&P said. Times Culture Editor Sam Sifton called the Fox graphic "disgusting."

"This was a hit piece by Fox News," he said. "It is beneath comment."

Neither Fox News nor News Corp. had commented by Wednesday afternoon, E&P said.

Further info on the story can be read here. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "'Fair and Balanced', my ass!"

Jesse Helms Dies on the Fourth of July!

2008-07-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr., five-term Republican US Senator from North Carolina, heralded as a hero by the Neo-Conservatives, died on July 4th at the age of 86.

Heralded as a "staunch conservative" by today's right-wing, he was also an ardent segerationist back in the 1950's and '60's. During his years as an editorial commentator on WRAL-TV in Raleigh, he once referred to the University of North Carolina, a bastion of liberalism during the years of segregation, as the "University of N*gg*rs and Communists". In his later years, he made openly homophobic statements. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University opened the Jesse Helms School of Government in 2005 (Talk about birds of a feather flocking together!).

He was the subject of a number of songs, such as Todd Rundgren's "Jesse", Loudon Wainwright III's "Jesse Don't Like It" and MC Hawking's "Why Won't Jesse Helms Just Hurry Up and Die?"

Here's hoping that the "Old South" dies with him.

Here's some fitting music: Todd Rundgren's "Jessie".
(WARNING: Harsh Language. Not Safe For Work!)

Lyrics to the song are here.

A family safe song, Loudin Wainwright III's "Jesse Don't Like It", is here:

And some nerdcore by MC Hawking:
(WARNING: Harsh Language. Not Safe For Work!)

The Red, White and ...what?

2008-07-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

No, this is not an American flag taken from the Bizarro world of the Superman universe. This is supposedly the "United States Civil Flag of Peacetime" that has supposedly been suppressed from public knowledge. There's even a website promoting it and another website selling the flags.

There's just one little problem. It's wrong. Very, very wrong. It's based on a description of the United States Customs Service flag in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter". There is an excellent webpage refuting the idea of a "civil flag" entitled "The Civil Flag - Forgotten Flag or Flag of Fiction?".

No, it isn't legit. There's never been a "Civil Flag of Peace" in the USA. Save your money and fly the real Old Glory with the horizontal stripes and white stars in a blue field. If you're pissed off at something, fly the Gadsden Flag instead. Thank you.

Something positive

2008-07-01T18:06:00.000-07:00

After all my ranting and complaining, here's something positive. A remix of Sharif Ezzat's Global Mind Change meme by way of "The Pinky Show".

Thank you, Sharif & Pinky!

Unwired

2008-07-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

After subscribing to it since the very first issue, I've canceled my subscription to WIRED magazine. I've been reading less and less of it, since it was quickly becoming a techie version of Playboy, seemingly more interested in promoting the newest gadget that will be outdated before the month is up. The editorials were sliding into a heavy Libertarian mindset, and after briefly being a member of the Libertarian Party of New Jersey, it was leaving a bad taste in my mouth (Who was it who wrote that Libertarians worship Liberty the way Christians worship Christ, or that Libertarians believe in "all the freedom money can buy"?)

Well, what got stuck in my craw was Matt Power's article Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green. While they do have a number of (glaringly obvious) truisms (nuclear energy deserves a second look, Urban living can be better for the environment), they got their math horribly wrong on the carbon footprint of air conditioning and harvesting of old growth forests.

I strongly urge you folks to read Real Climate's article Wired Magazine's Incoherent Truths.

Besides, I get more enjoyment reading MAKE and CRAFT. Those are magazines that I truly look forward to (I even keep them in slipcases!).

So long, Wired. It's been nice knowing you.

George Carlin Dies

2008-06-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

Dammit. First Tim Russert, now him.
Read George's Wikipedia bio here.
Here's one of his best riffs. Enjoy.
WARNING: HARSH LANGUAGE; May not be safe or work.

Alex Jones Speaks For Himself (New Video)

2008-06-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

While I didn't normally agree with the late William Cooper (who was, in my opinion, yet another fringe conspiracy monger), he does expose Alex nicely.
(Thank you "pumpitout", for this video.)

Gorebash!

2008-06-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

No, not the dragon from the film "The Flight of Dragons", but yet another half-truth from Fox News Channel.

Bret Hume, with a graphic listing Al Gore as "Climate Charlatan", quoted a report from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research that Al Gore's house, after major renovation, uses 10% more energy than before. "Faux" News didn't bother to mention a reply from a Gore spokeswoman that it was "Green Energy" that was supplied by Nashville Electric Service's Green Power Switch program which allows subscribers to obtain energy from renewable resources.

Read about it here.

"Fair And Balanced", my ass!

It's official! The US Gov't says it IS getting hot out there!

2008-06-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, there are those out there who are still beating the conspiracy drum, saying that "Climate Change" and/or "Global Warming" are colossal hoaxes foisted upon civilization. Even many of the big wigs in Washington are repeating that echo, often quoting sources that are from think tanks heavily financed by ExxonMobil for the sole purpose of refuting scientific research findings supporting the reality of climate change.

Welllll, lookie lookie lookie here... The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came out with a report today (19 June 2008), entitled "Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate - Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.3". Let me quote a Bloomberg news report on the paper:

Today's report didn't specifically mention the Iowa floods. (Thomas Karl, co-chairman of the report), when asked about Iowa, said, "Those types of events will increase in frequency as time goes on and global temperatures increase.''

The climate program was created by President George W. Bush in 2002 to integrate research from federal agencies, including the Energy Department and the National Aeronautics & Space Administration. Last month, the agency reported that burning fossil fuels in power plants and automobiles is most likely responsible for global warming, endorsing an opinion accepted by many of the world's scientists.

"Human-induced warming is known to affect climate variables such as temperature and precipitation,'' according to the report. "Within a changing climate system, some of what are now considered to be extreme events will occur more frequently.''

Carbon dioxide, a byproduct of burning coal, oil, and natural gas, contributed most to global warming in the last century, the climate program said. Greenhouse gases cause the atmosphere to hold more water vapor, leading to heavy downpours, and sea surface temperatures to rise, which produces stronger hurricanes.

A strange change from the often edited reports from this administration, almost always stating that if there was any climate change, then it was purely cyclical and non-athropogenic (that is, not caused by man). I can't help but wonder why the sudden change in direction by the Bush administration right now. Perhaps Dubya wants to leave office with a clear conscience?

Or for that matter, a conscience of any kind?

Before you start sending me hate mail, please take a look at Coby Beck's excellent resource "How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic". It will deflate a few common myths like, the Medieval Warm Period was just as hot as it was today, so warm in fact that Vineland was full of grapes (nope, they were berries!), that it is a globalist conspiracy, or that in the 1970's, the big to-do was "Global Cooling".

And by the way, the claim that England used to be a major producer of wine? Guess what? It still is! (Or at least, it was until climate change ruined it.)

While you're waiting for my first official posting...

2008-05-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

...here's a dance number by a young Bill O'Reilly (by way of video artist Torrey Meeks.

WARNING: Crude Language! Not Safe For Work!

Test posting

2008-05-07T21:37:00.001-07:00