"Seven hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money to spend to try to get someone to talk to you and not get an answer.

That's how much the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based libertarian think tank, has forked over in six months for advertisements in national newspapers trying to persuade Al Gore to debate one of its experts on global warming issues."

A Chicago-based libertarian think tank...Is that what the kids are calling it these days? The article makes it sound like cat food eating grandmothers scrimped and saved this money to confront the big bad Gore on his damnable lies. They're funded by Exxon.

Other sources of Heartland funding:

Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation: "Koch Industries is also a major polluter. During the 1990s, its faulty pipelines were responsible for more than 300 oil spills in five states, prompting a landmark penalty of $35 million from the Environmental Protection Agency."

John M. Olin Foundation: "The Foundation is financed by the Olin chemical and munitions fortune with assets estimated at $90 million, $3 million of which goes to conservative advocacy groups."

Scaife Foundations: "is built on at least 5 pillars; the family's ownership of Gulf Oil Corporation, the family's monopoly ownership of Alcoa and Alcan going back to 1891, ownership of Koppers and Carborundum corporations, and their participation in the uranium cartel."

I could go on but this is just too pathetic.

That's some crack reporting there Steve Huntley. Do they pay you for this stuff, or do you just do it for fun?

Labels: Al Gore, climate change, environmentalism, Heartland Institute, operation lockbox, Steve Huntley

I have good days and bad. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been convicted of obstruction of justice. Sure the justice he was obstructing has been taken out behind the wood shed and shot in the face, but still the conviction was a step in the right direction. The investigation into the dismissal or pressed resignations of several U.S. District Attorneys is moving forward. That's the good.

Our old friend U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler is expected to rule on a gag order protecting the identities of high profile clients of the so-called D.C. Madam. U.S. Scientists have in effect been told to watch what they say with regard to global climate change, receding ice caps, and the plight of polar bears when they travel abroad. An audit has shown that the FBI has improperly and illegally used provisions of the USA Patriot Act to obtain information on U.S. citizens. And the videotape of Pentagon officials' most recent interrogation of Jose Padilla - the last before he abruptly refused to continue working with his defense team - has been "mislaid." That's the bad.

It's been a hell of a week.

Labels: climate change, fbi, Gladys Kessler, Jose Padilla, patriot act, Scooter Libby, US Attorney firings

Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says

"In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row."

Three whole years worth of data? "Abdussamatov's work, however, has not been well received by other climate scientists." Ya think?

Increased solar activity and theories of warming caused by cosmic rays are the Intelligent Design of climate science. Every hypothesis deserves exploration, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Shame on the National Geographic for packaging this story like a cut from the Drudge Report.

Labels: climate change, Mars, NASA

This week the most spectacular cover up in recent history was revealed. No it wasn't the massacre of innocent Iraqi civilians by U.S. troops who've forgotten what flag they wear...we've known about incidents like that(graphic images) for some time. The cover up I'm referring to was discovered in the Arctic by an international team of scientists who refused to give up until the TRUTH was known.

Core samples taken near the North Pole reveal a much higher average temperature in the region than the - for lack of a better word - arctic temperatures we know today. Scientists claim that approximately 55 million years ago the Arctic region of the globe was a balmy 65 degrees. Waterfront property for everyone! But that's not the cover up.

The real story is the massive release of greenhouse gases that followed shortly after this period which caused a spike in global temperature raising the already warm Arctic climate to 75 degrees.

Vast fields of permafrost methane slurry exist on the ocean floor today held in stasis by enormous pressure and low water temperature. So long as these two factors remain constant - pressure and temperature - we have no problem. However, ocean temperatures world-wide have been inching up for decades. This new research may hold the key to predicting when this frozen-green-belch-of-death will reach a critical stage. According to the National Science Foundation "the initial results also suggest that Earth's recovery to a "normal state" took as long as 100,000 years." Said one researcher of the findings:

"It far exceeds what has been estimated by models, assuming a release of 2,000 gigatons of methane."

Current theories predict that should a critical water temperature threshold be reached the methane trapped below the world's oceans will escape rapidly changing global climate far more drastically than current climate change models take into account. Why isn't this part of the story bigger news? That's the cover up.

When will we reach this threshold? Only They know for sure.

Labels: climate change, environmentalism, methane expulsion

Just when I try to get this blog up and rolling again, the shit hits the fan. Once upon a time I was worried about the fate of our nation under the current administration. Specifically I was concerned with the long term consequences of what I viewed as a misguided foreign policy. Today there's so much wrong with where our nation has gone and what has been done in our name that I don't know where to even begin when choosing topics to included in this electronic screed of mine.

In the past week the vice president has proven himself to be above the law by having dismissed local law enforcement seeking to investigate a hunting accident he was involved in. Conspiracy theories aside, the man is an American citizen and subject to the laws of this land. He should have - at the very least - been interviewed by local authorities. In avoiding this he has sullied the reputation of the United States as a lawful nation of the people, by the people and for the people. Dick Cheney is a disgrace.

Also this week, a top NASA scientist - previously gagged by woefully unqualified administration appointees - announced that Greenland's ice shelf is melting far faster than previously thought. The resulting rise in global ocean levels is only one possible consequence. North Atlantic ocean temperatures will drop due to the increased inflow of ice melt, greatly improving the chances of a stalled Gulf Stream. Should this occur, Europe will suffer a dramatic climate change.

Pictures of abuses inflicted upon innocent Iraqis by US service members and Pentagon contractors at Abu Ghraib were released by an Austrailian news service. These images were then immediately republished around the globe where they were met with universal scorn and criticism. Well...almost universal. Here in the US, no news outlet made a very big deal of the images, and the administration dismissed them altogether stating that those responsible had already been punished, and refusing to accept that the 1,000+ images indicated that the torture which occurred was indeed systemic in nature and not the act of a handful of individuals.

On top of all of this Secretary of State Condi Rice lied point blank to congress. As did former FEMA head Michael Brown, and current Department of Homeland Security Head Michael Chertoff.

Meanwhile the list of former administration officials and functionaries who now criticize their former masters continues to grow. Paul Pillar, the CIA's national intelligence officer for the Middle East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, and Ari Fleischer who served as President George W. Bush's first press secretary joined those growing ranks this week.

When will this ship of the damned finally sink?

Labels: Abu Ghraib, Ari Fleischer, cia, climate change, Condoleza Rice, Dick Cheney, NASA, Paul Pillar