It seems that despite many patient and helpful explanations over the years, some fanchildren in our community (and others) are still quite confused. They keep mistaking our social media spaces for courtrooms and discussions for trials. Since reading comprehension would appear to be absent from their Skeptical Toolkit, perhaps some illustrations may be of assistance.
This is a courthouse: Continue reading “Some Helpful Illustrations for the Willfully Obtuse”
REID TURNER BLACKBURN
WALLACE NORWOOD BOWERS
JOEL K. COLTEN
RONALD LEE CONNER
TERRY A. CRALL
CLYDE ANDREW CROFT
JOSE A. DIAS
ELLEN DILL
WILLIAM (BILL) DILL
ARLENE H. EDWARDS
JOLENE H. EDWARDS
BRUCE EDWARD FADDIS
JAMES F. FITZGERALD JR.
THOMAS G. GADWA
ALLEN R. HANDY
PAUL HIATT
DAVID A. JOHNSTON
DAY ANDREW KARR
DAY BRADLEY KARR
MICHAEL MURRAY KARR
BOB M. KASEWETER
CHRISTY LIANN KILLIAN
JOHN G. KILLIAN
HAROLD (BUTCH) KIRKPATRICK
ROBERT E. LANDSBURG
ROBERT LYNDS
GERALD O. MARTIN
GERALD LLOYD MOORE
KEITH A. MOORE
SHIRLEY (SAM) MOORE
KEVIN CHRISTOPHER MORRIS
MICHELLE LEA MORRIS
EDWARD JOSEPH MURPHY
ELEANOR JEANNE MURPHY
DONALD R. PARKER
JEAN ISABELL PARKER
NATALIE ALI PARKER
RICHARD A. PARKER
WILLIAM PAUL PARKER
MERLIN JAMES PLUARD
RUTH KATHLEEN PLUARD
FRED D. ROLLINS
MARGERY ELLEN ROLLINS
PAUL F. SCHMIDT
BARBARA LEA SEIBOLD
RONALD DALE SEIBOLD
DONALD JAMES SELBY
EVLANTY V. SHARIPOFF
LEONTY V. SKOROHODOFF
DOUG THAYER
HARRY R. TRUMAN
JAMES S. TUTE
VELVETIA (VELVET) TUTE
KAREN MARIE VARNER
BEVERLY C. WETHERALD
KLAUS ZIMMERMAN
Previous: Prelude to a Catastrophe: “The Volcano Could Be Nearing a Major Event.”
Next: The Cataclysm: “Vancouver! Vancouver! This Is It!”
Heh. I’d like to see the pollution industry try to spin this one away:
The New York Times exposes an internal document (PDF) from the Global Climate Coalition, a group funded by the oil and auto industries, that shows that their own scientists were confirming the reality of human-caused global warming and the effects of greenhouse gasses as early as 15 years ago even while publicly trying to dispute that reality.
The document is from 1995 and it was a “primer” on the various issues being sent around to the auto companies for approval. It essentially admits that global warming is real and human-caused, that many of the counter-arguments are false and that we don’t yet have good enough predictive technology to know the full effects, especially in local areas. It begins by saying:
The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied.
[snip]
The contrarian theories raise interesting questions about our total understanding of climate processes, but they do not offer convincing arguments against the conventional model of greenhouse gas emission-induced climate change. Jastrow’s hypothesis about the role of solar variability and Michaels’ questions about the temperature record are not convincing arguments against any conclusion that we are currently experiencing warming as the result of greenhouse gas emissions.
In other words: global warming’s real, humans are the main factor in causing it. Suck on that, bitches.
Of course, it won’t change Big Pollution’s behavior. The polluters will still lie and moan and try to deny the science. They’ll still find greedy fucks willing to sell their souls for silver, and stupid fucks eager to believe. But it just got that much harder.
On Monday, the Office of the Inspector General released a report on the politicized firings of several United States Attorneys by the Bush Regime. Talking Points Memo brings the whole sordid saga together in one easy-to-read, essential report. Some highlights:
Almost since the scandal broke early last year, there have been clear signs that the plan to fire U.S. attorneys as a means of advancing the Bush administration’s political goals was being driven by the White House. That impression has been strengthened as top current and former White House officials, including Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, have consistently stonewalled efforts to look into the matter.
[snip]
The White House’s active involvement in the firings, as depicted in the [OIG] report, can be divided into two broad categories: First, its role in initiating and promoting the overall plan to remove an unspecified number of U.S. attorneys — traditionally treated as apolitical prosecutors who operate independently from the political agenda of the administration — deemed insufficiently committed to the Bush agenda. And second, its apparent work in pushing specifically for several of the most high-profile dismissals.
[snip]
Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ then chief of staff at DOJ, and the point man on the firing plan, told OIG investigators that, some time after the 2004 election, White House counsel Harriet Miers asked him whether the administration should try to get all 93 U.S. attorneys to resign, as part of a plan to replace all political appointees for the new term. Sampson said he argued against this idea.
[snip]
Still, the White House seems to have kept pressing. In January 2005, Sampson received an email from a Miers deputy, which said: “Karl Rove stopped by “to ask … ‘how we planned to proceed regarding US Attorneys, whether we are going to allow all to stay, request resignations from all and accept only some of them, or selectively replace them, etc.’ ” [Quotation marks rendered as in the report]. A few days later, Sampson replied: “If Karl [Rove] thinks there would be political will to do it, then so do I.”
The following month, Sampson told OIG, Miers followed up, asking him for a list of possible U.S. attorneys to get rid of. Sampson dutifully responded with his first list, which contained the names of four USAs who ultimately were axed, as well as ten who weren’t.
[snip]
The dismissal in which the White House played the greatest role was that of Bud Cummins, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Cummins, the report makes clear, was removed not because of shortcomings in his own record, either political or performance-based, but because the White House wanted to move a GOP political operative, Timothy Griffin, in to the job.
[snip]
The White House’s role in the firing of David Iglesias as U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico appears to have been less direct than that of Cummins – but the report makes clear that it was involved nonetheless.
[snip]
At a November 15 White House meeting, Wilson put in another complaint to Rove about Iglesias. This time, he told her: “That decision has already been made. He’s gone.” But as the report notes, the first list from Sampson to include Iglesias’ name would not be sent to Miers until a few hours later. In other words, Rove’s knowledge that Iglesias was to be fired suggests this wasn’t a decision made solely by DOJ.
Read the whole thing. It paints a concise and terrifying picture of a White House determined to create an army of U.S. Attorneys slavishly loyal to them.
Law enforcement is too powerful and too essential to a civilized society to politicize. Police, attorneys and judges need to be loyal to the law, not partisian ideology. Democracy can’t survive when the long arm of the law is wielded by a political party.
We need to push for the truth in this, and we need to ensure that the partisan hacks who were installed during Bush’s rule are bunged out on their ears.
