Witch Hunters & Grand Inquisitors of Biblically Mythed America

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re: "Only extreme, well funded, cynical fanatics call for the criminalization of dissent."

You must mean the EXXOM-funded Grand Inquisitor, Jimmy "Joe McCarthy" Inhofe?

Sen. Inhofe inquisition seeking ways to criminalize and prosecute 17 leading climate scientists

Senator James Inhofe, ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, has gone a step beyond promoting his long-notorious global warming denialist propaganda. He is now using the resources of the Senate committee to seek opportunities to criminalize the actions of 17 leading scientists who have been associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports. A report released by Inhofe’s staff on February 23 outlines this classic Joe McCarthyite witch-hunt: page after page of incorrect and misleading statements, a list of federal laws that allegedly may make scientists subject to prosecution by the U.S. Justice Department, and a list of names and affiliations of 17 “key players” in the “CRU Controversy” over stolen e-mails and their connections with IPCC reports.

And anti-science jihadist & witchhunter wannabe, Jimmy Nonsenseburger?

Sensenbrenner IPCC witch-hunt: Attempt to blacklist climate scientists must be rejected

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), ranking Republican on the House global warming committee, has sent a letter to Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, calling for scientists whose names appear in the e-mails stolen from the U.K. Climatic Research Unit to be blacklisted from participating as contributors or reviewers of the forthcoming IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Sensenbrenner is engaged in an outrageous McCarthyist jihad against the climate science community, making it abundantly clear that this controversy is not really about stolen e-mails, which have been misused and misinterpreted. Rather it is part of an aggressive campaign by the global warming denial machine to bully and intimidate the science community. Sensenbrenner shows no real interest in meaningful dialogue, nor in an honest examination of climate science findings. Denialists are throwing up a smokescreen of propaganda in an attempt to legitimize their refusal to come to grips with scientific evidence on global climatic disruption and its implications. This is a power play.

Climate Science Watch calls on the IPCC to rebuff this attack. We call on the Obama Administration and in particular the President’s science adviser John Holdren to fully support the U.S. climate science community in this matter. We call on Sensenbrenner’s colleagues in Congress to chastise him for this censorious anti-scientist behavior. And we call on members of the science community to understand what the denial machine is up to and not allow themselves to be divided by innuendo about and attacks on scientists who have been singled out as immediate targets of a larger predatory attack on the community as a whole. Seeking an IPCC purge is just the next step. This attack, using guilt-by-association and demagogy, will go as far as it can to delegitimize the entire climate science and assessment enterprise if it is not exposed and thwarted.

Talkin' the Walk

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re: "Scientists and engineers are caught in a no-win situation... What can we do to turn this into a win-win situation?" @SciGuy

Hunter Cutting @ Talkin' the Walk has a great piece on reframing the debate on climate science.

And the savvy crew over at Joe Romm's Climate Progress offer some thoughtful comments, as usual.
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Vexatious FOIs

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The University of East Anglia (UEA) was only too polite in its 21 January 2010 response to Mr. Chuck Arthur's vexatious, if not illicit, FOIs as party to Steve McIntyre's denial campaign:

In accordance with s. 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a partial Refusal Notice, and I am not obliged to supply exempted information. The reasons for exemption are as stated below.

Most of Climate Audit's fishing expedition was appropriately deep-sixed, but FOI 09-97 is priceless, if not Exhibit A in a hearing coming soon to a courtroom or congressional committee near you:

I hereby make a EIR/FOI request in respect to any confidentiality agreements)restricting transmission of CRUTEM data to non-academics involing the following countries: [insert 5 or so countries that are different from ones already requested 1]

1. the date of any applicable confidentiality agreements;
2. the parties to such confidentiality agreement, including the full name of any organization;
3. a copy of the section of the confidentiality agreement that "prevents further transmission to non-academics".
4. a copy of the entire confidentiality agreement,

OOPS! Now, Steve, that's what's known in legal jargon as a smoking gun, if not a volley.

Steve McIntyre Posted Jul 24, 2009 at 10:59 AM

I suggest that interested readers can participate by choosing 5 countries and sending the following FOI request to david.palmer at uea.ac.uk

Subpoena(e) to follow?

McIntyre’s concerted efforts to derail the science and harass scientists
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Michael Mann Exonerated

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Perhaps, it's only news when honest, credible scientists are attacked. No doubt, it's old or no news at all when science reporters & science editors are caught in public with their cookies in hand.

Think we'll ever see a London Times or Houston Chronicle headline like Michael Mann Exonerated?

Penn State has issued a phase one ruling on the inquiry into Michael Mann's conduct. They found there was no substance to the first three allegations, and said that while they could find no evidence to substantiate the fourth, they would convene a phase two inquiry on it, for which a committee of faculty has been appointed. It is important to get the word on this out before the denialists grab the report and start distorting it.