Climategate: Lawyer up!

In another chapter of the Scientists behaving Badly saga the rumblings of lawsuits and congressional probes over the information in leaked emails and files from CRU have begun (via Instapundit).

Competitive Enterprise Institute Sues NASA in Wake of Climategate Scandal

Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed three Notices of Intent to File Suit against NASA and its Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), for those bodies’ refusal — for nearly three years — to provide documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

The information sought is directly relevant to the exploding “Climategate” scandal revealing document destruction, coordinated efforts in the U.S. and UK to avoid complying with both countries’ freedom of information laws, and apparent and widespread intent to defraud at the highest levels of international climate science bodies. Numerous informed commenters had alleged such behavior for years, all of which appears to be affirmed by leaked emails, computer code, and other data from the Climatic Research Unit of the UK’s East Anglia University.

Congress May Probe Leaked Global Warming E-Mails
Te first and last paragraphs:

A few days after leaked e-mail messages appeared on the Internet, the U.S. Congress may probe whether prominent scientists who are advocates of global warming theories misrepresented the truth about climate change.

The irony of this situation is that most of us expect science to be conducted in the open, without unpublished secret data, hidden agendas, and computer programs of dubious reliability. East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit might have avoided this snafu by publicly disclosing as much as possible at every step of the way.

Gee, yeah think?

Tim Blair also has these revealing tidbits:

Greeno supremo George Monbiot concedes:

It’s no use pretending this isn’t a major blow. The emails extracted by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia could scarcely be more damaging. I am now convinced that they are genuine, and I’m dismayed and deeply shaken by them.

Yes, the messages were obtained illegally. Yes, all of us say things in emails that would be excruciating if made public. Yes, some of the comments have been taken out of context. But there are some messages that require no spin to make them look bad. There appears to be evidence here of attempts to prevent scientific data from being released, and even to destroy material that was subject to a freedom of information request.

Worse still, some of the emails suggest efforts to prevent the publication of work by climate sceptics, or to keep it out of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I believe that the head of the unit, Phil Jones, should now resign.

And,

The WSJ attempts to interview the CRU:

Some of those mentioned in the emails have responded to our requests for comment by saying they must first chat with their lawyers. Others have offered legal threats and personal invective. Still others have said nothing at all …

Yet all of these nonresponses manage to underscore what may be the most revealing truth: That these scientists feel the public doesn’t have a right to know the basis for their climate-change predictions, even as their governments prepare staggeringly expensive legislation in response to them.

Whatever you want to believe about man-made global warming scientists playing around with their data to get the story they want rather than to shed light on what is true and then refusing to disclose their data (because they mucked around with it and any examination of their data would reveal their tampering) is indefensible. Trying to dictate the functioning of the entire world based on data that you know is corrupted is self centered egotistical madness.

They're Calling It Climategate Now

I like Scientists Behaving Badly much better than Climategate. We don't really need another X-gate. Although this "gate" is more like the original than some of the other "gates" that have been christened as such. Anyway, here's a round up of facts and opinion on the revelations in the hacked emails and data from University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU). Most of these I picked up from Instapundit.

• Climate cuttings 33, summaries of some of what's in those hacked CRU files.


• Climategate, Coal Mine Deaths, Air Pollution and Coals assault on human health. I'm not sure I would agree with everything this blogger concludes about coal but this is certainly true, "The over reaching on the science and over aggressive tactics are now blowing up in face of the pro-global warming side."
  
  This from the comments section regarding claims about climate conditions in the earth's past also rings true, "How can you trust that these conditions even existed? Ice cores? Tree ring data? We now have no reason to believe any paleo climate data. Some 40 or 50 'scientists' have been cooking the books with the collusion of influential journalists. Until all that data has been independently audited, all those assertions are out the window for all but the most faithful."


• Viscount Monckton on Climategate: ‘They Are Criminals’
  

  This is what they did — these climate “scientists” on whose unsupported word the world’s classe politique proposes to set up an unelected global government this December in Copenhagen, with vast and unprecedented powers to control all formerly free markets, to tax wealthy nations and all of their financial transactions, to regulate the economic and environmental affairs of all nations, and to confiscate and extinguish all patent and intellectual property rights.

  The tiny, close-knit clique of climate scientists who invented and now drive the “global warming” fraud — for fraud is what we now know it to be — tampered with temperature data so assiduously that, on the recent admission of one of them, land temperatures since 1980 have risen twice as fast as ocean temperatures. One of the thousands of emails recently circulated by a whistleblower at the University of East Anglia, where one of the world’s four global-temperature datasets is compiled, reveals that data were altered so as to prevent a recent decline in temperature from showing in the record. In fact, there has been no statistically significant “global warming” for 15 years — and there has been rapid and significant cooling for nine years.



• Climategate: When Scientists Become Politicians
  

  Over thousands of years, at each step, the response of the scientists was to continually adjust and refine their theories to conform to the data, not the other way around. This is how science is done and how we developed the knowledge that has given us such tremendous and accelerating scientific and technological breakthroughs in the past century. It is occasionally reasonable to throw out a bad data point if it is in defiance of an otherwise satisfactory model fit, as long as everyone knows that you’ve done so and the rationale, but a deliberate and unrevealed fudging of results in an attempt to make the real world fit one’s preconceptions is beyond the scientific pale. Journal articles have been thrown out for it; PhD candidates have lost their degrees for it.
  

  Many in the climate change community have condemned what they call “skeptics,” often to the point of declaring them de facto criminals and assigning them to the same category as Holocaust deniers. They tell us that “the science is settled” and that we should shut up. But every scientist worthy of the name should be a skeptic. Every theory should be subject to challenge on a scientific basis. Every claim of a model’s validity should be accompanied by the complete model and data set that supposedly validated it, so that it can be replicated. That is how science works. It is how it advances. And when the science is supposedly “settled” and they refuse to do so, it’s not unreasonable to wonder why.

  Well, now we know.



• NYT Policy on Illegally Acquired Documents, "Hasn’t the Grey Lady published illegally obtained documents on national security and other matters in the past?" I must confess that I find the New York Times' reluctance to publish any of the leaked/hacked/whatever information snort worthy for exactly that reason.


• More on the NYT's selective squeamishness about handling leaked information, All The News That’s Fit To Bury


• Copenhagen will fail – and quite right too: Even if the science was reliable (which it isn’t), we should not force the world’s poorest countries to cut carbon emissions
  

  Astonishingly, what appears, at least at first blush, to have emerged is that (a) the scientists have been manipulating the raw temperature figures to show a relentlessly rising global warming trend; (b) they have consistently refused outsiders access to the raw data; (c) the scientists have been trying to avoid freedom of information requests; and (d) they have been discussing ways to prevent papers by dissenting scientists being published in learned journals.



• And the wheels of capitalism keep turning, WEAR THE DECLINE! Lots of links and updates with this one.

Althouse on Today's Obamacare Vote

"Democrats Clinch Vote on Health Debate."

In case you want to talk about it. I'll just be over here in a corner curled up in a little ball.

This is made all the more amusing to me, in a grim gallows humor kind of way, by the fact that she voted for President Obama. Lets see how much tighter we can cinch up those belts folks!

Scientists Behaving Badly

Apparently some place called University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit got hacked. Their emails and data on global warming climate change are all over the internet. There was initial caution that the data and emails might have been fakes but they have since been confirmed to be the real deal. Why should anyone care about information hacked from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit? Well only because they've apparently been massaging their data to get the desired results with regard to global warming climate change. The desired result being that the planet is warming and that the warming is the fault of mankind. So much for the integrity of the scientific process.

There's a post full of updates here, the most amusing of which so far is, "UPDATE VI. The BBC declines to cover this story, preferring a piece on mammoth dung."

Reactions from our part of the globe can be found here. Both posts provide access to the leaked information for you to evaluate for yourself.

Dare one hope that this could bring about the death of cap and trade and other schemes designed to manipulate global climate in an attempt to halt global warming climate change? Now that's some hope and change that I could believe in.

Ghetto Tory

This is an attention getting essay from Loanna Morrison a black Conservative party candidate in the UK. (Via Booker Rising.)I was struck by her firey and unapologetic defense of her political views. I think much of what she says is also applicable to the current American political scene. Below I've provided a list of American political/cultural discourse equivalents as best I could for those unfamiliar with the Queen's English and British politics.

Loanna Morrison: This "ghetto Tory" doesn't care about the social background of the politicians caricatured as "Tory toffs"

I am angered by the constant taunts from the Left that Conservatives are "toffs". Some may be upper class – Eton and all that - but so what? Is it a crime to benefit from a privileged background and a brilliant education as a result of an accident of birth?

I am not a toff so perhaps voters would prefer a “ghetto Tory” running the country? If so, give me space – I'm coming. I am black, a single mother who lived in a council house and with no Oxford University degree to my name. I am also a Tory.

[Conservative Party leader] David Cameron does not need a qualification in poverty to understand the economic challenges facing Britain. Under Labour, the fat cats keep getting fatter and the required tasks for the future of our country are deferred and obfuscated while the chosen few cling to office and quango [quasi non-profit] jobs.

If qualifications are needed, Gordon Brown is singularly unqualified. He has never held a job outside politics. No wonder he and his equally unqualified Cabinet have made such a spectacularly bad job of looking after the poor. Their idea of social mobility is to help only the favoured few climb the greasy pole. The rest of us can go hang. How many Labour ministers send their children to private schools, have private health insurance and take pride in their kids' courage on the field of battle in Afghanistan?

The first thing Tony Blair abolished was the Assisted Places Scheme. Thank goodness I have already used it. We all want our children to be given the best education, to become 'toffs' in the best sense of the term – well-dressed, educated and able to take their place as responsible members of society. It is clear from unchallenged statistics that Labour is not capable of delivering.

The Tories were hounded out of office under John Major for having affairs, not for stealing taxpayers' money. We cannot shift Gordo and his crew, even though their administration is mired in sleaze and corruption. How many Tories have had to resign twice or had more than half their cabinet resign for financial wrongdoing? A politician having a leg over doesn't affect anyone's way of life, nor their pocket."

Labour want you to think they are the party of the poor. Deep down they know Socialism is a flawed ideology which doesn't know how to generate money, only to spend it. The capitalists who are invariably conservative generate cash. Labour have been ousted as closet capitalists marching behind a phoney slogan and a tattered red flag.

I am not into gender or identity politics. I joined the Conservatives because they want what I want and say what I say. If the Tories are the party of privilege, they will know how to give us some of it.

They will create policies for the nation not divide us into interest groups and throw us preferential crumbs. That is why a ghetto Tory like me was selected as a Conservative Parliamentary candidate.

Ghetto Tory= Black (or other group that isn't supposed to identify with conservative types)Conservative
Toffs= privileged rich people, usually presumed to be white
Tory= Conservative/Republican/Right of center types
Council House= The Projects
Labour= Liberals/Democrats/Left of center types
Quango= quasi non-profit

Our Great Wizard of Oz

When I first heard the murmurs and rumblings about the reporting errors at Recovery.gov claiming jobs created in districts that don't exist and what not I just rolled my eyes. Typical government ineptitude right? Reading our President's response to the criticism of the errors got me thinking a little more about my initial assumption that this was just more run of the mill government ineptitude. (Via Wizbang.)

Obama Calls Stimulus Data Errors 'Side Issue,' Says Focus Is on Job Growth
President Obama brushed off criticism over his administration's inaccurate reporting on job creation Wednesday, telling Fox News the accounting is an "inexact science" and that any errors are a "side issue" when compared with the goal of turning the economy around. He said job growth is his No.1 responsibility.

Emphasis added.

First thoughts, I wonder if the IRS will buy that accounting line come April 15? Well Mr. IRS Agent sir, you know the President did say that accounting is an inexact science. I can't see that going well for anyone who tries it. These errors in reporting are a very big deal if they are being held up as evidence that the goal of turning the economy around is being reached. Don't you? If there are such obvious errors at Recovery.gov what confidence is there that anything else the administration has to say about the economy has any resemblance to reality?

The president was responding to criticism from Republicans, as well as Democratic Rep. David Obey, who drew attention to embarrassing errors on the Recovery.gov Web site that tracks stimulus funding. The site is under fire for claiming a number of jobs were created from the stimulus in congressional districts that don't exist and accepting unrealistic and inflated jobs data from various sources.

Second thoughts, I'm getting a vision of the Wizard of Oz here. I bet you can guess which scene I'm thinking of. The one where Toto pulls the current back in the great wizard's chamber to reveal the little man behind the curtain who's pulling levers and pushing buttons to make the great wizard perform. He desperately claims, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" Despite the great wizard's admonitions Dorothy and her crew do pay attention to the little man behind the curtain. Not only that, they confront him and take him to task for deceiving them and putting them in danger.

"I think this is an inexact science. We're talking about a multitrillion-dollar economy that went through the worst economic crisis since 1933. The first measure of success of the economic recovery is, did we pull ourselves back from the brink? We did," Obama said. "The question now is, can we make sure we're accelerating job growth? That's my No. 1 job. Nobody's been more disappointed than I have to see how high the unemployment rate has gotten. And I spend every waking hour, when I'm talking to my economic team, about how we are going to put people back to work."

I'm still getting that Wizard of Oz vibe how about you? The little man behind the curtain had the chance to redeem himself by coming clean about who and what he was. He stopped trying to impress people and be greater than what he was. He realistically did what he could with what he had and for the most part things ended well for him. Just a thought y'all.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for/that:

1. Friends I agree with.


2. Friends I disagree with.


3. Family, even those who occasionally inspire fantasies of doing them bodily or psychological harm.


4. Patience.


5. Second chances.


6. Laughter.


7. Good food.


8. Everyone who still has a job.

What are you thankful for?

Vassals

This picture sparked a lot of thoughts in my head. My first thoughts were, oh come one not again! Particularly after reading this post's title, Is There a Foregin Potentate Obama Will Not Bow Before? My second thoughts, before looking at the picture, were, it can't really be that bad can it? My third thoughts, after looking at the picture, were, when did we decide to become vassals of the Emperor of Japan? I don't think even the Emperor's own son bows that low to him. My fourth thoughts were, we'll survive this little snafu same as the others. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?

While we're all moaning and groaning and picking sides in the dust up over this display of ignorance about the significance of bows in Japanese culture has our leader made up his mind yet about how/if he is going to fight the war on terror?

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for/that:

1. The men and women who sacrifice life and limb so the rest of us can live free.


2. The families of those men and women who must soldier on in their absence.


3. The neighbour who, on a day when I'm trying to muster the energy to get off the couch and do something, turns up and my doorstep and asks, "Can I help you clean now?"


4. I got my new glasses. I can see clearly again.


5. My physical therapist.

What are you thankful for?

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for/that:

1. Central heating!


2. Laughter.


3. The quiet that descends once all of the kids fall asleep.


4. Freedom.


5. Having just enough.


6. The prayers of righteous men and women.


7. Honesty.

What are you thankful for?