NEW YORK, Nov. 16, 2007
Did Smithsonian Bow To Warming Skeptics?
The Skinny: Scientists Say Museum Softened Climate Change Message In Arctic Exhibit To Appease White House
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Visitors walk through the rotunda of the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. (AP)
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Interactive Global Warming The greenhouse effect, a look at the Kyoto Protocol and a history of the Earth's climate.
As suggested by its original name - "Arctic Meltdown" - there was nothing warm and fuzzy about last year's exhibit on the earth's northern climes at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. At least not in the first version.
But the Washington Post reports that museum's director ordered last-minute changes to add "scientific uncertainty" about climate change to the exhibit's script, according to internal documents and correspondence.
Scientists who worked on the project charge that the museum officials downplayed global warming in the exhibit to avoid criticism from congressional appropriators and global-warming skeptics in the Bush administration.
But museum director Cristian Samper denies it, telling the Post in an interview last week that "there was no political pressure - not from me, not from anyone."
Unfortunately, Samper hasn't had the most inspiring record when it comes to situations like these. He's scheduled to meet with the Board of Regents on Monday to discuss another controversy: a $5 million donation from the American Petroleum Institute to fund the Natural History Museum's Ocean Initiative exhibit hall and Web site.
Samper approved the gift offer and sent it to the regents, who have the final say. Two regents have raised questions about the appearance of oil companies donating to a major marine exhibition.
The Post gathers an array of rather damning evidence, including some hints that some of the last-minute changes were made as a result of, in the words of one National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official, "the HQ push to appease the senior senator" -- legendary climate change skeptic and zealous bridge builder Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.
But the most interesting debate was over the name. "Arctic Meltdown," the name proposed in a June 2003 statement of purpose, was changed to a new name based on the Inuit word ugganianaqtuq, which a scientist interpreted to mean "you are not yourself."
Smithsonian researchers changed the title in 2003 to "The Arctic: A Friend Acting Strange," and the last word later became "Strangely."
That title was almost jettisoned when a linguistic expert questioned the translation, saying that uggianaqtuq really means "being eaten by dogs or lice."
Katrina Rebuilding Money Is Bypassing Mississippi's Poor
The world "Katrina" has become shorthand for America's national shame at not doing right by its poor.
So there's special irony in the New York Times report that federal money allocated to help those hit by the hurricane in Mississippi is bypassing those same poor people whose plight the storm exposed.
So far, Mississippi has spent $1.7 billion in federal money on programs that have mostly benefited relatively affluent residents and big business. The money has gone to compensate many middle- and upper-income homeowners who lost their houses to flooding, to aid utility companies whose equipment was damaged and to prop up the state's insurance system.
Just $167 million, or about 10 percent of the federal money, has been spent on programs dedicated to helping the poor, mostly through a smaller grant program for lower-income homeowners. And while that number will certainly increase, Mississippi has set aside just 23 percent of its $5.5 billion grant money for these programs.
Mississippi is the only state for which the Bush administration has waived the rule that 50 percent of its Community Development Block Grants be spent on low-income programs, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In Gulfport, for example, the state is spending $600 million in federal cash to repair and improve its port. Meanwhile, in the mostly black neighborhood of west Gulfport that's home to Anthony Thompson, pastor at Tabernacle Faith Ministries, he said, "I see a lot of people waiting on help; I see a lot of houses still damaged."
Are Cockroaches The New Lemmings?
The next time you consider calling someone a lemming for his tendency to follow the crowd over the cliff, consider switching that epithet to cockroach.
The New York Times reports that researcher using robotic roaches were able to persuade real cockroaches to do things that their instinct told them were not the best idea.
The experiment in bug peer pressure found that cockroaches, who naturally prefer to hang out in the dark, could be lured into the light by a robot doused with cockroach sex hormones about 60 percent of the time.
"I thought it was very gratifying they could get roaches to do what they normally would not do," said Stephen Pratt, a professor of life sciences at Arizona State University.
Hey, sometimes it's the little things.
(Lemmings, by the way, aren't actually as into mass suicide as popular culture would have you believe. According to Snopes, they do sometimes migrate in big groups, and very occasionally fall off cliffs accidentally because of all the crowding. But our image of them as the symbol of mindless followers really comes courtesy of Walt Disney, whose documentary "White Wilderness" includes footage of lemmings migrating and running head-long over a ledge. An investigation later showed that the Disney film makers faked the entire sequence using lemmings bought from Inuit children, a snow covered turntable on which a few dozen lemmings were forced to run, and literally throwing lemmings into the sea to show the alleged suicides.)
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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Mexico Assails U.S. Pols On Immigration
If YOU aren''t going to SHOW the comments? Are you afraid the citizens of America might PISSOFF the president of mexico by telling him he can take his 20 million ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS home? Are you concerned we, the citizens of America, might tell him if his CRIMINALS don''t want to be harassed they should SELF DEPORT? Why don''t you show the comment about these ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS and their sorry excuse for a president? What makes him think he can dictate ANYTHING to OUR COUNTRY when his country is so bad HIS people are leaving in droves?
When I consider the claim that we should give-up our civil liberties in order to protect ourselves from terrorism, or that we should pay a global Carbon Tax administered and enforced by the U.N. (one world government), because mankind is somehow to blame for global warming, two quotes come to mind:
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
- Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propagandist
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and those who would exploit our fear for power and their own personal, selfish, cynical gain."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
EARTH IS HEATING UP lately, but so are other planets in our solar system. It''s scientific fact. The sun''s increased activity links all of these warming events. Fluctuations in solar activity effect the climate on Earth and other planets, and always will. No reputable scientist could deny that increased Sun activity causes an uptick in Earth''s temperatures. Man''s impact on the planet is exaggerated. All 6 billion people on Earth could fit into an area no bigger than New England.
The Clinton campaign has admitted to planting questions at a college speaking engagement in Iowa. They have confirmed that a campaign staffer approached a student to ask Senator Clinton a question about global warming during a campaign stop in Newton, Iowa, on Nov. 6. The story was first reported by Patrick Caldwell, a junior at Grinnell College and the features editor of The Scarlet and Black college newspaper. He reported that student Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff was approached by the Clinton campaign to ask certain question about global warming and about the need for a global Carbon Tax. Gallo-Chasanoff also said that she "noted that staffers prompted Clinton to call on her and another student who had been approached before the event. Some of the questions asked were confusing and clearly off-message." Clinton Campaign spokesperson Mo Elleithee told ABC News that "on this occasion, a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Sen. Clinton''s global warming plan at a forum. This is not standard policy and will not be repeated again." The staffer still remains with the Clinton campaign, but they would not reveal the person''s name. The Clinton campaign refused to comment on whether this was the only time they have planted questions among audience members about the issue of global warming.
With the full support of Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, President Bush recently signed into Law the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which, according to Senator Leahy (VT), will actually "encourage the President to declare Martial Law." It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a Laws which limits the President''s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act, helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic Law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush has now undone all of those prohibitions. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which was signed by the President in an unpublicized ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency," suspend Congress; The Constitution; and to take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of your Governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder." President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act. The two Laws compliment one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad of those who dissent and are stripped of their citizenship, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home by allowing the President to order the military onto our streets in a domestic Law enforcement role, which is already being done. Vote for Liberty. Vote for Ron Paul.
My fellow Americans need to open their eyes to the fact that our Republic, along with The Constitution upon which it was founded, is being flushed-down the toilet by our nations'' bought and paid for politicians and media. While the Oligarchs warn and incite fear in the sheeple about the prospect of terrorism, they at the same time leave our borders wide open, and then conduct illegal wars overseas that do nothing but incite the terrorism which their Orwellian Laws like the Patriot Act and the John Warner Defense Authorization Act pretend to protect us from. Wake up America! It''s not about protecting you from terrorism, or Global Warming, or any of that other fear-mongering garbage the sold-out, mainstream media feeds you 24/7. It''s about feeding the bankers and the military industrial complex, and facilitating the global elite''s ability to ratchet-down control over the American people, placing us into a total control grid where they can surveille, track and control everywhere we go and everything we do. It''s the groundwork for tyranny. It''s the New World Order plan of Bush, Clinton, Edwards, McCain, Giuliani, et.al., being executed quite beautifully. You''re a frog in a pot: In order to cook a frog, you don''t throw him into a pot of boiling water. If you do, he''ll resist and jump-out. What you do instead is, you turn the heat-up REAL SLOW, and by the time the water is boiling, he won''t be able to jump out anymore, because it''s too late--he''s already doomed.
Consider the Patriot Act. The Law is 342 pages long, or 57,000 words, making it a bit longer than Dostoevsky''s "Notes from Underground" or, if you''re partial to pigs, about twice the size of Orwell''s "Animal Farm." The Patriot Act is the reigning champion of our government''s recent un-American activities. When it was first paraded before Congress and the Senate following the 9/11 attacks, few Members, other than Congressman, Ron Paul dared to vote against it. Most in Congress simply gave it their rubber-stamp of approval, without ever reading it. Why bother? It was, after all, named the "USA Patriot Act." It must be a good thing. Right? Now in effect, the Law wrecks a generation''s worth of constitutional protections against government snooping, legalizing police-state tactics in searches and seizures, criminalizing certain forms of speech and political activity, and opening the way for the mistreatment of foreigners in government custody and wholesale expulsions and imprisonment. It is a repugnant, unnecessary Law that goes against the very principles its name wrongly implies. Yet, it remains unchecked and unbalanced by public opinion, Lawmakers or the Courts. So, yes, we''re a nation of Laws. But the Laws aren''t much to speak of when they''re designed to hoodwink the public to win its docility. Neither is public responsibility much to speak of these days when its docility is secured with nothing more than a ploy-riddled play on the word "patriot."
Buried deep inside Military Commisions Act, which was FULLY SUPPORTED by Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, is a provision which pre-pardons President Bush and all the members of his administration for any crimes which they may have committed all the way back to September 11, 2001. Why that far back? That kind of makes you wonder. Huh? I can''t help but recall what Nixon said during an interview following the Watergate scandal when he said, "If the President does it, by definition, it''s not illegal." History never repeats itself, folks. It only rhymes. At least Nixon had enough class to wait for another President to pardon him for his crimes against our country. Bush apparently doesn''t want to take that chance. He has to consider the risk that Ron Paul will become our next President.
The John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which was supported by Clinton, Obama and McCain, permits militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters ("potential terrorists") and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities which are already contracted for and under construction by Kellog, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. This Law, which was sold to an "emergency managed" and willfully gullible public in the wake of the 9/11 attacks as a necessary measure needed by our President in order to fight his "global war on terrorism," permits the indefinite detention of American citizens who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of our President. The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International reported recently that global engineering and technical services powerhouse, Kellog, Brown & Root announced during January 2006 that its Government and Infrastructure division had been awarded a (no bid) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract to build these detainment camps with a maximum total value of $385 million over a five year term, and that this contract called for the company to build "temporary detention and processing capabilities" to augment existing U.S. government Detention and Removal Operations and to support "the rapid development of new programs." New Programs? Could it possibly get any worse? Why would the president be so concerned about Americans protesting? Aren''t we all happy campers?
Sadly, even though Clinton voted for the war in Iraq, and a host of Laws aimed at removing civil liberties; and our country''s sovereignty, Democrats are so blinded by her cult of personality that I predict they will overwhelmingly vote to put her crime family back into office. While I''ve made some progress in educating Liberals as to the phony staged consensus of the left-right paradigm, the fact remains that a majority of Democrats still see the White House as some kind of political Super Bowl, where the success of their "team" is the be all and end all - to the expense of America as a whole. The Punch and Judy show theater that was the "troop surge" debate in the Senate characterizes Hillary''s role in hoodwinking Americans perfectly. The debate is framed as not whether the U.S. should get out of the Middle-East altogether, but the relative minutia of whether to feed thousands of more troops into the meat grinder or not. A Clinton presidency will mean more war, more dead Americans, and a further desecration of the tattered shreds of what''s left of our Constitution. Clinton is the ultimate global elitist and represents the Democrats supposed base: the poor and downtrodden, about as much as Lindsay Lohan represents grace and dignity. I''m sure she informed the likes of David Rockefeller and Queen Beatrix as to her presidential aspirations during her last visit to attend the Bilderberger conference. Vote for a REAL AMERICAN. Vote for Ron Paul.
The Bilderberg Group is a secretive gathering of global power brokers, which includes Hillary Clinton, and a virtual who''s who of other folks whose names you will recognize (Search Wikipedia: "Bilderberg Attendees"), has inspired layers of ridicule. In recent times, the deeds laid at the group''s doorstep have included the creation of the EU, the Iraq war, and the group''s current efforts to create a North American Union, which will erase U.S. borders and sovereignty. Their agenda: economic and political domination; one world government; and world population reduction. After it was leaked that a speech by John Edwards at their meeting in Italy, was one reason for his selection as John Kerry''s vice-presidential running mate in 2000, people began to ask, "Are the Bilderbergers now shaping the worldwide political scene?" Over 130 of the world''s most powerful monarchs, politicians and business leaders attend the annual, invitation-only gatherings in order to to discuss and orchestrate public policy worldwide. The hotels involved are closed-off to other guests and reporters. Guards are placed around the perimeter, and attendees promise to keep quiet about what they hear and say. "They do not have to sign anything, but they understand that they do not talk," said Maja Banck-Polderman, the group''s Secretary. Tony Gosling, a British reporter who has followed the group says, "I think that a forum where so many rich and powerful people meet should be open to public scrutiny."
Ron Paul''s campaign has become a clearinghouse for voters like me who feel unrepresented by the Fascisct (globalist Republicans) and their Socialist comrades in crime (globalist Democrats). They''re actually one and the same. It''s all a phony, poorly staged left-right paradigm. Most people, though, are too distracted, dumbed-down, or outright brainwashed by mainstream media, which endlessly regurgitates scientifically-crafted streams of information aimed at keeping their eyes closed to the realities of the world around them, that they fail to recognize this. Those currently in power, and those being groomed to take [major] political power, are preselected by a "global elite," and whomever is eventually elected, will ultimately, serve their agenda, and not ours. People on the right and those on the left have many differences, maybe irreconcilable ones. But we have a lot of common beliefs too, and our numbers and anger are of a considerable magnitude. No matter what happens in 2008, I personally believe Ron Paul will influence the national conversation about how much power our government should have over our lives; how much liberty we should give up for security; and whether we should continue moving along our current path towards one world government. These are issues that, frankly, no one else is talking about as seriously and sincerely as Ron Paul. What''s for sure is that his growing army of supporters like me will be a vote to be reckoned with in 2008.
All of the trade deals and world government organizations, which all of the presidential candidates support (except Ron Paul), such as the ICC, NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA, are all a major threat to our nation''s sovereignty. They transfer power from our government to unelected foreign elites. The ICC wants to try our soldiers as war criminals. Both the WTO and CAFTA could force Americans to get a prescription to take herbs and vitamins. The WTO has forced Congress to change our laws to meet their needs, and not our own. If anything, the WTO makes trade relations worse by giving foreign competitors a new way to attack U.S. jobs. The NAFTA superhighway, being built by a Spanish company, is just one part of a plan to erase our borders and create the North American Union, a single nation State like the EU, out of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, with a new, unelected bureaucracy and money system. Forget about controlling immigration under the NAU scheme. There won''t be any borders anymore, or a free America. Our limited, constitutional government will be gone forever. Let''s not forget the UN either. It wants to impose a direct Carbon Tax on us. Ron Paul successfully fought this move in Congress last year, but if we are going to stop ongoing attempts of this world government body to rule over us, we need someone in the White House who knows how to say "No." We must withdraw from any organizations or treaty that infringes upon our nation''s sovereignty.
Some areas are having thier coldest weather on record.
But that goes against "The Consensus" and the beliefs of the Church Of Global Warming pastored by Father Algore, so you won''t read this on CBSNews:
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/reasonmclucus/november_2007/al_gore_wrong_again.htm
1950: 5000
2007: 25000
How much more evidence do we need for a CATASTROPHIC DECLINE in polar bear numbers caused by global warming?
:-):-):-):-):-):-):-)
I have checked and double-checked. There are no NUMERICAL typos in this Comment.
No.
No more Republicans.
Ever.
Dr. Paul switched parties to gain political capital. He switched religions for who knows what reason. He seems to be an opportunistic switcher, so who knows what else he has switched, and what will switch in the future.
The Clinton campaign has admitted to planting questions at a college speaking engagement in Iowa. They have confirmed that a campaign staffer approached a student to ask Senator Clinton a question about global warming during a campaign stop in Newton, Iowa, on Nov. 6. The story was first reported by Patrick Caldwell, a junior at Grinnell College and the features editor of The Scarlet and Black college newspaper. He reported that student Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff was approached by the Clinton campaign to ask certain question about global warming and about the need for a global Carbon Tax. Gallo-Chasanoff also said that she "noted that staffers prompted Clinton to call on her and another student who had been approached before the event. Some of the questions asked were confusing and clearly off-message." Clinton Campaign spokesperson Mo Elleithee told ABC News that "on this occasion, a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Sen. Clinton''s global warming plan at a forum. This is not standard policy and will not be repeated again." The staffer still remains with the Clinton campaign, but they would not reveal the person''s name. The Clinton campaign refused to comment on whether this was the only time they have planted questions among audience members about the issue of global warming.
My fellow Americans need to open their eyes to the fact that our Republic, along with The Constitution upon which it was founded, is being flushed-down the toilet by our nations'' bought and paid for politicians and media. While the Oligarchs warn and incite fear in the sheeple about the prospect of terrorism, they at the same time leave our borders wide open, and then conduct illegal wars overseas that do nothing but incite the terrorism which their Orwellian Laws like the Patriot Act and the John Warner Defense Authorization Act pretend to protect us from. Wake up America! It''s not about protecting you from terrorism, or Global Warming, or any of that other fear-mongering garbage the sold-out, mainstream media feeds you 24/7. It''s about feeding the bankers and the military industrial complex, and facilitating the global elite''s ability to ratchet-down control over the American people, placing us into a total control grid where they can surveille, track and control everywhere we go and everything we do. It''s the groundwork for tyranny. It''s the New World Order plan of Bush, Clinton, Edwards, McCain, Giuliani, et.al., being executed quite beautifully. You''re a frog in a pot: In order to cook a frog, you don''t throw him into a pot of boiling water. If you do, he''ll resist and jump-out. What you do instead is, you turn the heat-up REAL SLOW, and by the time the water is boiling, he won''t be able to jump out anymore, because it''s too late--he''s already doomed.
With the full support of Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, President Bush recently signed into Law the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which, according to Senator Leahy (VT), will actually "encourage the President to declare Martial Law." It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a Laws which limits the President''s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act, helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic Law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush has now undone all of those prohibitions. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which was signed by the President in an unpublicized ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency," suspend Congress; The Constitution; and to take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of your Governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder." President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act. The two Laws compliment one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad of those who dissent and are stripped of their citizenship, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home by allowing the President to order the military onto our streets in a domestic Law enforcement role, which is already being done. Vote for Liberty. Vote for Ron Paul.
Buried deep inside Military Commisions Act, which was FULLY SUPPORTED by Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, is a provision which pre-pardons President Bush and all the members of his administration for any crimes which they may have committed all the way back to September 11, 2001. Why that far back? That kind of makes you wonder. Huh? I can''t help but recall what Nixon said during an interview following the Watergate scandal when he said, "If the President does it, by definition, it''s not illegal." History never repeats itself, folks. It only rhymes. At least Nixon had enough class to wait for another President to pardon him for his crimes against our country. Bush apparently doesn''t want to take that chance. He has to consider the risk that Ron Paul will become our next President.
Sadly, even though Clinton voted for the war in Iraq, and a host of Laws aimed at removing civil liberties; and our country''s sovereignty, Democrats are so blinded by her cult of personality that I predict they will overwhelmingly vote to put her crime family back into office. While I''ve made some progress in educating Liberals as to the phony staged consensus of the left-right paradigm, the fact remains that a majority of Democrats still see the White House as some kind of political Super Bowl, where the success of their "team" is the be all and end all - to the expense of America as a whole. The Punch and Judy show theater that was the "troop surge" debate in the Senate characterizes Hillary''s role in hoodwinking Americans perfectly. The debate is framed as not whether the U.S. should get out of the Middle-East altogether, but the relative minutia of whether to feed thousands of more troops into the meat grinder or not. A Clinton presidency will mean more war, more dead Americans, and a further desecration of the tattered shreds of what''s left of our Constitution. Clinton is the ultimate global elitist and represents the Democrats supposed base: the poor and downtrodden, about as much as Lindsay Lohan represents grace and dignity. I''m sure she informed the likes of David Rockefeller and Queen Beatrix as to her presidential aspirations during her last visit to attend the Bilderberger conference. Vote for a REAL AMERICAN. Vote for Ron Paul.
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