global warming update: taxes raised, Soros funding research, etc...

my roomie (who is some sort of researcher...a lot of chemistry and biology) and i got into a big fight the other night about whose opinion you should trust regarding the science behind global warming. his argument, as expected, was that scientists funded by corporate interests could not be trusted, because the lack of peer review made their findings suspect at best, and completely made up at worst.

they have a "political agenda", you see...

could it be that perhaps they're not the only ones with an agenda? from the Investor's Business Daily:

How many people, for instance, know that James Hansen, a man billed as a lonely "NASA whistleblower" standing up to the mighty U.S. government, was really funded by Soros' Open Society Institute , which gave him "legal and media advice"?

That's right, Hansen was packaged for the media by (George) Soros' flagship "philanthropy," by as much as $720,000, most likely under the OSI's "politicization of science" program.

That may have meant that Hansen had media flacks help him get on the evening news to push his agenda and lawyers pressuring officials to let him spout his supposedly "censored" spiel for weeks in the name of advancing the global warming agenda.

Hansen even succeeded, with public pressure from his nightly news performances, in forcing NASA to change its media policies to his advantage. Had Hansen's OSI-funding been known, the public might have viewed the whole production differently. The outcome could have been different.

that's a NASA employee being paid almost 3/4 of a million dollars to propagandize one side of the issue. i'd pay good money to the "peer review" on his research...well, i'd maybe spend an hour or so googling it...whatever. my whole point was that scientists on the government dole have exactly the same motivation for biased research as those employed by private industry...they have to produce results which make their work seem worthwhile. plus, in my opinion, they have extra incentive to slant their findings...as long as they can keep this "crisis" going, they'll have job security and an ever-expanding budget. they're just like any other government employee i know, and i know PLENTY. they all talk about how at the end of the quarter they've got to start using everything up, or outright stealing stuff so they can justify the requests for increases in the grants. then they just sit around, playing on the internet, coming and going as they please...with that kind of cushy work, who the hell can blame them for not going against the party line?

this whole global warming just smells more and more like an attempt at a political power grab. from an interview with Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich) in the washington post:

"This is going to cause pain," he said, adding that he wants to make certain "the pain is shared in a way that is fair, proper, acceptable and accomplishes the basic purpose" of reducing greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.

according to Dingell, who is the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, it has to "cause pain" to be taken seriously. some of his proposals:

_A 50-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline and jet fuel, phased in over five years, on top of existing taxes.

_A tax on carbon, at $50 a ton, released from burning coal, petroleum or natural gas.

_Phaseout of the interest tax deduction on home mortgages for homes over 3,000 square feet. Owners would keep most of the deduction for homes at the lower end of the scale, but it would be eliminated entirely for homes of 4,200 feet or more.

He estimates that would affect 10 percent of homeowners. He says "it's only fair" to tax those who buy large suburban houses and create urban sprawl. Historic and farm houses would be exempted.

Some of the revenue would be used to reduce payroll taxes, but most would go elsewhere including for highway construction, mass transit, paying for Social Security and health programs and to help the poor pay energy bills.

amazing solutions...all of them. it's so amazing what raising taxes can do to solve problems. and, as a bonus, it's a "soak the rich" solution! what a genius!

i'm still waiting for my global warming buddies to tell me what the IDEAL temperature is. is it cooler than it is RIGHT NOW? WHAT IS IT???



more on the history of James Hansen...

climate research scientist Roy Spencer (works for NASA, too) on his theory that climate change could have much more to do w/precipitation than human behavior...

hurricane expert Bill Gray in the Washington Post:

"I am of the opinion that this is one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people"