(crossposted at five before chaos)

Now, I’m not trying to be a jerk or aggressive here because I really like her personally, but Charity’s blog, She’s Right, has been the gift that keeps on giving lately. I read about her announcement about an S. Fred Singer, PhD, who is giving a talk at UVM on March 28th at 7 pm in the Ira Allen Chapel, called, “500-Year Natural Cycle or Disaster Of Our Own Doing? – A look at the science and politics of global warming”. So considering the source and the coded wording, my bullshit detector started beeping, so it was time to dig around.

See, Dr. Singer’s got quite the career of being a p.r. hack for big, harmful corporations. He first rose to prominence as a a flack for big tobacco:

Singer has been accused of conflicts of interest, most notably involving financial ties to oil and tobacco companies. In 1993 APCO, a public relations firm, sent a memo to Philip Morris to vice-president Ellen Merlo stating: “As you know, we have been working with Dr. Fred Singer and Dr. Dwight Lee, who have authored articles on junk science and indoor air quality (IAQ) respectively …”

The 1994 AdTI report was part of an attack on EPA regulation of environmental tobacco smoke funded by the Tobacco Institute. Singer was also involved with the International Center for a Scientific Ecology, a group that was considered important in Philip Morris’ plans to create a group in Europe similar to The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC). Singer is also a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, another recipient of Philip Morris and ExxonMobil funds.

A nonsmoker himself, Singer serves on the Science Advisory Board of the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). The ACSH strongly opposes smoking but otherwise tends to support industry positions on health issues, for example downplaying risks associated with dioxin, asbestos, and other carcinogenic materials.

This guy’s a bad dude. But there’s more. His foundations and work have been funded by hard-right ideologue Richard Mellon Scaife, and also by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s organization. He has played a pivotal role in the above mentioned TASSC, whose main purpose was to spread the idea of environmental science as being ‘junk science’.  He was also in the employ of the Tobacco Institute’s ‘Whitecoats Project’, their effort to discredit the environmental risks of tobacco smoke with the use of scientists. Although it’s a lengthy read, there’s a huge study of this here, if you’re more interested. It’s amazing, the depth and breadth that these people went to do this.

So, that’ s just tobacco. Singer’s been at the forefront of global warming denial, not surprising, considering just about everything the man has done on the subject has been funded (here, here, and here) in one way or another by the big polluting and petrochemical companies.

But aside from that, he can’t even get the science right. Contrary to the evidence, he claims that the glaciers are advancing (not retreating as they have been since about 1850). And the one article he used as a source for that information was found not to even exist, by journalist George Monbiot. Needless to say, if you read even some of what I’ve pointed you too, it’s obvious where this man’s interests really lie. His rhetoric is typical right-wing bullshit that could have come from Townhall.com or FoxNews. Also, from the above Exxon Secrets site you can get a taste… tell me if you haven’t heard this all before, such as the ‘Global Warming is Good For You ‘ argument…

Or the ‘Al Gore’s Nefarious Liberal Agenda’ conspiracy (and he trusts the judgment of Bush if that tells you anything)…

“The irony is that there is no convincing evidence that the global climate is actually warming…Mr Gore and company are stirring the pot, trying to create public anxiety in order to impose a form of energy rationing on the economy – like the recently defeated Senate bill of McCain-Lieberman, which would have forced a cap on emissions, equivalent to an energy tax. President George W. Bush has termed such a policy ‘fatally flawed’.”
Source: “Climate concern is just a tax ruse,” Financial Times 11/26/03

So his little propaganda speech may be interesting, no? Now, why do I keep bringing this up? Because one of the typical whines from the right-wingers on global warming is that we’re not ‘allowing a debate’, similar to the argument Intelligent Design advocates make (when in actuality, there is no ‘debate’ in the scientific community – there’s an overwhelming consensus in regards to ID not being science). But here’s my point- Why is it that it seems like every single person that they present either has major ties and funding to the polluting industries, presents faulty/incorrect data, or both? Why is that?

Well, apparently, there’s a whole ‘industry of denial’ built up around debunking global warming. In last year’s ‘Heat’, by George Monbiot, he meticulously connects the dots and lays it all out, beginning with this:

ExxonMobil is the world’s most profitable corporation. Its sales now amount to more than $1bn a day. It makes most of this money from oil, and has more to lose than any other company from efforts to tackle climate change. To safeguard its profits, ExxonMobil needs to sow doubt about whether serious action needs to be taken on climate change. But there are difficulties: it must confront a scientific consensus as strong as that which maintains that smoking causes lung cancer or that HIV causes Aids. So what’s its strategy?

And part of that strategy?

On the whole, they use selection, not invention. They will find one contradictory study – such as the discovery of tropospheric cooling, which, in a garbled form, has been used by Peter Hitchens in the Mail on Sunday – and promote it relentlessly. They will continue to do so long after it has been disproved by further work. So, for example, John Christy, the author of the troposphere paper, admitted in August 2005 that his figures were incorrect, yet his initial findings are still being circulated and championed by many of these groups, as a quick internet search will show you.

He also mentions that bogus Oregon Petition that Vermont’s own blowhard corporate apologist, John McLaughry, has cited as a credible source. As one who holds science as one of humanity’s best accomplishments and ways of finding the truth, believe me, I really do want a scientist to come forward with a compelling argument. But it seems impossible to find one that isn’t tainted in one way or another. And it bears repeating: when reality has such a tendency to contradict much of one’s worldview, sometimes the only way to deal with it is to make up an alternate one. And that seems to be what many (but most definitely not all) conservatives are doing.

If you’re interested more on what organizations are funded by the industry, have a look at ‘Global Warming Skeptics: A Primer’.

UPDATE:  Whoa, it seems there actually might be some truth to the ‘Al Gore global warming conspiracy’.

This Saturday morning, Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin (D-Windham) will address the Democratic State Committee – where he will discuss one of the most important issues facing our country – the Constitutional crisis posed by an out of control President.

Senator Peter Shumlin may discuss other topics as well – such as the property taxes that affect us all, but he also plans to ask the committee to urge the legislature to begin the solemn process of repairing the US Constitution. For this, he will ask the committee to urge the legislature to transmit an impeachment resolution to the US house.

Senator Shumlin has opened a dialog with House Leader Gaye Symington (D-Jericho), urging her to let the bill (which seems to be under lock-down) in the House Judiciary Committee to come to the floor.

Follow me below the fold…

The following resolution is on the agenda for the State Democratic Committee meeting:

WHEREAS, on April 8, 2006 the Vermont Democratic State Committee by unanimous vote adopted a resolution calling for the impeachment, trial and removal from office of George W. Bush, President of the United States, and directing the State Committee Secretary to send the resolution to the Vermont General Assembly for “appropriate action”, and

WHEREAS, twenty-one members of the Vermont House, including many Democrats, are co-sponsoring Joint Resolution 15 (JRH 15) that incorporates substantially most of the April 8, 2006 State Committee resolution, and

WHEREAS,  on February 15, 2007 JRH 15 was referred to the House Judiciary Committee where it awaits action, and

WHEREAS, on March 6, 2007 more than three dozen Vermont towns passed resolutions calling for the impeachment, trial and removal of George W. Bush as President of the United States, and

WHEREAS, the State Committee recognizes that a President can abuse his or her authority and power, thereby oppressing the people, diminishing
their liberties, imperiling their lives and impoverishing their substance in illegal wars and conflicts, all in subversion  of the Constitution and the rule of law, and

WHEREAS such abuses and subversions can, and should, be checked and restrained by the Constitutional engine and remedy of impeachment,

NOW THEREFORE, the Vermont Democratic State Committee strongly supports and advocates, as “appropriate action” early passage of JRH 15 for the State of Vermont, under Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of Parliamentary Practice, for the US House of Representatives to submit as soon as possible impeachment charges against George W. Bush for his trial and removal as President of the United States.

There will likely be a friendly amendment when it’s introduced, adding Vice President Cheney to the list of impeachable characters.

The bill in the House had an identical twin sitting ready in the Senate (it’s a joint resolution – meaning it comes from both halves of the legislature).

Oddly enough, THAT version has also been stuffed into committee to die with no action.

The committee chairs in both houses swear they will not let the resolution see the light of day. They will not allow the people we elected to discuss and vote on this essential piece of legislation, legislation that the people of Vermont asked them to write.

Rumor has it that the pressure on them has come from above – Senators Leahy and Sanders, who have served us so well at the national level over the years, don’t want to have to deal with the messy process of permanently ending the precedents set by this President. Precedents such as:

• Invention of the Magical Signing Statement Pen – which Mr. Bush believes gives him the power to legislate from the oval office, even though the Constitution says that’s illegal.
• Ignoring Article 6 of the Constitution, which turns any treaty we sign – even the Geneva Conventions against torture – into Federal Law.
• Taking away the right to freedom of speech, having people arrested or barred from events because of the words on a shirt, or the bumper stickers on a car, or the political party to which they belong.
• Taking away the right to freedom of assembly, by stuffing people in to mini-prisons, and insultingly calling them “free speech zones.”
• Taking away not just the right to a speedy trial, not just the right to a trial by a jury of your peers, but your right to a trial at all, your right to know the charges against you, and your right to see or hear the evidence against you.
• Taking away your right to privacy, and worse doing so in direct violation of the law that was passed in direct after Nixon’s out-of-control spying on innocent people, and even worse, doing so intentionally, and even worse, when he got caught, saying he’ll continue to break the law.
• Diverting troops and funds from a war to capture those who attacked us to a new one against innocents, killing and wounding thousands upon thousands, and causing grave injury to our Democracy.
• And so much more …

As a matter of fact, there are so many ways in which this President has violated the law and threatened the Constitution – the only protection between us and dictatorship – that entire books are required to catalog them all.

Some are afraid that using tough love on President Temper-Tantrum will be unpopular, that it could cost them votes. But in those places around the country where a few brave souls ran for office with a “get tough” stance, they’ve won. Even in our neighboring red state, New Hampshire, the “Live Free or Die” state, Carol-Shea Porter handily beat Jean Shaheen, her much better funded Democratic opponent. Shea-Porter beat the candidate who played it safe, the one followed the conventional wisdom that said “don’t stand strong against this President.”

It turns out that the “wisdom” derived from fear was unwise. The people see what the media doesn’t report. The talking heads on TV may spin and smear, but they DO NOT speak for us.

So thank you to Peter Shumlin for taking a stand against the very conventional “wisdom” that failed Jean Shaheen, is failing our legislators, and is failing our country.

Speaker Symington needs to let the existing bill out of committee, allow the House to vote on it, and get the little waiver needed to send it to the Senate.

In the House, Representative David Zuckerman (P-Burlington) is advocating for the bill to be released from committee. The bill in that body needs to also emerge for a vote.

And then the Joint Resolution needs to be sent to our Freshman Congressman, Peter Welch, who can take his place in history, by beginning the process of healing our wounded Democracy.

It’s time to put this administration on the short leash.