The Bush administration has again been charged with interfering with federal climate science, in order to underplay the significance of global warming. In a continuing investigation, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held its second hearing on the issue on Monday. Documents "appear to portray a systematic White House effort to minimise the significance of climate change", said a memo released by the committee. The committee heard from James Hansen, the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and one of the first scientists to warn of the threat of climate change. In written testimony, Hansen said: "In my more than three decades in government, I have never seen anything approaching the degree to which information flow from scientists to the public has been screened and controlled as it has now." In a 10-year policy plan, Cooney and Brian Hannegan, also at CEQ, made at least 181 edits to emphasise scientific uncertainty regarding the effects of climate change and 113 changes to minimise the importance of human contributions to global warming, according to the committee's memo. For example, Cooney replaced "will" with "may" in the sentence: "Warming temperatures will also affect Arctic land areas." He also deleted this sentence: "Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment." For the full ugly story Click Here . And some people wonder why I recoil in disgust at the abuse of science.

From the link:

"Before he joined the White House, Cooney was a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, and he now works for the oil giant ExxonMobil."

And we were discussing predictability?

Gotta love that guy Hansen. I can just HEAR George W saying "Put a muzzle on these guys". But don't anybody here at Science A-Go-Go act shocked, now. GW is a liar. A good, old fashioned Texas Liar (Pronounced "Lah-er" as in "Texas Laher") Mark my words one day soon we'll hear GW say, "Read my lips..."
See, when he said "Failure is not an option", he meant Failure is the Condition.

The upcoming Election is HUGE.

RE link below:

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:
Committee Examines Political Interference with Climate Science

- see 'Documents and Links' (they're Adobe pdf format)

http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1214

Excerpt from Hansen's testimony:

'Another staff member had to attend a "practice" press conference, in which he was asked whether anything could be done to stem accelerating loss of sea ice. When he suggested ?we could reduce emissions of greenhouse gases? he was told sternly ?that?s unacceptable!? '

When you read through this, the repression hits you. I was under the misapprehension that this kind of thing was a KGB monopoly. What happened to the leadership of the free world?

That was forfeit sometime around the time Ronald Reagan became President.

Leadership with Alzheimer's.

Wolfman wrote:

'one day soon we'll hear GW say, "Read my lips..."'

I was in the US just before George senior's inauguration. He'd said several times during the campaign, "I will not raise taxes. Watch my lips". I was running around asking everyone, "How do you know when a politician's lying?" Most people didn't seem to get the connection.

DA wrote:

"That was forfeit sometime around the time Ronald Reagan became President."

No. It probably goes back a lot further. People don't usually go into politics for altruistic reasons. They go in to do what they and their mates decide would be best for the section of the comunity they represent. Presumably it has always been so, even in the most enlightened democracies.