Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Shameless Forbes' James Taylor - misrepresents Moore tornado - fuels myth

Forbes' James Taylor has written another case study in denialist dirty tricks with his:
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Forbes.com  |  James Taylor  |  5/22/2013  
After Oklahoma City Tragedy, Shameless Politicians Unsheath Global Warming Card
James wrote:  "Not 24 hours passed from the time a devastating tornado ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, killing at least 24 people including eight children, until shameless global warming activists in Congress began exploiting the grief and pain of a devastated community to tell an idiotic tale of global warming causing tornadoes. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), shame on you for being such hard-hearted and factually ignorant vultures preying on other people’s misery. 
Before we even get to the objective facts regarding global warming and tornadoes, can we at least respect the human tragedy in Oklahoma and give victims a few days to grieve before we try to politicize their pain? Literally minutes after the F5 tornado devastated Moore, Whitehouse rushed out to the cameras to blame “polluters,” “deniers” and Republicans for the Oklahoma tornado..."
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It's incredible listening to James Taylor trumpet "sense of decency" then dive right into malicious manipulation of the facts for ruthless political ends.

Where does simple honesty, or fairplay, fit into Mr. Taylor's world view?


For the record, which can be found at: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/transcript/transcript.php?id=218984 - Senator Whitehouse's gave his standard climate speech, the one he's made more than 30 times already, before he had any knowledge of the Moore catastrophe!  But, Heartland's James Taylor {Along with WUWT's Anthony Watts, and others} is the type who seems only interested in demonizing - learning and developing genuine understanding have always been the last thing he wants to focus on. 



Get it Taylor?  The Senator didn't "rush out to the cameras" he was giving his usual speech on the floor of the nearly empty Senate Chamber.  


Why all the Heartland melodrama?  Could it be because the last question James Taylor and others of his persuasion want to consider are important ones that the Senator is trying to force Republicans to face and answer?


"How wise is it for the Republican Party to wed itself to the deniers and proclaim that climate change is a hoax?  
"Make no mistake, that is the Republican position. The consensus Republican position and the default Republican position is that climate change is a hoax. It has been said right on this floor and in committees and, as far as I know, not one Republican Senator has stood afterwards in this Chamber to say: Wait a minute. Not so fast..."
Mr Taylor why must you play the snake oil salesman with your disregard for the long-term damage your misrepresentation will inflict?  What are you thinking? How do you imagine this ends?  {Ironically, the article title doesn't even get the name of the city right.}

In any event, here is the beginning of Senator Whitehouse's speech, (for the entire speech link here).  Buried near the end of the full speech are a couple references to the state of Oklahoma, but lets keep in mind Oklahoma is the heart of Tornado Alley, and the Senator included other states, with their particular weather issues, in those sentences also.  Nothing in there in any way resembles a reference to the unfolding tragedy.
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Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island
C-Span4:31:02 PM (02:31:08)
15 minutes

Mr. Whitehouse: "Madam President, every week that we are here, I try to remind the body of the damage carbon pollution is doing to our atmosphere and oceans, try to awaken us to our duty. I have done it more than 30 times now. I have tried to kick out the underpinnings of any argument that the deniers could stand on. [Page: S3596]


I have kicked out the scientific so-called denial argument, which actually properly belongs in the category of falsehood, not argument. I have kicked out the economic denial argument, pointing out that in a proper market, the costs of carbon must be in the price of carbon. I even tried to kick out the religious denial argument, showing that the belief that God will just tidy up after us, however stupidly we behave, runs counter to history and counter to Biblical text.


So today let's take a crack at the political argument. How wise is it for the Republican Party to wed itself to the deniers and proclaim that climate change is a hoax?


Make no mistake, that is the Republican position. The consensus Republican position and the default Republican position is that climate change is a hoax. It has been said right on this floor and in committees and, as far as I know, not one Republican Senator has stood afterwards in this Chamber to say: Wait a minute. Not so fast. That is actually not the case. 

Any Republican Senator who disagrees, please, come to the floor and articulate a Republican position other than that climate change is a hoax.


This Chamber looks relatively empty, but on C-SPAN lots of people are watching, and lots of Republicans are watching. Yet not one Republican, over all 30 speeches, has ever gotten back to me, even quietly on the side, to say: You know what. This is really getting serious. Let's see if we can work on this together.


An iron curtain of denial has fallen around the Republican Party. So let me respectfully ask my Republican colleagues: What are you thinking? How do you imagine this ends?


More than 95 percent of climate scientists are convinced that human carbon pollution is causing massive and unprecedented changes to our atmosphere and oceans. You want to go with the 5 percent, and you think that is going to be a winning strategy? ... "   Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
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For those who are interested in learning what the scientists themselves have to say here are links to a collection of excellent videos and lectures that explain why scientists understand what they do regarding our climate.



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