Rep. Joe Barton, best known for his groveling apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward at the height of the Gulf oil disaster, says the rules don't apply to him - he wants an exemption to committee chairmanship term limit rules so he can once again chair the House Energy & Commerce Committee in 2011.
His fight against Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) is looking increasingly quixotic. How bad is it? Just look at the members standing by him:
USA Today ventured into investigative journalism in covering plagiarism in the Wegman report, which was commissioned by Texas Republican Joe Barton in 2006 when he was chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The USA story was covered in detail in a diary by Keith Pickering. However, plagiarism is really the tip of the proverbial iceberg in the Wegman report.
Barton and staff brushed off the plagiarism in the Wegman report, claiming the conclusions were valid.
Lisa Miller, a spokeswoman for Barton, reiterated the congressman's support of the Wegman report on Monday, saying it "found significant statistical issues" with climate studies.
False. Absolutely false.
Who knew Al Gore didn't invent man made global warming created by greenhouse gases as part of a scheme to destroy America and mach himself and a few greedy scientists rich? Well, Scientists back in the 1950's knew, that's who. When Al Gore was 8 years old this news recording was made demonstrating a John Hopkin's physicist, Gilbert Plass, was already speaking out about global warming as a result of industrial activity. Here's a GE radio show explaining Plass' research:
Everybody expects there will be a host of Congressional subpoenas flying as soon as the next Congress is seated to investigate -- whatever. And first up to feel the wrath of the coming Republican inquisition may very well be any scientist who works in the field of climate science.
According to Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic, the House Republicans, likely led by Joe Barton, ranking member of the Energy Committee and its presumptive new Chair, or Darell Issa, intends to hold hearing to investigate scientific fraud concerning global warming.
Climate science is a major front in the Republican war on science. In fact, rejection of climate science is a policy requirement to be a Republican running for elected office. Ronald Brownstein nicely summarizes the zealotry of Republicans in climate change denial in the National Journal.
Indeed, it is difficult to identify another major political party in any democracy as thoroughly dismissive of climate science as is the GOP here.
Virginia provides a perfect example for how extreme Republicans have become in their war on climate science. Last Monday, Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli announced that he was continuing his witch hunt against climate scientist Michael Mann. A funny thing happened a few days later. George Mason University finally admitted publicly that a misconduct investigation was underway on Edward Wegman whose 2006 report to Congress is the basis for Cuccinelli's harassment of Michael Mann.
As British Petroleum begins the process of silencing any criticism of the mess made by their reckless negligence I’ve been hearing about water pollution problems from DailyKos members that span the spectrum; our increasing desperation for gas, oil, and coal are liable to wreck the country’s groundwater for future generations.
I’d like to share what I’ve found and ask your assistance in stopping it.
All good right wingers know that Global Warming is a Hoax. Right? Damn right!
As a matter of fact, it is the greatest hoax known to mankind according to some of the zanier folks out there. In fact, not only is global warming fake, we may be headed for a period of global cooling, some say – like Smokey Joe Barton (R-TX) for example.
Unfortunately, for wingers and ol’ Smokey Joe, vast numbers of Tricksy Liberal Scientists refute these arguments (e.g., global cooling) by using actual science and facts and other elitist tricks to show the rise of world wide temperature. But rest assured, once Smokey Joe regains his seat as the Chairman of the House Energy Committee (if you don't do your job this November), he'll blow the lid of this great global conspiracy.
Fortunately for you, you can learn who is involved in this GLOBAL global warming conspiracy just by clicking the link below.
By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger
President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders spent this week trying to stand up to the oil industry. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama pushed BP to siphon $20 billion into a escrow fund that will cover liability claims, and Congress grilled BP CEO Tony Hayward and other oil bigwigs as to how they were protecting the country’s coastal waters.
This is good. We need to attack and attack Republicans on this.
Statement by the Press Secretary on Congressman Joe Barton's Apology to BP
"What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a 'tragedy', but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments."