Indonesia's "Tree Man" is once again battling bark-like growths that threaten to cover his body just months after surgery gave him back the ability to enjoy a smoke / Getty Images
Man admits incest after 30-year ordeal
A MAN accused of fathering four children with his own daughter has pleaded guilty to 13 charges.
Mother tweets while her son dies
A MOTHER has caused uproar after posting updates on Twitter as her son is resuscitated.
Australian Tax Office's Wikipedia bungle
THE Tax Office faces international embarrassment after it cited Wikipedia in a critical ruling.
A mysterious Sin City gambler wants to donate his winnings to help needy people facing hard times and big debts — and you could be next.
Clinton Pledges $100B Carrot
With climate talks seemingly back on track, secretary of state says the U.S. will join other rich countries in raising $100B a year to help poor nations battle global warming
Fierce Liberals Ready to 'Fight'
Outrage over Senate health reform bill mounts amid warnings that version creeping toward a vote won't survive
NFL Star's Tragic End
Bengals receiver Chris Henry dies one day after he was injured in domestic dispute with his fiancee
Dam deaths dad home for Xmas
DAD whose sons drowned in a dam will be free for Christmas and mum's compensation is frozen.
Call to cut highway speed limit
REDUCING the speed limit by 10 kilometres on poorly maintained highways reduces the risk of serious crashes by 32 per cent.
Drug gangs buy clubs in hot spots
A GANG of wealthy criminals with mafia cocaine cartel links has bought nightclubs in Australia's most popular spots.
Principals win right to expel problem kids
PRINCIPALS will be given new powers to expel problem pupils following hundreds of violent attacks in classrooms this year.
Fires rage in NSW, ease in Victoria
THE sunburnt country beloved of poet Dorothea Mackellar is burning, from the sweeping plains to the rugged mountain ranges.
Bush fire donations rot in storage
TONNES of food, clothing and other vital goods donated to bushfire survivors are rotting away unused in a warehouse.
Labor has a day at The Office
THE new Premier's first caucus meeting did not feature Ricky Gervais from The Office as a guest, but the spirit of his character David Brent was present.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Locking Down the Last Votes!
As Dems fight to seal the deal, who's in, who's out and who's still walking the line? Former Governor Mitt Romney breaks down the bitter battle!
===
Your World Exclusive!
Fmr. Australian P.M. John Howard reacts to the climate change debate. Why he claims it's all a smokescreen for a high tax agenda.
===
Guest: Megyn Kelly
Students fight for the right to be mean! Megyn reacts to the judge's decision.
===
The Health Care Battle
Is America's health care overhaul about to go through? Greta gets answers.
=== Comments ===
When accepting the Nobel Prize last week, President Obama said, "Those regimes that break the rules must be held accountable. Sanctions must exact a real price. Intransigence must be met with increased pressure." He later identified Burma's military dictatorship as a regime that should be held accountable for violation of international law.
We are building global support for the Burmese regime to finally be held accountable for destroying 3,500 ethnic villages, raping thousands of women with complete impunity, and recruiting 90,000 child soldiers. After years of systematic attacks, we are closer than ever to coordinated, global action against the Burmese regime for their war crimes and crimes against humanity.
A letter that we helped organize from 442 Members of the Parliaments from 29 countries around the world calling for the UN Security Council to set up a Commission of Inquiry into the Burmese regime's human rights violations was released at a press conference in Japan last week.
Since publicly launching this campaign last spring we have accrued a number of important supporters including, 14 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, 2 former Human Rights Rapporteurs to Burma, 55 members of Congress, 5 internationally renowned judges, and most recently 442 global MPs.
But we are not there yet. President Obama has yet to endorse a Commission of Inquiry. The UN Security Council has yet to introduce this measure. We must continue to press the Obama administration to hold the Burmese regime accountable and move the UN Security Council forward. The time for impunity in Burma is over.
As we enter the holiday season, everyone at USCB remains grateful for the ability to work on the first global, coordinated campaign to finally bring the Burmese regime to justice.
We hope that you enjoy spending your holidays in the safety of your home surrounded by your family. We hope that you will support our campaign to make sure that all citizens of Burma will be able to join us by celebrating their own holidays in peace and security.
Sincerely,
Aung Din
Executive Director
U.S. Campaign for Burma
Please make your holiday gift today -- Donate Here
Support 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma:
Become a member of the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
Or, make a tax-deductible donation today.
===
Partying With the President While Health Care Reform Gets Closer
By Bill O'Reilly
Tuesday night I was fortunate enough to be invited to the White House media Christmas party, or as they say in San Francisco, the "holiday party."
This is the fourth time I have attended the annual event, and I believe it's a privilege to go to the White House any time.
The president and first lady were very gracious to me. This is the first time I have spoken to Michelle Obama, and I was impressed. She is charismatic, articulate and beautiful. The president and first lady could not have been nicer to everybody.
The first Obama Christmas party was less crowded than last year, which of course was hosted by President and Mrs. Bush. Looking around, the decorations were not as elaborate and the tone of the party more subdued. I think that was calculated because of the recession. Nevertheless, everybody seemed to have a good time and there was good cheer in the air.
The president may have been feeling well because it looks like Obamacare will pass in a modified version. As we predicted here, there will not be a public option; that is a government-run insurance company which would badly damage private insurance companies. There will also not be expanded Medicare entitlements.
Most Americans want good health care for themselves and their fellow citizens, and I hope this enormous bill will provide that. But it is a hope. Nobody knows for sure what will happen. What we do know is that it will cost trillions of dollars, money the USA does not have.
Since the Democrats took over Congress in 2007, government spending has risen almost 23 percent. America is now poised to owe $14 trillion. That is dangerous because nobody's going to feel well if the country goes bankrupt.
President Obama must make fiscal responsibility his top priority for the next three years. If the world loses confidence in America's financial position, we will have a far worse recession than we have now.
Congress cannot continue to ram through spending measures the country cannot pay for. With the exception of defense, all programs should immediately be cut by 10 percent. That would send a message and perhaps lift the president's approval rating, which Rasmussen reports is now just 44 percent among likely voters.
If we the people do not live within our means, we are punished and we could go bankrupt.
President Obama and Congress should live by the same rules we live by. Don't spend what you don't have. That's the most important Christmas gift our leaders could ever give us.
===
CATTLE ESSENTIAL
Tim Blair
So cows aren’t the problem after all – in fact, they’re the solution:
Last month, environmental scientist Tim Flannery debunked a lot of the common arguments used against livestock in the carbon and climate debate at an environmental forum in Sydney.Interesting. An earlier report from the same event:
Instead he said large animals like cattle and sheep were essential to restoring the health of the planet and reducing greenhouse gas levels … Dr Flannery said large farm animals helped retain fertility in the land and recycled carbon.
The forum at which Mr Flannery was speaking last week was organised by Meat and Livestock Australia in a move to get on to the front foot in the increasingly noisy debate about whether people should become vegetarians to save the planet … There was general agreement with Professor Flannery …Over to you, vegenoids.
===
FLIGHT OF THE CONBORES
Tim Blair
All aboard for Hopenchangin:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a large delegation on at least two Air Force jets to Copenhagen for the climate summit – where participants harshly condemn the use of jet airplanes for the high amounts of CO2 they emit …Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s plane to the same destination was delayed when a trolley ran into it. Which is more or less what Copenhagen represents for Australian tourism:
“Climate change is a religion for them, so there was no way they were going to miss this,” said one top GOP aide. “This is their Hajj.”
Imposing climate change taxes on international air travel, as proposed at the Copenhagen climate summit, would be devastating for Australia’s $89 billion tourism industry, the nation’s top tourism lobby group has warned …That’s nice of him. No flights for you, little Gracie. Oh, and the next time you write to the PM, please ask him how much all of this will cost you. Because Aunty Julia doesn’t want to say.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has offered only partial backing for the proposed tax on aviation.
UPDATE. An unhappy Copenhagen travel development:
A 70-year-old retired priest and green campaigner who cycled to the world climate change summit in Copenhagen has died in his sleep after arriving there.Sad. In his case, flying may have proved more sustainable.
UPDATE II. Behold the Essex Six, who ask that you honk to stop global warming. Which means you’re driving a car at the time. They haven’t really thought this through.
===
BAGS OF MONEY
Tim Blair
Following SA’s example, the Northern Territory government takes action against plastic bags:
The South Australian Government introduced a similar ban in April and the major grocery stores started selling 15c reusable plastic bags.And how did that work out?
In the first two months, grocery-giant Woolworths sold 400,000 bags - making $60,000.Wait a second. Wasn’t Woolworths the target of Kevin Rudd’s price justice plan? And now green policies have delivered the grocery giant a minor windfall? Just another example of unintended consequences.
===
NEWS & VIEWS
Tim Blair
In today’s Daily Telegraph: academic and ALP member Nick Dyrenfurth calls for federal intervention in NSW politics, and the IPA’s Carolyn Popp launches into the Rudd government’s online filtering plan.
===
LITTLE GRACIE
Tim Blair
Wong v Chavez:
The Copenhagen climate summit was pretty much summed up in the high-level segment yesterday when Penny Wong’s speech was interrupted by whistles and chanting and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez got a standing ovation.They love him. Meanwhile, Obama stalker (and phrase bandit) Kevin Rudd invokes the holy spirit of little Gracie:
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has called on the nations of the world to strike a “grand bargain” to save the planet in a speech to the crisis-ridden Copenhagen climate summit …Grow up, man. It used to be about the science.
Mr Rudd urged the more than 130 world leaders at Copenhagen to “turn the tide” in his speech, made to a half-full hall as snow settled on the ground outside …
Mr Rudd quoted from a handwritten note he’d received from Gracie, a six-year-old from Canberra.
“Hi, my name is Gracie. How old are you?” he read out.
“I am writing to you because I want you all to be strong in Copenhagen, please listen to us as it is our future.”
Mr Rudd added, “I fear that at this conference, we are on the verge of letting little Gracie down”.
===
GHANDI SMASHED
Tim Blair
Burger-dodging envirohero and university student Starvin’ Marvin hits the wall:
A man who has endured 40 days without eating food to protest against the lack of action on global warming has been hospitalised.For a mass movement, it lacks a little mass. So does Connor – but 40 whole kilos? According to a slightly earlier report:
Paul Connor, who has been fasting on the lawns of Parliament House since last month, went to a Canberra hospital yesterday for tests on his liver and kidney function …
Mr Connor, who has only been drinking water during his protest, has lost 40 kilograms. He is one of three people around the world still fasting to raise awareness of climate change.
He had lost nearly 20kg from his starting weight of 89kg.Whatever. At least he beat the Mahatma:
When asked how he felt about eclipsing Ghandi’s longest hunger strike, Mr Connor said: “I smashed him”.Here’s to western diets; they keep you alive even when you’re trying not to be. Starvin’ has now returned to his fast, which he believes has “changed the world forever”:
“But he was a little man with not much fat on his body ... and it’s fat and muscle that keeps you going. Your body just starts to eat itself and he just didn’t have much to eat,” Mr Connor said.
OK. Enough. If someone reading this knows Paul, could they please drag him back to hospital, have him hooked up to a drip and let him be slowly reintroduced to solid food. Otherwise, for no good reason at all, he’ll die.
===
Rudd is against what he’s for in Copenhagen
Andrew Bolt
A populist caught out. Kevin Rudd tells Copenhagen negotiatiors that their idea of new taxes is “constructive” , but he tells Australian taxpayers that these taxes are bad:
Mr Rudd said a proposal from Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to raise billions of dollars through levies on aviation and shipping and possibly even financial transactions in order to channel billions of dollars to poor countries in the longer term was “a constructive framework for further development.”Rudd is reminded that a great green tax on flying would savage the tourism industry of the most remote of the settled continents:
But he said “that doesn’t mean we would sign up to every aspect of it, the possibility of Tobin taxes or aviation taxes is not the view of the Australian Government.”
Imposing climate change taxes on international air travel, as proposed at the Copenhagen climate summit, would be devastating for Australia’s $89 billion tourism industry, the nation’s top tourism lobby group has warned.===
Pachauri says boo to geese
Andrew Bolt
Christopher Monckton on the 18 deceptions in IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri’s Copenhagen speech.
If the evidence of dangerous man-made warming is so clear, why the need for such dishonesty?
===
Copenhagen con: how the socialists are making capitalists pay
Andrew Bolt
First the Copenhagen summit gives Hugo Chavez a standing ovation for savaging capitalism. Then out comes the begging bowl, to be filled by those very same evil capitalists:
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to put new life into flagging U.N. talks Thursday by announcing the U.S. would join others in raising $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations cope with global warming.But no sooner have those billions been promised, than the anti-capitalists up the ask:
China and other developing countries say the target should be in the range of $350 billion.How much is this carpet-baggers’ convention costing us, for heaven’s sake? Recall our prime minister now before our cash is all gone.
===
Gillard blinks
Andrew Bolt
Seven times Leigh Sales asks Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard variations of this very simple question about the costs of the Rudd Government’s great global warming tax:
Is $1100 per year for an Australian family about what it’s going to cost?Seven times she gets no direct answer. And Gillard’s refusal tells you how vulnerable Labor suddenly feels.
===
Rudd’s latest scientific advisor: a six-year-old girl
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd would rather take the word of a six-year-old girl than of a 69-year-old climate scientist as distingushed as Richard Lindzen:
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd quoted from a handwritten note he’d received from Gracie, a six-year-old from Canberra.===
“Hi, my name is Gracie. How old are you?’’ he read out.
“I am writing to you because I want you all to be strong in Copenhagen, please listen to us as it is our future.’’
Mr Rudd added, ``I fear that at this conference, we are on the verge of letting little Gracie down’’.
The PM brushed aside the climate sceptics, saying the science of man-made climate change was ``indisputable’’.
20 tips to save the planet
Andrew Bolt
YOU’LL have freaked at all the reports warning that if we don’t cut our gases, our cities will drown, our farms will turn to dust and giant hurricanes will suck up every last polar bear.
But don’t despair. I’ve scoured the papers to find this year’s 20 top tips to cut your gases and help save this planet from global warming catastrophe.
And, swear to God, every one of these news items is genuine.
Take off your socks
Sculptor Antony Gormley on the BBC: “Dispense with your socks ... this is a time of global warming. Through our feet we can begin to feel it.”
Rent your clothes
Britain’s Waste & Resources Action Program has declared large wardrobes of rarely worn clothes aren’t environmentally acceptable and people should instead rent their outfits.
Warm your baby with pancakes
Simon Hare and his wife Damiana say they’ll go through Britain’s winter without warming their cottage. If it gets really cold for their 16-month-old daughter, “we can heat the house by making a second batch of pancakes”.
Eat your dog
New Zealand professors Brenda and Robert Vale say pet owners should swap cats and dogs for pets they can eat, such as chickens or rabbits. Their advice is in their new book, Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living.
Pee in your car
The Age reports: “The Mazda CX-7 uses a special man-made liquid similar to human urine to reduce emissions.”
Pee before you fly
The Daily Mail reports: “A Japanese airline has started asking passengers to go to the toilet before boarding in a bid to reduce carbon emissions. All Nippon Airways claims that empty bladders mean lighter passengers, a lighter aircraft and thus lower fuel use.”
Crash into people
The Car Connection reports on the move to low-emission cars: “Hybrid drivers typically drive farther, get more tickets, and have significantly more expensive insurance claims.”
===
Your future in their hands
Andrew Bolt
The people who want a Copenhagen deal look like this. Do these people really look like the kind who’d know best how to run your economy?
===
Say sorry now to these children
Andrew Bolt
HOW easy - how smugly satisfying - it is to apologise for someone else’s mistakes.
You get all the credit for being noble, but suffer none of the pain of remorse.
And so I watched last month’s apology to the “Forgotten Australians” with, I admit, the deepest cynicism - a cynicism that has in this past week turned into anger.
Both Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and then Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull joined in Parliament to sanctimoniously damn former politicians, welfare officials and churchmen for having put up to 500,000 children in care.
As their apology stated: “Sorry - that as children you were taken from your families and placed in institutions where so often you were abused.”
But was it Rudd himself who’d snatched these children, screaming, from their parents? Was it Turnbull who’d then flogged them with a polo mallet, or forced them to work as slave labour for Goldman Sachs?
Of course not, or else (knowing those two egomaniacs) we’d have got from them not sorries but spin. Not confessions but denials.
No, Rudd and Turnbull were much more at home in apologising on behalf of people they did not know for crimes most did not commit, than they would be in saying sorry for anything they actually did themselves.
What made their apology even worse was that it wasn’t offered only to those of the 500,000 children who’d been treated badly in government homes, but to every one of them for having been taken at all.
What a dreadful deceit.
===
Would anyone have noticed Rudd’s scheme?
Andrew Bolt
Remember how Kevin Rudd insisted the Liberals had to pass his emissions trading scheme in time for the Copenhagen meeting? Looking at the all-in brawl it’s become, and how it’s essentially a showdown between the US and China, can anyone detect any sign at all that Australia’s example would have made the slightest difference?
Don’t tell me it was just more baseless Rudd spin…
===
Whale of an Internet story in five minutes
Andrew Bolt
Understanding the Internet: How a whale was named Mr Splashy Pants. A lesson from Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian.
===
LOW LIGHTS
Tim Blair
Headline of the week, from Nico Little:
Hookers are killing polar bears and now you can’t water your lawnOn a related theme, artist Jens Galschioet had the bright idea of hanging red lights seven metres above Copenhagen streets to demonstrate the threat of flood:
Yet, somewhere along the line, he made a few incorrect calculations …Galschioet’s excuse sounds familiar:
The city lakes are already 5.89 metres above sea level, so the flashing lights [in that location] should have been put up at 69 centimetres height.
‘Even though we knew that the lights should have been at 69 centimetres, we didn’t really feel it looked like much. So we cheated a bit and decided to explain if anyone found out’, explained Galschioet.Hide the decline!
===
HAIRCUT PLANNED
Tim Blair
Huffington Post Hopenhagen Ambassador David Kroodsma (seriously; that’s his actual title) reports from Miseryville:
The mood in Copenhagen on the second to last day of negotiations is exhausted and defeated. Few people have pleasant things to say about the climate negotiations. Most have bags under their eyes.Sweet. Just like the Manson Family.
At the KlimaForum (a conference center in the center of town), I talked to a number of individuals, asking how they felt. Two girls with long blond hair told me they were planning to shave their heads in protest the next day.
===
Copehagen circus ending with a lame act
Andrew Bolt
A last-minute deal at Copenhagen is proposed that seems no deal at all:
Leaders and ministers from 28 countries including Australia have outlined a draft accord to fight global warming.That’s right. Hot air, no fixed targets, promises of a vast transfer of wealth from the West and everyone flies back home thinking they’ve been warriors for mankind.
The three-hour session ended early today, leaving top advisers to work out the final language before the summit of a draft agreement on how to tame global warming and help poor countries cope with its impacts.
‘‘The advisers will get back to work at three in the morning to craft a proposed political agreement that will be presented to heads of state at 8am (6pm AEDT),’’ a European diplomat said…
The declaration will most likely call for preventing global temperatures from going up more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times. It will also tally up the pledges from rich nations on cutting greenhouse gases by 2020, and propose a target for all countries by mid-century.
If the report is true, it’s almost as much as a sceptic could hope for.
===
Fielding threatens IPCC chief with the police
Andrew Bolt
Family First Senator Steve Fielding and Lord Monckton demand answers from Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - and not just over his use of dodgy data:
We should be grateful for your response within 48 hours, failing which we shall be entitled to presume that you, the IPCC and the EPA – to whose administrator we are copying this letter – intend to conspire, and are conspiring, to obtain a pecuniary advantage by deceiving the public as to the nature, degree, and significance of the global surface temperature trend. In that event, conspiracy to defraud taxpayers would be evident, and we should be compelled to place this letter in the hands of the relevant investigating and prosecuting authorities.Meanwhile, Monckton is barred from the conference and knocked out by Danish police.
In any event, errors and exaggerations such as that which is evidenced in the IPCC’s defective graph do not inspire confidence in the reliability of the IPCC’s scientific case. Given this and other mistakes that an international body of this nature ought not to have made, and given your numerous and direct conflicts of interest that have, in our opinion, been insufficiently disclosed, we are also copying this letter to the delegations of the states parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change with a request that you be stripped of office forthwith.
===
Climategate: This time Al Gore lied
Andrew Bolt
Al Gore’s claim last week that the Climategate emails were insignificant relied on two main defences. Both are so flagrantly wrong that it’s not enough to say Gore is simply mistaken.
No, Al Gore is a liar.
Last week we showed that the first of his Climategate defences was so preposterously wrong that it was doubtful he had even read the leaked emails he tried to dismiss. You see, five times in two interviews he dismissed the emails as dated documents that were at least 10 years old:
I haven’t read all the e-mails, but the most recent one is more than 10 years old.In fact, most of the controversial emails, as I showed, were from just the past two years - and the most recent from just last month - November 12, to be precise.
So Gore was so wrong on the first count that it was difficult to think of any way an honest man could have made such a mistake. Five times.
But now Steve McIntyre has exploded the second argument Gore made. And now all doubt in my mind is gone. Gore must have simply lied.
Gore’s second argument was that these emails which seemingly showed Climategate scientists trying to silence or sack sceptical scientists were taken out of context, since the two sceptical papers they referred to were in fact published, after all.
Here is the relevant passage in his interview with Slate:
Q: There is a sense in these e-mails, though, that data was hidden and hoarded, which is the opposite of the case you make [in your book] about having an open and fair debate.That is actually false.
A: I think it’s been taken wildly out of context. The discussion you’re referring to was about two papers that two of these scientists felt shouldn’t be accepted as part of the IPCC report. Both of them, in fact, were included, referenced, and discussed. So an e-mail exchange more than 10 years ago including somebody’s opinion that a particular study isn’t any good is one thing, but the fact that the study ended up being included and discussed anyway is a more powerful comment on what the result of the scientific process really is.
But before I go to McIntyre’s evidence on this, first note Gore’s rhetorical trick - or deceit.
His trick is to ignore the mountain of emails that clearly suggest a collusion against sceptics, and the hiding of data, and to suggest instead that the allegations boil down to just a single email about a single instance of two Climategate scientists allegedly blocking two papers.
Here are just some of the Climategate emails that Gore ignored, which all seem evidence of the very collusion to hide data or censor sceptics that he denies. They include ones like this (from 2005):
At 09:41 AM 2/2/2005, Phil Jones wrote:And this (from last year):
Mike, I presume congratulations are in order - so congrats etc !
Just sent loads of station data to Scott. Make sure he documents everything better this time ! And don’t leave stuff lying around on ftp sites - you never know who is trawling them. The two MMs have been after the CRU station data for years. If they ever hear there is a Freedom of Information Act now in the UK, I think I’ll delete the file rather than send to anyone
From: Phil JonesAnd this (from last year):
To: santer1@XXXX
Subject: Re: A quick question
Date: Wed Dec 10 10:14:10 2008
Ben,
Haven’t got a reply from the FOI person here at UEA. So I’m not entirely confident the numbers are correct. One way of checking would be to look on CA, but I’m not doing that. I did get an email from the FOI person here early yesterday to tell me I shouldn’t be deleting emails - unless this was ‘normal’ deleting to keep emails manageable! McIntyre hasn’t paid his £10, so nothing looks likely to happen re his Data Protection Act email.
Anyway requests have been of three types - observational data, paleo data and who made IPCC changes and why. Keith has got all the latter - and there have been at least 4. We made Susan aware of these - all came from David Holland. According to the FOI Commissioner’s Office, IPCC is an international organization, so is above any national FOI. Even if UEA holds anything about IPCC, we are not obliged to pass it on, unless it has anything to do with our core business - and it doesn’t! I’m sounding like Sir Humphrey here!
From: Phil JonesAnd this (from Tom Wigley in 2003, as the Climategate cabal organised the ousting of a sceptic-friendly editor of Climate Scientist):
To: “Michael E. Mann”
Subject: IPCC & FOI
Date: Thu May 29 11:04:11 2008
Mike,
Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4?
Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis.
Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t have his new email address.
We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.
PS Re CR, I do not know the best way to handle the specifics of the editoring. Hans von Storch is partly to blame—he encourages the publication of crap science ‘in order to stimulate debate’. One approach is to go direct to the publishers and point out the fact that their journal is perceived as being a medium for disseminating misinformation under the guise of refereed work. I use the word ‘perceived’ here, since whether it is true or not is not what the publishers care about—it is how the journal is seen by the community that counts.I think we could get a large group of highly credentialed scientists to sign such a letter—50+ people.Note that I am copying this view only to Mike Hulme and Phil Jones. Mike’s idea to get editorial board members to resign will probably not work—must get rid of von Storch too, otherwise holes will eventually fill up with people like Legates, Balling, Lindzen, Michaels, Singer, etc. I have heard that the publishers are not happy with von Storch, so the above approach might remove that hurdle too.Note that not one of these emails is, as Gore claimed, “more than 10 years old”. The oldest is from 2003 , and the most recent is from just last December.
But let’s go now to the one email Gore does specifically defend as “out of context”. It is this one, which again is not 10 years old but was sent in 2005 by Climategate scientist Phil Jones, head of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit:
The other paper by MM is just garbage – as you knew. De Freitas again. Pielke is also losing all credibility as well by replying to the mad Finn as well – frequently as I see it. I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. K and I will keep them out somehow – even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is !("K" is Kevin Trenberth, a fellow IPCC author.)
Now to Steve McIntyre (go here for his full explanation):
The [warmist] “community“‘s response to this has been: move along, there’s nothing to see. A typical defence is that of Ronald Prinn of MIT ... : that improper peer review activities by CRU and their associates didn’t “matter” because McIntyre and McKitrick were discussed by IPCC after all:[This is Gore’s argument, too: “the study (sic) ended up being included and discussed anyway”.]“Five papers by McIntyre and McKitrick were published and then referenced and discussed in the IPCC.”
McIntyre resumes:
I’m going to place the money quote in context, showing that Jones and Trenberth did in fact live up to their threats, breaching other IPCC rules along the way.
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