Citizen Tom

Because news stories can proceed rather strangely from dubious “facts,” it is often better to set back and watch awhile before offering an opinion.  Since the emails related to ClimateGate were stolen, I reserved judgement – waiting for confirmation.   However, at this point I have also begun wondering how long I will have to wait.  For example, what is the news story at the top of the Google stack for “climategate“?  This story is Data-leak lessons learned from the ‘Climategate’ hack.  This author’s main concern is computer security.  Supposedly, the researchers were considering destroying their data rather than respond to a legal FOIA request, but they never really did.  That is, we are suppose to take comfort from the lack of confirmation in the emails.   

Unfortunately, we do have confirmation, Britain’s Climate Research Unit to release data in wake of Climategate.  Here is how the article begins.

In an about face brought about as a result of more than a thousand leaked emails last week, Britain’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) announced it would make its data publically available, something which it had refused to do previously. The unit however has admitted that it did not have access to much of the raw data required to reconstruct climate records because it had been deleted.

Oops!  We have emails indicating the intention to delete data, and that data is gone.  Nothing suspicious there. 

Scientists are just like anyone else.  Scientists can be tempted by fame and fortune.  That is why proper peer review is so important.  When we know a disinterested party is looking over our shoulder, we tend to be more honest.  When the issue of Global Warming has become highly politicized, proper peer review is critical, but here we have good reason to suspect that process has been corrupted.

Other Views

Some Virginia blogs regard ClimateGate as a smoking gun, proof of scientific dishonesty.

From On High, The right-wing liberal, YankeePhil, SkepticalObservor, The Contemporary Conservative, SWAC Girl, Old Virginia Blog, Virginia Virtucon, novatownhall blog, The Journey, The Roanoke Slant, ShaunKenney.com, Bacon’s Rebellion, and Tidewater Liberty  have run posts, some quite scathing, starting November 20. 

Liberal bloggers have largely ignored the issue.  Only Blue Virginia has actully mentioned the affair by name,  Overhyped Nonsense by “Powerhouse” Panelists: Yes, It’s “This Week” Time Again!  However, X Curmudgeon offered this ”timely” post, Manufacturing Doubt on Global Climate Change. 

How has America’s corporate news media reacted?  Virginia Virtucon offered up this post on the 24th,  American MSM’s split decision on ClimateGate.   The Virginian produced something similiar, Climategate: MSM Writers Try to Ignore Scandal in Global Warming Stories But Readers Bring Them Back to Reality and Why the MSM Cannot Possibly Report on ClimateGate.  So has SWAC Girl, MSM ignoring Climate-Gate?  According to Tidewater Liberty, the Brits are covering the affair, Beating Trees into Hockey Sticks.

The bias of the corporate news media has become transparent.  All we have to do is crosscheck our sources.

For example, how is Bob McDonnell’s big win playing in different new sources?  An AP story in the Houston Chronicle carried this conclusion.

This time voters expressed angst about major Obama initiatives such as health care, energy and stimulus spending. But McDonnell dominated the campaign’s central issues: jobs and the economy.

In Associated Press surveys at polling places statewide, about eight in 10 voters said they were worried about the direction of the nation’s economy, and the majority of those favored McDonnell.  (from here)

On the other hand, ABC had this to say.

Majorities of voters – 52 percent in Virginia, and 57 percent in preliminary exit poll results in New Jersey – approved of the way Obama is handling his job. Most in both states, moreover, said the president was not a factor in their vote.  (from here)

Apparently, the corporate news media still has not had time to get in lock step.  So their disarray is apparent.

What is the bottom line?   Do not check the corporate news media to find out what your neighbors are thinking.  You will get more accurate results if you just ask them.

Since I was out-of-town this weekend, I am still catching up.   So I did not catch the Washington Post’s endorsements until just a little while ago (Missing such news is one of the things that makes vacations worthwhile.).

Were there any surprises for citizens of the 13th District of the House of Delegates?  Unfortunately, no.   The Post lived up to its reputation by castigating Delegate Bob Marshall and endorsing John Bell. Here is what the Post had to say about Marshall.

Del. Robert G. Marshall has distinguished himself by standing still; he remains the author of off-the-wall legislative antics that even members of his own Republican Party regard as clownish. In addition to making hay with wedge social issues (like trying to outlaw in vitro fertilization), he has also done his best to impede transportation funding proposals that would benefit his own district.  (from here)

The folks in the 13th District should find the Post’s comments about Marshall highly insulting for at least two reasons:

• We have elected Delegate Bob Marshall repeatedly, and the Post is calling our delegate a clown.
• What the Post calls off-the-wall legislative antics is something that the hypocritical editors of the Washington Post have no trouble with if the clown is on their side of the aisle.  The Post is engaging in nothing more than partisan name calling.  This sort of juvenile name-calling and “news” is why I don’t buy that paper anymore.  I have little desire to subsidize propaganda for a cause I oppose.

Delegate Bob Marshall has served us honorably.  When he has disagreed with the elected leaders of his party, he has done so openly and for sound reasons.  For example, in cooperation with Democrats, the Republican Party leadership supported legislation, HB3202, that was unambiguously unconstitutional (see Marshall v. NVTA and here).   Marshall fought the bill every step of the way, eventually defeating it.

Latter, when he was running for the U.S. Senate, Marshall wrote a letter to Virginia voters.   Marshall described his “clownish” opposition this way.

Dear Virginia Voter,

I have been a state legislator for 17 years, winning nine elections in Northern Virginia, and I am running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. I respectfully ask for your support.

I am the state delegate who brought the SUCCESSFUL lawsuit (Marshall v. NVTA) challenging the Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia unelected regional transportation taxing authorities, the only lawmaker who challenged the unconstitutional law and the only Republican who opposed HB3202 on the floor of the House of Delegates. (See You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqszbMKOGzA)  (continued here)

Contrary to what the Post suggests, rank and file Republicans respect Delegate Bob Marshall.  That is why Marshall almost won the Republican Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate.  In fact, Marshall came within a hairbreadth of defeating former Governor Jim Gilmore.

Do you want to see how a clown represents you in the House of Delegates?  Check out the video.  This is what the Post considers “off-the-wall legislative antics.”

What is sad about candidate John Bell is that he and the Post see too much eye to eye.  In Bell we have a former military officer that regards his oath as something he can, when it becomes inconvenient, set aside.   Thus, the fact that HB3202 is clearly unconstitutional does not bother Bell (PWC100 debate with Marshall).  What truly concerns Bell is that Marshall stopped a bill that supposedly would have provided transportation funding.  Nonetheless, Marshall fought HB3202 for soundly philosophical reasons.  The bill gave taxation and spending authority to an unelected body, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.   For such a cause the Founders of this nation fought the American Revolution.

It is an old proverb, but it is a good one.

Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.  — Matthew 15:14

When someone gives us advice, we expect that advice to make sense.  If we are to going take advice, then we want the confidence that the person giving the advice understands the lay of the land.  Unfortunately, few do.  Why?  Too many of us have weak moral compasses.  So we must depend upon a higher authority.

Here is today’s example of bad advice, ENDORSEMENT: Lend your support to John Bell in the 13th.   In this column, the editor of InsideNoVA.com endorses John Bell as the best candidate for the 13th District of the House of Delegates.   Oddly, the editor spends most of the editorial trying to belittle Delegate Bob Marshall while praising him.  The result, if it did not so much reek of moral turpitude, would be hilarious.

What is Marshall’s failing?

However, his antagonistic approach to legislating in general has restricted his influence in the House. He has even been denied at least one committee chairmanship because of his behavior. As the 18th highest-ranking member in the House, he should be able to wield the power that comes from seniority. But his behavior has drained whatever prestige time has given him.

Also, his focus on social issues takes up time that would be better spent focusing on matters that have more direct effects on his constituents.

The Liberal press does not care about social issues?  When InsideNoVA.com’s endorsement of Bell cannot help but list a portion of Marshall’s numerous accomplishments, we are to believe Marshall does not exercise influence?   It seems that the editor of InsideNoVA.com cares more about the Liberal agenda on social issues than he does about the truth.

Why is Marshall unpopular with some of his colleagues?  Marshall cares more about fulfilling his Constitutional responsibilities than he does going along to get along.   Go to http://delegatebob.com/.   You will find that Marshall has a long string of accomplishments.  Moreover, you will find he has an agenda worthy of your support.

Then consider one more thing.  The influence exercised by a leader depends upon those who follow his lead.  Without your support, Marshall cannot get elected.  Without your support, Marshall cannot work for our state’s best interests in the House of Delegates.

What can you do?

• Write letters to the editor.  Support Bob Marshall.
• Contact either Bob Marshall’s campaign or the PWCGOP.  Be a volunteer.
• Vote on November 3, 2009.  The State Board of Elections (SBE) website provides the status of your voter registration and your polling location.

Just for fun, I added this poll. 

Because I expect bias in the news, I try make it a practice to read a variety of news sources.  Therefore, every Sunday I pick up a copy of the Washington Post.  I admit it is hard to stomach.   Nonetheless, you cannot love your neighbor if you do not know anything about him.  And like it or not, the Post reflects the thoughts of a significant portion of the population.

With each passing year, the decision to buy the Post has become more difficult.  With each passing year, the paper has become more propaganda and less objective news.  So  I find myself wondering more and more why I am helping to fund my opposition’s appalling propaganda.  Here are some examples.

• At the top of the front page, the Post had this story:  In Today’s Viral World, Who Keeps a Civil Tongue? That story quickly devolves into a story about the uncivil tongue of the Right.   Should you bother to read this article, please note that some of the examples are subtly biased.  Liberals do not uniformly hate all the Founding Fathers.  Because he advocated a strong central government, Liberals have adopted Alexander Hamilton as their own special Founding Father.
• At the bottom of the front page, we find:  McDonnell: A Razor-Sharp but Selective Memory.  Here the Post printed a free compaign ad for Creigh Deeds.  I searched the Post for following:  “bob mcdonnell” thesis.  In all, I got a 108 hits.  Who knows what we will see by election day?
• On the front page of the Outlook Section, the Post provided free ad space for the homosexual activists’ agenda:     I Didn’t Tell. It Didn’t Matter.  Here a young man explains how his follow soldiers supposedly tortured him for a couple of years.  The motive?  They suspected him of homosexuality.  Since I was in the military for years, I found this former soldier’s yarn hard to believe.  So I wondered whether the Post had done any investigation of its own.  Unfortunately, when I searched the Post using the homosexual soldier’s name, I found no evidence the Post had conducted any investigation of its own.
• On the front page of the Metro Section, the Post oozed with excitement at the prospect of same-sex marriage in Washington D. C.:  Waiting to Wed Where It Matters.   When the very words that describe what they want, “same-sex marriage,” is an oxymoron, why would any sensible person want to make this nonsense an issue?  Does pushing the envelope help to sell newspapers?  Whatever its reason, here the Post is raving at the prospect of state sanctioned fornication, and that offends my values.

Unfortunately, the propaganda the Post publishes as news is effective.  Remember how the Post “macacaed” Senator George Allen.   One word.  One day.  And that is how the Post defined a senator.  Even today, consider what happens when you type “Senator George Allen” into Google.  The search engine will kindly suggest further narrowing your search.  At the top of their suggested list you will be presented with the word “macaca.”   Moreover, if you add the word “macaca,” your first hit will be an article from the Washington Post.   Thus, I wonder if the purchase of this libelous and sneering newspaper is an effort in empathy and understanding that asks too much.