What does The Great Immensity, a play about Climate change have to do with the NSF and it stated mission? Not much apparently.
Guest essay by Dennis Kuzara
What does The Great Immensity, a play about Climate change have to do with the NSF and it stated mission? Not much apparently, and the self described “most transparent administration in history” isn’t as transparent as they would have you believe.
NSF AT A GLANCE The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…” With an annual budget of $7.2 billion (FY 2014), we are the funding source for approximately 24 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America’s colleges and universities. —We fulfill our mission chiefly by issuing limited-term grants — to fund specific research proposals that have been judged the most promising by a rigorous and objective merit-review system.”
The connection between the play and the NSF will eventually become clear, but to set the stage, let me present the back and forth emails between the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and the NSF over the course of 17 months – 524 days. This snapshot of correspondence was released to the public by the Democratic minority on the committee, so one can assume it would be seen as detrimental to the Republicans and favorable to the NSF. To make things more difficult, all the documents are scanned images – no searching or copying here.
I have paraphrased all of the correspondence, reducing what was being said to a manageable size as well as changing the politically correct jargon into plainspeak, thus making for more enjoyable reading. If instead, you prefer being bored, read the actual documents in the links at the end. The Dialogue runs from day 1 to day 524 with each day noted in the header, and the number in ( ) being the interval between letters. Also note that there are huge time gaps between some of the letters.
Cast of characters (in order of appearance):
Lamar S. Smith, Chairman, Committee on Science, Space and Technology
Dr. Cora B. Marrett, Acting Director National Science Foundation
Eddie Bernice Johnson, Ranking Member, Committee on Science, Space and Technology
Dr. Dan E. Arvisu, Chairman, National Science Board
Larry Bucshon, Chairman, Subcommittee on Research and Technology
Dr. France Cordova, Director National Science Foundation
Fox News
The Civilians
Thegreatimmensity.org
Day 1
April 25, 2013
From: Lamar Smith
To: Dr Cora Marrett
In reviewing the President’s budget for FY 2014, I have concerns regarding some grants approved by the NSF and how closely they adhere to the” intellectual Merit” guideline, so I would like to understand how the NSF makes decisions to approve and fund grants. Please provide me with access to the scientific/technical reviews and the Program Officer’s Review Analysis for the following 5 grants within 2 weeks:
1. Picturing Animals in National Geographic ($227,437)
2. Comparative Histories of Scientific Conservation ($195,761)
3. The International Criminal Court and the Pursuit of Justice ($260,001)
4. Comparative network Analysis: Mapping Global Social Interactions ($435,000)
5. Regulating Accountability and transparency in China’s Dairy Industry ($152,464)
Day 2 (1)
April 26, 2013
From: Eddie Johnson
To: Lamar Smith
I think the peer review process is the gold standard and I am appalled that you would have the audacity to question it. By making this request you are sending a chilling message to the entire scientific community. You are not a scientist and therefore you have no right to question whatever it is they do or how they do it. i realize that the taxpayers are footing the bill to the tune of $7.6 billion, but you shouldn’t intrude politically into how they spend the taxpayer’s money. I demand you withdraw your letter to Dr. Marrett.
Day 13 (11)
May 7, 2013
From Dr. Dan Arvisu
To: Dr Cora Marrett
Thanks for sharing Chairman Smith’s letter which requested that information be sent to him 2 days from now. Could you stall him for 3 days until the board has a chance to discuss this important topic?
Day 15 (2)
May 9, 2013
From Dr. Cora Marrett
To: Lamar Smith
The NSB has asked to review this request, so we will get back to you by May 16th.
Day 21 (6)
May 15, 2013
From Dr. Cora Marrett
To: Lamar Smith
The NSF policies on merit review dictate that decisions to recommend funding for each award are outsourced to several experts on the subject matter and sometimes by internal experts. Once that is done a Program Officer generates their summary and analysis of the proposal with recommendations. At this point it is kicked upstairs to the division Directors for final determination. But here is the kicker: we can’t tell you who the reviewers are because it is all secret and if we were let you see it there will be irreparable harm done to our reviewer community and to the merit review process. Surely there must be some other way to do this, For example, I will gladly sit down with you and tell you how robust our review process is. In closing, the NSF has the world’s most successful merit-based model for funding research and expanding the frontiers of knowledge.
Day 29 (8)
May 23, 2013
From Dr. Cora Marrett
To: Lamar Smith
Thanks for taking my call yesterday and we can talk more when I get back from Europe.
Day 162 (133)
October 3, 2013
From Dr Cora Marrett
To: Lamar Smith
To: Eddie Johnson
Thanks for you and Larry Bucshon taking the time to meet with me and Dr. Arvizu so that we could share our plan for enhancing transparency and accountability at NSF, which we are now implementing. We are confident that this plan will “ensure that our research investments represent wise stewardship of the public trust”.
Day 167 (5)
October 8, 2013
From: Lamar Smith
To: Dr. Cora Marrett
Thanks for the follow up letter. your plan for enhancing transparency and accountability at NSF is a good first step, but we want to see what it is, since we wish to implement it with authorizing legislation. Lets keep in touch.
Day 282 (115)
February 4, 2014
From: Lamar Smith
To: Dr. Dan Arvisu
Since the NSB is meeting at the end of the month, I though it would be useful to review last November and my growing concerns about the slow pace and backsliding by the NSB. The plan submitted at the September meeting claimed that the NSF Program Officers and their supervisors would be responsible for explaining, in writing, how each approved grant was intellectually and scientifically meritorious and how each would further the national interest. So far this is not happening. At the January meeting my staff heard two things: (1) The NSF staff will deliberate slowly – maybe getting something out in 6 months, and (2) the NSF is opposed to any increase in transparency and accountability. This isn’t what we discussed last September. We need to get back on track.
Day 319 (37)
March 9, 2014
To: Lamar Smith
From: Dr. Dan Arvisu
Thanks for the letter of Feb 4th. We strongly agree with you that Blah, Blah Blah and we are doing all kinds of wonderful things here at the NSF. We appreciate your interest and support for the NSF mission.
Day 337 (18)
March 27, 2014
From Dr. Cora Marrett
To: Lamar Smith
I heard that your committee’s opening statement earlier this week claimed that “NSF refused to provide a response” to the request you made last year. I was surprised to hear this because I told you it was secret, plus, since you did not bring it again, I though we were off the hook. If you really want this information maybe we can mutually agree on some way to retain reviewer confidentiality. We can resolve this issue and I can continue to show you just what a great organization the NSF is.
Dr. France Cordova, was sworn in as director of the National Science Foundation on March 31, 2014.
Day 341 (4)
April 7, 2014
To: Dr. France Cordova
From: Lamar Smith
Congress’ authority to obtain information from federal agencies is broad. (Cites chapter and verse.) I am requesting paper copies of the following public records or documents of any kind that pertain to the NSF’s consideration and approval (i.e. pretty much everything) of the following 20 grants:
3/4/2013 The Great Immensity ($697,177)
8/25/2010 Picturing Animals in National Geographic ($227,437)
11/22/14 culture, change and Chronic Stress in Lowland Bolivia ($19,684)
8/16/2009 Investigating Social Transformation in Late Bronze Age Cyprus. (($107.570)
10/1/2010 Does Community-Based Rangeland Ecosystem Management Increase the Resilience of Coupled Systems to Climate Change in Mongolia? ($1,499,718)
3/15/2011 The reciprocal Dynamics of Family Transformation Through International Marriage Migration ($147,460)
6/21/2011 The Prehistory of Chiapas Mexico ($276,586)
9/21/2012 Ecological Consequences of Human-Set Fires in New Zealand ($339,958)
7/10/2013 Analysis of Disturbance Interactions and Ecosystem resilience in the Northern Forests of New England ($235,494)
8/13/2013 Transnational Adoptees and Migrants: from Peru to Spain ($246,454)
7/21/2009 Human Control of Bicycle dynamics with Experimental Validation and Implications for Bike Handling and Design ($300,000)
8/7/2007 The Veil-Fashion Industry: Transnational Geographies of Islamism, Capitalism, and Identity ($199,088)
7/28/2006 After the JD iii: The Trajectories of Legal Careers ($735,228)
9/26/2010 Metallurgical Practice, Technology and Social Organization during the Middle to Late Bronze Age in the Southern Urals, Russia ($134,354)
5/30/2012 Rags to Riches: An Archaeological Study of Textiles and Gender in Iceland ($487,049)
8/21/2013 Weaving Islands of Cloth: Gender, Textiles and trade Across the North Atlantic from the Viking Age to the Early Modern Period ($217,957)
11/16/2011 The Study of Social Impacts of Tourism in Finnmark, Norway ($275,135)
4/23/2008 Automated Support for Novice Authoring of Interactive Drama ($516,000)
9/16/2005 Constructal Theory of Social Dynamics ($79,988)
5/6/2010 Izapa Regional Settlement Project ($280,588)
Please get this information to me as soon as possible.
Day 371 (30)
May 1, 2014
To: Lamar Smith
From: Dr. France Cordova
We will provide two of the requests, redacted or course, which took 26 hours to compile and edit. Based on that, it will take 18 weeks for the other 18 grants. Before we go any further, see if these two meet your needs. We cannot send you these important documents, but we could let your staff come here and look at them, since we really do not trust you.
In regards to transparency and accountability, we just implemented the recommendations that the working group started on last December. I have appointed Dr Arzberger, co-leader of the Transparency and Accountability Working Group as the permanent leader for this activity.
Day 377 (6)
May 6, 2014
To: Dr. France Cordova
From: Lamar Smith
Thanks for your effort, but it isn’t sufficient. I basically asked for everything related to the grant awards and decisions by the Supreme Court say you must comply. You allude to “pre-decisional” information that you are withholding from us, ostensibly because you do not trust that we will keep it confidential. The Federal Courts have held that releasing information to us is not considered disclosure to the general public and the Courts have said that they presume the committees of Congress will exercise their powers responsibly. I want immediate confirmation that you will fully comply with our request.
Day 390 (13)
May 19, 2014
To: Lamar Smith
From: Dr. France Cordova
We are dedicated to Blah Blah Blah. You have asked for documents that reflect internal pre-decisional and deliberative communications including personally identifiable information, including reviewer’s names. i take back what i said about not trusting you, but nonetheless it will harm the very foundation of merit review and chill the candid advice offered by the reviewers. For over a year and prior to my appointment, we have offered to negotiate this issue. As Dr. Marrett said in April 2013 “”hope there is some other way to to help the committee understand how NSF makes decisions … short of the approach outlined in your letter.” Since we had ongoing conversations, we figured you did not want the information on the original 5 grants. However in our first meeting as the new Director of the NSF, you doubled down and now want information on 20 grants. Oddly, despite our stonewalling, you still really want this information. Sorry, but we can’t do that because we have confidentiality agreements with the reviewers. Perhaps we can find some other mutually beneficial way to accomplish this.
Day 401 (11)
May 30, 2014
To: Dr. France Cordova
From: Lamar Smith
This is a follow up on recent discussions between our staffs, which seem to be productive. You will provide all the information we need, but you can redact the reviewer’s personal information. We will go to your office next week for a preliminary review of the information.
Day 404 (3)
June 2, 2014
To: Lamar Smith
From: Dr. France Cordova
We will make the material you requested available to your staff. I hope this will stand as a strong basis for reinstating the robust, productive relationship we once had.
Day 428 (24)
June 26, 2014
To: Lamar Smith
From: Dr. France Cordova
I appreciate you accommodating our redaction of sensitive peer reviewer material and since I haven’t heard from you lately, I presume that this is the end of this matter.
Day 428
June 26, 2014
To: Dr. France Cordova
From: Lamar Smith
Please send me the material I requested on April 7, 2014. you have had ample time to compile this information. You will recall I agreed for you to remove external reviewer’s identities and I agreed to a preliminary review of the material to exclude superfluous items. On June 5th we spent about 15 minutes per file and my staff indicated which form letters were not necessary. A confirming email from your staff said we would be sent all the materials covered by my April 7th request within 2 weeks.
Day 443 (15)
July 11, 2014
To: Lamar Smith
From: Dr. France Cordova
I have decided that we will not send the documents you requested as our grant proposals contain highly sensitive and sometimes personal information and as such, letting you have it might have a detrimental effect on their lives and careers. Not only that, but the reviewers themselves are up in arms about the possibility of congress being able to see what they said. (Not sure how the reviewers found out about congress wanting this information, though.) If you did not have enough time during the preliminary review, by all means come back over here and take whatever time you need to look at the documents. You know, we share your intense commitment “to ensuring the precious American tax dollars are managed with care.”
Day 460 (17)
July 28, 2014
To: Dr. France Cordova
From: Lamar Smith
I regret you do not acknowledge the committee’s authority to receive information from the NSF. NSF spends over $7 billion a year and unimpeded access to NSF information is critical to our oversight function, but this is impossible if an agency like you unilaterally determines to limit access to information and permits review of official documents only at its offices. This is legally unsupportable and you should reconsider your decision. In any case, we are pressing forward.
In the brief time staff had to review the grant proposals, a few initial impressions were made:
1. the amount and detail of the project jackets varied widely. A few of them contained fairly detailed information, while others had almost no information on the peer review that resulted in funding the grant proposal
2. The reviewers comments varied significantly, from detailed and substantive to no insight whatsoever into the scientific merit of the proposals. There were no minutes or notes from the NSF staff.
3. In one case, the applicant was notified that their low competitive standing would not allow funding of the proposal, however the project was funded anyway and yet there was no additional information as to how or why this happened.
Committee staff will be contacting your staff and we will need (A) grant applications that competed with the 20 requested (B) the written evaluations of these competing grants and (C) competitive rankings of all these grant applications.
Day 462 (2)
July 30, 2014
To: Lamar Smith
From: Dr. France Cordova
OK, but that would be 2400 proposals and 12,000 reviewer evaluations totaling 100,000 pages. Let me know what you want to do.
Day 490 (28)
August 27, 2014
To: Dr. France Cordova
From: Lamar Smith
[The first several pages were a rehash everything that happened over the previous 16 months, plus a page of legal precedents.]
You have continued to disobey the law and continue to withhold the requested materials. What you are doing is in keeping with the Obama Administration’s aggressive withholding of information from Congress, the media and taxpayers. You and the Administration “have decided that scientific research is political, that information about the Administration’s politicized science policies are to be kept secret at all costs, and that the NSF and NSB are not bound by the constitution to be accountable to congress or taxpayers.
My staff has noted numerous inconsistencies in the files and have been informed it is not available or will need to be researched, all while by appointment, under supervision and with NSF redactions.
Due to your stalling and intransigence, we are only 5% complete so far. We have the law on our side and we intend to use it, so I urge you to reconsider your decision to withhold these documents from us.
Day 503 (13)
September 9, 2014
To: Lamar Smith
From: Dr. France Cordova
I have repeatedly told you we recognize your authority and we have given you lots of documents – just not the ones you want. Contrary to what you stated, we have bent over backwards by letting your staff come here and look at the records and have not hidden anything, except of course the reviewer’s personal information. As far as transparency goes, we implemented a new process that makes sure the titles and abstracts more clearly convey the potential societal impact to the public. Your staff can still come over anytime to look at our records.
Day 505 (2)
September 11, 2014
To: Dr. France Cordova
From: Lamar Smith
I am requesting paper copies of everything related to the approval of 30 grants. [List provided: 1 from the first grant request list, 5 from the second grant request list and 24 new ones.] Please make these available by September 22, 2014.
Day 509 (4)
September 15, 2014
To: Lamar Smith
From: Dr. France Cordova
I will have the first files for your review at our place by September 22.
Day 514
September 20, 2014
FoxNews.com
“The Great Immensity,”
The curtain has come down on Climate Change: The Musical and reviews of the taxpayer-funded play about global warming are downright icy.
The play, which is actually entitled “The Great Immensity,” and was produced by Brooklyn-based theater company The Civilians, Inc. with a $700,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, ended its run early amid a storm of criticism from reviewers and lawmakers alike. It opened a year late, reached just five percent of its anticipated audience and likely fell short of its ambitious goal of informing a new generation about the perceived dangers of man-caused climate change.
Plus, it apparently wasn’t very good.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, said the dramatic debacle was a waste of public money.
“There is no doubt that the Great Immensity was a great mistake,” Smith told FoxNews.com. “The NSF used taxpayer dollars to underwrite political advocacy dressed up as a musical. And the project clearly failed to achieve any of its objectives.”
In a statement to FoxNews.com, the NSF said it is too soon to tell if the grant funds were wasted.
“This particular project just concluded in August and the final report has not yet been submitted to NSF,” the statement said. “Final reports are due to NSF within 90 days following expiration of the grant. The final report will contain information about project outcomes, impacts and other data.”
But Smith and others in Congress said the foundation owes an explanation to lawmakers – and taxpayers.
“The NSF has offered no comment, neither a defense of the project nor an acknowledgement that funding was a waste of money,” Smith said. “The NSF must be held accountable for how they choose to spend taxpayer dollars.”
Day 524 (15)
September 30, 2014
To: Lamar Smith
From: Eddie Bernice Johnson
Why have you been hounding the NSF for the last 18 months? I think it is because you are on a witch hunt. Like I said before, you are no expert and just because you think some of the titles are strange or weird gives you no right to question their value. Just because Diane Feinstein created the banned “assault weapons” list from pictures of how evil they looked (they eventually dropped the BB gun once that was pointed out) it is not a precedent for you to adopt the same selection criteria based on how weird the titles are. (Editor’s Note: MS Johnson did not actually say that last part about the gun ban, but it seemed apropos.)
When my staff reviewed the 20 files, we did not see anything wrong, so what is your point? The NSF kept saying they did not trust you and guess what, they were right. The worst possible outcome of your witch hunt has happened: somebody leaked very secret and proprietary NSF grant information to Fox News. How else would they have found out that the ” Great Immensity” opened a year late, closed early – after a 4 week run, only reached 5% of its target audience, or wasted $700,000 of taxpayer’s money?
Since it wasn’t Me or the Democratic staff – and most certainly not the NSF – that leaked this highly classified information, by default it had to be you or your staff. Do you realize what a chilling effect this will have on future grants? Besides the fact that the Civilians Theater Group is about as non political as they come, how could you allow politics to intrude into a non political musical about climate change and how we are all going to die if we don’t all wake up?
————————————————————————–
Is it any wonder why congress seems to take so much time to accomplish so little?
To continue, about The Great Immensity:
About The Civilians: it “is a company that creates new theater from creative investigations into the most vital questions of the present.” The company’s recent work, The Great Immensity received its world premiere production at Kansas City Rep in February 2012 and its New York premiere at the Public Theatre in April 2014. http://thegreatimmensity.org/
Thegreatimmensity.org website was last updated a year ago. From their home page: COMING TOGETHER TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE – With the climate crisis worsening every day, people everywhere are stepping up to take action.
And here are their links:
Climate Central
350.org
Sierra Club
Climate Reality Project
Green Peace
Climate Action Programme
Natural Resources Defense Council
Citizens Climate Lobby
Campaign Against Climate Change
Environmental Defense Fund
Earth Justice
Judging from their links, (they left out Watts Up With That for some reason), it is obvious that they are completely nonpolitical. I can’t imagine why they haven’t updated their webpage in over a year and for the last 10 months all news about The Great Immensity has gone dark. There isn’t even a video for this play available on YouTube. (The Civilians have 6 private videos under the heading of The Great Immensity, so it might exist.)
I wanted to get a copy of the final report from the NSF on the grant that funded the play, so I sent an email to them and got back this reply:
We cannot provide copies of reports; however, this information is available through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
So, I asked for the final report via the FOIA from the NSF. it only took 5 weeks but I did get a scanned copy of the final report, so I am again stuck with images. No searching or cut and paste available. Apparently it must be policy to use scanned documents to make it as hard as possible to use. First they had to print it as evidenced to the file location (https://www.ejacket.nsf.gov/ej/showprojectreportprint.do?reportID=10200709), then scan the 14 pages and then email it to me. It would have been easier to just send me the PDF file.
Within the report were (obviously) nonworking links to files, so I requested a PDF with working links, but instead was sent links to just three PDF files that expire in 30 days. The person I dealt with at the NSF was very courteous, helpful and accommodating, which I do appreciate.
There isn’t anything noteworthy in the final report, except that one gets the impression that the entire exercise was a resounding success and as it states: “We hope to continue touring The Great immensity in the years to come and are currently speaking with potential university and theater partners ..”
If their dream was to be a world tour in the lead-up to COP21 – its not going to happen. This is surely the last we will ever see of The Great Immensity and the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology will probably never find out if the taxpayer’s 697,177 dollars were spent wisely or not.
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“The Great Immensity”? I like the title, but think it would be better suited, in terms of educating the public on the perils of “climate-change”, to a play that explored Al Gore’s post-Tipper evolution into a grotesque, humongous, flab-sump, blubber-impaired, lard-whopper, jumbo-tubby behemoth-fatso.
Respectfully ask that my above comment be deleted. On reflection, I can see that it tastelessly distracts from an important article about the NSF’s appalling conduct.
“The Great Immensity” refers to the endless public money that can be spent with no accountability whatsoever.
I applaud Congressman Smith’s efforts to provide oversight of an NSF that obviously views itself as autonomous. If they spend the taxpayer’s money, they should answer to the taxpayers.We’re not dealing with military secrets.
I would very much like to see a breakdown of how much funding goes to pro-AGW groups vs. skeptical groups.
You forgot masseuse-masher. At least Prince Albert isn’t a lip-biting rapist like Slick Willie.
“The Great Immensity” and the fine art of stonewalling.
Even Rep. Lamar Smith, Didn’t stand a chance against the Great wall of hide, delay, lie, cheat and BS from the The National Science Foundation (NSF) – they have become money sucking, blood sucking, lead weight on the backs of the American people. DEFUND THEM!
“Never in the history of the world, has such an amount of money been wasted, without any trace of financial oversight or accountability.”
https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/the-sun-is-setting-on-solar-power-the-moneys-gone-and-nobodys-asking-any-questions/
Between rule by Presidential diktat and government employees who long ago stopped serving the people, any audit trail is impossible.
Pointman
Try looking at any country’s foreign aid program, that’s where you will see real waste, bureaucracy and corruption.
Only a couple of days ago, I saw a report on the news (probably BBC) that India was greatly expanding its Solar PV programme between now and 2020. I think that there were claims of a 20billion dollar investment scheme.
So no doubt much more money being wasted there, although at least in India, unlike Northern Europe, solar irradiance is strong and there ought to be much demand for energy/air con during the day whereas in Northern Europe peak demand is early evening when the sun even in summer is very weak, and in winter it has set a long time before peak demand.
@ur momisugly richard I think this the link (BBC Business page ) http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33648820
Hope they have enough batteries to last through the monsoon season.
Pointman, the Defense Department can’t tell you where up to 7 trillion dollars was spent for sure since 1998 and you actually think that any other money spent by the government and can’t be accounted for is significant by comparison? Before 9/11 then couldn’t account for 2.3 trillion, over the course of the next 2 years they lost track of 1.2 trillion more, and they can’t verify if contracts were actually fulfilled since then for another 4 trillion, and we worry about $700,000 for a politically motivated play or a the billions wasted on solar. Nearly half of the national debt, spent by DoD and unaccounted for, and we complain about raising the Social Security benefits by the true cost of living so we don’t count the cost of food and energy when we figure it. It’s a strange world we live in and a stranger world the Defense industry lives in.
Since DOD spending for FY’s 2002 and 2003 were 328.7 and 464.9 billion respectively, less about a total of 150 billion for Iran and Afghanistan, it’s difficult to imagine how they could have no idea where 1.2 trillion went since that’s about 250 billion more than they were given. A neat trick if you can pull it off. Rant, much?
The problem really is that there is no solution to bureaucratic incompetence except an “off with there heads” approach. You can’t shame a hooker in a whorehouse!
And yet another 7+ billion that can be eliminated from the Federal Budget.
The whole ‘man-made’ thing
Has always been a play,
A melodrama or a farce,
Who can really say?
With climate scientists
Taking the lead role,
Their convincing performances
Have taken a heavy toll.
http://rhymeafterrhyme.net/climate-denying-the-witchcraft/
Like it — but at the risk of making a “poetic enemy” I would change the word “convincing” to “conniving”. Actually, come to think of it, a word meaning “over-the-top” would fit even better. “Overacted”?
Taking the lead role
Overacted performances
Have taken a heavy toll
Deliberate exaggeration is the hallmark of a “climate scientist”.
Eugene WR Gallun
A classic example of the Empire of Expensive, Pointless, Obstructive Bureaucrats.
How dare you question their workings?
Great article. I say bye bye taxpayer dollars…but…no doubt someone will advance a Keynesian argument that this is good for the economy.
From: Eddie Johnson
To: Lamar Smith
How dare you question how the bureaucracy spends the people’s money. Eff off!
/paraphrase
They could get DiCaprio to play the lead in the movie version: “The Unbearable Boringness of Global Warming”.
Reblogged this on CraigM350 and commented:
An insight into the bureaucratic hive mind.
Cut all funding to the Organisation. Scrap the Organisation entirely. It the only way to make beaureacrats accountable to their employers the tax payers.
Yep, unemployment for these bastages is the answer.
SF: How do you get the bureaucracy to be more cooperative?
BN: Oh, that’s one of my big pleasures in public life, slashing the bureaucracy. We had to fight big bureaucratic battles to get this cyber park and to get our military to move all their key units here. But eventually, you know, we got it done. It’s a continual battle–and it’s an opportunity.
You asked me about our growth areas. One is technology, especially cyber. Two is new markets, especially in Asia. Third is bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is a great growth opportunity. Because if we’ve grown an average of 5% a year with the amount of bureaucracy we have, that tells you how much more we could grow if we removed that bureaucracy. So this is one of our missions: to constantly trim the bureaucracy. It’s like weeding; it never ends. You just have to keep weeding it out. But the trees grow, you know? And give fruit; you just have to keep weeding out the bureaucracy. It’s a great growth area.
From Forbes interview of Benjamin Netanyahu at http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2015/07/22/how-the-small-state-of-israel-is-becoming-a-high-tech-superpower/4/
‘The Great Immensity’
A spellbinding play about Obama’s ego.
LOL Much better use of the title! Maybe even more accurately named: ‘The Huge Hubrisity’?
Tom J
Haha! Love it. Did you see that in Kenya he just said that he would win a third term if he could run?
Eugene WR Gallun
That may be the most disgusting exchange I have ever read.
Maybe read more? (Sorry, couldn’t resist. Nothing personal.)
jinghis
If you want to read disgusting read some of the things said about Willie Soon.
Eugene WR Gallun
I think jinghis was referring to the exchange of letters in the head post.
I thougth that it was something from Yes minister (UK 70’s comedey)
“There are certain items of confidential information which while they are in theory susceptible of innocent interpretation do nevertheless contain a sufficient element of ambiguity, so that, should they be presented in a less than generous manner to an uncharitable mind, they might be a source of considerable embarrassment.”
But no this seems to be reality???
or my favourite
“The fact that you needed to know was not known at the time that the now known need to know was known and therefore those who needed to advise and inform him perhaps felt that the information that he needed as to whether or not to inform you of the known information was not yet known and therefore there was no authority for the authority to be informed because the need to know was not at this time known. Or needed
We only tell you when you know you need to know, Or when you need to know that you need to know ,Or when we know that you need to know.”
Does Lamar Smith’s committee actually have anything to do with funding the organization? If so, I would suggest they use their power and cut the funding drastically, together with imposing restrictions on use of the money, such as far greater and more immediate oversight. I know–they will whimper.
“The Great Immensity” is about as redundant a phrase as can be conjured, which considering the repetitive nature of so much self reinforcing bad climate science is apropos.
Please tell me that the “Blah Blah Blah” was your addition, not the original?
1t: Given the nature of this as a quote, while it’s amusing, an elipsis would be more accurate or at least putting that bit in brackets. In no small part because:
2: Given the outright disrespect shown for Congressional oversight in what should be an extremely simple if not routine request, I wouldn’t be suprised if they did mouth off like an undisciplined teenager.
Finally, if I spoke like that to an EPA agent or a police officer, I would be hauled off in handcuffs, and an acocunting speaking to the IRS or a trader speaking to the SEC could expect the same. How does the NSF get by with thumbing their nose at an oversight committee?
“I have paraphrased all of the correspondence, ….. changing the politically correct jargon into plainspeak,…” My intention was to put into words what was actually meant. “Blah Blah Blah” is just paraphrasing several pages of unimportant self-congratulatory filler. “If instead, you prefer being bored, read the actual documents in the links at the end.”
Dennis
I must say the more I think about it the worse it gets. This needs to be completely rewritten with nothing but quotations using elipses for brevity and brackets when needed. The basis of this disussion, with the NSF stalling to avoid congressional oversight, is bad enough.
A paraphrase is to rephrase “This is an illegal action under …[large list of items]…”. Or to replace a 30 word description with “this is unnacceptable”. This isn’t paraphrasing. It is a complete and prejudicial rewrite.
Putting words into their mouths undermines the point of this whole excercise. Let them hang themselves. Don’t try and do it for them
It could easily be touted as a possible libelous re-write of communication between congressional committee members and NSF staff. Whether or not it would be determined so in a court of law is immaterial in the current debate. Given this example of poor performance, I would say skeptics have lost this round.
I had assumed that even a person on the left side of the bell curve would get that the satire and sarcasm of paraphrasing all of the correspondence from politically correct jargon into plainspeak (see H.G. Wells’ 1984) would be obvious. I tried to get not only the intent but also the tone of the back and forth between the NSF and Congress. Next time I will add a more prominent disclaimer for the literalist reader and those that tend to skim read.
Let’s hope there is no next time. Your approach misses by a mile what are our best tools for effective debate, including the use of satire. In addition, I find sarcasm less effective the more it is used to the exclusion of reason. Indeed, the only thing for me that comes across with such a sickening dose of sarcasm is bitterness.
Ms. Gray. This clearly falls under the broad category for commentary and also falls under the “truth” defense. After careful reading, a reader cannot believe that these are original words. I originally made my post only a fraction of the way through, when I thought that it was a mix of satire and quotes. .I didn’t realize the extent of the rewriting until later.
However, I must agree with her in principle, Mr. Kuzara. By rewriting so thoroughly, you have undermined your entire point. The translation of the Senator into a polite professional while turning the NSF into a snarky and arrogant twit makes this unable to convince people. They see the translation, see the original, and then think they have been decieved. We have gotten as far as we have by being better than the alarmists. Despite having a miniscule fraction of the resources, effectively no public support, and outright vilification in the public media, skepticism is growing because we are BETTER. We have better arguments, more reasonable science, and don’t have to create lies or ludicrous scenariosto advance our goals. If we give up that high ground, then we lose everything.
“…you are sending a chilling message to the entire scientific community”.
Yes, we are. It is entirely intentional. Stop screwing the U.S. taxpayers and we will stop sending chilling messages.
Actually, we will stop sending chilling messages now, by disbanding your bureaucracy No need to send chilling messages to a non-existent bureaucracy.
In my dreams.
How about funding novel ideas for treating Multiple Sclerosis which my first wife suffered from until her premature death at the age of 60?
Sorry for your loss, but do you really want those people to be in charge of anything concerning the health of a loved one?
Congress has the tools to legally force them to reply or else go to jail. Why don’t they use those tools?
I will let you in on a dirty little secret. Congress doesn’t have the tools to force the Bureaucracy to do anything, not in practice anyway.
It is just kabuki theater.
Actually they do. The problem is this, we are seeing this circus act in a few moments time frame. For Rep. Lamar Smith it took place over a period of 18 months. When he made his first request he had no knowledge as to how the NSF would react.
Contrary to how Lamar Smith has been portrayed by the Media, he has acted with great restraint .
Yes, congress has the power to force the issue but tries to use that power only as a last resort. You do not use a wrecking ball when when a simple door bell should have sufficed.
I don’t think this is over, not by a long shot. I think it has been filed under “retribution….pending”
michael
10/1/2010 Does Community-Based Rangeland Ecosystem Management Increase the Resilience of Coupled Systems to Climate Change in Mongolia? ($1,499,718)
The warmists at NSF really do want us to move into yurts! It’s the largest grant on the list.
The Grant Immensity?
“This is the most transparent administration in history,”
Obama Feb 14, 2013
Yeah. You’re not allowed to see anything they claim are doing,
what they do claim to be doing is invisible and has no structure and no mass and will have no effect,
but what they are actually doing is not helpful and has no value and is not useful and is not visible.
I see pointless, overpaid, egotistical, politically correct, tax-funded, unaccountable, waste of space bureaucraps aren’t just found on our side of the Atlantic. I am sure there are more adjectives that could be used, but my English grammar was being greatly exceeded by my blood pressure.
““The Great Immensity,”
The curtain has come down on Climate Change: The Musical and reviews of the taxpayer-funded play about global warming are downright icy.
The play, which is actually entitled “The Great Immensity,” and was produced by Brooklyn-based theater company The Civilians, Inc. with a $700,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, ended its run early amid a storm of criticism from reviewers and lawmakers alike. It opened a year late, reached just five percent of its anticipated audience and likely fell short of its ambitious goal of informing a new generation about the perceived dangers of man-caused climate change.
Plus, it apparently wasn’t very good”.
Well there’s a surprise, please show me something that is politically correct and is good!
puppies, dolphins, and unicorns are all PC and good
(BTW: dolphins taste the best… oh sorry … that was not PC)
Cut funding to the NSF and you are labeled “anti-science”, a position democrats have effectively labeled republicans with already. A tricky political position to be in even with loads of evidence to the arrogant incompetence demonstrated by the organization.
Eddie Johnson and his ilk severely abuses the concept of appeal to authority. I am not going to tell a brain surgeon how to perform brain surgery. However it is reasonable and prudent to ask what are the risks, what is their success rate, what are the complications with the procedure and what are alternatives to this particular surgical procedure, etc. I don’t need to know how to perform brain surgery to ask these questions and prudent to tell the brain surgeon to f-Off if he is not open and forthright with answers.
Science does not automatically make all scientists free from the human foibles, of greed, dishonesty, stupidity, immorality, fanaticism, bias, incompetence, etc. It long past time we told the Eddie Johnsons and Cora Marretts at the NSF to f-off. Their arrogance and incompetent services are no longer needed.
It’s all I can do to restrain myself from employing numerous profanities.