SEE UPDATE BELOW FROM MONCKTON
I’m out of the political loop, and have no way of judging the merit of the claim, so I’m just going to link to this story. If it is true, it shows just how bad the treatment of different viewpoints has become in Washington. Perhaps Lord Monckton can give a comment or two here to either bolster or refute this story.
Report: Democrats Refuse to Allow Skeptic to Testify Alongside Gore At Congressional Hearing
Thursday, April 23, 2009 By Marc Morano
‘House Democrats don’t want Gore humiliated’
Climate Depot Exclusive
Washington DC — UK’s Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, claimed House Democrats have refused to allow him to appear alongside former Vice President Al Gore at high profile global warming hearing on Friday April 24, 2009 at 10am in Washington. Monckton told Climate Depot that the Democrats rescinded his scheduled joint appearance at the House Energy and Commerce hearing on Friday. Monckton said he was informed that he would not be allowed to testify alongside Gore when his plane landed from England Thursday afternoon.
“The House Democrats don’t want Gore humiliated, so they slammed the door of the Capitol in my face,” Monckton told Climate Depot in an exclusive interview. “They are cowards.”
UPDATE 8:30PM PST Lord Monckton weighed in on this story in comments. I thank hi for his candor and for telling his story firsthand here. He writes:
Once again I’m most grateful to Anthony Watts and his hard-working team for their kindness in exposing the less than democratic tactics of the Obama Democrats. The story circulated by the indefatigable Marc Morano is – as one would expect – accurate in every particular.
Early this week the Democrats told the Republicans they would have a “celebrity witness” for this morning’s hearing on the Waxman/Markey Bill, but they would not say who. The Republicans immediately contacted me and asked if they could tell the Dems they too were putting forward an undisclosed celebrity witness – me.
When the Dems eventually revealed that their “celebrity” was Al Gore, the Republicans told them I was to testify at the same time. The Dems immediately refused to allow the Republicans their first choice of witness. By the time they had refused, my jet was already in the air from London and I did not get the message till I landed in the US.
At first the Dems tried to refuse the Republicans the chance to replace me with a witness more congenial to them, but eventually – after quite a shouting-match – they agreed to let Newt Gingrich testify. The former Speaker of the House gave one of his best performances.
I attended the session anyway, as a member of the public, and tried to shake hands with Gore when he arrived, but his cloud of staffers surrounded him and he visibly flinched when I called out a friendly “Hello” to him.
His testimony was as inaccurate as ever. He repeated many of the errors identified by the High Court in the UK. He appeared ill at ease and very tired – perhaps reflecting on the Rasmussen poll that shows a massive 13.5% swing against the bedwetters’ point of view in just one year.
My draft testimony will be posted at http://www.scienceandpublicpolicy.org shortly, together with a brief refutation of Gore’s latest errors.
Finally, I have never said what one of your less polite correspondents has said I said about HIV. However, in 1987, at the request of the earliest researchers into the disease, I wrote articles in journals on both sides of the Atlantic recommending that AIDS should be treated as a notifiable disease, just like any other fatal, incurable infection. Had that standard public-health measure been taken – immediate, compulsory, permanent, but humane isolation of the then rather few carriers – many of the 25 million (UNAIDS figures) who have died and the 40 million who are currently infected and heading for death would have been spared. Sometimes, unfashionable points of view are right, and sometimes ignoring them can be a matter of life and death.
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Smokey,
I have to disagree with you: Gore is not terrified he is merely sticking to the plan. An open dialogue is antithetical to his ends, which is to make money. I don’t believe for one minute that many of these guys actualy believe what they’re peddling.
They have a monetary gain in sight and they are heavily invested in seeing it come to fruition. On a moral and ethical basis, yes they are, by the very definition: cowards.
Tactically, in order to achieve their objective they are just being smart. Remember the Nazis? Propaganda does not work instep with open dialogue and honest debate.
The hearing is currently broadcasting live on C-Span Channel 1 Livestream. Al Gore acted indignant because he was asked whether or not one of his companies is going to profit from the Climate control legislation. He attempted to deflect the question by claiming 100% of the profits he receives is being donated to a non-profit organization.
Lucy Skywalker (09:30:25) :
Neven (08:39:11) : Come on, this blog is moving in the right direction, don’t spoil it all by mentioning Monckton in your articles… As for Morano: Please go beyond being Morano’s errand boy. You’ve got something going here.
“Can someone please tell me the name of this particular tactic?”
It’s called “Divide and Conquer”.
Gore has posted his testimony at his website.
http://blog.algore.com/2009/04/testimony.html
You have to read this, this guy is nuts.
He is claiming a potential 40 foot rise in sea level due to melting ice.
He claims the ocean has acidified to the extent it is now corrosive.
He even pulls an Obama and blames the flooding in Fargo on AGW.
Lies, lies and more damn lies!
No wonder he didn’t want Moncton there.
flanagan (23:41:26)
“How do you want someone who once said that “heterosexual AIDS transmission is a myth” and that “all people infected by VIH should be quarantined for life, this is until they actually die of it” to participate a democratic debate?”
An argument Monckton made in 1987. The following year a certain James Hansen made certain predictions regarding temperature trends over the next few decades.
Some time later, Monckton said, “the article was written at the very outset of the AIDS epidemic, and with 33 million people around the world now infected, the possibility of [quarantine] is laughable. It couldn’t work.”
20 years later we are still waiting for Hansen to admit that his predictions were b**lsh*t.
As a British politician said some years ago, “When the facts change I change my opinion; what do you do?”
As Ayn Rand wrote, “It is not your wealth that they’re after. Theirs is a conspiracy against the mind, which means: against life and man.”
Read about “The Charlotte Tea Party Speech”
by John Lewis (April 20, 2009)
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=5505
Joseph (10:16:50) :
Gore has posted his testimony at his website.
————
Sorry, but I can’t get myself to read it or look at him on C-span. I might barf on my keyboard and won’t be able to write comments on WUWT’s excellent blog.
Arthur Glass (05:25:39) :
“The world’s biggest cargo carriers, including Maersk and IM Skaugen, have begun talks with power companies in Britain and Europe that could see them build new fleets of tankers specially made to transport the greenhouse gas captured from clean-coal power stations.”
Has anyone told Somali pirates about this?
Fits perfectly with Pirate-Climate Theory. By cooling the world through carbon sequestration, we will inevitably bring about dramatic rises in the pirate population.
“”” Flanagan (23:41:26) :
How do you want someone who once said that “heterosexual AIDS transmission is a myth” and that “all people infected by VIH should be quarantined for life, this is until they actually die of it” to participate a democratic debate?
I really understand the point of view of the organizers, there. “””
You need to do some further research there Flanagan. Seems to me that in the US when there were outbreaks of tuberculosis; a highly person to person contagion; that in fact ANYONE infected, was quarantined until they were cured (or died). That was done to protect the uninfected.
AIDS was the first disease to be attacked by quarantining those who AREN’T infected. It’s not rocket science; communicable diseases are spread by the behavior of people who have those diseases; not by the unsuspecting behavior of people who don’t have them.
And one particular group of victims happens to have devised the most effective way of transmitting HIV; second only to a blood transfusion. I recommend you study how cholera attacks the human body, and the particular organ it attacks. HIV does the very same thing.
But Monckton was responding to the best science information he was able to learn. Whether that was correct or not does not mean he was wrong to raise the issue.
One could reasonably ask why a Brish member of the nobility should be addressing the US Congress; he is not and never has been a member of the British Parliament; so is is acting as a concerned private UK citizen of some not inconsiderable repute; and in the case of climate science; he is far better informed than Al Gore ever could be, although he would not claim to be a climate scientist.
But the ad hominem attack is such a weak statagem Flanagan; can’t you come up with a more germane reason for the Congress to snub Christopher Monckton’s freely offered advice.
Lex (23:37:30) :
Last year, on his tour through the Netherlands and meeting some high ranking Dutch officials, like ministers, the skeptics were not allowed to the debate with Al Gore.
Needless to say that the number of skeptists has risen very significantly since then.
Actually it was even worse.
Before he was going to give a speech to those Bobo’s (Dutch slang for high ranking Dutch officials, like ministers) he was also going to give a speech to his footsoldiers (Students), but he got a bit delayed, left the soldiers for what they where and only lectured those who paid for it.
Does Monckton ever mention that CO2 in 1940 was higher than it is now? I had never even heard of this until I listened to a talk of Plimer’s on youtube. I thought that statement was so over the top that I almost dismissed his whole talk.
However, all I had to do was Google “CO2 history” and the scales fell from my eyes. Why don’t we bury AGW once and for all with this? The manipulation of the “pre-industrial” CO2 level to be a constant is just a bald faced lie. I am truly disgusted that so many have been so dishonest. The “environmentalists” (I like the environment too, btw) are so intent on controlling everyone else, they don’t even care if they have to lie for the “greater good”.
Non technical people just glaze over when I try to explain all the complexities of climate, especially when it is not the fashionable opinion. However, everyone understands a lie. Kerry almost won by characterizing WMD statements as lies. Let’s get the word out that the CO2 record was fabricated just like the famous “hockey stick” temperature curve.
Why can’t this be the “smoking gun” that exposes the AGW hoax?
Currently “serious” people are those who do not even consider other peoples opinions but their own, and their own onanistic thoughts are so hardly defended that they are consequently deprived of those human features called humor and well being. As they also consider themselves the wisest and, last but not least, the most beautiful of the human kind, they are prone to fall into depression more easily….So let’s wait.
Joseph (10:16:50) :
He claims the ocean has acidified to the extent it is now corrosive.
Really? I mean, I can at least understand using “acidification” in spite of the fact that what is really happening is the oceans are becoming less basic, i.e., they are becoming more neutral, but to say they are corrosive is a simple lie. If anything, the oceans are becoming less caustic, not corrosive.
Mark
To understand and avoid where this is all going, people should read this: “Fascist Ecology:
The “Green Wing” of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents” at http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/germany/sp001630/peter.html
History is repeating itself!
As the democrats have put their heads in a bucket, the world is cooling and the number of skeptics is rising.
http://www.weatheraction.com/displayarticle.asp?a=27&c=1
People also get immune to alarmist media reporting.
Mocking the “Greens” in style, read No Consensus, much Propaganda
http://web.me.com/sinfonia1/Clamour_Of_The_Times/Clamour_Of_The_Times/Entries/2009/4/24_No_Consensus,_Much_Propaganda.html
Not sure if that comment went through the first time…
Looks like history is repeating itself. This is a very interesting historical perpective of this whole situation: “Fascist Ecology:
The “Green Wing” of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents” at http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/germany/sp001630/peter.html
I posted this story to Drudge last night and I now see that it is there-maybe my posting did it ?….. Posting to Drudge can be very effective as the web site gets over 22 million hits per day !!!!! This site is one hell of a mote in the eye of the MSM>
Ray (09:47:15) :
How many congress-person are scientifically litterate? On this panel, my guess is a big “0″.
Or economically, intuitively, sexually…ad infiniti
Mark T (10:59:43) :
I am in no way defending this idiot, buit of course he is using the word corrosion to insight images of stutural failure or whaever in people’s minds.
Corrosivity can also be done at pH higher than 7.0. Def. Corrosion: The breaking down or destruction of a material, especially a metal, through chemical reactions.
A good example is that of aluminum with Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH). It is quite violent actually!
Fuelmaker (10:51:40) :
“Does Monckton ever mention that CO2 in 1940 was higher than it is now? I had never even heard of this until I listened to a talk of Plimer’s on youtube. I thought that statement was so over the top that I almost dismissed his whole talk.
However, all I had to do was Google “CO2 history” and the scales fell from my eyes. Why don’t we bury AGW once and for all with this? The manipulation of the “pre-industrial” CO2 level to be a constant is just a bald faced lie. I am truly disgusted that so many have been so dishonest. The “environmentalists” (I like the environment too, btw) are so intent on controlling everyone else, they don’t even care if they have to lie for the “greater good”.
Non technical people just glaze over when I try to explain all the complexities of climate, especially when it is not the fashionable opinion. However, everyone understands a lie. Kerry almost won by characterizing WMD statements as lies. Let’s get the word out that the CO2 record was fabricated just like the famous “hockey stick” temperature curve.
Why can’t this be the “smoking gun” that exposes the AGW hoax?”
Fuelmaker,
The CO2 levels during the beginning of WOII are subject to discussion.
Moncton has directed his efforts at debunking the IPCC reports.
He performed this job with a 100% kill rate, demolishing all the conclusions and disclosing the underlying (pseudo)science.
What more do you want?
Robert van der Veeke (10:47:51) :
Lex (23:37:30) :
“Last year, on his tour through the Netherlands and meeting some high ranking Dutch officials, like ministers, the skeptics were not allowed to the debate with Al Gore.
Needless to say that the number of skeptists has risen very significantly since then.
Actually it was even worse.
Before he was going to give a speech to those Bobo’s (Dutch slang for high ranking Dutch officials, like ministers) he was also going to give a speech to his footsoldiers (Students), but he got a bit delayed, left the soldiers for what they where and only lectured those who paid for it”.
“Needless to say that the number of skeptists has risen very significantly since then.”
Robert,
Would you be so kind to tell me where the Dutch Skeptics can be found!
If there is one country in the world marching blindly into the green paradise without a single act of protest, it is The Netherlands.
Where were the protests when the Dutch Government lauched a plan to protect the Dutch coast from an expected sea level rise of 7.5 meters?
Where were the protests when Balkenende asked Obama to adapt to the Kyoto Protocol and take serious action reducing CO2 emissions?
People happily participate in the Climate Street Contest and they happilly watch Green Dream Television.
It’s time somebody wakes them up before they turn their country into the worlds biggest swimming pool.
Joseph (10:16:50) :
He claims the ocean has acidified to the extent it is now corrosive.
LOL, OMG!…Then he is contradicting himself again. If there is so much CO2 in sea water as to acidify it so much then there is nothing in the atmosphere!!, so there is no Global Warming!!
Hurrah!!
Being a constituent of Congressman Waxman, Chair of this Committee – I just wrote a scathing (!) letter to him. I have read much of Monckton’s Report and it is excellent. In fact this one Report contains, in my humble, all the detail necessary to fully disclose the skeptical AGW position.
This committee now ruled by Dems is acting out of extreme cowardice. There can be no expectation of truthful findings if the Committee Chair refuses the testimony of competent witnesses. A joke. A clown jape. Hardly worthy of the invective “a kangaroo court!” I am ashamed to be from California.
Waxman ridiculed Gingrich for disputing Gore’s claims about Antarctica. Gingrich cited scientific reports showing Antarctic ice is increasing or stable, not decreasing as claimed by Gore. Waxman’s blustering comments confused ice extent in West Antarctica versus East Antarctica with his comments about “sinking” of those places instead of ice extent and/or volume. Clearly, Waxman failed to demonstrate an understanding and grasp of even the most fundamental scientific facts about Antarctic ice extent known to children in elementary schools.
HE, instead, is greatly acidic and acidifying all the world, from the start. Some baking soda will make it…Oh, but it has CO2 in it also!! (H2CO3)