Photo courtesy of flickr, tarsandsaction.org stream Link
Excerpt from Bloomberg:
James Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, was arrested outside the White House as he joined protesters in urging President Barack Obama to reject TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s $7 billion pipeline. Before he was taken into custody today, Hansen took a megaphone and implored Obama to act “for the sake of your children and grandchildren.”
In the following video, Dr. Hansen is plain spoken, coherent, and obviously quite convincing. His manner of delivery and calmness is actually something that Al Gore could learn from. Also, why isn’t Al Gore showing solidarity with these protestors?
“If Obama chooses the dirty needle it will confirm that the president was just green-washing all along,” Hansen, 70, who took a vacation day from his job at the New York based institute to participate in the protest, said in an e-mailed statement.
I wonder if NASA has a three strikes policy, this is arrest #3 from Dr. Hansen.
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The problem with campaign finance reform is it’s addressing a symptom and not the root cause. With limited government, politicians could not vote so many favors to supporters and narrow special interest groups. Laws (and regulations) are supposed to be for the common good, not for a narrow interest. Campaign finance reform will not fix this.
A balance budget amendment is a good idea, but the devil is in the details. If the budget doesn’t get balanced, will the courts rule on how money is to be spent or how the budget is to be balanced? I don’t want federal judges controlling spending now and I don’t want a BBA that expands that role.
Term limits? Right on!
I would start with
1) Get rid of tax-payer funded pensions for elected officials.
2) Forbid any bridges, buildings, anything funded with tax dollars, from being named for any elected official until after their death.
3) Make Congress, their staffs, and the entire federal work force participate in Social Security.
4) Forbid Congress from exempting themselves from laws they pass and end current exemptions
R.Gates just compared herself to Thomas Jefferson! Classic Jumping the Shark moment. Or a classic cry for help. Or perhaps she has I say the opposite of what I mean disease. I can’t let that one pass though, because as it stands it is a smear on that great man by reducing him to a leftist troll.
There was one over-riding defining characteristic of Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican party (Jeffersonian Republicans, or Republicans or Jeffersonians). That characteristic was small decentralized (Federal) government, period. Small decentralized government is the very enemy to green liberal left-wing socialism, as much as a cross or holy water would be to a vampire. Claiming affiliation with such a philosophical giant (you would have been a Loyalist or Adams Federalist) would be like you claiming affinity to Feynman rather than the more correct choice, Paul Ehrlich.
Gates, I served with Thomas Jefferson. I knew Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson was a friend of mine. Gates, you’re no Thomas Jefferson!
Friends:
You Americans are entited to your political heroes such as Thomas Jefferson, but I could not care less about him.
I do care about James Hansen. He is doing harm to your country and, importantly, did much harm to my own when he gave testimony on behalf of eco-terrorists in a UK court case. His “expert” but ridiculous testimony got the eco-terrorists acquited.
Thomas Jefferson is dead. I want to know when Americans are going to put a stop to the activities of James Hansen who is alive, well and doing a lot of harm.
Richard
He looks good in cuffs… handcuffs!
WRT
John Marshall says:
August 30, 2011 at 2:10 am
I was under the impression that political activity was not a permitted passtime for US Government employees. How come he gets away with it?????
Reply: I was recently reminded by a certain Agency that as an employee of a company working on a Federal government contract that the Hatch Act proscribes me from certain public political activities, even on my personal time. I believe the same prohibited activities must apply to Hansen’s case. Do we have a lawyer in this thread who could verify whether or not this activity is a violation of his employment as a senior government official ?
Has anyone posting here read Hansen’s work? It is not light reading let me tell you. He is among the most credible scientists in the world, and is willing to stand up for what he knows and take the consequences. If you ignorant turtles want to burn fossil fuels, move to the moon where there is no atmosphere to ruin.
Er, uhm, yes. I have read Hansen’s “scientific” works.
My own criticism of his “work” is perhaps debatable, but it was his own (governmental) supervisor who – when comparing models back in the 80’s from many different research groups – was the one who identified Hansen’s “works” as “the least accurate” of 12 different methods that could be used to predict the actual radiation received on a horizontal surface over a period of time.
Significantly, it was Hansen’s method who most over-estimated the radiation received of the different analysis methods. Even thirty years ago, he was not getting the right answer, and was erring on the side of increased radiation (er, propaganda).
Adam Dole,
This “ignorant turtle” will remain on planet earth, emitting huge billowing clouds of CO2 directly into the atmosphere. In fact, I will emit more extra CO2 than you can possibly reduce. Your carbon footprint cannot get small enough, I’ll make up for both of us, and then some.☺
Why? Because CO2 is harmless and beneficial. I guess you didn’t get the memo. Read WUWT for a while, and you’ll begin to understand that you’ve been sold a bill of goods.