I’ve talked about the slimy “Forecast the Facts” campaign before, where they are attempting to label your local TV weatherperson/meteorologist as a “denier” and pressure TV station management into making that person “toe the line” by having a bunch of fake form letters sent by “local viewers”. It is simply paid astroturfing.
For example, look how they label KOAA-TV’s Brad Sowder for not even wanting to take a position because it is a “political issue”:
Political is right, because today, those flailing PR geniuses at The Center for American Progress aka Think Progress, a front organization for all things left and “progressive” with a now $30 million+ annual budget (From 2008: CAP, which has 180 staffers and a $27 million budget, devotes as much as half of its resources to promoting its ideas through blogs, events, publications and media outreach. Source: Bloomberg ) let it slip (whether by design or accident we don’t know) that THEY are behind this “Forecast The Facts” outfit.
We always wondered who was funding this hate campaign against your local TV meteorologist, now we know, here’s the screencap with the proof:
Even though there is no hint of this association on the “Forecast The Facts” about page. Pants on fire and all that.
For those who don’t know, Brad Johnson of Think Progress, is one of the worst offenders of political climate alarm hype on the planet. He’s paid to make up stuff like blaming the people who live in the south for their political views, and bad weather is the punishment:
Obviously Johnson has learned nothing in a year, because what he says today is the same brand of irrational ugliness and hate, bold mine:
Countless lives were saved this weekend by vigilant government officials who warned of deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska — states whose politics are dominated by anti-government, anti-science ideologues.Over 100 tornadoes struck down in 24 hours, but only six people died in Oklahoma, Sen. Jim Inhofe’s home state, thanks to warnings from the National Weather Service scientists he has worked to discredit
…
Wichita, Kansas, the headquarters of Koch Industries, suffered $280 million in damage from a ferocious twister, but the “ever-increasing government” demonized by the Koch brothers prevented any loss of life.
Support your local TV weathercaster and meteorologist, don’t let them be cowed by well funded political sliming coming from The Center For American Progress.
And the next time someone tells you that “skeptics are well funded”, remind them of how much money CAP gets and how they put it to use.
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Less that 24 hours after I made this report on the slip, TP rushed this CYA press release out with a FLASH attached to it. Heh, sorry, I already scooped you.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/04/17/465268/brad-johnson-joins-forecast-the-facts-campaign/
R. Emmett Tyrrell said it best: “The liberal’s main goal in life is to annoy his neighbor.”
And slime everyone who disagrees with him.
Billions wasted on politicizing the weather, when could be put to science that counts. It is clear these people are psychopathic narcissists. They demonize the truth until their lies are accepted. They have read well the 1930’s European play book by which we have seen the sprouts of evil tyranny progress. Obliteration of rights is rampant, turning free nations into a third world country is the goal.
I think it’s about time they stopped using the word ‘progress’. Progress is an optimistic word and they assuredly do not represent optimism. I also think it’s about time they stop calling themselves ‘progressives’. Remind them that progressives brought on prohibition. Whoops, maybe ‘progressives’ is an appropriate description after all. It’s good to see, however, that they stopped referring to themselves as liberals. That was just a ruse, they were never classical liberals anyway. But I think they should call themselves what they really are: statists. That way they can claim honesty on at least one thing.
Out of all the atmospheric scientists, it is the meteorological forecasters that are most skeptical of a man-made global warming crisis. These are the ‘government officials’ that were instrumental in saving lives last weekend, not Hansen or Gore. They are real people, doing real science that has very real, positive impacts on very real people. In my opinion, the National Weather Service stands out from the rest of government as being efficient and cost effective.
Does Brad Johnson really believe that we are stupid enough to think that disaster’s strike states because they are represented by people who he calls anti-science ideologue?. How anti-science is that?
Instead of convincing people, Brad Johnson tries to bully the opposition into submission, and hits out at people who’d like to stay out of the fight. Good way to make LOTS of enemies. And wasn’t “bullying” another thing the liberals/progressives purportedly fight against?
I belive I commented on the association at the time. Another Soros front.
The only problem with shining a light on these people is that it forces them to find another rock to hide under…
“Storms Kill Over 250 Americans In States Represented By Climate Pollution Deniers”
What exactly are they infering in this headline? Gaia is exacting revenge on the non-believers?
A fine recipe from the Goebbels cookbook.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels
“National and socialist! What goes first, and what comes afterwards?” Goebbels asked rhetorically in a debate with Theodor Vahlen, Gauleiter (regional party head) of Pomerania, in the Rhineland party newspaper National-sozialistische Briefe (National-Socialist Letters), of which he was editor, in mid-1925. “With us in the west, there can be no doubt. First socialist redemption, then comes national liberation like a whirlwind…”
“Storms Kill Over 250 People In States Represented by Climate Pollution Deniers”. Charming title. So who did those state cheese off? Gaia or Zeus? Should they have conducted human sacrifice to ward off the anger of the Earth?
Attn. Anthony:
“people who like in Oklahoma”
change to “live”
Think Progress is pretty much blatent left wing propaganda. Still, I was slightly dissapointed, when a link to a post on Joe Romm’s Climate Progress blog was edited off the end of a comment I made here a week or so ago:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/04/04/battery-karma-taxpayers-green-investment-in-battery-company-withers/#comment-945729
When I included this link in a comment at Reason’s Hit&Run blog, another commenter responded that he would have to rinse his eyes out with clorox after clicking on a Think Progress link.
[REPLY: Canman, the moderator who approved your post is NOT shy about documenting why he may have snipped something. That is, in fact, our SOP. If there was a problem, it may be elsewhere. -REP]
Thanks for the insight Anthony. I’ll get this out to my friends.
…or “people who like Oklahoma..”
Seems like we could use another anti-communism type trial:
As I’ve always said, global warming is a conspiracy created by scientists, the science organizations, the research journals, the universities, the government, NASA, the EPA, the liberal media, the liberal politicans, the green movement, the hippies, and of course the progressive bloggers, all doing the bidding of George Soros, Al Gore and James Hansen hiding out in their underground lair (below sea level of course) who concocted the whole thing in order to control your life, your money and your precious bodily fluids.
[REPLY: You know, that is NOT what you’ve always said and your juvenile attempt to see if WUWT will approve anything is not appreciated. Address the issues substantively or get lost. -REP]
Brad Johnson reminds us that most humans haven’t progressed much beyond the Aztecs. AGW is nothing more than a call for human sacrifice to please the gods. The detached human view (where man is removed from nature instead of being part of it) has led to so much of the horror of recent history. This applies to all political and religious extremes, but the Left seem to be taking an especially fond liking to being cruel these days.
[snip – over the top – sorry – Anthony]
Peter says:
April 16, 2012 at 4:12 pm
“As I’ve always said, global warming is a conspiracy created by […]NASA,[…]James Hansen”
Funny that you mention Hansen whose alarmism nets NASA 1.2 bn USD a year. A coincidence that NASA’s employee constantly cools the past to create the illusion of a strong warming trend?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/FY12-climate-fs.pdf
After we talked about Rothera station in Antarctica on notrickszone, which, unbelievably, had its trend adjusted DOWNWARD by Hansen, as opposed to his usual upward trend adjustments, it didn’t take a week for GISS to partially correct their mistake.
http://notrickszone.com/2012/04/13/hansen-shocks-adjusts-antarctica-temperatures-changes-warming-trend-to-cooling/#comment-93038
You’d think the alarmists would have realised by now that the internet is our turf. They should stick to the traditional MSM, because every time they try to pull a fast one in our jungle, we catch them out.
Pointman
In Australia we could deal with these pests with this. (INAL)
Criminal Code Act 1995 – Appendix E – Online Offences 474.17: Uses a carriage service in a way (whether by the method of use or the content of a communication) that reasonable persons would regard as being menacing, harassing or offensive.
Penalty: 3 years
We don’t tend to tolerate bullies very well here and they can’t hide behind the “Right to free speech” because we don’t have it. It is only implied in our constitution, it is not a given here.
Peter says:
April 16, 2012 at 4:12 pm
As I’ve always said, global warming is a conspiracy….. blather….blather…. blah…
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This coming from a person who thinks there’s some big oil conspiracy paying us bloggers and commenters?
Peter, the fact is, it doesn’t take a conspiracy to have like minded ideologues come to similar conclusions. Do some of them colude and conspire from time to time? Sure they do, the emails clearly demonstrate that they have. If you want to live your life in denial of these facts, that’s fine, just don’t have your delusions interfere with the rational part of society.
What’s amusing is that these self-identified progressives are now singing praises to the government. Imagine that. Of course, Center for American Progress being the Democrat’s flag ship “think tank,” beloved by Hilary Clinton, acting as the shadow advisor to the WH and lavishly watered by the usual supects…all this could have something to do with that.
Methinks they are wasting their millions on PR shlocks and incompetents who’d get the boot in any self-respecting agency, though, as we shall see when this adolescent campaign fails.The malignant, dictatorial and patronizing idiocy in “Exhibit A”…i.e., Anthony’s screencap…won’t warm too many hearts.
I prefer to call them Regressives, rather than Progressives, because it seems obvious to me that everything they do is designed to hinder the progress of mankind.
This is so bad. It’s like they are trying to rush things through – attack “deniers”, pass laws and taxes, clamp down on public thinking – all before the balloon burst for them. As though if they can only peg AGW in place legally and morally, it will somehow make it true. This would be sad if it weren’t so utterly horrible.