Showing posts sorted by relevance for query State of Fear. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query State of Fear. Sort by date Show all posts

Monday, December 18, 2006

State of Fear Exposes Truth of Deception

Will post my comments tomorrow, after sleeping on the Crichton thought-provoking novel, State of Fear, and dreaming of a world where everybody backed up their opinions so meticulously.

Meantime

Ron Bailey's review in the Wall Street Journal:

A Chilling Tale

By RONALD BAILEY
December 10, 2004; Page W1


We
know that nature can kill. What most people don't know is that stupid ideas about nature can kill, too.

In "State of Fear" (HarperCollins, 603 pages, $27.95), Michael Crichton delivers a lightning-paced technopolitical thriller that turns on a controversial notion: All that talk we've been hearing about global warming -- you know, polar ice caps melting, weather systems sent into calamitous confusion, beach weather lingering well into January -- might be at best misguided, at worst dead wrong. Think "The Da Vinci Code" with real facts, violent storms and a different kind of faith altogether...

Twists and Turns

"State of Fear" is, in a sense, the novelization of a speech that Mr. Crichton delivered in September 2003 at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club. He argued there that environmentalism is essentially a religion, a belief-system based on faith, not fact. To make this point, the novel weaves real scientific data and all too real political machinations into the twists and turns of its gripping story.

For example, the climate computer models relied upon by global-warming proponents like Drake -- or, in real life, by John Adams (NRDC), Carl Pope (Sierra Club), Kevin Knobloch (Union of Concerned Scientists) and John Passacantando (Greenpeace USA) -- predict that such warming will be strongest at the earth's poles, turning glaciers into floods and raising sea levels. In "State of Fear," Drake warns that Greenland's ice cap is melting and will push the sea level up by 20 feet. (As it happens, on Wednesday of this week Sir David King, Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, testified with similar alarm before a British legislative committee, saying: "If the ice-sheets in Greenland melt, sea levels would rise 6.5 metres and London would be underwater.")

Yet as Mr. Crichton has his scientist Kenner correctly note, Greenland's ice cap is in no imminent danger of melting away. It is well established scientifically that average temperatures in Greenland and Iceland have been falling at the rather steep rate of 2.2 degrees Celsius per decade since 1987. As for temperatures in most of Antarctica, they have been falling for nearly 50 years, and ice there has been accumulating rather than melting. And those sea levels? Nils-Axel Mörner, a professor of geodynamics at Stockholm University, has been studying the low-lying atolls of the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. He has found "a total absence of any recent sea level rise" and has instead found evidence of a fall in sea level in the past 20 years -- a fact that Mr. Crichton has the good instinct to report in the course of pushing his plot forward.

And what about the trend in actual global average temperatures, a question central to the debate in "State of Fear"? According to satellite data, since 1978 the planet has been warming up at a rate, per decade, of 0.08 degrees Celsius. Simple arithmetic reveals that, if the rate continues, the planet will warm by 0.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. That compares with an increase of 0.6 degrees Celsius during the 20th century. No catastrophe there. Indeed, Mr. Crichton has one of his characters note the costly uselessness of the supposedly heat-reducing Kyoto Protocols...


http://commonsblog.org/archives/000246.php

Crichton's State of Fear Book exposes faulty climate change arguments
January 19, 2005 | Tech Central Station By Kenneth Green, Reason

http://www.reason.org/airquality/

http://www.reason.org/commentaries/green_20050119.shtml

"Aliens Cause Global Warming"

A lecture by Michael Crichton California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA January 17, 2003


http://www.crichton-official.com/speeches/speeches_quote04.html


Michael Crichton’s State of Confusion II: Return of the Science
December 15, 2004


http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=76

http://www.friesian.com/crichton.htm


NIST tackles State of Fear, for real...

http://math.nist.gov/~BRust/pubs/Interface2005/PrePrint.pdf

Separating Fact from Fiction in Crichton's 'State of Fear'
Posted on: 03/21/2005


http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?contentid=4371

Distort Reform
A review of the distorted science in Michael Crichton's State of Fear
By Gavin Schmidt
01 Feb 2005


http://www.grist.org/advice/books/2005/02/01/schmidt-fear/

Crichton Mad
A review of the distorted plot and politics in Michael Crichton's State of Fear
By David Roberts
01 Feb 2005


http://www.grist.org/advice/books/2005/02/01/roberts-fear/

Michael Crichton's "State of Fear"
Posted by David Roberts at 4:27 PM on 01 Feb 2005


http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/2/1/162744/5081?source=daily

"Environmentalism as Religion"

by Michael Crichton
Commonwealth Club San Francisco, CA
September 15, 2003


http://www.michaelcrichton.net/speeches/speeches_quote05.html

Remember fiction is fiction, faction is faction, non-fiction is non-fiction... James Frey's memoir, isn't...

Monday, December 11, 2006
global warming gaining skeptics ? or !
http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2006/12/global-warming-gaining-skeptics.html

For more information on this issue use the search feature on this site located at the top left corner

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=global+warming

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

52 new species found bolster Crichton State of Fear

Senator Inofe's December 6, 2006 Senate hearing Full committee hearing on Climate Change and the media. Archived here: http://epw.senate.gov/epwmultimedia/epwmultimedia.htm

Also see previous posts

Monday, December 18, 2006
State of Fear Exposes Truth of Deception
The post includes material from those who have critiqued Crichton's book

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2006/12/state-of-fear-exposes-truth-of.html

Monday, December 11, 2006
global warming gaining skeptics ? or !

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2006/12/global-warming-gaining-skeptics.html

You don't have to read the entire State of Fear novel. Just read these pages (somebody who did read the entire book nicely tagged the pertinent pages). Forever grateful, so much more to do... one day, I'll return, maybe in the e-book form. Or audio-tape recording.

Pertinent sections:

Vanufu litigation case research team p. 76-96 (20 pages)
Discussion about Vanufu case reasearch p. 99 (1 page)
Antartica p. 191
Antartica melting? p. 192-196 (5 pages)
Media conferences p. 244-249 96 pages)
Net War and Computer Recognition p. 251-255 plus 256
Global warming doesn't raise money - NERF p. 295-6 (2 pages)
Privately taped conversation inside NERF p. 314-316
News p. 362-3
Vanutu case research again p. 366-388 (22 pages)
Historical data Vanutu case research closed p. 392-4 (2 pages)
Common knowledge p. 421-427 (7 pages)
Climate change p. 444
Professor Norman Hoffman ecology of thought led to state of fear p. 445-50
Kyoto (the prize) p. 477-489
Where we live p. 562-63
Simulations not real world data p. 464-67
Author's Message analysis 5 pages
appendix I Why Political science is Dangerous

You'll have to read State of Fear to discover the arguments Crichton uses.

http://www.crichton-official.com/fear/index.html

Message board archived

http://www.crichton-official.com/messageboard.html

Net the Truth Online publisher's favorite section:

Excerpt:

p. 315

Drake paced. He looked unhappy. "But it just doesn't make sense," he said. "it's not logical to say that freezing weather is caused by global warming."

"What's logic got to do with it?" Henley said. "All we need is for the media to report it. After all, most Americans believe that crime in their country is increasing, when it has actually been declining for twelve years. The US murder rate is as low as it was in the early 1970s, but Americans are more frightened than ever, because so much more airtime is devoted to crime, they naturally assume there is more in real life, too." Henley sat up in his chair. "Think about what I am saying to you, Nicholas. A twelve-year trend, and they still don't believe it. There is no greater proof that all reality is media reality."

"The Europeans are more sophisticated--"

"Trust me-- it'll be even easier to sell abrupt climate change in Europe than in the US. You just do it out of Brussels. Because bureaucrats get it, Nicholas. They'll see the advantages of this shift in emphasis."

Drake did not reply. He walked back and forth, hands in his pockets, staring at the floor.

"Just think how far we have come!" Henley said. "Back in the 1970s, all the climate scientists believed an ice age was coming. They thought the world was getting colder. But once the notion of global warming was raised, they immediately recognized the advantages. Global warming

p. 216

creates a crisis, a call to action. A crisis needs to be studied, it needs to be funded, it needs political and bureaucratic structures around the world. And in no time at all, a huge number of meteorologists, geologists, oceanographers, suddenly become 'climate scientists' engaged in the management of this crisis. This will be the same, Nicholas."

"Abrupt climate change has been discussed before, and it hasn't caught on."

"That's why you are holding a conference," Henley said patiently. "You hold a well-publicized conference and it happens to coincide with some dramatic evidence for the dangers of abrupt climate. And by the end of the conference you will have established abrupt climate change as a genuine problem."

"I don't know..."


end excerpt State of Fear

Now onto the debate...

Disappearing World: Global Warming Claims Tropical Island by Geoffrey Lean The Independent UK Sunday 24 December 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2099971.ece

Global warming science faces State of Fear
New Crichton book has temperature rising on climate change debate
Monday, May 16, 2005 by CFACT

http://www.cfact.org/site/view_article.asp?idCategory=21&idarticle=756

Here is an analysis which can be downloaded, with links added all the time on the heartland.org site

Michael Crichton Is Right! Written By: Joseph L. Bast
Published In: Publication Date: January 11, 2005
Publisher: The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=16260

Crichton's State of Fear Lauded in Congress
Written By: James M. Taylor
Published In: Environment News Publication Date: May 1, 2005
Publisher: The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=16898

via State of Fear Message Board

...Congrats! You have hit on the crux of the matter...terminology as a means of influence and control.

The issue is NOT about global warming, CO2, this study or that study. The issue is about ideology versus reality.

John Ralston Saul, PhD, the husband of Canada's former Governor General (The Queen's Representative) has analyzed the truth of the real issue driving the entire GW/CC debate, i.e., economic theory.


Lecture content © 1999 John Ralston Saul

http://www.abc.net.au/specials/saul/default.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/specials/saul/fulltext.htm

Dec. 18, 2006, 8:29PM
WWF: 52 new species discovered on Borneo
by ELIANE ENGELER Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

GENEVA —
Scientists have discovered at least 52 new species of animals and plants on the southeast Asian island of Borneo since 2005, including a catfish with protruding teeth and suction cups on its belly to help it stick to rocks, WWF International said Tuesday.

"The more we look the more we find," said Stuart Chapman, WWF International coordinator for the study of the "Heart of Borneo," a 85,000-square-mile rain forest in the center of the island where several of the new species were found. "These discoveries reaffirm Borneo's position as one of the most important centers of biodiversity in the world."

Much of Borneo, which is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and the sultanate of Brunei, is covered by one of the world's last remaining rain forests.

The discoveries bring the total number of species newly identified on the island to more than 400 since 1996, according to WWF, known in North America as the World Wildlife Fund.

Other creatures discovered between July 2005 and September 2006 were six Siamese fighting fish, whose unique colors and markings distinguish them from close relatives, and a tree frog with bright green eyes...


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4411444.html


The real climate change catastrophe

CSR must recognize how misguided energy policies will affect the world's poor Friday, October 27, 2006
by Paul Driessen



Every snowstorm, hurricane, deluge or drought generates headlines, horror movies and television specials, demanding action to avoid imminent climate catastrophe. Skeptics are pilloried, labeled "climate criminals," and threatened with "Nuremberg-style war crimes trials."

Britain's Royal Society has demanded that ExxonMobil stop funding researchers who say global warming is primarily the result of natural forces. Meanwhile, scientist James Hansen received $250,000 from Teresa Heinz-Kerry for insisting that warming is due to humans, and "socially responsible" investor services refuse to list or recommend corporations they deem insufficiently sensitive on the subject.

Not surprisingly, companies from Wal-Mart to BP, GE and JP Morgan have brought climate activists into their board rooms, lobbied Congress for climate and ethanol legislation, and retooled to produce new product lines intended to boost tax subsidies, favorable PR and profits.

But are these actions socially responsible or in the best interests of society as a whole?

Asserting "the science is settled" ignores the debate that still rages. Proclaiming that "climate change is real" ignores Earth's constant, natural warming and cooling
...

http://www.cfact.org/site/view_article.asp?idCategory=10&idarticle=1115


What do you think it will take to reverse the effects of global climate change?
How serious do you think this problem is and what should we do to get the word out?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqWe36vA8Ugpl6dZlIXSQcKL1KIX?qid=20060629201333AAu7EXE

For more information on this issue use the search feature on this site located at the top left corner

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=global+warming

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Kolbert, Bailey & Easterbrook: global warming - debate over

All in agreement, now, "we're all global warmers now."

Aired August 4, 2006
Interview: News Hour with Jim Lehrer
Host Jeffrey Brown

See original transcript and You Tube video

Elizabeth Kolbert
Greg Easterbrook
Ronald Bailey (We're all global warmers now)

RONALD BAILEY, Reason Magazine: I'm delighted that the television goblins let me get to you finally.

JEFFREY BROWN: OK. We were just talking about the political conversation, where it stands now. We had mentioned earlier that there was this meeting in California between Governor Schwarzenegger and Tony Blair, a conversation in the public, in the media, a conversation in the business world. Where do you see things? Where do you see things shifting and how?

RONALD BAILEY: Well, basically I think that we're all global warmers now, that it's essentially going to be that we've all agreed that there is a trend toward a warmer planet and that humanity is, in fact, contributing to that trend.

The extent of that contribution is, I'm not quite nearly as sure of it as Ms. Kolbert is, but I think that where we stand is we all now agree that the temperature is increasing and that we probably need to do something about it.

Some of the proposals that are coming out, the symbolic stuff, the political theater that Tony Blair and Schwarzenegger engaged in, are not simply -- they're just political theater. They're not at all solutions to the problem.

JEFFREY BROWN: Why do you call it political theater, and why do you think they're motivated to do it?

RONALD BAILEY: Well, Schwarzenegger's clearly motivated to do it because he's trying to differentiate himself from President Bush. He's up for re-election, and he's got a real problem in a state that is predominantly Democratic, so he's basically selecting global warming and stem-cell research and that kind of thing as a way of differentiating himself from an unpopular president.

But one of the things that -- I did happen to overhear some of the conversation, and I have to agree with Gregg Easterbrook that very likely is the fact, if we set up this situation so that scientists and entrepreneurs can come up with these new technologies, then we should be able to solve the problem. We're not nearly in as desperate a situation as I believe some people argue that we are
...

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/weather/july-dec06/climate_08-04.html

http://youtube.com/watch?v=44bmzqYM1HUPart 1

http://youtube.com/watch?v=s5yr6DFRNSk&mode=related&search=Part 2

Later find comments to Hit and Run column notifying readers of Bailey's (we're all global warmers now) appearance on News Hour, transcript link...

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/115007.html

Uh, not everybody agrees with Bailey...

August 18, 2006 Sunstein on Global Warming
Anonymous said...
I wouldn't know a Coasian deal from a Corsican. I can direct you to http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Paleoclimatology_Evidence/index.html site which clearly states that there have been hundreds of ice ages followed by (you guessed it) Global Warming Events over the last 2.5 million years. Now I don't know about you, but an event that happened hundreds of times kind of looses it's special identity as a 'unique' event that can be pinned on our long suffering species Homo Sapien...


CONTINUED

matthew said...
Everybody should read this speech by Michael Crichton.

http://www.crichton-official.com/speeches/index.html

Click on "Aliens cause global warming." Its not hyperbole to say most scientists' very livelihood depends on outside funding and outside funding has always followed who has the most alarmist conclusions. As this speech shows, this cycle has happened so many times with alarmist theories such as Nuclear Winter.


http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/08/sunstein-on-global-warming.html


Reading Professor's recommended reading for students two sides of global warming note date April 4, 2005 was a mere month before the time of Ronald Bailey's announcement We're all global warmers now...

mentioned in class today (4/4/05) that it can be hard to sort through contradictory claims made by opposing sides in environmental debates. Some websites I have found helpful myself are the following. Click here for a website on "anti-environmental myths." For a contrasting perspective, critical of much of the environmental movement, click here to see the columns by Reason magazine's science correspondent. (Reason is a libertarian magazine.) I can't vouch for Bailey's reliability (or for the reliability of the anti-environmental myths website, for that matter). But Bailey has broken ranks with many environmental skeptics and conceded that DDT does thin the eggs of some bird species, which shows some commitment on his part to respect scientific evidence.


http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/cduncan/250/250.htm

Don't forget the refrain now. We're all global warmers now.

We're All Global Warmers Now, Ronald Bailey, August 11, 2005

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34079.html

More here to compare

Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Island on global warming theory list; Bush Admin. points to climate change phenomenon

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2006/12/island-on-global-warming-theory-list.html

Tuesday, December 19, 2006
52 new species found bolster Crichton State of Fear

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2006/12/52-new-species-found-bolster-crichton.html

Monday, December 18, 2006
State of Fear Exposes Truth of Deception
The post includes material from those who have critiqued Crichton's book

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2006/12/state-of-fear-exposes-truth-of.html

Monday, December 11, 2006
global warming gaining skeptics ? or !

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2006/12/global-warming-gaining-skeptics.html

Ronald Bailey (August 11, 2005) We're all global warmers now...

for some reason, I just can't get that phrase out of my head.

Ronald Bailey Admits He's Wrong About Global Warming
Ronald Bailey of Reason Magazine fame admits he'd been wrong about global warming.

(Has Bailey been brainwashed at one of the United Nation's Climate Change Conferences?)

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2006/12/ronald-bailey-admits-hes-wrong-about.html

Thursday, December 28, 2006
Net the Truth Online: A destiny

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2006/12/net-truth-online-destiny.html

Michael Crichton's State of Fear messageboard (back to the reality of non-fiction/fiction/faction)


http://www.crichton-official.com/messageboard.html

For more information on this issue use the search feature on this site located at the top left corner

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=global+warming

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Beware 34 States Call for 2nd Constitutional Convention

Joel Hirschhorn, author of Delusional Democracy, is asked by Pgh Now host, Chris Moore, whether he supports an Article V Constitutional Convention as a way to get what he envisions is necessary to get an array of measures passed which will not be done by Congressionally-proposed amendments.

Chris Moore Program

http://www.kdkaradio.com/pages/5664021.php


Yes, he supports it and has several proposals in the works. His website is: Friends of the Article V Convention.

When we heard his name mentioned and the subtitle of his book, Fixing the Republic without Over-Throwing the Government, we knew immediately he'd want the Article V Convention.

The key wording in the subtitle is "without over-throwing the government."

But that is exactly what an Article V Convention could do - overthrow the government, peacefully and without a shot being fired. Our republican form of government guaranteed to the states could be replaced with some other form of government guaranteed to the states, or no guarantee.

Another entirely new and different Constitution of the United States could be proposed by the delegates to the convention. Based on the first Constitutional Convention, called to revise the Articles of Confederation, the second could not only do likewise, replace the Constitution, not merely revise, or amend, delegates could also propose a different method of ratification.

The author ended his commentary with a statement that appeared inaccurate: Congress calls the Convention. A caller found reason to disagree in that the required amount of states make the call, once the number is reached the convention should be automatically convened.

The author changed the wording in his reply just enough to satisfy. He said Congress convenes the Convention once the required amount of states call for the convention.

It was a picky and technical point and we understand why the author wanted the overall point he was making to resound.

Congress must convene the convention upon the last required state making the convention call.

Hirschhorn believes there are a requisite amount of states who've already made the application for a call for a convention, and Congress must call or convene the convention, immediately.

There may still be room however even given the wording of the Constitution for debate as to who actually calls the convention together.


The Congress,... on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress;...

The following site covers some ground worth reading but beware it is wiki.

http://wiki.lessig.org/Talk:Article_V_Convention


Though the U.S. Constitution Article V is worded as such, we'd go with Congress... on Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall convoke a Convention for proposing Amendments...

as the more appropriate interpretation. We don't think the Article V means Congress has any role whatsoever in an Article V Convention called as such by the two-thirds of the several states.

This exclusive right to call a Convention by the states is exlusive to the states via Article V. And that is why the debate surrounding a convention call when the last required state submits its application for a call is so important.

As important is the theory that the Congress can limit the convention by any legislation or regulations.

Stanford Law School Professor Gerald Gunther testimony to Judiciary Committee

... statutory or Congressional limitation of a convention is "profoundly unconstitutional" and it is "snake oil to tell the country that Congress can limit or bind the convention..."

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19851022&id=ChsiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=paYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3371,495738


We've warned of the dangers of a Second Constitutional Convention for years. We've posted material in the blog and in our sidebar for your information.

Hirschhorn wants a Constitutional Convention for a number of proposals. On the Pittsburgh Now program, he noted he didn't believe elections were effective in combating the entrenched two party system and its corruption. Campaign contributions are out of whack. So let's have a second Constitutional Convention.

We've also been watching Judge Napolitano. Please review our posts and sidebar material.

We made a post on freedomwatch as a.k.a. Dare Berringer

http://freedomwatch.uservoice.com/forums/16625-freedom-watch-show-ideas/suggestions/209966-danger-of-a-second-constitutional-convention

also see

Numerous links

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-X-FedConC.html

Also see our latest post regarding a private citizen's (Thomas W. Sulcer) call for a Second Constitutional Convention which apparently has been an effort for some years now.

Con: Private Citizen Summons July 2010 Con-Con

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2010/02/con-private-citizen-summons-july-2010.html


By the way, what a brilliant idea to sell or give away copies of your own book. Invite everybody to this Second Constitutional Convention and provide copies of your book for sale or review!

What a motivator to get the thing done, even if you have to publish it yourself.

When this talk arises seemingly far more now with the advent of the Tea Party (whose origins we've commented upon in other posts) we let our fingers fly to search for as much more information as possible than we've already provided about the dangers of a Second Constitutional Convention.

We highlight Greenley's piece elsewhere, and do so again, clipping those sections as well which reference other John Birch Society/The New American offerings... It's not a plug to buy, buy, buy, it's informational.

Constitutional Convention Backers Want to Hijack the Tea Party Movement
Written by Larry Greenley
Thursday, 30 April 2009 13:49

...A con-con would be convened by Congress in accordance with Article V of the Constitution, if 34 or more state legislatures petition Congress to call such a convention “for proposing amendments.” The dangerous aspect of a con-con is that there’s no way for the state legislatures to ensure that the constitutional convention would restrict itself to consideration of the specific amendment(s) that the state legislatures have based their con-con calls on. Therefore, a constitutional convention could consider and approve a wide range of amendments, never contemplated by the state legislatures who started the whole process. Whichever amendments approved by the constitutional convention that were ratified by three-fourths of the states would become part of the Constitution. Thus, given the huge influence on public opinion exerted by the biased media and political elites, the con-con process could very well result in radical changes in our Constitution which were never intended by the state legislators who called the con-con in the first place.

Here’s “Beware of Article V,” a video the John Birch Society produced in 1999 to help state legislators to understand the high risk to our Constitution involved in petitioning Congress for a con-con. It’s also valuable for informing concerned citizens about this issue. I highly recommend readers of this article take the 36 minutes required to view it or at the very least sample it.


http://www.jbs.org/index.php/freedom-campaign/4820



Constitutional Convention Backers Want to Hijack the Tea Party Movement
Written by Larry Greenley
Thursday, 30 April 2009 13:49

...The staff and members of the John Birch Society, as well as the large number of state legislators of both parties that our members have worked with over the past 20 years, are very familiar with how seemingly attractive the concept of a con-con can be until further study reveals the high degree of risk involved.

The “Beware of Article V” video embedded near the top of this article has been our most effective resource for convincing state legislators against petitioning Congress for a con-con. We recommend that you show and/or give the “Beware of Article V” video (free to view online; DVD available to buy online) to the organizers of tea party events in your area. It is especially important to help them understand the dangers of a con-con as they are planning for speakers and action agendas for the July 4th tea parties...

http://www.jbs.org/index.php/freedom-campaign/4820



We've been following Glenn Beck on the matter as he has yet to publicly announce he absolutely would not support a Second Constitutional Convention.

Years back, Patrick J. Buchanan also supported a convention in one of his books. We confronted him when asking a question during a press conference for one of his runs for the Republican nomination for President. He responded he had recently met with the Phyllis Schlafly organization and retreated from his position. We asked another question which was reported on in a Tribune-Review piece at the time.

Net the Truth Online

Joel S. Hirschhorn at November 22, 2009 Article V Convention: No Reason to Fear Liberals (or Conservatives)

November 22, 2009
Article V Convention: No Reason to Fear Liberals (or Conservatives)
In my many efforts to educate Americans about their constitutional right to have an Article V convention I have regularly encountered the fear that liberals would control the convention and produce awful results. Let me carefully make the case why this fear is completely unjustified and why patriotic Americans that are not constitutional hypocrites should support the nonpartisan effort of Friends of the Article V Convention.

An Article V convention is too important to oppose. If you love and respect the Constitution, then the honorable thing to do is support our efforts to make Congress obey the Constitution and give us the first convention. After all, the Founders and Framers knew that inevitably Americans would lose trust in their creation of a strong central, federal government. So they gave us the convention option and, with one exception, gave the power to run the convention to the states. That one exception was that they required Congress call or convene the convention once the one and only specified requirement in Article V was satisfied. With some 750 applications from all 50 states, that two-thirds of states requirement has long been met. Members of Congress have disobeyed the Constitution and their oath of office to uphold it...

http://www.watchblog.com/thirdparty/archives/006780.html



Please review the site and read the posting by Stephen Daugherty at November 22, 2009 04:00 PM

Note, we don't condone Daugherty's support of a 34 state call for a Convention, no matter if the required states get together on one major amendment or call for the Convention. The convention delegates can not be guaranteed to remain limited to any one amendment. therein is the danger.

Nonetheless, Daugherty's position is interesting and we'd recommend him to Chris Moore, host of Pittsburgh Now to present his positions on the issue.

Net the Truth Online

clip

Comment #291307
Let me carefully make the case why this fear is completely unjustified and why patriotic Americans that are not constitutional hypocrites should support the nonpartisan effort of Friends of the Article V Convention.
As opposed to the patriotic Americans who are constitutional hypocrites?

To be a hypocrite, you must say one thing, but through your actions indicate something else.

I have said, consistently, that I believe the constitution calls for thirty four or more states to agree in concert for the convention to go forward.

An Article V convention is too important to oppose. If you love and respect the Constitution, then the honorable thing to do is support our efforts to make Congress obey the Constitution and give us the first convention.
Too important to oppose? Everybody believes that about something. I believe healthcare reform is too important to oppose. Even so, a bill must go through Congress’s rules, and be passed constitutionally.

It is poor argumentation, then, when speaking about an Article Five Convention, where agreement of two-thirds of the states is called for, prior to the calling of the convention, to say that we must do this because you think it’s too important to oppose. That doesn’t enter into it.

I love and respect the constitution, and disagree with your interpretation, which in turn compels me to strongly disagree with your argument.

I believe Congress already obeys the Constitution in this, so it need not be asked to do any more.

After all, the Founders and Framers knew that inevitably Americans would lose trust in their creation of a strong central, federal government.
Care to show me where that is written? Truth is, some never trusted it at all. And some trusted it above all other things. The variation was regional, and one thing the framers and founders were on guard against was one group of states revising the agreement to favor themselves. The constitution was a compromise between different regions, with different land areas and different populations. The Framers did a lot of balancing out of such interests.

I believe the high thresholds, as Hamilton would later say, would require such efforts at Amendment or at a Constitutional convention be aimed at the general interest, not merely the interest of a few states. It would have been awful hard of this threshold to have any teeth, if we did things Joel’s way, since there were so few states to start with. I don’t think the federalists, the folks who favored the adoption of this document, intended for the amendment process to be a happenstance occurence of addition.

Everywhere else where they ask for a threshold, they’re asking for a considerable consensus before a power is granted, or put into action. This was required for a veto override, and it’s required for the twin brother of the convention clause. Why, with similar language, is such a real consensus not required for the convention method? After all, the states will have to attend this darn thing, they might as well be in better than majority agreement that it’s necessary, or otherwise it’s not going to move things anywhere anyways.

So they gave us the convention option and, with one exception, gave the power to run the convention to the states. That one exception was that they required Congress call or convene the convention once the one and only specified requirement in Article V was satisfied. With some 750 applications from all 50 states, that two-thirds of states requirement has long been met. Members of Congress have disobeyed the Constitution and their oath of office to uphold it.
Yeah, I remember looking at your applications and finding recissions (in other words, people saying “disregard the convention calls”), duplications, among other things.

Funny thing, this build up. It could only happen if it never occured to any state that its rights were being trampled on. Maybe they, too, believe that the threshold has to more or less be met together, by the willing agreement of States in common purpose. You’re tilting at windmills for an ungrateful set of damsels in distress.


http://www.watchblog.com/thirdparty/archives/006780.html


See the John Birch Society information

Phyllis Schlafly

Tom DeWeese site report follows

Thursday, January 15, 2009
BEWARE OF CALLS FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION---THE WORST NIGHTMARE OF OUR REPUBLIC By Fred Kelly Grant

Apparently, another attempt will be made in this session of the Ohio legislature to secure a legislative call for a constitutional convention, purportedly to seek a balanced budget amendment. If you live in Ohio, use every means of communication at the disposal of you, your family, your friends, and those you hardly know, to urge members of your legislature to drive a stake through the heart of this menace to the Republic.

In December, 2008, an effort was turned away in the Ohio House by well prepared, wise witnesses who pointed out the dangers of such a convention. If the legislature, by some strange turn of events, should this time passsuch "call", then do as Frazier once warned a fleeing suitor of Rebecca on Cheers, "Run, run, as fast as you can" and seek cover from the fall out. In all the years of our history, including the threat to the Republic posed by the Civil War, has there been such a pernicious weapon to be launched atour Constitutional form of government.

There are some myths that are posed by those who seek a constitutional convention. They can, and must be dispelled, by those who can still read and understand.

First, if enough legislatures call for a constitutional convention to consider a balanced budget amendment, the nature of the convention will be limited to that amendment. Balderdash. That is an absurd conclusion. History itself shows that the conclusion is delusional. When the members arrived in Philadelphia in the 1780s, they arrived for the purpose of amending the Articles of Confederation, not for the purpose of drafting a constitution. The delegates were there with instructions to find a cure for the currency problems which plagued commerce among the states, to find a way to fund a standing army, to find a way make uniform rules of interstate commerce, and to find a way to lay a tax on the states---all without creating a stronger central government. In my early days, I spent hundreds of hours toiling through the journals of the congress which drafted and enacted the Articles of Confederation, in order to write an Honors Program Paper "The Genesis of the Articles of Confederation" as, what I thought would be, the culmination of my constitutional history specialty at the College of Idaho. But, no,that led only to another Paper detailing the drafting of the Constitution asa substitute for the Articles of Confederation.

So, I am not guessing and I am not quoting some other scholar when I say toyou that the first Constitutional Convention in this country ran roughshodover the limited purpose for which it had been called. If anyone tells youthat a constitutional convention can be restricted by its "call", ask him orher to explain to you why the first Convention veered completely and totallyaway from the reason for which it was called, and from the directions the states gave the delegates. If he or she attempts to explain it, ask him or her whether they have read the journals. Ask him or her to explain why the delegates boarded up the hall so that passersby could not hear the deliberations. Boarded up the hall in the miserable heat of Philadelphia, boarded up a room which is virtually stifling on a summer day even today. The delegates were sworn to secrecy, and no one outside the hall knew what was being conceived inside until the deed was done. Keep in mind also that once the contents of the Constitution were known, ratification was not an easy task. There was not a great swell of desire for a strong central government; just as at the time of the Revolution there was not a sweeping desire for independence throughout the colonies.

So, our first and only constitutional convention proved that delegates to a constitutional convention are not bound by any directives given to them by a state. They are free as a bird to amend the basic document in any way theywant. They could, today, do the same to our Constitution as the delegates in the first convention did to the Articles of Confederation.

Second, the proponents claim that the Congress has ignored the call for a convention because their convoluted counting of various calls through the years add up to sufficient number to require convening a convention. Core to this argument is their belief that a state cannot rescind a call once made.That claim is also without merit in the law.

The question of whether a state can rescind a call is a matter for the state to decide. In Idaho, for example, the Attorney General in careful and circumspect manner has rendered the opinion that the legislature can rescind what a prior legislature has done, just as it can repeal an act passed by a prior legislature. If this were not the case, a legislature which rendered a call for a constitutional convention would be binding every successor legislature to that call. So, the first legislature would be rendering the legislative authority of future legislatures void as to any matter related to a constitutional convention. Such power is not allowed under Idaho law, just as it is not allowed under federal law. One Congress cannot bind a successor, rendering it without authority over any particular question of legislative authority.

So, every state which has rescinded any call for a constitutional convention made by a prior legislature has negated the impact of that call, and the Congress cannot lawfully consider a state call if the state has rescinded it. No court will decide otherwise, because such decision would allow today's legislature to forever fix the law on an individual subject. Fortunately for those of us who fully believe in the Constitutional Republic which we enjoy, the Congress knows that to be the law.

Third, the proponents seem to believe that we need a constitutional convention to save our Republican form of government. Nothing could be further from the truth. When I read the rhetoric in support of a constitutional convention to "save our form of government", I, like Alice believe that things get "curiouser and curiouser" as I live longer and longer. In all reality, can there be anyone who really believes that a convention made up of delegates chosen by God knows what method in each state will strengthen our form of government?...

http://tomdeweese.blogspot.com/2009/01/beware-of-calls-for-constitutional.html


Another warning 2 States Away From Constitutional Convention Call

http://www.rense.com/general84/consttit.htm

Friday, October 10, 2008

Note the wide use of wording like appear to violate federal law... in New York Times article

States' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?
_r=1&sq=voter%20purge&st=cse&oref=slogin&scp=1&pagewanted=all


while of course, no eligible voter should be removed from the voter registration rolls, any and all ineligible voters should.

election officials are in a bind in some respects by not having culled voter registration rolls since enactment of the Motor Voter Act of 1994. Many names are left on the voter rolls because officials are hesitant to remove out of fear they will face a lawsuit the likes of presidential year 2000...

Had boards of election, however, sitting as the registration commissions in Pennsylvania, begun a review of county records, notified questionable electors of a potential for removal before an upcoming election - 90 days out from that election - at the least many names could have been removed in an efficient manner.

In most states, such reviews have not been conducted not only since 1994, but for some 50 years!

Thus the voter rolls are bloated and very likely filled with names of deceased and persons who not only have not voted for two federal elections but who have moved out of the state entirely.

this election is going to be the test of local databases of voters.

Should even one or two or a handful of names show up as having voted this election, names which should have been removed 8 years ago or 4 years ago, our elected public officials should have some major explaining to do.

Net the Truth Online

Black Box Voting dotcom tackles NYT article, tags as misleading

Thursday, October 9. 2008
Times story on voter databases gets it wrong on North Carolina
Rumor control. New York Times article misleading. The NY Times yesterday ran a thinly researched article on voter purges in several states including North Carolina, “States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal” (10/08/08) . It uses lots of vague talk like “seems,” “appears,” or “may have . . .,” without much elaboration or direct reporting. The NY Times reporter did not cite comments from any North Carolina election officials or any local advocacy groups.

The NY Times reporter even seems to clear North Carolina in his response to my email asking what was going on. Read it here:

From: Ian Urbina
To: joyce mccloy
Subject: RE: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin
Date: Oct 9, 2008 9:03 AM
From what we can see in the data, NC does not seem to have any major red
flags. Best we can tell, it looks like the number of people coming off the
rolls would roughly correspond with the number of people leaving the state
or dying during that period (both of which are legitimate reasons to remove
people within 90 days before an election).

Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: joyce mccloy
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 8:54 AM
To: URBINA
Subject: FW:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?_r=1&ref=politic
s&oref=slogin

Here a North Carolina reporter does some investigating, makes some phone calls, and the story is much different:

Times story on voter databases called 'very misleading' Thursday, October 9 By Mark Binker Staff Writer

The Times story said that North Carolina had been warned that it was checking an abnormally large number of social security numbers against a federal database and that federal officials were worried the state could be improperly excluding voters.

But Elections Director Gary Bartlett said Social Security Numbers were only being checked in the case where a drivers' license or other acceptable form of identification has not been provided.

...North Carolina has registered more than 700,000 new voters since the beginning of the year and may top 800,000 by Nov. 1. Of those, about 400,000 have been run through the federal Social Security database.

The state, Bartlett said, had a high number of universities, military personnel and businesses that bring people in from out of state. Often those people don't have drivers' likenesses when they register to vote and therefore use their Social Security Number to verify their identity.

No one is denied registration if their Social Security number does not match said Bartlett and local elections officials. ...


...The NY Times should be investigating the Social Security Dept who will be shutting their database down right in the middle of voter registration:

http://blackboxvoting.com/s9/index.php?/archives/305-Times-story-on-voter-databases-gets-it-wrong-on-North-Carolina.html


States' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?
_r=1&sq=voter%20purge&st=cse&oref=slogin&scp=1&pagewanted=all

By IAN URBINA
Published: October 8, 2008

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states
have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from
registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to
a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York
Times.

The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other,
nor do they appear to be the result of election officials
intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of
mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the
states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul
the way elections are run.

Still, because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new
voters this year, according to state election officials, any
heightened screening of new applications may affect their party's
supporters disproportionately. The screening or trimming of voter
registration lists in the six states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio,
Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — could also result in problems
at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the
rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party
officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and
heated tempers.

Some states allow such voters to cast provisional ballots. But they
are often not counted because they require added verification.

Although much attention this year has been focused on the millions of
new voters being added to the rolls by the candidacy of Senator
Barack Obama, there has been far less notice given to the number of
voters being dropped from those same rolls.

States have been trying to follow the Help America Vote Act of 2002
and remove the names of voters who should no longer be listed; but
for every voter added to the rolls in the past two months in some
states, election officials have removed two, a review of the records
shows.

The six swing states seem to be in violation of federal law in two
ways. Michigan and Colorado are removing voters from the rolls within
90 days of a federal election, which is not allowed except when
voters die, notify the authorities that they have moved out of state,
or have been declared unfit to vote.

Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio seem to be improperly using
Social Security data to verify registration applications for new
voters.

In addition to the six swing states, three more states appear to be
violating federal law. Alabama and Georgia seem to be improperly
using Social Security information to screen registration applications
from new voters. And Louisiana appears to have removed thousands of
voters after the federal deadline for taking such action.

Under federal law, election officials are supposed to use the Social
Security database to check a registration application only as a last
resort, if no record of the applicant is found on state databases,
like those for driver's licenses or identification cards.

The requirement exists because using the federal database is less
reliable than the state lists, and is more likely to incorrectly flag
applications as invalid. Many state officials seem to be using the
Social Security lists first.

In the year ending Sept. 30, election officials in Nevada, for
example, used the Social Security database more than 740,000 times to
check voter files or registration applications and found more than
715,000 nonmatches, federal records show. Election officials in
Georgia ran more than 1.9 million checks on voter files or voter
registration applications and found more than 260,000 nonmatches.

Officials of the Social Security Administration, presented with those
numbers, said they were far too high to be cases where names were not
in state databases. They said the data seem to represent a violation
of federal law and the contract the states signed with the agency to
use the database.

Last week, after the inquiry by The Times, Michael J. Astrue, the
commissioner of the Social Security Administration, alerted the
Justice Department to the problem and sent letters to election
officials in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and
Ohio. The letters ask the officials to ensure that they are complying
with federal law.

"It is absolutely essential that people entitled to register to vote
are allowed to do so," Mr. Astrue said in a press release.

In three states — Colorado, Louisiana and Michigan — the number of
people purged from the election rolls since Aug. 1 far exceeds the
number who may have died or relocated during that period.

States may be improperly removing voters who have moved within the
state, election experts said, or who are considered inactive because
they have failed to vote in two consecutive federal elections. For
example, major voter registration drives have been held this year in
Colorado, which has also had a significant population increase since
the last presidential election, but the state has recorded a net loss
of nearly 100,000 voters from its rolls since 2004.

Asked about the appearance of voter law violations, Rosemary E.
Rodriguez, the chairwoman of the federal Election Assistance
Commission, which oversees elections, said they could
present "extremely serious problems."

"The law is pretty clear about how states can use Social Security
information to screen registrations and when states can purge their
rolls," Ms. Rodriguez said.

Nevada officials said the large number of Social Security checks had
resulted from county clerks entering Social Security numbers and
driver's license numbers in the wrong fields before records were sent
to the state. They could not estimate how many records might have
been affected by the problem, but they said it was corrected several
weeks ago.

Other states described similar problems in entering data.

Under the Help America Vote Act, all states were required to build
statewide electronic voter registration lists to standardize and
centralize voter records that had been kept on the local level. To
prevent ineligible voters from casting a ballot, states were also
required to clear the electronic lists of duplicates, people who had
died or moved out of state, or who had become ineligible for other
reasons.

Voting rights groups and federal election officials have raised
concerns that the methods used to add or remove names vary by state
and are conducted with little oversight or transparency. Many states
are purging their lists for the first time and appear to be
unfamiliar with the 2002 federal law.

"Just as voting machines were the major issue that came out of the
2000 presidential election and provisional ballots were the big issue
from 2004, voter registration and these statewide lists will be the
top concern this year," said Daniel P. Tokaji, a law professor at
Ohio State University.

Voting rights groups have urged voters to check their registrations
with local officials.

In Michigan, some 33,000 voters were removed from the rolls in
August, a figure that is far higher than the number of deaths in the
state during the same period — about 7,100 — or the number of people
who moved out of the state — about 4,400, according to data from the
Postal Service.

In Colorado, some 37,000 people were removed from the rolls in the
three weeks after July 21. During that time, about 5,100 people moved
out of the state and about 2,400 died, according to postal data and
death records.

In Louisiana, at least 18,000 people were dropped from the rolls in
the five weeks after July 23. Over the same period, at least 1,600
people moved out of state and at least 3,300 died.

The secretaries of state in Michigan and Colorado did not respond to
requests for comment. A spokesman for the Louisiana secretary of
state said that about half of the numbers of the voters removed from
the rolls were people who moved within the state or who died. The
remaining 11,000 or so people seem to have been removed by local
officials for other reasons that were not clear, the spokesman said.

The purge estimates were calculated using data from state election
officials, who produce a snapshot every month or so of the voter
rolls with details about each registered voter on record, making it
possible to determine how many have been removed.

The Times's methodology for calculating the purge estimates was
reviewed by two voting experts, Kimball Brace, the director of
Election Data Services, a Washington consulting firm that tracks
voting trends, and R. Michael Alvarez, a political science professor
at the California Institute of Technology.

By using the Social Security database so extensively, states are
flagging extra registrations and creating extra work for local
officials who are already struggling to process all the registration
applications by Election Day.

"I simply don't have the staff to keep up," said Ann McFall, the
supervisor of elections in Volusia County, Fla.

It takes 10 minutes to process a normal registration and up to a week
to deal with a flagged one, said Ms. McFall, a Republican, adding
that she was receiving 100 or so flagged registrations a week.

Usually, when state election officials check a registration and find
that it does not match a database entry, they alert local election
officials to contact the voter and request further proof of
identification. If that is not possible, most states flag the voter
file and require identification from the voter at the polling place.

In Florida, Iowa, Louisiana and South Dakota, the problem is more
serious because voters are not added to the rolls until the states
remove the flags.

Ms. McFall said she was angry to learn from the state recently that
it was her responsibility to contact each flagged voter to clear up
the discrepancies before Election Day. "This situation with voter
registrations is going to land us in court," she said.

In fact, it already has.

In Michigan and Florida, rights groups are suing state officials,
accusing them of being too aggressive in purging voter rolls and of
preventing people from registering.

In Georgia, the Justice Department is considering legal action
against the state because officials in Cobb and Cherokee Counties
sent letters to hundreds of voters stating that their voter
registrations had been flagged and telling them they cannot vote
until they clear up the discrepancy.

On Monday, the Ohio Republican Party filed a motion in federal court
against the secretary of state to get the list of all names that have
been flagged by the Social Security database since Jan. 1. The motion
seeks to require that any voter who does not clear up a discrepancy
be required to vote using a provisional ballot.

Republicans said in the motion that it is central to American
democracy that nonqualified voters be forbidden from voting.

The Ohio secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, said in
court papers that she believes the Republicans are seeking grounds to
challenge voters and get them removed from the rolls.

Considering that in the past year the state received nearly 290,000
nonmatches, such a plan could have significant impact at the polls.


More Articles in US » A version of this article appeared in print on
October 9, 2008, on page A1 of the New York edition.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Ronald Bailey Admits He's Wrong About Global Warming

Ronald Bailey of Reason Magazine fame admits he'd been wrong about global warming.

(Has Bailey been brainwashed at one of the United Nation's Climate Change Conferences?)

See posts which have all led to this conclusion (State of Brainwash)

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=ronald+bailey

He has attended such conferences and in November 2006 continued to attend, writing a series of article...

December 15, 2003 RONALD BAILEY ALL OVER MILAN

http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/000636.html

Bailey announced his reversal...

We're All Global Warmers Now
Reconciling temperature trends that are all over the place

Ronald Bailey | August 11, 2005


Anyone still holding onto the idea that there is no global warming ought to hang it up. All data sets—satellite, surface, and balloon—have been pointing to rising global temperatures. In fact, they all have had upward pointing arrows for nearly a decade, but now all of the data sets are in closer agreement due to some adjustments being published in three new articles in Science today.

People who have doubted predictions of catastrophic global warming (and that includes me) have long cited the satellite data series derived by climatologists John Christy and Roy Spencer at the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH). That data set showed a positive trend of 0.088 degrees centigrade per decade until recently. On a straight line extrapolation that trend implied warming of less than 1.0 degree centigrade by 2100.

A new article in Science by researchers Carl Mears and Frank Wentz from Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) identified a problem with how the satellites drifted over time, so that a slight but spurious cooling trend was introduced into the data. When this drift is taken into account, the temperature trend increases by an additional 0.035 degrees per decade, raising the UAH per-decade increase to 0.123 degrees centigrade. Christy points out that this adjustment is still within his and Spencer's +/- 0.5 margin of error. What's the upshot? Although reluctant to make straight-line extrapolations, Christy notes in an e-mail, "The previous linear extrapolation indicated a temperature of +0.9 C +/- 0.5 C in 2100, the new data indicate a temperature of +1.2 +/- 0.5 C."

However, the Remote Sensing Systems team has made some additional adjustments, such that their global trend is 0.193 degrees per decade. Christy and Spencer disagree with those additional RSS adjustments, but acknowledge that it's an open scientific question which team is correct
...

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34079.html

Astonishing development since Bailey edited a book entitled:

Global Warming and Other Eco Myths How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death

...
According to a number of respected scientists, however, leaders of the environmental movement are guilty of twisting - and sometimes manufacturing - facts in an effort to frighten people into joining their cause. In this eye-opening book, some of the most respected researchers in the US explode the myths behind much of the doom and gloom of today's environmental movement. Readers will discover how the hysteria about global warming, overpopulation, mass extinctions, coming food shortages, biotechnology, energy shortages and more are grounded not in reason but in false science and a fear of progress. Ultimately, this book will show that uniting much of the environmental movement is an agenda that is not so much antipollution as antihuman
...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Global-Warming-Other-Eco-Myths/dp/0761536604

http://www.amazon.com/Global-Warming-Other-Myths-Environmental/dp/B000BZ6UR6/ref=pd_sim_b_3/002-7371255-1687258

and another

The True State of The Planet (The Free Press)

http://www.amazon.com/True-State-Planet-Ronald-Bailey/dp/0028740106

http://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/stdweb/bailey.html

and another

Earth Report 2000: Revisiting the True State of the Planet (Paperback)
by Ronald Bailey (Editor)


http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Report-2000-Revisiting-Planet/dp/0071342605

Wrote numerous Op-Ed pieces and gave countless interviews challenging global warming

Interview listings

http://www.cei.org/utils/printer.cfm?AID=3300

Another Bailey book entitled:

Ecoscam: The False Prophets of Ecological Apocalypse

As to the alleged global warming crisis, he reminds us that just 15 years ago "eco-doomsayers" were predicting the advent of a new ice age
...

http://www.amazon.com/Eco-Scam-False-Prophets-Ecological-Apocalypse/dp/0312086989

Bailey's columns regarding Michael Crichton's State of Fear entitled:

Ron Bailey's review in the Wall Street Journal:

A Chilling Tale By RONALD BAILEY December 10, 2004; Page W1

http://commonsblog.org/archives/000246.php

The Global Warming Code
Michael Crichton tells the truth. Ronald Bailey
| May 2005

Excerpt:

What about the trend in global average temperatures, a question central to the debate in State of Fear? According to satellite data, since 1978 the planet has been warming up at a rate of 0.08 degree Celsius per decade. Simple arithmetic reveals that, if that rate continues, the planet will warm by 0.8 degree Celsius by the end of the century. That compares with an increase of 0.6 degree Celsius during the 20th century. No catastrophe there. Indeed, Crichton has one of his characters note the costly uselessness of the supposedly heat-reducing Kyoto Protocols
...
http://www.reason.com/news/show/32184.html

A mere couple of months later, Bailey pens his shocker:

We're All Global Warmers Now
Reconciling temperature trends that are all over the place Ronald Bailey
| August 11, 2005

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34079.html

Listing of Bailey's columns on global warming

http://www.reason.com/topics/topic/150

Notice, just the day before announcing he's no longer a global warming skeptic, August 10, 2005, it seemed all was wrong about global warming's catastrophic theory, with Bailey using assuming... if... if and questioning:

The Pleasure of Climate Change A Bush administration global warming breakthrough? Ronald Bailey | August 10, 2005

"Assuming dangerous global warming is happening. What to do about it? If accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere— gases produced by burning fossil fuels and other human activities—are to blame for increasing global temperatures, the adage "the first thing you do when you find you're in hole is stop digging" comes to mind. So the obvious idea is, why not stop emitting greenhouse gases? ...

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34991.html

Next day, Bailey pens

We're All Global Warmers Now Reconciling temperature trends that are all over the place Ronald Bailey | August 11, 2005

Anyone still holding onto the idea that there is no global warming ought to hang it up
....

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34079.html

What happened between August 10, 2005 and August 11, 2005?

Bailey stumps readers of his columns in Reason Magazine online a year later as well as shown in follow-up posts to another article.

Global Warming Data Sets Reconciled Ronald Bailey | May 3, 2006, 10:44am

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/113722.html

What happened to Ronald Bailey between approximately May 2005 and August 2005?

Did Bailey attend a United Nations summit featuring a film about global warming?

Were subliminal messages hidden in the film and handouts?

Was a target date of August 11, 2005 set for global warming skeptics to receive email notifications about three studies which would convince them beyond any doubt of catastrophic man-made global warming reality?

Were hidden subliminal messages embedded in emails or pdf formatted pages or pages of Science Magazine?

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1114867v1

Amplification of Surface Temperature Trends and Variability in the Tropical Atmosphere
B. D. Santer, T. M. L. Wigley, C. Mears, F. J. Wentz, S. A. Klein, D. J. Seidel, K. E. Taylor, P. W. Thorne, M. F. Wehner, P. J. Gleckler, J. S. Boyle, W. D. Collins, K. W. Dixon, C. Doutriaux, M. Free, Q. Fu, J. E. Hansen, G. S. Jones, R. Ruedy, T. R. Karl, J. R. Lanzante, G. A. Meehl, V. Ramaswamy, G. Russell, and G. A. Schmidt
Science 2 September 2005 309: 1551-1556; published online 11 August 2005 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1114867] (in Reports)


Global Warming Science: An Annotated Bibliography
A summary of recent findings on the changing global climate.


http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/fgwscience2005.asp

Satellite and Surface Temperature Records Reconciled
C.A. Mears and F.J. Wentz, Science
(August 11, 2005)
A. Revkin, "Errors Cited in Assessing Climate Data," New York Times
(August 12, 2005)

A puzzling discrepancy among different approaches to measuring global warming was resolved when scientists discovered an error in previous calculations used to correct satellite temperature readings. Global warming naysayers had long pointed to satellite-based temperature measurements published by two scientists at the University of Alabama as evidence that there was great uncertainty about global warming. These measurements appeared to show that the earth's atmosphere was warming far more slowly than the earth's surface, contrary to the expectations of climate scientists and the predictions of climate models used to forecast the effects of increases in heat-trapping pollution. Scientists at Remote Sensing Systems reanalyzed the raw satellite data and found that the lower atmosphere is actually warming slightly faster than the surface, in agreement with theory and models. These scientists found that the previous analysis of the satellite data had inaccurately corrected for changes in the satellites' measurement time resulting from the decay of their orbit. The diurnal temperature cycle of warmer temperatures during the day and cooler temperatures at night means that a gradual change in measurement time introduces a spurious temperature trend that must be removed from the data. The University of Alabama scientists have now acknowledged that they made a mistake and have adjusted their data series, making it much more in line with other results...
http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/fgwscience2005.asp

In his piece, Confessions of an Alleged ExxonMobil Whore
Actually no one paid me to be wrong about global warming. Or anything else. Ronald Bailey September 22, 2006
, Bailey reveals:

On the day that the studies were released I wrote a column for Reason in which I declared that my skepticism of man-made global warming was at an end...

How many other skeptics read Science Magazine that day?


How many others are willing to place their trust in data which is corrected and adjusted ... making it much more in line with other results.

Whew, we don't have access online The Effect of Diurnal Correction on Satellite-Derived Lower Tropospheric Temperature
Carl A. Mears and Frank J. Wentz
Science 2 September 2005 309: 1548-1551; published online 11 August 2005 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1114772] (in Reports)
, those embedded subliminal messages won't work on us...

Mentions a summit somebody else attended prior to August 2005

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/4/7/41932/19363

Ah ha, 16TH GLOBAL WARMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE & EXPO (GWXVI), April 19-21, 2005, New York, NY

http://www.eintoday.com/newsletter/samples/gwn_sample.htm

Was Ronald Bailey in attendance??

Since August 11, 2005, Bailey - the convert - writes


Global Warming Data Sets Reconciled Ronald Bailey | May 3, 2006, 10:44am

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just released a report that looks at the various global temperature data sets and finds that they are now all "consistent" with man-made global warming. The chief cause is the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels.

Global warming skeptics (and I was definitely one of them) have cited the findings of John Christy and Roy Spencer at the University of Alabama at Huntsville who have produced a temperature series based on satellite measurements since 1979. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the UAH data series saw little or no warming and its findings were bolstered by separate weather balloon data that also found little warming. In the past few years corrections made to the data sets have boosted average global temperatures in both.

NOAA's new report takes a look at all of the data sets and finds that they all point toward a trend of increasing average warmth:...


http://www.reason.com/blog/show/113722.html

Exxon secrets Fact Sheet on Bailey

http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/personfactsheet.php?id=11

Bailey explains his past thinking and admits he was wrong about global warming:

Confessions of an Alleged ExxonMobil Whore
Actually no one paid me to be wrong about global warming. Or anything else


Ronald Bailey | September 22, 2006

...In 2002 came Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths (Prima Publishing). The global warming contributor was University of Alabama at Huntsville climatologist John Christy who is also the principal investigator for the satellite temperature measurements. Christy pointed out, "Since 1979, the global temperature trend is a modest +0.06 degrees Celsius per decade through March 2002." The myth about global warming was not that it was not happening, but that it was unlikely to be catastrophic for humanity or the planet. Christy concluded: "No global warming disaster is looming. Humans are causing an increase in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which will likely cause a very slow rise in global temperatures with which we can easily cope."

So there was a contradiction in climate science. The models projected and the surface thermometer records were showing significant warming. On the other hand, the satellite dataset and various weather balloon datasets showed only very modest warming. Which was right? In 2001, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) issued a report at the request of the Bush Administration that found that a lot of proxy data indicated that warming was taking place. However, the NAS also noted that the divergence between the satellite data and the thermometer data was troubling. "The finding that surface and troposphere temperature trends have been as different as observed over intervals as long as a decade or two is difficult to reconcile with our current understanding of the processes that control the vertical distribution of temperature in the atmosphere," declared the report. The NAS added, "Because of the large and still uncertain level of natural variability inherent in the climate record and the uncertainties in the time histories of the various forcing agents (and particularly aerosols), a causal linkage between the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the observed climate changes during the 20th century cannot be unequivocally established."

Given this divergence in the various temperature records, climate scientists naturally spent a lot of time and intellectual energy in trying to explain it. In August 2005, Science magazine published three papers that went a long way toward resolving the issue. One paper found that Christy and Spencer had failed to take proper account of satellite drift, which produced a spurious cooling trend to their dataset. Another found that the operation of weather balloons also tended to add spurious cooling to their data. When the corrections were made the satellite and weather balloon datasets were in better agreement with the surface thermometer datasets that showed higher warming trends.

On the day that the studies were released I wrote a column for Reason in which I declared that my skepticism of man-made global warming was at an end. The column was titled, "We're All Global Warmers Now." The first line read: "Anyone still holding onto the idea that there is no global warming ought to hang it up." The bottom line? Christy and Spencer's corrected dataset finds warming of +0.123 degrees per decade. The corrected balloon data tend to support Christy and Spencer. However, the scientific team that found the errors in the satellite data corrects it to find warming of +0.193 degrees per decade. And the surface measurements show a warming trend of 0.15 degrees per decade. In the column, I quote Christy saying, "The new warming trend is still well below ideas of dramatic or catastrophic warming."

Then in May 2006, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a report of which John Christy was a co-author that further reconciled the differences in temperature trends. The report found that "global-average temperature increased at a rate of about 0.12 degrees C per decade since 1958, and about 0.16 degrees C per decade since 1979. In the tropics, temperature increased at about 0.11 degrees C per decade since 1958, and about 0.13 degrees C per decade since 1979." I blogged the report at Reason ' s Hit & Run the day the report was issued. I also noted that Christy told the Washington Post that he has a "minimalist interpretation" of the report because Earth is not heating up rapidly at this point.

Just to bring my intellectual journey in reporting and opining about the global warming issue up to date, I reviewed former vice-president Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth for Reason. I agreed that Gore has "won the climate debate" and that "on balance Gore gets it more right than wrong on the science" though I argued he exaggerates just how bad future global warming is likely to be. However, I agree that the balance of the evidence pretty clearly indicates that humanity is contributing to global warming chiefly by means of loading up the atmosphere with extra carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels...

CONTINUED

So I didn't get any stacks of $20 dollar bills in brown paper bags from ExxonMobil (don't believe any photoshopped pictures you may see to the contrary). I also don't think that I was duped by paid-off scientists. Except for climatologist Robert Balling, as the embedded links above show, the sleuths at Exxonsecrets have uncovered no payments to the scientists I chiefly relied upon in my reporting over the years. But was I too skeptical, demanding too much evidence or ignoring evidence that cut against what I wanted to believe? Perhaps. In hindsight I can only plead that there is no magic formula for deciding when enough evidence has accumulated that a fair-minded person must change his or her mind on a controversial scientific issue. With regard to global warming it finally did for me in the last year. That was far too late for many and still too early for others. However, I can't resist pointing out that I became a "convert" on global warming nearly a year before some other prominent journalistic skeptics such as Gregg Easterbrook and Michael Shermer changed their minds.
So then not a whore, just virtuously wrong. Looking to the future, I can't promise that my reporting will always be right (no reporter can, but I will strive to make it so), but my reporting has always been honest and I promise that it always will be.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/36811.html

Published on 23 May 2006 by EB. Archived on 23 May 2006. Tide turns on global warming by Staff

Flipped Positions, too, and when?

Finally Feeling the Heat Greg Easterbrook, NY Times (Op-Ed)
(24 May 2006)


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/opinion/24easterbrook.html?ex=1306123200&en=a4df3b808f1716da&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss


[Jonathan Adler, September 23, 2006 at 6:33pm]
Ron Bailey Comes Clean:

Science writer Ronald Bailey, a longtime skeptic about whether global warming presents an apocalyptic threat, responds to charges that he and other climate "skeptics" are nothing more than paid stooges for evil corporations...

http://volokh.com/posts/1159050814.shtml

Skeptics flip

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/5/23/215030/928

Bailey 2006

Global Warming Solutions
Markets, taxes, or nothing at all?


Ronald Bailey | December 15, 2006

Assume man-made global warming is a big, bad problem. Let's try some thought experiments concerning what, if anything, should be done about it.

One "solution" might be recognizing, at least, that there is nothing to be done about it. One might argue that for the sake of lifting billions of poor people out of abject poverty humanity must continue to burn cheap oil and coal to fuel economic growth in this century. One unavoidable side effect is that this will increase the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and thus boost global average temperatures by between 1.5 and 4.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. People three generations hence will just have to adapt to this increase. Fortunately because of the wealth produced by burning fossil fuels, average incomes will have increased about sevenfold and so they will have the resources to do so. In addition, wealth may enable them to develop new low pollution energy technologies...

http://www.reason.com/news/show/117271.html

Pay It Forward What can carbon markets do for economic development? Ronald Bailey | November 15, 2006

http://www.reason.com/news/show/116751.html

"Climate Change Tourists" Go Home! The Nairobi global warming conference grinds to an end Ronald Bailey | November 17, 2006

http://www.reason.com/news/show/116805.html

Bailey 2005

Betting on Climate Change It's time to put up or shut up Ronald Bailey | June 8, 2005

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34976.html

The Kyoto Protocol Launches! But Will it Matter? Ronald Bailey | February 16, 2005

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34958.html

Bailey 2004

Two Sides to Global Warming
Is it proven fact, or just conventional wisdom?

Ronald Bailey | November 10, 2004

...So is dangerous rapid global warming merely the new conventional wisdom—or a credible forecast of our climatic future? There's plenty of evidence for both positions, and I'll keep reporting the data and the controversy...

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34939.html

Discussion

November 12, 2004

http://www.everythingiknowiswrong.com/2004/11/two_sides_to_gl.html
http://www.everythingiknowiswrong.com/

Discussions

Converts

As CT commenters pointed out on my last post, there’s a rush of former sceptics announcing their change of views on global warming. Here’s Gregg Easterbrook and John Tierney. Ron Bailey, who changed his view on the science last year, has now taken the next step, observing that the economic costs of Kyoto are likely to be modest
...

http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2006/05/26/more-conversions-on-global-warming/

Still after the foregoing...

More Evidence Against Manmade Global Warming

http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=environment&Number=268644&page=11&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=2&vc=1

also see links on the post: State of Fear Exposes Truth of Deception

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2006/12/state-of-fear-exposes-truth-of.html

Search for more Ronald Bailey articles on global warming before and after his conversion...

Year 2000

Rush to Judgment Ronald Bailey | April 2000

http://www.reason.com/news/show/27654.html

Discussion Hit & Run (Reason Magazine) Bailey

Excerpts:

uncle sam | May 3, 2006, 12:30pm | #

Given that the climate has been warming for hundreds of years, the lack of change indicated by satellite measurements would seem anomalous.

What I want to know is how they can shown how much of the recent warming is manmade. I am not impressed with statements like "probably manmade" or, we can't imagine any other reason for it" etc.


Sam | May 4, 2006, 1:24pm | #

Also, http://www.realclimate.org/ is a good site run by real climatologists explainging or rebutting climate news and claims...



joshua corning | May 4, 2006, 4:43pm | #

Also, http://www.realclimate.org/ is a good site run by real climatologists explainging or rebutting climate news and claims.

to bad realclimate has been proven dead wrong on every claim it has made on multi proxy cliamte studies...

see here:

http://www.climateaudit.org/


http://www.reason.com/blog/show/113722.html

More

GLOBAL WARMING UPDATE: HAS ANYTHING CHANGED?


http://www.quebecoislibre.org/06/060702-5.htm


No-No No-No of Journalistic integrity


Betting on Climate Change
It's time to put up or shut up Ronald Bailey | June 8, 2005



* This article has been corrected. An erroneous reference to William M Connolley has been removed. (Return to the corrected portion.)

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34976.html

Global Warming Data Sets Reconciled Ronald Bailey | May 3, 2006, 10:44am

Excerpts:

D.A. Ridgely | May 3, 2006, 12:03pm

Mr. Bailey:

Is your "was" which has so many here suddenly slack jawed meant to suggest you are no longer skeptical about a global warming trend or that it is in some significant measure man-made?

Dave W. | May 3, 2006, 12:16pm

T.:

Do you really believe that all that subtle stuff about interpretation of scientific data was what led Bailey to being (initially) on the wrong side of the global warming divide?


Ron Bailey | May 3, 2006, 1:11pm

Mr. Ridgely: Both--the current evidence points to a relatively small upward trend in global average temperatures and that man-made greenhouse gases are responsible for at least a portion of that trend.

Dave W:

Do you really believe that all that subtle stuff about interpretation of scientific data was what led Bailey to being (initially) on the wrong side of the global warming divide?

Actually that's exactly what happened. I've been reporting on and talking with climate scientists and actualy reading long IPCC reports for over 20 years. However, it is true that my reporting on decades of environmentalist scares (overpopulation, synthetic chemical cancer epidemics, biotech run amok) is what inclined me toward the skeptical camp in the first place. All I asked for was evidence and I am now persuaded--perhaps not soon enough for you, but I don't care what you think.

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/113722.html

Brother, Can You Spare 22 Terawatts? Big ideas for the future of energy Ronald Bailey | November 24, 2006

...This means that the world will need an additional 15-22 TW of energy over the current base of 13.5 TW.

So where will the extra energy come from? Relying on figures from the World Energy Assessment by the United Nations Development Program, Nocera looks at the maximum amounts of power that various non-fossil fuel sources might supply. Biomass could supply 7-10 TW of energy, but that is the equivalent of harvesting all current crops solely for energy. Nuclear could produce 8 TW which implies building 8000 new reactors over the 45 years at a rate of one new plant every two days. Wind would generate 2.1 TW if every site on the globe with class 3 winds or greater were occupied with windmills. Winds at a class 3 site blow at 11.5 miles per hour at 33 feet above the ground. And hydro-power could produce 0.7-2 TW if dams were placed on every untapped river on the earth. Nocera concludes, "The message is clear. The additional energy we need in 2050 over the current 13.5 TW base, is simply not attainable from long discussed sources—the global appetite for energy is simply too great."

Burning coal, gas, and oil could fuel the world in 2050, but the carbon dioxide produced by these fossil fuels would have somehow to be captured and sequestered (CCS) underground in order to prevent it from being vented into the atmosphere where it contributes to global warming. Some CCS pilot projects have been launched but they are not cheap and they are far from proven.

Given the magnitude of the problem of fueling the future with carbon-neutral energy, Nocera argues that the only real alternative for carbon-neutral energy production is some form of solar power. More energy from sunlight strikes the Earth in one hour than humanity uses in a year. But converting sunlight into energy useful to people is a huge unsolved technological problem. In 2000, author Richard Rhodes and nuclear engineer Denis Beller calculated that using current solar power technologies to construct a global solar-energy system would consume at least 20 percent of the world's known iron resources, take a century to build and cover a half-million square miles. Clearly a lot of technological innovation needs to take place before solar becomes an option for fueling the world.

The challenge of supplying the world with carbon neutral energy has a lot of people calling for the launching of a "Manhattan Project" or "Apollo Project." What they mean is that the Federal government should dramatically boost research and development spending for novel energy technologies...

...Maybe Nocera is right that solar power is the way to go, but history teaches us to scrap the Apollo Project model for technology R&D. Federal bureaucrats are simply not smart enough to pick winning energy technologies. Instead, eliminate all energy subsidies, set a price for carbon, and then let tens of thousands of energy researchers and entrepreneurs develop and test various new technologies in the market. No one knows now how humanity will fuel the 21st century, but Apollo and Manhattan Project-style Federal energy research projects will prove to be a huge waste of time, money and talent.

Disclosure: I own 50 shares of ExxonMobil stock. So what!


http://www.reason.com/news/show/116887.html

Post Script to Net the Truth Online Post

Find out which R&D technologies Bailey invests in, has invested in since August 11, 2005,and invest in those...

For more information on this issue use the search feature on this site located at the top left corner

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=global+warming