The Thought Police

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Not enough attention is being paid to this: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas, of course), who is chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology is using his committee chairmanship to intimidate the government’s own climate scientists.

In October, Mr. Smith issued a subpoena to Kathryn D. Sullivan, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, demanding all internal notes, emails and correspondence concerning a study its scientists published in the journal Science. The study found that the “rate of global warming during the last 15 years has been as fast as or faster than what was seen during the latter half of the 20th century.”

This conclusion disputed the claim, seized upon by climate-change deniers like Mr. Smith, that there has been a slowdown in the rate of global warming in recent years. In fact, 2014 was the warmest year on record, and this year is likely to end up even warmer.

Fortunately, NOAA did not acquiesce to Mr. Smith’s outrageous demands. The agency pointed out that it had provided Mr. Smith’s committee with the scientific briefings, data and studies behind the Science article, as well as two thorough briefings by NOAA scientists. But Mr. Smith was not satisfied. He repeated his demand for all subpoenaed documents and warned of “civil and/or criminal enforcement mechanisms” if the agency did not comply.

Do read the whole article.

15 thoughts on “The Thought Police”

  2. There are mushroom spores more sentient that Rep. Smith!
    This feckin’ eedjit couldn’t tell which way the wind blows, even WITH a weatherman!

    Too bad Ted Bundy’s dead, or they’d name him the honorary head of some House Women’s Issues enhanced interrogations!

    Hey, GOP, why not have that “quiver-full” loon, Dim Boob… sorry… Jim Bob Duggar, as head the Planned Parenthood Grand Inquisition?

    The great Charles Pierce is right:
    These are the mole people!

  3. I first heard this story on NPR yesterday morning. Rep. Smith was on record saying he, as Chair of the House Committee on Witchcraft, Superstition and Ignorance, has the right to subpoena any documentation he deems necessary, when the Committee receives a report that he, the Chair, disagrees with. Honest to dog, he really said that. Out loud.

    Holy flurking HUAC, Roy Cohn! To the Stupidmobile!

    Rep. Smith sure must be grateful to Donald Trump, who kept him from holding the title of Most Awful Person in America for more than one day.

  4. These knuckle-draggers can’t hide forever,

    Maybe so, but I wouldn’t want to wait them out. I think there’s a scripture that says.. For knuckle-draggers shall be with you always, even until the end of the age.

  5. A Square Deal
    (an Underfable)

    Once upon a time, a poor but ambitious man prayed for easy riches. A dark angel appeared, and offered the man a golden treasure, right then and there, provided that he agree to just one thing:

    That two plus two is five.
    The man thought this condition was meaningless, so he agreed to the deal, and the golden treasure was his. But he soon learned, too late, that if two plus two is five, then a golden treasure is _nothing_.

    Moral: Two plus two is four.

  7. Among my conservative friends ‘faith” is a cardinal virtue. If someone can hold fast to their “faith” and beliefs against the onslaught of facts, and the incomprehensible pronouncements of worldly, “pointy headed” infidels, their virtue is magnified. The denial of climate change is so integral to their narrative that it will be difficult for them to release. It makes fools of their liberal enemies, a folly of science, which in another guise, threatens their creation myth and it upholds the wisdom of the marketplace. That’s just for starters. If it were just once simple reversal of thought, it might happen, but it’s inextricable from their whole view of the world.

    I still have a lot of hope regarding the Exxon Mobil case. Beyond the climate issue it should be one glaring example of how “the Market” can buy into misinformation and catastrophic destruction when influential bottom lines are sweetened. But, we’ve all seen the astonishing ability of some to shake reality off like a wet dog shakes off the rain, and move on without a pause.

    The affair of Exxon Mobil is the “Tragedy of the Commons” written larger than anything else in human history. Ironically, it became an issue largely because it involved misleading shareholders.

  9. Among my conservative friends ‘faith” is a cardinal virtue.

    Whoa, did you hear Ted Cruz freaking out over climate-change science today on Morning Edition? As interviewer, Steve Inskeep should not have been forced to rebut and debate his subject’s statements, but that’s what it came down to in the end. Cruz is either the most cold-blooded (coal-and-oil-financed) liar I’ve ever heard, or he really believes the crap he spews, which makes him mentally unstable.

    Dear Anonymous hacktivists: I have a job for you, should you choose to accept it. Expose how much money the carbon-fuel industry has donated to elect Cruz to the Senate, and to support his presidential run. I bet the findings would be very interesting.

  10. “threatens their creation myth”

    That is something we don’t hear much about. I had a co-worker years ago that was a recent convert to Islam, he was the first person I heard this theory from (man can’t f#ck up the earth only god can…..) I thought it was about the silliest thing I’d ever heard, at the time we both worked in a huge steel mill, its effects on the environment were impossible to ignore, the place was a filthy wreck. But this narrative seems to be common among some fundies. The Saudi’s are trying to throw a wrench in the Paris talks, not sure if it is religious or more likely greed in disguise, how can they maintain those massive fortunes if we limit the use of fossil fuels? Pretending to know the sky-wizards will is a dangerous and foolish thing!

  11. The Ars Technica link that Tom_b provided is really interesting! Who said scientists are easily bullied? It’s not true!

    For extra credit: identify the substance that Lamar Smith’s wig is made of. Looks like some sort of cotton candy/licorice hybrid to me. (At least it ain’t made of dead puppies, like Trump’s wig!)

  12. Doubling Down
    (another Underfable)

    Once upon a time a True Believer said to a Skeptic, “Yes, I said that thunder causes lightning, rather than the other way around. No, it wasn’t a mistake, I don’t make mistakes, so I stand by my statement.”

    The Skeptic said, “Why persist in error? Why not admit it?”

    The True Believer said, “But that would be weakness.”

    “What do you call strength?”

    “The force of Will that trumps mere fact. Thunder causes lightning, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!”

    “What other stories are you sticking to?”

    “That attack is defense, that debt is money, and that pride is faith. Long ago I said that war is peace, slavery is freedom, ignorance is wisdom, and hate is love; it felt true then, and it still feels true now.”

    The Skeptic asked, “Do you ever change your mind?”

    The True Believer said, “What use is a mind that keeps changing? I do not change, I need not change, I cannot change! So thunder causes lightning! May God strike me down if I lie!”

    Right away God struck him down, with a bolt of lightning, followed by a rumble of thunder.

    Moral: Expect poison from the standing water.

  13. “What use is a mind that keeps changing?” My mother, a very wise woman, always said: “Only a fool never changes his mind”.

  15. A Texas Republican in charge of the Science Committee is like having the Amish design electronics.

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