This happens so often as to be barely worthy of comment. A certain segment of the population watches Fox News because it plays to and confirms their most all-encompassing fears and prejudices - and the rest of us tune in once in awhile when we need a laugh. Fox "News" features partisan hacks and know-nothings pretty much to the exclusion of all else, but is only marginally worse than CNN, for example.

Barton is only the latest in a lengthy string of what would be embarrassments for anyone else, but are prize catches for Fox. They still reach a fairly wide audience, but I think their momentum is long gone, in the sense that they're not winning converts to their ideology. Those who are dedicated true believers are already down the path of madness and self-delusion well past the second fork.

Still Sarah by a sexy little nose...

"Carbongate" involves the EPA ignoring a scientific study by a non-scientist that it never commissioned and which hasn't been published in any scientific journal.

Almost as dumb as Palin dissing fruit fly research.

I used to wonder if folks like Barton were merely industry shills or just stupid. I now realize it's both.

Steve Benen quoted TPM: "... 'Carbongate' involves the EPA ignoring a scientific study by a non-scientist that it never commissioned and which hasn't been published in any scientific journal."

Sigh.

Once again, what Carlin wrote was NOT a "study", let alone a "scientific study". The assertion that Carlin submitted a "scientific study" is one of the LIES being promulgated by the likes of Joe Barton.

Carlin merely wrote an unsolicited MEMO whose content was largely cut-and-pasted verbatim from denialist websites without attribution, which is to say, plagiarized.

Carlin's memo was no more a "scientific study" than is one of Steve Benen's blog posts -- and moreover, when Steve cuts-and-pastes content from other blogs as with this quote from TPM Muckraker, he properly identifies the source, rather than misrepresenting it as his own work, which is what Carlin did.

Please stop reinforcing the right-wing media's dishonest talking point that Carlin authored a "scientific study" of anything. He did nothing of the sort.

PS. I forgot PZ

PZ Myers over at Pharyngula wrote one of the all time great posts on Palin's fruit fly comments.
Please click on the link...
Just to keep it forever near the top of all relevant google searches:

Sarah Palin: Ignorant and anti-science

The Fox News, news is getting old. They are changing minds, just fortifying their followers views of liberals. No need to multiple post every day telling us what we already know, Fox News is an extension of the republican party, we get it.

Joe Barton, when he was first elected, was my congressman. He was shockingly stupid then, and I thought, in my youthful ignorance, that he couldn't possible last... A legacy of Tom Delay's gerrymandering of Texas ?

The same Joe Barton who thought it was hilarious that tectonic plates shift and that the nobel prize winning Steven Chu would suggest such a thing?

That same Joe Barton now thinks that a bean counter's opinion memo isn't being held up as the EPA's new mission statement is shocking?

BWAHAHAAAAHAAAaaa

Yeah, Barton is a pill but let's look at the economist he's defending. Economists - especially when motivated by market fundamentalist visions of unending prosperity and no undesirable side-effects - can be wretchedly deceived and deceiving at physical scientists issues. One of the worst and most influential, was libertarian-cornucopian crank Dr. Julian Simon. He thought economic arguments completely ruled out any physical and material scientific considerations.

'Carbongate'---hmmn 'Carbongate'---just keep rolling it around in your mouth for a few minutes. Is it catchy enough? Does it have good mnemonic value? Will it serve in a bumper sticker? That seems to be the depth of Republican strategy (and always their thinking) these days, to find a nice simple bit of mud, (a word or a phrase) that will somehow stick to the Democratic agenda and sweep the right-wing elite back into power. Above all, do nothing, discuss nothing that will disclose the true intent of their patron's intentions.

SecularAnimist at 3:58 PM, excellent point.

Why does the left always point out that Carlin is an economist and not a "natural scientist?"

Neither is Al Gore, yet liberals hang on every word that comes out of his mouth.

Re: Secular Animist's claim that Carlin plagiarized.

Although there is nothing admirable or worthwhile in Carlin's story, it is wrong to berate him for "writing without attribution" or "plagiarizing."

Memos rarely cite their sources. There's no reason for citations because nobody expects a memo to be original writing. Government memos would bog down in a sea of references, when all that really matters is whether the information is correct, complete, terse, etc.

(It should go without saying that even though a memo does not have citation, it nonetheless is not supposed to be false.)

Incorporating verbatim copy of the work of another author without any hint of acknowledgment is plagiarism, dead center on definition. Carlin did not have to produce a list of references, all he needed was to include words to the effect of "as noted at". The problem is, including those source attributions would have made his memo overtly ridiculous even to the casual observer.

Al Jr., if you don't get that distinction you've got some homework left wanting.

I think economists get a bum rap when they're denied the moniker "scientist", but there's a vast gulf of intervening specialties between the work of economists and the work of climate scientists.

Just tell Carlin to shut up. That's the best strategy. Everyone who is a scientist agrees that global warming is happening. Consensus is truth.

Just like that time all those guys agreed the earth was flat and any one who thought differently should be shunned or killed.

Carlin should just shut up because he is stupid and not an officially approved voice.

Glad we could have this open discussion.

re: "Neither is Al Gore, yet liberals hang on every word that comes out of his mouth."

You know, I'm going to resist the temptation to call you stupid, and settle for misinformed. Al Gore's utterances, which I'm sure you've never read or heard (or understood in any event, if by some chance you did read or hear them), have been based on science done by, oh my god ! Climatologists. These scientists do not do climatology as a hobby, but oh well, perhaps that distinction has passed you by as well. However, for your insistence on using the term liberal in the pejorative, I might need to change my mind.

sadly, in 1984, i voted for joe barton even though i was a democrat. heck, i was even a jackson delegate to the state convention that year. i ended up meeting the democrat running against joe barton twice and met joe barton once. unfortunately, the man running against barton was incoherent and awkward in unscripted settings and came across as an ignoramus while barton did not so i ended up voting for barton. i've spent 25 years regretting it.

For one reason or another well known Republicans Barton, Bolton, Rove, Limbaugh, Beck, Bachmann, Palin etc are all in the business of saying outrageous things. Some feel the need to pander to their base. Others are paid handsomely for being off the wall.

An emerging problem for Republicans and for the nation is that a lot of people talking on behalf of Republicans are routinely saying wacky things. Nobody is taking much of anything Republicans say seriously these days. That is too bad. America needs a discussion at the grown up table. Right now the only grown-ups are Democrats and a few independents.

Right now Jeff Sessions is talking crazy about Sotomayor's association with some group or other. What he is saying is pretty wacky. If somebody brings him airtight evidence that she is unqualified, just who is going to believe him or the Republicans.

If I was advising the Republican leadership I would tell them that the first thing Republicans have to do is rehabilitate their reputations as level headed truth tellers. Stop with the wacky pandering all ready.

I had fun calling in to Brian & the Judge this morning to correct their assertation that the EPA is burying a report they commissioned, produced by one of their own scientists, that provides evidence that global warming is a farce. I pointed out to them that the scientist is an economist, the report is a memo of the writer's opinion, not commissioned by the EPA and not buried, but just disregarded. Judge Napolitato (who is not nearly as crazy as other Fox personalities and does know constitutional law - Brian Kilmeade - well that's another story)could only say,"well yes, he's an economist...thanks for the call". Thanks, Steve, for my daily fix that keeps me informed (orange).

Neil B. He thought economic arguments completely ruled out any physical and material scientific considerations.

Not so. He wrote that certain specific scientists, including Paul Ehrlich, John Holdren, and The Club of Rome, overlooked the roles of economics and human ingenuity when they discussed resource constraints. Had those folks been correct, the subsequent growth of the Chinese and Indian economies would have been impossible (as opposed to merely "ugly", "polluted", and "unsustainable".)

It's the difference between saying "California will run out of water" vs. "Californians will have to invest in new water and pay for it." The resource is not there only if ingenuity and investment are insufficient to get it, and you can't judge the ingenuity in advance.

In good news, India finally get's it right:

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/02/indias-highest-court-rules-gay-sex-legal/

It was a long time coming, but that makes it so much sweeter. In the end, we progressives have been winning for a long time. And we're winning everywhere. So keep on keeping on.

MRM: Yeah, you can't judge the ingenuity in advance but that cuts both ways. You can't assume it won't work (to succeed in overcoming what would be a shortage, etc.,) and you can't assume it will. We don't know and it's not worth the risk just to have more people and more pavement.

"Carlin should just shut up because he is stupid and not an officially approved voice."

No, he should learn how to write in his own words, for starters. Have you checked the benchmark for plagiarism at college and university lately? This guy would be pleading not to be expelled if he'd pulled the same stunt in that setting. At 71 I suspect his supervisors at EPA are going to cut him some slack.

His credibility was shot the instant he got lazy and "borrowed".

As to what he copied, it's dreck. It doesn't have facts behind it, it's not remotely analogous to the old "flat Earth" canard so reflexively pushed by the chump community.

For more on how silly this whole thing is, and how much Carlin stole, this is a great source:

http://deepclimate.org/2009/06/28/epas-alan-carlin-channels-pat-michaels-and-the-friends-of-science/#more-376

Seems to me that the whole strategy of the Right is to hope that people don't know how to use "The Google".

The "flat earth" analogy is perfect for the modern climate change lemmings. Argue that the weather is cool for July and they say you are talking about weather not climate. At the same time they point out the temperature changes and ice caps melting as proof of global warming. They conveniently forget they just used weather to prove climate change. And around the argument goes until global warming bullies simply say "Anyone who does agree is stupid and should just shut up!"

This is exactly the flat earth scientists acted toward those who introduced the possibly that the earth was actually round. What did those know-it-all leaders of intellectual though of their day do? Squashed any debate, belittled every opposing voice, and arrogantly stated that those who disagreed were not smart enough to give an opinion anyway. Basically said "Shut up."

Perfect analogy. History repeats itself.

Argue that the weather is cool for July and they say you are talking about weather not climate.

Who would be mentally challenged enough to use the temperature in one July as an argument against climate change?

Oh, I see you've answered that question for us.

At the same time they point out the temperature changes and ice caps melting as proof of global warming. They conveniently forget they just used weather to prove climate change.

No, because "global temperature changes" are measures of CLIMATE, or weather over time. And "melting ice caps" are not "weather." They are a geological consequence of climate change.

Kee-riiiist.

This is exactly the flat earth scientists acted toward those who introduced the possibly that the earth was actually round.

I'm afraid you have this argument exactly backwards. The flat-earthers were the reactionaries and could not accept a new paradigm. In this analogy that would be you.

This is exactly the flat earth scientists acted toward those who introduced the possibly that the earth was actually round. What did those know-it-all leaders of intellectual though of their day do? Squashed any debate, belittled every opposing voice, and arrogantly stated that those who disagreed were not smart enough to give an opinion anyway. Basically said "Shut up."

Well, setting aside your bizarre notion of history and all its "flat earth scientists," currently there are hundreds of thousands of scientists from over a dozen disciplines producing studies showing that climate change is happening. And while there is robust debate about how fast it's happening, all the drivers and feedback mechanisms, and what the environmental consequences will be, there is an overwhelming consensus based on empiricism that it is happening.

If people are telling you to shut up it's probably because you have displayed a level of ignorance about this subject similar to what you have shown here. Also, the whiny immaturity.

You are seriously out of your league here. There is an 8th grade blog down the hall that is probably better suited to your skills.

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