George Deutsch seems determined to become my personal Cindy Sheehan:
George C. Deutsch, the young NASA press aide who resigned on Tuesday amid claims that he had tried to keep the agency’s top climate scientist from speaking publicly about global warming, defended himself publicly yesterday.
…Speaking to a Texas radio station and then to The New York Times, Mr. Deutsch said the scientist, James E. Hansen, exaggerated the threat of warming and tried to cast the Bush administration’s response to it as inadequate.
Mr. Deutsch also denied lying about having a college degree and trying to inject religion into some NASA Web presentations.
Not so nutty? look at a couple of paragraphs that Josh Marshall excerpted from the NYT piece last night:
…In the interview, Mr. Deutsch said that Dr. Hansen had partisan ties “all the way up to the top of the Democratic Party,” and that he was “using those ties and using his media connections to push an agenda, a worst-case-scenario agenda of global warming.” He said that anyone who disagrees with Dr. Hansen “is labeled a censor and is demonized and vilified in the media — and the media of course is a willing accomplice here.”
Mr. Deutsch contended that although Dr. Hansen was a scientist, he wanted to talk about policy as well as science. “He wants to demean the president, he wants to demean the administration and create a false perception that the administration is watering down science and lying to the public,” Mr. Deutsch said. “And that is patently false.”
Yes, the dude’s a grade-A nutjob. I went to the NYT to verify the quotes and…strange, they don’t seem to be there anymore. Did Josh Marshall fabricate two paragraphs from scratch?
No, he didn’t. The radio station that conducted the interview has some excerpts available online and, what do you know, it’s in there. Probably nothing nefarious going on, web stories get edited fairly often, but bear in mind that any disconnect between Marshall and his source is the source’s fault. Listen to the audio for yourself to get a sense of the fringe actors that represent the best and brightest of today’s Republican Youth.
Pooh
I read the story online last night, and the quotes were most certainly there.
techson
I actually had more respect for the guy when he DIDN’T graduate from eATMe… he is smarter than most aglets if he realized what a shithole Collie Station is and left… even without a degree.
Hook’em
Don Surber
Wasn’t NASA set up to put men on the moon and stuff like that?
How ’bout we have NASA go back to astronauting and let NOAA deal with all this Chicken Little stuff?
Again, there is a forest while libs get worked up about a twig
Gary Farber
I actually posted all this at 5 p.m. my time, which is to say, 3 p.m. your time, yesterday, Thursday the 9th, actually.
But, what the hell, look to Marshall to get your news hours later, if you like.
gratefulcub
I love it!!!!
It is just some liberal temper tantrum to be the least bit upset by a guy with the qualifications of “working in the Bush ’04 War Room” trying to edit science from NASA. Scientists are just the foot soldiers for the liberal conspiracy to destroy good Christian conservatives with pesky facts.
The Other Steve
I don’t understand.
How would it benefit the Democrats in terms of partisanship for us to respond to Global Warming?
Are they thinking that people will remember the Democrats saved them from certain doom?
The main benefit I see from Global Warming is actually to business. That is, if we shift our energy production towards cleaner alternatives it will open up a huge new market, resulting in opportunities for research of new technology to be sold in a Global arena.
But I just don’t see that this should be some kind of partisan issue. It’s either real or not. If you don’t think it’s real, then you ought to be able to dispute the science by running experiments and identifying other explanations.
This Deutsch guy seems to believe in conspiracies of the third order.
The Other Steve
Thank you Don “Nutcase” Surber, for your enlightening prose.
Vladi G
Ah, that’s better. I was a little worried after I agreed with Don in the King funeral thread. Nice to see he’s back to being a blithering moron.
SeesThroughIt
Well, this guy is following the playbook to perfection: Completely override a nonpolitical process with politics, provide a conclusion and demand that people work backward from that to justify it rather than using evidence to reach a conclusion, then complain about how you are a poor little victim of politics if/when it blows up in your face.
I see a career with Massengil for douchey Deutsch.
Lines
Is Don Surber going to replace Darrell as the local clown/buffoon? Oh wait, Don has always just been a part timer compared to Darrell’s full time idiocy.
Look Don, Hansen has been attacked by most of the tree-hugging left as being “too soft spoken” and the rest of the left had no idea who he was until a Bush appointee was caught trying to hide the body (of evidence).
So do you have a point or is it just the one on your head, like usual, you fucking hack of a journalist?
baltar
I think I’m going to disagree with this line:
It’s your blog – it’s your responsibilty to see that your links are accurate. On the other hand, if the NYT changes a story after it’s posted, how are you supposed to know that? I’ll agree that it’s not Josh Marshall’s fault, but I would argue that (since it’s Marshall’s blog) it is Marshall’s responsibility.
That being said, why did the NYT take out the most inflamatory quotes by Deutsch? Very odd.
stickler
Odd? This is the same NYT that sat on the NSA spying story for a whole year, because the White House asked them to.
It’s only “odd” if you believe that there really is a Liberal Media. There isn’t.
kl
How about the moon landing?
stickler
How about it? I was so impressed by it that I shit my pants. Of course, I was less than a year old at the time so my mother forgave me.
Nongeophysical Dennis
! I don’t think I’ve laughed harder at the use of “shit my pants” EVAH!
LOL
kl
So you believe it actually happened. Okay, just verifying.
don surber
Ah, I feel the love. Three responses. Three personal attacks. That must mean my argument is too sound for an honest, logical response.
Hey, enjoy rolling in mud.
NOAA should handle the climate. NASA the stars. But it is easier to get scientists outside the field to sign off on global warming. Nice trick that fools the easily fooled.
I also like the if-we-wait-around-until-it-can-be-proved-it-will-be-to-late argument
Pooh
Don, when you
discountdescribe a well-documented phenomenon as “chicken little stuff” you are asking to be taken unseriously.Carry on.
John
Don,
Last I checked, there was no air in space, so how exactly would the National Aeronautics and Space Administration fulfill theire entire mandate out there?
Just asking.
Paul
So, I looked up aeronautics, and it said “John’s a moron.” I’m paraphrasing; here’s the actual definition:
1 : a science dealing with the operation of aircraft
2 : the art or science of flight
I can see why you would’ve thought it would have something to do with “air,” though — what with having that syllable in it, and all. Well, I mean, almost — it’s with an “e,” right? But, still. I mean. I see where you were going with it. Good try.
John Cole
Just as a special favor, could we limit the flaming of me to posts I have actually written.
Or not. Whatever blows your trumpet, you know.
Once-ler
I think he meant to flame a different John.
John
Paul, do me a favor and look up the derivation of the word Aeronautics. I’ll wait.
See, the flight referred to by your definition involves air. Hence Aeronautics. See how that works?
Glad we could clear that up.