h/t Talking Points Memo
Empty-eyed Josh Brolin body-double, Rick Perry, threw a little red meat to the Mouthbreather Caucus today at a town hall in the bedroom community of Bedford, NH. "We are seeing almost weekly or even daily scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing our climate to change. Yes, our climate has changed. It has been changing ever since the Earth was formed. But I do not buy into a group of scientists who have, in some cases, been found to be manipulating data."
Video below the fold.
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Yes, Mr. Perry, we all know that facts have a liberal bias, so spreading lies and disinformation is only de rigueur in Republican primary politics, but you don't have to try so hard, fellah. The evidence of "manipulated data" to which Governor Perry is likely referring is the theft of emails from the University of East Anglia to which wingnuts paid a great deal of attention until several probes cleared the scientists involved of any wrongdoing. That particular aspect of the case simply does not exist in the closed-circuit perspective of Homo Neanderthalensis.
So, it's not particularly shocking that the governor of a state that is almost totally reliant upon the dirty energy sector might come out and say something stupid like this to play up the denial sentiment of the teabaggers. It's even less shocking when you consider Perry's environmental record. But the thing that got me is, in a campaign where the candidate is trying really hard to differentiate himself from a certain other governor of Texas, did nobody ever tell him how perilous it might be to openly deny science while speaking in that twangy voice and trying desperately to look like a liesure-time cowpoke? Does he not know that he's channeling candidate Bush?
From the Second Wake Forest Debate, Winston-Salem, NC:
Q: What about global warming?
BUSH: It’s an issue that we need to take very seriously. I don’t think we know the solution to global warming yet and I don’t think we’ve got all the facts before we make decisions.
GORE: But I disagree that we don’t know the cause of global warming. I think that we do. It’s pollution, carbon dioxide and other chemicals that are even more potent. Look, the world’s temperatures going up, weather patterns are changing, storms are getting more violent and unpredictable. And what are we going to tell our children?
BUSH: Yeah, I agree. Some of the scientists, I believe, haven’t they been changing their opinion a little bit on global warming? There’s a lot of differing opinions and before we react I think it’s best to have the full accounting, full understanding of what’s taking place.
So, I'm just saying, I know Rick Perry's got the same religious backers, he'll probably hit up the same big money guys, many of the same campaign people, and the same lack of intellectual curiosity or acumen, but this is like reliving the 2000 Presidential campaign season, srsly.