Idiot Ted Cruz Shut Down by NASA Director on Climate Change Research

[Quixote1818]

[onecaliberal]

1. That was beautiful

[Madmiddle]

2. A gotcha chart that backfired.

An asshole deals with a scientist and finds out his little chartsmanship is cute, but severely lacking in basic knowledge of NASA.

[underpants]

3. Looks good

[underpants]

4. Hey, can you try to post the video here?

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ted-cruz-meets-the-sound-silence

I am going to post the article in GD. My phone is giving me fits this morning so posting the video will be a real pain.

[George II]

5. I love the expression "there's a lot of chartsmanship", and then him saying...

...."I'll go back and look at your chartsmanship"! I thought the Director's whole demeanor and his presentation was pretty down to earth and cool, and basically said to Cruz "you don't know what you're talking about."

Did you see how annoyed Cruz seemed at the end when he went to Senator Nelson?

And why do these clowns get people to "testify" and then go off and testify themselves? It's all a big show.

[underpants]

19. I froze the video to check out the chart

It only goes to 50% so the 41% increase in Earth Science dominates the visual. The 7+% decrease in exploration should be 1/6th of the Earth Science bar but it isn't - probably because the 41% is meant to be the focal point taking up all the space.

The chart was totally unnecessary. It was a small meeting where you would expect a dry fact based discussion on funding. Cruz is clearly full of himself. His hand clasping at the beginning screamed I am full of my douchey self.

[George II]

20. Not only that, but percentages in that case are ludicrous.....

....as the Director pointed out, the decrease in one category was the result of cost reductions, NOT a reduction of appropriations or allocations.

Also, for the category that had the 41% increase (which Cruz was saying was excessive), what was the baseline on which it was calculated? If there was a billion dollar budget and that item was only $100,000, a 41% increase would have been an increase of only $41,000, a TINY increase overall.

Cruz is not a scientist, or a mathematician. Quite honestly, he's simply a moron.

[Thespian2]

6. Fortunately for me,

I almost never see or hear a misinformed congress-person blather ignorance for all to see and hear. An excellent leader of NASA causes Cruz to show that he is using a bogus chart in an attempt to show that the space agency is misdirected. I so love it when a Cruz proves his unabashed hate for America and the President.

[world wide wally]

7. Facts will trump bullshit every time...

And then you have these cursed tea clowns thinking everything is just a matter of opinion.
If we are going to allow any voter suppression at all, let's start with those idiots.
(sometimes I get so pissed off, I scare myself)

[erronis]

12. I wish you were right about facts over bullshit.

The "cursed tea clowns" (love it) don't give a shit about facts, just grandstanding.

Cruz looks so much like HUAC McCarthy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_McCarthy.jpg) that he might be Joe's reincarnation - in many facets.

[cab67]

8. chartsmanship...

I'm totally going to use this word.

[progressoid]

9. What a douche.

With apologies to douches.

[underpants]

17. The hands clasped at the beginning screamed DOUCHE!

And in the rest of it the impression never changed

[Stonepounder]

10. Unfortunately, we here on DU already know that Cruz is an idiot and doesn't care for facts.

However, when this is reported on Faux News, it will be that "Cruz grilled NASA Director mercilessly on his comments about Climate Change." and then segue into how "Many scentists agree that either there is no Climate Change, or that gradual warming is a normal change not caused by humans."

[panfluteman]

11. I Expected a Big Showdown, a Big Confrontation Here

but never got one. The exchange was on a more subtle, indirect level. My kudos to the NASA director, for handling this with expert dignity and aplomb. He mentioned the famous Kennedy Space center, and then added that if it is underwater (obviously because of sea level rise due to global warming) we won't have a launching pad from which to begin our space explorations. Its like, however much you may travel the world, you need to have a home base to start from, and to return to.

I know that Senator Cruz is a known Kochsucker, and I wonder if his billionaire backers are pushing him to get more space exploration out of NASA - so they can get the heck off of this planet after they've wrecked it, and take off in their private spaceships to start their bubble colonies on Mars. That would be consistent with their callous, cavalier attitude towards this great country that is their home, which they are wantonly trashing.

Regarding Ted Cruz: I think that, more than any other Republican scumbag in congress these days, he irks me to no end. The very smirking, condescending expression on his face in photos of him makes me want to puke. Anybody here feel the same way?

[DhhD]

16. And he has an additional look on his face; he may be facing charges after signing a letter to Iran.

[BlueMTexpat]

13. Cruz completely missed the main point

of "Green Eggs and Ham" so it is hardly surprising that he is also an idiot about something much more complex.

Despite what the facts show, in his own mind he's a genius. That is what is most frightening because his blind followers also believe that.

[Jack Rabbit]

14. Chartsmanship

That's the word of the day.

Chartsmanship is now added to the dictionary.

[father founding]

15. NIMBY

Cruz is pissed because they cut the budget for his largest contributors projects.

[underpants]

18. Very astute cut-to-the-point post

Always follow the money

[mackerel]

21. I wanna get me some chartmanship!

[denbot]

22. Inciting Tea-Billies is one thing, Senator Cruz is finding NASA's waters run deeper.

He relinquished the floor without his sound bite, score one for the NASA Director.

[cynzke]

23. NASA'S First Priority.....

Save OUR Planet. You can't get THERE if there's no HERE!

[zebonaut]

24. Scientists need to band together to Demand this religious freak is Removed from the Science Committe

committee

[Downtown Hound]

25. I swear, I feel like just listening to Ted Cruz makes me dumber

I can only imagine what he must do to those that actually believe his bullshit.

[BillZBubb]

27. Those that believe him don't have to worry about getting dumber.

They've already maxed out.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

26. His voice makes me want to swing with my fist at the computer monitor

[RJMacReady]

28. Cruz and His Cronies Media Overload

Hey, Many thanks to Quixote1818 for posting the vid. You have to dig through metric tons of steaming, right wing bullshit to get to nuggets of truth like this. The dominance of Fox News, and their meaner, more spiteful and exponentially worse in every way offspring, the "OneAmerica" channel, is making it even harder for the truth to come out. When NOJusticeNoPeace said they wanted to bust up their monitor, I got the very same feeling when I ran across that swill bucket "OneAmerica" channel, new to the Philadelphia, PA Verizon's FiOS channel line up. When I heard the "anchor" say something to the effect of "Bar the doors so the PC police can't get in...", I knew I was going to need a punching bag after I subjected myself to it. I lasted 10 minutes, the "news" portion, ( Obama exceeding his Constitutional powers to negotiate w/Iran ), Hillary's "exploding" email scandal, new "facts" debunking man made climate change( I am assuming using the same faulty logic applied to the data as uncovered by the last edition of "VICE", because although the total area of sea ice has expanded, it has enormously thinned out, causing a huge net loss), etc...
I knew then what they were all about. The progressive message in going to be unseen/unheard by the masses if this keeps up. I can't stand more than 2 minutes of M. Kelly's Fox program, but she was snarkily touting their #1 viewer ratings, and demeaning MSNBC as "150 little, angry hate filled liberals and Joe Scarborough.&quot not verbatim) The upshot of this verbal vomitus was liberals are vengeful, mean spirited, losers who don't have the facts on their side.However, as with almost everything else @ Fox/OneAmerica, the total opposite is the truth. Fox/OneAmerica learned their lessons well from Goebbels: The bigger the lie, told long enough, will become perceived as truth. We are losing the media war folks. Aside from using punching bags and wrecking monitors, what can we do to push against this tsunami of hate and lies? I see dark days ahead, FDR where are you when we really need you? How about an FDR/Liz Warren ticket? The stuff dreams are made of... MacReady