NASA Aide Who Resigned Over (Global)Warming Offers Defense

[RedEarth]

February 10, 2006
NASA Aide Who Resigned Over Warming Offers Defense
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
George C. Deutsch, the young NASA press aide who resigned on Tuesday in the center of a storm over claims that he had tried to keep keep the agency's top climate scientist from speaking publicly about global warming, defended himself today in his first public interviews.

Speaking to a Texas radio station and then briefly to The New York Times, Mr. Deutsch said the scientist, James E. Hansen, exaggerated the threat of warming.

Parts of the interview were posted on the Web site of WTAW, an AM station in College Station (wtaw.com), where Mr. Deutsch attended Texas A&M University until he joined President Bush's re-election campaign in 2004. The Times reported today that contrary to his résumé, he never graduated from Texas A&M.

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."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/science/10nasa.html?ei=5094&en=28f8de061c9195f4&hp=&ex=1139547600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

[long_green]

1. a non-college graduate who...

got a job as a press aide (probably through family connections)is telling a NASA climatologist that he's exaggerating the threat of global warming? Ye Gods.

[Botany]

2. Sorry George

Dr. Hansen is a real scientist and you are just a nobody.



http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/

real science done by Dr. Hansen

[quiet.american]

3. The phrase "good riddance to bad rubbish" comes to mind

What's up with these guys named George?

Enjoy the Kool-Aid, kid.

[HuffleClaw]

4. his 'defence' is, as per republican rules, merely an attack on the guy

he screwed with. oh, and the media for good measure.

"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."

[stop the bleeding]

6. and this schmoe DIDN'T have Rethuglican ties all the way to the top??

Good grief - these people are delusional to say the least

[Miss Chybil]

5. This is like when a spouse cheats, he, or she, thinks the other spouse

is doing the same. I'm sure there's a psychological term for it. "Transference," I believe. I'll just settle for "bullshit." It's all bullshit, just like the guy's resume.

[MaineYooper]

9. "projection" works, too. n/t

[MisterP]

7. ah, stick it in yer bum, Other George

[Dogmudgeon]

8. An idiot, a liar, AND a catchfart

What a way to start a career in politics.

I guess that's the way it works in the GOP.

--p!

[hatrack]

10. Yes, it's always a conspiracy, isn't it?

And if it isn't that, it's a "cry for help" - y'know, when anti-gay politicians get caught placing gay personal ads, or "pro-family" types who get caught trying to pick up 13-year-olds in parking lots, or drug war crusaders who get busted with crack.

And even then, you can always cry "conspiracy" - provided, of course, you're a Republican.

Fuck you, George C. Deutsch - just fuck you, and I hope you have a short, shitty life.

[yellowcanine]

11. Nice example of pot kettle blacking here. This guy has a lot of chutzpah

blaming the media for his problems when he was fired for inventing a degree on his resume.

[against all enemies]

12. What a Deutschbag!!

[calimary]

13. Whee! GOOD one!

LOL!

[Strelnikov_]

14. Comparing The Man/Monkey Administration To Nazis Is Over The Top

Comparing them to Stalinist Russia does seem appropriate, though.

The duty this 'undergrad' was performing is no different than that of the 'Political Officer' in the USSR.

Funny how the Reich-Wing, who accuse us of being communists, are truly the ones who have embraced totalitarianism.

[hatrack]

17. "Christian Lysenkoism" comes handily to mind

:eyes:

[AnneD]

21. I don't know....

he seems like a good little Nazi to me.

[MagickMuffin]

15. DeutschBag "They were private emails" Yeah Right

The Big Bang memo came from Mr. Deutsch, a 24-year-old presidential appointee in the press office at NASA headquarters whose résumé says he was an intern in the "war room" of the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. A 2003 journalism graduate of Texas A&M, he was also the public-affairs officer who sought more control over Dr. Hansen's public statements. In October 2005, Mr. Deutsch sent an e-mail message to Flint Wild, a NASA contractor working on a set of Web presentations about Einstein for middle-school students. The message said the word "theory" needed to be added after every mention of the Big Bang.

The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator." It continued: "This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information the most."

The memo also noted that The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual specified the phrasing "Big Bang theory." Mr. Acosta, Mr. Deutsch's boss, said in an interview yesterday that for that reason, it should be used in all NASA documents. The Deutsch memo was provided by an official at NASA headquarters who said he was upset with the effort to justify changes to descriptions of science by referring to politically charged issues like intelligent design. Senior NASA officials did not dispute the message's authenticity.

Mr. Wild declined to be interviewed; Mr. Deutsch did not respond to e-mail or phone messages. On Friday evening, repeated queries were made to the White House about how a young presidential appointee with no science background came to be supervising Web presentations on cosmology and interview requests to senior NASA scientists. The only response came from Donald Tighe of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "Science is respected and protected and highly valued by the administration," he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/science/04climate.html?pagewanted=print

[Lindacooks]

16. Here's the way the article SHOULD read:

"...Mr. Deutsch had partisan ties "all the way up to the top of the Republican Party," and he was "using those ties and using his media connections to push an agenda, an agenda promoting oil and coal and minimizing the effects of pollution and global warming." He said that "anyone who disagrees with Mr. Bush is labeled a traitor and is demonized and vilified in the media -- and the media of course is a willing accomplice here."

Mr. Deutsch contended that although he was not a scientist, he wanted to talk about science as well as policy. He wants to prop up the president, he wants to coddle the administration and create a false perception that the administration knows what it's doing and is telling the truth to the public. And that is patently false.

It's easy! You can do it too - just take anything Repukes say and substitute their names for the vilified Democrats!

[Blue_Tires]

18. sniveling lackey piece of shit

nt

[Mugsy]

19. 28-yo Eng Lit dropout says NASA scientist "exaggerating"???

What's wrong with this picture?

I also love his explaination that *Hansen* was politicizing his interpritation. Yeah.

[DrRang]

20. World's crappiest writer of bad science says the same.

I suspect what Douche is whining about is that Hansen did predicitions for three scenarios--business as usual, worst case, and best case if we immediately cut CO2 emissions. Michael Crichton flogged this thing is "State of Fear," citing Hansen's worst case scenario to show what a hysterical chicken little Hansen is, while ignoring that Hansen's business as usual scenario has been right on the money.