Texas Experiences Hottest, Driest Year Ever…Texas Governor: “I’m running for President. Global warming is a liberal myth.”

“I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized,” Perry answered. [It has to be, scientists don’t write policy]  “I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. [What are their names?]  I think we’re seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. [Appeal to ignorance of what is actually happening.]  Yes, our climates change. They’ve been changing ever since the earth was formed.” [Idiotic patronizing build on hyuck, hyuch, common wisdom.]

[full story, and video]

I already mentioned how embarrassing it is to have this guy running around saying idiotic things to appeal to the Idiocrats, sorry the Tea Party.

It looks now, seriously that you have to be flat out against any kind of science to appeal to the nutjob right.   Things really have metasticized now.   Just for reference, here’s GWB back in 2002…

I also want to tell you one of my favourite moments was to go down to Crawford and turn on my NOAA radio to get the weather. I don’t know whether my guy is a computer or a person. But the forecast is always accurate, and I appreciate that. I also want to thank you for your hard work, on behalf of the American people.

[full speech]

Quick note: The Republicans have gone so far right, the service the  NOAA provides that Bush praised is now part of that “wasteful government spending.”

America and the world share this common goal: we must foster economic growth in ways that protect our environment. We must encourage growth that will provide a better life for citizens, while protecting the land, the water, and the air that sustain life.

In pursuit of this goal, my government has set two priorities: we must clean our air, and we must address the issue of global climate change. We must also act in a serious and responsible way, given the scientific uncertainties. While these uncertainties remain, we can begin now to address the human factors that contribute to climate change. Wise action now is an insurance policy against future risks.

The sick thing about this….in the intervening 10 years since this speech, the scientific evidence for climate change just keeps getting stronger.

However, the conservative mindsets ability to deal with reality has continued to erode.  Hence, even as the evidence gets stronger, the conservative mindset then much work that much harder to dismiss all the new information.   Instead of having to dismiss each and every new piece that backs up the original, certain segments of conservatism (the Tea Party) have now just dismissed the dataset wholesale.

It’s sad, too, because when you track down all these “scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea”, it turns out it’s the same folks, saying the same debunked things.   They’ve just now filtered out any real science, it’s all nutjobs now agreeing it’s all a conspiracy *even as more data piles up*.  They just simply dismiss the new data as part of the conspiracy.  Voila, anti-intellectualism in a nutshell.

Animals heading to hills and poles because of liberal myths/conspiracies

Global Warming Causing Plants, Animals to Flee Upwards and Reshuffle – International Business Times http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/200556/20110819/global-warming-causing-plants-animals-to-flee-upwards-and-reshuffle-ecosystems-university-of-york-co.htm?cid=2

The study reveals that species have moved toward the poles where the conditions are cooler at almost three times the normal rate and also toward higher altitudes at twice the previous known rate.

A study of more than 1,300 different species of animals and plants by the research team has shown a specific trend of movement. On average, species have shifted to higher elevations at 12.2 meters per decade and, more dramatically, to higher latitudes at 17.6 kilometers per decade.

Two different goals, two different skillsets

To Save The Economy, You Sometimes Need To Ignore Business | ThinkProgress http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/08/18/299356/to-save-the-economy-you-sometimes-need-to-ignore-business/

The fact of the matter is just that running an economy is not the same as running a nationwide network of big box retailers, or a diversified conglomerate, or a large bank, or an innovative electronics company, or any other successful business. People generally understand this in reverse. Nobody ever said “Bill Clinton was a good president, so he’d be a great replacement for Bill Gates when he steps down at Microsoft.” But it’s true the other way ’round as well. Businessmen have certain kinds of prejudices about economic management that neither reflect reality nor their own self-interest.

The way I tend to explain this is the two different systems have different operating paradigms. Businesses want to externalize risk and internalize profit.  Government, to the contrary, works to *internalize* risk and *externalize* profit. 

Running a business like a government is as much a recipe for disaster as the opposite.