It’s amazing to me just how rough conservative blogs have had it lately. Every time the right’s blogs think they’re on to something big, they end up getting the story backwards and looking rather foolish. I’m starting to feel kind of bad for them.<\/p>\n
First there was Cliff May’s email from a Marine about Iraq and the media, which conservatives jumped all over, which turned out to be wrong<\/a>. Then there was a picture of John Kerry in Iraq that was “proof” that the troops resented him, which also turned out to be wrong<\/a>. Then there was Capt. Jamil Hussein, which has turned out to be a humiliating story<\/a> for the right. Conservative blogs said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was dead when he wasn’t<\/a>; they said Barack Obama was educated in a madrassa<\/a>; and they said Nancy Pelosi demanded<\/a> a luxurious military jet. It’s early yet, but one wonders if 2007 will be the year in which conservative blogs get everything<\/i> wrong.<\/p>\n This week, much of the right end of the blogosphere believed it had finally found a good one — George Taylor, billed as the official state climatologist for Oregon, has been arguing against global warming, a position which will reportedly cost him his job. Conservative blogs pounced. One said<\/a>, “When a scientist DARES to question the holy seat of Global Warming then you better get ready for the unemployment line.” Another added<\/a>, “Can your job really be at risk if you don’t buy into the junk science of anthropogenic global warming? Well, that certainly seems to be the case in Oregon…. Isn’t the Party on the left marketed as the big tent of tolerance?” Similar posts appeared<\/a> all<\/a> over<\/a> the far-right blogs. One even compared George Taylor to Galileo<\/a>.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for our friends on the other side of the political spectrum, they’ve flubbed another one. But as it turns out, there’s more to this story, including key details<\/a> the right seems to have overlooked entirely.<\/p>\n 1) Taylor is not the “state climatologist.”<\/b> Oregon abolished the position in 1989. He was bestowed the title by Oregon State University<\/a>, not by Gov. Kulongoski or the state of Oregon.<\/p>\n 2) Taylor is not a “climatologist.”<\/b> Taylor is a meteorologist<\/a>. He does not possess a PhD or have a background in climatology.<\/p>\n 3) He will not be fired.<\/b> Taylor will not lose his job or income, which comes from Oregon State University. He will merely be stripped of his title, which he never earned but claims to retain<\/a>. Gov. Kulongoski has the right to appoint<\/a> a climatologist who is an expert in the field and adheres to the state’s climate policies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In other words, the three key parts of conservative complaints — State Climatologist Taylor is going to be fired — are all entirely wrong.<\/p>\n I’m sure conservative blogs will get a story right one of these days, right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s amazing to me just how rough conservative blogs have had it lately. Every time the right’s blogs think they’re on to something big, they end up getting the story backwards and looking rather foolish. I’m starting to feel kind of bad for them. First there was Cliff May’s email from a Marine about Iraq […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nAt first blush, the conservative complaints appear misguided on their face. Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) doesn’t want a “state climatologist” that rejects the overwhelming evidence embraced by the scientific community on climate change. This hardly seems outrageous — if a Surgeon General went around saying that incredible healing magnets can cure cancer, I’d expect most chief executives to say, “Thanks for your service. You’re fired.” Similarly, if Taylor is going around contradicting state policy and scientific consensus on global warming, it’s hardly surprising that Kulongoski would want a better spokesperson on the issue.<\/p>\n