Chris Mooney, "The Republican War on Science", is Blogging NOW

Chris Mooney is the guest blogger today at the Clark Community Network, here is the direct link:
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/7262

His topic is "The Courthouse Effect". Here is an excerpt of what he just wrote at CCN:

"...I have written a great deal about politicians misusing science; but here was a sitting federal judge doing so, which is possibly even more outrageous. There is much talk about a need to improve scientific advice to politicians; perhaps we also need to improve such advice to judges. Indeed, in a concurring opinion in the case, Judge David Sentelle also paraded his scientific ignorance. Sentelle claimed that the plaintiffs in the case lacked "standing" to even bring the suit because global warming is not causing them a particularized injury--it doesn't affect them any differently than it affects anyone else on the planet. This is absurd: California, one of the plaintiffs, has to worry about declining mountain snowpack due to global warming and therefore a blow to drinking supplies; Massachusetts has a different set of concerns; and so does Connecticut, and on down the line. These injuries are clearly particularized, in a state-by-state fashion."

In any case, in a blistering dissent that may have caught the Supreme Court's attention, Judge David Tatel exposed Randolph's and Sentelle's distortions and errors, and gave an accurate description both of climate science and of why the law requires the Environmental Protection Agency to do something. If you read all of the opinions in sequence--see here (PDF)--it's hard not to be impressed by how much more intellectually rigorous Tatel's take is. Tatel couldn't prevail upon the D.C. Circuit to rehear the case with a larger panel of judges, but if the Supremes analyze the science and law in a similarly searching way, there's a strong likelihood that they will agree that the case was wrongly decided below. And EPA will finally have to start doing something about global warming..."

If you are already a member of CCN you can join in the discussion, if not you can read only or simply join (it's free to do so).

P.S. Clark Community Network just went through a major site overhaul. The new site is great but still has a few bugs that slow it down sometimes. It seems to work excellent already with Firefox as a browser, if you happen to have that, but the bugs are vanishing day by day. So check out the new site while you are there.

NAFTA chapter 11 and the Federalist Society: How will bush's packed courts affect the peoples' business with pro-business courts. F'k those environmental laws say the courts, we've got corporations to protect.

Takings: how we got took

He has a busy schedule today, so he has to come and go, but promises to read comments and reply to questions throughout the day.

to answer more questions left for him there.