Wisconsin's nuttiest candidate

Ideally, candidates [the object example in this instance being Willie Soon pupil Ron Johnson] who are too bizarre to speak to the media probably shouldn't be running.* But once the damage is done, a campaign has to realize it's political suicide to let its candidate speak freely and make a fool of himself.

— Steve Benen

* I respectfully dissent. The nuttier the better.

McIlheran now charging $97 to read his blogs

Get a load of Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel funnyman Patrick McIlheran, dissembling frantically here. He says he's proven something or other (Greenland "was much nicer"?), all you have to do is go and read these links. Except the first two cost $31.50 a pop, the other $34.00. And don't just bring your cash, you better bring your advanced degree in solar physics, also.

Seriously, Patrick McIlheran expects anyone to believe he's actually read these articles? And never mind the physics, McIlheran can barely get past the arithmetic. McIlheran offers the 2003 Senate testimony of Tea Party activist Willie Soon,* a singular man who becomes "Harvard astrophysicists" in McIlheran's dark matter uniperverse.

It's hard to tell him from The Onion sometimes.

* Note the photo caption. McIlheran answered the call.

Pol can't seem to spend self out of poll

Willie Soon: Latest Rasmussen coincides with drop in solar activity

Johnson has spent $4 million on broadcast TV in the State ...

— JSOnline dot com

These findings show little change since Johnson, a plastics manufacturer and businessman, entered the race in late May.*

— Rasmussen Reports

Only $11 million to go.

* Correction: Won the race on September 2.

Ron Johnson's creationist sunspotters

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel letter to the editor:

I contacted Ian Eisenman, the author of the other study [Willie Soon et al] referenced. He states that his work does not contradict, but rather broadens, the case for Arctic sea ice retreat by showing that the winter sea ice is retreating just as rapidly as the summer ice. This conclusion is willfully and completely misrepresented by the signers of the letter.

Good for Keith Armstrong of St. Paul, MN.

This is exactly the type of dishonesty that creationists engage in.

P.S. Have you got your sunspot reflector cap?

In Copenhagen, curiously well-informed

Sounds almost like a ... conspiracy

The other thing that continues to muddy the picture is the unabated journalistic interest in the email story, and the apparent acceptance that its outbreak, mere weeks before the climate conference, was somehow a coincidence. When the story broke and people like Marc Morano* from the denial site ClimateDepot.com and Myron Ebell** from the Competitive Enterprise Institute offered themselves out for instant interviews, no one asked how these curiously well-informed commentators came to know so much about the stolen emails — or whether they knew anything about how they came to be public. No one seems to have asked the Cato Institute's oil-soaked Pat Michaels*** how he was ready with his money quote ("This is not a smoking gun; this is a mushroom cloud.") when the New York Times' Andrew Revkin called for a reaction.

Richard Littlemore.

* A Milwaukee Tea Party academic fellow of distinction. Another Milwaukee tea festival ceremonialist was Willie Soon.

** "His main job is to provide material to the media in the form of quotes to newspaper reporters and participation in live interviews on the subject of climate change. He also digs out countervailing facts from the scientific literature that can be used by other pundits."

In other words, the quote-miner in chief.

*** The Galileo of Our Times.

Paddy's little starbursts*

Michelle "Korematsu" Malkin brings 2 million to Milwaukee

You couldn’t join the hundred thousand or more [sic] people on the National Mall ...

Actually they marched up Pennsylvania Ave. Was ace journalist Patrick McIlheran duped by the 1997 Promise Keepers photo as well?

And, scroll down to John Foust's comment re: Willie Soon, who McIlheran identifies as an "astrophysicist" and who, McIlheran claims, "managed to offend climate alarmists with, of all things, data."

McIlheran only left out two words: "misuse of" before "data."

Journalists may obtain a .pdf copy of this article by request to Harvey Leifert [of the American Alarmists Geophysical Union].

No wonder Patrick McIlheran couldn't obtain a copy!

Earlier: "I possess skills" — McIlheran

* Lowry in Love (with the former Governor of Guam).

Ron Johnson disciple: "He is not a fool."

"Sunspot" Willie can't come Soon enough

Via RonJohnsonForSenate.com, possibly the lamest apologetic ever:

Claim: Johnson believes sunspots are the cause of global warming.

Truth: Johnson’s quote was used in the broader context of his argument against passing legislation such as cap and trade that would raises taxes and put tens of thousands out of work in Wisconsin. Several reports however focused only on a single remark rather than the true intent of the answer.

* Johnson’s full quote read: "I absolutely do not believe that the science of man-caused climate change is proven. Not by any stretch of the imagination. I think it's far more likely that it's just sun spot activity or something just in the geologic eons of time where we have changes in the climate."

So what if Ron Johnson was speaking in "the broader context"?

Ron Johnson's "I think it's far more likely that it's just sun spot activity or something just in the geologic eons of time where we have changes in the climate" is clearly a stand-alone proposition. Moreover, when the speaker "absolutely" dismisses the science, then the alleged qualifier "far more likely" becomes superfluous verbiage.

The fact of the matter is, Fox News candidate Ron Johnson does not think about what it is that he is saying. That much is quite evident.

And everybody is always speaking in some "broader context."

See also: Ron Johnson, he is not a crazy, either.
Earlier: How green was Ron Johnson's Arctic island.
And: Ron Johnson's exhalations sucked down by trees.

"Wisconsin, don't let me down. You really want to replace one of the most principled, distinguished Senators, Senator Feingold, with this yahoo? Seriously? All of his answers are straight out of the failed politics of the Bush era — you really want to go back to that?"

— packerfanatic

"[Nevada's Sharron] Angle is a truly unique talent at creating problems for herself merely by revealing what she really thinks."

— Greg Sargent

Less unique now, given Wisconsin's own Ron Johnson. Backward!