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by According to a blog posted on the Daily Tech site, Dr. James Hansen--head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Science--has been caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.
The blog cites an editorial in Investors Business Daily purporting that the Open Society Institute (Funded by George Soros) provided nearly three-quarters of a million dollars of 'legal and media' aid to Dr. Hansen, who claimed over a year ago that NASA tried to silence him. He is also quite vocal on the fact that the climate of the earth is in jeopardy.
Who is OSI? Well, on their website they claim:
The Open Society Institute (OSI), a private operating and grantmaking foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. On a local level, OSI implements a range of initiatives to support the rule of law, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSI works to build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as combating corruption and rights abuses.
What does all this mean? While OSI does fund some worthwhile projects, the motivations of their founder, George Soros, are questionable. He has stated openly that he wishes to remove President Bush from office, by any means necessary and would give his entire fortune to someone who could guarantee that it could be done. He has refuted those comments (made in the September 11, 2003 edition of The Washington Post) as humorous; but based on his own donations to groups supporting democrats, it seems he might well indeed want Bush out of office. Not only that, but there is other evidence as well of his involvment with a highly secretive society called Democracy Alliance who seem to feel the need of our government to be only of Democrats.
The short of this is: Scientists involved in public policy really need to be cautious on who they accept monies from. It makes them seem malleable to the will of the donor. In the Publich Policy Arena; scienctists need to be squeeky clean--We made a stink out of $25,000 donated by Exxon to the global warming naysayers, we should do no less here.
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Ah, but he *did* accept free legal aid from GAP--which is funded (at least in part) by Soros' organization OSI. If Hansen wanted to keep things neutral (and as a scientist who at least in part directs public policy, he should want that), he would have hired his own lawyer from a neutral firm.
He can't afford it, you cry? I'm sure at the DIRECTOR level of GISS, he makes at least 2x what I do, making that somewhere over 6 figures. The major point of the blog is that his 'cuddling' up to an organization with questionable goals makes him appear less than 'honorable'.
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I See the Darkness of Paranoia Slowly Overtaking My Brain by gheorghe :: NR5 :: on 28 September 2007
If we extend that rationale, NASA gets money from politicians, the party in power sets the agenda, all Republicans (and Democrats) would like to be in power forever, if possible, hence they will tinker with the system.
In that case, overhaul the political system, forget the outdated electoral process, give Nader and Buchanan and other lunatics a fair shot at running for office, ban private financing of political campaigns.
Yes, I agree that the Democrats probably hijacked the Global Warming Cause to finally come up with some sort of theme to counter the Republican threat, but at the same time the Rep's would of course do anything to discredit their claims. Maybe we should keep politics and religion out of science altogether.
In a Duopoly (reps vs dems), the customer gets screwed big time (pardon my French).
I See A Giant Ameoba Quickly Overtaking My Brain by gnifyus :: NR7 :: on 28 September 2007
Climate Change Deniers Beware!
Brain eating Ameobas on their way, spawned purely by the effects of climate change!!
sigh.
But then again..