Wait, who?
…skeptics of climate change have filed requests for Mann’s emails under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. (Mann is an influential climatologist whose work has bolstered the case for man-made global warming.) So far, they have lost. And they have lost so badly that media organizations have sat up, taken notice — and filed a brief in the case.
The Virginia Supreme Court is weighing whether a professor’s emails are, as a Prince William County circuit court ruled, “proprietary” and therefore exempt from the state’s FOIA. The lower court ruled that proprietary records are those “owned or in possession of one who manages and controls them.” This has alarmed the media organizations, including the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the AP, the Newspaper Association of America, Reuters, Atlantic Media and several others.
The media groups note that the lower court’s ruling “literally writes into the exemption the very definition of a public record in Virginia. … Under the lower court’s definition, no public university record would qualify for release under VFOIA because all university documents are presumably ‘things’ and would be ‘owned or in the possession of’ the university.”
(Emphasis mine.)
What\s the opposite of disclosure..?..
“…the media should have one interest only: the unvarnished truth. Rooting for one side or the other out of misguided ideological sympathy serves no one’s best interests, least of all those of the press itself. …”
That was in the Richmond Times-Dispatch article. That I am surprised is a sad comment on the state of journalism.
This comment is surprising, The Tooner.
The writer obviously didn’t go to Ryerson’s School of Journalism.
A student there was asked why she went into news journalism and she replied, “So I could make a difference in the world”.
Funny thing that. I always thought that it was to write and report the news.
Prof. Mann works for Pennsylvania State University which is owned and funded by the State of Pennsylvania. Since the taxpayers employ him I believe all his emails and papers created as part of his duties should be available to those taxpayers, who are entitled to know whether his salary is justified or not.
Now that Hansen has retired, NASA jumps off AGW bandwagon:
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/03/08/Earth-is-safe-from-global-warming-say-the-men-who-put-man-on-the-moon
Their useful idiots can have all the meltdowns they want, the gig is up; unfortunately We’re still tilting at windmills, with more $billions of taxpayers’ money being wasted.
Something I didn’t see – if Mann actually believes that he’s been presenting the facts, the truth of the matter, he should be eager to reveal all data and communications. That he’s been instead fighting to conceal those from the public should have alerted the media years ago.
In the interim, they have the opportunity to get the guy the Ontario Liberals hired to make their gas plant emails disappear.
Judge Gaylord Finch is a real POS.
Here is why Virginia Judges suck.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/01/AR2009030101882.html
Here is his reappointment despite numerous abuses in child welfare cases.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyxScnwvx7c
Gaylord was a Fairfax co. judge. He did retire BUT
“Because of Marshall’s involvement, all the Prince William circuit judges recused themselves, and retired Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Gaylord L. Finch Jr. was brought in.” (Marshall was a PW county delegate.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-state-of-nova/post/prince-william-hosts-important-global-warming-case/2011/11/01/gIQAn6TcfM_blog.html
I.E. in the bag.
This corrupt judge was bought again.
It’s wise to do fraudulent research under the wing of a powerful law school.
Now using that same logic, how does it affect a private business, are employees now allowed to delete all emails on work computers, do they have full domain over everything they write while being paid by their employer?
aren’t Nobel prize winners exempt Mann , O zero?
Even Hansen’s own office – the Goddard Institute – didn’t agree with him. He built up a public
persona, and his superiors were afraid to touch him.
Hansen was, of course, portrayed in the scum media as speaking for NASA; but he actually was not.
He, as an activist himself, of course made no effort to set the media straight.
Hansen’s hijacking is a shameful episode in NASA’s otherwise illustrious history.
Gee a taxpayers dollar can be defined as a proprietary thing as well.
So if these parasites upon the taxpayer can keep their work secret, it is only fair that the taxpayer retain possession of their dollars.
Same old entitled nitwits,if you want private data and proprietary methodology, it is easy.
Fund it yourself.
If you feed at the public teat, obey the rules.
Whats that Libtardism; Feeding at the workers expense is a privilege not a right?
Yes John, the tax payers own and have control of said university via tax dollars, me thinks that lower court, activist , failed to grasp that concept. I hope the upper court over rules him/her and slaps them down verbally at least!!!
Other than the military, which is one of only a few legitimate roles of government, what research should not have the caveat “fund it yourself”?
Way i am coming to see it, this plays into a bigger picture.
Government agencies seem to believe they are not bound by law or contract.
Politicians do little to rein this kleptocracy in.
Well if government obedience of law is discretionary , I see no reason taxes should not be considered voluntary.
When government wilfully breeches the social contract, all contracts are off.
All bets too.
The authority to govern does not come from the barrel of a gun, this being the progressives first mistake.
Civilization requires informed consent.
Theft by deception or force, only sets up counter action.
While slow to riot people are pretty bloody minded when cleaning house.
The activists do not scare me, the growing anger from workers, property owners and other actual producers does.
Civil society, a good gig while it lasts.
Unfortunately civil remedies for systemic parasitic infestation are slow to kick in and usually messy.
Government leaders such as Obama have learned that bureauracies and government departments can be used to achieve their agendas without having to face the people who put them in charge of the country. Very useful practice when you are taking the country down roads that the people don’t want to go or you as the leader promised you wouldn’t do.
My understanding of an American University’s ability to withhold information funded in whole or part by public funds was set aside by the Bayh-Dole law in the early 1980’s. The Universities were trying to set up a must pay royalty scheme which was made illegal.
The result was a plethora of private industry development in communications; electronics and a massive speedup in the development of the human genome project.
Surely there will be a natural extension to any and all information developed to spend billions of dollars of Taxpayer money. Cheers;
Forgive me John but had to fix your last statement.
“Unfortunately civil remedies for systemic parasitic infestation are slow to kick in and always messy.”
“if government obedience of law is discretionary , I see no reason taxes should not be considered voluntary”
I agree 100 percent.
Now what can we do about the tyrants who are unlawfully stealing from us?
Friendly fire event on the Left.
Yay.
Pass the popcorn.
Unisclosure?
“It’s an embarrassment to those of us who put NASA’s name on the map to have people like James Hansen popping off about global warming,”
–
Nice to see they still have some human beings left at NASA,
instead of the little green men.
Above the Law.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=climitologists+as+super+heros&id=34617A4DD3C9665E02578502EEA6B174A8B57836&FORM=IQFRBA#view=detail&id=34617A4DD3C9665E02578502EEA6B174A8B57836&selectedIndex=0