The Spectacle Blog
We (American Tradition Institute’s Environmental Law Center) figured four-plus months and $4,000 was enough to give the University of Virginia to start producing the records we requested that pertain to their former Climategate scientist Michael Mann — you know, Mr. Transparency — so on Monday we asked a judge to force the issue:
Since (Jan. 6) UVA officials have demanded an unjustified and unsupportable sum of $8,500 from ATI to produce the documents, despite its admission that it knows precisely where the records exist on a specific University computer server. Still, ATI made a down payment of $2,000 for UVA to begin its search and delivery of Mann’s records - and also a second payment, for a total paid of $4,000.00 - but University officials still have not provided any documents, nor offered a schedule of its intentions to respond to ATI’s information request….
ATI has requested the same records under Virginia’s FOIA law. UVA has informed ATI it might withhold many of the records sought by ATI under a “proprietary research” exclusion in the law. However, that exemption only applies to research that “has not been publicly released, published, copyrighted or patented” and is otherwise of actual value to UVA. Clearly that exception does not apply to Dr. Mann’s emails a la ClimateGate, sought in ATI’s request, or to his research records given the work in question has been in the public domain for over a decade, was published in academic journals Nature and Geophysical Research Letters, by the IPCC, and elsewhere.
UVA has resisted a previous request by Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli under the state’s Fraud Against Taxpayers Act for the same records, with the help of $500,000 from private, anonymous donors (so the University says). Also, leftist groups including People for the American Way, ACLU-Virginia, Union of Concerned Scientists, and American Association of University Professors have pleaded with UVA to withhold Mann’s records for reasons of “academic freedom” — you know, similar to the illegitimate authority of “bureaucratic freedom” so often cited by other government institutions as an excuse to keep documents under wraps.
We hope to hear about a court date by Friday.
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http://spectator.org/blog/2011/05/18/we-took-u-of-virginia-to-court
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Nancy| 5.18.11 @ 3:02PM
So much for Liberal "transparency." Mann should be in jail. Good luck with your case; I hope you nail the clown.
PattyMor| 5.18.11 @ 3:30PM
Disclosure would highlight the liberal fraud and deception over global warming. So they drag their feet and hope the issue will go away. If they had nothing to hide, they would cough up the records.
Occam's Tool| 5.18.11 @ 4:15PM
Liberal Lawyer Vermin. (Sorry RCV, you are an exception to many things.) What about scientific ethics and credibility?
Bill Butler | 5.18.11 @ 4:22PM
Global Warming Deniers claim that Global Warming is a hoax/fraud/scam.
They lie, they are willfully ignorant, and they are wrong.
Nancy| 5.18.11 @ 4:30PM
We're not the ones who hide the decline, clown.
Where's the vaunted "Liberal transparency" you guys bleat about ad nauseam?
If you've got nothing to hide why won't you open the files for your critics? Liar, liar, pants on fire.
George S| 5.18.11 @ 6:15PM
You left out con game, deception, hustle, ploy, racket, rip-off, shakedown, sham, shell game, snow job, and sucker game.
And don't call us willfully ignorant; that's why we want to see the data at UVA -- so we can cure our ignorance.
genealogymaster| 5.18.11 @ 6:16PM
Who lies? Show the data if its that good don't hide and say you can't see it. You're ruining academic freedom. What a bunch of losers the priests of CAGW. If you're data was that good you would show it all.
Bill Butler | 5.18.11 @ 8:52PM
Global Warming Deniers are willfully ignorant because they deny evidence. Here’s evidence about their lies:
“Ideologically-driven climate change deniers are impervious to facts and reason. They will not abandon their political tribalism no matter how much evidence is presented.”
http://www.durangobill.com/Gwd.....Index.html
“The Great Global Warming Swindle” is itself a Fraud and a Swindle
http://www.durangobill.com/Swindle_Swindle.html
C. Henry| 5.18.11 @ 7:42PM
You are really misunderstanding the science if you think that Mann's graph "hides the decline."
All he did was lay thermometer temperatures over the proxies.
This is all explained in their papers.
The other scientist was hiding a decline in the tree rings because those trees had something wrong with them.
Chuckie| 5.18.11 @ 9:52PM
Give it up guys; you lost and we won.
I'm sure you worthless Leftists are already hard at work trying to find another fraud you can use to steal power and money from the people. Aren't you proud?
Conservative View| 5.19.11 @ 8:51AM
Not a chance in hell the research will be surrendered by UVA.
There are several reasons for this. First; There is far too much money at stake. Universities around the country get grants to research AGW. Show it to be a fraud, and the money goes away.
Second: Too many politicans, actors, and others of the same ilk have supported AGW. If it proves to be a fraud, their butts are in a sling. They can't afford to be proven wrong.
Third; the Global Government types see AGW as the key to control of the entire planet. Prove that Mann lied would set them back decades.
Is AGW a fraud? Yes, as anybody who can do simple highschool math can show. CO2 can't possibly be the cause of global warming. But wait, there is another possibility out there. Do you remember the "hole in the ozone" scare some years ago? If you match global warming to the amount of ozone in the atmosphere you get a far more reasonable corollation than trying to match CO2 with the temps.
I have yet to see one single repeatable expierment that shows CO2 has anything at all to do with global temps. What we have is bogus science, science by statistics. That isn't science at all, it is a statistical study. You don't need scientests to do that, you need accountants. A statistical study IS NOT SCIENCE!
So, don't hold your breath. UVA will duck, dodge, weave, lie, and hide records worse than M. Mann hides a decline.
Southern| 5.19.11 @ 3:22PM
They are lying, cheating Leftist thieves. They'll get what they deserve now or later.
RearAdmir0l | 5.19.11 @ 9:24AM
I brook no argument in my disdain for global warming, but as someone who is tangentially but literally married into this bruhaha, I would just like the author to know there is no vast conspiracy by UVa to thwart them from accessing this information -- and putting "academic freedom" in scare quotes is just childish.
Southern| 5.19.11 @ 3:20PM
What's really childish and cowardly is UV's refusal to open their files. Why not?
If they have nothing to hide they would be open and forthright with their data. They are liars and hypocrites like all reprehensible leftists who are trying to shove their AGW BS down our throats.