Science chair doesn't believe in science

Any time the right-wing brain trust controls a legislative body, America learns anew the ravages of right-wing thought policing.

Congressional Republicans are installing Rep. Ralph Hall of Texas as the chairperson of the House's science committee. But Hall wouldn't recognize science if it jumped out of his TV screen during '3-2-1 Contact' and slimed him. He wants to subpoena climate change scientists because their findings contradict his ideology.

Nothing like putting discredited politics ahead of science, eh, Ralph?

Hall also praised BP for its recent oil spill and explosion that killed 11 people, injured many more, and polluted the Gulf of Mexico. Hall gushed, "As we saw that thing bubbling out, blossoming out – all that energy, every minute of every hour of every day of every week – that was tremendous to me."

Eleven oil workers were dead, survivors were barely clinging to life as they crawled through the wreckage of the rig, and Ralph Hall was acting like he'd seen the greatest porn website ever. Of course, Hall has received thousands of dollars in campaign dough from BP.

The Republican thought police doesn't care any more about social science than it does about physical science. This is a party that literally holds small-r republicanism in contempt. They don't deal with disagreements using the republican process. They scream, cry, bully, and bury all dissent in a sewage-filled chasm of elitist nonsense.

In 2011, our New Year's resolution is going to be to deliver the knockout punch the GOP has earned many times over. I've never broken a New Year's resolution, and I don't plan to start now. And I plan to take the DLC down with the Republican drug kingpins. The only reason I didn't do it yet is that I'm letting WikiLeaks work its magic. Trust me: We're getting more out of it this way.

(Source: http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/12/27/hall-big-oil)