The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Dana Perino Reveals The Awesome Benefits Of Global Warming

HuffingtonPost.com   |  Jason Linkins   |   October 25, 2007 11:50 AM


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2007-10-25-Perino.jpgWhile White House Press Secretary Dana Perino may lack the showstopping musical theatre skills of her doppelganger, Kristin Chenoweth, she nevertheless provides us with almost daily entertainment. She's also recently remarked that parody and criticism of her efforts don't bother her in the least. When asked if ribbing of the sort she's been receiving from Doonesbury this week "gets under her skin," she brushed it off: "I hardly have time to check it out." Bully for her! She won't mind, then, if we put her under the microscope. Please join us on these pages for "The Gift That Keeps on Giving," and if something at the gaggle makes you gag, feel free to share your thoughts.

While the California wildfires and the upcoming Iraq supplemental bill dominated the early part of yesterday's presser, the conversation eventually turned to the testimony of CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding, whose testimony on the public health impact of climate change was alleged to have been "heavily edited" by the Washington Post (well, the Post says "heavily edited," anyway--their source says "eviscerated").

When directly questioned on the deletions (which included Gerberding's blanket conclusion, "CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern"), Perino launched into a four paragraph dodge in which she claimed to not have seen the edits, touted the administrations "open book" policy on climate change, and orated a lengthy filibuster in praise of the CDC. Near the end of these remarks, however, Perino took a flying leap into the eternal sunshine, saying: "And so the decision on behalf of CDC was to focus that testimony on public health benefits -- there are public health benefits to climate change, as well, but both benefits and concerns that somebody like a Dr. Gerberding, who is the expert in the field, could address."

Public health benefits? Yea, verily, this was a theme Perino tried to advance, in spite of the fact that she was simultaneously attempting to tout the President's concern over the issue:

Anybody who wants to look at what the President thinks about climate change looks -- needs to only look back three weeks ago to when he gave a major address on climate change when he invited all 15 of the major economies of this world to come together to work on a solution -- work on a path to get to a solution to help the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.

Still, you have to be intrigued at the prospect of possible health benefits from global warming. As Steve Benen of the Carpetbagger Report blueskies, "Less hypothermia? Fewer instances of frostbite? A steep decline in the number of snowball-fight-related injuries?"

Lest you think that Perino had blinded the White House Press Corps with pseudo-science, someone did eventually question her assertion. Perino's response:

...this is an issue where I'm sure lots of people would love to ridicule me when I say this, but it is true that many people die from cold-related deaths every winter. And there are studies that say that climate change in certain areas of the world would help those individuals. There are also concerns that it would increase tropical diseases and that's -- again, I'm not an expert in that, I'm going to let Julie Gerberding testify in regards to that...

Uhm...but they didn't let Gerberding testify to that, did they?

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I can't wait to go hiking and biking on Christmas day in Indiana! How's that for a benefit? Who needs snow in the winter? Just because we haven't had any snow now for several years doesn't mean that it has anything to do with our reservoirs being empty and the crops wilting.....does it?
And who doesn't want those Floridian Palmetto bugs in every state? And year-round mosquitoes! YAY global warming!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:50 PM on 10/26/2007
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idiot at work-she will be driven out--totally incompetent bush bottem feeder!!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:14 PM on 10/26/2007

France gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy. Why can't the US adopt the same level of this CO2 free and air pollution free means of generating electricity.
It is our planet's only hope.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:38 PM on 10/26/2007

Geez, what an embarrassment! That woman is like the Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz..."...if I only had a brain".

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:16 PM on 10/26/2007

I have read all of these comments and for people that pretend to be open minded on issues, you could give lessons to Joseph Goebbels!

What a bunch of whiners! If any one had a real thought, you would be dangerous!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:31 PM on 10/26/2007
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"What a bunch of whiners?"

--You sir, are a freak.

What, do we all need a spanking?

How many of the following symbols do you have tacked on the walls of your home?

*** Nazi emblem
*** George Bush's picture

If you have more of those than

*** Crosses (with or without Jesus)

then STFU!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:10 PM on 10/26/2007

starrianna - thanks for the message, you just proved my point 10 fold! I guess the good news is you knew who Joseph Goebbels was! The rest of the morons - just another day in the sand box.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:23 PM on 10/26/2007

How Gross! I guess even pretty faces are capable of crass representation of reality. So, now that Dana Perino has elucidated the benefits of Global Warming I suppose her boss Dumbya will ask her to uncover the benefits of war. Let's see ... 1)for every human being we kill in Iraq, we save the oxygen and other resources the unfortunate individual would have consumed otherwise 2) It is better to have Blackwater individuals engaged in Iraq than in America ... safer for the US anyways 3)As for our tax payer money that keeps disappering by the suitcase everyday in Iraq, .. that's also better than misspending here in the US in "socialist" programs like insuring American children, even worse insuring children of illegal aliens ...Heckuva job Dana!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:28 PM on 10/26/2007

This woman should just take the advice of one Kitty Foreman...."honey, you should just shut up!"

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:20 PM on 10/26/2007
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Love your response. That says it all about this dopey broad. Oops, the lights on but nobody is home?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:40 PM on 10/26/2007

Regarding the comments from Tator, who said, in part...

"Poor ole Liberals had been snookered by the Religion of Man made Global warming...Might want to read this, but I doubt you will since The Religion does not allow REAL scientist to be hear, because it is blasphemy.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5850/629

Interesting that Tator chastises followers of "The Religion" for not reading the article that he links to, since it's obvious that he hasn't read it himself. If he had, he would see that what Roe and Baker are really saying is that while there is a relatively high probability that the predictions of current models are accurate, there is also a chance that the models are not sufficiently extreme. That is, things may actually get much WORSE than the models predict. Their point is that we may never be able to refine the models enough to get beyond this uncertainty.

Let me boil this down for you, Tator: The authors are saying that the models may be UNDERESTIMATING how much warming will occur due to increases in CO2. From the article:

"Our results imply that dramatic changes in physical processes are not necessary for dramatic changes in climate sensitivity, provided that those changes in processes can all align in the same direction toward increased sensitivity."

Nature online does a nice job of summarizing the analysis here:

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071025/full/news.2007.198.html

From that that summary:

"The graph of potential temperature responses to rising greenhouse-gas levels shows a cluster of probable outcomes at the bottom of the scale, but a 'long tail' of possible extreme outcomes...Roe and Baker's analysis...shows mathematically that this tail is unlikely to get any smaller, regardless of how much research is done."

"We have to accept that that's the fundamental nature of the beast," says Roe. As a result, he adds, "it's very hard to distinguish between [the probability of] 6 °C warming and 10 °C warming."

Sorry, Tator, but you're the one who's been suckered.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:19 PM on 10/26/2007

Just remember Huffingtonpost readers, every time Bush and his syncophants open their mouths, a lie comes out. I would not believe one word these idiots say, and of course MSM does not hold their lies up to the light of day, they want to keep their job writing idiotic columns then go home to their families. (Guess the ones in Southern California may not have a home to go to, but what the heck, they still get a paycheck).

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:07 AM on 10/26/2007

I stopped looking at Bush or anyone in his cabinet when they appear on television. I immediately change channels. So, luckily, I have never seen Dana Perino. I used to watch Bush and his cronies when they appeared on TV, years ago, to see if they had any truth to say, or anything of value to contribute to our country; or I would watch just to keep watch on them. I have always believed that it is important to pay attention to what a President says, even if I disagree with him. So, I always made a special effort to watch the State of the Nation speech. No more. I know that, indeed, when they speak they always lie. I still keep informed about the lies, though, since they are covered here in Huffpo, and on Countdown. I just can't stomach seeing them lie over and over again.
The biggest disgrace of our country is that Congress has failed to impeach Bush and Cheney.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:49 AM on 10/26/2007
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No one claimed she was the brightest bulb in the pack! This just proves it. It's like that old saying, "How do you know she is lying?" her mouth is moving. Either she is as dumb as a post or she thinks everyone else is.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:07 AM on 10/26/2007
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Either?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:24 PM on 10/26/2007
- Sam4 I'm a Fan of Sam4 permalink

She is "Baghdad Bob"!! I wondered where he went. Now we see he's moved to the White House!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:33 AM on 10/26/2007

absolutely, shape shift...Bagdad Bob to DC Dana...

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:23 PM on 10/26/2007

This is the 'Al Gore invented the Internet' moment of the ThugliCon whack-job machine. Libruls, do not let this opportunity escape.

Don't forget to take your Global Warming vitamins for breakfast- they're grrreat!

Can we turn up the heat in hear a little bit? If we work hard at it, maybe we can achieve swealtering wasteland status like Venus. But be wary, it will be 'hard work'.

George Bush, turning up the heat the planet, just like he did on Saddam Hussein.

Fukc. These. Slogs.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:26 AM on 10/26/2007
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Yes indeed, the health benefits will far outstrip the detriments to global climate change.

For instance. When sea level rises more people will have an opportunity to learn how to swim, thus avoiding obesity.

People who live in the West will have to move because of the rise in the number of wildfires and the lack of snowmelt. Lack of snowmelt means less allocation of water from rivers. This will be good for the housing market in the East and Midwest, which in turn will allow more wealthy people to provide for their families. Instant health benefit returns there!

Longer 'summer' months will allow people who live in northernly climes to stay outside longer than the season traditionally allowed. That means more exercise for them, too!

I have more....

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:20 AM on 10/26/2007

She actually believes the stuff she feeds to the MSM.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:42 AM on 10/26/2007

the photo, alone, makes me ill. This is a guy dealing with an employee?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:40 AM on 10/26/2007

Bush seems able to relate to women only by pawing them. YEEECH!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:02 PM on 10/26/2007
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