Sen. David Vitter has managed to secure an earmark in an upcoming labor, health and education financing bill for the Louisiana Family Forum, which The New Orleans Times Picayune reports has “taken the lead in promoting ‘origins science,’ which includes the possibility of divine intervention in the creation of the universe.”

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Yesterday’s news:

Via Matt Nisbet, I see that Gallup has asked a pretty careful polling question to determine what the public thinks about the hurricane-climate relationship. As I detail in Storm World, some past polls on this question were so poorly worded that few conclusions could be drawn from them.

Now Gallup has done a better job (although hardly a perfect one, as we’ll see) and the results are very interesting

Chris Mooney is Washington correspondent for Seed magazine and the author of two books, The Republican War on Science and the forthcoming Storm World. He will contribute to Big Head DC periodically through election 2008.

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Naomi Oreskes has an op-ed in the Post this morning on this subject, in anticipation of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report release tomorrow. I went over a lot of this ground in researching the new book, and there’s one detail I can never get over. John Tyndall discovered what we now think of as the greenhouse effect at pretty much the same time that Darwin published On the Origin of Species. In other words, the theoretical understanding of the behavior of greenhouse gases goes back just as far as the theory of evolution by natural selection.

That’s really something, when you think about it.

Chris Mooney is Washington correspondent for Seed magazine and the author of two books, The Republican War on Science and the forthcoming Storm World. He will contribute to Big Head DC periodically through election 2008.

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Despite his earlier jury duty concerns, he reports that he made it to part of the climate change hearing this afternoon — and Congress even plugged his book:

Now you know why he’s a BHDC All-Star. 

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Oh well. There’s a very important politicization of science hearing (PDF) on the Hill this morning, and jury duty is going to prevent me from going. I haven’t been picked for a trial yet, but my last “voir dire” also didn’t end by the end of the day yesterday…and the Superior Court has some bizarre rule about not being able to pay staff for any overtime hours. So all the potential jurors have to come back and finish the selection process today instead.

Maybe I’ll make it over for the end of the Waxman hearing if by some miracle I get off early. In any event, it looks like it’s going to be very important…the beginning of a new era for science and politics in Washington, no less.

Chris Mooney is Washington correspondent for Seed magazine and the author of two books, The Republican War on Science and the forthcoming Storm World. He will contribute to Big Head DC periodically through election 2008.

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Occidental College remembers Barry Obama with a moderate Afro and a penchant for pizza.

National icon Barbaro now glue. Dontcha wish we’d turned Marilyn Monroe into glue? We could sniff her. 

The Clinton camp thinks the Mitt Romney camp smells like glue.

Surprise! Ethics rules approved by Congress to curb lobbyists’ influence are unethical.

Douchier name: Ari Fleischer or Scooter Libby? That’ll be up to the jury to decide.

Where the fuck was Bush’s -ic? The Washington Post goes in depth on this dirty little tale of deception.

Massachusetts loves Nancy Pelosi’s tight little -ic.

Good to see some manners return to the Miss America pageant this year – Miss Congeniality is back after a decades long absence. That bitch roolz. 

White House craves power over science and society. (Yeah right.)

Since the minimum wage may increase, Congress definitely deserves a raise, according to Congress members.

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Seed has published my take on the State of the Union speech, and the role of global warming therein. In essence, it’s a very pessimistic outlook. I really doubt we can expect strong action on the issue until a new administration comes in. The current Congress may pass a few bills outlining various forms of emission capping programs, but I doubt they’ll become law. In short, look for global warming to become a campaign issue in ‘08….

Chris Mooney is Washington correspondent for Seed magazine and the author of two books, The Republican War on Science and the forthcoming Storm World. He will contribute to Big Head DC periodically through election 2008.

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• One day NY GOP Senate challenger John Spencer called Hillary Clinton butt ugly in her early years. The next, he reveals that he’s actually a butt and Hillary says she was cute.
• Social Security back on the table; Dems giggle with delight. Old people are funny.
• Men may want to quit using cell phones, based on controversial new study findings – unless they don’t care about having babies. But how will we gather our gossip? 
• Suddenly talk shows are popular. We loved ‘em all along.
• President Bush to stop “staying the course.” Of course, he’s still staying. 
• Former CNN anchor Bobbie Batista forgoes news-reading for public relations. And she likes it. (Take note, Kathleen Matthews; your turn is coming soon.)
• Dick Cheney likes Bush, but says Hillary could win the Presidency. Say what? Still, he’s adamant that he won’t run even if he doesn’t have another heart attack.
• New Yorker magazine cover showing Bush being flooded in the Oval Office after Hurricane Katrina ( i.e. staying the course, or, rather, failing to change course) selected as best mag cover of the year.
• Enough with dual sex education. The penises are too distracting.

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A new study in this month’s Pediatrics journal indicates that babies with big heads tend to be smarter than their smaller-headed peers later on in life (as if we needed any research to justify our very existence). But sad news for those of you who grew large heads in your later years: it was likely a waste, and your IQ is probably no higher than it would have been, had you somehow been able to keep your smaller noggin, according to researchers. Thankfully for us (but maybe not so much for Big Head Mom), our head has been a whopper since the day the doctor first spanked us on the bum. 

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Amy Argetsinger, WaPo gossip goddess, spread good tidings to all at the huge b-day bash we threw for Chris “I Heart Science” Mooney and Matt “the White Jacket” Nisbet. Look how Big Head Rob seemingly clutches Amy for dear life in this photo, as if to beg, “Please don’t go. You are important. I want your job someday.”

Some smart and sexy people have already waxed poetic re: the delightful evening, which Steve McGuire at Science Club went out of his way to make great. Check ‘em out, kids: Chris Mooney: The Party, The Post-Normal Times: Science Bash (choice quote: “[A]nd yes, Big Head Rob really has a big head.”, RCR: Happy Birthday Chris, KAC: Sponge-worthy man?

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