First they're wrong, then they don't exist

From Wonk Room

The extreme storms and record-breaking floods that have devastated the Midwest, killing dozens, disrupting the nation’s infrastructure, causing billions of dollars in damage, and sending food prices skyrocketing, are consistent with the effects of global warming on the region predicted eight years ago.

But whenever scientists worn of such possibilities they are attacked as alarmists and what not. This is part of a larger pattern: experts who worn of unpleasant or ideologically uncomfortable possibilites are first dismissed as being wrong. Then, after what they predicted happens, they cease to exist:

A week ago, Gov. Chet Culver (D-IA) told reporters:

Very few people could anticipate or prepare for that type of event.

Unfortunately, just as with the Iraq debacle, Katrina, housing bubble, and September 11 attacks, experts warned against this type of disaster — but they have been ignored by the press and blackballed by this administration.