A few weeks ago, Francis Barry, whose bio identifies him as having "previously served as Director of Public Affairs and Chief Speechwriter for New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg," had a piece published by Bloomberg View (the op-ed arm of the Bloomberg News outlet), portending to examine whether Photo ID voting laws had an adverse effect on turnout this year.

Specifically, as the very first paragraph of his piece explained, Barry claims to have been looking at whether "voter identification laws suppress turnout" since, as he opined in the same graf, "Liberals" argue "not all citizens have the type of ID that many states now require at the polls."

The piece, headlined "Quit Blaming Low Turnout on Voter ID", went out of its way to make the case that such laws had nothing to do with turnout this year, as some states with such laws even saw higher turnout than others without them. While one could attempt to make such an argument, in this case, unfortunately, Barry used extraordinarily deceptive data and moving goal posts in order to do so, as detailed in the emails (posted below) between me, him and one of his editors.

The main trick he employed was an apples to oranges comparison of turnout rates in "21 states that had a competitive gubernatorial or Senate race", where, he misleadingly claimed, "Fourteen of the 21 states had a voter ID requirement in place, while seven didn't".

But here's the thing. Barry deceptively swapped the type of very specific Photo ID laws cited in his first paragraph, with very non-restrictive ID laws that are in use without objection in many states.

When I explained all of this in detail to him and his editors via email (all posted below), the response I received back was, as I noted, "mind-boggling, to be frank"...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Election 2014 Environmental Democalypse Now: get ready for the Republican hegemonic hellscape; Climate denier caucus now in charge; PLUS: At least one note of very good environmental election news... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Energy storage breakthrough revealed; Fracking frenzy brings fears of boom-bust cycle; Peak water in U.S.; New Koch Industries video: "we rearrange your polar bears"; End the GMO madness: try mandatory labeling; GOP wins deal blow to US climate change leadership internationally; Maine's shrimp season cancelled for lack of shrimp ... PLUS: The biggest loser in this election is the climate - and the children of 2100 ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Republican candidates continue to dodge the climate change question; Mountaintop removal coal mining promotes lung cancer; 'Significant' oil spill in Louisiana bayou; 2014 on track to be hottest year on record; PLUS: LEGO breaks up with Shell Oil... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

CORRECTION: Today's episode of the GNR incorrectly identifies Rep. John Yarmuth (D) as a U.S. Congressman from West Virginia. In fact, he represents Kentucky. We apologize for the error!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Republicans: "I am not a scientist" on climate change, but let me advise you on Ebola; Rooftop solar: utilities must adapt or die; Extinction watch: only 6 white rhinos left; Zombie glacier surprises glaciologists; Oceans to lose $1 trillion in value due to acidification; New Method factory will be world's largest rooftop farm... PLUS: A Man For All Seasons: Remembering Rick Piltz, Climate Science Whistleblower... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Tide turns against climate change deniers, as even Rupert Murdoch dumps rightwing policy front group ALEC; Climate change now a defining campaign issue in races around country; 35k walruses start their own sad climate march in Alaska; PLUS: Tide turns against King Coal: Canadian coal mine sells for just $2 ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Northern “biopirates” gobbling up resources of the Global South; Renewables take top share of German power supply for 9 nine straight months; August 2014: Greenland is the New Black; Duke Energy to keep ratepayer money for canceled nuclear plant; WV: Mountaintop removal again nixed by court; Fracking: TX residents challenge open sludge pits near schools; Solar on your parking lot; Negative 'Windfarm study' didn't study windfarms ... PLUS: Future generations will ask "Where were you?" for the People's Climate March... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Texas proposes rewriting school text books to deny manmade climate change; Severe black lung in coal miners returns to 1970s levels; Fracking production contaminated drinking water in Texas; Poultry firms systematically feed low-dose antibiotics to flocks; Climate change's 'evil twin' - mass extinction ... PLUS: Naomi Klein is right: unchecked, unregulated capitalism will destroy civilization ... and much, MUCH more! ...

Michele Bachmann may be on her way out. And Sarah Palin cut and run long ago. But make way for Republican state Rep. Lenar Whitney, who is now running for an open Congressional seat from Louisiana.

She cites Bachmann "as a political role model" and proudly accepts the monicker of "Palin of the South", according to Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, who wrote about her at Washington Post this week.

"I've personally interviewed over 300 congressional candidates over the course of seven years, both to get to know them and evaluate their chances of winning" he writes. "But never have I met any candidate quite as frightening or fact-averse as Louisiana state Rep. Lenar Whitney, 55, who visited my office last Wednesday."

Wasserman describes how she eventually "fled the room", after he'd asked her "repeatedly for the source of her claim that the earth is getting colder", as seen --- along with much more --- in the remarkable video below. He says "she froze and was unable to cite a single scientist, journal or news source to back up her beliefs."

Not surprising, given that her claims are all bullshit, until you see the confidence with which she presents that bullshit in the campaign video below. Get a load --- and I do mean load --- of this...

We're getting ready to hit the road, so no time at the moment to debunk each of her ridiculous --- and long ago debunked everywhere else --- assertions. Even the frequently absurd PolitiFact judged the claims in her otherwise hilarious video to be "Pants on Fire".

But the video seems worth highlighting here, nonetheless, if only so that folks can know who may become the next Congressmember from Louisiana's 6th district, and so we all might further appreciate just how far off the rails of reality the Republican Party has now gone, that a) this woman is even a viable candidate for U.S. Congress from any party and b) she's actually already been elected to something beyond Dog Catcher by voters in the state of Louisiana!

[Hat-tip TPM's Caitlin Macneal]

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Drought decimating Oklahoma wheat crop; Massive wildfires in Alaska; Strongest May hurricane on record in Pacific; California's oil is too hard to frack; PLUS: The politics of language: Americans care about climate change - just don't call it 'climate change'... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Northern hemisphere hits CO2 milestone; World awaits Obama's new coal plant emissions regulations; Not The Onion: Woods Hole now working for oil industry; Ocean acidification decimating PacNW oysters (video); Feds add new safety requirements for KXL after southern leg failures; Farmers profit from harvesting solar along with veggies; Tesla CTO says energy storage about to explode --- in a good way ... PLUS: Hilarious video: Solar FREAKIN' Roadways! ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Green News Report special coverage: Buckle up - landmark US report from 13 federal agencies warns climate change is here and now, and a clear and present danger... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Stanford Univ. to divest from coal; Fracking earthquakes not OK in OK; Drought-stricken town turns to toilets for water; WA: fierce local opposition to oil trains; Organic farmers fight over allowable synthetic substances; Indiana has the most toxic coal ash waste ponds in US... PLUS: Uh oh: East Antarctic ice sheet more vulnerable to collapse than previously thought ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Study finds CNN and Fox 'News' FAIL on climate change; CNN looks for missing plane, finds an ocean full of garbage; PLUS: Energy company to pay record fine for 85 years of toxic waste dumping and they couldn't be happier about it... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): GOP climate skeptic's on-air conversion in Showtime's 'Years of Living Dangerously'; Waters to flood part of CO River for just a few weeks; Final chapter of IPCC report to be published this week; Low-tech 'living fences' drastically reduce lion killings; Another oil spill on public lands ... PLUS: Scientists Focus on Polar Waters As Threat of Acidification Grows ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Deadly --- and predicted --- landslide disaster in Washington State; Meet the nation's newest oil spill, now in Galveston Bay; Air pollution from fossil fuels kills 7 million people a year; PLUS: The never-ending legacy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, 25 years later... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Plane search hampered by ocean garbage problem; BP oil causing fish deformities; Wind and Solar Harvest Enough Energy Now to Pay Back Manufacture Plus Add Storage; Global warming has not stopped, will go on for centuries; Kids living near big roads have higher cancer rates; Does US oil boom mean more oil spills?; WI towns fight to control local frac sand mining; Los Alamos nuclear storage accident diverts waste to Texas; Global energy demand vs. agriculture for water supplies ... PLUS: Warming Is Big Risk For People: 'the polar bear is us' ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Up all night for climate in the U.S. Senate; Alaska's iconic Iditarod race struggles without snow; California breaks solar power records; PLUS: 3rd anniversary of the meltdown at Fukushima, and the legacy of nuclear disaster ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Climatologist who predicted California drought 10 years ago says it may soon be ‘even more dire’; Daylight Savings Time could be costing billions yearly in electricity; Canadian tar sands oil gets new route across US; IEA: wind and solar can carry bulk of energy transformation; New ozone-depleting gases found in atmosphere; Get ready for El Nino...maybe; What slowdown? NASA says long-term warming likely to be significant; Duke CEO: All customers to pay for coal ash cleanup ... PLUS: 'Pollution burden' much higher for California's minority populations ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Hundreds arrested at White House --- again --- protesting Keystone XL pipeline; EPA moves to block controversial Alaska mine; New smog standards reduce pollution from tailpipes (and save lives, too); Ancient virus resurrected in the Arctic; PLUS: Unrest in Ukraine exposes energy security vulnerability for Europe... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Energy CEO: Climate change is real, driven by humans; Aboriginal rights a threat to Canada's resource agenda: documents; Flood damage to rise fivefold in Europe; Climate change is preventing ocean heat from escaping in Antarctica; Feds shocked at NC oversight of Duke Energy coal ash ponds; US organic farmers see increasing GMO contamination of their crops; BPA-free plastics may not be any safer for children ... PLUS: Apple CEO's renewable energy 'controversy' underscores need for government mandates ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Keystone XL pipeline moves one step closer to approval; Britain pummeled by record rain and floods; Another coal-related spill contaminates drinking water, this time in North Carolina; PLUS: The Arctic wins again --- for now --- as Shell Oil drops plans to drill this summer ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Great Barrier Reef to become sludge repository for Big Coal port; World's largest solar thermal plant opens in CA; Iceland taps magma for energy; Senate passes Farm Bill; Safe, Schmafe: Pesticides ok for kids?; Environment loses in Russia's race to Sochi; US food companies go GMO-free in EU; Chemical Safety Board underfunded, understaffed at critical time ... PLUS: Video: Wingnuts think Southern snow was faked by the government ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Transcanada natural gas pipeline explodes, cutting off heat for thousands; Oil pipeline spills into river in Philadelphia; PLUS: It's a Polar Vortex Redux, making Alaska warmer than most of Florida ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Industry Awakens to Threat of Climate Change; U.N. Says Lag in Confronting Climate Woes Will Be Costly; Chris Christie’s other traffic jam: the cancelled Hudson River Tunnel; FDA allowed antibiotics in animal feed despite risk to health: report; Most Latinos want government action on climate change, poll; 7,300-sq-mile ring of mercury around tar sands in Canada; Monsanto Is Going Organic in a Quest for the Perfect Veggie ... PLUS: Canadian Arctic Warming Unprecedented In 120,000 Years ... and much, MUCH more! ...

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IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Surprise! Second toxic chemical also contaminating WV's water supply; Texas homeowners don't care for fracking earthquakes; Southern leg of Keystone XL pipeline now open for business; Score one for the Arctic - court setback for Shell's Arctic Adventure; PLUS: Full speed ahead for L.A.'s first-ever outdoor pro hockey game --- in a record heat wave... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

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IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Obama: Fossil fuels are here to stay; Targets of climate hate mail rally to support one another; Coal terminals and climate chaos: is this the future we want?; WA State moves on its own to stop ocean acidification; How Oil Drilling Is Like the "Civil Rights Revolution"; Extreme El Nino events to double ... PLUS: Big Green to Obama: "All of the above" a compromise we can't afford ... and much, MUCH more! ...