The Washington Times is not exactly known as a paragon of journalistic excellence. But this scare mongering piece about former Environmental Protection Agency administrator and President elect-Obama's choice to be a new climate change czar Carol Browner's alleged "socialist" ties is laughably foolish. Browner was apparently a member of something called the Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which is part of an international organization of left-of-center parties called Socialist International. On the blogs, commentators like Gateway Pundit calls this an "anti-American, anti-West socialist organization." Jammie Wearing Fool calls it a "communist group" and Sister Toldjah uses this as evidence that Browner is to "left of most leftists." What they fail to point out, though, is that Socialist International includes such notable freedom hating anti-western Marxist groups as the British Labor party, the NDP in Canada, and the Israeli Labor party.

The problems, though, do not stop there. They believe a conspiracy is afoot to hide this affiliation because her name was scrubbed from the website of the Commission for a Sustainable World Society. What the conspiricists do not seem to consider is that her name was taken down because she is no longer a member of the commission. Her name was also taken off the list of directors of the Audubon Society and off the website of the Alliance for Climate Protection, presumably because she can no longer affiliate herself with these organizations while serving in the United States government. The answer is that simple.

Now, I don't speak for Carol Browner. We have never met. But I do think she has some solid ideas on how to wean the United States from its addiction to carbon. For example here is Dr. Browner explaining the merits of a cap and trade system for On Day One.