If James Hansen isn't the horse's ass of the year, I don't know who is:

James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.

Hansen will use the symbolically charged 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking speech (pdf) to the US Congress - in which he was among the first to sound the alarm over the reality of global warming - to argue that radical steps need to be taken immediately if the "perfect storm" of irreversible climate change is not to become inevitable.

Speaking before Congress again, he will accuse the chief executive officers of companies such as ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy of being fully aware of the disinformation about climate change they are spreading.

In an interview with the Guardian he said: "When you are in that kind of position, as the CEO of one the primary players who have been putting out misinformation even via organisations that affect what gets into school textbooks, then I think that's a crime."

Who in the hell does this James Hansen think he is, anyway?

He is also considering personally targeting members of Congress who have a poor track record on climate change in the coming November elections. He will campaign to have several of them unseated. Hansen's speech to Congress on June 23 1988 is seen as a seminal moment in bringing the threat of global warming to the public's attention. At a time when most scientists were still hesitant to speak out, he said the evidence of the greenhouse gas effect was 99% certain, adding "it is time to stop waffling".

Frankly, I think James Hansen is not only a fraud, he's an advocate of the worst sort of political and personal tyranny, and I resent the fact that he's getting taxpayer's money. That's my money, to spread his evangelical nonsense.

Whatever happened to separation of church and state?

UPDATE: Lest anyone think this is the first time James Hansen has acted like a horse's ass, it should be remembered that when he was caught promulgating bad data last year, instead of admitting his mistake, he lashed out at those who discovered his error, ultimately calling them "court jesters":

"The contrarians will be remembered as court jesters. There is no point to joust with court jesters. They will always be present. They will continue to entertain even if the Titanic begins to take on water. Their role and consequence is only as a diversion from what is important.

The real deal is this: the 'royalty' controlling the court, the ones with the power, the ones with the ability to make a difference, with the ability to change our course, the ones who will live in infamy if we pass the tipping points, are the captains of industry, CEOs in fossil fuel companies such as EXXON/Mobil, automobile manufacturers, utilities, all of the leaders who have placed short-term profit above the fate of the planet and the well-being of our children."

I should probably be glad I won't have to face the Nuremberg tribunals....

MORE: In addition to the rest of his bewildering nonsense, Hansen lays claim to being a conservative.

If he is, that's another reason I'm not!

AND MORE: Clayton Cramer asks a good question about Hansen:

...why does a guy who is proposing trying people for something that is not just legal, but protected by the First Amendment still have a job?

Doubtless he believes that his pronouncements constitute "science."