Jurassic Perk: Crichton's Fame Exchanged for Dignity of Senate Panel

An operative writes to alert us that certified blockbustersaurus Michael Crichton is testifying today before Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe's Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The man who gave the world Disclosure--you know, the book that demonstrated sexual harassment is a tool of oppression wielded by powerful women over their countless male-drone underlings--will now be holding forth on the state of global warning. His qualifications, you ask? He's written a novel about on the subject, and--we hope you're sitting down--the book in question, State of Fear, is, in the words of our tipster, "a heart-pounding, edge-of-your-seat story about its hero's struggle against those who are trying to dupe the world into thinking global warming is a real problem."

Wow. The GOP must have officially run out of obliging junk scientists. Still, we're glad to have this precedent set. We hotly anticipate future Senate hearings in which  Tom Clancy unveils the dark conspirators who have kept American military power a soul-sapping leash, Nelson DeMille shows us the real killer is. . . the colonel's daughter, and the grad finale, in which Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins conduct all the GOP senators except those with memberships in the Gang of 14 to their eternal reward. As an encore, of course, they will return briefly to Earth to demonstrate that Russ Feingold is indeed the Antichrist.-- HOLLY MARTINS

 Frustrated by Facts, Right-Wing Turns to Fiction Author For Policy Advice [ThinkProgress.com]