Muzzled by the White House?

You may remember news headlines about the White House "silencing" or "muzzling" NASA scientist James Hansen.  His congressional testimony sheds some light on the issue

• He did manage to give 1,400 press interviews during his "silencing."
• He also clarified the nature of the silencing: "It was an oral threat made to a public affairs person in New York and relayed to me." In other words, all those newspaper headlines were based merely on Hansen's interpretation of a second hand description of a phone call!
• Dr. Hansen received a $250,000 grant from Sen Kerry's wife. (This is not particularly interesting except that global warming enthusiasts are always quick to allege that influence from impure funding sources is what motivates climate change skeptics.)