The NAS quote appears in that testimony, also.

http://www.pewclimate.org/what_s_being_done/in_the_congress/7_27_06.cfm

“The basic conclusion of MBH99 [Mann's later paper] was that the late 20th century warmth in the Northern Hemisphere was unprecedented during at least the last 1,000 years. This conclusion has subsequently been supported by an array of evidence that includes both additional large-scale surface temperature reconstructions and pronounced changes in a variety of local proxy indicators, such as melting on icecaps and the retreat of glaciers around the world, which in many cases appear to be unprecedented during at least the last 2,000 years. Not all individual proxy records indicate that the recent warmth is unprecedented, although a larger fraction of geographically diverse sites experienced exceptional warmth during the late 20th century than during any other extended period from A.D. 900 onward.”

Carrying the correction back to the full millennium reveals that the largest effects remain in the early 15th century, and both earlier and later periods were less affected. Therefore, there is very little difference between the corrected MBH98 and MBH99 reconstructions and the originals, and the original observation that the late 20th century is uniquely warm in the context of the past 1,000 years is not affected.

***
Again, from Wikipedia:

A study by Michael Mann et al. finds that the MWP shows “warmth that matches or exceeds that of the past decade in some regions, but which falls well below recent levels globally”.[8] Their reconstruction of MWP pattern is characterised by warmth over large part of North Atlantic, Southern Greenland, the Eurasian Arctic, and parts of North America which appears to substantially exceed that of modern late 20th century (1961–1990) baseline and is comparable or exceeds that of the past one-to-two decades in some regions. Certain regions such as central Eurasia, northwestern North America, and (with less confidence) parts of South Atlantic, exhibit anomalous coolness.

http://www.meteo.psu.edu/~mann/shared/articles/MannetalScience09.pdf

That said, the birds did a good job on the feeders. When I went out to top them off, I noticed that unlike the last two big snows I am not sinking all the way down through powder snow. I am not exactly walking on top of the snow (too much of me for that), but am only sinking in a bit. This is heavier, wetter stuff which does not bode well for power lines, snow removal, and getting my car out.