Tuesday Thought #1

Senator Inhofe Disproves Climate Change With A Snowball

Right about the same time a group of renegade llamas were running amuck in Arizona, another bit of crazy was happening in DC, where the Inmates Are Running The Asylum.

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, brought a snowball into the Senate to prove that human activity isn’t causing climate change.

Inhofe began his speech with the snowball at his side, but removed it as he began to speak, and said:

“I ask the chair, you know what this is? It’s a snowball, just from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out. Very unseasonal. Mr. President, catch this.”

Inhofe tossed the snowball to Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who was presiding over the Senate at the time.

Inhofe is a virulent climate-denier — which makes his position of power on U.S. climate policy in the newly GOP-controlled Senate — all the more ridiculous:

“I’m not a scientist, and don’t claim to be.”

Then sit down and be quite, But, he didn't; he then cited a forty-year-old Newsweek article  — whose author is annoyed by the way climate change deniers are using his work — archaeological evidence, and passages from the Bible to disprove the claim that “somehow man is so important that he can change [the climate].”

I think Inhofe spent too much time scouring the Capitol grounds for snowballs and had a brain-freeze.

Asshat.

via: Slate

ISBL Asshat of the Week: Senator James Inhofe

First off, though, we cannot forget to also name as asshats those in Congress who will, most likely, name Republican, and climate change and basic science denier, Oklahoman Senator James Inhofe as the next chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Inhofe has made a career, and, apparently, some pocket change, out of denying that global warming is real and, well, he knows who started this whole mess: Barbra Streisand.

According to David Corn, writing for Mother Jones, Inhofe first brought up this theory at the United Nations' climate change conference in Copenhagen in 2009:

Look around us, I said, spreading my arms wide. There are thousands of intelligent and well-meaning people in this gigantic conference center: scientists, heads of state, government officials, policy experts. They believe that climate change is a serious and pressing threat and that something must be done soon. Do you believe that they have all been fooled?

Yes, [Inhofe] said, grinning.

That these people who have traveled from all points of the globe to be here are victims of a well-orchestrated hoax?

Yes, [Inhofe] said, still smiling.

That's some hoax, I countered. But who has engineered such a scam?

Hollywood liberals and extreme environmentalists, Inhofe replied.

Really? I asked. Why would they conspire to scare all these smart people into believing a catastrophe was under way, when all was well?

Inhofe didn't skip a beat: To advance their radical environmental agenda.

I pressed on: Who in Hollywood is doing this?

The whole liberal crowd, Inhofe said.

But who?

Barbra Streisand, he responded.

I nearly laughed. All these people had assembled in Copenhagen because of Barbra Streisand. A singer and actor had perpetuated the grandest con of the past 100 years?

That's right, Inhofe said, with a straight face. And others, he added.

So, I guess while making Yentl, Babs decided to also perpetrate this huge, global lie about climate change; in between recording tunes for The Broadway Album, she gathered her minions and sent them out into the world like flying like monkeys spread this massive lie; and on the set of The Prince of Tides Barbra actually melted glaciers, raised temperatures, altered weather patterns.

Or at least she told people that this would happen, according to Inhofe. Maybe if you play Evergreen backwards you can really hear Streisand’s plan to make the entire world believe that climate change is real, but since Inhofe never had that record he didn’t buy into the hoax.

Or … maybe he’s just an asshat who refuses to listen to science.

While Barbra Streisand is active in the climate change movement, it’s not because she wanted to fool billions of people, but because she believes what 97% of scientists believe.

That climate change is real and that James Inhofe is an asshat, an ISBL Asshat of the Week.

via NCRM

David Corn's Mother Jones Article

Asshats of the Week: Oklahoma Senators Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe

While the town of Moore, Oklahoma is still digging itself out of the devastation wrought by the massive tornado that touched down there this past Monday, let’s take a quick minute to look in on their state Senators, Tom Coburn and  Jim Inhofe.

Coburn, apparently, was unaffected by the tornado, so his decision to require offsets to government spending in the area, before he votes in favor of disaster relief is just good sense, no? I mean, people have lost everything, homes, cars, jobs, family members, and Coburn needs time to think before he acts to send money to help his home state rebuild.

Fifty-one people dead—20 of them children-and Coburn and Inhofe need a minute. When did this country become one that only helps its citizens when the “proper budget cuts” have been made?

In fact, Coburn and Inhofe—both Republicans, of course—pride themselves on being ‘fiscal conservatives’ and have repeatedly voted against funding disaster aid for other parts of the country, most recently the areas affected by Hurricane Sandy. Coburn and Inhofe also oppose increased funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA], the agency that administers federal disaster relief. Coburn complained that the Sandy Relief bill contained "wasteful spending," and identified a series of items he objected to, including "$12.9 billion for future disaster mitigation activities and studies."

You know, to plan in case this happens again and maybe to prevent the disaster from being so devastating and widespread; you know, to help.

This past Monday evening, with bodies still being pulled from destroyed homes and schools in Moore, Coburn spokesman John Hart confirmed that the senator will seek to ensure that any additional funding for tornado disaster relief in Oklahoma be offset by cuts to federal spending elsewhere in the budget: "That's always been his position [to offset disaster aid]."

Coburn Tweeted, on Monday: "My thoughts and prayers are with those in Oklahoma affected by the tragic tornado outbreak."

Thoughts and prayers, but no disaster relief.

Quite a different tune, though, from past years. In January of 2007, Senator Coburn urged federal officials to speed relief to parts of Oklahoma after a severe ice storm, and in 2008, Senator Inhofe applauded the emergency relief efforts from the Department of Housing and Urban Development that was given to 24 Oklahoma counties in light of the severe weather. He said, at that time, "I am pleased that the people whose lives have been affected by disastrous weather are getting much-needed federal assistance."

Now he sings another tune while his constituents suffer.

source