In my previous post, I delved into the bizarre career and behavior of Oklahoma's junior U.S. Senator Tom Colburn, M.D.
Today's post is about his equally dysfunctional senatorial partner from Oklahoma, James Mountain Inhofe.
The problem in writing or discussing Inhofe is trying to figure out where to begin and to sort out and give priorities to the massive amounts of lunacy and complete stupidity which are the foundations of his being.
First, a little background on his political career.
Inhofe was first elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1966 and then two years later to the State Senate. He ran for governor in 1974 and lost, and then two years later was again defeated in an attempt to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He stopped the downward skid in 1978 when he was elected mayor of Tulsa where he served until 1984.
He then was the head of the Quaker Life Insurance Company which almost immediately went into receivership and was eventually liquidated.
Undaunted, he again ran for the U.S. House and won in 1986. He served there until 1994 and then rode the Republican Contract With America Express into the U.S. Senate. His campaign was based on "god, guns and gays." He has been entrenched there ever since.
To understand Inhofe (if that's possible) you must understand that he has gone from being a devout christian to being a fanatical christian. Every action he takes as a senator is the result of his convoluted thinking about religion (Christianity, more precisely) and his view of its role in American political thought and action.
Inhofe recalled several years ago in an interview with an Assemblies of God publication when he was smotten...or whatever it is that happens when god supposedly touches you.
EVANGEL: "Talk about your personal journey to faith in Jesus Christ."
INHOFE: "I accepted Christ on September 22, 1988, at 2:30 in the afternoon in the Members’ Dining Room in the United States Capitol. I was 54 years old. I always thought I had been a follower of Jesus and had accepted Him, then suddenly realized that that hadn’t happened. All the burdens of life were shifted, and I said, 'God, it’s Your problem now.' It worked."
I am struck by several things in reading this. First, what is it specifically about the Member's Dining room that lends itself to religious conversions? Second is the phrase "God, it's your problem now." What problem is that? Also, does this mean Inhofe sees himself as abdicating his responsibility as a public official to address and find a solution to "the problem" or any problems we face as a country? God, after all, will take care of everything so Jimmy Boy doesn't have to do a damn thing!
Inhofe's public mutterings really garnered attention right after Sept. 11, 2001. Not to be outdone by the likes of Jerry Falwell and Ann Coulter when it came to dumb ass comments about what either caused the attacks or what we should do in response, Inhofe, as always, used the bible as his source for the answers regarding the attacks.
"One of the reasons I believe the spiritual door was opened for an attack against the United States of America is that the policy of our government has been to ask the Israelis, and demand it with pressure, not to retaliate in a significant way against the terrorist strikes that have been launched against them."
Inhofe believes there are biblical passages from the Old Testament which specifically guide us in what we should do about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Never mind that this on-going 75+ year conflict unfolded long after the bible was written.
Inhofe has said from the floor of the Senate that god gave the West Bank to Abraham and his descendants, and if the U.S. doesn't get behind eliminating the Palestinians, it violates god's law.
To detail all of Inhofe's utterly absurd and deranged statements, actions and policy positions would mean creating a document as thick as War and Peace. Instead, here is a list of some of his most egregious acts.
It was Inhofe who personally blocked the nomination by President Clinton of James Hormel, who is gay, to be the U.S. Ambassador to Luxemburg. He tied the nomination up for weeks before Hormel was finally approved.
Inhofe portrayed Hormel's sex life as salacious. Later, his own staff was caught downloading tons of porno from the Internet onto their Senate computers. When pressed, Inhofe wouldn't comment saying to do so would be "in deference to legitimate privacy concerns."
Inhofe continually tries to promote and push his fundamentalism into the the U.S. government. He sponsored the Religious Freedom Amendment that would have required accommodation of religion in all government actions, especially in schools. When pressed as to whether this would include Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc., he responded that anything other than Judaism or Christianity isn't a "real" religion and wouldn't be constitutionally protected.
When the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City was bombed in 1995, Inhofe was asked how many people worked in the building. He jumped on this sudden opportunity to chastise bureaucrats saying "it depends on how many federal workers played hooky today."
Global warming is the one issue where Inhofe displays his profound stupidity. His war chest bulges with money given his campaign by oil and gas interests and Jumpin' Jimmy jumps as high as they ask. He has repeatedly argued that global warming is due to “natural changes.” “God’s still up there,” Inhofe said, and to the extent there is warming going on, it is “due to the sun.”
Finally, there was his response to the Abu Ghraib scandal. When the media, and then the public, raised hell over the actions by the military in Iraq when it came to the treatment of detained prisoners, Inhofe yelled out that he was "outraged over this outrage."
A good friend in Oklahoma summed it up best when he said "Jim Inhofe is a 15 watt light bulb that somehow thinks he is 50 watts."
Showing posts with label Oklahoma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oklahoma. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
OKLAHOMA OK? PART I
Two months ago, probably 95 percent of Americans could not have correctly answered "who is Tom Coburn?"
Today, that number is probably 90 to 92 percent. Remember, we are asking folks to identify a United States Senator. These are everyday American citizens, roughly a third of whom couldn't find the U.S. on an outline map.
The hypothetical drop from the mid to low-nineties no doubt stems from the recent attention Coburn has garnered in which he has a) been involved in trying to both end, as well as cover up, the sexual affair by fellow Republican Senator John Ensign; and b) made an insensitive comment to Judge Sonia Sotomayor during the judiciary committee hearings on her Supreme Court nomination.
A little background is in order. Coburn is an Oklahoma physician from Muskogee who was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, served three terms, stepped down, resurfaced and then was elected the Sooner State's junior U.S. Senator in 2004. The senior senator is James Mountain Inhofe. Coburn and Inhofe combined have an intelligence capacity that maybe hits three figures. Certainly the two of them are leading the parade of fruitcakes who make up the ultra-right wing of the Republican Party. Today's post is a look at Coburn. The next will be a look at Inhofe.
Let's begin by considering Coburn's role as a medical doctor. I thought Bill Frisk, the GOP senator from Tennessee was the dumbest schmuck to ever be licensed to practice medicine. Remember back in the Terri Schivo days when he said looking at footage of her on TV had pretty much convinced him she still was functional? He also once said he didn't know if HIV could be transmitted through sweat!
When Coburn first came to the Senate there was a full court press by the Republicans who then controlled both houses of Congress and the Bush II Administration, to dramatically restrict class action, mass torts lawsuits. Needing some kind of "expert testimony" to support their arguments, Coburn was asked to give his medical opinion on one example of medical procedures where the so-called evidence countered the argument in favor of the lawsuits. He selected the issue of breast implants and said "there's no science that shows that silicone breast implants are detrimental and in fact, they make you healthier."
Tom Terrific apparently missed the part over 10 years earlier where silicone breast implants were banned in this country because of their history of rupturing and spilling toxic fluids into women’s bodies.
A few years ago, there was overwhelming bipartisan support to ease unfair restrictions on credit card holders and the bill was headed to the President's desk for signing. At the last minute, Coburn tried to attach an amendment which would allow people to carry concealed weapons into National Parks.
I always thought that the role of the doctor was to tend to the sick and injured, promote health and generally protect the living. Coburn sees it differently and in fact has called for the execution of persons associated with performing abortions.
The range of his absurdity is very broad. He has complained that girls’ bathrooms in Oklahoma are bastions of lesbianism. How and why Oklahoma ladies rooms are afflicted with this problem is unclear.
Coburn is the epitome of homophobia and has railed, screamed and voted against every measure on gay rights, funding for HIV/AIDS and even condom distribution and use.
He once said, at a Republican political meeting according to the online magazine Salon.com, that “the gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power. [The gay] agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today.”
He's probably right. Thanks to his bathroom warning, lesbians have been flocking in droves to Oklahoma.
Coburn and his staff once hosted an event in Washington for young aides and pages to preach about the evils of sex with multiple partners highlighted with a slide show illustrating genital infections from various STDs.
He also opposes a national recognition of environmental pioneer Rachel Carson's birthday and raised hell when the film classic "Schindler's List" was to be aired on television because it had scenes of "frontal nudity." Those damn Nazis. Why didn't they have the decency to let those people keep their clothes on when convincing them they were just taking a shower instead of being herded into gas chambers?
Coburn's most recent example of outlandish behavior came last week when in response to a comment made by Sonia Sotomayor on the Second Amendment, Coburn said she would have "some 'splainning' to do" a famous line uttered by Desi Arnez, the late Cuban musician and actor in the "I Love Lucy" television series. Anybody over 35 knew Coburn's intent was to mock Sotomayor's Hispanic heritage.
But his best move in all this time has been both his cover up and advocate bribery in the John Ensign matter. Coburn knew about Ensign's sexual fling for well over a year, yet worked hard to help keep it a secret. After all, Ensign is not only a fellow Republican, but also another born-againer and lives with Coburn in that strange world of the Family, the C Street boys in Washington who pray (and "lay") together.
It was Coburn who came up with the idea of Ensign's super rich father paying nearly $100 thousand to the mistress and her husband to keep them quiet.
In the end, Coburn may be lacking any real seniority in the Senate and is still Oklahoma's junior senator. What he is not lacking is a pattern of very frightening behavior and positions on the issues which are a threat to every American if it ever becomes policy or law.
Coburn is the perfect physician to "heal thyself."
Today, that number is probably 90 to 92 percent. Remember, we are asking folks to identify a United States Senator. These are everyday American citizens, roughly a third of whom couldn't find the U.S. on an outline map.
The hypothetical drop from the mid to low-nineties no doubt stems from the recent attention Coburn has garnered in which he has a) been involved in trying to both end, as well as cover up, the sexual affair by fellow Republican Senator John Ensign; and b) made an insensitive comment to Judge Sonia Sotomayor during the judiciary committee hearings on her Supreme Court nomination.
A little background is in order. Coburn is an Oklahoma physician from Muskogee who was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, served three terms, stepped down, resurfaced and then was elected the Sooner State's junior U.S. Senator in 2004. The senior senator is James Mountain Inhofe. Coburn and Inhofe combined have an intelligence capacity that maybe hits three figures. Certainly the two of them are leading the parade of fruitcakes who make up the ultra-right wing of the Republican Party. Today's post is a look at Coburn. The next will be a look at Inhofe.
Let's begin by considering Coburn's role as a medical doctor. I thought Bill Frisk, the GOP senator from Tennessee was the dumbest schmuck to ever be licensed to practice medicine. Remember back in the Terri Schivo days when he said looking at footage of her on TV had pretty much convinced him she still was functional? He also once said he didn't know if HIV could be transmitted through sweat!
When Coburn first came to the Senate there was a full court press by the Republicans who then controlled both houses of Congress and the Bush II Administration, to dramatically restrict class action, mass torts lawsuits. Needing some kind of "expert testimony" to support their arguments, Coburn was asked to give his medical opinion on one example of medical procedures where the so-called evidence countered the argument in favor of the lawsuits. He selected the issue of breast implants and said "there's no science that shows that silicone breast implants are detrimental and in fact, they make you healthier."
Tom Terrific apparently missed the part over 10 years earlier where silicone breast implants were banned in this country because of their history of rupturing and spilling toxic fluids into women’s bodies.
A few years ago, there was overwhelming bipartisan support to ease unfair restrictions on credit card holders and the bill was headed to the President's desk for signing. At the last minute, Coburn tried to attach an amendment which would allow people to carry concealed weapons into National Parks.
I always thought that the role of the doctor was to tend to the sick and injured, promote health and generally protect the living. Coburn sees it differently and in fact has called for the execution of persons associated with performing abortions.
The range of his absurdity is very broad. He has complained that girls’ bathrooms in Oklahoma are bastions of lesbianism. How and why Oklahoma ladies rooms are afflicted with this problem is unclear.
Coburn is the epitome of homophobia and has railed, screamed and voted against every measure on gay rights, funding for HIV/AIDS and even condom distribution and use.
He once said, at a Republican political meeting according to the online magazine Salon.com, that “the gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power. [The gay] agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today.”
He's probably right. Thanks to his bathroom warning, lesbians have been flocking in droves to Oklahoma.
Coburn and his staff once hosted an event in Washington for young aides and pages to preach about the evils of sex with multiple partners highlighted with a slide show illustrating genital infections from various STDs.
He also opposes a national recognition of environmental pioneer Rachel Carson's birthday and raised hell when the film classic "Schindler's List" was to be aired on television because it had scenes of "frontal nudity." Those damn Nazis. Why didn't they have the decency to let those people keep their clothes on when convincing them they were just taking a shower instead of being herded into gas chambers?
Coburn's most recent example of outlandish behavior came last week when in response to a comment made by Sonia Sotomayor on the Second Amendment, Coburn said she would have "some 'splainning' to do" a famous line uttered by Desi Arnez, the late Cuban musician and actor in the "I Love Lucy" television series. Anybody over 35 knew Coburn's intent was to mock Sotomayor's Hispanic heritage.
But his best move in all this time has been both his cover up and advocate bribery in the John Ensign matter. Coburn knew about Ensign's sexual fling for well over a year, yet worked hard to help keep it a secret. After all, Ensign is not only a fellow Republican, but also another born-againer and lives with Coburn in that strange world of the Family, the C Street boys in Washington who pray (and "lay") together.
It was Coburn who came up with the idea of Ensign's super rich father paying nearly $100 thousand to the mistress and her husband to keep them quiet.
In the end, Coburn may be lacking any real seniority in the Senate and is still Oklahoma's junior senator. What he is not lacking is a pattern of very frightening behavior and positions on the issues which are a threat to every American if it ever becomes policy or law.
Coburn is the perfect physician to "heal thyself."
Friday, May 29, 2009
RIGHT-WING RANTS AGAINST SOTOMAYOR; STORMY GETS SERIOUS
Earlier this week, President Obama was still addressing the media and others with Judge Sonia Sotomayor at his side. Before the two could even walk off stage, the right wing lunatics were already screaming about her being nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.
You'd have to stay reading this until the Fourth of July if I were to detail every crackpot utterance made by these people over the past few days. As in all cases like this, there are some which are so outrageous that they deserve repeating. Doing so convinces anyone with a clear head and a modicum of sensibility that the Republicans, namely the crazies who currently monopolize the party, are on a fast track to third party status. The Sotomayor matter is just another pathetic situation in which the right wingers find themselves. The vast majority of Americans have already pinned the economic crisis squarely on their over-inflated chests and letting Cheney, Limbaugh and Gingrich roll out into the spotlight has been nothing short of a disaster. Could we be witnessing the very early phases of persons like Colin Powell starting to wrestle back control of the party? Or will he and other moderate Republicans jump ship and become Democrats or, perhaps, sign up with the Independence Party so that in another decade that becomes the second major party in America.
Back to Sotomayor. Where to begin on all of the stupid comments made about her and the nomination is not easy. Just when we think we heard the dumbest (and most entertaining) comment possible, another one comes right behind it. And it's only three days since she was nominated!
OK, here goes:
Up until a couple of days ago, I never heard of Mark Krikorian who works for the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies. In a blog a couple of days ago, Krikorian bitched about the “unnatural pronunciation” of Sotomayor’s name. He said "deferring to people’s own pronunciation of their names should obviously be our first inclination, but there ought to be limits. Putting the emphasis on the final syllable of Sotomayor is unnatural in English."
As I said, I didn't know who Krikorian was. Now I do, thanks to his blatant ignorance.
Then there is Karl Rove, who said in referring to Sotomayor’s earning her undergraduate degree from Princeton and her J.D from the Yale Law School that he wasn't that impressed because "I know some rather dumb people who went to Ivy League schools." No shit, Sherlock! You must be referring to the dumb-ass you worked for when he was Governor of Texas and then the President of the United States!!
Speaking of the Ivies, several conservatives tied her attending Princeton and Yale to getting an education at two of the citadels of liberalism. Hmm, that's interesting. There's this guy named Samuel Alito (I think he presently sits on the Supreme Court and is viewed as a conservative jurist) and if I remember correctly, he is an alum of Princeton and Yale Law School. Oh well, never let those things get in the way of good ol' mud slinging.
Then there is our old, dumb-as-a-bag-of-hair friend, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma.) Just to make certain he wasn't left out when it came to idiotic Republican reactions to the nomination, he sent out a statement indicating he feared that Judge Sotomayor would be unable to prove her legal decisions have not been based upon her race and gender. Inhofe said the Senate will "weigh her qualifications and character as well as her ability to rule fairly without undo influence from her own race or gender."
Let's return to Justice Alito. Back in 2006 during his confirmation hearing he remarked, "Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position.
"When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account."
OK, enough of that. If you can't hang her on where she went to school and on her referencing of her ethnic makeup and that' she's a woman, how about that she is a racist.
Who better to make that charge than former U. S. Congressman Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado. This schmuck made a career whining about immigration (by Hispanics, not Europeans or people fleeing the Muslim Mideast.) It turns out Sotomayor is a member of the National Council of La Raza, a l national organization that is "the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States." Appearing on CNN to lambaste Sotomayor for belonging to a group whose name would translate as "The Race," Tancredo made the false claim that La Raza has the motto, "All for the race, nothing for the rest," and bashed it as being "a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses."
To add to the piling on, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) accused her of belonging to "a racist organization called 'The Race.'" Said ALIPAC president William Gheen: "The US Supreme Court is no place for brown or Hispanic supremacists like Sonia Sotomayor."
Damn right! Only white, male supremacists can sit on our Supreme Court!
All this reminds me of something Harry Truman once said:
"I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here."
Enough of all this nastiness. Let's turn to something more serene, gentle and pure....like Stormy Daniels' candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Louisiana. A week ago Thursday, she announced the formation of an exploratory committee to look into the possibility of her running against
"Diaper Dave" Vitter, the hooker-loving incumbent.
An exploratory committee is always a sign someone is serious. Heretofore, Stormy, when she wasn't performing exotic dances at some of the more popular clubs in Louisiana, was simply on "a listening tour." The step from a listening tour to an exploratory committee means things could get really interesting.
I hope by next week to have more details to post. In fact, I am going to push for some direct quotes from Stormy herself. After all, I am the self-appointed chair of Minnesotans for Stormy.
You'd have to stay reading this until the Fourth of July if I were to detail every crackpot utterance made by these people over the past few days. As in all cases like this, there are some which are so outrageous that they deserve repeating. Doing so convinces anyone with a clear head and a modicum of sensibility that the Republicans, namely the crazies who currently monopolize the party, are on a fast track to third party status. The Sotomayor matter is just another pathetic situation in which the right wingers find themselves. The vast majority of Americans have already pinned the economic crisis squarely on their over-inflated chests and letting Cheney, Limbaugh and Gingrich roll out into the spotlight has been nothing short of a disaster. Could we be witnessing the very early phases of persons like Colin Powell starting to wrestle back control of the party? Or will he and other moderate Republicans jump ship and become Democrats or, perhaps, sign up with the Independence Party so that in another decade that becomes the second major party in America.
Back to Sotomayor. Where to begin on all of the stupid comments made about her and the nomination is not easy. Just when we think we heard the dumbest (and most entertaining) comment possible, another one comes right behind it. And it's only three days since she was nominated!
OK, here goes:
Up until a couple of days ago, I never heard of Mark Krikorian who works for the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies. In a blog a couple of days ago, Krikorian bitched about the “unnatural pronunciation” of Sotomayor’s name. He said "deferring to people’s own pronunciation of their names should obviously be our first inclination, but there ought to be limits. Putting the emphasis on the final syllable of Sotomayor is unnatural in English."
As I said, I didn't know who Krikorian was. Now I do, thanks to his blatant ignorance.
Then there is Karl Rove, who said in referring to Sotomayor’s earning her undergraduate degree from Princeton and her J.D from the Yale Law School that he wasn't that impressed because "I know some rather dumb people who went to Ivy League schools." No shit, Sherlock! You must be referring to the dumb-ass you worked for when he was Governor of Texas and then the President of the United States!!
Speaking of the Ivies, several conservatives tied her attending Princeton and Yale to getting an education at two of the citadels of liberalism. Hmm, that's interesting. There's this guy named Samuel Alito (I think he presently sits on the Supreme Court and is viewed as a conservative jurist) and if I remember correctly, he is an alum of Princeton and Yale Law School. Oh well, never let those things get in the way of good ol' mud slinging.
Then there is our old, dumb-as-a-bag-of-hair friend, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma.) Just to make certain he wasn't left out when it came to idiotic Republican reactions to the nomination, he sent out a statement indicating he feared that Judge Sotomayor would be unable to prove her legal decisions have not been based upon her race and gender. Inhofe said the Senate will "weigh her qualifications and character as well as her ability to rule fairly without undo influence from her own race or gender."
Let's return to Justice Alito. Back in 2006 during his confirmation hearing he remarked, "Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position.
"When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account."
OK, enough of that. If you can't hang her on where she went to school and on her referencing of her ethnic makeup and that' she's a woman, how about that she is a racist.
Who better to make that charge than former U. S. Congressman Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado. This schmuck made a career whining about immigration (by Hispanics, not Europeans or people fleeing the Muslim Mideast.) It turns out Sotomayor is a member of the National Council of La Raza, a l national organization that is "the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States." Appearing on CNN to lambaste Sotomayor for belonging to a group whose name would translate as "The Race," Tancredo made the false claim that La Raza has the motto, "All for the race, nothing for the rest," and bashed it as being "a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses."
To add to the piling on, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) accused her of belonging to "a racist organization called 'The Race.'" Said ALIPAC president William Gheen: "The US Supreme Court is no place for brown or Hispanic supremacists like Sonia Sotomayor."
Damn right! Only white, male supremacists can sit on our Supreme Court!
All this reminds me of something Harry Truman once said:
"I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here."
Enough of all this nastiness. Let's turn to something more serene, gentle and pure....like Stormy Daniels' candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Louisiana. A week ago Thursday, she announced the formation of an exploratory committee to look into the possibility of her running against
"Diaper Dave" Vitter, the hooker-loving incumbent.
An exploratory committee is always a sign someone is serious. Heretofore, Stormy, when she wasn't performing exotic dances at some of the more popular clubs in Louisiana, was simply on "a listening tour." The step from a listening tour to an exploratory committee means things could get really interesting.
I hope by next week to have more details to post. In fact, I am going to push for some direct quotes from Stormy herself. After all, I am the self-appointed chair of Minnesotans for Stormy.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
MORE DONOHUE CRITICISM
I thought I took it to Bill Donohue pretty good in my latest post when I blasted his response to last week's report released by the Irish Commission investigating decades of abuse by Catholic priests, nuns, monks and lay people against children. Well I have to take a second place to Michael Rosch. To learn more, visit www.buzzflash.com and then scroll down and look on the left side for Report: Catholic Leaders in Ireland Downplaying Abuse Report 5/26.
Well worth the read
ANTI SCIENCE REPUBLICANS
The earth is flat. That's the conclusion that needs to be reached if you listen to enough of the anti-science Republicans in the U.S. Congress.
The latest hobbyhorse they seem to be riding is CO2, you know, carbon dioxide. Because CO2 is a routine, day-to-day element in the environment, they defend it. They do so, however, because CO2's overabundance resulting from man-made activities, is a major factor in creating the greenhouse effect, which according to the vast majority of us who now believe the earth circles the sun and not the other way around, is resulting in global warming.
The Grand Obstructionist Party is filled with knuckleheads who dispel global warming for no other reason than it would require them take a stand not in the best economic interests of their big capitalist supporters.
Of the real crackpots sitting on the right side of the aisle in both houses, three stand out for their continuing display of brainless blathering...Jim Inhofe, Joe Barton and, of course, Michele Bachmann.
A closer look at all three is both comical and frightening.
Let's start with Inhofe. The tonnage of this man's ignorance is astounding. A very good source of mine who is an Oklahoman and, therefore, a constituent by default of the senior U.S. Senator from the Sooner State. Anyway, he tells the story of Inhofe, who has a private pilot's license, getting ready to take off a few years ago in a twin engine prop plane to head to D.C. Just prior to takeoff, it was pointed out to the senator, that one of his engine gauges registered no oil pressure. Let me repeat that...no oil pressure!! In a blatant act of complete irresponsibility, Inhofe announced he wasn't concerned, was in a hurry and would take care of it once in Washington.
Somehow he made it which, depending upon your perspective, may or may not be a good thing.
Big Jim has taken a major stand against global warming or, more precisely, its causes. One thing for sure, he's convinced it is not man-made.
Inhofe once claimed Global Warming is "the second-largest hoax ever played on the American people, after the separation of church and state"
He has claimed that the threat of global warming was exaggerated by "the media, Hollywood elites and pop culture" Boy, those poor folks in Hollywood. Bill Donohue claims they like anal sex and sodomy with their mothers. I can't understand how they can possible produce and release a single film, what with all that ass fucking and motherfucking going on while at the same time haranguing against global warming. I know I simply couldn't constantly fit that into an average day.
Oh, yes, only Texas senator John Coryn received more campaign donations from the oil and gas industry than Inhofe in the 2002 election cycle. The contributions Inhofe has received from the energy and natural resource sector since taking office have exceeded one million dollars.
Now shift from the Senate to the House of Representatives and begin with Texas Congressman Joe Barton. Barton, you may recall, claimed a few weeks back that college football's Bowl Championship Series, which is currently used to determine the annual national championship, is "communism." In an email at the time to many of you, I said I went through Marx's Das Kapital and, indeed, found that Marx (along with the assistance of Engels) wrote extensively back in the middle of the Nineteenth Century about the need for an uprising in college football to overthrow the BCS and replace it with a much more proletariat-friendly playoff system.
Last week, Barton (who looks like he could have fathered the retarded banjo playing hillbilly kid in "Deliverance") was on C-Span. According to the Huffington Post and the replay from C-Span, Barton said about CO2, " I'm creating it as I talk to you. It's in your Coca-Cola, your Dr. Pepper and your Perrier water. It's necessary for human life. It's odorless, colorless, tasteless, doesn't cause cancer, doesn't cause asthma. There's nobody that's ever been admitted to a hospital because of CO2 poisoning."
He was condemned later that day in the Economist for his stance, which profiled him in its "Profiles In Stupidity" column:
"We've chronicled Mr. Barton's stupidity (there really is no other word for it) before. Anyone looking for exhibit A in what's wrong with the Republican Party should start with the good congressman...
"Please don't get me wrong, it's not simply that Mr. Barton is a climate-change skeptic. There are plenty of those and some make decent arguments against moving ahead with measures to control emissions. The problem with Mr. Barton is that he is wholly uninterested in the science and statistics of the global warming debate. He is about as curious as a dead cat, as is his colleague in the Senate, James Inhofe."
Then there is Michele Bachmann who is so goddamn stupid on so many fronts it is a challenge to know where to begin. But since we are focusing on global warming, let's stick to her comments (well, "comments" is being kind) on CO2.
Last month, Brainless Bachmann took the floor one evening (she does that a lot, almost always when there are only less than 10 other members present) and said, "Carbon dioxide, Mister Speaker, is a natural byproduct of nature. Carbon dioxide is natural. It occurs in Earth. It is a part of the regular life cycle of Earth. In fact, life on planet Earth can’t even exist without carbon dioxide. So necessary is it to human life, to animal life, to plant life, to the oceans, to the vegetation that’s on the Earth, to the, to the fowl that — that flies in the air, we need to have carbon dioxide as part of the fundamental life cycle of Earth."
Talk about three ignoramuses that need to "suck the pipe." Now, that would be a good use of gas.
I thought I took it to Bill Donohue pretty good in my latest post when I blasted his response to last week's report released by the Irish Commission investigating decades of abuse by Catholic priests, nuns, monks and lay people against children. Well I have to take a second place to Michael Rosch. To learn more, visit www.buzzflash.com and then scroll down and look on the left side for Report: Catholic Leaders in Ireland Downplaying Abuse Report 5/26.
Well worth the read
ANTI SCIENCE REPUBLICANS
The earth is flat. That's the conclusion that needs to be reached if you listen to enough of the anti-science Republicans in the U.S. Congress.
The latest hobbyhorse they seem to be riding is CO2, you know, carbon dioxide. Because CO2 is a routine, day-to-day element in the environment, they defend it. They do so, however, because CO2's overabundance resulting from man-made activities, is a major factor in creating the greenhouse effect, which according to the vast majority of us who now believe the earth circles the sun and not the other way around, is resulting in global warming.
The Grand Obstructionist Party is filled with knuckleheads who dispel global warming for no other reason than it would require them take a stand not in the best economic interests of their big capitalist supporters.
Of the real crackpots sitting on the right side of the aisle in both houses, three stand out for their continuing display of brainless blathering...Jim Inhofe, Joe Barton and, of course, Michele Bachmann.
A closer look at all three is both comical and frightening.
Let's start with Inhofe. The tonnage of this man's ignorance is astounding. A very good source of mine who is an Oklahoman and, therefore, a constituent by default of the senior U.S. Senator from the Sooner State. Anyway, he tells the story of Inhofe, who has a private pilot's license, getting ready to take off a few years ago in a twin engine prop plane to head to D.C. Just prior to takeoff, it was pointed out to the senator, that one of his engine gauges registered no oil pressure. Let me repeat that...no oil pressure!! In a blatant act of complete irresponsibility, Inhofe announced he wasn't concerned, was in a hurry and would take care of it once in Washington.
Somehow he made it which, depending upon your perspective, may or may not be a good thing.
Big Jim has taken a major stand against global warming or, more precisely, its causes. One thing for sure, he's convinced it is not man-made.
Inhofe once claimed Global Warming is "the second-largest hoax ever played on the American people, after the separation of church and state"
He has claimed that the threat of global warming was exaggerated by "the media, Hollywood elites and pop culture" Boy, those poor folks in Hollywood. Bill Donohue claims they like anal sex and sodomy with their mothers. I can't understand how they can possible produce and release a single film, what with all that ass fucking and motherfucking going on while at the same time haranguing against global warming. I know I simply couldn't constantly fit that into an average day.
Oh, yes, only Texas senator John Coryn received more campaign donations from the oil and gas industry than Inhofe in the 2002 election cycle. The contributions Inhofe has received from the energy and natural resource sector since taking office have exceeded one million dollars.
Now shift from the Senate to the House of Representatives and begin with Texas Congressman Joe Barton. Barton, you may recall, claimed a few weeks back that college football's Bowl Championship Series, which is currently used to determine the annual national championship, is "communism." In an email at the time to many of you, I said I went through Marx's Das Kapital and, indeed, found that Marx (along with the assistance of Engels) wrote extensively back in the middle of the Nineteenth Century about the need for an uprising in college football to overthrow the BCS and replace it with a much more proletariat-friendly playoff system.
Last week, Barton (who looks like he could have fathered the retarded banjo playing hillbilly kid in "Deliverance") was on C-Span. According to the Huffington Post and the replay from C-Span, Barton said about CO2, " I'm creating it as I talk to you. It's in your Coca-Cola, your Dr. Pepper and your Perrier water. It's necessary for human life. It's odorless, colorless, tasteless, doesn't cause cancer, doesn't cause asthma. There's nobody that's ever been admitted to a hospital because of CO2 poisoning."
He was condemned later that day in the Economist for his stance, which profiled him in its "Profiles In Stupidity" column:
"We've chronicled Mr. Barton's stupidity (there really is no other word for it) before. Anyone looking for exhibit A in what's wrong with the Republican Party should start with the good congressman...
"Please don't get me wrong, it's not simply that Mr. Barton is a climate-change skeptic. There are plenty of those and some make decent arguments against moving ahead with measures to control emissions. The problem with Mr. Barton is that he is wholly uninterested in the science and statistics of the global warming debate. He is about as curious as a dead cat, as is his colleague in the Senate, James Inhofe."
Then there is Michele Bachmann who is so goddamn stupid on so many fronts it is a challenge to know where to begin. But since we are focusing on global warming, let's stick to her comments (well, "comments" is being kind) on CO2.
Last month, Brainless Bachmann took the floor one evening (she does that a lot, almost always when there are only less than 10 other members present) and said, "Carbon dioxide, Mister Speaker, is a natural byproduct of nature. Carbon dioxide is natural. It occurs in Earth. It is a part of the regular life cycle of Earth. In fact, life on planet Earth can’t even exist without carbon dioxide. So necessary is it to human life, to animal life, to plant life, to the oceans, to the vegetation that’s on the Earth, to the, to the fowl that — that flies in the air, we need to have carbon dioxide as part of the fundamental life cycle of Earth."
Talk about three ignoramuses that need to "suck the pipe." Now, that would be a good use of gas.
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