Jimmy just failed his 3rd grade science exam
If you want to know how dumb the position of climate denier is you need go no further than watch Senator James Inhofe, R-OK and
chair of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, put together this little piece of
political theater yesterday. On the floor of the United States Senate, little Jimmy Inhofe pulled a snowball some poor staffer packed for him in a ziplock freezer bag, held it out, and had this to say:
You know what this is? It's a snowball, from just outside here. So it's very very cold out, very unseasonable (sic). here Mr. President, catch this.
He threw the snowball, smiled to himself like he "nailed it" and proceeded to talk about...who cares what. If this was your child and they were in
elementary school, you would be angry at their teacher for allowing this kind of
silly-billyness to go on. Republicans continue to show that they are not serious people with either the intelligence or the attitude to handle serious work.
Video under the fold. Notice how the snowball begins to drip as the heat from Hades is upon it. Daily Kos Commenter TracieLynn brought up Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's perfect response to Inhofe's insanity, it's also under the fold.
I am so angry I am going to take a walk.
Here's the response from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse with video at end.
H/T Daily Kos user TracieLynn for bringing this up in the comments.
WHITEHOUSE: I'd just like to complete my remarks with regard to the Senator from Oklahoma and his snowball. I'd like to ask unanimous consent that I show the Earth Now website on the iPad device that I have.
And if you go to Earth Now it's actually quite easy to load, and you can see how that polar vortex measurably brings the cold air down to New England where we are right now.
And this is produced by NASA. These are pretty serious people. So you can believe NASA and you can believe what their satellites measure on the planet, or you can believe the Senator With The Snowball.
The United States Navy takes this very seriously, to the point where Admiral Locklear, who is the head of the Pacific Command, has said that climate change is the biggest threat that we face in the Pacific. He's a career miilitary officer and he's deadly serious.
You can either believe the United States Navy, or you can believe the Senator With The Snowball.
The religious and faith groups are very clear on this, by and large. I would particularly salute the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has made a very, very clear and strong statements and we are going to hear more from Pope Francis about this when he releases his encyclical and when he speaks to the Joint Session of Congress on September 24th.
And I think that it will be quite clear that you can believe the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Pope Francis, or you can believe the Senator With The Snowball.
In corporate America, there is an immense array of major, significant, intelligent, responsible corporations who are very clear that climate change is real. Companies like Coke and Pepsi. Companies like Ford and GM. And Caterpillar. Companies like Wal-Mart and Target. Companies like VF Industries, which makes a wide array of clothing products, and Nike. Companies like Mars and Nestle.
So, we have our choice. We can believe Coke and Pepsi and Ford and GM and Caterpillar and Wal-Mart and Target and VF Industries and Nike and Mars and Nestle, or we can believe the Senator With The Snowball.
Every major American scientific society has put itself on record -- many of them a decade ago -- that climate change is deadly real. They measure it, they see it, they know why it happens, the predictions correlate with what we see as they increasingly come true.
And the fundamental principle is that it is derived from carbon pollution, which comes from burning fossil fuels, are beyond legitimate dispute to the point where every leading scientific organization on the planet calls them unequivocal.
So, you can believe every major American scientific society, or you can believe the Senator With The Snowball.