Unreliable Source of the Day

On Tuesday's "The Michael Reagan Show" (yes, that Reagan) on XM Radio, Reagan interviewed Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) regarding, among other things, Inhofe's skepticism towards the theory of global warming.

As is usually the case with the Republican Party, their experts and spokespeople are individuals with incredulous backgrounds. Not surprisingly, Inhofe falls into the same category.

• In regards to Inhofe's views on global warming, I first want to point out that the five companies contributing the most to his campaign during the 2006 election cycle are Murray Energy, Koch Industries, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Cummins and OGE Energy.
• In a 2006 interview, Inhofe compared environmentalists to Nazis, saying "I could use the Third Reich, the big lie". The "big lie” is a propaganda technique falsely attributed to Jews by Adolf Hitler in his book "Mein Kampf". Inhofe has also previously compared the Environmental Protection Agency to the Gestapo, which was the secret police of Nazi Germany.
• By asking "What would happen to the Weather Channel's ratings if all the sudden people weren't scared anymore?", Inhofe accused the cable channel of being involved with the "global warming hoax" in order to attract viewers.
• Even though he had never viewed the movie, Inhofe asserted that every claim in "An Inconvenient Truth" has been "refuted scientifically”.
• Concerning other social issues, lobbyists for homosexual marriage want to eventually, according to Inhofe, eliminate the restrictions on sexual conduct between adults and children, group marriage, incest and "you know, if it feels good, do it".
• As a member of the Armed Services Committee, Inhofe questioned witnesses regarding the abuse of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib facility. During those hearings, he claimed he was "outraged by the outrage" over the abuse revelations, thereby suggesting that the shock at the crimes was actually more offensive than the crimes themselves.
• Inhofe dismissed the International Committee of the Red Cross, which seeks humane treatment of prisoners of war in conjunction with the Geneva Conventions, as a “bleeding heart".
• Following the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, Inhofe outraged federal employees by stating on national television that the amount of casualties was probably low. According to Inhofe, this was due to the fact that many of those employees would not be at their desks by 9:00AM (which was the time of the attack) because they would be drinking coffee somewhere else instead.