Complete Lunatic of the Week

Vice President Al Gore testified earlier this week before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the effects of global warming. His appearance was progressing as a typical committee hearing until the opportunity came for Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) to "question" Vice President Gore. (Inhofe and his moronic beliefs have been the subject of a recent posting.) However, due to Inhofe's extremely immature and childish behavior (constant interruptions, condescending tone, etc.), unfortunately Vice President Gore did not actually have much of a chance to appropriately respond. The following information is actual dialogue from the hearing transcript:

1. After Vice President Gore delivered his opening remarks, Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) commented that every single Democrat on the committee was present for the hearing.
Inhofe: "[Barack] Obama's not here."
Boxer: "Obama's not longer on this committee."
Inhofe: "Oh, OK."
Comment: Are you kidding me? Inhofe is the Ranking Minority Member on the Environment and Public Works Committee and he doesn't know who is currently on the committee and who is not.

2. Lamenting the fact that he had only 15 minutes (which was no less than any other committee member) to pose questions to Vice President Gore:
Inhofe: "I've structured my questions so they're yes or no questions and they don't require a lot of elaboration."
Note: Gore laughed following this statement, as well he should. How could Inhofe think that any response to such a complex issue as global warming could be limited to one word answers?

3. After Inhofe demanded Vice President Gore take an absurd Personal Energy Ethics Pledge and then insulted Gore for purchasing carbon offsets, these three ridiculous exchanges occurred over the course of a few minutes.
Gore: "First of all, Senator, thank you so much for your question."
Inhofe: "Alright. I noticed Tipper didn't say 'thank you' for the question."

Gore: "If I could just continue with my..."
Inhofe: "Well, you can't."
Boxer: "You've asked the Senator [Gore] an important question. He's answering it. Give him a minute or so to answer it."
Inhofe: "Alright. If you could just stop the clock during this time, that'd be fine."
Boxer: "No, I am not going to stop the clock. He has a minute to answer. How can you ask the question and not give the man a minute to answer? Please."
Note: When Vice President Gore was initially interrupted, he had only been speaking for 25 seconds.

Inhofe: "Alright, Senator Gore, I'm very sorry. I don't want to be rude but, from now on, I'm going to ask you to respond for the record in writing. Since you are not going to respond...unless you change your mind."
Gore: "Well, if I choose, if I choose to respond to you verbally here, I hope that'll be OK too."
Inhofe: "If it's a very brief response."
Comment: I would love to know how many people have been asked to testify in front of Congress and then required to submit their responses in writing. I would imagine the number is extremely low.

4. Inhofe then commented about a recent magazine article which described Vice President Gore's beliefs towards global warming as too alarmist.
Inhofe: "Now I'll ask you to respond in writing for that one because that would be a very long response, I'm afraid."
Boxer: "We're freezing the time just for a minute. I want, I want to talk to you for a minute please. Would you, would you agree, would you agree to let the Vice President answer your questions and then, if you want an extra few minutes at the end, I'm happy to give it to you. But we're not going to get anywhere."
Inhofe: "Why don't we do this? Why don't we do this? At the end, you can have as much time as you want to answer all of the questions."
Boxer: "No, that isn't the rule of the...you're not making the rules. You used to when you did this (holding up gavel). You don't do this anymore. Elections have consequences. Elections have consequences so I make the rules."
Comment: Although I am not a big fan of Boxer's, I was more than happy to see her put Inhofe in his place.

5. Inhofe then proceeded to provide a list of scientists who supposedly disagree with Vice President Gore's point of view. (One of those individuals is Claude Allegre, an infamous French geochemist. Please keep in mind that, in 2000, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin replaced Allegre as his Minister of Education due to his inappropriate management style. This came after the main national professors' unions conducted demonstrations throughout France, demanding for Allegre's dismissal.) When Vice President Gore attempted to present his own evidence:
Inhofe: "Senator Gore, my time has almost expired completely. Are you aware of that?"
Gore: "If I could complete my answer..."
Inhofe: "Well, if you do, then my time's expired. Are you aware of that? Do you care?"
Gore: "Well, I, I can't help that because you went on for a long time. But I would like to..."
Inhofe (whining like a five year old): "No, I have fifteen minutes. You have thirty minutes, I have fifteen. You've got to let me have my fifteen minutes, Senator Gore. I can respond to what you said."
Gore: "If I could, if I could just complete my response..."
Inhofe: "Well, you've already done it."
Note: Following Inhofe's four minute monologue, he interrupted Gore in this instance after only ninety seconds.

6. At this point, Inhofe provided a 1975 statement from the National Academy of Sciences which "asserted" that a global cooling was a finite possibility in the next 100 years. (To be honest, I am not really sure how a statement from more than thirty years ago about a possible global cooling can be classified as an assertion.)
Gore: "Could I comment on that?"
Inhofe: "All respect, Senator Gore, we can't do that. You know that."
Comment: Actually I am not sure if Vice President Gore is aware of that. I am fairly confident he feels, as I do, that a Congressional hearing should allow for the sharing of ideas from both viewpoints.

7. When Inhofe again mentions the scientists who disagree with Vice President Gore, he inaccurately claims:
Inhofe: "I've listed all of the scientists who disagree with you and you did not respond to that question."
Comment: This is completely inaccurate, Mr. Inhofe, because Vice President Gore did comment about that earlier in the hearing and you interrupted him. Unfortunately you were there at the time so you should know.

Shock of the Day

From The Associated Press: Documents from the U.S. Government Accountability Office show that more than three years of legal and bureaucratic disputes and protests resulted in staff shortages and the atrocious conditions at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

These disputes and protests involved hospital management, the Pentagon, Congress and, not surprisingly, IAP Worldwide Services, Inc. Why is this not a surprise? First and foremost, IAP is owned by Cerberus Capital Management LP, an asset management firm chaired by John Snow, former Secretary of the Treasury for the Bush administration. IAP is currently led by Al Neffgen and Dave Swindle, two former high ranking executives of Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR). In case you have been living under a rock for the last seven years, KBR is majority owned by Halliburton, of which Dick Cheney was previously Chairman and CEO. From what other debacle do we know the name IAP? The company was awarded a contract by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide ice and power generation to hurricane victims, including from Hurricane Katrina. After that natural disaster, approximately 91,000 tons of ice were purchased to assist with cooling food, medicine and sweltering victims of the storm. This ice eventually cost taxpayers more than $100 million but unfortunately the majority was never delivered due to government incompetence. In fact, after a government dictated route took him throughout the United States for one reason after another, one truck driver was quoted as saying "I dragged that ice around for 4,100 miles and it never got used".

Disgrace to the Uniform of the Week

In a recent interview with the "Chicago Tribune", Gen. Peter Pace, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated: "I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts. I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way."

Along with the surprising remarks above, Pace also attempted to compare homosexuality with adultery, commenting "I would not want it to be our policy that if we were to find out that so-and-so was sleeping with somebody else's wife, that we would just look the other way, which we do not. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior." At first, I found it utterly amazing that highly decorated individual such as Pace could make these immature statements. However, after about five seconds, I realized that it actually wasn't. Pace and many ignorant members of the conservative right believe that homosexuals are completely immoral and, even worse, make those beliefs known. However, none of those naive individuals complain when homosexuals are serving and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, protecting lives and property as firefighters and police officers or treating injuries and saving lives as doctors and nurses. (In fact, when it comes to homosexuals in the military, they can't even count on the top U.S. military officer to defend them.) Instead, Pace and others like him want to have their cake and eat it too. In other words, homosexuals can defend the United States and care for fellow Americans but are not viewed as equals.

Irony of the Week

At last week's 34th annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Marine Cpl. Matt Sanchez received the Jeanne Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award. Currently a junior at Columbia University, Sanchez received the award after he whined on various right wing talk shows about his treatment from Columbia's "radical anti-military students", who supposedly called him names and mocked his military service.

After the conference, it was reported that Sanchez previously worked as a gay porn star and male prostitute, using the aliases Rod Majors and Pierre LaBranche. Now I don't care one bit if Sanchez is a homosexual. I just wonder how he feels about being honored at the same right wing conference where Ann Coulter insulted Democrat John Edwards by calling him a "faggot".

Glass House Resident of the Day

In a recent interview, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted to having an extramarital affair during the time period when he was leading the impeachment battle against President Bill Clinton regarding Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. However, Gingrich argued he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for his actions towards President Clinton because "the President of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge".

How convenient for Gingrich to view things this way! With that being said, let's break the situation down. First and foremost, President Clinton has been married to the same woman for 32 years. On the other hand, Gingrich, who is 63 years old, has only been married to his current wife Callista for 6 years. Why only 6 years? After being married to his second wife for 18 years, Gingrich had an extramarital affair with Callista, a then-33 year old member of his Congressional staff. By the way, Gingrich's second wife Marianne is a product of an extramarital affair after he was married to his first wife Jackie for 18 years. Don't worry, it get's better! Marianne has stated that Gingrich informed her of his desire to end their marriage over the telephone. In May 1999, she was visiting her mother on her 84th birthday and, after wishing happy birthday to his mother-in-law, Gingrich communicated his intentions to get a divorce. This telephone call was made eight months after Marianne had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Want more? When he was 19 years old, Gingrich married his first wife Jackie, his former high school geometry teacher. Although you might think that this scenario would be the perfect recipe for "happily ever after", Gingrich served divorce papers to Jackie in 1980 while she was in the hospital recuperating from ovarian cancer surgery. Still not enough? Since Gingrich did not pay alimony or child support, Jackie and her two children depended on donations from her church. After taking all of this into account, I can definitely see why (1) Gingrich is not a hypocrite and (2) the citizens of the United States would be fortunate to have him as President.

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.

Insane Slur of the Day, Part II

Even after leaders in the Republican Party finally criticized Ann Coulter's comment regarding John Edwards from last week as "offensive" and "completely inappropriate", Coulter has continued her irresponsible behavior. Speaking with "The New York Times", Coulter stated: "C'mon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean."

At this point, two more glaring concerns have been created following the backlash from Coulter's insult.

• On "Hannity & Colmes" last night, Coulter unbelievably claimed that her slur is not offensive to homosexuals, instead describing it as a "schoolyard taunt". At the same time, Coulter does not compare that slur to racial ones because, according to Coulter, homosexuals do not consider that word to be inappropriate. With that being said, I should probably compare Coulter to an obnoxious moron but I would never insult obnoxious morons like that.
• Bill Maher, host of "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO, infuriated some individuals with his remarks concerning Mr. Cheney and the Iraq War: "I’m just saying if he did die, other people, more people would live. That’s a fact." Now although I do not 100% agree with Maher's comments, here is the difference between him and Coulter. The name of the show is "Real Time with Bill Maher" so Maher is permitted to say whatever he would like on his show. On the other hand, aside from Coulter herself, no one else at the Conservative Political Action Conference was aware of Coulter's intentions, including the Republican presidential candidate she endorsed during the conference, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Insane Slur of the Day, Part I

As a featured speaker yesterday at the 34th annual Conservative Political Action Conference, right wing pundit Ann Coulter was asked to comment on Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. Amazingly Coulter responded by stating "It turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot' so I'm, so kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards".

Now I normally try to keep my personal comments in my postings to a minimum but, in this particular situation, I can't help myself. Coulter signifies everything that is wrong with the Republican Party, as well as with our country. Members of the right (i.e. Bush, Cheney, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, etc.) believe they can say or do anything without suffering any repercussions. The old adage is that individuals who make profane or inflammatory comments are usually either uneducated, ignorant or immoral (As a result of her holding a law degree, I will concede educated to Coulter but she is definitely ignorant and immoral). A day after her reprehensible statement, no member of the Republican Party has denounced Coulter's irresponsible behavior. In fact, FOX News only bothered to mention the incident on their web site once Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, expressed his concern regarding Coulter's comment. By the way, Coulter was not finished making ridiculous statements with her slur on Edwards. When discussing black Republicans, she declared that "Our blacks are better than their blacks". Obviously Coulter and individuals like her are clearly abusing the First Amendment and the right to free speech.