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… among the most cringeworthy communications in the history of the alphabet!

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Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

You are here: Home / Inhofe’s Alternate Reality

Inhofe’s Alternate Reality

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Fucking clowns:

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) is perhaps Congress’ most reliable defender of dirty energy and evangelizer against the “hoax” of global warming. This morning, he took his message to Fox News host Brian Kilmeade’s radio show, where he extolled the virtues of hydraulic fracturing, a method of extracting natural gas known widely as “fracking.” Fracking is a relatively new and untested technique, but Inhofe insisted that there’s nothing to worry about, as he claimed fracking has “never poisoned anyone” nor ever contaminated groundwater:

    INHOFE: [There’s] never been one case — documented case — of groundwater contamination in the history of the thousands and thousands of hydraulic fracturing. […]

    KILMEADE: Senator, has it ever poisoned anybody?

    INHOFE: It’s never poisoned anyone.

While fracking has the potential to create vast new American energy supplies, Inhofe’s claim that it is completely without risk is either stunningly ignorant or intentionally dishonest. Just yesterday, a blowout at a Pennsylvania natural gas well engaged in fracking spilled thousands of gallons of toxic chemical-laced water, “contaminating a stream and forcing the evacuation of seven families who live nearby as crews struggled to stop the gusher,” the AP reported. Inhofe referenced the Pennsylvania spill in his interview, but said that it has “nothing to do with fracking” because it was a stream, not groundwater that was contaminated.

I wonder what it is like having so much power and having no conscience or knowledge to go with it. I guess what is notable as that Inhofe is at least, on the record, admitting that the fracking fluid is poisonous to human beings. Since Bush and Cheney made sure that we don’t get to know what is in it, at least we now know for sure that it is poisonous.

Reader Interactions

90Comments

  2. 2.

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    But remember, Global Warming is a dangerous hoax perpetrated by green fascism that wants to take down our way of life while lining richie rich Al Gore’s pockets and his fat cat scientist friends’ too.

    Also, that video of the guy igniting his tap water? Well, haven’t you ever wished for liquor from the tap, that’s all that was.

    Seriously, no, fucking seriously, how are these fuckwits winning the war on climate and environmental policies? HOW?!

  5. 5.

    Mark B

    Last sentence: ” at least we now no for sure that it is poisonous.” should be ” at least we now know for sure that it is poisonous.” Thank you. It’s a minor quibble…

  6. 6.

    Bob Loblaw

    @The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik:

    Seriously, no, fucking seriously, how are these fuckwits winning the war on climate and environmental policies? HOW?!

    1. Money
    2. Money
    3. Fucking money.

    Also, racism. Since only mostly brown and black people will have to deal with the full brunt of climate change. And we all know how much wealthy white westerners love to care about that little iniquity.

  8. 8.

    Citizen_X

    “I reject your reality and substitute my own” may make for a decent t-shirt, but it ain’t so funny when it’s coming from the people that make the rules, is it?

    @MikeJ: Hey, Inhofe has NEVER HIT ANYONE on a runway, NEVER.

    Came pretty damn close, but he didn’t actually HIT them.

  9. 9.

    Kmeyer the lurker

    well, it has become known that most fracking fluids contain Deisel, so yeah, it’s poisonous. As if there was any doubt.

  10. 10.

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    @opie jeanne:

    They’ll also turn it up the moment someone suggests to turn it down to save money or energy. Just because fuck you hippie and your green fascism.

  12. 12.

    Stillwater

    I wonder what it is like having so much power and having you don’t need no conscience or knowledge to go with it.

    Just a coupla more links from Krugman…

  13. 13.

    Sentient Puddle

    So…I don’t know, wouldn’t the name alone bring concerns to anyone who is marginally aware of Battlestar Galactica? I mean, that doesn’t strike me as the kind of thing you’d call it if you want to make positive imagery.

  14. 14.

    mellowjohn

    “I wonder what it is like having so much power and having no conscience or knowledge to go with it.”
    in today’s republican party in general, and in oklahoma in particular, that’s a selling point!

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    @Gravenstone: Republican guv, so the plan looks like naming who was going for his open seat in 2012 early to give him the incumbency edge. Fortunately the Democrats aren’t conceding that easily.

  19. 19.

    schrodinger's cat

    John Cole@top

    Since Bush and Cheney made sure that we don’t get to know what is in it, at least we now no for sure that it is poisonous.

    You can has typo, no should be know…

  24. 24.

    Alex S.

    I like Kilmeade’s question.
    ‘Has it ever poisoned anybody?’

    Find me the person who would say ‘yes’.

  27. 27.

    Mark S.

    @opie jeanne:

    Not only that, but when the polar ice caps melt, it will be easier to get to all that oil in the Arctic. I’ve heard idiots say that.

    Hell, Cheney’s probably said that.

  28. 28.

    Warren Terra

    On the subject of water, there’s an interesting story in the New York Times:

    A City Built on Oil Discovers How Precious Its Water Can Be
    __
    MIDLAND — The oil business is booming, but there is something more precious in Midland right now: water.
    __
    Since the beginning of October, barely one-tenth of an inch of rain has fallen on the city, the oil and gas capital of West Texas. Two of the three reservoirs that Midland and other Permian Basin cities rely on for most of their water are getting close to empty. The third is below 30 percent of capacity.
    __
    This month, for the first time, Midland imposed water restrictions, forcing homeowners to water their lawns less, and schools to let their football fields grow scrubby.

    It hasn’t rained in 6 months, including the whole winter, they’re at something like 10% of reservoir capacity heading into the summer – and now they’re reducing lawn watering a bit? I mean, I know that high school football is the local religion, closely followed by climatically inappropriate lush green lawns, but this is absurd. And high school football has been over for something like four months, anyway.

    Oh, and those water use restrictions? Well, here they are:

    Midland, which has 111,000 people, now limits the use of outdoor watering to three days a week and seeks to cut consumption — especially important for summer — by 10 percent.

    This is like starting your diet by getting a Big Mac but not supersizing your fries. Actually, it’s not even that serious:

    Nearby Odessa has also imposed watering restrictions for the first time, and violating them will result in fines starting next month. Midland, by contrast, imposes no penalties on violators.

    But for those of you worried about the true priorities, there is hope:

    the city has allowed sports fields one extra watering day

  29. 29.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @Warren Terra:

    I’ve always that that millions and millions of Americans packing themselves into deserts with no water and triple-digit heat while water-abundant places like Michigan and Ohio hemorrhage population is one of the great illogical moves in human history. Animals in the African savannah who follow the water supply have more sense than we do.

  32. 32.

    AAA Bonds

    If you can stand to read a movie critic on this subject, Andrew O’Hehir has a great piece about the intense – and expensive – effort by the natural gas industry to malign and discredit Josh Fox over his documentary Gasland, which focused on hydrofracking and its effects.

    The whole “guy lights his tap water on fire” scene seemed to spook them.

  33. 33.

    maya

    Inofe’s just exercising his 1st Amendment right to lie through his fracking eye teeth on FOX. That issue was settled years ago in a lower court decision.

    Why do you hate the 1st Amendment so?

  34. 34.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @AAA Bonds:

    The whole “guy lights his tap water on fire” scene seemed to spook them.

    Tap water flambe is my signature dish.

  35. 35.

    Jay C

    @The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik:

    Seriously, no, fucking seriously, how are these fuckwits winning the war on climate and environmental policies? HOW?!

    Apparently, in Pennsylvania, by buying a legislative majority, and then either paying it (or letting it rely on its “instincts”) to give the gas industry virtually blanket immunity from regulation or oversight.

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Yutsano: What do you recommend? Mme Omnibus forced me to ditch the Hugh Grant floppy hair thing a few years ago on the theory that I was too old to look like I was at a British boarding school and that , if I want to keep my hair longish, I needed pick up a guitar and get good at playing it.

  38. 38.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Omnes Omnibus: Some product to hold floppy hair in its place, like styling putty or gel. Mr schrodinger’s cat has straight and floppy hair too, which I adore. I think it makes him look boyish and adorable.

  39. 39.

    JonF

    People want to believe the lie because its become a partisan touchstone and Inhofe is paid handsomely to keep the carnival wheel spinning.

  41. 41.

    Xoebe

    West Texas, about eighteen months ago, a high pressure gas drilling/fracking operation blew out every water well within a mile of the well. This didn’t make the news, I heard about it from my father, who is a part owner of one of the leases. The water was badly contaminated by the gas as well. I don’t know if the wells ever recovered, but I doubt it. The wells were all for livestock, the local ranchers were pretty pissed off, but they aren’t the types to take it to the media, either.

  42. 42.

    opie jeanne

    @AAA Bonds: I think CSI had a program where a farmer’s well had been contaminated by fracking nearby. He set fire to his tap water, then later blew himself up by dropping a match in his own water well. I was surprised that a fictional show picked up that story and showed it to us.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: I laughed when I saw his comment. I’m pretty sure JSF saw aimai’s comment and that’s exactly why he posted that in the first place.

    Or maybe that was the point of your comment?

  44. 44.

    Mark S.

    Politifact has weighed in and decided the statement “Fracking fluid is poisonous” is half-true. If you’re careful, you can just drink around the toxic substances.

  45. 45.

    Mark D

    @AAA Bonds:

    You mean this one, correct?

    I hope so, because if there’s a bunch of those videos … um …

    // blinking blankly //

    EDIT: Hatin’ the auto bold, and the fact there are so many Mark [Initial here] nyms around this place. I’m gonna have to find a new name. :-)

  46. 46.

    danimal

    @Warren Terra: This is why I’m hopeful we’ll eventually get some positive action on global warming.

    Brain-dead Real Murkins will eventually have to deal with the ramifications.

  47. 47.

    Annie

    Watch the documentary Gasland. Shows how families have had to deal with water from their faucets exploding, animals have lost their hair and worse, and the emergence of health conditions among families with wells on their properties. And, then come back and tell me how safe fracking is….

  49. 49.

    burnspbesq

    @Warren Terra:

    Well, there’s your tipping point on the subject of climate change. Anything that threatens the integrity of Texas high school football has to be dealt with, and right the fuck now if not sooner.

  51. 51.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @danimal:

    Brain-dead Real Murkins will eventually have to deal with the ramifications.

    No they won’t.

    The baby Jeebus will wisk them way from the ramifications on a magic carpet ride to his paradise in the sky.

  53. 53.

    Gordon, The Big Express Engine

    This clip from Three Days of the Condor (early 70’s) was prescient.

    The Bcfs of natural gas need to keep flowing. The random farmer who has his pond spoiled or the small town that has its drinking water contaminated is just collateral damage. It is capitalistic and utilitarian at the same time.

  55. 55.

    AAA Bonds

    @Mark D:

    Wow, thanks for linking that up. That’s it exactly.

    What strikes me about it is that the guy isn’t even fazed until the entire contents of his sink start burning. Clear that he’s done this plenty of times for plenty of people.

    And straight messed up that he or anyone else ever had to have the experience, even once.

  63. 63.

    Linnaeus

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    I’ve always that that millions and millions of Americans packing themselves into deserts with no water and triple-digit heat while water-abundant places like Michigan and Ohio hemorrhage population is one of the great illogical moves in human history. Animals in the African savannah who follow the water supply have more sense than we do.

    It’s more logical when you consider the various ways in which the movement of people to the arid West and Southwest has been subsidized by massive federal spending, both directly and indirectly. To oversimplify a bit, cheap energy and massive water diversions made these deserts more cost-effective places for more Americans than they would have been otherwise.

  74. 74.

    MikeJ

    @Omnes Omnibus: Especially since everyone knows Tunch writes under the pseud Ken (whateverthatguysnameis). That makes it urgent that John Cole denounce wonkette and all her pomps.

  75. 75.

    AAA Bonds

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    What, the lifestyle choice of being a murderous furry? :D

    Seriously, though, you’ve misread the comment. I’m not being judgmental of kinks, lifestyles, or anything of the sort. Exactly the opposite, in fact. My complaint wasn’t against furries but in defense of them.

    The problem I was bitching about is that CSI decided a few years back that the best way to introduce Middle America to furries was to portray the attendees at a lifestyle convention as creeps, freaks, and killers, albeit accidental killers if I remember the episode correctly.

    Standard stereotyping on those shows: if someone has a private fetish, they’re primed to participate in a criminal cover-up of someone’s death. It’s about as nifty as the 10,000 Law and Order episodes about the pressing dangers of violent video games and exactly as helpful to our culture.

  80. 80.

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    **sigh**

    I’m just trying not to get massively depressed over yet another sphere of influence where we seem to have lost without any recourse. I mean, fuck all, somehow, Exxon and BP are more fucking credible on this issue than all the thousands of scientists talking about the climate and the increasing instability? It’s taken as a fucking obvious truth that anyone who talks up climate change is just in it for the funding and to defraud the world through green fascism? How? How the fuck can we even fucking win this anymore, apparently, because it seems like any fucking sense or logic has been fucking totally fucking stonewalled because hey, obviously anyone who criticizes our oil dependency or energy policy is a greedy fatcat fuck that hates America and wants to destroy the economy!!

    I mean…EPA, gutted. Folks like Inhofe, Upton, etc. in charge of energy and climate concerns. The fracking trend continues fucking totally unabated despite protests and attempts to raise consciousness. All because, I suppose, if any fucking hippies raise an issue, obviously all real fucking Americans have to be on the opposite side of it. And anyone who tries to raise consciousness is a devious, evil huckster that needs to be fucking eliminated, huh.

    Fuck, just…let it all burn. It’s going to anyway. What’s the goddamn point anyway, they’ve already totally fucking won.

  82. 82.

    TenguPhule

    Sen. Jim Inhofe (

    For death by Irony, he needs to have a hose pump fracking fluids into his stomach until it explodes.

  84. 84.

    Lysana

    @AAA Bonds:

    The problem I was bitching about is that CSI decided a few years back that the best way to introduce Middle America to furries was to portray the attendees at a lifestyle convention as creeps, freaks, and killers, albeit accidental killers if I remember the episode correctly.

    Yep. And the bitch of it is, the vast majority of furries don’t wear fursuits and most of the fursuiters don’t do it for kink. But sure enough, you find someone whose info is based on CSI and Vanity Fair articles and they think it’s all about sexually explicit mascot suits.

  85. 85.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    What’s really sad is that I know people who believe exactly that; there is no reason to do anything about anything because it is futile and man is doomed to failure, so why should they even try to do something? They think that the Big Sky Guy gave us this planet to use as we wish without worry because one day he will send his son to save their sorry asses, consigning everyone they hate to the deepest pits of Hell and delivering them a wonderland of delights to live in forever.

    What’s really hilarious is that many of these nuts are the same people who think cults are dangerous…lol!

  86. 86.

    Jeroen Janssen

    @Warren Terra:

    Don’t worry, something is being done:

    All of Texas is extremely dry, and the parched vegetation is fueling huge wildfires across the state — prompting Gov. Rick Perry to urge prayers for rain this weekend.

  87. 87.

    debbie

    Someone should take a cue from Clockwork Orange: Strap Inhofe in a chair, prop his eyes open, and make him watch the 60 Minutes story where the guy turned on his kitchen faucet, flicked his Bic, and the water exploded.

  88. 88.

    rickstersherpa

    Meanwhile, has everyone notice how Fukushima has just disappeared off the radar of our “all deficit, all the time, its a “crisis” because, well because need some reason to gut Medicare and Social Security while giving more tax cuts to rich people media.” Dicussing Donald Trump and his Birtherism is more important. Meanwhile on little politically incorrect blots like Econospeak you can learn that it might be time to start taking those potassium iodine pills and cut back on milk.

    http://econospeak.blogspot.com/2011/04/fukushima-in-last-9-days.html

  89. 89.

    Dave Whitefield

    I guess Sen. Inhofe never got around to seeing the documentary film “Gasland”… seemed to be plenty of documented proof of contamination caused by fracking in that piece…

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