Jim Inhofe

[[File:Jim Inhofe, official photo portrait, 2007.jpg|thumb|165px|Don't worry, God will save us from global warming...if it's actually happening that is.]]{{uspolitics}}
{{cquote|[A]rguably the dumbest person to sit in the Senate for a long, long time.|||Historian Erik Loomis<ref>[http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2013/02/americas-worst-senator "America’s Worst Senator"], ''Lawyers, Guns and Money''</ref>}}
{{cquote|Remember kids, if you get un-hooked on science early, maybe someday you could completely lack any understanding of science and then grow up to be the chairman of the Senate Environmental Committee.|||[[Stephen Colbert]]<ref>[http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/stephen-colbert-james-inhofe-climate-change "We don't know what the fuck we're talking about!"]</ref>}}
'''James Mountain "Jim" Inhofe''' or 'Senator Snowball' {{lived|1934|2024}} was the batshit [[wingnut]] who served as the senior [[United States Senate|Senator]] from the state of [[Oklahoma]]. God help them.

He was one of the leading [[global warming denier]]s in Congress and is well known for having called it "[[Fractal wrongness|the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people]]."  He was also one of the [[Republican Party]]'s leaders in the [[culture war]]s, and is bucking to be a candidate for the ''Légion des Crèches Américain'' with crossed Tannenbaums in the [[War on Christmas]]. This should come as no surprise considering that he's a member of the [[fundamentalist]] bloc called [[The Family]].

Inhofe also made a 
stupid
 risky (but alas, non-monetary) [[prediction]], namely that [[Mitt Romney]] would win by a "substantial margin" (undefined, of course) in the midst of taking a predictable shot at [[Barack Obama]] on [[Bryan Fischer]]'s ''Focal Point''.<ref>[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/inhofe-obama-has-tried-destroy-every-institution-makes-america-great Inhofe: Obama 'Has Tried to Destroy Every Institution that Makes America Great'], Right Wing Watch</ref> 

Inhofe ultimately retired at the end of the 117<sup>th</sup> United States Congress, at the ripe young age of 88.

==Military service==
Inhofe was a licensed commercial pilot who learned to fly while serving in the [[US Navy]]. An objective account of his Navy career is difficult to find; he didn't even mention it on his official Senate website.  But, since he was 17 years old when the [[Korean War]] ended and about 31 when the [[Vietnam War]] heated up, it's likely that most if not all of his Navy career was limited to peacetime non-combat duties.  Still, because he actually served in the military — [[John Bolton|unlike]] [[Rush Limbaugh|some]] [[Newt Gingrich|of]] [[Karl Rove|the]] [[Glenn Beck|other]] [[Joe Lieberman|numerous]] [[Sean Hannity|too]]-[[Bill O'Reilly|busy]]-[[Tom Tancredo|to]]-[[William Kristol|volunteer]]-[[Larry Craig|for]]-[[Paul Wolfowitz|military]]-[[Donald Rumsfeld|service]] [[Ted Nugent|non]]-[[Dick Cheney|veteran]] [[Mitt Romney|backers]] [[Donald Trump|of]] [[George Bush|the]] [[War on Terror]] — it's difficult to say that his hardcore support of sending troops into harm's way qualified him as a [[chickenhawk]].

==Inhofe on climate change==
{{cquote|With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.|||James Inhofe<ref>Quoted in a  [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x2afzvRbeg Michael Mann AGU conference]</ref>}}
Inhofe was probably the most vocal climate [[denialist]] in the US Congress and has virtually declared [[War on Science]]<ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2006/06/28/inhofes-war-on-science/ "Inhofe's War on Science"], Deltoid</ref> in the process. According to Inhofe, [[Global_warming|AGW]] is "the second-largest hoax ever played on the American people, after the [[separation of church and state]]"<ref>''101 People Who Are Really Screwing America'' by Jack Huberman, published by The Nation, ISBN: 1-56025-875-6</ref>{{rp|xi}} (no, we're not repeating that again). As "evidence" that global warming is a hoax, Inhofe has cited the [[Oregon Petition]], and he persisted in saying that there is a [[scientific consensus]] that climate is getting ''cooler''. In 2010, he said "I don’t think that anyone disagrees with the fact that we actually are in a cold period that started about nine years ago."<ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/illconsidered/2010/07/inhofes-alternate-reality/ "Inhofe's Alternate Reality"], ScienceBlogs</ref> An indication of what he meant by "anyone" may be gleaned from an appearance in Voice of Christian Youth America’s radio program to promote his book ''The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future'', where he argued that climate change is refuted by the [[Bible]] and hence a particularly popular idea among [[liberal]]s whereas [[Christian]]s reject it (note the contrast).<ref>[http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/james-inhofe-says-bible-refutes-climate-change James Inhofe Says the Bible Refutes Climate Change], Right Wing Watch</ref>

In an address to the 2006 [[Values Voter Summit]], Inhofe asserted that global warming is a [[global warming conspiracy theory#It's an attempt by the UN to take over the USA|conspiracy cooked up by the UN to destroy America]],<ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/thusspakezuska/2006/12/13/global-warming-in-the-right-wo/ "Global Warming In The Right World"], ScienceBlogs</ref> and in his own words climate science "kind of reminds ... I could use the [[Godwin's Law|Third Reich, the Big Lie]] ..." He also compared the United States Environmental Agency to the [[Secret police#Nazi Germany|Gestapo]] and [[EPA]] Administrator Carol Browner to {{wpl|Tokyo Rose||.}} ''Who'', precisely, is behind the conspiracy seems to vary, however — after blaming it on [[George Soros]], he seemed to have added [[Michael Moore]] and [[MoveOn.org]] to the list of people who are really behind the alleged climate change hoax.<ref>[http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/11/inhofe-moveon-org-george-soros-michael-moore-created-global-warming-hoax/ Inhofe: “MoveOn.org, George Soros, Michael Moore” created global warming hoax], The Raw Story</ref>

Among his global warming-related efforts, he was particularly infamous for his 2008 [[Gish Gallop|list]] of "high-profile scientists" who allegedly oppose AGW,<ref>A discussion of the entries can be found [http://650list.blogspot.com here]</ref> a list that overlapped with the [[Discovery Institute]] roster and known [[HIV denial]]ists,<ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2008/12/21/so-whos-on-inhofes-list-and-th/ "So who’s on Inhofe’s list and the HIV/AIDS deniers list?"], Deltoid</ref> plus several climate [[scientist]]s who explicitly accept AGW. The list was heavily criticized for its profound dishonesty,<ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2008/12/17/inhofe-and-the-global-warming/ "Inhofe and the Global Warming Deniers"], ''Dispatches from the Culture Wars''</ref> including systematic misrepresentation of climate scientists,<ref>[http://greenfyre.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/inhofes-mauvais-blague/ "Inhofe’s 'Mauvais Blague'"], Greenfyre</ref> resume inflations,<ref>[http://rabett.blogspot.com/2008/12/he-has-another-list.html "He has another list"], Eli Rabett</ref> and [[quote-mining]].<ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2008/12/16/how-many-inhofes-list-compared/ "How many on Inhofe’s list are IPCC authors?"], Deltoid</ref><ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2008/12/17/more-on-inhofes-alleged-list-o/ "More on Inhofe’s alleged list of 650 scientists"], Deltoid</ref> After massive criticism, Inhofe changed the list to "scientists whose research undermines AGW", despite numerous complaints from the scientists that their research did no such thing.

In 2015, Inhofe claimed to disprove global warming by bringing a snowball and tossing it on the Senate floor.<ref>Barrett, T. (February 27, 2015). [http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/26/politics/james-inhofe-snowball-climate-change/ Inhofe brings snowball on Senate floor as evidence globe is not warming]. CNN. Retrieved March 27, 2015.</ref>

Inhofe's granddaughter came home from school and challenged him over his climate change denial. Inhofe decided teaching [[science]] at school brainwashes kids.<ref>[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/07/27/sen-james-inhofe-our-kids-are-being-brainwashed-because-theyre-learning-science-in-school/ Sen. James Inhofe: “Our Kids Are Being Brainwashed” Because They’re Learning Science in School]</ref>

==Oklahoma bombing==
In the hours following the [[Timothy McVeigh|bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building]] in Oklahoma City, Inhofe made a statement on TV that pissed off a lot of federal employees. When asked about casualties, he said that he doubted that there would be many because, since the federal offices opened at 9 a.m., most of the employees would probably still be somewhere else drinking [[coffee]],<ref>[http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_M._Inhofe#Bio SourceWatch bio on Inhofe]</ref> perhaps forgetting that he was also a federal employee (the bombing occurred at 9:02 a.m.).  However, when [[Bill Clinton]] said that the demagogy on [[conservative talk radio]] contributed greatly to this act of domestic [[terrorism]] —  a claim that Clinton reiterated on the 15<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the event<ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36100.html Jim Inhofe: Bill Clinton comments 'unconscionable'], ''Politico''</ref> — Inhofe was outraged both times because he thought that Clinton was trying to [[Irony|politicize the bombing]].

==See also==
*[[Marc Morano]], his hired propagandist

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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