Wingnut of the Day: James Inhofe

It is a fucking disgrace that James Inhofe is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Unsurprisingly, oil and gas is the number one industry donating to Inhofe's campaigns. Dirty Energy Money has a graph that shows a who's who of energy companies donating to the Senate's leading science denier. Campaign cash might explain why Inhofe makes incredibly stupid statements like this.

“I have offered compelling evidence that catastrophic global warming is a hoax. That conclusion is supported by the painstaking work of the nation's top climate scientists.”

Fun fact: Koch Industries, an oil companies of the Koch Brothers, is one of Inhofe's leading donors.

Renewable Energy Fight In Cape Coral

Cape Coral resident Robin Speronis is using solar power and rain water for her home. Special Magistrate Harold S. Eskin told Speronis that she must pay for water service she does not use. Speronis uses waste water for her garden.

“I know how to live off the grid completely and in a sanitary way,” Speronis responded in an email to the action. “That's what seven months in living in the woods taught me. I do have an alternative toilet from my days of living in the woods.”

At issue is Speronis is not paying for waste water.

“This resident provided testimony at the code compliance hearing that she has been living in the home for the past year and using the city’s wastewater system without paying for the service,” said Connie Barron, a spokeswoman for the city.

Speronis intends to fight the Cape Coral city codes. I am interested in how this will play out. The Koch Brothers and ALEC are behind an effort to making solar panel users pay a fee to utility companies.

The solar power industry called the new rule a victory only because power companies in the state were demanding assessments of as much as $100 a month — more than high enough to deter families from considering switching to solar.

Renewable energy is not in the financial interest of the oil industry.

Quote of the Day

"They may be a Kansas business, they may be the biggest company run by a single family, but they need to be asking the question "What can we do for Kansas?" and not "What can Kansas do for us?" Koch Industries is just a terrible, terrible citizen as far as I'm concerned. I think Koch Industries has done a major disservice to the state of Kansas."

Tim Owens, Kansas Republican state senator.

Owens is a moderate who lost his primary by 20 points.

Scott At Koch Brothers Conference

Gov. Rick Scott finally fesses up to being at the Koch brothers weekend conference.

“It was very interesting,” Scott said. “They wanted to know basically … what am I doing in Florida.”

There have been questions whether Scott attended the private weekend gathering of conservative-minded leaders but the governor’s office has refused to say. “I told anybody who asked me,” said Scott, who hosted a breakfast gathering at a bio tech conference in Washington, D.C.

The Koch brother wanted to know what Scott was doing for them in Florida. More Exactly.

Wall Street Journal/NBC Poll on Unions

A WSJ/NBC poll found 62 percent of respondents found it "totally unacceptable" to take collective bargaining away from public sector unions. 77 percent of respondents support public sector unions having the same rights as their private union counterparts.

Respondents would like public union members to pay more into their health care and retirement benefits. That is something unions will haggle over. Ultimately, there will be some give with public sector unions.

The whole point of collective bargaining is to bargain. What Scott Walker is proposing is to not even allow public sector workers to come to the table. That means governors like Walker could layoff employees or eliminate benefits without notice. The truth is public sector workers make less than private sector counterparts doing the same job. Walker and other Republicans are living in a fantasy world be suggesting public sector workers are super rich. Ask your postal worker how many yachts he has and see if he doesn't look at you like you are insane.

The Reason Foundation released a study claiming public sector workers are paid more than the private sector. The Reason Foundation is funded by Board of Trustees member David Koch. Gov. Walker made national news by being punked by a bogus Koch. The New York Times reported Koch is funding Gov. Walker's effort to abolish collective bargaining. The Reason Foundation can hardly be considered an unbiased third party.

1,000 people were surveyed for the poll. There is a 3.1 percent margin of error.

Rick Scott Rejects High-Speed Rail Money

Gov. Rick Scott has rejected $2.4 billion in federal money for the Orlando to Tampa high-speed rail project.

Scott said he was not sure high-speed rail would bring taxpayers a return on their investment and he felt money would be better spent on state highway and seaport improvements.

The problem is the Obama administration is not going to give the $2.4 billion to Florida for highways and seaports. The federal funds have been allotted for rail projects. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will give the money to another state for a rail project. The $2.4 billion comes from federal money budgeted for rail projects.

Scott gave his explanation for refusing the funds in a poorly planned press conference. As usual, Scott sounded like a talking points robot.

"Government has become addicted to spending beyond its means and we cannot continue this flawed policy," Scott said at a hastily-called press conference this morning.

Scott continued his political tone deaf ways by alienating Republicans. I wonder how many allies Scott is going to have near the end of term.

"I am deeply disappointed in the decision to not move forward with the Orlando to Tampa passenger rail project.

"This is a huge setback for the state of Florida, our transportation, economic development, and important tourism industry.

"I have urged the Governor to reconsider going forward and allow the private sector to assume the risk and any future costs for the project. I made this appeal to the Governor this morning. With the federal government assuming 90% of the cost of the project, I am disappointed the private sector will not have an opportunity to even offer innovative proposals to help finance the balance of the costs and to construct and operate this system.

"I will continue to work with the Governor and all those interested in developing cost-effective 21st century transportation alternatives for Florida and the nation, with systems that can improve quality of life and help meet our future transportation needs."

John Mica, U.S. House Transportation chair

"I am deeply disappointed in the decision to not move forward with the Orlando to Tampa passenger rail project.

"This is a huge setback for the state of Florida, our transportation, economic development, and important tourism industry.

"I have urged the Governor to reconsider going forward and allow the private sector to assume the risk and any future costs for the project. I made this appeal to the Governor this morning. With the federal government assuming 90% of the cost of the project, I am disappointed the private sector will not have an opportunity to even offer innovative proposals to help finance the balance of the costs and to construct and operate this system.

Sen. Jack Latvala

"Making this decision, at this point, on a project that could mean 12,000 to 14,000 jobs is very premature,'' said Latvala, R-St. Petersburg. "I have been consistent in saying we ought to at least let the private companies go to bid and let it play out."

"It's in his court and I'm very disappointed he made this decision without consulting the Legislative branch,'' he said. "I visited with him yesterday and I had no inkling that they were heading in this direction. It shows kind of a lack of understanding and respect for the Legislative process. It's supposed to be a collaborative process -- where the governor and Legislature work together -- and this is not an example of working together."

J.D. Alexander, Senate budget chairman

"The Constitution doesn't allow the governor to not-spend appropriations funds" and there is $300 million appropriated in the budget to put into development of the rail line between Orlando and Tampa, Alexander said.

He said he agrees there is widespread doubt as to whether the project would have succeeded in drawing enough riders. "I think the governor is making the right choice on this rail system,'' he said."I personally would like to have seen the bids come in to see where they really were."

Alexander said that if the legislature puts it in the transportation budget, he expects Scott to veto it and "I don't believe there would be the support to override a veto." The question now is, "where do we go from here" and if the governor wants to cancel it, he will need the approval of the Legislative Budget Commission. "We'll certainly encourage him to pay more attention to the Constitution and budgeting rules," Alexander said.

Sen. Thad Altman

"He's using government to short-change the private sector's opportunity to bid and show case how this can work. Don't use your position as governor to stand in the way of the private sector to show what it can do."

Sen. Paula Dockery

"Florida is a donor state for transportation dollars receiving only 62 cents on every transit dollars and 87 cents on every highway dollar we send to Washington, and this $2.4 billion in federal transportation dollars would have brought Florida in line with other states,'' Dockery said in a statement. "It appears that Secretary LaHood will direct these billions lost by Florida to California where true high speed rail has the next best opportunity to succeed."

Scott based his decision on killing the high-speed rail project on a 2011 Reason Foundation study> All you need to know about the libertarian think tank is that Drew Carey is on the Board of Trustees. David H. Koch is another member of Reason's board and the think tank's main source of revenue. Koch has advocated for abolishing Social Security and the Federal Reserve, minimum-wage laws and federal government agencies. Florida has a governor getting his ideas from a game show host and a business man with radical ideas.

Quote of the Day

"Adolf Hitler issued six million end of life orders--he called his program the final solution. I kind of wonder what we're going to call ours."

Spokeman for Patients First, on Obama's health care reform proposal.

Believing government health insurance competing with the private insurance industry is wrong is one thing. Making comparisons to Hitler is batshit insane. The holocaust and policy proposals to offer health insurance to to 47 million uninsured Americans aren't the same thing. These people need to stop watching Fox News.

Here is the video of the nonsense. The quote comes at 2:20 in the video. The Patients First spokesman also compares America's Affordable Health Choices Act to the genocides committed by Stalin and Pol Pott. These anti-health care reform advocates are scary.

Patients First is an astroturf subsidiary of Americans for Prosperity. The two main backers of AFP are millionaire Art Pope and billionaire David Koch. The latter is the 19th richest man in the world.

Patients First is not a grassroots organization started by ordinary citizens. None of the protesters, at townhall meetings, are as wealthy as Koch or Pope.

Rachel Maddow has a good piece on Americans for Prosperity's bogus grassroots campaigns.