The Senator With The Snowball

From Karoli @Crooks and Liars:

This is just too awesome not to publish in its entirety.  Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) enlightens the Republican anti-science, grandstanding "Senator With A Snowball" from Oklahoma, James Inhofe:



After Senator James Inhofe trolled the entire Senate with his snowball on Thursday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse stepped up to the mic with his fact snowplow to clear away the mess. 

So much win. Here's the transcript: 

 WHITEHOUSE: I'd just like to complete my remarks with regard to the Senator from Oklahoma and his snowball. I'd like to ask unanimous consent that I show the Earth Now website on the iPad device that I have. And if you go to Earth Now it's actually quite easy to load, and you can see how that polar vortex measurably brings the cold air down to New England where we are right now. 

 And this is produced by NASA. These are pretty serious people. So you can believe NASA and you can believe what their satellites measure on the planet, or you can believe the Senator With The Snowball. 

The United States Navy takes this very seriously, to the point where Admiral Locklear, who is the head of the Pacific Command, has said that climate change is the biggest threat that we face in the Pacific. He's a career miilitary officer and he's deadly serious. You can either believe the United States Navy, or you can believe the Senator With The Snowball. 

The religious and faith groups are very clear on this, by and large. I would particularly salute the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has made a very, very clear and strong statements and we are going to hear more from Pope Francis about this when he releases his encyclical and when he speaks to the Joint Session of Congress on September 24th. And I think that it will be quite clear that you can believe the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Pope Francis, or you can believe the Senator With The Snowball. 

In corporate America, there is an immense array of major, significant, intelligent, responsible corporations who are very clear that climate change is real. Companies like Coke and Pepsi. Companies like Ford and GM. And Caterpillar. Companies like Wal-Mart and Target. Companies like VF Industries, which makes a wide array of clothing products, and Nike. Companies like Mars and Nestle. So, we have our choice. We can believe Coke and Pepsi and Ford and GM and Caterpillar and Wal-Mart and Target and VF Industries and Nike and Mars and Nestle, or we can believe the Senator With The Snowball. 

Every major American scientific society has put itself on record -- many of them a decade ago -- that climate change is deadly real. They measure it, they see it, they know why it happens, the predictions correlate with what we see as they increasingly come true. And the fundamental principle is that it is derived from carbon pollution, which comes from burning fossil fuels, are beyond legitimate dispute to the point where every leading scientific organization on the planet calls them unequivocal. 

So, you can believe every major American scientific society, or you can believe the Senator With The Snowball.



What John Oliver said: