Randi is on Vacation until January 4th, but in the meantime you can enjoy Frangela, Nicole Sandler and of course The Best of Randi!
12/18/09
Today, President Obama is at the climate change summit in Copenhagen. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/science/earth/19climate.html?hp That's in Denmark, for our Republican friends who just know Copenhagen as a brand of chewing tobacco. So far the climate change summit has produced no agreement—showing that things can get bogged down even without the help of Senate Republicans. Of course, if Senate Republicans were there, there wouldn't even be any talks. They'd be spending all their time reading thousands of pages of proposals aloud. World leaders are still optimistic that an agreement can be reached... mostly because Joe Lieberman isn't involved.
Someone who is involved, oddly, is GOP Senator James Inhofe. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30769.html Bizarrely, Jim Inhofe took time out from derailing healthcare reform in the United States to fly to Copenhagen for a few hours to try and derail climate change reform for the entire world. Inhofe had no meetings scheduled. He's just the turd in the punchbowl of international summitry. Inhofe traveled to Copenhagen specifically and deliberately to undercut the message of the President of the United States by spreading two messages: Global warming is a hoax, and there's no way the Senate is going to pass a cap-and-trade bill. You've heard of "good will ambassadors"? Jim Inhofe was functioning as a "bad will ambassador." Amazing. A U.S. Senator travels abroad to undermine American efforts abroad. Jim, you have wide latitude to destroy a climate change agreement at home. Can't you be satisfied with that? At least there was an upside to having Inhofe over there--it was like telling the rest of the world "Look what we have to deal with!"
I don't think they would believe what we have to deal with. In the wee hours of the morning today Senate Republicans tried to filibuster a bill to provide funding for the troops! http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/18/AR2009121800241.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR So much for "supporting the troops." Supporting our soldiers isn't as important to Republicans as denying healthcare to all of us is. Even Democrat Russ Feingold--who actually opposes the war—voted for the funding. Bizarre! The Republicans are now the mirror opposite of liberals who say they oppose the war, but support the troops. Now Senate Republicans support the war, but oppose the troops! As our President would say: "Enough!" Let's keep working to stop climate change globally, and to change the political climate at home. Happy Holidays.