Aggressively Stupid Republican Ideologues

Yesterday, I was watching MSNBC when they cut to a local Oklahoma station that was monitoring a massive tornado (as it turned out, there were several) that was cutting a swath of destruction through the Sooner state. The anchor said that he was versed in politics but not weather, so they had a meteorologist call in to help explain the behavior and dangers of tornadoes. This meteorologist was also a local Oklahoman man. When the anchor asked him if climate change could be responsible for the outbreak of very powerful tornadoes this spring, he responded first by noting that he was getting that same question from virtually everyone he met on the street. He went on to say that he couldn’t prove that climate change was responsible and he couldn’t prove that it wasn’t.

I mention this because despite Oklahoma being represented in the Senate by Jim Inhofe, who is the Ranking Member on the Senate Environment Committee, and who is the nation’s most prominent climate science denier, the average person on the street in Oklahoma definitely has climate change on their minds.

Climate scientists have predicted that warming temperatures will lead to stronger storms. Take, for example, the following conclusion from a study done in 2007 by NASA‘s Goddard Institute for Space Studies:

The central and eastern areas of the United States are especially prone to severe storms and thunderstorms that arise when strong updrafts combine with horizontal winds that become stronger at higher altitudes. This combination produces damaging horizontal and vertical winds and is a major source of weather-related casualties. In the warmer climate simulation there is a small class of the most extreme storms with both strong updrafts and strong horizontal winds at higher levels that occur more often, and thus the model suggests that the most violent severe storms and tornadoes may become more common with warming.

Tornadoes are unpredictable and the science is not conclusive, but we do know that warmer weather does lead to more tornadoes in some sophisticated simulations. Preventing the climate from warming may be the only thing we could do to lessen the impact of strong storms and tornadoes. I mean, can you think of anything else we could do?

So, naturally, the House Republicans have decided to offset the cost of paying for emergency relief to this year’s tornado victims by eliminating $1.5 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program at the Department of Energy.

Here’s the Wiki on that program.

Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program is a $25 billion direct loan program funded by Congress in fall 2008 to provide debt capital to the U.S. automotive industry for the purpose of funding projects that help vehicles manufactured in the U.S. meet higher millage requirements and lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

One way climate scientists tell us we can reduce or prevent global warming is to burn less gasoline in our cars and trucks. The Republicans could have chosen almost anything to cut as an offset for emergency relief to tornado victims, but they chose to target a program that might actually contribute to fewer tornadoes. And just to make sure that we know that they are giving us the finger, they took more money than they gave back.

ThinkProgress has acquired the text of the Aderholt amendment. Of the $1.5 billion cut from the clean cars program, only $1 billion is directed to disaster relief, while $500 million is simply rescinded.

You want more irony? “Aderholt” refers to Congressman Bob Aderholt of Alabama who sits on the House Committee of Appropriations.

The bulk of the 2011 fatalities and property damage have occurred during two major tornado outbreaks.

The first occurred over a four-day period in late April and is known as the 2011 Super Outbreak. It most notably wreaked havoc in Alabama, but also produced destructive tornadoes throughout Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennesee and Virginia.

At least 344 were killed, with 238 in Alabama alone, making April 27 the deadliest tornado day since the 1925 “Tri-State” outbreak. Total property damage has been estimated at $10bn.

How aggressively stupid do you have to be to respond to the death of 238 of your constituents and fellow Alabamans by rescinding money for one of the few things we have going to prevent (hopefully) more giant tornadoes?

12 Comments

Brendan Skwire on May 25, 2011 at 2:54 pm

“stupid” is the wrong word, Booman. The proper word is “evil”.

The only thing that differentiates these republicans from Mohammed Atta is their target: Atta targeted a building, the Republicans target civil society.

They have no reason to exist other than to destroy.

BooMan on May 25, 2011 at 3:10 pm

You want funny?

Leader Eric Cantor endured criticism on blogs this week when he said that aid to Joplin in the aftermath of the devastating tornado would be offset by budget cuts.

Cantor, R-Va., told reporters on Monday that “if there is support for a supplemental (appropriation), it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental.”

Today, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., directed some of her words to Cantor in a Senate floor speech reporting what she had witnessed touring the tornado wreckage in southwest Missouri.

“With all due respect to Congressman Cantor, I have a hard time believing that if this were in his congressional district, he would be talking about how additional disaster relief would not be available unless we found some other programs to take it from,” she said.

The truth is, even McCaskill can’t imagine their level of evil. Cantor wouldn’t care anymore than Aderholt does.
- Salunga on May 25, 2011 at 4:34 pm
  
  I guess Cantor lost his compassion after a lifetime of resembling Steve Urkel. I would be bitter, miserable prick too.
  - BooMan on May 25, 2011 at 4:44 pm
    
    As opposed to Ryan who looks for all the world like Eddie Munster.
    - Salunga on May 25, 2011 at 4:54 pm
      
      Its the hair I think. Ryan was on Morning Joe and I thought Scarborough was going to propose to him. I mean if you love someone so much why not take the plunge dammit!
- Brendan Skwire on May 25, 2011 at 5:10 pm
  
  like I said man: evil, not stupid (although some of them are both).
  
  And as a commenter says further down, they find it impossible to sympathize with the people in Joplin. That’s because republicans are psychopathic personalities: they are incapable of empathy about any topic until they are personally affected.
  - BooMan on May 25, 2011 at 5:33 pm
    
    Why is Frum still a Republican? I don’t get it.
    - Brendan Skwire on May 26, 2011 at 8:52 am
      
      better the dishonest weasel stay with his own kind. we have enough fake democrats as it is.

Bazooka Joe on May 25, 2011 at 3:28 pm

Silly Booman, wealthy people don’t live in places like Joplin, MO or rural Alabama and Oklahoma. And they make sure whatever investments they might have in those areas are well insured, thank you very much.

So how are Republicans supposed to care about some lethal tornado? It’s impossible, I tell you. Impossible. You might as well ask them to grow wings and fly.

RAM on May 25, 2011 at 7:24 pm

I’m not sure we can do anything to ameliorate the destructive effects of climate change now. A commenter at Baloon Juice puts it about as well and concisely as I’ve seen it done. I think we’re screwed.

ejmw on May 25, 2011 at 11:30 pm

Meh. Lots of stuff in that comment is true, regarding the relationship between climate and weather, but there is zero factual evidence presented about how far we’re really fucked because nobody really knows that part of the equation. Until we do, which may or may not ever happen, it’s just so much counterproductive sensationalist bullshit.

DaveW on May 25, 2011 at 7:29 pm

I happened to read a story in Pop Science a couple months ago that keeps popping back into my head every time weather disasters like this happen. It provides a nauseating unveiling of the true aims of Republicans. In short, they killed launch of a launch-ready satellite that would have been a giant step toward solving the climate change puzzle for once and for all:

Not only would the satellite provide “a clearer view of our world,” Gore promised, but it would also offer “tremendous scientific value” by carrying into space two instruments built to study climate change: EPIC, a polychromatic imaging camera made to measure cloud reflectivity and atmospheric levels of aerosols, ozone and water vapor; and NISTAR, a radiometer. NISTAR was especially important: Out in deep space, it would do something that scientists are still unable to do today directly and continuously monitor the Earth’s albedo, or the amount of solar energy that our planet reflects into space versus the amount it absorbs.

We know some things about the Earth’s albedo. We know that solar radiation is both absorbed and reflected everywhere on Earth, by granite mountaintops in New Hampshire and desert dunes in Saudi Arabia. We know that cloud cover also reflects some of it. We also know that increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are currently causing the planet to retain more solar energy than it once did. But there is much we don’t know, because we don’t have a way to directly and constantly monitor albedo on a global scale–that is, to directly observe a key indicator of global warming.

To understand changes in the Earth’s climate, scientists rely on multiple and frequent readings of precipitation, temperature, aerosol and ozone levels, and a variety of other measurements, many of which are taken by Earth-monitoring satellites run by agencies such as NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Space Agency. But these spacecraft are all relatively close–at least 50 times as close as the L1 point–so their utility is limited. No space agency has ever launched a satellite capable ofseeing the whole Earth as a single, solar-energy-processing orb.

But then:

But in 2001, just a few months after the inauguration of George W. Bush, Triana’s launch plan was quietly put on hold. “We were preparing to transport it to the launch site when we heard,” Rosanova says. Instead, they wheeled the $100-million satellite into storage.

The mission entered a state of bureaucratic limbo. Around 2003, NASA renamed Triana the Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, but the satellite remained on the ground. During the Bush administration, it became politically vulnerable, largely because of its association with Gore. Dick Armey, then a Republican congressman from Texas, said of the satellite, “This idea supposedly came from a dream. Well, I once dreamed I caught a 10-foot bass. But I didn’t call up the Fish and Wildlife Service and ask them to spend $30 million to make sure it happened.” Despite the protests of independent scientists (including Paul Crutzen, an atmospheric chemist and Nobel Laureate who wrote in a 2006 letter that “it would be a major waste of scientific effort and opportunity to discard such a meaningful mission”), NASA delayed the launch indefinitely.

The satellite remains in a crate in a warehouse today, a decade later, just one more victim of the death of a thousand cuts that always accompany and follow the tragic mistake of allowing Republicans anywhere near positions of power.

Brendan Skwire on May 25, 2011 at 2:54 pm

“stupid” is the wrong word, Booman. The proper word is “evil”.

The only thing that differentiates these republicans from Mohammed Atta is their target: Atta targeted a building, the Republicans target civil society.

They have no reason to exist other than to destroy.
- BooMan on May 25, 2011 at 3:10 pm
  
  You want funny?
  
  Leader Eric Cantor endured criticism on blogs this week when he said that aid to Joplin in the aftermath of the devastating tornado would be offset by budget cuts.
  
  Cantor, R-Va., told reporters on Monday that “if there is support for a supplemental (appropriation), it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental.”
  
  Today, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., directed some of her words to Cantor in a Senate floor speech reporting what she had witnessed touring the tornado wreckage in southwest Missouri.
  
  “With all due respect to Congressman Cantor, I have a hard time believing that if this were in his congressional district, he would be talking about how additional disaster relief would not be available unless we found some other programs to take it from,” she said.
  
  The truth is, even McCaskill can’t imagine their level of evil. Cantor wouldn’t care anymore than Aderholt does.
  - Salunga on May 25, 2011 at 4:34 pm
    
    I guess Cantor lost his compassion after a lifetime of resembling Steve Urkel. I would be bitter, miserable prick too.
    - BooMan on May 25, 2011 at 4:44 pm
      
      As opposed to Ryan who looks for all the world like Eddie Munster.
      - Salunga on May 25, 2011 at 4:54 pm
        
        Its the hair I think. Ryan was on Morning Joe and I thought Scarborough was going to propose to him. I mean if you love someone so much why not take the plunge dammit!
  - Brendan Skwire on May 25, 2011 at 5:10 pm
    
    like I said man: evil, not stupid (although some of them are both).
    
    And as a commenter says further down, they find it impossible to sympathize with the people in Joplin. That’s because republicans are psychopathic personalities: they are incapable of empathy about any topic until they are personally affected.
    - BooMan on May 25, 2011 at 5:33 pm
      
      Why is Frum still a Republican? I don’t get it.
      - Brendan Skwire on May 26, 2011 at 8:52 am
        
        better the dishonest weasel stay with his own kind. we have enough fake democrats as it is.
Bazooka Joe on May 25, 2011 at 3:28 pm

Silly Booman, wealthy people don’t live in places like Joplin, MO or rural Alabama and Oklahoma. And they make sure whatever investments they might have in those areas are well insured, thank you very much.

So how are Republicans supposed to care about some lethal tornado? It’s impossible, I tell you. Impossible. You might as well ask them to grow wings and fly.
RAM on May 25, 2011 at 7:24 pm

I’m not sure we can do anything to ameliorate the destructive effects of climate change now. A commenter at Baloon Juice puts it about as well and concisely as I’ve seen it done. I think we’re screwed.
- ejmw on May 25, 2011 at 11:30 pm
  
  Meh. Lots of stuff in that comment is true, regarding the relationship between climate and weather, but there is zero factual evidence presented about how far we’re really fucked because nobody really knows that part of the equation. Until we do, which may or may not ever happen, it’s just so much counterproductive sensationalist bullshit.
DaveW on May 25, 2011 at 7:29 pm

I happened to read a story in Pop Science a couple months ago that keeps popping back into my head every time weather disasters like this happen. It provides a nauseating unveiling of the true aims of Republicans. In short, they killed launch of a launch-ready satellite that would have been a giant step toward solving the climate change puzzle for once and for all:

Not only would the satellite provide “a clearer view of our world,” Gore promised, but it would also offer “tremendous scientific value” by carrying into space two instruments built to study climate change: EPIC, a polychromatic imaging camera made to measure cloud reflectivity and atmospheric levels of aerosols, ozone and water vapor; and NISTAR, a radiometer. NISTAR was especially important: Out in deep space, it would do something that scientists are still unable to do today directly and continuously monitor the Earth’s albedo, or the amount of solar energy that our planet reflects into space versus the amount it absorbs.

We know some things about the Earth’s albedo. We know that solar radiation is both absorbed and reflected everywhere on Earth, by granite mountaintops in New Hampshire and desert dunes in Saudi Arabia. We know that cloud cover also reflects some of it. We also know that increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are currently causing the planet to retain more solar energy than it once did. But there is much we don’t know, because we don’t have a way to directly and constantly monitor albedo on a global scale–that is, to directly observe a key indicator of global warming.

To understand changes in the Earth’s climate, scientists rely on multiple and frequent readings of precipitation, temperature, aerosol and ozone levels, and a variety of other measurements, many of which are taken by Earth-monitoring satellites run by agencies such as NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Space Agency. But these spacecraft are all relatively close–at least 50 times as close as the L1 point–so their utility is limited. No space agency has ever launched a satellite capable ofseeing the whole Earth as a single, solar-energy-processing orb.

But then:

But in 2001, just a few months after the inauguration of George W. Bush, Triana’s launch plan was quietly put on hold. “We were preparing to transport it to the launch site when we heard,” Rosanova says. Instead, they wheeled the $100-million satellite into storage.

The mission entered a state of bureaucratic limbo. Around 2003, NASA renamed Triana the Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, but the satellite remained on the ground. During the Bush administration, it became politically vulnerable, largely because of its association with Gore. Dick Armey, then a Republican congressman from Texas, said of the satellite, “This idea supposedly came from a dream. Well, I once dreamed I caught a 10-foot bass. But I didn’t call up the Fish and Wildlife Service and ask them to spend $30 million to make sure it happened.” Despite the protests of independent scientists (including Paul Crutzen, an atmospheric chemist and Nobel Laureate who wrote in a 2006 letter that “it would be a major waste of scientific effort and opportunity to discard such a meaningful mission”), NASA delayed the launch indefinitely.

The satellite remains in a crate in a warehouse today, a decade later, just one more victim of the death of a thousand cuts that always accompany and follow the tragic mistake of allowing Republicans anywhere near positions of power.

Aggressively Stupid Republican Ideologues

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