Twister

Calhoun's Cannons for May 23,2013

"I wonder if Senator James Inhofe is watching TV right now?"  That thought popped into my head as I watched the news coverage of the devastation caused by the monster tornado that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma.

You see, Jim doesn't believe in climate change, global warming, or the increasingly dangerous weather patterns caused by a heating planet. He even wrote a book about it called "The Greatest Hoax," which stated, among other things, that "The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous." 

Which is why I wondered what he'd make of this record-breaking tornado.  Probably figure it was all God's plan.  After all, since a great many Oklahomans are sinners, as are all of us, maybe Jim just thought this record-breaking tornado was God's just punishment on the unrighteous.  And certainly nothing a God-fearing United States Senator need concern himself with.

I mean, if that tornado had hit in a latte-sipping, agnostic, Godless state with a Senator who believed, along with 99% of climate scientists, that our CO2-warming planet will continue to generate more and more destructive weather patterns, that it would be his duty to legislate ways to mitigate the damage to his constituents.  Like maybe offering legislation that required all schools receiving federal aide that are located in areas designated to be the most vulnerable to tornadoes, be retrofitted with "safe shelters" designed to keep school children safe.  Rather like California required earthquake retrofits on public buildings and businesses to keep the buildings from falling on the heads of  the unsuspecting public.

You would think that would be a prudent thing for a Senator to do.  To, at the very least, make sure school kids who, by the very nature of schools, are all gathered together in one place, one tempting bulls-eye target, would at least be offered that one shot at safety.

But not Jim.  When it comes to federal aide, both of Oklahoma's two senators are pretty select.  I mean, Jim and Tom, voted against the federal aid package intended to help the victims of the Superstorm Sandy.  Claimed that that appropriation was loaded with pork larded in there by their fellow Senators, so he said the hell with New Jersey. 

Of course, now it's Oklahoma's turn and the question is, will Tom vote to send federal aide to Oklahoma?  Apparently so, and when asked about that, declared that this federal disaster relief package is entirely different.  This relief package won't have any pork in it, he declared, with no explanation as to how that will happen. 

So hypocrite Jim will grab federal money from the Wicked Government with the same hands he used to introduce a bill that would have repealed Obamacare thereby stripping out the insurance exchanges and extensions and  federal subsidies of Medicaid that will be kicking in as the new health care bill unrolls. That repeal effort failed, but Jim is still foursquare behind the Oklahoma governor who has refused to participate in the Affordable Care Act's extensions of Medicaid. 

Which caused this thought to pop into my head: "I wonder what Jim thinks about a family whose house was blown away, family members injured and in need of long term rehab, who have lost their jobs on account of the tornado and because of that have now lost their health insurance, and because they now have "preexisting conditions" caused by the tornado, will be denied affordable, subsidized health coverage because their governor (with the blessing of Jim) has turned down the very Obamacare provisions that would have helped them the most?"

I can only presume that Jim would have no trouble with any of that since that family's suffering is surely part of God's Plan, they were most likely sinners to boot and deserved whatever befell them, and anyway, there's nothing a United States Senator can be expected to do about such problems since all of those concerns are the province of the Lord.

Jim's job is to collect $1,352.523 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, $90,950 from Koch Industries (coal) and write books about Hoaxes, and funnel federal pork down to his select cronies.  Poor hard working Sooners need not apply.