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Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe (R), who maintains that global warming is a hoax created by former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations, said on Tuesday that it was "hard to explain" why Monday's tornado was "so much worse."

During an interview with John Berman on CNN, Inhofe remarked that the storm had transported a photo 80 miles from Shawnee to his neighborhood in Tulsa.

"So many things happen that are so hard to explain," he told the CNN host. "This thing was huge. This is one of the largest ones that we've had."

"What you're looking at now in Moore, Oklahoma is what you could have seen had you been there in 1999 or in some parts of of Shawnee. Devastation is devastation. And it's just that this is so much worse. Because you're talking about a two mile by 20 mile area. That's very unusual."

In terms of disaster aid, Inhofe said Oklahoma had "everything that we need," but he recommended donating to the Salvation Army and the Red Cross.

"It's going to be necessary to raise a lot of money."

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Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) on Wednesday explained that Al Gore and the United Nations get most of the blame for what he called a global warming "hoax," but filmmaker Michael Moore and billionaire George Soros deserved some credit too.

At a Environment and Public Works Committe on President Barack Obama's nomination of Gina McCarthy to be the next head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said that he wanted the agency to listen to scientists instead of climate change deniers like Inhofe and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY).

"What Sen. Inhofe has written and talked about is his belief that global warming is one of the major hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people, that it's a hoax pushed by people like Al Gore, the United Nations and the Hollywood elite," Sanders told the committee.

"I think that is a fair quote from Sen. Inhofe. Is that roughly right, Sen. Inhofe?" Sanders asked the Oklahoma Republican.

"Yes," Inhofe agreed. "I'd add to that list MoveOn.org, George Soros, Michael Moore and a few others."

"That's exactly the issue," Sanders said, turning back to the committee. "Do we agree with Sen. Inhofe that global warming is a hoax and that we do not want the federal government, the EPA, the Department of Energy to address that issue? Because it is a -- quote -- unquote -- hoax, according to Sen. Inhofe and others? Or do we believe and agree with the overwhelming majority of scientists who tell us that global warming is the most serious planetary crisis that we face, and that we must act boldly and aggressively to protect the future of this planet? That is what the issue is."

(h/t: The Hill)

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The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took the talking heads over at Fox to task for their freakout over the sale of Al Gore's Current TV to Al Jazeera and making attacking the network as anti-American and associated with terrorists. As Stewart rightfully pointed out, heaven forbid anyone over at Fox would ever associate themselves with someone who owns a network that produces anything that would be considered anti-American... like Rupert Murdoch.

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The hosts of Fox & Friends on Friday slammed former Democratic Vice President Al Gore for being a "great American businessman" and selling his Current TV network to the "clearly anti-American" Al Jazeera network instead of former Fox News host Glenn Beck.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Gore had turned down an offer from Beck's The Blaze before deciding to accept $500 million to hand over Current TV to Al Jazeera.

Fox Business host Stuart Varney told the Fox & Friends hosts that Gore was guilty of "gross hypocrisy" for trying to sell his network before tax rates went up in 2013.

"Here's Al Gore -- extremely wealthy, ultra-leftist -- he's scrambling to book a profit on the sale of his TV network last year, when the tax rates are low," Varney opined. "That is hypocrisy."

Co-host Alisyn Camerota noted that Gore had been "desperately trying" to sell the network but the deal closed on Jan. 2 so it would be subject to the higher tax rates.

"You don't even have to say the word hypocrisy, you just have to say the statement," co-host Brian Kilmead quipped. "People at home use the word hypocrisy in their own kitchen, in their bathrobe with rollers in their hair."

But the detail that really seemed to outrage the Fox News personalities was that Gore shot down their former colleague, Glenn Beck, when he tried to buy Current TV.

"Glenn Beck wants to buy this TV network, so Al says, 'No, we're very sensitive to the network's not being aligned with our point of view,'" Varney explained. "In other words, 'Get lost, Glenn Beck,' but 'Okay, big oil, the sheikhdom of Qatar.'"

"Al Jazeera! That's their point of view?" Kilmeade exclaimed. "You can see more eye-to-eye with Al Jazeera than Glenn Beck -- Mr. Red, White and Blue?"

"May I move to the disgrace of this situation?" Varney continued. "This is the former Vice President of the United States of America, and he sells his news network to a clearly anti-American news channel called Al Jazeera. Are you kidding me?"

"That is just crazy," co-host Steve Doocy agreed. "But, you know what? Being a great American businessman, he was -- his first instinct, like Brian pointed out -- he was trying to save as much money as he could. We don't like the tax policy that he likes, but that was his inclination."

During a second Fox News segment later in the morning, guest Matt McCall said that Gore was now linked with terrorists because he was doing business with Al Jazeera.

"Remember after 9/11, al-Qaeda," McCall remarked. "That's who they gave the voice too, really? I mean, again, this is somebody who ran for president of the United States, he's trying to back the green, he's trying to back our country. At the same time, he's selling out to a country -- not saying Qatar's bad -- but they do have the support behind them of some of these terrorist groups and they let them get their voice across on their network."

"So, to me, he's now associating himself with al-Qaeda," he added. "And to me, that is actually disgusting what he is doing."

According to a 2005 report, a classified transcript indicated that then-President George W. Bush told then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair that he wanted to bomb Al Jazeera's headquarters in Qatar in 2004 because of the network's negative coverage of the Iraq war. The classified transcript came after the U.S. military fired a missile at offices the television network was using in Iraq in 2003. At the time, officials said that they believed the building was being used by al-Qaeda.

After launching Current TV in 2004, Fox News owner News Corporation -- and CEO Rupert Murdoch -- agreed to pay the network lucrative licensing fees and distribute it to 20 million homes through its DirectTV broadcast satellite service provider.

(h/t: Mediaite)

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You've just got to love the right wing propagandists over at Fox, like Bill O'Reilly, having the nerve to be screeching about Al Gore and his business partners' decision to sell Current TV to Al Jazeera. Here's more from Mediaite on Bill-O's rant during the opening of his show this Thursday evening: Bill O’Reilly Tears Into ‘Hypocrite’ Al Gore For Trying To Settle Current TV Sale Before Taxes Went Up:

Bill O’Reilly had some harsh words for Al Gore tonight over his sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera. O’Reilly took issue with Gore’s hypocrisy in trying to finalize the sale before the fiscal cliff deadline this past Monday night to avoid paying higher taxes, as well as doing a deal with “anti-Americans” at Al Jazeera. O’Reilly declared that Gore has “shamed himself” with the deal.

O’Reilly highlighted Gore’s hypocrisy on taxes by bringing up video of Gore saying two months ago that he believes rich people such as himself need to “do our fair share.”

O’Reilly then set his sights on Al Jazeera, a network he declared to be run by “anti-Americans” and even sympathetic to Osama bin Laden. By making a deal with Al Jazeera, O’Reilly said, Gore has “shamed himself.” O’Reilly made it clear he would not want Al Jazeera to be censored, but said the whole deal is “sleazy” and “disgraceful.”

I'm not going to defend Gore on the tax hypocrisy, if the anonymous sources O'Reilly quoted here, that it was Gore along with his business partners who were pushing to get this through before taxes went up this year are correct. But as the article noted, Gore owns 20 percent of the company, so it wasn't just him pushing for the time table if the source is accurate. And if the source is not accurate, as O'Reilly admitted is possible, Gore may very well have not been the one pushing for the deal to go through before the end of the year to avoid the higher tax rate.

Of course, O'Reilly's solution for this is for Gore to come on his show and explain himself, which we all know would be a completely "fair and balanced" and cordial interview... or maybe not. The likely outcome would be O'Reilly screaming over Gore and calling him every name in the book and accusing him of sympathizing with terrorists, just as he did here.

Which brings us to O'Reilly's attack of Al Jazeera as some anti-American propaganda outfit. I just have to say, that's pretty rich coming from someone from the right wing propaganda outfit, Fox, which has an ownership stake by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. I guess O'Reilly doesn't have any problems with Uncle Rupert palling around with someone from the country where 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 were from.

And as to the quality of Al Jazeera's programming, from what I've watched of it, they've done a hell of a lot better job than Fox or many of their American counterparts with just delivering straight news from around the world. The reason people like O'Reilly hate them is for the real reporting they were attempting to do when the United States decided to invade Iraq under false pretenses and reporters from that network along with others paid the price for that with their lives.

Fox and O'Reilly were too busy playing cheerleader for the Bush administration at the time instead of telling Americans the truth about what we were doing there.

There are legitimate concerns to be had about foreign ownership of our news media here in the United States, but I think they pale in comparison to the problem we have with media consolidation, which is far more dangerous. The quality and honesty of what's presented to the American public matters and having five or so huge media companies controlling everything we watch, read, listen to and the mixture of entertainment and news has been far more corrosive than any addition of news channels with foreign ownership will ever be.

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David Brooks is not happy about the way the negotiations over the so-called "fiscal cliff" have been going so far and expressed some of that discontent on this Friday's PBS Newshour. Brooks apparently has President Obama mixed up with House Speaker John Boehner when it comes to who has been "thumping" their chest during these negotiations.

He also accused President Obama of over-reading his mandate and attempted to link what's going on now to George W. Bush going out there and pushing his extremely unpopular views on privatizing Social Security, which Brooks called "reform" (a.k.a. privatizing) during this segment on PBS. Brooks now claims that it was a mistake for Bush to have done that back in 2004.

I looked around for any columns by Brooks after Bush made his statement that he had a mandate and didn't have any luck finding any. If any of our readers happen to come across commenting on the "mandate" remarks by Bush, I'd love to see what he was saying back then compared to now and if he's done a 180 on whether he thought actually thought Bush was wrong at the time, as he's saying he believes now.

I hate to bread it do David Brooks, but raising taxes on the wealthy is very popular with Americans. President Obama does actually have a mandate to do something about the income disparity in America, unlike Bush, where the more he talked about his plans for Social Security, and how wrong Al Gore was about the "lock box," and how the trust fund was nothing but a bunch of worthless I.O.U.s that those like him that borrowed against for wars and tax cuts should never have to pay back, the less popular his ideas became.

And I don't recall Bush campaigning on privatizing Social Security. So Brooks' analogy here is completely ridiculous, but that's about what I'd expect from someone who has spent his entire career trying to make Republican policies palatable to those they can con into voting against their own economic interests.

Here's more from Driftglass, who also flagged this segment and who thought as little of Brooks' remarks as I did:

Only in the precious, punch-drunk imagination of the Apostate Conservative is actually learning from your previous confrontations with vicious, reckless assholes considered an insulting affront to magnanimity.

Only measured by the dissolute sensibilities of the Apostate Conservative is opening negotiations by saying that you intend to do what you were just re-elected a stick in the eye.

Go read the rest for more on David Brooks' fellow Republican turd polisher, Andrew Sullivan's similar remarks.

Full transcript below the fold.

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From this Tuesday evening's coverage on Current TV of the Republican National Convention, The War Room host and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm reacts to Ohio Gov. John Kasich taking credit for his state's improving economy.

As Granholm and others pointed out, if Kasich were willing to be honest, he'd be thanking President Obama for saving the auto industry and his state's economy, rather than praising and supporting the guy for president, who famously said to let Detroit go bankrupt. If it were up to Willard, Kasich wouldn't have anything to be bragging about right now.

Par for the course for a convention whose entire theme is based on a lie and distortion and taking President Obama's "you didn't build that" remarks out of context.

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Keith Olbermann sat down with David Letterman this Tuesday to give his side of the not-entirely-unexpected firing from Current TV. I don't think Keith Olbermann did himself any favors with the $10 million chandelier reference, but he did give us a bit of insight into his take on everything from problems with the set, to his drivers not being paid for by the network, to why he had some problems appearing on the air and problems with losing his voice.

Obviously, Olbermann will present his side as contritely as possible that he tried to make it work, but he missed a whole lot of days besides the ones he addressed here. And I think it's a bit ridiculous to claim that he didn't know before he signed that Current had limited viewing access across the country and much lower budgets than the networks he had previously been on.

I regret the loss of both his MSNBC and Current TV shows, mainly because he was one of the few willing to speak out about the excesses of the Bush administration years ago and risk getting fired or publicly shamed. He did it anyway when we sorely needed not just Keith, but others speaking out in the same manner. This site was always very supportive of his show and he had been generous to us as well, even acknowledging C&L in one of his books.

That said, he was famous for being prickly and difficult to work with and work for. I'm not so sure how much of a chance he was willing to give Gore's network, nor how much Gore and the others there let him down with promises not kept of production standards and professionalism. It's sad that what looked to be another potential news network not governed by right wing corporate talking points is going through this sort of turmoil. Hearing about all of it aggravates me just as badly as when I found out about the problems with Air America.

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I can't say this is a big surprise, but it's a welcome one. Cenk Uygur will be bringing his web show, The Young Turks to Current TV.

Here's more from the HuffPo -- Cenk Uygur To Current TV: Ex-MSNBC Host Brings Web Show To Olbermann's Network :

Cenk Uygur is headed to Keith Olbermann's house.

Current TV announced Tuesday that Uygur is bringing his Web show "The Young Turks" to its network. The show will air at 7 PM, just before Olbermann's "Countdown."

Uygur had been hosting the 6 PM hour on MSNBC, before his extremely contentious departure from the network in July. Uygur said that he had felt pressure to soften his tone against the Obama administration, something MSNBC denied. He was replaced by Al Sharpton.

The day after he left MSNBC, Uygur appeared on "Countdown." At the same time, he made it clear that he had already started talking to Current about the possibility of hosting a show there. That made Tuesday's announcement something of a foregone conclusion.

In its announcement, Current said that it would be launching an "original television version" of "The Young Turks." The network did not give a start date for the program, saying only that it would air in the fourth quarter of 2011.

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Ron Paul's use of Rick Perry's endorsement of Al Gore back in 1988 (Perry was Gore's Texas campaign chairman when he ran for President) is contrasted with Paul's own endorsement of Ronald Reagan in 1976 and 1980. Perry had been a Democrat, but switched to the Republican party in 1989.

It's a curious choice but probably has some resonance with Republican voters where brand loyalty is a must, and the canonization of Saint Ronnie was declared years ago.

However, Ron Paul's own invocation of the Reagan legacy --whenever it suits him, it seems-- is the more curious aspect of the ad. From a factcheck by Newsweek in 2008:

From Ron Paul Web site: "Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first." – Ronald Reagan

Paul's embrace of Reagan's legacy represents a significant change of heart. Actually, it's the second time that Paul has changed his mind about Reagan. After endorsing Reagan for president in 1976 and again in 1980, Paul became disenchanted, leaving the Republican party in 1987. The following year, he told the Los Angeles Times:

Paul (May 10, 1988): The American people have never reached this point of disgust with politicians before. I want to totally disassociate myself from the Reagan Administration.

Paul's disaffection started early in Reagan's presidency. "Ronald Reagan has given us a deficit 10 times greater than what we had with the Democrats," Paul told the Christian Science Monitor in 1987. "It didn't take more than a month after 1981, to realize there would be no changes."

Sometime between 1988 (during Paul's run for the presidency on the Libertarian Party ticket) and 1996 (when Paul, running as a Republican once more, successfully ousted an incumbent House member in a GOP primary), Paul once again embraced Reagan's legacy. The New York Times reported then that Paul had used the longer version of the Reagan quote in a videotape sent to 30,000 households. According to the Times, Reagan's former attorney general, Edwin Meese III, flew to Texas "to insist that Mr. Reagan had offered no recent endorsements."

We were unable to document Reagan's endorsement of Paul. When we asked the Paul campaign for documentation, a spokesperson told us that the campaign was "a little more focused on positive things." The Paul campaign did not provide the Times with a date for the quotation in 1996, either.

So Ron Paul continues to use Reagan as necessary, with a quote which may or may not have occurred, or simply been a rubber-stamp endorsement presidents often make on behalf of congressmen, to keep trying to get elected by republican voters.

Curious indeed.

Below is a Ron Paul tv ad from 2008.

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