Yup! There's ice up there. And as a political junkie I'm psyched!

Why? Why should this news make a political junkie happy? Why is this news for a political blog? Because science best describes reality, and as our esteemed colleague Mr. Colbert said, "Reality has a liberal bias."

And when reality has a problem, we liberals have a problem. A triumph for science is a triumph for liberals.

Let's get on the Reality Express and go for a jump!

As political villains go, there are few more prominent, more outrageous, or more complete for progressives than Senator James Mountain "Jim" Inhofe.

Inhofe is rather the perfect manifestation of the scourge the post-Gingrich Republican Party has inflicted on common sense in America. His staunch opposition to even the slightest acknowledgment of climate change is legendary, and probably the feather in the cap of Inhofe's lunacy.

It's worth noting that Inhofe has been the beneficiary of over one million dollars in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry.

Frankly, though, I don't think that's the source of Inhofe's rabid anti-environmentalism: I think he truly believes all of it.

A few choice quotes:

On global warming:

"The greatest hoax ever perpetuated on the American people".

On environmentalists:

"It kind of reminds... I could use the Third Reich, the Big Lie... You say something over and over and over and over again, and people will believe it, and that's their [the environmentalists'] strategy... A hot summer has nothing to do with global warming. Let's keep in mind it was just three weeks ago that people were saying, 'Wait a minute; it is unusually cool...Everything on which they [the environmentalists] based their story, in terms of the facts, has been refuted scientifically."

On An Inconvenient Truth:

The Oklahoma Republican compares "An Inconvenient Truth," which he doesn't plan to see, to Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf."

"If you say the same lie over and over again, and particularly if you have the media's support, people will believe it," Inhofe said.

I picked out three quotes. I could have picked three hundred. Head-in-the-sand science expressed with the bitterest of personal venom has long been Inhofe's cause celebre. Inhofe is, of course, a reliable right-wing stooge on other issues as well. He gave his name to the Inhofe Amendment to the 2006 Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, an amendment which then-Minority Leader Harry Reid famously called "racist". He is pro-torture. He is a staunch opponent of abortion rights and gay rights, and even of Jim Webb's 21st Century GI Bill, a bill Inhofe once supported. Even in today's Republican Party, it is difficult to find a more radical (or cartoonishly unpleasant) right-winger elected to statewide office than James Inhofe.

But as loathsome as Inhofe is, what of the man who would replace him?

Andrew Rice is a 34-year old father of two, public policy advocate, and Oklahoma State Senator. He is the brother of David Rice, a former Fulbright Scholar and New Yorker who was killed in the 9/11 tragedy. Following the death of his brother, Rice devoted his life to influencing public policy.

From his website, here is a bit of Rice's history prior to his entry into politics:

Andrew graduated from Colby College in Maine with a Bachelor’s Degree in Religious Studies and went to work in Sri Lanka and Thailand on rural development projects in impoverished villages.

He returned to the U.S. a year later to attend Harvard Divinity School, where he graduated in 1999 with a Masters in Theological Studies.

In graduate school, he collaborated with his sister, Amy Rice, to produce the documentary, "From Ashes," about an ex-convict who runs a hospice for rejected HIV-positive patients in Bangalore, India. At the time of his brother’s death, Rice was working in New York as a documentary film producer.

Shortly after 9/11, Rice worked at the Texas Faith Network (TFN) in Austin, Texas, where he organized Texas religious leaders to advocate for moderate and progressive public policy ideas. He also organized education programs at places of worship all across Texas about the dangers of religious intolerance.

Since entering politics, Rice has proven to be a progressive voice in one of the most conservative states in the country. Upon entering the State Senate, Rice devoted his time to healthcare reform, culminating in his introducing Steffanie's Law in 2008 and passing it through the State Senate with broad support. His progressive stances on health care reform, telecom immunity, international affairs and the Iraq War, and environmental affairs are quite impressive. Considering he comes from such a conservative state, his progressive credentials are truly remarkable.

Considered a rising star in Oklahoma Democratic politics since his 2005 election to the State Senate, Rice has now decided to take on a race few thought he could win, against a man who has held federal office since 1986. He is running in a state where Bush defeated Kerry 66% to 34% in 2004, where the only Democrat in the federal delegation is the conservative Rep. Daniel Boren, where no Democrat has won election to the Senate since Boren's father David in 1990.

Yet Rice had the bravery to take on this race, for the simple reason that Oklahomans deserve better than James Inhofe. Make no mistake, Rice is no sacrificial lamb. His fundraising has been impressive, his campaign is gaining genuine traction with voters, and his organization is sufficiently strong to have drawn support already from the DSCC. Although Inhofe has long held federal office, he has never managed more than 57% of the vote in any of those elections, and I seriously doubt he will exceed that total this fall.

Rice seeks to expand the Democratic map into the reddest of territory, while remaining unashamed of progressive ideas. He has stood up to oppose a truly horrendous Senator who has no business spending another day in Washington. He is the future of the Democratic party in his state, and we're proud to add Andrew Rice to Orange to Blue.

Remember, Oklahoma is a relatively cheap state in which to advertise, meaning that just a little bit of money goes a long way towards helping Rice get his message out. So show some love to the newest Orange to Blue candidate, State Senator Andrew Rice.

On the web:

Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

Race tracker wiki: OK-Sen

Once again, Jim Inhofe is playing the 'blame-game'. Instead of fighting for Oklahomans, Jim is trying to blame Democrats for high gas prices. This is too cute by half.

He's even gone to the extreme point of putting a poll on his website... check it out. And vote... And the worst part of it all, I would bet you a $1 that Jim tries to use these 'statistics' in one of his baseless speeches.

GO TO JIM'S SITE AND VOTE!

Help get this guy out of office! Support Andrew Rice!!

I know, I know...it's not likely, but a brother can dream can't he?

Following up on my post from yesterday and incorporating some of the suggestions/corrections from the comments made there, let's take a look at our best case scenario in the November Senate elections.

Right now, we're at 49 Ds, 49 Rs and 2 I's.  When the smoke clears on election night in November we'll be at 62 Ds, 37 Rs and 1 I.
Here's how it's going to happen....

State House and Senate pass bill. Governor enacts bill into law. ACLU hears about bill and offers to sponsor anyone who breaks it.

Businessmen in small town decide putting the bill on trial would be good for business. High school football coach volunteers to break law. High school football coach breaks law (probably). Businessman pays coach/teacher's bond. Teacher is convicted and fined. Mississippi passes similar law. Fine is later overturned because the jury wasn't allowed to levy so heavy a fine. Law stands.

Third state enacts similar law. First law is repealed 42 years later, almost to the date on which John Scopes was indicted for breaking the Butler Act, which prohibited teaching evolution in public schools in Tennessee.

A stumbling point for me in the practice of Buddhism is optimism.  I do not do optimism.  My thoughts on optimism parallel Ambrose Bierce.

Optimism: The doctrine that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong... It is hereditary, but fortunately not contagious.

I am particularly prone to pessimism (realism) when it comes to the response of our species to climate change. In reading the parable of the Burning House from the Lotus Sutra, I am tempted to wonder (which is as close as I come to hope).

It's a really exciting time to be a Democrat. Texas is turning purple. Colorado is, too. And what's the matter with Kansas? Turns out, not so much.

What do these states have in common? As an Okie, they're my neighbors! And Oklahoma has an opportunity this season to elect a real progressive Democrat to fill the seat of America's dumbest Senator, Jack Jim Inhofe.

On Saturday, at "The Gathering" for Veterans, I had a conversation with Senator Lisa Murkowski regarding Sen. Stevens's stance against the 21st Century GI Bill.  I was emphatic that he was on the wrong side of the issue and I asked if there was anything she could do to change his mind.

Interestingly enough, the answer I got from her referenced the new McCain-Graham Bill.  She stated that she's absolutely insisting on a "side-by-side" of the two bills to see if it was comparable. That answer threw me off as it wasn't in response to the question I asked.  The other interesting aspect is that for the first time during our conversation, Sen. Murkowski seemed a little uncomfortable.

Via Think Progress:

On Tuesday, around 100 veterans and a dozen congressmen gathered on Capitol Hill to rally in support of Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) 21st Century G.I. Bill, which boasts the bipartisan support of 56 cosponsors.

In seeking the support of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — whom Webb said "needs to get on the bill" in order to secure more Republican support — Webb told McCain "several times that this is not a political issue." Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) pointed to the bill’s bipartisan support: "[P]eople like John Warner and James Inhofe are on it."

According to the Congressional record, however, Inhofe (R-OK) quietly removed his name from the list of cosponsors on Tuesday — the same day as the Capitol Hill rally.

Here's just one of the ways that presidential politics intrudes on Congressional politics.

Everyone knows that Jim Webb's "New GI Bill" is a no-brainer. The recruits we've sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in exchange for promises of educational benefits absolutely must get their due. But current law gives them a mere pittance compared to what the actual costs of going to college are. Webb's bill seeks to remedy that, boosting the assistance to a level that's actually capable of giving our veterans a decent shot at paying the bills at a decent school.

McCain can't afford to be seen as being against that. But because he's running for president on the platform that Democrats are evil terrorists, he also can't be seen cooperating with them (even as they fall over themselves to claim they'll "reach out" and "work with the other side," by the way). So what's a 71 year old whose Sugar Mama wife buys him eight houses and a private jet (but won't release her tax returns) to do?

Why, introduce your own new GI Bill, of course. Or better yet, get a surrogate to do it for you, so that you don't look petty. And that's just what McCain did, with a hat tip to none other than his number one sycophant, the man with whom he teamed up to shamefully surrender his anti-torture principles to Bush, Lindsey Graham.

And now, quietly, the Republicans who were on board with Webb's bill (because remember, it's a no-brainer) begin to discover heretofore unknown reservations about the bill. Reservations which are, of course, magically remedied in McCain's Graham's bill. Or so we're told, anyway. The bill wasn't even introduced until Tuesday. But I'm sure that's plenty of time to become certain about the necessity of withdrawing from a bill you've been a co-sponsor of for two months, as Inhofe did.

So there's your McMaverick, who rises above petty partisan politics in service to our men and women in uniform, America. Webb has worked tirelessly -- in the age of the "60 votes to pass anything" Senate -- to get 56 co-sponsors for his bill. And just as he's nearing the ability to close the deal, McMaverick jets in on the wife's puddle jumper to start peeling people away. In addition to Inhofe, look for Susan Collins (R-ME), Pete Domenici (R-NM), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) -- who are currently cosponsors of both bills -- to be pressured to drop their support for Webb's.

And why? Over genuine policy differences? Almost certainly not, though that's what their claim will be. No, this will be so that Mr. Republican Presidential Candidate doesn't have to admit he's working with Democrats, even as he campaigns on being the McMaverick who'll cross party lines to do right by our veterans.

Jim Webb has him dead to rights:

"He’s so full of it."

One of the greatest joys in the 2006 election, amid the triumph of capturing both the House and Senate, came with now Congressman Jerry McNerney's defeat of Richard Pombo in CA-11. Pombo was in real competition to be the worst member of Congress when it came to energy and environmental issues.  On the other hand, McNerney knows energy, clean energy

During his career in wind energy, McNerney's work contributed to saving the equivalent of approximately 30 million barrels of oil, or 8.3 million tons of carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas - as well as other harmful pollutants.

In 2008, across the country, we have the opportunity for similarly stark shifts from Energy Dumb to Energy Smart elected officials.  

This diary is an appeal for help in identifying Energy Smart vs Energy Dumb opportunities across the country, for developing a strategy for bringing attention to these campaigns and these issues, and helping change the balance in Congress when it comes to energy-related legislative activity.

On Sunday, the New York Times ran an article a news release by global warming skeptic Marc Morano,communications director for the Republicans on the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, ranking member James Inhofe, R-OK, telling us that Global Warming has been supplanted by Global Cooling. Some of those who waited in the cold and snow to vote in Ohio on Tuesday might be inclined to agree.

Most Kossacks have already heard about the progressive Democrat who's challenging ultra-conservative Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe. Andrew Rice has already generated lots of enthusiasm here, as well at at Firedoglake, Crooks & Liars and other Netroots blogs, as well as at ActBlue.

But as young, dynamic and compelling as Andrew is, it will be a tough campaign in a traditionally "red" state against a well-funded, entrenched opponent. He needs help from inside and outside of the state for the resources to compete and win.

Fortunately there are other young and dynamic Oklahoma progressives who are pitching in to help support Andrew. One you may have already heard of: Flaming Lips founder and singer, Wayne Coyne, who grew up and still lives in Oklahoma City.

Are you excited? I am a proud Obama supporter, I am stoked for his chances to take back the White House.  But it is not enough to get from a  49-49 Senate to a 54-44 Senate with cowards and pathological enablers.
 
If this election is going to be truly historic and aligning. If we want to crush and humiliate and set straight the GOP's real nature, brutality and their status in the minds of Middle America for some years.

And I think we both do. We cannot just gain pickups here. We need to have the kind of quantitative and qualitative type of victory in our Senate and House races that is both a) realistic and broadly sustainable and b) transformative.

Let me explain how we get there.

Barak Obama sold out his constituents to the nation's largest operator of nuclear plants -- and one of his major contributors.  The typical Washington cave-in happened when Obama's constituents were outraged that their drinking water was contaminated with radioactive tritium as a result of unreported leaks from a nearby nuclear power plant.

The company responsible for poisoning the wells was Exelon, the nation's largest operator of nuclear power plants.  It has contributed $227,000 to Senator Obama's various campaigns.

Obama initially offered legislation to require reporting of all leaks, granstanded on it, quietly caved to industry allowing his legislation to be gutted, then lied about getting it passed.

Barbara Boxer is desperate for having Global Warming legislation under her belt.  Can there be a better explanation for her strong championing of the fatally-flawed Lieberman-Warner Climate (in) Security Act? (For a great discussion of CISA's/Coal-Subsidy Act's flaws, see this commentto a post by Environmental Defense at Grist defending CISA.)

Thus, it shouldn't surprise anyone that Boxer has reacted angrily to the Friends of the Earth ad campaign voicing reason re Lieberman-Warner

Fix or Ditch the Lieberman-Warner Global Warming Bill,

NY Times reporter Andy Revkin's environmental blog Dot Earth has generated comments from a wide variety of respected scientists such as the realclimate bloggers and other prominent folk, particularly on climate issues. In response to today's post on the the latest American Geophysical Union statement on climate change, who should put up a comment but none other than Marc Morano, communications director for James Inhofe's notorious (now minority) US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Yes, that same Morano who created that report on 400 scientists supposedly against the global warming consensus.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) gave a contract to the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) to do an analysis of Congressional websites; all 618 of them. Among the recipients of the Golden Mouse Award (warning: 115 page pdf) for excellence in public communication by a Congressional website, the highest available, the minority of the Senate Environmental & Public Works Committee.  This is, to remind you, the site of Senator James Inhofe (R-Exxon) and his Global Warming denier / skeptic crowd who regularly peddle misleading and false material to the nation, using their taxpayer funded site.  Yes, using this site to trap unwary visitors in a web of deception, deceit, and denial.

As per Inhofe (R-Exxon): Truthiness Gift for Christmas, Senator James M. Inhofe (R-Exxon) certainly has staff who understand how to play the media and influence game. On the eve of the Senate recess for Christmas, out went a truthiness (disingenuous, misleading, etc) "report" about how "over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called 'consensus' on man-made global warming'." While many have provided ample material about how ridicule this report is, Mark Johnson at The Daily Green has made the effort to go through the report, "prominent scientist" by "prominent scientist" to underscore the significant (lack of) qualifications of the 413 listed in this 'cut-and-paste' report.