Recall this story from yesterday: US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse From Rhode Island Provides Erroneous Information To American Public in Global Warming Rant
Foxnews reports on the apology. Note that about the same time, Barbara Boxer was making similar claims. Later, you get to decide with a poll:
Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has apologized for remarks Monday in which he linked Oklahoma “cyclones” to climate change while berating Republicans for their stance on the issue — around the time a massive tornado killed dozens in that state.
A Whitehouse spokesman said Tuesday the politically charged remarks were pre-written as part of the senator’s weekly Senate floor speech on climate change.
“Tragically and unbeknownst to the senator at the time, a series of tornadoes were hitting Oklahoma at the same moment he gave his remarks,” the spokesman said. “Senator Whitehouse regrets the timing of his speech and offers his thoughts and prayers to the victims of yesterday’s storms and their families, and he stands ready to work with the senators from Oklahoma to assist them and their constituents in this time of need.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/21/democratic-sen-whitehouse-apologizes-for-climate-republican/#ixzz2TyKkWX3C
Here is the text of his speech: http://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/time-to-wake-up-gop-opposition-to-climate-science-
And his statement today: http://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/statement-on-tragedy-in-oklahoma
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Blade, AMEN. What is sad is they prove it every day, in every way.
They hold all judiciary appointments hostage, yet the federal courts are grossly overworked and understaffed. They hold market treaties at bay owing to union influences, which diminishes our ‘free trade’ chops with countries already inclined to move otherwise. And they vote to exempt themselves and their toady staffs from laws they are eager to push on the rest of us, including (unbelievably) things like sexual harassment prohibitions. (it is impossible to make this up).
Good or bad, about time to take out a big electoral eraser and start over with folks more aligned to the founding values of what was a great country, and can be again.
If there are no consequences, there is no apology.
Don’t try to figure out just how I feel inside,
Just tell me something good so I can soothe my pride.
I’ll tell you anything to save my precious hide,
But don’t think twice, it’s a LIE!
Whitehouse might not have known about the “cyclone” of yesterday, but in that case he was surely referring to those of the day before. To pretend he was referring to Oklahoma “cyclones” in the abstract is totally disingenuous. Sincere people who apologize declare their offense. He gave a weak excuse instead. Man up, Senator!
So he issues insults in person, but has some staffer to apologize for him?!
Mike Jonas says: “The tornado started on 20 May at 2:45pm CDT. That’s 3:45pm ET. Senator Whitehouse’s speech appears to have been given at 4:44pm ET”
What he deduced. Whitehouse’s speech was about 58 minutes after Tornado hit.
It is possible Whitehouse did not know, and his speech was coincidence of terrible timing.
It is also possible Whitehouse jumped on Oklahoma Tornado to push Global Warming F.U.D. like a GW Climatologist jumps on more taxpayer funding.
Senator Wheldon’s speech shows an amazing breadth of ignorance as well as stunning lack of judgment.
“…offers his thoughts and prayers to the victims of yesterday’s storms and their families…”
His thoughts are certainly going to do them a lot of good.
In the USA common usage for the event would be tornado. The term hurricane is used for the severe “cyclonic” storms coming from the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, to have the term cyclones “pre-written as part of the senator’s weekly Senate floor speech on climate change” is either false, or the senator and his staff ought not to be commenting on weather events the terminology of which baffles them. Also, that he gives a weekly speech on climate change prompts this question: Why?
Global warming didn’t work. “Climate Change” either. Perhaps they should “fight” the current decades long Climate Stability!!!
Well perhaps the politician is apologizing but on Yahoo skeptics, the Director of the Climate Institute, Mike MacCracken is playing with innuendos of Global Warming cause while responding to a regular poster:
“I would just note that it is not seasonal trends that determine tornado intensity—it is what is happening in particular weather situations and averaging over a season can cover up a lot of things. What happened with the tornadoes in this case was some very moist Gulf of Mexico air was pulled (and so the issue is how the water vapor concentration compared to high levels in the past, etc.) and there was a large meander in the jet stream persisting in a region for a good bit of time (which is just the type of circulation situation that the work of Jennifer Francis suggests could become more likely due to the reduced meridional temperature gradient caused by the warming Arctic).
And then it also makes no sense just to be looking at the last 15 years, especially given how trends can vary over short periods (which is why the normal time for determining the climate is 30 years). (…) Mike
==
Obviously cold air must be coming from anywhere but the “warming” Arctic… LOL
Once again MacCracken fails…
TomRude Quoting Mike MacCracken:
ouch – screwed up the blockquote tags
The headline on this page is misleading. Senator Whitehouse didn’t actually “apologize” for anything that he said, or for what he meant to say. Rather than apologize, Whitehouse’s “Statement on Tragedy in Oklahoma” merely states that he “regrets the timing of his speech”.
There’s absolutely nothing within his statement regarding the content or the intent of “his speech”. With that in mind it’s relevant to consider the twisted sense of logic Whitehouse tends to use.
Using Whitehouse’s distorted logic he and all his anti-2nd Amendment colleagues would be guilty of aiding and abetting criminal activity, every time any predator thug commits crimes against any law abiding citizen that has been denied easy access to firearms…
@Just Tex – Good catch! The apology was no apology. His original statements still stand. And his lies about the timing are merely that – lies.
PaulH says:
May 21, 2013 at 5:10 pm
Mike Jonas says:
May 21, 2013 at 7:07 pm
I claim he is a blatantly, deliberately lying.
The tornadoes – the day previous to this speech – were concentrated across Texas, Oklahoma, and other states, but the tornado underway as he spoke his hate-filled diatribe against conservative (Oklahoma voters who support James Inaofe was killing Oklahoma residents. There was NO reason for ANY of his staffers to write such a speech the day before that would call out OK specifically!
Further, I challenge this “spokesperson” to produce the speech – on paper, dated the day before the deadly tornado, that was used. A digital copy as well from the Senate archives, proving the date written, and the back copies for that night proving it was not “back-dated” …
Statistically speaking, there is a Poisson relationship between extreme weather happening after an extreme weather speech. I suggest we use that as “causality” just as the pro-AGW people use it to denounce AGW. Those familiar with Poisson distributions will know exactly why there silly rants will look like causally induced extreme weather. “If they just didn’t talk about it, it wouldn’t happen.”
The day I start believing any politician is the day the kids should put me in ‘the home.’
Almost! Come on, we can do it.
97%
Well that certainly explains it. One would like to think a US senator giving a public address on the Senate floor would take the time to read it in advance to make sure it was what he wanted to say, but apparently not.
Treachery and malice aside, do we really need people in the senate reading stuff aloud? A local radio station can do a better job, for less.
So this is an admission that the White House writes Senators public remarks. That is the part I fund troubling. These are not his words, but the administrations.
what an excuse – apparently we should accept his apology because he didn’t know about the tornadoes he was talking about when he was talking about them. Riiiiiiigghttt….
Although with regard to what Alan Watt, Climate Denialist Level 7 asked, I wouldn’t expect a Senator to know any more about a speech he was about to read than I would expect Ron Burgundy to know what was going to be in his newscast, or the Big O to know what was about to show up on his teleprompter, for that matter.
Have to agree with Sheldon on this one. He’s not too bright, but bright enough not to make this kind of political mistake while knowing the disaster was going on right at the moment. Will he say the same thing at some point in the future? Of course. But he just will be a bit more careful on the timing. In other words, his staff will be there to control the situation.
It just blows me away that this administration thinks that we need to have a “weekly climate change speech”. It just shows how politicized and polarized the topic has become at that level.
Whitehouse lies and the truth is not in ’em. Works for me………………
91.27% of voters think Whitehouse is a liar. Consensus? It must be if 97% of climate scientists think that man is responsible for AGW. But then – like one commenter stated in a another column, shouldn’t man be responsible for 100% of AGW?