senator james inhofe. in the end, senator inhofe got off easy.dial flying classes. how has senator inhofe responded to that? by going after the faa with both barrels. the senator maintains he was not at fault when he flew over a giant yellow "x" marking the runway closed. he said he was frustrated by how long it took to resolve his case from 2010 when he scared those people to january of this year when he found out about his punishment -- classes. about two and a half months worrying maybe he would lose his pilot's license, even though he didn't. now senator inhofe calls the overreach of the faa. senator inhofe almost landed a plane on a group of construction workers on a closed runway, but now he's the victim, and he's using his power as a senator to show that the government agency in charges of protecting us all from people who are as bad at flying airplanes as he is, that agency is the enemy and must be reigned in. senator inhofe saying i was never fully appreciative of the feeling of desperation until it happened to me of the senator inhofe,

senator james inhofe of oklahoma is literally above the law. he's playing games with the faa and tonight i'm calling him out. >> great to have you with us tonight. right wing talkers, you see what they will do? they will use any story possible. to make the democrats look evil. rush limbaugh is at the top of the list. the worst of the worst. today he used the casey anthony story to launch a shameful attack against liberals. >> some of the hosts of the cable news shows -- what i don't understand about it is, they're all card carrying liberals. when does the death of a child bother them? this is about -- i've never seen them get so upset over the death of a child. if the child had died two years earlier in the womb this woman would be a star, a hero. folks, i don't think that's a cliche to say. >> slow day of show prep? garbage spews from him every day. and information voters love the entertainment of it. they eat it up. republicans also claim that, you know, they are the party of life. and they prove time and again that they don't really give a [

unfairly last year when they threaten to revoke his license over the closed runway and so i guess inhofe thinks pilots have a right to land their planes anywhere they want even on top of construction crews and he's willing to spend taxpayer time and money to make sure he gets those rights and the very very ugly minnesota republican the minnesota government has been shut down for a week now because republicans refused to go along with the slight that seem crease on millionaires and billionaires in that state proposed by democratic governor mark dayton minnesota's losing out on millions of dollars each day that the shutdown continues but hoping to reach some sort of deal yesterday they dropped the tax made a right on the rich in exchange for a one dollar tax cigarettes on. that's. but even though ten to temple once you run for that republican said no to that idea to calling it a disappointing step backwards so the government will stay shut down i guess minnesota republicans will do anything to look out not just for the millionaires and billionaires but also the big tobacco lobby these guys

inhofe: madam president, first of all, we came back. we weren't anticipating coming back from this recess that we were going to be on, and i can't help but think a lot of that was the result of the statements that president obama had made criticizing the senate for leaving at a time when the debt is so bad and all of that when, in fact, i just -- i think that's a bum rap. i mean, you know, we were -- we have a serious problem i think we need to address, and that is the spending, and all these things that president obama is doing right now to make everyone think that we're trying to address it, appointing committees, appointing groups to get together, having the vice president head up this group and the other group and republicans and democrats, all the president has to do is quit spending. madam president, i have been here for a few years and i remember all during the -- the clinton administration, during the clinton administration we -- i remember 1995, i came down to this podium on the floor complaining that president clinton had come

only problem the detainees at gitmo are facing is putting on a few extra pounds according to senator inhofe was a very getting medal of medical care so what more could a detainee possibly want now we also called our professional wind bag rush limbaugh for calling get mo club med for muslims on his website he sells t. shirts about stay classy rush now if you've been paying attention to our show you should know the good mo is no club med the prison facility in cuba is seen as a symbol of u.s. human rights abuses around the world the facility was established in two thousand and two by the bush administration to hold detainees from the war in afghanistan and later also iraq and since that time reports of abuse and torture of prisoners has been widespread the international red cross has said that they're concerned about waterboarding sleep deprivation beatings indefinite detention at the facility and many detainees have been held that facility for years without any legal representation some have been just acquired under triable because they've been tortured and so therefore they will never see a

and, in fact, barbara boxer and senator senator inhofe tried to look at stimulus itself. in the first full year of the stimulus, 2009, orders for steel out of the pennsylvania's steel plants increased by 43%. concrete, 40%, asphalt, 51%. those workers that had been laid off were recalled because of stimulus. >> wow. >> stimulus invested $31 billion into the state of pennsylvania, and because of it, our economy grew and turned around. pennsylvania today has a 7.4% unemployment rate, almost two whole points less than the national average, and i think the healthiest of any of the industrial states because of stimulus, because we invested state money on top of stimulus, because we invested in our own growth. >> and this is the spend -- >> he does not know what he's talking about. >> and this is the state he stood and said this today in front of this plant really, distorting the facts of what you're laying out, and you were the governor at that time. mitt romney and run republicans seem to be arguing that if we had done nothing and give more tax cuts to wealthy, since those ta

inhofe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent i be recognized for 15 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: mr. president, first of all, let me just make a comment on something totally unrelated to the subject of the day and that is that we have a very significant bill that's coming up that the -- the occupier of the chair and i have put together. it's called the pilots' bill of rights. and the reason i want to say something about it, getting toward the end of the week right now, is that it happens that a week from today, the largest gathering any time, any place in the world of pilots to get together at oshkosh for the big event. i have been going for 32 consecutive years. we have probably the most significant single piece of legislation that we've ever introduced at oshkosh and we're going to have literally thousands -- i'm talking about 200,000 pilots, these are singl

inhofe: there is a simple reason we are talking about the debt limit increase and it's the fact this president has spent more money than i ever believed would be possible. so far he spent over $10 trillion in three years and next year if he has his way will spend another $3.5 trillion. i remember so well in the clinton administration, i think it was 1995, i was outraged, i me down this to this podium and said can you believe a president has a budget of $1.5 trillion, and this president has spent $10 trillion in this short time. if he hadn't spent all this money we wouldn't be talking about a debtimit increase right now. i hate to sound so partisan about it but it's truly a partisan issue. the democrats have supported his spending and the republicans have not. the boehner plan that we're going to vote on, they're going to vote in the house today and i think we might have an opportunity to vote on here later on tonight, may not be perfect. none of the stuff around here is perfect but it is good and has dramatically improved over the last 12 hours. it allows the dt limit increase but on

inhofe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: mr. president, just one comment on the subject at hand, and then i want to talk about something completely different that's very significant and happening today. you know, it's -- it's so easy -- i listened to the senator from new jersey down here. he kept talking about only in washington what can happen, only in washington. yet never was anything said about cutting spending. it was always about passing tax increases and that's what we'll be faced with tomorrow. let me mention that just a few minutes ago i did introduce -- and we have a bill number, it's s. 1335, it is the pilot's bill of rights. this is very significant that we get this done today, and i'm going to explain y first of all, when senator john glenn from ohio retired, that left me as the last active commercial pilot on the -- in the united states senate. consequently, i probably get more complaints than anybody else does. and i -- about problems, abuses with the f.a.a. and i have to say this, that i was very complementary ye

senator james inhofe, have a great day.t ahead, we forge ahead. boys will be boys. no longer than excuse in america. you got a judge making teens register as sex offenders for mooning their friends. will that ruling really stand? then a bombshell in the casey anthony trial. geraldo rivera here to explain. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholester. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪ energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the env

let me read a letter from the department of defense general counsel to senator inhofe from july of 2008. and i quote, it creates uncertainty about what fuels d.o.d. can procure and will discourage the development of new sources, particularly reliable domestic sources of energy sploys for the armed forces -- supplies for the armed forces, unquote. let me go on. let me give you a practical real-world example of what section 526 does. our closest neighbor with stable energy supplies is canada. and we import 650,000-plus barrels a day of oil that's produced from oil sands in canada. . and that oil gets blended in jet fuels and diesel. section 526 would say that the u.s. military, united states government, more broadly, cannot utilize any of those fuels. there's no technical or commercial way that the military of the united states government can make sure it is not using any fuel source that came from that crude oil. let me go on and wrap up like this. you are going to hear a lot of remarks from the other side of the aisle regarding the claims about section 526 or about my amendment. my amen

on july 9, 2008, the pentagon in a letter to senator james inhofe, stated, and i quote, such a decision would cause significant harm to the readiness of the armed forces because these fuels may be widely used and particularly important in certain geographic areas. in summary, not only policies created a burden to american families and businesses but they cause significant harm and unreadiness to the armed forces, end quote. section 526 makes our nation more dependent on middle east oil. stopping 526 would promote american energy, improve the american economy and create american jobs. to everyone watching these proceedings today, i would say this -- following my remarks, you will hear speakers from the other side of the aisle make several claims regarding the merits of section 526. when you hear these claims, please remember the following facts about section 526 -- it increases our reliance on middle eastern oil, it hurts our military readiness and our national security, it prevents the use of safe, clean and efficient north american oil and gas, it increases the cost of american food an

the hold us accountable within the living wit parameters of living within our means.why we can't inhofe we will hear reasons wehe can't do it and it might hurt to the poor.ny nobody here wants to in any way help intend anything other than support for those who can't help themselves. we that's their excuse. we can't do that. let me tell you what's going topen in happen in our country. is the very programs that helps tt the poor the very programs that di help the poor are goingmi to be diminished in the future through fiscal necessity when we are mandated to make the cuts to the able to borrow more money. so, it is a false statement because by not voting for areally sayg i balanced budget amendment, whatng b you are really saying is i want to claim one thing that i know something else is going toi happen. i paraphrase a statement of martin luther king that i think t describes this place if more than anything else i've ever known. and it was this.uestion they ask the question of something popular. a cowardice asks the question is eedient expedient?is character asks the question is it true

inhofe: madam president, first, i stand here in total agreement with everything the senator has said.he time is right. it is now. you know, we've been talking about a balanced budget amendment. we've been talking about this problem for many, many years. to me, it's -- i feel great frustration that i'm even here right now in the chamber. we've quite often -- quite often what i do, i have kind of a regular schedule, if i am not on a weekend in iraq, afghanistan, or africa, someplace having to do with the duties that i have as the second-ranking member of the armed services committee, i'm back in oklahoma and i've been a pilot for 50 years, and i ghet a little plane andgy out and i talk to real people and people shake their heads and say, why are we still talking about this? why aren't we doing it? why is it that we are so wrapped up in this thing and the answer -- there's not an easy answer to this thing. we're supposed to be back here, i guess, talking about the libya resolution. i think we all realize that that's something that kind of diverts the attention of the american people from

inhofe: there is a simple reason we are talking about the debt limit increase and it's the fact this president has spent more money than i ever believed would be possible. so far he spent over $10 trillion in three years and next year if he has his way will spend another $3.5 trillion. i remember so well in the clinton administration, i think it was 1995, i was outraged, i came down this to this podium and said can you believe a president has a budget of $1.5 trillion, and this president has spent $10 trillion in this short time. if he hadn't spent all this money we wouldn't be talking about a debt limit increase right now. i hate to sound so partisan about it but it's truly a partisan issue. the democrats have supported his spending and the republicans have not. the boehner plan that we're going to vote on, they're going to vote in the house today and i think we might have an opportunity to vote on here later on tonight, may not be perfect. none of the stuff around here is perfect but it is good and has dramatically improved over the last 12 hours. it allows the debt limit increase

that's why i was able to get together with senator graham and senator inhofe to work on a way that we could get those schools fixed, because they're crumbling. since a picture is worth a thousand words, i'll just show this picture from one of the schools. you can see the tiles on the roof just crumbling. we've had that in our public schools before we woke up. literally, these tiles fall down, and it's just by the grace of god that a child doesn't get hit or a teacher doesn't get hit and very hurt. so clearly, we need to do something about it. what i'd like to say is that we started off with an amendment that actually required the d.o.d. to fix up these schools. now we're asking for a report that they do it because we have to avoid some parliamentary procedure problems of legislating on aprops. so we believe we've done this. i think everyone should read last month's "newsweek." they published an investigation by the center for integrity which documented the condition of d.o.d.-run schools with serious problems: leaks, corrosion and mold and overcrowding and relying on temporary facilit