Republican Lawmakers Label Irene, Quake 'Big Government Hoaxes'



Satellite photo or clever Photoshop hoax?

Speaking to Fox News anchor Bret Baier, a group of Republican Tea Party Caucus members including Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) angrily denounced the main stream media for its uncritical coverage of the recent alleged earthquake whose effects were felt from Georgia to Maine and the supposed hurricane, Irene, now poised to descend on the Eastern seaboard.

"Could anyone show me one bit of evidence that the mild shaking we felt last week was caused by an earthquake?" challenged DeMint. "I mean someone besides one of those super-biased liberal seismologists," he added, making quotation motions with his fingers as he sneered the word "seismologist".

As DeMint elaborated upon his contention that the supposed earthquake could have been nothing more than a large sonic boom engineered by Washington, he was interrupted by Congressman Barton who insisted that the "quake hoax" was just part of a "much larger plan to use or manufacture a series of natural disasters to make people think public services are necessary."

"Just look at this Irene hullabaloo!" he said. "You got virtually twenty-four-seven coverage of this thing no one's actually seen yet, and not one so-called reporter bothers to ask 'Where's the wind?' No one asks if this couldn't be something cooked up by liberal eggheads at NOAA looking to secure some more federal lard. Why is the media playing softball with this stuff. I think we all know why!"

When Baier pointed out that many satellite photos had documented the presence of Irene off the Atlantic coast, Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC), also present for the Fox segment, shouted "LIES!"

"My twelve-year-old daughter could photoshop up a thing like that in about five minutes!" he added.