Saturday, October 30, 2004
:=8D
Don't ferget u can always e-mail the MooCow with cowments at MooCowMoo@aol.com!!!
That wiley MooCow has a copy of the March-April 2001 Audubon magazine, the one which a group of environmentalists, scientists, and distinguished authors each came up with a problem which they hoped (oh so naively) our illustrious president would address during the first four years of his regime. Let' s check out that list of distinguished guests and their issues, and see which (if any) the Bush administration has solved, or even attempted to solve.
1. Martha Marks, President of Republicans for Environmental Protection (now there's a small lobby...):
President Bush must lead America away from fossile fuels to a bright future built on renewable, clean energy. As long as we insist on drilling, digging, and burning fossil fuels, the American people will always be fighting a rear-guard defense of our air and water; the global climate; and our national parks, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, coastlines, and other beloved places. The technology and economics are right for this transformation today. Only the political barriers remain to be cleared away.
Well, those barriers not only remain in place, but our boy Georgie has all but cemented them firmly to the spot. Not only has George Bush Jr. attacked our national parks, wildlife refuges, and other pristine "beloved" areas with oil drilling permits, he has continued to keep our hands firmly chained to the caprices of foreign despots (read: the Saudis) who keep us jumping through hoops for the priveledge of wasting money on their oil. Why? Well, because as he and his cronies are from Big Oil families, the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc families all get a nice, tidy chunk of change as middlemen between the oil thugs and the general public. That's one cow they will keep milking until the well reuns dry, and beyond. Cow many moore wars will this administration start to keep the cash flowing into their pockets? Time can only tell...
2. Ralph Nader, Consumer Advocate and Green Party candidate (no longer):
The single most consequential mission that President Bush can undertake is to lead the world in solar energy research and use. Solar energy can eventually replace replace nuclear power, coal, oil, and gas. it would reduce the risk of geopolitical struggle and diminish global warming, ozone depletion, air and water pollution, and dependence on distant suppliers controlled by cartels and conglomerates. The main obstacle to achieving a solar world is opposition by the fossile fuel and atomic energy interests. They lobby Washington for subsidies, which create an uneven playing field.
Poor Ralphie; no wonder you got booted from the Green Party platform. Did you really think that Georgie Jr, he from one of the largest families on the side of the fossil fuel and atomic energy lobbies that wreck our country with their filthy money and endless pockets, was going to bite the hooked claw that fed him and his clan? Not bloody likely, my friend. As for solar power running the country, we'll see the Second Coming first, at least while Bush and his cronies fatten themselves on the oily, filthy lucre lining their pockets, care of Daddy Bush, his CEO flunkies, and those rascally Saudis (who devour quite a huge chunk of change themselves in their role as drug...err... oil pusher to the US).
3. Edward O. Wilson, Biologist, author, and conservationist:
(The President should) take the moral high ground. The world's natural economy is crumbling, imperiling the market economy. The US can and should show the way in the global conservation movement. We need an international summit on forests, aimed at a protocol that matches the caliber of those on ozone depletion and climate change. At home, you (the President) should work with Congress to gather all forested Federal land into the National Park system - or at least direct that all of it be administered by the same guidelines. Recreation, hunting, and fishing account for about 75% of the national forests' contribution to the gross domestic product; only 10% comes from mining and timber extraction.
Of course, once the smell of money hits the air, who do you think this administration sided with when it came to protecting our national forests? Why the mining and timber extraction lobbies, of course, they who may only accownt for 10% towards our GNP from our national forests, who who moost assuredly make larger lobbying pay-offs and campaign donations than does anyone representing the moore wholesome, profitable (but not bribe-inducing) enviro-friendly lobbiests - I'm guessing they would be the National Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, and udder such "leftist, reactionary" groups. Besides, our National Park system is in a shables at the mooment, thanks to the homicidal cuts gaspoed into their budgets, thanks to our old friend Georgie, the "green president". How much will the Bush family pocket when George's oil cronies get to drill in the Alaskan wilderness preserve? Perhaps the S.S. Condaleza Rice will become the next Exxon Valdeze...
4. Donella Meadows, Columnist and Director of the Sustainability Institute, Dartmouth College:
The single most necessary step for the environment is thoroughgoing campaign reform. As long as the government can be bought, those who benefit from environmental destruction will ablways be able to outbid those who fight for environmental protection. Construction, real estate, and other interests will strangle funding and implementation of the Endangered Species Act. Logging, mining, grazing, and off-road vehicle companies will fight the protection and restoration of our national lands. Oil, coal, and car companies will block real climate-protecting energy policy. The chemical and manufacturing lobbies will continue to write air and water laws. For real democracy, we need strict spending caps, so there's a level playing field for all candidates.
While you sit there, America, waiting to see the Second Coming long before solar power becomes going concern, you might as well add Campaign Finance Reform to the list of those entities not likely to happoen soon. It's like asking a glutton to give up his free lunch. Never gonna happen, folks. Especially now, since this goverment has been bought by the very same industries Ms. Meadows rails against - the MooCow has said it before, and he'll say it again: the Bush administration is the single moost corrupt administration ever to assume control of this country, and just where do you think Bush and his cronies got theit money and power from? Not the nice, green environmental pixies. It moost be said, cowever, that Ms Meadows at least does recognize the futility of her request of the Bush administration through her second part of her article: People who have come to office through our present corrupt system (Georgie??) can hardly be expected to fix that system on the basis of "suggestions" from people like me. They need very strong pressure, ultimately from the voters. The only way I can see to organize such pressure is for all the public-interest organizations - from the Audubon Society to the Children's Defense Fund to the League of Women Voters to the American Red Cross - to band together and insist on it. To quote James Goldman, author of The Lion in Winter, from the same text: "The day those stout hearts band together will be the day when pigs fly". Got pork in the tree tops yet? Nope? Because of the appalling state of leadership in the Democratic party, you know, the ones who are supposed to be the environmentally- responsible ones, there never has, and moost likely never will be, such an unprecedented consolidation of liberal power. Why? Because the Democrats have learned that the only way to cowpete with the Republicans is by sucking in vast quantities of special interest moolah - and once you become beholden to them there is no going back, unless you happen to be independently wealthy (like the Heinz family riches??). It's like asking people to give back all the millions of handguns, machine guns, and assault rifles - closing the barn door is moot once the cows have all bolted.
Drat, only 3 days left until the election - have to leave this cow pie out half-baked. Sorry, kids there was mooore, but I don't have the time to finish. You get the idea, though...:=8/
- posted by The MooCow @ 1:25 AM
