Stimulating the Environment
A lot has been made about what the stimulus package will do for renewable energy, but there is significant funding for traditional environmental restoration as well.
Check out these numbers from the Washington Post:
- $115 million for Fish and Wildlife for construction projects, including habitat restoration.
- $165 million to FWS for natural resource management.
- $320 million for the Bureau of Land management for resource management, construction and wildfire prevention.
- $6 billion for water infrastructure improvements.
- $6 billion for weapons-site clean-up
- $1.2 billion for superfund clean-up.
This is not pork. These are projects that need to be funded and have languished over the last eight years while.
Economic Stimulus: Just Hook Up the Damn Hoses
President Obama could have made big history here. Instead he just got a win. It’s a missed opportunity.
It’s a win because of the obvious headline: Nine days after inauguration, the new president achieves a major Congressional victory, House passage of an economic stimulus bill by a vote of 244-188. It wasn’t even close. This is major.
But do you know anyone, Democrat or Republican, dancing in the street over this? You don’t. Because most everyone knows it isn’t a good bill, and knows that its failure to receive a single Republican vote, not one, suggests the old battle lines are hardening. Back to the Crips versus the Bloods. Not very inspiring.
The president will enjoy short-term gain. In the great circle of power, to win you have to look like a winner, and to look like a winner you have to win. He did and does. But for the long term, the president made a mistake by not forcing the creation of a bill Republicans could or should have supported.
Consensus building would be ideal here, yes. But, I do wonder if we have time for it. At some point someone has to step up and be “the decider.”
The house is burning and we need to get some water on it now. Philosophical dithering about how we hook up the hoses can’t be a priority. Like it or not, the American people put the Democrats in charge of making these decisions. We need to live with what they decide.
Leaders are chosen to lead and when they screw up enough they get kicked to the curb.
Will Democrats Overreach on Climate Change?
The Economist weighs in on the dangers of a Waxman Energy and Commerce Committee chairmanship:
A few politicians, including Mr. Obama, are beginning to hone a cannier sales pitch: that tackling climate change is a way to revive America’s economy, not weigh it down further. But Mr Dingell would have been a much more convincing exponent of this view than Mr Waxman. The risk now is that environmentally-minded lawmakers will over-reach, and push for a measure that big business cannot stomach.
link: Industry and the environment | California dreaming | The Economist
Obama’s Security Adviser Calls For Energy Action
(Digg) President-elect Barack Obama’s choice of James Jones as national security adviser brings a retired Marine general who advocates a comprehensive overhaul to U.S. energy policy in the name of national defense. Jones was announced on Monday as part of the Obama administration’s national security team.
Political Odd Couple Take on Global Warming
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger got the support of President-elect Barack Obama last week at the California Governor’s Global Climate Summit when Obama delivered a taped address to attendees pledging his support for a comprehensive international climate change agreement.
The summit was the latest in a series high-profile international meetings that are expected to lead to a December 2009 climate treaty replacing the kyoto protocol. Schwarzenegger’s summit was largely symbolic — the parties did sign a few somewhat meaningful MOU’s — but the symbolism of two prominent politicians of both parties, along with several governor’s, should signal to the world and to Congress that the United States is ready to act with earnest on climate change.
The Last Word on Ms. Sarah P.
This video of the fine governor of Alaska is nothing short of surreal and succinctly encapsulates the unmitigated train wreck she is for the Republican Party. She’s got her Starbucks, babbling something about oil prices and two are turkeys being slaughtered in the background. What a wonderful gift she really turned out to be.
Yes You Can…
…own a piece of history.
Yep, they still make commemorative plates.
My favorite part is the white dude looking over at his Obama plate sitting on the desk and nodding with approval as he writes in his journal — or something — as if to say, “Yep, that’s right. That’s my man, Barack fucking Obama!”
Classic.
Clinton For State? Sulivan Breaks it Down
The Hillary Clintion as Secretary of State buzz is really flying. Not surprisingly, Andrew Sullivan has a great post on why it’s an inspired pick:
Left to fester in the Senate, Clinton will plot against the president if he doesn’t actively seek her support and engagement and “spread the political wealth” of his mandate. It is a senior enough position not to be fobbed off; it really does take advantage of the Clinton name abroad; it could even put Bill to good use and keep him out of mischief; and Obama has kept telling us that his cabinet model is “Team Of Rivals.” Giving Hillary that kind of position is straight out of Lincoln.
Technorati Tags: andrew sullivan, Barack Obama, cabinet, Hillary Clinton, Lincoln, obama, presidential transition, rivals, secretary of state, senate
Maybe Nate Silver Will Write a Novel?
I do wonder what Nate will do now? 236.com has a nice idea:
What did we used to do with our time before this election? Are we going to have to go back to…reading books? Do they still make those? We remember liking novels, but we wonder if Nate Silver could turn them into a series of graphs and charts for us.
(As a side note, blogs named as numbers are so hot right now.)
Technorati Tags: nate silver, fivethirtyeight, 236.com, 2008 presidential election
Dude, He’s Muslim, That’s How We Do
…some kind of special mustache.
Technorati Tags: barack obama, humor, rumors, get your war on,