Missing the point

[Mythsaje]

Push to ease laws hits snags
ENVIRONMENTALISTS BLOCK MUCH OF PRESIDENT'S AGENDA
By Paul Rogers
Mercury News

Saturday was Earth Day, a time every year when Americans celebrate the environment and debate changes in the way to protect it. Yet on Earth Day, 2006, the real news may have been what hasn't changed.

Despite relentless rhetoric from environmentalists and industry that the Bush administration has shifted the balance from tight regulation toward a more business-friendly approach, in reality, the president and his supporters have been unable to significantly rewrite America's landmark environmental laws, even though Republicans have controlled all branches of government for more than five years.

Neither side plays it up. But environmentalists have blocked the president's most far-reaching efforts in the Senate, in court and with public opinion. Green groups can't get anything passed, but not much has gotten past them, experts say.

More at link

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/14410676.htm?source=rss&channel=mercurynews_politics

[Erika]

1. Eisenhower set apart Anwar for all time

Never to be developed commercially because of it's environmental uniqueness.

Anwar development could produce no results for ten years. Jeb Bush fights against oil drilling off the coast of Florida. Yet all these RW idiots are having an orgasm about Anwar drilling and coastal drilling.

[TomInTib]

2. Speed bumps...

``The story is at best one day long if at all, because there's no conflict,'' said Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

``Yet if you can find differences, they get amplified way beyond their actual merit.''


Bullshit, mofo..

My car has very little ground clearance and way too much power, but it is terrified of speed bumps.
(really)

But when those speed bumps finally stack up and make a wall, that GOP auto is gonna be bouncing backward.

The best offense is sometimes a good defense.

[pinto]

3. Interesting article. Writer makes a good point that the worst

of the "intitiatives" run down to the Congress by the Bush administration have stalled in Congress. We may have gotten lucky here, though, in that some of them were championed by home state Senators/Representatives with so much accumulating personal baggage as to be rendered innefectual in pushing a bill - i.e. Steven (Alaska, Bridge to Nowhere Nutcase) and Pombo (California, Mombo for the Money)... And, I think the idea that the environmental movement may be mired in an "opposition" mindset built on years of holding the line bears some discussion.

The movement towards building new alliances of environmental, labor and business interests is a "side trend" worth taking a look at:

http://www.apolloalliance.org/

Thanks for the post.

[Canuckistanian]

4. What, exactly, have environmentalists "blocked"???

At best, all they've managed to do is maintain a "status quo" on some of the most important environmental protections.

"Healthy Forests"? That certainly wasn't blocked. Hardly a 'success'. One down for the environmentalists.

"Clear Skies"? "ANWR Drilling"? "Endangered Species elimination"? Yes, they've been temporarily halted but these are not mere Shrub's pet projects - they're an attempt to totally dismantle protections that many have worked for since the inception of the EPA and other groups.

When will they get the message? These measures are unpopular with voters. The only reason they've been blocked is because Republicans themselves have found them too extreme. Last time I checked no self-respecting Republican called themself an "environmentalist".

And if the enviros have all this power, how come they haven't been able to find out what Cheney's 'Energy Commission' was all about? Hmmm??

And why haven't there been any acutal environmental gains? There's been a death by a thousand cuts in funding, even if none of the big programs have been enacted. Golf ponds being classified as "wetlands" is not exactly a coup for the green crowd.

I only pray that Bushco's reign ends before more damage is done.