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Bush of the Yellow Stockings
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em," Malvolio reads in a letter in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." Alas, like Malvolio, George W. Bush has eluded all three methods.
You would have thought he had his chances.
You might think first of his being the son of a president, or you might have thought he had some potential from his years as governor of Texas. Or you might have thought of the opportunities for leadership presented by the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001. Yet now he is finishing a miserable two terms, leaving to his successor to deal with the last, sorry vestige of his response to terrorism, the war in Iraq.
But perhaps his excessively tardy and woefully insufficient response to global climate change, which he announced in the Rose Garden recently, is even more damning. He called for the U.S. growth of greenhouse gas emissions to halt by 2025, in effect putting that burden on several successors down the line. He seemed brutally unaware that the problem is now, not 20 years from now. He seemed more interested that other countries do their share than that the U.S. do anything. He seemed unaware that most countries in the world are far ahead of us.
NASA's James Hansen now calls for limiting carbon concentration in the atmosphere to below 350 parts per million. "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 p.p m. to at most 350 p.p m.," writes Hansen. A strong statement; surely hard to ignore.
That's right, Mr. President, the world's atmosphere is already significantly over the limit that's safe. It's not a matter of halting emissions growth at some future date. "To reach our 2025 goal, we will need to more rapidly slow (sic.) the growth of power sector greenhouse gas emissions so that they peak in 10 to 15 years," the president said "and decline thereafter." Ish.
Bill McKibben's Step it Up, which engineered the April 14 events a year ago, after moving under the umbrella of 1Sky, has decided to create a new organization, 350.0rg, to spread that number around the world. "We want to use protest and music and art and video and the net to make that number inescapable, ubiquitous," he writes.
350.Org is the home of a yet incomplete Web site, dedicated to: "Global Warming. Global Action. Global Future." McKibben is right. The world must know and act now upon a limit. I would far prefer that my country were in the lead.
Malvolio in "Twelfth Night" was tricked by his fellow court attendants, via the letter, into making a fool of himself by wearing yellow stockings, the garters holding them up crossed in an eccentric fashion -- and smiling incessantly. Whether or not Bush was put upon by neo-conservative attendants or if he was carrying out his own intentions remains for biographers to decide. Regardless, I'm going to keep an eye open for those yellow stockings.
Jim Hansen, Bill McKibben, Al Gore, the other scientists who received the Nobel Peace Prize, these are the heroes of efforts against climate change; regrettably the U.S. president has been an impediment.
At least, that's how it looks from Stamford, Vermont.
A writer and environmentalist, Lauren R. Stevens is a regular Eagle contributor.
© 2008 The Berkshire Eagle
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Show Alld>>Many Texans and others are not clear on what power Bush had as governor. As Radio_tec pointed out, the governor was intentionally given less power in Texas than in most other states. However, the power of the governor in Texas is somewhat more flexible than most imagine.<<
Kivals,
You did a good job of documenting the the Connecticut carpet bagger's illustrious non-career while governor here in Texas.
There's just one more thing I wanted to add. Back in December 1997 while George was governating, his Oil bidness friends at Unocal invited the Taliban to Houston for a 4 day visit. This was done with his knowledge even though, according to US government documents, they had hosted Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden since June 1996. This is the same Al-Qaeda that attacked the the embassies in Nairobi, Kenya later in August 1998 and USS Cole later in on October 12, 2000.
Show me who your friends are and I'll show you where your intersts lie.
It looks that way from Philadelphia too!
"you might have thought he had some potential from his years as governor of Texas"
The governor of Texas has little power or responisibility, except behind the scenes. The legislature has most of the power in Texas. Since George Bush became governor, the Republicans and their CEO partners have turned the state into their own little private cash cow. Remember Enron? Remember Texas Republican gerrymandering? How about 5 proposed coal power plants and a super toll highway bisecting the state to be owned by foreigners, displacing 1 million people and a couple hundred thousand acres of farmland? Etc, etc, etc. It continues under Governor Perry.
Texas is a training ground for political dirty tricks. Karl Rove lives here. Alberto Gonzales and Tom Delay, too. I was incredulous when Shrub ran for president. This hack? How was the 2000 presidential vote even close enough to BE stolen! I had never voted since I was eligible in '76. But I came out to vote against this Ted Bundy look-a-like. I knew his presidency would be a disaster. But in all honesty, I couldn't have predicted how big a disaster it would turn out to be.
Let's give Texas back to Mexico
"He called for the U.S. growth of greenhouse gas emissions to halt by 2025"
I'm sure it will, that's when all the oil runs out..
Nader4prez;
What makes you think Mexico wants 'em back? They might like to have their land back, but not some of the yahoos who live there.
Let's give Texas back to the Gulf of Mexico
During the ten years I lived in Texas I had no idea what kind of monstrosities were being born there. I think that was around the time "Rosemary's Baby" was born too. That little monster seems so tame now compared to those and their ilk that Texas Progressive mentioned.
You forget, Wilmoor---Bush wasn't born in Texas; he was born in New Haven, Connecticut. (Look it up if you don't believe me.)
Here is a call for urgent action in Australia (http://www.blognow.com.au/mrpickwick/85947/Especially_sweat.html) a country, thanks to the friendship and shared conservative ideology of Bush and former Australian prime minister Howard, equally culpable in the head in the sand stakes. There is a new organisation (http://www.350.org/) aiming to coordinate an approach to achieving 350ppm CO2. It would help if all of us kept publicising this goal.
I think we should keep Texas. As long as it keeps giving us wonderful, home-grown hellraisers like Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower, there is hope.
I'm a New Jersey ex-pat who has lived here in Texas for 19 years. I spent my first two years in Corpus Christi and the rest in Houston. I have learned alot. Many of the criticisms leveled against Texas are valid. Others are not. The left, progressives or whatever you choose to call yourselves should take some time to learn more about Texas.
Texas and Oklahoma were the states that sparked the 19th century Populist movement of farmers who fought the abuses of the railroads. Their efforts led to the Texas Homestead Act which protects homeowners from foreclosures if they become indebted. It's still in force today in spite of attacks by the Republicans to change it. It remains popular with Texans. Texas elected Ma and Pa Ferguson who in the 20's reformed the prisons in this state to be more humane. Jim "Pa" Ferguson also saw the folly of Prohibition back in 1914. Texas is home to some very progressive people. Jim Hightower and Molly Ivan's have already been mentioned but it wouldn't be complete without mentioning folks like John Henry Falk who was a Hollywood movie star and performer who as head of the Screen Actors Guild fought the Hollywood blacklisting of the 1950's and won even though he knew it would damage his career. He later went on to appose Reagan's wars in El Salvador and his Contra army operating In Honduras and attacking Nicaragua in the 80's. Bill Moyers is another prominent Texas figure who also has fought for more openness in the press and the people's right to know what their government is doing.
There are also great writers from Texas Herman Hesse, a German immigrant settled in Texas and wrote great works like Steppenwolf. Don't forget Texas treasure Willy Nelson who started farm aid with other musicians like Neil Young and is promoting locally produced and locally consumed bio-diesel.
On the environmental front we lead the country in wind generated electricity. In Houston, where I live, we currently get 25% of our electricity from renewable energy.
We produce our share of doozies to. In spite of his liberal pretentions Lyndon Johnson was just as disasterous a President as Bush is when it came to war. Johnson's war cost the lives of around 25,000 US soldiers and countless hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese.
As was mentioned earlier the being Governor of Texas doesn't give you bragging rights and pretenses to power. The power of the Governor was deliberately diminished because of Texan's mistrust of central government in light of their historical emnities with General Antonio de Santa Ana and the Mexican Army.
I don't want to overrate Texas. I just want things put into fair balance.
The neocons will leave our children quite a legacy: trillions of dollars of debt and interest due, a trashed planet, depleted natural resources, a fragmented society, an eroded constitution, few rights, and a hostile world. If we elect McCain, we'll add immensely to the burden.
Many Texans and others are not clear on what power Bush had as governor. As Radio_tec pointed out, the governor was intentionally given less power in Texas than in most other states. However, the power of the governor in Texas is somewhat more flexible than most imagine.
Usually, the lieutenant governor, who presides over the Texas Senate, has power over that body and by that has more power than the governor. In Bush's case, he had four years as governor with Democrat Bob Bullock as Lt. Governor, who was a powerful lieutenant governor, but who, for some unclear reason, wanted to help Bush in his quest to become president, and who therefore worked with Bush more than expected and allowed Bush more input than is customary. Then Bush had two years with Rick Perry as Lt. Governor, and since Perry wanted to become governor (which would automatically happen if Bush were elected president), he saw it in his interest to basically turn over his office to Bush and so for those two years Bush was able to push onto the Senate, through Perry's office, any initiatives Bush wanted passed, which enhanced Bush's position and gave him a better platform on which to run for president, especially given that the speaker of the Texas house at the time also wanted Bush to become president.
With that power, Bush pushed through a tax cut on certain oil and gas production that resulted in cutting the taxes of his biggest supporter, Richard Rainwater, more than that of all other producers put together. And he vetoed the Texas patients' bill of rights once, and let it pass the second time without his signature because it had a veto-proof majority in both houses, though this did not prevent him from taking credit for its passage in the 2000 debates. And he fired the state official who oversaw the operations of funeral directors in the state because that official was investigating one of his other biggest contributors. And he got passed a voluntary program to reduce CO2 emissions (which of course did not work) by the biggest polluters in the state. And he was instrumental in pushing forward an increase in the penalties for juvenile users of cocaine, hypocritically ignoring that he had gotten away with that offense repeatedly as an adult. And we all know he cavalierly approved of every execution after only a cursory examination of the records of the cases, even mocking one condemned prisoner (Tucker) who appealed for a stay. And he vetoed a bill to study poverty in the state, with the incredible comment that he did not know of poverty in the state and so it was a waste of money to study it.
In disagreement with some here and elsewhere, I would say that those who watched him closely as governor have not been surprised by anything he has done as president.
The "already over the limit of CO2" warning is why "cap and trade" is a non-response; it keeps the amount of pollution the same when it needs to be significantly reduced. The unregulated greed of corporate crony capitalism will be the death of all of us, rich and poor.
As for Bush's Texas experience, Molly Ivins warned us what to expect, and some of the knowledgeable Texans here have verified her expectations. Anyone who looked, even briefly, into his non-productive and money-influenced past would have expected him to be a horrible president. I take little solace on being right about his failings as a president and as a human being, as all of humanity will suffer for his sins.