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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (60677)	4/22/2008 8:49:54 AM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 541741

What Killed Earth Day? Too Much Fuss And No Bother By Hank Stuever Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, April 22, 2008; Page C01 Today isn't Earth Day anymore. Haven't you heard? Earth Day is dead. It collapsed yesterday after one of its many news conferences and was rushed by hybrid ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. (Where staff members were immediately fired for peeking at Earth Day's medical history.) This happened not long after we simultaneously received an e-mail alerting us that "Access Hollywood" host Nancy O'Dell is throwing a celebrity "eco-aware Mother's Day party!" and another e-mail alerting us that the Finnish ambassador's wife has taken it upon herself to make buildings in Washington more green. (Her last job? "Director of sustainability" for Nokia, which makes us think of all those haunting photos of scavengers picking through piles of dead cellphones in Chinese landfills.) Earth Day was 38 years old. What killed it? A long but admirable struggle with celebrity piety and corporate baloney, mainly. But specifically? Too many "green" issues of too many magazines. Michael Pollan insisting that everyone garden, right now. Pop stars getting on their private jets to go speak on behalf of the polar ice caps. BP and ExxonMobil ads touting the greeniness inherent in the petroleum industry. There was so much eco-junk to buy, so as to replace your wasteful junk, that the National Retail Federation was soon going to have to create a whole new holiday shopping forecast for Earth Day and implore people to shop more during Earth Day season, when retailers are counting on them the most. ("Save up to 50 percent on green items at Amazon.com!") People griping about people griping about light bulbs. People griping about people griping about Al Gore. Finally, Earth Day died the minute they canceled that Earth Day concert here on Sunday. Because of rain. Because of lightning. That sort of wussiness won't save the planet. Earth Day died because, it turns out, saving the Earth is going to be very complicated. It is going to require attention spans, intelligence, sacrifice and lawyers and more than one day a year. To save the Earth, Earth Day had to go. Earth Day is survived by its longtime companion, Mother Nature.

To: Lane3 who wrote (60677)	4/22/2008 8:57:09 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541741

<<<I find myself wanting to throw a shoe at Pollyanas who seem to think that reducing the debt is feasible if we just try. >>> Clinton did it in the 90's. It is difficult, but it can be done. You have to increase revenues and decrease spending. You have to prioritize. You have to first balance the budget. Where do you get more revenue? Spur growth. But to do that you need first to invest in infrastructure and technology to help reduce cost. Second, you have to strategically increase taxes. We can argue the details. We can argue priorities. The Clintons have a proven track record that it can be done. George W Bush has proven that adhering dogmatically to free market fundamentalist principles does not work.