Patriotism that loves our country, our land, and our planet
Last week we learned that a deal had been struck and the government wasn’t going to shut down. This week, we learn about the collateral damage: What ugly things were agreed to in the process.
Item #1: Gray wolves are being stripped of their status as an endangered species across most of the northern Rockies.
Last week Dr. Robert Paarlberg published an article in GOOD titled “The Inconvenient Truth About Cheap Food and Obesity: It’s Not Farm Subsidies.” In the article he debunks the assertion by Michael Pollan in Omnivore’s Dilemma that farm subsidies make unhealthy foods artificially cheap. He points out that (for different reasons) libertarian-leaning groups like the [...]
We need to rebuild the kind of mass movement that marked 1970: bodies, passion, and creativity are the currencies we can compete in. It’s not impossible.
There may be good news on the government shutdown front for the Environmental Protection Agency.
Yesterday, it looked like the House Republicans, in thrall to their “cut EVERYTHING” Tea-Party wing, were going to allow the government to shut down over their intransigence on two items: Slashing the EPA (as well as blocking it from acting on climate change), and slashing funding for Planned Parenthood (which gets money for women’s health services – NOT abortion).
Well, the House went ahead and did it today, voting 255-172 to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of any possible option for fighting climate change and global warming.
The Tea Party wing of the GOP (which is pretty much everyone at this point) argued that the science isn’t settled yet. They argued that the EPA went too far. They argued that it would kill jobs. They argued that it should be Congress that sets policy, not “unelected bureaucrats” (although it was the Supreme Court and a bunch of states that reminded the EPA during the Bush years that they had to enforce the Clean Air Act, which was pretty clear on the issue).
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