"This is the worst environmental president we've had in American history." RFK, Jr

In an excerpt of a speech he gave recently, Robert F. Kennedy says simply: "This is the worst environmental president we've had in American history."

This is a frightening portrayal of what this administration has accomplished, from "putting polluters in charge of virtually all the agencies that are supposed to protect Americans from pollution" to, using Orwellian rhetoric to conceal their pillaging of the environment: "When they destroy the forest, they call it the Healthy Forest Law; when they destroy the air they call it the Clear Skies Bill." They have also repealed what is known as the Treble Damages Provision. which was a provision available to the EPA as a way fo getting polluters to pay for their sins: basically if the EPA decides they are sick and tired of dealing with the lawyers, they can clean up the mess themselves and charge the sinner thrice the cost of the clean up. Option, gone.

This is truly a worthwhile read. Read it: Bush's Crimes Against Nature.

Some of the frightening things have to do with the rise in the incidents of asthma, autism, cognitive impairment in children due to pullutants such as mercury and sulphur dioxide. It is bloody frightening.

I like this dude, he is my favourite young Kennedy at the moment. Part of what he does is, not just challenge government policy, but more importantly the excesses of corporate power and their impact on (American) democracy. He makes me want to shake people.


"JOB-OUTSOURCING"
Which reminds me, last Saturday, some Einstein was trying to argue with me about the inevitability of the "outsourcing of jobs" or something like it. Yes?

And what I realized was this, schools must re-teach what is meant by a "wholistic approach." What Kerry and Teresa Heinz-Kerry call complexity. Why is it that people do not understand the idea that issues are inter-related. You can solve A and exacerbate B in one fell swoop, unintentionally if you don't know this simple fact: Life is like a bowl of spaghetti, a network of inter-related entites. But, I digress somewhat.

So, you can't talk about job-outsourcing (barring the case of tax incentives for companies that do outsource jobs- why this is done, I have no idea; Ann Coulter has a word for it: TREASON) without simultaneously addressing two other issues: the notion of comparative advantage ( a cornerstone of free-trade), and Wal-Mart-type ridiculously low prices enjoyed by American consumers - actually the fact that American consumers insist on such devilishly low prices, hell and themselves be damned. While you are at it you might want to ask "profitability at what cost?"

Aside: Do economists still write about the difference between public goods and private goods, and externalities? I guess by now they must be talking public services vs. private services. (Note to self - look this up, what'the current thinking these days)

I am not going to go into much detail here, but my point is, given the inter-relatedness of these issues, job outsourcing is really a symptom of broader free-trade principles, coupled with the fact that, in America, profitability is honored as if it is more important than morality, patriotism (in an madly patritiotic country, I might add) and possibly even godliness. So, when corporations bend the rules, screw the public good, bribe government officials (make campaign donations), render masses jobless for the sake of an extra milllion pennies, by god, it is a good thing. It is the American way, and fuck you, you communist if you disagree. Halliburton, screws the U.S. military -for crying out loud- for a few billion pennies and I don't hear screams of treason.

For me, it's the "profitability at all costs" honor-code: fuck externalities like pollution, social fabric/standards of living, that is at the root of job-outsourcing and the savage rape of the environment.

PATRIOTISM
Just as a note, I don't care for this mindless patriotism thing. Europeans and the rest of world learnt what patriotism can do for the world: it brought us Hitler and Mussolini. America is the only developed nation that still has this patriotism hang-over. That and the religious, churchy thing. Grow up, the world cannot be lead with an insular outlook.


THE LEGACY OF DUBYA
One of the things that struck me recently is that, even if Bush is sent packing to Texas, his legacy of diabolical machinations will in some form or another be used by future administrations. I don't mean this in the trifling sense of politicians are the same , Kerry/ Bush same difference. That's to trifle. I mean this more substantively. For example, the way Bushyites have managed and treated the media has been trumphantly effective on their part, aided by the incompetence of the media itself . Forget that it's been a bloody disgrace from a more broader perspective. The fact is, it has worked for them. I foresee future administrations (not just Kerry - and I am getting ahead of myself here) emulating this, perhaps not as crudely, but just as effectively. There are already signs that Kerry is disenchanted with the media, he wouldn't speak to the travelling press corps for about a month or so. He simply ignored them.

Clinton devised the war room tactics and the Bushyites perfected them. What are future WH occupants learning from this administration? Mendacity, total disregard for fact, the effectiveness of spin, cronyism, etc. Four more years of Twitchy will just perpertuate the same vested interests, favor the same cronies etc. What of years to come? Well, they may have started a radical way of doing business. In which case it truly doen't matter who wins then? I hate it when I come full circle like that. I start off by refuting a premise, go through a series of conditions and wind up confirming the same premise for different reasons. Miserable, honestly.
This only falls apart if the vested interests of the new administration are the people. What are the odds?