Crazy like a Bush

Sure Nick Kristof of the Times is right, but it doesn't matter.

If the White House wants to move the debate about Hurricane Katrina beyond what it calls the "blame game" for bodies decomposing in the streets of New Orleans, then here's a constructive step that President Bush could take to protect people in the future: Tackle global warming.

True, we don't know whether Katrina was linked to global warming. But there are indications that global warming will produce more Category 5 hurricanes. Now
that we've all seen what a Katrina can do - and Katrina was only Category 4 when it hit Louisiana - it would be crazy for President Bush to continue to refuse to develop a national policy on greenhouse gases.

Crazy, sane, what's the difference? There's only one prinicple that guides the administration's policy decisions: What the Base Wants, the Base Gets. And what the base wants is a "La la la, I can't hear you" response to sound science when it doesn't like what sound science says. What the base wants is relief from New Source Review. What the base wants is tax breaks for fossil fuels. What the base wants is more use of the oxymoron "clean coal" and nary a whisper of the word "conserve." What the base wants is out of the Kyoto Protocol. What the base wants is no requirement to improve the fuel economy of new cars. Never mind that when our air and water are destroyed, no amount of money will buy a clean drink or a refreshing breath, so all this unenlightened, short-sighted profiteering is suicide. Somehow, that's someone else's problem.