Kevin Drum recently wrote an insightful post about American businesses jumping on board with Democratic healthcare and climate initiatives:
Now, don’t get me wrong: even a little bit of movement is a good thing. And I don’t care much what their motivation is. But a lot of what’s happening here on the global warming front involves corporations trying to preempt tough state regulations with weaker federal rules — not exactly a sign of getting on the liberal bandwagon. Likewise, although some CEOs are genuinely concerned about skyrocketing healthcare costs, for the most part they seem to be simply adapting to the new sheriff in town. That “seat at the table” they’re asking for isn’t because they all took vacations in Stockholm this winter and came away true believers in universal healthcare. It’s because they want to make sure that if something is going to happen, it’ll be as little as possible.
Indeed, people don’t always join a movement out of enthusiasm for its causes. Sometimes they join so that they can have a say in something they hate but cannot prevent. No doubt that is where out CEO president learned his moves.
Accused of dragging his feet on global warming, President Bush on Thursday proposed that by 2008 the countries that emit the most greenhouse gases come up with long-term goals to curb emissions.
Critics dismissed the strategy as a diversion and a delaying tactic, but some European leaders and a U.N official expressed hope that it might be a first step to more action.
“The United States takes this issue seriously,” Bush said in a speech. “The new initiative I’m outlining today will contribute to the important dialogue that will take place in Germany next week” — a reference to the Group of Eight industrial nations’ summit.
The Bush plan calls for voluntary emmissions targets. Surprise – this administration loves voluntary rules better than ice cream dipped in Alaska crude. After six years of this nonsense most of us have learned to see “voluntary rules” and read “…” A rule with no teeth is not a rule. The president stood up, made a bunch of noise and proposed nothing at all.
cleek
or,
the president’s plan is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
RSA
Oddly, Bush seems to distinguish non-binding requirements from voluntary rules; I can’t figure it out.
jake
Isn’t this like the third time he has had a swell idea to fix up that there in-vie-ro-ment? And each idea has gone where? Oh yeah. No Where.
It will contribute to the dialogue all right. People will say: “Listen to that numbskull. Can you believe he is the leader of the most powerful country on Earth?” Or perhaps they will just clutch their sides as they laugh like hyenas.
I don’t know why he bothers. Maybe if Dick tells him his LegacyQuest (TM) has been permanently derailed he might sit down and shut up.
*Cough!*America!*Cough!*
So, starting in 2008 the US will start thinking about some way to curb emissions at some time in the future. But if it doesn’t … meh.
ThymeZone
So, the Decider, having previously deciding this was all bunk, and seeing the world going on down the road without him, now wants to play, so that he can Decide something?
Watching this guy is like watching a Peter Sellers movie. He reminds me of something out of The Mouse That Roared.
Rome Again
Yes, he does.
Ummm, it has been my judgment all along that you don’t get sound environmental policies out of OIL MEN!
Andrew
If only Bush had been watching The Wire. Then it would all be okay.
Keith
Kinda like voluntary benchmarks, right?
The Other Steve
The sad thing is, he is a lot like modern day CEOs. He thinks he makes the hard decisions and deserves to be rewarded. But the truth is, most of the real work is done by everybody else.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
He’s just like Kenny Boy. America is in an Enron situation. Our economy and our way of life are completely fucked in the very near future, but he’s hoping to stave it off just a tad longer so that he can steal some more and hope the next Prez inherits the blame for it all.
When the world economy switches over to Euros sometime between now and 2011, we’re completely fucked.
ThymeZone
Should I start buying Euros and Yen now?
I want to be ready for the econorapture.
Otto Man
Voluntary rules here are alright, but not when it comes to inspecting meat for mad cow disease?
OK, then.
Zombie Santa Claus
At least buy gold. That shit is always valuable! I’ve been leaving it under rich peoples’ Christmas trees for 1,600 years now, and they never get tired of it!
Ho ho ho, bitches!
jake
Pay no attention … to whatever it is you’re paying attention to, all hail the great and powerful jackalope!
Is it me or does this sound familiar?
Nah, must be imagining things again.
ThymeZone
Yes, Jake, it’s a formula story.
Dark-skinned people are arrested or detained, and it will turn out that they didn’t have the ability to plan the robbery of an ice cream truck, much less pull of a real terrorist attack.
The Terror Threat Level indicator will move from yellow to bright yellow, or something, and the ptotatoheads get themselves another weekend news cycle to cover whatever real information was out there or threatening to get out there.
ThymeZone
That’s the official DHS blurb that has been up on their website for years.
This vigilance, BTW, can become actionable, according to the law firm of failed attorneys who hang here, if it reports praying ragheads who (they SWEAR) were not out to bother anybody at the airport.
Just so you know. Be careful out there.
Zombie Santa Claus
Well, my head’s still in a jar, pickled in formaldehyde. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. Or does it? Looks like my scientist/captors might’ve been cooking lasagna over on the stove, there. Possibly, they plan on eating it… WHILE DISCUSSING PLANS TO LAUNCH TERROR STRIKES!
I wonder if I can figure out a way to call the FBI with no hands, arms, or torso.
jake
Which makes perfect sense. If All Americans would just live in little towns (ie places unlikely to be hit by terrists) where they know everyone on sight.
However, there are Americans who live in huge sprawling cities (ie. places that have been or are highly likely to be hit by terrists) and they know the local authoritahs’ phone lines would fuse in seconds if they followed this asinine instruction.
My favourite “warning sign” is people who behave in an agitated manner and wear too many clothes for the season. OMG! I see those guys every day. They’re homeless and thanks to this country’s gratitude to those who fought in past wars, a lot of them are veterans. Fucking ridiculous, as is “Clothing that is too baggy,” in a city where one in 10 teenaged males wears outsized t-shirts and pants that start around their upper thighs.
Still the DHS website is good for laughs. After telling us to be afraid, very afraid, NO, even more afraid than that! They warn people not to fall for hoaxes:
And of course, we wouldn’t have this classic without them.
ThymeZone
MSNBC. So here we go. “Planning stage” of course is prosecutor bullshit-speak for “they talked about it.”
They never actually did anything.
And BTW, why do we have aviation fuel pipelines running through residential neighborhoods …. and not hardened?
If we had real “homeland security” wouldn’t we be addressing vulnerabilities like that?
You know, if we had a real fucking government?
slugger
Back to the topic.
Two weeks ago, Bush made some noises about Darfur. Now this enviromental stuff. I think he’s turning into a liberal. Watch for the forthcoming health care proposal.
demimondian
Don’t you understand that our President is deeply concerned about our welfare? He is trying to guarantee that no successor of his exposes us to any risk while he is still alive, and he is pursuing that goal with a straightforwardness and directness which is admirable.
He *is* our CEO, and, like any good CEO, he is titularly, but not actually, answerable to the directors who could vote him out. He knows that will leave office when he dies, and no sooner, and between now and then, he, like The Computer, has Only Got Our Best Interests In Mind.
Walker
I this a Paranoia reference?
Rome Again
Oh gosh, I’m still working on looking both ways before crossing the street, do I have to look at every person in the vicinity now too and judge if they are an ideological threat as well?
I better leave three hours earlier to get to where I’m going now.
Rome Again
They would never do that! Don’tcha know? He has a powerful daddy who scares them.
Punchy
GREAT idea. Let’s remake the color chart using colors the 28%’ers are fond of. We can have Piss Yerself Yellow, Cheetos Fingered Orange, Bloody Stumps Red, and Skid Marks Brown.
jake
Dude, I nearly snarfed a cherry stone out my nose.
ConservativelyLiberal
Fixed…
scarshapedstar
scarshapedstar
Speaking of idiots, I’m just gonna bow out now.
The Other Steve
We’ll keep the lights on for you.
The Other Steve
John might be interested in this one…
http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.newsDtl&did=4075
ThymeZone
At what point do we rise up and say enough of this bullshit is enough? Enough media pimping of these non stories.
These idiots spent at least a year and half talking — talking — about doing something they had no capacity to actually do, and which they do not know how to do, in some sort of wistful wannabee terrorist fashion, and now we have the US Attorney standing in front of eager reporters and camera operators trying to hype up this “threat” as if we should all be thankful that they saved us again.
In fact, we should be mad as hell that we have a government that tries to manipulate us like this, but can’t harden basic infrastructures like food supplies, energy and fuel systems … against obvious attack possibilities.
These fuckers couldn’t lift a hand to protect us against 911 when they knew in advance it was coming.
Like the big scary plots against Fort Dix, and the Sears Tower, and the Brooklyn Bridge, the JFK “plot” will keep us distracted for a while thanks to the whores at MSNBC and CNN who have a slow news weekend to fill up? I guess the carnage in Iraq just isn’t getting the ratings it used to get?
Remember to check your Terror Threat Level color code today, everybody. Walgreens is having a sale on duct tape, be sure to stock up.
jake
For its next act the FBI will announce the successful conclusion of Operation TubThumper, which resulted in the arrest of several dozen street corner prophets who frequently spouted angry theats against almost everything.
Yep. Unthinkable. As in:
DON’T think about whether the plot had a snowflake baby’s chance in hell of succeeding.
DON’T think about Osama bin Laden or the anthrax letters or bombs planted outside of family planning clinics or … any of that real stuff.
DON’T think about the difference between criminal conspiracy and speech.
Just think about the people who WANT TO KILL US, piss your pants and rehydrate with a double Gitmo.
Zombie Santa Claus
That Brooklyn Bridge plot made me shit my pants. Just think, if we hadn’t stopped those terrorists they might’ve developed time travel and cyborgs, then sent a cyborg back in time to kill Washington Roebling’s mother before he was even conceived, making it so that the Brooklyn Bridge never even existed!
(Well, that plot had just as much chance of working as the one they rejected it for- hacking through the cables of the Bridge over a period of about 37 consecutive hours, hoping no one noticed.)
grumpy realist
Also considering that supposedly the “inside information” they had on JFK was from one of them who had last worked there 15 years ago.
Heck, if we’re using the same pipelines we used 15 years ago, forget about terrorist plots–we’ve got more obvious problems.
demimondian
Don’t you mean Tub *thumping*?