Levees Not War

Getting Real with a Fake President

Superb, every word of it, except maybe the part at the very end about the White Sox and the Red Sox.

Click here for the full text, and click the photo above or here for the video. Read it and share it. Watch it and weep for joy. Serious energy policy and disaster response could be built on this—much more serious than what has taken place in the past two months.

I’m here to announce three major developments in the response to the BP Oil Disaster that continues, right now, to ravage the beloved Gulf Coast of the United States of America.

. . . the first development in this disaster that I am announcing tonight: Never again, will any company, anyone, be allowed to drill in a location where they are incapable of dealing with the potential consequences of that drilling. . . . That will never happen again, as long as I am Fake President.

. . . tonight, as Fake President, I’m announcing a new federal command specifically for containment and cleanup of oil that has already entered the Gulf of Mexico, with a priority on protecting shoreline that can still be saved; shoreline that is vulnerable to oil that has not yet been hit. I have asked the Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, to assist me in the diplomatic side of this—in soliciting, greenlighting and expediting all international offers of help from experts in booming and skimming from all over the world. We will bring in the best experts and the best equipment from anywhere on Earth, to dramatically increase our efforts to get the oil out of the water, and off of the coast.

(more…)

“I feel change in the air. . . . It is time again for a new generation of leadership.”

Senator Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama on Jan. 28 in an appearance with Caroline Kennedy and Rep. Patrick Kennedy at American University, Washington, D.C. Photograph by Brendan Smialowski/New York Times.

It was reported Tuesday that Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who was hospitalized on Saturday after a seizure, has been diagnosed with malignant glioma, a brain tumor for which the prognosis is rarely favorable. First elected to the Senate in 1962 when his older brother John was president, Ted Kennedy has long been the Democratic party’s most stalwart promoter and prolific legislator for civil rights, education, labor, housing and social security—a one-man holder-together of the social safety net.

We’re praying for his recovery and for his family at this painful, uncertain time, and we hope the nation will pause to recognize the many good causes he has worked for all his life. He was born into privilege but has devoted his career to passing laws that make life a little easier for the general public—for mothers and children, for factory workers and immigrants, and especially on behalf of the less (and least) fortunate. May God send us more senators like him!—a hundred more!

(more…)