A Philosophy Of Governance That Pits Hard Core Conservatives Against Humanity

Coastal Florida-- but Mica, Stearns & Miller put their dangerous ideology ahead of the interests of their own endangered constituents

Brian Baird (D-WA) is retiring from Congress and will hopefully be replaced by a more progressive Democrat, state Sen. Craig Pridemore. I've had my disagreements with Baird-- plenty of them-- but he's one of the only members of Congress willing to be even remotely evenhanded towards the Palestinians, so I always have a grudging admiration for him when he acts badly on other matters. Yesterday an important but obscure bill of his passed, 251-103-- H.R. 3650, the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act. There were 39 co-sponsors, spread out on both sides of the aisle.

Baird, a member of the Congressional Boating Caucus as well as the Coastal Caucus, is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment of the Science and Technology Committee, and he also serves on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee and the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. It all seemed to come together yesterday when he managed to pass H.R. 3650, which is meant to establish a National Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Program, to develop and coordinate a comprehensive and integrated strategy to address harmful algal blooms and hypoxia, and to provide for the development and implementation of comprehensive regional action plans to reduce harmful algal blooms and hypoxia. "This bill," said Baird, "will reauthorize a program that has funded research to advance our understanding and our ability to detect, assess, predict and control these harmful algal bloom and hypoxia events. Since the last reauthorization there has been an increase in the number, frequency and type of algal blooms and hypoxic events, affecting more of our coastlines and inland waters."

According to WaterWorld:

Harmful algal blooms are a rapid overproduction of algal cells that produce toxins and occur in both salt and freshwater. People and animals are exposed to the toxins when they drink or swim in the contaminated water or consume seafood that has ingested these toxins. The toxins cannot be removed or neutralized through the traditional water treatment methods, like filtering, boiling, or chemical treatments.

In addition to releasing toxins, the blooms can block sunlight in water and use up the available oxygen in the water, causing a severe oxygen depletion. The oxygen depletion, called hypoxia, stresses or suffocates marine animals and plants. Environmental changes in water quality, temperature, and sunlight or an increase in nutrients in the water can cause blooms to increase dramatically.

Harmful algal blooms also have a negative financial impact on a region, if beaches are closed and fishing is suspended. Harmful algal blooms and hypoxia cost the U.S. seafood and tourism industries approximately $82 million annually, according to a conservative estimate from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The bill will give local communities the tools and best practices to understand and respond to harmful algal blooms and hypoxia. It will assist in regional, state, tribal, and local efforts to develop and implement appropriate marine and freshwater harmful algal bloom and hypoxia response plans, strategies, and tools. It will also provide resources for and assist in the training of local water and coastal resource managers in the methods and technologies for monitoring, controlling, mitigating, and responding to the effects of marine and freshwater harmful algal blooms and hypoxia events. The state and regional participation is completely voluntary. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determined that the bill does not impose any cost on state, local, or tribal governments.

The bill has been endorsed by Environmental Defense Fund, Surfrider Foundation, Ocean Champions, and PURRE (People United to Restore our Rivers and Estuaries).

Olympia Snowe (R-ME) is carrying the same bill in the Senate, and it's already passed the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. So who's against it-- and why? Red Tide lovers?

Well, hard-core GOP obstructionists who oppose government action to make society a better place pretty much oppose everything, and 98 of them voted against the bill yesterday. Most of them represent landlocked districts, and most of them are just against any positive action-- you know, Michele Bachmann, Virginia Foxx, Patrick McHenry, Eric Cantor, David Dreier, Pete Sessions, Mean Jean Schmidt, all the creeps and imbeciles from Texas and Georgia, of course, Scott Garrett, Steve King and (shockingly, considering his Long Island district) Peter King.

And the five Democrats who voted "no"? See if you can detect a pattern. Jason Altmire, Dan Boren, Bobby Bright, Ann Kirkpatrick, Bill Owens-- five of the most spineless and habitually conservative Democrats, all from inland districts, all eager to go run to the Chamber of Commerce types and say, "See I'm really one of you." And they are.

It made me think of a speech then-candidate Bill Clinton gave at Georgetown University on October 23, 1991, the New Covenant speech. It was one that turned the tide in his favor and help make him president. Let me quote just a llittle so you can compare it with how the members of Congress who voted "no" yesterday define their role in politics:

The very fiber of our nation is breaking down: Families are coming apart, kids are dropping out of school, drugs and crime dominate our streets.

And our leaders here in Washington aren't doing much about it. The political system we have now rotates between being the butt of jokes and the object of absolute scorn.

Frustration produces calls for term limits from voters who don't even think they have the power to vote incumbents out, and resentment produces votes for David Duke, not just from racists, but from voters so desperate for change they will support the most anti-establishment message, even if it's delivered by an ex-Klansman who admits it was inspired by Adolf Hitler.

We've got to rebuild our political life before the demagogues and the racists, and those who pander to the worst in us, bring this country down.

People once looked at the president and the Congress to bring us together, to solve problems, to make progress. Now, in the face of massive challenges, our government stands discredited, our people are disillusioned. There's a hole in our politics where our sense of common purpose used to be.

The Reagan-Bush years have exalted private gain over public obligation, special interest over the common good, wealth and fame over work and family.

The 1980s ushered in a gilded age of greed and selfishness, of irresponsibility and excess, and of neglect.

S&L crooks stole billions of dollars in other people's money. Pentagon consultants and HUD contractors stole from the taxpayers.

Many big corporate executives raised their own salaries even when their companies were losing money and their workers were being put into the unemployment lines.

Middle-class families worked longer hours for less money and spent more on health care and housing, and education and taxes.

Poverty rose. Many inner-city streets were taken over by crime and drugs, welfare and despair. Family responsibility became an oxymoron for many deadbeat fathers who were more likely to make their car payments than to pay their child support.

And government, which should have been setting an example, was even worse. Congress raised its pay and guarded its perks while most Americans were working harder for less money.

Two Republican presidents elected on a promise of fiscal responsibility advanced budget proposals that more than tripled our national debt.

Congress went along with that, too. Taxes were lowered on the wealthiest people whose incomes were rising, and raised on middle class families as their incomes fell.

...To turn America around, we've got to have a new approach, founded on our most sacred principles as a nation, with a vision for the future. We need a new covenant, a solemn agreement between the people and their government to provide opportunity for everybody, inspire responsibility throughout our society and restore a sense of community to our great nation. A new covenant to take government back from the powerful interests and the bureaucracy and give it back to the ordinary people of our country.