Spring Break
'Republican Land' forgets necessities
Bryan Murphy
Issue date: 3/5/09 Section: Commentary
What follows will be a "rah-rah Barack Obama!" piece. I swore I wouldn't write one, but I've gotta love a man who believes in science.
Obama, after all, has nominated the former Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Nobel Prize-winning physicist to be his Secretary of Energy. Bush's first appointment to the same slot was a former professor of law and a Republican senator who had just lost his re-election campaign.
Thank God we didn't end up with McCain, at the very least. For McCain certainly hasn't been doing much to bolster his scientific credibility as of late. Not that he had any, to begin with, but still - he could start building some. Instead, McCain's the latest celebrity to pick up a Twitter, lagging once more behind Obama (as well as "The Big Aristotle," Shaq). And McCain has chosen to use his little online podium to attack Obama's stimulus in the most incoherent way possible, 140 characters at a time.
McCain has been publishing an incessant series of "Top 10 Porkiest Projects" in the new spending bill, and he's singled out as unworthy pretty much any project with the word "research" in its title. Bollocks to $1.7 million "for a honey bee factory" in Weslaco, Texas, McCain cries - by which McCain actually means Kika de la Garza Subtropical Agricultural Research Center in Weslaco, which has for years been researching honey bee diseases. Funny, you think what with the honey bee die-off threatening billions of dollars of American crops, this might be a good idea, but not in Republican Land! Also considered unnecessary in Republican Land would be $951,500 for a "Sustainable Las Vegas" fund. Never mind that whole thing about Las Vegas, a city of almost 2 million people and one of the fastest growing in the United States running out of water within the next few decades, if not earlier. Agriculture, drinking water - not necessary! Not in Republican Land.
Which is why it's a pretty bloody good thing we're back in Democratic World. Republican Land kinda sucked, honestly. But of all the things we've got to like in Democratic World in the last few months; one thing stands out the most: the $1.1 billion allocated for medical comparative effectiveness research (CER) in the stimulus bill.
Obama, after all, has nominated the former Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Nobel Prize-winning physicist to be his Secretary of Energy. Bush's first appointment to the same slot was a former professor of law and a Republican senator who had just lost his re-election campaign.
Thank God we didn't end up with McCain, at the very least. For McCain certainly hasn't been doing much to bolster his scientific credibility as of late. Not that he had any, to begin with, but still - he could start building some. Instead, McCain's the latest celebrity to pick up a Twitter, lagging once more behind Obama (as well as "The Big Aristotle," Shaq). And McCain has chosen to use his little online podium to attack Obama's stimulus in the most incoherent way possible, 140 characters at a time.
McCain has been publishing an incessant series of "Top 10 Porkiest Projects" in the new spending bill, and he's singled out as unworthy pretty much any project with the word "research" in its title. Bollocks to $1.7 million "for a honey bee factory" in Weslaco, Texas, McCain cries - by which McCain actually means Kika de la Garza Subtropical Agricultural Research Center in Weslaco, which has for years been researching honey bee diseases. Funny, you think what with the honey bee die-off threatening billions of dollars of American crops, this might be a good idea, but not in Republican Land! Also considered unnecessary in Republican Land would be $951,500 for a "Sustainable Las Vegas" fund. Never mind that whole thing about Las Vegas, a city of almost 2 million people and one of the fastest growing in the United States running out of water within the next few decades, if not earlier. Agriculture, drinking water - not necessary! Not in Republican Land.
Which is why it's a pretty bloody good thing we're back in Democratic World. Republican Land kinda sucked, honestly. But of all the things we've got to like in Democratic World in the last few months; one thing stands out the most: the $1.1 billion allocated for medical comparative effectiveness research (CER) in the stimulus bill.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Ken
posted 3/09/09 @ 9:38 PM EST
Touche, Bryan.
A 6th semester student can figure out that $1.7 million worth of bee research is a good investment to insure that 1/3 of our national food crop is pollinated, but a US Senator and former Presidential Candidate cannot. (Continued…)
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