From the "Did I Say That Out Loud?" Department: "Crashing Vor" on the Daily Kos asserted on Tuesday morning that a good crisis should never go to waste. The Gulf oil spill must be exploited, and the greens must "use this moment, use the deaths of species and the suffering of people who depend on them, in the most cynical, calculated way, as bad as a Republican after 9/11, to make real, lasting change in how we address the costs of our way of life." That means a command-and-control "climate change" bill. Get it now, before stupid Americans lose interest:
There is only one possible redemption in this horror, and even that is a slim chance. If the enormity of what has happened in the Gulf can hold the country's atrophied attention long enough, and if we can mobilize fast enough, we might, just might, be able to bring about a positive change from this:
Real and comprehensive energy and climate legislation.
We must act now to force our legislators to write law with teeth and real effect, law that requires consumers pay the true price of the carbon they burn, law that requires business to pay the true price of the carbon they spew, law that includes the costs of things "no one could have anticipated" into the price of doing business.
We are going to have to fight harder for this than for health care or finance reform or DADT repeal. We are going to have to find Republicans to turn. (You really don't think Mary Landrieu is going to oppose her owners on this, do you?) And we are going to have to do it now, this summer.
Because, despite their never getting another decent shrimp, despite their condo in Destin halving in value, despite all the pictures of ugly, oily critters, America is going to forget this, the largest kill-off the environment will likely see in our lifetimes.
A new crisis will erupt, a new tragedy will befall an innocent, a celebrity will fuck someone they shouldn't. Americans will drool by their TVs, remark, "Ain't that somethin'?" and then hop in their vehicles to work and shop and play. More holes will be dug.
And all of this will have meant nothing.
Unless we use this moment, use the deaths of species and the suffering of people who depend on them, in the most cynical, calculated way, as bad as a Republican after 9/11, to make real, lasting change in how we address the costs of our way of life.
You cannot save the Gulf. But you can make its death mean something.
The 9/11 comparison might seem a little odd to Bush fans, since the terrorists didn't exactly take a month to arrive at the World Trade Center while the Bush team watched them for weeks without doing much. The Gulf Oil spill also has yet to cost more than 3,000 American lives.
[Hat tip: Marcol's Freak TD]
Earlier: "Crashing Vor" connects Austin suicide pilot to Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber
Also: Maybe Vor is ripping off Tom Friedman on the Obama's 9/11 thing
