My continuing thanks to C&Ler Mugsy for his assistance in tipping us off to potential posts in the Sunday bobblehead thread. To be honest, I had written off the scheduled interview of Brad Pitt on Meet the Press, because I thought it would be one of those fawning, insubstantial looks at a celebrity within the scope of some pet charity. But Pitt showed himself to not only be focused on helping rebuild New Orleans, but to do so with a more big picture orientation than politicians locked into old school solutions.
Pitt's foundation, Make It Right, has been building affordable, safe and sustainable housing for NOLA residents. Remember when the only thing available to low income displaced residents were formaldehyde-filled trailers? But moreover, these homes are being built with an eye to withstanding the next major storm and with materials that stimulate the economy, both by using green technology and by lessening the utility costs of the residents, thereby giving them more money to stimulate the economy. It's a far more holistic look at the problem.
Contrast that, if you will, with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-INO) who advocates the lifting of the drilling moratorium to help the "little guys" of the Gulf Coast:
Sorry, but in my eyes that's as disingenuous as the greenwashing American Petroleum Institute ads bemoaning raising taxes on energy companies, because "people" are struggling. Really now? We've got energy companies paying little to no taxes now, posting record profits and complaining about "raising taxes" hurting the "people". Landrieu knows that there's no guarantee that oil BP went after with Deep Horizon would have gone directly to Americans rather than sold to the highest bidder on the open market, and that few, if any, small energy companies have the financial backing to do deepwater drilling. And how badly will "Big Al's Sandwich Shop" suffer if another drilling catastrophe kills the Gulf Coast completely?
It's disappointing "inside the box" thinking. A senator's job is to represent his/her state as well as possible and attempt to bring as much business and federal dollars to their state. This is a golden opportunity for Landrieu to lobby for Louisiana to be at the forefront of the green economy and all the federal tax benefits inherent in bringing green technology manufacturing and development, construction and building to the Gulf Coast, to steer the area away from an oil economy.
But instead, we're stuck with a senator too wedded to the same failed system.
