Movie Boy

What does it take to shape government policy? Well, we know that Bush doesn't read and he doesn't talk "outside the circle" so what could it have been? Yup, Georgie-Boy watched a movie and it changed his life... not necessarily in a bad way but, my gawd, this is bizarro! The LA Times reports that Bush has changed his plans to reduce environmental protections on an ocean area and instead he has decided to "create the world's largest marine protected area"... because he saw a movie!

The decision is a turnaround for the administration, which five years ago considered stripping more limited protections from the area that President Clinton had declared a coral reef ecosystem reserve. It's also a sharp departure for an administration that has pushed to privatize some federal lands and has designated less wilderness than most presidents over the last 40 years.

A turning point came in April, when Bush sat through a 65-minute private White House screening of a PBS documentary that unveiled the beauty of -- and perils facing --— the archipelago's aquamarine waters and its nesting seabirds, sea turtles and sleepy-eyed monk seals, all threatened by extinction.

The film seemed to catch Bush's imagination, according to senior officials and others in attendance. The president popped up from his front-row seat after the screening; congratulated filmmaker Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the late underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau; and urged the White House staff to get moving on protecting these waters.

"He was enthusiastic," Cousteau said. "The show had a major impact on him, the way my father's shows had on so many people. I think he really made a discovery --— a connection between the quality of our lives and the oceans."

Pretty weird stuff, eh? But what I found even weirder is this illustration (in the same article) of how bankrupt the media has become. That a statement like this would get published:

"With a stroke of a pen, the president not only can accomplish the single largest act of conservation in U.S. history, but he can inspire the American public on the broader importance of our ocean and coastal environments," said a senior administration official who requested anonymity so as to not upstage Bush's announcement today.

What we have here is a shill for the president, spouting flattering talking points, being granted anonymity! Anonymity is granted to people who reveal the truth at personal risk, not for pimps (as in this case) and, more usually with this administration, liars trying to suppress the truth. Pathetic.