Rare Praise

If you stuck around with this blog long enough, you know I am NOT a fan of the current occupants of the White House and OEOB. I spend enough spare time away from the newspapers, websites, blogs, and the like watching "The West Wing" and fantasizing about our "real" president: Jed Bartlet. Of course-- silly me, what a fantasy life.

But today, Bush/Smirk had one of his rare moments where he said/did something I am either neutral about or agree on (and they are rare enough that I can count them on one hand, and blog about them *grin*). He intends to designate the northwestern portion of the Hawai'ian Islands as a marine sanctuary; this from a guy who says the evidence for global warming isn't in (in spite of increasing agreement that global warming is happening).

You think maybe he's been possessed by the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt? Me too. But whatever his reasons for doing so, I'll take it. Granted, it's not a major shift; these islands are unpopulated, there was minimal fishing going on anyway, it doesn't actually become formally designated for a while, and there's tons of other problems that could be fixed in terms of our parks, preserves, and the environment. For example, the National Park Service has been facing large cuts the last few years, and it's starting to show. For Bush to take uninhabited, comparatively unmolested territory and create a new marine sanctuary isn't a 180-degree turnabout; I'll give him far more credit once he actually assumes responsible stewardship for our natural heritage. But for now, I'll offer a small amount of rare praise, and welcome, in the 90th year of the National Antiquities Act, the newest marine sanctuary-- the Northwestern Hawai'ian Islands.