Mad Lib of the Day: Robert Creamer Claims US Being Deforested by Republicans

Posted on | September 1, 2010 | No Comments |

Today's Mad Lib of the Day is Robert Creamer, husband of Jan Schakowsky, who happens to be the second most progressive in the House.

Creamer's latest screed is about his trip to Mount Rushmore with Progressive Momma and how when he looked at the Republican faces, he couldn't quite fathom how today's Republicans had strayed so far from Teddy Roosevelt's commitment to "conserve and protect our natural environment and prevent its destruction for short-term commercial profit."

I invite Mr. Creamer to compare these two videos and tell me who is "conserving and protecting our natural environment".

By the way, Creamer hit a liberal home run with his use of the words "commercial" and "profit" in the same sentence.

But back to the story:

From Huffington Post:

No Longer the Republican Party of Mount Rushmore -- Now the Party of Easter Island

And what happened at Easter Island, Robert?

The Easter Islanders began gradually clearing the forests -- both for agriculture and to harvest wood -- shortly after they arrived. According to the archeological record, deforestation reached its peak around 1400 and was virtually complete between the 1400s and 1600.

According to Diamond, "The overall picture of Easter Island is the most extreme example of forest destruction in the Pacific and among the most extreme in the world: the whole forest is gone and all of its tree species extinct. Immediate consequences for the islanders were losses of raw materials, losses of wild-caught foods, and decreased crop yields."

And this ties in with Republicans...wait for it, wait for it,

The Easter Islanders destroyed their environment and society with stone tools and their own muscle power. One of the great challenges of the 21st century is to assure that billions of people with metal tools, machines, nuclear energy and exploding technology do not destroy ours.

The key to the Easter Island story is not just what can happen to a society, but the human decisions that created the disaster.

The Republican President Theodore Roosevelt instinctively understood this. The modern Republican Party -- despite the benefit of an additional century of scientific research -- does not.

One question before us in this fall's election is whether the monument that embodies American values will be the bold carvings on the side of a verdant Mount Rushmore or the statues on a barren, windswept Easter Island.

Let's see, since 1980, after years of news story after news story declaring acid rain as the end to all trees, we've had 20 years of Republican Presidents and 12 years of Republicans with majorities in Congress.

Does Creamer check any stats? Nope. Do I? You betcha.

Drop in U.S. air pollution linked to longer lifespans
This article covers the years wait for it, wait for it, 1980-2007 and includes this quote:

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, particulate matter 2.5 microns in size declined in the United States by an average of 11 percent between 2000 and 2007.

Wow, who had control then?

And not that Creamer would care, but here are just a few of Ronald Reagan's environmental accomplishments:

1982 – 1988 – Signed 43 bills designating more than 10 million acres of wilderness areas in 27 states. The wilderness areas established during Reagan’s presidency account for nearly 10 percent of the National Wilderness Preservation System at its current extent. President Reagan signed more wilderness bills than any other president since the Wilderness Act was enacted in 1964.

1982 – Signed legislation establishing 110,000-acre Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in southwestern Washington State for research, recreation, and public education.

1983 – President Reagan’s EPA Administrator, William Ruckelshaus, banned the use of ethylene dibromide, a suspected carcinogen, as an agricultural soil fumigant.

1985 – President Reagan’s EPA Administrator, Lee Thomas, ordered a 90 percent reduction in lead in gasoline.

1986 – Signed legislation establishing Great Basin National Park, covering 77,000 acres featuring bristlecone pine forests, glacial moraines, and cave formations in eastern Nevada.

1986 – Signed the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act, which increased funding and strengthened the federal program to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous waste.

1986 – Signed Safe Drinking Water Act amendments requiring stronger controls on drinking water contaminants and protection of source aquifers.

1987 – Signed legislation establishing El Malpais National Monument, covering more than 114,000 acres featuring lava tubes, cinder cones, and archaeological treasures in western New Mexico.

1987 – Signed into law the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act, which established efficiency standards for 12 types of residential appliances.

1987 - Signed into law Clean Water Act amendments of 1987, which broadened the Clean Water Act’s reach to cover non-point source pollution and stormwater. The amendments established National Estuary Program to protect nationally significant estuaries, which now number 28, including Long Island Sound, Albemarle-Pamlico Sounds, Tampa Bay, San Francisco Bay, and Puget Sound.

1987 - Ordered U.S. diplomats to negotiate a strong treaty to begin phasing out ozone-depleting chemicals. The resulting Montreal Protocol was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1988 and entered into force in 1989. The Montreal Protocol, which President Reagan called a “monumental achievement,” has resulted in a 95 percent decline in production of the targeted chemicals. The atmosphere’s protective ozone layer has begun to recover.

So for not exactly doing his homework and actually believing that one day soon he might wake up and find Mount Rushmore devoid of any forest, Robert Creamer is our Mad Lib of the Day.

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