Opinion: In today’s pages: Prison care, offshore drilling, independence of the attorney general
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Who gave us this $8 billion prison medical care crisis? We gave it to ourselves, according to The Times editorial board. Republicans don’t want to spend the money, Democrats deny that illegal immigration is part of the problem, and voters keep approving ballot measures that send more inmates to prison.
The board also brushes aside the oddly detached tone of Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey in his parsing of the Justice Department’s use of political loyalty in hiring, then zeroes in on the substance of Mukasey’s defense of Monica M. Goodling and other Bush loyalists and (gasp) agrees with with the A.G. For now.
Finally, the board scoffs at Democrats who are caving to political pressure on offshore drilling, and gets chummy with ‘clueless’ Republicans who suddenly are wary of their own pro-drilling agenda. Where did this new plan to let states despoil their own coastlines come from?
You could call this the Paris Plan, because it’s essentially the proposal offered by celebrity Paris Hilton in a recent video that’s a smash on the Internet. There are two problems with the Paris/Pelosi plan: First, offshore drilling isn’t a solution to high prices, and second, congressional Republicans are just as cynical and calculating as congressional Democrats.
And speaking of oil, freelance writer Judith Lewis motors readers through the challenges of saving the planet by switching to vegetable-oil-burning, nutty smelly, food-supply-diminishing, paradigm-changing biodiesel. She confesses that her current ride may not change the planet by itself, but it may stoke the research and marketing world into getting cleaner-burning fuel - from perennial grass. Or slime.
Columnist Joel Stein tries out some helpful and motivational talking points for President Bush. Put on a happy face, people! For example: Georgians, you may soon be part of both NATO and Russia. ‘That’s twice as much protection!’
Rounding out the op-ed lineup, Linda J. Bilmes of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Joseph E. Stiglitz of Columbia University call on the Iraqi government to use some of its oil wealth to pay the costs of the nation’s reconstruction instead of relying on the U.S. taxpayer to do the job. Bilmes and Stiglitz are coauthors of ‘The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.’