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Bush to get roughly half his environmental-nightmare judges through the Senate.

Well, the showdown over the so-called "nuclear option" in the Senate is over, averted by a last-minute compromise. It will be spun every which way, but it looks to me like Democrats managed to pull defeat from the jaws of victory yet again. Republicans promise not to prohibit (by breaking Senate rules) filibusters of judicial candidates -- for now, though Frist says, "all options remain" -- and Dems promise only to filibuster in "extraordinary circumstances" (if these fruitloop judges aren't extraordinary circumstances, what could be?). Democrats will allow Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen, and Bill Pryor to pass through unobstructed.

All these judges should be regarded as nightmarish to anyone fond of the post-1930s federal apparatus, but Pryor in particular is a blow to the environment.

The only bright spot is that William G. Myers III has not been filibuster-proofed. Myers is, as Grist readers know, quite possibly the most anti-environment judge in the nation.

So: the Dems let some truly insane far-right judges through without filibuster. In exchange, they get to keep the theoretical right to filibuster -- in "extraordinary circumstances" -- until Republicans decide to take it away.

The R's held a gun to the D's head and said, "give me all your money." D's gave them half their money and called it a compromise.

It's a grim day for the environment and a grim day for the country.

(Read this story for a full rundown on Bush's judicial nominees, and read this story for a principled argument on why the nuclear option is historically unprecedented and politically disastrous.)

Update [2005-5-23 22:25:0 by Dave Roberts]:: It makes me feel a little better that Mark Schmitt is resigned and James Dobson and Gary Bauer are furious. But only a little.

Why don’t the big political blogs cover environmental issues?

Jeff is very right about this -- in general, the bigtime political blogosphere neglects environmental issues. This is a lamentable state of affairs. There are probably several factors at work.

First, blogs are very much of the moment. A few, like Mark Schmitt's Decembrist, are more deliberative and slow-moving, but most -- Atrios being the prime example -- are almost literally minute-by-minute affairs. As such, they are somewhat bound to the politicians and "mainstream media" they cover. And those politicians, and that mainstream media, don't cover environmental issues enough. So, the culpability goes upwards.

But still, energy issues come up a lot. Global warming comes up a lot. There's certainly plenty out there to cover if one of these guys -- and really, the big ones are mostly guys -- turned their minds to it. It's a peculiar thing: Even when something notable happens in the political arena, like the strange-bedfellows, bipartisan Energy Future Coalition sending a high-profile letter to President Bush pleading for a saner energy policy, it passes by virtually without note on the big blogs.

Is it just that the particular individuals involved have no interest or background on eco-stuff? Or is there something more systemic at work? Discuss.

With Friends Like That …

Transportation choices are made as much with the heart as with the head.

This New York Times article from last Saturday echoed news that has been popping up all over recently. The headline sums it up: "America's Love Affair With S.U.V.'s Begins to Cool." Higher gas prices are apparently starting to shift people's car-buying patterns -- which seems to have caught most auto-industry execs by surprise, though it should hardly come as a shock to economists who (quite naturally) expect that price changes will eventually change people's behavior.

But what stuck out at me was this quote from a former SUV aficionado:

"I never wanted a car before -- never," said Tamika Cooks, a science teacher at Bellaire High School in Houston, in an interview Friday as she was signing the paperwork for her Chrysler 300C. "But this car has captured my attention. It speaks to me. It calls my name."

Olympic Heights

Green-roof project aims to clean up Beijing for Olympics With the 2008 Olympics in Beijing inching closer, the Chinese are hard at work cleaning up the notoriously smog-ridden city. Polluting factories are being relocated, new pipelines are bringing in natural gas to replace dirty coal, and higher emissions standards are being applied to the city’s […]

My favorite side effects of the ivory-bill discovery

Best local creation to emerge from the recent discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas: a haircut that pays tribute. For $25, you too can sport a moussed mohawk painted red, white, and black.

Second best: the ivory-billed cheeseburger. Um ... gross.

And finally, best factoid to surface in the media hype: the former name of bird town Brinkley, Ak., is Lick Skillet.

David Cash, Massachusetts air-policy director, answers questions

David Cash. What work do you do? How does it relate to the environment? I’m the director of air policy for the state of Massachusetts in the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. EOEA is an umbrella agency that oversees and coordinates the activities of numerous other environment-related agencies such as the Department of Environmental Protection […]

Vegetarianism gets hotttt.

The hottest thang in veggie circles these days? Gastroporn.

It comes (ahem) courtesy of Britain's venerable Vegetarian Society, as part of its "Can you keep it up for a week?" campaign. A must-watch.

(Check out The Independent for the backstory.)

Readers accuse Umbra of missing the mark, and more

  Re: Epistled Off Dear Editor: I work for a consumer-product company (apparel, not cleaning products), and I know the impact of emails and letters from customers. I think Umbra missed the boat by not suggesting that the consumer send letters by mail, as well as by email. Emails are really easy to miss in […]

A Bum Wrap

Study settles cloth vs. disposable diaper question The debate over the relative environmental merits of cloth vs. disposable diapers, like the one over paper vs. plastic bags, arouses passions entirely out of proportion to its significance in the grand scheme of things. But still, the U.K. Environment Agency decided to settle the question once and […]