Green Options

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In the spirit of the seemingly endless campaign for the presidency of the U.S., I am going to put a little green twist on a question that was raised on the PBS program, Bill Moyers Journal, the other night. Moyers showed clips of one question that CBS’ Katie Couric had asked of all the candidates she interviewed;

“What is the one book, other than the Bible, that you would take with you into the White House as the next president?”

But as soon as I heard the question, my irrational fascination with all things green led me to wonder, what book with an environmental theme would I consider to be an essential read for the next president. I thought about that question a lot and came up with too many answers.  Please help me flesh these out a little by helping me answer the green version of Katie Couric’s question: 

[Other than the Bible] what ‘green’ book should the next president take into the White House?

Leave a comment with the name of the green-themed book you think is a must read for the incoming president and you could win a book yourself. Here’s the catch, you’ve got to make a case for it.

Valid entries will consist of a reply that is concise, clearly articulated and well-reasoned. One submission meeting those very simple requirements will be randomly drawn to win a copy of …

I did not ‘live blog’ the State of the Union Address last night (and no, not because I was too drunk). In fact, I didn’t watch it live at all. In an effort to take back a piece of my life lost to commercial advertisements, I have recently become a TiVo person (not the brand mind you, but TiVo works nicely as a noun and a verb). I basically got the device because I was fed up with ads interrupting the quality fake news I get from the Stewart-Colbert NewsHour. And even though the annual address is one of the few things you can watch on commercial television without ads, I chose to TiVo it and watch it a few hours later, in unreal time.

The best thing about using the device for the Address was being able >>, to >>>, or even to >>>> through the long, drawn out walk into the House Chamber. I always find all of that gladhanding a little strange, really The long walk is then punctuated by the rounds of undeserved applause (though noticeably quieter and shorter than past years). The second best thing about the TiVo was being able to << when I had to re-listen to a couple of spots for a good laugh. And I am even such a nerd that I moved the parts of the video frame-by-frame to see where Bush was looking when he delivered certain parts of his message.

Regardless of how I watched it, I came away with a general impression that many of you may also have had; this was not the same President who once boasted about his political capital and how he intended to spend it. This is now a fairly unpopular, lame duck executive presiding over a country that is, a) frustrated with the long and expensive occupation of Iraq; b) nervous about a sagging economy and possible recession, and; c) annoyed by the inordinate amount of BS that has flowed freely from this administration for the last seven years. Essentially, the speech will not be remembered for its fire, vigor, bold policy announcements or anything else really.

Fred Thompson, A/K/A District Attorney Arthur Branch on NBC’s Law & Order is truly a ‘Law and Order’ kind of guy. I don’t mean that he is a left-leaning humanitarian like his former L&O co-star Sam Waterston. Thompson is more the Law and Order in the Richard Nixon mold.

Thompson is better known for his 5 seasons on Law & Order than he is for his 8 years in the US Senate. It was an 8-year stint for Thompson as he finished 2 years on Al Gore’s term, when Gore resigned his seat to become Vice President. Thompson was elected to a full term in 1996. Thompson has acted in 2 dozen movies and countless televison shows. He has been married twice and is father to four children.

Thompson ‘toyed’ with the idea of running for President for several months during this summer. He finally announced his candidacy on September 5th on the Tonight Show. During the next few days after his announcement, Thompson went on an announcement tour that included 2 days in the Granite State. It was very opportune meeting him up here, as he has spent much less time in New Hampshire than has any other active candidate. I met him in Manchester at a small event.