Welcome... to Bizarro World

I have to applaud President Bush today.

Yes… you read that right. I am applauding him (hence the title of this post)

Now don’t get confused. You didn’t accidentally get transferred to a conservative poli-blog; it’s just that Dubya did something that I find admirable.

Yesterday, President Bush (notice I didn’t even include my famous quotes around President, that’s how much I respect him for doing this) created (and by creating I mean signed into existence) the world's largest marine protected area.

You read that right… President Bush is creating a marine sanctuary, which you can see a map of over to the right.

(In order to cite sources properly and give credit where credit is due, allow me to tell you that this map was borrowed from Mary Kate Cannistra at The Washington Post - thank you Mary Kate)

(Now don’t read too much into this, I am by no means a nature-freak. I believe that nature is to be protected from and “Nature, like a woman, will seduce you with its sights and its scents and its touch, and then it breaks your ankle, also like a woman.” – Thank you very much ‘The West Wing’ – but I have been to Hawaii, and trust me, this is a very good thing)

The move sets aside 140,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean that includes islands, atolls, coral reef colonies and underwater peaks (known as ‘seamounts’ in case you want to have that knowledge for parties and impress your friends) that stretch from the main Hawaiian Islands to Midway Atoll and beyond. This area is home to more than 7,000 species, a fourth of which that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

The area will now be known as the “Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument” and will be larger than all of America's national parks combined and will phase out all fishing, coral-mining (for making jewelry) and all other acts that could damage the delicate reefs.

This is a dramatic 360 for this administration, which, as recently as five years ago, considered taking away some of the protections that the area had enjoyed since President Clinton declared it a coral reef ecosystem reserve while he was in office.

But they never did.

What changed Bush’s mind you ask? Apparently it was the film “Voyage to Kure” by Jean-Michel Cousteau (son of the late underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau) that Bush watched back in April of this year. The movie showed the beauties and dangers facing the area, and seemed to catch Bush’s imagination as he jumped up from his chair after the viewing and directed his staff to start working on protecting the area.

I know… this is strange… you don't usually put Bush and ‘animal sanctuary’ or ‘environment’ in the same sentence unless you're talking about drilling for oil, but there you go, he did something environmentally friendly and positive.

Note: For all of our regular readers who came here looking for disparaging remarks about Bush and his policies, don’t fret. I’m sure it won’t be long until Bush, or his people, says or does something to either embarrass himself or make Liberals pissed. After all, it’s just a matter of time.

Stay tuned...