Steven Chu, our new Secretary of Energy, tries to spook the public:
"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," he said. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California." And, he added, "I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going" either.
He went on to say that "facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." (Just kidding.) Elsewhere Obama was warning today that if his stimulus, which has so far failed to garner a single Republican vote and is hemorrhaging Democratic votes as well, fails to pass, the American people face a "catastrophe." Good for the Democrats, let them play the politics of fear -- on the economy, on global warming, on any other issue they please. But let's not pretend that this is any different than the warnings offered by the Bush administration in the run up to the war in Iraq. And let's keep in mind that Obama's plans for the economy and the environment are going to make the Iraq war look like a bargain.