Clean air dodges a bullet

I was pretty sure Murkowski's EPA busting resolution was going to go down, but a win with a 47 to 53 vote is pretty disheartening. Especially the crossovers.

Six Senate Democrats -- Evan Bayh (Ind.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (W. Va.) -- voted in favor of the Murkowski resolution, and no Republicans opposed it.

We're all watching this slow-mo horror show in the Gulf and nearly half the Senate thinks that destroying our land and water isn't enough; that we can all breathe toxic air too? Even more depressing is there's a lot of crazy cons out there that probably agree with them and not all of them are too young to remember why those enviromental protections were enacted in the first place.

Me I remember when rivers caught fire and the California smog was so thick you could rarely see the skylines of the cities from a distance. I remember Silent Spring and Love Canal. Hard to believe there are so many people who want to go back to those "good old days."

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]