Environmentalists Wary of Obama’s Interior Pick

Reaction to Salazar pick in NYT-

Environmentalists Wary of Obama’s Interior Pick . John M. Broder.

Oh god! Salazar showed up wearing a cowboy hat. Makes you sick.

Well everyone should hold their breath and count until the “lesser” nominations.

Obama Names Salazar As Secretary of Interior

Salazar decribed as a “moderate” and a “broker”-

From WaPo. Obama Names Salazar As Secretary of Interior. By Juliet Eilperin, Phil Rucker and Dan Morgan.

That is so offensive to hear him described as “a fifth-generation Coloradan whose family settled in the West before the United States’ founding and has ranched and farmed on the same land in the San Luis Valley for more than a century. . . .”

They could say the same about me, but me and most of my relatives seem to have lost our political importance when we didn’t ranch.

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Ritter promises quick decision on Salazar seat. Politico.

Has anyone thought that Obama might have wanted a more reliable vote in the US Senate than Salazar?

Who said the government won’t do something to help the bison?

Yellowstone, bison to be featured on postage stamp-

AP story on the new postage stamp series.

Iowa’s Vilsack Likely Pick For Secretary of Agriculture

WaPO says environmentalists and “food groups” reacted positively-

Obama to name Vilsack for Agriculture. By Philip Rucker and Dan Morgan. Washington Post Staff Writers.

Vilsack was a popular governor of Iowa. He has been a major politician. His expertise in agriculture seems to come more from being a governor than from intimate knowledge of policy. He has been an ethanol supporter, which many think has been a disaster when made from corn (the source of all U.S. ethanol), but Obama has supported ethanol too.

USDA does more than deal with farming. The Forest Service is a bureau in the agency. Most Secretaries of Ag leave the administration of that Forest Service to the assistant secretary over that area. Sometimes this assistant secretary come  from a conservation viewpoint,  such as Mike Dombeck under Clinton, or industry such as timber lobbyists Mark Rey under George W. Bush.

The Forest Service itself is formally managed by the Chief Forester which is not a political appointment requiring a nomination followed by a confirmation in the Senate.

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Reaction to Vilsack.

Daily Kos.
Firedoglake