Is it an East Coast, West Coast thing if we all bleed green?

In his widely cited New York Times Op Ed piece "The Power of Green"
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/15/opinion/web-0415edgreen-full.php
(to be avoided by those not in the mood for a decidedly saccharine aftertaste) Thomas Friedman begins by wrapping 'green' in the all to convenient Red, White and Blue. "One day Iraq, our post-9/11 trauma and the divisiveness of the Bush years will all be behind us — and America will need, and want, to get its groove back. We will need to find a way to reknit America at home, reconnect America abroad and restore America to its natural place in the global order — as the beacon of progress, hope and inspiration. I have an idea how. It's called "green."
Friedman, standing tall atop of his newly pigmented soapbox looks 'beyond global to think national' and proposes renaming green as a way to "reknit America at home, reconnect America abroad and restore America to its natural place in the global order"........ in other words find a new branding vehicle by repackaging the neo-liberal script in the post neoCon era as "green." He solidifies this position in his assertion "I want to rename it ('green', that is) geostrategic, geoeconomic, capitalistic and patriotic." Yeeeeeehaaaa! Gosh, Mr Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush- (Ms. clinton?) globalists, wouldn't we just export our green tech manufacturing to China and India as fast as possible, and insourse most of the new green tech jobs to H1B land like we do now?
On the west /left coast some folks are riding their hybrids in another direction, and this time the most personal benefit you get from the branding isn't just a solo ride in the commuter lane. It's called the Green New Deal. Kind of hard to miss the message there, eh? Like Mr. Friedman they position "green" as the way that America can move forward but with the political pendulum moving in quite another direction. It looks to me more like the 'real deal' and not just a propaganda piece wrapping an global corporate message in shades of a new color scheme. Judge for yourself.
The New Green Deal of 2009 *
http://stardustlocalizing.com/2008/03/03/the-new-green-deal-of-2009/ (again in case you choose not to drink the whole pitcher of cool-aid, read on for lengthy excerpt from the website cited in the previous line)
"The incoming US Federal administration of 2009 will have an important opportunity to launch a New Green Deal that promotes locally directed efforts to solve many of our urgent problems. This is a time of economic and environmental crisis, and we need to demonstrate authentic leadership in pursuit of a vibrant, healthy society that is sustainable and equitable. A New Green Deal can address domestic economic, social and ecological problems in a way that also has a positive impact on foreign policy and relations. The New Green Deal focuses on developing basic requirements for moving towards sustainability such as green collar jobs, regional ecological restoration, and inclusion of under-represented communities. Its mission is to enable comprehensive long-lasting social, economic and natural resource policies. The New Green Deal can become the foundation for healthy, productive domestic programs that reduce our nation's oil dependence and provide proactive responses to global warming.The New Green Deal's founding principle is there needs to be regional improvements to local conditions and carried out by local people, businesses, and communities. This means the overall approach to accomplishing programs will vary according to the places where applied: New York City will have a different emphasis than Los Angeles, and Puget Sound from Chesapeake Bay.The New Green Deal should then be applied in five general directions:
1) Survey, inventory and evaluation of local/regional renewable and non-renewable assets. These include but are not limited to food, water, energy sources, building materials and methods, open space, and transportation alternatives with an emphasis on a North American, inter-regional railway system.
2) Public participation in designating and implementing priorities for projects and activities.
3) "True cost" analysis to evaluate and select the most sustainable alternatives.
4) Green Collar employment programs in the following areas:
a) Ecosystem restoration,
b) Remanufacturing that maximizes use of recyclable and/or post-consumer materials,
c) Renewable energy production and use,
d) Regionally-based sustainable agriculture,
e) Converting all wastes into resources,
f) Water conservation and reuse,
g) Energy efficiency,
h) Green building, living roofs, and landscaping,
i) Ecology and conservation education,
j) And special Green Collar job training programs in vulnerable communities.
5) Create or transform governmental institutions and agencies with policies that promote localization and embody principles of sustainability.---------------------------------------------*A genuine "stimulus package", on the scale of the 1930's New Deal, for the present day. The New Green Deal promotes positive programs to replace catastrophic activities that underlie climate change, economic inequities, water and food shortages, habitat destruction, and species extinction. COMMITTEE FOR A NEW GREEN DEALE mail: mail@planetdrum.orgPostal address: Committee for a New Green Deal, P.O. Box 31251, San Francisco, CA94131"

Now our countrymen down south would probably laughing into their ten gallon hats if this stuff ever even made it to anything that resembles mass distribution or media, and then immediately smell the opportunity to yell, "the commies are coming" or "we'd have to raise middle class and low income taxes to pay for that!" but perhaps a massive "green new deal" public works campaign would give the troops returning home something to do besides getting their asses shot off for minimum wage working for Blackwater in some Central American jungle.
I would agree with these New Green Deal folks that government planning needs to be a major component in directing a salvagable future for this country and not function solely as the "entertainment arm of the military industrial complex". Naw, frack it, lets all go to Burning Man and get high!