Tag: W Bush

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11th Hour Laws, Decimate the Environment

The practice of “midnight regulations” is not a new one. Clinton and Bush Sr. both used the practice to place pardons, enact favoritism laws and pass a whole slew of deregulations. Bush Dub, takes it of course to a new level with wide sweeping changes. The Environment was a key target in many, as it was all through out the Bush years. It will take years of work, law and social change to make up for the changes Bush has implemented.

National Geographic reviews the regulations and effect of each. Here’s a summary:

1. Power Plants Encouraged Near Parks—RESCINDED!! so SCORE!
2. Mountaintop Mining Waste Allowed in Waterways – FAIL
3. Three New Marine Monuments Designated – SCORE!
4. Two Million Acres Opened to Oil Shale Development – FAIL
5. Factory-Farm Pollution Controls Diminished – FAIL
6. Scientific Review Now Optional for Development in Sensitive Habitats – FAIL
7. Hazardous Waste Reclassified as Nonhazardous – FAIL
8. Fishing Businesses to Regulate Themselves—RESCINDED!! so SCORE!
9. Plants Can Increase Pollution Output More Easily – FAIL
10. Mining Public Lands Made Easier – FAIL
11. Oil and Gas Leases Auctioned Off at Last Minute – FAIL

Bush’s midnight flurry reflects the priorities of an administration that has consistently placed industry interests over environmental protections and public health.

“It’s business as usual [for the Bush Administration]. And in this day and age, we can’t afford that any more,” Republican conservationist DiPeso said.

Defenders of Wildlife’s Irvin agreed. “What this reflects is a shameful record of the most anti-environment administration in the history of the United States,” he said.

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Last Day

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
~ William Shakespeare

I think this is a great quote that sums up the last days of the Bush error. Bush has been doing interviews about his legacy, and in trying to sum up the positive, all I’ve heard are things that he’s tried to push through but never got accomplished (Social Security reform), and that he’s kept American’s safe – which has a GLOWING contradiction… that he DIDN’T! In fact we had the largest terrorist attack on our soil while he was on watch. I don’t see how that’s keeping American’s safe.

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Papal Visit 2008

This past week the Pope entertained a visit to the USA, first stopping in Washington DC and then making his way up to New York, NY. This was Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to America since coming into the position and while here, his mission was to ensure his flock does stray too far or leave the heard.

“This is a pope who is very concerned about the loss of faith in Europe . . . but the U.S. is in a very different situation,” said Father Thomas Rausch, a theologian at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “All kinds of Christianity — Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox — are much more alive and vital than in Europe.”

As John Stewart points out, even the president went out to the airport to pick up the Pope, which never happens. He was greeted with a birthday song and per bush, provided an “awesome” speech.

While venturing around NY this week, the traffic was noticeably thicker, the vendors were pushing “We’ve got Papal! What have you got!” T-shirts and even the dogs were donning episcopal mitres. I did not, however, venture anywhere near the spots where the holiness was speaking or visiting. I’m not Catholic after all and I just don’t like tourist destinations. I do hope that those that ventured here got their fill of the papal visit, because I had enough of it on TV to last me this term.