Bush and the endangered species act
Aug. 11th, 2008 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_belle_laideOkay, this is me going from a good mood to a crappy mood.
Bush to relax protected species rules.
Plan takes scientists out of decision making on species status
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Monday said it plans to let federal agencies decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.
The proposal, which does not require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews that government scientists have been performing for 35 years. Developers welcomed the plan, while environmentalists derided it.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said late Monday the changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act would not be used as a “back door” to regulate the gases blamed for global warming. In May, the polar bear became the first species declared as threatened because of climate change. Warming temperatures are expected to melt the sea ice the bear depends on for survival.
Really read it, read the whole thing and try to find the "logic" in it, and try to feel what they are really saying. It's not hard. They didn't even try to pretty it up or make it seem innocuous this time. They don't even care what it seems like anymore. It's just like, "Well, we're putting it in the hands of big businesses now because we don't want the environment's protection to get in the way."
How can this not just burn people up? It affects the whole world, not just america.
Also please keep in mind how he has already taken out the fourth and the fifth amendments, and that he is pushing to make it mandatory for clinics (including Planned Parenthood) to hire people whose beliefs conflict with their goals, in an effort to stop abortion and-- as if that wasn't insane enough, just to sprinkle the polar opposite of logic on top--to stop the sale of birth control.
I'm not sure what his social agenda is, but his political one is really, really scary. The thing is that he and his people, his administration and above, even, have amassed so much power that it doesn't matter anymore who he alienates.
Doesn't that sound familiar?
ETA: This is what I'm really afraid of. Even if Obama wins, he and his folks would have to fight really hard to even begin to change this loss--and the other losses--back, and there's a lot on his plate already, because he's got to get us out of this insane war as well as struggle with an unprecedented national debt, unprecedented unemployment and general all around misery and loss of rights.
What I really fear is that it goes wayyyyy deeper than just the current administration. I'm afraid that as much as I am for Obama, if he does get in there, while he will clean up some of the damage, much of it is permanent and in those cases he'd be little more than a figure-head.
With his hands tied by people way bigger than he is (and what will doubtless be a conservative chokehold on the nation regardless of who is president,) even the people who did support him will lose faith in him and then four years later we will be stuck once again with another Bush administration under a different name.
Sometimes I am really, really afraid.
Oops, one more thing. Here's another worrisome thing going on. Bush has demanded that Russia pull out of their military strike on Georgia.
Well, yeah.
But, what if they don't? What can we do? Well if Murrika says something and the Russians don't listen, two things happen: One, The Russians become The Bad Guys in all the movies again.* Two: Murrika loses face. The country looks bad. I mean, we'd have to do something to enforce that, right? Bush ain't gonna just stand there and stomp his feet.
But the thing is, HI, OUR MILITARY IS A LITTLE TIED UP RIGHT NOW, K THX!!!! So we'd be pretty much powerless if Russia was like, "Yeah? Make me!"
Also, you may or may not notice, but under Bush's administration, Murrika kinda more or less illegally invaded and occupied a country too. So really, Putin can just turn around and say, "You're one to talk, dick." I mean, what did america do when most of the rest of the world--even much of America--told us to not go to war, to quit waging war?
Yeah.
It's an all-around bad situation.
Bush to relax protected species rules.
Plan takes scientists out of decision making on species status
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Monday said it plans to let federal agencies decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.
The proposal, which does not require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews that government scientists have been performing for 35 years. Developers welcomed the plan, while environmentalists derided it.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said late Monday the changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act would not be used as a “back door” to regulate the gases blamed for global warming. In May, the polar bear became the first species declared as threatened because of climate change. Warming temperatures are expected to melt the sea ice the bear depends on for survival.
Really read it, read the whole thing and try to find the "logic" in it, and try to feel what they are really saying. It's not hard. They didn't even try to pretty it up or make it seem innocuous this time. They don't even care what it seems like anymore. It's just like, "Well, we're putting it in the hands of big businesses now because we don't want the environment's protection to get in the way."
How can this not just burn people up? It affects the whole world, not just america.
Also please keep in mind how he has already taken out the fourth and the fifth amendments, and that he is pushing to make it mandatory for clinics (including Planned Parenthood) to hire people whose beliefs conflict with their goals, in an effort to stop abortion and-- as if that wasn't insane enough, just to sprinkle the polar opposite of logic on top--to stop the sale of birth control.
I'm not sure what his social agenda is, but his political one is really, really scary. The thing is that he and his people, his administration and above, even, have amassed so much power that it doesn't matter anymore who he alienates.
Doesn't that sound familiar?
ETA: This is what I'm really afraid of. Even if Obama wins, he and his folks would have to fight really hard to even begin to change this loss--and the other losses--back, and there's a lot on his plate already, because he's got to get us out of this insane war as well as struggle with an unprecedented national debt, unprecedented unemployment and general all around misery and loss of rights.
What I really fear is that it goes wayyyyy deeper than just the current administration. I'm afraid that as much as I am for Obama, if he does get in there, while he will clean up some of the damage, much of it is permanent and in those cases he'd be little more than a figure-head.
With his hands tied by people way bigger than he is (and what will doubtless be a conservative chokehold on the nation regardless of who is president,) even the people who did support him will lose faith in him and then four years later we will be stuck once again with another Bush administration under a different name.
Sometimes I am really, really afraid.
Oops, one more thing. Here's another worrisome thing going on. Bush has demanded that Russia pull out of their military strike on Georgia.
Well, yeah.
But, what if they don't? What can we do? Well if Murrika says something and the Russians don't listen, two things happen: One, The Russians become The Bad Guys in all the movies again.* Two: Murrika loses face. The country looks bad. I mean, we'd have to do something to enforce that, right? Bush ain't gonna just stand there and stomp his feet.
But the thing is, HI, OUR MILITARY IS A LITTLE TIED UP RIGHT NOW, K THX!!!! So we'd be pretty much powerless if Russia was like, "Yeah? Make me!"
Also, you may or may not notice, but under Bush's administration, Murrika kinda more or less illegally invaded and occupied a country too. So really, Putin can just turn around and say, "You're one to talk, dick." I mean, what did america do when most of the rest of the world--even much of America--told us to not go to war, to quit waging war?
Yeah.
It's an all-around bad situation.
