Scumbag Bush not Done Being Scumbag

Thanks to Barbara Baty.

Scumbag Bush not Done Being Scumbag
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Bush plans controversial deregulation before he goes
Friday, October 31, 2008 2:56 AM
By R. Jeffrey Smith
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations before President Bush leaves office in January, and many of them would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment.

The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.

Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.

Once such rules take effect, they typically can be undone only through a laborious new regulatory proceeding, including lengthy periods of public comment, drafting and mandated reanalysis.

"They want these rules to continue to have an impact long after they leave office," said Matthew Madia, a regulatory expert at OMB Watch, a nonprofit group critical of what it calls the Bush administration's penchant for deregulating in areas where industry wants more freedom.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said, "This administration has taken extraordinary measures to avoid rushing regulations at the end of the term. And yes, we'd prefer our regulations stand for a very long time -- they're well-reasoned and are being considered with the best interests of the nation in mind."

As many as 90 new regulations are in the works, and at least nine are considered "economically significant" because they impose costs or promote societal benefits that exceed $100 million annually. These include new rules governing employees who take family- and medical-related leaves, new standards for preventing or containing oil spills, and a simplified process for settling real-estate transactions.

The burst of last-minute activity has made this a busy time for lobbyists who fear industry views will hold less sway after the election.

According to the Office of Management and Budget's regulatory calendar, the scallop-fishing industry came in two weeks ago to urge that proposed catch limits be eased, nearly bumping into National Mining Association officials making the case for easing rules meant to keep coal-slurry waste out of Appalachian streams.

As deadlines near, the administration has begun to issue regulations of great interest to industry. These include, in recent days, a rule that allows the nation's
natural-gas pipelines to operate at higher pressures and new Homeland Security rules that shift passenger security-screening responsibilities from airlines to the federal government. The OMB also approved a new limit on airborne emissions of lead this month, acting under a court-imposed deadline.

Two other rules nearing completion would ease limits on pollution from power plants, a major energy-industry goal for the past eight years that Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups strenuously oppose.

One rule, being pursued over some opposition within the Environmental Protection Agency, would allow current emissions at a power plant to match the highest levels produced by that plant, overturning a rule that more strictly limits emission increases. According to the EPA, the change would allow millions of tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, worsening global warming.

Another new rule would allow increased emissions from oil refineries, chemical factories and other industrial plants with complex manufacturing operations.

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Relief is On the Way

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Whoever wins the race for the presidency, the whole world will thank its gods that the worst president in U.S., or world, history, has just stepped down. This man, George W. Bush, tried actually to turn the U.S. into a fascist country. For, by definition, a country whose politics and programs are run by rich corporations is a fascist country. And Bush also worked hard to destroy the middle class-- the backbone of our democracy.

The guy knew nothing of humility; at every opportunity, he strutted, smirked, and pea-cocked before the cameras with a look of complete ignorance ("I haven't a clue") combined with a contradictory look of arrogance. Due to his shenanigans, our foreign policy was also the very worst imaginable, causing billions to hate the U.S.A., and creating many more opportunities for our enemies, including Al-Qaeda.

He failed absolutely to ever capture bin Laden; the Bush family and the bin Laden family had financial and economic ties on many levels; did Bush ever really want to catch the murderous thug?

His staff was not much better than George himself, containing such stellar but criminal stars as Dick Chaney, Condy Rice, and others equally shady. For the sake of corporate welfare, they all cooperated to try to reverse the laws that protect our ecology and, for years, denied the very existence of global warming. Bush and Co. did everything wrong; when they had an opportunity to do good, they always vetoed it or otherwise ruined it. They did more damage, during the last eight years, than all the terrorists combined. They continuously blocked sound ideas in
Congress that would have helped the middle class, and gave great tax-breaks to the very rich, and to corporations. Every time that he had the opportunity, bush stood up for and defended the corporations, corporate welfare, and corporate profit; yet never did he defend the common "blue collar" worker or common householder.

Bush's "ideal government" was one in which not only fascist economic principles dominated, but in which the government could spy on even its own innocent citizens; it did away with several legal rights, and defended the horrors of torture. This government evolved into an alien thing that was not only "unAmerican," but "antiAmerican."

It was, in short, a nightmarish disaster. Neither Americans nor the rest of the world can afford four more years of this horror.
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Weather Strikes Back

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It is ironic how recent hurricanes have proved far more tempestuous than those of the past. It is a great irony that the burning of fossil fuels (global warming) has created this very heightening of intensity. And now, those very hurricanes often are inflicted upon the very same areas where petroleum products are produced. Is this the outworking of fast-reacting karma?

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America the Beautiful and America the Terrible

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I grew up in America the Beautiful, a country that was part idealization.

But it was a system that respected international law and order. It was a massive, mighty, many say "blessed," country that would never, under any conditions, stoop to invading a third-world country whose "soldiers" are often twelve-year-olds. And it would never have engaged in this nightmare of mass-murder of women and children for the evils of oil and greed.

I love America. But I do not always love or embrace her behavior under the tyranny of ignorant and greedy men. I do not respond with "shock and awe" to the slaughter and massacre of hundreds of thousands of innocent women, children, and men in a single day. This is the evil twin of America the Beautiful; her name is America the Terrible.

In America the Terrible, it is a place where elections were fixed and dishonest. In both twenty hundred in Florida, and in twenty-oh-four in Ohio, hundreds of thousands of valid votes were disenfranchised-- mostly votes of native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latino Americans. Huge boxes of their valid votes were simply thrown away.

Why? Because they did not want the government to be led by men who trashed personal rights and civil liberties. They were rejecting a government that practiced regular torture and mass-murder. They turned away from a government that spied on its own citizens, and took away civil rights and freedoms. In short, they insisted on a simple democracy, which the U.S. claimed to be exporting, while in reality, it was suppressing here at home.

The rulers of America the Terrible were the pygmy-puppets of corporate America. They stood by the greedy and destructive corporations while they ruined the environment, and defended their absolute greed even as they poisoned innocent citizens. And when opportunities arose to help people-- whether senior citizens, children, students, or the common person-- the leaders stood squarely opposed to programs that could assist. This was done not once, but over and over again. America the Terrible believed in war-- even in starting it, and in the defense of pollution; and "anything for a buck" was its guiding philosophy.

In America the Terrible, an unqualified man could, with the aid of his father, "buy" the highest position in the land, and end up in the White House even if the citizens did not want him there. He could buy his way to power by becoming a weak puppet of vast wealth, again, mostly corporate. He could then reverse laws that the wisest people had developed for decades. He could not only start a nightmarish war, but could threaten the beginning of another-- this time, nuclear. By simply ignoring the poor and supporting the rich, he could come dangerously close to eliminating the middle class-- the traditional strength of America the Beautiful. In sum, everything that could go wrong in America the Beautiful did go wrong in America the Terrible.
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PSR Monitor

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On April 6, 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the second installment of its Fourth Assessment Report on climate change. The release of the Working Group II report, titled “Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,” bolsters the need for immediate action to address global warming.

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Congressional consideration continues over the new hydrogen bomb, known as the “Reliable Replacement Warhead,” proposed by the Department of Energy in March. Former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn and former Secretary of Defense William Perry testified in opposition to the new hydrogen bomb before the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development of the House Appropriations Committee on March 29, 2007. “If Congress gives a green light to this program in our current world
environment,” argued Nunn, “I believe that this will be: misunderstood by our allies; exploited by our adversaries; complicate our work to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons…and make resolution of the Iran and North Korean challenges all the more difficult.” Nunn continued, saying: “we will pay a very high price in terms of our overall national security if Congress gives the approval to go forward with this program. Mr. Chairman, I believe we need a strategic reassessment of the role and purposes of nuclear weapons in the 21st century and an urgent change in direction with both vision and steps. This change in direction should precede a Congressional decision on the RRW. I would not fund additional work on the RRW at this time." Mr. Perry concurred, testifying that “we could defer action for many years on an RRW program, and I have no doubt that this would put us in a stronger position to lead the international community in the continuing battle against nuclear proliferation, which threatens us all."

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Peter Wilk, M.D., President of PSR/Maine and Wendy Hazard of the Board of the United Nations Association of Maine published an op-ed in the Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram on April 4, 2007 argue “we must intensify this pressure on the Bush administration to avert a wider war in the Middle East and to find a diplomatic solution regarding Iran's nuclear facilities. Another war is not the answer.”

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On Friday, April 13, over 200 people participated in a "first of its kind" conference initiated by Maine PSR. "Achieving Global Security" brought together environmental, disarmament and peace activists to illuminate the connections between their issues and to discuss collaborative activities on energy policies, nuclear issues, preemptive war, and global warming. Speakers included Mary-Wynne Ashford, former Co-President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and Catherine Thomasson, current President of PSR. Topics discussed included, "Achieving a Sustainable Energy Policy in Maine"; "Ending the Nuclear Threat", and "Fighting Global Warming." Conference co-sponsers included the University of Southern Maine, Maine Public Health Association, Sierra Club of Maine and Maine National Council of Churches.

National PSR is working with other PSR chapters in Iowa and Pennsylvania on similar conferences. As we move towards the 2008 elections it is critical that these all important issues are brought to light. For more information contact maine PSR Executive Director, Melissa Boyd at psr_maine@yahoo.com.

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On April 26th, PSR activists from around the country will convene in Washington, D.C. to meet with leaders on Capitol Hill to urge them to halt the production of new nuclear weapons and to call for decisive action on global warming — two of the gravest threats to human health and security.