Bush memos, waterboarding, & defanging the Endangered Species Act

It was reported today that secret memos from the White House in 2003 and 2004, show clearly that Bush and his administration endorsed the water boarding of terrorist suspects.

The cynical among us do not find that surprising, of course, for we long ago made it policy to disbelieve any public statement made by the Bush team until that statement could be verified by sundry non-partisan sources. We've know from the beginning that George W. Bush, like his father, is a congenital liar.


Now, from the McClatchy Washington Bureau: "New legal memos by top Bush administration officials say that the Endangered Species Act can't be used to protect animals and their habitats from climate change by regulating specific sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of global warming."

While all of this came to light some time ago and we wrote about it then, these new legal memos offer "the official legal justification for limiting protections under the Endangered Species Act."

What this means is that any federal agency can do whatever the hell they want to negatively impact endangered species sans consulting with the agencies involved in administering the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Act.

So, if the Defense Department purports to blow up the world in which the bald eagle lives...well, tough shit. Bye, bye, bald eagle!

The cynical among us find none of this surprising, either. The Bush administration has been an environmental disaster from Day One and every time the Bushites claimed they did something to protect the environment, all the species ran away to hide.

Even though Bush is just about out of office, he and his cronies continue to try to pave with road with pearls for his corporate benefactors and industry polluters.

This latest Bush attack on our environment does not require Congressional consent.


Please note: Senator Barack Obama has promised to "undo the rule change if he were elected." John McCain's campaign has no comment and is not returning calls."

Naturally.

The environment and Sarah Palin

Rick Steiner, an Alaskan "guest columnist" for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is disappointed with John McCain's pick for a running mate. By choosing Sarah Palin, says Steiner, McCain "has shown a spectacular, even dangerous lack of judgment."

Steiner explains: Not only is Ms. Palin utterly lacking any qualifications to be vice president, but she "is an evangelical, anti-choice, pro-gun, right-wing conservative who wants creationism taught in schools. She is currently under investigation by the Alaska Legislature for alleged abuse of office. Many of us in Alaska simply cannot imagine Palin having anything to do with U.S. foreign policy, domestic policy, national defense or the countless other affairs of federal governance."

But what is extremely "worrisome" about Palin "is her abysmal record on the environment during her two years as governor, and how that would translate into national environmental policy if she became vice president."

Mr. Steiner offers the following as evidence of Palin's perfidy:

1. Climate change. Palin has done nothing about this "except hold meetings and appoint a 'climate sub-cabinet' ... Lots of talk, no action. Although in the past two years the Arctic summer sea ice shrunk to the lowest levels every recorded, Palin apparently does not believe it is human-induced or cause for alarm..."

2. Polar bears. Palin sued the Bush administration this summer to try to remove polar bears from the threatened species list. She claimed "her opposition was based on a 'comprehensive scientific review.' But when asked to release the scientific review, she refused."

Now, for the "good" part: "The document, later obtained by the public (from the federal government), clearly shows that, contrary to Palin's assertions, the state of Alaska's marine mammal scientists agreed with the federal conclusions that the polar bears are in serious trouble because of global warming and loss of their sea ice habitat, and that they would be gone from Alaska by 2050."

In other words, once again Palin lies in order to protect her allies in the oil and gas business!

3. Endangered species. "Earlier this year, Palin approved a $2 million state appropriation for a conference on the 'economic impacts' of the Endangered Species Act, designed to persuade the public that ESA listings were too costly and unwarranted. Recently she agreed to use the money instead to fund the state's lawsuit against the Bush administration over the polar bear listing -- a likely violation of the state constitutional provisions on appropriation. ..."

4. Predator control. "Palin approved and expanded the state's aerial predator control progam, where wolves are shot from aircraft and bears hunted from aircraft and killed upon landing. ... Last year, her administration offered a $150 bounty for each wolf killed until the bounty was ruled illegal by the courts. Hundreds of wolves are killed each year by this antiquated state program that has no scientific justification whatsoever, but rather is designed to appease Palin's urban sport hunter supporters."

Hockey mom, my ass! Sorry, but there is something seriously wrong with someone who thinks shooting wolves from the air and hunting down bears from the air to kill them is "sport"!

5. Pebble mine. "Palin aggressively opposed the 'clean water initiative' on the August ballot in Alaska (which then failed), favoring instead foreign mining company desires for fewer government regulations controlling their toxic effluent into salmon streams. ..."

6. Oil and gas drilling. Palin enthusiastically approves drilling everywhere in Alaska, "including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the central Arctic, the entire Arctic Ocean, and in fish-rich Bristol Bay and Cook Inlet." To this end, she has been lax in terms of "regulation and government oversight of Alaska's oil facilities ... "

7. Exxon Valdez oil spill damages. "Palin refuses to push Exxon to pay the government for the unanticipated environmental injuries from the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. ... Meanwhile, Exxon reaps record profits from Alaska."

8. Trans Pacific shipping. Coastal residents and organization have asked Palin repeatedly "to enhance the safety of merchant shipping through Alaska's Aleutian Islands, a primary shipping route between Asia and North America, but she's done nothing ...


Vote for McCain and you will put this human environmental disaster in a position to do harm, not just to Alaska, but to all of America!

You can read the entire article by Mr. Steiner here. This is an article by Faux News about the polar bear situation. Additional information about Sarah Palin and the environment here.