Now that the pretending is over, Bush is scrapping the ranch for what will no doubt be toney new digs in Dallas, but before our cowboy rides off into the sunset, we learn via the Pine View Farm that there is still time for some parting middle fingers to the American public:
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday approved a last-minute rule change by the Bush administration that will allow coal companies to bury streams under the rocks leftover from mining.
The 1983 rule prohibited dumping the fill from mountaintop removal mining within 100 feet of streams. In practice, the government hadn’t been enforcing the rule. Government figures show that 535 miles of streams were buried or diverted from 2001 to 2005, more than half of them in the mountains of Appalachia. Along with the loss of the streams has been an increase of erosion and flooding.
The 11th hour change before President George W. Bush leaves office would eliminate a tool that citizens groups have used in lawsuits to keep mining waste out of streams. Mining companies had been pushing for the change for years.
It also means that President-elect Barack Obama’s administration will have to decide whether to try to restore and enforce the rule, a process that could take many months of new rulemaking. Obama’s transition team declined to comment on its plans on Tuesday.
Rivers and streams are over-rated, although since Appalachia went for McCain and Pinochet in heels, I guess you could argue this is what we wanted. Also, via the Mahablog, Bush is offering a parting gift to the religious nutters:
The outgoing Bush administration is planning to announce a broad new “right of conscience” rule permitting medical facilities, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable, including abortion and possibly even artificial insemination and birth control.
So while some on the left are busy getting their progressive selves up in arms because Obama isn’t doing exactly what they want him to do 48 days before he is sworn in, the reality of the matter is that the first few months of the Obama administration are going to have to be spent figuring out how to stave off a depression with a government that has been bankrupted by Republican rule, figure out how to get us out of Iraq, and then spend a good bit of time undoing the last minute parting shots from the Mayberry Machiavellis.
Worst. President. Ever.
Giggles
Any word on what Cheney is working on at the moment? Worst. Vice President. Ever.
Bubblegum Tate
Ned: Excuse me, neighbor. I couldn’t help but notice, you picked pretty much all of my flowers!
Homer: Can’t make a float without flowers.
Ned: Oh, sure. But did you have to salt the earth so nothing would ever grow again?
Homer: Heh-heh, heh-heh … yeah
Funny when it’s a bit on The Simpsons. Not so funny when it’s an illustration of how shitty our goddamn president is.
Jeff
All these changes will be reversed within days of January 20. I bet the transition team is following every signed document out of the White House and has papers ready to reverse by signature at 12:01 pm Jan 20. Obama’s signing hand is going to be very tired by the 21st.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Just out of curiosity, how many doctors who find such procedures morally objectionable actually perform those procedures as it is? I mean, if you find abortion morally objectionable, I can’t imagine you’d take a job at a clinic that performs abortions in the first place. Or do health professionals have that much choice in where they wind up?
demkat620
He’s not smart enough to think this shit up on his own. This is all Cheney. George just nods along. Fucker.
Comrade Stuck
Well, they accomplished their goal of shrinking things to the size they can be drowned in bathtubs. Except it wasn’t the government, and now they have nearly killed off what they say they value most, our private business sector. They Lex Luthered the economy and now have that dratted SuperGovmint needed for the rescue. It’s as though they tore up the time honored (and successful) National Playbook and replaced it with the wingnut version of Murphy’s Law.
YellowJournalism
It’s not so much doctors in general. The negative effects can be seen most in rural areas where there are only a few (or even one) options for pharmacies or medical treatment. In the case of pharmacies, this might give a pharmacist permission to deny a birth control refill because the pharmacist doesn’t believe in birth control practices.
Zifnab
Wait, does this cover all medical practices for all individuals, or is only effective for Terri Shavio?
Jeff
This would probably also include prescribing the morning after pill to a rape victim in an ER. So I could see this happening in a small town with only one ER or few doctors.
Comrade Stuck
And for those who don’t know a lot about the strip mining for coal business, they have enacted a rule, or relaxed one, that is not only bad, it is the core of the 1978 strip mining act. Preventing stream pollution was the justification for the laws enactment under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Before the law was passed, the streams and rivers were so full of sediment runoff from strip mining that they could not even hold their banks in a light drizzle of rain. Dumping mine waste (spoils) into streambed’s again goes beyond just water quality being diminished, it allows for the streams to fill with mud again and flood with abandon, putting lives at risk in the narrow hollows of Appalachia. It is an act of wanton endangerment by the Bush Administration, though, of course, not it’s first one .
Incertus
@YellowJournalism:
One interpretation of this would extend to people who do something as far removed as cleaning the instruments used in the procedure. If I were a bit more cynical (and if I worked in the field) I’d use this excuse to get out of practically every piece of work I could.
Origuy
I think we need a new Cabinet position, Secretary of Undo. Bill Clinton could do it. Let the rest of the Cabinet move forward, while the Undo Secretary backs out all the changes made during the Bush administration.
srv
God, there goes the neighborhood. Not that I’m a fan of Dallas, but sis lives in University Park, and close enough to the future Presidential Library of Redactions that visiting the kids will be a royal pain.
p.a.
Damn negative Nellies! This is an excellent affirmative action/jobs creation program. For too long Christian Scientists and Jehovas Witnesses have been unfairly locked out of the medical professions simply because they would deny patients needed services. No more! Ah the sweet sweet sound of justice.
(and I thought my contempt for this admin couldn’t get any deeper…)
Gus
Origuy that’s the most brilliant proposal I’ve seen in a long time.
srv
You need to work in government.
Incertus
@p.a.: Funny thing–there are a number of JW’s in the medical profession, and they seem to do okay. (I know this because I was raised one.) They manage to balance their religious beliefs and their jobs fairly well, but they do so because they’re supposed to remain politically neutral. They don’t vote, for the most part.
No, it’s the politically active dickmonkeys who are trying to put their religious beliefs into law who are the problem.
Lee in NC
The extensive ramifications of that morally objectionable thing haven’t even begun to really hit everyone yet, methinks.
AIDS patient in the ER? Nope, can’t touch him. I’m against homosexuality/drug use/whatever and think it’s God’s punishment.
Hepatitis? Shouldn’t have gotten that tattoo. So sorry for you.
Cirrhosis? Damn, you really should not be drinking like that. That’s the devil’s juice, son.
And on and on. That alone tells you exactly what evil motherfucking pricks the current Republican party consists of.
Tsulagi
Seems not all of the MM’s are parting. Given an economy that’s gone tits up, likely the righty “think” tanks already full from previous rats abandoning ship, business with less money to pay lobbyists, some of those Republican wingnut small-government disciples are burrowing into government civil service positions…
I would think a good guess is that Interior is not the only department that’s occurring.
But hey, with the country virtually bankrupt and the economy swirling down the toilet bowl, heard military re-enlistment rates are up. Guess we can chalk that up as another byproduct of success.
peach flavored shampoo
Wait until you see what some of these nurses and doctors in the Bible Belt suddenly find "morally objectionable". I’m guessing IVF, pregnant teenagers denied ultrasound, stitches/splints/any medical treatment at all for gays, and the like.
If you’re gay, female, or an atheist, it’ll become a crapshoot whether any given Doc will help you. Welcome to America.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
Hell, why don’t they just get it over with and build a nuclear power plant on the rim of the Grand Canyon? If that’s what The Market wants, that’s what The Market shall have, because worship of The Market is obviously working out so well.
I’m 55, and the once-successful small business where I’ve toiled for 17 years is in serious trouble. Revenues are off over 40%. And I sit and wonder: is this it, will I be poor for the remainder of my days? And most of this meltdown was completely preventable.
Fuckers.
YellowJournalism
I love how they call it the "right of conscience" rule, as if medical professionals who perform "certain procedures" and dispense "certain pharmacuticals" have no conscience. Couldn’t they just call it the "if I’m religious enough, I don’t have to do my job" rule?
HumboldtBlue
Who? Who are these people? I read Tom Hilton’s piece that echoed this same sentiment, and I’m sure I read many of the same blogs as you and Tom, but I just don’t see this happening in any meaningful way.
ksmiami
How about not paying taxes for an administration that I hold in such utter contempt. If I ever meet Bush live I will personally wipe that stupid-ass shit eating smirk off his motherfucking face
d0n Camillo
Does W still get to keep his Secret Service protection if he winds up in prison?
Mike in NC
I heard a few days ago that the Crawford "ranch" (the one Putin noticed had no cattle) was on the market. I figured Dubya planned to move into his parents’ basement in Kennebunkport like the true slacker frat boy we’ve come to know.
The Moar You Know
@Lee in NC: Can’t wait for the inevitable "guy who runs the autoclave who doesn’t believe in germs" incident. He’s covered by this as well. Fuck, I hope I don’t get sick for about a year.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@Mike in NC: I figured Dubya planned to move into his parents’ basement in Kennebunkport like the true slacker frat boy we’ve come to know.
Chuck Butcher
OK John,
I’ve watched with amused interest as you’ve drifted leftward, you now not only defend entities who were your sworn enemies but you advocate policies that cannot in any way be squared with Conservatism, whether new Republican or Old GOP. Goldwater is deader than a 5 day old fart in the metrics you’ve developed. So what I want to know, is just how embarrassed you’re going to be to find yourself standing next to me and my leftist ways?
I stated to you quite awhile ago that it is my opinion that intelligent critical thinking people wind up quite a ways left of today’s center and wondered how long it would take you to get to me. You scoffed at the idea. You could claim to be pragmatic but that will not wash – not as you keep embracing more and more left positions.
So when do we get to out and out claim your soul?
blogenfreude
The Executive Branch has been hollowed out from inside, from outsourcing to positions held by people who can’t do their jobs. Fixing this, as well as getting rid of those Bush burrowed in, will be hell.
p.a.
no comment needed
Xecky Gilchrist
@p.a.: For too long Christian Scientists and Jehovas Witnesses have been unfairly locked out of the medical professions simply because they would deny patients needed services.
I was thinking of this sort of from the other direction. Under the new rule could a person responsible for hiring doctors, pharmacists, and such claim a moral objection to hiring people who belong to certain religions? On the grounds that it’s morally offensive to hire people who won’t do their goddam job?
slag
Part of me is thrilled that this guy’s disapproval rating is up to 70%. The other part of me is horrified that this guy’s disapproval rating is only 70%.
Tom Hilton
@ Origuy: I had a parallel idea when I read about Bush appointees burrowing into the civil service; Obama could really stand to have a cabinet-level appointee whose whole job is preventing those people from doing any more harm.
@HumboldtBlue:
Start with David Sirota and Chris Bowers; continue with most of their commenters. Avedon Carol, to whom I linked on Sunday. Robert Scheer has been pissing and moaning non-stop. Or just do a few Google blog searches–Obama + Summers, for example, will give you all kinds of apoplectic ranting from the left. It’s out there, believe me.
John S.
@ p.a.:
I’m not sure this is entirely true. Like Incertus, I was also raised as one, and knew more than a few that either already had or were pursuing careers in medicine. I even knew one whose father was a major pioneer in bloodless surgery (which is very important since Witnesses won’t accept blood transfusions). His name was Dr. Ron Lapin – an excerpt from Wikipedia:
Incertus
@Tom Hilton: In all fairness, the complaints about Summers are legitimate, both about his comments about women and his the actions that led to the current financial crisis, and it’s not like he’s been frozen out of the government altogether. The latter applies to Rubin as well.
Yes, there’s been some complaining that’s not altogether warranted, especially when it’s coming from people who should have known that Obama wasn’t as progressive as they seemed to think he was, but that doesn’t mean it’s all unwarranted.
KRK
Don’t forget birth control of any kind.
TenguPhule
I believe every doctor asked to treat a Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rice/Ashcroft/Rumsfield family member should refuse because they find it morally objectionable.
John Cole
@HumboldtBlue: Have you read anything from David Sirota in the past week? Chris Bowers for the past- well, 6 months?
Obama has not ushered in a new shiny progressive era 48 days before his presidency so the administration is a failure.
Comrade Stuck
Here is one sample of Sirota’s drivel.
I mean what exactly is "conservative-progressive ghettoization" What kind of fool uses racial terms in describing ideology. And the thing I can’t stand about him is using terms like conservative to apply to dems who aren’t quite liberal or progressive enough to suit him. He’s talking about center left individuals and labeling them with the C word as in conservative republicans. He’s a dipshit I don’t read, unless to deride.
Tom Hilton
@Incertus: fair point. I’m not really talking about people who are critical of Larry Summers; I’m talking about people who are leaping from criticism of Larry Summers to ‘Obama has sold out to Wall Street’ or some such drivel.
HumboldtBlue
JC, I read Sirota’s latest piece and was insulted at his use of "Dear Leader", but as for Bowers, why does anyone read him in the first place?
Hell, I left an over-the-top comment at Tom’s place. Yeah it was silly, stupid and useless, but I just don’t see the overwhelming majority of blogs taking the "he sold us out route," at least not in any meaningful way.
I’ll also state that Sirota is a regular at at Truth Dig, a blog I regularly read, but at least their stable is full of folks who lean a lot farther to the left than I do, but I still don’t think most of their arguments are over the top. That’s just me. I’m definitely one of the dimmer bulbs who frequently visit the blogosphere.
passerby
Origuy @12
Now that’s innovative thinking!
And it won’t surprise me if we learn that someone in Obama’s transition team is already assigned to catalog the quick and dirty moves Bush is making and formulate reversal tactics.
It disgusts me to think of the coal industry raping the land when suppressed technologies like free energy and zero point energy could make us green. Is the 20th Century over yet?? And that goes for the oil industry too.
These industries are making their money by keeping us beholden to them. Guess we’ll have to pry the money and control out of their cold dead hands.
Comrade Stuck
@HumboldtBlue:
Re-read Cole’s thread post where he says "some" not a lot, or "overwhelming majority" of left blogs are guilty of hammering Obama before he’s in office. I would agree that overall, it is quieter than a week or so ago, at least for the time being.
Hob
Maybe I’ve missed an explanation of this somewhere, but — how exactly can they take a bunch of political appointees and just magically convert them into civil servants? There are supposed to be procedures and objective qualifications for those positions — that’s what makes them civil service positions. If you could just hire whoever you want in some other role, and then "burrow" them over to another desk where they can’t be fired, why isn’t this done all the time, and what’s the difference between that and having every job be a political appointment? I’m speaking as a former (local) government worker, so I feel kind of dumb for not understanding this.
Comrade Stuck
@Hob:
It’s not really magical and every change over to the other party in the Executive branch has some of this "burrowing" done. And it can only be done legally if the political appointee meets the civil service requirements for the career position.
The problem, as I currently understand it, with what the Bushies are trying to do is place political hacks into top science positions in regulatory agencies. People whose science background may consist of blending drinks at wingnut hoedowns. The only way they can get away with it is to change the basic qualification standards for these positions to second rate wingnut, or something like that .
It’s all quite unethical and probably illegal, which could be why Bush just can’t resist doing it.
Hob
Ah, I missed the last part, about them having changed the qualifications. Thanks. GRAAARGH.
Comrade Stuck
@Hob:
Oh, and they can also tinker with the duties for those positions as well.
jon
Rather than work to reverse this rule, an Obama Administration should just amend the rule so that no individual that uses this provision cannot receive any Federal funding in any part of his work. That means he can’t receive Medicare money, Medicaid funds, fill scripts for Federal workers, serve customers who use Federally-funded senior discount cards, or possibly take advantage of Federal student loan guarantees. Let them pay for the privilege of being assholes, especially since it’s easier to amend a rule than completely get rid of it.
srv
Wow, Bush tries to pose with the troops and he has to shove his way in to get the picture. Will the embarresment ever end?
h/t reddit
Notorious P.A.T.
Alright, I’m lost–what is the American Taliban objection to artificial insemination?
AnneLaurie
It’s a sop for the Talibangelicals, who get to trumpet their "right" to refuse to deal with the icky problems of us unsanctified pariahs. It’ll make life that little bit more hellish for poor women, homosexuals, and other untermenschen whose access to medical care is already limited, but it won’t stop future Roy Cohns from getting the best retrovirals or future Bush daughters from getting their morning-after pills. On the other hand, I look forward to the squawking when the first pharmacist refuses to fill Rush Limbaugh’s anti-cholesterol prescription on the grounds that Rush has a "moral obligation" to go the diet-and-exercise route instead, or when some brave soul cuts off the local Baptist deacon’s Viagra supply because it’s un-Biblical.
AnneLaurie
"God will give you the number of children you deserve", and scienterrific "interference" with His Will should be criminalized. Especially if the artificial insemination involves sperm from someone other than the woman’s husband, or if the woman is not married or not heterosexual. In the Talibangelical universe, all our uteri are belong to THEM, because he who controls the next generation… controls the next generation.
r€nato
I wish somebody wonkier than me could explain to me how an outgoing administration can impose all these new, horrible agency rules in a big hurry right before they go out the door, and yet it takes the incoming administration months if not years and lots of work to undo them.
Why? Why is it so easy to change the rules but so hard to change them back again?
If we ever get around to ditching the goddamned electoral college, I would hope we would also move Inauguration Day up to, well, as soon as possible after the election is decided.
Comrade Stuck
@r€nato:
I’ll give it a shot, since I used to work for the feds and dealt with federal regs. (a long time ago) Once regulations are published in the Federal Register, there is a process in place by law to change them. A lot of Red Tape, but the biggest delay is at various steps along the way there is a public comment period where anyone can voice objections or make suggestions. Even if none are made the PC period has to run a certain period of time. Sometimes this goes on back and forth for months or years. It can be short circuited however, if congress passes a new law to replace the fed regs in question. With the dem large majorities, this is likely to occur in some instances. But the real reason many of these new regs are promulgated is to slow down the legislative process on other issues, by throwing monkey wrenches in the works so fewer democratic initiatives can be passed during their time in power. This happens on both sides, but like every thing else Bush does it to the max. Nice parting shot at a country on the brink of bankruptcy.
r€nato
ok Comrade, so if I understand you correctly, BushCo puts these regulations in effect and they stay in effect until reversed by the normal process of public input, hearings, etc.
So, um, why couldn’t the new administration simply place even newer regulations into effect upon taking office, which either outright repeal the ‘new’ regulations or have the effect of gutting them?
(I’m sure someone’s thought of that but I’d just like to know what exactly would stop them from doing that)
r€nato
…I sincerely hope that George W. Bush spends his post-presidential years virtually isolated, venturing out only to speak to wingnut groups and otherwise shunned by pretty much everybody and unwelcome in polite company. I hope nobody ever forgets what he did to this country.
Comrade Stuck
I’m pretty sure they didn’t just do this on the spur of the moment and have been jumping thru the needed hoops for a couple of years to get to the finalized new regs. Each issue is different and of varying difficulty for making changes, especially if hard science is involved. Clinton did this on a whole range of environment issues, and especially on protecting large swaths of national forests from logging. It took the Bushies a while to change them back a few years ago.
anonevent
I’m still trying to configure my travel routes so that I am at least 10 miles away from him at all times. I’m just not sure my soul could take being any closer.
Bob In Pacifica
Too bad this "right of conscience" didn’t exist during Vietnam.
Cain
@John Cole:
They’ve been getting a lot of media requests too. The media loves to talk about bitter left bloggers and bring them out for show and tell. I hope those guys know they are being used to show case the bitter Left.
I think it’s good that they put the pressure on, but sometimes I wish they’d just be HAPPY. Hell one of their number is even part of the administration and their STILL unhappy. Shit!
cain
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I think Obama needs to hire a special counselor to go through every signing statement and check for inconsistencies so they can be fixed.
Never before has this post been needed, but after Bush, and his abusive behavior in this regard, it’s needed now.
Morfydd
I have a friend who’s doing a yearlong internship in a small conservative town. She takes birth control meds to control massive hormone->emotional swings. She knows if this rule goes through local doctors will refuse to give her the birth control – she’s already facing sermons from them, even though her sex life is nonexistent.
The whole purpose of Republicanism at this point is to piss off liberals. Any collateral damage is just more sadistic fun for them.
Xenos
@Morfydd: Could your friend do us all a favor and work up a good 20 minute screed that she can shout at the top of her lungs every time this happens? These people need to be pushed back against, hard. Being a bloke, I would flip out if someone lectured me when buying condoms… but these moralistic pissants would never dare to do so. Or maybe they are so sexist that they don’t care what I do, only what women do.
Mako
Seriously, who doesn’t love orange rivers?
Redhand
I’ve come to the conclusion that Bush isn’t just a worthless elitist, but a vindictive sadist to boot. So many of his policies have a "I’ll fuck the little guy because I can" flavor to them.
This environmental vandalism is a perfect example.
But of course the biggest example isn’t our wrecked economy, or a flooded "chocolate city" he’s done nothing to rebuild (because of who lives there), or the countless innocent furriners killed, illegally imprisoned for years, or tortured in the "war on terror" as payback for his negligence in letting 9/11 happen, or his absolute disregard for the rule of law and the constitutional limitations of his office.
No, for me, the worst still is the Iraq war of choice, which has resulted in far more Americans dead than in 9/11, and tens-of-thousands Americans maimed and ill-cared for on their return here.
For what? "Bad WMD intelligence" that he now "regrets"?
God damn George W. Bush. God damn him to hell. The obloquy he’s now experiencing doesn’t begin to even the score.
Worst. President. Ever.
anonymous
@Notorious P.A.T.:
Very simple: it’s a Catholic thing. (I’m not a Catholic, so these remarks might not be 100% accurate, but they’re roughly correct.)
The Church is actually opposed to IVF, even though I’m sure lots of Catholics use it.
For artificial insemination (technically, "intra-uterine insemination," or IUI), the Church is mostly against it, but kind of says the issue isn’t fully decided. (As compared to IVF, which for them is an easy call because it usually results in the destruction of at least some fertilized eggs, hence in their opinion human beings.) They’re definitely against the usual way of men producing the sample, which is to jerk off into a specimen cup. The approved way is to have sex and catch the sperm in a condom, because then it’s produced in an act of love. (Not that I agree with any of this crazy sh*t, just repeating the bullsh*t rationale here.)
donnah
RE: the mountaintopping. My mother’s family lived in West Virginia for 70+ years. My grandfather and two uncles worked in the coal mines. The family lived in a "holler" all those years, next to a stream that usually was so shallow that you could walk across it to the other side. It would swell occasionally, but not often. They were never in danger of serious flooding in all those years.
Along came mountaintopping. The coal companies topped off two of the mountains that surrounded the holler. And a couple of years ago the rains came. No more trees or vegetation to divert the downpours, nothing to soak up the excess water, and the holler flooded. Homes that had been there more than 75 years washed down the valley. My aunt’s house stood, but cars, trees, and even another house crashed into hers. My grandparent’s home washed away.
Now when we drive down there, I get physically ill. The landscape is irreparably damaged. You can’t scrape off millions of years of mountains and keep the beauty of the landscape. It’s ugly now. It’s not almost heaven in West Virginia. It’s a little bit of Hell.
Thanks, George.
ThresherK
@donnah:
What surprises me about how ignored this story is, is how telegenic this story would be, like (purely hypothetically!) before and after footage of a hurricane’s destruction.
Maybe what we need is a song:
"Almost level, West Virginia.
Blew up mountains, filled in the valley."
Evolutionary
I read somewhere, (can’t find a link) just before the T-60days to Inauguration the bushco crowd had really wacked out the reg approval procedure. The example I remember was having people (maybe even contractors) reading, reviewing and rejecting comments at the rate of 9 per minute. The bushies assured us that all comments were were being given careful and serious consideration in 6.67 seconds each.
Lawyer types think this may give the Obama admin or courts a route to reopen a reg for reconsideration without starting over from scratch.
Evolutionary
Then there is also the Congressional Review Act of 1996 ,
donnah
ThresherK, I agree. It should be on the evening news. It’s a tangled mass of issues, really: the need for energy, the need for jobs in a severely depressed area, the permanent destruction of a landscape, and the loss of homes and living spaces to this devastation. I don’t know how to sort it out.
I understand that miners look to this type of strip mining as something safer. I lost a grandfather and uncle to Black Lung. I know about mine collapse and what miserable conditions generations of miners have suffered. That’s what makes things hard for me to reconcile.
But I also see big coal companies willing to disfigure the landscape that defines Appalachia in a way that changes it forever. You can’t rebuild mountains. They are shoving people out of homes where they’ve lived for generations and they don’t care. The flood that ruined my aunt’s holler isn’t going to be the last one. She will eventually have to leave her home or be washed away. Or be driven out by the coal company.
I don’t have solutions. I wish someone did. I can’t bear to see the beauty that was West Virginia be forever ruined.
bootlegger
No way, not possible to overrate them. Not only are they the courses for the watershed, and thus susceptible to floods, but they also carry "down" whatever was "up". When the mountain tops were whole and stable the sediment carried down was a healthy mix of organic and inorganic substances easily absorbed by the local ecology. But dumping mine waste into these headwaters now moves MINE WASTE down the stream. Cancer rates and non-potable water supplies are just the tip of this iceburg and W is running the Titanic full speed ahead.
Bitty
@srv: Holy cow. Those troops look like they’re going to throw up. And pissed.
Xenos
@Bitty: How pissed would you be if you were them, now that Bush is disowning and blaming the intelligence that Bush himself had cooked up in order to justify the invasion?
This sort of refusal to accept responsibility runs strongly against the culture of honor that the military is based on. Maybe a vet could verify if Bush is or is not the very definition of a "shitbird".
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Copulation is NOT always an act of love, in fact, it rarely is. My ex wouldn’t know an act of love from a meatloaf.
Evinfuilt
@donnah:
Basically they turned the land to moonscape. They do it with less workers, less regulations, less care, but a whole lot more profit.
Unsafe, damaging, whats not to love.
TheAssInTheHatOnMyCat(Formerly Comrade Tax Analyst)
Yes, I’ve read that the Bushies have made the posting of these new regs a major end-of-term priority push. They started much of this several months ago because they have to beat a deadline (I believe it was December 1st, and it appears the bastards did beat it with virtually all of their crapola).
So we have one final spectacle: Dubyah going around giving half-assed semi-apologies for fucking certain things up, while behind the scenes he’s got his minions going "Full speed ahead" at planting regulatory landmines to fuck MORE things up for the future.
What a piece of work shit!
OriGuy
John Prine already wrote it:
Oh Daddy, won’t you take me back to Muhlenburg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Oh, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in askin’
Mr. Peabody’s coal trains have hauled it away.
Paradise, by John Prine
TheAssInTheHatOnMyCat(Formerly Comrade Tax Analyst)
Hmmm…"strikethru" worked on the "Preview". Anyway, I meant to strikeout "work", if anyone gives a shit.
Comrade Darkness
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon),
I followed your link. Interesting.
"The official pointed out that this situation could cause a hypothetical conflict of all the armies in the region, and called attention to the Bush family habit of associating business and politics."
Pathetic commies proving they don’t know where the real money to be made is.
Double D
God damn it… he. is. from. Connecticut.