Bush Bypasses Cheney To Make Grab at Green Legacy

The Mariana Trench is to be made a National Marine Monument

Briefly front page news on NYTimes.com.

The Guardian corroborates their story.

Even Science backs them up.

On his way out the door, Bush has actually done something that the media seems to be accepting at face value. He has designated an area "195,280 square miles, an area larger than the states of Washington and Oregon combined" protected as National marine monuments by way of the federal Antiquities Act. Environmentalists are ecstatic. Commercial fishing is blocked. Scientific research is encouraged and from all reports, limited US military activity will be allowed but will not pose much danger to the area.

Of course this is great news. I'll be honest, though. I don't trust the goodness. Not from Bush. I'm all for the benefits to the wildlife and the underwater mountain ranges. But, there's got to be a limitation in there that will show itself in the form of some profiteer's disregard for life. 

A couple of things I'll be keeping my eye on:

"only the waters between the ocean floor and the rim of the Mariana Trench will be protected - not those rising from the rim to the surface of the water" 

and "mining and energy exploration within the protected areas" will go on.

Not Quite a Lame Duck Yet

 


Hey, you got to at least give it to the man; he's leaving office with his reflexes sharp as hell. I mean, it took less than a second for Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi to hurl his weapons of locomotion at our man's head, but Señor Jorge came out unscathed. True, on the second try (the right shoe?) Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki intervened and blocked the projectile (we used to call that a Yo Mama moment on the playground), but the first duck was Bush all by himself. There's a good joke in here about the outgoing Prez being used to successfully dodging flying shite and various other detritus flung in his direction, but I'll leave that to the commenters (commentators?).

As the recipient of many a flying shoe in my boyhood, I am somewhat jealous. Slippers, galoshes, boots, and even wooden clogs were Mummy's weapon of choice as I was growing up and frequently pissing her off. To my defense, however, she always chose to pelt me with these missiles while my back was turned, but still. I should've heard them coming--if thrown with enough passion (and believe you me, they were), those things whistle through the air like Nazi .88s. I'm still envious, though. But I suppose if you're launching objects at a former baseball team owner you're bound to miss here and there. I mean you know Georgie took at least a couple of batting practice sessions with the Rangers, during the time he co-owned them.

Apparently White House Press Secretary Dana Perino may have suffered a black eye in the wake of the shoe-throwing incident. "Politico" is reporting that Ms. Perino was injured by a microphone in the ensuing melee.

This makes the inner, repressed 5th Grader in me giddy. I don't know, as a former TV audio guy there's something about being whacked upside yo' head with a flying mic that makes me laugh. That and seeing people slip on ice. I know, I know! I am striving to be more compassionate, more empathetic, a better human being, but I have been a Pavlov's dog for too long. Suppressing my idiotic, childish impulses has been a hard struggle. But I ain't giving up. No sir.

Revenge is a dish best served?

 
I read this article last week in Salon about Obama's plans to investigate torture under Bush with great interest. The torture issue has been a particular sticking point for me, as it flies in the face of what I believe the US can be, dare I say "should" (I have issues with that word) be.

(Another part of this was my frustration and dismay with the rhetoric, which I felt spent too little time on the fact that torture doesn't work. Intelligence gained through torture is always viewed as suspect at best, as it is so reasonable to believe a torturee would say anything to get the torture to stop. That's why we don't torture confessions out of criminals - the Inquisition never became the foundational basis for an effective system of justice for a reason.)

But, it has remained kicking around my head because it begs the question of how much Obama's administration will, and how much we want them to, investigate and potentially prosecute wrongdoing by the outgoing administration. (And, yes, I know the linked article specifically addresses this fact, saying that prosecution isn't the stated goal of the torture commission. But, as an investigation with no possibility of prosecution would be a pointless exercise, would contain the implicit assumption that there is nothing to find heinous enough to warrant prosecution, we can safely consider legal action as a possibility.)

Do we want any measure of revenge for the last eight years of negligent incompetence and possible willful deceit? Would you have pardoned Nixon?

Because, I have to tell you, I want some measure of accountability. In particular, and this is something I wanted more forcefully addressed in the campaign despite the political peril, I want a real accounting of the war in Iraq. I want every supporter or the war and very especially the architects of the war to publicly justify every military death and injury, every taxpayer dollar, every civilian casualty. I want the new administration to force a public dialogue, to put to rest the narratives that the Hawks sling around about our decision to invade.

This isn't a simple question, because it goes beyond any personal ax we might have to grind. To demand accountability for the past eight years puts our focus, the Obama administration's focus, on the past, and we have problems to solve that demand foresight and concentrated effort. Will too much focus on redressing of grievances undermine efforts for change?

Or, will fears that it would undermine those efforts provide a convenient cover for some truly incompetent and downright evil to escape accountability?

A Little Pre-Debate Music In Honor Of W

With less than 100 days to go in his presidency I thought we should pause and honor W with a song before the final debate between the two guys that want his mess...er...I mean job.

This is from one of my faves, singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, a song I first saw her perform opening for Billy Bragg in Boston back in 2006. Not commercially released and she posted it for free download on her website. I tried to post just the audio track but I couldn't figure that out, so here is a video that someone made and posted on YouTube that isn't very good. Just listen to the track.

The Lame Duck Still Working Hard....To Destroy America

With all the attention being given to the two guys who want to be POTUS it is easy to forget about the recovering alcoholic, born-again, mentally disabled guy that is still there.

Well he has been hard at work trying to push through his agenda to make America a lot more like Saudi Arabia.

Something that has been a little under the radar because of the focus on the election campaigns is a new rule Bush is proposing at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, wrote a nice op-ed piece about it today in the New York Times that explains it better than I can.

But it basically comes down to two main things.

First, any health care service that receives any federal financing, which would be almost all of them since a good majority of doctors and hospitals see Medicaid and Medicare patients, would have to certify in writing that none of their employees are required to participate in any sort of medical service that they find morally objectionable.

What this means is that the $10-an-hour, born-again Christian nurses assistant a doctor has on staff will be able to refuse to go to the medicine cabinet to grab a supply of morning after pills for the rape victim sitting in the office, or a supply of birth control pills for a teenager, to get the pamphlets on safe sex and even refuse to assist with a patient if it is a gay person.

Basically, doctors would be barred from firing crazy wackos who refuse to do the job they were hired to do, putting the welfare of patients at risk and raising the cost of health care (doctors will have to spend a lot of time doing the work of nurses, nurse assistants and lab techs)

The second thing is that it allows health care providers to refuse to participate in any medical procedure that goes against their religious belief. There are a lot of things that could fall under this, but we all know that the effect of this will be that women and young girls who want birth control or information on abortions will be denied both services and information if they walk in to the wrong doctor's office or live in an area where there is only one option.

Combined with another provision of providing federal funding to the so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" - clinics run by anti-choice fanatics whose goal is to prevent women from getting information about birth control and reproductive health - it is obvious what this misogynistic, anti-reproductive bill is all about.

He's doing his best to chip away at the rights of women and just about the rest of us in the four months he's got left.

Let's not forget he's still there.

Read more about the proposed rule at Planned Parenthood and then take time to submit a comment letter to the Department of Health and Human Services. Planned Parenthood has one already set up that you can personalize and then submit through them right to the DHHS.

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