Bush sets out plan to dismantle 30 yrs of Environmental Laws

[VivaKerry]

Bush sets out plan to dismantle 30 years of environmental laws
By Geoffrey Lean in Washington

05 December 2004

George Bush's new administration, and its supporters controlling Congress, are setting out to dismantle three decades of US environmental protection.

In little over a month since his re-election, they have announced that they will comprehensively rewrite three of the country's most important environmental laws, open up vast new areas for oil and gas drilling, and reshape the official Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

They say that the election gave them a mandate for the measures - which, ironically, will overturn a legislative system originally established by the Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford - even though Mr Bush went out of his way to avoid emphasising his environmental plans during his campaign.


"The election was a validation of the philosophy and the agenda," said Mike Leavitt, the Bush-appointed head of the EPA. He points out that over a third of the agency's staff will become eligible for retirement over the President's four-year term, enabling him to fill it with people lenient to polluters.

More at link:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=589884

***I haven't any comment. Speechless, not surprised, and horrified.

[genieroze]

1. Bush sets out plan to dismantle 30 yrs of Environmental Laws?

Oh Really? "cough, choke, gurgle, wheeze" why do ya say that?

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

53. Al Gore, rev up your engines!

No better opportunity to rev up your '08 campaign. If you or one of your campaign staffers is lurking here on DU, draft one of those hard-hitting speeches you were making in '04, and stick it to the Bushies on this. You've got the nation behind you here.

[Overseas]

69. KICK-- Great Idea !! -- n/t

[RadicalMom]

60. And tomorrow (Monday) he dismantles the Wild Horse and Burro Act

Under a hastily-added Middle-of-the-Night provision of Congress' just-passed Appropriations Bill (which Bush is expected to sign Dec. 6th), the law that has protected our wild equines from being sold for slaughter for many years is undone. In addition the BLM will now require their facilities to put them up for auction to any bidder after only three opportunities for them to be adopted. It is likely that most of these will be sold to the killer buyers. There has been a campaign of letter writing and calling the White House totry to stop it, but we can guess the outcome.

[Sparky 1]

61. Oh this is so sad, and again...

...it's something I don't think our media has been warning us about. What in the world is the point of this legislation?

[Name removed]

70. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[VTHoosierPatriot]

88. Here's a more in-depth article. It's even domestic.

ANYTHING INDUSTRY WANTS: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY UNDER BUSH II
By Patrick Parenteau†
http://www.vjel.org/articles/articles/parenteau.html

[Ima]

2. America the ugly

Quote:

""We will now see an assault on the law which will set the US in the direction of becoming a Third World country in terms of environmental protection."


This will be more horrible than we can imagine.

[Name removed]

71. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Erika]

3. The EPA was formed by Nixon

because of the outrage of Americans as to the destruction of our environment. James Watt, under Reagan, was forced to leave by popular opinion because of his radical favoritism of corporate greed over the protection of our environment. He was only 10% as radical as is the Bush environmental policies. Four more years of environmental hell under Bush.

[sakabatou]

35. Maybe

A march on Washington is needed. The again, since Bush is such a scrooge, he won't listen.

[NJCher]

65. errrr

A march on Washington is needed.

I think you mean a "focus group" on Washington is needed.


Cher

[Name removed]

72. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[XemaSab]

84. Or....

a "special interest" on Washington...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

81. Correction...Nixon was FORCED to create the Epa by Dems and environmental

lawyers and activists...Repubs now like to rewrite this history and it has made its way into the mainstream..but the EPA came as a result of Nixon being backed into a corner on environmental concerns

[Lorien]

4. The greatest threat to humanity is environmental collapse

BushCo won't only drive many species into extinction and destroy the last unspoiled places on earth, he'll kill us all with his anti-environment plans. Before the end, big pharma corporations will make a killing of their own treating us all for the various cancers and other illnesses we'll receive from this. Damn them all to hell. :grr:

[Erika]

7. Bush will burn in hell

My disdain for anyone who voted for Bush only grows. What kind of monsters are they that they would doom their own children and grandchildren to environmental hell?

Please, everyone, write letters to the editor, write to Conrgess, spread the word. The American public got rid of James Watt, let's get rid of his hostile environmental plans.

[Lorien]

8. Yes! Make it a weekend project

just write one letter, then send it to your Reps, your local paper, and one National media source (like Time, NYT, etc.). Silence implies consent!

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. Time for Gore to make another one of his fiery speeches

Time for Gore to rip bu$hCo, Inc. yet another new one! :grr:

[tsuki]

27. RFK, Jr. needs to join him.

[rodeodance]

12. yes--email your Congressperson, Lets have our own assault!! on the

people we hired to PROtect our planet!!

.....Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said last week that the previous Bush administration had largely contented itself with weakening environmental legislation, but the new one intended to go much further. He added: "We will now see an assault on the law which will set the US in the direction of becoming a Third World country in terms of environmental protection."

[JMac]

22. Heres a good source of info:

Here is NRDC's account of what the Bush administration has done and is doing on environmental matters:

http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/

Another site:

http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/

[Name removed]

73. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[GRLMGC]

5. "The election was a validation of the philosophy and the agenda,"

Fucking A. We're so screwed.

[BeHereNow]

6. Truly the spirit of the anti-christ.

Death and destruction come to everything
he touches.
God help the little animals of the sky,earth and water.
God help the people of this country who have
traded their faith in God for faith in G.W., the A.C.'s
boastful helper.
Hang on folks, it's going to get really dark.
Try not to be afraid, good always triumphs over evil.
bhn

[driver8]

11. My God...when will this nightmare end??!!

I don't know how much more of this I can take -- these guys are absolutely fucking crazy!! Death, destruction, money, destruction, dishonesty, destruction, deficit...when do these idiots plan on doing something constructive??

I have two small children and I look at them and think, "What kind of world are they going to grow up in?" It scares the shit out of me.

[BeHereNow]

14. I hear you.

My daughter is 17 and I am horrified to think
what she will face in the coming years.
Buying land in Canada may be the smartest thing
anyone can do right now.
With Global warming and all that is happening,
Canada may one day be the only place
left to grow food- there and Siberia...
Wonder if Putie would let us but some land
for our kids in Siberia?
Bush is EVIL- just plain old EVIL.
bhn

[FoundInTheMaise]

49. What scares the shit out of you the most?

Can you enumerate or rank the issues that affect you and your two small childern the most? That would be a good starting point to attack the attack.

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. bu$hCo, Inc will turn all of America into one huge Houston Texas

:grr: :mad:

[pa28]

9. No shock here.

They are going pedal to the metal on these issues in ways Reagan could only dream of.

Fine. There is a price to be paid and the American public has to pay it now. We'll just have to pick up the pieces later and the expense will be massive.

[izzie]

10. Should make his father happy in his Summer house in Maine

Garbage on the rocks and in the air. Maine is at the end of all this stuff. Oh well his father is old and will not live long any how and George can sell the place off to Wal-mart or a place to un-load oil.The people in the red states will get the most of it so that is one thing.

[ninkasi]

13. I'm already used to it.

I live just north of Houston, so pollution is nothing new to me.
What he was able to destroy as governor here will be a blueprint for what all of us will have to suffer now.

I knew he would be bad when he stole the office of president in 2000. As bad as I thought it would be, it is many, many times worse. It's not that I didn't consider him capable of doing great harm, but I didn't realize that the Democratic party and the press would cave in on everything so easily.

If, at some time in the future, we can reestablish a democracy here, I hope these years will be used as an example of what can happen to a country if freedom and liberties are not nourished and protected. Democracy proved to be more fragile than I knew.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. kick

[Mari333]

16. All Your skies and water Belong to Us

The USA is fast going to become a really large TEXAS...



Houston.

[Judi Lynn]

17. If nothing else, we can at least contact our Congresspeople.

This is devastating news, in a time of daily shocks we never anticipated.

I wish I could begin to see anything good on the horizon, but things look so bleak now.

Fear is a psychological weapon he's using against us. Fear disables people. Maybe we can find a way out of this in time.

[Deja Q]

20. And, much as with foreign economic relations, I will bet good money that

this cowardly and puerile fear-mongering shit will backfire on * as well.

Anyone else scared yet? :scared:

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. Beyond scared

:cry:

[da_chimperor]

18. Oh fuck, I think i'm gonna be sick.

:puke:

[Deja Q]

19. Why can't * just nuke the fucking planet and be done with it?

Money is the root of all evil. If people haven't figured this out by now, then screw it all.

[ExclamationPoint]

26. So True

We cannot let them do this. Hug the trees like the people of India.
If every true Democrat boycotted cars and places like WALMART the economy would suffer and we would succeed. We WILL NOT let him do this. Even if we do loose, we will fight to the death. When comes the end of all things, at least we will be remembered as people who tried. In the words of Shakespeare (Macbeth) we must "blood not the heart, ENRAGE it!"

[reprobate]

34. But there'll be no one left to remember us.

[Occulus]

29. the actual phrase is "the LOVE OF money..."

But I'm starting to think it's money iitself that is the overall problem. The very concept of currency itself.

[hollowdweller]

25. This is a loser for the Republicans if the Dems can bring it to the public

attention. The environment is the Republicans gun control, but although the public sympathy is there, the Dems have largely been unsuccessful at managing to get the environment and environmental issues headlines in newspapers or the lead story on news.

[Lorien]

67. But will they?

They all seem to be MIA these days.

[Ms_Mary]

28. Who couldn't see that coming? I feel helpless. nt

[Occulus]

30. Did anyone at all catch this paragraph?

"But with the election of four Republican senators in favour of the drilling, and the disappearance of one who opposed it, the administration now has the votes forvictory."

:wtf: Legislators who oppose the administration are disappearing????

HUH????

[shanti]

32. maybe it meant

that the legislator wasn't re-elected? :shrug: but anything can, and does, happen with the chimp installed.

[Occulus]

57. I can just see * going

*ping* You're done.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

52. Demand filibusters

One other thing-- we have to make it clear that Dems and sympathetic Republicans must be ready and willing to use the filibuster to protect teh ANWR and other environmental protections if the Repugs try to ram their dismantling through Congress. There will be electoral consequences if they go milquetoast on us. There must be no compromises here, folks-- this is the line in the sand, and there can be no more retreats from here. Of all the Bush Administration actions, this one would cause permanent damage that we could not undo, could not reverse with better legislation at a later date. We have to be militant here!

[Rob H.]

31. Remember the town-hall-format debate between * and Kerry?

This is exactly why when Bush said, "I guess you could say I'm a good steward of the land," I yelled at the TV, "That's fucking bullshit!"

It also goes to show that when they choose Orwellian names like "Healthy Forest Initiative" (real-world translation: "We must destroy the trees in order to save them.") and "Clear Skies Act" (real world translation: "Smog, soot, Mercury, Nitrogen Oxide, and Sulfur Dioxide are good for you! Global warming? Pfft. Acid rain? Who cares?"), people should expect the intent to be exactly the opposite of what the name would have them believe.

Goddamnit. Thanks, Bush voters. Thanks a lot. :mad:

[Ms_Mary]

33. Kerry has a good environmental record. I would have like to have heard

more from him during the election. I was right there yelling at my TV with Bush too. Even McCain who sold out, was talking about the importance of the environment in the next administration, but only places like NPR where the Bushies would never hear. In the mass media, he was all for Bush.

[Soth]

80. But haven't you heard?

Freedom is slavery! A healthy environment is a destroyed environment! You love Big Brother!

I fully expect this exchange to occur during God's judgment of Bush:

God: "And what happened to the environment you were supposed to protect?"

Bush: "Am I my environment's keeper?"

God: "F*ck you."

[struggle4progress]

36. Ownership Society says "Screw the environment!" eom

[cally]

37. I just can't believe this

:cry: Notice it's reported in the foreign press! Once again Americans have no idea how crazy these guys are. Time to write letters to the editor once again.

WHAT MANDATE?????

[drscm]

38. Why don't they just say it! We have the mandate to RAPE!!!! anyone

and anything we please.

I am beyond angry. Color me RAGE!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fovea]

39. Bush* plan for the environment and industry

Roll everything back to 1950, and break the lever off.

[XemaSab]

85. Roll back to 1950

Admittedly, I wasn't here in 1950, but my understanding is that some things were WAY messed up, like many eastern rivers and areas around factories, but there were also things that were still somewhat pristine. But now most things are messed up, to some extent.

There's still a lot of public land, but very little of it is pristine, even (perhaps especially?) in the national parks. Even abroad there are few pristine habitats left, and what IS left is on the block.

On edit:

But of course, you're right, there was no environmental protection.

[Megahurtz]

40. Greedy, sick, oil drinking bastards

I feel helpless. We need to really concentrate on kicking this administration out ASAP due to voter theft and fraud.

[proud patriot]

41. FUCK BUSH

:grr:

[Borgnine]

42. How can this oil jerking jack-off consider himself a man of God?

He represents God's will, so he intends on destroying His creation in order to put money in his family and friend's pockets?

All people who voted for him make me sick. They can go live on a trashed planet, but those of us who care don't deserve it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

44. bu$h*'s "belief" in God" is pure bu$hit.

The only thing bu$h* believes in is money and lots of it and preferable other peoples' money that he can steal for himself. Wouldn't want to have to actually earn it through hard work, now would he?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

43. Libby,Montana, W R Grace and asbestos BIGGEST TOXIC DISASTER in US history

and lower Manhattan is WORSE after the 9/11 attack...of course bush* wants to dismantle 50/70 years worth of legislative envirnomental protection laws...I HATE ALL REPUBLICANS!!!

www.meic.org/grace.html


Libby Cleanup Progressing

Two years ago Libby, Montana, became national news when the Seattle Post-Intelligencer broke the story about hundreds of sick and dying citizens being poisoned by asbestos contamination from the defunct W.R. Grace Co. vermiculite mine. Stories were also written or produced for People, Dateline, MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, and other mainstream media publications and programs. Now that the novelty has worn off, the attention in Libby has turned to cleaning up the town and making it a safe place to live.

One of the most contaminated sites is the old screening plant. Sitting on the banks of the Kootenai River and sandwiched between the river and U.S. Highway 2, the screening plant is where different sizes of vermiculite were sorted for shipping. Since the demise of the mine, the site has been home to a family-run plant nursery.



The disturbed grounds were once baseball fields, where asbestos contaminated dirt nearly ten feet deep was removed.


After testing the location, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency evacuated the family and sealed off the site. Clean-up essentially means removing and replacing several feet of asbestos-contaminated soil and disposing it at the old mine site. Workers garbed in hazardous material protection suits and wearing respirators stand with hoses constantly soaking the ground to suppress dust where digging occurs. Any vehicle leaving the site is washed with high-pressure sprayers to remove any residual dirt.

Similar work is being done at other locations around town. Most important, Libby’s schools have been tested and decontaminated. Waste rock from the mine provided free material that packed well. It was used by the middle school and high school to surface their running tracks. Skating rinks and ball fields were also spread with this material. Although resurfacing the tracks will be done next spring, the EPA has completed the rest of its clean-up at Libby’s schools
Similar work is being done at other locations around town.

Waste rock from the mine provided free material to Libby's schools that packed well. It was used by the middle school and high school to surface their running tracks. Skating rinks and ball fields were also spread with this material. Although resurfacing the tracks will be done next spring, the EPA has completed the rest of its clean-up at Libby’s schools


The “silver bullet” is the ability of a state’s governor to short-circuit the evaluation process and add a location to the National Priorities List more quickly. Making the designation happen sooner brings federal assistance into the community quicker. Each state has the ability to do this only once under CERCLA.

MEIC and the citizens of Libby had been badgering Governor Martz for months to use the silver bullet on Libby and jump-start the designation process. Even though the governor dawdled over her decision for nearly a year, it will still be likely to derail any legal actions W.R. Grace Co. might have planned to challenge the designation decision.
EPA had nearly finished the lengthy administrative process that precedes listing a site. If the governor had made her announcement when she was initially asked, it would have saved months of work and Libby would likely already be a Superfund site.

[janetle]

45. Guess who is from Libby, MT??

Marc Racicot

[Blue_Tires]

46. this should surprise no one

mark it down: the 2000 and 2004 elections were the beginning of the end of the United States as we know them

[neweurope]

63. I'm very much afraid...

...that it'll be the end of the world as we know it. When you go down, we go down. I'm nearly scared out of my wits.

P.S.: Hi everybody :)

[janetle]

47. Say good bye to wild salmon

As a part of Bush's plan, he wants to remove 80%--yes 80% of critical habitat in streams and rivers for the recovery of salmon. All of the work that has been done in the PNW to identify areas critical to salmon recovery will now be down the drain. Of course, developers and loggers are thrilled. Bush seems to think that areas where we are trying to get the salmon to return again (where they used to be historically) are useless and should be logged and built on and only areas where salmon now exist need to be protected.

[hatrack]

56. Actually, it's 90%

Just a little something to lower your spirits here.

[FoundInTheMaise]

48. What is the plan to fight this?

Is there a detailed plan to attack each of these points of pollution and sell it to the unwashed masses? Or what?

[VTHoosierPatriot]

50. Here's another analysis of the dismantling of environmental law.

ANYTHING INDUSTRY WANTS: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY UNDER BUSH II
By Patrick Parenteau†
http://www.vjel.org/articles/articles/parenteau.html

I would like to begin with two caveats. First, this critique is not intended to be an exhaustive analysis of the Bush Administration's entire environmental record. Rather, the purpose is to illustrate, through selected examples, how this administration abuses science, law, and democratic processes to make bad public policy. Second, I make no claim to objectivity here. My view is that this administration has compiled the worst environmental record of any administration in history. To the extent others see it differently, so be it.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

51. Massive, militant action needed here--demonstrations, secession on table?

I've mostly avoided all the secession talk about splitting the country into 3 or 4 mini-USAs but after reading this article, I'm almost reconsidering. This is by far the most repulsive outrage among many emerging from the Bush Administration, and he's trying to slip this under the radar screen. As infuriating and troubling as other Bush policies are, this one directly endangers the health of people, plants, and animals; would spoil and ruin pristine forests that people on both parties (like Teddy Roosevelt) have worked hard to protect; remove precious natural habitats; and likely kill millions (yes, MILLIONS) of Americans from pollution.

This cannot, ABSOLUTELY CANNOT be allowed to happen. As the article pointed out, ballot measures almost universally, even in the Red States, were passed to protect and preserve the environment in 2004. The only reason the Bushies believe they can get away with this? The limited attention span that people in the US have today, too many damn bread and circuses distracting them. They can't be distracted anymore.

It's time to go crazy. Shame the Bushies and their supporters at every turn. Write vociferous letters to the editor for every rotten day of the Bush second term, letting him and his cronies know they're on notice. March on Washington and State Capitols, block the offices of politicians who would open up precious natural reserves that are needed for endangered wildlife, let them know that it's not OK to ruin forest and wetland habitat and kill millions of Americans so some profiteers can nab a bit of extra short-term profit. Get the attention of the media and keep it. In a media-driven culture, it's the only way we can prevail. This is a win-win for us, folks, and this may be the one thing that finally breaks the back of the GOP.

Even most inveterate Republicans don't like this environmental degradation, and Bryan Schweitzer won the governorship in ultra-Red State Montana in part because the hunters and fishermen were pissed off about Republican indulgence of polluters and reckless developers, which Schweitzer tapped into. Make noise, folks, get fired up-- there may be no other issue in the next decade when you make a more important contribution, since one the air and water are polluted and habitat is spoiled, they can't be unpolluted and unspoiled, and your kids will be paying the price when an outbreak of leukemias hits us 20 years from now.

We must also demand the right of state and local legislatures and ordinances (which overwhelmingly favor environmental protection) to set tough environmental laws and block polluters and fed gov. lobbyist sycophants from ruining the environment. If all else fails, we have to credibly threaten even secession. I doubt that'll be necessary, but it needs to be kept in consideration b/c the circumstances laid out by Rousseau, Locke, and Jefferson (as well as more modern thinkers) all apply here: The government has broken the social contract, is becoming grossly tyrannical, is directly endangering the health of people and endangered species against the will of the vast majority of the population, is pushing actions that could cause permanent damage to health and the environment, and thus is causing far more harm than gain to its affected members. There can be no compromises on this issue. We have to act immediately! Let's foster some forums here on DU and the other Dem Blogs on how to organize political action, media attention-grabbing events, and mass demonstrations to stop the Bush Administration from doing the worst damage to the environment and human health ever in recorded history (that's not an exaggeration). We need to do this for the sake of the issue itself, but this also may well be the political bonanza that gets us back into office.

[potone]

54. Oh, dear God, we truly are in a season of hell.

What I most feared in Bush's winning the election, more even than the Iraq catastrophe and the probability of our economony going south was what he would do to the environment. Now we know. We must do everything in our power to prevent this--the damage will be irreparable if they succeed.

I am beginning to wonder if this, too, isn't part of the Bush right-wing religious agenda. Does anyone else think it is possible that Bush is doing all of these things as part of an attempt to bring on the apocalypse and the second coming of Christ? Or have I just gone completely round the bend?

[Prairie Smoke]

59. The Reconstructionist season of hell...

Since the right wing televangelist churches were instrumental in Bu$hs "victory", lets call a spade a spade and start levying taxes (remove tax-exempt status) on these churches, since they are obviously as blatantly political entities as the Republican party and its corporate contributors.

But I digress. Your hunch seems to be right-on that the right wing religious zealots, particularly the reconstructionists, would just as soon let the environment degrade here on earth, as the "Rapture" is almost here, and since they will soon be "saved", who the hell cares?

Read the following link for more info: http://www.alternet.org/story/20666.

Fight for yours on earth.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

62. I don't think Bush

believes in any God, except money. He uses religious right rhetoric in order to win over the lower and middle class whites who should be voting democratic. Bush is a foul piece of human filth that needs to be impeached out of office, then tried and convicted for war crimes.

[bleedingheart]

55. only when it is in someone's backyard, f*cking up the environment

will enough people realize that we are all "treehuggers"..

This kind of shit pisses me off...glad I sent a donation to the Sierra Club...

[Lisa]

58. and here I've spent the last semester praising those same policies

I teach at a Canadian university, and do courses on planning and environmental legislation. Most of the examples we study (national parks, the EPA, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the coupling of environmental and social justice policies under LBJ's administration) -- were pioneered by America.

There was a time when the United States led the world on these issues. Canada didn't get its own version of the ESA until a couple of years ago, and it's nowhere near as robust.


Damn! Is THIS what he thinks his scrawny so-called "mandate" entitles him to do? Trash his own country -- and affect MY country next door -- not to mention the rest of the world, where things like global warming, the ozone layer, and organochlorines are concerned?

[Zorra]

64. Stop bitching and go on strike for god's sake. Shut the country down or

Bu$h will kill us all.

If you don't work, they can't pollute.

No?

[greendeerslayer]

86. Let's Do It!

General strike 05!

[indepat]

66. Sacrificing the environment is such a small price to pay to be made safe

and be led by the someone who follows God's wishes and does everything for the glory of God.

[Endangered Specie]

68. Oh beautiful for smoggy skies, insectecided grain,...

oh stripmined mountains majesty, above the asphault plane,
America America, man sheds his waste on thee,
and hides your pines, with billboard signs,
from sea to oily sea!

[ckramer]

74. You ain't get no lung cancer if you live in Kennebunkport

[phasev]

75. when little Timmy gets cancer

don't blame me.

[maxsolomon]

76. americans won't do shit

nothing will be done to "save" the environment until some food-providing ecosystem entirely collapses. we don't believe in preventative medicine in america. just expensive cures.

take your pick:
PNW salmon
plain states aquifers

[Strawman]

77. "The election was a validation of the philosophy and the agenda," ???

on the environment? Talk about peeing on folks and telling them it's raining.

Gee, last month the same people were saying the election was solely about men buttfucking one another and what an abomination that was in the eyes of Jaysus. Enjoy your children's athsma, Mr. and Mrs. Bush Voter, and breathe as easily as you all can in the knowledge that at least you have prevented the horror that is two people of the same sex who love one another (gasp!) from getting married and also that you've put a take charge fella in the White House who will clusterbomb the shit out of any Ay-rab, whether they are responsible or not, if another one of 'em ever dares to attack your manure patch in the middle of nowhere which I'm sure is a constant legitimate worry of yours.

[webby686]

78. i'm scared!!!!!

none of the other horrific things i have read about the bush administration has had such an immediate impact on my and made me so physically ill. it sickens me to think that they are using the so called "mandate" to justify the slow killing of all life on earth. This plan confirms certain doom for the next generation of humankind, meanwhile helping big business polluters become even wealthier.

oh my god! its sickening!!! AHHH!!!!!

then i think about all the good john kerry could have done for the environment; his focus on science and sustainability, planning for the future as well as the present.

i'm gonna cry. i'm so scared. for real.

[jackson]

79. Don't mourn, get to work, start by boycotting polluters and GOP-backed

companies. Put your money where your values are - money is the only thing these bastards understand and react to. Phase out buying from companies like Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Wendy's, as hard as that might be - it's hard for me since i have two young kids who love Mcdonalds. But im phasing them out in favor of places like Whole Foods and Target.

You can find polluters in your backyard by going to the EPA web site and clicking on the enforcement actions or news releases that detail such actions. A big one is my area is Mirant.

Oil companies that donate mostly to reps include: Exxon-Mobil, Chevron-Texaco, and BP-Amoco. Buy gas from Shell or a local facility. Phone companies include Verizon, BellSouth, Sprint and MCI. AT&T, www.WorkingAssets.com and www.RedJellyFish.com are safe. Tech companies include Ebay, Gateway, and Texas Instruments. Everyday companies include Wal-Mart, Coca Cola products, Pepsi products, Anheuser-Busch products, Hallmark Cards, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Kraft Foods products, and Tyson Foods. Transportation companies include Ford, Chrysler, UPS, Fed Ex, Delta, Continental, Southwest, and Enterprise. Safe companies are GM, USPS, American, United, and Northwest. Few financial institutions are safe. I put my money in a local bank and credit union. Go a step further and write/call/fax the companies about your intentions to boycott and explain why. There are many more companies that favor Bush. Visit www.boycottbush.org or www.OpenSecrets.org to learn more. A fellow journalist and I are working on a larger list

[DemBones DemBones]

82. The article does end on a hopeful note.

"The environmentalists point out that almost every local referendum on environmental issues carried out on election day achieved a green majority."

"They recall the fate of the assault on environmental law - headed by the former Congressional Speaker, Newt Gingrich, in the mid 1990s - which caused such opposition that Congress enacted tough new green legislation."


Gingrich only won for a while. We must hope it will be the same with Bush** -- and WORK to make it so!!!

[blindpig]

83. credit where credit is due.......

Kerry did virtually nothing to focus on the environment even though he owned the issue. The excuse was that the pollsters said it was a non-starter. Well, we know how right they were. This was allowed to happen because the Democratic Party is a gutless hulk financially dependent on the same scum benefiting from these evil policies.

Sins of omission are sins nonetheless.

[progressoid]

87. And who should bring us this news?.... NOT OUR MEDIA!!

Again we rely on foreign journalism to cover the USA - pathetic

[Tweed]

89. I heard from an EPA employee that each employee got $2 for travel

for the entire year. It's just insane.