How much longer 'til these clowns are out of office?

I knew this would happen. I knew the Bushies would try to slip their friends in the corporate world more and more bonuses and gifts in these last, waning months of the administration and here it comes, today:

Bush administration to relax parts of Endangered Species Act (AP)

Check this out:

"Parts of the Endangered Species Act may soon be extinct. The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants."

"New regulations, which don't require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years, according to a draft first obtained by The Associated Press."

I said it much earlier in the year. That is, that these clowns will try to dismantle all they can while still in office this year, in an effort to give Big Business more and more of what they want. It was an easy prediction and like I said, here it is.

But these guys get really pushy and outrageous. Look at this quote: "The draft rules would bar federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats."

What a hoot. Not only do they want to roll back our already-established laws but they "bar federal agencies from assessing...emissions."

Man, they're good, aren't they?

Unbelievable.

What chutzpah.

These guys have major cajones.

They are, in effect, rewriting our laws, all by themselves. They take out Congress. They take out the courts--everything and everybody. It's just them. They are the only branch of government. Period. It's done.

There needs to be major lawsuits over this. This is against the constitution, once again, from this administration.

Then, to add insult to insanity, they say they're doing it to "protect...species".

Yeah, no kidding.

Interior Secretary Dirk ("Diggler") Kempthorne said "We need to focus our efforts where they will do the most good. It is important to use our time and resources to protect the most vulnerable species. It is not possible to draw a link between greenhouse gas emissions and distant observations of impacts on species."

But wait. As usual with these guys, there's more:

"If approved, the changes would represent the biggest overhaul of the Endangered Species Act since 1986. They would accomplish through regulations what conservative Republicans have been unable to achieve in Congress: ending some environmental reviews that developers and other federal agencies blame for delays and cost increases on many projects.

"The changes would apply to any project a federal agency would fund, build or authorize that might harm endangered wildlife and their habitat. Government wildlife experts currently perform tens of thousands of such reviews each year."

'"If adopted, these changes would seriously weaken the safety net of habitat protections that we have relied upon to protect and recover endangered fish, wildlife and plants for the past 35 years," said John Kostyack, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation's Wildlife Conservation and Global Warming initiative.'

So get this straight: your own government, headed by George W. Bush, is stripping the EPA and government of its own ability to evaluate the effect emissions will have on nature and then saying they're doing it to "protect the most vulnerable species."

If this isn't more Orwellian double-speak, there isn't any.

Again, thanks to all those who voted--even once--for this clown and this administration. We'll be cleaning up his messes for years to come, both here at home, with the environment and our own government and in Iraq and 'round the world, literally.

Go to the following site and tell Secretary Kempthorne to keep our national law and the Endangered Species Act the way it is, for good reason:
http://www.doi.gov/contact.html

Additionally, write your Senators and Representatives about this. Let them know this is completely unacceptable. This is one easy way, right from your computer in your home, to take important action.

(See the original article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080811/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bush_endangered_species)