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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mannie who wrote (50066)	6/30/2004 1:49:45 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

The Bush Administration's Assault on the Environment nrdc.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This third annual assessment of Bush administration environmental policies, released in April 2004, documents more than 150 destructive policy actions over the past year, describing a historic assault on the nation's environmental safeguards that has only accelerated through the course of the Bush presidency. The report describes recent regulatory changes that undermine landmark protections for our air, water, wildlife, forests, parks and public health. In addition, it profiles new evidence of industry's direct role in crafting the administration's most controversial policy proposals. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***FULL REPORT IN PDF Adobe Acrobat file (size: 508 k) Click here: nrdc.org TABLE OF CONTENTS (Links indicate sections available as individual webpages) Executive Summary Friday Follies Failure to Enforce Dirty Science Corporate Takeover Industry-Driven Energy Policy Laundering Dirty Air Global Warming Heating Up Clean Water at Risk Hazardous Health Policies Pulp Fiction Forest Policy Mining Profits, Grazing the Range Empty Promise on Parks Taking Aim at Wildlife Protections All Nuked Up, No Place to Go Appendix I: Letter to President Bush from Scientific Community, February 18, 2004 Endnotes © Natural Resources Defense Council _________________________________________ Report Documents Bush Administration's Accelerated Assault on America's Environment NRDC Details How White House "Rewriting Rules" for Industry WASHINGTON (April 15, 2004) - In its third annual assessment of Bush administration environmental policies, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) documents more than 150 destructive policy actions over the past year, describing a historic assault on the nation's environmental safeguards that has only accelerated through the course of the Bush presidency. "Rewriting the Rules: The Bush Administration's Assault on the Environment -- 2004" catalogues the administration's environmental assaults since January 2003. The report describes recent regulatory changes that undermine landmark protections for our air, water, wildlife, forests, parks and public health. In addition, the report profiles new evidence of industry's direct role in crafting the administration's most controversial policy proposals. "America's environmental laws have succeeded in improving and protecting our air, water, lands and quality of life. Today, it is clearer than ever that these laws now face a fundamental threat more sweeping and dangerous than any since the dawn of the modern environmental movement," said NRDC senior attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. After years of steady improvement, data indicate that the nation's water and air pollution are getting worse under President Bush's tenure. According to the report, sewage contamination is now a major problem in lakes, rivers and beaches around the nation, yet the administration has moved to weaken Clean Water Act safeguards addressing the problem. Anglers in most parts of the country are confronted with health warnings not to eat locally caught fish due to mercury contamination, yet the administration is trying to dilute and delay mercury pollution standards for coal-fired power plants. Across the West, natural treasures belonging to all Americans are being handed over to logging, mining and energy companies, while public input and environmental review are circumvented to speed the process. A few more of the administration's most troubling actions include: Granting special exemptions to allow the injection of sewage into deep wells in Florida, despite the government's own studies that show that pollution could contaminate drinking water supplies. Loosening restrictions on the release of inadequately treated sewage into waterways while shelving long-standing proposals to reduce sewage spills that every year contaminate beaches and coastal waters with bacteria, viruses, and fecal matter. Cutting a sweetheart legal deal behind closed doors with the state of Utah that threatens to open millions of acres of wilderness-quality public lands to drilling, mining, road building, and other developments. Rejecting tough new mercury standards in favor of a plan that would allow nearly seven times as much mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants for nearly 20 more years. Easing environmental safeguards and public participation requirements to promote logging in national forests and oil and gas drilling on pristine public lands. "With the blessing of the White House, federal environmental policy has been hijacked by the least responsible industry interests," added Gregory Wetstone, NRDC's director of advocacy. "The environmental excesses documented in the report reflect a system under siege." nrdc.org

To: Mannie who wrote (50066)	7/2/2004 10:07:16 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Burn, Baby, Burn __________________ If Fahrenheit 9/11 is too hot for you, well, let me quote Dick Cheney. . . . by Knute Berger For all those nitpickers and whiners who complain that Michael Moore is liberalism’s Leni Riefenstahl and that his new film, Fahrenheit 9/11, isn’t a tidy documentary, and for all those witless wonders in the media who continue to hound Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky questions, even after the shame of their collaboration in over-blowing a blow job into an impeachment, I would just like to say, in the words of Vice President Dick Cheney: Go “fuck yourself.” I bought Slick Willy’s biography not because I want to read it but because I want the sales figures to drive right-wingers absolutely bull-goose crazy. I want webscallion Matt Drudge—the man who gave us Monicagate—to have to report that Bill’s book is outselling the Bible. I don’t care if Clinton’s book is as great as Ulysses S. Grant’s Civil War memoirs, or as dull as Calvin Coolidge’s private phone directory; it can sit on my coffee table until global warming turns into the next ice age. Simply buying the book is the entire point. It’s a vote for a man I can’t vote for anymore. That’s not quite true with Moore. I wouldn’t vote for him if he were running for president of the Noxious Weed Control Board. I find him a blowhard who has become a walking brand, the Michelin Man in tramp clothes. Like most people in film and television, he seems to be an arrogant jackass, as honest and caring as Connie Chung, luring interviewees into intimate cinematic moments that exploit their weaknesses. Granted, it can make for memorable cringe moments on the screen, but I hate the cheap-shot quality. In Bowling for Columbine, I actually felt sorry for Charlton Heston. All that said, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a terrific film, doubly good because just the fact that you’re seeing it will drive the other side nuts. I exult at the fact that it grossed nearly $22 million its first weekend, even though I think the whole contemporary obsession with Hollywood box-office grosses is gross (like when sports became about salaries, instead of on-field performance). Nevertheless, we are keeping score, and the scoreboard says the anti-Bush forces kicked ass this weekend. One positive sign: I went to see the movie Saturday night at a Redmond multiplex. The showings (on two screens) were sold out with lines around the block (OK, it was in a mall, so the line curled around a building). It was an unbelievable turnout in the Republican-leaning burbs. Maybe it’s an indicator of how much the Eastside has changed, or a sign that Dubya’s in real trouble. There is a lot to like about this film, which is an exercise in powerful visual storytelling. It tells a story the mainstream media have been desperately trying to ignore. That is, that America has been taken over by thugs who have conflated their personal interests with the national interest and are now pushing both by exploiting an endless “war on terror.” They want to keep the populace fearful while they pick our pockets, and damn the Constitution. For all the pundits who complain about the immoderation of such claims, they are not far different from what has been claimed by more sober observers, like conservative Kevin Philips. The difference is Moore’s images are harder to ignore. That is the story the mainstream media are reluctant to tell because they report stories piecemeal, and because telling this truth would open them to charges of bias or hysteria. It is also a story simply too horrible to believe. So many in the media stare at unconnected dots and help those in power sanitize reality. Fahrenheit is an antidote to that. It contains imagery you likely haven’t seen before. Not stuff Moore shot during his ambushes, which are blissfully rare in this film. He shows footage that goes beyond the flag-draped coffins we’re not allowed to see. We’re shown soldiers talking about the best rock music to listen to while killing; Saudis engaged in public beheadings; the unspeakable wounds suffered by Iraqi civilians; the sewn stumps of our own limbless soldiers. Yet outside the theater, the sanitization continues. This week, our government announced a “handover” of sovereignty to Iraq, the way you might hand someone a live hand grenade. It was a public relations stunt designed to signal that we’re washing our official hands of what happens next. For critics of this film who say that it’s all lies, I can tell you about one thing that is reported accurately here for the first time. There is a short segment on the Bush inauguration in 2001. I was one of the protesters there. We stood for hours and hours in the freezing sleet just to have a chance to tell Bush and Cheney what we thought of their coup as they passed. When we watched coverage of the inauguration that night on the news, the protests had been virtually wiped from history—erased like one of Stalin’s ill-favored minions from a photograph. The Fahrenheit footage captures the raucous flavor of the inaugural protests. It’s so nice when a historical reality is noted. The biggest criticism of the film from its fans is that it’s preaching to the choir. But converting the unconverted is too big a burden to place on one film, or one man. Michael Moore can only do what he can do. It’s the rest of us who have no excuse for failing to admit reality. seattleweekly.com