Screw life on earth

Just when you thought Bush couldn't get any worse, now he's out to gut the Endangered Species Act.

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.

Once again, self-regulation is the answer. Apparently Bush had seen too many of those Chevron "People Do" ads and wondered why, in that case, the government did.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said late Monday the changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act would not be used as a "back door" to regulate the gases blamed for global warming. In May, the polar bear became the first species declared as threatened because of climate change. Warming temperatures are expected to melt the sea ice the bear depends on for survival.

Read that again. The Bush Administration wants to destroy any rationale for halting global warming. And they admit it. They're basically saying "Oh, no, you're not going to impede the corrosion of our planet's ecosystem that easily. We'll just stop protecting other animals!"

I don't even know where to begin with this. We knew neocons had no value for the lives of cannon fodder, let alone for any non-hominid life form, but it's a little hard to fathom that they're willing to drive their own futures off a cliff as well. What's more, in an age where most people see global warming as a threat to our future, it's astonishing that the Administration would bluntly put the short-sighted interests of Big Business out there as a casus belli against the rest of life on Earth.

January 20, 2009 can't come fast enough (assuming Obama is elected). We need to get these psychotic destructionists out of office.