Bush Gutting The Endangered Species Act

Washington Post:

With little-noticed procedural and policy moves over several years, Bush administration officials have made it substantially more difficult to designate domestic animals and plants for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Controversies have occasionally flared over Interior Department officials who regularly overruled rank-and-file agency scientists' recommendations to list new species, but internal documents also suggest that pervasive bureaucratic obstacles were erected to limit the number of species protected under one of the nation's best-known environmental laws.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[mirza]

Another Bush "success"

[jerrypenguin]

The Lake Sammamish kokanee may be gone. A mere fish has be displaced by the almighty human "developer" and resident urban yuppie. The new species represents the apotheosis of "human" evolution. This new species has brought to Lake Sammamish up-scale subdivisions, shopping centers, SUV's, sea planes, high powered ski and cigar boats, and jet skis. How long long will this new species last?

[browndog2]

Is this a serious issue or just another easy opportunity to bash Bush? W will out of office soon(not soon enough) and then all you bloggers will have to face a simple fact. The entire U.S. government is broken. There are probably 19 different Congressional Oversight Committees that deal with the Endangered Species Act.Where's the press? What if Congress,reporters,bloogers on this post couldn't care less? Never seen a wild animal,never will,live in the cities and profess outrage at the Bush Administration. Remember the wolverine thread? If you have outrage,and you should,call your congressman.send a donation to the Sierra Club, DO something besides bitch!

[JohnhusseinCT]

Oh my God, think of the Children!!

[GoodwithWood]

Hey, All neo-cons and southern Baptist Religious right Mfs.
You people are responsible for this and many other crimes.
Ya see, ya all sold your souls to a corporate greed machine for the price of getting the opportunity to deny a minority human rights. To give human rights to a few cells in a petri dish. To deny the rights of a human to die.

Ya all have been suckered into voting our rights and lives away to “for profit” greedy corporations.
You voted on faith. Faith that....
A fetus has a soul.
Gays are the spawn of the devil.
Science is of the devil.
Blind obedience makes you a patriot.
That sending your children in to a war is equivalent to supporting them.
The USA is number one and dose no wrong.
Man has the right to rape this planet.

That’s just a few of your crimes. If there is a Christian God you all will be thrown to his nemesis in Hell.

GWW ( A true patriot that wouldn’t hesitate to burn a flag to make a statement.)

[rojo7449]

The animals are in the way of his friends commercial harvesting of the earth.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I pray for the extinction of the Bush agenda.

[thatsitfortheotherone]

Amen. And I'm an athiest.

[SupremeIdiot]

Nature and a natural environment evolved to include EVERY creature of any ecosystem. Conservatives laugh when someone tries to save "the spotted owl" or some other engangered species. Look what we did with the wolf and how it unbalanced the ecosystem. Taking a predator, like the wolf, almost comepletely out of an ecosystem because it took a few cattle and because ranchers did not want to take the precautions needed to keep the wolves out, led to overpopulation of the wolves prey, deer. The deer's subsequent overpopulation lead to fierce competition with the cattle for scarce food resources, mainly corn, and lead to deaths of many more cattle than the wolves could have possibly eaten. Then the ranchers had to go and slaughter large amounts of deer to try and right the situation. That's why they've reintroduced the wolf most places. It's easier than continually hunting deer, or paying people to hunt deer, instead of ranching.

[helonias]

And the erosion and sedimentation the deer caused by eating the riparian buffers along streams and rivers.

[williamina]

Oh sweet Gaia make them pay

[Photofarm]

Not true by a long shot. First off, corn is not raised in ranching country. There are other predators besides wolves where deer and cattle live together. It is not easy to keep cattle safe from wolves, they are smart animals, and will go after the easiest prey, which is often young calves.

Why don't we level New York City and make it a nature preserve, that sounds like a great idea to me.

[FreeThinkn1]

Wolves are still endangered and the Bush administration plans to strip the 1500 wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rockies region of their protection under the Endangered Species Act. In January, the administration handed down a new License to Kill rule that would allow Wyoming and Idaho to slaughter hundreds of wolves by hunting, trapping and aerial
gunning. They've also been pushing the same agenda in Alaska. In addtion, so far this year some 1000 American Bison residing in Yellowstone have been shot on site or loaded onto cattle transport trailers and sent to slaughter. The brutal slaughter of these buffalo has been justified on the grounds of preventing the spread of brucellosis. There are roughly 100 cows grazing in the lands where these buffalo roam; however, the risk of disease is largely theoretical and wildly exaggerated since brucellosis has never been transmitted from bison to cattle in a natural setting -- and these cows can be vaccinated against the disease if they haven't been already. In May, they plan on sluaghtering the spring calves.

[Economike]

It's been great for the coyotes though.

[IMD]

How does the process work in these agencies? We know they appoint like-minded cronies who love business and industry more than wildlife, but officially, do they get a directive in writing from the President to gut the Act? I'd like to see the paper trail.

[SupremeIdiot]

Hmmmmm, what WAS on those 3,000,000 emails that just got "lost"?

[DixieMelody]

Would it surprise anyone to know that the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorn, is the former Governor of Idaho? The one who barricaded off our capitol building in downtown Boise for a year after 911 "Because it looks just like the capitol in Washington, DC and the evil-doers might mistake it for that."

Many downtown businesses had to close because there was no parking on any of the barricaded streets. Such a pathetic idiot, and one who never met a mirror or camera he didn't love.

And, I have noticed lately he is in many of Bush's photo ops, always the one immediately on Bush's right (for no apparent reason). Me thinks he aspires to national office, and the truly scary part is that he is just selfish, shallow, egocentric and hollow enough to realize that aspiration.

[bumpersticker]

What is now extinct is G. W. Bush's redeeming qualities.

[SupremeIdiot]

When did he have any? I'm in Texas and even as Governor he had none.

[alfrede]

Hi,

It is very maddening to read about this.

The only thing worse is that the President probably doesn't care.

Would the press covering the WH agree to ask the President about this at the next "news" conference??

What do U think??

[Heretic]

What bothers me more than bush/cheney's raping, pillaging, plundering, and profiteering in regards to the environment in general, is what's happening to the animal species in Africa at the hands of the Janjaweed.

Endangered species are the new blood diamonds:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/117875

[SupremeIdiot]

I know it's a tired cliche but I wonder what one month of Iraq war financing could do to preserve endangered animals?

[fignozzle]

probably doesn't care????
i think he would say....... "so?????"

[Toonadude]

If asked, his response will make our heads explode.

[Ihaveadream]

Bush Administration - another name for Bush dictatorship where the laws and the constitution are just some "goddam pieces of paper" in George Bush's own words, that the cadre of lawyers mentored by the likes of Alito have worked diligently to gut since Ronald Reagan's 8 years of similar fun and games.

Unfortunately today we also a stacked supreme court who looks the other way and the group of gutless wonders known as the US Congress, who let those who pay to play write their own laws and regulations.

America is F*cked.

[Rumplestiltskin]

Sounds like the Easter Bunny forgot to stop at somebody's house this year.

[ChimpmasterDJ]

He'll be sorry, come November, when he realizes that Rethuglicans might want to avail themselves of that very same "endangered species" protection.

[peonyharp]

Outrage on top of outrage with this president -- I'm so angry right now I can't write.

[williamina]

Quick a puppet show, it is cathartic.

[SupremeIdiot]

You're the one with a sock on. Here's a quarter. Start now.......heh

[helonias]

Isn't it interesting that lemmings are smart enough to take their own lives when they over populate and over use their resources.

And we are not, but we consider ourselves much more evolved

[Rumplestiltskin]

It might be interesting if it was true.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1081903.htm

[helonias]

OOps your right, I'm wrong.

[SupremeIdiot]

So we're not more evolved? Or are you just talking about neocons?