Entering its final daze, the Bush regime is stepping up its two-pronged attack on the U.S., hoping to scare people into voting Republican while at the same time befouling Americans’ environment no matter who they vote for.
George W. Bush doesn’t have to worry about his legacy. He said it all on August 5, 2004 (“Bush Gone Wild,” Press Clips, August 23, 2004):
Yesterday, the administration’s director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, warned of “increasing international instability,” as the Washington Post put it.
Surprisingly, the Post fell for this blatant campaign tactic, simply recording what McConnell said, which was all vague B.S. designed to scare people into voting for war hero McCain, instead of that squishy liberal Obama, to protect them.
McConnell, of course, played it straight, offering no opinion on who would do a better job in the “war on terror.”
Why anyone would listen to the current regime’s assessment of threats is mystifying. But to show you how desperate the GOP is, McConnell talked of the threat of global warming as a given. Recall that the Bush regime adamantly denied during most of the past eight years that climate change was a threat. Nevertheless, the Post reported:
The administration’s other prong is sheer poetry: a vast wasteland. We’re already experiencing the impact of deregulation on our financial system. But that’s not stopping the Bush regime from focusing on our environment outside of Wall Street. In this story — “A Last Push To Deregulate: White House to Ease Many Rules” — the WashPost gets right to it:
The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.
The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.
Those and other regulations would help clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining.
So on the one hand you have administration official McConnell talking about global warming as a threat and on the other hand you have other administration officials loosening rules on the emission of pollutants.
Here’s some data. Do your own mining . . .
NO PARTICULAR ORDER:
Financial Times (U.K.): ‘Consumer data raise recession fears in US’
Financial Times (U.K.): ‘Wall Street “made rod for own back” ‘
N.Y. Post: ‘COP SUPPORTS SODOMY GUY’
Financial Times (U.K.): ‘Banks in global race to woo key Lehman staff’
Wall Street Journal: ‘Banks Owe Billions to Executives’
Wall Street Journal: ‘At Turnaround Conference, A Mix of Fear and Gloating’
“World markets are in panic. Bankruptcy fears dog the economy. Yes, business couldn’t be better for the roving group of lawyers, bankers, accountants and investors who thrive when U.S. corporations are in distress.
“About 1,000 of them gathered this week for the Turnaround Management Association annual meeting in New Orleans’ French Quarter, a kind of trade fair meets cocktail hour of economic woe. ‘We’re all salivating. Wait. Don’t say that,’ said one bankruptcy lawyer.”
BBC: ‘ “Human catastrophe” grips Congo’
N.Y. Daily News: ‘Cheating hubby’s wild murder plot’
“A Long Island man who sobbed to the TV cameras about his missing wife has confessed to killing her and hatching an absurd kidnapping ruse to cover his tracks, police said.”
BBC: ‘Row over “Obama chief-of-staff” ‘
BBC: ‘Priests to face “sex drive tests” ‘
N.Y. Daily News: ‘Viagra vicar axed from job in sex-suit scandal’
Washington Post: ‘A Last Push To Deregulate: White House to Ease Many Rules’
Washington Post: ‘Intelligence Head Says Next President Faces Volatile Era’
Brooklyn Paper: ‘Lord Markowitz! Term-limit clears path for Beep-eat’
Register (U.K.): ‘Beatles game is go: Will you still need me when I’m 64-bit?’
Jurist: ‘Sixth Circuit rules against Michigan voter removals’
N.Y. Times: ‘In Tight Race, Victor May Be Ohio Lawyers’
N.Y. Times: ‘Somalia’s Pirates Flourish in a Lawless Nation’
N.Y. Times: ‘Federal Charges for Ex-C.E.O. at Meatpacker’
Gawker: ‘Some Print Deaths Unmourned Amid Carnage’