Bush's Idiocy Takes (More) Shape

Andy Warhol's Endangered Species series was commissioned in 1983 by political and environmental activists Ronald and Frayda Feldman. 25 years later, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, passed by Richard Nixon, is threatened by President Bush, cementing his place as even more destructive and idiotic than even our most embarrassing modern president.


The Bush administration continues its reign of terror into the non-human world by choosing to benefit oil companies over endangered species. In order to keep big business out of harm's way from those pesky environmental groups that threaten to impose limits on emissions, Bush is eradicating the tenets of the Endangered Species Act, the biggest blow to the contemporary environmental movement since the last club Bush took to a baby seal's head.

From the Associated Press, 8/11/08:

"The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants....If approved, the changes would represent the biggest overhaul of endangered species regulations since 1986. They would accomplish through rules 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 chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the Interior Department, said he was "deeply troubled" by the changes.

"This proposed rule ... gives federal agencies an unacceptable degree of discretion to decide whether or not to comply with the Endangered Species Act," said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. "Eleventh-hour rulemakings rarely if ever lead to good government." *

The new regulations follow a pattern by the Bush administration not to seek input from its scientists. The regulations were drafted by attorneys at both the Interior and Commerce Departments. Scientists with both agencies were first briefed on the proposal last week during a conference call, according to an official who asked not to be identified... "This is the fox guarding the hen house. The interests of agencies will outweigh species protection interests," said Eric Glitzenstein, the attorney representing environmental groups in the lawsuit over the wildfire prevention regulations. "What they are talking about doing is eviscerating the Endangered Species Act."

*Possessing the rational level of a high school debate team star renders this man too smart for politics.