Dana Perino, unhinged....Pt. XXV: Like, who cares about a bunch of freakin' owls, anyway.....

[marmar]

from ThinkProgress:



Perino: The Endangered Species Act ‘Doesn’t Help Support Any Species, Including Our Own’»

The Associated Press reports today that, as part of its long-fought campaign to gut the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Bush administration is pushing a last-minute regulatory change that would significantly weaken the ESA:

The rules would eliminate the input of federal wildlife scientists in some endangered species cases, the federal agency in charge of building, authorizing or funding a project to determine for itself whether a project would be likely to harm endangered wildlife and plants.

At today’s White House press conference, a reporter asked if the Associated Press had accurately described the proposed regulatory change. Perino responded first by saying she didn’t have the documentation with her, but suggested that the rule change would have little effect because the ESA doesn’t help protect “any species, including ours” anyway:

PERINO: I don’t have (the documentation) with me. I know conceptually what we support. And I know that the Endangered Species Act is a tangled web that doesn’t actually help support any species, including our own. …

Q: (Laughter) So you’re proposing eliminating it?

PERINO: No.

Watch it: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/20/perino-endangered-species/


Perino’s wholesale dismissal of the ESA could not be more inaccurate. Indeed, the law is responsible for saving, among other species, the Grey Wolf, the Grizzly Bear, and perhaps most notably our national bird, the American Bald Eagle. While Perino dismissed the rule change as insignificant, a spokesperson for the National Wildlife Federation explained, “These changes take unbiased, professional wildlife biologists out of the equation and put decisions in the hands of political appointees.”

More disturbing, however, is how widespread the last-minute assault on the federal government’s environmental regulatory structure has become. The White House’s other last minute initiatives include:

– Eliminating environmental reviews of fishing regulations. A rule change proposed by National Marine Fisheries Service would repeal a requirement that “environmental impact statements be prepared for certain fisheries-management decisions.” Instead, the government would “give review authority to regional councils dominated by commercial and recreational fishing interests.”

– Allowing more emissions from power plants. Over the objections of half of its 10 regional administrators, the Environmental Protection Agency is “finalizing new air-quality rules that would make it easier to build coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other major polluters near national parks and wilderness areas” by weakening the Clean Air Act.

– Opening protected wilderness areas to energy development. Despite being blocked by “federal court and administrative rulings,” the Bureau of Land Management is “reviving plans to sell oil and gas leases in pristine wilderness areas in eastern Utah that have long been protected from development.”

As Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, told the Wall Street Journal, “This administration will stop at nothing to jam through as many reckless proposals as they can before the clock runs out.”


http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/20/perino-endangered-species/

[annabanana]

1. Another musician on the Titanic. . .. . . n/t

[marmar]

2. ..... who's too dumb to read the music.

:dunce:

[Double T]

3. bush and cheney still have two months left to totally destroy america.

Impeachment is still an option.

[RufusTFirefly]

4. Maybe if Bush were actually confronting impeachment proceedings...

... he wouldn't be quite as able to engage in the kind of slash-and-burn stuff he's into now.

Maybe.



You may say that I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one.

[vixengrl]

5. Dana Perino is Elizabeth Hasselback with a credible job.

It sometimes scares me that we don't expect people who are spokespersons for the president to even be kind of in touch and maybe a little policy-and-history oriented. She's capable of reciting talking points, but really, asking her questions is a waste of time. Appropriate to her speaking for lame duck Bush--after all, it's supposed to come out something like, "Quack, quack, quack."

I know conceptually what we support. And I know that the Endangered Species Act is a tangled web that doesn’t actually help support any species, including our own. …

You could play Mad Libs with that.


"I know __adverb__ what we support. And I know that the ____law______ is a ____adjective, noun___ that doesn't help support any ___noun___ especially our own."



Like:

"I know faithfully what we support. And I know that the Geneva Conventions are a false idol that doesn't support any war especially our own."


Or:

"I know surreptitiously what we support. And I know that the Nuremberg code is a feel-good stopgap that doesn't support any torture especially our own."


Or:

"I know intellectually what we support. And I know that the Bill of Rights is a utopian treatise that doesn't support any violations especially our own."


Have fun with that.