Eradicating a BushCo Stain: Dep't. of Education repealing "gender equity" in sports law

By GottaLaff

Another day, another sewage removal effort. Eradicating ugly BushCo stains will take years, since they left so much toxic waste lying around. How many metaphors was that? Two? Three? But who's counting? Bygones.

But that's not important now. What is important is this:

The U.S. Department of Education is repealing a Bush-era policy that some critics argue was a way to avoid complying with federal law in providing equal opportunities for female athletes.

Under the move, schools and colleges must now provide stronger evidence that they offer equal opportunities for athletic participation under the federal Title IX gender equity law.

The Bushies allowed schools to simply use a survey as proof that a new women's sport failed to garner support. If there wasn't much response to the survey, BushCo pointed, laughed, and said, "See? There not interested! Nyah nyah!"

Arne Duncan is "nyah nyahing" now. He happens to respect-- What's it called again? Oh yeah-- civil rights.

Vice President Biden is doing a little neener-nannering of his own:

"Making Title IX as strong as possible is a no-brainer. [...] What we're doing here today will better ensure equal opportunity in athletics and allowing women to realize their potential — so this nation can realize its potential."

So how did that avoidy discriminate-y thing work out for ya, BushCo?

Researchers say the share of women participating in athletics increased only incrementally under Bush, even as female student enrollment increased.

And why is this important?

Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a law professor and senior director for advocacy with the Women's Sports Foundation, said female participation in sports is the most effective remedy against obesity and leads to more education and better employment prospects.

Not to mention better health.

And speaking of women's rights, please take a look at the latest Blunt video about equal pay for women.

Undoing BushCo: Strike against politicization of government by Obama administration

By GottaLaff

For now at least, say buh-bye to "burrowing":

In what may be another small dose of that precious change we can believe in, the Obama administration is taking steps to crack down on one of the Bushies' favored tactics for politicizing government: burrowing.

In the waning days of the Bush administration, we told you about some political appointees who had landed career jobs, with civil-service protections, at their departments -- allowing them to continue to exert influence under the new government, and making them difficult to remove. [...]

[S]tarting January 1, his office will have to sign off every time a political appointee who was appointed during the last 5 years is hired for a career position. Right now, OPM approval is only required during a presidential election year.

Paul Light, an expert on the federal bureaucracy at the Brookings Institution:

... [B]ecause the Obama administration, when it leaves office, will inevitably want to burrow its own appointees into career jobs, "they will rue the day they did this."

For now, though, count this as a strike against the politicization of government that the Bushies raised to an art form.

Chipping away at the toxic BushCo stains. That is change we can believe in.

H/t: muttlikemeblog

Obama Ditches Another Bush Rule

By GottaLaff

Scrubbing out another Bush stain. GObama!

The latest rule to get the boot was finalized in December 2008 and upped the number of hours truckers could stay behind the wheel, despite safety concerns about driver fatigue. [...]

They issued the same rule three times [3], even though the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., struck it down in both 2004 and 2008.

That BushCo, always looking out for their fellow Americans.

Federal scientists: Limit offshore drilling plans

By GottaLaff

Once again, attempts are being made to eradicate the ugly, toxic BushCo stain:

The federal government's top ocean scientists are urging the Interior Department to drastically reduce plans to open the coast to offshore oil and gas drilling, citing threats to marine life and potentially devastating effects of oil spills in Arctic waters.

The recommendations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are informal and not binding. But if adopted, they would restrict development in some of the nation's most resource-rich untapped offshore areas and mark a significant departure from the pro-drilling policies of the George W. Bush administration. They also give added -- and official -- weight to environmentalists' concerns.

It's like being held captive and suddenly having the gag and shackles removed. Breathing again sure feels swell, doesn't it?

In a letter sent to Interior officials last month, NOAA recommended excluding large tracts of the Alaska coast, the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico from Interior's draft offshore drilling plan for 2010 to 2015.

NOAA recommends establishing buffer zones around the Southern California Ecological Preserve off Santa Barbara. In addition, it suggests that its broader recommendations, such as taking greater account of drilling's effects on marine life, could affect potential lease sales off California.

The agency calls for a ban on drilling in the Arctic until oil companies greatly improve their ability to prevent and clean up oil spills. And it asks Interior to delay new drilling plans until an Obama administration ocean policy task force completes its work late this year.

The comments, dated Sept. 9 and obtained by the Washington Bureau, were included in a letter to Interior officials from NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco. They include an often sharp critique of the offshore leasing plan, developed under Bush, that would open swaths of the California coast and other areas to new drilling.

NOAA says the leasing plan's assessment of the risks of drilling, such as oil spills, is "understated and generally not supported or referenced."

Isn't it amazing how wrong BushCo was about so many issues, yet how little resistance they got while in office? Cronyism sure comes in handy.

NOAA urges the Minerals Management Service -- the Interior division that handles offshore drilling -- to consider ocean ecosystems, coastal communities and other environmental factors when finalizing a leasing plan.

The agency stresses the challenges of cleaning up an oil spill in remote, icy waters, which NOAA says would be substantially more difficult than cleaning up a spill elsewhere.

The recommendations highlight the competing pressures on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as he weighs whether to amend the Bush-era leasing plan.

Let's see: Profits for Big Oil v. the health of the planet.

No drill for you! Few Bush-era energy leases are valid

By GottaLaff

Undoing the ugly, toxic BushCo stain:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday that only 17 of 77 oil and gas leases on Utah public lands that the Bush administration auctioned off in December were valid and that his agency would prevent development on the remaining parcels, at least in the near future. [...]

Environmentalists contended that the auction of drilling rights on 100,000 acres of federal land in southeastern Utah were a last-minute giveaway to the energy industry. The environmentalists won a restraining order from a federal judge halting the sales.

Salazar revoked most of the leases upon entering office and said his staff would study which were appropriate. On Thursday, he said the review found that few were.

"There was a headlong rush to leasing in the prior administration," Salazar said. "There were areas that should not have been leased." [...]

Energy groups said the findings continued a troubling trend -- a hesitancy in the Obama administration to foster American energy sources. Salazar has also reversed a Bush administration effort to open swathes of Western land to oil shale development. [...]

Environmental groups hailed the report's findings but cautioned that even if the Obama administration wanted to rebid the 17 leases it found appropriate, it would need to follow procedures laid down by the federal judge.

"The report is a resounding rejection of the 'drill here, drill now' approach of the Bush administration," said Steve Bloch of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

But remember: President Obama has no real accomplishments to speak of. Nope. None.

Eradicating an ugly Bush stain: EPA blocks mountaintop removal.

By GottaLaff

A clean, healthy America is fashionable again! Sing it with me! Mr. Clean gets rid of dirt and grime and grease in just a minute, Mr. Clean will clean your whole house, and everything that's in it. Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean...

In a major reversal of Bush policy, “mountaintop coal-mining permits are being put on hold until the projects’ impacts on streams and wetlands can be reviewed,” the Environmental Protection Agency announced today:

Citing its regulatory role under the Clean Water Act, the EPA said the letters stated that the projects “would likely cause water quality problems in streams below the mines, would cause significant degradation to streams buried by mining activities, and that proposed steps to offset these impacts are inadequate.”

Another ugly midnight regulation Bush stain bites the dust.

Eradicating the Ugly Bush Stain: Obama Restoring Endangered Species Act Provision

By GottaLaff

There have been so many toxic stains set into the fabric of our nation, and they were all forced on us by BushCo. Remember this one? Thank goodness President Obama found some Shout:

Today President Obama will restore rules requiring U.S. agencies consult with independent federal experts to determine if their actions might harm threatened and endangered species, according to an administration official who asked not to be identified, marking yet another reversal of President Bush's environmental legacy. [...]

The move, the official said, "will restore the status quo ante and allow the Interior and Commerce Departments to determine whether a new rule should be promulgated that will again codify the longstanding consultation practice under the" Endangered Species Act.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-W.V.), who had decried the Bush rule and had been trying to reverse it through the legislative process, hailed Obama's decision.

"I wholeheartedly support the president's proposal to restore the protections for endangered species that the Bush administration spent so many years trying to undermine," Rahall said in an interview. "It is one more indication that the new administration truly represents change for the better and is committed to the protection of our natural resources and our environment. I think we know who would have been the winner in this fox guarding the hen house scenario advanced by the Bush administration, and it would not be the hens."

The ugly Bush stain: Nursing Home Watchdogs Muted

By GottaLaff

Per Keith Olbermann just now on Countdown:

Another little surprise from BushCo that nobody discovered until yesterday. It involves nursing home state inspectors and Medicare and Medicaid contractors . Guess what they can't do any more? They can't give evidence in federal lawsuits. They can't testify. Bush just took a 144 billion industry and immunized it from civil suits.

And nobody knew about it.

The Bush administration shut off a source of information last fall about abuse and neglect in long- term care facilities that people suing nursing homes consider crucial to their cases.

The change that affects the $144 billion nursing-home industry occurred with no public notice or attention, perhaps because of the array of last-minute rules that President George W. Bush’s appointees rushed out before leaving Washington last month.

“This is pretty stunning,” said Mark Kosieradzki, a plaintiff attorney in Plymouth, Minnesota. “Nobody was told. It was just done.”

The rule designates state inspectors and Medicare and Medicaid contractors as federal employees, a group usually shielded from providing evidence for either side in private litigation.

The restrictions affect about 16,000 nursing facilities in the U.S. and 3 million residents. The practical effect is to force litigants to go to greater lengths, including seeking court orders, to get inspection reports or depositions for cases they are pursuing or defending.

“This change hurts nursing-home residents and their families by allowing bad practices to be kept in secret by nursing homes and inspectors,” said Eric M. Carlson, an attorney with the National Senior Citizens Law Center in Los Angeles. “Government inspectors have the right to go into nursing homes and investigate, and they learn things that residents and families otherwise could never find out.”

More here.

Bush is still damaging this nation, says Keith. What an understatement.

Eradicating an ugly Bush stain: Drilling Leases Scrapped in Utah

By GottaLaff

More, more, more, pleaseohplease, more like this:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday canceled leases to drill for gas and oil on 77 parcels of public land in Utah.

The leases, which cover more than 100,000 acres, including lands near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, were auctioned in the last weeks of the Bush administration. They were among 11th-hour actions taken by the Bush Interior Department that have been criticized by environmental groups and are being reviewed by Obama officials.

In a news conference, Mr. Salazar said that after a review of the leases he concluded that the Bush administration had “rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases at the doorstep of some of our greatest national icons, some of our nation’s most treasured landscapes” without proper scientific review or consultation.

Why is there always a "however"? Whywhywhy? Here it is: How-damn-ever:

He did not rule out drilling on the lands in the future if a review found it feasible. He said, however, that the Obama administration would find a “new balance” between protecting environmentally sensitive park areas and opening public lands to energy exploration and drilling. [...]

The cancellation is effective immediately and means that the government will forfeit $6 million in fees from the bidders.

Go green. Drilling is so Sarah Palin ago. Just. Go. Green.

VIDEO-- The ugly Bush stain: Late move on drugs by Bush FDA could be dangerous

By GottaLaff

Another deadly, typically noxious, ugly Bush stain that Bush's own Veterans Affairs Department disapproved of:

In the waning days of the Bush administration, the Food and Drug Administration finalized new guidelines to make it easier for drug manufacturers to promote "off-label" prescription drug uses, which can be deadly for patients.

The move came despite criticism from Bush's own Department of Veterans Affairs, which said the change "favors business interests over public safety" and could lead to a "decline in drug safety." It also was crafted despite efforts by state and federal law-enforcement experts to clamp down on off-label drug marketing. [...]

As the Obama administration reviews all the midnight rules that the departing Bush administration issued, it will have to decide whether to try to modify or reverse this last-minute change in the FDA's oversight of off-label drug marketing.

Congressional leaders from both parties criticized the guideline when it was proposed last year. [...]

In the House of Representatives, Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, called the guideline a "long-coveted parting gift" for the pharmaceutical industry that "fundamentally undermines" the FDA's authority.

Once again, BushCo's priority is profit, not people. "Pro-life" is a term that should never be exploited again. This bunch of thugs is anti-choice, anti-humanity, anti-American.

The inconvenient truth hurts

By GottaLaff

This is why it matters who is in the White House. To all those Neanderthal ignorami who scoffed at Al Gore:

Even if by some miracle the nations of the world could bring carbon dioxide levels back to those of the pre-industrial era, it would still take 1,000 years or longer for the climate changes already triggered to be reversed, scientists said Monday.

Not 10, not 100, but 1,000 years. 1,000.

The gas already here and the heat that has been absorbed by the ocean will exert their effects for centuries, according to an analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Here are a few examples of Bush's war on science. Out of contact with reality much? While tin-eared naysayers were busy protecting special interests, things were getting seriously out of hand.

No, BushCo isn't solely responsible for this crisis, but they wasted 8 precious years ignoring the Inconvenient Truth and destroying the environment with their ugly Bush stains.

[C]hanges in rainfall patterns will bring droughts to the American Southwest, southern Europe, northern Africa and western Australia comparable to those that caused the 1930s Dust Bowl in the U.S.

"People have imagined that if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide, the climate would go back to normal in 100 years, 200 years," lead author Susan Solomon, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a telephone news conference. "That's not true."

The changes will persist until at least the year 3000, said Solomon, who conducted the study with colleagues in Switzerland and France.

Scientists familiar with the report said it emphasized the need for immediate action to control emissions. [...]

"The policy relevance is clear: We need to act sooner, even if there is some doubt about exactly what will happen, because by the time the public and policymakers really realize the changes are here, it is far too late to do anything about it," Trenberth said. [...]

The slowness with which ocean water circulates is central to the new findings. [...] That gas accounts for about half of the global warming caused by greenhouse gases, but the other gases are removed from the atmosphere more quickly. Thus, the long-term influence of carbon dioxide will have the greatest effect on climate change, the report said.

Moreover, heat absorbed by the ocean is released slowly, and will continue to contribute to global warming even if the concentration of greenhouse gases should decline, the authors said. [...]

Melting of the icecaps could increase sea levels even more, inundating low-lying islands and continental shorelines, but the effects are too uncertain to quantify, Solomon said.

Reductions in rainfall would also last centuries, the report said, decreasing drinking water supplies, increasing fire frequency and devastating dry-season farming of wheat and maize.

Sleep well.

Eradicating an ugly Bush stain: E.P.A. Objects to Coal-Powered Plant in S. Dakota

By GottaLaff

There is no such thing as clean coal. Let's hope that the ObamAdministration fully realizes that. This is a good start, though, toward eradicating yet another filthy, toxic Bush stain:

The chairman of the Public Utilities Commission said the Environmental Protection Agency had filed objections to an air quality permit a state agency had granted for the proposed coal-fired Big Stone II power plant. “This is a signal that the Obama administration is taking a much harder look at coal power from the previous administration,” said Darrell Gerber, a program coordinator for the group Clean Water Action, which along with the Sierra Club opposed the plant. [...] The 580-megawatt plant is planned by the Otter Tail Power Company and four other utilities for the Milbank area in the northeastern corner of South Dakota.

Eradicating another ugly Bush stain: Court halts Utah oil/gas leases

By GottaLaff

BushCo just had their noses rubbed into one of their own greasy, smelly, putrid stains. Score another one for the good guys:

Court halts Utah oil and gas leases

Environmental groups win a temporary restraining order, potentially leaving the fate of the 110,000 acres to the Obama administration.

A federal judge late Saturday halted the Bush administration’s efforts to open 110,000 acres of federal land in Utah to oil and gas exploration, ruling that the danger of damaging the pristine land required further study before leases were awarded. [...]

A coalition of seven groups sued for a temporary restraining order, and the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina means the checks written by energy companies for the land cannot be cashed.

[This] will potentially place the fate of the land into the hands of the incoming Obama administration. Obama aides have objected to the sale.