38 posts tagged “george w. bush”
What is it that George W. has against the gray wolf? I'll bet Dick Cheney wants to kill one or something like that. So Bush continues to cement his place in history as the worst President ever.
LIVINGSTON, Mont. (January 14, 2009) – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that they will once again remove the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list in the states of Montana and Idaho, as well as the western Great Lakes region. This is the second recent attempt by the Bush Administration to remove legal protections for the species. The previous effort ended in September after the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and 11 other conservation groups won a challenge in federal court. The seemingly piecemeal exclusion of wolves in the state of Wyoming in this new effort undermines efforts to address the needs of wolves and people in the region.
“This move is not viable legally, politically, or biologically,” said Andrew Wetzler, Director of NRDC’s Endangered Species Project. “They have actually come up with a strategy that will anger everyone from ranchers and the states, to the conservation community. This simply gets in the way of finding a real solution.”
With the initial delisting in February 2008, temporary control of wolves moved to state management plans in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Wyoming’s management plan was noted as a problem from the start as wolf hunts began immediately in the state’s “predator zone”, where wolves were allowed to be shot on sight. Rather than dealing with the problem directly, Wyoming’s wolf population was simply excluded from today’s action and left on the Endangered Species List. This move is in clear opposition to previous Department of Interior policy which stated that the wolf population in the region must be considered together and could not be broken up on a state-by-state basis. Documents stating this had been available on the Department’s Web site, including this 2004 letter to the State of Wyoming.
"Wolves don’t read maps," said Dr. Sylvia Fallon, NRDC Staff Scientist whose genetic expertise was central in the initial challenge case. “We agree that Wyoming’s plan is inadequate, but you cannot have protections start and stop at state lines. We are close to having truly appropriate conditions in place to remove these animals from the list; but until the population reaches critical size and shows genetic interchange, these policies are completely counter-productive...
2 Fort Campbell Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan
Aug 19, 2008 03:44 PM
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) -- Two Fort Campbell soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.
The Army said Tuesday that 29-year-old 1st Lt. Donald C. Carwile of Oxford, Miss., and 21-year-old Pfc. Paul E. Conlon Jr. of Somerville, Mass., died on Aug. 15...
Both soldiers were assigned to 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell...
Monday August 18, 2008
Baghdad
Five people (3 policemen and 2 civilians) were injured by a roadside bomb in al Riwad intersection in Mansour neighborhood in west Baghdad around 9:00 a.m.
Around 10:00 a.m. Gunmen opened their machineguns fire targeting the car of Faris Jabir Thahir; a member in Shaheed al Mihrab organization (one of the organizations in ISCI ) in Zafaraniyah town in southeast Baghdad. Faris was killed at one and his wife was injured seriously.
Around 10:30, an IED exploded targeting an American convoy in al Ordin intersection (Jordan intersection) in Yarmouk neighborhood in west Baghdad. Nine Iraqi were injured including three policemen. No American casualties were reported.
Three people were injured (2 policemen and a civilian) by a roadside bomb near the national theater in Karrada neighborhood in downtown Baghdad around 1:00 p.m.
Basra
A director of an election center and his deputy were killed and a companion was inured when gunmen attacked them while they were going to work in Bahadriyah area south of Basra on Monday morning. The election commission confirmed the incident.
Kirkuk
Gunmen killed Raheem Thyab al Bayati; one of the leaders of Sahwa south of Tuz city north of Baghdad around 2:00 p.m.
Timeless? song included... eh??? *sigh*
A government agency with more than 16,000 employees and a $5 billion annual budget suddenly throws up its hands and gives up on one of its major responsibilities. In fact, when that agency is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, there is even a name for it: Operation Scheduled Departure (I'm guessing the line isn't too long)
...We are now almost halfway into a 17-day pilot self-deportation program that ICE is trying out in San Diego and four other U.S. cities: Chicago, Phoenix, Charlotte, N.C., and Santa Ana, Calif. The program ends Aug. 22.
So far, not so good. There aren't many takers for the government's less-than-generous offer to allow 457,000 illegal immigrants without criminal records and who pose no threat to national security to voluntarily turn themselves in to federal authorities. Anyone who did want to schedule their own departure would be given 90 days to get their affairs in order and -- here's the part ICE doesn't advertise -- be outfitted with an electronic ankle bracelet to keep track of their whereabouts in the meantime.
The offer is being made to "fugitive aliens," people who have appeared before an immigration judge and been ordered to leave the country, but haven't complied with the deportation order.
That part isn't surprising. If the illegal immigrants are from Mexico, and the lion's share of them are, what awaits them at home isn't appealing -- the prospect of having to support their families on $6 per day when they could make 15 or 20 times that on this side of the border. Then there's the fact that, while ICE likes to project this image that it is roaming the countryside and "knocking on doors," I suspect that not that many doors actually get knocked on. In order to want to voluntarily leave the country, illegal immigrants have to have a realistic fear that they'll be picked up and that the process will be messier and perhaps more dangerous than the self-deportation route...
Interesting and informative 1 minute 03 second video
Endangered Species Act Changes Give Agencies More Say
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The Bush administration yesterday proposed a regulatory overhaul of the Endangered Species Act to allow federal agencies to decide whether protected species would be imperiled by agency projects, eliminating the independent scientific reviews that have been required for more than three decades.
The new rules, which will be subject to a 30-day per comment period, would use administrative powers to make broad changes in the law that Congress has resisted for years. Under current law, agencies must subject any plans that potentially affect endangered animals and plants to an independent review by the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service. Under the proposed new rules, dam and highway construction and other federal projects could proceed without delay if the agency in charge decides they would not harm vulnerable species.
In a telephone call with reporters yesterday, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne described the new rules as a "narrow regulatory change" that "will provide clarity and certainty to the consultation process under the Endangered Species Act."
But environmentalists and congressional Democrats blasted the proposal as a last-minute attempt by the administration to bring about dramatic changes in the law. For more than a decade, congressional Republicans have been trying unsuccessfully to rewrite the act, which property owners and developers say imposes unreasonable economic costs.
"I am deeply troubled by this proposed rule, which gives federal agencies an unacceptable degree of discretion to decide whether or not to comply with the Endangered Species Act," said Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, who asked for a staff briefing before the proposal was announced but did not receive one. "Eleventh-hour rulemakings rarely, if ever, lead to good government -- this is not the type of legacy this Interior Department should be leaving for future generations."
Bob Irvin, senior vice president of conservation programs at the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife, questioned how some federal agencies could make the assessments, since most do not have wildlife biologists on staff...
Take a look at this list of businesses / retail outlets that are closing or have already closed. Just another reason to vote for Senator Obama for President of the United States. Senator McCain will only continue the FAILED Bush economic policies and this list will grow.
Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide.
Eddie Bauer to close more stores after closing 27 stores in the first quarter.
Cache, a women’s retailer is closing 20 to 23 stores this year.
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide
Talbots & J. Jill closing stores. Talbots will close all 78 of its kids and men's stores plus another 22 underperforming stores. The 22 stores will be a mix of Talbots women's and J. Jill.
Gap Inc. closing 85 stores
Foot Locker to close 140 stores
Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores. The 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
Levitz - the furniture retailer, announced it was going out of business and closing all 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910.
Zales, Piercing Pagoda plans to close 82 stores by July 31 followed by closing another 23 underperforming stores.
Disney Store owner has the right to close 98 stores.
Home Depot store closings 15 of them amid a slumping US economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world's largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store.
CompUSA (CLOSED).
Macy's - 9 stores closed
Movie Gallery / Hollywood Video – video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental chain closed last fall as part of bankruptcy.
Pacific Sunwear - 153 Demo stores closing
Pep Boys - 33 stores of auto parts supplier closing
Sprint Nextel - 125 retail locations to close with 4,000 employees following 5,000 layoffs last year.
J. C. Penney, Lowe's and Office Depot are all scaling back
Ethan Allen Interiors: plans to close 12 of 300 stores to cut costs.
Wilsons the Leather Experts – closing 158 stores
Bombay Company: to close all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores.
Dillard's Inc. will close another six stores this year.
(Remember this the next time you fill up your vehicles gas tank and BTW... apparently Exxon Mobil Corp. fell far short of what Wall Street predicted SO... be prepared for even more expensive fuel. This kind of profit borders on being criminal and obscene)
Exxon Mobil Corp. reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest profit from operations ever by any U.S. corporation.
Exxon Mobil 2Q profit sets US record, shares fall
By John Porretto – 2 hours ago
HOUSTON (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest profit from operations ever by any U.S. corporation...
...The world's largest publicly traded oil company said net income for the April-June period came to $2.22 a share, up from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, a year ago.
Revenue rose 40 percent to $138.1 billion from $98.4 billion in the year-earlier quarter.
Excluding an after-tax charge of $290 million related to an Exxon Valdez court settlement, earnings amounted to $11.97 billion, or $2.27 per share.
Analysts on average expected Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial. The estimates typically exclude one-time items...
...Setting U.S. profit records has become commonplace for Irving-based Exxon Mobil. The $11.68 billion topped its own U.S. record of $11.66 billion, posted in the fourth quarter of last year. Right behind that was the $10.9 billion it reported to start 2008.
Exxon Mobil owns the record for at least the top six most-profitable quarters for a U.S. company, as well as the largest annual profit....
...For the first six months of 2008, Exxon Mobil said it earned $22.57 billion, or $4.25 a share, from $19.54 billion, or $3.45 a share, in the first half of 2007. Revenue rose to $254.9 billion from $185.5 billion...
Judge Donald Molloy is a man of courage.
It's the best possible news. Seven weeks after we went to court, a federal judge has ordered the Bush Administration to restore endangered species protections for wolves in the northern Rockies until the full case can be heard.
This interim victory is nothing less than a life-saving reprieve for hundreds of wolves outside Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. Since the Bush Administration stripped the region's wolves of federal protection, a total of 110 wolves have been brutally killed in as many days.
But Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service "acted arbitrarily" in taking the wolf off the endangered species list and turning their management over to the states.
That means Wyoming, Montana and Idaho will be forced to abandon plans to allow the extermination of hundreds of wolves this fall as part of a massive public hunt -- the first in more than three decades.
Press Release from NRDC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Judge Reinstates Endangered Species Act Protections for Wolves
Ruling Will Protect Wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming
LIVINGSTON, Mont. (July 18, 2008) – A federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana issued a preliminary injunction today reinstating Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies. Conservation groups had sued the government, arguing that delisting the wolves was premature and that allowing the indiscriminate killing of wolves risked putting wolves back on the brink of extinction.
The following is a statement by Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC):
“The federal court just offered a badly needed lifeline to wolves in the Northern Rockies,” said Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Wolves have been getting killed at a rate of about one per day since the federal government stripped them of Endangered Species Act protections. Today’s ruling means the slaughter must stop.”
Simply put, the wolves of Yellowstone and the northern Rockies are much, much safer today than they were just last week.
This incredible, eleventh-hour victory never would have happened without your strong support. Your donations and online activism have fueled this campaign since day one.
Thanks to your backing, a tenacious coalition -- composed of NRDC, EarthJustice and 11 other conservation groups -- has worked tirelessly to save these magnificent creatures in one of America's best-loved places.
Make no mistake: the fight for Yellowstone's wolves is far from over. Judge Molloy's injunction is temporary. We must now wage the courtroom battle for a final ruling in favor of wolves.
Donate to the NRDC if you can. I will also post links for any future action alerts from NRDC
Please take a moment to sign the petition and express your outrage
106 wolves were killed in a period of just 118 days.
That's nearly one wolf killed every day. And if Wyoming, Idaho and Montana have their way, at least 900 wolves -- nearly 60 percent of the population -- could be exterminated this fall, when a massive public hunt begins.
Make no mistake: This will be the very last summer for many of Yellowstone's wolves -- unless immediate action is taken to stop the killing.
That is why I am urging you to sign the NRDC Petition to the Interior Department demanding that it restore protection for wolves now.
Tourists visiting Yellowstone have been horrified to learn that the very wolves they've traveled hundreds and thousands of miles to see are being gunned down just outside the park. Hundreds of tourists a day are signing petitions to protest the slaughter.
And as I write, our partner organization Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is circulating those Petitions in the park AND taking court action -- along with 11 other conservation groups -- to compel the Bush Administration to restore protection for the wolves.
What can you do to help the wolves of the Northern Rockies from where you live?
Be sure to sign our Petition, and urge your friends and family to do the same.
Your activism will help us broadcast the wolf's plight and mobilize America against the Bush Administration's heartless, wolf-killing policy.
Swift action is imperative since the wolf death count is rising higher every day.
Wyoming, Montana and Idaho are planning public hunts for the region's remaining 1,400 wolves this fall -- the first in more than three decades. Once the leaves fall from the trees, wolves will be easy targets for aerial sharpshooters who can gun down entire packs in a matter of minutes.
That is why we must act quickly this summer to compel the Bush Administration to restore the wolf's desperately needed Endangered Species protection.
Please sign our Petition, and help us put an end to this wolf-killing rampage and help save one of our National Treasures.
