I am totally in a daze. In the past 8 years I have become a pessimist when it comes to American politics, but Obama became that beam of light on an otherwise cloudy day.
Yay, you did it, congratulations! And now you get the hardest job in the world. Bush is still president for another two months and he is making sure Obama will have a rough go at it when he arrives at the White house. What a spoiled brat.
The NY Times has reported some of the things Bush is going to "rubber stamp" before he leaves the Oval Office:
In terms of Civil Liberties:
"Agents will be allowed to use informants to infiltrate lawful groups, engage in prolonged physical surveillance and lie about their identity while questioning a subject’s neighbors, relatives, co-workers and friends. The changes also give the F.B.I. — which has a long history of spying on civil rights groups and others — expanded latitude to use these techniques on people identified by racial, ethnic and religious background."
The Environment:
"Mr. Bush’s secretary of the interior, Dirk Kempthorne, has recently carved out significant exceptions to regulations requiring expert scientific review of any federal project that might harm endangered or threatened species (one consequence will be to relieve the agency of the need to assess the impact of global warming on at-risk species). The department also is rushing to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list — again. The wolves were re-listed after a federal judge ruled the government had not lived up to its own recovery plan."
"The Environmental Protection Agency to issue a final rule that would weaken a program created by the Clean Air Act, which requires utilities to install modern pollution controls when they upgrade their plants to produce more power. The agency is also expected to issue a final rule that would make it easier for coal-fired power plants to locate near national parks in defiance of longstanding Congressional mandates to protect air quality in areas of special natural or recreational value. "
On A Woman's Right to Choose (Abortion Rights):
"Michael Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, is expected to issue new regulations aimed at further limiting women’s access to abortion, contraceptives and information about their reproductive health care options. Existing law allows doctors and nurses to refuse to participate in an abortion. These changes would extend the so-called right to refuse to a wide range of health care workers and activities including abortion referrals, unbiased counseling and provision of birth control pills or emergency contraception, even for rape victims."
And that's not all, Bush must be determined to leave the worst and most irresponsible legacy behind because he is also making sure the rich get richer as the economy continues to sink below sea level.
"Recently, the I.R.S. restored tax breaks for banks that take big losses on bad loans inherited through acquisitions. Now we learn that JPMorgan Chase and others are planning to use their bailout funds for mergers and acquisitions, transactions that will be greatly enhanced by the new tax subsidy."
To read the whole article, click here.
It's like Bush knows what the right thing to do is, and he is explicitly trying to do the opposite just to see how bad it gets.
There is one change Bush won't be making. He will not close Guantanamo Prison. Even though Bush and Condolezza Rice have both publicly discussed closing it down, it will remain open.
Well, Obama definitely has his work cut out for him but I have more faith in him than I do in the last 8 years of misery.
I wonder what Bush will do in January. Probably sigh a sigh of relief and get back to shooting animals in Texas. Well at least make sure to shoot Cheney while your at it.
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