Time And Enlightenment: According to Siddhartha

This is a pic I took on my cell phone at the end of the summer on a beach on the Mississippi. It's one of my favorites, I just needed an excuse to post it.

I read a book in my religion class a couple of years ago called Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, which is loosely based on the life of Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism. I thought this quote went good with the picture (read it two or three times for good measure):

"The river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth...in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere, and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past, nor the shadow of the future...Siddhartha the boy, Siddhartha the mature man and Siddhartha the old man [are] only separated by shadows, not through reality...Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence."
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Here's another similar quote from a more modern Buddhist for clarity (because I won't pretend to know exactly what that^ means) :

"Time is not a line, but a series of now points."- Taisen Deshimaru

Don't think about that one for too long. Interesting idea, but it'll give you a headache.

The condensed summary of Siddhartha is that of a regular guy who decides to spend his life trying to reach "enlightenment" on earth. He spends half his life sampling method after method of spiritual enlightenment and finally gives up because none of the methods satisfy his thirst for salvation. Finally, he gives up and decides to work as a ferryman on a river, escorting travelers from one end to the other. He ends up doing this for more than 20 years, and suddenely realizes one day that the very act of giving up his spiritual quest and choosing his humble lifestyle observing the movement and essence of the river for so long, has caused him to ultimately teach himself more about life and reality than any religion or spiritual teaching ever could.

Wikipedia: The novel shows how the path to enlightenment cannot be conferred to another person because it is different for everyone and will likely never be achieved simply by listening to an enlightened one. This is because words and teachings may talk about the truth but are not the Truth itself; being concepts, they trap you, since enlightenment means release from concepts.

The Liberal Media

This is the Fox News internal memo the day the Dems won the house and the senate:

THURSDAY UPDATE:
A couple of thumpees -- to use a variation of Bush's term -- speak today. Webb has won Virginia. The balance of power in the Senate is now 51-49 Dem (Sanders and Lieberman will organize with the D's). He'll come out and concede. Let's take it.'

Rumsfeld had a previous speaking engagement in Kansas. He ought to be in a fine mood. Can one fake smile hide that much frustration? We'll take that too.

The elections and Rumsfeld's resignation were a major event, but not the end of the world. The war on terror goes on without interruption. Jennifer Griffin sent in info on Hama's call for attacks on American interests. And let's be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress.

The question of the day, and indeed for the rest of bush's term, is: What's the Dem plan for Iraq? This could be a very short live shot for Jim Angle, but he'll try.

In the House, the newly empowered Dems will shed some fraternal blood before settling in. Murtha will challenge Hoyer for the leadership. A former hawk v. a political hack. Garret will observe.

We'll continue to work with the Hamas threat to the US that came hours after the election results. Griffin and Tobin will include in their lives. Just because Dems won, the war on terror isn't over.
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I think the phrase "FAIR AND BALANCED" that Fox News flashes on and off the screen inbetween segments everyday should be grounds for a lawsuit. Nobody's fair and balanced, but Fox has the tenacity to shout it at you, as if hoping that you'll ignore the blatant propaganda. They have the balls to repeatedly say something that is demonstrably and blatantly false. It's false advertising, worse, it's borderline brainwashing... if not illegal, at least extremely unethical. Not to mention offensive.

Why is it that the right(er) wing media always seems to assume that they're broadcasting to a bunch of idiots? I refuse to believe that people are stupid enough to watch that sorry excuse for a television news channel and take it seriously. Oh well, it'll all come back to bite 'em in the ass some day.

Speaking of Fox and ethics, be sure not to miss the much anticipated, hypothetical --"If I Did It"-- show, starring everyone's favorite murderer, O.J. Simpson at the end of the month; on the same network that brought you Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. Need i say more?

Read about it at the Washington Post.

Colbert Celebrates 12 Years of Republican Rule

Watch this short video from my favorite neo-con, Stephen Colbert. It's a reminder of all that the GOP majority has given us over the last 12 years, montage style; through Crooks and Liars

Rumsfeld's Gone 3 Years Too Late

All I gotta say is: Nah nah nah nah... Nah nah nah nah... Hey hey hey, GOODBYE! (and good riddance)

Holier Than Thou; Not Holy Enough

The Party of Morals Learns a Moral by Robert J. Elisberg

Once upon a time, there was a President who went around his country telling cheering crowds a week before the election that his party would win. He ridiculed his opponents about prematurely measuring their new offices for curtains, and with laughing bravado reminded his audience how his opponents had expected to win the White House two years earlier, but look who's there now.
And he and his crowds laughed and laughed.

Moral: When you joke about your opponents measuring for curtains, you may discover that it turns out to be curtains for you.

Once upon a time, there was an evil magic vizier named Karl who advised his crowned head of state. Karl roved across the land, and when troubadours heralded the news that more people admired Karl's enemies than liked his royal sovereign, Karl disagreed and cast a magic spell, waving his hand, and saying "They have their numbers, and I have the numbers."

And upon his words, some people saw the sky become dark, and became frightened. However, the sky was dark only in their minds, for in truth Karl had no numbers at all. It was but bad voodoo magic. And bad voodoo magic is no magic at all. One day, two brave souls showed up at the castle to voice their preferences, and the sky was indeed bright and shining after all.

Moral: Bluffing with your hand can sometimes win the pot, but in the end even a pair of twos beats no King.

Moral: Just because you've gotten people to come to your party in the past doesn't mean they'll keep showing up if the food becomes tasteless, and you change the music to something they hate.

Once upon a time, the Republican Party liked to pretend it was the party of morals. It convinced many people of this because "the party of morals" sounds noble and holier than thou. When they talked about morals, however, they really only meant sex and ignored the morality of keeping people out of poverty, providing an education to children, making sure everyone's health care was ensured and tolerance for their fellow men and women.

And then it happened that they weren't really as moral on those few things they preached about either. Their moral leaders got caught heavily gambling, abusing children, covering up that abuse just to win votes, lying about felony drug use and prostitution and about what they hypocritically preached to others was deviant. They were indicted for bribery, indicted for putting defenders of America at risk, and convicted of illegal influence. And for all their morality, they allowed a city to be wiped off the map and did little to help the destitute.

In fact, it was revealed that all their claims of morality were just a cynical effort to win the blind support of those who they actually called "nuts" behind their backs. They ignored their faith-based promises. And in the end, they lost much support by these people who would have otherwise followed them into the fires of Hell.

Moral: If you want others to see you as holy, make sure that your morals aren't full of holes.

Get Your A*# Up and VOTE!

I won't bore you with too many cliches... Just one. Remember this today:

Millions and millions of people have fought and died in the past in order to PROVE that Democracy could work... In order to prove that a government based on the ideals of it's own populace was not only a good idea but the BEST idea in order to ensure the survival of a society.

If you decide to skip out on the elections today, you're turning your back on those souls who gave their lives so that you could live in a free country and carry on an easy life without fear of persecution. That's not just wrong, it's immoral. It only happens every two years, so get up off your fat butt and walk a couple blocks to your nearest polling station to participate in the democracy that helped to give you such a fortunate and easy life, here in the greatest nation in the world.

I won't tell you who to vote for (because I've been doing that since last March and I think you know where I stand by now)... but I will say this; You must be a narcissist if you vote for you-know-who after reading any of these posts that I picked out from the last 8 months and that I'm personally proud of.

The Republican Neurological Disorder Promotion Act-- how republicans passed environmental laws that allowed plants to pump even more mercury into the air than before! (in the face of better and more efficient technology that was proved to be able to cut emissions by up to 95% in some cases)

Safer My A#*-- How the "war on terrorism" (enduring occupation in iraq) is increasing the hostility towards us from people around the world and has led to exponential increases in the recruitment of terrorists.

The Douche Administration Part 1-- How George W. Bush's administration deliberately ignored intelligence from the CIA that showed Iraq DID NOT have "weapons of mass destruction" before we invaded it and that they DID NOT have a direct or even somewhat freindly line of communication with terrorists.

Why Does Habeas Corpus Hate America?-- How one of the oldest foundations for democracy and individual freedoms has been scrapped by Bush and the GOP just so they can continue scaring the crap out of you before the midterm elections.

Words of Wisdom: Barack Obama; Politics of Hope (Not Fear)-- the end of Barack's book before the latest. Very good read.

Somebody Get This Man A Straightjacket-- Focusing on how Bush has become a raving lunatic when it comes to his idea of homeland security. Also: the neo-con idea of "fiscal restraint".

Ocean Acidity-- How the acidity of our oceans is rising at an alarming rate, as they absorb the added CO2 in the air... and what will happen if we continue to do nothing about it.

Mother Nature vs. Unregulated Capitalism Part 1-- General rant on how important it is to regulate industry in light of our changing global climate. GOP won't do anything that hurts the wallets of the richest 1% of americans.

Dear Mr. President; In With God’s Word, Out With the Constitution-- How the GOP only focuses on how bad gay marriage is and completely ignores these gems in the old testament of the bible, like: staying away from a woman while she's on her period, working on the sabbath, eating shellfish (seriously), not being allowed to attend church if you have poor sight, EVER allowing anyone to cut your hair (expressly forbidden in Leviticus), and touching the skin of a dead pig (playing football).

4/21 Rant-- How oil companies are making record gross profits AND getting record high tax breaks from the government, and how the BA (bush administration) continually censored and edited climate reports from NASA that supported the existence of global warming.

Dirty Tricks and the 2000 Election-- How Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush actively disenfranchised black voters in the state of Florida and cost Al Gore the election in 2000.

Remembering and Reminding-- Remembering September 11th and reminding Christians of the basic tenets of their spirituality: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

CWG: An Uncommon Dialogue-- How spending more and more money on defense in times of peace only ensures the likelihood of more wars in the future and what that ridiculous amount of money could do for society as a whole if spent otherwise.

Bury Your Head In the Sand-- How the BA cut NASA's budget for monitoring climate change and put all that money into a program to get men on mars so that they can walk around on the red planet and do absolutely nothing to actually help any of us here, back on Earth.


That's obviously not all of them. But I've already taken up too much space. I want you to read the ones I've been working on for the last few days too. I have ADD, so I know how hard it is to sustain interest when there are too many words inbetween pictures.

One of the points of this blog was to somehow influence the next election... and here it is. I know it's like throwing a pebble into the Pacific, but if I can get ONE of you to vote who weren't originally planning on it, all this time and research has been worth it. I've doubled my voting power and that's all that matters. Thanks for reading.

Voting Fraud Has Never Been So Easy!

Check out this short video that shows how easy it is to hack into a Diebold voting machine using only a screwdriver: here

Treehouse of Horror XVII

On the 17th annual Treehouse of Horror Simpsons episode tonight, in one of the final stories, two re-occuring alien characters called Kudos and Kang brilliantly parodied the politics behind the war in Iraq. Three years after having invaded earth, Kang and Kudos discuss the fiasco that they've gotten themselves into.
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Kudos: You're report Kang?

Kang: Uh, well the earthlings continue to resent our presence..(bomb goes off in distance)... You said we'd be greeted as liberators!

Kudos: Don't worry, we still have the people's hearts and minds. (holds up a heart and mind)

Kang: I don't know... I'm starting to think that Operation Enduring Occupation was a BAD IDEA!

Kudos: We had to invade! They were working on Weapons of Mass Disintegration!

Kang: Sure they were!....
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Watch it here

Dirty Tricks and the 2000 Election

Just a reminder of the horrible, despicable things that some Republicans are capable of and are more than willing to do to gain and hold on to their power.
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93% of black voters voted for Al Gore in Florida in 2000. Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris, beginning in 1998, went on a mission to disenfranchise black voters in their own state. They decided to focus on and all-of-a-sudden enforce a law that specifically denies ex-felons the right to vote. The law was written into the state constitution by ex-confederate soldiers in 1868, who did it because they were being forced by the federal government to allow blacks to vote. They did this to disenfranchise as many African-Americans as possible and to deny as many of them the most basic right of a citizen within the United States.

Katherine Harris (who was in charge of the entire program and who was also the co-chair of George W. for President in the State of Florida) hired a private company to sift through national public records in order to match them to convicted felons on a national level. The program looked for three things:

1. First Name
2. Last Name (not middle initial)
3. Year of Birth (not date)

The voter purge program effectively removed thousands of potential democratic votes from voting lists. Innocent voters from all around the state were denied their right to vote.

Voters were assumed guilty, and were told to send in documentation of their OWN to prove to the state that they were innocent. County to county, AT LEAST 15% of all “assumed guilty” felons were INNOCENT OF ANY CRIME. That’s literally thousands of voters, half of them whom are black and 93% of which vote Democratic... you do the math.

4,000 conviction dates on voter purge lists were deliberately blanked out to make it extremely difficult to double-check their authenticity.

In Leon County, the election supervisor double-checked a list of 692 convicted felons that were supposedly in his area. ONLY 33 OF THEM turned out to be matches to actual felons.

After the first recount, Bush’s 1700 vote lead turned into a 350 vote lead. Democrats were robbed that day, and Republican leaders lost their souls.

The state spent 4 MILLION dollars to deny convicted felons the right to vote with a system that was intentionally flawed so that anyone, and specifically black voters, could match a convicted felons name.

On Nov. 10 the state announced that in duval county, 27,000 votes would be thrown out because voting machines were “unable” to register who voters chose on their ballots. In most precincts of duval county, 98% of voters typically voted Democratic. Florida law states that if machines are unable to count votes, ballots have to be counted manually. Republicans in the state publicly decried the idea of manually recounting ballots… surprise? (this in light of a surprisingly liberal voting bill that George W. Bush signed into law as governor of texas years earlier that also required manual counting of ballots)

Republicans strategically fought tooth and nail to keep the state from having a FULL statewide recount and were successful. The rest is history.

Watch Robert Greenwalds documentary called Unprecedented - The 2000 Election for free on google view.

Early November Surprise

I was up until around 4 or 5 last night getting ready for bed. Turned on the TV, and what'd I see? Saddam Sentenced To Death on faux news. Today, Tony Snow denied that the timing of Saddam Husseins' sentencing to death by hanging (last night at 3 in the morning) -- two days before the election on a Sunday in which every american who watches tv (99.99% of them) will all know of the justice that has been served, the memory of that justice still fresh as febreze in their heads while they cast their vote -- was orchestrated by the administration.

Wow, doesn't that offend you? They must really think you and me are just a bunch of brainless - idiotic - deficient - half-baked - nonsensical - obtuse - thick-headed - dense - dopy - gullible - losers. (thesaurus: stupid) Apparently they think we're ALL as stupid as they think their conservative christian base is. Hey, I didn't say it... THEY DID.

Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging for crimes against humanity for the killings of innocent Shia villagers in 1982. So why is Donald Rumsfeld shaking his hand in 1983?

From the National Security Archive:
Washington, D.C., 25 February 2003 - The National Security Archive at George Washington University today published on the Web a series of declassified U.S. documents detailing the U.S. embrace of Saddam Hussein in the early 1980's, including the renewal of diplomatic relations that had been suspended since 1967. The documents show that during this period of renewed U.S. support for Saddam, he had invaded his neighbor (Iran), had long-range nuclear aspirations that would "probably" include "an eventual nuclear weapon capability," harbored known terrorists in Baghdad, abused the human rights of his citizens, and possessed and used chemical weapons on Iranians and his own people. The U.S. response was to renew ties, to provide intelligence and aid to ensure Iraq would not be defeated by Iran, and to send a high-level presidential envoy named Donald Rumsfeld to shake hands with Saddam (20 December
1983).

I hate flip-floppers.

Paging Dr. Freud!

As Nathaniel Frank recently pointed out, many social conservative Republicans need to put down their magnifying glasses, used to judge and keep a very close eye on the morality of other americans, and take a good hard look in the mirror.

There's been yet another breaking story of a Christian Conservative participating in the very things that he so loudly and aggressively preaches against. Namely, homosexual relations and drug use. I actually listened to a voicemail of Haggard asking his very freindly acquaintance for around 100 to 200 dollars worth of meth-amphetamine for the month and offering to pay more so that the man could keep a steady supply of it for him. I'll find the link again soon. I wonder where that money Haggard was using for drugs and prostitution came from. I'm assuming it came from good, honest evangelical christians.

Frank:

In the latest sign of rank hypocrisy among social conservatives, the president of the 30-million member National Association of Evangelicals has resigned amidst accusations that he had a relationship with a male prostitute. Ted Haggard, who is married with five children, is a frequent adviser to the White House, and a staunch advocate of banning marriage rights for gays and lesbians.

The news, of course, comes just a month after Florida GOP Congressman, Mark Foley, who had pushed legislation to protect youth from "exploitation by adults using the internet," was revealed to be an internet sexual predator. And it adds to the sense among weary voters that their leaders, especially if they happen to be Republicans, cannot be trusted to do the right thing. Indeed, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee acknowledged he had been aware of Foley's inappropriate emails for months, but took no steps to protect the children who were in harm's way. Instead, he spearheaded a series of TV ads attacking a Democratic challenger for, yes, being soft on child molesters.

What are we to make of a reigning conservative regime that lists the following inglorious claims to fame: Strom Thurmond, a notoriously racist senator who turned out to have a black lover; a Republican indictment of President Clinton's sexual license headed up by a team of philanderers; a Congress full of divorces passing an anti-gay law known as the "Defense of Marriage Act"? In the pundit corner, we recently saw three giants of conservative moralizing unmasked as incapable of restraining their own vices: William Bennett turned out to be addicted to gambling, Rush Limbaugh to drugs. Meanwhile, Ralph Reed, the hand-picked youthful leader of the religious right, was quietly helping the corrupt lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, enable everything that religious conservatives oppose: casinos on Indian reservations and compelled abortions and sex slavery in the Northern Mariana Islands, an American territory. And this is not even to mention the Catholic Church's strident indictment of sexual freedom as it shuffled its own cadre of child-molesting priests from parish to parish.

The cover-ups and power grabs, of course, are simply raw politics. But the pattern here may reveal something more striking than the obvious reality that those in power will sacrifice almost anything to stay there. The Republican Party appears to be chock full of people who make a life of preaching against the very vices they can't shake. Why?

For answers to the puzzles that seem to infest the conservative worldview, we might dust off our old Freud texts. From the father of psychoanalysis, we learn the concept of "reaction formation" which describes how we react to our own unacceptable impulses. Reaction formation is a classic "defense mechanism"-an unconscious behavior designed to ward off uncomfortable feelings. Sometimes we react to our discomfort with ourselves in harmless ways, such as when a man cheats on his wife and brings her flowers to ease his guilt. Other times, the reactions can be punitive-we judge and condemn others who exhibit the very impulses that we, ourselves, cannot control. This is frequently the case when dealing with lust or greed. "Sooner or later," writes Michael Warner, a Professor of English at Rutgers and a leading theorist of sexuality and politics, "we all lose control over our sex life. As a result, we try to control someone else's sex life."
Reaction formation is one of the few explanations that help us make sense of all the hypocritical moralizing: the preachers are preaching to themselves!

What is the solution to this misplaced effort to restrict others' behavior? For Freud, it was therapy. But more broadly, it's a dose of introspection, an ability to look inward, and to shift focus from others' behavior to our own. If hypocrisy in American political life is, in part, a symptom of inadequate introspection, if our fear that we can't control ourselves leads to an unconscious effort to control others, we'll continue to reach for a magnifying glass when what we really need is a mirror.

Republicans have no monopoly on hypocrisy. Most of us are guilty, at one time or another, of vocally denouncing something we ourselves have done, of shifting focus away from our own foibles by hoisting them onto others. But a Party with a peculiar penchant for condemning in others what they can't overcome in themselves is a Party resting on shaky ground, especially if it professes self-control as a cornerstone of its governing philosophy. Social conservatives must be called on their hypocrisy, not simply as a matter of justice, but so that Americans can fully understand the roots and impact of the politics of moral judgment. Virtue, it's true, is necessary to a healthy democracy; but it begins inside.

Golden Radio

Always funny, Stephanie Miller, was recently sent a particularly disturbing letter (death threat) from a Sean & Hannity, Rush Limbaugh fan.

A copy of it showed up on BradBlog the other day, but I'm not going to show it here because this is supposed to be family freindly. If I was more candid in my language I'd probably get more of my freinds to read this stuff.

In the letter, the 60+ year old man claims that he wishes Stephanie be blown off the face of the earth with an AK-47 for being a "mother f-ing" "America hater" while at the same time claiming that he is a pacifist and that the letter is not a threat. He then procedes to explain how he was going to find her address and phone number on the internet and mail it to people who are trained to kill and whom also have pure hatred for all people who oppose the war in Iraq and the idiotic Bush administration (or so he implies--- read it here)

That's not what's actually interesting here. What is interesting is that the man left his address and phone number in the letter. So, Stephanie, as any normal person would do, called the guy to confront him live on the radio.

Outspoken political media figures get death threats everyday, but this one made for some very entertaining listening. Listen to it HERE.

Bush the Environmentalist?!?

Via Think Progress:

Today Tony Snow said this at his press conference: “contrary to stereotype,” President Bush has been “actively engaged in trying to fight climate change.” He also took issue with a reporter’s comment that the United States has been absent from a global emissions and cap trade program, arguing that the Bush administration has “actually taken the lead on those kinds of innovations.”

How can you take the lead on innovations to curb the threat of something that you won't even admit exists? Yet another example of Bush's double-think; exp. being stay the course for 3 and a half years and then all of a sudden one day never having been stay the course. George Orwell: 1984, great book. It's amazing how relevant that book is today.

Anyways, here's a short summary of the Bush Administrations environmental policies over the last 6 years (and some as governor) that i found in the comment thread.
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Bush’s war on the environment:

Pulled out of the Kyoto agreement on global warming, which was agreed upon by 178 other countries.

Proposes to legalize the release of inadequately treated sewage into waterways while cutting funding for water quality investments(32%) and infrastructure (40%).

Doctored the EPA’s Draft Report on the Environment so it wouldn’t include any mention of the overwhelming scientific consensus regarding the global warming threat.
Proposes to remove regulations on mercury pollution.

Proposed weakening the New Source Review regulation of the Clear Air Act. The changes allow older coal-fired power plants and other facilities to avoid installing pollution controls when they expand or repair existing facilities. According to environmental advocates, just 51 of the power plants subject to new source review enforcement helped cause the premature deaths of 5,500 to 9,000 people each year many from respiratory diseases, and could cause 30,000- pollution related deaths over the next 20 years.

Clear Skies allows more than twice as much S02 for nearly a decade longer (2010 - 2018), than the Clean Air Act currently allows. The plan also allows more than one and a half times as much NOx for nearly a decade longer (2010-2018). This act also allows power plants to emit triple the amount of mercury into the environment.

• More on that: The Republican Neurological Disorder Promotion Act
  

Bush took steps to abolish the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Opened 191 million acres of public lands to increased commercial logging (The Health Forest Initiative). After this, he proposed to reverse a federal regulation to protect 60 million acres of national forest from logging and road building.

Cut $500 million from the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget.

Bush proposed a bill to prevent groups from suing to have an animal placed on the Endangered Species List.

Came out against international efforts to restrict the use of sonar anywhere in the world, especially by the U.S. Navy, even though the sonar poses a threat to ocean wildlife. This decision puts the administration at odds with many European nations as more evidence emerges linking the use of active sonar and the beaching of whales and other ocean mammals.

Revoked rule to reduce the acceptable level of arsenic in drinking water. Proposed to cut $35 million from the national lead poisoning prevention program and refused to regulate mercury (while secretly altering scientific findings as to its danger) through the same tough approach used for other hazardous air pollutants (Bush adopted industry supported rules).

Requested Congress to exempt the Pentagon from environmental laws pertaining to air pollution, toxic waste dumps, and endangered species.

Bush refused to federally fund the continued clean up of a uranium-slag heap in Utah.

Proposes building 63 new nuclear power plants ($4.7 million increase in nuclear power funding), increasing funding in the Coal Research Initiative by $69 million and the Clean Coal Power Initiative by $109 million (60 percent), and seeks to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The AP reports that Bush’s top energy priority as he enters his second term is to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling.

On October 7, 2002, Bush stated “We need an energy bill that encourages consumption.”
Proposes energy industry tax breaks and subsidies costing $23 billion over the next 10 years. Cut funding for renewable energy resources in 2002 by $190 million, by $35.8 million in 2003, by $137 million in 2004, and the 2005 budget will cut overall energy efficiency and conservation by more than $2 million. Proposes cutting solar energy programs by more than $3 million and biomass by $14 million.

Bush pushed the deadline up indefinitely for automakers to develop prototype high mileage cars.
Had his administration manipulate the 2005 cattle grazing report in order to loosen regulations for cattle grazing on over 160 million acres of public lands.

Alcoa, the third largest contributor to the Bush campaign, was allowed by Bush (as governor) to work a loophole into the Texas environmental regulations which allowed Alcoa to emit 60,000 tons of sulfer dioxide each year.

Failed to protect three million acres of the Tongass National Forest from logging. The Tongass has the highest concentration of bald eagles on earth and has already lost 700 square miles to logging with 33 more longing permits pending.

Bush eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.

Eliminated the Wetland Reserve Program. It was designed to encourage and reward farmers for maintaining a wetlands habitat on their property.

Abolished rules mandating energy-saving regulations for central air conditioners and heat pumps.

Bush plans to have nuclear waste stored at the volcanic Yucca Mountain facility.
Proposes cutting core energy efficiency line items for building by $1.5 million and industrial technologies by $35 million (38 percent).

Bush nominated Linda Fisher - an executive for Monsanto - to the Environmental Protection Agency. Monsanto is one of the largest farming and pesticide biotechnology companies in the world.

Bush cut 28% of government funding for researching cleaner, more efficient automobiles.
Cut government funding to research renewable energy sources by 50%.
Appointed Spencer Abraham to be Secretary of Energy. Here is some information on Spencer Abraham:

- As a former senator from Michigan, Abraham voted to abolish the department that he now leads.
- He opposed research into renewable energy..- Wanted to repeal the federal gas tax.
- Abraham had such a strong anti-environmental record hat the League of Conservation Voters gave him a zero rating.
- Strong supporter of drilling in Alaska
- Received $700,000 from automotive company DaimerChrysler, which is part of the Coalition for Vehicle Choice, a trade group trying to stop an increase in fuel economy standards.
Appointed Gale Norton to be Secretary of the Interior. Here is some information on Gale Norton:- She started her legal career with the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative environmental think tank funded by oil companies.
- She has declared the Endangered species act to be Unconstitutional.
- She’s written numerous legal opinions against the National Environmental Protection Act.
- Lobbied for NL Industries (formerly known as National Lead) while it defended itself in lawsuits over children’s exposure to lead paint.
- She helped the state of Alaska challenge an Interior department fisheries law.
- She was national chairwoman of the Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates, a group funded by Ford Motor Company and BP Amoco.
Bush appointed White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, the former CEO of the now defunct American Automobile Manufacturers Association which lobbied against stricter fuel emissions standards.

Bush passed the “Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act” (TERSA) which triggered a firestorm of opposition across the entire spectrum of environmental organizations. Drawing particular alarm is a provision that would end the protection of critical habitat necessary for the survival and recovery of plants and animals. Under the current law, areas designated “essential to the conservation of species” qualify as “critical habitat” and are subject to federal protection. TERSA replaces “critical habitat” with a recovery plan that merely identifies areas that are valuable to the species, but does not mandate any specific federal protection, unlike the Endangered Species ACT (ESA). Moreover, while the current ESA requires that all decisions be based on the “best scientific and commercial information” available, TERSA removes that authority from scientific experts and transfers it to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, whose record consistently favors commercial interests over environmental protection.Bush appointed Susan Dudley as the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs which holds sway over federal regulatory agencies like the EPA and helps set regulatory policy for a wide range of issues, from workplace safety to water quality. Here is some background information on Susan Dudley:– Opposed EPA plans to set tougher public health standards for smog.– Opposed lower-polluting cars and SUVs and cleaner gasoline.– Opposed air bags in cars– Opposed stronger regulations for arsenic in drinking water,Proposes to rewrite Clean Water Act regulations, thereby removing 20 million acres of wetlands, streams and other isolated waters from protection under the law.Announced plans to open up Montana’s Lewis and Clark National Forest to oil drilling.

Rescinded a law that safeguarded public access to information about the potential consequences of chemical plant accidents.

Proposed to eliminate marine protections for the Channel Islands and the coral reefs of northwest Hawaii.

Proposed to redraw the boundaries of national monuments to allow for oil and gas drilling “outside” of them.

Nominated an advocate for repealing the Endangered Species Act, Bennett Raley, as the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science.

Gas industry has stockpiled leases and drilling permits on 34 million acres of public lands in the Rockies, but is only producing oil or gas on 32 percent of that land.

Seeks to exempt industrial laundries from EPA requirements.

Environmentalists have called Bush and co. the most anti-environmental administration ever.
Bush’s 2005 energy Bill:- Extends the “dual-fuel vehicle” loophole giving automakers credit for producing vehicles capable of running on alternative fuel but that almost never do. This provision will increase our gasoline consumption by 10 billion gallons through 2015.
- Does not outline any new strategies for improving mass transit
- Excludes a Renewable Electricity Standard that would have required major electric utilities to gradually increase their use of clean renewable energy such as wind, solar, and bioenergy. Although the renewables standard passed the Senate with bi-partisan support, House leadership stripped it from the final bill.
- Removes an existing requirement that recipients of highly enriched uranium—purchased for producing medical isotopes—commit to converting to the use of low enriched uranium when feasible. This misguided provision would lead to unnecessary shipments of nuclear weapons-usable materials abroad
- Heavily weighted toward the traditional oil, gas, coal and nuclear power industries. The tax title was particularly lopsided in its approach. Of the $14.5 billion tax package, renewable energy and energy efficiency received only $4.5 billion while fossil fuels received $5.6 billion and nuclear power received $1.3 billion.
- Includes a waiver that would protect the chemical makers, which are some of the biggest oil giants in the United States, from all MTBE liability lawsuits filed since September 2003. MTBE is a Dangerous Chemical used in gasoline that has been known to occasionally seep into civilian water supplies. Its powerful turpentine-like taste and odor make water undrinkable. Contamination usually results from leaks in at gasoline stations.

Comment by neopro — October 31, 2006
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This guy did his research... very impressive. From what I know and from the facts above that I've had the time to investigate, everything seems to check out.

Has your elected republican majority stood up to this blatant attack on environmental conservationism? No, they were too busy raising funds for their re-election campaigns to actually be concerned about the direction of our country.