Forest rules were illegally changed, judge says

Nation & World | Forest rules were illegally changed, judge says | Seattle Times Newspaper

WASHINGTON — A federal district judge ruled Friday that the Bush administration illegally rewrote rules for managing 192 million acres of federally owned forests and grasslands in 2005 and must consider the environmental impact of its plan before offering another policy blueprint.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in San Francisco suspends the forest rules the administration adopted Jan. 5, 2005. Hamilton said the government did not adequately assess the policy's impact on wildlife and the environment and did not give sufficient public notice.

The judge ordered the Forest Service to suspend its 2005 rule and subject it to a new round of analysis, taking into account environmental protections and public-participation requirements in the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.

Here's another for the list....

The Want of Peach, by Wendell Berry

All goes back to the earth,
and so I do not desire
pride of excess or power,
but the contentments made
by men who have had little:
the fisherman’s silence
receiving the river’s grace,
the gardener’s musing on rows.

I lack the peace of simple things.
I am never wholly in place.
I find no peace or grace.
We sell the world to buy fire,
our way lighted by burning men,
and that has bent my mind
and made me think of darkness
and wish for the dumb life of roots.

Thanks Oly DL member Liz for sharing this...

Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist: When Liberals Rule The World

When Liberals Rule The World / Stats say the GOP is dying. But red-staters are breeding like drunken ferrets. Who wins?

Here's the good news: The Republican party is dying. Slow, painful, twitching, secreting war and intolerance and desperation like a fetid gas, snarling and gagging like Jabba the Hutt being choked by the hard chain of progress and hope and relaxed social mores and an upcoming Generation Next that seems to sense that screaming about gays and women's rights and Muslims and drugs actually doesn't do much to move the human experiment forward in the slightest. Is this not delicious? Is this not cause for rejoicing? According to Pew Research, the percentage of young 'uns age 18 to 25 (a.k.a. Generation Next) who identify with Republicans has been in steady decline since the early '90s, and now hovers around a meager 35 percent, down from a high of 55 percent in the Reagan-toxic early-90s, and is still dropping, whereas fully 48 percent of 18-to-25-year-olds now lean Democratic ... and rising. Seems Generation Next tend to be more socially liberal and much less worried about the trembling "sanctity" of the failed nuclear family, and are overall less inclined to align with a particular religion. Indeed, it almost makes you want to weep and sigh and go buy a large grass-fed free-range organic hybrid vibrator. Ah, but there is a flip side. A counterargument. A dark cloud of righteous bleakness and it looms like a giant synthetic cheesecake-scented Glade PlugIn of potential misery. It is this: According to another set of data, for the past 30 years or so, conservatives -- particularly those of the right-wing red-state Christian strain -- have been out-breeding liberals by a margin of at least 20 percent, if not far more.

Thanks DL Member Warren for passing this along.

Bush not racing to defend Gonzales

Bush not racing to defend Gonzales - Politics - MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON - President Bush isn't rushing to the rescue of his old Texas friend, Alberto Gonzales, after the attorney general's one-time lieutenant undercut his old boss' account of the firings of eight federal prosecutors. Rather than merely signing off on the firings, as Gonzales has repeatedly stated, his former chief of staff says the attorney general was in the middle of things from the beginning.

Didn't we already know this?

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New Bush Plan to Gut Endangered Species Act

New Bush Plan to Gut Endangered Species Act

The U.S. Interior Department is preparing a wide-ranging set of regulations which substantially weaken the federal Endangered Species Act, according to internal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Center for Biological Diversity.

They will never stop....

Neverland Once Again--And guess what, it's another republican who happens to be running for President!

Crooks and Liars » John Roberts Debunks McCain’s Rosy Baghdad Scenario

On The Situation Room yesterday, John McCain told Wolf that the surge is so encouraging that General Patraeus now travels around in unarmored Humvees and American soldiers can walk around the streets of Bahdad safely. When confronted today by John Roberts, McCain backpeddled faster than he did on gay marriage in Iowa.

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Bush's Never Never Land

Bush: On Iraq, Public Opinion Is On My Side | TPMCafe

For a guy with an approval rating in the low thirties, President Bush sounded awfully sure of himself today. In his remarks this morning, President Bush actually seemed to suggest that when it comes to the current standoff between the White House and Congress over Dem efforts to mandate a pullout from Iraq in the war spending bill, public opinion is on his side -- in defiance of all polls showing the contrary.

Can you believe this guy? He definitely is in never never land!

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Prosecutors Say They Felt Pressured, Threatened - washingtonpost.com

Prosecutors Say They Felt Pressured, Threatened - washingtonpost.com:

"Another former prosecutor, John McKay of Seattle, alleged for the first time that he received a call from the chief of staff to Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), asking about an inquiry into vote-fraud charges in the state's hotly contested 2004 gubernatorial election. McKay said he cut the call short.

Ed Cassidy, a former Hastings aide who now works for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), said yesterday that the call was routine and did not violate 'permissible limits' on contact with federal prosecutors. Hastings, the ranking Republican on the House ethics committee, also said that the exchange was 'entirely appropriate.'

In remarks after the hearings, McKay said that officials in the White House counsel's office, including then-counsel Harriet E. Miers, asked him to explain why he had 'mishandled' the governor's race during an interview for a federal judgeship in September 2006. McKay was informed after his dismissal that he also was not a finalist for the federal bench."

Yet another Bush Fiasco. Republicans, all kinds from all levels, are taking hits on this one.

Exclusive: Inside the Libby Jury Room | The Huffington Post

Exclusive: Inside the Libby Jury Room | The Huffington Post: "WHAT THE JURY THOUGHT, DAY BY DAY, WITNESS BY WITNESS, AT THE SCOOTER LIBBY TRIAL"

Yesterday, Scooter Libbey was found guilty on four out of five counts. He faces up to 30 Years in prison. The Huffington Post has posted a blog written by one of the Jurors that describes the deliberations. An interesting read.