According to the GOP, the only people who are responsible enough to run the federal government is the GOP.  Any insinuation that the GOP isn’t doing a stellar job or that GOP scientists or bureaucrats can’t “improve efficency” by getting rid of non-GOP scientists and bureaucrats is unpatriotic and anti-American.  It’s that simple.

“Just trust us, we’ve got this really nice bridge we want to sell you” is the first, last, and only policy position of the Republican Party.

I have a friend who thinks that there is no real difference between Republicans and Democrats (based on the “they are all in the pockets of big business” theory), and this topic seems to be one of the real, key differences. I just need to come up with a good way to explain it and provide decent evidence…

I’ve been saying for years that the quality of government science would be improved by the creation of an entity solely empowered to make findings of fact, along the lines of the GAO’s authority over budgeting.  The potential for abuse is obvious (and indeed, under the Bushniks the GAO isn’t what it used to be), but I think it would be better than the current practice of letting just anybody (judges, Presidents, random bureaucrats) make “findings”.

As for the GOP, I think it’s time to answer the rote “Tax and Spend” mantra with something equally pithy and even more accurate.  I’m thinking, “Lie, Cheat and Steal”.

I’m pretty sure this is an effort to short-circuit the last line of defense against new drilling. Many of the “new” sites are protected by endangered species concerns that would still be in the way after they wipe the NIMBY stuff away.

Whaaat; Mesus’ first 100 day to-do list isn’t long enough ALREADY and they gotta add more?

Why don’t they just go around stuffing stale popcorn and old pizza crusts into all of the chairs in the White House, too? Maybe spill milk in the corners of the carpets to smell up the joint even more; pop a few million roaches and rodents in the closets and ducts…

Quick- someone create an emergency down in Crawford so Dubya’s gotta spend the rest of his 160 days on the ranch! Release gophers or something…

A lot of the problem is that these people honest-to-God don’t understand what a fact is. They think everything’s spinnable; by extension, any piece of information that doesn’t support their position is the expression of some enemy’s malice.

Naturally, that the whole point (arguably) of science is its unspinnability is just beyond them.

Back in the days when the GAO was Absolutely Incorruptible (long time ago, I know), they often made findings of fact.  Not science as such, but you have to remember that accounting is not solely about money.

C’mon, it’s not like you’ve ever seen a Florida panther. What do you care if it goes extinct because they just had to put in a strip mine? You can rest easy knowing that the panther died proudly, knowing it wasn’t being used to backdoor regulations.

http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/

OK, I think this is the official moment where the Bush Administration has officially stuck its shit-caked little fingers in Every Single Important Part Of Our Entire Government.  Occasionally I will say in conversation with someone who isn’t as moonbatty as I am that the Bushies have literally fucked up EVERYTHING, left no stone unturned in their quest to fuck up the country as bad as they can before their time is up.  Said non-moonbat will scoff at this, even after I bring up No Child Left Behind and Bush’s veto of SCHIP.  I think this is the final stone, though.

So, they’re trying to weasel out of living up to NEPA. Drat that gol’ durn Nixon and his not completely sucking on policy issues (hey, sometimes being totally unprincipled works out okay).

National Environmental Policy Act. Requires three statements of decision: 1) do nothing 2) pave everything 3) something in between.

to reach 3, as is usually the case, requires an EIS, or environmental impact statement for a given range of plans. After this is completed, the agency will issue a ROD, or ruling of decision, at which point they’ve legally “done something” and various groups are eligible to sue. While this change in agency policy makes it more likely that the local Monica Goodling will shamble out into the parking lot of her office, scratch her ass, and send in a peice of paper reading “Durrrr… i din’nt see no turtles/plants/polar bears”, I am absolutely positive that the early NEPA case laws are chock- full of agencies getting the living fuck sued out of them over trying to half-ass an environmental impact statement.

So: the upshot is, people are going to waste a lot of time and money in court wrangling over issues that have been cut and dry for 20 years. Thanks, bushie.