Sunday, November 23, 2008

Yet again, a new Chumming Ban


Bush may be a lame turducken (incompetence stuffed with stupidity stuffed with arrogance) when it comes to saving the Economy, but you can sure count on him when it comes to undermining Conservation and Human Rights!

In a frantic surge of "midnight regulations", the Bush Administration is scrambling to approve or change as many federal rules as it can before it hands off power to President-elect Barack Obama.

Before a Federal agency approves any construction project– anything from building a dam to a post office — government officials must consult the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. These two agencies enforce the Endangered Species Act, and they can veto any project that adversely affects an animal on the endangered species list.
A regulation proposed by the Interior Dept. Aug. 12 would end this approval process.

Other regulations will effect worker’s safety (less of it - and to top it off, less sick leave) , women’s health-care choices (yes you guessed it: against contraception and abortion) and local police powers (more spying on citizens, what else...).
Check it out, it is simply epic!

Given this kind of Leadership, the following comes as no surprise.

"After seven years of soul-searching (how come I'm not surprised......), Federal officials have issued a major expansion of Federal rules governing three marine sanctuaries."

"The revised rules ban chumming for Great White Sharks around San Francisco's Farallon Islands for thrill-seeking divers in cages and photo-snapping tourists -- rules that have long been enforced closer to shore in waters colloquially known as the Bloody Triangle for their history of Shark attacks.
As for luring Sharks closer to thrill-seekers with fish and blood, known as chum, William J. Douros, western regional director of the National Marine Sanctuaries said: "We just think it was a bad idea for white sharks to associate humans with blood in the water."

"We just Think", of all things........Yeah, right.........

No, I'm not gonna bore you with yet another, obviously futile rant.
I've blogged about it before and stand by what I said then. As long as we remain fractured, we shall never prevail against the anti-Shark-diving lobby, especially when the tree-huggers wield executive powers like in the present case.

Richard Theiss of RTSea has posted a comment about the whole fiasco and I should commend him for his conciliatory and diplomatic approach. Alas, not my style.
To me, it's just yet another setback, yet again fueled by total incompetence.

But one thing's for sure: POTUS will be proud of them!

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