• Bush Makes Surprise Visit To Work

    Bush Makes Surprise Visit To Work – The Onion:

    According to sources close to the president, Bush barely had time to rest during the four-hour visit. He first met face-to-face with several high-ranking U.S. officials, who briefed him on the situation in Washington. Bush then signed a number of documents, took a guided tour of the facilities, and in a symbolic show of support for the current administration, shook hands with the vice president.

  • Bush’s EPA Is Pursuing Fewer Polluters

    Bush’s EPA Is Pursuing Fewer Polluters – washingtonpost.com:

    The Environmental Protection Agency’s pursuit of criminal cases against polluters has dropped off sharply during the Bush administration, with the number of prosecutions, new investigations and total convictions all down by more than a third, according to Justice Department and EPA data.

    The number of civil lawsuits filed against defendants who refuse to settle environmental cases was down nearly 70 percent between fiscal years 2002 and 2006, compared with a four-year period in the late 1990s, according to those same statistics.

    None of this is a surprise to me, it’s pure Bush as far as I’m concerned. I’m just glad it’s being reported on the heels of Condi Rice’s dubious claim last week at a a global climate change conference.

    “I want to stress that the United States takes climate change very seriously, for we are both a major economy and a major emitter.’’

    Yeah, we take it so seriously that we let polluters regulate themselves. That is, after all, the real reason new investigations and prosecutions are down at the EPA. We’re following the bold leadership of the Bush administration on environmental issues.

    I read an article someplace this week where the author compared setting voluntary guidelines for emissions to making speed limits on the highways voluntary. I think that’s an apt comparison. Picture the highways if we had “speed guidelines” instead of “speed limits.” How fast would you go? Would you stick to the guidelines? Think about the other limits in your life, like your budget. Do you save as much money as you should, or like most of the rest of us, do you tend to spend about 105% of what you make? The truth is, as a society, we’re pretty lousy at self-control; even when we recognize that limiting our behavior is in our best interest.

  • Before the game

    Putting aside this evening, which was a total loss, today was a pretty good day. The latest round of steroids and antibiotics gave me a bit of a reprieve from sinus pain. Dad came over for a nice dinner. Afterwards we sat around the table sipping a dessert wine, just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company.

    The evening was even better, considering the set back we had on Thursday. My mother was sent off to the state mental hospital in north Florida. Some of you may not realize how big Florida is. Despite living almost right smack in the center of the Florida peninsula (on the west coast), the hospital is still over 300 miles away, between six to eight hours by car.

    I don’t see how this is a good thing for my mother. She’s never been much for traveling, she’s terrified to be away from my father, and now she’s essentially in Alabama… which might as well be on the moon, as far as my mother is concerned. My dad’s been visiting her every day, and twice a day on the weekends; and now he won’t get a chance to see her for another two weeks.

    There used to be a state hospital just on the other side of Tampa Bay, but it fell victim to neglect due to budget cuts… and further cuts closed it. Now there are a few hospitals left, but nothing that serves densely populated “I-4 corridor,” which includes Tampa, Orlando, and Pinellas County (the most densely populated county in Florida).

    Yesterday someone was telling me how they hated big government, and it’s propensity to “throw around money.” I thought about my mother being shipped off across the state due to budget cuts, and I just about had a meltdown.

    You know, I started writing up this entry thinking it was going to be a positive, cheery kind of entry. Boy did I make a wrong turn.