Front page Los Angeles Times: 'WASHINGTON - Political appointees in the Environmental Protection Agency bypassed agency professional staff and a federal advisory panel last year to craft a rule on mercury emissions preferred by the industry and the White House, several longtime EPA officials say.


The EPA staffers say they were told not to undertake the normal scientific and economic studies called for under a standing executive order. At the same time, the proposal to regulate mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants was written using key language provided by utility lobbyists.


The Bush administration has said that the proposed rule would cut mercury emissions by 70% in the next 15 years, and is tied to the president's "Clear Skies" initiative. Critics say it would delay reductions in mercury levels for decades at a risk to public health, while saving the power and coal industries billions of dollars.


Studies designed to address such questions are the ones that were not conducted.


EPA veterans say they cannot recall another instance when the agency's technical experts were cut out of developing a major regulatory proposal.


The administration chose a process "that would support the conclusion they wanted to reach," said John A. Paul, a Republican environmental regulator from Ohio who co-chaired the EPA-appointed advisory panel.


He said its 21 months of work on mercury was ignored.


"There is a politicization of the work of the agency that I have not seen before," said Bruce C. Buckheit, who served in major federal environmental posts for two decades. He retired in December as director of the EPA's Air Enforcement Division, partly because he felt enforcement was stymied. "A political agenda is driving the agency's output, rather than analysis and science," he said.


Russell E. Train, a Republican who headed the EPA during the Nixon and Ford administrations, said: "I think it is outrageous. The agency has strayed from its mission in the past three years."'

How much crap will America take by this Administration? This is a Bush completely out of touch with Americans and reality. This is a Bush playing with his buddies and no one else is invited, much less profiting. This is not Patriotism. This is not America. This is a flat-out takeover of the Government by our own version of terrorists. We are not only living in fear of foreign extremists but we have to worry about our own Government abusing its power - or bypassing its responsibilities - against us.

The Puckered Right appears to have 3 ways of doing thinigs:


1. Do whatever the hell you want, justified however sounds nice. Consequences are the other person's problem. That's what Bush does here.


2. Suggest something extreme like a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage. If it's gets knocked down suggest something slightly less reprehensible but more likely to pass, like all the States passing Amendments. Parents see this a lot with kids. Your kid knows you won't give them $20 so they ask for $100. Then they ask for $20 which doesn't sound so bad after all. The idea is that the extreme request prepares the sucker for acceptance of the not-so-extreme request, although the latter request may generally be viewed as extreme as well.


3. Suggest a small harmless change - like raising fines for aired obscenities. Seems like a good idea and only violates the 1st Amendment a teensy bit. Next, expand that change a bit more, then a bit more, until you have a full-fledged censorship program in place. The old foot-in-the-door technique - Sales 101.

I'm almost at the point where I'd recommend Kerry just to make sure Bush doesn't get back in power. Almost. Still don't trust Kerry.

LMM Aniversary - Part Deux

Little Miss Attila also remembered our anniversary - sniff! - a whole year. My wife suspects I'm a closet blogger with LMA (an S.O. from many lifetimes ago). Not that my ex- and I blog together, no, no, never. Just the occassional crosspost and even then following proper HTML formatting. And despite the rumors we've never blog-swapped.

Just don't ask about same-sex blogging...

As is typical for Attila she makes a dig at how because of our invasion of Iraq Libya came forth to declare their nuclear program. "Oh, Mr. Mahatma--I've learned so much in the past year. Like how capturing one despot tends to adjust the attitudes of others with nuclear designs . . . [cough, cough]."

She conveniently ignores that Iran is beefing up their nuclear program and blatantly ignoring U.N. directives just like Iraq before the war. Sure doesn't look like Iran learned a lesson from Iraq. Whaddya say Attila, should we go into Iran guns a-blazing as well? They have oil...I mean...an evil government in need of overthrow.

And have you sent your definitive WMD evidence to Bush yet? I bet Georgy would give you a nice reward for that, perhaps your own oil well near Baghdad. He's quite generous to his friends, though you may have to get a Skull and Bones tattoo in a sensitive area...