Tarek Charara's Weblog

mardi 18 juin 2002

While it's getting hotter and hotter here in Paris, France...

It's amazing how quickly our first installed president has managed to dismantle environmental protection without a mandate from the American citizenry. Here's a quick recap:

Proposed allowing oil companies to drill on protected land, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the coast of Florida
Backed out of the Kyoto Treaty, an international effort to reduce global warming
Overturned a rule regulating arsenic in drinking water, then reversed himself under pressure from the citizenry, but delayed "right to know" laws
Refused to reauthorize the Superfund tax, allowing corporations to shirk the financial responsibility associated with the cleanup of Superfund sites they polluted
Failed to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, something he promised during his campaign
Blocked a Clinton administration rule that would require air-conditioners to be 30% more efficient
Cut the federal renewable energy research budget by 50%
Suspended hard rock mining regulations, allowing corporations to avoid financial liability for violating anti-pollution laws

Yesterday, the administration of Bush the Lesser proposed relaxing the part of the Clean Air Act that requires power companies to install pollution controls when they renovate their generation plants. For years, the power companies have been trying to get the rules relaxed and now they've found the chump to do it for them.

[ARTS & FARCES internet]

The world is really lucky that presidents in the USA don't rule more than 4 years, unless they get re-elected of course :(
3:44:08 AM comment []

More from the "fencing Palestine" project:

Palestinian Bomber Blows Himself Up Near Fence Site. Near where Israel is building its new security fence, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on Monday on the Israeli side of the border with the West Bank. By John Kifner. [New York Times: International]
3:38:47 AM comment []

Al Qaeda Tries New Tactics, Rumsfeld Says. The war on terrorism is forcing a scattered Al Qaeda network to shift its efforts and devise new kinds of attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said today. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: International]

Wow, now here's some amazing news. ``If you're al-Qaida and you had tried the airplane approach, it's now harder to get on an airplane,'' Rumsfeld told a Pentagon press conference. ``... Our embassies are better guarded ... our ships. Therefore, it's not surprising that they're going to migrate over to other areas.''

Isn't that surprising? :) Wake up guys, those terrorists might be a bit more intelligent than you think... Maybe it's time to try something different?
3:28:15 AM comment []