Obama will undo Bush's 11th-hour mischief upon taking office

The list of controversial 11th-hour measures by the Bush administration continues to grow, causing undue problems for the incoming Obama administration that must undo Bush's last-ditch actions.

The most recent example, reported by the New York Times, is a rush by the Environmental Protection Agency to approve 100,000 pristine acres in Utah for oil and gas leasing by the Bureau of Land Management despite the low level of proven reserves there, despite the proximity to national parks, despite vehement protests by ecology groups, recreation groups, neighboring residents, and local governments.

These Utah leases will be auctioned by the Bush administration on Dec 19 despite plenty of uncontested oil and gas leases elsewhere that have yet to be developed. These leases may be granted despite ample evidence of global climate change that says the nation could and should develop alternative energy resources in the same five to 15 years needed to develop these domestic fossil fuel reserves. 

Other examples abound of last-minute Bush mischief.

Bush administration officials in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are now trying to rush through a plan that would encourage killing as many as two-thirds of the wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies. Yet this is barely the beginning of the Bush administration's last-ditch assault on the environment.

According to Michael A. Livermore, Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law, the list of proposed 1th hour action by the Bush White House include expanding mountaintop mining while allowing tons of rubble and refuse to be dumped into streams and valleys, significantly weakening enforcement of the Endangered Species Act, and allowing increased pollution from older power plants.

Yet the environment is is not the only area under attack. In the realm of health care, the proposed "Right of Conscience Rule" would let medical people deny any care they find morally objectionable. While intended to support those who oppose abortions, the new rule also would let doctors, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists deny to patients such contraception measures as birth control pills or condoms that make abortions unnecessary.

By the same token, contend critics of the new rule, practitioners could deny care to anyone whose lifestyle they find morally objectionable. A devout emergency room doctor potentially could refuse care to a known atheist or homosexual patient, for instance. A Scientologist doctor or nurse could refuse to administer mental health drugs, or a vegetarian Seventh Day Adventist orderly could refuse to serve hospital meals containing meat.

Perhaps you join me in objecting to Bush and his associates trying to ramrod through an array of 11th-hour measures that he knows the incoming Obama administration will undo. Perhaps you join me in resenting that Obama's incoming administration will have to devote so much time and energy to cleaning up the mess that the Bush administration is leaving behind.

In fact, reports the Honolulu Star Bulletin,"President-elect Barack Obama's transition team has identified 200 or so administrative actions and executive orders as potential policies to reverse." Among these will be the Utah oil and gas leases, according to transition chief John Podesta, as quoted in the New York Times.

With all of the pressing problems facing the new president, such as a national and global financial crisis, such as the renewed insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush and his friends apparently are putting their ideological agendas ahead of the greater good for the country and the world.

Of course, the Bush administration has been putting their ideology ahead of the greater good for eight years, so we should not be surprised that they are trying to squeeze the last few drop from the orange before they leave the kitchen. Even so, the tactic saddens me.

I'm reminded of Saddam Hussein vindictively torching the oil fields of Kuwait upon his defeat in the 1991 Gulf War. Bush should accept defeat and leave office with at least some honor intact.

What's worse, the Bush administration is trying to cover up its antics.

TruthDig reports that Vice President Dick Cheney and his team are fighting legal efforts to prevent them from leaving office with their e-mail records. [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, et al., v. Richard B. Cheney, et al, Civil Action No. 08-1548, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia]. If they succeed, we may never learn the full extent of their shenanigans in everything from the Iraq war to the U.S. energy policies.

If you want to do more than mumble and grumble to yourself, please contact your Congressional representatives and let your voice be heard

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