Two recent decisions by the Interior Department:
- Life the 25 year old ban on loaded firearms in Nationa Parks
- Allow federal agencies decide if their projects harm endangered species without consulting with wildlife scientists
As Derrick Jackson write a column in today's Boston Globe entitled Keep guns out of parks,
This completes eight years of political cruelty to animals and a final imposition of the National Rifle Association on what is left of public serenity in America - our shared natural sanctuaries. Critters and plants have less protection, and now humans have to wonder what is more dangerous: an alligator along the trail in the Everglades or the loaded camper carrying a loaded weapon.
I will explore Jackson's column and add a few observations and comments of my own.
Jackson notes who opposes the lifting of the firearms ban: "nearly everyone who works or has worked in a national park" (read the column for the list of organizations). The regulation that is now "expiring" allowed one to have an unloaded weapon secured, say by being locked in one's trunk. The organizations opposing the change worry about an increase in poaching and note the current low rate of only 1.65 violent crimes per hundred thousand visitors. They cite an expectation of safety by park visitors at the same time as they note that Park Rangers are already, with the ban in place, "the most assaulted federal officers in the country."
And now, read this:
To put in perspective how nuts the lifting of the ban is, it was enacted under President Reagan's Interior secretary, James Watt. Watt was so criticized by environmentalists that the great national park landscape photographer Ansel Adams called him "one of the most dangerous government officials in history." Of Reagan's environmental policies in general, Adams said, "The flow of bilge from the Reagan administration is a blot upon our history of literacy."
In his next sentence, Jackson puts it simply:
If that environmentally illiterate administration saw fit to ban loaded guns in the parks a quarter-century ago, what does that make the Bush administration?
Jackson will offer more statistics which can assist you in answering that question, and I need not repeat them here. But I think, since this is consistent with - and only a part of - the total picture we need to keep in mind when talking about this Bush administration, the answer should be obvious:
It is the worst administration in history and even makes Buchanan look responsive to the crises of his day. And remember - the crises Buchanan faced and ignored lead to the tragedy of the Civil War. Buchanan ignored the onrushing disaster. Bush has actively worked to create mayhem.
Before returning to Jackson, let me remind you of just a few of the depredations which can be laid at the foot of this administration, while noting that some of these were blocked by others
... trying to lower the standards on arsenic
... trying to "lower"pollution rates by declaring that CO2 was not a pollutant
... failing to use US forces to block Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden when they were trapped in Tora Bora
... blocking attempts to go after Al Zarqawi in the Kurdish region (out of reach of Saddam Hussein) so we could claim terrorists active in Iraq
... invading Iraq on false premises
... failing to secure the weapons depots in Iraq
... allowing unrestricted looting, including of the National Musem in Baghdad, on the grounds, as Rumsfel says, that"stuff happens." This was part of a larger picture of how we alienated much of the Iraqi population. And with its predecessor on the weapons depot, causing the deaths of thousands of Americans and tens upon tens of thousands of Iraqis
... Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Bagram Air Force base, Diego Garciablack sites, secret renditions: TORTURE - thereby seriously damaging the reputation of this nation
... spying on Americans without authorization or oversight
... doubling the national debt in 8 years
... wreaking havoc on American public schools through the grossly misnamed No Child Left Behind
... seriously damaging the polity that had already been damaged by the actions of right-wing Republicans by unleashing Karl Rove and his minion
... U S Attorney scandal
... paying commentators like Armstrong Williams to illegally do propaganda in the US
... suppressing scientific studies that contradicted the administration's theological approach to issues
... presiding over the greatest shift of wealth to the already wealthy in our history by a totally bonkers tax policy - this has been the real class warfare
... coming close to destroying the faith of the American people that their government could help them - not surprising in an administration full of people who believe government and its agencies are the problem
... allowing the Air Force, and the AF Academy in particular, to become places where a certain strand of right wing "christianity" is allowed to be imposed upon others and differing religious points of view are disrespect, their adherents subject to discrimination
... setting a horrid example of lack of responsibility and accountability, illustrated by the commutation of the sentence of Scooter Libby after promising that anyone responsible for the revealing of the identify of Valerie Plame would be fired
... continuing to refuse to give Congress the information it needs to do its jobs of oversight and of confirming appointments - this includeds fighting subpoenae, non-cooperation with parts of the transition, refusing clearance to investigators, widening the scope of 'executive privilege" to absurd ranges, and many more examples you can cite
I would keep going, but that list should be sufficient to indicate the pattern.
To return to Jackson, he notes that staffing levels wilflife refuges, a group of sites parallel to National Parks, were already low. He does not include in his brief column the recent decision to allow development of various sorts right up to the boundaries of national parks and refuges, nor what I would consider part of the pattern - the recent change of the rules on mountaintop removal that potentially can allow much more devastation, and which can in some case lead to irreparable damage before Obama assumes office and can reverse the rulings.
The picture Jackson paints is, however, sufficient for us to understand the scope of devastation that is possible as a result of the recent and the previous actions - and inactions - by this administration. Jackson concludes his piece as follows:
Yet the solution by the Bush administration is to starve law enforcement and general staff, cut off the scientists, and flood the parks and refuges with loaded guns. This has to be a priority for the Obama administration and a Democratic-led Congress to overturn. We cannot allow our sacred places to become the wild west.
I don't disagree with any of that final paragraph.
But it is not just our sacred places. The undermining of the rights protected in the 4th and other amendments, by international treaty and covenant, by that ancient right of the English speaking word, habeas corpus is another way we are becoming what the image of the "wild west" illustrates: a place without the sanctity of law and the protection of government, where the application of force by individuals and institutions gives them too much power over the rest of us. That has been the attitude of this administration - give free rein, economic and otherwise, to the powerful and those politically allied with them and to hell with the common good.
But that might be a harder case to make to the American people. Destruction and danger in National Parks and Wildlife Refuges is easier to grasp.
I read this piece, and wanted to be sure people understood its implications.
Let me remind you of my answer to Jackson's question - that this is the worst administration ever. Jackson's piece serves as yet one more reminder of that fact.
Thank you for reading.
Peace