Meet the newest, largest protected marine environment on planet Earth: The half million square miles of the newly expanded Hawaiian marine national monument, Papahanaumokuakea.
The president more than quadrupled the size of the Papahanaumokuakea (pronounced “Papa-ha-now-moh-koo-ah-kay-ah”) Marine National Monument to 582,578 square miles of land and sea in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. [...]
With Friday’s action, seven presidents — starting with Theodore Roosevelt in 1909 — have taken steps to safeguard parts of the archipelago, which is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. It is the planet’s largest seabird gathering site, with more than 14 million birds from 22 species, and is home to nearly all Laysan albatrosses and the remaining endangered Hawaiian monk seals.
The expansion of the monument:
… provides critical protections for more than 7,000 marine species, including whales and sea turtles listed under the Endangered Species Act and the longest-living marine species in the world — black coral, which have been found to live longer than 4,500 years. Additionally, as ocean acidification, warming, and other impacts of climate change threaten marine ecosystems, expanding the monument will improve ocean resilience, help the region’s distinct physical and biological resources adapt, and create a natural laboratory that will allow scientists to monitor and explore the impacts of climate change on these fragile ecosystems.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2002—Bush afraid of Congress:
The Bush Administration has ignored calls to build support for the invasion of Iraq at the UN Security Council. The reasons are obvious -- the US would be hard pressed to pick up a couple of votes, much less the full support of the council.
For the same reasons, the administration is now trying to claim it doesn't need Congressional approval to invade Iraq.
If Bush felt confident he had the votes, he wouldn't be trying to shirk his duties. Congress is the only national branch of government currently occupied by elected officials (Bush and the Supremes were all selected). As such, Congress is the only branch with the moral authority to commit our youth to possible death. Yet in another example of Bush's disdain for democracy, he's hiding behind his legal team's vapid opinions.
The gist: the 1991 Gulf War resolution and the 9-11 resolution give the president all the authority he needs.
Many observers believe Congress would likely pass a Gulf War II resolution, but with restrictions unpalatable to Bush. For example, the resolution could prohibit a strategy of "regime change," limiting US forces to eliminating Iraq's WMD. There's something to this theory.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Your weekend vagenda: Paul “Dick” LePage leaves a message after the beep. Greg Dworkin reviews Clinton’s speech. Bannon’s got a voter fraud problem, but is a just a “regular Joe” living in an Egyptian politician’s house & holding levitating CPAC orgies.
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