A Last Chance to Invert Reality

They don't give up, they don't quit. Look at this:

After spending eight years at the helm of one of the most ideologically driven administrations in American history, George W. Bush is ending his presidency in characteristically aggressive fashion, with a swath of controversial measures designed to reward supporters and enrage opponents.

By the time he vacates the White House, he will have issued a record number of so-called 'midnight regulations' - so called because of the stealthy way they appear on the rule books - to undermine the administration of Barack Obama, many of which could take years to undo.

Dozens of new rules have already been introduced which critics say will diminish worker safety, pollute the environment, promote gun use and curtail abortion rights. Many rules promote the interests of large industries, such as coal mining or energy, which have energetically supported Bush during his two terms as president. More are expected this week. Bush sneaks through host of laws to undermine Obama

We can't get rid of this guy soon enough. Did you see where he gave a Presidential Citizens Medal to Watergate felon Chuck Colson? It's as if for eight years America has turned everything around, bad things have been re-labeled as good, good as bad. I can imagine people disagreeing on things, I just can't imagine someone holding opinions and promoting programs that are so clearly negative. The devastation this administration has caused in Iraq, the torture, the domestic spying, the denigration of science, the destruction of the environment, the collapse of the economy ... the greedy and self-serving decisions have been made support the cause of badness only, there is no good in any of it.

So now he's got a couple of weeks to really tear things up, to invert right and wrong and make it hard to turn them back how they should be.

Bush can pass the rules because of a loophole in US law allowing him to put last-minute regulations into the Code of Federal Regulations, rules that have the same force as law. He can carry out many of his political aims without needing to force new laws through Congress. Outgoing presidents often use the loophole in their last weeks in office, but Bush has done this far more than Bill Clinton or his father, George Bush sr. He is on track to issue more 'midnight regulations' than any other previous president.

Many of these are radical and appear to pay off big business allies of the Republican party. One rule will make it easier for coal companies to dump debris from strip mining into valleys and streams. The process is part of an environmentally damaging technique known as 'mountain-top removal mining'. It involves literally removing the top of a mountain to excavate a coal seam and pouring the debris into a valley, which is then filled up with rock. The new rule will make that dumping easier.

Another midnight regulation will allow power companies to build coal-fired power stations nearer to national parks. Yet another regulation will allow coal-fired stations to increase their emissions without installing new anti-pollution equipment.

It's insane, how could anyone support these things? If it makes the world dirtier or makes people sicker, if it causes pain and tragedy he's going to do it.