On his first full day in office, President Barack Obama meets with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in the Oval Office. (UPI Photo/Pete Souza/White House Press Office)
Obama halts some of Bush’s ‘midnight rules’
By Eoin O'Carroll | 01.22.09
Only hours into his presidency, Barack Obama has ordered a freeze on all the new and pending federal regulations that the Bush administration pushed through in its final days.
As Monitor reporter Mark Clayton noted two months ago, many of these “midnight rules” seek to relax, or completely do away with, environmental standards. Among the rules that have been frozen is one that would have made it easier for factories and refineries to expand without applying for new federal pollution permits. Another would have removed federal protection for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes. Another would have opened areas of Oregon to logging. Another would have opened 2 million acres of public land in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah for oil-shale drilling. And another would have helped set in motion the commercialization of meat from genetically modified animals.
It’s common for a president to issue a flurry of last-minute rules before stepping down, particularly when a successor is from a different party. And as the Washington Post notes: Starting with Ronald Reagan, it has become a tradition for a president on his first day in office to issue a directive that voids the ones that have not yet gone into effect.
The Jan. 20 memo from Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, said: “It is important that President Obama’s appointees and designees have the opportunity to review and approve any new or pending regulations.” Therefore, “no proposed or final regulation should be sent to the Office of Federal Register for publication unless and until it has been reviewed and approved by a department or agency head appointed or designated by the President after noon on January 20, 2009, or in the case of the Department of Defense, the Secretary of Defense.”
Mr. Emanuel also asked department and agency heads to “consider extending for 60 days the effective date of regulations that have been published in the Federal Register but not yet taken effect.”
The Washington Post has a PDF of the memo.
President Obama’s order successfully blocked several of the Bush administration’s late-term rules, but many went into effect before he took office, meaning that reversing them will probably take years. The nonprofit investigative journalism shop ProPublica has been tracking new rules from the Bush administration over the past two months. Of the 65 rules they list, 23 went into effect before Obama’s inaguration; one-third of those new rules went into force fewer than three days before Obama took office.
Probably the most significant of the environmental rules already in force is a change to the Endangered Species Act that eases requirements for federal agencies to consult with scientists at the Fish and Wildlife or National Marine Fisheries services about the effects of their actions on threatened species. Under the new rule, which took effect nine days before Obama’s inauguration, federal agencies can in many cases simply check with their own personnel to determine if their projects will harm any of the 1,247 animal and 747 plant species listed as endangered or threatened.
Other rules that have already gone into effect include ones that make it easier for mining companies to dump debris from mountaintop removal into waterways, allow drilling for uranium near the Grand Canyon, eliminate requirements that factory farms report on air pollution from animal waste and let them voluntarily determine whether or not they need a permit to discharge animal waste into waterways, relax limits on airborne lead emissions, and allow people to bring loaded guns into some national parks.
ProPublica’s Joaquin Sapien notes that Obama has two options for reversing rules that are already in effect. He could try to replace the rules with new rules, a process that Mr. Sapien calls “enormously difficult” because it resets the rulemaking process and opens it to legal challenges.
Or he could ask Congress to invoke the little-known Congressional Review Act, which allows the legislative body to kill a rule within “60 legislative days” – about six months – after it goes into effect. That law, which was passed in 1996 by the GOP-controlled Congress in an attempt to halt what was seen as excessive regulation by President Clinton, has been used only once.
<< EarthTalk: When is it best to buy a more fuel-efficient car? | MainComments
2. tom kines | 01.22.09
Thank God Almighty, we hopefully have seen the last of terrible George and his side kick evil **** !
3. PMPope | 01.22.09
Shows an honesty & willingness to work for the people who stood with him. Especially California and all other environmentally responsible citizens who have been against any regime who puts profits ahead of the planet. I can finally say ” That’s MY President!”
5. dave | 01.22.09
Wow, and actual Republican? Haven’t seen one in years! I thought they all got replaced by Neo-Cons. I miss you guys. You know, the guys who actually were for reducing the debt, instead of saying that Regan proved debt doesn’t matter. They guys who were into law and order, not anything you can get away with. The guys who were into “Buy American”, not “the lazy American workers got what they deserved”.
Welcome back!
6. Thomas Emanuel | 01.22.09
Mr. Bush has proved once again that his heart in the wrong place. Absolutely no respect for the environment or our common heritage in the land and water resources. Total focus on narrow monetary interest of his “friends” at the expense of the public good. Obama is a different because he at least cares about the effect of the government on its people. How would Bush like it if all the mountain top waste was dumped on his land in Texas. What a smuck president he was, God are we glad to get rid of this criminal bum.
Tom Emanuel
A Caring Citizen
7. Phillip | 01.22.09
Clinton sign Kyoto Protocol, didn’t push that through congress, and sat on it for 3 months, because he knew it wouldn’t pass and left it for Bush Administration. Tired of this supposedly “Republicans” like Kenneth Cooper. Time to make your choice and maybe move to the other side.
8. Robert Robertson | 01.22.09
Sad, but no surprise.
The rules do typify Republican values inasmuch as they are pro-business and reduce the oversight and subsequent protections offered by the laws they pre-empt.
Bush’s legacy? We can thank him for the upcoming avalanche of change he has initiated!
10. Edmund Ross | 01.22.09
While these rules are the ones garnering attention because the new president can do something about a few of them, most are very indicative of the policies put forth in the past eight years. The general pattern has been to allow federal regulators to ignore legislation they didn’t like (most of which was passed during the Clinton administration). This practice really got exposed with the S.E.C.
11. Thomas Boyko | 01.22.09
It would behoove me to recall that the current Republican platform embodies less of the traditional Republican values overall (with a few exceptions, mainly in Northern states) when weighed against long-past Republicans such as Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and even to some extent in limited fields of debate, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. Barry Goldwater would be considered a long-distance outlier to this statistic, but he never was elected president, and I’m afraid that the ground had since shifted beneath his platform as far as the Republican party of that time was concerned. Typical Republican values would not give freedom to hunters to carry and purchase rifles easier with one hand, while thinning the numbers of their quarry with the other.
12. Dan | 01.22.09
Good, cut oil exploaration. It will be funny when this moron stabs at oil production. Wasn’t great when gas was almost 5 bucks a gallon? Barack didn’t seem to care then, and won’t when it happens again.
13. Sarah Cargill | 01.22.09
How did George Bush live with himself? How did he think this would ever make him look good? How could he have such outright contempt for the health and safety of future generations of Americans? Did he perhaps owe some big donors a few last favors? Or was he just doing it to spite everyone because they already hated him anyway?
14. Ben B. | 01.22.09
Kenneth, all presidents do this, and when the party in charge changes, it is inevitable that (a) the new guys in charge won’t be thinking the same as the ones that just left, and (b) that the public, who just changed the party in power, probably won’t like the last minute rules, either.
Having said that, I actually consider the entire process of the *executive* making “rules” to be anathema to the intent of the framers. Lawmaking is the realm of congress, according to the constitution. Not that the government pays much attention to the constitution any longer. And to say this isn’t lawmaking is to be sophist in the extreme.
As far as I’m concerned, the job of the executive with regard to law (and “rules”) is (a) it must follow them, (b) sign them or not sign them, as conscience dictates, and (c) issue opinions from that bully pulpit to the American people so they understand why the executive endorses, or not, the congressional action at hand.
But today, we have blatantly ex post facto law, a completely inverted interpretation of the commerce clause, straight up violations of the first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth amendments, and completely invented judicial powers not specified in article 3. On top of which we have stacked an incompetent supreme court which actually does not understand the plain, if somewhat archaic, English of the constitution (or pretends they don’t) and a congress that is about 98% in the pocket of moneyed power groups, corporate and otherwise.
Obama has his work cut out for him; Frankly, I’ll be amazed if he gets even a fraction of his agenda accomplished. I certainly do wish him well, though. Our country is but a shadow of what the founders hoped it could become. Liberty and privacy have both been abandoned in favor of safety, we have stratified the citizens into permanent classes by not letting them ever escape past mistakes, and we have lost the ability to mete out a measured, fair response to attacks on our property, persons and ideals.
It is, to drag out an old saying, a nest of vipers for anyone seriously trying to fix things.
15. PaulWisconsin | 01.22.09
It’s scary to see how much a person can be influenced by money, and corporate greed. I don’t see how a president could pass any of these laws in good conscience thinking it was in some way to benefit the people. These were obviously self serving laws which really sum up Bush’s tenure in the White House.
16. Perplexio | 01.22.09
It’s not as if this is new. The practice of putting through last minute legislation has been going on as far back as John Adams who appointed “the Midnight Judges” to the Supreme Court which ensured that Fedarlist ideologies would live on long after the Federalist party was no more than a faded memory.
Former President Clinton made several questionable last minute pardons of a handful of white collar criminals which had been friendly to his campaign coffers in the past.
I’m not trying to justify the midnight rules Bush attempted to push through, just trying to put them into perspective.
19. Jason Russo | 01.22.09
The last eight years have been the WORST. I’m happy that Obama is in office, but very happy that Bush is out.
20. Matt P | 01.22.09
J Said, It’s sun light from the window behind…get out of your parents basement for a bit to learn what sun light is….it will do you some good!
21. Amir | 01.22.09
To answer Mary’s question… bush was neither for us or against us; he was all about pocketing as much money as he could before leaving the President’s office.
GObama! I am very confident that Obama will deliver everything he promised during his campaign assuming he has enough backing to help him pass it through Congress.
22. Don’t Believe Any Politician | 01.22.09
Don’t Worry, When Obama Leaves Office, **** do the very same thing… This isn’t a Bush/Obama Thing, Even in that artical, it states Clinton Did it too… and so did all the presidents before him… Plus think about how many criminals the past Presidents Have pardon’d afer recieving “cash” and “gifts”, heck Clinton Pardon’d Known “Bigtime” Drug Smugglers…. Every President We’ve had has been a crimial of some sort… And So will All the ones in the future…
Next Stop, Raise Taxes on pretty much everything, and Cut off/down all “Public services”… We’ll Be Indentured Servents to the “Government” Soon enough…
Good Luck To ya ALL…
23. monica daniel | 01.22.09
the pettiness and the mean spirited actions of the outgoing president still amazes me. that he would sneak in actions that are so very detrimental to our beautiful country and enviroment staggers the imagination. my question is a resounding WHY????????
24. Clifford Phillips | 01.22.09
In post #4 J Saidso asked - “4. j saidso | 01.22.09
What is that on the Big O,s head?????”
From what I can tell and from looking at the desk right in front of President Obama, it seems to be sunlight from the window(s) behind him.
The lightness is the illumination from the sun reflecting off of his head, just as it is doing off of the desktop in front of him.
25. Evan | 01.22.09
Kenneth, have you ever opened a text book? Midnight rules are super common. Bush is not the first or last do to this.
Ever heard of Marbury vs Madison? John Adams (our second president) appointed many circuit court Judges after having been granted this executive power only 19 days before he was to leave office. He only appointed three on his last day in office but they were nonetheless all referred to as “midnight” appointments because they fell on the eve of the end of his term as president.
26. tom_g | 01.22.09
“12. Dan | 01.22.09
Good, cut oil exploaration. It will be funny when this moron stabs at oil production. Wasn’t great when gas was almost 5 bucks a gallon? Barack didn’t seem to care then, and won’t when it happens again.”
Are you one of those people that thinks this country can actually drill it’s way to energy independence?
27. JeffS | 01.22.09
Interesting that the folks who have written in here to blast Pres Bush have not mentioned that giant preserve he established in the Pacific. Seems the two greatest presidents for the environment — T Roosevelt and G W Bush, were both Republicans and — if you believe the Democrat bile — that party is hell-bent on destroying the earth.
28. Sean Cleary | 01.22.09
Kenneth,
Wow, I really like your comment and perspective.
I was independent, when we lost basic Magna Carta rights, I went wholly Democrat.
I would like to have a president that actually followed the stated republican values. I like fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets, limited military intervention, and many other things that the republicans say they stand for. I just have not seen anything like it. The spend and debt republicans (Reagan, Bush, Bush2) the sneeky ones (Bush2, Nixon) have left their mark, but not a positive one for me.
29. Ted | 01.22.09
“we have stratified the citizens into permanent classes by not letting them ever escape past mistakes”
What kinds of mistakes are you referring to? crimes against fellow human beings? if so, the criminals stratified themselves, “we” didn’t do it for them.
Crime prevention, that’s something “we” all need to work on.
30. Clark | 01.22.09
In the comments sections of other articles, we find a whole slew of Bush apologists making their voices heard and proclaiming that Bush was misunderstood and wrongly painted as the “bad guy.”
Where are they now? How can they defend these actions?
31. Gerry | 01.22.09
This behavior by Bush seems so immoral to me that I am ashamed to have voted for him in the last two elections.
32. citizen4honor | 01.22.09
Sad? If we have no business in this country - where will everyone work? for the governmnet? Building bridges, roads and schools? LOL. That plan is funny - we don’t have enough civil structural engineers now in this country so Obama will have to hire foreigners for those roles. And just because you build residential homes does not make you qualified or skilled for commerical construction. Completely different animal. Plus the cost of steel and oil will skyrocket and we will need to buy the steel from China since we don’t the the capacity in the USA for these “new deals”.
We need big business and manufacturing jobs in this country. We lost more jobs overseas because of Regulations and the ridiculous tax rate our corporations have to pay 39.3% when China is only 25% and China is said to be lowering their tax rate.
Our government has forced USA companies to hold higher standards than the rest of the world but allowed foreign companies with lower standards to ship products here.
Obama is setting up the path to destroy all business in this country and we can all see what businesses currently think of him - stock market is down again. First week elected stocks dropped 1000 points and they’ve dropped another 150 today.
He plans are losers for us.
33. Arch | 01.22.09
With Obama’s inauguration, for the first time in my life, I am truly ashamed of my country.
34. Bush hates America | 01.22.09
Bush hated Science and Democracy. He is all about Executive power and blind party power in numbers. His signature was enough to destroy much that the Supreme Court, Congress and Obama have to rebuild.
35. Greg | 01.22.09
So this is reported by the “Bright Green Blog” and we all suck it up like the saps we are. How many actually went onto a “real” info web-site to find out what these “reported” midnight rules actually are and do???
Yeah and our new president’s policy of transparency really worked out well when he needed to redo his swearing in by the chief justice - no TV reporters only a handful of select individuals to witness . . . transparency???? What else will happen behind his closed doors????
36. Not As Simple As You Think | 01.22.09
tom_g,
Oil derived from shale was only profitable when crude oil was over $75 a barrel. So oil-shale drilling will do nothing to stop our dependence on foreign oil.
Don’t Believe Any Politician,
Obama supports a tax break for working class middle America. You remember who that is right? It’s the little guys the Bush administration stepped all over to give tax breaks to big industry.
What “magic wand” did Bush wave to reduce oil prices from ~$100 a barrel to ~$40 a barrel? Bush did NOTHING to curtail the price gouging that occurred because he COMES FROM AN OIL FAMILY. Both the Bushes and the Cheneys are heavily tied to the energy industry. This isn’t a conspiracy theory, this is a review in economics and tax records. Follow the paper trail and you’ll see who came out on top. BIG INDUSTRY.
I apologize for the excessive use of CAPS but sometimes that’s what you need to do to fight through the ignorance
37. Josh | 01.22.09
Why not report on how many other “midnight rules” were made by Clinton, Carter and Johnson when referencing those of President Bush? Because liberals think that anything a Dem does is justified or “progressive”. But if a Republican does the same thing it must be evil.
Your hating of George Bush doesn’t wash away any of my problems with Pres. Obama or make me gush over him.
I didn’t vote for Obama, but I hope he does well in office because I hope the very best for our country. That, by the way, is the key difference between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives still love our country and honor our president despite election results. Lefties, on the other hand, riot and smash windows and never accept the new official (watch W. Bush’s first inauguration for proof) when they lose elections.
However, I am not willing to simply agree with Obama just because you tell me he gives us “hope” and “change.” Reporters and readers of this publication need to get over there ongoing P.D.A. with Obama. GET A ROOM!
38. NinaK | 01.22.09
It looks like Mr. Bush and his administration cared little or nothing at all about our environment! He waited until the very end of his presidency to make these dispicable rules; most of which are damaging to our water and the envronment. What could he have been thinking?? He and his cronies have ruined our foreign relations and our economy; they are responsible for thousands upon thousands of unnecessary deaths, including those of our troops, all because they were trigger happy to got into Iraq and finish the job Bush Sr. did not finish. The fact they consistently lied to us, the people, is disgraceful!! Did Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney even care about America?? I cannot help but wonder.
39. Ben B. | 01.22.09
Ted said:
:: What kinds of mistakes are you referring to? crimes against
:: fellow human beings? if so, the criminals stratified themselves,
:: “we” didn’t do it for them.
If someone is to pay for a crime, there are basically two types of rational social options. One is imprisonment. The other is a fine or other civil penalty such as community service.
There are two objectives: Punishment, and rehabilitation; we want them to not do this again.
Now, if someone commits a crime, the judge decides on just how to mete out punishment to that individual. If the crime is severe, the time should be long, likewise other punishments severe. However: When those punishments have been served, it is *in no way* a good idea to release the citizen into a world where they can no longer get a decent job, where their credit can never be repaired, where they are penalized every day, where their neighbors find them on some list of offenders. This is loss of even the possibility of rehabilitation.
What happens then is that someone who took the easy and/or wrong way in the first place to accomplish their goals, is now denied a RIGHT way to accomplish socially normal goals, thus creating a situation where you are applying pressure for them to take an easier way than a regular job, etc. Or in other words, turn right back to crime.
If the punishment isn’t sufficient in the case of a particular offense, then it should be increased. I’ve no argument with that. However, again, when that longer punishment has been served, it is entirely self-destructive for society to *continue* to punish by holding that person back from ever redeeming themselves.
Shortsighted doesn’t even begin to cover it. It’s just plain, self-destructive stupidity. Instead of “crime prevention”, it is “crime encouragement.”
Joe is sitting there on the street corner without a job because society will not let him have one above digging ditches. Do you, in your wildest imagination, think that you have eliminated the yearning within Joe to have a normal home, income, a family? Well, do you? Of course not. So now you have a very frustrated person. Will they stay on the legal side anyway? Why should they? Society has already told them in no uncertain terms that they’re scum, so why not just act the part they’ve been assigned?
Far better to allow people to rehabilitate themselves than to make them eternal residents of a lowest class.
40. Glenn | 01.22.09
The issue is not that Bush put these regulations in place right at the end of his term, but rather the ignorance of the impact that these PARTICULAR regulations will perpetuate on generations to come.
My best wishes to our new President; I have much faith in Mr. Obama’s willingness and ability to do what is right if he is allowed to do so.
41. Billybob | 01.22.09
27. Jeffs “Seems the two greatest presidents for the environment — T Roosevelt and G W Bush, were both Republicans and — if you believe the Democrat bile — that party is hell-bent on destroying the earth.”
I think I laughed for over 5 minutes at this little gem. That Pacific preserver, while good for that particular part of the environment, does NOT offset the hundreds of negative allowances by Bush. If nothing else it was a smokescreen, wool to pull over the eyes of ‘people’ like you that are so blind that you have no idea what reality is. He certainly didn’t do it out of the kindness of his heart or for good intentions. He was the worst President, with the worst ideologies, worst cabinet, and it is only by the grace of term limits that he is out. Thank God.
42. Steve | 01.22.09
The treatment of Bush 43 is a sad tale in this nations history. He went to Washington with under the illusion if he extended a hand of cooperation to the Democrats they would play nice. He had the Kennedys over for movies and popcorn and let Ted write the education bill. He spent money second only to a drunken sailor on items both parties wrote into bills.
What did he get back? “He let 9/11 happen on his watch.” “He hasn’t responded to the attacks.” “He let bin Laden get away.” “The surge can’t work.” “The war is lost.” “His buddies are getting rich off oil, don’t allow domestic drilling.” “Gas is $4, it’s Bush’s fault.” A hurricane causes a flood in a city that is under sea level surrounded by a river, a lake, and the Gulf of Mexico and a large portion of the population is completely dependant on the government with no concept of self reliance. “It’s Bush’s fault.” A flood strikes the midwest. Just another news story.
There is enough oil shale in the west to meet our liquid fuel needs for 100 years without enriching people who want to kill us, create jobs and shrink the trade deficit.
Wolves are great until they’re no longer in the park and are killing your livestock - the way you earn a living.
On 9/12/01 there weren’t very many of you who would have objected to waterboarding Kalid to stop another attack, and when our enemies try to use more lethal methods of mass murder to attack us I can only hope someone in charge will ignore the polls and get the job done. We waterboard all of our special forces personel who may be captured to prepare them for that possibility, they are our sons, where’s the outrage?
Bush was a moderate Republican president who, after the attacks of 9/11, did everything in power to stop it from happening again. He had enormous political capital and spent it to the last cent trying to change the course of the mid-east forever by freeing 20 million Iraqis thus creating the lone democratic Arab state.
His biggest popularity downfall was his success at restoring the public’s sense of safety, a similar fate as Churchill’s.
43. Jeff | 01.22.09
Yes, that is sunlight on President Obama’s head.
I know, it looks strange in this context. After all, the previous occupant of the Oval Office was completely in the dark for the last 8 years.
44. Marc | 01.22.09
citizen4honor said “First week elected stocks dropped 1000 points and they’ve dropped another 150 today.”
It must be nice to be so clueless, it takes away any need for responsibility. From June ‘07 to election day, the DJIA dropped from over 13,000 to under 9,000. That’s a > 4,000 point drop on Bushes watch in just over a year. And the 150 point drop today was clearly a result of Microsoft’s earnings report. But I suppose that was Obama’s fault too.
45. Gabriella | 01.22.09
All I can say is thank GAWD Bush is gone. My goodness, it just all seems like a bad dream having him as president, and to think of all the horrible things he’s done to our country that will take YEARS to straighten out. Bush should thank his lucky stars he’s not behind prison bars - it’s really where he belongs!
46. cooldude | 01.22.09
what a ****. How much more damage can one man do. Man I am glad Bush is gone. It will probably take us decades to dig our way out of the mess he has left this nation in!
47. Kenneth Cooper | 01.22.09
Clarification: My concern isn’t with the idea of Midnight Rules, it’s with the content of these particular rules. It seems rather obvious that the reason these were pushed forth in this manner is because not a single one of them, as currently defined, would have had the slightest chance of surviving in public forum (e.g. Congress). That’s not to say any one of them wouldn’t be implemented, but debate and negotiation would more than likely change them a bit. Environmental concern is not the enemy of free enterprise. We’ve got to learn to integrate the two. If we don’t, we’re doomed.
48. Hyphenate | 01.22.09
I don’t know what other people might consider Republican values, but I can say this much:
How could anyone in their right mind still choose to support or defend a now ex-president who, during 8 abominable years in the white house, caused the Second Great Depression, started a war with a pre-emptive strike on another country, lied so frequently that it was hard to determine when he actually told the truth, waited for an interminable length of time before reacting to the news on 9-11-2001, supported torture, who had no qualms about spying on individuals in the U.S. (who are presumed innocent until proven guilty), and also called (and I quote) the Constitution a “********* piece of paper?”
Regardless of whether you are Democrat or Republican, these actions are impeachable and criminal, and for those who would defend the man and his accomplices in the carrying out of any or all of them, you are complicit in the crime of treason toward your country.
49. JaniceL | 01.23.09
I was no fan of Obama, but I’m sure glad he’s in the White House! Bush and his evil gang should be arrested.
50. rupunzel | 01.23.09
Sad to see how much time, resources, money, energy will be wasted in the effort to reverse 8 years of Bush destruction to America and the rest of the world. With US and world economy is the black hole it is now, the focus of what must be done to make it better will occupy much of the Obama and new congress time and resources leaving these last moment Bush era souvenirs to fester. I suspect this is one way Bush is trying to preserve his destructive legacy. Don’t forget, part of the real Bush legacy is the US supreme court which is now stacked with personalities of his ilk which will stand for generations. Bush and his administration will be remembered in American history as the WORST: President & Administration, Congress and Supreme Court legacy to date.
51. Me | 01.23.09
There are a number of things you can lay at the feet of President Bush, but “caused the Second Great Depression,” is not one of them. That is a myth that worked as a sound bite for the election but is inaccurate. It was caused by a long term snowball effect from Clinton’s changes to Carters Community Reinvestment Act. Essentially A bunch of loans made to people who would not otherwise qualify for them. Later they were bundled and securitized and sold off as other instruments with the full backing of fannie mae and freddie mac. As they kept working their way through the system their real risk was masked. Calls to reign in fannie and freddie were blocked by Dodd and Frank (Dems) who were on the take from those organizations. When a drop in the housing market hit and the underlying assets of the paper were really valued, they found there was nothing there which started a chain reaction. This is a bit of an over simplification, but you get the idea. It would be nice to see some of you Democrats out there go after Barney Frank and Chris Dodd with the same enthusiasm you have lambasted Bush with over the last 8 years.
52. Cheryl D. Uzamere | 01.23.09
One thing all Americans must learn from the election of Obama: DO NOT VOTE BASED ON RACE!
While I am glad that Obama is the first African American to become president, I am even more content that Mr. Bush’s 8 years of buffoonery forced us to look at a candidate’s education (real education, not name-brand education), his/her character and his/her personal and public values and his commitment to public service.
I predict that Mr. Obama will do well; however, the one thing I learned from Mr. Bush’s eight-year fiasco is that if Mr. Obama or any other politician disappoints the American people, I will not vote for him/her.
Do well — you get my vote. Screw up — it’s curtains…I don’t care what race you are.
53. jr | 01.23.09
To everyone who is downing Bush.
You sre all saying how great it is that he is gone. You say its been a long eight years. I can admit I dont agree with all he has done,but If you want to point fingers lets point them at democrats for a minute..MR Clinton was respnsible for much of this economic situation. Just research Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Nafta,
and when Obama cant give all the free stuff he promised, I dont want to hear your whining.
I do hope he does good. I just dont think he can ever come close to aaomplishing what he told you all he would do. I think Obama’s promises were not realistic. The funds arent there for many of his projects and people cant afford to have taxes raised,to cover them.
54. John | 01.23.09
j saidso | 01.22.09 “What is that on the Big O,s head?????”
Could it be a “Muslim” prayer covering?
55. charles H. naff | 01.23.09
How interesting most people who object to any change in the endangered species list live in the area east of te Miss. river where less than 20% of the listings occur. Question? Why are not more species listed and more restriction placed on this area which sustains more vegitation and life per sq. mile than any other part of the nation. Are the people of the west to be the persons bearing the cost for the rest of the nation. Where is the area of greater consumption? Please think out of the box and keep an open mind.
56. notsogullible | 01.23.09
do you guys really believe what you read. See Greg Easterbrook’s book and you will find that the first Bush, despite a good environmental record, still got trashed by the Democratic greens. this is pure politics.
57. JohnnyE | 01.26.09
They should only allow drilling in Dick Cheney’s front yard. They can build a refinery in his back yard.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. Kenneth Cooper | 01.22.09
How very sad that Mr. Bush left as his last remembered legacy this list of midnight rules, rules that many might very well interpret as indicative of typical Republican values (they’re not). On the other hand, these rules that work to benefit so very few help garner stronger support yet for our new president, even by Republicans like me, for proposed actions that are likely to make up the future legacy of Barack Obama.