No Holds Barred

On its last lap, the occupied White House has definitively shown that its oft-invoked legacy is going to be one of utter disregard for the public, and this world. The final slap at the environment is one that discards the flimsy excuse that the cretin in chief has been giving for inaction - that a cleaner coal burning plant was in the works, in the planning process.

The award was recently made, of a plant named FutureGen to be located in Illinois. This week FutureGen was called off. The bait and switch was passed off by Energy Dep't. officials as if it were another triviality to be swept under the rug. Fooled you.

For years, FutureGen has been offered up as the answer to tough questions facing the Bush administration about power and pollution.

The concept for a cutting-edge, cleaner coal plant was mentioned frequently when the White House's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions was in doubt.

But now, only six weeks later, the Department of Energy has unexpectedly and unceremoniously killed FutureGen.
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FutureGen provided the Bush administration with political cover as pressure to address environmental issues increased. Now, with this term winding down, the Department of Energy has pulled the plug.

Up until the end, administration officials had touted the project as a "centerpiece" of its efforts to develop more advanced coal technologies. And during last week's State of the Union address, President Bush pressed for cleaner coal.

Within 48 hours, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman was blaming cost overruns for FutureGen's demise and announcing a pared-down plan to pay for equipment that captures and stores carbon dioxide emissions at several commercial coal plants.

The new plan pulled out of the hat will include Rep. Joe Barton, minority leader of the Energy Committee, home town Jewett, TX, in a number of clean burning coal plants that will get a now scatter-shot location of federal funding. Sequestering the carbon pollution will be funded in several locales, to be announced sometime a few years from now, there's your latest environmental planning.

The ending of this war criminal regime is full of little surprises. Another has been that since Sen. Bunning of Tennessee has released his hold on legislation to allow public access to public information in the form of a president's papers. The torch to burn the records has passed to Sen. Jeff Sessions.

The Presidential Records Amendment Act of 2007 seeks to overturn an executive order signed by President Bush early in his term. It greatly expanded the ability of a president, or his heirs, to withhold from the public papers from the administration.
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"I am disappointed Senator Sessions has placed a hold on this bipartisan, open access bill," Mr. Lieberman said in a written statement. "To the White House, which is apparently behind these objections, I would say let's find a way to work together to pass this legislation so that the people's right to information about how their government works can be maintained."

The White House remains adamantly opposed to the bill, arguing that it violates the separation of powers and would prompt unnecessary lawsuits.

The worst administration in history is developing the worst limp on its way out. No offense will go uncommitted, no public interest go untrammeled.

If there's any decency left after this last year of the occupied White House, it will not be because the War Criminal In Chief didn't try to remove it.