The Essentia Blog

The state of California is suing the Bush administration in order to block last-minute changes it are trying to make in order to restrict the powers of the Endangered Species Act. Late Monday the Attorney General of California filed the suit in the US District Court in San Francisco.

One of the changes that tops the list as the most egregious is the fact that federal agencies can now issue permits for mining and logging without getting reviews from federal wildlife biologists. California has a special interest in protecting their wildlife, having 310 species on the endangered list and lots of natural resources that various corporate interests would love to tap without regard to wildlife. While Obama has promised to reverse the ruling, it could take some time to do so and the state lawsuit throws an additional kink in the works for Bush. You can read more about it over at CBS News.

New Yorkers were aghast on Tuesday morning as 1.2 million copies of a fake New York Times hit the streets.  The fake NY Times, dated July 4th 2009, features ambitious headlines like “Iraq War Ends”, “National Health Insurance Act Passes” and “Court Indicts Bush on High Treason Charge”.  The online version can be viewed here.

The video below reveals the process behind the making of the paper.  The group behind it is apparently a group called The Yes Men.

Despite his desperation to distance himself from the Bush administration in the last few days of the presidential campaign, McCain’s record shows that he consistently voted with the Bush administration against a few key environmental policies:

Strike 1 - Corporate Polluters

Voted against making companies disclose pollution sites and making them pay for the cleanup of toxic waste Superfund sites, leaving taxpayers to pay for the cleanup.

Strike 2 - Drinking Water Pollution

Voted against a law requiring utilities to let consumers know what pollutants are in their drinking water.  He also voted against tightening the standard on arsenic in drinking water.

Strike 3 - Water Pollution by Mining and Oil Industries

Voted in 2002 to exempt the oil and gas industry from the Safe Drinking Water Act regulations, leaving them free to add chemicals like benzene to our water.  He also voted against tightening regulations on the discharge from hardrock water companies, which have already polluted 40% of the water table in the West.

Whenever it has been a case of the environment versus big corporations, McCain will vote for the corporations every time.  His record doesn’t lie.

Florida has traditionally been a key battleground state where every ballot counts.  Check out this video where a reporter from the Centre of Media and Democracy is investigating the McCain campaign and is told that they rely on volunteers - only to find out later that the volunteers are paid.  At that point a zealot comes out to violently threaten her with arrest.

This is also the most “Dugg” story on Digg today, not surprising given the treatment of the reporter.

Josh Tulkin, Field Director of PowerVote and the Energy Action Coalition, was placed on a terrorist watch list by the United States government for a period of just over a year from 2005 to 2006.  He received a letter from the Superintendent of the Maryland State Police that offered to let him view his record before it was purged.

In the letter he was also told that he could only view his record alone without a lawyer present, and that he was not to be allowed to take a copy for his own files.  Please check out the story at the New York Times for more details and a video statement from Josh.

Please also see Powervote.org’s site for more information on how you can make a difference for the environment in the upcoming election.