311 Days

I wouldn't think George Bush would be a fan of "The West Wing," but lately I am reminded of the sixth season episode, "365 Days" and Leo's challenge to his White House colleagues:

"...Busy day around here today.... Problem is we're running out of them." Leo looks at the board and then goes and erases the '5' of '365' and replaces it with a '4' and adds the word 'days' and circles it and says, "That's how much time we have left. We have the ability to effect more change in a day in the White House than we will have in a lifetime once we walk out these doors. What do you want to do with them?"

As the days, hours and minutes count down until noon on January 20, 2009, Bush seems more determined than ever to "effect more change in a day," change that will last a lifetime, before he walks out those doors. He has stepped up the pace of imperial decrees, the latest of which guarantee to foul our air for at least a decade. As reported in the Washington Post:

The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on smog-forming ozone after an unusual last-minute intervention by President Bush, according to documents released by the EPA.

EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law. While their proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA's scientific advisers had proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials and on Tuesday ordered the agency to increase the limit, according to the documents.

"It is unprecedented and an unlawful act of political interference for the president personally to override a decision that the Clean Air Act leaves exclusively to EPA's expert scientific judgment," said John Walke, clean-air director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The president's order prompted a scramble by administration officials to rewrite the regulations to avoid a conflict with past EPA statements on the harm caused by ozone. [...]

Under the Clean Air Act, the federal government must reexamine every five years whether its ozone standards are adequate, and the rules that the EPA issued Wednesday will help determine the nation's air quality for at least a decade. [...]

The documents, which were released by the EPA late Wednesday night, provided insight into how White House officials helped shape the new air-quality rules that, by law, are supposed to be decided by the EPA administrator.

Read that last carefully: The air-quality rules are, by law, supposed to be decided by the EPA administrator according to expert scientific judgment. Will Speaker Pelosi please explain again to our country why "impeachment is off the table"?

Bush doesn't care about appearances or fig leaves anymore. After all, he can't justify flouting this particular law on the basis of his role as commander-in-chief or keeping your children safe at night. He knows he won't be impeached and thus feels perfectly free to subvert any branch of government, pervert any traditional checks on the executive and ignore any law that he deems an obstacle to the flourishing of his true constituency: the individual and corporate haves and have-mores.

The EPA is one of Bush's favorite playgrounds. TPM Muckraker has the details on another instance of White House interfering in the agency's compliance with legal obligations:

Last week, we noted that [EPA Administrator Stephen] Johnson seemed to be ignoring a decision by the Supreme Court. The Court said the EPA could no longer avoid deciding whether greenhouse gases were pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act. But almost one year later, Johnson still hasn't released an official determination.

But as [Rep. Henry] Waxman has found out -- and as he detailed in a letter to Johnson yesterday -- the EPA has already done all the necessary work. EPA employees told his staff in interviews that a team of 60 to 70 hashed it out last year and actually sent it to the White House in December (the EPA, of course, found that greenhouse gases did endanger public welfare). They also produced new regulations to reduce CO2 emissions from cars and trucks and sent that off to the Department of Transportation. But since then, nothing has been heard.

So many political favors, so little time...

Bush has been a busy boy, but he did manage to find time for a little daydreaming:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush got an earful on Thursday about problems and progress in Afghanistan where a war has dragged on for more than six years but been largely eclipsed by Iraq.

In a videoconference, Bush heard from U.S. military and civilian personnel about the challenges ranging from fighting local government and police corruption to persuading farmers to abandon a lucrative poppy drug trade for other crops. [...]

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

Well, come January 20th, he'll be free to seek romance in Afghanistan. I'm sure he can drive a truck or something.