MidEast Report

MORE FISH! MORE JOBS! LIKE MAGIC!
I know this isn't foreign policy related, but I bring it up because I think it perfectly illustrates both the brazen mendacity and the absolute committment to ideology of the Bush Administration, and also because it's a Northwest regional issue.

Three years ago, Mark C. Rutzick was the timber industry's top lawyer trying to overturn fish and wildlife protections that loggers viewed as overly restrictive. Back then, he outlined to his clients a new strategy for dealing with diminishing salmon runs. By counting hatchery fish along with wild salmon, the government would help the timber industry by getting salmon off the endangered species list, Mr. Rutzick wrote.

Now, as a high-ranking political appointee in the Bush administration who is a legal adviser to the National Marine Fisheries Service, Mr. Rutzick is helping to shape government policy on endangered Pacific salmon. And in an abrupt change, the Bush administration has decided for the first time to consider counting fish raised in hatcheries when determining if some species are going extinct.

And thus, with a wave of the magic regulatory wand, POOF! Northwest salmon are no longer endangered! Who knew species protection could be so easy? The revealing thing here is that Rutzick doesn't attempt to counter the scientific evidence in any way, he just makes vague allegations of regulatory overreach and environmental zealotry and then proceeds to enact a policy that runs counter to the vast majority of scientific research regarding the health of salmon runs.

This is reminiscent of another innovative idea of the Bush Gang, to reclassify service sector jobs as "manufacturing" in order to make it look like Bush's policies had actually created manufacturing jobs.

This is the way Bush and his crew work: when the facts don't support their policies, as they clearly don't in this case, rather than adjust their policies, they try to change the facts.

posted by Matt Duss @ 10:23 AM