Out of Spotlight, Bush Overhauls U.S. Regulations

[gristy]

This is a pretty good, relatively long article that starts on the front page. The Forest Service manager ruling is particularly insane. When a manager has the "right" to approve logging w/o environmental review, you're effectively neutering your Forest Service managers. Should a manager be rejecting too many applications, he/she is going is be fired. Plain as the nose on my face.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/14/politics/14bush.html?hp

By JOEL BRINKLEY
Published: August 14, 2004
<snip>

On the same day, deep within the turgid pages of the Federal Register, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a regulation that would forbid the public release of some data relating to unsafe motor vehicles, saying that publicizing the information would cause "substantial competitive harm" to manufacturers.
<snip>

Allies and critics of the Bush administration agree that the Sept. 11 attacks, the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq have preoccupied the public, overshadowing an important element of the president's agenda: new regulatory initiatives. Health rules, environmental regulations, energy initiatives, worker-safety standards and product-safety disclosure policies have been modified in ways that often please business and industry leaders while dismaying interest groups representing consumers, workers, drivers, medical patients, the elderly and many others.
<snip>

Scott McClellan, the chief White House spokesman, said of the changes, "The president's common-sense policies reflect the values of America, whether it is cracking down on corporate wrongdoing or eliminating burdensome regulations to create jobs."
<snip>

and my favorite:

The administration, at the request of lumber and paper companies, gave Forest Service managers the right to approve logging in federal forests without the usual environmental reviews. A Forest Service official explained that the new rule was intended "to better harmonize the environmental, social and economic benefits of America's greatest natural resource, our forests and grasslands."

[Rose Siding]

1. dupe, here's a link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=749659