FREDO HATES KITTIES

Not exactly but the there is a pattern: neglect of the environment, including living species. We know that the Bush regime has been downplaying the threat of global warming and now we find that its also been ignoring the threat of species extinction and altering science reports to fit its agenda.

Controversy erupts over Endangered Species Act
Congress and the Interior Department investigate
whether the Bush administration undermined federal protections.

By Brad Knickerbocker Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the July 25, 2007 edition

...the US Interior Department is reviewing the scientific integrity of decisions under the law made by a political appointee, who recently resigned under fire. ... Congress is investigating evidence that Vice President Dick Cheney interfered with decisions involving water in California and Oregon that resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Klamath River salmon, some of which were listed as "threatened" species.

Both episodes illustrate what critics say is the Bush administration's resistance to the law.

[THIS SEEMS TYPICAL OF BUSH'S PENCHANT FOR APPOINTING PEOPLE LIKE MICHAEL BROWN TO POSITIONS THEY ARE UNSUITED FOR]

Following a critical report by the inspector general of the Interior Department in March, Julie MacDonald – the official in charge of fish and wildlife, including those listed under the ESA – resigned.
Fish and Wildlife Service employees complained that Ms. MacDonald had "bullied, insulted, and harassed the professional staff … to change documents and alter biological reporting," according to the report.

"We confirmed that MacDonald has been heavily involved with editing, commenting on, and reshaping the endangered species program's scientific reports from the field," the inspector general wrote, also noting that "she has no formal educational background in natural sciences, such as biology."

Last week, the director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (the Interior Department agency in charge of endangered species programs) announced that eight decisions MacDonald had made under the ESA would be examined for scientific and legal discrepancies.

"The real culprit here is not a renegade political appointee," says Francesca Grifo, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' (UCS) scientific integrity program. "The real culprit is a process where decisions are made behind closed doors."

In 2005, UCS surveyed about 450 Fish and Wildlife Service scientists. Two-thirds said they knew of cases where Interior Department political appointees had interfered with scientific reports and decisions, and 84 said they had been ordered to remove or change technical information from scientific documents.