Thursday, May 01, 2008

Dick Cheney Fights Whale Protection

Just when you think your opinion of Vice President Dick Cheney couldn't sink further . Up jumps Cheney's executive blocking of a National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) regulation to protect right whales from sea collisions. The ship-operators lobby got Cheney's ear on the topic and asked him to use his executive authority to block the regs implementation. He has for a year and at least 3 more right whales have died because of being rammed by ocean-going ships and numerous other whales have been mangled by the vessels propellers. Right whales are extremely endangered with only 350 left after a very slow recovery from near extinction 100 years ago.

Simply the new regulation would require ships that are in right whale waters to reduce speed by app. 40% to 10 knots until they are out of whales locale. It's like cars slowing down in a school zone. The ship owners lobby say their costs of operation will go up because of the reduced speed. So The Dick's office is quoted ,"We had no evidence that lowering speeds of "large ships will actually make a difference". Arrogance and callousness thy names are Dick Cheney.

It's too bad this asshole is still alive. And not even endangered. It's easy to determine where he lives. Its' the pixelated Google maps in Northwest Washington at the Naval Observatory or his second home in St. Michaels, Maryland. Rumsfeld also lives in St. Michaels. Hey while in the neighborhood, why not stop by?

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