From the People's Republic blog yesterday. An image worth thousands of blogwords:

Perhaps this month should be declared "Save the US Environment" Month! In honor (?) of the abyssmal record of the Bush administration regarding massive changes to enviromental policy and protections, Molly Ivins is quoted below from her March 30 column linked here and in the sidebar. To add my comments further would be weak in comparison to the "highlights" she's found of urgent need for attention. Please read the snip and then read the column.

"...the GOP put out a "talking points" memo for Republican members of Congress. In it, the congressmen are advised to inform their constituents that: A) global warming has not been proved, B) there are no clear links between childhood asthma and air pollution (in what I assume was an unintentionally hilarious slip, the memo advises R's that the links are "cloudy"), and C) America's rivers and lakes aren't nearly as polluted as the EPA says they are. The EPA says at least 40 percent of our streams, rivers and lakes are too polluted for drinking, fishing or swimming."

• - The U.S. Forest Service is going to eliminate any reviews of its actions by outside agencies for compliance with clean water, endangered species and historical preservation laws.
  

What on earth? This story from the Washington Post and courtesy of the American Street referring over to the Center for American Progress. Seems that a Bushie administration employee who is/was part of the team that attends and/or briefs/used to brief administration members about spin tactics and dealing with media - well, he left his papers at a local Starbucks. Quel horror! But wait - yeah! Someone found them. But wait - there's more! This person passed them on to the Center for American Progress in the spirit of public interest, you might say. And the Center has made these available on .pdf. You don't have to "download" to your computer, just click on the link supplied below and it will show up for you using your Acrobat Reader. verrrrrrrry interesting.

"As most of America slept early last Sunday morning, the Bush administration hustled and bustled to prepare for the Sunday morning talk shows – among others Colin Powell was appearing on "Face the Nation" and Donald Rumsfeld was booked on "Fox News Sunday." Condoleezza Rice was not scheduled to appear until prime time, when she would make a star appearance on CBS' "60 Minutes" – the last in a long line of media appearances that caused 9/11 Commissioner Richard Ben Veniste to quip that "Condi Rice has appeared everywhere but at my local Starbucks."

Well, others in the Bush administration did, apparently, make an appearance at the local Starbucks. And as the Washington Post reports today, one of them – obviously readying himself to prep Defense Secretary Rumsfeld – left his notes on the table. Talking points, hand-written notes on spin tactics that reveal the White House was worried about former Bush adviser Richard Clarke's charges, and a hand-drawn map to the Secretary's house were found by a resident of DuPont Circle, who made them available to the Center for American Progress. The name of said resident is being withheld at his request, as he fears that he may be accused on national television of being "disgruntled."