Thursday, November 13, 2008

Lame Duck Ideological Sabotage Deterrence Bill

Yesterday, there was an NPR report that the Bush administration is charging ahead with plans to change regulations in industry-friendly ways that Obama would not be able to undo. For example: bypassing environmental regulations, approving various applications, etc.

This could be forestalled with a Lame Duck Ideological Sabotage Deterrence Bill. The idea is to get the threat out there that any company that benefits from lame duck regulatory changes (before Obama and Congress get to act) will be socked with a massive penalty tax, far in excess of the profits expected from the regulatory change.

Of course, this could be prettied up and done informally.

Alternatively, Obama could be negotiating with Bush not to do this. Obama has a major bargaining chip: how freely he will unleash the furies to discover and prosecute Bush administration crimes and malfeasance. I'd settle for a truth and reconciliation commission, though I'd love to see Bush and Co. extradited to the Hague to stand trial for war crimes such as torture. Bush cannot pardon anybody for international crimes, only for crimes against US law. I don't think Obama would ever use this club against Bush, but it sure would make me feel good.

1 comment:

Mark Plus said...

I'd go along with a truth and reconciliation commission, if only to embarrass and discredit these people and make it less likely that successor ideologues would try something like this again.

I find it ironic that Bush and his enablers threaten to get away with murdering, torturing or otherwise destroying the lives of potentially millions of theistic creationists who just happened to have the "wrong" beliefs about a god according to Bush's christian supporters. The same supporters try to discredit atheism because officially atheistic regimes did similar things to their religious populations in the 20th Century; but they've given Bush a pass on his abuses of Muslim creationists because they live in other countries and Bush has made the right noises about persecuting and annihilating them in the name of the dominant delusion in the U.S.