Obama looks to remove protections for Gray Wolf and Grizzly Bears...or why "Change" was complete and utter horseshit...

Look, let me just start this by stating quite clearly that I expect to get fucked when the republicans are in office (see: G. Bush the Lesser 2000-2008). What I don't expect is to get fucked just as hard when the Democrats are in control. I don't make anything resembling enough money annually, or have a net worth in remotely the right strata of the atmosphere to actually count for anything as far as the republican party is concerned. So subsequently when the shit started rolling downhill (as it inevitably does whenever the Angry White Rich-Guy party gets hold of the reins and did so with avengeance in 2000) I just hunkered down and tried to weather the storm. As I sat there in my wellies praying that the flood of polished turds would stop before it reached the top of my boots, I scanned the horizon for some glimmer of hope. Some sign, however small, that the maelstrom of bullshit, hatred and bile would end one day. In 2008 Barack Obama was that sign. His speeches were uplifting, his rhetoric was bold, and his passion was immeasurable. 'Hope' and 'Change' was in the air. It felt as though the rancid stench of right-wing policies solely designed to enrich the already wealthy was going to be washed out of the body politic, and once more 'We The People' would be heard loud and clear. We would get our country back from the monied interest groups and lobbyists, we would begin the process of re-building the country they way it was intended to be, 'of the people, by the people, for the people'.

Then he got elected.

And guess what? Nothing changed. Not really. Oh, he got a health care bill passed (if by health care bill you mean 'Gift to the insurers and health care providers that lined the politicians pockets'), and he did pull the troops out of Iraq (if by pull out you mean 'still leave a military presence of 100,000 behind'), but as time passed it became more and more obvious that the campaign rhetoric wasn't matching up with what was actually being done.

His justice department didn't stop the DEA raids on (legal) marijuna clinics in California. His justice department didn't look into the allegations that the CIA had destroyed evidence of torture. His justice department wouldn't look into whether the former administration had broken international law by either engaging in, or allowing the facilitation of torture. He approved (and then rapidly unapproved after BP's little oopsie in the Gulf) more off-shore drilling. He actively advocated for 'clean coal' (whatever the fuck that mythical substance is) and more nuclear power plants. The only mercy there being that he actually said the word 'nuclear' correctly. His interior department refused to overturn the bush administration ruling removing protections for the Rocky Mountain Gray Wolf and the states of Montana, and Idaho promptly rushed out and started slaughtering the Wolves in their hundreds.

Earlier this year several environmental groups (several of which I am a proud contributing member of) won a major court victory forcing the Gray Wolf back onto the Endangered Species List, and instructed US Fish and Wildlife to base their listing/delisting on proper scientific evidence rather than policy decisions.

Way to go wolves, right? Wrong. It turns out that for some unfathomable reason the Obama adminstration wants to delist both the wolves AND grizzlies so badly, that they are willing to try and do an end-run around the Endangered Species Act via congress, to get their way. So, rather than accept the courts' decision, and allow proper scientific data to be gathered and studied to determine what the appropriate wolf levels are to be deemed as 'recovered', the Obama administration has decided that the ranchers and land-owners in those western states know better and that they should be allowed to kill as many wolves and bears as possible.

I have been able to make excuses and rationalizations for many of the actions (and cynical inactions) of this administration, but for me, this is the end of the line. This is where I get off the Obama express. This is where I declare that I have had enough. Yes he is better than the alternative, if only for the fact that it kept that self-promoting ex-beauty-pageant contestant from being a heart-beat away from the nuclear launch codes, but being the 'least bad' is no longer good enough. Not when we have such urgent issues to deal with. 'Change' isn't carrying on with the same policies that were already in place. 'Change" isn't doing everything the opposition party wants and ignoring your base. 'Change' isn't bobbing and weaving when asked straight forward questions on things like gay marriage, DADT or choice. It is with much sadness and more than a little anger, that I admit that I got sold a bill of goods. I really thought this guy was going to be different, I really did. Turns out he wasn't, and we are ALL the worse off because of it.

Mr President, please don't kill the wolves.