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Hallelujah! The End Is Near! We’re living in the End Times. Forty years of Rethugs poisoning our families and giving away Federal lands, forty years of sacrificing our futures and communities on the altars of the Chicago Cult, forty years of the corporatist Big Lie of "deregulation"…forty years of lethal greed in the service of corporate rule are nearly over. Until they are left behind by Obama’s inauguration, the Bushies will be looting America like there’s no tomorrow. The Bushie true believers are leaving office the same way they came in: stealing every Federal resource and regulation that isn’t nailed down.

The good news: the Bushies are finally hard at work in their Federal jobs. The bad news: they’re giving away our safety, health, and common property.

With nine remaining weeks before the wholly-owned corporatist servants comprising Bush’s maladminstation have to move their work from the White House to K Street, the loyal Bushies within the Federal goverment are racing to protect their dearest constituents: corporatists and the uber-rich. As has been the norm over forty years of Rethugs’ smash-and-grab "governance" in elected office, the Bushies message’ to We The People is "fuck off and die".

What do America’s water sources, public lands, Federal mineral/energy reserves, air, soils, and communities all have in common? Taken together, America’s natural resources, public spaces, and public services comprise our national commons: the resources we collectively own and collectively depend upon for our very survival.

Corporate servants we call "politicians" long ago took over the Rethugs and more recently the Dem party leadership precisely in order to turn over our national commons to effective corporatist control. [You thought both parties' "leaders" fought to get the $700 Billion bail-out passed to help you, grasshopper? Dream on.]

In their final weeks of misrule, the loyal corporate servants who are the Bushies’ Federal appointees are using our Federal govenment to shovel our national wealth over to their private masters. While the Fed and Treasury Bushies get most of the attention, other Bushies beaver away to deliver two great prizes: Federal regulations and Federal lands/resources.

The Bushies have less than two weeks remaining to trash America’s remaining Federal limits on megacorps: reguatory changes hatched out fewer than sixty days before the Inaguration can be easily reversed. Clinton ignored this deadline. He belatedly published regulations that would have protected Federal roadless areas: the Bushies immediately trashed the roadless area protection when Bush took power. Bye bye future Federal Wilderness designations for (once roadless) Federal lands. Thanks for nothing, Big Dog.

The Bushies would never show the megacorps the contempt Clinton showed for enviros: Power must be served, after all. With less than two weeks to go, the Bushies are levelling Federal regulations to suit the megacorps.

What can the Bushies give away with regulation? For staters: the Colorado River as a source of drinking water (bye-bye, Phoenix and Las Vegas) and the mountain tops of Appalachia (bye-bye to rural towns and the Eastern Seaboard cities relying on Appalachian water). What else? Your kids’ hopes for growing up free of asthma. Your kids’ hopes of growing up to enjoy National Forests and National Parks free of mines and clear-cuts.

What can the Bushies give away beyond Federal regulations? Just as they did with Interior under Abramoff’s corrupt pals, the Bushies can give away the big prize: cut-rate leases to take oil, natural gas, coal, and minerals from Federal public lands. From our public lands.

You see, as precious as our National Parks and National Forests are, We The People own millions more acres of common land held in trust for us and our future by the Bureau of Land Mangement: the Federal agency with the boring name and multi-trillion dollar portfolio.

Of course, giving away Federal oil, gas, and mining resources would be just as transparent a theft as giving the Treasury to investment banks. Even the Bushies wouldn’t try that, right? Except, of course, they already have.

Who cares? President-elect Obama can choose to oppose and reverse the entire Bushie give-away when he takes office. Or he can decide to effectively give the Bushies and the megacorps a pass on looting our public lands and trashing our common protections.

What to do? Let Obama know: reverse the Bushies’ final crime spree. America’s commons is ours, not the megacorps. If Barack Obama serves us — not the megacorps — he can protect our commons.

What will President-elect Obama do about the Bushies’ "end times" grab? Who does Obama serve?

[Breaking update: As the post was written, we learned Team Obama is stepping up to bat back the Bushies' last grab:

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

The real test will come in restoring the regulations that protect us against toxic substances and toxic industries, as well as restoring public revenues from mining, oil, gas, and coal. If President-elect Obama stands up to the American Chemical Association, Big Greenhouse Gas, and Big Holes In The Ground, his daughters and everyone else's kids may grow up in a survivable America.

If.]

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