Politics behind gutting of Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act is far from our favorite thing. It is cumbersome, confusing and can hurt.

It should not, however, be kicked to the curb.

That's the approach being advocated this week by Dirk Kempthorne, secretary of the interior. The former governor of Idaho, no friend to the environment, is seeking to change the rules requiring federal agencies to consult with federal wildlife experts, aka their colleagues, before engaging in such activities as logging or leasing grazing land, building roads or sinking mines, that might harm listed species.

Make no mistake, what's going on here is way more than an administrative end-run around a recalcitrant Congress. It's the latest in a long series of White House efforts to exclude expertise, clearing a path for overtly political decisions. ...

[W]hat the act needs, and deserves, is an honest and thorough evaluation. A president who had not squandered all of his political capital could be leading exactly that. Instead, what we have is a White House trying to embed its lopsided ideologies in federal regulations far and wide, affecting everything from birth control to logging, as the administration exits the political stage. ...

THE OREGONIAN, AUG. 13

Former Thai leader shouldn't escape justice When Thailand's former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, flew into London Sunday night, fleeing indictment and a Monday court date in Bangkok, he illustrated the old saw that the very rich are very different from you and me. Thaksin's wealth and influence allowed him to elude corruption charges back home, enjoy an easeful exile as the owner of the Manchester City soccer club, and prepare the way for a claim of political asylum in Britain.

Thaksin pretended he could not receive impartial justice from the courts in Thailand. But his own previous actions belie that claim. Back in Bangkok he had appointed defense lawyers to fight the corruption charges against him, and he recently filed his own lawsuits against critics in those same courts.

Thaksin's allegations about a tainted Thai judiciary and his assertion that the cases against him are political should be seen as transparent attempts to lay the foundation for a claim of political asylum in British courts. ...

Thaksin ought to be made to answer the charges against him in the Thai courts. ... A fair and transparent legal process could assure justice in particular corruption cases. It could also inoculate Thailand -- and perhaps other countries as well -- against the malady of one-man rule by the world's richest media moguls or energy barons.