Marine wildlife on the California coast may yet be able to rest easy in spite of Bush Administration efforts to override court decisions with presidential waivers.  Federal judge Florence-Marie Cooper has ruled that President Bush was mistaken in issuing a waiver that would allow the Navy to use deep-water sonar, a practice many experts believe harms whales and other marine life.  As Marc Kaufman writes in the Washington Post, the White House Council on Environmental Quality had "determined that the Navy did not need to follow" legislation limiting deep-water sonar use, which drew a comment from the judge to the effect that "the White could [not] routinely overrule federal court decisions."  Read Kaufman here.

An entrepreneur I know who created a company from scratch that now employs 300 people used to laugh (with an actual smile on his face) when his employees would begin to explain to him why something hadn’t gotten done.  Except for important personal or family reasons  — which he respected, which is why his employees respected him — he usually stopped listening after a member of his staff began to explain why they hadn’t completed a task.  Maybe someone else hadn’t done their part, or the computer crashed, or someone at the vendor was sick that day . . . but in the end, the reason they didn’t get it done was because . . . they didn’t get it done.  The State Department seems to be in a similar bind when it comes to processing visas for Iraqis who have helped our country and who may be killed as a result. (more…)