President George W. Bush has protected three Pacific Ocean areas as marine national monument areas Tuesday. The three areas, a combined almost 200,000 square miles, are:
• Rose Atoll, a pink coral near American Samoa.
• The Marianas Marine National Monument, the three northernmost islands in the northern Marianas chain, and the the Mariana Trench, the deepest trench in the oceans. (Of note: The trench is protected, but not the water above it.)
• The Pacific Remote Islands National Monument, seven islands and atolls in the central Pacific.
The move was hailed by environmentalists, who have not had many opportunities to praise the president. Joshua S. Reichert of the Pew Environment Group told the Washington Post that Bush “has ushered in a new era of ocean conservation in the United States and the world at large” with his push to protect ecologically valuable marine areas.”
The Washington Post also notes that Bush acted against the advice of Vice President Dick Cheney, who warned of a setting a dangerous precedent.
In the waning days of his administration, are there any things you would like to see President Bush do? (I’m still waiting for the commutation of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan’s prison sentence to time served.)
Jamie Riley is the P-D letters editor and gatekeeper of the letters blog. Before joining the editorial page in May 2005, she was a reporter and page designer. Jamie lives in University City with her husband, Charles, daughter, Elise, and the world's best Jack Russell terrier, Logan, better known as Stinky. 
Jamie – thanks for posting this story. Pres. Bush has done more to protect our oceans than any other president in history. But sadly, the front page of the PD couldn’t possibly see beyond their Bush hatred to print this story that was all over the MSM evening news.
Nick – ditto – I will never forgive President Bush for this and possibly the Republican Party. McCain too did nothing on that. I am so glad he lost. I think the GOP dodged a real bullet with his loss. I am curious to see of the Dems who have tried to get them pardoned will approach Obama on this. Maybe we can start a campaign on this with McCaskill. She seems to have a lot of influence.
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Tom, I don’t think you were very nice. Hell is a lot hotter these days with global warming. Journalists these days don’t go out into the field. It would be quite a shock to their system to go from a climate controlled environment to one hell of a hot place.
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Nice Jamie – I see you deleted my post. Anything that criticizes the PD is not allowed. Got it.
I’ll try part of it again…If I were Bush I’d hold a press conference and tell everyone at the PD and the other liberal haters out there to go to you know where.
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George, just pack up and leave.
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Cheney would have to show him how to do it.
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Enviros should look this gift horse in the mouth before cheering. One of the seven islands in the new “pristine” national monument is Johnston Atoll, a “pristine” island partly constructed of dredged coral, bombed to smithereens by the Japanese, used for atmospheric nuclear testing by us, and then as a chemical waste dump for Agent Orange, sarin and other lovely war materiel. It has been occupied by the military, and declared off-limits for various reasons, including an island wide plutonium contamination.
Hey, I nominate East St. Louis, Rocky Flats and the Hanover Nuclear Site for monument status– wanna go on vacation?
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How about an executive order giving Obama natural born citizen status.
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how about saying that he is sorry for the last eight years
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Pardon the border guards.
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