A little noticed political move was made a couple weeks ago… the Bush administration repealed the Roadless Area Conservation Rule – an act passed to restrict road construction, road reconstruction, and timber harvesting in roadless areas of national forests. What does this mean? It means that national wildlife areas are fair game for industry. Think I am spouting hyperbole and fear?

Take the case of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. It was a hot-button issue during the election and its oil reserves were touted as needed for our national security. Yeah, they recently opened it to the oil companies… but did you know how they made it possible? On December 23 of 2004, while the public was concentrating on Christmas, President Bush temporarily suspended the Roadless Conservation Rule in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. You all know what followed – the opening of the forest to oil interests.


What do you think the result of repealing the RCR entirely will be? The result will be the continued rape of our wilderness areas by big business. I guess they have to get their money back from the campaign contributions.

This administration has already done more to rape the wilderness than any previous group and will continue to do so until the “checks and balances” are returned to our political system. When one party or ideology controls all three branches of government, it is bad for Democracy, bad for America, and bad for the people. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!

Don’t read me wrong – I am not a Bush-bashing liberal. I am an independent progressive thinker that believes we need some of each in our goverment. When we have all conservatism in power, a little whacky liberalism is needed to bring us back to center.