Okay, this just makes me angry. Rather than even consider phasing out some of the tax cuts for the most wealthy (tax cuts that they originally said were temporary), the chimperor is proposing to sell off up to a billion dollars worth of our national forests to subsidize schools in rural areas. And why is there a shortfall in the first place? Chimpy's 2007 budget calls for funding to be cut from those areas. The Houston Chronicle reports: Bush team seeks to sell land
The Bush administration Friday laid out plans to sell off more than $1 billion in public land during the next decade, including 85,000 acres of National Forest property in California.
Most of the proceeds would help pay for rural schools and roads, making up for a federal subsidy that has been eliminated from President Bush's 2007 budget.
The cynic in me thinks of all those logging interests who have been itching to get their mitts on our heritage, those stunning national forests. So it's a two-fer for him. Reward his contibutors, and keep his wealthy "base" happy.
In the meantime, our Canadian neighbors came down on the right side of conservation. Canada to protect wildlife and logging in huge B.C. park. The new park in British Columbia will be twice the size of Yellowstone.
VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Canada unveiled a 16 million-acre preserve Tuesday, including parkland covering an area twice the size of Yellowstone, teeming with grizzly bears, wolves and wild salmon in the ancestral home of many native tribes.
Closing another chapter of the wars between environmentalists and loggers, the Great Bear Rainforest is the result of an accord between governments, aboriginal First Nations, the logging industry and environmentalists.
It will stretch 250 miles along British Columbia's rugged Pacific coastline -- the ancestral home of groups whose cultures date back thousands of years. The area also sustains a rare white bear found only in British Columbia, called "spirit bears" by the Gitga'at people of the region.
"The agreement on these areas represents an unprecedented collaboration between First Nations, industry, local governments and many other stakeholders in how we manage the vast richness of B.C.'s coast for the benefit of all British Columbians," said Premier Gordon Campbell, who was accompanied by native dancers and drummers for the announcement and formal First Nations blessing.
The republicans won't be happy until the entire country is paved over and filled with McMansions. Feh.
Posts
6 comments:
Don't see this passing. Local people like their local national forests. I'm not sure he could get a majority of Congress to pass it -- and even if he slips it into some 'must pass' completely unrelated legislation, it will be tied up in court for the next million years. Long enough for a Dem administration to undo the damage.
And if Congressional Dem candidates can't make a campaign issue out of this -- I really do fucking give up.
"He cut the subsidies for our schools to give a tax cut to his billionaire friends. Now he wants to make up the difference by selling off your children's campgrounds"
How tough an argument would that be?
Well, I'd like to think it's an easy argument.
But notice how he slipped it into the budget without talking about it?
The argument will be, "how can you not support the schools?"
It's the underhandedness of it all that infuriates me.
This budget is the beginning of Bushco's slash-and-burn last stand. They're not even talking about the initiatives -- they're just trying to stuff the budget to see how much they can get.
I fear it's only going to get worse from here. And I really didn't think that would be possible, given the genocidal, suicidal course Bushco has set from the beginning.
It boils down to one thing:
mo' money, mo' money, mo' money
for his pals and screw the rest of the world and our future.
It boils down to one thing:
mo' money, mo' money, mo' money
Yes. And the fact that chimpy wants to be king.
The argument will be, "how can you not support the schools?"
And the responseis "How come you cut XX billion dollars out of the education budget?"
You can always tell the policies they know will be political losers. Those are the ones they slip in in the middle of the night, with no debate.
You can always tell the policies they know will be political losers. Those are the ones they slip in in the middle of the night, with no debate.
True.
They think no one is going to notice.
Post a Comment