Retired National Park Employees Accuse Bush Admin of Hijacking Nat. Parks

[kerrygoddess]

Retired National Park Employees Accuse Bush Administration of Hijacking Our National Parks
August 28th, 2005

On Friday, a group of retired National Park Service employees accused Bush administration political appointees of hijacking America’s National Parks. They cited a leaked Interior Department document which shows a move to push recreational use of National Parks and resource development within National Parks, over National Park preservation.

The group pointed to Paul Hoffman, an assistant Interior secretary, who oversees the National Park Service, as being the catalyst behind the revisions. Hoffman is former head of the chamber of commerce in Cody, Wyoming. He also worked for Dick Cheney, when the Cheney was a U.S. lawmaker in the 1980s.

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=370

[barbaraann]

1. Oregon forest "accidentally" logged.

http://cascadiascorecard.typepad.com/blog/2005/08/oops_we_logged_.html

(Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area, which has rare trees and other plants.)

[Roland99]

4. .

:evilfrown:

[kerrygoddess]

5. I read about that...

"accidently" my ass!

[Double T]

2. bush and the republican neocons will not be satisfied till they have......

'mis-marked' every tree in every park and clear cut them ALL, 'cause it's all about makin' the money.

[Chocolatebison]

3. Next thing you know they will open up the parks to hunting

from Native Americans.

For years Native American tribes have been suing the Federal Govt for hunting rights in national parks and monuments.

[Hidden Stillness]

6. There is No Value Other Than Money

Well, the modern Republican Party is a group, after all, that doesn't believe there is such a thing as communal society, or that people have rights just to have rights, or that anything that might have been commercially exploited should be "locked away" and protected. Oil anywhere should be dug up; the Alaskan Wildlife Preserve (ANWR) is just a storehouse where "we" have "our" oil in storage until "we" get it out. This is the group that out of nowhere killed overtime pay for millions of workers--why?

There is no such thing as "nature" to these people--everything is just fodder for the corporate marketplace, and an untouched forest or lake is just, to them, a property that might have made them money, and didn't.

[Gregorian]

7. You said that pretty darned well.

One thing I have noticed since moving to the country is that most people don't live there. They don't see what is going on in their name. I didn't. But I do now. And if the rest could see, they'd make a lot more noise.
I ask them- What's wrong with being an environmentalist. Your post answers that very well.

[kerrygoddess]

8. Even in the city...

Being an environmentalist is important. I grew up in the country and now live in L.A. I miss the wide open spaces of fields and forests and live too far from the ocean for my tastes.

I've been reading RFK, Jr's Crimes Against Nature, it's horrifying what the Bush administration has done to our environment.

[glitch]

9. And he wrote that several years ago... the rape continues.

It's horrific.:mad:

[bobbieinok]

10. summer of 87 or 88 took a trip from IA to Seattle...camped out a lot

saw the beautiful forests but also the clearcutting (often hidden behind a stand of 'cover-up', shielding trees)

one problem: many Americans have never seen the forests and don't realize what is being lost after decades of careful preservation

how can bushco work against the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt and still be called republican???????

[Daphne08]

12. Clearcutting should be illegal.

I detest it!

[tommcintyre]

11. Watch the movie "Silver Cty"

Part of the movie shows the neocon plan to "free" (for development) all that gov't controlled land that's just going to "waste" now.

http://www.offoffoff.com/film/2004/silvercity.php
"...worthwhile for its dead-on hilarious jibes at the current president..."
snip
"Silver City" the movie is about a lot of things, but they all tie in to a deal to turn a perilous old mining site into an idyllic lakeside community. Into this theme, writer-director John Sayles weaves a multicolored skein of threads. The developers will need to swipe someone else's water rights and paper over the obvious environmental impediments if they're to make their lucrative project happen — and that's where Dickie Pilager comes in.

Sayles regular Chris Cooper (his talents only recently discovered by Oscar for his role in "Adaptation") has already collected raves for his performance as the dimwit son of the former governor, now seeking the office himself. Starting with a little head-wiggle that's actually pure Reagan, he gives a flawless impression of the confused start-stop mannerisms of the current President Bush every time he has to answer a question.

What are his priorities? "The environment, the whole environmental ... arena ... that's a priority. The roads, you got to keep your infrastructure ... in place ... where it's supposed to be ... That's a priority." So what isn't a priority? "What's not a priority is those matters which ... If you're going to have a front burner, it's like cooking, then you got to have a back one, and that's where you keep your other ... priorities." All this is really just comic relief within a bigger story, but as a satirical dart aimed at our extemporizer-in-chief, it's a bull's-eye."
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