Wow, the Republicans are really trying to gut wilderness protection this week. Anyone else following this? Really, their budget is a full scale attack on all sorts of environmental programs.

"Rep. Heller (R-NV) would axe the Antiquities Act, which is the reason places like Arches, Bryce, & Zion are protected today. The 2nd, from Rep. Bishop (R-UT) would eliminate funding for BLM's Conservation System - meaning all BLM monuments, conservation areas, wilderness, wilderness study areas, etc."

House Republicans' Bill Would Gut Decades of Environmental Protections

They've voted to gut the Clean Air Act too.

Tell your Representative to oppose attacks on America's wild lands

Edited by Found on 02/18/2011 17:40:13 MST.

1994 all over again. They'll be gone in '12 when people figure out what they are up to.

yes, without a doubt the time is right to defeat the evil republicans. the efforts of doing that should give the better people a good excuse to not notice that the democrats still have their war going on. several of them in fact.

politics is theater.
this is so obvious that at times, it becomes awkward to watch somebody take a "side".

cheers,
v.

their war(s)?

um... right.

The GOP is corrupt, self serving and even evil at times!! Sadly, the Democratic Party matches it in every respect. Sigh...

Still don't get why Bush felt compelled to use our military to "sell" our system to the Iraqis??

The political circus aside, this is a considerable threat to the areas that we love to hike in. I for one, care about protecting the areas where I play. This makes me pretty angry.

"The GOP is corrupt, self serving and even evil at times!! Sadly, the Democratic Party matches it in every respect. Sigh..."

"The political circus aside, this is a considerable threat to the areas that we love to hike in. I for one, care about protecting the areas where I play. This makes me pretty angry."

Agree on both points. The rhetoric on both sides is non-stop. Here's a typical over-the-top quote from one of our nation's fine Rep's recently,

"EPA would, I am sure, tell you that they are simply collecting a little bit of data on greenhouse gases, that this registry is simply a very innocent effort to learn a little bit more about who is emitting greenhouse gases -- who or what," he said on the House floor.

"But this data is the very foundation of the EPA's effort to pursue its radical anti-jobs agenda."

Think of the Children!!!11!!1

Edited by roguenode on 02/18/2011 19:46:58 MST.

"Agree on both points. The rhetoric on both sides is non-stop."

But somewhere in between all that rhetoric are real people and real places that this political circus has a life and death effect upon.

Like Utah. Like everywhere.
But then the disgust with the system and ultimate political paralysis creeps in. Get frustrated, get disheartened, get apathetic...and you give them exactly what they want: a populace that doesn't blink an eye at $170 billion handouts to AIG, yet is perfectly willing to back cuts to vital services for the elderly, disabled, and children because "there's just no money"...as if they're the culprits for the economic crash.

As long as we keep blaming the wrong people....

Meanwhile, we've got an entrenched national policy of corporate welfare and cronyism of the highest order and 1 to 1.6 TRILLION (that we even know of) going to the Defense Department.

Can we even draw a line between Government/Corporation/Military any more?

We've got Halliburton and the likes still out there raking in millions in no-bid infrastructure contracts that get sold off to subcontractors in the blink of an eye. And WHAM-BANG, it's $1 million in tax-payer dollars right into a private sector pocket, HOLY MOLY look at that stock soar! But no, we're to believe they're not the culprit, it's the guy next door that wrecked the economy, the firefighter, the teacher, the nurse...the unscrupulous public employee or family on food stamps raking in the lavish salary and benefits, sitting in the bubble bath, and laughing at the private-sector working man.

Don't forget that every penny you'll ever pay for your entire tax-paying life just funded one mile of asphalt in some corner of Afghanistan...and that road will be abandoned and reclaimed by the desert in less than a year, that is, unless KBR is able to use it as a service road for a pipeline (Gee! Thanks, taxpayer!)

The political circus couldn't be a more obvious distraction from what's going on. Look past it and go fight for someone or something you believe in.
Thanks for the links Jack.

"But then the disgust with the system and ultimate political paralysis creeps in. Get frustrated, get disheartened, get apathetic...and you give them exactly what they want..."

Been close to this a few times myself and have found that being active to help people and places right at home works wonders in restoring the will to fight some more on a larger scale.

for any of you who are interested

https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=5752&s_src=610HSCSH04&s_subsrc=email

The EPA budget ran around $7-$8 billion dollars for quite a few years.

Then in '10 the budget ballooned to $10.3 billion dollars.

The actual increase in dollars from '09 to '10 was $2.6 billion, a 34% jump.

A budget reduction of $200 million dollars hardly seems like a "slash", an "attack" or an "assault" to me.

Wasn't the stimulus intended to be "timely, targeted and temporary"?

And aren't we supposed to shy away from aggressive words like "slash", "attack" and "assault" in the spirit of engaging in a civil discourse?

If you think for a second, that either one care about hiking trails, you might want to take a goverment class. Democrats and republicans only care about one thing and just like James Joyce, I won't finish this......

I think a strategy is to get people apathetic,

thinking that both Republicans and Democrats are just selfish,

then it'll be easier for them to rip us off

American politics is certainly entertaining because of it's extreme polarisation! I will say, at face value, that the Republicans at the moment seem to be anti-wilderness, anti-environment, anti-science, anti-health care and welfare, but maybe they've always been that way. Probably more fair to say they are anti-government involvement except when it comes to oil and warfare...

Republicans always that way, but some republicans and democrats are exceptions either way.

Glad we can provide you some entertainment.

Republicans are in favor of welfare to large corporations and wealthy people.

There is good and bad in each political party. However, which of the two is more tolerant towards others, and generally do the right thing more often than not. If I were to make a choice to side with, it would be with The Dems...many reasons why. As for 3rd party politics? It will never work within the USA. I have been a Green Party member and an Independent. I will stick with the Democrats now thank you.

"Republicans are in favor of welfare to large corporations and wealthy people"


AND Democrats are in favor of welfare to social institutions and the poor (wink)

Edited by kennyhel77 on 02/20/2011 19:29:24 MST.

I have to agree with Green Party way more than Democrats

But in general, if you vote Green it's the same as not voting

Other countries allow this sort of thing to work - you can have multiple parties and then a coalition decide on leadership, or I think it's called fusion voting - where you can, for example vote Green #1 and Democrat #2, if the Green candidate isn't in the money then your vote goes to the #2 - I think maybe Australia has this? or some other Western democracy country?

Well, like Warren Buffet said, there's a class warfare between the wealthy and the rest of the people and his class won : )

I really don't like either party because the agendas are all just about votes and the people they represent(lobbyist )

Just to comment on the oil bashing
- exxon profit margin 8%
- apple profit margin 21%
- Microsoft profit margin 30%

In 2009 exxon paid 79 billion in taxes or an effective rate of 47%.

When you say someone or a company should be taxed more. You are basically saying that the government can use the money more effectively and efficiently. I think the first thing that comes to most peoples mind regarding government spending is waste. It's not a perfect system but I think the business world does a much better job creating business value and growing an economy.

Just my two cents. No I don't work in oil and gas. I'm a CPA by trade and run a small business of about 50 people. I live this world of taxes, high health insurance cost, global competition, etc. I just want the government out of my way. Both parties

Brad

Edited by wufpackfn on 02/20/2011 19:47:27 MST.