[jazusamo]

The environazis won another round.

[GeronL]

and who owns this land right now?

[caver]

Oh great, more “public” owned property that the peasants can’t tread upon.

[G Larry]

As Doc Hastings indicated, this is about shutting down American industry and INCREASING DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL!

Obama’s lies continue!!!

[henkster]

I would like to know the total amount of natural resources that are located on these lands.

A country rich in resources that refuses to use them. Stupid Americans.

[jazusamo]

Wilderness bill Ping!

[Colvin]

I love how this always involves us westerners.
I pox on the eastern states!

[chuck_the_tv_out]

“interstate commerce”? bullcrap. they’ve no right.

[Drango]

Excellent....this will certainly pull us out of the recession. Way to focus congress.

[doodad]

I thought this got killed a week or more ago in the Senate?

Geez. No love for us geologists that is for sure.

[bestintxas]

This is an incredibly brilliant plan hatched to take away all revenues of these lands that might be generated from the underlying minerals.

America does not need this revenue, right?

See Obama talking about increasing revenues the same day!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123792991709930321.html

[crazyhorse691]

“After nearly a decade during which our parks were taken for granted and our range lands were scarred by a spider-web of roads and (drilling) well pads,” the lands bill “represents a new dawn for America’s heritage and American values,” said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

---

American values now seem to be defined as protecting urban backyard playgrounds so the masses can tear it apart just for a weekend of fun. No roads plus no logging equals a bonfire of epic proportions in the near future. Time to start up a hotshot firefighters company to meet the upcoming demand and tap into that bottomless well of federal money.

[silverleaf]

the good news is we will be building more roads and bridge to get there-

[DrewsMum]

Doesn’t the Communist Manifesto say something about this?

[USMA '71]

Maybe this would be a good time and a good subject for the 35 states that have passed or are considering 10th Amendment Resolutions to confront the Feds about. What section of the Constitution gives the Feds the rights to restrict the use of state property???

[doodad]

What gets me, especially after the “no legal standing” rulings on O’s birth certificate, is how a bunch of lawyers and Sierra Club members have any standing in states where they don’t reside.

[bestintxas]

Zero is giving up on revenues like this for this stupid land grab.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/an_end_to_dependence_on_middle.html

[Flycatcher]

The Alaska provision allows the state go forward with plans to build an airport access road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge as part of a land swap that transfers more than 61,000 acres to the federal government, much of it designated as wilderness. The project calls for a gravel road through the refuge, which is home to hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, salmon, caribou and other animals.

Are these people nuts? Do they think a simple road is going to harm any migratory animal? In their misguided reverence for "Mother Earth," these religious zealots (and that's what they are) have thrown common sense completely out the window.

I also noted this:

Hastings and Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to allow visitors to national parks to carry concealed, loaded weapons. A federal judge last week struck down a Bush administration rule allowing loaded guns in parks and wildlife refuges.

It looks like the Constitution shredders won on that round too. What a sad day for America.

(By the way, I'm back now until April 13, when I hit the field again. Thanks for the ping!)