While no one is looking Bush decides to rape Alaska. Hey, that is where I live!

Whether it’s outsourcing a war in Iraq, or greasing the skids for industry buddies in Alaska, the Bush administration has made the backdoor fix its fundamental operating maxim.

The nation’s attention has lately been diverted to stocks’ roller-coaster ride, foreclosures and falling house prices, and self-destructive acts by 20-something showbiz folk.

What better time to sneak through something called the Chukchi Sea Oil and Gas Lease Sale 193, which happens to cover essential habitat for half the U.S. polar bear population?

What more opportune occasion to open 2.4 million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to logging and road building, on which Uncle Sam will be lucky to get back 5 cents on the dollar?

The Chukchi Sea lease is a particular example of how timing figures in a fix.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced a “delay” in its decision on listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

In the meantime, the Minerals Management Service is getting set, on Feb. 6, to throw open 30 million acres of the bears’ habitat to oil and gas development.

With the skill of a World War II convoy escort, the administration has laid down a smoke screen around its actions.

I am sad to say that our very popular Governor Sarah Palin is also complicit in this pillaging of our pristine wilderness and possibly speeding up the extinction of our polar bear population. By refusing to allow the bears to be placed on the endangered species list, to facilitate this mad dash for possible oil reserves, Governor Palin is continuing the policy of giving giant oil conglomerates free reign to stomp all over our delicate tundra further damaging our eroding ecosystem.

Governor palin has promised to bring back integrity to Alaskan politics and the Republican party, but her true colors are starting to show through.

She has clearly sided with the Bush administration and the oil companies over our native population and our endangered wildlife.