Some interesting articles and things to ponder about the state of our country and the direction of this administration. If current environmental policies don't outrage you, the mess that is Iraq or the huge budget deficit might just do it. I linked the articles, but at least read the summaries! I even highlighted the important parts!!!

Oil and Gas Hold the Reins in the Wild West- Land Use Decisions Largely Favor Energy Industry
Saturday, September 25, 2004; Page A01 - Washington Post
... From his first days in Washington, President Bush has built an environmental record marked by extraordinary controversy, with decisions that have outraged environmentalists while drawing praise from industry trade groups and political conservatives.
... But the administration's most enduring environmental legacy may lie here in the West, where a series of policy decisions and little-noticed administrative actions have eased development restrictions on millions of acres of federal lands. More than 60 million acres -- an area twice the size of Virginia -- are more vulnerable to logging or drilling as a result of policies that weakened federal restrictions on their development. Other administration actions have made it harder for government officials to apply the most stringent protections to federal wild lands. As part of a legal settlement reached last year with Utah, the administration banned government workers from surveying public lands to identify areas worthy of being set aside by Congress as federal preserves off-limits to development of any kind. More than 3 million acres that had been nominated for a congressional designation lost their protected status.
In addition, Interior officials have worked rapidly to revise dozens of federal land-use plans. The documents, developed without congressional oversight, determine whether large swaths of federal territory will be protected or thrown open to businesses seeking gas, oil, grazing lands or timber.
Under the Bush presidency, this little-known policy tool is being used to increase energy companies' access to federal lands, an analysis of the documents shows. Draft plans that have been made public in the past year would open millions of acres that were previously off-limits to drilling.

New Priorities in Environment
September 14, 2004- New York Times
The Bush administration has accelerated resource development on public lands and has pushed to eliminate regulatory hurdles for military and industrial projects.

Growing Pessimism on Iraq, Doubts Increase Within U.S. Security Agencies
Wednesday, September 29, 2004; Page A01- Washington Post
A growing number of career professionals within national security agencies believe that the situation in Iraq is much worse, and the path to success much more tenuous, than is being expressed in public by top Bush administration officials, according to former and current government officials and assessments over the past year by intelligence officials at the CIA and the departments of State and Defense.
While President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others have delivered optimistic public appraisals, officials who fight the Iraqi insurgency and study it at the CIA and the State Department and within the Army officer corps believe the rebellion is deeper and more widespread than is being publicly acknowledged, officials say.

Deal in Congress to Keep Tax Cuts, Widening Deficit
September 23, 2004- New York Times
WASHINGTON- Putting aside efforts to control the federal deficit before the elections, Republican and Democratic leaders agreed Wednesday to extend $145 billion worth of tax cuts sought by President Bush without trying to pay for them.
...the deficit is expected to hit $420 billion this year, a record. Mr. Bush has promised only to cut the deficit in half by 2009.
... The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that debt will climb by $2.3 trillion over the next 10 years, and that making all Mr. Bush's tax cuts permanent would cost an additional $1.9 trillion by the end of 2014.