Wow. Thank you Lisa.
When this is written about, the kids will wonder what the heck we were thinking. Again.

And Dugg!

Dugg.

Thanks Lisa.

GWB Flushing Amerika down the toilet indescriminately and thoroughly. May his toilets never cease backing up.

Has anyone seen a poll of Utah residents on how they will like having their state’s natural beauty obliterated with oil derricks? I’d be really surprised if the ‘Drill baby, drill’ people meant, ‘Who cares what it does to our property values, our ground water and our tourist business? Go ahead an drill in my back yard.’

My brother and father live in Utah and love the beauty of the state but don’t much care for living in the state otherwise. Actually, they don’t much care for living in the state of Utah, for specific reasons of the religion of the state versus their love of the beauty of the state.

Are these lands being bought or leased for mineral rights- usually it’s the latter.

Seems like Redford et al could bring a lawsuit and ask for an injunction to stop the sale until Jan 21 or later.

Wonder if Ted Turner is going to get involved? He has purchased a lot of property for preservation…don’t know if it could be brought.

he. I assume that NRDC et al will make sure shrub’s use of executive powers to enable these auctions are legit. I’d love to see these says reversed next year. On the other hand, there’s a small part of me that says if Kennecott Land wants to rape Utah some more, and they’re able to confine their damage to predominately rethug areas of the state, I say go for it. Nothing like arsenic-laced emissions mixed in with wingnuttery.

What passes for mineral rights exploitation in Utah by the way, complements of the likes of Kennecott:

http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gaz…..r1-450.jpg

It’s stunning territory. I’ve hiked and camped out there, and have been waiting ever since to go back. I hope this can be blockled for six weeks in court. That’s all it takes.

Utah voted red for Bush more than any other state in 2004 and this is what it got them. Not all, but the majority of Utahns are born and indoctrinated GOP and have never given any thought whatsoever to political beliefs or consequences. The Mormon Church embraces the GOP and so the followers also blindly do as well. This is what you get when you never engage in critical thinking, but simply vote as your church instructs.

Did they expect to have their land/minerals “grabbed”?

W and Cheney should pay for this out their personal fortunes.

The Mormon states (Utah, Wyoming,Idaho, and to a lesser extent Arizona) are the toughest gooper states to crack in the nation.

Alabama will go dem before Utah

yep. they fully buy into the concept that their god wants their entire state to be transformed into a giant bit filled with the toxic sludge tailings that result from the process of creating the giant pit. It was all ordained in those new books they added to their version of the bible.

Sorry.. I guess I should try to be a more tolerant person, now that we’re living in post-partisan American an’ all….

First, they would have had to think. Most Utah voters are sheep that simply follow the direction of the Church. They vote just like the conservative evangelicals. It’s all about homophobia and abortion. Being a democrat, asking questions and critical thinking all threaten your acceptance in the community and the family. Having lived there at one time, I can tell you that asking questions, standing out in any way and not voting GOP are dangerous to your business, your family and your overall well being. This is cult culture.

It’s just some last minute looting. They will be doing this until Obama actually takes the oath of office. As Addington said, they will keep pushing until they are stopped, and no one has ever been there to stop them. They still aren’t.

Gee, will they be able to remove their mountain tops too. /s

actually, the new, post-shrub Utah landscape can be pretty too:

Bingham Mine, Utah:
http://bp3.blogger.com/_Ymx9e6…..tynsky.jpg

And nickel tailings runoff.. the colors aren’t photoshopped:
http://bp3.blogger.com/_Ymx9e6….._34_EB.jpg

Beautiful in an eerie kind of way.. just a little cancerous.

How scary….Ive known some about the Mormon influence, but had no idea of the pervasiveness, I guess. I had a woman friend who had been raised Mormon, and the whole experience was still terrifying for her and very sad in the way her family still believed.

I wish could do a film on Artesia, NM. The City was named for its artesian wells. There is a refinery there which supplies the military as a result many environmental protections have not been enforced. Driving east on hiway 82 starting at US285 (the route from Roswell to Carlsbad) immediately at the intersection is the refinery. A nose clip is advised. Proceding east past all the oilfield junk one comes to major oilfiels. A disaster of epic proportions. The delicate flora totally abused by roads pits and pumps. By the way the water in Artesia is no longer potable.

Somebody should have told Bush that, when they stole 2000 for him, they did NOT give him the deed to America. Oh they DID give him the deed? Nevermind…….

“I wonder if anyone is eligible to buy up sections of the beautiful wilderness simply to preserve them…I’d love receive some wilderness for Yule this year!”

I’m not sure if the leases requires the actual development of the lands for mining/ranching…but I suppose one could bid, not use them, and then they would come up later for another auction through a voiding of the terms of the lease. THAT might allow the lands to be “recaptured” for conservation usage.

Also today Bush signed an executive order allowing medical personnel to deny treatment if that violated their religious beluiefs.

I know this is Bush’s FU to people who want women to have access to abortions and contraception…but what I guess that means is that someone that believes that medicine gets in the way of miraculous cures could deny any treatment to patients at all. Or providing health assistance to someone they consider a demon (i.e a dictator, murderer, terrorist, or merely, perhaps, someone who is mentally ill). A doctor converted to the branch of Catholocism that Bobby Jindal belongs to might recommend exorcism. Doctors might start denying immunizations. Some religious sects actually say that transplants and transfusions are sinful.

And someone who belongs to a Christian Identity White Supremicist church may be allowed to deny treatment to a minority group.

Hey, it’s all good, right?

I mean we elected a black man president, didn’t we? And y’all know that the color of one’s skin and the platitudes and aphorisms they spout speak so much louder than the actions they take, right?

Obama is speaking volumes with his actions by letting a war criminal (Gates) remain in his cabinet post, by naming the enemy (Republicans, and yes, they are the enemy at this point) to cabinet posts, by hinting that the Bush tax cuts will remain in effect while the rest of us take it up the rectum and pay from the same orifice.

Obama, change? As far as I’m concerned they shouldn’t be used in the same sentence.

The whole state of Utah is a “rethug” area, except for Salt Lake City, and there will not be any drilling or mining there.

Try again…