A review of Larry's carrer...

In the matter of how best to revive the Northwest's salmon runs, who can forget Craig's 2005 maneuver to defund the facility responsible for counting in-bound fish on the Columbia River. His back door rider was thrown out in court, but his intent was obviously in line with the principle ("The less people know, the more we like it") which has guided so many natural resource-based industries in these dark Bush Times. It illustrates well not only Craig's disdain for any data that doesn't serve his masters' interests, but also his general scorn for the entire effort to protect or invigorate what little those masters haven't yet destroyed.

In the same vein, in 2006...

A review of Larry's carrer...

In the matter of how best to revive the Northwest's salmon runs, who can forget Craig's 2005 maneuver to defund the facility responsible for counting in-bound fish on the Columbia River. His back door rider was thrown out in court, but his intent was obviously in line with the principle ("The less people know, the more we like it") which has guided so many natural resource-based industries in these dark Bush Times. It illustrates well not only Craig's disdain for any data that doesn't serve his masters' interests, but also his general scorn for the entire effort to protect or invigorate what little those masters haven't yet destroyed.

In the same vein, in 2006, Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, a Republican, introduced legislation that would have extended protection to the headwaters of the Snake River. Thomas has since died, but both current Wyoming senators supported the bill. Yet as a powerful member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Craig saw to it that no action was taken on the measure, effectively snuffing the protection.

The General Mining Act of 1872 has been the miners' manual since before Custer met his Waterloo at the Little Big Horn, yet Craig has consistently fought any meaningful attempt to reform it. Where once the act encouraged gnarly old prospectors to lead their burros forth and dig up something valuable, it now allows huge mining operations, often from other countries, to pick public lands clean with virtually no payback to the owners—being us—and minimal liability for the mess they make. Need I add that Craig has long been a major recipient of contributions from these same operations?

more...
Pity the Fool