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>>I stand by my statement. Mr. Clinton just today is going to 'grab' some 60 million acres of land and 'protect' them.
>
>Good! If it does anything to stop Messrs. Bush and Cheney from handing Alaska over to their buddies at the oil companies to dig up, more power to him! I don't have much to criticize to rest of their platform on, but to me, the plans to dig up Alaska and to fund the missile defence shield reek of nothing other than greed and croneyism. I also really doubt in this day and age that people outside the US are just gonna roll over and let the good Dubya do whatever the hell he pleases in their back yards (pipelines, etc.). Good luck!

Rod,

<g>

We'll just reverse those Executive Orders and liberate the land for use then.. <g>

I dunno.. I think we should all be mandated by law to own guns, take commando tactic and survival classes, drive SUVs, eat raw meat, fart in public, arm Taiwan to the teeth and pull the financial plug on Russia.

<g>

Just kidding of course but I do think that quite apart from all the rhetoric there are some good reasons for allowing oil exploration on our soil. This may get some Canadian noses out of joint but we souldn't tell you folks how to do your business (though we have in the past - to our shame IMO) nor should we be precluded from doing what we think best - remembering the notion of responsibility for one's actions of course. Apparently we also receive a lot of our oil from Mexico and Venezuela rather than the Middle East - though Japan and Europe, apart fro the North Sea Oli Reserves, get a lot from there.