Teddy is spinning in his grave about now

Plans to turn a secluded Badlands trail into a major road and river crossing might not have created such a stir if not for where it is: near the ranch where Theodore Roosevelt helped conceive the American conservation movement.

But as it is, hundreds of people and groups have flooded the officials in charge with their thoughts on the proposal, which has been stalled for years but now appears to be moving closer to reality.
Billings County officials want a crossing over the Little Missouri River and a road north of Medora to connect state Highways 16 and 85.
Proponents say it would cut as much as 100 miles off commutes, encourage economic development, and help fire trucks and ambulances respond faster."Our plan is not an evil plan, and we are not trying to terrorize the people who love the Badlands," said Jim Arthaud, a county commissioner. "We need this and we have a legal right to it."

But opponents fear it will become a road heavy with RVs and traffic from the area's oil booming industry, ruining an area that inspired the conservation-minded president.
"Teddy Roosevelt would be going nuts over this," said Wayde Schafer, a North Dakota spokesman for the Sierra Club. "It's going to alter the whole feel of the area if this road goes through."

All the county's proposed routes are within 2 1/2 miles of Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch, said Theodore Roosevelt National Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor.
"We're very concerned about the soundscape and any potential visual intrusion and dust," Naylor said. "It would forever impair a very special place."

Public comment is being accepted until Friday, said Doug Hecox, a spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration.
An environmental impact statement could be done by next spring, with a final decision in 2010, he said.
Sentiment is running about half and half, Hecox said, noting that locals' comments would hold more weight with regulators.
"A lot of folks are very supportive of it, and would like the benefit of shaving 90 to 100 miles off their commute," Hecox said.Billings County has just under 800 residents, according to the Census Bureau.

"Locals are all for it, but I wonder how heavy they (federal officials) will weigh it in a county ... losing population," Schafer said.

Arthaud, who also is a rancher and owns an oil trucking company, said an engineering firm hired by the county has identified three alternatives for the river crossing and road, all of which would at least partly traverse federal land.
Two of the routes would go through a 5,200-acre parcel, the former Blacktail Creek Ranch, next to Elkhorn.
The U.S. Forest Service completed the $5.3 million purchase last year, with $4.8 million coming from the federal government and $500,000 from conservation groups, including the Boone and Crockett Club, started by Roosevelt himself.
But the county won a court battle in 2005 to build a 6-mile long road and a low-water crossing through the Blacktail ranch when it was privately owned.
Forest Service spokeswoman Sherri Schwenke said the county still has a right to the road, which currently is little more than a jeep trail.
The three routes eyed by the county already have an existing roadbed and can easily be tied into existing farm-to-market road systems, Arthaud said.
"It's not like we just threw a dart. This is not only the logical location, but the only place that is feasible because of terrain," Arthaud said. "Otherwise, we'd have to plow through 6 miles of untouched Badlands."

Roosevelt, who was president from 1901 to 1909, set aside millions of acres for national forests and wildlife refuges during his administration.
He spent more than three years in the North Dakota Badlands in the 1880s.
He helped conceive the idea of conservation during the years he spent in the Badlands, said Lowell Baier, executive vice president of the Boone and Crockett Club, started by Roosevelt in 1887."We see it as the cradle of conservation, where the concept of conservation started in this country," Baier said."Find another route," he said. "Leave the sanctity of this place in silence."

Daily Funny

Definition:

Inflation (n) - is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten dollar haircut you got for five dollars when you had hair.

You can't stop the wind

And it keeps on rolling along ...

All 197 countries of the world have visited this little ol'blog and since I added the Flag Counter 108 have been back ... not bad for this humble Southern Boy's musings.

Some of the things they are saying about Carolina Naturally ...

"I found you blog to be very informative" - Malaysia
"Sacred elephants don't stand a chance of escaping unscathed" - Germany
"News with humor, Jon Stewart couldn't do any better" - United States
"I feel renewed inner peace when I read Carolina Naturally" - Nepal
"Scots rule, nice to read a fellow Scot's work" - Scotland
"Keep it up" - Australia
"I like the way all are treated fairly" - Pakistan
"Awesome, a Top Rank blog for sure" - United States

It's in the name

Carolina Naturally is read in ...

Olathe; Piscataway; Ooltewah;
Harve; Cle Elum; Pinckney;
New Braunfels; Olney;
Normal, Seal Beach; Chicopee:
Acton; Yulee;

'Least of my brothers ,,,'

Senator Barack Obama said today that the country's -- and his -- greatest moral failure has been selfishness.

"We still don't abide by that basic precept of Matthew -- whatever you do to the least of my brothers ... you do to me," Obama said.

As for himself: "I had a difficult youth ... I experimented with drugs and drank ... I trace this to a certain selfishness on my point ... I couldn't focus on other people," Obama told Pastor Rick Warren. "It's not about me."

Obama took the stage to a standing ovation at the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency at Warren's church in southern California, home to nearly 20,000 members.

*****

While he was citing a christian biblical quotation the way we treat others is a basic human tenet and reflected in all religions (granted in some cases it is a bit of a stretch, especially with fundamentalists - of every stripe).
It is refreshing to see and hear a politician actually make sounds that form real words and in a coherent pattern, the fact those words are closer to the truth (all politicians 'lie', that's a given) than we have heard in many years - particularly the last eight - is a bonus.

Horse-whipping is too good for him!

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is urging a change in state law after two kennels shot and killed 80 dogs.
Current state law allows kennel owners to euthanize their dogs.
Rendell said Saturday that he wants only veterinarians to be allowed to do so.

Officials say Elmer Zimmerman and his brother shot the dogs after an inspection July 24.
Wardens had ordered some of them to be checked for insect bites and had issued citations for their living conditions.

A hundred people attended a vigil outside the property Friday.

Elmer Zimmerman apologized, saying he thought he would face legal action if he didn't do something immediately.

Horse-whipping is too good for him ... too good by far!

Support the troops

If you support the troops then you must support Obama, otherwise you are not supporting the troops as they support Obama 6 to 1.

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain’s haul.

Despite McCain’s status as a decorated veteran and a historically Republican bent among the military, members of the armed services overall — whether stationed overseas or at home — are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008, by a $55,000 margin. Of federal contributions by military personnel to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama.

If military personnel are putting their hard earned monies somewhere you can bet your bottom dollar they know what they are getting. The fact that they are giving it overwhelmingly to the Democratic candidate should be a wake up call to the troglodytes and sycophants howling about 'supporting our troops' all the while doing their ever-loving best to not support them.

I cannot wait to hear the 'spin' on these facts the smear mill will be generating, can you?!

Pot and Kettle

If there ever was a more clearer example of the Pot calling the Kettle 'black' than the shrub's recent vocal machinations toward Russia, I don't know what it could be!

Here are a few examples of the almighty gall the nincompoop has:

BBC

CBC

The idiot actually said ... "Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century," speaking to reporters at the White House.
He said Georgians have cast their lot with the free world and "we will not cast them aside."

Damn, that is one strange planet the shrub lives on and it is sure not like the one we humans inhabit. Bullying and intimidation are the bulwark of the foreign policy of the cabal and it is biting them in the arse now.

Oh, but there's more ... September's Vanity Fair has a feature editorial on the shrub's hubris.

This excerpt from the feature is but a small sampling of the idiocy that is the shrub:.

“Your eminence, you’re lookin’ good!,” Bush bellowed when he met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in June. A few weeks later, at the G-8 Summit in Japan to discuss climate change, he exited with an air punch and a cheery “Good-bye from the world’s biggest polluter!” The remark was met with stony silence by the other attendees, who didn’t seem to appreciate this attempt at hilarity from a man whose nation consumes a quarter of the world’s oil. The president’s vaunted ability to assess others in high office was also on display during this trip. After gazing into the eyes of Dmitri A. Medvedev, he pronounced the new Russian president to be “a smart guy.” They say that opposites attract, and the two really did seem to hit it off.

The entire feature can be found here.