At 08:24 PM 8/2/99 -0500, Eugene Kridler wrote:

>Politicians aren't afraid of public perceptions. What they're really
afraid of is
>the lack of money for their-quote-war chests-unquote- elections and
reelections
>and their perks, sad to say.

Well, I'll have to disagree with this to some degree. Our Next President
Georgie Bush Jr. has reversed himself on global warming, saying that he's
now convinced that the science is sound. Directly due to the discovery
that a majority of Republicans are convinced that global warming is not
a myth generated by left-wing envirowhackos. Public perceptions do count
when politicians fear/hope they translate into votes.

> Why is this present Congress refusing to appropriate
>money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for wildlife refuges.

In part because hardly anyone knows about the Fund, so they can get
stealthily get away with it. Also in part because many folks have the
perception that the feds already own enough or even too much land. Part
of the Republican backlash against the enforcement of laws like the
NFMA and NEPA on our federal lands has been to tout privatization or
at least state control of such lands, so it's not surprising that they
think they can get away with not purchasing more lands.

Very sad, too, since the Fund seems to be used in a very targetted
way to purchase diminishing habitat, i.e. various wetland types,
that kind of thing.



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net