Fish & Wildlife Drag Feet While Interior Sells Out Polar Bears

From today's New York Times comes this scary little bit. Chili Bear, the new resident polar bear in the Home Front Brigade wants to bring it to everyone's attention.

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service has announced that early next month it will sell oil and gas leases on nearly 30 million acres of prime polar bear habitat in the Chukchi Sea. Meanwhile, the department’s Fish and Wildlife Service has postponed a long-awaited decision on whether to place this iconic and troubled animal on the list of threatened species.

This means that Bush and Cheney will give their buddies in the oil industry first whack at sensitive polar bear habitat while their Fish and Wildlife friends drag their feet on protecting polar bears. Yet within a few decades two thirds of all polar bears will be gone, including _all_ of Alaska's.