The sale of the Chukchi Sea waters for offshore drilling is now taking place, presided over by Minerals Management Service director Randall Luthi, a Reagan-Bush right-winger from Wyoming.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is now in its 29th day of breaking the law for having failed to declare the polar bear endangered because of the decline of sea ice due to global warming. The head of the FWS, Dale Hall, has testified the science is clear that the polar bear is endangered, but he needs more time to submit a "high-quality decision".
Luthi testified before Congress:"We wouldn't be proceeding with this sale if we weren't comfortable that we had enough knowledge, enough data to say that we can adequately see that the polar bear is protected. I'm confident we have done all we needed to do."
Leaked e-mails show MMS scientists pleading desperately with the Bush appointees otherwise.
February 6, 2008 will go down in history as the day Bush doomed the polar bear, the climate-change canary in the coal mine, to extinction . . .
. . . And the best the environmentalists, the Democrats, the progressives, the climate activists (yours truly included) could do was to live-blog the sale in a polar bear suit.