A bookseller friend of mine at the Barnes & Noble where I work pointed out the obvious nutshell point that I missed when I wrote my post yesterday. It's clearly outrageous that over 2 million acres of wilderness is being opened to private industrial development, but what everyone needs to remember is that the Bush administration has done all this by administrative rule changes. None of these changes in wilderness protection policies have been presented or explained to the public, much less discussed publicly, or voted on by Congress. This is yet another example of Dubya's contempt for democratic values, democratic process, and democratic institutions.