O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain;
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

That's Katharine L. Bates's vision of America.

George W. Bush's vision of America is somewhat different.

What can you say about the environmental record of an administration that seeks to test pesticides on poor children and pregnant women? That argues in court that a dam is part of a salmon's natural environment? That places a timber lobbyist in charge of the national forests and an oil lobbyist in charge of government reports on global warming? That cuts clean-air inspections at oil refineries in half, allows Superfund to go bankrupt and permits the mining industry to pump toxic waste directly into a wild Alaskan lake?

Only this: It's about to get even worse.

Who knew that by the start of the 21st century, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon would be looked back on as "environmental extremists" by an administration determined to destroy America's heritage of natural beauty and poison the air, soil, and water that belong to us all?

Why do Pres. Bush and the Republican Party hate this country so much? Why do they want to destroy it?

Via AMERICAblog.