Sleep Tight

Aaron Gardner reports that the size and speed and severity of the wildfires just south of me last month was due to Bill Clinton and the EPA:

Environmental regulations restricting the construction of forest access roads have limited the ability of the Forest Service to clear combustible brush and trees, adding dangerous fuel to the wildfires that have ravaged Colorado this summer. The so-called “roadless rule,” which was first implemented in 2001 by President Clinton shortly before he left office, restricts and in many cases prohibits local and federal officials from building and maintaining roads that allow firefighters to clear out growth that could instantly become tinder for a new fire.

As the Romans demonstrated more than two millennia ago, roads are the very foundation of civilization. What does it tell you about people who would simply ban them over huge swathes of the country? Well, for starters, it’s that the don’t really seem to care if wildfires threaten entire major cities, so long as they get to feel good about “protecting” the environment.

Hey, guess what, Democrat bozos? Colorado Springs is the environment of about 650,000 of your fellow human beings.

But it’s the third graf in Aaron’s story that should really worry you:

President Bush attempted to give more control over roadless areas back to the states by throwing out the one-size-fits-all 2001 roadless rule and allowing states to engage in a petition process in order to promulgate their own rules. Colorado began the petition process in 2005, while litigation against the Bush administration throwing out the 2001 roadless rule was still ongoing.

Even with well-intentioned Republicans in office, it can be difficult — if not impossible — to totally undo the Democrats’ regulatory madness. That’s doubly true when those regulations promulgated under the virtual cover of night, in the twilight days of an Administration.

If that has you thinking about what Lame Duck Obama might get away with, well… me, too.