Animated Halloween hit shakes up Bush-Kerry debate

Halloween hit the Monster Mash is being re-released with an environmental twist to highlight the Bush Administration's own bad environmental record.


In collaboration with Campaign to Protect America’s Lands (CPAL) and Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund (DWAF), original vocalist Bobby “Boris” Pickett has recorded the Monster Slash in a last attempt to open the American public’s eyes to the negative impact the President’s policies are having on the country’s natural environment before the impending presidential election.

“We were hiking in the forest late one night, when our eyes beheld an eerie sight: our President appeared and began to frown, then he and his friends cut the forest down – they did the forest slash,” Mr Pickett croons.

Of course, he is referring to President Bush’s decision to repeal the federal roadless rule (see related story), which eliminates federal protection covering 58.8 million acres of wild national forests, allowing roads to be built and encouraging logging.

It is not just George Bush’s decision to leave the US’s natural heritage open to deforestation that has caused concern, as critics have accused him of making environmental policies based on the desires of big money interests (see related story).

The Bush Administration has also continuously refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, claiming that it is unbalanced and unrealistic (see related story), despite mounting global concerns about the implications of increasing carbon emissions on the earth’s atmosphere and the effects of global warming shaking our planet up this year with typhoons, hurricanes (see related story), floods, fires and landslides.

“The scariest thing to happen to our forests in a long time is the Bush Administration’s plan to surrender vast quantities of virgin wilderness areas to the logging, mining and oil industries,” stated concerned CPAL director Peter Altman.

But hopefully for the organisers (and the wildlands of America) the Jason mask-clad animated depiction of Dick Cheney helping President Bush take a chainsaw to the natural forests that Clinton’s roadless rule protected will get the message across before Bush and John Kerry have their final showdown.

After all, as SWAF president, Rodger Schlickeisen pointed out, while the big timber and oil companies get all the treats from President Bush, the American public get nothing but tricks.

“Monster Slash gives people a chance to laugh and then get active to protest the Bush plan and restore some balance in our national forests,” he said.

By Jane Kettle

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