Language in the legislation that saved the Owyhee Canyon lands

While I changed a lot of pol­icy in Con­gress dur­ing my Wash­ing­ton stint, this is the effort I remain most proud of.

This is the effort I spear­headed almost single-handedly, to help save the largest pris­tine, high desert ecosys­tem in the lower 48, and area of land left with­out a paved road, also home to 12 endan­gered species and home to an Indian tribe, from one of the largest ille­gal land deals in the his­tory of the United States.

Below is the lan­guage in the bill, recorded in the Con­gres­sional Record, which is where all Con­gres­sional leg­is­la­tion that is passed is recorded, that com­mem­o­rates its salvation.

Not that the old saw is still not true — no good deed goes unpunished.

The Obama White House didn’t even bother to invite me to the White House for the sign­ing of the bill ear­lier this year that gave the Owyhee Canyon lands, that I saved at the age of 27, the largest piece of land in the Omnibus Pub­lic Land Man­age­ment Act Bill to receive Fed­eral Wilder­ness Pro­tec­tion.  Smarty pants in the White House was still com­mu­nity orga­niz­ing at a rather remote pub­lic hous­ing project in the Mid­west and nobody had ever heard of him before.  So, I think my accom­plish­ments on a national level, and at a far younger age grant me the right to pas­sage and a meet­ing in the Oval Office on merit alone.  What do you think?

But instead, the stu­pid social sec­re­tary invited a white boy instead, the son of a dead movie star.  So much for mer­i­toc­racy and the recog­ni­tion of women, par­tic­u­larly those with disabilities.

I wasn’t even an elected mem­ber of Con­gress, but man­aged to beat the Pen­ta­gon, the Inte­rior Depart­ment, the State of Idaho and the Clin­ton White House who were more con­cerned about an unnec­es­sary bomb­ing range and the money their crony, an FOB, would have got­ten out of the deal (to be put back into the re-election cam­paign) than the envi­ron­ment or the Native peo­ple who lived on the land.  It was a Mon­ica Lewin­sky scan­dal in cer­tain cir­cles that was only kept to a minor roar by mas­sive infu­sions of cash spent by DoD to cover it up on eco­nomic devel­op­ment for the tribe.  Maybe that’s why I wasn’t invited to the White House for Mr. Obama’s sign­ing.  Mrs. Clin­ton would not have for­got­ten this black eye.  It still remains the biggest accom­plish­ment I have ever done in my life.  The next one is the fight The White House is going to help me with.

Or else…

I’m not afraid of you.