Don't mention polar bears!

And then there's this memo, distributed by the Bush Administration to biologists at the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service:

“Foreign Travel — New Requirement — Please Review and Comply, Importance: High”

“Please be advised that all foreign travel requests (SF 1175 requests) and any future travel requests involving or potentially involving climate change, sea ice and/or polar bears will also require a memorandum from the regional director to the director indicating who’ll be the official spokesman on the trip and the one responding to questions on these issues, particularly polar bears.”

The sample memorandums, described as to be used in writing travel requests, indicate that the employee seeking permission to travel “understands the administration’s position on climate change, polar bears, and sea ice and will not be speaking on or responding to these issues."

The Bush Administration is under pressure to list the polar bear as an endangered species because of the melting polar ice caps, which might (though the Interior Department denies this) require the imposition of limits on greenhouse gases. Proof positive of the polar bears' plight is the picture below:

But the Carnivorous Conservative says he's got proof otherwise in the form of the picture below:

See, the ice is really thick up there, and you even gotta carry a gun to scare all the polar bears away! Polar bears are a menace!