By Kelly Sloan

AFP Western Slope Coordinator

One of the characteristics of an election year, apart from a steady draught of absurdity, is a natural proclivity towards focusing all of our attention on candidates, races, and the attendant drama. And quite properly so; we have all seen what happens when eyes are too long deflected off the candidates.

However, such a preoccupation with things electoral has a tendency to divert our attention from the less flashy, background activities which make up the practical side of politics. Radical environmentalists attempting to throw a spike belt in the path of any energy development project that doesn’t involve the sun, wind, or duck-urine infused hemp leaves blessed by a pagan dance-offering to Gaea herself, for instance.

While the rest of us political junkies are are poring over the latest analysis of the candidates offered up by the punditry, settling in to watch the umpteenth debate of the month, placing illegal bets on who will bow out next, and filling up online comment sections with animadversions against a particular candidate, groups like Wild Earth Guardians, Earth Justice, and others are busy imposing their Luddite view of the world on everyone else, mainly through litigation – for which they are generally awarded court costs. Nice.

Fortunately, Americans For Prosperity Colorado (for whom, for the sake of disclosure, I serve as Western Slope Coordinator) has recently initiated a project to help keep a spotlight on such goings-on. Last week, AFP Colorado announced the launch of a new website, Monkey Wrenching America its stated raison d’etre:

to document the danger professional green extremists pose to America’s economy, limited government ideals and freedom-oriented way of life. The economic, fiscal, judicial and human costs of green monkey-wrenching activities aren’t as well-documented as they should be, because the establishment media becomes an unabashed cheerleader where the environmental movement is concerned. This website, and the stories and reports it hosts, will help document these excesses and bring some balance and reason to the public debate about environmental issues.

(From the website.)

For its inaugural feature, monkeywrenchingamerica.com offers a bit piece by yours truly, reporting on the issue of the Piñon Ridge uranium mill (the first one to be built in the U.S.A. in over 30 years), and how the posh, Hollywood-liberal-playground town of Telluride – smugly nestled over 60 miles away from the proposed mill and the economically desperate towns near where it is to built – is using its Darryl Hannah et al supplied dollars to hire a lefty Washington DC litigation firm, Public Justice, to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the issuance of the mills permit. I shall make you go to the website for the details, but suffice to say that the inhabitants of the old-economy towns who are virtually begging (were they the type of people to beg, which they are not) for the jobs that the mill would provide, are less than thrilled with Telluride’s overbearing, dictatorial imposition of their political views from their little green, ski-lift equipped Kremlin.

This is the type of outrage that occurs on a nearly daily basis throughout America, particularly in the west, and on which AFP and MonkeyWrenchingAmerica.com will endeavor to bring to light. With any luck, before we are litigated back to horse, buggy, and torch-light.