Mind Vomit by the ikss ~ a journal
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Thursday, Jul. 15, 2004more Dubya nonsense
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�Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead�
-Lucille Ball
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
REGISTER TO VOTE
"The time is always right to do what is right"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The "seven social sins": Knowledge without character,
Science without humanity,
Wealth without work,
Commerce without morality,
Politics without principles,
Pleasure without conscience,
Worship without self-sacrifice."
--Gandhi
"We have not inherited the world from our forfathers -
We have borrowed it from our children."
--Kashmiri, proverb
The Bush administration's announcement this week that it plans to open nearly 60 million acres of pristine, roadless National Forests to logging, mining, oil and gas drilling and road building may be one of the largest environmental rollbacks of the modern era. It also dramatizes the urgent need for genuine campaign finance reform.
Industries that opposed protections for roadless areas on National Forests have given nearly $25 million in campaign donations to President Bush and the Republican Party, according to the Heritage Forests Campaign. [1] These same industries have contributed close to $5 million to Democrats. President Bush alone has received nearly $5 million in campaign contributions from industries that oppose environmental preservation.
Shortly after President Bush took office, the selection of Mark Rey as under secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- which oversees the U.S. Forest Service -- signaled that conservation policies were in jeopardy.
Mr. Rey came to the White House after a long career as a leading timber industry lobbyist, including stints as vice president of Forest Resources for the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA), the leading national voice for more logging in national forests; executive director of the American Forest Resource Alliance, a coalition of 350 timber corporations formed by the National Forest Products Association; and vice president of Public Forestry Programs for the National Forest Products Association.
While the decision this week to open huge swaths of roadless forests to more clear-cutting and old-growth logging will have dire consequences for clean water, wildlife habitat, fisheries and forest ecology, America's taxpayers will also have to pony up.
Under the Forest Service's antiquated road building policies -- which the Bush ruling put back into play with its rejection of the Clinton-era roadless rule -- taxpayers pay the entire cost of building new roads into forests in order to provide logging trucks and drilling rigs access to the public's resources.
Currently, the USFS has a $10 billion maintenance backlog for the already existing network of roads in National Forests, many of which primarily benefit private industry. [2] The public will pay the tab.
The Bush proposal is open to public comment for the next 60 days. During two public comment periods, one under President Clinton and one under President Bush, nearly 95% of the 2.5 million comments supported the roadless policy. [3]
Email your comments to the Bush Administration today.
SOURCES:
[1] Heritage Forest Campaign
[2] Taxpayers for Commonsense
[3] Heritage Forest Campaign
~~~
More in regard to Dubya�s proposal to postpone the November elections due to supposed threats of terrorist attacks: As you may have surmised, I am completely against this and think it�s just a tactic for Bush to avoid giving up power. And here are what better minds than mine are saying:
Senator Barbara Boxer: �To even consider postponing our elections, the most ardent symbol of American democracy, because of threats made by terrorists would be nothing short of allowing fear to rule our country. America is too great and too strong and too brave for that."
Representative Jane Harman (D-El Segundo, CA): "I think it's excessive based on what we know."
Senator Dianne Feinstein: "We hold elections in the middle of war, in the middle of earthquakes, in the middle of whatever it takes. The election is a statutory election. It should go ahead, on schedule. . ."
Congressman Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX): "If they do this, boy, my God, they're extremely desperate."
~~~
Good News of the Day:
Operation shoe fly. 1st Sgt. James Thomson and his CF-47D Chinook crew are on a mission in Afghanistan -- deliver shoes to needy children. In addition to soldiers and supplies, Thomson and his "crew dogs" want to drop off shoes, after being moved by the poverty in remote regions of the country. He said, "In addition to protecting the feet of these young innocent children, we might even win some hearts and minds among their parents, and who knows where the shoes might take these kids." more
Be The Change:
Send your old shoes to Sgt. James Thomson: Operation Shoe Fly, Company B, 214th Aviation Regiment, Bagram, Afghanistan, APO AE 09354-9998. Because the address is an APO, the mailing is equivalent to mailing something within the US.
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