Coming
in September
From AK Press
Featuring Essays by:
Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Michael Neumann, Shahid Alam, Alexander
Cockburn, Uri Avnery, Bill and Kathy Christison and More
Recent
Stories
August
6, 2003
David
Krieger
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Stan
Goff
Military Equipment and Pneumonia
August
5, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at
74
Forrest
Hylton
Terrorism and Political Trials: the
View from Bolivia
Ray
McGovern
"We Cook Estimates to Go"
David
Morse
Poindexter's Gambit
Edward
Said
Orientallism: 25 Years Later
George
W. Bush
My Resumé So Far
Hammond
Guthrie
It's Incremental, Watson!
Website
of the Day
National Prayer Day
August 4, 2003
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Another Peace Activist Detained by
Airport Cops: My Story
David
Lindorff
Fear-Mongering About Social Security
Mark
Zepezauer
George F. Will: Descent into Self-Parody
James
Plummer
Tracking You Through the Mail
Mickey
Z.
Marriage Insecurity from Sharon to Bush
Bruce
Jackson
News that Isn't News: How the NYT's
Pimps for the White House
August
2 / 3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
August
1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Stopping Prison Rape
Alex Coolman
Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing
Prison Rape
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Stan Goff
Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq
Wayne
Madsen
Europe Unplugs from the Matrix
Robert
Fisk
Wolfowitz the Censor
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico
Website
of the Day
Stop Prisoner Rape
July
31, 2003
Ray
McGovern
The Prostitution of Intelligence
Brian
Cloughley
Wolfowitz's Operative Statement
Sheldon
Hull
The RIAA's Jihad:
The Devil's Music (Industry)
Elaine
Cassel
The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys
Sheldon
Rampton
and John Stauber
True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's
Wars
Hammond
Guthrie
Speculation Blues
Website
of the Day
Army of One?
July
30, 2003
David
Lindorff
Poindexter the Terror Bookie
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About
the Oil
Elaine
Cassel
How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas
in Terror Cases
Zvi
Bar'el
The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War
Lisa Walsh
Thomas
Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend?
Sean
Carter
Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes
ND Jayaprakash
India and Ariel Sharon
Steve
Perry
Bush's Top 40 Lies
Standard
Schaefer
Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing
Website
of the Day
Bring Them Home Now!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
29, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
"Journalist Spotted! Journalist
Dead!" Guatemala Bleeds; US Press Yawns
Thomas
J. Nagy
The Belligerent Dr. Pipes
Kurt Nimmo
Tom Delay Goes to Jerusalem
Chris
Floyd
Dead Reckoning: Bush Warriors Sign Off on War Crimes
Robert
Fisk
Another Botched Raid; Another Massacre
Jason Leopold
Did Chalabi Help Write Bush's State of the Union Address?
Conn Hallinan
Food Bully: Bush's Biotech Shock and Awe Campaign
Dan
Bacher
Sacramento's War on Free Speech
Ray
McGovern
Cheney Chicanery
Website
of the Day
Julie Hilden Caught on Tape
Hot Stories
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
August
5, 2003
"Leave
No Tree Behind"
Bush's
War on National Forests
By
CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI
Hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor
the trees.
The revelation of St. John the Divine
Once again the Bush administration has demonstrated
creativity in dealing with problems caused by the environment.
Trees are one problem and roads are a solution. Each has been
addressed within the last two months. A part of the Healthy Forest
initiative addresses the tree problem. The way it works is this.
Lumber companies cut down lots of old
growth trees. Once they are gone there are fewer trees and the
ones left are healthier. Pursuant to a new policy described on
May 31, 2003, environmental studies before logging or burning
trees will no longer be required. Consultations about the effects
of those activities on endangered species will no longer be required
if Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management biologists determine
endangered species will probably not be harmed. Cutting and burning
excess trees on up to 190 million acres of federal land can take
place without environmental studies. Trees can be cut from up
to 1,000 acres without environmental studies and controlled burns
can be used on up to 4,500 acres.
Mark Rey, Agriculture Department Undersecretary
in charge of the Forest Service and a lobbyist for the timber
industry in a former life, explained the 1,000 acre rule: "It's
1000 acres of forest that is unlikely to be consumed by catastrophic
fire once we get it done." Congressman Nick Rahall, of West
Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee
sees it somewhat differently. He says: "Every so-called
'common sense' effort by the administration to restore forest
health is really an effort to expedite logging on our public
lands with little citizen oversight and no environmental analysis."
In June the administration announced
a proposal that will permit the building of more roads in formerly
roadless areas. It proposes to open up large areas to recreation
that were blocked by rules imposed by Bill Clinton in January
2001 which banned development on one third of all national forest
land. The rules banned logging, construction of permanent roads
and development on 58.5 million acres of national forest land.
The proposed rule changes would exempt Alaska's Tongass National
Forest from the roadless area conservation rule opening up 300,000
acres to logging and the administration is seeking public comment
on whether or not Alaska's Chugach National Forest should be
exempted from the rule thus opening up another 150,000 acres.
The administration also plans to propose letting governors seek
exemption within their states to the roadless rules.
For an explanation of this new approach
we turn again to Mark Rey who explains: "What I would say
is we are working out the path we will take in protecting the
value of the roadless rule. We are going to construct a rule
that has broad support."
Some may wonder about the backgrounds
of the people are who are giving birth to these new rules. The
Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton favored drilling in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and prior to her appointment
was quoted in an article in the L.A. Times saying: "We might
even go so far as to recognize a homesteading right to pollute
or make noise in an area." As Colorado's Attorney General,
she implemented a 'self-auditing' procedure that allowed polluters
to evade environmental fines. As Interior Secretary she had no
trouble finding like-minded people to work with her.
Her deputy and second in command is J.
Stephen Griles. His environmental sensitivity was developed under
James Watt, Ronald Reagan's Interior Secretary. As a lobbyist
he represented Occidental Petroleum, National Mining Association
and Shell Oil. On May 30, 2003, Bill Moyers examined the conflicts
of interest that follow Mr. Griles around. Although he promised
to recuse himself from any Interior Department business involving
former clients, he has continued to meet with energy industry
people who were once his clients.
James Cason, Associate Deputy Secretary
is third in command. He was the nominee for Assistant Secretary
of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment under George
I. If confirmed, he would have been responsible for the National
Forest Service and the Soil Conservation Service. He made history
by what he didn't do. Though approved in committee he failed
to win confirmation in the full senate and asked to have his
name withdrawn. That was reportedly the first time a nominee
for Assistant Secretary got out of committee but didn't get confirmed.
The Chief of the U.S. Forest Service during the Reagan years,
R. Max Peterson said: "Mr. Cason's decisions at the Department
of the Interior were uniformly bad when measured against any
reasonable standard of public interest and fairness to the public
which owns the public lands."
Camden Toohey, Special Assistant for
Alaska, is in charge of 270 million acres of Interior lands in
that state. He is the former Executive Director of Arctic Power
which lobbies on behalf of oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
Bennett Raley is Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. He
is in charge of allocating water to balance the needs of people
and wildlife. He opposes the Clean Water Act. The list of appointees
goes on but space does not.
On July 2, 2003, Earthjustice Legislative
Director, Marty Hayden participated in a 21 chain saw salute
to the Bush administration and corporate timber interests. He
said that the Bush administration has adopted a policy of "Leave
no tree behind." That says a lot more about the administration
policy than any of Mark Rey's explanations.
Christopher Brauchli is a Boulder, Colorado lawyer. He can be reached
at: brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu
Weekend Edition Features for August 2/3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
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