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July 29, 2002
David Vest
A Blind Mule and
a Box of Medals
July 28, 2002
Bob Geary
Our Dinner
with Fidel Castro
July 27, 2002
Ian Daoust
The New
Mahler, Seattle Style
Gavin Keeney
Zizek
and Lenin
Ralph Nader
Citigroup
Heal Thyself
M. Shahid Alam
American
Presidents (Poem)
Mokhiber / Weissman
Push Back: Women Take
on the Corporate Beasts
July 26, 2002
Jerre Skog
American
Dictatorship:
It Couldn't Happen...Could It?
Philip Farruggio
Lie,
Rob and Steal
Rep. Ron Paul
Monitor
Thy Neighbor
Ron Jacobs
Thinking
About the
Weather (Underground)
Walt Brasch
Ashcroft's War on Bookstores
July 25, 2002
Norman Madarasz
Paul
Krugman's Howl:
Populism, War and
the Melting Economy
Gavin Keeney
Van Morrison: In September
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
War
on Terrorism or
Police State?
July 24, 2002
Gary Leupp
An Islam Primer
July 23, 2002
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Battle
for Zuni Salt Lake
Ansar Ahmed
Am I with You, George?
Bill Christison
The
Disastrous Foreign Policies of the US: Oppression Abroad Means
Repression at Home
July 22, 2002
Rick Giombetti
Glaxo Raises White Flag
in Paxil Case
Wayne Madsen
Forbidden
Truth
The Press, Bush, Oil
and the Taliban
July 21. 2002
Francis A. Boyle
The Rogue Elephant
Jennifer Harbury
Why are
the FBI & CIA Targeting Me?
Joan Claybrook
Time
for a Special Prosceutor
for Thomas White
Gloria Bergen
The Struggle
of Workers
in Palestine
Dave Marsh
Mr. Big Stuff:
Alan Lomax, Great White Fraud
James T. Phillips
"I'll
Tell You No Lies"
The Human Rubble of War
July 20, 2002
Gavin Keeney
The Grave
New Urbanism
World Trade Center Burlesque
Jacob Levich
"I
Was Schooled in Hate"
Confessions of a
Summer Camp Terror Tot
Thomas Croft
Augusta,
GA
Growing Up in the Deep South
Alexander Cockburn
The
Market Hogwallow:
Popgun Populism Isn't Enough
July 19, 2002
Abe Bonowitz / SueZann
Bosler
A Discussion
with Jeb Bush on the Death Penalty
Jonathan Power
No Need
for War Against Iraq
Rick Giombetti
Qwest
Death Watch
Kurt Nimmo
Of Mice,
Bullets & Bombs
M. Shahid Alam
Through
Racist Eyes:
Is Eurocentrism Unique?
July 18, 2002
Mokhiber / Weissman
Business
As Usual
Jerre Skog
I Spy: Now
Let's be Fair,
the USA Ain't East Germany
Ralph Nader
The CEO
Crimewave:
Corporate Socialism
Mahbubul Karim (Sohel)
The Rising Tensions
Between Spain and Morocco
Alexander Cockburn
Drivel
and Squawk:
Can the Times' Jeff Gerth
Save the White House?
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
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Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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July
29, 2002
Don't Blame
the Greens
The Fires of Summer
by Andrew George
"Methinks he doth protest too much,"
wrote Shakespeare in MacBeth. Recently, the same warning applies
to the logging industry's desperate demagoguery and the wildfires
of 2002.
They place blame on "environmental
obstructionists" for the wildfires in Arizona and Colorado.
Even the N.C. Forestry Association president accused environmentalists
of using lawsuits to block legitimate fuel-reduction projects,
and thus, the forests have become tinderboxes where "one
in three acres was already dead or dying." This is wrong.
A report last year by the General Accounting
Office found that only 20 of 1,671 fuel-reduction projects had
been appealed by outside interests. And none of the projects
had been litigated. In Arizona, out of more than 230 such projects,
only one was appealed, and that appeal never went to court. In
short, there were no lawsuits.
Radio talk-show host Jim Hightower once
said, "If you find you have dug yourself into a hole, quit
digging." The timber industry should take this advice.
However, in response to the GAO's report,
former timber industry lobbyist and current US Under Secretary
for Natural Resources and Environment, Mark Rey, released a new
report Wednesday, July 10, which, he claimed, proved environmentalists
were exacerbating the fire threat by suing the US Forest Service.
Rey forgets to mention, however, that
environmentalists supported legitimate burning and thinning projects
of small trees near communities at risk from forest fires. No,
the Forest Service was sued when they proposed logging of old
growth forests, roadless areas, and endangered species habitat.
The timber industry is simply trying
to exploit the catastrophic wildfires in order to gut environmental
regulations and increase commercial logging in OUR national forests.
Unfortunately, commercial logging will only intensify the danger
of fires, not prevent them.
The wildfires of 2002 are a legacy of
100 years of fire suppression, commercial logging and livestock
grazing. All three practices favored the growth of small, spindly
trees, while timber companies cut down the largest, most fire-
resistant trees.
During NFPA's 2002 Wildfire Summit held
in Missoula, MT last month, USFS Researcher Jack Cohen, emphasized
that the best way to protect homes from fire is to eliminate
combustible fuels immediately surrounding the home. The Stanford
Research Institute found a 95 percent survival rate for homes
with nonflammable roofs and a 30-60 feet clearance of surrounding
vegetation. The point is clear: the factors that contribute the
most to home ignition are located within the home's immediate
surroundings - not miles away in the forest.
In response to the wildfires of 2000,
Congress dramatically increased funding for federal wildland
fire management programs-called the National Fire Plan. To date,
over $6.6 billion in taxpayer dollars have been allocated for
implementation of the plan. Instead of using this public money
to protect people's homes from fire, however, the logging industry
and the US Forest Service are using these funds to plan commercial
logging projects in remote areas where the biggest, most economically
valuable trees are.
During congressional oversight hearings
in 2001, the Forest Service's then National Fire Plan Coordinator,
Lyle Laverty, revealed that only 25 percent of these funds were
spent protecting areas near homes, despite clear direction from
Congress to spend 100 percent of the monies to protect communities.
What is going on here?
The General Accounting Office stated
in its 2002 report that, "It is not possible to determine
if the $796 million appropriated for hazardous fuels reduction
is targeted to the communities and other areas at highest risk."
The Inspector General for the Department of Agriculture also
recently reprimanded the Forest Service for inappropriately using
National Fire Plan monies intended for restoration projects on
commercial timber sales.
The solution: The National Forest Protection
and Restoration Act (H.R. 1494). This is a bipartisan bill introduced
in Congress in 1997 that allows for the treatment of brush, small
diameter trees and even fire ladders to reduce hazardous fuels.
In addition, this bill would end the
commercial logging program in our federal lands and return over
$500 million annually to the taxpayer.
Over 221 of the nation's preeminent scientists
signed a letter to the president in April calling for permanent
protection of our federal lands from commercial logging, as envisioned
in the National Forest Protection & Restoration Act.
It is time for the US Forest Service
and the timber industry to accept responsibility for their mismanagement.
Commercial logging is the problem, not the solution.
Andrew George
is National Forest Protection Alliance Southeast Field Organizer.
Today's Features
David Vest
A Blind Mule and
a Box of Medals
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