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Today's Stories December 18, 2007 R. F. Blader The Politics of Teen Pregnancy December 17, 2007 Mike Whitney Staring Into the Abyss Tom Barry Planning the War on Immigrants Uri Avnery A Gaza Masada? Greg Moses Crossing the Line in Texas Allan Nairn Terrorism; Counter- Terrorism: Excuses for Murder Patrick Bond South Africa's Fight Between Hostile Brothers Stephen Lendman Police State America Charles Jonkel Grizzly Right of Way Laray Polk An Inside-Out Crisis in Gaza Stephen Fleischman Pawns in Their Game December 15 / 16, 2007 Peter Linebaugh A People's Penny for the Magna Carta Howard Zinn Bomb After Bomb Standard Schaefer The Greening of Big Tobacco Raymond J. Lawrence Let's Take Christ Out of Christmas Alan Farago Down on Desolation Row: the Vultures and the Growth Machine Saul Landau Lord Byron and the Bad Tourists Jenna Orkin Lying to "Reassure" the Public: Bush's EPA and the Post-9/11 Toxic Air Cover-Up Ahmad Samih Khalidi Why a Palestinian "State" is a Punitive Construct Robert Fantina Politics By Photo-Op Missy Comley Beattie Resistance Amid the Ruins Ramzy Baroud Of Mormons and Muslims James L. Secor A Vision for China's Future Elijah Wald Ike Turner's Music Won't be Forgotten Website of the Weekend The Alliance for the Wild Rockies Needs (and Deserves) Your Support   December 14, 2007 JoAnn Wypijewski The Dirty Cad: What Giuliani's Sex Life Tells Us About Him John Ross Iraqi Refugees Return: One Cruel Hoax Jacob Hornberger Terror Suspects Belong in Federal Court Andy Worthington Guantánamo and the Supreme Court: What Happened? Allan Nairn "Shoot Them on the Spot": Rewarding War Crimes Dave Zirin The Mitchell Report: Absolving the Owners Dave Lindorff The First Cut is the Deepest Misty MacDuffee Toxic Grizzlies Ben Terrall What Happened to Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine? Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi Prerequisites for Peace Website of the Day Sen. Kit Bond: "Waterboarding is Like Swimming"   December 13, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Shrinking the Dollar from the Inside-Out Mike Whitney Dershowitz for the Defense--of Waterboarding Ron Jacobs Blank Check DemocratsL the Great War Funding Conspiracy Norman Solomon The USA's Human Rights Daze Peter Morici The Dragon and the Toothless Dog: China Doesn't Flinch Sandy Mayes Blocking the Strykers: 13 Days of War Resistance at Port Olympia Franklin Lamb The UN in Lebanon: Whose Mission Is It Fulfilling? Jacob Hornberger Don't Reform the CIA, Abolish It Nadim Rouhana An Interloper in My Own Land Dave Zirin On Pigskin and Petrol Website of the Day Rachel's Needs (and Deserves) Your Support! December 12, 2007 Allan Nairn US Intelligence is Tapping Indonesian Phones Alan Farago How Sprawl Eats Its Young Ray McGovern Torture, Lies and Videotape Winslow T. Wheeler The Phony Pentagon Budget Cuts Evan Jones The Raid on Great Western: Why an Australian Bank Might Spell Doom for the US Farm Belt James Petras An Open Letter to Sarkozy on the Exchange of Political Prisonsers Joel Hirschorn The Horserace Fiction: Clinton, Obama and the Democratic Machine Joshua Frank Why Ron Paul Deserves Our Attention Sherry Wolf Why the Left Should Reject Ron Paul Dan Bacher Survey of a Fish Graveyard Website of the Day Men Eating Bugs   December 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn What's Really Happened During the Surge? Diana Johnstone The Next Kosovo War Paul Craig Roberts It's Waco All Over Again: Preventive Detention and the Constitution David Macaray Impasse in Hollywood Ralph Nader Gail Collins Versus the Underdogs Andy Worthington Guantánamo Britons to be Released: a Mixed Result Martha Rosenberg No Holiday for High Risk Sex Workers Steve Champion / Anthony Ross Words for Our Brother, Tookie Williams Kim Nicolini Tangled Up in Dylan Michael Dickinson Say Goodbye to Purgatory: Pope Rat Gets Indulgent Website of the Day A Charming (and Worthy) Pitch December 10, 2007 Uri Avnery How They Stole the Bomb From Us Debbie Nathan The Perils of Journalism and Child Porn JoAnn Wypijewski Is There a Left Here Left? If So, What Can It Do? Steve Kelly Cheap Chips, Counterfeit Wilderness Donna J. Volatile Welcome to the Revolution   December 8 / 9, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Coup Against Bush and Cheney Brenda Norrell Seize the Land, Chain the Peace Activists Saul Landau The Ruins of Empire R. F. Blader A Rape in Every Drink? Ray McGovern Spinning Iran's Centrifuges Allan Nairn Imposed Hunger in Gaza, the Army in Indonesia Linn Washington, Jr Spotlight on Death Row Paul Craig Roberts When Will Bush Come Clean?   December 7, 2007 Sean Penn Piano Wire Puppeteers Arthur Versluis Mining Water in the Desert M. G. Piety Racism and the American Psyche: Some Thoughts on Race and Intelligence Pam Martens Banksters Gone Wild Alan Farago Will the Free Market Kill Suburbia? Sprawl and the Credit Crisis Allan Nairn It Takes (Out) a Village Col. Dan Smith Bush, Iran and the Politics of Doomsday Alice Slater The Iran Opening Robert Weissman The Story of Stuff Website of the Day Something About Mitt   December 5, 2007 Mike Whitney Why the CFR Hates Putin Sharon Smith The Anti-War Enablers: Tom Hayden and the Dead End Democrats James Petras Venezuela in the Aftermath Ron Jacobs The Iran Charade Dave Zirin Kicking a Dead Man: the Sliming of Sean Taylor John V. Whitbeck Two States or One? Time to Choose Peter Zinn Covered in New Orleans Niranjan Ramakrishnan Impeach Pelosi Instead Alan Farago The Credit Bomb Detonates in Florida Heather Gray US Meddling in Australian Politics Website of the Day A Donner Summit Night Before Xmas   December 4, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Jackboot State Stubs Its Toe in Ann Arbor Andy Worthington Guantánamo and the Supreme Court Paul Craig Roberts The Lies at the End of the American Dream Ray McGovern No-Nuke Iran Winslow T. Wheeler Admiral Mullen and the Defense Budget: When White Elephants are Too Small Allan Nairn The Regime Still Stands in Burma, Where "the People Just Want Food" Russell Mokhiber The USA v. Al Arian Nikolas Kozloff As Chávez Falters: Raising the Stakes for the South American Left John V. Walsh Peace Movement Paralyzed Ghada Ageel Will Peace Cost Me My Home? Stephen Soldz The Facts be Damned!: Psychologists' President Defends Psychologist Involvement in Interrogations Website of the Day Hands Off the People of Iran     December 3, 2007 Tariq Ali Venezuela After the Referendum Bill Quigley New Orleans: Bulldozers for the Poor, Tax Credits for Developers Eric Walberg The Bible and Middle East History Uri Avnery After Annapolis Marjorie Cohn Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed Dave Lindorff Vengeance Isn't Sweet Stephen Fleischman Homeless in Paradise Martha Rosenberg Perp Walks for the Mink Clad on Chicago's Mag Mile Website of the Day So Just Lead!   December 1 / 2, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Emblems of the Bush Age: Adrift in a Sea of Booze Jeffrey St. Clair The Bear Minimum: the Grizzly and the Future of the Rocky Mountain West Mike Whitney "Iraq Doesn't Exist Anymore": an Interview with Nir Rosen Shemon Salam A Visit From the FBI Roger Burbach The Battle in Bolivia Benjamin Dangl New Politics in Old Bolivia Brian M. Downing The Quiet on the Middle Eastern Front: How Much Credit Goes to the Surge? Greg Moses Night of the Living Redneck: a Texas Horror Story Sonja Karkar The "Never-Never" Peace Conference Saul Landau Ethics and Evil in South Boston Margaret Kimberley Black America Left Behind John Ross What are the Prospects for a New Mexican Revolution? Reza Fiyouzat Exit on the Left: When Che's Children Visited Iran Judith Scherr Berkeley Turns Right for the Holidays Lance Olsen Of Forests and Finance: Logging for the Wealthy Christopher Brauchli Mr. Bush and the Despots Robert Fantina Iraq as U.S. Colony Dan Bacher Fish Triage on Prospect Island Michael Donnelly Remembering How to be Human: John Trudell and the Music of Urgency Website of the Weekend Appalachian Voices   November 30, 2007 Peter Stone Brown The Re-Packaging of Bob Dylan Wajahat Ali The Volatile Mistress: an Interview with Javed Jabbar, Pakistan's Former Minister of Information Allan Nairn Cold-Blooded Celebrity: Thomas L. Friedman and the Bali Bombers Alan Farago The Sorrows of Suburbia: Politics, Sprawl and the Housing Crash John Ross The Death of Latin America's First Revolution Corporate Crime Reporter America's Corporate Crime Capitals Lucia Alvarez Diego Gonzalez Argentina's Political Future James Rothenberg The Iraqi Miracle Website of the Day Bio-Bling?   November 29, 2007 R. F. Blader The Most Dangerous Kind of Bribe Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Distorting Fascism to Demonize Iran Stephen Soldz War on the Couch: Fear, Aggression and Empire Sheldon Richman Iraq 3.0 George Wuerthner Forest Fires, Lies and Chainsaws Felice Pace Did All Things Considered Self-Censor on Annapolis? Col. Dan Smith The Meaning of Annapolis Harvey Wasserman Terror Target Nukes Nikolas Kozloff Primetime Hate Debate: Lou Dobbs, Immigration and Campaign '08 Paul Krassner Huffington Post Bloggers Go On Strike! Dave Lindorff News Not Fit to Print: US Coup Planned for Venezuela? CP News Service The One State Declaration Website of the Day A Native View of Yellowstone Bison Slaughter November 28, 2007 James Petras CIA Destabilization Memo Surfaces on Venezuela Jeff Halper Annapolis: When the Roadmap is a One Way Street Pam Martens Crashing Citigroup Peter Morici Economy in Crisis: Avoiding a Recession Mohammed Khatib Separate and Unequal in Palestine Helen Redmond The Horror and the Hope: Health Care in America William S. Lind In the Fox's Lair: Quiet Before a New Iraq Storm? Ben Tripp We, the People: a Trope for All Seasons Liaquat Ali Khan Pakistan: First, Restore the Constitution and Reinstate the Judges Jeff Berg Holbrooke Says Bush Won't Attack Iran Website of the Day The Lies of Joe Klein   November 27, 2007 Joe DeRaymond On the Road to the Torture School Paul Craig Roberts Meet the Only Two Candidates Worse Than Bush and Cheney: Hillary and Rudy Marjorie Cohn Remembering Victor Rabinowitz Mike Whitney A Dollar the Size of a Postage Stamp Ron Jacobs The Myths of Military Progress Col. Dan Smith The Pentagon's "People System" Still Doesn't Work Ralph Nader Family Learning Karim Makdisi Annapolis and the Unholy Alliance: the View from Beirut Christopher Ketcham Memo to Hollywood Writers: Strike Until You Drop Ronan Bennett Martin Amis Does a Coulter Website of the Day Celebrating the Uncensored Media   November 26, 2007 Kathleen and Bill Christison Heading for Annapolis Paul Craig Roberts The End of All That David Macaray Enter Mediator Sameer Dossani Pakistan's Wounded Dictator Roger Burbach The Final Battle in Bolivia Mark Scaramella Guns and Greed in the Emerald Empire Brian McKinlay Howard's End Rick Kuhn The Fall of a Racist Union Buster Binoy Kampmark Ruddslide and Dull Alec Monica Benderman What Do You Know of War? Brenda Norrell Return to Alcatraz Website of the Day Ghostworld by DJ Spooky   November 24 / 25, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Ordeal of Catherine Wilkerson, MD Robert Fisk Darkness Falls on the Middle East Saul Landau Norman Mailer will Not R.I.P. Jeffrey St. Clair Justice Stephen Breyer, Cancer Bonds and the Origins of Neoliberal Environmentalism Rannie Amiri Beirut's Black Friday Christopher Brauchli Iraq Embassy as Gilded Palace Daniel Gross The Gap and Black Friday Mike Whitney "A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions" Marjorie Cohn Iran and the 2008 Elections David Rosen Senior Sex: the Real Sexual Life of Aging Americans David Michael Green If Conservatism is the Ideology of Freedom .... Kenneth Rexroth When Euripides Played the Hindu Kush: Greeks and Buddhists in Afghanistan Muhammad Iqbal Trans. Shahid Alam Ghazal Website of the Day Aerial Footage of Delta Fish Kill November 23, 2007 Gary Leupp Killing the Buddha in Pakistan's Swat Valley Laura Carlsen Coming to Terms with Diversity in Bolivia: an Interview with Alvaro Garcia, Bolivia's VP David Macaray Keeping Labor Unions Out Andy Worthington Former Guantánamo Detainee Seeks Asylum in Sweden Clifton Ross Trashing Chavez: Keith Olberman's Toxic Rant Seth Sandronsky Battling Sodexho Dan Bacher Death in the Delta: Thousands of Fish Stranded by Bureau of Reclamation William A. Cook The Myth of Middle East Peace Website of the Day Waiting for the Guards: Stress Techniques as Torture, a Short Film   November 22, 2007 Alan Farago Who Lost America's Everglades? Greg Moses A Thanksgiving Basting Dave Lindorff Impeachment is Back on the Table Mike Ely Native Blood: the Myth pf Thanksgiving Omar Azfar Gore for President of Pakistan?   November 21, 2007 Vijay Prashad Our Dictator, Their Democracy Martha Rosenberg Undercover at a Turkey Slaughtering Plant Manuel Garcia, Jr. Epiphany on the Glacier John Ross The Last Days of Mexican Corn Brian McKenna Cancer Terrorists Unmasked Stephen Soldz Isolation Torture Routine at Guatánamo Monica Benderman Needing Peace Ben Terrall Slavery in the Fields: The Real Price of Sugar Website of the Day Mercy for Animals   November 20, 2007 Oren Ben-Dor Why Israel Has No "Right to Exist" as a Jewish State Wajahat Ali An Interview with Norman Finkelstein Alan Farago The Dark Arts and the Bush Dynasty Marjorie Cohn Musharraf Plays Bush for a Fool Ralph Nader Green is Gold? Andy Worthington Guantánamo Whistleblower Launches a New Attack on Rigged Tribunals Sara Olson When Going AWOL is the Only Escape Dave Lindorff Likelihood of Iran Attack Gains Credence Paul Krassner The First Amendment, a Dialogue Website of the Day Joanne Mariner on Torture November 19, 2007 Winslow T. Wheeler Why Congress Won't Reform China Hand The U.S. Game Plan in Pakistan Allan Nairn Sitting Around Talking, in Indonesia Uri Avnery How to Get Out? David Macaray The Chalice that Poisoned the Labor Movements Dave Lindorff Democrats in Future Shock: They Could Lose It All in 2008! Bill Quigley Twenty Thousand Protest at Ft. Benning; Eleven Face Federal Criminal Trials Ron Jacobs Sitting on the Group W Bench: War, Thanksgiving and Arlo Guthrie Sunsara Taylor Legalized Rights for Fertilized Eggs? Binoy Kampmark Why Steve Irwin--You're Dead! Heather Gray Another Look at W.E.B. DuBois Website of the Day The Meat Market     November 17 / 18, 2007 P. Sainath Neoliberalism's Price Tag: 150,000 Farm Suicides in India David Rosen The Scarlet Hypocrites: Republicans, Christians and the Politics of Adultery Mike Whitney Pentagon Cover Up: 15,000 or More US Deaths in Iraq War? George Wuerthner Saving the Big Wild Brenda Norrell The Case of Jim Main, Jr: In Montana, Indians are Guilty Until Proven Innocent George Ciccariello-Maher Of Submarines and Loose Screws Karim Makdisi Lebanon is Hanging by a Thread Marie Trigona Wal-Mart in Argentina Valerio Volpi The Catholic Church, Incorporated Fred Gardner The Straight-Ahead Runner Robert Fantina The White House Press Office Mike Ferner Thank God for the Senate Republicans! Missy Comley Beattie The Radical Majority Kenneth Couesbouc Circles of Power Patrick O'Hayer A Portrait of Mailer and a Young Poet Poets' Basement Davies, Buknatski and Ford   November 16, 2007 Cockburn / St. Clair The Vices of Hillary Clinton: Secrecy, Intransigence and War Dave Zirin The Indictment of Barry Bonds: Busted by a Broken System Gary D. Barnett A Day in the Life of an Unwilling Federal Agent Alan Farago Sprawl, Mortgage Fraud and Political Corruption Dave Lindorff Two Brothers and Two Scandals Russell Mokhiber Pelosi and Me: "What Should be Done with Those Protesters?" Robert Ovetz Cargo Ships in Paradise: Shipping Lanes Threaten the Yosemite of the Sea Brenda Norrell "Today We Experienced America:" Arresting Indigenous People on the Border David Swanson Wolf Blitzer Loses Democratic Debate Peter Letheby Outside the Box on the Great Plains Website of the Day Why Activism Fails   November 15, 2007 Cockburn / St. Clair Hillary Clinton in Arkansas Adolfo Gilly The Spirit of Revolt Peter Bohmer 10 Days That Shook Olympia Andy Worthington The Trials of Omar Khadr: Gitmo's Child Soldier Gray / Derks Obama's Pitch to South Carolina's Black Churches Affronts Gay Groups Liaquat Ali Khan Liberating Pakistan Dave Lindorff Where's the Party? Christopher Brauchli Tipping Point: the Politics of Gossip Anthony Papa Racism as Law: Crack Cocaine Sentences Martha Rosenberg Merck's Big Write Off Ben Terrall Thank You, Ehren Watada Website of the Day On the Colorado: Drought, Climate Change and Water Supplies November 14, 2007 Cockburn / St. Clair The Making of Hillary Clinton James Petras Venezuela Between Ballots and Bullets Al Giordano Campaign 08: Don't Trust Anyone Over 50 Paul Craig Roberts The Lobby Andy Worthington Innocents and Foot Soldiers Stephen Lendman Torturing Palestinian Detainees Fatima Bhutto Aunt Benazir's False Promises: the Dismantling of Pakistani Democracy Martin Smith Norman Mailer and the "Good War" Jeff Leys Slip Sliding Away: House Votes on War Funding Website of the Day Why the Writers are Striking November 13, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Hillary's Big Problem and How Bill Can Fix It Jeffrey St. Clair Mailer and Us: the Writer as Fighter Robert Bryce The Pakistan Fuel Connection David Macaray The Teamsters and the Hollywood Strike Mike Whitney Bulletins from the Titanic Ralph Nader Pakistani Lawyers vs. American Lawyers Nikolas Kozloff Chavez Blasts the Spanish King Jordan Flaherty Education Versus Incarceration in Tallulah, Louisiana B. R. Gowani Dear Mrs. Bhutto Website of the Day Monty Python: "Fuck You, Very Much FCC"   November 12, 2007 Vicente Navarro Why Hillary's Health Care Plan Really Failed Ben Brown Letter from Ho Chi Minh City: a Tribute to My Vietnam Vet Father Omar K. A Pakistani Lawyer's Testimony: Life Under the Brutal Emergency Sadia Abbas The Roots of Pakistan's Political Crisis: Corrupt Elites and a Kleptocratic Military Farzana Versey Mailer's Miasma Richard W. Behan The Political Crimes of Complicity Paul Krassner Asshole of the Year: Congratulations Tim Russert! Cindy Sheehan Faith and War Peter Stone Brown The Return of Levon Helm Dave Lindorff Dennis, You are Not Alone Website of the Day Police Attack in Olympia   November 10 / 11, 2007 Alain Gresh Uncle Sam's New Backyard: How to Turn a Region into a Graveyard Mike Whitney For Whom the Closing Bell Tolls: the Last Dead Bull on Wall Street Ron Jacobs A View from the Pakistani Left: an Interview with Farooq Tariq Jeffrey St. Clair The First Dambuster: a Coyote Story Alan Farago Tangled Up in Blue: a Brief History of Florida Environmentalism Binoy Kampmark When Language Drowns: Torture in America Robert Fantina Legitimizing Torture Fred Gardner Psychological Torture in the Name of Family Values Ayesha Ijaz Khan The General in His Labyrinth Nicola Nasser NATO's Southward Drift Philip Rizk The Blame Game in Gaza Michael Dickinson Condom Nation: the Pope vs. Terry Higgins Joel S. Hirschhorn The Grand Delusion: a Conspiracy of Two Parties Paul Krassner Flunking Out of the Electoral College Wadner Pierre / Joe Emersberger The Ongoing War on Journalists in Haiti           Subscribe Online

December 18, 2007 Trucks, Bats and the Hollowness of NEPA Can the NAFTA Superhighway be Stopped? By STEVEN HIGGS U.S. District Judge David Hamilton's ruling on a citizens' lawsuit against the I-69/NAFTA Highway should be a call to action for Americans who care about the future of life on the planet and the fate of their democracy. The 58-page ruling exposes the nation's environmental protection laws as laughable frauds and offers insight into the political mindset that earned Indiana its 49th-place ranking in Forbes Magazine's October 2007 "Greenest States" list. "Indiana received across-the-board low marks," the influential business magazine said. Hamilton's decision also details how federal laws are flouted and manipulated by the public-private forces of greed and environmental devastation in corrupt, toxic backwaters like Indiana. In rejecting a challenge from citizens and citizen groups, Hamilton, recommended for appointment to the bench by former Indiana governor and vice presidential hopeful Sen. Evan Bayh, concluded that a highway-selection process that ignores crucial evidence and the public will is neither "arbitrary nor capricious." And elected public officials' knowingly and intentionally concocting a process that favors the most environmentally destructive and expensive of the plausible alternatives, he ruled, isn't an "abuse of discretion." *** Hamilton ruled against arguments made by the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC), Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads (CARR), Sassafras Audubon Society and several individuals, including three current and former elected local officials. Filed and argued by lawyers from the Environmental Law & Policy Center, the lawsuit challenged the actions of several federal and state agencies, most notably the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). It alleged violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act and other federal laws in the route-selection process for an I-69 extension southwest of Indianapolis. I-69 runs from the Canadian border at Port Huron, Mich., to Indianapolis, where it ends. In 1998, four years after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) became law, President Bill Clinton signed a highway bill that designated I-69 as an "international trade route" that would connect Canada with Mexico at its border in Laredo. That same year, Gov. Frank O'Bannon's administration contracted with the Washington D.C. law firm to ensure that the state would not lose the legal challenges ahead. The firm's partners include former National Democratic Party Chairman Robert S. Strauss. *** The near complete abdication of responsibility for environmental protection by Indiana's state and federal policy makers - Democrats and Republicans alike - has been extensively documented since before the Forbes ranking in October. During the Bayh administration in the mid-1990s, for example, a state-by-state comparison of environmental health called the Green Scissors Report ranked the Hoosier state either 49th and 50th in air pollution, water pollution, toxics and hazardous waste, and quality of life. In his ruling, Hamilton noted that, since 2003, "nine counties including and surrounding Indianapolis moved from 'maintenance status' to 'non-attainment status,' two counties moved into 'maintenance status' and several counties in the Evansville area also moved into 'non-attainment' status" for Clean Air Act requirements. A July 2006 study by the Environmental Integrity Project found that Indiana has five of the nation's 50 dirtiest power plants, the most of any state, all located in Southwest Indiana along the proposed I-69 extension. According to Toxic Release Inventory data collected from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documents by John Blair, president of the Evansville-based environmental watchdog group Valley Watch, two southwest Indiana industrial facilities - AK Steel and Duke Energy's Gibson Station - release more toxic pollution than three of the nation's largest counties - San Diego and Los Angeles in California and Cook in Illinois - combined. In 2007, Forbes reported: "Indiana had the sixth highest carbon footprint of any state, and four of its metro areas are listed by the American Lung Association as having bad smog problems, and one with an ozone pollution problem. We ranked its water quality worse than only four other states." Citizens attending INDOT hearings in Bloomington were unambiguous in their opposition to the social, environmental and cultural pollution that I-69 will wreak upon their communities. and the rest of the environmental bottom-feeders, the magazine concluded: "All suffer from a mix of toxic waste, lots of pollution and consumption and no clear plans to do anything about it. Expect them to remain that way." *** Hamilton's personal and political connections to those responsible for the state of Indiana's environment, those entrusted for 16 years with protecting Indiana citizens from environmental threats like air and water and toxic waste pollution, are long and deep. As Hamilton observed, for more than half a century, "Indiana has been searching for a route to build a major highway through the southwestern quadrant of the state." This particular incarnation of that determination was initiated by a study commissioned early in Gov. Evan Bayh's administration. Hamilton worked as a key political strategist in Bayh's successful 1986 campaign for secretary of state. Bayh was elected governor in 1988, and Hamilton served as his chief legal counsel for three years before Bayh nominated him to the U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana in 1994. O'Bannon, who was twice elected lieutenant governor as Bayh's running mate, appointed Hamilton's brother John as his first commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management when O'Bannon succeeded Bayh as governor in 1997. John Hamilton had served as Lt. Gov. O'Bannon's chief of staff. The Hamiltons' uncle is former Indiana Congressman and 9/11 Commission Co-chair Lee Hamilton. *** Based upon the facts Hamilton cites in his ruling, it would be difficult to fathom a more blatant example of a state administration's abuse of its environmental policy-making discretion than O'Bannon's approach to I-69. Hamilton noted that Alternative 3C, the route O'Bannon officially designated as the "preferred route" in 2003, "followed a path very similar to the route studied in the 1990s from Bloomington to Evansville." That route roughly follows Ind. 57 from Evansville to southwestern Greene County, cuts a new-terrain swath to Bloomington and then follows Ind. 37 to the southwest side of Indianapolis. But while NEPA, according to Hamilton, requires agencies involved in major federal actions to "closely evaluate reasonable alternatives that would minimize environmental harm," Evansville-to-Bloomington was the only route that INDOT ever really considered. As Hamilton wrote, "a specific plausible alternative" was one of four main themes that emerged in public comments on a 1996 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the route. Proposed and promoted by citizen groups, including CARR and HEC, that route followed existing, four-lane U.S. 41 from Evansville to Interstate 70 at Terre Haute and then to Indianapolis. INDOT, however, did not include 41/70 as an alternative route until after another round of public input in November 2001, calling it Alternative 1 among 12 possible routes. In its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), INDOT rejected 41/70 and three others for "their poor ability to meet the project's core goals," Hamilton wrote. Those goals were identified in 1999 as "(1) strengthening southwestern Indiana's highway network, (2) stimulating economic growth in southwestern Indiana, and (3) completing the Indiana portion of the international trade route," Hamilton wrote. "In the end, INDOT identified Alternatives 2C, 3B, 3C, 4B and 4C as their preferred alternatives," Hamilton said. "INDOT published these results in July 2002 for agency and public comment." *** While Hamilton noted that INDOT received "more than 20,000" public comments on the FEIS, he did not mention that 94 percent of them - 20,467 of 21,873 - opposed the decision. Nor did he mention the 150,000 signatures that Hoosiers affixed to petitions opposing the new-terrain I-69 route. In November 2002, four months after the preferred routes were announced, the EPA asked INDOT to reconsider Alternative 1, calling it "the least environmental damaging route proposed." Preferred Alternative 3C would have "significant impacts on sensitive resources, particularly wetlands and aquatic resource and potential impacts to surface/ground water associated with karst areas," the EPA said. Karst topography is characterized by bedrock lined with environmentally sensitive sinkholes, caves and underground streams. The U.S. Department of the Interior also registered "significant objections" to 3C, Hamilton wrote, and "expressed a preference for Alternative 1," noting that it had "the fewest impacts to [threatened and endangered] species, forests, core forests, wetlands, floodplains, karst features, rivers listed on the [Nationwide Rivers Inventory], and water quality." Public opinion and federal agency input notwithstanding, "In January 2003, Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon announced that he had accepted INDOT's recommendation to choose Alternative 3C as the I-69 corridor," Hamilton wrote. In March 2004, FHWA issued its final Record of Decision, "officially adopting Alternative 3C as the I-69 corridor through Southwest Indiana." Hamilton's ruling also did not mention that, by the end of 2004, the state had paid the Washington lawyers of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld at least $1.25 million of Hoosier taxpayer money, probably $1.5 million. *** INDOT chose to proceed with the route-selection process in phases, known as "tiering," in which it explored "broad and far-reaching issues" in Tier One and site-specific issues in subsequent tiers. And while Hamilton rejected arguments that INDOT was abusing the process to avoid the need to compare environmental impacts, he warned that the state incurs risk by pursuing this course. "Environmental impacts that appear to be tolerable and potentially manageable in the first tier may emerge as unacceptable threats to affected species and ecosystems during the more detailed scrutiny in the second tier," Hamilton wrote. For example, the 2003 Environmental Impact Statement "may have underestimated the actual number and type of karst features that Alternative 3C will affect," Hamilton wrote. Because the most serious air pollution impacts from I-69 will be in Indianapolis and Evansville, Hamilton warned that "no single alternative escapes the brunt of these changes," referring to Clear Air Act compliance status of counties in the two metro areas. And given the highway's potential impacts on water quality in Southwest Indiana, Hamilton noted that EPA has discretionary authority to veto water permits that the federal Army Corps of Engineers will have to issue on the project. Both EPA and the Corps of Engineers expressed concerns about Clean Water Act issues in Tier 1. And the Corps has indicated that a final determination on these issues "cannot be made until final information is developed and provided under Tier 2 and presented in the formal request for a permit." And then there is the endangered Indiana bat. Hamilton wrote that half of the surviving Indiana bat population lives in Indiana and that the species' numbers declined from about 883,300 when it was declared endangered in 1967 to "around 376,932 in 2001 before beginning to increase slightly." Of the 206,610 Indiana bats estimated to live in Indiana in 2005, 74,042 hibernated in caves within five miles of 3C. "More than one-third of all Indiana bats wintering in Indiana hibernate in only three caves within relatively short distance from Alternate 3C," Hamilton wrote "... The record does not account for over two-fifths of the Indiana hibernating population." *** Whether Hamilton's outline of the facts and issues in Frank O'Bannon's I-69 process is simply a recitation of possibilities or a harbinger of trouble ahead won't be known until the rest of the facts are in. But one message he sent is unmistakable: the National Environmental Protection Act is not an environmental protection law. "The act does not mandate a particular outcome or contain substantive environmental standards," Hamilton wrote, citing a 1989 District Court ruling that found NEPA "simply prescribes the necessary process." And to avoid being found arbitrary and capricious in environmental cases, all an agency must do is take a "hard look" at the probable environmental consequences, he found. "Hard look" has been defined by the courts as "a thorough investigation into the environmental impacts of an agency's action and a candid acknowledgment of the risk that those impacts entail." "The National Environmental Policy Act relies upon a 'faith in technocratic expertise with a trust in democracy,'" Hamilton concluded, not addressing the question of what to do when that faith is shattered. "Public officials are required to consider reasonable alternatives, to listen and respond to objections, and to explain the reasons for choosing a selected route," he wrote. "Citizens, likewise, have the opportunity to examine, criticize, and test the government's proposed course of action. "But in the end, after evaluating a range of possible alternatives, if the democratically accountable government chooses a course of action disagreeable to some, that decision still stands." Steven Higgs is the editor of the Bloomington Alternative. He can be reached at editor@BloomingtonAlternative.com. The site includes an extensive archive of stories on the I-69/NAFTA Highway.     Your Ad Here

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