California Burns & Bush is To Blame

This has been one of the worst fires in American history.  The damaged
area is about the size of Rhode Island, dozens have been killed, and
thousands of homes have been destroyed.  Yet again, our State continues
to suffer the brunt of Bush's usual anti-California policies.  For those
of you who don't care, in the rest of the country (mainly the
Republicans), & if I can not appeal to your moral instincts, then let me
appeal to your selfish instincts, here's a basic fact, it is not
possible for the rest of the U.S. economy to improve, if the Republicans
persist in waging their dirty war against the largest State in the
Union, California.

Abel Malcolm
http://www.bushrecall.com
________

Bush ignored fire plea

Officials warned of 'tinder box'

By Robert Salladay, Zachary Coile, Chronicle Political Writers

Friday, October 31, 2003

Sacramento -- California officials accused the Bush administration
Thursday of ignoring urgent pleas months ago for emergency help to
remove beetle-infested trees that experts warned could fuel a
catastrophic Southern California fire.

The U.S. Senate passed controversial legislation Thursday allowing the
thinning of forests across the West, and another debate erupted over
whether dire warnings about a bark beetle infestation were ignored in
Washington.  In April, Gov. Gray Davis requested $430 million to remove
unhealthy trees on 415, 000 acres of forest, but the request for
emergency funds went unanswered until last week -- and then was denied.

"There was a reason the governor requested the declaration,'' said Davis
spokesman Steve Maviglio. "And I'm sure there are a lot of families
without homes that are disappointed it wasn't approved.''

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, speaking in the Senate during Thursday's
debate on the "Healthy Forests'' bill, complained that President Bush
had failed to act on the state's request for help and that now
Californians were suffering.

"We named three of the four counties that are up in smoke, and we begged
him to declare a disaster, we begged him,'' Boxer said before the bill
passed 80-14. "We saw this coming a mile away.''

Bark beetles' damage

For more than a year, California officials have fretted about an
infestation of native beetles that drill into trees, mostly pine and
fir.  They feast on bark and carry a fungus that blocks a tree's
vascular system from carrying water.  Healthy trees normally can reject
the beetles, but the bugs have thrived because a four-year drought has
weakened hundreds of thousands of trees in Southern California, leaving
them brittle tinder.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had rejected the April
emergency request because it was clear the Department of Agriculture,
which manages the U.S. Forest Service, was working on the problem and
diverting money from other programs to tackle it.  In addition, they
said, $3.3 million originally designated for seismic safety was diverted
in June to tackle the beetle problem in San Bernardino and Riverside
counties.

"It's somewhat disingenuous to suggest there was no federal assistance,
because in fact there was,'' said Chad Kolton, spokesman for FEMA.

The Davis administration released an April 16 letter sent to Bush
warning that the bark beetle infestation was threatening severe fires in
three counties: Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino. Davis warned
that 75,000 residents of mountain communities were threatened. He
requested $300 million from the U.S. Forest Service and $130 million
from a FEMA account of unused money set aside from previous disasters.

"This situation is of such severity and magnitude that effective
response is beyond the capabilities of the state,'' Davis said in April,
a month after he declared three counties in a state of emergency because
of the infestation and the potential for major wildfires fueled by Santa
Ana winds.

Eight days later, a bipartisan group of California lawmakers pleaded
with federal authorities to approve Davis' request, saying "this
infestation has created a tinder box of such magnitude that loss of life
and resources would be incomprehensible should fire break out." The
letter was signed by Boxer, and Republican Reps. Mary Bono of Palm
Springs, Jerry Lewis of Redlands (San Bernardino County), Darrell Issa
of Vista (San Diego County), David Dreier of San Dimas (Los Angeles
County) and Duncan Hunter of Alpine (San Diego County), among others.
Hunter's home was destroyed in the recent fire.

Bad rap for FEMA?

Bono told Gannett News Service on Wednesday, as fires raged across
Southern California, that FEMA "should have helped us.  There has got to
be egg on their face today.'' But her chief of staff, Frank Cullen, told
The Chronicle that Bono felt FEMA "may be getting a bad rap."  There is
considerable debate, he said, over whether FEMA should use its money to
head off potential catastrophes rather than responding to current
disasters.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who also signed the letter, had been
warning Congress and federal authorities for months about the bark
beetle problem. Along with Lewis, she helped secure $30 million to
combat the infestation -- but approval came only last month.  Another
$10 million was added Monday in emergency appropriations as the largest
fire in modern California history raged.

Howard Gantman, a spokesman for Feinstein, said "we have not gotten
strong support from Congress in the past'' to deal with the situation.
The Senate in July approved $25 million to battle the beetle, but the
money was stripped from the budget by a conference committee.

"...Congress has been faced with record
deficits, and it's very tough to get money for even emergency issues,''
Gantman said, "and sometimes in Congress there is a reluctance to give
money to California.''

An estimated 1 million trees have been killed because of the beetle, but
it's unclear how much of the current fire has been exacerbated by
beetle- killed trees. State Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte, R-Ranch
Cucamonga, said the fire in his district most likely would have raged
even without the beetle infestation's killing trees.

But he said the four-year drought, the beetles and the lack of forest-
thinning work in mountain communities nevertheless made the problem
worse. He likened the situation to pneumonia -- survivable in the young
but deadly to the old.

"That said, if we had gotten more money quicker,'' Brulte said, "we
could have taken out a lot more trees.''

Forest Service criticized

The Forest Service has been criticized for devoting too much of its
hazardous fuels reduction money to Northern California rather than to
the forests of Southern California.  The agency had initially proposed
just $2 million this past year to treat bug-killed trees in the San
Bernardino National Forest.

But as the bark beetle crisis worsened, with an estimated 350,000 bug-
killed acres as of August in the San Bernardino forest, California's
regional forester Jack Blackwell boosted funding to $12 million by
persuading other forest supervisors around the state to give up money to
address the threat of a catastrophe there, according to spokesman Matt
Mathes.

Environmentalists have accused the administration and House Republican
leaders of using the current fires to win support for their legislation
that aims to increase logging throughout the forest. And the Senate
rejected an amendment that would have funneled more money to fire
protection efforts in forest areas closest to communities.

But supporters of the legislation are looking to the Southern California
fires as proof that forests need to be thinned.

During the debate over Healthy Forests, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, took
issue with Boxer's comments that Bush ignored the problem, saying she
and other lawmakers had repeatedly opposed legislation to speed thinning
of forests, including those hard-hit by the bark beetle.

"Forest scientists not a year ago, five years ago were pleading with us
to create activity in our forest and in the San Bernardino (forest) to
stop a catastrophic fire that was going to happen some day,'' Craig
said. "And yet this Senate and, my guess is, the senator from
California's vote denied'' it.

Boxer shot back that she had often supported measures to removed beetle-
infested trees, but not measures that "say the only way to have a
healthy forest is to cut down every tree, particularly old growth.''

E-mail the writers at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
URL:
sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/31/MNG3S2NI081.DTL


"In the end, through the long ages of our quest for light, it will be
found that truth is still mightier than the sword":

Gen. Douglas MacArthur (Graduated from West Point at the top of his
class, then served brilliantly in WW1, WW2 & the Korean war)

Educate yourself and go to these links:

http://www.buzzflash.com & http://www.moveon.org &
http://www.veteransforpeace.org & http://www.salon.com &
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/LiberalFAQ.htm &
http://www.barbrastreisand.com