Smokey Resigns- A Blast from the Past.

Well, nothing much to post about today, so I figured I'd pull this one out from the archives. This one goes back to 2002 when President Bush declared a War on Fire.

From the LA Times:

KERNVILLE, Calif. -- As flames leaped across the West this summer, so did the hyperbole. If fires weren't devastating, they were horrific or catastrophic. Colorado's governor at one point declared his state ablaze. Television sets blared the peril to California's groves of giant sequoias.

In August, President Bush tramped through the charred landscape of a fire that had raged across southern Oregon and Northern California and declared the sight a "crying shame."

Of course, lest you think that the President was truly awash in grief, remember what the Republican response was.

From the LA Times again:

At the site of a 500,000 -- acre fire in southern Oregon, Bush lamented the consequences of "bad forest policy," and called for an emergency program to increase logging and thinning in federal forests.

Backed by the White House, legislation that would curtail legal challenges to future logging is now pending in Congress.

What's funny about this piece is that, if I'd known in 2002 what I know now, I might have had some other administration official out in the forest!

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Sources:
The LA Times article was origionally written on 10/27/02

I found it posted at:
http://www.saveamericasforests.org/congress/Fire/CalFireSciSayGood.htm