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Who'll Stop the
Pain?
By my count, there are five moderate Republicans
left in the U.S. Senate and a handful of moderate republicans in the House
(maybe 30-40?). Michigan's Republican federal delegation are not friends of
the environment, with the exception of Vern Ehlers (R-Unique).
The moderate Republicans, with the help of
John McCain (R-Improving) have given notice about the Alaska National Wildlife
Refuge. Will this be enough to stop Bush's anti-environmental
blitzkrieg? Maybe for some of the big issues but for the red meat of
environmental protection - the rule making and enforcement and legislation-
we're losing everything.
Perhaps Representative Vern Ehlers, who has been
supportive of sound science in the past, will respond to the latest evidence of
Bush's War on the Environment and push for hearings on this and other
undercuttings of law and ethics. We know that Nick "Factory Farm" Smith,
Dave "Clearcut" Camp, Mike "Polluter Pal'" Rogers and Joe "My Big Fat Zero LCV
Rating" Knollenborg will never let ethics and morality and science outweigh
crass political pandering to and for their corporate cronies.
While it may not be the most important
environmental issue to the public, the administration's allowance of snowmobiles
in Yellowstone NP over their own recomendations lifts the self-imposed iron
curtain of the Bushites and gives the public a peek at the extent of
anti-environmental extremism in the Executive branch.
If the Bush administration is ignoring their
own reports when it doesn't agree with their ideology, the next logical question
is what else are they ignoring? (For one answer, see end of message
below).
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Study supported ban on snowmobiles
Tom Kenworthy USA TODAY
DENVER -- The Bush administration overturned a ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks in November despite its own study that found that the parks' environment and employees would be best protected by phasing out the machines. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=676&e=4&u=/usatoday/20030131/ts_usatoday/4828295 ----------------------------------------------------- Early indications are heat problem
caused shuttle tragedy
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - It's too soon to say why the space shuttle Columbia exploded, but the early signs suggest that a heat problem enveloped the left wing and side of the spacecraft before it disintegrated more than 39 miles above north central Texas. What caused the heat and subsequent explosion is still unknown, but a prime suspect is a slight mishap that occurred when the vehicle was launched on Jan. 16. At that time, some debris from the shuttle's external fuel tank slammed against the left wing, experts said. No matter what the cause, safety experts have warned for years that a problem was coming. They told Congress that the shuttle program needed more money and newer equipment or else it faced rising safety risks. Six outside consultants on a safety panel issued such warnings; they were fired in March 2001. |