Liberal bias even in small media / aka: FReep 'em silly for turning CA Fires into anti-Bush crusade!

The linkes article available here and above starts out sounding reasonable. The Mountain communities here were ravaged by fire and Federal funds to prevent a recurrence by removing the millions of dead trees afflicted by the bark beetle infestation are slow in coming (whats new about that?) but rather then surfing the issue "Davey Porter" the author of the article tries to spin this into something where Bush and crew are sitting on their hands while Diane Feinstein and recalled (thank GOD!) Gray Davis supposedly tried to do something about it "long ago" but were blow off by Washington.

What a load of parrot poop! Feinstein and Davis deeply connected with the loony-left environuts that CAUSED the delays in removing the dead trees (whups! Can't do that! Lack of bark beetles to eat might impact the "mountain plover" and certain other dependent species!!!) and now they are trying to come out of the disaster they caused by pointing fingers at Bush in the aftermath?!?!?!

I'd expect this typ of BS from the NYT or LAT or CBS etc, but from a tiny little paper with a few thousand subs?!?!

Damned fifth column is embedded everywhere! And who is "Davey Porter"? Isn't that a fat kid that works at Goodwins Market in Crestline stuffing bags? Or is it the 7-11...? (I'm a Mountain resident BTW)

I sent my comments to the editor HERE and I'm sure that as small as the Mountain News/Crestline Courier org is your comments will have an impact.

These Mountains are NOT liberal enclaves except in the richer parts of Lake Arrowhead and in the areas of Valley of Enchantment that are full of illegal aliens that do the gardening and housework for the rich liberals in Arrowhead.

Neat pic from the aforementioned publication.
Critters up here are so hungry they are coming
right up to people for food! Bears and 'Coons
are doing it too!

What's Davey smoking?

Amen! Crux of my reply to them! Thankfully I am pretty sure that Davey Pothead is a squeak in the wilderness. There are some leftist writers there and even a full blown Socialist that manages to sicken us all with his occasional Stalinist defecations in the face of truth but for the most part people in the Mountains are right on. Just got to KEEP it that way!

With the big push to unseat Bush on these little lefty cockroaches are starting to wiggle their feelers all over the place and we just got to keep the lights on (and the bugspray ready!) regardless of where they show themselves.

Gee - no mention of this?

Last modified Saturday, November 1, 2003 10:38 PM PST

Most money from safety initiative never reached fire agencies

By: Associated Press

SACRAMENTO -- A sales tax increase approved by voters after devastating 1993 wildfires has raised more than $18.5 billion but little of the money has been allocated to fire agencies battling the blazes that have ravaged Southern California in recent days.

Proposition 172, which made permanent a half-cent hike imposed two years earlier, was supposed to bolster public safety programs for cities and counties.

In Southern California, virtually all of the money has gone to law enforcement, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Local government officials said law enforcement gets most of the money because fire districts generally receive more stable funding from property taxes.

Overall, only 10 of 28 counties responding to informal surveys by the California State Association of Counties in 2001 and 2003 had used Proposition 172 funds for fire protection.

Firefighter unions are pressing the issue as their members battle what may become the costliest fires in state history.

"The reason we're getting more aggressive is there's smoke in the sky," said Joe Kerr, leader of the Orange County Professional Firefighters. "We're hoping to right the wrong."

Initially portrayed as a crime-fighting measure, the Proposition 172 campaign was retooled in 1993 after wildfires killed four people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes and buildings.

Supporters quickly ran TV commercials showing firefighters battling flames.

"In our view, it's just not right that a proposition that was passed on the basis of what it would do for police and fire ... has yielded so little for the fire service," said Carroll Wills, a spokesman for the California Professional Firefighters.

San Bernardino County, where fires have burned some 1,000 homes, uses the proposition funding for its sheriff's, probation and district attorney's offices.

In Ventura County, the fire protection district has received $565,000 out of $425.5 million.

The Orange County Fire Authority receives property tax money allocated by 15 of the 22 cities it serves. Seven others make direct payments.

Some cities also transfer Proposition 172 money to pay for fire protection. Los Angeles, for example, will provide about $6 million of the $31 million it expects to receive this year.

In Los Angeles County, a special voter-approved tax supports the Fire Department.

"Traditionally, people will vote for fire; they will vote for parks," County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said. "They won't vote for prisons and they definitely won't for the D.A."

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/11/02/news/breaking/11_1_0321_30_32.txt

I live 10 miles from federal forests. I don't think management of government forests will change until local media and the courts recognize that the smoke from burning forest land is a source of pollution and dramatically increasing the amount of government forest land burned each year will naturally cause global warming. Managing potential sources of smoke by limiting fuel, especially dry, highly combustable fuel, on government land would make a lot more sense environmentally than burning more government forest land each year.

Large forest products corporations don't care how much government owned forest land is destroyed by fire because their land will increase in value. It's tough on the local businesses when our scenic vistas are shrouded in thick clouds of smoke during the peak tourist season. It's hard to figure how no one in the media questions whether producing smoke is the best use of government forest land.

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