Bush to push for thinning

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) -- President Bush will address forest health issues when he visits Medford on Thursday, most likely pushing for more intensive thinning of Western forests to reduce fire danger.

When they reach Medford, the president and U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith will receive a briefing on Oregon wildfires, according to Joe Sheffo, Smith's press secretary.

Bush and Smith will then be taken on a tour of the area burned by the Squire fire southeast of Ruch. The fire scorched nearly 3,000 acres of public and private land after it was sparked by lightning July 13.

The president's visit comes as Western lawmakers draw up legislation to speed cutting of overgrown forests. Administration officials have blamed tangles of environmental rules for slowing logging on federal lands and want cutting accelerated to meet targets set by the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan.

Environmental groups, long critical of the president for appointing friends of timber and other industries to top posts, said the president is simply using Western wildfires to justify increased logging.

"This administration was pushing logging before these fires, it's pushing logging because of these fires, and it'll be pushing logging after these fires," said Nathaniel Lawrence of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The White House on Tuesday invited Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber to join the president in Southern Oregon on Thursday, when Bush will ride in a helicopter over the huge Biscuit Fire and visit a smaller fire closer to Medford.

Kitzhaber has led an effort by the Western Governors' Association to address wildfire threats across the West.

The Bush administration has signed onto the governors' plan of stepped-up thinning, and Bush will promote that Thursday. But the administration has so far not committed to the funding the governors want and in some cases has suggested firefighting costs have escalated out of control.

Governors from Idaho, Arizona and Montana also have been invited to join the president in Medford.

"This is very significant for us," state Republican Party Chairman Perry Atkinson said. "We know that Oregon is one of the targeted states in the next election cycle."

If Atkinson had any doubts, he was jokingly reminded of that in the days just before Bush's inauguration.

"When I met with the president, he leaned over and said, 'Just 6,776 votes, are you going to make it up to me next time?' " Atkinson said, referring to the number of votes that Bush lost Oregon by in the 2000 election.

The current Oval Office occupant will not be the first President Bush to have visited the Rogue Valley.

His father made a presidential visit to Medford in mid-September, 1992. Before that, the last presidential visit came when President Gerald Ford arrived in 1976.

Rutherford B. Hayes was the only other sitting president to visit the Rogue Valley, arriving in September of 1880.

So what's wrong with increased logging?

It's worth noting the spin battle going on here.

Bush wants "thinning," the enviros denounce it as "logging."

"Thinning" suggests nothing more than an "agricultural operation" that leaves forests basically intact. It says nothing about whether there's any profit to be made by logging companies (there is).

"Logging" suggests large-tract clear-cutting, as has been the usual policy in the northwestern forests over the past couple of decades. This allows the enviros to characterize the loggers as by evil profit-seeking environment destroyers.

The political battle here is whether the media will call it "thinning" or "logging," which would leave viewers with one or the other of the impressions noted above. Assuming he can get it through in the next couple of months, I think Bush will carry the battle on this one, and the enviros are going to get waxed.

The next battle will occur when the enviros begin accusing the USFS of allowing "logging" to occur in supposedly "thinned" areas.

Billboard offends many who drive past

By MELISSA MARTIN

Oregon Catholics tired of looking at a high-profile Interstate 5 billboard that reads "The pope is the antichrist" are calling for its removal.

"It's a deliberately and gratuitously offensive statement that singles out Catholics for contempt," said the Rev. Liam Cary, a priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Medford. "It's not in someone's back yard - it's right there, in your face, on a public road."

The Archdiocese of Portland, which serves western Oregon's 290,000 Catholics, is calling for the removal of a sign rented by Larry Weathers, an elder with Rogue Valley Historical Seventh-day Adventist of Talent, a church with about 40 members. The church is not affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which has disowned it and considers it renegade.

"We're not against Catholics or against their religion, just the political, religious organization of the Vatican," said Weathers, a Talent barber.

The billboard north of Central Point near the Tolo Road exit belongs to Outdoor Media Dimensions. A spokeswoman who did not give her name Thursday said the company had prepared a statement for her to read to the dozens of Catholic and media callers.

"The content expressed on billboards leased by Outdoor Media Dimensions does not in any way express the opinion or beliefs of our company or staff," it said.

The billboard has been up about two months. If it bashed any other group, it wouldn't have lasted this long, according to Cary. Similar anti-pope billboards have cropped up around Southern Oregon since a campaign began in 1993.

"What's to stop someone from putting an anti-Jewish billboard up or an anti-black or anti-Hispanic billboard up?" Cary asked. "I'm sure there would be a great uproar in Medford. But if it's anti-Catholic, why do we tolerate it?"

Billboards are not the only medium Weathers uses to get his message across. His church pays for mass mailings of the 94-page book "The National Sunday Law."

"The book outlines who the anti-Christ is," Weathers said. "Anti means in the place of Christ. A lot of people think it means against Christ. Any pope that holds that office becomes the person on Earth that represents Christ."

Cary said he prefers theological debates to roadway ranting.

"If he had a conversation with someone, that's one thing," Cary said. "But to have a blunt statement like that with no explanation, it can't help be anything but insulting."

Cary added that since many Hispanics are Catholic, the billboards may appear to be directed at them.

"When they come to Oregon, how welcome do they feel when they see a sign like that that mocks their religious faith in a public space?" he asked.

But it's not just Oregon Catholics who are offended by the billboards. Medford's Visitors and Convention Bureau and Chamber of Commerce have received letters and e-mail from folks from Florida, Texas, New Jersey and California.

"It's not the positive message that we want to be sending," said Julie Petretto, executive director of the Medford Visitors and Convention Bureau.

"When it affects your visitor industry or any other industry, it hits home. It's an economic impact to us and it's a bad message."

Brad Hicks, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce of Medford and Jackson County, said he's received letters from people who believe the sign is synonymous with hate.

"I think every American has a stake in responding to bigotry if we want to keep this place livable," he said.

Such billboards are free speech, protected by the First Amendment, according to Medford attorney Alan Herson. He is the father of Jeff Herson, former owner of Outdoor Media Dimensions, now owned by a Seattle company. Alan Herson is representing the company in a unrelated lawsuit about Oregon's billboard laws.

"The person who bought space from the billboard people has the right to free speech like all Americans do," Herson said. "If the Archdiocese doesn't like it, rather than censorship, they should print their own speech and buy a billboard. That's the American way. Your newspaper quotes anti-Semitic statements regularly, and nobody is calling for an end to your newspaper."

Billboards in Oregon are regulated by the state Department of Transportation, not for content but for placement along highways, said John Vial, district manager.

The Oregon Supreme Court recently sided with the state that several billboards in Southern Oregon are illegally placed, including the board with the anti-pope message. But the state can't remove the boards because court appeals are pending.

"The department thinks that billboard is in poor taste, but we're not in a position to remove it," Vial said.

This the same company that I querried. If they'll put this anti-catholic (Pope) board up I'm certain that we'd get our up without problem.

EBUCK

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