treehugger: February 2005

Éireann go Brách!

the treehugger is off to Ireland, I'll get back to the blog in a few weeks!

In the meantime, check out the new Ghandi t-shirt

Bush Finally becomes Uniter, not Divider

Unfortunately, his policies are uniting places like Iran and Syria. While Iran is calling on other Arab nations to unite against the US, Israel isn't making matters any better. Israel has warned that it may consider a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear installations along the lines of its 1981 bombing of an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad. This should be very troublesome to Americans, especially considering the Israeli military is composed of American planes that would require them to refuel before they eve reach Iran. How would they do this? By either, making a lay-over in Iraq or refueling in Iraqi air space. Which means, of course, that this action would basically have to occur with an American blessing.

Another misleading statement in this article is that "The Bush Administration has so far applied only diplomatic pressure." The US has apparently been sending unmanned spy planes into Iran for over a year. The Iranian government has formally protested the flights. And now a blast near one of the nuclear facilities has set-off alarms all across the middle east that Iran has been attacked by the US. Although the US and Israel have denied involvement and .Tehran gave conflicting explanations for the blast -- including construction work and friendly fire in a military area.

W is for War

How do you Combat terrorism? Throw Money at it!

The supplemental spending request Bush recently sent to Congress includes plenty of "add-ons" that have nothing to do with supporting the troops. By using the supplemental request, instead of budgeting these items in the 2006 FY budget he already sent to congress, the administration doesn't have to explain how the money would be used, but rather proffers congress an obscure blank check. Especially appalling after the American run Iraq Provisional Authority couldn't account for over $10 billion dollars of money already sent. Among my personal favorite add-ons: $400 million to pay-off nations we bribed into the "coalition of the willing" and $150 million for military aid for Pakistan---a country who's current leader took over by military coup?

How does the administration decide to sell this to the congress? Scare them. That's right, it's worked for everything else, why not continue crying wolf at every chance we get. "Speaking with one voice, President Bush's top intelligence and military officials said Wednesday that terrorists are regrouping for possible new strikes against the United States. They said the best defense was for Congress to approve the president's military and anti-terror budget."

Here are some of the extras in the supplemental request:

War budget request loaded with extras

$5.3 BILLION

Reorganizing Army and Marines to fight terrorism

$950 MILLION

Recovery funds for nations hit by South Asian tsunami

$342 MILLION

Aid to feed refugees and bolster peace accord in Sudan

$200 MILLION

Education and border security for Palestinians

$60 MILLION

Support for Ukraine's new reform government

Among the funds not directly related to U.S. military action:

Bill not entirely for U.S. military action

AMOUNT / REASON FOR FUNDING

$7.4 billion: Training/equipping Iraqi and Afghan military and police.

$5.3 billion: Restructuring Army and Marine units.

$1.85 billion: Countering drugs, paying for security and supporting reconstruction in Afghanistan.

$950 million: Helping areas affected by the recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

$1.38 billion: Constructing/operating a new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

$400 million: Economically assisting nations that have taken political and economic risks to join the U.S.-led coalitions in Iraq and Afghanistan

$342 million: Providing aid to promote peace for people in civil war-stricken Sudan.

$200 million: Funding education and border security for the Palestinians.

$300 million: Providing economic and military aid in Jordan.

$150 million: Providing military aid for Pakistan.

$60 million: Aiding Ukraine

$780 million: Funding international peacekeeping activities

Source: White House

Chicago Tribune

David trumps Goliath

The little guys can win. If you have ever heard of the infamous McLibel case, where two activists were sued by McDonalds for distributing flyers--they didn't write--that accused McDonalds of paying low wages, abusing animals and exploiting children, the activists won today against the UK Government. The two activists defended themselves against the massive corporation and lost. Although the court did find that the charges issued by the activists pamphlet were true, the libel laws in the UK are unreasonably strict. So unreasonable that the European Court of Human Rights found that they were denied the right to free speech and a fair trial.

Obama lets Bush have it

Obama is already Ba-rocking the capitol as he rips the Bush administration over their funding for veteran's affairs. Conservatives will likely counter that the 2006 budget for Veteran's affairs is an increase of 2% over the 2005 budget, although true, that hardly takes into consideration the vast increase of veterans since 2005 with over 10,000 Americans injured in Iraq. The most alarming part of Bush's proposal is requiring veterans to pay $250 to become enrolled in the health-care system they were supposed to get for serving in the military. "Our honorable military service should be our enrollment fee in the system," said Steve Robertson, legislative director for the American Legion.

"This budget tells our veterans that if they want increased funding for the VA they'll have to pay for it themselves," Obama said.

More broadly, Obama castigated Bush for "a bad budget" and "enormous spending."

"To the extent that we've got a fiscal crisis right now, part of it is prompted by a bullheaded insistence on the part of the president, for example, that we should extend all of his tax cuts, make all of them permanent," Obama said.

Hillary/Obama 2008!

Bush Administration violated Endangered Species Act

A Federal Judge in Portland ruled today that "the Bush administration violated the Endangered Species Act when it relaxed protections on many of the nation's gray wolves." The US Fish and Wildlife Service had reclassified Eastern and Western populations of the wolves to threatened status. "The court chastised the Bush Administration's policy as not based on science or the law and as merely an attempt to remove the wolf from the Endangered Species Act list as quickly as possible. " The Fish and Wildlife Service Defines a threatened species as: An animal or plant species likely to become endangered within the
foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

While this is good news for the further protection of the endangered Gray Wolves in the lower 48 states, Alaska is a whole 'nother story. That state has begun issuing permits to allow aerial hunting of wolves. Basically, you can get a helicopter or plane and shoot wolves, that are in no way threatening you, from the sky. Alaskans twice voted to ban the practice in statewide referendums, but the Alaska Board of Game resumed the practice anyway. For more on this issue, and what you can do, visit the Defenders of Wildlife website.