Letters To The Editor

Tue., Dec. 26, 2000

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Losers can quit having a bawl now

Re: The presidential election.

For all the crybabies who would prefer the rule of lawyers over the rule of law, trying to steal an election by changing the rules of engagement after the fact does not meet constitutional muster. Get over it! Your whining is unbecoming but fits your liberal constitution perfectly. Try again four years from now. And fix (not rig) the ballot boxes before you’re at it. Michael R. Gruber Spokane

The truth will come out

When the truth finally comes out about what really took place in the Florida election, many people will be left eating crow.

It will then become evident as to who played the political card in the Supreme Court decision. Edward A. Wolf Spokane

Running true to Republican form

A classic example of the difference between Democrats and Republicans is illustrated by Kaiser ownership’s attempt to rip us all off by selling the company’s cheap power and netting $52 million. Kaiser’s power is cheap because it’s subsidized out of the pockets of all of us taxpayers and ratepayers - you and me.

Democratic Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is getting involved Kaiser’s power selling because it rips off all of us ratepayers and threatens the income of 400 Kaiser employees after January.

Republican Rep. George Nethercutt is absolutely irate that Richardson is intervening. Nethercutt is busy writing letters to stop Richardson and clear the path for Kaiser’s ownership.

Typical Republican! Don’t stick up for all of us ratepayers who subsidized Kaiser’s cheap power. Don’t stick up for the 400 Steelworkers being laid off. Instead, stick up for the multimillionaire Kaiser ownership that is ripping us all off.

Scrooge lives and will prosper even more with Nethercutt’s help. That’s the ultimate rip-off. Sally Jackson Spokane

Think of Bush as White House temp

Re: “Gore has had his chance” (Letters, Dec. 20).

I do not know how or if P. Norman Nelson learned to count or add, however, winning by 540,000 popular votes does not end one’s political career. That is five times the amount of the popular vote that John Kennedy (1960) and Richard Nixon (1968) won by.

George W. Bush will be a one-termer, as were the previous three losers of the popular vote who nonetheless won the Electoral College vote (John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Harrison and Rutherford B. Hayes.) After Bush and his shameless brother stole Florida, it sent a message to the American people about their lack of integrity and honesty. In 2002, Democrats will take back the House and Senate, and in 2004, in an open and honest election, they will send Bush packing. Tim R. Hattenburg Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

We can’t afford to take a chance

It is time for the true leaders of the business world to stand out, the ones who care about the future. Instead of taking initiative in reducing greenhouse gases, most businesses have put it on the back burner and are waiting for regulations to be set.

This is an issue that needs to get to the top of the agenda. We are talking about the Earth; these gases could affect our entire planet.

I’m not saying global warming is or isn’t real. But consider that a 10 percent chance of a catastrophe would motivate businesses or people to buy insurance. In perspective, many scientists believe that it’s 90 percent likely the recent rises in temperature are not natural.

While nobody can be sure if global warming is real or not, the results are potentially devastating. This is why businesses need to take a stand in order to set emission standards to meet targets set by the Kyoto Protocol. Our world depends on it. Cale Schupman Spokane

Stimson’s plan harmful then, now

Thank you for the coverage of Stimson Lumber Company’s proposal for logging access roads across national forest lands.

The statement, “A 1997 biological opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded the proposal would not put those populations in jeopardy or destroy critical habitat” needs clarification.

There are two USFWS biological opinions concerning the latest Stimson-Forest Service cost sharing proposal: June 20, 1997, on grizzly, woodland caribou and wolf; and a supplemental one dated July 14, 1998, on bull trout.

The opinions state the road proposal will not “jeopardize the continued existence” of the three species. However, this means existence generally, not just in the LeClerc Creek watershed. That’s why critical habitat is supposed to be designated; to protect species everywhere they occur.

Both opinions also state “no critical habitat has been designated” for woodland caribou, grizzly or bull trout, “therefore, none will be affected.” This is bureaucratic double talk: We haven’t addressed the problem so there is no problem.

The Forest Service’s June 12 biological assessment for bull trout concludes (again) that the project has “a high probability to result in a take of bull trout and would adversely affect the habitat.”

The harms to LeClerc Creek from a century of forest practices have been thoroughly documented by the Forest Service and the state Department of Natural Resources. Until that degradation is acknowledged and acted upon by both landowners and resource managers, the remaining fish and wildlife in the LeClerc Creek watershed will continue their decline toward extinction. Toby Thaler staff attorney, Washington Forest Law, Seattle

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