GREEN HELL Malibu fire aftermath (Photo: Getty Images)
Will George W. Bush use the California fires for a massive I-told-you-so?

As Melissa Etheridge, Barbara Streisand, Rob Reiner, and plenty of non-famous, stinking rich people watch an ungrateful Mother Nature destroy their Malibu beachfront properties, let's re-examine the 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act. Clearly an under-the-table handjob for logging companies that cut citizens out of the government's environmental decisions, it did call for the clearing of dense forests and brush areas to prevent the spread of wildfires. The Sierra Club did not support the bill in 2003, but the group did concede that, "[a]long with the Malibu fires of a decade ago and other more recent fires, there is no shortage of evidence indicating the essential role that clearing brush near communities plays in protecting homes and lives."

That didn't stop current Malibu resident and green scenester Robert Redford from echoing the talking-points of his millionaire neighbors (who've since, unfortunately, needed to move on to their other properties) in a 2003 interview with grist.org. Redford blasted the Healthy Forests Initiative as "insidious ... painfully ugly" and "jingling with jingoism."

Pundit Glenn Beck went ahead and broke the ice for Bush on this issue earlier in the week, saying essentially that he's happy Redford and his ilk are tasting the charred backhand of same Mother Nature they so frequently hump. On his radio show Monday, Beck said, "There is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today."

That'll teach 'em to buck a Bush bill.