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."