http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair08232003.html<snip>
George Bush descended on Oregon this week to fleece a million bucks from a band of local fat cats in Portland and shill for his new logging plan for the national forests...or in the slurpy Bush lexicon "for-ur-ests."
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On this hot August night, Bush had providence (or something like it) on his side. A few days prior to his visit, two fires erupted in the very area of the Deschutes National Forest, near Bend, Oregon, where Bush was set to make his pronouncements about how clearcutting ancient forests down a field of raw stumps serves as a kind of preventive medicine when it comes to forests fires.
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The origin of those fires remains a mystery, largely because no one is looking very hard for the ignition points. Bush labeled them "wild" fires, but they were almost certainly arsons. There were no lightning strikes in that part of the forest the day fires started. A closure order had been issued in advance of the president's visit. Who could have set them? For nearly a week that area on the eastern flank of Mt. Jefferson was closed to public entry for security reasons. Only Forest Service personnel and the Secret Service were permitted entry.