>speaking of which, i just saw the doco on waco tonight. if the repubs
>think that by accusing someone of moral depravity everything is
>beleive that by accusing something of being a cult, then so too,
>everything is permitted. then again, it may just have been the
>agencies big chance for more bucks - a claim that looked pretty
>convincing to me.
It's interesting that you should link the environmental issues and the opportunistic xenophobia we were discussing with Waco and with the never- ending quest for funds by agencies, political parties, etc. The document which served as the starting point for this discussion was published by the Council on Environmental Quality, which is the agency charged with coordinating and overseeing the many governmental and private entities which have to deal with environmental policy issues throughout the USA. The current Chairman of the CEQ is George Frampton, a well-known Washington lawyer who started out working on one of the Watergate legal teams in the 1970s, became involved in environmental issues and went on to become president of the Wilderness Society for several years in the 1980s and early 1990s and, when the Democrats returned to power, served as an assistant secretary of the interior 1993-1997 (reporting to Bruce Babbitt, who is currently under fire for the Interior Dept's. mishandling of Indian trust funds). He then left the govt. to serve as Al Gore's personal lawyer in the recent Justice Department "investigation" of campaign finance problems. Frampton's legal talents evidently were sufficient to convince Janet Reno that, unlike the evil Branch Davidians, Al Gore and the Buddhists he hung with were OK. Now Frampton is back helping Bill and Al reinvent government or whatever the buzzword is nowadays, doubtless wanting to do good by the environment but wanting even more to stay in office. K.Mickey