April 4, 2001

Countdown to the Summit of the Americas #2: 1. U.S. activists detained at airport on eve of summit protest seminar + 2. Canada bars fabled farm activist Jose Bove + 3. Globalization Glossary + 4. Ministers face activists riled up over environment + 5. Freedom For France (Spirituality) + 6. The Feeling of a Coup

Hello everyone

It is getting much harder now to follow up on all the issues I want - and feel I *have* - to cover. And there is plenty more new amazing ones coming soon...

In this one, evidence of the mounting repression against anti-globalization activists is showing its ugly head. Same problem in France for new age people and groups.

Lots of useful educational stuff in "Globalization Glossary" to better know the basics.

As envisioned by a friend who sent me the attached pic he concocted, sparks could really fly high in the sky of Quebec City next April 20 -22!



;-)

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000

P.S. The biggest solar flare in a long time is headed our way and should provoke auroras all around the world this Tuesday. For a preview, take a look at these wonderful pics of recent auroras! http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_20mar01.html




SOME VERY USEFUL INTERNET RESOURCES RELATED to the Summit of the Americas:

- Resistance if Fertile at http://www.left2rdevices.com/

- Maude Barlow, from the Council of Canadians and Tony Clarke from the Polaris Institute co-authors of Global Showdown spoke in Vancouver on a book launch tour Saturday March 3, 2001.
Global Showdown describes the new activist movement against global corporate rule.
They call this the "New Democracy" movement and describe its central task as ensuring that civic culture prevails over corporate culture.
More details at http://www.workingtv.com/globalshowdown.html

- To get an European perspective on the FTAA go at
http://www.local.attac.org/13/documents/ZF_en.htm

- "Weaving a Web of Solidarity: a Feminist Action Against the FTAA" at http://www.toilefemme.net

- And from: http://www.nfb.ca/FMT/E/MSN/50/50144.html

For Man Must Work or The End of Work (2000, 52 min 01 sec documentary)
Abstract
The 20th century has seen an accumulation of colossal wealth, some of which has been transferred through salaries to a massive work force. Despite causing numerous conflicts, this generated higher living standards on a global scale. But the days of industry providing jobs for people are over. In the rationalization of production, the financiers who now control the global economy favour technological resources over human resources. Have we entered the century of "economic horror"? Les Oublies du XXIe siecle raises crucial questions and proposes ways of rethinking the future. Focussing on Mexico, France and Canada, it shows how workers' living and working conditions are deteriorating around the world. This incisive documentary gives a voice to lucid and politically engaged people - labour's discarded ones - who think the new century has gotten off to an ominous start.

- See also: A new Berlin/Quebec Wall of Oppression against Anti-Free-Trade Activists is now being erected in Quebec City: pictures at http://www.lesoleil.com/encours/quoti/lu1__self.stm





1.

Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2001
From: David Creighton <dcr8on@sympatico.ca>
Subject: Their fear is rising [x 2]

From: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/city/010331/5009844.html

U.S. activist detained at airport on eve of summit protest seminar

Joanne Laucius and Janet Hunter
The Ottawa Citizen, with files from Canadian Press

A U.S. civil rights activist on his way to teach a weekend seminar on protests was detained at the Ottawa airport for more than four hours.

George Lakey, 62, the Philadelphia-based director of Training for Change, said after his release about 9 p.m. that the search of his belongings reminded him of former Communist East Germany.

He said customs officials ran his name through a computer, then did an extensive search of his bags -- photocopying his documents, including speaking notes for his talk this weekend. "It was the most amazing scrutiny of my bag since crossing Checkpoint Charlie in Cold War Berlin in the early '60s," Mr. Lakey said in an interview.

He noted that he was in Canada as recently as January for a conference in Montreal and wasn't stopped. Mr. Lakey said immigration officials who questioned him yesterday later explained there was heightened sensitivity surrounding the April's Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. ...

Mr. Lakey's seminar is part of a day-long series of lectures in Parliament's historic Railway Reading room about the summit and the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. The event is sponsored by New Democrat MP Svend Robinson and Bloc MP Stephane Tremblay. On Monday, some of the same activists plan to protest outside the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Ottawa.

Mr. Lakey, who flew in from Detroit, acknowledged he has a record of four arrests in the United States for acts of peaceful civil disobedience. He has led hundreds of protest seminars for groups ranging from Sri Lankan monks to Russian gays and lesbians.

Mr. Lakey is the author of A Manual for Direct Action, called the "bible" of southern civil rights activists in the '60s. He was invited to Ottawa by the Solidarity Network, a group that organized a "people's parliament" as a prelude to the Summit of the Americas.

Kerry Pither, a spokeswoman for Solidarity Network, called the detention "unjust. It's outrageous and demonstrates a lack of commitment to free speech," said Ms. Pither. "This is very obviously another example of the intimidation we're seeing because of the Summit of the Americas."

Pierre Marquis, a spokesman for Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, said it is not the job of customs to stop people who are coming into the country to carry out peaceful demonstrations. "Customs and its partners and local law enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration are working closely together to ensure the safety of Canadians and travellers," he said.

Mr. Marquis said customs officers are the first point of contact for travellers from outside the country, and as such are responsible for the initial screening of people entering Canada. He refused to comment on Mr. Lakey's case, but said a person could be detained because initial questioning raised issues about their admissibility.

Asked whether customs officers had any directive from any other government agency to stop people who might be preparing for protests at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Mr. Marquis said he couldn't discuss specifics. "Customs is not doing anything that it doesn't do normally," he said.




2.

From: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/gam/National/20010331/UIMMINSB.html

Canada bars fabled farm activist

MARK MacKINNON With a report from Canadian Press Saturday, 31 March, 2001

OTTAWA -- Canadian immigration officials have put out an all-points bulletin to try to keep José Bové, the French farmer who gained notoriety for trashing a McDonald's, from attending next month's Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.

A spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada told The Globe and Mail yesterday that a notice has been sent to all the country's ports of entry, warning staff to be on the lookout for Mr. Bové.

"It's just another example of how our civil liberties are being suspended," said Maude Barlow, chairwoman of the nationalist Council of Canadians, the group that had asked Mr. Bové to speak in Quebec City. "He speaks for millions of people, for farmers and landless peasants."

The moustachioed sheep farmer became something of a Robin Hood figure after he and four others were imprisoned for vandalizing a McDonald's and locking up agricultural officials in France.

Attacking the fast-food chain, he said, was a symbolic gesture to protest against the rise of genetically modified foods, as well as against tariffs imposed by the United States on French delicacies such as Roquefort cheese and foie gras.

He was fined and sentenced to three months in prison, but is currently out on appeal.

Since the incident, Mr. Bové has emerged as one of the most notorious members of the protest movement that has hit several international gatherings in recent years, including the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle that were effectively shut down by street demonstrations. Mr. Bové recently predicted that the Quebec summit -- a gathering of 34 heads of state and government from across North and South America -- would generate a protest that would make the Seattle street battle pale in comparison.

Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Quebec City for the April 20-22 summit to show their opposition to a proposed so-called free-trade area of the Americas (FTAA) that would include every country in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba.

Immigration spokesman Richard St. Louis said Mr. Bové would be kept out of Canada because of his conviction related to the McDonald's incident. "There is a lookout for Mr. Bové because he is technically inadmissible to Canada . . . he has a criminal background," Mr. St. Louis said.

Those with a criminal record cannot enter Canada without a special ministerial permit. However, Mr. St. Louis acknowledged the bulletin specifically advising customs officers to keep an eye out for Mr. Bové was unusual and tied to his stated intention to attend the summit.

Yesterday evening, American activist George Lakey -- who is to give a keynote speech on non-violent protest at a planned event tomorrow on Parliament Hill -- was detained at the Ottawa airport by Canadian airport officials for four hours while authorities questioned him about what he would be doing while in Canada.

Mr. Lakey said after his release that the search of his belongings reminded him of the old Communist East Germany. He said Customs officials ran his name through a computer, then did an extensive search of his bags.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/gam/National/20010331/UIMMINSB.html




3.

From: http://www.left2rdevices.com/glossary.html

Globalization Glossary

Social Charter:

A set of social rights that has been agreed upon between a group of countries that are removing trade and investment barriers between them. The goal of a Social Charter is to ensure that standards rise, rather than falling when countries with different levels of labour and environmental protections form a trade agreement.

Social Clause

A legal clause which when inserted into the text of the regulations in a trade agreement, asserts that parties agree to respect basic worker rights and abide by minimum labour standards.

WTO

The WTO is a group of 134 countries that make trade rules and settle trade fights. Canada is a member of this global group. It serves mostly business leaders who only care about profits It sucks because when the WTO looks at our free health and education, it sees governments getting in the way of the almighty right of companies to make money, even off of sick people. It is the most powerful global group ever, and it meets in secret to make sure that rich corporations get what they want from governments. The WTO and related trade agreements are intended to be an economic constitution for the planet, yet they are written by and almost entirely for, the world’s largest corporations In late 1999, protest spilled over the WTO at the Battle of Seattle, when 50,000 protestors virtually shut down the ministerial meetings and finally awakened media interest to the threat the WTO posed to the environment and citizens alike.

Free Trade

It is an agreement that is made between countries to open up their borders and allow companies to sell their goods across them. Through free trade the cards are stacked in favour of corporations and business’s looking for cheap costs. Powerful companies blackmail cash strapped governments in developing countries into competing with each other by lowering standards and wages Then Canadian business leaders lobby the government to cut spending on health care and programs that keep workers afloat during times of unemployment in the name of making Canada more attractive and competitive Free trade has limited our access to decision makers. At the same time, free trade has increased the rights of corporations.

NAFTA

Makes Canada, Mexico and the United States one big open market Makes it easier for rich companies to make more money in North America, but no mention of rights for people who work for rich companies NAFTA has created the notorious Maquiladora zones in Northern Mexico Investors and their lawyers have taken NAFTA clauses and exploited them to fight for lost profits and lost business opportunities because of environmental or health measures

OAS

Organization of American States Club of governments from North and South America (minus Cuba), that was created in the 1940’s. It’s based in Washington, but holds General Assembly meetings in different countries every year. Pays lip service to human rights Remember the big Demonstration in Windsor last year, people were protesting the meeting of these guys.

MAI

Multilateral Agreement on Investment Would have been a charter of rights and freedoms for global corporations, placing the rights of rich companies above the rights of you and me, let alone our government. Would have kissed environmental protection, social programs and the kitchen sink goodbye Provoked protests all over the world temporarily put the breaks on it. Canada played a major role in secretly negotiating the MAI at the OECD-a deal designed to enshrine NAFTA rules on investment as a model for trade agreements with the rest of the world. In 1998 the MAI collapsed under the weight of public protest, and was rejected by France and Australia as a threat to democracy

Maquiladora/ Free Trade Zones

Cordoned off factories and farms protected by the Mexican military where labour and environmental standards do not exist. Mexican laborers slave in unsafe factories, often working with toxic substances for pitiful wages and long hours. Wages are often as little as $1.70/hour There will be an increase in the number of Free Trade Zones in the Western Hemisphere

Globalization

In a nutshell globalization can best be defined as: the rush to break down trade barriers, open up each nation’s investment, services and resource sectors to the world’s biggest companies, strip away impediments to the smooth operation of those companies and allow for the global flow of capital. It is about running the world like a business, keeping a sharp eye on the bottom line and trying to cut out fat in the form of, say subsidies to struggling farmers in Jamaica or free education for University students in Mexico.

Sustainable Economy

Sustainable economies are those in which both producers and consumers carry their own costs, rather than dumping them on other people.

Structural Adjustment

Implementation of a set of neo-liberal economic policies, including deregulation of trade and commerce and cutting back on the role of the state. Euphemism for the complete overhaul of a nation’s economy by the global institutions, namely the world bank and IMF that lend money with powerful strings attached Based in Washington, financed by wealthy countries and by billions in interest payments from poor, developing nations Lenders bind borrowing nations to a list of free-market conditions that include cuts to public sector jobs and social spending, deregulation, privatization and measures to increase imports, usually at the expense of national industries.

Corporate Codes

Voluntary measures taken by a corporation that are intended to symbolize that particular corporation’s commitment to environmental, human and/or labour rights. Problem is that the corporations treat these codes as public relations measures rather than real commitments to change. Industry will pay lip service to codes but may not change its behaviour where profits are at issue Code enforcement mechanisms are more likely to be secretive and prone to conflict of interest problems than are government regulations Most codes lack the independent monitoring requirements viewed as essential by many code analysts. The majority of large Canadian businesses operating abroad do not have codes containing reference to even the most basic human rights standards. Companies appear to be reluctant to share their codes with the public, even when they report having codes containing human rights language.

GATT:

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade WTO: World Trade Organization: replaced the GATT in 1995 as regulator of world trade The GATT had virtually no institutional framework and nothing about concerns such as fair labour practices.

GATS

General Agreement on Trade in Services one of the numerous deals promoted by the WTO, the goal is to open us as many public services as possible to corporate competition Applies to all measures of governments. Deals with the environment, culture, natural resources, health care, education and social services Even covers unwritten practices of the government Restricts actions of governments regarding protection of services through legally enforceable constraints backed up by trade sanctions Today, negotiations at the WTO are continuing under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). On the table are health care, education and water.




4.

From: "Eric Darier" <Eric.Darier@attcanada.ca>
Subject: Ministers face activists riled up over environment
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001

Mad-cow faces made at protest

Ministers face activists riled up over environment
CATHERINE SOLYOM
The Gazette (Montreal)

JOHN MAHONEY, GAZETTE / A Montreal Urban Community police officer watches over demonstrators dressed up as mad cows yesterday in front of a downtown hotel.

In what looked like a costume dress rehearsal for the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, yesterday's demonstration downtown was peaceful and colourful - but above all, loud.

With 34 environment ministers from across the Americas holed up inside the Omni Hotel to prepare for the Apr il summit, costumed demonstrators outside used bugles and beating drums to belt out their case against the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

The dozen riot police cordoning off the hotel didn't even flinch.

"They don't want to listen to us so we have to make ourselves heard," said Greenpeace campaigner Eric Darier. "It's a very powerful reminder that the people outside matter and that they have to protect the environment."

Dressed in orange coveralls, Darier was perhaps the most subdued of the 300-strong crowd, which included folks dressed up as a variety of endangered species - from eagles and sharks to polar bears and some genetically modified animal/vegetables.

There were also about 30 mad cows, identifiable by black-and-white garb as well as their anger over the spread of agribusiness through free trade.

"Factory farming is an environmental nightmare and animals have the right to live free of cruelty, as do humans," said Janet Lalumiere, dressed up as a cow with her 5-month-old son, Noah, as a calf. "I'd like my son to grow up in an environment that considers all animals equally. Maybe that's too much to ask, but a lot has been achieved by masses working together."

The masses buried the Multilateral Agreement on Investment in 1996 and ran the World Trade Organization out of Seattle, activists recalled.

But now environmental and social activists are up against an agreement they are calling a "NAFTA times 34." They've come armed with precedents of how trade agreements have so often trounced environmental legislation:

- The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade dolphin/tuna dispute: in the early 1990s, the U.S. was forced to weaken its legislation on fishing techniques that endangered dolphins, so that Mexican tuna could be sold in the U.S.

- Hormone-treated beef: the European Union refused to accept some meat imports from North America on the basis that they were carcinogenic. The EU lost at the World Trade Organization in 1999 and pays Canada and the U.S. $120 million in compensation.

- Toxic waste: A NAFTA tribunal awarded a U.S. company, Metalclad, $16.7 million in compensation in 2000 after a Mexican municipality vetoed a toxic-waste dump. The case is now being appealed in the B.C. Supreme Court.

In short, protesters said legal instruments to protect the environment, like the environmental side agreement signed with NAFTA, were useless and could not be counted on if and when the FTAA comes into force.

Environment Minister David Anderson couldn't be counted on either, they said. Anderson seems to be giving up on the Kyoto protocol to lower green-house-gas emissions now that U.S. President George W. Bush has pulled out, and he has neglected to sign the biosafety accord negotiated in Montreal last year or effectively protect endangered species, said Greenpeace's Darier. "It's disgusting that a minister of the environment is more in favour of free trade than protecting the environment."

Still, some protesters said trade agreements did not have to be environmental disasters. Maude Barlow, of the Council of Canadians, said: "We're not against trade, but we wonder what it would be like if the economy served the people, not the other way around."




5.

From: "Pierre Wittmann" <pierrew@chmai.loxinfo.co.th>
Subject: Freedom For France (Spirituality)
Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2001

Dear friends,

Most people believe that France is the country of freedom and are not aware of the strong repression against spiritual groups, new age movements and alternative medicine that is taking place in France since a couple of years. The danger is that if that law against what is called there "cults" or "sects" is accepted, it may spread out to other countries, in particular in the European Community.

To help France recover the freedom that made her famous in more enlightened periods of her history, you can sign that online petition.

With peace and light

Pierre

Online petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/CAP01/petition.html

"Freedom For France" at Yahoo egroups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreedomForFrance

"Freedom For France is dedicated to built a critical mass against the current repression in France targeting all spiritual groups outside religious mainstream. The repression includes all alternative ways, self-development, holistic medicine.

The repression started in 1995 when the French Senate listed as "dangerous" 172 names of groups dedicated to spiritual self freedom. Most of them where part of the New Age movment. Politicians determined that the followers of the "American New Age" were the "new wave of cults".

The Chief of Justice issued instructions to push citizens to denounce their own neighbours, family, suspected to be New Age people, or alternative free-thinkers.

A list of "symptoms" was targeting people practicing meditation, burning incense, reading, making new friends, going to meetings, changing eating habits, and "stopping watching TV" that should be denounced to police with the use of denounciations via "claims against X".

This permitted searches to gather evidences and to investigate thousand of peoples and hundreds of groups. The spiritual repression in France is now at stage two.

The French Parliament voted on June 22, 2000 a new bill against spiritual groups. The new law would permit to label such activities as crimes and to eliminate all groups concerned and to condemn their leaders, animators and boards to firm prison and heavy fines. The new bill will be examined soon at the French Senate, who started this heavy repression at the first place.

Come and help the country that helped America to be free during her revolution. France is not the land of freedom of consciousness anymore and is about to become a dictatorship and a raw model of so-called "normal society behavior". If succesfull, this system could easily be tried anywhere in other countries. China has already taken the lead. Let us all come together to fight for spiritual freedom in France !"

To: French MPs and Senators

Coordination of Associations and Persons for freedom of conscience
coordiap@usa.net

http://perso.libertysurf.fr/coordiap/index.html

On June 22, 2000, the French parliament voted a new bill against « cults » proposed by senator Nicolas About and parliament member Catherine Picard. The bill will soon be discussed in the French senate.

The bill :

- gives for the first time the legal definition of a « cult », in contradiction with the French law of separation between religions and State and the French Constitution which guarantee religious neutrality from the State.

- creates a crime of « mental manipulation », punished by a 3 year jail indictment and a fine of 300 000 FRF. The law punishes the « fraudulent abuse of a person in a state of psychological or physical subjection resulting from the exercise of serious or repeated pressures or techniques meant to alter one's judgment ». As there are no objective criteria in this definition, it will open the door to all kinds of abusive interpretations. The same act, a spiritual guidance or the practice of a confession will be considered as normal if done within a mainstream religion or considered as criminal if done within a group labeled as « cult ». It is the first time that a democracy creates such a crime. Its formulation is very close to the crime of « plagio » (creating a sate of suggestion) created in fascist Italy by Mussolini to repress communist propaganda. The crime of « plagio » had been later removed from the penal code by the Italian constitutional court after it had been applied to catholic priests and homosexuals.

- modifies the French penal code by authorizing the judges to punish legal entities such as associations for a wide variety of minor offenses, whereas this possibility was formerly reserved to serious offenses; for instance, forgetting to put a fire extinguisher in a precinct that belongs to an association will give a judge the possibility to condemn the association itself.

- creates a new accelerated procedure to facilitate the dissolution of groups labeled as « cults » which does not guarantee enough the rights of the defense, whereas dissolution is an extreme punishment, the equivalent of the death penalty for physical persons.

- gives, in order to facilitate the dissolution of groups labeled as 'cults', a new definition of a group considered as a legal entity, in contradiction with the judicial principle that only those who commit an illegal act should be punished ; thus, associations which are legally separate could be dissolved in the same procedure as long as they pursue similar objectives. Two minor offenses will be enough to make the dissolution possible, a fact that greatly endangers freedom of association.

- limits the promotional activities of groups labeled as 'cults' and gives mayors the possibility to refuse a building permit to those groups as long as they have been condemned twice, even for minor offenses.

With that law, the new religions, minority religions, groups promoting personal development, easily labeled as 'cults' in France, a very arbitrary label as everyone knows, are condemned to barely survive with a permanent menace over their heads. It will suffice that one of their leaders or the group itself be condemned twice for a minor offense after a quick trial for the group to be disbanded with an interdiction to form itself back. Is such a law was applied to members of the French parliament, the parliament would be immediately dissolved as many of its members have been condemned by justice ! There is indeed a real danger that the law be applied to mainstream religions or to any non conformist spiritual group.

If the About/Picard bill makes it into law, France will be ranked among the worst dictatorships, THOSE WHICH ENDEAVOR, FOR THE SAKE OF THE STATE OR OF GENERAL INTEREST, TO PERVADE INDIVIDUAL CONSCIENCE.

I think that the French penal code is sufficient to repress offenses and crimes committed within a group, whatever the label given to that group for law must be the same for everyone, and I demand that this law proposal be rejected, considering the fundamental liberties that it threatens.


Wisdomlight - Pierre Wittmann - Phra Sing PO Box 59 - Chiang Mai 50200 - Thailand
Tel./fax (6653) 89 21 80 + 508
Email: pierrew@loxinfo.co.th - Website: www.wisdomlight.org




6.

From: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/31/opinion/31LEWI.html

The Feeling of a Coup
(March 31, 2001)

By ANTHONY LEWIS

BOSTON -- We are learning something these days about the power of a willful president. Without a popular mandate, George W. Bush is making radical changes that will have long-term consequences for this country and the world. He is making them in a hurry, and for the moment there are no checks or balances to stop him.

Day after day headlines tell us of fundamental policy reversals. Mr. Bush spurns the global effort, going back to the first Bush presidency, to reduce global warming. He calls off talks with North Korea about its missiles, casting doubt on the whole attempt to ease relations between South and North. He proposes to rethink U.S. aid programs that help dismantle former Soviet nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

A string of Bush administration decisions has halted steps to protect the environment. Arsenic in drinking water, roads in national forests and so on: limits are going to be "restudied."

The reasons given for the environmental decisions have been almost insultingly unconvincing. Christie Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said she was withdrawing the arsenic limit set in a Clinton administration regulation because it had not had "thorough review" in terms of "sound science." In fact, the limit was proposed by highly regarded scientists after extended study.

Mr. Bush, explaining to senators why he opposed the Kyoto protocol on global warming, spoke of the "incomplete state of scientific knowledge of the causes of, and solutions to, global climate change." Of course the science is incomplete on global warming, as it is on most subjects. But virtually all scientific experts support the theory that greenhouse gas emissions contribute to warming.

Contempt for public opinion as well as for science is evident in the environmental decisions. A striking example is what has happened to a Clinton regulation that prohibited road-building in about a third of the national forests.

The head of the Forest Service, Michael P. Dombeck, resigned the other day and sent a letter to his boss, Ann M. Veneman, the secretary of agriculture. He respectfully urged her not to abandon the ban on roads.

"Doing so," he wrote, "would undermine the most extensive multi- year environmental analysis in history, a process that included over 600 public meetings and generated 1.6 million comments, the overwhelming majority of which supported protecting roadless areas."

Mr. Dombeck's plea is not likely to move the Bush administration. It postponed the effective date of the road-building regulation for 60 days for further review. And in the meantime its lawyers have not defended the regulation in a lawsuit brought against it by the Boise Cascade timber company and the state of Idaho.

The American public would almost certainly vote to protect roadless parts of the national forests, as it would to reduce the amount of arsenic in water. But the public is not the audience that concerns Mr. Bush and his appointees. They are out to please the interests that supported and financed his campaign: timber companies, mining companies and the rest.

Nor is Mr. Bush moved by the arguments of respected Republican elders. As he ordered a review of the program for dismantling Soviet weapons, former Senator Howard Baker — whom he has named ambassador to Japan — was telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the program should be funded in full.

The Bush motto, a Washington quip has it, is "Do it my way or no way." That catches the willful quality of these first months. But there is more to the story than that.

This is the most radical administration in living American memory. I use the word deliberately. Today's right calls itself "conservative," but it is not that. Conservatives want to conserve. That is why Teddy Roosevelt started the national parks and the conservation movement. George W. Bush and his people are driven by right-wing ideology to an extent not remotely touched by even the Reagan administration.

And we haven't seen the half of it. As Mr. Dombeck said of opening the national forests to road-building, the decisions "will have implications that will last many generations."

All this from a man who ran as a "compassionate conservative," concealing his hard-edged ideology, and who could not get half the voters to vote for him even in that guise.







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