THOUGHTS ON WAR

War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.
Thomas Mann

In time of war, the first casualty is truth.
Boake Carter

In war time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.
Winston Churchill

EAGLES AND CRANES, FORGET 'EM

The George W. Bush administration may be in its final months. But that's no indication with how much damage it still do to the environment.
Now the W. boys want to undo regulations that have been protecting endangered species.
Under proposed new rules, which do NOT require Congressional approval, the administration would let federal agencies decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might possibly harm endangered animals and plants.
These new regulations would severely cut back on the now-required, independent reviews that government scientists have been doing for 35 years, according to a 30-page draft proposal obtained by the Associated Press.
And more -- the proposal also would block the scientists from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and the impact on plants, animals and habitats.
Well, the president never much believed in global warming anyway.
With a go-ahead from the Department of the Interior, this proposal would create the biggest change in the Endangered Species Act since 1988.
Basically this is a dodge around Congress.
If approved, Republican conservatives would get by -- instituting these regulations--what they could never get approved with legislation. The conservatives blame these scientific reviews for causing delays and cost increases on projects.
The new rules' impact would be sweeping. They would apply to any project that a federal agency might fund, build or authorize.
Under the current law -- the one that the administration hopes to undo -- federal agencies are required to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine if a project is likely to threaten any endangered species or to damage their habitat.
Once the scientific studies are completed, these reviews often require accommodations that will protect the 1,353 plants and animals on the endangered list. The scientific reviews also determine whether more formal analyses are needed.
Just what Congress intended.
In the draft, the U.S. Department of Interior contends that America can now just skip those old, cumbersome tests because federal agencies now have plenty of expertise to review their own construction and development projects.
Right. And the fox will offer no more than tender loving care once the hen house door swings open.
One does not have to look too far back in history to note the number of dams -- some now being torn down -- that were built by an unfettered U.S. Corps of Engineers.
Over the years, these scientific reviews have helped to protect such species as bald eagles, Florida panthers and whooping cranes, to name just a few.
The AP reports that the draft will be formally proposed sometime in the coming weeks.
The public will be given 30 days to comment before the Interior Department finalizes the new regulations.
In what might be considered part of the president's legacy, this quick approval would give the administration plenty of time to enact the rules before leaving office.
Could a new administration undo this change? Could Congress?
Well yes, but it would probably take some time.
It would likely require months for a new administration to either freeze or reverse these proposed rules, the AP reports. As for Congress overturning them, that could take even longer.

It has been stunning to watch how over two terms the administration has managed to subvert and pervert any rule or law that would protect the environment.
And time still remains. What next? I'd almost believe new additions to the endangered species act that included zebra mussels and quaga mussels.

KNOXVILLE: SUMMER OF 1915

Summer is a time for appreciating a slower pace, for smelling summer's air and for listening to summer's summer's sounds.
James Agee, in this prose poem, does not write about the Great Lakes, but of a place much farther south in Tennessee But his words are resonant of the season, of the era 90 years ago and they well could fit right here by the sweet water seas.
And even if we did not live an experience just like this one, I think most of us wish that we had.

It has become the time of evening when people sit on their porches,
rocking gently and talking gently and watching the street
and standing up into their sphere of possession of the trees,
of birds' hung havens, hangers.
People go by, things go by.
A horse, drawing a buggy, breaking his hollow iron music on the asphalt;
a loud auto; a quiet auto;
people in pairs, not in a hurry,
scuffling, switching their weight of aestival body, talking casually,
the taste of hovering over them of vanilla, strawberry, pasteboard and starched milk,
the image upon them of lovers and horsemen, squared with clowns in hueless amber.

The streetcar raising its iron moan:
stopping, belling and starting; stertorous, rousing and raising again its iron increasing moan
and swimming its gold windows and straw seats on past and past and past,
the bleak spark crackling and cursing above it like a small malignant spirit set to dog its tracks;
the iron whine rises on rising speed;
still risen, faints; halts; the faints stinging bell;
rises again, still fainter, fainter, lifting, lifts, faints forgone: forgotten.
Now is the night of one blue dew.

Now is the night of one blue dew,
my father has drained,
now he has coiled the hose.
Low on the length of lawns,
a frailing of fire who breathes ...
Parents on porches: rock and rock.
From damp strings morning glories hang their ancient faces.
The dry and exalted noise of the locusts from all the air at once enchants my eardrums.

On the rough, wet grass of the backyard my father and mother have spread quilts.
We all lie there, my mother, my father, my uncle, my aunt and I too am lying there...
They are not talking much, and the talk is quiet,
of nothing in particular, of nothing at all in particular, of nothing at all.
The stars are wide and alive, they seem each like a smile of great sweetness, and they seem very near.

All my people are larger bodies than mine, ...
with voices gentle and meaningless like the voices of sleeping birds.
One is an artist, he is living at home.
One is a musician, she is living at home.
One is my mother who is good to me.
One is my father who is good to me.
By some chance, here they are, all on this earth,
lying, on quilts, on the grass, in a summer evening, among the sounds of the night.
May God bless my people, my uncle, my aunt, my mothers, my good father,
oh remember them kindly in their time of trouble;
and in the hour of their taking away.

After a little I am taken in and put to bed.
Sleep, soft smiling, draws me unto her:
and those receive me, who quietly treat me,
as one familiar and well-beloved in that home:
but will not, no, will not, not now, not ever;
but will not tell me who I am.

Remarkably Agee wrote this prose poem in just 90 minutes. It is approximately the last third of the introduction to his Pulitzer prize winning novel: "A Death in the Family."
In 1947, Samuel Barber set Knoxville to music for a soprano and orchestra.
I thank Glenn Watkins for reintroducing the Agee work to me.

IT'S GETTING DEEPER, LAKE WATER THAT IS

Okay, you didn't like shoveling all that snow last winter.
You've had some picnics and ballgames rained out this summer.
And last fall, it seemed to be raining all the time.
But on the plus side, the Great Lakes -- where boats were dragging their hulls because of low water -- are starting to fill up again.
Not back to normal -- but up.
Lake Superior's level is up 16 inches over last year -- within 4 inches of normal. This is a come back from record lows last year.
Lakes Michigan and Huron are up 8 inches. Good but still 10 inches below normal.
And Lakes Erie and Ontario are actually above their seasonal normal. Erie is 2 inches above the line; Ontario, 4 inches.
So for the moment anyway, lake level news is good news.

SAVING GREAT LAKES WATER

SAFETY COMES ONE HOUSE AT A TIME
The U.S. Senate voted on Friday to approve a compact agreement that would prevent major diversions of water from the Great Lakes.
This means the compact's approval is well on its way to becoming law.
The eight Great Lakes states one by one approved it, with the last state -- Michigan -- signing off in July.
Now that the Senate has given the nod with a unanimous vote, it remains only for the U.S. House to approve it which is expected next month when the body resume its sessions.
President George Bush already has said he looks forward to approving the compact.
If you are wondering about possible future presidents. Both Sen. John McCain and Sen Barack Obama have said they support the bill.
The compact would stop countries or states outside the lakes' watershed from taking water from the five big lakes, except in rare circumstances.
One of the historic fears of people living on the Great Lakes is that such sun-dried states as Arizona and New Mexico might try to siphon away the Great Lakes water to green up their lawns and set their fountains to spewing.
The compact also requires that the Great Lakes states regulate their own large-scale water usage and institute conservation measures.