mike hagen wrote in message ...
snip But Wants, of the review team, said only a few such purchases were
made, usually by officials who were making decisions on the fly while
supervising thousands of firefighters.
"It wasn't widespread. It wasn't super-extravagant. It wasn't
super-common," he said. "They had a need for items, and they went out
and purchased them."
He said the Forest Service does not necessarily need new policies but
must make sure current policies are followed.
"We're going to have to work to clean up some areas," he said.

Comment by poster: This is only about 2/3thirds of the entire article,
but it covered most of the salient points. Sorry about the typos.

I find it humorous in a way: when fire is rushing toward your home at
40 mph, you probably are not thinking about the cost of fighting it. I
wonder whether the same criteria would be equably applied to something
like, say, the Bushism War on Terrorism. Of course they are not the
same. The 2001 fire season cost $1.7 billion for the entire season,
which began about April and lasted through December. The War on
Terrorism cost $60 billion for the first year.

There's something else that the War on Terrorism and firefighting have
in common: they appear to be growth industries.

And after only getting repaid 2/3s of their invoices, I'm sure the major
players (choppers, heavy equipment rentals, food services) will be as
quick to show up at a blaze as they ever were. Not.
The Feds have already said many of their heavy lift helicopters will be
unavailable next summer due to a forecasted war. Ditto for the Guard.
The load will be on private industry and a cut back FS.
You gotta kinda wonder though how quick to fight the armed services
might be if they knew Shrub was going to limit their combat
pay..._after_ the war was over. Seems kind of, nit-picky to me. But
I've always thought Shrub made a better cheerleader than a statesman.

You gotta admit one thing, though: he's still the best president money
has already bought. (Or maybe that was Chaney.)

Daniel B. Wheeler
www.oregonwhitetruffles.com