This can't be her real name! This sounds a lot like the TeaPot Dome Scandal of years ago. This should be persued right to the top!

Another fruitful avenue of Senate inquiry into the machinations of Jack Abramoff would be to take a look at an organization called Toward Tradition, headed by one Rabbi Daniel Lapin, an emigre from South Africa. Both he and his brother, another rabbi named David Lapin, seem to have some connection with Abramoff. It seems David Lapin received a million dollar contract from the Abramoff machine for some nebulous "consulting" with the authorities on Guam. It seems there was an effort to exempt Guam from U.S. labor laws to benefit the companies that do business there, and apparently Abramoff was the money man in the operation. I bet interesting information could be unearthed by subpoenaing and questioning the Lapin brothers.

I was taken aback by Michael Sherer's contention that CREA thinks clearcutting is a form of forest management. I looked up CREA's website. I didn't see anything about clearcutting. I saw a lot of references to thinning, and as a resident of the South Platte River Valley (and a Democrat), I've been vitally interested in the Healthy Forests Initiative. The information I've gotten on HFI makes it look like the first good-sense approach to forest management I've ever seen. Thinning, as defined in the HFI, is just that -- thinning. There's no reference to clearcutting. Italia Federici may be just another GOP hack, but it's quite a reach to tie her opportunism to the Healthy Forests Initiative.

What scum. No shame. Jesus wept.

Interesting that the phony "environmental group" set up by the Republican anti-environmentalists used Abramoff's money to fund "news clips" shown on the O'Reilly Factor show. Those clips showed Senator Kerry geting into a big sport-utility vehicle after making pro-environment comments in a speech. The juvenile mentality Republicans thought this would show Kerry as a hypocrite. Of course, Bush uses the exact same model sport-utility, a black Chevrolet Suburban, and in each case it has to do with what the Secret Service needs for security reasons. Neither Senator Kerry or Bush is going to be getting into a Taurus or a Prius any time soon. That has nothing to do with the environment.

Too bad authorities aren't charging Federici's group with being a nonprofit "environmental" group which actually does NO charity work on behalf of the environment, but instead spends money to assist Republican campaigns.