Free Republic

It was bound to happen. That is, someone was due to blame the catastrophic wildfires in California on global warming. Rep. Linda Sanchez, the Democratic congresswoman from California’s 39th Congressional District, appeared on MSNBC’s Sept. 1 “Andrea Mitchell Reports” and did just that. She told the show’s fill-in host Tamron Hall that these wildfires have increased in “magnitude” over the years. And she knew why. “Yeah, it’s really interesting because I'm a native Californian, born and raised here and periodically we would have fought wildfires when I was younger, but nothing of the magnitude that we’ve seen in the last...

A 39-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arson near Malibu Creek State Park, a sheriff's deputy said Sunday. Suren Sahakyan was booked on suspicion of arson at the sheriff's Lost Hills Station and held in lieu of $75,000 bail, said Deputy Byron Ward of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau. An area resident saw the man on shoulder of Stokes Canyon Road near Mulholland Highway, starting a fire using paper and leaves about 5:20 p.m. Saturday, Ward said. The resident stomped out the fire, and Sahakyan fled but was caught by sheriff's deputies a short distance away.

U.S. officials monitoring terrorist web sites have discovered a call for using forest fires as weapons against “crusader” nations, in what may explain some recent wildfires in places like southern California and Greece. A terrorist website was discovered recently that carried a posting that called for “Forest Jihad.” The posting was listed on the Internet on Nov. 26 and reported in U.S. intelligence channels last week. The statement, in Arabic, said that “summer has begun so do not forget the Forest Jihad.” The writer called on all Muslims in the United States, Europe, Russia and Australia to “start forest fires.”...

U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, announced today that the fire fighting C-130s deployed to suppress the wild fires in Southern California will remain until continuing winds settle. The aircraft were deployed to Southern California last week by General Steven Blum, National Guard Bureau Commander, from North Carolina, Colorado and Wyoming. “This is a precautionary measure,” said Congressman Hunter. “The reverse westward blowing winds are expected to resume and the C-130s will remain staged in California to deliver a quick knock-out punch to any fire restarts.” The C-130s, which carry approximately 3,000 gallons...

WASHINGTON - The homeland security chief on Saturday tore into his own employees for staging a phony news conference at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government," Michael Chertoff said. "I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment," he added. Asked specifically if he planned to fire anyone at FEMA, which is part of his...

Two days ago half-dozen illegal aliens suspected of stealing wildfire relief supplies from Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Now, this: Police have arrested a man in Los Angeles after witnesses say they saw him lighting a fire on a hillside. Authorities say 41-year-old Catalino Pineda was seen starting a fire in the San Fernando Valley Wednesday and then walking away. Witnesses alerted authorities and followed the man to a nearby restaurant where police arrested him. Pineda was booked for investigation of arson. Authorities say the Guatemala native is currently on probation for making excessive false emergency reports to law enforcement....

In yesterday's DUFU EDITION we saw how Randi Rhodes suggested that Blackwater started the California fires. Today we shall read how Randi's fans, the Rhodes "Scholars" on her official message board, agree with their Bloody Mary guzzling heroine. Their tinfoil hat rantings can be seen in this THREAD titled, "Blackwater trying to set up in California." So let us now watch the Rhodes "Scholars" fall face down on the sidewalk with their conspiracy theories in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, wondering if guzzling down 14 Bloody Marys will make it into the Guinness Book of...

Apparently Randi Rhodes suffered worse head injuries than originally thought when she was ASSAULTED last week by 14 Bloody Marys. Air America is the main Leftwing radio network (which means it is tottering on the verge of collapse) and Randi Rhodes is their primary host. So what does it say about the left when their primary representative on the radio sounds like a flat out Moonbat with her theory that the wildfires in Southern California were started by Blackwater. Read her ranting below and for verification check out the audio above. Hey, Randi, maybe it you really weren't attacked...

<p>As wildfires raged in Southern California this week, Richard Halsey's embrace of the local shrubland turned prickly.</p> <p>The founding director of the California Chaparral Institute, Mr. Halsey has spent four years defending the existence of chaparral, the term given to the wide varieties of shrubby plants, trees and bushes that dot the region's hilly landscape.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special FBI teams gathered evidence Wednesday as part of a possible arson investigation into the wildfires devastating Southern California, the agency said.

Haines Index Map - Higher Haines means fire growth tends to be stronger: Fuel Dryness:  Tells you how likely things are to burn if a fire gets started: INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SITUATION REPORT TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2006 – 0530 MDT NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL 3 CURRENT SITUATION: Initial attack activity was heavy nationally with 342 new fires reported.  Fifteen new large fires (*) were reported, three each in the Northern California and Southwest Areas, and Eastern Great Basin Areas, two each in the Northern Rockies and Southern California Areas, and one each in the Western Great Basin and Rocky Mountain Areas. ...

Haines Index Map - Higher Haines means fire growth tends to be stronger: Fuel Dryness:  Tells you how likely things are to burn if a fire gets started: INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SITUATION REPORT SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2006 – 0800 MDT NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL 3 CURRENT SITUATION: Initial attack activity was light nationally with 142 new fires reported.  Eight new large fires (*) were reported, two in the Eastern Great Basin Area, two in the Northern Rockies, and one each in the Southern California, Western Great Basin, Eastern and Rocky Mountain Areas.  Five large fires were contained, two in the Eastern...

Breaking NewsBig Bear Mountain Resort Under Fire Evacuation Alert Sugarloaf, CA (GoGov.com): An area of the Big Bear Mountain resort in California is under an evacuation alert for the Sugarloaf and Moon Ridge areas due to a Forest Service uncontained controlled burn. Several fire companies and at least one firefighting helicopter are on the scene. Local radio stations are alerting residents of the communities of Sugarloaf and Moon Ridge to be prepared for evacuation. Residents of those areas are reporting large ash falling on their homes. Smoke and flames are visible. "This is worse than what it looked like the...

<p>LOS ANGELES — City officials in San Bernardino, Calif., say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency's concerns about endangered species delayed a federally funded fire prevention program for seven years and led directly to the disastrous fires there in October.</p>

The linkes article available here and above starts out sounding reasonable. The Mountain communities here were ravaged by fire and Federal funds to prevent a recurrence by removing the millions of dead trees afflicted by the bark beetle infestation are slow in coming (whats new about that?) but rather then surfing the issue "Davey Porter" the author of the article tries to spin this into something where Bush and crew are sitting on their hands while Diane Feinstein and recalled (thank GOD!) Gray Davis supposedly tried to do something about it "long ago" but were blow off by Washington. What...

1 Firefighter Killed, 2 Injured in Calif. SAN DIEGO (AP) -- One firefighter was killed and two were critically injured while battling a blaze that has charred more than 230,000 acres in San Diego County, authorities said.It was the first firefighter death in the outbreak of fires that have ravaged Southern California this week. Sixteen other people have died, many of them trying to escape the flames.The firefighter died while battling the Cedar Fire in San Diego County - the largest and deadliest blaze in California. It has burned nearly 1,100 homes.Department of Forestry spokeswoman Cathy Fritz said she had...

Joseph Farah, editor of World Net Daily, is being interviewed by George Norrey on Coast to Coast AM radio. Topic: Were the California fires possibly caused by terrorists?

Fire Fighters Battle to Keep Flames from Reagan Library No more information available.

Just heard an interview on the radio. They're saying that Arnold always qualified his "no new taxes" pledge by stating that a calamity like a natural disaster would be an exception. Using the typical excuses that the localities need the car tax revenue (supposedly the car tax revenue is funneled to the local jurisdictions) to cover the costs of these disasters. I have no idea if this is being floated by Arnold's people or by the Democrats who are doing everything possible to maintain this confiscatory tax.