Politics

I can’t believe this isn’t a bigger story in all of the news outlets! Thanks to Newsday, increasingly one of the best papers covering NYC and the evil Bush regime, we learn that the White House pressured the EPA to say the air quality was fine in lower Manhattan after 9/11 when it apparently wasn’t, or at a minimum they had no evidence that it was safe. Re-opening Wall Street was more important than protecting the health of New Yorkers.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available.

…

“When the EPA made a September 18 announcement that the air was ‘safe’ to breathe, it did not have sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement,” the report says. “Furthermore, The White House Council on Environmental Quality influenced … the information that EPA communicated to the public through its early press releases when it convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones.”

On the morning of Sept. 12, according to the report, the office of then-Administrator of the EPA Christie Whitman issued a memo: “All statements to the media should be cleared through the NSC [National Security Council in the White House] before they are released.” The 165-page report compares excerpts from EPA draft statements to the final versions, including these:

The draft statement contained a warning from EPA scientists that homes and businesses near Ground Zero should be cleaned by professionals. Instead, the public was told to follow instructions from New York City officials.

…

A warning on the importance of safely handling Ground Zero cleanup, due to lead and asbestos exposure, was changed to say that some contaminants had been noted downtown but “the general public should be very reassured by initial sampling.”

The report also notes examples when EPA officials claimed conditions were safe when no scientific support was available.

Kenneth Millican, top, of Rising Pond, Ga., and Jerry Layne of Chattanooga, Tenn., hold signs as they join dozens of other demonstrating in front of the State Judicial Building in Montgomery, Ala., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2003. Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has said he will defy a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from public view, prompting some arrests on Wednesday by those who refused to leave the buiding. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

From Rush and Malloy of The Daily News:

‘Debate’ vs. Coulter-geist

Tough-talking Ann Coulter wouldn’t say a word last night.

At the last minute, the conservative pundit canceled her appearance opposite best-selling “Big Lies” author Joe Conason on CNBC’s “Kudlow & Cramer” – this after having programmers change the debate to fit her schedule.

One might think the roundtable, which featured Wall Streeter James Cramer and Reaganite Lawrence Kudlow, would be a breeze for Coulter. Could she have been afraid of facing Conason, whose book presents evidence that her arguments are ill-researched and calls her lifestyle hypocritical?

Coulter didn’t answer our E-mail.

Meanwhile, we hear fellow right-wing tough guy Bill O’Reilly won’t even let Conason on his show. (The Fox News Channel star – fingered by Matt Drudge as the instigator of Fox News’ much-derided lawsuit against Al Franken’s “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right” – wouldn’t comment.)

I love the NY Times. In yesterday’s paper, Elisabeth Bumiller’s article on Bush and the blackout was headlined Bush Doesn’t Let Blackout Upset Lunch With Troops. The headline is disappointing, it should have been “Bush attends $1 million fundraiser during blackout”, but at least she got in these items:

But unlike the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when news of another New York catastrophe sent Mr. Bush on an odyssey on Air Force One, today he continued his lunch and went ahead with plans to attend a $1 million political fund-raiser here this evening.

…

So after more than four and a half hours of White House silence, Mr. Bush made what was intended to be a reassuring statement to a small group of reporters at the Grand Hyatt hotel here.

“One thing I think I can say for certain is that this was not a terrorist act,” Mr. Bush said.

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I’m not posting much, because I AM STILL ON DIAL-UP 24 HOURS AFTER POWER WAS RESTORED TO MY NEIGHBORHOOD THANKS TO TIME WARNER CABLE/ROAD RUNNER. All they can say is that I’m “in the queue” to have something done internally by their IT department. The email I sent to support bounced back to me. Nice.

Quick! Go see the George W. Bush Air National Guard action figure on eBay before they take it down.

Why wait until the redesign of Mount Rushmore?

Now you can own a piece of American history; the Texas Air National Guard George W Bush Action Figure.

This figure probably stands 14″ in height, and is exactly as the future Leader of the Western World(tm) appeared during his service defending our Nation’s borders from Mexicans and Bahamians.

Comes with detailed uniform (as imagined by base commander), sealed discharge papers, Coors Light keg, and “licensed to chug” bumper sticker.

Now you can have George in your home every day, even after November 2004!

This fully pose-able action figure of the Commander in Chief is likely correct down to the slightest detail. Our highly skilled Chinese craftspeople have been in the action figure industry for years, and trained under a generous re-education program. They make the best, most desirable action figures in the Free Market, or die tryin’!

Winning bidder will be notified of upcoming GWBANG accessories; pile of dried branches, action pretzel, overstuffed bags with “$” printed on them, blindfold, bible with real, highlighted passages, and earplugs.

The winning bidder will also receive TWO bonus gifts: the George W. Bush “Afternoon of September 11th 2001” tennis ensemble, and a genuine “First Lady Laura Bush Serving Sandwiches at a VA Hospital” action figure!

Supplies are limited; don’t let yours disappear!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

[via TBOGG]

Your money at work, good Catholics:

This is an April 2002 file photo showing the mansion-style residence formerly lived in by the archbishops of Boston. Newly installed Archbishop Sean O’Malley has decided to live in the rectory of cathedral of the Holy Cross instead of the mansion.(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer,file)

Boston Archdiocese Offers $55M Settlement

The BBC’s Jane Standley, in New York, says it is believed at least 1,000 children could have been abused over a period of more than 60 years.

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Updated: The NY Times article today (August 9) uses an image which only shows the side of the mansion, making it look much smaller — even though they say the photo was taken for the Times. What’s up with that?

Q Thank you, sir. Since taking office you signed into law three major tax cuts — two of which have had plenty of time to take effect, the third of which, as you pointed out earlier, is taking effect now. Yet, the unemployment rate has continued rising. We now have more evidence of a massive budget deficit that taxpayers are going to be paying off for years or decades to come; the economy continues to shed jobs. What evidence can you point to that tax cuts, at least of the variety that you have supported, are really working to help this economy? And do you need to be thinking about some other approach?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. No, to answer the last part of your question. First of all, let me — just a quick history, recent history. The stock market started to decline in March of 2000. Then the first quarter of 2001 was a recession. And then we got attacked in 9/11. And then corporate scandals started to bubble up to the surface, which created a — a lack of confidence in the system. And then we had the drumbeat to war. Remember on our TV screens — I’m not suggesting which network did this — but it said, “March to War,” every day from last summer until the spring — “March to War, March to War.” That’s not a very conducive environment for people to take risk, when they hear, “March to War” all the time.

— President Bush press conference, July 30, 2003

I’ve deleted a few weblogs from my links page. I realized that some people I know actually link to A Small Victory, which is one of the more popular right-wing blogs it seems, despite her racism towards anyone who isn’t Christian or Jewish. She’s the kind of person who says racism or anti-semitism offends her, and then gladly keeps comments which talk about how Arabs are the scum of the earth and how the world would be better off if the Palestinians were all killed — example.

Anyone linking to sites such as that one is now gone from the list.

The folks at complacent.org have set up a web site for people organizing against the evil GOP’s use of NYC and 9/11 for its own purposes: Counter Convention.

From August 30th through September 4th, the Republicans will be invading New York City to nominate George W. Bush as their candidate for President. Never has a convention been hosted so late in the year and this is the first time a Republican Convention has been in New York City. Why host a convention in September? Why New York? By exploiting our grief and trauma from September 11th, the right wing intends to further their regressive political agenda.

[via Ask Her]

The administration at Texas A&M (a university with 45,000 students) is proposing to close the School of Journalism because they can’t afford it.

Now we wouldn’t want anyone to learn to be a journalist at Texas A&M University would we? That might send the wrong message at the home of the George Bush Presidential Library — lovely web page.

The image above is the editorial page of the student paper, The Battalion, protesting the decision.