OZblog

If the truth makes you sick, take an anti-nausea medication before you dare read this!

Wednesday, September 21

Environmental Protection Agency becomes Corporation Protection Agency

The Environmental Protection Agency was chartered in 1970. Its stated mission:

The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people.

How times have changed.


In the hands of the environmental extremists in the Bush Business Administration, the EPA now seems to think that protecting Bush's corporate sponsors from the inconvenience of filling out paperwork is more important than its mission statement of protecting health and the environment.

The government wants to quit forcing companies to report small releases of toxic pollutants and allow them to submit reports on their pollution less frequently.
Saying it wants to ease its regulatory burden on companies, the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed adopting a "short form" that would excuse companies from disclosing spills and other releases of toxic substances if:
_They claim to release fewer than 5,000 pounds of a specific chemical. The current limit is 500 pounds.
_They store onsite but claim to release "zero" amounts of the worst pollutants, such as mercury, DDT and PCBs, that persist in the environment and work up the food chain. However, they must report if they have stored dioxin or dioxin-like compounds, even if none is released.
EPA said it also plans to ask Congress for permission to require the accounting every other year instead of annually. The EPA's annual Toxics Release Inventory began under a 1986 community right-to-know law. The first year the change could be possible, if Congress agreed, would be 2008.

This is appalling news. One has to wonder if the announcement was timed to be buried under the horrific news of Katrina and Rita.

Once again, the health and safety of American citizens is less important to the Bush Administration than the convenience of big business. And, just how bad is the current burden on corporations?

Some big chemical companies said complying with the annual toxic inventory is not a problem for them.
"We are so in compliance it's not funny," Andrew Liveris, president of The Dow Chemical Company, told the AP. "We've adjusted to it many years ago."

Um, ok. So, the Bush Administration is fixing a problem that does not exist. Great.

So, why, other than a complete disdain for the health and safety of Americans, would these rules be changed? Could it be anything other than the Bush Administration is big business' bitch?

Monday, September 5

Bush: Operation 'Blame the other folks' is launched

More news on the White House effort to avoid politicising Katrina which, for whatever reason, apparently should not suffer the politicisation that Bush gave 9/11.

NEW YORK In its Sunday edition, the Washington Post quoted a "senior Bush official" that "as of Saturday [Louisiana Governor]Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency." This, of course, was meant to make the governor look foolish and spread the blame around for the disastrous response to the disaster, though it was hard to imagine on what grounds the newspaper would quote an unnamed source in this case.Several hours of blogosphere howling ensued. Later in the day, the Post ran this correction, or rather, 180-degree turn: "A Sept. 4 article on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina incorrectly said that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) had not declared a state of emergency. She declared an emergency on Aug. 26."

Source: Editor & Publisher

The Swift-boating of LA's democratic governor was on. This came out apparenlty on Saturday, to make the Sunday edition. It followed on the meme that the propaganda wing of the GOP, FauxNews, had used earlier in the week, when Vibrator Bill edited and spliced Mayor Nagin's comments, which was actually directed at the Federal government, to make it sound like the criticism was directed at the Governor. [The media has been silent on this, in stark contrast to their howling over 'Rathergate'].

Ok, here is what Nagin really said:

NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.
I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

WWL: Do you believe that the president is seeing this, holding a news conference on it but can't do anything until [Louisiana Gov.] Kathleen Blanco requested him to do it? And do you know whether or not she has made that request?
NAGIN: I have no idea what they're doing. But I will tell you this: You know, God is looking down on all this, and if they are not doing everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay the price. Because every day that we delay, people are dying and they're dying by the hundreds, I'm willing to bet you.

But, O'Reilly cut it so that his viewers were completely misinformed. Vibrator Bill's website does not have the transcript of what he fabricated [for obvious reasons], but this is what he played on his show:

WWL: Do you believe that the president is seeing this, holding a news conference on it but can't do anything until [Louisiana Gov.] Kathleen Blanco requested him to do it? And do you know whether or not she has made that request?
NAGIN: I have no idea what they're doing. get their asses moving to New Orleans."

Bush ran with Rove's meme yesterday:

Yet, despite their best efforts, the magnitude of responding to a crisis over a disaster area that is larger than the size of Great Britain has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable.

This despite the Bush Executive Order of Saturday 27 August, putting FEMA and its clueless horse-wrangler in charge of the rescue operations.

Sunday, September 4

Katrina: Bush Blames Everyone Else

Remember Wednesday, when W was on GMA, he said this:

"I hope people don't play politics during this period of time." By "this period of time,"

Well, by yesterday's radio address, guess who was playing politics?

Bush, who has been criticized, even by supporters, for the delayed response to the disaster, used his weekly radio address to put responsibility for the failure on lower levels of government. The magnitude of the crisis "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities," he said. "The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."

Source: Washington Post

Ok, let's look at what really happened. You can find it on the White House website.

The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing.

The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.

Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.

Representing FEMA, Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Department of Homeland Security, named William Lokey as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.


In other words, on Saturday 27 August, Bush placed FEMA in charge, but by Saturday 3 September, he said it was due to state and local failures.

Not only had he assumed responsibility by delcaring NOLA a federal emergency last Saturday, but in 4 days, he had completely flip-flopped.