posted on May 7, 2002 08:57:19 AM new
Cheryl's Daily Diatribe:
Monday, May 6, 2002
COCKROACH SIGHTING: Corporate Hooker Christie Todd Whitman of EPA massacres clean water act on Friday night while no one is looking
On Friday, when it was too late for anyone to do anything but scream futilely, Christie Todd Whitman gutted the clean water act. It is now legal for mining companies to dump hundreds of thousands of tons of mining wastes directly into rivers, streams, and wetlands. About 1,000 streams in Appalachia have already been choked to death by illegal dumping. Now Whitman has unleashed a slaughter of perhaps thousands more. How could a feeling, thinking human being do such a thing? Does she really love kissing coal baron but that much? Yep, she does indeed — in fact, she's a bona fide corporate whore. Back in late 2001, Whitman was willing to sell out every community in the U.S. living near the toxic threat of Superfund sites to keep her corporate sweeties happy. How? She dismantled the EPA watchdog office that would have insured that these sites are thoroughly investigated and communities living nearby thus protected.
The fly in Whitman's ointment was Robert Martin, then head of the watchdog office. Martin wanted to see more action on Superfund sites, particularly in Denver, where a site created by the Shattuck mining company was found to be contaminated by radioactive waste.
Martin's investigation of the site and uncovering of the threat to the local community made him a hero to many. Superfund sites, as you should know, are bad, bad news. These sites — the worst of the worst on a national scale — steadily leak toxic waste into their surrounding environments if left to fester. Anyone who saw "A Civil Action" or read the book will know clearly just how horrible the consequences of an uncleaned site can be.
Yet, once Martin started making noise, Whitman first gagged him, by transferring him, then dismantled his office. God forbid that Shattuck and Marjol (another Denver area site) should have to spend a few extra million to clean up the sites. Screw the families who might have to suffer through cancer, disablement and death later. Hooker Whitman's gotta keep those johns happy! What really pissed Whitman off at Martin was that Shattuck and Marjol are companies in which her husband owns stock (guess some high-paid corporate call girls actually have husbands). So you can bet your next paycheck that Whitman's dismantling of the clean water act was just another blow job for her friends in mining.
posted on May 7, 2002 09:02:22 AM new
Additional news on this sneaky decision...
Excerpt...
May 3rd, 2002
Contact Info:
Ken Goldman 202.667.4500 x 233
Joan Mulhern 202.667.4500 x 223; 202-329-1552 (mobile)
Print-Friendly Version
Washington, DC-- The Bush administration today finalized changes to Clean Water Act regulations that would for the first time in 25 years allow the US Army Corps of Engineers to permit waste to fill and destroy the nation’s waters. In an attempt to appease the coal mining industry and in a rush to avoid additional Congressional and public scrutiny, EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman signed the rule change.
“It says something when an administration takes an action like this late on a Friday -- that they hope no one sees it," said Joan Mulhern, senior legislative counsel for Earthjustice. "This is a ‘Friday Night Massacre’ for our nation's waters and it’s the biggest threat to our nation’s waters in decades, perhaps since the Clean Water Act passed 30 years ago. Allowing masses of industrial wastes to be dumped in streams, lakes, rivers, and wetlands is contrary to the very purpose of the Clean Water Act and represents a major weakening of current clean water law.”
EPA’s press release states this will “enhance environmental protections” for waters. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Mulhern. “Anyone who has ever seen what happens when a stream is buried under 900 feet of mining rubble would not conclude that this is a good thing for water quality. More than 1000 miles of streams already have been destroyed in Appalachia by the coal companies that have been flouting the Clean Water Act for years while the EPA and the Corps looked the other way.”
posted on May 7, 2002 10:31:34 AM new
Helen, we must be on the same wavelength today. I posted about Bush and Whitman's performances as Govs earlier. LOL You have the right to an informed opinion -Harlan Ellison
posted on May 7, 2002 02:05:04 PM new
Well, you're BOTH WRONG!
You see, what's REALLY important is that they keep their privates buried inside their pants! To Hell with Cancers - that's YOUR PROBLEM! And this will create new jobs at new Water Treatment plants and new Hospitals and staff for all those who get sick from this! Just think of what a BOON to this Country of ours that it is that we can now have MORE FREEDOM from Government Regulations! What's WRONG with you two?
posted on May 7, 2002 02:55:51 PM new"Oh this is just awful."
Now do you see why I get so damned pissed?
Now you see why I keep going on and on like a broken record about how STUPID Republican Voters are for IGNORING the problems that were going to be created with their choice of candidate and how DISGUSTING that they were for taking the High Moral Ground!
And I am going to CONTINUE to Remind Republican Voters that THIS IS THEIR FAULT, even if it alienates every last one of you on here!
posted on May 7, 2002 03:28:39 PM new"And I am going to CONTINUE to Remind Republican Voters that THIS IS THEIR FAULT, even if it alienates every last one of you on here!"
Pssst, Borillar....there aren't any republicans left at the RT. Hasn't been for months.
posted on May 7, 2002 05:03:24 PM new
nycy: I may respond to someone's post and rerally direct it at everyone. I guess I'm being too obtuse as well.
KD: Republicans may not dare post on here, but they still like to lurk so that they can read the news that they won't get elsewhere. In the meantime, I hope that they can feel everyone's pain and wrath at their making uneducated and nonsensical votes. I realize that AW's ID requirement has chased away a lot of folks who would much rather participate anonymously, and a majority of those are Republicans/conservatives. And it hasn't helped that they constantly have their stupidity of voting habits thrown into their faces either. I imagine that they go to other web sites where they can do ambush slams anonymously and Lord it over those from a High Moral Ground.
Helen: if it's just us, then what are we going to do? Can't we start a Web Cast Service? You know, you don't need a federal, state or local broadcasting license for doing a webcast. From what I understand, it takes next to nothing to start your own online "radio" station. Maybe we could start "The Voice of the American Revolutionary Party": dedicated to the education of the public about the nasties being perpetrated upon them by the Republicans and the Corporate Fascists. Why not something like that?
posted on May 7, 2002 05:40:20 PM new
Borillar, I think that you may be underestimating the effect that your good writing has right here, on this board. It may appear to some that the Republicans are gone but I doubt that. The bastards are in hiding because there is no defence for George Bush on any issue. How can anyone defend the fact that he is promoting the pollution of our environment and by doing so is making Americans and people all over the world sick.
posted on May 7, 2002 09:36:54 PM new
The thing is not to hate Republican Voters for what they did, even if it affects you or a loved one personally. Rather, try to educate them; make them understand that voting stupidly can get us ALL killed; That voting stupidly can be more dangerous than not voting at all. Make them understand that they have to research the issues, not be told by a minister whom to vote for. Make them understnad that they are being manipulated by the political machines from both parties and they need to stop being such patsies. And most of all, make them understand that THEY are responsible for the bad things being done because of how they voted, because they may make such a horrible choice again.
posted on May 7, 2002 10:26:41 PM new"In neighborhood after neighborhood, huge new mosques keep rising. Built by the government, they are such a sensitive subject; journalists aren't allowed to take pictures of the biggest ones. Even among devout Moslems, the leadership's building boom seems to have little support."
"We have a lot more need for hospitals and schools," said one Iraqi. "As Moslems, we can pray even in the street."
This world is being run by INSANE PEOPLE! Bush in America ruining things with his cronies that are trying to dismantle everything; Sharon in Israel and his heavy-handed tactics and unwillingness to budge from any position; Arafat, Osama, warlords in so many African countries, dictators in South America, monarchy in Europe, gangsters from Russia, Japan, and China. The list is nearly endless! This world is a Madhouse! Why do we put these monsters into power over us? Why do we allow them to continue? Why do so many Fundies from Christians, Jews, and Islam *HATE*? What a world we live in.
You know, we could make this place better. But oh, no: we have to have Bush and his cronies destroying our livelihoods (Bush/Enron), destroying our rights (Ashcroft/OHS), our Health and Safety (Christie Todd Whitman of EPA), and on and on and on destroying everything DECENT!
And then, listening to radio stations. I don't know about where you live, but for some reason, nine out of ten AM Talk radio stations here are right-wing/ultra-conservative/Fundie Christians who rail all day long against how STUPID "Liberals, Democrats. and Progressives" are! Well, if we're hopelessly Stupid, what does that make THEM??? It isn't Liberals, Democrats, and/or Progressives actively dismantling America and it's proud institutions. It isn't Liberals, Democrats, and/or Progressives destroying our economy, stealing BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars, WASTING $$ on stupid military waste boondoggles, it isn't Liberals, Democrats, and/or Progressives trying to destroy our RIGHTS; although, if you listen to that radio talk bullsh1t, they have the NERVE to BLAME US INSTEAD!!
And the callers. They are just as bad. Today, one calls in and asks why is it that reporters are actually allowed to openly criticize Bush and isn't there a law against it and the reporters should be rounded up and arrested? You know, they play callers like that all day long!! What the F**K IS WRONG WITH AMERICANS!!!!
posted on May 8, 2002 07:45:47 AM newThis is a link to the allegded effort of Christie Todd Whitman to protect the financial interests of her husband. It is stated that Mrs. Whitman wants to avoid interference in the lead-contaminated former Marjol Battery site and the Shattuck radioactive waste site because of her husband's connections to Citigroup Inc
A row over oversight of the botched clean up of 24 Superfund waste sites has pitted Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Christine Todd Whitman in a bitter battle with the agency's national ombudsman, Robert J. Martin. According to Mr. Martin's defenders, a decision by Mrs. Whitman to virtually dismantle his office may be related to his oversight responsibilities for the clean up of two waste sites where, they say, Mrs. Whitman's husband has substantial financial interests.
"Basically it's a fight to the death," a senior EPA official told me. "It's either him or her - there is no third way."
On Nov. 27, Mrs. Whitman announced that she planned to send Mr. Martin to the EPA's inspector general's (IG) office and transfer control of his 24 cases to the agency's inspector general. The move, she said, "will give the ombudsman more independence and the impartiality necessary to conduct credible inquiries."
That same day, Mr. Martin sent the administrator a blistering letter in which he charged that her surprise move had the effect of "dissolving the national ombudsman function at EPA." Mr. Martin's defenders point out that the Whitman decision, which is expected to take effect Jan. 1, actually blindsided Mr. Martin and served to undercut his position even before he moved to the IG's office.
In the meantime, EPA officials prohibited Mr. Martin and his chief investigator, Hugh Kaufman, from working on ombudsman cases. The bureaucrats cited privacy laws as the reason that they could not explain the rationale for that decision, as they had done in an earlier effort to pull Mr. Kaufman from oversight of the clean up of a waste site at the Marjol Battery Site at Throop, Pa. (In that case, the state's two senators, Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, reviewed Mr. Kaufman's personnel file at his request and wrote to Mrs. Whitman saying that nothing was found in that file that should prohibit him from performing his duties with the ombudsman's office.)
Senior EPA officials have long been gunning for Mr. Martin, whose relative independence has infuriated them even as it has provided a small measure of citizen comfort with an agency frequently criticized as a bureaucratic "cesspool." During the Clinton administration the ombudsman several times incurred the wrath of the EPA political leadership, angered by his public interest stands.
Mr. Kaufman and others point to two recent cases handled by Mr. Martin's office as meriting further examination of possible conflict-of-interest problems for the Whitman family. The administrator's husband, John, is the managing partner of a venture capital firm controlled by Citigroup and has held several posts at Citicorp, a Citigroup subsidiary. In her financial disclosure form, Mrs. Whitman lists Citigroup stock owned by her husband as being worth between $100,000 and $250,000.
The global financial behemoth recently entered into an agreement to pay just one-fifth of the $35 million needed to clear up its Shattuck Superfund site in Colorado. Mr. Kaufman, who investigated the original "botched" cleanup for the ombudsman's office, told the Denver Post that the favorable settlement for Citigroup was "chump change compared to what it is going to cost to do it right," with estimates running as high as $100 million.
In addition, a Citigroup financial partner is also responsible for the clean up at the lead-contaminated Marjol site in Pennsylvania. In a report issued in October, Mr. Martin documented his charges that the EPA IG had attempted to obstruct his investigation. He also claimed that the EPA failed to properly define the scope of the contamination and had never adequately determined possible environmental poisoning by elements other than lead. An EPA spokesperson told the Scranton Times Tribune that Mrs. Whitman had not recused herself from that case because, she said, most decisions on cleanups are not made by the agency administrator, a claim Mr. Martin's defenders vigorously dispute.
In September, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report detailing the fact that the EPA ombudsman did not have sufficient independence, and documented the fact that federal ombudsman are independent and report directly to the head of their agency. Mr. Martin and his advocates say that the plan to bury him at a still uncreated IG office of congressional and public liaison office was little more than a hostile takeover by an entity ("the IG's office" reflective of EPA's highly-politicized environment.
Rep. Michael Bilrakis is the sponsor of pending legislation that would give the ombudsman real independence. In a Dec. 7 letter to Mrs. Whitman, Mr. Bilrakis and 14 other members of Congress bluntly told her that the decision to relocate the ombudsman from the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) to the IG "will not create sufficient independence for the Ombudsman to function effectively."
This is a link to the effort of Whitman to protect the financial interests of her husband.
Congress says it plans hearings early next year on ways to improve the ombudsman's independence, as recommended by the GAO. In a statement to The Washington Times just before Congress adjourned for the Christmas holiday, Mr. Bilrakis said, "Several members of Congress have made clear to Administrator Whitman the need to withhold implementation of this decision pending hearings in the House of Representatives. I hope that she reconsiders her decision to relocate the Ombudsman in January 2002."
Mrs. Whitman's apparent decision to press ahead with the proposed reorganization in early January would pre-empt the possibility of real
oversight of the important function ably carried on by Mr. Martin. It would also serve as a fait accompli for sealing a sweetheart deal for Citigroup Inc., which employs Mrs. Whitman's husband.
posted on May 8, 2002 11:51:09 AM new
Pretty pathetic. What I'd like to know, is why has the U.S. been pressuring Canada (for the past 10 years), to buy fresh water from us? Canada has spent hundreds of millions to clean up the Great Lakes as this is the main fresh water supply for the U.S. Canada did its part, but there is still major dumping going on from the U.S. side.
Last year, it was reported that the Great Lakes are down 8 feet from 3 years ago. Do you know how many gallons of water that represents? Wonder where it went? Canada sure doesn't need anymore fresh water. The U.S. blames it on the east coast draught...
Obviously the EPA has no authority to do their job...especially under the "job" loving Bush administration. Even under Clinton, these big companies threatened to close if not treated "fairly". In English, that means if you don't let us pollute the fresh water with our waste, which we all drink, then we'll close the doors and everyone will be out of a job, plus we won't vote for you. Cripes! I mean Chernobyl created jobs.....seems like we're all being held for ransom if we want jobs anymore. What an evil web that's been woven.
posted on May 11, 2002 01:42:53 PM new
Like Borillar said: So what can we do?
Have Americans been bought out? Yup.
We're being poisoned, opppressed, and yes, terrorized around things as simple as medical care, and, now, what books we take out of the library.
But we have something most of the world's oppressed don't. Money. How many anti-Republicans would, say, donate even 25% of their salary to The Cause? How many here would?
Currently NYC teachers are throwing the word "strike" around. Like a little sing-song melody. Whistle along: "We don't want to but we will." (Oh please)"Don't make us." Ask one if they are going to vote strike. Invariably the response I get is "I can't afford to! It's two days pay for every day we take." (Like, you know, getting your hands chopped off.) Not to mention I doubt NYC would tolerate even three days without the Bd. of Babysitters.
Americans have no balls anymore. Excluding, of course, my son.
posted on May 12, 2002 11:22:02 PM new
Yes, Americans have been bought out. Not only bought out, but actively sold out. Consumerism for a quick happiness fix; Fundamentalism for a quickie religion all wrapped into neat, little packages that anybody can understand, but are horrible twists of the Truth; education that is so bad that Americans are not taught how to use both their constitutional authority to correct government and to participate in what happens. Most Americans are leading miserable, unhappy lives and that is what the government and media want to have Americans fixate upon. That the government and the media are the SOURCE of such a large portion of so many people's misery hasn't sunk home to them, due to the above mentioned selling out.
Seriously, what really sickens me is history and how we are all doomed to repeat it. What is happening in America with Bush and his gang has many, many parallels with Hitler and Germany for a recent comparison. Does America have to end up in shame like Germany did after WWII?
What will it take for Americans to WAKE UP? Pain. Suffering. Anger. Focused at Republicans and their blind voters. Hell, all of the politicians that refuse to fix the system of corruption. But by then, the Bill of Rights will be a history lesson that teachers will routinely encourage students to light at bonfires and other rallies. Yes, *HATE* rights! WHO the Hell do YOU think that you are? *HATE* Freedoms! *HATE* non-Christians! *HATE* your neighbors! O-B-E-Y your Rightful Overlords: the American Elite; for they have MONEY and that makes them BETTER THAN YOU OR ME!
Americans will have to suffer for decades, maybe centuries before they once again wake up and realize how strong that they are. But Freedom will only be a memory. Thanks God that I won't be here to see it.
posted on May 14, 2002 05:53:04 AM new
Married? DMWM=Divorced Married White Male? Gadfly! Excellent term to describe me! Beats "nut."
Me?
Ugly, diseased, shrew, 46, with 6yo boy with Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Needs someone to spank the heck out of both of us. (Hee!)
[ edited by nycyn on May 14, 2002 06:09 AM ]
posted on May 14, 2002 11:24:11 AM new
Bobo--Don't you lknow people lie in cyberspace all the time? For all we know you're a 12yo nerd.
Don't take it so hard. I tagged along with a NY Times stringer to interview, then Knicks, Anthony Mason at his barbershop. My friend was (think Gleason) "humahumahumahuma" and Mason was not forthcoming. The goal was to find out who Mason admired. I got the punk to talk.
reflective of EPA's highly-politicized environment.
