Taking the "P" out of "EPA"

[boomtownrat]

Call me insane, but I don't think the name "Environmental Protection Agency" was meant to be ironic. And by the way? The White House doesn't want people to know that one of the EPA's own top officials says the environmental damage from Katrina is "a crisis waiting to happen". (He has a history of blowing the whistle when he sees misinformation --

Comments

[ayelienne]

Man, wouldn't it something if the ineptness of how the Katrina response went re-opens up the whole 9/11 thing? I imagine that people who were complict in all kinds of shady dealings over the last five years are feeling the weight of a lot of dead people on their shoulders...who knows what this is going to reveal, you know?

[boomtownrat]

Marc Maron and his co-host (ack, Mark is his name too, but I've forgotten his surname) on Air America's "Morning Sedition" are doing their bit to help that come back into the spotlight. So maybe it's not on CNN, but it's a start. Also, my Google search for Hugh Kaufman EPA came back with several other results that go that far back (and back into the '90s as well).

I deeply admire whistleblowers like Kaufman.

Something that I forgot to mention in the post is that Marc Maron is incensed about Bush's half-attempt at claiming responsibility for the screwups. The fact that he qualified it with "to the extent that the federal government didn't do its part" (paraphrasing) cheapens it. Also, Maron said, he shouldn't be rewarded for finally learning to do something that a five-year-old has learned to do.

[ayelienne]

I miss those guys - earlier this year they switch our morning drive time from morning sedition to jerry springer...i've gotten adjusted to jerry, but i totally miss marc and mark.

[boomtownrat]

iTunes has a Morning Sedition podcast. That's how I listen to it, since I can't listen to it live (no software for it on my work PC and our local station that plays it is AM, which I can't get reception for). I've wondered how Jerry Springer's show is; I know he was a mayor at some point -- Cincinnati? -- so I'm curious about his political side, but I don't remember seeing a podcast for his show.

[strontium90]

I just figured they would flip out over the lack of potable water since, as any former resident of New Orleans knows, the place hasn't *really* had safe water for over thirty years. When I lived there I didn't know a soul who drank the tap water; it was common knowledge that it would HURT you. That's why so many folks had been able to hang on with no potable water. Everyone in the city keeps a good supply of bottled water, juices, and tea. I guess what I'm saying here is, the bar for expectations for the Feds in terms of cleaning the place up is pretty low, since they've been giving a nudge and a wink to polluters there for quite some time (the most egregious ones being the petrochemical plants producing things like polyvinyl chloride

[boomtownrat]

I didn't know the water quality was already so low, but it doesn't surprise me, come to think of it.

As for Rove, I did know about that, thanks to Air America radio. I think you're probably right, and that's another thing that pains me about this whole catastrophe.

The more I hear about, the more convinced I am that Bushco truly are trying to wreck the environment.

[scimiotix]

Thanks for posting all that. That was really valuable.