A Government For The People? Naw, That's So 1990's

STUDY: EPA KNOWINGLY UNDERREPORTS TOXIC AIR EMISSIONS FROM REFINERIES, CHEMICAL PLANTS BY 330 MILLION POUNDS PER YEAR

Review of 10 Toxic Air Emissions Finds “Startlingly” Bad Data Reaching Public; Key Flaw: EPA’s Failure to Act and New Steps to Undermine Accuracy of Reporting. WASHINGTON, D.C. and HOUSTON, TX.///June 22, 2004 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state governments appear to be underreporting refinery and chemical plant toxic air emissions – including known carcinogens benzene and butadiene – on the “startling magnitude” of at least 330 million pounds per year, according to a new study released today by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) and Galveston Houston-Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP). The study is being released ahead of EPA’s release of the 2002 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), expected to come out this week. The EIP-GHASP analysis finds that the presence of the carcinogens benzene and butadiene in the air in the United States may be four to five times higher than the level the EPA reports to the public. The study, which is based on findings by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), applies the Commission’s findings on the underreporting of certain toxic emissions nationwide and concludes that at least 16 percent of toxic air emissions from all sources “have been kept ‘off the books’.” Additionally, the EIP-GHASP study notes that the EPA for years has knowingly underreported the air pollution data in its annual TRI data. The study concludes: “… EPA has failed to improve monitoring and reporting of toxic air pollution. In fact, EPA has moved in the opposite direction and has weakened some federal monitoring requirements … in 2004, EPA adopted new rules that actually weakened air emission reporting requirements … EPA’s old rules required that major air pollution sources conduct monitoring sufficient to reveal whether or not the source was complying with federal pollution limits … EPA revised these rules to only require monitoring that occurs more than once every five years. Such infrequent monitoring is clearly inadequate for tracking compliance and means that more sources will be using emission calculations and estimations, rather than actual monitoring, to report emissions. This is obviously a step in the wrong direction.” Environmental Integrity Project Counsel and Equal Justice Works Fellow Kelly Haragan said: “The public is being exposed to far more toxic air pollution than the EPA acknowledges for the record. It is time that EPA and the states deal with the problem of inaccurate and flawed reporting of toxic releases. Systematic underreporting happens today because most air pollution is now estimated – not monitored. To make matters worse, the ‘guesswork’ is being done by the polluters who have the incentives to keep the numbers as low as possible. Refineries and chemical plants report their toxic emissions under an honor system that is based on calculations that are outdated and inaccurate. Instead of cleaning up this problem, the EPA has further weakened monitoring rules and continues to knowingly feed the public inaccurate data regarding toxic air emissions.”....

Solution: Breathe only when absolutely necessary.

From CAP's Under The Radar:

Last night, the Senate approved a $447 billion defense bill. Conservatives, however, blocked efforts to hold President Bush accountable for the money. Although Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) threw their support behind the measure, the rest of the congressional right shot down a proposal by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) that would direct the White House to report on progress in Iraq, including estimates of the number of troops who will be there by the end of next year. Conservatives also killed a measure by Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) which would guarantee annual increases in health benefits for veterans. And before voting on the larger measure, conservatives voted 50-45 to defeat "a measure that would have declared all U.S. officials bound by anti-torture laws," AP reports.

So there you have it. In spite of what you learned in 4th Grade U.S. History, we exist under a government that is Of, By and For the People, "People" defined as wealthy corporate evangelical christians. Game, set and match; they win, we lose. Everything. Well, except for our souls, because how could we suffer without souls, and how could the neocons continue their inhuman behavior if they still had theirs?

I just want to know how neocons sleep at night. Sure, Rush L. takes some kind of drug smorgasborg and Bush drinks himself into a stupor while clutching a bible, but what about the rest? How do they fall asleep knowing that what they have done today has increased the misery of millions of already impoverished humans, at least those who have not been killed by our military or died from preventable or curable diseases that America could wipe off the face of the planet at one-tenth the cost of the military budget?

Dennis Kucinich does have many answers, including the the best idea ever generated by a presidential candidate, a Department of Peace:

The United States was founded on hope, optimism, and a commitment to freedom. We can once again become a beacon of hope for the world. To do that, we must reject the current administration's policies of fear, suspicion, and preemptive war. It is time to jettison our illusions and fears and to transform age-old challenges with new thinking. This is the idea behind my proposal to establish a Department of Peace. This is the idea to make nonviolence an organizing principle at home and abroad and dedicate ourselves to peaceful coexistence, consensus building, disarmament, and respect for international treaties. Violence and war are not inevitable. Nonviolence and peace are inevitable. We can conceive of peace as not simply the absence of violence but the presence of the capacity for a higher evolution of human awareness, of respect, trust, and integrity. We can conceive of peace as a tool to tap the infinite capabilities of humanity to transform consciousness and conditions that impel or compel violence at a personal, group, or national level toward creating understanding, compassion, and love. We can bring forth new understandings where peace, not war, becomes inevitable. We can move from wars to end all wars to peace to end all wars. Citizens across the United States are now uniting in a great cause to establish a Department of Peace, seeking nothing less than the transformation of our society, to make non-violence an organizing principle, to make war archaic through creating a paradigm shift in our culture for human development for economic and political justice and for violence control. Its work in violence control will be to support disarmament, treaties, peaceful coexistence and peaceful consensus building. Its focus on economic and political justice will examine and enhance resource distribution, human and economic rights and strengthen democratic values. We must change the metaphor of our society from one of war to one of peace. The Department of Defense now requires in excess of $400 billion for its activities. A Department of Peace can be an effective counterbalance, redirecting our national energies towards nonviolent intervention, mediation, and conflict resolution on all matters of human security. A Department of Peace can look at the domestic issues that our society faces and often ignores as we focus on matters internationally. We have a problem with violence in our own society, and we need to look at it and address it in a structured way. Domestically, the Department of Peace would address violence in the home, spousal abuse, child abuse, gangs, police-community relations conflicts and work with individuals and groups to achieve changes in attitudes that examine the mythologies of cherished world views, such as "violence is inevitable" or "war is inevitable." Thus, it will help with the discovery of new selves and new paths toward peaceful consensus. The Department of Peace will also address human development and the unique concerns of women and children. It will envision and seek to implement plans for peace education, not simply as a course of study, but as a template for all pursuits of knowledge within formal educational settings. Americans have proven over and over again we're a nation that can rise to the challenges of our times, because our people have that capacity. And so, the concept of a Department of Peace is the vehicle by which we express our belief that we have the capacity to evolve as a people, that someday we could look back at this moment and understand that we took the steps along the way to make war archaic. Violence is not inevitable. War is not inevitable. Nonviolence and peace are inevitable. We can make of this world a gift of peace which will confirm the presence of universal spirit in our lives. We can send into the future the gift which will protect our children from fear, from harm, from destruction.

I know, I know.... It's always "the children, save the children" etc. Well, seriously, it's our children who are going to pay off the financial, political and social debt currently developing under our generation's blind eyes, spearheaded by our smirking leaders. Let's at least give our kids a little bit of support. Let's get the deadly riff-raff out of the White House and Halls of Congress, and start being serious about our world rather than our wallets.

Look, I've been against literally everything Bush has done since January, 2001. I drive a hybrid car, pay ALL my taxes, and don't steal or kill. I obey all the laws (okay, maybe I consider speed limit signs more as "guides") and never buy bootleg items. I try to treat all people equally (although I avidly avoid people with strong body odor) and teach my children to do the same. I ignore American media and seek out unbiased news in order to remain intelligently informed. I donate to causes that I consider humane (though I admittedly could give more) and I am terrified of handguns. Yet, I can rarely fall peacefully asleep knowing what I know. So, again I ask, how do neocons sleep at night?