Know Bush Fact #21

Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:


Two years ago, on Earth Day, Robert Martin, National Ombudsman of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response) for over nine years, resigned.

The Ombudsman’s job was to stand apart from the EPA and perform independent investigations of complaints from citizens to ensure that the EPA remained accountable and true to its mission of protecting human health and the environment, particularly in cleaning up toxic sites.

Even before Bush was in office, Bob Martin was investigating an EPA deal made with Citigroup and one of its several toxic waste sites, Shattuck Chemical Company site in Denver’s Overland Park.

Then Bush arrived, and appointed Christine Todd Whitman, whose husband John Whitman is a top investment manager for Citigroup, to the position of Director of the EPA.

As Martin’s investigation grew to question the obvious conflict of interest here, Ms. Whitman turned on him and announced that his previously independent office would be closed and he would be moved into the office of the EPA Inspector General, under the authority of . . . the Director of the EPA, Christine Todd Whitman.

In the spirit of the Bush opposite-meaning philosophy, Ms. Whitman said, "The General Accounting Office report recommended that the Agency ‘take steps to strengthen the independence' of the ombudsman. By relocating the position to the Office of the Inspector General we are doing just that."

While Martin was out of town on business, she had his files seized and his locks changed. He no longer had access to his files on the Citigroup/Shattuck/Whitman connection. The EPA declared that he no longer had any defined duties and would be stripped of his title.

No longer able to help those he cared about, he resigned.

There is no longer a truly independent Ombudsman for the EPA. The Bush policies that favor industry deals and questionable science are rubber stamped, and calls from residents of toxic neighborhoods are ignored.

Meanwhile, there are pictures of Bush in the wetlands for Earth Day.

To verify/research, Google: "Martin +ombudsman."

- April 23, 2004

Know Bush Fact #14

Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:


One of every four Americans lives within 3 miles of a toxic waste site. Bush included in his 2004 budget a plan to generate money for the depleting EPA Superfund trust.

By 2002, the $3.3 billion that was left in 1995 was down to $100 million, because the tax collected for the Superfund clean ups from the chemical industry was stopped in 1995 as part of Newt Gingrich’s "Contract on America."

So that year, Bush’s appointee, Christine Whitman, de-funded 89 Superfund cites in 13 states, including a New Jersey site where a residential neighborhood had developed around a deserted plant where the herbicide Agent Orange was mixed and disposed, where the green-yellow watered drainage ditches empty into a brook that flows past a McDonalds hamburger bun bakery.

But now, Bush is willing to do something about it. He’s included it in his budget. The money will come from "general revenues" - that means the taxpayers. Not the polluters. Nor those who have benefitted by far the most from the tax cuts. Meanwhile, the chemical corporations have saved over $9 billion since 1995, or roughly $4 million per day.

In 1994, Monsanto, Dow, and Union Carbide wrote the checks that put Bush in the Texas Governor’s Mansion.

To verify/research, Google "Superfund +Bush".

Know Bush Fact #11

Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:

On September 11, 2001, the best scientists in the world on toxicity/air testing were busy in Libby, Wyoming investigating the damages of asbestos and vermiculite from the Grace Corporation in that community, when the World Trade Towers were attacked, collapsed, and filled the New York air with glass fibers, concrete dust, fiberglass, asbestos, mercury, PCBs, lead, benzene, fire and smoke. These scientists were certain they would be asked to come test the air around Ground Zero.

But no such thorough testing was requested.

Early on September 12, Christine Todd Whitman, the Bush-appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency, issued a memo throughout the agency: "All statements to the media should be cleared through the National Security Council before they are released."

According to a 165-page report from the Inspector General of the EPA released in August 2003, under pressure from the White House and the NSC (Bush's top cabinet members), "reassuring information was added" and "cautionary information was deleted" from the official EPA press releases. Warnings and safety recommendations were removed while statements of encouragement to get back to such activities as business and shopping were emphasized.

By September 16, the public was told, "Ambient air quality meets OSHA standards and consequently is not a cause for public concern," and on September 18, Christine Todd Whitman officially announced that the air in lower Manhattan was "safe to breathe."

The impact of the government's lies is evident for the 78 percent of tens of thousands of WTC rescue, recovery and cleanup workers who suffer serious lung ailments, the 88 percent who have ear, nose and throat problems, or the approximately 500 NYC fire fighters who remain out of work on disability because of lung and organ problems, most of whom are expected never to return to work.

The August 2003 report indicates that the agency was essentially hijacked by the Bush administration and its National Security Council, and that "final approval came from the White House."

To verify/research this information, Google: "Ground Zero +Whitman +asbestos +Bush".

February 28, 2004