Advertisement

Bush’s Choice for Energy Secretary Was One of Texas’ Top Five Worst Polluters

In the bizarro world that President Bush lives in, it pays—literally—to be a miserable failure, a criminal and a corporate con man. Those are just some of the characteristics of the dastardly men and women who were tapped recently to fill the vacancies in Bush’s second-term cabinet.

But one of the President’s most outrageous decisions (besides naming Alberto Gonzales, who concocted a legal case for torturing foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General) has got to be choosing 66 year-old Sam Bodman to serve as Secretary of Energy. This is a guy who for a dozen years ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top five lists of the country’s worst polluters.

It’s not just a few clouds of smoke emanating from an oil refinery or a power plant that got Bodman’s old company, Boston-based Cabot Corporation, those accolades. It was the 54,000 tons of toxic emissions that his company’ s refineries released into the air in the Lone Star state in 1997 alone that made Cabot the fourth largest source of toxic emissions in Texas. Cabot is the world’s largest producer of industrial carbon black, a byproduct of the

Happy Birthday Martin Luther King, Jr.

You never lost faith. You believed that it was possible for all of us to live in a world of peace and justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in God. I had enormous respect for MLK despite that fact. For at that time, I didn't believe in God, I only believed in miracles. I thought a miracle was about to happen and that I would live in a world of peace and justice in my lifetime. It was 1967.

And for every 1967 there will be a 1968.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated one year to the day of his speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time To Break Silence." He gave that speech in New York City at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967. In that remarkable address MLK single-handedly united the anti-war and civil rights movements. In his impassioned speech he explained how the Vietnam War was immoral and how it was impossible for us to not try to end it. In other words, MLK had white people and black people working together for both peace and justice. No one has to wonder why he was murdered at the age of 39.

HRC to Ohio: “Get over it.  Issue 1 is Dead.  Get over it.”

At the gay rights rally on January 15, 2005, held in front of the Ohio Statehouse, Lynn Bowman, speaking for the Human Rights Campaign, told 80 Ohio gays to “get over it.” 

Bowman knows of what she speaks when she conveys HRC views on the 11 states that passed anti-gay legislation last November.  She serves on HRC’s Board of Governors, as the Regional Co-Chair for the Northern Region of the US, and on HRC’s Steering Committee.  She relayed the apparent sentiments of HRC leadership with shockingly direct abuse.

Had I made some quantum leap into a parallel universe?  Was I listening to the rhetoric of the rabid right, “I have three words for you: Get over it.  Two more:  You lost.” being heaped on us by our gay “leaders”?  Does HRC think abuse will win new donors?   Apparently so. 

Single-Issue Politics Is Dead

In a move to gain political power, HRC has joined in a “Consortium” of progressive organizations, recognizing what progressives across the country are seeing:  We can’t win with single-issue politics.  We must join forces creating an agenda, electing progressive officials who share this agenda. 

The attack of the "boomer oldies!"

The President is attacking the programs for Senior Citizens as if they are members of fundamentalist members of a Terrorist War run by the aging! Is there an attack of the “Oldies” (these would be the Grups in Star Track series) threatening on our young American way of life? They have become these ruddy complexion, wiry, tenacious, aggressive tribes with the intent of capturing the wealth of the working American for the support of their common idle pleasure. Like a tsunami or hurricane, or tornado, or locus plague they slash across the economic landscape absorbing everything in site. But we are told that our administration will save you. They will tie up our resources to deny them their vicious greedy objective.

Armstrong Williams

Presidential inauguration 2005

Well Americans about now are aware that the “Bush Carination” is in full swing. This essentially exclusive orgy is being held in many places with many happy revelers.

There are these Simi fat little “pink” balding men at this celebration trying to dance, waving their soft hands as if trying to fly, stomping their feet as if they were crushing wine grapes, and arms moving up and down as of they were trying to fly. This is their rendition of dance to the tunes of “The Temptations” which is one the few groups the “Moral Majority” has approved for this celebartion.

In contrast their spouses well heeled and well dressed (white women) who display more characteristics of having some rhythm, but dancing with each other. When finishing their dance they kiss each other on their rosy cheeks (thank God) and part with the patting of each other’s hands. Thank God it is not their buts they are patting.

Bush, God, Fox, and the International Criminal Court

Here's an interesting theory for why Bush attacked Iraq.  He did so in order to violate international law.  This is what Eric Zuesse argues in "Iraq War, the Truth," a 188-page book from Delphic Press.

The book is better than its title or its preface.  Zuesse makes a case that Bush's central motivation in launching this war was to render the United Nations and the International Criminal Court powerless.  Bush didn't attack and occupy Iraq in order to eliminate weapons that he already knew didn't exist.  And looting the oil and other resources (and the US Treasury) for corporate cronies was a side benefit.  Attacking in violation of international law, and using napalm and depleted uranium in the attack, was not a regrettable circumstance to Bush.  He would not have preferred to have UN backing, because his primary enemy was never Saddam Hussein; it was the United Nations.  What about "liberating the Iraqis"?  Bush believed that one.  He didn't expect the Iraqis to continue resisting.  But that wasn't why he started the war.

Harvey Wasserman's Interview of Dec.29, 2004

I have read the interview, and I find myself becoming a little upset with the electoral college, to a point that my vote was wasted on a candidate that was not going to become president because the election was fixed before the votes were even counted.  I also find myself a little upset at Senator Kerry for not challenging the results of the electoral college, it would seem that he did not to become president, and now with the voters of Ohio calling for a recount or re-vote he turned a deaf ear to them, and to every citizen in the nation, who voted for him.  I find it appalling that we have a president that would or has stooped these types of tactics to win an election.  How can this president try to spread democracy to other nations, and speak of fair elections in other nations when his election and re-election is somewhat tainted?  The nations of the world have lost a lot of respect for the office of president, since George W.

Thanks for keeping the issues alive

Thanks again for fighting for Ohio and helping to keep the issue alive.  I notice that you have had the habit of joining and fighting for all of the great causes of recent times.  And, while it's hard to win everything due to the structure of society, in each instance you've won large victories.  I believe you will see that your efforts over the election fraud issue will pay off eventually.

At any rate, the only faith I have in improvement is from the hope of seeing courageous individuals like yourself take on the system and winning.

Moss v. Bush moves on and movement continues

The lawsuit challenging Ohio's 2004 presidential race has been withdrawn from the Ohio Supreme Court, having served as a lightning rod to draw national attention to the widespread and possibly illegal irregularities in the vote that gave George W. Bush a term as president starting in January.

While the election challenge lawyers say they may raise the suit's constitutional and civil rights issues in other legal venues, the case, Moss. V. Bush, became a vehicle for an aggressive investigation of irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote that culminated in a congressional challenge of the 2004 Electoral College.

Pages

Subscribe to Freepress.org RSS