Monday, October 18, 2004
President Bush: Insecurity at our Borders
It appears that the President is lurching ahead of Senator Kerry in the opinion polls because he has helped focus the media's attention on national security, and not domestic issues which would crush him. The media, of course, seem more than willing to scamper along.
While doing it, they miss glaring problems with the Bush administration's inability to keep us secure, largely because the Bush administration favor's corporate sponsors over the safety of the public. The same public, the media tells us in opinion polls, who think Bush would do a much better job protecting America from a terrorist attack.
Public Citizen has released a report that has identified five critical infrastructure vulnerabilities:
Chemical Plants: Even though the Army warned the administration that an attack on any one chemical plant in the US could endanger 1 million people, the administration has sided with the chemical industry to pressure Congress into defeating the Chemical Security Act, which would have made chemical plants in the US safer. Further, the administration has pressured the EPA into backing away from regulations it was considering that would require chemical plants to become safer, and the Department of Homeland Security has issued no safety mandates, choosing instead to rely on "voluntary industry standards" to insure the safety of our chemical plants
Nuclear Power Plants: Despite the 9/11 Commission documenting the problems in the safety of our nuclear power plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as I documented earlier, has allowed the same private company that guards many of our nuclear power plants to also conduct "surprise" infiltrations of these very same plants. Further, the NRC proposed to weaken regulations of nuclear power plants this year. And the GAO has identified three major security problems that have gone unaddressed since releasing its report last year.
Hazardous materials: Over a million carloads of hazardous material travel through the US every year, many moving right through heavily populated areas. Despite this, the administration has weakened security over hazardous material trucking. A final rule was recently pushed by the administration that would have required all hazardous material drives to inspect the intergrity of their trucks before hauling them, and the administration has delayed rules that would require background checks of drivers.
Ports: Even after 9/11, the administration still can only verify 4-6% of the contents of all containers and there seems to be no urgency within the administration to push port authorities to doing a better job.
Water Systems: Even though water seems to be important to the sustenance of life, the President has opposed increasing federal spending to improving our water infrastructure, and has even moved to cut funding for loans to states to upgrade their water systems. The administration has opted, not surprisingly, to forcing local governments to sell public water systems to private companies.
As the report documents, in each of these five areas you will find major contributors to the Bush re-election campaign, with funders in the Ranger and Pioneer level.
I bet this is an ad we won't see
|
While doing it, they miss glaring problems with the Bush administration's inability to keep us secure, largely because the Bush administration favor's corporate sponsors over the safety of the public. The same public, the media tells us in opinion polls, who think Bush would do a much better job protecting America from a terrorist attack.
Public Citizen has released a report that has identified five critical infrastructure vulnerabilities:
Chemical Plants: Even though the Army warned the administration that an attack on any one chemical plant in the US could endanger 1 million people, the administration has sided with the chemical industry to pressure Congress into defeating the Chemical Security Act, which would have made chemical plants in the US safer. Further, the administration has pressured the EPA into backing away from regulations it was considering that would require chemical plants to become safer, and the Department of Homeland Security has issued no safety mandates, choosing instead to rely on "voluntary industry standards" to insure the safety of our chemical plants
Nuclear Power Plants: Despite the 9/11 Commission documenting the problems in the safety of our nuclear power plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as I documented earlier, has allowed the same private company that guards many of our nuclear power plants to also conduct "surprise" infiltrations of these very same plants. Further, the NRC proposed to weaken regulations of nuclear power plants this year. And the GAO has identified three major security problems that have gone unaddressed since releasing its report last year.
Hazardous materials: Over a million carloads of hazardous material travel through the US every year, many moving right through heavily populated areas. Despite this, the administration has weakened security over hazardous material trucking. A final rule was recently pushed by the administration that would have required all hazardous material drives to inspect the intergrity of their trucks before hauling them, and the administration has delayed rules that would require background checks of drivers.
Ports: Even after 9/11, the administration still can only verify 4-6% of the contents of all containers and there seems to be no urgency within the administration to push port authorities to doing a better job.
Water Systems: Even though water seems to be important to the sustenance of life, the President has opposed increasing federal spending to improving our water infrastructure, and has even moved to cut funding for loans to states to upgrade their water systems. The administration has opted, not surprisingly, to forcing local governments to sell public water systems to private companies.
As the report documents, in each of these five areas you will find major contributors to the Bush re-election campaign, with funders in the Ranger and Pioneer level.
I bet this is an ad we won't see
