J'Accuse!

According to the Environmental Protection Agency's Inspector General, reassuring statements made in EPA press releases immediately after 9/11 were either unsupported by available test data, or were significantly altered by the White House Council on Environmental Quality. [link] While I am somewhat critical of the EPA for not standing its ground, I am livid at the White House, which played with MY health in the weeks after 9/11. As some of you know, I worked in the WTC and, after 9/11, was relocated to another office nearby. In part, my comfort in returning to the Wall Street area was based on reports from my own government that things were safe. But now it appears that cynical politicians in the White House, afraid of admitting that things were pretty bad (the report said that the desire to reopen Wall Street, and "national security concerns" were factors in the revisions), decided that I didn't need fundamental information about my own health. [As an aside, this is why I am pro-choice: it's obvious that I can't trust the government to make health decisions on my behalf, so it stands to reason that women shouldn't trust their reproductive health to the government, either!]

Here are some of the more choice excerpts:

Original draft: (headline) "EPA Initiating Emergency Response Activities, Testing Terrorized Sites For Environmental Hazards"
White House revisions: (headline) "EPA Initiating Emergency Response Activities, Reassures Public About Environmental Hazards"

Original draft: "The concern raised by these samples would be for the workers at the cleanup site and for those workers who might be returning to their offices on or near Water Street on Monday, September 17, 2001."
White House revisions: [statement deleted by the White House]

Original draft: "Recent samples of dust gathered by OSHA on Water Street show higher levels of asbestos in EPA tests."
White House revisions: "The new samples confirm previous reports that ambient air quality meets OSHA standards and consequently is not a cause for public concern. New OSHA data also indicates that indoor air quality in downtown buildings will meet standards. EPA has found variable asbestos levels in bulk debris and dust on the ground, but EPA continue [sic] to believe that there is no significant health risk to the general public in the coming days."

Original draft: "Preliminary results of EPA’s sampling activities indicate no or very low levels of asbestos. However, even at low levels, EPA considers asbestos hazardous in this situation and will continue to monitor and sample for elevated levels of asbestos and work with the appropriate officials to ensure awareness and proper handling, transportation and disposal of potentially contaminated debris or materials."
White House revisions: "Public health concerns about asbestos contamination are primarily related to long-term exposure. Short-term, low-level exposure of the type that might have been produced by the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings is unlikely to cause significant health effects. EPA and OSHA will work closely with rescue and cleanup crews to minimize their potential exposure, but the general public should be very reassured by initial sampling."

As you may know, as a litigator, I spend a fair amount of time writing. I look for neat turns-of-phrase or ways to make arguments that will, by force of their eloquence, impress themselves on my reader, and make that person disposed to give my client what it wants. Needless to say, it's not easy. Every so often, however, I find in my everyday life (that is, when I'm not trying) that I have written something, that, when I reread it, surprises me with its eloquence. Since I'm not sure who is reading my blog anymore, I am taking the liberty to both sing my own praises and the praises of my subject, Sam. This example came from an email I sent to a friend catching up after a long time of not being able to chat...

But lest I sound like all doom-and-gloom, I should say affirmatively that Sam is a wonderful child who constantly reminds me what a privilege it is to be a father. In a million ways large and small, he is helping me rediscover the wonders of childhood (like waving at passing motorcyclists and shouting "Vroom Vroom" or running around in circles endlessly until we
collapse, dizzy and out of breath, but feeling great) and discover for the first time what it is to be totally and unconditionally loved. I can't even begin to describe the wonder and joy of it all. Among Sam's latest accomplishments are the ability to charm merchants into giving him things for free (and not just cheap things, either -- the other day, it was a ten-dollar puzzle that he managed to wangle for free!), a vocabulary that is growing by leaps and bounds, and the ability to tell me what he likes and doesn't like. The developing child is simply a marvel. Sam is even more marvelous because he's my boy.

If you care about civil rights (and I submit that we all ought to), I encourage you to check out this petition to John Ashcroft protesting the extension of the Patriot Act. [link]

The word "duh" comes to mind...

In the wake of the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, CNN is reporting that terrorism experts are now saying that Iraq has become a magnet for al Qaeda terrorists who want to attack and kill Americans. [link]

Umm, well, that's logical, isn't it? Certainly, it has to be easier to sneak into Iraq than into the U.S., and easier to hide among the local population, right? And if your goal is to inflict pain on ordinary Americans, it's just as effective to kill reservists and volunteers as it is to kill civilians, right? [Not that that makes the deaths any less tragic, just logically foreseeable]. Now, surely someone in the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz camp saw this coming and developed a plan to deal with this problem, right?

Howard Dean's Blog For America posed the question "Why are you sleepless" in connection with Dean's Sleepless Summer Tour. The gist of the question is "what is keeping you up at night?" Here is what I answered:

I am sleepless because I have a young son, and because that young son will someday be old enough to understand that this place and this time was a turning point in modern American history, and because when that beautiful boy asks me what I did to help shape the course of this magnificent country, I want to be worthy of his pride

I am sleepless because I am too disgusted to sleep. Too disgusted at what is being done in my name. Too disgusted at the contraditions that are passed off by our leaders as logical, even inevitable truths. Too disgusted at the divisiveness that has poisoned honest disagreements.

I am sleepless because I am too angry to sleep. Angry that my own party couldn't muster a loyal opposition. Angry that if you're not with us, you're against us. Angry that none of my own party's leaders had the courage to say that if you're not with us, perhaps we should listen to your reasons. Angry at the lost opportunities.

I am sleepless because I am too tired to sleep. Tired of being lied to. Tired of being treated like a child who can't be trusted with, and wouldn't understand, the truth. Tired of being belittled. Tired of having to defend myself from attacks by supposedly "moderate" Democrats.

But I am also sleepless because I am too excited to sleep. Excited that a group of people have risen up to say "Not in my name". Excited that a group of people have said "Stop lying to me". Excited that I am no longer shouting into the wind like a madman.

This -- all of this -- is why I am sleepless.