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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (16630)	4/6/2000 7:01:00 PM
From: lawdog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I have no great love for AlBore. If Bush gets a good running mate I'll vote for him. Otherwise, it could be Gore. It will depend on who is least revolting during the campaign. Right now, they are neck and neck.

To: greenspirit who wrote (16630)	4/6/2000 10:15:00 PM
From: Brian P.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Regards to all. How's life in Ihatealgoreland? Been too busy to hang out here. A brief perusal turns up nichts neues. Prolife, stay calm, be nice; have you hugged a Log-Cabin Republican today? Check it out: Some guy named Dubya is masquerading as an environmentalist: nytimes.com April 6, 2000 IN AMERICA / By BOB HERBERT Bush Goes Green Oh, boy. Sometimes you'd like to say to the presidential candidates: Just don't go there. That would have been the best advice for George W. Bush, who decided this week that it might be fun to present himself as an environmentalist. "Every environmental issue confronts us with a duty to be good stewards," said Mr. Bush during an appearance in Pennsylvania on Monday. "As we use nature's gifts, we must do so wisely. Prosperity will mean little if we leave future generations a world of polluted air, toxic lakes and rivers, and vanished forests." That odd noise you hear is coming from the governor's aides, who have been trying desperately to stifle their laughter. This is breathtaking, spectacular, Texas-sized chutzpah. Mr. Bush's relationship to the environment is roughly that of a doctor to a patient -- when the doctor's name is Kevorkian. Where to begin? O.K. Let's start here. Mr. Bush's Texas is the most polluted state in the union. It is an environmental disaster zone. Last year Houston surpassed Los Angeles as the smoggiest city in the U.S. Texas as a whole had more smog alerts in 1999 than any other state. Texas ranked ahead of all states in the discharge of recognized carcinogens into the air. It leads the nation in the number of factories violating clean-water standards. It leads the nation in the injection of toxic waste into underground wells. And on and on. The Sierra Club, which knows a little something about the environment, summed the matter up as follows: "Texas ranks first in toxic releases to the environment, first in total toxic air emissions from industrial facilities, first in toxic chemical accidents, and first in cancer-causing pollution." Last October high school athletes in the Houston suburb of Deer Park experienced coughing fits, difficulty breathing and other forms of respiratory distress during one of the worst smog episodes in the Houston area in years. Angry parents began demanding that schools be notified when the air is particularly bad so strenuous student activities can be curtailed. "What happened during Bush's tenure is that by most measures environmental quality in Texas has gotten worse," said Tom (Smitty) Smith, director of the public interest group Texas Public Citizen. "Every chance that Bush has had, he's stood up for the polluters." Mr. Bush's approach has not been subtle. His first appointment to the state's environmental protection agency, the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, was Ralph Marquez, an executive who had spent 30 years with the Monsanto Chemical Company and had served as the chairman of the environmental regulation committee of the Texas Chemical Council, a trade association. Great idea! Let's put a top chemical company guy in charge of regulating pollution from chemicals. Let's put the biggest, hungriest fox we can find right at that gaping entrance to the chicken coop. That was in 1995. Three weeks after Mr. Marquez's appointment, the commission used its muscle to thwart a plan, already in the works, to issue smog health advisories that would warn residents whenever there were particularly high ozone levels in and around Houston. The business types in Houston hate health advisories and anything else that calls attention to the city's dirty air. It's bad for business. Just give the kids some cough drops. Mr. Marquez doesn't even think ozone is particularly bad for you. Testifying before a Congressional committee in November 1995, he said: "After all, ozone is not a poison or a carcinogen. It's a relatively benign pollutant compared with other environmental risks." I've no doubt George W. is enjoying his spiffy new environmentalist costume. The Bush men can always count on the environment for a good laugh. Back in 1992, George H. W. Bush, campaigning for re-election, gleefully derided Al Gore's interest in the environment by dubbing the vice-presidential candidate "the Ozone Man." The business types loved it. Bush the elder, smiling, said he was "an environmental man" too. He might as well have winked. He never expected anybody to believe him. Costumes are about fun.