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

To: TigerPaw who wrote (303757)	10/3/2002 12:30:19 PM
From: jttmab	Respond to of 769670

Russia critical of US draft resolution on Iraq; White House downplays Moscow's reaction By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 10/03/02 UNITED NATIONS -- Russia issued its first response Thursday to the draft U.S. resolution on Iraq, criticizing the document as an unnecessary delay in the return of weapons inspectors. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said there was no point sending inspectors without access to Saddam Hussein's palaces. The comments reflected the sharp differences among members of the U.N. Security Council on how to proceed after Iraq agreed earlier this week to a plan for the return of weapons inspectors after nearly four years. Russian officials had studied the American draft, which "only strengthened our belief in the correctness of our position in favor of the soonest resumption of inspection activities in Iraq," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov said, according to the Interfax news agency............ boston.com

To: TigerPaw who wrote (303757)	10/3/2002 1:24:04 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

and of course the record is clear on what W and Norton are doing to protect US here at home.... NOTHING! Rep. Markey Releases Study Showing Big Drop in EPA Policing By Glen Johnson Boston Globe Tuesday, 1 October, 2002 WASHINGTON - Enforcement of the nation's environmental laws has fallen precipitously under the Bush administration, US Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Malden, said yesterday. Markey asked Christie Whitman, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, to return to much higher enforcement levels seen during the Clinton administration. A study by Markey's staff showed a huge decline in costs to polluters resulting from EPA enforcement. Using the agency's data, the study found that the total amount of penalties and remedies for EPA administrative actions in the first 14 months of the Bush administration fell 80 percent from the total recovered during the last 131/2 months of the Clinton administration, from $845.1 million to $165.1 million. The average settlement cost of those EPA administrative actions fell by 63 percent, from $234,000 to $87,000, in the periods examined in the study. The staff also looked at a three-month period under both the Clinton and Bush presidencies - from Feb. 20 to July 20 in 2000 and 2002 - and found similar results. ''I am concerned that the dramatic reduction in numbers of and settlements for EPA Administrative Actions taken during the Bush Administration could lead polluting companies to conclude that it pays to pollute and that there is no incentive to stop,'' said a statement Markey released. ''Just as weak oversight of corporate accounting led directly to misleading and fraudulent investment disclosure by companies like Enron, weak enforcement of our environmental laws will lead directly to rising pollution, tainted water supplies and dirty air,'' he said. ''It is unacceptable for the new EPA menu to have plenty of specials for polluters, but leftovers for the families who must live next to polluting facilities.'' An EPA spokesman did not return a phone call seeking comment on the analysis. The Markey study - titled ''Does Polluting Pay at the Bush EPA?'' - focused on cases launched and concluded within the two administrations. Administrative actions include cases that are handled internally by the EPA or by an arbitrator, as opposed to judicial actions, which require intervention by the courts. Markey, a nuclear energy opponent who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asked for stiffer enforcement of environmental laws in a letter to Whitman, the EPA administrator. ''Businesses that fully comply with federal environmental laws are harmed when those who fail to comply are not subject to enforcement action,'' Markey wrote. ''If the laws are not enforced, dishonest competitors can put honest businesses out of business simply by continuing to pollute while avoiding the expenses associated with preventing pollution that are incurred by honest competitors.'' CC