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

To: Doug R who wrote (451479)	9/2/2003 12:17:24 AM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

bush appointees looking out for number one.....no, not the people of New York..... Exclusive: ‘We Were Not Told to Lie’ About 9/11 and Health Eleanor Clift and Julie Scelfo Newsweek Monday 08 September 2003 Sept. 8 issue — After stepping down this summer as the head of the EPA, the embattled Christine Todd Whitman is once again in the hot seat. THIS TIME it’s over her role in the downplaying of health hazards for New York City residents after 9/11. A report by the EPA inspector general says that Whitman assured the public that the air was safe before testing was conclusive. She’s also under fire for allowing EPA statements to be filtered through the White House and screened by the Council on Environmental Quality, which is chaired by James Connaughton, a lawyer who formerly represented the asbestos industry. The long-term effects of inhaling contaminated air is unknown. But New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler accuses the administration of covering up a potential health danger in order to get the economy up and running. "Many people will die early because of this," says Nadler. In her first interview since the release of the report, Whitman tells NEWSWEEK that she did not object when the White House edited out cautionary notes by EPA scientists. "We didn’t want to scare people," she said, explaining that spikes in asbestos readings tended to return quickly to acceptable levels. She believes that much of the data were open to interpretation, and that the public wasn’t harmed by the White House’s decision to adopt the more reassuring analysis. But New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is calling for an investigation, saying she knows how the White House works and that somebody surely leaned on the EPA to lie. "We were not told to lie," says Whitman. Firefighters and other rescue workers suffering health problems continue to blame the EPA for failing to make them aware of the risks. The EPA advised wearing protective clothing and masks, Whitman says, but many working on the site rejected the gear as too cumbersome. "We couldn’t force them to do it," says Whitman. In addition, residents returning to the area say they weren’t told to have their homes professionally cleaned. "Maybe there was one press release where we didn’t say that, but then we said it over and over," says Whitman. EPA’s former ombudsman said soon after 9/11 that Whitman had a conflict of interest because of her husband’s connection to Citigroup, which owns Travelers Insurance. By pronouncing lower Manhattan safe, critics say, Whitman saved the insurance giant millions in cleanup costs. Whitman was cleared of the conflict by the EPA inspector general. "There’s no way in hell-excuse my language-that I would ever, ever play games with this kind of information." CC

To: Doug R who wrote (451479)	9/2/2003 12:20:38 AM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Home Alone By Bob Herbert New York Times Monday 01 September 2003 here was an interesting lead paragraph in an article on the front page of The Wall Street Journal last Thursday: "The blackout of 2003 offers a simple but powerful lesson: Markets are a great way to organize economic activity, but they need adult supervision." Gee. They've finally figured that out. The nuns I had in grammar school were onto this adult supervision notion decades ago. It seems to be just dawning on the power brokers of the 21st century. Maybe soon the voters will catch on. You need adults in charge. We barreled into Iraq with no real thought given to the consequences, and now we've got a tragic mess on our hands. California looks like something out of "Lord of the Flies," and yet the person getting the most attention as a candidate to clean up that insane situation is an actor with a history of immature behavior whose cartoonish roles appeal most strongly to children. Maybe he'll shoot the budget deficit. Hasta la vista, baby. Appalling behavior and appalling policies have become the norm among folks entrusted with the heaviest responsibilities in business and government. The federal budget deficit will approach half a trillion dollars next year. And that will be followed by huge additional deficits, year after irresponsible year, extending far off into the horizon. And, of course, the baby boomers, the least responsible generation in memory, will soon begin retiring and collecting their Social Security and federal health benefits, leaving the mountains of unpaid bills for the hapless generations behind them. What this nation needs is a timeout. Imagine if we had done some things differently. If, for example, instead of squandering such staggering amounts of federal money on tax cuts and an ill-advised war, we had invested wisely in some of the nation's pressing needs. What if we had begun to refurbish our antiquated electrical grid, or developed creative new ways to replenish the stock of affordable housing, or really tackled the job of rebuilding and rejuvenating the public schools? What if we had called in the best minds from coast to coast to begin a crash program, in good faith and with solid federal backing, to substantially reduce our dependence on foreign oil by changing our laws and habits, and developing safer, cleaner, less-expensive alternatives? This is exactly the kind of effort that the United States, with its can-do spirit and vast commercial, technological and intellectual resources, would be great at. Imagine if we had begun a program to rebuild our aging infrastructure — the highways, bridges, tunnels and dams, the water and sewage facilities, the airports and transit systems. Imagine on this Labor Day 2003 the number of good jobs that could be generated with that kind of long-term effort. All of these issues, if approached properly, are job creators, including the effort to reduce our energy dependence. The big hangup in the economic recovery we are supposed to be experiencing now is the continued joblessness and underemployment. A fellow I ran into recently in San Jose, Calif., Andy Fortuna, said: "I've got a college degree and I'm washing cars. I'm working, but I'd like a good job. If the idea is for business to employ as few people as possible and keep their pay as low as possible — well, how's that good for me? Who speaks for me?" Wise investments along these lines have dual payoffs — they help us take care of critical national needs and they help sustain the high levels of employment that are needed to keep the nation's high-powered consumer economy humming. One other critical need that is not getting enough attention is homeland security. A series of recent reports has shown that two years after the Sept. 11 attacks we remain dangerously unprepared for another terrorist strike inside the U.S. And one of the major reasons we remain unprepared is that so many of the agencies responsible for our domestic defenses against terror are undertrained, understaffed and underfinanced. We are at a stage now where mature, responsible leadership is more essential than ever. All of the problems that we have ignored until now remain with us. But the money that might have started us on the road to solutions is gone. We are mired in Iraq, and not properly prepared at home. We could use some adult supervision. CC

To: Doug R who wrote (451479)	9/2/2003 12:43:15 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

nytimes.com September 1, 2003 Yen Dips, Intervention Fears Weigh By REUTERS Filed at 11:29 p.m. ET TOKYO (Reuters) - The yen was slightly lower on Tuesday, its recent strong rise brought to a halt by wariness about Japanese intervention, which outweighed a further rise in Tokyo share prices to a 14-month high. Speculation about what U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow and Japanese Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa had discussed in Tokyo on Monday dominated the market, with operators confused by the various interpretations in the media. Shiokawa said on Tuesday that the two had agreed that China's yuan should move to a floating rate system, but he said that Snow had made no specific comment about the yen, which the Japanese authorities have held down with massive intervention this year. The Nikkei Financial Daily reported that Snow had pressed Shiokawa to curb Japan's intervention but that conflicted with other media reports and with the official account of the Snow-Shiokawa talks. ``I suspect that Snow did tell the Japan side not to intervene too much,'' said Kota Kimura, assistant manager at Shinkin Central Bank. ``I'm sure Japan will keep conducting yen-selling intervention but it will be difficult to do it as aggressively as in the past,'' he added. Japan's top financial diplomat, Zembei Mizoguchi, said on Tuesday that Japan's economy was getting better but that did not warrant a further rise in the yen. At 0240 GMT, the dollar was at 116.68/73 yen up slightly from 116.50 in late London. U.S. markets were closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday. ``With a general election expected in November, I think the authorities will protect 115 yen until then,'' said Toru Umemoto, a currency strategist at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo. Snow is heading for Beijing on Tuesday, where he will meet the head of China's central bank. They are expected to discuss the yuan, against a background of calls from U.S. politicians and industrialists for it to be revalued, but no breakthrough is likely. A spokesman for China's central bank said on Tuesday that there would be no change in yuan policy just because Snow was visiting. YEN SEEN RISING The euro was at $1.0933/38 versus 1.0970. The single currency was at 127.60/69 yen against 127.79. Dealers said the yen was expected to rise further in the near-term due to demand from foreign investors wanting Japanese assets plus the repatriation of funds by domestic investors ahead of the half-year book-closing at the end of September. ``All of which suggests that it's difficult to stop the yen from rising by currency intervention. There are just so many yen-bullish factors now,'' Kimura said. The Nikkei was up 0.59 percent or 63.43 points at 10,733.61 at midday after rising as far as 10,748.76, a 14-month high. Some traders said the yen was under light pressure from a surge in Japanese government bond (JGB) yields, but they also said higher yields would eventually make foreign investors more comfortable about raising their underweight JGB portfolios. The benchmark 252nd 10-year cash bond yield jumped 7.5 basis points to 1.655 percent ahead of a key auction of bonds of the same maturity later on Tuesday. On the data front, the U.S. Institute of Supply Management's manufacturing index for August is due at 1400 GMT. Economists expect the figure to rise to 53.8 from July's 51.8, which would be the second month in a row above 50.