Mayor on EPA: Don't Blame Prez (NYC's Bloomberg)

Reading this makes my blood boil. The mayor of NYC is making excuses for the Bush* administration's lies about NYC air quality since 9/11. The military stood down on 9/11 and the EPA was told to stand down afterwards.

By Glenn Thrush
STAFF WRITER

August 25, 2003

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says President George W. Bush shouldn't be blamed if the Environmental Protection Agency downplayed the seriousness of airborne pollution after the Sept. 11 terror attack.

The report, by the agency's inspector general, concludes that the White House influenced the EPA to minimize air-quality concerns. "I know the president and I think he's a very honest guy," Bloomberg said before yesterday's Pakistani Independence Day parade. "It would never occur to me not to trust him."

Bloomberg said that although he hadn't yet read the scathing report, the findings won't affect the city's handling of air-quality concerns.

"Everybody can interpret all these numbers a different way," the mayor said. "One of the problems with all environmental things is it's very hard to get real solid data, but we're going to do anything we can downtown and throughout all five boroughs to make sure that the air people breathe is clean."

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-nyair253427724aug25,0,6466324.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines&vote9104439=1

Not much more to the story about Bloomberg but you can vote in a poll about the White House pressuring EPA to lie. So far, 87% are outraged. Of course Bush* doesn't care, NY state went for Gore. The closest I've ever been to NYC is flying over it but I know we're talking about real people's health, real people's lives. How can people be so heartless?

:argh:

Must be another Faith Based administrator....

It's not hard to get real solid data. They make machines whose sole purpose in life is to measure the amount of crap in the air, and the EPA has these machines in place in major American cities, just like the weather bureau has barometers.

Maybe the data have been occluded as a security risk, but they're there somewhere-- real, non-faith-based data.

This should seriously impede Bloomberg's chances for re-election.

Embarrassed.

it was only nominally, as he really wasn't much of anything - too busy making money - kind of like Arnold not voting and Dick Cheney avoiding Vietnam - they had other priorities.

It seems no one in the government wants to be responsible these days.

of fascist neocon supporters of Bush. The media (with the exception of CBS, which ran the story as a top lead in on the Evening News Friday night), the mis-administration, and their allies, are doing EVERYTHING than can to defuse and bury this story. They've got Repugs coming for their convention, and it just wouldn't do to rile up the natives before that event.

This is a HUGE story, perhaps one of the biggest of the year, and certainly for New Yorkers. Why isn't it the lead story in every newspaper and network in the land? It is indeed scary, to see that they have enough control and power over the media outlets, to bury it.

I hope MILLIONS turn out to protest Bush, on everything from 9/11 to Iraq, to the EPA caper. We should make the Repugs regret forevermore, cynically choosing N.Y. as their convention site, so they can milk 9/11 photo-ops. Bastards!!
:puke:

NYers (and many others) will turn out to protest the GOP convention. It's ironic as hell that smoking is now banned in NYC restaurants and bars.

Good post! And welcome to DU. :hi:

I was set to make a joke, but it's not so funny after all. It wouldn't occur to Bloomberg to not trust this pResident? :wtf:

for NYC ought to have told him something, shouldn't it?

With the way the people of NYC absolutely HATE Bloomberg right now, him praising Bush is the easiest way to make NY a slam-dunk for the Dems in 04.

Just a one-term wonder. Everytime he opens his mouth I want to puke.

And, on a totally unrelated topic, does anyone else out there think he's gay? I get that vibe, but I know absolutely nothing about his family life.