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Democracy Now!
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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 8-26-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Report: White House Lied to New Yorkers About Health Hazards
Near Ground Zero
New Bush Administration Rule Exempts Thousands of Industrial
Plants and Refineries from Part of Clean Air Act
Last-Ditch Lawsuit Filed to Prevent Removal of Ten Commandments
Monument
A Look at Schwarzenegger’s Father’s Ties to the
Nazis and Arnold’s Connection to Racist Hate Groups
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 Report: White House Lied to New Yorkers
About Health Hazards Near Ground Zero
INTRO: An EPA report reveals that White House staff ordered
the EPA to minimize health dangers after 911 and Daily News
reporter Juan Gonzalez reveals that the man responsible was
previously an industry lawyer who represented major asbestos
and toxic polluters.
An Environmental Protection Agency report released Friday
reveals that the National Security Council pressured EPA officials
to downplay the health hazards caused by the collapse of the
World Trade Center.
The public was lied to about the extensive presence of asbestos
from the two buildings, toxic dioxins floating in the downtown
air, and increased amounts of lead found in the atmosphere.
The report reveals the trail of public misinformation began
in the White House.
For example, one statement from the initial draft revealed
that asbestos levels in some areas were three times higher
than national standards. This was changed to say "slightly
above the 1 percent trigger for defining asbestos material."
In another case, despite warnings by EPA scientists, a sentence
was added to a Sept. 16 news release concluding "Our
tests show that it is safe for New Yorkers to go back to work
in New York's financial district."
And a statement which raised concerns about "sensitive
populations" such as asthma patients, the elderly and
people with underlying respiratory diseases was deleted.
In today's Daily News Juan Gonzalez reveals that the man
in charge of the Council on Environmental Quality is James
Connaughton. Before his appointment by President Bush Connaughton
was an industry lawyer who represented major asbestos and
toxic polluters
- Juan Gonzalez, reporter for Daily News and Democracy
Now! co-host.
- Jack Ginty, Uniformed Fire Officer’s Association
Link: www.ufoa.org
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:20-8:30 New Bush Administration Rule Exempts Thousands
of Industrial Plants and Refineries from Part of Clean Air
Act
INTRO: The exemption translates into huge savings for industrial
plants, even if they increase the amounts of pollutants they
emit. Democracy Now! hosts a debate between the Electrical
Reliability Coordinating Council’s Scott Segal and the
Natural Resource Defense Council’s John Walke.
A new regulation supported by the Bush administration exempts
thousands of industrial plants and refineries from part of
the Clean Air Act.
The Bush administration settled on the rule after more than
two years of internal deliberation and intense pressure from
the industry.
The new rule constitutes a sweeping and cost-saving victory
for industrial plants. It allows older power plants, oil refineries
and industrial units to renovate and upgrade their equipment
without installing air pollution controls. Plants can engage
in routine maintenance without having to install cleaner technologies.
According to The New York Times, the exemption translates
into billions of dollars in savings for industrial plants,
even if they increase the amounts of pollutants they emit.
Activists from the Clean Air Task Force predict that the enforcement
of these changes will yield greater pollution and negative
health effects including 20, 000 additional premature births,
400,000 additional asthma attacks and 12,000 additional cases
of chronic bronchitis.
Over 300 non-profit environmental and public health organizations
from 47 different states are expressing concern over the proposed
changes.
- John Walke, Director for the Natural Resource Defense
Council
Link: www.nrdc.org
8:30-8:40 Last-Ditch Lawsuit Filed to Prevent Removal
of Ten Commandments Monument
INTRO: Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended last week for
disobeying a federal court order to remove a two-ton monument
of the Ten Commandments he had installed two years ago. We
hear a debate between the plaintiffs’ lead counsel Brian
Chavez-Ochoa and Southern Poverty Law Center’s Richard
Cohen.
A dramatic scene unfolded yesterday in Montgomery, Alabama.
A crowd of over 300 people turned the courthouse into a campground
rallying for a seventh straight night in support of Chief
Justice Roy Moore.
In July 2001, without the permission of the other justices,
Chief Justice Roy Moore installed a two-ton Ten Commandments
monument in the State Supreme Court.
Moore was suspended by a state judicial ethics panel last
week for disobeying a federal court order to remove it.
Speaking to the crowd yesterday Moore said: "I have
acknowledged God as the moral foundation of our law. It is
my duty. Should I keep back my opinion at such a time as this?
For fear of giving offense? I should consider myself guilty
of treason and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty
of heaven."
Supporters of the Ten Commandments monument yesterday filed
a last-ditch lawsuit to prevent its apparently imminent removal
from the Alabama Judicial Building.
The suit was filed in federal court in Mobile on behalf of
a Christian radio talk show host and a pastor. It says a forced
removal of the monument would violate the constitutional guarantee
of freedom of religion.
After his 1992 appointment as a circuit court judge Roy Moore
held prayers in his courtroom and adorned a wall with a hand-carved
plaque of the Ten Commandments. That prompted an unsuccessful
1994 suit that initiated his steady rise from obscurity to
the highest judgeship in the state.
He rejected requests to include a statue of an atom or a
copy of the Koran arguing that American law was based on Judeo-Christian
beliefs.
- Richard Cohen, general counsel for the Southern Poverty
Law Center which represented one of the plaintiffs in the
lawsuit against Chief Justice Roy Moore seeking the removal
of the Ten Commandments monument.
Link: www.splcenter.org
- Brian Chavez-Ochoa, lead counsel for the plaintiff who
filed a lawsuit yesterday to try to keep the granite block
where it is. He is lead counsel for Operation Rescue West,
an anti-abortion group involved in the courthouse protest.
Link: www.operationrescue.org
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:58 A Look at Schwarzenegger’s Father’s
Ties to the Nazis and Arnold’s Connection to Racist
Hate Groups
INTRO: Biographer Wendy Leigh reveals Arnold’s father
voluntarily became a Nazi brown-shirted stormtrooper and how
the gubernatorial candidate once publicly made Hitler-like
gestures. Meanwhile the Southern Poverty Law Center outline
the links between U.S. English (where Arnold serves on the
board) and right-wing hate groups.
“Arnie’s Father, the Nazi”
That was the headline of an article by British journalist
and biographer Wendy Leigh last March.
At the time of the story’s publication Arnold Schwarzenegger
was simply Arnold the actor. Today he stands a chance to soon
become Arnold the governor and the story is getting a second
life.
In the piece Wendy Leigh reveals that newly found documents
show Arnold’s father Gustav had voluntarily joined the
Nazi party in Austria and was a member of Hitler’s notorious
brown-shirted stormtroopers.
Connections between the Schwarzenegger family and Nazis have
been known since the early 1990s when Leigh published her
book “Arnold: The Unauthorized Biography.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post recently reported that Arnold
Schwarzenegger has served for 15 years on the board of the
organization U.S. English which promotes English to be the
country’s official. The group also opposes bilingual
education.
Less known about the organization are the groups ties to
right-wing nationalist movements. US Engligh co-founder John
Tanton has started 13 anti-immigrant groups including three
that are labeled hate groups by the SPLC.
- Wendy Leigh, journalist and author of the 1990 book “Arnold:
An Unauthorized Biography.” She is working on an updated
version. Earlier this year she revealed that Arnold’s
father was a Nazi stormtrooper.
- Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s
quarterly
Intelligence Report, which monitors far-right hate groups
in the United
States.
Link: www.splcenter.org
- Lydia Camarillo, vice president of the Southwest Voter
Registration
Education Project
Link: www.svrep.org
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie
Karran, Ana Nogueira and Elizabeth Press. Mike Di Filippo
is our music maestro and engineer.
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