Subject: [Homestead] Bush appointments reflect his consistent, knee-jerk lack of integrity
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 08:57:53 -0500
AUSTIN -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice helpfully explained it
all for us. The problem is that we are living in an alternative reality.
What we think we know is not true. We have always had enough troops in
Iraq. There are 120,000 trained Iraqi soldiers ready to take over. The
president has condemned torture, so what else is there to say? Why
torture happened, whose fault it is and why it is still happening at
Guantanamo is not a problem because the president has condemned it.
Secretary Rice also condemns it, so why raise questions about the fact
that she wrote a letter to get an anti-torture clause in the
intelligence appropriation bill taken out?
What, do you want to insult her integrity?
Secretary Rice did say that mistakes were made, but she does not know
who made them or who should be held accountable. And, of course, as we
all learned during the last election, no matter what happens, it is
never, ever President Bush's fault.
Oh, goody, another Texan with a big job in Washington. We're so proud.
Jonathan L. Snare has been named to head the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA). Just the guy we would have chosen
ourselves, because his background is so relevant. No, he's not an expert
in health or safety, but he used to be the lobbyist for Metabolife, the
ephedra diet pill that attracted so much unpleasant attention. Ephedrine
was finally barred in 2003 after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
decided it had caused 155 deaths. I guess we're lucky Bush didn't put
Snare at the FDA. According to the Washington Post, Metabolife spent
more than $4 million lobbying the Texas Legislature between 1998 and
2000. Snare was also general counsel to the Republican Party of Texas
from 1999 to '01 and has extensive experience in election law.
Exactly how this qualifies him to head OSHA is unclear -- maybe he's a
quick learner. He did join the solicitor's office of the Department of
Labor in June 2003, where the Labor Department's announcement says,
"Snare focused on issues at OSHA, as well as the Wage and Hour Division
and the Mine Safety and Health Administration." Wage and Hour, you may
recall, has made what business considers a great leap forward by making
overtime pay optional, whereas the Mine Safety people have just had
their budget cut.
Snare was formerly with the Texas law firm Loeffler, Jonas & Tuggey.
That would be W's close friend and big-time money-raiser Tom Loeffler,
who ran for governor of Texas on the grounds that he was "tough as 'bob
war.'" To prove it, he proudly claimed to have played football with two
broken wrists. (Loeffler also wore shower caps on his feet while
showering during a visit to San Francisco back in the '80s lest he get
AIDS through his feet. (I tell this story not to make Snare ridiculous
by association but just because it's a good story.)
Snare is actually the second fox assigned by Bush to guard this
particular henhouse. The assistant secretary is John Henshaw, a former
health and safety chief for the chemical company Monsanto. In 40 months
on the job, Henshaw axed three dozen proposed regulations from the
agency's agenda, according to NPR -- toxic chemical exposure regs,
metalworking fluids regs, flammable and combustible liquids reactive
chemicals that kill people and so forth.
Snare was generally well-liked and well thought of here in Texas, but
that still doesn't make him an expert on health and safety issues. OSHA
is now so toothless, with so few inspectors that they can only look at a
tiny percentage of plants in this country.
Henshaw also encouraged partnership with industry. According to NPR
reporter Peter Overby, "What OSHA has done is turn away from regulating;
less stick more carrot. Now its goal is to work with industry instead of
mandating health and safety standards." He also reports the new
alliances business encouraged by Henshaw do not include worker
representatives. "That's not the only way in which previous policies at
OSHA have been stood on their head. OSHA used to recruit its top
appointees from state agencies and job safety organizations. In the Bush
administration, it draws appointees from business and anti-regulatory
groups."
Well, Snare will certainly fit right in, then. This administration
disdains the whole idea of ergonomic injuries, also called repetitive
stress syndrome, despite the fact that millions of people have them.
It's one thing to ignore ergonomic injuries since people seldom die of
them, but chemical exposure and many other problems are
life-threatening. Workplace deaths were up last year, but the agency
claims illness and injuries were down. I hate to sound like a cynic, but
I'd like to know how they changed the reporting requirements on the last
two.
[Homestead] Bush appointments reflect his consistent, knee-jerk lack of integrity,
tvoivozhd, 01/25/2005