The Liberal Patriot

Selling America Out From Under Us

J.G. Schwam - September 3, 2002

It should not be news that the Bush administration is
populated by former lobbyists and oil company
officials. It goes beyond that. The Bush
administration has sold out public health, public
safety and even the sanctity of private lands to
corporate interests. If we die or go broke in the
process, so what. The big corporate interests and
their lobbyists that put Bush in office will get
richer.

There are no experts in the white house. No policy
experts reviewing Bush's policies, no scientists
suggesting policies in the interest of public health
or safety. Just lobbyists, lawyers and former CEO's,
Presidents, VP's and others from the industries they
are supposed to regulate, improve and insure that they
perform in the public interest. Is that not the
minimum of what we should expect from the USDA and the
Department of the Interior?

It's the old fox and hen house scenario run amuck.

The evidence is there that Bush has put the fox's in
charge. There is evidence that Bush believes
corporations should run the country. He believes
corporations can best serve the interests of the
people. History tells us that the job of government is
to protect the interests of the populace whether those
interests are foreign or domestic.

The Bush administration is demonstrating by its
actions that they wish to sell the interests of the
American people and the world to those that seek to
profit from those interests, not best represent them.
Bush is populating our regulatory agencies who wish to
sell America out from under us.

Bush has tried to get us believe that his
administration is not a re-hash of his daddy's. This
is simply not the case with the Department of the
Interior. It is chock full of lobbyists and those with
close ties to the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations.
It is chock full of those who have made careers of
representing the interest of industry, not the
peoples. They are not experts, they are paid
lobbyists. The only difference today is that now the
people are paying them not their former clients.

We all know oil gas and industry hack Gail Norton as
Secretary of the Interior is now in charge of over 520
million acres of public lands. She has also pimped for
mining and logging interests. While exact figures on
how much lobbyists give to politicians from their
varied clients as are difficult to obtain it has been
alleged that Secretary Norton was responsible for
dispersing over $100 million of her client's money in
exchange for legislation favorable to their interests.
She also worked for Pappy Bush's Interior Secretary
James Watt who defended the lead paint industry
against numerous lawsuits by parents of poisoned
children.

As attorney General of Colorado, Norton she asked the
Supreme Court to overturn the Endangered Species Act
as unconstitutional. Her close ties to Watt are also
evidenced by her tenure at the Mountain States Legal
Foundation, an anti-environmental group headed by
Watt. During her tenure under Watt Norton lobbied for
the courts to set aside the Surface Mining Act which
requires mining operations to protect ground water
from pollution and contamination by compounds such as
sulfuric and mercury used by mining operations to
extract ore at the mine site.

Norton has been ordered to stand trial for contempt of
court for attempting to file false and misleading
information to cover up mismanagement of the
multi-billion Indian Trust Fund. It has also been
alleged that Norton morphed the true biological and
environmental impact information she received into the
fallacious version she presented to the Senate during
the ANWR hearings.

Under Norton is Deputy Secretary of the Interior
Stephen J. Griles. Griles is a former vice-president
of United Mining Company and worked for James Watt
under Reagan. As a lobbyist Griles represented
Occidental petroleum, the National Mining Association
and Shell Oil. Pappy Bush pardoned Griles client,
Occidental Petroleum head the late Armand Hammer who
was accused of numerous international trade violations
dating back his dealings with Vladimir Lenin which
where endorsed by J. Edgar Hoover and date back to
1921.

Griles served in the Reagan Administration Interior
Department as Assistant Secretary of Interior for Land
and Minerals Management (1985-89), Deputy Assistant
Secretary (1983-85). During his tenure he often
contentiously lobbied congress for rollbacks of laws
or asked them to act in favor of mining interests
often to the point of financial detriment to the
peoples financial interests in the use of public lands
by corporate interests.

"Griles Strongly supported the Interior Department's
1986 virtual giveaway of 82,000 acres of oil-shale
lands for $2.50 per acre. The department did so by
choosing not to appeal a court decision allowing
patenting of the lands in question under the 1872
mining law. A House Appropriations Committee
investigation found that the government might have
received as much as $250 billion in revenue in the
event the lands were developed under a leasing
arrangement, as is customary for oil resources on
federal lands, rather than allowing the land to be
patented. One of the claimholders patented 17,000
acres of the land in question for $42,500, and then
sold the same land for $37 million". (Inside Energy,
July 27, 1987).

It is clear that Griles are not in the interest of the
nation, its waters, air, public health or coffers. It
is clear that his interests are with those that line
his pockets.

James E. Cason is Norton's Associate Deputy Secretary
of the Department of the Interior. Bush Jr. created
this new position, Associate Deputy Secretary that did
not require confirmation to get Cason into the DOI.
Under Pappy Bush the Senate refused to confirm James
E. Cason whom he nominated to an Agriculture
Department post. Cason who served under Watt launched
an earlier huge giveaway of mining patents. Cason was
also part of the great oil shale rip-off along with
Griles.

Cason also approved a revision of Federal audit
regulations that would have cost if not struck down by
the courts, Federal and local governments but saved 12
major oil companies scores of millions of dollars in
unpaid or underpaid royalties. According to a New York
Times article Mr. Cason signed this deal on the
stationary of the oil companies' attorneys.

Norton and Bush created another new position to
install a lobbyist into the agency charged with
protecting the environment not selling it to the
lowest bidder. This position, Special Assistant for
Alaska is held by Camden Toohey who as the former
director of Alaska Power has made it his life's work
to lobby aggressively for oil drilling in Alaska and
elsewhere. Like his boss Norton, Toohey posses no
skills other than that of lobbyist and corporate hack.

Also part of Gail Norton's DOI is former lawyer for
mining interests, Rebecca Watson. Watson now Assistant
Secretary for Land and Materials Management she is
responsible for balancing the interests of livestock
grazing and mineral extraction on BLM lands many with
rich in archeological, historical and environmental
value. As a partner at the Helena Montana law firm of
Gough, Shanahan, Johnson & Waterman defended mining
interests in lawsuits to prevent the discharge of
cyanide into watershed rivers and streams by open pit
mining interests.

"From 1993-1995, Ms. Watson represented a number of
industries, including major multi-national businesses
and national trade associations in the areas of
mining, forest products, agriculture, and construction
when she practiced law with the Washington D.C. law
firm Crowell and Moring. While in Montana, Ms. Watson
lobbied for a number of industries, including Golden
Sunlight Mines, Inc., Redstone Gas Partners, the
Montana Mining Association and Express Pipeline
Partnership. All of these companies are involved in
natural gas, coal bed methane or hard rock mining
production". (Friends of the Earth, foe.org, letter
from over 20 environmental organizations to the
Senate)

Bennett Raley, the current DOI Secretary for Water &
Science holds no degrees in hydrological science nor
has he ever any other position that qualifies him for
his job of balancing the water needs of people,
agriculture and wildlife. Raley like nearly every
other member of Bush's staff and his DOI is a
lobbyist.

Raley is also a former staff member of the pro
business, to heck with wildlife Mountain States Legal
foundation, an organization bank rolled by right wing
beer mogul Joseph Coors.

Raley opposed re-authorization of the Clean Water Act
which set new guidelines for controlling polluted
runoff from mining and industrial operations.

Today we face rollbacks of cleanup efforts to repair
serious pollution damage to hundreds of rocky mountain
streams and rivers by decades of mine waste and
tailings. These tailings and watste toxins have
decimated fisheries, both recreational and commercial.

Recent revelations have shown that these mine wastes
have done serious damage to water supplies of many
rocky mountain and plains cities water supplies.

Global and domestic environmental scientists express
grave concerns of dangerous over use of the Ogallala
aquifer by wasteful poorly managed pumping by huge
agricultural interests. Water tables fueled by the
once vast Ogallala have in many central states been
dropping by dozens of feet per year.

Agricultural and industrial runoff into the
Mississippi river system is creating an ever
increasing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Shrimp,
oyster and finfish stocks in many northern gulf
regions are rapidly decreasing or are contaminated by
dioxin, mercury, cyanide and other toxins know to be
products of large scale industrial and agricultural
operations.

Norton backed the Bush proposal to refuse to fund and
subsequently decimate the environmental super fund
charged with cleaning up much of the industrial dead
zones left by the mining and other industries across
the west. It is these vast leach fields full of
mercury and cyanide that threaten the water quality of
millions of inhabitants of Colorado, Nevada, Arizona
and many other areas across the country with and
without designated super fund sites.

Her staff has proven it's disdain for protecting the
environment in any form that does not benefit the
interests of huge mining, corporate farming and
agricultural interest while showing no concern
whatsoever for the public health or wellbeing.

The current make up of the DOI is evidence enough that
the Bush administration has little interest preserving
or improving water quality or the preservation of
fisheries or wildlife or those that benefit from their
preservation and protection.

Bush's United States Department of Agriculture is
increasing its daily effort to be an abysmal failure
in both of its missions of preserving food quality and
promoting US agricultural interests and exports.

Headed by Ann Veneman, the USDA has done nothing to
stem the increasing of number of deaths and illness
caused by an increasing number of e. coli
contaminations of meat and poultry in the country.

In fact instead of working to prevent such
contaminations she has done the opposite of what
experts recommend. She decreased or eliminated
entirely the testing for pathogens at the source, the
packing plants.

In 1993 the USDA won a lawsuit and began random
"science based testing" at meat packing plants. The
ruling has repeatedly been weakened by industry law
suits. Although the USDA won the ability to shut down
plants which repeatedly tested for unacceptable levels
of e. coli and salmonella, meat packing giant Supreme
Beef succeeded in overturning the USDA's limits on
salmonella. About 1.4 million Americans are sickened
by salmonella each year. Veneman may not have been
able to deal with reversing this ruling right away but
she could have stopped Supreme Beef from continuing as
the leading supplier of beef to the National School
Lunch Program.

This past summer the largest ever voluntary recall of
18.4 million pounds of beef contaminated with e. coli
was undertaken by Con Agra. Because the USDA no longer
conducts tests of meat for pathogens at the packing
plant, this contaminated beef was already distributed.
The USDA discovered the contamination between June
17-19 but then failed to inform Con Agra for almost
two weeks.

After the recall was announced Safeway stores in
Colorado held a two for one sale of this beef from
June 19-25, even though the tainted beef was labeled
"sell or freeze by 6/18". The USDA did nothing.

To date less that one tenth of the meat has been
recovered. It has most likely been eaten. Who knows
have many have been sickend. The USDA praised Con Agra
on its handling of the recall. There was no concern or
investigation into how both Con Agra and the USDA
managed to ship contaminated beef from its Greeley
Colorado slaughterhouse with detection or concern on
the part of either.

The meat packing industry has lobbied vigorously for
years to limit or curtail the already dreadfully
obsolete visual meat inspection rules that were the
standard. During the 2000 presidential campaign the
meat packing industry gave about $23,000.00 to the
Gore campaign and about $600,000.00 to Bush.

Is the Bush administration friendly to the meat
packing industry? Elsa Murano the USDA chief food
safety advocate said her agency does not need the
power to order a recall of contaminated meat nor does
it need the authority to shut ground beef plants
because of salmonella contamination.

It seems the money was well spent; Ann Veneman's chief
of staff is Dale Moore was previously the National
Cattlemen's Beef Associations chief lobbyist.

If this is not convincing evidence that the Bush
administration is friendly to an industry literally
dominated by four giant packing companies then
consider that in addition to the NCBA presence in the
USDA, the DOI Solicitor who reviews all legal issues
confronting the agency is William G. Meyers III
another former lobbyist for the National Cattlemen's
Beef Association.

The matter of the disturbing recess appointment of
Thomas Dorr as USDA undersecretary of Rural
Development has outraged his fellow Iowan Senator Tom
Harkin.

Mr. Dorr is charged with deciding how the billions of
dollars in this years farm billed gets dolled out. He
is supposed to best represent the interests of those
living in rural America. Most of which is farm
country.

Mr. Dorr's vision for the future is to destroy small
and family farming in America. Mr. Dorr believes Iowa
should be dived up from its current 93,500 farms run
mostly by families that average 450 acres into 148
immense 225,000 acre corporate farms. This would
destroy the livelihood and lifestyle of nearly every
Iowan.

Mr. Dorr's horrific vision of huge farms would result
in environmental devastation from the destruction of
wind break trees and streams that would have to be
channeled into underground tiles eliminating the
ability from the millions of migratory water fowl to
light on or drink from them. All this to allow the
landscape to be modified so the huge machines
neccessary for such operations can function. In
addition thousands of farm buildings, towns, schools
and communities developed over the last century would
be annihilated in this vast re-division of the natural
landscape of Iowa.

Mr. Dorr, also an Iowa farmer has also been implicated
in scams to defraud the very agency he now heads. Mr.
Dorr quite simply is a horror show for American
farming. His so called vision would destroy the
lifestyle and livelihood of millions Americans and
millions of acres of American farmland not to the
mention the wildlife that coexists in and around
Americas farms and rural communities.

In summary, the DOI and USDA likely answer to the
currently high risk behavior of eating a medium rare
hamburger will be don't sue us we can't or won't do
anything to help.

As for environmental issues, preservation,
conservation, planning and science are out of vogue
for now. Any questions? The Bush administration would
likely offer you the following advice.

To all of you out there buying a home this year, do it
now lumber's cheap, gypsum copper and ore production
are up. Just don't build anywhere near the Rockies,
water there is scarce, poisoned and getting worse.

Don't plan on living your dream as a farmer in the
Great Plains, you'll have to fight Cargill, Con Agra
and Archer Daniels Midland for water rights or spend
$50,000.00 per year to keep drilling your well deeper.
That is if you don't get bought out against your will
by Dorr and his corporate cronies.

Don't plan on following Forest Gump and making your
fortune shrimping unless you want to do it in Chile or
Costa Rica.

And for god sakes give up rare hamburgers.

The selling of the interests of the American people to
the interests of corporate giants has begun.

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  J.G. Schwam is a contributing writer for Liberal Slant

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