Democratic Party politicians and operatives descended on Flint before Tuesday’s Michigan primary hoping to exploit public anger over the water crisis to boost their electoral chances. The selection of the city as the venue for the March 6 debate between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton was designed to give the appearance that the Democrats were concerned with, and would seriously address, the disaster inflicted on the people of Flint over the last two years.
Both candidates sought to lay blame solely on the Republican governor, Rick Snyder, while concealing the role of state and local Democrats, including the state treasurer, the mayor, the emergency manager and the city council. They also said nothing about federal officials from Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who knowingly concealed the fact that the city was not treating its water supply with anti-corrosive agents and that lead levels in the water had made it toxic.
While making various demagogic statements, neither candidate offers any serious proposal to provide relief to the beleaguered residents. During the debate, LeeAnne Walters from Flint asked both candidates if they would require public water systems to replace lead pipes throughout the US if they were elected. Neither candidate would give a direct answer to the question.
Clinton replied, “We will commit to a priority to change the water systems and we will commit within five years to remove lead from everywhere,” referring to all lead sources, including paint and dust.
Walters, a key figure in exposing the consistent cover-up by water quality officials, told the Huffington Post on Monday, “I hated Clinton’s answer. To tell a Flint resident that we’ll handle this in five years is no different than what the city was telling us and what the state was telling us.”
[. . .]
In fact, the EPA played a key role in aiding and abetting the efforts by MDEQ and the Snyder administration to conceal the danger to the public. A March 5 article in the Detroit Free Press examines emails between MDEQ and EPA officials from February 25, 2015 through the end of 2015. The emails reveal that the EPA was well informed that Flint was in violation of federal safe drinking water regulations, and that the MDEQ was not only aware, but itself instigating Flint officials to falsify water testing.
The article dates exchanges starting on February 25, when LeeAnne Walters’ home tap water tested at 104 parts per billion (ppb)—7 times more than the EPA action level of 15 ppb. Her child developed skin rashes. The next day, EPA program manager for Region 5 (the Midwest region), Jennifer Crooks, relates this to MDEQ’s Lansing District Coordinator for Drinking Water, Steve Busch, and Mike Prysby, MDEQ district engineer, with a note that says: “WOW!!!! Did he find the LEAD! 104 ppb. She has 2 children under the age of 3… Big worries here.”
Remember that when you see Rachel Maddow pretending to take on the topic, pretending to care about the people of Flint.
She only cares about scoring points on Republican politicians.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Friday:
Friday, March 11, 2016. Chaos and violence continue, the US government
is accused of yet again lying about Iraq, the Iraqi government kills
Sunni civilians, Moqtada al-Sadr holds another rally to back his best
buddy Haider al-Abadi, and much more.
Thursday, the US Defense Dept announced/claimed:
Strikes in Iraq
Attack, fighter and ground attack aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 15 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:
-- Near Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Kirkuk, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Kisik, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Mosul, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed an ISIL rocket rail.
-- Near Ramadi, four strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL heavy machine guns, two ISIL supply caches, 11 ISIL improvised explosive devices, three ISIL vehicles and an ISIL vehicle bomb and denied ISIL access to terrain.
-- Near Sinjar, five strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL assembly area, an ISIL tactical vehicle, 12 ISIL rocket rails, an ISIL supply cache and six ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Tal Afar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.
The bombings continue and are passed off as working towards peace.
And the Iraqi government, gifted with weapons and aircraft from the US and Russia, carries out its own bombings to ape the 'peace' efforts of bombings.
And the bombs fall on populated areas, never forget that.
So many in the media work overtime to cover that up, to pretend these bombs hit empty areas and that civilians are never killed.
It's a lie.
The Iraqi government killed Sunni civilians in those bombings.
So much propaganda swirling around such a small piece of land. But Iraq couldn't be made miserable if the truth was acknowledged, could it?
Did someone say Whore of Baghdad?
Yes, Jane Arraf. She Tweets this morning.
Why is Jane Arraf Tweeting about protests?
She spent all her time since the Hawija massacre ignoring real protests.
Oh, that's right, this isn't a real protest.
It's a rally, a propaganda effort on the part of cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr to back the current prime minister Haider al-Abadi.
It's not a protest.
Only a whore like Jane would call it protest.
And remember, her whoring on Iraq goes back to the 90s when she was covering up for Saddam while working for CNN.
Jane's been lying for years.
Decades.
Maher Chmaytelli (REUTERS) offers a truth bomb, "Iraq's powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr wants Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to stay in power but replace his cabinet with professionals with no party affiliation so he can fight corruption, the head of the Sadrist bloc in parliament said."
Did that reality just send Jane Arraf scurrying like the rat she is?
Probably.
Mohammad Sabah (AL MADA) reports Haider is scheduled to name his Cabinet members in the coming days.
Well, the reality, he'll name some nominees.
Parliament has to approve them.
Equally true, his efforts to kick out members of his Cabinet currently?
Not covered by the Constitution.
Parliament can strip someone of the post. The person can decide on their own to resign.
But the Cabinet does not serve at the pleasure of the prime minister.
That's not written into the Constitution.
As Haider al-Abadi already knows because it's a reality Nouri al-Maliki had to live with -- publicly -- throughout his second term.
So there's Moqtada whoring his followers to call for the Constitution to be trashed.
And no one wants to go there or address that.
ALSUMARIA notes that State of Law has expressed concerns about these demonstrations. State of Law is the political coalition that is headed by former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki. It must rankle Nouri that what he was held in check on, Haider may get away with.
In news of real protests -- the ones you don't hear of because they're real -- AL MADA reports that citizens in Muqdadiyah on Wednesday took the street in large numbers to protest the lack of safety and demand better security.
Jane Arraf never Tweeted on that, of course. Why would she?
Jane Arraf has never been anything but a megaphone for whomever happened to be the leader of Iraq going all the way back to Saddam Hussein.
Let's stay with reality for a moment more.
Western media echoing the US State Dept has made a number of claims this week.
But they may not exactly qualify as true.
ALSUMARIA reports that the Chair of Parliament's Defense and Security Committee has announced that, despite us claims, there has been no chemical weapons officer of the Islamic State that has been captured. These reports, he insists, are attempts to breed fear and terror.
The western world is full of Judith Millers. Damn shame it's so short on truth tellers.
Thursday, the US Defense Dept announced/claimed:
Strikes in Iraq
Attack, fighter and ground attack aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 15 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:
-- Near Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Kirkuk, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Kisik, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Mosul, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Qayyarah, a strike destroyed an ISIL rocket rail.
-- Near Ramadi, four strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL heavy machine guns, two ISIL supply caches, 11 ISIL improvised explosive devices, three ISIL vehicles and an ISIL vehicle bomb and denied ISIL access to terrain.
-- Near Sinjar, five strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL assembly area, an ISIL tactical vehicle, 12 ISIL rocket rails, an ISIL supply cache and six ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Tal Afar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.
The bombings continue and are passed off as working towards peace.
And the Iraqi government, gifted with weapons and aircraft from the US and Russia, carries out its own bombings to ape the 'peace' efforts of bombings.
And the bombs fall on populated areas, never forget that.
So many in the media work overtime to cover that up, to pretend these bombs hit empty areas and that civilians are never killed.
It's a lie.
#IRAQ شمرية العراق
The Iraqi government killed Sunni civilians in those bombings.
idris sanusi
32 retweets
10 likes
Who's going cover these deaths?
Or is the western media just going to cover them up as usual?
69 Iraqi Sunni civilian killed & 100 injured by airstrikes on #Znkurh #AlRamadi #Iraq #warcrimes
Oh my God HORRIBLE
Are we just supposed to all turn away and ignore these deaths?
Pretend that they didn't happen?
For the good of what?
For the good of whom?
So much propaganda swirling around such a small piece of land. But Iraq couldn't be made miserable if the truth was acknowledged, could it?
Did someone say Whore of Baghdad?
Yes, Jane Arraf. She Tweets this morning.
jane arraf
Why is Jane Arraf Tweeting about protests?
She spent all her time since the Hawija massacre ignoring real protests.
Oh, that's right, this isn't a real protest.
It's a rally, a propaganda effort on the part of cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr to back the current prime minister Haider al-Abadi.
It's not a protest.
Only a whore like Jane would call it protest.
And remember, her whoring on Iraq goes back to the 90s when she was covering up for Saddam while working for CNN.
Jane's been lying for years.
Decades.
Maher Chmaytelli (REUTERS) offers a truth bomb, "Iraq's powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr wants Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to stay in power but replace his cabinet with professionals with no party affiliation so he can fight corruption, the head of the Sadrist bloc in parliament said."
Did that reality just send Jane Arraf scurrying like the rat she is?
Probably.
Mohammad Sabah (AL MADA) reports Haider is scheduled to name his Cabinet members in the coming days.
Well, the reality, he'll name some nominees.
Parliament has to approve them.
Equally true, his efforts to kick out members of his Cabinet currently?
Not covered by the Constitution.
Parliament can strip someone of the post. The person can decide on their own to resign.
But the Cabinet does not serve at the pleasure of the prime minister.
That's not written into the Constitution.
As Haider al-Abadi already knows because it's a reality Nouri al-Maliki had to live with -- publicly -- throughout his second term.
So there's Moqtada whoring his followers to call for the Constitution to be trashed.
And no one wants to go there or address that.
ALSUMARIA notes that State of Law has expressed concerns about these demonstrations. State of Law is the political coalition that is headed by former prime minister and forever thug Nouri al-Maliki. It must rankle Nouri that what he was held in check on, Haider may get away with.
In news of real protests -- the ones you don't hear of because they're real -- AL MADA reports that citizens in Muqdadiyah on Wednesday took the street in large numbers to protest the lack of safety and demand better security.
Jane Arraf never Tweeted on that, of course. Why would she?
Jane Arraf has never been anything but a megaphone for whomever happened to be the leader of Iraq going all the way back to Saddam Hussein.
Let's stay with reality for a moment more.
Western media echoing the US State Dept has made a number of claims this week.
But they may not exactly qualify as true.
ALSUMARIA reports that the Chair of Parliament's Defense and Security Committee has announced that, despite us claims, there has been no chemical weapons officer of the Islamic State that has been captured. These reports, he insists, are attempts to breed fear and terror.
The western world is full of Judith Millers. Damn shame it's so short on truth tellers.
