Following recent investigative articles by the New York Times and the Washington Post  which detail two separate instances in which Sen. McCain apparently used his influence to bring about federal land deals lucrative for his friends and campaign contributors, another such case is about to come to the forefront.

This new land swindle is far less benign than the other two.  It involves wealthy corporate mining interests, electric utilities, and a Coal slurry pipeline through the homeland of Native Americans, which took not only their land but their precious water along the way as well.

In this case, Sen. McCain's influence did more than just bring profits to campagin contributors, it dispossessed thousands of indigenous people from lands they had occupied since before Columbus, not in the 19th Century, but in the 21st.  A story similar to that of many tribes sold out and taken advantage of by ruthless politicians, this wasnt the work of some banana republic dictator, but of the Republican candidate for President of the United States.

From the Wonk Room.

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency dismissed Midwest regional administrator Mary Gade, one of ten such officials appointed directly by EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. Gade -- a lifelong Republican and a prominent supporter of George W. Bush's pursuit of the presidency in 2000 -- told the Chicago Tribune, "There's no question this is about Dow." Gade was locked in a battle with Dow Chemical over the cleanup of dioxin poisoning from its world headquarters in Michigan. As former EPA official Robert Sussman writes in the Wonk Room, "To remove a Regional Administrator because of a disagreement over policy at an individual site is unheard of."

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) just spoke on the Senate floor about Gade's firing:

Actually, a big stinkin' toxic waste incinerator...

I've written on this before but I feel that it needs more attention that it received because of the upcoming Ohio Primary.
Short and sweet this time:
 WTI wanted to build America's largest toxic waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio. The incinerator is located 1,100 feet from an elementary school.
 WTI was owned by Jackson Stephens, who donated $200,000 to Bush #1 to help this project along.
 There were problems and the project was not going to be approved during the Bush #1 administration.
 When Bush's ratings tanked during his bid for re-election, Stephens donated $100,000 to Clinton #1 as well as extending a 2 million line of credit to the DLC when they were tapped out.
Bill Clinton won and with some  serious monkey business (a Hillary crony) at the EPA, the permit was approved.
 more down below....

What follows is old school.

It is a paper I wrote this past semester about electronic waste in China, exploring an important environmental issue that most people never think about because it is so far removed from their daily experience.

I say "old school" because everything that follows is referenced in academic journals that aren't distributed on the web unless you pay for them.

It is followed by policy recommendations that you can disseminate freely as you like.  All of the writing that follows is my own, and you can distribute it as you wish, provided that you credit my sources as referenced.

Join me below the fold for a discussion about e-waste.

Several days ago I posted a diary about the WTI and Von Roll Toxic Waste Incinerator.  Because I posted it the same day as the South Carolina Primary, several Kossacks have asked me to repost.

Instead of duplicating the diary, I have added some new developments, and data.

While I was writing the original piece on the history of this foul project, a new ruling from the Ohio EPA allowed this incinerator, located 1,100 feet from an elementary school, to accept even more hazardous waste (anthrax, radioactive waste, infectious medical waste and mixed hazardous waste from Hurricane Katrina) than the original permit that was shrouded in corruption and approved by the Clinton Administration

Clinton and Al Gore promised the residents of East Liverpool, Ohio that they would not allow this incinerator originally approved by Bush '41 to operate. However, a Clinton  EPA appointee, recommended by his classmate Hillary Clinton, approved the permit.

This is a tangled tale of corporatism, broken promises and an environmental disaster waiting to happen.

It's long, so hang with me below the fold.

.

This is the story of an accident-waiting-to-happen. Years ago, someone had the brilliant idea to build a toxic waste incinerator located in a flood plain next to an elementary school. The project started during the administration of George Herbert Walker Bush but was continued by the Clinton administration.

The story involves broken campaign promises and large donations by Jackson Stephens (yes, the BCCI guy) to both Bush and Clinton.  

The appearance of impropriety is also heightened by some monkey business in the Bush & Clinton EPA as well as interference from a certain First Lady.

Let's take a look at Waste Technologies Incorporated (WTI), Jackson Stephens, the Clintons and the largest toxic waste incinerator in the United States.

From Truth & Progress and also posted at Docudharma

If ya hang around some of the less savory places I do on occasion, you're bound to bump into this sweet-smelling bad actor named, Trichloroethylene, or TCE. You might recall that this bad actor had a lead in the book and movie "A Civil Action", about contaminated wells in Woburn, MA. Well, if you do bump into this character in a dark  alley, grab your kidneys and liver and get outa town. Or maybe not...

(Cross-posted at Berkeley Bubble.)

I wanted to call attention to an important news item worth noting in today's San Francisco Chronicle--the deleterious impact of the dumping of millions of tons of "e-waste" in used computers and electronic devices in developing nations like India:

Once considered a problem that affects only industrialized nations, e-waste -- pollution from the disposal of unwanted electronic and electrical equipment -- is fast becoming a bane of developing countries. Most e-waste in India is dumped in landfills or incinerated, releasing toxins into the air and soil that can cause cancer, birth deformities and arrested brain development, health experts say.

"We're sitting on an e-waste time bomb," said Shetty Sreenath, who built Asia's first eco-friendly e-waste disposal facility in 1995 in Bangalore, a southern city known as India's Silicon Valley.

To learn more about this crisis and what you can do, read on...

The Declaration of Independence guarantees us certain unalienable rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which have been recognized by the US Supreme Court. However, Bush the Great Decider is now taking away our right to life, our right to breathe and our children's right to have normal development of lung and brain capacity. We hear right wingers scream "right to life," which is meaningless when Bush allows his buddies to invade our bodies with deadly pollutants that are killing and sickening men, women and children. The scary part is that our government standards of safe levels of exposure create a false sense of security. We do not need massive doses of pollutants or a toxic bomb to harm us – chronic exposure at low levels is our "World Trade Center in slow motion."

U.S. EPA released the Year 2005 toxic release inventory data yesterday afternoon for the entire United States.   I didn't see any major media coverage locally here.  Perhaps releasing the data late on a Thursday afternoon is designed to not have it get much coverage.

Read below for helpful information about the year 2005 toxic data release.

Children in Ebocha, Nigeria are marked with an ink spot to mark them as having been vaccinated against measles and polio courtesy of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. These same children, and their parents, live in a toxic stew of fumes and chemicals spewed out by oil refineries and paper mills. Many people in this valley suffer from serious respiratory ailments due to the rampant pollution in the region. Listed as investors in these companies, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

I find it hard to believe that this story is only just making the front page.  It is so horrifying in its scope that it almost defies belief.  It is a tragic story of greed. It is a tragic story of human suffering on a mass scale as sure as if Saddam Hussein had set off one of his mythical dirty bombs or chemical weapons in a big American city.  Because some greedy fucker in Europe wanted to save a few hundred thousand bucks, a little kid will probably die in agony of some horrible disease and now looks like this -

By the way - the name of this JPEG on the Times site is 02toxicchild.

Answer: The cable news channels would be all over it like flies on manure. It would be 24/7 breathless coverage. There would be calls for congressional hearings. Grand juries would be convened. Personal injury lawyers would swoop in like locust. It would be on the front page of every American newspaper.

Well, it has actually happened. Except it's in Africa -- so nobody gives a damn.

State gives power plants a pass on pollution. Maryland environmental officials have for years been ignoring most air pollution violations at the state's dirtiest power plants. Baltimore Sun

Congress opposes plan to limit toxic waste disclosures. Congress is moving to block a plan that would cut the information New Jersey industries have to disclose about their toxic emissions. Bergen County Record, New Jersey.

Pressure turned up in the war on water. Bristling against skyrocketing rates, spotty service and foreign ownership, a number of towns across Illinois and the U.S. are waging fierce battles to regain control of their drinking water. Chicago Tribune

The presidents energy plan has been around for a while but, has not been compelling enough for anyone to act on. It contains the usual give-aways to oil refiners and other interests and a potential time bomb.

The time bomb has to do with the proposal to allow oil refineries to be built on closed military bases.