ON DEAD CENTER

CONGRESS: STOP THE LIP SERVICE, COVER-UPS, AND LIES

2006-02-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

Dear Senator Specter,
While watching C-SPAN and your committee questioning the attorney general I could not help but notice that you and some of the other senators left to go address the Asbestos issue. The same asbestos issue has been being looked into for at leas 3.5 decades that I know of. And please don't take personal offense for what I will be addressing. I send this to you because you were the committee chairman of note and watching. I also think you to be one of the more reasonable common sensible in the congress. I say this not out of flattery but personal opinionated fact. (I wish I could say the same for my own congressional representatives.)
Senator Specter, do you know just how large this Asbestos can of worms is?
I'm just one of the little "unwashed ones in the masses" who's knowledge and opinions are disregarded by most of the "superior superior to us" folks (Especially mine that caused me to resign from the republican party.) in Washington but I am going to inform you anyway.
Have you or anyone else in the congress ever even heard of AC water main pipe that has been buried, and remains buried and still in use today by the hundreds of thousands if not millions of miles throughout this nation in almost every berg, town, and city, in every state in the U S A? I shudder in horror when I think about cities as large as Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex area. But this is not just a one state issue. Its a national issue.
If you haven't already guessed by now, the "A" in AC stands for Asbestos. Concrete water main pipe reinforced with Asbestos, or as its commonly known as Asbestos/Concrete pipe, and I worked for more than one company and city government for several years here in Texas that installed: new pipe, tapped it, repaired it, and replaced thousands of miles of Asbestos reinforced Concrete water mains anywhere from 12.0" to 10 feet in diameter. This AC pipe has been in use for at least 40 years that I know of. Today, it would cost trillions of dollars to replace it if it could be replaced at all.
Water under high pressure, 30 to 160 PSI depending, sets up harmonic vibrations in water and the pipes themselves, causing not just corrosion but wear and erosion inside the water mains.
And in the continuing process of AC pipe use from day one, while water is under pressure and coursing through the water pipes, minute particles of the concrete and in particular the asbestos, sloughs off, like skin flakes off the human body and can enter every home and business water system where the AC pipes are used. When drinking from a public water supply Asbestos is ingested, and swallowed. Particles of Asbestos dries in the mouth and sucked into lungs of every human being consuming the water for drinking, cooking, or bathing. Asbestos remains on skin after swimming or bathing and dries. When touched it can remain on a hand and inadvertantly put in the mouth. This is especially true with children.
On every municipal water system, there are water main dead ends at ends of line. This is where much of the concrete and asbestos and other waste products gather and are periodically ejected through cleanout valves to prevent solid wastes from backing up into the water mains and clogging the smaller customer used pipes.. I have personally seen on dozens of occasions everything from mud, rocks, sand, chunks of concrete and the "milky white asbestos" flushed from the water main line clean out valves where it is left to dry in the sun; where when it rains it runs into creeks and rivers creating even more Asbestos pollution.
Taps into these AC pipe mains called "Corporation Stops" necessary in order to add customers to that water line, are inserted from the outside of the water mains without stopping the flow of water and pushes both asbestos and concrete into the water line that can and often as not does enter the homes and business pipes of water consumers through their kitchen and bath/shower faucets, etc..
How is the congress going to address this huge asbestos fiasco? How can the congress openly face the nation and address this fiasco?
For to address the Asbestos issue at all, the AC water main piping must be included as it effects tens of millions of people. If the AC water main part of this is not addressed, the issue is in automatic defeat and accomplishes nothing but a minute part of the overall Asbestos issue while addressing it to and catering to a small fraction of the working populous that have filed suit. All this will do is feed tremendous profits more than one attorney. What the congress is doing now is no more than giving lip service to the asbestos issue, shuffling the bulk of the problem (water mains) under a rug. Blame, since asbestos problems are out in the open now, can be laid in the laps of both the Democrats, Republicans, and Independents of the congress.
I am personally going to plaster this as an open letter to you all over the Internet, on any website and newspaper that will allow it to be published.
Quite simply Senator, the congress as a whole must address the entire Asbestos issue and let the chips fall where they may or let it die in state, as is.
Its past time our private business sector and our elected representatives, that have made billions off the public to show and take some responsibility. All of you may run away from the citizens but you can't hide; not if I and other responsible citizens can help it.
Tom Pearson-Arlington, Texas
Related articles found on the web:
http://www.doulton.ca/asbestos.html http://capecodliving.blogspot.com/2006/01/update-asbestos-pipes-in-west-hyannis.html http://www.asbestos-institute.ca/specialreports/acpipes/drain.html http://www.usbr.gov/dataweb/html/lcgriengdata.html http://www.normas.com/ASTM/CONTENTS/Vol.04.05.html http://www.epa.gov/region04/air/asbestos/awet.htm Asbestos Serving Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee
There are hundreds of other web-sites and books on asbestos. We have as important or more important concerns to worry about than terrorists, l:ike not killing ourselves out of arbitrarily served up stupidity and bad governement and business policies and.practices.

2006-02-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

First a bit off topic. rich lowery, editor of right wing "national review," should have his picture made as POSTERBOY not for "neocon's" but just plain "con's" as in "conman," parrots for bush and the right wing elite. It was because of punks like bush and his parrots like Lowery, slush limbaugh, and ann da ho coulter that I resigned from the republican party.

Now. mr. turned the white house into an outhouse bush has the gall to get on T V and tell us "America (Americans) are addicted to oil."Well mr. g w knowitall oil slick bush name just one other "CURRENT" "AFFORDABLE TO ALL" choice U S citizens have available to them in order to withdraw from oil.

There are "people", loose term for oil trash, in the U S that ARE addicted to oil and the tens of billions of dollars per quarter it brings in and you can find them all in the whitehouse, washington d c and the penthouse offices of every oil company in the U S A.

It is these aformentioned slime that refuse to develop, bury already invented developments, and plug up every hole for any serious efforts much less ongoing developments for alternative energy sources.

One of the reasons solar power isn't being seriously developed and going anywhere is because the oil companies aka "energy producers" cannot get the government to grant them license to sunlight and put it under their control. Check that out for yourselves. It's a fact. They tried to get license on sunlight back in the 70's and were refused.

If the energy producers ever convince the government to actually license sunlight to them you will see solar energy power cells on every rooftop and acre of open land in America and the power resulting from them being sold at premium prices to "power users" just like the coal, gas, and nuclear power is being sold today.
WE ARE being held prisoner by these people in washington and in the oil companies.

If this was not true, then these elected pootheads in washington that are supposedly our government representatives representing ALL THE PEOPLE, would be giving out large block grants in droves to anyone that had a legitimate idea or patented invention for alternative energy sources and supplies. The strongest dynamic force on the planet to generate electric power has been totally ignored...OCEAN CURRENTS. The Atlantic Gulf Stream alone could be developed to drive generators to power the entire planet.

Argue with this neocons!

BLACK LAW

2006-01-26T11:03:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that my Black's Law Dictionary is a little old 1979 5th addition and doesn't even have the word terorists in it. However, the newest, Black's Law Dictionary ,7th Edition published 2004 has the word "terrorism" defined as:

terrorism, n, The use or threat of violence to intimidate or cause panic, esp. as a means of affecting political conduct.

Question: Does the bush administration's use of and periodic raising of the "threat of violence" level(s) constitute intimidation and/or cause panic as a means of affecting (by legal definition: To act upon, influence, change, enlarge or abridge) political conduct? Keywords: "AFFECTING act upon and/or influence POLITICAL CONDUCT."

Personal opinion: Yes. How could it not be? Everytime the "threat level" is raised by "the administration" and directed to media attention and mentioned on air publically, X number of people here in the U S "are influenced" and intimidated at the very least.

Is my thinking wrong here?

Comments?

2006-01-25T06:57:00.000-08:00

WOULD YOU HIRE THIS MAN TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS FOR "YOU"

Imagine you were Donald Trump, or any other business magnate looking for someone to become president of one of your companies. And while reviewing "his" resume you come to the following entries:
College: Graduated but if it wasn't for bell curve grading would have flunked big time.

Never ever held a real job but with daddy's help and money I opened my first company which went bankrupt and totally failed due to my inexperience and sheer incompetence..

Now after I became a REAL business man, I had a company didn't I, with daddy's help and more money, and some foreigners money, I opened my second company which was gutted by me and it went bankrupt and failed.
Then I did the same thing two or three other businesses skimming off and hiding as much money as I could..
After that, with daddy's help again I was put on the board of directors of a company that did not fail, but I was also put on that board of directors, because that way I cpuld be kept under complete control and couldn't do anything to damage the company. This was the way I could accumulate enough money to invest in a professional baseball team as a 2% owner where I could brag to my friends and give away sky boxes seats and have parties for the people that were giving me money to run for governor of my state..because daddy and the National Republican Party wanted me and one of my brothers to be groomed and follow in his political footsteps and become president of The United States like he had been...for one term.

Then I was elected governor of my state (even though I never served a day in public service other than to help dad and the people dad told me to help even if I had to transfer to another state while I was in the Air National Guard to do it) and with the help of other republicans just like myself we ruined the state. WIll furnish some details on request.

During my second term as governor, even though I promised the people of my state I wouldn't quit, I did quit, because I decided, actually daddy, and those foreigners who loaned me money, and the elitist in the republican party decided for me, to run for president in 1999...AND I WON!

Then in 2001 after I had been president for over a year, two of our cities, New York, and washington d c were attacked and lucky for me on a day I was in florida. So even if I didn't know for sure (heh heh) who was really behind the attacks I decided to declare war on terrorism. Then I sent American troops to Afghanistan to kill the guy that took credit for the attacks. Will furnish details on request.

This got me reelected too for my second term as president where in 2003, and because I lost interest in finding the bad guy that took credit for the attacks in 2001 and found something easier to do, I got to declare war on a nation (right next door to those foreigners that loaned me money for my failed businesses) that had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks on the United States, a nation that had already been beaten to its knees by my daddy's war in 1991 and has NEVER recovered due to international inspectors searching for stuff and sanctions placed against it. What I told the U S citizen's the reason I declared war against that nation was because I was told that the mean old guy running that country HAD (not may have) weapons of mass desruction of all types, atomic, biological, and chemical. A few weeks after they war started I declared to the troops and the people of the United States "Mission Accomplished." But here it is 2006 and them people just won't quit fighting for some reason. Will furnish additional details on request.

Now...since I can't become president for life or king, and since I'm going to be out of a job in January 2009 I am submitting this resume to you so you can hire me and let me run one of your companies.

THAT'S ONE HELL OF A RESUME! And this is the same man that fouled up every private business enterprise he entered and remained under his personal control. This is the same guy that was elected governor of a state and ruined it. This is the SAME GUY that a small majority of U S voters elected not once, but twice, to run its business as the nation's chief executive.
Now I ask again:

WOULD YOU HIRE THIS MAN TO "RUIN" YOUR BUSINESS FOR "YOU"