Steve Clemons writes in washingtonnote.com:
"The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed a vote on the nomination of John Bolton as U.N. ambassador after a Republican senator said he was not prepared to vote for him on Tuesday and cast the nomination in doubt.
"I've heard enough today that I don't feel comfortable about voting for Mr. Bolton," Ohio Sen. George Voinovich said, stunning fellow Republicans who were set to push the contentious nomination through the committee on a party-line vote.
I'm still stunned that the Senate is managing to find the right way on this outrageous nomination.
Maybe this can be the beginning of a number of good things."
Probably not.
See a "A comprehensive look at John Bolton's career [Which] reveals a man who champions extremism in the service of expediency," by Tom Barry at
Smirking Chimp and an interview with Steve Clemons at democracynow.org.
Der Spiegel wrote of Bush's nominees on April 8th and the difficulty of avoiding all of them. John Bolton would be their choice to exert the most political pressure to defeat. But, they're all equally horrible. One in particular is Stephen L. Johnson for the EPA:
"Senators Barbara Boxer of California and Ben Nelson of Florida are threatening to stall Mr. Johnson's confirmation unless he promises to end a suspended Florida study in which families would be paid to allow researchers to study the effects of pesticides on their children - a macabre investigation co-sponsored by the American Chemistry Council.
The idea that the E.P.A. would pay families to continue exposing their children to potentially dangerous chemicals is on its face outrageous - and made worse by the study's ghoulish acronym, Cheers, for Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study."
Luckily, some cooler heads are prevailing in the senate:
CNN/April 14
"Frustrated by the Bush administration's air pollution policies, Democratic Sen. Thomas Carper plans to block the Senate from confirming President Bush's nominee to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Delaware senator is "going to place a hold on the nomination of Stephen Johnson to be head of the EPA," Carper's spokesman, Bill Ghent, said Thursday. All senators have the power to hold up the confirmation of a nominee.
Last week, Johnson's decision to meet Democrats' demands and cancel plans for a controversial study using children in Duval County, Florida, to measure the effect of pesticides cleared the way for the committee vote on his nomination."
Sign me up for bug spray cocktails!
The EPA web site explains about the program. Any kids you know who might want to sign up? hey mom, you might ask:
"Why are you looking for participants?
We need participants for a very important study called the Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS) in Duval County, FL (Jacksonville, Florida area).
This two-year children’s exposure study will start in the Summer of 2004 and be conducted in Duval County (Jacksonville, Florida area). [Mainly African-American.]
The purpose of the study is to learn about levels of pesticides and common household chemicals in homes of young children.
Your participation will contribute to the knowledge of Children’s exposures, which will benefit young children in the future."
Oh you bet. The ones who survive.
Posted by bushmeister0
at 7:16 PM EDT
