Democrats expose yet another GOP case of corruption and incompetence

Thorgrim · 07-21-2007, 11:37 AM

Waxman: “Another FEMA official wrote, the office of general counsel has advised ‘We do not do testing, because it would imply FEMA’s ownership of this issue.’ Early in the process, due to the perseverance of a pregnant mother with a four month old child, FEMA did test one occupied trailer. The results showed that their trailer had formaldehyde levels 75 times higher than the maximum workplace exposure levels recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The mother evacuated the trailer. FEMA then stopped testing other trailers.”

Watch more of the hearings:

YouTube Video

These are cancer-causing agents that were flooded in "aid" given to Katrine vicitms, who knows how many deaths that will cause in the long term...

This is more proof on how we need more investigations...I'm surprised at so many investigations have turned up so much indefensible (even Republicans are often displaying their disgust) actions...this not the GOP on a personal vendetta launching thousands of investigations to try and find a crime on a land deal where the Clinton's lost money and had already been investigated...and were eventually cleared of wrongdoing by Ken Starr

These are GOP scandals that involved corrupted the DoJ, used taxpayer money to get regular non-partisan government employees working for the GOP's re-election, a GOP federal relief effort that poisoned Katrina vicitms, the drug czar being flown around during his job to help GOP candidates, the coverup of Pat Tillman's death, RNC email accounts being used for underhand and possible illegal activity so they could avoid WH security, the Walter Reed scandal, GOP hirings of low/mid-level workers in Iraq being based on political viewpoints more than any other factor, scientists being censored to not talk about scientific data such as recent releases on global warming information...

Those are 9 different serious scandals just off the top of my head, and I left out Plame because that's mostly done with...

Every scandals requires multiple investigations to get to places they were...without many hearings it wouldn't have come out about GSA's political activity using tax payer money, and without investigations we wouldn't have found out about Katrina's toxic trailers

So anytime you hear about "oh all they are doing is investigating" besides the obvious problem that they can't legislate in the Senate because everything including student loan reform is being fillibustered by methods such as putting in amendments that suspected terrorists in Cuba never be transfered to other US military bases...another main issues is there is so much to investigate! Seriously I think we'd need 6 years to get to the bottom of a lot of this, and it's only been half a year

AVengeance · 07-21-2007, 10:42 PM

So Bush personally put evil poisons into the FEMA trailers? How stupid!

Every mobile home has warnings that you must leave the windows open to let the chemicals used in the manufacturing process to escape. So what do these people do? They close the windows and turn the free air conditioning on in their free home. Then they whine when they have lived for a long time in their free home that it wasn't good enough. THIS is another reason why the federal government just needs to do less. The only thing they need to investigate is why taxpayers are paying for people to live in free housing and bitch about it not being good enough for them.

And Waxman is an communist asshole and needs to be shot in the head.

And someone might think you are a conspiracy theorist for posting this nonsense.

Diesel66 · 07-21-2007, 11:27 PM

lol. damn FEMA for giving them a free home.

WickedLou9 · 07-22-2007, 06:19 AM

Originally Posted by Diesel66

lol. damn FEMA for giving them a free home.

those native americans had some nerve complaining aboute free blankets. whats a little smallpox betweeen friends?

Diesel66 · 07-22-2007, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

those native americans had some nerve complaining aboute free blankets. whats a little smallpox betweeen friends?

yes because the natural processing of creating a trailer is the same thing.

WickedLou9 · 07-22-2007, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by Diesel66

yes because the natural processing of creating a trailer is the same thing.

Since when does the natural process of building a home involve unsafe levels of carcinogens? If you bought a house, the assumption would be that the house would be a place you can live right? If the house will kill you, I don't see how it's any different. It's not different.

Diesel66 · 07-23-2007, 03:52 AM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

Since when does the natural process of building a home involve unsafe levels of carcinogens? If you bought a house, the assumption would be that the house would be a place you can live right? If the house will kill you, I don't see how it's any different. It's not different.

Almost all new trailers/campers have those warnings on them. It is used in the glue to manufacture them. Some manufacturers use another chemical instead of formaldehyde but it is very common.

This article/post is basically blaming FEMA for giving out new trailers instead of used ones that have had time for the chemicals to disippate.

P/N · 07-23-2007, 06:11 AM

Ahh yes, it's only the Republicans who are evil, corrupt and incompetent

Should I bring up Ted Kennedy or Bill Clinton as proof? I know this is off-topic, but how exactly did Vince Foster shoot himself in the back of the head and not get powder burns? Anyone who believes that only the republicans are corrupt needs to take off their partisan shades and look around.

motivez · 07-23-2007, 11:15 AM

It's not only people who are Republicans who are corrupt, that's for sure, but as can be clearly seen by a cursory review of corruption charges involving politics over the last few years, there is a clear web of corruption inside the Republican party.

As far as the

thing, that's more a topic for another thread I'd say.

AVengeance · 07-23-2007, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

Since when does the natural process of building a home involve unsafe levels of carcinogens? If you bought a house, the assumption would be that the house would be a place you can live right? If the house will kill you, I don't see how it's any different. It's not different.

It DOES!!!!!

Go to a new mobile home dealer, and you'll find this is true.
Then come back, and beg forgiveness of all the "trailer trash" (like me) that has purchased a mobile home.

I was smart enough to read the warnings. I lived for over a month without A/C. I also paid for my own home. People whined they had no place to live. Okay, fine, build them free housing. Then more and more of them demand free homes, and there's not enough to go around. Fine, they churn 'em out as fast as they can, and the assembly chemicals don't have time to fully dissipate. So then they start getting sick.

Ugh. What do you do?

The best solution, of course, is to simply not have FEMA do this at all. Local churches and secular organizations, along with the donations from people across the country (which came in droves dispite high taxes), would do the job cheaper, better, and faster. If we learn anything at all from Katrina, it is that the federal government shouldn't be in the housing business.

AVengeance · 07-23-2007, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by motivez

...

the thing....

WickedLou9 · 07-23-2007, 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by AVengeance

It DOES!!!!!

Go to a new mobile home dealer, and you'll find this is true.
Then come back, and beg forgiveness of all the "trailer trash" (like me) that has purchased a mobile home.

Even if I concede that point, wouldn't the government have an obligation to these people to let them know that the trailers potentially contain unacceptable levels of a known carcinogen? The mobile home dealer warns you up front. Did the government warn these people that what they were getting could give them cancer?

ballz2wallz · 07-23-2007, 01:15 PM

This is not a case of corruption or incompetence, it's a case of the mistakes.

WickedLou9 · 07-23-2007, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

This is not a case of corruption or incompetence, it's a case of the mistakes.

At some point, a mistake becomes a criminal offense. Jeez, I made a mistake and ran a stopsign... then I hit a person on a bike and killed them.

It was just a mistake, I didn't mean to kill that person. There was no malicous intent there. It was just a lapse in judgement. Guess what? Involuntary manslaughter. You go to jail. sorry.

AVengeance · 07-23-2007, 09:08 PM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

Even if I concede that point, wouldn't the government have an obligation to these people to let them know that the trailers potentially contain unacceptable levels of a known carcinogen? The mobile home dealer warns you up front. Did the government warn these people that what they were getting could give them cancer?

Actually, I would argue that it is the responsibility of the manufacturer. However, even that point is moot, as the (government mandated) warnings are clearly stated in the owners manual for the mobile home, and also on decals in various locations. There were warning labels for a variety of things, like the chemicals used in manufacture, and don't turn on the electricity to the water heater without the water being hooked up first. I might see something amiss, if someone could show that the warnings were removed from the mobile homes before people moved into them. The mobile home dealer didn't really say a whole lot himself, except when asked about the smell of a particularly new model that had just been brought in. When you buy something (or even when the gub'mint gives it to you for free) I would argue it is the personal responsibility of the new owner of the item to read the owners manual and other documentation, and familiarize himself with the various safety issues surrounding ownership and use of the item.