Kennedy Book Critique

"I've written a book about Bush's environmental record, but it's not so much about the environment as it is about an excess of corporate power and the corrosive impact of that on our democracy. And it's not about a Democrat attacking a Republican."

RFK Jr.

"How George W. Bush and his corporate pals are plundering the country and hijacking our democracy."

1. The book is partisan, it is anti-Bush and thus loses credibility:

it attacks Christine Todd Whitman as being dishonest (pp. 79-80).
it describes the industry as capturing the very agencies they are regulated by (pp. 21-43).
it suggests that in April 2001, Quinn Shea, a lobbyist for Edison Electric (pp. 118-121).

boasted about reversing GWB's campaign promises and
killing the Kyoto Protocol.

2. He suggests the media is slanted against "extremists" and is pro government:

failure of investigatory journalism. [Frontline (PBS-TV) WGBS, is nationally the best.]
covering trivial stories while serious regressions are ignored.
getting lost in details while not covering complex issues cleverly enough.
adopting a posture that there are two equal sides to every argument.

3. He suggests that Bush Administration --in response to a ruling

by a Reagan appointed Federal judge, that RCRA was violated by North Carolina factory farms-- rewrote Clean Water rules in collusion with industry advocates. Then they kept the regulatory rewrite from the public by John Graham's manipulation of OIRA at OMB (pp. 59-69.).

4. He asserts that the White House as suppressed, altered or rewritten other scientific studies coming from Federal agency staff scientists in an effort to:

confuse the public
propagate "junk science," i.e.

mercury is not that dangerous its in your tooth fillings
there is no relation between carbon dioxide levels and global climate

there is insufficient data linking coal fire plants and sulfur dioxide deposition

hence acid rain is an not an attributable problem
acid rain requires further study
non-point sources of pollution (you) are just as bad as point sources.

leak information to web parrots who generate attacks on allegedly "junk science."

5. "While the Bush White House is engaged in a foreign policy seemingly designed to recruit terrorists and encourage more attacks against our nation, it is doing little to require corporations to protect American's from those attacks." (p. 157) His evidence is:

the Cozine bill: Chemical Security Act; & the NRC protection of nuclear plants
Crine, 2002 reporting he could enter 60 chemical plants without suspicion (pp. 160-172)

Concepts to remember and document:

Regulatory Capture -- "Quis Custodiet, ipsos custodies"
Paralysis by Analysis -- Occam's Razor
Validation of Misinformation -- "You can fool some of the people all of the time... all of the people some of the time...." Abraham Lincoln