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A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

The lies about "protecting Americans" began from the moment of impact on September 11 and haven’t ever stopped.

Take for instance, one of the most recent in a long and unrelenting series of Bush administration betrayals of the American people through premeditated deception. This one was revealed toward the end of the dog days of August, just before Labor Day, when fewer Americans were following the news. (It’s part of Bush Cartel standard operating procedure to release news that discredits them on Fridays, holidays, and other times when most Americans are tuned out from the media. If you want to find out about negative stories about the Bush administration -– ones that they can’t keep secret –- the most important day to read your newspaper is Saturday.)

You see, the inspector general for the Environmental Protection Agency wrote a devastating report about how the Bush Administration told the EPA to lie to residents of New York about the air quality around Ground Zero in the days and weeks after 9/11. Faced with concerns by residents of the Big Apple that the layers of dust and particles in South Manhattan –- inches thick in some areas -- might be full of toxins (including asbestos), the Bush administration ordered the EPA to assure New Yorkers that the air was safe even though the EPA knew that this was likely not the case.

As a result, the health of millions of New Yorkers and all those rescue workers Bush used as photo-ops were put at risk.

Journalist Carol Marin, writing in the Chicago Tribune, noted: "Good guys tell the truth. Bad guys don’t. Isn’t that right? Then somebody better explain that to the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House." Marin laments, "I want to believe my government when it tells me something." [LINK]

Ironically, over Labor Day, BuzzFlash had its first opportunity to view the massive pit that marks the site of the 9/11 day of horror. It’s located on the edge of Wall Street, in a section of Manhattan that New York City has been trying to develop as an active residential community for years, Battery Park.

On a drizzly holiday early morning, you’d almost mistake the massive site for a large construction project, rather than a crater created by a devastating act. After all, stepping out of the Fulton Street subway stop, you pass by the fully intact St. Paul’s Chapel, which miraculously survived the collapse of the Towers without any significant damage.

At first, you are reassured by the serenity of the unexpected small town religious setting [LINK]. But, as you pass beyond the small church graveyard, and your eyes scan the open area before you, you begin to see ominous reminders: two buildings draped in black wrap next to the crater, so seriously damaged that decisions have still not yet been made on whether to tear them down or repair them. Other buildings that still have boarded up windows. The makeshift memorials to the dead are gone now, but New York City has placed tasteful memorial tributes on a mesh steel barrier that surrounds the excavation. And then there is an eerie makeshift cross constructed of beams from the collapsed towers that rises on the east side of the pit.

But there are signs of active renewal. Work is underway to rebuild a terminal on the West Side of the WTC crater for the Path trains from New Jersey, which haven’t been able to run since 9/11. Construction equipment is everywhere. The buildings to the west, including World Financial Center have been fully repaired. On less overcast days, BuzzFlash was told that the site is overrun with tourist buses and street vendors hawking memorial souvenirs, the surest -– and most bittersweet sign -– that commercial activity is becoming fully restored.

Walking just one block west from the gash in the ground that was the campus of the World Trade Center, strolling down Liberty Street (yes, that is the name of the New York City avenue that runs across the southern edge of "Ground Zero"), you reach the Hudson River. Across the choppy water, is the miniature skyline of Jersey City. As you turn south, your eyes move to a large brick building with Victorian trim. It is, Ellis Island, where millions of people came to America, seeking freedom and prosperity.

Looking a bit further south and east, poking through the mist, is the Statue of Liberty, given as a gift to this nation in 1886 by the people of France as a symbol of their friendship and shared love of freedom. Although it has been closed to visitors since 9/11, one can assume that a bronze plaque of the immortal poem by Emma Lazarus is still at its base: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

One year from September 11th, the fraudulent administration and party that have lied their way into a catastrophic war on terrorism will come to New York City. Under the direction of their Machiavelli, Karl Rove, they will hijack the solemn World Trade Center "hallowed ground," and try to use it as a political tool for a morally bankrupt and pathologically dishonest administration.

The compliant broadcast media will air the false Soviet-style phony heroic images of Bush that Rove feeds to them. It will be something akin to a video version of the kind of glorifying murals and statues you find of "heroic leaders" in countries like Cuba, the former Soviet Union, or North Korea. Never mind that the images of Bush you will see are just another D.C./Hollywood variation of "True Lies." That is what Middle America will see, and many will believe that it is the truth.

We cannot let the memories of more than 3,000 Americans and people from around the world be shamelessly exploited this September 11th or during the Republican convention next year. They were betrayed by fanatical terrorists on September 11th. They should not be betrayed again for selfish political purposes.

BuzzFlash has long argued that the self-fulfilling "Bush is Unbeatable" drumbeat can be derailed by getting the truth out to the American public. A large segment of the American population supports the image of Bush that is scripted by Karl Rove and dutifully conveyed, unfiltered, by much of the mass media. The antidote to this mass media deception is a sense of outrage at the Bush administration lies and betrayal.

"Then there’s the matter of public trust," Carol Marin wrote in the Chicago Tribune, "There are only so many times a public can be told something by its own government, only to find out later it’s not true. As we approach the second anniversary of the terror attacks on Sept. 11, it’s worth remembering that good guys tell the truth."

The immigrants who were greeted by the majestic symbol of American freedom in New York Harbor, her torch held aloft, came here for liberty, not a steady diet of lies and betrayal.

It only takes one good guy to beat George W. Bush.

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

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