'S allright.
What? Me worry?’
**Rainbowscr asks:
To the best of my knowledge (which is finite, although I’d be unhappy if my clients ever found that out :)), they were not so charged. Of course, it was also about a quarter of a century between the time that the site was purchased, and the first health emergency was declared, and, I believe, another sixteen years before legal responsibility was fixed to Hooker (actually, to Occidental Chemical, the legal successor of Hooker). I wouldn’t go bail for the notion that any of the people on sat on the Niagara Falls school board in 1952 were still alive at that time.
It is often said that “anything is possible”. In fact, very few things are possible, and most of them have already happened.
According to Justice Stevens (who delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court on the matter), it’s unconstitutional because:
Take a look at the entire text of No. 97—1374: WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, et al., APPELLANTS v. CITY OF NEW YORK et al. for more details.
I am. No, really, not trying to be flippant, but I am. And so are my coworkers. And hundreds, thousands even, of the people I ride to work with each day. Scary, huh?
Granted, I don’t have as much power as FORMERAGENT might have. In fact, I am a micro-cog on a gargantuan wheel churning away in a machine that by comparison, makes that wheel seem Lilliputian. But I am still a grain of sand in the Pyramid of our government.
Yep, I’m a blood-sucking subcontractor, a Beltway bandit if you please. My prime responsibility is to review Environmental Impact Statements for the Department of Energy. Did any of you vote for me? No. Did any of you vote for the Team Leader at DOE? No. What about her boss? Nope. Bill Richardson? Nada. But we are here. Muahahahahahahah!
However, in our defense, I must say that most of the people I work with (in and out of the Department) are responsible, dedicated workers, who have pride in their work and their work ethic. And though I could match horror stories of gov’t waste with anyone, on the whole, the process (National Environmental Policy Act) I am involved in works.
I think my point is that those of us who make the myriad of decisions in and for the government are not directly elected, and in most cases are many layers removed from the directly appointed folks. But we are all following some bit or piece of legislation or regulation. Some actually have a good deal of power over a small fraction of people’s daily lives. In my experience, however, most of those who do, use it responsibly. Some are chuckleheads. Some, despite their chuckleheadedness, still do a good job. Blame the anonymity on a combination of sheer numbers and voter apathy.
Who runs things? We do. We are anonymous, but not hiding.
Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right…
All misinformed Americans should read Noam Chomsky if you want to see how well democracy is working for you.
It does make me laugh when Americans are so interested in a political process that doesn’t give a cold wet fart for your individual concerns.
Yeah, it sucks to be in a country with 260 million other people when your vote doesn’t decide every issue.
That always killed me - Libertarian would rant that his vote didn’t count for anything…well, it does count, but there are around 250 million people with opinions different than his.