Gov. Snyder asks Obama to declare Flint a federal emergency/major disaster

[Octafish]

Which isn't what he was saying just a few days ago.

Actual Michigan Department of Health and Human Services / Genesee County Health Department poster:

Gov. Snyder asks Obama to declare Flint a federal emergency/major disaster

Posted By Allie Gross
MetroTimes on Fri, Jan 15, 2016 at 12:45 am

While much of America was watching the GOP debate Thursday night (you were watching, right?) Gov. Rick Snyder requested that President Obama declare Flint a federal emergency/major disaster.

According to a press release blasted out by the self-declared "Tough Nerd" at 11:32 PM on twitter, the requests aims to get "supplementary federal aid in the form of Individual Assistance and Public Assistance to help eligible residents and state and local government entities to protect the health, safety and welfare of Flint residents."

It goes on to explain that "If federal aid is granted, assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help people and businesses recover. Public assistance helps cover some of the costs incurred by state and local governments due to damage to public facilities and infrastructures, such as city schools and the water system."

The request will be reviewed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), who can assess how much aid should be allocated to Flint and make recommendations to President Obama.

“We are utilizing all state resources to ensure Flint residents have access to clean and safe drinking water and today I am asking President Obama to provide additional resources as our recovery efforts continue,” Snyder said in a statement.

The governor's request follows Wednesday's public health announcement that Flint has seen an uptick in legionnaires' disease cases and this may be a result of the switched water supply.

CONTINUED...

http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/archives/2016/01/15/gov-snyder-asks-obama-to-declare-flint-a-federal-emergency-major-disaster

To. Save. Money. A. City. Was. Poisoned.

[guillaumeb]

1. So the same GOP that hates "big government" and "regulations"

and federal agencies in general now wants Federal aid to "fix" a decision to use tainted water in order to save money? What is needed is a Justice Department investigation into this matter, followed by indictments if warranted.

[Octafish]

7. Flint is run by an ''Emergency Manager'' appointed by Gov Snyder

To me, undemocratic as all Hell.

Pointing that out, though, wasn't high on the news media radar in October 2015:

In last week’s press conference announcing that the city of Flint would finally be allowed to return to Detroit’s water system, Gov. Rick Snyder made it a point to note that placing blame for the lead poisoning of children is not something he intends to do.

-- Curt Guyette, Michigan ACLU
http://www.aclumich.org/democracywatch/index.php/entry/flint-water-and-the-no-blame-game

I wonder when we'll learn who and when ordered the Emergency Manager to save a buck?

[Thinkingabout]

2. I am glad for the residents of Flint to get assistance.

Wonder if Snyder wants his grandchildren to drink the water at this time?

[Octafish]

11. It'd be a good way of seeing if he was a hypocrite or not, but then it'd be redundant...

...as he's a Republican.



From Sept. 2015:

"On the basis of these facts, we consider MDEQ's position to be both unscientific and irresponsible, and we stand by our recommendations to Flint consumers, that they immediately reduce their exposure to high lead in Flint's water by implementing protective measures when using tap water for drinking or cooking," according to a post on Virginia Tech's Flint Water Study web site.

The findings raise a compelling question: If data collected by Virginia Tech civil and environmental engineering professor Marc Edwards and his team at VT are correct, why do the city and state continue to assert that Flint is in compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements regarding lead and copper levels in the city's drinking water?

-- Curt Guyette, Michigan ACLU, http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/archives/2015/09/16/an-aclu-of-michigan-investigation-has-found-a-stream-of-irregularities-in-flints-water-tests

How much more was added to the chemical burden of the people of Flint over the next four months?

[Thinkingabout]

20. He would never drink the water nor would he allow his grandchildren

To drink the water and truthfully no one should have been drinking the water.

[Octafish]

23. It looks flammable.

In October, Curt Guyette asked:

Are Flint's lead problems just incompetence or something worse?

It's weird how few of the state's major news outlets picked up the story.

[Rex]

3. Flint...ain't that where Michael Moore grew up?

Are they punishing a city based on him as some sort of pathetic revenge? I still don't get why FEMA was not called out LAST YEAR when they knew people were being poisoned by this form of Republican neglect.

So the Feds are on this right? Since this does involve taxpaying Americans or are we past that caring point now? Really this story should astonish everyone that reads it, the level of malfeascence involved makes it criminal to the nth degree.

[Siwsan]

5. Michael is from Davison, which is a suburb of Flint.

But many of us from the various suburbs of Flint were actually born in the city, and spent a whole lot of time, there, growing up. So many of us are from General Motors families.

I don't think he's been in the area, lately, but he's definitely using his voice and notoriety to bring more attention to this issue.

[Rex]

8. Good I hope he makes the entire world aware of how little the state authority cares about

the safety of its citizens! How can they ignore such a deadly threat, for so long!?

[Siwsan]

12. The awful thing is, the instant they realized what was happening, people TRIED to get help

They were repeatedly shut down by the Snyder administration, who did nothing but denigrate anyone who spoke out. But fortunately they persisted and made enough noise to alert others as to what was happening.

The paper trail on the Snyder administrations malfeasance is long and strong. And Rachel Maddow is a fantastic source for seeing how this unfolded.

[Rex]

13. I hope he ends up in jail for the rest of his life.

However the way things go for these assholes, I doubt anything will happen to him. Maybe a fine and probation on day after a plea deal.

Rachel Maddow is a national treasure.

[notadmblnd]

10. No, it's not punishment. It's greed

Overthrow the elected government of a financially troubled city. Appoint cronies and friends to sell off the assets to other friends and cronies for pennies on the dollar.

In Pontiac where Snyder appointed a city manager, they sold the Silverdome. In Benton Harbor, they sold a park with prime beachfront property. In Detroit, the wanted to sell the art at the Detroit Institute of Art. That one they didn't get away with. Some have speculated that Snyder switched from Detroit city water to deny that city a big source of revenue. But in Flint the also sold off the portion of the water pipeline that provided Detroit water to the city of Flint.

All the cities that I have mention had had their elected officials declared null and void and when that happened, the Governor began his garage sale.

[Rex]

14. Unbelievable, thank you for the information!

He must have friends on the state SC.

[notadmblnd]

17. I don't know about the Michigan SC but the legislature? Certainly.

The good people of Michigan voted down his City Manager bullshit, then the republican legislature passed a bill that over rode what the people of Michigan voted against.

[Rex]

18. How do these criminals get elected?

I hope everyone remembers which party tried to poison and destroy their family, come next election cycle.

[notadmblnd]

19. He' term limited, so Snyder is done anyway

I think he should be charged criminally. However, a class action lawsuit was filed against him and anyone involved yesterday. I hope they win and it hits him where republicans feel the most pain- their wallets.

[Rex]

22. Me too, I hope their lives are full of poverty and misery.

And I think I remember reading how the SCOTUS is now pondering gutting class action lawsuits...we live in some strange hell where it is okay to punish people for merely wanting fresh drinking water or a roof over their head.

[notadmblnd]

24. Another kick in the ass of the people of Flint-

They're still being billed for that water.

[Rex]

25. Criminal, totally criminal.

I feel your pain, I live in south Texas where I wake up every single day wondering what totally embarrassing-criminal thing my governor is going to do next.

[Octafish]

15. The national media were AWOL.

Michigan's too, mainly.

It appears the governor and his minions thought they could keep it under wraps and that would be that.

The ACLU's reporter Curt Guyette, who worked for the better part of two decades at Detroit "alternative weekly," deserves a Pulitzer Prize.

Charles Pierce of Esquire thinks Gov Rick Snyder is worse than Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

EXCERPT...

It's time for Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, and Rick Snyder, the governor of Michigan, to decide to spend more time with their respective families. By their misuse of their offices, they have forfeited the right to hold them anymore. They have left us with a Hobson's Choice of which is the worse malfeasance under the color of law: covering up the riddling of a young man by your rogue police force, or covering up the fact that your policies have sentenced hundreds of young people in Flint to the lives of mental and emotional damage and upheaval to which lead poisoning inevitably leads. These are American horror stories, the both of them. It is time for them to end.

If you made me choose, I'd say what Snyder did was worse. He was the one who rammed the "emergency manager" law through the Michigan state legislature. That led to the end of representative government in a number of places, including Flint. That put major decisions into the hands of someone accountable only to the governor. One of those decisions was to flip the water supply for the city from the Detroit water district to the Flint River. This guaranteed that the water for the city would be carried by ancient pipes that leached lead into it. E-mails that finally have been pried loose from Snyder's administration have revealed that the administration was fully aware of what was going on, and blew off the problem. And then, yesterday, in as smarmy and useless a press conference as I've ever seen, Snyder stood with the mayor of Flint and took a "looking forward, not back" approach to his own insensitive bungling that, in a more just world, would have had him ducking tomatoes, and that, in Iraq, would have had him chased from the room under a barrage of footwear.

CONTINUED...

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a41062/rahm-emmanuel-rick-snyder-should-resign/

Good thing for freedom of the press. Even when it's just one voice, justice still has a chance.

[PatrickforO]

4. That slimebag Republican fuck head.

This is, to me, one of the most ODIOUS things the GOP has foisted off at a state level in years.

So now this 'don't tax me under any circumstances' shit is asking for public monies to fix the mess he and his equally amoral colleagues made.

Sorry for the rant, but you know, this gives


TRICKLE-DOWN


a whole new, and more unwholesome meaning...

[Octafish]

21. Trickle Down is exactly right -- since January 2014.

The "Emergency Manager" didn't listen when We the People -- Flint Democracy Defense League -- brought up the bad water in January 2014:

http://photos.mlive.com/4466/gallery/flint_democracy_defense_league/index.html#/2

Two years.

[C_U_L8R]

6. He needs to resign

Gross republican mismanagement.

[Octafish]

28. Criminal dereliction of duty.

From 7 questions with a pediatrician in the thick of Flint's lead poisoning crisis

Question: When did you first become aware of the crisis?

Dr. Hanna-Attisha: In late August, we were hearing about lead in the water and a team led by Marc Edwards, PhD, [a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg], was investigating. They had been alerted by a family who had elevated lead levels in their water, and they reported lead throughout the Flint water system. When I heard about lead in the water, we got mobilized. Pediatricians know lead — it's a well-known neurotoxin. The CDC and the AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics recommend no safe level of lead in a child. Lead should never be in contact with a child. So when we heard about lead in the water, we wanted to see if that was getting into the bodies of children.

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/7-questions-with-a-pediatrician-in-the-thick-of-flint-s-lead-poisoning-crisis.html

Dr. Edwards from Virginia Tech is a hero.

[Downwinder]

9. Pretty gutsy of him

to be running to Obama and the Feds to bail him out of a problem he created.

[Octafish]

30. ''As soon as I became aware of elevated lead levels in blood, we took action.''

-- Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder

In an interview with TIME shortly before he announced the federal emergency request, Snyder says he first knew about potentially serious problems with the water supply on Oct. 1, 2015, when testing by state environmental officials confirmed elevated levels of lead. Pressed on whether that was the first time he became aware of any concern with Flint’s water, Snyder says, “Obviously, I knew there were water issues in Flint. But did I know there were unsafe blood levels? No.”

http://time.com/4182474/michigan-governor-defends-handling-of-flint-water-crisis/

TIME indicates that Michigan National Guard troops were starting to hand out bottled water to residents. They did not mention that, so far, the NG contingent amounted to 7 (seven) Guardsmen.

[malaise]

16. A Snyder made disaster

Hope he goes to prison

[Rex]

26. I hope he rots in hell.

Prison is too good for him.

[Octafish]

31. The governor seems to think a faucet filter will remove lead.

Which looks to bring up problems with his future criminal defense.

Flint filter delivery casts doubt on what Snyder said

Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau 10:29 a.m. EST January 15, 2016

LANSING -- Gov. Rick Snyder's statement Monday that he wasn't aware of a problem with lead in Flint's drinking water until about Oct. 1 has prompted questions about his office's role in quietly delivering 1,500 water filters to the city in August.

Snyder's statement also raises questions about the speed and scope of the state's response since Oct. 1 and why state officials did not immediately instruct Flint residents, on Oct. 1, not to drink the water without a filter. A 10-point plan for Flint water that Snyder released Oct. 2 said the state was making water filters and water testing available to residents, but did not include a warning not to drink the water without a filter.

Now, more than three months later, the Michigan State Police and other state officials have begun delivering bottled water and water filters door-to-door in Flint. Snyder declared a state of emergency in Flint and Genesee County over the water issue Jan. 5.

The drinking water became contaminated after Flint, while under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, engaged in cost-cutting and switched from Lake Huron drinking water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to Flint River water treated by a city plant. The state Department of Environmental Quality acknowledged that it failed to require Flint to add needed corrosion-control chemicals to the water, causing lead to leach into drinking water from pipes and fixtures.

CONTINUED...

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/01/12/why-did-snyder-help-bring-filters-flint-august/78673474/

FTR: Detroit's major newspapers have largely been away from the issue until recently. Curt Guyette of the Michigan ACLU (formerly of MetroTimes, "the alternative newsweekly&quot is a main investigator for this story.

[HereSince1628]

27. MI, where republicans love getting FREE STUFF to fix what THEY break

[Octafish]

29. SCAMWAY Dick DeVos has a thumb on the Nerd's remote.

Meet the New Kochs: The DeVos Clan's Plan to Defund the Left

They beat Big Labor in its own backyard. Next up: your state?

—By Andy Kroll
Mother Jones | January/February 2014

EXCERPT...

The pressure came largely from one man present at that fundraiser: Richard "Dick" DeVos Jr. The 58-year-old scion of the Amway Corporation, DeVos had arm-twisted Richardville repeatedly to support right-to-work. After six years of biding their time, DeVos and his allies believed the 2012 lame duck was the time to strike. They had formulated a single, all-encompassing strategy: They had a fusillade of TV, radio, and internet ads in the works. They'd crafted 15 pages of talking points to circulate to Republican lawmakers. They had even reserved the lawn around the state capitol for a month to keep protesters at bay.

A week after Richardville's early morning call to Jackson, it was all over. With a stroke of his pen on December 11, Gov. Rick Snyder—who'd previously said right-to-work was not a priority of his—now made Michigan the 24th state to enact it. The governor marked the occasion by reciting, nearly verbatim, talking points that DeVos and his allies had distributed. "Freedom-to-work," he said, is "pro-worker and pro-Michigan."

THE DEVOSES sit alongside the Kochs, the Bradleys, and the Coorses as founding families of the modern conservative movement. Since 1970, DeVos family members have invested at least $200 million in a host of right-wing causes—think tanks, media outlets, political committees, evangelical outfits, and a string of advocacy groups. They have helped fund nearly every prominent Republican running for national office and underwritten a laundry list of conservative campaigns on issues ranging from charter schools and vouchers to anti-gay-marriage and anti-tax ballot measures. "There's not a Republican president or presidential candidate in the last 50 years who hasn't known the DeVoses," says Saul Anuzis, a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.

Nowhere has the family made its presence felt as it has in Michigan, where it has given more than $44 million to the state party, GOP legislative committees, and Republican candidates since 1997. "It's been a generational commitment," Anuzis notes. "I can't start to even think of who would've filled the void without the DeVoses there."

The family fortune flows from 87-year-old Richard DeVos Sr. The son of poor Dutch immigrants, he cofounded the multilevel-marketing giant Amway with Jay Van Andel, a high school pal, in 1959. Five decades later, the company now sells $11 billion a year worth of cosmetics, vitamin supplements, kitchenware, air fresheners, and other household products. Amway has earned DeVos Sr. at least $6 billion; in 1991, he expanded his empire by buying the NBA's Orlando Magic. The Koch brothers can usually expect Richard and his wife, Helen, to attend their biannual donor meetings. He is a lifelong Christian conservative and crusader for free markets and small government, values he passed down to his four children.

CONTINUED...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/devos-michigan-labor-politics-gop

PS: They really do do a lot to the community, like pyramid schemes.