Tag: flint

Petition to Recall Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder is Approved

Post author By Ezra Grant
Post date February 9, 2016

Rick Snyder, the governor who approved and spearheaded the poisoning of Flint’s children by giving them water from the Flint river to drink, could be recalled from office in an upcoming recall election.

The Board of State Canvassers, part of the secretary of state’s office, rejected nine other recall petitions, six of them based on Snyder’s widely criticized handling of lead from corroded pipes that began leaching into Flint homes following a cost-saving move to pump water from the Flint River.

The water crisis is under criminal investigation by state and federal authorities.

But the petition approved Monday seeks to remove Snyder, a Republican, from office over his decision last year to take control of the state office to reform schools, which organizers say disregards local prerogatives, according to The Detroit News and The Associated Press.

It takes three members of the four-person member board, which is split between Republicans and Democrats, to approve a recall petition.

Tags flint, flint water, Flint Water Crisis, recall, recall rick snyder, Rick Snyder

Politics

Republican Analysts Surprised that GOP has Ignored the Flint Water Crisis

Post author By Ezra Grant
Post date January 23, 2016

For the rest of the country, this is not a surprise. But some in the Republican party are shocked at the apparent coördinated effort by their Republican presidential candidates to avoid the Flint Water Crisis at all costs.

A number of Republican operatives and allies Friday lamented that the GOP has largely been ignoring the water crisis in Flint and warned that it sends a terrible message to the nation.

“This is an amoral display of political apathy by Republican leaders. Their failure to run to the crisis, roll up their sleeves and pitch in tells the world that we are still the same old Republicans who only care about those who would vote for or contribute to them,” said Alex Castellanos, a political operative who is not working for any of the Republican presidential contenders.

Castellanos said he agreed with an op-ed in the New York Times Thursday written by former White House speechwriter Matt Latimer, who worked for President George W. Bush.

Latimer, a Flint native, wrote that the water crisis was “the Republicans’ chance to show their worth,” and to demonstrate that party leaders who have tried to refocus the GOP on poverty, like House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, mean what they say.

Why aren’t Republican presidential candidates, he asked, “shipping in water bottles and holding fund-raisers for kids now condemned to lowered expectations because their brains were poisoned by lead?”

Tags flint, Flint Water Crisis

Politics

Numerous Reports of Poisonous Water in Flint Dismissed by Snyder’s Administration

Post author By Ezra Grant
Post date January 21, 2016

Politics over people? Why yes please!

Since releasing his emails regarding the Flint water crisis, reports show that the Republican governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, along with members of his administration repeatedly dismissed numerous findings that Flint’s drinking water was highly contaminated with lead.

A top aide to Michigan’s governor referred to people raising questions about the quality of Flint’s water as an “anti-everything group.” Other critics were accused of turning complaints about water into a “political football.” And worrisome findings about lead by a concerned pediatrician were dismissed as “data,” in quotes.

That view of how the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder initially dealt with the water crisis in the poverty-stricken, black-majority city of Flint emerged from 274 pages of emails, made public by the governor on Wednesday.

The correspondence records mounting complaints by the public and elected officials, as well as growing irritation by state officials over the reluctance to accept their assurances.

It was not until late in 2015, after months of complaints, that state officials finally conceded what critics had been contending: that Flint was in the midst of a major public health emergency, as tap water pouring into families’ homes contained enough lead to show up in the blood of dozens of people in the city. Even small amounts of lead could cause lasting health and developmental problems in children.

Tags flint, Flint Water Crisis, Michigan, Rick Snyder

Barack Obama Politics water crisis

President Obama’s Message in Flint Michigan – Video

Post author By Ezra Grant
Post date January 20, 2016

“I am very proud of what I’ve done as president,” President Obama said Wednesday in Flint Michigan. “But the only job that’s more important to me is the job of father. And I know if I was a parent up there, I would be beside myself if my kids’ health could be at risk.”

The president went on to explain that he “declared a federal emergency in Flint” which would ensure that more resources are sent to help fight the Republican-made water crisis.

“It is a reminder of why you can’t shortchange basic services that we provide to our people,” Mr. Obama said, a direct reference to the governor’s decision to get contaminated water from Flint’s river for the people’s use. “And that we together provide as a government to make sure that public health and safety is preserved,” Obama said.

Video

Tags flint, Rick Snyder