It has been a tough month for Anniston’s chemical weapons destruction program. First, FEMA and the Department of Defense reneged on a promise to provide additional protective measures in case there’s an accident.
Then the folks at ADEM that are supposed to ensure that the plant runs correctly were labeled “ineffective” due to chronic underfunding and at-risk for takeover by the EPA.
To top it off, the president’s budget called the entire chem-demil program “ineffective” based on its track record saying that it suffered from poor management.
The local EMA says we’re not ready to deal with an accident.
The governor is suing for adequate preparedness and vows to delay permission to begin operations until those measures are in place.
And all the while, the incinerator is gearing up for trials, hoping to convince regulators that they can routinely destroy gelled agents of uncertain makeup in a mixed waste stream in a furnace that is not designed for it at a rate never before attempted by using a surrogate material with a different makeup in a tightly controlled test.
All this leaves me wondering when this toxic combination of uncertain technology, ineffective regulation, poor program management, disputed funding, election year politics, and genuine fear will collapse in on itself leaving us searching for another way out of this morass.
Come to think of it, maybe that’s not such a bad idea.
David C. Christian
Anniston
Moore money
Let’s see if I have this straight. TV evangelist Kennedy has launched a campaign to raise $200,000 to defend Chief Justice Roy Moore in his forthcoming lawsuit Oct. 15th. And he is using a tape to help promote the deal. A tape which Moore gave Kennedy’s TV crew exclusive access to making during the installation of the Ten Commandments monument, which was sneaked into the Justice department in the wee hours of the morning Aug 1.
Sounds as if this would constitute misuse of public office for personal gain, as did the very placing the monument to begin with. Moore did not obtain permission from any authority to do so.
It also seems that Moore has not read nor does he understand the United States Constitution and separation of government from religion.
Either that or he wants to rewrite it his way.
And this is a man who in Alabama represents “justice for all”?
I don’t think so.
To me, it is appalling to take a sacred document like the Ten Commandments and use it as a pawn in a political arena.
If Moore was a true Christian, he would remove the monument, let the lawsuits drop and use the $200,000 to help the poor and needy.
Last but not least, nothing is mentioned about Rich Hobson, co-defendant in the aforementioned lawsuit.
Guess our attorney general will be defending him... at the Alabama taxpayer’s expense.
Oh well, there goes some more $$$ which could have been earmarked for education.
Patsy Pitts
Delta
Great to be a trademark
I agree with your support for the PAC that has been formed by concerned Auburn alumni hoping to reform the actions of the AU Board of Trustees. But I notice that a company that licenses wearing apparel with the university’s name on it has told them they can’t use the phrase “Auburn Tiger” in their name.
I hope those folks aren’t sitting in Jordan-Hare stadium each time the Tigers win a big game.
If they are, we might have to start yelling “It’s great — to be — a registered trademark!”
Jack Riley
Hoover
