Governor urged to quit after release of emails on Flint legionnaires' outbreak

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Governor urged to quit after release of emails on Flint legionnaires' outbreak

Associated Press in Lansing, Michigan, and Ryan Felton in Detroit
Thursday 4 February 2016 21.38 GMT

High-ranking officials in Governor Rick Snyder’s administration were aware of a surge in legionnaires’ disease potentially linked to Flint’s water long before the Michigan governor reported the increase to the public last month, internal emails show.

After the release of the emails, the Michigan Democratic party called for Snyder to step down on Thursday.

When Snyder disclosed the spike in legionnaires’ cases on 13 January, he said he had learned about it just a couple of days earlier. But emails obtained by the liberal group Progress Michigan through public-records requests show Snyder’s own office was aware of the outbreak since last March. At the time, others in the administration were scrambling to respond to suggestions that bacteria in the city’s new water source, the Flint river, could be the culprit.

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Following the release of the emails on Thursday, the state Democratic party called for Snyder to resign, following weeks of increased criticism of the governor for the state’s delayed response in addressing the crisis.

“There is a limit to how many times you can play dumb when it comes to events and actions that take place on your watch,” said the Michigan Democratic party chairman, Brandon Dillon, in a statement. “Governor Snyder is attempting to employ this tactic again, claiming he wasn’t told of the connection, made almost a year before he informed the public, between Flint’s water and the legionella bacteria.”

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/04/governor-rick-snyder-urged-to-quit-flint-water-crisis-emails-legionnaires-outbreak

[valerief]

1. Can he still be arrested and sentenced for 20 years if he quits? nt

[awoke_in_2003]

8. He probably could...

if they continued the investigation. But, with a trend starting with Nixon, if the target resigns the investigating body calls it good. Politicians rarely pay for their sins.

[Initech]

15. 20 years is too light of a punishment if you ask me.

[valerief]

16. He won't get 1 year. He won't even be arrested. He might as well be a banker. nt

[malaise]

2. Resign and face charges

for manslaughter

[NightWatcher]

3. If Isis did what he's done, we'd be bombing the shit out of some brown people

He better quit now and pray to his favorite invisible guy in the sky that he doesn't spend the rest of his life in a prison.

What a scum bag. How can he not be charged with dozens of crimes?

[myrna minx]

4. K&R - how absolutely horrendous.

[Trajan]

5. Wow ... Privatization Gone Wild!

Heartless, greedy fucks .... It's sickening to read this ...

[world wide wally]

6. Is this our future if Republicans keep getting elected?

[awoke_in_2003]

9. The privatizers...

buy people on both sides of the aisle.

[winterwar]

17. Unfortunately that is true

Look at all the charter school lovers in the Democratic party. What a bunch of sellouts. And privatization of prison workers. Google either charter schools or Aramark prison workers in Michigan and see what a disaster they has been. And somewhere, some rich Republican is making tons money through these shitty deals.

[lark]

24. 100% this will happen if they win the presidency and both houses.

Dems aren't great on this issue, but they are sooooo much better than repugs. Repugs want to end the Clean Air and Clean Water acts so the Kochs et all can pollute at will. They will get private sources of water, so don't fear the effects on themselves and their families and friends and they don't give a shit about the working class that can't afford to do this.

Also, we can count on no infrastructure repair, so people will be dying from bridge collapses and other systematic failures. This too would be inevitable since hurting union workers is more important that protecting the general populace to these misanthropes.

[truedelphi]

32. Well it is not just Republicans. Many Democratic

Leaders are doing the "same thing only different" with our water supply.

Look at how fracking has destroyed the water quality in so many many places.

And one of those places is the state of Pennsylvania, where Gov Ed Rendell sold out the people of that state in order to secure his future.

While governor, he pushed very hard for no restrictions on the Big Energy firms that came in and destroyed the water supply.

And for his "work" on this issue, he now holds an executive position inside an energy firm in Texas!

[Holly_Hobby]

7. Serious questions -

What would happen to someone who wasn't a governor did this? Poisoned 100,000 people, including kids? Would the death penalty be on the table?

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. Kick

[gregcrawford]

11. Just a cursory glance at the records of Republican governors...

... should tell anyone with an IQ exceeding room temperature that the fundamental premise of conservatism is fatally and disastrously flawed. Like pulling on a thread of a REALLY ugly sweater, this irrefutable fact unravels the self-serving claims of ruthless monsters like the Koch brothers and the bitch-goddess of pathological selfishness, Ayn Rand.

Unfortunately, those heavily invested in the Greed-Is-Good philosophy are just like the monkey who slips his hand into a coconut filled with treats that is staked to the ground. He can slip its hand in, but cannot pull his fist full of treats out. But even with a thundering horde of monkey hunters bearing down on him, he will NOT let go of those treats.

Even more unfortunately, a great many of us are chained to that damned monkey.

[LynneSin]

12. He's GOP he won't quit

He can be caught having sex with a small farm animal while snorting blow off the back of a $2 hooker and the GOP will still support him and protect him.

But if he was a democrat and even look cross-eyed he would have been tossed in jail by now.

[rladdi]

13. It will be interesting how long MICH. Gov. Snyder and his administration can get away without

no criminal charges. Snyder is being protected from the far reaches of the Republicans and it party. But we have seen in other criminal cases involving Republicans, nothing happens. the crisis goes silent. But this Flint water crisis will not go silent. How long can Snyder LIE and get away with it?

[llmart]

18. Schuette is doing his damndest to spin this for his buddy.....

and get his ugly mug in the spotlight so he can run for governor. He should NOT be in charge of any investigation.

Did I hear right that Congress was issuing a subpoena to Snyder and the emergency manager? I hope to God they do. I want to see that weasley nerd go to Washington and face the music.

Michigan has become a laughing stock because of Republicans and the gullible voters who buy into the cutesy campaign ads of "I'm one tough nerd".

Give him a couple gallons of that poisoned water and make him drink it.

[dhill926]

14. the wheels of justice turn slowly....

and of course for some, not at all. But...keep the pressure on...relentlessly...

[SunSeeker]

19. K & R

[ohnoyoudidnt]

20. Where there no whistleblowers?

Surely, several people had to know what was going on, some probably even knew the risks of what would happen before the switch of the source of water was made. Did no one involved try to reach out to the media?

[heaven05]

21. if his office knew about this

A year before admitting possible problems. Snyder knew. Period. I have to find the breakdown of those affected both racially and politcally. See if there is a possibility of charges of genocide in the flint community perpetrated by some in Snyder's administration.

[Kentonio]

22. I just read about the GOP refusing to pass funding in the senate

And came across this gem..

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) criticized his colleagues for trying to find an easy solution to move the Flint provision.

“There ain’t going to be an easy solution,” Inhofe said. “We’re talking about too much money, but we still have compassion for the people and we think we have something to offer that would solve the compassion and the offset problem.”

Yeah got to solve that 'compassion problem'. Are these fuckers even human beings?

[Octafish]

23. Their words condemn them.

Kafka's "In the Penal Colony" describes their souls.

[Kentonio]

25. I'm too angry right now to say exactly what I think should happen to them..

[lark]

26. Absolutely NOT.

They are oligarchs first and foremost. Humanity is a distant concept to them, just fluff for the papers, nothing they are serious about.

[randome]

27. Is he trying to adopt the Chris Christie defense? "I didn't know shit so don't blame ME!"

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[houston16revival]

28. Sweet

Cornering this toxic wastrel on an issue of national importance
is sweet indeed.

Glad to see the Michigan Democratic Party has the sense to
go for the jugular.

Bouncing Bozo's from office should be a national priority.

Florida, anyone?

[navarth]

29. Glad to see the MDP grow a spine

I don't especially like to complain, but they have seemed to be clueless the last 2 elections. Hoping for a better future.

[Feeling the Bern]

30. Once a Republican has power, they hold on to it until the ship is underwater

Look at Nixon.

Snyder is going nowhere. And shame on you, Michigan, for voting for this asshole, and then re-electing him.

[valerief]

31. Urged to quit? Surely you mean urged to jump off a high bridge.

I'm not advocating death. A vegetative state coma would do nicely.

[Dont call me Shirley]

33. Keep up the noise Michigan Democrats. Retake the government, statewide.