Dust and Deception

"Last week," notes columnist Paul Krugman, "a quietly scathing report by the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency confirmed what some have long suspected: in the aftermath of the World Trade Center's collapse, the agency systematically misled New Yorkers about the risks the resulting air pollution posed to their health. And it did so under pressure from the White House." Columnist Jimmy Breslin is even more blunt: "They lied because the administration did not want people not going to work. They lied the first week and they lied the week after that and they have lied every day of the past two years to the people of this city. ... I sit here in New York and I don't believe one single solitary word of what the government says. ... And now we have this administration welding their lies together on two matters: the air you breathe and the war they insist is good for us."