OK, so I did a 9/11 cartoon after all. I broke several of my own rules with this one -- namely, the "show-don't-tell" rule, and the "try to be funny" rule -- but this was a special occasion. Also, I know other cartoonists have done monument gags and used the phrase "Never forget" facetiously, but it had to be done. And it should be done again.

I'm dismayed that hardly anyone is talking about the EPA's lie to New Yorkers that the air was safe to breathe after 9/11 when its own scientists suggested it was not. I think this was one of the most mendacious acts of the entire Bush era, and if Americans really knew what happened, they would be livid. I insist that you read the following: this NY Daily News column and this Newsday article via Common Dreams.

Former EPA chief Christie Whitman took the fall for the Bushies, a U.S. District Judge calling her actions "conscience-shocking" earlier this year, but little has been made of James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, who scrubbed the reports of EPA's own officials. Connaughton's bio on the White House website neatly euphemizes his past as a corporate lawyer who battled the EPA in its efforts to hold GE and Atlantic Richfield responsible for cleanup of Superfund sites. For the truly curious, there's more on his background here. Laughably, Connaughton said the EPA did "an incredible job" with the World Trade Center cleanup, preceding Bush's famous "Heckuva job, Brownie!" by two full years.

The thing is, this is not a "left" or "right" issue. It is an issue of basic morality. They even deleted the EPA scientists' warnings for vulnerable segments of the population such as children, the elderly, or people with lung conditions, for chrissakes! This is something that happens in communist China, not America.

Why did they do it? According to EPA's inspector general, it had to do with national security concerns and reopening Wall Street. Well, adding to the terrorists' death toll sure showed them how strong we are, didn't it? Heckuva job, Connie!

Isn't it interesting that you're hearing about this from a cartoonist instead of on TV?