Manhattan steam blast footage

Check out this crazy footage from Manhattan yesterday, when a steam pipe burst on a city street. The blast killed one person, injured scores of others, and swallowed one tow truck.

Yesterday's incident, which has been ruled an accident that had no connection to terrorism, underscores just how jittery New Yorkers are, almost six years after 9-11. I can't say that I blame them.

I read on the news that the blast reached higher than the Chrysler Building, one of the tallest buildings in New York City. A few minutes into this footage, you can see evidence of that for yourself - the Chrysler Building is in the background, and in the foreground is steam blowing hundreds of feet into the air.

I'm surprised Rudy Giuliani didn't arrive on the scene and blame the whole accident on Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. I guess that's what happens when you play "defense" instead of "offense" - steam lines blow up, right, America's Mayor?

Most troubling of all is what I heard on the news this morning - that asbestos, a known carcinogen, was found in the dust after it settled from the blast. Asbestos was used for many years to insulate steam pipes (and many other types of pipes) because it is very effective against heat and fire.

Yet, this morning, it was all over the television - "the air is safe to breathe," bellowed the willing sheeple who "report" the news on TV. Really? A frickin' chimpanzee could figure out that if there's an explosion, and later asbestos is found in the dust from that explosion, that there may be air problems.

Hearing this on the news this morning reminded me of 9-11, when Giuliani was on TV almost immediately declaring, "the air is safe" around Ground Zero, even though fires were still burning. At least one death has officially been ruled as a direct result of the air at Ground Zero, and hundreds more have filed claims.

I'm convinced that our government would lie and tell us just about anything to prevent panic, even when panic might be justified. I swear, a nuclear bomb could detonate in an American city, and Bush would be on TV telling everyone that the radiation is "acceptable." (I know, I'm stretching the analogy here - anything nuclear being detonated anywhere in the U.S. is too horrible to even contemplate, but the public really should be discussing this more.)

Honestly, as incompetent as this administration is, when you think about it, is the above scenario really out of the question though? (And by that I mean both the lying and the new terrorist act.) Part of me believes that this administration would knowingly let another attack happen, especially if it happened conveniently next year, to keep everyone afraid and to keep the old people votin' Republican. I don't think they'd let a nuclear anything happen, but anything short of that, it's not out of the question.

Think I'm reaching? Think again. Hey, Bush has sacrificed thousands of American lives in Iraq to stay in power, not to mention hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. And yet, just about every election, there are those far-right conservatives who will vote Republican no matter what, all because of God, Gays and Guns. And that's Demented, Demoralizing and Despicable.

Video via C&L