I'm not saying its not true, it just helps to soften the enormity of the crime that's been committed here, and perhaps divert and dampen a bit of the outrage and fury it should provoke. And I believe its designed to do exactly that. Its damage control.

Putting things in "perspective"? Footnotes? Research? Writing "Catastrophic" in quotes? These meticulously documented irrelevancies only distract us from what happened and why and shift the conversation to somewhere else. You've learned your lessons well here on the Zone. Who was your teacher?

Even if not one kid is affected by this incident, the lies, arrogance and greed that led to it should never be forgotten. And it should be punished severely so it won't ever happen again. Even if it turns out there were no victims, a crime has still been committed, and it will happen again if we let it slide, or soften its impact to further a partisan political agenda.

Are you aware that lead can cause neural damage, especially in children, that may not show up for years, not until long after the lead has been excreted by the body and no longer shows up in blood tests? And I understand lead in the blood is quickly removed by the kidneys. Some of these kids could be really damaged and still test negative for lead, this exposure started over a year ago. Recent test results can be very misleading when they are compared with old records. Your source seems to be blissfully unaware of this--or pretending to be so. Perhaps this is just the first salvo of a PR counter-offensive from the governor's new media consultants.

We may never know the extent of the damage caused by this. They need to be tested for years to come, and even then, we may not be able to do anything about it. And who's going to pay for that monitoring? It sure as hell won't be the cost-cutting Governor and his accountants, lawyers, spinmeisters and publicity hacks.

Put THAT in perspective, Rob.