 |
| Chief Dacheux Frack Pad, Photo Wendy Lynne Lee |
This Change.Org petition (
Petition | Defend Public Interest | Change.org), written by Scott Davis, Chairman, Committee of 37 Peace Initiative illustrates why it is VERY important to read petitions before you sign them. I am not going link to the petition--no point in inviting more folks to the ludicrous, but if I were Tom Wolf, I'd be cringing and embarrassed at the absurdity of the claims that my supporters were making on my behalf. Then again, if THIS is the level to which our political dialogue has sunk, it's no wonder we keep electing men and women who fail to represent our interests, sell us out to the Koch Brothers, routinely trample our basic human rights, and then laugh all the way to the off-shorted bank accounts.
This petition runs as follows runs [I have made NO changes in the wording or typing]:
Defend Public Interest... . First, let me say that ALL PENNSYLVANIANS, regardless of
party or not; and regardless of previous voting record or
declaration or affiliation, must
for the greater good, immediately and unequivocally
UNITE BEHIND TOM WOLF
as the standard-bearer of the restoration of freedom,
decency in Government, and Constitutional rule
to the Cradle of Liberty - PENNSYLVANIA.
Really? Why?
Tom Wolf will do as little to protect us from the ongoing disaster that is fracking as his predecessor, Tom Corbett.
Tom Wolf understands as little as his predecessor that clean water and air are necessary conditions for the exercise of all the other of our rights,
 |
| Sand Can, Photo Wendy Lynne Lee |
Tom Wolf (as a good friend points out to me) will codify the fact of FRACKING even more deeply than his predecessor by leveling a tax upon which programs and social services will become quickly dependent--thereby legitimating even MORE fracking.
Tom Wolf buys the bridge fuel "Saudi Arabia of natural gas" argument as lock, stock, and barrel as his predecessor--even though it has been shown beyond repair to be bogus. Tom Wolf will do as little as his predecessor to protect activists and other citizens from police harassment, intimidation, and spying--and in fact seems to know next to nothing about what's really happening in rural Pennsylvania.
Tom Wolf won the primary not on principle or positions--but because he could out-spend all of his opponents on TV commercial time.
The Change.org petition continues:
Any "my way or the highway" illusions to the effect
that bringing about the restoration of good government
in Pennsylvania will be easy, or can be micromanaged
by this or that special advocacy or special interest group,
must be dispelled right here, and right now - as
Pennsylvania wakes up from the most tragic episode
in its history - a creeping Fascist dictatorship imposed
in this State, under the counterfeit guise of liberty and justice
Yet Tom Wolf is perfectly comfortable allowing the continuation of the corporate fascism of the fracking industry, allowing municipalities to be micro-managed by the gas companies.
On Wednesday, November 5, 2014, and for a few daysWhat on EARTH does this gobblety-gook even MEAN?
thereafter, we expect that you will be charging your batteries
and resting up from the long and successful task behind you;
that you will be doing something which hasn't been done for
many years by any Governor-Elect of Pennsylvania - you will be
devoting yourself full-time for two months to designing the next
Governorship in Pennsylvania; in direct contrast to what happened
Pipeline, Photo Wendy Lynne Lee
in 2010- 2011, when Pennsylvania had an absentee Governor Elect
who devoted himself full-time,
right up until January 18, 2011; to furtively and secretively
nailing every possible closet door shut - but alas, the bones
all began to clatter and spill out despite all this furtive effort.
And it will take a team of legal archaeologists several years
to fully sort out the damage from this
ossification of liberty.
How about this? Governor Tom Corbett SUCKS. But at least Corbett was direct in his selling the state out to the gas companies. Wolf, on the other hand, buys every word of the absurd gas hype about jobs, environmental protections--all the while he will do NOT A DAMN THING to protect your land from being seized by eminent domain for a private profit interests being paraded as a public utility.
The conflicts of interest from the past several years must beHUH? Fracking fluids are not a private interest. Frack waste is a PUBLIC HAZARD. And the cause of that hazard must be BANNED if we're to have any protection at all under the Pennsylvania Constitution's provision for clean air and water. The supporters of Mr. Wolf--a candidate who won't even go near the weakest possible position on fracking, his own Party's moratorium--don't have a conflict of interest. No--they have simply sold out the rest of the movement to end extreme extraction.
sorted out, no matter which party or interest group these conflicts
were instigated by. And here is one conflict of interest which is
very important to the people of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware
Ohio, New Jersey, West Virginia, New York State and even
Virginia, as well as other States further downstream from the
Ohio Valley of Pennsylvania; and to all people who might eat
or drink anything produced in these dozen States: the conflict
between private and public interest in terms of the composition
of mineral extraction fluids; known in some cases as
"fracking fluids.
 |
| Bentonite spill, Photo Wendy Lynne Lee |
The immediate focus of this petition is theThis is incoherent gobblety-gook. There IS a war going on in Pennsylvania over rights--but it is NOT between "private proprietary rights" and the "public interest."
judicious weighing of the tug-of-war between
private proprietary rights, on the one hand; and
on the other hand - and in a way which can be
both complimentary and agreeably worked out
in an enlightened and cordial manner,
the public interest.
The "private proprietary rights" the writer refers to apparently (but not coherently) refer to the rights of the gas industry (and the CAFOs) to poison us--but this is NO RIGHT AT ALL. And the "public interest" is not really an interest--clean air and water are necessary conditions of living organisms. Hence, there is no "agreeably worked out cordial" compromise unless we agree that either some folks can be sacrificed--say the folks in the Susquehanna River Basin that's poorer than the Delaware, or that a little, say, benzene is OK.
But that is ABSURD.
Mr. Wolf, at the end of the week during which the PennsylvaniaI gather Davis is referring to Governor Corbett's opening of state parks to more fracking on the pretense that there won't be "surface disturbance." But what difference does this make? Even IF Wolf rescinds this executive order, all he will have accomplished is a concession to the "special places" rhetoric that makes YOUR yard open season for the industry while saving the hiking trails of United Shale Awareness and their friends in the Keystone Trails Association. Why would you vote for a candidate who regards your land as a fair trade for the vacation spots of the wealthy?
primary election process cast the election in your favor, a sneak
ploy by the outgoing Administration was implemented as soon as
was possible, and in a desperate and shameful manner.
That was the way in which the big campaign contributors
got their money's worth out of Pennsylvania government, when vast areas of forestlands which had been previously
under the declared protection of Government, were suddenly
thrown open to a new potential for
Teapot-Dome style
mineral extraction leases.
 |
| Compressor post Hurricane Sandy Photo Wendy Lynne Lee |
This is nonsense. And it matters because when we in the anti-fracking movement--who support a BAN--sign on to incoherent gibberish like this absurd petition, we are acting as flame throwers for the gas industry.
We could not do ourselves more damage than by getting behind this piece of nonsense--well, except for by supporting a candidate who is a WOLF in sheep's clothing--THAT is Tom Wolf.
And you KNOW you have a viable, meaningful, courageous alternative: GREEN PARTY candidate, Paul Glover (
Green Party of Pennsylvania)
No comments:
Post a Comment