Posts Tagged → greed
Court testimony proves criticism of Corbett natural gas policy is partisan, unfair
If you have been following the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Fund lawsuit against the Commonwealth, over its natural gas policies on public lands, then you’ve no doubt been reading the testimony of former political appointees from the Pa Gov. Ed Rendell administration.
The lawsuit is being ably reported in the Patriot News.
Former DCNR secretaries DiBerardinis and Quigley have testified that their boss, Governor Ed Rendell, was the one who dropped the natural gas extraction bomb on the State Forests in his gluttonous rush to gain as much money as he could to fund his wild history-making over-spending.
I won’t bother to repeat their testimony here, but it is not pleasant. They are not covering up for their former boss. Instead, they are laying it all out there, describing how the public interest was subverted by greed and political malfeasance. These are two good men, devoted to the public interest. Kudos to them.
Here’s the thing: Rendell is a Democrat.
Here’s the thing: Then, and now, Rendell was not roundly criticized for his public land gas drilling policies by the very environmental groups who represent themselves to the public to be non-partisan, fair-minded, honest brokers on environmental policy and issues.
Instead, in extreme contrast, since even before his first day in office, Governor Tom Corbett has been vilified, excoriated, badmouthed, cussed, maligned, and blamed for everything that is wrong, and right, with the public policies he inherited from the Rendell Administration.
And this gets to the point here: A lot of the heat that is created around environmental policy issues is accompanied by very little light. That is because most environmental issues are innately politicized, and partisan, before a valuable discussion about their merits can be had, in the public interest.
In other words, the by-now old narrative goes like this: Republicans always stink on green issues, and Democrats are always blameless little innocent blinking-eyed babes on environmental issues, even when they are wearing the red devil suit and sticking Satan’s trident deep into the public’s back.
In the interest of good policy, this partisanship must end. The mainstream media, run by liberals, is only too happy to carry on this unfair, inaccurate narrative. But conservatives can overcome that if only they will cease ceding the battlefield to the partisan groups who roam it at will.
Instead of cavalierly writing off everyone who cares about environmental quality as an “environmental whacko,” which is the standard conservative reaction, and it is wrong, recognize that environmental quality is important, but what is also important is how one goes about achieving that goal. This critical policy nuance seems to be lost on most conservatives.
Also, call out the Statists/ Socialists who mis-use environmental policy as a means to achieve their larger Marxist goals of wealth redistribution. These people are not ‘environmental whackos’, they are anti-American socialists who have hijacked an important issue and commandeered it to suit their larger purposes.
Want to win? Want good government? Want fair coverage of political issues? Then fight back! Meet these folks on their own battlefield, and defeat them using good policy that is grounded in science and public-interest goals. The Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Fund lawsuit court room testimony is an excellent place to begin this fight. It is loaded with ammunition in the interest of honesty, accuracy, and fairness.
Calling General Lynch to Attention
General William Lynch, Harrisburg’s new receiver tasked with overseeing the further disembowelment of the Pennsylvania Capital, says that his office has no role to play in a criminal investigation.
He says it’s neither his job to conduct one, nor should he be calling for one.
Let me try to piece this together….Lynch is a Republican, like me, but he is trying to actually raise taxes on the handful of remaining Harrisburg City residents who still pay taxes. Despite already having a phenomenally high tax rate, Harrisburg is now supposed to raise them even further. That is according to a Republican leader. Hmmmmm…. I am not happy about that, either from the unsustainability of such a move, nor from the perspective that Republicans traditionally have sought to keep taxes low.
Another oddity is, here sits a law-and-order military man, a general. He’s not a corporal, but a general, the highest rank possible. And he doesn’t want to say that he supports a criminal inquiry into the $350 million debt debacle fueled by insider greed?
Generals are supposed to epitomize (and thereby advocate for) the highest reaches and standards of ethical behavior and conduct. So why is a general now saying that a criminal probe is of no interest to him? Sure, he doesn’t have to pursue it himself, but his predecessor David Unkovic called for one after just a few months on the job. If a crime occurred, as it surely appears to most observers, then why isn’t this leader seeking punishment?
Lynch was recently quoted saying that “There is no money putting people in jail,” which sounds like crime DOES pay in his book. Something is fishy here, folks. A decade of political cover-ups and bipartisan feeding at the piggy trough known as Harrisburg has created a bipartisan web of mutual crime and shared interest in keeping the crime uninvestigated. From what we see, Lynch is playing to that, not bringing the fresh light we needed and expected from the Receiver.