“Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; man's inclination toward injustice makes democracy necessary.” – Reinhold Niebuhr
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The GOP has tasked Ron Christie with attacking the Occupy Wall Stree movement. This week, on MSNBC's Hardball, Christie attempted to deliver a crushing blow, accusing the protestors of having sex, partying, and – heaven forbid – urinating. When host Chris Matthews asked Christie to expand upon his viewpoint, the Libby-Cheney lap dog noted that he would approve of the protesters, if they would only identify President Barack Obama as their enemy, and support the republican agenda.
This was not a Saturday Night Live skit.
For those who dismiss Ron Christie as a mere ass-clown, I would recommend Barton Gellman's book “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency” (Penguin; 2008). Convicted felon Scooter Libby brought Ron Christie into the Bush/Cheney administration. Within a short time, VP Cheney found Christie an effective operative in abusing both federal agencies, federal policies, and federal law, to deny Native Americans their treaty rights. By no coincidence, those who benefited from Christie's actions were Cheney's pals in the “energy” corporations.
Both Cheney and Christie took the stance that the energy corporations' policies equaled “national security.” They also disguised their true intentions, by pretending to be advocates of farmers. When a government scientist included evidence of how false the Cheney-Christie policies were, and the serious environmental damage that would result, two things happened: the scientist was fired, and his contribution to the government report disappeared.
Of course Ron Christie wishes that OWS would disappear. He helped to make millions of jobs disappear, while in the Bush administration. He was among those who benefited from the financial “crisis” (re: theft) that caused so many working class people's savings and retirement accounts to disappear. And now he is afraid that the OWS movement is seeking justice.
The degree of paranoia his ilk are experiencing was channeled last week by Glenn Beck – he still exists, in a lonely diminsion – who claimed on radio that the OWS movement will lead to all of the wealthy being dragged into the streets and executed. Beck was especially fearful of the fate of wealthy “journalists” like himself. A small part of me would like to respond to Beck by paraphrasing Malcolm X: “As if all the wealthy could be dragged into the street …. or as if that would be a bad thing.” But the mere thought of paying a few more percentage points in taxes has already frightened him enough.
In the 2010 election season, the republican mantra was, “Mr. President, where are the jobs?” A year later, while fighting every effort by President Obama to create jobs and fix the economy, those same republicans are saying that the OWS protesters should “blame Obama,” “blame themselves,” and “get a job.” Again, SNL could not make this stuff up.
The OWS movement is not demanding the “fix” these folks want. The Cheneyites have a different definition of “fix.” They view “fix” as what Ron Christie did to the traditional Indians, and to the environment, in order to create massive profits for the “energy” industry. The mere suggestion that they have any social responsibility to this country is, for them, a crisis. When the law of the land clearly restricts their access to profit – by protecting the rights of other human beings – that is a “crisis” to be “solved” by crushing not only the rule of law, but by stomping on anyone who dares challenge them. Indeed, the only people being “dragged in the streets” have been citizens exercising their Amendment 1 rights, only to be brutalized by a group of thugs in uniform. Likewise, that government scientist who dared report the truth was kicked out of his position, just as thousands of American families are being kicked out of their homes.
In recent months, I've wrote a series of essays for this forum about the struggle to protect the citizens and environment in New York State from hydro-fracking. In 2005, then VP Cheney sent a group of his “former” partners from Halliburton to Albany, NY, to pressure (and bribe) state officials to exempt gass-drilling from state and federal environmental laws. They succeeded.
Currently, I've been working with a couple of grass roots groups to prevent a large gas line, which was proposed to carry gas from frack-wells to two large industries in Sidney, NY. Without the gasline, both industries had said they might consider closing their doors, and leaving NYS.
The larger of the two is a defense contactor, currently known as Amphenol; it has also been known as Scintilla, Bendix, and Allied-Signal. During WW2, it employed 5,000+ people, running three shifts, 24/7. Nazi Germany had listed the Sidney industry as one of its top targets in America. In the late 1950s, LOOK magazine ran an article titled, “Sidney: The Town We Can't Do Without.”
Besides producing many of the necessities for the war machine, this industry graced the area with several massive toxic chemical waste “dump sites.” The most significant of these is the Richardson Hill/Sidney Landfill, a 120-acre site that was ranked by the federal government as being among the most dangerous in the nation, when the “Superfund” program was established. As I have noted numerous times on this forum, I assisted the EPA and Department of Justice when Amphenol and Allied Signal sued in federal court in 1999, to avoid paying for the “clean-up” of the site (the technology to actually “clean” the site does not exist). The industry won; not a single local, are, or regional media source reported that the case was being heard, much less the outcome.
A month ago, Sidney was among the many upstate communities that suffered severe damage by major flooding along the Susquehanna River. Initially, the heads of the Amphenol plant said they were going to do a “clean up” of the massive factory, as they had after the 2006 flood. I knew that this was a lie. I know one of individuals who has, for many years, been a co-worker and close friend of Gary Anderson, the plant manager. After touring the plant with Senator Kristin Gillibrand, who told him that the company had some responsibility, Anderson told his friend that he will not try to keep the industry in New York. There are $15 million in “back contracts” that needed to be completed there; after that, parts of the plant would go to North Carolina, and others to China and Mexico. This because Senator Gillibrand would not meet Anderson's every need.
The “60 day notices” have gone out to employees. In some situations, because the contracts involve “security,” non-union people are being brought in to work. More, with the news this plant is closing its doors, the other large factory (MeadWestvaco, formerly Keith Clarks), is considering moving out of state, because the company's heads do not want to shoulder the tax burder they have shared with Amphenol. The combined effect of these closings with devastate the economy of Sidney and all of the the communities surrounding it.
I'm planning to travel to that area this weekend. There is an “Occupy Binghamton” being held thirty miles away from Sidney, and some people from that area called me this morning with an invitation to speak at OB. I have a few calls to make this evening, to try to make some arrangements so that I can attend. And yes, I have a few things that I'd like to say.
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