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PA's Dept. of Homeland Security Shared Oil-Shale Protester Info With Companies
Western Pennsylvania's shale oil deposits have lately attracted interest not only from companies who have been extracting some of that oil, but from locals who object to what they perceive as sharp dealing by the companies involved, favorable treatment by the state government, and environmental degradation as a result of the extraction. Some of the most visible of those protesters, it turns out, have been tracked (including "Web traffic") by Pennsylvania's own Homeland Security department, and that information about them has been shared not only within the department, but with the oil companies themselves. Homeland Security director James Powers defended the information shared with the oil companies as part of a triweekly bulletin, saying "We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies."
I hear all the time about how government protects people from corporations, and that's why we have to keep giving government more and more power. Holy shit, you mean they actually don't?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I don't see what the PA department of homeland security has to benefit from giving that info to the companies? Can someone elaborate?
Who knew...
I bet the trains run on time though.
Deleted
This is terribly interesting, the worst nightmare posible. The entrenched law inforcement and investigatory agency, tax payer funded being used to unabashedly help business over the general welfare. Someone should be going to jail here.
I had to re-read this a few times. Are these guys taking their cues from North Korea newspapers? Whoever this guy is he should be 1) reminded of what the 1st amendment is about 2) fired.
If someone is shooting at my stuff, especially if it's the large, exploding kinda stuff, like a gas storage tank. I'd expect to be told about it. This doesn't sound so sinister.
Because James Powers will probably receive a FAT consultant job with Marcellus Shale Formation after he "retires" from his "public sector" job. Very popular thing with DoD generals and military contractors/suppliers in the past.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
I'm sure they would too, but it's one of those issues where it really points out the hypocrisy of the party. It's like when a Republican violates family values and has a homosexual affair. It invokes a Nelson "ha ha" response.
Why are you letting these clowns ruin our country?
This isn't new. There are youtube videos of the water coming out of people's kitchen faucet catching on fire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRZ4LQSonXA
The process to remove natural gas and oil from shale is extremely complicated. Many companies won't even tell you what chemicals they use; they claim it's a "trade secret". They tell you that everything's okay, but you know for a fact that some of that cocktail they're pumping into the ground simply must be a carcinogen. And if they're drilling on your land, and you get your water from a well (and that's a lot of people in western PA), then you better believe that their fracking chemicals (hydraulic fracturing) are leeching into the local water table.
Naturally, there are also plenty of loopholes in the regulations to make sure that Corporate America can continue to rape and plunder low-life commoners like you and me.
For lots more information, go watch Gasland.
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/613/index.html
:(){
Is James Powers a Democrat? Seems more like he is a bureaucrat. When a new government is elected, all the existing people in various departments aren't fired and replaced with people from the new party.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Hypocracy? What hypocracy? Total Government control is a party platform.
and pronto. Hydraulic fracturing of shale is an absolutely legitimate health and environmental concern. There is no place for his behavior in Penn or any other state. The Justice Dept should get on this and him.
For many years now I've been calling the agency in question 'DFS', for 'Department of Fatherland Security'. I guess it was only a matter of time before they demonstrated their fascism in a public, step-on-your-own-dick manner. Now their pretense of righteousness has fallen away; DFS is obviously all about money and power, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the safety and security of America and her citizens. These clowns are simply organized criminals with a government mandate, and they run the biggest protection and extortion rackets in the whole country. Given a choice, I'd rather deal with the Mafia - they seem more honorable and more competent, and at least they don't pretend to hold the moral high ground.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
This is apropos because the Pennsylvania State Police began in the early 19th century as the private Iron and Coal Police of the mine and mill owners. The owners tired of paying for their muscle all by themselves and recruited the taxpayers of Pennsylvania to chip in by getting the State of Pennsylvania to ... what's the opposite of "privatize"? Publicize? Anyway, the State adopted the bosses' private security apparatus as a whole, changed its name to the State Police, and started to pay their salaries to do what they had been doing anyway: fighting the unions and communities that were struggling to improve wages and working conditions in the coal mines and steel mills of Pennsylvania.
This is all detailed in Kristian Williams's excellent history of the police in America Our Enemies in Blue .
James F. Powers, Jr, Director of Homeland Security for Pennsylvania, works for the energy industry. Since especially in Pennsylvania, the energy industry wrote every regulation that deals with coal, natural gas or oil, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the state's energy regulations required the release of personal information of anyone protesting fossil fuel development.
Further, here's the bio on Mr Powers:
The important part of this bio is the fact that from 2001 through 2006, Powers served as a "Special Operations" consultant with KWG Consulting of Waterford, Virginia. If you look up "KWG Consulting" you don't find much. A half-million dollar budget and "from 1-4 employees" and nothing more. However (and this part's important), KWG Consulting is affiliated with KWG Resources, a multi-national mining and energy conglomerate, that's heavily involved in coal, oil and gas pipelines and railroads that carry coal, oil and gas.
So, it appears we have a hot shot special forces colonel who took big money to sell his services to foreign corporate interests, got himself appointed to Pennsylvania's DHS (what a coincidence!) and is now working as a hit man for the fossil fuel industry.
The next time you want to argue with me when I say that corporations have become much more powerful than any national government in the world, remember this little story, all true. I believe the government of the United States, especially, has been replaced by corporate interests since at least 1980, and the stuff we see with elections and campaigns and political discourse is nothing but theater to keep us occupied while transnationals consolidate their position as the true government of the world. The only reason we still have something called a government here in the US is to provide an enforcement arm to the corporations and to keep some semblance of order to provide a conducive environment for corporate profits and growth.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Vandalism is a crime. Protest is not. If the latter turns into the former, then by all means, prosecute, but we can't just make the assumption that it will.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Is James Powers a Democrat? Seems more like he is a bureaucrat.
Bureaucrat? Possibly. Democrat? No way... his bio makes me think Republican for sure. He is former military, who are usually Republican (I make no judgment here). He formally worked/possibly still does for a large oil/mining company which usually means Republican (I am making judgment here). And through that career, it seems safe to assume he has gotten rich, which means Republican (again, judgment). If one takes those three observations (not necessarily in that order) I think Republican is a sure bet. And before I get the "troll label" A)most military members vote Republican, as they used to believe in small government and a strong defense force; and B) which party is fighting to keep the tax cuts for the richest 2.5% of our population? I'm not going to turn this into a political discussion, I'm just explaining my theory and answering the question.
Republican or Democrat, this policy stinks and really runs contradictory to "of, by, and for the people" and seems to me to be more fallout from the Citizens United verdict, which I still mourn.
Member of American Sarcasm Society - Motto: "Like we need your help!"
Tom Ridge was the first Homeland Security chief, installed by Bush/Cheney. He's the guy who helped Bush/Cheney fake terror alerts timed to win elections. Ridge was Pennsylvania's governor until shortly before he headed Homeland Security, after decades at the top of Pennsylvania politics and police.
The PA Homeland Security department is completely compliant with Tom Ridge's way of doing business.
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make install -not war
Except the Democratic governor was "appalled", and halted the practice once he found out.
Republicans are never appalled, except by people exercising our rights, and never halt a tyrannical practice, even when found out.
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make install -not war
Honestly, that number was more indicative of my feelings about how my state is governed than anything else, and was an attempt at humor. The truth is that I know too little about most other states to make any intelligent comments about them unless their practices, good or ill, are revealed through news stories. I figure the ones I never hear much about (Idaho, Arkansas, the Carolinas) are better run than the ones that get publicized for dumb stuff like this.
I'm not familiar with the Harrisburg debt issue, but being close to Philly has kept me up on theirs. I've a friend who is a police officer, so I see on one hand how poorly they're (generally) funded and on the other hand how invasive PA laws can be. This DHS thing is a big negative, especially considering how bad the practice of fracking is for residents to begin with. Our drug laws are pretty strict, including alcohol--we're one of the few states where the only place to get liquor is at state-run stores. The Amish pay no road tax, though their buggies excessively wear down the roads. Much of this sort of thing can be found in any state, I'm sure, and it's only because I live here that I'm aware of so much of it, so it's skewed my perception. The grass is always greener etc.
Thinking further about it, I've concluded that I find too little difference between most state governance to name many names. Most of my dislike is for federal laws, and a lot of that stems from the fact that those issues are taken out of the hands of state governments where they properly belong. I pretty obviously lean libertarian, so I'll favor states whose laws promote personal freedom and dislike those whose laws don't, but the fact is that there's not a whole lot of room for them to decide much, which leaves me looking at little more than the corruption index.
In reality, the area in which I live and have always lived is gorgeous during every season and is full of friends and family, so barring anything really mind-numbingly perverse, despite its shortcomings, PA is and will likely remain first in my list of places to live.
Your brain is not a computer.
1980? Where you been buddy, under a rock? You want to trace when the last vestiges of We, The People died a nasty death you can trace that back to the end of WWII and the formation of the eternal military industrial complex. Before that the USA, like its people, was largely isolationist and left other countries the hell alone. Since then the USA hasn't gone a whole 5 years without stirring up shit somewhere, usually giving a twofor by helping out both the MIC and big oil/gas/coal.
I'd say the big difference is before around 1990 they actually pretended to give a fuck, now they don't. Just as others pointed out having the republicans stand up and refuse tax breaks for the middle class in a time of recession (I personally think it is the start of a depression myself) unless the top 2.5% (which have been making out like bandits for decades) get a tax break too? That takes a serious "fuck you peasants" attitude that they just didn't have the balls to show before. Now thanks to deregulation allowing all of the media outlets to be owned by a few megacorps they know they can say whatever they want and the media will spin away, since they own it.
As for TFA, is anybody here really surprised the whole "fuck you peasant scum" attitude has filtered down to the states? After all the federal politicians are making out like bandits, why shouldn't the state boys join in on the fun? But mark my words, if it does turn into another depression the rich better have some serious firepower, as I don't see the peasants being all passive like they were back then. We got waaay too many poor, waaay too many guns, and a serious "fuck being nice" attitude building in this country. Just go to any of the numerous cities where homes and businesses lie empty and you can practically smell the powderkeg.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Hurd did not cause HP to cease to exist as a corporate entity. Hurd did not cause all of HP's going concern value to evaporate.
In other words, Hurd is an excellent example of how not having corporate capital punishment* encourages the recycling of aggressive/ruthless executives from one company to another. If executives' criminal behavior did cause massive loss to shareholders, I think the 'old boy' network would disappear in a hurry. People value their money a lot more than they value the friend of friend of a friend.
* I'm not saying that HP should have been executed because of Hurd's behavior.
I don't think you're looking far back enough either. The civil war is when corporations went from time-limited, specific-purpose vehicles to "anything to make a buck" that last forever. Shortly thereafter in 1886 corporations gained personhood. It's been all downhill from there.
Here we are:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_region/20100915_Rendell__appalled__by_state_s_tracking_of_activists.html
One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces. - PF
Hypocracy? What hypocracy? Total Government control is a party platform.
Hypocracy - government by people who are below average?
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
How did this score insightful? The last vestiges of "We, the People ..." existed just prior to the Civil War, during which the right of Habeus Corpus was revoked (suspended, {snort}), the right of secession was abrogated (even Northern States reserved the right of secession in voting to approve the Constitution), Congressmen were stripped of office even after the war was over, and literally thousands of war crimes were committed. I'm former career military and I know exactly what constitutes a war crime. If we are going to delve into the historical record, at least get it right.
It should be no surprise that America saw the rise of the various Trusts during the post-Civil War period, to be followed by national corporations during and after WWI, and finally the rise of the multi-nationals during and after WWII. Each cycle only results in a further power-grab and aggrandizement. Should it be any surprise after 9/11 we saw even more examples. Patriot Act? Consolidation of the various police agencies into one (monolithic if they get their way) department? Monitoring of the so-called 'dangerous and violent groups'? I would have thought that TPTB would have learned their lesson from the '60's FBI but I would be wrong. Santayana said "[t]hose who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. " I say those who do not know the past are condemned to suffer worse.
BTW, I am most definitely not a Southerner but the record of history speaks for itself.
"[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
For satisfied people they sure whine a lot!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Rendell wasn't appalled enough to fire anyone, though.
From the Inquirer article: "Rendell said that he will not fire or discipline anyone in the Office of Homeland Security, headed by director James F. Powers Jr., for the lapse. But he said he ordered the office to terminate its contract with Philadelphia-based Institute of Terrorism and Research Response, which he said has been paid $125,000 in the last year to gather data about possible security threats."
Unless heads roll it's hard to see what pounding the podium will do to deter future antics like these.
You make two errors. The first is that you think the wealthy are Republicans, check the voting stats for the 20 counties with the highest per captia income. All but one of them is a safe Democratic district. The second is that you didn't look very closely at how the head of the PA Department of Homeland Security gets his job. He is appointed by the Governor of PA. The current head was appointed in 2006. In 2006, the Governor of Pennsylvania was Ed Rendell, who is as partisan a Democrat as there is. Therefore, James Powers is clearly a Democrat.
I, also, forgot to mention that the Republicans are not fighting to keep tax cuts for the "richest" 2.5% of our population. They are fighting to keep the tax cuts for all, including those who earn in the top 2.5% of income. There is a difference between those with the highest income and those who are the wealthiest. Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the country, but he has nowhere near the highest income. The other point on this issue is that most of the top 2.5% of income according to the IRS are S corporations, not actual individuals.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
How about both are the party of whoever-gives-the-most-votes? That way we don't have to keep changing it around.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
If you ask me it's time we brought back the death penalty for unruly corporations.
That's exactly as it used to be. Pennsylvania was notorious for shutting down banks that were misbehaving in the 1810's and 1820's. All corporations of the time were for limited terms and for public benefit.
Come around towards 1870 and John D. Rockefeller finds he can use his "influence" in Congress to get corporations made permanent, and soon in Santa Clara a footnote to an unrelated case finds that corporations have human rights, and all three branches of government heartily embrace this bizzare idea.
Soon after the "Trust Busters" decided to break up Standard Oil and implemented the break-up plan that Rockefeller himself crafted (as he had found Standard Oil by that time to be too unwieldy to compete nimbly). They showed him, right?
Witness the transformation of the Wall Street banks in the 1990's from partnerships (where the owners' money is directly at risk) to corporate ownership and the resulting shenanigans that ensued.
Corporations remove that direct responsibility, and are, in essence, an agreement between the government and the managers to protect the managers from the People when they engage in malfeasance. Typically, those managers see to it that the representatives in Government are well taken care of, and thus the positive-feedback loop is complete.
Partnerships are the natural structure of companies that need to grow to a large size. There is a limit on their size, in contrast to giant multi-national corporations. Some will argue that the big multi-nationals are essential to provide some kind of product at some kind of price, but the evidence against them is far too compelling to support those arguments of a net-utility benefit.
I'll get a bunch of responses here that we need a big government to protect us from corporations (from well-meaning folks educated in government education centers) but I hope I've given enough of a kernel of information to lead you to read up on how government action is the root problem here, and that corporations exist only at its pleasure.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
And speaking as someone who lives near PA, I don't want your refugees when the company fucks up on safety and starts a fire they can't put out and then it burns for the next 250 years. Great that they are fracking the Natural Gas, 'cause it brings in jobs, but I'm sure that's what those folks on the Gulf Coast thought too, just BEFORE Deep Horizon blew a gasket.
Point is: Sooner or later, they *will* screw up, and either start a fire, or poison the area so badly, that the jobs go away, hell, whole towns will go away, and then those people will invade my state looking to resettle and take our jobs.
I believe it's already the case that many people are reporting that the water coming out of the tap smells badly, or is a funny color.. So, I'm going for the poisoning the landscape. And remember, folks from NY and NJ, that a lot of the food you're eating comes from PA, so, whatever's getting into the water is goiing into your food.
Chew on that for a while while you come down with lymphoma.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
DHS provides information to a company about someone who poses a real security risk to them (the company).
I have an epistemological question: how do you know?
You're making claims as to the information that the people at DHS have, but seem to think that that information is necessarily sound. In fact, all the people at DHS can have is suspicions. If they had more, they would be charging people (unless they are incompetent as well as corrupt, which is always a possibility.)
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.