Mamakating Democrats faced total defeat Tuesday night, when their incumbent town supervisor Bob Fiore lost his re-election bid to Bloomingburg fire commissioner Harold Baird.

Also swept into office were council candidates Regina Saunders and John Moul.

Saunders, a former town councilperson who lost two years ago to Teddy Brebbia, narrowly beat Ron Weathers this time around.

Superintendent of Highways Richard Johnson beat Democratic challenger Buddy Platt.

Republicans won the sheriff and district attorney seats on the county level, while town judge Marcelle Matthews ran virtually unopposed.

View map of town election districts here: http://co.sullivan.ny.us/documentView.asp?docid=54

View 2009 election results here: http://webapps.scgnet.us/electionreportingv2/default.aspx?eID=7

Interesting facts about the 2009 Mamakating general election:

• Supervisor Bob Fiore lost in his home district # 4 (Westbrookville) — 153 to 191 — or about 11%.

• Ron Weathers lost to Regina Saunders by only 27 votes. Had Weathers gotten the Working Families line instead of Nathan Berg, he’d have been elected.

• Ron Weathers’ impressive results happened in spite of his being a last-minute replacement candidate.

• The Conservative Party line put Republican candidates ahead of their Democratic opposition — by a strong margin — in most districts. Saunders, however, got no Conservative votes in district #7 (Burlingham).

• The Republicans took a gamble by ousting both their incumbent council members from the ballot: Judith Young & Nick Salomone.

• Judy Young tried to run for judge as Republican, but was passed over for incumbent Marcelle Matthews. Young wound up on the Working Families line, which is unusual for a former Republican committee chairperson.

• Marcelle Matthews was cross-endorsed by most major parties, except for Young’s WF line. Nevertheless, some Democrats suspect Matthews of impropriety for allegedly working on other candidate’s campaigns in violation of judicial ethics.

• Democratic district attorney candidate Glenn Kroll lost within his home town of Mamakating, 35% to 65% — despite a widespread advertising campaign and high-profile gimmicks. County-wide, Kroll’s results were even worse: 30% to 70%.

• For the Hwy. Supt. race, Riley Buddy Platt lost to Richard Johnson by 159 votes, out of 2,371 tallied — about 6%. Platt received 111 votes on the Working Families line; Johnson received 308 votes on the Conservative line. If Platt had received Independence Party endorsement, he’d have come within a few points of winning.

• Fisticuffs broke out at Danny’s restaurant in Wurtsboro on election night, between a Republican candidate, a Republican committeeman, and a Democratic poll watcher, resulting in a call to the Sheriff.

• As a result, Danny’s was almost deserted of politicos after the polls closed. Democrats congregated at the law offices of Gary Greenwald; while Republicans gathered at the home of Harold Baird.

• Democrats left for the evening not knowing the actual tally, because they did not have numbers for district #7. Nobody thought to check the county BOE website for posted returns.

• A major weak spot in Democratic poll-watching was district #6 (Bloomingburg), home to Saunders & Baird.

• Republicans Bob Justus visited Greewald’s office, offering well wishes to the opposition. Justus declined to officially declare any winners Tuesday evening.

• About a hundred more people voted in Mamakating’s 2009 local election, than did two years ago in 2007.

• Teddy Brebbia will be the only Democratic councilman remaining on the Mamakating town board in 2010. Yet, unlike his running mates, Brebbia’s campaigns are marked by a high level of personal autonomy from the Democratic party. He’s up for re-election in 2011.

Wurtsboro held an unscheduled meeting on 2009-10-20, postponed from the week before. It took place at the same time as the Mamakating town board meeting, but we managed to cover both simultaneously and get recordings of each.

The regular Wurtsboro Village business was over in a few short minutes. The remainder consisted of a joint session with the village planning board, to discuss the Kaufman Farms development project along Pennsylvania Ave. Most of the details have been presented at previous meetings.

A lion’s share of the exchange between officials & developers on 2009-10-20 had to do with proposed tennis courts, just south of Emma Chase Elementary School, which the village wants constructed in lieu of parkland fees.

Haggling went back and forth for over an hour. The developer is willing to gift the tennis court & parcel over to the municipality, as a public park. Certain details still need to be hammered out — including the nature of performance bonds for the tennis courts; how shall they be financed; and when the bonds will be released.

Listen to the entire meeting here: http://midhudson.info/meetings/R091020_wurtsboro.mp3 [MP3, 88.4 MB — Can’t play it? Get Quicktime]

YouTube videos have been uploaded for the 2009-10-20 Mamakating town board workshop meeting, in six consecutive 10-minute segments.

The first four segments contain a proposal by town highway superintendent Richard Johnson, for the purchase of heavy duty trucks. The exchange is noteworthy because of the expensive burden which these capital expenditures place upon the municipal budget. New trucks are necessary to replace an aging highway fleet. The town board is challenged to fit these purchases into a long-term payment plan.

Johnson rarely attends town board meetings, and the council previously expressed occasional frustration. They cannot force Johnson to come, because the highway superintendent is an independently elected position. Both Johnson and town supervisor Bob Fiore are up for re-election this November. There was a palpable tension in the room, caused by opposing parties endeavoring to avoid the appearance of political opposition.

Towards the end of segment #5, the discussion moved on to fireworks, a new law on wells, and storm drains.

Part 1 of 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I44KkUggPuM

Part 2 of 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFN-VPIJkls

Part 3 of 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0U7AipYtZw

Part 4 of 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ba6-KVpJd4

Part 5 of 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDFdVDdnMMM

Part 6 of 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7fE75P2N6A

There was a simultaneous meeting at the Village of Wurtsboro on 2009-10-20. I left to attend that meeting shortly before 7pm; Tod Westlake of the Shawangunk Journal remained at the Mamakating TB meeting, and brought my recording equipment over to Wurtsboro Village Hall after the Mamakating meeting finished.

Many are unaware that a D.A.’s position is held to be “quasi-judicial” in nature, owing to the discretionary power. Much like a judge, a prosecutor can unilaterally dismiss cases — by deciding not to press criminal charges. And so, D.A.s (or candidates) must follow judicial rules of ethics. Kroll’s unorthodox methods of liquid generosity baited his opposition into revealing an embarrassing fact:

Retiring D.A. Steve Lungen is ethically prevented from publicly endorsing any candidate other than himself. By openly lending his support to Jim Farrell’s candidacy, and criticizing Kroll’s perfectly legal activities, Lungen is improperly using his position for political purposes, rather than remaining impartial. Farrell, by tolerating Lungen’s ethical lapse, thereby becomes a part of it. No matter which way you look at it: cheap shots, or liquor shots, everyone is crossing the line.

The issue of a prosecutor’s quasi-judicial campaign ethics came up eleven years ago, when then-current NY Attorney General Dennis Vacco held a press conference on the steps of the Ulster County courthouse in Kingston, to endorse Sean Matthews against Kevin Cahill for the 101st NY Assembly District race in ‘98. E. Michael Kavanagh, the district attorney, stood silently alongside Vacco; he was running unopposed for state supreme court judge. It was an ethical can of worms — which remarkably helped defeat U.S. Senator Alfonse D’Amato, and bring Chuck Schumer to Washington.

It was a funny story. Vacco accused Cahill of being “soft on crime,” for opposing Megan’s Law. But Cahill was out of office for two years when Megan’s Law was passed, having lost in ‘96 to John Guerin. On top of that gaffe, Vacco’s choice Sean Matthews was a convicted drunk driver (just like former president George W. Bush; and veep Dick Cheney).

Reference: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reports/judicialcampaignethicshndbk.pdf Quasi-judicial employees, such as judicial hearing officers, court attorney-referees and support magistrates, are subject to the same limitations on political activity as judges (22 NYCRR 100.6[A]; Opinions 05-14; 00-117 [Vol. XIX]; 95-119 [Vol. XIII]).

See also Schumer v Holtzman; 60 N.Y.2d 46 — a case about the quasi-judicial nature of prosecutorial discretion — which blew up in D’Amato’s face back in 1998, when he tried to use it against his opponent.

A hilarious exchange took place the previous month in Bloomingburg, on August 13th. Village mayor Mark Berentsen described how he fixed a broken traffic signal at the municipality’s’ main intersection. The procedure took less than a minute and cost under $1.75. A similar repair done under the previous administration cost the village $1300.

Listen to Berentsen’s story here: http://midhudson.info/special/R090813_berentsen.mp3

This exhibition brings together the work of nine extraordinary artists, each expressing the excitement and beauty of our relationship to and responsibility for the flora and fauna that surround us.

The artists use painting, sculpture and photography to explore the lands we have chosen to preserve, and the animals with which we share the planet. The depth of the art is perfectly matched to the scope of its subject.

This show may be viewed from October 3 through October 31st and is another stellar example of Red Eft Gallery’s continuing “not to be missed” exhibitions.

Participating artists include: Jerry Cohen, Linda Bayer Domanoski, Fritz Drury, Elinore Hollinshead, William Rivelli, Judy Sigunick, Phil Sigunick, Thomas Stratton and Marlene Wiedenbaum.

The public is invited to the Artists’ Reception which will be held from 6 to 8 pm on Saturday October 10, 2009.

Red Eft Gallery is open to the public Friday 3 - 7 PM, Saturday Noon - 6 PM, and Sunday from Noon to 5 PM or by appointment (845) 888-2519.

This is probably the first time in years that a group of men aren’t hanging around Dino Morelli’s property for the purpose of urinating and/or defecating. Morelli lives next door to the Park & Ride lot at Quickway Exit 113 in Wurtsboro. After DOT built the parking area there, full-bladdered travelers transformed his driveway and yard into a non-stop 24-hr. urinal.

The men shown above, however, are apparently DOT contractors finally sent to erect a fence dividing Morelli’s land from the Park & Ride. Good thing, because somebody was bound to get hurt eventually. Numerous incidents between Morelli and the transgressors have resulted in fisticuffs, vandalism, threats and gunfire.

Morelli complained for years to town and state officials. A few months ago, he returned to the Mamakating town board with hundreds of explicit photographs — taken with an array of sophisticated night-vision, motion-activated digital cameras — revealing the gruesome, graphic & explicit scat show regularly transpiring in full view of his family and guests.

Mamakating does not own the land, but maintains it on behalf of New York State. Installing bathroom facilities there was deemed cost prohibitive. We wrote about the issue over a year ago: http://midhudson.info/news/?p=156

A snail crawls Tuesday morning across the tarmac outside Super G-Mart in Wurtsboro, followed by a trail of slime. Stay tuned for an update revealing who is the slowest lawyer in town — after my pending house closing, or the end of time — whichever comes first.

Call him a groovy guy. U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey has joined the twitterati, and is now tweeting up on twitter. His page can be found at http://twitter.com/mauricehinchey . As of this posting, Congressman Mo (Democrat - NY-22) has six followers, including yours truly. Hinchey is also following three other twitterers: @nytimes, @whitehouse, and @algore .

Mo Hinchey is also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MauriceHinchey . So what, you ask? Where else will you ever find outrageous “purple necktie” photos of your congressman, like the one shown above!

Last week, Bennett Weiss was busted Sept. 8th for violating Goshen Village’s protest ordinance, which requires a permit before airing one’s views in public. The story made headlines in the local daily Times Herald-Record. Weiss was protesting the Goshen Central School District for not showing president Obama’s speech to students. Residents questioned the issue at this week’s village board meeting, but mayor John Higgins & the police chief refused comment.

Weiss will be appearing in a television interview on Thursday evening, for a public access cablecast. There, he will be asked tough questions, like why is a resident from Newburgh protesting the Goshen Central School District? What business does Weiss have — or president Obama for that matter — dictating educational policy to school officials? Does Weiss have kids of his own? And why didn’t the village police simply shoot the guy, instead of arresting him?

These are serious questions. The NY Court of Appeals ruled, in the landmark 1843 case Taylor vs. Porter & Ford (4 Hill 140), “it will be seen that the same measure of protection against legislative encroachment is extended to life, liberty and property; and if the latter can be taken without a forensic trial and judgment, there is no security for the others.” In other words, “If the legislature can take the property of A. and transfer it to B., they can take A. himself and either shut him up in prison or put him to death.” However, the court warned, “none of these things can be done by mere legislation. There must be due process of law.”

We must examine the Goshen protest ordinance: is there a compelling governmental interest in regulating such activities? And, on the other hand, does the village regulation unreasonably interfere with people’s rights? Note that the village clerk’s office was merely one block away from the protest location; and Mr. Weiss picketed the same day of Obama’s speech — was there a pressing time factor for him? Then again, civil rights attorney Michael Sussman regularly refuses the Goshen protest permit on principle, yet never gets busted during his village anti-war demonstrations. Is there a double standard?

Sussman has repeatedly failed to win similar cases at USMA West Point: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070525/NEWS/705250360 & http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090723/NEWS/907230325

Here, in his own words, is Weiss’ first-hand account of the incident.

It was a bit of a twisted journey that ended for me today in handcuffs at the Goshen police station. It began last Saturday with an article in the Times Herald Record reporting that under pressure from a small but vocal group of right-wingers most school districts in our area would not be carrying the president’s back-to-school pep talk live. I was especially upset that my district, Newburgh, would be passing the buck down to the classroom level where each teacher would  decide for himself whether or not to show the address.

I thought that would be  a terrible way to handle the “controversy” since it put teachers in a damned-if-you- do-damned- if-you-don’ t position. Some parents would be upset if the teacher showed the speech, others if the teacher refused to show it. But even more to the point, it troubled me that in a mostly Black and Hispanic district like Newburgh some kids, because of their teacher’s personal politics or because of their teacher’s caving in to political pressure from others, would miss out an historic address by a potentially powerful role model.

Also, I’m just sick and tired of having our national discourse hijacked by the oligarchs and the jack-booted mobs they’ve inflamed.

So I planned to protest outside the Newburgh Board of Ed this afternoon during the time when Obama’s speech would be conspicuously absent from many classrooms. But not wanting to go off half-cocked with my only information coming from a newspaper story, I asked some friends who work in Newburgh schools if in fact the report was accurate. When they gave me conflicting answers, I decided to call the Board of Ed as soon as they opened this morning to get the story right from the superintendent’ s mouth. but of course, being the first day of class, things were hectic at the board and I had to wait for a call back.

I used the time to call other districts and ask how they were handling the matter. To my chagrin, most were taping the speech for  possible showing at a later date at the teacher’s discretion. But Goshen, according to the district’s website, was not going to give the speech any airing at all. Instead, they were merely going to provide a link on their site to allow parents to watch the speech together with their children, presumably in the comfort of their own homes.

It occurred to me as I sat simmering in front of my computer ( not an at all unusual state of affairs these days) that the kids in upper middle class white districts would benefit every bit as much,  if not in some ways more, from hearing  the first Black president speaking directly to them than the kids in Newburgh. As much as young inner-city kids needs role models, kids whose parents channel Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter every night at the dinner table need to have their prejudices challenged and the stereo-types debunked.

So I grabbed my trusty magic marker and scribble SHAME ON GOSHEN SHOOLS FOR NOT AIRING PRESIDENT OBAMA’S SPEECH onto a 24 by 30 inch white signboard and headed off to the Goshen Board of Ed.

I positioned myself on the street corner nearest the Board office building and held up my sign for passing motorists and the occasional pedestrian to see.

It’s hard to quantify the response to my one-man demonstration, but i would guess that 80% ignored me, 15% gave me honks and thumbs up , 4% thumbs down, and the remainder registered their opinion by using an entirely different finger.

But all in all, things went smoothly for about 45 minutes. Then a cop on a bike came along,

The officer asked me if I had a permit to display a placard on the street. I told him that I didn’t think that one was needed; that my protest was protected by the  first-amendment. He then informed me that the village of Goshen required all protestors [sic] to obtain permission from the Town clerk and that he was sure that I would be granted such permission if I requested it. I told him that I would not want permission even  if it were granted since merely asking for it was in itself a recognition of the village’s legitimacy in requiring it the first place.

At that point a rather serious looking police sergeant pulled up in police car. He told me leave at once or be arrested. I chose the latter option.

I was handcuffed and driven to the police station where I was handcuffed to a bench.and asked lots of questions while an officer typed up a report. Afer an hour or so, I was released with an order to appear in Goshen Town Court tomorrow.

In fairness to the police officers, they were professional and respectful in the way the carried out their perceived duties. I hold no grudge against them.

But I will not be so tolerant of the judge tomorrow if he does anything other dismiss my case absolutely. No warnings to behave. No lectures. If the judge so much as mentions the requirement of a permit, I will tell him in the clearest possible terms that such an requirement is unconstitutional. Let the chips fall where they may.

To those of you, if any, who have read this far down, thanks for letting me get this stuff off my chest. To the rest of you, I admire your good judgement [sic].

One can tell from his story that Weiss has a lot of personal assumptions going on in his mind. For instance, he believes that parents who oppose president Obama’s speech to students are generally right-wing “Archie Bunker” typecast crackers.

Can’t say that about me. I voted for the all-black woman, Cynthia McKinney; not the half-white Democrat Barack Obama; or the all-white Republican John McCain. I opposed Obama’s Sept. 8th speech to America’s students, because not enough consideration was given for parents to preview the content.

The Pine Bush Central School District — where my kid is in 2nd grade — chose not to compel students to watch Barky, which decision I respect as good judgment. I previewed the speech on Labor Day, watched it live on C-SPAN, and thought it was a pretty cool speech. But that was my decision as a parent — not the school, and not the president, and certainly not Bennett Weiss of Newburgh.

So I asked my daughter afterwards if she wanted to experience the speech with me, and she refused. That got me thinking, suppose I forced her to watch the speech, every day for a week, what would happen? Would she wind up loving Barack Obama, or would she wind up hating him? I decided to find out.

Within the first several minutes of enduring Obama, my child was passed out cold on the couch, unconscious. After the speech ended, I asked her what she thought of Barky Obama. She gave me a thumbs down, and blew a raspberry. It was “boooooring!”

One more thing: I don’t agree with Barky that our school kids owe their country anything. We owe them a future worth living. The president was probably prepping our nation’s young into accepting the trillions of dollars in bailout debt he’s laying upon their shoulders.

UPDATE: Charges against Bennett Weiss were dismissed on Sept. 22.

Tuesday night’s symposium at Bernie’s Holiday Restaurant in Rock Hill saw a room full of happy frackers. Sponsored by the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development (funded with your tax dollars), the evening was spend advocating natural gas drilling with the controversial hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) method.

As always with this site, the article you are reading is an opinion piece and work in progress. I probably can’t finish it this afternoon, but will be posting a wealth of new information here to supplement the previous piece done last week on this subject.

Here is the Times Herald-Record’s coverage of the event at Bernie’s (as usual, TH-R did not stay for the whole thing, therefore they cannot give you the full story): http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090909/NEWS/909090342/-1/NEWS

Here is the official press release for the event: http://readme.readmedia.com/news/show/IOGA-of-NY-and-the-Sullivan-County-Partnership-for-Economic-Development-to-Host-Public-Information-Session/949681, which includes the following list of speakers:

• Brad Gill: Executive Director of IOGA of NY and President of Earth Energy Consultants.
• John Holko: Secretary of the IOGA of NY Board and President of Lenape Resources, Inc.
• Michael Joy, J.D., Ph.D: Member of IOGA of NY, partner of Lipman, Biltekoff & Joy, LLP and adjunct professor at State University of New York at Buffalo Law School.
• John A. Conrad: Member of IOGA of NY and president and senior hydrogeologist of the Conrad Geoscience Corp.

The group represented by these speakers is the Independent Oil & Gas Association of NY. They are, however, not “independent” of the gas drilling industry as a whole. Rather, IOGA-NY is an advocacy group for drilling; its members each have a private pecuniary interest in profiting from drilling. Here is a lobbying page from IOGA-NY to illustrate their position: http://www.capwiz.com/iogany/home/

And here is a page full of propaganda videos in favor of drilling: http://www.marcellusfacts.com/blog/video-clips

I made a three-part YouTube upload showing what was presented by IOGA-NY at Bernie’s on Tuesday night, Sept. 8th:

Part 1, general overview on fracking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztOymoPPdMo

Part 2, animated video on fracking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pppCLl16lvg

Part 3, detailed discussion of secret fracking fluid additives: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJvDVYCMKFg

Most of the crowd was pro-drilling. Many were landowners interested in making money by leasing their mineral rights. Partnership for Economic Development people were also in the room, with apparently a few industry shills sprinkled throughout. Several protesters attended, but they were not tightly organized, and their “questions” during “Q&A” were less pointed than didactic. The IOGA-NY lobbyists easily deflected the slings & arrows of opposition, aided by querulous hecklers from the audience.

One of the right-wing hecklers shouted down an activist opposed to drilling by exclaiming. “you’re an extremist.” I disagree. With two sides to an argument, the undecided stand on middle ground. This places both arguments of the polemic on either end. To label one faction “extremist” would imply that the other side is mainstream, indicating the existence of a phantom opposing extreme, somewhere way off in right field.

Here’s a good example of proper questioning. I asked the panel if they had seen a local documentary critical of their particular drilling business, Water Under Attack, which had been screened in a Narrowsburg park just two evenings earlier. At first they tried to evade, then a follow-up caught them off guard — John Holko made a statement indicating he was aware of the film. A further follow-up forced him to backpedal, claiming he knows nothing about the documentary. Watch the exchange on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDYmtdFTdvM

Local environmental groups like the Bashakill Area Association (BKAA) did not bother showing up. This is unfortunate, since the marcellus shale deposits exist beneath a large swath of New York, including the town of Mamakating. I feel that BKAA has spent too much time fighting other projects like Yukiguni Maitake — beating a dead horse — while ignoring much larger issues like hydraulic fracturing. Groups like IOGA-NY make Yukiguni look like Boy Scouts by comparison.

As a final word, here is a segment from Democracy Now about the drilling issue, which features several clips from a second documentary film called Split Estate:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoN_PQGclo4

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_JWwUPcp-U

Watch the Split Estate documentary trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvT4PycSAPk

More info on the real estate doctrine of “Split Estates:” http://www.wyominglandowners.org/splitestates/index.php

HBO Docudrama script: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090915/NEWS/909149962/-1/NEWS

Study: River towns must prepare for drilling: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090925/NEWS/909250368

New York Magazine, Sept. 2008 The Catskills Gas Rush: http://nymag.com/news/features/50502

Pennsylvania halts Marcellus shale drilling: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09269/1000932-454.stm

A free screening of the new documentary “Water Under Attack” will take place tonight at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Narrowsburg, NY. The film is directed by Pennsylvania activist Josh Fox, and shall be shown on a unique mobile outdoor movie theater created by artist Dan Brinkerhoff. Showtime is 7:45 pm.

The documentary concerns a controversial underground drilling technique developed by the infamous Halliburton Company (former affiliate of the notorious KBR, or Kellogg, Brown & Root), extracting natural gas from subsurface shale deposits by horizontally blasting a mixture of water, sand, and deadly chemicals. The process, proposed for central Sullivan County, has been used in 34 other states, and resulted in pollution of groundwater.

“Fracking,” as the technique has been nicknamed, also introduces flammable gas into nearby drinking water wells, resulting in occasional explosions.

See short video of a kitchen water faucet exploding here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U01EK76Sy4A

Water Under Attack is a work in progress, although tonight’s showing probably represents a close approximation to the finished product. You can learn more about the film at http://waterunderattack.com .

The outdoor showing was publicized several days ago in the weekly River Reporter, yet our region’s only daily newspaper — Times Herald-Record of Middletown, NY — censored news of the film’s premiere, running several pro-industrial propaganda articles instead. One of them, entitled “Sullivan group supports fracking,” begins with the words: “Let the drilling begin.” Another article in the today’s Sunday Record celebrates 150 years of environmentally catastrophic logging.

Not much can be found regarding fracking on the BKAA website, Mamakating’s local environmental group. They have been busy fighting against the Yukiguni Maitake mushroom factory along the Bashakill watershed, a hot-button issue.

Each fracking rig pumps millions of gallons of water — which exceeds Yukiguni’s consumption by a factor of ten. Thousands of drill rigs are proposed for Sullivan Co, amounting to billions or trillions of gallons. It should be noted that wholehearted endorsement of fracking by the Sullivan Partnership for Economic Development will probably reduce the Partnership’s credibility, especially in connection to Yukiguni.

Mainstream media balks at admitting our nation’s economy is experiencing a second great American Depression. Instead they use euphemistic terms like “recession.” Areas on the metropolitan fringe feel a pinch in the pocketbook, being too far away from the city for employment, but close enough to keep costs of living high. Every large project designed to offset the depression — including proposed warehouses at Wurtsboro Airport, casinos, Yukiguni, and fracking — will face close scrutiny to see if those ventures are truly sustainable.

James Gennaro, New York City council member, is quoted on the film’s website stating: “as a geologist, as an environmental scientist, as a policy maker, this is insanity.”  An article on TruthDig goes into much detail how gas drilling will pollute public water supplies, including the NYC watershed.

View press release here: http://waterunderattack.com/press/pressrelease.pdf

View a fact sheet on fracking here: http://www.earthworksaction.org/publications.cfm?pubID=398

More info from Damascus Citizens for Sustainability: http://damascuscitizens.org

Update: It took about an hour to drive out from Bloomingburg to Narrowsburg, heart of the shale country. About a hundred people showed up at the Veteran’s Park (known locally as “The Gazebo”). The documentary was extremely hard-hitting against the fracking industry.

Originally the outdoor screening was supposed to take place in Callicoon hamlet, but the town of Delaware unlawfully censored the event, due to political bias, so it was moved to Narrowsburg, in the town of Tusten.

Points glossed over by local media & officials include the fact that nobody can legitimately claim fracking is “safe,” because the deadly chemical recipe used in the process is kept secret by Halliburton.

Also, according to the film, fracking not only pollutes local water tables — rendering almost all living creatures infertile — but also fouls the air with poisonous volatile organic compounds. On top of that, the operation is extremely noisy. Check out a YouTube video from the Fort Worth, Texas metroplex here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdVgmWbgj30 .

The Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development has a lot of explaining to do. How exactly have they come to the conclusion that fracking is safe, without first viewing this documentary? We all have a chance to ask them, because the Partnership is sponsoring a special meeting open to the public this Tuesday night, Sept. 8th @ 6:30 pm, Bernie’s Holiday Restaurant in Rock Hill (Quickway Exit 109). Their guests include the happy frackers Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York.

Remarks by director Josh Fox, from the Narrowsburg screening:

Part 1 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdltGVDHv1E

Part 2 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_09e232sE4

Part 3 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ2lpKCGPxA