Not taking any credit for this; it's via the blog Young Philly Politics. Since I haven't seen this picked up on by anyone I'm posting here.
Basically, the Governor of PA is so deeply in the pocket of the energy industry that his cronies even attempt to subvert public debate at supposedly open hearings.
As in too many other states, frightened PA voters abandoned common sense and elected a Wall Street wingnut senator and a supposedly moderate Republican governor.
At the time most of the lamenting was for Senate candidate Joe Sestak, a truly progressive candidate defeated by looney Pat Toomey in a close race.
But far greater damage to the state is being done by new Republican governor Tom Corbett.
Corbett had a relatively moderate reputation as State Attorney General and Onorato was at best a middling politician, battered in his home county for having the temerity to impose a 7% tax on alcoholic beverages sold in restaurants. A tax that, as a working bartender, I can assure you has not affected business a whit.
But Corbett's anti-tax mantra played well. Now the bill is coming due.
Corbett's budget slashes half a billion dollars, approximately 10%, from public education while providing funding for school vouchers.
It decimates higher education, cutting funding in half. Yes, half.
It also reduces medical assistance for low income adults to virtually nothing and imposes draconian reductions on public transportation.
Now place against this bleak backdrop the development of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.
The Corbett administration is awash in former...and no doubt future...energy executives who are ramming the development along full-speed ahead, environmental questions and community issues be damned.
They are pushing ahead despite a number of accidents in both PA & WV, even going so far as to promote development of the wells near hospitals and schools. He's even suggested the embattled university system raise revenues by allowing drilling on their campuses.
He also supports drilling in state forests.
In fact, Corbett is so deeply in the pocket of the energy industry that he even opposes a tax on natural gas extraction. Despite the fact that such an extraction tax exists pretty much every place else...including the well-know socialist bastion of Texas.
And with both houses the well-gerrymandered PA legislature in the hands of the Republicans...despite the large Democratic edge in voter registrations...he stands an excellent chance of getting his way on all of the above.
Unless stopped by, perhaps, something as inconvenient as the expressed will of the people.
So to ensure that opposition is not even allowed to speak they go so far as to direct opponents of the drillers to phony sign-up sheets, ensuring that only industry representatives and supporters get to speak.
This has received no mainstream coverage in PA that I'm aware of; I'm hoping that posting it here helps.
Hats of to the unidentified woman in the video, who does such a wonderful job of putting the governor's oily flack in his place. Bravo!
Now all I want to know is...when is she running for governor?
Updated by Notthemayor at Tue May 17, 2011 at 04:23 PM EDT
The lady in the video is Pittsburgh area environmental activist Dana Dolney...and I just learned she is running as a write-in candidate in today's Democratic primary for the office of Allegheny County Executive!
I wish I had known this earlier. We have two terrible candidates on the ballot. One desperately want to get the county in bed with gas drilling frackers...the other begs them desperately for money.
Though Ms. Dolney stands little chance of winning the nomination, perhaps a few thousand votes in a low-turnout race will send a message.
Link here to article on her candidacy: http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/...