"A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and in his own house..."
While attempting to film a Wednesday Congressional hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice related to his area of personal focus, award winning documentary film maker, Josh Fox, was arrested by Capitol Police under the direction of House Republicans andled off in handcuffs.
So much for our Forth Estate. So much for civil rights (and that first amendment thing).
So, what say we take a gander over the fold at his 2010 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize Award winner, and the Academy Award-nominated documentary,"Gasland" just to mess with Republican Pop Corn Free blinders? (Someone grab some extra buttered, plz.)
"Gasland"
"Economists have over 150 years of experience in examining energy booms and busts throughout the world to form their expectations of how energy development affects regional economies. Generally, economists find that energy development is associated with small or even negative long-run impacts. They refer to a "natural resources curse" phenomenon associated with the surprisingly poor performance of resource abundant economies. There appears to be more examples like Louisiana, West Virginia, Venezuela, and Nigeria of energy economies seemingly underperforming and few examples of places such as Alberta and Norway of relative over performance. This backdrop needs to be considered in forming good policy.... The Ohio State University Swank Program in The Economic Value of Shale Natural Gas in Ohio (PDF)
Emphasis Added.
Gasland documents the regional effects of Natural Gas fracking in Pennsylvania where hydraulic fracturing at levels far below the aquifer level complete with common plastic tubing failures resulted in (at the very least but rather dramatically nonetheless) one being able to light your kitchen faucet on fire simply by turning its handle slowly open.
Fox had hoped to film Wednesday's hearing for a follow-up to "Gasland." A colleague of Fox's at his production company was unable to comment on the morning's events.
Fox did not have formal Capitol Hill credentials, but such formalities are rarely enforced against high-profile journalists. Temporary passes are easy to obtain, and if Republicans had objected on procedural grounds, they could have simply sent the the crew to the front desk, rather than ordering police to arrest journalists. The right to a free press is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Documentary crews are almost never denied access to public meetings of elected government officials.
Republicans have been pushing the XL Pipeline and everything associated with Natural Gas expansion under the jobs banner in a struggling economy. So far as the above study finds for jobs produced by the expansion of Natural Gas in their area, their research indicates that what ever jobs may be created an equal or greater loss of unrelated jobs and income would be lost off setting any gains. Regarding the XL pipeline Republicans started by saying it would create "thousands" of jobs. How many quickly grew from 10,000 to 20,000, to 50 to
100,hell, "hundreds of thousands" to
"half a million new jobs".
Once all the numbers have been added up and cross checked against impact Non-Partisan group studies have put that job creation estimate closer to zero or worse.
What could be worse than being unemployed? Having your toilet catch on fire as well?
"Sa! New brena locum!!!" (Now the toilets burning!) - Something my Mother always screamed.
“I have come to bring a fire, and how I wish it were ablaze already!" Luke, 12:49