Thursday, May 17, 2012

NY State Police Attempt to Arbitrate Upstate Frack Wars, Take on the Internet, Etc.

[Original post the evening of May 16]

Okay, now this is officially getting out of hand.

Bizarre news tonight from imgasious, a/k/a Brian Conover, leader of the CNY Landowners Coalition:  The New York State Police have — at the behest of a New Berlin, NY, anti-driller — made a highly unusual request that the pro-drillers' group censor an already forgotten, two-week-old, bulletin board thread which started off by quoting from one of her emails.

The words of hers she didn't like seeing made public might have been these:

"Be careful where you post this so it’s not in the PRO DRILLERS hands..."
I guess — if your first reflex is calling the cops, and demanding official censorship — better late than never.

The original message was simply the New Berliner's forward of an April 30 message — apparently intended solely for the Already Fully Indoctrinated — from Cheryl Wertz and David Braun, Manhattan-based staffers with something called New York Against Fracking.

Among other in-their-minds sensitive information, the big secret might have been that anti-drillers were cooking up an "All Star Concert Event," May 15, in Albany — news of which is now, of course, already aging in most peoples' recycle bins.

The fracktivists might also have been embarrassed by exposure for openly trolling for any New Yorkers, with time on their hands, interested in "bird-dogging" Governor Cuomo — by maybe holding up some anti-frack signage, or shouting out some off-topic questions, at his various public appearances.  (Events this administration seems to routinely orchestrate on pretty short notice.)

When the New Berliner's forward was re-forwarded a day or so later to the landowners' Conversational Mosh Pit, it received such trenchant replies as this:

"LOL its a big secret...." — Bonafide.
But now here's Conover of the CNYLC tonight, asking for input from any gotta-work-in-the-morning Discussion Forum participants, and seemingly torn before making a final decision as to how to respectfully respond to the usually clear-thinking Men in Gray and Purple:
"Not only do the Anti's not believe in your property rights, they also don't believe in your freedom of speech!  ...After her routine calls to the police, they asked me today to take down her email as courtesy to them."
As of the morning of May 17, however, the version of the post laughed at by landowners still pretty much stands intact, though the original partial reading of the New Berliner's email address — KFELTER (kfelter1@...) — has been stripped out, and an explanation has been added up top.

The apparently original source is also still floating out there in cyberspace — on a highly localized Yahoo group linked here — (which I see has since been converted to a "members only" clique, typical of how the anti-drilling cabal prefers to isolate both its outlook and its communications).

Wait another day, and we'll just have to see what New York's freakout-driven Memory Hole might have eaten lately.

1 comment:

Michael Knapp said...

It's unreal what you guys are going through up there in NY. It really is. Those who simply wish to develop THEIR resources on the THEIR land have acted with civility an class, while those on the other side have acted anything but. I wish you all well, and please keep fighting!