A Comment...and My Comment In Rebutal

A comment came to my blog this AM and I decided to post it because there was at least some attempt to be reasonable...however, it did have to resort to a personal attack of course to defend the Hirschey govt.  I don't know why the Hirschey supporter feel that desperate need to do that to defend this govt.

They rarely provide any real facts.

I moved this comment to a post because it raised some issues I wanted to respond to anyhow. 

One of things I love about these comments is that in their frustration with no where to go and no facts, they are quick to point out that I am not a full time resident of the community.  They are very quick to attack the pro wind Dems. about their attacks on seasonal people, but in the Hirschey supporter hypocrisy they use the  EXACT SAME marginalization on me, a seasonal resident of the community.  And they some how conveniently forget it was us who don't spend a great deal of time in CV, some far less and involved than I am, that in very large part put their damn govt in power. And this line of argument occurs regularly.

According to them we are supposed to vote for them in the community we love.  Yet the community we love has no problem kicking a seasonal voter right in the teeth when it conveniently fits their needs to marginalize someone who doesn't goose step with them!!!  So how is this different than the tactics of Marion Trieste, Gary King and crew, VFW, and the pro wind Dems?????

That is how screwed up their thinking can get!

Yet these Hirschey people don't seem to have a clue why I get upset with them sometimes!


The reader's comment below.


"Good morning Art. Dennis is a good man. Unlike you, he is a solid long time resident of the community and has contributed much more and on an honest and responsible level. Much more that hanging a photo in the bank. I believe Dennis did the right thing and within his power. You might want to seek help because it appears that your have a very unhealthy obsession since that is all you have been able to write about for nearly a year. Unless, you think failure of our town officials will better serve bp and future wind."

Geee that is funny...it seems the WDT has been following it too and our supervisor even responded.   It is Hirschey's own project and his comments  that keeps this in the news.

So do they all need checks on their mental health too???? 

Now my main comment in response.

Good morning 5:06

First of all in my opinion our town leaders are already serving BP by participating in a system more than likely lobbied by BP and that stacks the game severely in their favor. So your argument does not hold any water on that account.  Take some time and look at the CELDF videos I posted and it will explain how the regulatory process sucks us into a scheme we can’t win and that is exactly what our town leaders are doing.  These videos and the lawyers in them could be talking exactly about CV, and how the path the town is taking is the wrong one.  And these people are very savy lawyers with very high win records.

Look at where we are.  BP isn't really even in the equation any more and yet the system our leaders swear allegiance to (Art X) still has this community in slavery on behalf of BP basically to help BP like a realtor and make sure BP gets all the time they need to sell their project to someone else who can then come in and continue to rape our community.  Our town leaders to this point by their appeasement of the system have had NO impact on changing BP and the state's dominance over this community. NONE! 

The discussion at the last town board meeting shows their frustration that the system is working against them and they know it, but aren’t even sure what to do about it…have the attorney write another letter?…good grief they tried that to no avail already over and over!!!

It has been nearly a decade of fighting wind in CV and NOTHING has changed, and in fact with Art X things are far WORSE for us since our home rule was just stripped away by the system our govt is now supporting.  What do our leaders do?  They write polite letters one of which even says they think the system is fair and even handed and balanced.  Go look it up on the NYPSC Website. Are you kidding me!!!

So don't talk to me about wanting our leaders to fail...in large part just by looking at the record of how this community is still under the BP and state thumb, and judge Agresta even saying there is no provision in Art X to help us end this thing...then our leaders have already failed in their appeasement approach. 

We have a new zoning law, big deal...it will be the state who decides whether we get to enforce it or not. At this point that law is nothing more than an opinion to the state how we would like to control wind development.  And they failed when they told our community that this law was the answer. The panacea to battle Art X and BP…then very clearly demonstrated they could not even comprehend our law as they wrote it.  How does the supervisor put up a solar project that is illegal by the very law he wrote????

As to my commitment to community...well your memory is short and very selective as it has to be to support your weak point.

 I was instrumental in bringing a precedent setting AG investigation to this town against the previous govt. and exposing a lot of the conflicts of interest.  That helped Hirschey and his candidates  into office. If you run on ethics and your opponent is under investigation by the AG  it certainly dramatically helps your election bid.  

When Hirschey became aware the AG was interested in the CV mess who do you think he personally called to make sure my research and others reached the AG’s investigators?????  He knew exactly how that could play in his favor.   A

And then you seem to forget the 800 name wind moratorium petition I and another drafted.  Mr Hirschey himself even in a personal conversation in my cottage last fall said to me that the follow up personal research of names and potential voters  some of us did on that petition was critical to his election and the election of his candidates.  And when we went door to door and people asked, do you honestly think we told people to vote for Rienbeck after how I fought against him and his conflicted govt?  Mr. Hirschey even went so far as to say he felt he would not have been elected without it.  I don’t believe that, but I believe it was a very big help.

And BTW way my friend, Hirschey and his candidates would not even be in office if it wasn’t for people who do not spend the entire year in this community, and many who probably have little involvement in CV otherwise.

So the supervisor and the govt YOU have the privilege to enjoy, sit there at least in part because of some of my efforts on critical wind issues.  And I did those things still knowing full well I was at odds with Hirschey and his supporters. So don’t sit there on your high horse and suggest to me what my community contribution has been.  You are being stupid enough to bite the hand that feeds you and Hirschey and makes his power possible!!!

Maybe you should just shut your mouth or say “thank you”!!!

Now as to Mr. Faulkinham.  I actually don’t question his personal integrity.  Frankly I think he got caught severely crosswise in a real zoning mess that was spinning out of control.  But we all make choices and I think he made some very wrong ones.  And frankly I feel a bit sorry for Dennis.  But in my opinion he folded to the pressures of the moment.  One ZBA person Hester Chase did show real integrity under significant pressure, as she did against the old govt and he should have looked to her as an example and supported her…but he chose to do otherwise.

I fail to see how a person who chairs a ZBA board that is supposed to be, by law, IMPARTIAL like the judicial  system, which the ZBA is modeled after,  can tell a person who is bringing an appeal before  them that they can’t win the appeal prior to even hearing the appeal. That is absurd. 

He also indicated he was not sure how to start an appeal before his board, and it took the ZBA and the town nearly 3 full weeks to even find the right stinking form to fill out to start the appeal.  In the end it was Urban Hirschey who sent Mrs. Grogan an appeal form…not Mr. Faulknham, and even that was only a couple days before the deadline.  It was a circus!!  This borders on incompetence in my opinion. Then be involved in the legitimization of what the PB and ZEO’s did which is also highly questionable as state statutes in my post even point out.  That is a failure to do the job correctly. And he even indicated what had happened would not hold up in court.  Then damn it Dennis do something about it…that is YOUR job!!!

Now you ask why I keep on this as if I need some mental help.  That is your way of marginalizing me in public.  And you are insistent on your personal attacks as you claim I am on the issue at hand.  Do you need mental help?  

How come you don’t do the same thing to Wiley at JLL who on his blog for years has given us the same old  repeated points day after day about how bad wind energy is. Geees… We get it already!!!  Maybe he needs mental help too for his focus on Hirschey or the wind energy negatives with no let up.   

Well I keep on it because there are still lingering issues I have not outed yet and they are very serious.

But the main reason is our town govt leaders in a crisis with their very own law screwed up badly, and as you can see in the WDT, apparently I am not the only one who thinks so. And my blog hits since this started also indicate other people are concerned and want to understand what is going on.  And in my opinion they attempted to cover what they did.  In my opinion they demonstrated some real faulty decision making and choices. 

The community should know that and be reminded of it, because we are a community in a very severe and long standing crisis, and we are hanging the entire fate of our community and its future on only the decisions and judgments of these very small handful of leaders.  We are told by the Hirschey blogs and supporters this is all that stands between us and disaster. Yet they demonstrated that in another crisis with very same zoning law they claim is the panacea to saving our community…in my opinion they made terrible choices, and in my opinion made terrible choices to try to legitimize the mess they created. And with the supervisor involved, the crisis took on a whole new meaning and the perception was not a good one and it only magnified the bad choices that were made. 

And don’t kid yourself. Mr. Hirschey knows this.  It is extremely rare he responds to blogs or to the paper but he felt a need to in the WDT because this had spun so far out of control on his watch with him right in the center of it.

THAT is why I keep on it and it has nothing to do with my mental health.  That is the smoke screen you present to blur the issue because you too know very well  how bad this reflects on this govt. and the implications.

Now finally…as to your comment.  I decided to post it because you attempted to keep it reasonable.  However, as usual it at some point it degraded to a personal attack to defend this govt.  Why do you feel the govt needs to be defended in that manner?   If you choose to do that then I will remove your comments is I have done before.

How is it after all your comments you  have failed to once address the real issue at hand with reasonable comments and FACTS and documentation.  If you think I am wrong them prove it with something of actual substance.

Saying Hirschey or Faulkinham are good men is pointlessly subjective to the issue.

In my opinion good men don’t stand there in front of a widow that they know can not afford a law suit, and say the situation is such a mess it would not hold up in court…then turn their backs and let her property devalue further that it already has because of another CV zoning screw up she has been begging them to do something about.  And in my opinion do that because the person who has another solar project under this appeal has plenty of money to sue them as he did once before.

This decision was about MONEY.  Who has it and who doesn’t.  It wasn’t about “good guys” and their ethics!