A Post From Dave LaMora - Enhancing Our Article X Defense Options

Dave has asked that I post the following comments.

There appears to be a common theme expressed by many of the recent commentors on the Cape blogs, and in general folks around town, regarding home rule versus corporate rule as it pertains to Article X and industrial wind development in Cape Vincent, that being that if the state over-rules our zoning law there will be a protest and possible rebellion. Many have even gone as far as insisting that any candidate for the open town council seat, declare an intent to defend home rule and thus present a unified front by the board. 

 For some time  both JLL and Pandora have spotlighted the motto –“home rule versus corporate rule”.

With all due respect, and appreciation for everyone who has contributed to the development of our updated Zoning Law, including ; 

 All who have committed hours, days, weeks, months, even years, and untold personal resources, to purging our government of illegal bias, campaigning for or applying for positions in our new government ; 

All those who have diligently researched wind development and its potential negative impacts;  

All who volunteered dutifully to review and revise our Comprehensive Plan and the Zoning Law.

Every person who has had the courage and determination to oppose the abuse of power by our previous town officials, and has withstood the disdain and ridicule by the spiteful “pro-wind at any cost”, element of our community. 

Everyone who values the character and essence of this community enough to sacrifice whatever they could to impact this process, including the bloggers facing a legal challenge to their right to provide unlimited access to information regarding the facets of this issue. 

To all these folks I ask, how are we going to express a protest or rebellion, if we first submit to the process of Article X?  New York State has asserted their legislative authority to pre-empt our Zoning Law, by the simple passage of Art.X. If we participate in that process we are acknowledging that the process is legitimate, and in effect we relinguish any realistic legal basis for challenging its results. Any rebellion, or legal challenge will come in the form of an Article 78 action, which is ruled strictly on  procedural elements. We can be sure the State lawyers have made certain they will win that suit, and there is a good possibility that the current town board will not even consider such a legal challenge. Anyone who believes our law will withstand the “reasonable, not overly burdensome” criteria, I remind you of the stated purpose of the Article X legislation-which is to streamline and speed up the permitting process for renewable energy projects, and then also the public comments of our own illustrious representative of Voters for Wind, Paul Mason- “you have zoned out commercial wind turbines”. Perhaps we should take heed to what Paul is telling us-  we have created a law that in the eyes of industrial wind advocates, including Gov. Cuomo’s Stated energy policymakers, is overly burdensome!!  We have played right into their game plan?? 

There is another option. The Cape Vincent Town board has been presented with a proposal to adopt a Community Bill of Rights , prepared by The CELDF(Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund) organization. This Bill of Rights would contain, among other things, the assertion that we have a Constitutional Right to self- governance, (“all power is derived from the people”),and that corporations do not have expressed Constitutional rights that supercede ours. The Article X legislation proposes to give corporations rights that supercede our local laws, therefore it is Unconstitutional. 

This position moves the legal challenge from arguing the basis of any individual criteria, to that of challenging the State’s  right to confer constitutional rights, that subjugate our own, to corporations, -in other words ,a truly meaningful “home rule versus corporate rule” protest. 

Of course the first required action is to officially oppose Art. X and decline to participate in the siting review process. 

If anyone is truly interested in seeing the fruits of the last six years efforts come to fruition, please contact your town board members, and encourage them to consider and adopt such a Bill of Rights. Lets make our Zoning Law the true Law of Cape Vincent.

 

Dave LaMora  783-8744

 

The Logic Dump!!! - Where Logic Goes to Die!!!

This negative comment came to my blog about the blogger defense fund.  These people are amazing in their logic how they run themselve over with their very own logic bus.

You can see the comment string under my post "Total Defense' below.
10:10 (1st comment) you said.

"I lived in the village of Cape Vincent or thirty- five years, you don't speak for me."

Yup...and apprently you aren't even willing to speak for yourself since your comments are anonymous!!!  Brilliant logic!!!

And since you signed anonymous what the hell difference does it make if you have lived in the Village for 35 years or 100...nobody cares or can verify that since you have no name on your comment.  You effectively are a non person and so where and how long you have lived in any place is therefore completely pointless to your very own arguement!!!  You could be from the N. Pole for all we know and claim you have lived in CV for 35 years. As anonymous it is a completely idiotic and pointless statement. I just love this logic, and I love it when these commenters just completely run themselve over with their own logic.

LOOK OUT!!!!!  SPLAT!!!!

And the extreme irony about your comment is that after all your rant against the blogs you can still actually come on a blog with you idiotic opinion, and can hide your identity which after all is a big point of the law suit against the bloggers. .  Do you have any F!!!!!! clue that the law suit is trying to uncover people just like YOU and expose who you are and your right to stay anonymous!!!!

Ding Dong answer the door!!!!!!!!!!!!

You should donate to the bloggers defense if for no other reason than the blogs provide you a place where you can at least have even a partical personality and ANY opinion in your case  by being anonymous, and the law suit is attempting to take that away. Get it?   If the law suit wins you won't have any place to express your idiotic opinions and hide and protect them because you will have to show your face in a public forum where you are obviously very ill equipped to do so. Your only other option will be  for you to be SILENT and live in fear and have no opinion at all or place to express it.  You're pretty much a non person now, but the law suit is trying in your anonymous case to make you and your opinion completely non existent.
 
That's the beauty of America and free speech, the bloggers defense will even protect your right to an opinion and a place to express it,  as idiotic as it is.

You don't get it...this is not about the bloggers opinion or if you agree with it, or the fact you are some antique fossil in the community where you live and that somehow gives you more rights than the rest of us.  It's about a threat to rights granted to all of us through the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution.

And guess what pal...since that Constitution was formed to protect ALL our rights as Americans and We the People formed that Constitution, maybe you ought to get a clue that it damn well does "speak for you", and even to protect your ANONYMOUS opinion. And the framers of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence didn't slink around with anonymous opinions.  They made damn sure King George III knew exactly who they were and what they stood for.  And the end results of their extremely blatant and public and brave work even provided you with a place to be anonymous in your opinion!!!!  And your choice is to hide, AND even hide from defending their sacrifices.

And if you want to talk about a time frame...fine...then  that Constitution protecting your rights, including your anonymous rights to be an idiot  has been around one hell of a lot longer than you have ever lived in Cape Vincent.

Or doesn't that American Constitution speak for you either??????

If you are still American, stop letting the rest of us pull the load for you, get up and make a donation to protect ALL of our rights.

A TOTAL Defense!

I encourage everyone to make a contribution to the Blogger's Defense Fund.  It's a down payment on preserving your rights.

We should defend the bloggers...but it makes no sense to defend the bloggers and then for the community or our town board to not take  strong decisive measures to  defend our new zoning law and comp plan against Article X as well so all the bloggers sacrifice and efforts are not wasted.!

No Beauty in Cape Vincent

Some pro wind people commented at the public hearing for the revised Cape Vincent Comp Plan, that there wasn't anything to see in Cape Vincent.  I guess they think there is no beauty here.  Well I'm not the kinda guy who just likes to take somebody else's word for it, so I decided to do some checking around on my own.

Well guess what they were right...absolutely nothing to see here in CV.  No beauty.  Now as you know I  like to stick to the facts and document my claims as much as possible.  So below is the evidence that there in nothing to see that is beautiful in CV.

 

 

 

     So there you have it folks.  No big deal.  Nothing for the Comp Plan to protect. No beauty here.

Does This Story Sound Familiar - Could Be Cape Vincent Against BP and Cuomo's Government

 The corporation had gone too far, and the two thousand people who'd jammed into the meeting hall were torn as to what to do about it. Unemployment was exploding and the economic crisis was deepening; corporate crime, governmental corruption spawned by corporate cash, and an ethos of greed were blamed. "Why do we wait?" demanded one at the meeting, "The more we delay, the more strength is acquired" by the company and its puppets in the government. "Now is the time to prove our courage," he said. Soon, the moment came when the crowd decided for direct action and rushed into the streets.

That is how I tell the story of the Boston Tea Party, now that I have read a first-person account of it. While striving to understand my nation's struggles against corporations, in a rare book store I came upon a first edition of "Retrospect of the Boston Tea Party with a Memoir of George R.T. Hewes, a Survivor of the Little Band of Patriots Who Drowned the Tea in Boston Harbor in 1773," and I jumped at the chance to buy it. Because the identities of the Boston Tea Party participants were hidden (other than Samuel Adams) and all were sworn to secrecy for the next 50 years, this account is the only first-person account of the event by a participant that exists. As I read, I began to understand the true causes of the American Revolution.

I learned that the Boston Tea Party resembled in many ways the growing modern-day protests against transnational corporations and small-town efforts to protect themselves from chain-store retailers or factory farms. The Tea Party's participants thought of themselves as protesters against the actions of the multinational East India Company.

By Thomas Hartman  - Common Dreams.org

It Speaks For Itself

Actually I am not against corporations.  I drive vehicles made by corps and have a house full products manufactured by corps.

HOWEVER... I don't think they should have unlimited power, or corporate constitutional rights like people, and they should not be able to force themselves on communities like Gov. Cuomo and Article X could do to us in Cape Vincent because of inordinate WEALTH . We should have a choice.

 For example I  don't think we should write  zoning laws in fear of corporate power, and the political system that  enables that fear by preemption. Yet that is what we did trying to write a law that was "reasonable" to Article X and BP.  Why wasn't our first conversation about completely protecting people, not what we could slide by the State and BP????

I don't think corps should have the " right" to dominate our communities simply because they can out last us in court or use OUR constitution as a sword to wield the power to decapitate our communities.   I think we should be allowed to grant the "privilege" for corps to do business in our communities if we feel they are acceptable and compatible to our community vision.

We should have community bill of rights that proclaims that no govt, person, or corp can take away our rights based on religious beliefs, sexual orientation, color, race, gender, age, national origin ...

...or their WEALTH !!!!!

NY Corporate/ Business Law

§ 1101. Attorney-general's action for judicial dissolution. (a) The attorney-general may bring an action for the dissolution of a corporation upon one or more of the following grounds: (1) That the corporation procured its formation through fraudulent misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact. (2) That the corporation has exceeded the authority conferred upon it by law, or has violated any provision of law whereby it has forfeited its charter, or carried on, conducted or transacted its business in a persistently fraudulent or illegal manner, or by the abuse of its powers contrary to the public policy of the state has become liable to be dissolved. (b) An action under this section is triable by jury as a matter of right. (c) The enumeration in paragraph (a) of grounds for dissolution shall not exclude actions or special proceedings by the attorney-general or other state officials for the annulment or dissolution of a corporation for other causes as provided in this chapter or in any other statute of this state.