Loading...Friday, February 17 2012
Sunrise / Set
6:46 AM
5:44 PM
Good Morning
I'm posting Lee's discourse to the Las Vegas City Council last night
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Here's what I told the mayor and council about our community water rights act -
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Mayor, council, I'm here tonight to speak to you about the proposed water rights ordinance
For more than a century, our community has been embroiled in a struggle. That struggle is defined by the following question; “Will we manage our land and our water with respect for mother earth, to meet our common needs , and those of our children and grandchildren, or will we allow outside concerns to usurp and exploit our land and water for their short-term gain.” This was the struggle fought by the Gorras Blancas, and this is our struggle also.
Fracking, the process used by oil and gas companies to extract natural gas from the ground, involves the injection of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals into the Earth under enormous pressure. Evidence is emerging of incidents around the country where groundwater has been polluted with these toxic and cancer-causing chemicals. Once polluted, the groundwater cannot be UN-polluted. Those who live in the area have a choice of moving elsewhere or being poisoned by the water which once sustained them. Mobil, Exxon and BP don't care about that. If they are allowed to move in, they will take what they want and move on, and if our water is poisoned it will be of no consequence to them.
In this struggle, there is an imbalance of power. Several legal fictions, most notably that of corporate personhood, serve to rob communities of their innate and inalienable rights of self-determination, while bestowing on corporations rights and powers which they ought never to have. For this reason, the ordinance under consideration contains provisions which nullify those legal fictions. In order for this ordinance to be defensible and effective, it is vital that those provisions remain intact in the final ordinance.
The proposed ordinance also recognizes the rights of nature. Some of you may think that 's strange, but if you do think so it is only an indication that your minds have been colonized just as surely as your land has. We live within a legal framework that considers corporations to be persons and Mother Nature to be property. I think THAT's strange. And that strange way of thinking, that institutionalized disrespect for our Mother Earth and our fellow creatures, is foreign to the pre-existing culture of this place. I say we've gotten it backwards. I say that Mother Nature is a person and corporations are property, and it is time to begin constructing our laws accordingly.
I call on you, Mayor and council, to advertise this ordinance, and having done so, to pass it into municipal law.
Lee Einer
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More info from FB chat this morning
Morning you are up early or didn't you work last night?
Lee Einer
Report · 7:27am
up early. Got a full night's sleep, and savored it like a fine wine.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 7:27am
I bet
I'm making your water rights speech my BMN if that's all right with you
great stuff that talkin' to you gave em " We live within a legal framework that considers corporations to be persons and Mother Nature to be property…"
Lee Einer
Report · 7:30am
That's perfectly fine. We need to get the word out. The next city council meeting will be the real battle, where they vote on whether to enact the ordinance into law. I expect that the Oil and Gas people will pull out all the stops to derail this, as the legislation would be a ground breaker, the first of its kind in New Mexico.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 7:32am
I'm certain that others as well as myself will need to know more background such as what does the proposed ordinance say?
Lee Einer
Report · 7:35am
The hearing Wednesday was on whether to publish the proposed ordinance, and that was approved, so it will be printed in the Optic. the issues involved in banning fracking are a little complicated, so I think it would be better for us to have a face to face conversation about it rather than trying to cover the issues by IM
Brian Rodgers
Report · 7:37am
got cha
posted today?
Brian Rodgers
Report · 7:46am
posting now
oh no I meant in the Optic the ordinance
Lee Einer
Report · 7:48am
Don't know on what day it will be posted. Soon, I assume.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 7:48am
thats fine thank you
Lee Einer
Report · 7:53am
What some people may not initially get is that state and federal law permit fracking. They have a permitting process, not a forbidding process. So within the federal and state legal framework it is impossible to ban fracking, or for that matter virtually any other corporate activity to which the community objects. This is why the environmental movement has largely been taking it up the ass, despite their periodic claims of legal victories. In order to ban such things at the municipal or county levels, certain elements of federal and state laws, such as the commerce clause, the preemption clause, and corporate personhood, HAVE to be nullified in the ordinance. The logic and strategy surrounding this are not easy to sound-bite, this is why I would like to have a face to face about it.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 7:54am
okay good I will append this
Lee Einer
Report · 7:57am
Append this? don't understand. I was just saying I'd like to have a leisurely conversation with you about the ordinance to illuminate what's happening with Community Rights ordinances, wht the broader movement looks like and why some of the provisions are in there and are vital.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 7:59am
I mean to say that as far as a little back story for the main talk I will append our chat so people who want to know more, can
I'm also saying that while I love your story enough to make it my BMN I really don't know what it is about
I feel that others may be in the dark as well
Lee Einer
Report · 8:03am
Right. And when I first looked at the draft ordinance I thought that some of the provisions were problematic. It wasn't until I attended Democracy School that I understood both why those provisions were included and the broader strategy behind such ordinances. So my IM comments to you won't likely take you or your readers where they need to go. This is why I would like to have an in-person conversation about it.
I will be forwarding you a copy of the draft ordinance in a few.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 8:05am
Is it enough to get their interest?
I know more from what you wrote than I did before. It may not be the whole story but it is more
Seems like that class hit home for you
Lee Einer
Report · 8:07am
OK, go for it. What I don't want to happen is for people to get their feet dug in on an opinion before they understand why these provisions are present in the ordinance.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 8:08am
People do that
but I hear ya
Lee Einer
Report · 8:10am
The class really did hit home for me. It was primarily an in-depth analysis of the history and workings of the US constitution and federal state law as they act to protect corporations and commerce and disempower people and communities. It was a full day and a half covering everything from British common law and the Articles of Confederacy ( the document which preceded the Constitution) to the people's struggles such as abolitionism and women's suffrage and why they were effective. Brilliant stuff.
The two giving the class are both environmental lawyers with decades of experience. They began doing this when the realized that working within the existing framework as they had been doing was actually ENABLING the corporations they thought they were fighting.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 8:12am
I want to copy and paste this whole chat: Information: The more the merrier
Lee Einer
Report · 8:13am
OK.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 8:13am
thanks man for all you are doing for humankind
Lee Einer
Report · 8:14am
You're most welcome. we all do what we can.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 8:15am
some more than most collectively
Lee Einer
Report · 8:16am
True. Maybe I should write an analysis of the provisions of the ordinance and why they are there. It might be hard for some folks to read through, as again, it can't really be reduced to a couple of easy slogans, but it would answer some questions, anyway.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 8:17am
If you get people interested, which is the battle then certainly let them know more
Lee Einer
Report · 8:18am
Sounds good. Got to go now, nice chatting with you. Lets get together some time and we can talk about the Community Rights movement. It really is huge, revolutionary.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 8:19am
You could satirize the law people love a summary with humor
thank you too Lee
Lee Einer
Report · 8:21am
We could just use the county oil and gas task force as an example. We say hell no to gas and oil drilling. But by following legal process for months, we have been led down the primrose path of discussing ad nauseum not an outright ban but rather the conditions under which it will be permitted. After a few more months, the gas companies will agree to paint the oil derricks green, or make a donation to the Sierra Club, and we'll call it a day. That's how it rolls.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 8:23am
I been sayin the same thing more or less about the wind farms, anyway
Lee Einer
Report · 8:24am
The wind farms have followed the same process. Note that public input raised a wide range of issues, but following the process forced the debate into a narrow channel of offset distances and decibels, excluding many issues from the debate entirely. And it was absolutely not permitted to simply take the position as a county that we don't want that wind farm in that place.
Brian Rodgers
Report · 8:25am
"they are actually in control, whether they have a forum or just do whatever they want, which in the end, is what'll happen, like the low altitude military training flights : they were, are and will continue
———
Hi everyone!
Tonight, the City of Las Vegas City Council voted unanimously to
advertise the "Las Vegas Community Water Rights and Local
Self-Government Ordinance" that bans oil and gas drilling and
hydraulic fracturing within the city limits!
Thanks to everyone who has attended the Democracy School for
coming, speaking, and showing your support to the city council.
The City of Las Vegas is leading the way in not only New Mexico,
but the rocky southwest!
This was a true example of how one community can help another.
At the March council meeting, the council will vote to pass this
ordinance. The council is showing their solidarity and support
for Mora County in their move to pass this ordinance. Mora
County faces oil and gas drilling, with over 144,000 acres of
mineral leases already reported at the county clerk's office.
This will be the first CELDF Community Rights Ordinance passed
in the Rocky Southwest! Yeah, City of Las Vegas Council!
Councilman Andrew Feldman championed this ordinance. Miguel
Pacheco, San Miguel County, is to be congratulated on his work
to help educate the council about the dangers of oil and gas
drilling and the merits of the CELDF community rights
ordinance. His efforts have resulted in this exciting news this
evening! Congratulations, and thank you Miguel!
Ordinance attached in a pdf.
Las Vegas-DRAFT 2-8-12
In solidarity and peace,
Kathleen Dudley
—————
Okally Doke folks
one last note my fav music now: Electroswing
one example:
Youtube vid Mr Scruff – Get A Move On – Electro Swing
and of course there is Parov Stelar aka Marcus Füreder
Parov Stelar – Booty Swing (HQ)
Y'all have a great weekend
Brian
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