Hydrofracking causes many problems
Hydraulic "fracking" fluid is not safe. The drinking water in communities across the USA is already contaminated with hydraulic "fracking" fluid. The fact is that "frack" fluid contains carcinogenic ingredients. Some of these toxic chemicals include benzene, hydrochloric acid and biocides.
To access the natural gas, drills must pass through aquifers that supply drinking water. "Frack" fluid has been proven to migrate through underground fissures and aquifers, causing long-term and irreversible damage to aquifers, streams and ecosystems. The following states have drinking water wells proven to be contaminated with "frack" fluids: Pennsylvania, Colorado, Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico, Kansas, Montana, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming. These fluids can also become airborne. In October of 2009, Texas reported that natural gas-drilling was responsible for causing carcinogenic and neurotoxin air pollutants.
Natural gas-drilling disasters are not limited to "frack" fluid accidents. Locally, in February 2007, Ardent Resources fouled numerous private wells in Madison County in the town of Brookfield. In 2009, a natural gas-drilling rig caught fire in the town of Eaton.
The DEC has 270 natural gas accidents currently on file. These accidents include contamination of wells, toxic wastewater spills, brine spills, explosions, fire and many more. Some of the large-scale accidents were caused by simple valve failures, incompetence and even lightning strikes. Similar and various other accidents have been reported across the nation.
Accidents cannot be prevented with lengthy regulations and government oversight. Responding to these disasters will further stress local volunteers and the threadbare budgets they operate within. Property values will plummet and taxes will rise as the accidents increase. Worst of all will be the illnesses our families and neighbors will inevitably endure. State Sen. Jim Seward, a Republican, supports natural gas-drilling. Make Sen. Seward accountable by calling 432-5524.
Greg Baldinger
Oneonta
Health care, terror attempt sunk Dems
There's a correlation between the sinking of the "unsinkable" Titanic and the loss of Ted Kennedy's "unsinkable" Senate seat to the Republicans. The Titanic sank because of design flaws and an arrogant captain who disregarded the safety of his passengers while sailing through perilous waters.
Similarly, our arrogant egotistical captain, aka Barack Hussein Obama, Um, Um, Um, is steering our ship of state through perilous seas with unsustainable debt, double-digit unemployment and a condescending attitude toward terrorism.
The first Obama iceberg that helped sink Kennedy's legacy seat was the dishonest conduct of Senate Democrats including our own Mr. Windbag and Alice in Wonderland, aka Chuckie Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who prostituted themselves by making back-room deals to buy votes for Obama's flawed health care bill. It was a conspiracy spawned in hell, and the voters of Massachusetts seeing Obama's hand in it, said no.
The Christmas Day 9/11-type near-miss that had disaster written all over it was Obama's other iceberg. Showing little concern for the anxiety of the passengers Um, Um continued his vacation. He responded nonsensically calling the potential mass murderer a "nimble adversary" rather than a terrorist. With a team of ambulance chasers at his side, Um, Um made the potential mass murderer comfortable in a warm Michigan jail. It was Obama's concern for the rights of terrorists at the expense of American citizens that prompted Massachusetts voters to say no again. Thank goodness.
Janet "Incompetano," his Homeland Security secretary, said the "system" worked, thanks only to a flying Dutchman. Her No. 2 guys? John "out to lunch" Brennan fell asleep, and Slope Dope Michael Leiter went skiing.
When fighting an enemy that has a sworn religious duty to murder the infidel (that's us) you must put fear into their hearts.
This bunch couldn't frighten the Easter Bunny.
William Eckardt
Oneonta
Unborn children's rights taken away
Here's the dilemma ... if the Constitution of the United States protects the right to life of all of its people, how could our government then proceed to exclude a select group within society from this right? The solution: Adopt the same policy applied to slaves in the mid-1800s _ deny their personhood.
In 1857, by a 7-to-2 margin, the U.S. Supreme Court passed the Dred Scott decision, denying personhood status to slaves.
In that year, the chief justice of the Supreme Court said, "A black man has no right to which the white man is bound to respect." Despite its legality, however, Abraham Lincoln challenged its mortality. "If slavery is not wrong," he said, "then nothing is wrong."
That was yesterday. Today that select group within our society is our unborn children. In the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, by a similar 7-to-2 margin, the U.S. Supreme Court denied personhood status to the unborn child, stating that, "If the suggestion of personhood [of the unborn] is established, the appellant's [pro-choice] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] amendment."
Deny personhood and you can then deny any of the "inalienable rights" protected by the Constitution, even the right to life.
Roe vs. Wade was not, as some would assert, a glorious milestone in reproductive freedom, but a dark and pitiful travesty of justice, its 45 million victims grim testimony to the legacy of "Freedom of Choice."
John Nolan
Hartwick
Retirees unfairly denied retro pay
The Otsego County Board of Representatives recently agreed to give the county employees a contract after waiting almost three years. We worked in good faith without a contract from Jan. 1, 2007, to July 10, 2009.
The county blames the union, and the union blames the county for denying any retroactive pay to its retired employees who retired during that time. We didn't quit. We retired after several years of dedicated service.
There were 20 some employees that left service after 25-plus years with the county. Why should we be denied money we earned? Both sides agreed to only give retroactive pay to active employees on the payroll at the time the contract was ratified.
It isn't fair to the dedicated former employees. The county and the union could agree to rectify this if they so choose to.
If possible, could you both do the right thing and pay the retired employees money they deserve? We worked the time and it is the right thing to do.
We are taxpayers here and we have dedicated our work life to Otsego County and its residents.
Carol Boglioli
Maryland
