And Gov. Cuomo just keeps getting worse and worse:
A federal water study commissioned by the Cuomo administration as it weighed a key decision on fracking was edited and delayed by state officials before it was published, a Capital review has found.
The study, originally commissioned by the state in 2011, when the administration was reportedly considering approving fracking on a limited basis, was going to result in a number of politically inconvenient conclusions for Governor Andrew Cuomo, according to an early draft of the report by the U.S. Geological Survey obtained by Capital through a Freedom of Information Act request.
A comparison of the original draft of the study on naturally occurring methane in water wells across the gas-rich Southern Tier with the final version of the report, which came out after extensive communications between the federal agency and Cuomo administration officials, reveals that some of the authors’ original descriptions of environmental and health risks associated with fracking were played down or removed.
The final version of the report also excised a reference to risks associated with gas pipelines and underground storage—a reference which could have complicated the Cuomo administration’s potential support for a number of other controversial energy projects, including a proposed gas storage facility in the Finger Lakes region that local wine makers say could destroy their burgeoning industry.
Seriously, New York, you can do better than this little Nixon.
MaximusNYC
Oh, believe me, we know. Don’t blame me, I voted for Teachout/Wu. It was always obvious that fracking was just in a holding pattern until after Cuomo secured his re-election.
JPL
NIxon did create the EPA, so credit where credit is due. Cuomo worse than Nixon.
RSR
Pretty much too late for this cycle. Let’s hope he did something stupid enough to get prosecuted out of office, which with the corruption commission, might happen
RSR
Also, let’s not forget we still have a legitimate chance to depose Mayor One Percent in Chicago:
National teachers union contributes $30,000 to Karen Lewis
cmorenc
How again did Cuomo get elected governor in such a net solidly blue state like New York as a Democrat? Were family political connections through his dad so strong that he was able to make so many people suspend disbelief that he could turn out so vastly different than they thought he was? Or were enough folks many on the nominally progressive side cynically willing to do political deals with him for too long, lulling themselves into complacency about what a duplicitous conservative-leaning sociopath they were dealing with? How exactly did Cuomo successfully fool so many people for so long to get where he did? (And seemingly, still fooling far too many among those who just voted for him).
Xantar
@cmorenc:
My question is why is he doing this? All of this is exactly the wrong thing to do in a solidly blue state like New York. From a pure self-interested perspective, I don’t understand why Cuomo is doing this. Unless he has given up all hope of seeking higher office and just wants to secure a cushy lobbying job for when he leaves the Governor’s Mansion.
…ok, yeah you got me.
Davis X. Machina
Hey, he’s a big supporter of SSM. Isn’t that enough to make his progressive bones?
JPL
Imagine if you will, a Clinton/Cuomo ticket in 2016. I’m not sure that even holding my nose would be enough to vote for that team.
Howard Beale IV
@JPL:
No. Just. No.
Mike J
Not in this election. Next primary? Sure.
Tommy
@cmorenc: @Xantar: I don’t honestly follow New York politics that closely. Barely can keep up with my state. But I have the same questions you do, which is how did he get elected. The family name? Money? I’d love somebody from New York to explain because it seems to me he has no business in office. But then again I live in a pretty blue state like New York and sometimes we do some strange stuff from a voting point of view.
Suffern ACE
@cmorenc: We HAD what I thought was going to be a good governor, but he had a problem taking prostitutes across state line. Then we had another governor who I thought in general was a good guy, but no one gave him money to run again.
Another Holocene Human
@Mike J: @Tommy:
Cuomo got all the right primary endorsements because of threats/fear.
How? Probably corruption just as bad as Jersey, but I guess not comical/interesting enough to make the late night jokes line.
Seriously, though. CORRUPT AS FUCK. Same thing in Massaholechusetts, Rhode Island, Dela-where?, Pennsyltucky, Illinois, Misery, Lousy-ana, Swissconsin, A La Bummer, FloriDUH (although that’s more internal party backstabbery fun instead of pay-to-play machine control of contracts … oh, who am I kidding, the pay to play is just controlled by the GOP, same difference) …
To be fair, there are the 27% drunk on Pure Haterade, which explains a lot of Deep South and also some Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic politics: IN, WI, MO, AL, GA, FL, NC, AR, PA….
Tommy
It is amazing the power of fossil fuel. The Democrat in my Congressional district is running ads on his support for clean coal. Now we got a lot of coal in Southern Illinois and a huge Peabody mine in the district he is running in, but clean coal from a liberal. You got to be joking.
Geeno
Mostly the name. Non-activist Democrats who weren’t watching closely enough thought he would be like his father so he cruised the first time around. Lots of insidery BS made sure he got the renomination.
Calouste
Meh, let’s spend more time on the positive news today: the first license for a same-sex marriage in Virginia has been issued. Virginia is now truly and completely for lovers. Congratulations to Lindsey Oliver and Nicole Pries!
burnspbesq
@JPL:
Now imagine them running against a Cruz/Brownback ticket. Pretty easy call, I would think. Your nose will heal.
Full metal Wingnut
@JPL: No he didn’t. Nixon was a reverse LBJ. He didn’t give a shit about domestic policy. He signed whatever Congress wanted to focus his political capital abroad. It’s no surprise that he exercised his veto power on stuff like the War Powers Act-that was the type of shit he cared about.
Romney, for all his faults, is a smart guy and an opportunist, just like Nixon. If you gave a President Romney the same Congress that Nixon had to work with, he would’ve signed the same goddamned bills. It’s not that the President is powerless but people focus way too much on them.
KG
@Howard Beale IV: Clinton is a resident of New York, right? If so, that ticket can’t happen without somebody changing their official residence.
@JPL: Nixon also went to China. Don’t get me wrong, Cuomo probably would go to China too, but it would be profiteering.
KG
@burnspbesq: that would be the time where it would be worth considering a four year visa.
Full metal Wingnut
@burnspbesq: Sometimes I think there’s an elaborate game of good cop bad cop going on.
Anoniminous
@Full metal Wingnut:
Or bad cop/badder cop.
Matt
So semi-serious question: if they did that, and it DID ruin the wine industry, who’s on the hook? Presumably the actual project will be buried under so many layers of shell companies and cutouts that the assholes actually *responsible* won’t be, but who will?
burnspbesq
@Full metal Wingnut:
Think of it as an election for the Supreme Court: Sri Srinivasan vs. Janice Rogers Brown. Or think of it as an election for Attorney General: Mary Jo White vs. Chris Christie.
Yeah, “elections have consequences” is a cliche. It became a cliche because it’s true.
Another Holocene Human
@Matt: Fracking is bullshit, but this whinging about industrial infrastructure sounds like pure NIMBY to me.
(Full disclosure: I used to pass those big old gas tanks in the Port of Boston on a daily basis, and I knew plenty of people willing to trade entire paycheck + sexual favors to live right next to them, so I am call bullshit right here and right now–bullshit! Besides, everyone knows all the kabooms happen at point of delivery where the infrastructure isn’t so vigilantly maintained … 19th cent homes on 19th cent blocks, fueling stations on busy corners … I opposed a CNG facility in JP because the MBTA’s track record on maintenance is, well, the MBTA’s track record on maintenance.)
Jay C
@Tommy:
How did a sleaze like Andrew Cuomo get elected Governor in NY? A few factors:
1. Name recognition/family connections (dad Mario is immensely respected in retirement).
2. Made a name in the Clinton Admin (though a poor one, to be sure)
3. Worked his way up through the NY Dem machine to State AG (and got support from Obama besides)
Got very lucky via two huge breaks:
4a) The effective Eliot Spitzer self-immolated, and his successor (David Paterson) got shoved aside.
4b) The NY Republicans (whose bench was/is feeble in any case) ran a Tea Party moron against him in 2010. AND: couldn’t find anyone like an A-List candidate this year, either. Result(s): landslides for Andy.
John’s right though: a State as big as New York ought to able to field better politicians than Andrew Cuomo: but then, how many states in the Union can’t admit the same…?
Irrationalnumb3r
Is there a legacy politician anywhere that is as good or better than their parent? Seriously, Cuomo, Bayh, Romney, Bush II, Paul, etc. All of these guys have father issues and none of them measure up to being as decent a leader or human being as their dad was. Granted for some that’s not saying much, but still…
Trollhattan
@burnspbesq: I think the Republicans should nominate this guy. Finally, somebody who says just what he thinks.
Omnes Omnibus
@Irrationalnumb3r: Al Gore.
Tommy
@Jay C:
Maybe. My father is often asked to run for statewide office. He refuses. Says he couldn’t stand all the bullshit. I fear he is not alone. That many people that might be a good elected public official just don’t want to deal with all that it entails to run in this day and age.
Trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus: George W….never mind… HW might arguably have been better than Prescott.
The Other Chuck
@Irrationalnumb3r: FDR outshone Teddy, though that wasn’t a direct descendance. John Quincy Adams did all right. JFK was certainly better than his dad.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Other Chuck: William Daley is an arguable choice.
SatanicPanic
@JPL: I refuse to give him credit for that and you can’t make me
Irrationalnumb3r
@Omnes Omnibus: Hmmm Gore. Yeah, I’d agree with that.
burnspbesq
@Irrationalnumb3r:
Jerry Brown. Mark Udall. I’m halfway tempted to say Shelley Moore Capito, just to troll Cole, and because her old man was pretty odious, but nah.
SatanicPanic
@Irrationalnumb3r: Jerry Brown?
Origuy
@Irrationalnumb3r: Jerry Brown? Although I don’t know much about Pat Brown’s term as Governor.
jonas
Cuomo thinks he’s being clever: he wants to greenlight fracking in some form, but he knows his liberal base will crucify him if he does. So he delays and dithers on the environmental reports, using the time to alter their content enough so that when he thinks it appears he’s considered it long enough, he can go ahead and start fracking while pointing to environmental reports that supposedly show it’s totally fine. Now that he doesn’t have to worry about a primary challenge from the left anymore, I’m sure he’s good to go.
Mnemosyne
@Irrationalnumb3r:
Jerry Brown, but with an asterisk — it took him two tries to be a decent governor. Prop 13 was passed on his watch during his first run. Fortunately, he seems to have learned from his mistakes.
Calouste
@Irrationalnumb3r: Winston Churchill was better than his dad.
jonas
@Origuy: Pat Brown’s tenure in California was widely regarded as a golden age. It’s when California (and a lot of the rest of the country) actually had nice things, like fully-funded schools and universities.
Major Major Major Major
OT:
twin peaks is coming back
twin peaks is coming back
eeeeeeek
Omnes Omnibus
@Calouste: Lack of syphilis probably helped with that.
jonas
@Jay C:
California seems to be being run by some pretty competent people, starting with Jerry Brown. Sure, there’s some occasional chicanery, like the state senator who turns out to have been involved an international gun-running ring, but for the most part, some adults finally seem to be in charge in a state where complete dysfunction had ruled for a very long time. If they could just get some rain, things would be looking pretty good there.
Amir Khalid
@Major Major Major Major:
I hope they bring back the cross-dressing federal agent.
KG
@Mnemosyne: in fairness, Prop 13 passed with more than 60% of the vote. real estate prices were skyrocketing at the time and the idea (real or supposed) of elderly people being taxed out of their homes because of the skyrocketing prices was a driving factor. FDR could have been governor and Prop 13 was passing.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: Let’s all go to Twede’s and get some pie and coffee.
Trollhattan
Pat Brown was a Big Ideas guy at a time that was still possible and accomplished a lot, including sending Richard Nixon out of politcs for the first of two forevers. If only he’d done the same to one Reichsmarshall Reagan, we might have avoided that presidency altogether.
He basically built the State Water Project, was anti-gun, pro-education and mixed on the death penalty, commuting some and allowing others. He governed through some very turbulant times (Watts, Berkeley).
Jerry’s legacy is still being written, but he’s governing in a much different set of circumstances. In his wake we had a long series of Republican governors, who campaigned to some extent on Jerry’s first stint.
Major Major Major Major
@Amir Khalid: Duchovney certainly did make a handsome woman.
SatanicPanic
@jonas: I dock him points for losing to Ronald Reagan, thereby giving Reagan a platform for his presidential bid
Randy P
@Another Holocene Human:
I’m not sure which particular odious “accomplishment” lost Corbett his base, but he’s trailing pretty convincingly behind the Democrat, Tom Wolf.
Trollhattan
@Mike J:
#damngoodcoffee
burnspbesq
@KG:
I hardly ever vote yes on ballot measures, but if you were to propose an initiative to make Piss on Howard Jarvis’ Grave Day a state holiday, not only would I vote for it, I would stand in front of Wal-Mart with a clipboard to get signatures on the petition to get it on the ballot.
Belafon
@Major Major Major Major: My 14 year old will be happy.
Another Holocene Human
@The Other Chuck: The senior Kennedy got appointed to stuff after the Great Crash but he wasn’t an elected official.
He was the Wall St equivalent of a black hat security consultant. “Here’s how to prevent people like me stealing all your
munniesdata.”BGinCHI
Have not had time recently to spend much time in comment threads, but wondering whether the BJtariat is going to do any donating en mass to candidates. Or did I miss it?
Grimes is running either ahead or near McConnell and I’m going to donate to her. Who else needs it?
mai naem mobile
Lincoln Chaffee. I don’t know anything about Moon Landrieu but I’m assuming he was at least a bit of a dixiecrat which would make loathesome Mary better(yeah I know Mary is as good as you are going to get in Loozeeanna.) Also too, Gore senior the politician had more courage than Gore junior the politician. Hes done awesome post-2000 but I also think climate change became politcized because hes so closely associated with it. I’m not blaming him, I just think that a lot of Republicans think climate change = Al Gore >>> 2000 recount >>> must be bad bad bad.
jl
@jonas: I do not know whether Jerry Brown is better than Pat. But I think argument can be made that without Pat Brown (and other people who would today be considered commies, including a type of Republican now extinct, such as Earl Warren and Goodwin Knight), Jerry Brown approach would not work.
Jerry style policies need to operate off an advanced industrial economy with broad and deep base of technical knowledge, educated workforce. Jerry didn’t build that, his dad and his dad’s buddies built that. IMHO.
Another Holocene Human
@Randy P: Thankfully, this time, but despite a solid record of turfing the worst mistakes after ushering them in (Rih Santorum comes to mind) the corruption on all levels is pretty bad, some of it could certainly be chalked up to reactionary white voters doing that shitty thing they do, some of it’s Scaife and the Allegheny Institute, some of it is Pennsyltucky and its holy rollin’, coal rollin’, sovereign citizenry ways, and some of it is just quite frankly big city payola, Tristate Area Style. It’s not as funny as it sounds, people die because of this shit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Philadelphia_building_collapse
jl
I agree that list of political progeny to measure up to ancestor is pretty short. And best example, John and John Q Adams is long ago now. Edit: and I think John Q and his wife Louisa personally paid a heavy psychological price in the attempt to match mum and dad.
Another Holocene Human
@BGinCHI: I’m going to recommend Leticia Van der Putte who is running for Lt Gov in Tejas.
The Dems running for Gov and Sen in Georgia could probably use some money. The election will come down to local GOTV but I see no reason not to help the GA Dems whoop dat ass right up to election day. GA GOP are a stinky bunch.
Denali
Andrew rode to office purely on his father’s name. He has not distinguished himself.
Another Holocene Human
@mai naem mobile: Yeah, I’m gonna disagree on that. The Heartland Institute and their intimidation and lies well predates Al Gore deciding to do something about it. He broke through a lot of silence and denialism and reached a lot of people that weren’t being reached by increasingly frustrated climate scientists.
The Kochs had already politicized climate change. Even before it became anathema to say the words “global warming” the GOP was ridiculing, defunding, and destroying any attempts to get away from dependence on foreign oil. Early 1980s.
BGinCHI
@Another Holocene Human: Thanks.
Has John or anyone here put up a donate post??
gelfling545
@cmorenc: He was helped immensely by his opponent. Even many Republicans could not bring themselves to vote for the looney Paladino who is currently infesting the Buffalo school board, promoting charter schools & renting his properties to same.
Gin & Tonic
@mai naem mobile: If you’re responding “Lincoln Chaffee” to the question of political progeny better that their forebear, I have to challenge you. Yes, dad John was an R and Linc, eventually, saw his way over to the D column, but he was always a pale imitation of his father, less effective in any position he took on. Yes, he could legitimately say that his party moved away from him, but he’s not standing for Governor in November because he’d get his balls cut off and handed to him on a platter. No Republican (not that there are many here any more) will vote for him, and he’s still not Democratic enough for actual Democrats. He just reeks of legacy.
Roger Moore
@Irrationalnumb3r:
Sure. Jimmy Carter is a great example; his father was a small time politician, but he managed to get elected President. Part of the problem is that you’re engaged in a kind of false sorting. When the child is greater than the parent, they’re seen as a worthy politician in their own right; it’s only when the child fails to live up to their parent’s success that we call them a legacy candidate.
Mike Jones
@cmorenc: Family name, his dad’s actually progressive reputation, he wasn’t a terrible Attorney General, and he talked a good game. What I don’t understand is how he got the Working Families Party to nominate him for a second term instead of running an actual progressive (*cough*Zephyr*cough*) against him.
I can only think that his father must be seriously disappointed in him. I sure am.
Roger Moore
@Calouste:
But that wasn’t his true legacy. His real legacy was from his more distant ancestor, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, who may well have been greater.
skerry
Happening now in Maryland: Comments being accepted until 3 Nov on a fracking study commissioned by the state. Not surprisingly, the report find that the risks are low, even though there isn’t enough data to assess every risk.
The executive summary is not a difficult read, and I would encourage anyone with an interest to submit a comment.
Kropadope
Politicians are able to get ahead in Democratic party politics because of groups like this.Take away quote:
Villification of industry is a trope used against Democrats to promote Republican politicians and policies. This trope has little to no basis in reality. To use their example, Elizabeth Warren is pro-industry, however she wants industry to play by a fair set of rules and not exploit workers or consumers.
The financial sector acts like any bit of criticism directed toward it will lead toward every American having to turn to subsitence farming. Some people buy it. This leaves room for asshats like Cuomo to win office, pledging support for lovely social issues like gay marriage, but winning points in the media for not being a DFH. Indeed, he is a shill for exploitive industry practices.
JR in WV
You haven’t lived until you have lit the water coming out of your kitchen sink!!
Seriously, water that is methaneated like water that is carbonated fizzes, and the fizz is methane. It bubbles out as the water loses pressure at the faucet head, and you can light it with a Bic.
Scary as Hell! We live in an O&G patch that was first drilled in the 1910-1920 era. Lots of money, free gas, very prosperous for a little while. They still drill wells in the neighborhood, shallow gas wells, as most of the crude oil is gone now.
Not too long ago they use old fashioned fracking technology on a shallow gas well across the ridge from us, liquid nitrogen shot down at high pressure, and all the old existing gas wells from 1919 started blowing nitrogen instead of methane!!!
Very dangerous, as people’s old gas-using hardware started venting nitrogen instead of natural gas – methane. Pilot lights went out, and if you had al old-fashioned gas fire, the flame went out and it started blowing nitrogen into the space!
They shut down the delivery lines, and ran the crew ragged going to meters and shutting the gas off for everyone. It took a couple of days before the gas situation was back to normal. I must confess that the ignitable kitchen sink was for a very brief spell during new drilling.
Our water tests our very well for the area, with a pH of 8.2, which is very rare around WVa.
But it happened, and can happen anywhere. These folks act like they know how everything is arranged underground, and they don’t, not at all!
They have had underground gas storage areas blow up, with huge gas-fed fireballs erupting into the air. An “unknown” geologic fault allowed gas to penetrate into the surface ground, and once it vented into the air, it exploded!
People have been killed by exploding gas transmission lines, what makes anyone think they will do a better job fracking local petroleum-yielding deposits than BP did in the Guld of Mexico? They won’t! I promise you they won’t!
Jay C
@Mike Jones:
Simple: he threw them a sop, in the form(s) of some political promises: to push for a minimum-wage hike, and to push back against some Statehouse shenanigans in Albany: hollow stuff, really: Andy can bring the proposals up, but will most likely just stand by and shrug as they die in the Lege. In return, the WFP got to feel like kingmakers for about a week: but IRL, Zephyr Teachout was probably never going to get more than the 35% or so she finally drew in the Dem primary. Which was fortuitously embarrassing: Gov. Cuomo was looking for near-unanimity.
David in NY
@Mike Jones: @Jay C:
Don’t kid yourself. This was Cuomo. There were not only inducements, there were threats. And everyone from the unions, who are WFP’s primary supporters, to Bill de Blasio, was telling them to go along with Cuomo.
David in NY
@Denali:
You can’t discount the importance of his name, but Andrew’s a real publicity hound in his own right, and his press during his tenure was very, very good. True, he was a lousy administrator, and you never heard about the bad decisions he made, but any popular step he took was all over the papers. Unfortunately, that was all he cared about. But it was plainly one facet of his success.
Jebediah, RBG
@burnspbesq:
And I would fight to be the first to sign.
WereBear
@JR in WV: Exactly. Having your house blow up on you unexpectedly is just the absolutely worst thing… but there’s plenty of contenders for second place.
rikyrah
he is pitiful
PITIFUL
gene108
@cmorenc:
Solidly blue states are not the same thing as super-duper liberal communities.
I’ve lived in North Carolina and now in New Jersey, for many years, and I think the biggest difference between Northern and Southern states is impact of slavery / segregation and how various religious groups dealt with it.
Northerners are just as tribal as Southerners.
I think the difference between Northern states more open attitude towards gay marriage, for example, and lack of desire to outlaw abortion, has to do with the fact Northern ethnic groups never got so deeply and spiritually involved in segregation.
Northerners didn’t necessarily like blacks*, but were O.K. with using secular means to keep blacks out, such as not giving them home loans or leasing apartments to them in non-black neighborhoods.
In the South, racial prejudice was more deeply intertwined into the emotional and spiritual fabric of society. The Southern Baptist Church broke off from Northern Baptists, in order to give spiritual reasons to justify slavery / segregation.
When the segregationist churches could no longer gain influence by promoting segregation, by the 1970’s, they eventually switched to using anti-abortion as a wedge issue to energize their congregations. Congregations getting told, from their Church, that abortion is the worstest thing ever made an impression.
Reagan co-opted these Southern segregationist churches as part of his coalition. They had a prominent seat at the Republican table.
The South has, over the last 20-30 years, merged Republican economic philosophy with anti-abortion zeal from the segregationist churches, which has spilled over to issues like gay rights.
There are plenty of knuckle dragging rednecks** in the Northeast, but the Northern churches never made segregation, and thus abortion ***, a rallying point for their congregations, so you have the veneer of sophisticated liberalism over a large block of knuckle draggers.
* For example, Boston, in 1975 had the same level of problems as Virginia in the 1950’s, with regards to whites pulling kids out of schools due to integration.
** Once you get away from the major population centers, like NYC, Philadelphia and Boston and surrounding suburbs, there’s not a lot that’s really different than similar small towns in the Southeast, except I would not use the term “rural” as the Northeastern towns are probably one or two hours away from a major metropolitan center, which residents tend to avoid, so they are not as isolated as their Southern counterparts, but they are generally poor, with little prospect for economic development.
*** I know there are lots of Catholics in the Northeast, but the Catholic church (as far as my mile high outside view permits) has never made racial segregation as a core of its doctrine, unlike the Southern Baptists for example, so despite strong anti-abortion views of the Catholic church, the anti-abortion issue never seems to have the same zealous fervor with which Southern Protestants picked it up.
Bill Arnold
@cmorenc:
New York State wouldn’t vote in a tea-party (or fellow traveler) Republican unless the Democrat completely imploded, but we had George Pataki (moderate R) as a governor for 12 years (Jan 95 through Dec 06). (Looking at wikipedia, non-major party candidates took close to 6 % in the 1994 NYS gubernatorial election.)
Full metal Wingnut
@burnspbesq: Oh I definitely am not going to vote for any current Republican. It would just be nice to have a sane opposition party.