‘Coal Country’ Documentary, Aired on Planet Green, Called Potential Threat by PA Dept of Homeland Security
October 28th, 2010Via: Treehugger:
I don’t know if we should be flattered or scared: It’s come to TreeHugger’s attention that Coal Country, a documentary which originally aired on Planet Green’s Reel Impact series of programing last November, was singled out at the time as a potential security threat by the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security…
It appears that the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security has become the modern counterpart of the notorious “Coal and Iron Police” which perpetrated crimes of violence against those who protested against the excesses of the coal and iron robber barons in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Up until 3/09 I was a life long PA resident, I can’t figure out how the PA DHS appeared suddenly. First,the school security pervs watching through students web cams, then Israeli security firm watching all protesters,now this. Fats Rendell claims we are broke, but we have money for this?
And yet, I still talk to tons of folks who can’t wait to cast a ballot for a Repub or Dem next week.
My only hope is that the Buffalino family up in Scranton will get irritated and do what they do so well. Send a trustworthy crook to Harrisburg to “get things organized” again. At least they keep the ship afloat so they can always skim from the top. These wall st. suckers destroy everything for everybody.
I watched the trailer, and yes, I can see why this would be something that contractor hired by the PA Dept of Homeland Security would consider it a threat.
Down the road about thirty miles yonder in Beaver Falls, PA there is not only a coal burning power plant, but a strip mine (coal) kind of next to it. Went bike riding several years ago near there with my friend and everything we went by in that area was coated with black soot. It was one of the most dismal feeling places I’d ever been in. Sun shining, but all around looked like it had been washed with black. Sure was happy to get out of there!
Surely, the plant is in compliance with all EPA regulations re coal burning. Surely as well, there is an Inspector from the Bureau of Mines who has checked out operations on this site to even guess at whether this strip mine abides but any rules re strip mining (if there are any rules), and has filed a report on the conditions that are not up to code.
Sure, Just like they did with the Horizon Well in the Gulf.
It is absolutely chilling to see beneath the surface of politics in PA. Chilling. Never had to go there until this past year. Its quite sickening.
That Dept of Homeland Security in PA is a contractor, not government officials. I think they manufactured “terrorism” in Pittsburgh visa vie the G20 summit wherein the sound guns were fired.
Pennsylvania is contracting out functions that are inherently governmental. That against some laws I can’t put my finger on.
We need and Elliot Spitzer in PA. This state government has lost its marbles. Screwing the good people, throwing the rest out to the casino’s to raise revenue. Grrr.
Eileen, when I was a kid, all of the Burgh looked like the place you described. By the time I went to Pitt in the ’80’s, the place was beginning to look really good.
I really miss that town.
It broke my heart to see places I loved full of armoured cops during the G20.
@jburke6000
Where’d you move to? The ‘burgh is “beautiful” if you don’t want to grow food, have chickens, and at least among my coworkers, think football is the greatest thing since, what sliced bread? I’m not going to dis my coworkers but I sure would like to.
They all bought expensive houses, most have recently had their first, second, third, or fourth child and I don’t know if they understand what’s going down.
Naybe they don’t need to know and it will all work out for them because the rest of us are doing the worry work and visualizing something different for the lives of other humans, so that they won’t have to worry their beautiful minds. Well, who knows, maybe this time it will be a jolt for them.
Yes, it’s a city. It has its issues. That doesn’t make it hopeless. My parents grew up just south in Belle Vernon. That was a little town, now its suburbia. Everything changes, not always for the better.
You can make a decent life in the city. Even in dangerous times, the city has potential. In the end, for many folks, they have no where else to go.