WolfeNotes.com

Gov. Christie the latest in a long tradition of corporate sponsored charlatans, frauds, and demagogues 

In an amazing example of serendipity, I had just begun reading Princeton University historian Kevin M. Kruse’s timely and marvelous new book: One Nation Under God – How Corporate America Invented Christian America when the Christie photo above caught my eye the other day.

Kruse is intrigued by the fact that the consensus among scholars is that the Founding Fathers established a wall of separation between church and state, yet that consensus has had little impact on popular opinion. Kruse asks why that is the case:

Like most scholars, I believe the historical record is fairly clear about the founding generation’s preference for what Thomas Jefferson memorably described as a wall of separation between church and state; a belief the founders spelled out repeatedly in public statements and private correspondence. This scholarly consensus, though, has done little to shift popular opinion. If anything, the country has more tightly embraced religion in the public sphere and in political culture in recent decades. And so this book begins with a different premise. It sets aside the question of whether the founders intended America to be a Christian nation and instead asks why so many contemporary Americans came to believe that this country has been and always should be a Christian nation. (page xiii)

Professor Kruse challenges the conventional historical interpretation that the rise of the Cold War is what explains the rise of public religion in the early 1950’s – those godless Soviet communists, their possession of the A-bomb, and all that.

Instead, Professor Kruse argues:

…  the postwar revolution in America’s religious identity had its roots not in the foreign policy panic of the 1950’s, but rather in the domestic politics of the 1930’s and early 1940’s.  Decades before Eisenhower’s inaugural prayers, corporate titans enlisted conservative clergymen in an effort to promote new political arguments embodied in the phrase “freedom under God”. As the private correspondence and public claims of the men leading this charge make clear, this new ideology was designed to defeat the state power its architect feared most – not the Soviet regime in Moscow, but Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal administration in Washington DC.  With ample funding from major corporations, prominent industrialists, and business lobbies such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the US Chamber of Commerce in the 1930’s and 1940’s, these new evangelists for free enterprise promoted a vision best characterized as “Christian Libertarianism”. (page xiv)

Corporate slogans – “Freedom Under God” (circa 1950) – “Faith and Freedom” (Gov. Christie today) – an unbroken chain of corporate economic propaganda.

Kruse then proceeds  – in meticulous and at times shocking or amusing detail – to dismantle that conventional historical account and document how corporate interests manufactured and funded huge national religious propaganda campaigns as a cynical ploy to discredit and roll back the New Deal and capture government to promote corporate interests.

The corporate agenda was motivated by pure greed and economic self interests, not religion of patriotism.

The corporations knew that if they were publicly identified as the sponsors of these crude economic arguments, that they had little credibility with the American public, particularly given the popularity of the New Deal and welfare state.

So they cynically used religious leaders and religious institutions to mask their covert corporate economic agenda.

Business leaders had long been working to “merchandize” themselves through the appropriation of religion. In organizations such as Spiritual Mobilization, the prayer breakfast groups, and the Freedom Foundation , they had linked capitalism and Christianity and, at the same time, likened the welfare state to godless paganism.  After decades of work, these businessmen believed that there efforts had finally paid off with the election of Dwight Eisenhower. Watching him enthusiastically embrace public faith, these supporters assumed that the national religious revival was largely a means to a more important end” the rollback of the New Deal state. ( page 86)

Kind of like today’s “dark money” and the Koch Brothers and ALEC and the religious right.

While the corporations were not successful (in the 1950’s) in their primary objective to roll back the New Deal welfare state (that had to wait for Democrat Bill Clinton’s welfare “reform”), one policy area where the corporations were successful was in rolling back government regulations:

Eisenhower did agree with his [corporate] supporters  about the need to reduce the regulatory role of the federal government, especially in oversight of the business world.  “I feel this country is following a dangerous trend when it permits too great a degree of centralization of government functions,” he wrote his brother in 1954. “When we came into office there were Federal controls exercised over prices, wages, rents, as well as over the allocation and use of raw materials. The first thing this Administration did was to set about the elimination of those controls. (page 86)

Fast forward 60 years and note that – just like Eisenhower – one of Gov. Christie’s first moves in Office was to issue a series of executive orders designed to rollback regulations and provide “regulatory relief” to corporations.

And Gov. Christie’s recent comments about his 5 year effort to “dismantle” environmental protections is a clear echo of Eisenhower.

Seen from this historical vantage point so wonderfully painted by Professor Kruse, Gov. Christie is just the latest in a very long line of corporate sponsored charlatans, snake oil salesmen, fakes, frauds and demagogues.

Kruse’s book is timely, I highly recommend it. The parallels to today are stunning.

DEP Opposes Public Hearings and Prefers to Work Confidentially With Mayors

Key DEP & EPA Superfund Listing Decisions Remain a “Black Box”

“National Priority List” has become a “Mayor’s Priority List” 

Today, we are taking a new direction. Today, a new era of accountability and transparency is here. ~~~ Gov. Christie, first Inaugural Speech (1/19/10)

The bill opens a Pandora’s box of controversial issues regarding exactly how a toxic site gets listed on the federal Superfund NPL: i.e. who makes that decision, on what basis the decision is made, the public’s right to know and role in those decisions, and what are the roles of the federal and state governments.  ~~~ Bill Wolfe, 3/11/14

I was prepared yesterday to testify to the Senate Environment Committee on an important bill that would require that NJ DEP prepare a Report and hold public hearings before recommending that a toxic site be listed by US EPA on the federal Superfund “National Priorities List” (NPL)  (See A2340).

I testified, recommended strengthening amendments, and wrote about that bill during the recent Assembly consideration, see:

• NJ Legislators Propose To Change State Role In Superfund Site Listing Process

The bill passed the Assembly on May  22 by a unanimous 78-0 vote. It is sponsored by Louis Greenwald, the Assembly Majority leader, so there is obviously significant pressure on the Senate to move the bill to the Governor’s desk.

According to DEP testimony, the bill grew out of a controversy in South Jersey, where DEP recommended a site to EPA for NPL listing. Local officials were blind sided and did not find out about DEP’s recommendation until after the fact, when the EPA formally proposed the site in the Federal Register.

DEP refused to name that south jersey site in Greenwald’s district – or whether EPA followed through with the Superfund listing.

In a letter submitted to the Committee “late on Friday”, the DEP flat out opposed the bill because they said a public process would “tip their hand” and undermine enforcement of State cleanup laws.

DEP also flat out claimed that their decisions about whether to recommend that EPA list a NJ site on the federal Superfund NPL was “not a public process” (you can listen to the testimony here).

Hundreds of people in Pompton Lakes fighting to get the Dupont toxic site listed on the NPL would disagree strongly with that DEP claim. They are demanding transparency and a very public process.

DEP also claimed that they currently worked well with Mayors on a confidential basis, and that they are sensitive to and would not over-ride a Mayor’s preferences, so there was no need for the bill.

Again, the  people in Pompton Lakes, who have criticized DEP’s closed door dealings with Mayor Cole – and thousands of people in Roxbury Township denouncing DEP’s lack of communication and questioning Mayor Rilee’s efforts on the Fenimore Landfill – would disagree strongly with that as well.

Throughout DEP’s testimony, they misleadingly emphasized that the Superfund NPL listing process is a federal responsibility and that it is subject to public participation during the EPA rule making process.

This is misleading on at least two grounds – first, EPA defers to NJ DEP in making NPL decisions, so DEP’s recommendation to EPA is crucial. It is vital that NJ residents have an informed opportunity to influence DEP’s recommendations to EPA.

Second, both EPA and DEP are aware of and have tons of important information on toxic sites that the public should be aware of, including the Superfund eligibility, scoring, and risk ranking system known as the “HRS” – which takes ut to how sites are listed and on what basis they are listed.

• The implications – How the Superfund NPL listing process works

The DEP’s decision whether to recommend that EPA list a site on Superfund is extremely important for the protection of public health and the environment.

As even DEP noted, a Superfund NPL site benefits from significant US EPA financial and technical resources, enforcement leverage, and public participation in cleanup decisions.

High risk toxic sites that qualify for Superfund on a risk basis may languish for years under NJ’s voluntary cleanup program, which lacks those federal resources and enforcement stick.

So, DEP’s decision to recommend that EPA list a NJ site provides huge benefits to the people of a community.

Under current EPA Superfund listing policy known as “state concurrence”, the support and recommendations of States are prerequisites for Superfund listing.

EPA will not list a site on the NPL without the support of the State Governor. Similarly, State’s can block EPA scientists’ recommendations that a site be listed on the NPL.

But, communities across NJ lack awareness of the Superfund listing process, the existence of these high risk sites, or the opportunity to secure EPA Superfund resources.

If communities became aware of the fact that high risk sites were eligible for Superfund, they could put pressure on DEP and EPA to list those sites and bring additional federal resources and enforcement authority to their towns.

To provide transparency and this critical information to local residents, PEER sought to obtain DEP and EPA documents, known as “Hazard Ranking Scores” (HRS) on NJ sites that qualify for Superfund. Both DEP and EPA conduct HRS scoring.

A toxic site with a HRS score greater than 28.5 qualifies for Superfund listing. For example, the Dupont site in Pompton Lakes scored an astronomical 70, even without consideration of vapor intrusion risk, a facts that residents have emphasized in urging DEP and EPA to pursue Superfund listing.

EPA denied our request for these HRS documents under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), so we had to sue EPA to obtain those HRS documents.

Settlement of the PEER EPA  lawsuit resulted in ou discovery of the fact that at least 36 NJ sites qualify for Superfund, but DEP has not recommended that EPA list those site -for a list of those sites and communities, see:

• TWENTY SEVEN NEW JERSEY SUPERFUND-ELIGIBLE SITES LEFT OFF LIST -EPA Still Reviewing Status of Unknown Number of Garden State Toxic Hotspots
• EPA Discloses None more Superfund-eligible Sites in New Jersey – Thirty Five Sites Passed Over for Superfund Relief

• Bill Held, no testimony taken (other than DEP)

DEP asked that the bill be held.

Chairman Smith agreed with both DEP and  Greenwald and offered a compromise. Smith suggested that instead of a public hearing, the bill be revised to require just a 90 day notice to the Mayor.

The Smith compromise is a bad idea that would continue to shut communities out of a critical decsion-making process at DEP and maintain the status quo black box and behind closed door local politics.

Smith then asked for and received a motion to hold the bill.

That move blocked any testimony, so none of all these issues got discussed.

• “National Priorities List” (NPL) has become a “Mayor’s Priority List” (MPL)

Under the federal Superfund law, the decision about whether to list a contaminated site on the NPL is a federal US EPA responsibility, not a State or local responsibility.

NPL listing decisions are supposed to be based on science and risks to human health and the environment, not politics, economics, or local parochial concerns.

States are given no role in this decision, but the law does give State’s an opportunity to express concerns and, under a separate provision, to target a very small number of  sites for priority consideration.

Unfortunately, ever since the Clinton Administration aquiesced to the Gingrich Revolution (Contract On America) and the radical federalism policies of the 94th Congress, (does anyone still recall Al Gore’s “Reinventing Government”?) EPA has pursued a “partnership” relationship with the States.

Under Superfund, this means “state concurrence”, which has effectively delegated federal NPL decision-making to the States.

Now, in NJ, the State of NJ is giving local Mayor’s a veto power over State NPL recommendation decisions.

It’s a two step rollback: the National NPL has become the Mayor’s MPL.

“Language matters – it is a window into attitude” ~~~ Gov. Chris Christie

 

 

Since his first Inaugural, I’ve written that Gov. Christie exhibits tendencies that former President Nixon’s White House Counsel and Watergate nemesis John Dean described as “authoritarian” – a “conservative without conscience“, see:

• Christie’s Authoritarian Shock Doctrine for NJ’s Environment
• Vindictive Abuse of Power Is Governor Christie’s MO
• Christie Junta Again Defies Legislative Oversight of Sandy Recovery
• Reflections on a Highlands Massacre
• Christie Princeton Speech – A Dangerous Demagogue
• “This is what we call self-mobilization of society”

I guess you can say that I have a strong opinion on the matter! (and this was all before his Pinelands hardball and retaliatory Pinelands Purge!)

Anyway, today, I was struck by this quote from the Star Ledger’s Auditor column, which reveals Christie’s true authoritarian belief system – and how openly her reveals it:

“Economies go up and down. Unemployment rates go up and down. GDP goes up and down. And yes, leadership can play a role in making sure that either goes in the right direction or wrong direction. But ultimately, the greatest moments in American history, in my opinion, have been determined when the true heart and soul of the American people has been embodied in our leaders.”

Note how objective conditions and facts and public policy don’t matter.

Note how, in rejecting objective reality, Christie appeals to and invokes “the true heart and soul of the American people” – he might as well have pulled a Dr. Strangelove and appealed to the “volk” and “the Homeland”.

Note how that “true heart and soul” – like material objective conditions and public policy – don’t matter either, but only to the degree that they are expressed and “embodied in our leaders”.

Got it?

Real leaders channel the “true heart and soul” of the people, who are only effective to the degree that the leader leads them.

That kind of “leader” worship could have sprung from the lips of Hitler.

As even the Gov. himself has said, words do matter. 

 

On top of the Mastro Report interview summaries, with the testimony of Christina Renna, the former Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA), there can be no doubt that IGA was a political operation designed for and fully integrated into the Christie re-election campaign.

I have called it Christie’s CREEP.

The NJ media has not gone there yet, but that is clearly the direction the Legislative investigation is going, as evidenced by yesterday’s subpoena to Michael DuHaime, Christie’s re-election political strategist.

So, I thought I’d offer up a little historical research to frame and feed the shifting investigative focus.

For just a tiny taste of the many striking parallels between President Nixon’s CREEP and Gov. Christie’s IGA, check this excerpt out, from the official Nixon Library on the Administrative history of CREEP:

“Malek’s other task when made the head of the White House Personnel Operation was the “responsiveness program,” a way to gain political support for Nixon’s re-election by using federal resources and grants to influence key states and voting blocs, especially minority groups (the Senate Watergate Committee later investigated and censured this program). While still running the personnel operation, Malek played an active role in the Committee for the Re-Election of the President by applying the methods and information used in the “responsiveness program” to CRP programs.

Obviously, IGA was serving exactly the same purpose and function as CREEP, i.e. to use governmental resources, programs, powers, and funds “to gain political support for Nixon’s re-election by using federal resources and grants to influence key states and voting blocs”.

That is the true scandal – not some traffic at the GWB and Ft. Lee.

And, like Nixon, the coverup is criminal and should result in similar political consequences.

[ps – and how did Christie ever dodge the Karl Rove US Attorney scandal? And why did NJ press never connect the dots like this: Chris Christie’s Entire Career Reeks – It’s Not Just the Bridge]

 

 

 

Gov. Pocket Veto’s Bill To Require Public Notification of Raw Sewage Discharges

Why Would Gov. Christie Want to Keep Raw Sewage A Secret?

[Important updates below]

Governor Christie ended his first term as the first  NJ Governor ever to complete a 4 year term with virtually no environmental legislative accomplishments, serious legislative rollbacks, and nothing but rollbacks on the regulatory front.

Christie ends his first term attacking environmental protections, just where he started, when in the first hour of his first day in office, he issued a series of sweeping Executive Orders: establishing a moratorium on regulations (EO #1); regulatory relief, federal standards rollback, and cost benefit analysis (EO #2); a new Red Tape  Czar and Red Tape commission (EO #3); and restrictions on unfunded state mandates (EO #4).

Going out with a bang, Christie also ended the 215th Legislative Session (2012-2013) with more evidence of his hostility to environmental protection – evidenced in the bills he signed and the long list of bills he refused to sign and let expire (a “pocket veto”).

But the Governor did so quietly, under cover of his scandal, Inauguration, and a major snow storm that triggered an emergency declaration (view Gov. press release and the massive legislative dump here).

In fact, the Gov.’s action on two bills in particular provide a stunning example of that hostility.

First, the Governor signed a bill that would provide a two year extension of toxic site cleanup deadlines and allow private consultants for the polluters to self certify that the delay is justified.

The bill was rammed through the lame duck session, got no press, and is a poster child for abuse.

The bill guts the only enforceable deadline in the new DEP privatized toxic cleanup program and is a stunning contradiction of the corporate polluters’ promises to expedite cleanup in exchange for privatizing the cleanup program.

The law will only result in more pollution of our soil, groundwater, drinking water, rivers and streams and wildlife –  while allowing the cleanup of  toxic hazards in our communities to fester for two more years.

The only beneficiaries of the law are corporate polluters, who dodge costly cleanup requirements.

I wrote about that bill here:

• Lame Duck Alert: Polluters Seek Rollback of Key Deadline In Privatized Toxic Site Cleanup Law 
• Your Orwell Today: Christie DEP Calls Privatization of Toxic Site Cleanup Program “Self-Implementation”

Second, the Gov. “pocket vetoed” a bill that would have required public notifications and warnings about raw sewage discharges to our rivers, streams, and bays.

Jim O’Neill at the  Bergen Record gets it:

Governor Christie declined to sign a bill that would have required public notification whenever sewer-outfall pipes dump raw sewage into local rivers and bays, legislation that had received overwhelming support by both parties in the state legislature.

The bill also would have required outfall pipes to be clearly marked with signs for swimmers, fishermen, kayakers and other who use the water.

“I’m extremely disappointed,” said Debbie Mans, head of the NY/NJ Baykeeper, which supported the bill. “This is a significant public health issue. Unfortunately the governor didn’t think important that the public be informed that they are swimming in raw sewage.”` –

Killing that bill makes an absolute mockery of the Governor’s promise made at his first Inaugural address that:

Today, a new era of accountability and transparency is here.

Christie is the “worst environmental governor ever” (sorry, I stole that phrase from Jeff Tittel, who used it to describe Gov. Corzine).

Here are other pro- environmental and public health related bills the Gov. pocket vetoed – without explanation.

The legislation would have improved a myriad of protections and programs for: coastal dunes; transportation infrastructure financing; coastal rebuilding and home elevation; fire prevention; health risks from mold; clean energy; green buildings; water conservation; and hurricane flood protections – take a look:

S-2602/A-3893 (Smith/Spencer, Rudder) – Repeals law providing CAFRA permit exemption for certain grading or excavation of dune

CC SCS for S-2143/ACS for A-3177 (Gordon, Norcross/Wisniewski, Singleton, Stender, Caride) – Establishes State Transportation Infrastructure Bank and Energy Bank within New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust

S-2976/A-4394 (B. Smith, Bateman/Wisniewski, Amodeo) – Provides standards for, and requires registration of, home elevation contractors

A-1570/S-2273 (Wisniewski, Green, Jasey/Norcross) – Requires fire suppression systems in new single and two family homes

A-1588/S-2081 (Benson, Riley, Ramos/Singer, Greenstein) – Requires DCA to establish procedures for inspection and abatement of mold hazards in residential buildings and school facilities, certification programs for mold inspectors and mold hazard abatement workers

A-2888/SCS for S-2733 (Chivukula, McKeon, Eustace/Smith, Greenstein, Whelan, Bateman, Beck) –Creates Office of Clean Energy in BPU

A-3103/SCS for S-2732 (Ramos, Spencer, Gusciora, DeAngelo, Benson/Gordon, Greenstein) – Provides for priority consideration, by DCA, DEP, DOT, and municipalities, of permit applications for green building projects

A-3898/S-2632 (Ramos, Spencer, Eustace, Vainieri Huttle, Sumter/Smith, Greenstein) – Authorizes municipalities to finance water conservation, storm shelter construction, and flood and hurricane resistance projects

[Update #1: 1/23/13 – Gov. Christie’s signing the 2 year delay in toxic site cleanup got no press. Compare that silence to the ton of coverage given a similar 2 year delay in a water quality rule – could that be because Jeff Tittel curiously testified in support of the cleanup bill delay and then left that bill out of his press release? Why would Tittel support delay of a bad privatization law he opposed and used as his primary example of why Jon Corzine was “the worst environmenntal governor ever”?  Don’t believe he supported it? Listen to the testimony (hit link for Senate Env. 12/5/13). The media stenographers tend  to defer to Tittel for determining what’s newsworthy and lord knows, he works the phone).

But, the raw sewage bill got a good followup story in the Bergen Record, see: Backers of sewage spill bill are baffled –

But oops! reporter Jim O’Neill forgot to ask Sen Smith about his toxic cleanup delay bill! That might muddy the narrative of Smith as environmental champion.   end update #1].

[Update #2– Kirk Moore does a good story on pocket veto of home elevation safety bill, see:  Christie’s pocket veto:No boost for house-lifting safety measure – but again, Sen. Smith is a hero and not asked about his toxic delay bill. – end update #2]