Two close friends of Mayor Jody Smith recently sent the following letter to a number of gas lease holders in Flower Mound. The letter is full of false statements (plus bad grammar, incorrect punctuation, and misspellings--ladies PROOFREAD). Rather than countering the inaccuracies, we want to make note of one particularly nasty comment that they made about parents of children with cancer.
Of all people, these parents have the right to plead with Town leaders to act in a responsible manner regarding the health of their children.
Click here to read letter. Then click on letter to expand.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
23 comments:
The authors of this letter, Jan Balekian and Patsy Mizeur, are VERY close friends of the mayor.
Don't believe it? Search Facebook. There's plenty of pictures out there with the three of them--dinners, skiing, a sporting event, etc.
Not good. It sure links Jody to them and that nasty comment about the parents and children.
She had to of known they were sending that letter out. How could she let them. No compassion. The thought of her running this town for two more years makes me sick.
NFL NFL
Yes there is a picture on FM Cares. I just saw it. You do not have to be a member to see the page.
This letter is full of lies. I worked the petition. We were given talking points and nothing ever said open pits. Yes, it will be a toxic drilling waste site. If they don't think the water is toxic, I would like to see them give it to their livestock, drink it themselves and bath in it.
This inbred crowd are all facebook friends. Bobby Dolak, the main face of drilling and development, is a buddies with Levenick, Wallace and Webb, among others.
We have sitting council members that are so arrogant or stupid that they don't see the conflict of interest ON ITS FACE.
Vote people. Stop electing clowns.
From the letter:
"A vote for these candidates will keep us moving forward in the right direction."
Exactly. And as a result, we'll look just like Odessa or Port Arthur.
"Rather than countering the inaccuracies,..."
Oh please, humor me. Present your fact-based refutations of these supposed inaccuracies. Six posts so far and nothing even close. Just the usual conspiracy gossip and simple-minded insults.
That facts have been stated over and over again in the many previous posts I have read on this blog.
No matter what you say, calling out the parents of the children was a cruel and vicious thing to do. Defend these ladies all you want and while your at it, pray someday they will not have to live with a cancer stricken child or grandchild.
Anon - April 15, 2010 10:41 PM did have a father with cancer, so he _should_ be able to empathize, but instead, he needs that paycheck.
Of course, methinks we simpletons are too feeble minded to understand his superior reasoning. Now go to bed, it's your bedtime, and we have more midnight oil to burn.
I don't know what you people expect. This is the same dangerous problem we have in our National Government right now. One side is Right, and the other is Wrong. They stay on both sides of the aisle, and WE as a people suffer. Nobody works for solutions, they work for sound bites on the news. As for the children that were brought in to this, it was this Group that made that happen, without anything more than speculation to back up their claims. No child, particularly children with such a serious illness, should be used as a Plank on your Platform against Urban Drilling. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. The facts are constantly bastardized to fit agendas, and most people just buy it. People are given talking points to spout at a Petition Signing Event. Sounds to me like they were instructing people on how to scare others to sign a petition. I wonder if they were instructed to bring up the Cancer Clusters too. It seems like this Group will go to any length to work against this, but is that productive? When you have people that believe Seismic Testing causes Earth Quakes it just shows that you are trying to guide the Public to your way of thinking with misinformation.
Anon 7:10, where is your middle ground? What are your solutions? What are your thoughts on the blood & urine tests on the Dish residents?
Anon 7:10. You don't get it. You are still blaming the parents of the sick children just like your little ladies that wrote the letter. You are as low as they are. We have facts popping up all over this area of people getting sick. Dish, Decatur, near TCU in Arlington, Denton, people are testing positive for toxins related to gas drilling. These are documented. Where do you get your facts? From the gas company that promises you "swimming pools and movies stars".
Go ahead and live in denial. I choose to listen and be aware of the reality going on around us.
Seismic Testing doesn't causes Earth Quakes, but injections wells are a probable cause of seismic activity. If it wasn't the primary suspect, the airport site wouldn't have been shut down as quick as it was.
I am Anon 10:41 (not the same person as Anon 7:10, although I do agree with their points).
In response to Anon 12:24:
1) You have me confused with someone else. My father died of a heart diease, not of cancer.
2) What does a paycheck have to do with this... did you intend to say royalty check, or does the person you are confusing me with work for a natural gas company?
3) You say "methinks we simpletons are too simple minded..." Really? Why do you have such a low opinion of your team?
Note to all: we're now up to 11 anti-drilling posts and still do not have a fact-based refutation of the letter. I'll take that as tacit admission that you have no facts to refute the contents of the letter.
Money isn't a sin, and neither is acquiring it. The LOVE of money is. Your letter is clearly all about money at the expense of other people, their health and their property rights. How dare you criticize families stricken with cancer for bringing their plight to the attention of your dishonorable mayor and council!
You may very well have a right to access your minerals, but you do not have the right to poison anyone in the process. I don't know where you're getting your information from, but you're twisting it to suit your own needs- money. Do you really need the money that badly you're willing to stoop to lows such as this? The simple fact of the matter is that children do live near these wells, and the families stricken with cancer are close by. Only a zealot for money would not see this. Do you dispute the Picarro testing that was done recently that showed the highest concentration of BENZENE in the air in Flower Mound was in the small radius of these familes. A coincidence?
Show me one report from anyone- except the industry, of course, that says these emissions, spills, leaks and chemicals are SAFE. Your letter said the TCEQ and EPA declared the wells 'safe'. There is no such label by any of the regulatory agencies.
There aren't a 'few' activists, there are THOUSANDS. Over 6000 signed the petitions. I think it's SAFE to say that's more than a few.
These same activists do not want to stop the drilling, they want to stop the drilling until we learn more about the dangers associated with gas well drilling. What's the rush? We have enough natural gas in reserves now to supply nearly the entire country for the forseable future. I know what the rush is- your greed.
Your beloved mayor likes to hide behind a thin layer of the law that says she doesn't have a conflict of interest, when it's clear that she does. Any politician should refrain from anything that even appears to be inappropriate. Signing a business deal with Williams and then voting against a moratorium so they can keep on pulluting us is a violation of even the basic ethics any office holder can have. Judges have recused themselves from cases on less than this, but yet Smith thinks this is going to be okay. Her days in office are numbered. Not only are there more of us than there are of you in Flower Mound, there are more of us outside of Flower Mound as well.
Natural gas may very well be one of the cleanest burning fuels, but the process of obtaining it makes it just as dirty as anything else. Three 450 hp diesel generators running at 1600 rpms for months on end producing vast amounts of cancer causing emissions. Leaking condensate tanks, spills, leaks and more spills. Dumping sand on the spill is not cleaning it up. Power washing the condensate tanks after a multi-hundred gallon spill is also not cleaning ti up.
There needs to be at least some regulation, and people's health will take priority over your mineral rights every time.
The mineral right owner in my area was such a Good Neighbor, he excluded 50 acres around his home from gas wells and pipelines- 200 feet for the rest of us. And, he has 300 acres of property as it is. Why? Because he could.
The operator on my property decided to install an incenerator to burn the emissions isntead. Within hours of this thing going on line, our neighbor lost a chicken, one of their dogs got sick, and both the mother and her child were affected with a horrible rash. One of our dogs has had a seizure and one of our horses is sick. I guess you'll say that it has nothing to do with the massive amounts of carbon monoxide, dioxide and hydrogen sulfide pouring out this thing, only a ferw hundred feet from our homes.
By all means, as a mineral right owner, you should take the time to see what your love of money is doing the those who have to live with your right to access your minerals.
Stop by 415 Star Shell Rd in Decatur anytime. We had 10 acres. Now we have 6, thanks to people like you. The other 4 are contaminated.
You two should be ashamed of yourselves and your deplorable behavior. There's still a chance for you to do the right thing, though. First is to shut you mouth and stop spreading vicious lies.
Tim Ruggiero
I almost forgot - I'm in Pennsylvania this week on speaking tour with Mayor Calvin Tillman. There sure are quite a few people coming to these meetings- you don't mind if I read them your letter, do you?
Tim,
Wow, I though Biro was the biggest blowhard in the area - I stand corrected! Here's some advice from the original blog post that applies very well to you (excluding the reference to ladies):
"The letter is full of false statements (plus bad grammar, incorrect punctuation, and misspellings--ladies PROOFREAD)."
The only blowhard around here is you Chris. Yeah we know who you are.
God did bless me with a big mouth..makes it easier to hear me over the drone of the diesel generators. Typing, not so much.
Sorry, Anon 11:19, my name is not Chris. Is there nothing you clowns can get right?
Oh, and Tim, it's not my letter so I can't answer your question regarding whether or not the authors mind if you read it to your followers. By the way, is someone funding this little Quaker Stake crusade for you and Cal?
Tim, great comeback. Maybe they can answer how much money Williams has pumped into the crusade to " drill however they feel" campaign here in Flower Mound.
Williams has pumped a lot of money into the opportunity to monetize mineral owners' assets. They made upfront payments for leases, invested in infrastructure to support pipelines and roads, promoted their efforts to the community and have sunk considerable dollars into drilling for the gas. That is what oil & gas exploration and transmission companies do. And because they are a public company, anyone can go online and review all their SEC filings - their financials are very transparent.
How about some comparable transparency from the anti-drilling side? For example, there was a very expensive incentive offered to the FM Cares volunteers that obtained the most signatures - use of a suite at a Ranger game. Who provided that? Any why did FM Cares refuse to place their proposals on their web site, all the town could study them in depth (as opposed to just having hard copies at petition signing events)?
Post a Comment