“When leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders” Veterans Fast for Life
An article published on SoVaNow.com on June 8 published the following comments attributed to Virginia Beach State Senator Frank Wagner:
“If this guy gives me money and that one doesn’t, who do you think I’m going to talk to? Who am I going to listen to?”
“You have money and want to buy a car. The other guy wants to buy a car, but doesn’t have any money. Who do you think I’m going to waste my time talking to? The one with money. I can’t help the other one and he can’t help me.”
“Now if the one with money says he wants to buy the red car, you think I’m going to try to sell him the green car? No I’m going to give him what he wants. He has the money.”
While some may find his comments appalling, you must admire his honesty in telling us the truth about politics.
Recently Congressman Morgan Griffith sent an email inviting people to a town hall meeting sponsored by “Americans for Prosperity”. The innocuous sounding name immediately raised red flags and we did some research. What we found was that this group had spent $111,497 to get Mr. Griffith elected according to the website campaignmoney.org, so it is no wonder he holds “town hall” meetings for them without identifying who they are. That amount sure beats thirty pieces of silver. AFP is a tax exempt front organization for Koch Industries. You may ask who is Koch Industries and so what do we care?
Simple, environmental pollution.
Koch Industries was fined $35 million for an alleged 300 pipeline spills in six states from 1990 to 1997, adding up to 3 million gallons of crude oil leaking into ponds, lakes, streams and coastal waters.
In 1999, a federal jury found that Koch Industries had stolen oil from government and American Indian lands, had lied about its purchases more than 24,000 times, and was fined $553,504.
In June 2011, Americans for Prosperity placed fake eviction notices on people’s doors in the Delray neighborhood of Detroit. In 2010, Koch Industries was ranked 10th on the list of top US corporate air polluters. It has also been reported that automated messages supporting Virginia Uranium originated from AFP’s Richmond office.
At this point, one would have to ask which American’s prosperity do these people have in mind? We can also wonder why our representative is involved with a group who engaged in the shenanigans listed above.
As previously mentioned, we have called Rep. Robert Hurt’s office about concerns over his ”Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act” seeking more information. All the response received was a letter back about a bill on patents. A request to meet with him to discuss the bill sent through his website went unanswered.
How much do our representatives care about the environment?
Who do you think represents the people in establishing environmental regulation? Going back to Senator Wagner’s comments do you believe for one minute that wealthy corporations with lobbyists are really under all these “burdensome regulations” they cry about?
Repeated requests for comment were made to Mary Stafford from Congressman Morgan Griffith’s office but no reply was forthcoming.
“The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.” Frederick Douglass
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