The ADEQ issued an air quality permit Rosemont copper company today. A 30 day time period now begins to file a written request for hearing or notice of appeal. The right for an appeal is granted under Arizona revised statute 41 – 1092 – 03 (B).
More later on the story.
We remember that famous line from the movie “Wizard of Oz”. What we haven’t done is try to understand what the allegory meant. While the Yellow Brick Road gang was being addressed by the Great And Powerful Wizard Of Oz, the dog Toto ran off to the side, pulled on the curtain, and showed that a normal-looking person was operating cranks and levers. For a short while, the normal-looking man kept yanking levers and cranking cranks, and said into the microphone “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
In other words, he wanted everyone to keep being impressed by the big flashy magic show, and ignore that they might have found out how the trick really works.
That smoke and mirrors magic show goes by many different names, the dog and pony show, the shell and the pea game, the three card trick and innumerable other variations for the illusionist to draw our attention aside while he manipulates the orchestrated trick.
We have a new contender on the scene vying for the title of “the Great Wizard”. The new contender is none other than the new entrants into the mining industry. Their stock in trade is not production or product of any tangible asset but more in the area of control of our National and State public lands. They have found levers and cranks and wheels to turn to produce the magic show and dazzle the American citizens, politicians and businessmen.
They throw money around for public relations fully understanding that it is seed money which could perhaps generate a bumper crop for them as individuals. They all have fancy titles and very large compensation packages which are financed primarily by selling stock to people who wish to make a quick killing. They know and understand that if they can get the permits required, the proposed mining claims become a marketable product. It’s marketable for one simple fact, the laws are being bent to get control of the public lands and if they get that control they have hit the jackpot. Under many circumstances they will walk away millionaires even if they do not get the permits. Rosemont Copper is an example of this, the top five executives of Rosemont copper have become multimillionaires simply from large compensation packages which are financed from the stock sales.
Example after example of the smoke and mirrors can be found in the statements of this new generation of copper companies and certain key phrases are utilized to pacify the American citizenry. Who has not heard the phrase “21st-century mine”? How about the phrase “we want to be good neighbors”? There is always the phrase “we will sue you” when they are caught with their fingers in the cookie jar.
Personally my favorite is when Dan Ryan and Rod Pace of Rosemont copper claimed to be:
“The Number Two Tourist Attraction in the State of Arizona”
I pay attention to the man behind the curtain and my advice would be for you to do the same, and by the way Rosemont, it’s the 21st century already by 13 years.
When I was a child I was told that with age would come wisdom. If that is true why is that I cannot understand the motives of our political groups today. We have this new organization called the “tea party”, specifically the Pima County Tea Party Patriots, which seems to have motives that I cannot understand. I have watched, recorded, analyzed and studied their methods and what appears to be their madness. I have been a registered Republican for 47 years and I now watch the party started by Abraham Lincoln tear itself apart by infighting.
I have watched, and for the most part, remained quiet, while they supported Jesse Kelly against a candidate whom he had no chance to beat. They not only did not support but actively campaigned against Jonathan Paton, a decent man whom I thought was the only candidate that could have won that election for the Republican Party. I believe Jonathan Paton will triumph in the new district and perhaps that was meant to be his karma.
I have watched as this tea party has moved my Republican Party so far to the right, that we now equal in some ways the radical concepts of the far left, which includes politicians such as Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and so many others.
This article is not concerning numbers or political concepts or whether anyone is right or wrong. What it does concern is what I feel in my heart and my soul concerning what is happening to my beloved country. I am watching powerless as we become so fragmented that I feel we are about to break.
If you are curious as to the reason that I’m writing to you like I would write to a long-lost uncle, it’s because of what I am watching in the upcoming primaries. I will give you one example of a concentrated, thoroughly planned and executed attack on a candidate that I have a great deal of respect for, and that is my representative to the Board of Supervisors District 4, “Ray Carroll.”
I am not sure how many of you have read the website for the “Pima County Tea Party Patriots”, but I just finished reading it. I saw where they thanked Mr. Garrett Lewis with this ringing endorsement of him and the radio station KNST. The following is the quote from their webpage:
The Pima County Tea Party Patriots would like to extend our Thanks to Garret Lewis and KNST radio for moderating our Pima County Supervisor District 1 & 4 Debates. His moderating skills allowed him to conduct the debate professionally with an added pinch of humor.
End of quote
I have watched Garrett Lewis as he has attacked time after time Supervisor Carroll. I have watched as he has edited the sound bites to manipulate them and to intensify the attack. You asked why I mention that here, it’s because I sent e-mails and communications to both Garrett Lewis and the management of KNST with a transcript of the editing and was completely ignored. He will admit, on the air, that his biggest concern is ratings. I would be happier if his biggest concern was the truth. Instead, Garrett Lewis has decided to support the candidate endorsed by Rosemont copper. One of his major attacks against Supervisor Carroll was that he used a “naughty word” while at a private roast, and supervisor Carroll made a comment on some of the false ads the media were allowing to be played. I listened to one of Lewis’s podcasts between he and his callers; they used the word “Crap” twice and the word “Hell” once on the public airwaves while they were denigrating Supervisor Carroll’s using of the word “Pricks” at a private function!
This message was brought to you by no one but myself, written by myself. I claim credit for all the mistakes by myself, but also claim credit for telling you, don’t turn into the competition or as the cartoon character “Pogo” once said; We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us.
The ending to this message is that the group “The Tea Party Patriots” used this comment while requesting donations at the August debate between Supervisor Carroll and opponent, Sean Collins:
COMMENT:
“So we will be needing to collect donations and also we have to pay for this venue and all the other things that go with it because we could not get a library large enough to hold us all. So if y’all could graciously help us out with donations, so we can take care of the Rangers at the end of the evening and also pay the “DAMN SCHOOL SYSTEM!”
END OF COMMENT
I promised myself I was going to try and stop posting large messages to you the public, so I will quit now.
A headline for an article in the August 5, 2012 Arizona daily Star read:
Political notebook: Supervisors candidate Collins captures sign thief on video
There are too many stories that do not have an ending, something that you can put your teeth into and say, “Yes that’s the end of the story.” This time the ending is the signs were picked up by the highway maintenance from Nogales.
Excerpt from story August 5, 2012.
Collins sent out an email Friday with the subject line, “Smile, you’re on the Collins Camera” to help capture the sign-snatcher. The campaign posted the video, taken by a hidden camera set up by a campaign volunteer and authorized by the Collins campaign, on YouTube and asked for people with information to call the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. Collins, a small-business owner trying to unseat Ray Carroll in Pima County Board of Supervisors District 4, is not taking this lightly. He has promised a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprit. He’s promising to prosecute the person to the “fullest extent the law allows.”
Excerpt ending
Included with this story is a link to the YOUTUBE Video of Sean Collins’ campaign posters at mile marker 47.5 on Highway 83, which just happens to be the entrance to the Rosemont property and also includes photographs from Nogales . The Video shows the pictures of the confiscated signs at the DOT yard in Nogales. Just click on the picture and it will open a new link.
The incident was used by Mr Collins in a negative campaign against supervisor Ray Carroll and the Save the Scenic Santa Ritas . I think it would be gentlemanly if he were to call both organizations and apologize for his comments. Oh yes, Mr Collins perhaps could tell how someone could collect their $500 reward for finding his campaigns signs.
January 14 was the last open meeting with the forest service concerning the draft EIS for the proposed open pit copper mine in the Coronado National Forest in the Santa Rita mountains. The number attending and participating in the discussion would be estimated to be between four and 500 people.
Rosemont supporters heckle Mr. Barber
Many of those in attendance supporting the Rosemont copper mine demonstrated a rudeness to a level unprecedented in any other meeting concerning the mine. It would have been bad enough if that rudeness had been directed to someone who deserved it but instead the rudeness was directed to Ron Barber, representative of our federal Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and a gentleman who was became well-known for his attempts to foster civility in politics. January 15 he was honored for his family’s creation of the fund for Civility, Respect, and Understanding which made the occurrence of January 14 a perfect example of what he is fighting against.
To those who booed, harassed and heckled I give to you a platform for your shame and I leave to Mr. Barber your forgiveness because I will not. You were heckling not simply a member of the audience but you were heckling a representative of a federal congresswoman who sent him to read her statement as she was probably simply unable to. She and Mr. Barber were injured doing what few politicians today have the courage to do, to meet and interact with their constituents. For doing that they almost lost her lived. I am unable to understand or comprehend in any manner the level of stress that the Rosemont supporters placed on Mr. Barber with their heckling, screaming and total disrespect.
I listened as many of you, supporters of Rosemont, bragged on how many years you have lived in Arizona or how many generations of your forebears have lived in Arizona. For that I am ashamed that none of you had parents that to achieve decency, kindness and social graces. We may disagree but neither of us have the right to behave as you did Saturday.
To those of you who are interested I am attaching a 7 min. video, audio showing the disrespect. Perhaps many of you seeing yourself or listening to yourself as you screamed while Mr. Barber tried to deliver congresswoman Giffords statement can show it to your friends, neighbors and family and show them how proud they can be of your behavior, personality I found abusing, childish and totally past the limit.
I also believe, that like children, when you bring someone to a party and they misbehave you are responsible for their apology. I hold Rosemont copper to the same standards as I would hold a parent who does not control their children therefore it makes sense, at least to me, the Rosemont publicly apologize for those that they invited to attend.
