NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

Senator Gillibrand Sells-Out Rockland County NY To FAA

Honorable United States Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand ("D", NY)
Russell Senate Office Building, Suite 478
United States Senate, United States Capitol
Washington, DC 20510-3206 USA

Re: Your Errant Support Of The 2009 FAA Reauthorization Bill And Airspace Redesign

Dear Honorable Senator Gillibrand:

You have harmed Rockland County, New York.

Along with 34 non-NY other U.S. Senators, you signed a November 5, 2009 letter to Senators Reid and McConnell in baffling support of illusory "NextGen" and the "FAA Reauthorization Act of 2009", S. 1451-HR 915 ("Bill")

Yet you know the Bill if enacted into law would compel Americans to waste Thirty-Five Billion more of its dollars (US$35,000,000,000) to pad pockets of airline aero-mercantilists, their lobbyist-enablers, and the reckless, profligate Randy Babbitt Federal Aviation Administration. Aluminum showers. Blue ice. Laptop overflights. Slow reactions. Drunk pilots. Cozy relationships. Software crashes. Private sector cash-outs. Air fatalities in America at an unchecked rate of 2 per day. Corrupted regulators. All happening over OUR heads.

You also know that at last count FAA seeks at least US$90 Million more dollars out of that US$35 Billion for its harmful "NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign". FAA admitted to blowing a prior US$60 Million already on Redesign, a harmful piece of software that threatens our homes, safety, and lives in Rockland County and 30,000,000 others in the northeast. You wrote me not just once, but twice - on June 22, 2009 and October 1, 2009 - acknowledging your receipt of my prior written communications on Babbitt and FAA's ill-intended Redesign.

You are supposedly a Democrat. You are supposedly representing the interests of New Yorkers. Democrats, particularly, are wont to tout their concerns for the environment, environmental justice, and the common citizen. I'm an Independent and even I believe in those principles. For that matter, you are on the Senate Committee for Environment. Yet by your November 5 autograph you are now supporting a permanent flight path putting up to 600 jumbo-jets a day at less than a mile overhead with peaks of up to 75 decibels every 2.5 minutes, through the respective predominantly Haitian, Semitic, and Catholic enclaves of Spring Valley, Monsey, and Pearl River. All because a bunch of DelMarVa rednecks are telling you that these disenfranchised communities are the paths of least fight and resistance. Not by a long-shot, Senator Gillibrand.

You have started to make public appearances and speeches indicating your intent to seek a Democratic nomination to actually be elected this next time as one of our two New York Senators. Yet when you signed the November 5 letter supporting FAA Reauthorization, you told 300,000 of us in Rockland County NY - voters and all - that you are willing to fund FAA's ill-conceived plan to destroy the quality of our lives in our county.

You (Class of '91) and I (Class of '87) went to the same law school - University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). You went on to run things in Washington DC. I went on to counsel those in media and entertainment. You abdicated your function to protect New Yorkers when you signed the November 5 letter. Rockland County demands that you recant that signature, in writing, and now. I expect to use every available media and communication opportunity to ensure that you protect your 300,000 constituents in Rockland County. 62,000-plus Rocklanders voted-out virtually all Democrats in our local election 2 days before you signed the November 5 letter. Have you already decided that for some reason you do not need those same 62,000 or more votes to get elected Senator? Because I'm about to take the other side of that bet and create a new expanded definition of "bloc vote".

Finally, mindful that 34 other Senators failed me and Rockland, please don't think I'm picking on you. The others will again hear from me, too. And, after all, if the 2009 FAA Reauthorization Bill clears the Finance Committee, I promise you that there's an Up-Chuck next. Man, he'll have a dreadful flight - considering that he already promised us on record in Pearl River this past St. Patrick's Day that he would stop the NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign. Funny thing about Rocklanders. We actually expect loyalty. We actually expect people to stay true to their word and their supposed self-professed principles:

Respectfully submitted,

John J. Tormey III, Esq.
Quiet Rockland - No New Flights Over Rockland County, NY