Is Gina McCarthy Dreaming of a Brown Christmas?

Well, dear friends, it's that holiday season again...time for the DEP to put coal (and trace amounts of slag, ash, and porcelain) in the stockings of our Prospect Hill neighbors for yet another year.

Yes, that's right. It's now been a whole year since the DEP first lied to the folks up on Prospect Hill, telling people whose homes were built on harmless native soil that they were living on contaminated waste...and sending their homes, lives, and families into turmoil just in time for the holidays.

And they're just about to do it again.

So if you live up on Prospect Hill and you were hoping your property would be cleared by this Christmas, you are going to be very disappointed. Why? Well, little Timmy, if Commissioner Gina McCarthy were going to do that, she would have done it long ago. She probably would have done it in the Spring when Diane Duva actually finished her report, or perhaps even last January when she realized the nefarious things that Elsie Patton and her friends at LEA had done.

No, we've known for quite some time that the Commissioner is good at making nice in public and kissing up to her superiors, but won't hesitate to crush the commoners once the cameras are put away. Neither she, nor Diane Duva, nor Pat Bowe, nor the rest of the gang up at DEP really think there is anything out of the ordinary with the soils on Prospect Hill, but they are not going to let science, the facts, or a few pesky members of the public get in the way of their bureaucratic power and privilege. Those are the hard facts. The DEP just hasn't wanted to tell you yet.

Why not? What are they waiting for? It's simple: They know you aren't going to be pleased with what they have to say, and it doesn't look good for them to be siding with their crony contractors over a community of decent and honest homeowners. And in politics, that kind of bad news has to be delivered very, very carefully. If you release it at the wrong time, important people might actually notice.

That's right, if you really want to stick it to someone as quietly as possible, there is no better time than the holidays. The Governor, State legislators, the AG, and the press are on vacation and don't want to be bothered with bad news. By the time they all come back...well...it just isn't news anymore...and we're all so busy...and how was your vacation?...and, well...what do those implacable homeowners want with their crummy little properties anyway? This is the sort of thing that they pay Communications Director Dennis Schain for.

And let's not forget about our friends down in "Who-hallville," where that old Grinch Gina McCarthy is really stealing their trees this Christmas season...

It's not easy being green.