**YES** Blackwater drops their application for the use of the Potrero site in San Diego

[tjwash]

Source: Sign On San Diego

By Anne Krueger
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

2:33 p.m. March 7, 2008

Blackwater Worldwide officials have announced they are pulling their application to build a training center on an on an 842-acre site in the East County community of Potrero.


The North Carolina-based company dropped off a letter to the county planning department today notifying officials of their decision not to pursue plans for the project on a former chicken and cattle ranch.

“Although our project would have brought a great benefit to San Diego County, – providing local, state, and federal law enforcement with access to low-cost superior training facilities while bringing much-needed jobs to the area – the proposed site does not meet our business objectives at this time,” states the letter from Blackwater vice president Brian Bonfiglio.

Bonfiglio said noise tests the company conducted at the site did not meet county standards, and the cost of reducing the noise was too expensive. He said Blackwater had spent well over $1 million in its effort to get government approval for the site.


Read more: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080307-1433-bn07black.html

[lligrd]

1. Good. K & R

[tridim]

2. I want Blackwater completely gone

No more no-bid contracts will probably do it.

[Tempest]

3. "the proposed site does not meet our business objectives at this time"

LOL!

They got their ass kicked by the residents in the area.

[Mithreal]

4. Blackwater, stay away from the Pacific Northwest too!

Congratulations to all the activists who earned this victory!

[not fooled]

5. YIPPEE!!

GREAT! No invasion of RW fascists into ecologically sensitive, bucolic Potrero. The residents, most of whom opposed this plan, must be ecstatic.

I live in the mountains of East SD County, about 30 miles away from the proposed site, and have been horrified at the prospect of this boondoggle coming in, plus the obvious implications for privatizing the Border Patrol.

SD county is so RW and regressive that it seemed likely Blackwater would succeed. Glad to hear that someone in local government took responsibility and did what the residents clearly wanted.

Poor, poor Duncan Hunter (local congressman and notorious RW asshole) must be SOOO depressed.

[Peace Patriot]

13. "SD county is so RW and regressive...". Dunno about that. SD has one of the

most corrupt county election officials in the state--the former chief salesperson for Diebold in California, for godssakes! Deborah Seiler. She sued the new reforming Sec of State, Debra Bowen, just before the recent primary, to prevent minimal improvements in vote counting, and is in cahoots with other bad, corrupt, anti-voter registrars--in Riverside, San Bernardino and Contra Costa Counties (and probably L.A.)--who serve the corporate vendors, not the voters. Now that the ringleader of this cabal of bad registrars, Conny McCormack in Los Angeles, has resigned, Seiler is likely to take more of leadership role in keeping our vote counting in private, corporate, secret control. Seiler is the latest of several very corrupt SD election officials. In my opinion, SD elections are completely unreliable. You may have a progressive majority there, and you don't even know it. And I have some anecdotal that points that way--anti-Bush, anyway, way back in 2004, in what you would think would be Bushite strongholds in SD. Doctors, lawyers, military officers, foreign service--hating Bush.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions. I wouldn't trust any corporate media on this. And I wouldn't trust any SD election results.

Here's my study "California Election Integrity 2008." You might want to review it for facts about SD's election system, and start a movement (or join an existing group) to oust Seiler from the SD county registrar's office. You would be doing the election reform movement a great service.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x496453

[Kaleko]

18. Thanks for the heads-up, P. P !!!

This is why I come here to DU - wellsprings of info like you.

:toast:

[Peace Patriot]

20. You're welcome! It was so great to see Conny McCormack driven out of L.A.!

She did a sale brochures for Diebold! And she and Deborah Seiler were/are as thick as thieves. They've done some real bad stuff in CA. They led the dirty campaign that drove our good Sec of State, Kevin Shelley, out of office, after he sued Diebold and demanded to see their source code, just prior to the 2004 election. The Progressive Democrats really got on it, and defeated the Diebold shill Schwarz appointed to replace Shelley as SoS, and elected Bowen, who has really shaken things up. Bowen is why McCormack resigned (getting outa Dodge before before Bowen finds the buried bodies). I'd be very glad to see Seiler be the next to go. I fear that Diebold & co. (and the really bad far rightwing billionaires behind them) are grooming Seiler to run against Bowen in 2010.

The "Help America Vote Act"--that infamous bill (passed in the same month as the IWR, Oct 02) infested our election system with corrupt officials--very quickly--with the $3.9 billion e-voting boondoggle that fast-tracked these machines all over the country--complete with lavish lobbying, "revolving door" employment, the vendors putting on fancy conferences (like at the Beverly Hilton),lying, deception, corrupt contracting, and exclusion of the public from the vote counting process. That is why it is so hard to change the system and restore transparent vote counting. It brought the "culture of secrecy" from the corporate world right into our election system. Wherever you find corrupt officials like McCormack and Seiler, you also find an attitude of contempt for the public and the voters, difficulty getting information, and smelly voting results that are impossible to verify.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Good news! They need to be retrained for honorable jobs. n/t

[devilgrrl]

7. Don't celebrate too much - we haven't seen the last of those assholes, believe me.

eom

[cascadiance]

8. YES!

Perhaps there's some degree of sanity around here after all! Maybe now we can get another progressive station to replace KLSD with and we can stop the ship from sinking around here!

[Peace Patriot]

9. "Blackwater had spent well over $1 million in its effort...". That's one mil...

...NOT going toward torture, murder, drugs and weapons trafficking, and fascist plotting--in Iraq, in Mexico, in Colombia, in Venezuela, in Ecuador, in Bolivia, in New Orleans...and in San Diego!

Kudos to the citizen activists who stopped this outrage! I am so proud of you! You are my heroes today!

[spag68]

17. Blackwater

has Billion dollar contracts, so million is spit to them. I rarely swear but this occasion demands it Fuck blackwater.

[Peace Patriot]

19. Yeah, I know. I just meant I'm glad it was a wasted effort.

And, however small the amount, they don't get to spend it on harming people. Same with keeping them out of SD. They'll go somewhere. They have billions of OUR TAX DOLLARS to buy land, influence, tax breaks, perks, politicians, whatever they want. But it's heartening--and a victory--to see a community say, "NO!" I remember when Inglewood, CA, kept Wal-Mart out a few years ago. Great campaign! Citizen uprising! Every ripple of resistance to the global corporate predators who rule over us is important.

[barbtries]

10. now to to get them out of NC

the bastards. lawless war profiteering pigs.

thumbs up to the people who made this good news happen

[frylock]

11. excellent!

Big ups to the peeps in Potrero and Campo who fought this.

[crimsonblue]

12. Cool!

Tally: BushCo 352 American People 8

[calimary]

24. Welcome to DU!

Glad you're here!

Great news, isn't it? But it's still important to keep track of 'em.

Still, their million dollars wasted is one million less they can spend on killing, chaos, and cronyism.

[aquart]

14. Oh, I LIKE good news.

What neighborhood are they looking to destroy instead?

[EFerrari]

15. Great news! Thanks, tjwash!

:kick:

[razors edge]

16. Whats worse?

Having these assholes surrounded with an active community with the balls to protest them and draw attention, or them moving to a place where nobody gets off their ass to do anything but mow Blackwaters's grass for minimum wage?

[lunatica]

21. Methinks there's an interesting 'coincidence' here

Blackwater was in the news and therefore unable to move in the dark under their usual rock with their plans in Potrero. So naturally, people being aware of them created activism against their agenda. If they can be defeated in a tiny community of less than 900 people then it has to be because those 900 people knew the truth. Public awareness is anathema to the dark siders (the denizens of the dark secretive spaces under rocks, AKA the undisclosed location of the First Dick Dick Cheney)

Yay to Potrero's people :thumbsup: :hi: :patriot:

I salute you!

[defendandprotect]

22. Good news . . . and hope they stay away -- !!!

[tv45]

23. Good News, Bad News

Bad news for Blackwater is good news for America. It's good to see they don't have carte blanche in America too b/c they sure do in Iraq. Speaking of that, this article made me a-chuckle.

"US State Dept Grants Blackwater Prima Nocte"
http://www.thearch-info.com/News/National/Blackwater_Prima_Nonnas.html

[Maat]

26. Thanks for the chuckle, ALTHOUGH ..

I had to admit to myself that I would not have been the least bit surprised if it HAD really been granted.

What I have seen happen in the last eight years - that I thought would NEVER happen!

[roody]

25. Much applause for the citizens of Potrero!!

You are what democracy looks like, sounds like, smells like, tastes like, and feels like.