Seems like every time someone sticks their head up in Albany the press and public takes a shot at them. Now it’s Cuomo. Who’s next? It would really be funny if it weren’t for the fact that with all this stuff going on not a damn thing is being done in the state legislature.
Archive for the ‘political stuff’ Category
New York State Government aka Whack a Mole
Monday, March 8th, 2010NY Senate Coup and A Modest Proposal For State Government
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009One thing about the legislation in Albany always has been that it could be safely ignored. For the most part our distinguished representatives appear twice a year: in the fall when they run for reelection and in the spring when they’re taking turns arguring with the governor as to who is causing the budget to be late. Between these two seasons, excepting for an occasional pop-up in the local news when they are pushing some sort of pet project in an attempt to get reelected, they tend to disappear.
Not this year.
Seems the Republicans were unable to come to terms with the fact that, after thirty some years, they had lost their majority in the State Senate. (That it happened last fall and took them nearly seven months to realize this before trying to do something to regain control, comes as no surprise.) At any rate the Republicans came up with a plan whereby they could regain control by bringing a couple of dissatisfied Democrats into their fold (given this is NYS, finding dissatisfied Democrats is just a matter of throwing a rock in any direction. Plus they picked a couple of good ones; one is being investigated for misappropation of funds and the other is under indictment for slashing his girl friend. Do we elect solid citizens or not?). The carrot for this seems to have been promising one of the Democrats, Pedro Estrada, that he would be tempory president of the Senate under this new coalition. (Hey, Pedro, the word is “tempory” how long to do think you’ll hold this position once a couple more Republicans are elected?) Rather than do this last fall when there wasn’t a helova lot of legislation to do, they picked the end of the session to create this brouhaha, effectively ceasing any kind of legislative progress that might have been done before they take their extended summer vacation (and gear up for the fall elections). I especially like the reasoning: The Republicans needed to get control because the current, Democratic-led Senate was not getting anything done. Yeah, right, like they aren’t going to be embroiled in a “He said/ He said” legal fight from now until the end of the session. Plus, of course, the previous 30+ Republican-led Senates weren’t exactly task oriented.
For a long time I’ve felt that there needs to be something done to reduce the number of idiots in the legslative branch of the govenment. To my way of thinking, the best way to do this as well as cut the cost of government was very simple; just double the number of people each State Representative and Senator needed to represent. This would simply slash the number of people in both bodies in half. Not only would the cost drop by at least a third(yeah, a third because those left would need more money) but, hopefully, with twice the number running maybe we’d get a real choice. At least it would retire half of the incumbents that have held the same office for years. When you stop to think about it, the district sizes are formed using arbitrary numbers arrived at back in a time when travel and communication were a problem. In this day of airplanes, helicopters, Interstate highways, television, computers, Twitter, Facebook and whatever, anyone that is interested can be instantly in contact with anyone, anywhere. Any legislator could just as effectively represent 2 people as 1 and their job could easily be down-sized. Of course this would require a change in the state constitution but it would be doable. It could also work for the US House of Representatives as well. All that is needed is someone to get the ball rolling.
What Are They Thinking???
Monday, March 23rd, 2009Ok, here’s one for you. NYS has a law that requires that anyone driving a firetruck have a Commerical Driver’s License unless the truck is being driven in an emergency situation. This means that anyone can drive a firetruck to a fire but only someone with a CDL can drive it back. Since, by in large, most small, volunteer fire companies wouldn’t have members with CDL’s. this would mean a truck would have to stay at the fire site until another emergency arose.
Who thinks these things up????
A Great Event
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009Hundreds of thousands of people packed together in a mass of humanity, all with hope for a better day which may not be realized. Experts making wild predictions, both pro and con, as to what will transpire based on the experience gain while being part of events leading up to this day. A huge uptick in commericalism that may lead to increased revenue and economic growth; pumping thousands if not millions into the economy of a single city. A media frenzy fueling all of this with 24/7 coverage and bulletins inside of bulletins and indepth interviews with those involved as well as spectators.
Obama’s inaugural? Nope, Super Bowl LXII. We Americas know what’s important.
My Political Blog
Sunday, January 18th, 2009If you’re looking for some sort of left/right political comments on this blog, I’m sorry to have to disappoint you. It isn’t that I don’t have political opinions that I am, under the right set of circumstances, quite willing to express, but I’d much prefer to do them in person rather than sound off on a forum like this—or any other one for that matter. I’ve been a party to and taken part in a lot of arguments about politics in my life but I find the current use of blogs as a means to put forth one’s one-sided political opinions nothing more than a way to bully the opposition, stroke one’s ego and add misinformation to the pile of political horse manure that is out there. The sad thing is that most bloggers have to use bits and pieces of misinterpreted or completely fabricated information to make their point, much of which originated with and/or can be traced back to either the blogger or some organization that has a political ax to grind. I mean, how tough is it to link your blog to another without having to do any original thinking anyway? While in a face-to-face argument these kinds of things can either be refuted, ignored or forgotten, once they appear in print it is out there forever where others of like ilk can refer to it. All these blogs do is add to the huge mass of misinformation available and confuse those without the means or the wherewithal to research them.
Of course the above is a political comment but it is bipartisan and the last one I’ll make. Feel free to cite me if you want.
Binghamton is Pierogy Capital of US
Thursday, November 8th, 2007There is irony here if you look for it, I doubt that there were 60,000 votes cast in the general election last week in any one of the areas. Also, there seems to be a problem with how to spell piorghi–”pierogi” is how my friend from New Britiain, CT spells it and I see it is either “pierogy” or “pirohi” in the article. At any rate, Hilary knows when to jump on a sure thing.
Now it’s Sledding Helmets
Friday, February 23rd, 2007It seems there is legislation afoot to require kids to wear helmets while sledding . What next? According to the reasoning behind this there are, supposedly, thousands of head injuries that result from sledding–of course there is no indication as to who is doing the counting. Maybe it is one really klutsy kid that is getting injured a thousand times but I don’t recall hearing of any one locally in sledding accidents(This doesn’t count those on snowmobiles who try to out-race cars at road crossings but they’re generally adults and inebriated to boot). Of course I do know of one middle-aged lady who messed her knee up tobogganing but a helmet wouldn’t have covered her for lack of common sense.
As a kid we sledded down the steepest hills, dodging trees as we went, and the only thing approaching injury was occasional frost bite. We also played pond hockey without helmets or, for that matter, gloves or masks. What is it with today’s youngsters? Are they so protected that they have no idea that if they aim for a tree injury will result? Which may be what is happening here: Kids today are so over protected that they don’t learn to avoid those circumstances where they can get hurt. I do know that there are studies out there that suggest that children are being so protected from microbes that they are not building immunity to common germs. Maybe the same thing is happening in re to other common injuries. My suggestion would be that either we let kids be kids and patch up their injuries or, as an alternative, cover them in bubblewrap.
Voting
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006I voted today, not because I’m sure the people I voted for will win or, if they do, that my vote will make the difference. I voted because I know a guy whose political leanings are the exact opposite of mine so, by casting my vote, I’ve cancelled his out. On the other hand, had I not voted and he did, his side would get one more vote than mine whereas, if he doesn’t vote, my side will have one more. It’s not the win or loss, it is who scores the points that is important.
Politicial Ads #2
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006In the spring some lawns are covered with tulips and daffodils. In the summer, it is dandelions. Come fall, signs favoring political candidates pop up over night. Unlike the spring flowers or even the dandelions, these signs serve no decorative purposes. In fact, I wonder if they do any good whatsoever.
Has anyone ever voted for a candidate because they spotted someones name on a sign on their neighbors lawn? I serioously doubt it and hope that wouldn’t be the basis for casting one’s vote. Aside from an indication of the homeowner’s political party, these signs are, to me at least, a waste of money that a politician or party could put to some real use.
Furthermore, after the election is over, these signs just simply add to the litter along the streets since those who put them up never seem anxious to remove them. This is especially true of the losers. Ironically in this area, at least, the biggest culprit when it takes to letting their posters blow in the wind is the Green Party.
Poltical Ads #1
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006Inasmuch as our congressman is not running for reelection, we in the 24th Congressional District are being inundated with ads by the two men vying to replace him. One candidate’s first ad pointed out how there was so much division in Congress that he wants to be elected to end this partisanship—one of the ways he is to do this is to trash his opponent in his ads. It is not that the opponent is any different; both are throw mud at one another in the hopes that some of it will impress the voters in their favor.
The latest is to use percents. Now, as a former mathematics teacher, one thing I know is that no one understands percents. Therefore, they are ideal ways to exaggerate and mystify the general public. Basically, a percent has no meaning unless you know what it is based on. Example: one candidate is accusing another of a 7000% increase in his operating budget. Sounds bad as this means the guy increased his budget by 70 times and it would be if he took it from, say, $10,000 to $800,000. But, suppose it only means he increase it from $100 to $8000, not an especially large amount, especially since it was low to begin with. In addition, there is no timetable given for this increase so a 7000% increase over 10 years isn’t as bad as one that occurred in one or two. Nevertheless, the 7000% is scary so use it to impress people who don’t understand in the first place.
Another thing that is impressive is to accuse your opponent of being a Liberal, especially a Tax and Spend Liberal. Since both men have held public office, which required setting up budgets it is fairly certain that both have had to increase these budgets over their terms. Since these were public offices, it stands to reason that these increases meant increased taxes. Does this mean the Tax and Spend Liberal’s opponent is a Tax and Spend Conservative? (Although he prefers Fiscal Conservative). Either way they have, and will in the future, increase taxes. The important question is on whom will they levy this increase?
Basically, if one is interested in logic and well thought out reasoning, political ads are not the place to look for it.