Hayseeds No. 231

Monday, November 12, 2007

Tracy Brooks and the 21st Seat? It's interesting that the Times Union in CapCon thinks that Tracy Brooks could be a serious candidate for 21st Congressional District. The last I heard from her, she was very firmly committed to Hillary (on the Senate staff), and wouldn't be leaving her until after the 2008 elections are over.

You sometimes wonder where the media comes up with this stuff. P'Link

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

When They Should Have Tasers? We hear a lot about cops tasering little old grandmas at peace protests, along with hearing about NYC cops shooting a kid carrying a hair brush that they thought was a gun.

Tasers are suppost to be used to stop such tragedies from happening. But it's still more fun to get out your gun, and get into a shooting match. And we even have to ask why the NYPD had to engage the kid, rather then letting things run their course. P'Link

The Republican Drunk Driving Problem. Former Congressman John Sweeney was finally arrested after driving drunk again, and almost hitting a police car on the Adirondack Northway a little ways from the Saratoga.

Sweeney was heading northbound in his 2004 BMW sedan when at 1:19 a.m. he abruptly swerved out of the center lane just south of Exit 9, police said. Lt. Scott Coburn said officers noticed a smell of alcohol on Sweeney's breath. Sweeney allegedly failed a standard field sobriety test. A subsequent test showed his blood-alcohol content was 0.18 percent—more than twice the state's legal limit of 0.08 percent, police said.

The 52-year-old Republican faces misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and aggravated DWI. The second charge—tied to the allegation the one-time STOP-DWI coordinator for Rensselaer County was twice the legal limit—carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.

The Congressman has dodged rumors of his drinking problems for years now, and now it looks it might have caught up with him, as a disgraced former Congressman whose domestic dispute has been well dragged out about in the news. Not that any of believed that Sweeney could be a come-back kid as the Times Union apparently believed to be a possibility.

In 2001, Sweeney slammed a Jeep into a utility pole on his way home from the Willard Mountain ski area, cutting power to a portion of Washington County. At the time, State Police said Sweeney took his eye off the road to adjust the radio and lost control on the gravel on the right shoulder. No charges were filed.

Yes, that would be the state troopers overseen by a certain Republican governor, known to micromanage everything left and right in government. Regardless, Sweeney's problem with drunk driving and his wife is pretty sad for a man with such prestige to fall so fast and so quickly from being Congressman to a man being arraigned this morning.

It gets better though. Not only was Sweeney doing a little bit of drunk driving this weekend, so was another Bruno/Saratoga County GOP patronage hack. It seems that Saratoga Economic Development Authority Chair Ken Green was found parked illegally, passed out, and drunk like skunk on the lawn in Saratoga Springs.

Police allegedly found Green, 52, the president of the Saratoga Economic Development Corp., at 12:15 a.m. Sunday after a resident on Benton Drive called to report a car on the front lawn.

Officer Travis Carter arrested Green in his 2001 Chevrolet Suburban, and he had a blood-alcohol content of 0.18 percent or higher, Saratoga Springs Police Chief Edward Moore said.

When Carter arrived at the scene, which is a few blocks from Green's Iroquois Drive home, he found Green asleep in the vehicle, which was running and in park, the chief said.

"He apparently fell asleep and rolled up on somebody's lawn," Moore said.

It was on the same night—do you think Sweeney and Ken Green where at the same drinking party? They will be arraigned in different courts, but maybe they can get to go to the treatment programs on the same nights, and share a probation officer. P'Link

What Where Sweeney, et. al Drinking About? We had to ask that question. Could it be at the AMD Malta mini-chip fab might be becoming a pipe dream?

Despite the business publications trying to make it look all good, they note that there are some discouraging news about the proposed plant.

And although AMD has been struggling financially as it faces a price war with rival Intel Corp., many—but not all—signs point to the need for additional manufacturing by the global computer-chip market...

Not all predictions for the semiconductor industry look rosy. In its weekly semiconductor industry report issued Monday, research firm Gartner Inc. of Stamford, Conn., warned that a potential recession in the United States next year could harm the industry well into 2009, when AMD would likely make its final decision.

"The rising probability for a U.S. recession raises the downside risk to the industry," Gartner analyst Klaus Rinnen wrote.

But we need those roundabouts and flyover ramps to ensure the suburban commuters from Clifton Park can get to their state jobs in Albany?! But you have to dream big—if not, people will believe your no longer in power. P'Link

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters Outsources Strikers. This story is quite unbelievable:

In the past couple of years, the carpenters' union has hired the homeless to picket in Washington and other cities, according to news reports. The logic is economic. The union pays homeless people $8 an hour to picket so real carpenters can continue to make $24 an hour doing their jobs.

People who follow the labor movement say the carpenters' union is the only one they know of in the country that uses the homeless to picket. Some in organized labor say they find the practice embarrassing, even if they are loath to criticize a fellow union in public.

Fortunately, this is a rare occurance, and only this one union is doing it. And it's an embarrassment to most others union people. P'Link

Friday, November 16, 2007

Campbell Talks of Privatizing Mental Health Unit. Not surprisingly, taxpayer watchdogs and CSEA is less then happy. They don't have enough staff, so they feel that paying a private company more money, they will get more staff.

Sure, you can privatize, but it will only cost more. P'Link

Rich McNally's Rensselaer County DA. It looks like one of the most important positions in Rensselear County has switched hands to the Democrats with the election of Rich McNally to the DA's office.

The district attorney's office is the highest law enforcement office in the state, with jurisdiction of all criminal matters in Rensselear County. That means, as some liberals are suggesting, this could be the first step in the downfall of Senator Joesph Bruno, which might be investigated by an independent district attorney's office.

There is no question that Greg Cholakis was well qualified. But he followed a truly bad district attorney, by all accounts, of Patricia DeAngelis, who was appointed to a judgeship by Governor Pataki. DeAngelis had two things running against her—dozens of reversals and censures for being overly aggressive.

There is a lot of evidence that even Rensselear County is trending blue, and that Bruno's patronage-based lock won't save his county for the Republicans. There is a new generation of politicians that are slowly but surely biting away at Bruno Country.

So it's very possible to elect Democrats in Rensselear County. You just need the right kind of candidates to do it. P'Link