Hayseeds No. 187

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Kirsten Gillibrand Joins Blue Dog Democrats. In a move irking some of her supporters, both her and Mark Accuri have joined the caucus of moderate and conservative democrats from mostly southern states. Gillibrand claims that her reason for joining was to emphasize fisical responsibility in Congress.

I don't see what's wrong with them joining. The Blue Dog Democrats is a caucus and they don't neccessary determine how any particular congressperson is going to vote. The Blue Dog Democrats also don't seek to move the party to the right like the Democratic Leadership Council, and their conservative is distinctively different (the Blue Dogs tend to be kind of more southern).

Still, it should be very interesting to find out what all this means in upcoming months. P'Link

The New Democratic Party Chair. June O'Neil, Chair of the Saint Lawerence County Democratic Party was recently appointed as head of the State Democratic Party, as a symbolic tip of the hat to Upstate in a state now controlled by downstate democrats.

While I have to say Saint Lawerence County has done some amazing things at turning a rural county fairly blue, I have some issues with some of the Democrats up there. John Byrne of the New York Young Rural Democrats is really great, and the reason why their is such a revilitization of young rural democrats across the country, but some of the other party people up there, particularly in the county legislature are extermists.

I think you know where I'm going with that. P'Link

Feds To Look Into Albany Pork. It looks like a federal procecutor in Manhattan smells blood now that the list of member items is out in the public, and is starting a formal investigation into member items spending and whether or not it used to engage in corrupt pratices. P'Link

How to "Polarize" Your Images After you Forgot Your Polarizing Filter. I found this neat little Adobe Photoshop tutorial, to improve the polarization of your color images to make the sky darker and clear. I tried it in the GIMP and I couldn't figure out how to do it.

That said, creating a contrast map as described on GIMP.org can do a lot to improve yor images. P'Link

Famous Plattsburgh State Political Science Alumni On Energy and Commerence Committee. While we hope that he doesn't get his energy policy from that of Plattsburgh State, Anothony Weiner was appointed to Energy and Commerence Committee of the House of Representives. P'Link

Kirsten Gillibrand On Armed Services Committee. Congresswomen Kirsten Gillibrand (D-Hudson), (don't you just love the ring of that :) is now on the House Armed Services Committee, a really nice post for a rookie from New York. P'Link

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Timothy's Law Finally To Become Law. It looks like mental health parity is going to soon be the law of New York as the assembly has finally agreed to pass the watered down Senate version of the bill. P'Link

That Wasteful Special Session. Except for passing the weak Senate-version of Timothy's Law, the special session did absolutely nothing although Shelly claims that he has some kind of special plan to make civil confiment a reality.

I don't understand why we need civil confiment. We have criminal confinement, and prisoners should be getting treatment before being paroled. We have some powerful technologies that can overcome sexual deviance, which certainly is not limited to castration. That sounds cruel, but for some sex offenders that might be simple a solution. And, if they are unable to be treated then they should be sentenced to life or to death. P'Link

ACLU Has a Secret Document. We at NYC have no idea what is it as they haven't revealed it, but the government (well, the Bush administration) is actively trying to supress it's release as it's mildly embrassing to at least some people in power. P'Link

Pataki To Get A $131,000 Pension. It looks like our governor won't be doing much worst out of office then he is doing as governor—based on his 30 years of service and generally decently well paying state service he had over the years (compared to most bureaucrats), we will be collecting about $131k a year from the state pension fund.

So Pataki can retire comfortably after he does his little presidential run. You can laugh at him for spending his later years running for President. You have to admit that he is still doing pretty good all things considered. P'Link