Hayseeds No. 236

Monday, December 17, 2007

More from the Fascist City of Albany. While I don't live in that shithole known as Albany, and are quite proud of that fact, they are again forcing people to remove snow from their sidewalks as the city is too cheap to higher a plow contractor to remove snow in a quick and sensible way, like they do in the suburbs of Bethlehem and Colonie.

The city complains that the state won't remove snow from state-signed highways that are marked through the city, so they have to remove it themselves. That is unequitable they say, so they can only afford to remove snow from the streets.

If the city is removing snow from streets, then why not sidewalks? Or why don't they ask property owners to clean the streets in front of their houses? It doesn't seem fair that the cars get better plowed roads then the sidewalks. Isn't healthier to be walking?

It's also amazing how poor the streets are plowed in the city. In the country, the roads are just wet. In the suburbs, they are a little slushy. In the city they are still a mess.

And it looks like for the next few days you can forget about putting out your recycables. The city won't pick them up until next week, or more likely just dump them in the trash if you put them out, because they have to put so much effort into plowing streets, because residents are only able to shovel their own sidewalks.

If god put it there, then he will remove it—unless it's on a sidewalk, then the city will fine you $50 dollars. P'Link

NPR Iowa Caucus Video. Ken Reunion has a really hillarious video from the Iowa Caucus Museum and discusses the history of the Iowa Caucus and how it rarely predicts the final outcome of candidates for both parties.

Yet, doing well in the Iowa Caucus (1st, 2nd, 3rd place), can show to our country that your viable. And caucuses are much different then voting in primaries:

Caucuses are like a neighborhood party that last for hours. In Iowa, they begin at 7 p.m. (Central) sharp. They take place in a church or a gymnasium or a school or in someone's living room. You're there with your neighbors. You discuss issues, such as Iraq or ethanol or Social Security. And you also discuss candidates.

Unlike a primary — where your vote is private — in a caucus, you declare your support for a candidate in plain view of everyone around you. Candidate Smith's supporters go to this corner of the room, candidate Jones' that corner, and so on. If no candidate at a particular caucus site receives the support of 15 percent of the attendees, his or her supporters need to form a coalition with another candidate's supporters to reach the vaunted 15 percent threshold. Otherwise, the candidate ends up with no support at all.

I've never seen a caucus in person or participated in one. I know most of the parties, at least in the hill towns, use caucuses to nominate candidates for local offices.

When the party is relatively small, and everybody can fit in one room, it's quite possible to debate the merits of a candidate. It must be amazing to see the outcome of the process, and how it can lead to the loss of friends—at least temporarly. P'Link

Chrysler to Idle Dodge Ram Production. It looks like with higher fuel prices that they can't sell enough trucks and will be forced to temporarly shutdown their Dodge Ram Assembly until they can move more of their 2008 model trucks off the lots. P'Link

Assemblyman Bill Barclay and Darrel Aubertine to Fight Over Senate Seat. The Syracuse-Post standard is reporting that is likely that two Assemblymen are looking to fight it out to replace Senator James Wright whose resigning to take a job with a lobbying firm next year.

Senator James Wright was the former Senate Energy Committee chair, and a major blocker of progressive energy legislation in the Senate. Wonder why we can't get an Article X Law in place, to get needed generation from clean sources? Blame Senator Wright, the analogous to Senator James Inhoffe in the COngress.

It should be interesting to see if the Democrats can pick up this seat on the Tugg Hill Plateau (Senator Wright's district runs from Oswego along Lake Erie and Saint Lawerence River to Potsdam). It seems with Aubertine running, that they are seriously going to put an effort up to pick up this seat. P'Link

Crossgates Peace Walk Thursday. The annual Peace March will be at 6:15 PM on Thursday, to protest the war and bring awareness after a person was harassed by the police there four years ago for wearing a shirt that said Peace on Earth.

It's good to see that this tradition is continuing, and people are keeping awareness up on the issue of peace. I have schedule conflict then, but I may try to get over there for the Peace Walk. P'Link

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Jim Gallagher Wonders Has Spitzer Learned Anything. The Gannett columnist who can be a real thorn in the side from Rochester, asks how much has Spitzer learned from his first year in office.

I think it's great that Spitzer has gotten a lot of good people in office where they can do good things. He's always been willing to try things, although he seems too often to lack the political savvy to get those things done.

Yet, it's good to see a governor who experiments and tries to get things done. We need more creativity in our government to try to tackle many of the great problems of the day. Spitzer all in all has been a pretty good governor, even though his first year was marked by unsuccessful policies and retreats backward. P'Link

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Thruway Hikes Tolls. It looks like not only will the previously approved 10% toll hike take place on January 1st, there will be another 5% hike in 2009 and 2010 yet another 5% hike.

They say it was neccessary in their independent judgment:

Without the toll increases, the agency says it would have to severely cut back on a $2.7 billion highway and bridge improvement program currently under way. The approval Wednesday means the required public hearing process can start in March with a final OK by the board as early as mid-April.

“I think it would be irresponsible not to start that public process,” said Thruway board member Kevin Plunkett, who believes delaying the construction program along the 426-mile highway system would have a “devastating” impact on the state’s economy.

They also suggested in that article that if they could get rid of the Canal Authority, maintenance of I-86 and other unprofitable things from their authority that much of the toll hike could have been avoided. But not by that much:

If the state would take back responsibility for the canal system, Fleischer told board members, it would relieve the need to raise tolls by 5 percent in 2009 and 2010. But he said the agency would still need to cut reductions for E-ZPass users.

The reality is that such an increase was badly needed:

Thruway Authority members said the $2.7 billion construction program is not about creating a new highway system or widening current stretches, but basic rehabilitation of an aging roadway. The Thruway is a 55-year-old system “that needs real attention,” said Michael Fleischer, the agency’s executive director.

Still many politicians upstate are less then happy with the increase. The Assembly announced yesterday that they will hold public hearings and subpoena anybody that voted for the hearings to testify on their rational. P'Link

No-Stance Obama. It looks like Barack Obama has a tendency in his record to simply vote present on controversial bills rather then taking a politically difficult vote on bills.

So he's not just a big coal lacky, he's also has no stance on any issue, so to keep himself from appearing as a controversial person, for his run next year as the big coal candidate for President. P'Link

That Economically Depressed Area Known As Luther Forest. Who would have ever guessed that AMD would need more state money beyond our state's $1.3 billion dollar subsidy?

Well it looks that it's so with Luther Forest getting Empire Zone benefits that give even more big tax breaks to an already wealthy company. I kind of can't believe what an abuse of the Empire Zone program.

And they're even talking about building more infrastructure for an empty lot in a forest:

"Let's not rush to build bypasses and water lines to accommodate a company that might not even come to Saratoga. Let's build infrastructure when AMD signs on the dotted line," he said.

I'm sure this should be a call for somebody to go to jail. Maybe, but first we need a Democratic DA in Saratoga County whose not on the take. P'Link

Friday, December 21, 2007

Don't Bother to Email the Mayor. It would appear that he doesn't have a big enough email quota on the city e-mail servers to take any more email:

”mayor@ci.albany.ny.us on 12/19/2007 11:23 AM The message could not be delivered because the recipient’s mailbox is full.”

Maybe he needs to go for the $6.95 hosting/email account service I have, where my email quota is essentially unlimited. I think have about 750 MB of email on my server (I haven't deleted anything since 2004), and my quota is somewhere in the range in the 15 GB or so. Hell, Google will provide you with 2 gigabytes of mail space.

It also begs the question of how often does the mayor actually read his email? Maybe the DGS or whoever operates computers for the City should fix their email system. P'Link

Nancy Wiley is Out; Doug Bullock is In. The local politics column talks about Nancy Wiley's retiring after her many terms in the county legislature, after being hand-picked by Jerry Jennings to run in 1992.

Her audience chuckled over her final remark: "Gen. MacArthur said, 'Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.' Well, old legislators may die, but this one will come back to haunt you."

Certainly, Doug Bullock was not asked by the Mayor to run. A Time of Change. Bye! P'Link

Gillibrand Brings Home the Bacon. It looks like she's brought home a great deal of money for many needy and worthwhile projects during this Christmas season. P'Link

Deadly Route 43. It looks like in Rensselear County this road has been the seen of many accidents, but the DOT says nothing needs to be done to make the road safer. P'Link

Europe's Car Carbon Restrictions. There is an interesting article in this month's The Economist discussing the difficulties the auto industry in Europe faces with some of the toughest carbon dioxide emissions standards in the world be foisted upon them.

The commission is determined not to let the premium carmakers off the hook, however, so much will depend on the slope of the weight/CO2 graph. The most grossly polluting vehicles may not be numerous, but if they do not attract stiff penalties the emission rules will lose all credibility. The commission would like to impose fines of €95 ($137) per car per gram on emissions exceeding 130g/km. Without any weight allowance, the existing Mercedes fleet would attract a penalty of about €5,500 a vehicle. In practice the final figure will be lower. But the commission is adamant that although it does not want to destroy the German carmakers’ business, they must be under real financial pressure to develop and implement radical fuel-saving technologies.

That's purty tough standards, far exceeding anything our country has threatened to do. P'Link