The Hayseeds blog, No. 160 for the week starting June 4, 2006.
May 21, 2006
Hayseeds No. 159
June 4, 2006
Hayseeds No. 160
June 11, 2006
Hayseeds No. 160
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The mayor of the mega-city of New York says we ought to pay attention to science i an delibrate dig on his party's leader (President Bush) stance on global warming and other issues.
I kind of doubt President Bush doesn't believe in global warming, as much as he's purty cynical of being able to do much to curb it without drastic cuts to our economy (whether that notion is correct or not is certainly disputable). So it seems that Bloomberg is just digging at his own leader without doing much of anything productive.
The Daily News has a report on a growing number of Democratic club pulling support from Clinton over her stance on the war that is seen to be too far to the right for many liberals and peace activists.
The Republicans will be having their convention to pick the loser against Spitzer. It looks like today won't be good day for Weld who looks like he won't get the party's endorsement for governor (more then 51%) though he will get the 25% to be automatically on the ballot, if you believe Fred Dicker's count.
Dicker also seems to think that if for some reason that Weld comes in second at the convention, he will drop out of the race to avoid a primary. That's not surpising as Republicans don't like primaries, and want to be unified in their battle against Spitzer. Right now it looks like Weld will still beat Faso, but Faso is coming up and enough party people might just break ranks for their leaders.
It looks like Kamakazi Suozzi will not get the nod at the convention today, but he will continue his fight on for governor through a petition fight. We will have to watch this race carefully today out in Buffalo. The real excitement is down in Long Island with the Republicans, though
It's not surpising that the Daily News has done another editorial against commonsense law that give the working poor for mega-corporations healthcare coverage.
And who is paying for this editorial? Walmart? You can afford to pay for decent health benifits for all your employees if you have more then 100 employees, and your not in a vunerable industry such as agriculture or manfacturing.
I can understand why some people fear the precedence this bill might form towards expanding it to small businesses or farms, but the current legislation doesn't do that. We should be vigilent against such a threat, but for now we shouldn't lose too much sleep over it.
Columbia University recently did a study that showed that kids exposed to large amounts of PAH show more learning disabilities. PAH are those hydrocarbons produced by burning things that create the destinctive burnt smell you get from everything from diesels driving by to burning toast to your neighboor burning trash.
It's interesting that study blames the learning disabilites on PAH, when there are so many other chemicals and compounds being produced in combustion that produces lots of smelly smoke. Wouldn't it make sense to blame particulate or other heavy metals for the same effect? It would be interesting to hear more about this topic.
That's the question that The Politicker is asking, with deals being made between the Denise O'Donnell and Mark Green to knock out the other one to ensure that nobody is left to compete against Andy Cuomo.
Somehow that doesn't surpise me from the Cuomo camp. Some of those people seem not to always play by the rules or are doing little things that are less then honest. Then again, that's what the people in power always do—little slights of hand that the rest of us can't really understand.
It looks like the man who signs he name to the little sheets of paper they have to display in barber shops, Randy Daniels will sign on Bill Welds failing bid for governor.
It looks like Andy Cuomo will now be the offical party designee going into the primary and likely now will be ensured to be the Democratic-line this November. No real surpises here, but it confirms what the polls and the county chairs have been saying for a long time.
Some of the other candidates like Denise O'Donnell and Sean Patrick Maloney promise to do a petition drive to get on the ballot, but it seems unlikely that anybody but O'Donnell has a chance. Mark Green might continue on, but I suspect he will very soon step back and endorse Cuomo.
As the NY Times notes there still is Jeanie Pirro to content with November, assuming she doesn't get loss on her way to the polls.
He instead promises to do good things like repair bridges in Republican Assembly districts before they fall down, and to even possibly find a few Republicans who get along with him to run a few agencies in New York.
That would be the norm in most years, but after the Pataki administration such a thing is badly lacking. Simply ignoring the needs of Democratic districts under Pataki was unacceptable, and Spitzer's statements that he will support all New York.
See the Buffalo News on Spitzer's promise to revitalize New York, encourage openness in government, and impresses the audiences. Pataki will just be a bad memory.
Spitzer got 100% of delegates votes, totally locking out Tom Suozzi who will likely decide it's time to get out of the way and find a better race to run. I hope he gets out elegantly to endorse spitzer and moves on something better.
In the latest heated political debate, it looks like some fists were thrown at a public hearing over sprawl-mart in Ballston Spa. People, you need to stay civil over these things.
When I was out in my pickup camping out in Emmence State Forest near Blenhem in Schoharie County I couldn't believe the damage those tent Caterpillars were doing to the Northern Adirondacks. They were literally defoilating whole parts of Northern Catskills were there was nice stands of trees for them to eat.
Those caterpillars particularly like those nice hardwood trees: alder, apple, aspen, birch, basswood, hawthorn, tamarack and particularly love oak. They aren't afraid to strip every leaf off oak trees as they multiply in the millions. Fortunately, most healthy trees can put up with up to one defoliation per year so it's not that big of a deal.
Look at the picture on the right to see the damage along one road—some places are far worst. Camping out my pickup was covered with caterpillars (litterally!) and I still have some webs on my truck that were picked up driving on the truck trails up there. It sounded like rain with all of them dropping from trees. They suggest if your going to be driving some distance out west where you might transport these pests that you make sure you check your truck for webs of them.
They are difficult to kill them. You can either spray exactly at the time they are small with a chemical applied specially at larvee time by a registered pestide applicator OR by using sticky glue or doubled sided tape at the bottom of each tree you want to protect. Nothing that the DEC can do to protect their own forests.
Read the amazing story of the invasive caterpillar accidentially released 100 years ago, and how you can control it by reading theBinghamton Press-Connects Story on it.
The Court of Appeals in New York will be hearing oral arguments on gay marriage today in Albany. This case will decide the legality of challenges to the statue that suppostly defines marriage as a legal relationship between a husband and a wife.
I hope the Court of Appeals would do the right thing with these cases, but with it's increasing conservative bias it's more likely to do the wrong thing then the right one. Nobody is particularly hurt by gay marriage, except the egos of some religious wackos.
The TU has a nice article about the changing landscape in our state from agricultural to forest land and rural to suburbia, and what that means to beavers and coyotes that are returning to a land where they once where almost exstincit from.
The man who CDTA recruited and paid a lot to turn around the authority is leaving after four years of continued decline at the agency.
It's been tough with mass transit as chronically as unfunded as it's always been. Bland stepped in a rocky time in the agency's history and things have only gotten worst. The newest big transit buses they have are 8 years old, many of them are closer to 10 years old and have had their engines rebuilt many times.
CDTA really needs a leader with vision, somebody whose not afraid to take on the people who make up the agency and the ATU. Somebody who make sure the legislature gets them the resources they need. The people behind CDTA and the union representives are truly excellent people, but they need to be pushed and challenged to do what's right.
Coming to a town near you —if you live in Northern Vermont near Williston, that town known as a speed trap just south of Burlington on Route 7.
They have an old firehouse that they figure would be fun to use to try out drive thru voting for a one-vote resolution on funds for the new firehouse. They figured, why not? I guess nobody knows if it has ever done before.
Apparently they had a little not so nice talk though no fists were really thrown, in part because Clinton still has her secret service detail around her. Tasini has made it pretty darn clear that he will make Clinton defend her pro-war stance as he will get the signatures to petition onto the primary ballot. That's pretty standard in Democratic party to have a primary, as we tend to be less unified then the Republicans—though certainly not this year.
Then again, it looks like us Democrats have reason to be a little hot under the collar. It looks like the air conditioning was broke in our convention hall, while in Long Island it was too cold for the Republicans. We just are heating up for victory.
Where again did September 11th happen? Somewhere out west in a red state, right?! Well it seems the latest formula by the Homeland Security Department dramatically cuts funds for NYC as they don't have any national landmarks (just a bunch of ugly buildings) and doesn't have a formal security plan as required under the Homeland Security Act.
It looks like now that the Assembly has passed the Fair Share for Healthcare bill, it's off to the senate to pass. Joe Bruno right now is purty opposed it, but he certainly reads what his consituents send him, and so does his members who will do whatever it takes to get re-elected.
This means a Republican primary?! It looks like in the Senate race, liberal Republican KT McFarland and conservative Republican John Spencer split the vote and both got on the primary ballot, with 36% and 63.4% respectively. That means that Spencer is the party designee but he will have to run against KT McFarland.
While it looks like the Faso-Weld debacal has yet to resolve itself yet, it looks like Joe Bruno is still calling for partnership bewteen the two men. It seems though that both of them hate each other and there is little chance to happen. Bruno while talking about his compromise for at least a week now, still hasn't said who should be ontop and be governor, and who should be the bench warmer.
Not that any of this really matters. Somehow all this fighting in the Republican convention reminds me an awful lot of the Boy Scout Troop from Beekmanstown that was fighting over the sholve to clean up the horse crap in the Battle of Plattsburgh prade last year.
Senator Maltese summed up the Republican convention nicely: “It’s dead as a doornail in here.”
It looks like the Assembly's opposition of the sales tax suspension over $2 adds only up to about 2.5 to 3˘ a gallon, according to recalculated numbers by the AP that noted that state sales tax is charged pre-federal and state excise tax, bringing the taxable value down about 25˘.
Still, I much prefer to spend 60¢ less a $43 fillup if you have a 15 gallon tank on your truck—how long will that be aten up by higher prices? Keep wishing for $0.95 a gallon gas like back in 1997.
Then join Minutemen for John Spencer. If you need further evidence that Spencer is a liberal loonie then sign up for his Spencer's Patriots...
Spencer’s Patriots are conservatives from across New York and across America who are committed to making sure we nominate a true conservative to run against Hillary Clinton. These Patriots believe our best chance of winning is to nominate a fighter who will present a real choice to voters not a RINO – Republican in Name Only - who agrees with Senator Clinton on many of the important issues and offers only a Hillary-lite choice for voters.
Spencer’s Patriots will rally around our online headquarters, check in to their personal action center and take action to support the Spencer for Senate effort.
I can just see it now—John Spencer defending his stance as not as an extremist. As Barry Goldwater once said: "Extremism... is a virtue, moderation... is a vice." Or so it came out in the media back in '64. Ol' Bart Bonner of Watertown and Peter Lanri of Long Island might just be the prime base for this group if they stop their infighting.
Just like ol' John Spencer, John Faso has some competition with Bill Weld who says he plans to stay in the race after getting 41% to Faso's 59%. See the The Politicker and EmpireZone.
So a divided Republican Party seems good for us, particularly with Faso's rather extreme views for New York being the forerunner. The possiblity of a ticket with both of those men seems unlikely, as niether ran for the Lt. Governor despite Pataki and Bruno's begging for the men to work together and not against each other.
It of course is the start of Dairy Month and when the daisies come out. For those of you lucky or unlucky enough to live in the coast, it also starts Hurricane Season. So for the people out in Vermont they have their cow prade with Strolling of the Heifers, and at the LOB later in the month we got Assembly Republican Dairy Day. Yum.
It looks like that the federal-ies are preposing some tough new regulations smaller ATVs for kids that would essentially limit them to 15 MPH and require mandatory training.
I'm not totally sure if we want to cripple ATVs, even if only for kids. The small ATVs are meant for kids that are smaller, and yes they are dangerous like big ones. Yet, parents should be around supervising their use and shouldn't allow kids to go ridding in the woods without them. A governor like they propose would generally make them junk for riding with the big ones that go much faster.
If you want a good rundown of the proposed National Animal Indentification system, take a look at Hill Country Article that somebody on the No NAIS NY list was so nice to post.
Is there one? It seems that he supported Bill Weld against John Faso, who clearly is the man who came out looking shining from the Republican convention. Minarik might only be able to save his butt, by cozing up with Faso and moving on from supporting Weld—and certainly not both candidates.
For some time now, Hillary Clinton has a nice position paper on the war. It's worth a read and shows how truly nuinanced her position on the war is versus what some of her critics claim.
Speaking of Clinton and the war, it seems that Jon Tsasni's campaign will be having petition carrying lessions down in New Paltz. Petition for Tsasni starts in about a week, and if your a registered Democrat you can get signatures anywhere in New York from other Democrats to get him on the primary ballot. It only takes 15,000 signatures statewide with at least one from each county.
We all want to see Clinton ultimately beat loonatic John Spencer with a large margin. Yet, it's so important to raise the war issue and make Clinton talk about it more. Make sure also to catch WAMC's coverage of a Clinton speech at 1 PM today.
You can find out about the fisical impact of the federal budget this year on Eastern Upstate New York by attending a free lecture by Frank Muaro of the Fiscal Policy Insitute next Friday from 9 AM to 11 AM at the Saratoga Public Library.
Saratoga is a long ways north from here and it's during a workday. Yet, if you've ever had the priveledge of hearing him speak, it's worth it. For more information give the Fisical Policy Insitute at 786-3136.
I happened to spot this story in the paper, and I figured that it would be entertaining to point out the story about a man arrested for wrangling cows out in Canton.
The write up for the story is rather stange—it notes he has a previous criminal history of theft. Stealing somebody's car or television is a little different then stealing seven cows and stuffing them in the back of a car, raising them to be bigger, then taking them to auction.
The story also doesn't mention how the person was caught except to suggest he was caught at auction with two of the cows and the others suspected dead. That suggests he was really sloppy and desprite for money, so that he sold them before they were grown enough for their spots to change enough to be unrecongizable. He was probably purty desprite for money, which generally is the case of cattle rustlers.
Okay kids. Have a nice weekend, don't get caught with any stolen cows under your arm or in your truck box, and have fun during the first weekend of Dairy Month.
