The Hayseeds blog, No. 168 for the week starting July 30, 2006.
July 16, 2006
Hayseeds No. 167
July 30, 2006
Hayseeds No. 168
August 6, 2006
Hayseeds No. 168
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Those of you big Malta boosters out there will be quite happy to note that AMD is buying that company that makes those troublesome graphics chips, that are so popular on many computers. Maybe that's some evidence that Malta is something more then just a massive corporate welfare for a big company.
While page 13 wasn't missing from her speech, she did have a little problem with a question asked to her by a NY Post reporter: do you still love your husband? She had to think about that for a while.
Jeaine Pirro is now running commericals that compare her candidacy to that of Eliot Spitzer. That's gone over very well with many Republicans.
So let's see, that means:
Never heard those things before, but it's an interesting combination. I doubt that Pirro's commerical will get her any votes, but it sure will piss off a lot of Republicans.
We over at NYC had to ask that question. Scanning our brains we can think of three different big players in New York Politics with that name.
These people are all named John Gallagher:
So we have people of all persusations with this one name, all relatively important in New York politics.
Both of those men will be debating tommorow night at Pace University, next to New York City Hall. It will be on some New York City radio stations, along with being on a wank-ish cable channel known as NY1.
Most of us who will hear anything about it will be on things like the Empire State Page of the Times Union. In other words, political hacks. Yet, it's should be interesting to watch to see what Spitzer's weaknesses are and how Suozzi manages to hang on by something.
He's sent out literature stating that Gillibrand is a downstater and that he's a real upstater. Over at NYC, we took at look at Wikipedia and 20 True Blue.
Both of those sources may be biased, but there are some facts we can not overlook:
So that's a pretty comphrensive list of how they compare in their upstate-ness. The reality is compared to most upstaters they both are:
As I noted on Friday, neither Sweeney or Gillibrand is a auto mechanic, a farmer, or even a firefighter. I'm not sure if we'd want our congressman to be that. We want a congressman who will represent the interests of the 20th, not just pretend to be an upstater.
While the lawyers won't let us say just that, starting tonight many supporters of Kiristen will be calling voters to let them know about Sweeney's record on the issues.
That's not news, but the EPA confirms it with their latest fuel economy report. That's a real problem for all of us concerned about global warming, not to mention rising fuel prices for working people.
Several things in the report strike me:
And so many other interesting conclusions can be reached from the report.
Some people have suggested that the 700 acre Seneca Meadows mega-garbage dump as a sensible replacement to the roughly 60 acre Rapp Road Landfill that has roughly 3 years of life left. Some say Rapp Road is really 120 acres and Seneca Meadows is 1550 acres.
Take a look at these three map points on Acme Mapper. They are of Rapp Road, Seneca Meadows, and Downtown Albany.
Like Rapp Road, Senaca Meadows has lots of pollution problems, with methane odors, lechate leaking, and the alike. See this Sierra Club article on the proposed expansion for Seneca Meadows.
Interestingly enough—look whose council on both matters: Nixon Peabody.
While I didn't get to catch it last night as I had to work and not locally avaliable on Mid-Hudson Cablevision, our friend Brian Levine passed the following interesting tibids along on the debate:
The papers such as the AP-Wire seemed to give very little information on the debate, as most people see Tom Suozzi as a has been and Spitzer most certainly our next governor.
It's really too bad there was no good statewide coverage particularly for those without cable or living outside major cities. But there is some good news—you can hear...
Spitzer-Suozzi Debate Replayed on WAMC at 1 PM Today !!!
More on this after I hear the debate this afternoon and hear Fred Dicker's analysis on the debate at the middle of the day today.
Why did one of the most liberal justices recently become more conservative and support the majority's horrible decision on gay marriage in New York? The answer is a deal with Pataki on his re-appointment.
We can't confirm these for sure, but that's what the rumor mill from taking to some people in the bar association have been saying. It's probably nothing too formal as it would be a total scandal in the New York judicary, but this clear panadering to the governor.
The replacement of Cuomo's last judge to the Court of Appeals is a really big deal. If Pataki replaces it with another conservative justice it could solidify his conservative bend on the court over recent years.
We over at NYC had to wonder why anybody (particularly a liberal) would want to run against Mike McNulty who has steadly moved to the left.
The only thing you might fault him on his initial support for Iraq, a war he thinks is time to get us out of, and his somewhat conditional support for choice. Or maybe because he's quiet and kind of a machine hack—remember Congressional Quarterly's categorization of him being the chair of the Obsurity Caucus.
I know both of these men and both are very articulate speakers who have definate visions for our country. Yet, McNulty is the incumbent, and he has significant seniority that Raleigh would loose should he be elected. Both are very close ideologically and politically.
I wish Tom Raleigh would run for something besides congress. He has a lot of talent, and to take Fred Dicker's favorite metaphor on the Spitzer-Suozzi race, "he's a rising star, running against a super-star".
Let's all remember that Mike McNulty won every election district in the 20th Congressional district last year including fairly rural places like Southern Scoharie County and Western Montegomery County.
In 2002, Mike McNulty won every election district except one in the Town of Florida. He's amazing, as a lot of that is Republican Country despite the hard work of Cliff Hay in Schoharie and the nice Montegormery party chair whose name escapes me.
Correction: Warren Redlich debates that fact that I got from Mike McNulty. I may have misremembered him or he misspoke. I'm following up.
We now know that John Faso joins Suozzi and Spitzer in smoking pot at least sometime in the past.
Probably. At any rate, it seems time for Tom Suozzi to find something else to do rather then bother Spitzer with his gubernatorial bid that isn't going anywheres.
Last week the governor vetoed a bill that would have allowed state employees to retire at age 55 or after 25 years of service.
Many people have criticized that as being a give away for state employees. Yet, it seems that senior employees are paid far better then us mere entry level people who are paid far less. So many think it would save the state money.
A more important thing is that this bill would have gotten old people out of government, and gotten more new people in it. That would increase employement for the young, but more importantly get bright new people out of government and the old Rockefeller and Carey people out to the retirement.
While his counterpart on the Democratic side of things running against him this year, Bob Johnson, might not win any awards for his snazzy dressing, it looks like 'ld McHugh knows how to dress. See also what John McHugh has to say on this all.
So when will we be able to add Kirsten Gillibrand to that list? Don't think anybody will be calling John Sweeney at pretty boy though.
