The Hayseeds blog, No. 222 for the week starting September 16, 2007.
September 2, 2007
Hayseeds No. 221
September 16, 2007
Hayseeds No. 222
September 23, 2007
Hayseeds No. 222
Visit the Hayseeds Index
to see all previous entries.
While we've known for quite a while now that Spitzer administration's scandal was going nowheres beyon where it currently is, it seems when DA Soares report comes out, the investigation will all but be over.
At least in a straw poll held at a fundraiser. Maybe next they will do cow pattie polling for president. But that would have to happen in Iowa.
That's kind of the joke people make about New York's Tech Valley—as being so small that it's not a real player. Yet, as report Buried Treasure: New York's Hidden Tech Sector, the State of New York actually has more technology-related employees across it then Silicon Valley, when you consider all the people who work down in the mega-city for Microsoft and the alike.
I am not surpised as New York State is so large and has such a diverse economy, that the number of tech workers actually exceeds that of Silicon Valley. Outside of the mega-city, there probably many small companies that do tech things for the many business that make up our state.
Indeed, if the state wants to have a high-tech future, it really should be looking to helping out small scale technology firms and other small businesses. Almost everybody uses technology one way or another, even from just a simplistic database to a webpage advertising a company.
It has been six years then the attack on the World Trade Center. A lot has happened since that point, and the world continues to evolve.
We have to always look back to that day and try to judge ourselves based on both our reaction that day and the actions that followed it. We have to look at the lost civil liberties, the torture, and the greater threat our nation is in then in the past.
Take a look at 9-11: A Memior which I wrote several years back that documented my experience on that terrible day.
It's important to always to think about our world.
It looks like Dave Bryant, the man involved in so many community activities stole something exceeding a quarter million from his community organizations that he was involved in.
Here is a run down of some of the places he's accused from stealing from:
That's "k" in $1,000 of dollars. Not from the entire state of New York, but from the 2,000 people of Renselearville and particularly those couple of dozen who lived in the hamlet and where active in governance.
That's a lot of money and there are a variety of funds that are still missing that Mr. Bryant had access to. It's also a real tragety for all that are involved. It's even worst in such a small community where people trusted one and other.
There is graft and there is graft. You have to wonder about so many other things that Dave Bryant was involved in. Did he still from the County Democratic Party, the Rensselearville Town Democratic Committee, the Renselearville General Fund, Greenville Centeral Schools, or the Greenville Cub Scouts Pack?
What about the two house fires he had in his house—the smoking in bed fire and the wiring failure? Tragedies or insurance fraud? I'm sure there are some firefighters in the town who got up late at night and put there lives at risk that don't want to look him in the eye.
A bigger question is where did the money all go? The renovations to his house after the fires were nice (if you've ever been there), but when you figure his own labor, they probably do not add up to all the money returned by the insurance company. So where did all this money go?
A drug habit might be one possibility. Another more netiforous possibility mentioned in the article was blackmail over "a sexual relation" that's being investigated by the County Sherrif. He also was arrested for a lewd act in Washington Park a decade ago—suggesting that he might be solicating another man.
We really do not know yet.
The Times Union CapCon blog got it right for once.
They report....
If you’ve been hesitant to report a terrorist plot because you’re afraid of a lawsuit if you’re wrong, worry no more.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed a “Freedom to Report Terrorism Act,” which shields people from civil and criminal liability if they report someone who they believe is involved in a criminal or terrorist act.
Malicious acts of false reporting aren’t covered.
gecannonphd comments...
“Gov. Spitzer’s aides have been holding late-night ‘black car’ meetings to prevent the creation of e-mails or telephone records that could be subpoenaed in the state dirty-tricks scandal , The Post has learned.”Fred Dicker, NY Post, Mon. 9/10
What? As I walked around Albany over the weekend (walking is a green statement), I did notice large black cars lurking in off-steets. With Osama’s new video bringing me to a higher terrorist alert, I quietly walked around these cars. In one, I did see men that resembled Fred Dicker, Roger Stone, and Rupert Murdoch. As I moved closer, I heard them discussing how to get state helis to fly them to NYC.
In Albany, there is alternative side parking on Mondays and Tuesdays. Hopefully, these cars obeyed the parking rules.
Very interesting.
That's what a report linked to Times Union blog suggests. This report by Media Matters for America, probably a liberal think thank, suggests that the media has a conservative bias.
It probably does. But so does our country, although less then probably a decade ago. Despite having a democratic president in the 1990s, our country has been fairly conservative since the 1980s—in large response to the some of the worst excesses of liberal powerbrokers of the sixities and seventies.
Things are changing now. And indeed, many of those so-called conservative commentators are less then supportive of the war, and many of President Bush's policies. Liberal ideas are being brought up again, and there have been significant defeats of Republicans in previous strongholds.
I believe that Democrats are finding new issues, and revitializing the vision of liberalism/progressive for the 21st century. After the painful mistakes of the sixities and seventies (such as the housing projects and the superhighways chewing up cities), it's been a tough transition.
