. . . determined to expose what he sees as the hypocrisies and moral lapses of liberals by employing their own tactics against them.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Heroes
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
No One Seemed Worried About Civility
Yours truly went slumming on Tuesday, attending a meeting of the Monroe County Legislature.
High point seemed to be when a speaker during the public comment portion, accompanied by two fake "nuns" of an ilk we've described before -- Sisters of Saint Stalin? -- distributed what they called "smores" to the legislators, announcing during their time at the podium that the "smores" were made not of chocolate, but of Ex-Lax, to "clean the pipes" of the members of the august body.
Can you imagine the press coverage if this had been done by conservative activists at a meeting of the City Council? Whose your-2-minutes-are-done-so-shutup-one-hour-only public comment section compares so anemically to the full-blown open-ended comment period provided to the public by the County Legislature?
The commenters made a point of labeling their laxative confections with a word spelled "smoores" -- an open mockery of an innocent man, a Republican party official, unjustly arrested last week by corrupt prosecutor Michael Green, as part of Green's campaign to show enough Democratic party loyalty to get a federal judgeship.
And this by "nuns" and their collaborator who probably have joined public demonstrations for every murderer from O.J. to Mumia-Babu-Cop-Killer.
No wonder the "consent of the governed" in this country sometimes seems to be hanging by a thread. It can't snap too soon.
Friday, September 4, 2009
So It's Come to This
Since 1992 Monroe County Democrats haven't been able to make the sale to voters on the basis of their principles or policies. Actually, they haven't offered much in the way of policy other than proposals that would benefit themselves politically, or that implicitly criticize successive Republican County Executives.
As a last resort, they're now criminalizing ordinary political activity.
We're not talking about "Robutrad," which should be fully prosecuted to the extent of criminal activity involved.
But arresting someone because, as a campaign volunteer, he merely wrote a piece of campaign literature?
An arrest, moreover, timed for Labor Day weekend, the traditional political campaign kick-off date.
Imagine if Andrew Moore held any job other than Executive Director of the County GOP. The Democratic District Attorney would have fired for incompetence an Assistant DA who sought an indictment on a junk charge like this.
Even the Democrat and Chronicle felt obligated to include this in its report:David Shapiro, a former prosecutor who teaches forensics accounting at New York City-based John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he was surprised to see a political endorsement letter at the center of a criminal charge of rewarding official misconduct. The crime requires the accused to knowingly “confer” — or help others confer — a “public benefit” upon a public servant who violates his or her duty.
“It must have been a great letter,” Shapiro said. “It almost makes (this allegation) seem kind of funny, except for the fact that the person indicted has to go through this ordeal.”
Maybe Professor Shapiro can tell us how the law deals with a District Attorney corrupt enough to abuse his office in this way.
At least we now know the Democrats' strategy to take the County Legislature, in order to be able to cripple the County Administration for the next two years.
Will we see a succession of political arrests between now and November? Perhaps.
Moore, like the others who may be arrested in the weeks ahead under the Democratic campaign plan, will be acquitted easily. But none will go to trial until after the November elections. That's why the arrests didn't start happening until now.
Maybe the voters won't fall for it. If they do, they will have voted in their own punishment.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Where Were The Calls for "Civility" ?
This photo is from a "Code Pink" protest in February, 2008.
Funny thing.
Back then neither the Democrat and Chronicle, which today editorialized about the need for "civility" in public discourse, nor the rest of the traditional media, seemed to be worrying about it.
Just thought we'd point that out.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Wegmans is Rationing My Food!
Who knew? But it's true! Wegmans let me walk out of its East Avenue store today only with groceries I paid for. Not one thing more!
That's rationing, right?
Only if you believe Obamacare supporters, who claim that government rationing of medical care would be no different than Blue Cross "rationing" your medical care by only giving you the coverage you pay for.
The argument is dishonest.
"Rationing" means government restricting the availability to you of a good or service, regardless of your willingness to pay for more.
Wegmans has never told anybody, "Only one can of tuna fish for you." It sells you all the food you pay for.
Government rationing means your money's no good beyond the rationed limit. In World War II, Americans couldn't buy more than the rationed amount of food or gasoline each month. Ability to pay for more was irrelevant.
That's how nationalized health systems work. You're limited to the medical care the government allows. Beyond it, you're out of luck. You're not allowed to pay for more.
And if you find a way to pay for it on the black market, then instead of dying on the government waiting list, you die in jail.
Congressional Democrats must really be on the ropes to be making this argument.
When the Left wonders why so many Americans distrust government and don't believe explanations of the Democrats, it's because of transparently dishonest arguments like, "it's being rationed already."
Food's just the tip of the iceberg. I drove past a car dealership tonight and -- would you believe it -- they're rationing cars, too!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Strange Death of Renaissance Square
An Investigative Report
Former Mayor Johnson's essay in City News reminds us again of how Mayor Duffy torpedoed Renaissance Square at the eleventh hour, squandering a prime opportunity to improve a part of the City the private sector won't touch.
We supported Renaissance Square. That doesn't prevent us from asking the question: Why didn't the County administration and the Regional Transit Authority see this torpedo coming?
We also wondered, what motivated the Mayor and City Council to act as they did?
In looking for the answers, here's what we learned.
Not On Our Turf, You Don't
Remember how the City needed to take action involving a strip of land in the project footprint, in order for the project to proceed?
We've learned from sources on both the City and County sides that nobody at the City, the County or the Transit Authority knew until about March of this year that action by the City was required, and, if denied, would end the whole project. This is why the Mayor had been such a passive participant in Ren Square through all the years of its planning. His understanding was that the City couldn't do anything to stop it, so he smiled for the cameras and went along for the ride.
Then, this Spring, the Mayor learned that the project could proceed only if City Council took action. Duffy, who at one point phoned Assemblyman David Gantt for help in killing the project, only to be rebuffed by Gantt, now needed no help other than City Council's. Neither Duffy nor Council liked the idea of Maggie Brooks getting credit for improving part of the City, even though that credit would be shared with the Mayor. As Gore Vidal said, "Success is insufficient. Others must fail."
All the public posturing about details of the design were just camouflage for the underlying motivation that, despite the project's obvious merits, and the time and money invested, City politicians weren't going to allow a project that could give Maggie Brooks credit for an improvement on their turf.
So strongly did they feel on this point that it had an effect substantially broader than the fate of Renaissance Square. It became a unifying catalyst, bringing back together and reconciling City Council and Mayor Duffy, whose relationship had been troubled ever since Council passed the Rural-Metro ambulance contract over Duffy's veto.
In the last stages of negotiation, the County and the Transit Authority finally offered the City this: we'll clear the property, build the bus station and the MCC campus and give the City -- as in give, for free -- the land reserved for the performing arts center, to do with as you wish. Environmental and related issues make the clearing of that property a major impediment, even a showstopper, for private development on the site. Here the City was offered a parcel much more likely than otherwise to attract private investment, because it already would be cleared. And, significantly for the the City, cleared at someone else's expense. But to the politically motivated, such considerations are trivial compared to a larger purpose such as denying a triumph to Maggie Brooks.
Persona Non Grata
Or to Mark Aesch. He's chief executive of the Regional Transit Authority. Opinion on Aesch is divided. On the one hand, apparently, are people who passionately detest him. This group includes half the City Council and half the County government other than Maggie Brooks. On the other hand are people who regard him with white-hot hatred. This includes the other half of City Council and the other half of the County government, except for Maggie Brooks. Each camp claims Mayor Duffy as its own.
The reasons for this are unclear to us, but even supporters of Ren Square have said that if its demise has a silver lining, it's that a prize was denied to the transit chief.
We've been able to confirm the story that about the middle of July, Duffy offered to approve Ren Square if Brooks would fire Aesch, but Brooks turned him down.
The episode raises some tantalizing questions, to which we have no answers. In any event, they're beyond the scope of this report.
Transit Authority: Asleep at the Switch
After all the years, all the planning, all the public dog-and-pony shows, all the architects, consultants and lawyers, how could both the County government and the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority have missed the fact that the City had to take action on that troublesome strip of land?
It was a failure that hung Maggie Brooks out on a limb and left her dangling. Brooks's popularity is a central pillar of Republican political success in Monroe County. Even in last year's big anti-Republican, pro-Obama tide, Monroe County Republicans took nearly all of the seriously contested races county-wide. A lot of that has to do with Brooks's political strength. That's why the Democrats' Holy Grail is to force Brooks into having to raise property taxes. It's why Joe Morelle understands that his job is to try to undermine her popularity.
Of course it is. He's the Democratic chairman. He's supposed to cause his party's candidates to win. Making Maggie Brooks look bad is an important part of that job, in an environment where her popularity impedes his candidates from winning. That's what an intelligent and conscientious party chairman does, for heaven's sake.
Morelle's Republican counterparts and their staff understand this well. Had they known the entire Ren Square project depended on the City's approval, they'd have assumed it would be DOA. Neither they nor their top office-holder would have invested such political capital as they did.
Instead, uninhibited by the discipline of the (unknown) political reality, County Executive Brooks was free, under every rubric of intelligent governing and politics, to adopt Renaissance Square as her own project. In this regard, Brooks was fully committed. Her investment in Renaissance Square was political, personal, emotional and deep. Even in the face of skepticism and a certain bewilderment on the part of her core constituency -- suburban Republicans -- she persevered in the project. In retrospect, it seems to some to have become, in the words of one observer, "Maggie's 'Bridge On the River Kwai' " -- a massive personal and emotional investment in a project that, despite her best efforts, was frustrated by forces outside her control.
It turns out that the Transit Authority took the leading role in the planning of the project. The County administration depended upon it for all aspects of planning. It was the Authority, for instance, that hired nearly all of the consultants and lawyers engaged on Ren Square, either directly or through Main and Clinton Development Corporation, the entity established as the owner of the project, and which the Transit Authority effectively operated. It will be interesting to see if changes are made at the Authority in light of this monumental error. However, if such changes were to be made, we think they'd have been made by now.
Aftermath
Mayor Duffy walks away from the debacle unscathed, perhaps with a marginal uptick in suburban support. Once cities degrade to permanent one-party rule, decay accelerates without political consequence. Improving Main and Clinton would have given Duffy no better prospect for continued election than failure to improve it would decrease that prospect. Suburban Republicans who paid enough attention to Ren Square to get to the point where it baffled them may think better of Duffy for killing the project. Also, Duffy's congressional ambitions are well-known in political circles. It won't hurt him to have earned Louise Slaughter's gratitude for spiking a project she opposed all along.
RGRTA Chief Aesch might pay the price for his agency failing to identify the need for City approval of Ren Square. We'd bet against it, though. If Brooks wouldn't fire him to get the project through, she won't fire him for this. Aesch is now writing a book, perhaps about this experience. Precisely why City Council and the Mayor have taken such a burn to him we didn't learn, but they have. RGRTA is about to ask the City for permission to build a parking lot on vacant land next to its bus facility on Main Street. Anybody want to bet on the outcome?
County Executive Brooks also walks away unscathed, though no doubt disappointed and saddened to watch a real chance to improve life in the City destroyed so recklessly. The urban electorate wouldn't vote for her or the Republicans whether she built Ren Square or not. In that regard its failure changes nothing. Suburban Republican voters continue to like and trust Brooks. All along they viewed her devotion to Renaissance Square as a tolerable, harmless eccentricity. They never really cared. To most of them, its demise is meaningless.
(Mustard Street's Lucy, the Archbishop and the undersigned all contributed to this report.)
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Teddy Bare
Amazing to see what a straightforward obit of Edward Kennedy looks like, after the hagiography and idolatry of the past week.
When the major American media are in the tank for the government and its dominant orthodoxies, don't we have the functional equivalent of a state-controlled press?
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Oh, Henry!
Republican insiders are wondering how Chairman Bill Reilich, and the other three upstate Republican county chairmen who endorsed Manhattanite Ed Cox for the state chairmanship last week, will find a dignified way to get behind Niagara County GOP Chairman Henry Wojtaszek.
Eventually they'll have to. For the sake of their county organizations, and ultimately for their counties, it's better done sooner than later.
It shouldn't be difficult. Almost immediately after Reilich and the other three announced for Cox, current State Chairman Joe Mondello said he was stepping down. Mondello's giving his support to Wojtaszek. Especially with Rudy Giulani coming out publicly for the Niagara chairman, this changes things considerably. Reilich and the others now have the best of reasons to get behind the able and effective upstater Wojtaszek.
By the way, it's more than speculation: Giuliani coming out for Wojtaszek means that Rudy's running for governor. (This is why we say the upstate county chairmen who last week backed Cox will have to shift to Wojtaszek.) Cuomo will be a tough oppponent, but the incipient national Democratic meltdown could be timed just right for a Giulani candidacy.
Courtesy of the New York Daily News, here's the weighted vote by county for the state GOP chairmanship.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Correction -- Not What I Thought!
In a post today I noted an objectionable feature of a website that had the appearance of being maintained by or for a candidate for office in Monroe County.
Some astute commenters let me know that the website has no connection to Dan Greene or to anyone affiliated with his campaign. It is a site maintained by an internet squatter company that registers sites with names similar to legitimate sites, in order to get revenue from people clicking through all the search ads on the the page. The site appears to have been created in 2000.
We deleted the erroneous posting. Apologies to candidate Greene and to our readers for the error, and thanks to the commenters who let me know about the problem.
