Wednesday, May 26, 2010

We have a hugh water footprint


You've heard of a carbon footprint.
There is also a water footprint.
Water is a finite resource.
We,in the US, have the largest water footprint in the world...655+K gallons per capita per year.
The UK has a 328K footprint.
France has 304K.
India has 258K
China has 285K.
There are many useful,small,suggestions to reduce our water footprint:
*take 5 minute showers, rather than 8 minutes
*soap up before turning on the shower
*change shower head to a lower pressure one
*stop drinking bottled water
any other suggestions.
Yes magazine is a good read, and its' Summer issue deals with water.
It has a good water footprint chart.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/water-...

Friday, May 21, 2010

Rand Paul, Barry Goldwater, Rachel Maddow, and the 20 state Attorney Generals

I just paid my car insurance bill. I’ve never liked that car insurance is legally mandated. But the overall social good car insurance provides is a positive.
20 state Attorney Generals, all Republicans except one, are filing suit against Obamacare.
They don’t like the mandate to buy health insurance. They say it violates the Constitution.
How is this mandate different than car insurance?
Most of these AG’s are, or will be, seeking higher office.
They also don’t like the Obamacare Medicaid expansion.
I don’t like Medicaid either, but for different reasons.
It should be phased out, and Medicare should be expanded to younger groups.
Rand Paul has met Rachel Maddow and George Stephanopoulos.
They are attacking Paul for positions on the 1964 Civil Rights act and the Fair Housing act.
Paul is being consistent with his libertarian ideology. Private business should not be hindered, even if they want to discriminate.
Barry Goldwater was a libertarian Republican, and voted against the Civil Rights act. He ended up winning 5 states in the Deep South in 1964, white votes to boot.
Rand Paul will likely win in Kentucky, but he sounds silly defending his positions.
We are beyond the Civil Rights act of 1964.
Alpha males, nerds, 215 million sexually active women, 50 million unwanted pregnancies, and 25 million fewer abortions
*****
CBS has just announced their prime time schedule for next year.
Charley Sheen, the alpha male, has signed for 2 more years (if he doesn’t go to jail).
And his show, 2 ½ Men, will stay on Mon. nites.
The show with the nerds, Big Bang Theory, will move to Thurs. And the CBS suits hope the viewers will follow the day change.
Sheen, as the alpha adolescent male who thinks with his genitals, instead of his brain, never changes. His take on female/male relationships remains so 20th century.
Sheldon and Leonard, the Big Bang nerds, caress their tech. toys, but can’t relate to females.
According to NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, the world needs more nerds, and fewer alpha males.
In todays column, he is writing from Africa, and talks about overpopulation.
He quotes the Guttmacher Institute that estimates that there are 215 sexually active women in the world who don’t want to get pregnant. But birth control is rejected;or not understood.
Kristof argues that birth control in the 3rd world could prevent 50 million unwanted pregnancies yearly, and 25 fewer abortions.
The rightwing evangelicals preach abstinence.
It doesn’t work.

Monday, May 17, 2010

(Three primaries tomorrow in Kentucky, Arkansas and Pennsylvania will offer insight on just how mad voters are with incumbents this year. )
**********
Sen. Arlen Spector may pull out a squeaker.
The Phil. Dem. machine may save him; and Gov. Rendall’s machine may also help.
Spector is part of the inner club of the Senate, and is respected. But he is a Republican.
Even if Spector loses, he may do a Liberman and run as an independent. It would depend on the money. In any case, the Dems. should hold this Senate seat in Nov.
I don’t know about Sen.Lincoln in Ark. She has served two terms in the Senate, but seems to have left few footprints there.
I saw cable Fox’s special on these elections, and it included clips on Michelle Bachman’s rally in Minnesota,with Sara Palin.
With Bachman, how could such an attractive lady have such adhorrent political views

Friday, May 14, 2010

Casey Anthony and the death penalty

Casey Anthony and the death penalty
___________________________________

“..and as far as Casey is concerned, this PIG is crying for one reason, because she finally has realized that she will never again slide down a pole at Fusions, but instead will spend the next 50 years in a 10 by 10 cell like the animal that she really is. Unless of course she has a date with good old SPARKY .Fry the PIG…”
Post in Orlando Sentinel
**********

Florida is a glorious state in its’ natural attributes…the miles of pristine coastline, the Keys, the Everglades. For Northern retirees, it has been labeled God’s waiting room.

It also has elements of dark barbarism.

It has the death penalty, one of 37 states.

The death penalty is barbaric, and the reasons are well known:

“It is not a deterrent; is unfair,irreversible,barbarous,unjustified retribution, very expensive; and is inhumane and anachronistic..” (ACLU).

Local prosecutors in Orlando, with the approval of the state’s AG, are asking for the death penalty against “tot mom”, Casey Anthony.

Last week, her death-penalty expert lawyer, Andrea Lyon, argued that the death penalty can also be gender bias, against young single women.

The current local judge, Belvin Perry, listened, and asked the prosecutors if they had gender bias. After hearing their denial, Perry immediately rejected the defense motion. IMMEDIATELY, not taking a week to decide.

Lyon then asked the prosecutors to reveal their “aggravating factors” for seeking the dealth penalty. Florida, in its’ humane justice system, has 15 factors (that’s 15) that could be used to press for the death penalty.

Judge Perry looked at the prosecutors and said (paraphrasing): “You want to put this 23-year old to death, but, golly, you haven’t told us what factors you’re using. Give us that within 10 days..”

The next day, the prosecutors revealed their 5 factors: aggravated child abuse; heinous,atrocious or cruel crime; it was cold, calculated and premeditated; the child, Caylee, was under 12; and was in family custody at the time.

Judge Perry wants to move the trial outside Orlando, and sequester the jury, for 4-8 weeks likely. The strange Judge believes unbiased jurers can be picked in a week.

Anthony’s lawyers laughed.

You’ve got to find jurers who have no opinion on the case; never watched Nancy Grace ; and believe in the death penalty. That’s one heck of an assignment.
I carry no water for Casey Anthony. The whole case is tragic; and the judicial events are a travesty.

I’ve long assumed it was an accident that was covered up by this 22-yr. old immature girl.

But she does not deserve the death penalty; and the State of Florida should be ashamed

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Andrew Cuomo and the sub-prime mortgages

(AG Andrew Cuomo is investigating eight banks to see if they misled rating agencies to inflate the grades of mortgage securities in the years before the collapse of the housing market.

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio says Cuomo has “the personality of Eliot Spitzer” and “an ambition that’s out of control.”)
**********
The NYT best selling non-fiction books has Michael Lewis’s The Big Short as #1.
It’s a good read, and I’m half way through it.
Lewis personalizes the sub-prime crisis.
He focuses on Wall Street honchos who saw the profit to be made in the sub-prime disaster, through the bundling of these mortgages into bonds,and then buying insurance called credit default swaps. It was a Ponzi scheme writ large.
Lazio will claim that Cuomo,at HUD, pushed the sub-prime homebuying.
But Lazio will ignore what Lewis describes as the reason for sub-primes-the great inequality that was created in the 80s and 90s.
Yes, and Lewis also describes the rating agencies rubber-stamping these mortgage bundles.
Go get them, AG.
**********
The NYT best-seller nonfiction list has Oprah’s bio. at #2. Not tempted to read this. Don’s watch daytime tv.Oprah is a billionaire and good luck to her.
#3 is Chelsea Handler’s Chelsea,Chelsea Bang Bang. Read this, and not impressed with her humor. It’s mostly adolescent put-downs. She is overrated.
#4 is Carol Burnett’s autobio. Good read. Good to see her still being relevant.
Good because almost everyone else is gone.
Surfing cable finds a commercial for the old Dean Martin Celebrity Roast dvds.
It’s totally depressing. Everyone on these DVDs have left their physical bodies and their souls are in a much better place.
Everone of them-Martin,Sinatra,Davis,Jack Benny,Hope,John Wayne,Gleason,Red Buttons,Carson,Michael Landon ad infinitum.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

It's all fuddle duddle

It’s all fuddle duddle
______________________
Gov. Paterson locks his Lieutenant Governor Ravitch out of budget talks, rejecting his realistic proposal to borrow $2 billion to balance the budget.
Instead, the Gov. pushes employee furloughs..
It’s all fuddle duddle.
The Gov. has no power or credibility.
The Legislature votes for the furloughs in order to keep the government operating.
It’s all fuddle duddle.
The legislature should have allowed the State to close down. Then the leaders would get serious about a budget.
New York is now “Californiaized”. Paterson is our Arnold….a lameduck, politically impotent shell of a leader.
There needs to be transformational leadership in Albany.
It’s not Paladino.
He’s a wild and crazy guy, full of duddle duddle.
He wants to cut taxes by 10%, and spending by 20%.
Is it only state taxes he wants to cut, or local school taxes?
20% cut in spending is $30 billion. How’s he going to do that?
It’s all fuddle duddle.
Lazio is a Wall Street lackey. There is nothing transformational about him.
His campaign is all fuddle duddle.
Mayor Koch wants non-partisan reapportionment. It’s a good issue, but won’t happen.
His lobbying on this issue is all fuddle duddle.
I liked Mario Cuomo. I liked his intellectualism, his Jesuit method of thinking, and his Catholic social liberalism.
He always reminded me of Canada’s Pierre Trudeau, who had all the above traits.
Mario could never campaign wearing a red rose. It was never his style.
Is his son a transformational leader?
We will find out soon.
Andrew could easily wear a red rose during the coming campa

Monday, May 10, 2010

Carl Palidino wants to be governor

Let’s say Mr. Paladino becomes governor, and I say that with a grin.
Let’s say he cuts taxes 10%, and spending 20%, He will still have multi-year deficits of $10-20 billion per year.
Let this strange man explain how he will deal with that.
Let him also explain how he will cut 20%..where, what programs?

He is fighting the “liberal elites”!! Where are these elites? In the NYC media? Andrew Cuomo? But Cuomo will not run as a traditional liberal..he won’t even classify himself as a liberal, much to his father’s chagrin.

He wants Tea Party support.
In short, Paladino wants the NYS GOP to be very rightwing..further to the right than the Buckleys wanted to move it. He wants to purge any Rockefeller elements from the party. How sad!!
On Saturday, the Utah rightwingers purged long-time conservative Sen. Robert Bennett. The Utah teabaggers want a pure,hard right candidate.
The Florida teabaggers forced Gov. Christie out of the GOP.
The Arizona teabaggers want to purge McCain.
The Penn. teabaggers forced Sen.Spector out of the GOP.
I say bring it on. What could be better for the Dems. than to have an extreme GOP candidate.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Garrrison Keillor's description of Times Square

Humorist Garrison Keillor was in Times Square last Sat. and was actually unaware of the car bomb hullabullo.
His description of Times Square is worth reading:

" I'm fond of Times Square, which is an out-of-body experience offered for free to the general public, the colossal flash and razzmatazz of 10-story LED hi-def imagery rolling and bouncing among the JumboTrons and billboards in the glass canyons above the statue of Father Duffy by the TKTS booth. It is pure hullabaloo, millions in advertising canceling itself out by sheer overload, and one block away is beautiful Bryant Park and the serene reading rooms of the New York Public Library, where, for all you know, the scholarly gentleman across the table from you may be studying the art of explosives. It's a free country...."
http://www.tmsfeatures.com/columns/political/liberal/garrison-keillor/Garrison-Keillor.html?articleURL=http://rss.tmsfeatures.com/websvc-bin/rss_story_read.cgi?resid=201005041354TMS_____GKEILLOR_ctngk-a_20100504

Happy Mother's day weekend and other ruminations

Happy Mother's Day weekend to all.
The tulips are in bloom in the capital city.
The legislature is out of town.
The great city of Saratoga is booming.
Hopefully the sun will shine on all of us later today.
I caught PBS's "Need to Know" premier last night. It replaces NOW and Bill Moyers Journal.
I liked it.
Co-hosts Alison Stewart and Jon Meacham did a good job.
I'd give it a B+. 4 of 5 stars.
They seem to have some money for this series; and the producers traveled to different locations.
It is sorta of a more hip 60 minutes.
The segments on Gulf oil exporation;gun advocates; and the 50th anniversary of the Pill were well done.
The interviews with Mayor Bloomberg and Pres. Clinton added a nice touch.
They even have humorist Andy Borowitz giving a preview of next week's news. His online report is generally funny; and he repeated many of the themes he has originally used.
Humor has a big appetite.
Borowitz is a hip Andy Rooney.
As they say, Rooney is 150 yrs. old; and he keeps talking about his desk stapler.
Kudos to all for a good start.
There is a lot of rudeness in our society.
A lot of pushing and shoving.
Garrison Keillor also has described traditional middle-age virtues that is very good:

"These little lessons seem to push a person toward a modest, pragmatic view of life and those dull virtues that we rebelled against back in our salad days -- don't run in the dark, don't be a jerk, get over yourself, do your work, avoid self-pity, pay attention, know that the law of gravity applies to you too, and hang onto your old friends because there may come a day when there's no good reason for people to like you except out of habit. These are sensible virtues of middle-class people that strike you in middle age as vital to the preservation of life. You don't have to be so smart to make your way through adult life, but you should know the basic rules..."
http://www.tmsfeatures.com/columns/political/liberal/garrison-keillor/Garrison-Keillor.html?articleURL=http://rss.tmsfeatures.com/websvc-bin/rss_story_read.cgi?resid=201004131455TMS_____GKEILLOR_ctngk-a_20100413

Friday, May 7, 2010

The British election and Albany politics

The British election has produced what the Brits call a “hung parliament”.
No party has a majority of the 635 seats in House of Commons.
You might call our Albany situation a “hung legislature”..with no budget in sight.
The Brit Tories want the minority Liberal Democrats to join them in a majority government. BUT, the libs want a different electoral system…a proportional system, rather than winner take all. The Tories would lose many districts if they agreed to that.
Perhaps we need a proportional system in NYS. It would bring down the two-party monoply.

Sen. Bruno's sentence and the "honest-services" statute

(“You committed a crime. The jury told you that. You can’t accept it. You have blinders on. You simply can’t see it,” Judge Gary Sharpe told ex-Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno before sentencing him to two years in prison on federal corruption charges.)
**********
(“I know you don’t believe you did anything wrong,” U.S. District Judge Gary L. Sharpe told Bruno. “You’re not sorry because you don’t believe you did anything wrong. … (But) you trampled on the integrity of the state Legislature.”)
**********
The TU has it right this morning that ethics reform is needed for the Legislature.
Judge Sharpe’s comment is silly.
I can say this because I don’t ever expect to come before the judge. If I do, I am toast.
Someone has said that the Empire State Egg is really a UFO. And once a UFO lands, it doesn’t leave.
When it did land, it may have transported Judge Sharpe into Albany. His feeling that Bruno’s travail will put the fear of God into the Legislature is alien thinking.
Federal judges should not have life tenure.
I went down to the courthouse yesterday and was there when Bruno arrived.
Not having a press badge, or being an invited guess, I could not go inside.
The surprise is that there were few, if any, public outside the courthouse.
Sharpe’s sentence lacked creativity. There were many alternative sentence possibilities for Bruno, short of prison.
Based on the media reports, Sharpe did not address the vague,unconstitutional “honest-services fraud statute”; and the Torquemada-type role of the fed. prosecutors in using this statute against Bruno.
The Supreme Court heard three cases based on this “honest-services” statute; and all 9 seem to agree it is vague and likely unconstitutional.
They will issue their opinion soon.
The fed. prosecutors in Chicago were so afraid that this statute would allow Gov.Blago to go free that they decided not to use it against him.
The assistant US attorney Eliz Coombe likely should be charged with violating the “honest-services” statute.Her role has been intellectually,morally and legally corrupt.
She’s the one that wanted to take away Bruno’s passport, citing a flight risk.She’s the one advocating the draconian 8 years sentence.And she is perhaps brain dead.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Sen. Joe Bruno and consciousness cleanse

(Former state Sen. Joe Bruno is to be sentenced tomorrow.)

Judge Sharpe has a very wide discretion in sentencing.
The Justice Dept. regional office used the "theft of public services" rubric to present a wide-ranging case.
They succeeded in getting conviction on 2 counts, out of 8.
If the Judge applied democractic decision-making, he would bring the jury back today, and let them decide on the punishment.
I suspect the jury would not recommend that Bruno go to prison.

There are many alternative sentencing possibilities.

I would recommend the good Senator attending Debbie Ford's clinic,partaking in her effective 21-day consciousness cleanse program. That would be followed by local community service. And then the money restitution.

Ford's program is described in her book, The 21-day consciousness cleanse. It's a program that moves a person from being ego-centric to connecting to the inner soul. All politicians, or recovering politicians, are ego centered.
Ford's program shifts the outer ego life style to the deeper inner soul style..a consciousness shift.
And it could work even for an 81 year old.
As Ford describes it:
"..the ego judges and rejects with disdain and aggressiveness. The soul takes responsibility. The ego blames and transfers responsibility. The soul moves through life with grace. The ego moves through life with recklessness, chaos, and drama. The soul feels good about who it is and what it wants..The ego never has enough, it can never leave well enough alone..the ego swims against the current, while the soul sits back and floats in the the direction that life is moving in.You're either being guided by your soul or driven by your ego..."

I've sent this post to Judge Sharpe.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Predator drones

“Jonas Brothers are here, they’re out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but boys, don’t get any ideas. Two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming. You think I’m joking?”
Pres. Obama at WH correspondents dinner
**********

The POTUS is under attack for this joke.
It seems our predator drones have killed civilians.
Actually, Obama could have used a variance of this joke re many in the audience Sat. evening: Rupert Murdoch;the cable Fox talkingheads;Larry King ad.nauseum.

It’s easy for any POTUS to take a power trip with his(her) military toys.
There is the gem of a story about LBJ. He was leaving the WH, to board the execuitve helicopter. A Marine told him that heli. was not his. LBJ told him: “Son, they are all my helicopters.”

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that

[Former state Sen. Joe Bruno will learn his prison fate on Thursday)
*********

I continue to feel that mr. bruno should get probation and pay resitution.
The feds. want 8 years. That is prosecution overkill..a possible reaction to their origninal weak case under the “thief of public service” rubric.

Let’s remember that the feds. spent 2+ years on the investigation; and charged Bruno with 8 felonies. He was acquitted on 5,hung jury on one, and guilty on 2 (one involving a horse).

In addition, Bruno will appeal whatever sentence he receives (except probation); and the Supremes are expected to strike down the the over broad “thief” rubric before August.

In some ways, Bruno’s tenure leading the State Senate was a golden era. Yes, power went to his head, including a regional personality cult. But we did have budgets before June, most years.
**********
(Sen. Kevin Parker apologized for calling his colleagues white supremacists)

Running with this story last night, the local tube news (Ch.6 especially) ran, and reran, a short video of Parker walking in the Senate chamber, passing Espada, who smiled and appeared to give him the heart/hand greeting; and shaking hands with the former Senator Hiram Monserrate.

Parker then reached the back; turned to the camera; and gave a hugh smile.
His ego has outgrown his intelligence. His hubris has no boundries.

I’m a Dem., with independent inclinations.
I would like to see a functioning state Dem. Senate.
But, Parker and his friends make that very difficult.
**********

"But we can’t expect to solve our problems if all we do is tear each other down. (Applause.) You can disagree with a certain policy without demonizing the person who espouses it. You can question somebody’s views and their judgment without questioning their motives or their patriotism. (Applause.) Throwing around phrases like “socialists” and “Soviet-style takeover” and “fascist” and “right-wing nut” -- (laughter) -- that may grab headlines, but it also has the effect of comparing our government, our political opponents, to authoritarian, even murderous regimes."
**********

The POTUS's University of Michigan commencement address is a super call for tolerance in our public discourse.
In the cable age, the strident discordant voice of cable Fox is sowing seditious seeds in our fragile democracy.

Obama's speech is worth reading:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-university-michigan-spring-commencement

Sunday, May 2, 2010

The DrudgeReport,National Enquirer, and Roger Stone
___________________________________________________
I do try to skim the links at the Drudgereport. Mr. Drudge is a strange conservative blogger.
He recently had a link story on a robber who disguised himself by wrapping his head in toilet paper.
The robber was so stupid that he used single-ply, rather than double-ply.
Drudge has a current link to an uncoming National Enquirer cover story about an alleged Obama affair.
It had to happen, and the surprise is that these tales were not written earlier.
According to the surrilious National Enquirer, someone is offering $1 million for a video from a hotel security camera.
Why do I suspect that Roger Stone's dirty fingerprints are all over this?

The White House Correspondents dinner

The WH Correspondents Dinner
___________________________

It was Mayor Bloomberg’s night.
He was there, of course.
And his Bloomberg News top honchos were in charge.
I’m not sure the POTUS enjoyed sitting between them during dinner.
How do you make small talk to these money gurus?
I thought the POTUS’s monologue was weak..few really strong jabs.
The Politico slides were not funny.
Leno’s gig was also weak. Most of his jokes didn’t work. He read off index cards, as though his writers stuck them in his pocket during dinner. The writers had months to prepare.
If you want to see a funny gig, go to CSpan’s streaming of VP Biden’s monologue at the March 17th Radio and TV correspondents dinner.
None of Leno’s cards matched Wanda Sykes topper last year:
“Whenever my daughter sees two cars, one with a stranger and another with Dick Cheney, I tell her to always get in the one with the stranger.”
Both Leno and the POTUS could have used some old, after-dinner humor by Adali Stevenson and Fred Allen.
Allen got up first, and as always, brought down the house.
Gov. Stevenson followed, and told the audience: “I met Fred in the hallway before dinner, and he told me he had no speech prepared. So, I gave him mine. You just heard it.” The Gov. then sat down.
I posted yesterday that Bill Maher should have been the comic meister.
He actually was there, with Adrianna Huffington as his date. These two seem to have some strange karma.
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brez. were there..they seem also to have some strange karma.
They both have evolved into sometimes narcissistic talkingheads.
I’m glad the IMan is starting to take Scarborough on..it’s overdue.

Suicide bombers

"Al Quada is short on cash. Do you know what an insurance premium costs for a suicide bomber?"
Jay Leno, WH Correspondents Dinner last night.
----------------------
Look, it was a joke.
Except for perhaps Mayor Bloomberg, nobody was aware of the lethal car bomb left in Times Square.
It was going to happen, and it likely will happen again.
Security will be increased;ore public cameras will besetup; and N residents will lose some freedom.
The balance between freedom and security is alwasy delicate

Saturday, May 1, 2010

conspiracies there, conspiracies here, conspiracies everywhere

I recently watched three DVDs from the History channel:
Conspiracies?
This stuff is cool..somewhat eyepopping..always stimulating.
The show covered alleged conspiracy theories re the JFK,RFK,MLK JR. murders...all conspiracies methinks involving the secret state within a state.
Others covered are ufos,Princess Diana,FDR and Pearl Harbor,the Okla.fed. building bombing and others.
How about a current conspiracy?
How about the national Chamber of Commerce?
It is the most powerful lobby in DC, and is a major part of our invisible government.
As Marvin Gaye asks: "What's going on".
Below is a summary of the C of C shenagians.

"Washington, D.C.--StopTheChamber.com, a network of national organizations dedicated to corporate accountability, has been calling for months for a full criminal investigation into the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its top staff, including CEO Tom Donohue, for racketeering, fraud, false reporting, and campaign finance violations. Now the network is adding obstruction of justice to that list. In the past two weeks, the United States has been hit with three major disasters, all tied to the polices and practices of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. First, 29 miners were killed in a Massey Energy coal mine explosion, second, 11 oil workers were killed in an British Petroleum oil rig fire, and third, Goldman Sachs was charged with a massive billion dollar fraud enterprise. Each of these companies uses the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with its army of lobbyists and lawyers, as its first line of defense, corruptly influencing politicians and judges to protect corporations and thwart investigations, and spinning public relations to justify criminal conduct...
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/51903

Jim Hightower quotes

A couple of quotes from Jim Hightower on last night's Moyers Journal:

"As Hightower's fond of saying, the water won't clear up until we get the hogs out of the creek. "I see the central issue in politics to be the rise of corporate power," he reiterated. "Overwhelming, overweening corporate power that is running roughshod over the workaday people of the country. They think they're the top dogs, and we're a bunch of fire hydrants, you know?"

Of President Obama he said, "It's odd to me that we've got a president who ran from the outside and won, and now is trying to govern from the inside. You can't do progressive government from the inside. You have to rally those outsiders and make them a force... Our heavyweight is the people themselves. They've got the fat cats, but we've got the alley cats..."

White House Correspondents Dinner, Jay Leno, and Bill Maher

The White House correspondents dinner is this evening.
I will likely catch it on YouTube, rather than live on CSpan.
Jay Leno will be the laugh meister.
He is safe...no insults to the Establishment.
Actually, I'd like to see Bill Maher as the laugh host.
It won't happen, but one can dream the impossible dream.
Maher, on his HBO show last night, suggests that the teabaggers,including Sarah Palin, should wear their "drill,baby,drill" shirts down to the Gulf, and help clean the oil off the birds from the BP disaster.

Andrew Cuomo and Albany dysfunction

“We have to clean up the gridlock. We have to clean up the dysfunction. We have to clean up the waste. We have to clean up the delay. Enough is enough, my friends. The state government works for the people, and the people have been failed by this state government.”
Andrew Cuomo at Dem. Rural Conference last night.
*****
Nobody can disagree with the AG on this.
But it does sound like Eliot Spitzer in 2006.
There is a system problem in Albany.
There is a need for a transforming leader on the Capitol's 2nd floor.
Mario Cuomo was (is) a New Deal liberal, but governed as a pragmatic triangular. As he often said, campaigning is poetry, and governing is prose.
There are some basic reforms that are doable.
Make a June 1st budget the legal Constitutional (if required) norm. It is, unofficially, now.
Make it a two year budget cycle, with a new budget required in off-election years.
Deal with Medicaid...it is the monster eating New York.
At least two commissions have recommended that the local school property tax be replaced by a real progressive state income tax.
Lazio's mantra will be less government, low taxes.
It's not less government that is needed, but rather making the existing government responsive and transparent.
It is tax reform that is needed, including the above change in the local property taxes.

Goodby, Bill Moyers

(plutocracy and oligarchy is called “plutarchy” …)
_________________________________________

Goodby, Bill Moyers
___________________

The PBS’s Moyers Journal ended last night. It was a good run, almost always stimulating, and will be missed.
Moyers admonished listeners that he was forced off the schedule, but that it was his decision. At 76 years, he still has mountains to climb.

Last night, he described his approach on the Journal. He sees a US that has evolved into a plutocracy..rule by the very wealthy and Wall Street. For almost 5 yrs., his goal was to give voice to the other 95% of the people, and main street.

Last night, he had Jim Hightower, the funny populist blogger,writer and critic of the plutocracy. Hightower is a populist who sees the large corporations occupying most of our public realm. To him, liberals want to regulate these corporations. Populists want to give power back to main street.
I’m an old liberal. Large corporations will not be eliminated. But there needs to be a three-legged stool for stablity..one leg is the corporations,one is the public main street, and one is government. It is the government and main street legs that have been cut off by the corporate leg. The stool needs to re-stablized.