The good Sen. Espada is spinning….spinning legal gossamer.
How does Espada’s coup shaniganians help Cuomo?
Is Espada for real, asking the AG for his personal (AG’s) cell phone and email records.
Did the AG use his cell phone to call senators to encourage a coup?
This is silly season.
The coups did show Espada’s drive for power…an obsession if you will.
The added perquistes that came with majority leader allowed him to put many of the Soundview relatives on the Senate payroll.
It’s likely that many of these relatives are no-shows in the Senate.
Espada’s health clinics should be put into receiverships…so that the Bronx residents can continue health care.
Espada should resign, and get help for his power addiction.
Can power be an addiction? Yes, it can provide a high.
As the good Senator resigns, and drives back to a luxurious mansion in Westchester County., he can stop at a Motel 6, and order sushi.
As Tom Boddett says, the Motel 6 will leave a light on for him.
#1
Friday, April 23, 2010
OBAMA ZOMBIES
As a traditional liberal and progressive,I believe it is always good to pay attention to what the rightwingnuts are up to.
Jason Mattera is one to watch and read.
In his tirade, Obama Zombies, he argues that Obama captured the independent millenials in 2008 because of the social network tech. revolution…i.e face book.
He wants the rightwing to “shake ,rattle and roll the Obama zombies”.
He wants them to do what “their liberal lobotomies have prevented them from doing and thinking..”
He wants them to take out their IPod earplugs, and go back to basics, fiscal sanity, get a job,make money and be happy.and use the Twitter technology to reverse the Obama brainwashing.
Mattera is correct that Obama captured the 18-29 millenials in 2008; and many of them are now disaffected.
But his remedies are flawed.
Obama and the White House need to become more progressive and liberal..more transforming in action, as well as rhetoric.
Jason Mattera is one to watch and read.
In his tirade, Obama Zombies, he argues that Obama captured the independent millenials in 2008 because of the social network tech. revolution…i.e face book.
He wants the rightwing to “shake ,rattle and roll the Obama zombies”.
He wants them to do what “their liberal lobotomies have prevented them from doing and thinking..”
He wants them to take out their IPod earplugs, and go back to basics, fiscal sanity, get a job,make money and be happy.and use the Twitter technology to reverse the Obama brainwashing.
Mattera is correct that Obama captured the 18-29 millenials in 2008; and many of them are now disaffected.
But his remedies are flawed.
Obama and the White House need to become more progressive and liberal..more transforming in action, as well as rhetoric.
The SEC and porn
(During his Cooper Union speech, President Obama urged Wall Street to “join us, instead of fighting us” on reform efforts)
Reports today say that the SEC IG investigated at least 33 employees during the early period of the Great Recession.
Several highly paid staffers, including at least one lawyer, spent most of their work hours viewing net porn.
The lawyer was so addicted that he burned the porn on cds and dvds,and stored them in boxes all around his office.
The SEC is the civil watchdog of Wall Street.
The porn these SEC employees should have been watching was the Wall Street credit default swaps;the sub-prime mortages wrapped into packages and sold to hedge fund betters; and the funny financial fangdangles that swept Wall Street.
The IG’s findings suggest the SEC has long ago been captured by the financial industry.
Reports today say that the SEC IG investigated at least 33 employees during the early period of the Great Recession.
Several highly paid staffers, including at least one lawyer, spent most of their work hours viewing net porn.
The lawyer was so addicted that he burned the porn on cds and dvds,and stored them in boxes all around his office.
The SEC is the civil watchdog of Wall Street.
The porn these SEC employees should have been watching was the Wall Street credit default swaps;the sub-prime mortages wrapped into packages and sold to hedge fund betters; and the funny financial fangdangles that swept Wall Street.
The IG’s findings suggest the SEC has long ago been captured by the financial industry.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Earth Day and stuff
Earth Day and our stuff
“You accululate all the Stuff. And it takes over the house. You need a second house-one for the Stuff and one to live in…”
George Carlin, Stuff
Youtube.com/watch ?v=mvg N5gCulac
I got no respect. One time, my immature wife came home, and I was taking a bath. She came in and sunk my rubber boats..”
Rodney Dangerfield
Chelsea Handler pleading with her father, at 8 yrs. old, for a Cabbage Patch doll:
“Dad, there are thousands of types of Patch dolls. I don’t want a blonde or anyone with brown eyes. Green eyes. They have ones with two dimples, but I just want one dimple. The ones with two dimples look too fake, and the ones without dimples look like Chucky. This is a very precise assignment. Please do not screw this up. Under no circumstances are you to come home with a redhead..”
Chelsea Handler, Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, p.28
-----
On this Earth Day, it is important to focus on Stuff…all the Stuff we have, and all we really don’t need.
Annie Leonard’s video The Story of Stuff has been seen by millions. Her companion book of the same name is a good read.
Her position is strait forward: “Our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet, our communities, and our health. We need a new vision for change..”
We, in the US, have 5% of the world’s population, but use 30% of the world’s resources; and produce 30% of its’ waste.
We have too much stuff; and too much of it is toxic.
Just take water, as one example.
By 2025, 2/3rds of us in the US will face a water scarcity.
As we morph from a grey stuff consumer to a green environmentalist, think about showers vs. baths.
A typical 8 minute shower uses 17 gallons of water. A bath uses 45 gallons.
Take a shower, shorten it 5 minutes; use a low-flow showerhead; and turn off the water while you soap your body. Then run the shower.
Now John Stossell, and the libertarians, will say…”I will take a bath if I want to. And an 8-min. shower. I have a constitutional right.”
No, John. You take the rubber boats in your bath and put them where John Denver’s sun will never shine.
“You accululate all the Stuff. And it takes over the house. You need a second house-one for the Stuff and one to live in…”
George Carlin, Stuff
Youtube.com/watch ?v=mvg N5gCulac
I got no respect. One time, my immature wife came home, and I was taking a bath. She came in and sunk my rubber boats..”
Rodney Dangerfield
Chelsea Handler pleading with her father, at 8 yrs. old, for a Cabbage Patch doll:
“Dad, there are thousands of types of Patch dolls. I don’t want a blonde or anyone with brown eyes. Green eyes. They have ones with two dimples, but I just want one dimple. The ones with two dimples look too fake, and the ones without dimples look like Chucky. This is a very precise assignment. Please do not screw this up. Under no circumstances are you to come home with a redhead..”
Chelsea Handler, Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, p.28
-----
On this Earth Day, it is important to focus on Stuff…all the Stuff we have, and all we really don’t need.
Annie Leonard’s video The Story of Stuff has been seen by millions. Her companion book of the same name is a good read.
Her position is strait forward: “Our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet, our communities, and our health. We need a new vision for change..”
We, in the US, have 5% of the world’s population, but use 30% of the world’s resources; and produce 30% of its’ waste.
We have too much stuff; and too much of it is toxic.
Just take water, as one example.
By 2025, 2/3rds of us in the US will face a water scarcity.
As we morph from a grey stuff consumer to a green environmentalist, think about showers vs. baths.
A typical 8 minute shower uses 17 gallons of water. A bath uses 45 gallons.
Take a shower, shorten it 5 minutes; use a low-flow showerhead; and turn off the water while you soap your body. Then run the shower.
Now John Stossell, and the libertarians, will say…”I will take a bath if I want to. And an 8-min. shower. I have a constitutional right.”
No, John. You take the rubber boats in your bath and put them where John Denver’s sun will never shine.
Roger Stone and the flying fickle finger award
The flying fickle finger award to political consultant and bon vivant Roger Stone.
__________
“attack,attack, attack
never defend; admit nothing; deny everything;
launch counter attacks;hit from every angle;
open multiple fronts on your enemy; he must be confused and feel besieged on every side”
The Stone modus operandi, as quoted in Peter Elkind, Rough Justice.
_____
Elkind’s new book on Elliot Spitzer is a good read, if you relish the slimey,ugly power plays practiced in Albany,our esteemed State Capitol.
Elkind describes the power plays of Spitzer,Joe Bruno, and Stone, where civility disappeared.
Spitzer wanted reform,and wanted to flip the State Senate.
He offered Sen.Michael Balboni a job in his administration,and Joe Bruno also killed Balboni’s career to run for the AG position.
Bruno needed Balboni to stay in the Senate,to keep GOP control.
As the power plays became really ugly, Bruno hired Stone as a $20k monthly consultant.
Stone set out to destroy Spitzer, including feeding the FBI information gleaned from his lady contacts in Florida.
These power plays were not pretty.
Elkin contrasts Bruno and Spitzer. Bruno the poor kid from Glens Falls, who wanted Albany power to gain private riches. Spitzer, the son of a wealthy NYC Jew, who wanted Albany power to reform and transform.
Our fickle finger award goes to Stone. He’s is less than a class act. Power does corrupt, especially when the power plays take place in Albany.
And I still see no compelling rationale to send Joe Bruno to prison.
__________
“attack,attack, attack
never defend; admit nothing; deny everything;
launch counter attacks;hit from every angle;
open multiple fronts on your enemy; he must be confused and feel besieged on every side”
The Stone modus operandi, as quoted in Peter Elkind, Rough Justice.
_____
Elkind’s new book on Elliot Spitzer is a good read, if you relish the slimey,ugly power plays practiced in Albany,our esteemed State Capitol.
Elkind describes the power plays of Spitzer,Joe Bruno, and Stone, where civility disappeared.
Spitzer wanted reform,and wanted to flip the State Senate.
He offered Sen.Michael Balboni a job in his administration,and Joe Bruno also killed Balboni’s career to run for the AG position.
Bruno needed Balboni to stay in the Senate,to keep GOP control.
As the power plays became really ugly, Bruno hired Stone as a $20k monthly consultant.
Stone set out to destroy Spitzer, including feeding the FBI information gleaned from his lady contacts in Florida.
These power plays were not pretty.
Elkin contrasts Bruno and Spitzer. Bruno the poor kid from Glens Falls, who wanted Albany power to gain private riches. Spitzer, the son of a wealthy NYC Jew, who wanted Albany power to reform and transform.
Our fickle finger award goes to Stone. He’s is less than a class act. Power does corrupt, especially when the power plays take place in Albany.
And I still see no compelling rationale to send Joe Bruno to prison.
Charters,inequality, and politics
The data shows that charters are, in general, successful in reading,math and science indices.And NYS should increase the cap on these public funded,privately run, schools.The feds. would likely look favorably on this; and the state could really compete in the Race to the Top $700 million funding.Charters do, however, tend to cherry pick.There are too many applicants; and the cherry picking leaves the more difficult-to-learn students in the underachieving public schools.I favor charters, and I say lift the ceiling on them.The future of public schools are in limbo.Many are failures, and should be closed.In almost all states, the fiscal crisis is creating a crisis in the public school systems.There will be major changes in our centralized,public school systems.As my friend, writer, and social critic James Howard Kunstler suggests in The Long Emergency, all our central systems will unravel as we move into the end of oil period.The oil heavey yellow school buses, for one, will no longer be viable.Small schools, home schooling, are the future.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Game Change
I had the opportunity to attend a book review of John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s Game Change.
The reviewer was local Albany attorney,and talk show host, Steve Coffey.
The review was excellent, highlighting most of the major events of the 2008 Presidential campaign.
Did have a chance to ask two questions, both, methinks, important.
First, John McCain and Sara Palin.
Game Change vividly describes the quick process that led to Palin’s pick as McCain’s running mate.
McCain’s direct talk, and vetting, with Palin took about an hour.
A scary vetting in chosing our VP candidate.
As Coffey suggests, Palin was a possible big game changer. A choice that could have salvaged McCain’s campaign.
But as I suggested, her pick was like Mel Brooks building a young Frankenstein.
Palin is still with us. But even the moderate tea partiers don’t feel she is qualified to be President.
Will her future be on Fox?
Coffey was noncommital.
The second question dealt with the msn and John Edwards.
The msn buried the scandal of Edwards, , Rielle Hunter, and the love child.
How sad to hear that the National Enquirer was nominated for a Pulitizer for their Edwards scandal stories.
Where was the msn?
It could have gone to Edwards and his wife before Iowa , and just told them that the story of the love child will go public; and Edwards should withdrawl for the sake of the country,the Dem. Party, and his family.
He likely would have.
Suppose Edwards had broken through in the 2008 campaign?
Suppose he had gone all the way, and won the Presidency?
Can’t we see him ready to take the oath of office in Jan. 2009, in the cold, at the steps of the national Capitol.
Just as the oath is about to be given, , Rielle Hunter,with the lovechild in one arm, uses her other hand trying to grab the Bible from Elizabeth Edwards.
Then, and only then, would the msn have asked: Hey, what’s going on here?
Coffey main response was that MSNBC was very Obama biased.
But I also suggested that MSNBC was necessary to balance cable Fox.
The reviewer was local Albany attorney,and talk show host, Steve Coffey.
The review was excellent, highlighting most of the major events of the 2008 Presidential campaign.
Did have a chance to ask two questions, both, methinks, important.
First, John McCain and Sara Palin.
Game Change vividly describes the quick process that led to Palin’s pick as McCain’s running mate.
McCain’s direct talk, and vetting, with Palin took about an hour.
A scary vetting in chosing our VP candidate.
As Coffey suggests, Palin was a possible big game changer. A choice that could have salvaged McCain’s campaign.
But as I suggested, her pick was like Mel Brooks building a young Frankenstein.
Palin is still with us. But even the moderate tea partiers don’t feel she is qualified to be President.
Will her future be on Fox?
Coffey was noncommital.
The second question dealt with the msn and John Edwards.
The msn buried the scandal of Edwards, , Rielle Hunter, and the love child.
How sad to hear that the National Enquirer was nominated for a Pulitizer for their Edwards scandal stories.
Where was the msn?
It could have gone to Edwards and his wife before Iowa , and just told them that the story of the love child will go public; and Edwards should withdrawl for the sake of the country,the Dem. Party, and his family.
He likely would have.
Suppose Edwards had broken through in the 2008 campaign?
Suppose he had gone all the way, and won the Presidency?
Can’t we see him ready to take the oath of office in Jan. 2009, in the cold, at the steps of the national Capitol.
Just as the oath is about to be given, , Rielle Hunter,with the lovechild in one arm, uses her other hand trying to grab the Bible from Elizabeth Edwards.
Then, and only then, would the msn have asked: Hey, what’s going on here?
Coffey main response was that MSNBC was very Obama biased.
But I also suggested that MSNBC was necessary to balance cable Fox.
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