Rome, NY Sucks

In 2012

2011-12-31T21:13:00.000-05:00

After a three-year run of at least one partially correct prediction, I came up empty for 2011. This year, I will boldly go on making guesses that are about 3% accurate

Predictions for 2012
1. Mitt Romney "wins" the Iowa caucuses with a sad 19% of the vote. He pledges to fight so hard that he will continue to get the bare mathematical minimum to win any contest.

2. President Obama, drunk with power, starts marking Arab leaders for death by announcing "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

3. The spokesman for an Arab interest group protests the use of the phrase "lack of faith" as offensive to followers of Islam. Shortly after, he goes into a choking fit.

4. Approval ratings for the administration improve after the revelation of Operation Ice Pirates. The state department funnels advanced solar technology to drug cartels in Mexico. Those whose equipment did not blow up and kill them are captured when it breaks down.

5. Keith Olbermann loses favor with Current TV when he is pulled from coverage of Republican primary contests. Olbermann takes to Twitter to express his outrage and look for a new multi million dollar job. Major League Baseball finally offers to hire him if he only talks about politics 1% of the time, during the commercial breaks.

6. Japan recovers from the damage of last year's tsunamis and radiation leaks. However, some of the nuclear material runs into the ocean and reanimates Osama bin Laden as a 50ft monster. When Obama tries his "lack of faith" stuff, his head explodes due to the superior evil magic of Oszilla.

7. The Church of Latter Day Saints gets a public relations boost when Mitt Romney destroys Oszilla with one of Joseph Smith's golden plates.

8. Apple experiences a colossal failure when it introduces the iBlob, a vat of goo that you climb into to be connected to everything. "Take the blue pill" becomes the worst marketing slogan in history.

9. Tea Party groups endorse Rick Santorum instead of Romney. Mitt decides to go third party.

10. Occupy Wall Street has no purpose after Obama's head explodes. They wander the streets, talking incoherently and soiling themselves. No one notices the difference.

11. After telling Joe Biden to go to hell, Hillary Clinton joins with Mitt Romney in his third party run. With the choice of Santorum / Gingrich, Biden / Baldwin or Romney / Clinton, a third-party finally wins the White House.

12. Predictably, the election is followed by the end of the world.

"He's making violent love to me, Mother!"

2011-12-26T16:06:00.000-05:00

I came kind of late to the movie "It's a Wonderful Life." Instead, I endured the hackneyed tale that is "Miracle on 34th Street." The irony is that neither has a lot to do with Christmas. One is about some guy who couldn't possibly be real. The other is about Santa.

Many Christmas themed television episodes either borrow from the classic Dickens tale "A Christmas Carol" or the concept of what life would be like without you in "It's a Wonderful Life." It's an iconic concept, but it is also an amazing movie in its own right.

In short, an angel was dispatched to help George when he reached his greatest moment of despair. As a child, he saved his brother from drowning. He stopped a druggist from delivering a fatal prescription. He took over his family's bank and made it possible for people in the town to buy their own homes and businesses. He married the girl who waited for him for years and eventually had four children with her. His actions helped his brother Harry to become successful, his friend Sam to become rich and many to become upwardly mobile.

Through his uncle Billy's absent-mindedness, an $8,000 deposit was lost on the day a bank examiner showed up. In danger of arrest and financial ruin, George contemplated suicide. Then he met the angel Clarence. Clarence eventually showed him what life would be like had he never been born.

When George was never born, we learn

Harry died in the ice that day, and his mother was left alone after his father's death. A number of soldiers died in that transport without Harry being a pilot in WWII.
Mr. Gower, the druggust, spent 20 years in prison when a child was poisoned from his mistake.
Bedford Falls is Pottersville now, filled with bars and all night clubs. An old friend,Violet, is being arrested.
Ernie, the cab driver, lives at Potter's field and his wife left him.
Uncle Billy is in an asylum.
Mary, his wife, is an old maid librarian

In some ways, the title of the original story, "The Greatest Gift," was a better title. George has a pretty good life, but it's not about him. The implication of "It's a Wonderful Life" is that George Bailey is defined by the positive impact he has on others. What he actually got was the gift of knowing that he isn't better off having never been born, and neither is anyone else.

One question to ask is what would happen to George Bailey had he not made the decision to take over the Building and Loan? Delaying college was one thing. He was unable to pay for it until he saved up. The first decision that would change the course of his adult life was keeping the Building and Loan in business after his father died. George seemed to be a personable, bright man. He gave Sam Wainwright the plastics idea and stopped a run on the bank. Maybe George would have become a successful architect in New York.

Then again, his family may not have fared so well. Billy would drink himself into an early grave. Harry would support his mother until he was drafted. Not having his own education, he might end up in the infantry. Those men in the transport would still die. Pottersville would become a reality.

If we don't take the concept that everyone's life touches many others and see George Bailey as a superior man, we can think about him in terms of Ayn Rand. What would Rand make of George? He was s superior man, but he was something of a sap. Was Potter the greater man because he had more money? I would say no. First of all, Potter's one-dimensional avarice had a fatal flaw. Bailey's trust in his fellow man paid off. The Building and Loan was solvent and people were moving into homes and out of Potter's tenements. Plus, George had 4 children. Progeny always beats out one man's accumulation of wealth.

Is the movie a story of liberalism or conservatism? I would tend to say that there is little liberalism involved. The only villain is greed. Capitalism is praised. Sam is a successful businessman. Potter has to steal and cheat to continue. It's certainly not a message of socialism. No mention is made of FDR saving Bedford Falls. In fact, the only thing Roosevelt seemed to do for the town was send most of its young men to war. I'm conservative and I'm a fan of voluntary collectivism. It's just too bad the movie portrays it only working when one man sells houses for half their value. Then again, the Building and Loan probably would survive the recession of 2008 with that policy.

Still, George represents the everyman. The disturbing aspect of that is how much he is driven by guilt and anger. Potter is a small man, in his way. He doesn't have any interests outside of Bedford Falls. For no particular reason, he wants to turn the town into a den of profitable sin and vice. He has disdain for his fellow man. The poor deserve to be poor. George Bailey, in his opinion, deserves to be rich. Instead, he helps everyone else out to his detriment. He eventually comes to regard George Bailey as the enemy. George considered Potter an enemy since his father died. He blamed Potter and his constant desire to be the only bank in town. George stayed behind to not disappoint others. When that didn't work, he stayed to defeat Potter.
Potter ended up being a pretty one-note character in an era when FDR was the president for over a decade. He was described as both rich and mean. He got rich by being mean. In case that wasn't enough, Potter all but stole $8,000 when Billy left it in that paper. One can see why the Saturday Night Live writers thought of an alternate ending where Potter was found out and beaten to death by the citizens of Bedford Falls.

I see the movie as something of a love story. As much as George saves everyone else, Mary saves him. What happens to George is like a reverse of 2000's "The Family Man," where a bachelor sees what his life is like when he marries his sweetheart. If your're going to have a Christmas movie that's not about Christ, it might as well be about love.

Shop 'til You're Dropped

2011-12-02T05:44:00.001-05:00

The Rome Wal-Mart's Black Friday story of a woman grabbing all the cell phones and running was luckily shadowed by the more dramatic tale of a woman at a differnt Wal-Mart pepper spraying people to get ahead in line. Welcome to the most wonderful time of the year.

Every year, there's a story of mayhem at a Black Friday sale. Then the next day there are stories about how this can be prevented in the future. I have an idea. Stop having these cattle calls at midnight after Thanksgiving for 5 LCD TVs at 90% off.

These things combine at least three things I loathe. You have to wait in line in the cold. You have to fight with people and you don't get to research the items on sale. And it gets better. Invariably, the stuff from these sales ends up on eBay anyway. It amounts to free advertising, driven by sad consumers.

Stores are directly responsible for these sales getting out of hand. If stock was available or, God forbid, eligible for a rain chack, there wouldn't be a stampede. I know for certain that I would not get one of those incredible deals. I can't even find the stuff in a regular Best Buy sale because it's gone by Monday. I'll save my shopping for the week before Christmas, when retailers are really desperate for money and not just trying to get turkeys into the stores after Turkey Day.

It's a Trick

2011-11-01T20:35:00.002-04:00

I've pretty much broken off from blogging here, which is too bad. I managed to miss both September and October, but I'll do a little better with November.

Worse Than the Storm

2011-08-29T23:04:00.001-04:00

I was going to post about this weekend's tropical storm in CNY until I spent 20 minutes just trying to log into Blogger. I can see why they're losing page views.

Can We REALLY Afford It?

2011-06-30T12:13:00.001-04:00

Here's a math problem for Oneida Country's new dumb ass media blitz.

Cost of "Can You Afford it?" DWI signs / Number of people who will not drink and drive just because of those signs.

There were 890 drunk drivers in the country last year. Will it be any less this year?

I'll Pass

2011-05-16T17:47:00.000-04:00

So, United Teachers (which is the Teachers' UNION) is running radio ads encouraging us to "pass it on." I believe "it" is the ever-increasing taxes we should pass to the next generation. I guess in the 80s and 90s, we were willing to pass whatever budget went on the ballot and we should do so forever. It seems like Ponzi it on, because the property tax proceeds are not just increasing, the percentage of home value to be paid in taxes is increasing as well.

Personally, I'm going to pass on the big school budget, the tacked-on library charge and any other crap they want tomorrow. As far as the board itself, no one really wants the job who could do something anyway, so I don't see what the point is in picking anyone. Be like Monty Brewster, vote None of the Above.

Touchdown

2011-04-28T00:27:00.000-04:00

I had the misfortune of getting home during the start of yesterday's storm. Luckily, I was only blasted by wind and rain. I saw the marble-sized hail outside a few minutes later. I didn't see the tornado that apparently rouched down in the city.

This seeems to be an ass-kicking year for storms, pretty much around the country. Constant snow and cold this winter. Rain for weeks in April. I assume the summer will be muggy punctuated by rain storms. Good times.

I'm Cooking Up a Groundhog

2011-03-07T12:06:00.000-05:00

The last week of February 2010 marked the end of snow last year. We are now well into month number four of this winter and have already made it into the top ten for snowfall in local recorded history. I think the prediction of an "early spring" by the groundhog is not to be. I doubt this will even be done by the six weeks of winter after Feb. 2.

High Speed Fail

2011-02-13T22:41:00.000-05:00

New York is expectedly excited about the prospect of consuming more federal money on high speed rail. New Jersey's Chris Christie went the other way and refused putting the state into more debt when Amtrak could invest in a rail project instead. I think Amtrak sucks, but at least he's saving money.

Trains are kind of an antiquated technology. High speed rail is advanced train technology, but it has some of the same limitations. Trains are fast, but they mostly go in one path and all the points are fixed after construction. One thing Rome has is a train station. It's because we were a major boat path a century ago. We're nowhere near the Thruway and Greyhound doesn't even come here. We still have the train, though, because the train has no choice. Since it's a captive audience, the city decided to renovate the train station almost no one uses.

The train is good for one thing, though. You can travel to Utica's train station. They have a bus depot there.

Early Spring?

2011-02-02T19:48:00.000-05:00

In the midst of the largest snowstorm of the year, it was also Groundhog Day. Generally, the groundhog metaphorically sees his shadow and there are six more weeks of winter. This time, it was so overcast and snowy that if the groundhog made it out, he sure wouldn't go back in.

I've been kind of forced into following WKTV's snowfall totals this season. In Rome we never lost Channel 2. Anyway, we went from well below "normal" in December to well above in January. With the intensity of winter weather, lower temperatures and precipitation, I'm going with the groundhog.

It might be wishful thinking, but there's only so much energy in the world. Physics tends to dictate that all this crap can't be thrown around for another 2 months. Anyway, the global warming believers are already claiming this as proof of faith. Their heads are always stuck in a gopher hole.

Coming Soon

2011-01-31T23:28:00.000-05:00

I'm going to make more of an attempt at local blogging again now that the national scene has seen something of a resolution. I'm also thinking blogger.com learned its lesson about dumping blogs that were critcal of Obama.

In 2011

2010-12-31T19:29:00.001-05:00

While I did predict a crushing defeat in the New York gubernatorial race for Rick Lazio last year, I had no idea that it would be in the primary. Here's some more wonky and wonkish
Predictions for 2011

1. Movies have been made about 2010 and 2012, so Michael Moore tries to stay relevant by producing Centigrade 2011 about how the Republicans and Fox News created this year for the sole purpose of destroying America. Even the Cannes audience boos the premiere.

2. A new site called Leakyleaks opens up to tell the real story behind the Gulf Oil spill. It turns out poor safety oversight and lack of federal response were to blame. The site actually starts losing hits from a lack of crazy conspiracy theories.

3. President Obama becomes the first person to sign up for a state health care exchange until he finds out the District of Columbia isn't a state. Then he refuses to provide a birth certificate. Things go downhill from there.

4. Electronics manufacturers create a 4-D TV set that can transport the viewer to any time in history. Thousands disappear forever when they go into old Westerns set before electricity was available.

5. Apple goes one step too far trying to repackage old Mac computers as the new iBox.

6. Horror stores by conservatives about dozens of illegal immigrants living in one house end up encouraging people to sublet each room of their underwater mortgaged homes.

7. The average foreclosure soon makes an average of 30 people homeless.

8. To avoid unwanted man boob pictorials, President Obama starts vacationing in Chilean mines with dozens of shirtless miners and without the rest of the family. Each trip costs $58 million.

9. Tiger Woods discovers that his golf skills are entirely dependent on dalliances with loose women. Most of his endorsement money is replaced by royalties from a reality show where he dates 20 women and never kicks any of them out of the mansion.

10. Jealous of Sarah Palin's reality career, BET airs "Barack Obama's Chicago." The president is arrested for selling political favors after the first episode is aired.

Three or Six Months?

2010-11-29T23:04:00.000-05:00

Most of the area had been without snow for 270 days until this weekend. That makes approximately 3 months until we come back to that point. Still, that's only mid-February. I've seen snow in May and certainly in April. Will it be 3 months or 6 months with snow this winter?

Not so Supercuts

2010-10-27T23:21:00.000-04:00

Being a creature of habit, it was tought for me when my barber retired. I started going to Supercuts in Rome. They've been okay, but tonight it just went off the rails. Now I know what a pain it is for a woman to get a hair cut. I think I'm going to find another barber.

Long Shot

2010-09-30T21:01:00.000-04:00

This may be the first time in years where voting a Republican into state or national office is not out of the question. Kirsten Gillebrand is vulnerable (for NY) and Cuomo has no idea how to run for an office he's not been anointed to.

Then again, we have Carl Paladino running. It seems like the best fighters are the crazy ones. If I've learned anything, a trained monkey can run this state. I'll still take Paladino.

From Zero to, well, Zero

2010-08-30T16:53:00.000-04:00

New York's disasterous Republican Party has once again produced no one with the power or personality to win the Governor's mansion or either US Senate Seats. Republicans will likely take back some House seats that they lost to the wave of idiot Obama voters and ACORN vote-riggers.

When the state goes Democrat, it will do so when Democrats are an endangered species. When they need a California-style bailout, there may not be the will to provide it. I think it's time for the state to live under its own policies.

That's why I should really get the hell out.

2010-07-26T16:07:00.001-04:00

Less than 100 days until hope and change the sequel

2010-06-10T17:50:00.001-04:00

I'm wondering if I can return to blogger now that everyone knows obama sucks

Memorial Day

2010-05-31T10:27:00.000-04:00

I think everyone should lay a wreath today in the place of a president who doesn't care enough to do it himself.

No Budget, Again

2010-04-28T22:14:00.000-04:00

It's a popular misconception that states have to balance their budgets while the federal governent does not. The feds issue debt to pay for their budget, as well as taking what little is left on the surplus side of Social Security.

New York does need to put a budget together where spending is equal to projected revenue. Instead of doing something, they're just letting the budget stay late. At least in New Jersey, Christie is taking on the unions whose demands are greater than the state's money supply. New York would be better off passing a one year emergency budget that only paid for the bare minimum. But that won't happen. So, we'll just have to hope people in this state will elect some Republicans like everyone else in November.

We Don't Want You

2010-03-22T11:46:00.000-04:00

The House passed the Senate bill with 3 votes to spare. They passed their own bill with only 2 votes to spare. Michael Arcuri voted yes for that closer bill. His vote last night is irrelevant.

Get out.

Arcuri is Scared

2010-03-01T22:43:00.000-05:00

I see that Michael Arcuri is now trying to run against his own party by voting no on the Health Care bill. He may be in a red enough district to get approval from Nancy Pelosi to do that. I don't care, myself. He voted for TARP after ignoring his constituents, and now he has to go. Maybe I should change my blog's tagline.

School District Shakedown Already?

2010-01-26T05:40:00.000-05:00

It seems that Rome wants a bond issue they claim will be paid 90% by the state. I have an idea. How about we cut the budget by 10% and the state can pay 100% of it? It's our state taxes, anyway.

So, vote no if you still read this blog.

In 2010

2009-12-31T18:27:00.001-05:00

My prediction last year of President Obama going from 90% to 40% in the polls was damn close, except that he only started at 70%. The mind control machine may have a little life still in it. So long as the future is not dictated by the White House writing staff, I have more
Predictions for 2010
1. Starbucks goes against the tea party movement by selling "Progressive Blend Coffee."

2. Coffee sales plummet as Starbucks goes out of business.

3. MSNBC's "Morning Joe" sponsored by Starbucks is never boycotted because no one actually watches the show anyway. The loss of ad revenue, however, forces MSNBC to rename itself "The Lockup Channel."

4. The Lockup Channel's new program "Countdown to Keith Olbermann's Execution" scores all time high ratings with a 2.1 in the time slot.

5. Tiger Woods' endorsement field narrows to Trojans and Mad Dog 20/20 malt liquor.

6. While some Democrats change their party affiliation at the last minute to Republican, many decide to change their first and/or last name to "Republican" in hopes of fooling voters.

7. Instead of staying on vacation during national crises, President Obama chooses to go on vacation as they happen. Joe Biden then makes enough gaffes to make people miss Obama again.

8. Rick Lazio runs for governor of New York against Andrew Cuomo. He somehow turns a 30 point lead into a 117% deficit on Election Day.

9. After a sound defeat of Congressional Democrats on Election Day, Hillary Clinton resigns as Secretary of State to run against the Obama Administration in 2012. It turns out she'd been spending the past two years gathering evidence, videos and birth certificates on the Chicago mob running the country.

10. Inexplicably, Clinton, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck form an unstoppable political triumvirate. Get your Tea Party PUMA shirt while supplies last!

Two Peas in a Liberal Pod

2009-10-26T22:01:00.003-04:00

So close.

Here I am, stuck in the crappy 24th district when all the action is in the 23rd. We're reliving the 1990 Gubernatorial campaign. Doug Hoffman even revived the "two peas in a liberal pod" line from two decades ago.

In a nutshell, the Republican Party of New York decided that the only way to beat Mario Cuomo was to run another Cuomo with a Republican party alliegnce. The Conservative Party was so shut out that they broke with supporting the Republican and fielded their own candidate. Cuomo ended up getting a little over 50% and the other two candidates split the vote.

This year, there is a special election to replace a left-leaning Republican. As few as four party insiders nominated DeDe Scozzafava. She's pro-choice, ACORN endorsed (the Working Families Party) and supports big tax hikes. So, Doug Hoffman entered the race under the Conservative banner.

The Democrat won in 1990, but the consevative movement brought in a move moderate Republican in 1994. Even though people didn't like Pataki at the end of his term, he's better than Paterson and the whore-monger.

I hope this race, win or lose, will lead to a re-alignment of the Republican Party to something that can win in 2010. The disaffected voters are kind of a populist-libertarian blend. It's not an impossible group for the Republicans to win over. It's damn near impossible for the current Democratic party.

September Roundup

2009-09-30T17:02:00.001-04:00

Patterson must go. And Patterson probably will go. Even the unpopular president wasts to muscle him out. Health care is on the ropes and the war rages on.

Locally, the average income in Oneida County fell to $55,000. That means that for every $120,000 job there are 2 $20,000 jobs.

August Roundup

2009-08-25T23:06:00.000-04:00

10 years since Woodstock 99 and 40 years since that other one. Everyone remembers the anarchy and price gouging, no one remembers the city where it was held. Good for us, I guess.

Governor Paterson is really letting the state have it now that he's a dead duck (lame doesn't even cover it). First, the media is racist according to him. They're stupid, they're starstruck by Obama. I'm not sure how racist they are. Then, there is the $200 for every kid who's parent has an EBT card. It ended up being a Playstation stimulus plan.

And the Oneida Nation. Paterson will not try to collect the taxes on tobacco products the state is supposed to be using for, well, something. I might be more infuriated if I were surprised. I think of New York as France now and Halbritter is like an Imam.

Oh, and there's a New Hartford manufacturer moving to China. Guess which one.

Scenes from a Tea Party

2009-07-04T22:01:00.000-04:00

I have to say it was kind of an amazing expereince. I was struck by how unpartisan it actually was. This is a rallying cry to bring the country back to a self-reliant state that isn't trillions of dollars in debt. I can't really find anything wrong with that.

Rome, NY Tea party at City Hall

2009-05-27T16:26:00.001-04:00

25% of NY residents want to leave the state. Do they move to a red state? Or will they turn it blue?

2009-05-24T18:02:00.001-04:00

Blogging from phone. Have a happy holiday

School Board Follies

2009-05-17T18:52:00.000-04:00

My new favorite website, seethroughny.net published a list of salaries related to employees for vaious school districts in the state. This is another "public record" that continues to be elusive. So, I decided to take a look at the newest propaganda from the School district and translate it.

First is the letter from the Superintendent, Jeffrey Simons. He makes $132,986.10 as of last year. That's about $65 an hour, if you count the summer. It's also 46% of what the library is asking for in additional funds.

Then there are the school board candidate statements. Since Mary Davis says she's not here with family, I'll assume the two Davis' on the payroll are not related. Chris Esposito is running. There is a Robert Esposito on the payroll. Not sure if there's any relation.

Since 5 people are running for 3 positions, it's pretty much rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. I have no recommendations.

And now, the back page:

Sherry Walczak is listed as Assistant Superintendent. No salary available from the website.
Ann McGowan is listed as Director of Business and Finace. No salary available from the website.

This website is starting to disappoint me. Anyway, the Board of Education has Charles Cashulette listed as Vice President. A Mary Cashulette is listed on the school payroll. There is also an Anderson on the payroll.

As usual, I support a no vote on the almost $100 million bugdet. A 3.5% contingency is more than enough now that Paterson is taking away STAR. Also, the library can get their damn money from the city instead of these cash grabs. Don't they make enough money from their capricious fines? Try buying 2 less computers per year and buy 100 new books instead.

2009-05-17T18:23:00.001-04:00

This is as close to twitter as I`ll get

Power Base

2009-04-14T06:03:00.000-04:00

So, it looks like we won in terms of stopping NYRI. Or at least we made it slightly annoying. I think we can thank a tanking econommy for making this power plan less fiscally effective more than all the weak protestations. The only way this can ever be stopped is by making Utice (and Rome, hopefully) part of a muncipal power system where we could decide who gets our electricity.

If there is a recovery (which is doubtful at the moment) or Obama jacks up electricity prices, NYRI or its successor will be back in the game. This is more of a respite than anything else. We're responsible with our resources, NYC isn't. Like the state's new "eat the rich" tax strategy, those who have something the other guy wants will have it redistributed by the state. We're already getting downstate's drug dealers and welfare cases.

Still Here

2009-02-15T00:21:00.000-05:00

Just hanging around for now. I see New York is all excited that they're getting more borrowed money than they thought they would. Which makes me think of "Comando" and "I'll kill you last."

In 2009

2008-12-31T17:39:00.001-05:00

Disturbingly, my prediction last year of Hillary Clinton losing the Iowa Caucuses (sans laser fueled rampage) was accurate. Sadly, Obama, and not Sanjaya was the American Idol whose performing abilities won America's heart. And since there is still a planet in 2009, here we go.

Predictions:
1. The Federal government tries to make money by putting every political office up for sale, except for president. That was bought by George Soros already.

2. GM, Chrysler and Ford merge into one automaker, calling itself Crapload. Their marketers are as good as their engineers.

3. MSNBC airs all Obama, all the time. Not much of a change, except Lock-Up stars political associates of his from Chicago.

4. Chris Matthews is asked to resign from MSNBC after spending an hour pleasuring himself to an Obama speech... for the fifth time.

5. Global warming is shown to be directly related to the hot air emitted by celebrities.

6. Governor Paterson initiates a Senator tax, leading to an influx of cash from Caroline Kennedy and a massive lawsuit by Chuck Schumer.

7. Former President George W. Bush gets a shoe endorsement contract in Iraq. That popularity eventually leads to his election as Iraq's next president.

8. Bush's oil industry connections, bold tax cuts and strong security policy leads to a successful and prosperous Iraq.

9. Barack Obama's mind control beam finally breaks down after 3 years of constant operation. One "um" laden press conference later and his approval rating drops from 90% to 40%.

10. Normal people sick of the Pacific Northwest and San Francisco political correctness move to Alaska. Through a process of intentional greenhouse emissions, part of the state is 60 degrees and sunny all year long.

11. China forecloses on America by cashing in all their debt at one time. Alaska suceeds and buys the country for a song. Sarah Palin becomes president by ownership.

What in the Hell is Wrong with David Paterson?

2008-12-18T18:07:00.001-05:00

I'm back. I couldn't let this one go. Besides the incompetent boob who was elected President and the dilettante running for Senate, we have a governor who may actually be worse than the whoremonger who previous oozed into office in 2006.

New York is poised to enter the Cuomo years of high taxes and insane fees all over again. Soda tax, haircut tax, multiple fees. Property tax rebates are gone. We don't have to wait for Obama to kill the economy, Paterson is going to dismantle the Upstate economy all by himself.

Retirement

2008-11-05T16:35:00.000-05:00

Due to the apparent lack of readership and Google's Orwellian practices of evil, I'm done with blogger and this blog. It's up for now. I may keep it active or take it down. I'm starting a new blog at Wordpress, but not as Romehater.

PUMAcide

2008-11-04T23:02:00.001-05:00

I had 2 posts made up for tonight. One for a win and one for a loss. Either way, it was going to be about PUMAs. The Party Unity, My Ass crowd was the mythical group of Hillary Clinton supporters who were disgruntled enough about her stolen nomination that they were going to take it out on Obama.
That was not the case.

It was an unreliable group, to be sure. Having invested my time reading the PUMA blogs I could see both good signs and bad. Most liked Sarah Palin. Some felt John McCain held out an olive branch to them. There were others, however, that became disillusioned with politics entirely. Instead of McCain or Obama, they voted Hillary, or nothing, or for third party candidates. When it came time to pick Obama or not Obama, they chose not not Obama. And that was the same as voting Obama.

At the end, people fell for the hype. The polls are close. McCain is in the margin of error. There's an unseen groundswell. Others saw the truth. Howard Dean and the DNC bought an election. David Plouffe had to pay $60 million instead of the 40 he said, but he bought Florida. I hope all the people, criminals and Soros' out there who bought America are happy with the purchase.

Breaking News: Alaska Democrats Totally Corrupt

2008-11-03T19:41:00.001-05:00

So, it turns out that Sarah Palin was found not to have violated any ethics laws as governor of Alaska. The actual decision making body deliberated beyond the snap judgement of one investigator to find she had done nothing wrong. i always wondered why no action was taken those weeks ago when she was considered guilty.

Regardless of what anyone says, go to the polls. Polls in 2004 favored Kerry by eight points. In 1996, they favored Bill Clinton by 9 points. Barack Obama's lead? It's less than 7.

McCain/Palin '08!

For the First Time In My Life, I'm Proud to be a Republican

2008-10-29T11:52:00.002-04:00

The first time I voted was by absentee ballot. So while the results of the election that year were favorable, I technically had no impact on it. Absentee ballots aren't counted unless an election is close enough to make a difference. However, this is also when I registered as a Republican.

The Conservative Party has an interesting history in New York. After the bizarre gubernatorial election of 1990, Conservatives became a real third party in the state. But in reality, that party mostly endorses the Republican (and sometimes Democratic) candidate. So, even if I was conservative, I wanted to vote in primaries that would make a difference.

My political views were essentially shaped by Rush Limbaugh and George Orwell. I'm against socialism for the same reasons I'm a Christian. The concept of free will is all we really have. If we can't make the choice of what to believe and how to act, what is the point? I became a social/political conservative first, and a Republican second.

The Republican Party has had some highs and lows. There was Nixon in 1972 and his "win at all costs" campaign strategy. There was the Reagan revolution. There was Bush 41 who squandered that. The Republicans regained Congress only to lose it 12 years later. There have been winners and losers. Now, there's John McCain.

If nothing else, McCain has exposed the seedy underbelly of the modern conservative movement. Reagan talked about a conservative movement within the Republican party. Conservative pundits talk about how much leverage the conservatives can force onto a Republican party. This season has seen a fracturing of conservatives who didn't like McCain's inability to conform to their checklist of single issues. Some have developed empty suit syndrome, where a real human being like Sarah Palin makes them unhinged because she wasn't a beltway fixture for 20 years before she ran for Vice President.

I'm a capitalist, but unchecked capitalism is indistinguishable from socialism. If you build a better mouse trap, the world will beat a path to your door. Under modern conservative economics, it would be fine for someone to buy the rights to that better mouse trap, burn the design plans and continue to sell their old mouse trap with a better short term profit margin. That is not progress.

John McCain and Sarah Palin represent a Republican Party I can believe in. These people have actually made progress in reducing the size of government, which is the key threat facing us economically. They have a plan that will increase our energy security and not reduce our standard of living. They have moral character and seek out the best of their party, and not anyone with an R in their title. I don't agree with them on every issue, but I don't have to. It may be a slogan, but this year the Republican ticket is putting country first, and now, this Republican is too.

Scary

2008-10-25T18:14:00.003-04:00

I don't know about you, but the one on the right sure looks like a vampire.

I am Joe

2008-10-18T14:50:00.001-04:00

I almost never post other blog links without comment. However, I think this is an important point to make and a possible sign of things to come.

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2008/10/i-am-joe.html

Breaking News : Alaska Democrats Incompetent

2008-10-12T15:27:00.003-04:00

So, the verdict has come down on Tazergate. An investigation launched by Sarah Palin's Democrat political enemies and Republican political opponents before her selection as John McCain's running mate has reached a conclusion. Governor Palin did nothing wrong. Now, you may be confused. If she did nothing wrong, why was there a news headline that said she abused her power as Governor? Basically, this panel can make any determination they want. However, they have nothing they could legally sanction her for.

What happened? Well, the conspiracy theory is that Palin pressured her Commissioner of Public Safety to fire her tazer-happy ex-brother in law. That would be bad. The other possibility is that his public disagreements with Palin's attempts to curb the state budget made him a distraction. Given that she has the complete right to let him go, either one is acceptable. The second one, however makes her a reformer. The first one makes her the status quo. The investigation itself makes her a maverick because it was a bipartisan attack.

Clean Sweep '08 - Arcuri Edition

2008-09-29T20:47:00.004-04:00

So, if this Paulson inspired bailout mess passes, I propose the election become Clean Sweep '08. Kick everyone out. And since Obama-Biden is made up of two senators and McCain-Palin is one maverick senator and one non-insider governor, I'm voting for McCain.

Our own Michael Arcuri has to go. Even under today's low confidence, no-pass vote, Arcuri dared to vote yes. And sometimes daring must be revealed for the insane meglomania that it is. So, remember that Arcuri wanted to take almost $10,000 per upstate family to prop up businesses that made up their financial records. We will never learn what something is worth until it reaches its real value.

82%

2008-09-26T23:55:00.003-04:00

That's the percentage of FOX viewers who thought McCain won the debate tonight. The other news networks did not air a poll of their own. FOX News has an audience almost evenly split between Republicans, Democrats and Independents.

When I first learned about debating in high school, one of the important things you learned is not to concede to your opponent. Obama did that 8 times. McCain pointed out why Obama was wrong 7 times. Most of Obama's critcisms were focused on the Bush Administration. McCain named a half dozen issuses on which he disagreed with Bush on so strongly that they were news stories.

Now, debates can be scored by defining victory down. And if not babbling like an idiot is victory, well, Obama was still only a draw. In reality, if they were playing par, McCain walked away with the gold belt.

SNL Post Mortem

2008-09-14T09:30:00.003-04:00

I decided to turn off MadTV's "So You Think You Can Dance" parody with Bobby Lee playing John McCain pretty badly and switch to Saturday Night Live. The story had been out all day. Barack Obama bowed out of his scheduled appearance and Tina Fey was "likely" to come on. And if Sarah Palin lookalike Fey was on, she was likely to play the governor of Alaska.

In fact she was and she did. In a joint appearance on sexism, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler played the governor and Hillary Clinton. It quickly became apparent that they had seen Bill Maher and were playing Palin as a stewardess. In other words, they liked Hillary, and Sarah was no Hillary.

Tina Fey had originally sung the praises of Hillary being a "bitch," stating that bitches get things done. She even went to far as to say, "bitch is the new black." Palin apparently wasn't quite bitchy enough. This pretty much reveals the point. Hillary was liberal and a woman, a two-fer that was "catnip" for gender ground breakers like Tina Fey.

The irony is that Tina Fey does look like Sarah Palin. They're both attractive and a show like SNL was looking for a writer who could occasionally fill in during scenes that needed more cast. Would Fey have been hired if she looked like Hillary? Who knows. I do know that Fey's impression tended to amplify the differences. She's a little heavier than Palin. Her accent was too Wisconsin by half. Plus, she played her as dumb and oblivious. Who's the one keeping women down now?

Weekend Update continued the abuse with some awful character named "Alaska Pete." Basically, the show defended media bashing (NBC being one of the worst offenders. Funny how that turned out.) They also took it upon themselves to portray the Palin family as white trash with extremely crude allusions to Palin's children and faith.

I'll admit I missed most of SNL. It's really awful. Michael Phelps' wooden performance was almost unnoticeable among the mediocre cast. But I saw the end, and Tina Fey wearing a Cafe-pressed "Leia in '08" shirt. You go ahead and write Princess Leia in, Tina. Don't let reality interfere with your choices.

The MySpace Principle

2008-09-08T12:35:00.001-04:00

To put it simply, people put up a MySpace page to be famous, then regret it once they become famous.

The Difference Between McCain and Obama

2008-09-07T23:21:00.001-04:00

So, I watched the biographies of McCain, Palin and Obama. McCain and Palin joined government, seeing it as a way to have a voice. Obama started off as a community organizer, basically getting neighborhoods that would have rose up by themselves in generations past to do so after riling them up. He saw government as a way to do things without the uprising part.

This is an important distinction. McCain (and to a similar extent, Palin) rose up through the ranks of government and started to see that the people in it were not serving the people, but their own interests. Obama saw what government did and became adept at playing the political game to get what he wanted done.

So there is a difference. Obama ultimately wants government to do more of whatever its doing, McCain wants government to do better.

Chivalry Ain't Dead

2008-09-05T19:32:00.004-04:00

I think the PUMAs are the most objective political presence in this election cycle. Sure, they supported Hillary Clinton, but they were able to break out of party shackles and objectively see that Obama points their party in the wrong direction.

One interesting observation is their surprise at how Democratic party leaders allowed Hillary to be maligned while the Republican party stood by Sarah Palin, even in her darkest hour. Some of those attacks against Hillary were harsh and frequently sexist. Such as Obama's comment about Hillary and "periodic" rage.

Of course, one can argue that this is not the same thing, but I happen to believe the Republicans, or more correctly, conservatives still believe a little bit more in chivalry. Much has been made of Christianity and its demands that women submit to their husbands, but not much is made of the fact that men are told that their families are more important than themselves.

In a liberal world, men and women are equal. Boys should play house and girls should play with trucks. Actually, they should probably be making their own compost pile, but I digress. Obama has turned to saying that Sarah is tough enough to be treated like a man.

Of course, she is not treated like a man. Obama is a weekend parent, but Palin is criticized for having a child and daring to run for president. She is cited for her appearance. Anderson Cooper talked about her manicured nails last night.

There is also the "style over substance" issue. Because Palin is young and attractive, her experience is judged more harshly as a vice presidential candidate than the Democratic presidential candidate. The claim is that she was picked for shallow reasons. Obama was given a speaking position in 2004 because he was one of a very few Democrats poised to win a toss-up seat. A seat he won, to a great extent, because his Republican opponent dropped out months before the election. Not exactly the qualification for a president.

I don't think most Democrats hate women. I do think that the liberal wing of the party has decided to "look past" gender in such a way that they have no qualms about using deeply personal sexist attacks because they "work." Well, in the Republican party, men are men and women are women. And those men love their women.

Aftershocks

2008-09-03T19:11:00.002-04:00

On Monday afternoon, I found myself banging my head against the wall of my living room after hearing that Sarah Palin's daughter was, in fact, pregnant. I read the "smears" during the weekend, including the "faked" pregnancy where Sarah Palin supposedly shoved a pillow in her blouse to cover up for her daughter. And while unexpected, the Monday story put the lie to the conspiracy theory in a pretty definitive way.

This was the peak of the political earthquake. While some of the hard core conservatives bring up 2004's Wellstone Memorial as the tipping point for regular voters leaving crazy democrats behind, I see this week as a replay of the National Guard Memo story.

60 Minutes, headed by Dan Rather, tried to pass off a fake memo about Bush's national guard experience as true. Even after compelling evidence came out, Rather stood by the story. When the letter was definitively proven as manufactured, 60 Minutes went back on the air claiming that while there was no letter in their hands, the content was real. This led to an unofficial slogan for the story: Fake but accurate.

And so, the pregnancy story is fake, but accurate. While trying to make Sarah Palin out to be a liar by concocting a conspiracy theory out of whole cloth and manufactured photos, they stumbled onto another story which was private and pretty ordinary. Having a pregnant teenage daughter as a Republican politician is problematic, but much less so when the lie was so much bigger.

As the smear and slander (or libel, as the case may be) continue, the impact becomes weaker and weaker. Sarah Palin was a Buchananite, she cut sex education funding, she belongs to a radical church, (does that sound familiar?) she wanted to secede from the US, she had a secret affair. Really? How can I believe you when you were wrong before?

While the aftershocks lessen, they reinforce the base of the Republican Party. Karl Rove learned in 2004 that if you keep your base, it doesn't matter what the other side tries to do. How's the Democratic base doing lately? Look out for those PUMAs.

Women Hate Sarah Palin

2008-09-01T18:08:00.001-04:00

The early polls asking about Palin sight-unseen as a VP choice show something interesting. Men think she is qualified by 5-10% more than women do. The conclusion among a number of bloggers is that she'll have little ability to poach women voters from the Democrats.

First, there is a fundamental poll error involved. There was a poll asking if Republicans or Democrats have better sex. The answer was Republicans. The reason is that more men are Republicans and more women are Democrats, especially unmarried ones. Therefore, in a man/woman separated poll, the plurality of women will be Democrats and not Palin fans.

Second is what I would call the Obama Effect. Remember when Barack Obama was getting creamed by Hillary Clinton among African-American voters? It turns out that this group thought Obama didn't have a chance and Hillary represented the interests of the black community. However, independent white voters in key states pushed the delegate count in Obama's favor and African-Americans quickly came to his camp.

The same thing could happen with Sarah Palin. If moderate women see this 44 year old mother of 5 being attacked for not staying barefoot at home as similar to themselves, it could have an effect. If McCain-Palin gets above 50% and there is a chance of the first woman being elected to the office of Vice President, it could lead to an historic tipping point.

(What's So Funny 'Bout) VP, Love and Understanding

2008-08-30T19:32:00.002-04:00

Democrats are turning to their favorite rhetorical argument, hypocrisy over reality. Rather than pose the laughable claim that Sarah Palin is inexperienced for a VP choice when she is arguably more qualified than the Democratic presidential candidate, they are turning their sights to McCain. Apparently, he's a big liar for saying that his top criteria for a VP would be the ability to be president. Back to that in a second.

VP picks are supposed to be based on long personal relationships. I remember the stories of boyhood friends Bill Clinton and Al Gore as kids...oh, wait, they didn't know each other very well at all.

Truly, a VP choice is based on geographic necessity. Cheney's influence in the battleground state of Wyoming... Nope, not that either.

A VP choice has no particular rules. Obama chose Biden because Obama has no experience at doing anything in particular. So, he chose a guy who lost about 3 times in runs for president assuming that running that much must make him a good (Vice) President. That reminds me of Reagan picking GHW Bush who despised Reagan and invented the Democratic rallying cry of "voodoo economics."

So McCain decided to pick a three-fer, if you will. Choosing a governor was pretty much a given. A Senator hasn't won an election since 1960. Also, he wanted to pick a woman. Well, there are all of 3 Republican women governors. One had her own bout with cancer, which is the attack of the day in terms of "McCain has to pick his replacement for VP" claims. He also needed a conservative. Sarah Palin is that, but also a "maverick" in the sense that she has taken on Republicans in her own state.

This is the key. Joseph Biden has experience. He has the experience of sitting in the same office for over half of his life. He has the experience of being a non-executive politician from a state that has about 150% of Alaska's population, but only 0.35% of its size. he also respects John McCain more than Barack Obama, even if her prefers a Democratic win in November.

Sarah Palin is the governor of 16% of the total land mass of the United States. She is on the front lines of the energy policies that affect Middle East relations and the US economy. Most importantly, she is her own person. She praised Obama when he flip-flopped to a pro-drilling stance. She thanked Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro for their trailblazing in politics. She is poised to be a force for change with a candidate who has worked for change his whole career. And that's why she is the choice for a replacement president. She would be comfortable with carrying on a McCain legacy and apparently, he is comfortable with her.

Obama is Only Half Black, but Palin is All Woman

2008-08-29T20:22:00.003-04:00

This is the most interesting VP pick since Jack Kemp in 1996. He was a 61 year old white guy and a Washington Insider. Dole was also far behind Clinton and had weak Republican support. McCain has a campaign that is competitive. Even with huge down-ticket pressure, he's been able to stay within the margin of error up to the start of the DNC.

Choosing Sarah Palin has a multitude of effects. It kicked Obama's policy-heavy and inspiration-light speech right off the cable news cycle. It adds a governor to an office that traditionally has been won by governors. It adds conservative credibility to someone "maverick" enough to tick off the right. Oh, and she's a woman.

The criticism is that she is far too conservative to get democratic Hillary voters. That is true to a point. However, a number of Hillary supporters were Bush supports in 2004. Plus, it cannot be overestimated the extent of the hatred of Obama by older women who felt Obama was a jerk, a lightweight, and took away Hillary's chances of running for president.

Another way Palin can help is to shore up the conservative base while McCain leans to the left on social, economic and immigration issues. Biden's advantage is in who he is, but not so much in what he believes.

And on a pointless point, Palin is a looker. She's conservative hot. Glasses, hair in a ponytail, a skirt suit, but in good shape underneath. So, while she may equal Obama in expereince, she surpasses him in the attractiveness factor, which had been attached to him for months now. Palin has been referred to as a female Quayle. However, I'm pretty sure the Democrats don't want to repeat the results of a Quayle/Bentsen matchup.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

2008-08-12T20:41:00.002-04:00

Generally, I'd avoid such a hackneyed phrase, but it's a fitting title. My barber has retired. This person has been cutting my hair since my first haircut outside of the home. Being as set in my ways as I am, it's a pretty tough situation.

I've decided that finding another barber would be counterproductive, as most of them are on the verge of retirement as it is. I've had to hear from people about the constantly changing staff of the salons they go to. This will probably be my lot. I'll be heading to shop after shop until I can find a place I'll be able to tolerate.

Do they still sell the Flowbee?

Gays Suck

2008-07-24T18:49:00.003-04:00

I thought I would move away from my enjoyment of 70s music and move on to more current fare. There's a singer named Katy Perry who has stirred up the listening public and members of the blogitariet with a song called "I Kissed a Girl." After seeing the video on VH-1 I took a little look around the web to see her inspiration for writing the song.

I found a lot of interpretations of her inspiration for writing the song. One near the top of the list was a column at MSNBC.com, where if the song were titled "I Kissed Obama and I Liked it" would probably become the new theme song for Hardball. Contributor Tony Sclafani lambastes the content of Perry's music, then grudgingly accepts her right to make it.

Besides bicurious kissing, Perry had previously penned a song titled "Ur So Gay" about an ex-boyfriend who was so pretty and emotional it was hard to believe he didn't date guys. These songs go to an annoying part of the gay community, whiny victim mentality. Basically, homosexuals are a repressed minority, and these songs perpetuate a series of stereotypes about gays and lesbians not reflective of the diverse community of people.

Boo hoo. Comparing gays to other minority groups tends to break down on its face. Namely, you can't tell by someone's face if they're gay, unlike say, by ethnicity. One of the only minority groups not associated by physicality are religious groups. Of course, gay groups are very tolerant of religious differences.

Except....

The gotcha point of the criticism is that Perry is a Christian, and recorded a gospel album under the name Katy Hudson (How dare she change her name slightly? I'm sure Reg, er, Elton John would be shocked). Remember, tolerance works best with groups who are well tolerated.

Katy Perry is a 24 year old girl who didn't find out about pop music until the 90s were nearly over. Her look and her stage performance tend to reflect a girl who is being sexual in only a superficial, flirtatious manner. And at her age, the term "gay" is bandied about as much as in the average South park episode. You'll probably hear young adults pepper their language with words like "ghetto" and "retarded" as well. But then, if you're the Black Eyed Peas, you'll just change the name of the song to "Let's Get it Started." If I were her, I'd be more afraid of the Chapstick people going after her.

I personally think the song is fun and catchy. Have you heard music from politically active gay musicians? Most of it sucks.

Shut up, Bill

2008-06-10T05:10:00.002-04:00

This is actually directed at O'Reilly and not Clinton. Bill O'Reilly is yet again on the oil issue with his frequent shallow grasp of the issue. I was going to write about oil in a blog post, but I thought I would point out the lack of solution in some of Bill's solutions.

1. Make the car companies produce flex fuel vehicles:
Manufacturers don't like to be ordered to make anything. The electric car fiasco of the mid 90s showed this. The fact is, GM and Ford make plenty of Flex Fuel vehicles. No one buys them. Something like 1% of gas stations in the US offer E85 ethanol and many of them are in the corn belt. Hybrids (like the Prius) and plug in hybrids (like the upcoming GM Volt) are the current trend in fuel saving cars.

2. Become the next Brazil and grow our fuel:
I heard this on his radio show. Someone called in and tried to explain that a country that close to the equator could grow sugar cane with a much higher energy content than anything in the US. In typical fashion, Bill ignored it. The US is not Brazil. We have further drives and we're not a socialist dictatorship.Plus, even the tiny increase in corn based ethanol production has lead to a food crisis worldwide.
Now, places like our own Rome, NY are looking into using waste products like wood chips and switchgrass for fuel. But they still have to get over the hurdle of needing as much fuel to cook the source material as they get out in fuel. Right now, corn ethanol has the same problem. With transpost and harvesting, ethanol is a net energy loser compared to petroleum.

3. Us vs Them:
The big bad Arabs at OPEC want to screw the USA. Maybe, but that's not the problem. The "price" of oil is a function of the dollar. A dollar buys less euros, yuans, pounds and commodities than before. Obviously, it's going to buy less oil. Oil trading is based on its future price, like the housing market. When that price becomes higher than its value, like the housing market, oil contracts will devalue fast.
And remember, our dependence on foreign oil does not stop at the US border. All our Chinese and Mexican made products require fuel to produce them. Plus, most plastic is made from petroleum. China has few qualms about buying oil from Iran and drilling in coastal waters. In fact, while the US won't drill on the Florida coast, China is partnering with Cuba to drill 90 miles away on the Cuban coast.

ASCAP: Their Own Worst Enemy

2008-06-01T12:01:00.003-04:00

So, I discovered the best show on the web, and that includes the reruns of Moonlight I was trying to watch on CBS' crappy innertube site. The cancelled and semi-revived series "Yacht Rock" details the rise and fall and re-rise of the smooth California sounds of the late 70's post folk era.

I've been watching the webisodes and wondering why I laugh my ass off and try to download every song used in each episode. It's because of the music. Due to the lack of financial reward, the creators of "Yacht Rock" feel free to use significant chunks of Michale McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan, and the uncharacteristically sinister Hall and Oates. The term "yacht rock" has even become a valid musical genre leading to a small resurgence in the post-billboard careers of the practicioners of smooth groves.

Music in television and movies has become something of a hurdle in the past decade or two. Many shows are now either creating complex arrangements to use popular music in future DVD releases, using less popular music owned by their production companies, or scrapping songs from future broadcasts because of high royalty costs.

One of the worst examples of this is the recent DVD releases of "WKRP in Cincinatti." In 1978, the circumvented licensing fees by recording on videotape. However, modern fees have forced them to replace the original music with "similar" studio junk. So, now old epiosdes of WKRP both look and sound terrible.

This is a shame. Songs like "This is it" (which appeared on WKRP and Yacht Rock) are new to the current generation and nearly forgotten by Gen Xers who heard these songs as kids. The recording industry should look at this as product placement. At a time when a person can buy the full version of a song in 30 seconds after hearing a tease of it on a TV show, maybe they should consider the upside.

This Land is Your Land

2008-05-25T21:41:00.003-04:00

Two fun decisions in the land of property tax imposition. All the local school budgets passed, with Rome getting a new slate of educator relatives for the school board. Plus, the feds gave Halbritter the 13,000 acres of land in "trust" that many of us expected.

Amusingly, the county plans to sue the government over the decision. Well, I'm sick of the filthy lawyers. I say the local government should do what it does best, interfere. Learn the example of "The Dukes of Hazard" and impose some Boss Hogg style tactics.

I think we need a massive, multi-year road construction project on route 365. And how about the environmental concerns of all of Turning Stone's water usage? I think we should rethink the wisdom of trying to support such a large resort. And who zoned the water usage for that anyway? For the sake of the canal system, we should cut them back to a water level equivalent to the water tax they pay.

Google Your Class

2008-05-10T20:05:00.002-04:00

On a whim, I decided to google some of the people I knew in my senior class. That is quite a depressing exercise. Obviously, most have moved out of the area. some of them are doing pretty well and have bios all over the place. But the important thing thing is that they are doing better than I am. And I thought I was doing pretty well.

Damn.

More Payoffs for Jobs

2008-04-21T21:45:00.002-04:00

Remington Arms is getting about $1.5 million for an expansion that may create 100 jobs, i.e. bring 100 people from another plant to Ilion. If Remington Arms is thriving and willing to put about $10 million into it themselves, what exactly is the point of giving away taxpayer money?

Apparently, New York gives money to failing businesses that need to be propped up, successful businesses that NY wants to stay in the area, and businesses that lose money and employees. I have two words for the legislature: Tax Relief. The other words are : for everyone.

I finally figured it out

2008-03-30T20:44:00.002-04:00

After accidentally hitting the Scroll Lock key and using a spreadsheet, it seems the scroll lock locks the scroll so that when you hit enter at a cell it moves the sheet so that the next cell is in the same position relative to the selection. I still don't know what use that serves.

George Fox and Kristen

2008-03-12T22:13:00.002-04:00

Those are the assumed names of former New York governor Elliot Spitzer and one of his paid escorts, respectively. This is pretty big news across the state. Unfortunately, a bullying legal hatchet man who New York voted into gubernatorial office with 70% of the vote needs to pay for prostitutes in order for 70% of New York to ask for his removal.

Spitzer was hated among the business community and many normal New Yorkers long before he became governor. I never believed in this Day One crapola and now that Year One is barely over, the steamroller era has ended.

Daylight Takings Time

2008-03-10T12:11:00.002-04:00

So, here we are in Year 2 of the "improved" version of Daylight Savings time. By springing forward, every sap who has a job earlier than 9 to 5 is plunged back into darkness for another month. Why? So that 9 to 5ers can drive home in slightly sunnier conditions? Anyone who works on both sides of the noon hour (8 to 4ish) gets screwed on both ends in winter. Plus, anyone who goes to school. In December it means driving to and from work in darkness, especially when you can't find a job in Rome.

With the change in DST, we are "ahead" for 8 months and "back" for 4. At that point we might as well stay one hour ahead forever. Falling back just means a dark ride home, since sunrise is too far away to make a difference by November.

Ca-Ching!: How to Get Money from Guilty Liberals and the Working Poor in America

2008-03-02T17:03:00.005-05:00

I suggested that this should be the the title of Barbara Ehrenreich’s next book. After Nickel and Dimed : On (Not) Getting By in America (a book my mother actually bought) and Bait and Switch : The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, (which no one apparently bought) it seems fitting. More interesting to me is Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream by Adam Shepard. Unlike Ehrenreich’s experiment, Shepard did not burden himself with a car or any other trappings. He walked onto the streets of South Carolina and found a homeless shelter.

His choice to show how one (admittedly mentally and physically fit) person could come from nothing and move forward was the greater challenge. Anyone can start from nothing and end with nothing. Ehrenreich never got anywhere in part because she moved three times in three months. The American dream means that you may end up working hard to give your kids the better life. Plus, she had to spend money on gas.

I'd like to focus on what I call dumb arguments #1 and #2 in relation to Adam Shepard himself. First, a college athlete with a 4 year degree, a good family and white skin has an advantage in this country. Well, save for the athletics, I'm in the same boat. I was getting low wage jobs for years in the times I wasn't jobless altogether. Maybe I should move to SC.

Second, he sought to have $2500, a car and an apartment within a year. In 10 months, he had those things, plus an extra $3000 and a girlfriend. But apparently, some of the cranks in the blogosphere criticize Shepard for ending the experiment 2 months early to care for his sick mother. In "real" poor life, he would have to continue his moving company job to make ends meet. Not really. He could take that $5000 and take his '88 Sierra and live with his mother, which he did. Happens all the time to the working poor. In one of my temp jobs, a man gave up a good paying state job to go with his wife to take care of her mother. With no unemployment, (for voluntarily quitting a job) he ended up driving an hour to work on an assembly line.

Another circular argument that makes me laugh is that Shepard had a "safety net" of a credit card that, once used, would have nullified the experiment. Plus, he had a family back home that could support him. Yet, he is mocked for stating that attitude is important to moving forward in life. So, how can his detractors claim a positive attitude is meaningless while claiming his positive attitude is what made him able to succeed where others cannot?

I'm sure I could go on and on about how this relates to poverty in America, the relative costs of being poor in SC vs. being poor in NY, the need to economize, the tightening supply chain and health care. Instead, I'll focus on the main point. It is possible to prosper in America. There's as many ways to do it as there are people in America.

Another Lie From Best Buy

2008-02-24T17:44:00.004-05:00

Not only is Best Buy keeping sale products from customers. Now, they are separating you from the products that you've already purchased. The Post Standard carried the story of Raelyn Campbell, who is suing the retail chain over a lost laptop. When she took it in for repair, Best Buy lost the laptop. They then proceeded to not inform her that the laptop could be lost due to theft or that her personal information was vulnerable for months after it was lost. Best Buy also tried to buy her off with $2500 and a non-disclosure agreement.

I used to think that if I ever bought a laptop, I would get the extended warranty because it's a fairly good protection value. Now, I think I'll take my chances with fixing any prolem myself and keeping the computer in my hands.

Campbell's blog

Valentine, Marriage and the Catholic Church

2008-02-14T18:24:00.002-05:00

Every year I try to do this blog post and I usually get sidetracked to the point of not doing it. I also would have liked to source it more, but a lot of this is from memory and the loathesome Wikipedia.

Valentine's Day itself is based on Saint Valentine, who is something of an arguable historical figure. Not much is known about the various saints named Valentine, but "he" is generally associated with messages, love and marriage. Valentine's Day has settled into a day of acknowledgement for married and unmarried couples alike.

I thought I would instead look at the Catholic Church's contribution to marriage itself. In the past, marriage fell somewhere between arranged unions and informal hookups. In the Middle Ages, marriage became more based on the choice of the couple themselves.

Still, this had its own problems. It was possible for the engaged couple to marry themselves before God without the presence of witnesses or a priest. It was the norm to have a ceremony, but this unwitnessed marriage was a good opportunity for a man to bring more than one woman to the marriage bed without proof of an actual wedding.

This is the point where the Council of Trent formalized the verification of the marriage union. Much of the Western world followed, making an official marriage based on love the cultural standard.

This is what I consider when I think about the expansion of the definition of marriage. In a way, the Catholic Church's strict rules about marriage were the basis of modern society. Arguing against the need for a definiable marriage seems to fly in the face of history.

Maplewood Evictions

2008-02-07T17:18:00.000-05:00

I have a piece of news from a site visitor:

I could'nt find any other way to contact you, so just delete this if it's in the wrong area or something.I thought that the Rome, NY Sucks blog might be interrested in knowing that people at Maplewood Garden Apartments are being kicked out. Everyone is recieving eviction notices saying they have to be out by the 7th of March-not for anything that they've done, but because the new owners (based in New Jersey) are in a hurry to build townhouses, and charge two-hundred dollars more for rent then they are currently charging, which will bring it to over $600 per month. This, in an area that can't support this ammount of rent.The Mayor's office knows about it, but has said there's nothing Mayor Brown can do. Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito has been sent information about it, but heas not answered it. The attorney general's office has been contacted be several people about this, and is investigating.Originally, people living here were told that they would have until their leases expired. The owners have taken it upon themselves to change this, and now people are scrambling, not having any idea what to do or where to go, believing up to this point that they still had time.If you or any of your readers know someone living at Maplewood, then you or your readers can easily verify this.Again, I just thought that Rome, NY Sucks would want to know-if nothing more than yet another reason this city is going down the tubes.

The Lying Liars at Best Buy

2008-02-04T16:43:00.001-05:00

Now, I am aware of the "limited time offer" concept and was not shocked that Best Buy carried the accessories for but not the actual product with the free accessories offer. But what is the point exactly? Is bait-and-switch the backbone of Best Buy's business?

I wouldn't be surprised. Clark Howard recently mentioned a Business Week article that explains Best Buy is sitting on about $500 million worth of gift cards. Even if you assume that a lot of this gift credit from Christmas will be spend soon, the chain is probably earning over a million dollars a month by holding on to these ersatz profits.

However, the truth lies in Best Buy's own employee procedures. People seeking the deals constantly published in the newspaper are considered theives and devils for costing the store money. Ultimately, they want those people to be brushed off and discouraged from coming back. They do a good job, since Best Buy is frequently empty. The customers they like are early technology adopters or buy appliances and devices regardless of cost.

So my questions is, why buy anything there if it's not really the "best" buy?

Year One, 52 Percent

2008-02-01T04:19:00.000-05:00

The promise of the Spitzer administration was tax relief and better economic conditions for upstate. Now, at the same time the governor proposes non-specific monies for ill-defined projects upstate, he drops the economic bomb. Instead of the five decade long practice of taking half the public assistance costs mandated by the state from county governments, Spitzer wants to raise it to 52%.

This increase is a direct swipe at the upstate economy. In this economically depressed area, where a skilled job pays about half as much as a similar position in NYC, the costs of living are slightly cheaper than that area. Upstate is experiencing a migration of downstate people with no jobs taking their New York State benefits up here. That means the upstate counties are footing an ever increasing bill.

This is what we call an unfunded mandate. If Oneida County could decide what we covered in Medicaid, it would be less expensive and less desirable. Instead, liberals in Albany run right over our region. If the middle class is shrinking in this state, it's not Bush's fault, we're just leaving for a state where we have a voice.

The Crying Game

2008-01-09T05:37:00.000-05:00

What do you do in a presidential campaign where mean spirited attacks are booed by members of your own party. How do you defend yourself when an opponent has no specific message to pick apart. If you're Hillary Clinton, you cry.

I'm not talking about the break down in your hotel room kind of cry either. No, you pull a "Why are they picking on me?" public, Edmund Muskie type voice breaking, message laden cry. However, unlike Muskie, the first major female American candidate did it and it just might have worked.

Do I doubt the spontaneity of that moment? Obviously. Bill Clinton was the king of the quivering lipped, lily livered, watery-eyed moment. I still remember the time Bill Clinton was leaving a funeral and was captured whipping up tears when he saw a camera pointed at him. But where that emotionality made him look like a big gooey mess, crying merely makes Hillary human.

This is where the Obama machine may run out of steam. Hope is a powerful message, but hope tempered with misery is a Democratic message. Hillary is ready. Ready to take money from people she doesn't like and give it to people who support her.

In 2008

2007-12-31T15:27:00.000-05:00

As 2007 draws to a close, I thought I would offer some misguided insight into the year that is 2008. If only they can be as entertaining as my 2007 predictions.

1. Interrogation techniques meet the writer's strike when "Celebrity Waterboarding" hits the airwaves.

2. Hillary Clinton has a Howard Dean-esque meltdown after losing the Iowa Caucuses. In her case, she bruns down several members of the media with her before now unseen eye lasers.

3. Obama calls for sanctions on eye beams, while Edwards pledges to crack down on eye beam manufacturers.

4. Michael Bloomberg runs for President as an independent. His campaign stalls when his anti-fat, anti-smoking, anti-drinking and anti-TV watching platform is unfortunately named the "Final Solution to Poor Health."

5. David Duke endorses Bloomberg.

6. ABC attempts a clever solution to the writer's strike when it airs "The Lost Episodes." Ratings fall when people realize they're just old episodes of Lost.

7. Don Imus endorses John McCain for president, on the condition that Joe Lieberman is his running mate. The endorsement comes long after McCain drops out.

8. In late 2008, Imus gets angry and calls his audeince a bunch or honky cracker &*()^&(*^) %$&*$s. He then rides off on a horse, gets thrown, and loses his other lung.

9. CNN's Lou Dobbs, champion of political independents, responds to Bloomberg's campaign with "Screw it, vote none of the above."

10. None of the Above wins the presidency with 135 delegates. President Bush goes on air and congratulates an imaginary President-Elect.

11. An emergency election is held with 200 million candidates, excluding Bloomberg, the two party nominees and George W. Bush.

We won't know the results until 2009, but Sanjaya is leading in the polls. Seacrest, Out!

A Living Legacy - Dan Fogelberg

2007-12-18T18:04:00.000-05:00

Same Old Lang Syne

Met my old lover in the grocery store
The snow was falling Christmas Eve
I stole behind her in the frozen foods
And I touched her on the sleeve
She didn't recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
And we laughed until we cried

We took her groceries to the checkout stand
The food was totalled up and bagged
We stood there lost in our embarrassment
As the conversation dragged
We went to have ourselves a drink or two
But couldn't find an open bar
We bought a six-pack at the liquor store
And we drank it in her car

We drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness but neither one knew how

She said she'd married her an architect
Who kept her warm and safe and dry
She would have liked to say she loved the man
But she didn't like to lie
I said the years had been a friend to her
And that her eyes were still as blue
But in those eyes I wasn't sure if I saw doubt or gratitude
She said she saw me in the record stores
And that I must be doing well
I said the audience was heavenly but the traveling was hell

We drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to now
And tried to reach beyond the emptiness but neither one knew how
We drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to time
Reliving in our eloquence, another 'auld lang syne'

The beer was empty and our tongues were tired
And running out of things to say
She gave a kiss to me as I got out and I watched her drive away
Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned in to rain...

And...Scene

2007-12-11T18:55:00.001-05:00

A new Rome blogger has entered the fray. Rome Scene promises a look at Rome, New York from food to shopping to politics to night life. (we have that?)

This should be interesting, since I've been slacking off in my Rome reporting.

The Taxman Stayeth

2007-11-30T17:27:00.000-05:00

Well, after Oneida County's temporary tax increase for the last 2 years, the sales tax will now sunset to 8% with New York's reduction in its share of sales tax revenue. At least it would, except that it hasn't

Bringing in $30 million to cover a $10 million Medicaid deficit per year didn't quite work. So Anthony "Grinch" Picente will RAISE OUR TAXES by 0.75% or 9.4% higher than it should be. What's more, 8.75% will still be 9 cents tax on a $1 purchase. It will mean one cent less for a Little Caesar's pizza and less than $50 savings on a new car. What a lovely Christmas present. Maybe we can vote your ass out of office for a future Christmas present.

No Health Care in Canada

2007-10-20T15:41:00.000-04:00

I came across something interesting on the Urban Legends website snopes.com. This posting (warning: heavy on pop-ups) is about an e-mail explaining all the problems with Health Canada. The explaination of the e-mail is what I found most interesting. Health insurance coverage in Canada is not "universal" in that it varies in degree of cost and service by each of the 13 provinces in Canada. Your financial burden, your wait times, your access and your treatment can depend on where you live and your financial circumstances. Basically, Canadian health care is like American health care, there is no one magic bullet.

We Report, We Decide

2007-10-18T05:37:00.000-04:00

Hazelton, PA attempted to pass legislation making it illegal to rent to or otherwise trun a blind eye to illegal immigrants. The law has been repeatedly struck down due to courts who refuse to accept that illegal immigrants are not legally here. And now, the town has a new opponent - Utica's own John Zogby. Ironically, Zogby is known for Republican friendly and usually acccurate polling. In this case, he produced a report about the future of the city with an Olbermann-esque special comment advocating for the ouster of the mayor (who won both party's primaries) for his policies on immigration.

First, Spitzer decides to let anyone have a driver license and now an important New York pollster is pusing for illegal immigration. In reality, the first candidate who proposes a sane border protection policy is going to receive a groundswell of support. I know that reports are to the contrary, but every poll shows that Americans want to have secure borders and remedies to criminal illegal activity.

I Guess Spitzer is Back from Vacation

2007-09-27T04:52:00.000-04:00

Elliot Spitzer plans to make driver licenses available to illegal immigrants with little documentation. All a foreign applicant would need is a foreign passport of possible questionable security. This flies in the face of New York's measure about a decade ago. Under the guise of catching "dead beat" dads, the state required applicants to provide a Social Security Number in what was considered an infringement on people's privacy.

Obviously, as a Democrat, Spitzer is going to try to garner the illegal "vote" by giving them the means to vote, even in the case of an ID requirement to go to the polls. But this may represent something even more cynical. New York has been increasing the term of a license in order to get more money into the budget and to disproportionally punish people who live in the parts of upstate (like Rome) where driving is an absolute requirement to have a job.

Democrats have often criticized Bush for not following 100% of all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Guess what? One of the recommendation is to make the driver license more secure. New York will have the distinction of being the biggest of 8 states that allow any jerk with unverifiable documents to have one of the (previously) most secure documets in the country. Is this job one, governor? Because property tax relief hasn't come yet.

This is why I don't vote for Democrats in this state, and why I'll still vote for the sad excuses for Republicans this state offers.

An Ill Wind

2007-09-16T15:14:00.000-04:00

Today's Syracuse Post Standard is exactly why being conservative and for alternative energy can drive me nuts. Frank Congel, in a piece for the paper, argues why wind is bad and nuclear is good. Why some arguments are lacking, (low power output, a blight on upstate vacation homes) I am disturbed by the financial ones. Wind energy is being subsudized in NY with property tax breaks and a surcharge on energy used by consumers. Hold on here! I thought wind was being paid for by the dupes who are buying green energy, not those of us who are trying to keep their green. Now nuclear is subsudized too, and I'm not ready to go out and build a plant on the base.

I am, however, a little concerned that NY is creating a magnet for companies to come in for a 25% return on an investment made unwillingly by citizens who pay the highest energy prices in the nation. Local govenment has continually dropped the ball on energy policy. First, Julian screws up on municipal power, paving the way for NYRI to come in. Then, NY tries for more and more "alternatives" to actually delivering needed power to the locations that demand it. The state might as well give a price break for any household that uses less than 3000 kWh per family member anually.

Jihad Formula

2007-09-09T13:18:00.000-04:00

I enjoy the fact that America has so conquered its fear of bin Laden that we are now mocking his dyed facial hair and Bush derangement-inspired rant on the new videotape. When you wage a media campaign against your enemy, be prepared for the enemy to grow bored with your shock tactics.

UBL is considered by many to be something of an evil fop. A Saudi royal who was brainwashed into the Jihad movement and got lucky on one day. Similar to WWI, the enemies of tyranny have to once more give the forces of evil a painful beat-down to keep the peace. In a conflict where the most evil leader on Earth is trying to negotiate us out of Iraq, I'd say we've got him on the run.

And for those who complain that we haven't caught bin Laden, we don't need to yet. Going into Pakistan with a sane leader and disrupting the country would make that country like the way critics describe Iraq. We're better off watching bin Laden continue to plead for relavancy while at the same time eroding it.

There's a Fair in New York State?

2007-08-21T19:44:00.000-04:00

It appears that there will be no governor at this year's Governor's day at the Fair this year. This is the first time a governor hasn't attended the opening day in nearly 20 years, and would make Spitzer the only governor who never appeared at the opeing in about 3 decades. His reason? A previously scheduled family vacation. Good planning there. And where the hell is that Day 1 tax relief?

I'm getting a little sick of NY politicians like Bloomberg and Spitzer treating their offices as stepping stones to national office and treating upstate residents like backward hicks. Or in the case of Bloomberg, treating NYC as his own personal fat-free Petri dish. Going to these events, admiring the butter sculpture and kissing a few babies is literally the least you can do as an elected official.

I'm Thinking Arby's

2007-07-06T22:09:00.000-04:00

Opening Next Week

That's what the sign at Arby's said today after weeks of construction. I watched as the KFC on the Boulevard was slowly gutted, built up, painted, landscaped and decorated. Since the franchise at the mall closed, it's been fairly difficult to get to the Arby's on Genesee unless you were headed on the Parkway in Utica anyway. Now it represents a very convenient trip.

So, even if Rome sucks, Arby's makes it suck less. I encourage everyone to support this new location. Except opening day. That day belongs to me.

I Didn't Know a Prius Could Do 100

2007-07-05T21:38:00.000-04:00

I think everyone who heard the story about Al Gore's son caught by police with various drugs thought the same thing when they heard he was driving the hybrid at 100MPH. I honestly wasn't planning on doing this story as a blog post until I heard the Prius thing. It's a good example of when certain moral messages override others.

First of all, gunning a hybrid that much kills any of its fuel efficiency. In fact, a conventional automobile will do better on fuel going those speeds. It's sort of like those poeple who have hybrid SUVs. They get better milage for the 10 miles the battery can handle before the electricity dies out.

More interestingly, Gore Sr. seemed to get the message through about being responsible with your vehicle purchases. Either that or 1.) he browbeat his kid into buying a hybrid or 2.) he bought the car for his son. One has to worry when the message of saving the Earth eclipses saving your own future.

Replacing My Car, One Piece at a Time

2007-06-30T20:00:00.000-04:00

I admit, I'm not much of a car guy. Since I don't know all the parts of the vehicle I drive, it irks me when I discover some other element of the system that I was unaware of that costs more than what I thought it was in the first place. Since most of my woes have dealt with the complicated fuel and exhaust systems of late, I pose this question. Would an electric car be even cheaper than anyone thinks?

Now, I don't mean one of those half-assed Toyota hybrids that give you the weight and complexity of 2 engines in the size of a subcompact. I mean a true (as yet unsold) full-on electric vehicle, sort of like GM's Volt concept car or their extinct EV-1. An electric car would lack gas tanks, gas lines, emissions controls, transmissions (electric motors are generally 1-2 gear) monitoring of those systems, engine oil, antifreeze/coolant and some other things I can't even think of. The only thing you'd need are brakes, and those could even be made mechanical rather than fluid based.

People who do electric car conversions spend in the range of $10,000 to make a car (or the shell of a car after all the regular parts are removed) electric. The RAV4 EV (the only domestic car to sell, rather than lease all electric vehicles) sold for about $45,000. Estimates for an electric car now run from $20,000 to $60,000. As for savings.

Over a 90,000 mile lifespan:
30 oil changes - $600
3 transmission changes - $300
3 radiator flushes - $300
4 muffler pipes (not uncommon here ) - $500
2 new fuel punps - $900

Ultimately, you wouldn't want to build an electric car to save money, just like putting in solar panels will almost certainly cost more than you'll save. There are a number of advantages to consider, however. As weird and strange as the idea of an electric car might be, given an equal choice, I'd plug my next car into a jack in the garage.

And Sometimes...

2007-06-06T21:10:00.000-04:00

People on the internet can make a difference. CBS has had a change of heart on the decision to cancel "Jericho." Season 2 shapes up to be a scant 8 episodes airing sometime in 2008. This is the network's acid test to the power of organized online campaigns. Can a small group of highly motivated fans affect a show in a meaningful way? Sending a bunch of nuts is a good idea, but there had better be numbers when it comes time to watch. Either that, or the fans need to wage a massive purchasing campaign for advertisers' products.

Sometimes

2007-06-03T15:50:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, I miss the ability to let loose with random thoughts on a semi-regular basis here. I also miss being motivated enough to expound on the half victory in the School District Election or the cowardice of a Democratic Party that hates the killing in Iraq but still plans to fund it for 3 more months. And don't get me started on CBS and Jericho.

I notice my profile pic has gone missing. I'll take that down until I find a new place to host it.

Meet the Candidates

2007-05-14T18:28:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd put up a little voter guide of the people running for our school board. Just to give you an idea of the current membership's crowning achievement, check out the Rome School budget proposal. You will notice that there are 2 budgets, the proposed budget and the contingency. The contingency budget is the amount they are allowed to raise the budget even if the proposed budget is voted down. It is $670,000 (0.73%) less which amounts to 2.4% of the property tax levy. The kicker is even if the proposed budget is not passed, the contingency budget is financed so that teacher pay remains the same and your property tax levy is the same. Cuts will be made in programs and less money will be drawn from state and local governments.

In effect, the School Board has decided that if you want lower property taxes and reasonable teacher benefits, you will not get them no matter how small the budget is. But take heart, the smaller the budget is this year, the small the contingency budget can be next year.

On to the candidates. Seven people are running for four seats. The candidates are current members Patricia Riedel (president), Paul Hagerty (clerk) and Eric Jones; plus non current candidates Stanley Wenndt, Leonard Summa, Frank Anderson, Louis Daniello. The union has endorsed the entrenched members as well as Wenndt.

Taking a look at the interviews from Friday's Sentinel, I see a good amount of sameness and waffling, but I've extracted a list of people I endorse. My choices are unsurprisingly the four non school board members. However, I do have an order to them.

I pick Anderson at the top. He seems to have some financial understanding of continued high budgets. Next is Summa, since he is critical of the lack of fiscal responsibility in the current budget. Third is Wenndt. Even though he is the union's pick, he's not an incumbent and he knows how to party. Last is Daniello. He seems to be soft on closing schools and likes the budgets, but I'll give a new guy a chance.

Happy voting.

3 Weeks or So

2007-04-24T18:47:00.000-04:00

Blah, blah, balanced school budget. Yap, yap, reduced effective tax rate. Basically, the school budget is poised to increase by 6.7%, twice the minimum level of a contingency budget. Not to mention the $72 million buling plan which adds up to a 90% increase in the school budget. As a public service, I'm going to print a list of voting locations in addition to the countdown clock on my sidebar.

Voting locations are based on General Election voting ward. Please comment with any corrections.

Location...........................Wards

Staley............................ 1 , 2
City Hall Lobby................... 3
Gansevoort School................. 4
Strough........................... 5
Fort Stanwix...................... 6
Rome Towers....................... 7
Stokes............................ 8 , 9
Western Town Library.............. 10

"Whoever did write this doesn't know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut"

2007-04-12T17:51:00.000-04:00

I was first exposed to Kurt Vonnegut's writing in junior high school. A short story called "Harrison Bergeron" was a marker on my path to my current belief system. For those who don't know, the story is set near the end of the 21st century when all men are not only created equal but are made equal. It was a story about political correctness before there was political correctness.

I found it ironic that Vonnegut's death came at the same time as John Donald Imus was exciled from all media. On one hand, personal offense trumped free speech. On the other hand, Imus' termination was based on the free market. Threats of boycotts, sponsors leaving and general hatred of Imus by people who work with him led to the decisions. But like other people have done with his comments, I'd like to infer a deeper meaning behind the firing.

What Don Imus said doesn't matter. It's meaningless. He's said worse things about smaller people. He's treated callers far worse. This was an opportunity to kill Imus. Instead of talking about black groups or women's groups I'm going to talk about political groups.

Organizations like Moveon dot something have pressured Democrat candidates toward a "give up now" strategy in Iraq and an outright ban of Fox News related debates. I'm waiting for the cries of bias when Fox sponsors more GOP debates because the other side boycotts the others.

MSNBC has moved to the left again. The first time was 2003 when Donahue had a show that was quickly sanitized because no one was watching what might be considered precient claims that there were no weapons of mass destruction. Of course, they went right wing until the Michael Savage incident, which was far worse than Imus.

CBS defended Dan Rather's false story longer than they stuck by Imus. I suspect a lot of this was based in the employees who had to deal with Imus and his veiled distain for everyone, black or white. Even with his anti-war stand, he had criticisms of both sides. And as you can hear from some Clintonites today, they still haven't gotten over Imus' precient claims that Clinton had some illicit encounters in his past.

People on the right have also been outraged that Imus was not fired when conservative racists were fired, then gleeful when Imus was given the heave-ho. I find it a little disturbing as a "wingnut" that conservatives have a problem with Bush hating (which is the passtime of about 2/3 of America) and getting toxic chemicals out of the home. By all means, let's get rid of offensive speech. Wouldn't want to think too hard.

Which brings me back to Vonnegut. His story implies that if people were intellectually unequal, some would see the wrongs in society and do soemthing about them. You know, instead of killing the messenger.

What Don Imus can teach us all:

Words are more important than actions.

Calling everyone else racists will not protect you from being a racial pariah.

Firing a radio host will lead to a dialogue on race... for about 72 hours.

Calling white NYC cops and college lacrosse players rapists can lead to a radio show. Commenting on the hairstyle of college basketball players will end a radio show.

White people will be just a little bit more afraid of black people.

Make sure you keep hatred in your heart and off the radio.

P.S. The title is from the movie "Back to School"

98% of Teachers Will Keep Jobs

2007-04-07T07:25:00.000-04:00

I thought I would claify The Daily Sentinel's subheading last week that said ten teachers will keep jobs. Basically 10 out of 22 teachers that were given pink slips can tear them up. Of course, those ten are the newest and lowest paid teachers. They're probably the least financial burden on the 98% coverage health plan that Rome teachers have.

The property tax increase is currently stated as 2.5%. This is not the increase in the budget itself, which is still in the red by nearly $1 million. Based on my last estimate, the new budget increase amounts to over 8%. The contingency increase is 3%. The vote is in 38 days.

There's also a new website for Rome's insane bond issue of $72 million. The address is http://blogs.rny.com/romeschools/ and it uses the same terrible comment interface the Sentinel's website uses. Just remeber, don't contradict our betters because, according to the blog, "Anyone is welcome to read and those who wish to contribute positively may sign up to contribute to the discussion." I positively refuse to pay higher taxes.

The Stone Has Turned

2007-03-22T05:43:00.000-04:00

It appears that Ray Halbritter has officially reached the bargaining stage of grief in the Casino Tax battle. The Supreme Court has decided the Oneida corporation has to pay taxes on bought land. Ray's last ditch choice of the BIA has kicked the ball back to the state because of the dubios nature of Governor Cuomo's unapproved back room deal that gave us the largest untaxed business in Central New York.

Spitzer has been handed a gift. A new agreement could give the Casino video gambling and produce enough tax revenue to keep Spitzy's promise of lowering property taxes on Day One.

School Board Follies

2007-03-20T18:51:00.000-04:00

THIS time I've put a reminder clock up to remind us (me) of this year's budget vote. We can defeat it. It was so close last year. I see RTA is about 520 members, which means current average salary tops $60,000. At an hourly level, it's around $35 an hour. Being a union, the teachers making less that half that will be getting the ax if the School Board can't beg, borrow, bully or steal the difference in the money they have to the money they want.

I'm going to be brief since I have a backlog of newspapers as it it. School budget vote is May 15. If anyone knows what the general voting locations are, let me know.

Man, I Hate Google

2007-03-19T22:21:00.000-04:00

So, Google's absorbtion of Blogger has forced me to join their collective. In any case, I guess I can start posting again.

What's the Beef?

2007-03-04T19:40:00.000-05:00

U.S. Comptroller General David Walker is going on a panic tour telling old people and young students that the people who are pre-retirement are going to bankrupt America until the end of time.

60 Minutes typically uses this scare tactic without any specific solution. Vague mentions are made about raising taxes and cutting spending, and "fundamentally" changing the health care system where Americans spend more, die sooner and are less insured than most of the rest of the world. I was only surprised that they didn't go to Canada and sing the praises of socialised medicine.

In the first month of my blog, I posted about what really needed to be done with Social Security. Looking at Bush's actions, I notice a tendancy toward sticking it to his critics. If you don't like Social Security reform, I'd blow up the debt with a drug plan. IF you want the war to end, I'll put in more troops. If you vote out his party, he fires all the scapegoats and lets everything go to hell.

Back to Taxes

2007-02-18T11:11:00.000-05:00

Probably a little late, but I thought I'd get to the insanity that is the Rome School Budget. This year, there is a $1.8 million "shortfall" that will be made up with tax increases (of course) and possible staff reduction (unlikely). This represents a 7.3% hike in spending, not counting the aforementioned deficit. So, it looks like it will actually be a 9.3% increase (or 11.2% if your count the $1.8 million in supplimental funding). It's a far cry from the under 3% increase in the Great Budget of 2005.

Obviously, a large portion of the increase is tied to teacher pay. Through some ridiculous contract negotiation, teachers must be notified of staffing cuts by March 15 or they get paid through next January. Fine, then. We have a $2 million deficit, that's about 30 teachers. Tell them they're fired now. We know for damn sure that pinks slips can be withdrawn anyway. I know there's only 5 candidates for every teaching position in the state, but I think we can deal with any early attrition.

Let's not forget that $72 million bond issue. New meeting March 27.

Snohawk Valley

2007-02-11T16:08:00.000-05:00

With this snow packed season, I've noticed a phenomeon. The snohawk is that pile of snow along the center of an SUV or other flat hooded car that somehow stays on the roof while driving. Do you have a snohawk? How high is it? Want to submit a picture?

It Costs $80 Million to Close a School?

2007-01-23T16:49:00.000-05:00

I'm sketchy on the details, but I just wanted to let readers know that I am aware of this Rome School Board renovation project. I plan to blog on it a little more when the board meets in February.

Another Escapee

2007-01-20T09:08:00.000-05:00

Laura from bbmoo's relations left New York state for (relatively this winter) warmer pastures in Texas. SInce I've started this blog, about half of my fellow CNY bloggers have relocated for one reson or another. I suppose the people who blog around here have something to reveal about the area and are more likely to take the path out of town when given the chance.

So, would I leave if I got the chance? Hell, yes. Governor Spitzer would do well to recognize this fact. As much as he would love to tax businesses and require that every citizen have a new car and a big screen TV provided by the state, he should look at the states we're moving to and give a ring to those governors.

In 2007

2006-12-31T19:47:00.000-05:00

Yet again, I was a little off with my 2006 Predictions, but this time I promise to seek help for my bad predictions and purge the demons in my soul that cause me to make such mistaken guesses. Or maybe, I'll just do some

Predictions for 2007

1. Ryan Seacrest is digitized so that there will never be a moment without him.

2. Televsion ends as we know it.

3. The Democratic Congress adjusts the military budget so that American forces will now be armed with spitballs.

4. As Barack Obama avoids confirming his run for the Democratic presidential nomination, his poll numbers double Hilary Clinton's. When he throws his hat in the ring in December 2007, they drop to 3%.

5. Elliot Spitzer gets a taste of his own medicine when his gubernatorial term starts off with 583 food poisoning lawsuits from garbage plates served at his inaugural.

6. Howard Stern, disappointed with the slight restrictions placed on him by Sirius satellite radio, decides to do his show for 2 people at a cost of $50 million each.

7. Google is beset by poor financial desions from it's founders, including a live morning DJ in their office every morning.

8. The US decides to battle illegal immigration by giving up and building schools and hospitals in Mexico.

9. Saddam takes the nice side of the apartment he and Osama bin Laden will be sharing in Hell.

10. Internet companies finally create a device that can deliver videos, music, web browsing, document scanning, take pictures and contact anyone in the world. The drawback is that the battery in it liquefies most internal organs.

11. J.K. Rowling sells off the rights to the Harry Potter franchise. The BBC produces the TV show "Harry Potter and the Blue Call Box of Time."

12. Dick Clark uses electrical technology invented by the ABC television network to destroy Ryan Seacrest once and for all.

Seacrest, Out!

Merry Christmas

2006-12-24T23:36:00.000-05:00

We'll see if I can get my predictions up for New Year's.