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"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth." - Umberto Eco
Good Monday Morning,
With last Friday's post I included two images: one of a prickly pear cactus in flower and the second of a 5-lined skink and asked where in Putnam County these images were taken. The first response came from Nat Prentice of Philipstown and he was right: Sugarloaf Mountain. But, cactus in Putnam County? Why, yes! Here's what the NYSDEC says about it:
The eastern prickly pear is found from southwestern Ontario south to Florida and west to Texas. In the lower Hudson Valley the prickly pear exists in a few locations, its presence being tenuous at best. It requires sunny, dry areas with sandy soils and a south-southwest exposure, often marginal habitat for other plants. The eastern prickly pear is a protected species in New York State. Just north of Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County there is a hill called Prickly Pear. Habitat loss due to development over the last few decades destroyed the considerable number of cacti that once grew there. Citing the need for flexibility in hiring, State Senator Vincent Leibell shepherded a bill, S.08472 which would allow the county to hire a deputy county attorney from outside the county. The vote in the Senate was 61-0. The vote on the companion bill in the Assembly was 137-1. Guess who the "1" was?
 This past Saturday evening Arts on the Lake hosted a record crowd for a benefit concert for the Invisible Children movement. This movement was organized to offer support to the Acholi tribe in northern Uganda which has been beset by a senseless insurgency from a group called "The Lord's Army" for more than a generation. There's a short video from that show (Adam and he Animals) posted to their Myspace page that, if you're a fan of such music, or just want to see a 100 local kids having a great time, is worth a look. Other images from the event are posted in the "Scrapbook" section of the Arts on the Lake website.
The lead story in the Journal News (or lede, in journalistic parlance) the other day talked about how Jaral Properties, Inc., the developers of the hotel project in Carmel are about to find creative ways of picking the pockets of the working class and moving that money into the bank accounts of the wealthy, and will do it with the full assistance of the Carmel Town Board. There's an application before the County for money, too. Unless you all get out there and really make a stink, you might as well just write the checks to Jaral yourself and save the Town and County acting as middle-men. Read it below.
Last Friday Congressman John Hall correctly voted against the FISA bill working its way through Congress. 105 other Democrats didn't have the nerve to stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law. Here is Congressman Hall in his own words on the bill:
“The rule of law lies at the core of America’s founding principles, and the language in this bill was too weak to ensue that any breach of our laws that may have occurred under the warrantless wiretapping program will be fully addressed. It is not appropriate to deny Americans the right to pursue these matters in court, or to short-circuit the judicial review that lies at the heart of our system of checks and balances, which is the bedrock of our Constitution. Accordingly, I voted against this bill.” For those of you who read Lynn Eckardt's reports from various Town of Southeast board meetings, one item in yesterday's posted report caught my attention:
22. Returnable Container Act:
This was a resolution asking for support for the bigger, better bottle bill.
Defeated 5-0.
So, if you have any empty water or juice bottles and you feel a need to make a statement with them, bring them to the Southeast Town hall and drop them off - on the front steps. When those guys are up to their necks in non-returnables perhaps they'll change their minds.
We need to take a moment of silence and pay our respects to George Carlin who died yesterday at the age of 71 from heart failure. He was an icon and a voice of a generation and he will be missed.
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And now, the news:
- Putnam hotel faces construction cost cuts
- Naysayers take notice (NYJN Editorial on Brewster)
- Meeting set on cash for open space (Dutchess County acts on land threats)
- Little-Known Omission in Energy Bill Hits Homeowners Hard
- What do houses in distant suburbs and low-mileage cars have in common?
- Coastal Governors Pledge to Protect Oceans from Offshore Drilling
- At a Roadside Vigil, an Iconic Voice of Protest (Pete Seeger and Company)
- Cheney Mistaken on China Drilling Oil in USA's Backyard
- What Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Fred Hiatt mean by "bipartisanship"
- China condemns Dalai Lama in Tibet (and we're still going to the games?)
Putnam hotel faces construction cost cuts Barbara Livingston Nackman
The Journal News
CARMEL - A backhoe and an excavator moving dirt and rocks on land off Route 6 would seem to signal the groundbreaking for Putnam County's first major hotel, but the developer says he hasn't secured his financing yet and is contemplating cuts in the costs of building materials.
Albert Salvatico, whose family-owned Jaral Properties Inc. would own and operate the Staybridge Suites, said his company remains committed to building the 123-room hotel with banquet and conference rooms, but that economic conditions have changed.
"Three million is a lot of money. You don't invest it lightly or walk away lightly," Salvatico said of the money already spent by his Garden City, Long Island-based company. "I will do everything possible to make this happen, but I can't guarantee anything."
Salvatico said "he hasn't finalized bank financing" for the estimated $23 million construction but hopes to do so with a Putnam-based bank in the next few weeks.
Read More
Naysayers take notice A NY Journal News Editorial
This is how you revitalize a community: take empty old buildings and restore them to provide housing and office space; rebuild vital infrastructure such as sewers and wastewater treatment facilities to accommodate future growth; and offer tax incentives, such as those provided by the state's Empire Zone, to encourage job-producing businesses to move in. All of those actions have taken place in the Village of Brewster as of late, and they hold the promise of a renaissance for the troubled Putnam County village.
The most recent and visible of the improvements is 50 Main Street, a four-story building in the center of the village that had been vacant and foreclosed upon. It loomed over Main Street like a dark cloud. The building was restored with $6.3 million from the state Sen. Vincent Leibell-supported non-profit housing agency, the Putnam Community Foundation, which bought 50 Main St. after former Mayor John Degnan, on behalf of the village, secured it at a public auction in 2006. We applaud their efforts. The village's new showpiece will now provide 25 apartments for middle-income senior citizens, and street-level space for village offices and a bank. "To build something takes time," said Leibell, R-Patterson. Hard work, too, we suppose. "With the completion of this project, you will start to see that critical mass come back into the village."
Read the full editorial here
Meeting set on cash for open space Planning chief will talk about $1.6 million plan
By Jenny Lee
Poughkeepsie Journal
Dutchess County Planning and Development Commissioner Roger Akeley will discuss a proposal to preserve open space in the county with legislators during an Environment Committee on July 10.
County Executive William Steinhaus forwarded a $1.6 million bond resolution to the Legislature last week to help pay for open space projects in the towns of Red Hook, Beekman, North East, Poughkeepsie, Union Vale and Washington, as well as the City of Beacon.
Chairman Roger Higgins, D-New Hamburg, said he spoke with Akeley on Wednesday to schedule the presentation.
The Dutchess County Partnership for Manageable Growth oversees the Open Space and Farmland Protection Matching Grant program. For open space and farmland protection projects, the program provides up to 50 percent of the total cost for development rights, conservation easement purchase prices or other fees.
Read More
Little-Known Omission in Energy Bill Hits Homeowners Hard Congress failed to renew energy efficiency tax credits
The valuable federal Home Energy Efficiency Improvement Tax Credits for consumers have now expired, as of the end of December.
Ronnie Kweller, a spokesperson for the Alliance to Save Energy, says a renewal of the credits had been part of the most recent federal energy bills, but they did not make it into the final version that was sent to the President. "We're now hoping to get them extended this year, by attaching them to another bill later in the year, but obviously there is a gap," said Kweller.
This is bad news for homeowners, many of whom have seen substantial benefit from the tax credits, particularly in an age when utility bills keep rising, the housing market is declining, and job growth has been soft.
Enacted as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the energy efficiency credits were designed as a one-time income tax credit of up to $500 for installing efficient new windows, insulation, doors, roofs, and heating and cooling equipment in your home. Guidelines of eligibility made sure the credit was only applied to worthy items (generally, Energy Star certification covered it, though certain heating and cooling items had even higher standards).
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What do houses in distant suburbs and low-mileage cars have in common? Friday, June 20th, 2008
Unfortunately for the owners of either, they’re both losing value.
That’s the connection — echoed by SGA — in a Wall Street Journal piece this morning on today’s front page by Ana Campoy on gasoline consumption and miles driven trending downwards, and how it’s beginning to drastically affect Americans’ housing and transportation choices:
Meanwhile, people have begun migrating from far-flung suburbs to urban centers where commuting distances are shorter and public transit is more easily accessed. In a poll this month of more than 900 Coldwell Banker residential-real-estate agents mainly in urban markets, more than 70% of them said their clients increasingly are interested in living in the city to shrink their gasoline bill.
“The McMansion in the half-finished subdivision in a distant suburb has become the equivalent of the large SUV that people can’t unload,” says David Goldberg, spokesman for Smart Growth America, a group that advocates for more compact, walkable communities.
Read More
Coastal Governors Pledge to Protect Oceans from Offshore Drilling
WASHINGTON, June 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A bipartisan group of seven coastal governors are reiterating concerns about offshore drilling as Congress actively considers proposals that would revoke a 27-year moratorium on the practice.
While considerable media attention has focused on Florida Governor Charlie Crist's reversal of his position on the issue, nearly every other coastal governor remains opposed.
"Coastal governors know that offshore drilling is bad news for the environment and for tourism," said Mike Daulton, Director of Conservation Policy for the National Audubon Society. "It makes no sense for states to put our important beaches, fisheries and coastal habitats and multi-billion dollar tourism economies at such risk for so little gain."
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At a Roadside Vigil, an Iconic Voice of Protest By DENNIS GAFFNEY
WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. — Pete Seeger pulled his black Toyota Highlander into the Staples parking lot here and plucked some signs from the back seat, including one with “Peace” spray-painted in large orange letters. With that, he slung his banjo over his shoulder like an old musket and marched toward the intersection of Route 9, a bustling six-lane thoroughfare, and 9D, the “Hudson Valley P.O.W.-M.I.A. Memorial Highway.”
But before the 89-year-old folk singer flashed his antiwar signs to passing drivers from this no-man’s land — a patch of green about an hour north of New York City on the Hudson River — he bent over again and again, picking up litter.
“This is my religion now,” said Mr. Seeger. “Picking up trash. You do a little bit wherever you are.”
Mr. Seeger, the man behind the founding of the Clearwater Festival, being held this weekend at Croton Point Park, is scheduled to appear there on Sunday.
But for the last four years, most Saturdays he has been keeping his vigil in Wappingers Falls, usually not recognized by the hundreds of drivers who whiz by. It is a long road from 1969, when to protest the Vietnam War he sang John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” at the foot of the Washington Monument.
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Cheney Mistaken on China Drilling Oil in USA's Backyard By By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press
CNSNews.com
Washington (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney's office acknowledged on Thursday that he was mistaken when he asserted that China, at Cuba's behest, is drilling for oil in waters 60 miles from the Florida coast.
In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Cheney said on Wednesday that waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, long off limits to oil companies, should be opened to drilling because China is already there pumping oil.
"Oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida," the vice president said. "We're not doing it, the Chinese are, in cooperation with the Cuban government. Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply."
He cited his source as columnist George Will, who last week wrote: "Drilling is under way 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are."
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What Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Fred Hiatt mean by "bipartisanship" It's bad enough watching the likes of Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel and a disturbingly disoriented Nancy Pelosi eviscerate the Fourth Amendment, exempt their largest corporate contributors from the rule of law, and endorse the most radical aspects of the Bush lawbreaking regime. But it's downright pathetic to see them try to depict their behavior as some sort of bipartisan "compromise" whereby they won meaningful concessions:
"When they saw that we were unified in sending that bill rather than falling for their scare tactics, I think it sent them a message," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "So our leverage was increased because of our Democratic unity in both cases."
Not even the media establishment and the GOP can refrain from mocking this pretense they're trying to peddle. What's amazing is that they're actually as devoid of dignity as they are integrity.
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China condemns Dalai Lama in Tibet Sat Jun 21, 2008 7:01am EDT
By Chris Buckley
LHASA, China (Reuters) - Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of restive Tibet used the passing of the Olympic torch relay through the capital Lhasa on Saturday to defend their control and denounce the exiled Dalai Lama.
The torch procession ended under tight security below the towering Potala palace after having been run for just over two hours before a carefully-selected crowd, some three months after the region was convulsed by anti-Chinese protests.
"Tibet's sky will never change and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it," Tibet's hardline Communist Party boss Zhang Qingli said at a ceremony marking the end of the two-hour relay through strictly guarded streets.
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