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| 2009 Fund Drive "Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an underground dictatorship. . . . The Constitution of this republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom." Dr. Benjamin Rush - Signer, Declaration of Independence.Have you helped keep this newsletter coming? If not, please click here today. Your Support Is What Keeps Us Growing! Good Monday Morning, I hope everyone has recovered nicely from the holidays. "They can keep suing me because I'm just not going to let this state run out of money on my watch," Governor Paterson said the other day about withholding state aid for schools. And I support his notion. If school districts don't like the way the state funds them then they need to either cut programs or ask residents to pay more so that money from the state has less of an impact on programs. (Let's not get into the "unfunded mandate" discussion since you'll be on shaky ground there.) Look, State monies are your monies and every Tom, Dick and Harry elected official wants stuff but wants someone else to pay for it because they're afraid that you won't re-elect them if they don't deliver the services they've promised you on the cheap. That is undeniable. But that money still comes from your pocket. The game is to make it look like it's not and they've got it down pat.Congratulations to the Kent Fire Department's officers for 2010: Paul Kane - Chief, Norman Hill III - Captain, Justin Byrne - Captain, Sal Paci - Lieutenant, Joe Grieco - Lieutenant, Diane Kane - EMS Lieutenant, Dan Greaves - Fire Police and Werner Reinhardt - Sergeant at Arms. My friend Lee in Arizona, has made some new year's pre-apologies. This is one of them: "To the legislature of the State of AZ -- I was wrong to characterize your actions in the last legislative session as "A carnival of narrow-minded, blue-nosed, sanctimonious, bigoted, skin-flint mental midgets climbing over each other to be the first to prostrate himself before the Altar of Libertarian Mammon." My comment was offensive to carnies, midgets and Mammon." As usual, Europe is light-years ahead of the United States in so many things: urban planning, architecture, energy use and conservation, mass transit... just to name a few things this column is about. One thing they've done that applies to real estate sales, is to phase in the running of energy audits on homes and prepare a chart showing where the home sits on a scale of efficiency. This will give you an idea about what it actually costs to heat and cool the home. The chart shows two columns, one that gives the current efficiency rating of the home and one that shows what its efficiency potential is.The chart looks like this: Seeing that we're having such a hard time getting planning boards to require efficiency in new construction, I like the idea of providing this information to prospective home-buyers and think it's something we should use here in the United States as well. We do it for air conditioners and refrigerators, why not homes? 2009 Fund Drive Have you helped keep this newsletter coming? If not, please click here today. Your Support Is What Keeps Us Growing! Collected from the 'net: Some poor sap gets food poisoning on a Delta flight over the weekend and is unable to leave the bathroom to accommodate our latest hysteria and the plane is evacuated at a remote location at the airport police stream to the scene and NORAD is set on high alert. Ivana Trump has a hissy fit over some unruly kids on her flight and is removed from the plane by police. I swear, there's a connection there somewhere. By the way, if you're flying somewhere soon you'll not allowed to have anything in your lap for the last hour of the flight. No pillows, no books or magazines nor iPod or other music players. And you'll no longer be able to leave your seats to use the bathroom or stretch your legs.Financier Bernie Madoff was released from hospital the other day after being treated for facial contusions and broken ribs, injuries one would expect from a serious physical assault. North Carolina prison officials claim no assault had taken place and could not say why Mr. Madoff was transferred to the hospital in the first place. A recent survey by the Pew Charitable Trust says that Mississippi is the most religious state. Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine ranked last. I don't know where Illinois ranked but state comptroller candidate William J. Kelly wants Illinois to rank well. So well, in fact, that he climbed over a nativity scene, a menorah and a Festivus(!) pole at the State Capitol building to remove a sign legally placed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation which read: "At the time of the winter solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is just myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."State police were there to greet - and arrest him - for his display of religious intolerance. But it wasn't just what the sign read, Mr. Kelly was fuming about its placement - near a Christmas Tree (also on the State Capitol grounds). He said, "The fact that sign was immediately in front of the tree, I found that to be disturbing because any family and any child would run up to that tree with a smile on their face, and they would immediately see that sign,"Apparently we need to protect children from thinking for themselves. By the way, the same sign has appeared on the lawns of other government buildings (along with the nativity scenes and Christmas trees,) and in each case it's been vandalized - often by government officials for whom their oath, often sworn to their God, to protect and defend the Constitution was apparently a lie. I do not understand what moves people like Mr. Kelly. As far as I'm concerned, religious displays and symbols simply do not belong on public (government) property at all. Not a menorah, not a Christmas tree, not a nativity scene... nothing. And especially not in our courtrooms nor on our currency. In a multi-cultural society religion belongs only in your heart, home and church and we'd all be a lot better off if it stayed there. Preach by example, not by coercion. And if we don't want to go where you do then respect our right not to. 2009 Fund Drive Have you helped keep this newsletter coming? If not, please click here today. Your Support Is What Keeps Us Growing! And now, The News:
The top 10 stories not brought to you by mainstream news media in 2009What did you miss this year? Here's a look23 DEC 2009 • by Rebecca Bowe Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored for 13 years, says he's finished with reform. It's impossible, he said in a recent interview, to try to get major news media outlets to deliver relevant news stories that serve to strengthen democracy. "I really think we're beyond reforming corporate media," said Phillips, a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University. "We're not going to break up these huge conglomerates. We're just going to make them irrelevant." Every year since 1976, Project Censored has spotlighted the 25 most significant news stories that were largely ignored or misrepresented by the mainstream press. Now the group is expanding its mission—to promote alternative news sources. But it continues to report the biggest national and international stories that the major media ignored. The term "censored" doesn't mean some government agent stood over newsrooms with a rubber stamp and forbade the publication of the news, or even that the information was completely out of the public eye. The stories Project Censored highlights may have run in one or two news outlets but didn't get the type of attention they deserved. Read More Hall secures federal funds for Carmel police camerasBy Terence Corcoran • tcorcora@lohud.comCARMEL — Federal dollars will be used to equip town police cruisers with cameras that will provide streaming video feeds to police headquarters, allowing a dispatcher to assess incidents from the department's communications center and determine if an officer needs assistance. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, announced that $145,000 in federal funds will be coming to Carmel to purchase the cameras. "This funding is vital to protecting the officers of the Carmel police while they work to protect us," Hall said. "Those who put their lives on the line in our defense deserve every protection that we can provide." Chief Michael Johnson and town Supervisor Kenneth Schmitt, a retired town officer, were on hand with Hall when he announced the funding last week at Town Hall. Johnson said the video system would serve three important police functions. Read More Steep environmental costs to tapping Marcellus shale for gasBy Fay Muir • December 28, 2009Gov. David Paterson maintains that clean-burning, abundant natural gas found in the Marcellus Shale formation deep underground in much of New York state is the key to ending the economic crisis. Close scrutiny of the process that taps this fuel source reveals the makings of an economic disaster in the long term, as well as immediate dire consequences. The extraction of this fuel is done with hydraulic fracturing, called "fracking." The byproducts of this process include hundreds of toxic chemical additives; radioactive wastes; groundwater drawdown; water, air and noise pollution; carbon and methane emissions from pipelines; plus forest fragmentation. Much of the area targeted for fracking is thickly forested and the process could bring the decimation of New York state's forests. Forests are the crucial first barrier to protection of drinking water. Forests provide breeding, nesting, feeding and cover for many forms of wildlife, including many bird species. Forests also provide recreation, including hiking, bird watching, photography, camping and other uses; pollution removal of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide; erosion control by anchoring soil; education and scientific research by providing readily accessible outdoor bio-physical laboratories; sources of nutrients that nourish regrowth; nursery grounds and sanctuaries for endangered, threatened and rare flora and fauna. Trees give shade for cooling streams, rivers and wetlands, which provide commercial and recreational fishing as well as cooling cityscapes. Read More Smarter Money Would Be On Main StreetBy JOHN NORQUISTAfter the federal bailouts were faulted for enriching Wall Street and for proving rather anemic in creating jobs, the president and congressional Democrats sent a message in choosing a name for the jobs bill they introduced this month. "It is with great enthusiasm that we present our 'Jobs for Main Street' legislation," Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week just before the bill passed. It's progress this time that the funds will be flowing away from, not toward, Wall Street. And the legislation will keep some people working, especially in local and state government. But will funds from this bill really reach Main Street, as its name implies? Well, not so much. When it comes to the largest spending item in the bill — $27.5 billion in highway spending — Main Street is missing. The $27.5 billion isn't targeted to rebuild streets at the heart of older cities and towns, the cherished settings for Memorial Day parades and holiday light displays. No, the money will primarily go to projects that government knows best —the expansion of wide, motor-vehicle-only highways that go hand-in-hand with energy-wasting sprawl. This follows the earlier stimulus bill that favored massive highway projects, including a batch of expensive "highways to nowhere" that an examination by the Infrastructurist website concluded "make no sense." The new bill does reserve $8.4 billion for transit and $800 million for Amtrak. But just when U.S. real estate markets are turning to Main Street and traditional neighborhood design, Congress throws $27.5 billion at the infrastructure — road widening — that supports sprawl. Read More Trump buys Branton Woods golf course in East FishkillMike BenischekHOPEWELL JUNCTION — Branton Woods Golf Club has a new owner and a new name. Late Wednesday night, Donald Trump purchased two golf courses in the Northeast, one of which was Hopewell Junction's Branton Woods, which the business mogul promptly renamed Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley, N.Y. Hopewell Junction resident Dan Scavino, executive vice president and general manager of Trump National Golf Club Westchester, told the Journal Trump finalized the deal to purchase the course on Stormville Road, along with Pine Hill Golf Club in New Jersey, Trump's 10th and 11th golf properties. "Donald has had his eyes on Branton Woods for many years," Scavino said via e-mail. "He is very in-tuned to the golf industry worldwide, and both the topography, golf course and surrounding area has always impressed him. He has a tremendous passion for the game of golf, and is building up an unbelievable collection and portfolio of the world's finest golf clubs." Both courses were previously owned by Empire Golf Management. The course formerly known as Branton Woods has been for sale with a listed price tag of $8 million. Read More The 2009 Fund Drive Is Coming To A Close Have you helped keep this newsletter coming? If not, please click here today. Your Support Is What Keeps Us Growing! Compulsory Private Health Insurance: Just Another Bailout for the Financial Sector?Thursday 24 December 2009by: Ellen Hodgson Brown J.D., t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, is quoted as warning two centuries ago: "Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an underground dictatorship. . . . The Constitution of this republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom."That time seems to have come, but the dictatorship we are facing is not the sort that Dr. Rush was apparently envisioning. It is not a dictatorship by medical doctors, many of whom are as distressed by the proposed legislation as the squeezed middle class is. The new dictatorship is not by doctors but by Wall Street - the FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) sector that now claims 40 percent of corporate profits. Read More The World's District AttorneyLegendary prosecutor Robert Morgenthau on his famous cases, his brawl with Mike Bloomberg, and why he's sounding alarm about Iran.By JAMES FREEMAN In the criminal justice system, the people of Manhattan have been represented for 35 years by New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. This is his story. Mr. Morgenthau, who inspired the original D.A. character on the television program "Law and Order," will retire on Thursday at age 90. Much of the barely fictitious drama is set in his office in Manhattan's Criminal Courts Building. This week, amid half-filled boxes and scattered personal mementos, he sat down to discuss his life's work. Even though he knows I'm wearing a wire—actually an audio recorder placed on the table between us—America's D.A. speaks candidly, including about his public blowups with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Mr. Morgenthau says this is the first mayor he hasn't gotten along with, and that the relationship went south when his office started investigating the city's role in the death of two of New York's bravest in an August, 2007 fire. Among other mistakes, city inspectors had failed to note that the water had been turned off at the old Deutsche Bank building opposite Ground Zero. The blaze resulted in 33 "mayday" calls from firefighters, and the D.A. is amazed that only two lost their lives. Read More Onetime Nevada Brothel Could Become Conservationists’ OasisBy LESLIE KAUFMANSPARKS, Nev. — Watching bulldozers pour crushed rocks to force the Truckee River into a more natural serpentine pattern, Mickey Hazelwood, project director for the Nature Conservancy, mused that like many acts of salvation, this one has its roots deep in sin. For decades, this high-desert site eight miles east of Reno was best known as the home of the Mustang Ranch, the first licensed brothel in the United States. From thin to plump, dwarflike to Amazonian, women hired to suit a range of tastes would line up for inspection by clients in pink stucco buildings tucked into a cottonwood grove 300 yards from the river’s bank. The brothel reopened a few miles downriver in 2006, after the land was confiscated by the Internal Revenue Service and the name and buildings were sold to the highest bidder. Working 12-hour shifts at their new complex, part of which was airlifted from the old site, the women still greet customers in knee socks, push-up bras and other intimate wear. The old property, meanwhile, is undergoing a transformation. Workers are restoring it to floodplain, undoing the damage wrought when federal engineers straightened the Truckee River a half century ago. Read More Don't Let This Be The End! Have you helped keep this newsletter coming? If not, please click here today. Your Support Is What Keeps Us Growing! |
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Monday, December 28, 2009
News That Matters - December 28, 2009
