God Hates Snuggies
Going Out Of Business Everything 70-80 Percent Off
Libraries Are Socialist
My Wife Is A Muslim And Not A Terrorist, But I'm Scared Of Her Anyway
Yelling Rarely Works ... I Know, I'm A Mom!
I Stand 4 Good Posture
-Signs at "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear"
Good Monday Morning,
First off, this: Not all politicians are liars and crooks and thieves and scoundrels and womenizers and menizers. Some are, believe it or not, actually interested and dedicated. But with all the noise being made by those for whom 'knee-jerk' is synonymous with 'breathing' it's hard to hear the truth. So, will you folk just calm down and try to be just a little objective? Will you, please, start thinking for yourselves and accept that the talking heads on FOX are just that, talking heads? Research shows they have no clue, are mostly wrong and egocentric and miss the boat way more often than not. Thank you.
Marches and Rallies! Oh My!
Somewhere around 36 hours from now the 2010 election season will largely be over. Close races will need recounts and the counting of absentee ballots which will not happen until next week so the outcome of close races may not be known until then. I have my predictions and I'm keeping them to myself.
The Tea Baggers held another rally in Carmel on Saturday and according to two eye-witnesses the turnout amounted to about 125 people. Nan Hayworth, on-again-off-again friend of the baggers, had her people there but maintained a respectable distance afraid, one might assume, of being assaulted over her on-again-off-again support of women's rights.
And where was Maryellen Odell? According to attendees she was not there. Can we get confirmation one way or the other?
And while Lynne Eckardt may not be able to move Democrats into local action - or even off the couch - she sure can work a crowd! Handing out the 4-page inserts published in the Putnam Times last week entitled, "The Putnam County Republican", which slams the Ballster to the assembled 'baggers, so flummoxed them that they had people wandering the crowd tearing them out of the hands of recipients and giving them back to Ms. Eckardt. Good show.
The insert, sponsored by a shadowy group called, "Republicans for Political Truth", is not registered with the NYS Board of Elections and hence their advertisement may be pushing the limit of the law. But the Times is used to this as they do it frequently: running un-credited political advertisements for preferred candidates and sometimes refusing political opponents the option of purchasing ad space.
In the meantime, 215,000 people gathered on the Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C. [image] on Saturday attending a demonstration called by TV personalities Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The "Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear" targeted the rampant and illogical fear and extremism that politicians and the media use to keep the American people in line and afraid of anything that goes bump in the night. Or breathes. Or exists, even at the atomic level. The size of the rally bested Glenn Beck's much touted and heavily covered 87,000 pudgy old white men last August.
 The Washington Metro broke a daily record with 825,437 riders on Saturday.
In a benediction given by Father Guido Sarducci, he asked god to give a sign which religion was the right one. Listing many that were popular, lighting did not strike nor the earth open nor angels descend at any point and it was generally agreed that you'll have your answer about 5 minutes after you die.
By the way, proceeds from the sale of merchandising items sold at the rally will go towards the restoration of the National Mall and not to a political action committee.
In his closing Jon Stewart said, "The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen. Or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire. And then, perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected, dangerous ant-fire epidemic."
Putnam County Gears Up for Battle
There are a few things I do not understand. For one, how is it possible that normal, thinking people, who are not on powerful psychotropic medications could vote for Greg Ball? And I'm not talking about the 'baggers here, but of moderate Republicans who know better. I would appreciate it if someone who intends to vote for him were to tell me why. I've been asking this question for weeks and none have written with an explanation. Either no one reading this column is voting for him (which I *know* is not true) or you're too embarrassed to admit it. Don't be. There are support groups to help you through.
- Remember CUEG, Citizens United for Ethical Growth and its fundraiser back in, what, 2004? Whatever happened to those dollars? Oh yeah! They ended up in Greg's Assembly campaign war chest. Remember the last time he ran the "Courage Cup" Oh yeah! Monies from that also ended up in his Assembly campaign war chest.
By the way, if you can see the picture over there on the right, that's Senator Leibell introducing Greg (with his back to the camera) at a golf club in Pawling for CUEG's initial local fundraiser, the one that tricked environmentalists and other regular folk into donating monies destined for his campaign. The Putnam Smart Growth Alliance, The Westchester Land Trust and Riverkeeper were all there. Heck, even Ann Fanizzi was there to witness the Senator introduce his new wunderkind. My, how things have changed!
- Surely you must know that Greg *is* an Albany insider and just because he has been ineffective in that role does not negate the fact that he has spent four years there and has achieved not a single damned thing.
The election for Putnam County Executive. There is a good deal of anger at what people have called "Albany insiders" and the chatter I hear at deli's around the area is that Vinnie Leibell is not their candidate of choice. Fire departments are another story as he has bought them all over the years with tens of thousands of dollars in earmarks. Further, they don't know Maryellen Odell but they know she's a right-winger and 'outside' government and hence provides to their minds a better option for the future of the county.
But even with that there are too many people who will accept neither of the two balloted candidates and who will skip that race in its entirety for not being presented with a viable option.
For that latter group, the write-in vote is a powerful incentive and this year I have lent and allowed my name to be used for that purpose. At the bottom of the column for County Executive is a box for write-ins and I encourage you to bring along a pen and write in, "Jeff Green" so that the vote actually counts. The goal is for 50 votes which, believe it or not, will send a message to the eventual winner that a significant portion of the electorate (50 represents a much larger number as anyone in marketing will tell you) is not happy and will not be happy. This holds especially true for voters who are not registered Republicans and hence have no 'horse in this race'.
The message must be getting out there! A supporter of write-ins on Route 52 in Kent had her campaign sign stolen and a glass bottle neatly broken under a rear tire of her car so that it would be run over as she backed out of her driveway. Imagine that! Dissent against the status-quo leads to intentional vandalism.
This is the Putnam County you want over the next few years? Well, regardless of who wins, this is the Putnam County you're going to get. If the Senator wins, how long will it take for the retribution of his political enemies to kick in? If MEO wins, how long will it take before the purges begin? Either way it's going to be very, very ugly around here.
Please, don't skip the office tomorrow: Use your write-in as an effective tool to send that message.
There are candidates for whom I encourage support:
 Kirsten Gillibrand for US Senate
Cecile Lawrence for US Senate
John Hall for Congress
Howie Hawkins for Governor
Gloria Mattera for Lt. Governor
Julia Willebrand for Comptroller
Mike Kaplowitz for State Senate (40th)
Sandy Galef for State Assembly (90th)
Brendan Tully for State Assembly (99th)
Jerry Furey for County Legislator (5th)
Tony Fusco for County Legislator (9th)
A 1% Transaction Tax? One of the most read articles posted to the News That Matters website is an article from FactCheck regarding a proposal for a 1% transaction tax which was first proposed by Congressman Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania - in 2004. It's called the "Debt Free America Act".
What makes it all the more interesting is that I keep reading letters to the editor in various newspapers warning that if Democrats are elected this fee/tax will go into effect. But, as is usually the case, it's more complicated than that and the warnings are naught but election year fear and loathing over nothing.
The purpose of the 'tax' is to pay down the national debt within a few years by instituting a 1% national sales tax on every cash, debit, credit or other monetary transaction with the funds going directly into debt repayment. But what's not being reported in these letters and alarmist literature from right-wingers is that it would also abolish the Federal income tax.
It all looks a little different now, eh?
FactCheck has this to say about it:
Fattah’s original bill from 2004 (H.R. 3759) would merely have required the U.S. Treasury to conduct a one-year feasibility study of a 1 percent transaction fee. Back then, he touted the possibility that such a system would bring in so much money it would allow for greatly increased federal spending, saying the "excess funds" would "provide universal health care, support an equitable public school finance system, and fund economic development in urban and rural areas," in addition to extinguishing the national debt and eliminating all other federal taxes. That bill died without becoming law, or even attracting a single co-sponsor. Fattah tried again in 2005, with H.R. 1601, and again in 2007 with H.R. 2130 (which had a single cosponsor, Democratic Rep. Brian Baird of Washington). But both bills died without any action being taken. Last year he introduced a fourth bill to require a study, H.R. 1703, which attracted no cosponsors. That bill is still languishing in committee. On the other side of things, Democrats have been warning that if Republicans are elected to Congress they will institute a 23% national sales tax and the same holds true here: This is something that was proposed - once - as a replacement for the income tax. The idea never went anywhere because it's seriously regressive, affecting the working classes much more than the industrial class, and thus unworkable in reality.
The lesson here is this: it should not be my responsibility to defraud all of this for you, for the letter writers and for those easily swayed by unfounded fear! That's your job. But since you're not doing it, it has fallen on my shoulders and hence the detail work that goes on here every day at PlanPutnam to bring you the truth - whether you like it or not.
Regardless, vote tomorrow, as I'm sure you will. We'll be back on Wednesday, the first day of our annual fund drive, with the results.
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