Show Me the Money

Whether you are in favor or opposed to Federal 'earmarks', the Sunlight Foundation has a cool 'google map' that shows who is NOT getting the money in NY state. So go HERE and either type in 12983 (or any other Adirondack Park zip code) or zoom out on the map. See all the pretty dollar signs all over the Northeast? See where they aren't?

Allen's Listening Tour

I hope everyone in the USA gets to listen to Mr. Allen and his racist remarks. There aren't words that are insulting enough to describe this guy. Ole George here also believes that anyone who doesn't look like him is 'new' to America.

Bush vs Gore

There is an interesting editorial in todays NYT concerning the Supreme Court Bush vs Gore ruling that handed the presidency to GW Bush. Here is the basis of the ruling:

“Having once granted the right to vote on equal terms,” the court declared, “the state may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person’s vote over that of another.”

But this editorial argues that valuing one person's vote over another is happening all the time.

If this equal protection principle is taken seriously, if it was not just a pretext to put a preferred candidate in the White House, it should mean that states cannot provide some voters better voting machines, shorter lines, or more lenient standards for when their provisional ballots get counted — precisely the system that exists across the country right now.

In making the Bush vs Gore ruling, the court said it pertained only to that particular case. However, this flies in the face of stare decisis which says courts cannot make a ruling that applies only to a single case.

Elections that systematically make it less likely that some voters will get to cast a vote that is counted are a denial of equal protection of the law. The conservative justices may have been able to see this unfairness only when they looked at the problem from Mr. Bush’s perspective, but it is just as true when the N.A.A.C.P. and groups like it raise the objection.

Attempts to use this decision to increase the fairness of elections have thus far failed.

More Photos

Berkley Square, looking down Main St. Saranac Lake, NY



Berkley Square, looking down Broadway, Saranac Lake, NY
Disney spends millions to get what we already have.



Franklin County Fair, not too scary this year. Found some good pulled pork sandwiches!

Bible Math

1 KINGS 7:23

And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.

Whiteface Mt. from Harrietstown Rd.

Adirondack Musing Country Share

Who are all these people in the UK that visit this site? It can't just be Sara. A few German fans also.

Saranac Lake Weather

Frost warning for tonight.

Frost advisory in effect from midnight tonight to 8 am EDT Saturday...
Tonight
Becoming clear with areas of frost after midnight. Cold with lows 35 to 40. North winds 5 to 10 mph...becoming light and variable after midnight.
Saturday
Areas of frost early...otherwise sunny. Highs in the mid to upper 60s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph.

Evolution? Nonsense!

Dr. Bob Johnson - Democrat NY-23

I met Dr. Bob Johnson yesterday afternoon at the Saranac Lake block party. Dr. Johnson is running against Republican John McHugh for the NY-23 Congressional seat. Yes, Dr. Johnson is a Democrat running in a primarily Republican district. So why should residents of the Saranac Lake area vote for this man?

One reason is that he is a medical doctor. Might he not be more sympathetic towards a couple of our major employers who depend upon Federal funds for their existence? Namely Adirondack Medical Center and Trudeau Institute.

You can see the special interests that John McHugh is beholden to here.

Dr. Johnson seemed to be a sincere man who, unlike McHugh, is in favor of resolving the Iraq War and unlike McHugh has served in the military. Dr. Johnson, who unlike McHugh, is in favor of weening our country away from dependency on Middle East oil. Dr. Johnson, unlike McHugh, is in favor of Universal Health Care.

But what impressed me the most is that Dr. Johnson doesn't believe that the Representative of NY-23 should just be a rubber stamp, seat warmer. Unlike McHugh, who has been described as a loner on "the Hill", Dr. Johnson believes that the people of the North Country should have a voice in Congress.

I am not in his District (I'm represented by the other Republican idiot) but I highly encourage people to vote for this man if you want true representation in Washington, DC.

Commies in Keene, NY!!!

Good thing McCarthy is dead. A bunch of commies in Keene want to vote on a resolution that criticizes Bush administration policies. Haven't these people heard our President tell everyone that you are either with him or agin him?

Actually, I could not be prouder of these people. It takes a lot of guts to show up at a public meeting with a resolution like that in a conservative area like ours. It appears the group already has enough signatures to get their proposals on the November ballot.

Why Lieberman Lost the Primary

Oil Pipeline Corrosion

Not as important as small town newspaper wiener pict but....

Now let's talk timing. BP's suddenly discovered corrosion necessitating an emergency shut-down of the line is the same corrosion Dan Lawn has been screaming about for 15 years. Lawn is a steel-eyed government inspector who has kept his job only because his union's lawyers have kept BP from having his head.

Why shut the pipe now? The timing of a sudden inspection and fix of a decade-long problem has a suspicious smell. A precipitous shutdown in mid-summer, in the middle of Middle East war(s), is guaranteed to raise prices and reap monster profits for BP.

I don't want readers to think BP isn't civic-minded. The company's US CEO, Bob Malone, was Co-Chairman of the Bush re-election campaign in Alaska. Mr. Bush, in turn, was so impressed with BP's care of Alaska's environment that he pushed again to open the state's arctic wildlife refuge (ANWR) to drilling by the BP consortium.

From Greg Palast.

The ADE Wiener Picture

Go here to see the picture.

War Deters War

A good war deters war! Not only that, but peace movements extend wars. Yessireebob! Those are the conclusions of the latest Adirondack Daily Enterprise 'guest editorial'.

I would suggest that the best deterrent to war is war itself and that “peace” movements do not bring peace; they merely extend wars.

This opinion is based on a column posted, by Dr. Thomas Sowell, at the conservative website townhall.com. And what a surprise, Dr. Sowell works for the Hoover Institute.

You see members of the peace movement are nothing more than 'Blame America Firsters'. They are not patiotic because they are not careful about how they phrase criticism of their goverments policies. Thus giving implicit aid, comfort and support to our enemies.

Maybe it would be good if someone would write a guest editorial explaining how to be a good, god-fearing, patriotic American. I suspect it might only be one line; elect Republicans, keep them in office, do what they say.

How has that worked out for us?

Darth Vader being a smartass

This is for Brandon.

Rummy Jumps the Shark

Well, ok, he probably 'jumped the shark' long ago, but yesterday he pulled out the old Vietnam 'fight them over there or fight them on our shores' defense of his adventures in the Middle East.

“If we left Iraq prematurely,” he said, “the enemy would tell us to leave Afghanistan and then withdraw from the Middle East. And if we left the Middle East, they’d order us and all those who don’t share their militant ideology to leave what they call the occupied Muslim lands from Spain to the Philippines.” And finally, he intoned, America will be forced “to make a stand nearer home.”

Spitzer Visits SL

Refering to the Republican Party Spitzer said: "No party has done so much for so few who need so little."

I agree. Look at the minimum wage bill. Republicans are in favor of raising the minimum wage only if the wealthiest 0.5% of Americans get a tax break (Estate Tax).

He proposes to cut NYS spending by 11 billion dollars and property taxes by 6 billion dollars. I'll believe that when I see it.

He proposes to have health insurance for all children of NYS by the end of his first term. I think he will do all that is possible to make that happen.

Rumsfield Appears Before the Senate

What's nice is that no Senators need ask any questions. Rumsfield interviews himself.

Are there still Taliban around? You bet.

Are they occupying safe havens in Afghanistan and other places — correction, in Pakistan and other places? Certainly they are.

Is the violence up? Yes.

Does the violence tend to be up during the summer, in the spring, summer and fall months? Yes it does. And it tends to decline during the winter period.

Does that represent failed policy? I don’t know. I would say not.

Property Taxes are Too High

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports that the President of the Saranac Lake Central School Board of Education has voted against the tax levy that District residents approved last Spring.

“I don’t have a problem with our budget,” Van Nortwick said. “I do have a problem with the way our tax levy is being distributed.”

Van Nortwick pointed out that Harrietstown taxpayers are paying $1,358,261 more than last year. They will pay $7,663,743 of the $16,348,331 tax levy this year. Harrietstown is one of seven towns in the school district and one of four completely encompassed by it.

Van Nortwick told the Enterprise that many property owners are experiencing dramatic jumps in assessments and taxes that are threatening their ability to stay in their current homes. He said school taxes combined with others — such as county taxes — are becoming a tremendous burden.

“I do feel for these people,” Van Nortwick said at the meeting. “We need to start thinking about that.”

So it's not the school budget that's the problem, it's the fact that the Town of Harrietstown residents have to pay too much of it. It couldn't possibly be because of the increases in the school district budget needed to cover employee salaries, health care and retirement?

Property taxes are too high in New York State and something needs to change. But property assessments in the Town of Harrietstown have not changed for 5 years. Might it be that Harrietstown residents have been getting somewhat of a free ride for the last 5 years? Especially owners of lake front property?

As a writer of a letter to the editor yesterday pointed out,

....assessments are not responsible for increases in school or property taxes. Local board members of all taxing jusrisdictions shoulder that burden entirely, and any argument to the contrary is a sinister diversion from the mathematical reality.

At least in the case of the school tax we have a say in whether the budget gets approved or not.