Yes, Mr. Bloomberg, there are still real Republicans within the five boroughs.
NEW YORK YOUNG REPUBLICAN CLUB TO NYC GOP: BLOCK BLOOMBERG FROM THE REPUBLICAN PARTY LINE
Last night, the president of the New York Young Republican Club, Daniel Peterson, sent a letter to the five Republican Party chairmen for each of the NYC boroughs asserting that the NYC GOP should not endorse Mayor Michael Bloomberg for a third term nor permit him to run on the Republican Party line.
The organization argues that Mayor Bloomberg has not demonstrated "a sufficient commitment to urban Republican principles, such as fiscal responsibility and personal liberty ... "
Another political sticking point for these Republicans (and most Conservatives) is party building, never an easy task for Republicans in much of the five boroughs. Their argument is that Bloomberg, "has impeded the growth of the party city-wide after pledging to encourage it."
According to Peterson, Republican support for Bloomberg has not aided the party’s development in the past, and continued support "would send the message that the Republican Party cares more about a candidate’s checkbook than his conservative credentials."
Peterson encouraged the party chairs to choose a candidate who will put into action the ideals that are held today by young Republicans across the city. The Young Republicans' contention is that "party growth will be best served by running a mayoral candidate who truly values individual liberty and small government."
On a purely functional level, these Republicans have also been unhappy that Bloomberg allows more a focus on helping Democrats. So why should the GOP back a candidate who undoubtedly helps the other side (P.S. -- Even partisan Democrats have grown tired with Bloomberg's all or nothing political approach).
The appeal should resonate with many independents throughout New York City and it should be curious if any Democrats chime in too.
It has also stoked a decades-old debate over whether the 112-year-old index is really an accurate snapshot of the overall U.S. economy.
"It's been out of touch for a while," said Jocelynn Drake, an equities analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
"There are companies out there that are more significant to the market and they have not appeared in the Dow and there are others that should have been kicked out."
But expelling stocks because they are cheap would fail "to tell the story of the U.S. economy," said John Prestbo, editor and executive director of the Dow Jones Indexes.
"Washington has become the financial capital of America and that does not make investors happy," said Kim Caughey, senior equity analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group.
I'm no economist but maybe we shouldn't be relying on Congress and the White House to bailout an economy leveraged on debt.
Who do we blame then?
Bill Clinton? He has taken responsibility recently for failing to regulate derrivative but that is a saleman's retreat. Watch how all the politician's either retreat, spin or fail miserably to come to grips with the crisis.
Says the ever-helpful Bill: “I just want the American people to know that he’s confident that we are going to get out of this and he feels good about the long run.”
It’s hard to muster moxie with stocks shriveling, Chris Dodd talking nationalization, and Paul Volcker making Chicken Little sound cheery — “I don’t remember any time, maybe even in the Great Depression,” he said, “when things went down quite so fast, quite so uniformly around the world.”
Would be it be more realistic and honest to admit that there is nothing to reverse what might be an inevitable reversal of fortune for a paper-thin economy?
I have no answers. I'm a writer, a media guy and more prone to root for a peaceful overhaul (ie.-- primary and election day challenges in both major parties, everywhere). There's no political spin to save a country from itself, except to admit failures and work from there. If we all deflate together, the only enemy will be the tax bill. By natural course of events, the worst case scenarios could bring everything down -- except our taxes.
Or does it occur to any of the fiscal masters that the our local, county, state and federal government entities have grown big enough on mandated programs alone to rival many publicly traded companies?
While we ponder Wall Street's drop, it's time to consider how big a percentage of our economy is now the public sector and what happens if we expand this debt-ridden operation any further. I'll put out the question a bit a differently. Would you buy stock in the federal government right now? People buy bonds, with assurances of being paid back, but it's our tax dollars that inevitably meet those guarantees.
... So it's our tax dollars boosting the federal stock ... and it's a bad way for America to invest its hard-earned dollars.
We choose to make that sloppy investment by electing candidates whose economic acumen is opportunistic ... and I wonder sometimes if these elitist knuckleheads have ever grasped the concept of a $65.5 trillion debt.
Blame Obama, if you dare, but not if you voted for him.
It's all too much like what former Westchester County GOP political director John Rogers (one of the nicest guys in New York politics) used to privately say to me, half-joking:
"I don't have a scandal," Rogers lamented. "And you can't win in New York without a scandal."
It seems these days that you can't be hired in New York either, without either specializing in stealing huge sums of money like a bank robber through some convoluted scheme or escapading with some man or woman over carnal knowledge.
Why? Is he the only qualified person to serve Governor Paterson?
"... Circumstance and bad choices have shorn him of the one unequivocally competent aide he brought with him to office: Charles O'Byrne, a complex but by most accounts brilliant man - and the one counselor Paterson truly trusted."
Why must the talent always be pulled from the same politically incestuous bunch?
New York does not need brilliance. New York is in trouble. The ship of state is sinking, has been sinking for ... 35 years or more. Brilliance?
How about common sense?
How about outsiders?
How about non-politicians?
How about pulling from anywhere other than the same counter-productive elitist circles that have worsened New York State?
To the losers always seem to go the spoils ... both on Wall Street and in our local governments, county governments, city governments, school districts, state governments, federal governments and dozens of agencies that avoid merit.
When does the "good guy" or woman win in this state? They do win, of course, but the working press doesn't mythologize anymore. Many skeptics feel that's a good thing. An end to hero worship is long overdue but wouldn't it be nice if we had some real heroes?
... Or at least someone being highlighted on the merits of character, rather than the darkness of character or ethical failings.
Finally, vetting is the new millenium's new contact sport.
... Get the widow on the set, we need dirty laundry.
We need everybody in Albany to go. Just start over.
One newspaper cartoonist's attempt to parody runaway debt as a slain chimpanzee is another man's crucifixation, as post-reconstruction images of white police officers putting down a black man were conjured this week by liberal activists in search of a reason to tear down the New York Post.
And Al Sharpton and Nancy Pelosi aren't opportunistic pieces of work?
The Post didn't mince words about the cartoon's intent:
"It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill."
The implications of racist images shouldn't be denied but the implications of federal debt shouldn't be missed either, especially as they pile another trillion dollars upon $65.5 trillion (with the White House contemplating another $2 trillion). What's the real issue here, that the monkey wasn't drawn in a dress to mock House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or that the "dollar vote" has been laid fallow by the hairy apes in Congress gorging themselves on your tax dollars?
Members of Congress are promising everything like identity thieves using someone else's credit card. This is about money that isn't there. Where is "distribution of wealth" when there is no wealth to distribute? But everyone else is a victim, except the taxpayers, who are supposed to foot the bill for a deflating economy.
The Associated Press covered Sharpton and company seeking payback for the racial injuries.
This is pretend civil unrest and petulant media terrorism. It's only bound to prompt a backlash.
Meanwhile, on Main Street, true problems continue to be sadly generated by further layoffs, higher local taxes and public "servants" who are still giving their friends raises and giving more back to the unions than those who pay all these bills.
... And, yes, the liberal politicians appease the minority Hispanic and African-American vote with Tammany-like patronage; money, money and more money. The "dollar vote" rules, for a bit longer. Other activists hold the politically incorrect hostage with boycotts of products ... and basically threaten the sponsors to fire a few people at this newspaper.
Don't count on it. Like the lunatics running the insane asylum on the floor of Congress, this is one hand being over-played.
The New York Post can count. The federal government is bankrupt. Many state governments are going bankrupt. County governments are failing to downsize and local governments are being left taking care of unfunded mandates. If Sean Delanos and his editor(s) want to remind people that the "recovery" act is a fiscal breakdown, a step backward for the country and a near-delusional band-aid on a far worse financial abyss than anyone yet wants to admit -- a crazed cross-dressing monkey (well, I would have put a dress on him) is not such an unhealthy metaphor.
The Post put it simply:
"Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else."
On the cartoon "danger scale" of 1 to 10, the chimp cartoon scored a 9, Dilbert creator Scott Adams told CNN.
Adams liked the cartoon, but judging its overall worthiness is difficult, a gauge best measured by an audience, not the cartoonist, he said.
"Any cartoon has to be a little bit dangerous, and he's definitely achieved that," he said. "You have to perceive that the cartoonist is in personal danger or there's something dangerous about it, that at the cartoonist's next cocktail party, half of the people there are going to want to poison his drink."
Just like George Carlin's seven dirty words, there are also no-no's for cartoons, Adams said. "He's got everything you shouldn't have," he said. "Gunfire, that's the one thing you cannot get away with. And then he's got violence against animals, also a pretty big no."
Actually, given the inane nature of public debt -- akin to what former Congressman Joe DioGuardi has called for 25 years ago a credit card mentality in D.C. with no limit on cash advances -- it is perhaps time to cut those cards. I'm not advocating riots in the street but the voters or perhaps even Barack Obama can take this bull by the horns. Serious austerity might be our only way out.
It's The Economy, Stupid
Each precarious drop of the Dow demands some kind of action by Washington's wonderboys. However, I would bet Rahm Emmanuel designed this stimulus bill to keep his boss in office, not save our economy.
The stimulus package reads like a schematic for the 2012 election. Miami-Dade County appears to be the big winner, according to Stimulus Watch, and it is questionable how much of the money will ever send a shovel into the ground or generate the jobs it promises. Meanwhile, the concept of runaway debt being compared to a crazed (though beloved) monkey from Connecticut being put down by its owner has the political correctniks obsessing on a slave/master metaphor.
I prefer King Kong, though you can substitute any number of animals (pig/donkey/elephant/bear).
I know discussing wild cats and dogs will only get me in trouble with the animal rights set. Maybe the taxpayer needs stronger advocates to compete with the victim-based spin.
If the reliance on public monies evokes thoughts of slavery or big brother, perhaps the deeper problem here is the submissive nature of government.
The taxpayers might finally say "enough" in two years, or sooner. There's undoubtedly a master/slave thing going on between taxpayers and the recipients of the public trough, though it's my hunch that both sides would disagree about who is the master and who is the slave.
There's also a question who is killing the beast. Is this a homicide or a political suicide by Democrats? Since Election Day, the liberals have pretended to bury the past 28 years -- as if fiscal conservatism didn't matter -- as if they could spend like drunken sailors again.
Time for a 12-Step program for taxaholics, Patronage Anonymous and "Go Along To Get Along" support groups?
The only individuals perpetuating a character assassination upon President Barack Obama at the moment are greedy politicians who are taking the money while the taking is good (including too many Republican governors).
Americans have watched Wall Street wallow in its own excess. Now it's Washington's turn to wallow, except Obama is allowing his contemporaries to use Great Society paradigms to treat the inner-cities.
History only shows that such liberal handouts have only worsened the cycle of dependence for the poor -- and it's tragic how such a popular U.S. President can find himself held hostage to the failures of his own party.
The only good news is that they have defeated themselves with their own excess.
Using race as an out? That's low brow, in my opinion, but too many people are peer pressured or afraid of protests to say otherwise. Meanwhile, I'd say "that cartoon" was parodying the master, not the slave.
"Today does not mark the end of our economic troubles," Obama said before signing the bill at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. "But it does mark the beginning of theend - the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs; to provide relief for families worried they won't be able to pay next month's bills; and to set our economy on a firmer foundation."
Now capitalists are the nazi's and socialism are the British flyers over the English Channel?
Mr. Gibbs, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Denver, said, “I think the president is going to do what’s necessary to grow this economy.” While “there are no particular plans at this point for a second stimulus package,” he added, “I wouldn’t foreclose it.”
No ... but they will forclose us, the taxpayers.
The expectation is that all this spending will create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.
Only 70 billion in tax cuts, and Democrats are disappointed that there wasn't $70 billion more in spending.
New York State Governor David Paterson basically believes that cutting everyone else's salary in the Executive Chamber by $2 million justifies giving the rest of the staff $250,000 in raises.
That's basically carving off 12.5 percent of whatever Paterson claimed to have saved the taxpayers and giving it back to a selective few around him.
"The governor acknowledged that the question of whether aides should get pay hikes during an economic crisis and at a time when he is asking state employees to forgo a 3 percent salary increase is perhaps a "good discussion" to have."
But he still did it.
New Yorkers are getting tired of such copouts. The lawmakers pulled this nonsense in Westchester County. I'm sure they're daring raises in other places. It's a double standard and it's as greedy as what is being perpetuated on the economy by corporate executives still maneuvering for bonus money.
Most of New York's lawmakers are still hiding under their desks when the subject of government consolidation comes up. I guess they don't want their jobs downsized out in the process.
Meanwhile, Rethinking Westchester Government's pitch to eliminate the existing county government in sleepy suburbia is starting to gain some traction. News Copy's sources on all sides of this feisty debate have confirmed that a handful of highly respected elected officials could be days away from joining this reform effort.
There are also a few well-known former elected officials expressing interest in the grass-roots organization, News Copy has learned, without any lobbying from any political party (though it appears the major political parties are doing everyone to sabotage what is sizing up to be a massive taxpayer revolt -- with or without Sam Zherka's rogue protest on April 25 in front of the County Building in White Plains).
Something's brewing in suburbia ...
The newest and probably most "out of the box" idea comes from Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, co-founder of the group, and he borrows from an existing MTA plan to regionalism all mass transportion in lower New York State.
Feiner asks the question: Why not regionalize county governments?
Feiner applied the concept to the operation of the Westchester Medical Center, a public/private consortium of county taxpayer obligated debt.
"Westchester County residents support the Westchester Medical Center (the county guarantees the bonds). Yet, the medical center serves more than one county. A regional government that would replace the county would spread the costs to those who use it."
The medical center already serves seven counties, so Feiner's idea -- though likely to scare away neighboring counties -- is fiscally appropriate.
Feiner argued that a regional authority could also cover solid waste, health and social services -- and prisons and police ... and probably much more.
But is that just another big expensive idea?
In the meantime, Rethinking's blog (shameless self-promotion here) and website are drawing a lot of cost-efficient ideas.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is being stalked to run statewide by Republican leaders because (1) he's a liberal and (2) cult of celebrity is easier than actually cultivating a farm team of candidates.
State Republican Chairman Joseph Mondello says he has already talked to Giuliani about running.
"I'm coming away cautiously optimistic," Mondello said. "The conversations I've had with him, and we've had a few, certainly are promising ... he would energize the party."
Not faulting New York State GOP chairman Mondello's enthusiasm about Rudy Giuliani, especially since the latest polling is only promising, but why not cultivate a longer list of candidates?
A recent Marist College poll found 47 percent of New York voters favored Giuliani compared to 46 percent for incumbent Democratic Governor David Paterson. Paterson has lost 11 points since November. A Siena College poll last week gave Giuliani a 60 percent approval, an improvement over his Presidential bid doldrums.
Not to fault Giuliani, whose leadership and management skills could help Albany's anarchy, but Rudy's endured near two years of sleepy numbers. He caught a lot of negatives. The damage is on the tip of our tongues. There is no need to list the problems but my own issue is fairly simple.
Will Rudy show up?
Whether the absence from the political scene has been health-related, an open speculation that is likely false, or some kind of retreat from what he wisely has identified has New York's own toxic political environment, America's mayor has not been around.
Maybe Giuliani's greatest challenge is just arriving. He needs to locally barnstorm. He needs to be, dare I say this, more human ... and accessible? The cult of celebrity has actually hurt Giuliani, I would guess, since it has accentuated any perceived negatives. Not showing up for the Florida primaries last year may have been a politically fatal miscue -- though those who advised him then have usually been right.
For now, Mondello needs to scout New York State for a real candidate and someone he can count on.
If Rudy doesn't come out for the bell this time, the unreliable tag might forever stick and close what otherwise has been a laudable life in public service.
I'm not blaming the State GOP, by the way. Under normal circumstances, I suspect a statewide political operation would get more from a person of Mr. Giuliani's stature. Of course, former Governor George Pataki often let them down too. Ironically, Rudy was always fondly embraced as a sort of anti-Pataki.
Finally, Giuliani is a liberal Republican but that's how the New York's Republican establishment believes that they can win ... as a liberal organization. New York's voters tend to vote more liberal than other places, so it's not slanted logic, but they haven't been winning with liberal candidates either.
"During an Indiana town Hall meeting this week, Obama complained that companies that received bailout money should not take trips to Las Vegas or the Super Bowl at taxpayers' expense."
That's akin to playing liar's poker at a meeting of gambler's anonymous.
The Las Vegas mayor was full of excuses too.
“The assumption that all meetings, event and incentive travel are wasteful is wrong. Now more than ever, we need businesses to ravel and hold meetings and events. As we move forward, I would caution all federally elected officials to use temperance in their comments. Failure to deed the principles will damage an entire industry, and select cities, causing people to lose their jobs and homes,” he wrote.
"They'll huddle here at the five-star Venetian on the Vegas Strip, where gondolas float beneath $300-a-night rooms, hobnobbing with government officials, doing business deals, trying to plug leaks in an industry that's been kept afloat by government bailouts."
Maybe someone could show a little temperance (in spending) throughout the federal government. Maybe the media can even cover it.
As expected, the Obama administration is crafting a politically correct apology to Las Vegas that's bound to draw parody.
In what has become a "can you top this?" attempt by the opposing party to upstage the occupant of the White House, the choice of Jindal could not have been more out of the box by the GOP.
As he raises money for his re-election bid, however, Jindal has traveled the country, including recent visits to Florida, North Carolina, Arkansas and Iowa — a state that would be key to a presidential campaign.
He has also gained attention on the national news circuit, where he has been repeatedly interviewed about what he calls the Republican Party's need to rework its message and return to its roots, and he is often cited by GOP leaders as the future of the party.
First, Jindal's a governor. I guess members of Congress don't count anymore?
Second, he's young. But who says there is anything wrong with a 37 year old getting on national television basically self-promoting himself as a future President of the United States?
But, finally, how well does this all work when most of the Republican governors -- perhaps including Jindal -- will take the stimulus money with all the strings attached. Jindal has been opposed to the bailout, though he might spend more of his time defending many of his statehouse contemporaries.
The New York Post first reported last week that Andrew Cuomo would be addressing the annual State Conservative on the issue of government consolidation.
There was skepticism, perhaps even anger, but anyone who has followed Andrew's long journey back to Albany understands that he's not his father. Being the son of former New York State Governor Mario Cuomo has its shadows, many neither envied nor welcomed. That near-incredulous attitude about the former "tax and spend" governor made the Attorney General's presence among Conservatives a perilious excursion
Cuomo acknowledged that he and the Conservatives don't see eye-to-eye on most things, but added: "We can either focus on the points of disagreement and curse the darkness or we can find common ground and light a candle."
On the social issues, Cuomo and the New York State Conservative Party are anathema to each other.
On the issue of government downsizing, Cuomo has apparently found the same friend who Tom Suozzi has courted. New York State Conservative Chairman Mike Long has again demonstrated that the Conservative Party is neither a single issue nor a single-minded party (as much as this party carried water for Governor George Pataki's liberal political machination far longer than need be)
Cuomo's argument (one that has been made by Republicans and Conservatives for 30 years at least) is for the reduction of local government entities from 10,521 - many of which overlap and provide duplicative services.
"If you keep raising taxes and you keep raising regulations, you are going to reach a tipping point," Cuomo said, sparking applause in the audience.
Do we believe it?
I do. I covered Andrew Cuomo as a reporter over 20 years ago when he was barnstorming Westchester County to pitch reforms in the way housing for homeless women and children was implemented. Interviewing him almost daily, I learned a few things about him as a person that I grew to respect (one particularly humorous interchange where he sparred with the New York Civil Liberties Union stands out). As a citizen, I have followed his rise to a White House post, his humbling gubernatorial failure in 2002 and watched his curious comeback amid personal circumstances that would have prompted most sane men to run away from Albany.
Well ... he's back. He's really back now.
I also don't believe he is planning any run for governor in 2010 -- but I digress.
To give you a sense of how important Cuomo's consolidation proposal could be for New Yorkers, well-intended efforts to streamline local governments in Westchester have failed miserably without the right to hold referendum. For example, Rethinking Westchester Government's mission to at least downsize and change how county government is run could actually happen now -- if the proposed legislation is floated in the State Legislature.
Don't hold your breath. There are dead bodies that would float easier than such a law in the New York State Assembly of Sheldon Silver.
At least Cuomo's proposal is opening up the possibility of people-driven participatory government -- of government by the people -- and it's a laudable step that did deserve recognition by the reform-oriented Conservative Party.
More important, Mr. Cuomo finally left his father's shadow behind this weekend.
Had a publisher who taught me the value of keeping one's presses going 'round the clock. I always understood the financial reason for such production, especially if a small publishing house is juggling multiple publications.
Tonight, I'm grasping the creative reason.
News Copy is about to get a bit busy. I know of some bloggers who seem to never sleep and now I know why. Within the next few days, I am diving back into a few good government ventures locally and nationally. On a county and statewide level -- there is Rethinking Westchester Government -- though I call the county whistleblower site Taxpayers Anonymous. Nationally, I am now helping former Congressman Joe DioGuardi pen his own website about fiscal responsibility. Basically, that's what I also will be doing for Rethinking Westchester Government's blog.
The taxpayers are indeed mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
... Then there's News Copy, whose statewide and national face is about to get another makeover. There are a handful of local venues, some clients and the usual suspects politically or civically.
Finally, there is Wordsmithie ... an old project that many long-time readers of News Copy will remember.
It's re-launch is going change things around here.
A lot is about to change.
I'm not sure when I will have time to take a deep breath, let alone sleep, so fasten your seatbelts. Hopefully, I will still be standing after a few weeks of these sleep-deprived routine -- and then I have an even bigger announcement.
Rose-colored glasses are supposed to be a figurative critique of some politicians.
Have you taken a close look at Tom Daschle's red-framed glasses lately?
Daschle's was left with a "dear in the headlights" expression on his face, as his nomination as Health and Human Services secretary vanished into the ether.
Yet another un-vetted tax problem, Democrats have discovered that they are human.
They spent eight years throwing stones at George W. Bush, tearing down corporate America, and now that hyper-acute microscope is tearing the facade off every politician in the United States.
Barack Obama's humility is noted -- but why must American continue to be subjected to such political pretension?
The media must take some responsibility for this French revolution. How long before those reporting the stories are executed with some parity? Setting a high standard has merit. Using that standard to tear down one's political enemies -- as Democrats have thrived on doing since Watergate -- has burnt out the American public on campaign-mode spin.
I'm a political junkie and even I'm growing indifferent to "the show" on television, from the right or the left.
But the injury has been to those holding onto hope, grabbing tenuously to an image, the same cult of personality so many have literally prayed for since John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Maybe it's time to stop building up every new face like the messiah.
These knuckleheads who campaign for your vote every two or four years are only human.
"I'm here on television saying I screwed up," Obama told NBC, referring to his backing of the tax-challenged Tom Daschle to be his health czar. "That's part of the era of responsibility. [It's] not never making mistakes, it's owning up to them."
He had to. He did it though, a giant step for American politicians, but he only gets to go to the confessional once ... or maybe this will be a regular part of every episode of the Barack Show.
Now can he tell Tom Daschle and others to take off their rose-colored glasses?
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