More LTE fun:

Darwin isn’t the right source here

I found the March 19 column on Medicaid, “Spitzer health cuts hurt neediest,” quite ironic, as it started off with a quote by Charles Darwin, “If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” First, let me say that I disagree with the writer, despite the sad story of her son’s situation, based on the fact that New York is on the top of the list of most generous states in the country for Medicaid spending. It causes the situation where people flock to North Carolina if they want to work, but flock to New York if they want the best free care. Gov. Spitzer is correct to make New York more equitable in its distribution with other states.

What I find ironic is that the columnist quotes the author Charles Darwin on the topic of sin. This from a man who spent the better portion of his life trying to stick his finger in the eye of God, who by His own righteousness, created the standard by which sin is measured.

—MICHAEL J. HENNESSY
IRONDEQUOIT

Christians who insist on making Evolution an issue are taking their eyes off the ball. What did Christ say about Evolution? (crickets chirping) What did he say about the poor? Uh, pretty much what the Darwin quote says.

I’m still undecided about Spitzer’s healthcare plan, but come on, let’s not cloud the issue.

Have any of you RT-ers wrapped your heads around the plan? What’s your opinions on it?

Well,

I’m always happy to beat Exile to a post about Rudy. 

Looks like Rudy supports Gonzales in the Attorney Purge scandal. Go get’em Rudy. Keep digging. From TPM

“The President has addressed it. The Attorney General’s an honorable man. He’s a decent man. He should be given a chance to explain and everybody should sort of give him the benefit of the doubt and allow him to explain.”

Wasn’t Rudy a US attorney once?

Slaughter (as head of the rules committee) just introduced the supplemental spending bill for the Iraq war that mandates withdrawl from Iraq by 2008; the actual vote will take place tomorrow. Here’s her statement:

“This is a war that is being fought by soldiers who often do not have the equipment they need or the care they are owed, that is not improving the security of the Iraqi people, that is depleting our military and endangering the security of this nation, and that is to this day based on a flawed strategy that desperately needs to be changed,” Rep. Slaughter said.

There’s a YouTube link but it seems to be crashing the site right now. I’ll put it up later.

Our very own Mark J B has hisself a recommended post on MyDD.com, talking about Mary Beth Cleary’s historic win in Pittsford.

He sums up our local situation quite nicely, and casts Maggie Brooks’ unholy alliance with the County Leg in a new and interesting way:

Despite tremendous efforts over the last few years by DFA led activists, it has been extremely difficult to break the majority held by Republicans and get more Democrats elected.  Although there have been a few instances, for the most part the efforts have gone without fruit.  As a result of this, the Monroe County Executive, also a Republican, acts almost as a Queen since she rarely faces opposition to what she wants to do.  Too often the legislature acts behind closed doors and leaves the democratic minority out of its decision making process.

That really nails it. In honor of Mark J B’s clarity, I present you with this image. Anyone with better photoshopping skills than me care to refine it?

Did anyone catch this and want to follow up? Growing Radioactive Plume? Not to be alarmist or anything but…..

Read in between the lines Kuhl’s press release. Nuclear waste clean up funds for at the West Valley site in WNY have been steadily decreasing. Gee, wonder why?

From Congressman Kuhl’s press release. Emphasis mine

ASHFORD HOLLOW, N.Y., Mar 19 - U.S. Rep. John R. “Randy” Kuhl, Jr. (R-Hammondsport) wrote to the House Appropriations Committee and asked that funds for the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) in Cattaraugus County be restored and increased following the President’s budget decrease and other decreases over the past few years.

[snip]

I am writing in support of an increase to the budget of the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) in the Department of Energy’s non-defense environmental clean up fund.

The Administration cut the operating budget for West Valley by nearly 30 percent, from $75 million in FY 2007 to $54 million for next year. The budget was up near $100 million just a few years ago and the scope of work has actually increased rather than decreased. There is a lot of work to be done on site, and the sooner the better.

An increase in the budget would accelerate clean up at a critical time in West Valley. There is a growing radioactive plume on the northern plateau of the property that, if left untouched, could spread into the groundwater system which is a network of creeks and rivers that ultimately leads to Lake Erie and the Great Lakes.

So put on your critical thinking caps and ask

Where is this place?

(Hint: Rochester is in the upper right hand corner. The green arrow is the site.)

Why has funding been continually cut?

Why would anyone risk the Great Lakes?

Why is this now becoming an issue?

Maybe that is why Halliburton is moving to Dubai? (Couldn’t’ resist)

note - I actually have a connection to this from a real long time ago when I was still in the Army. I was offered a job interview many years ago when I first arrived back in NY. Of course, my last duty station was near the Savannah River Plant so I wanted no part of this.

So. Mary Beth Cleary, first Dem to be elected in Pittsford ever.  Yep, still savoring that a little.  One thing struck me, though.  If you look at the Pittsford GOP’s brand spanking new (as of today?),  and very nice website, they have pics of all their elected officials in Pittsford. All of them smiling, except one.

It’s the guy who lost to Cleary.

Coincidence?

Why not drop by Drinking Liberally tonight? We meet every Thursday from 8 to 10 pm at Monty’s Korner (pictured above) on Alexander and East in Rochester.

UPDATE: … Or not… Elizabeth does have cancer, but the Edwards campaign continues on.  Here’s more on this.

—————————————————

Politico reports:

John Edwards is suspending his campaign for President, and may drop out completely, because his wife has suffered a recurrence of the cancer that sickened her in 2004, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, an Edwards friend told The Politico.

“At a minimum he’s going to suspend” the campaign, the source said. “Nobody knows precisely how serious her recurrence is. It’ll be another couple of days before there’s complete clarity.”

“For him right now he has one priority which is her health and the security of the two young children,” said the friend.

As for the campaign, “You don’t shut this machine off completely, but everything will go on hold.”

If Elizabeth Edwards is indeed having another bout with cancer, I think I speak for all of us at RT by expressing our support for the Edwards family at this difficult time. I hope Elizabeth is healthy, but if not and John does decide to suspend his campaign to be with her, I doubt he’ll ever regret it.

Roch-a-cha Rant has an interesting proposal for where to move the museum– from Rush to High Falls:

It is clear to me that the High Falls HISTORIC District is the perfect home for a museum of transportaton. The building that once housed Jillians and Saddle Ridge happens to be a former trolley barn for the city’s once-extensive streetcar system.

I like it! But he’s not done:

Given that the trolley barn is located immediately adjacent to the CSX main line; wouldn’t it be fun to ride that same historic trolley between High Falls and the Public Market using the CSX right-of-way? Not only would the trolley serve a real transportation purpose, and possibly generate income for the museum, it would surely bring crowds of people to High Falls every Saturday morning.

One of his commenters even goes as far as to suggest that there be a “museum line” that would shuttle folks between Strong, Eastman House, etc. Why aren’t Man About Town and his readers in charge?

This is a very cool idea, and yet another reason why M.A.T. makes the big bucks.

When I took the kids to the NYMT last summer, they were building a new model railroad line that was an exact replica of Rochester’s old subway system. As I admired the attention to detail, one of the knowledgeable, seasoned railroad guys came up to me and told me the fascinating story of the subway, and how it was shut down overnight.

I’m not a Congressional expert like Rottenchester, just a hack blogger who drinks too much and falls in loves with scandals (geeky movie quote), so I don’t really understand what tomorrow’s vote on the Iraq Accountability Act is about. It’s essentially an amendment to the $124 billion supplemental spending bill to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan for next year that mandates a withdrawl in 2008, but I don’t understand exactly what happens if it fails. But I do know that Walsh is voting against it. I assume Kuhl is too, but there was never much doubt about that. Here’s the word (via TPM):

* GOP Rep. James Walsh, who’s being hammered relentlessly by MoveOn-sponsored ads and blog attacks, is nonetheless going to vote No on the bill tomorrow, his spokesman tells Election Central. The spokesman, Dan Gage, says: “Unless there’s some major change, he’s a No vote. He’s not uncommitted. He’s not undecided.”

Blog attacks? I like that sound of that. Why not join in by calling his office?

Washington, DC Office
(202) 225-4042

ITS MY TURN! The infamous Youtube 1984 Hillary Clinton video… sure it looks cool, but does anyone actually feel like their opinions have been swayed after watching this? Do you think the masses be snapped out of loving Hillary as the ad suggests? Will Obama get a big surge out of this? Did the Republicans make this video to divide Democrats?

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I dunno… It looks cool, but I don’t get what all the hype is about.

Update: from the comments, lipris (from TAP) tells us:

actually, it’s a guy at blue state digital who made it. he also was the net guy for sherrod brown’s race last cycle. this just went up over at HuffPo:

Who Created “Hillary 1984″? Mystery Solved!

See how easy it is? The exodus has started.

Quick on the heels of Haliburton’s exodus from the U.S. — moving both corporate HQ and Dick Cheney’s Vice-Presidential Library to the middle eastern emirate of Dubai — Town of Hempstead officials announced today that they will vacate Town Hall (now located in the village of Hempstead) by year’s end, setting up shop and printing presses in this wealthy kingdom.

I laughed with admiration and awe at the humor of this original post

At the same time I was struck by the ease were businesses can simply move and create separation from the nation and communities that support them. So, this now soon to be foreign company will still rack in no bid contracts? Their low tax rate going lower?

Makes you wonder…

The Situation

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Rochester Premiere

Little Theatre

Friday, March 23rd

Check for Showtimes

The Albany Project is all over this one:

At best, Jim Walsh (R-Bushland) doesn’t believe that sending our troops into battle in Iraq without being properly equipped, properly trained and without being properly rested will get many of those troops killed. At worst, he simply doesn’t care. He’d rather continue to allow our president to simply continue to feed our brave men and women in uniform into the meatgrinder that our tragic adventure in Iraq has become as we enter our fifth year of quagmire there. There really is no other explanation for this.

And here’s the Daily Gotham:

James Walsh, NY-25, also voted to send unrested, unprepared troops into combat without armor or adequate weaponry. James Walsh believes that American soldiers should be sent into combat unready, unarmored, unfit to fight. James Walsh does not realize, or does not care, that his ass-kissing of his White House overlord will cost American lives.

Here’s the number for his DC office if you want to try to talk some sense into him:

(202) 225-4042

I’ll explain a bit more what this is about below the fold

__(’Read the rest of this entry »’)

The D&C has them here. They also have a brief summary of the major upset, which includes this blurb about the big Democratic upset in Pittsford:

In Pittsford, Mary Beth Cleary defeated incumbent Trustee John P. Limbeck.

Cleary, a political novice, said her victory marks the first time a candidate endorsed by the Democratic Party has been elected to the village board.

Cleary said that within three months she hopes to become a “decision leader” and fulfill her campaign promises to improve traffic and keep open the lines of communication between the board and residents.

We also give a full list of (unofficial) results under the fold. The bold-faced names are the winner, those with “(I)” by their names are incumbents.

__(’Read the rest of this entry »’)