I traveled to Maine for the first time in my life this past week. Returning to the Adirondacks on Wednesday, we traversed Vermont. The idea was to take backroads and enjoy the scenic vistas that this progressive state has to offer. The original plan was to take Route 2 and skirt the Green Mountains, but I suggested an alternate route down 100 and across on 125 to drive through the center of the mountains. Route 100 passes down the east side of the Green Mountains. It is a very wooded area with a river that runs along the road for quite a ways. (The picture above is just one of the tudleys you can view along this route.)

So here we are, heading south on Rte 100, when to our left, there abruptly apears a small field filled with little white flags and a sign that reads, “American Military Dead in Iraq, 3538 “.

City Magazine puts the number this week at 3539, I suppose there is a margin of error here.

Truthout says a recent ambush caps the 3 bloodiest months ever:

U.S. casualties have been rising since President Bush ordered nearly 30,000 more troops to Iraq in a major push to pacify Baghdad and surrounding areas. The goal was to curb the violence so Iraq’s Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders can strike agreements to share power in this fractious country.

So, why the surge, Mr. Bush ? Why are we still fighting this unwinnable battle ? Why are we going after hornet’s nests with baseball bats and why do I have to find 3 thousand flags honoring our war dead in a quaint field in Vermont when you won’t allow us to honor them by viewing their flag draped coffins as they are returned to their country which they fought so bravely to protect ? It’s coming up on the Fourth of July, Mr Bush. It’s time to answer these questions. Our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves. Vermont gets it-why don’t you?

(and what does this have to do with Rochester, you might ask ? Well, the next town on Route 100, past the turn off to 125 is Rochester, Vermont, of course ! )

I wish I could take credit for that title but credit goes to Cliff Schecter

Both Exile and myself have a friendly posting duel over Rudy with Exile mostly getting the better of it - this find, however is mine.

We know Rudy has been postioning himself as the counter terrorist guy. The all knowing one. According to this AP article, apparently Rudy was for Bill Clinton before he was against him.

Cliff Schecter of Cliff’s Corner (a regular Friday feature on Americablog) - takes down Rudy as Exile and I wish we could. Read the article first then enjoy the prose.

Here are some of the other fun nuggets I learned this week:

1) Rudy Giuliani understood the terrorist threat when Bill Clinton didn’t after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. That is why he never mentioned terrorism. Didn’t know who Osama bin Laden was. And Put the counterrorism center in the only place that had actually been attacked: The freakin WORLD TRADE CENTER.

Rudy do you really want to run on this? You’re to counterterrorism what Lindsay Lohan is to driving or Dick Cheney is to eating vegetables. There is a reason the firemen hate you, you jackass. Let me put this in a way a blunt man like you can understand. Your negligence in not replacing faulty radios GOT THEM KILLED. You get that, America’s “cousin-kissing, serial-marrying, Bernie-Kerik-promoting, Oxycontin-pushing” Mayor?

Ouch

The Dems in the County Leg have put out a Reform Agenda, which we will dig into soon. In the meantime, there’s 14 separate items they hope to enact. Broadly, there is a section devoted primarily to letting the sun shine in on how they do the people’s business, stopping the flow of accountability and responsibility to LDC’s and Authorities, and important fiscal reforms.

Sounds good to me! On the D&C Political Blog, Tom Tobin weighs in thusly:

The Democrats’ white paper

There’s much in the county Democrats’ manifesto, its pre-campaign combo-plate platform, statement of principles and complaint desk, to react to, and future blogs will get at the details. It’s good that the party put this out, and it should spark some public discussion, though it mystifies me how the party is able to drive a lot of intellectual stakes into the political ground but can’t get anyone out there to run for the most important elective job in Monroe.

Yeah, we’re all pissed off about that too. Come on, people! Someone step up! You’ll find about a zillion folks got your back.

The Republican response was as predictable as leftovers: the poor, misguided Dems didn’t address the biggest issue, the structural deficit. A bigger issue may be the complete, utter shutout the legislative majority GOP throws at the Democrats on every subject, every time out. No opposition bills, no matter how worthy, make it over the wall. That’s lousy governance here, in Albany, wherever it’s encountered.

THANK YOU! Look at counties around here. Ontario and Livingston chiefest among them. They’ve found ways to harness the ENTIRE county legislature’s power and ideas, regardless of party. With the Monroe GOP, though, it’s party over county, party over people.

Look - I don’t have any answers. I’ve told you about my run in with a car. The recent Fairport tragedy is just that. Fatal accidents on 590 near the Edgewood overpass. I’ve heard about another cyclist in Hopewell who had a run in with a car going 55 mph (A guy at work watched it happen - the cyclist ran a stop sign).

Wednesday night talk about being in the wrong place. I’m driving to Ontario Beach Park Wednesday night. As I approach my parking spot I see police lights and ambulance and a Harley laying in the street broken glass everywhere.

As I leave the Ontario Beach park, I see a SAR helicopter flying over the park. About 8:00 - as I’m driving through Durand - Again, police lights, an ambulance and in the morning I read about a guy drowning.

It just seems like there are a lot of accidents lately. Each accident regardless of fault or magnatude is tragic.

Enough already.

Drive a little slower, take your time, look out for the other person (yeah, the one on their cell phone and sorting coupons (they exist) ).

Be careful out there.

The D&C has a stern editorial today telling the leg to get back to work. The editorial gets the message right but feels compelled to be as non-partisan as possible. I suppose that helps win over the independents to the idea, but really. As pointed out pretty clearly at The Albany Project, the end of this session was all about Bruno taking his toys and going home. He knows with campaign finance reform, his senate GOP majority is in jepoardy. From the NY Daily News, who actually “gets it”:

Spitzer spent months pushing the Legislature to the brink of agreement on a bunch of worthwhile bills. Among other things, he wanted to clean up pollution at abandoned buildings, speed construction of power plants, collect DNA from all convicted criminals and grant paid leave to workers spending time with newborns or sick family members.

And Bruno torpedoed it all. Why? Because he fears his dwindling GOP majority could not survive without unlimited special-interest cash and bottomless pork-barrel spending.

(snip)

Regardless of who said what to whom, here’s the bottom line: Bruno and the Senate GOP are just two seats away from losing their majority. They’ve managed to hang on this long only because they ruthlessly gerrymander districts, shower their voters with pork and go into every election with a massive money advantage over the Democrats. So they view even modest campaign-finance reforms as a mortal threat.

Sorry if that sounds partisan, D&C, but I feel it’s important that facts trump false non-partisanism. (Is that a word?)

The original post is well off the front page but it is never too late to hop on to this discussion.  I saw this comment and wanted to bring it to your attention. Reader Publius chimes in with this blistering comment (emphasis mine).

Points of fact for our conservative friends…The folks who attended the meeting in question were there for another issue [public access TV] when they heard the prayer. They are not the only folks complaining about this. There are a number of town residents concerned about this. It’s telling in and of itself that many are fearful to come out worried about retaliation by the town.

Equally imporatant as to where the town fathers went to school [there are no women or minorities on a town board of a municipality with 100,000 people. I guess everyone in Greece just happens to be an older white guy] is the pandering to one particular church that has received special “favors” from the town.

Here’s one example, no other church gets its own special police detail every week to direct traffic when a service lets out. This is provided at taxpayer expense to make it easier for the congregation.

And yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus.

I wonder if the Church does reimburse the Town for police services. Anyone out there want to comment?

Remember this isn’t an issue about ‘prayer before town board’ it is ‘mentioning of a specific Deity in that prayer before the Town board’. Mention of any Deity makes a government sactioned prayer inappropriate.

This really frosts my cookies. It’s not local local, but it is upstate (NY-24, over Utica way) and it’s a good example of what’s called “moral equivalence”, a typical GOP tactic.

From the D&C:

Freshman Rep. Mike Arcuri promised Wednesday to return a $2,100 campaign contribution he received from a New York City attorney who has been indicted in an alleged kickback scheme.

So one of several thousand donations turned out to be bad. He did the right thing in returning it, once he discovered it was tainted, right? Not according to the GOP:

“I think the fact that Mr. Arcuri returned the contribution shows that it was not appropriate to take the money,” said Mike Brady, a Republican who runs the Majority Accountability Project, which uncovered the donation while researching the campaign finance reports of Democrats.

So if Arcuri had kept it, it would’ve been ok? No, Mr. Brady, the fact that Arcuri returned it shows that once he found out, he didn’t want anything to do with it, and did the right thing.

But this is the best part. Mr. Brady goes on to say:

“Frankly, what makes this an issue is the hypocrisy of the Democrats. The relationship between Democratic members and big money is continuing unabated.”

OMG. He’s going to equate one tainted $2100 donation with the 60-some GOP congressmen and the millions of dollars involved in the Abramoff scandal. Weak.

Come on. If you’re going to go after a corrupt Dem, go after Rep. Jefferson (”Ask me about the $90k in my freezer”) from Louisiana, who should be shown the door, at the least.

You should be praising Arcuri for doing the right thing once he found out. Instead, we’re getting the typical “moral equivalence” strategy. Arrgh! Stop wasting our time!!!

Rottenchester catches David Nachbar waxing naive about how to stabilize Iraq:

We need to deploy the Corps of Engineers, in place of the Marine Corps, to help rebuild basic human needs: power, water, hospitals, schools, police and housing to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and to show American credibility.

No one else has ever thought that rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure might help, right? The reason the Iraqis don’t have power or water much of the time isn’t that lines are being blown up and it’s too dangerous to fix them, right? This is only slightly less inane:

We need to act now with specific plans and intent and establish a definitive agreement with the Iraqi government of things that need to be done to move forward.

What specific plans and intent should we act with?

Rotten speculates (I think he’s right) that Nachbar’s campaign is being run by former DCCC staffers — the same people who thought the race was unwinnable in 2006. Rotten says:

I’m sure former DCCC staffers think it’s winnable now, as long as there’s a pot of gold in it for them. David Nachbar’s wallet will help them see the error of their ways.

This sounds harsh, but more and more, it looks to me like Nachbar is getting ripped off by a bunch of consultants who want to make a book off a campaign that has no chance of succeeding. We’ve resisted saying this — this has been Rotten’s point of view from the beginning, more or less — but it’s becoming painfully obvious that it’s true.

As Bythepeople noted in this post, Gov. Spitzer was in town recently to call Sens. Robach & Alesi out on their lack of accomplishments this legislative session.

An interesting thing happened at the Gov’s visit. One which seems to have gone unnoticed by all local media except WHEC Channel 10.

It seems there were a number of people protesting the Gov’s visit for one reason or another. Problem is, most of the protesters work for Monroe County, including some top level people, like Maggie Brooks’ Director of Parks, Larry Staub.

News 10 NBC has the scoop:

So why were some of Brooks’ employees in county government at the airport carrying signs and chanting slogans? One of the them was her Parks Director Larry Staub. In fact, half of the 30 or so people there were county employees. Also there was the republican Clerk of the County Legislature Mike Barry.

(snip)

Parks Director Staub said they were on their lunch hour. He declined an on-camera interview Thursday saying he was “on the job and kind of busy.”

If we take a look at the NYS Department of Labor (DOL) regulations on lunch breaks, we will see, at least as far as employees who work 9-5, or thereabouts, are concerned, an employee must be able to take their lunch break, or noon day meal period (in DOL speak), between the hours of “eleven o’clock in the morning to two o’clock in the afternoon.” According to a press release, the Gov spoke at or about 3:30 p.m.

While I’m sure it’s ok for an employee to take their break outside of the allowed period, if the employee consents, it seems a little odd that at least 15 County employees would take their lunch break at this time.

It’s a shame that Larry Staub is probably paid salary, and therefore doesn’t have to punch a time clock, but, I would wager, at least one of those County employees does have to punch in and out for breaks.

That’s a time card I would love to see.

In yet another endorsement - Victor Democratic Committee endorses Massa. The foot soldiers continue to line up.

From the Victor Democratic Committee Chair Mary Jo Cascini

“He is highly capable and is a true leader who leads with his integrity,
and we are delighted and excited to endorse Eric Massa,” said Victor
Democratic Committee Chair Mary Jo Cascini. “Unlike Randy Kuhl, Eric
won’t be anyone’s rubberstamp at the expense of turning his back on the
best interests of the people in this District. He is extremely
knowledgeable about the challenges and issues facing this nation and
this region.”

I think Tom in the comments of this post sums it up well when he said

The 2006 Massa campaign never really stopped…it rested and now it is back with eyes on 2008.

Does money buy a congressional seat, or does hard-earned grassroots support choose a candidate and elect him to office?

Remember - the Nachbar interview in the City Newspaper? If not check out these posts here or here or the comments in this post. Yates County Chair Carolyn Schaeffer responds and it isn’t kind.

Much of the letter covers familiar ground to regular readers of this blog.

Nachbars’ position that endorsements are “silly”

His statement “The other candidates are government employees and have been that way. ”

However, this caught my eye

Here in Yates County, we arranged two meetings at mutually agreed-upon times, although both times as the date approached, he was unable to join us. I believe it is Mr. Nachbar who shows no respect for the democratic process.

At the Brighton Meeting. Mr Nachbar was asked about meeting with other committees and specifically called out 2 incidences where he couldn’t make it to committee meeting for work or family comittments. OK - maybe these are those two incidences. Maybe but I believe there are more than two incidences of being unable/unwilling to attend a committee meeting - any other committees want to chime in?

Still this is the point of Carolyn’s letter

Does money buy a congressional seat, or does hard-earned grassroots support choose a candidate and elect him to office?

Ask yourself this as Massa racks up the endorsements of all the towns in Monroe county as well as many of the 29th counties.

Sounds like the people who represent the grassroots, the campaign foot soldiers, the voters in their district - are lining up, preparing to hire the guy who they believe can best get the job done in the 29th. That being getting someone who can defeat Randy Kuhl.

Michael Moore’s movie on the healthcare system “Sicko” opens toay.

Here’s the local showtimes:

Pittsford Plaza Cinema 6
3349 Monroe Ave
Pittsford, NY 14534 Map
1:30pm | 4:15pm | 7:05pm | 9:45pm

Little Theatres
240 East Ave
Rochester, NY 14604 Map
7:15pm | 9:45pm

The Little will be holding a panel discussion about the film on July 6 at 6:30. We’ll post a reminder a few days before.

The Brit Humes and John Stossels of the world will be out to attack the movie, but here’s a snippet of a review written by a medical authority, Arthur Caplan, the Director of the Center for Bioehtics at U Penn:

If you think Moore is exaggerating the woes of the health care system and if you think — as his often bought and paid-for critics charge — that he is just a sloppy, overfed left-wing ideologue, then go down to your local hospital emergency room or nursing home and tell it to those waiting there for care and compassion. Except for luck and a few ticks of the clock, they might be you.

The Guv stopped by yesterday. From the D&C:

Spitzer calls out senators

Governor urges local residents to tell lawmakers: Back to work

 After a bruising end to the state legislative session, Gov. Eliot Spitzer continued his assault on Senate Republicans on Wednesday and brought his “Where is your senator?” tour to Rochester — chiding senators for leaving for summer break with business unfinished.

What was the unfinished biz?

He mocked senators for leaving and said they broke session a week ago without reaching agreements on such issues as locating power plants, retooling regulations on bidding for public projects, establishing new incentives to clean up industrial sites, and reforming campaign finance laws.

This part is funny:

As he showed a picture of an empty Senate chamber, the Democratic governor said: “We’re playing a little game here of ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Where is your senator? Not there. We looked long and hard. We sent investigators in, we searched the chambers. We couldn’t find any senators. It was peaceful.”

Here’s an action item for y’all:

And he urged the audience to call their local Republican senators, Sens. James Alesi of Perinton and Joseph Robach of Greece, and tell them to get back to work. The jabs at Alesi and Robach come as Spitzer and Democrats are likely to target both of them in next year’s election in an attempt to strip Republicans of their slim majority in the Senate.

Alesi and Robach have been big adherents to the state GOP’s strategy of branding themselves as “The Education Senator” (Robach) or “the Arts Senator” (Alesi), despite voting so conservatively that they undercut much of the progressive strengths of the state. Strengths that local educators and artists strongly believe in.

That’s part of the danger of single-issue voting! I know it’s hard to keep your eyes on the ball with everything going on. So just keep tuning into RT and we’ll help you out.

It’s no secret that progressives in this area are very angry with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for not getting more involved in the races in NY-25 and (especially) NY-29. I think this anger is justified: no matter what their polling and registration numbers told the DCCC, it was pretty clear to people on the ground (like me) that these races would be hotly contested. In NY-29, one could tell from the energy of Massa’s campaign that he’d give Kuhl a run for his money; in NY-25, you could tell from Wash’s comically bad (and Maffei’s very good) performance in the first debate that Walsh was in real trouble.

In fairness, the DCCC did drop $450K on NY-25 race in the end, but they spent nothing on NY-29. In retrospect, it’s pretty clear that another few hundred K might have swung the race to Massa — he got creamed by Republican attack ads the last few weeks. And I think that if the DCCC had spent more earlier on Maffei, he probably would have won.

But that’s all water under the bridge now! The DCCC is coming down hard on Walsh and Kuhl over the next few weeks. They’re running this radio ad against Walsh. And they’re targeting Kuhl with telephone calls, emails, and web videos.

I think this is very smart. Kuhl and Walsh are likely to bail on the war this fall, but they deserve to feel political pain for rubber-stamping The Decider for as long as they have. Both races are among the most winnable in the country — I personally would be surprised if Walsh gets re-elected. (And let’s hope the DCCC jumps in on NY-26 at some point now that we’ve got a strong candidate in Jon Powers!)

Thomas Jefferson once wrote that “The only security of all is in a free press.” As easy as it is to criticize many aspects of our media, one should never forget that good reporters are the lifeblood of our democracy.

On that note, we have done an interview with Krestia DeGeorge, a former reporter for the Rochester City paper whose work we admired. Krestia is now the managing editor of the Anchorage Press in Alaska, but he agreed to do an interview with us via email. Our questions are in italics — his answers are in regular font.

1. How did you get started as a reporter?

I was an English Major and intended to go to graduate school, but I wanted to take a break from academia for a bit. I figured I’d get a job that involved reading and writing, so I was applying to journalism and publishing jobs. But this was in 2002 at the height of the post- September 11 recession and there wasn’t a lot of that work out there. I had worked for almost a year at a foundry, then got a job unloading trailers at a Wal-Mart warehouse in Sharon Springs, New York, when one of the papers I applied to called back. It was a little paper (circulation 5- or 6,000) in Ogdensburg, New York. When I got there I fell in love with reporting pretty quickly. I spent about a year there, before coming to Rochester.

2. Could you explain about what your job was at the City paper? We’ve described you as an “investigative reporter”, but we don’t know the terminology that well.

I think the term “investigative” has become a bit of a buzzword these days, and consequently it’s been cheapened by overuse. I consider very little of what I did at City, or in any job I’ve held, to be “investigative” in the truest sense of the word. It’s really basic beat reporting. I’m not being self-deprecating here, either. I think solid beat reporting is the bedrock of quality journalism — and it often leads to investigations; Woodward and Bernstein were lowly cops beat reporters when they (one of them at any rate, I can’t remember which) were sent to cover a break-in at the Watergate Hotel.

Reporting that rises to the level of investigative should show additional effort on the part of the reporter and his or her editor. I’m not sure that you can draw a perfectly clear distinction, but tracking down documents and sources that wouldn’t ordinarily be available, linking them together to uncover new facts, and lending appropriate context to the story are key ingredients, I think.

You can read the rest of the interview below.

Read the rest of this entry »