Small Minded Thinking at the D&C Editorial Board
I was simply struck dumb by the D&C editorial board’s endorsement of Randy Kuhl. A call to btp and ladkiddo fostered this bit of collaboration….
Here is the D&C’s rationale for endorsing Randy Kuhl:
Kuhl for most of his time in Congress has been a strong supporter of the unpopular Bush administration.
[snip]
But it doesn’t consider a key fact: Kuhl has grown in office. He has strengthened already strong ties to the district, which covers much of the Southern Tier and includes all or parts of nine towns in Monroe County. He’s become a more confident, informed, less defensive lawmaker in sync with his district.
Strong Bush supporter? Grown in Office? Strengthened ties? In sync with his district?
Kuhl, like many in his party, has moved away from Bush. He’s challenged the administration on war issues, such as the stop/loss policy by which soldiers have their combat tours extended. On the financial bailout, Kuhl rightly questioned the lack of accountability in the Bush-proposed legislation.
Challenged the Administration? Then there is this excuse,
Massa is encyclopedic on the issues but his scope is more national than local….He’s a big-picture guy in a district with small-picture needs.
Is the D&C board having a senior moment and forgetting how we got into this mess or why Randy Kuhl has had the opportunities to vote for massive “Bail out Bills” that are laden with pork, Energy Bills with big oil tax breaks, and all the rest? It’s called unsound national policies.
Can’t the D&C editorial team see that there is a connection between failed national policies and local effects? Does the D&C not understand that relationship?
Trade agreements that allow jobs to move overseas affect us here in the 29th. Health Care for Americans affects us here in the 29th. Endless war without proper resources and sound national direction drives demands on veteran’s care as well as destroys our economy.
Local success is a function of national success, something ignored by the D&C editorial board who is simply simply content with small minded thinking.
Why? Well, we don’t know but we think that this is all about pork. With the D&C tipping its hand back in august courtesy of Tom Tobin. Speaking of which, what did Mr Tobin say about Randy Kuhl during a July visit to the Editorial board?
“Kuhl’s a companionable sort but he throws out a lot of non-answer answers.”
So “encyclopedic on the issues” vs “non-answer answers”. Since when is knowledge or straightforwardness a bad thing? Apparently, when you talk to the D&C editorial board.
Small minds can’t or don’t want to see the big picture.
Look, the D&C editorial board can endorse whomever they want and if you don’t like it, well, you can write them a letter. Here is the contact information.
What do you think?
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Evident again by today’s endorsements. Maybe the true lesson here is “Think for yourselves”. Why would a paper who continuously disappoints us matter?
Maybe the second lesson here is “Stop reading it”.
Somehow I believe that may be what is done after Eric Massa wins. Onward to victory!
I would also encourage every angry reader to donate the amount of a weeks worth of “the paper” instead donate it to their favorite candidate instead this week and let the end result of “your” paper donation be the one paper endorsement that matters.
The last 2 weeks of a campaign are when those last donations are truly needed. I know the candidates would agree - send the real message that counts, then vote like crazy come Election Day!
Read today’s endorsement of DiNolfo. They basically say that Hasman is well qualified, but DiNolfo is already there so let her stay. This from the Editorial Board who wants to oust incumbents in the State Legislature, yet refused to endorse or even mention Garretson. The D&C’s days are numbered. People no longer get their news from the paper and those who read it probably already know who they are voting for. I would love to see data on what the paper’s record is on picking winners. I bet it’s not that great.
“it would have been good for your grandparents to eat dog food and for you to get your SS number stolen”-SS privatization fanboys at the D&C
th d and c always plays it safe on endorsements. They criticize the public for supporting incumbents then generally do the same themselves.
Call me a Pollyanna - but maybe this is actually a good thing, since it will motivate supporters of Hasman and Massa (and Garretson) to write LTEs that will, almost by default, be more convincing than the tepid “official” endorsements from an editorial page that’s lost the respect of any thinking Rochesterian?
Its pretty unbelievable that they would endorse dinolfo. The social security numbers on the website issue is enough for any sane person or business entity to say, “ummm… no way!”.
Its one thing to have such a matter confront the clerk or for that matter any entity charged with keeping peoples records. Its quite another to be cavalier about it. If say Kodak corp. had records of employee’s online that had such information they would be in tremendous trouble. If however any business has such information, social security numbers, credit cards, licensing, checking, account data breached or exposed by law they must report it to proper authorities. Here, our own county clerk has this problem and refuses to simply take the information down until its corrected. Again, thats insane.
Our County Clerk and government’s purpose is to not only provide services but also to protect us. The county clerk has basically said that her online database is more important than any of our personal information security.
Social Security theft is extremely serious. A citizen would be better off having bank accounts, credit cards, drivers license stolen. Social security numbers allow identity thieves the ability to obtain other pieces of information that they could not obtain with any of the above. Credit reports which show banking and other information. This can then be used to assist in setting up accounts of any and all forms.
From what I just read online the average time frame’s of solving SS # identity theft is 8+ years. There have even been cases of people arrested (many in fact) for actions of the identity thieves.
Allowing such information to stay online once notified is extremely irresponsible. The newspaper endorsing her when she has not done whats right for the people she serves, who pay her salary is again completely irresponsible.
Now given this particular incident can we possibly imagine how many others within the clerk’s office are not known?
If for no other reason Hasman should be elected so someone is in that office to not only solve these matters but to also see what else (if any) matters have damaged the public.
One must ask oneself WHY would the county republicans give $95,000 to a clerks campaign?
What other documents or information has been compromised, falsified or mixed up perhaps.
People think the clerks office is just records… Folks, just records is everything. Dirty land deals on and on. Consider the clerks office to be like your central bank. Say you bank with M&T bank. M&T has centralized information resources for millions of people, documents, this/that etc. The clerks office is no different except the range of records keeping is more broad based and also provides additional services.
Been experience in life for all of us that when we see things like this social security debacle its usually the very tip of the iceberg and that is why I’d guess she is cavalier about it and why $95,000 gets dumped into her coffers. Some residents SS numbers are insignificant in their eyes when they know that other records that are much more revealing of various peoples activities are also filed in that office.
Hasman taking this office would mean:
1. Any follies such as the above instantly come to a stop.
2. The possibility exists that he searches or locates records that show the public how this office may well be or has been very abused and the public trust of it.
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