In Case You Missed It…
Welcome to another week that was on Rochesterturning. Felons and cowards and dreamers Oh, My! Felons and cowards and dreamers in the form of a convicted leader of the State Senate, a teary profile in cowardice by another State Senator and dashed expectations from the White House.
We know how the story ends - we walk down the yellow brick road and discover that we are the wizard and end up living happily ever after in New York, if not in Kansas.
Let’s start walking shall we?
State political scene
ex-NYS Senate leader Joe Bruno was convicted of felony charges of corruption. He was convicted of 2 of 8 charges. So, here is a question: Does 2 of 8 charges make him less of a felon than say 8 of 8 charges? No.
Profile in Cowardice is the only way I can think of describing this video of State Senator Jim Alesi’s vote to deny gay people equal rights. See, Jim blames politics when he tries to explain his vote. Trouble is Jim is a politician. Maybe he should find another line of work if he doesn’t want to deal with politics.
2010 is a big year as every State Senate seat is up in election. That is not counting the primaries, so, unsurprisingly, a primary challenger stepped up for Hiram Monserrate’s seat. Jose Peralta was endorsed by the PRIDE agenda.
The ‘War’
President Obama’s speech turned to action as we escalate in Afghanistan. Let’s start with Frank Rich’s brilliant op-ed on Obama’s speech. Move over to Rep Massa’s appearance on Hard Ball. In the end, we need a mission our troops can win. Defining “win” would help too.
Health Care “reform”
At times, I wonder if we are going backwards on this activity. First off, I acknowledge there is a lot of maneuvering going on in the halls of power as various politicos try to get what they want ( sometimes it might even be what we want too). Still, it makes you wonder -
Let’s start with the Sanders’ amendment - Bernie Sanders introduced an amendment that extends medicare to all.
Meanwhile, the Senate version of the bill looks to drop the “public option.” OMG - to the barricades - but wait - the effort to drop the public option involves extending medicare to those 55 and over. Actually, this isn’t that bad considering the public option, depending on who you listen too, was delayed, wasn’t tied to medicare rates and had some other issues that still made it less than perfect. That brought on discussions about the puts and takes of incrementalism in the comments.
In the end we will have to continue to fight for policies we want and cannot depend on any elected official to do it for us. Which brings us to President Obama.
President Obama continues to fight for Big PHARMA and it is called a betrayal. As we figure out if it is a betrayal, might want to offset the cost of prescription drugs by purchasing stcck in Big PHARMA. Let’s talk betrayal. In terms of Big PHARMA it is a betrayal of a campaign promise. Is this a surprise? In the end, sadly no. Obama is simply being Obama.
Lots of hope and dreams tied to those hopes; but, if we want that hope to turn into reality - sooner, rather than later - we need to move President Obama. How do we do that? We challenge and stand up for what we want. So, the election of President Obama was simply the start, not the finish. We have seen who is in the cabinet, who are the trusted advisors (yeah Rahm Emmanuel) looks like we have our work cut out for us.
In the end, the President enforces the laws, Congress makes the laws - sort of screams for more better members of Congress too.
Quick Clicks -
Break out the Mao hats - wingnuts are back -
You are what you eat - check out article about the extended season for the Brighton Farmers market.
Manufactured Doubt. This is one industry we could do without. How do you apply the term Industry to PR anyway?
Huckabee, Romney, Palin, Patraeus 2012?
Breastfeeding at work? - Maybe Rochester Business Alliance (RBA) should be more concerned with Monroe County than the Federal Health Care bill since they are upset that the Federal health care bill wants tob codify a womens’ ability to pump breastmilk at work for a year. New York State already does this for 3 years yet the RBA is upset at the Federal bill. They seem a bit misguided and out of their depth.
That’s it - see you next week…
Related posts: