As Chris Mattews says, HUH...and back at home....

The fact is that the current economic recovery is one of the fastest in history.  When the President took office the stock market was at 6,000; it is now over 13,000.  When the President took office the auto companies and their few million associated jobs were going bankrupt; now it is once again a thriving industry.  When the President took office the housing market was bust due to financial derivities; it is on its way to recovery.  Is it fast enough for people who are hurting?  No.  But it is the fastest one in history.  For those of us who are old enough to have felt the after effects of the great depression, the push for instant success is amazing.  But not as amazing as people who want to go back to the very party that put us into the great depression; the party that put us into the Reagan recession; the party that put us into the current recession recession.  Paul Ryan's ignorance is perhaps excusable if lamentable.  Mitt Romney must have been asleep at Harvard Business School if he thinks that austerity gets a country out of recession.    Putting money into the system, giving people jobs so they can buy things gets us out of financial trouble.  Even with an elevator, the Romney family can by only so many cars.  A middle class with money can buy millions of cars.

Who is Mitt Romney anyway?

I don't know anyone who isn't related to someone, somewhere who served in the military.  That is except Mitt Romney.  The Mormon Church declared that all of its members were ministers so no one has to serve in the military.  Instead they go places as missionaries.  So after joining a demonstration at Stanford to support the Vietnam war, Mitt Romney hied off to Paris to do "misisonary" work.  While it's very sad that he was in an automobile accident, it's hardly comparable to the horrors of the Vietnam war that Mitt urged us all to join.

Fast forward to the present.  Mitt has four sons none of whom has spent a day in the military.  Sarah Palin's son served; Joe Biden's son served.  Not the Romneys.  How can he possibly be the Commander-in-Chief?  Has he suffered the pain of not knowing if his children are alive or dead?  Has he ever been to the PX or NEX at Hawaii or Newport or Tennessee or Lakenheath and seen the military families on food stamps?  Does he have any idea that this part of his 47% that "won't take responsibility for their lives" (Mitt's quote) are sacraficing their lives for him and his four sons? 

Twelve years ago we had a President who served the war at home in Texas; a Vice President who had dodged his war.  They put us into a war that they never paid for, has lasted eleven years and put the country into severe debt.  Do we really want to go there again?  When candidate Paul Ryan speaks of getting tough on Iran to the point of putting "boots on the ground", has he ever spent a moment of angst over his family at war?  These men talk a lot but they have no way to empathize.  Shame on them for supporting war so casually.

I won't question Romney's loyalty as he and his party question the current President.  But he doesn't want himself or his sons to serve in the military; as a business man he sees nothing wrong with closing American factories and shipping jobs overseas; he shows no financially patriotism by keeping his money in this country; he wants to dismantle the country's safety net for our most vulnerable citizens.  Why on earth does he want to be President of a country for which he has no compassion?  There is more than egotism, there is more than success, there is more than money.  The Romney/Ryan ticket who espouse the bible seem to have forgotten that we are our brothers keepers.  They speak of individualism.  But even in the wild west days, no one got across our great nation without help of others.

Romney/Ryan tell us that by closing factories and outsourcing goods to cheaper producers, they are serving the public by providing goods at lower prices.  Have they ever thought that if they paid workers (the middle class) in this country, those same workers could afford higher priced goods and the country would be in a strong economic position?  Of course, they might make a little less money.  and things are hard for people who only have $20 million plus in the bank.  Please excuse the sarcasm.
 
Romney was for war - before he didn't want to serve in it.

Romney was for privitizing social security as a Republican primary candidate - before he is going "to save it" as a Presidential candidate.  His running mate still wants to privatize it for future generations.   Imagine your "private social security" four years ago when the stock market crashed! (BTW, Social Security is solvent if the Congress stops raiding it!!!!)

Romney was against abortion - before he ran for Governor of Massachusetts when he was for legal abortion - before he ran to be the Republican candidate for President when he was against abortion - before he is running for President when he has no agenda against it again!!!

Romney was for universal health care (a program designed by the Republican Heritage Foundation) - before he was against health care as a Republican primary candidate - before, as Presidential candidate he is for parts of it.  He will keep insuring kids until 26 BUT he will cover pre-existing condidtions ONLY is you have current coverage for it!  At least that's what his surrogates say if you can follow them.

Romney advised in a printed editorial to let the car companies go bankrupt.  Now he is taking credit suggesting he told the President how to save them???? if you can follow that.

Romney went to England to give them wisedom about their olympics.  They now call him Mitt the twit.  When the tragedy happened in Libya, Mitt shot from the hip before we had all of the facts.  But the fact that we do have is that the party he supports in Congress slashed $300 million from the budget the President requested to protect our embassies all over the world.  It's rather like killing you and blaming you for being dead.

I know that I am a news junkie.  I listen to both MSNBC and Fox.  But do you honestly want to choose a President on the basis of a televised debate?  Mitt Romney is a good pitchman. That's relatively easy.  It is far more difficult to weigh the complex issuses that face our President daily.  Mitt Romney has been lucky enough to live his entire life in a wonderful cocoon.  He gives to his Mormon charities, he can afford to do so.  He helps pay for individuals, he can afford to do so without a thought.  But what does he really know about need or want?  Is a person who manipulates business and commerce the one you want to manipulate the cost of your government.   It's easy to order a factory to close.  If he closes parts of our goverment as easily, where will you be if you ever need it.  And make no mistake, if you live long enough, you will need it, if only to keep your medicines' safe, your research and development curing sickness ongoing, your water and air unpoluted and so on.  Think about it.

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On the home front, it takes 9 to 21 minutes for our fire or ambulance people to reach citizen taxpayers living east of the Northway.  (The accepted standard is five minutes or less.)  They pay the same rate of taxes as any other citizen of the City.  There are 1,571 units and 3,545 people or over 13% of our population living in fire district 3. There have been two deaths from heart attack and one from fire that possible can be attributed to coverage well below the accepted safety standards.  When representatives of the five Homeowners Associations east of the Northway went to City Council to ask for an fire/EMS facility to give them timely coverage, our Mayor showed his level of compassion again.  He patiently explained that they have to understand that their request is not revenue producing. 

Is the trail to Geyser Crest revenue producing?  Is the beach revenue producing?  Is the free parking garage revenue producing?  Are lives and property east of the Northway less revenue producing?  In fact, because condos are by law undervalued, the newer homes east of the Northway probably contribute more to the City tax base then any other area. 

The eastern plateau needs timely emergency coverage.  Or consider it this way.  If the engines or ambulances are out here and the west side is out at Geyser Crest, who covers the downtown?  If they are here and downtown, who covers the Crest?  This is a City wide problem, not just an east side problem.

The Mayor never mentions that his pet recreation center, rather than producing revenue, is a drain on city finances.  Still he has $600,000 to build a parking garage for the recreation center in his capital budget.  Have you visited his new parking garage on Woodlawn Ave?  If you ge there after 9AM you probably will have difficulty finding a space because all of the business people in town park there.  What would be the matter with selling businesses space on a yearly basis?  What would be the problem with charging the public 50 cents an hour to defray the cost of the structure?  And this Mayor is bashing our finance Commissioner for reining in his more fanciful expenditures.  It is his standard response to any opposition.  Really, our Mayor is the best advertisement for changing our form of government.  If a City Manager did what the Mayor is doing, we would fire him immediately.

Have you noticed recently that City Hall has become an information sieve?  Look to the Mayor's office.  A certain blogge has been seen spending a great deal of time in there.

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Has anyone else noticed the Romney/Ryan ticket's assertions that their religious views should become the law of the land?  What happened to the Constitution?



.

What's the matter with contracts?

 

What’s with our lawyer Mayor and his city attorney?  They don’t seem to like contracts.   They keep the Commissioners under whom the workers function out of the loop so they can negotiate the contracts.  Our little (this does not refer to height)  Mayor does seem to have delusions that he oversees a strong Mayor government.  However, having cloaked these negotiations in secracy, they outsourced them to outside legal firms.  Do our police and firemen have contracts?  I don’t think so.  Have they negotiated a new wireless contract for the city?  I don’t think so.  Have they negotiated a new CSEA?  I don’t think so.

So what you may ask.  Well, many contracts are retroactive so we might be in for some hefty back payments.  But let’s look at the one contract failure that is  actually costing us tax payers money.

For quite a while, the City of Saratoga Springs has leased a large tract of land on Weibel Avenue to National Grid. The monthly payments to the city remain at $5,400 per month under the terms of a lease agreement that expired nearly four years ago.

The Mayor and his city attorney have failed to re-sign National Grid to a new multi-year agreement. We are told that National Grid has contacted the city about a long-term contract in the past, but no agreement has been reached.   Why?

Here is the situation.  Real estate professionals set the current value of the parcel in excess of $12,000 per month.  Our City is only receiving $5,400 a month.  That’s a shortfall of $6,600 a month or nearly $80,000 a year.  That ain’t hay folks.  Why won’t the Mayor put his mind to concluding a new contract with National Grid?  The Mayor wants to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the waterfront; he wants to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on land and a  new parking garage for the recreation center.  Where does he expect the Commissioner of Finance to find the money for his recreational fancies when he makes no effort to bring money into the city coffers?  Certainly  not from this rec facility that continues to cost tax payers money.

Here’s more lax oversight on the part of our Mayor.  The money that the City of Saratoga Springs has received from National Grid, in excess of $525,000, sits in a special account originally designed to “refurbish” the site once National Grid moved out.  Why doesn’t the Mayor propose to use this money for our tax base?  If the site needs remediation after National Grid leaves, why doesn’t the  Mayor negotiate a contract that includes National Grid paying for any clean up needed?  He has certainly given National Grid a free pass since his election.

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Did you watch the debate last evening?  I did. I'm a news junkie.  I have seen every Republican debate also and both conventions.  Now, I spent time at Harvard Business School so I know a Board Room bully when I hear one and Mitt Romney is a Board Room bully.  No surprise there.  And the moderator is past his sell by date for letting the bully coopt the conversation.  No surprise there either. 

What was surprising was that Romney felt so free to lie; to boldly contradict everything he has said for the past year and a half.  He has often promised a 20% across the board tax cut; last evening he stood up and denied it on national TV.  He has been mocking  hiring more teachers for months; last evening he touted teachers.  For months he has promised to repeal Obamacare.  Last evening he said he would keep major parts of Obamacare.  Does he think that there is no internet?  Does he think we have amnesia?  However, it remains to be seen if the American public is sufficiently tuned in to realize that he contradicted himself nearly the entire evening.  I grant you that the average person doesn't understand the insurance exchanges of health care or Dodd-Frank.  But why would you vote for anyone who says whatever he has to to evern different audience just to get elected? Why would anyone vote for a man who wants to be our President but likes his money so much better than us that he didn't even bring his money home long enough to get elected.

And if he has any interest in education why would he target PBS first, one tenth of one percent of the budget?  Since our tea party friends in congress, if not our governor, have slashed our educational budget, Big Bird is, in fact, the only introduction to letters and numbers that many children have.  The devil is always in the details.  Let's hope the women of this country, at least, can connect the dots.  If they want smaller government can you imagine the size and cost of a government agency to monitor all pregnancies?  And what is this Republican thing about voting against equal pay for women for doing equal work?  Are we in the 1950's or in the 21st century? 

And please remember when our President took office the stock market was under 7,000.  It is now over 13,000.  Corporations have made larger profits then even before in history.  Where you put your money is indeed where indicative of where your priorities lie whether it is Mr Romney or our large corporate structures.  

 

Check it out....

Mitt Romney's great grand-parents were born in England.  They came to the U.S. in response to Mormon missioneries sent to England by Brigham Young.  They were the poor underclass of the England of that period looking for a better life.  When polygamy was outlawed in the U.S. the Romney family went to Mexico to maintain their polygamous life style.  The Romney family became Mexican citizens.  How do we know?  Because during the Mexican revolution of 1907 the Romney's simply came back across the border to America.  However, they sued the Mexican government for confiscated property and won in excess of $9,000.  That was a lot of money at that time.  George Romney got his start with those moneys.  The Mexican government only gave reparations for confiscated property to  Mexican citizens so they nust have thought the Romney's were Mexican citizens.  And when the family left the U.S. Utah was only a territory not a state.   They couldn't have been dual naitonals as the U.S. didn't recognize dual nationality until the 1980's; the Mexican government didn't recognize dual nationality until the 1990's.  One question is how did George Romney run for President of the United States?

Of course, all of this is past history.  Mitt Romney was born in the U.S.  But he does keep close company with those who question President Obama's birth certificate. He also makes great capital out of the immigrant situation.  His first stance, "self deportation" was probably learned from his own ancesters.  He does seem ingenuous considering how his family slipped back and forth across the border depending on the exigencies of their polygamous proclivities against the dangers of a civil war. 

So the questions is who is Mitt Romney.  Even his definition of marriage begs the question.  He believes the definition of marriage is one man and one woman when his own history says marriage is between one man and a number of women.  If you're in your forty or more, you were born in a time when Mitt's religion believed black people were the decendents of Cain and G-d punished them by turning their skin black.  That's how Mitt was brought up;  he became an elder in that church.  Perhaps that is why he makes such outrageous statements about President Obama.

His latest alligation is that the President wants redistribution of wealth.  The word redistribution obfuscates.  Generaltions of Republicand and Democrats have supported the progressive tax rate that is nothing but the redistribution of wealth.  Everyone loves the Robin Hood story that is redistricution of wealth.  And if that isn't enough to show the sillyness of the accusation, all Judeo/Christian religions are based on caring for the poor, sick and infirm.  That is simply another form of redistribution of wealth.

Mitt Romney was for national health care with a mandate before he was against it.  He was for choice before he was against it.  He was for gay marriage before he was against it.  And his family was certainly for easy cross border immigration before Mitt was against it.  Mitt Romney wants smaller government but wants that small government to be in our bedrooms and in our wombs instead of watchdogging fraud and carelessness of our financial institutions and corporations.  Mitt Romney asks  G-d to bless America while he participates in sending our jobs overseas.  He wants to take away the "entitlements" of our social safety nets but he supports entitlement tax credits to large oil and farm corporations.  He also supports tax credits for companies who send jobs overseas.

As for Romney's famous 47% of Americans who don't pay taxes (he may be one of them), shame on him for looking down on our citizens.  Does he resent the veterans on food stamps or the students on grants or the retired living on social security for which they paid or the poor single mother who works two jobs to support her family? None of these people make enough to pay federal taxes.  However, they all pay payroll taxes and local and state taxes.  So Romney not only bad mouths our President but also the many hard working men and women who are not as priviledged and as successful as he.

Who is Mitt Romney?  Whom does he represent?  What does he represent?  Most people say the coming election is about jobs.  When President Obama took office the stock market was under 7,000.  It is now over 12,00.  Corporations have made more money than ever before in history.  Jobs are coming back albeit too slowly for most of us.  But Americans can live without instant gratification.  We can stay the course.  So the coming election is nmore about the kind of America we want.  Do we want an America when everyone is on their own, sink or swim?  Or do we want an Ameria where as a community we give each other a hand up so we can all have a chance for a better lie?  It is a simply choice this election season.  It's your choice.  But make sure that you do vote.  If you don't, someone else is making the choice for you and you can't complain.

THERE CAN BE NO FREEDOM WITHOUT RESPONSIBILITY.

Ah, women....

A manufactured tempest in a tea pot is raging today over whether or not Mrs. Romney worked when she stayed at home.  Anyone with a brain knows that raising children is hard work; in one aspect perhaps harder than working outside of the home.  When the most stimulating (if indeed endearing) conversation is with and about children, it can get brain numbing at times.  But any discussion should not be about Mrs. Romney.  She chose to marry Mitt.  She chose to marry in a ceremony where her parents could not be present because only Mormons can enter the “Tabernacle”.  She chose to be a stay at home because she had the choice.  She chose to have five children because she could afford to feed, clothe and educate them well in a way to her liking.   In this, Mrs. Romney is a lucky woman but not a typical woman.  

In her charming way she says she believes that women should have a choice of whether or not to work.  But where was she when her party and her husband decided to revisit the very contraception issue that enables many women to make choices?  She was silent.  Here are the realities.  Not everyone has the choice of whether or not to work.  They work to eat, clothe and educate their families.  Not everyone can have five or more children.  They simply can’t afford them.   

So when Republicans and Democrats alike both jump to defend Mrs. Romney’s right to choose a life style, please remember, she didn’t jump to defend the many women who don’t have the wherewithal to make choices.  She doesn’t defend the rights of other women to have contraception available so they can control their own lives.  Lucky Mrs. Romney.  What about most of the rest of us?  

Ah, Mayor…. 

Mayor Scott Johnson is a lawyer.  Why is it that he so assiduously avoids following the law or in our City’s case, the Charter?  He has spent a great many of our tax dollars on law suits trying to prevent a change of that very Charter.  2,300 citizen signatures seemed to mean nothing to him.  Why then, will he not abide by the current Charter?  For example, the Charter calls a human relations person; not a part time consultant; not a contracted out HR person.  It calls for hiring a human relations person.  Mayor Johnson doesn’t want one.  The Charter calls for a person in charge of Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces.  We had someone in the position who brought in over half a million dollars in grant monies for the above mentioned purposes.  Mayor Johnson fired him it. He hasn't refilled the position.  He doesn't want one.

The Mayor has hired an outside law firm to "Tweak" our zoning ordinance.  The Mayor and the Planning Department tell us they are just taking out a few inconsistencies and contradictions; they are making it more user-friendly.  In the end, we will probably have a week or two to review the proposed new zoning code; we will have a public hearing or two.  It will then be up to the City Council to pass.  Wrong.  It takes years and study to understand the intricacies of zoning.  It can’t be done quickly.  Why then, has the Mayor not done the revision in public or at the very least given citizens updates from the attorneys about each section so that we have time to digest the changes?

Here is how the Mayor has operated.  A property owner in a Tourist Related Business District (TRBD) went before the Zoning Board of Appeals to get a variance.  It involved the area called Maple Dell – the area around rte. 9 and rte. 50.  It included a Stewarts among other businesses.  The neighbors around the original application were notified of a possible change.  The Mayor ably assisted by the Planning Department decided that rather than a variance that would be difficult to give, the City would do a text amendment instead. This required no neighbor notification. 

When a text amendment is passed it changes what can be built on every property in the amended district.  There are three disparate areas in the TRBD: Maple Dell, South Broadway bordering the State Park and a little area at the corner of Nelson Avenue and Gridley Street down to Jackson St.  Now Stewarts and the people around it may want to build 5,200 sq. ft. offices.  But do neighbors really want to see that kind of development around the residential areas of Nelson, Gridley, Bowman and Jackson?  Do we really want that kind of development in the gateway to our City that currently looks over the State Park? And what recourse do citizens have?  Do we go before the City Council and get our two minutes talking at the bored looking Mayor?  What impact does that make?  None.   

So when I express concern about the “tweaking” of the zoning code, I may sound cynical.  That doesn’t mean that I am wrong.

Ah, regulations…. 

The banking and the investment business used to be separate.  Banks got licensed by the government.  This gave them regulations; it also provided certain market protections.  Investment businesses were largely unregulated.  Then both businesses found that they could make more money by joining the two functions.  So they did.  That was when banks started both giving subprime mortgages and then bundling them and reselling them as investments.  The banking/investment and investment/banking companies took these bundles and resold them until no one know who held the original mortgages. Fast forward to the recession exacerbated by real estate problems.  As soon as the recession was in the offing, Goldman Sacks, an investment institution, and some of their compatriots immediately registered as banks.  While this gave them some restrictions, it also gave them some great benefits.  It was called the bail out.  Banks deposits are insured by the government so the government did not let either the banks or the investment/banking institutions default as it did Lehman Brothers, an investment institution.

To simplify it, banks take your money to hold and invest in solid companies and ideas.  They are in business to save your money for you.    Investment companies make markets.  They buy, bundle and deal in financial instruments and then they sell those instruments to special customers at special prices, thereby “making a market” for these instruments.  The difference is risk.  Investment companies are in the business of selling various degrees of risk.  The banks should not indulge is any unreasonable risk because they are the conservators of their depositors funds.  

Now banks are complaining once again about regulations.  They want to be able to do whatever they want.  They want to take your money and invest it.  Then they want to be able to make markets for their investments.  Stop whining men.  Be a bank and live with the restrictions and the government supports.  Or be an investment company and make millions when you’re right; go belly up when you’re wrong.  You shouldn’t be able to have it both ways.  The rest of us can’t.

It is rather like the contraception/abortion problem with religious health institutions of all denominations.  If you don’t want to provide abortion and contraception service or coverage, don’t take federal money, don’t take Medicare or Medicaid or any other government price supports.   If you take government money, live with the regulations. 

Why is it that large institutions feel that individuals have to live by the rules and regulations and they don’t?  What would the insurance companies do if we all lobbied to stop having to carry automobile insurance?  Oh, they use their lobbyists and PAC money to buy back the necessity for all of us to carry automobile insurance.   And that is the difference.  They have the money to buy legislation and we don’t.  Thank you to the Supreme Court for unleashing all of that money against the rights of the individual.  So when you vote, remember that whether or not you like the person running for office, consider whom they will appoint to the Supreme Court.

With friends like this who needs enemies… 

It seems that our Governor Cuomo wants to out Pataki, Pataki.  He talks open government while he is doing everything behind closed doors.  He got elected by Democrats including union members and now is looking a lot more like Governor Scott of Wisconsin. He talks about efficiencies while making nonsense decisions that destroy the successful.

Are you aware that the legislature passed a law merging the lottery with the racing racing industry under one Commission?  The Governor supported the bill. 

What is that about?  The lottery the most successful money making unit in the State and the most successful lottery in the country.  It brings into our State treasure One Million Dollars a Day – that’s right One Million Dollars a Day.   Conversely, the racing industry under NYRA  is a problematic industry.  With the exception of Saratoga and Churchill Downs, no track in the country makes money.   And those two tracks are only succeeding because the lottery money enables them to give high purses to winners.  By merging the lottery and racing, the Governor is putting a well head in a sick bed.  And check out what the Governor is paying each one of those Commissioners under the guise of saving mony.

Here's the outrage....

Edward Spychalski was hired in 2006 as Executive Director of the Saratoga Springs Housing Authority (SSHA) at a salary of $74,977. In the last four years his salary has doubled to over $152,000 plus benefits, including an authority car and jobs for two family members. Spychalski is the man who ignored bed bugs in the authority housing for seven months!

Who is responsible for this outrage? Certainly, the Authority Board is culpable. But the SSHA is under the office of Mayor Johnson who appoints these Board members.

While it gets HUD money, the SSHA was created at the request of the then City Council as a "municipal" authority under the NYS Public Housing Law. In addition to appointment power, the Mayor is responsible for ensuring that any salary increase comes to the City Council for approval. No vote on Mr. Spychalski’s increased compensation has been before the City Council since the Mayor Johnson took office.

Fire Spychalski sounds like an easy answer. Not so simple. Mr. Spychalski was given a contract that rolls over every year. Contract termination could prohibit the automatic roll over. But, if removed, the Authority must pay Spychalski $600,000 compensation!!! That is how the Mayor interprets the contract.

Since the State law requires that SSHA Director’s salary be approved by the City Council and this was not done, it is possible that the contract is invalid. But the Mayor, who sues citizens and the civil service so easily, is letting this one slide. Johnson’s inaction is part of the outrage.  What or who is he protecting and why?

Mayor Johnson... ask for the resignation of the SSHA Board members who permitted this contract. They didn’t exercise due diligence. If you cannot terminate Mr. Spychalski’s outrageous contract, perhaps you, the deputy Mayor and the City Attorney should reimburse the citizens of Saratoga Springs for all of the money your office cost us. You all failed in your due diligence.

Now acccording to the Times Union, the Mayor has asked Attorney Izzo to research the jurisdiction of the SSHA.  Apparently the Mayor's legal skills don't extend to such a task or  he is too busy to do this work for the City.  And why do we pay  City Attorney Scala?  He is absent when there is need to adhere to legal process. he is absent when contracts have to be negotiated or signed; he is absent when research has to be done. 

But the real question is why Mayor Johnson is obfuscating.  This is a Mayor who hires outside attorneys and sues everything that isn't to his liking.  From rec center to civil service and citizens, he has sought legal remedies at great cost to the taxpayers of this City.  Why has he held back from action in the SSHA?   All of his soft words about "trying to resolve the issue" sound hollow to anyone who has followed his career of City litigation.

Here's the hypocracy....

How many times have we heard Republicans expound on the benefits of free market economics?  Every year American tax payers give oil companies "entitlements" in the form of subsidies.  This is not free market economics although every Republican legislator goes to the mat protecting these company entitlements. 

But aside from that, the gas and oil market is one of the truly free markets.  The countries that produce oil release more or less of it to keep prices up, at the same time considering the competition from other producer nations.  The refiners control production in line with their profit needs; the distributors control gasoline on the basis of their bottom line and even the local gas station has a say in the price of gas in competition with other local stations. Then the speculators play their part in the mix.  Free market economics on every level.  Only the government tax is a stable figure in the mix.  It doesn't fluctuate.

AND YET, every Repbulican candidate for office is screaming that President Obama is responsible for and must do something about the price of gasoline.  What kind of duplicity is that?  If these Republicans really support free market economics why would they want the government to interfere?  Why would they wish to have government manipulate oil and gas prices?  Is attacking the President whom they hate more important than their principles?  

And why do Republicans insist on supporting subsides for oil companies if they really believe in the free market economy?  Isn't taking both sides of an issue the definition of hypocrisy?

Santorum the Sanctimonious....and some other comments....

Mr. Santorum said President Kennedy makes him want to throw up.  What an elegant turn of phrase for a presidential candidate!!!  His point of view is as astounding as his ignorance.  He says our founding fathers were “Christians”.  Rather they were Deists.  Our Founding Fathers believed in God but they made it perfectly clear that no religion would be imposed on the country by government.  Mr. Santorum seems to want to negate our Constitution and impose his religiously crafted social values on the rest of us. 

President Kennedy told us that his faith was personal to him; he would never let it rule America.  True to his word, he kept his personal faith at home but he never let it govern his actions as President of Americans of all faiths.  Neither did President Regan.  Mr. Santorum on the other hand wants all of us to live his faith.  He says religion should never be kept out of government.  He waives the Constitution whenever he speaks. But has he read it?

Let’s talk about his faith.  People in Judeo/Christian based religions all preach certain verities:

Ø      Care for the sick and infirm

Ø      Care for the poor and the hungry

Ø      Treat the stranger within your gates with respect

Ø      Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

What does the current crop of Republican candidates for President as well as Mr. Santorum want to do?  They want to repeal health care.  So much for taking care of the sick and infirm.  They want to cancel unemployment insurance.  So much for caring for the poor and hungry. They want to get rid of illegal immigrants by checking every person of a different nationality even if they are legal green card residents.  So much for the stranger within our gates.

Neo-Republicans speak of smaller, less intrusive government. But they want to impose their prayers in our public schools and our public life.  You become a captive audience to some one else’s faith.  So much for freedom of religion.   They want laws that go into female wombs with vaginal probes if that woman wants something other than what they deem is good for her.  Mr. Santorum says women should have children even if they have been raped or are pregnant by incest. He questions contraception even if it is for health, not reproductive reasons.  He wants to go into our bedrooms; to know with whom we sleep.  If it is with the “wrong” sex, he wants to deny the equal rights the rest of us enjoy including serving in the Military. So much for smaller, less intrusive government.

Mr. Santorum says he wants to do away with our public school system.  He home schools his children because “our public schools are bad for children of faith.” Now, he says our President is a snob because he wants all children to be able to go to college or technical college or some form of higher education.  Mr. Santorum is the elitist.  He who has a college degree and a law degree warns others about the evils of higher education.  Is the American Dream only for him?  Worse then his denigrating education, are the people who cheer him for saying it.  He rallies those who revere ignorance.   Mr. Sanatorium would lock our intellects, our imaginations and our powers of thought up in a narrow, religiously based world.  Does book burning come next?

But perhaps Mr. Santorum’s most egregious sin is that he purveys fear.  He and his fellow candidates spout gloom and doom while hard working Americans are trying their best to work our way out of an economic recession.  Every speech is about getting rid of President Obama.  Surely America deserves Republican candidates who have a more constructive platform than hate of our highly competent black President. 

Religious tolerance started in Pennsylvania where the Quakers found freedom.  Thomas Jefferson wrote the separation of Church and State in that same place.  Pennsylvania kicked Santorum out.  The rest of us should also.

President Kennedy was a war hero.  He broke segregated schools and colleges so that people of all colors as well as backgrounds and religions could get an equal education.  President Kennedy harnessed what makes America great and took us to the moon. He preached hope and inclusiveness and tolerance for all.  Mr. Santorum isn’t fit to walk in President Kennedy’s shadow.

A few comments….

When I went through menopause (that would be past the child bearing age) the doctor proscribed birth controls pills for my health.  I was on them for years.  Does that make me a slut?  I’m a technodolt.  Were I not, I would start an on-line petition saying, “I’m a slut too”.  Come on men, you sign it too.  One wonders what would happen if legislatures outlawed Viagra for unmarried men!!!

Any judge who makes a joke about minorities, no less puts it on the internet, should be impeached.  He no longer has any judgment.  He is no longer able to judge!!!

You want to talk about voter suppression.  Did you know that in the Republican primary, the State of Virginia does not allow write in votes?  One has to vote for choices narrowed by law.

There is a massacre going on in Syria.  Where is the Arab League?  Due to religious differences the West cannot intervene.  It would be mis-labeled.  But the Arab League has no such restrictions.  Why in the 21^st century is anyone who has the ability to stop it, sitting by and watching human slaughter?  We are indeed being dragged back to the dark ages.

#2 - "I'll believe a corporation is a person when Texas executes one".....

In the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court of the United States declared that a corporation is an individual.  Please read the Constitution.  The preamble says, “We the People”.  Amendments start with, “The right of the people”; “No person”; “All persons”; “The right of citizens”; “The rights of citizens”; etc.  No where in the constitution does it ever give rights to a corporation. 
 

We know that corporations and their terminology existed at the time the Constitution was written.  In fact the Constitution, Article II, uses corporate terminology, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America”.   Yet our founding Fathers did not include rights for corporations.   If they had meant corporations to be treated like people, they were careful framers and would have included them in the Constitution.

The flood of money that the Citizens United case allowed corporations to pour into PACs is always quoted as the serious consequence of that decision.  Please note that I do not say it’s an unintended consequence.  I believe the majority activists on the Supreme Court knew exactly what they were doing.  But there are other much more serious consequences of decreeing that a corporation is a citizen.

Take the case of the Nebraska.  Since corporations are individuals they have paid to take over legislatures as in the State of Nebraska.  The legislative politicians there, bought and paid for, decided they would cede to oil companies that power which has always been reserved for government – it is the power of eminent domain.  Eminent domain permits government to “take” land it needs for the publics good, paying a fair price for it.  The corporate legislature of Nebraska passed a law giving oil corporations the power to take land if they needed it.  And take it they tried for the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas.

Republican spin masters loudly blame President Obama for stopping the pipeline.  It isn’t true.  The President didn’t stop the pipeline, the Republicans did. The Congressional Republicans stopped it by trying to rush it through requiring an approval deadline in a tax bill.  That tax bill didn’t pass so their deadline did.  The President then put a hold on the pipeline to honor the wishes of the State of Nebraska whose Republican Governor, Dave Heineman, managed to delay the pipeline by a series of special sessions of his legislature.  Why would the Republican Governor do this? 

First, he stopped it because the environmental evaluation had not been completed.  There are concerns about oil leaking from the pipeline and fouling the Sandhills or the Ogallala Aquifer that runs underneath and provides drinking water to 1.5 million people.

Less known is that Republicans, Democrats, Tea Party and Libertarian people in Nebraska, many of them farmers, banded together.  They decided that they didn’t want a corporation to take away the land that their ancestor had purchased and farmed for generations.  When Nebraska and Montana and South Dakota have worked out their problems with the environmental problems of the pipeline the federal government will do its due diligence.  The decision about the pipeline will be made on the basis of serious studies.

But least you believe that the Keystone XL pipeline will bring down our gas prices, it won’t.  All of that oil is simply going down to Texas refineries.  After refining, it will be piped into ships for China.  “Canadian oil won’t replace imports from hostile countries because Texas refiners are serving global demand rather the domestic need,” according to retired Brigadier General Steven Anderson, the US Army’s logistician in Iraq from 2006-2007.  He also said the pipeline will “set back our renewable energy efforts for two decades, much to our enemies’ delight.”

Drill baby, drill makes a great bumper sticker but it’s terrible policy.  It pollutes air; it pollutes water, it makes rich people richer and it has no benefit for those of us who drive in America.  Make no mistake, all of that Canadian drilled and Texas refined oil will keep China booming.