Monroerising.com

After a busy Memorial Day weekend, I’m back on duty.  My in-laws finally left — I love them but Benjamin Franklin was right when he said that fish and house guest begin to stink after 3 days.

Saturday’s Democrat and Chronicle had a story about the Uncivilly Disobedient 3, 1960’s style protesters David Gantt, Franklin Florence and Raymond Scott, being cleared of charges stemming from their disgraceful conduct regarding the Public Defender selection.  According to the paper:

Canandaigua City Court Judge Stephen D. Aronson, presiding over the arraignment in Rochester City Court on Friday, ruled that Gantt, Scott and Florence “acted in good will, intention and purpose” during a protest Feb. 9 in the Monroe County Legislature chambers over the process of naming a new county public defender.

In dismissing the charges, Aronson said the defendants “appear to be persons of good character” and fought against what “they felt was nothing short of a cultural disenfranchisement. … They felt they were being excluded from the process.” [Read more →]

Tags: Articles, Cincinnatus, David Gantt, Democrat and Chronicle, Monroe County Public Defender by Cincinnatus
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This was buried in the back of the Democrat and Chronicle Sunday.  I couldn’t find it on their website though — after all social networking is their new focus. It is a story proclaiming that Governor Paterson, after his first budget and more than 20 years in state government, has decided now is the time to stand up to public employees unions.

According to the AP:

“It can’t be business as usual,” Paterson said Thursday in
casting doubt on unions’ effort to boost benefits through the
Legislature. “This is not the time to sweeten the pot because
we’re about to lose the whole pot.”
It was a reference to what Paterson calls “the terrible truth”
of New York’s fiscal health. That includes locked-in benefits and
other spending in state budgets over the last several years that
prompt his projection of $21 billion in budget gaps over the next
three years. [Read more →]

Tags: Cincinnatus, David Paterson, Democrat and Chronicle, New York State by Cincinnatus
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Did you see the 1B story in the Democrat and Cronicle about Bob Duffy being accused of hectoring city councilmembers?  For all of you with a public education (the author included), I found this definition in the American Heritage Dictionary:

hec·tor  
n.   A bully.
v.   hec·tored, hec·tor·ing, hec·tors
v.   tr.
To intimidate or dominate in a blustering way.
v.   intr.
To behave like a bully; swagger.
[Latin Hect?r, Hektor, from Greek Hekt?r.]

I knew a guy name Hector in college, but in all my years, I’ve never seen or heard anyone use the word hectoring.  Ironically, the topic of Mayor Blue Sky and Sunshine hectoring City Council was our first post on Monroerising.com. According to the article:

City Councilman Dana Miller, during his 3 ½ hours on the witness stand, testified about the closed-door, three-person meetings. Miller was chairman of the committee that handled the ambulance legislation.

Miller testified that Duffy and Deputy Mayor Patty Malgieri told council members they could avoid being sued by Monroe if they didn’t override the mayor’s veto.

Duffy and Malgieri also read aloud “statements from documents” suggesting there were allegations against council members involving campaign finance improprieties and open meetings violations, Miller testified. And such allegations could come up if there were a trial, they were told.

Council members were not shown the documents, Miller said.

Wow, this is pretty heavy stuff.  When people think of Bob Duffy they think of him as the cheerleader in chief, Mayor Blue Sky and Sunshine, you know, Mr. Nice Guy.  They don’t think of him as a heavy handed bully willing to use their henchmen, or in this case henchwoman, to threaten independently elected officials.

And thanks to the D&C using words like hectoring, they still won’t.  Nice work D&C!

Tags: Articles, Bob Duffy, Democrat and Chronicle by Cincinnatus
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Yesterday’s D&C had a very interesting editorial about Governor Patterson’s plan to  eliminate the position of Upstate Economic Development Czar Dan Gunderson’s job. Paterson is showing his NYC bias by listening to downstate interests who feel there should be one economic development leader for the entire state.

The editorial stated:

As Paterson correctly surmised during a visit to Batavia earlier this week, the negative reaction to his intent to take away Dan Gundersen’s authority is based on fear.

People in this region have grown accustomed to being treated by Albany like second-class citizens. [Read more →]

Tags: Articles, Cincinnatus, David Paterson, Democrat and Chronicle, New York State by Cincinnatus
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Gentle Reader:

Our good Governor, David Paterson, has a life coach.  Would you like to guess the coach’s gender?  Would you like to guess whether he or she would be considered attractive by most people’s standards?

If you ventured a guess, the correct ones would be a) female and b) yes.  Meet Sandra Tate — according to The New York Daily News:

As a state senator, Gov. Paterson spent $4,500 in campaign money on a woman who bills herself as a “life coach.”

Sandra Tate, who calls herself a “life coach” and is sometimes known as “Reclaimurlife Diva,” got the money in 2006. Paterson aides said she did campaign work; her Web site version is a little more vague.

(snip)

On Valentine’s Day 2006, Paterson issued seven $500 campaign checks for “wages” to Tate. He later sent two more. All told, she was paid $4,500. [Read more →]

Tags: Articles, David Paterson, Democrat and Chronicle, New York State, Prudence Izguhde by Prudence Izguhde
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No one disputes that the Rochester area faces many problems.  The most serious problems, job loss and people loss, stem from the overabundance of state laws and regulations that choke businesses and individuals (high property taxes, high energy costs, high workers compensation costs, the scaffold law, I could go on, but I might fling my coffee mug at an innocent bystander).  

In light of these serious challenges, nimrods predictably offer the perfect solution to all our woes: TOURISM DOLLARS!

The latest example of this can be found in an editorial in today’s D&C that praises the state for focusing on upstate tourism.  According to the D&C:

The state this week rolled out a new campaign, using the iconic “I Love New York” slogan, to draw tourists upstate from nearby states and Canada.

The idea is that high gas prices will limit trips this summer, meaning people from New Jersey or Toronto might be more inclined to visit Rochester’s lakeside or take a golf vacation in Monroe County than travel long distances.

snip

The upstate focus, as it develops, must be about more than the Finger Lakes and Niagara Falls. Those are great attractions, but so too is the rich history of Rochester, the home of Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and George Eastman.

There are jewels upstate that a renewed tourism effort should uncover.

Someone please tell me who would go on a vacation to visit the homes of Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and George Eastman.  The next time you talk to an out of town friend, try to convince them to vacation in Rochester so that they can visit the George Eastman house.  Let me know how that works out for you.  [Read more →]

Tags: Articles, Democrat and Chronicle, Occam by Occam
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Add the Brighton-Pittsford Post to the list of organizations doing a better job covering local politics than the Democrat & Chronicle.  They have a story on the Democratic nomiation to run against Joseph Robach.  She throws down the gauntlet to Democratic Chairman Joseph Morelle:

Frankel said that with county chairman Assemblyman Joe Morelle endorsing Dollinger, it makes her job “more difficult” to secure the designation, but said she has been active in talking with committee members in her race for the designation.

“Joe (Morelle) doesn’t live in the district and it’s people who live in the district who really should be making this decision,” she said. (Editor’s note: It’s that what Maggie said about those judges who said the FAIR Plan was illegal?)“Democrats want to win the Senate back and I will do what we need to make that happen.” [Read more →]

Tags: Cincinnatus, Democrat and Chronicle, Joe Robach, Richard Dollinger, Sandy Frankel by Cincinnatus
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A reliable source of amusement each week is the “Thumbs Up Thumbs Down” section on the Saturday editorial page.  Our paper of record briefly describes an event or issue, and then, as moral arbiter, proclaims whether it is ”Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down.” 

I especially like it when they give a Thumbs Up to some girl scouts who raise $57.12 for a charity right before they give a thumbs down to a sociopath who just went on a 6 state murder/cannibalism/check kiting/puppy killing spree.  Way to take a strong moral stand against murder, cannibalism, check kiting, and puppy killing!

Also humorous is the way in which the editorial board attempts to sum up a complicated issue in a single sentence or two.  It is even better when the board attempts this feat after drinking seven blueberry almond martinis, as they did this Saturday:

THUMBS DOWN: for the continued focus on “gotcha” politics in the presidential race - misremembering, the use of certain words and personal relationships.  The focus on nonissues was on display in this week’s Pennsylvania debate between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama.

What does that even mean?  It is nearly impossible to analyze the substance of this statement.  It was either written by someone who was intoxicated or it was translated from Chinese.  Is the Democrat and Chronicle outsourcing its editorial page to China?  I always suspected that the editorials were being written by evil communists. [Read more →]

Tags: Democrat and Chronicle, Occam by Occam
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Maybe it’s me.  I can’t help but notice the local “news”paper’s injection of politics into everything they do.  Chili Supervisor David Dunnings switch from the Democratic to Republican Party is the latest example.

Just yesterday they had a story about Chili possibly getting its’ first hotel.  Let’s see, a story about the first hotel in Chili and no comment from David Dunning or anyone else in town government.  Hmmm.  I find that very interesting.  Has anyone else noticed that they haven’t used that picture of Dunning since he announced his party switch? They put in every piece about Chili when he was a Democrat?

I’m sure there are logical explainations for this — other than the D&C doesn’t like Republicans.   

Tags: Democrat and Chronicle, The Equalizer by The Equalizer
2 Comments »

Oops — I spoke to soon.  Just yesterday, I congratulated the Democrat and Chronicle for going three days without an editorial blasting Chili Supervisor David Dunning’s party switch from Democrat to Republican. But, today’s edition had a front page story on how mad the Democrats were over Dunning (who was never an active Democrat Committee member) switching and becoming a Republican.

They are trying to milk this for all they can — perhaps trying to fill the void in the news since the Monroe County Public Defender fiasco created by Assemblyman David Gantt. 

Democratic Party Chairman Joe Morelle, himself a paragon of virtue, said this:

This is a betrayal, because the people in Chili who supported Dunning did so in the belief that he was a Democrat and would continue to be one, so this is hard to digest,” said Morelle.

The article went on to point out that:

The Chili Democratic Committee contributed $671 during the election to Dunning’s campaign, according to state financial disclosure reports. That donation last year represented the largest individual contribution disclosed, but only a fraction of the $8,047 raised. [Read more →]

Tags: Articles, Cincinnatus, Democrat and Chronicle by Cincinnatus
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