Looking Ahead

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis Reforming municipal governance; legislators are deep thinkers In context with AG Andrew Cuomo’s intent to clean up New York’s finances, once he gets elected Governor, the topic of unfunded pensions contracted by NYState’s 10,000 municipalities comes to mind. That is particularly emphasized by today’s story of California’s Bell city, one of the poorest in LA County, where the city manager, his assistant and his police chief earn $787K, 357K and $457K respectively, evidently illegally self-awarded. They are on the way out, and the most poignant gripe comes from a city person who finds it painful to contemplate the $400K lifetime pension the manager will collect, equal to the pay of President Obama. That made me look up an early 2010 NYTimes story about state and city employees not just here but countrywide, who churn up their overtime hours to get extra pensions that can exceed their base pay. NY is getting more careful, after 20 or so years of pension rule excesses: full pensions for public employees are going to be paid only after reaching age 62, according to a law passed in January 2010. This does not affect early retiring; there are specific classes of public safety employees who can retire after 20, others after 30 years of service, and as young as age 55. Some such pension boosters are illegal, the city of Yonkers is cited as particularly flagrant, with policemen able to serve as flagmen at Con Ed construction jobs, and illegally report the time to the NYS Pension Fund. Consequently, the Yonkers expected $1.2M pension burden has grown to nearly $4M. ConEd observes that other municipalities involved actually require that policemen be employed as flagmen; hopefully without involving Pension Fund. It is ironic that the Yonkers remedy, firing 90-odd flagrant cops will only increase the overtime burden for the balance of the cops, and tack on more overtime. It should be recognized that legitimate overtime is a constant fact of life for public safety employees, and without it municipalities cannot exist. NYS Constitution bars public employees from showing the rates at which they can build their pensions. Per NYT, in 2008 average public employee pensions were $18K/yr based on average pay of $45K, compared to private industry’s $8K/yr. pension and $37K/yr pay. . It is noted that years ago government pay was considerably less than private, and pensions were supposed to make up for it, but since the crises and downsizings of the past three decades the balances have changed. Note that the above statistics make no attempts to equate professional requirements, and the low benefits are due to a considerable presence of survivor or spousal pension beneficiaries. Within this pitiful statistical framework there is a spike in the bell-shaped curve that 3,700 public service retirees receive over $100K/yr free of state and local taxes. I feel very callous reporting excess pensions among public employees when the administration’s Special Master of administrative pay for bailouts Kenneth R.Feinberg shows that 17 financial companies IN private industry have spent over $2B on bonuses, also public money, 80% unearned, but that will be addressed as legally unjustified, and collected... The pension extravaganza has a full and total legal basis, and will not be cured by fines and jail terms. How did this all come about? As the AG said (see my last week’s article) NYS legislators were people of honor 30 years ago. But then the ethics slipped, elected officials tasted the sweet awards of public service, and opted to stay at the public trough. That requires votes. A lot of votes come from the public employees, and their cousins and aunts, by the dozens, claiming them was made possible by upping the employees’ benefits (the same game applies to teachers). How? You cannot do it by increasing pay levels that raises protests from taxpayers, but pensions? They will not become payable on my watch, says the wily legislator, who votes accordingly and stays in office forever. Meanwhile state and municipality budget estimates countrywide are above what the taxes will bring, by an amount that varies from a low estimate of $300B to a high of $2.5T – it looks more real when written as $2,500B. Doomsday comes with a whimper, not a bang. The same thinking applies in US Congress, when you consider the miserable chipping away of President Obama’s Environment bill. Do you think that all the Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats voting against any thought of global warming and carbon emissions control are ignoramuses? Not by a long chalk, legislators are smart, and voting against carbon controls will get the ballot approval of global warming deniers and, more importantly, tax protesters. And, besides, the legislators are also guessing that the world will not collapse on their watch and that of their children. A propos the deniers, this spring I met engineers from Ohio and Wisconsin, contractors from Illinois and Maryland, and retired cops from NY who know climate better than the ivory tower scientists and besides, the winter was naturally warm, and now a hot July feeds more denials. Obviously, a dollar saved now is worth more than a life saved a hundred years from now; the present value theorists might actually be able to quantify it. Wally Dobelis thanks The New York Times, Harry Long Walsh, Amy Schoenfeld and Internet sources,

***For messages address Wally@ix.netcom.com. There are no links:
To view older articles, click on the Archives
(column on left) for the month & year of appearance
To view older articles, click on the Archives
(column on left) for the month & year of appearance.

Topics:
UNION SQUARE & COMPANY-- work in progress, constantly updated little lax now, keep searching month by month):
4/23/10 Preservationists' problems: Block Beautiful ,East 19th Street
12/31/09Bonb Iran proposal & Obama agenda reviewed
12/24/09News from Stuyvesant Square Park: East Midtown survives
12/17/09"Three cups of tea" policy & Afghanistan
12/9/09 Third Street Music School wonderful
11/26/09Rabbi Irving J. Block memorial lecture
11/22/09 Harvest in the Square\
11/19/09New York celebrates Yankee World Series
11/9/10/09 Saturday in the Union Squre Park with Tylon
11/5/09 Peoples Symphony concerts great
9/11/09 Muni-Parking painful
8/29/09 J. C. Penney's coming to NYC
8/21/09 Ray Roberts obituary
8/13/09 West African relief concert at Brotherhoood
7/30/09 New Department stores on Union Square - is the recession over?
7/10/09 The New York State Senate follies
5/2/09 Chrysler collapse drama
4/23/09 Earth Day
4/11/08 Health Insurance
4/9/09 Geen Motors collapse
3/36/09 Quo vadis. President Obama?
2/26/09 Stimulus.bailout and your coop
More to come, gimme time and air
12/24/08 How to be Governor David Paterson and keep friends-cont'd
10/9/08 John C, Angle, first president of Union Square BID
10/2/08 Edward K. Kane, a lawyer who gave back
9/18/08 Energy independence in NYS
9/11/08 Metro parking in NYC needs work
8/21/08 Gramercy Park -preservation of trees
8/16/08 Touring Bedpan Alley North
6/26/08 New Yprkers rate politicians, Presidents
5/15/08 Greenmarket revisited - restaurant eliminated
4/15/08 Goodbye, Greenmarket as we know it
4/10/08 Author meets severe critics at Strand
4/3/08 NYC still a good place to live
3/27/08 Obama answers questions, raises others
3/20/08 Eco and environmental solutions
3/6/08 Positive new foreign policy scenario offered
2/28/08 How to judge primary results
2/21/08 NY housingprices up, despite national slump
2/12/08 NYC housing prices still up, despite national slump
2/7/08 Pol news via FaceBook and spam
1/17/08 Get out and poll: everybody's an analyst
12/27/07 Visiting Upper West Side: Zabar's, B&B Bagels and such
12/15/07 Moslem women work for peace
11/28/07 Bloomberg for President?
11/21/07 Siena Survey of politicians' futures
11/15/07 74th AD clubs assess politicians' chances
11/7/07 Brotherhood Synagogue's Rabbi Irving Block memorial
11/1/07 The politics of watching World Series 2007
10/27/07 Set out and live - 14th St subway news updated
10/25/07 SUVs on 14th Street predict US economy
10/18/07 William Dean Dowells - our neighbor
9/27/07 Harvest in the Square - Union Square's County Fair
9/14/07 Get Out and live - 14th Street
9/6/07 Wathing thoroughbreds at Saratoga
8/16/07 Storm reveals NYC's vulnerabilities
8/9/07 Spitzer, Bloomberg on a learning curve
8/2/07 Stuyvesant Square Park, Harry Potter, Albania Mania
7/26/07 New noise laws
7/19/07 More about Stuyvesant Square
7/12/02 Beverly Sills; saving humanity
6/6/07 Sgt. Prpper 40 years old
5/31/07 Bloomberg running for President?
5/17/07 NY Street faits - enthnological, folkloric?
4/19/07 Is Police Academy leaving 20th St - again?
4/16/07 Bush - a negotiator?
4/5/07 Can Metropolitan Opera and the art form survive modernity?
3/15/07 Woody Allen's Annie hall is 30 years old
3/8/Bill Richardson for President?
3/1/07 How the Left feels - and whaqt of it
2/15/07 Union Square redesign - again
1/18/07 Mayor Bloomberg has the terrorists in his sights
1/11/07 NYS governors always speak well
1/4/07 Greetings - for better or verse
12/28/06 Step outside and into adventure - Roundabout Theatre
12/21/06 Ladies' Mile -a visit to 5th Avenue
11/2/06 Protecting the open spaces of Stuyvesant Town- Special Planned Community Preservation District proposal
10/25/06 Protecting the open spaces of Stuyvesant Town- Historic Places Designation proposal
10/18/06 Medical examiner Shiya Ribovsky writes of autopsies and 9/11/01
10/12/06 Foley, the Marines, and my country
10/5/06 After the Primary: Sylvia Friedman a Working Families candidate; Ohio strategy
9/28/06 Harvest in the Square -our county fair
9/21/06 Step outside and into adventure - bus ride to Javits
8/31/06 Union Square redesign - basics, compromises
8/22/06 Democratic rivalries for Primary day 9/2/2006
8/12 Con Edison problem s, solutions
7/28/06 Parkchester condos - a lesson for Stuyvesant Square/ Peter Cooper
6/29/09 Union Square redesign - back to the drawing board
6/23/06 Stories of Guardian Life,
6/2306 Union Square walking tour Parts 1-2-3, from June 1996
6/23/06 Metropolitan Life, New York Life, Guardian Life - histories
6/22/06 Judi Golden day at Brotherhood Synagogue
5/25/06 NY City and NY State politics revisited
5/9/06 Old scams never die - the Six Degrees of separation look-alike
4/26/06 Trader joe's Two-Buck-Chuck dazzles 14th Street
4/13/06 CB5 approves redesign of Noth End of Union Square
to be filled in - visit 3/06 and 2/06 sites, as accessible by clicking left margin
1/12/06 Sal Anthony's and Second Ave Deli are closing - who's next?
1/9/05 Match Point - a Dreiserian movie with added twist by Woody Allen
1/5/06 Step Outside - and Into Adventure: Giant Owl in Central Park
1/29/05 Step Outside - and into Adventure: Christmas in NYC, Fra Angelico
12/2/05 George T. Conklin Jr, Guardian Life CEO and former neighbor, dies at 90
11/17/05 Lorenzo da Ponte -our Mozart Connection revisited
11/3/05 Fearless Preditions of the 11/8 election in Manhattan
10/2/05 Step out of doors - and into advenure: Union Square
9/29/05 Harvest in the Square, New York's version of the County Fair
9/22/05 Viewing the Primary from 14th Street and 3rd Avenue
9/16/95 About the Primary, 9/11/WTC and New Orleans
8/30/05 A look at out local Republican neighbors
8/21/05 Park Towers Coop Annual Meeting Minutes
7/14/05 Lyme disease fells Wally Dobelis; dental advice
7/7/05 Small world - China, India, the Roosevelts
6/16/05 Good local people - CCS; Jack Bringmann; the passing of
Jeanne Tregre
6/9/05 Sidewalk cafes ; a pedestrian boulevard on 42nd Street; CB6
5/26/05 Dr. Paranoia is tired of bafflegab
5/19/05 NY Public Library trustees - some unkind thoughts about
5/12/05 For MetLife watchers - update and surmises
5/05/05 The new banking world and the cashless society
4/28/05 Secret and public Springtime pleasures in local parks
4/21/05 CB5 acts on street fairs and Union Square redesign
4/07/05 MTA, street fairs and licensing issues at CB6
3/24/05 New Takeout food resource, the Whole Foods Market
12/2/04 Neighbors remebered at Thanksgiving
11/4/04 Community Board 5 has a dream
9/30/04 Harvest in the Square Festival on Union Sq
9/23/04 Waterfront by Phillip Lopate
9/15/04 New restaurants
9/9/04 Union Square during Republican Convention
8/25/04 Stuyvesant Square Park
8/19/04 Local history Republicans should visit
7/30/04 CB 5 meeting
7/27/04 Roses are blooming in Stuy Square Park
7/17/04 Bank of the Metropolis building
7/1/04 CB 6 and the Zeckendorf Escalator
6/25/04 History of subway art
6/10/04 CB 5
6/3/04 CB 6
5/27/04 Intro to Community Boards
5/20/04 Brotherhood Synagogue 50 yrs
5/6/04 Book Row of America – 4th Avenue, part II
4/29/04 Book Row of America – 4th Avenue , part I
1/22/04 Oldtimer reflects on banks in the neighborhood
12/25/03 Big changes coming to Union Square
8/28/03 Workers tell Blackout stories
8/21/03 Escape from NY, a blackout story
9/17/99 Union Square Walking Tour – reprint of three 9/95 articles
Gramercy Park and Stuyvesant Square Walking Tours series will be posted when copies are located - keep checking

METLIFE STORIES
5/12/05 For MetLife watchers, some updates and surmises
2/17/05 Observations on MetLife/Travelers
and other mergers

TAGHKANIC
6/29/05 Association of Taghkanic Neighbors formed

PARK TOWERS
8/21/05 Park Towers Annual Meeting minutes


"A CONDO IN THE KEYS" - series, to come.....


To view our condo in MoonBay colony, Key Largo, open (or paste into your browser) http://www.floridakeysrentalsandsales.com/VacationRentalsCondos.htm#Weekly%20Condos to view the entire MoonBay . Click on Vacation Rentals, then MoonBay, then Unit B101, then pictures. Some unique aspects of this unit: note private garden, easy ground-floor access to private parking space, pool, tennis, and an easy walk to the marina (fabulous sunsets from the tiki hut). The unit particularly suitable for people with children and those with walking difficulties. A restaurant 100 yards away, also a nearby supermarket (one mile) and diving/snorkeling the John Pennekamp State park coral reefs (three miles).

For general and rental info call Barbara Wodka at Florida Keys Rentals & Sales Corp, 1-888/451-1050, cell phone 305/304-1160

Some of the articles (also in A Condo in Key Largo and The Prettiest Condo in Key Largo, separate blogs)
07/13/09 A Condo in Key Largo - Your boat in your Closet and Other Pleasures of the Simple Life
07/13/09 A Condo in Key Largo - 1350 miles staight down I-95
3/9/09 Kayaking through the mangroves and other sagas of Florida Keys
12/22/04 Florida Keys - an excellent place for your health

"TALES OF AUSTRALIA, SOUTH PACIFIC and MEZOAMERICA" series - incomplete
1/18/04 Small Fiji island welcomes you
1/8/04 Visiting Vanu Atu -continued
12/17 /03 A tour of paradise in South Pacific (Vanu Atu)
2/20/01 Holiday shopping in Melbourne, Australia
12/13/01 Visiting Alice Springs, in the center of Australia

Labels: condo in the Keys

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis



Attorney-General Andrew Cuomo is taking his gubernatorial campaign seriously, with an 11-day tour in a rented Winnebago, visiting Democrats throughout NYS. There are 62 counties, so his work load is quite extensive.



We caught him on the third day of his travels, arriving an expected half an hour late, at 2 PM, in a small meeting room on Warren Street in Hudson, Columbia County, where about a hundred party faithful had gathered on a mercifully less than scorching day. They were tightly packer, seated and standing, while a small squad of local press people milled at the door. First sign of Cuomo’s arrival were two well-dressed bodyguards, checking the premises, while the guest shook hands with local dignitaries. Then, traveling photographers and two film people trooped in, seeking strategic spots, followed by the locals and the guest, slightly taller than the entourage, smiling and waving. The introducer, Richard Scalera, longtime Mayor of Hudson, thanked Cuomo for several federal grants during his 1997-2001 HUD secretaryship years. He was followed by a local Republican ex-Councilman who reminded us to be New Yorkers together, first and foremost, thinking of common goals. and little Michaela Cuomo who introduced her father. This light touch was followed up by the AG, who thanked everybody – he knew all names (no script) and remembered friends who had helped him in the previous campaigns [Cuomo also ran for Governor in 2002, withdrawing in favor of Carl McCall, who lost to Pataki]. That led into the current campaign, which he described as crucial, the state being at a tipping point, the government in desperate need of repair. We have inefficient governance, ineffective legislatures operating on the verge of criminal neglect, acting in service of lobbyists and big donors rather than taking care of hard-working fellow New Yorkers. Creating jobs is the primary requirement, and new taxes are not acceptable. Everybody must realize that the state is broke and everybody must make sacrifices.



How does he intend to cure the shortages and maintain services? Cuomo points to the 1,000 state agencies, authorities and districts, created in good times and using up tax dollars. The cutting of agencies is in his program; likewise, cutting the 10,000 plus local governments and districts, all heavily cost burdened. Property taxes, more than state taxes, are destroying local lifestyles and economies, and many more businesses are ready to jump ship, moving out of state if taxes increase. He intends to work for consolidation of townships into larger units, and more efficient services provided by the larger units.

Cuomo remembers that in his youth, at 21, he was introduced to NYS government, and senators and assemblypeople were role models, not touched by the stigmas of today’s electees. New York always led the country in progressive government, labor legislation, women’s rights environment (Storm King was mentioned), and, now, gay rights. It is now high time to return to principles, budget creation, good government, doing the right thing regardless of voter and pressure group opinions; he would like to see his daughters grow up in a proper New York, as it was in the past.



This, more or less, covers the 15 minute campaign speech, interrupted by applause. Cuomo had several such rallies before Hudson, and a lot after, covering several counties. He was an effective speaker, words and humor flowed effortlessly, much improved from the shorter bits observed earlier in the campaign.



In the cold light of the day, Cuomo’s concern about a potential loss appears exaggerated. Comparing campaign funds, the former Congressman, Republican Rick Lazio has collected under $2 million, compared to Andrew Cuomo’s $26.3 million on hand. The AG raised $9 million in 2010, and is going strong. Lazio’s campaign funds have been nearly spent, for fees, air travel and lodgings while campaigning, and the campaign appears surviving on loans from the candidate, who earned $1.95 million last year as a securities industry consultant. Meanwhile, Carl Paladino, the wealthy Buffalo builder running with Tea Party support, will challenge Lazio in the Republican primary, coming in with 28,000 signatures, quadruple the required amount, after spending some $1.6 million of the $10 million personal funds he has pledged to use. Votes for Paladino rob Lazio of support, and should he lose, the temperamental Paladino may not pull. Maybe, though in this anti-party and anti-politician climate, inexperience and bravado should count as a plus?



As to Cuomo’s intent to cut services, to save taxpayer funds, eliminating agency overlap has been tried before, and combining townships is a corporate merger routine, cutting duplication in administrative overhead. Can Cuomo really not only talk the talk but also walk the walk? It seems there is a chance, Governor David Paterson’s recent brave effort to cut spending , as of a week ago vetoing $190 million in “pork barrel” funds , known as member items, money that legislators hand out in their districts, may start paving the way.. Alas, his cuts also included $419 million in education funding, which will reverberate in property tax increases. Not being a candidate for office and not having to worry about voter and pressure group revenge, Paterson can be brave, and truly lead the way to reform of the NYS legislature, with Cuomo following through. New York’s downfall is its concentration-based racial and ethnic diversity, not the splendid mosaic in David Dinkins’s terms, but ghetto based, leading to secure seats in the legislature. The “safe seats” then constitute the balancing votes that counter and tilt legislative initiatives into inactivity. Good luck, Andrew Cuomo, in walking the walk!

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis


This has been the most exciting week in sports. In the World Cup, frequent contender Netherlands returned to the finals for the first time in 30 years; powerful Germany was defeated by economic basket-case Spain ("... and please send our bailout checks to the following address..."), who went on to an ugly though deserved victory in the Final against the Dutch (a battle of manhandling and diving but the better team won); and the South Americans, so dominant in the first round of play, were relegated to a 4th-place finish (represented by Uruguay, a country comparable in population to Brooklyn). All this after France self-destructed, Italy dropped, and rope-walking US, who finally lost their footing against Ghana, won their group for the first time in 80 years, and proved they are a very solid top-20 team, if not the top-10 team they believed themselves to be.



The audiences favored the World Cup, but for talk-show content, the World Cup had lost its supremacy by the final week. Chin-wagging is the ne plus ultra in sports, of course, and for that nothing could beat LeBron's Moment, the great coming out party in which basketball miracle man LeBron James shed the yoke of his former contractual employer the Cleveland Cavaliers. LeBron can excite the fans to a frenzy (and win games, if not yet a championship); his presence on any team is worth hundreds of million of dollars to the venue of his choice, and he was interviewing plenipotentiaries from all teams with both the money and the salary cap space to purchase such a power player: the L.A. Clippers, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat and those self-same Cavaliers, as well as our local powers, the Knicks and the New Jersey Nets, all announced to the press and profusely discussed on talk shows. It was like two years ago, when the major cities of the world were contending for the Olympic Games -- though the battle for LeBron was perhaps a better-justified competition, because whereas the Olympics is a one-time deal and usually a money loser, a top-drawing sports ace can be both a money-winner for the team and, more, a continuous boost to a municipal economy. The stakes were escalated because two other amigos, Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat and Chris Bosh, a front court power on the Toronto Raptors, were also ready to depart, as free agents, and it was known that all three had been the superstars who won the Olympic Games for the US in 2008, and might like to combine their fortunes in one team and rule the NBA for a few years.




James had proclaimed that he would make his decision on Thursday, July 8 and announced it in a hour-long show on ESPN. That went a bit far, to an exposure level of Presidential campaigns and well beyond the Olympic game site selection hoo-ha. Apparently James was doubtful, but Bosh made up his mind on the preceding Wednesday, decining to join Wade in Miami; it helped that Wade had previously declared to the Heat rulers that he would move, unless Bosh or James were signed. That gave LeBron Jones a last-minute impetus to join Wade and Bosch, the concept of an unbeatable trio, and, probably, Florida’s no-income tax status. Not a bad decision process, comparable to what might have happened in Afghanistan if Generals Stanley McCrystal, Eikenberry (ambassador) and James Jones (Security Advisor) could have worked on a common scheme, or in the Florida Gulf , if British Petroleum with its robots , the US Navy with its explosives and Washington with its wise counsel had come together early on a plan to break the flow of oil, or if Obama, Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad … ah, what’s the use. We can't possibly expect military and world leaders to act with the unity of purpose as sports stars can, driven by dreams of glory and pecuniary reward.




As for New York’s standing in this decicion process, The Madison Garden folks really wanted a power ball-handler, James , or Wade. The Knicks had planned a two-year recovery, and spent a hundred million dollars for an aging front court power, Amar’e Stoudemire, sort of a new Patrick Ewing, all they needed was the front man, LeBron, and the negotiations were close. But the Knicks look hopeful, I’m told, although the fans are ready to throw rotten eggs at James.





As to my interest in this mélange, I got excited because we know of Dwayne Wade. In Key Largo, FL, where we excape from the winter winds by staying in a family condo colony, surrounded by hibiscus, bougainvilleas and palm trees. A few hundred yards walking distange from us is a major time-share hotel, with ocean front, beach, humongous pool with three bars and a nice upscale restaurant that serves two-for-$25 dinners, appetizers free, a step above Applebees chain’s two-for-$20. This restaurant, Big Chill, is partly owned by Dwayne Wade (the main bar is named for him) , and it is a major destination for tourists, Miamians and Keysians from as far south as Marathon – with a few Key Westians as well. It is comfortable to sit and watch the sunset – except when Dwayne Wade is rumored to be on hand. Then the ex-hippee refugees fron 1968, Hemingway look-alikes, bald-headed bearded Harley-Davidson riders, charter boat crews and sunbirds from the Midwest join in, to float around, expensive drinks in hand, looking for our hero. And babes of all ages, blondes prevailing. I asked about Dwayne’s popularity, and an old shooter explained that the man is so good, you just want to touch him. Oh, well. I eventually got to see him, and he is an easy talker, polite and circumspect in language. .



Anyway, if you want to read more about the pleasures of Florida Keys - relatively safe from the BP oil disaster - google Wally Dobelis & Looking Ahead, or open http://dobelisfile.blogspot.com, and look for the top item, Table of Contents, which lists the Keys articles, with the archive date for each.

This column was written when the news broke that George M. Steinbrenner had died. This is a loss to all of us, he was the ultimate representative of the New York spirit, who took a losing baseball team team and in 37 years led it to seven championships. Our condolences to the family and to our New York Yankees.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

US needs jobs to bring us back to reason

Top of the list for the moment (jobs is first), President Barack Obama has to take action on the oil disaster. We should know what Washington is doing, besides forming committees, now that BP has siphoned some oil and “thinks” it can slow the outflow with drilling mud. Why is there no help from the organization of the late Red Adair, oil disaster master? Further, what about the USSR method of exploding small nuclear bombs in shafts dug way down next to the leaks, used between 1966 and 1981 to crush five oil and gas leak lines? Forgetting the nukes, how about using superpowerful conventional explosives? Is this geologically or politically incorrect? We should know.

Now, Tea Party. Cityites may not realize how deep the recession has hit upstate NY. Late in January, in Copake, 100 miles north of Herald Square, a farmer shot his 51 milk cows dead, and then killed himself. Neighbors quietly opined that milk prices were low and fodder expensive. Early in May, another nearby farmer’s neighbors found eleven dead calves and cows on his family property, dead of malnutrition. The local weekly, Columbia Paper, quietly opined that malnutrition due to slow arrival of grass this cold spring was at fault, and the poor farm family, being guilty of growing old, of pride and unwillingness to beg for neighbors’ help, should not have been jailed. NYS government should have helped, not put them in prison.



On the opposite page of the paper, in a Letter, another neighbor, proud to be well educated, a businessman and a Tea Party member, declared that the taxes our working class citizens have been paying to the overreaching government have been wasted by the fools in Albany and Washington. Now his party people have found a way to stop Socialism. Current administration’s policies have weakened America and will bankrupt the country. We do not want, nor do we need, to have government to take care of us, we all able-bodied people should do that ourselves. Trumped up crises and class warfare feelings are led by an inexperienced pseudo-intellectual community organizer who is degrading our country and apologizing for it. We do not care for the color of his skin, but we care about his politics. The budget deficit has risen three and four-fold, but stopping the spending of money may save us. .We can create jobs fast, by letting businessmen keep the money and reinvest it in jobs. We bailed out banks and car companies but ignored the small businessman. Immigration? Just deport the illegals. Socialism here? Yes, government-run health system is socialist, and will destroy the US healthcare, the best system in the world. Is Tea Party guilty of hate talk? The author thinks dissent is the highest form of patriotism, and concludes by urging readers to listen to Rush, Hannity and Beck and watch Heritage Foundation and read the Constitution.



This condensation and oversimplification does not give justice to the serious and thought-out phrases of the protester’s letter. Apart from not mentioning that global warming is a hoax, this essay is not far from what many of our working class tax-paying upstate town and country cousins cite conversationally, when political issues come up. It is frustration, impotence and an anger at all those in office, who do not help restore jobs, and actually have to cut them, to balance state budgets. This “stop government spending” attitude persists, and will be a serious force in the next several elections, even in NYS, although people know, and another neighbor pointed out, in the next mid-May issue of Columbia Paper, the complainer’s public school education was provided by the government, as were the roads and the busses that he took to classes, the clean water, good meats and vegetables, secure air planes, defense against contagious diseases, personal and national safety, parks, public libraries and disaster assistance - all matters that the able-bodied people could not do by themselves.

Earnest, sincere Dr. Rand Paul’s winning of the Republican primary in Kentucky for the US Senate is proof, although, along with cutting taxes, balancing budgets and depending on charity instead of government services , he will also raise the Social Security eligibility age. The Tea Party is essentially split between the Austrian School small-government people (if you want a theoretical backup identified, look at Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, even back to St. Thomas Aquinas, also neocons) and the seniors who want to retain FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society Medicare benefits

In Utah, Tea Party ousted conservative Sen. Robert Bennett because he supported the bank bailout.

Rand Paul, as strategist Paul Begala discovers, would also like to abolish the Federal Reserve System and the federal Department of Education. Whether the latter ties in with his idea of opposing the line in Civil Rights Act of 1964 that requires restaurants and luncheonettes to permit anyone to be serviced, a privacy issue (he should ask SC justice Scalia about the constitutionality of privacy) .
Repeat of 9/9/2010 entiments



This angry and irrational protest against all incumbents will persist. Jobs, jobs jobs –that is the way for Obama to respond to it; provide infrastructure jobs, that’s local, and work on energy, that’s national.

Labels: Ayn Rand, Paul Begala Antonio Scalia, rand paul, Sen. Rober Bennett, tea party

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis





The other day I was meeting someone in the East ‘60s. While waiting in the colonnade of an apartment building I saw a burly no-longer-a-kid policewoman standing a few yards east of me, watching the traffic. Suddenly she marched off, briskly walking west, towards the crossing. I asked the young doorman, who had come out:”You got troubles on this block?” “No, she’s on cell-phone ticket duty. Look, look, she’s got one,” pointing to a white light delivery truck, stopped for traffic light, with the driver opening the window. The officer pointed to a free store front parking space, and the driver pulled into it, soon as the light changed. “That’s a hundred buck ticket. She catches five, six the hour she spends here every couple weeks. Neat, hah?” We talked some more of the increased ticketing he had observed, the action being developed as a NYCPD profit center (NYS ticketing has also increased). However we may feel about it, this policeperson was bringing in $600 an hour for the Mayor’s budget.



Objectively, cell phone use while driving is dangerous, for the driver and the surrounding world, and should be ticketed. Unfortunately, all this policeperson was catching were delivery drivers getting orders from their dispatchers. The first danger is the private driver, who should pull and stop, then talk. Second, non-stop cell phone talking cabdrivers, who have earphones or other concealed devices, hard to catch. Granted, they also get bread and butter dispatcher calls, for which they could pull over while cruising, but they do not. You will never see a cabbie cutting an incoming call short while you or I are in the car. By the way, observing cabbie earnings, the fares are worth $60 an hour, tips extra. Current style is to tip low, a buck a trip. In fact, cabbies may offer you a compassionate nod or word, if you mention that times will get better.



My last cab trip took me to a very efficient skin doctor, whose hourly rate appears to be $1000, not counting Medicare. It was not all going to him and his four assistants; the largest chunk was for biopsies, which he does copiously. He has caught and had me operated for two melanomas, detected early, so I should not complain.



Moving right along with the economics survey, the reason for my visit to the East 60s of Manhattan was to meet a friend, who was having a $140 haircut by a master barber in a private salon, not exactly legal in an apartment building. I’d estimate the master’s hourly rate to be $280.

Switching away from the individual to national job review, it appears necessary to do deep sea drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Although it contains only 2-3% of the world’s oil reserves, it would help establish our independence of the Persian Gulf, and help the transition to renewable resources (particularly wind, since solar is iffy in these latitudes) and nuclear, sine qua we are dead as a 1st world country, in the long run. President Obama has been for drilling, but pulled back to a six-month delay. The delay would cut employment in the US Gulf states, all heavily dependent on oil, with the people willing to brace the dangers, to earn consistent pay. There are stories of all active drill sites having passed the exposure tests before the April explosion, all but BP who have been consistently negligent. There is also talk of limiting the dangers of another eruption fast, by using high level explosives to cut the outflow quickly, as recommended in this column early in May, describing the five low-level nuclear explosions used by the USSR in 1962-85, to close the tubes emitting oil. We can do it without nukes, using other explosives, says the military. My letter to this effect to the President’s White House site was not acknowledged, not to speak of a reply. Back to pay levels, drill employees, no longer uneducated roustabouts, now earn $100K plus a year (even in coal mines, non-union miners are up to $70K/yr), and work stoppages affect the economies. Oil and soft coal jobs are significant, and their continuance is essential, while the US continues with the renewable energy efforts, and the President knows that. Renewable energy is where the jobs growth should be.



More interim energy saving news - even the haughty GM car people, recovered from near death a year ago, have finally implemented an electric car with a 40 mile charge in 375 lb. ion-lithium battery, and a gasoline get-home-safely electricity generating engine, good for 300 miles, excellent for commuters, rechargeable on house current. Fast charges at gas stations and exchangeable batteries are in the works, if all 10 hybrid car makers are made to agree to common standards. The GM car is the Chevrolet Volt, being road tested; production cars will be for sale in November. 2010. Electric energy, renewable and cheaper at night when demand is low, is responsible for 60% of the nation’s energy needs. We just have to continue developing renewables and nuclear resources. The oil giants are aware of their future demise, and are investing in renewables.

Amidst the disasters, it is really cheering to talk of good resolutions, energy and jobs-wise.