Rochester Pundit

General Motors: Your Automotive Public Option

2010-02-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

Ayn Rand couldn't have imagined it any better: a government with a majority ownership stake in a car maker lobbing sound bites that damage the "competition."

While it's not Ray LaHood's fault that the U.S. government got into the car business, his comments suggesting that Toyota drivers should stop driving their cars did a nice job of underscoring the folly of this type of government intervention.

Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that congressional investigators are questioning Toyota's fix to their safety problem. Just imagine the board of Pepsi presiding over hearings to decide if Coke is really "it."

Obviously, the government should have the authority to ensure that vehicles sold in the U.S. are safe to drive. What it should not have is the authority to buy car companies.

All of this really shines a bright light on the insanity of the health care "public option" that congressional democrats and others on the left want so badly. It is crystal clear to me that the same conflicts of interest would arise on a regular basis. The idea that it would "increase competition" and "keep the insurance companies honest" is laughable. Our health care system needs fixing, but the answer is a market-based solution, not public health care. This piece by John Stossel still holds up very nicely on the topic.

It's pretty simple. The government should stay out of business, out of the way of business and out of my business.

Time for DISH Network to Dish up the HD Locals in Rochester

2010-01-30T10:30:00.000-08:00

DISH Network doesn't offer local networks in HD in Rochester. I'm not entirely sure why this is, but I was not made aware of it when I signed up for DISH after getting my nice, new HDTV.

I can get the locals in HD with an antenna, but there are some reception issues. The biggest problem I'm facing is that CBS is the local channel with the biggest reception problems. WROC, the local CBS affiliate, has it's tower on Pinnacle Hill in Brighton, rather than Cobbs Hill in Rochester, where all of the other TV towers are located. For me, that means really poor reception, and with HD the channel just goes out completely when reception is bad. Much of the time it is downright unwatchable. The big problem is that the Superbowl is on CBS this year. One of the big advantages of having a nice big TV is the Superbowl party that goes with it, and it looks like it won't be happening for me this year.

If you're considering getting DISH Network somewhere other than Rochester, check out this link for a list of cities where they offer HD locals:

http://www.expertsatellite.com/dish-tv/local-channels-dish-tv-hd-local-channels.html

If it doesn't say "HD Local Channels" next to your city, they they don't offer them in your area.

If you have DISH Network in Rochester, please send them an email and let them know that you want them. Here's their email form:

http://www.dishnetwork.com/customerService/contactus/email/default.aspx

Dear iPad: iRead on a Kindle

2010-01-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

I've been shocked that no one is strongly challenging the idea that the new iPad is going to kill the Amazon Kindle. Reading books on a back lit LCD screen doesn't work. Try it on your laptop. I guarantee you will want to scratch your eyes out of your head in about 20 minutes.

The beauty of the Kindle and other e-readers is the e-ink technology that really feels like reading a printed page. If people were cool with reading books on a computer screen, don't you think that might have caught on by now? Battery life is also a major issue. I can read a whole book without charging my Kindle, while the iPad will need to be charged mid-chapter.

I think the iPad looks cool (although I'm not clear on who will buy it or why), but it's not going to catch on as a book device. Magazines, newspapers, blogs and other light reading content may work fine, but not books.

Another problem for the iPad is the content model. With the Kindle, I can simply subscribe to content or buy books without paying for the 3g connection on top of that. With the iPad, you would have to buy a data plan and then purchase any content you want to access on top of that. So, to subscribe to the New York Times, I would have to pay $30 a month plus the subscription fee. No thanks.

So please shut up about this thing being a Kindle killer. People who buy every Mac product don't read books, anyway. They spend all of their time at coffee shops trying to be seen using Mac products. People who buy Kindles are people who love to read. The Kindle does the job very well.

Plus, I am really starting to get creeped out by Steve Jobs. He just looks like every weird dude that no one wants to talk to at a party. I love my iPhone, but I would happily smash it into a million pieces in exchange for never again having to see this guy prance around the stage in jeans and a tucked-in long-sleeve black t-shirt. We all know you're rich and eccentric, Steve, but how about mixing in a belt or something? And stop naming your products after lady napkins. You're scaring the kids.

The State of the Union: Bored

2010-01-28T19:52:00.000-08:00

Barrack Obama rambled on for 71 minutes last night about a whole laundry list of things. Rather than a "State of the Union" speech, it was really a political strategy announcement by a floundering president. The basic message was that the good old government is going to do lots of great stuff to make your lives better. It's also going to freeze spending at these oh so modest levels. Whatever. Harry Reid said it best during the speech without uttering a word:

That whopper of a yawn gets a big amen from me, Harry. Only Clinton's SOTU speeches rolled on longer that this one in recent years, but not by much. If you like to hear yourself talk almost as much as Bill, you have a problem.

I did like what he said about nixing the capital gains tax on small businesses. I really hope he follows through on that one.

Other than that, I raise my hand to my mouth with Harry Reid and give my jaw muscles a good stretching.

Paterson chooses the way of master

2010-01-25T19:52:00.000-08:00

With his new budget that taxes all things enjoyable - from alcohol to Coca Cola - Governor David Paterson has chosen to be our master, rather than a public servant.

Instead of dealing with the state's unsustainable approach to government, he has decided to take the easy way out and take more of our money in new and creative ways. I don't blame this all on Paterson; our state government is probably the second worst in the nation after California, and it has been so for quite a while. He's just trying to survive in the post apocalyptic wasteland that is Albany.

The line about him choosing to be a master is actually a reference to a great article in Reason Magazine this month. It talks about how public employees have become our masters. It singles our California and New York and the ridiculous pension entitlements that both states have gotten themselves into. It makes an airtight case that public employees no longer work for the public. We work for them. Read it here:

http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/12/class-war

Now when we buy a six pack, more of our hard-earned dollars will go to pay for sweetheart pension deals and benefits that far outclass what we can expect in the private sector...just one more reason I have to get out of this state.

Obama goes to school

2009-09-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

As President Obama gears up to address the nation's school children this week, the media narrative has focused on conservatives who oppose the speech and/or plan to keep their kids from seeing it.

This is predictable politics, of course. There can be little doubt that lefties would have squawked had Bush planned a similar move. The tone of the media coverage would certainly have been different, but pointing out these media double standards is a full time job for which I don't have time.

People can certainly do what they wish, but I personally think keeping your kids out of school or making too much noise about the speech is a little silly. Obama is far too smart to get political in a speech like this. The White House has said it will be "about personal responsibility and challenging students to take their education very, very seriously." In other words, please pack a pair of Ray-Bans to protect their young eyes from the glittering generalities.

This is a shrewd political move. All BHO has to do is stand there spout phrases from "The More You Know" PSA's in his staccato baritone, and he'll be portrayed as a hero. This will be a welcome break from the barrage of very humbling developments this summer has brought, sinking his approval rating into the very human 50/50 range.

The story coming out of the speech will be how big it was of BHO to remain apolitical. The White House is certainly hoping this back to school move will move Obama back above the fray.

Check out Monroe Rising

2008-03-21T06:44:00.001-07:00

You may have noticed that this blog isn't getting updated very often. In order to offer more timely commentary, the writers of this blog have joined forces with the like minded folks at www.monroerising.com. Check it out.

What you may not know about the Midtown deal

2007-11-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

Most everyone seems ecstatic about the idea of Midtown Mall coming down to make room for the world headquarters of Paetec Communications. That happiness may be well placed, but some aspects of the project bother me.

First of all, the city isn't going to the owners of the property and negotiating a purchase. Instead, they're condemning the buildings and offering fair-market value. I don't like this approach; I don't see it as the government's role to snatch a property and decide what to do with it. If Paetec wants to build their headquarters downtown, why don't they go to the owners of the property and make an offer? The answer to that brings me to my next point.

This project is being completed on your dime. At least $50 million in state money will be spent tearing it down, and an untold sum will be paid by the city to purchase the 9-acre site. This will also certainly be in the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. So, Paetec will get a nice shovel-ready site at your expense.

My final problem with this whole thing kind of summarizes the first two. I don't like the government taking the lead in these economic development initiatives. It seems to rarely end well, and it's almost always a band aid for a host of other bad government policies, namely high taxes. We don't need to have long memories to recall such initiatives in Rochester. The millions that Bill Johnson's administration poured with blind faith into High Falls and the Fast Ferry became his sad legacy.

For all of these reasons, I think Duffy is taking a pretty big chance here. Don't get me wrong; I really hope it pays off. But even if the ends do justify the means after the final hammer swings on this thing, I'll still be just a bit squeamish about the means.

Clinton throws more crap against the wall to see if it will stick

2007-10-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

Hillary Clinton seems determined to throw out as many ideas for new entitlements as she can in very rapid succession. Now that people have generally rejected her ridiculous idea to give every baby born in the US a bond for $5,000, Hillary has abandoned that in favor of a $1,000 matching tax credit for lower income families who contribute to a 401(k) retirement account. She would fund this latest entitlement (estimated at $25 billion per year) by taxing estates worth $7 million or more.
This is, of course, just more socialist entitlement crap. I guess she'll wait to see whether this one sticks to the wall (i.e., what the pollsters tell her in a few days). A John Edwards mouthpiece actually had a good quote, saying that "apparently, new polling data seems to have pressured the Clinton campaign to throw out the baby bond with the bathwater."
One of the most interesting aspects of this to me is that Clinton is still dead set against the idea of any privatization of Social Security. She's busy assuring people now that this new tax credit will not replace Social Security, but rather supplement it. Apparently it's OK to give people money for them to "gamble" on their retirement as long as they do it with shiny new entitlement money.
Stay tuned for more ideas from Hillary on how to give away more and more of your money. Hey, some of it's bound to stick, right?

Stossel brings some common sense to the healthcare debate

2007-09-23T11:26:00.001-07:00

John Stossel's 20/20 special "Whose Body is it Anyway?: Sick in America" is a fantastic piece of television journalism in what I see as a pretty sad age for that profession. I've always liked Stossel, not because his views often align with my conservative sensibilities, but because he just makes sense. I think that's why liberals hate him so much.

There's a veritable mountain of good stuff in this piece, but his overriding point is that the individual should be in control of his or her health care, not the insurance companies and certainly not the government. Amen and amen! One great idea to make this happen is a combination of high-deductible insurance programs and employer-funded health savings accounts. Stossel also sits down with Michael Moore and picks apart the myths about Canada's supposed panacea of "free" health care. This is really good television, and it's a must for anyone interested in the health care debate.

It's broken out into 6 parts on Google Video. Watch them all here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Hillary continues "health"y dose of socialism

2007-09-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hillary Clinton has been busy rolling out HillaryCare 2.0 on the stump lately. Details abound, but one of the most interesting is that she envisions a day when citizens will have to prove health insurance coverage to get a job.

I won't go into all of the reasons why Hillary's plan is a bad idea now, just like it was in 1993. The real issue here is that her campaign message continues to push a brand of softly-packaged socialism, tying into her idea of an "all in it together society."

I can't wait for the real debates to begin so these sharp ideological lines can be drawn. Hillary obviously believes that the climate is right for a more socialistic approach to government. Perhaps she's been watching too many Michael Moore movies. If she were as smart as everyone seems to think, she would know that the American public is not going to swallow this brand of socialism, no matter how she packages it.

A deficit of deficit reporting...

2007-07-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

The United States Budget deficit currently sits at $205 billion. That's less than half of what it was three years ago, when all the major news outlets were reporting that the deficit would continue to soar, spiraling our economy into a disastrous state. However, despite this turn of events, the mainstream media wants you to know that this is not really good news. Here's CBS:

After years of unrelenting deficits, Washington may be experiencing a break in its fiscal weather. Strong tax revenues mean that the 2007 shortfall between U.S. income and spending will be the smallest it has been since 2002, according to new White House estimates.
But these rays of progress may be fleeting, say some experts. Revenue growth is already slowing, and defense spending and huge entitlement programs such as Medicare continue to expand at a rapid clip.

Did I just hear CBS complaining about entitlements? But I digress. Here's the AP:

The nation's budget deficit will drop to $205 billion in the fiscal year that ends in September, even as a worsening deficit picture for future years makes it more difficult for President Bush to meet his pledge of a surplus by 2012.
The deficits figures released Wednesday by the White House show red ink less than half of what it was at its peak in 2004. It's also a gain over the $244 billion that Bush predicted in February, but not as great an improvement as anticipated by other forecasters.
Nonetheless, the deficit picture remains worse than it was when Bush took office six years ago. Then, both White House and congressional forecasters projected cumulative surpluses of $5.6 trillion over the subsequent decade.
And the new figures Wednesday show that, instead of continuing to fall, the deficit next year will be on the rise again, to $258 billion.

No news will be good news while Bush is occupying la Casa Blanca, especially on the economic front. Has anyone else noticed the deafening silence as the Dow creeps up toward 14,000? Where is the unbridled economic cheer leading of the late '90s?

Some common sense on race from...the D&C?

2007-07-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

I feel like the prospector who just found an actual gold nugget in a two-ton pile of fool's gold. The D&C's editorial page today has an editorial on race, sparked by the Supreme Court's recent ruling that Seattle schools can't divide up their schools using a tidy little race-recipe.

However, the editorial doesn't spend much time on that issue. Instead, it focuses on the importance of personal responsibility and how that issue is playing out in the Democratic presidential primary. Here's a quote I never expected to attribute to the D&C editorial page:

"Personal responsibility is key to the improvement of any group, and it's a concept that many politicians and black leaders avoid."

This editorial even points out that Hillary Clinton is parroting the Democratic lines of the past: racism still exists and is responsible for the social ills of the black community. There's no surprise there. As the rich, white candidate, she can't afford to challenge the leaders of black America. Barack Obama, on the other hand, seems to be ready to start weaving in a pinch of the Bill Cosby treatment. Here's the Obama quote from the debate:

"It is absolutely critical for us to recognize that there are going to be responsibilities on the part of African Americans and other groups to take personal responsibility to rise up out of the problems that we face."

Notice, of course, Obama's luxury in using the words "us" and "we." Will Obama really have the courage to attempt to inspire the black community rather than using the time-tested tactic of infuriating them about the persistence of racism in America? Moreover, could that actually work for a candidate? It could make for a primary with some actual substantive debate.

I must be daydreaming...

I wish Hillary Clinton would debate George Will

2007-06-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

The great conservative thinker George Will has spun a little piece of ideological gold in his most recent column under the title "The Case for Conservatism." Like almost all of his writings, this piece is filled with poignant insights. Will frames the major difference between liberals and conservatives as the natural tension between freedom and equality: conservatives being more concerned with freedom, while liberals spend their time worrying about equality.

It's a great piece of work that you should really take the time to read. However, if you don't want to, his basic point is that liberals infer unequal opportunities from the fact of unequal outcomes. That inference fuels their desire to drastically increase the scope of interventionist government programs in order to artificially level the playing field. The result is not equal opportunity, but equal dependence on a bloated federal bureaucracy. Conservatives, favoring freedom, tend to be optimistic about letting the chips fall where they may in a free and open society such as ours. Here's my favorite line:

"Conservatism is realism, about human nature and government's competence. Is conservatism politically realistic, meaning persuasive? That is the kind of question presidential campaigns answer."

Amen and amen. No one proves Will's point better than current presidential campaigner Hillary Clinton, who is out on the trail peddling the political fantasy of softly-packaged socialism. Just look at these recent comments. I think what we see here is a campaign message starting to take shape. She doesn't like Bush's "ownership society," which she calls an "on your own society."

"I prefer a 'we're all in it together' society," she said. "I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none."

This goes along nicely with her grossly erroneous idea of it taking a village to raise a child. It also goes along nicely with a little form of government called socialism. Don't worry; big government will take care of you, because you obviously are incapable of taking care of yourselves. I can't wait for that to be exposed in the general election (assuming Hillary wins the nomination). Let's just hope we end up with the right candidate to expose it.

Previously Unknown Facts about Fred Thompson

2007-06-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

The excellent conservative website, IMAO, has published a list of previously unknown facts about our favorite (almost) presidential candidate, Fred Thompson:

They say that after a nuclear blast, the only things that will survive will be cockroaches and Fred Thompson... except that Fred Thompson doesn't like cockroaches. So the only thing that will survive will be Fred Thompson.
Fred Thompson honors the fallen on Memorial Day by setting fire to hippies. Burn long and hard in their remembrance, you filthy hippies.
Fred Thompson has enough strength to throw Rosie O'Donnell ten feet.
Usually for a bill to become a law, it has to be passed by the House and the Senate and signed by the President, but once Fred Thompson made a bill into law by saying, "This bill is now the law" and punching Bill Clinton in the nads.

You get the idea. If Chuck Norris ever ended up in Congress, many of these would probably apply to him as well. See the complete list here.

I Solved the Immigration Reform Problem in Just Under an Hour

2007-05-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

By all reports, the president and congressional leaders are trying to address the illegal immigration problem, and it’s safe to say that things aren’t going well. Apparently, the electeds have gotten themselves bogged down with political posturing and all the other things that they spend their time doing instead of governing. We at the Rochester Pundit have decided to help them refocus their efforts by providing a commonsense birds-eye view of this issue. After reading this, the guys (and gals) up on the hill should be able to bang out this bill and get back banging…well, whatever it is they do.

1. According to most estimates, there are approximately 12 million illegal aliens in the country. (I’m sorry, but “undocumented worker” means the 12 year old kid who mows your lawn for $10 under the table. It does not describe an individual who has snuck across an international border and who finds ways to circumvent a host of employment and other laws). This current state of affairs – a porous border, toothless immigration enforcement, and a significant population of “illegal” individuals – cannot continue.

2. We have to lock down the border right away. First, it makes the illegal immigrant problem that much more difficult to solve if we allow it to worsen while we wring our hands and crap our pants. Second, as a matter of homeland security, we cannot be allowing every Tom Dick and Achmed to be waltzing (or doing the dance of the seven veils) back and forth across our border. I don’t think we need a dirty bomb to go off in San Antonio for this proposition to fall in the “self evident” category.

3. We cannot round up and deport 12 million people. Peggy Noonan addressed this point eloquently in her May 25st editorial in the Wall Street Journal: “Here is the truth: America has never deported millions of people, and America will never deport millions of people. It's not what we do. It's not who we are. It's not who we want to be. The American people would never accept evening news pictures of sobbing immigrants being torn from their homes and put on a bus. We wouldn't accept it because we have hearts, and as much as we try to see history in the abstract, we know history comes down to the particular, to the sobbing child in the bus. We don't round up and remove.” The tough talking Republicans in Congress need to shut up and remember that they could have done something about this issue back in the 80’s when it was manageable, but they acted like cowards and helped create the current mess.

4. The “illegals” are not stealing our jobs. Last time I checked, there weren’t any illegal doctors or school teachers or nurses. For the most part, the illegals are doing crap jobs that you or I would not do, like picking cabbage in the hot sun or caring for the spoiled children of wealthy Californians.

5. Citizenship in the United States means something. We live in the greatest country in the world, and if you are a citizen, you are entitled to all kinds of benefits. More importantly, you get to vote and to help determine our nation’s political future. People who cannot speak our language, ignore our laws, and disdain our culture should not be permitted to become citizens. It’s despicable that many Democrats would apparently trade away almost anything to get about 10 million extra votes.

Where does this leave us? We should shut down the border immediately. We should kick out illegals who have committed felonies while here in the states. We should provide a pathway to citizenship that requires assimilation (speak our language and follow our rules). And we should hold businesses (and rich Californians) accountable for hiring illegals.

If no one is going to take action on this, then at least send some illegal workers up our way. I need some cheap, competent help with a remodeling project.

The woes of a one-newspaper town: Part II

2007-05-27T20:48:00.001-07:00

The second in a multi-part series on why Rochester needs more editorial voices

Competition is good for everyone. That, of course, is the principle on which the concept of free market economics relies. When a good, established business has a strong competitor come to play in its yard, that healthy competition makes both businesses better. You know the saying; a rising tide lifts all ships.

The Democrat & Chronicle is in desperate need of some competition. Nowhere is this more evident than on the D&C's editorial page. The editorials in the D&C are predictably poor and politically one-sided. Take the example of the Thumbs up, down feature that appears every Saturday. This feature is poor in that in normally gives almost all thumbs up to people in the community who have done nice things. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not exactly hard-hitting editorial work. They almost never have the courage or insight to use this feature to offer any meaningful political or social criticism with a nice, meaty thumbs down. This past Saturday, however, they found the issue on which they finally want to take a firm stand: George Bush riding around on his ranch without his seatbelt on. Not kidding. Read it here (it's the last one). I don't want to waste any time picking it apart. It's just that dumb. I challenge anyone to find me an example of the D&C's editorial staff using this feature to take such a petty potshot at a prominent Democrat. Imagine, for example, the likelihood of them giving a thumbs down to Al Gore or Leonardo DiCaprio for flying around in gas-guzzling private jets while preaching at everyone else about decreasing their carbon dioxide emissions. This may be a minor point, but it's indicative of larger issues with the D&C editorial page. It's not sharp, it's not thoughtful, and it's just plain not good.

Even if another strong editorial voice (whether online or in print) also had a tendency to lean to the left, it would at least keep the D&C's editors on their toes. I believe their editorials would be more thoughtful, and I believe their page would be better. Until such a voice emerges, we're left here to lament yet another woe of being a one-newspaper town.

Read Part I of this series here.

Clinton's war conundrum

2007-05-26T05:31:00.001-07:00

There's a fascinating piece of political lore that tells the story of Hillary Clinton pulling John Kerry aside in the Senate cloak room before his fateful 'no' vote on the Iraq funding bill back in 2003. That is, of course, the vote that sparked his politically devastating comment about voting for the $87 billion before he voted against it. The story goes that Clinton told him that he really needed to vote 'yes' on the bill, even though the ant-war sentiments of Howard Dean seemed to account for Dean's lead in the 2004 Democratic primary polls. Her feeling was that voting against the funding after voting for the war would be a political kiss of death.

Whether or not that story is true, it's very interesting in light of Clinton's 'no' vote on yesterday's war funding bill. Clinton, like Kerry before her, sees a Democratic primary with highly energized anti-war voters. Her real problem, however, is that her position on the war perhaps makes even less sense than Kerry's did in 2004. She voted for the war. She has consistently defended that vote, much to the chagrin of the far-left anti-war crowd. Now she votes against funding the war. She says that her vote was the right thing to do at the time, but that Bush misused the authority given him by the congress. Now she says that she voted against funding the war because it's time to get out. I can't see how this will resonate either in a primary or a general election. Look for the war issue to continue to haunt her campaign. It's the classic case of going the way the wind is blowing and finding yourself lost. I see her coveting the consistent anti-war positions of Obama and others in the primary and the consistent pro-war positions of her eventual Republican opponent in the general election. Personally, I don't know what she's thinking.

An open letter to Fred Thompson

2007-05-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

Mr. Thompson,

I am writing this letter to ask that you seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States. The party needs you. Those of us who identify with the principles of modern conservatism need you. Your country needs you. Ok, I'll stop with the melodrama, but I really do want you to run.

You've no doubt noticed that the race for the Republican nomination is turning into little more than a Ronald Reagan sound-alike contest. We have the former mayor of New York and the former governor of Massachusetts waxing (kind of) eloquent about shrinking the size and scope of government. Save us, Fred. Oops. There's that melodrama again, but we really do need saving.

We need saving from the mush-mouthed moderation of Giuliani and McCain. We need saving from the nonstarters like Tancredo (who?) and Brownback (we can't have a nominee whose name sounds like a gay cowboy movie). We need you, Fred. Come on. You're an older, reasonably well-known actor with a grandfatherly (no offense) manner, a smooth delivery and bona fide conservative chops. You can win the Reagan contest before it even gets started. Perhaps that's why you're biding your time - no need to get your hands dirty so early on. Or maybe you were waiting to see if Law & Order was going to get picked up for another season, which it did. I hope that's not a bad sign. Although, I guess there's always the possibility of a Thompson/Waterston ticket.

Perhaps most important of all, as much as it pains me to say it, we need the anti-Bush. For many of the reasons I've outlined above, that's just what you are. That's what makes you so electable - not just in the primary, but in the general election. I would put my money on you against anyone in the current Democratic field. The thought of seeing you debate Hillary Clinton makes me grin the way I grin when I finish covering the toilet bowl with saran wrap. It just wouldn't be fair.

So, Fred, I guess that's all I have to say. Please run. Pretty please.

Respectfully,

Rochester Pundit Team

American Style Apartheid: The Fourth Estate is Populated Solely by Jackasses

2007-05-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

"Minorities" in the United States now constitute 1/3 of the total population. To most of us, this statistic is likely met with a collective "so what." Almost every ethnic group, at some point in American history, has been considered a "minority" (Do you ever wonder why police prisoner transports are known as "Paddy Wagons?").

However, this provides plenty of fodder those small minded souls who view all of human experience through the prism of race. Our own hometown newspaper recently addressed this issue in predictable fashion on the editorial page. After pointing to the "apparent" prejudices that still exist in our society, the editors shockingly claim that "It's that disconnect, and the underlying racial divides that remain, that have the awful potential to lead to an American-style apartheid."

WTF!? Although more original than a Hitler comparison, that statement has to be one of the most ignorant things I've ever read in the newspaper. Last time I checked, everyone still had the right to vote, blacks were not being forcibly"resettled," and the population was not classified by the government into racial categories (oh wait a minute).

The editors further explain that "falling graduation rates such as those in the Rochester City School District, coupled with high levels of poverty and incarceration for people of color paint a dismal picture for the future."

As to the falling graduation rates, I would point to the breakdown of families and social structures that value education. And if you want to put a stop to high incarceration rates, people need to stop committing crimes. The statistics majors out there would probably say something self evident like "there is a high correlation between committing crimes and getting tossed in the pokey."

A ridiculous editorial like this can't end with a whimper - it goes out with a bang and basically calls for a good ol' fashioned race war: "And what about the fear factor among whites as this country's demographics change? It's a huge mistake to think it doesn't exist, or to ignore it. The pot's starting to steam. Don't let it boil over."

Do these people really think that the average white guy is sitting in his house analyzing demographic changes and hatching plots to screw over "people of color?" There are people who do that, but they usually live in compounds in places like Idaho with their sister-wife and kids-nephews.

New York State Campaign Finance Reform: Mission Improbable

2007-05-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

Erika Rosenberg at Policy Wonk has a nice piece outlining the problems getting in the way of any real campaign finance reform in New York State despite Spitzer's best efforts. I've always been wary of the concept of campaign finance reform, and I'm not fan of McCain-Feingold; I don't like telling people what they can and can't do. However, it's hard to argue against some kind of change in New York. The thing I find particularly galling is the gerrymandering of districts. I don't care which side it benefits, it is an inherent conflict of interest to let elected officials draw up their own boundaries. Another major obstacle, as Rosenberg points out, is that we're expecting Joe Bruno to cooperate with Spitzer on this stuff when Spitzer has vowed to erase Bruno's delicate majority in the senate. There's been a lot of talk about an independent commission to deal with these issues, which I think would be ideal. However, questions of who chooses the commission and how independent it would really be persist. See the title of this post.

ABC News could care less about injustice

2007-04-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

I've avoided commenting on the Duke rape case intentionally. I was happy to see it finally end at least somewhat well for the three players, and there's not much to be added to the conversation. Then I saw this from ABC "reporter" Terry Moran and completely lost my cool:

Don't Feel Too Sorry for the Dukies

If you don't feel like reading the condescending ramblings of a frothy-mouthed liberal hypocrite, here's a taste of his twisted logic:

...there are many, many cases of prosecutorial misconduct across our country every year. The media covers few, if any, of these cases. Most of the victims in these cases are poor or minority Americans--or both. I would hate to say the color of their skin is one reason journalists do not focus on these victims of injustices perpetrated by police and prosecutors, but I am afraid if we ask ourselves the question honestly, we would likely find that it is.

Buried in the deep sea of outraged responses to Moran's piece is this little epistle from yours truly:

Wow. Where to begin on this? Because they have means, it's OK for them to be falsely and maliciously accused of and prosecuted for rape. That's really what you're saying. Stunning. And your argument is that there are many cases of prosecutorial misconduct against poor, black people that the media doesn't cover. WHAT?!?! YOU'RE THE MEDIA!! COVER IT!! If it's not being covered, it's because lazy sensationalists in the media like you would rather appeal to the lowest common denominator of society before climbing on your high horse to write a sniveling piece of self-loathing, white, liberal hypocrisy like what you see above. It's because of people like you, Terry, that these men were wronged so viciously for so long, and you know it. Now, to make yourself feel better, you add a little insult to injury just as they're pulling their lives back together. You disgust me.

I think that sums up my feelings pretty well. I find what he wrote far more offensive than anything Don Imus has ever said (speaking of controversies I'm avoiding on purpose).

Which economy, stupid?

2007-04-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

A Bush spokesman raises eyebrows by suggesting that the current economic surge is more robust than the surge of the late '90's

Allow me to preface this post by saying that presidents always get way too much credit and blame for the state of the economy.

Having said that, it's interesting to compare the economic conditions of the Bush presidency to the Clinton presidency. Bush Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto told the Examiner that "This is a much stronger expansion in a lot of ways. It's much deeper and more measured."

Fratto points mostly to today's extraordinarily low unemployment numbers, which, at 4.4%, are about a full percentage point lower than they were at the same point during the Clinton expansion. The Clinton people predictably took issue with Fratto's claim. I'm not enough of a student of economics to judge which economy takes the prize, but I do know that the media acts like today's economy is shaky at best, while during the Clinton years they acted like we should all be heating our homes by burning money.

The economy was good then; don't anyone tell the mainstream media, but it's good now as well. That's good news for everyone, and it's a testament to the ongoing benefits of the Reagan Revolution. The Clinton-era surge was powered, at least in part, by a hugely unsustainable dot-com boom. Bush's economy has the specter of the so-called housing bubble. However, while the correction has already begun to a degree, I don't see the housing bubble bursting in the same dramatic fashion as the likes of Pets.com. History, as always, will be the ultimate judge.

The woes of a one-newspaper town

2007-04-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

The first in a multi-part series about why Rochester needs more editorial voices

There's something interesting going on in Seattle. Since 1981, the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post Intelligencer have been operating under what's known as a Joint Operating Agreement. This basically means that they have separate newsrooms, but share most of their other operations, including a single sales department. To make a very long story as short as possible, the Times decided last year that it wants to dissolve the agreement. If the history of Joint Operating Agreements is any indication, this means certain death for the Post Intelligencer. There are many people in Seattle who are not willing to let their status as a two-newspaper town go gently into that good night, and they have formed a citizens committee to stop it. I don't want to go into all of the legalities of the situation here, but you can read more on the Web site of what's known as the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town.

Obviously, my point here relates to the situation that we are in here in Rochester. These folks in Seattle seem to know what's coming with an almost prophet-like prescience. Take a look at this flyer that they are distributing. You can take that document point by point and see what Rochester is missing by having just one editorial voice. Lest you think this is all about politics, consider that it is the left-leaning paper in Seattle that looks ready to die, whereas here in Rochester the more conservative paper has been dead for about a decade.

We haven't had a strong counterpoint to the Democrat and Chronicle's chronically left-leaning editorial page since the Times Union closed its doors in 1997. As a result, our community is underserved. Don't forget that the Democrat and Chronicle endorsed Bill Johnson for County Executive. Johnson went on to lose by nearly a two to one ratio. The Democrat & Chronicle is out of touch with its readers and seemingly unaccountable.

I plan to explore the ways in which Rochester would benefit from another newspaper in a series of related posts. I'd love to see another daily, but I would certainly settle for a weekly with a strong editorial voice. I think maybe the folks in Seattle have visited Rochester or places like it. They seem to know the woes of being a one-newspaper town before they've even become one.

Read Part II of this series here.

More government spending = less satisfaction

2007-03-29T16:21:00.000-07:00

The Center for Governmental Research put together a great study in which they compared the level of and rate of satisfaction with government services in Long Island and Northern Virginia. Here are the vitals:

Long Island has 439 government agencies; northern Virginia has 17
Long Island spends 45% more per capita than northern Virginia on government services
Local property taxes are 55% higher in Long Island than northern Virginia
Citizens in northern Virginia rate the level of service provided by local governments and schools higher, and say they have better access to government officials than citizens of Long Island

Will we ever learn? As Reagan said, "..government is not a solution to our problem; government is the problem." Read more of the study here.

Jacques and Pierre are at it again

2007-03-29T16:03:00.000-07:00

From reading this story in the New York Times, one would think that the French have a real problem with their unruly youth. Is it the cheese? Is it their pretentious parents and their overpriced wine? Is it the lack of a focus on personal grooming and hygiene? No, I'm afraid the problem cannot truly be ascertained by this or any other mainstream media article, because they're afraid to call the problem what it really is: a Muslim problem. These "youths" terrorizing Paris are the children of Muslim immigrants or they're Muslim immigrants themselves. They refuse, as Muslims do the world over, to assimilate into the culture of their new country, and now they are lashing out. You remember, of course, the major riots of 2005. France's Muslim problem is not an anomaly in Western Europe. It won't belong before the "youths" wreak havoc on the rest of the continent (it's already happening to some degree). I'm sure we'll all lack the guts to call a spade a spade then, too.

The teachers unions spent millions of dollars lobbying the government to get new geography textbooks for little Billy...and other tall tales

2007-03-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

Statistics are amazingly easy to manipulate. If I had my way, every newspaper subscription would come with a complimentary copy of How to Lie with Statistics to help people think critically about the numbers that are thrown their way on a regular basis.

For example, the Temporary State Commission on Lobbying recently released a report detailing the amount of money spent on lobbying in 2006. All the newspapers immediately ran front page stories breathlessly reporting that lobbying spending had risen yet again. Most also reported that “the amount spent on lobbying in New York has tripled in just 10 years.”

What the stories neglected to explain was that in the last ten years, New York has passed a slew of laws related to lobbying and campaign finance. In fact, the rules (and the interpretations of those rules) have gotten increasingly strict over the years by broadening the definition of lobbying, expanding the types of expenses that must be reported, and increasing the penalties for violating the rules.

The principal purpose of these laws is to ensure public disclosure of the amounts spent on lobbying. Are we supposed to be surprised that more spending is reported as the disclosure laws are strengthened?

But, while we're on the topic of lobbying, let's take a look at some of the numbers reported. The popular conception is that large evil corporations are the ones spending millions on lobbyists in their quest to screw over consumers. So who were the big spenders in New York? Was it Aaron Eckhart representing the evil tobacco companies? Perhaps it was the big bad NRA in their never ending quest to legalize 80mm howitzers.

Guess again: four out of the top ten spenders in New York were unions: United Teachers (NYS) $1,685,015; Public Employees Federation $1,285,703; Civil Service Employee Association & CSEA PAC $985,148; and United Federation of Teachers $890,181.

That looks like a much more interesting story to me, but I guess that's why I'm not qualified to be a member of the mainstream media.

People who make ridiculous comparisons to Hitler are worse than Stalin

2007-03-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Last week, members of the Seneca tribe gathered at Buffalo's Niagara Square (which is actually a circle - haha). They were protesting Governor Spitzer's plan to collect taxes on tobacco sales to non-Indians. As you can see, it didn't take long for the protesters to make comparisons between Spitzer's tax plan and Hitler's plan to rid the world of the Jews.

It seems that almost anytime a group of people are agitated enough to protest about something, they have to trot out Hitler (and also the "Free Mumia" signs). Conjuring up Hitler is also seemingly pretty useful in political diatribes directed against conservatives. In response to all this, I would propose that Godwin's Law be enforced in all political discussions.

Godwin's Law (loosely) stands for the proposition that any party in a discussion that resorts to Hitler/Nazi comparisons automatically loses. The rule started in internet discussion forums, and I think it should be applied to the public square generally. Comparing a tax plan or the Patriot Act or the decision of the local Zoning Board of Appeals to Hitler and his goons trivializes what was a dark day for Western Civilization and for mankind as a whole.

Now I know the conservatives out there are complaining that abortion and embryonic stem cell research could justifiably be compared to actions of Hitler and the Nazis. Although such a comparison could be made, I have found that calling someone a Nazi has little persuasive power (just this week, I called a cashier "Hitler" for refusing to honor my expired coupon - in response, she squished my bread and put a bunch of heavy crap on top of my eggs).

And by the way, this new plan proposed by Spitzer is to simply enforce the tax law as it is written. Some might argue that he should have done this when he was Attorney General. In his defense, it is much easier and politically expedient to pick on abortion protesters, since they don't get violent and shut down the thruway when they get ticked off. But that's a topic for another day.

View The Great Global Warming Swindle Online

2007-03-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

Britain's Channel 4 documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, which we alerted you to in an earlier post, is now available for viewing online. This is an absolute must see for anyone with any kind of interest in the global warming issue. I see it as a damning condemnation of the "science" behind the lemming-like acceptance of the theory of human-induced climate change. The most compelling piece of evidence that they site has to do with the relationship between CO2 levels in the atmosphere and global temperatures. This is one of the key pieces of evidence that the global warming set cites to prove that we're destroying mother earth with our SUV's. However, while there is a correlation between the two, even a cursory glance at that data will tell you that elevated CO2 levels follow rises in global temperatures rather than preceding them. Elevated levels of CO2 seem then to be an effect of rising temperatures rather than the cause. This is just one piece of compelling evidence among many in the film. I hope it can find a larger audience online. It will certainly not get so much as a blurb from the mainstream media, but I hope the new media will make this a tipping point in the climate change debate. Yes, Mr. Gore, I said debate, because the debate is far from over. It's only just begun. Ten years from now the hysteria about global warming will be nothing but a punchline. Please take the time to watch this documentary.

Some insight on (and love for) a potential Gingrich run

2007-03-16T20:26:00.001-07:00

Ben Martin, a friend and political simpatico of this blog, provides some interesting (and somewhat inside) analysis of Newt Gingrich and his potential 2008 run for president. Ben sites some appearances by Gingrich on Focus on the Family (where he appears to be cozying up to the Christian right) as evidence of his intentions to enter the Republican primary. Ben also loves Gingrich as a candidate. I agree with his assessment of Gingrich as a very good (almost Reagan-esque) articulator of the contemporary conservative world view. However, I just don't know if Newt has a chance at the White House. His political baggage makes Hillary's look like a petite carry-on. That fact makes it hard for me to support him. It does, however, make for some interesting food for thought. I guess it's a huge step forward for Gingrich that people are even seriously talking about him as a candidate. Who would have thought that possible a decade ago?

D&C mistakes public interest for its own

2007-03-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

This editorial in today's D&C sums up pretty well the smug self-righteousness of our local paper and the larger mainstream media. The basic message is that they don't want to have to jump through any hoops when they want information from Monroe County. They site specific examples of a hazardous materials response report and the committee that's looking into the porn policies of the central library. What they're trying to say is that transparency in government is more or less an end unto itself. This is, of course, patently untrue. It is not necessarily in the public interest for all government information to be made public (I happen to think a library porn task force may be a good example). It is, however, in the interest of the D&C. It makes their job easier to have unfettered access to government information. As a former reporter, I can sympathize somewhat with this desire for transparency, but I also don't blame the county for taking a less than accommodating approach to information requests from a seriously left-leaning paper with a gotcha journalism mentality. However, what really bothers me about the editorial is its condescending tone. It reads like a lecture to the county about their responsibility to the public good. Given its track record, the D&C is in no position to give such a lecture.

Hollywood to the rescue!

2007-03-06T09:36:00.000-08:00

I recently saw a clip from the Academy Awards of Leonardo DiCaprio standing at the podium, looking intently at the audience, and declaring, "Toby Keith rules" before ripping the sleeves off his tux and downing a sixer of Natty Ice.

Just kidding. What he actually did was state the following:

"The American film industry has always taken its obligations to society very seriously and it’s stepping up once again. Tonight, we’re proud to announce for the first time in the history of the Oscars, this show has officially gone green."

First, Leo's definition of "society" must be pretty narrow, because I would dispute that these nitwits have done very much for society at large. Last time I checked, pretending to be someone else in front of a camera does little to cure cancer. And the "causes" these people support (and yes, I did say "these people") with their ill-gotten gains are almost as comical as the outfits they wear to the Oscars. Except for George Clooney - that guy looked classy.

As to the "gone green," I would paraphrase the great Winston Wolfe and say "let's not start [congratulating each other] just yet."

A recent study has determined that the SUV (i.e. transportation) is not the greatest cause of global warming. The new threat to our very existence weighs several hundred pounds, is extremely hard to tip over, and farts methane all day. No, I don't mean Michael Moore, I'm talking about livestock. (An article regarding this study can be found in the CSM).

Thus, if DiCaprio and his pals really want to "go green," they should not consume any meat, eggs, or milk products.

At first, I thought this was pretty funny. Then I realized that there is a high degree of correlation between crazy vegan types and Hollywood, and that these people would like nothing more than to tell me that my love for meat is killing the planet.

I'm just surprised that they haven't linked gunpowder to global warming in an attempt to outlaw all guns.

Oh, and by the way, taking a Toyota Pius from your hotel to the Kodak Theater does not ameliorate all the greenhouse gasses shot out the tail end of your Gulfstream. Idiots.

Global Warming swindle?

2007-03-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

It seems that Britain's bombastic Channel 4, in the news most recently for its airing of a faux documentary depicting the assassination of George W. Bush, has taken a proverbial page from Michael Crichton's State of Fear. The Great Global Warming Swindle is a British documentary that sets forth a very skeptical point of view on the now widely accepted (at least by Hollywood lefties and the press) view that we humans have Mother Earth on a crash course with disaster. The trailer for the documentary raises many of the questions that us right wing nuts in America have been bringing up for years. The special airs Thursday at 9 pm (I assume that's GMT), and it is apparently filled with interviews from leading climatology scientists who doubt Al Gore's "undebatable" premise. For once I almost wish I was in Europe. Almost.

John Murtha: Mr. Wrong

2007-03-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

Democratic Congressman John Murtha was on Meet the Press today talking about the Democratic Party's "plan" for Iraq. One thing really stuck out to me while I was watching him (kind of) answer Tim Russert's questions: this guy is wrong a lot. He says now that he was wrong to vote for the war in the first place. He says now that he was wrong to say in his 2004 book that a precipitous withdrawal of troops based on a set timetable would be a catastrophic mistake. He even says now that he was wrong to call for an additional 200,000 troops for the Vietnam war 30 years ago!

However, now we are supposed to believe that John has it right. His party's "plan" is to give the Iraqis six months to get the country under control. If they don't, says Murtha, we should leave. He wouldn't call this strategy what it is: a simple departure date. One way or the other, we leave. If they fail to get things right, we leave, and if they get everything under control, we, of course, leave, because there would be no reason for us to be there. Murtha, of course, wouldn't answer Russert on whether he still wants to withhold funding from the war. He would only say that we need to bulldoze Saddam's prisons, Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. That will apparently make the whole world like us again. Then we can all hold hands and film ourselves a nice Coke commercial.

We all know that this democratic posturing means absolutely nothing. They don't have the political guts to put any teeth to it. The whole thing is nothing but sound and fury - a little roadshow for the people who voted for them last year. They're perfectly happy to let Iraq continue to be Bush's war. If it ever really falls into their laps, it will be very interesting to see if they actually follow this plan that Murtha is trumpeting. I have this strange feeling that he might be on Meet the Press again in a couple of years admitting how wrong he was...again.

The hits keep on coming...

2007-02-25T13:25:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be hard for the D&C to publish a story that was more insipid than last week's expose on diversity in Division III coaching. And yet, just one week later, we have an in depth story (and ridiculous editorial) about the compensation of Monroe County Water Authority Board members.

The D&C breathlessly reports on the front page that "board members get the most generous benefits of any public authority in the region."

Buried in two pages of moralizing and misinformation are the following critical facts: (1) "the benefits available to the Water Authority board are comparable to those of other water authorities in the state;" and (2) Monroe County's rates are "among the lowest in the Northeast."

In other words, the current board members are paid commensurate with their position and have done a good job at keeping rates low.

The Stanwix situation was unfortunate, but you can only milk a story for so long. What's next, a story about the lack of racial diversity on the board? Maybe we could get a story about what Teddy Geiger thinks about the board.

If the D&C paid half this much attention to the Ferry scandal, taxpayers wouldn't be out millions of dollars. But I forgot, that was a scandal involving DEMOCRATS.

Pataki sighting...I'm the only one who noticed

2007-02-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

I recently saw former New York Governor George Pataki wandering around in the Atlanta airport. He was there with one bodyguard, and it was clear that no one else there had any idea who he was.

I couldn't help but think, as Pataki went into the newsstand and bought a paper without so much as a raised eyebrow from anyone around him, that there is no way this man has a shot at the 2008 Republican nomination, much less the White House. I don't pretend that the test of public recognition means a whole lot at this stage of the game, but it's clear that Clinton, Obama, McCain or Giuliani would cause quite a stir in any public airport in America.

Pataki has an uphill battle for a multitude of reasons, and I'm not sure he's really going to fight it. A recent poll gave him a whopping five percent support in New York among likely Republican primary voters. The fact that everyone knows who he is here must have helped somewhat, because he drew just one percent in this recent poll in Iowa. Time to ride off into the sunset, George.

Is there a method to this maverick McCain message?

2007-02-22T18:42:00.000-08:00

For a while now, the conventional wisdom has been that John McCain is sucking up to the right wing of the Republican Party in order to augment his chances of winning the nomination in 2008.

I guess I had bought into that sentiment, because this account of McCain slamming Bush on, of all issues, global warming with his buddy Ahhhnold in Cahleefohnhuh caught me by surprise.

McCain is quoted as saying that climate change is "now widely acknowledged to be a great threat to our planet, our children and our grandchildren," and he called Bush's record on the issue "terrible." That's not exactly pandering to the base of the GOP. Is McCain hoping that tooling around with the Terminator will make him seem more electable, or is this the return of the Straight Talk Express?

Although I am very skeptical about whether or not humans have anything to do with the apparent planetary warming trend, I do find myself respecting McCain for taking what may well be a principled stand rather than a calculated political move. Moreover, I think conserving resources and reducing emissions are good ideas regardless of how convinced I may or may not be that we're all of a sudden rapidly upsetting the delicate balance of Mother Earth. Is state or federal legislation the best way to do that? Again, skeptical.

We shall over-coach!

2007-02-19T19:30:00.000-08:00

I know the absurdity of Sunday's D&C article about the so-called lack of minority coaches at local Division III colleges is well explicated in the post directly preceding this one, but I just have to add a couple of things.

First of all, this is a made up story if ever there was one. It's beyond obvious that the brass at the D&C took a look at the fact the the first two black coaches just coached in a Super Bowl and decided to write an article about how there aren't enough black coaches in our area. Then, to back up their story, they did their own study to prove it. This is a wholly unethical approach. It would be different if a third party had done a study that found a dearth of minority coaches locally, prompting a D&C article. Instead, they decided what they wanted to say, did some half-assed little survey to back it up, and then gave it front-page Sunday billing. This approach is lazy, disingenuous, and unconscionable. You need only to look at the online comments that appear below the article to see that no one is buying what they're selling here.

Here's what really kills me, though. This is the quote from Richard Lapchick, the "national expert on sports diversity," a position which, believe it or not, apparently exists:

"They don't apply? Then go out and recruit them," he said. "Don't keep doing what you've been doing all these years. If you want to change things in terms of hiring people of color, you can't sit back and let them come to you."

Sadly, this is not a quote from The Onion. Today is not April Fool's Day. This was really printed in the paper. It's serious. You can't choose who you hire from a pool of candidates who want the job and apply for it. It's not enough to give the job to the best interested applicant regardless of race or creed. Perish the thought! You have to go find people of a certain race and convince them that they want the job. Beg them. Force them. Whatever you need to do. This is pure madness. For this story, and for so many other things, the D&C should be ashamed of itself.

It was bound to happen sooner or later...

2007-02-18T18:03:00.000-08:00

The D&C reserved the front page of the Sunday paper for a penetrating story with the following headline: "The coaching staffs at area Division III colleges mirror a national trend, leaving nonwhites IN THE MINORITY."

They could have shortened it to: "MINORITIES ARE IN THE MINORITY," but that was probably too insipid - even for our hometown fish wrap. This reminds me of something out of the collected wit and wisdom of that prosecutor in Boston who said that the little lite brites found throughout the city could have been dangerous if they had been explosive.

This is another example of frequent cries of alarm that we hear about the lack of "diversity" in professions in our community. Before we get into this, however, we need to define our terms. When condescending liberal types talk about diversity, they don't mean diversity of thought or socio-economic background. They really mean people who are nonwhite, or GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, or .... train collectors?), or some other countable "category."

In any event, if this lack of "diversity" was the result of racist hiring practices, then I would be happy to take up the cause. However, I find it hard to believe that all the human resources professionals in our region are racists (call them buzzword-spewing simpletons if you must,* but don't call them racist).

In fact, we have the opposite situation in almost every profession. Employers fall all over themselves trying to attract and to hire minority candidates.

Admittedly, these efforts have been less than successful. So what could explain the lack of diversity in many professions in our region?

First, let's take a look at the demographics. Our region closely mirrors the demographics of....well...Idaho. Here are the percentages of whites in the counties in our region: Monroe (80.8%); Orleans (91.2%); Livingston (95%); Ontario (95.7%); Gennesee (95.3%); Wayne (94.8%); Wyoming (93.1%). (These figures are from the US Census Bureau Website).

Second, everyone agrees that we aren't exactly a hot spot for employment.

Third, we do not live in a major metropolis with its own gravitational field - the sort of place that draws people in from all over. I love this region, and I'm happy that I live here, but I think we can all agree that NYC it ain't.

We aren't a very "diverse" region to begin with, and we aren't the sort of place that draws in lots of people. Put this all together, and I think the lack of "diversity" is pretty unremarkable.

This state of affairs does assist those who like to use diversity as a cudgel. Worse, you end up sounding like a jerk - or worse - if you say anything critical about any kind of "diversity" agenda.
I don't like being coerced into short-circuiting my critical thinking skills. So expect another article in the near future analyzing the case for diversity. Until then, read up on the state of the field at http://www.workforcediversitynetwork.com/. You get a prize if you find a single sentence with out "proactive," "synergy," or other meaningless buzzwords (oops, I may have given away my feelings on this subject).

*I wouldn't call human resources managers any such thing personally, but I know people who have done so.

I'm not even going to address the racial component of this ridiculous story...

2007-02-17T06:56:00.000-08:00

The Rochester City school district is one of the worst in the state. In fact, nearly 50% of the 34,000 students in the district never finish high school. Job prospects for high school dropouts usually include the following: (1) the guy with the grungy towel who dries off your car after you get a car wash; (2) the guy in line at the grocery store at 8:02 in the morning with a couple of 40's in his basket; or (3) Kevin Federline. It would probably do many city residents, and the region generally, a lot of good if more kids were graduating.

Thankfully, the members of the school board are hard at work finding ways to improve the district and to better prepare the kids in city schools to be productive members of society.

A member of school board has introduced a proposal that would create a district-wide African-American studies department. Allegedly, the proposal has received support from the Superintendent, the Rochester Teachers Association, and other board members.

Here's how it works:

"Plans call for students in all grades to be taught a more African-centered subject matter. The idea is to give black children more knowledge of their racial history and racial accomplishments to motivate them.

'It might make them think better of themselves to know that they come from scientists, doctors, lawyers - profession they can achieve too, [the school board member] said.'

More motivated students could increase attendance, lower dropout rates and close achievement gaps."

Personally, I find this argument compelling. When I was a kid, I eschewed book-learnin' and was headed for a life of alcohol abuse and soccer hooliganism. I turned everything around when I learned that James Joyce was Irish, just like me.

Or maybe not.

This line of reasoning is an offshoot of the old argument that kids can't learn unless they have high "self-esteem." Unfortunately for bleeding heart morons everywhere, the numbers don't bear this out. A recent study by the Brookings Institute broke down eighth grade math performance by nationality and "confidence" levels. The study concluded that "National indices of student happiness are inversely related to achievement in mathematics. That is, countries with more confident students who enjoy the subject matter - and with teachers who strive to make mathematics relevant to students' daily lives - do not do as well as countries that rank lower of indices of confidence, enjoyment, and relevance." Not surprisingly, chubby little American kids ranked high in confidence and low in performance.

Fixing inner-city schools is a major problem with no easy solution. However, nothing will ever be accomplished if the best that the school board can do is offer tired ideas such as this.

Oh yeah...I forgot about the crime

2007-02-12T18:38:00.000-08:00

I would be remiss not to mention the crime rate. Rochester's is one of the highest in the state, and I doubt that helps attract folks to our fine city.

The root causes of crime can be discussed all day and night, but there's one sure fire way to cut down on crime: hire lots of cops. Levitt and Dubner do a credible job of demonstrating this truism in their excellent book, Freakonomics.

I'm generally not one to call for excessive government spending on anything, but if we're going to be flushing money down the toilet, we might as well hire some cops and do something about the crime rate.

You would think that the mayor - our former police chief - would have thought of this. But then again, it's not like he managed to do anything about the crime rate when he was in charge.

Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on him. He is tall, and he does look good in a suit.

As long as we have an italian market (or performing arts center/bus station or big shiny boat to Canada), the high taxes and crime don't seem so bad

2007-02-12T15:25:00.000-08:00

Why do our elected representatives think that a single silver bullet solution can solve complex, regional, historical problems on a macroeconomic scale?

Our representatives seem to think that we're one crazy development project away from becoming the next Atlanta or Raleigh or Phoenix. After the abject failure of the fast ferry to solve all of our economic woes, the new plan is to turn mid-town into a high-end Italian market.

Let me save everyone a lot of time and money. People do not come to live in Rochester because it is a hip tourist attraction kind of place with a ferry that goes to Toronto and museum devoted to the Underground Railroad, Susan B. Anthony, the Erie Canal, and Teddy Geiger. Concomitantly, people do not decide to leave Rochester because it lacks a performing arts center/bus station.

I'll let everyone in on a little secret: people go to places where there are jobs. Rochester doesn't have that many new jobs. The reason for this is not that the High Falls district adventure was an unmitigated failure (the folks who headed up that plan obviously did not play much SimCity when they were young - or if they did, they were the types that repeatedly put in the codes to cause natural disasters).

The real reasons are as follows:

(1) High taxes: not only the state and local ones, but the astronomical property taxes which are some of the highest in the entire country;

(2) An incredibly costly workers compensation system: Every state has some form of workers comp system whereby workers are paid set amounts to compensate them for injuries suffered on the job and EVERY employer is responsible to insure itself for such costs. Somehow, New York's system costs more than Texas and California COMBINED and still manages to pay out some of the lowest benefits(how is that even possible?); and

(3) Extremely high energy costs: look at your electric bill...now imagine what it must cost to power an office building full of computers and printers and monkeys with laser pointers.

Unfortunately, our representatives seem to spend much more time lobbying Albany for crazy project money than for fixes for the ills that keep businesses away.

Sorry, Mr Cronkite, but that's the way it is

2007-02-09T19:55:00.000-08:00

In a keynote speech at Columbia University, the erstwhile news anchoring legend Walter Cronkite recently bemoaned the fact that money is getting in the way of quality journalism these days.

Although his liberalism is hardly a secret, I'm not going to spend any time busting on Walter Cronkite, partly because he's perhaps the most beloved figure in the history of American broadcasting, but mostly because he's really just, in this case, an old man pining for the good old days. However, Cronkite took a step off the edge of reasonable hyperbole with this gem.

"It's not just the journalist's job at risk here. It's American democracy. It is freedom."

Oh, Walter. First of all, you're just flat wrong. People have more and easier access to more information much more of the time. What exactly is liberating about a handful of heritage media outlets telling everyone which information is important and how to interpret it? The explosion of news and information options is making the evening news less relevant every day. I for one think that's a good thing for democracy. After all, what could be more democratic than a media by the people and for the people?

And then there's the point about money ruining everything today. Walter, it's always been about money. What's changed is that in your day the networks had no money troubles because they had no competition. Now that they have to compete with the Internet and cable, times are leaner, and it's only going to get worse. The future has no place for an influential evening network newscast. The good old days are gone for good, and that, my friend, is just the way it is.

The D&C: our podunk paper

2007-02-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

The stories with top billing in this morning's Democrat and Chronicle were as follows:

*A snow storm in Oswego
*A farm closing

I'd like to write some analysis about that, but I lack the energy. Besides, this really speaks for itself, doesn't it?

The New York Times...our Web site of record?

2007-02-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger tells Haaretz.com that he's not sure if the Old Gray Lady will even be producing a print edition five years from now. This is being dictated, apparently, by the digital revolution, which they ostensibly blame for their industry's overall decline. The Times itself has seen declining profits for four straight years, while their parent company recently fessed up to losing $570 million, largely because of problems with their sister rag, The Boston Globe.

I tend to think that it's much more complicated than a simple switch from print to digital. People are tired of having these monolithic, heritage media institutions set the national agenda. The Internet has simply provided a conduit for people to easily disseminate alternative information and opinions. For decades, the Times has been unabashedly liberal in their reporting and on their opinion pages. While I find David Brooks and Thomas Friedman to be insightful and intellectually honest columnists, Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman and Frank Rich make up an unholy trinity of leftist partisan hacks that makes David Duke look moderate. I personally hope that the Times quickly goes from print to all digital and then quickly goes away.

Sulzberger doesn't seem to really get the real point of the digital media revolution, but it may not really matter; I'm not sure there's much he could do about it anyway.

Spitzer vows to do away with "three men in a room" government...

2007-02-07T18:36:00.000-08:00

It's a good thing that Eliot "Steamroller" Spitzer and his pointy chin have a sizable ego and a bad temper. He could have been the Emperor of the Empire State by now if he hadn't started fights with everyone in Albany within his first month at the job.

He just won a major victory when he threw his resources behind a little known democrat politician from Long Island, who was just elected to fill Republican Mike Balboni's seat in a special election that occurred yesterday. In case you're counting, that slices the Republican majority in the Senate down to 33-29. If the dems can find a way to take two more seats, the Senate is theirs. Mr. Johnson defeated a pretty good Republican candidate in Nassau County Clerk Maureen O'Connell, and his victory would have been next to impossible but for the Steamroller's money and tireless campaigning on his behalf. Now the Senate Dems owe the Steamroller, and he has leverage over the Republicans since he can threaten to hire away or switch the two needed for a democratic majority. I don't think he's going to have much trouble moving legislation through the Senate.

Fortunately for those of us who do not want to live under a benevolent dictator plutocrat (yet), the Steamroller picked an unwinnable fight that simply served to solidify the democrats in the assembly behind their leader, Silver. Despite that fact the the legislature has the constitutional right and duty to pick someone to fill the empty Comptroller spot, the Steamroller tried to force one of his candidates through. He went as far as sending the good members of the legislature a threat letter yesterday, urging them to "consider both the context for this decision and its serious ramifications" and not to make a "huge mistake" when they voted today. (In the Steamroller's mind, the huge mistake would be to elect a member of the assembly as Comptroller.)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you, your new Comptroller, Democratic Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli.

The Steamroller took one on the chin. Unfortunately, I think he's a little like Mike Tyson: the sight of his own blood makes him a little crazy in the head.

Dungy gives nod to God, not the liberals

2007-02-05T17:25:00.000-08:00

Nothing sums up the condescension of liberalism better than this editorial from Sunday's D&C. The good liberals in the media have been working overtime to pat themselves on the back for making a Super Bowl with two African American head coaches possible. The nauseatingly self-gratifying D&C editorial calls this "another validation of fair hiring practices. " They're referring, as so many others have in recent weeks, to the so-called "Rooney Rule" - an NFL statute named after Pittsburgh Steelers Owner Dan Rooney that requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for every open head coaching position. Never mind that Tony Dungy had already been a successful head coach in the NFL for half a decade when the Rooney rule went into effect five years ago.

The unspoken implication in all of this talk is that Dungy and Smith just needed a hand up from the white liberal establishment. The press has tried to make this the story of the color of a man's skin rather what he has accomplished through skill and hard work. Tony Dungy won a Super Bowl because he is a terrific coach and perhaps an even more terrific human being. It has nothing to do with some rule of tokenism created to assuage the white guilt of fabulously rich football owners and touted by the liberals in the press. This "look what we did for you" attitude smacks of a subtle bigotry far more insulting than any Michael Richards rant. This makes me sick, and I got such satisfaction from hearing Dungy say this during his postgame comments:

“It means an awful lot to our country. But again, more than anything, I said it before, Lovie Smith and I, not only the first two African-Americans, but Christian coaches showing you can win doing it the Lord’s way. We’re more proud of that.”

I could almost hear the collective liberal gasp when Dungy denied them their long-awaited credit and instead gave the nod to a higher power. Who says God doesn't have a sense of irony? Delicious.

Would that be an f-ing simile or an f-ing metaphor?

2007-02-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

As reported by Newsday:

" 'Listen, I'm a -- -- steamroller, and I'll roll over you and anybody else,' an angry Spitzer told Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco (R-Schenectady) during an expletive-laced cell phone conversation about Tedisco's exclusion from legislative negotiations."

Eliot "The Steamroller" Spitzer will get the people of New York every last dime!

IF the people in government weren't morons, I COULD have faith that the constitution would be upheld

2007-02-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

This story feels like it came right out of the Onion.

A couple of guys (who may or may not have been high) placed several light board devices throughout Boston depicting the cute little fellow to the left. The stunt had something to do with the show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” a late night cartoon on the (you guessed it) Cartoon Network, which appeals to stoners because all the main characters are, well, food products.

The discovery of these devices caused the city of Boston to shut down bridges and a stretch of the Charles River.

Someone should have told them that all they had to do was take the batteries out of the light boards.

However, the City of Boston was not finished overreacting. They tracked down the "evildoers" responsible, arrested them, and charged them under a vague statute forbidding bomb scares.

As reported by CNN, "Assistant Attorney General John Grossman called the light boards "bomb-like" devices and said that if they had been explosive they could have damaged transportation infrastructure in the city."

In case you missed that, the Assistant Attorney General said that "IF they had been explosive, THEY COULD HAVE damaged transportation infrastructure in the city."

Right.

Just like IF they were just lightboards depicting a cartoon character, THEY COULD be completely harmless; or

IF I was a millionare, I COULD sit around watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force smoking cigars all day (well, I guess I could do that anyway, but you get the idea); or

IF I had rockets on my shoes, I COULD fly around the city doing loop de loops; or

IF the Arizona Cardinals didn't suck so much, THEY COULD have gone to the Superbowl; or

IF WE DIDN'T LIVE IN A FREE SOCIETY, THE GOVERNMENT COULD STOP PEOPLE FROM DOING ANYTHING IT DIDN'T LIKE.

(Please leave comments with your own favorite IF scenarios...maybe I'll send the best ones to Assistant Attorney General John Grossman)

NY primary voters want Hillary, Rudy; cold on Obama

2007-01-31T18:36:00.000-08:00

I guess the results of this poll from Siena College shouldn't be surprising. In short, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton have big leads among registered voters in our great state. Rudy Giuliani having a 47-20 lead over John McCain is to be expected. Rudy has the home-state advantage here. What I found mildly surprising is that Clinton leads Barack Obama, her nearest competitor, 58-11. I wouldn't have expected Clinton to have such a lead even in her *ahem* home state over the current media darling. What's even slightly more surprising is that Clinton carries a commanding 78-13 lead over Obama among African American Democrats. I guess it pays to be married to our first Black President. Expect those numbers to change as the months go by. Showing that merely being from New York is not enough, our former governor came in with just 5% among Republicans. To quote Siena New York poll spokesman Steven Greenberg, "...after 12 years as governor, only one in 20 New York Republicans think Pataki should be president." Don't count me among them.

Other points of interest in the poll:

Eliot Spitzer has a 75% approval rating
Joe Bruno has a 17% approval rating
Shelly Silver has a 20% approval rating

Again, no big surprises, but interesting nonetheless. We'll see how long Spitzer's honeymoon lasts.

Maybe Joe's Biden his time for 2012

2007-01-31T17:57:00.000-08:00

In case anyone out there thought Senator Joe Biden had any shot at winning the Democratic nomination, much less the presidency, take a look at this gem of a quote about Barack Obama:

"I mean, you've got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a story-book, man."

Did he say clean?!? I'm not going to waste any space on what Biden meant to say, because it could not possibly matter less. This is on par with the now infamous "botched joke" of John F-up Kerry. It probably would have been best for Biden to say that the quote was plagiarized from a Neil Kinnock speech, but instead he apologized. Even after the apology, Obama's camp made up this quote for Barack:

"African-American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate."

Snap! So, in case you didn't already know it, Biden's done. How about an early concession speech, Joe? I hear British politicians are turning some wonderful phrases these days.

Read more here.

Way to tackle the tough issues...

2007-01-29T19:06:00.000-08:00

With all of the important events going on around the world, our state, and right here in Rochester, the D&C decided to tackle one of the toughest issues on their Sunday editorial page. I'm referring, of course, to the heightened spirit of meanness on American Idol.

I have to say, with this one, I really wish I was kidding. This is where our public discourse is heading. It's not enough that we are bombarded with this meaningless tripe all over television. We also have to read about American Idol on the Sunday editorial page! It really drives me crazy. Next week, look for a revealing look inside the Donald Trump/Rosie O'Donnell fued.

Newsflash: The D&C Wants Everyone to Get Along

2007-01-29T16:30:00.000-08:00

For some reason, the D&C ignored my sensible call for Gov. Spitzer and Shelly Silver to fight to the death over the vacant comptroller posotion. Not surprisingly, the paper advised both sides to compromise and make nice (I bet that would get them both a "thumbs up!").

The paper sagely advised the Governor that he "should understand that he can't bowl over the Legislature. It is his partner in the governance of the state."

This same editorial page has been castigating the legislature for years for its ineptitude and inaction (and rightly so). But if that's the case, then the Governor darn well better "bowl" them over if necessary. Of course, none of this has anything to do with the comptroller vote, where Spitzer has no constitutional role, and Silver gets to choose. Spitzer made a nice power play to muck things up a bit and to embarrass Silver, but at the end of the day, the vote belongs to Silver and his dems in the Assembly.

Which brings us to Silver, who "should ensure that the [comptroller] vote will be based on qualification, not partisan ties."

Right. If that was the case, the dems should elect John Faso. But at the end of the day, it's going to be one of Silver's Assembly democrats. At very least, the paper should have shown some spine and advised Silver to elect "our" Assembly democrat, Joe Morelle (who does, in fact, have some pretty good credentials).

Finally, the D&C should get its facts straight when it offers insipid political advice. Governor Spitzer was not elected with "nearly 80% of the vote." According to the State Board of Elections' final figures, Governor Spitzer ended up with 65.7% of the vote.

I wish I could have gotten away with that kind of math when I was a kid: "Yeah dad, I nearly got a B on that test I just failed."

Time for Hillary to step off the stepping stone

2007-01-28T10:42:00.000-08:00

We all know that Hillary Clinton has been running for president since her husband left office. Actually, she's probably been running for a lot longer than that. She officially announced her Casa Blanca intentions this month to the surprise of anyone who had just emerged from a decade-long stint in a cave.

Whether we want to admit it or not, those of us who live in New York all know that her job as United States Senator has been nothing more than a stepping stone on the way to her larger ambitions. We elected her twice (I use "we" here in a very general way), even though we knew that she simply picked a prominent state with an open senate seat to get some elective office experience on her resume.

Now, however, all pretense has been completely obliterated. Even she can no longer deny the fact that all of her will is bent on becoming the next President of the United States. She was already in Iowa yesterday, stumping like it's 2008. Therefore, it is time to officially end the facade of Hillary Clinton the New Yorker. No one can argue with a straight face that she will be dedicated to representing New York in the US Senate for the next two years.

Mrs. Clinton, the time has come to pack up your carpet bag and leave New York for good. Let's give Eliot Spitzer a chance to appoint a senator who might actually focus his or her energies on representing New York State.

Public (Self) Service

2007-01-27T17:34:00.000-08:00

Our Senior US Senator was in Pittsford today to talk about all of the initiatives he's sponsoring to help Western New Yorkers meet the challenges facing our region. Oh, wait, he was here promoting his new book.

Lest you think that a democratic majority in the congress will mean that our two democratic senators might actually get some stuff done for New York, take note of the fact that we have one running for president and one going around selling a book. Forget the fact that Hillary has fallen abysmally short of her promise to bring thousands of new jobs to our area. That's just way too much to ask. How about just doing something for the state instead of yourselves?

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

2007-01-26T18:41:00.001-08:00

We've all been waiting for it to happen, but we just didn't know when. And by "it", I mean the fight to the death between Eliot Spitzer and Shelly Silver. The state's just not big enough for the both of them.

It appears that the showdown will occur over the vacant comptroller post. To give you some background, former Comptroller Hevesi resigned the post after he admitted he cheated the taxpayers and then plead guilty to a felony. (Some other time we'll revisit the fact that the voters of the state of New York elected him to another term AFTER he admitted his crimes - and then they wonder why there are so many problems in the state).

In a circumstance such as this, a new comptroller is chosen by a vote of every legislator. The Assembly is so heavily democratic that if all the dems banded together, they could, in effect, choose the next comptroller. However, to make nice with Spitzer, it was decided that a panel would hold public hearings and recommend 5 candidates to the legislature.

Almost 20 people put in applications for the position, including several democratic assembly members. There was a decent amount of buzz regarding our local guy, Assemblyman Morelle and Long Island Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli. And it seemed like the final choice would likely come from the Assembly, since Shelly Silver stated repeatedly that the final choice would come from the Assembly.

Surprise Surprise! The independent panel recommended three individuals, New York City Finance Commissioner Martha Stark, Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman and Westchester investment banker William Mulrow. Last time I checked, none of these people were Assembly dems.

See the New York Post for more detail regarding the story: http://www.nypost.com/seven/01262007/news/regionalnews/comptroller_panel_nixes_silver_picks_regionalnews_kenneth_lovett_and_fredric_u__dicker__post_correspondents.htm

So now, Spitzer has Silver boxed in. To get one of his guys into the post, he must now exercise raw political power out in the open: ignore the recommendations of the panel and simply choose the guy he wants. To say the least, this won't look good. And according to this analysis by the Albany Times Union, it may not be as easy as it once seemed:

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=3499#comments

Silver's alternative is to shut his mouth and get used to playing the number two man in town.

I'm hoping he'll fight. I'm not sure how to handicap it. Who would you choose, the consummate political insider, or the brash, ambitious, pointy-chinned former prosecutor who probably keeps copies of The Art of War and The Prince on his bedside table (right next to his Arkansas Toothpick)?

Eliot Spitzer, big game hunter?

2007-01-24T09:03:00.000-08:00

During the past year, I have spent a lot of time trying to talk Republican friends off the ledge. One of their chief complaints was that the state would go to hell in a hand basket once “New York City Liberal” Elliot Spitzer took over as governor (other complaints included Gannett, the color mauve, and the designated hitter rule). As to Spitzer, they complained that he was a political hack who preferred to shoot fish in a barrel instead of tackling important issues. (For example, he largely ignored Medicaid fraud and instead pursued record labels for paying top-40 stations to play their crappy songs instead of someone else’s insipid ones).

My position has been that Spitzer is a smart and ambitious guy who sharpens his chin nightly. I guess that last one was a cheap shot, but moving on…. If he wants to pursue higher office, he knows that he needs to show some success as governor of New York. And it seemed that he understood which issues would need to be addressed to achieve success: (1) a workers comp system that has a stranglehold on New York businesses; (2) a bloated Medicaid system that, in part, causes astronomically high property taxes; (3) a regulatory system that disproportionately burdens Western New York and guarantees that business relocate elsewhere.

This may be premature, but I am concern that Spitzer is falling back into his old ways. Since he has taken over as governor, he has not addressed the critical issues set forth above. Rather he has:

1) Furthered the Dem’s plans to take over the Senate by picking off a top Republican Senator, holding $25,000 a head fundraisers, and involving himself in the upcoming special election in an unprecedented fashion.

2) Imposed some changes in the member item system; notably, requiring that the legislators’ names be associated with their member items. Of course, that is not as significant as its sounds since it is similar to the way the system used to work before Pataki started cutting every budget item with a Democrat’s name next to it (which led us to the current “pot” system).

3) Taken almost an entire month to appoint the Western New York economic development czar, and then chose some guy from Pennsyltucky (granted, this guy may be the best available candidate, but if WNY was a real priority would there have been all the delay and political uncertainty over the position?).

4) Installed recycling containers in the capital.

All this whining may be premature, but at the moment, Spitzer is still on his honeymoon,
and his political leverage may never be greater. He needs to stop shooting fish in a barrel and load up his .45-70 for some big game.

Taxation without moderation...

2007-01-23T19:31:00.000-08:00

You hear people griping about the high taxes we face in the Rochester area, but did you know that we pay the second highest property taxes in the entire nation? Click here to read an eye-opening article on the Center for Governmental Research's Political Notebook Blog. Not only does Monroe County have America's second highest property tax rate, nine of the top ten counties in the nation are located in upstate New York. In the words of the erudite Waler Sobchak from The Big Lebowski, "Has the whole world gone crazy?"

The article talks about a conference sponsored by CGR that took a look at what can be done about our criminally high property taxes in this state (read a rather lengthy summary of that conference's findings here). That conference's speakers proposed a cap on property tax levels (a model that saw some success in Massachusetts) and a reallocation of state funding to help alleviate the crushing burden of programs like Medicaid. The basic message of the conference is that Governor Pataki's STAR program has done little to curb the spiraling taxes. Rather, it has allowed them to shoot higher as it acts as a band aid for property owners while the government agencies continue to spend. It's interesting that this conference would reach that conclusion just as newly elected Governor Eliot Spitzer prepares to announce details of how he will expand the STAR program. Read more about that and the plans being proposed by the state senate and assembly here.

I'm glad this issue is getting so much attention at the state level, but taxes will only get under control when we are able to stop the out of control government spending going on at all levels of government in New York State. If only the political will existed to make that happen.

Come on, you know NIMBY's aren't going to remain silent...

2007-01-23T18:09:00.000-08:00

As you might expect, I received a whole passel of angry missives from the Chili NIMBY’s after my post about their scuttling of a proposed shopping center on Paul Road. The comments were long, but in no way varied. Here’s a quick summary, point by point with counterpoint:

Point 1: They’re not actually NIMBY’s, because they live miles from the proposed Paul Road site. Moreover, they’re pro-development because they’ve supported projects in the past, and they support hypothetical future commercial development in the town.

Counterpoint 1: Just because you live a few miles from the proposed site that you oppose doesn’t mean you’re not a NIMBY. It’s a figure of speech. It doesn’t have to literally be in your back yard. I don’t doubt or dispute that these people have supported projects in the past or may support them in the future. The problem is this: every major project proposed in Chili gets this kind of treatment from a group of citizens. That’s why there is no significant commercial development in Chili. We’ve seen it again and again, most notably with the Wegmans and Thruway exit proposals. There may be different people involved each time, but you can count on there being enough people making enough noise to make it more appealing for the developer to take his or her business elsewhere. I would bet a large sum of money that this hypothetical development on the old town hall site will have similar NIMBY detractors. I would also put money on that project not happening any time soon.

Point 2: This project was just a bad idea. It made no sense economically, because it was outside of the town's commercial core and would compete with that core. But above all else, this project would have *gasp* violated the town's MASTER PLAN!!! How very scandalous!

Counterpoint 2: First of all, we are talking about a Target here. Bringing a Target to Chili on Paul Road makes perfect economic sense, and it would have had tremendous economic benefits for the town. Denying that is nothing short of preposterous. The proposed site is also, at most, half a mile from the town's "commercial core," which currently consists of Kmart (the only significant retail presence in Chili). Care to take a guess on what Road Kmart is on? Yep, none other than Paul Road. This shopping center would literally have been within walking distance. Of course a Target would compete with Kmart, but competition is good for the consumer. As for the town's Master Plan, the NIMBY's would have you believe that such a plan is some kind of binding final word on how the town gets developed, rather than what it really is: the daydream of Chili's part-time politicos. Having said that, Master Plans can be a useful guide. However, that doesn't mean that development can't or shouldn't occur outside of their basic framework.

Point 3: Since I disagree with the NIMBY's, I must be either grossly misinformed or somehow acting as an agent of someone with a vested interest in this project.

Counterpoint 3: Nope. Sorry. As difficult as it may be to believe, there are people who have different opinions. It doesn't mean they're ignorant or subversive; it just means they disagree with you.

I'll leave you with this candidate for Understatement of the Year from Sunday's D&C article:

With its 28,513 residents, Chili has struggled for years to find high-impact development to increase its tax base.

The struggle continues.

Crazy Cali

2007-01-22T08:38:00.000-08:00

In a shocking turn of events, a California state legislator introduced a bill that was so ridiculous that I got agitated and had to write the following screed. The bill in question would criminalize spanking children. View more details here.

This was not a reaction to the wholesale repeal of all the child abuse laws in the state (although when you're dealing with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, you can't always be sure). Rather, the thought process likely went as follows: (1) I don't spank my kids; (2) None of my friends in the gated community spank their kids; (3) I find spanking (children) distasteful; (4) Thus, no one should be able to spank their kids; and (5) "will someone please think about the children?" I'm betting that this revelation occurred when she saw some squalling kid receive a swat on the behind while she was shopping in the local organic free-trade bean sprout cooperative market.

This, like many such laws, offends rationality on several fronts. First, child abuse is already illegal. Second, a vaguely defined prohibition on spanking is hard to enforce. We should always be wary of laws that are difficult to enforce because this condition usually leads to selective enforcement, discriminatory application, and corruption. Third, and most importantly, these sorts of laws bring government into our homes to impose its will over an area of life that has been a matter of personal conscience.

This nanny-state mentality is a widespread problem, especially in the state of New York. Jonah Goldberg recently made this point, and listed some of the things that the New York City Council has sought to ban in the past year, including pit bulls; trans-fats; aluminum baseball bats; the purchase of tobacco by 18- to 20-year-olds; foie gras; pedicabs in parks; new fast-food restaurants (but only in poor neighborhoods); lobbyists from the floor of council chambers; lobbying city agencies after working at the same agency; vehicles in Central and Prospect parks; cell phones in upscale restaurants; the sale of pork products made in a processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., because of a unionization dispute; mail-order pharmaceutical plans; candy-flavored cigarettes; gas-station operators adjusting prices more than once daily; Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus; Wal-Mart.

It may seem nice to ban some of these things, but the proper question is not whether a particular course of action would be nice. The proper question is whether the government should act. To quote Lincoln, "the legitimate object of government is to do for the people what needs to be done but which they cannot, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves."

I have faith that my fellow citizens can decide well enough for themselves whether to spank his kids or to eat foie gras.

NIMBY's Strike Again in Chili

2007-01-21T15:43:00.000-08:00

This morning's D&C reports that the Not-In-My-Back-Yarders have sunk yet another project in the town of Chili, this time torpedoing plans for a shopping center on Paul Road. While every town seems to have its group of NIMBY's, Chili's bunch has been particularly vocal and obstructive. I have a real problem with these people thinking they have a right to dictate what happens on land that they don't own. There is doubtless an important question of the public good, and Planning Boards and Town Boards are in place to parse out these issues. The public should certainly have their say, but in the end the burden of proof rests on those who would tell someone else what they can do with their own land.

I've lived and worked in Chili, so I've seen this first hand. These people pretty much don't want to see any development in their town, and so far they've won the day. They pulled a similar hatchet job on the proposed Thruway exit in south Chili a few years back. The line then, which you hear repeated now, was that they want to preserve the rural nature of the town. What they preserved by blocking the economic development that a Thruway exit would have offered was then, and remains today, a swamp.

I witnessed perhaps the most ridiculous example of the Chili NIMBY's (if not the most significant) at a Planning Board meeting that I covered while working as a reporter in the town. One of the items on the agenda was a proposed car wash on Chili Avenue. The place was packed with NIMBY's, and you should have seen the way they attacked this developer. You would have thought he was proposing to develop a brothel in their basements. It was a car wash! In the end, the developer took his project elsewhere - a win for the NIMBY's, but another loss for the people of Chili.

Anyone who lives in Chili knows that you don't shop in Chili. A shopping trip of any significance requires a trip to Greece, or Henrietta, or even Gates. What these people don't realize is that by blocking business from coming in, they are missing huge opportunities to ameliorate their town tax burden and lessening the positive impact of their shopping dollars. I certainly can't imagine why anyone would travel to Chili to spend money for any reason.

The sad thing is that, although these NIMBY movements are significant, they still represent a small, obnoxiously vocal minority of the town's citizens. Their shortsightedness leads to higher taxes and a serious dearth of shopping options for the vast majority of the people of Chili. It is certainly the right of the NIMBY's of Chili to speak out and to try to influence events in their town; I just wish someone had the guts to stand up to them.

Thumbs down indeed...

2007-01-20T11:15:00.000-08:00

In case you thought there were still some topics too insipid for the D&C, take a peek at this gem from today's Thumbs up/Thumbs down feature:

Thumbs down
For Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington. At a Golden Globes news conference this week, Washington heatedly denied previously using a homophobic word to refer to a fellow cast member. His doing so back in October sparked a fight with another cast member, Patrick Dempsey. Not only did Washington needlessly reignite an old controversy that was fading on its own, but in defending himself, he used the word he'd been accused of saying in the first place. This is one actor who doesn't know to ad-lib.

I wish I could make this stuff up. It's good to know the the stately editors at our esteemed daily paper are taking their lead from E! News.

The Newsweak Blame Game

2007-01-19T10:54:00.000-08:00

One of the subtle threads running through the Mainstream Media's current narrative is this idea that American foreign policy is to blame for the problem of radical Islamic terrorism. Newsweek decided to make that thread a little less than subtle with their current cover.

When you boil it down, what this kind of statement is really calling for is appeasement. It's almost as if they really think that if we just modify our foreign policy to make these people happy, they'll just decide to leave us alone. It's nothing more than a modern day détente. That was a bankrupt policy in the '60's and '70's, and it is no less a bankrupt policy today. The Soviets didn't want us to leave them alone; they wanted to rule the world. The same is true of the Islamo-fascists. This conflict will only come to a satisfactory end if we confront it with strength and moral clarity. Only then can we prevent the creation of The Next Jihadists.