" The Secret Shoe Service

I watched in amazement, shock and horror at our leader ducking and weaving a couple shoes that were tossed his way at a recent press conference in Iraq. Nice Moves Mr. Prez!
The fact is I would like to hurl a few insults at the current administration myself, but I certainly wouldn’t waste perfectly good shoe leather.
My amazement continued as the first toss sailed over the goalpost and our nimble President ducked clear. The second shoe seemed destined for a direct hit when the Iraqi prime minister offered an assist to block the incoming lob. Great work Nouri! Perhaps there is a job for you in the secret service should your current gig not pan out.
Because…what was most disturbing in my mind was the fact that the secret service was asleep at the wheel. Where were they?
I saw some guy wander in after the second shoe was tossed, but the damage had been done! Fortunately the damage was limited to embarrassment only. Mr. Bush knows how to deal with embarrassment as he has perfected the art over the past eight years.
And this was not downtown Kansas mind you, it was one of the most dangerous places in the world. It was Baghdad for heaven’s sake! You know the place our president ordered reduced to rubble and ruin at the beginning of hostilities. The place where after he declared “Mission Accomplished” erupted into a powder-keg. A place where suicide bombing is as common as New York taxes…One would think the secret service might be in a heightened state of alert?
I remain speechless over the brand of secret service protection our tax dollars provide. What do you think? "

" The basic problem with all these ideas (which I support) is that people don't know any better. If you have lived all your life in NYS, you might think that all states are set up like us, with all these governmental layers. The idea of consolidating anything into something smaller strikes people weird. After all, it has always been done this way! It is not until you read and inform yourself, (or that the local paper has the guts to do it) that only ten states support a village government, or that in many states the county runs the school. The economic collapse in the state has finally brought this to light, but only to those who read the reports or listen to the news. Many, in fact, most don't read or listen. The Citizen has finally begun to run stories about the water and school consolidation, and they must continue to report on the issues. Why do we need 26 little local governments (plus all the boards; planning, ZBA, codes, library, water and sewer and so on) in a county of 80,000? Syracuse (the city) is bigger and only has one government. "

" Final Recommendations from the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief are Happening Today:

The Commission will be presenting its Final Report to Governor Paterson today (December 1) at 2:00 at the Capitol. The press conference will be webcast; please check the Commission's homepage for a link to the webcast at 2:00.
http://www.cptr.state.ny.us/
A link to the report will also be made available at that time. "

" You get what you pay for

The county-wide school district system could save millions of taxpayer dollars every year. Yet another one of the fears I have heard expressed:
FEAR: You get what you pay for, if we start skimping on education it will cost us in the long run.
REALITY: If you look at states with county-wide education models this is simply not the case. Every state is unique and populations diverse so there may not be a fairer contrast than national state education rankings as a comparison.
I made the following comparison for the state of Maryland and New York schools a few months ago and it still bears consideration.
Maryland uses countywide school districts compared to New York and they have superior test scores in national rankings. According to the www.nces.ed.gov website, Maryland’s education surpasses New York in many categories. For example the following are rankings for 8th grade public schools:
New York Maryland
Writing 21st 10th
Mathematics 34th 16th
Reading 27th 21st
Science N/A 32nd

I invite and encourage readers to offer information, research and opinions on these topics and their experiences with other education systems. Please prove this wrong. I want to know the other side of this argument and why we should be spending so much money on administrative costs. Especially when other states that use county-wide district models achieve superior educational results.
In Washington County, Maryland for the 2005-06 school year there were 20,000 students in the entire county served by 1 school district. In Cayuga County for the same year there were 11,000 students being served by 7 school districts. Someone help me with the math on this one. Does this make any sense?

Tomorrow final recommendations of the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief are due in Albany. Let your voice be heard! "

" School District Consolidation:
Leave My Programs Alone

When presented with the facts, most taxpayers know consolidating Cayuga County’s 7 school districts into one countywide school district is the fiscally responsible thing to do. However as parents they would rather it happen after their kids graduate…if at all. The facts and figures illustrate there is no logical reason to maintain such an over-bloated education system. Yet the fear of change persists. One of the common misperceptions I have encountered while trying to bring this debate to the table is:
FEAR - I like my school district and the special events they have for students and parents.
REALITY - The individual schools in all likelihood could remain the same. Whether enrollments increase or decline, a county-wide system is still a preferred option to save taxpayer money. While there may be some sensible alternatives to a consolidated building location; the primary opportunity for savings exist when the administrative bureaucracy is eliminated and the students see little change in their classroom experience.
I attended Auburn Public schools in high school and while I knew Mr. Kachris was our superintendent and gave us far too few snow days, I never met him. He never had a personal impact on my day-to-day school experience except when they took the asbestos out of the school in my senior year and he ended up taking the heat over a performance bond fiasco. If anything, the Vice Principal and his secretary were my chief point of contact beyond the teachers. The teachers were the most important to me and had the greatest influence on the positivity or negativity of my experience. The likes and genius of a Mr. Martin or Ms. Shosa or Mr. Carnevale…these are the people that made my school experience a positive one. These type of people will still be teaching your children and be available to students at all schools throughout a county-wide district. There is no need to eliminate them from the equation for they are the ones that make the magic happen in educating the students.
The Auburn Maroons can still be the Maroons and the Port Byron Panthers can still be the Panthers as a cross-section of schools throughout the county will be necessary. There may be some economies of scale that could be realized by combining forces with a nearby locality. If you think Weedsport and Port Byron could be served by one location because there’s only 3 and a half miles that separate there building locations, I suppose you could make that case. But the crux of the debate I put forth is bringing all the schools of Cayuga County under one umbrella. A similar coalition was accomplished in bringing the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES together so this could work here if we put our mind to it.
Tomorrow I’ll discuss the “You Get What You Pay For” rationale. "

" The School District Consolidation Debate

I have been a proponent of governmental consolidation in New York State since I started my blog posting. One of the primary areas of savings I have pointed to are our school districts and the millions of dollars that could be saved in each county in our great state.
The administrative savings alone could substantially reduce every New Yorker’s tax burden. With many district enrollments declining in our county and the looming state fiscal crisis; we may have just entered into the perfect storm that would finally offer a strong voice in favor of this discussion.
With the final report from the New York State Commission on Property Tax Relief due Monday December 1, we may actually have a chance to effect positive change in this area.
If reasonable heads would prevail we could all do this together.
Over the next few days of blog postings I will discuss the major misperceptions I have heard that this type of change would mean to school children.
The fear these changes conjure up in parents minds whenever this issue is raised are often not based in reality. Tomorrow I will share what I call the “Leave My Programs Alone” rationale.
Please join in and share your sense! "

" Today's AP Article in The Citizen: New York's dysfunctional drama continues

I am writing the following email to Governor Paterson. I encourage you to write your elected officials too:
How do we fire our State Legislators?
With legislative inaction in Albany, it is clear that our lawmakers are either not interested or not willing to do their jobs. How do we fire them today? If I do not do my job, I get fired. I want our lawmakers held to the same standard.
Governor Paterson, please inform us of how we fire our state legislators immediately! "

" I liked your letter, excellant!
I think the politicians do forget who they for!
They too should be under a 90-day grace period! "

" CONTINUED...Leaders fail to cut state budget

Of the emails I sent to elected officials, Assmeblyman Kolb was the only response I received. He sent me a press release and a column he wrote concerning the legislative inaction.

Assemblyman Kolb,

Thank you for your reply; you're the only lawmaker that has.

I think you have great ideas. Another cost-saving measure you might consider in consolidating school districts. If you look at Maryland's school district system you will see a stark contrast in size and expenditure per student. While they have considerably better test scores and measurements than New York they spend quite a bit less without all the superintendants and staff. I can point to millions dollars in savings in Cayuga County alone if we had one or two school districts to serve the entire county.

The bottom line is so many people I speak to are tired of talk, rhetoric and the same old politics everywhere! In D.C., Albany and even their own hometowns. My own 70 year-old father-in-law has stated that the only way we can take this country back is with a revolution! Mild mannered folk I have known my whole life are starting to talk Revolution! Does it have to come to this? Why can't something be done to make our country and state great again?

Perhaps you and your "like-minded" constituents could stage a walk out or picket the assembly chambers until a vote is put before your legislative body for consideration. Something dramatic has to be done! Writing blazing editorials is one thing and I laud you for that. But your people want to see action more than anything.

Please don't let us down.

WRITE TO YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS...SOME LISTEN AND WILL RESPOND! "

" Leaders fail to cut state budget

Our state legislators sat there like a flock of geese and stared at each other. …And we pay these people for this? Did you see the newsclip of Governor Paterson rustling a blank sheet of paper? Is this indicative of how much our lawmakers actually care about the future of our state? With New York in the throes of the greatest economic crisis since I don’t know when, our state lawmakers met in Albany for a crisis-session and they did little more than stare at each other.
This is abominable!
We all know these choices are not easy. Cutting spending is going to upset one group or another, but in the end we need leadership. Stop worrying about re-elections or what is most popular with your lobbyist friends and begin working for the people that voted you into office. After writing this blog, I am writing my state senator and assemblyman and anyone else that will listen to voice my outrage! You should do so too. When lawmakers start hearing from their employer (You and I) they will begin working as if their life depended on it. In a lot of ways their political lives do rest in the balance. Make them feel the heat. If you and I performed this way on the job, we would be fired! Insist your lawmakers take action. "

" mark: I am all for decent healthcare at a reasonable cost. But I don't want the GOV telling me what doctors I can see.
Its bad enough dealing with private insurance company and THEIR choices, let alone add another stepping stone to the loop!

where I live I have several choices of hospitals, if I call around now I can see where the best DEAL is should I have a heart attack..
does that sound strange? To me it does.

there shouldnt be this huge fluctuation of costs from one hospital to the next, yet there IS..
our local paper did a story on this a few months ago: depending on which hospital you visit, for the same care, there is are differences up to $20,000..

the final outcome of the story was to SHOP around?!!

"honey, could you continue CPR, after pressing #1 for english, #2 for patient calling, #3 for PRICING, #4 for emergency, I am now on hold with the first hospital, only 4 more hospitals to call !!" "

" Power to the People

I grew up after the turbulent decade of the 1960’s. That is to say I never experienced firsthand the tumult of the Civil Rights movement. When I used to ride Centro with my grandmother, black people sat in whatever seat they pleased.
The only images of specially designated restrooms for “Colored” folk were in history books or on PBS. Seeing human beings blasted by fire-hoses and attacked by dogs for peaceful protests or marches was no more real than a TV show.
I didn’t feel their pain and as a white man I didn’t understand it either.
Over the years in learning more about the movement that would eventually lead to 11/4/08 “Election Day” I learned only some of the horrors that existed for black people. I could ramble on for endless paragraphs of disgust and apologize for the treatment of fellow human beings who’s only crime was being born a shade darker than I.
I watched images of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in awe and wonder of how someone could remain so calm in the face of all that indignity and hate.
My eyes well every time I hear the recording of his words…”I have a dream!” Even more poignant for today was Dr. King’s final speech about having been to the mountaintop:
“Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”
I believe that Dr. King must be smiling down on our country today. And although it took 40 years to get here, the mountaintop is in sight and promised land in reach.
Here’s hoping we can all get there together real soon! "

" Thanks cm

I think it is more crucial than ever that people understand what Senator Obama is touting as a tax plan as well his other programs before they head to the polls. Like it or not, it appears the Dems will have a lock on both houses which means they will be setting the agenda. If the Dems have the presidency too, the ideas Obama is espousing will likely become law.
If Senator McCain becomes president, there will be gridlock and/or checks and balances…depending on which side of the political spectrum you find yourself.
I am less fearful about Senator Obama’s tax plan, but I believe we desperately need a national healthcare system for every American. We can debate the particulars, but no one should be going bankrupt or forced to die because they cannot afford to get the proper care. Clearly, left to its own devices the insurance industry would cover less and less people through exclusions and we would end up with millions of people going without healthcare protection. Oops, a crisis like that already exists!
I would be willing to pay more taxes if that would mean we would have a strong national healthcare system.
What’s your sense? "

" mark: I have yet to see a 'calculator for McCain's tax ideals'
I would venture to say there isn't one!

the liberals would say its because he's hiding stuff,
BUT I choose to think it would be foolish to put something out there that MAY NOT TAKE EFFECT!

McCain or Obama may have tax issues they would like to be in place, however without the 535 passing the new laws, any ideas on taxes (or anything else) is pure speculative =simple wishful thinking! "

" Don’t Forget to Vote

Let’s see…you would have to be living under a rock to not realize that the election season is drawing to a close.
Let’s not get lost in the rhetoric or the divisive campaign ads that promise jobs, a fresh start for our economy and lower taxes. Let’s remember what a privilege it is to make your opinion heard on Election Day. Less than a century ago, women did not have the right to vote. Black people weren’t even considered citizens of this country until the latter half of the 19th century. Yes we still have many challenges to face as a nation but look how far this country has come.
Now we have a black candidate for president who beat out a woman in a hotly contested primary. Isn’t it time you came along for the ride?
Hop on the bus, take some time research the candidates and cast your vote! If you get into the booth and come across a race you know nothing about, pass on the selection. I would rather not make a selection than to make an uninformed choice.
If you know nothing about any of the candidates, and/or decide against going to the polls at all you have no right to complain about the direction of government. When you had the chance to make your voice heard you passed on it. It’s as simple as that.
I hope to see you at the polls! "

" cm

Where will the money come from indeed?

When I made my post, I mentioned the calculator is likely powered by Obama-Biden batteries. I would like to see the calculator that McCain is basing his ascertions on.
Do you know where I might locate one? "

" personally if its on Obama's website site then it simply one-sided.
facts would be:
1. there is always inflation,
2. Obama is NOT bringing the troops home-he is sending them to Afghanistan,
3. universal healthcare,
4. horrible economy,
5. energy woes

so WHERE is the Money going to come from??? "

" Where’s McCain’s Tax Calculator?

Since the beginning of this presidential campaign I have heard Senator John McCain claim that Senator Barack Obama is going to raise our taxes. Oh the humanity!
In recent days I have heard ads promoting the Obama-Biden tax calculator. I was able to find this calculator at: http://taxcut.barackobama.com/
As I run the numbers…my taxes will clearly be cut by the Obama tax plan. In comparison, this calculator also applies the McCain tax plan to my income and my taxes will stay the same as they are now. Perhaps this calculator is powered by Obama-Biden batteries and is offering bogus conclusions.
In the interest of fair-play I have set out to find Senator McCain’s tax calculator. To date however, I have been unable to locate one. Does anybody out there know where I can find a McCain’s tax calculator?
I try to follow the campaigns fairly closely but perhaps I missed the rationale behind Senator McCain’s insistence that Senator Obama’s plan will raise my taxes. McCain clearly stated that economics is not his strong suit, I believe his exact quote was: “The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should.” But surely he knows how to use a calculator.
Or perhaps someone can teach me the brand of mathematics that Sen. McCain was taught that has him arriving at my tax hike under Senator Obama’s plan?
Any help would be appreciated as we navigate the facts and fiction that surround this election cycle. Good luck folks, have mercy on us all. "

" Time for a Ridiculous Question

While traveling down the highway or thruway, occasionally you may happen upon a considerable portion of the guardrail the has been taken out by a previous accident. In lieu of an immediate fix of this unsafe condition, the highway folks put up pylons or orange tape to alert drivers of this unsafe condition.
Fortunately for me, I have only hit a guard rail once in my life. But I recall not having any control over where I contacted this metallic lifesaver. My ridiculous question: What good is a pylon going to do me if I am hurtling out of control down the road? Isn't there a better temporary fix for these areas, like the concrete barriers they use for roadwork? "

" mark: I live in the Tampa,Fl. area.
our local paper is the Tampa Tribune.
the TV station that does the 'costing you' segments is:

http://www.tampabays10.com/money/
costing/ "

" cm

Can you share where you are from or provide the newspaper name? If not in this forum, please email me directly at mark.kukiela@lee.net

Thanks "

" Mark: in my area we have a reporter that does 'whats that costing you'
every week he does a report on some wasted county/state spending..its very interesting! Mostly shocking!

I think in Auburn you could start with these Parking kiosks! "

" I totally agree, maybe next election we should push for a moderator that is just your AVERAGE AMERICAN CITIZEN!

we could email this person in advance OUR questions, and then maybe get some real answers! "

" cm

It's as if they are afraid of saying something wrong so they say nothing at all. However, they dress up their remarks with a lot of fancyspeak to make you think they empathize with the voters.
If I were moderator, I would continue to press them until they squeeze out some specifics. If theyh do not have a specific plan make them admit to it and move on. Otherwise it is a sincere waste of our time. "

" The debates are terrible! No real information is given --we hear:
'I plan to' but we dont hear HOW!

the commercials are even worse, I will be glad when it is finally over. "

" Semi-Presidential Debates

I have watched the debates to date and I believe they have been draws. They have drawn me into a deep peaceful sleep. No one is the clear winner and no one a true loser. This entire campaign seems mired in mediocrity.
John McCain appears as an old grumpy troll.
Barack Obama lacks real passion.
Both of these men lack the kind of specifics that would move to repair our decimated economy.
In a time when we need another FDR or JFK we are being lulled to sleep by the political machine.
My choices are becoming increasingly clear however; I am considering either voting for Ralph Nader or writing in Mickey Mouse. At least with either of these two there’s a glimmer of hope for us poor saps in the middle class. Nader looks out for consumers and Mouse just makes you feel happy. In a time when the current presidential choices do nothing but create more fear about our future, perhaps being happy is the best we can hope for.
That settles it: Write-in - MICKEY ’08! "

" Bankers Should Have Taken the Money to the Horse Track

I watched 60 minutes on Sunday and learned what a “Credit Default Swap” or “CDS” is. This is a fun little quasi-insurance policy in disguise. You’ve got to hand it to those bankers. They put their businesses in peril purchasing risky Sub-prime mortgages and protected themselves by getting into the CDS business. This was an insurance policy of sorts against the risky securities they purchased. If the securities went bad they could call in their CDS to make them whole again.
The nice thing about not calling it an insurance policy is it was safe from all those pesky government regulations that other insurances are subject to. You know that zany requirement of being properly capitalized to be able to offer these protections.
Now, as you see this meltdown speeding up and the $700+ billion outlay, we are paying the price for these failures. It’s not solely the mortgages that went up in smoke causing this, but by extension the instruments that were devised to protect them: “The Swaps”. When Main Street folks began defaulting on loans, the credit default swaps were being invoked and the people who sold the swaps began running out of money to pay for them. The shame of it all is they never had enough money to back them in the first place. Who were these idiots that were dumb enough to offer these credit default swaps? If you guessed “banks”, you win the gold star.
Let them fail! We all holler and we do so at our own peril. Surely you wouldn’t let a business fail that is the backbone of our monetary system. Is that what these bankers were counting on as the ultimate Swap? Perhaps the biggest swap came in the form of $700+ billion rescue bill from the federal government. By extension it came from you and me and our future generations.
Wouldn’t it have been better if these bankers just took these billions to the horse track? At least they would have had fun cheering for the ponies, purchased some oats for the fillies and gotten better odds on making a profit than this fiasco they created.
And in the end we are the ones left holding the feedbag, though I guess it’s better than what comes out the other end. We’ll leave that to the lawmakers.
I would like to be able to offer a suggested solution on this one, but quite frankly I am at a loss why these institutions were allowed to operate this way. "

" STAR Rebates a Joke

My family as well as many other New York homeowner families are about to receive a check in the mail. Glory Be! Christmas is coming early once again this year…Let’s all fill up our gas tanks!
This check you are about to receive is your STAR rebate check. An extension of the popular School Tax Rebate program launched years ago. When the state first started sending these out, I thought maybe the state hasn’t figured out how to simply deduct this amount from my tax bill. Surely next year they won’t be stupid enough to waste all this money on postage and checks to give me a couple hundred bucks. Then I take said rebate and give it right back to the taxman to pay the rest of my school tax bill. Yet every year they send another check and waste even more money in the process.
Wouldn’t it have been smarter just to transfer that rebate amount directly to my tax account and bypass all this unnecessary expense to send these foolish checks out in the first place?
Does anyone else see the lunacy of it all?
Now let’s consider this year for a moment. It seems every month we hear about another $1Billion deficit our state government has uncovered due to our “non-economy.” Is this a prudent time to be sending out rebates?
Now far be it from me to turn down a few Ben Franklin’s in the economic climate we find ourselves in, but it all seems a little bit hollow. Especially when next year we will be saddled to make up for the budget deficits these rebates will help exacerbate. "

" How Far Out of Whack Are We?
In Light of Recent Business Failures - Executive Compensation Run Amok!

When something is broken beyond repair, what do you do with it? You scrap it, get a new one and ensure it’s at least as good as the one we are replacing.
If the item you are replacing didn’t handle too well in the corners or was a little too cold on winter mornings you might want one that serves you better in those situations.
Here’s my concept: Our economic system is in the toilet and we need a new one.

As an example, consider executive compensation in terms we can get our arms around. Countrywide Financial Corporation, an early victim of their own devices in the recent mortgage meltdown. Their CEO in 2006 was Angelo R. Mozilo. According to the SEC he earned $48,133,155 in total compensation in 2006. This information was taken from the Executive PayWatch database.
With some simple math:
This person was being paid $23,130 per hour to run this company into the ground.
Many workers in this country have to work an entire year to make what he was making in an hour.

In a given week, he was making $925,193.
There are some workers in this country that will work a lifetime and not make what he made in a week.

Yes, it’s that out of balance and it needs to stop!
For starters: Executive compensation should be capped at $500,000 and no company should be allowed to pay more.
Yeah, I know that’s a little socialistic, but it made me feel better to write it…so how about this: The taxes should be so high on any income over $500,000 that it would be a non-starter to offer anyone income over that amount.

Your task should you choose to accept it is to start checking out executive pay and contacting these companies that pay millions to their CEOs. When you contact them, tell them as a consumer you will not buy their products until their executive compensation is brought in line with reality. Tell them you will also share this information with everyone you know so they will not purchase products from that company either. Nothing will change in these businesses without a threat to their bottom lines. Take a stand today! "

" Street Signs and Crosswalks

I try to be courteous to pedestrians while driving the city streets. When a pedestrian enters a crosswalk I offer them due diligence and stop to wait for them to cross. Try it sometime, its fun! Many pedestrians will often throw you a thankful glance for respecting the rules of the road. You may even learn some patience.
Though it seems other drivers are not always so courteous, are on their cell phones or just plain oblivious of how to maneuver a crosswalk. As a driver you are supposed to stop there if a pedestrian is waiting to cross. Sometimes these poor people waiting to step off the curb are so sheepish they begin motioning you to go. Then you get into the “you go”, “No, you go” yo-yo dance to the point where you’re ready to get out of your car and personally escort them across the street. This wreaks havoc on the flow and harmony of our city thoroughfares.
Very simply, pedestrians and drivers should learn what a crosswalk is meant for and use them accordingly. Furthermore, parking vehicles near crosswalks should be prohibited, especially SUVs. You cannot see people entering the crosswalk when vehicles are crowding them. A good example is the crosswalk near the YMCA on William Street as you are driving north. Many people cross there as they park in the municipal lot to go to the Y and very often SUVs crowd the walkway. This creates a safety issue and should be immediately remedied. Yes we could lose a few quarters a day in parking meter revenue, but isn't a safer crossing a fair trade-off?
Hoping for peace harmony and safety on our city streets, We’ll see you in the crosswalks! "

" Kudos to the Senate Bail-Outers

Yes, the senate resoundingly passed a bail-out package with more pork in it than a good old-fashioned Oscar-Meyer Weiner. Let’s all pat them on the back for preventing economic Armageddon. Or did they?
To that, the market reacts by tanking another 300 points.
Does is scare anyone else besides me, that our lawmakers might not know what in the world they are doing?
Picture this: Let’s take part of that $700 billion and built a big ship. Pack all the elected officials onto the decks and sail them down the Potomac River. When they have finally sailed out of sight, we start our government over again from scratch. Better still, don’t leave the lobbyists out. They can provide the muscle to row the ship out to sea. Whew, good riddance! "

" Who’s Going to Bail Out the Government?

I am incensed and people should be going to jail! There I feel better because I want to blame someone for something. Isn’t that the common reaction? Or how about this one: Someone must be getting rich off this.
You can’t pick up a paper today, flick through your TV channels or browse the internet without seeing some institution being bailed out by the federal government. Yes I know the ramifications would be huge for our economy and society if they didn’t, but perhaps there’s a larger picture here.
These institutions are being bailed out mainly due to poor management decisions and policies that led to their demise. If the government is going to be expected to save these companies collective hides, then where is the oversight in the first place to prevent them from getting into this mess? Oh, that’s not going to work because the last thing we need are more government regulators.
When real estate was booming and we were all fat, drunk, and stupid no one really cared because we were all reaping the rewards to some degree. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. What of those storied financial institutions that helped make this country great? They got greedy, jumped on a bandwagon they should have been steering instead of “going along for the ride” and now they and you are getting burned for it.
Someone must be to blame, but in the short-term we need to prevent an even “Greater Depression” than the one our grandparents lived through. In the end, something needs to be done to prevent this from ever happening again.(How many times have you heard that one?) Just like the dotcom bubble and Enrons that followed, we all ride the swell of the tidal wave, keep quiet as long as it’s good for us and then point fingers when it all comes crashing down in our backyards. What’s the next great “pie in the sky” market ploy that will temporarily rescue us from this fiasco?
If I hear one more economist claim this is the natural way our market system corrects itself, I am going to be out-straight! If anyone knew the true extent of the brink of financial disaster our country is on right now, we would be rallying in the streets for a new system pronto! From a layman’s view the system seems broken to me, how about you? What can be done to fix it? Or should we just go with a new system?
Now for a glimpse at the larger picture: Consider the trillions of dollars of our national debt which according to this morning’s national debt clock stands at $9,636,825,314,428.35. The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.77 billion per day since September 28, 2007! Where did the government get these billions of dollars to bail these idiots out? I guess we’ll just add it to the tab of our great-great-great grandchildren…if our society survives that long. "

" Auburn school board edits ethics policy...

I am glad to see our school board is focusing on ethics, but this all seems a little shady to me.
Here it is in layman's terms: If you are a board member you can't talk to the media or we will throw you off the board.
Now there is talk of appointing a spokesperson for the board who can talk to the media. And what of the dissenting views, will the spokesperson clearly delineate those as well? For that matter, let's appoint Mr. Leogrande as the spokesperson. He may not be representative of all the views on the board, but at least he is likely to speak his mind.
What is being discussed is not a direction this board or any elected board representative of the people should be involved in. This is a very slippery slope, proceed with caution. "

" Auburn school board returns turf money

Many thanks to the Auburn school board for hearing the message voters were sending. The above titled article in today's edition states... "The action comes a week after the board's Long Range Planning Committee, chaired by board Vice President Sam Giangreco, decided to pull turf from its postponed capital project entirely while scrutinizing the remaining items that make up the near $15.7 million endeavor."
I hope this committee really shakes the bugs out of these millions. After seeing the lighted letters on the AHS building from the last cap project, I am hoping someone is bold enough to reign in this kind of extravagance. "

" On Saturday August 16th – A Night ofSoul and Rock & Roll – 8pm – Buffalo Wild WingsFeaturing The Soul Traders and The Villagers!

This event is a fundraiser for The Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association you can see them here atwww.flrba.com and IGNITE a professional group of the Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce.

Print flier from here http://www.ignite-cny.org/ and bring it with you to help with the fundraising! "

" Tax Freedom Day

I knew I worked a portion of every year for the taxman, but I never dug into it to realize how many actual days per year that represents. Now I wish I hadn’t. If you don’t want to be similarly enlightened you should stop reading now.

The concept of Tax Freedom Day was developed back in the 1940’s and in essence is the date to which you work each year to fund the yearly national tax burden. When you add the New York State burden onto that you arrive at the actual date each year we work to fund the government.

From what I can tell, Alaska has the earliest Tax Freedom Day of March 29. Guess what, we as New Yorkers have a distinction too. New York made the top three of the latest TFDs of the year at May 5th. Connecticut and New Jersey beat us out with TFDs of May 8th and May 7th respectively. The map on this web page illustrates TFDs by state.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/UserFiles/Image/Tax-Freedom-Day/2008/maplarge.jpg

So each year, New Yorkers work into the fifth month of every year before we start earning money for ourselves. All those months of labor go to the taxman…and we never even get a thank you.

What a bargain…All that money for all this dysfunction! "