Green gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins got more than the 50,000 votes required to secure ballot status for the Greens for the next four years. This will allow Greens all across the state to run for all public offices much more easily and offer an alternative to the corporate Democrats and Republicans. It also established the Greens as the third party in New York state and the top non-corporate party. Thanks to all who voted for him and a progressive agenda and, by extension, for multipartyism in NYS.
Before 2009, the last time Democrats controlled all three of the governorship, Assembly and Senate was 1935. So it was entertaining to hear state Senate Republican leader Dean Skellos act like his party has had nothing to do with the mess that is NYS. The two corporate parties have run the state into the ground in that most sainted of manners: bipartisan. It's time for some multipartyism, courtesy of the Greens.
It was also amusing to hear Sen. Skellos say that we needed a GOP senate to act as a check on the corruption in Albany. A check on Joe Bruno-style corruption?
It was maddening to hear all these liberals rave about Andrew Cuomo. Do they even have a clue what he ran on? I mean, besides the empty “Change Albany” rhetoric. Guys who will act as a check on Wall St. excesses do not get oodles of campaign cash from Wall St. Guys who run on progressive agendas do not get endorsed by the far right New York Post. Remember that, more often than most people want to believe, you really do get what you vote for.
I went to vote and I saw a bunch of cameramen and photographers outside my polling place. So I was prepping myself for the red carpet walk which they obviously wanted me to do. But then this tall red-headed guy with his family comes walking out and all the paparazzi follow him instead. Some Congressman Murphy guy, apparently. I suppose that’s the modern media for you: all substance, no style.
I remember that when Tea Party candidates won primary elections, many liberals were gloating, sure that they would get slaughtered in the general election. As that famous Bard, Lord Dark Helmet of the movie Spaceballs, said, “Evil will always prevail because Good is dumb.”
I don’t think much of most Democrats but am still very disappointed at Russ Feingold losing. When the Profiles in Courage of the last 50 years is written (a slim volume to be certain), Feingold's lone vote against the Patriot Act in the face of post-9/11 hysteria will be one of the chapters.
I love how all the media outlets declared Andrew Cuomo, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand the winners only a few minutes after the polls closed despite reported vote totals of 0 for all of them. Only in the punditocracy is 0 > 0.
If the only way you can get elected is to buy office with your own fortune or to buy it with corporate America’s fortune after they buy you off, is it democracy or oligarchy?
How come no one is demanding to see Marco Rubio’s birth certificate? Or for that matter, John Boehner’s?
Those running on the purported agenda of ‘smaller government’ and ‘less spending’ won big last night. I wonder what amount of the military budget, which by itself accounts for 52% of all discretionary federal spending, these principled spending cutters will slash.
Showing posts with label Scott Murphy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scott Murphy. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Dear Congressman Scott Murphy
Dear Congressman Scott Murphy,
Your alleged efforts to reduce federal spending might have more credibility if you didn't waste money to send me two identical glossy mailers pamphlets bragging about it... especially when I'm on your email list.
Sincerely,
Me
Your alleged efforts to reduce federal spending might have more credibility if you didn't waste money to send me two identical glossy mailers pamphlets bragging about it... especially when I'm on your email list.
Sincerely,
Me
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Rep. Murphy will pay for the vote he hasn't cast yet on the bill that's nowhere close to being finalized
A look at today's letters to the editor in The Post-Star (unavailable online except to people willing to pay extra for their pdf version) gives a good hint about why it's so hard to be an elected official today. There were several letters excoriating local Congressman Scott Murphy for supporting the health insurance bill that recently passed Congress, all from the right. That's to be expected.
It was a poor bill, one that did a little good and a lot of bad. And much like the Wall St. bailout, the health insurance bill DID represent socialism, just not in the way that the Tea Party types mean. The bill was a giant giveaway to health insurance conglomerates, which is why I refer to it as the health insurance bill not the health care bill. It is also why that industry supported the bill. The health insurance bill represents corporatism, which is corporate socialism. Maybe the Tea Party types will realize that the fundamental problem crippling our democracy isn't progressives supporting gay marriage but a government run on behalf of corporations and a Supreme Court validating this perverse notion... though I'm not holding my breath.
Criticisms of Murphy's vote on the health insurance bill are legitimate, if a bit misguided. But what's really infuriating is that at least three of the letters criticized Murphy for votes HE HADN'T EVEN TAKEN YET. They criticized him for the climate bill. They criticized him for cap and trade. They criticized him for citizenship for illegal immigrants. I don't believe he's taken firm positions on these issues and he absolutely hasn't voted one way or the other on them.
Fury and paranoia at living under a corporate Democratic administration (who replaced the corporate Republican administration) has made some people so unhinged that they'll attack a politician for things he hasn't done or even talked about doing yet. It shows how debased, how completely insane our political culture has become.
It was a poor bill, one that did a little good and a lot of bad. And much like the Wall St. bailout, the health insurance bill DID represent socialism, just not in the way that the Tea Party types mean. The bill was a giant giveaway to health insurance conglomerates, which is why I refer to it as the health insurance bill not the health care bill. It is also why that industry supported the bill. The health insurance bill represents corporatism, which is corporate socialism. Maybe the Tea Party types will realize that the fundamental problem crippling our democracy isn't progressives supporting gay marriage but a government run on behalf of corporations and a Supreme Court validating this perverse notion... though I'm not holding my breath.
Criticisms of Murphy's vote on the health insurance bill are legitimate, if a bit misguided. But what's really infuriating is that at least three of the letters criticized Murphy for votes HE HADN'T EVEN TAKEN YET. They criticized him for the climate bill. They criticized him for cap and trade. They criticized him for citizenship for illegal immigrants. I don't believe he's taken firm positions on these issues and he absolutely hasn't voted one way or the other on them.
Fury and paranoia at living under a corporate Democratic administration (who replaced the corporate Republican administration) has made some people so unhinged that they'll attack a politician for things he hasn't done or even talked about doing yet. It shows how debased, how completely insane our political culture has become.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Spending cutter heal thyself (corrected and updated)
Within the last week, I received two different taxpayer funded mailers from local Congressman Scott Murphy. They were the typical mindless color-by-numbers nonsense, making sure to mouth every bullet point that he thinks might resonate with North Country voters... which they might if the venture capitalist weren't so transparently the archetype of an empty, stick-his-finger-in-the-wind politician.
(passages in bold are his emphases)
"Congressman Murphy is making sure Congress handles money responsibly because he believes the money is yours."
"Congressman Murphy knows that taxes are a heavy burden on Upstate New York families."
"Congressman Murphy co-sponsored legislation to provide property tax relief." (though without saying what a federal legislator can do about property taxes which are almost exclusively beholden to state, county and municipal budgets)
"Protecting your tax dollars is part of my job, because my job is to represent you."
Although the last one is about is empty-headed as you can get, my personal favorite is this one:
"Every month, in our small businesses and around our kitchen tables, we prove that fiscal responsibility works. It's time Washington learned how."
Apparently he's unaware of credit cards, mortgages, car loans, college loans, small business loans and bankruptcy filings used by many of the non-millionaires of society.
Not only did he send an expensive, taxpayer funded glossy mailer to share these pearls of Socratic wisdom and Churchillian leadership, even though he has my email address and could easily have propagandized more cheaply this way, but he sent me two identical expensive, taxpayer funded glossy mailers lecturing me on the need for Congressional spending restraint.
He also sent duplicates of the other mailer, which touted his opposition to decent health care for all Americans*.
(*-see correction below)
When Murphy campaigned on a promise to create jobs, as though this is something a Congressman can have much impact on, I think the people who believed him assumed it would be more than in just the expensive glossy mailer publishing industry.
Update: Bob over at Planet Albany isn't impressed either.
*-Correction: The mailer touting his opposition to decent health care was actually received a few weeks ago. The other taxpayer funded mailer received last week bragged about how he was single-handedly saving us from the tax demon... even though it repeated much of what he said in the other mailer sent almost at the same time.
"No one needs to remind you of the pressure taxes put on Upstate New York's families," he chest-thumped.
So why spend an expensive TAXPAYER FUNDED mailer saying this?
I do apologize for not being able to keep track of all the taxpayer funded mailers sent by the Congressman talking about the need for restraint in public spending.
(passages in bold are his emphases)
"Congressman Murphy is making sure Congress handles money responsibly because he believes the money is yours."
"Congressman Murphy knows that taxes are a heavy burden on Upstate New York families."
"Congressman Murphy co-sponsored legislation to provide property tax relief." (though without saying what a federal legislator can do about property taxes which are almost exclusively beholden to state, county and municipal budgets)
"Protecting your tax dollars is part of my job, because my job is to represent you."
Although the last one is about is empty-headed as you can get, my personal favorite is this one:
"Every month, in our small businesses and around our kitchen tables, we prove that fiscal responsibility works. It's time Washington learned how."
Apparently he's unaware of credit cards, mortgages, car loans, college loans, small business loans and bankruptcy filings used by many of the non-millionaires of society.
Not only did he send an expensive, taxpayer funded glossy mailer to share these pearls of Socratic wisdom and Churchillian leadership, even though he has my email address and could easily have propagandized more cheaply this way, but he sent me two identical expensive, taxpayer funded glossy mailers lecturing me on the need for Congressional spending restraint.
He also sent duplicates of the other mailer, which touted his opposition to decent health care for all Americans*.
(*-see correction below)
When Murphy campaigned on a promise to create jobs, as though this is something a Congressman can have much impact on, I think the people who believed him assumed it would be more than in just the expensive glossy mailer publishing industry.
Update: Bob over at Planet Albany isn't impressed either.
*-Correction: The mailer touting his opposition to decent health care was actually received a few weeks ago. The other taxpayer funded mailer received last week bragged about how he was single-handedly saving us from the tax demon... even though it repeated much of what he said in the other mailer sent almost at the same time.
"No one needs to remind you of the pressure taxes put on Upstate New York's families," he chest-thumped.
So why spend an expensive TAXPAYER FUNDED mailer saying this?
I do apologize for not being able to keep track of all the taxpayer funded mailers sent by the Congressman talking about the need for restraint in public spending.
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