The Weekly Examiner

Obamacare and the Law of Unintended Consequences

As with most government actions, it started with the noblest of intentions: to provide safe, affordable healthcare to every citizen of the United States, leaving no person untreated or left to suffer.

Unfortunately, the early returns for a law that has not even yet fully gone into effect seem to indicate a nasty consequence: area businesses are fraught with uncertainty over just what exactly is contained in the law, and are not hiring new workers as a result, according to an article in the New York Post.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Obamacare and the Law of Unintended Consequences - New York Political Buzz | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-new-york/obamacare-and-the-law-of-unintended-consequences#ixzz1RH3OO9J5

Will Governor Cuomo Become President Cuomo One Day?

As he slowly but steadily builds a record of accomplishment in the state capitol, rumors are already starting to swirl that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo might--already--be setting himself up as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for President.

In 2016, that is, since current President Barack Obama will likely be a shoo-in for his party's nomination for re-election in 2012.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Will Governor Cuomo become President Cuomo one day? - New York Political Buzz | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-new-york/will-governor-cuomo-become-president-cuomo-one-day#ixzz1RH3iPf1C

It's Time to Put Up or Shut Up

Tomorrow marks Election Day in the United States, and I fully intend to be part of the wave that will sweep Republicans back into a position of significant power at the federal and state levels.  The sharp divide that will mark our government once its all said and done is perhaps the only way to ensure no further damage in the form of "historic" legislation, bailouts, or stimulus packages will wind up on the books.

My predictions? GOP takes the house easily, but falls a little short in the Senate. The "wish" races (Bielat, O'Donnell, Fiorina, Angle, Whitman) fail to pain out, but nearly every other race goes red. Statewide, Andrew Cuomo earns the NY Governor's mansion, but at least one major office (either Attorney General or Comptroller) winds up in Republican hands. Locally, Vince Tabone wins my previously Democratic Assembly seat in an open race, and all other incumbents retain.

Anyway, to mark the occasion, let's dig deep down into the most anarchic of the Pink Floyd catalogue and enjoy the tale of comeuppance that is Dogs.  Checking in at nearly 20 minutes in length, it's perhaps my favorite of the Floyd "long" songs and, 30 years later, even this solo remake by Roger Waters hits the mark perfectly.



In case you don't want to sit through the whole thing, at least browse the lyrics:

You got to be crazy, you gotta have a real need
You gotta sleep on your toes and when you're on the street
You got to be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed
And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking

And after a while, you can work on points for style
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you
You'll get the chance to put the knife in

You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder
You know, it's going to get harder, and harder, and harder
As you get older
Yeah, and in the end you'll pack up and fly down south
Hide your head in the sand
Just another sad old man
All alone and dying of cancer

And when you lose control, you'll reap the harvest you have sown
And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone
And it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around
So have a good drown, as you go down all alone
Dragged down by the stone

Gotta admit that I'm a little bit confused
Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used
Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise
If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze

Deaf, dumb and blind, you just keep on pretending
That everyone's expendable, and no one has a real friend
And it seems to you the thing to do would be to isolate the winner
Everything's done under the sun
But you believe at heart everyone's a killer

Who was born in a house full of pain
Who was trained not to spit in the fan
Who was told what to do by the man
Who was broken by trained personnel
Who was fitted with collar and chain
Who was given a pat on the back
Who was breaking away from the pack
Who was only a stranger at home
Who was ground down in the end
Who was found dead on the phone
Who was dragged down by the stone
Who was dragged down by the stone

The Franchise Came to Douglaston

As it does every year, September marks primary season in New York State, and a few interesting elements came together this time around to make for a worthy post.

For starters, the mechanism in which New Yorkers express their freedom, liberty, and patriotic duty underwent a major revision during the political offseason. Gone are the traditional, giant, lever-based voting booths, replaced by a scannable sheet of paper reminiscent of taking a standardized exam in high school or college.

The Good -- The paper form allows space for write-in or protest candidates, eliminating a burden that previously involved the mandatory use of absentee ballots and no guarantee that your sheet would actually be read.

The Bad -- The voting sheet features perhaps the single-smallest font size I have ever encountered, to more compactly cram in all of the requisite elections and candidates. At a spry 34 years old, even I found myself hunched over the voting table squinting to figure out where the little circles were that needed to be filled in via magical pencil. I can only imagine how much the elderly or those without corrective lenses fared.

The Ugly -- For a state run by a seemingly endless array of liberal bureaucrats, I have to wonder in silent amusement who came up with the grand idea to slaughter countless trees to print the giant new ballots, and how many ballots went unutilized (case in point, I was the 24th Republican to vote in my district as of 6 PM; judging by the pad they tore the ballots off of, I imagine there were at least 250 sheets to a pad). Someone in the depths of the Board of Elections hallways is walking around a little more hypocritical these days, methinks.

--

Meanwhile, as to the actual election results, I am pleased to report that I and my fellow state GOP voters gave perennial loser and establishment candidate Rick Lazio the boot in the race to be sacrificial lamb to occupy the Governor's mansion in Albany, in favor of the somewhat enigmatic and quixotic Tea Party candidate Carl Paladino.

I have no delusion that Paladino will upset the heir-apparent to the NY throne, current Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -- and his campaign Web site is a mess -- but there is little question that Paladino is definitely not your traditional candidate and is more than willing to use a little creativity, decisiveness, rhetoric, and his own money to make life uneasy for the other side.

Mr. Paladino, an upstate real estate developer, spits out tough statements. In one of his campaign ads, he promises to “clean out [the state capital of] Albany with a baseball bat.” He wants to cut taxes by 10 percent within six months of taking office. And he would settle the controversy over the proposed Islamic center in lower Manhattan by having the state take over the property by eminent domain.

[...]

Paladino certainly knows how to get attention. One of his campaign mailings – which told voters on the outside of the envelope that something smells in Albany – had a scent inside that made it stink like a landfill. Speaking of New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, he says, “A fish rots from the head.”

The long knives are already out to cut Paladino down into a million pieces, but if he keeps it up and goes after the utterly deplorable state of affairs in Albany at least I will be able to not hold my nose and fill in his little circle come November.


Links:

• "Who Is Carl Paladino?" (Christian Science Monitor)
•  "Paladino Rout of Lazio Jolts New York GOP" (New York Times)
•  "Taking a Baseball Bat to Carl Paladino" (Politico)
• Paladino for the People Campaign Web site
• "POLITICS: Who I Voted For In New York Today" (Baseball Crank)