Dutch Barringer (R-C) ended up with 732 votes to Berndt Leifeld's (D) 921 according to the Times Herald Record. The 56-44% difference is a 12 point spread, on which it is difficult to put a positive spin. The Democratic voters outnumber the Republican by about 37-27%, which is roughly equivalent to the margin of victory. Given that there have been few Olive Republican candidates in the past 12 years, 44% is a start. One problem now is to identify good candidates for the future and to continue to expose the chronic waste and incompetence in Olive's Town government.
TOWN OF OLIVE
Supervisor
Vincent Barringer, R, C 732
*Berndt J. Leifeld, D, OG 921
Town Clerk
Cindy Johansen, R X
*Sylvia Rozzelle, D, C, OG 1234
Highway Superintendent
*James G. Fugel, D, C, OG 1069
Chet Scofield, R 484
Town Justice
*Timothy Cox, D, C, OG 980
Earla VanKleeck 554
Councilman (Two seats)
*Linda M. Burkhardt, D, OG 806
Craig Grazier, R, I, C 750
*Bruce Lamonda, D, OG 897
Donald VanBuren, R, C 588
Rita E. Vanacore, OB 176
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Christie and McDonnell Win
I turned on television news (Fox, of course) for the first time in a year. The news was better this election day than last. As of now, (10:36 pm) Chris Christie (NJ), and Robert F. McDonnell (Va) are winning handily, although Doug Hoffman (NY 23) appears to be behind the extremist Democrat, Bill Owens. Turncoat Scozzafava is pulling six percent. I am not surprised at this last small reversal.
I had previously blogged about NY 23rd. Do not confuse the "North County" with upstate New York, of which it is only the northernmost part. It is an entirely different world from the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, central New York, the southern tier or western New York. The former Republican Congressman there, John McHugh, was a Republican at the public trough who currently serves as one of Barack Obama's professional looters. The people of the North Country are in large part on welfare or work for politically correct universities that are as corrupt as the New York and county governments. My clearest memories of the North Country are of the cynical, incompetent officials up there.
Nor is it an exaggeration to say that in St. Lawrence County the largest single building is the Association of Retarded Children. The reasons are the extensive in-breeding and incest. Given the high mental retardation rate in the North Country, it is not surprising that they have opted for the Democrat.
In 2008 I was stunned that the American people elected a lying, left-wing extremist like Barack Obama. I could not believe that either (a) the country had developed a taste for national socialism or (b) that a significant portion of the public was fooled by the odd claim of the Democratic Party media that Mr. Obama is a "moderate." The evidence so militated against this view that people had to want to be fooled.
I shouldn't have been stunned. There is a long history of the American people's affection for con men going back to the days of PT Barnum and the American Museum. A sucker is born every minute. Americans love hucksters, snake oil salesmen and big time crooks. Tony Soprano. Charles Ponzi. Jesse James. Obama is the biggest of them all. The biggest liar. The most extreme sociopath. The biggest time hoodlum. His organization, ACORN, the largest racketeering organization in the history of the world, one which the Democrats actively support with taxpayer money. In previous generations Democrats in New York and Chicago depended on racketeers. Today, the racketeers at ACORN depend on the Obama-led Democrats.
Happily, the public is starting to awaken. But there needs to be an more relentless cleansing of first the Republican Party and second the extremists in Washington.
I had previously blogged about NY 23rd. Do not confuse the "North County" with upstate New York, of which it is only the northernmost part. It is an entirely different world from the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, central New York, the southern tier or western New York. The former Republican Congressman there, John McHugh, was a Republican at the public trough who currently serves as one of Barack Obama's professional looters. The people of the North Country are in large part on welfare or work for politically correct universities that are as corrupt as the New York and county governments. My clearest memories of the North Country are of the cynical, incompetent officials up there.
Nor is it an exaggeration to say that in St. Lawrence County the largest single building is the Association of Retarded Children. The reasons are the extensive in-breeding and incest. Given the high mental retardation rate in the North Country, it is not surprising that they have opted for the Democrat.
In 2008 I was stunned that the American people elected a lying, left-wing extremist like Barack Obama. I could not believe that either (a) the country had developed a taste for national socialism or (b) that a significant portion of the public was fooled by the odd claim of the Democratic Party media that Mr. Obama is a "moderate." The evidence so militated against this view that people had to want to be fooled.
I shouldn't have been stunned. There is a long history of the American people's affection for con men going back to the days of PT Barnum and the American Museum. A sucker is born every minute. Americans love hucksters, snake oil salesmen and big time crooks. Tony Soprano. Charles Ponzi. Jesse James. Obama is the biggest of them all. The biggest liar. The most extreme sociopath. The biggest time hoodlum. His organization, ACORN, the largest racketeering organization in the history of the world, one which the Democrats actively support with taxpayer money. In previous generations Democrats in New York and Chicago depended on racketeers. Today, the racketeers at ACORN depend on the Obama-led Democrats.
Happily, the public is starting to awaken. But there needs to be an more relentless cleansing of first the Republican Party and second the extremists in Washington.
Monday, November 2, 2009
A RINO's Stripes
Tony Romm of The Hill.com reports that Dede Scozzafava has endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens, in the NY 23rd Congressional District rather than the Conservative whom the Republicans are backing. The Republican leadership asked "Republican in Name Only" ("RINO") Scozzafava to step down from the race because she was trailing the Conservative, Doug Hoffman.
Like most Democrats and RINOs, Scozzafava reminds me of a woman I once met at a local bar: "Buy me a scotch and I'll do you a 'fava'".
Like most Democrats and RINOs, Scozzafava reminds me of a woman I once met at a local bar: "Buy me a scotch and I'll do you a 'fava'".
Only A Divided House Will Stand
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis has a good discussion of Marc Faber's prediction of economic collapse in 2012. I don't think you can pinpoint it, and don't underestimate the United States. But the current American system is unsustainable and collapse is ahead. Whether the government counterfeiters can continue to make things work for another 20 or 30 years or maybe even longer, no one knows. It took the Roman Empire nearly three centuries following the death of the last of the five good emperors, Marcus Aurelius, to finally collapse. There was lots of corruption, inflation and coin clipping in the ensuing three centuries. However, the Roman system was somewhat more stable in that it did not depend on market coordination to the degree that the United States does. As the Federal Reserve Bank and the government have increasingly distorted market signals, ever worsening misallocation leads to more extreme abuses, which will in turn lead to shortages and crises. Information and resources move much more quickly now than 1500 years ago so comparisons are difficult to draw.
Americans a century from now will be much poorer than we were, not because of any resource shortage but because of the Federal Reserve Bank and the US government. In the nineteenth century Abraham Lincoln fought to preserve the union. He is remembered for abolishing slavery, but that was not his purpose. Rather, he aimed to prevent the southern states from exercising sovereignty. The Civil War was the beginning of Progressivism. The side-effects of the Civil War concerning slavery and race relations usually get the attention, but the Civil War's longer term effects are now being seen. For the manipulation of the federal government by organized special interests, the so-called military-industrial complex, which is first and foremost a financial complex, is a direct outcome of the assertion of centralized power that began in 1860.
The problem is how to save the United States. A centralized federal power facilitates special interest brokerage. If you review the ideas of Mancur Olson in "Rise and Decline of Nations", there are specific criteria for the effectiveness of economic lobbies. A centralized government reduces lobbying costs. Fifty states require fifty times the lobbying costs, likely more. Moreover, opposition interests can concentrate in a few states.
To save the United States, there will need to be radical decentralization. A framing of radical decentralization needs to begin with pragmatism and choice. In a nation that is failing, new ideas become imperative. The popular imagination can awakened by the hope that a renewed, smaller scale America can offer. The big-state liberalism of the twentieth century has devolved into a government-enforced wealth transfer to the incompetent rich. The system has failed and needs to be reinvented.
Americans a century from now will be much poorer than we were, not because of any resource shortage but because of the Federal Reserve Bank and the US government. In the nineteenth century Abraham Lincoln fought to preserve the union. He is remembered for abolishing slavery, but that was not his purpose. Rather, he aimed to prevent the southern states from exercising sovereignty. The Civil War was the beginning of Progressivism. The side-effects of the Civil War concerning slavery and race relations usually get the attention, but the Civil War's longer term effects are now being seen. For the manipulation of the federal government by organized special interests, the so-called military-industrial complex, which is first and foremost a financial complex, is a direct outcome of the assertion of centralized power that began in 1860.
The problem is how to save the United States. A centralized federal power facilitates special interest brokerage. If you review the ideas of Mancur Olson in "Rise and Decline of Nations", there are specific criteria for the effectiveness of economic lobbies. A centralized government reduces lobbying costs. Fifty states require fifty times the lobbying costs, likely more. Moreover, opposition interests can concentrate in a few states.
To save the United States, there will need to be radical decentralization. A framing of radical decentralization needs to begin with pragmatism and choice. In a nation that is failing, new ideas become imperative. The popular imagination can awakened by the hope that a renewed, smaller scale America can offer. The big-state liberalism of the twentieth century has devolved into a government-enforced wealth transfer to the incompetent rich. The system has failed and needs to be reinvented.
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