Australia Gaks Out a Fur Ball

How doomed is a nation if a party whose ONLY platform is "signing the Kyoto Protocols" wins a national election?

Labor’s Kevin Rudd defeated one of America’s most stalwart allies, John Howard on a platform of “signing the Kyoto Accords!

Not terrorism.

Not boosting the economy.

Not lowering debt or avoiding recession, just the Kyoto Accords, which are a sham in that not ONE nation who has signed those accords has come close to abiding by them.Seriously, how frivolous is the electorate when it thinks that this is the most important issue your country &/or the world faces?

Of course, the ONE positive note for Australia and its allies is that Kevin Rudd has pledged to govern as an "economic conservative."

Well, THAT’S good news! Maybe he’s seen that those who’ve governed as Keynesians and neo-socialists have led their nations to economic ruin in short order.

How Local Governments Can Also Over-reach

My wife and I own a second home out in northwest, NJ, in a beautiful, but fast-growing town called Sparta. It used to be an “exurb,” but now it’s more a suburb of New York City, with a constant influx of new people, most of them demanding more services and changing the once picturesque landscape into something a step closer to the urban experience.

It’s an irony that the very things that draw people out here, are often the first things people want to change.

The latest proposed change out there is the township proposing a township-wide solid waste collection, or garbage pick-up.

This has many of the long-time residents there up in arms, as many of them do what part-timers, like my wife and I do, take their own garbage to the local dump. It’s easy and a lot more cost-effective. A basic private garbage contract would run about $35/month or more, while an average trip to the dump costs about $3 or $4 per week (appx. 30 cents per pound). That’s about a week’s worth of garbage to a full-time resident and about a month’s worth for part-timers like my wife and I.

Of course, the local government contract would set a fee, set as either a surplus to one’s property tax bill, or a separate fee and would bar any “opting out” by any resident.

The current estimate of $230/year is based on a house valued at $250,000, a house assessed at $500,000 would be double that. Moreover, the contract is based on a three year contract, which increases significantly each year and does not include either a recycling pick-up, or leaf pick-up and it’s subject to a fuel surcharge.

Suffice to say, my wife and I are looking to attend the community meeting scheduled for 7:30 pm on Tuesday, November 27th to oppose this “service.” I’m heartened to have spoken to many other residents in that area who plan on doing the same.

Now, some of those people in favor of such a proposal may feel that part-timers like us shouldn’t be allowed to have a say in a matter in an area we don’t live full time, and certainly shouldn’t have a vote on such an issue, but the reality is far different. As property owners we SHOULD be among those voting on this proposal, it’s the renters and non-owners who SHOULDN’T be allowed a vote.

A short-sighted renter may get the idea that he may be able to get something (free garbage pick-up) for nothing. Of course, that’s inane! The leasor, must, like ANY commercial entity pass on any and all costs of “doing business,” and renting to tenants is really nothing more than “doing business.” Ergo, the costs of that garbage pick-up will be passed on to the tenants, in fact, since most of the rentals in this area are single family homes, if the garbage pick-up comes as a separate fee for service, that, like oil, phone and electric would probably be left to the tenant to pay.

So here’s an example of a local government run amok. A government who doesn’t really seek to “offer a service,” but set up a contract (perhaps with friends or associates of local politicians, perhaps for unnamed kickbacks) that would force all their neighbors to pay for something a large number of them do not want.

That, is how governments, even local governments one would expect to be more responsive to their immediate communities, often over-reach, and over-reaching is the foundation or beginnings of tyranny.

America’s Holiday

At least as American as the 4th of July and more deeply rooted in America’s Judeo-Christian roots, Thanksgiving stands alone as a uniquely American Holiday. A day in which we pause to give THANKS for the BLESSING of Liberty, which is the foundation of our Constitutional Republic.

Though the first Thanksgiving was celebrated way back in 1620, before America was even a nation, that tradition has been a part of the fabric of American life ever since.

When George Washington presided over the Republic, the following prayer was offered in 1789, in gratitude over the hard-earned independence the 13 original Colonies had won from England;

“Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in thy holy protection; that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citi zens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large.

“And, finally that Thou wilt graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Amen.”

But it was Abraham Lincoln, a extremely taciturn man, who, on Oct. 3, 1863, first established Thanksgiving as a holiday for a nation wracked by civil war, proclaiming;

“I invite my fellow citizens to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

And it has remained an American Holiday ever since. Even more than Christmas, a day for families to give thanks for their blessings and celebrate family and freedom (Liberty).

Happy Thanksgiving!

French Transit Strike is a Referendum on Sarkozy

As France’s transit strike enters its eighth day, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has stood firm in his first attempt to extract concessions from a set of workers, in seeking to curb some of the pension benefits for new workers. Transit workers are able to retire as young as fifty, rather than the minimum cutoff of 60 for most other French workers.

At this point, as many as 38% of the transit workers have sought a return to work.

Sarkozy announced, “France needs reforms to meet the challenges imposed on it by the world,” and he’s absolutely right about that. There’s simply no need, in an age when people are living longer and healthier lives, that some workers are allowed, even encouraged to retire at FIFTY years of age!

When Jacques Chirac sought the same concessions from the same Unions back in 1995, the unions paralyzed France for three weeks and Chirac backed down. That scenario seems highly unlikely today, as Sarkozy has gone about playing public opinion against the transit workers. As a lure, Sarkozy is considering proposing cuts in the labor taxes, in exchange for concessions from some of the workers who now enjoy “special pensions.”

Stem Cell Breakthrough May Ease Ethical Concerns

Researchers have made ordinary skin cells act like embryonic stem cells, and turn them into nerve, brain, heart and other tissues! As human stem cell colony is pictured left.

Laboratory tests on two continents have reported success in this endeavor, which first made headlines five months ago, when it was initially accomplished in mice.

This method will not avoid the ethical concerns over cloning actual embryonic stem cells, but it’s a simpler method for pursuing new treatments for diseases. On the other hand, scientists claim it will likely be years before EST research will be able to offer any new treatments.

So science comes in to rescue ESC research from its ethical concerns, now that’s science at its best!

I DON’T Like “Free Stuff”….

...And neither should you!

The other day, in talking about the current Hollywood writer’s strike, legendary film producer George Lucas said, “We need to see a maturing of the internet, in which it becomes a platform you can make money on. Otherwise, all you’ll ever have available are the same free YouTube clips, and there’s only so long those things, before you have to go out and get a real job.”

To date, the internet has seemed to have tried, with mixed results, to circumvent the corporate entertainment industry to offer a “revolutionary platform” that circumvents the pay-go corporate model that has controlled the industry since its inception. Napster tried and lost in taking on the RIAA and YouTube recently lost a similar war with Viacom.

Sure, no one LIKES to pay for things. In a utopian world, EVERYTHING would be free, there’d be no taxes and no one would have to work. But utopia doesn’t exist and since that dream-like state violates just about every immutable law of economics, chances are, it never will exist on earth. Because of that pesky little fact, NOTHING in life is free – not our time, not our efforts, not any of the commodities needed to produce the goods, services and content we all enjoy and depend on.

“Free content” is generally worth the price of admission.

Sure, it can be a useful promotional tool for unknowns trying to get noticed, but it’s “no way to make a living.” The entertainment industry is indeed an INDUSTRY and as the writer’s strike suggests, writers, producers and all the other people associated with that industry NEED to be able to make money and to make that money, all those who consume that entertainment must be required to pay for the privilege.

That’s what George Lucas meant by “maturing.” If the worldwide web is ever to truly “mature,” it must also become a platform on which producers can engage in that unseemly (at least to utopianists) activity of making money.

Profit is GOOD! Profits via purchasing fees make it possible for artists, sales people, producers, etc., to earn income for their efforts.

Some Not So Fun facts for Firefighters....

...Or ANYONE concerned about rising healthcare costs, as the costs of treating people who do jobs like these is staggering and growing larger every day.

The odds of a fulltime, paid firefighter, in the USA, getting cancer are 1 in 2. A firefighter’s chance of getting asbestosis is an astounding 80%!

How so?

Because asbestos is found in so many of the things that firefighters routinely encounter – the insulation found in older tenements, brake linings in cars, etc.

Both gasoline and diesel fuel contain benzenes, which are a highly carcinogenic group of hydrocarbons. Carcinogenic compounds increase your risks of getting cancer tremendously.

Smoking, for instance, increases one’s chances of getting lung cancer by some 25 times. Paid urban firefighting increases one’s chances of getting lung cancer by almost 120 times!

At car fires, battery acid can be aerosolized and those corrosive gases breathed in. Plastics and many other common polymers break down into highly toxic by-products, like various cyanides (ie. hydrogen cyanide is a very common by-product of plastics combustion). PCBs are also a very common carcinogenic substance, found in the breakdown of many various plastics.

I’ve been a paid firefighter in New York City for over two decades and I pay extra for cancer-related health insurance, even though New York State has the “Cancer Bill,” that presumes the cause of many cancers that most impact firefighters to be “job related.”

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Advocates of Universal Healthcare have increasingly moved away from touting England’s and Canada’s flawed systems and taken to admiring the Dutch and Swiss systems, which are largely private insurance driven models.

According to Regina E. Herzlinger, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, “The Swiss and Dutch systems share one terrific feature - universal coverage. Americans increasingly want this. Both achieve universal coverage using private sector insurers, at far lower cost than the U.S. - 12% of GDP for Switzerland and 10% for the Dutch, versus a staggering 15% for the U.S. in 2003. They also have far better health outcomes than the U.S., even when Switzerland is compared to socio-demographically similar U.S. states such as Connecticut and Massachusetts.

“The Swiss are required to buy health insurance themselves, using their own money -- they account for 65% of health care expenditures. If individuals cannot afford it, most Cantons transfer funds to them. There are neither employer nor government health-insurance programs for the poor or elderly. The Swiss government accounts for only a quarter of the health-care spending versus nearly 50% for the U.S.

“The Swiss system is consumer-driven because consumers themselves pay for their purchases. The Dutch government, in contrast, funds consumers to purchase their own health insurance to a much greater extent -- five million people in the country are on some sort of government dole. Thus, when the Dutch buy their insurance, they may think they are using other people's money.

“The results? The Swiss have lower health-care inflation - 2.8% versus 4.1% for the Dutch and the U.S. from 1996-2003 -- and substantially more in the way of health-care resources. And Switzerland tops the world in most measures of user satisfaction.”

SEE: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119543672015397526.html

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I'd think that the Swiss system is by far the best and most efficient healthcare delivery system out there. It is consumer-driven and almost entirely privately operated via competing private insurers. It's a systems Americans could live with, apparently free from the healthcare and procedural rationing that plagues most government-run systems.

What Happened to "The Steamroller?!"

Yeah, what happened to the guy who was going to "do what he thought was best for the people, no matter what?!"

First he took on Sheldon Silver (State Assembly Chariman) and Joe Bruno (State Senate Leader)...and LOST.

Then he took on the entire State of New York with his recent "drivers licenses for illegal aliens" scheme...and insisted that he was going to force this through, despite all objections....so far, he hasn't gotten off the floor.

Today (Wednesday, November 14, 2007) Eliot Spitzer officially pulled the plug on his "licensing illegals" plan, mere weeks after responding to NYC's Mayor Mike Bloomberg's complaint that this plan "may result in a NY State driver's license no longer being OK'd as ID on even domestic flights, that Bloomberg was "Wrong on every level, factually wrong, legally wrong, morally wrong, and ethically wrong."

Spitzer's approval ratings are now, not only lower than G W Bush's, but lower than the current Pelosi Congress's! As Fred U. Dicker of the NY Post put it, "His once sky-high popularity has fallen faster and further than that of any governor in modern state history."

But that's not all, not by a long shot!

Did Spitzer really believe in this plan?

If he did, he should've stuck by it no matter what, no matter the personal cost.

But if he really believed that Mike Bloomberg was factually wrong (he was NOT), then he is ignorant of the facts, if he really believes that Bloomberg was legally wrong (he was NOT), he (a former State Attorney General) is woefully ignorant of the LAW and if he thinks Bloomberg was "morally and ethically wrong" (AGAIN, he was NOT), then that speaks volumes about Spitzer's own morals and ethics!

And it's even worse if he really didn't believe that, as that proves that he's the kind of man who'd say anything to dismiss an opponent and avoid serious thought about the issues. It proves him to be a thoughtless, rudderless, naively Liberal Democrat - the kind that places like New York churn out faster than a Chinese sweatshop churns out toys.

But some good has come out of this humiliation for New York, today the entire country saw that even in Liberal old New York, a hair-brained scheme like doling out driver's licenses to illegal aliens doesn't fly.

As a result, there are fewer people today proudly supporting "open borders," and claiming that "anyone who wants to come to America has a right to come."

Today, the army of the shiftless, shameless and stupid, who support illegal immigration took a haymaker to the chin...a BIG haymaker and today they know, they KNOW that over 78% of Americans want illegal immigration reined in and an "Enforcement First" policy adopted.

For THAT, we have Eliot Spitzer to thank!

SEE:http://www.nypost.com/seven/11142007/news/regionalnews/spitz_in_free_fall_646834.htm

WoW! Occasionally Those Muzzies Have the Right Idea!

According to British police, Boy George (George O'Dowd, pictured left) was charged Tuesday with falsely imprisoning a 28-year-old man.

The 46-year-old former Culture Club frontman, whose real name is George O'Dowd, has been ordered to appear in a Brittish court before Nov. 22.

The Sun newspaper reported in April that a Norwegian man, Auden Karlsen, claimed he was chained and threatened at O'Dowd's London flat, where he had gone as a photo model.

You know, in Iran, Pakistan or most other Islamic states, George O’Dowd would’ve been happily, or mercifully stoned to death by now . Hey! Even a stopped clock is right twice a day!!!

Unfortunately, we in the West seem to think such fringe kooks and “Friends of Rosie” are actually occasionally amusing.

More’s the pity and a true waste of perfectly good rocks on our parts, at least in my opinion.

Larry Kudlow Makes a GREAT Point....

The other day Larry Kudlow contrasted what happened back in the Keynesian 1970s; "Look what happened: Oil prices rose in the 70s. Stock prices fell. That was global inflation. That was high tax rates. That was crazy wage and price controls and over-regulation," with what's going on in the Supply Side era of TODAY, "Stocks and oil are rising together. That is a global economic growth signal. It is not an inflation signal."

As he notes, "You’ll note that in the 1970s, commodities and the 10-year bond rate both went up together. That was inflationary. Heck, bond rates reached around 15 percent at one point. They’ve been sliding down for several decades. Now commodities are booming, while bond rates are at rock bottom, hovering just above 4-percent.

"It’s all about low tax rates worldwide. It’s all about strong, global, free market capitalism creating high demand for commodities. Production can’t keep up, that’s all that’s going on. That’s why prices are high."

SEE: http://kudlowsmoneypolitics.blogspot.com/2007/11/kudlow-101-this-aint-1970s.html

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Anyone who was alive during the late 1970s KNOWS Kudlow is right.

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For those who weren't, Carter, one of the most inept and ineffectual Presidents in U.S. history (perhaps only James Buchanan, who made the Civil War all but inevitable was worse), continued the failed Keynesian policies of LBJ and Nixon. Keynesian policy was based on the view that more government spending, especially social spending was good for the economy.

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As a result, the government taxed productivity (work) heavilly, in fact, so much so, that many construction workers and others would not work overtime unless they were hired under another name at "straight-time plus," that is, if you worked 10 extra hours, your pseudonym (ie. John Smith) would be put down as having worked 15 hours).

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Our welfare system was so lavish (by 1990 a person on welfare in NYC made the equivalent of $24,000/year with Section-8 housing allowances, clothing allowances, food stamps, etc., more than enough to serve as a permanent disincentive to work) and so lax (major Municipalities, like NYC had large numbers of people on their rolls who didn't belong there. How do we know? As soon as Welfare Reform took hold, NYC welfare rolls dropped from just over 1 million to under 700,000, virtually overnight) that social spending, like crime was through the roof.

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Unfortunately for long suffering Americans, Keynesian policies DIDN'T prove at all "good for the economy, quite the reverse. Even before Carter took office inflation was a growing problem. Presdient Ford had tried, largely unsuccessfully, to cut back on some government spending, but Carter saw those attempts as ineffective and raised tax rates instead of trying to cut more spending.

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So, what was the ultimate result?

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INFLATION: Currently under Bush, it hovers around 2.3%/year (under 3% for all his tenure)
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Under Carter inflation peaked in the double digits! He presided over some of the worst inflation in post-Great Depression history! 1979 11.3%, in 1980 13.5%.
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UNEMPLOYMENT: Currently under Bush - 4.5% (it's been under 5% for almost all his tenure)
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As for unemployment under Jimmy Carter, well his LOWEST unemployment rate was 5.9% in 1979, 1976 was 7.7%, 1977 was 7.1%, 1978 was 6.1% and 1980 was 7.2%
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Interest Rates (Long Term interest rates): Have just budged above 6%, with thirty year fixed rate mortgages still avaliable for 5.9%
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Under Carter; In September of 1979 long term rates rose FROM 9.2% to 10.1%!!!
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In short, Supply-Side policies SAVED the U.S. economy from "Carterism"/Keynesianism and, yes, Third Worldism."..."

So Scooter, Rove and Bush DIDN’T “Out” Valerie Plame After All!!!

Turns out, it’s just as Robert Novak said it was – Richard Armitage was the man responsible for “outing” the “semi-covert” CIA agent, Valerie Plame.
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Remember the heady days when Keith Olberman ws railing against “the criminal Bush administration,” for, primarily the “crime” of “outing Valerie Plame?”
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Don’t the “true believers” feel a little betrayed today? Don’t those who insisted that, “It had to be the Bush White House who named Plame, who else had any motivation to do that,” feel at least a little less intelligent today.
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“Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Sunday he was foolish to have revealed Valerie Plame's CIA identity.

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“Armitage's acknowledgment came in response to comments by Plame, who said the former Bush administration official had no right to talk to a reporter about where she worked.

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A year ago, Armitage publicly apologized to Plame and her husband. The former No. 2 State Department official remains the only principal in the leak to have done so.”

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SEE: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-11-12-cia-leak_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

More Good...Make that "Bad" NEWS From Iraq...For American “Progressives"

Damn! Can’t “progressives” and anti-war types get a break?!
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There’ve been so many teasers – “Saddam has poison gas, and we’ll lose thousands of troops in the invasion,” THEN “Saddam’s Republican Guard will protect Baghdad to the death,” THEN “Quarmire,” AND “We can’t win,” and lately “There are no signs of improvement in Iraq at all.”
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Well, apparently “the surge” has been working since the start and over the past few months, even Iraqi Sunnis have turned against al Qaeda.
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Now it’s official, a report out of Iraq today says “Mortar attacks have decreased to their lowest levels in 21 months.” What’s more, “it marked the third month in a row of sharply reduced insurgent activity, the military said.
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“The U.S. command issued the tallies a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said suicide attacks and other bombings in Baghdad also have dropped dramatically, calling it an end of sectarian violence.
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“A top U.S. general said he believed the drop was sustainable, as Iraqis turn away from extremists.”
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It’s like those anti-war, anti-Capitalists can’t get a break no how!


SEE: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-11-12-iraq-monday_N.htm?csp=34

A Sacrificial Offering for Veteran's Day - Lions for Lambs is Crushed at the Box Office!

Well, America's veterans got an early Christmas present when the anti-war and anti-American military flick Lions for Lambs was slaughtered on the altar of commerce this weekend.

Sure some will argue it ranked 4th, but that's a very DISTANT fourth!

While Bee Move garnered $26 Million, American Gangster raked in $24 Million and Fred Claus took in $19 Million, Lions for Lambs made a paltry $6.7 Million.

It's always good to see Hollywood's anti-military flicks bomb...they deserve to bomb and bomb badly. Keep those bombs a fallin' in Hollyweird and the American military will keep'em falling on our enemies abroad.

THANK YOU New Jersey!!!......

...For restoring my faith in the voters of even that very "Blue" northeastern enclave.

On Tuesday the voters of New Jersey voted down 2 of the 4 ballot initiatives on spending grounds - voting down a proposed one penny rise in the state's sales tax, supposedly fund property tax relief and another that would've borrowed $450 Million to fund Embryonic Stem Cell (ESC) research.

The only monetary ballot initiative that passed in the Garden State was one that allowed the state to borrow $200 million to "buy land for conservation and recreation, to preserve farmland, acquire flood-prone land in the Delaware, Passaic and Raritan river basinsand fund historic preservation projects.

ALL three of those referendums broke down along the same 57 - 43 lines.

Most interesting, at least to me, was New Jerseyans voting down the $450 million to fund ESC research, despite that 71% of the New Jerseyans polled this summer claimed to support ESC research.

As Star Ledger reporter, Tom Moran siad, "The meaning (of this election) was unmistakable. Voters no longer trust Democrats to handle their money."

Loretta Weinberg, a Democrat from Bergen County said, "We better straighten up and get our house in order. This progressive Blue state is asking questions about what we Democrats actually stand for. The dialogue is going to be different now."

If voters in New Jersey don't trust Democrats enough with their money, even enough to trust them with funding ESC research, supported by those voters almost 3 to 1, then maybe that explains why the new Democratic Congress' approval rating remains more than 10 points BELOW G W Bush's anemic numbers.

Apparently fiscal restraint and lowering taxes really IS important to the vast majortiy of voters Democrat AND Republican.

At any rate, THANKS New Jersey! You did good!!!

THANKS Eliot!

Few would doubt that New York’s Republican Party is a mess. It’s a tumultuous mix of moderate (socially Liberal) blue-haired old ladies who adore the likes of Ron Lauder and hard scrabble, white ethnic Conservatives from the “outer boroughs, Upstate and Long Island.
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They were trounced in the recent Governor’s race and Joe Bruno’s days as State Senate majority leader seemed dwindling.
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Well, not any more!
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As Fred Dicker writes in today’s NY Post, “SOMBER Democrats are privately conceding that Governor Spitzer's controversial plan to give drivers' licenses to illegal aliens has done the impossible by reviving New York's long-moribund Republican Party.
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"He's the best thing for Republicans since Mario Cuomo," one of the state's most influential Democrats angrily told The Post.

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"Spitzer has revived the Republican Party in a way nobody, and I mean nobody, could have predicted," the well-known Democrat continued.”
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In New York, that’s nothing short of amazing, because like nowhere else, the Republican Party here is a disaster.

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As Dicker notes, “Democrats and Republicans agree that Spitzer's plan has:
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* Seriously damaged Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, as shown in last week's Democratic presidential debate.

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* Endangered the now-slim Democratic control of the Nassau County Legislature which, GOP strategists insist, has a good chance of returning to Republican hands after tomorrow.

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* Helped guarantee blowout GOP wins in the hotly fought contests for Erie County (Buffalo) and Onondaga County (Syracuse) executive.

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* Given the entire New York GOP, and especially the Senate's Republican majority, a solid issue on which to seek re-election next year, at a time when the party was mired in the high-tax, big-spending and low-job-growth legacy of former Gov. George Pataki.

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* Virtually ended Spitzer's chance to be taken seriously one day as a presidential candidate.

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But it’s not all good news for New York’s GOP, how sad is that, that you have to rely on a Democratic disaster to “look good by comparison?”
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Hardly anything you’d want to hang your hat on.

SEE: http://www.nypost.com/seven/11052007/news/columnists/eliot_puts_dying_gop_in_drivers_seat_772929.htm

And THANKS to Mike Bloomberg TOO!!!

Thanks go out to Mike (“Mayor Mike”) Bloomberg as well, for switching to the Independent Line!

What an embarrassment!
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As if New York’s GOP needed any more of those.
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Mike Bloomberg a registered Democrat up until late 2001 and a big Hillary Clinton supporter, was perhaps the most embarrassing pseudo-Republican in existence. A guy who embraced the Nanny State like a suckling babe and pontificated at length about “Republican values,” which sounded suspiciously like those of a Hillary Clinton-supporting Democrat’s values.
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Thanks Mike, for stopping the charade and ceasing your clever campaign to humiliate the Republican Party from within.

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The latest Mayor Mike goofiness has to do with his directing the FDNY to fire John Schroeder, a seventeen year veteran firefighter diagnosed with both severe lung disorder and post traumatic stress syndrome in the wake of finding a friend's remains at Ground Zero.

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Just days after his disability retirement was approved, the city sought to terminate him "as an example to other firefighters as to the dangers of using drugs."

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An administrative law judge just recently ruled against the city, cautioning them that the termination of a worker the city's own health services classified as "disabled" will almost certainly result in a lawsuit exposing the city to liability.

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WoW! It's almost too much, Nanny State micro-managing the people's private lives via all sorts of smoking, trans fats and other bans, a push for "congestion pricing for anyone entering Manhattan via vehicle and a complete lack of compassion for a man, administrative law judge Kevin Casey said, "literally sacrificed his mental and physical well-being for his job and the people of New York." I mean, that's really almost too much of a good thing!