Walk the talk...

Buried in the Democratic Committee's website I found this call to action: "Help us put up campaign signs on prominent corners and also distribute lawn signs to friendly Democrats. Also help take them down after the election (because we always clean up after ourselves)."

Always? More than a week after the last of the Summer Twilight Concerts — the brain child of the Rochester Democratic Committee — obsolete posters still litter the town, as seen above (a copy of the Ulster Country Press, July 30 issue, time-stamps all photos).

We hope that Councilwoman Lynn Archer — the Town Board's liaison to the Environmental Conservation Commission — will convince her fellow members of the Rochester Democratic Committee to clean the mess before the next Earth Day.

If you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk.

Snakes at work

Below is a sampling of the comments posted online a few hours after Tony Snow's passing away (see the previous article). Read them, read them again, and remember what you've read when voting in November.

Posted by: tom McCarty | July 12, 2008 at 05:37 AM
I hope the rest of these criminals die too. Good riddance to a person who contributed to making this world a worse place.

Posted by: Max | July 12, 2008 at 05:58 AM
Its unfortunate he won't be able to see the damage he helped inflict on this country and the world. I wonder how he likes hell.

Posted by: Patrick Henry | July 12, 2008 at 07:20 AM
Good riddance , we still have a white house full of liars 
and American soldiers being slaughtered. if Cheney strokes 
then change will begin , as for Bush he is just to stupid 
to die and when he dies bury him at home in IRAQ.

Posted by: billy brigg | July 12, 2008 at 08:50 AM
There is special place in hell for Mr. Snow. As a co-conspirator of the Bush administration, I have no special sympathy for him. I only wish his suffering were more prolonged.

Tony Snow Dies at 53

After a long, candid and public battle with colon cancer, former White House press secretary and television-radio host Tony Snow died early this morning.

"America has lost a devoted public servant and a man of character," President Bush said in a statement from Camp David, where he was spending the weekend. "It was a joy to watch Tony at the podium each day. He brought wit, grace, and a great love of country to his work."

Robert Anthony Snow was born June 1, 1955, in Berea, Ohio. His father was a social studies teacher and assistant principal in the Cincinnati suburbs, and Snow's mother worked as a nurse in the inner city.

Snow was also a newspaper veteran, having written for a variety of smaller dailies before becoming deputy editorial page editor at the Detroit News and then editorial page editor of the Washington Times. He also wrote a column for Creators Syndicate from 1993 to 2000 that appeared in more than 200 newspapers across the country.

His intellect was obvious yet accessible to a wide audience of thinking people. Tony Snow was an all-around class act. R.I.P.

Saddam Had Nuke Program?

The media have been telling us for years that Saddam had no WMD, so "Bush's War": was based on a "lie." And those who believed Saddam did have WMD or WMD programs were delusional or worse.

But, on July 6, 2008, the Associated Press reports that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear program at the Tuwaitha nuclear complex just south of Baghdad, including 550 metric tons (over 1.2 million pounds) of "yellowcake", or concentrated uranium, and multiple devices that could be used in a nuclear weapon.

The AP does not say alleged nuclear program. It does not add "according to military experts." It simply says "Saddam Hussein's nuclear program."

That's pretty big news, isn't it?

For about five years now, those of us who thought Saddam Hussein probably had at least WMD programs, if not WMD themselves, have been called not only wrong, but illogical and insane.

Read more here on AmericanThinker.com.

A humble question..

Town of Rochester’s official website gets better by the day thanks to Michael Baden, its new webmaster. Of course, the Town Board has the last word regarding the website’s content. Recently, decisions were made about the external links, that’s to say links taking the visitors to websites not controlled by the Town Board.

In the spring of 2006 I launched BusyRochester.com — “the first website in our town devoted to promoting local businesses” according to a letter published by “Blue Stone Press” on November 17, 2006 signed by Carl J. Chipman of Accord.

The website’s main feature is the free listing of all businesses in our town, alphabetically and by category, all spiced with some light news, photos, and a quite substantial “About Rochester” section. Non-political, free listings, free classifieds, free announcements of community events. If interested, anyone can place an advertisment, the most expensive costing $150 a year.

As of five minutes ago, the website is #1 on Google (out of 212,000 returns) for the keywords “Kerhonkson Business,” #2 (out of 13,700,000 returns) for the keywords “Accord Business,” and #1 (out of 264,000 returns) for the keywords “Town of Rochester Business.”



On Yahoo! the website is #3 (out of 863,000,000 returns) for the keywords “Accord Business,” #3 (out of 258,000 returns) for the keywords “Kerhonkson Business,” #2 (out of 15,500,000 returns) for the keywords “Town of Rochester Business.”

As you may know, companies spend big bucks to achieve this ranking. The Town of Rochester got it my courtesy, and you would think that BusyRochester.com would be an appropriate, useful link on the Town’s website. Don’t hold your breath! You see, as a privately owned, for-profit enterprise, BusyRochester.com does not qualify. Which is fine with me...

Meanwhile, the Town’s official website displays links to The Daily Freeman, The Times Herald Record, Mid-Hudson News Network, Ulster County Press, Ulster Publishing, Ellenville Journal. And here comes my humble question: are not all of these privately owned, for-profit enterprises?

Anonymice

A few years back, Amazon discovered that authors and friends of authors (all anonymous) were giving a 5-star ratings to their own books! Who would have thought? Why would they do that? The shock of it all!

The technology permits anonymous and spontaneous publication of people's comments and we expect the majority of those comments will be honest, civil, and legal. Yet the online environment is infested with libelous demagogues. We must no longer allow the online media to be used for anonymous sniping and personal attacks. There's too many opportunists out there looking for mischief and mayhem.

In our town the anonymity was taken to an art form: anonymous comments on anonymous blogs! Before the 2007 Election, an anonymous blog aimed “to exist throughout the 2007 election season for people in our town to express themselves anonymously. No names - Everyone will remain anonymous.”

Everyone remained anonymous for about 48 seconds. It took me that long to identify Kathy Kuthy as the author of the “non-partisan” blog. Zali Win – the Town of Rochester Democratic Committee Chairman – sent this e-mail to everybody and his brother announcing the birth of his brainchild:

New Blog Established for Town of Rochester Community
We don’t know who established it, but its an interesting way to express your ideas. http://tor2007.blogspot.com

He forgot to add “0 pounds, 0 ounces, 0 inches.”

On May 12, 2008 another anonymous blog popped up, kind of DOA. Zali Win welcomed it too. Of course he did. Under the cover of anonymity, people’s ability to discuss their differences in a rational and civil fashion begins to erode, and they become much more easily manipulated.

Anonymity doesn't build community, it harms it.

The online insurrection is here to stay...

In the digital age, never get in a dispute with someone with access to a computer. Because if he is aggrieved enough, and righteous enough, and persistent enough, and connected enough, he can bury you. Or at least make your life miserable for a long, long time. He doesn't need to have a chain of newspapers, all he needs to have, basically, are fingers and rage...

For people with anger issues, the internet is a cathartic godsend and/or lethal weapon. You know the type — people who might accept the ordinary indignities of life with reasonable equanimity but become suddenly radicalized when lied to, cheated, bullied or otherwise personally abused...

Some of us — no matter how generally sweet-natured and generous, no matter how friendly and thoughtful, no matter how empathetic and transcendently kind — are simply not to be screwed with. Because when we are wronged, we will go to rather extreme lengths to be righted...


(Selected quotes from Comcast must die! by Bob Garfield
Advertising Age, November 19, 2007)