|
SIGN UP FOR YOUR POLITICSNY.NET FREE UPDATES (UPPER RIGHT) AS THEY HAPPEN! *** Great Rates *** Advertise *** 716-886-4171 *** JosephIlluzzi704@aol.com
July 3, 2009
PoliticsNY.Net: A FEW THINGS
Breaking News: Joe Mesi has resigned his job as head of the State Senate Majority office in Buffalo tonight (Thursday). Sources say Mesi felt that the political unrest in Albany was undermining his efforts at moving forward with a positive agenda for the community. Mesi, who was once the top-ranked heavyweight contender during an undefeated ring career, is expected to reassess where he goes from here, but he is expected to stay committed to Buffalo and Western New York. ...
The Erie County Legislature voted to put one ballot question on downsizing before the voters in November from 15 to 13, 4 year terms from 2, the vote 14-0. Collins will veto!
Legislator Maria Whyte had her baby! Congratulations!
“The action the County Legislature took makes true reform a reality in putting the reduction of the Legislature to 13 members from 15 up to the voters of Erie County,” Chair Marinelli said.
“The Legislature both honored the work and effort of the 21st Century Commission and makes reform a reality. We have continually cut the County Legislature’s budgets through legislative action, and we will continue this financial prudence.”
“This legislative body worked in a collaborative manner for the benefit of the entire constituency of Erie County to garner a compromise,” Legislator Miller-Williams said. “While it is not perfect, it is reform and we look forward to giving the people an opportunity to let us hear how they feel on resizing the Legislature. I will continue to inform and educate our constituency on the importance of understanding the referendum that will be on the ballot.”
The Erie County Legislature was originally made up of 20 members, was downsized first to 17 members and downsized again to 15 members in 2003. ...
Buffalo City Comptroller Andy SanFilippo announced Thursday that an audit of the Erie Basin Marina, operated by Brand-On Services, Inc., under a lease agreement with the city, has found a serious lack of internal controls in all revenue generating areas, prompting concerns about the accuracy of payments to the city under terms of the lease.
"While the vendor, Brand-On Services, should receive credit for the significant increase in sales at the Marina from 2004 to 2007, internal controls over these greater revenues is totally inadequate in all of the revenue generating areas," said Comptroller SanFilippo.
"We found deficiencies in recordkeeping in the purchase of food, in boat launching, in slip rentals, and in fuel sales," said the comptroller. "There was also a failure to maintain an up-to-date slip renters’ register. Taken in total, with revenue of more than $1.3 million during our audit period of May – October, 2007, the failure of Brand-On to address these problems (cited in a 2005 audit) is extremely troubling and there needs to be major changes in all areas going forward. I believe that as a result of this audit, those changes are being made." ...
The Syaed Ali matter that you are hearing & reading about is a Homeland Security investigation.
While this character filed a politically motivated lawsuit against the City the fact is this investigation involved numerous law enforcement agencies.
Please keep in mind this is the same idiot that claimed the Mayor's people sent out a number of inflammatory emails, later recanted. They claimed one of the worst low life, lying, degenerates I have met in my 13 years doing this Dick Kern is responsible for the emails.
There have been so many stories recanted by Ali & his web friends its getting close to being criminal; the reason people are being paid to print this nonsense. ...
RUMORS are circulating that Len Lenihan is planning on running three candidates for the 8 JD Supreme Court, Supreme Court Justice John O'Donnell, County Judge Shirley Troutman, City Court Judge Henry Nowak. All eminently qualified.
The person with the problem of course, if the rumor is true, is County Court Judge Shirley Troutman a Black.. This is going to be the same scenario that cost Judge Bob Russell the race two years ago. The only minor line she will get is the WFP.
With two exceptions, Sam Green & Rose Sconiers, a minority person cannot win in the 8th JD without a cross endorsement or four lines.
The IP & Conservative lines will go to O'Donnell, Nowak & Republican Justice Chris Burns. I believe O'Donnell is in play should the GOP nominate Williamsville Justice Jeff Voelkl & or Family Court Judge Pat Maxwell.
The bottom line is Lenihan will nominate (the 8 counties) Troutman in an attempt to bring out the Black vote for County wide candidates Comptroller Poloncarz & for Sheriff John Galscott.
In other words Troutman is being used miserably by Lenihan et al. ...
much more as the weekend passes
& so it goes ###
BUFFALO PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The Buffalo Public School District has announced the beginning of important partnerships with two key health care providers. This alliance will reinforce the District’s mission to keep students disease free in light of the spread of H1N1. The partnership between the B.P.S. and Blue Cross Blue Shield will provide 6,500 personal spray sanitizers for teachers in the District. More than 1,500 are being distributed now to staff that are teaching in the Extended Learning Opportunities program. The remaining 5,000 sanitizers, which are about the size of a yellow highlighter and are small enough to fit in your pocket, will be distributed to teachers in the fall.
"The best way to fight the spread of H1N1 is to maintain strong personal hygiene by washing your hands as often as possible and using hand sanitizers. We thank Blue Cross Blue Shield for providing pocket-sized sanitizers for teachers to keep classrooms disease free. These smaller sanitizers are a big help in stopping the spread of communicable diseases in our community," said Superintendent Dr. James A. Williams. ###
Thursday: Just in from Comptroller Tom DiNapoli: he wants to withhold Senate pay, something that Gov. Paterson has been urging for more than a week. ...
Convened & Adjourned
"New York Democratic Senators: Buffalo-area Dems Antoine Thompson and Bill Stachowski earlier today had a press conference calling for the fellow upstate Republicans to join them and urge Gov. David Paterson to sign the Power for Jobs electricity subsidy that expired July 1 in the face of the Senate’s deadlock.
“If we don’t sign this today it will be a travesty,” said Thompson. Power for Jobs has been one of the better-known victims of the current Senate stalemate: according to the NY Power Authority it supplies low-cost power to 570 businesses and non-profits employing some 330,000, with many of the big recipients in upstate." ...
"Gov. David Paterson has elevated the Senate stalemate from a “conflict” to a “crisis. Paterson has issued proclamations for special session every day at 3 p.m. through July 6. The Senate will be in Albany through the holiday weekend."
Paterson also called on Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, a Democrat, to withhold the pay of senators’ salaries. So far, DiNapoli has declined to take that step." ...
Wednesday: Convene & Adjourn ... Paterson will force Senate to convene through holiday weekend ... NYS Assembly ...
Speaker Silver says the Assembly will not send the bills passed by the Senate over to the Governor for his signature given the fact that the quorum is in doubt.
Meanwhile the Dems took a day off; the GOP used the time to repeat their June 8th arguments. ...
Smith vs Skelos: On the Panavan walk through
“Was the session valid? The answer to that question is yes,” said Malcolm A. Smith, the Democratic leader. “The other question is also, why would anyone go to disqualify the session given the significance of what we accomplished Tuesday?”
Senate Republicans had a ready answer for Mr. Smith.
“That is probably the most fraudulent, obnoxious, arrogant display of partisanship,” said Dean G. Skelos, the Republican leader, “and, quite frankly, a total disregard of the institution of the Senate that so many of us care about.” See state screen ...
Tuesday: 7:00 No action adjourned!
"The five-judge panel denied the GOP’s request for a stay of Judge Joseph Teresi’s order forcing the Senate to meet as a 62-member body, and not in two 31-member mini-sessions." The GOP we believe will appeal to the Court of Appeals. ...
Paterson called a special session for 7:00 PM tonight. However, we don't know if that will stand because there was not a 24 hour notice given to senators. Gov. says he won't sign any of the Bills passed by the Dems since noon! ...
12:00 The Dems are in session actually passing non controversial bills claiming a quorum of 31? Adjourned at 5:55 PM.
"Senate Democrats claim there they have quorum because Sen. Frank Padavan, R-Queens, walked in and out of the chamber and was marked present.
Senate Democrats are now moving through their active list for the regular session.
Padavan is talking to reporters right now, explaining that he was in the lounge and he was not present when Senate Democrats were standing for the pledge of allegiance.
He claimed that he passed through the chamber, but only before Democrats started session" TU ...
10:00 The session began with both sides present. Senator Skelos (R) stood to say the GOP did not recognize the presiding Senator; he then made a motion to adjourn. The Senate is adjourned taking no action on the non controversial bills. However, the Times Union is reporting the Dems will be back at noon? GOP says they will be in at 3:00 PM. ...
9:00 The Appellate refused to grant a stay that is why both sides were in Chambers. This is getting crazier by the day!
The GOP filed an appeal this morning. The Dems, taking control of Chambers this morning, plan on holding a session at 10:00 AM. ...
Monday: The GOP promises an appeal to the Appellate Court, a stay would be automatic. If the GOP follows through all the time sensitive bills will expire. ...
Judge Joseph Teresi has ordered that all 62 senators must report into the Senate chamber, at the same time, for extraordinary session at 10 AM Tuesday.
The Dems convened & adjourned; however, Malcolm Smith announced all 62 members will be in session Tuesday at noon, no specifics. The GOP did the same after Skelos & Espada made a few remarks. Not clear whether the GOP will show at noon Tuesday. The GOP is demanding the Dems recognize the June 8th election 32-30 of Skleos to Majority Leader & Espada to President Pro Temp. ...
Sunday: The Senate Dems convened & adjourned! Ditto for the GOP! ...
"If they are going to continue in this juvenile fighting with each other and not even passing bills they agree on - I don't really know what else to do; but I am going to keep them there." Governor Paterson ...
Saturday: Senate Dems convened & adjourned! Ditto for the GOP! ...
Gov calls special weekend sessions 1:00 PM Saturday - 6:00 PM Sunday ...
"Senate leaders are nearing a power-sharing accord to allow the chamber to move forward, according to a source close to the negotiations. The agreement would be in effect through 2010. There are a few remaining items left for the principals to agree on, but the leadership question seems to have been resolved.
The lineup:
President pro tempore: Democratic Sen. Malcolm Smith
Senate majority leader: Republican Sen. Dean Skelos
Vice-president pro tempore: Democratic Sen. Pedro Espada
Democratic conference leader: Democratic Sen. John Sampson
According to the source, the challenge now is convincing the fractured Democratic conference to go along with this agreement, which would maintain Smith as the top Democrat in the Senate chamber." Published reports ###
"GIVEN THE EVENTS IN ALBANY, AND THE UNCERTAINTY OVER WHEN OR HOW THE TURMOIL WILL END, I HAVE DECIDED TO RESIGN MY POSITION WITH THE STATE SENATE OFFICE IN BUFFALO, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.
I ACCEPTED THIS APPOINTMENT WITH THE BEST INTENTIONS, AND I’M VERY DISAPPOINTED THAT EVENTS IN ALBANY HAVE UNDERMINED OUR ABILITY TO MOVE FORWARD WITH A POSITIVE AGENDA FOR BUFFALO AND WESTERN NEW YORK.
AS A PROFESSIONAL FIGHTER, I WORKED HARD TO PROMOTE OUR COMMUNITY, WHETHER INSIDE THE RING OR THROUGH MY COMMUNITY AND CHARITABLE ENDEAVORS. I’M PROUD TO BE FROM WESTERN NEW YORK AND I’VE ALWAYS TRIED MY BEST TO REPRESENT OUR COMMUNITY IN A POSITIVE WAY. I WANT ALL MY FANS AND FRIENDS TO KNOW THAT JOE MESI NEVER QUIT AS A FIGHTER AND I WILL BE BACK TO SERVE MY COMMUNITY IN THE FUTURE.
I BELIEVE NOW IS THE BESTS TIME TO STEP BACK AND REASSESS THINGS, AND DECIDE WHERE I GO FROM HERE. BUT I STILL BELIEVE THERE IS MUCH WE CAN DO IN THE POLITICAL ARENA, AND MUCH THAT GOVERNMENT CAN DO, TO HELP US IMPROVE OUR COMMUNITY, CREATE JOBS, AND MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR EVERYONE. I INTEND TO CONTINUE TO DO MY PART TO BE A VOICE FOR CHANGE AND FOR A BETTER WAY. I WILL ALWAYS BE PROUD OF MY COMMUNITY AND THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE SUPPORTED ME, BOTH IN MY BOXING DAYS AND IN MY EFFORTS OUTSIDE THE RING."
JOE MESI
Sonia Sotomayor: So Much For Wise Latinas
by Ann Coulter
With the Supreme Court's decision in Ricci v. DeStefano this week, we can now report that Sonia Sotomayor is even crazier than Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
To recap the famous Ricci case, in 2003, the city of New Haven threw out the results of a firefighters' test -- which had been expressly designed to be race-neutral -- because only whites and Hispanics scored high enough to receive immediate promotions, whereas blacks who took the test did well enough only to be eligible for promotions down the line.
Inasmuch as the high-scoring white and Hispanic firemen were denied promotions solely because of their race, they sued the city for race discrimination.
Obama's Justice-designate Sotomayor threw out their lawsuit in a sneaky, unsigned opinion -- the judicial equivalent of "talk to the hand." She upheld the city's race discrimination against white and Hispanic firemen on the grounds that the test had a "disparate impact" on blacks, meaning that it failed to promote some magical percentage of blacks.
This strict quota regime was dressed up by the city -- and by Sotomayor's opinion -- as a reasonable reaction to the threat of lawsuits by blacks who were not promoted.
That's a complicated way of saying: Racial quotas are peachy.
According to Sotomayor, any test that gets the numbers wrong -- whatever "wrong" means in any given context of professions, populations, applicants, workers, etc. -- is grounds for a lawsuit, which in turn, is grounds for an employer to engage in race discrimination against disfavored racial groups, such as white men.
Consequently, the only legal avenue available to employers under Sotomayor's ruling is always to impose strict racial quotas in making hiring and promotion decisions.
Say, if the threat of a lawsuit permits the government to ignore the Constitution, can pro-lifers get New Haven to shut down all abortion clinics by threatening to sue them? There's no question but that abortion clinics have a "disparate impact" on black babies.
This week, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 for the white and Hispanic firefighters, overturning Sotomayor's endorsement of racial quotas.
But all nine justices rejected Sotomayor's holding that different test results alone give the government a green light to engage in race discrimination. Even Justice Ginsburg's opinion for the dissent clearly stated that "an employer could not cast aside a selection method based on a statistical disparity alone."
Indeed, the dissenters argued that the case should be returned to the lower courts to look for some hidden racial bias in the test. For Sotomayor, the results alone proved racial bias.
The one advantage Sotomayor's talk-to-the-hand opinion has over Justice Ginsburg's prolix dissent is that brevity prevented Sotomayor from having to explain why quotas aren't quotas.
That was left to Ginsburg.
Liberals desperately want race quotas -- as long as quotas never come to their offices.
But they can't say that, so instead they talk in circles for 10 hours straight, until everyone else is exhausted, and then, when no one is paying attention, they announce: So we're all agreed -- we will have racial quotas.
Based on her lifetime of experience working as a firefighter, Ginsburg said: "Relying heavily on written tests to select fire officers is a questionable practice, to say the least." Liberals prefer a more objective test, such as race.
Isn't excelling on written tests how Ruth Bader Ginsburg got where she is? It's curious how people whose entire careers are based on doing well on tests find them so irrelevant to other people's jobs.
In the middle of a fire, it can either be a great idea or the worst possible idea to open a door. An excellent method for finding out if your next fire chief knows the correct answer is a written test.
Unleashing the canard of all race-obsessed liberals, Ginsburg observed that courts have found that a fire officer's job "involves complex behaviors, good interpersonal skills, the ability to make decisions under tremendous pressure, and a host of other abilities -- none of which is easily measured by a written, multiple choice test."
So does a lawyer's job. And yet attorneys with absolutely no "interpersonal skills" get cushy jobs and extravagant salaries on the basis of their commendable performance on all manner of written tests, from multiple choice LSATs and bar exams to written law school exams.
I note that Ginsburg has not shown any particular interest in rectifying the "disparate impact" of legal exams: She never hired a single black law clerk out of the dozens she employed in more than a decade as an appeals court judge. (Her hiring practices on the Supreme Court are a state secret, but I can state with supreme certainty that her clerks do not reflect the racial mix of Washington, D.C.)
But liberals think other people's jobs are a joke, so the testing must also be a joke. That is -- other than their preferred test: "Is the applicant black, female or otherwise handicapped?"
There is no test that can prove all things about an employee and so there is no test that can't be derided by the race-mongers. Which is exactly the point. Get rid of all tests -- except for lawyers who graduated at the top of their law school classes at Columbia, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Then liberals are free to impose racial quotas on other people's jobs without limit.
As crazy as this is, even Ginsburg and the other dissenters made a big point of pretending there was some flaw in this particular test. None adopted Sotomayor's position that unequal test results alone prove discrimination.
This suggests that a wise Jewish lady, due to the richness of her life experiences, might come to a better judgment than a Latina judge would.
July 2, 2009
Great Lakes Health, ECMCC and Kaleida Health
The Professional Steering Committee (PSC) of the Great Lakes Health System of Western New York delivered its clinical vision and recommendations for health services to the respective boards of Great Lakes Health, ECMCC and Kaleida Health.
The Great Lakes Health System of Western New York is the governing board overseeing the integration of ECMC and Kaleida Health.
The PSC, a group made up of primarily physicians from both organizations, was created as part of the binding agreement signed by Kaleida Health and ECMCC on June 20, 2008. The Committee consists of five voting physicians from ECMC and five voting physicians from Kaleida Health, as well as ex-officio members from nursing and the medical staff of both organizations, and the University of Buffalo.
Over the past year, the physicians have been working to develop a plan for clinical services and strengthened alignment between Kaleida and ECMCC. Over 70 private practice and academic physicians from both organizations have been involved in the process.
These recommendations will now go through a feasibility analysis by both ECMC and Kaleida organizations and will be deliberated by the Boards of ECMCC, Kaleida Health, and Great Lakes Health. Together, the groups will need to formulate an operational plan, a timetable, and address various issues such as impact on labor, and to secure the funding necessary to make the physicians' vision a reality. The recommendations of the physician led Professional Steering Committee are as follows:
Cardiac Services - Transition all appropriate cardiac care from ECMC to the soon to be built Global Vascular Institute, while maintaining sufficient services and programs to support Trauma and the high volume of emergency room visits at ECMC.
Orthopedics - Create a new Bone Health Center at ECMC that will bring new subspecialists in Orthopedics to Buffalo in areas that are underserved, such as Rheumatology and Geriatrics. The new center will increase access for patients that will result in enhanced prevention and improved care for patients with bone health conditions. In addition, create a new, separate surgical area for orthopedics at ECMC that allows for growth and is both physician friendly and patient centered. Create and consolidate elective spine surgery at Buffalo General in conjunction with the Global Vascular Institute. Maintain the orthopedic programs at BGH, MFS, WCHOB, DMH and Kline Road Ambulatory Surgery Center.
Solid Organ Transplantation Services - Consolidate the Transplant programs (kidney and pancreas). Locate the consolidated program at ECMC creating a Center of Excellence that will allow for future expansion of transplant services.
Critical Care - Create a Great Lakes Health transfer center that will allow for the seamless transfers of critical patients from outlying community hospitals.
Supreme Court: Equality on Trial
For the fourth time in six cases, the Supreme Court of the United States has reversed a decision for which Judge Sonia Sotomayor voted on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. If this nominee were a white male, would this not raise questions about whether he should be elevated to a court that has found his previous decisions wrong two-thirds of the times when those decisions have been reviewed?
Is no one supposed to ask questions about qualifications, simply because this nominee is Hispanic and a woman? Have we become that mindless?
Qualifications are not simply a question of how long you have been doing something, but how well you have done it. Judge Sotomayor has certainly been on the federal bench long enough, but is being reversed four out of six times a sign of a job well done?
Would longevity be equated with qualifications anywhere else? Some sergeants have been in the army longer than some generals but nobody thinks that is a reason to make those sergeants generals.
Performance matters. And Judge Sotomayor's performance provides no reason for putting her on the Supreme Court.
Although the case of the Connecticut firefighters is the latest and best-known of Judge Sotomayor's reversals by the Supreme Court, an even more revealing case was Didden v. Village of Port Chester, where the Supreme Court openly rebuked the unanimous three-judge panel that included Judge Sotomayor for "an evident denial of the most elementary forms of procedural due process."
Longevity is not the only false argument for putting Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court. Another is the argument that "elections have consequences," so that the fact that Barack Obama won last year's elections means that his choice for the Supreme Court should be confirmed. This is a political talking point rather than a serious argument.
Of course elections have consequences. But Senators were also elected, and the Constitution of the United States gives them both the right and the duty to say "yes" or "no" to any president's judicial nominees.
It is painfully appropriate that the case which finally took the Sotomayor nomination beyond the realm of personal biography is one where the key question is how far this country is going to go on the question of racial representation versus individual qualifications.
Too much that Sonia Sotomayor has said and done over the years places her squarely in the camp of those supporting a racial spoils system instead of equal treatment for all. The organizations she has belonged to, as well as the statements she has made repeatedly -- not just an isolated slip of the tongue taken "out of context"-- as well as her dismissing the white firefighters' case that the Supreme Court heard and heeded, all point in the same direction.
Within living memory, there was a time when someone who was black could not get certain jobs, regardless of how high that individual's qualifications might be. It outraged the conscience of a nation and aroused people of various races and social backgrounds to rise up against it, sometimes at the risk of their lives.
Many, if not most, thought that they were fighting for equal treatment for all. But, today, too many people seem to think it is just a question of whose ox is gored-- or for whom one has "empathy," which amounts to the same thing in practice.
Clever people say that none of this matters because Republican Senators don't have enough votes to stop this nominee from being confirmed. But that assumes that every Democrats will vote for her, regardless of what the public thinks. It also assumes that alerting the public doesn't matter, now or for the future.
The standards for judging the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor are not the standards of either the criminal law or the civil law. That is, nothing has to be proven against her "beyond a reasonable doubt" or even by "a preponderance of the evidence."
Judge Sotomayor is not in any jeopardy that would entitle her to the benefit of the doubt. It is 300 million Americans and their posterity who are entitled to the benefit of the doubt when the enormous power of determining what their rights are is put into anyone's hands as a Supreme Court justice for life.
July 1, 2009
Making a Monkey Out of Darwin
by Patrick J. Buchanan
"You have no notion of the intrigue that goes on in this blessed world of science," wrote Thomas Huxley. "Science is, I fear, no purer than any other region of human activity; though it should be."
As "Darwin's bulldog," Huxley would himself engage in intrigue, deceit and intellectual property theft to make his master's theory gospel truth in Great Britain.
He is quoted above for two reasons.
First is House passage of a "cap-and-trade" climate-change bill. Depending on which scientists you believe, the dire consequences of global warming are inconvenient truths -- or a fearmongering scheme to siphon off the wealth of individuals and empower bureaucrats.
The second is publication of "The End of Darwinism: And How a Flawed and Disastrous Theory Was Stolen and Sold," by Eugene G. Windchy, a splendid little book that begins with Huxley's lament.
That Darwinism has proven "disastrous theory" is indisputable.
"Karl Marx loved Darwinism," writes Windchy. "To him, survival of the fittest as the source of progress justified violence in bringing about social and political change, in other words, the revolution."
"Darwin suits my purpose," Marx wrote.
Darwin suited Adolf Hitler's purposes, too.
"Although born to a Catholic family Hitler become a hard-eyed Darwinist who saw life as a constant struggle between the strong and the weak. His Darwinism was so extreme that he thought it would have been better for the world if the Muslims had won the eighth century battle of Tours, which stopped the Arabs' advance into France. Had the Christians lost, (Hitler) reasoned, Germanic people would have acquired a more warlike creed
and, because of their natural superiority, would have become the leaders of an Islamic empire."
Charles Darwin also suited the purpose of the eugenicists and Herbert Spencer, who preached a survival-of-the-fittest social Darwinism to robber baron industrialists exploiting 19th-century immigrants.
Historian Jacques Barzun believes Darwinism brought on World War I: "Since in every European country between 1870 and 1914 there was a war party demanding armaments, an individualist party demanding ruthless competition, an imperialist party demanding a free hand over backward peoples, a socialist party demanding the conquest of power and a racialist party demanding internal purges against aliens -- all of them, when appeals to greed and glory failed, invoked Spencer and Darwin, which was to say science incarnate."
Yet a theory can produce evil -- and still be true.
And here Windchy does his best demolition work.
Darwin, he demonstrates, stole his theory from Alfred Wallace, who had sent him a "completed formal paper on evolution by natural selection."
"All my originality ... will be smashed," wailed Darwin when he got Wallace's manuscript.
Darwin also lied in "The Origin of Species" about believing in a Creator. By 1859, he was a confirmed agnostic and so admitted in his posthumous autobiography, which was censored by his family.
Darwin's examples of natural selection -- such as the giraffe acquiring its long neck to reach ever higher into the trees for the leaves upon which it fed to survive -- have been debunked. Giraffes eat grass and bushes. And if, as Darwin claimed, inches meant life or death, how did female giraffes, two or three feet shorter, survive?
Windchy goes on to relate such scientific hoaxes as "Nebraska Man" -- an anthropoid ape ancestor to man, whose tooth turned out to belong to a wild pig -- and Piltdown Man, the missing link between monkey and man.
Discovered in England in 1912, Piltdown Man was a sensation until exposed by a 1950s investigator as the skull of a Medieval Englishman attached to the jaw of an Asian ape whose teeth had been filed down to look human and whose bones had been stained to look old.
Yet three English scientists were knighted for Piltdown Man.
Other myths are demolished. Bird feathers do not come from the scales of reptiles. There are no gills in human embryos.
For 150 years, the fossil record has failed to validate Darwin.
"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontologists," admitted Stephen J. Gould in 1977. But that fossil record now contains even more species that appear fully developed, with no traceable ancestors.
Darwin ruled out such "miracles."
And Darwinists still have not explained the origin of life, nor have they been able to produce life from non-life.
The most delicious chapter is Windchy's exposure of the Scopes Monkey Trial and Hollywood's Bible-mocking movie "Inherit the Wind," starring Spencer Tracy as Clarence Darrow.
The trial was a hoked-up scam to garner publicity for Dayton, Tenn. Scopes never taught evolution and never took the stand. His students were tutored to commit perjury. And William Jennings Bryan held his own against the atheist Darrow in the transcript of the trial.
In 1981, Gould had this advice for beleaguered Darwinists:
"Perhaps we should all lie low and rally round the flag of strict Darwinism ... a kind of old-time religion on our part."
Exactly. Darwinism is not science. It is faith. Always was.
June 30, 2009
PoliticsNY.Net: SOTOMAYOR REVERSED
"The U.S. Supreme Court sided Monday with white firefighters in their workplace discrimination lawsuit, a divisive case over the role race should play in job advancement. In the split 5-4 vote, a majority of the justices ruled that the city of New Haven, Connecticut, improperly threw out the results of promotional exams that officials said left too few minorities qualified. Only one Latino and no African-American firefighters qualified for promotion based on the exam; the city subsequently decided not to certify the results and issued no promotions. A group of 20 mostly white firefighters sued, claiming "reverse discrimination." High court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor heard the case on her federal appeals court last year and sided with the city." CNN ...
A FEW THINGS
Dicker: "GOV. PATERSON'S top political adviser has met secretly with longtime Republican dirty trickster Roger Stone, who took credit for helping sink the governor's predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, The Post has learned."
Stone a friend & frequent columnist for this publication is often heard on Fred Dicker's Albany radio show as well. ...
"Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson is in no hurry to have his team play more than one regular-season game in Toronto. Wilson told The Associated Press on Sunday he'd prefer waiting "two or three years" to determine whether the northern experiment is a success before he'd consider reworking the contract reached last year with Toronto-based Rogers Communications. Under the agreement which runs through 2012, the Bills will play one regular-season and three preseason games in Toronto. Rogers officials have expressed interest in adding at least one regular-season game. Wilson says he doesn't know whether there will be another game there or not." AP ...
I had lunch with County Clerk Kathy Hochul & her associate Camile Brandon Thursday to catch up.
"Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., tops U.S.News & World Report's list of America's Best High Schools. The school, which focuses heavily on math and science education, bested more than 21,000 other public high schools in 48 states for the honor."
You ask what does this honor have to do with the County Clerk's office.
Well! Be patient & I'll tell you!
We always are talking about the Buffalo & WNY connections to national & international news, right?
The Vice Principal of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is Bob & Camile Brandon's daughter Heather, the Brandons live in Cheektowaga! ...
After lunch Thursday I headed over to the County Legislature: I agreed with Dems Wroblewski, Reynolds & Kozub vote, with the three GOP members, not to override the County Executive's veto of the "local law" creating a citizens Planning Board. I must say the Chairman Marinelli was working overtime to get that 10th vote during the floor debate to her credit; but it just wasn't the right time. Oh! by the way I thought texting during sessions is a no - no? One dissident legislator looked up at her & said "my phone is off."
What I do agree with most of the Legislature on is the loss of the CVB's Board Director Jennifer Parker & President Rich Geiger is a real shame. Geiger especially has done great work at the Convention & Visitors Bureau for 13 years.
Both Geiger, Parker & a number of Legislators understand that the County's convention business should be the heart & soul of our County's approach to marketing our area for our fair share of the billions in tourist dollars. What Geiger accomplished with that rundown convention center is nothing short of extraordinary.
CE Chris Collins approach to attracting our fair share of the billions in tourism dollars is venue specific, e.g., Bass Pro, architecture, etc. We believe his efforts should be centered around getting a new convention center built using this approach as the center piece of his economic development agenda with respect to tourism. Not to do so in my view would be a rare departure from the good judgment Collins has displayed during his first 18 months in office.
Collins says, "90% of his efforts will focus on economic development in his final three years of his first term." ...
All eyes are on the Legislature's vote on downsizing (see below). Looks like the vote will be 11- 4 for 13 from 15 & 4 year terms from 2. Tim Kennedy will vote for both his version 15 to 11 & the 13. Expect a Collins veto! ...
We believe the GOP can pick up at least 2 County Legislature seats in November possibly 3. ...
Dem County Chairman Len Lenihan just had his 2nd hip replacement surgery this week. He is doing fine according to all accounts, great news!
We want him in good shape to face the charges of racism that will be leveled against him from a number of different sources in the near future.
From sources on Lenihans watch over almost 7 years:
1. How many black men (democrat) serve on the Family Court? None.
2. How many black men serve on the County Court? None.
3. How many black men serve on the Supreme Court? None.
4. How many black men serve on the Court of Claims? None.
5. He will not endorse Mayor Brown for reelection.
6. He did not endorse Antoine Thompson for his 1st run for the State Senate.
7. He has not endorsed Barbara Miller Williams for County Legislature.
8. He has 1 Black in his inner circle that has any sway at all on his decison making process.
I did not include City Court because it is one of the lower courts that Lenihan can't quite control with the City of Buffalo vote.
With respect to that vote many believe the City's minorities will not come out for Lenihan's County wide candidates, esp. Comptroller, as a result. ...
Looks like Cheektowaga police Captain John Glascott (D) is in the County Sheriff's race to stay. This will be an interesting contest. ...
You are invited to a Campaign Kick-Off Party in support of Ray Walter Erie County Legislator - 4th District Please join the Legislator, his family and friends at Brennan’s Bowery Bar & Restaurant 4401 Transit Road, Williamsville, NY 14221 Tuesday, June 30, 2009 6 – 8 p.m. $35/person $60/couple $150 Sponsor Pizza – Wings – Beer – Wine – Soda ...
& so it goes ###
On Race, the Slog Goes On
WASHINGTON -- Although New Haven's firefighters deservedly won in the Supreme Court, it is deeply depressing that they won narrowly -- 5-4. The egregious behavior by that city's government, in a context of racial rabble-rousing, did not seem legally suspect to even one of the court's four liberals, whose harmony seemed to reflect result-oriented rather than law-driven reasoning.
The undisputed facts are that in 2003 the city gave promotion exams to 118 firemen, 27 of them black.
The tests were prepared by a firm specializing in employment exams and were validated, as federal law requires, by independent experts. When none of the African-Americans did well enough to qualify for the available promotions, a black minister allied with the seven-term mayor warned of a dire "political ramification" if the city promoted from the list of persons (including one Hispanic) that the exams identified as qualified. The city decided that no one would be promoted, calling this a race-neutral outcome because no group was disadvantaged more than any other.
The city's idea of equal treatment -- denying promotions equally to those deemed and those not deemed qualified -- was particularly galling to Frank Ricci, who had prepared for the exams by quitting his second job, buying the more than $1,000 worth of books the city recommended, paying to have them read onto audiotapes -- he is dyslexic -- and taking practice tests and interviews. His efforts earned him the sixth-highest score.
He and others denied promotions for which their exam scores made them eligible sued, charging violations of the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws and of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The city argued that if it had made promotions based on the test results, it would have been vulnerable under the 1964 act to being sued for adopting a practice that had a "disparate impact" on minorities. On Monday, the court's conservatives (Anthony Kennedy writing for the majority, joined by John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito) held:
The rights of Ricci et al. under the 1964 act were violated. The city's fear of a disparate impact litigation was not unfounded, but that did not justify the race-based response to the exam results because New Haven did not have "a strong basis in evidence" to believe it would be held liable. There is such evidence only if the exams "were not job related and consistent with business necessity, or if there existed an equally valid, less discriminatory alternative" that would have served the city's needs but that it refused to adopt.
"All the evidence demonstrates that the city rejected the test results because the higher scoring candidates were white." The city's criticisms of the exam "are blatantly contradicted by the record." And "the city turned a blind eye to evidence supporting the exams' validity" (emphases added).
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined in dissent by John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Stephen Breyer, rejected the majority's conclusions root and branch. She cited a federal report from the early 1970s about discrimination in hiring firefighters, disputed even the "business necessity" of the exams' 60/40 written/oral ratio and defended the integrity of New Haven's decision-making -- rejecting Alito's concurrence, which dwelt on the rancid racial politics of the Rev. Boise Kimber. Alito concluded that "no reasonable jury" could find that the city possessed a "substantial basis in evidence to find the tests inadequate."
Scalia, concurring separately, said Monday's ruling "merely postpones the evil day" on which the court must decide "whether, or to what extent," existing disparate-impact law conflicts with the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the law. Conceding that "the question is not an easy one," Scalia said: The federal government is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, so surely "it is also prohibited from enacting laws mandating that third parties" -- e.g., a city government -- "discriminate on the basis of race." Scalia added:
"Would a private employer not be guilty of unlawful discrimination if he refrained from establishing a racial hiring quota but intentionally designed his hiring practices to achieve the same end? Surely he would. Intentional discrimination is still occurring, just one step up the chain."
The nation shall slog on, litigating through a fog of euphemisms and blurry categories (e.g., "race-conscious" actions that somehow are not racial discrimination because they "remedy" discrimination that no one has intended). This is the predictable price of failing to simply insist that government cannot take cognizance of race.
CAN REPUBLICANS WIN BACK THE BLACK VOTE?
By Frances Rice
Ochieng opines that blacks have been trained by Democrats to expect political parties to provide quid pro quo. In other words, while Republicans want to help blacks pursue happiness (teach blacks how to fish so they can feed themselves for a lifetime), Democrats want to provide happiness to blacks (give them a fish so they can eat for a day).
The Democratic Party’s strategy of using handouts to garner the black votes, while working to keep blacks mired in poverty, was described as “plantation politics” by President Barack Obama on page 147 of his book “Dreams From My Father”. As a result of the politics of poverty practiced by Democrats, including Obama, the firm belief is now deeply rooted in the black community that the government must "do something” for blacks.
Democrats have been running black communities for the past 40+ years and turned those communities into economic and social wastelands with their failed socialist policies. Yet, Democrats have the gall to blame Republicans for the deplorable conditions caused by the Democrats. Democrats also accuse Republicans of doing nothing to help poor blacks – a charge that resonates with victim mongers.
However, since the beginning of the so-called War on Poverty, over $ 9 trillion has been spent on poverty programs. According to the Washington Post, in one year alone under President George W. Bush, over $500 billion was spent on over 80 poverty-related programs, with little movement in the poverty needle. The problem with black poverty is not money – and it is not the Republican Party.
Notably, only 25% of blacks are poor and living in those dilapidated neighborhoods run by Democrats. The remaining 75% of blacks are prosperous and living in the larger society.
Shamefully, Democrats consistently fight efforts of Republicans to help poor blacksliving in Democrat-controlled neighborhoods get out of poverty. Most egregious is the fight by Democrats to keep Republicans from providing school choice opportunity scholarships so that black parents can get their children out of failing schools. The money belongs to the people, not the buildings controlled by the teachers’ unions that are supporters of the Democratic Party.
Further, Democrats, aided by liberal journalists and teachers, hide information about black poverty that is embarrassing to Democrats. For instance, after the Civil War, blacks left the plantations run by Democrats with little more than the ragged clothes on their backs.
Today, the combined wealth of blacks is over $1.4 trillion – up from the $644 billion in 2005 – a staggering figure that is equivalent to the GNP of the world's 16th largest economy. This is an incredible, historic achievement.
Whenever Republicans attempt to point out that it is the Democrats who are keeping those inner-city blacks mired in poverty, Democrats resort to playing the race card, falsely accusing the Republican Party of being the party of the racists who denied blacks civil rights during and prior to the 1960’s .
The blatant use of race-baiting by Democrats to win the black vote is why any strategy to attract blacks back into the Republican Party must include not only a focus on economic and social issues, but also information about the true history of civil rights.
The NBRA Civil Rights Newsletter that is posted on the Internet at: www.NBRA.info provides information that helps set the civil rights record straight. Referenced in the newsletter is an article published by the Claremont Institute entitled "The Myth of the Racist Republicans".
Included in the newsletter are additional references such as "Unfounded Loyalty" by Rev. Wayne Perryman, "Wrong on Race" by Bruce Bartlett and "A Short History of Reconstruction" by Dr. Eric Foner, a renowned liberal historian.
Perryman wrote his book after conducting years of research and then sued the Democratic Party, demanding an apology for that party’s 150-year history of racism based on the Democratic Party's “States Rights” claims. The Democrats admitted their racist past under oath in court, but refused to apologize because they know that they can take the black vote for granted.
It is frustrating to observe how most black Americans continue to support the Democratic Party, in spite of that party’s reprehensible history of racism and socialism that have caused so much harm to blacks. As author Michael Scheuer stated, the Democratic Party is the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism.
At one time in our history, almost all blacks were Republicans because, since its inception in 1854 as the anti-slavery party, the Republican Party has always been the party of freedom and equality for blacks. Studies show that today, still, most blacks share the values of the Republican Party.
Those same studies demonstrate that most blacks are very conservative and do not share the values of the Democratic Party that supports same-sex marriage, partial-birth abortion and banning God from the public square.
In order to keep blacks from voting their values or for Republicans, every election cycle, Democrats preach hatred against the Republican Party and get blacks to cast a protest vote against Republicans, and not a vote for Democrats.
The message that Democrats gives to poor blacks is despicable. If you remain poor, uneducated and vote for Democrats, we will celebrate your victimhood. If you get a good education, get a good job and vote for Republicans, we will denigrate you as "acting white”, a "sellout”, an "Uncle Tom”, a "House Negro”, a "House N-word", a "Lawn Jockey”, and worse. Democrats talk tolerance, but practice intolerance, castigating any black person as a “traitor” to his or her race who does not toe the liberal agenda line.
When black Democrat Juan Williams wrote his book entitled "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-end Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America" that exposed the deplorable conditions in black communities, Williams was denounced on national TV by another black Democrat as a "Happy Negro".
Brazenly, on the left-wing Internet website called "The News Blog," Democrats posted a doctored photograph of then Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele (now chairman of the RNC) when he was running for a Senate seat, depicting Steele as a "Simple Sambo" with a blackened minstrel-style face, nappy hair and big, think red lips. The cartoon caption read: “Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house”. This contemptible racist stereotype is the same one Democrats used to demean black men during the era of slavery and segregation.
In addition to other outrageous racist images of Dr. Condoleezza Rice produced by several Democrats, cartoonist Jeff Danziger depicted Dr. Rice as an ignorant, barefoot "mammy", reminiscent of the stereotyped black woman in the movie “Gone with the Wind” about the slave era black woman who remarked: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies".
This is the type of racist stereotype Democrats used to demean black women during the era of slavery and segregation.
Democrats now love Gen. Colin Powell, but spewed out racist attacks on Powell before he endorsed Obama and embraced the liberal agenda of higher taxes and a bigger government to provide poverty-producing handouts to blacks.
A video was shot by WKRN Video Journalist Beau Fleenor at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee that shows Al Sharpton demeaning Gen. Powell and Dr. Rice, when Sharpton was asked to give his opinions about whether Powell and Rice were “House Negroes".
An article that appeared in a Portland, Oregon paper was one of many exposing how hardly a ripple of protest was made by black Democrats when Harry Belafonte publicly denounced Gen. Powell as a "House Negro".
The denigration by Democrats of blacks who identify with the Republican Party makes it nearly impossible for the Republican Party to attract blacks into the party, and for black Republicans to get elected to office in black communities.
Yet, Democrats have the temerity to point a finger of blame at the Republican Party for there being so few blacks in the Republican Party and for there being so few black Republican elected officials. Notably, the few black Republicans who get elected to public office do so in largely white Republican districts.
Those black Americans living in the Democrat-controlled neighborhoods who want to get out of poverty should seize control over their own destiny and stop voting monolithically for Democrats who use “plantation politics” to buy their votes while keeping blacks in poverty.
Democrats will forever maintain a ”lock” on the black vote, for as long as black Americans – including prosperous blacks who sympathize with poor blacks – continue believing the myth th |
