Friday open thread

Go to it. Please be civil.

  1. RHINO Chaser says:

    Has anyone heard from Nassau County / New York State Republican Chairman Joe Mondello since he installed Jim Tedisco as a congressional candidate? Tedisco could use the help and his leadership could make the difference in this race.

  2. SmokinJoe says:

    Congratulations Congressman-Elect Scott Murphy!!!

  3. Charliek says:

    So after a history of 2nd Amendment support, Kirsten hits the big time and immediately joins the Article 230 club! Eliot would be proud!!

  4. bobmarleylives says:

    Anybody see the Darryl Issa flap on hardball last night where Matthews slapped him down about using the phrase Democrat versus Democratic party?

    Should Republicans now be called:

    Born Again Deficit Haters?

  5. Boyer U. Klum-Cey says:

    Interesting race in the 20th. I don’t live in the district, but a little horsing around in Saratoga to catch the debate might entertain me for a day.

  6. otis51 says:

    i have been hearing that the state will come out with a early reretiement? does anyone know about this?

  7. Jahosacat says:

    Gillibrand has to think about the fact that she represents NY City and Long Island as well as Upstate. The people downstate don’t understand the concept of hunting as a sport – except to make fun of Dick Cheney’s little incident. One of her potential primary challengers is Carolyn McCarthy who is a strong advocate of gun control, to put it mildly.

  8. floydianslip says:

    Cheney’s little incident? He shot a man in the face! And some of the buck shot was centimeters away from the man’s heart. And it was not disclosed whether or not he had been drinking. There is a diffrence between hunting rifles and 50 calibar weapons, semi-automatics, and assault weapons. WAKE UP

  9. jacobm says:

    If Gillibrand has to think of NYC and LI when it comes to gun ownership, why shouldn’t McCarthy have to think of Upstate on the same issue?

  10. benny salami says:

    lol-#1. Somebody call in a missing person alert. On second thought don’t bother. Many have taken early retirement just not notified their employer about it. Kristin G has an uphill fight. Flip flopping on guns will not help. More need to turn the 20th poll right side up.

  11. hedgehog says:

    2010 Federal Budget, $3,600,000,000,000, forecasted revenues $2,400,000,000,000. Deficit $1,200,000,000,000 on top of 2009 deficit of $1,750,000,000,000. Wake up citizens, the credit card is more than maxed out.

  12. Jahosacat says:

    McCarthy has a few things on her side. She’s from Long Island and will get more of the LI and NYC votes that a person whom many people on LI and NYC consider some hick from Upstate; people are just getting to know Gillibrand and her political background. McCarthy will also get they sympathy vote. She’s a widow who became antigun because of how guns killed her husband and son. I’m a widow so I can understand why she’s become the crusader she has, but, as far as I’m concerned she crosses a line.

    As for the Cheney incident… How many hunters are killed/hurt and people just blow it off as an accident? A drunk hunter does something crazy, it hits the news locally for a while then it goes away. The Cheney shooting was an ACCIDENT by rich powerful people in the same way there are accidents by people who live here. And with the Cheney incident no one died. Or do you, like Carolyn McCarthy, want ALL guns made illegal?

  13. AlbanyNewYorkMan1 says:

    RHINO – when do you expect John Faso to take over the state GOP from loser Mondello? We need to happen ASAP.

  14. RHINO Chaser says:

    Hold up everybody, we got another Tedisco guy trying to figure out who I am. Today he’s going by AlbanyNewYorkMan1…very clever, in fact, I’d say Tedisc-esque.

    Well, AlbanyNewYorkMan1, you may not realize it yet, but there are a lot of people out there who don’t like your boss. In my case, John Faso has nothing to do with it (although any of the other contenders for the GOP nomination, including Faso – for that matter, even Wager -would have been better than Mondello’s handpicked candidate, Jim Tedisco).

    You ought to worry about the state of your campaign, not what people are saying on some blog, where everyone’s made up their mind anyway.

    Its no wonder you’re about to get run over. Next time, don’t stand on the tracks when the train’s coming through.

  15. Who Watches The Watchers says:

    The Dow is down over 11% in February alone. Thanks Obama. When is my 401K going to get a bailout? Oh thats right, you’re too busy raising my taxes and creating deficits never before imagined.

  16. Bill Esposito says:

    Mondello’s days as NY Republican State Chairman will be numbered if Tedisco manages to lose the race in the 20th Congressional District. To mis-use Vince Lombardi’s famous quote, in politics winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing that matters. Mondello has presided over the disintegration of a once proud party. What a record of distinction for a State Chairman where losing has become an epidemic:

    1. Minority status in both houses of the State Legislature.
    2. All three State-wide offices held by Democrats.
    3. Democrats hold 25 out of 28 Congressional Seats.
    4. Both US Senators are Democrats.
    5. Democrats hold 48 out of 51 NYC Council seats.

    The party needs new leadership before it disappears all together from the political scene. The Massachusetts-ization of this State is at hand! ]:-)

  17. c p retiree says:


    If he hasn’t by now, then he won’t.
    And that’s really too bad.

  18. woo says:

    Senator Kirsten Gillibrand now represents ALL New York State and I agree with her vote from a ‘home rule’ point of view, however I don’t see why this is something that warrants being viewed by the US Senate at all?

  19. woo says:

    Sacrifice is the key, Paterson said, and that includes everyone – citizens, state agencies, nonprofits and municipalities.

    Once again – Can anyone share any sacrifices the Governor or the 2nd Floor has made since spitzball resigned?

  20. woo says:

    Bank Bailout Part Deux

    President Obama pointed to Sweden’s resolution of its bank crisis as a solution. “They took over the banks, nationalized them, got rid of the bad assets, resold the banks and, a couple years later, they were going again,” he told ABC News on Tuesday. “So you’d think looking at it, Sweden looks like a good model.”

    I like this idea – do you agree or disagree with it?

  21. woo says:

    Why does it take so long for moderation to post a comment on Fridays – it was never like this w/ Liz …… that’s a DIG!

    Why not post w/o moderation, and if warranted pull down comments when you view if it does meet your policies and/or standards?

    This would make it ‘real time’ and much more ‘fun’ for the commenter(s).

    You could let the commenters vote on the above proposal and decide if this would be a ‘better’ way w/ regard to moderations of comments – DARE.


    Why not just give it a try (trial) and see how it works out – Double Dog DARE.


  22. devtob says:

    Check out this YouTube video taken by a Tedisco supporter from Massachusetts.

    Tedisco can’t get through a three-minute stump speech before a dozen supporters without looking down every few seconds at his notes.

    Not. Ready. For. Prime. Time.

    No. 12 — Gun control is just not a big issue, even downstate. If McCarthy thinks she can win a statewide primary as a one-issue candidate on that, she’s deluding herself.

    And, when push comes to shove, she won’t risk her House seat against a sitting Senator who will be a lot more well-known and popular statewide next year.


  23. conservNY says:

    Well I guess trying find out who is posting the negative comments is the number 1 priority of the Tedisco/Assembly campaign staff. You should be focusing your energy on how to improve the weak poll numbers. The search is futile. You are doing a poor job in the 20th and an even worse job managing the Assembly Republican Conference. It is time for you and your leader to step down, it has been clear from the start you have no clue on the skill needed to get the most out of your staff. We are sick and tired and the members are sick and tired of your negative at all cost – their needs to be new direction with the GOP and it won’t include any of you.

  24. c p retiree says:

    devtob (#22)


    That’s a stretch. How is that any different from Obama and his ever-present teleprompters at those folksy town meetings during his campaign?

  25. gecannonphd says:

    (President Obama said the end is in sight for the Iraq War)

    Our soldiers performed at the highest level in Iraq, and there should be unconditional support for whatever services they need- medical, rehab. or anything else.

    The geopolitical question is whether our invasion of Iraq was necessary, proper or legal. I vote NO.

    The neo-cons posed the argument that Iraq’s Hussein was a threat to the US, Israel and the oil-producing states in the Mideast. And 9/11 was allowed to happen to prepare the public for the invasion of Iraq.

    Hussein was not a direct threat to us; posed a hyperthetical, perhaps existential, threat to Israel; and was contained within the Middle East.

    The real reason for our Iraq invasion was oil. It was another oil war.
    Hussein was moving to freeze out the private international oil giants. He was opening oil contracts to French,Russian and other European companies. He was moving to trade oil in euros, instead of petrodollars.
    He was also a petty, psycho tyrant. The Iraqies deserved better.

    It is illegal to go to war to control national resources.

    It is now necessary to have Obama go further than his speech/announcement of yesterday. He needs to declare the goal of total separation of oil and the state.

  26. Sheila says:

    cp retiree

    [If he hasn’t by now, then he won’t.
    And that’s really too bad.]

    It is too bad. Getting rid of Mondello should be #1 on the list for Republicans statewide. Shame on the Republicans in NYS who don’t have the guts to tell the has-beens and proven losers to pass the baton.

  27. myohmy says:

    #19 woo…I think Mr. Gov has made numerous sacrifices for the citizens of NYS…he-s sacrificed his integrity…his ethical sense & an offer for “star” billing on SNL!!…:)

  28. AlbertJ says:

    Let’s look at the other side of your coin, “The geopolitical question is whether our invasion of Iraq was necessary, proper or legal. I vote NO”.

    To suggest that Saddam was not a threat to US and Israel is utter nonsense and defies reality. This meglamaniac openly boasted about his ill intentions to both nations and was coming off 8 years of violations to a an agreement (surrender) he signed after the Gulf war. He admittedly, bluffed the entire world into believing he had secreted stock piles of WMD, as discovered later was a ruse to keep his internal adversaries at bay, and had shown an absolute propensity for aquiring weapons technology with funds at his disposal.

    After watching his failed attempt to aquire Kuwait’s oil fields, an attempt which included a veiled threat to the Saudi oil fields how can any rational person deny he harbored ill intentions of controlling the largest contributor to the world’s oil supply, the middle eastern oil deposits, and would use them as a political weapon.

    Has Saddam been allowed to remain in power, his objectives were fairly clear. Reconstitute and modernize his military strength through the acquisition of WMD technolgy to elevate his position as a regional power and intimidate his neighbors. How far he may have pushed that leverage is limited only by one’s imagination, but as we have painfully learned, the U.S. is extremely vulnerable to manipulation of the world’s oil supply.

    Oil, rather it’s continued availability, was a major consideration for removing Saddam. The nonsense that the U.S. went to war to steal the Iraqi oil supply has been totally debunked by the reality of the 8 years since American intervention was applied. No oil has been stolen, redirected or misused, other than by the actions of resurgents and outside elements that understand the strategic value of oil and oil revenues and have focsed on destroying or impeding use of these resources by the freely elected government of Iraq.

    Who said it is, “illegal to go to war to control national resources”, which has been, to some degree, the underlying cause of every war that has ever been waged throughout the history of this planet? Is it “legal” to use natural rsources to intimidate and coerce other nations to do the bidding of a tyrant who has seized control of a any nations resources?

    Saddams, “opening oil contracts to French,Russian and other European companies” was the “carrot” offered to French, Russian and European interests providing the “Stick” of bribery money to provide Saddam with seed funds to keep his ability to use Iraqi oil revenues to secure advanced weaponry technology in direct violation (illegal activity) of repeated UN resolutions designed to provide relief for the suffering Iraqi population.

    I’m afraid your arguments are essentially nonsense and the wishful thinking of a liberal elite that was simply on the wrong side of history and just can’t accept being so out of touch.

    The difficult reality the liberal elite will try so hard to reject, or more likely spin into some different fairytale is that, although it took somewhat longer than hoped for, American military strength will continue to form the bridge to Iraqi self determination. Although undoubtedly it will try and claim some other name, the original direction of “We will stand down, as Iraq becomes capable of standing up” will continue to dictate America’s presence in and ultimate departure from Iraq. The entire world will have benefitted from our decision, and the sacrifices it required.

  29. iknowtruthismine says:

    AlbertJ – By the year 2000, Saddam couldn’t pass gas without the permission of the West and we knew it. He was basically trapped with no ability to wage war against anyone, with his air-space effectively controlled by the U.S.. Had he remained in power, I believe his regime would have eventually run its course and gone into decline much the way the USSR did in 1991. Add that to the FACT that he had NOTHING to do with the 911 attacks, and I find the whole fiasco you insist on continuing to defend by rehashing Neocon propaganda, to be nothing but a pathetic attempt to lend legitimacy to the corrupt and criminal Bush regime. A regime that wanted to use the angst of the 911 attacks to insert the U.S. military presence into a permanent institution on the soil of a grateful Iraqi people, where we could bully the other nations in the area to funnel their oil where our rich elites wanted it to go. The fact that the Bush regime didn’t have a clue that would not work, that they left Iraqi arms stores unguarded as they rushed in to secure the real target, The Iraqi Oil Ministry, which allowed insurgents to amass huge pile of unguarded ordinance that they used effectively against us to construct road-side bombs and suicide weapons. Your entire argument is a constructed lie that has been fabricated by taking the goals of the U.S. industrial complex and filling in the constructed justifications by cherry-picking and twisting the facts to create your false history. You should be ashamed at what you have done, but we all know that ain’t gonna happen.

  30. bobmarleylives says:

    Some day as they dwindle to fewer and fewer there even may be a home for the NeoCon propagandists as they cruise toward extinction.

    The term “national resources” is disgusting because it implies that it is our oil under their sand. Maybe we should invade Niger to ensure no more yellowcake is ever acquired by a rogue nation?

    The CIA has investigated over 3,000 U.S. citizens potentially involved in UN Oil for Food Scam. Let’s get real. U.S. Oil traders were just as likely aware and involved. Ours are no more patriotic and less greedy than others. Except for that little Enron blip.
    Mark Rich (pardoned by Clinton) was under investigation.
    Ben Pollner of Taurus Oil.

    How many employees of ExxonMObil and ChevronTexaco were aware and complicit?

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