My Mother and the State Senate

I’ve been thinking about the upcoming primary in the 58th State Senate district a lot lately.  Maybe you’ve noticed.  In particular, I’ve been wondering whether anyone could beat Tim Kennedy, who figures to be awash in Golisano dollars in exchange for throwing the County Legislature to Chris Collins.  I wasn’t too hopeful.

That’s changing, though, for two reasons.  For one, last night I attended the first fundraiser in support of Sean Cooney’s campaign for the Senate seat.  Betty’s was packed, and the makeup of the crowd was interesting: leaders in the LGBT community, prominent community activists, labor leaders, and elected officials and political operatives with a track record of defeating candidates backed by the Pigeon/Golisano/Casey/Brown cabal.  It’s interesting to note who’s lining up behind Cooney already.

More importantly, this weekend I had a talk with my mother about the shenanigans at County Hall.  She’s been a Tim Kennedy supporter in the past, and just a few weeks ago defended him when someone else (not me!) badmouthed him.  But on Sunday, she said she was disgusted with what he’d done and was looking to support someone else.  My mother follows the news, but she’s not reading the blogs that have been pounding Kennedy over the last week.  Her reaction suggests that the Kennedy turncoat story has traction with voters who exist outside of the echo chamber of the blogosphere.

Interesting.

Tim Kennedy: Quid Pro Huh?

Higgins' pants? High. Kennedy's integrity? Low.

As you probably know by now, Barbara-Miller Williams was elected as the chair of the County Legislature by  a pro-Collins bloc of nine legislators.  Why would three Democrats turn their back on their party — and their constituents — to effectively hand control of county government over to the Republicans?

It’s easy to see why Miller-Williams did it — she was bribed by Collins with several hundred thousand dollars for pet projects, and she gets a fancy title with a $10k stipend to boot.  I know nothing of Christina Bove.

It’s Tim Kennedy whose motivations are the most interesting of the three rogue Democrats.  As far as I can tell, there’s no carrot being used to win him over into the Collins camp.  The County Executive isn’t promising him a new title, a pay raise or any money for the Irish-American Musician’s Club.  Soo . . .

Kennedy, a South Buffalo Democrat under the wing of Rep. Brian Higgins, has a tether to City Hall. His father is the city’s assessment and taxation commissioner. It was Higgins and Brown who in 2007 went against Lenihan to promote South Buffalo’s James P. Keane as the Democratic candidate for Erie County executive. Collins trounced him.

Since then, the mayor and county executive have formed a symbiotic political arrangement. And Collins has kept a hands-off policy with Kennedy, even though they are far apart ideologically.

As it turns out, the reason that Kennedy didn’t need an inducement to align with Collins is because he’s been aligned with him — politically if not on the issues — all along.  It’s becoming clearer all the time that a bipartisan bloc exists which may disagree about particular issues but which is intent on carving up local political power.  This bloc includes Brown/Casey and Grassroots, Brian Higgins, Chris Collins, and Pigeon/Golisano.

As I’ve written before, all of us — voters, unions, my own Working Families Party — have to start making our political decisions based on a knowledge of just who is pulling the strings.  Supporting Tim Kennedy means supporting Steve Casey, Steve Pigeon, and Chris Collins.

Sean Cooney for State Senate

This meeting of the redheaded politicians fan club is called to order. Murray . . . present!

You might remember that I hoped that a fresh face would come out of the woodwork to challenge confirmed bigot Bill Stachowski and Pigeon/Casey tool Tim Kennedy in the 58th State Senate district.  Looks like it’s happened — who knew my words were so powerful?

That fresh face belongs to Sean Cooney.  He’s young, progressive, and ginger-haired.  And he’s not beholden to Pigeon, Casey, Golisano or any of the other evil geniuses who dominate local politics.  I’ve known Sean since 2005, when my soon-to-be wife would come home from Maria Whyte campaign meetings with tales of this guy who could quote entire scenes from Anchorman from memory.  I knew then he was a man after my own heart.

Sean is holding his first fundraiser this Monday the 11th at Betty’s on Virginia Street.  The Facebook page has all the details — stop by if you want to support a candidate who’ll shake up the political landscape in Albany and here at home.

Byron Brown = Newt Gingrich

Tackiness is bipartisan . . .

You stay classy, Byron Brown!

H. McCarthy Gipson said Sunday that he was lying in his hospital bed in an intensive-care unit when he learned that Mayor Byron W. Brown had terminated him, and he feels dismayed and disappointed by his firing.

The former police commissioner said that he was a “team player” in Brown’s administration and believes that the mayor should have kept him on as commissioner.

“I think it’s evident that the way I was treated is not what I deserved,” a visibly distraught Gipson told The Buffalo News on Sunday as he cleaned out his office at Buffalo Police Headquarters.

“I still have not been told face to face that I’ve been fired,” Gipson said. “I saw it on TV in my hospital bed. The way this was handled by the mayor didn’t have any class to it. None whatsoever.”

Insurance Is The Problem

The Senate finally passed a healthcare reform bill today.  Alan suggests that it’s a move in the right direction, and that progressives should support it (even if it requires holding our noses):

As I’ve been saying all week, this is a positive change that lays the groundwork for future improvement. Taking this first, arguably incomplete, step towards health insurance reform, where consumer protections are implemented, and the notion that all Americans have access to insurance is implemented, is critically important.

For me, the problem is that the bill — and those arguing for it — misdefine the problem.  The problem isn’t that some Americans don’t have “access” to health insurance.  Access is simply a matter of money.  The problem is the need for health insurance in the first place.  Healthcare is currently expensive for most and unavailable for many because it’s predicated on someone else getting rich.  Mom’s case of the vapors or Dad’s lumber lung will only be treated if doing so enriches the insurance companies.

The healthcare reform bill is oriented incorrectly.  It targets consumers — individuals and employers — rather than insurers.  It looks at a problem and decides that the least powerful actors involved should bear the burden.  And it strengthens the hand of the insurance companies by mandating that millions and millions of people become their customers or pay a fine (!!).

Alan (and many others) have argued that this is just a first step, and that bureaucracies tend to grow once created.  That’s true, and maybe these small reforms will grow into the larger changes we need.  But given the fact that these reforms actually strengthen the insurance companies that run healthcare in this country, I’m pretty skeptical that they’ll allow that to happen.  It may be that the proper target for healthcare reform activists has shifted from the government to the insurers.  And unlike that abstract thing we call “the government,” these blood-stained fuckers have addresses, windows, and car tires.

Merry Christmas!

On Evidence and Paralysis

He'll address the whole nuclear holocaust issue just as soon as he finishes reading all his books . . .

Last week “Starbuck” and I went back and forth in the comments to my post on Byron Brown and the Olmsted Parks.  I was urging people to sign the Olmsted Conservancy’s petition and attend their rally, while Starbuck was questioning whether I had any evidence to support my claim that Brown was planning to dump the Conservancy and fill park jobs with patronage hires.

And the thing is, I didn’t have anything that could be called “evidence” in the strict sense.  I’d read several articles suggesting it, and I took the Conservancy’s PR campaign to indicate that they were legitimately worried about it.  And, of course, I knew that Byron Brown is a corrupt bag of shit.  None of this was really “evidence” and the case wasn’t proven in any absolute epistemological sense.  But so what?  I had enough information to “know” what was happening and to take action.

The fight between Brown and the Conservancy was happening on a pretty tight timeline, and if I wanted to have any small say in what would happen I needed to move quickly.  The problem is that so many people, when faced with similar situations, end up thinking themselves into paralysis and miss their chance to act.  In the process, they end up supporting the status quo, even if only by default.

I saw this all the time during the run up to the Iraq War.  It really amazed me how many otherwise progressive people did nothing — absolutely nothing — to stop that war from happening because they felt they didn’t have enough information, or they needed more time to think it over, or they felt that they couldn’t oppose the war because they didn’t have an alternative to offer.  And by the time they were finished with their intensive studies of the history and politics of the Middle East (yeah, right!) and were ready to grace the world with their informed opinion, it was already too late.

I saw the same thing happen during the war, as well.  I helped a group of Presbyterians get their regional churches — 60-some, in all — to issue a call to end the war.  It took a full year of wordsmithing, hand holding, and concern-addressing to get it done.  Now, I love the Presbyterians — no other local religious denomination did as much to prevent or stop the war as they did.  But if you want to have a voice on an issue, you need to be able to move as quickly and act as boldly as those you are opposing.  And those qualities are in short supply when the shit starts hitting the fan.

“I’m Not a Brian Davis”

Also not a Collins stooge . . .

There’s a great story in the News today about Barbara Miller-Williams, the Democrat hand-picked by Chris Collins to chair the County Legislature.  Turns out she’s not so good at keeping track of her campaign finances:

Barbara Miller-Williams will likely emerge as the most powerful Erie County legislator next year, despite her chaotic campaign finance reports.

Consider these puzzles presented in reports filed by the “Friends of Barbara Miller-Williams” campaign fund, which benefits the Buffalo Democrat about to become Legislature chairwoman with Republican support:

• In four consecutive statements, the fund showed negative balances, which suggests that—unless checks are bouncing — income, donations or loans have gone unreported.

• This July, her fund stated its largest-ever debt, $2,870, but then ignored the debt with a report in September that carried forward a July balance of $390. That’s a mysterious swing of $3,260 without the donations to back it up, and no explanation.

• Her reports fail to show $1,575 in contributions that other political funds reported giving the “Friends of Barbara Miller-Williams” account in recent years.

• In September 2007, she legally reimbursed herself $1,584 for the cost to arrange a campaign fundraiser that collected just $1,780, according to her reports.

“That was not a good fundraiser,” she said. “We did not make any money.”

In any other story, that line would be the comedic highlight, but then she says this:

“I am not a Brian Davis or anything like that,” Miller-Williams said, referring to the Buffalo Council member who left office after admitting he diverted campaign contributions to his personal accounts and lying about it to the Board of Elections.

Love it!!

Well, I also hate it that the County Legislature will be run by someone who has proven incapable of running her own office.  And I hate it that this will happen because a so-called Democrat like Tim Kennedy sided with Chris Collins rather than his own party.

Other than that, it’s hilarious.

ACORN in Buffalo

Wade Rathke (photo credit: Fox News)

I’m connected by one degree of separation to the hilarious attempt to get ACORN established in Buffalo.  I swear that one of these days I’m gonna write about that sweatshop, but until then . . .

hide your daughters and your ballot boxes, because ACORN founder Wade Rathke is coming to town!  He’ll be speaking and signing books next Wednesday the 16th at the Network of Religious Communities.  Yes, the same Network of Religious Communities that “funneled” money to casino opponents.  It’s all coming together: ACORN stole the election so that Obama could outlaw Indian casinos!  Now I just have to figure out where the Rand Corporation, the reverse vampires and their fiendish plan to eliminate the meal of dinner fit in . . .

What: ACORN founder Wade Rathke

When: Wednesday, 12/16 7-10 PM

Where: Network of Religious Communities, 1272 Delaware

Which Side Are You On?

Fuck these assholes . . .

I’d like to think that we, as citizens, could make our political choices based on a  careful examination of the candidate or the issue at hand.  Unfortunately, circumstances are conspiring to force a very different set of choices on us.  In WNY, the important question is no longer “where does he stand on the issues?” but “to which machine does he belong?”

In voting for a candidate, we’re really voting for whichever boss serves as his

and these assholes . . .

patron.  Increasingly, it seems that elections are actually about which of a handful of power centers — Brown/Casey/Higgins, Golisano/Pigeon, Collins, the plucky underdogs from Sam Hoyt’s crew — will strengthen their hold on power.  And of course, it shouldn’t be like this.  But wishing it away won’t change anything, and neither will abstaining.

and these assholes (on the left)

Tim Kennedy is a pretty interesting figure in all this.  He comes out of the Brown/Casey/Higgins camp, he’s actively seeking sponsorship from Golisano/Pigeon, and he’s aligned himself with Chris Collins against the Democratic majority in the County Legislature.  Perhaps he’s a natural diplomat and can exist comfortably in different camps at the same time.  Or maybe he’s just a political slut.

In any event, we all need to decide which side we’re on.

Save the Parks from Patronage

The kind people/have a wonderful dream/Byron . . . on the guillotine

That corrupt shit bag Byron Brown is planning to scrap the Olmsted Parks Conservancy’s stewardship of city parks so that he can have even more patronage jobs to hand out and even more public workers to conscript into his political campaigns.  Here’s what you can do to stop it:

David  J. Colligan, chair of the Olmsted Parks Conservancy Board of Trustees, announced several “call to action” items the community can do in an effort to encourage Mayor Bryon Brown to complete park contract negotiations.  During a press event in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park this morning, Colligan said there is no new contract information to report because there have been no face to face meetings with the Mayor.

The Conservancy’s trustees met in special session yesterday and drafted a community action plan that includes:

• A Public Rally in support of the Olmsted Parks to be held this Sunday, December 13 at Noon in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. Everyone is invited to attend, meet at the large statue of MLK by the Fillmore and Best entrances to the park.
• Sign the Olmsted petition at www.buffaloolmstedparks.org endorsing your support of the Conservancy’s work over the past 5 years.
• Call the Mayor’s office and voice your concern.
• Write letters to the media endorsing the Olmsted Conservancy’s work and sharing your park memories.

So, we ask you, the public, tax payers, park users, businesses, tourists, and foundations – those who have supported our efforts and those who truly care about clean, safe and beautiful parks, please help us to keep our role as park stewards of these treasured green spaces. Our partnership is one of the best things in Western New York because it has worked so well.

For information on how to support the Conservancy, go to www.BuffaloOlmstedParks.org

For More Information:
Joy Testa-Cinquino 716-838-1249 ext. 17, cell 716-308-2361,
jtesta@buffaloolmstedparks.org

Committed to maintaining a diverse and skilled staff of landscape architects, arborists, and zone gardeners, some of whom began on public assistance and have worked hard at the Conservancy to create careers for themselves and are now independent tax paying citizens of our community.

Late yesterday, the Olmsted board of trustees met in emergency session to discuss and vote on the future of this organization. “Since 1978, when the Conservancy was formed as a “friends group” to advocate for the parks – through today, our mission, as a not-for-profit, independent, community organization has been to promote, preserve, restore, enhance, and ensure maintenance of Frederick Law Olmsted-designed parks and parkways in the Greater Buffalo area now and for future generations,” Colligan said. “Frankly, it is challenging to follow through on that important community-based mission because we have not received any paperwork from the Mayor’s office indicating he wants the Conservancy to continue as stewards of these historic landmark parklands.”

The Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy is:

• Committed to continuing the maintenance and restoration of the parks and to keep them as one of Western New York’s jewels. The Conservancy raises as much money as possible to help keep our parks beautiful.

Committed to negotiating a contract with the city so we can continue to serve the people of Buffalo and Western New York.