Editorial

Congressional Representation: Why Rockland Has None

By John Iurica

One upon a time all of Rockland County was in the same Congressional District. It was a time, when it was possible to have person representing the people of this county down in Washington D. C.  Right now, Rockland County is theoretically represented in pieces by three different Congressmen from across the Hudson River. The bulk of all of their money and attention goes to places that are East of the Hudson. Only nominal amounts of money and attention come here.

The Congressional districts serving Rockland County are terribly Gerrymandered. There is no need that any Congressional district be divided in any way by the Hudson River. The character and nature of the people on each side of the Hudson is vastly different and they are not a homogeneous society. There is virtually no intermingling of these people and no communication between them. However, the communication and intermingling are at a very high level, individually on each side of the river. People, in general, from Rockland County, rarely go to Westchester County, for any particular reason, except to pass through it, whereas they frequently go north and south to visit places in Bergen or Orange Counties. The community of interest on each side of the Hudson River is quite separate and distinct. What has happened is quite similar to the general discrimination problem. The politicians took away the vote in Congress of people of a general Rockland County persuasion and gave whatever voting power that Rockland County should have had to Westchester County.

The present districts were drawn, in a Gerrymandered fashion, solely or predominately on account of the party in power needed to keep certain incumbents in office. The last census in 2,000, required redistricting principles such as compactness, contiguity, communities of interest, and respect for political subdivisions adhered to and they were not. As an example, Engel’s district includes southern Rockland County, and attaches to a very long and narrow strip on the east bank of the Hudson and goes down to pick up a small section in the Bronx, where Engel’s strength lies. There is obviously no compactness here. There certainly is no community of interest with any part of Rockland County and the Bronx and certainly are no political subdivisions adhered to. The strange gerrymandered sections of Engel’s and Lowey’s districts should been merged into a single district along with what ever little piece that they might to have adjust with Hall’s district, either taking from him or giving to him.

It turns out that in 2,000 for redistricting purposes, the official population of Rockland County was 286,753 and the population of Orange County was 379,647.  The target for Congressional District sizing was 646,952.  Wow, the sum of the Rockland and Orange County population are only about 3% away from the nominal Congressional District size requirement. If you include Hall in on this power grab, then Engel, Lowey, and Hall, all representing the other side of the river, have stolen the Rockland/Orange vote by unconscionable gerrymandering. Wow! A Rockland- Orange Congressional District meets all of the redistricting principles.

We all know that those 3 people on the other side of the river should be fighting over 2 seats, while we on this side of the river should be electing our own Congressman. However, we know how evil and crooked government is and that this fairness will never happen, with the new redistricting that will come as a result of the 2,010 Census. Therefore, I suggest that everyone living on this side of the Hudson always vote against any incumbent, regardless of candidate’s party affiliations, living on the other side of the river. Maybe, after a while, the powers to be might get the idea and give us a fair shake. We need to keep making trouble for across the Hudson Congressmen, until we get our own district. Here I am living in Rockland County, do you think I care about anything happening in the Bronx. There is no way in hell that there is any community of interest with the Bronx, as you know, the people that are grabbing our taxes to pay for their transportation and their children’s school bussing, while we get nothing for it. Who do you think Engel represents. It is not possible for him to represent two diversely different populations as he claims he is doing. Of course, when it comes down to it, he will side with the New York City people over the suburbs. Down with the incumbents. They got us into this situation in the first place.

A shot at new blood for Haverstraw and Stony Point

By John Iurica

Sometimes we miss out on challengers to an elected office because we do not know enough about them, especially if they are a fresh face to politics and have led a useful and productive life earning money that supported our government and ran a business that gave jobs and employment to people, thereby bolstering our economy. This person is no political hack and knows what private sector business and health care is all about. I am hereby introducing Dr. Nan Hayworth to Rockland County. She is running against John Hall the Congressional incumbent that represents Stony Point and Western Haverstraw. Incumbents and party hacks climbing up the ladder get plenty of press, but when a brand new personality throws her hat in the ring, she deserves to be introduced to the public.

Since it appears that the public wants to get rid of incumbents and party hacks in both parties, the time has come to seriously look as the new faces. A group called “As A Mom” is holding a meet the candidate session at the conference room of the Gander Mountain Outdoor Store at 100 North Galleria Drive in Middletown just off of Route 211 East, on Saturday, Feb. 13 between 2 and 4 p.m.  You are all invited to come. You can meet Dr. Nan Hayworth and have an opportunity to get ready for the up and coming fishing season. If you need more, well the huge Galleria Shopping Mall is just nearby. The candidate’s web site is NanHayworth.Com. Meet someone whose background is business and healthcare, someone that  understands the people’s desires.

Dr. Nan Hayworth has lived in the 19th Congressional District since 1988 with her husband, Dr. Scott Hayworth. She served her community as an ophthalmologist for 16 years, both in her own solo practice—which she grew from scratch to become a thriving office--and as a partner in the Mount Kisco Medical Group. Along the way Nan also raised two sons Will and Jack. In 2007 Nan became a Vice President in Medical and Scientific Affairs at a large health-care communications agency, Cline, Davis and Mann, in New York City, serving as a scientific expert in Ophthalmology as well as an expert in private-practice medicine.

Throughout her years here, Nan has been active in community and civic endeavors in the Hudson Valley and beyond. A Mount Kisco Lion since 2001, she was honored with the Club’s Robert J. Uplinger Distinguished Service Award in 2006 for her sponsorship of the Leos Club at Fox Lane High School. Nan’s extensive involvement with Northern Westchester Hospital includes her having chaired the “Essentials” lecture series in 2006-2007, and participating on the physicians’ committees for numerous benefits, including serving as Physician co-chair of the Crystal Ball in 1994.

An enthusiastic supporter of the intellectual development of our youth, Nan has judged many a science fair, starting with several years working with the children at West Patent Elementary School, then judging the Westchester Science and Engineering Fair from 2003 through 2008. As an alumna of Princeton University, Nan has worked to provide opportunities to talented students as a member of the National Annual Giving Committee, which honored her with chairmanship of their Volunteer Diversity Subcommittee. Currently Class Agent for her alumni class, Nan was awarded for her fundraising in honor of their 25th Reunion in 2006. She has also performed alumni interviews with Hudson Valley students since 1988.

Nan’s public service includes evaluation of cases as an Expert Consultant for the New York State Department of Health’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct from 2002 through 2007. She is a member of the Hudson River Park Advisory Council, appointed by Senator Dean Skelos. Nan has also been selected to be a member of the Health Care Task Force of the United Way of Westchester and Putnam.

Nan entered Princeton University in 1977, graduating summa cum laude in 1981 with a major in Biology. She was elected there to Phi Beta Kappa. Upon receiving her degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1985, Nan was given multiple awards as one of the top three students in her graduating class. She was also elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honors Society.

Born in Chicago in 1959, Nan was raised in Munster, Indiana, by two veterans of World War II. Her father, a veteran of the American Army, was an executive at Inland Steel Company. Her mother, an immigrant from England—veteran of the British Auxiliary Territorial Service--and naturalized American, was a secretary and homemaker. As a sixth-grader, she placed 13th in the 1971 National Spelling Bee, held in Washington, D.C. A proud member of Munster High School’s Class of ’77, Nan was a National Merit Scholar, a Presidential Scholar finalist, salutatorian, Indiana State Champion in Original Oratory for her nationally-ranked speech and debate team (for which she was also a consistent top seller of tickets for their famous chicken barbeque), editor of the award-winning newspaper, a thespian honored with the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank, and a scholar of German selected for Indiana University’s Honors Program in Foreign Languages for High School Students.

Another  Deadly Non-Enforced Traffic Condition

By John Iurica

Being this newspaper is located on Snake Hill Road in West Nyack, I use Snake Hill Road regularly to get back and forth to work.  Last week there was a letter in another newspaper that said the “No Right Turn” traffic sign on the east end of Snake Hill Road should be removed, which of course is totally crazy.  Snake Hill Road is composed of vicious turns and dips, and is so difficult, that only people with a special class of license probably should be allowed to drive on it. But I know that is not going to happen.

Getting to the point of this editorial, I have left work hundreds of times making observations each time of the traffic conditions. It turns out then when I am waiting in the exit on the newspaper’s property and observe the drivers going by on Snake Hill Road, there are some drivers that go by much faster and much crazier than others. Upon exiting and proceeding toward the East, I am usually in a position to see what goes on at the light at the end of Snake Hill Road, especially, if the person first in line at the light is obeying the “No Right Hand Turn” sign and waiting to go straight. It turns out that the really crazy and dangerous drivers, that I observed while I was waiting to pull out onto Snake Hill Road, ignore the traffic sign and make the right hand turn into the Palisades Mall. They rarely go straight and obey the law. However, I often see the safer drivers , generally the people who had waited for the traffic light at the easterly end of Snake Hill Road, who abided by the law, continue to Route 303 and  access the Mall from a Route 303 entrance. It appears that the people who are in a big hurry, use Snake Hill Road as their speedway to get to the Palisade Mall. The person who completely ignore the traffic sign is more prone to ignore other traffic safety rules.

Snake Hill Road is really a dangerous road and the Clarkstown police should target this traffic sign for some real enforcement. The crazy drivers on Snake Hill Road must be made to cool their heels. What is better than this. This is one of those traffic infractions where the Town gets most of the fine money collected, instead of the State of New York.  Policeman, please protect my life.

Quit pooling around

By John Iurica

Now that Thom Kleiner is gone, hopefully his circumvention of the will of the people will go with him. It seems like all that we do is to elect politicians to office who think that they are invincible Tsars and totally ignore representing the people who elected them.

The swimming  pool referendums were soundly defeated by the electorate, but now-former town supervisor Kleiner found it necessary to spend our taxpayers’ money to appease some of his friends with the gift of year round indoor swimming. The electorate told him that they did not want to pay for swimming, but anyway he used the electorate’s money to pay for town swimming.

He also did it with a cock-a-mamie agreement where it was intended to appear as if he had made a good deal. He fooled the taxpayers as long as he could. Now the South Orangetown School District, through necessity, has come forth a different interpretation of the deal that would have put Kleiner out on a hook if he had stayed in office.

Well the time has come when the  costs of the so called maintenance part of the agreement have mushroomed. This is not what Kleiner ever intended us to hear. I have a feeling that Kleiner felt that he was getting so far behind in things in his administration and that the pool problem and other crises like it were finally catching up to him. Thus, taking an election loss, by going for a higher office, was a graceful way out of these problems without the electorate really realizing what had happened.

The best and most sensible thing for Orangetown to do now is to bail out of the agreement with the South Orangetown School District, and pay off what ever it takes to get out clean. The electorate certainly does not want to pay for the swimming recreation for the vocal few. Up until now,  Kleiner was getting a sweetheart deal whereby the taxpayers of the South Orangetown School District were subsidizing the costs of people from the Pearl River, Nyack, and Nanuet School Districts to use the Middle School pool. Now that the taxpayers of these latter three school districts are going to have to fork up some bigger bucks and pay their fair share to the South Orangetown School District via their Orangetown taxes, we seem to have some balking going on in Orangetown. It would be quite interesting to see the names and addresses, not including Tappan Zee students, of the Orangetown residents along with the frequency of use of those who used the middle school pool over the course of the year. Maybe we can get an idea of what is going on. It would be interesting to see where the swimming deprived people come from.

There was a letter last Saturday, in another paper, by Ken Mitchell, superintendent of the South Orangetown School District. Among other things, in referring to the situation he says: “It is unfair for the residents of our [school] district to solely subsidize through their taxes the town’s Park and Recreation Program.”  You know what my general thoughts are about school superintendents and the way that they waste taxpayer’s money. This time I am going to shock you by saying Mitchell is right. I am on his side in this dispute. It is not a miracle, because, you see, my favorite teacher, Charlie Chan, once said: Even a broken clock is right twice per day.

The great productivity hoax

By John Iurica

If a person works in the private sector, he or she gets paid for the actual task performed. If you are a class “B” mechanic, you get paid the same whether you have 25 years on the job, or one year on the job. You get paid the same whether you have a PhD or are a high school drop out. You get paid based upon the actual work that you do. If you want to make more money you need to improve your job classification.

In the public sector, employees get raises virtually every year. The raises that they get are a combination of two types of subordinate raises. They get raises based upon the cost of living (inflation), and they get another part of their raise based upon how long they hung around at a particular level, without getting promoted into some more challenging category of work requiring more skill. The logic put forth by the public sector is that the longer a person has worked in a particular job category, the more productive that the person becomes.

It is time that someone forces the public sector to actually make the employee use the extra productivity that the taxpayers are actually paying for. In a time when people in the private sector are having a really tough go of it, the public sector should give the taxpayers a fair shake. For a while now, the cost of living rise has effectively been zero, therefore the increase in public sector pay due to the cost of living should be zero. Thus, the current raises that are being given to school teachers, police men, government clerks, and for that matter, anyone on a government payroll, is basically money that is paid to those people for their supposed increased productivity on the job that they are in. 

Here is where the chickens should come home to roost. If we have a batch of civil servants doing a particular job, and there is no raise in the cost of living, and they do get the  “productivity” component of their raise, then, as a group, they should be paid the same gross budget amount to do the same job as they did the previous year. Enough civil servants should be fired so that there is enough money in the budget to pay the ones that remain, and the work that is not performed by those who were fired, must be performed by the increased productivity of those that remain. The work of the people who are fired when you remain within the same budget, should be easily be able to be performed by those people who are more productive as their increased salary shows. Either someone needs to be fired or worked less paid hours, or if there is no real productivity increase, then there should be no productivity raises.  If person qualifies for a job, then they are qualified. There is nothing more to it. I am not saying that a person should not improve themself. Once you qualify for a job, then you should not get any more pay for being over qualified. This is the point at which you then must secure a higher paying job in which you can take advantage of your qualifications, if you wish to get a salary increase for better productivity skills.

If the private sector paid people in this manner, the country would even be in far worse shape than it is.  Let’s start paying people for the work that they actually do, and not the work that they could do, if such a job were available.

Increasingly Dangerous on the Road

By John Iurica

Lately, driving in Rockland County has become increasingly more dangerous. It is especially noticeable on Routes 59 and Route 303, particularly where there are two lanes in each direction.  Most of the danger is caused by a non thinking driver who is far worse than a drinking driver. The law is quite clear. Keep right except to pass. There seems to be a certain class of driver that insists upon driving in the left lane at approximately the same speed a car along side of himself that is in the right lane, regardless if the car in the right hand lane is doing 20, 30, 40, or 50 mph. The normal statement from this type of driver is: “I am just going at the same speed as everyone else.”  In their shrunken mind, they can not understand the concept of “keep right except to pass”.

What the delinquent law breaking drivers can not fathom is that they are the initiator of more accidents than drunk drivers and are probably responsible for more road rage than any other cause. What I generally see is a lot of crazy maneuvering by automobiles trying to get past the left lane drivers, even to the extent that the passing automobile often makes a dangerous squeeze between the cars that he is trying pass. The passing car sometimes makes a cutting off move against the left hand driver to show displeasure at the stupidity of the left hand driver, with a move that is not to smart in itself. Most times before the actually passing there is a prelude of a lot of dangerous tailgating going on.

It has been a long time since I actually saw a policeman giving out a traffic ticket. I guess that they are too busy going to accidents caused by people who should have been smartened up by a getting a prior traffic ticket or two for whatever terrible and dangerous driving technique that they had developed. It is time that the roads were brought back under control. There is no explaining to a left hand side of the road driver what he is doing wrong and why. They must be treated like Pavlov’s and be ingrained with a response to keep right except to pass. This type of person reacts very well if they get tickets for riding in the lefr hand lane of a road. They can not comprehend what they are doing wrong, but they should be made to know that if they do it, they will get a ticket.  It works.

White House desecrates Christmas

By John Iurica

The White House keeps calling for diversity. It goes crazy when known criminals are questioned.  Don’t question a Muslim looking person even if you have a good and valid reason to believe that he is a terrorist, because you might offend him. However, you should pick on the Christians. Maybe you can destroy their belief system. Maybe we can get rid of them and replace them with Communists and hard core Socialists.

The people in the White House in Washington, D.C., put up a Christmas Tree in the Blue Room during this Christmas season. It is a Christmas tradition among Christians to decorate a tree with ornaments honoring Jesus and the splendor of Christmas. This year instead of decorating the tree, they desecrated it. In a place of honor on the tree was an ornament with a picture of Chairman Mao, a leader of the Chinese Communist party. Is Christmas a celebration of the Communist system that the government is trying to turn us into? Mao is a destroyer of the Christian religion. What gives?                       

In another place of honor was an ornament with a likeness of the legendary transvestite, Hedda Lettuce. The ornament was even signed by he (or her?). Can you see any wrong with the kind of people that Obama is surrounding himself with. He takes council from these people. It is one thing to be that way, but to use it to make fun of a religion is a very bad thing indeed.

Of course the tree would not be complete without an idol elevating Obama to some sort of higher level status, being placed on a tree meant to honor Jesus. There was an ornament on the tree depicting Mount Rushmore with Obama’s head placed in among the other heads on the mountain. I guess this goes along with the songs and chants that school children in many places have been taught to offer up to Obama. Are they trying to make him a new god?

One thing you need to remember, there still are a lot of politicians in office that support the White House and enable its desecration of Christianity and they need to be gotten rid of.  Many of these stooges exist on a fairly local level. They are politicians that want to milk the system and advance to the next level. They are at every level of government. They are not interested in doing what is right. And what the Jewish people need to remember, is that once Christianity is destroyed, the neo Communists will hang pictures on the Menorah of the leaders of Iran and the PLO next, along with the painting of the face Obama on the gantz side of the traditional dreidel.

MTA misappropriating funds from Rockland

By John Iurica

The people of New York City are the most greedy people in the United States as evidenced by the slick maneuvering of the MTA. The MTA is slapping all those extra taxes on us, not only to support its transportation objectives, but to finance a large part of the New York City Education Budget.

It turns out that the MTA is paying for the transportation of all school children in New York City by giving them rides for free. This means that we in Rockland County have been taxed, for years, to pay for what the New York City Department of Education should have been paying for all along. This might have been close to being OK if the MTA also paid for school busing costs of every child in Rockland County over those years.

The City of New York should have purchased the rides that all school children, school teachers, cops, city workers, and anyone else connected to New York City who gets or has gotten MTA services for free or part fare. It is not reasonable that New York City tax everyone in Rockland County to pay for what should be paid for by the City of New York itself. The function of the MTA is to provide transportation, at a given fare, to everyone in its taxing area. No special groups are to be singled out for free rides. Everyone should be paying the fare.

It is up to our state senator and our four Assembly representatives to recover the money that we were taxed and which was used by the MTA for non MTA purposes which should have been paid for by the City of New York. If the senator and assembly members who are supposed to represent us in this matter do not get our money back, I say lets throw them out of office, Democrats and Republicans alike.

Maybe there is some enterprising lawyer out their who can pull off a class action suit against the MTA and New York City, to rightfully get back our tax money that the MTA diverted for the special benefit of New York City.

There is a proposal whereby students would ride free until September 2010, and then would pay full fare starting in September 2011. Even if this were to happen, Rockland County taxes collected by the MTA would still go for paying NYC Department of Education costs for over the next 21 months. We should not be paying for that either.

And guess what? Even when the students pay full fare, we in Rockland County are still subsidizing the cost of the New York City student’s transportation, because we are subsidizing all MTA forms of transportation so that all of riders are paying less than the actual cost of their fares. How about the MTA then subsidizing the school busing in Rockland County. However, it is best for Rockland County to get out of the MTA and try to organize with the NY and NJ counties on this side of the Hudson River.

New York City just wants to suck us dry, without working for its money. It is impossible to get any kind of a fair deal that includes New York City. The best thing is to get away from them.

Here is a great opportunity to see if we should throw our senator and/or which Assembly members out of office in the next election. Let us see if there is anyone with guts enough to stand up to New York City and the MTA.

Small town, expensive problems

The new elected Supervisor in Stony Point, a retired New York State Supreme Court Justice, appears to have his hands full in attempting to replace the town’s Special Counsel, the Nyack firm of Feerick, Lynch and MacCartney as a tax savings for the town.

In the original authorizing resolution amid flowery language about the need for a “law firm” replacing a single attorney and experience in “municipal matters” and a remarkable reference to “better serve the Town and its residents at no additional cost”.  The Town Board, led by Supervisor Marino, and at his request, hired Mr. Lynch’s firm for $114,500 a year replacing a $65,000 a year town attorney.

What was the Lynch firm’s prior municipal experience?  A litany of prior suits against various towns and county agencies that were largely unsuccessful except for the $8,000,000.00 award he obtained against the Town of Orangetown on behalf of Stony Point mega-developer Pat Magee that nearly bankrupted that township.  We are informed that he started several lawsuits against Stony Point but fortunately these were all unsuccessful.  There are many times he must recuse himself due to conflicts of interest because applicants were former clients.  We wonder how much substitute firms cost the town and, in addition, there are allegations that in supplementing the town contract, the firm has billed applicants before town agencies directly.

It is noted that the firm’s 2008 retainer is sweetened by providing for lucrative labor negotiations, included in the first retainer, to be billed as additional services at a special municipal rate of just $250 an hour.  It is also noted that the firm is engaged by a private company in a lawsuit against the Rockland County Solid Waste Management Authority – Mr. Marino is a member of that Authority (albeit a “lame duck” member).

How are all these “savings” working out for Stony Point taxpayers.  Lets hope the new Supervisor Judge William Sherwood gets all the information he needs about the cost of this plan.  We have heard that legal costs over the last four years topped a million dollars for the smallest town in Rockland.

We would hope that Sherwood gets full board support for an in depth audit of the town expenses and suggest that his first review is the cost of legal representation for the town and full disclosure thereof.

Hooray For Local Jobs

By John Iurica

 We always have those “not in my back yard people” yelling and screaming about any proposed commercial or industrial activity, regardless of how beneficial it is to the community. Right now Crestron Electronics wants to build a 193,500 square foot building southwest of Constitution Drive in Orangeburg, which is to be accessed from Ramland Road. Of course the residents are putting forth the usual contrived complaints about noise and aesthetics. These people new that when they moved into their houses that the area in question was zoned for light industrial or office space. If you did not like that, then you should not have moved in. What is it that you want? To buy the cheapest place possible and then have the government, at other people’s expense, rezone the neighborhood, to give you a windfall?

 You must also discount the people who rally with the phrase: “It is going to bring down property values.”  This gives you the tip off that they are not really Rockland County people, but rather are those people that are just passing through, trying to make a quick profit on their property, at the detriment of the taxpayers who will be left behind. A real Rocklander would be wanting the assessed value of his home to go down in order to reduce his tax burden. A real Rocklander would be planning on passing his home to his spouse or to his children, while saving on his estate tax. If one makes a commitment to be part of a community then the escalation of property value is of no importance as there is no intention to sell it anyway.

 Think of the alternative, some developer will come into that site and build the 50 condominiums per acre. That means 950 new housing units, probably bringing in around 2,000 adult and 2,000 or more children. If you think that the industrial building will create traffic, then you have not seen the traffic that 950 condos can generate. I grew up in the Village of Piermont along side of a wonderful paper mill and box board factory. The factory itself was on about 20 acres of land and had more than 200,000 square feet. This was similar to the proposed project in question, At any given time during the operation of this factory, there were always empty parking spaces in the center of the Village of Piermont on Main Street (Piermont Ave.). Since the same acreage used by the factory buildings has been replaced by condominiums, it has become virtually impossible to park within the Village, and the traffic is unbearable. The people that worked in the factory came in, did their job, and went home, without causing any trouble for the rest of us that lived there. Look at yourself, you are a typical complainer. Guess what? When you have those condominiums built instead of that factory, those people are going to complain about you. Complaining it typically a new people disease.

 Just think! The new factory will keep over 2,000 new students from entering our school system. The new factory will provide jobs and pay property taxes. The new factory will cut down on the number of Rocklanders needing to exit Rockland via facilities such as the TZ Bridge to go to jobs else where. It will actually reduce the overall driving by Rocklanders.

I have heard other people say that the reason that people don’t want a place with jobs near them is because certain other ethnic groups may move into their area in order to take advantage of some of the available jobs. This group believes that jobs should be elsewhere so that they can live undisturbed in their own little enclave (an enclosed territory that is culturally distinct from the foreign territory that surrounds it).

In my youth, I often patronized the swimming holes on the acreage in question. It was a business then and it should stay a business now.

Outgoing supervisor may stick Orangetown with junk science

By John Iurica

Tri-Carb Consortium for Carbon Sequestration is looking to lease property from Orangetown at the old sewerage plant. It is for the purpose of drilling an 8,000 foot deep hole to see if they can pump carbon dioxide into the ground and store it for the purpose of keeping it from floating into the atmosphere. This company has received a $4 million grant from the federal government and a $1 million grant from the state government.  If you read my article on page 2, you will see that this whole carbon dioxide connection to global warming has been shown to be a hoax built on fraudulent data in the world’s main global warming data collection center in the U. K.

In light of the facts, why is the present supervisor encouraging the wasting of $5 million tax dollars that could better been used for aid to education, or reduction of taxes? The whole idea behind advocating global warming is to cripple the U. S. economy while giving the federal government more powers of regulation over our private lives. The new global warming laws are aimed to double or triple the cost of our utilities, gasoline, and other fuel costs, especially by means the cap and trade regulations and any other treaties that Obama may make with the world. It is time that the people of this county show that they are not buying in to the nonsense. The people need to be against projects that perpetuate the Global Warming Hoax. In less than a month, Thom Kleiner will be out, so let the new government decide its own destiny. Meddling is so typical of many politicians today.

Planting a bunch of trees, will do the same thing that this multimillion dollar project will do, and the trees will do it for free.

The Right Thing To Do In A Recession (Or Anytime)

By John Iurica

People are feeling a monetary pinch everywhere. Everyone who has a job is in jeopardy. Right now the politicians are telling us that we need to raise taxes in order to save a certain number of civil service or other government jobs.

 What the politicians are doing by saving civil service jobs is that they are reducing the total number of jobs in the nation. It is all a matter of simple mathematics. Firstly, a couple of weeks ago, the Rockland Review carried an article that showed that the average civil servant’s salary and benefits, far exceeded the salary and benefits of the average person working in the private sector. When you take a block of money, in the amount “$Z”, by taxes or otherwise, out of the private sector, the private sector will lose “X” amount of jobs due to the loss of money in the private sector. However, due to the fact that the average civil servant makes more money than someone working in private industry, when you don’t take “$Z” out of the private sector, there will be a loss of far less than “X” civil servant jobs.

 Simple put: For every civil servant job that is saved, significantly more private sector jobs will be lost and for every civil servant job that is lost far more private sector jobs will be created, making the total number of jobs in the country rise. All the politicians out there should be well advised that the net number of jobs in this country can only rise by firing people on the government payroll. The private sector makes a heck of lot more jobs with the same amount of money than the government. It is pretty obvious where the jobs need to be saved.

AARP: A wolf in sheep’s clothing

By John Iurica

Listen up Seniors! The AARP is not on your side as evidenced by their recent maneuvering of their recommendation on the Obamacare medical legislation. Back in the days when the legislation appeared to be an easy win in Congress, the AARP came out with a neutral recommendation and gave the appearance that it was letting its members make up their own mind as to whether the legislation was good or bad. This way, the AARP did not tip its hand. They knew that the legislation was going to easily pass and they would get what they wanted.

When the proposed legislation appeared that it was running into some difficulty, the AARP changed its tune. The AARP came out highly in favor of Obamacare. The reason why they did so will point out that the AARP is for the AARP and not an advocate for senior citizens. The AARP is the seller of insurance known as Medigap which is quite expensive and covers the deductibles and co-payments that Medicare does not cover. The are a whole bunch of seniors on Medicare that subscribe to various forms of Medicare Advantage from various private insurance companies. Medicare Advantage is mostly HMO based and takes cares of most fees not covered by Medicare at little or no cost.  Obamacare is designed to eliminate the ability to get Medicare Advantage, forcing people to buy Medigap insurance from people like the AARP. The AARP is not out there to help the seniors, but rather to help themselves. The AARP is just like our government. It wants more money and more power.

We need Senior Organizations whose main purpose is to help seniors.

Fraud and senior citizens

By John Iurica

Kirsten Gillibrand is coming to Rockland County to lecture a group of Senior Citizen on how to protect themselves from certain types of fraud. The best way to protect yourself from a scam is to heed the advice of one of the greatest philosophers of modern times who summed up the situation quite easily. W. C. Fields said “You can’t cheat an honest man” in a movie by the same name. It turns out that the people that are looking for something for nothing are the ones selected as marks for scams. If people believe that good things need to be earned, they would resist the temptation of being defrauded.

When some seniors get older they have trouble thinking. They should never do anything on their own and hear what their trusted friend or relative has to say about a particular situation. There are a couple of points that I need to add if you are of the notion that an honest man can be scammed. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is. Never give anyone cash up front. Always have someone that you trust read anything before you sign it. Don’t let anybody you do not know in your house or on your property. Guard information like your date of birth, your Social Security number, and other personal information so that no one can use it to steal money from you. If you feel anything is not quite right, don’t be afraid to call the authorities immediately.

The same thing not only occurs with material things like money and property, but it occurs in politics. If you vote for people because they are going to give you something for nothing, then you are going to wind up being defrauded by those people. If people would live a good, clean, and honest life at our level, and would stop looking to get something free from the government, the country and life in general would be in a whole lot better shape.

Talk on the Street about Thom Kleiner

By John Iurica

For an old hard-of-hearing geezer like me to hear talk on the street is quite amazing, but so much of a particular thing was flooding the air that I could not help but notice what people were saying. There was a lot of scuttlebutt floating around, both before and after Election Day that Thom Kleiner really was not trying to win the election for County Executive. The talk was that this was just an exercise to get his name out in front to the public, so that he would have name recognition in the future, especially in that part of Rockland County outside of Orangetown.

They say that his real objective is to try to beat Thomas Morahan for State Senator, but he needs to be better known. This is a job where Kleiner could settle in for the rest of his life. Losing actually helps his chances because the people get to hear his name, but they do not really find out, first hand, what the quality of his administrative or political ability is.  The most convincing argument for all of this was given by the people that said that he had announced, early in his campaign, that he had twice as much money as Vanderhoef, but never wound up spending much of it. Obviously, he has something in mind for the money and the smart money is betting that it is going to be spent for a run against Morahan. Being out of office may actually be good for him in another way as he may be trying not to be responsible for any of this next year’s possible calamities.

Election 2009

ENDORSEMENTS

            It is that time of the year when we endorse the candidates that we think will best serve Rockland County into the future: 

For County Executive we recommend Thom Kleiner.  While Scott Vanderhoef has wrestled with a recessionary economy and increased demands for services, we cannot help but feel that the county payroll under this tenure has become bloated and that it is time for a change.

            CLARKSTOWN SUPERVISOR – there is no race.  Alex Gromack gets a free ride again – a tribute to his popularity and the job he is doing.

            CLARKSTOWN COUNCIL – We highly recommend JOHN MALONEY for the Council.  Although John lost the primary, there are many who felt that there was really no contest based on his experience.  He is still in the race running on ROW C – we urge you to look for him.

            CLARKSTOWN JUDGES – We endorse the sitting town judges, SCOTT UGELL and CRAIG JOHNS.

            STONY POINT SUPERVISOR – WILLIAM  SHERWOOD is by far the most qualified candidate and seems poised to lead Stony Point out of its present fiscal  morass and into the next decade.  His opponent Peter Muller lacks SHERWOOD’S credentials but is a well intentioned civic  minded citizen.

            HAVERSTRAW – SUPERVISOR HOWARD PHILLIPS has our endorsement and will run away with this election.  He is constituent oriented and always on the lookout for a benefit for his constituency.

            ORANGETOWN – For Supervisor we endorse PAUL WHALEN and make no recommendation as far as the Council is concerned.

            RAMAPO – Like Gromack, SUPERVISOR CHRISTOPHER P. ST. LAWRENCE has the endorsement of both major parties and most of the minor parties.  He is recommended on the basis of his fiscal acumen and his ability to balance a diverse community with a view toward making Ramapo a fine place to live. 

            We also endorse JUDGE RHODA SCHOENBERGER who should have no problem winning this election by virtue of the primary results and the multiple endorsements of her candidacy.  She has more than adequate experience to continue to do a good job. 

That is not to say that the opponents of those we endorse are not fine candidates – it is simply that some of them lack the necessary experience that causes us to weigh in favor of their opposition.  We wish all the candidates good luck and suggest that those who lose do not give up their political efforts since that is what makes a democracy tick. 

Where Does The Buck Stop?

By John Iurica

This year, Senior Citizens are not going to get any cost of living raise in their Social Security Payments because of the recession. However, one of Rockland’s Supervisors has announced that he did not raise expenses in any of his Town’s departments but his proposed tax rate is going up by 4.5% anyway. He claims that this is not his fault, but rather it is due to the rising health care, and retirement contracts that the Town negotiated. How dumb do he think that us senior citizens are? Of course this is his fault, he is the boss, he was in charge of personnel wage and benefit negotiations that caused this problem. When all else fails, and the greedy unions get the upper hand, there are other methods. The supervisor needs to find much more fortitude, than he has been using, to solve the problem of bleeding the taxpayers dry.

One way to keep the tax rate down is to have a reduction in force, commonly referred to as a RIF in the business sector. Notice that the stock market has recently gone up nicely because a significant amount of corporations have increased their earnings. These earnings increased because the corporations became more efficient by laying off some of their deadwood, through the use of a RIF. The same should be done in government and we know that government has lots of deadwood. Reduce the number of people on the payroll by enough people so that there is no increase in taxes. This takes political guts to do this but that is what we elect people to do. The positions to be eliminated should be near the top so that there is trickle down effect whereby higher level employees will bump lower level employees in order to stay on the payroll. All the tenured employees need to feel the effect.  Getting rid of higher level positions also helps the reduction of the Town payroll in the future. When employees get higher level pay and benefits, than they must be made to perform higher level work at a higher level of output. Employees must earn any increase in pay and benefits by an equivalent increase in productivity.

An even better tactic is to fire a large portion of the Town employees and replace them with contract workers. Contract workers are great. With contract workers, the Town would not be responsible for their health benefits, their retirements, their sick days, their vacations etc. This would all be figured into the price of the contract. Another good thing about contract worker is that they are bid on a competitive basis. There are always people without jobs, willing to work for less than what the Town has been paying their captive employees. Contract workers are easy to get rid of if they don’t adequately perform. When their contract expires at the end of the year, just do not renew it. With contract workers you just pay one time. There are no future payments. They work more efficiently. If they don’t do so then they will be gone.

There are many governments and government agencies that use contract workers to great advantage. When a particular project is over, the contract workers disappear. There is no need to work them into a slot they are not qualified for, when job that they were qualified for has ended. We need politicians with more guts and fortitude. We need politicians to stop passing the buck, blaming their inadequacies on the system and others. The Supervisor is always at fault. We know that, but does he.

How confiscatory can the government get?

By John Iurica

The friend of the fishermen

If you think that things are getting bad, they are not. They are actually getting far worse than that. Politicians are trying to take every last cent out of your pocket. They have taken away the last bit of free enjoyment that people in Rockland County had. You can no longer fish in the Hudson River without paying for a Marine Fishing License, voted into law by the yes votes of Assemblywoman Jaffee and Assemblyman Zebrowski.

Most licenses run for a year or for some multiple of years. But I guess that this year there are more politician’s relatives that need jobs. Thus, the State, through this law has come up with something new. All the other hunting and fishing licenses are sold on a one year (minimum) basis that runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.  The new evil thing that was introduced by the fishing gestapos, is that the new Marine Fishing License is required starting Oct. 1 of 2009, but expires in only 3 months and a new is required to be purchased on January 1 of 2010.

Fees are taxes. Who are those politicians fooling about not raising taxes? The unemployed can not even go to the Hudson to get some free food to put on the table. I’ll bet that the State of New York can save more money by firing one game protection officer than by introducing a fee for a Marine Fishing License. We all know that the Marine License fee will only go up every year to pay for the salaries of the people used to enforce the license, i.e. the salaries that go up faster than inflation every. Just think! The firing of a single civil servant can save the grief of fees on hundreds of State residents. Even better, let’s fire a whole bunch of civil servants.

CAMPAIGN ‘09

One only needs to drive through one of our towns in Rockland to notice that  election campaigning is beginning in full swing.  Candidates signs are springing up from lawns and highways like dandelions in the spring and, while some may say that this is a blight from an aesthetic point of view, we feel we should cut some slack to these candidates since campaigning for office is an arduous task.  We say that because it is not easy to go out and “blow your own horn” to convince people that you are better than the other candidate.

Primary focus will be given on the County Executive race where Thom Kleiner is challenging the incumbent County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef.  One rather interesting facet to this campaign will be the council race in the Town of Clarkstown.

While JOHN MALONEY lost the primary to two relatively unknowns, as we understand it, he has been urged by his following to make a run on ROW C, the Independence Party line.  It seems there are many who just sat on their hands in the primary figuring that John had no problem in running against some unknown opponents.  It will take a lot of effort to achieve victory on ROW C, although there are many who prognosticate that there is a good chance that John can do it if those supporters who did not vote in the primary are made aware of the fact that John is still in the race and running on the Independence line.  He was somewhat surprised to see that he did not also get the Conservative line and that in addition to George Hoehman the Conservative line was given to a liberal Democrat. 

From our point of view, we would like to see John Maloney pull this off since his many, many years of experience bodes well for the future of the Town of Clarkstown.  That is not to disparage the other candidates who put forth their best in a primary and no doubt will campaign hard for their election.  We feel that if Councilman Maloney’s constituents are properly educated to the fact that John is still in the race, that he has a very good chance of being re-elected on ROW C. 

The Supervisor’s race in Clarkstown is a foregone conclusion with Democratic Supervisor Gromack enjoying just about every line including the Republican line.  The same is true in Ramapo where Supervisor St. Lawrence has succeeded in a primary for both the Democratic and Republican lines.  Time will tell and may the best person win.  In the meantime, we suggest that with respect to the plethora of signs lining our streets and lawns that we grin and bear it since it is a lot better than the riots and turmoil we see in other countries and – a good candidate sees to the removal of signs after election day.

Senior citizens: Targets of bad treatment

By John Iurica

I sit here thinking about when the Federal Government is going to finally get rid us Senior Citizens.

They are trying to do it quickly, while trying to make us believe that there will be no pain. We seem to be a nuisance. Right now the Federal Government is trying to implement a procedure known as Slow Death. There are groups that are given a free pass to the death treatment. These are civil servants such as school teachers, policemen, etc. and some union members such as the auto workers, that can live on forever under the lifetime pensions that many of us have subsidized in one way or the other.

The people that are being killed off are those unlucky people that worked hard during their lifetime, lived conservatively, and saved some money, for what they thought was going to be a retirement. The government is looking to take away some of our medicare benefits and water down other benefits to pay for people that do not have health insurance. The people on the take are young people that need to pay their own way. In order to get the Medicare benefit that I have now, I worked hard and contributed to the system starting when I was 18 years of age and did not receive any Medicare benefit until I was 65. I worked and paid into the system for 47 years before I got anything. I had periods where I had to pay my own medical bills without help from anyone, including one heart operation. I am still paying into the system for my medicare. It has now been 51 years of paying in. You would think that the government would stop deducting  once you reached 65 years of age. No, they just keep on taking. What ever happened to the idea that you need to earn what you get and you get to keep what you earn?

In addition, to the attempted stealing of Medicare money that us Senior Citizens worked hard for, the government is killing us in another way. It has the interest rate at practically zero. It is trying to give houses to the same group of people who previously could not pay for them. The government is acting as if it wants the same crash to happen again so it can bail out their bad loans. In the meantime, my bank account, that I worked hard to save during my working years, which once paid enough interest to pay my utility bills during the year, now pays an amount of  interest that I am lucky if would pay for a good meal at Cornetta’s restaurant. The government is causing me to deplete whatever savings that I had, thanks to the government’s policy of making the senior citizen the fall guy. I guess some of it is our fault. We vote. We need to think about who is hurting us. Throw the spenders out.

How do they expect us senior citizens to live? We are not uncontrolled spendthrifts. It is not nice to punish us for saving. I want my fellow seniors to take names of the people doing us in, and kick butt at the next couple of elections and get rid of those people who are trying to steal our money and our lives. And don’t forget about the other politicians that are helping them, including those that are going along and are saying what is happening is good.

Watch out for the next phase, where the government is going to raise the cost our goods and services, while funneling our money to their cronies under the guise of phoney environmental crackpottery. Big Government is Pig Government.

Gun rights at risk under Obamacare

Final health care bill likely to include provisions that infringe on Second Amendment rights

Guest Editorial

By Mike Hammond
You might think that the debates over health care and gun rights are two entirely different issues. They are not. In fact, as the motives of government run health care proponents continue to be revealed, they are much more intertwined than people may realize.
The issue of gun control is extremely important to the forces behind single payer health care. One of the items currently in the proposed legislation is an individual mandate, which states that anyone who can afford health insurance must pay for it. Failure to do so would lead to a fine and/or jail time. Hammond contends that such language in the bill could lower premiums for individuals and families who do not own guns.
If guns become a determining factor in the amount of one’s premium, it would almost necessarily be required for private citizens to identify themselves as gun owners while even listing the types of guns they own. This would require a database of some sort and while the proponents of the public option claim they are not interested in single payer health care, there are plenty of examples available where such individuals are caught on videotape, in more candid moments, saying that single payer is the ultimate goal, including Rahm Emanuel, Kathleen Sebelius, Barney Frank, and others. Watch them here: http://barracknow.blogspot.com/2009/08/video-democrats-admit-to-riding-in.html
This would necessarily mean that any database used to track gun ownership for the purpose of determining health insurance premiums would be in the hands of the federal government. When you look at the people who are so adamant that the government health care option be written into law, there is something else they are rather adamant about – gun control.
Mike Hammond is General Counsel for Gun Owners of America.

This View Point Explains the Near Death of New York State

By John Iurica

This information comes to us from Natasha Altamirano, of the Tax Foundation, and can be read in more detail at the web site give at the conclusion. Our people in Albany need to pay attention to the following information and put New York in the running vs. other States. Good old boys, read this:

 Which States Are Best for Business? 2010 State Business

Tax Foundation Releases Annual Report on "Business-Friendliness" of State Tax Systems

 Washington, DC, September 22, 2009 - South Dakota has the most "business-friendly" tax system, and New Jersey has the least, according to the Tax Foundation's 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index released today. The Index measures the competitiveness of the 50 states' tax systems and ranks them accordingly based on the taxes that matter most to businesses and business investment: corporate income, individual income, sales, property and unemployment insurance taxes.

 The states are scored on these taxes, and the scores are weighted based on the relative importance or impact of the tax to a business. Keeping a state competitive in today's global marketplace can be difficult, but there is one factor lawmakers have direct control over: the quality of state tax systems. The Index measures how well a state's tax system encourages investment by maintaining a broad tax base and low rates.

 "When policymakers are considering tax changes in their states, they should remember two rules: Taxes matter to business, and states do not enact tax changes – increases or cuts – in a vacuum," said Kail Padgitt, Ph.D., who authored Tax Foundation Background Paper No. 59, "2010 State Business Tax Climate Index." The Index represents the tax climate of each state as of July 1, 2009, the first day of the standard 2010 fiscal year, and is available online at http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22658.html.

 The top 10 states in the 2010 Index, from 1st to 10th, are South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, Nevada, Florida, Montana, New Hampshire, Delaware, Washington and Utah. The bottom 10 states, from 41st to 50th, are Vermont, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Maryland, Iowa, Ohio, California, New York and New Jersey.

 Oklahoma saw the biggest drop in ranking this year – from 19th in 2009 to 31st in 2010 – due not to legislative changes, but to the fact that the Tax Foundation was able to obtain much more detailed nationwide data on local-option sales taxes, which are much higher in Oklahoma than in most states (above 4 percent in several municipalities).

 Kentucky's ranking improved the most – up 14 spots from 34th in 2009 to 20th in 2010. Many economically damaging changes were enacted in other states that previously ranked better than Kentucky – especially in the personal income tax – so other states' rankings fell while Kentucky remained stable.

 Other tax changes that affected states' rankings include enactment of so-called "millionaires' taxes" on high-income earners (often on income far less than $1 million) in states such as Hawaii, New Jersey and Oregon. New Jersey remained dead last, as it was in the 2009 Index, and Hawaii and Oregon dropped in rank by two spots to 24th and six spots to 14th, respectively. Ten states also enacted cigarette tax increases this year: Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

 Tax Foundation Background Paper No. 59, "2010 State Business Tax Climate Index," is available online at http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22658.html. The Tax Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that has monitored fiscal policy at the federal, state and local levels since 1937.

SOME “LESSER KNOWN” VOLUNTEERS

            We noticed an announcement this past week of a “Welcome Reception” at the Hi-Tor Animal Care Center.  The purpose of the reception is to meet Executive Director Vivian Kiggins, tour the shelter and see the shelter’s plans for the future.  The reception is scheduled at the shelter at 65 Firemen’s Memorial Drive, Pomona, New York on Saturday, September 26^th  from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. 

That brought to mind the wonderful service provided to pet owners in Rockland County by Hi-Tor Animal Care Center, a not-for-profit organization comprised largely of volunteers.  The shelter does derive funds from contracts with municipalities to provide services and maintain a shelter or pound for seized animals and for lost, stray or homeless animals pursuant to the Agriculture and Markets Law.  It is also a place where people, who can no longer take care of an animal, for one reason or another, can place them in the shelter for adoption and is also a place where many people have adopted fine household pets.  The shelter is not limited to dogs and cats, there are times when there are such animals as an injured raccoon or an owl or some other unusual resident. 

The animals are under the care of competent and well-trained employees as well as many volunteers.  Those volunteers are animal lovers and community activists who do such chores as walking, cleaning up, washing dogs and being generally helpful around the shelter.  To that list of volunteers we add a Board of Directors which meet frequently to discuss the progress and discipline at the shelter, to promote various ways of raising funds for the purpose of one day building a new shelter (the current shelter is on county owned property).  Most of the volunteers are, of course, animal lovers and many of them are prominent and busy business people in this community.  Yet, they give of their time unstintingly to act in a supervisory capacity as a policy making and trouble-shooting board.  The chairperson of the Board of Directors is Roberta Bangs who is extremely active and busy in real estate, but spends untold hours without compensation on the business of the shelter. 

The shelter does have fundraisers or food drives to obtain animal foods to disburse to residents who may be economically disadvantaged and not able to feed their pets.  In connection with the activities of the shelter, we also have in each town what is known as an Animal Control Officer, who is a town employee and might be likened to what we used to refer to as the “dog catcher”.  Those officers are astute to rescue lost dogs or other abused animals and bring them to the shelter and they work closely in cooperation with various police departments.  While we have in the past extolled the volunteerism of our fire departments and ambulance corps, whose contribution to the county cannot be measured in dollars and cents; we thought we should also mention the selflessness and diligence with which the employees and volunteers of the Hi-Tor Animal Care Center function for the benefit of every pet owner and animal loving resident of the County of Rockland. 

SOME INTERESTING PRIMARIES

September 15^th is Primary Day and there are a few noteworthy primaries in progress to determine the candidate for the forthcoming November election. 

In Clarkstown we were very surprised to see that long-time Councilman JOHN R. MALONEY is faced with a primary for Town Council.  JOHN MALONEY’S opposition has no experience at all and, as we understand it, the person petitioning for the Primary felt there should be ethnic (Asian) representation on the ticket.  From our viewpoint, character and experience trumps ethnic background.  John has been, over an extended period of years, at the forefront of Clarkstown recreation programs and its strong senior citizen programs.  He is by far the most qualified of the candidates and deserving of the party’s support in this primary.

 In Ramapo, Chris St. Lawrence has an interesting primary in that he is being challenged by Spring Valley Village Attorney Bruce Levine.  That is surprising because for many years Bruce Levine has been the appointee to numerous municipal jobs and entitlements, some of them appointed by SUPERVISOR ST. LAWRENCE.  We have in the past extolled the experience of ST. LAWRENCE, who walks a fine line in a diverse population keeping Ramapo a vibrant and great community in which to live.  While his opponent has waged a negative campaign, none of the “mud” can stick to ST. LAWRENCE who has an exemplary record to run upon; we predict a runaway victory for ST. LAWRENCE in that primary and urge a vote for him to enable him to continue the constructive work that is his hallmark. 

 Also in Ramapo, JUDGE RHODA F. SCHOENBERGER is being challenged in a primary by an individual with basically no judicial experience.  JUDGE SCHOENBERGER is the first woman judge in the history of the Town of Ramapo Justice Court, is admitted to the New York State Bar and Federal District Courts and was a practicing attorney with offices in Spring Valley for 29 years.  She was raised in the Town of Ramapo and has a most distinguished judicial career to date and previously served as an Acting Village Justice in the Village of Wesley Hills until her present service as Town Justice.  After her appointment she was re-elected in 2001 and again in 2005.  This is an experienced Town Justice and a resident of Ramapo for 34 years.  We are not able to ascertain any judicial qualification of her opponent which would lead us to be able to support him.  We urge the vote for Justice RHODA on Primary Day.

 Primaries are a true expression of grassroots Democracy and while there are some who say that primaries are a waste of a candidate’s resources and a bane to the unity of a political party, a person who files the proper petitions and acquires the necessary number of signatures has a right to participate in those primaries.  While the primary election only determines who the candidates will be in the November 4^th election, we urge interested and active citizens to cast their vote on Primary Day for the candidate of their choice.  Our recommendations are based upon our knowledge of the local scene and the accomplishments of the candidates we recommend herein.

Is There Any Logic or Common Sense Out There?

The Real Question is: Will Our Doctors Keep Us?

By John Iurica

 Obama says that under his proposed health care system, that we who  are in the Medicare system will be able to keep our present doctor.

 Obama says that he is going to take 500 billion dollars away from Medicare and use it to fund two thirds of the money he needs to pay for the uninsured.

 Obama says that he is going to make up this money in Medicare to the seniors by efficiencies, the main one being using less money to pay our doctors and our hospitals. He is also proposing to cut out what he believes are unnecessary tests and procedures. So say good bye to hip replacements, MRI Scans, and the like.

 I worked hard all of my life and paid in a whole lot of money to get the Medicare that I am now getting. The uninsured people have paid in next to nothing for the Medicare dollars that they will take away from the seniors.  It appears that Obama’s efficiencies are to surface as smaller payments to doctors, smaller payments to hospitals, and particular facets of health care that will no longer be available to seniors. There also will be less dollars available for the eleven million seniors that have a Medicare Advantage program. Yes, the Medicare Advantage can not be sustained with all of the money being taken out of medicare. There will be no more Medicare Advantage.

 I want all of you seniors to listen closely to what I am going to say next and mull it over in your mind.  When the new Obama heath care system hits the streets, with its 20% or more reduction in Medicare  payments to doctors and hospitals, how many of them are going to refuse to take you as a patient? How many doctors and hospitals are just plain going to shut down and close their door to never again be available to senior citizens? I know that I would. Why should people, who worked hard to get a skill and break their butt serving people, give away their labor and skill for free? If the government is going to give away your hard earned dollars to someone else, why bother earning them?

 Obama said that you will be able to keep your doctor, but if your doctor  has  any sense, he will get rid of you and all of his Medicare patients under Obamacare. Think about it seniors. If the government is going to give your hard earned Medicare contribution dollars away to someone else, it is only reasonable that your quality of health care is going to suffer greatly. You can not make a better health care system with less money. If that were possible, then why doesn’t Obama make a better government with less tax dollars? Same goes for Patterson.

There is help for the desperate

   For anyone feeling desperation.  First and foremost I believe that there is help and a solution much less painful to those who have thought of taking their own life.  Seek help!  It is available.  Secondly, when the choice is jumping from a bridge take into consideration the lives of the Rescue Teams that are being jeopardized.  Also, the people left behind to spend the rest of their lives mourning a death unnecessary, and wondering how they could have saved you. 

  Suicide and Crisis Hotline 845-354-6500

 THE OBAMA HEALTHCARE PLAN

 The present legislation involving healthcare reform is probably 8” thick.  It is doubtful that many of the Congressmen and Senators have been able to fully read the plan and much misinformation is being promulgated about it.  The stated the purpose is to expand Medicaid to include the greater number of uninsured, to require coverage for children and to create some sort of an agency for which the uninsured could purchase a public or private policy while providing subsidies to low income individuals and small businesses to help defray the cost of purchasing insurance while taxing medium to large size firms that decline to provide their employees with health insurance.  

According to reports, consumers currently holding health insurance would basically face no change in their status unless they are insured by a company and the company chooses to stop providing employer sponsored insurance and instead contributes to this national agency.  Small businesses would be exempt from mandatory coverage or contributions and will receive a tax credit of up to 50% on healthcare premiums for employees.  The plan is said to be similar to the proposals made by other Democratic candidates during the primaries.  The price tag of this plan is staggering since by 2010 annual spending on healthcare is expected to reach 2.7 trillion dollars.  In addition to the cost problem there are other significant unknowns currently being debated in Washington.  Some of those problems are how the government intends to finance healthcare reform or what size businesses qualify for tax credit and which would be taxed.

It is also expected that some members of Congress, including Charles Rangel, Orin Hatch and Ron Widen will present their own plans.  The one thing that is certain is that negotiations will provoke bitter disagreements between Democrats and Republicans over the role of the government in providing coverage for the uninsured. 

From our point of view, we would hope that there will also be opportunities for agreement as both parties are desirous of modernizing healthcare administration and technology.  The one very strong possibility is that the plan that is eventually adopted maybe very different from that which is on the table at the present time.  How the healthcare reform will impact Rocklanders is not readily ascertainable at the present time.

What is good for the goose is also ........

Guest Editorial

By John Iurica

We get about 1,500 items every week of things that people want put in our newspaper. The following is mostly an email that came from someone whose moniker is TommyNyack. I felt it deserves to be passed on. It is about Social Security 2009.

Let us show our leaders in Washington “People Power” and the power of the Internet. Please forward to all your friends. (Of course, since this was originally an Internet Message, it would be difficult for you to pass it on.)  It doesn’t matter if you are Republican or Democrat! Keep it going!!!

Propose this in 2009: Start a bill to place all politicians on Social Security.  Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.  Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it. You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.

In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan. For all practical purposes their plan works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die, except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that’s Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275, 000.00 during the last years of their lives. This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries. Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives. Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA!!! ZILCH!!!

This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds. This is “Our Tax Dollars at Work.”! From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer), We can expect to get an average of  $1,000 per month after retirement. Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley’s benefits!

Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. That change would be to jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen.. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us. Then sit back.....And see how fast they would fix it!

If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.  How many people can YOU send this to? Better yet......How many people WILL you send this to?  (If you email JohnTony@optonline.net, I will forward your request for an email version, that can be forwarded to someone else, to TommyNyack.)

Nancy Pelosi reconvenes House Un-American Activities Committee

Guest Editorial

By Robert Romano

It is nothing short of a complete political meltdown. Congressional reaction to their own constituents' opposition to ObamaCare has transformed into a theater of the absurd. And there will be a stiff political price to be paid.

For years, it has become increasingly clear that Congress largely ignores the people they serve. But now it is apparent they actually disdain them, as well. And would like very much if they simply went away. Only, they won't. So the elected elite is now resorting to ugly threats and name-calling

To put the icing on the cake, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer yesterday leveled the charge that those protesting ObamaCare at town halls nationwide are somehow "simply un-American". That's right, the position of the ruling class is that they—and they alone—have the right to debate public policy.

In the pages of USA Today, Pelosi and Hoyer wrote, "These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades."

This is quite simply disgraceful. So much for the patriotic duty to dissent. So much for "open covenants openly arrived at." Instead, Congress is attempting to intimidate and silence dissent by the American people.

That the American people have dared to challenge the single-most radical changes ever proposed to the American health care system is wholly unsurprising. What is surprising is that Pelosi and her ilk have so little respect for those who believe it is their voices that have been drowned out by a political elite and their media handmaidens.

What, exactly, were the members of Congress expecting? That constituents would be throwing rose petals at their feet when they returned home for August recess touting a $1.5 trillion monstrosity that threatens to ration health care into scarcity?

And yet, Congressman Steve Kagen (WI-CD8) said residents attending a Green Bay town hall meeting were "uncivilized." Congressman Baron Hill (IN-CD9) said he wants to "control" his town halls: "What I don't want to do is create an opportunity for the people who are political terrorists to blow up the meeting and not try to answer thoughtful questions."

Actually, it is Congressman Hill—and all Congressmen for that matter—who should be answering questions.

"Political terrorists"? "Un-American"? These are American citizens—folks who in many cases fought for their right to boldly state their opposition to Congress' plans to run their lives from afar.

The very flawed argument being leveled by Congress is that by passionately expressing displeasure with their government—a constitutionally-guaranteed right—that ObamaCare opponents are somehow infringing on the prerogatives of Washington's high-handed and mighty

There are 535 elected members of Congress. Over 500 thousand elected officials in the entire country at the national, state, county, and local level. 2 major political parties. And dozens of minor political parties. And they have instant access to over 1,300 television stations, over 12,000 radio stations, over 1,400 newspapers, and millions upon millions of web pages.

In short, nobody's voices are being "drowned out," except for those of the American people's—who overwhelmingly oppose the radical nationalization of health care. According to Rasmussen Reports, just thirty-two percent of voters nationwide favor a single-payer health care system where the federal government provides coverage for everyone. Fifty-seven percent are opposed to a single-payer plan.

The fact is, Congress has rightly been given an earful by their constituents, who do not want government bureaucrats rationing health care and making medical decisions for them.

Voicing dissent to an unaccountable government Hell-bent on taking over the nation's entire health care system is not "un-American." It is the very essence of what America is all about. And Pelosi, Hoyer, Kagen, Hill, et. al., owe the American people an abject apology.

Robert Romano is the ALG Senior News Editor.

Mother Nature shaking things up

It is hard to believe that we are at the month of August and there has not yet been a day where the thermometer reached over 90 degrees.  Indeed, it has been a cool summer and there are some who indicate that it is on track to be one of the coolest summers on record.  It is also a very wet summer and that does not portend well for this coming winter if this wet weather pattern continues.  We have been treated to an occasional day of sunshine.  This past week although as we write this, thunder storms are again forecast for what will be this past Wednesday as our readers get this news.  This weather affects many businesses and also creates many a dour mood.  For instance, we had a report from a Jersey shore marina that usually does about 20-25 Jet Ski rentals per day this time of the year is lucky to do 3.  The farmers we know indicate that the crops will be about 3 weeks late this year and just about everyone we know - amateur forecasters - are predicting that it is going to be a brutal winter with more ice than snow. 

With that in mind we have to wonder what has happened to global warming as it certainly has not been evident in the northeast portion of this country.  Elsewhere and particularly in the northwest there has been record high temperatures in areas that are usually in the 80’s this time of the year.  Aside from its detriments particularly on seasonal business, the cooler weather does save energy as air conditioning is limited in this cooler climate.

Of course, on the local scene things will heat up and we are not speaking of the weather.  There are numerous primaries on the political scene scheduled for September to be followed by some hotly contested elections.  All of the Supervisors and many mayors are running this year and in forthcoming viewpoints we shall share with the reading public our comments on the pros and cons of various candidates.

We caution our readers that the summer is far from over and should the weather shift we shall see a very warm September which will no doubt upset students as they return to school and envy the sunshine that they missed during the summer.  There have been no hurricanes or for that matter tropical storms that have threatened the United States although some off shore storms have created dangerous surf conditions along the eastern coast as of late.  Aside from its effect on business, parts of both of Rockland and New Jersey have been victimized by continuous flash floods some of which have created hydro-planing on roads and cause numerous accidents.  Drivers are cautioned to slow down during these periodic outbreaks of rain and of course the usual safeguards concerning thunder & lightning should be observed.  Primary among those are not to seek shelter under a tree or in any area where you become the highest object around.  It is said that the best protection during lightning strikes is to be in a low area and to crouch down close to the ground.  We also note the experience of some tornadoes touching down one forming in Orange County and another actually formed and touching down on Long Island.  Some coastal residents are predicting this will be a winter with some severe northeasters which will take its toll on beach erosion and oceanfront properties.  We are blessed with excellent forecasting abilities these days and one of the best safeguards is to take advantage of the weather forecasts and avoid getting into harms way if one does not have to.  That said, we hope the sunshine shows itself for the rest of the summer and that all of the dire predictions about a “brutal” winter are not true - enjoy the rest of the summer safely.

Viewpoint:  County Executive Race

Candidates: Tell us where you stand on bringing light rail service to Rockland

By John Iurica

This is the time of year when this newspaper gets a lot of junk press releases from candidates running for various offices. I really don’t want to hear any puffery, because most of it is a bunch of hoey.

The most important things when judging between two persons are the differences between them. Being that I am the managing editor of this newspaper, it is I who is going to pick the subject of the next press release to this paper for the race for County Executive.

As many of you know, the light rail system in New Jersey has been funded and construction has started bringing the line up to Cresskill, N. J.  The remaining stretch to the New York border, just  short of  Sullivan’s, on Oak Tree Road, is in the district of Senator Cardinale and Assemblyman Rooney, who will probably have that section implemented. Getting that line into Rockland County will depend upon the attitude of our next County Executive.

The light rail, to as far north as implemented,  will be used accommodate commuters to NYC , Jersey City, and other New Jersey locations, and will give direct trips to Xanadu Meadowlands which is opening in 2010, Giants Stadium, Meadowlands Stadium, Meadowlands Racetrack, etc. Presently, the light rail connects to NYC via the Port Imperial ferry. The light rail is planned to go directly into New York City through the new under the Hudson tunnel for which construction has already started.

I would like to have a statement from each of the candidates, for County Executive, as to their position for extending the light rail into Rockland County or against extending it. The statement must only give reasons for their particular choice of answers. A candidate should  start out his press release with: I am in favor of extending the New Jersey Transit light rail system into Rockland County for the following reasons, and I will do everything in my power to promote this; or the candidate should start out his press release with: I am in favor of stopping the extension of New Jersey Transit light rail system into Rockland County for the following reasons, and I will do everything in my power to stop the extension. These are the only two choices. Only a stand one way or the other will be acceptable for print. Equivocating will disqualify the candidate from print. Tap dancing around the issue is not acceptable. Be careful on your use of words like: but; if; however, or any conditional phrases.

I once heard Dandy Don Meridith tell Howard Cosell, “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, oh what a Merry Christmas we would have.”  Candidates: pay attention. You might consider this to be your first mini debate. Your position may take either side, and should be between 300 and 450 words in length, with no double talk or weasel wording. You need to satisfactorily submit this before anything else.

What’s good for us should be good for Congress, too

FAIRFAX, Va. —Americans for Limited Government president, Bill Wilson, today again called upon members of the House of Representatives to adopt a resolution (H. Res. 615) and "forgo their right to participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and agree to enroll under the same public option that they are forcing upon everyone else."

"Congress has a long history of carving out special deals for themselves—laws that are passed, rules and regulations that are applied to American citizens that Congress has a waiver for and doesn't have to deal with," said the bill's sponsor, Congressman John Fleming, in a recent interview with the Washington News Observer broadcast news service. 

According to ALG's Wilson, "This is a perfect opportunity for members of the House to show that they are willing to participate in the same labyrinthine regulations that they expect the American people to suffer under with the proposed ObamaCare abomination," said Wilson.

"We are watching the cosponsors list very closely," Wilson added. The resolution currently has 61 cosponsors. According to Fleming, "There has not been a single Democrat to sign on.  And we have reached out to them.  We have reached out to Henry Waxman and to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  I've not had any takers." 

Wilson said members "are just applying the same-old Washington mantra, 'do as I say, not as I do." Currently, members of the House and Senate are covered by a health care plan offering a wide variety of options, including private coverage, according to the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan website, "Federal employees, retirees and their survivors enjoy the widest selection of health plans in the country." 

As participants, members of Congress can choose from "Consumer-Driven and High Deductible plans that offer catastrophic risk protection with higher deductibles, health savings/reimbursable accounts and lower premiums, or Fee-for-Service (FFS) plans, and their Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO), or Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) if you live (or sometimes if you work) within the area serviced by the plan." 

Wilson also called upon the House Energy and Commerce committee, which is still considering the legislation, to adopt a binding measure that would require all members of Congress to enroll in the government-run health insurance option if lawmakers adopt one. 

"It's time for Congress to get a taste of its own medicine," said Wilson.  "If Congress is so unwilling to sign up for the so-called public 'option,' then why should the American people be willing to support it at all?" 

Guest Editorial from Americans for Limited Government. For more information on ALG call 703-383-0880 or visit getliberty.org.