Results tagged “Gillibrand” from Sundwall for Congress - Special Election 2009

Times Union writer Casey Seiler makes a terrible case when he's not 'reporting'.

Attempting to make some sort of case for the average Joe, he digresses into some hipster reference about a movie made in 1932, as if we all were to know it. This alone should be grounds for reader cessation, but the pull is a local Congressional race.

For over two million dollars we get commercials which keep Mr. Seiler up at night. In my estimation there wasn't a single one that stood out as anything not trite, banal or just lame (the Treadwell tobacco hit being the most notable). I'm wondering what code the term 'affinity' politics relays to his peers in diverging first into Obama and than into Palin. But hey, I don'y get read by thousands and have to endure comments if I did . . .

Sandy Treadwell's most recent commercial suggests that we in the 20th Congressional District must break our 'addiction' to oil. While this is typical 'progressive-speak' when it comes to climate hype and whatnot, it is surprising to see such language from the mouths of machine Republicans. They really have lost their way.

Addiction implies some sort of personal problem according to the dictionary. So far as I know my own choice to use oil in my car or home is not a state of enslavement whose cessation will cause great trauma. If suddenly oil wasn't available, I'd cope. Whether it comes from Exxon Arabia or Alaska makes no difference to me. The thought that one little old Congress Critter from Lake Placid can somehow or even should change this market structure is laughable.

A couple more ads like this and I might have to start swinging back with some real thoughts on the matter. Of course some thoughts on Iraq might matter to voters more than alternative energy nationalization plans or tweaking the tax system for some marginal benefits to a few senior citizens. At least there was some drama in the last round in the district. One wonders if they even debate whether Iraq will even be discussed. Let's break our addiction to these two parties that control everything. Start thinking write-in . . .

Congresswoman Gillibrand is baffled that someone would tell her that high oil prices aren't caused by the evil speculators. Of course do-gooder lawyers would always reach for the regulatory button when confronted with any problem. It's their job after all.

Bob Murphy has a great article about this over at the Mises site. Murphy's point ?

The crucial point to remember is that there is nothing magical about government officials. There is no intrinsic reason to expect them to better forecast future disruptions in oil imports.

I know this rings hollow for all those afflicted with governmentis, but the idea that the strategic reserve (and even the Federal Reserve) is something that the government can control or eliminate will simply never be on the table for these types.

At the end of what would be my failed attempt to get on the ballot in the 2006 campaign, the LPNY Senatorial candidate, Jeff Russell and I crashed a MoveOn.org event. The purpose and the tone of the event was a criticism of the war on Iraq and a display of the opportunity cost for the district if the tax dollars stayed at home.

While we were there to criticize Hillary Clinton and John Sweeney for their support of the war , there were a couple cat calls in regard to the current Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand. She obviously had not taken a strong enough position against the war and the leftists and brave progressives were taking her to task about it. While its not very puzzling strategically to see why the Gillibrand campaign avoided this event, it remains equally dubious that the current mailer her five offices has mailed out amounts to fiddling with the tax code in light of the major crisis that Empire has driven. While it stresses property tax relief, one has to wonder whether the current CongressCritter would have been suited for the Assembly or State Senate instead of waddling around under the auspices of the nation's Capitol. It was a question many asked of me as I was running. My answer was always . . 'the war, the war'.

If you're still with with me on this post, which have been rare and infrequent here, here's an in depth criticism of the whole approach. Of course I saved the top shelf stuff for the real blog. This hardly seemed like worthwhile there, but it was something that had to be said in case there are a few willing donors to pop a few grand off a piece for another insurgent effort that dealt with the war and the trillions of dollars of unfunded mandates that our children and grandchildren are stuck with . . . .