10-13-11: columbia county board of supervisors might be pissing your money away. help track them.

At the end of this post, links to the county site. Do you think we should trust them with our money? I don't. Some of the people voting on huge amounts of money are not people you would hire to do a responsible job. They way they do it -- with no public comments or hearings, without putting the resolutions online before they vote on them for public inspection -- is disturbing.

And Columbia County has no ethics policy or ethics board. They say they do, but its kabuki theater. If a supervisor proposes a complete boondoogle, you wouldn't know. If you did find out, there would be nothing you could do about it, no one to call, no institution to look into it.

Corruption is going on right now. Something strange probably happened last night. I can't keep up.  Now my day starts and I'm busy. So are you. But take some time and read the resolutions from last month and email any and everyone on the county site and tell them you want the resolutions from last night posted. Then come back and read them.

Help me. Look at the resolutions. Demand they get online before votes. Send in FOIL requests. Email me for some sample FOILs I've done.

They need a lot more scrutiny.

I do not have time to prove everything. When I find something, I post it. People should watch them. It's much nicer not to think about what they are up to.

The Ethics Board is a joke. They like it like that. Why?

Horse shot. Article here.

Reward.

This guy bought an apple orchard in Kinderhook from photography in 1970s. LGBT History Month: Photographer George Hester 1970s Pioneer

Motorcycle ride.

61 year old woman charged with growing marijuana.

Lafayette in Hudson?

Columbia County Board of Supervisors met last night. Here are the resolutions from last night... wait, they are not there.

Here is something for 2 million dollars of your tax money to be pissed away. Wonder what happened with this.

Here is one from last month. Here is a tax increase.

People should read these. The Columbia County Board of Supervisors might do anything and no one would know. Please look at these.

And write to the county to tell them to put the resolutions online as soon as possible for public inspection.

10-12-11: other blog today

sunshineonthehudson.com today

10-11-11: copake cow, 91-yr old robbed, things to do, simon on the piano

Hey, I know that guy on drums and I know the Sanctuary for Independent Media... Robbing old people?

Copake Cow in California.

Remind me to go to this please.

Or if I can't, then tell me I wanted to go to this.

But I probably can't make that. So anything here would be good.

I did go to this.

I would like to be in lower Manhattan with these guys.  Given them hell #OWS.

"They tell you are we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers," Žižek says. "We are the awakening, from a dream which is turning into a nightmare. We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself."

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/10/occupy_wall_street_spreads_32_arrested

Yelper? Give some love.

Egg swap.

Beetle.

ccSCOOP.com

Cornell Cooperative Extensions Announce Fall Program Schedule

Cornell Cooperative Extensions of Columbia and Greene Counties have released their fall program schedule. Pre-registration is required for all programs. You can register for programs taking place at the CCE Columbia Education Center, 479 Route 66, Hudson, NY by calling 518-828-3346 X0. In Greene, unless otherwise no...See More

Cornell University Cooperative Extension | Home

www.agroforestrycenter.org

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia and Greene Counties is working to connect local residents with timely, practical and research tested information to assist with flood recovery efforts. If you are unable to access or print these resources, they are also available in printed form from eit...

CrandellTheatre Crandell Theatre 

LIKE CRAZY:Playing Friday October 21, 7pm during FilmColumbia get your tickets now! Don't miss out! A tender... fb.me/1iGLn7udF

11 minutes ago 

10-10-11: lot of good links today

National Science Bowl: sign up and go for it.

Octagon house. I think there was a theory about right angles and cancer at the time, which is why the cancer hospital at Central Park West and 103rd Street in Manhattan has no right angles... Google it later.

Public notice: travel trailer camp? Something strange about this, something personal...

Copake cow in California? Brown Swiss.

Someone is checking for birds. Any Greebes on there? I saw one!

Assisted suicide incident in Columbia County?

CNN: Road trip in Ghent, New York.

Where is the comparable mushroom list? This guy in Philmont is a mushroom identification and preparation for eating champ. So delicious...

Mercury and cement factories and our congressman.

Katchie Farm event next week.

Karen Dodge of Valatie, marathon runner.

Bike tour, missed posting before it happened but contact for future events included.

Layoff list.

Candidate for supervisor, Stuyvesant, Lee Jamison.

Just insane or both insane and false? Bones of the race of half angel/half human creatures reported in the Old Testament found during routine repair of Route 66 in Ghent.

Book Review from the New Lebanon Library.

@OnlyOnWarrenYuppie Hipster

To the girl skateboarding down Warren Street in a white kimono, your fabulous!

cdubs Christian Westbrook 

 by OccupyWallStNYC

Awesome! #JOINUS! RT @WikileaksTruck @OccupyPhilly 5 police officers ripped off their badges, stomped on them, and joined the march.

SenatorSanders Bernie Sanders 

Wall Street Protests - Sen. Bernie Sanders huff.to/nIb9EZ via@huffingtonpost #OccupyWallStreet #ows

no stinking permit is right

This guy took the words right out of my mouth.

Yeah, they ignored. They laughed. Occupy Wall Street. 

patterns in nature

agricultural work

"criminalized good workers and turned criminals into bad workers" In the comments, someone says that raising wages will lead to automated tomato pickers... I don't think we're even close to a machine that can pick tomatoes for the table. Are we even trying? The tomatoes would probably be as hard as a rock.

no right to drink milk from your own cow

Hi Will,

you're probably so busy dealing with your own silly court stuff but I thought this might show you, that you're not alone. It's a different subject matter, nevertheless it shows where things are heading to...

Hanna

JUDGE: NO RIGHT TO DRINK MILK FROM OWN COW

PROTEST WITH NATIONAL COMPLAINT LETTER AND FAX CAMPAIGN

On September 9th, 2011 Wisconsin Judge Patrick J. Fiedler signed a court order declaring that owners of dairy cows in Wisconsin do NOT have the right to drink the milk from their own cow!

The order applies to a case between plaintiffs Nourished by Nature, LLC and its members, dairy farmers Mark and Petra Zinniker, Gayle Loiselle and Robert Karp VERSUS defendant Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP).  Nourished by Nature, LLC and the Zinnikers contracted for a herd of cows wholly owned by the LLC to be boarded at Zinniker Farm.  Loiselle and Karp also contracted with the Zinnikers to board their wholly owned cow. In February 2010 the plaintiffs filed suit against DATCP seeking a court ruling that their boarding contracts were legal.  Last month Judge Fiedler denied plaintiffs motion and rejected their arguments that they have the fundamental right to possess, use and enjoy their property.  The plaintiffs filed a Motion for Clarification which resulted in the September 9th order.

Judge Fiedler's ruling disregards the fundamental right to life and liberty of farmers and citizens. The preamble of the Constitution declares that government was founded to secure the rights of its citizens.

The Wisconsin Judicial Commission has the power to remove a Judge from the bench and that is our goal, but we need your help!

Judge Fiedler stated that, This court is unwilling to declare that there is a fundamental right to consume the food of one's choice without first being presented with significantly more developed arguments on both sides of the issue.  He said his decision translates further that, NoPlaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to own and use a dairy cow or a dairy herd. and NoPlaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to consume the milk from their own cow.

ACTION TO TAKE

We need hundreds of formal complaints signed against this judge. If enough people fill out the form, this will force an investigation from the Judicial Commission. Marc Lovicott, a reporter from Channel 3 Madison, WI, has said that if more than 100 complaints were filed he could guarantee that he would put the story on prime time.  We need to stress that this judges ruling was unconstitutional and lacked judicial professionalism.

1.  Please download the complaint form, which you can fill in your own narrative. Here is a link to the form: http://rawmilkparty.com/resources/Action+Alert$2C+Consumer+Form+Blank$2C.pdf

2.  Here is a link to a form that the narrative is already filled out: http://rawmilkparty.com/resources/Concerned+Citizen.pdf.

3.  Enter your name and sign it, then fax to (608) 266-8647 or mail to :

WISCONSIN JUDICIAL COMMISSION

110 EAST MAIN STREET

MADISON, WI. 53703

4.  Wait 3 days after you mailed or faxed your form.  Follow your complaint form up with a phone call to the Wisconsin Judicial Commission at (608) 266-7637, and ask if they received your complaint.

5.  If they received it, tell them that you would like to personally speak with the person who is responsible for investigating this complaint.  Tell the investigator that this judge is denying farmers of their fundamental constitutional rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Tell the investigator that you want the judge brought to justice, and demand that The Wisconsin Judicial Commission sees that the Judge is removed from the bench.  Then ask the investigator what action is he/she going to take on your behalf to see that The Wisconsin Judicial Commission gives this issue its full attention.

guy is awesome

is this yesterday's news yet?

upstate new york: hello?

There are things that are incredibly stupid that we've been doing forever as a society or a government, stuff that is absolutely unjustifiable, nonsensical and there is no discussion of changing it. Why? Why are we arguing about the controversial stuff when there is so much low lying fruit?

Here is my plan for upstate New York, since you asked (did you ask?):

1. Clean up the corruption in local and state government, particularly local
2. Get rid of overlap and inefficiency and too many jurisdictions and agencies
3. Change the structure of government / reduce the number of elected officials
4. Put every single transaction of almost any kind online for the world to see
5. Set up a system to make sure people who work for government are actually competent
6. Undo the education system
7. Killing the goose that laid the golden egg: not so nice to live here... no more ugly

Right now, we waste money on duplicated services. We waste money by pumping money into corrupt and incompetent local governments who will do stupid things with it that actually harm the economy and look ugly. We prevent business investment by allowing incompetent and corrupt people to run the government. Most of the kids are learning to live in a world that doesn't exist anymore. The labor force is not trained to live in the world as it is, to put in economic terms. We are crushing the human spirit, to put it in emotional terms. We're making nice places into ugly places. We're squandering the environment.

The economic environment is stiffing. The physical environment is substandard, unhealthy and unpleasant. The government is corrupt and incompetent. We drive too much.

We here in upstate New York are only still breathing because downstate is a real economy with real value. As long as the leeches that run the government can suck blood out of New York City, they don't care that we don't actually have an economy here. We're parasites.


I'll drop a couple of points which I may come back and expand... or not:

a) The governor's initiative to pump money into the economy through his "Open for Business" strategy is likely to make the economy worse, rather than better and is completely counter productive, like foreign aid to corrupt third world countries.

b) You can make sure official are competent while still maintaining democracy, elected officials making decision, through a combination of reduction in the number of elected positions combined with overlapping jurisdiction over appointed positions.  

c) Stop paying for schools with local property taxes: replace with income tax. Get rid of town courts: send all cases to appointed professional judges. No village or small city police: increase the state police. No county sheriff. No town highway departments:  consolidate county and state highway departments. 

d) People like their towns and villages. They can continue to exist as community boards with drastically reduced power and budget. In my scheme, local government for small entities doesn't have anything they really have to do, except some smaller role in zoning and planning. Under my scheme, with voting representatives on planning and zoning from outside the jurisdiction, appointed by a different body, zoning and planning would not be under the town community board directly. So what would the community board do? New stuff... like offer payroll services to small businesses, or community college courses, or child care, or tutoring, or public education in other forms, or community development, or whatever... something that isn't happening already. Highway, court, assessment, police: they won't have any authority over that stuff. 

I could write up each one of those as an entry... and I might.

This one drives me crazy: paying for public education through local real estate taxes. Real estate taxes are the most subjective tax we have. You are asking someone to estimate the value of a property and base a tax on that number. When you have a subjective tax and empower someone to make a decision, you are begging for the system to be misused and unfair. It's inevitable.

It's also expensive to collect this tax, since you have to have so many systems in place to prevent the assessors from gaming the system. As much as you spend to stop them from gaming the system, they still will game it.

Real estate taxes are a progressive, maybe, when you compare poor and middle class people but they are entire regressive when you compare middle class and rich people. If I earn $70,000 a year and have a house worth $300,000 of which I have $100,000 in equity and few other assets, then I am paying a wealth tax on 300% of my wealth. If I am a billionaire with 3 billion in assets including a 30 million dollar estate, I am paying a wealth tax on 1% of my wealth.

Then each town is paying for its own individual schools with its real estate revenue, at least in general in New York. The tax rates then vary widely, advantages for some with some local cash cow while hurting the districts that can least afford it. You get places with high taxes and good schools where it only makes sense to live if you have school age children. So a lot of people leave when their kids grow up. And not too many 20 year old college grads want to live there. And then the rates have to go even higher. And you have the wrong labor force locally. You get economic segregation. You get age segregation. You get boring education that isn't working.

Conclusion: paying for public education through local real estate taxes is stupid. 

Next, locally, we have too many agencies doing the same thing in one area. Columbia County, for example, has the same population as Park Slope Brooklyn. In Park Slope how many highways departments are there? How many police forces? How many different phone numbers to call if you have a question about getting a form? How many local government websites? How many agencies to register your dog? How many agencies to transport children to school? How many school districts? How many library systems? How many courts dealing with traffic tickets?

In about every case the answer is one for Park Slope. In Columbia County, in ever case the number is greater than 7, as high as 20. Well, you might say, Park Slope and Columbia County are very different, even if the populations are similar. True. But administration and oversight are not dependent on geography or landscape.

Conclusion: there are tremendous advantages in terms of quality of service, efficiency, and accountability by getting your head out of you ass.

Okay, I solved the problem of the moribund upstate economy. That was easy. Just kidding: I will need three or four more blog posts, then it will be fine. But I got off to a nice start.

No really, there are a lot of simple things you could do... and I'll get back to this in another blog post if anyone is interested... hello? anyone? crickets?

Now, one last point. This last one is a PHILOSOPHICAL or HISTORICAL point. If you go and look at the debate between the Federalists and the anti-Federalists, you will see that they spent a lot of time talking about logistics and process. I mean both sides.

If you have a supreme court with judicial review, what will happen? How many on the court? Serve for life or a set term? (Side note: the anti-Federalist were sure right about that lifetime tenure thing: bad idea. Supreme court justices should have 8 year terms, then they can be re-appointed or not by the president and confirmed by the senate. Constitutional Amendment needed.)

They believed that if you rig up the numbers and duties right, the system will either work or not work. It's a system. People are people and human nature won't change. You have to get the right balance of interests. You have to use human nature as it is, not as you wish it were. Trust no one.

The same principles apply to the problems now with upstate New York. Corruption? Putting everything online is a good start. Then some real ethics boards, with oversight over the ethics boards.

Incompetence? Again, systematic controls, with layers of authority... I have to think about this in detail but in principle I don't see why you can't control of screw ups like you do corruption.

That's enough. Thanks for reading my thoughts.

register star does a pretty good article on this hearing

Get the full story here.

we lost

Basically, the ZBA ruled, following David R. Everett of Whiteman Osterman and Hanna, that the planning board screwed up in 2009 and gave me the wrong permit. So therefore they get to close my business down. Makes no sense.

It's a nonsense. But what else would you expect from a crooked, incompetent lawyer like David R. Everett of Whiteman Osterman and Hanna? He gets an F for strategy. He gets an F for loyalty. He gets an F for ethics. He gets an F for knowledge of the law. I will get a blog post about him coming up.

But we have a stay, we're on appeal again, we'll win in state and federal court, we'll get all our money back and still be operating as we are now.

I have no idea what I'm accused of having done wrong. Yet I'm already convicted.

injustice on the agenda tomorrow night

Here is what other people say... not me...

Begin forwarded message:

Subject: Hearing to destroy local mans business in Stuyvesant NY

Hey, you guys need to be at this hearing tomorrow night. The local government of Stuyvesant Falls wants to make an example of one its citizens to keep any more city slickers from moving into the area. It's a struggle between transparent and effective government and a corrupt cronyist patronage system of government.

It's real news and it's an important issue. This guy is getting railroaded by a bunch of backward thugs who think no one is paying attention. Help prove them wrong.

Tuesday, September 27

7 PM Stuyvesant Town Hall

5 Sunset Drive

Stuyvesant, NY 12173

Begin forwarded message:

I can't remember if you've covered this issue, but I don't think you have. It's the action by the Town of Stuyvesant to cavalierly wrest a man's business permit from him, without affording him an appeal. They've really thrown the book at him. But he's not backing down. He feels his constitutional right to due process (and probably other rights) has been violated, and I frankly think he's right. He's a character, for sure, but that makes for a pretty interesting story, non?

Begin forwarded message:

They are fighting to keep their business open and pay their mortgage and payroll for their employees. They run a great business, a country  

getaway for city dogs and there are no problems with their operation.  The zoning board went there and proved it themselves. NO loud noises from the dogs!

They were given a permit 5 years ago by the town, and the town is trying to take it away due to political differences. 

How can this be permitted?  How can they take away a permit they granted, and yet allow another town resident operate a business that is clearly a violation of town zoning laws?

The process couldn't be more unfair.  Please help. In today's economy, why would a town board want to take away the lively hood not only of the owner but of the employees as well?  All because he has different beliefs than them. This can not be kept quiet. 

9-24-11: No to free speech. No to capitalism.

Read the details here. Communist Republican? No to free speech. No to capitalism.

9-22-11: chatham county da

Go here and voice you opinion about the murder of Troy Davis.

9-21-11: register star writes a good article on local government

for (open government) and against (killing people)

I wish I could vote for these guys:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/world/europe/in-berlin-pirates-win-8-9-percent-of-vote-in-regional-races.html?src=recg

And against this process:
http://www.naacp.org/pages/too-much-doubt

And this story.

And this. The Register Star writes an excellent article on bias in local government. Great work.

9-20-11: land trust teacher no trust

Strange video near Hudson. West Nile Virus... wrong county. The New York State Police at Kinderhook were called to the Hannaford Supermarket in Kinderhook. Triathalon. RIP. Land preserved. About the county website. Teacher cheating scandals.

9-18-11: pot act eat breath read look up sky history

Marijuana arrest in Stuyvesant.

17 September 2011 On 09/05/11 the New York State Police at Kinderhook were called to a domestic dispute in the Town of Stuyvesant. While at the residence Trooeprs noted that there were numerous marihuana plants being grown in the bedroom. Christine Parks, age 33 of Stuyvesant was arrested and charged under the Public Health Law with Unlawfully Growing Cannabis. She was processed and released on an Appearance Ticket returnable to Stuyvesant Town Court.

Good luck Christine. You should be able to grow marijuana in your bedroom. What a country. Police state. Stuyvesant Town Court. Fingers crossed.

History. Columbia County and the Civil War lecture.

Art Omi Cafe menu and hours.

Kids want to act?

Fracking science.

I don't get this about the library. Why is this outrageous?

http://twitter.com/#!/neiltyson
Where to look to see the Moon & Jupiter late tonite you ask? After careful review of my charts, I recommend: up. Volunteer firefighters.

9-15-11: author, primary again, FEMA

Article in the New York Times about a local author.

Primary results on the county website.

FEMA looks around Columbia County.

Historic house.