Busy holiday season ahead, time to priortize and utitlize a little time management here, besides the same issues will be facing us in January. The Democrats in the state senate will not have resolved the budget fiasco, the county will still be debating - wind or no wind, Obama will still be spending our money like a drunken' sailor.
Last I checked, Thanksgiving is still scheduled to take place tomorrow. The
economic news may be gloomy, but unlike President Franklin D. Roosevelt during
the Great Depression, President Barack Obama has not tinkered with the date of
the holiday.
In 1939, FDR decided to move Thanksgiving Day forward by a week. Rather than
take place on its traditional date, the last Thursday of November, he decreed
that the annual holiday would instead be celebrated a week earlier.
The reason was economic. There were five
Thursdays in November that year, which meant that Thanksgiving would fall on
the 30th. That left just 20 shopping days till Christmas. By moving the holiday
up a week to Nov. 23, the president hoped to give the economy a lift by
allowing shoppers more time to make their purchases and—so his theory
went—spend more money.
Roosevelt made his decision in part on advice from Secretary of Commerce
Harry Hopkins, who was in turn influenced by Lew Hahn, general manager of the
Retail Dry Goods Association. Hahn had warned Hopkins that the late
Thanksgiving, Nov. 30, might have an "adverse effect" on the sale of
"holiday goods."
In an informal news conference in August announcing his decision, FDR
offered a little tutorial on the history of the holiday. Thanksgiving was not a
national holiday, he noted, meaning that it was not set by federal law.
According to custom, it was up to the president to pick the date every year.
It was not until 1863, when Abraham Lincoln ordered Thanksgiving to be
celebrated on the last Thursday in November, that that date became generally
accepted, Roosevelt explained. To make sure that reporters got his point, he
added that there was nothing sacred about the date.
Nothing sacred? Roosevelt might as well have commanded that roast beef
henceforth would replace turkey as the star of the holiday meal, or that
cranberries would be banned from the Thanksgiving table. The president badly
misread public opinion. His announcement was front-page news the next day, and
the public outcry was swift and loud.
First to complain was Plymouth, Mass., home of the Pilgrims and location of
the first Thanksgiving in 1621. "Plymouth and Thanksgiving are almost
synonymous," intoned the chairman of the town's board of selectmen,
"and merchants or no merchants I can't see any reason for changing
it."
College football coaches also objected. The United Press news service noted
mildly that coaches would find the date change "a considerable
headache." The Associated Press predicted that the Roosevelt plan would
"kick up more clamor than a hot halfback running the wrong way." By
1939 Thanksgiving football had become a national tradition. Many colleges ended
their football seasons with Thanksgiving Day games, a custom that dated back to
the 19th century. In Democratic Arkansas, the football coach of Little Ouachita
College threatened: "We'll vote the Republican ticket if he interferes
with our football."
FDR's proclamation of the date of Thanksgiving had the force of law only in
the District of Columbia and the territories of Hawaii and Alaska. A few states
mandated that Thanksgiving be marked on the date set by the president, but in
most states governors issued pro forma ratifications of the date the president
proclaimed.
Now, however, the celebration became a political hot potato. Governors had
to read public opinion, examine the local business climate, consider political
loyalties, and decide which date to select as the official Thanksgiving.
Do they stick with tradition and celebrate Thanksgiving on Nov. 30, or
follow FDR's lead and change the date to Nov. 23? It wasn't long before people
started referring to Nov. 30 as the "Republican Thanksgiving" and
Nov. 23 as the "Democratic Thanksgiving" or "Franksgiving."
Public sentiment ran heavily against Roosevelt's plan. Ten days after the
president's announcement, Gallup published the results of a national poll
finding that 62% of Americans surveyed disapproved of the date change. By the
time November arrived, the 48 states were nearly evenly divided. Twenty-three
decided to stick with the old Thanksgiving, and 22 decided to adopt FDR's
date—Texas, Mississippi and Colorado said they would celebrate on both days.
For the next two years, Roosevelt continued to move up the date of
Thanksgiving, and more states resigned themselves to celebrating early. By
1941, however, the facts turned against Roosevelt.
By then, retailers had two years of experience with the early Thanksgiving,
and data were available regarding the 1939 and 1940 Christmas shopping seasons.
In mid-March 1941, The Wall Street Journal reported the results of a survey
done in New York City. The Journal's headline put it succinctly: "Early
Thanksgiving Not Worth Extra Turkey or Doll." Only 37% of stores surveyed
favored the early date. In Washington, the federal government reported that the
early Thanksgiving resulted in no boost to retail sales.
And so, on May 20, 1941, FDR called a press conference at the White House
and announced that he was changing Thanksgiving Day back to its traditional
date. The early Thanksgiving had been an "experiment," he said, and
the experiment failed. It was too late to move the 1941 Thanksgiving back to
the traditional date, but in 1942 Thanksgiving would revert to the last
Thursday of the month. This was "the first time any New Deal experiment
was voluntarily abandoned," a Washington Post columnist wrote.
Thankfully, there is a happy ending to this tale of Washington folly: On
Dec. 26, 1941, Roosevelt signed a joint resolution passed by Congress making
Thanksgiving a national holiday and mandating that it be celebrated on the
fourth Thursday in November.
Ms. Kirkpatrick is a former deputy editor of the Journal's editorial
page.
Norah O’Donnell noted in vain that Palin’s fans were “largely white — almost
no minorities in this crowd.” Matthews chirped the same line later, assailing the
“white crowd.” Walsh likened the gathering to a “paranoid tea party.”
Matthews hammered away at the “monochromatic” scene.
Obama feels the need to insert himself into our day of rest, football and belly popping turkey, dressing and deserts with this United Way commercial appearance.
United We Serve features Drew Brees, Eli Manning and others along with O-Bow-Ma.
Rudy Giuliani is out of the race for Governor but in the hunt for the US Senate seat. Oddly enough that pits two rivals for the GOP nod - Giuliani against Pataki (take II).
In polling he leads Gillibrand by a 14 point margin - 54% to 40% and if he is to come up against Pataki, well he would crush him nearly 3 to 1 with 71% support to Pataki 24%.
This clears the way for Cuomo to crush Rick Lazio like a bug on a windshield. Oh wait, Zogby reports to not count Paterson out yet, his re-election isn't hopeless. Read more here: Forbes.
NY -23
Hoffman is "un-conceding the race for NY-23 (here), which means all is in play until the election results are certified. Ho Hum - big deal, that is the case anyway whether he conceded or not, while statistically possible it is highly improbable the results will change. This is nothing more than a publicity stunt and an opportunity to keep a Hoffman candidacy for a 2010 race in the public's view and it also keeps Owens' vote for the Pelosi health care plan in the public arena for debate and puts him on notice that his every move is under even more scrutiny than usual.
It is time for Hoffman and Scozzafava both to move on and get over it, the race is over and enough post mortem already.
State
Are the Senate Democrats miscalculating the state deficit issue? Governor Paterson is attempting to address the state deficit with a real plan while he continues to look like a lame duck Governor. It is clear his days in office are numbered, he is having to spend money now on an advertising campaign just to raise his favorable ratings a meager percent or two and maintain any resemblance of being a viable candidate.
But, the Senate Democrats appear to be ignoring him and viewing him as a liability in this crisis, which could be a serious miscalculation on their part. They could and are likely to be viewed as do nothing Democrats and the media is already rolling out story after story on their lack of action and lack of any plan to address the deficit.
The Senate Democrats should not make this a referendum on the Governor's popularity, they need to do their own job or they will spoon feed their opponents an issue and pay the price with the electorate in the next election cycle.
Unfortunately, the Democrats running the State Senate seem to think
things are not as bad as the governor makes out, and have advanced a
plan that is politically palatable but also ludicrous. They would drain
rainy-day funds and any other untapped pool of savings to pay the bills
until March of next year.
That’s like cleaning out your 401(k) to pay the rent.
Patty "Plate" Ritchie who began the petition drive to stop the new license plate program looks like she will score a victory against the Senate Democrats' proposal.
Of course, in sort of a John Kerry "I was for it before I was against it" there are some Senate Democrats who voted for it and are now claiming they were against it, but it is strange how they never spoke in opposition to it before or after it passed until all the pressure mounted.
The last article includes this stellar quote: "We
were trying to at least put it on the table to get it off the table,"
Drew Mangione, spokesman for North Country Sen. Darrel Aubertine, said
of the plea.
Show Spelled Pronunciation [i-pif-uh-nee] Show IPA
A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
Ex: Senator Aubertine had an epiphany on New York State’s Plan requiring new license plates.
The following Senators have buckled under massive pressure:
Sen. Dave Valesky (D-49th Senate District),
Sen. Darrel
Aubertine (D-Cape Vincent),
Neil Breslin (D-Albany),
Bill Stachowski
(D-Buffalo),
Antoine Thompson (D-Niagara)
When does the fiscal situation of the state stop becoming a crisis? The state is reportedly going to be broke by Christmas caused by out of control spending. This year there will be coal in every one of the legislator's stockings.
Here is timeline for the DRP discussions as prepared by CapCon.
Emphasis added.
DRP Timeline
9/23/09 – Leaders Meeting: Paterson predicts $2.1 billion deficit
will grow to over $3 billion. (Republican) Senator Skelos is the only leader to
offer any substantive proposals to reduce the deficit including cutting
back $2.2 billion in legislative adds in the 2009-10 budget; reducing
state agency spending by five percent; consolidations of state
agencies; and selling surplus state property.
10/14/09 – Senate Republicans formally release their DRP plan which includes: Cutting back the $2.2 billion in general fund spending added to the 2009-10 budget by legislative Democrats;
Cutting state agency non-personal services by ten percent to save $480 million;
Freezing state purchases of recreational lands to save $78 million;
Freezing planned Medicaid expansions to save $200 million;
Reinstating welfare and Medicaid anti-fraud protections to save $34 million;
Cutting Medicaid optional services to save $150 million; and
Cutting state agency contract balances by five percent to save $300 million.
10/15/09 – Governor Paterson announces two-year, $5 billion DRP, which
includes several proposals included in the Senate Republicans’ plan,
including across-the board agency reductions and more aggressive
Medicaid fraud protections. Governor Paterson’s proposal also includes
a spending cap, which Senate Republicans passed twice last year and
offered as an amendment to this year’s budget.
10/16/09 – Assembly Republican Leader Kolb puts forth “conversation starters” for over $3 billion in savings including:
Across-the-board reduction in mid-year State Operating Funds ($2.5 billion);
Consolidating certain administrative agencies ($241 million);
Remove a state mandate from local governments so they can decide
which optional Medicaid services to provide ($1 Billion), as proposed
by Senate Republicans;
Reduce Non-Personal Services across all state agencies ($500 million), as proposed by Senate Republicans;
Reduce Personal Services across all state agencies, focusing on appointed administrative positions ($175 million);
Eliminate Legislative Earmarks ($100 million); and
Eliminate funding for state government to buy up more private land ($30 million).
10/21/09 – Leaders Meeting: Senator Skelos outlines Senate Republican
plan and points out similarities in the Governor’s proposal. Governor
asks to address Joint Legislature. Senate Democrat Leader Sampson makes
one suggestion to refinance tobacco bonds, which Paterson calls a
non-starter. Assembly Democrats offer no proposals to reduce the
deficit.
10/29/09 – Leaders Meeting: Senator Skelos announces agreement on $2.1
billion of Governor’s plan, and announces additional cost savings
included in Senate Republican plan. Assembly Democrats still have
offered no proposals to reduce the deficit. Governor calls session on
November 10th.
11/05/09 – Senate Republicans release outline of areas of agreement
with Governor Paterson and additional proposals to close $3.2 billion
deficit.
11/08/09 – Senate Democrats announce a DRP, built mostly around
one-shot revenue sources. Assembly Democrats have still not released a
plan.
11/12/09 – Governor Paterson holds a conference call with legislative
leaders and claims they are ¾ of the way there on agreement for a
deficit reduction package. Assembly Democrats claim to support cuts in
spending, but no details are given, and to date, Assembly Democrats
have not publicly offered any plan to reduce the deficit.
Did you happen to notice the Democrats in the Assembly have not offered a plan and the Senate Democrats are focused in raising more revenue and not cutting spending? With thinking like this will anything happen to ever fix the problem, NO!
One of the many issues the Scozzafava campaign had was raising enough money in order to balance media campaign, respond to the attacks and get their message out. In the era of heavy media marketing of candidates when the money dries up so does your poll numbers.
Politics is a game of attrition and it takes money.
This may be some indication of why the money dried up!
Stephen Aquario, Executive Director of the NYS Association of Counties discusses how NYS has changed forever and how the "old game is over". The legislature needs to understand that and make some serious changes, because it is game over. Senator Aubertine is correct when answering the question about whether or not the legislature is dragging its feet, he said the process needs to be deliberate, correct, but on the other hand the fiscal situation is not new, the legislature knew it was coming.
Dede has been very vocal since the conclusion of the campaign, she has several national interviews and NCPR. Here is an interview on CNN. If only she would had have campaigned like she is attacking back now.
