Free Republic

Of the two hundred and twelve members of the Legislature, two hundred and ten are, for all intents and purposes, superfluous ...

Paterson has been in the Senate for eighteen years, and in this time has watched some seventy-five thousand pieces of legislation come to the floor. He told me that in only four instances had there been any uncertainty about the outcome of the vote, and in only one, involving a constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling, had the measure actually failed. He recalled the event wistfully: "Then you start to feel like you're a real senator, on TV.

"How do you get such uniformity of voting from such individual people from different regions of the state, diverse populations, and different income groups?" Paterson went on. "Because everybody's afraid of the leader. And if you don't cooperate you may go back to your office and find that the lights are off and the computers are shut down. Sometimes you go back to your office and the door is locked." ...

New York's impending budget catastrophe had been evident for at least two years, and possibly longer. Between the bursting of the Internet bubble, in 2000, and now, the state lost an estimated three hundred thousand jobs. State tax receipts, after growing on average by more than seven per cent a year through the late nineteen-nineties, shrank by an average of nearly five per cent in 2001 and 2002. Pataki's immediate response to all this bad news, courage and leadership notwithstanding, was to ignore it. ...

Most of Pataki's first two terms coincided with one of the longest economic expansions in American history. In that period of enormous growth, he nevertheless managed to preside over an impressive increase in state borrowing: New York took on ten billion dollars' worth of new debt in less than eight years. Its outstanding obligations now amount to thirty-eight billion dollars, making it -- Excelsior! -- by far the most indebted state in the nation. ...

Local taxes will be going up next year not only in the city but across the state. Already, for example, Nassau County has announced a twenty-per-cent increase in property taxes, and Rensselaer County has announced a twenty-eight-per-cent hike. ...

The participants ... agreed that Albany was a fantastically inefficient place in all ways except one. For the last nineteen years, the Legislature has not managed to pass the state budget on time even once, but during that same period ninety-nine per cent of incumbent lawmakers held on to their seats in general elections. Viewed in these terms, Albany does what it does all too well. The key to understanding Capitol politics is knowing what matters and what doesn't.

Simple solution: conduct the nomination vote prior to the convention.

That would seem like the obvious solution. But Fox News reported that Indiana and Idaho have already changed their laws to get Bush on the ballot, and Alabama, California, and D.C. are trying to do the same. I don't understand why all these states are scrambling to change laws when the GOP could just change its rules and nominate Bush ahead of time. They could still pretend to nominate him at the convention. Makes no sense to me.

Centcom confirms, taken into custody May20th.

A3311/7039/8285/8542/8456 will pass and be rejected by the Senate. S1111/1244 will pass and be rejected by the Assembly. It's a game they play every year in Albany to curry favor with their constituents. One of the fringe benefits (to politicians) of having a permanently divided legislature is that you can pretend to be fighting for what voters want without ever having to actually get any of it done.

It's been a mortal sin in the RCC at least since Aquinas (1200's).

GOV MASON ERASIN'

New York Post
May 19, 2003
By FREDRIC U. DICKER

FEARING he would commit "a grave sin" in the eyes of the Catholic Church, Gov. Pataki has canceled his plan to join the Masons, The Post has learned.

Pataki's induction into Freemasonry - the world's oldest and largest secret society, with members like George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and Gerald Ford - had been trumpeted as "historic" and was expected to occur at a formal and secret June ceremony at the historic Grand Lodge in Manhattan.

But the Masons - who received a pre-November election commitment from Pataki to join their organization - are now being notified that the governor, a Roman Catholic, won't be coming, said spokeswoman Lisa Stoll.

A May 13 notice on the New York Mason's Web site is headlined "Gov. George Pataki to become a Mason."

Pataki's expected induction into the Masons stirred an undercurrent of controversy within the Catholic Church, especially among New York Catholics familiar with longstanding church teaching against the Masons.

A recent article in The Wanderer, a conservative Catholic publication, said Pataki's pending induction as a Mason "underlines his estrangement from the Catholic Church, from which he has differences on such major issues as state funding for abortions and homosexual rights."

A formal Vatican ruling, approved by Pope John Paul II and made available to The Post by a prominent New York Catholic, forbids membership in the Masons, declaring, "The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion."

A source said Pataki agreed to become a Mason at the suggestion of one of his on-the-state-payroll "community-relations specialists," William Hetzler, himself a Mason, and the governor was not familiar at the time with the Catholic Church's view of Freemasonry.

"He was asked to join the Masons, but out of deference to his church, the invitation is being respectfully declined," spokeswoman Stoll told The Post.

No comment yet from the Masons.

If you are in an ethnic minortiy you will suffer disadvantages because of it and through no fault of your own.

So the mere fact of being a member of an ethnic minority means you are "disadvantaged". If I were in a minority, I would find that statement insulting. I have known blacks, Hispanics, and Asians who were more than capable of competing based on their ability, and I think they would be insulted, too. If you want to level the playing field, why not do it only for those who are truly disadvantaged? Why base it on ethnicity, unless you believe ethnic minorities necessarily have less ability?

I think ethnic minority groups are capable of campaigning for the removal of bias in their favour (I see no evidence of this) as they are best placed to judge if it has started to undervalue their achievements.

Some minority individuals are in favor of the removal of bias in their favor. Read Walter Williams some time, or Thomas Sowell, or Larry Elder. And you seem perfectly willing to argue against the removal of bias on behalf of all minority groups, so you can't expect others not to counter your arguments.

Your conclusion is a non sequitur. Succeeding based on merit is very different from having an equal chance to succeed. Most people on this forum want the former, while you obviously want the latter, so you try to pretend one leads to the other.

And I love the way you misspelled thoughtful. The irony of claiming that no intelligent person could possibly disagree with you when you can't even spell is priceless.

The new measure still cast marijuana users as less socially, morally and legally acceptable as bar flies, chronic gamblers and prescription-pill poppers.

Two vices in one? That just seems excessive.

It's up to the population of this country to elect people not motivated by every excuse to take away liberty.

I agree with you there. Sure, politicians cultivate the idea that they are problem solvers, dispensing justice and prosperity at every turn. But they wouldn't be able to get away with it if the average voter wasn't stupid enough to believe them.

The Government Says You're Fat

I say I'm just big-boned.

Count de Monet: Sire, the peasants are revolting!
King Louis: You said it, they stink on ice.

New York produces a few billion dollars worth agricultural products a year, mostly dairy. Not big compared the Midwest or California, but a significant part of the upstate economy, such as it is. NY is the third biggest dairy producing state (after CA and WI), and the second highest recipient of federal aid to dairy farmers (after WI). New York politicians all love to pander to the dairy vote.

Another reason our higher debt makes deflation more of a threat is that deflation increases the real value of debt. Your home decreases in value, and your paycheck is smaller, but the payments on your mortgage and credit cards stay the same.

On the other hand, our low savings rate should make deflation easier to prevent. If the government increases the money supply, Americans are more likely to spend, and Japanese are more likely to stuff the money under their mattresses.

In theory, deflation might be easier to prevent here, but harder to get out of once it starts.

Clinton encourages students to advance New York agriculture

May 17, 2003, 4:32 PM EDT
The Associated Press

MORRISVILLE, N.Y. -- New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday encouraged graduates of the State University of New York at Morrisville to use their knowledge to advance the state's agricultural industry.

"Technology, entrepreneurship and agricultural technology are needed in central New York to keep up with the global economy," she told about 400 graduates at the school's 92nd commencement ceremony, held on the school's football field.

She also encouraged the development of more windmill "farms."

"Think of what it would feel like in a few years if we didn't have to worry about oil as an energy source thousands of miles away," she said in her half-hour speech.

The Democratic senator twice received a standing ovation from the crowd of students, parents and professors.

At SUNY Cortland earlier Saturday, Clinton focused on the value of teaching. She announced plans to introduce legislation that would provide grants to teachers and schools for programs dealing with students with behavioral and emotional problems.

The MAC bonds had 5 years left, with about 2.5 billion left to pay. As part of the budget that just passed, the state agreed to assume the debt and refinance it over 30 years, at a total cost of 5 billion. So New Yorkers born during the last NYC bankruptcy will still be paying for it when they're 60.

It's certainly true that there are lots of factors involved, which makes it difficult to attribute the changes to one factor or another.

One thing that's interesting is that, even though the long-term trend in home runs is up, it has been very cyclical. The changes are statistically significant given the large number of at bats (around 80,000 per year 100 years ago, and more than double that today). The usual theories about bigger players and smaller parks don't account for the large year-to-year variation, or the big declines from 1961 to 1976 and 1987 to 1992. (At least I don't think parks were getting bigger and players smaller over those periods.)

There is some evidence for an expansion effect on home runs, but not until the third expansion in 1977.

If you look at the chart, you'll see a peak around the expansion years of 1961-62, followed by a decline until 1976. The expansion in 1969 brought a brief increase, but didn't halt the overall decline.

When the American League expanded in 1977, an increase began, and it was mostly due to an increase in the AL. The NL began to increase in 1982, but remained significantly lower than the AL most years through the 1990's.

There was a large increase after the NL expanded in 1993, but it was about equal in both leagues. The leagues have been much closer since the NL went to 16 teams in 1998.

The DH doesn't seem to have had any immediately discernible effect on the AL, though it may have contributed to the higher AL numbers beginning in the late 1970's.

The Real Soul of the Democratic Party

There's a lot of BS in the DLC memo, but there's some priceless stuff too.

What activists like Dean call the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is an aberration: the McGovern-Mondale wing, defined principally by weakness abroad and elitist, interest-group liberalism at home. That's the wing that lost 49 states in two elections, and transformed Democrats from a strong national party into a much weaker regional one.

...

In 1996, a survey by the Washington Post compared the views of delegates to the Democratic convention to those of registered Democratic voters. The delegates perfectly mirrored the Democratic electorate in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender. But they could not have been more different when it came to class and education. Democratic delegates were nearly five times more likely than Democratic rank-and-file to have incomes over $75,000, three times more likely to have a college degree, and over four times more likely to have done postgraduate work. No wonder that when the New Yorker recently asked Karl Rove to describe the Democratic base, he said, "somebody with a doctorate."

...

The last time the most liberal candidate won the Democratic nomination was George McGovern in 1972. Diehard liberals have been losing ever since.

...

Every primary season unleashes the pander virus. Dick Gephardt's $2.5-trillion health care plan is the latest case in point. While Gephardt is right to base his candidacy on "big ideas," his health plan only underscores the folly of appealing to Democratic activists instead of the Democratic rank-and-file. When activists think big, they always do so with the rank-and-file's money.