Albany's Insanity

May God rest his soul. I have been listening to Paul Harvey since the early 70’s. Every day he was on during lunch and we sat and listened to him as we ate lunch. WBZ Radio in Boston is I first learned of him and loved to listen to him. His smooth, soothing voice and the high pitch at the end when he said. Paul Harvey… Good Day! You will be missed my Friend but I know as a believer in Christ, you are with him now, Thank you for all the years. .

Paul Harvey, a radio legend who began his career in 1933 while he was still in high school, has died, ABC News reported Saturday.

Harvey began his radio career on KVOO-AM while in high school in his hometown of Tulsa, Okla. He was known for his unique, staccato-style delivery of news combined with commentary, which resonated with tens of millions of Americans for more than five decades.

Among the dozens of professional honors Harvey received, he was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame and, in 1992, received the Paul White Award, the highest honor presented by RTNDA, the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

Harvey's wife, Angel, who produced his radio programs, died in 2008. Angel Harvey is credited with creating his popular radio feature “The Rest of the Story.”

via Report: Radio Legend Paul Harvey Dies – cbs4denver.com.

He may as well just throw this money up in the air and let who ever wants grab it and do with it what they will. That’s what it sounds like. Speed over accuracy? What a stupid statement.

Hey Gov we have a couple bridges up there that need 60 Million in work. Take down the tolls and us the money for this. Kill 2 birds with one 0bama stone. Create jobs and give us commuters a brake on the tax.

NEW YORK, NY February 26, 2009 —Governor Paterson pulled out a baseball reference to describe how he thinks federal stimulus money should be spent in New York. Speaking to Brian Lehrer on WNYC this morning, Paterson said money for transportation projects should be spent the way St. Louis Cardinal Ozzie Smith described how he played short-stop — speed was more important than accuracy.

The governor said that's also his philosophy in putting stimulus funds to work, right away.

PATERSON: This state is teetering on the verge of insolvency if we don't get people to work and generate revenues for our economy.

Paterson says he expects New York's $24 billion in federal stimulus money to create three to 400,000 jobs in the state over the next 27 months.

via WNYC – News – Paterson on NY Stimulus: Speed Over Accuracy.

Welcome to the club of tolls or the dreaded commuter tax that we on Grand Island have been paying for 74 years. They are here and no one wants to do anything to get rid of them. It is a cash cow and a huge revenue source for the state. If Silver wants it you will get them. How very sad.


“Tolling the bridges is just not acceptable to me,” said Rory I. Lancman, who represents Queens. “Once you cross the Rubicon on tolling bridges the future conversation is merely, ‘How much is the periodic increase going to be?’ ”

Silver Proposes Tolls on East and Harlem River Bridges – NYTimes.com.

ALBANY — With time running out for the State Legislature to act on a plan to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, proposed a compromise on Wednesday that endorses putting tolls on the bridges over the East River and the Harlem River.

Any plan that Mr. Silver puts forward carries considerable weight with Democrats in Albany, who control both the Assembly and the Senate.

But by proposing new tolls — albeit more modest ones than what a state commission proposed in December — Mr. Silver has put himself at odds with many legislators in Albany, particularly those from boroughs outside Manhattan and the suburbs who represent people who drive into the city regularly.

Mr. Silver also called for adopting the tax on business payrolls that was proposed by Richard Ravitch, the former transportation authority chairman who led a state commission to address the authority’s budget crisis.

I wish I knew about this before…. Dam, what a time to actually have work to pay my bills.

We have to do another one that is focused on the state.

via Buffalo Tea Party Tomorrow Noon | Political Class Dismissed.

The Buffalo branch of the great nationwide tea party will be tomorrow, Friday, at noon at Lafayette Square in downtown Buffalo.

The event is co-sponsored by Jill Malzer-Sinclair, President, JEM Insurance Agency Inc. and Free New York. Jill is the coordinator for the event and can be reached at (716) 903-9968.

Be there and bring a nasty sign and some war paint.

This is a nationwide event with rallies in over 40 cities.

I’m shocked, shocked I tell ya… NOT.
I hope no one is surprised but at the same time I hope everyone is enraged. All the legislators involved in this need to be responsible for the cost, not just the printing but pay the salaries of all the people that were doing the work on our dime.

In the mean time they will collect their contributions and payoffs from all the unions and they will get reelected. That’s what we do here in WNY, everyone bitches, moans, complains yet year after year they by pass the primary and vote these same people back in to office.


Freshman County Legislator Cries Foul Over Letter

Freshman Erie County Legislator Raymond Walter (R-Amherst) has only been on the job for about 2 months. But he’s rankled members of the Legislature’s Democratic Majority by calling them out for a letter produced at taxpayer expense, the wording of which he says violates the legislature’s own rules regarding mailing.

Standing before boxes containing approximately 8,000 letters and envelopes addressed to election inspectors throughout Erie County, Walter called the authors of those letters on the carpet for what he termed, “waste, fraud and abuse”.

The form letters, signed by legislature Democrats, thank the election inspectors for their service and were due to be sent out at taxpayer expense in the coming days, according to the Erie County Office of Information and Support Services.

Walter asked the Collins’ administration to defer sending them until he could get an opinion on whether the content of the letter violates the legislature’s own rules regarding mailing — which Walter clearly believes they do.

What bothers Walter is the letter extends thanks on behalf of the legislature’s Democratic majority, in what he claims is a violation of the legislature’s Rules of Order.

He specifically cites section 5.07, titled “Erie County Legislature Mail Policy”, and which states “References to political parties and/or party affiliations are prohibited on all legislative mailings”.

“This is clearly, plainly, in contravention,” said Walter

The letter goes on to remind recipients that the 11 Democratic lawmakers who signed it, also voted in favor of raising the pay of election inspectors during county budget deliberations in December.

This makes the letters, according to Walter, “political propaganda, produced at taxpayer expense.”

“You hear about this stuff going on, but to see it actually happen, it’s kind of shocking,” Walter said.

Walter took his concerns to County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz whose spokesman Tim Callan acknowledged receipt of the complaint and confirmed Poloncarz has begun an inquiry.

Callan went further in stating : “On its face it appears this letter clearly would have been in violation of the rules of the legislature—had it been actually sent.

Reminded by 2 On Your Side that the letters had not been sent Walter responded by saying, “It still was printed on the taxpayers paper, with the taxpayer envelopes, by county employees. That shouldn’t happen.”

Legislature Chair Lynn Marinelli (D-Tonawanda) told 2 On Your Side she was already in the process of stopping the letter from being mailed so it could be re-worded, while Legislator Robert Reynolds (D-Hamburg) said the issue was being over blown.

“Our intent was not to violate any rules but rather to inform election inspectors of their pay increase and of their value to the community,” Reynolds said.

Meanwhile, the county’s Office of Information and Support Services, tells 2 On Your Side tax payers will be out $700 dollars for producing what is essentially now a pile of recyclable material, plus $3,900 more if Democrats have the letters re-produced and mailed in accordance with the rules of the legislature.

Profound Statements
1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.
– John Adams

24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
– Thomas Jefferson

What world is Katrina living in? Thirty years of deregulation and tax cuts? Where the hell are they doing this? Surely not the 46 states where the budgets are failing. Especially here in New York and California.

So what needs to be done is exactly what Katrina says we have been doing, but I expect nothing less from the communists like her. They lie through their teeth and smile while doing it.

What Will New York Do?.

Now that thirty years of deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy have failed so spectacularly, creating an economic catastrophe in its wake, the American people are beginning to recognize conservative economic policy for what it is: a disastrous recipe for privatizing profits and socializing costs, and shifting the economic burden to the poor and middle class.

But with 46 states facing budget shortfalls it is clear that conservative orthodoxy is still alive and holding sway in too many statehouses. Too often, the emphasis isn't on change we can believe in — but on the same old cutting of services that people need rather than raising taxes on the rich who have disproportionately benefited from fiscal policy over these many decades.

We certainly see this short-sighted and proven wrong approach being pushed in New York. The state is confronting a budget deficit of $15 billion, and Governor Paterson has proposed $9 billion of harsh cuts in education, healthcare and social services, and $5 billion in new taxes that would hit the struggling poor and middle-class the hardest — making an already regressive tax system even more so.

Granny tax, I like it and it is true. Think about how everyone files their taxes. The newer generation is used to the computer, the older is used to paper. So let’s tax it.

It is their job to process the forms whether they are electronic or paper. Just do the job. If there is any wonder why Paterson is dropping in the polls it’s because of crap like this. The only way he and they think is by figuring out how to screw the public instead of how to help. And helping is not increasing welfare.

It's bad enough paying taxes without having to say “Thank you, sir, may I have another?”

Yet in an apparent effort to add insult to injury, Governor Paterson and his team of budget planners and tax masters have come up with yet another way to squeeze a few extra bucks out of New York citizens: a $10 fee for those who file their taxes on paper.

That's right. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers will have to pay the state for the privilege of paying their taxes.

The thinking behind this idea — and we're being generous in the assumption that real thought went into this — is that it's more expensive for the state to process taxes filed on paper. So to cover the cost, and perhaps encourage more people to file electronically, the state came up with the idea of a $10 fee, estimated to generate $6.8 million in the fiscal year that starts April 1.

Instead of coming up with a carrot-and-stick approach, the governor — yes, the same governor who wanted to slap an 18 percent tax on soda to make us all healthier — opted to skip the tasty treat and just go with the stick.

The plan, if the Legislature agrees to it, pretty much means that many taxpayers will have no choice but to pay more at tax time, no matter what they do. Except for those who file the simplest of returns, filing taxes electronically costs money, too. State filing fees from popular software vendors range from $17.95 to $29.95, not including the cost of the software itself. And it certainly isn't any cheaper to go to a tax professional and have them do the electronic filing.

Oh, what to call this brainstorm?

How about The Granny Tax, in honor of all those grandmas and grandpas who didn't grow up with computers, have no interest in them, and would really prefer to spend their golden years traveling, gardening, volunteering or reading all those the novels they'd put aside for years, not some computer manual and tax software instructions?

via Taxing taxes; imagine that — Page 1 — Times Union – Albany NY.

Just as I and so many others suspected, this poor woman was a plant. Either that or she is the dumbest real estate investor on the planet, but at the same time she blew all that cash? Shifted it all into her poor sons name.

I guess we are all just dumb fools to sit back and allow this poisonous crap to continue.

Property Records Of Henrietta Hughes

According to Lee County, Florida property records:

6/18/01 Property (Lot 19, Block 35, Unit 9, Sec. 20, Twnshp 44S, Range 27, Lehigh Acres Subdivision) purchased by Henrietta and Corey Hughes

10/10/03 – $124,400.00 lien release due to payment in full to Henrietta and Corey Hughes.

8/9/06 – Quit claim deed signed by Henrietta Hughes granting full ownership to Corey Hughes.

No transactions since for either Henrietta Hughes or Corey Hughes which means that Corey Hughes still owns the property. Taxes current (paid) on 1/1/09.

There are a number of mortgage lien holder transfers between 2001 and when it was paid off in 2003. This is normal as liens are often sold (think one mortgage holder buying out another). What is interesting is how this lien for $124,400.00 was paid off in less than 28 months.

To access the records:    Enter last name first, first name last.

    Has this property been sold in 2005, a transfer would have been recorded since the county records not only purchases but sales as well. Also, why would someone sell a property they paid at least $124,000.00 for in June, 2001 for $47,000.00 in 2005 when market prices were still high?

    The fact is this scam artist did not sell her property that was jointly owned with her son, Corey Lamont, from day one. What she did do was sign a quit claim deed in 2006, giving TOTAL ownership to her son Corey Lamont. I would guess this is because the value of the property would affect SSDI benefits along with Medicare/Medicaid. It would also affect any welfare she might be eligible for under SSDI. My guess is she applied for SSDI and was told that she could only have so much worth. Yet, the 2004 Rochester, NY article states she is already receiving Medicare/Medicaid.

    It is also interesting that in 2004, Corey Lamont Hughes sought, and received, free medical treatment in Rochester, NY while he and his mother were still owners of property in Florida…

Retire05 also added this:

    Here is the history (remember to keep the lot numbers separate as that is important):

    6/18/01 – Henrietta and Corey Hughes purchases Lot 18 and 19, Block 35 of Lehigh Acres

    8/17/01 – Henrietta and Corey Hughes purchases Lot 22, Block 35 of Lehigh Acres

    10/29/01 – Henrietta and Corey Hughes receives building permit for Lot 19, Block 35 of Lehigh Acres. The builder is Holiday Builders of Cape Coral, Florida

    10/29/01 – (same day) Henrietta and Corey Hughes secures mortgage financing from Riverside Bank of The Gulf Coast, Cape Coral, Florida (this would be for the building of the structure constructed by Holiday Builders) in the amount of $124,400.00

    7/15/03 – Forclosure filed by Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast on Lot 19, Block 35 Lehigh Acres in an amount of slightly over $123,600.00 (meaning she paid about $800 of the mortgage in 21 months)

    10/16/2003 – Mortgage satisfaction filed by Riverside Bank granting ownership to Henrietta and Corey Hughes for Lot 19, Block 35 of Lehigh Acres for $124,400.00

    6/30/05 – Lot 22, Block 35 of Lehigh Acres sold to Homeland, LLC.

    8/9/06 – Quit claim deed signed by Henrietta Hughes to Corey Hughes for Lot 18, Block 35 of Lehigh Acres.

    She originally owned 3 lots, #18, #19 and #22. Number #22 was sold in 2005 (when she claims she lost her home) to Homeland, LLC in June, 2005 and #18 was transferred to her son, Corey Lamont, on 8/9/06 (signing a quit claim deed gave him total ownership of #18 which they had bought jointly).

    I can find no record of any subsequent sales of the home build on Lot 19.

Obama’s Homeless Woman Is Actually Real Estate Investor

During Obama’s campaign to promote his stimulus package, he staged an event with a woman, Henrietta Hughes, who, as it turns out, appears to be anything but truly needy. Henrietta was given an audience with Obama to beg for a home. When aid was provided via the offer of free rent by an opportunistic politician, the liberal press spouted that Henrietta was actually given a free home and implied it came from Obama. The lie has propagated through the liberal media and, quite honestly, it nauseated us because it was so obviously staged and such a distorted lie. Well, as it turns out, the lie didn’t end there.

As is often the case with such lies, more information seems to shortly rise up from the darkness to expose the truth.  This situation is no different and new information about Henrietta has come to light. It appears that the desperate homeless woman owns real estate she shifted into the name of her son to avoid taxes and acquire government aid. Apparently, Henrietta is the teacher and Tom Daschle is just a student. Henrietta also apparently sold real estate at a significant profit in 2005. Henrietta has now become the poster child the Democrats wish to use to justify the massive expense of helping the chronically unemployed, not-so-needy and not-at-all-homeless.

INSIGHT

Presbyterian minister William J.H. Boetcker (1873-1962)