TO: PATRICIA DOXSEY
FROM: ULSTER POLITICS
SUBJECT: DISAGREEMENT IS NOT PARTISAN BICKERING
The Daily Freeman’s reporter for Ulster County issues (should the Freeman post the resumes and qualifications of its reporters on line by the way? Did these people go to journalism school?) writes in today’s paper that the efforts to buy lots of new cars for county employees was reduced by “partisan bickering”.
Shame on the Freeman for letting Patricia Doxsey mislead the readers. In fact, a bi-partisan group of Republicans and Democrats came together and agreed to buy some of the requested cars. The reality is that the Republicans simply stood up and stopped the Democrats from buying all the cars that the Democrats wanted to.
The term “partisan bickering” implies dysfunction – that one party or the other voted against something just to spite the other side. The proper way of reporting would not to editorialize and say “partisan bickering” but rather simply say “the County Legislature agreed to allow for the purchase of X cars rather than the Y cars sought by the Sheriff. The vote was . . .”
But no, Patricia Doxsey has to decide that disagreement is “partisan bickering” – trying to (surprise) paint Republicans badly. Doxsey’s bias was evident in the County Executive election when she was all but printing Michael Hein’s press releases, and her bias remains obvious today.
In reality, what happened in this case is the Republicans stopped an all out car buying spree by the Democrats who unilaterally control county government. By the way, the Democrats could have bought all the cars had they put the money in the County budget – which they didn’t. Instead, the Democratic majority favored bonding (BORROWING) to pay for the cars despite imposing yet another tax increase.
Insisting on accountability – a plan how vehicles will be bought and managed is not “partisan bickering” as Patricia Doxsey complains about (we at Ulster Politics wonders if Michael Hein writes her stories), but instead is simply insisting on a planned way to purchase and manage the taxpayer funded fleet of vehicles.
There is nothing wrong with Republicans and Democrats disagreeing. The Republicans have a duty to oppose measures they disagree with, not just go along in the name of unity.
Remember, when the Republicans were in charge the Democrats:
1. Voted against extending the sales tax (and now that the Democrats are in the majority, they kept that high sales tax in place);
2. Democrats also decried high property tax increases done under Republican watch – but as the Democrats are now in charge they have kept those tax increases in place and raised them each year since;
3. Democrats insisted on a fleet management plan, but now that they are in charge they just keep spending on new cars.
These are just a few examples of the hypocritical Democrats – who say one thing when they are trying to get elected, and do something else now that they are in charge.
Taxpayers want and need real relief, and that means we expect the mainstream media (what little is left of it) to actually report without bias.
We know that’s asking a lot of the Freeman – given it has failure to do that for a long time in our opinion, but as the campaign season starts, look to Ulster Politics for “no bias no bull” because we’ll report and let you decide whether or not our politicians are getting the job done.
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21 comments:
Partisan bickering involves both parties. Your assumptions that the piece was unfavorable to Republicans shows your leanings as opposed to the reporter's.
The Republicans attempt to restrict the purchase to police cars failed. Both you and Doxsey are full of it. In fact, she rewrote the story correctly today. The 11 car capital project was passed by both Democrats and REPUBLICANS. The bond passed too with 18 Democrats and 5 REPUBLICANS supporting the Bond vote.
It was not partisan at all. It was a smart move. Instead of paying for them all at once with needed cash reserves, the county will bond for THREE YEARS at a total cost of roughly $303,000 or $3,000 in interest. Yes, this was over $3,000 in interest for 11 cars. Seems ridiculous doesn't it?
You decide between if this was politically motivated and who was really being fiscally prudent.
Isn't that what we do with our home budgets? Pay a little interest to keep the money in the bank for a rainy day?
Shame on you for relying on the Freeman for accuracy or Republicans who were either misinformed or worse yet, present and not paying attention to what happened.
You are as bad as the Freeman repeating hearsay as fact.
By the way, The Freeman, or should I say Patricia Doxsey has it wrong again today. Of the 20 or so Resolutions on file on the County Website in regard to Sex offenders, Glen Noonan has not sponsored or cosponsored even one of them. That's right, his name does not appear on any of them.
For a guy like "Legislature Minority Leader Glenn Noonan, who for the past several years has been pushing for such residency rules," as Doxsey wrote, he is taking a funny approach. He may want to propose a resolution, that is how things are done in the Legislature. Not by lying to or misleading the press.
The shitty paper aside, how is it even possible to paint the Republican party in a worse light than they've already cast themselves? Does anybody really think they deserve even the slightest consideration? Only a delusional could do that. (Btw, FDR did not cause the depression and the rampant spending by the "Taliban" is quadruple this stimulus deal.)
The way I see it "partisan bickering" should be worn as a badge of honor.
It says "I disagree with your approach and I'm willing to state and debate that publicly".
It's called the process of government folks.
An idea is proposed-It is debated-And then it's voted on.
Maybe the readers need to go back and view Schoolhouse Rock and "I'm just a Bill" for a refresher course.
To 9:37AM:
You are correct, FDR did not cause the Great Depression. However, his policies failed to end it and quite possibly lengthened it. WWII ended the Great Depression. If I am not mistaken, unemployment hit 25% in FDR's second term.
I am not sure what to make of your "Taliban" comment, other than to think you are trying to insult someone by name-calling.
Now to address the theme of this post. The "partisan bickering" gives me some hope that the Republicans are starting to become the loyal opposition, much as the Democrats were in the Legislature before they took over. For now, Ms. Doxsey can call it what she likes. I don't go to the Freeman for hard local political news any longer anyway.
The bonding of vehicles should have been public before the December budget vote. And I agree with others who suggested that this sort of item not be bonded but rather be included in the budget.
And where is our Fleet Manager anyways??
The bonding of the vehicles was public in October. It started out with a lot more cars being bonded but the DEMOCRATS insisted on some of them being funded through the budget process.
Bonding for the vehicles was included in the capital project budget. That was voted on in December of 2008. the Capital Project budget passed with a UNANIMOUS vote. Not one Republican voiced a concern about bonding at that time. They waited until the vote in Feb 2009 to voice a concern. Pleaseeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!
12:12 The "Taliban" remark is in response to the Republican Congressmen that stated that their role is now to be like the Taliban and mount insurgent tactics to disrupt the majority. They don't feel insulted by it. Every American should be. Therefore, Republicans are simply not Americans. Or is it now acceptable to wage war against your own country?
$303,000...funny, that's just about the same amount being spent on some "new" positions in the county government. Should I help my friends get jobs, or should I purchase a fleet of vehicles? Hmmnn...got it! I'll do both!
10:23PM
Now I understand the Taliban comment. Obviously it was an extremely poor description of what the mission of Republicans should be. Did this Congressman also state that, as often happens, the Republicans are simply adopting recent Democrat tactics?
Be careful saying that Republicans are not Americans after the behavior displayed by many Democrats for the past 8 years. Many Democrats openly hoped for failure overseas and at home in their quest for power.
I assume that as a reasonable person, you also said those Democrats are not American.
It is unfortunate that not one leg questioned the need for 6 new Sheriff patrol cars.
It obviously pays to be a democratic sheriff under a democratic leg.
Did anyone consider the life expectancy of a patrol unit? IT ISNT 3-YEARS! THATS A FACT.
New Memo to Patricia Doxsey
Re: Your recent articleabout the money that Mike Hein is saving us.
Wow, Mike Hein is saving us $200,000??? Why don't you tell the taxpayers about all the $100,000 jobs that he added to his staff that were not included in the recommendations for the charter?
$200,000 doesn't even come close to covering the cost of his additional payroll.
Ulster Taxpayers = SUCKERS
Don't believe a word Patricia Doxsey says when it comes to Hein.
To Democrat Who Pays Lip Service:
If you actually understood the way legislative bodies and their caucuses operate, you would know that it is not uncommon for the leader of a caucus to have other members sponsor the bills they are pushing. If Mr. Noonan would have been the sponsor of the bills in question, I'm sure we would have read comments from you calling him a glory hound.
It's clear that your purpose is to take swipes at Republicans, not to further the debate.
The fact is, we have a County Legislature which is being run by people who - simply because of a single court ruling, which could easily be overturned on appeal - are refusing to do right by the children of Ulster County.
On January 22, Judge State Supreme Court Justice William Kelly threw out Rockland County's sex offender residency law, saying:
"Even without vigorous enforcement, the ordinances interfere with parole and probation officers’ efforts to find suitable housing for offenders."
That is a disgraceful statement. Our children's safety is thousands of times more important than whether or not sex offenders can find a place to live. Instead of blocking our own version of the law, perhaps Chairman Donaldson should have introduced a memorializing resolution (which Democrats do for political grandstanding purposes at the drop of a hat) condemning Judge Kelly's decision and calling for his removal from the bench, followed up by passage of Ulster County's version of the law as a measure of civil disobedience.
Instead, in order to defend their own cowardice, Democrats are now questioning Mr. Noonan's commitment to the measure.
How shameful.
Mr. Noonan has pushed for these measures. Sponsorship is irrelevant, activism on their behalf is what counts. Just look at the property tax relief bills Kevin Cahill has "sponsored" only to allow them to die because he refused to work for their passage. They never even got out of committee in a State Assembly dominated by his own Party.
Sponsorship is simply irrelevant. Actions speak louder than words.
As to the Taliban reference made by 9:37/10:23:
Perhaps you need to read the actual quote made by Congressman Pete Sessions, the Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
What he actually said was NOT that Republicans should be like the Taliban. That is a completely false mischaracterization of his statement.
What he said was that House Republicans would mount a "positive, loyal opposition" to the Democrats' so-called economic stimulus plan. He followed up by saying that - having learned something about insurgency tactics from America's fight against the Taliban - they now understand the nature of insurgency better, with this warning to the Democrats, pertaining to their fundamentally dishonorable behavior in Congress:
"And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with."
If you are going to use quotes to try to make your point, you would do well to keep in mind that in a Google world, we can look up the precise quotation in seconds. You just make yourself look silly when you try to make a quote into something it just isn't.
FYI
The Freeman's parent company filed Chapter 11 today.
Not that it has anything to do with this story.
The Freeman filing bankruptcy has EVERYTHING to do with this story.
If they put out a quality paper, where reporters actually do investigative work (other than "ripping and reading" Mike Hein's press releases)maybe people would buy it and more advertisers would advertise in it.
Imre,
Thanks for the 264th lecture. Maybe you should have spent that time researching instead of pontificating. Noonan was not the Minority leader when most of those proposals where submitted. The Majority Leader and Minority Leaders names appear on most of them. The fact is, Noonan has not even been close to an advocate on this issue.
If Noonan's name appeared on ANY of them, I would not have commented at all , because Doxsey may have had some basis in fact. That was my argument in the first place. She had it wrong.
Stop trying to twist other peoples words around to meet your political agenda. Go back to sleep.
Democrat who pays attention to nothing:
It's funny how whenever the politicians of your Party are shown to be more interested in a political agenda than in doing what needs to be done, you folks drag out words like "pontificating" and "lectures".
The fact is, Mr. Noonan has pushed for this law in the past, including on my radio show. Your allegations about his position on the issue are simply untrue.
Again, the article did not speak of who sponsored the bills, but of the fact that Mr. Noonan PUSHED for them. I repeat, actions speak louder than words. The name on the bill is irrelevant.
I notice that in your reply, you ignored the portion of my previous comment which points out the cowardice of the Legislative leadership in refusing to pass this law and challenge the disgraceful position forced down the throats of the people of New York State by an activist in judge's robes.
If the Democrat leadership of the Legislature actually were concerned with our kids instead of with their own political agendas, they would have the backbone to pass the law because it is right to do so. They would go to court, if necessary. Instead, they knuckled under even before the law is passed.
Perhaps, rather than making spurious aspersions regarding someone who is addressing the problem, you should be criticizing your own Party for rolling over and playing dead.
2:27.... you don't really expect us to post that? why bother?
I was told there were some democrats who supported a public hearing on sex offerders and where they live. i was also told that a democratic argued against donaldson ruling it out of order. Im not sure but theys aid it was provano
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