THOUGHTS ABOUT THE 2008 ELECTION

     SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THE 2008 ELECTION

                            

  Demo candidates Hillary, Obama and Edwards  are unacceptable and are dividing

  their party vote  with many Dems looking at Republican candidates

 

 Rudy G stands out, in age of terror, as a leader because of 9-11 attack and his  demeanor immediately afterwards.  Whether or not Americans admit it,  the war on

 terror and homeland safety are the principal concerns when deciding who the next 

 President will be. These concerns (fears) transcend party affiliations.

 

 Political parties have little meaning today. The political field is dominated by

  individuals, with name recognition and money (and the ability to raise tons more).

 

  Political parties are nothing more than ballot lines. Political party organizations

  exist largely in name only and on paper. TV and radio adds, and media coverage

  have largely replaced committeemen who no longer go door to door or work their

  districts.

 

  Pro Life voters have to make a choice: does their concern for the fate of the unborn

  outweigh their concern for the living, including themselves and their loved ones?

 

  The 2008 national election is about survival of our nation and our way of life, neither of

  which is without flaws. Those who view the 2008 election as politics as usual, about

  political power or entertainment are dead wrong.

 

  As with most elections, it comes down to choosing the lesser of two evils, and putting

  our trust in an individual who shows the most promise as a leader who can serve as

  an effective Commander In Chief in the struggle against Islamic militants at home and

  abroad, for years to come.

 

  The Democratic Senators and Members of Congress, along with some Republicans

  who are promoting resolutions to undermine the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan are

  doing a great injustice to our troops, and ultimately, great harm to our nation. Their

  politically motivated resolutions are destroying any chance we have of prevailing in

  our efforts to provide stability in the Middle East thereby denying nation state bases

  for the Islamic militant terrorists who seek to destroy us.

 

  The troops may come home, but it will not be long before they will see action in

  America's cities engaging the foreign terrorists , and their allies from among the millions

  of illegal immigrants and native-born malcontents, who dwell amongst us and who have

  no respect us, our history, our culture and our institutions.

 

The images of Baghdad we see in the papers and on tv, today, are destined to appear in urban America before long. Cutting and running in the Middle East and Afghanistan   will only hasten that day.

 

None of the current crop of Presidential contenders has shown the courage of

Australian Prime Minister Howard, and other Aussies, who have clearly laid it on

 the line to Islamic malcontents and militants, as well as any other immigrant group. To paraphrase: respect our history, culture, institutions, way of life; speak English

or clear off! Go to some other part of this planet.

 

 The American voters will be voting for their  own survival, or demise, in 2008.

 

 

                                                                                                       Joe Sullivan

 

DECORATED AFGHANISTAN SOLDIER

 

Joseph P. Sullivan III of Green Island has received a Bronze Star and a Joint Service Commendation Medal for meritorious performance in Afghanistan.

He earned the awards while he was a plans officer with Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan, 7th Special Forces Group.
...
Sullivan, who has been on combat duty in Afghanistan since March, also participated in Operation Mountain Lion targeting Taliban insurgency. The colonel also has a Meritorious Service Medal, an Army Commendation Medal and Combat Infantry Badge.

He earned a bachelor's degree from the University at Albany 1986, a master's of business administration from Canisius College, Buffalo, in 2000, and a master's of science in military operational art from the Army's School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., in 2002. Sullivan also is a graduate of the Army's Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.

The 2007 State Budget

THE NEW YORK STATE BUDGET: WHAT WAS NOT ADDRESSED?

Most citizens, who care to know, know what proposals are contained in the 2007 New York State Budget. Reduction of medicaid spending, property tax relief and increased state aid to education are all noble goals. What about Homeland Security?  All the other issues become quickly irrelevant, if state government  is not making a very definite and aggressive priority effort to keep New York and New Yorkers safe from further terror attacks.

What are likely targets?   New York City is probably at the top of the list, with it's port, subways, railroads, tunnels, bridges, financial district and water supply system presenting terrorists with a menu of vulnerable targets.

The City of Albany is a particularly soft target, with the container port, Capitol , social services and other state agency headquarters, hospitals and water system all prime targets.

Nuclear power plants in New York and adjoining states are of prime concern. The Indian Point reactors located on the Hudson River, just North of NYC, and the ones located upwind ,to the West of Albany, are all vulnerable.

Consider the locations of active nuclear plants: http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/

The NYS Power Pool nerve center in Guilderland, the state power grid, natural gas transmission lines, the NYS Thruway, and state rail system, including bridges, stations and rail yards, present a wide array of targets.

Go to: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/supplement/supmap.pdf

Water is essential to all life.  Urban water supplies are especially vulnerable. The NYC water supply system presents many opportunities for terrorists starting with Catskill reservoirs and dams, continuing through the aqueduct system and distribution points in the metro area. Can anyone imagine NYC without water for a week or more?

Go to:  http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dep/html/wsmaps.html   

In Albany, city and state politicians are touting a longer school day, and keeping schools open well into the evening (to babysit offsprings ofparents who are unable or unwilling to look after and care for their children). No one is taking steps to prepare schools to serve as neighborhood emergency centers providing shelter, food, water, heat etc in the event of major disasters or terror attacks.

The internet provides a wealth of information and technology to benefit law abiding citizen-learners. However, those intent on doing evil or harm can also use these internet resources to plan and perpetrate acts of terror and crimes.

Consider the latest version of satellite based google earth technology which allows anyone to zoom in on pin point locations in 3-D, including your backyard.

Go to: http://earth.google.com/earth4.html

This satellite computer technology, and that of our military, is at risk because  China and Russia are developing the capability to knock out or disable our satellites.

Could we one day find ourselves back in the stone age? Or, back to the future?

Wouldn't all the millions of dollars dumped in to a relatively insignificant special election in State Senate District 7, by politicians, political parties and special interests, have been better allocated to shoring up our state and local home land defense capabilities?

Might New York be steamrolled by the Al Qaida, Taliban ,and their foot soldiers, from the ranks of illegals and native-born malcontents, who are sworn to destroy us and our way of life?

Are New Yorkers really aware of their real life survivor dilemma, that far exceeds the trivia presented on the tv show of that name?

The real life version of survivor is for real, and there will not be any second chances. It won't matter what is in the state budget, or whether or not it is passed on time. It won't matter if the public school are open into the evening hours, if there is no electricity, heat, food , water, or emergency supplies  in the in those schools.

If the social services system is disabled, there will be much suffering and chaos in the streets.

Ground Hog Day has come and gone. Phil didn't see his shadow, so we can expect an early Spring, and a very Hot Summer may not be far behind.

Politicians at the state and local levels should set aside their political power plays , pay less attention to 2008, and focus their attention and efforts toward keeping  New York and New Yorkers safe. Time is of the essence here.

Meanwhile, individuals and households, best take personal responsibility and prepare to survive whatever emergencies, disasters or terror attacks may come our way in the days, weeks and months ahead. It would be a fatal mistake to do nothing because of a misguided assumption that government will save us. We are responsible for saving ourselves and our loved ones.

                                                                                    J P Sullivan

 

THE WHITE DEATH RETURNS

THE WHITE DEATH RETURNS: WHEN WILL PEOPLE SAY ENOUGH?

We enjoyed a mild winter until late January 2007 sparing us the annual road salt blitz perpetrated on us by local and state governments. However, with the arrival of a few Alberta Clippers dropping several dustings of light snow; the salt trucks have dumped tons of road salt on neighborhood and city streets, county roads and state highways.

If a cost-benefit analysis of this annual ritual were done- the costs would far outweigh any benefits. The costs include: premature rusting of very expensive motor vehicles and deterioration of the exteriors of homes and buildings which, in turn, requires more costs for repairs, painting, etc.; premature death of street trees which erodes the quality of life in residential neighborhoods, more rapid deterioration of roads, highways, bridges which, in turn, require more expenditures for repairs...and most important of all...the untold health costs resulting from inhaling polluted air containing a mixture road salt, vehicle emissions and heating oil emissions from chimneys. Has anyone considered the synergystic effect? Is there any relationship to the growth of asthma and impaired lung capacity , other respiratory ailments and other health problems including high blood pressure, particularly among children, in urban places?

Look around neighborhood and local streets, highways, parking lots! Look at your deteriorating vehicles and home exteriors! Does this make any sense? Why? So, fools can continue to speed along neighborhood streets and highways when road surface and weather conditions require that prudent drivers slow down?

Road salt accumulation has exceeded snow fall accummulations, this winter.

Consider this entry posted March 8, 2005 on Lonerangeralbany:

WHO WILL SAVE ALBANY FROM THE WHITE DEATH?

 

WHO WILL SAVE ALBANY FROM THE WHITE DEATH?                   

WHERE IS ARCHIE GOODBEE WHEN WE NEED HIM?

Tons of road salt dumped on city streets, rotting our expensive motor vehicles, eroding roadways, killing street trees. Salt laden snow turns to a heavy, dirty slush. Speeding City snow plows create tsunami-like waves of grime which break over curb islands, burying tree trunks, sidewalks, lawns and driveway entrances in tons of  heavy , grey-black slush.                     

Why? So, speeding traffic can continue to fly by. exceeding city speed limits, on main residential streets, like New Scotland and Western Aves.

When the snow and slush melt. Tons of white-grey powder are left behind on roadsides and roadways, becoming airborne with the passage of the speeding traffic. Salt laden March winds sandblast the exteriors of our homes, resulting in more, and frequent, painting and other expensive maintenance by homeowners.

Worse still, we are forced to breathe this deadly mix of road salt and vehicle exhausts. No doubt, increasing asthma, emphysema, high blood pressure and a host of other serious health problems. Not to worry, Hospice is just down the road.

Who will save Albany from this white death? Where is Archie Goodbee when we need him?

                                                                                      J P Sullivan

 

 

A GERMAN EDITORIAL

A German editorial worth reading:

  If any of you still feel that this war on terror is
> a mistake, here is an
> opinion from an unexpected source. It's fascinating
> that this should come
> out of Europe. Mathias Dapfner, Chief Executive of
> the huge German publisher
> Axel Springer AG, has written a blistering attack in
> DIE WELT, Germany's
> largest daily paper, against the timid reaction of
> Europe in the face of the
> Islamic threat.
>
> This is a must-read by all Americans. History may
> well certify its
> correctness.
> EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE
>
> 
> (Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer,
> AG)
> 
> A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am
> Sonntag, "Europe - your family
> name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get
> out of your head because
> it's so terribly true.
>
> Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their
> lives, as England and
> France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated
> too long before they
> noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to
> toothless agreements.

> Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in
> the Soviet Union, then
> East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe,
> where for decades,
> inhuman suppressive, murderous governments were
> glorified as the
> ideologically correct alternative to all other
> possibilities.
>
> Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran
> rampant in Kosovo, and even
> though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder,
> we Europeans debated
> and debated and debated, and were still debating
> when finally the Americans
> had to come from halfway around the world, into
> Europe yet again, and do our
> work for us.
>
> Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East,
> European Appeasement,
> camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance,"
> now countenances suicide
> bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians.
>
> Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe
> to ignore nearly
> 500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder
>machinery and, motivated by
> the self-righteousness of the peace movement, has
> the gall to issue bad
> grades to George Bush... Even as it is uncovered
> that the loudest critics of
> the American action in Iraq made illicit billions,
> no, TENS of billions, in
> the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.
>
> And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque
> form of appeasement. How
> is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by
> Islamic Fundamentalists in
> Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really
> should have a "Muslim
> Holiday" in Germany?
>
> I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial
> fraction of our (German)
> Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the
> German people, actually
> believe that creating an Official State "Muslim
> Holiday" will somehow spare
> us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists. One
> cannot help but recall
> Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable
> treaty signed by Adolph
> Hitler and declaring European "Peace in our time".
>
> What else has to happen before the European public
> and its political
> leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade
> underway, an especially
> perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks
> by fanatic Muslims,
> focused on civilians, directed against our free,
> open Western societies, and
> intent upon Western Civilization's utter
> destruction.
>
> It is a conflict that will most likely last longer
> than any of the great
> military conflicts of the last century - a conflict
> conducted by an enemy
> that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and
> "accommodation" but is actually
> spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to
> be, and will always be
> taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness. Only
> two recent American
> Presidents had the courage needed for
> Anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush.
>
> His American critics may quibble over the details,
> but we Europeans know the
> truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the
> Cold War, freeing half
> of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror
> and virtual slavery. And
> Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair,
> acting on moral
> conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War
> against Democracy. His
> place in history will have to be evaluated after a
> number of years have
> passed.
>
> In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic
> self-confidence in the
> multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal
> society's values and
> being an attractive center of power on the same
> playing field as the true
> great powers, America and China.
>
> On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in
> contrast to those
> "arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of
> "tolerance", which even
> (Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily
> justifiably criticizes. Why?
> Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because
> we're so materialistic, so
> devoid of a moral compass.
>
> For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar,
> huge amounts of
> additional national debt, and a massive and
> persistent burden on the
> American economy - because unlike almost all of
> Europe, Bush realizes what
> is at stake - literally everything.
>
> While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons"
> of America because they
> seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend
> our Social Welfare
> systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive!
> We'd rather discuss
> reducing our 35-hour workweek or our dental
> coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid
> vacation... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the
> need to "reach out to
> terrorists. To understand and forgive".
>
> These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who,
> with shaking hands,
> frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when
> she notices a robber
> breaking into a neighbor's house.
>
> Appeasement?
> Europe, thy name is Cowardice.
> ---God Bless America---
>



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