by Talbot Eckweiler Part four in a five-part series. Constance Barone sits at her office desk and adjusts her spectacles. For the last eight years, she’s been the site manager for Sackets Harbor Historic Site near Watertown, New York. In 2012, the site will celebrate its bicentennial anniversary as one of the major sites of the […]
Tag Archives: government
Raptor rehab helps birds, people, parks
Moonlight, a male American barn owl. Moonlight was bred in captivity for educational purposes by Talbot Eckweiler Part three in a five-part series. Ava, Moonwink, Bella, Starlight: they are but a few of characters cast in Eagle Dream. Ava is a hunter; Starlight is a dancer. Moonwink has trouble keeping his eyes open, and Bella […]
New York's state parks an easy target in times of budgetary crisis
Text and photos by Talbot Eckweiler Part one in a five-part series. EDITOR’S NOTE: New York again faces a devastating state budget shortfall. Last year, when wrestling with an $8.2 billion budget shortfall, then-Governor David Paterson considered massive cuts to the state park system as one way to close the gap. The impact on the […]
Journalism Accomplished: why aren't news organizations telling the whole truth in Wisconsin and why aren't the state's conservatives demanding secession?
I tend to avoid programs produced by major network news divisions like I would the galloping herpes, but I do occasionally tune into CBS Sunday Morning. In its better moments, Charles Osgood helms a tranquil, reflective magazine foregrounding the people, places and things that define what’s best about American culture. At its worst, of course, […]
Moral bankruptcy leading states to financial bankruptcy
How mind-bogglingly crazy is it that several states—including my own New York—are considering bankruptcy? Of course, states don’t qualify for bankruptcy, but a move is afoot in Congress to create a kind of bankruptcy-like status for states. Bankruptcy for states would raise huge issues of sovereignty. It would throw the municipal bond market into chaos. […]
Cyber warriors race to Mars
NASA and its spooky Sith-lord counterpart, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, are teaming up to achieve the impossible: interplanetary colonialism. DARPA, known for its role in developing such technologies as the internet and GPS, has also funded cyborg beetles implanted with electrodes that control their flight by radio, battery powered human exoskeletons, and ravenous […]
The government’s checkbook too screwed up to audit, says GAO
You know the company’s in trouble when the auditor tells the company that its bookkeeper can’t manage the company’s finances, reconcile balance sheets among different departments, or prepare credible financial statements. And you know it’s real trouble when the auditor can’t even do an audit and provide the company with a statement of its financial […]
Yo, GOP: Slash regulation? Or spend up to $27 million to save a life?
Many of the seats the Democrats lost in Congress can be attributed to a tea-party and GOP-influenced desire to shrink the size of the federal government. Presumed goals of conservative and GOP winners: Reduce federal spending. Shrink the deficit. Lessen government’s intrusion into people’s lives. Well, let’s see what these make-government-smaller politicians do with a […]
It's time for progressives to forget about winning the battle and start concentrating on winning the war
It was Sun Tzu, I believe, who first suggested that in order to win the war, you sometimes have to lose the battle. This precept has been on my mind quite a bit since the results of the recent election began rolling in. For instance… Earlier today one of my political lists was discussing the […]
The greatest election ever!
by Terry Hargrove Last Friday, I received one of those automated calls that has in the last two months given me the illusion of having lots of friends. This one was about a Tennessee politician named Ty Cobb, and what a miserable Democrat/alleged human being he was, and why I should vote for his opponent, […]
The root of all evil will rule mid-term elections
Come Tuesday, Nov. 2, it will not matter whether you vote Democratic, Republican, Independent, Green, Tea, or write-in. That’s because the winning entity will not be on the ballot — and hasn’t been for a very long time. Come Wednesday, Nov. 3, anchors and pundits alike will announce, pronounce, anoint, or castigate individuals wearing the […]
Hedge funds, sensing profit opportunities, buying distressed newspapers
And now, newspapers’ newest problem: The vultures have descended. Newspapers continue to lose money and advertising – the New York Times Co. reported print ads would decline 5 percent in the third quarter across all its media. But investors are actually buying newspaper properties, often through bankruptcy sales. What gives? Are they vultures just picking […]
Speaker wannabee Boehner recycling platitudes of speakers past
The three pillars of any democracy are the rule of law, transparency, and a functioning civil society. Over decades, all three of these pillars have been chipped away in the people’s House. A wonderful sentiment, don’t you think? House minority leader John Boehner, R-OH, spoke these words to conservatives in a speech at the American […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- IRS/Tea Party controversy: progressive groups “targeted,” too, and corporate media once again refuses to tell Americans the whole truth
- “Useful Enemies”: U.S. admitted not just Nazis after WWII, but their sadistic collaborators
- The time a source has to respond to request for comment? Virtually none.
- Profiling the Tea Party: In defense of the IRS. Sorta. Or not.
- Saturday Video Roundup: “Imagine the Band,” by John Lennon and Wings
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
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Tea Party “profiling” case: progressive groups “targeted,” too, and corporate media once again refuses to tell Americans the whole truth | Scholars and Rogues: […] Party controversy. The debate got starte…
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Jim Booth: My only comment has to do with the writing... I re…
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- Carnival of Cities for 15 May 2013 | Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff: […] Turkey Scholars & Rogues present…
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Samuel Smith: I try not to draw too many conclusions about peopl…
